Charlene Li, an advertising analyst with Forrester Research, agreed.

"There's no big news," said Mark Shepperd, an advertising analyst with Phillips & Drew, a London brokerage.

Lauren Rich Fine, the advertising analyst for Merrill Lynch, offered a different perspective.

Emily Riley, an advertising analyst at Jupiter, predicts that companies will double spending on brand monitoring in 2007.

Still, some advertising analysts said a successful advertising approach like this was bound to be copied, though probably for products other than cars.

Many advertising analysts and agency executives found this assumption optimistic.

"I like that he has a financial background," said Lauren Rich Fine, the advertising analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Sprite Yard will take cellphone marketing a step further, establishing a permanent mobile site with a variety of features rather than a short campaign, advertising analysts said.

Nonetheless, some advertising analysts said last month that another company had offered about $100 million for WPP's Hill & Knowlton unit.

"This is pretty darn cool," said Charlene Li, an advertising analyst with Forrester Research, a technology consultancy.