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October 2007

October 31, 2007

Truveo Brings Video Search Around the World

AOL's video search engine Truveo gets a reported 40 million users per month, according to comScore data. AOL says a large percentage of its traffic comes from outside the U.S. and is launching localized sites in key markets including France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the U.K.. AOL has plans to continue an international roll-out with video search portals Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey. The plans to reach other countries with video content in their local languages and matching regional interests comes just days after Google and YouTube launched Chinese language sites in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The pair had recently set up targeted versions of sites in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and The U.K., according to Search Engine Journal.

With the Truvio announcement, AOL also said it launched in India with content available in Hindi and Tamil languages. "India is a very important market for AOL, and these announcements show our commitment to serving online consumers here with a robust portal and industry-leading video search tools," said Ron Grant, president and COO of AOL, in a corporate statement. "These are important steps in our ongoing efforts to make AOL a truly global company."

The number of Internet users in urban India has grown by 28 percent in the past year, and 60 percent of the country's Internet population of 30 million prefer to read in local Indian languages, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Gets Social

Google is handing out a Halloween treat to Web developers today by making its OpenSocial common API available. With OpenSocial, developers will be able to write one application that can be distributed in multiple Web sites and social networks, if they go along with it of course.

Social networking firms including LinkedIn, Hi5, iLike, Ling, Slide and Google's own Orkut network have signed on as part of the launch of OpenSocial, but distinctly missing are the big names of social networking…Facebook and mySpace.

Facebook made big news and developed a lot of momentum by opening its platform last May, but still holds the reins over its more proprietary APIs. It's worth noting that both iLike and Slide have been major Facebook developers. As more advertisers try to get in on the social networking marketing bandwagon, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Google may bring more partners to its OpenSocial system and Facebook and mySpace will be obligated to provide access to their networks via OpenSocial APIs.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MTV.com to Mess with a Good Thing

I love the background images on MTV.com, all of which are originally commissioned artworks. Go to the site and hit refresh a bunch of times or click around a bit and you'll see what I mean. The frequently rotated graphics spill out to the right and left of the central pane, so if you're seeing the site on a large screen it's pretty powerful.

I learned recently MTV's about to start plugging ads into that space, beginning with a sprawling placement for upcoming Robert Zemeckis flick Beowulf. Now I'm usually in favor of such experiments but this move strikes me as a mistake for two reasons. First, you're replacing something very cool (indie drawings: non-commercial and an MTV tradition) with something uncool by comparison (pitch for a special effects blockbuster). But media companies do that sort of thing all the time (see: Campbell-sponsored recipes on AOL Food). The bigger error is that from what I've heard the Beowulf ad in its current form makes heavy use of the wider aspect ratio on the site, so they're building the full experience for 10 percent or less of the audience -- the ones with monitors over 21 inches.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Worldwide Mobile Subscriber Forecast

Data released by the Shosteck Group and its strategic partner the Mobile World forecasts 3.3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by year end. Of those subscribers, roughly 2.6 billion are served by GSM, GPRS, and EDGE networks; 190 million operate on W-CDMA networks; and 422 million on CDMA2000 standards. The remaining few use technologies such as iDEN. By 2011 the research anticipates 5.4 billion mobile subscribers globally. The breakdown will be roughly 2.8 billion on GSM, GPRS, and EDGE networks; 1.8 billion on W-CDMA; and 783 million on CDMA2000.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kentucky 527 Group Buys Big Online

Who says 527s aren't advertising online yet this election season?

A 527 group formed earlier this year is taking aim at Republican Governor of Kentucky Ernie Fletcher through a $60,000 video ad buy. The Bluegrass Freedom Fund, which aims to “encourage a public discussion about education, jobs, healthcare, and other issues,” is using expandable video ads showing a TV commercial that calls out alleged corruption in the Fletcher administration.

The :30 ad expands to display a form for submitting a name and e-mail address to sign a petition demanding that “the governor and legislature pass real ethics reform.”

My source on the campaign said the ads have run on Courier-Journal.com, Kentucky.com, WKYT.com, BGDailyNews.com, and have been geo-targeted to Kentucky users on Cincinnati.com. Non-video banners are also running on blogs like Page One Kentucky and others.

As of last week, over 2 million of the ads had been served, and 52 percent of those who were served the ad interacted with it. The commercial video had been viewed in full 37 percent of the time.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

E-Mail Fraud Scheme Targets FTC

Internet fraudsters have taken aim at the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that's waged campaigns to help people avoid e-mail scams.

Yesterday, the FTC issued a warning about a bogus e-mail that appears to come from the commission's fraud department.

The e-mail says it's from "frauddep@ftc.gov," and includes an attachment, when downloaded, and links, when clicked on, will unleash a software virus. The subject line, in many instances, read: Complaint update for [name of e-mail recipient] (Case id: #6473) .

The virus, the FTC says, apparently installs a keystroke logger program, which could enable a scammer to obtain an unsuspecting person's passwords and account numbers.

Jackie Dizdul, FTC spokeswoman, today said thousands reported the malicious scam.

It is not the first attack against FTC. "It's somewhat standard, spoofing an institution that people respect, such as a bank, a well-known e-commerce site, the IRS or FTC," Dizdul said.

Government agencies have been taking measures to securegovernment e-mail messages, including one initiative to certify mail.

Some 150 federal agencies certify e-mail using Goodmail, although the FTC isn't a customer, according to David Atlas, Goodmail's senior vice president of worldwide sales. He's quick to point out that certified mail wouldn't have prevented this week's scheme targeting the FTC.

"Anti-phishing, anti-spam, and anti-virus technologies filter out bad mail, and we see the limitations of those filters," he said, thus giving rise to Goodmail's technology that certifies e-mail from a trusted source. In December, Goodmail expects to deliver one billion certified messages, up from 100 million in June

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clock Ticks on E-Tailer SEO Plans for Holidays

On your marks, get set… "Merchants have less than a 30 day window from now, until roughly the end of November, to get some of those last-minute structural changes in place," said Brian Klais, VP of search at Madison, Netconcepts, a Madison, WI-based search engine marketing firm. He's referring to search engine optimization, and getting Web sites running smoothly and cataloged by the search engines. At the top of the list are cleaning up structural changes in URLs, fixing any 301 redirect issues, and reviewing on-page content.

"What retailers can do now with very little spare time is to think about merchandising strategies. If free shipping is featured in the merchandising mix, then retailers can maximize the offer by keeping an eye on those dates for searchers," Klais advised. He went on with a few tips: Make sure the title tags and the content on the pages have an offer within. Include the words free shipping in the title tag. "It might be enough to convert searcher activity into a click and then into a sale," he said.

Ideally, SEO will be in place by mid-November for most retailers, if it's not already done, in order to allow for indexing by the search engines. That requires about a two-week buffer to obtain proper indexing and link juice, according to Klais.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Esurance and Cisco Among Hulu Beta Advertisers

After testing the new Hulu video site from NewsCorp and NBC Universal, launched in beta today, we’ve experienced some smooth streaming, and some video that sputters at best.

As for the ads, there’s a variety of formats already running from advertisers like Cisco, Esurance and Crest. For instance, 5 quickie spots from Esurance appeared intermittently throughout an episode of NBC’s “Heroes.” Most of the serial-style ads were about 5 seconds each, while the second was about 20 seconds. The same types of spots ran during another Heroes episode for Cisco.

A more standard video ad format was seen when viewing a clip from NBC’s “Journeyman” on MSN, one of Hulu’s many distribution partners. Before that clip played, a pre-roll spot for Crest Whitestrips was served alongside a banner for the same advertiser.

Expect to see lots of different formats in Hulu video, from overlays during short-form content that play only when users initiate them to sponsored banners, interstitials and end plates displaying advertiser logos after content plays. Viewers watching longer-form full-length episodes and movies from MGM will see more ads. However, while shows on TV feature 8 minutes of ads along with 22 minutes of programming, Hulu video of the same shows will feature 2 minutes of ads. The video will maintain the natural ad breaks of the TV shows.

Hulu won’t say much about how ads are targeted yet, but it’s probably just contextual at this point.

In conjunction with the launch, Hulu announced top execs running the project. The company had already announced its hire of Amazon alum Jason Kilar as CEO in June, noting a focus on customer experience. The top ad sales head honcho is Jean-Paul Colaco, SVP of advertising; Colaco was most recently SVP of business development at Walt Disney Company.

Other newly–announced execs include SVP and CFO Tom Fueling, formerly of Ascent Media and ARTISTdirect; and SVP of Content Acquisition and Distribution Andy Forssell, previously from Siebel Systems where he ran Oracle’s CRMOn Demand Hosting Operations. User-experience man Eric Feng was named CTO and SVP of audience for Hulu; Feng founded Mojiti, an online video operation acquired by Hulu in September.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 29, 2007

Responsys Manages Team, Campaigns for You

How do you track the status of all the moving parts on your ad campaigns? Responsys' CMO Scott Olrich said companies use spreadsheets and basic software, or invest upwards of $500k for a management platform to assign and track each component of a campaign or project. Responsys added Interact Team to its existing on-demand marketing automation Interact platform product.

Team includes visual workflow diagramming and management, digital asset management, task assignment, online reviews and approvals, and best practices including repeatable and reliable execution of activities. The system addresses distributed workforces with members in different offices or telecommuters. It also allows a company to give access to an agency rep to get automated in the process. The cost? For a typical range of approximately 15 users, a year will run between $60k and $70k.

I expect digital marketing folks to be among the early adopters of Interact Team, though its ability to tie together multiple channels of marketing and advertising may be a step toward breaking down the silos that divide marketing departments. "If you think about what marketers are having to do today, marketers have to put together e-mail, search, mobile campaigns. These marketers are trying to figure out a way to become more efficient," said Scott Olrich, CMO of Responsys. Interact Team allows marketers to "make sure they're capturing key learnings across the company," he continued.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New and Returning Clickstream

Hitwise today enhanced its clickstream reporting to include competitive intelligence on new and returning visitors. While you might get this data for your own site from a Web metrics package, access to competing sites, partner sites, or publishers you're looking to advertise on isn't automatically available. The data lets you understand the strategy and effectiveness of competitive marketing programs to see if competitors are more focused on traffic-driving campaigns versus retention; identify where new and returning visitors go after visiting a Web site, which can reduce churn if used effectively; and analyze a competitor's audience in terms of new and repeat traffic.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MSLO Names Three Execs, Signals Upcoming Online Changes

Expect Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to make a bigger impact in online before too long. Under MSLO President of Media Wenda Harris Millard's leadership the company named Jacki Kelley EVP of Media Sales, Lee Heffernan SVP of integrated marketing, and Tom Barreca SVP of digital and emerging media. A statement from the company states, "All three executives bring a broad range of media experience to MSLO as the company expands its multimedia footprint." While the release teases of major enhancements to come, MSLO execs aren't yet ready to talk about what those are.

The hires in themselves attract some attention Jacki Kelley comes from Yahoo, where she was VP of worldwide sales strategies and solutions. As Millard herself was at Yahoo not too long ago, it follows a long succession of executives exiting the major Internet company. Heffernan has worked with MSLO as a consultant, and Barreca was previously EVP of WWE Enterprises.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 26, 2007

Direct Revenue and Best Offers Bite the Dust

Alleged spyware purveyor Direct Revenue is kaput. Notices on the firm's sites, direct-revenue.com and bestoffersnetworks.com, state, "Best Offers and Direct Revenue have ceased operations."

All that remains are instructions on how to uninstall the company's software.
Direct Revenue has come under legal fire in federal court for deceptive practices, and been investigated and fined by the Federal Trade Commission, and sued by New York and in federal court.

New York's investigation of the company exposed advertisers fined for using the service, including Priceline.com, Travelocity.com and Cingular Wireless.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because It's Friday...and Beacuse It's Technically Worksafe

It's a longstanding editorial policy that we do not -- ever -- reprint press releases. Herewith, the single exception to that rule in our 10+ years of publishing.

A new media opportunity. Enjoy.

Businesses Flock to Buy Woman's Pubic Hair

A unique and highly creative website owned by an anonymous UK based female has rapidly become one the most talked about sites on the Internet.
Milliondollarpubes.com has been set up to finance the costly treatment of laser hair removal from the bikini area of the lady in question. Having tried every treatment available to retain her silky smoothness including waxing, shaving and creams, she concluded that the only way to achieve her dream of ultimate smoothness was by laser treatment, hence Milliondollarpubes.com was launched.

Each pubic hair is offered for sale at $200, but it’s not just a hair that you get for your money. Along with the sale of each and every hair is a 10 x 10 pixel advertisement on the homepage of Milliondollarpubes.com, a website that has already attracted nearly 50,000 visitors in a matter of days.

Each advertisement is also accompanied by a short description and a direct link to the advertisers’ website.

Businesses can instantly purchase one or more pubic hairs by visiting the site at www.milliondollarpubes.com and simply clicking on the ‘BUY PUBIC HAIR’ link. You can then select exactly where on her body you would like your advertisement and link to appear. Upon checking out you also have the option to have the pubic hair posted to you. The owner of the site said “I hope that as many people as possible would like to receive my hair, but if you would prefer to just place your advert then that is fine too!”

The site has already attracted a number of serious businesses who have seen the initiative as a fun way to achieve effective advertising and a great return on investment. Cost-per-click has never been so much fun!

5,000 pubic hairs are on offer to raise the owner’s magical $1,000,000 goal.

With nearly 200 hairs already purchased interested businesses who want to gain great exposure at a low cost are advised to act quickly, and take advantage of this unique ‘hair today-gone tomorrow’ opportunity.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 25, 2007

Millions of Virtual Artists

Is virtual art still art if it's not really real? It's a question that Millions of Us, a digital agency specializing in virtual worlds, isn't worried about. Instead, the agency has launched its own artist-in-residence program to "discover and celebrate" the work of artists in the virtual world and social networking space.

The first artist recognized by the program is U.K. based Rob Wright, aka "Robbie Dingo," who made a splash in the Second Life virtual world with a short film interpretation of Van Gogh's "Starry Nights." His first project in conjunction with Millions of Us is a film adaptation of electronic music artist Kirsty Hawkshaw's song "Meteors," seen at left.

Of course, it's not as though Millions of Us is giving Wright, or any other artists the company plans to sponsor over the coming year, any funding for the virtual art. Instead, Millions of Us will provide "technical resources" and informal collaboration to the artists from its staff. Still, it's nice to see companies supporting the arts, even if it’s virtual support.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Major Digital Advertiser AT&T Hands All Media Duties to MEC

Mediaedge:cia has triumphed over Omnicom's OMD, GSD&M's Idea City, and Publicis's Digitas in the agency shootout for 100 percent control of AT&T's estimated $3.4 billion media account. The business comes with a hefty digital ad budget, as AT&T Wireless has consistently ranked among the top ten online advertisers in the U.S.

In July 2007, AT&T Wireless ranked 11th among online advertisers with $7.4 million in media spending. A month earlier it ranked 9th with $7.7 million. Web expenditures for the remainder of its businesses, including its landline services, don't show up on TNS's list of the top 50 U.S. advertisers.

Winner MEC already had control of a goodly portion of AT&T's digital spend prior to the win, having handled all planning and buying for AT&T Wireless since its acquisition of Bellsouth/Cingular. Before that it handled Cingular's account. According to reports, GSD&M had handled media buying for the landline services and Digitas had some digital responsibilities.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cammie Dunaway Wants You...

...to play video games, if you don't already, that is.

Oh, and they have to be on a Nintendo device. After announcing her departure from Yahoo last week, Dunaway told the New York Times she'll be the new EVP for sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, starting Nov. 5.

Anybody recall about a year ago Yahoo launched the first of its "brand universes" for none other than Nintendo Wii? I'm not sure how much connection with the client Dunaway has had as Yahoo CMO, but you can't help but wonder.

Dunaway's been accused of "bleeding purple," the jab often used to describe brainwashed Yahoo execs. But it looks as though she's already become a Nintendo loyalist, or at least a video game evangelist.

She told the NY Times she aims to "make gaming relevant whether you’re 5 or 95," and noted, "there are still a lot of people to be converted."

Yikes.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Guitar Hero III' Plays Up Product Integration

There's game franchises that remain largely untouchable to in-game advertising and product integration, such as "Halo" and "Call of Duty." And then there's game franchises that fit so well you wonder why it's not until the third game in the series before every brand and their subsidiaries wants in. For "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" due in stores on October 28, the product integration really moves the needle on the virtual amp, so to say. Brands present in the game? Gibson, Guitar Center, Audio-Technica, Crate, Ernie Ball, Krank, Line 6, Mackie, and Zildjian on the instrument and equipment side. Post performance, players can view their reviews in Alternative Press, Decibel, Guitar Player, Kerrang, and Paste magazines.

If the direct music tie-ins aren't enough, branding from Pontiac and Axe, among other brands, appear in the game. Serious shredders will also want to upgrade the controller from the standard guitar to the Guibson Guitar Les Paul model for about $10 more.

Brands eager to align with the popular title likely haven't yet missed the window. There's unlockable content, rock venues (including the Pontiac Garage), and Activision and Red Octane plan to keep the game updated with downloadable content. Each of those game events offers opportunity for sponsorships.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two Views of Advertising's Future

Author and academic Douglas Rushkoff sounded a wake-up call to advertisers and marketers: your business will be dead unless you work with companies and products that produce exciting products that inspire you.

Likewise, David Weinberger, co-author of "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Institute for Internet and Society, said companies can no longer control and manage product marketing. "Real marketing [that's] people talking with one another," he said, referring to social media. "We need to respect these conversations, honor them. Not intrude."

Rushkoff and Weinberger discussed advertising's past and prognosticated on its future on Wednesday at a ClickZ 10th anniversary dinner and awards ceremony celebrating a decade of innovation and excellence in online marketing and advertising.

Rushkoff exhorted marketers to convince their clients to come up with compelling products. "Teach them how to get back into the business they are in," he said. "Then you don't have to make up a story about them."

While the broadcast advertising model is based on developing one message for many, Weinberger said that's a dangerous model. "By having more generic messages, you end up dumbing down messages. That's disastrous in the political sphere…it's a disaster for democracy," he warned.

Rebecca Lieb, ClickZ's editor-in-chief, looked at interactive's highlights and low points during the decade. Remember when, she said, venture capitalists -- not hedge fund managers -- were rock stars. Or when advertisers had to be reminded to add URLs to print and broadcast campaigns? How about vortals?

"My Dad would get excited when he’d find articles I wrote online. So excited that he’d print them out and mail them to me from his home in Arizona," she said.

On a more serious note, Lieb recognized that the interactive industry survived tough times. "We pulled through. The industry pulled through. You pulled through, too. And now, we're mainstream, not margin," she said.

For "ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards: The First Decade," Google was named "Innovation of the Decade." Other awards were given for best products, services, businesses, and people who made the most significant overall contribution to the industry.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did he just say Internet marketing doesn't work?

Did Rushkoff really just say that? Sheryl and I peered at one another in disbelief. We were seated next to eachother at last night's grand ClickZ 10th Anniversary gala, soon-to-be-former IAB GM Sheryl Draizen and I. We listened intently as Douglas Rushkoff explained his observations on the advertising industry -- how and why it arose, and, yes, how the promise of the Internet has been squelched by over-commercialization.

He went on a bit more, and then he pronounced, "Internet marketing doesn't work."

I'm not quite sure what he said directly after that because by then I was whispering something about how incredible the statement was to Sheryl, her mouth agape.

Marketers and ad execs squirming in their seats? Oh yes.

But, that was sort of the point. As ClickZ Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Lieb said when Rushkoff had left the podium, he'd been invited to provoke conversations. It wasn't about being comfortable; it was about stimulating thought.

One response regarding the notion that the promise of the Internet has been ruined by excessive advertising may have been, "Hey, I'll bet you like all that free content and all those free platforms for connecting with people, don't ya?"

It's cliché, but true. The fact is advertising -- the work of the people in the audience and the once-scrappy startups that have revolutionized the industry, along with groups like the IAB and, yes, publications like ClickZ -- is what enables a whole lot of those platforms for communication and democratization we often take for granted.

Sure, the adification of the Web can be annoying, even to the people involved in producing it. There remain years, decades even, of working out the kinks, but whether it works is something many have already decided. Take Intel, or any of the countless companies that have continually re-allocated more and more dollars to interactive. Yes, one reason for that additional spending is more people are spending more time online (connecting with other humans, learning, exploring the world from multiple perspectives, working, creating new industries out of the ether, and more).

But if those advertisers didn't think marketing to those people on the Web works, they wouldn't keep doing it.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 24, 2007

Targeting Mobile Campaigns by Carrier

At CTIA this past spring Millennial Media launched its Decktrade mobile ad network. Now at CTIA this fall, it's releasing Decktrade 2.0, which offers benefits for advertisers including improved campaign creation, one-click campaign management, and improved reporting and purchase history. Within the campaign management Decktrade allows advertisers to create one campaign across multiple carriers, which previously required separate buys and budget allotments for each carrier. On the publisher side, Decktrade cleaned up the campaign approval process, payout process, performance statistics, and code integration.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More on MySpace Games

In the wake of the news of the upcoming MySpace Games channel, I wanted to highlight the quality and engagement potential casual games can add to the site. Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer called run-of-site ads on social networks "among the worst performers," and said ads in and around casual games have potential to be more effective as games foster a captive audience, and there's less to compete with.

Ad effectiveness in casual games on MySpace has been and will be proven before the channel even launches in 2008. "MySpace is all about depth of engagement by connecting users," said Daniel Stein, CEO and founder of EVB, a creative agency with clients including Adidas, 2K Sports, and VO5.

"It makes perfect sense to use multiplayer games to take this concept to the next level. As brands look for ways to be relevant to the digital consumer, multiplayer gaming is going to make a lot of sense for an advertiser." EVB will soon launch a multi-platform campaign for client VO5 which includes a partnership with MySpace as a gateway to a game.

Will a games channel provide a clean environment for CGM-shy brands to advertise? "I would say probably not, but that's fine. Social networking isn't a clean or controlled environment, which makes it cool and interesting. Whenever the user controls or creates an experience, there is always unpredictability. Brands that presently utilize MySpace as part of its digital marketing already understand this and likely embrace it."

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it True There's Free Mobile Games?

Yes, the days of mobile handsets coming pre-installed with a free game of Snake may be coming to an end. But while Mobile Magazine is reporting the free game is winding down, it fails to mention the emergence of ad-supported mobile games from sources like Greystripe, and various developers using a platform from Amobee and Exit Games. Plus, there's advergames like one from DHL. Handset manufacturers don't have to provide games anymore, users will find them whether they want to pay for the game or see ads in order to gain access. Nokia was among the handset makers to provide games, and is now building out its N-Gage platform and moving into mobile social networking and other ad-supported media.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Pairs with Nielsen on Data for TV Ads Program

Google's bid marketplace for television ad inventory has gotten off to a slow start by many measures. By August a Google source told ClickZ just 50 clients had tested the system, and the minimum spend had been set at a modest (for TV) $10,000 a month.

There are signs the marketplace is maturing, if only by small increments. In addition to doubling the inventory in its systemv, Google will now use demographic data from Nielsen in combination with set top box data that allows the company to bill customers only for actual impressions, as opposed to the industry-standard GRP-driven billing model.

As part of the partnership, users of Google TV Ads within the AdWords platform will be able to gauge the demographic composition of audiences through data taken from Nielsen's TV ratings panels. The companies also plan to "work together" to measure other online data and media, but declined to comment further.

Google launched its Google TV Ads advertising platform earlier this year. Last week In-Stat analyst Gerry Kaufhold said the trials so far "didn't seem to satisfy all the needs" of broadcasters. "Google has quite a ways to go to get into that broadcast arena."

Matt Nelson contributed to this post.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2007

Search Continues to Drive NYTimes Co Traffic and Revenue

The New York Times Co's digital business revenues grew 26.5 percent in Q3 over the same quarter of '06, the company said during today's earnings call. The firm's digital businesses, which include its flagship site and About.com, accounted for 11 percent of total revenue.

As far as online ad revenue breakouts, the company said display ads account for over 40 percent of online ad dollars, 23 percent comes from classifieds and 15 percent comes from sales of its paid archives.

SEO is directing much of the traffic that's driving the firm's steady online growth. "Over the long term, we expect to see the scale and inventory benefits that accrue to us through [SEO] significantly outweighing the revenue stream" from "the paid tier," said SVP and CFO James Follo.

Follo also noted some recent digital-only advertisers on NYTimes.com, including Amex and Tiffany. Chanel was another; the luxury brand promoted a watch via a homepage image of the timepiece displaying the correct time.

The company will introduce a new online property, T Online, to complement its T Magazine style print mag in early December. "We're in the process of selling this exciting new digital magazine to luxury advertisers," said President and CEO Janet Robinson.

Other significant Web related events in Q3 included a restructuring of About's operations, including the hiring of additional sales staff, as well as the launch of a new NYTimes.com branding campaign with the slogan, "All the News That's Fit to Click."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Habeas 'E-Mail Insecurity Factor' Findings

This week Habeas released the results to a study on e-mail study on e-mail, in which it found a certain e-mail insecurity factor among Internet users. Don't worry; e-mail is still one of the more relied-upon communication channels, particularly online. However consumers segregate communications among multiple accounts depending on trust factors in an effort to filter spam and other security threats. Habeas plans to present its findings and a detailed report in a Webinar, "Multichannel Revolution, How Web 2.0 and Online Reputation Changes Strategy and Results," on November 13 at 2:00 p.m. EST/11:00 a.m. PST. You can register for the Webinar here.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mozilla Revenues Soar with Search Marketing Fortunes

Mozilla continues to grow by leaps and bounds, largely owing to the long-standing search distribution deal between Firefox and Google. Between its open source foundation and its corporate arm, Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker yesterday reported 2006 revenues were $67 million, up 26 percent from 2005, when we first looked closely at the foundation's results. The money comes from payments Google makes to Mozilla with every search query originating from Firefox. The foundation gets the cash regardless of whether a searcher clicks an ad, though a Mozilla source suggested the amount of its commission rises when ads are clicked.

All total, Mozilla now has some $74 million in the bank, money its using to expand its open source programs and to fund accessibility initiatives for the blind and disabled. It gave $300,000 to such efforts in 2006, an amount it calls "a small first step."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No Ad Revenue Lost from NBC Pulling YouTube Clips

There are lots of stories out there today about NBC Universal hoisting its promo clips off YouTube.

A couple important points to note as confirmed with ClickZ by an NBC spokesperson:
1. These were regularly rotating short clips intended to promote upcoming NBC shows.
2. They were removed to support the launch of Hulu, the NBC/NewsCorp site and distribution play, expected to go live by the end of the month.
3. "THERE WAS NO ADVERTISING" associated with the NBC Universal content on YouTube, according to the NBC spokesperson. Sure, NBC got marketing benefits out of the deal, but she stressed, "We didn't make money from this."

NBC and YouTube introduced the promo partnership last June, a rapprochement following a skirmish prompted by YouTube's hosting of user-uploaded clips of SNL's "Lazy Sunday."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GuardianAmerica.com Launches Today

The Guardian today launched its new U.S. website, which will offer Guardian U.K. and international content tailored to an American audience.

Following the lead of the FT’s online operation, and more recently BBC.com, it’s unsurprising to see yet another U.K. publisher attempting to tap the international online market with an ad supported model.

According to the Media Guardian website, the growing U.S. audience now accounts for nearly a third of Guardian Unlimited’s readership, and attracts in the region of 5.5 million unique visitors from the U.S. every month. The potential for monetization therefore is clear.

The Guardian site states that “over time the site will introduce reader services such as holidays and dating, and will eventually include opportunities for recruitment advertising.”

The Guardian's U.K. editor Alan Rusbridger stated that the aim of the site was to “provide a discerning US audience with quality multimedia journalism, and the very best comment and analysis."

The site kicked things off today with an exclusive interview with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Eyes Have It

Congratulations to our longtime paid search columnist Kevin Lee. His new (and first) book, The Eyes Have It: How to Market in an Age of Divergent Consumers, Media Chaos and Advertising Anarchy, was just released.

It's so new, we haven't even received our review copy yet, but we do know that in the book Kevin addresses digital marketing issues far beyond the scope of search alone. Topics include how marketers can know if their agency is capable of executing a profitable digital marketing campaigns; how agencies can ensure they remain competitive; how to build an in-house digital marketing team; auction-based media markets; and media planning in a dynamic digital environment.

If you follow Kevin's columns on this site, or have ever heard him speak on digital marketing (which he does virtually non-stop), you know this is one book that's going to be worth picking up.

Good going, Kevin!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

Viewpoint and Interwoven both make Acquisitions to Strengthen their Content Management Offerings

Internet marketing technology company Viewpoint is acquiring Springbox, an interactive marketing firm. The Austin-based Springbox provides creative and marketing technology for clients like AMD, Callaway, Dell, Disney, Hoovers, Lance Armstrong and Siemens, but Viewpoint intends to combine its Premium Rich Media system with Springbox's content management technology.

Viewpoint is comprised of several campaign management groups, including TheStudio creative services group, the Unicast online advertising group, and its KeySearch search engine marketing consulting practice. There's been no word as to how Springbox will be integrated into any of the various groups. The deal itself is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007 based on an initial consideration of approximately $5.5 million in stock and cash, according to the company.

In a separate deal, content management company Interwoven is acquiring Optimost for approximately $52 million in cash for all its outstanding shares. The deal with add Optimost's real-time multivariable testing and Web site optimization to Interwoven's technology to allow its customers to maximize keyword search ad results, Ben Kiker, chief marketing officer for Interwoven told me.

"What the acquisition of Optimost allows a company to do is really get very creative around developing targeted landing pages and figuring out what is the best thing to present when someone clicks on that search terms," said Kiker. "So you can grab them and they don't hit the back button."

The acquisition is also expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007, and the company will continue to use the Optimost name.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shelter Media Is at Home with Adify

Home and Garden content and retail site network Shelter Media is the latest to use Adify's ad sales and management platform. The network features 33 publisher sites reaching 1.3 million visitors, according to Adify, including Absolutehome.com and BuildersSquare.com.

Other recent additions to Adify's ad platform clients include education content network Hot Chalk and sports blog network Yardbarker.

As the Web continues to splinter off into more and more niche sites and networks, platforms like Adify are filling a gap between Google AdSense-style contextual networks and larger networks, allowing small publishers to have more control over their ad offerings and campaign management. Platforms like Adify are also giving small publishers the tools to sell direct to advertisers and agencies.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2007

Military Advertises for Jobs on Gay Web Site

Thousands of job openings in the Army, Navy, and Air Force were mistakenly advertised this week on a Web site for gays, USA Today reported today. The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibits gays from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.

"We didn't knowingly advertise on that particular Web site," Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, told the newspaper. The ads appeared on Glee.com, a Web site for gay professionals.

Jobs ranged from Army National Guard and active Army positions, as well as Navy openings for doctors and dentists. Some listings included civilian jobs, which apparently are not covered by the ban.

The military services reportedly used private ad agencies to purchase Monster's "diversity and inclusion" package, which includes Web sites for blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and gays. Most of the ads were pulled, USA Today said.

Betty Huang, director, engagement and retention, at Community Connect Inc. (CCI), said the online social networking company is an official partner of Monster Diversity. Community Connect sites, including Glee.com and BlackPlanet, receive a copy of all jobs posted to Monster Diversity, while Monster communicates with its clients, she said. "It is unknown to CCI the origin of the job postings and if a client or an agency posted the jobs," Huang said.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 17, 2007

Sony gets Chummy with MySpace, while Skype Places the Call

Musical artists from local garage bands to chart-topping megastars have long ago figured out how to use MySpace profiles to promote their acts, and now Sony BMG Music is making things more official. The music label is partnering directly with MySpace to provide streaming music videos, as well as select audio material and other content, on the social network site, directly from its artists' MySpace profile pages.

The two companies have agreed to split sponsorship and advertising revenue from the content, and MySpace has agreed to help promote Sony BMG's artists throughout the site. Of course, social network sites like MySpace have been doing their best to dodge lawsuits from content owners when their users started sharing the odd song or image, but this seems to be more of a "if you can't beat them, join 'em!" move on Sony's part.

In a separate announcement, MySpace also partnered with eBay's Skype service to provide the free Internet phone call technology directly from the social network users' profile pages. Users with a Skype account will be able to click a single button in their MySpace profile to call the computer or telephone of another member, even if they're not online at the time. Again, the two companies have agreed to share revenues as part of the partnership, as the basic Skype service is free, but premium features like voice mail and a personal phone number cost extra.

The combined Skype and MySpace service does have some potential concerns, according to security experts who claim that the combination of the corporate "time-waster" social network along with the Skype system which opens up firewall ports to network traffic can play havoc with a corporate network. Personally, I'm more concerned that once all the teenagers using MySpace also figure out how to use the free phone system and all start making calls, it will bring the entire Internet to a screeching halt.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ADSDAQ Exchange Opens for All Publishers

ContextWeb's ADSDAQ ad exchange opened to all site publishers today following a testing period during which A&E Television Networks and others supplied inventory. The company's Web app lets publishers set CPMs, and if inventory can't be sold for a publisher's required minimum CPM, ADSDAQ plugs in ads from networks including Google AdSense, Advertising.com and Yahoo's Right Media (another ad exchange firm).

The company said it plans to start testing a self-serve app for advertisers and agencies not already invited to the exchange early next year.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Superpages Goes Live with Local Video Advertising System

The local online ad market is getting busier, as Superpages.com has brought its Superpages Video advertising product out of beta phase and into national availability. Targeting local small-to-medium-sized businesses, Superpages.com will send a professional video team out to shoot an ad for a business, or repurpose existing video ads, and then make them shareable online.

If this sound familiar, it's because you've heard about such systems before on ClickZ, with companies like TurnHere, and local search companies like Yellow Book and CitySearch getting in on the game.

Superpages.com, which is owned by Idearc Media, launched its Superpages Video advertising product nationally after conducting its beta trials in Seattle, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay areas, but clearly one should expect that competition and price differentiation will play a hand in getting local businesses online with video ads, as they realize they have more than a few choices to pick from.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

Display Ad Creation and Trafficking System Launches

A former Classmates.com online exec is launching his latest venture today. The new AdReady system, aimed at medium-size regional and larger local businesses, lets advertisers create standard sized display ads based on ad templates.

"These advertisers have basically found display to be a black box they really haven't been able to access," Rob Ransom, VP Marketing and Products at AdReady, told me.

They can alter the ads using licensed images, upload their own logos and images, or alter text such as car financing details or contact info. The system also gives advertisers without the benefit of having an agency a leg up by showing average click-through rates of template ads. So, they can base their own creations on ads with a proven track record.

"We're marrying not only creating the ads, but also having the best ads to create… the best templates or best ads to choose from," said ex-Classmates exec and AdReady CEO and co-founder Aaron Finn.

The company also enables media buying and ad trafficking through its system, which is connected to Google, Right Media and Advertising.com. Advertisers don't pay to use the ad creation system, but are charged a percentage of the media buy.

So far, about 30 advertisers are using the system, including a local Toyota dealer, Alaska Airlines and ShareBuilder.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I Network, Therefore I Shop

Hardcore social networkers are more likely to visit retail Web sites for music, luxury goods, consumer electrics, and apparel, a study reports.
comScore, which measures Internet usage, said Monday more than 95 percent of "heavy" social networkers visited retail sites in August, compared to 80 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. comScore defines heavy networkers as the top 20 percent of visitors, based on time spent on social networking sites.
Of 61.2 million unique visitors to apparel sites, 24.8 percent were considered big-time social networkers. Apparel and fashion sites that cater to young adults, such as Alloy and Abercrombie & Fitch, attracted a strong share of these networkers, comScore reported.
Thus, says comScore Chairman Chairman Gian Fulgoni: “Apparel retailers -- especially those geared towards younger consumers -- can benefit by considering the use of social networking sites as a marketing channel.”
The study, however, didn't address whether hardcore social networkers are more likely to make online purchases than Internet wallflowers.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Al Gore's TV Network Plays up the Internet

Current TV, a television network that sets out to encourage "citizen journalism," has overhauled its Web site to encourage more audience collaboration.

The television network, co-founded in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, is supported by advertising, including viewer created ads.

Current.com will likely follow a similar model that includes sponsorships, said Joshua Katz, president, marketing at Current. However, he emphasized that the business model will evolve, based on audience feedback.

Katz, in an interview Monday, characterized the television network's initial Web site, current.tv, as serving the producer community. There, participants could submit pods, or short-form video, and vote on the videos they wanted to see televised.

The updated Web site, he said, is designed as a social news network. There, participants can take assignments to produce video as well as add links and comments to other content, among other activities online. "What makes this different [from other television networks] is that there's real collaboration between us and our audience," Katz said.

"This is intended to be a two-way conversation -- interactive TV influencing the Web, with the Web influencing TV. The cycle continues between the two, creating a new form of citizen journalism."

In September 2006, Current struck a partnership with Yahoo to launch several ad-supported video channels on Yahoo Video. When asked about that partnership, Katz said it no longer exists. "It wasn't a partnership we found beneficial," he said. Current continues to work with Google, which provides reports on the top clicked news headlines.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2007

Not Sure What Gift to Get Her? Try Real Gift Cards for Virtual Clothes.

Prepaid gift cards seem to be all the rage these days. Walking out of your local convenience store it's possible to get cards for everything from movie tickets to books to groceries. But here's a new one… cards for virtual clothing for virtual teen girls.

Stardoll, a virtual world destination specifically for "tween" and teenage girls, has signed an agreement with GMG Entertainment to begin producing, distributing and marketing prepaid cards for sale at 1,500 retail stores in the United States. The cards will be available in denominations between $10 and $25, which is then converted into the site’s virtual currency of “Stardollars” and can be used to buy virtual clothing and accessories for users to put on their avatars. Each Stardollar is approximately 10 cents, and the virtual clothing prices usually range between three to seven Stardollars, according to the company.

What I have to wonder is if you get a card that doesn't have any real money on it, and give it to your teenage daughter to let her buy nonexistent clothes at pennies on the dollar, are you really teaching her fiscal responsibility? Or are you just trying to be "cool?"

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YesMail Goes After the Little Guy

Having already targeted the permission-based online marketing needs of the larger and mid-sized business market, YesMail is now looking to bring even small businesses over to its e-mail and direct mail services.

YesMail Direct is an online portal where small businesses register within a master application to conduct permission-based email marketing, print postcards for direct mail and buy listings search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask, although "The reality is that 90 percent of it is Google," Mike Hilts, president and general manager of YesMail, told me.

"It's leveraging the APIs that are available in the market today to give a one stop shop for keywords for these small market guys," he said.

By reaching out to small businesses, YesMail intends to bring them to its mid-market system when they grow larger, Hilts said.

"Most of the large companies were small companies at one time, and what we created was the basic version of Express that allows a migration path to the mid-market solution," he said. "It's not trying to be all things to all people in the small business market. It's taking the core meat and potato things that you do and simplifying them. It's driving responses online and using them."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

StrongMail Goes 4.0

StrongMail released its Email Marketing Server 4.0 today, which builds on its previous versions. The on-premise solution gives e-mail marketers the flexibility they need to send e-mail without the ESP acting as a gatekeeper, while still having the ESP to monitor and advise on conforming to best practices and monitoring e-mail reputation.

The new product features an intuitive user interface, role-based permissions, advanced data segmentation, targeting and A/B split testing, powerful content management, open connectivity and integration, real-time tracking and reporting, dynamic domain throttling and e-mail authentication, smart bounce processing, support for transactional, and SMS messaging. The SMS messaging is a nice component to reach an opt-in list of recipients on their mobile phones.

Email Marketing Server 4.0 is manageable by all levels of the marketing team, from the junior interactive marketer all the way up to the senior interactive marketer, according to Tricia Robinson-Pridemore, VP of market and product strategy at StrongMail.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Partners in Deliverability

Message Systems and Return Path partnered to provide Message Systems Delivery Manager users with Return Path Sender Score as an add-on option to improve deliverability rates. The Return Path suite includes sender Score Monitor, Sender Score Reputation Monitor, Sender Score Manager, and Sender Score Certified.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL Set to Drop 20 Percent of Staff

AOL is set to lay off a whopping 2,000 staffers according to a letter sent to the company's employees by CEO Randy Falco.

As part of its realignment to focus on three core areas (its Platform A ad unit, publishing and Web access and e-mail business, AOL will begin reducing staff tomorrow, dropping about 2,000 of its 10,000 employees worldwide in the next couple months.

"We added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions," Falco reminded workers in the e-mail. Whether staff from new acquisitions Tacoda, ThirdScreen Media or AdTech will be among the pink-slipped remains to be seen.

"The last important piece in this transition is the realignment of our costs against these three businesses so we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible," wrote Falco. "This is in many ways the most difficult step, but a necessary one….We will aid these individuals in their transition to new opportunities as much as possible, most importantly with what we believe are generous severance packages."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Autobytel to Fuel Web Campaign with MyRide.com Comments

This post was written by Jack Marshall.

Autobytel today embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign designed to generate traffic to and raise awareness of its auto consumer site launched last week - MyRide.com. Utilizing e-mail, banner, and search marketing, the campaign’s aim is to reach consumers through sports, entertainment, technology and finance sites.

The campaign ads will be generated from content on the MyRide site itself, including questions and statements "that reflect MyRide.com’s unique offerings," according to a press release.

“By leveraging MyRide.com’s large and growing bank of updated automotive content across our multi-level digital campaign, we can attract consumers in a way that is far more targeted and, we believe, more efficient, than traditional brand advertising,” stated Autobytel’s president and CEO Jim Riesenbach in the release.

The campaign has been developed in collaboration with Young & Rubicam Brands which is developing creative content, and KSL, which is taking care of planning and buying. The e-mail campaign will target Autobytel’s current database of a reported 9 million users.

Search will cap it off, specifically targeting directional purchase behavior.

MyRide.com aims to target consumers throughout the auto purchase and interest cycle. The site categorizes user behavior into five categories: Find, See, Buy, Learn and Belong. Autobytel believes many of these are currently ignored by traditional automotive sites, which tend to be singularly focused on buying funnel activities.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

UPDATE: Dow Drops CNBC Ads, But Where Are the Fox Biz Ads?

Where are the ads for the just-launched Fox Business Network on WSJ.com and MarketWatch.com? The NY Times reported Dow Jones dropped ads it was supposed to run for CNBC today to replace them with FBN ads. I haven't seen any full-page units or road blocks for the new Fox property on those sites yet, though that was what the story indicated we'd see.

From the NY Times story:
"Last Tuesday night, CNBC’s ad buyers received a call from a Dow Jones representative saying that those ads could not run today, the first day of Fox’s competing channel.

In the case of MarketWatch, CNBC had bought both an introduction ad for the site — meaning that every user on the site today would have seen an ad for CNBC before getting to the MarketWatch home page — as well as what is called a “road block” of ads — meaning CNBC would have been the exclusive advertiser on the site’s home page today.

The decision to drop the ads from the Wall Street Journal site was even more significant because CNBC has been advertising on the site’s market data page every day since Oct. 1 and had a deal for ads to run daily for two months. The CNBC ads on the market data page were also to be removed for today only."

Of course, the decision is a result of Fox parent co. NewsCorp's acquisition of Dow Jones.

But where are the FBN ads? It's interesting that Dow Jones would, as was noted in the story, "disappoint" its longtime advertiser CNBC by not running its ads, but then not run FBN ads either. What's the point?

Dow Jones & Company PR sent me a statement (the same one it apparently sent to the Times), and wouldn't tell me a whole lot beyond verifying the NY Times story: "As is standard practice, we retain the right to adjust the precise placement and timing of online advertisements, including to accommodate links from other Web sites."

UPDATE:Today the NY Times has a follow-up noting, "Both MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal’s Web site, WSJ.com, filled up the exact spaces CNBC had purchased with rotating ads that included some for Fox Business Network. These were accompanied by links to foxbusiness.com, the Web site of the Fox Business Network. The ads for Fox started running soon after midnight."

I didn't see these ads at all when checking those sites for my original post. I didn't see any roadblocks on either WSJ.com or MarketWatch either. I'm not doubting the NY Times reporter saw them, but I didn't yesterday.

The WSJ itself has a good report on the CNBC ad buy, including the cost for one day of exclusivity originally intended to confront the Oct. 15 Fox Biz launch: $59,500 for all MarketWatch.com ad space, and $27,500 for roadblocks served before users reached the site's homepage.

Today, WSJ.com is sponsored by Dell, which is running a roadblock and display ads from the computer maker on the site, making all of its content free today. MarketWatch is also running those roadblocks.

Since this thing blew up yesterday, I have yet to see any CNBC ads or Fox ads on those sites, personally. I'm trying to make heads or tails or it all, but at this point, one thing's for sure: online advertising obviously is important enough to spark a lot of headlines and controversy. If anything, the wrangling gives more legitimacy to the medium and the industry.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2007

Google Earth is a New Home for YouTube Videos

Taking a trip to Paris? Why not check out some YouTube video from the top of the Eiffel Tower? Or better yet, a video review of the restaurants there? That seems to be the opportunity that Google is looking to provide users of its Google Earth mapping system.

The search giant is now providing YouTube videos connected to specific locations within Google Earth by allowing the geotagging of videos. And although Google is touting the availability of videos linked to locations on the Earth map as yet another means of sharing interesting information, it didn't take the smart people over at analyst firm the Kelsey Group long to figure out that it also provides some new advertising opportunities as well. It's not hard to see how those in the travel industry or in local business might utilize geotargeted video advertisements, linked through Google Earth, to bring in business.

Considering that Google has just recently been experimenting with its video content distribution network and how to link YouTube videos and Google resources together, that the idea has obviously occurred to the folks at Google as well. Considering the linking of video to adSense, will additional links to Google Earth be far behind?

Posted by MatthewNelson at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 12, 2007

Lead Gen Acquisitions Continue Despite Industry Scrutiny

This post was reported and co-written by Jack Marshall.

Following a small investment in 2006, The Washington Post Company has acquired the remainder of stock in online lead generation provider CourseAdvisor for an undisclosed sum.

CourseAdvisor generates student leads for the post-secondary education market. Reportedly, more than 1.5 million students utilise the company’s online directory to unearth degree and certificate programs from over 500 educational institutions.

The lead gen sector is facing increasing scrutiny from the FTC, as well as increasing pressure from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and others in the industry to establish best practices.

The good guys in the sector (as well as the black hats disguised as white hats) are finding it increasingly compelling to reach out to press outlets like ClickZ to ensure us most industry players are on the up and up and, despite some internal industry spats, they're working to get solid standards in place.

ClickZ has no indication that CourseAdvisor has engaged in any bad practices, or that the firm has been questioned by the FTC in its broader investigation. Still, when a large, well-known firm with a reputable brand name buys a firm doing business in an industry that's under government scrutiny, it piques our interest.

When quizzed on the FTC’s recent investigations into the lead generation industry, Rima Calderon, director of corporate communications for WashPost told ClickZ News, "We are not aware of any investigation into any of the business practices of CourseAdvisor.”

As for what the firm will do with its new acquisition, she stated, Washpost are looking to CourseAdvisor to “continue its current business as it explores new lines of business." The company will continue to operate as a subsidiary to the Washington Post Company, and independently of Kaplan, their education services provider company.

Lead gen observers have said education advertisers continue to fuel the industry, which has suffered from a dip in investment from financial services firms following the recent credit crisis.

Other acquisitions of lead gen firms are taking place -- or rumoured to be in the works-- including Azoogle’s purchase of lead gen firm Bazaar Advertising, suggesting the recent negative attention surrounding the lead gen segment is by no means acting as a deterrent.

Kate Kaye co-wrote this post.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2007

IPhone Am Legend

Is the Apple iPhone enough of a technology platform to warrant its own specialty ad campaign? Crew Creative Advertising is betting that it is, and they've launched a site specifically for iPhones promoting the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow’s film version of I Am Legend.

The special site links to an iPhone compatible trailer on apple.com, and provides a synopsis of the film, a photo gallery, an RSS news feed and wallpapers all specially made to be viewed on iPhones. And I must admit, as a horror novel purist, I'm not completely taken with the idea of another movie version of Richard Matheson's 1954 vampire story being made again, but the snazziest feature from the site is clearly the sunrise/sunset widget. Just like the story's hero Robert Neville knows he has to be home before sunset, Web site visitors can install the widget that will track the oncoming night directly from their iPhone.

Take that, vampires.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Omnicom Joins Millions of Us

Holding company Omnicom has made an undisclosed investment in Millions of Us, a digital agency that specializes in virtual world and social networking advertising campaigns.

The investment was made by Diversified Agency Services, which is a unit of Omnicom Group, and while other digital agencies like Agency.com, Organic, Tribal, DDB and Critical Mass, have been bought outright by Omnicom, Millions of Us will still retain its independence.

"We're in control of the company completely, and it's a great deal for us and for Omnicom," Reuben Steiger, founder and CEO of Millions of Us told me. And while he wouldn't disclose how much of an investment the company had made in his agency, he did say "They don't tend to invest tiny amounts."

"They have a reputation among the holding companies from an entrepreneur's perspective. They bet on the entrepreneur, and let you operate," he said.

Steiger said that Omnicom made its investment in his company because virtual worlds and social networks are no longer a niche play, but have become a global category defined by hundreds of millions of users in reach, and because Millions of Us is an agency specializing in that space instead of operating as a virtual world business.

"It represents a pretty significant endorsement on the part of both of the category of virtual worlds and the broader category of social networks and online communities on the part of a large and influential company," he said.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Azoogle Buys Another Lead Gen Firm as Sector Scrutiny Persists

Lead generation firm Azoogle.com announced today it has purchased another lead gen firm, Bazaar Advertising. No deal terms were disclosed.

Of course, the term lead gen has gotten a bad wrap since the Federal Trade Commish has been poking around the sector and since ValueClick confirmed it's among the firms being investigated by the FTC for its lead gen practices. So, in the press release, Azoogle is calling itself "an end-to-end online marketing solutions provider," and Bazaar "a marketing services and search engine management company that specializes in the discovery, purchase and optimization of online search campaigns."

I have no idea what that means, but on the Bazaar site, it clearly states, "Bazaar Advertising is a lead generation company focused on developing and applying proprietary web-search advertising technology for our clients."

The lead gen industry is getting a lot of attention lately, including from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which just put out a release today calling on lead gen firms "to adopt the recently released 'Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices' by April 1, 2008." (See Matthew's post below.)

Expect the spotlight on this sector to grow hotter before it flames out.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IAB Throws Down the Gauntlet for Lead Generation Advertisers

It seems the lead generation advertising industry isn't taking the hint from The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Lead Generation Committee, and now the IAB is publicly challenging companies to adopt the provisions in its “Lead Generation Data Transfer Best Practices” report by April 1, 2008.

The IAB issued its report from the Lead Generation Committee last August, citing the importance of security and standard data formats and setup. The purpose of the best practices guidelines is to safeguard consumer data and improve operational efficiency for the $1.3 billion lead generation category, according to the IAB. Already a number of companies have signed off on the guidelines, including 360i, Active Response Group, AzoogleAds, Return Path, SendTec, ValueClick, WebTrends and others, but clearly the IAB intends to get everybody on board.

Of course, there's no word of what the "or else," might be as part of the challenge.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite Reports, DoubleGoo Still Portrayed as a Merger of Competitors

A Reuters piece today notes various predictions about whether the DoubleGoo acquisition will go through, concluding it will. A couple people interviewed, including Mark Kovner, an antitrust lawyer with Kirkland & Ellis, said the Federal Trade Commission probably wouldn't block the merger since it's a vertical one, rather than one between "head-to-head" competitors.

Thing is, the opponents of the merger, particularly Microsoft, are doing their damndest to portray it as just that: a merger of direct competitors. Along with a lawyer representing Microsoft, an industry observer at last month's Senate hearing on the acquisition, Scott Cleland, president of tech industry research and consulting firm Precursor, took pains to categorize the two firms as competitors.

In his testimony, Cleland suggested the companies compete for the same ad dollars and are "interrelated" by sharing the same viewers, advertisers, publishers and data. "It's like saying your eyes and your ears don't compete for your brain's attention," Cleland said, later adding, "Google will create a brain where it controls all of the major networks [of viewers, publishers, advertisers and data.]"

Microsoft SVP and General Counsel Brad Smith backed him up, saying the acquisition raises questions regarding the economic implications of allowing the "largest company in Internet advertising" to buy its "most significant competitor."

If these folks have as much influence as they'd like to, and if they manage to convince Senators and those in the House who may hold a hearing on the deal, it may not simply glide by the FTC.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

eBay Joins Social Network Caravan

What do coffee lovers have in common with jewelry shoppers?

They were among the most active eBay members participating in the online commerce site's neighborhoods, a feature rolled out this week that takes a chapter from Facebook and other social networks.

eBay members must join a neighborhood before they are permitted to start a discussion or blog, post comments or photos, and invite a friend to participate.

eBay established several hundred online neighborhoods, according to an announcement posted this week by Nathan Sacco, eBay's senior manager, buyer engagement. The neighborhoods, he wrote, are based on popular items and searches.

Neighborhoods encompass broad categories such as Italian fashion and specific brand names like Versace or Manolo Blahnik.

In discussions, members tend to exchange information or debate a product's merits. On the blog posts, many entries appear to promote eBay members' stores and product offerings.

Close to 200 eBay members joined the jewelry neighborhood, which included advice to someone who asked for information on the best places to find jewelry to resell on eBay.

In contrast, the coffee lover neighborhood reported over 400 members, many of whom are passionate and/or addicted to roasted beans.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Uniqlo Employees Jump for Ads

Japanese-based casual wear retailer Uniqlo enlisted 650 employees from its stores worldwide to act as models in its ads. The Uniqlo Jump Web site features a slideshow that is fun, but borderline seizure-inducing. It shows employees from the retailer's stores in five countries (Japan, U.S., U.K., South Korea, and China). The pictures are full of energy, mostly with the sales staff jumping in the air, and certainly having fun.

The campaign then extends to consumer-generated, or in this case employee-generated media including a blog on Hatena, photos on Flickr, and a collection of videos on YouTube featuring similar slideshow footage from each of Uniqlo's locations and other mash-ups. The Jump Web site also has map to locate each store. Uniqlo is using its staff's energy to sell its clothing, and sees recruitment as a secondary goal of the campaign.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 10, 2007

Metrics, IBM and Dancing Avatars at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo

Amidst the dancing women in body suits and the corresponding avatars tracking their movements onscreen, the attendees and businesses at the Virtual World Conference and Expo in San Jose this week all seem to agree that virtual worlds are still clearly in their infancy, and have lately been getting a bad rap.

While they acknowledged that there are clearly a lot of marketing efforts that have failed spectacularly in virtual worlds like Second Life, as cited by ClickZ's own Editor-In-Chief Rebecca Lieb recently, they insist virtual worlds shouldn't be counted down and out quite yet.

"Seven out of 10 businesses fail in the real world, and over 15 years it's nine out of 10," said Jared Freedman, president of Code 4 Software. "You're going to see a lot of losses."

Even so, several companies used the show to release tools and software efforts to help bolster marketers' and advertisers' ability to track and manage virtual campaigns online. Code 4 Software quietly started offering its AdSoft SL Powered Networks as an ad network system specifically for Second Life. Although the company will officially launch the system November 15th, Code 4 customers can now purchase ad space in the virtual world which the company monitors and tracks using its own V-Tracker application. V-Tracker will log how long a users' avatar is near an advertisement, said Freedman. "It tells you how many people came, where they went, what they did," he said. "I'll need to know how long you were there to get the impressions. Ad networks need to have verifiable return on investment."

Another company, Clear Ink, is also tackling the metrics problem with Second Life's virtual world by releasing Slogbase as an open source avatar tracking system. Slogbase uses beacons around a virtual marketing site that identifies the Second Life identity and position of avatars, and transmits the information to the Slogbase server via Second Life's standard LSL code, according to Steve Nelson, EVP, chief strategy officer for Clear Ink (and is no relation to yours truly).

"As in all other marketing efforts, measurement is crucial to success. And we developed this because it's what we needed," said Nelson. He said Clear Ink decided to give Slogbase away free because "Part of what you're doing by giving things away open source is that you're helping the overall community."

Second Life itself got a boost in its cachet through a partnership between IBM and Linden Lab, the creator of the virtual world. Together the two companies intend to develop open standard technologies and methodologies for 3D virtual worlds, with the eventual goal of creating interoperable virtual world platforms so users can bounce from one to the other.

And finally, at least one virtual world, There.com, used the show to crow over its recent success stories online. Not only did There.com sign teen publication CosmoGirl magazine to its service and will create a virtual village with fashion shows CosmoGirl readers, but it also released statistics from a recent promotion with music recording giant CMG. Following a 10-week period of virtual events with bands like Korn, Yellowcard, Mims and the Beastie Boys on There.com, the company said they saw 17,500 visits to the CMG virtual area, with 2,600 visits to the company's minisite. It also sold 1,258 pieces of virtual merchandise from the events, according to Michael Wilson, CEO of There.com, who said that CMG surprised him by allowing them to discuss their results.

"They are willing to talk about it, so they must be proud of it," he said.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AlmondNet Pairs up with National AdForce

Behavioral targeting firm AlmondNet has aligned with interactive site rep firm National AdForce, enabling the company to offer AlmondNet's targeting and ad serving services to advertisers.

While speaking with AlmondNet CEO Roy Shkedi today about the deal, he reminded me of AlmondNet's unique focus on collecting purchase intent data, as opposed to just browsing data. If users have simply viewed articles or Web content in a certain category, he continued, "There's not as much of an interest as if you read a product review or did a search for a product."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Opposite of SEO

You probably don't want to do this for your business...

Tonight, I'm meeting a friend at a super-secret new New York City bar. You have to know the address. You have to know the phone number. You have to know how to get in, which involves an access code for a telephone booth at the back of an innocuous hot dog stand which opens a concealed panel, Get Smart-style.

Would you believe a place this secret has a Web site? Well, they do. An opposite-of-optimized Web site. The URL is an acronym of the bar's name. There's no metadata. There aren't any links. And all the text (which consists only of a name and a phone number) is contained in a graphic.

It's an almost perfect example of how to build a Web site that's nearly impossible to find.

Unless your business is mega hyper-buzzworthy, I wouldn't try this at home. (And sorry, I can't provide the URL -- they'd never let me in!)

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mobile Bar Code Resolve

Bar codes for mobile applications are big in Japan. Everybody talks about how a 3D bar code can be scanned by a mobile user to get more information, or respond to an advertisement. Then those people say, "We can't do that here because most handsets don't have the technology." That's true, to recognize 3D bar codes a handset requires technology not built in to most U.S. handsets, but you can use traditional bar codes.

According to Michael Bates, co-founder and CEO of mobile and online classifieds site IQzone, the company's servers can take in and resolve bar codes from photos sent by consumers. The difference is that with a 3D bar code the number is resolved on the phone, then sent to the server for more information. With a traditional bar code a consumer sends a photo and the number is resolved at the server, then sends information back to the consumer. The same can be done with ISBN numbers, serial numbers, and even something recognizable like a movie poster.

IQzone uses bar code recognition to make it easier for its users to post classifieds. If you're selling a book why not take a photo of the ISBN number to populate the description with a summary from sources including The New York Times Book Review and Muze. IQzone also allows its users to send pictures of the bar code from consumer electronics and other items to post goods for sale. It then pulls from data sources to populate the listings with a description, which saves the thumbs of users actually posting items from their cell phones.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CSI Goes Virtual to Track a Killer

In his real world presentation at the Virtual World Convention today in San Jose, the creator of CBS's popular crime show franchise CSI, Anthony Zuiker, detailed his plans to take his real world show and plunge it into the virtual world of Second Life, all while inviting advertisers along for the ride.

Zuiker, speaking as the opening keynote presenter for the show, explained that characters from his CSI: New York television show will chase a murder suspect online during its October 24 episode. As part of that show, and two :30 spots that will run with it on CBS, viewers are going to be invited to log onto a specially designed section of the virtual world created by digital agency The Electric Sheep Company, which CBS took an investment stake in earlier this year.

More than just a plot line gag, Zuiker explained that (spoiler alert!) the villain from the upcoming episode will manage to escape investigators during the shows cliffhanger season ender, and then return when the show begins again in February. In the meantime, viewers are going to be able to hunt for the killer, CSI style, in the virtual world. In fact he'll provide new killers to start hunting every month.

What interested me however, was the fact that those virtual investigators will be using a "Cisco Teleconferencing Center" to process the clues they find online. And Zuiker invited advertisers to come and talk to him about putting their products within his virtual world, joking that everybody from consumer goods firms to caffeinated drink companies can have a kiosk where investigators could gather.

"Why? Cause investigators need to be caffeinated to solve crime," he joked.

I did ask Zuiker how advertisers can successfully put their brands online in a virtual world, especially considering the spate of bad press such efforts have seen lately, but he said having the backing of CBS air time will bring in viewers and having engagement online will keep them there.

"Some product are not happening in Second Life cause there's no interaction," Zuiker told me. "The key to do this is to feature things on air, and then in a gaming mechanism in the world so the product is in use. Not just background that no one is going to pay attention to."

As to who the killer is in the upcoming episode? I'm not telling.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 9, 2007

Google Competitor Ads in Video on AdSense Blog

We couldn't help but chuckle this morning when checking out Google's AdSense Blog post about the new video content/ad network Goo(we're not a media company)gle is running with YouTube.

The first ad that loaded into the video player sample was for none other than an AdSense competitor, ADS-click. Now that's a coup.

Hmmm...you'd think Google would have employed its own Competitive Ad Filter, eh?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 8, 2007

Podaddies Joins the Video Ad Insertion Race

Updatable video ad insertion, especially for mobile devices, has a lot of potential for advertisers looking to provide new ads to already downloaded videos, even if the technology is still clearly in its early running. This week another horse got into the race in the form of Podaddies, which is a combination of video ad network and a technology that can be linked directly to videos so they can have new ads played with them.

I met up with Nate Pagel, CEO of Podaddies, in San Francisco's South Park and he told me that his system will not only provide updated ads to videos on Web pages, but also to devices like the video iPod when its connected to the Internet, or through other mediums like blogs or e-mail.

"Everything you can do on a Web page, you can do on a download," he said of his system's ability to provide updated ads by placing code directly into online videos.

Podaddies has been around since it launched last December, but is now trying to get the word out to advertisers and agencies that its service is available after securing some $1 million in additional funding from The Band of Angels, The Angels Forum and other investors. Pagel told me he recognizes companies like Kiptronic, ScanScout and YuMe are his competitors, but he believes Podaddies' ability to do dynamic ad insertion will win out. His system works with Quicktime and Flash formats, but not with Windows Media as it's not as highly adopted with podcasters. He is watching Microsoft's recently released Silverlight technology however, and told me "I'm a fan, and we're looking at it, but it's not on the roadmap."

Podaddies first task is bringing small and medium sized video content distributors to its service he said. "Right now it's about independent video sites that don't have a way to monetize their content," Pagel said. "We help those folks stay in business by providing them advertising."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

GPhone Guessing Game

Google's mobile phone ambition centers on convincing mobile phone manufacturers and wireless carriers to offer phones based on Google's software, The New York Times reports today.

Google is working on a mobile phone operating system based on open-source Linux software that would compete with Microsoft's Windows mobile, according to an unnamed industry executive quoted by the Times. Applications reportedly include mobile search, mapping software, and Web browser.

Mobile advertising may subsidize a portion of the phone's costs, the report says.

The Google phone, or GPhone, is seen as a way for Google to make a grab for additional mobile advertising, a growth market.

Over this past year, there's been widespread discussion over Google's planned phone, including the possibility it may include a phone service subsidized by mobile advertisements. Others have speculated what the phone will look like.

In its report about the GPhone, BusinessWeek last week cranked up the volume on that discourse and examined other advertising-subsidized phone services, such as Virgin Mobile's Sugar Mama. Oh, that's sweet.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Jam Sessions' on YouTube

Ubisoft wants your "Jam Sessions" footage on YouTube. To promote its Nintendo DS title "Jam Sessions" where players strum the touch-sensitive DS screen with a stylus as if it were a guitar pick to compose music, Ubisoft created a contest on YouTube where gamers can submit videos of themselves of any original song with lyrics, played using "Jam Sessions" on the DS. It's a creative use of a YouTube contest. And the videos Ubisoft pre-populated the site with include a producer walkthrough to explain the game mechanics, and performers singing, rapping, playing the harmonica, and playing "Jam Sessions" as the rhythm guitar along with other instruments.

YouTube users will select the winners. Does the prize match the contest? Winners will be featured on YouTube's main page. The winner will also be flown to New York to perform live on FUSE TV.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Crossing the Rubicon… Into Beta

Rubicon Project, a publisher-side ad management platform, opened its invitational beta today granted to the first 500 publishers to sign up. According to company founder Frank Addante, the Rubicon Project addresses two trends: a lack of advertising technology available for Web sites, and rapid growth of ad networks. The system lets publishers optimize their inventory across the 300-plus ad networks, which continues to grow as specialized ad networks form.

"Tap into one of these networks, and you're not reaching the full, available market," said Addante. He also said media buyers spend across multiple networks. The interface used by publishers allows for a site to adjust inventory allotments across all ad networks, and shows real-time statistics on each ad network.

Addante has founded five companies, including L90/adMonitor which was eventually acquired by DoubleClick. The founder reunited with key members of his original team to form The Rubicon Project.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No Ads on Orkut, but Apps May Come

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported Google's social networking play, Orkut, will no longer run ads. The site, popular in Brazil, wasn't running many in the first place though. According to a Google statement e-mailed to ClickZ News, "Ads on orkut were in an early-stage testing phase (less than 1% of the communities were being served with ads) when Google made the decision to withdraw all ads from the site. Google is temporarily withdrawing the tests on ads to evaluate and enhance the system."

The ads were removed because they had been found running alongside child pornography. Google said this is old news since ads were discontinued in August, as a result of complaints from nonprofit Safernet, along with Brazilian regulators.

Search Engine Journal also reported as early as last December that ads in Orkut were running ads against profiles associated with the likes of Al-Qaida and Hezbollah.

While Orkut is a blip on the social networking screen here in the U.S., Google could change that if it does open up its API to developers, à la Facebook; as reported by Business Week and others, this is in the works.

"BusinessWeek.com has learned that third-party developers based in India have been told that the code, known to developers as an Application Programming Interface (API), would be made available around Nov. 5."

The app onslaught is certainly driving more traffic to Facebook, and apparently Google hopes U.S. developers creating for its API will lead social site junkies to Orkut. Still, if the company can't get its Orkut ad model figured out, what's the point? I expect ad master Google will figure something out.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Handsets to Media, Advertising

Nokia said today it completed its acquisition of Enpocket. No additional details since the acquisition was first announced. With this most recent acquisition, the creation of Mosh, and other moves the handset manufacturer has recently made, the company is on its way to becoming a global media presence for the mobile Web.

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flickr Knows Esther Dyson is in Germany

Nice execution of cross-border geotargeting.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2007

The Halo Effect

Microsoft reported "Halo 3" reached $300 million in sales in its first seven days at retail. The attention spread to the Web with a 150 percent increase in searches for the term "halo 3" in the four weeks ending September 29, 2007, according to Hitwise. People primarily searched for the game's skulls, release date (September 25), cheats, weapons, and reviews.

At Advertising Week held in New York last week I met with Microsoft and Massive executives, and attended a handful of panels on in-game advertising. The coveted title is and always will be off limits to in-game advertising, but there are ways to align your brand with "Halo" and other out-of-boundaries games. There is "around game advertising" which is largely sponsorships of tournaments both online and offline, inserts in boxes, co-branding promotions, and advertising on enthusiast Web sites. Discovery Channel entered a strong co-branding opportunity with Halo's Master Chief to promote its "Last One Standing" show where Master Chief played as a contestant, and headlined a sweepstakes. For Microsoft, Massive primarily handles in-game ad placements, but the Xbox team has some innovative solutions around the game including placement on the heavily-trafficked Xbox Live.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEC Touts Its Fight Against Stock Manipulation Spam

Three companies, accused of being susceptible to delivering spam that could manipulate stock prices, were forced on Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend trading securities for 10 business days.

The SEC, in a statement, said the three companies failed to provide adequate and accurate information about themselves to investors, and as a result, could be susceptible to engaging in stock-touting spam. The SEC didn't state whether these companies, which all trade over-the-counter securities, delivered such spam.

The SEC said its actions are part of an initiative, launched in March, to fight spam-driven stock market manipulation. Since that time, the SEC reported suspended trading in the securities of 39 companies. It also said it brought several spam-related enforcement actions.

In the latest round of trading suspensions, Alliance Transcription Services (ATSS), Prime Petroleum Group (PPGU), and T.W. Christian (TWCI) are temporarily barred from trading its securities. The ban is lifted after Oct. 17.

Executives from the three companies could not be reached to respond to the SEC's actions.

The SEC said its anti-spam efforts are paying off, citing an Internet security threat report published last month by Symantec. Spam related to financial services accounted for 21 percent of all spam during the first six months of 2007, down from 30 percent during the last half of 2006, according to Symantec. The security software vendor singled out the SEC's actions for the decline.

Financial spam, once No. 1, has been surpassed by spam promoting commercial goods and services, including counterfeit designer purses and watches, according to Symantec.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Color of Bunny

The best film series franchises may actually be advertisements. The Sony Bravia team in Europe continues to create incredibly sequenced commercials, which get picked up virally on the Web. "Play-Doh" follows "Paint" and "Balls" in the series where the creative really shows the color HDTV is capable of displaying.

A Sony Bravia Europe site has additional interactive elements including a "Colourwall" that shows the 16.7 million colors available on the Bravia HD sets. If you upload a picture, you can claim a pixel of color as your own hue.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 4, 2007

Three Little Words (To Avoid in E-mail Subject Lines)

You already know the big e-mail no-nos: words like Viagra, Cialis, Sex, and Free.

E-mail service provider MailChimp has flagged three new words that wreak open-rate and (possibly) deliverability havoc in e-mail subject lines. You've been warned. Use these at your own risk!

Help: Nigerian spam seems to have spurred efforts to flag this word.

% off: If it walks like a sales pitch and talks like a sales pitch...

Reminder: Needs to send a reminder? It's probably better to avoiding the word and instead use the subject line to indicate the message contains useful information.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 3, 2007

Yahoo, BlueLithium Deal Clears FTC

Yahoo received antitrust approval to acquire BlueLithium, a performance-based behavioral targeting network, according to a published report.

The Federal Trade Commission determined the $300 million deal, announced Sept. 4, posed no antitrust concerns, Reuters reported Wednesday. BlueLithium, based in San Jose, CA, said it's the fifth largest ad network in the United States.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sony Widgets its HDNA Campaign

This week Sony added a widget component to the HDNA campaign it launched in August. The widget, created by Freewebs.com, and gives users the ability to post the creative on Freewebs sites, social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, or the ClickZ blog.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

E-Mail Campaign Formula 101

Before you look at deliverability, open rates, and recipient-side metrics on a campaign, it's important to look at how your e-mail campaign is constructed and know it can improve. Blue-chip focused ESP e-Dialog created the Relevance Trajectory to offer its clients a benchmark for e-mail programs. The program looks at factors like segmentation, lifecycle management, triggers, personalization, interactivity, and testing or measurement.

The concept began informally at a client conference held by the company last year mapping where clients fell in the relevance trajectory. The response was positive, and at this past year's conference e-Dialog followed up by asking clients to rate themselves and see how they measured up. Most companies were too hard on themselves, but regardless of score, e-Dialog president and CEO John Rizzi said there is always room for improvement.

Relevance Trajectory can be used as an annual or semi-annual checkpoint, and a strategy toward making sure your e-mail campaigns don't contribute to the inbox clutter, but are meaningful messages for recipients.

While the Relevance Trajectory is seen as an effective benchmark for e-Dialog clients, it only rates the components of an e-mail practice and campaigns, it doesn't have anything to do with the messages once they're sent to recipients. It's the first half of the proposition, and doesn't replace diagnostics on bounce rates and open rates, among other metrics on e-mail senders' minds.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 2, 2007

Panache Offers Buffet Approach to In-Video Formats

Video ad vendors have tended to specialize. The first wave of in-page video ads was supported by the likes of EyeWonder, PointRoll and DART Motif. As video consumption took off, LightningCast and others pioneered pre- and mid-roll ad insertion. Today of course the big money's on alternative in-video placements, mainly bugs and other overlays, courtesy of publishers and ad networks like VideoEgg, Joost, YouTube and ScanScout and their specialized (and sometimes patented) ad units.

A few firms are trying to offer numerous in-video placements on the same menu. YuMe networks comes to mind. Another, new to the scene, is Panache. Unlike YuMe, Panache will not attempt to sell ads, but rather to supply the technology framework for publishers to broker their own inventory in whatever formats they choose. In that respect it resembles the rich media ad vendors of old (the ones mentioned in the second sentence of this post) more than the new breed of hybrid tech firms/ad networks like VideoEgg that specialize in one or two units.

Panache's first publisher relationship is with Break.com, a user-generated and short-form video site for young guys. Naturally most brand advertisers won't go within a mile of it.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What Might New Yahoo Search Mean for Advertisers?

So, Yahoo is revamping it search results, in part by including video and image results along with standard text results. Ask.com and Microsoft have been making similar adjustments to accommodate the increasingly video-centric Web, and Google made a big splash in May with its Universal Search launch.

What's the "new Yahoo Search" mean for advertisers? At this point, you'll probably hear the same speculation about that as we heard back when Google's Universal Search launched.

We could see more multimedia ads -- video, other rich, interactive display units -- available in and around search results. Another thing surmised when Google's new search came out also might apply to Yahoo: more interest in Yahoo search from brand advertisers. While search has long been primarily the domain of direct response advertisers, the fact that brand advertisers tend to have a lot of image-, audio- and video-based content means they might want to optimize that content to take advantage of the new multimedia search results, or pay to get their multimedia assets in the results.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft Acquires Jellyfish.com

Social shopping, shopping 2.0, shopping discovery. Whatever you want to call it, there's a ton of action these days around services that add community elements to legacy shopping features like ratings and price comparisons. The news on this front today is that Microsoft has acquired Madison-based Jellyfish.com, which generates large discounts by mobilizing large groups of buyers through chat and auctions to purchase a single product on a single day.

The company will be added to Microsoft's Live Search division, which had the following to say on its blog:

"We think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search. Stay tuned for more great stuff from our new colleagues in Madison!"

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FT.com to Trade Most Access Fees for Ad Revenue

FT.com will launch a new charging system in mid-October as it prepares to revamp its entire site over the next several months. The new system will enable users to access up to 30 stories a month completely free of charge, and should create new opportunities for marketers.

Typically, newspapers have opted either to monetize free content with ads or to charge on a subscription or ‘pay-per-view’ basis. The new model from the FT boasts the best of both worlds, with visitors only needing to pay for subscription if they wish to view more than 30 articles or data in a month.

Ien Cheng, publisher of FT.com, told the International Herald Tribune, "To get caught between all this 'free' or 'paid' is too simplistic. We see this as a third way."

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 1, 2007

Telefonica's Global Search Partners

Madrid-based Telefonica's been busy. Today it said it will partner with Yahoo to bring the search engine's OneSearch, which was launched earlier this year to its users in Ireland, Latin America, and the U.K. Those users will also have access to news, financial information, weather conditions, Flickr photos, Web images, and Web and mobile Web sites. They'll also have access to Yahoo Mail.

Just last week Telefonica and JumpTap announced a deal to enable JumpTap's search capabilities for music, images, and games channels. This service is available to users in Spain, the mobile phone company's home country. JumpTap said it makes Telefonica the first operator in Spain to bring a complete search and advertising solution to the mobile screen.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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