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February 2008

February 29, 2008

Azoogle Wants Truste to Certify Mobile Promotions

If AzoogleAds actually engaged in fraudulent online ad practices, as the Florida Attorney General’s office has alleged, the company appears to be turning over a new leaf. In fact, AzoogleAds President Don Mathis seems quite engaged in trying to clean up the mobile content promotions sector.

In fact, he wants to work with Truste to develop a program for officially approving promotions for mobile content.

"We approached Truste to [develop] a real certification program,” Mathis told me earlier today when discussing the Florida AG's big AT&T score. Check out ClickZ's coverage. The carrier agreed to pay a total of $3 million and ensure partners that charge consumers via AT&T bills abide by new disclosure guidelines in their online ads.

He also said AzoogleAds has been in talks with the Mobile Marketing Association and carriers to establish best practices for ads and promotions pushing ringtones, wallpapers and other mobile content.

"The goal is ultimately to establish a code of conduct for the industry," he said, adding that in this case it would "have the teeth of the Attorney General behind it.”

The fact is some of these mobile content promotions are used for lead generation purposes. The IAB's Lead Generation Committee already calls for lead gen companies to follow the Federal Trade Commission's guidelines; those require that companies provide clear and conspicuous disclosure of terms and conditions associated with ads touting "free" promotions.

Mathis believes at least half of the mobile content promotions sector in terms of companies and dollars is connected to bad players using misleading ads to dupe consumers into signing up for things like "free" ringtones that end up costing. "I would say it’s north of 50 percent,” he said.

Rather than simply penalize companies and walk away, the Florida AG's approach seems like it could actually help clean up the mobile content marketing space. As part of its agreements with Azoogle, World Avenue and now AT&T, it's required that the companies assist in further investigations. It makes a lotta sense. Not only that, its decision to go after the carriers, the ones that actually facilitate the billing of these fraudulent charges, is intended to cut off the scam artists from their revenue source. Who knows? Maybe it will actually work.

Of course, new fly-by-night operations crop up all the time, making the deceptive stuff hard to keep track of. Still, if the pressure stays on the carriers, it will only behoove them to prevent fraud perpetrators from using their systems for billing.

So, who's next after the carriers? Look out ad networks, publishers and yes, the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN – the guys serving the bad ads. Mathis told me there's "no question" Florida's Cyberfraud Task Force will consider investigating ad networks.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ComScore Weighs in on Google Click Volume Debacle Sparked by Its Data

Earlier this week, when comScore set off a GOOG selling frenzy on Wall Steet with data showing click rate growth had flattened, I called the research firm for comment but to no avail. Amazing what 48 hours can bring. After a continued outcry, comScore has now issued a lengthy statement with additional data and charts (previously unavailable to non-clients) arguing, basically, that everyone should just calm down. Here's the money quote:

While we do not claim that these concerns are unwarranted, we believe a careful analysis of our search data does not lend them direct support. More specifically, the evidence suggests that the softness in Google’s paid click metrics is primarily a result of Google’s own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings and, therefore, the opportunity for paid clicks to occur.

ComScore also shared the following chart, which demonstrates that click rates declined for much of last year, long before economic fears began bleeding into the nation's collective consciousness. It also shows how ad coverage, defined as the percentage of queries that display at least one ad, has declined roughly in parallel to click volume growth.

So you see, comScore says, Google is pumping fewer ads to its users and receiving fewer clicks in return. ComScore theorizes that reduction will be counterbalanced by an increase in revenue per query under the click quality initiative

On a separate but related note, agency heavy SearchIgnite has said it's seen none of the click volume declines described by comScore data, nor revenue shortfalls either. The agency, which claims to represent $200 million in search spending, said ad impressions for the first six weeks of 2008 were up 79.5 percent year over year, while paid clicks were up 47.2 percent. Additionally, ad spending on Google grew by 40.1 percent among the same group of clients (In other words the data doesn't include new business).

SearchIgnite's research should not be considered representative of the search industry at large, as it's just one agency with a defined group of clients who all share one thing in common: they follow SearchIgnite's advice. But then, can comScore's data be treated as really representative of consumers' click behaviors? After all, the company was seriously challenged by the IAB last year, and publishers of all stripes love to take potshots at its audience and traffic estimates.

My take continues to be that while the click rate fall-off is not necessarily the result of a lack of consumer confidence, a lack of confidence is bound to result in a reduction in click volume. More succinctly: No, Google's not insulated from a recession and no, comScore's findings are not (necessarily) a bad sign.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 28, 2008

About CEO Scott Meyer Steps Down; Nisenholtz and McCoy to Fill In

Scott Meyer will depart About.com and The New York Times Co. next week after an eight year odyssey with the company. "After discussions with Martin [Nisenholtz, digital chief], we've agreed that I'll be stepping down from my position as President & CEO of the About Group and leaving the Times Company," Meyer wrote in a note to staff. Nisenholtz and Chief Digital Architect Ron McCoy will manage the group until a replacement CEO is named. A spokesperson said the search for Meyer's successor will include both internal and external candidates.

"I am incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished together as a team at About. The About Group is in a very strong position," said Meyer's memo. "I will miss not being a part of About's future, but I'm confident that the Group's best days are ahead."

Meyer led About for three years. PaidContent.org first reported the departure late Wednesday.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Background on FTC Chair Majoras and Google/DoubleClick

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras is set to resign next month, and now that she’s leaving, privacy advocates unhappy with the FTC’s approval of Google’s DoubleClick acquisition want the commission to cough up the Majoras papers, pronto. Center for Digital Democracy’s Jeff Chester is reminding the press of his group’s request that the FTC hand over all documents related to Majoras’ role in the acquisition case (through the Freedom of Information Act). Basically, the law firm where her husband works, Jones Day, has been involved in representing DoubleClick, which on its face, makes her involvement with the FTC decision on the merger seem ethically challenged.

It’s easy to speculate with stuff like this, so I figured I’d reiterate what I reported for ClickZ News in December when this blew up the first time around. Back then, the FTC told me “Jones Day has not appeared before the FTC on this matter."

Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Models get Mobile

If one magazine issue of supermodels in swimsuits a year isn't enough for you, then Sports Illustrated has the answer. The sports magazine has signed a deal with mobile video provider mywaves to create a dedicated channel of videos about the swimsuit event that can be sent directly to mobile devices.

The channel is ad supported to be free for viewers, and hosts 50 video clips, including video from photo shoots, interviews with the models and other material. The channel went live six days ago and has already had over 180,000 views, according to Nicole Rodrigues, a spokesperson for mywaves.

"Our service skews very high male 18- to 34-year-old. And this Sports Illustrated channel fits right into that demographic," she said.

Mywaves offers advertisers pre-roll, overlay and banner ad placements for its channels, but hasn't signed on a dedicated advertiser for Sports Illustrated's video channel, she said.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quote of the Day: Online Ads a Canary in the Coalmine?

"A big flaw of any analysis is that since online advertising is ‘better’ than other mediums, folks will simply reduce their spending elsewhere and keep online unhindered. But online advertising has always won ad spending by justifying itself solely on its own merits and performance... Online advertising is a leading indicator of a recession rather than an industry insulated from the economy."

-Niki Scevak, founder of Homethinking and a sometimes Jupiter analyst, on Web's insulation from economic hard times.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 27, 2008

Google's Declining Click Volume: Theories

So you've probably already read about the comScore data published yesterday suggesting Google's paid clicks are no longer growing as fast as they once were.

The measurement firm believes paid clicks in October were up 37 percent over the year ago period, a distinguished growth rate, but that they fell precipitously from there. It estimates they grew 27 percent in November, 12 percent in December, and were flat in January. Further, its said the volume of clicks actually declined sequentially last month, from December to January. Sequential data is less valid than year-over-year, especially between Q4 and Q1, but this is still worth noting since we're talking about the heretofore-invincible Big G.

Still, the finding shouldn't come as a shock. Google said itself, during its Jan. 31 earnings call, that clicks are no longer growing as fast as they once did. The company's explanations for the anemic growth center on an ongoing effort to improve click quality by reducing the number of ads on its sites and its network. Example: On AdSense for Content, Google has shrunk the clickable area around ads to reduce accidental clicks. It also seems to have further restricted search keyword bidding on generic and low-converting terms, for instance "baseball." (Ably explained by Greg Yardley here.)

Investors aren't buying it however and have pummeled the company's stock since close of business yesterday. Further, many news and blog reports seem to be assuming macro-economic conditions are the principle force behind the click declines.

There are two main recession arguments. The first is that small to mid-sized advertisers are scaling back their search spend. The Wall Street Journal today quoted a Majestic Research analyst to this effect. The analyst said the SMB fall-off had been happening for the past four to five months. If so, that's a huge development but I honestly don't buy it. During the Q4 earnings call, CEO Schmidt said rather vehemently the company has picked up no hints of a macro-economic slowdown in its advertisers' spending activity; and a decline in small businesses would certainly qualify as such a hint -- a hairy, ugly one at that. "I'm happy to say that we have not yet seen any negative impact from the rumors of future recessions," he told investors. "We'll see what happens."

The second, more convincing economic explanation is that consumers are holing up for the coming (perceived) recession and conducting fewer shopping related searches as a result. Fewer people in the purchase funnel equal fewer ad clicks, plain and simple. What categories get hit? Travel, new car buying, consumer electronics. Entertainment and CPG, maybe not so much.

While I buy that argument, I’m not sure it's happening yet. Hitwise offered a dissenting data point to comScore's report, finding Google's downstream traffic to retail sites in January increased year over year, the opposite of what you'd expect based on comScore's numbers.

A further point that must be mentioned is that comScore's data is not infallible. Anyone shorting the company's stock based on the findings of one measurement firm -- a firm frequently contested by major publishers, I might add -- would likely be making a mistake.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Long Live the Pre-Roll (for Now)

Hate pre-roll video ads?

Don't count on them going away anytime soon.

Heavy Media's John Lumpkin and Voxant CEO Marcien Jenckes both made that assessment today at an iBreakfast program, "Web Video, Where's the Money?"

"The bulk of the [Web video ad] dollars is in pre-roll. It scales. It's easy for advertisers to create and deploy. It will take awhile for the market to evolve," said Jenckes, formerly AOL's vice president of messaging, community, and voice.

Lumpkin concurred, suggesting that advertisers stick to :15 spots and avoid longer ones.

"Pre-rolls will never go away. If you've spent a lot time on TV [ads], and if you're not doing the Internet, then you haven't done your job," said Lumpkin, Heavy's SVP of sales strategy and partnerships.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shame on EA, Publishers, and In-Game Advertisers

One of GameSpot.com's "Best Games of 2007 Dubious Honors" awards is the "Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising." An honor executives from Microsoft's Live and Massive teams once confided to me they work all year to avoid being nominated for. This years nominees include "Guitar Hero III" (Xbox 360, PS3, PS3, Wii), "Need for Speed ProStreet" (Xbox 360), "Skate" (Xbox 360), (All-Pro Football 2K" (Xbox 360, PS3). The reader's choice, with 56 percent of votes, was "Guitar Hero III," a game that sold every pixel to product integration and ad placements.

The top honor from the GameSpot editors goes to EA's "Need for Speed ProStreet" for the ads appearing everywhere including the Xbox Live achievement points. The $25 instant skill boost doesn't help the game's status, and players found the constant downloading of dynamic ads a problem throughout the game's connected lifespan. Let's go to the video.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 26, 2008

GoFish Hooks WeeWorld

After officially launching its kids oriented ad network last week, GoFish wasted no time in signing avatar-based social network WeeWorld to its list of publishers.

There have already been 21 million "WeeMees" avatars created on WeeWorld, according to the company, which advertisers in the GoFish network will be able market to using graphical display ads, Flash animations, specialized games, backgrounds, environments and sponsorships. What had Tabreez Verjee, president of GoFish, particularly excited when I spoke to him, however, was the forthcoming WeeWorld virtual world environment. Using the GoFish ad network, he hopes to allow marketers access to the world for branded virtual clothing, sponsored playgrounds or other features.

"It's exactly the kind of immersive opportunity that our advertisers are looking for," he said of the as yet unnamed virtual world. "It's not a banner at the top of the page, it's deeply integrated into the experience."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Puff Daddy Tries Widgets to Promote his Vodka

The alcohol industry is regulated heavily by the Federal Government as to exactly how and where it can advertise, and that includes online. As such, I was particularly interested to see Ciroq Vodka, the brand produced by Sean "Puff Daddy" Comb's Bad Boy Entertainment and Diageo, expand its online advertising efforts to include the use of shareable widgets.

Interpolls created the widgets which are similar to those developed for its other clients including Scion and Ford, but the Ciroq widgets have an extra feature -- an age verification requirement. To see the widget's content, which includes a video featuring Combs and recipes for drinks made with the vodka, viewers much enter their birth year. As widgets are intended to be "grab-able" and placed on a users Web site or social network site, it occurs to me that it's only a matter of time until a minor somewhere is extolling Comb's vodka to friends via his Facebook page, but the widget will require age verification before each viewing, according to Kwasi Asare, new media marketing manager for Bad Boy Entertainment.

"It's the same as any other age verification online," he told me. "The tough part of working through these new technologies is how does this fit into existing legal framework? There's not a lot of precedent for these kinds of things."

Bad Boy Entertainment is placing the widget initially on sites that require age verification to help weed out minors, he said, and it also distributed it last Sunday on AOL for a one day run. Based on what kind of response it sees the company may or may not continue to use the widget, but the unusual nature of the technology appeals to the company, Asare said.

"Puff has established his career to doing new things that have never been done before," he said. "It's important for us to be cutting edge not just from a product standpoint but from a technology standpoint as well."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Leap Year: Let's Party

Are you a Leaper?

Some calendar challenged people, going by the name of The Quadrennial Council, want your attention -- and sympathy.

"People born on leap day suffer more than most know," reads the council's Web site.

How so? "Retirees charged and arrested for under-aged drinking," the site says.

The council, which says it's based in "Leaptown, DE," purchased keywords on Google for "leap year parties."

Headed up by "Bjorn A. Leepur," the council contends it wants to improve the lives of people born on Feb. 29. It's calling for Feb. 29 to be added to the calendar each and every year.

The man (and woman) behind the curtain appear to be a PR team based in Alexandria, VA: Bremmer & Goris Communications. The firm registered the domain name, leapday08.com.

Okay, so where's the party?

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quote of the Day: Microsoft/Atlas "Engagement Mapping"

"The cynic in me isn’t surprised that Microsoft’s got a long line of agencies waiting to test this stuff, since it justifies spending more money on ads with crap click-through and conversion rates even when the real purchases are coming from a keyword buy on a competitor’s search engine [keywords]. But the basic argument -- some people see an ad and then decide to act later -- seems sound. I just don’t know what proportion of users do this, vs. the ones that just didn’t notice the earlier ads. After all, if you know a user’s browser loaded four of your banners without results, but then the user clicked on a fifth, you still don’t know much."

-Greg Yardley, writing on his blog about Engagement Mapping, Microsoft's new approach to gauging impact and optimizing spend for ad impressions across search and display ads. (See ClickZ's earlier coverage.)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ClickZ at Politics Online Conference Next Week

As you may know, ClickZ News has been dedicated to covering the online presidential campaign ads in our Campaign '08 section. And next week, I'll have the pleasure of talking shop in D.C. with others involved with and tracking this emerging ad vertical at the annual Politics Online conference.

Online political ad expert (I don't throw around the 'expert' term lightly), Michael Bassik, VP of Internet Advertising at political consulting firm MSHC Partners will be leading a panel on "Online Political Advertising and the 2008 Election" on Wednesday. We'll chat with online ad research folks Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates and Patrick Quinn of PQ Media, firms that have each put out forecasts of online political ad spending recently.

It's amazing how over the past few years events like Politics Online (commonly referred to by insiders as IPDI after the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University, the show's host) have grown. No longer is it just the evangelists who attend these events, but all sorts of folks involved in politics, of all political stripes.

If you'll be there and want to meet up Wednesday, let me know! Email me.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2008

Campaign Tracker, for Politicos on the Go

With the election year upon us, some voters may want to get their information and coverage of the big event wherever they go. Microsoft is looking to capitalize on voters looking for breaking news by sponsoring a free Campaign Tracker application for Windows enabled Mobile phones..

NewsGator is providing its Mobile Reader system and widget services, while the news organizations Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek will update the political news via RSS feeds. Campaign Tracker was created by NewsGator's Software-as-a-Service division which handles syndication services, and Microsoft's Mobile2Market program. It'll run on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, as well as Microsoft Pocket PC devices. The service itself will go online early next week.

Post updated to correct the application's name from Candidate Tracker to Campaign Tracker.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Going Off Your Feed

Changing the way your RSS feeds work isn't something to be undertaken lightly -- particularly if you've got popular feeds with thousands and thousands of subscribers.

Case in point: For several years, I've subscribed to the feed of a popular site that tracks Macintosh software updates. It pushes perhaps 30-50 updates my way per day. According to Bloglines' subscription counter, thousands aof other MacFaithful followed this feed too.

Presumably, those other subscribers get the feed for the same reason I do. We're busy. We're lazy. It's far, far easier to passively receive the feed than to have to visit the actual site on a daily -- even a weekly -- basis. This learned passivity (for the sake of convenience) also has its consequences. It took me over seven weeks to realized I hadn't been getting my usual multiple times daily updates from the site.

They changed the way their feeds work. And they didn't tell me.

Or perhaps they did. Maybe an announcement was posted on the site. Or in their weekly newsletter. What they didn't do was feed that critical piece of news on the channel so many of us have come to rely on: the RSS feed itself.

Eventually, I missed getting the feed. But I track over 200 feeds on a daily basis. It takes a while to notice one that's gone missing.

Publishers - take heed. Don't let your readers go off their feed.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 22, 2008

European Regulators Delay Verdict on Search Data Storage

EU regulators have delayed their verdict on the length of time that search engines such as Google and Yahoo can legally retain user data.

At a meeting in Brussels this week, The Article 29 data protection Working Party continued discussions on the matter, but did not deliver the draft opinion it was expected to.

Google has already cut the amount of time it retains search data to 18 months in response to criticism from the Working Party last June. Microsoft followed suit, while Yahoo cut its retention to 13 months. Search engine Ask.com now allows users to erase their data entirely.

Search engines fall under an EU Data Protection Directive if they are collecting users' IP addresses or search history. The directive applies to companies outside of the EU, providing they have an establishment within an EU member state.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ultramercial: We Do Engagement Pricing Too!

In the wake of our coverage of VideoEgg's new "per engagement" pricing strategy, I heard from an old school engagement player: Ultramercial.

In an e-mail, company rep Lori Jones pointed out that every person who sees Ultramercial's "Day Pass" interstitial unit "engages" with the ad, and she indicated it charges CPMs of $50 and up for its publishers.

"If the 75 cents cost-per-engagement quoted by VideoEgg is accurate they’re going to do very well," she wrote. "As a comparison, Ultramercial charges our advertisers on a CPM basis for our full-screen premium access ad. This works out to be about 5 cents to 25 cents per engagement, which lasts on average 50 seconds."

For the uninitiated, Ultramercial's trademarked unit lets publishers like Salon and TheStreet offer ordinarily paid content for free by requiring site visitors to click through the ad experience. Just a reminder that some ad formats are inherently sold on engagement.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 21, 2008

B'lo News and Others Join Yahoo Newspaper Group

Finally I have a truly personal connection with the Yahoo Newspaper Consortium. The paper used to deliver, trudging through lake effect snow, fingers numb as I struggled to add inserts to already gigantic Sunday editions, has finally joined Yahoo's exponentially growing group of publisher partners: The Buffalo News. Well, the online edition, anyway.

Yahoo announced it’s added four new publisher partners including the B’lo News, Shaw Newspapers, Times Publishing Company and the Columbian Publishing Company. Shaw adds 25 dailies covering northern Illinois and Iowa, Times adds Pennsylvania’s The Erie Times News, and Columbian adds The Columbian of Vancouver, WA. That brings Yahoo’s total to 634 papers, including 425 dailies.

The deals aren’t all the same though. The Times and Columbian appear only to be doing the HotJobs co-branding thing. Meanwhile The Buffalo News and thirteen of the Shaw sites are going for the whole shebang, integrating HotJobs as well as adding what Yahoo’s calling “Core Services,” meaning they’ll add Yahoo Search to their sites, and sell Yahoo inventory to their local advertisers as Yahoo has access to their inventory for national advertisers.

Yahoo said it’s launched co-branded HotJobs sites “serving more than 425 U.S. newspapers,” and features Yahoo Search on 126 newspapers. It also said it’s begun the initial phase of ad cross-sales, “with the sales staffs of several newspapers integrating Yahoo inventory into sales packages for their local advertisers.” I take this to mean the planned display ad partnership has begun. The company said it will expand on that in the coming months, to allow paper partners to target specific audience segments.

Note the guy quoted in the press release is Jay Smith, President of Cox Newspapers, stating, "We're in the infancy of a relationship between Yahoo and our newspaper consortium that already exceeds our expectations.”

The reason I call this to attention is Cox was among the names floated when reports of the now official quadrantOne newspaper ad network, launched a week ago by Gannett , Hearst, Tribune, and The New York Times, prematurely surfaced. Cox, however, isn’t a member of this new network – yet anyway. The company apparently has been in discussion with the quadOne people, along with several other publishers, according to a talk I had last week with Tribune Interactive’s Dana Hayes, also quadrantOne Interim CEO.

If anything, this shows Yahoo is, at least on the surface, committed to the consortium project. Whether things remain intact after what seems to be a highly likely Microsoft grab, is anybody's guess.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Local Burrito on MySpace

calexico%20image.JPG It took a while. But I found a good burrito in SOHO. Yes, this part of New York City has great eating establishments. But when ClickZ moved south of Houston, I was disappointed there was no good burrito place. That's until one day when I took a chance on a shiny silver street cart with a large group of people gathered waiting for food. It was called Calexico Carne Asada, and came with a story about three brothers from a border town in California, and a profile on MySpace. Once a street vendor has a profile on a social media site online, is it time to trust him? I guess placing among the top three carts at the New York Vendy awards might also give the guys cred on the street.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 20, 2008

NBC Breaks Out the Classic Shows for Online Viewing

NBC Digital Entertainment and NBC Universal Cable Entertainment are breaking into their vaults and pulling out some of their classic television shows to see new life as streaming videos online. Shows like "A-Team," the 1978 version "Battlestar Galatica," "Miami Vice," and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" are now being shown at NBC.com. NBC genre sites like SCIFI.com, ChillerTV.com and SleuthChannel.com also get special programming like "Buck Rogers" and "Kojak."

The Peacock network won't be offering any special online video advertising deals as part of the return of the shows, but it is doing so to increase its overall video inventory to place ads against, according to the company. I'm not certain that shows like "Tek War" have gotten any better over time, but there's still something appealing about watching old "Simon & Simon" episodes for nostalgia's sake.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Defining and Measuring Engagement

Digital advertising, marketing, and publishing executives today deliberated over what "engagement" means for their business and clients. And no one agreed on one way to define, measure, and extract value from online engagement.

"Engagement is a concept we're still defining," said Jean-Philippe Maheu, CDO of Oglivy North America. It includes, he said, creation and distribution of great stories and determining how to best get brand influencers and advocates to work with a brand.

Nada Stirratt, MTV Networks's EVP, digital advertising, said engagement represents developing the right programming that consumers will invest in. "Whether that's someone watching [TV] on the air, going online, creating an avatar, playing a game, creating a community, or texting in on a cell phone," she said.

These executives were among 18 who spoke during a three-hour "Engagement Debate" at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York Times Square. VideoEgg presented the event, which coincided with the company's launch of its new "per engagement" pricing model on its video advertising network.

Ian Schafer, Deep Focus chief executive, likened engagement to initatives to build brand loyalty, rather than to promote a direct response, such as an online purchase.

During a discussion on how to measure engagement, Erin Matts, group director, strategy, at OMD, said metrics vary depending on a brand's objective. In order to establish some standardization and faciltate future planning, Matts tries to work, when possible, from comScore metrics such minutes per day on a media property.

Benjamin Ezrick,Ogilvy Interactive's senior strategist, digital innovation, argued that Google has already defined and measured engagement: the click. "Right now, that's the best monetization of engagement," he said. "That's the standard."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Tale of Two (Three Actually) Behavioral Ad Standards Projects

There's a ton of action right now around behavioral targeting standards. Here's a recap of what's in process:

Revenue Science is busy planning its next move for the behavioral targeting standards project it proposed earlier this month. The company was set to meet yesterday to determine who it will ask to be on the coalition's board. However, the project has been dealt an early blow in that largest behavioral ad network Tacoda has said it won't be involved. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, the IAB is formalizing its own behavioral targeting guidelines document, which it will make public by month's end. The IAB's standards likely won't try to establish common vocabulary and procedures (the main issues Revenue Science is taking on), but rather will focus on privacy and disclosure. The organization doesn't have a long history stumping for behavioral targeting standards, but it's trying to be more vocal as publishers feel a more urgent need to restore the health of IAB standard display advertising. The consensus now is that better targeting, including behavioral targeting, is pretty much the only thing that can reverse the never-ending declines in banner ad effectiveness -- in terms of both direct response and branding metrics. In another sign of its eagerness to project thought leadership in behavioral targeting, the IAB had a presence at the FTC Town Hall on the subject back in November.

The two standards movements come as the FTC begins a process of creating a self-regulation standard for behavioral targeting. It unveiled is proposed document back in December, and a comment period for the suggested rules will last until April.

On a side note, would someone please come up with a better name for behavioral targeting? It's fine by itself but whenever I'm forced to write about it with descriptors attached, as with Revenue Science's "behavioral targeting standards coalition," the resulting sentences are enough to put Dave Morgan himself into a deep coma. Possibilities: something corny like "yester-targeting" or something blunt like "past targeting," or maybe a word with a pop culture reference, like "I Know What You Did Last Web Site... targeting." Naturally, I'm open to suggestions.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

AOL, Domesticated

aol%20paint%20chips.jpg Hot from the oven. AOL unveils AOL Home. Content partners include Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Real Simple, CondeNast, and This Old House. The site tackles topics including decorating, entertaining, green tips on making homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, organization and cleaning tricks, DIY, and more. This is perfect timing for me I'm getting ready to move. Stay tuned for my housewarming registry.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A Vegan's Search Recipe: Beef Recall

Beef%20recall.jpg
What do the Humane Society of the United States and "The New York Times" have in common?

Each purchased the keywords for "beef recall" on Google, giving the organizations the top placement this morning on Google's search engine results page. By buying the keywords, each organization stands to drive traffic to their sites.

The Times refers Web visitors to its business news coverage of the nation's largest beef recall. About 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled from the Wetland/Hallmark Meat Company after the Humane Society released a video showing plant workers kicking injured cows and using electric prods and forklifts to make move.

The Humane Society connects visitors to its Factory Farming Campaign, including a video that depicts the cruel treatment of sick cows at the slaughterhouse. The advocacy group also provides a call to action: animal rights proponents can fill out a form urging U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer to toughen federal policy and prohibit sick cattle from becoming part of the food supply.

Three other sponsored links appear in the right-column of Google's search engine results page today: Levick Strategic Communications, a crisis communications firm; Revolution Health, a health and medical information site; and SparkPeople, also a health site and online community.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 19, 2008

Mining Game Franchises for Ad Dollars

quake%20marine.jpg In-game advertising in game sports franchises, driving simulations, gritty, real-world depictions where brands help convince while allowing brands to share a message with players has shared certain synergy. Then there's the untouchables: The "Halos," the "Devil May Cry," the "Age of Empires III." When Microsoft's Xbox Live and Massive guys were in town last fall I asked them about placing a product integration for Hershey's in a game like "Call of Duty" and they said, "There are 'awards' given each year for the worst use of brand advertising in a game, and we don't want it."

Enter the next generation of games on the in-game ad network rosters. Ubisoft is monetizing its back catalog on Double Fusion's network, Electronic Arts is creating a cartoonish version of its popular "Battlefield" series in an ad-supported "Battlefield Heroes" and now IGA Worldwide has partnered with id Software o provide advertiser sponsorships and in-game brand integration for Quake Live (now in beta sign-up mode). The two companies announced the partnership at the Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco.

Previously I would have classified the "Battlefield" and "Quake" franchises in the somewhat off limits category with the caveat that present-day and even near-futuristic releases such as in the "Battlefield" series have successfully had advertising, but "1942" and "Vietnam" would not work. Because these integrations are more Web-based in nature, they are primarily not in the game but around the game, the access screens and banners surrounding the gameplay screens. Of course that depends on the arrangement with the ad network and publisher.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some Transactional Assembly Required

swed%20chair.jpg Ordering your Arild sofa and Ramvik coffee table living room furniture online from Ikea this week? Well you can order it, but the site won't be able to take your credit card number to complete the transaction. An e-mail from the Swedish furniture conglomerate after an attempted order said a follow-up e-mail would ask for credit card information. To add even more insult to injury, hold times are running in excess of about 20 minutes to speak with customer service representative, who confirmed the transaction system has been down and the call center is being overrun by customer calls.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2008

Video Ads on Google Results Pages: How and Why

Beginning next week, Google plans to test video insertions on its famously QWERTY search results pages. The invite-only experiment will place small "plus sign" icons next to regular text ads, of the sort you sometimes see on Google Maps. When clicked, the symbols will expand to reveal a video ad that can be played manually by the searcher.

I spoke this afternoon with Google spokesperson Brandon McCormick, who said advertisers will pay by the click, whether that click starts the video or takes the viewer to a landing page. Bidding on keywords will take place through the AdWords interface, and video advertisers will compete with text links for placement. "The ad with the video would still have to be the best ad to appear" according to Google's quality scoring algorithms, he said.

He said Google was motivated to add richer ads to its SERPs because people are now used to seeing video and even expect it.

"As video gets more and more common on the Web, people are used to experiencing that level of engagement," he said. "We think, using the plus box video ad, we can maintain a positive user experience on Google.com and [provide a] richer experience."

I should be able to update this post with a screen grab by early next week, since McCormick said Google is eager to show these are non-intrusive placements.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Less Wind for Domain Kiting

Domain tasting (define) and kiting (define), where Web wrongdoers register domains for the five-day trial period to run ads or other quick moneymaking schemes then let the trial period lapse only to register again with another domain registry, has been in somewhat of a decline. Google took a step closer to stomping out any complicity of AdSense with a domain kiting detection system. "If we determine that a domain is being kited, we will not allow Google ads to appear on the site. We believe that this policy will have a positive impact for users and domain purchasers across the Web," said a Google spokesperson statement. It is not clear what the domain kiting detection system is, but some sources, including a blog post dating back to late January suggests Google will not accept domains less than five days old on the network, meaning under the tasting period.

Typo squatting won't be as easily squashed entirely. Just this morning Search Engine Journal posted not only an example, but a first hand experience coming across a typo squatting site.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yahoo Body Count: 490 Axed in CA

Of 1,000 employees laid off this week from Yahoo, nearly one half came from the Golden State.

In addition to those laid off, others are voluntarily fleeing the company that's a target of a Microsoft takeover. The layoffs were announced Jan. 29, a few days before Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid.

In California, Yahoo canned 236 workers from its Sunnyvale headquarters, 111 in Burbank, 91 from Santa Clara, 52 in Santa Monica, according to a report in the SF Chronicle. The company's search advertising business is reportedly based in Burbank, while Santa Monica is home to its media properties.

Yahoo hasn't disclosed where other layoffs took place.

A New York labor department spokesman told ClickZ that Yahoo hasn't filed a notice of layoffs in New York. He said a company that lays off more than 50 workers is required to file a notice 60 days in advance. One exception: if the company lays off the workers and gives them 60-day severance.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 14, 2008

RSS - You Like It. You Really Like It.

Together with my colleague Anna Maria, I recently judged dozens of entries in an online B2B publishing competition. This was hardcore niche stuff, like magazines for people who trade thoroughbred racehorses and other arcane (to us) subject matter.

What struck me was that every one of these Web sites and e-newsletters offered readers the option of subscribing to RSS feeds. All of them -- and precious few were aimed at sophisticated Web users. In many cases, the "newsletter" was, in fact, a PDF download (hello, 1997).

Today I was mucking around in our own stats and decided to take a look at subscriptions to ClickZ's own RSS feeds.

My jaw dropped. Over the past year, each one of our feeds' subscriber base grew over 400 percent. We've offered feeds for well over two years. This past year, syndication hockey-sticked.

RSS, your time has come.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

WPP Acquires U.K. Web Design Agency HeathWallace

WPP is continuing its string of recent digital acquisitions by buying a majority stake in U.K.-based Web design and development agency HeathWallace.

The company has strong links with the banking sector, with clients including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Dutch bank ABN Amro. It currently employs 60 staff, working out of offices in Reading, U.K. and Hong Kong.

The buy represents the third digital acquisition by WPP over the past week, although there's still no word on the rumored Spot Runner purchase.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

NYC Gov Valentine: Condom Ad Campaign

New York City's Health Department launched a new campaign on Valentine's Day to promote safe sex. The city released an ad campaign and a new design on the packaging and dispensers of the condoms it distributes free throughout the city. The tagline for the campaign is "NYC Condoms: Get Some!" Ads are planned for TV, radio, and print, with nyc.gov/condoms serving as the a central point of the campaign.

While the short video created for this purpose targets diverse groups with hip hop, Latin, and Jazz music runs only about 10 seconds, it's not said to be planned for the Web. It's the perfect length for the web, and there are plenty of sites serving the New York city area that could be utilized. First there's government sites, then city papers and other local and targeted sites. It's possible the ad units will make their way to the Web either on video sharing sites or as actual ad units once the campaign rolls out.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yahoo Angers Shareholders, Attempts to Pacify

That $31 per Yahoo share offer from Microsoft doesn't look so bad to the folks managing The Wayne County Employee's Retirement System of Michigan's investments. Now they're
suing Yahoo in the hopes of getting Yahoo to reconsider the takeover bid. Of course, it could only be a matter of time before Yahoo agrees to a higher Microsoft offer, which would probably please the county system, which apparently owns 13,600 shares of Yahoo.

Then again, Yahoo might sell off a stake to News Corp, or do a search ad deal with Google, or any number of things to fend against an impending Microsoft grab.

In an effort to pacify frustrated shareholders, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang sent a letter to them, rattling off what's become the standard laundry list of reasons why Yahoo still matters, and what the company plans to do to make sure it regains market share. But talk is cheap. Yang repeating the same "starting point, must-buy, open-platform" mantra seems empty without real improvement backing it up. To observers and shareholders, Yahoo could start to look like the lazy brother-in-law who keeps saying he's going to get a job, but somehow is always there on the couch watching ESPN when you get home from yours.

OK, maybe not that bad. The reality is the layoffs are all about (one assumes) belt-tightening, removing redundancy, creating efficiencies and just plain reducing overhead, which could be a good step if the still necessary people don't bail in the process.

But if anything, the people behind the Wayne County suit just might have given a few other governments and shareholders an idea.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Best Buy Targeted by Lawsuit, Blog Wrath

Hell hath no fury like a blog launched against your brand -- particularly when it merits major media coverage.

That's what big box electronics retailer Best Buy is learning. Raelyn Campbell is enraged the store lost her laptop after she'd brought it in for repairs. She's suing Best Buy for $54 million for exposing her to identity theft after months of getting the runaround regarding her computer's whereabouts.

Campbell is venting her rage -- and detailing her version of the story -- in her Best Buy vs. Consumer Protection Blog.

Hello, long tail. No matter which way the lawsuit goes, it's going to live on in search results for a long, long, long time.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 13, 2008

FTC Extends Comment Period for Behavioral Targeting Guidelines

Back in December, when the Federal Trade Commission unveiled its five proposed guidelines for self-regulation in behavioral targeting, it introduced a two-month comment period on the document. The deadline for feedback on the principles was supposed to be next Friday, February 22. Now, at the request of the Network Advertising Initiative and perhaps other groups, it's extended the date to April 11.

Anyone wishing to read the proposed guidelines document can do so here. Comments should be sent to: Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-135 (Annex N), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580 or BehavioralMarketingPrinciples@ftc.gov.

Speak soonish or forever hold your peace.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yahoo Speculation Doesn't Stop

Yahoo was never at that party talking with Google about HGH....

OK, maybe I've got my stories a little confused today, but either way, the Yahoo rumors keep flying. First the scuttlebutt was all about Yahoo and Google revisiting the possibility of Google handling Yahoo's search ad business. Today the Wall Street Journal has a piece about how Google might be souring on that idea, which some believe could make Yahoo look weaker in the eyes of Microsoft or another potential buyer.

Next off, TechCrunch has reported its got confirmation that News Corp is back in talks with Yahoo about a possible deal that would spin off Fox Interactive Media into Yahoo. A News Corp spokesperson told me, "We’re not commenting on this."

During NewsCorp's earnings call last week, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "We're definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo. We're not really interested at this stage," when asked about the possibility of a News Corp bid for Yahoo. As for whether News Corp is considering an AOL purchase, Murdoch response was curt: "That's an even easier question. No," he said.

Still, Murdoch's response doesn't rule out discussions between the companies or a possible deal or spin off or whatever else they can come up with.

As observers of this tantalizing tale know, Yahoo rejected Microsoft's original bid for the firm, saying it "undervalues" Yahoo's brand, audience and investments. Then Microsoft came back essentially reiterating its initial argument, and implying it'll git git git Yahoo one way or another.

The potential Google search deal would be a crushing blow to Yahoo's ego, but many think it could help the firm survive a Microsoft takeover. An FIM deal could do the same. According to the TechCrunch report, "it is widely believed that, even with a News Corp. deal, Yahoo would need to outsource search marketing to Google to make the numbers work." And that would only add to the regulatory hurdles that could hamper a Google/Yahoo search deal in the first place.

What's more riveting, watching Yahoo twist in the wind, or watching Clemens and McNamee squirm before a House committee?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ogilvy Data Honcho Flies to Draft

Ogilvy's data and analytics guru of seven years, Ira Helf, has made like a tree and, uh, leaved. He'll join Draftfcb as EVP and executive director of data and analytics. He's the second senior exec with major digital responsibilities to quit Ogilvy in recent weeks, after e-mail head Jeanniey Mullen bolted to take the top marketing spot at Zinio.

At Draft, Helf will report to New York President Peter DeNunzio, who told me yesterday the role is not limited to digital channels, but will oversee data and reporting needs "from upfront work on segmentation and modeling to campaign... metrics on the back end." Helf's bio credits him from expanding Ogilvy's analytics practice from its focus on digital and direct into brand advertising and events marketing.

The two departures at Ogilvy follow a round of January layoffs that were at least partly the result of client demand for digital expertise. I have it on good information that at least one other female digital exec, this one from Neo@Ogilvy, is also on the way out or has already left. If you know who that might be, please shoot me an e-mail.

Update: Ogilvy makes a hire of its own. Marc Fleishhacker just joined Ogilvy New York from Digitas. He'll be senior partner and managing director of Ogilvy's marketing technology consulting practice, overseeing the new Sears/Kmart bidness.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack