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August 2008

August 29, 2008

Microsoft Nabs European Shopping Search Player

Microsoft has entered a deal to acquire Greenfield Online, an attitudinal researcher and owner of European comparison shopping player Ciao GmbH, for $486 million. Microsoft's in it strictly for the shopping search platform, which it dubs "commercial search," and has already found an (undisclosed) buyer for the research/survey business.

"Integrating Ciao's capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN," said John Mangelaars, consumer and online VP for Microsoft's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ciao boasts 26.5 million monthly uniques in seven countries, according to comScore numbers cited by Microsoft. It aggregates merchant and product reviews and enable purchases in a manner similar to U.S. sites like eBay-owned Shopping.com.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yahoo Set to Run First Google Search Ads in October

Eric Schmidt tells the Seattle Times that Google and Yahoo still plan to move ahead with their search advertising deal in October, despite recent questions from the Senate about whether the arrangement will raise prices for advertisers.

"We are going to move forward," Schmidt said Thursday. "We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us."

When the companies paired up in June, they said they'd delay implementation for up to three and a half months to allow a U.S. Justice Department review, though such a postponement isn't required by law. In a July 15 hearing, a Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concerns the pact would remove an important check on Google's dominance of the search advertising market.

Schmidt's conclusion: "We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

McCain Ads Continue Attack

Senator John McCain has been deemed "Ready to Lead" in his online ads, and now he's ready to call his Democratic rival SenatorBarack Obama...er...un-ready. According to The Media Trust Company, McCain's camp dropped two new display ads yesterday, just in time for Obama's much-anticipated Mile High acceptance speech last night.

He's also touting his experience in search ads. A search for "McCain" turns up this ad: "No On The Job Training Needed Help Elect John McCain."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 28, 2008

Yahoo's Mobile Division Looses Two Execs

Yahoo confirmed two executives who specialized in mobile left its Connected Life division.

Steve Boom, SVP of Connected Life, and Gary Roshak, according to news first reported by Tricia Duryee of mocoNews.

Boom has been with Yahoo for 10 years and is looking for other opportunities, according to a company spokesperson. "He has been a tremendous asset to the company. He helped build the mobile team to what it is today, and we're in a great position to continue to lead the market." Gary Roshak left Yahoo on August 1, and has already been replaced by David Katz, formerly VP of corporate strategy. He's now VP of advertisers and publishers.

Despite a string of exits and reports of a "brain drain" at Yahoo, which continued over the summer, it's probably not likely to be the case within the Connected Life team. "In the mobile space we're continuing to push forward, continuing to sell deals, to sign advertisers, moving forward with business as usual," said the Yahoo source.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

British Privacy Advocates Get Creative

Since Phorm announced it had signed contracts with U.K. ISP's back in March, a number of websites have sprung up designed to chart and combat the behavioural targeting firm's "illegal" activities. Examples include badphorm.co.uk, inphormationdesk.org and dephormation.org.uk.

It was the handy work of nodpi.org (stands for No Deep Packet Inspection) that caught my eye today however, with the introduction of a gallery section to the site. Quite what the artwork there is intended to achieve is beyond me, but I can't help but think some people have a little too much time on their hands.

"Who's buggering around with my net connection?" how very British…

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 27, 2008

Phorm Appoints Digital Agency TBG London for B2B Help

ISP-based behavioral targeting company Phorm has hired digital agency TBG London for a helping hand with its B2B marketing efforts.

Speaking with me earlier today, a Phorm spokesperson said, "There is huge interest in our technology and its possibilities. TBG is helping us develop several propositions that draw on these capabilities for their presentation to a number of our business partners."

The spokesperson said the relationship was intended purely to aid Phorm in "bringing ideas to life," adding that no ad campaign was currently in the pipeline.

In the U.K., Phorm has already signed deals with major ISP's including Talk Talk, BT and Virgin Media, though none have started using the technology yet. BT originally said in April they would conduct trials “in the near future,” but have continued to postpone them.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

August 26, 2008

Deal Rumors: Can WPP Sell Open AdStream and Keep 24/7 Real Media?

Shortly after Microsoft bought aQuantive it quarantined the ad company's agency unit, Avenue A/Razorfish, in its own division with its own CEO. There were two ways to interpret that move: A) Microsoft wanted to keep the unit -- and its substantial profits -- while diminishing the appearance of conflict of interest, or B) Microsoft wanted to sell it and was removing the barriers to such a sale.

A report from AdAge appears to lend credence to the latter theory. According to the story, Microsoft has been in talks with WPP about a possible transaction that would unload Avenue A/Razorfish onto the agency holding company. Rather than a direct sale, unnamed sources tell AdAge the companies are entertaining a swap -- AA/Razorfish for 24/7 Real Media's Open AdStream technology. Such an arrangement would conceal the fact that both companies overpaid for their holdings, the thinking goes.

The partnership might make some additional sense since the companies have a very cozy relationship (Sir Martin Sorrell has spoken at numerous Microsoft events.)

But the logic doesn't quite hold when you look at the deal's technology underpinnings. For one thing, 24/7 Real Media's ad management system is a good deal more limited than what Microsoft already possesses with its Atlas unit. And while it's true that Open Adstream is a publisher side technology and Atlas is historically an advertiser facing one, Atlas has since built out its publisher offerings. Why would it want a redundant system? For the access to publishers? Eh, maybe.

Furthermore, what would be left of 24/7 Real Media after the amputation of Open AdStream? The main strength of this company, which WPP bought just a year ago, is its technology. Dumping the flagship product would be an explicit acknowledgement that the purchase was a blunder. To get AA/Razorfish in exchange for it would be an epic lemons-to-lemonade coup, but I still don't get what's in it for Microsoft.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 22, 2008

Best Buy Preps for Digital TV Transition with Site, Social Tools

I haven't talked much about the digital TV transition, which will happen to television receiving signals over the airwaves in February 2009 and cable in 2012. Consumers are confused. It's a marketing bonanza for consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers. Several manufacturers have special Web sites to educate in-market buyers on the transition, and the value of HDTV. Best Buy now has Ask a Blue Shirt, a site set up to ease the minds of consumers. It's a blog, FAQ, and directory of where consumers can find DTV bootcamps at local Best Buy locations.

Best Buy is such a comfort here, the Blue Shirts will befriend consumers on Facebook through a widget. It displays a countdown clock on your page, and lets you challenge friends to '80s and '90s TV trivia, or just take the trivia challenge yourself. While you test your knowledge of syndicated sitcoms of yesterday, Best Buy throws in a few facts about DTV options at its stores.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Verizon Wireless Searching for Deal

Verizon and Google may be close to a search deal for the carrier's wireless customers, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Journal says, "It's the latest sign that telecom companies are finally conceding that their homegrown search services have stalled -- and that they need help from the Internet's big guns."

What it all could mean for Verizon's ad relationships with AOL and Millennial Media remains to be seen.

This may just be about finding the right partner, as Google is the most used search provider on the Web. In July it maintained a 61.9 percent market share, according to comScore. Putting aside past disagreements and competition -- on things such as the spectrum auction and Google Android -- Verizon sees that Google has already gained some dominance on the handset. Google held 61 percent of the mobile search market share in Q1, according to Nielsen Online.

Verizon has worked with white label mobile search provider Medio for some time now, which has included search and advertising. The article speculates Medio will manage the relationship between the carrier and Google. For display advertising, Verizon currently splits its inventory. AOL's Platform-A sells the lion's share, and Millennial Media also sells a portion.

Will Google be happy with just search? It's got mobile display ads. That may be down the line. The Journal says the next deal after mobile search could be a Google search box in Verizon's broadband and TV services.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 21, 2008

But Seinfeld Had ALL the Macs!

Microsoft has enlisted Jerry Seinfeld to star in a new series of ads targeting Apple's hyper-successful "Get A Mac" campaign?

But...Seinfeld's a hardcore Mac user. Isn't he?

Remember the show? There was a Mac in the living room of Jerry's apartment in every single episode. The model upgraded with each new season. It was a well-known feature of the show that Jerry's apartment was filled with things that resonated Jerry: superman models, breakfast cereal...and Macs.

What's Microsoft thinking? What's Seinfeld thinking?

Here's what I'm thinking: Sellout.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 20, 2008

Irrelevance in AdSense for Feeds

Now that Google has officially rolled out its AdSense for feeds, ads for women seeking men pop up on my feeds. Will Google and other providers start filtering advertisers for quality? In the past few days I've seen feed ads for Moveon.org and other legitimate sponsors while reading the same mobile industry blog; then this woman in a nightie pops up on my screen beside a mobile industry blog feed. What ads would I see if I were reading blogs in which the content was actually appropriate for this kind of thing?

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

FTC Commish Says $77m Enough to Target Kids Online

The Wall Street Journal today has an interview with Federal Trade Commissioner Jon Leibowitz regarding the agency's investigation into marketing to kids. One question deals with digital advertising in particular, and exemplifies how marketers are integrating on multiple platforms to reach kids.

Here's what Leibowitz had to say:

One of the surprises in the [recent FTC] report was the prevalence of integrated advertising campaigns. They're sophisticated, they're multi-platform, they're cross-promotional. It's very different than what you see on, say, "Mad Men," and it's a whole virtual ecosystem, so you can see an ad on TV, you buy the product, you go on the Internet, you enter a code, you collect points, you win a prize, the prize is a T-shirt, the T-shirt advertises the product. So we are seeing a fair amount of cross-promotional marketing. We only found $77 million in Internet advertising, but our guess it that it's very efficient advertising, because it's targeted.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 19, 2008

Quote of the Day: Avinash Kaushik

Google analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik gave a unique reason for supporting Barack Obama for United States president.

"He does multivariate testing," Kaushik said, while speaking at Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, CA, on a panel discussing Google Analytics and Website Optimizer.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Google Upgrades Website Optimizer

Google rolled out new features today for Website Optimizer, a tool that helps digital marketers and others test and improve the performance of Web pages.

Tom Leung, business product manager for Google Website Optimizer, described the changes today at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, CA.

Using Website Optimizer, businesses or individuals can set up different versions of a Web page and test the performance of each.

Using one of the new features, someone will be able to click a "disable" button to kill any low-performing variations of a Web page. And the remaining traffic would be sent to the high-performing ones. Previously, the process for stopping and starting a new test was a lot more complicate.

Another change: the tool will support offline validation of A/B tests. "If your test pages aren't accessible to Website Optimizer, you can instead directly upload a copy of your tagged source code and we'll make sure that everything is tagged correctly," , wrote Jon Stona from the Google Website Optimizer Team on a Google blog.

If you want to learn more about Web site optimization, check out the Post-Click Optimization panel at SES San Jose on Thursday. Tom will be among the four digital marketing experts on the panel.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Bryan Eisenberg, a Search Marketing Rock Star

Anyone attending the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, CA, couldn't help but notice the long line of people waiting to get Bryan Eisenberg to sign the new book he co-authored called, "Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer."

He was accompanied by Brett Crosby, group manager of Google Analytics and the co-founder of Urchin Software. Brett wrote the book's forward.

Bryan, co-founder of interactive marketing optimization firm Future Now, is also a ClickZ Expert columnist who writes about ROI marketing.

When I caught up with Bryan today, he figures he and Brett signed more than 500 copies in over an hour.

At that rate, he averaged 8.3 signatures per minute!

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bed, Bath & Way Beyond Back to School

This morning I got an e-mail newsletter from Bed Bath & Beyond titled "Products for Independent Living by Moen." The contents were a bit unexpected. Certainly BB&B doesn't take the time to get to know me. For starters, it's mapped my nearest store in New Jersey instead of Manhattan, but I'll forgive that. The products it's advertising included bath products such as handrails, chairs, and grips for elderly and handicapped individuals. It's one thing I got the message in the first place, but the adjacency of the message was also amusing. Tacked to the end was Bed Bath & Beyond and Staple's back-to-school joint promotion to win two Smart cars, one for the parent, and one for the student. Parents may feel old when they send their kids off to school, but they are usually still a few years from needing a seat in the shower. While it's understandable to tack promotional messaging on to each e-mail, it might be best to think about adjacency issues before hitting the send button.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Where Search Is Headed

Yesterday's Search Engine Strategies session on universal and blended search provided search engine marketers with updates on newer features offered by Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com, and smaller engines such as BooRah and Cooliris.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it there -- with five simultaneous sessions to choose from at one time, it's impossible to be in more than one place at one time. You know the drill.

Check out "Search Engines Search for Better Understanding" by SF Chronicle business journalist Deborah Gage.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Taking Offline, Online Marketing on the Road

Lori Raimondo, VP of marketing for New York City's Times Square Alliance, will make a cross-country road trip to promote a cause.

This weekend, I ran into Lori in a San Francisco restaurant a day or two before she was about to begin the Key to the Cure Road Trip, an initiative sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue to fight women's cancers. She'll be driving in style, too, traveling in a white Mercedes-Benz.

In a blog, Lori will chronicle her trip and write inspirational profiles of the cancer survivors she meets. The journey includes in-person visits in 10 cities, such as Chicago and Atlanta, where Saks Fifth Avenue has stores.

After her mother died of breast cancer two years ago, Lori took a similar trip -- traveling from her parents' home in San Diego to New York City -- to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

In the Key to the Cure, Saks Fifth Avenue will donate a percentage of sales from a weekend to local and national women's cancer centers. Plus, Karl Lagerfeld designed a shirt with the campaign's logo, as seen in this image.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 18, 2008

ClickZ's on the Move

ClickZ's editorial team is moving to a new office in Manhattan's financial district. Effective today, we'll be joining other Incisive Media's properties including law.com in lower Manhattan.

If you're into updating your address book, here's where to send snail mail for ClickZ's editors: 120 Broadway, 6th floor, New York, NY 10271-1101.

If you want to track down a ClickZ editor, drop us a line.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 17, 2008

Media Companies, YouTube Play Nice

It's the digital equivalent of making lemonade out of lemons.

CBS, Universal Music, and other media companies are viewing pirated material on YouTube as an advertising opportunity, nytimes.com reports this weekend. These and other media companies are selling ads against the content -- even while a copyright lawsuit against Google's YouTube winds its way through the courts.

"The move suggests a possible thaw in the chilly standoff between the online video giant and media companies," nytimes.com's Brian Stelter writes.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Facebook, Others Sued Over Ad Targeting Program

Facebook and at least seven advertisers are being sued for an unpopular ad targeting program. Advertisers named in the federal lawsuit include Blockbuster, Fandango, and Zappos.

The ad targeting initiative, known as Beacon, was rolled out in November 2007, but overhauled a month later after privacy and consumer advocates cried foul. Facebook subsequently gave people more control over what online activities are visible to friends.

A copy of the lawsuit, published by wired.com, can be found here.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2008

FeedBurner Ad Network Kaput?

What's up with the FeedBurner ad network? Some signs point to kaput. Word has it Google, which bought FeedBurner last year, will officially make the switch to AdSense network ads. As noted by the RSS feed firm in May, "we'll be rolling out AdSense for feeds to a small group of publishers, in anticipation of a full launch to all FeedBurner and AdSense publishers 'coming soon'."

And who knew "chocolaty goodness" was a side effect of Google integration? The May post continued, "And, this is just the beginning of the chocolaty goodness that will come from ongoing integration effort with Google - there are many more 'things' and 'stuff' yet to come…."

When I requested confirmation from Google, a spokesperson pointed me to the post, noting, "We have nothing to announce at this time."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Welcome ClickZ's Local and Mobile Search Expert

Mary Bowling, a senior SEO professional at Blizzard Internet Marketing, joins ClickZ as an Expert, offering insights into local and mobile search in a column every other week.

Blizzard's a full-service online agency that specializes in the travel and hospitality industries. And travel is very location specific, thus putting Mary at the forefront of trends involving local search.

Anyone attending Search Engine Strategies in San Jose will get a chance to meet Mary in person next week. She's speaking Monday at a panel at 9:45 AM Monday on why marketing to the "long tail" makes sense.

Welcome, Mary!

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 13, 2008

ComScore Offers Potential and Actual Reach

ComScore said today it changed the way it's reporting on ad networks, effective with the August 2008 data. You'll get a chance to see the changes when they are released in mid-September.

Where previously comScore only provided data on unique audience, the new reporting will provide two sets of data measures: "potential reach" and "actual reach."

Potential reach is defined as "a calculation of unduplicated visitors all sites with which each ad network has contracted to deliver advertising," according to a comScore statement.The information will be based on written documentation provided by each of the networks.

Actual reach will represent the number of ads served by the network during a stated reporting period. Networks must provide comScore with identification protocols defined by the research firm for rendered ads to participate in the actual reach report.

See for yourself. Here's a look at comScore ad network rankings from earlier this year.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

New Media Evangelists Combine Forces

Peter Krasilovsky at Kelsey Group reports that Chris Jennewein -- former VP of Internet operations at Union-Tribune Publishing Co., where he led Web projects like its SignOn San Diego-associated radio site -- will be joining another online local media guru, Rob Curley at Greenspun Media Group. Greenspun publishes the Las Vegas Sun.

Jennewein was laid off from his San Diego gig in May, along with two close interactive colleagues, Ron James and Jim Drummond.

Curley is president and executive editor at Greenspun Interactive. Peter K. didn't report what Jennewein's new position will be.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ShopWiki Focuses on Storefront Deals & Global Expansion

ShopWiki may be the best shopping search engine you don't know about. Because it's crawler-based, it doesn't rely on managed XML feeds as do its better-known competitors over at Yahoo, Google, Shopping.com and the plethora of other comparison shopping engines. And because it searches the whole Web, CEO Rory Cumming says it delivers the lowest price about 80 percent of the time.

I caught up with Rory yesterday. He came on board last Fall, along with a fresh infusion of funding. He's focused on optimizing the site for search, as well as on international expansion. The first week the site launched a German version, it garnered more traffic than Shopping.com in that country. His sights are also set on Australia, France, the UK and the Netherlands.

At home, he's taking another approach: creating storefront technology for sites too small or unwilling to create and manage feeds for the larger shopping search engines. He's also struck a deal with a motorcycle afterparts dealer, and a high-end luxury goods browsing site is also on the drawing board.

ShopWiki's edge, he claims, is shopping's long tail -- its ability to help consumers find products they otherwise couldn't easily find online. It works really well at that, too.

SEO is going to be the ongoing challenge. Virtually all the site's traffic comes from Google -- a fact that applies to other shopping search engines as well.

Cracking the code of shopping search customer retention could remain the sector's impossible dream.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 11, 2008

R/GA Builds New Digital Branding Shop, Hires TBWA's Shillum

R/GA set up R/GA Brand Design, to address the shift of branding in the digital age. The new division takes into account early consumer impressions, if not first impressions, including when a prospective customer lands on a Web site to find out more about a brand or product. "As brand-consumer relationships shift to the digital sphere, the responsibility of brand perception is shifting to digital agencies," R/GA said in a statement.

The agency's core competency has always been digital, and has later expanded to encompass TV and other media. The Brand Design shop will include branded interfaces for online, mobile, retail, and out-of-home. R/GA Brand Design takes into account user experience such as visuals, sounds, movement and navigation. Marc Shillum was hired by the agency as director of brand design to lead the practice. He was creative director at TBWA London, where he worked on the pan-European Sony Playstation software account. In the past he also worked at Wieden + Kennedy in London.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google Responds to House Inquiry

Google is "deeply committed" to privacy and security of its users, but not to deep-packet inspection.

Read its responses to a recent House Subcommittee inquiry and you'll soon realize the company didn't exactly find them all pertinent to its business. While the questions asked by the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee deal with online ad practices and consumer data privacy, the main focus is "deep-packet inspection." That's the technology employed by firms including like NebuAd to target ads to customers of particular ISPs. Legislators have grown increasingly skeptical of the practice, leading trials to be stalled or halted all together.

Many answers to questions featured in Google's letter to Subcommittee Members went like this: "We understand this question to be focused primarily on the implementation of deep-packet inspection advertising practices by a small number of U.S. ISPs in partnership with a privately-held online advertising company. Google does not deliver advertising based on deep-packet inspection."

The "privately-held online advertising company" is NebuAd. In the UK, Phorm has forged relationships with ISPs like British Telecom (which, by the way, has stalled its trial of the ad targeting technology for longer than originally anticipated).

The bulk of the firms that received the inquiry letter are ISPs. At this point, though, it's unclear whether they've all responded to the questions by the deadline, this past Friday. Yahoo also responded publicly.

One question regarding use of data gathered through one platform or service to target ads to another did result in an interesting response from Google:

Google does not correlate data regarding use across our products to offer advertising. For example, when we serve a contextual ad to a user of Gmail, our email service, that ad is based only on the text of the page that a user is viewing, and it is not based on any information from any other product such as Google Calendar or Google Search. If we were to correlate data regarding use across our products to offer advertising, we know that we would have to do so in a way that protects the privacy and security of our users, an endeavor to which we are deeply committed.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 8, 2008

Yahoo Responds to House Inquiry, Allows Behavioral Opt-Out

In response to last week's request by the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, Yahoo has announced opt-out capability for behavioral targeting. In a letter to Subcommittee Members, the company said it "will offer consumers even greater choice by allowing consumers to decline customized advertising(8) on Yahoo.com. This is in addition to our existing opt-out when Yahoo! serves customized advertising on third party networks."

That (8) leads the reader to a footnote explaining that Yahoo's internal term for behavioral targeting is "customized advertising."

The legislators sent letters to over 30 firms, mostly ISPs, inquiring about their online advertising practices, data privacy policies, etc., a week ago. Today's the deadline for them to respond.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Florida AG Spoils Fun for FunMobile

The Florida AG strikes again. This time Sunshine State Attorney General Bill McCollum has darkened the day for MobileFunster, a company that does business as FunMobile and sells mobile content like ringtones and wallpapers.

After penalizing ad networks like Azoogle and telecom AT&T Mobility for their alleged roles in enabling deceptive ads for "free" mobile content and other items, the AG's CyberFraud Task Force has gone after its first mobile content provider.

The Hong Kong-based FunMobile has agreed to cough up $1 million, and like other companies the diligent AG's office has settled with, the firm will "lead mobile content providers in setting new marketing standards that will benefit Florida consumers and cell phone users nationwide," according to the office's press release.

Full settlement in PDF form here.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 7, 2008

Seeking Nominations: ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards

Got a favorite marketing tool or service that gives you an edge? We'd like hear about it and spread the word.

Nominate your favorite for a ClickZ Marketing Excellence Award. We're interested in hearing how the tool or service helps you achieve success goals and execute campaigns better than before -- and makes your tough job just a little bit easier.

See the entry rules and send in your nomination before the August 14 deadline.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 6, 2008

AOL's Display Dollar Dwindle May Be Sign of Things to Come

AOL told investors yesterday during its earnings call that Tacoda and Quigo are now fully Integrated in Platform A and can be used across all of AOL and third party network inventory (read: Advertising.com).

Whether that integration will assist AOL's Platform A in garnering more premium, guaranteed ad dollars is another thing. The company experienced a drop in display ad revenues of 14 percent in Q2 from Q2 2007. Apparently they sold more ad units, but at lower CPMs.

One thing Tacoda's behavioral targeting system enables publishers to do is drive higher prices for non-premium inventory that is tougher to sell than premium placements. Oh, and Quigo offers text ads, not display.

In addition to "continued effects of the acquisition integration issues," the company chalked up the display decline to "pullbacks in some ad categories," including autos, financial services, telecom and travel. And then there's that pesky economic downturn, too.

The firm expects its Platform A organizational changes to take a positive effect in the second half of the year. Still, you've got to wonder what this big split of their online access and ad/publishing businesses will do when it comes to maintaining order.

As for AOL's paid search revenues, those rose 10% over Q2 2007.

Sure, forces such as internal re-orgs and external economic pressure are taking a toll on CPM-based display advertising. But the fact is advertisers are gravitating more and more towards performance based advertising. Not only are we hearing about display ad declines from other large online ad sellers like Yahoo, we're seeing agencies beef up their own performance ad knowledge and services.

Case in point: Publicis Groupe's acquisition of search marketing firm Performics today. The head of its "VivaKi Nerve Center" operation Curt Hecht told me brand clients are demanding performance-based offerings more and more. "Increasingly, they're asking us to go into acquisition and response-based media," he said.

Even when ad budgets are replenished, the shift away from CPM-based display to something more accountable (whatever form it takes – display, text, whatever) may just turn out to be permanent.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 5, 2008

Newspaper Consortium Solidifies with New Head Exec

It looks like The Newspaper Consortium, the growing bunch of paper publishers, is becoming more of an official entity. The group -- borne of a series of relationships between newspaper firms and Yahoo – has appointed a Tribune man, Michael Silver, as its new executive director.

According to a press release, "Silver will report to the Newspaper Consortium Board of Directors and Executive Committee and begin developing new opportunities for the Consortium across the digital media landscape, as well as to grow the Consortium's existing relationship with Yahoo across content and advertising."

Silver most recently served as an independent consultant to Tribune Media Services; before that he was VP corporate development there.

Those following the newspaper consortium, its work with Yahoo, and the emergence of newspaper network quadrantOne, will note Silver's Tribune connection. Not only is quadOne partly-owned by Tribune (along with Gannett, New York Times Co. and Hearst), its own interim CEO until last week is Tribune Interactive's SVP of Sales.

QuadOne and Yahoo certainly seem to be in direct competition. But it's all much more grey than that. The thing is, many if not all of the Yahoo consortium members also have display and video inventory in the quadOne network. The fact that the paper consortium is establishing its own ground as a full-fledged entity, coupled with its ties to both Yahoo's and quadOne's networks, means this game has only just begun.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Valueclick Joins Gang-up on Tacoda

Valueclick has filed suit against AOL's behavioral targeting firm Tacoda, claiming patent infringement. As Congress and the Federal Trade Commission sharpen their focus on the sector, the continued flow of lawsuits over behavioral ad targeting technologies indicates the potential for success outweighs any government threats.

According to Federal District Court filings, Valueclick filed a patent infringement suit against Tacoda in California District Court on July 15. Not much seems to have occurred yet besides judge reassignments. Valueclick beefed up its behavioral capabilities last month.

Whether Valueclick has a chance with this one is anyone's guess. The company settled a patent infringement case against behavioral targeting firm Revenue Science in February. The docket notes on that case state, "ValueClick and Revenue Science shall each bear their own costs, expenses and fees. IT IS SO ORDERED."

After AOL bought Tacoda, it became subject to a patent suit – almost exactly a year ago -- from a little known firm that seemed to be pushing its way into the behavioral space with little history in it before that. That suit, filed in New York by Modavox, an online broadcasting media production firm-turned-software provider, appears to be ongoing without much movement.

Of course, neither AOL/Tacoda nor Revenue Science would comment. No one is available from Valueclick to speak at this point, either.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Click Fraud As A Career?

Stumbled upon this salary benchmark information on Indeed.com.

No mention of benefits, but $93K to click? Not bloody likely.

Sounds like click fraud perpetrators are scamming the clickers as much as they are search engines and their advertisers.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Older Voters Click on Political Ads Most

Burst Media surveyed likely voters about how they use the Web for political information and related topics. A few interesting online political ad-related findings from the ad network:

• Over 54% of voters recall online ads for a presidential candidate.
• About 24% of voters who said they recall seeing an ad for a presidential candidate clicked on it.
• And how's this for interesting? Voters 55 years and up were most likely to click -- 27% said they have clicked on a prez campaign ad.

“Political advocacy and information provided via the Internet serve as a great touch point for voters of all demographic groups,” said Chuck Moran, VP of Marketing for Burst Media. “The targeting capabilities of online resources can also serve to granularly present information to niche constituents. Candidates that present interactive, content rich information in a variety of formats will be able to reach the broadest array of voters.”

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

YouTube Olympics Ad Cash May Be Limited

YouTube is joining NBC and MSN as an official provider of Olympics content. While NBC, and online Olympics content partner MSN get the lions share of live streams and on demand video from the Beijing games aimed at the U.S., YouTube will feature about three hours a day of exclusive content on a dedicated channel. But that channel will be blocked to U.S. users and available in 77 territories including South Korea, India and Nigeria, according to the The Wall Street Journal.

"YouTube will be able to sell ads around its Olympics channel, but only to Olympic sponsors," noted the story. It also suggested, "the financial benefit will be minimal" because the online ad markets in the affected countries aren't advanced. Oh, and of course, considering the Olympics start in a matter of days, time is tight.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

McCain’s Celeb Obama Bash Tops Viral Chart

According to Viralvideochart.com, (which, funnily enough, compiles viral video charts), recent political ads from U.S. Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have been amongst the most talked about videos across the net over the last week.

Viralvideochart.com scans "several million blogs a day," according to the site, and compiles its charts according to the number of times each video is linked to, and embedded from, YouTube, Google Video, and MySpace.

On Friday, McCain's ad branding Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world" topped the chart, racking up 168 new posts in 24 hours. In the same period, Obama's "Low Road" T.V. ad clocked up 42 new posts, managing only eighth place.

The only other actual ad in the site's top 20 today is Snickers' speedwalker ad, at thirteenth place.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 1, 2008

Decker on DoubleClick: Very Old

During today's Yahoo Shareholders meeting, Yahoo Prez Sue Decker called DoubleClick "a very old technology" – an obvious jab at Google's choice to buy the firm. Her aim was to differentiate the ad management platform Yahoo is developing from that of DoubleClick, an industry leader.

Rather than buying DoubleClick (she hinted Yahoo did consider that), she continued, "It was our conclusion that to build a Web-based open solution…was the best approach."

Decker also said something I've never heard actually verbalized regarding the newspaper consortium, though I've followed that particular project pretty closely. Noting many of its newspaper publisher partners use DoubleClick to manage ads, she said many of them "agreed to pull out" of their existing ad management platforms eventually and use Yahoo's, which is still in the early test stages.

It's been clear this is Yahoo's mission – to eventually manage ads for these partners and others publishers – but I think this is the first I've noticed it actually said straight out.

Let me know if I'm wrong….

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

ComScore Adds a Person, Plants a Tree

Online measurement research firm comScore has pledged to plant more than one million trees in developing nations as part of its panel recruitment program. In an initiative called "Trees for Knowledge," comScore plans to continue past the initial plantings as people join and remain active on the firm's panel.

To accomplish this program, which the research company announced earlier this week, comScore partnered with Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization that has helped communities throughout Central America, Africa, and Asia since 1988 by planting trees. The program also works in the U.S. to educate students and communities about global issues, the environment, and energy efficiency.

ComScore's panel is online-based, digital, and theoretically doesn't use lots of paper made from lots of trees.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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