Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 30, 2008

Clouds Keep Gathering Over ValueClick

ValueClick already warned investors back in July that it's performance for the rest of the year would suffer owing to a number of factors. One of those factors was the defection of sites and advertisers from its lead-gen programs in the wake of an FTC investigation of the company. Another is the well-documented trend of falling prices for display ads.

So it should come as no surprise the company continued to struggle in the third quarter. In its just-announced Q3 earnings report, ValueClick reported net income of just $2 million, down 88 percent from $16.8 million for the year-ago period.

Afterward, UBS Analyst Ben Schachter added some discouraging commentary to the bummerfest. According to his research note, ValueClick will have a harder time drawing search traffic to its comparison shopping sites, and may lose ground in display as Yahoo, AOL and others build more sophisticated platforms.

"While it has not been impacted significantly yet, we are concerned that the platform display ad approach from YHOO/GOOG/others may affect VCLK’s Display biz (though the impact is admittedly unclear)," wrote Schachter.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LinkedIn, Amazon Hook Up

LinkedIn's getting more connected.

The business networking site is making a dozen or so applications available to LinkedIn members.

Of potential interest to marketers: the Amazon Reading List. It opens the door for other brands to develop a utility that LinkedIn members might find relevant.

Then there's CompanyBuzz. I tried to give the test drive this afternoon, but the application wasn't working. Stay tuned.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 29, 2008

New Layoffs at WildTangent, Digital Influence Group

It's been interesting to watch the responses to ClickZ's layoff tracker, which tallies job losses in the digital media and marketing landscape. Some have called the feature morbid and unseemly, others grim but useful. It's certainly not happy reading. However, we continue to believe it offers readers a helpful way to quantify the impact of the global financial meltdown on this sector.

The past few days have lengthened the list, adding companies like W2-owned social marketing firm Digital Influence Group and casual gaming firm WildTangent. Closer to home for many ClickZ readers were the layoffs at Dallas-based IMC2, which cut 17 percent of the agency's 430 positions.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 28, 2008

Google, WPP Partner to Research Online Media's Impact

Curious about how online media influences consumer behavior? Google and WPP are. They're willing to contribute a collective $4.6 million over the next three years in grant money to endow the Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program, a joint research program to look into how online media influences consumer behavior, attitudes, and decision making.

The program will be overseen by professor John Quelch, senior associate dean of Harvard Business School and a non-executive director of WPP; Dr. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist; and professor Glen Urban, former dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The committee will work with WPP and Google to decide which grant proposals will be funded and ensure the integrity, delivery, and impact of the research. The program is immediately reviewing grant applications, and information is available here.

This is another case in which Google is forging stronger relationships with agencies. Last month the search giant outlined its relationship with Publicis, which was initially announced in January.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Sign Human Rights Ethics Code

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have signed an industry code of ethics designed to safeguard human rights and freedom of speech online. The Global Network Initiative guidelines, drawn up by Internet firms, academics and human rights groups, will aim to limit the data that is shared with authorities and governments around the world.

Under the guidelines, participating companies will attempt to reduce the scope of government requests that conflict with free speech and other human rights principles.

In a statement, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said the new guidelines "provide a valuable roadmap for companies like Yahoo operating in markets where freedom of expression and privacy are unfairly restricted."

Yahoo found itself in hot water last year when it handed over information to Chinese authorities which eventually lead to the imprisonment of two dissident journalists. Google has also encountered difficulties in China, and has agreed to censor local searches for terms such as "democracy" and "Tiananmen Square" in response to requests from Chinese authorities.

Ironically, these firms are constantly under fire from privacy advocates surrounding their use of consumer data in Europe and the U.S. Just last month, Google followed the lead of Yahoo and Microsoft and cut the amount of time it stores users' IP addresses from 18 months to nine in response to scrutiny from European regulatory bodies and privacy campaigners.

Outside of the EU and the U.S. however, it seems that internet firms are concerned about quite the opposite - the need to safeguard personal information from prying government eyes.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How to Succeed in Advertising

Recession got you down? Been laid off or downsized?

One man, Joel Moss Levinson, has earned over $200,000 in cash and prizes, becoming the king of CGM in the process. Today's NY Times profile describes, and links to, campaigns Levinson has created videos for brands as diverse as Best Western, Klondike, Little Penguin wine, Delta, and the American National CattleWomen, to name just a few.

His contest-winning is due in no small part to a social media marketing strategy, asking his Facebook and Twitter friends and followers to vote for his entries.

Hey, we all know CGM's big. But who knew it can be a living? Maybe you don't need that new agency gig after all.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL Dumps Its Online Video Player

AOL's online video player heads to the digital junkyard, sharing the same fate as the vinyl record player.

AOL, a unit of Time Warner, will instead use Brightcove's technology, for online video, according to published reports. It will also integrate its online video ad technology into Brightcove's, according to a WSJ.com report. Typically companies that use Brightcove's video player also use its ad technology.

Fred McIntyre, senior vice president at AOL, told Multichannel News, that the change will allow AOL to deliver content more efficiently than it could using its internally developed tools.

He said it will also enable AOL to devote more resources to its video search technology, Truveo. AOL acquired the video search company more than two years ago.

In the latest development, Truveo last month launched a trial of Truveo Mobile Video Search, which is intended to make it easier for mobile phone users to find video from the Web on mobile phones.

AOL had put resources into media player technology ever since it acquired Nullsoft, the developer of Winamp, back in 1999. AOL took a minority stake in Brightcove of Cambridge, MA, in 2006.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 27, 2008

Gazing Into the 2009 Crystal Ball

In light of the economic downturn, will online ad spending continue to climb?

Henry Blodget, editor-in-chief of the Silicon Alley Insider, posed that question to a panel of speakers at the Digital Publishing & Advertising Conference today in Manhattan. He pointed to the latest pronouncement from Geoff Ramsey, eMarketing CEO, who predicts online ad pending will keep growing.

Such predictions, Blodget said, remind him of what prognosticaters had been saying back in 1999 before the dot-com bust.

David Cohen, EVP, U.S. director of digital at Universal McCann, said it's too early to predict what 2009 will bring. "We've seen a very slight softening in the fourth quarter," he said, adding that one key will be how retail fares during the coming holiday season.

Jeff Minsky, director of Next, OMG Digital, said digital advertising has been holding up. He said a downturn could bring at least one benefit. "If you go back to the last bubble popping, you had a lot of crap get out of the market -- which hopefully will happen again."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

See More Posts From:

Today | This Week | This Month