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November 2008

November 30, 2008

Starbucks: Cause Marketing and a 5 Cent Debate

During the holiday season, Starbucks Coffee will donate five cents from the purchase of select beverages to help finance AIDS programs in Africa.

A debate about the campaign is playing out on YouTube, proof that promoting a philanthropic endeavor can spur as much discord as selecting a coffee blend.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 26, 2008

Organic Exec Predicts Greater Digital Reach in '09

This post was written by Douglas Quenqua

The coming year in advertising is predicted to be, if nothing else, unpredictable. In a talk with ClickZ News, Adam Turinas, EVP of client engagement at digital agency Organic, suggested digital could benefit.

Ad spending is likely to drop next year, which could drive more money to digital media. Turinas, who heads up Bank of America’s interactive account at the Omnicom shop, believes this will lead to more instances of “the digital tail wagging the traditional dog,” meaning digital will be at the center of client initiatives. As a result, interactive work will be activated across all channels.

“We’re already working with clients by taking the digital experience into the retail environment,” he said. Discussing the retail sector, he added, “I would expect to see things like a kiosk or a tool for the store associate to work with, more like utilities that help customers answer questions.”

Of course, it is not surprising that a digital agency executive would predict that digital work would dominate in the coming year. And it’s worth noting that the model Turinas predicts—using media primarily as a tool to accommodate consumer need—is precisely the philosophy espoused by Organic.

But most forecasts for the ad market in 2009 make it hard to argue against the idea that digital will gain prominence. In October, media firm Zenith Optimedia revised its previous prediction of 3.9 percent growth for ad spending in 2009 to a meager .9 percent. Meanwhile, eMarketer’s most recent forecast for online ad spending calls for growth of 8.9 percent—considerably stronger, though also revised from previous prediction of double-digit growth.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MySpace Music Grabs MTV Man, Industry Vet

Courtney Holt's LinkedIn page says he's still EVP Digital, Music Group at MTV Networks, but the music industry vet was just named the new president of MySpace Music.

Holt will start at Fox Interactive Media-owned Myspace January 5. According to a company press release, he'll oversee MySpace Music growth and development globally.

Currently, MySpace Music offers ad-supported audio and video and enhanced sponsorship opportunities for advertisers, in addition to e-commerce functions for portable music and related merchandise.

Holt, of course, will seek out new ways of making money through the music site. "The new company will explore different and evolutionary revenue streams that provide real opportunities for artists and the industry as a whole," he stated in the release.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEMPO to Ring NASDAQ Bell on Cyber Monday

Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) chair Dana Todd will ring the opening NASDAQ bell on Cyber Monday, December 1. SEMPO members in the area are invited to join her but shouldn’t just show up at Times Square. Instead, get in touch with SEMPO to make arrangements.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 25, 2008

iPhone App Rides the River of News

Is it true an iPhone app is released every time a phone rings?

Well maybe not, but it almost seems that way. A friend of mine had way too much fun showing me a level last weekend using the spectrometer inside the phone.

Zumobi has launched yet another new iPhone app. The company, which used to operate under the name ZenZui, develops graphical user interfaces for mobile. It just released Ziibii, a free iPhone app that brings in feeds such as social network updates, news, new Flickr and YouTube media, and Twitter posts. Currently ads are limited to other iPhone apps but in Q1 ads will be sold to other brands.

The application may take the "river of news" metaphor a bit too literally, though. It appears as a pool of water with rafts floating across the screen. Each raft is a Flickr photo, a blog post, a news story, or a tweet. Ad units are also in the form of rafts. You pinch and drag the rafts to expand items just as you do any other app or Web page on the iPhone. And if you start to feel a little seasick, you can change the settings to display the feeds without the serene water.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Little Growth Is Better Than Zero Growth

Another downward trending forcast, this time from eMarketer. The research firm has removed a digit from its 2009 interactive advertising spend forecast.

eMarketer's predicting 8.9 percent growth in ad spend next year, as opposed to the double-digit call they (and most other firms) were making last summer - in their case, 14.5 percent.

Glum? You shouldn't be. Growth is growth. You'd rather be working in financial services or the auto industry and experience negative growth? Times are tough all over, but up is still up.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

WPP Firms Join in China Ad Network Partnership

As firms eye (and buy into) the Russian market with increasing speed, China's looking good, too. For WPP, it helps to already own firms that make for attractive partnerships.

WPP-owned 24/7 Real Media has aligned with OgilvyOne China's ITOP Performance Marketing division. 24/7 will layer its Open AdStream ad management technology on the existing Ogilvy network, which covers b-to-b related verticals including IT and Telecommunications, Fashion and Entertainment, and Business and Finance.

It looks as though AdStream will enable more automation for the network, representing a "shift from traditional staff based advertising service to the use of internet advertising platforms, creating a more cost effective and robust advertising channel," according to a 24/7 press release.

Chairman and Founder of 24/7 Real Media David Moore said the relationship "will give Chinese advertisers an ad network that provides enhanced ROI, transparency and measurability."

OgilvyOne ITOP serves clients in China including China Unicom, Daphne, IBM, and Microsoft.

Earlier this year, investors showed interest in Shanghai-based network AdChina. The firm grabbed $10 million in a first round of funding in June.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

E-Mail Marketing Elves Churn out the Copy

E-mail marketing elves have gone into high gear for the holiday shopping season.

Here's a sample of pitches that landed in my inbox this morning:

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gearing up for Black Friday

Three days to go before Black Friday.

And, retailers and Black Friday Web sites are bulking up on their paid search advertising.

A Google search for "black friday" this morning turned up these ads, left.

Even Google is getting in on the action, promoting merchant discounts on Google Checkout.

On Yahoo, advertisers buying the keywords "black friday" included Fujitsu, Staples, Lego, and Target.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 24, 2008

Sports and Weather Updates Drive U.K. Mobile Internet Growth

Mobile Internet usage in the U.K. grew 25 percent from Q2 to Q3, according to Nielsen's Mobile Media View report, released today.

The research found that 7.3 million Britons are now accessing Internet content on the move. Though this is far less than the 36 million people making use of the PC-based web, mobile access is apparently growing at eight times the speed; wired Internet access grew only by a modest 3 percent in the same period.

The top mobile properties in Q3 were BBC News, Google Search, BBC Weather, Facebook, Hotmail, BBC Sport, eBay, Yahoo! Mail, Sky Sports, and Gmail.

Interestingly, BBC Weather, Sky Sports and Gmail all experienced greater U.K. audience reach via mobile than they do on the PC-based internet. BBC Weather receives 21 percent of all mobile consumers compared with 17 percent on the wired Web; Sky Sports reaches 11 percent of mobile surfers, compared to 8 percent of PC based surfers; Gmail gets 9 percent of mobile consumers, and 7 percent of PC-based ones. Kent Ferguson, Nielsen Senior Analyst attributed this to the fact that, "People often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are."

The report also found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the mobile net is attracting a far younger audience. A quarter of mobile Internet users are aged between 15 and 24 years old, compared to 16 percent for PC-based consumers.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LinkedIn on the Road to $100M; Xing Gets New CEO

Published reports have put LinkedIn's annual revenue at between $75 million and $100 million -- compared to only $10 million in 2006. When CEO Dan Nye was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle staff if those estimates are reasonably accurate, he replied: "I'm not denying it."

Advertising is one of five ways the social network generates revenue, though Nye didn't disclose how much money comes from ads. LinkedIn advertisers include Bank of America, Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Radisson Inn, Southwest Airlines, Porsche, BMW, Nissan, and Mazda, according to the interview.

Over at Xing, a social network based in Hamburg, Germany, Lars Hinrichs announced he will resign as CEO of the company he founded. He will continue to serve on Xing's supervisory board.

Stefan Gross-Selbeck, general manager at eBay Germany, has been named Xing's CEO effective January 15. He will be charged will growing the social network aimed at business professionals.

Last month, Xing reported revenue of 25.1 million euros, or $32 million for the first nine months of 2008, up from 13.1 million euros during the same period in 2007. That represents an increase of 91 percent.

Xing's revenue comes from membership fees, advertising, and e-commerce.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

New Use for Digital Billboards: Public Stockade

If the mall is today's town center, then the electronic billboard in the Staten Island Mall is the equivalent of a public stockade.

Every six minutes, digital billboards in the Staten Island Mall will flash the photos of five convicted shoplifters for 15 seconds. These ads will appear on eight and nine-foot-tall plasma screens dubbed "Smart Screens," that have a 65-inch digital display.

"I wanted to do something just to warn people who might have ideas about shoplifting," Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan told Larry McShane, a staff writer at "The New York Daily News."

The district attorney worked with Adspace Digital Mall Network to create the ad, which will appear on electronic billboards along with other ads promoting mall businesses.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 20, 2008

Was Google Lively DOA?

Over the summer Google released Lively by Google, its version of a virtual or persistent world. Though it got early support by participants and brands such as National Geographic, there was insufficient momentum to sustain the Google Labs venture. This morning the Official Google Blog posted Google Lively will shut down at the end of the year. "Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives. But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off," it said on the blog. Additionally the Lively.com Web site urges users to create memories of their virtual experiences by recording videos and screenshots.

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 18, 2008

Eric Schmidt Really Really Wants that Obama Administration Job

How much does Google CEO Eric Schmidt want to be Barack Obama's Chief Tech Officer? This much. (See "Restoring public trust in government," and the link to the related booklet.)

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

Quote of the Day: Emily Riley on T-Mobile's Billion-Impression Ad Buy

"I would say that officially, this ad buy proves that you can have simultaneous reach of some kind online. No it's not the same as a superbowl commercial, but it's pretty important for brand advertisers nonetheless. More marketers should be willing to pay a premium for this kind of campaign. A site takeover actually already has some traction and is a great way to flood people with your message. However one site is only one site. A giant scale buy on a network on the other hand, can ensure that you're showing a majority of Americans your message in just a day or two. Networks should be selling takeovers every day of the year."

-Emily Riley, JupiterResearch analyst, commenting on T-Mobile's recent billion-impression ad buy with Platform-A.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Intel Sponsors New Gaming Blog from Boing Boing

Intel is the exclusive sponsor of a new gaming blog, Offworld, from the creators of Boing Boing. The site appears to have gotten off to a slightly rocky start however, since comments remain broken on the second day of its official debut.

The blog's launch and its sponsorship were arranged by Federated Media, the conversational media ad rep and network. According to the companies' statement, it "aims to distill the fractured, esoteric world of gaming forums, academia, communities, websites and blogs, into an easily digestible feed..."

Intel has been one of FM's most active ad partners. The Offworld blog is only the latest of several initiatives the companies have undertaken together lately. One of those was a "crowdsourced PC" project through which Intel and Asus solicited the public's idea on what the ideal computer would look like. Intel also is an early tester of FM's Conversational Marketing Toolbox, launched earlier this fall.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2008

Quote of the Day: P&G's Ted McConnell on Facebook

"Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren't trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant... We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it."

-Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co., expressing doubts that marketers belong on Facebook. (AdAge)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Babycarrying and Online Marketing

I suspect more than a few folks are scratching their heads about the whole #motrinmoms scandal du weekend. As my friend @fuzheado said, the divergence in reaction might make a good Mars/Venus case study. He didn't get what all the fuss was about, but his wife honed right in on the problem.

Not surprisingly, I'm with the wife. Like the super-vocal moms who took such offense, I immediately "got" the problem with the ad -- its tone. As a mom with a 5-month-old, I "wear" my baby all the time. But it's not because it's "in fashion," because it's "supposedly" is a good bonding experience or because I want to look like "an official mom", as the Motrin ad implies. It's because it works. The kid doesn't cry and I can do whatever needs doing. And of course it's a bonding experience, because any time you meet your child's needs that's the case.

And, yes, sometimes my back hurts. Others out there are admitting this, too, even though the conventional wisdom is that babywearing doesn't hurt if you're doing it right. So, I don't think J&J is far off in targeting moms who wear their babies. They're just going about it wrong. (And let's not dismiss this as a Twitter crisis. For everyone that's tweeting about this, there are many others that are hearing about it, or just seeing the ads themselves and having the same reaction. Twitter is just surfacing the word-of-mouth that would have been happening anyway. )

But all is not lost for the brand. Right now, everyone's saying they will boycott Motrin. This bodes ill for their product for adults and may also impact their product for kids, given they've now offended the target that controls the purse-strings.

The silver lining is that Motrin has gotten everyone's attention. They need to grab this opportunity, while they're in the online spotlight, to connect in a positive way. They need to apologize and retool their condescending message about babywearing. To make sure it gets seen, an ad spend on mommy blogs is in order. Motrin have shown that they're not the experts on babywearing, but they can certainly get involved with and sponsor conversations on the topic -- a topic that inspires an amazing amount of passion. Whaddaya say, J&J?

---

Cross-posted from The River. Pamela Parker is author services manager at Federated Media Publishing.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sam's Club Circular Takedown and Embargo Politics

As someone who can’t stand shopping, I had no idea the kind of politics that are involved with store circulars, particularly when it comes to that obnoxious post-Thanksgiving consumer blowout they call Black Friday.

(Now I can’t get that Steely Dan song out of my head.)

Apparently SearchAllDeals.com posted a Sam’s Club Black Friday circular, prompting Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club owner) to send a take-down notice to the site. The letter, by way of TechDirt, calls the publication of the sales circulars “a violation of Wal-Mart’s rights and is also unfair to other sites that properly comply with the schedule for the official release dates.”

Wal-Mart also asked the deals site for a retraction. Oh, and they want to know exactly how the site got its grubby little hands on the circulars.

This part of the take-down notice had me a bit confused. The lawyers asked for a “statement of inaccuracy to be posted as follows: ‘The Sam’s Club advertisement included unauthorized changes that reflected inaccurate pricing information.’ " I’m guessing that’s just a way for Wal-Mart to ensure there aren’t disputes if they do end up altering prices - ? Or, perhaps, SearchAllDeals altered it?

It sure isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has shown a misunderstanding of the Web and the concept of building online buzz. When the firm launched its teen community site, The Hub, pundits panned the overly-policed site as out-of-touch and missing the point of social networking's free-spiritedness. And who could forget the "Wal-Marting Across America" travel blog? The company’s PR firm Edelman actually hired a couple to run the site, but it was passed off as a blog created by real brand advocates out of the goodness of their hearts.

And then there was that time they paid bloggers to write pro-Wal-Mart posts.

Anyway, this circular leaking thing is nothing new, at least as far as ZDNet is concerned. A post on their "Home Theater" blog about leaks of Best Buy’s and Circuit City Black Friday leaks is titled, “Circuit City Black Friday ad finally leaks. More yawns.”

I wonder how long it will take corporations to realize the immediacy and publishing ease enabled by the Internet has almost completely destroyed the embargo system. Yes, publications still honor embargoes requiring them to keep quiet on certain information until an agreed-upon date, but it’s gotten so they often end up shooting themselves in the foot doing it.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2008

Sending Good Thoughts to a ClickZ Founder

As founder of ClickZ back in 1997, Andy Bourland was an inspiration to many working during online marketing's early days.

We were reminded of all his good work and deeds when Andy disclosed this week that he suffers from a serious medical condition that leaves him with very little strength, and which he says in all likelihood will take his life in the coming years.

Andy, on his blog, reports that he's prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best. We at ClickZ are hoping for the same.

Because of his vision, ClickZ team is here today to help inform and guide the next generation of digital marketing execs. We are indebted to Andy.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oodle Layoffs Part of Realignment

It's official. Classifieds firm Oodle let go 10 staffers 2 weeks ago. CEO Craig Donato called it a "prudent decision."

In an e-mail to ClickZ News, Donato noted the layoff was part of an overall re-org. "We re-aligned our organization. We made cuts in marketing and consolidated positions in account management, but we’re still aggressively hiring in engineering and other key roles."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mobile Incompatible? You're Losing Customers

It often doesn't happen for weeks and even months at a time -- but this morning, I was disconnected.

Twice.

The first time was trying to book an appointment with a doctor. The second time, I was trying to make reservations at a high-end restaurant (one that's not, alas, on OpenTable). In fact, I read about it happening to the rash of the newly-unemployed attempting to contact state unemployment benefits offices. Oh, and a friend just moved to a sleek new office. Now I can't access her or her staff by phone, either.

Perhaps you've encountered the situation: you dial business from your mobile phone only to be encountered with the familiar: for this, press 1; for that press 2. Frequently, staying on the line for help from an operator is simply not an option. But with many mobile phones (and like a growing segment of the population, I'm landline-less), pressing the appropriate button immediately disconnects the call.

I'm no telephony expert, and have no idea why these menus work 99 percent of the time from my BlackBerry, but not from a friend's iPhone, or vice versa. I do know that if I can't get through to that high-end restaurant, I'm going to take my client to eat at a place where I can actually book a table.

If your business operates on a press-this-or-that-number to get through to a live person - as a prerequisite of doing business with you - have you tested the system from your mobile phone? From several different phone models?

Your customers are cutting the cord, and often with more than their local telcos. When that landline goes, your business could well be going with it.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 13, 2008

Virgin Mobile Gets Local

Directories firm Local.com has linked up with Virgin Mobile USA to offer a new ad-supported mobile directories service. Virgin customers can now search for businesses, view profiles and maps, get directions, and click-to-call their nearby sandwich joint.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 12, 2008

Google Tracks the Flu Patterns

It's approaching flu season, and Google.org released Flu Trends to identify the relationship between where people have the flu and where people search for the flu online. Researchers at Google noticed that there are more flu-related searches during flu season, and the search trend actually matches that of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's data. The flu-related search terms are found to be good indicators for the flu, and Google maps where infection zones are minimal, moderate, high, and epidemic. The data is automatic, where traditional flu tracking systems can take one- to two-weeks to collect and release data, according to a Google statement. The Flu Trends tool can aid healthcare newsletters to develop more targeted messages, and advertisers to determine where to geo-target search campaigns, to name a few possible uses for the Google tool.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Contextual Local Ads - Not Quite There Yet

Quick - where's Beacon?

If you're coming up with multiple answers, you're not alone. So are local Google AdSense advertisers, and as a result, contextual ads are all out of context. Ads for Beacon-related things spanning the country (literally) from Boston to San Francisco accompanied an e-mail from a friend who hails from Beacon, NY.

This problem, of course, is hardly limited to Google. It is indicative of local advertisers who are newer to AdSense -- and in all likelihood, taking a more scattershot, DIY approach to buying and managing keywords than more experienced advertisers are.

So what's the secret to teaching newbie search advertisers about concepts such as negative match? Should such feature be baked more prominently into account management software?

Local advertising is burgeoning, but for it to really take off and soar, a lot of really complex issues will have to come down to earth and be super-simplified.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Facebook, comScore, and Looking Beyond Standard Ad Metrics

As a business reporter, I rely on the numbers people to help quantify anecdotal information and provide a sense of scope when it comes to things like site traffic, ad spending, the size of an industry or sector – that sorta thing. Companies like comScore, TNS, Hitwise, Jupiter, Borrell, Kelsey, and eMarketer (the list goes on and on) are the number people for the online ad industry.

But sometimes they’re just not measuring the appropriate thing for our purposes. This struck me while reading yesterday’s Wall Street Journal piece about Facebook’s engagement ads (introduced in beta in August), and more broadly, about the firm’s aim to grab more advertiser dollars.

“Facebook has a lot to prove with the new ad format, which it began quietly testing in August and started making available to all advertisers this month,” notes the story, which goes on to say Facebook’s “share of total number of U.S. online display ad views was just 1.1%, according to market research firm comScore Inc., in its most recent report in June.”

It also compares Facebook to its social networking adversary, MySpace, calling the Fox Interactive Media site “the market leader with 15.9% of display-ad spending, according to comScore.”

There are a couple of things that hit me when reading this. First of all was the comparison of “display ad views” to “display-ad spending.” Ad views are not at all equivalent with ad spending. Indeed, according to comScore, the 15.9 percent refers to ad views (read: impressions), not spending. ComScore doesn’t measure ad spending.

OK, that makes more sense.

But there’s a bigger question here. Is this display ad view metric really the most appropriate gauge for comparison? The June measure referred to in the story, for instance, doesn’t include engagement ads, according to comScore, which began tracking them in September.

That might not make for a huge difference in comparing Facebook’s and MySpace’s display ad views, but it’s worth noting. It also led me to wonder whether the future for ad impression measurement will need to account for an expanded set of ad formats, beyond standard units, in order to stay relevant.

For instance, Facebook told me -- and comScore confirmed -- that engagement ads featuring video like movie trailers are not tracked. The measurement firm does plan to track video ads in the future, though.

I’m not trying to say comScore is doing anything wrong here. Methodologies and systems for tracking Web ads are very involved; it’s no simple task to develop methods for tracking every new type of ad that comes on the market.

My goal here is simply to draw attention to the fact that standard display ad measures aren’t always the most appropriate gauge for how well a site is doing at selling ads.

Just a quick update: Though comScore hasn't tracked ad spending in the past, the firm has begun the process, but has yet to unveil any ad spending data publicly.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Denton-the-Bear Sees Major Digital Ad Recession

Gawker publisher and digital sourpuss Nick Denton just posted a screed arguing digital media are screwed in 2009.

According to Denton, "The sector's maturity...means that its underlying growth is more sluggish than it was in the late 1990s. In 2001, Internet advertising swung to a 13% decline from 78% growth the previous year; this time the sector starts from a growth rate of 27%; I would hate to see what a swing as violent as the dotcom burst would look like."

Of course, Denton's doomsaying is congenital. His gloominess has helped him stand out during the boom years, when a thousand start-ups blossomed (and started selling ads), and has cushioned the blow each time he's reduced blogger pay or laid people off.

But deep down he knows digital media will thrive in a downturn, simply because it's more measurable. Right?

Not really. To anyone clinging to that oft-invoked point, Denton has this to say: "Sure, marketers and their agencies can track engagement and clicks in great detail online; but it's still only television advertising that can demonstrate a correlation between spending and a boost to a marketer's sales."

In Denton's view, there is a silver lining. For one, publishers may be able to renegotiate contracts with ad vendors. Financially sound firms like DoubleClick and PointRoll will be flexible on pricing to keep business during the downswing.

Secondly, marketers may find themselves on the receiving end of better service from publishers.

"Internet publishers have forced marketers into a straightjacket of standard ad units too small for brands to breathe," Denton writes. "If the sector is to capture a larger share of brand advertising from magazines and television, the creative needs to have more impact."

To that end, he notes Gawker offers three original ad units: a 1,000x250 "marquis at the top of each page; an extra-wide "panorama," and its sponsored post format. Denton recommends other publishers do the same.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 11, 2008

Matt McGowan Named Publisher of ClickZ

Congrats to Matt McGowan, who's been named vice president/publisher for Incisive Media's ClickZ, and our sister site, Search Engine Watch, and conference group, Search Engine Strategies.

For more than two years, Matt's been the global vice president of marketing here, building our brands and businesses on and offline. And he can be counted on to practice what he preaches on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere.

In his new role, Matt assumes responsibility for sales, in addition to marketing and operations for the online publications and events businesses. Before Incisive, Matt was VP/sales, marketing, and operations for PropertyRoom.com and was a marketing manager for Pearson PLC.

Best to Matt!

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Layoff Tracker Update: Channel 4, Hearst Digital, Time Inc.

Job losses continue to mount in digital marketing and ad sales. ClickZ's layoff tracker recently added a number of new firms to our ongoing tally of headcount reductions in new media.

Among the latest:

UK broadcaster Channel 4 cut 15 percent of its "commercial team," including strategic sales, sponsorship and new media staffers, according to Brand Republic.

Hearst Digital reduced its new media sales team from 16 to 12, also according to Brand Republic.

Time Inc. dismissed 92 people as part of a consumer marketing and sales reorg that also affects its digital team. PaidContent has the memo.

Pennsylvania-based Solid Cactus laid people off in its call center and technology units. (Times Leader)

Had layoffs at your firm? Send us a news tip.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You Can Argue with Customer Satisfaction

I'm always struck by the "Get a Mac" takeovers that run every couple months on NYTimes.com and a variety of other prominent homepages. They're in a class by themselves. This execution sort of encapsulates what the whole campaign is about. You can't argue with satisfaction, but of course that's just what John Hodgman's PC tries repeatedly to do.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 7, 2008

Change.gov: Obama Brings Webroots Mojo to Transition Planning

Have you seen Change.gov yet?

We at ClickZ spent some time yesterday playing around with the site, which is the official online destination of president-elect Obama's administration. It would seem BarackObama.com and My.BarackObama.com have been retired -- at least until 2012.

A few questions raised by the new online presence:

Is this a marketing or a government site? To the best of our knowledge, Change.gov marks the first time a major candidate has created a site for transition planning. A sober undertaking, right? Yet there are some promotional flourishes here, such as an a blog, an e-mail sign-up, even a countdown-to-inauguration clock. That's pretty close in spirit -- if not in intent -- to those Bush countdown clock keychains.

The supporter database: Can you take it with you? Political operators have wondered what will become of Obama's immense list of supporters. More to the point, what's to become of their e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers? What of the Twitter account and its 121,000 followers? Will he tell them about this site? And what will he do with the e-mail addresses he's collecting on the Change.gov site?

Does Obama's administration really want to know what you think? Thousands of posts have been created at My.BarackObama.com, the multi-user blogging portal with around 1.5 million registered users. Now our future President is soliciting involvement again, by asking Change.gov visitors to Share your vision and Share your story. What happens to all those voices, posts and stories? Maybe they'll be taped to the White House fridge, to be doted on proudly at midnight-snack time.

What are your thoughts?

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 6, 2008

BBC Eyes Behavioral Targeting

BBC Worldwide may be looking to launch behavioral targeting ad technology across its properties. New Media Age reports the BBC's commercial arm has approached a number of behavioral targeting firms, aiming to monetize its international traffic more effectively.

Quoted by NMA, Chris Dobson, head of global ad sales at BBC Worldwide, stated, "We're testing first. We intend to roll it out extensively across most components of the sites, including U.K. sites and BBC.com outside the U.K."

A BBC Worldwide spokeswoman reportedly acknowledged that targeting methods were being investigated, but that "no decision has been taken on how BBC Worldwide will proceed." The BBC press office has not replied with confirmation to me today.

ISP-based behavioral targeting firms such as NebuAd and Phorm have been under scrutiny recently surrounding the privacy implications of their systems. However, if indeed the BBC does introduce such technologies, it is likely to adopt more traditional behavioural solutions from firms such as Revenue Science or Tacoda.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Quote of the Day: Yahoo's Yang Now Prefers a Microsoft Sale

“To this day, I have to say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo. I don’t think that is a bad idea at all…at the right price, whatever the price is, we are willing to sell the company."

-Jerry Yang, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit.

Yang's comment during an on-stage interview with John Battelle was astonishing, for a number of reasons. First, Jerry Yang and his team fought Microsoft's early aggressive advance tooth and nail, and while they've since said they were open to a deal all along, no senior Yahoo executive has said such a marriage would be the best outcome for the company.

Also, to me at least the statement suggests a deal to buy AOL from Time Warner is not imminent. I wasn't there, so I don't have the full context, but I can't imagine why Yang would express enthusiasm for one massive merger while finalizing an unrelated one. Yang declined to comment on the AOL talks.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 5, 2008

E-mail List Hygiene: Now More Than Ever

Economic crisis. Layoffs. Companies going out of business. Foreclosures.

Sure, this is a flyspeck of a footnote relative to issues of much greater gravity. But if you're an e-mail marketer, tough times call for a tough approach to e-mail list hygiene. Particularly for marketers who mail to B2B or corporate clients.

The person at the other end of a subscription to a newsletter, or who had requested offers or product updates, may not be at the other end of that same e-mail address any longer. And you're smart enough to know that when a terminated employee is glumly packing the contents of their desk into a cardboard box, the last thing on their minds is canceling e-mail subscriptions or clicking that "change of address" link.

There's going to be a tsunami of bounced, forwarded and otherwise dead-ended corporate e-mail out there. Maybe not the worst consequence of the economic crises, but not a pleasant prospect for e-mail marketers hoping to keep their lists -- and their reputations -- squeaky clean.

If you're a marketer or a publisher, I suggest you develop a new bounce strategy.

Now.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

New Tool: Website Optimization ROI Calculator

How can you estimate the return on investment for optimizing your Web site?

The Website Optimization ROI Calculator, a new interactive tool, was developed by interactive agency ZAAZ. It helps digital marketers estimate return based on anticipated outcomes such as increasing site traffic.

Plug in the numbers, for instance, to evaluate how an investment can change the present and future value of your business.

For more details behind the calculator, read the column by Jason Burby, ZAAZ's chief analytics and optimization officer. Jason and his team at ZAAZ developed this tool.

The ROI calculator joins other invaluable digital marketing tools on ClickZ.

A new addition, the ClickZ Flashback Widget, provides historical perspective on today's news.

And the CPM Calculator, an old standby.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 4, 2008

Quote of the Day: Worst Time to See a Web Ad?

Group M Interaction CEO Rob Norman at ad:tech NY today: "When I'm checking my bank statement [online], I'm not receptive to receiving ads."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo/Google Deal Revision Would Give Marketers More Control

To appease Justice Department concerns about their search ads tie-up, Yahoo and Google have offered to cap what Yahoo can make through the deal at 25 percent of its total search revenue, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Perhaps a bigger deal for search marketers: The revised deal would let advertisers opt out of having their ads distributed on Yahoo results pages.

That would partly address concerns of some marketers that they'll wind up bidding against themselves, but it may also reduce the available Yahoo inventory for those who choose to opt out.

As Kevin Lee put it back in September, "In order for [Yahoo] to even to consider serving an ad out of Google, that ad has to be 15 percent more expensive," to allow for Google's cut.

Yahoo's extra revenue from each ad served by Google comes at the expense of brands that bid on both platforms, and so letting those brands abstain from ad syndication between the parties. Yet having the option not to pay the higher price to appear on Yahoo SERPs doesn't mean they'll still get in at the lower price.

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

Obama's GOTV Billboards on PA, FL Sites

Pennsylvania and Florida voters must be pretty excited that the political ad onslaught is almost over. But they've got one more day of presidential ads in the battleground states. Today, Philly.com visitors know it. So do MiamiHerald.com readers. There are expandable Barack Obama billboard ads on the homepages of those sites today, and probably other key swing state newspaper sites, too.

The ad units are very similar to ones the Obama camp ran on Texas and Ohio news sites before those states' important primary elections in February. Those primary ads, however, featured an in-banner video, but today's get-out-the-vote ads do not.

By the way, be sure to check out our Campaign '08 re-cap, and abundant archives!

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

November 2, 2008

Right Message, Wrong Time

So on Halloween, I dropped by my bank to deposit a check. Only my bank wasn't my bank any more. It was in costume. The red, white and blue Commerce Bank logo was replaced by something green and utterly unfamiliar: signage for something called the TD Bank.

I kept walking, aggravated that I'd have to make a detour to anyother branch. Then, something strange caught my eye: the bank's interior was identical to the way it looked last time I was there. So I entered and the security guard confirmed that my longtime bank had renamed itself. Effective today.

Today? But...but....you've already got the new signage up!

Well, thanks a lot for letting me know. It wasn't until the following day that the bank's Web site contained a notice, or that I found the Reuters story reporting the change, a story that predated the signage change at the branch I almost didn't enter, thinking this was an institution I didn't bank with.

Where's my e-mail notification? Where's the letter to customers from the bank? Why isn't there a sign in the window telling customers that yes, this is still their bank branch?

Banks build brands on foundations of trust, endurance and familiarity. This name change apparently has nothing to do with the economic fallout of recent weeks.

So how could management allow this to occur with zero participation from the marketing department? The mind boggles. And while I've always been more than a satisfied customer, the experience jarred me enough to consider relocating what remains of my financial empire.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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