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March 29, 2009 - April 4, 2009

April 3, 2009

Is Twitter in Talks with Google? Of Course!

Twitter's response to the salivating rumors that it's in talks with Google was similar to my own: Well, duh.

In a blog post titled "Sometimes We Talk," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone noted that the company communicates regularly with other players in the Web landscape. "It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects," he said. "Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we're just getting started."

Duly noted Biz. And now that the tech gossip beast has been fed for the week, can we move onto something with substance?

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Who Says the [Google] Surge isn't working?

A little side-note gleaned in my reporting on Scott Murphy's New York Congressional campaign employing the rarely-used "Google Surge" or "Network Blast" tactic:

Eric Frenchman -- the man behind the McCain camp's now award-winning online advertising strategy - says he came up with the term "Google Surge," after employing the carpet-bombing style display ad tactic for Bobby Jindal's congressional campaign in 2007, and for McCain's camp when targeting Ohio and Florida voters. The tactic may now gather steam after its use by the California Proposition 8 campaigns like Murphy's have employed it. The tactic, described in my story about the Murphy camp, essentially involves bombarding users in a defined geographic area (like NY's 20th congressional district) in a brief period of time with ads from one advertiser.

Google doesn't seem to like the "surge" term, so they call it "The Network Blast." I suppose "surge" has too much of a military connotation, particularly in relation to the troop surge in Iraq. But I'm not to sure the "blast" term is appropriate either, considering how it's often associated with e-mail campaigns.

Look for a story Monday on another innovative use of the Google surge in conjunction with another award-winning campaign from the '08 election.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

April 2, 2009

NCAA Appeased, MarchTweetness Returns Under a New Name

MarchTweetness is back. Only now it goes by a different name.

Three days after an NCAA copyright complaint forced Federated Media to tear down its experimental college b-ball Twitter aggregator, the AT&T-sponsored site is live again -- with two days to go before Saturday's semifinals.

For most of the week, the URL redirected to a simple Twitter search for the final four teams. That's because Federated Media slipped up when it first created the site, violating the NCAA's copyrights -- perhaps an indicator of company's greenness when it comes to designing sports-related experiences. (Tip for anyone considering a sports mash-up: College and pro athletic associations are REALLY uptight about their trademarks.)

The new site is very similar to the old, with a few important changes. Most notably, the name has changed. MarchTweetness is now TitleTweets, and the old URL now redirects to TitleTweets.com.

Also significant: AT&T is still attached to the site, but now it's listed as "The exclusive wireless partner of the NCAA," whereas it wasn't before. I have a call in to learn whether AT&T had a sponsorship arrangement with AT&T before this week. A large badge on the TitleTweets site links to the NCAA's site, where users can watch live games and view interactive brackets. The badge lists NCAA's other official sponsors Pontiac and Coca-Cola Zero.

Smaller changes included reworking of the copy. "Join in on the March Madness Excitement" becomes "Join in on the NCAA March Madness excitement."

You can check out the before and after below (images courtesy of the FM Publishing blog).

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Growth in U.K. Online Ad Spend Slows, Search Continues to Grow

Growth in U.K. online ad spend halved during 2008, increasing by 17.1 percent to £3.35 billion, down from the 38 percent year-on-year increase it achieved in '07, according to the IAB U.K.'s bi-annual online advertising expenditure study. The U.K. market slowdown mirrors that of the U.S. market; the growth rate here was also sliced in half in '08. According to the report, online now makes up almost 20 percent of overall U.K. ad spend, up from a 15 percent share in 2008.

Within online itself, paid search spend grew 22.7 percent year-over-year, representing almost 60 percent of all online spend in 2008. Perhaps unsurprising given the current financial situation and the relative accountability of search, display grew far less rapidly, at 7.7 percent, and represented 19 percent of spend. Online classifieds made up the remainder of spend at 21.4 percent, having grown 22.2 percent from 2007.

The IAB points to ad networks as a growth driver, and notes they now account for 44 percent of display spending. However, network spending is only up marginally from its 40 percent share in 2007.

In terms of verticals, recruitment leads across all formats, accounting for 23.8 percent of overall online spend, followed by Automotive at 13.5 percent, Technology at 11.2 percent, Property at 9.7 percent, and Finance at 7.6 percent.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 1, 2009

Thing of Beauty: Ticking Rolex Ad on New Life.com

The below display unit for Rolex is a lovely hybrid of online and magazine advertising -- specifically, fashion magazine advertising.

The ad was created as part of Rolex's exclusive sponsorship of the just relaunched Life.com (please click through to view it), which is a collaboration between Time Inc. and Getty Images. The new site let Web users view millions of images from the magazine's past alongside current ones from Getty. (The Wall Street Journal has more details.)

Graphically, the ad is the height of simplicity: an elegant photo of a watch reflecting the current date and time. Animation here is limited to three quietly ticking hands, proving once more that the best use of motion in online advertising may be the least use of it. (See Apple's ads for the MacBook)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 30, 2009

Mzinga Layoffs, Part 2

Like piranhas that sense blood, Mzinga's rivals and others are circling the wounded social network software vendor that laid off 40 earlier this month.

Sparta Social Networks, Lithium, and consultancies have apparently bid on the keyword, "mzinga," so they show up as a sponsored link when someone searches for "mzinga" on Google.

As seen on Google this morning:

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 29, 2009

Mzinga Layoffs Hit the Social Grapevine

Tweeple are a twitter over layoffs at social media software vendor Mzinga this month.

A bostonglobe.com column, "Social downsizing," published Sunday follows the online and offline drama over the March 19 layoffs of 40 employees - or about 18 percent of the vendor's workforce.

"This was a layoff for our Twittery new times," writes Scott Kirsner, a Globe columnist. "Though layoffs are always painful, there's something new going on here -- especially in the way these laid-off employees weren't silent, and in the way their network of friends and contacts leaped in to help them."

Ashley Quincy, a laid-off Mzinga worker, reached out to the Twitter network with this tweet, below. In a follow up note to me on Facebook, she wrote: "I have been fortunate where many recruiters and companies have reached out to me because of that particular tweet. It just reinforces how powerful social media can be and how it can be leveraged for job searches."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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