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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)

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