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November 2009

November 30, 2009

Univision Launches Branded Network

The branded ad network phenomenon has cooled a bit in the past year, but apparently some publishers still find value in the model. Spanish-language media firm Univision Interactive Media is the latest to extend its name to a network -- in this case, one comprised of non-owned Spanish-language sites.

"The new unit targets U.S. Hispanics and provides a far-reaching digital advertising and publisher network comprised of pre-screened, high-quality Spanish-language online and mobile websites," notes a company press release.

The new Univision Partner Group includes Caracol Televisión, Revista Caras, Perfil.com, El Espectador, TyC Sports, Ambito Financiero, and others.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 24, 2009

Yahoo Will Continue Teracent Relationship

When reporting Google's acquisition of dynamic ad firm Teracent yesterday, one of my primary questions was, will Yahoo continue to work with Teracent? In May, Yahoo announced partnerships with Teracent and another dynamic ad firm -- Tumri -- to expand the capabilities of the Yahoo Smart Ads dynamic ad platform. Yahoo later extended its deal with Teracent to the mobile platform, giving advertisers similar dynamic ad capabilities on wireless devices.

According to a Yahoo spokesperson who got back to me today, "We anticipate continuing to work with Teracent."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 23, 2009

AOL Won't Kill the Running Man

The release of AOL's new logo has some wondering about the fate of its Running Man mascot, closely identified with the company and especially with its AIM messenger product. AOL Chief of Staff Maureen Sullivan wants the world to know the little yellow guy will not be run down by a rebranding team drunk on reinvention.

On the contrary, AOL has specific plans for him in the coming year, she said. "The idea is not to lock him into the logo and set him a bit more free," she said. "We have some good things up our sleeve and where we'll see the Running Man in 2010."

"Consumers love the running man," she said.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Good, The Bad, and the Just Too Small

Hey Blondie, want to watch some of the most panoramic cinematography ever on your tiny computer monitor? Well, now you can.

According to an expandable video ad for YouTube I just spotted on Meebo, the video site is offering free views of the iconic Leone trilogy of spaghetti westerns -- "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "A Fistful of Dollars," and "For a Few Dollars More" -- until the end of the month. Call me crazy, but a relatively small computer screen isn't the most ideal place to view these flicks, which feature some amazing views of Andalucia, Spain. I imagine those cool closeups of The Bad and The Ugly will come through OK, though.

Anyhow, there doesn't appear to be one particular sponsor attached to this offer. I've spotted pre-roll video and accompanying display ads from Chase Sapphire, Progresso, and Canon running before the movies.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 20, 2009

Those Filthy Scrubbing Bubbles

Shiny Suds from People Against Dirty on Vimeo.

Method's perfectly executed parody of old-time bathroom cleaner ads, released this week, makes other house cleaners look positively filthy. The magic happens at the end of a send-up of Dow's Scrubbing Bubbles commercials (example from 1978 below), when mom pops into the shower only to find those same bubbles still lingering, transformed into creepy chemical voyeurs. The video resides at PeopleAgainstDirty.com, which Method created to support two Household Product Labeling Acts in the House and Senate. The tag line: "When did clean become so dirty?"

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook Lets Page Owners Target Content by Region

Facebook has added an important new feature for Page owners with large numbers of geographically distributed fans. The capability allows Page admins to target content by location and language, offering brands, celebrities and major media orgs the promise of more relevant messaging.

Using the function, a large brand like Adidas (above) can publish details about an event in Chile to its acolytes in that country.

Facebook's blog post about the feature has a few additional details:

A dialog box will appear in which you can enter locations and languages. You can begin by entering a country in the "Locations" field. Based on the country you enter, additional options for state/province and city may also appear. Next, you may want to enter a language in the "Languages" field. You can enter multiple locations and languages based on the fans you are interested in reaching with your post.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 19, 2009

Facebook Ads Product Has Customer Service Issues

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

Facebook Ads Has Customer Support Problems
aimClear Blog
A rant about one agency's struggle to obtain decent service from Facebook.

The Counterculture Club
FT.com
A compelling profile of Vice, the multiplatform media and advertising company that started as a hipster magazine.

Google Promotes Content Network "Blast"
AdWords Agency Blog
Previously used mainly by political ad buyers, the company is now promoting its network blast ad buying option to commercial marketers.

Adknowledge Buys Ad Network SocialMedia
TechCrunch
Acquires SocialMedia.com -- a specialist in ad campaigns on social media apps -- for an undisclosed sum.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 18, 2009

Google Branded Phone a Reality

A few stories of note from around the Web:

The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It's Coming Soon
TechCrunch
Google-branded phone to be sold directly through retailers. Will be produced by a major manufacturer and available in early 2010.

Microsoft, Yahoo Poised to Sign Search Deal
AllThingsD
Once official deal is signed, the only barrier to its implementation will be regulatory approval.

Yahoo Go to be Shut Down
TechCrunch
Once a mainstay of Yahoo's mobile strategy, the Go application may have outlived its usefulness.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

EVB's Impressive Stop-Motion Video for Orbit Gum

EVB made the above stop-motion animated video for Wrigley's Orbit gum. The ad features 500 drawings that depict a rolling ball of paper, which morphs into a swarm of mouths that clean up a dirty old house. The ad camn be viewed at the OrbitCleanItUp YouTube channel, where it has picked up 37,000 views.

EVB was one of three digital agencies to win Wrigley's business, the company said last week. The digital account previously belonged to Tribal DDB, Digitas, and Agency.com, AdAge reported.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2009

Will AOL Try to Replace TMZ?

As you may have read, TMZ will no longer be part of the AOL family once it splits from Time Warner, which will operate the site instead. AOL confirmed this with me today.

So, is this a blow to AOL from an advertising sales perspective? Well, TMZ took ad sales in-house in July. So, it may not even be a boon for Time's sales staff.

However, TMZ has been a nice jewel for AOL to show off when hyping its owned properties, at least from a branding perspective. In May, comScore Media Metrix ranked the celeb gossip site second in its entertainment news category, with 9.2 million unique visitors - second to Omg.com's 12.5 million in May.

The company in January unveiled its MediaGlow publishing unit, which included TMZ, Moviefone, and others. The firm said at the time they'd roll out 30 new sites this year.

In its positioning in front of advertisers and agencies, AOL has made a big deal of its plans to ramp up its owned content. It's pointed to MediaGlow traffic growth on sites like FanHouse, BlackVoices, AOL Health, StyleList.com, and Engadget.

And consider this: AOL downplays TMZ in its own site navigation. Clicking "Celebrity News" takes users to its pop culture site Popeater.com, while TMZ is far below that link on the nav.

Still, even if AOL intends for Popeater to compete with TMZ, or plans to acquire or build out another celeb gossip property, it will have a lot of catching up to do. According to Quantcast's direct measurement, TMZ grabbed 4.4 million uniques last week, while Quantcast's estimated weekly traffic for Popeater.com since 2007 is pegged at 806,000 uniques.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

RockYou Raises $50 Million in VC Funding

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

RockYou Raises $50 Million In Venture Capital (TechCrunch)

Google Strikes YouTube Deal With Univision (Dow Jones Newswires)

The Problem With AOL's Media Strategy (Business Insider)

Does the Industry Need Big Digital Agencies Anymore? (AdAge)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 16, 2009

SEM Gets Juiced

Wow, has search marketing come a long way. I just did a Google search for "Flu preventions" and one of the top advertisers is the Florida Department of Citrus. "Fight those nasty cold and flu bugs by drinking Florida orange juice!" exclaims the ad, linking to FloridaJuice.com.

Vacuum maker Oreck is also running ads against flu prevention searches, promising "Free Gifts & Free Shipping."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Millennial Media Gets $16M in New Funding

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

Millennial Media Gets $16M in New Funding Money will be used to fuel growth and international expansion. (Baltimore Sun)

Is Marketing a Strategic Resource or a Procured Commodity? Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randy Rothenberg pens another screed on the importance of the big idea, among other things. (I, a Bee)

In Detroit, Agencies Compete to Sell City as a Creative Haven (New York Times)

Mobile Ads: Wait Until Next Year (AdWeek)

President Obama Admits He Has Never Used Twitter (TechCrunch)

How Microsoft's Verizon Deal Got Hijacked (AdAge)

YouTube Succumbs To Branding As Warner Music Begins Its Return (TechCrunch)

Annals of Weird Advertising Dead body spam appears in World of Warcraft (MIT Advertising Lab)

Class-action Suits Could Hit Facebook, MySpace Over Scam Offers (Venture Beat)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 13, 2009

Guitar Center Breathes New Life Into Dull 'Wish List' Genre

Guitar Center is spicing up the worn-out genre of wish lists with an interactive tool that lets people say "gimme" with a bit of style and attitude.

Visitors to the music retailer's Web site can use the Wish List poster generator to create online rock posters in one of a number of styles, including indie, 60s, garage, new wave, rockabilly, punk, and metal. The application lets musicians drag guitars, amps, cables and other products into the template of their choosing; upload their own image; and disseminate the final product on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

Poster creators are also sent a coupon for 10 percent off a single item. Which is a good thing, because hey, at least you'll get a few bucks off your next box of picks when your dad fails to spring for that $999 Bass Pro Power Amp.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Search Evangelism

A poster seen on a NYC subway for Marble Collegiate Church.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 12, 2009

Google Adds Analytics to DoubleClick for Advertisers

Google has unveiled two incremental changes to DoubleClick for media planning and analytics. It's all part of Google's hope to attract more display ad dollars.

The company described its new DFA Analytics tool as similar to Google Analytics. It will allow marketers to get regular campaign performance updates, in chart and graph form, and broken down by advertiser, campaigns, site, etc.

Also, for media planning, trafficking and reporting, marketers can now access Google Ad Planner within DFA. Both changes are available only in DFA 6.

Google called the new offerings, "just the beginning to a more unified, efficient, and effective advertising platform."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2009

Seafood Industry Fights NYT Story with AdWords Campaign

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

Seafood Industry Fights NYT Story with AdWords Campaign (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Wrigley Drops Tribal DDB, Digitas and Agency.com for Digital (AdAge)

Murdoch could block Google searches entirely (Guardian)

AOL Laying Off 100 Today (ValleyWag)

Twitter Hit Sh*t My Dad Says Heads to TV (Hollywood Reporter)

RIM Unveils Advertising, Payment and Location Services for BlackBerry Developers

Squatters Take Over Twitter Names (AdAge)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Free Wi-Fi the Latest Battleground in Search Wars?

Remember when the search engine wars were about search? These days, it's a given that Google won on that front, but that's not stopping Yahoo and Microsoft from trying to beat Google at another game: free Wi-Fi. But, as usual, Google's getting involved too.

Yahoo is providing free Wi-Fi in New York's Times Square, complete with a landing page chock-full of links to Yahoo Local listings, Flickr photos, Yahoo News, and ads for Yahoo's new home page. There's also local events content from the Times Square Alliance, Yahoo's partner in the deal.

Microsoft has teamed up with Wi-Fi directory provider JiWire in its Ads for Access program. Under that program, Wi-Fi users at any participating hotspot (mainly in airports and hotels) can get free access, if they agree to perform a search on Microsoft's Bing search engine.

Google is offering free Wi-Fi at 47 U.S. airports, and on every Virgin America flight. Beginning next week, Google will run a photo contest on its Picasa service, where users can submit photos of themselves using Google's free Wi-Fi service to win prizes. Google is also matching donations to participating non-profits, made through Google Checkout from those Wi-Fi locations.

All of these services are temporary, running through the holidays and ending in early January.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tagged Settles with New York and Texas Over E-Mail Offenses

Tagged has settled with two states over allegedly deceptive e-mail invitation practices, reported here in June.

The company will pay a total of $750,000 in penalties and legal fees to New York and Texas, and has added new privacy and security controls to its invite-a-friend system.

Over the summer New York Attorney General Andy Cuomo filed an intent to sue against Tagged, alleging the social networking site fraudulently induced people to sign up by indiscriminately sending e-mail invitations to its existing users' contacts. It said Tagged then falsely informed those contacts that the account holder had sent them photos.

In both New York and Texas, the e-mail blasts were called as a violation of deceptive trade laws.

Under terms of the settlements, Tagged agreed to pay New York $500,000 in penalties and legal costs. Texas will get $250,000.

More information is available on Tagged's blog, and on the New York AG and Texas AG Web sites.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 6, 2009

Yes, That Is an Ad on Google's Homepage

How invested is Google in the success of Droid, the most hyped device yet to be built using its Android operating system? So much so that it's willing to sully that holy of holies -- its homepage -- with an ad promoting the smartphone.

The ad appears directly below the search field, as you can see in the screenshot above. It points to a landing page hosted by Google, which promotes the Droid's search and navigation capabilities. That page directs people to Verizon to buy the phone.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 5, 2009

BusinessWeek's Top Online Exec To Leave

A few stories ClickZ's editors are reading:

BusinessWeek's Top Online Executive To Leave Magazine (Business Week)

CNN Launches Sponsored News Trivia Quiz (WebProNews)

YouTube Video Dealmaker Jordan Hoffner Leaves Company Hoffner brokered content agreements with Time Warner and Walt Disney. He'll be replaced by Chris Maxcy, who handled deals with record labels. (Bloomberg)

Funny or Die Now a YouTube Channel Partner (YouTube Biz Blog)

RealNetworks to Lay Off Four Percent of Staff Today (AllThingsD)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amazon Integrates Twitter with Affiliate Program. Is it Spam?

Amazon has introduced a feature on its Associates affiliate scheme which allows its members to tweet links with ease directly from its site. When browsing products, affiliates can now post links to Twitter by simply clicking a toolbar button at the top every page, similar to the way in which they might share an article via a "share this" button.

Of course, the same result was already possible by entering an affiliate link into a url shortener and posting it to Twitter, but the two-click functionality now makes that process easier and quicker.

Whether or not this is a good thing for Twitter users is another question entirely. The micro-blogging and networking service already experiences problems with spam accounts and unwanted marketing messages, so the introduction of similar functionality across other affiliate programs could well contribute to the growing amount of content many users consider spam.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 3, 2009

Most Brutal Sponsorship Ever

Though they're more prone to drinking beer and Jagermeister, a sneak preview of the return of the members of the world's most brutal metal band, Dethklok, has been brought to us by Coke Zero.

In fact, in addition to "Metalocalypse," which features the animated exploits of Dethklok, the non-caloric soda brand is sponsoring a host of previews of upcoming shows on Cartoon Network's adult-aimed programming block Adult Swim. The main goal appears to be promoting the "Facial Profiler," an application available at CocaColaZero.com that purports to match photos of people with similar facial features.

At this stage, Coke is in the building stage, looking for people to submit their photos to the database by connecting to the app through Facebook.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gawker Launches Video Spinoff at Gawker.tv

Gawker Media has created a new site at Gawker.tv focused on TV and online video content. Posts published since its launch this afternoon: a montage of gratuitous product placements on television and the above video of a puppy that has fallen and can't get up.

The new site marks something of a departure for Publisher Nick Denton, who has historically launched new sites under their own brands. He noted the smallest Gawker Media site now has 18 million page views, whereas the company's threshold used to be 1 million.

"We're believers in fewer stronger brands," he said. He called Gawker.tv "an expansion of the video-centric posts we've already been doing on Gawker.com."

Denton acknowledged the ad opportunity is somewhat generic for a site about random interesting video. "I'm sure there will be some video creative placed deliberately on Gawker.tv because the audience is in the mode to watch," he said. "But it's not as if the audience will be uniquely broadbanded up -- most of our readers can view video advertising even on texty sites."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 2, 2009

Sanford Wallace Could Face Jail Time in Facebook Spam Case

A few items ClickZ editors are reading:

Facebook Awarded $711 million Decision Against "Spam King" Wallace. Site is unlikely to collect more than a small fraction of damages against Sanford Wallace, who has phished and spammed his way to infamy. However, a probably criminal contempt suit could mean jail-time for Wallace. (Facebook blog)

New York Times Close to a Decision on Charging for Online Content Exec editor Bill Keller tells paper ombud a decision is "weeks away." (NYTimes.com)

Estimate: Google Behavioral Targeting Reaches a Quarter of AdSense Sites (privacychoice)

ComScore Plans Workforce Reduction. Some new jobs will be created at online measurement provider, but more will be cut.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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