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October 7, 2009

Google Launches Smartphone Specific AdSense Units

In attempts to improve opportunities for advertisers and publishers on the mobile platform, Google is rolling out larger ad units for display on smartphones such as the iPhone and Android-enabled devices through its AdSense Mobile product.

Announcing the feature in a blog post, Google said the new units would "help to nurture the smartphone ecosystem by encouraging the creation of more mobile content and by helping advertisers to grow their businesses by reaching new audiences." It added that consumer experience would also be improved, since ads would load faster and fit better on smaller screens.

Mobile Internet access is growing rapidly in the U.S. and throughout Europe, largely thanks to the proliferation of handsets such as the iPhone, and the improved user experience afforded by the HTML-based browsers with which they ship. In the U.S., for example, mobile Web access grew 34 percent in the 12 months ending July '09, according to Nielsen Online.

With that in mind, it's unsurprising Google wants to enhance its mobile offering as it looks to replicate its dominant position in the desktop-oriented online ad world. The new units are live now in all territories in which AdSense is currently available, which is the vast majority of markets in which Google currently operates.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 26, 2009

Translation Please, InterClick

In a news release announcing the appointment of two executives, InterClick described itself as "the leader in data and inventory transparency."

Huh?

Translation, please.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 24, 2009

Specific Media: Moving Up

With so many ad networks on the scene, it takes work for any single one to get noticed.

Specific Media made a splash with a 10th anniversary party at its new Manhattan outpost on 745 Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park and the landmark Plaza Hotel. (Sorry, forgot the camera.)

At the party last week, I got a chance to meet Chief Operating Officer Chris Vanderhook, one of the three brothers who founded and manage the business that has a headquarters in Irvine, CA. CEO Tim Vanderhook and Russell Vanderhook, SVP were both there, too.

The sleek offices are on the 20th floor in an Art Deco structure built in 1930. It's worlds away from its old home in the Empire State Building in the dull midtown south neighborhood.

For the party, Specific Media brought in Nikki Cassone and Camille Becerra, contestants from Bravo's "Top Chef" reality show to off their cooking skills. Plus, chef Scott Fagan from Tip of the Tongue catering and his team prepared sushi, dim sum, sliders, and calories-for-the-road dessert bags.

For the record, Specific Media has 13 employees in its NYC office and it's hiring, according to a spokeswoman. Based on unique visitors, Specific Media is the fifth largest ad network, according to comScore.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

June 8, 2009

Tweet of the Day: "Inventory, inventory..."

"'Inventory, inventory, remnant, remnant.' I feel like I'm in a wholesaler's mtng on 7th ave."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 15, 2009

quadrantOne to Focus on Mobile Ad Sales for AP

Online newspaper ad network quadrantOne will now sell ads on behalf of Associated Press. According to quadrantOne, the firm will run national ad sales specifically for AP's mobile news portal apnews.com and AP News apps.

The relationship isn't much of a stretch, considering quadrantOne was formed by paper giants Hearst, Gannett, The New York Times, and Tribune, and its network is comprised mainly of newspaper sites. The AP, of course, is a coalition of paper publishers.

As paper companies struggle to monetize and navigate the new realities of online media distribution (The NY Times reports today that newspaper ad revenues may have plummeted as much as 30 percent for some papers in Q1.), the AP recently made headlines for announcing it plans to crack down on what it called "misappropriation" of its online news content. The organization said it would develop new search pages that direct users to breaking news. The move was largely viewed by observers as a direct attack on Google, which sometimes points users to non-AP affiliated sites featuring AP news stories.

So, is mobile advertising the next frontier for struggling news outlets? It's great to see the AP investing in mobile in this way, yet just how much that will contribute to the bottom line remains to be seen. Perhaps the AP relationship will prompt other quadOne networks to think more about mobile ad offerings....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 26, 2009

Google Invests in 'In-Photo' Ad Firm Pixazza

Photo-based ad network Pixazza has secured backing from Google as part of a $5.75 funding round involving several investors, CNET and others reported this week.

The start-up is developing a platform that harkens to the fabled "Jennifer Aniston's Sweater" scenario for commerce-enabled television. Except that instead of TV, Pixazza is enhancing online photos with product information.

The company's system will require no additional ad real estate from publishers, who can use it add a layer of commerce to its photos. Consumers can then mouse over an image to navigate products.

From the media seller's perspective, it's conceptually similar to in-text advertising. On the buy side, Pixazza claims to be integrated with 60 merchants representing 2 million products -- possibly through their affiliate programs. Merchants include Zappos and Amazon.

Companies such as DoubleClick, United Virtualities and VideoClix.tv have sought to develop such enhanced product placement technologies for video, but few have done so for simple photographs. NBC and Hasbro are among the advertisers to have experimented with the video variety.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

Phorm: Online by the End of the Year?

Kent Ertugrul, CEO of ISP-level behavioral targeting outfit Phorm, expects U.K. service provider, BT, to fully deploy his firm's technology across its network by the end of the year. In an interview with Dow Jones yesterday, Ertugrul reportedly said, "We're not able to comment on specific timings but our work with BT is the most advanced. It'll most definitely be online by the end of the year."

Speaking with me today however, a BT spokesperson was unable to confirm this, stating simply, "It's our expectation to move towards deployment. BT has made no announcement about timings."

BT recently concluded live trials of the technology with a number of its customers. Although Phorm has since released investor updates outlining the ISP's intentions to fully deploy the platform, BT itself has refrained from committing itself to it.

Likewise, Virgin Media, with which Phorm also announced a partnership last year, has suggested it's now a case of if rather than when it will implement the system. Speaking with me last November, a Virgin Media spokesperson said, "Whilst we are still investigating the use of Phorm's technology under our existing agreement with the company, due to the complexities of the proposition we do not have any timescales on when, or if, we will progress to trial or full launch."

In light of the controversy that has surrounded Phorm's practices, its not surprising that ISPs are treading carefully. However, given the fact that Phorm has been operating for at least a year with no identifiable revenue stream, it's difficult to tell if BT really is as committed to the technology as it says, or if Phorm is struggling to keep its investors happy.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

December 1, 2008

Media6degrees Launches, Fusing Behavioral and Social Marketing

When someone claims a digital network of 400 "friends," undoubtedly including everyone from middle school girlfriends to office acquaintances, it's not easy to tell who the real buddies are.

With this in mind, the founders of Media6degrees two years ago set out to build an ad platform that could trace an individual's real circle of friends. It did so by engineering a combination of cookies and ad server logs to pinpoint a person's interests and generate anonymous profiles of his or her real friends. The resulting ad network, which entered trial-mode back in May, has now been commercially released.

According to the company, any individual connected to an advertiser's existing customer respond to ads two to thirty times more often than consumers targeted with simple demographic and geographic targeting.

Media6degrees chalks up the propensity of these individuals to buy similar products to the psychographic likenesses that naturally exist between friends. While that may be so, I'm more inclined to credit simple word of mouth. Whatever. If the company's internal research is to be trusted, it would appear Media6degrees offers a compelling fusion of behavioral targeting and social marketing.

As CEO Joe Doran, an ex-Microsoftie, put it to me last spring, "The most important thing is not to look at the content but to look at the interactions between individuals. I'm defined not by my interactions on MySpace or on Facebook. I'm defined by my interactions with my friends."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 25, 2008

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)

October 17, 2008

Digital Remainders: Viral Videos, YouTube Search Ads, Huge Spam Ring Busted

It’s been a busy week in digital marketing land. In addition to the big stories we've covered, here are a few you may have missed:

Agencies dote on their viral videos, but can't agree on metrics. Seventy percent of agency execs plan to increase budgets for viral, according to a survey conducted by Feed Company. But about equal numbers said their videos were a success if viewed 100,000 times, 250,000 times or 500,000 times. For those who doubt those budget increases, remember that in the scope of a large media buy, these projects cost peanuts.

YouTube is experimenting with sponsored placements in its search results. However marketers should be wary of assertions that the site operates the "second largest" search presence, ahead of Yahoo, as has been reported. Truth is, many of those queries are better thought of as navigation than search.

World's largest spam ring busted. A network of unsolicited e-mailers peddling prescription drugs and "herbal male-enhancement" remedies was the biggest in the world, according to Spamhaus. The FTC coordinated with New Zealand authorities on the crackdown.

Blog search pioneer Technorati bought an ad network. AdEngage, a network for independent sites, will be combined with Technorati's four-month-old media network. The idea is to develop a self-serve ad network spanning blogs and other social media sites. The platform now exists only in "private alpha" mode.

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

September 10, 2008

Brightcove to Drive German Video Network

Video technology platform Brightcove has partnered with OMS, a German online sales and marketing network for regional newspapers, to create an ad-supported online video network for its member publishers.

The network will feature content licensed by OMS from third parties, alongside video published by the regional newspapers themselves. Ad sales will be handled by OMS.

Speaking with ClickZ News, OMS Media Consultant Kim Kriegers said, "The German online video market is still very fragmented in terms of reach, content quality and technical standardization. With this deal, OMS is trying to address these problems to make the market more attractive and efficient for advertisers."

After the video platform has been rolled out across the network's 60 sites, Kriegers expects it to serve in excess of 10 million streams a month, attracting existing OMS advertisers, as well as traditional TV advertisers looking to cut back on ad spend. Together, the network sites reach around 9 million unique visitors each month.

Targeting possibilities for the platform will be limited to content categories, or channels, such as national news, sports, and entertainment.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 20, 2008

Irrelevance in AdSense for Feeds

Now that Google has officially rolled out its AdSense for feeds, ads for women seeking men pop up on my feeds. Will Google and other providers start filtering advertisers for quality? In the past few days I've seen feed ads for Moveon.org and other legitimate sponsors while reading the same mobile industry blog; then this woman in a nightie pops up on my screen beside a mobile industry blog feed. What ads would I see if I were reading blogs in which the content was actually appropriate for this kind of thing?

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 5, 2008

Newspaper Consortium Solidifies with New Head Exec

It looks like The Newspaper Consortium, the growing bunch of paper publishers, is becoming more of an official entity. The group -- borne of a series of relationships between newspaper firms and Yahoo – has appointed a Tribune man, Michael Silver, as its new executive director.

According to a press release, "Silver will report to the Newspaper Consortium Board of Directors and Executive Committee and begin developing new opportunities for the Consortium across the digital media landscape, as well as to grow the Consortium's existing relationship with Yahoo across content and advertising."

Silver most recently served as an independent consultant to Tribune Media Services; before that he was VP corporate development there.

Those following the newspaper consortium, its work with Yahoo, and the emergence of newspaper network quadrantOne, will note Silver's Tribune connection. Not only is quadOne partly-owned by Tribune (along with Gannett, New York Times Co. and Hearst), its own interim CEO until last week is Tribune Interactive's SVP of Sales.

QuadOne and Yahoo certainly seem to be in direct competition. But it's all much more grey than that. The thing is, many if not all of the Yahoo consortium members also have display and video inventory in the quadOne network. The fact that the paper consortium is establishing its own ground as a full-fledged entity, coupled with its ties to both Yahoo's and quadOne's networks, means this game has only just begun.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

July 28, 2008

Glam Goes After LOHAS Set with Wellness Vertical

It's been a busy summer for Glam. In the past two months alone the women-focused media and ad network has unveiled a hip-hop content vertical, an e-mail newsletter channel, and new outposts in Germany and the U.K. It's also trying to get in on the platform money with the launch of a video syndication play and a system for creating vertical ad exchanges.

So when's a girl to find time for herself? Maybe that's the question Glam's secretly hoping to answer with a new vertical geared toward "balance and healthy living."

The Glam Wellness channel is made up of sites like EcoFabulous, Natural Solutions Magazine, EatingWell, Lifescript, and Spaparazzi. Soyjoy is the launch sponsor for the specialized network, which claims to reach three million uniques.

The content and services are geared toward a demographic sometimes referred to as LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). The vertical is distinct from Glam's Health channel, which is more about diet and fitness. It comes along at a time when the ad buying marketplace has become somewhat saturated with ad networks -- and especially vertical ones. Nevertheless Glam is dead-set on competing with a tough set of female-centric media rivals, including NBC's iVillage, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Sugar Publishing, which just ditched its repping deal with NBC and said it would hire 20 in sales.

Glam is aided by $85 million in new funding, which it scored back in February. It expects to use some of that cash to open outposts in France and Japan.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 23, 2008

Sugar Scraps NBC Ad Rep Agreement, Creates In-House Sales Team

Sugar Inc., operator of PopSugar and 14 other sites aimed at women, has nixed its ad sales relationship with NBC Universal and brought those functions in-house. The company is now in the process of hiring a 20-person sales team along with a VP of sales who has yet to be identified. The move comes just a year after Sugar agreed to let NBCU package and sell its inventory alongside that of iVillage.

A blog post about the decision gives little indication as to Sugar's precise motives, though it's common for maturing publishers to create a sales team as soon as doing so becomes feasible. That's because ad network or reseller relationships typically give the seller a cut of between 20 and 40 percent of revenue. (Update: Sugar PR said yesterday NBC had a 50 percent cut)

When Sugar fell in with NBC last summer, CEO and Publisher Brian Sugar told ClickZ the firm wanted to build out its own sales staff from the beginning. However, he said, "we realized it takes a large, experienced team to really execute on that. We, as a small company, had to make some decisions early on."

NBCU brokered deals for Sugar with brands such as Neutrogena, HGTV, Red Bull, Baileys, and AT&T, according to the blog post.

NBC Universal retains an investment stake in Sugar.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 1, 2008

Google and Seth MacFarlane: YouTube-Plus, Banner Ad Band-Aid or What?

Google's deal to distribute a new series from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane on its AdSense network is nothing new. The company has pushed YouTube videos with text and overlay ads to AdSense publisher partners since at least last October, and as far back as a year ago had a specific deal with MTV networks to distribute MTVN video clips and in-stream video ads to some sites.

The MacFarlane link-up is the same. The videos live on a YouTube brand channel, not inside the ad units. But it's still noteworthy for three specific reasons.

First is the big name talent involved. Seth MacFarlane is super bankable and his “Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy" is a good get for YouTube.

Second, the sponsorships Google and its partner Media Rights Council are trying to sell alongside the clips will be a cut above what it's tried before. Whereas last Fall Google was focused on text, pre-roll and display units, it's now moving into closer pairings of advertiser and content. Google has stated very clearly that it plans to treat advertising in "Cavalcade" as branded entertainment. (Those are Google's own words, though I would argue they shouldn't apply in situations where advertiser content is hitched up to pure unbranded content. When the two are connected, that's traditional advertising, even if the ads happen to be really good. Branded entertainment is standalone.)

Lastly, Google may be trying -- in its oblique way -- to apply a salve to the world's chronic and worsening case of banner blindness. Industry-reported click-through rates, brand impact research from Dynamic Logic, and eye tracking studies from Pew and others have all found the effectiveness of display advertising is in decline. Some are speculating that by moving to distribute quality video content in ad space, Google could help re-sensitize Internet users to banner ads.

I agree with that up to a point. Yet there's only so much Google can do given its low ranking on the display ad totem pole. While ComScore pinpoints it as the third largest ad network in terms of reach, behind Yahoo and Platform A, the vast majority of Google's inventory is text ads. Even so, it's nice to see an ad network operator do something -- anything! -- to aid the humble banner, which continues to be favored by marginal advertisers and neglected by blue chips.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 20, 2008

IAB U.K. Talks to Ad Exchanges after Right Media Ad Misplacement

Following recent instances of ad misplacement involving major U.K. brands, the IAB U.K. has announced it will meet with ad exchanges in order to bring them in line with its IASH (Internet Ad Sales House) accreditation system.

IASH is the IAB U.K.'s official ad network council, which seeks to "encourage best practice among online advertising sales houses through the adoption of an effective code of conduct."

Although only ad networks qualify for full IASH accreditation, IAB U.K. President, Guy Phillipson, believes that exchanges should still follow the council's guidelines.

"Although exchanges, in my opinion, cannot be fully IASH accredited, what they can be is IASH affiliates. Exchanges are showing a willingness to come and discuss this with us, and we will conduct meetings to assess how they can be IASH compliant," he said.

One exchange under scrutiny is Yahoo-owned Right Media. Philipson confirmed that it had been implicated in an ad misplacement, and that it would engage in talks with IASH to address the issue.

He added, "This highlights the way the market is becoming more complicated. The message to advertisers and agencies here is to only deal with networks and exchanges that are IASH compliant."

IASH currently has a total of 19 fully audited and accredited networks, including the likes of Tacoda, ValueClick and Oridian.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 23, 2008

Brightcove Launches Japanese Operation

Online video platform Brightcove has launched a majority-owned Japanese subsidiary, branded Brightcove KK, to grant it instant access to the Japanese market.

Headquartered in Tokyo, the Asian offshoot will operate a localized version of Brightcove's on-demand video platform, offering video distribution and advertising services.

The operation is backed by a $4.9 million investment from four leading Japanese digital media players, including ad network and technology company Cyber Communications Inc. (CCI), content delivery network J-Stream, prominent Japanese agency Dentsu, and information outsourcing company transcosomos.

Publicis also announced this week that it too was branching out further into the Asian market, acquiring Chinese digital agency EmporioAsia, to add to the Yong Yang marketing firm it snapped up last year.

Following its purchase of Digitas in 2006, Publicis also acquired Chinese independent interactive marketing network Communication Central Group (CCG) last year, which it re-branded Digitas Greater China.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 22, 2008

FM Green Lights a Green Network

Federated Media has set up a new mini-network in the green publishing category. Its new Green Federation launches with four sites (Inhabitat.com, Giga Omni Media earth2tech.com, Next New Media's ViroPOP.com and GM-VOLT.com), with subjects ranging from design to green tech to video. Ads on those properties today are mostly generic display executions for consumer and telco brands. FM's mission will be to bring environmentally-themed advertisers and products into the fold.

The below chart from Compete shouldn't be considered highly accurate, but it may give a rough indication of audience size at FM's top three green sites. Below that is a chart showing FM's top Green Federation site, Inhabitat.com, compared to category leader TreeHugger.com, which is owned by Discovery Communications.

Other FM Federations include Technology, Business & Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Video Gaming. Recently it entered a partnership with BabyCenter to co-sell inventory on a Parenting network.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 20, 2008

Quote of the Day: Jupiter's Emily Riley on Ad Networks

"Advertisers will move their budgets around and around the web, forever. Ad Networks serve a huge percentage of all of the display ads shown online, so even if advertisers test smaller sites, or different sites, they could not possibly make enough spot buys to equal the sheer volume they can get from one or two network buys. In addition, networks represent the most measurable portion of display advertising: therefore it is the most immune to economic downturn."

-Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley, writing on display advertising during a recession.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2008

Media Buyers Take Aim

Intergi created "Media Buyer's Revenge, a first-person shooter that understands why your heart pounds every time the phone rings, and every time Outlook alerts you to new e-mail.

Of course, while the game is played from the perspective of a media buyer, and has sales people in the crosshairs, Intergi itself wants you media buyers to advertise on game sites on its network. But happy shooting!

Posted by Enid Burns at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft Memo: We'll Win in Display

Most analysts and investors still believe Microsoft's bid for Yahoo was strictly a search play. Display ads -- if they figured into the strategy at all -- were mere garnish to the main dish. Microsoft needs to compete harder with Google, and Google's power is contingent on its search market share. End of story, right?

Not exactly. In a memo to staff, Microsoft Platforms & Services President Kevin Johnson, identified the company's top ad-related priorities ahead of its Advance08 advertising conference this week. Among those priorities: "Win in display advertising."

"We have an advantage in tools, agency assets/relationships and a team laser-focused on capturing the display ad platform opportunity. As we build from a position of strength, we will increase engineering resources to drive even more innovation," Kevin wrote.

It's an area where Microsoft needs to show it means business. After all, the company has no fewer than five display platforms, including the MSN Network, DrivePM (courtesy of aQuantive), MSN Direct Response, AdECN, and high-profile individual relationships with sites like Digg, Facebook and WSJ Digital. Yet it has not yet consolidated those offerings into a unified platform offering, the way Yahoo, through AMP, and AOL, through Platform A, have both begun to do with their sprawling display ad holdings.

ClickZ will be on the floor at Microsoft's Advance08 event tomorrow and Wednesday, so check back with us for insights on how Microsoft plans to position its ad platforms and services in the wake of the Yahoo deal implosion.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

Report: Adify Sold to Cox for $300M

Advertising network Adify is being acquired by Cox Enterprises for $300 million, the Associated Press is reporting. The deal is said to be announced today.

"We're absolutely convinced at Cox that online revenue is continuing to grow," John Dyer, Cox executive vice president for finance, told The Associated Press.

Adify is one of many ad networks that have emerged over the past year.
It got its start in the niche vertical network world by introducing a network of blog sites associated with Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 15, 2008

Lead Gen Firm Q Interactive Expands into U.K.

U.S. based lead-gen network Q Interactive has announced that it is extending its operations to the U.K., and has engaged a London-based staff. The firm's TrueLeads service gathers consumer contact information from partner sites (by consent), and passes this on to marketers for sales and CRM purposes.

The move will seek to continue the company's U.S. success in a "rapidly expanding U.K. market," according to Q Interactive President and CEO Matt Wise.

The network currently includes publisher sites Weather.com and About.com, and advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo.

Gayle Guzzardo, SVP of product management at Q Interactive, currently chairs the Interactive Advertising Bureau Lead Generation Committee, which seeks to generate and maintain standards and best practices in an area subject to scrutiny from regulatory bodies and consumer organizations.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 9, 2008

Advertising.com Launches Inventory Management Platform

And you thought PubAccess meant you were watching Nova or Jim Lehrer. Nope, it's the new Web-based ad management platform for smaller publishers from AOL's Advertising.com. The service will allow publishers in the Advertising.com display network to block advertisers or ad categories, view activity reports and access the network's optimization technology. The company claims this will generate higher CPMs for publishers.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 26, 2008

Guardian Says 'No Thanks' to Phorm

Phorm recently partnered with a three leading U.K. ISPs, and has been working hard to allay privacy concerns stemming from its use of IP-based targeting technology.

In what could portent a blow to the companies attempt to make inroads into the British advertising marketing, Guardian News & Media has just politely said thanks, but no thanks to the prospect of working with Phorm's OIX advertising exchange.

"Our decision was in no small part down to the conversations we had internally about how this product sits with the values of our company," Simon Philby, the Guardian's advertising manager, is reported to have written in an e-mail to a concerned reader.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 24, 2008

Another Big Publisher Ditches Ad Networks

Earlier this year I wrote about Gawker's abstinence policy with regard to ad networks. "We feel there absolutely is value in not wasting our readers' attention on cheap, ugly advertisements... and maybe some good karma too," Gawker sales head Chris Batty told me at the time.

Now another major publisher is following suit. ESPN has decided to sever ties with ad networks and exchanges, according to a story in MediaWeek this morning.

Both Gawker and ESPN have expressed hope other publishers will follow suit. It's a great sales move, since it sends a message of love to brand advertisers and appears to take a stand against the math-driven approaches to ad targeting being championed by the major Web companies. But don't look for a general publisher rebellion against networks. Abstinence may work for sites representing a potent media brand in a narrow category (like ESPN), or for networks independently run on a shoestring (like Gawker). But dozens of others are deeply reliant on the incremental revenue offered by arbitrage and algorithms.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 7, 2008

Time's Running Out to Comment on FTC's Behavioral Targeting Rules

If you had it in mind to share your $0.02 with the FTC on its recently proposed self regulation rules for behavioral targeting, you'd better get on it. The deadline to submit comments is just a few weeks away.

The language of the suggested rules is very broad, which the FTC believes is necessary for them to be effective in governing the future evolution of BT. One requires "reasonable security" of consumer data. Another proposes companies keep data only long enough to fill a "legitimate business need."

The FTC also wants to make data collection more transparent to consumers, of whom it says "few appear to understand the role that data collection plays." To that end, it's calling for a prominent opt-out mechanism on all sites engaged in behavioral targeting.

You can read and comment on the proposed guidelines document at the FTC's site. Remember, if you don't make yourself heard now, you're not allowed to complain later.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

For Real Networks, Low CPCs but Less Traffic with Sendori

Following a second round of funding in November, third party domain redirect marketplace Sendori recently enabled phrase and exact match options in its auction-based system. When advertisers win bids on generic domains, the system redirects users that have directly-navigated to that domain to advertiser sites. Direct navigation occurs when a user enters a URL into a browser window. For instance, a user who directly-navigates to CreditCardDeals.com might be redirected to a Visa offer landing page through the Sendori system.

With the new exact match capability, advertisers can restrict redirects to a specific set of domains rather than a broader collection including similar URLs. An auto insurance advertiser might choose only to have redirects take place when a user enters NewYorkCarInsurance.com, but not the more generic CarInsurance.com.

Sendori President and CEO Ofer Ronen believes the new matching option makes for "more ways to optimize campaigns."

According to Ronen, the company has worked with over 72,000 advertisers, most of which are lead gen or direct response oriented. "They're looking for ROI…. It's less for branding," he told me during a talk late last year.

Real has been using the system to promote its casual game destinations since late September. In this case, Real uses search advertising -- and now Sendori -- for performance-based campaigns, unlike big brands like Procter & Gamble or Coke that may be willing to pay relatively high rates for search ads to drive traffic to branded entertainment and game destinations for branding purposes.

For Real, the amount of traffic coming in through Sendori is much less than from Google, John Marini, online marketing manager at Real, told me recently. "It's incremental gain, but it's not a ton of traffic," he said, noting Google paid search ads drive around 40,000 users per day into Real games, while Sendori drives "more like in the hundreds."

Still, the low CPC rates make up for it. "[Sendori is] kind of a boon for us since we can drive traffic in at a lower CPC," he added.

Marini does wonder about the effect of the domain redirection service on users. For instance, if a generic game domain redirects to RealArcade.com one day and one of Coca-Cola's free games the next, "there's inconsistency," from the user's perspective, he said. "I think the user intent is slightly different than search," he continued.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 22, 2008

Ad Sales and Ops Jobs Could Figure Into Yahoo Layoffs

Reports that Yahoo will shortly lay off several hundred staffers should come as no surprise to those of us who have tracked the company over the past year (See ClickZ's recent coverage linked below). CEO Jerry Yang foreshadowed this moment during his very first earnings call in July when he promised change at the company. And he more recently reinforced that promise with his October declaration that Yahoo would narrow its focus to become a "starting point" for consumers and a powerful Web-wide inventory source for advertisers.

Reading between the lines, one spin on those comments goes like this: Content operations jobs are going away, and by the way, we'll be eliminating the walls (and redundancies) between our ad network holdings.

If that interpretation has any merit, many ad sales and operations folks at BlueLithium, Right Media and its in-house network sales group might be getting pink slips for Valentine's Day. If I were a betting man I'd put money on it. After all, back in September Jupiter analyst Emily Riley told ClickZ Yahoo was "considering merging and retraining sales teams" and "centralizing sales efforts" across all its acquired properties.

Related:

Yahoo Shows Signs of Display Ad Growth in Q3, Builds Publisher Network
Yahoo's Exec Departures: Brain Drain or Natural Exodus?
Yahoo Buys BlueLithium, Dreaming of Network Dominance
Yahoo's Yang Promises Changes Following Q2 Earnings Talk

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 9, 2008

Gawker Media's Experiment in Ad Network Abstinence

Gawker Media may be known for slinging mud and dishing dirt, but the publisher keeps a clean nose with the ads it allows on its 15 blogs.

Last week I was poking around IO9.com, Gawker's just-launched sci-fi blog, and noticed a bunch of non-ads had usurped the site's traditional banner placements. These were arty-looking photographs labeled simply "Gawker Artists." Click through and you get a long list of Gawker-published artists and their works. Very unGawkerlike.

Curious, I pinged Gawker sales honcho Chris Batty, who told me the program began when the company decided to throw off ad networks a while back.

"Due to these inefficiencies in the internet spot market, we had a fair amount of inventory that went unfilled," Batty wrote back. "I thought that giving the promotional space away to artists would be a nice thing for artists (and for readers) and that's just what we've been doing since."

Batty said Gawker makes no revenue directly from the program, but added, "We feel there absolutely is value in not wasting our readers' attention on cheap, ugly advertisements... and maybe some good karma too."

Not only that, but I wouldn't be surprised if Gawker eventually sees an additional benefit by re-sensitizing jaded readers to some of the ad space on its properties.

More recently Batty set up an exhibitor program where other sites can display galleries showing the work of Gawker artists. Batty said most exhibitors are small-time site operators who want to support artists while prettying up their sites a bit.

But he added, "I would welcome other high quality publishers' participation in the program for the purpose of better engaging their readers, helping artists and maybe even themselves in the process -- by draining the network swamp and getting hard to work on creating online marketing experiences valuable enough to cover the cost of original content creation."

Have you or any publishers you know overthrown network ads, partially or entirely? If so, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 7, 2008

Burst Media Bursts into Mom Ad Network Battle

Burst Media is the latest to get into the niche ad network race targeting women and mothers as a demographic. The ad rep firm launched the Burst Moms Network today, comprised of 150 Web sites targeted mothers, promising over 197 million impressions per month, according to the company.

There's no denying that advertising online to mothers is a growing segment, and Burst isn't alone in launching an ad network to focus on the demographic. Last November, Warner Bros. Television Group launched the MomLogic Network, Federated Media signed Baby Center, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched Martha's Circle, all to reach mothers searching for information online with targeted advertising. Which should remind all of us that Mom is a strange and powerful force in our lives. You should call her.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 20, 2007

What European Consumer Advocates Are Saying About Google/DoubleClick

As the FTC finally gives the green light to Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, all eyes are now on Europe's investigation of the deal.

Following its initial warnings issued in late June, consumer group BEUC has once again written to the European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes to express concerns over Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of Doubleclick.

The BEUC (The European Consumers' Organisation), which represents 41 pro-consumer groups from across Europe, is arguing that the deal is "not in the interest of European consumers." The letter cited three main areas of concern: pricing and competition, harm to consumers, and matters of privacy.

Firstly the correspondence suggests that the deal would have a significant negative impact on pricing, and could ultimately impede on publishers' revenue. It states that Google would be free to raise prices and prevent rival networks from using Doubleclick's technology, resulting in Web publishers seeing "a reduction in the revenue they receive from Google" and passing these costs on to the consumer.

On competition grounds it argues that the deal would place the entire online advertising market in jeopardy, as the company would "dominate both major pipelines for online advertising." It goes on to state that "there will be no real alternative to the combined entity for advertisers and web publishers," which will apparently result in the "significant harm" of European consumers.

Finally the letter expresses concerns over consumer privacy and welfare, stating that the merger would create a structure that would "almost certainly be less respectful of user privacy." It argues that privacy protection is a competitive differentiator in the ad serving market, and that the merger would eradicate incentives for Google to innovate in the area since competition will have been diminished.

The European Commission is now carrying out a second-phase investigation into competition concerns surrounding the deal. As previously reported by ClickZ news, disapproval from the European Commission is likely to result in a collapse of the entire deal irrespective of the FTC's decision, since both companies generate significant revenue from within Europe.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

FIM to Serve Ads Outside News Corp Empire

In February, MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media, a News Corp company, acquired ad tech firm Strategic Data Corporation to handle the ad management back end for a portion of the display ads on its sites. At the time FIM said it would use the system to manage ads targeted to all sites in its network, excluding FoxSports.com, IGN Entertainment, Rotten Tomatoes, Fox.com, and of course, MySpace.

Now FIM President Peter Levinsohn says that ad management platform is near ready, and could eventually extend to media properties beyond the FIM and News Corp walls. According to Reuters, Levinsohn told an audience at the Reuters Media Summit in New York today the platform could be unveiled as early as the first half of '08.

This is no big surprise, considering Yahoo is also aiming to be the next big ad network and AOL already does it with Advertising.com. Oh, and Google serves a few ads on other properties, too....

"We're well down the path in terms of discussions with some of the other News Corp properties to do ad serving," he said, according to the story. "Ultimately we'll take the company off network and become an ad network for assets outside of the News Corporation empire."

So, does that make his boss Darth Murdoch?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

eBaum's World, Gorilla Nation to Offer Video Overlays

Alliances to support in-video advertising, and especially video overlays, are coming fast and furious. This week we learn that eBaum's World, the flagship site for ZVUE Corporation, will work with ScanScout to identify brand-safe video inventory and deliver contextual overlays to it. And ad rep firm Gorilla Nation has partnered with video ad delivery specialist Panache to offer its publishers the ability to run numerous formats, including overlays. Truly no one can claim rights to the overlay format any longer, if they ever could. VideoEgg has claimed to be the first, and if they're right hen good on 'em, though I suspect the cable nets might have something to say about that.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 6, 2007

Deja News All Over Again...Yahoo Partners Hedge Bets

Meet the new newspaper network. Same as the old newspaper network. It's got Gannett and Tribune at the helm and it's entirely speculative.

An online ad network is supposedly in the works featuring three Yahoo newspaper consortium partners, Hearst, Cox and Media News Group, and G and T. Sorry, no twist of "M" with this G and T: McClatchy doesn't appear to be involved.

The Chicago Tribune had the mostly-unsourced story today (can't imagine how they got it…).

"Sources close to the situation said Gannett Co., Tribune Co., Hearst Corp., Media News Group and Cox Newspapers may band together to form a common ad sales force that could offer national advertisers 'one-stop shopping' for ad space on big-market Web sites across the nation.

The consortium, which would both overlap with and compete against another network set up last year by Yahoo Inc., would capture seven of the top 10 U.S. markets, one source said. The hope is that it would grow by attracting such other companies as the Washington Post Co. and McClatchy Co."

Somehow I'd bet they already asked McClatchy. Doesn't anyone remember the Wall Street Journal's big piece from January on the GMT network? It was supposed to wallop Yahoo's growing network of paper partner sites. Or, at least, it would show Yahoo the newspapers could still consort on their own without the company that had been siphoning their ad dollars all these years.

In fact, the Journal story even employed the same ol' tired phrase in the intro, noting, "Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co. are planning to offer advertisers one-stop shopping for display ads on Internet sites."

Later, after adding several additional publisher partners, Yahoo got McClatchy to join its consortium.

So, the one glaring omission with this "new" would-be network is McClatchy. One would guess if McClatchy were involved, the Chi Trib story would have been titled something like, "GMT Network Grabs Old Partner Back from Yahoo Grip," or "GMT Finally Signs on Partners…Sort of…We Hear."

I called McClatchy and got nothin'. I called Tribune and got nothin'. I called Cox, Hearst and Media News Group and got nothin'. Yahoo wouldn't talk, either, but no surprise there.

Gannett VP Corporate Communications Tara Connell talked, though: "We continue and have been for some time talking with whoever wants to talk about something like [an online newspaper ad network], but beyond that we're not commenting."

The looming question remains: What happened to McClatchy? Well, not that this is a reason, but let's not forget McClatchy owns RealCities -- yes, it's a newspaper ad network. And it just added a new publisher partner.

So, why would the Yahoo partners, including a main instigator Media News Group, be involved?

Why not?

Ken Doctor, newspaper industry pundit and lead news analyst at media market research firm Outsell, said it best when I spoke with him this afternoon. "It's interesting that some of these other companies are at least entertaining talks with Tribune and Gannett. It's a hedge," he said. "It behooves them at least to have an alternative. They're concerned that they're placing too much of a singular bet on Yahoo," he added.

Oh, and considering a full Yahoo ad platform integration seems a long ways off, and the paper publishers could be getting restless, they might want to shake some action.

"It doesn't hurt for Yahoo to know that other talks are going on," said Doctor.

UPDATE: I just got an e-mail from Leon Levitt, VP of digital media at Cox, who confirmed the The Chicago Tribune story. He and Tim Landon, president of Tribune Interactive, were the only named sources in the article, actually. Levitt wrote the new talks don't infringe at all on the Yahoo relationship, which will be more of a national advertiser play.

"Other conversations are more focused on selling the extraordinary reach of local newspaper online sites, which are almost always the number one local site in terms of audience....Any conversations outside of the Yahoo! partnership are targeted at this opportunity," he wrote.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh Quigo

Rumors that Quigo will soon be acquired by AOL are yet unconfirmed. Yesterday an AOL spokesperson replied with the standard, "We don't comment on rumors or speculation." And calls to Quigo have not been returned.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 5, 2007

Aggregate Knowledge Looks to Pique Consumer Interest

Describing it as an "adSense for content" system, Aggregate Knowledge officially launched its Pique Discovery Network for placing targeted ads on publisher and e-commerce Web sites today.

The Pique Discovery system places specific ads on a page based on the purchasing or general interests of previous Web site visitors. An online consumer interested in bedding might be shown display ads for throw pillows on the same page, according to Paul Martino, CEO and founder of Aggregate Knowledge. The company offers four versions of its system, including Pique Multi-Site Discovery for placing ads across multiple sites in the network, Pique Onsite Discovery for only a single site, Pique Email Discovery for dynamic ad placement in e-mails each time they are opened, and Pique Affiliate Discovery for updated affiliate ads. The system works by collecting traffic data via JavaScript code on a site which then funnels to the Pique Discovery Engine.

The Network has signed on a number of customers including SmartBargains.com, DelightfulDeliveries.com, Vinfolio, The HealthCentral Network and others.

"Our average conversion on Delightful Deliveries, besides the Christmas season, is three percent, but when people use that Aggregate Knowledge discovery window it's 10 percent higher," said, Eric Lituchy, founder and CEO of Gift Web site DelightfulDeliveries.com. "So it's pretty powerful."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 24, 2007

Targeting Mobile Campaigns by Carrier

At CTIA this past spring Millennial Media launched its Decktrade mobile ad network. Now at CTIA this fall, it's releasing Decktrade 2.0, which offers benefits for advertisers including improved campaign creation, one-click campaign management, and improved reporting and purchase history. Within the campaign management Decktrade allows advertisers to create one campaign across multiple carriers, which previously required separate buys and budget allotments for each carrier. On the publisher side, Decktrade cleaned up the campaign approval process, payout process, performance statistics, and code integration.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

Shelter Media Is at Home with Adify

Home and Garden content and retail site network Shelter Media is the latest to use Adify's ad sales and management platform. The network features 33 publisher sites reaching 1.3 million visitors, according to Adify, including Absolutehome.com and BuildersSquare.com.

Other recent additions to Adify's ad platform clients include education content network Hot Chalk and sports blog network Yardbarker.

As the Web continues to splinter off into more and more niche sites and networks, platforms like Adify are filling a gap between Google AdSense-style contextual networks and larger networks, allowing small publishers to have more control over their ad offerings and campaign management. Platforms like Adify are also giving small publishers the tools to sell direct to advertisers and agencies.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2007

ADSDAQ Exchange Opens for All Publishers

ContextWeb's ADSDAQ ad exchange opened to all site publishers today following a testing period during which A&E Television Networks and others supplied inventory. The company's Web app lets publishers set CPMs, and if inventory can't be sold for a publisher's required minimum CPM, ADSDAQ plugs in ads from networks including Google AdSense, Advertising.com and Yahoo's Right Media (another ad exchange firm).

The company said it plans to start testing a self-serve app for advertisers and agencies not already invited to the exchange early next year.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 8, 2007

Podaddies Joins the Video Ad Insertion Race

Updatable video ad insertion, especially for mobile devices, has a lot of potential for advertisers looking to provide new ads to already downloaded videos, even if the technology is still clearly in its early running. This week another horse got into the race in the form of Podaddies, which is a combination of video ad network and a technology that can be linked directly to videos so they can have new ads played with them.

I met up with Nate Pagel, CEO of Podaddies, in San Francisco's South Park and he told me that his system will not only provide updated ads to videos on Web pages, but also to devices like the video iPod when its connected to the Internet, or through other mediums like blogs or e-mail.

"Everything you can do on a Web page, you can do on a download," he said of his system's ability to provide updated ads by placing code directly into online videos.

Podaddies has been around since it launched last December, but is now trying to get the word out to advertisers and agencies that its service is available after securing some $1 million in additional funding from The Band of Angels, The Angels Forum and other investors. Pagel told me he recognizes companies like Kiptronic, ScanScout and YuMe are his competitors, but he believes Podaddies' ability to do dynamic ad insertion will win out. His system works with Quicktime and Flash formats, but not with Windows Media as it's not as highly adopted with podcasters. He is watching Microsoft's recently released Silverlight technology however, and told me "I'm a fan, and we're looking at it, but it's not on the roadmap."

Podaddies first task is bringing small and medium sized video content distributors to its service he said. "Right now it's about independent video sites that don't have a way to monetize their content," Pagel said. "We help those folks stay in business by providing them advertising."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Crossing the Rubicon… Into Beta

Rubicon Project, a publisher-side ad management platform, opened its invitational beta today granted to the first 500 publishers to sign up. According to company founder Frank Addante, the Rubicon Project addresses two trends: a lack of advertising technology available for Web sites, and rapid growth of ad networks. The system lets publishers optimize their inventory across the 300-plus ad networks, which continues to grow as specialized ad networks form.

"Tap into one of these networks, and you're not reaching the full, available market," said Addante. He also said media buyers spend across multiple networks. The interface used by publishers allows for a site to adjust inventory allotments across all ad networks, and shows real-time statistics on each ad network.

Addante has founded five companies, including L90/adMonitor which was eventually acquired by DoubleClick. The founder reunited with key members of his original team to form The Rubicon Project.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 19, 2007

Facebook Shopping

Following the release of the Facebook API availability, micro-advertising company Chitika took the experienced it developed with its eMiniMall ad unit, which runs on numerous blog sites, and created similar unit for Facebook. Using the Facebook platform, Chitika built an API, which Facebook application developers can use to integrate and display revenue-generating eMiniMalls directly on their applications.

The advertised products will show up alongside paid merchant listings from Chitika's merchant partners and allow users to search and compare stores to find the best price. The existing network for the eMiniMall unit is primarily comprised of blogs and smaller publisher sites. Chitika felt the Facebook opportunity was a good way to expand its offering. "The excitement here is that social networking sites are being looked at as a very fertile ground, as new horizons for advertising and the advertising industry as a whole is exposing ways in which we can make this advertising model work," said Chitika CEO Venkat Kolluri.

Chitika provided information on the Chitika Facebook API and how developers and other advertisers can access its new channel.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

See Spottt Run

Does this sound familiar? A new company initiative launched today at TechCrunch 40 Conference 2007 in San Francisco called Spottt is setting up a system where like-minded Web sites can post ads on each others sites for free. If you've been around the Internet for awhile it might, and even Spottt founder Philip Kaplan owned up to it very early in his presentation.

"Yeah, LinkExchange," he nodded, referring to the now defunct network of Web sites that was launched in 1996 and purchased by Microsoft in 1998, primarily for its mailing list, according to Kaplan.

LinkExchange had a successful run in the early days of the Internet, and even claimed eBay as one of its first ten listings, as Kaplan reminded the audience. Now it seems that he and Spottt are looking to replicate that system, with the help of parent company and ad network AdBrite. They're hoping to attract small and long tail publishers looking for easy advertising options.

With the logo "You pet my back, I'll pet yours," Spottt itself will make its revenue through selling inventory in a two-for-one system. When a publisher places two ads from a Spottt partner, the reciprocating company will run one ad from that publisher and one from Spottt, Kaplan said.

Already the site seemed to have some support in the form of TechCrunch 40 forum contributor Guy Kawasaki, the CEO of early-stage venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures. "I like it because as a blogger and a Web site owner I truly understand the pain you are solving," he said.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Seeks Global Privacy Standards as DoubleClick Deal is Challenged in EU, Australia

Google said last week it would advocate for global standards on privacy protection, which could ease the privacy outcries and regulatory snags that tend to accompany its product and business moves around the world.

Speaking at a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) meeting on ethics and human rights in France Friday, Google global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer put forward proposals for new global privacy rules protecting consumer data. In a blog post earlier today he stated that “as long as there are no global standards for privacy protection, individuals and businesses will remain at risk as they operate online.”

Fleischer went on to suggest that the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) framework laid out at the 2004 conference provided an appropriate foundation on which to build, arguing that “if privacy principles can be agreed upon within the 21 APEC member economies, a similar set of principles could be applied on a global scale”.

Cynics may point out the timing of the announcements in light of hostility towards the proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of Doubleclick. In an e-mail sent to ClickZ, the Executive Director for the Center for Digital Democracy Jeff Chester stated “It's clear that this is motivated in part to dampen the growing opposition to the takeover. Google is attempting to head-off a global regulatory digital train-wreck.”

Fleischer played down links between today’s announcements and the pending deal however, describing a “sustained multi-pronged effort by Google to improve privacy practices”, and stating that “We would do this regardless of whether DoubleClick were part of the equation or not.”

Of course, Google is no stranger to Internet privacy concerns. Worries about its practices date back to 2004, when Privacy International filed complaints against targeted ads in Gmail. Doubleclick or no Doubleclick, it seems that Google has learned its lesson, and this time round is rather sensibly adopting a pre-emptive, rather than reactive approach.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 7, 2007

Monetize Video Content on Mobile

Transpera is a mobile technology company close to launching with a white label video product. The business model is to partner with content companies, particularly video content, and bring the media to mobile while stitching in ads seamlessly. The targeted ad unit is similar in execution to one offered by Ad Infuse on ZooVision content. Execution has to be seamless as mobile users won't have patience to wait for load time, buffering, and an ad. The ad units, typically under :10, stream right into the entertainment.

Discovery primarily happens on the Web, site visitors can send a video clip to their mobile phone. The sticky application then encourages users to download an app to aggregate more video and share with friends, who will also sign up. Company founder and CEO said Transpera builds discovery tools on the Web, but once users get the video, they'll naturally visit the site via mobile for more content.

Ads, sold either by the content company or Transpera, can by dynamically targeted based on an aggregate of user behavior across the network. Site registration data can also be applied to targeting. Location-based targeting by phone number is another option for advertisers.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 14, 2007

On Glam and Publisher Branded Ad Networks

The controversy about Glam's traffic stats just won't die. This week the debate reignited in a VentureBeat story and a TechCrunch post ("Is Glam a Sham?"), both evidently triggered by a rumor the company is pursuing a $200 million private funding round.

Critics harsh on Glam for touting its "largest destination" status among aggregators of women online, when the bulk of its inventory comes from a big ad network -- and one that's not overwhelmingly female-centric at that. (The Glam Network has large traffic contributions from MyYearbook.com among other gender-neutral sites). Certainly Glam deserves some of the rough treatment it's getting, mainly for comparing itself to iVillage in the first place, which as ClickZ covered earlier this summer is off-base. Comparing it to Gawker Media's audience – younger, more style conscious -- makes as much sense.

Yet Glam was the first small-time premium publisher I'm aware of (please correct me if I'm wrong) to experiment with repping off-site inventory to kick up display ad revenues. Of course, Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft all long ago built ad networks while maintaining central properties, and they succeeded to the point where high-end publishers with direct sales forces almost seemed to have ceded the whole concept to them. Then Glam jumped in, and many others have followed suit, including WaPo, MSNBC.com, Heavy.com and, yes, iVillage.

Plenty of people dislike the model Glam pioneered, feeling publishers should own their ad inventory. Gawker's Nick Denton told me as much a few months back. However, I was also present weeks later when Tacoda Chairman Dave Morgan counseled Denton to ramp up an ad network of his own. (Denton's response: "You're evil, you know that?" Morgan's retort: "Hey, I'm all about enabling free content online.") Denton seemed half convinced by conversation's end, so look out for a Gawker extended ad network.

Does it matter that Glam's central brand is weak and its traffic sourced all over the Web? I like David Card's relativist analyst. For big brand advertisers and the agencies that rep them: not if Glam can guarantee premium placement. For direct marketers: very little. For consumers: oh yeah. I'd add that it can be tough to court that first, most lucrative group of constituents if you haven't already built a strong consumer brand. Glam's trying to make up for that with lots of ad sales firepower. So far, the strategy seems to be working out fine.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 8, 2007

Apollo Group picks up Aptimus

In what strikes me as an odd pairing, Apollo Group, which provides online and on-campus education, is set to acquire online advertising network Aptimus for approximately $48 million.

Apparently the company wants to use the ad network to "advance Apollo's continuing efforts to enhance the efficacy of its online advertising investments in support of its mission to increase awareness of and access to quality education services," as it said in a statement. Which means I suppose, that if not enough folks know about you, buy your own ad network to fix it.

Apparently Aptimus will still work with Internet publishers and advertising customers in other industries, so it might bring in some funds. But on first blush the deal seems to be more of a deal to replace its current exclusive management contract with Advertising.com, which is expiring over the next few months, by allowing Apollo to manage its Internet marketing internally.

Of course, Apollo Group also runs the adult learning annex University of Phoenix, which is a major buyer of online advertising (if all the ads I've seen online are any indication), so perhaps it is better to buy the cow than the milk.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Australians are coming to Personalize Your Video Ads

The personalized video advertisement space is getting a bit more crowded now that an Australian company is coming to American shores to take on Visible World and the like. Qmecom is a Melbourne-based company that recently opened up an office in San Francisco, and plans on opening one in London as well.

The company is touting its Personalized Video Advertising Platform as a means of breaking up online video advertisements into components and then creating geotargeted ads to viewers.

"What's unique about us is we can decompile video. We do not change the integrity of the ads. The blends the cuts etc., stay in place, and all we do is breaking down the granular creative assets," David Cannington, VP Americas for Qmecom told me.

Whether its truly unique or not will be played out as the company takes on Visible World, which has been doing targeted ads on television for sometime, partnering like crazy, and recently made the move to online video targeting as well.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 7, 2007

MIVA to Cut Its Own Ad Spend

Performance-based online ad network and toolbar provider MIVA plans on cutting its own ad spending. As noted in the company's Q2 '07 earnings announcement, the firm spent $9.1 million in Q2 2007, up from $7.5 million the previous quarter.

But, the company said in a statement, "The approximate $1.6 million increase in advertising spend did not yield the immediate anticipated results in toolbar growth and revenue." So, it will reduce ad spending this quarter. I'd guess the company does mostly online advertising.

MIVA's reported revenues for Q2 2007 were lower than the same quarter in '06, down from $41.4 to $39.6 million. In Q1 '07 they came in at $43.2 million.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 3, 2007

CBS Mobile: Enough Inventory to Spread Around

CBS's mobile division made a deal with four mobile ad networks earlier this week. The Wall Street Journal reported the availability of text and banner ads for mobile Web sites and video commercials through partnerships with AdMob, Millennial media, Rhythm NewMedia, and Third Screen Media. CBS created its mobile division in February and had its internal sales team selling ads for its initial three WAP sites. With industry-wide complaints about not having enough available inventory, it's a good sign when CBS is able to spread its inventory across four networks.

Third Screen Media, one of the networks named, recently released a few stats on progress. The company said it reaches nearly 50 percent of all U.S. mobile content subscribers according to Telephia data. The deal with CBS creates a good deal of overlap, but also presents opportunities as the network builds a larger presence on both on carrier decks and the mobile Web.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 28, 2007

TribalFusion to Build Out In-Stream Contextual Video Network

ROO and TribalFusion are planning to work together to improve how video offers are targeted against text-based content online.

The companies' joint announcement today is light on details and heavy on bombast (the deal "will forever alter how consumers view pre-roll advertising," and will make "clicking through to a video link a far more compelling proposition than ever before," etc.) but the gist of it is that sites in the Tribal Fusion network will be able to offer video content and ads relevant to the Web page a person is on.

The example given is that of a person reading a newspaper site article about indie bands, who is then offered videos about the music discussed on the page they're reading. People who watch the video will then be able to purchase that music if they want it.

Part of what's interesting here is that Tribal Fusion appears to be growing its pre-roll ad inventory by partnering with a video content aggregator (ROO) and serving video content into display ad space. I can't be sure how the final iteration of the agreement will work out, but by using inventory on its partner sites to invite Web users to click content related to a page they're on, the company increases the amnount of high value in-stream inventory it can sell. As a bonus, Tribal Fusion can contextually target those pre-roll and in-stream ads, since it will be able to infer the topic of the video.

Who knows if any of this will actually happen, but the potential is there.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tremor Adds ClipSyndicate to Video Ad Network

In what's basically a mini-version of the deal it made with BrightCove earlier this spring, Tremor Networks added video content and syndication firm ClipSyndicate to its video ad network. ClipSyndicate offers a bevy of video content that's heavy on news, sports and current events from a variety of professional and semi-professional sources. Its syndication network consists of "thousands" of small to mid-sized site owners, including bloggers.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007

Reed Business Opens Network to Partners, Using Burst

B-to-B publisher Reed Business has been using Burst Media's ad management platform for about a year, and now the company is opening up its network of about 20 sites to additional business publishers through an extended relationship with Burst. Through the new Reed Partner Network, the publisher aims to broaden the reach for advertisers looking to reach potential clients in niche technology, engineering and other markets.

So far, only a couple of site partners have been tacked onto the network, which can enable a variety of standard and rich media ad formats.

"We have actually approached one of our competitors who…we're hoping to get them signed up," said Brian Gallagher, president of Reed’s Kellysearch.com, a directory of industrial services.

In conjunction with the Reed network, Burst has pooled over 100 sites from its b-to-b and technology channels into its own b-to-b network. "As we grow our technology channel and b-to-b channel then those sites will be part also of the Reed Partner Network," said Burst CEO Jarvis Coffin.

Reed can accept ads from the Burst network and Burst's sales team can sell into the Reed network.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 4, 2007

AdSense Goes Glam

Glam Media has let it be known they've inked a multi-year deal with Google. The deal feels so glamorous, in fact, that announcement dominates the home page of the women's lifestyle site. Could this mean Google's now a fashion accessory in addition to everything else?

Google will become Glam's exclusive Web search provider, as well as deliver contextual AdSense ads to the property.

“Our strategy is to provide our audiences and advertisers with the most integrated and contextual entertainment experience possible, and our collaboration with Google provides additional and different contextual ad opportunities for advertisers," said Glam Media Chairman and CEO Samir Arora in a statement.

The #2 women's property after iVillage, Glam claims 12 million unique monthly visitors.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 23, 2007

Digital Marketing Remainders for May 23, 2007

Joost has yet another content deal, with CAA, but it's a little cryptic. The talent agency will support Joost's "efforts to secure" new content." I take it CAA expects to be sort of a social lubricant to getting these deals made. “CAA will provide Joost greater access to programming through our relationships with networks, studios, record labels, artists and independently-controlled content libraries," said the agency's bizdev head.

Who's Posing as Delta on Twitter? We've all had an earful of "the user is in control," but this sort of makes the cliché fresh again. Some twit has taken the Twitter user name Delta Air Lines and is micro-blogging in the voice of the company. They're doing a pretty good job too, from what we hear.

Once a darling of online advertisers, PlanetOut seems to be in want of cash, according to separate reports in The San Francisco Chronicle and Barron's. Really? What's a body to think when a big site with an affluent demo can't monetize its audience? To be fair, the reports outline several contributing factors, such as a decline in personal ads and the migration of profile data to MySpace. Anyway, looks like the company may seek a buyer.

CBS buys financial info site and video blog Wallstrip from Howard Lindzon. The site's less than a year old, and the rumored price is $5 million. As big media competes harder for ever-younger Web content plays, is this the future of content acquisitions?

Apparently noticing this ad serving stuff's sorta hot right now, Sapient will offer its own ad management tech as a standalone. Called BridgeTrack, the product offers reporting and optimization in multiple media channels, including e-mail, search and display.

Google adds Hotness to staid Trends report. You can now see a list of the 100 fastest-rising U.S. search queries. The Zeitgeist just got a little geistier. The resuts are just what you'd expect: everything to do with American Idol and the misbehavior of celebrity offspring.

Mobile game ad network Greystripe has imbibed an $8.9 million round led by Steamboat Ventures. Watch for other established mobile ad networks to make serious moves toward this space soon, which will drive up the cost of winning and keeping contracts with mobile game publishers.

Virgin Mobile USA will carry mobile search results and sponsored listings from JumpTap. The search capabilities will come in the form of a WAP-based search app, and enables local queries via a zip code or city and state.

Technorati redesigns to be less about blogs, more about multimedia and conversations. Peter Hirschberg spoke about the changes a bit at ClickZ's Advertising in Social Media event this week. They're now live on the site.

JenSense and Search Engine Watch note Google's recent purge of made-for-AdSense sites. Like Google's recent ban on ads from essay-writing services, it's another brave move from Google to take short term losses to keep a clean nose and elevate conversions and ad quality.

Gawker launches a new site for women, and it's hitting big numbers out of the gate. Jezebel is focused on celebrity gossip, but early posts include some snarky health-related news, two descriptors only Gawker could combine.

Also in site launches targeted to women, Somagirls.tv is seeking to serve "12- 24-year-old women," an age spread most marketers would consider to span two demographics. The site offers video channels on topics like health, beauty, travel, fashion, modeling, celebrity news and entertainment.

ICONIX, which offers an e-mail plug-in to visually authenticate incoming messages, is now compatible with Outlook 2003. That gives the company 60 percent reach in desktop e-mail and 80 percent reach in Webmail.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2007

Suit Against Yahoo Alleges Defective Ad Technology

Yahoo is the subject of a civil suit alleging "operational deficiencies" in the firm's ad-serving technology caused Yahoo to lose market share and push down its stock price.

The complaint says "Yahoo’s stock rose precipitously on defendants’ positive statements concerning Yahoo’s sales growth, record reported revenues and earnings and strong business fundamentals" and the shares rose to over $43 per share on January 6, 2006.

"However, concealed from investors was the fact that due to operational deficiencies in its ad technology, Yahoo was rapidly losing market share to Google and other search engines and Web destinations that would significantly undermine its revenues, earnings and value," the suit by Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP states. The firm is seeking class-action status on behalf of a wide class of shareholders.

On July 19, 2006, Yahoo's stock price fell 22 percent after the company announced second-quarter 2006 financial results that were lower than investors expected and analysts downgraded the shares, erasing billions of dollars in market capitalization, according to the suit.

The complaint presents a laundry list of Yahoo's alleged failings. Suits like these appeared by the hundreds after the dotcom bubble burst. Many companies agreed to settlements rather than go through the expense of a defense.

An e-mail to Yahoo's media relations staff seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.

Posted by Bill McGuire at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 11, 2007

Blind Item Guessing Game

Question: Which small ad network with wide reach among blogs is rumored to have been acquired by Google in recent weeks? ClickZ has heard from a reliable source that the companies completed the deal around the time of Google's pact to buy DoubleClick, but delayed announcing it because of widespread alarm about the data ownership implications of that monster deal. Since this match-up raises some similar questions, they're reportedly waiting for the GoogleClick buzz to die down before announcing it.

Post your guesses in the comments or e-mail them in.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 10, 2007

24/7 Real Media Confirms It's For Sale

In the wake of rumors of an acquisition by WPP Group, 24/7 Real Media executives have confirmed the company is formally seeking a buyer. During its Q1 earnings call this morning, 24/7 said it's working with Lehman Brothers to "assess a wide array of strategic alternatives."

The company posted revenue gains but a narrow loss for the quarter, with strength in its search and technology divisions but weakness in media. Despite the mixed performance, 24/7 raised guidance due partially to an expected windfall from the joining of DoubleClick and Google, execs said.

"With some of the corporate activities, particularly the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google, a number of larger opportunities have now appeared in our pipeline, so we certainly expect that revenue will accelerate as we go through the back-end of this year and go into 2008," said CFO Jonathan Hsu on the call.

aQuantive voiced a similar expectation during its own earnings call this week, but such claims seem premature –- unless that is, DoubleClick clients are already jumping ship? And if they are, why not say as much?

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 8, 2007

Third Screen Media Sees Network Expansion

Mobile ad network Third Screen Media released a few statistics today. It's network has grown to exceed 185 publishers including AccuWeather, Boston.com, Fox News, the Gannet network of newspapers, Maxim, Wapipedia, and WWE. The network serves over 225 million monthly advertising impressions. The stats refer to TSM's network, but speak to the growth of mobile advertising as a whole. "As the opportunities in mobile advertising continue to grow, so too will the number of players looking to take advantage of this unique ability to reach millions of individuals on such a personal device," said Roger Entner, SVP of the communications sector at IAG Research, in a statement released by TSM.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 24, 2007

I'm an Exchange, He's an Exchange, Wouldn't You Like to be an Exchange Too?

Ad networks are oh so 1.0. Today you've got to be an ad exchange to really count. Right Media, AdECN and now DoubleClick set the stage for the current hype around this more transparent model for buying and selling ads across publishers and networks. But how far can it go, and how loosely are we going to define the exchange anyway? Last week saw the appearance of the first e-mail based ad exchange, and today we learn of a mobile exchange called PhoneSpots. Problem is it's not an exchange at all.

The company is helping directory assistance operators and yellow pages providers to offer text and multimedia messages with listing information, search results and ads. First partner is YellowPages.com. It's a content and ad network for mobile messaging, in other words. Let's keep our terms straight.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

Guess Who's Saying "Antitrust" Now?

Microsoft just issued a statement regarding the antitrust allegations Redmond has lodged against Google in the wake of the latter's acquisition of DoubleClick.

Microsoft SVP and General Counsel Brad Smith says in the release:

“This proposed acquisition raises serious competition and privacy concerns in that it gives the Google DoubleClick combination unprecedented control in the delivery of online advertising, and access to a huge amount of consumer information by tracking what customers do online. We think this merger deserves close scrutiny from regulatory authorities to ensure a competitive online advertising market.”

Update: An organization called NetCompetition.org just came out with a paper criticizing what it calls Google's "imperial ambitions." Entitled "How Google-DoubleClick is Exploiting Antitrust Law's Weak Underbelly to Dominate Internet Advertising" (PDF download), the paper accuses Google of trying to "get rid of potential competitors in a clever manner that will not likely be scrutinized by the Government."

Only this organization sounds even creepier than its accusations against Google. It bills itself as an "e-forum promoting competitive Internet choices for consumers." Its members, however, are comprised largely of a who's who list of the telco and cable giants opposed to net neutrality: Verizon, Comcast, and the like.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GoogleClick Implications: Big Ad Network Consolidation Around the Corner?

The fur is flying on blogs and news sites about the implications of GoogleClick, DoubleGoo or whatever you want to call it. Here are a few of the big picture questions I'm trying to sort out and get answered:

Will the move trigger a consolidation spree in the ad network space? Microsoft lost a big opportunity when it lost DoubleClick. Buying it would've meant overnight legitimacy in the eyes of the marketing community, myriad established relationships with advertisers and publishers and a budding ad exchange -- in short, the chance to instantly grow an ad network, at Jack-and-the-beanstalk speed, on the scale of Advertising.com, AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network. Instead, the ad community woke up this morning with even greater doubts about Redmond's dedication to online advertising in general.

What would make up for it? How about a series of acquisitions of the biggest independent ad networks? If Microsoft bought AdBrite, Tribal Fusion, Specific Media and a few others, it could gain a much-needed boost not only in its saleable inventory but also its credibility. Not only that, but media buyers who feel inundated by ad network options would be grateful.

Everyone's expecting the company, and perhaps AOL and Yahoo as well, to go after the remaining titans of ad management and media sales -- primarily ValueClick, 24/7 Real Media or aQuantive. But there's a ton of traffic passing through the slightly smaller guys' networks. They could be good, and more affordable, acquisition targets.

Yes, the dashboard has arrived. Now the backlash? This is obviously a big moment for the convergence of search and display, which have always been locked at the elbows in terms of their impact on conversions (though their synergy has only lately been proven). But will GoogleClick mean a big step forward for integrated online/offline media management as well? DoubleClick's very recently embraced ad management on digital signage, and Google's broadcast and print initiatives are no secret. How long before marketers can use the same interface to manage ads and read reports on their campaigns in every channel?

On the flip side, how long before marketers and media companies start to feel uncomfortable to have so much of their buy concentrated with one player?

Will Web sites bail on Google? Google, having already conquered search, wants now to be the largest ad network in the world. It's clear that all of DoubleClick's publisher customers are about to be offered the chance to sell ads through AdSense using the DART interface.

The actions of CBS, Viacom, News Corp and NBC and two separate newspaper consortiums have shown the big media ecosystem is profoundly nervous about Google's covetous angling for their online inventory, and is so far showing itself unwilling to play along. But those companies are all relative newcomers to the online media business. What of the pure play online guys? Are they willing to let Google represent new, unprecedented amounts of their inventory? My gut tells me they'll do it if it monetizes better, but I expect some are going to start casting around for a new management partner.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 5, 2007

Less Cash for Yahoo Pub Network Affiliates?

So, apparently some Yahoo Pub Network affiliates are experiencing dips in their ad impressions (according to WebMaster World by way of Search Engine Journal).

I asked Yahoo about it, and they didn't have anything to say Beyond! This! Statement!:

The Yahoo! Publisher Network beta is intended to serve advertisers seeking to reach high-quality U.S. customers. Those advertisers pay for traffic from Yahoo’s network of publishers, and it’s of the highest importance to Yahoo! that our advertisers continue to receive the highly targeted traffic they have come to expect from Yahoo!. Although we haven’t launched any changes recently, we continually enhance and update our various policies and filters, and we will periodically make changes that can impact our marketplace.

Not that the affiliates on WMW were complaining, but I'm sure they're not happy about it. Of course, the fact is, Yahoo's priority is to please advertisers (sure, and users, too), but less so, affiliates.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 4, 2007

Dumpster Diving for Consumers

My, what a delightful call to action for an ad network! Spotted on 24/7 Real Media's home page, the above image is meant to coax marketers to the company's Global Web Alliance network and the (apparently none-too-sweet) demos to be found therein. Trash picking media buyers, have we got some refuse for you!

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 26, 2007

Alloy Signs with Web 2.0 Firms

It's become an increasingly common move for small to mid-sized site owners to create ad networks, generating more inventory by partnering with sites and services that may not be well staffed in ad sales. WPNI did it recently. So did Glam Media. Add to the list Alloy Media + Marketing, which has signed with several hot "2.0" properties to offer ad and promotional opportunities targeting teens and twenty-somethings.

The services in question are Meez, which offers 3D avatars; RockYou, a provider of "dynamic tools for self expression" on social nets; and BlockSavvy, a social network with a mostly African American audience.

AM+M is not strictly an online ad-driven business. It also offers promotional, word of mouth, event marketing and out-of-home services. And it's promising to offer some of these channels to its new media partners, so we're seeing the definition of ad network morph a little bit here as well.

Marketing programs on the sites will extend the reach of AM+M's existing in-house properties, which include Alloy, Delias, CCS, Sconex and educational sites for college-bound high schoolers and recent grads.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 15, 2007

McCain Buying Advertising.com Network Ads

These guys don't quit. I just spotted this McCain ad, served by Advertising.com on the
Merriam-Webster site. The ad linked to a page different from the JohnMcCain.com homepage, this one featuring quick sign up to join the team, click-through to contribute, and link to the main campaign site homepage.

I've visited the McCain site quite a bit lately doing research, so I figure that's why Advertising.com targeted it to me.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 5, 2007

Lee Readies HotJobs Launch, Gets Cozier with Yahoo

I got the chance to chat with Greg Schermer, VP interactive media at Lee Enterprises this afternoon. The paper publisher is a member of Yahoo's newspaper consortium. Schermer told me Lee will have Yahoo's HotJobs classifieds platform implemented across 28 of its "Enterprises," a.k.a. sites, by the middle of the month. He also hinted that "further agreements with Yahoo" are anticipated, and he expects the contractual relationship to move into the "partnership stage."

I asked him how Yahoo has been to work with so far. "They have been extremely responsive to date," he told me, adding, "The technical side, as you would expect, is superb."

In its recent earnings report, Lee said its online ad revenue rose 53 percent in Q4 '06 over Q4 of last year.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2007

MediaSpan Bulks up Local Network

On the heels of its deal with local TV news site network Broadcast Interactive Media, MediaSpan has added eleven sites to its roster recently. Mainly newspaper sites and alt weeklies, the list includes Connecticut's The Hour Newspapers, Rhode Island’s Valley Breeze, The Austin Chronicle, and The Arkansas Times, in addition to Utah TV station site KSL-TV. MediaSpan has over 1,000 mainly radio station sites from ABC Radio, Radio One and others in markets nationwide.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 19, 2007

Yahoo Paper Group GM Talks Display Ads

I had a good talk with Eric van Miltenburg, the new GM of Yahoo's Newspaper Consortium Group, which added Morris Publishing's 27 daily papers to its partner roster earlier this month. Now the group is up to 9 publishers and over 200 paper sites.

I was interested to learn about the progress of HotJobs integration with the new partners, and whether the rumors of that classifieds network becoming a display ad network were true. "There are no specific timelines to share at this point," said van Miltenburg. "There are lot of details and a lot of opportunities that need to be vetted."

Still, he did confirm that the consortium is definitely discussing the display ad possibility, in which case Yahoo would serve the ads and both the papers and Yahoo probably would have the ability to cross-sell.

As for the HotJobs piece, he said the integration progress is "modest right now." Users will start to see elements of the collaboration this year though, he added.

Of course, since talk about the planned "GMT network," an ad network featuring Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune properties, began, there's been much speculation about an industry split between GMT and the Yahoo group. Many worry that could hamper the online newspaper industry's ability to compete for national ad dollars.

Both groups validate the fact that joining forces in the online ad industry makes sense, van Miltenburg told me. He also stressed the openness of the network to new members. "There's always a willingness and an openness to continuing the dialogue," he said.

Van Miltenburg, who's worked at Yahoo for 3.5 years, was named to his new position in November when the original seven publishers signed on with the Yahoo group. He's officially left his former role in which he focused on Yahoo's mail, IM, social networking and photos products. He reports to Yahoo's new classifieds chief, Hilary Schneider, SVP of Marketplaces.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 18, 2007

Mobile Advertising in Plain English

This week I met with Millennial Media, following its announcement of funding and a few details about its launch and operations. The company intends to remove the acronyms from the world of mobile advertising while building a network of publishers and roster of advertisers. The services include Millennial Marketplace, a network of mobile media properties; and Mydas, a cross-platform ad-serving technology. Of course when a mobile company says cross-platform, it means across the acronyms such as MMS, SMS, WAP, VOD, Brew, Java, and Flash. However you spell it, Millennial Media President and CEO Paul Palmieri said the company's goal is to provide advertisers with channel advertising that's repeatable rather than one-off trials on mobile platforms. Now the company's not gunshy, but remains guarded about announcing publishers on the network and advertisers on board.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 16, 2007

Tacoda and Rev Sci Swap Clients

Looks like the behavioral targeting wars are still on. Today Tacoda announced it has snatched up Dow Jones, a longtime client of its rival, Revenue Science. Tacoda also announced USAToday.com, which has used its site-side behavioral targeting technology, has joined its ad network. USAToday.com publisher Gannett uses Revenue Science to enable behavioral targeting across its sites.

And to make things more confusing, USAToday.com is starting to integrate Revenue Science's site-side targeting system, according to Marla R. Schimke, VP of marketing at Rev Sci.

Tacoda is no longer offering its site-side targeting technology. However, according to Tacoda Chairman Dave Morgan, Dow Jones is using the company's new packaged technology offered to network members, which allows site-specific targeting. "We see it as a network service," Morgan told me earlier today. Essentially, the newly-developed technology takes into consideration data from other sites in the Tacoda network, but only targets an individual site or set of publisher-specific sites.

I also chatted with Morgan about the company's Consumer Choice Initiative, which launched in November. So far, a "relatively modest amount" of banners have been served while in the test messaging phase, but when in full deployment, Tacoda will serve "hundreds of millions of ads every six months" by the middle of the year.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL's Move into Euro Affiliate Marketing

AOL has put in a huge, $900 million bid on Swedish affiliate player TradeDoubler. That's equal to Google's search and ads agreement with MySpace, to put it in perspective. It also calls to mind another big cross-border affiliate acquisition, that of Linkshare by Japanese portal Rakuten over a year ago for $425 million.

I know next to nothing about TradeDoubler, but am presuming AOL's done a thorough investigation into its affiliates' practices and legislative probabilities in Sweden and the EU. The impact of recent U.S. legislation on gambling affiliates is still a fresh memory.

AOL execs are saying they believe the company would be complementary with AOL's Advertising.com ad network unit in the U.S. Perhaps that means they intend to offer advertisers the option to manage their network buys and affiliate programs in one place. That would require a leap on the part of many advertisers who run their affiliate programs out of their sales departments, whereas network buys are solidly a marketing function.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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