What are your thoughts?

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

October 1, 2008

Welcome ClickZ Expert Dan Solomon

ClickZ couldn't resist an offer from Dan Solomon, CEO of interactive communications firm Virilion, to examine online marketing lessons from the 2008 campaign for U.S. president.

Dan's first column can be found here.

The column, "Campaign '08 Lessons," will be in addition to in-depth news coverage written by Senior Editor Kate Kaye in ClickZ's Campaign '08 section.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 25, 2008

Catch this ClickZ Webcast on High-Touch Personalization

Are you using all of your company's customer touch points to reinforce your brand and market your products?

Digital marketing pro Jack Aaronson will offer some tips during a ClickZ Webcast on Monday, Sept. 29, 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST.

Aaronson, CEO of The Aaronson Group, is a contributing author to ClickZ
Experts ROI Marketing column. He's a sought-after expert on enhanced user experiences, customer conversion, retention, and loyalty.

The Webcast will be moderated by yours truly.

Register now.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 11, 2008

Mashup: 200 PR Execs, One Blender

How do you engage a group of more than 200 public relations professionals?

Bring in George Wright, marketing manager of Blendtec, a company known for viral videos on its site, WillItBlend.com.

Wright did not disappoint. With a garden rake and Blendtec blender as his props, Wright spoke at the Public Relations Society of America's T3 PR in NYC, a conference for PR professionals representing tech companies.

Wright has been on the speaking circuit, promoting the story of how he got Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, pictured above, to don a white lab coat and agree to have his testing work be featured in a video shown online. A $50 investment resulted in a 700 percent increase in blender sales, according to Wright. (He didn't disclose the actual dollar change.)

And, the blender chewed up the wooden handle of the yard rake, no problem.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 4, 2008

U.K. Marketers Neglecting Site Usability, Blinded by Paid Search

Businesses are focusing too much of their online marketing budgets on paid search instead of ensuring they have usable and customer-friendly Web sites, according to research commissioned by U.K. digital consultancy Rawnet.

The company's 2008 Online Conversion Report, released today, suggests that 78 percent of British consumers have been put off from dealing with companies because of usability flaws on their sites. In addition, one in five people have found that the most creative and spectacular sites are usually difficult to navigate, the report says.

Rawnet's managing director, Adam Smith, believes that marketers are too "preoccupied" with search rankings and expensive paid search listings, than they are with converting subsequent leads to sales.

Speaking with me yesterday, he said, "It's easy to just throw money at Google, but marketers can put their budgets to better use. In tighter economic conditions getting that lead, sale, or enquiry is far more important than simply boosting your Web site's traffic."

He added, "A shocking number of companies are losing out on a massive amount of potential business simply because their Web design agency has focused too much on what looks great, or too much on non-essential technical features, and failed to actually produce a Web site that works for the business."

The research report was commissioned by Rawnet and conducted by YouGov, which polled a sample of around 2,000 U.K. adults.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 22, 2008

Best Buy Preps for Digital TV Transition with Site, Social Tools

I haven't talked much about the digital TV transition, which will happen to television receiving signals over the airwaves in February 2009 and cable in 2012. Consumers are confused. It's a marketing bonanza for consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers. Several manufacturers have special Web sites to educate in-market buyers on the transition, and the value of HDTV. Best Buy now has Ask a Blue Shirt, a site set up to ease the minds of consumers. It's a blog, FAQ, and directory of where consumers can find DTV bootcamps at local Best Buy locations.

Best Buy is such a comfort here, the Blue Shirts will befriend consumers on Facebook through a widget. It displays a countdown clock on your page, and lets you challenge friends to '80s and '90s TV trivia, or just take the trivia challenge yourself. While you test your knowledge of syndicated sitcoms of yesterday, Best Buy throws in a few facts about DTV options at its stores.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 19, 2008

Taking Offline, Online Marketing on the Road

Lori Raimondo, VP of marketing for New York City's Times Square Alliance, will make a cross-country road trip to promote a cause.

This weekend, I ran into Lori in a San Francisco restaurant a day or two before she was about to begin the Key to the Cure Road Trip, an initiative sponsored by Saks Fifth Avenue to fight women's cancers. She'll be driving in style, too, traveling in a white Mercedes-Benz.

In a blog, Lori will chronicle her trip and write inspirational profiles of the cancer survivors she meets. The journey includes in-person visits in 10 cities, such as Chicago and Atlanta, where Saks Fifth Avenue has stores.

After her mother died of breast cancer two years ago, Lori took a similar trip -- traveling from her parents' home in San Diego to New York City -- to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

In the Key to the Cure, Saks Fifth Avenue will donate a percentage of sales from a weekend to local and national women's cancer centers. Plus, Karl Lagerfeld designed a shirt with the campaign's logo, as seen in this image.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 5, 2008

Ford and Microsoft Sync Up for Viral Roadtripping

Microsoft has teamed with Ford for a highly experiential, super soft-sell microsite around Microsoft SYNC.

SYNC is a voice-actived gizmo for your car that's kind of like an iPod crossed with a Blackberry: it does music, text, and telephone. Cool, but it's a sell with a high educational curve.

Sync My Music, which lives on MSN, features a game, tons of content and a number of video webisodes about Kim and Seana, two music-obsessed girls, who road-trip across America in a SYNC equipped Ford in their respective quests to become a singer/songwriter (Kim DiVine is the real thing, actually), or to hook up with hot male indie band members.

The game unlocks additional content such as wallpaper and MP3s; the Explore section of the site is a region-by-region guide to the myriad cities the girls visit in their travels. It contains info on local clubs and bands and planning your own road trip. Which may prove difficult, as most of the links are crosswired. Select NYC's hippest bands, for example, and you land on Atlanta's arenas, clubs and cafes.

Oh, well. Given current gas prices, you probably weren't really going to do the roadtrip thing this summer, anyway.

Microsoft wants users to digg, blog and forward the site to a friend. Given the chicks meet popular local indie bands from time to time, the viral has got some real potential. Not just from the fans, but from the bands, who are promoting the heck out of the site on MySpace already.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 28, 2008

Will Microsoft Acquire a Directories Giant?

[UPDATED: Some disagreement in the comments over my use of a Compete chart below, so I've added data from ComScore].

Shares of U.K.-based Yell Group are up on rumors Microsoft has approached the directories publisher about a possible sale. The acquisition, if it came to fruition, would be Microsoft's first merger in the local business and residential look-up arena, and could be interpreted as a play for search share. For instance, Yell's online properties -- including Yell.com in the U.K., YellowBook.com in the U.S., and PaginasAmarillas.es in Spain -- could carry Microsoft Maps and local listings, along with geo-targeted advertising. And Yell's sales force could upsell local marketers on Microsoft's other channels.

Even so, YellowBook.com is hardly the leader in the space, particularly in the U.S.

According to ComScore, YellowBook.com's April traffic pales next to category leaders YellowPages.com (AT&T) and SuperPages.com (Idearc). SuperPages.com is the dominant online yellow pages player with over 30 million unique. However YellowBook.com boasts the highest growth rate, having bean-stalked 156 percent since April 2007 to over 14 million U.S. uniques.

And here's Compete's traffic comparison, which mainly goes to show how utterly hopeless an endeavor independent traffic verification still is.

What a sale to Microsoft would mean for Yell's working environment may be a point of some nervousness for the company's staff. The firm was just awarded a ninth place ranking on the Financial Times' list of the U.K.'s best workplaces.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

May 6, 2008

E-Mail Marketers Haven't Forgotten Mom

With Mother's Day coming up, a search for "mother" in my personal e-mail inbox turned up these marketing pitches. Some come from the usual suspects, while others aren't so ususal.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 28, 2008

The WB Will Not Be Televised

"The next great network will not be televised."

With this, and other grandiose pronouncements, Warner Bros. Television Group unveiled two major new broadband sites, a couple of virtual worlds, and named some of the advertisers that will support the launch.

The WB.com, which comes out of beta in August, will be an online video-on-demand network featuring both library content and original Web productions. "We're in the digital storytelling business," noted Warner Bros. TV Group President Bruce Rosenblum, "and making a significant investment in our digital initiatives."

The company was more tight-lipped about advertising opportunities, but did reveal initial sponsors include Mattell, McDonald's and Johnson & Johnson.

In addition to distrubution partners including Comcast, AOL, Fancast.com, and some mobile carriers, WB created an application on Facebook. All content on the WB site will be available for viewing from within Facebook, and vice-versa: users can peruse Facebook from inside The WB.com.

KidsWB.com is the juvenile version of WB content on the Web. Integrated within the platform are two virtual worlds: Warner Zone, featuring characters from WBs extensive cartoon library, and DC Hero Zone, where Batman and his ilk can be encountered. It goes live sometime next month.

It's interesting to note that "mix, mash, share" is a motto. Give Tweetybird a mohawk, turn the Tasmanian Devil into a tutu-wearing avatar - WB doesn't care. That's massive, considering the proprietary attitude entertainment conglomerates have traditionally taken toward the sanctity of their characters. On the adult site, users will be encourage to re-mix episodes of, say, "Friends," and share them with their own friends.

Are you listening, Mouse?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 23, 2008

What Time Is It in the Cloud?

These days, my head is in the cloud.

More and more companies are rolling out cloud computing solutions and applications. On the consumer level, it's getting easier and easier for documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, calendars, presentations, you name it, to live in the ether somewhere above the hard drive, always on and always accessible.

Way cool, and an emerging opportunity for advertisers and marketers to push relevant, contextual messages to cloud computing users.

But what time is it in the cloud? I'm wondering this as I shuttle between the East and West coasts, wielding a battery of BlackBerry, mobile phone, and the laptop I'm using to access the book I'm writing entirely on Google Docs (not a word of the manuscript is on my hard drive).

Some of these devices are set to the time zone I'm actually in, others are set to the one I live in. So how's an advertiser to know what's relevant messaging? Should an ad be pushed for a business or service in Sonoma (where I'm speaking today), or New York (where I live?). Does the cloud know if I'm working at lunchtime or at dinnertime?

Geo- and daypart targeting has long been used in traditional as well as interactive marketing. When life literally shifts to online -- as users move into the cloud -- how will this element of targeting be achieved?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 22, 2008

Demo Tools

There's no question consumers like the ease of e-commerce. But the Internet still can't replace the demo nature of brick and mortar. A salesperson can sell by demonstration. This is true especially when it comes to categories such as hardware and power tools. Both on its on site, and on its e-commerce partner sites, DeWalt has built demos for its power tool products through a technology partner Easy2 Technolgies.

Users click on the demo to get a pop-up window, and click on highlighted areas of the product to read about the features and view closer images or video. They can also see images of the tools in action, and get product specs, depending on what DeWalt provides. The demo also provides a 360-degree rotation and zooming view of each product.

Easy2's platform is called "Make Your Own" and is as easy and user-friendly as using Microsoft Word. Other clients working with Easy2 include Circuit City, Cub Cadet, Buy.com, Samsung, Lowe's, InSinkErator, and Moen.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 18, 2008

Marketing to the Media...Continued

The flurry leading up to ad:tech prompted a bit of a rant last week about best practices for marketing to the media.

That discussion will continue in a much broader context next week at the New Comm Forum in Sonoma, CA. SEO PR expert Sally Falkow and I will be discussing the opportunities -- and the threats -- that online media, search, and the social Web are presenting to the media and other communications professionals.

If you make it to the conference, please be sure to say hello.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:07 PM | 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 14, 2008

Take That, Victoria's Secret!

While downmarket Victoria's Secret fusses its advertising might be "too sexy," the much tonier lingerie purveyor Agent Provocateur "wears its carnal appeal like a badge of honor."

In tandem with Story Worldwide, the brand just added an "online party" to its Web site that will be updated as different stages of the 2008 collection are rolled out.

In addition to more or less of safe-for-work videos (depends on where you work, I suppose), visitors can drag garments that catch their eye off the models and into an individual cloakroom (read: shopping list). Some visitors will doubtless be disappointed that this action does not, in fact, actually remove the garments from the models. They remain fully lingerie'd.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2008

dotMobi Hearts Mobile Web

The non-profit dotMobi Advisory Group (MAG) is taking over the ilovemobileweb campaign launched last year by Bango, thereby bringing together over 125 companies to support and foster the initiative.

The stated campaign aims are to:

· Raise awareness of the mobile Web with consumers around the world
· Encourage open access to the mobile Web for every user
· Provide consumers with choice of content and services
· Provide easy pathways for fixed Internet publishers to move to mobile
· More standardization of devices and development platforms

Interested organizations are invited to join the initiative -- gratis -- via the e-mail link on the ilovemobileweb Web site.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2008

Greener Marketing: It's a Brand Thing, Too

Marketers need to start thinking harder about schwag for the sake of the environment, as well as their brands.

The sheer amount of conference bag stuff always boggles the mind, particularly at evens as massive as SXSW. Of course, the sponsor fees behind stuffing all this stuff into those totes goes a long way toward making these events possible.

SXSW sent out a pre-event e-mail to participants with pointers on making the event greener, pointing out opportunities for recycling and other efforts conference-goers could take toward reducing - somewhat - the event's carbon footprint.

But boy, is my bag full. And it's full of stuff that doesn't need to be there. I'll single out Microsoft as an example (because they're big enough to take it, but are hardly the only offender).

Microsoft's extremely cool Silverlight plug-in is a topline SXSW sponsor. That doesn't excuse including a Silverlight CD, encased in a hefty plastic box, in each of tens of thousands of bags. Not when this slim little plug-in is readily available as a fast, free download from the Web.

It's not just a matter of waste (calling to mind AOL's well-publicized earlier excesses), it's also become a matter of branding (particularly in an environment and a city as socially conscious as SXSW and Austin). Microsoft paid a pretty penny to manufacture all those CDs, and more still to get them slipped into bags -- so they could be slipped into the trash. An alternative might have been a simple sheet with information about the product and how to get it for free.

Result? Negative buzz. That's bad for the brand, not just the environment.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

WPP Acquires U.K. Web Design Agency HeathWallace

WPP is continuing its string of recent digital acquisitions by buying a majority stake in U.K.-based Web design and development agency HeathWallace.

The company has strong links with the banking sector, with clients including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Dutch bank ABN Amro. It currently employs 60 staff, working out of offices in Reading, U.K. and Hong Kong.

The buy represents the third digital acquisition by WPP over the past week, although there's still no word on the rumored Spot Runner purchase.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Virgin Atlantic Launches "Love From Above"

Virgin Atlantic Airways' just-launched American campaign, Love From Above continues the real-speak whimsy that is a hallmark of the Virgin brand. It poses questions to travelers such as, "Shouldn’t a seat recharge more than your laptop?”

Developed by agency-of-record McKinney, the campaign is notable for a substantial mobile component. Virgin's first WAP site, http://LoveFromAbove.mobi, aimed at fliers in and out of New York and Chicago, passes along info on complimentary taxi rides in wrapped London cabs, British pub events, and free movie passes. A Valentine’s Day surprise is promised to top off the launch.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2008

Thompson's Web Guy Talks Strategy Post-Battle

So, the techno-politico sphere of the Web seems pretty interested today in a lengthy post on TechPresident from Mike Turk, the guy behind Fred Thompson's online campaign (now ended), and former e-campaign director for the Bush/Cheney '04 presidential campaign.

He writes about online campaign strategy, dealing with tight deadlines, flying by the seat of his elephant-embroidered pants, that sorta thing. Unfortunately, no mention of the paid ad side of the campaign's Web efforts (though from what I saw there wasn't a whole lot). Still, there's lots of food for thought.

If anything, what the post and subsequent comments evince is the fact that the relatively small group of people involved in developing digital campaigns and implementing interactive technology for them can be pretty open when it comes to sharing ideas and insights, even if it might help out the other side (within limits, of course).

A few highlights I think ClickZ's audience would be interested in:

"On Hannity and Colmes, Fred announced his website url and the flood came in…. We attracted over 100,000 unique visitors, raised over a quarter million dollars, and added nearly 30,000 names to our list in the first 24 hours."

Taking into consideration the web site team had about 10 days to build the site and make sure it could handle a mass visitor influx, that's pretty impressive.

Turk also talked of how he aimed to improve on the netroots component of the Bush-Cheney campaign:

The idea, from my perspective, was to harness the power of the Net to build a robust community that would become an integral part of the ground game. The Bush-Cheney campaign had begun the process of enabling volunteer action online…. The Bush campaign was innovative in allowing people to participate in the mechanics of the campaign, but it never developed the community that could interact, inspire, and spur each other into action…. The Thompson web operation would be different. With Jon Henke, Howard Mortman and William Beutler constantly opening new channels through local, state and national blogs, and the campaign site providing a vehicle for those attracted to participate in the campaign, we could reach the tipping point where engaged people are empowered to contribute in ways never attempted by the GOP.

…. As an example of the strength of Thompson's online effort, look at the Thompson campaign blog and you'll see something remarkable for GOP candidates - comments. And not just a few comments, but hundreds and even thousands of comments.… Almost nobody on the GOP side sees this as a way for their supporters to network, to share ideas, or to brainstorm ways to help the campaign.

Turk also acknowledges campaigns on both sides "need to trust and engage the people. Since the people are online, they need to engage people online. There are just as many Democtrats [sic] who need to learn this lesson (cough, cough, Hillary, cough, cough)."

As for Web ads, the former Tennessee Senator's campaign ran about 650,000 display ads solely on FoxNews.com in October (as per Nielsen Online AdRelevance), questioning the pro-life stance of fellow GOP candidate Mitt Romney and taking aim at Rudy Giuliani's pro-choice position. Ads culminated with Thompson's stern visage placed beside the phrase, "Support the real conservative." The campaign employed the same anti-Romney/Giuliani tactic in ads on right-wing blogs launched in October.

Also, I'm quite sure I came across paid search ads from the campaign leading up to the primaries.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 22, 2008

Knowing Better Than Butter

Unilever brand I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! has launched a trivia game show entitled Now You Know Better $1,000,000 Game Show to promote the benefits of fake butter. The "show," developed in partnership with MSN and featured in the portal's game section, is hosted by "celebrity" John O'Hurley.

Sign into the site as a contestant and you can answer trivia questions about topics such as board games and movies stars, and compete for actual prizes. A "lobby chat" window features a not-very-convincing discussion about the merits of real butter vs. ICBINB. The Web site is one aspect of the Now You Know Better campaign, which kicked off with :30 TV spots on January 14th.

Unilever will continue the interactive portion of the promotion with celebrities including Gary Coleman, Jose Canseco, and Dustin Diamond appearing in spots highlighting moments in their careers they should have known better about (e.g. taking steroids). In mid-February, consumers will be able to play the online trivia game and chat live with these wised-up celebs.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

In E-Commerce, When Cool Won't Do

Prospects for online retail look promising in coming years though one threat exists.

And it's not the recession, says a retail analyst. Rather, sites miss the boat on basics and it's a oversight that has implications in how marketers approach their jobs and e-commerce .

Rather than worry about widgets, wikis, and blogs, Forrester Research Sucharita Mulpuru today told National Retail Federation conference attendees that some e-commerce shortcomings must be addressed if online commerce is going to continue to grow. Among them:

*Online shopping isn' always easy; often key information is missing from retail sites. When looking for shoes to buy her daughter, Mulpuru measured the toddler's foot and then looked for the site's size chart. None existed. She wrote to the retailer asking them for a size chart, but was directed to go to a nearby store. "Not only did they not address my question, they directed me to the channel I tried to avoid shopping in the first place," she said.

*Sites encounter downtime. Of the top 25 online retailers, one was not available 10 percent of the time in December 2006, Mulpuru said, citing statistics from Gomez, a consultancy. "That means one in 10 persons who came to the site had some problem completing the transaction," she said.

And what about widgets, wikis, and blogs? "While there are extraordinary and amazing technology developments, they still may be ahead of their time ... about five to 10 years ahead of their time," she said.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 9, 2008

Amazon Taxes 'The Office'

With tax season approaching, Amazon.com's got a fun way to promote its less than exciting tax software. The site's Tax Central shop is repped by staff from NBC's "The Office." Five characters from the show are matched with their taxpayer personalities: E-Z breezy filer, fancy filer, procrastinator, extender, and the typical taxpayer. This is a good tie-in for the show and lots of opportunities for Amazon.com to link to the show's DVD sets.

Of course, using these characters could just create more issues for the WGA strike, as well as the impending actor's strike. B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan Howard on the show, has writing credits on several episodes, and he and other actors from "The Office" have been very vocal during the strike about the use of their work on the Internet, and subsequent advertising revenues.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 3, 2007

Big Web Ad Spender Dell Partners with WPP

Working with hundreds of different agencies spelled trouble ahead, trouble behind for Dell’'s Global Marketing VP Casey Jones. (Sorry, I couldn'’t resist.) The head of the computer maker's’ marketing operation started “"Project Da Vinci" aiming to establish an agency partner dedicated to combining art and science, and dedicated solely to Dell.

The result of the partnership will be an integrated marketing and communications agency. In its press release, Dell stressed the importance of “the "right analytics"” for its interactive efforts, and “"the ability to build campaigns in days, rather than months."”

My understanding is Dell will continue working with current agencies for the next few months. Then, it will be all WPP all the time.

It’'s a safe assumption the new agency will be doing a good deal of interactive stuff for Dell. In August, the company spent $6.2 million promoting its Inspiron product and $2.5 million pushing its XPS computer using online ads, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Debate Over Cyber Monday

The holiday season is a time of elevated sales both offline and online, no question. And while Black Friday is commonly known as the day when consumers converge on malls and big box stores, but it's not the busiest shopping day of the season. "Although most of the news is about how big of a deal the offline sales are; typically the biggest retail day during the season is actually the week before Christmas," said Youn-Bean Song, VP of analytics at Atlas Institute when discussing a recent holiday study.

So true is the misconception about Black Friday (which experienced a nice increase in online sales last week), it also exists for Cyber Monday. The same Atlas study forecasts online shopping's peak will take place closer to shipping cut-off dates in mid-December. The debate over the busiest online shopping day of the year actually makes the day a moving target, depending on the length of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's commonly placed at the Monday after Thanksgiving. The Atlas study states December 11 as the big day due to a peak in online sales. This week press releases stated, "It's not Cyber Monday, it's Cyber Week." Wikipedia defines Cyber Monday as "the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas." Is the designation still up for debate? Is it relevant at all? There's no question yesterday was significant online. Akamai registered 4.6 million visitors per minute at the day's peak around 2:00 p.m. EST, and said online visits to Akamai sites surpassed 2006's visits by 10:00 a.m. EST. If this isn't the highest-earning online shopping day of the season, what will the remaining days look like? Especially when early reports speak of more modest growth this year.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

Coke gets Bubbly over Joost

If you really want to tell friends what you think about an online television show, Coca-Cola is making it possible to share your comments… as long as they come from pouring out of a soda bottle. Internet television system Joost has its first advertising widget in the form of Coke Bubbles, which allows users to attach comments to scenes from televised shows and then send them to friends. When recipients open the e-mail and visit the Joost site to see the show, the comments will appear in a bubble over the screen. Which seems similar to VH1's Pop-Up Video to me.

Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of Joost since it launched earlier this year, and the company’s European team came up with the widget. The two companies have also formed a partnership to help widget developers create and launch more widgets for the site, and are planning a contest to be announced at today's Joost Developer Days event in London.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2007

Autobytel to Fuel Web Campaign with MyRide.com Comments

This post was written by Jack Marshall.

Autobytel today embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign designed to generate traffic to and raise awareness of its auto consumer site launched last week - MyRide.com. Utilizing e-mail, banner, and search marketing, the campaign’s aim is to reach consumers through sports, entertainment, technology and finance sites.

The campaign ads will be generated from content on the MyRide site itself, including questions and statements "that reflect MyRide.com’s unique offerings," according to a press release.

“By leveraging MyRide.com’s large and growing bank of updated automotive content across our multi-level digital campaign, we can attract consumers in a way that is far more targeted and, we believe, more efficient, than traditional brand advertising,” stated Autobytel’s president and CEO Jim Riesenbach in the release.

The campaign has been developed in collaboration with Young & Rubicam Brands which is developing creative content, and KSL, which is taking care of planning and buying. The e-mail campaign will target Autobytel’s current database of a reported 9 million users.

Search will cap it off, specifically targeting directional purchase behavior.

MyRide.com aims to target consumers throughout the auto purchase and interest cycle. The site categorizes user behavior into five categories: Find, See, Buy, Learn and Belong. Autobytel believes many of these are currently ignored by traditional automotive sites, which tend to be singularly focused on buying funnel activities.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 11, 2007

eBay Joins Social Network Caravan

What do coffee lovers have in common with jewelry shoppers?

They were among the most active eBay members participating in the online commerce site's neighborhoods, a feature rolled out this week that takes a chapter from Facebook and other social networks.

eBay members must join a neighborhood before they are permitted to start a discussion or blog, post comments or photos, and invite a friend to participate.

eBay established several hundred online neighborhoods, according to an announcement posted this week by Nathan Sacco, eBay's senior manager, buyer engagement. The neighborhoods, he wrote, are based on popular items and searches.

Neighborhoods encompass broad categories such as Italian fashion and specific brand names like Versace or Manolo Blahnik.

In discussions, members tend to exchange information or debate a product's merits. On the blog posts, many entries appear to promote eBay members' stores and product offerings.

Close to 200 eBay members joined the jewelry neighborhood, which included advice to someone who asked for information on the best places to find jewelry to resell on eBay.

In contrast, the coffee lover neighborhood reported over 400 members, many of whom are passionate and/or addicted to roasted beans.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

Omniture and Salesforce.com Join Forces on B2B Closed Loop Sales Information

Intending to provide business to business marketers with a clearer idea of what portions of their campaigns are creating the best business leads, business optimization software company Omniture and on-demand business services firm salesforce.com have joined forces to offer Omniture Closed-Loop Marketing on salesforce.com’s AppExchange.

The system operates by applying specific codes to campaign elements, including keyword search campaigns, banner ads, e-mail campaigns, newsletters, blogs, or even traditional offline linked mail campaign and events, according to Gail Ennis, senior vice president world wide marketing at Omniture.

"You're assigning IDs to all those different campaigns and then you can track what your budget is and what the results have been and compare them to see which is performing best," she said.

Omniture's been busy this week, as it also acquired Offermatica, in a separate deal.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 6, 2007

iPhone Price Drops, Does Jobs Rise to the Occasion?

The fallout over yesterday's announced iPhone price drop was immediate -- and angry. Apple's stock tanked as blogs filled to the brim with step-by-stop instructions on how to return your old iPhone and buy a new one -- at $200 off.

Steve Jobs to the rescue? In an open letter to iPhone customers in which he (improbably) claims to have read each and every angry e-mail sent to Apple over this issue, he's making an offer to every iPhone owner who doesn't return their unit, then exchange it for a new model at $200 off what they paid for it in the first place.

The offer? $100 credit towards their next Apple purchase.

Now, math isn't my forte, but I do know the difference between $200 in my pocket and $100 with Apple's name on it.

Still, Jobs gets credit for reacting swiftly, decisively and publicly. The question is, will iPhone owners swallow it? Time -- and the blogosphere -- will soon tell.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 28, 2007

Online Consumer Education Gets Metrics

Online consumer education firm Powered added the Data & Insight PowerPack, a data and insight package that allows clients a deeper look into their course enrollees. In addition to creating and supporting courses for clients like Atkins and Epson, the PowerPack includes annual or bi-annual user surveys; in-content opinion polls; enrollment surveys; and an executive reporting mechanism to measure key performance indicators (KPI) based on marketing objectives.

The data informs the client how well the courses are reaching the registered audience, but also looks into the behaviors beyond the consumer education efforts. "Through user surveys, one large consumer electronics retailer discovered that more than 90 percent of course attendees qualified as their most valuable customer segment and that participation in online courses drives loyalty at a brand, not a product, level," Powered CEO Dave Ellett said in a company statement.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 20, 2007

Green Marketing Online: The Publisher Perspective

In a feature ClickZ published last week on the greening of digital marketing, I discuss how big marketers have turned up the volume on their marketing around sustainability initiatives -- which are in some cases authentic and in others pure greenwash.

One area I only touch on, but which is undergoing a lot of change, has to do with how large Web properties are acquiring or launching properties focused on the green market. Those big publishers are now figuring out how to package and sell inventory adjacent to that content, and it's not always easy.

I want to clarify one point relating to that aspect of the story. In discussing Yahoo Green, I wrote, sustainability is "not a large enough category for Yahoo to justify a dedicated salesperson.” While that's technically true, it misrepresents the nature of Yahoo's sales group. I've since heard from the company that it doesn't have any vertical sales positions. No salespeople are focused on selling ads on Yahoo Cars, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News, or the homepage. Learn something new every day.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 3, 2007

Shutterbug Training

Epson wants to help consumers take better pictures, and then know what to do with the pictures once they're uploaded to a computer. To promote better picture-taking, and subsequent purchases of Epson's printers, scanners, photo displays, photo paper, scrapbooks and scrapbooking software, Epson launched Epson Creative LearningZone with online classes built by Powered.

The first four courses available are: geneology in a wired world; set up a home print shop for flyers, newsletters and more; getting started with digital scrapbooking, and digital photography 101. Each month Epson plans to add additional courses, some of the planned lessons include: achieving work-life balance; introduction to digital entertainment; how to build your first Web page; designing and equipping your home office.

Powered builds out online lessons with its clients. Participants in the class get certificates of completion at the end of the course, and receive encouragement to continue once more subjects are provided. Powered has worked with several companies to create online classes, and had reported success with an ongoing program it created with Atkins.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 1, 2007

Trade Free Time for a Free Home

Even free costs you. San Francisco-based fabMODERN is offering a deal called freeHOUSE where it is giving away a kit for users to build their own green home, free. The catch is participants must contract to provide a certain number of hours of service each day, and accept certain marketing obligations from a sponsor pool, to live in their sponsored home.

Once the home is completed, new prefab owners must participate in showcase events for the first two weeks. Homeowners must then complete "various tasks when they can undertake and complete on their own for a committed number of hours per day," said a company statement. Homeowners get a free, computer to connect to the Internet in their home office to have the "flexibility to work from home" and "respond to sponsor requests, e-mailed to them daily." Companies participating in the sponsor pool include government agencies, major corporations such as appliance companies, consumer electronics companies, media companies, finishes suppliers and community organizations. No mention of how long homeowners are required to participate, or if the responsibility rolls over to new owners if the house is sold, but will the company be around as long as a 30+ year bank loan?

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 30, 2007

Print Shops Could Use Kinko's Competition to Advantage

FedEx hopes to push its Kinko's brand through a recent relationship with Adobe, makers of Acrobat software. But a deal to feature a prominent link to Kinko's in some Adobe software has smaller printer outfits fuming.

According to a Wall Street Journal story, smaller printers are concerned they'll lose business to Kinkos since the embedded link allows people to send printing orders automatically to Kinko's without going to the site.

"Adobe says it is reviewing the matter and expects to officially respond to the printing industry's concerns on Wednesday," wrote the Journal.

I don't doubt this could have some impact, but don't companies work with smaller printers for other reasons besides the ability to save a couple steps when submitting orders -- like superior customer service, personal attention, loyalty, etc.?

Call me crazy, but isn't this a reason for smaller operations to promote why they're better than the cold, impersonal printing behemoth?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2007

Jostens Supplies Super Bowl Rings for Madden ‘08

The highly-coveted Super Bowl ring worn by NFL players is now available to players of EA’s Madden NFL 08. Those who reach a certain level of accomplishment can order design a ring through the game’s interface, then order it from Jostens. The “Ring of a Champion” can be custom-designed by the player, and not only signifies a player’s reaching a certain stature in the game’s rankings, but can also reflect extraordinary achievements pulled of in those winning games.

Like your old class ring, players can choose from non-precious metals, 10K white and yellow gold, and simulated gemstones. Prices range from $149 for a non-precious ring to $495 for 10K gold designs. If a virtual champion wants the full bling of genuine diamonds, instead of cubic zirconium stones, Jostins will do it for a few dollars more. Madden NFL 08 with the ability to play for and create your championship ring comes out on August 14.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 10, 2007

You're a Baseball Fan. Create Content Like One.

I'm a baseball fan (OK, addict), but evidently I'm just not going about it the right way. If I were a true fan, I'd act like one, which according to Major League Baseball means I should be posting baseball video to the Web. Hmmm…and all this time I thought watching, listening to and going to the games was enough….

The league's new post-season push features the tagline, "You're a fan. Act Like One."

To push post-season play (which they gotta do since lots of people don't watch after their hometown teams drop out of the race), MLB is launching a campaign. In addition to expanding its media partnerships with Turner Broadcasting, Fox Sports and MLB.com to promote the "There's Only One October" effort, MLB is launching actober.com, so, "fans can start to generate their own favorite October moments," according to the MLB.com story.

Basically, MLB will provide access to its archive of past post-season footage. "Fans can utilize the vintage footage of those great feats to create their own 'actober' moments with the goal of winning tickets to the 2007 World Series." Of course, unless you're posting your own photos or film from a game -- or you're Reggie Jackson or some other post-season hero -- you won't be generating your own content, you'll be mashing clips provided by MLB. The league will use the user productions to determine "what moments should be represented in the advertising campaign."

The marketing push is extra-early this year considering we're only midway through the regular season, the Mets only have half the team on the D.L., Bonds hasn't even broken Hank's record yet, and Zambrano's only maimed one teammate so far.

Oh, and if the Geico cavemen aren't annoying enough to watch every commercial break, get ready for comedian Dane Cook. He'll be featured in the TV spots.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 19, 2007

Shop.com Giving Away Final Harry Potter Tome

Shop.com just announced it's giving away free copies of the seventh and final book in the blockbuster Harry Potter series.

Spend $100 on the site in July and a copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is yours. Keep it, have the company send it to anyone you chose, or donate it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The most loyal Muggles will, of course, require a copy in hand when the title ships on June 21.

Still, Shop.com should get uptake on this promotion.

But what's their retention strategy?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 30, 2007

Nancy Drew Sleuths Marketing Opportunities

With just over two weeks away from the movie release of "Nancy Drew," a modern telling of the classic teen mystery series, yet another marketing campaign surfaces at the mall. Earlier this month two separate campaigns deployed the Web and mobile phones to peak viewers' interests. Now there's "Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper" making its appearance in malls in 15 markets around the country.

The Cotton Caper draws from a partnership between Warner Bros. Pictures, Cotton Incorporated, General Growth Management (the owner of malls across the country), and Her Interactive (the publisher of the Nancy Drew video game series). Activities originate in a "cotton-themed interactive mall experience" where consumers receive an activity book of clues and instructions to find answers hidden in a mall display. Looking for more sleuthing after a trip to the mall? Consumers can go to Cotton Incorporated's thefabricofourlives.com and subsequently the microsite for Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper where consumers can find more clues, locate a participating mall, learn about the title character's cotton-laden wardrobe. There's also a link to longtime "Nancy Drew" video game publisher Her Interactive and a snowball fight mini-game made for the upcoming title "Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek," which retails on June 12.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:10 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 1, 2007

Reuters, Hyundai Smart-Thinking Campaign Could Be Smarter

Reuters and Hyundai rolled out their "smart thinking" campaign, which links ads for the carmaker to stories pegged as featuring "innovation, forward thinking and intelligence."

If today's story choices are an indicator, the methods used to pick the so-called smart stories may need some fine tuning.

One Reuters story with the carmaker's ads, "Telefonica deal to challenge Slim on own turf," dissects the Mexican billionaire's failure to enter the European phone market, which seems to imply an example of not-so-smart thinking.

Another piece with the Hyundai ads, "British motorists face spy in sky monitoring," outlines plans in the UK to charge drivers to use roads. Some 1.8 million people in the UK have signed petitions against the scheme, aimed at cutting traffic in congested areas. The "smart" thinking in this story is elusive for a car company that presumably wants people to drive more, not less.

News stories about the ad campaign stressed the "separation of church and state" between ad sales and editors at the news service. That's a good thing journalistically, though Reuters and Hyundai may well benefit from having a wise editor or two to review the "smart" story choices.

Posted by Bill McGuire at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 23, 2007

DoubleClick Seller Acquires Data/Marketing Firm

Equity firm Hellman and Friedman just made a killing unloading DoubleClick for 3.1 billion, far more than the1.1 billion it paid for the firm. I found it interesting to read about H&F's latest buy, as reported in The Wall Street Journal. Last week, the investors snapped up Catalina Marketing Corp. for 1.56 billion. The company puts data to use for marketers. Sound familiar?

Well, there is a real difference between DoubleClick and Catalina. DoubleClick employs client-owned data to manage and target Web ads. Catalina compiles millions of transactions each week from over 21,000 grocery stores, warehousing purchase histories of over 100 million household IDs. The company has three divisions serving manufacturers, healthcare firms and retailers.

Catalina does offer interactive services under its "Catalina Interactive" name. Here's a bit more about that:

Targeted in-store communications provide your consumers with a custom micro website link and unique promotional code to take part in an integrated brand experience….Whether you want to enhance existing loyalty/points programs, or create new online instant win/sweepstakes programs, Catalina Interactive is the efficient and effective solution.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 12, 2007

Vonage to Weed out High Cost Acquisition Efforts

The CEO of big online ad spender Vonage, Michael Snyder, has resigned. I listened in on this morning's investor call, during which recent legal wranglings and financials were discussed. The company was pretty vague about future marketing and advertising plans, but I jotted down a few interesting things along those lines.

"Our marketing spend is highly variable," said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage chairman and interim CEO.

Essentially, the company plans to analyze its current efforts and weed out the stuff that's resulting in exorbitant costs per acquisition. "In the short run," said Citron, the company will isolate programs from all channels bringing in "marginal customers…meaning customers coming in at a very expensive rate." Those programs, it's assumed, will be on the chopping block.

"[Vonage] is looking at revamping its marketing campaign. I think the initial work the company has done over the last three or four months has shown positive improvement in the cost to acquire customers," he continued. "That number's come down almost ten percent." Incidentally, Vonage's online ad spending has dwindled in recent months. Check out ClickZ's recent coverage of how Vonage's legal woes could affect its online ad plans, and the networks it buys through.

Vonage expects to appeal if the court doesn't grant it a stay allowing it to continue marketing the services Verizon alleges infringe on its patents. The impression I got is no drastic changes will be made to Vonage's marketing plans right away; but changes are to be expected down the road.

UPDATE: According to a company press release, "Vonage announced plans to reduce its marketing expense by approximately $110 million. As a result, the Company expects marketing expenditures of roughly $310 million for 2007."

Will that mean less TV ad yodeling? Less online ad network buys? It's unclear at this point.

Another data point from Computer Business Review Online: "Vonage's marketing spend has been closely watched. It was a whopping 47% of revenue in the first quarter this year, the company revealed yesterday, down from 53% in the fourth quarter."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 2, 2007

Digital Marketing Remainders

XLNT Ads Launches: Another entry in the growing field of players aiming to help agencies outsource their ad creation to the masses. (press release)

Google Files for an In-Game Ad Patent: Actually, this is a dusty patent, dating to last fall; but it was just posted to the USPTO's Web site, so has now become news. A method for "using information from user-video game interactions to target advertisements, such as advertisements to be served in video games for example." (via MIT Advertising Lab)

Enpocket Signs an Agency Partner: Minneapolis agency Carlson Marketing will work with Enpocket to enable its loyalty marketing, employee recognition and events with mobile components. (press release)

European Utes Get Free Ad-Supported Phones: British start-up Blyk will offer U.K. teens a free phone service with ads from Coca-Cola, L'Oréal and Buena Vista, according to a story in The Guardian. Blyk hasn't responded to my queries, but it's noteworthy to see an actual instance of completely free cell phones supported by marketing offers, which scenario has been hypothesized for some time. The proof will be in the details. How much of this service is subsidized, really? If kids still have to pay for incremental calling and messaging, it may fall flat. Ditto if the advertising is relentless.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 22, 2007

Free MLS Listing Site for Home Sellers

Iggys House, the company that owns BuySide Realty, just launched a site that allows sellers to list their property free on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), which sells over 70 percent of U.S. properties. Currently, an MLS listing costs c. $500 and can only be executed by a Realtor.

Seller ads, which can contain multiple photos and even video, will appear on Realtor.com, the largest database of homes for sale, as well as on services such as AOL, the WSJ, and MSN. A toll-free number and voice mail are provided with each listing for inquiries.

Iggys House CEO Joseph J. Fox has big expectations. “There is a lot of money at stake – about $65 billion annually in real estate commissions. This new model will have an immediate impact on the status quo. By breaking open the MLS we are providing over $500 million worth of services for free to millions of home buyers each year. For the 1.1 million people who try to ‘sell by owner’, we provide incredible exposure...For the over 400,000 sellers who pay a fee to be MLS-listed, we now offer it for free.”

So where's the money? The reasoning is that home sellers are on the verge of becoming home buyers. The service hopes to direct sellers to buy their next property on BuySide Realty, which launched in April of last year. That service shares 75 percent of its commission with the buyer, and helps guide purchasers through the process andn the closing.

The service is initially launching in 20 states, and plans a rollout to an additional 17 states in coming months, which Iggys House claims represents 84 percent of available homes. By year's end, the service will be national.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 16, 2007

Synthetic Sweetener Titans Swallow Splenda URLs

Having learned a lesson from Coca-Cola and its labor adversaries in South America, who snatched the domain KillerCoke.org to air their grievances over union deaths in Bogota-area bottling plants, the makers of synthetic sweetener Splenda are gorging themselves on hundreds of negative Splenda URLs -- all in the name of curbing bad PR. That's according to Sustainable is Good, which has an extensive list of the URLs in question at the above-linked articlel.

The list of lambasting links goes on and on, including such basics as splendasucks.net (plus .org, .biz, and .info) and splendakills.net as well as more elaborate word combos like splendatoxicitycenter.com (.net, .org, etc.). They were purchased by two firms, Splenda manufacturer Tate&Lyle and U.S. partner J&J. Looks like SplendaKills.com is already taken though. Ouch. That's a bitter pill that 20 packs of Sucralose aren't likely to sweeten. Still, how much does the particular domain matter? If you have something negative to say about a brand, you'll likely ave no problem finding a place to say it online -- even if it's just a MySpace sub-URL. Direct navigation traffic can't hold a candle to optimized search traffic. (via seth godin)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 2, 2007

AKQA to Remain Private, for Now

So much for rumors of AKQA's imminent acquisition by a larger digital marketing firm. The agency, lauded for its creative work, has sold a majority stake in its business to General Atlantic.

Of course nothing about this deal rules out an eventual sale to Omnicom, WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, etc. It only means General Atlantic will have to be involved when that happens. The money from the sale is being used to pay off other investors and stakeholders, including Francisco Partners.

AKQA recently hired a new EMD of media and is aggressively expanding in search and media services offerings.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 16, 2007

Baidu Teams With EMI for Ad-Supported Streaming Tunes

Chinese search giant Baidu announced it's teaming with EMI to launch a an ad-supported streaming online music service in China.

EMI's Typhoon Music Chinese repertoire will be available free to Baidu users in a specially created 'EMI Music Zone' residing on China's leading search engine (62.1%, according to the recent figures). The two companies will split the ad revenue, which a press release calls "a pioneering approach to monetising and promoting digital music in China."

The move is obviously geared toward promoting EMI's catalogue in China, with DRM and copy protection overtones: "The cooperation...also moves us towards jointly controlling digital piracy, something that is important to EMI in the Chinese digital music market. Our co-operation with the world's largest Chinese search engine is also part of EMI's strategic roadmap to expanding digital music development across the region," said Norman Cheng, Chairman of EMI Music Asia and director of Typhoon Music, in a statement.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everything Promo-old is New Again?

Allowing advertiser clients to pay based on specific action and demographic criteria is not exactly a new pricing method of lead generation services. The integration of templated sweepstake type promotions with lead gen campaigns isn't so new either. Somehow these offerings are big news, though, at least as far as The Wall Street Journal is concerned. The paper reports today on ePrize's new Caffeine product which is tailored to smaller business clients than the company typically serves.

Like other promotions and sweepstakes services, Caffeine, lets advertisers run promotions "without having to pay for the prizes or do the legal legwork needed to operate the contests….Unlike the traditional pay-per-click model, small firms using Caffeine don't pay a dime until a visitor clicks on the promotion and registers by providing identifying details, including an email address, that the business can then use in marketing and research efforts…. Businesses pay Caffeine $1 for every qualified customer lead and 15 cents per repeat visitor, though they can implement restrictions."

What a concept.

ePrize is one of many service firms hoping to grab the mom-and-pop shops, smalltime business people and others in the long-tail advertiser ranks moving steadily online. So, they've built a less-customizable, more templated version of their older offering in the hopes of tapping into the growing market.

The company also has aligned with partners including localbiznow.com, and apparently "is in talks with Yahoo Inc. about a possible alliance where Yahoo will include Caffeine as an option for businesses buying keywords for Yahoo's search-engine advertising."

Makes sense, considering many small businesses start with SEM when spending online.

OK, I hate to pan a paper I've read religiously for years, and subscribe to. It's just that, even though the fact that Caffeine is designed to reach smaller advertisers may be new for ePrize, the structure of the offering, payment method, etc. are pretty old hat in the world of lead gen.

The Journal states ePrize is "seeking to capitalize on a growing online movement toward pay-per-action advertising." Sure, search advertising, which garners a huge chunk of online ad dollars is primarily based on CPC, but the notion that cost- or pay-per-action advertising is something new is a tad naïve.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:05 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)

January 8, 2007

Capessa, a New Online Focus Group from P&G

Procter & Gamble has staked out an online community for women, dubbed Capessa and hosted on Yahoo Health. The word is Latin for "to strive to reach a place," an unlikely moniker given the site's staid and even complacent approach to content and features. The Journal's coverage positions it as a social networking launch, which it most certainly is not. No profiles here, no real mechanism to connect with other visitors. Just a collection of stories accumulated from around Yahoo Health, a Yahoo Groups discussion forum, some video and text profiles of women in various life phases, and a newsletter sign-up.

To be fair, P&G's own release offers a modest goal: "to learn more about the interests and product needs of women [and]… to better understand digital space, as well as how the company can be more relevant in the lives of their consumers." In other words, an online focus group.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Holiday Greeting or Blatant Self Promotion?

If there's a line between branding in a holiday message, and a holiday e-card becoming an advertisement, I think it's been crossed. This one from RedShift Systems goes a little far into self promotion with a riff on "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" by making RedShift's thermal imaging solution the hero of Santa's journey. Holiday cards are great and we enjoy seeing the creative, but some put us a little out of the holiday spirit.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 14, 2006

IAB: Not Aiming for Marketer Members

When the IAB announced its appointment of Randall Rothenberg to its CEO post (set to replace Greg Stuart in January), a colleague and I wondered aloud about whether this could mean the always-publisher-centric org was planning on branching out to include marketers in its membership fold. Rothenberg was hired, in part, for his experience as a CMO and connections in that world.

I had the chance to chat briefly just now with IAB GM Sheryl Draizen who (as I'd expected), said the IAB would definitely not be going after corporate marketers and advertisers to extend its membership base. The AMA is the place for marketers, she added.

"It's become increasingly more important for CMOs to understand what's going on with interactive," Draizen told me, and that means, she continued, the IAB needs to be there to help build bridges between interactive media and marketers.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 11, 2006

Teens to Spend $3 Billion Online

Online shopping is expected to top $24 billion by the time the last gift is received, but how many purchases will be made, or influenced by teens? A JupterResearch report: "Teen Onlie Shoppers: Reach Teen Influencers and Early Adopters Through consumer-Created Content" finds teens responsible for $3 billion in purchases for the full year of 2006.

Parents are often present for teen-initiated or influenced purchases, 83 percent of teen purchases are made with parents present, or with the aid of a parent's credit or debit card. Alternative payment methods like PayPal and gift certificates are quickly becoming a method of choice for the freedom young adults have with making purchases. Even when it's a household purchase, 25 percent of teens say their parents take their opinions into account.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 6, 2006

This Is Your Bob Dole. This Is Your Bob Dole on Medicare.

Who better to tell you about Medicare than an ex-Senator with an old war injury? Yep. Once-presidential hopeful Bob Dole is workin' for the government yet again. This time, since he's proven himself to be such a successful healthcare product pitchman, he's pushing the newly-revamped Medicare system on the Bob Dole On Medicare site.

The site is supported in part by a grant from Pfizer, according to its small print (tough for old folks to read) -- you know, the makers of that invigorating blue miracle pill he used to hawk.

The Web site features podcasts from Dole's speaking engagements on the road, videos of seniors discussing their experiences with the new system, and downloadable brochures, plus there are even links to do the delicious and digg thing.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 27, 2006

Let's Lose "Affiliate"

The bloggers over at ReveNews have been talking about affiliate marketing's image problem. Craig Danuloff proposes renaming it "referral marketing." I agree with his contentions that the word will resonate better with shoppers, and make more sense to them, and that it just makes more sense.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 6, 2006

FTC Conference Coverage: Marketing Poll Misses Point

Here' s something of interest for online marketers. Earlier this morning, there was a poll in which the 300-plus attendees were asked, "Which marketing method will have the most success in the next ten years?" The results:

35 percent said Targeting Technologies
17 percent said Word of Mouth Advertising
26 percent said Mobile Media
22 percent said Interactive Advertising

I have to say, though the FTC is to be commended for hosting this discussion of issues that will be increasingly relevant to consumers in years to come, this poll question indicates a lack of understanding of where advertising is going. Yes, targeting may well be the most important component of advertising, and thus the most successful. However, the notion of separating interactive advertising from targeting technologies disregards the fact that targeting technologies are what drive much of advertising online, as well as mobile advertising. Word of Mouth, on the other hand, is a technique employed in many online marketing and mobile campaigns.

Indeed, the FTC and the folks attending this conference must be aware of the steady integration of all media, the data gathered through it, and the marketing methods deployed through those media, in order to truly conceive of what this stuff will mean to consumers in the future.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 26, 2006

Killface Wants to Market His World Annihilation Plans

Killface wants to destroy the earth with his "Annihilatrix," but he wants to make sure the word gets out first. So, what does he do? Hires a marketing team!

A new show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Frisky Dingo, is hilariously disturbing and will have anybody involved in the ad industry in stiches. Well, it had me crackin' up the other night. The first episode is the one to watch.

Who could resist a line like this? "My job is to complete the annihilatrix and destroy mankind by driving this vile planet straight into the sun, and your job is to market it."

Make sure to check out Killface on the Adult Swim site riffing on reasons why he wants to destroy the earth, including Sagamore Farm's Old Fashioned Rasin Toast:

"Toast is not raised on a farm....The package states that this toast is bursting with raisins.... You know how many raisins there are in the average slice of this bread? Nine, nine raisins. So I think someone down there in the farm's marketing department needs to look up the definition for bursting, because nine isn't."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Am Ex wants Preservation Votes

American Express is hitting up Internet savvy San Franciscans right where they are most: online and in coffee houses, all in the name of preservation.

The credit card company is partnering with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the World Monuments Fund to offer $1 million in repair funds for SF Bay Area landmarks. The trick is 25 locations are all up for voting as to which ones need the money most, or which people prefer. Of course, voting at Partners in Preservation requires registration and ends on October 31.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Marketing Vampire Bat Saliva (Really)

Ohio State University Medical Center has a great communications program in place just in time for Halloween.

In their own words:

"Here's a story you can really sink your teeth into! This Halloween season, you might think of vampire bats as scary little creatures found in haunted houses. But medical researchers believe these blood-suckers could help people recover from devastating strokes. That's because when the bats feed, their saliva keeps blood from clotting in their prey. Now, doctors are testing a drug made from bat saliva on stroke patients."

An informative site for the media contains a press release, vampire videos, video interviews with researchers and patients, a map of vampire bat habitats, a podcast, audio, photos, and even an interactive quiz.

This campaign sure sucks the blood right out of most of the press releases we usually see around here.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

The DMA's Digital Future

Return Path CEO Matt Blumberg encourages us to expect interactive-driven developments from the DMA, writing on his blog. Blumberg is chairman of the Interactive Marketing Advisory Board (IMAB), the internal group the DMA set up after dissolving AIM.

Blumberg's post on the group's digitized future seems part apology for a lackluster interactive presence at the DMA '06 event in San Francisco last week ("very weak interactive trade show floor and critical mass of key attendees"). But he says John Greco has committed to revitalize the IMAB and that the board is working "diligently and in great partnership with the senior staff of the DMA to really bring interactive marketing principles to the core of the DMA's offerings and ethos."

We shall see.

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

October 17, 2006

WPP-LiveWorld Communities Venture Names CEO

WPP named Alex Norman to lead its joint venture with social media outsourcer LiveWorld, announced back in July. Norman's background at WPP includes stints with Ogilvy and Young & Rubicam, in a variety of interactive and traditional roles. He'll be based in New York.

LiveWorld's white label social networking and community management platform has racked up a list of clients that includes Campbell Soup, AOL, A&E, Coca-Cola, HBO, Intel and Kraft. WPP and LiveWorld previously worked together building communities around Dove's Real Beauty campaign.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2006

This Little Piggy Went to Telemarket

This may be a first -- for me anyway. The other day I got a call at home. We've got caller ID and get so many telemarketing calls, I rarely pick up if I don't recognize the number. But we reporters are a curious breed, and the ID name associated with this caller was too intriguing for me to dismiss: Pigpen Forum. Could it be a nonprofit association begging for donations to aid excessively grimy children? Or maybe a company selling extra large play pens for portly kids?

Nope and nope.

Turns out it was a recorded telemarketing call from a Web site called PigPenForum.com, a sports betting site! There was a chipper chick on the line petitioning me to visit PigPenForum right away. Sure, I've gotten plenty of recorded calls, but I think this may be the first prompting me to go to a Web site.

Being neither a sports fan nor a gambler, she may as well have spoken to me in that indecipherable Peanuts adult language....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 14, 2006

Demand Measurement, But Respect Creative Experimentation

Quote of the Day: “Companies, marketing departments and the top-level executives need to give a little room for experimentation. I don’t think you want to allow measurement to override creativity and the adventure of new media.” –Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch's global veep of media and sports marketing, talking with WSJ about measurement and Bud.TV (via Brand Autopsy)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 13, 2006

Pay for AOL, Protect Your Identity

Curious story on AP today that hasn't gotten much pickup elsewhere.

AOL is offering free identity theft insurance to the few paying subscribers it has left. Policy holders are covered up to $10,000 to restore their good name and credit rating -- no matter how their personal information or finances were compromised.

Another value add is a separate policy to repair or replace computers that suffer physical damage, up to $1,000. (Yow - that's less than half of my MacBook Pro!)

There's also wiggle room for AOL built into all this: "The policies require no deductible, but are secondary to other coverage, meaning a user's homeowner's or renter's insurance pays first."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 7, 2006

Warner to Create Broadband/Mobile Advertorial Content

The word is out about the new Warner Bros. broadband and mobile advertorial content production studio. The trendily-named Studio 2.0 will be headed up by marketing man Rich Rosenthal, former Y&R exec. According to Warner's spokesperson Marybeth Kelly, Rosenthal "literally just started" the new gig a few days ago. So, she couldn't tell ClickZ much by way of details, though we'd love to know about distribution deals and which advertisers are on board.

According to a WorldScreen.com report, "Studio 2.0 will look to license the programming to online sites, portals and wireless providers in collaboration with the recently formed Warner Bros. Digital Distribution business."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 31, 2006

Hoops & Yoyo

Ever heard of Hoops & Yoyo? We hadn't, until ClickZ's crack Associate Editor Erin Brenner called them to our attention.

Apparently, Hallmark has a mini-franchise going with these cute and droll characters (Erin says her kids are nuts about them). From the Hoops & Yoyo homepage there are links to a blog, CGM in the form of user-submitted photos, wallpaper, a store, a newsletter, advice columns, the whole nine yards. E-cards are available in no less than seven languages and there's even a MySpace page a few YouTube videos (one seems to have been posted by Hallmark).

This is a site that's doing everything right -- even if none of the rest of us were aware of the duo. But hey -- that only means they have a viral component, too.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

Dylan Goes Electronic

Forty years after Newport and the guy's still coming up with surprises.

Yesterday, it was the announcement that AOL Radio will simulcast Bob Dylan's XM Satellite Radio show, as well as simulcast the premiere of Dylan's new album, "Modern Times" (am I the only one still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Dylan the DJ?).

Today, Mr. Zimmerman shows up on the Apple site in a new iPod ad. Alongside the ad, of course, is an invitation to pre-order the album.

Wow. You know you're starting to get old when you can still remember the analog Dylan.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 10, 2006

Ford Hail Mary Marketing Effort Goes to the Blogs…Lots of 'Em

It wasn't so long ago that the Blogads network had few if any big corporate advertisers. In the early days, the network was dominated by ads from nonprofits, political candidates and other blogs seeking attention from online information junkies. Granted, these sorts of advertisers still abound on blogs, but it's no longer a surprise to see a commercial brand advertiser on the pages of the blogosphere.

Now, according to Blogads founder and CEO Henry Copeland, "the most exciting ad to cross Blogads' servers in our four years of business" belongs to one of the world's most recognized brands, Ford. As part of the company's ongoing "BoldMoves" effort to enlist consumers to help the company get back on track, Ford has placed ads on 400 Blogads blogs, according to a Jalopnik post (by way of Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion).

In a missive he sent Tuesday to Blogads network site managers. Copeland called the ad "The first Cluetrain ad," asserting, "Now, down a few billion bucks and peddling gas-guzzlers, Ford has drunk the Cluetrain cool-aid. Eschewing the 'same old tone, same old lies' and the 'soothing humorless monotone,' this Ford ad celebrates the brutally honest conversations that are essential to its revival. And Ford's BoldMoves project finds an ideal counterpart in the blogosphere, the great American brainstorm."

I can't help but wonder why Copeland has such high praise for this campaign and made such a special effort to alert his network bloggers to it (employing the blogger's mating call language of cluetrain-ese, no less). He's a standup guy, so I hesitate to speculate, but the skeptic in me thinks that maybe such a big ad buy was contingent upon him getting the conversation going among the bloggers. Then again, this BoldMoves campaign was tailor-made for blogs, so I'm sure they'd planned on doing the blog ad thing anyway.

Jalopnik, for one, ain't exactly buyin' Copeland's cluetrain contention. He writes, "This is all interesting...and yes, the Bold Moves videos are all about saying stuff other companies aren't saying -- but we kinda thought the Cluetrain Manifesto was all about having 'real conversations' between businesses and consumers. We're not entirely sure it means buying your way onto the page the conversations are occurring."

I think it's easy to jab Ford for taking this approach. Sure, Ford is hoping to influence what's discussed in the blogosphere by standing up and waving, "Hey guys, over here!" via the ads. And, from my perspective, the short films have a vaguely patronizing tone. (The latest mini-flick is all about how great Ford's hybrid NYC taxicabs are, interspersed with man-on-the-street comments such as, "I haven't heard anything about what Ford is doing for the environment to be honest" -- cut to shiny happy hybrids.)

Another thing: The intro film features execs in a conference room, sleeves rolled up, coffee cups strewn about, spewing terms and phrases straight outta the corporate transparency playbook, like "Rip out the B.S.," "authentic," "engage in conversation," "constructive conflict," "pullback the curtain." Oh, and let's not forget the final statement from one exec, "The American people love the truth and they love an underdog. That's us." Somebody should have told that guy the American people love an underdog as long as it doesn't slap them in the face with the tail that's in between its legs....

Yeah, OK, Ford's approach is a tad patronizing.

In Ford's defense, consider the fact that no matter how hard anybody tries, it seems as though reality shows have deadened the eyebrow-raising factor of anything that's truthful or gritty to the point where even actual reality can come off as scripted and edited for optimum impact.

These Hail Mary pass-type campaigns are nothing new. It's as if Ford took the BP-rebranding campaign and slapped a Web 2.0 label on it. Still, those social features are positive components that can, indeed, facilitate discussion. Users have the ability to register to post comments to articles about specific issues, and to easily embed the vids on their own sites, for instance. A forum in which users can initiate their own topic discussions would feel a lot more free and transparent, though.

If anything, the campaign will get people talking about the campaign itself, which can lead to a conversation about Ford, and possibly, in turn, the direction it should take to get its shite together. Already bunches of bloggers are posting commentary about the campaign, prompted by Copeland's e-mail.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Digital marketing remainders

Oneupweb launched a podcast tracking and reporting service earlier this week. The product promises to bring greater measurability and accountability to the fledgling medium. Features include measurement of subscriber and non-subscriber downloads, search engine positions of various podcasts, referral data such as which directories are driving the most traffic to a podcast and trend graphs.

Pheedo Introduces Feed-Fueled Optimization Tool: RSSeo will help search optimization pros get their feeds to do some heavy lifting.

Marchex said it's doing more with its bulk domains. The company added more local and travel data to its "direct navigation" sites. 100-plus sites have been beefed up.

Quigo upgraded AdSonar: 'Nuff said.

EmailLabs launched a new version of its platform: Features include deliverability enhancements and RSS delivery.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 2, 2006

We Are the Weird: Nerds for Net Neutrality

The pro-Net neutrality ranks have made some headway in their ongoing fight to get their issue noticed by folks across the Web, as well as more mainstream media outlets. One of the latest attempts at getting the word out is WeAreTheWeb.org, a collective video-centric endeavor intended to spur a viral effect.

Essentially, there are brief video messages from "Web Celebrities," The Tron Guy, Leslie Hall (the gem sweater chick who looks more like a John Waters flick character than anybody who's actually been in his movies), and some other dude who dresses up like Peter Pan. Each provides his or her own reasons why we should give a damn about Net neutrality.

The site is very well executed and visually appealing in a George Lucas's student film sorta way; it's easy to pass along the site's videos, contact the appropriate congressperson, and download banners.The folks behind the site, evidently, are betting on WeAreTheWeb and the arguable charm of this hapless cast of characters to entice everyday Web users to, well, give a rat's ass.

As usual, the entertaining approach to serious issues tends to dumb them down. However, even Al Gore resorted to "entertainment" to promote his pet cause.

The thing is, I hesitate to believe that this particular effort will really lead to much more than a chuckle. Surely the neutral netizens already on board with the issue will appreciate this campaign. But, I wonder whether the super-geek quality of the site and its players could actually alienate the more mainstream people that they'd like to reach.

If anything, it'll probably drive a lot more traffic to that Tron Guy's site (not to mention annoying everyone who can't get "We Are the World" out of their heads...).

Posted by Kate Kaye at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 31, 2006

JWT Partners with Spot Runner

Spot Runner, operator of a local TV ad platform that's administered via the Web, has partnered with JWT. Under the deal's terms, the global agency's clients will be able to scoop up remnant teevee inventory and buy spots in emerging video platforms like Internet video, VOD and IPTV.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 25, 2006

Politicos to Pay for Facebook Profiles?

Should political candidates bother to pay for Facebook profiles when they can set one up for free on MySpace or create their own YouTube groups for free?

According to a brief Time story, the student-only social networking site will let them "buy ad space on networking site Facebook.com, allowing them to create profiles viewable to 8 million members."

As featured in the news blurb, MySpace "plans a similar initiative." Also noted, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos thinks it's a good place for candidates to reach out to young people.

Kari Chisholm of political consulting firm Mandate Media wrote in his Politics and Technology blog that, "This is big news for campaigns - especially since it sounds like there will be steep discounts. Time to dive in, folks."

Well, the fact is momentum is getting easier for candidates to build online. That doesn't necessarily translate into votes, though. There were plenty of young, seemingly engaged people who passed around Flash animations, and IM-ed and blogged and e-mailed about how much they wanted Bush outta the White House in '04 who didn't bother to go to the polls much less register to vote.

So, we shall see....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2006

Wal-Mart Organics Campaign Has Digital Legs

Wal-Mart's begun the marketing push for its expansion into organic foods, and the campaign includes online components courtesy of Avenue A/Razorfish. Few details are available about the Web creative or media plan, but the offline executions "combine conversation and naturalistic, colorful images of food," according to reports. The agency declined to share details of the Web campaign, citing competitive concerns.

The campaign's tagline, "Introducing Organics at the Wal-Mart price" says it all, for better or worse.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 11, 2006

Zidane, All is Forgiven

Not only are Adidas and Danone, Zinedine Zidane's sponsors, forgiving the French team captain for the head-butt seen 'round the world, the shoe maker is actually launching a Web site, mercizidane.fr (goes live July 15), where supporters can thank him. This according to a Reuters report.

"He has been Adidas's ambassador for 10 years and will stay its ambassador until 2017. In fact Mr Hainer (the company's chief executive) said he could stay as long as he wishes," Adidas marketing head Emmanuelle Gaye told Reuters.

And speaking of the head-butt, my soccer-mad hubby said he got sent at least three e-mails from friends yesterday, all linking to hastily-thrown-together Flash games, where people could interactively re-enact the big moment. Here's one (you move Zidane with your mouse and click to head-butt). Just another example of the power of CGM.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Shop.com's Come Back For Xmas Promo

Shop.com proves once again it's never too early to start promoting holiday shopping.

Decking the HTML with photos of beachgoers in Santa hats, the site is offering consumers who shop now a chance to "Earn Your Christmas Bonus." Consumers get 10 percent of their purchase price (up to $500) banked for holiday buying. Neat trick for boosting registration.

Alas -- the "keep shopping in July" button on the site links to Shop.com's advertiser rate card. Let's sort out which shoppers we're referring to, shall we? Or do advertisers get the 10 percent credit, too?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Product Recommendations: Free Beats Fee

David's right. This whole recomendation-engine thing is mind-boggling.

Amazon's telling me to buy Pink Floyd because I told them I own a lot of VU. Huh? They're convinced my predilection for Patti Smith makes "The Concert for Bangladesh" a must-own (the mind reels). Given the vintage of my tunes, I obviously didn't buy a lot of them on Amazon. But I have been putting their engine to the test by spending way too much time telling Amazon what I already have -- to little avail.

Over at GreenCine, it's much clearer why I get the recomendations I do. But they're still wrong, wrong, wrong.

Why? In a word, segmentation. On-the-fly tagging is much nimbler than baked-in metadata.

I overwhelmingly rent Asian films, primarily Japanse and Korean (OK, I have obscure tastes -- that's why I bailed from Netflix). GreenCine obviously takes this preference for "asian" into consideration as Asian films account for a preponderance of my personal recomendations. But (and this is a very big but), nearly all the recommendations are anime. This completely disregards the fact my rental history consists of zero anime.

I can click "not interested" on anime suggestions until I get calluses, but there's always more where that came from. The engine just doesn't get it. GreenCine segments their anime into no less than 11 subcategories (who knew?), all distinct from a completely separate Animation category. This means one broad and 11 subcategories I've never rented DVDs from constitute about 90 percent of my recommendations -- presumably because of metadata I'm not seeing; "japanese" and "asian" are likely guesses.

It's so much cheaper and so much easier for these e-commerce players to go the CGM route. I love Amazon's customer reviews, lists, and "people who looked at this product actually bought..." links. I've rented a ton of movies off Greencine's excellent, eccentric and often, arcane, user recommendation lists (like Roger Ebert is a Big, Fat, Idiot or Movies that make you want to take a shower).

Building an e-commerce site? Considering a recommendation engine? Save your money. Let your customers do that work for you.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

Go Forward - and Do A Good Deed!

The Superman Tag Web site finally launched!

Its purpose is to raise awareness -- and money -- for a great cause: the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to curing spinal cord injuries.

The story behind the Web site is here. I was honored to be a part of the interactive marketing committee group that helped pull this effort together -- although the lion's share of kudos are due to Euro RSCG, which generously did the heavy lifting, i.e. site building, on a pro bono basis.

Could you please help us leverage the buzz around this summer's biggest movie blockbuster opening? (Superman Returns is dedicated to Reeve's memory.)

Please visit the Superman Tag Web site. Buy tags. And if you're at all able, please download one of the banners and post it on your own Web site.

It's for a very good cause.

Thanks.

And thanks to my fellow committee members, which includes such illustrious names as Dave Weinberger, Euro RSCG's Jane Barratt and Ryan Berger, Mark Hughes, Steve Rubel, scenarioDNA and a host of others.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More Changes for Affiliate Marketing

The affiliate marketing space seems to be going through a lot of changes lately. On the heels of the introduction of Commission Junction's Link Management Initiative comes Performics's OrangeLinks program, just launched June 10.

According to the company's site, the new system delivers pre-generated, live links directly to affiliate publishers via email or FTP in an effort to save them time and improve productivity. They can choose to receive OrangeLinks for all of approved advertisers or only specific advertisers, and are asked to "customize your OrangeLinks settings by selecting text links, banners, ad sizes and promotion types."

"This is the Link Management Initiative all over again but done correctly," wrote affiliate marketing consultant Jeff Molander on his ThoughtShapers blog. "It provides affiliates with a candy-coated and legitimately useful solution allowing them to operate business-as-usual."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 19, 2006

Search for Brand Marketers Breakfast

This Thursday, I'm participating in a panel on search for brand marketers sponsored by Hitwise. I'll be joining some great speakers: SEMPO's Dana Todd, Performic's Cam Balzer, Spafinders' Daniel Lizio-Katzen and Microsoft's James Colborn, with Bill Tancer moderating.

Stop by for breakfast if you're in sweltering New York this week. I'm sure the hotel will have air con!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 6, 2006

Amazon's "Devil Wears Prada" Boutique

Looking for the perfect accessory for sneaking your own bottle of designer water past the ticket taker at the movies?

Amazon.com launched a "The Devil Wears Prada" boutique today in its Apparel & Accessories section to promote the Twentieth Century Fox movie of the same name. The section features exclusive video clips from the upcoming film as well as the bag carried by the protagonist (designed by Pat Fields, not Prada -- no wonder it's distressed). Other merch includes make-up, tees and perfume, all with rather tenuous tie-ins to the film.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 1, 2006

More Industry Reaction to Commish Junction Link Change

Jeff Molander over at ThoughtShapers conducted an interesting roundtable-type discussion among affiliate marketing insiders the other day in reaction to Commission Junction's Link Management Initiative announcement.

In a nutshell, CJ sent an announcement to publisher clients last Wednesday notifying them that they'd be switching from using HTML links to advertiser sites to using JavaScript links. This really rattled some affiliate cages, since this could mean a lot of tedious link switching for affiliate site publishers.

The talk is worth listening to or reading in full, but here are a couple of interesting comments:

Jeff Nienaber of Allstar Directories had a couple points that I thought stood out:

I think if anything, CJ wants to quantify to Google, and to Yahoo, and MSN, how big of a player they are in the space. They have an ad budget aggregated number that they can throw around.

….[They] recognize the threat of Google and the Yahoo Partner Network….absolutely ValueClick is a media company [CJ is a ValueClick-owned company]. Google is a media company. This is one on one competition; it’s on the front lines. One of their arrows in their quiver was CJ, but this is definitely a response to Google’s position within the media market. Yes, they have to move. They have to do something. Google’s killing them.

Affiliate marketer Nate Griffin looked at it from the seller's P.O.V.:

I think that really is a question; who really has control, who benefits from this control, do I really benefit from this control, do I want this control? Or, am I more comfortable letting the affiliates innovate ways of selling the products, or getting people to click through to links? I think there’s a lot of strength in letting affiliates be creative with the link format. I think that’s where you get things like the Product Showcase Creator, GoldenCan, and things like that, it seems that the platform is somewhat open to innovation, and there’s a question in my mind whether or not this makes it closed to that kind of innovation, now that CJ wants to control that innovation.

On Nate's point: The way I understand it, CJ is concerned with the fact that large retail sites (the ones relying on affiliates to drive traffic to their sites) have to answer to the brand advertisers. The brand advertisers are quite concerned with shoddy, data-driven "link farm" type sites are connected to their brands through retailer sites. It dilutes their brand, makes them look cheap. (Think of designers that don't like their stuff being sold at bargain-bin places like TJ Maxx or Filene's Basement because it devalues their brands.)

This space is so complicated, though, I've only begun to understand it.

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

May 18, 2006

Google Breaks Out the Movie Promos

The Jennifer Aniston, Vince Vaughn vehicle "The Break-Up" is catching a break on Google. Columbia Pictures brokered a deal with the search engine to feature its film on Google Video. In addition to being able to view the trailer, visitors are encouraged to upload video about their own break-ups. That will run through June 2.

This is the second movie to have a sizable promotion hosted by Google. Last month it ran a 24-day contest for Columbia Picture's "Da Vinci Code.

With the announcement of "The Break-Up" promotion, Google co-opted the opportunity to introduce its more user-friendly video-upload system. The procedure now lets users upload video through a Web-based tool in multiple formats, and video will be available faster than before.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 10, 2006

Viewpoint Creates Toolbar for ONE Activists

Can a Web browser fight poverty and AIDS?

Viewpoint has created a custom toolbar for ONE.org's activist user base. It will become broadly available to ONE's 2 million active users on May 18.

The toolbar notifies users of ONE's action alerts; has a viral "spread the word" function; solicits feedback; comes pre-populated with photos and images from ONE camapigns and has a search feature using Viewpoint technology.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 9, 2006

They Own You When You Own Them

Maybe this fits into that whole "ownership culture" meme. As part of its preparation for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock, voice-over-IP company Vonage has set aside stock for its loyal customers as "friends and family," if you will. The company sent out an e-mail to subscribers this week telling them that "Because much of our success is attributable to our customers, we have asked the underwriters of the IPO to reserve shares of common stock for sale to certain Vonage customers at the IPO price in a Directed Share Program." I guess they can't speak plain English in any communication that has to do with an IPO. To qualify, customers must have been subscribers from December 15, 2005 through February 1, 2006. How better to hold onto customers than to convert them into shareholders? (And it's especially important in the VoIP space given the myriad competitors out there, from phone companies to Skype to, now, AOL.)

UPDATE: Vonage also left an audio message in my voicemail box to tell me of its offer, which some people considered VoIP spam. I did find it a bit annoying.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 8, 2006

Avoiding the Summer Slump

The producers and marketers of hit TV show "Lost" have something of a challenge. A virtual cottage industry dedicated to dissecting the program has sprung up online. There are fan sites, several weekly podcasts, and much much discussion -- all fueled by the (mostly) weekly episodes of the series. Ahead: a summer hiatus that threatens to wreck the momentum (and the online user-generated marketing machine).

The answer? An alternate-reality game that will span the summer and hopefully give fans something to chat about online. It started on last week's episode, when a TV spot aired during the show advertised the "Hanso Foundation" -- an organization from the "Lost" universe -- and gave a 1-800 number. Calling the number gave viewers access to various mysterious voicemail messages, apparently meant as clues. The TV spot (which was, interestingly, structured in such a way that I saw it despite skipping commercials using TiVo) also led them to thehansofoundation.org Web site, which houses the TV ad and gives one more clues.

A USA Today story about the phenomenon quotes Mike Benson, ABC marketing chief, as saying, "What the Hanso Foundation did was just the beginning of this thing." Interesting stuff.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 5, 2006

Virtual Real Estate Goes Bricks-and-Mortar

What's more bricks-and-mortar than good, old fashioned bricks-and-mortar?

As more and more real estate marketing goes online, Greg Sterling's reporting that online-only realty company IAC is making to move to physical, offline locations. But the Web still plays a central role.

"The brokerage model we are undertaking is very different,” said Lebda. “Centrally, through the Web and call centers, you control lead flows coming in. Leads are transmitted over the phone and the Web to agents in the field."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 2, 2006

Apple Wants You to Spread the Word

Go forth and podcast.

It's obvious why Apple would have a vested interest in promoting podcasting, but it was still a surprise to get an e-mail from the folks in Sunnyvale urging their users to explore B2B podcasting:

"Promoting your business just got easier. Create a podcast with GarageBand, post it to iTunes in minutes, and reach customers, clients, and partners in a whole new way. Chefs are sharing recipes. Maternity store owners are giving the lowdown on diaper bags. And other professionals are airing business discussions, marketing new products and services, and keeping people informed."

The penny dropped, apparently. Apple's selling plenty of iPods, of course, but now they're obviously working to leverage podcasting across hardware, software and e-commerce platforms.

The landing page disappoints, though. All it does is point to Apple's retail store locations.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 21, 2006

Hershey Auctions, Powered by eBay

Get It with WrapperCash is the name of Hershey's latest promotion/loyalty program. It's an online-driven rewards program in which customers can bid for items and pay with "WrapperCash codes" from the packages of Hershey candy, cookies and snacks.

eBay will power the auctions on the Hershey Web site.

Participants can "bank" their coupons at Hersheys.com by entering the codes found on the promotions, online or via a mobile device. The online currency can then be used in auctions or at Hershey's "Redeem Now" online store.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 28, 2006

Burst Refreshes Logo, Tagline

Ad network and server Burst Media unveiled a new logo and a redesigned Web site today.

The company has also changed its tagline: "What Do You Really Care About" has become "Trust Counts."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

Yahoo! Visits New Orleans

Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Small Business, together with Bell South, are hosting a seminar in New Orleans on April 7th for local small businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina.

"This seminar will provide free training and up to $1,500 in free products and services (including search marketing services) to attendees to help facilitate small biz recovery in the Gulf Coast. Additionally, we are working to have a Yahoo! developer to host subsequent seminars for months to come to show a continued effort to get businesses 'back in business.'"

Altrustic -- and smart marketing. If only my friends in the Bywater could get their Web access back up and running.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 24, 2006

Great Minds...

Did anyone notice how competitors AMD and Intel adopted the exact same approach to court digital media enthusiasts. Both chip-makers recently embraced user-generated content by sponsoring a short film competition?

• Intel teamed with AtomFilms.com to get filmmakers to submit on the "magic wand" theme. Filmmakers also had to agree to use an Intel processor as part of their production process.

• AMD, along with agency Tocquigny, got people to submit 64-second films with the theme of "Waitlessness." In that case, an AMD-enabled production system (and a trip to California to visit Dream Works) was the prize.

It was an original approach at some point. Am I the only one getting tired of it now? Are there really that many budding filmmakers out there creating interesting new work?

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2006

Fidelity on Amazon

In yet another sign that Amazon isn't so much a retail site as a shopping portal, the company has signed a marketing deal with Fidelity Investments. Under the terms of the agreement, Fidelity gets to be lead sponsor of a new financial services "store" on Amazon and it gets "advertising throughout the Amazon site," according to Fidelity.

Fidelity gets its own content area and a "plog" where it'll presumably show off its financial know-how.

I understand how Amazon gets plenty of traffic and all, but do people really go there shopping for financial services? Maybe there'll be display ads in areas where people are looking at financially-oriented books or something.

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

March 13, 2006

IAB Releases Lead Gen Guidelines

The Interactive Advertising Bureau in conjunction and the Lead Generation Committee put forth its proposed Online Lead Generation Best Practices today.

The proposed practices, subject to comment over the next 30 days:

All lead generation efforts need to be strictly permission-based

Advertisers/Publishers/Vendors must only send consumer offers or information that strictly adheres to the information that consumers have requested

Advertisers/Publishers/Vendors must provide a clear, concise privacy policy

Publishers/Vendors will deliver consumer data that meets the Advertiser’s criteria for a quality lead, as determined by the Advertiser’s marketing objectives

Publishers/Vendors may pre-populate the information fields that a consumer has already provided

As for the one stating, "Publishers/Vendors will deliver consumer data that meets the Advertiser’s criteria for a quality lead, as determined by the Advertiser’s marketing objectives," don't advertisers already demand this? It seems like this sort of thing should be dictated by market forces: i.e. Vendor X didn't provide quality leads to Advertiser Y, so Y discontinues use of X's services. I wonder how much of a problem this is for advertisers. Are vendors promising and not delivering on a regular basis? How could the industry survive at all if that's the case?

I'd love to know what pubs/vendors and advertisers think about these guidelines. Email me if you've got something to say.

The IAB's Lead Generation Best Practices work group members include Vendare Media, Valueclick, Advertising.com, Innovation Ads, Organic, Knight Ridder Digital, Cox Newspapers and iVillage.

Update:
The Online Lead Generation Association (OLGA) put out a release in support of the IAB's guidelines, sort of. Evidently, the non profit company aims to "provide more specific and informative guidelines than those proposed by the IAB," but they say the IAB's are a good jumping off point. As noted in today's release:

We would add to the IAB’s list one of OLGA’s top best-practice priorities, and that is the belief that advertisers should always know exactly where their offers are being shown and how they are being presented to consumers....Given some of the ill-advised practices we are seeing today, the IAB draft guidelines will only be successful to the extent that the industry takes them to heart and adheres to them fully.

OLGA was formed in November 2005.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2006

LinkedIn to Enhance Free Services to Win Paid Subscribers

Professional social networking site LinkedIn said it has turned the corner on profitability this month, largely due to its premium services. Under those programs, which have been embraced by executive recruiters, investment bankers and management consultants, subscribers pay between $60 and $2,000 a year for unlimited searches of the LinkedIn Network, which are not limited to first-degree contacts, as regular users are.

With so much information available freely online, LinkedIn offers a competitive edge for people who base their business on finding the right people to do things for them, or finding people to tell them things their competitors don't know, Konstantin Guericke, VP marketing at LinkedIn, told ClickZ News.

Where last year's focus was on adding high-value services to build up subscribers, this year LinkedIn will focus on adding more features to benefit its non-paying users, who it hopes to keep around long enough to convert to paying customers, Guericke said.

Some examples include improved search features for members and non-members, increased presence of LinkedIn profiles in major search engine results, and tools to re-connect with past co-workers and classmates.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Hot Scots

Scotland has finally figured out that its greatest attraction isn't haggis, or even whisky. It's its sexy kilted male population. That's why the Scottish National Tourist Board launched a Web site and contest called Date A Hot Scot. Ladies (and men, I guess) can toggle through pics, bios and even video clips of 20 young kilt-wearing bachelors.

Site copy reads: "In Scotland, you'll find a surprising number of young, single men. In fact, almost half a million of them!"

By voting for their favorite featured hottie, site visitors have a chance to win a trip to Scotland for themselves and "a girlfriend." The site even features a kilt-wearing Cupid and a plaid (aka tartan) background.

via AdRants

(Full disclosure: I am married to a hot Scot so may be slightly biased in my enthusiasm for kilts.)

UPDATE: I came across another element of this campaign (see animated .GIF) on the NYTimes.com site this morning. It's a bit more gender neutral in its appeal.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Beeb's Club Drug Simulator

It's not clear if the BBC's Excess All Areas site is trying to discourage drug use or just help you decide what to mix with your X for a smoother come-down. Site users take control of a teen dancing in a virtual club, and with a few clicks can infuse his blood with cannabis, alcohol, speed, ecstacy or cocaine. With each progressive click he dances, spins, gets paranoid and wanders off the floor. The interface lets you increase the dose or build a drug cocktail. The kid has mad connections.

All teasing of propaganda aside, the site does get points for presenting drug information honestly and rationally. No fried-eggs-of-doom to see here. (via wfmu)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 17, 2006

The Link Exchange, Revived!

If you ran a Web site, or read any Web sites, in the early days of the 'Net, you're probably familiar with the concept of the link exchange or banner exchange. Display banners for exchange members on your site, and you'll be rewarded for having your banner shown on someone else's site. Well, Rojo Networks, with its newly-launched-in-Beta FeedShare, is bringing this concept into the blogging/RSS era.

Once the company gets publishers to sign up, it is reportedly going to transition this whole concept into an ad network. I don't know about you, but to me it seems a little creepy to sell publishers on the idea of a link exchange but actually be planning to sell space.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 15, 2006

Dream Home = Dream Traffic for HGTV.com

HGTV's fourth annual dream home giveaway, with a strong Web component, drove record traffic to HGTV.com.

"The HGTV Dream Home Giveaway is so popular that for the month of January we had 22 days of more than 1 million sweepstakes entries per day on HGTV.com...according to January's Nielsen//NetRatings, the site's average time spent more than doubled and its unique users increased 100 percent versus the average for the previous three months," said Ron Feinbaum, SVP and GM for Scripps Networks' interactive group.

January was HGTV.com's best traffic month ever with 334 million page views, up 22 percent from the same month a year ago. Unique visitors were also up to a record 9.3 million.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 9, 2006

TiVo's Matchmaking

Here's a thought on marketing tie-ins to Valentine's Day. TiVo is hosting a singles matchmaking mixer in the SF Bay Area. I got a notice about it in my e-mail box, so presumably they're looking at subscribers' locations (and not their marital status) to issue the invites.

Just like with TiVo recommendations, they're matching people based on their viewing habits and WishLists. A note from the legal disclaimer: "No scientific matchmaking techniques were used to match you (unless you consider tv show choices a valid matching criteria), and no valentines were harmed during the creation of this event."

Posted by Pamela Parker at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whither Widget?

Couple weeks ago I made some calls for a feature story on using widgets for marketing purposes. All the big media and search players offer them now. There's Yahoo! Widgets (formerly Konfabulator), Mac's OS X dashboard, Google's homepage modules and MSN Live's gadgets.

Add to that the universe of Firefox plug-ins, toolbars and toolbar extensions and you begin to see the possibilities. Alas, the story dead-ended. Most of the agency folks I spoke with were excited, yet either felt it was too early to jump in or couldn’t divulge their efforts.

It's a pleasure then to be able to point to this nicely done set of apps from Weatherbug. In addition to OS X and Yahoo! widgets, the company has released a Google Maps app and Firefox plug-in.

A few more of these and I'll dust off that story idea.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 6, 2006

American Heart Association Goes Red

The American Heart Assn. wants women to put on their red dress on "National Wear Red Day," as well as for nationwide red-themed events.

The Go Red for Women campaign, conceived by Desky branding, is intended to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S., and to encourage prevention and treatment. Macy's and Pfizer are on board as official sponsors.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 3, 2006

Marketers Show Style this Fashion Week

The Fall 2006 Olympus Fashion Week will be Webcast by a handful of marketers. Content includes packaged video and features on portals and wireless carriers and sponsored, live Webcasts of each show.

Sports and lifestyle marketing firm IMG Worldwide teamed with MSN Video and Sprint to bring packaged-coverage to fashionistas at large. The partnership includes a site set up by IMG, IMGFashionworld.com; a content package on MSN Video; and exclusive video on Sprint multimedia phones.

MSN's package includes video, blogs and editorial. Preroll in front of each video is run of network. It's a shame fashion advertisers haven’t caught on to the potential of the Web, and content like this.

Additional marketers including Pepsi's Aquafina have a presence at the physical show and online. In its second seasonal outing with Olympus Fashion Week, the water bottler ventured from prerecorded podcasts in the fall to live Webcasts of the show on its Web site. Marketing efforts also progressed from an exclusive external site (previously found at Aquafinafashion.com) to main placement on Aquafina.com.

These initiatives are compelling because they give an online presence to an industry that's stayed a little too much offline. With an ongoing sponsorship from Aquafina, and other marketers giving the biannual show a virtual presence, will clothing designers get on board? The campaigns are here, will the fashion worl follow suit?

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

NYT's Online Affinity Program for Print Subscribers

As the Grey Lady's print sub base erodes, the marketing department is trying to shore it up with an online affinity program.

TimesPoints allows prints subscribers to register up to two credit cards. Purchases at a variety of online merchants (BN.com, Apple Store, Macys.com, to name but a few) and local restaurants earn points.

What's most interesting is the program encourages subscribers to redeem points not only for merchandise, but to apply them to their print subscription balance. Buy enough stuff and zero out the bill, or so the thinking goes.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

"Fishbowl's" Unintended Brand Impact?

I wonder how Amazon.com really feels about the Bill Maher interview with Stephen King that leads off the highlights of "Amazon Fishbowl." After all, the talk show veers off into very frank discussion of alcohol and drug use, in which both admit to using illegal drugs -- both marijuana and heroin are mentioned -- in the past (of course). Now, it's one thing when you're hearing this type of thing on late night TV, but on the front page of an e-tailer's Web site? In broad daylight? While at work? It's kind of a different brand resonance for Amazon than I expected. Will we be seeing more of this type of disconnect as programming becomes increasingly un-hitched from time-of-day (and expected place of consumption)?

Posted by Pamela Parker at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 19, 2006

Amazon Tidbit

I got Amazon.com on the phone to ask a few more questions about their "Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher" broadband video program, and an interesting tidbit emerged. This is just #1 of what will be several 12-episode broadband video series. They're currently talking to sponsors about each of the upcoming shows, and expect to do content integration -- as with the UPS sponsorship -- of each of the sponsor brands.

"With UPS and with the other sponsors that we'll be working with, we're working to integrate their content within the context and subject matter of the show," Jani Strand, an Amazon spokesperson, told me.

Of course, they're not divulging the brands involved... yet. I updated my original story with the info, but wanted to highlight it here, as well.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 5, 2006

Accountants Get Hip Online

I'm all for online role playing games that give people a chance to virtually experience the product -- racing games for automotive clients, for example -- but a game that lets you virtually experience life as an accountant? Yes, that's what theTurnaroundGame.com -- the latest from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and agency Wunderman New York -- does. To be fair, the game tries to make accounting glamourous by setting it in a record company -- BigNoizz. The idea is that players experience the joy and fun of being a CPA at a troubled entertainment company.

From the press release:

"We want to reach out to younger audiences and give them a sense of what being a CPA is all about," said Barry Melancon, AICPA President and CEO. "Since students are so interested in games and music, we believe a vehicle like The Turnaround Game clearly demonstrates the challenges and rewards that CPAs face every day."

The most desperate sentence in the press release? "Indeed, Melancon noted that a number of today's music stars are also successful business professionals who rely on the talents and expertise of their CPAs." So, if I'm understanding this right... if I study to be a CPA I will get to hang out with the likes of 50 Cent and the Pussycat Dolls?

Posted by Pamela Parker at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 22, 2005

High Fashion, Low Marketing

Interesting piece in the NYT Style section (of all places) today on the utter failure of top designers, and top design houses, to embrace the Web as a marketing medium. (Click quick to read it before it goes behind the wall.)

Caryn Horn praises the ability of most fahion houses to get up what she calls "very good" Web sites. I beg to differ, in most cases. But she calls them out for dropping the ball when it comes to relationship marketing, particularly in terms of promoting the celebrity designers so critical to moving the merch that bears their name.

What Horn neglects to mention is how institutionalized neglect-the-Web is across the rag trade as a whole, particularly fashion media. From a lackluster Vogue to the mid-90s style Women's Wear Daily, there's no real strategy or innovation or style from the publications whose mission is to cover, well, innovation and style.

I'm beginnng to realize why I don't have a thing to wear....

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

SBC Yahoo! DSL Customers Get $100 to Shop Online

It's a broadband Christmas.

AT&T is offering new SBC Yahoo! DSL customers a $100 Visa gift card to shop online at sbc.com.

The incentive is "designed especially for those last-minute holiday shoppers looking to avoid crowded shopping malls," says the company.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 15, 2005

Zipcar Nails Relevant, Timely Customer Relations

With a NYC transit stike potentially looming, online short-tem car rental service Zipcar just e-mailed members. The company is offering free shuttle service from designated Manhattan locations tomorrow. The four spots will be festooned with uniformed Zipcar employees and banners.

Heck, they're even offering the service if there isn't a strike.

What could be truer to the company's slogan, "wheels when you want them," than that?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

Who Knew Santa Uses VoIP?

VoIP phone provider Vonage is calling on the red-suited, white-bearded jolly one to help it with CRM this holiday season. It's sending out e-mails to tell customers there's no need to go to the mall and wait in line to speak with Santa. "Now, from your Vonage line, you can have your little ones dial *101 and leave a message for good ol' Saint Nick!," the e-mail missive reads.

Calls are free on Vonage phones from December 8 up until Christmas day. Clever e-mail copy assures readers they can leave a message whether they've been naughty or nice. (Naughty message-leavers might find a lump of coal in their voicemail inbox, however.)

Here's a landing page for the effort.

UPDATE: I would be remiss if I didn't say how lame it is that Vonage is only letting kids leave a message, rather than talk, to Santa Claus. How interactive is that?

UPDATE2: Ok, so there is some interaction, it turns out. Vonage has just announced it is choosing 10 callers randomly and giving them the toy they asked for.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 1, 2005

MSN Promos Shopping With Boxers, Not Briefs

Run downstairs to do a quick lunchtime errand and what's outside ClickZ HQ? A gigantic, clear-sided truck promoing MSN Shopping.

"Shop In Your Undies!" is the value proposition. Illustrating the concept are two models (male and female), clad only in skivvies and Santa hats and waving signs at passers-by.

They're heading north on Park, if you're in Manhattan. And if you're stuck behind the truck in a taxi, you'll likely get a good, long look.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Yahoo! Adds RSS to Mail Beta

Yahoo! announced today that RSS feeds will be integrated into its new (and very Outlook-y) version of Mail. Sure enough, a new a new "All Feeds" icon appeared below my mail folders overnight.

Feeds will pick up Yahoo! Alerts, blogs, news...and, of course, offers from brands and merchants, provided they're offering RSS and have successfully gotten customers to opt-in.

This could be a giant leap towards eradicating delivery problems -- eventually. There are hurdles along the way, including getting Mail out of beta and into consumer hands; merchants getting with the RSS program, and last but not least, getting customers comfortable with an easy feed sign up process.

Yahoo! took one small step toward that goal today.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 23, 2005

Lycos Launches Sweeps to Populate Planet

Since last month's launch of Lycos Planet, a social networking plus tools play, the company claims a Planet is currently created every 30 seconds by U.S. users. In a bid to further populate the galaxy, the company's announced a Wish & Win holiday sweepstakes.

New Lycos Planet registrants who build a virtual wish list in the MyTV Player tool will be eligible to win iPods, Xobxes, digital cameras and other tech goodies.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

Marketing in the 313

A group of marketers in the Detroit metro area came together to form 313 Digital. The new association will aid area marketers in the development, education, and recognition of digital media as part of the marketing mix.

While some big companies in the Motor City are already active in the online space, the group must recognize potential to be more active. The group will focus several key areas like digital media; search engines; wireless; broadband video; gaming; podcasting; ad serving.

The new association is looking for speakers to give talks about the "state-of-the-art" in digital media.

Ford Motor Media partner and digital media manager, Joe Kyrakoza, will head the group as president. Additional members of the board include professionals from AOL Media Networks; MSN; Washington Post Interactive; JWT; GM Planworks; PHD; Autotrader.com; Crains; Hachette Filipacchi Media and PSI Call Center.

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2005

Amex Revives Holiday Wish List

Amex has teamed with big brands and big box retailers to revive its holiday Wish List.

It's more than aspirational -- it's an opportunity for cardholders to buy specially-priced merchandise online from a panoply of retailers and manufacturers: TaylorMade, Palm, KitchenAid, Best Buy and Toys 'R Us to name but a few of 40,000 participants in the promotion.

American Express claims merchants who offered Wish Certificates last year, limited supply, high-value merchant discounts, saw double the average transaction size of typical Amex transactions.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 9, 2005

Marantz Sponsors Podcasters

Marantz is supplying non-profit group LA Podcasters with gratis audio hardware for the first annual Podcast Freeway Series.

The series will "showcase everything Los Angeles has to offer -- beyond the freeway off ramp – by focusing the spotlight on these outspoken LA podcasters,” said Lance Anderson, LA Podcasters founder." Podcasts will be recorded live at Podcast Expo.

While technology sponsorships are nothing new in broadcast media, this is the first I've heard of a company supplying technology for the podcast channel, rather than using podcasts as a medium, i.e. being mentioned as a sponsor or an advertiser in the podcast itself. Innovative -- and logical.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

Shoehorning brands into social networks

Scion has a branded community on Tribe.net. It's hard to get excited about these kinds of deals anymore. Hollywood has done quite a bit of it with Friendster, setting up profiles for film characters and letting Friendster users link up with them. With Scion's thing, you can look at pictures of the cars, comment on discussion threads and be part of a feedback loop to Scion's marketing and product people. End of the day, though, where's the value? Where's the exclusive content?

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

GoDaddy: Planting Billboards in Your Yard

I buy domains every so often. Some URLs I develop; some I redirect; some I park. GoDaddy is my registrar of choice, just because they're so cheap. But they've just done something really stupid, and I'm going to have to rethink my patronage.

Having registered a vanity domain last week, I visited the site for the first time today and noticed GoDaddy is serving sponsored links onto the page. Big ones that take up almost the whole page. And they're pocketing the money they make off my real estate.

Properly outraged, I called customer service to give the address where they could send my half of the revenue, and the rep said no no no, you should've read your user agreement. Wow. Really?

This is an interesting, if totally offensive, test for a domain registrar to undertake. Will people notice? Will they care? In an age where eyeballs equal money, my bet is they will.

It's also somewhat akin to the rapidly growing practice of domain squatters serving nothing but sponsored text links onto generic Web pages like makeovers.com and 2006superbowlcoverage.com -- and then relying on direct navigation by people who are either unversed in search or simply curious about a domain. Companies doing this include Marchex, Name Administration Corp., Sedo and many others. Increasingly, they won't even negotiate to sell a domain, since they're making so much off the AdSense links.

These companies claim they're working to make these phantom Web pages more relevant, but to date it's all just so much junk media -- non-media media.

Many contextual network advertisers have no idea their links are turning up in these spots. I wonder how they'd feel?

update: As it turns out, Google is an enabler, with a dedicated program for parked domains.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 30, 2005

Love Mac Mini -- Or your Money Cheerfully Refunded

Test Drive a Mac mini. Just order it at the Apple Store online. If you don't like it, you've got 30 days to send it back.

Old, old idea. Neat new execution, product category-wise.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:22 PM | Permalink

Euro RSCG Joins "Non-Traditional" Club

Euro RSCG Magnet has formed PopWorx,a New York division, to oversee marketing in "nontraditional realms like blogs, video games, product placement, events and branded entertainment," reports the NY Times.

This on the heels of other established agencies, such as Carat, forming practices to deal with channels such as blog and RSS marketing. An interesting aspect of PopWorx is the division will work will smaller outside independent agencies on campaigns.

UPDATE: And later today, Ogilvy PR announced the launch of "360 Degree Digital Influence" to help get clients a handle on personal media - blogs, wikis, podcasting and search.

It's officially a bandwagon now.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2005

No Mo' CMO at KO

The wire services are reporting that Coca-Cola is eliminating its CMO position as part of management restructuring. Chuck Fruit, who had been CMO, will focus on "new media strategies, sports and entertainment marketing initiatives and key relationships" in a new position, which he'll start next year.

Does "new media" include interactive? I suppose we'll see in time. Coke has done some interesting things interactively lately, including the AKQA-designed Coke Zero site, and the MSN-hosted "The Scenario" for the Sprite brand.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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