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June 11, 2009

Phorm Raises Capital to Keep things Ticking

This post was written by Jack Marshall

ISP-level behavioral targeting company Phorm is raising more capital, selling 19.4 percent of the firm for a figure of £15 million through a new share offering to keep it fueled until it finds some customers.

Despite announcing a content recommendation product last week designed to encourage users to opt-in to its ad targeting platform, none of the firm's ISP partners have actually implemented the technology yet, meaning the company currently has no active revenue streams.

The company said in a statement today that it intends to use the cash to "continue the implementation of its service in the U.K. and Korean markets, and for general working capital purposes, as it continues its discussions with other ISPs both in the U.K. and internationally." CEO Kent Ertugrul said he was "pleased that the financial community has demonstrated its support for Phorm, with a substantially over-subscribed offering."

Last week, the company's managing director, U.K., Nick Barnet, told me that U.K. agencies were impressed by the product, and eager to know when it was fully deployed. At present, neither Phorm nor its ISP partners - BT, Virgin Media, and Talk Talk -- can say when that is likely to be.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 29, 2009

Google's New Chrome Ads: Trippy

Of the 11 short films Google commissioned to promote its Chrome browser, more than half appear to have been conceived in an opium dream. Below are a three of the more out-there videos, so you can judge for yourself.

Only one, You and Your Browser, is cute in the way I associate with Google's past animated ads. Not that I'm critical. Overall I think the effort is a fun way to build buzz for a product that hasn't been talked about as much as the company might have liked.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 20, 2009

Spiral Frog Croaks, Burdened by Debt and Unproven Ad Model

Spiral Frog, one of the early entrees in the ad-supported music area, has ceased operations. The company's Web site went dark yesterday evening and its assets forked over to creditors, according to CNET. During its fleeting three years in business, the company endured many problems, including unwilling labels, management in-fighting, and DRM problems. The killing blow may have been a $10 million debt burden it just couldn't keep up with, details of which were reported by Digital Music News last month.

After making a splash in mid-2006 with a deal to distribute free, ad-supported music from Universal Music Group and EMI, Spiral Frog struggled to pick up additionally studio partners. It launched officially in September 2007, but faced wide skepticism in light of its incompatibility with Apple devices.

Did advertiser interest, or lack thereof, play a part in Spiral Frog's failure? It's likely. In an era where digital marketers are cutting their experimental ad buys, it's arguably tough for any audio-based ad service to make the cut. Additionally, Spiral Frog is the second ad-supported music service to shut down recently. CNET noted a similar service, Ruckus, called it quits last month. Remaining in the market is QTrax, a peer-to-peer download service that's still in beta. In light of the struggles faced by its competitors, one wonders when -- or if -- version 1.0 will come along.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

January 23, 2009

Digital TV Turnover Delays

The date for the broadcast turnover from analog to digital TV is still to be determined. The Associated Press is reporting the date may now be postponed until June 12, pending voting early next week. While there were PSAs and Web sites set up to educate consumers about the transition, some are concerned that too many Americans -- just like the woman in this video --are not prepared for the programming switchover from an analog broadcast format to a digital one.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 2, 2009

Holiday Recap: Spending Declined in Recession and Short Shopping Season

Perhaps not surprisingly, traffic to retail sites and consumer spending on those sites were both down during the holiday season, according to ComScore.

The research firm estimates total U.S. e-commerce spending declined 3 percent, the first ever drop reported by ComScore since it began tracking online retail spending in 2001. Total spending was estimated at $25.5 billion, compared to $26.3 billion in 2007.

"The combination of having five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the severe economic headwinds faced by consumers has mad this a really tough season for retailers, both offline and online," said a statement from ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Some online retailers appeared to benefit from the bad economy -- at least in terms of traffic. Consumers hunting for deals online helped drive a 5 percent lift in visits to sites like Amazon (7 percent) and Wal-Mart (4 percent). Apple (19 percent) also saw an increase. The list of traffic losers included eBay (-4 percent); Target (-1 percent); and JC Penney (-11 percent). Best Buy's e-commerce site had no measurable change in traffic from the corresponding period in 2007.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 22, 2008

Political Web Pioneer Dies in Plane Crash

A pioneer of Internet consulting and Web development for Republicans is no longer with us. Founder and CEO of New Media Communications, and a partner of Connell Donatelli, an affiliated Web consultancy, died Friday in a plane crash on his way to Ohio, according to Connell Donatelli's Eric Frenchman. Apparently Connell was piloting the plane.

I never met Connell, though I've known his close colleagues Frenchman and Becki Donatelli for some time (both drove online ad strategy for the 2008 McCain campaign).

You can read more about Mike here.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Retail Woes? What About Subscriptions to Stuff?

120 cans of cat food per month.

There aren't a lot of constants in life, but one of mine is that my two cats go through 120 cans of cat food every four weeks, come hell or high water.

That's a lot of cat food to lug home, particularly in New York City, where we residents tend to be car-less. But recently a friend of a friend turned me on to Amazon's subscribe-and-save feature. Voila! Now, each month like clockwork, those 120 cans magically appear on my doorstep. I get a 15 percent discount on the product, and there's no shipping fee (the major pet retailers such as Petco offer subscriptions as well, but the shipping fees make their version of a subscription service prohibitively expensive).

In this, the most dismal era of consumer consumption in memory, why isn't Amazon doing more to promote this indispensable service? And why don't more online retailers follow suit?

Diapers. Over-the-counter medications. Grocery items. Personal care items. Snacks. Office supplies. Everyone's got a product they can't live without. Most consumers have products that require regularly scheduled replenishing, from blades for razors to filters for humidifiers.

Guaranteeing this level of service and savings doesn't just make sense for consumers, but also for online merchants, who can bank on a lock on this portion of consumer spending. The trick is to make it economically worthwhile for buyers, with flexible options to change, cancel, accelerate or postpone orders (as Amazon does via a simple interface).

Guaranteed customer loyalty is nothing for retailers to sneeze at. If you're selling online, what portion of those sales can you market as a subscription? And how will you promote that service? We all know the power of word of mouth marketing, but even mighty Amazon isn't going out of its way to spread the word on its subscription services.

There's some serious opportunity here for retailers to subscribe to customer loyalty by allowing their customers to subscribe to their services.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 17, 2008

New Logo, Site Look for IAB

Looks like the Interactive Advertising Bureau is doing a little re-branding. They've got a nice new logo, and some design/color scheme changes on the site to match.

I don't think they've officially called attention to this yet.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 26, 2008

Organic Exec Predicts Greater Digital Reach in '09

This post was written by Douglas Quenqua

The coming year in advertising is predicted to be, if nothing else, unpredictable. In a talk with ClickZ News, Adam Turinas, EVP of client engagement at digital agency Organic, suggested digital could benefit.

Ad spending is likely to drop next year, which could drive more money to digital media. Turinas, who heads up Bank of America’s interactive account at the Omnicom shop, believes this will lead to more instances of “the digital tail wagging the traditional dog,” meaning digital will be at the center of client initiatives. As a result, interactive work will be activated across all channels.

“We’re already working with clients by taking the digital experience into the retail environment,” he said. Discussing the retail sector, he added, “I would expect to see things like a kiosk or a tool for the store associate to work with, more like utilities that help customers answer questions.”

Of course, it is not surprising that a digital agency executive would predict that digital work would dominate in the coming year. And it’s worth noting that the model Turinas predicts—using media primarily as a tool to accommodate consumer need—is precisely the philosophy espoused by Organic.

But most forecasts for the ad market in 2009 make it hard to argue against the idea that digital will gain prominence. In October, media firm Zenith Optimedia revised its previous prediction of 3.9 percent growth for ad spending in 2009 to a meager .9 percent. Meanwhile, eMarketer’s most recent forecast for online ad spending calls for growth of 8.9 percent—considerably stronger, though also revised from previous prediction of double-digit growth.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 25, 2008

A Little Growth Is Better Than Zero Growth

Another downward trending forcast, this time from eMarketer. The research firm has removed a digit from its 2009 interactive advertising spend forecast.

eMarketer's predicting 8.9 percent growth in ad spend next year, as opposed to the double-digit call they (and most other firms) were making last summer - in their case, 14.5 percent.

Glum? You shouldn't be. Growth is growth. You'd rather be working in financial services or the auto industry and experience negative growth? Times are tough all over, but up is still up.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 17, 2008

Babycarrying and Online Marketing

I suspect more than a few folks are scratching their heads about the whole #motrinmoms scandal du weekend. As my friend @fuzheado said, the divergence in reaction might make a good Mars/Venus case study. He didn't get what all the fuss was about, but his wife honed right in on the problem.

Not surprisingly, I'm with the wife. Like the super-vocal moms who took such offense, I immediately "got" the problem with the ad -- its tone. As a mom with a 5-month-old, I "wear" my baby all the time. But it's not because it's "in fashion," because it's "supposedly" is a good bonding experience or because I want to look like "an official mom", as the Motrin ad implies. It's because it works. The kid doesn't cry and I can do whatever needs doing. And of course it's a bonding experience, because any time you meet your child's needs that's the case.

And, yes, sometimes my back hurts. Others out there are admitting this, too, even though the conventional wisdom is that babywearing doesn't hurt if you're doing it right. So, I don't think J&J is far off in targeting moms who wear their babies. They're just going about it wrong. (And let's not dismiss this as a Twitter crisis. For everyone that's tweeting about this, there are many others that are hearing about it, or just seeing the ads themselves and having the same reaction. Twitter is just surfacing the word-of-mouth that would have been happening anyway. )

But all is not lost for the brand. Right now, everyone's saying they will boycott Motrin. This bodes ill for their product for adults and may also impact their product for kids, given they've now offended the target that controls the purse-strings.

The silver lining is that Motrin has gotten everyone's attention. They need to grab this opportunity, while they're in the online spotlight, to connect in a positive way. They need to apologize and retool their condescending message about babywearing. To make sure it gets seen, an ad spend on mommy blogs is in order. Motrin have shown that they're not the experts on babywearing, but they can certainly get involved with and sponsor conversations on the topic -- a topic that inspires an amazing amount of passion. Whaddaya say, J&J?

---

Cross-posted from The River. Pamela Parker is author services manager at Federated Media Publishing.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 12, 2008

Denton-the-Bear Sees Major Digital Ad Recession

Gawker publisher and digital sourpuss Nick Denton just posted a screed arguing digital media are screwed in 2009.

According to Denton, "The sector's maturity...means that its underlying growth is more sluggish than it was in the late 1990s. In 2001, Internet advertising swung to a 13% decline from 78% growth the previous year; this time the sector starts from a growth rate of 27%; I would hate to see what a swing as violent as the dotcom burst would look like."

Of course, Denton's doomsaying is congenital. His gloominess has helped him stand out during the boom years, when a thousand start-ups blossomed (and started selling ads), and has cushioned the blow each time he's reduced blogger pay or laid people off.

But deep down he knows digital media will thrive in a downturn, simply because it's more measurable. Right?

Not really. To anyone clinging to that oft-invoked point, Denton has this to say: "Sure, marketers and their agencies can track engagement and clicks in great detail online; but it's still only television advertising that can demonstrate a correlation between spending and a boost to a marketer's sales."

In Denton's view, there is a silver lining. For one, publishers may be able to renegotiate contracts with ad vendors. Financially sound firms like DoubleClick and PointRoll will be flexible on pricing to keep business during the downswing.

Secondly, marketers may find themselves on the receiving end of better service from publishers.

"Internet publishers have forced marketers into a straightjacket of standard ad units too small for brands to breathe," Denton writes. "If the sector is to capture a larger share of brand advertising from magazines and television, the creative needs to have more impact."

To that end, he notes Gawker offers three original ad units: a 1,000x250 "marquis at the top of each page; an extra-wide "panorama," and its sponsored post format. Denton recommends other publishers do the same.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 16, 2008

Joe the Plumber, Advertised

Fresh off his starring role in last night's debate, Joe the Plumber has already inspired AdWords advertisers in the travel, apparel, and yes, political sectors.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2008

Obama's XBox Race for White House

Barack Obama’s up on a virtual billboard in a high-speed driving game. Yep, his campaign is running in-game ads. The closest thing to running in-game ads I can recall a political candidate doing is when Virginia Governor and early presidential possibility, Mark Warner (now running for Senate) held an event in Second Life in ’06.

I first read about the gaming ads in GamePolitics last week, and confirmed yesterday with EA that the campaign is running ads in Burnout Paradise. They wouldn’t tell me anything else – how long the ads have been running, if any other political or advocacy advertisers have run ads with them -- nothin'.

My question, and I’m sure one others have as well is, “Is it a novelty or will Obama actually get some…er…traction…out of ads in a racing game?”

I’ll try not to judge but it’s hard not to think of this as a blip-on-the-screen novelty that gets a little word-of-mouth and a perhaps a positive brand impression of Obama among gamers.

I asked Michael Bassik -- VP of interactive marketing for political direct marketing firm MSHC Partners, and the new chief digital officer for Air America Media – what he thinks. Here’s what he told me via e-mail:

“Candidates are clearly waking up to the 21st century and realizing that voters are no longer glued to the television. To reach voters, you have to go where they are. And in a race this close, I wouldn't be surprised to see political ads on the back of bathroom stalls. No stone should be left unturned.”

UPDATE: It looks like, according to beltway pub The Hill, Obama's camp is running the ads in a bunch of other games, too, and targeting them to 10 battleground states.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 10, 2008

Friday Afternoon Poll

If someone falls for this ad, does he deserve protection from regulatory bodies such as the Federal Trade Commission, or does he merely need protection from himself?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 7, 2008

Quote of the Day: Barry Diller's headache

"You really want to get a headache? Try to understand Internet advertising. Social networking advertising is being discounted because there is so much inventory [of available ad spots], and because methods have not yet been found to make it very effective. Will that get figured out? I absolutely believe it will. What form will it take? Absolutely unknown."

-IAC CEO Barry Diller in an interview with WSJ.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 6, 2008

At Least One Ad-Related Start-up Still Pulling Investors

It's evident by now that the credit crisis will cast a pall over the ad sector, but how bad will it get? One indicator of the future health of the space is the abundance of venture capital. Are any marketing technology start-ups still boasting new funding rounds?

Well, there's the one anyway. (Update: make that two. Appsavvy funding round detailed at bottom of post.)

BlackArrow said today it has scored a $20 million B round investment to continue development of its on-demand ad management system for TV and other platforms. Its new investors are the same as the old ones: Cisco, Comcast Interactive Capital, Intel Capital, Mayfield Fund and Polaris Venture Partners.

The BlackArrow system is designed to dynamically serve ads into live and time shifted TV content. It's compatible with a variety of ad types, sales models, and distribution methods, or so the company claims. Here's what we wrote about the company last year:

"What Black Arrow provides could be used by all the venues that serve up advertising," said Gerry Kaufhold, an analyst with In-Stat who was briefed on the technology. With its contextual, time of day and demographic targeting capabilities, he said Black Arrow's system can "make a real time decision about which group of ads fits [and] which actual ad gets served," which is of course the longstanding secret sauce of online ad serving.

Of course it's too early to say whether the big money will gravitate to cross-platform plays like BlackArrow's and away from pure Web start-ups, but it's interesting to see multiplatform video win a vote of confidence in such a bleak season.

Another ad firm to beat the economic chill: Media ad network Appsavvy. The firm announced a $3.1 million series A round. It sells ads for apps and app developers like 42 Friends, Bantr, Flixster, FrozenBear, MesmoTV, Playfish.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 11, 2008

Ads Stand Out in Seth MacFarlane's New 'Cavalcade'

Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy has made its official debut, and the sponsor placements for Burger King are a good sight better than we've all been trained to expect from video. The reason: McFarlane's team created them, so they feel homegrown... part of the entertainment package.

The videos are also being syndicated to BK's YouTube channel, where visitors can enter a contest to buy Seth dinner at Burger King. (From the rules: "That's right, the winner will buy the meal. But, you know, in the end you're still coming out on top. How many hours has Seth given to you?")

Now has anyone seen these in the wild? As you'll recall, Google and McFarlane struck a deal to distribute the content in ad space on the AdSense network. First person to email me a screen shot gets a prize: a free hard copy edition of a certain celebrated social marketing book that was released over the summer. Send to zach[at]clickz.com.

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

August 5, 2008

Older Voters Click on Political Ads Most

Burst Media surveyed likely voters about how they use the Web for political information and related topics. A few interesting online political ad-related findings from the ad network:

• Over 54% of voters recall online ads for a presidential candidate.
• About 24% of voters who said they recall seeing an ad for a presidential candidate clicked on it.
• And how's this for interesting? Voters 55 years and up were most likely to click -- 27% said they have clicked on a prez campaign ad.

“Political advocacy and information provided via the Internet serve as a great touch point for voters of all demographic groups,” said Chuck Moran, VP of Marketing for Burst Media. “The targeting capabilities of online resources can also serve to granularly present information to niche constituents. Candidates that present interactive, content rich information in a variety of formats will be able to reach the broadest array of voters.”

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2008

A Moment of IAB Appreciation

On this, a heat-index alert day, IAB head Randall Rothenberg's blog (or "clog," as he insists on calling it), is a breath of fresh air.

Today's entry, once you get past the "join the IAB" call-to-action, elegantly and articulately enumerates the scary regulatory and legislative threats (both on the state and Federal levels) facing online publishers.

Consumers and legislators don't understand what online advertising is, or how it works. Too many Internet publishers and advertisers, meanwhile, are tuning a blind eye to the implications of their ignorance, namely, bad laws that can carry significant negative economic consequences to those making a living off interactive publishing and advertising.

Rothenberg deserves a shout-out. Under his leadership, the IAB is meeting all sorts of challenges the organization too long ignored. Bringing smaller companies into the fold is just one of these. The much bigger picture is aggressively addressing threats to the industry on the legislative level. It's a far cry from the days when the body stood idly by while other measure, such as CAN-SPAM, wended its way through the FTC and ultimately, Congress.

Take a moment today to read Randall's most recent post. The goings-on in Washington may appear distant today, but the impact on your business is going to matter tomorrow.

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

July 9, 2008

Waxler Veers off TheStreet.com's MainStreet

Caroline Waxler, managing editor of TheStreet.com-offshoot, MainStreet.com, is leaving that position, according to Portfolio by way of PaidContent.

ClickZ News profiled MainStreet in a feature a few months ago that, I have to say, was super fun to report and write, in part because of Caroline. If you haven't checked out the site, I described it as "a pop culture-inspired personal finance site." That's pretty much what it is. It's the kind of place you'll stumble upon doing searches on Alex Rodriguez's divorce. But instead of just providing the rundown on his doomed marriage and Madonna's rumored involvement, you'll get a healthy dose of information about pre-nup agreements.

According to Portfolio, Waxler is leaving the site, but "may stay on in some contributing capacity." Portfolio refers to mediocre site traffic, and notes, "Lately, it has shown signs of shifting away from celebrity-inspired stories and towards more meat-and-potatoes wealth coverage -- a shift that's likely to accelerate once Waxler departs."

The focus of my piece on MainStreet was its obvious SEO-driven content focus and the site's high caliber video promo effort, in part enabled by last winter's writer's strike. (Essentially, Waxler was able to gather a lot of her old comedy writer and actor buddies to put together some truly funny and unique spots that promoted the site and were intended to encapsulate its attitude.)

As Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici noted in his post about the departure, the future of the site and its direction hang in the balance.

Of all the promo videos created under Caroline's stewardship, this is my favorite (and of all blasts from the past, it features Joe Franklin):

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 8, 2008

MerchantCircle Gets Paid

Months ago I had a status-report type chat with MerchantCircle, which is essentially a service for small and local businesses that helps them establish a Web presence, get optimized for search, and connect with other complementary companies. At the time I asked them how many paid customers they had. Thousands of "members" didn't mean much to me if they weren't generating revenue.

Recently, the company announced it's built its paid membership ranks to 5,000, and has around 525,000 members. The firm claims its paying customers have increased ten times over since December 2007.

The company also recently hooked up with Yahoo to promote Yahoo's products to its members, starting at the end of the summer. It's not clear what that will involve exactly.

Whether those paying members will renew or upgrade to a more premium offering, of course, will really determine the company's growth and sustainability. MerchantCircle is also up against countless offers from all sorts of services, including ones from well-known brands with entrenched local sales teams.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

July 2, 2008

Charlene Li to Leave Forrester

Forrester just lost some serious mojo in the all-important digital ad space. Charlene Li, among the most recognized analysts covering digital technology and a special advocate for social media marketing, just announced on her blog that she'd soon move on from the firm to spend more time with her family and consider her next move. July 18th will be her last day on the job.

Along with fellow analyst Jeff Bernoff, Li penned the recent book Groundswell (tagline: "winning in a world transformed by social technologies"), which is currently ranked #6 on Amazon's business books list. She's been frequently interviewed and quoted by reporters here at ClickZ, and we wish her the best.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 1, 2008

McCain Taking Cue from Clinton Camp?

John McCain wants you to "Invest in Victory." According to information gathered by Media Trust, the McCain camp is running ads with a call-to-action reminiscent of the ones Clinton relied on during her run for the presidency. Ads spotted on sites based in swing states including New Hampshire and North Carolina, among other sites, urge supporters to "Invest in Victory, Donate $25."

Display ads from Hillary Clinton's shuttered campaign were almost entirely fundraising-based, suggesting people "Donate $5" or "Donate $50."

Until recently, John McCain for President hasn't taken a blatant fundraising approach in online display ads; rather, the campaign has pushed for people to sign petitions against pork-barrel spending, or sign up to join the campaign. (Using those sign-ups, he then hits up those registrants for donations. Barack Obama's campaign has taken a similar tack.

Check out our Campaign '08 display ad galleries:
Clinton ad gallery
McCain ad gallery
Obama ad gallery

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

AOL, Microsoft, WPP: Top Wheeler Dealers

Marketing executives working with digital media vendors might need a scorecard handy to track who owns who these days.

AOL, Microsoft, and WPP each acquired five marketing, advertising, or digital media companies during the first six months of 2008, according to a report on mergers and acquisitions released today by investment bankers Petsky Prunier.

According to Petsky Prunier's research, the companies making the most acquisitions -- and some of their purchases -- include:

AOL: Bebo, a social networking site; Goowy Media, a widget development platform, and Perfiliate Technologies, an affiliate network.

Microsoft: Farecast.com, an online travel search engine, and Rapt, advertisement management software.

WPP Group: Integrated Media Measurement, which has a media measurement system that links media exposure to consumer action, and Yankelovich, a consumer research company.

Aegis Group: AdWatch, a Russian Internet advertising agency, and Globlet, a Thailand search marketing agency.

Havas Advertising: Kadium, a San Francisco digital ad agency, and Shake, a promotion marketing agency based in Chatham, NJ.

A look at the marketing, advertising, and digital media sectors shows the most money was exchanged for digital media companies. There were 78 transactions involving digital media companies totaling $6.3 billion, the firm reported.

Of those deals involving digital media companies, more than one-half involved user-generated or social media businesses. Those deals included AOL's acquisition of Bebo and Goowy Media, and Buzznet's purchase of Idolator.

In all, the Wall Street firm identified 398 deals valued at $19.7 billion involved marketing, advertising, and digital media companies for the first half of this year. Compared to the same period in 2007, the number of deals was up this year by 21 percent but the total transaction dollar volume was down by 26 percent. It said the drop in the value of transactions was due to two factors: this year's soft economy and two large deals last year with Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive and Google's purchase of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. (The Google-DoubleClick deal closed earlier this year, but was included by Petsky Prunier in the 2007 tally.)

As expected, no mention of the deal that didn't happen: Microsoft-Yahoo.

Or who's next.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 27, 2008

IAB Membership Extended Way Beyond Publishers

Perusing the Interactive Advertising Bureau's membership pages, I came across a host of companies I was surprised to see, including several non-publisher firms listed as "General Members." I thought general membership (as opposed to associate membership) was exclusive to online publishers. Not so, anymore, I've been told.

According to chief Randall Rothenberg, the group revised its bylaws. Now membership is "open to sellers of interactive advertising inventory."

OK. So how come ad tech companies like Eyeblaster and ISP ad targeting firms NebuAd and Phorm, which serve and target ads rather than selling ads, are general members?

"We're still a sellers' organization," he responded. "But you always have to qualify that by saying there is so much breadth and diversity, the lines aren't as clearly drawn."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 18, 2008

MySpace Redesign: First Takeover Ad is for The Dark Knight

Batman's been made over so many times, in comics, TV and film, that the character is now defined by reinvention. So it's fitting that a MySpace homepage takeover ad for the latest flick in the franchise is the first to accompany the site's big redesign.

Fitting, but not extraordinary. You'd expect MySpace to pull out the stops for its first major ad execution under the new design regime. Instead it has produced a pretty standard backdrop execution consisting of the film's poster art -- which is naturally amazing -- with some flickery motion graphics tossed in to accentuate the image's apocalyptic flames. Oh, and a video with link to The Dark Knight's profile page. Nothing to criticize here, but, well I believe the word for it is "meh." (Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer agrees.)

Having said all that, three cheers for MySpace. Its new design really is a big improvement, and advertisers have already taken notice.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 11, 2008

Webby Awards: Keep it Short and …

The Webby Awards, which honors excellence on the Internet, insists winners adhere to one simple rule when making an acceptance speech: Keep it to five words.

That's an ingredient for keeping things interesting at the event, which took place Tuesday night at Cipriani Wall Street in lower Manhattan.

Take TBWA\Media Arts Lab, which won in the online commercial for category "Don't Give Up on Vista," referring to Microsoft's operating system. "In Steve Jobs we trust," was the agency's poke at the Microsoft rival.

"My second best night ever," cracked Robert Morehouse, creative director from Vermilion. His agency picked up an award in the professional services category for Boulder, CO, based Action Marketing Group's corporate Web site.

For Trapeze, a Toronto, Canada, agency recognized for developing the Ikea Mattress Web site, had this to say, "We enjoyed sleeping with you."

MTV Networks' Nick.com was the People's Voice winner for best youth site. "Sponge Bob is our sugar daddy," said one wag.

"The New York Times" won eight awards, including one for best online newspaper. "Thank you, Elliot Spitzer," said one NYT recipient, referring to New York's governor who resigned after it was revealed he had a tryst with a prostitute.

The Huffington Post was named for best political blog. "President Obama sounds good, right," said Arianna Huffington, the site's editor-in-chief.

Obama was top of mind for another site, FactCheck.org, that checks the accuracy of candidates' statements. "No, Obama's not a Muslim," said FactCheck's designated speaker.

Was it as surprise that Flock, which bills itself as the social Web browser, was a Webby Award winner for social/networking? "No sh*t, we beat Facebook," bragged a Flock executive. Not so fast. Facebook was the People's Voice winner in the same category.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 5, 2008

ClickZ Talks Political Ads on Canada’s Biz News Network

The race for the presidency is so fascinating this election season, even the folks up north in Canada want to know more about it. I had the pleasure of discussing online political advertising by the presidential hopefuls Tuesday night on Canada’s Business News Network (live via satellite from CNN’s studios in New York).

The discussion centered on Barack Obama's online ad spending, much of which ended up going to Google paid search (and some display, though we're not sure how much). Check out the clip. (By the way, ClickZ is actually pronounced "ClickZee," rather than "Clicks" as the esteemed Howard Green says it.)

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 29, 2008

Yahoo's Shareholder Notice Slip-in

Corporate blogs aren't typically the place for investor-aimed details about proxy votes, but then again, corporate blogs aren't typically Yahoo's. The company, of course, postponed its annual meeting and is embroiled in a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn.

Here's what Nicki Dugan at Yahoo tacked on to the end of a post about Jerry Yang's and Sue Decker's appearance at The Wall Street Journal's All Things D conference.

Yahoo! will be filing a definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card with the SEC in connection with the solicitation of proxies for its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Stockholders are strongly advised to read Yahoo!’s 2008 definitive proxy statement when it becomes available because it will contain important information. Stockholders will be able to obtain copies of Yahoo!’s 2008 definitive proxy statement and other documents filed by Yahoo! with the SEC in connection with its 2008 annual meeting of stockholders at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or at the Investor Relations section of Yahoo!’s website at yhoo.client.shareholder.com. Yahoo!, its directors, and certain of its officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from stockholders in connection with Yahoo!’s 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Information concerning Yahoo!’s directors and officers is available in its preliminary proxy statement filed with the SEC on May 22, 2008.

This passage almost seems like a non sequitor. It's prefaced with a quip referring to Warren Buffett's cameo on "All My Children."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 8, 2008

EyeWonder Wants You to Learn a New Language

You may have seen an announcement from EyeWonder out on the wires earlier this week. When we here in the newsroom at ClickZ saw it, our response was a universal "huh?"

It said EyeWonder has "unveiled a new category for the advertising industry, 'Interactive Digital Advertising.' The new category was created to address the challenges today's leading interactive agencies face in clearly defining and communicating rich media."

Interactive Digital Advertising? Yeah, it's been around for quite some time now. It's called rich media.

Right?

So, why would EyeWonder, a longtime player in the rich media ad space, want to float this new moniker? I had a long talk with CEO John Vincent this afternoon. He explained the reasoning behind the decision, and overall said a lot of really interesting stuff. Alas, my computer decided it didn't feel like saving my notes from our conversation. So, I'll do my best to boil our talk down to its essence.

Essentially, since EyeWonder has become more and more involved in exploring new ways to serve advertisers on emerging platforms outside the Web, it's run into some language barriers. It seems people developing campaigns for mobile or iTV equate rich media with the Web. They think of video-enabled display ad units.

While the term "rich media" really encompasses a lot more than that, many working on these emerging platforms don't see it that way. Mention "rich media" when discussing campaign possibilities and their heads start to spin, or their faces curl up in confusion, or something like that. (OK, Vincent didn't actually describe it like that, but I'm using creative license here.)

Also, according to Vincent, the fact that "rich media" encompasses just about any multimedia experience requiring relatively large files is part of the problem. It's not specific enough either.

Because campaign development is becoming less silo-ed in terms of agency processes -- the mobile folks need to work with the Web folks, etc. -- it helps if they speak the same tongue.

Hence, the new term. Whether it actually makes it into the industry lexicon is another thing....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

Grand Theft Auto: Not the Placement You'd Expect

Rockstar Games released the fourth installation in its Grand Theft Auto franchise today, an d the game's soft porn Web ads are popping up in some odd places. See exhibit above. Two ClickZ reporters spotted this one on the Times home page just now, suggesting its not targeted on behavior.

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

April 21, 2008

ClickZ and Arianna Huffington Tomorrow in NYC!

How's this for cool? I'll be interviewing the one-and-only Arianna Huffington, political pundit extraordinaire and HuffingtonPost co-founder at tomorrow evening's 212 Interactive Ad Club event! Expect a lively talk on online political advertising and related issues (and a standing room only crowd).

As you probably know, in our Campaign '08 section, ClickZ is dedicated to following what the presidential campaigns are doing online, particularly when it comes to advertising.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 10, 2008

Ad-Supported Wi-Fi Coming to NYC Parks?

AnchorFree is in talks to have its advertising service help support free Wi-Fi in some New York City parks.

Mark Smith, AnchorFree chief operating officer, says the company is testing its ad-supported service and network for WiFi Salon.

Marshall Brown, chief executive of WiFi Salon, says it's premature to discuss plans because a deal hasn't been signed.

WiFi Salon, which has a concession from the the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, runs 17 hot spots in city parks, including Union Square, Washington Square, and Central parks. In 2006, WiFi Salon and Nokia started working together to provide the service.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Euro RSCG Creating Creative Commune

Jeff Brooks, who heads Euro RSCG's New York presence, is on a mission not only to un-silo digital from the agencies other operations, but to put digital "at the heart" of every activity and client engagement.

To this end, he's planning to remodel the shop's sizeable New York offices with the goal of putting all the creatives -- from digital to direct to broadcast and print -- on the same floor to foster (or force?) collaboration and interaction.

"There are going to be fights," he admits. "Then they're going to laugh, make up and go out for drinks and dinner together."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 3, 2008

Southpark: Internet Theoretical Dollars

Trey Parker and Matt Stone were nice enough to the Writer's Guild of America to leave a short waiting period after the end of the writer's strike to riff on the Hollywood standoff. "Southpark" Episode 1204, "Canada On Strike" mirrors the union action with the entire country of Canada picketing until it gains the appreciation of the rest of the world. When asked for what it wants? The WGA: World Canadian Bureau demands: "Money. Those Internet dollars."

The boys post a music video on YouToob and go to what looks like an employment office to collect their money. In the waiting room, they encounter many Internet sensations including Tay Zonday, the Numa Numa guy, and the sneezing baby panda. They were all waiting for their millions in Internet theoretical dollars.

What moral does "Southpark" leave you with? Kyle said, "We thought we could make money on the Internet. But, while the Internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn't matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that warrants a trade of real and immediate income opportunities for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital media distribution on the Internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers to forego their fair value in more traditional media."

Meanwhile at Canada's victory party, Terrance and Phillip, Canada's comic TV duo, point out the cost of the strike to writers, uh Canadians.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 2, 2008

When Web 2.0 Attacks: Modernista!'s Nifty Non-Site Backfires

Everyone loves Modernista's distributed Web presence. The forward thinking site has drawn accolades from all manner of creative types for sending visitors elsewhere in their quest for agency info and client samples. See for yourself. Clicking through ought to keep you here but with the addition a red navigation widget in the upper left corner. The menu taxonomy consists of links to a Wikipedia entry on the firm, client creative hosted on Flickr and Yahoo, social bookmarking links and a Facebook presence. Very 2.0. Here's an agency that gets it, is the general view.

Except there's one little snag. Electric Artists CEO Marc Schiller twittered yesterday about a new note on the agency's Wikipedia entry citing the reference site's displeasure with being used as a vehicle for marketing. Here's the huffy objection:

The website for this company obscures our logo with their own, and may lead the viewer to believe that Wikipedia serves as their homepage provider. This is not correct. Wikipedia has no affiliation with Modernista and has requested that Modernista cease this use of our website.

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia written from a neutral point of view and does not endorse nor condemn Modernista, but is opposed to being used as a promotional mechanism in this manner for any third party.

Not a huge catastrophe for Modernista, but fascinating nevertheless. Just goes to show: even though the ethics of Web 2.0 clearly favor open communication, including linking, the interests of individual players within that ecosystem may still collide violently.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 1, 2008

April Fools Shocker

The April Fools jokes are piling up on the Web, but the best interactive advertising prank today just might be one that occurred offline. (Admittedly, it's early yet).

Blogads staffers put one over on their boss, Henry Copeland, when the entire staff arrived at the office this morning wearing suits and ties. "I'm in shock," Henry tweeted.

Wonder if anyone at my bank is wearing flipflops and tank tops today? Somehow doubt it.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

DoubleClickers Sow-er Over Facebook Ad

This little piggy got acquired? We may never know who's behind a goofy yet somewhat mean spirited message sent to all DoubleClick employees on Facebook today. Some think it's a Googler who had his or her finger on the ad trigger.

"Hi DoubleClick. Please stop gorging yourselves on all our food," reads the ad message, accompanied by a cartoon image of a slovenly piggy. It ends, "Maybe we won't fire you. Thanks." Ouch. The ad may be a reference to the integration of the two firms, particularly at Google's famed cafeterias in NY and CA. When a DoubleClicker grabs the last almond crusted pork tenderloin, don't expect a Googler to be happy about it.

No matter who the culprit is, the ad evidently has ruffled the feathers -- or perhaps crisped the skin -- of a few DoubleClick staffers.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 19, 2008

Click Campaign '08 on Marketplace

If you didn't hear, American Public Media's Marketplace Morning Report ran a brief piece on online political advertising, for which I was interviewed.

Check it out, and if you're into the political thing, make sure to keep an eye on our regular coverage of the online presidential campaigns in our Campaign '08 section. Better yet, sign up for the dedicated ClickZ Campaign '08 RSS feed!

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

March 9, 2008

Wiki-ize Your Intranet

"What if you could let anybody talk to anybody in an organization?" asked Forrester's Charlene Li at her talk at SXSW today, entitled "Social Strategies for Revolution."

Charlene proposed a perfectly simple idea and thoroughly smart idea for fostering communication within organizations -- with minimal investment: throw out your Intranet and replace it with a wiki.

In addition to increasing collaboration and the spread of ideas across department, Li advocates the strategy to stem the tide of internal e-mailing. Not a bad idea at all.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 26, 2008

ClickZ at Politics Online Conference Next Week

As you may know, ClickZ News has been dedicated to covering the online presidential campaign ads in our Campaign '08 section. And next week, I'll have the pleasure of talking shop in D.C. with others involved with and tracking this emerging ad vertical at the annual Politics Online conference.

Online political ad expert (I don't throw around the 'expert' term lightly), Michael Bassik, VP of Internet Advertising at political consulting firm MSHC Partners will be leading a panel on "Online Political Advertising and the 2008 Election" on Wednesday. We'll chat with online ad research folks Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates and Patrick Quinn of PQ Media, firms that have each put out forecasts of online political ad spending recently.

It's amazing how over the past few years events like Politics Online (commonly referred to by insiders as IPDI after the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University, the show's host) have grown. No longer is it just the evangelists who attend these events, but all sorts of folks involved in politics, of all political stripes.

If you'll be there and want to meet up Wednesday, let me know! Email me.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Check Out the New ClickZ Job Board

You asked for it, you got it.

Today, we launched the ClickZ Job Board, mostly because you readers have been asking for that particular feature for quite some time.

So check it out if you're looking for a new gig in interactive marketing or advertising, if you're an employer looking for help, or even if you just want to post your résumé, sit back, and see if opportunity knocks.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

ClickZ on SignOnRadio's Digital Politics Tomorrow

Just a heads up: I'll be appearing on SignOnRadio's Digital Politics show tomorrow along with Michael Cornfield, VP, Research and Media Strategy at 720 Strategies, a D.C.-based public persuasion firm. Michael and I co-authored a chapter on online political advertising for an upcoming academic book, and we'll be discussing that very subject on the show. You can actually read that masterpiece here.

The hour-long show is hosted by longtime online politics advocate, Karen Jagoda, co-founder and president of E-Voter Institute, a trade group representing Web publishers and political solution providers.

Listen online tomorrow at 6:30 pm Eastern, 3:30pm Pacific, or if you miss it, check out the archive!

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2008

Agency Gives 'Heartbreak Leave" Benefits

Employees at Tokyo-based Hime & Company have a few new perks making the news. Reuters reports the marketing agency offers "heartbreak leave" so its staff can take time to get over a break-up. Staff under 24 are eligible for one day per year, two days for those between 25 and 29, and three for older workers. Agency employees also get two mornings per year off to go shopping.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 28, 2008

Ad Supported Music Player Qtrax Launches Amidst a Fervor of Deal Denials

Another free music download service officially opened its doors over the weekend, and already the hubbub over just how many songs will be available for download and from which record labels is threatening to overshadow any traction it might have seen as an advertising platform. Qtrax is the latest contender to join the likes of SpiralFrog and Napster in offering ad supported music downloads.

The beta version of the site promises over 25,000,000 songs and other material from artists like the Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys and Lenny Kravitz, but Qtrax may be making some legally questionable claims. Last April, Allan Klepfisz, CEO of Qtrax parent Brilliant Technologies, told ClickZ the company had signed on the music catalogs of three major labels. With the official launch however, Warner, EMI and Universal have all denied inking a deal. Sony-BMG was also referenced by Qtrax but it too denies approving a music sharing deal.

Qtrax is apparently still in talks with the labels, but it's clear that at least until the contracts are finally signed the advertising opportunities available via the service will remain in question.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 17, 2008

Australian Gov't Official Opens Book on Cybercrime

Cybercrime might not have direct ties to digital advertising, though the individuals and syndicates behind malicious intent on the Web are a threat to how Internet users view ads on the Web. With implications of adware and Web-borne infections using ads as a vector to infect computers to infect computers, it's important to know what's happening and how to protect ad creative, networks, servers, and computers.

Australian federal agent Nigel Phair has written a book with the experience of his 18 years on the police force. "Cybercrime: The Reality of the Threat" is available on Amazon.com and answers questions about what's lurking on the Net. It's aimed at the consumer, but there's takeaway information on what's out there that any online marketer can find value in.

Posted by Enid Burns at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time Warner Cable to Kill Video Advertising?

This can't portend well for video advertising, or for sites and portals that sell video ads (are you listening, AOL?).

Time Warner Cable just announced they'll be rolling out a sort of pay-as-you-go plan for broadband subscribers. Rather than the usual all-you-can-eat monthly package, they're going to experiment with "tiered levels of service based on how much data [consumers] download per month, rather than the usual fixed-price packages with unlimited downloads."

Pricing information is as yet unavailable, but aside from the fact TWC is obviously targeting users of P2P file sharing services, they're also going after users who download (or stream?) large amounts of video.

Well, that's just ducky for online video advertisers and the publishers, sites and portals who sell video inventory. Time Warner-owned AOL certainly comes to mind. Train consumers to equate online video usage to going on a meter -- rather like making long-distance landline calls or filling up at the gas pump -- and they're likely to think twice before hitting that play button, no?

Initially the trial will only affect new TWC subscribers in Beaumont, Texas. A quick search indicates the populace there -- thankfully -- has other ISP options.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 15, 2008

A Call from Paris: Hot or Not?

Paris Hilton wants your number.

To promote her new film, The Hottie and the Nottie, which opens next month, Paris Hilton wants to call you. Not once, but an undisclosed number of times to remind you to see it.

Visit the film's Web site and you're asked to supply a mobile or landline number, together with your Zip Code. You'd expect a localized message with this information, but when Paris called back seconds after supplying the data, she just wanted to remind me to see the pic. I have a feeling subsequent calls may contain local theatre information closer to the opening date.

Voice marketing provider Vontoo is powering the backend of the vox initiative.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

Flip.com Cuts Staff, Joins Undead Pool

CondéNet has slashed the headcount at Flip.com, its self-expression site for teen girls, from 18 to two. Yet despite having been dealt what would seem a killing blow, the venture hopes to find new life as a content sharing application on social networking platforms. As such, I guess you could say it officially joins the undead pool, where it will no doubt swim groaning, rigor mortis-hindered laps alongside the Facebook mainstay Zombies app.

When it launched a year ago, Flip.com was showered with media attention, including from this publication. The site's core product is a set of multimedia creation tools allowing its mostly teen visitors to create "flipbooks" -- actually slide shows that use a nifty page turning animation between screens. Flip users have created approximately 82,000 flipbooks in the past year, CondéNet said, and the site's reported unique monthly audience is around 300,000.

CondéNet began courting advertisers with the new venture very early… as much as eight months before Flip.com actually launched in February 2007. J&J's Clean & Clear was the site's first advertiser through its agency OMD Digital. Under the launch sponsorship, the acne cream brand tested most of the site's available formats, including run of site banners and sponsored creative assets teens could incorporate into their slide shows.

Flip.com continue to have a standalone Web site, but all its resources (such as they are) will go toward the app strategy and associated ad products. Who knows, that may turn out to be a smart move given the trend toward portability of Web content and services. But it's hard to imagine the project will accomplish much with such a tiny staff.

"We will have probably two headcount on it -- but it might be 'pieces' of several people as opposed to two individuals," Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet, said in an e-mailed statement.

Chubb said ad details for the widget strategy will follow.

"We have advertisers now and are moving ahead with what needs to shift given this change," she added. "It is our intention to offer smart ad packages for this iteration of flip, as we did for the original version."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 2, 2008

Feds Offer $40 Coupons for Digital TV Converter Boxes

TV owners who rely on analog sets for over-the-air programming will get an assist to move into the digital era and avoid losing service.

Starting today, consumers can apply to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to obtain a $40 coupon for the purchase of a digital converter box. Each household can obtain up to two coupons for two boxes, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Digital television holds the promise of providing enhanced programming and increased interactive capabilities for content providers and advertisers.

On February 17, 2009, television broadcast stations are required by law to cease using analog formats and switch to digital.

Consumers who don't want to go through the trouble of adding a converter box have three options: purchase a television with a digital tuner, subscribe to cable or satellite TV service, or permanently disconnect the tube.

Up to 33.5 million coupons will be available under the $1.5 billion federally funded program. Last year, Consumers Union warned that the program would be under funded and intentionally difficult for consumers to use.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 27, 2007

Isobar Extends in Europe with Extenseo Acquisition

Already one of the largest digital advertising services firms, Aegis Group is expanding its European presence with the acquisition of Extenseo, a search marketing agency in Belgium. The 10-year-old marketing agency will be added to the Isobar search network and renamed iProspect. The original iProspect was acquired by Aegis Group in 2004, and the brand has been expanded to 12 countries, according to the company. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Save the Date! "Meatball Sundae" Webcast with Seth Godin

We know you guys love Seth Godin (who doesn't?). You nominate his blog for ClickZ's annual Marketing Excellence Award every year -- and it's won. Twice.

As a marketer, Seth's brilliance borders on the uncanny. He's an unparalleled public speaker and a prolific author. And we're delighted to announced that on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 2:00 PM EST we'll be presenting a Webcast featuring Seth on the topic How Do You Avoid the Meatball Sundae? in conjunction with the release of his latest book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?

You owe it to yourself to catch this Webcast, so sign up now while you're thinking about it -- before you take off for the holidays.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 11, 2007

Happy Little Elves

Apparently it's a good time to be an elf. According the folks over at OfficeMax, EVB and Toy, their Elf Yourself microsite has been getting a lot of use. In the past three weeks since the site was launched, 41 million people have created elves. That's compared to the 11 million elves created over the entire five week run of the site last holiday season. This year they've clocked the elf creation at a rate of 35 elves per second. Busy, busy elves.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 10, 2007

NYTimes.com Still Running Pop-ups

Pop-ups don't get anywhere near the attention from the trade media or industry pundits and research firms the way they used to a few years ago. But that doesn't mean they're not still around, and on big name sites, too. I just clicked through from The NY Times Advertising section RSS feed to a story about how ads are glorifying revolutionary images from the 60s. When the page loaded, this ad for a Starwood Hotels credit card appeared.

Sure, this wasn't the homepage or a section main page, but it was an article published today, not archival content that would be considered remnant inventory.

Are pop-ups still considered valuable to advertisers and publishers? Of course, and if they're frequency-capped, and publishers don't get greedy in terms of serving up too many of them, I suppose they can be of value to some consumers, as well...maybe.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 5, 2007

Valueclick Still Touts Lead Gen , Would Love to Own DoubleClick's Performics

Valueclick spent a lot of time talking up its lead gen business during yesterday's talk at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in NYC, despite the investigation of that very portion of their operation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Valuecleck is a "significant leader in lead generation," said the company's Chief Administrative Officer Sam Paisley.

While he spent most of his time describing various facets of the firm's services, including affiliate marketing management and ad management, Paisley did hint at what may be a result of its discussions with the FTC. In alluding to its FreeGroceryCard.com site, which offers consumers $100 gift cards in exchange for divulging personal information, he said, "It's clear to the consumer that this offer is not unconditional, but it's conditioned on their participation in advertiser programs."

According to the terms and conditions on FreeGroceryCard.com, "To receive the incentive gift you must: 1) Register with valid information; 2) Complete the user survey; and 3) Complete at least one (1) Silver offer, one (1) Gold offer, and one (1) Platinum offer. Purchase may be required. Please read Terms & Conditions for details. Upon completion of all requirements, we will ship the incentive gift to you with free shipping."

I don't know when this notification was added to the site, but if anything, it gives us a glimpse into the type of information that lead gen advertisers might be expected to present (prominently) alongside offers, as a result of the FTC's ongoing investigation. The commission announced its settlement with Adteractive last week, and the culmination of the Valueclick inspection is anticipated, too.

No one's sure when though. "We haven't really talked about any time frame because the Federal government hasn't been kind enough to share that with us," said Paisley of the FTC investigation. Still, he added, "We do feel that once we're clear with the FTC, that [lead gen] business will continue to be a part of our offering." The company expects a fine that won't be large enough to affect its balance sheet.

Paisley stressed Valueclick's lone position as the last independent major ad management platform if Google's acquisition of DoubleClick goes through (an FTC decision is expected soon). If it is eventually approved here and in Europe, it's likely that DoubleClick would shed its Performics SEM business, which would create conflicts of interest with its new parent company. In that case, said Paisley in response to a question from the audience, Valueclick would be interested in snapping up Performics.

"We would want to be on the short list of people" considered for the deal, he said.

And more acquisitions could follow. The company wants to "own and control more traffic," said Paisley, noting it may set its sights on comparison shopping sites. The goal, potentially, would be to use data gathered on such sites for behavioral targeting throughout the Valueclick network.

The firm also expects to continue its expansion into Asia.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 26, 2007

Class A Classmates Shares

Everybody's favorite online advertiser (besides LowerMyBills) is going public. Maybe those investment dollars will help Classmates Media modernize the tired ad creative it's been using for so many years.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 9, 2007

FLA Investigation Target W3i Says Hasn't Heard from AG

While AzoogleAds has agreed to cough up $1 million to the Florida Attorney General's office following a civil investigation of its online ad practices, there are several other firms under investigation by the state's new CyberFraud Task Force.

One, according to the Office's Web site, is W3i. After contacting all companies mentioned in our story published yesterday (Think Partnership, Intermark Media, Media Breakaway, Verisign-owned m-Qube, Traffix and W3i), I've only heard back from W3i. The company is under civil investigation by the AG's office for alleged use of deceptive co-registration paths to enroll consumers in monthly subscription plans. Co-reg is a common technique employed in lead generation campaigns.

I spoke this morning to Hayden Creque, W3i's VP and general counsel. He said the firm is aware of the information contained on the Florida Attorney General's Office site, but W3i has not been contacted by the AG's office.

"It'll be our policy to cooperate with the Attorney General's office if they contact us," he told me, adding, "I've made no efforts to contact them."

Stay tuned....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 1, 2007

Call for Donations: a Benefit for New York Kids

On November 6 Youth I.N.C. is holding a benefit for New York Kids. The benefit is specifically for CampInteractive, an organization with the mission to bridge the digital divide. Industry consultant Sara Holoubek has pledged to match donations from the interactive community up to a cumulative $5,000 contributed by November 6.

If you would like to donate, here's a few simple instructions:

1. Make a secure donation in the name of CampInteractive from the Celebration to Benefit New York Kids website.
2. Click on "Donate Now" on the right-hand side, or click here.
3. If you'd like to attend the event, select a package or indicate the number of tickets.
4. If you can't make it, select "other" and specify donation amount.
5. Make sure to select "CampInteractive" in the drop down.
6. Contact saraholoubek (at) gmail.com so she can match your contribution.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

Kentucky 527 Group Buys Big Online

Who says 527s aren't advertising online yet this election season?

A 527 group formed earlier this year is taking aim at Republican Governor of Kentucky Ernie Fletcher through a $60,000 video ad buy. The Bluegrass Freedom Fund, which aims to “encourage a public discussion about education, jobs, healthcare, and other issues,” is using expandable video ads showing a TV commercial that calls out alleged corruption in the Fletcher administration.

The :30 ad expands to display a form for submitting a name and e-mail address to sign a petition demanding that “the governor and legislature pass real ethics reform.”

My source on the campaign said the ads have run on Courier-Journal.com, Kentucky.com, WKYT.com, BGDailyNews.com, and have been geo-targeted to Kentucky users on Cincinnati.com. Non-video banners are also running on blogs like Page One Kentucky and others.

As of last week, over 2 million of the ads had been served, and 52 percent of those who were served the ad interacted with it. The commercial video had been viewed in full 37 percent of the time.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 29, 2007

MSLO Names Three Execs, Signals Upcoming Online Changes

Expect Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to make a bigger impact in online before too long. Under MSLO President of Media Wenda Harris Millard's leadership the company named Jacki Kelley EVP of Media Sales, Lee Heffernan SVP of integrated marketing, and Tom Barreca SVP of digital and emerging media. A statement from the company states, "All three executives bring a broad range of media experience to MSLO as the company expands its multimedia footprint." While the release teases of major enhancements to come, MSLO execs aren't yet ready to talk about what those are.

The hires in themselves attract some attention Jacki Kelley comes from Yahoo, where she was VP of worldwide sales strategies and solutions. As Millard herself was at Yahoo not too long ago, it follows a long succession of executives exiting the major Internet company. Heffernan has worked with MSLO as a consultant, and Barreca was previously EVP of WWE Enterprises.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 25, 2007

Two Views of Advertising's Future

Author and academic Douglas Rushkoff sounded a wake-up call to advertisers and marketers: your business will be dead unless you work with companies and products that produce exciting products that inspire you.

Likewise, David Weinberger, co-author of "The Cluetrain Manifesto" and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Institute for Internet and Society, said companies can no longer control and manage product marketing. "Real marketing [that's] people talking with one another," he said, referring to social media. "We need to respect these conversations, honor them. Not intrude."

Rushkoff and Weinberger discussed advertising's past and prognosticated on its future on Wednesday at a ClickZ 10th anniversary dinner and awards ceremony celebrating a decade of innovation and excellence in online marketing and advertising.

Rushkoff exhorted marketers to convince their clients to come up with compelling products. "Teach them how to get back into the business they are in," he said. "Then you don't have to make up a story about them."

While the broadcast advertising model is based on developing one message for many, Weinberger said that's a dangerous model. "By having more generic messages, you end up dumbing down messages. That's disastrous in the political sphere…it's a disaster for democracy," he warned.

Rebecca Lieb, ClickZ's editor-in-chief, looked at interactive's highlights and low points during the decade. Remember when, she said, venture capitalists -- not hedge fund managers -- were rock stars. Or when advertisers had to be reminded to add URLs to print and broadcast campaigns? How about vortals?

"My Dad would get excited when he’d find articles I wrote online. So excited that he’d print them out and mail them to me from his home in Arizona," she said.

On a more serious note, Lieb recognized that the interactive industry survived tough times. "We pulled through. The industry pulled through. You pulled through, too. And now, we're mainstream, not margin," she said.

For "ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards: The First Decade," Google was named "Innovation of the Decade." Other awards were given for best products, services, businesses, and people who made the most significant overall contribution to the industry.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did he just say Internet marketing doesn't work?

Did Rushkoff really just say that? Sheryl and I peered at one another in disbelief. We were seated next to eachother at last night's grand ClickZ 10th Anniversary gala, soon-to-be-former IAB GM Sheryl Draizen and I. We listened intently as Douglas Rushkoff explained his observations on the advertising industry -- how and why it arose, and, yes, how the promise of the Internet has been squelched by over-commercialization.

He went on a bit more, and then he pronounced, "Internet marketing doesn't work."

I'm not quite sure what he said directly after that because by then I was whispering something about how incredible the statement was to Sheryl, her mouth agape.

Marketers and ad execs squirming in their seats? Oh yes.

But, that was sort of the point. As ClickZ Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Lieb said when Rushkoff had left the podium, he'd been invited to provoke conversations. It wasn't about being comfortable; it was about stimulating thought.

One response regarding the notion that the promise of the Internet has been ruined by excessive advertising may have been, "Hey, I'll bet you like all that free content and all those free platforms for connecting with people, don't ya?"

It's cliché, but true. The fact is advertising -- the work of the people in the audience and the once-scrappy startups that have revolutionized the industry, along with groups like the IAB and, yes, publications like ClickZ -- is what enables a whole lot of those platforms for communication and democratization we often take for granted.

Sure, the adification of the Web can be annoying, even to the people involved in producing it. There remain years, decades even, of working out the kinks, but whether it works is something many have already decided. Take Intel, or any of the countless companies that have continually re-allocated more and more dollars to interactive. Yes, one reason for that additional spending is more people are spending more time online (connecting with other humans, learning, exploring the world from multiple perspectives, working, creating new industries out of the ether, and more).

But if those advertisers didn't think marketing to those people on the Web works, they wouldn't keep doing it.

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

October 23, 2007

The Eyes Have It

Congratulations to our longtime paid search columnist Kevin Lee. His new (and first) book, The Eyes Have It: How to Market in an Age of Divergent Consumers, Media Chaos and Advertising Anarchy, was just released.

It's so new, we haven't even received our review copy yet, but we do know that in the book Kevin addresses digital marketing issues far beyond the scope of search alone. Topics include how marketers can know if their agency is capable of executing a profitable digital marketing campaigns; how agencies can ensure they remain competitive; how to build an in-house digital marketing team; auction-based media markets; and media planning in a dynamic digital environment.

If you follow Kevin's columns on this site, or have ever heard him speak on digital marketing (which he does virtually non-stop), you know this is one book that's going to be worth picking up.

Good going, Kevin!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 28, 2007

Do You Have a Web 2.0 Budget?

Performic's VP Emerging Media Cam Balzer and I were chatting at an Advertising Week lunch. When I asked what was new over at his shop, he had an interesting tidbit. Clients are allocating dollars into designated Web 2.0 budgets.

Now, plenty of marketers have "experimental" budget, money put aside specifically to experiment with new Web technologies and marketing techniques. So I asked Cam if that wasn't perhaps what he was referring to.

Web 2.0 is different, he explained. These really are Web 2.0 budgets, dedicated to mareting on patforms such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, in allocations of up to $200,000 per quarter. The experimental budgets are flowing into things that are, well, experimental but not Web 2.0. Mobile, for example.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 26, 2007

Exponential Joins Ranks of In-Line Ad Networks

In-text ads are distracting, they smear the line between content and advertising, and they're easy to trigger accidentally. For these reasons ClickZ News has tended not to cover them, though we recognize that every publisher must find its own balance between a degree of ad intrusiveness and a smooth end user experience. And so must each advertiser. Users will vote with their clicks.

Exponential, which owns ad network Tribal Fusion, has plunged into the in-line arena with a twist on the usual approaches that bears mentioning. Its EchoTopic in-line ad network uses semantic analysis of the content of a page, rather than the keywords buried within it, to target the ads. I spoke to VP of Strategic Marketing Alistair Goodman about the contextual offering, and with regard to the intrusiveness concern, he said the same thing I've heard from Virbrant Media and others: that it's up to the site owners and the advertisers to make the call about whether the ad format is appropriate for their content and audience.

He claimed however that click-through-rates during tests on 15 sites in Tribal Fusion's tech channel have been two to three times those of keyword-targeted in-line advertising. This, he argued, indicates it's providing a more relevant ad experience and hence a better overall end user experience.

A number of campaigns are already running on the EchoTopic network of 25 publishers in the tech vertical. Exponential would only name one advertiser, PC Tools, but Goodman said an employment-related advertiser is using the system to combine contextual with geo-targeting and serve tech job ads by region. The semantic analysis of sites in the Tribal Fusion network, in development for three years, will be applied to display advertising as well.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 11, 2007

Will AdSense Be the "Huge Deflator" of Exchange Hype?

For all their promise, it seems ad exchanges generally produce only pennies on the mille for many online publishers.

Niki Scevak is the founder of Homethinking, a real estate/home seller matchmaking site, and a sometimes analyst for Jupiter Research. After receiving a newsletter bulletin from Right Media crowing about its 13 percent growth in impressions (to 6.4 billion in August) and revenue ($2.2 million in publisher payments), he crunches the numbers for Right Media versus AdSense monetization on his own site and comes up with the following.

"Basic adsense [sic] on the site does $8-10 CPM and the advertisers on other networks who do participate in the exchange managed about 10-20 cents in the brief time I ran the trial."

But he's not ready to give up on exchanges yet: "It’s a great concept. Just nowhere near ready for prime time and for the moment Google, on a direct response basis, is always going to be the top bidder, which may turn out to be the huge deflater of recent exchange hype."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:49 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)

WSJ Says End of M&A? Hardly.

The Wall Street Journal today has a story announcing the end of the M&A boom. But, as anyone who watches the online ad industry knows, it's all about M&A in these parts.

"The global mergers-and-acquisition boom that began in 2003, the greatest deal frenzy in history, is winding down," notes the story, which blames the drop in credit confidence that fueled buyouts as the culprit.

"The last deals boom, which ended in 2001, was propelled by a rising stock market, especially in the technology sector," continues the story. "That enabled companies to use their inflated stock as currency to make bold bids for corporate icons. The pinnacle of that boom was America Online's acquisition of Time Warner."

Of course, this particular report is looking at gigantic multi-billion dollar deals. The biggest we've gotten in our little neck of the woods is Microsoft's $6 billion aQuantive buy.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 22, 2007

Google Gals A-Twitter Over Tim Armstrong

Google's studly President of Advertising and Commerce Tim Armstrong is apparently the object of more than one Google gal's semi-secret affections.

Word has it that a number of besotted female staffers in the New York office are using Twitter to track Armstrong sightings at Googleplex East. Wonder if there's any reciprocity from the Mountain View staff when he 's visiting HQ?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 21, 2007

Anna Maria Virzi Joins ClickZ as Executive Editor

It's been a long search, but it paid off. We're delighted to welcome Anna Maria Virzi as ClickZ's new executive editor.

Anna Maria (please don't call her just Anna!) comes to us from Ziff Davis, where she served as Baseline's executive editor. Earlier, she was assistant managing editor of Forbes.com. She held the posts of both news editor and executive editor at Internet World magazine, and was city editor and Washington correspondent for the Connecticut Post.

If you're in San Jose for Search Engine Strategies this week, you can join me in welcoming her to the fold.

And not incidentally, our sister site, Search Engine Watch, has a new exec editor, too!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 7, 2007

TimesSelect Headed to the Guillotine?

A high profile project to take ad-supported content and put it behind a subscription wall may be headed for the scrap bin, the New York Post reported today.

Citing an unnamed source, the Post says its Metro area competitor The New York Times is about to kill off TimesSelect, a nearly two-year-old initiative by NYT Co. to require Web-only readers to pay $49.95 a year to read its editorial columns and archived content. This one's still in the unconfirmed bin, but if true, the Times motivation is very much open to debate. Was it the slight decline in Web-only subscribers this year that spooked the company? (Update: subscribers actually grew from April to June, NYTCo. told PaidContent) Was it the strength in online advertising that motivated it to open up the columns and monetize them through a wider audience? In any case, Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd and the Times' other forgotten (to the digerati anyway) Op-ed voices will no doubt be very happy if the rumor proves true.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 2, 2007

Club Penguin and Thong Advertising

How's this for targeted? MickeyNews.com, a site for Disney-related news, accepts in-line advertising, and the below ad for a Penguin Thong appears on the press release page describing Disney's purchase of Club Penguin, a virtual world for young kids. The ad copy, in case you can't make it out, is "Men's Sexy Stylish Thong Novelty -- Vinyl Penguin Pouch." The price has been cut from $39.99 to $29.79, which is really great news. I just wish it came in Puffin.

As a licensing move for Disney's new kids property, it's just brilliant. I'm sure all the kids'll be begging their parents for one.

Update: Looks like the press release has been taken down. And just to be clear, though it's patently obvious, MickeyNews.com is not a Disney-affiliated site.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:03 PM | 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)

Tacoda's Morgan to Take Senior AOL Role

I've just confirmed with Tacoda founder and chairman Dave Morgan that he will be taking a senior role at AOL once the acquisition deal closes. Stay tuned for more details once they emerge after the regulatory approval process is complete. If I understand correctly, the 30-day FTC inspection period officially begins today, or soon, since Tacoda filed the required docs today.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 20, 2007

Further Reports on Infected Ads

The Wall Street Journal is reporting "Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads," (link), an issue we reported last month when Internet security firm Finjan released a report. June was by no means the first occurrence of rogue ads showing up on publisher sites, reports of the activities have transpired a handful of times over the past year. Internet security and anti-spam firms like Finjan and ScanSafe are investigating the issue and publishing regular reports.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 19, 2007

Kids - All Thumbs When It Comes to Phones

At a family gathering this week, I watched my 8 year-old cousin Dane stay glued to a laptop all evening. Chatting with his mother about his digital habits, I learned something really amazing: how he uses the telephone.

When he picks up a landline handset to make a call, Dane holds the receiver in two hands and dials the number with both thumbs, as if sending a text message. It's never occurred to him to use one finger.

How long can "dial" a number remain in the lexicon?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 6, 2007

More on Israel's Military Tech Connection

I was interested to see a story today on the front page of the Wall Street Journal about Israelis applying knowledge gathered through their military training towards entrepreneurial goals. You may have stumbled across our recent ClickZ News story on why Israel has made for a great place to start an ad tech firm. One reason: the experience provided by serving in Israel's military.

The WSJ story focuses on the military influence on tech innovation in Israel, and the struggle between serving the state and striking out on a new path. It mentions in particular a founder of ad-supported CGM video site Metacafe, Arik Czerniak, who has been among the elite groups in the Israel Defense forces, a "secretive Israeli military program called Talpiot."

According to the story, Talpiot commander Major Roy Shefer "tries to counter the trend toward the high-tech world by instilling in the cadets a sense of obligation to country." Shefer is quoted as saying, "We view them as a national resource, and we want to determine how they can best contribute to the state." The story goes on to note, "He acknowledges, however, that the private sector is difficult to resist."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 29, 2007

Behavioral Targeting Downside: Your Work Follows You

A downside to behavioral targeting, per the screen capture above, is that your work can wind up following you to places you'd rather it didn't. The imposition of a display unit for Microsoft AdCenter is almost jarring on this hip hop site. For the record, I'm not that into hip hop. Was checking out Blastro.com for a separate story I'm working on.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2007

Adobe's Creative License Campaign

You may already have seen a few of these gorgeous display ads from Adobe, created by Goodby Silverstein for its Creative License campaign. Very ornate, and I love the way they use the scrubber bar. There's no point describing it. You have to click and interact to appreciate the execution.

Update: At Adobe & Goodby Silverstein's request, I've removed a link previously included in this post that pointed to Goodby's clients site for Adobe. I've requested either a URL or the ability to embed the ad in this post, so y'all can see exactly what I'm talking about here, and I'll update it again when they get back to me.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IAB Launches Specs Database: Updating Is Key

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, along with its AB Ad Ops Council Joint Working Group on Late Creative, unveiled a database hub for ad unit creative specs yesterday. The free-with-registration resource currently includes specifications of 88 publishers, from About to Ziff Davis.

The key here, of course, will be ensuring the information is up-to-date. The IAB noted publishers will be expected to update specs within 72 hours of making changes. However, as anyone who's ever worked a day in his life knows, such duties often fall by the wayside. And if you're the guy responsible for making sure the creative satisfies all specs of all publishers in a media plan, that three day grace period could be a problem.

Still, even though agencies and advertisers will most likely (at least on occasion) be picking up the phone or shooting off an e-mail to ensure specs are met, the database will probably prove a valuable resource.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007

Spanish Language Web Site Webinar

Does your target market include Hispanic Americans? Do you offer a Spanish Language option of your Web site? Find out if it's necessary for your site, and business, to reach this audience. This Wednesday I am moderating a Webinar held by Idiom Technologies and Captura Group, with research presented by Forrester Research analyst Tamara Barber. She will discuss the findings of her recent report, "When to Build a Spanish-Language Web Site."

The Webinar's aim is to help marketers size up the market for Online Spanish-preferring customers; master new consumer profiles; and commit to multi-channel Spanish-language service. It's happening this Wednesday, June 13 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Get more info here.

Posted by Enid Burns at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 7, 2007

A Big Welcome to Kevin Ryan, New SES Conference Chair

Kevin Ryan has long been a personal friend, a sometimes competitor (as iMedia's search editor), a peerless public speaker, and an expert in all things interactive marketing related, particularly when it comes to search. Kevin's past roles include VP interactive media for the Interpublic Group's agency Wahlstrom Interactive, and as founder/CEO of Kinetic Results. Kevin also founded consultancy Motivity Marketing and has worked for Did-It and DoubleClick.

Now, I'm delighted to announce Kevin Ryan is a colleague of ours.

Kevin joined us this week as the new chair of our Search Engine Strategies conference and will work with me on ClickZ's sister site, SearchEngineWatch.com. Here's the formal announcement, as well as a few words from Kevin on his new role.

I couldn't be happier to have Kevin on board not only as a colleague and collaborator, but also as an enthusiastic sharer of Vietnamese sandwiches from the terrific little hole-in-the-wall down the street from ClickZ HQ.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 3, 2007

Who Sees the Light in Silverlight?

The blogosphere is abuzz over Silverlight, a just-introduced browser plug-in from Microsoft that promises it can "deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces."

It also promises full cross-platform integration and "seamless, fast installation for users." CBS will adopt it, so will rich media ad vendors Brightcove and Eyeblaster, and brands including Major League Baseball and Netflix.

Small wonder our curiosity is piqued -- what will the advertising implications be?

Small stumbling block involving end-user implications. I downloaded and installed the plug-in. Several times. It refuses to run on Firefox, Safari or IE on my Mac (or our news editor's Mac).

OK, so we can't experience the wonders of Silverlight on the Web. Let's just download the movie and see what this baby can do.

Would you believe it? (Sadly, yes. It's all just too plausible.) The .wmv movie won't even play in Microsoft's own Window Media Player. Something about the wrong codecs. Handy-dandy open-source VLC to the rescue -- as always.

While Microsoft promises Silverlight is good-to-go for us Mac users, we see things a bit differently.

We're going to follow up on what advertisers think Silverlight can do for them. But it's hard to believe it's going to be widely adopted until it can deliver on its claims, promises and value propositions.

Update: A new version of the plug-in did install and work on my PowerBook. Playback of Microsoft's demo video was less than smooth, but at least a functional release is out.
It's still very hard to understand why utterly non-functional releases go public, though.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 23, 2007

2008 Presidential Debates Will Go Online

Flip-flopping and name-calling will go online in a major way in the 2008 presidential election. Yahoo!, The Huffington Post and Slate are teaming up to sponsor virtual presidential debates sometime later this year. No word on advertising opportunities. Read the news release.

Posted by Bill McGuire at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 20, 2007

Consumer Electronics Assoc or: How Tossed Electronics and Batteries can be OK for the Environment

The consumer electronics industry isn't earth friendly. The plastics, disposable and rechargeable batteries seeping toxins into the ground, and new problems like the gas from plasma displays. For Earth Day this Sunday, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is launching its redesigned site MyGreenElectronics to act as a "one-stop" online resource for environmentally-responsible practices with consumer electronics. It teaches the four R's: reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink. The site boasts an energy consumption calculator, and a Zip Code search listing 1,500 electronics recycling programs.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 23, 2007

Congrats, Hollis!

Our good friend and longtime Agency Media Strategies columnist Hollis Thomases was just named the state of Maryland's Small Business Person of the Year by the Baltimore District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Hollis is a true online pioneer, having founded her shop, WebAdvantage.net, back in 1998.

The annual SBA Award recognizes entrepreneurs for contributions to the nation’s economy and for personal achievements, including staying power; employee growth; sales increases; current and past financial performance; product or service innovation; response to adversity, and contributions to community-oriented projects.

Brava!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 20, 2007

Coors Preempts Happy Hour with Site Takeovers at Exactly 4:53 PM

Coors is trying to make 4:53 the new happy hour – or at least the new Coors moment. At precisely that time of day, when people are just starting to think about hitting the pub, the brewer's Silver Bullet Train icon will careen across their field of vision. Or at least it will for individuals surfing certain sites (unnamed in the company's press release). And as it passes, the old-fashioned yet new-fangled locomotive will resolve into a traditional display unit encouraging Web users to relax at the end of the day with (cue new tagline) "the World’s Most Refreshing Beer."

The unique interactive ads are part of Coors Brewing Company's 2007 campaigns for Coors Light, Keystone Light, Coors, Molson Canadian and Killian’s Irish Red, which also include new TV, radio, outdoor and retail advertising. Online execution was handled by Avenue A / Razorfish.

A story in The New York Times has additional details, including this comment on the trouble the agency had timing the ads precisely:

Creating and producing the online campaign “has been challenging,” [Account Director Levi Patterson] added, because of the need for “geo-targeting for the time zone you’re in” as well as trying to “push the envelope a bit” in terms of the train image briefly covering the editorial content of the Web sites.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 16, 2007

Second Life Jumps Shark?

First the currency, then the virtual agencies and any number of corporate outposts.

And now this, from my alma mater:

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

March 14, 2007

PEW: Internet Usage Among Hispanics, Whites, and Blacks

As a part of the report "Latinos Online" published this afternoon by Pew Internet & American Life Project which we covered in Stats, the study included a chart titled "Internet Use among Hispanics, Whites, and Blacks.

"The chart shows the connection between Internet usage and education, regardless of ethnicity," said Susannah Fox, associate director at Pew Internet. The chart is formatted almost like a timeline, and illustrates each segment of the population and where it falls relation to other groups. The chart is available for download, as is the full report, on the Pew Internet site.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 22, 2007

Bloglines Founder Launches B2B Resource for Smallest Start-ups

Mark Fletcher, who founded Bloglines, the preferred feed reader of four out of five ClickZ reporters, has launched an online resource for start-ups and the entrepreneurs behind them. No ads yet, but Startupping.com would appear to hit a sweet spot for B2B marketers, judging from a recent Jupiter Research finding that owners of the tiniest businesses are extremely heavy Web users.

The site has forums, blogs, a wiki-driven start-up guide and special features, such as a "best decision/worst mistake" feature on the homepage right now with commentary from notorious Web entrepreneurs.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 21, 2007

Web 5.0 "The Fourth Shaker"

Sean Carton is one of our longest-running and smartest columnists. His mission is to stay one step ahead of the curve covering the latest in Web and advertising technologies. That's why his column is called The Leading Edge.

So it came as no surprise to get this cutting-edge news alert today from his way-ahead-of-the-curve agency, Baltimore-based idfive

idfive Discovers Web 5.0, Declares it “The Fourth Shaker”

Baltimore-based digital communications firm idfive (www.idfive.com) announced today the discovery of “Web 5.0,” a previously unknown evolution of Web technology that promises to revolutionize how both consumers and businesses communicate online.

“We’re freakin’ blown away by the implications,” exclaimed Producer Ted O’Mera in his characteristic tone of indiscriminate enthusiasm, “This changes absolutely everything. Everything. Heck, I just learned PHP. Now this. I think I need a nap.”
[the rest after the jump]

While most Web firms are still trying to come to grips with the slippery meme known as “Web 2.0,” idfive’s discovery promises to catapult them past their competition, providing them with insights, capabilities, and buzzwords that others can only dream of. “Yeah, Web 2.0 is a big deal right now,” comments Sean Carton, Chief Strategy Officer of idfive, ”But so what? Web 5.0 is going to make Web 2.0 look like Web 1.0. Or something like that.”

While Web 2.0 reportedly grew out of a combination of technologies and buzzwords that combined social networking with user generated content and the ability to employ AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) to allow real-time interaction with data from within the browser, Web 5.0 moves beyond the browser to encompass a range of technologies and acronyms that had never before been used in computing, data display, or interaction.

idfive acknowledges that the concept of Web 5.0 is quite obviously too complex for all but a few of the world’s most eminent digerati and best selling cyber-celebrities to understand. However, in their ongoing desire to educate the public, they want it known that the basics should not be hard to grasp for anyone with a basic knowledge of quantum physics, koi farming, and hyper-dimensional topologies. At this point idfive is still carefully exploring Web 5.0 (or “5-Space” as they’ve termed it), but are ready to reveal some of the basics of their discovery.

At its heart, Web 5.0 is based on the KABOOM (Knuth-Moris Asynchronous Binary Object Oriented Metadata) archi-tecture, itself an evolution of OXY-CLEAN (Optimal Xor-gate Yultide Computational Emotion Analysis Nondeterminism) technologies. Taking advantage of n-space disparities that arise out of multiplexed qubit transmission inherent in most quantum computers, Web 5.0 actually manages to transcend so-called “consensus reality” in order to hyperspatialize information into matrices composed of Higgs Bosons. The result is a Web of information so info-dense, so googapixel packed, so socially interconected that it defies conventional definitions of what “the Web” means.

“We are only now beginning to grasp how this previously undiscovered technology will allow us to optimize synergies within the Metaverse, allowing us to create holistic, team-based paradigms that leverage true holomovement for the first time,” explains Sean Carton. “Connecting realms both metaphysical and quantum-mechanical, this technology will allow for high-bandwidth transmission of data clusters using true random-access packets that, for the first time, allow for unequalled collaboration, social interaction, entanglement, and perhaps even pizza delivery that truly takes less than 30 minutes or it’s free...in complete safety and with total information security.”

idfive plans on immediately deploying Web 5.0 technologies for their clients, allowing them to provide a service un-equalled in the crowded field of Baltimore Web development. In fact most idfive clients are already enjoying the benefits of Web 5.0 since idfive has been deploying the new technology for no extra charge while in their “stealth phase.”

“This is some amazing stuff. We bring screaming death to all previously established paradigms. All your Web belongs to us,” exclaims Multimedia Director Sean Cohen. “We PWNED all you utha Web punks!”

idfive plans a public rollout of Web 5.0 sometime in Spring 2007. Unfortunately this technology is so advanced that no computers currently exist with the capacity to display its powers. “But don’t worry,” cautions Carton, “Web 5.0 is already here. Time to play catchup, all you ‘Web 2.0’ companies!”

“Yeah,” underscores Claire Rusko-Berger, idfive Director of Client Services, “It’s Web 5.0, dumbass!”

Thanks, Sean. We needed that!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

New Logo, New Decade!

We're 10 years old!

The new logos up on The ClickZ Network and Search Engine Watch today mark a pretty enormous landmark. Both sites launched in 1997, which means we now enter our second decade of being the biggest (and please indulge a bit of immodesty -- the best) sites covering interactive advertising, marketing and search.

We're feeling celebratory, and very grateful. We're thinking of all you readers out there, both the new ones and those who have been with us for the duration. To the people who contribute to our unparalleled content, attend our shows, write in with ideas, advertise, ask, advise.

We couldn't have done it without every one of you.

So please join me in wishing a very happy anniversary to all of us. Here's to the next decade. It looks like it's going to be a great one.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 7, 2007

Careful - You're Being 'Tailed'

Is any phrase more incorrectly used these days than "long tail"?

Initially, (immediately following Chris Anderson's Wired magazine piece which introduced the concept) it was a self-conscious badge of Internet insider-dom to bandy the term about. The article's since morphed into a best-selling book. Way too many people have read neither the article nor the book nor the blog, but nevertheless don't hesitate to flaunt their Web illiteracy by bandying the long tail about.

Recently, I saw an e-mail announcing a new corporate analytics program had been deployed. The subject line, incongruously, was "The Long Tail."

Today, I'm at the McGraw Hill Media Summit. I won't name names, but a moderator just asked a panelist a questions about consumer-generated media, asking "where's the Steven Spielberg of the long tail?"

Steven Spielberg represents the opposite of the long tail.

Please, media and marketing people. Get this right -- before that long tail lashes out and destroys your credibility.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2007

ClickZ Seeks Executive Editor

Isn't it great everyone's hiring again? We're no exception.

ClickZ's looking for a new executive editor. Following, a brief description of the role and its responsibilities. The role is based in New York City, but we'll consider exceptional West Coast-based candidates.

Summary:

Oversee day-to-day editorial operations of The ClickZ Network (news, features, experts, resources, stats and blog). Secure freelance columnists and oversee editorial, production and copy staff. Collaborate strategically building new site features and functionality. Help conceive of and produce ClickZ branded conferences and other events.

Key Competencies:

Expertise in and deep knowledge of all aspects of interactive marketing and advertising. Knowledge of industry trends, executives, and companies, both major and up-and-coming. Proven track record in creating a quality online editorial product and managing staff, both internally and externally. Impeccable and extensive industry contacts.. Experience as a public speaker and seminar host, published writer, and authoritative source for outside journalists. Ability to really multitask, and to faithfully adhere to multiple deadlines for numerous projects.

Interested? Then please forward your resume and a cover letter to:
coleen.bobb-semple [at] incisivemedia.com

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Standards for Outside Video Ads

Today marks the formation of the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau: An organization to help provide standards and best practices for video advertising in public spaces. Its 10 founding members include Adspace Network, Captivate Network, Channel M, ClubCom, Office Media Network, Premier Retail Network, Reactrix Systems, Simon Brand Ventures, the Hotel Networks, and Transit Television Network. The group plans to tackle the space "similar to the way the Interactive Advertising Bureau assisted in the evolution of online advertising," said an organization statement. The group's goal is to implement best practices. Hopefully it will formulate some degree of measurement for the channel, and work with agencies and advertisers to push interactive elements in the outdoor space.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 5, 2007

Ads in CAPTCHAs

Jean-Yves Stervinou suggests an ad format as perverse as it is brilliant:

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

December 26, 2006

This White Space Brought to You By.....

Future-trend predictor Faith Popcorn's record as a prognosticator is dicey, tending to add more buzzwords to the lexicon (e.g. "cocooning") than actual cultural accuracy, but one of her predictions for 2007 amounts to almost wishful thinking.

EnvironMENTAL Movement

Like the movement to combat environmental pollution, the next consumer-led reaction will be against the mental pollution caused by marketers. With every corner of the world both real and virtual becoming plastered with marketing messages, bombarded consumers are starting to say they've had enough. The current attack against marketing to kids is just the beginning.

The Future: Companies are expected to reduce the amount of damage they are doing to our minds. Savvy companies sponsor marketing-free white spaces in lieu of polluting the environment with models and logos.

May it come to pass!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 20, 2006

Buzzword Bingo

I once had a coworker who sent "Friday Humor" e-mails each week. This is back in the early days of the Internet when those jokes were still fresh. Once before a company-wide meeting he created a "Buzzword Bingo" page and passed it around to a few of us quietly. I played a little game of buzzword bingo in a meeting today, and if "differentiator" was in every cell, I definitely won. It was said (not by me) no less than 10 times. I also got a head start during an interview yesterday. "Differentiator" may be the word of the week, but there's others. Do I need to mention a few? Paradigm, Web 2.0, buzz, relevancy, effectiveness, impactful, and one personal favorite phrase overused by boss at a previous job: "low hanging fruit."

Warning: Whether in a briefing, internal meeting, or sitting around the dinner table, overuse of these words causes them to lose their "effectiveness." Yes, I used a buzzword, it's OK, sparingly. When we talk to companies, it's our job to hear about a product, service, or event and cut out all the jargon. Very often these words don't make it into our articles, and sometimes at the expense of an otherwise insightful quote.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publicis to Buy Digitas

French holding company Publicis is snatching up one of the few remaining large-scale independent digital agencies. Digitas, which does digital and direct, also owns Modem Media. The price tag is $1.3 billion.

Update: Read our full coverage here.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 14, 2006

Declared Dems Online and Swifties Fined

Before Washington Journal yesterday morn, I caught C-SPAN's rerun of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's presidential bid announcement. While taking questions from reporters, mostly about his stance on Iraq, Kucinich made an effort to tout his Web site and imply he'd have no trouble scoring campaign cash online and elsewhere.

Kucinich could use some SEO help, though (attention lefty search volunteers!). In search for his site (Hey, I was watching at 6:45 am for crissakes! I can't remember the damn URL!), I stumbled across lots of result listing links to blog posts and media coverage of his announcement, and even ran by his '04 campaign site before the new one. And yes, I was searching on "Dennis Kucinich 08."

Well, he may not need SEO help once people begin linking to the pics and vids of him beside his attractive new (and taller) wife, Elizabeth, a redheaded Brit, no less.

Interestingly, the Kucinich campaign is using a .us domain extension (Kucinich.us). Kucinich.com leads to an up-to-date, irreverent site for tracking the Ohio Democrat's whereabouts and such. DennisKucinich.com leads to an obsolete page promoting a never-happened Jerry Brown/Kucinich ticket in '04. Evidently they were not interested in the more obvious .com domains (…forpresident.com, …08.com, etc).

Also on the declared Dems front, Iowa Guv and Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack has a bunch of new videos up on beta video sharing site/distribution service blip.tv. He's also got vids up on his official '04 campaign site, along with his MySpace page (looks legit), YouTube and iTunes.

I could spend all day searching names like Clinton, Guiliani, McCain, Richardson, Gingrich, Edwards (and on and on) on all the likely video/social networking sites, and I'm sure I'd find lots o' stuff out there, from their related PACs, supporters and detractors. The next two years will most definitely be big years for political Web video and campaigning in general.

It will be interesting, however, to see how the FEC's recent fining of The Swift Boat Vets, ($299,500), MoveOn ($150,000) and League of Conservation Voters ($180,000) plays out when it comes to online campaigning and donating during that time.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 13, 2006

IBM Joins the Second Life Fray

The Wall Street Journal reports IBM is the latest in a long string of brands to join the fray in Second Life.

Big Blue joins a panoply of brands strutting their stuff in the game, including Toyota, Adidas, American Apparel, Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Wired magazine, along with a virtual agency or two.

The company has invested its Linden dollars in creating 12 virtual islands, some public, others reserved for IBM staffers. According to the WSJ, the company doesn't expect to see ROI on the game anytime soon.

Or maybe even never, if Marc Shiller is to be believed. Shiller's company, Electric Artists, set up a new hotel brand for Starwood in the game recently, which he discussed last week at Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 8, 2006

The IM Tipping Point Has Arrived

According to a new poll from AOL and the Associated Press, 72 percent of teens who use instant messaging say they send more IMs than e-mails, as do 26 percent of adults.

The survey also finds that a majority of teens, 56 percent, use IM to share photos, while 33 percent share music and video files over IM.

Nearly one-third of teens, or 30 percent, say they can't imagine living without IM. That sentiment is shared by 36 percent of teen girls, and 23 percent of teen boys. For adults, the addicted masses reach 17 percent.

More adult men say they exchange IMs with people they've never met in person -- 51 percent, compared to 35 percent of women and 39 percent of teens.

About 27 percent of adult IM users say they send instant messages at work. Among at-work IMers, 59 percent send six or more IMs a day, and 41 percent of those people say that IMing makes them more productive in the workplace.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 5, 2006

Greg Stuart Back with Flycast Guys

Now that his successor's identity has been revealed, current IAB President and CEO Greg Stuart is joining the boards of ad network and service provider Adify and pricing and profitability management software outfit Rapt.

Stuart served as VP business development at Flycast Communications (an ad network that is no longer) with its co-founders Larry Braitman and Richard Thompson, who formed Adify last year.

I got hold of Stuart just as he was de-boarding a plane and he was kind enough to chat for a few minutes about what he'll be doing for Adify. "It's generally about bringing insights…helping to make connections and leveraging relationships and networks," he said.

Stuart also serves on the board at video network Veoh, where ex-Disney honcho Michael Eisner sits on the board of directors.

As for his next full time gig, Stuart told me, "My goal is to go run an interactrive media business…anything I can take my cumulated information and knowledge with the IAB and put it to good use."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 27, 2006

Yahoo's Peanut Butter and Microsoft's Ketchup

Ever since Yahoo's peanut butter manifesto became public last week, I've been harboring a theory that all the challenges faced by competitors to the ever-ascendant Google can perhaps be analyzed in light of their identification with a food spread or condiment. If Yahoo is peanut butter -- cheap, easily digestible and spread a little too thin -- then of course Microsoft is ketchup, perennially imitating the online innovators. Ask.com must be Grey Poupon, I think, in deference to the retired butler. eBay is, what, pepper? Grainy and zingy, yet common. FIM is probably maple syrup, favored by the young 'uns. If you want to get international, Chinese portal and Google nemesis Baidu would be soy sauce and Japan's NTT DoCoMo wireless carrier/portal, wasabe. But perhaps that's insensitive. It's so hard to be sure in this day and age.

I'm not sure about AOL though. A colleague suggests Aioli, the garlic mayonnaise popular in Valencia and Catalonia, since it's spelled and pronounced in a similar fashion. And, well yes, if you strip out the haute cuisine part, AOL is mayo all the way. Please leave your own suggestions in the comments.

So if I'm right, all the jabbering speculation about whom should acquire or join forces with whom in the online turf wars with Google can be reduced to the simple question of which spreads and sauces go best together. Mayo and mustard? Ketchup and Mayo? Soy sauce and maple syrup? I just hope all these players remember about the meat (or preferred meat substitute).

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

Lycos Sells Another

Lycos is reprising its summer divestiture of Wired News, this time ridding itself of online lead generation unit GetRelevant. Primis-owned RedSail bought it, and will rebrand the business under its own name.

Lycos has been shedding non-core business units all year. It sold the Quote.com financial portal to IDC for $30 million, and is now trying to build out a video entertainment business.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 8, 2006

'06 Election Coverage: High Election Night Traffic onTV Station Sites

TV station site network Internet Broadcasting put out some election-fueled traffic numbers today. Apparently, lots of folks were glued to the Web last night as election results streamed in, and they were flocking to news sites like those in the IB network, which includes 79 sites from NBC, Cox Television, Hearst-Argyle, The McGraw Hill Companies, Post-Newsweek, and Meredith Broadcasting.

Here are some stats, according to WebTrends data gathered for the publishing outfit:
- 3.5 million unique visitors went to the network's sites (the company’s highest day in history, it claims).
- The sites' political sections garnered almost three times the number of page views as they did in the night of the '04 presidential election: 4.8 million.
- The sites received almost 50 percent more page views in total than last election night: 24.8 million.
- The network's top sites grabbed 50-150 percent more traffic than usual last night.

To add a bit of anecdotal affirmation to this, I attended an election night shindig hosted by a political media consulting firm last night, and a whole lotta political junkies had their laptops open, perusing the real-time online coverage.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IAB Elects New Board Members

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has named 10 new members to its board of directors, and six sitting members who will continue for another 3-year term. The total number of Board Members is now 33.

Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com, remains as chairman of the IAB for 2007. The Nominations Committee nominated the board members, who were then voted on by the IAB General Members.

New board members for 2007:

• Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove


• Michael Barrett, Fox Interactive Media/MySpace


• John Battelle, Federated Media


• Bob Carrigan, IDG Communications


• Randy Kilgore, Tremor Media


• Leon Levitt, Cox Newspapers


• Riley McDonough, WebMD Health


• Dave Morgan, Tacoda


• David Payne, CNN.com


• Lance Podell, Seevast

Re-elected board members for 2007:

• Mitch Golub, Cars.com


• David Hills, LookSmart


• Caroline Little, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive


• Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo


• Martin Nisenholtz, New York Times Co.


• Jim Spanfeller, Forbes.com

Other board members whose terms are not yet up:

• Tim Armstrong, Google


• Neil Ashe, CNET Networks


• Eric Chandler, Verizon Superpages.com


• Sarah Chubb, CondeNet


• Joe Fiveash, Weather Channel Interactive


• Mike Hard, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions


• Kathy Kayse, AOL Networks


• Rich LeFurgy, Archer Advisers (Founding Chairman)


• Dave Madden, WildTangent


• Scot McLernon, CBS Digital Media


• Dave Moore, 24/7 Real Media


• Peter Naylor, NBC Universal


• Javier Saralegui, Univision Online


• Warren Schlichting, Comcast


• Steve Wadsworth, Walt Disney Internet Group


• Jeff Webber, USA Today


• Dave Yovanno, ValueClick

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 1, 2006

Election '06: More Republicans Online Than Dems

There's some interesting stuff from Nielsen/NetRatings today on Web user's political affiliations. None of it is especially eye-opening. I mean, did anybody think the Village Voice and New York Times sites wouldn't attract more Democrats than Republicans, or that RushLimbaugh.com and the Wall Street Journal Online wouldn't draw more Republicans than Democrats? Didn't think so.

Well, here's the rundown:

36.6 percent of U.S. adults online are Republicans
30.8 percent are Democrats.
17.3 percent are Independents.

Sites with highest concentration of Republicans:
RushLimbaugh.com (84.8 percent)
NewsMax.com and Bill O'Reilly.com (both 65.4 percent)
The Drudge Report (59.0)
Salt Lake Tribune (57.9(

Sites with highest concentration of Democrats:
BlackAmericaWeb.com (79.9 percent)
AOL BlackVoices (64.8 percent)
BET.com (58.6 percent)
Salon.com (55.3 percent)
Village Voice (55.2 percent)

Newspaper Partisans?
WSJ.com readership is predominantly Republican.
A majority of New York Times site readers are Democrats.

Political Leanings of Web Users:
36.1 percent are Moderate.
32.5 percent are Conservative/Very Conservative.
19.8 percent are Liberal/Very Liberal.

In the release, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst Ken Cassa attributes the Republican Web majority to the fact that there are more of them in the overall electorate. Oh, and don't forget households with more money, i.e. the folks with computers and Internet connections, tend to skew right.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006

Election '06: More Libs Online, Less Scandal Influence

I can't say this comes as a surprise. An Associated Press/AOL News poll shows 43 percent of likely voters are going online to get info on the election, with liberals more likely than moderates or conservatives to do so. The fact is, local newspapers can be painfully inadequate at covering local and congressional races (the most I get is one story a day on Jersey's brutal Senate race). And TV news is more focused on the slug-fest than the issues, so it makes sense people are relying on the Web for real information on candidates.

Some numbers from the poll:
- 35 percent of Americans are using the Web for election info.
- 51 percent of liberals, 42 percent of moderates and 39 percent of conservatives are likely to go online for election stuff.
- 49 percent of men and 38 percent of women do it.
- 59 percent of those under age 35, 39 percent over 35 and 18 percent over 65 do the election thing online.
- 24 percent of these folks have visited a blog.
- 10 percent of them have accessed a message board, chat room or blog to add their two cents.

Some interesting issue-related stuff here that I'm sure will have political consultants scratching their heads:
- 46 percent of these folks are likely to trust Republicans with handling taxes, while just 38 percent of those who don't use the Web for election info trust the GOP on taxes.
- 34 percent of online election info gatherers say corruption and scandal in Congress will influence their vote, compared to nearly half (48 percent) who don't use the Web for election info.

These last points are really intriguing. I wonder if Republicans are doing a better job of getting their tax message out online than Dems are. Perhaps they simply have more opportunities online to do so compared to radio, TV and print. Maybe people using the Web to prepare for the elections are searching on tax related info and finding stuff that speaks positively for Republicans. Who knows?

I'm kind of wowed by the next point about scandal influencing voting decisions. I suppose the fact that traditional media outlets, particularly TV news, have spent more time hyping the Foley scandal in comparison to the wide array of resources online where multiple topics are discussed (yes, some of them being corruption related), might be a factor.

Still, despite the fact that there is lots of room for great resources online providing trustworthy information on candidates and issues, there's also lots of room for spin, nastiness, propaganda and downright lies. See my recent piece on negative candidate Web sites for one of many examples of this.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 26, 2006

The Double Meaning of Web 2.0 Names

A side note to today's story about "plinking", meaning product linking within user-generated videos. During the panel yesterday that discussed plinking and other opportunities, the speaker asked if anyone had heard the term and said it was just coined in the last week or so, nobody raised their hand. After the panel a woman went up to the speaker to explain that plinking was what a group of (often drunk) hunters do on the way home, they use road signs as target practice. It's defined in Wikipedia more generally (link) as any type of target practice using non-traditional targets like bottles, cans, or last night on "Jericho" where CDs were used.

The name has gone through copyright searches, but possibly not a Google or Wikipedia search. No matter, stranger jargon has been adopted for new terminology. The speaker seemed more interested in the existing definition of plinking than put off.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2006

ClickZ Awards - Nominations Close Tomorrow

If you haven't already, now's he time to nominate your favorite vendors, service providers, campaigns, and more for the ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards.

Nominations close tomorrow at 5:00 EST. There's no time to lose!

Nominate here.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

On-Screen TV Guide

Gemstar's TV Guide has a life well beyond the paper edition, the channel and online listings, it's hard-coded into TVs, digital video recording devices and other consumer electronics products. TV Guide On-Screen reaches a reported 10 million households in CE products and is said to expand its installed base at the rate of about one million TV sets and one million DVR products per year -- though some of that is replacement. On-Screen has a panel advertisement that takes endemic and non-endemic buys. Ads for broadcast shows link to programming within the guide while consumer products and other advertisers get to offer information to consumers, though the transmission is at this time only one way.

Two-way communications on enabled devices is in the works, which could expand advertising capabilities and allow the guide to compete with on-screen plans of companies like MeeVee. That's according to Thomas Carson, president of Gemstar-TV Guide On-Screen, though obstacles are present. "Not every TV manufacturer wants to burden sets with Ethernet connections," he said.

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2006

NapsterGirl

Why does Napster have a stripper to promote it? Since the music service now works on a monthly subscription basis -- instead of the $.99 per song -- it figures you have those dollars to spend in other ways. It's not Internet porn, but you can see the act at NapsterGirl.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 12, 2006

Trust in Downloads

After years of conditioning consumers to be leery of downloading software, security companies like Symantec are now telling users to do just that. Norton Confidential Online Edition is a transaction security product that will reside on banking and financial Web sites and asks users to download the software, which will then authenticate the bank's Web site at every login. The extra precaution prevents users from falling prey to phishing attacks and other crimeware. This is a move by Symantec to promote "companies managing the value-chain through partnerships," said Symantec CEO John Thompson, who also said viruses, worms are pretty much solved, and the new threats are phishing, identity theft and other malicious intent by users.

Norton Confidential isn't the only product or initiative Symantec's made lately; it announced a whole line of Security 2.0 products and offerings earlier this week. The promotion of these new offerings, however, isn't yet taking any new forms from what it's been doing, despite the fact that the company has lately tested the waters with a handful of more exciting marketing and advertising efforts. It recently was involved in an online marketing campaign for the "Da Vinci Code."

For starters, working with Night Agency it developed Safetytown.com, a Web site where users can go to "get a little more involved and engaged," said Erin Hintz, VP of worldwide consumer marketing at Symantec. In its life the site has featured the movie Phished, a multi-part film about a victim of phishing where users get to choose the direction of the next segment. The site got a bit of buzz through word-of-mouth. Symantec and Night Agency also assembled RockdotRock, a band dedicated to the cause of safety. Downloads are available on the safetytown.com site.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2006

Ad Gross Out: Call That Cat "Sparky"

After checking into AdStar's new paper partners (see post below), I couldn't resist but to visit The Current Argus site, since the name's so intriguing. It's a Carlsbad-based pub, and I hate to say it, but definitely one of those newspaper sites that needs to get its act together in terms of aesthetics and content if it's to survive. It looks like your local paper site circa 1998. Sadly, so many local news sites look even worse than this one....

Anyway, I couldn't resist highlighting an ad that's on the homepage for an electrical contractor. I can't help but wonder, is this supposed to be a cautionary tale...er...tail? (Sorry, had to do it....) Is this electrician trying to scare consumers into using his services? Perhaps he heard that people love animals in ads? Who knows, but it's a classic.

My kitty's way cuter, by the way.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 3, 2006

Focalyst Forum: The Fogies are Online

Boomers are spending loads of time online these days, what with an increase in broadband connections and new sites and even social networks explicitly targeting them.

However, many marketers' media plans are only now beginning to reflect their digital emergence, according to some speakers at the Focalyst Forum in New York last week.

In a recent integrated campaign from The Hartford Financial Services Group, developed by Campbell Mithun Advertising, the bulk of the media buy was TV accompanied by ads that ran in the Wall Street Journal. "We did online, and need to do a lot more online," said The Hartford's VP of Brand Management and Corporate Advertising, Michael Johnson.

"Baby boomers have led us," said Richard Harris, SVP of strategy and distribution at Travelocity. "We moved toward integrated [travel] packages, not just selling based on price. The boomer-led phenomenon will enrich the experience of shopping for travel."

An interesting side note about boomer Net use: The Web must accommodate the aging boomer whether it addresses the aging boomer populace separately or concessions exist across the Web. Some ways to make more sites usable include larger fonts, greater contrast settings, etc. -- but many boomers don't want to be reminded of their physical ailments. MSN, in marketing a version of its service with such settings, admits to having made an error in this regard. "Accessibility does not equal aging," said MSN's Stephen Kim, who added boomer users didn't like the term "accessibility," which its suggestion of disability. "It was packaged the wrong way."

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 29, 2006

Election '06: Candidate Sites Matter in Tight VA Senate Race

I just heard a report on NPR's All Things Considered during which Robert Siegel spoke with residents of the booming Virginia county of Loudoun, where, according to the ATC site, "Many of the residents are parents who typify an important group of the electorate that the political parties are vying to win over: emerging suburban voters."

One Loudoun denizen noted she figured Siegel would be asking what they think about the two main Senate candidates in that state, Democrat Jim Webb and the increasingly self-sabotaging Republican incumbent, George Allen. So, in preparation, she went to each candidate's site. Her conclusion: Allen's platform was clearly presented on his site, which she appeared to appreciate.

As for Webb, she didn't like the fact that his site portrayed him as a fighter. She doesn't want a fighter, she explained; she wants someone who can work together with other Members of Congress. Indeed, the only photos of Webb on his bio page are of him serving in the Marine Corps.

A consultant from the firm that's handling Allen's site now, told me yesterday about a new anti-Webb site developed for the Allen campaign, WebbAgainstWomen.com. The site uses Webb's writings and statements to illustrate an alleged prejudice against women, especially in relation to their role in the military.

This anti-opponent site strategy is something Republicans are doing a lot of this year. No doubt this is a direct extension of the success of the online tactics of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in '04, in addition to a general negative GOP campaign strategy this year.

The anti-Allen crowd is fighting back, though. Search Google for "George Allen" and you'll see two sponsored links, one leading to a collection of video clips on YouTube that put Allen in a bad light (including the now infamous "macaca" clip), in addition to one promoting a George Allen Insult Generator game on Slate.

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

September 21, 2006

Wikipedia Ads on AdSense? "Not Ours," they say.

Uber-blogger and Edelman PR honcho Steve Rubel spotted some peculiar ads when he did a search for "crowdsourcing" on Google. As he said earlier this week on his Micropersuasion blog, some paid search ads in the results pointed to Wikipedia, the "free and open" encyclopedia run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

So is Wikimedia taking people's donations and running AdWords campaigns to drive traffic? Not according to several Wikimedia volunteers that replied to Rubel's post and a spokesperson contacted by ClickZ.

"As far as I am aware, the Wikimedia Foundation is not purchasing Google ads, or any other advertisements for that matter," Wayne Saewyc, a Wikimedia spokesperson, told ClickZ.

In the comments on Rubel's post, David Gerard, a PR volunteer for Wikimedia, put it bluntly: "We've never needed or wanted to pay for advertising and don't have money for anything other than servers and bandwidth anyway. We're probably *too* popular and our servers are melting as it is!"

Alison Wheeler, CEO of Wikimedia UK, added: "Money we raise goes on hardware and direct operating costs, not on advertising (which, frankly, with our ratings would probably be superfluous)," she said. "We've found that a number of people have this incorrect idea that Wikipedia can drive traffic to their (commercial operation) Web site. It can't, or rather it won't as when we find such SEO / spam linkages we take action to remove them. Wikipedia is a free and open Encyclopedia, not a tool to support commerce."

It's being speculated that the ads were bought by someone who had links in the crowdsourcing entry, but since Gerard said he has removed all the links in that entry, it's hard to imagine why the ads are still running, or who might be behind them. Is there a Wikipedia secret admirer out there with some spare ad budget?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chomsky's Chavez Endorsement - With A Bullet

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's vitriolic attack on George W. Bush and U.S. foreign policy at the United Nations yesterday is notable for many reasons, not the least of which is his ringing endorsement of Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Domination."

After waving a copy of the book and recommending everyone read it, its hourly sales ranking on Amazon.com spiked to #22 as of Wednesday evening, from #160,772 earlier yesterday, according to CNN.

Prof. Chomsky not only has Sr. Chavez to thank, but also the Web. His book's sales peaked out during the day, when surfers were more likely to be reading the news online than watching the evening news.

Obviously, they then clicked directly to Amazon and bought it.

Update: The title is #7 as of 9:50 the following morning.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 19, 2006

Indie Filmmakers More Traditional Than You Thought

Here in Soho, there's always some hip indie film being shot outside ClickZ's office building, or some it-girl of tomorrow traipsing by. But this week we've got an entire indie film conference taking place across the street at the Puck Building here on Lafayette Street, so I figured I'd sneak in for a peek. If any Independent Film Week Filmmaker Conference panel would be good fodder for a ClickZ story, I figured, it'd have to be the one called "In Search of the Audience: Niche Marketing To Your Target." I mean, this thing's got Web written all over it, right?

Well, not exactly.

Though e-mail came up a couple times (once in detail when panelist Susan Seidelman, director of "Boynton Beach Club" discussed how she'd contacted activity directors at "active senior communities" in places like Palm Springs and Arizona to get e-mail addresses of residents to promote her film), the discussion steered pretty clear of the Web. Reaching out to niche audiences often meant posting fliers in religious community centers or ethnic groceries.

One anecdote I found especially entertaining though, and one with an interesting correlation to the expediency of Web distribution was shared by Meredith Finn from New Line Cinema, who had played a role in promoting an Israeli film called Ushpizin to Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. The promoters had taken great pains to appeal to their targeted audience, setting up screenings with separated gender-specific areas. However, the theater screening events actually ended up competing with viewings of bootlegged copies of the very same film! Yep, people had received pirated copies of the flick by way of the homeland, and were even selling tickets to in-house showings.

As Mark Urman, a witty panelist from production house THINKfilm quipped, "There's a fine line between pirating and grassroots marketing."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 15, 2006

Gmail Plus

Yahoo's e-mail beta went alpha yesterday.

Today brings Gmail Plus.

And a lesson.

via Threadwatch

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 31, 2006

Biz Ethics Evaluator Committing AdSense ClickFraud?

Her corporate psych firm serves the likes of Halliburton, its subsidiary Kellogg-Brown and Root, Merrill Lynch and Company, Bear Stearns and Company, and the US in Iraq and
Hurricane Katrina-affected regions. Now she's suing Google for $250K. She says Google wasted her staff's time and damaged her repuation.

Google, however, says she clicked on the AdSense ads running on her site in an alleged attempt to defraud the system. Hmmm…and you'd think somebody serving a client like Halliburton would be on the up and up….

According to an eWeek story, Theresa B. Bradley, management consultant and owner of Brava Corp., filed a 25-page complaint earlier this week in San Francisco federal district court accusing the search behemoth of fraud and misrepresentation, " including misrepresentation in commercial advertising, and of 'willfull, wanton, fraudulent and malicious' conduct regarding its AdSense product."

She requested that Google remove a bunch of ads from her site she deemed competitive to the product brands featured in the "World of Products" section (5HTP Synergy vitamin capsules, Pevonia Botanica skincare products, and a book and audio CDs by Daniel Amen, MD entitled, "10 Steps to Building Values within Children.") It's unclear whether she ever actually enabled ecommerce functionality on the hodge-podge site, since now below the term "Shopping Cart" on some product pages it says "visit us at a later date."

In the end, Google kicked her site off the AdSense network all together. Bradley contends her employees devoted 100 hours to setting up AdSense ads on the site. (I wonder, does that include the time spent perpetrating alleged AdSense click fraud?)

Of course we don't know whether Bradley actually clicked on the ads in order to obtain more AdSense dollars. The story notes she "denied clicking on the ads except to verify that the advertisers were not selling competing products."

It also mentions that she filed suit in San Jose federal district court against Yahoo on August 1.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

ICANN Planning for Variable Pricing?

Public comments on new rules for domain name registrars closes today, and several marketers and domain owners are up in arms over the possibility of "variable pricing," where the registrar would charge a different price for each domain, based on its market value.

While it's not explicitly spelled out in the proposed registry agreements, people like Ken McCarthy, Ron Jackson and CircleID believe the wording would allow this.

If you have the urge to comment on the proposals, do it quickly. The comment period ends today at 5 p.m. Pacific.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 25, 2006

Giving New Meaning to the Term 'Attention Whore'

We've all heard about rising levels of promiscuity in the popular audio-visual diet, but this is ridiculous:

"A recent Logitech study revealed that people, on average, have six applications open on their computer at any one time, and the active window switches or a new window opens every 50 seconds. To navigate the vast content at their disposal, people spin their mouse´s scroll wheel approximately 26 feet in an eight-hour day." (press release, via clickable culture)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Adult Swim Site Keeps 'Em Talkin'

Anybody checked out Cartoon Network's Adult Swim homepage lately? It changed a few days ago since I'd last looked at it. The approach is pretty interesting. They're going for the ultra-homemade, completely amateurish, free Web-page aesthetic (or lack thereof).

Essentially, ads, text and thumbnail image links are floating on a puke tinged background.

There's a banner for a T-Mobile partnership offering Adult Swim content "on your stupid phone." It links to an AdultSwim.com-hosted promo page. There's another ad for Buena Vista's new Tick DVD (old quirky super-hero cartoon from the 90s).

I'm really into the new AS cartoon, Metalocalypse (it's all about the most metal band ever, DethKlok), so I've been catching some of the footage and extras on the site, and noticed the change the other night. Apparently, it's their 51st redesign, according to the news section, which reads, " On Tuesday, August 22, AdultSwim.com launched another redesign - the 51st since the site’s birthening – featuring a lovely green background."

In true AS fashion, there's another post from the day before announcing the site's 50th redesign, noting it "will exist for approximately three weeks, when our next redesign will launch. AdultSwim.com is committed to a constant redesign until such time as we completely break the internet."

What, me confused?

The whole idea behind AS is let's have fun and waste time watching silly stuff. This is not only keeping with the typically odd, often non-sequitor sensibility of Adult Swim's cartoons and the brand itself; it serves to get fans talking on a regular basis and staying engaged.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

Battelle Runs a Bubble Bath

John Battelle, who wrote last year's it's-not-a-bubble op-ed in the New York Times, now says he does indeed see a bubble. Battelle, whose FM Publishing now represents many dozens of blogs, characterizes the current bubble as a "failure to fail" by many companies that are well-funded enough to avoid tanking when natural selection dictates they should. Anyway, he says, it's a VC problem.

I'd argue that to some extent it's also an end-user and advertiser problem, as people become reliant over time on services that are actually not viable businesses, and as marketers struggle to understand and develop relationships with myriad new sites, applications and online services that become more myriad by the day. It's a problem of wasted time and research for harried media buyers.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 4, 2006

Dave Winer on Advertising

Yesterday on his blog: "In the past the flow of ideas for products was heavily centralized, and based on advertising to build demand. In the future, the flow of ideas for products will happen everywhere, all the time, and products with small markets will be worth making because we'll be able to find the users, or more accurately, they'll be able to find us. 'Targeting' customers is the wrong metaphor for the future."

Winer tends to rant about advertising on the Web, but one good thing about him is he takes the long view. He's looking beyond the usual discussions about evolving ad products to more fundamental changes in the nature of human attention. What he's not necessarily aware of is that many marketers have already begun to shift their focus from a philosophy of "acquiring" media en masse to one of listening and engaging.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 2, 2006

Newspaper Giants Shuffle Stakes in CareerBuilder, ShopLocal and Topix

McClatchy has sold some of its holdings in online businesses CareerBuilder, ShopLocal and Topix to newspaper rivals Tribune and Gannett. Each of those companies increased their stakes in the companies, while McClatchy received a $310 million payout and will retain smaller investments. The deal values CareerBuilder at $1.55 billion, ShopLocal.com at $85 million and Topix.net at $72 million.

Twenty of the papers McClatchy acquired recently from Knight Ridder were already partnered with the Web firms. (press release)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 25, 2006

Avenue A | Razorfish Gets Amnesia

aQuantive's marketing services arm made its first acquisition Down Under, picking up Australian full-service digital agency Amnesia for $3.7 million up front, plus additional performance-based earnouts over the next three years. Avenue A | Razorfish has 12 U.S. locations, and recently added a U.K. office with the acquisition of DNA. As with DNA, Amnesia will keep its brand identity and existing leadership team.

Amnesia provides digital advertising, creative design and Web development services throughout the Asia Pacific region. The 25-person team serves multinational clients Disney, Xbox and IKEA. The company is profitable and expects net revenue of $2.0 to $2.5 million (US) for the remainder of 2006.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

Morgan Is Staying Put at Tacoda

You may have read that Tacoda's Dave Morgan has shifted roles from CEO to chairman, making room for COO Curt Viebranz to step in as the behavioral targeting firm's new CEO.

Industry vets think of Morgan as a serial-entrepreneur. He's been in the biz since way back and co-founded Real Media (now 24/7 Real Media) in addition to starting Tacoda. When I heard the news yesterday, I immediately wondered, should I start searching for domain names registered under Morgan's name? Is he going to create yet another company?

Well, I spoke with Tacoda SVP of Marketing Larry Allen today for a separate story and he said he's sure Morgan is staying right where he is.

I also put a call in to the man himself who left me a voicemail last night. He said the transition would allow him to focus more on product strategy and marketing, while Viebranz will do the business-running thing. Morgan sounded confident that Viebranz can run a big business, adding, "and we're becoming one."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2006

ClickZ Server Change

About a year ago, Incisive Media acquired The ClickZ Network from Jupitermedia. Part of the purchase meant that Jupitermedia would continue to host ClickZ for a year. Time's up and we're finally moving. This is a heads-up that the change is about to happen.

The main ClickZ site will be moved in the wee hours of the morning. We were just told our DNS was changed. That means over the next day, people will be invisibly sent to the new servers hosting our content, rather than the old Jupitermedia-hosted ones.

If all goes well, you won't notice a thing.

But chances are things will break. We have a lot of redirections in place and we're checking to make sure that everything is working. Inevitably, something will probably go wrong.

Spotted a bug or a problem? Use this form and let us know. We'll get it solved.

Finally, the the ClickZ News Blog hasn't switched yet. That will happen in a few days. We'll let you know when it does.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

ClickZ Undergoes Technical Tweaks

Fasten your seatbelts (hopefully, you won't need them).

We're moving this blog to a new server in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Hopefully, things will go smoothly, but there's always the risk of some downtime. So we want to give our readers a heads up.

Also, if you subscribe to our newsletters, please whitelist the domain "clickz.com." A few more behind-the-scenes infrastructure changes are in store in coming days.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

Talking MySpace on CNBC Tonight

I'll be back on CNBC's "On the Money" tonight discussing MySpace's incredible spike in traffic with Vanity Fair's Michael Wolf.

The show's at 7:00 EST, the segment will run at around 7:15, if you'd like to tune in.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 12, 2006

In NYC? Let's Meet After Work Next Tuesday

Because...why shouldn't we?

The fabulous Dana Todd (of SEMPO and SiteLab fame) and I were chatting about how New Yorkers in this industry never see one another unless they collide at some conference in San Jose, Boston or Chicago.

Action-oriented chicks that we are, we figured we should do something about it.

So we're experimenting with an informal industry get-together/meetup type thing. No agenda, no sponsors, no speeches, and...you pay for your own drink(s). We're going to try to make this a regular event for the duration of the summer and we'll see where (if anywhere) this takes us.

So if you're feeling social, need a drink, want to make new friends or chat up old ones, join us on Tuesday, July 18 from 6:00-8:00 at Nolita House on Tuesday, July 18.

Nolita House
47 E Houston (between Mulberry & Mott map)

Dana wants to dub these get-togethers "Red Rum Tuesdays." She thinks it "rolls off the tongue, sounds vaguely mysterious."

And if you get the hair color reference to us both, it just proves what an industry insider you are!

See you then, we hope.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 11, 2006

AOL Taking Big Risk With Free Subscription Plan

AOL's plan to offer free subscriptions to its broadband properties could cost Time Warner nearly $1 billion of operating profit through 2009 according to a report in the Wall Street Journal citing internal forecasts.

AOL would lose half its profit from its Internet access business in the next three years, dropping from $1.6 billion in the U.S. this year to about $800 million in 2009, while losing two-thirds of its dial-up members in the process.

According to the WSJ, AOL execs think they can make up for that loss with advertising, increasing its operating margins from 17% in 2006 to 42% in 2009, and cutting $1 billion from its marketing budget.

UPDATE: (from Pamela Parker) Time Warner has released a statement saying recent media reports are based on "incomplete" and "largely erroneous" information. It promises to lay out strategic plans for AOL to investors after the company's earnings call August 2.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 7, 2006

Gmail Sees All, Knows All

Google probably knows more about you than anyone, or anything, in the universe. This new Gmail/Calendar feature has me convinced.

It appeared in the Gmail sidebar where the contextual ads go. I'd exchanged e-mails about meeting someone this Sunday. "Meeting you" wasn't in the subject line of either message, but appears in the first sentence of both. Neither of us specified the date or p.m., only "Sunday at 6:00." Google correctly extrapolated that information all by itself. OK, it does know my preferred time zone is EST. The person I'm corresponding with is not writing from a Gmail account, by the way.

Gmail has been doing this sort of thing with package tracking, but arguably a UPS or USPS tracking number is much more uniquely identifiable and templated than the exchange with the woman I'm meeting Sunday.

The speed with which Google has integrated Gmail and Calendar is marvelous -- and a little alarming, too.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Verizon Files with SEC to Set YP Free

It's Friday. I'm rhyming. Sue me.

Verizon is on its way towards setting free its print and online yellow pages products. The firm announced a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. In a press release, the firm noted it "has not yet made a final decision on whether a spin-off will occur, but the company continues to expect to complete a disposition of its directories publishing operations — which could include the spin-off, a sale or other transaction, or combination of these alternatives — by the end of 2006." The filing was made by Verizon's wholly owned subsidiary Directories Disposition Corporation (Directories Corp.). According to the release, the proposed spin-off "would create a new, publicly traded company with management independent from Verizon."

So, what's it mean to the online ad biz? I just got off the phone with Kelsey Group analyst Neal Polachek who gave me his two cents. The way he sees it, yellow pages operations have been under the thumbs of their phone company parents for a long time. Now that Verizon, Qwest, Sprint and others are moving into the wireless business, they no longer see YP as strategically compatible with their overall objectives. Both Qwest and Sprint have sold off their YP businesses to YP publisher R.H. Donnelley.

Of course, there's also the chance that Verizon doesn't see the YP biz as worthwhile and would rather have the few billion dollars it's worth to invest in its other operations. "I don't think they see it as a bad business; they just don't see it as strategic," remarked Polachek.

Jettisoning the YP operations, suggested Polachek, will make for "ultimately better businesses." Plus, he said, since Directories Corp. will have more control over its cash flow now that it no longer has to cough up cash to Verizon, it "will drive efficiencies on the cost side and innovation on the product side for advertisers and consumers."

Polachek surmises this is the last of the big YP unloads, since AT&T still sees its directories business as strategically important, mainly because it provides ongoing relationships with advertiser clients. He also said a merger of this new spin-off with R.H. Donnelley's holdings could be in the cards.

Polachek also suggested that Directories Corp. could get in on the online classifieds business in addition to YP listings. As the classifieds industry ebbs and flows, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out, especially as search engines continue to merge yellow pages listings and classifieds in the minds of consumers.

According to Polachek's Kelsey Group blog post on the filing, the Verizon YP business comprises
"Almost 200,000 'electronic' advertisers," or 42 percent of its print advertisers. "Revenue split is 90% print YP, 6% online and 4% white pages."

The Verizon press release states that its consolidated operating revenues (all including YP, I take it) are $90 billion.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 6, 2006

Is AOL Giving Up on Subscriptions?

AOL has been moving away from its subscription-based past and toward an ad-supported future for the past couple of years. According to the Wall Street Journal (sub. reqd.), parent Time Warner is close to making a full-on commitment to advertising by offering free e-mail and other services to users with existing high-speed connections.

According to WSJ, a third of AOL's 18.6 million subscribers have a broadband connection. Some of those are subscribers to Time Warner Cable, or one of several cable operators that AOL had struck deals with to bundle their services.

Others are former AOL dial-up customers who are now paying to keep their old e-mail address and services after moving to another broadband provider. The Journal reports that AOL expects 8 million more dial-up users to move to broadband if they can keep their current services for free.

AOL has been ramping up its advertising efforts, especially since the re-launch of AOL.com a year ago. This move would build on those efforts, but there are always risks involved when you eliminate an existing revenue stream in hopes of building up another.

Industry watchers Henry Blodget and Fred Wilson like the idea. What do you think?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 29, 2006

"Cat" Hits Best Seller Lists

Congratulations to our own Bryan Eisenberg (and his brother Jeffrey).

Bryan just IM'd with the fantastic news that their new book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? hit the USA Today Top 150 best-sellers list for last week's sales. It's also #4 on the USA Today Money best-seller list.

But wait! There's more! Rumor has it "Cat" also made the top 5 Wall Street Journal Business best-seller list.

The Eisenbergs had similar success with their last title. This latest news means they've scored a best seller double header.

We're so proud of you guys!

(If you're attending Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, don't forget to attend their book signing.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 28, 2006

When Your Visual Field is Sixty Percent Ads

This isn't interactive advertising, but rather a uniquely interactive way of looking at advertising.

The "City Wipeout" project highlights the degree to which urban dwellers' visual fields are dominated by commercial messages of all kinds. Architect and researcher Pasi Kolhonen created the installation, which allows users to wipe a series of images clean of all visual material that is not an ad. The resulting images remain extremely cluttered. From the site:

"Kolhonen wants to reveal with his City Wipeout installation just how many images, texts and signs we find in our everyday environment. The installation consists of pictures which unveil an ordinary face of the city centre. The pictures are reflected one-by-one on the wall. The user interface allows the spectators to wipe the view clean of everything but the advertisements, signs or logos. All that remains is the blanket of advertising that covers the entire city. That blanket is not always noticed although it is constantly present in our daily life."

 

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 27, 2006

Afternoon of the YouTube "Killers"

Not to criticize the category, but video sites are a bit of a commodity these days. The popularity of YouTube is no small factor, and it's not shameful at all to pitch a company calling it a "YouTube Killer." But we didn't expect to ever have two companies show up at the same moment for meetings with two ClickZ editors. That happened this afternoon when Kate Kay and I each made appointments with two separate companies.

Let's just say both companies had a few minutes to introduce themselves and chat for a minute while we had a bit of a laugh at our desks and tried to figure out how best to greet the competitors waiting for us.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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)

June 19, 2006

Orbitz eBay's Original Ads

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Orbitz is selling five prints from its original ad campaign on eBay in a charity auction. Proceeds from the "Visit Planet Earth" campaign will benefit Angel Flight America and Chicago Cares. Orbitz will donate air travel valued at $5,000 total to both charities.

The art deco-inspired prints are first-run edition travel posters from Orbitz's 2001 launch campaign. The five of the six posters created for the campaign were paintings commissioned by 1960s-era artists David Klein and Robert Swanson.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Gmail Ad Position?

Up where Gmail usually feeds headlines over the inbox, I'm suddenly seeing a new ad position.

Most people around the office are still getting the usual news headline feeds, but a few minutes ago I was served an ad for a cat product (there's cat sitting related e-mail in my inbox, so I'm guessing this is contextual). When I hit 'refresh', an ad for Forbes popped up.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2006

New Column: Online Lead-Gen

It's not every day we launch a new ClickZ Experts column. Today's one of those exceptional days.

So please check out Online Lead-Gen, which will deal with any and all things lead-generation related. Author Dan Felter runs Opt-Intelligence and also head the newly-formed Online Lead Generation Assn. (OLGA).

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 9, 2006

Blogger Scores 7K for Unique Sponsorship

Who says blogging isn’t profitable? Joel Cheesman, author of Cheezhead, a blog focusing on SEO, HR and job recruitment issues, has just scored over $7,000 through an eBay auction for an exclusive sponsorship of his attendance of an upcoming industry event. Bids started at just 99 cents. The winning bidder will be announced Monday.

Here’s the deal: The consultant will attend the annual Society for Human Resource Management conference later this month where he’ll don a T-shirt promoting the sponsor. The sponsor will also get the following stuff:

Company mention on every podcast

125 X 125 banner ad that will rotate on Cheezhead for a total of 15,000 impressions ($500 value alone)

Recognition in every SHRM-related blog post

Blog entry dedicated to sponsorship

Highlight in e-mails to supporters, over 500, leading up to the conference

SEO-friendly text link on the lefthand side of my blog for an entire year

Permanent, SEO-friendly text link on lexiqon

A copy of his e-book

Using Alexa charts on the auction page, Cheesman demonstrates how his site compares to other popular sites in the recruiting industry (including Recruiting.com, which just got snapped up by Jobster). He's definitely garnering some decent traffic.

Call it foolhardy (on the part of the sponsor). Or call it the natural maturation of the blogosphere from inconsequential geek haven to genuinely significant media space. Either way, I’m sure we’ll see more of this sort of thing. The question is, will Cheesman manage such a feat in the future, or is this a one-shot novelty?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

As Seen On eBay!

So I'm walking down the street in New York and I pass one of those shops that sells china and glass tsochkes, chandeliers, ornate vases and that kind of stuff.

In the display window is a flat-panel monitor howking the wares. Slide after slide goes by emblazoned with "As seen on eBay!" and "eBay Power Seller!"

Never knew a bricks-and-mortar business to leverage an eBay feedback rating to encourage street traffic.

Wow. Wonder if it works, or if this is just the stuff nobody bid on.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talking Goog on CNBC at 7:00 EST Tonight

I'll be joining Variety's Michael Wolfe for a little debate on CNBC's "On the Money" tonight at 7:00 EST.

The topic is Google's contextual video advertising launch and whether or not the move will kill television. I represent the "no" vote.

Should be a ton of fun. Not only is "Variety" my journalism alma mater, I've also done marketing at two TV networks. Feels like everything's somehow coming together today!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 28, 2006

The San Francisco Feed Feed

What a good idea.

Last night, Pheedo hosted an informal dinner in a San Francisco restaurant to feed on Cajun food -- and to talk feeds. No speeches, no real agenda, just good old fashioned brainstorming from about 40 people involved in RSS from every conceivable angle.

There were journalists, particularly the tech kind such as a C|Net contingent; Steve Gilmore (who was adamant RSS isn't just a coming trend, it's already very much arrived), and of course Pamela and I representing ClickZ. E-mail was represented by Bill Nussey, SilverPOP; Ron Rasmussen represented KnowNow, a company committed to spreading RSS in the enterprise; and of course, companies hoping to monetize ads in RSS feeds including folks from Syndicate IQ and, of course, Pheedo.

No problems were solved regarding RSS adoption or monetization by the time we ducked out of the discussion (it was a very long day at ad:tech, after all). But this kind of evening is a delight; frank, open, provocative, and even controversial conversation about new issues in technology, media and advertising.

There was no real agenda, and zero spin. Thanks Bill, and the rest of the Pheedo team for feeding us so well!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Sequoia's Kvamme: Online Ads $35B in 2008

"You gotta go where the market is, and right now the market [is in Web advertising]," Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme told the audience during his Ad:Tech keynote.

Kvamme blew the audience away with stats. His most notable number: pooh-poohing the IAB's prediction that Internet advertising will be an $18 billion dollar industry in 2008.

The man whose company has invested in 10 percent of companies listed on the Nasdaq believes $35 billion is a much more reasonable figure.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RSS Panel at Ad:Tech

I'm moderating a panel at Ad:Tech this afternoon, "RSS Deconstructed and Demystified." The speaker linup is stellar: Scott Wilder from Intuit, Jon Gib of Nielsen NetRatings, Ave. A/Razorfish's Mark Stephens and Skylist's Josh Baer.

Obviously, it's a very topical topic. We'll be looking at case studies, metrics and the impact RSS is having on e-mail. Hope to see you there -- if you're here.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Optimization Firm Formerly Known as Poindexter

In an effort to demonstrate its history as a marketing optimization firm, Poindexter Systems decided to rebrand its products, and itself. The new company will be known as x+1.

Poindexter adapted the mathematical formula x+1 to reset itself in the marketplace. Its new place on the Web will be xplusone.com.

"We're using this as an opportunity to mark a stake in the ground for a category we're trying to define, marketing optimization," the company's CEO Toby Gabriner told ClickZ News.

x+1 offerings include rebranded products that operated on the firm's Progressive Optimization Engine . Both Site+1 and Media+1 conform to x+1's new math-based naming convention.

"The real power of x+1 is that we're offering a true end-to-end optimization solution," said Gabriner.

x+1 uses profiling as a means to target consumers in a way similar to the dynamic targeting product recently announced by Kefta. Though Gabriner declined to comment on any similarities, he said, "There is a real land grab to focus on targeted optimizations up and down the digital marketing value chain."

While x+1 focuses on the advertiser side of the proposition, Gabriner noted DoubleClick's announcement for an optimization service earlier this week. "We've been doing that on the advertiser side, its interesting to see them making an announcement though they're focusing on the sell side."

Poindexter arrived at a symbol, or formula, for its name to start a conversation. "We don't expect everybody to love it, but we think it will start a conversation and get people interested in what we do," said Gabriner. "It does telegraph what we feel like our value proposition says. It gives us the opportunity to talk about our company in a myriad of different ways. I really has legs."

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 13, 2006

You Say You Want A Revolution?

Those moptop Luddites, The Beatles, are finally going to sell their music online.

This according to testimony in the ongoing trial against Apple Computer by Neil Aspinall, managing director of Apple Corps. No word as to when this will happen (presumably while the two surviving Beatles still walk the earth).

Back when iTunes launched, a top music executive confided to me this whole online music thing would never take off until the Beatles' catalogue was made available on the service.

Which will you download first: "Help!" or "Money"?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 10, 2006

Your Feedback & Your Donations

Last month, we asked for your thoughts in a brief reader survey.

Thousands of you responded and gave us much food for thought as we continue to develop the ClickZ Network.

To thank everyone who took part, we said we'd donate to three charities on your behalf. I'm delighted to report that this week, ClickZ will donate:

$468 to The Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund
$830 to The American Red Cross
$2,230 to Doctors without Borders

Thanks so much!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 4, 2006

Go Deeper

Readers of this blog may not be aware that ClickZ publishes a number of in-depth features and Q&As each month. Here are five of our best from Q1:

Come Out Shooting :: Creating footage for your interactive campaigns is nothing like shooting for TV, agencies are learning.

Questions for Denuo President Nick Pahade :: Publicis' new "futures practice" is an all-star media consultancy. ClickZ talks with its president, Nick Pahade.

Buy the Book :: Book promotion has always been a word-of-mouth game. It stands to reason the ever-more-connected Web should change the rules.

Mobile Search: Monster or Mirage? :: Are marketers on the verge of embracing mobile search? You'd almost think so, judging from the actions of search companies and ad agencies over the past six months.

Questions for Radio Disney's Director of Synergy :: Radio Disney will soon introduce ads in its podcasts. Synergy and Marketing Director Michael Peterson discusses the how and why.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 3, 2006

America Online is now just AOL

America Online today dropped the pretense that anyone actually calls them that, and changed the company name to AOL.

"Our company long ago accomplished the mission implied by our old name ... we literally got America online," Jon Miller, chairman and CEO of AOL, said in a statement. "Our new corporate identity better reflects our expanded mission -- to make everyone's online experience better. Plus, consumers in the U.S. and around the world already know us by our initials."

While they were printing up new business cards, the company also restructured from a corporation to a limited liability company. This is a result of the upcoming investment agreement with Google, which will mean AOL will no longer be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner, according to AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 30, 2006

Citizen-Generated Cinema

Tomorrow is the opening day of the new Beastie Boys concert feature, Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That.

The BBs seem to know nothing about SEM (I could only find the film's Flash site via beastieboys.com), but they're apparently up on CGM. Director Adam Yauch handed 50 Hi8 camcorders to fans in the audience of a Madison Square Garden concert and voila -- feature film. Never mind that some critics are calling the pic "unwatchable."

This is about control. Not as much control as citizens have on the Web with Google Video and YouTube, to be sure.

But the Beastie Boys are a brand, and in making this film (good or bad), they're allowing fans to participate in the brand, directly (the videographers) or vicariously (the film's audience).

Forget about the execution. Hold on to that idea.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 21, 2006

Big Brands Downplay Interactive in Vegas

Spent this morning listening to heavyweight marketers talk about their brands and plans at The Conference On Marketing in Las Vegas, where I'm speaking tomorrow on the media's influence on branding.

What's amazing is how marketers seem to be downplaying interactive to this audience comprised primarily of traditional marketers. Sure, there's an interactive track. But at this morning's keynotes, Wal-Mart's Barry Moehring, VP of Marketing Operations, didn't breathe a word about interactive. Tremor CEO Steve Knox did make some interesting observations when discussing word-of-mouth, primarily when he said "Advocacy is not occurring online, not even among teenagers. Online is for information gathering, not advocacy."

Only Mercedes Benz's Carol Goll seemed to really embrace the topic. She said Mercedes site has 26 million visitors last year, and is currently garnering some 40,000 queries for the auto manufacturer each month. The company is handing out "Drive to Web" cards at events, encouraging recipients to log on to specific microsites and fill out lead-gen forms. It's critical, she noted, that a sweepstakes be attached to the call-to-action.

To prove her point, Mercedes first full-sized SUV is parked outside the hotel, and the cards are available. She also highlighted a partnership with AOL Music to attract "affluent GenX" customers. So far, that microsite has attracted 9,000 leads that have been forwarded to local dealers.

Entertainment mogul Peter Guber also spoke. While his talk was largely of the inspiration al variety, he encouraged the audience to "recognize the power of new media technology." And stop calling them "customers," he warned. "Nobody wants to be a customer."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2006

Google Amps Up Lobbying Efforts

Our sister site SearchEngineWatch reports Google has hired lobbying firm PodestaMattoon.

Small wonder. Back in October, the search giant took the initial plunge when it brought Alan Davidson on board to be its eyes, ears and voice in D.C. In retrospect, it seems policy issues were only just getting underway a few short months ago.

Now there's a whole laundry list of issues affecting Google (and plenty of other online players): China, the DOJ ordering Google to fork over user data, net neutrality under threat -- the list goes on and on.

Industry organizations such as the IAB and the OPA don't yet have anywhere near the influence on Capitol Hill of, say, a DMA, the cable industry or telcos. Whilst waiting for that level of industry maturity, it's nice to know Google can reach deep into its well-lined pockets and hopefully convince policymakers to be just a little less evil.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

eBay's Stake in MeetUp

eBay and a group of other investors (Omidyar Network, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Esther Dyson, Allen & Company, and Senator Bill Bradley) have bought a 10 percent stake in MeetUp.com for an undisclosed sum. The company, which helps facilitate real life -- as opposed to online -- meetings between affinity group members, says it'll use the dough to fuel growth.

While MeetUp.com operates on a subscription model, the site runs Google AdSense ads, and one could imagine it being an excellent venue for channeling affinity group-specific eBay products (or offers from Shopping.com merchants) to users. They'd have to be very careful about user experience, though, because some of these folks are paying. Also, anything that succeeds based solely on the quality of the community needs to be handled very carefully. Another possible angle for eBay is building more real-life community for its members. (The company says the Dallas eBay Sellers MeetUp is currently the most active eBay-related group.)

As with its Craigslist investment, eBay will likely rationalize the deal as a way to to watch and learn from MeetUp.com, and incorporate lessons about community-formation and -building into its other businesses.

As an aside, MeetUp founder and CEO Scott Heiferman was also founder and head of early online media buying company iTraffic, which was later purchased by Agency.com.

[Via Howard Greenstein and BoingBoing]

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 6, 2006

Picture a Simplified Site

Last month GE Healthcare launched a campaign with user-generated content and viral elements. At the time we covered the microsite set up for the campaign, the site had user-submitted photos divided into categories and a means to send an e-mail to a friend to spread buzz about the site.

One month later, the site seems to be scaled back a bit, but still conveys the same message. The concept of the "Picture a Healthy World" remains. However instead of grouping photos into categories, it looks like the tagging was dropped and all the photos are lumped together. The viral mechanisms also appear to be stripped out.

It was a great experiment in consumer-generated media (CGM) and an ambitious project, no doubt. The site works well as it currently stands, but without the tagging, it looses some of its relevancy. I couldn't find a photo submitted by ClickZ Managing Editor Pamela Parker. There were too many photos in the uncategorized group. And not only are you unable to tell a friend about the site, each photo remains under the same URL so you can't even send a unique link to a friend and expect her to find the photo you want to send.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 5, 2006

It's Not the Screen Size

If there's an overriding theme at tonight's Oscars, it's how many times actors take the stage and make a plea for people to actually go to the theater to watch a film. Instead of realizing the shift of content to alternative and often smaller screens and the possibilities to market and screen film content, speakers and presenters choose patronize viewers at home with complaints about lighter box office earnings.

By the way, I'm watching the Academy Awards on the other big screen, Plasma. It makes it difficult to listen to the pleas of the actors when I have to admit, home theater does a good job of replicating the "movie experience" in every aspect except the people talking behind you throughout the film.

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 28, 2006

Origami Ad and Fun with YouTube

Ok, yes. this is a nice ad.

Then there's the sendup of Microsoft package design, which has been viewed a quarter of a million times since being posted yesterday to YouTube, according to the site's stats.

For more ad buzz fun on YouTube, see VW's new spots there, courtesy of CP+B.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:30 PM | Permalink

February 23, 2006

Please Take Our Survey -- It's For A Good Cause

It's that time of year again. Please take our reader survey!

ClickZ's short reader survey will be live until March 3. To thank you for your participation, we'll make a donation to charity for every survey completed.

The details of the charities you can nominate to receive the donation are provided at the end of the questionnaire.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 13, 2006

One Government, 137 Agency Contracts

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed seven federal departments to account for obligated federal dollars spent on public relations and advertising activities from 2003 through the second quarter of 2005. The findings detail a total of 343 media contracts including 137 contracts with advertising agencies, 131 contracts with media organizations, and 54 contracts with public relations firms. Advertising agencies account for 40 percent of the contracts and $1.4 billion spent in just over two years.

An itemized breakout of each contract revealed little interactive commitment beyond a few Web sites and a handful of commissioned research to explore the market and advertising channels.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 2, 2006

Skype Asks, How'd the Call Go?

We've started using Skype here at ClickZ HQ. We like the ease of not dialing, as well as the office noise-muffling qualities of earphones over a telephone receiver.

A pleasant surprise after just placing a call was seeing my browser automatically directed to a feedback page. Short, to the point and sweet: Any problems with the call (with a drop-down menu of possible issues)? What's the speed of your connection? Any additional comments?

It feels like they really care.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

McDonald's Anti-Advergame

CGM meets gaming. Italian artist/activist collective Molleindustria has created an online game that demonstrates the effects of fast-food economics.

This is hardly the first time of Mickey D has been seriously challenged on the Web.

"Making money in a corporation like McDonald's is not simple at all. Behind every sandwich there is a complex process you must learn to manage: from the creation of pastures to the slaught, from the restaurant management to the branding. You'll discover all the dirty secrets that made us one of the biggest company of the world."

via We Make Money Not Art

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 1, 2006

2006: The year of Interactive Marketing M&A?

In a report that quantifies what many in the industry have been feeling in their bones, online media-focused investment bank AdMedia Partners surveyed 3,200 U.S. companies in the advertising and marketing services sector and found that 2006 is very likely to be a big year for M&A activity for Internet marketing firms.

The study, available here, found that 85% of respondents who identify themselves as prospective buyers expect to approach a potential acquisition this year, while 54% expect to complete an acquisition during 2006. That's up slightly from 51% who thought they would do so in 2005.

Among prospective sellers, 79% expect to be approached by a prospective buyer, and 42% expect to sell all or part of their businesses in 2006, compared with 25% who thought they would do so last year.

Not surprisingly, not a single respondent has plans for an IPO this year.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2006

Good Book Pre-loaded on USB Thumb Drives

If Google can cut a deal to pre-load its products on USB drives, then why can't God? (via MIT Advertising Lab)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 30, 2006

Vaseline Takes On Groundhog Day

When you hear Groundhog Day, is Vaseline the first thing you think about? Me either. But Vaseline sees the connection: if winter is longer, everyone needs more moisturizer. Hence the brand's "Moisture Obsessive" groundhog game where you get to throw snowballs at Punxsutawney's favorite pet Phil, and some of the locals. Parent company Unilever promises to give every American a free bottle of lotion if Phil sees his shadow on Thursday.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone Wants to be Match.com

In the fall nutrition site eDiets.com hired Donat/Wald, Match.com's ad agency of record, to create a new campaign that was not unlike the popular dating site. This week, executive recruiting firm TheLadders.com launched a redesign of its Web site. The pitch? It's "very similar to Match.com."

There's nothing wrong with finding a model and emulating it, and it's commendable that these firms are public about revealing where they got inspiration for their new creatives. The dating site clearly has done something enviably right.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Too Violent for Microsoft's Xbox 360

The Raw Feed pointed to an ad for the Microsoft Xbox 360 that didn't pass Microsoft's approval, reportedly due to its potential to encourage mass violence.

It features people in a busy train station playing shooter with hilarious affect. While gamers likely won't see the potential violence factor as a problem, it's possible the rest of the population might not see the humor in the suggestion this ad presents. It's been turned down by Microsoft and now is destined to live a full life on the Web.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 26, 2006

Use AIM to Plan Travel

Travel aggregator Kayak made a few changes to get noticed by hopeful travelers. It will add travel alerts that act like Google news alerts based on the travel criteria entered. If e-mail won't cut it, KayakBot can be added to an AIM buddy list to chat with you about available deals.

Kayak is positioning itself to reach consumers in the most convenient ways. It moved its RSS sign-up to a more visible location on the site, though it could do more to make RSS more understandable by all but the savviest of Internet users -- as the announcement categorizes RSS users.

To signify the company's evolution to a meta-search 2.0 site, Kayak updated with a new logo.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

Are Your Advertisers Impacting Your Delivery Rate?

Do you publish an ad-supported e-mail newsletter and worry about declining delivery rates? Consider this: maybe it's not you. Maybe it's your advertisers.

It could happen to even the most upstanding publisher. The one who adheres to all the best practices including confirmed double opt-in subscriptions; running copy and design through spam filters and tests; the one who engages the top ISPs to manage their lists and mailings.

If that e-newsletter runs ads from purveyors of ad- and spyware, porn or online gambling -- you get the idea -- that newsletter stands a good chance of getting blocked at the gateway.

It's not that I'm advocating censorship here, but it's certainly worth considering whether accepting those ads (and ad dollars) may ultimately torpedo your business.

Proceed with caution.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 23, 2006

Yahoo! Personals Takes Shot of Espresso

Yahoo! Personals and Starbucks teamed together to present Espresso Dating in Yahoo! Personals through Valentines Day.

The microsite briefs daters with a guide; history of dating; tips and experiences. Much of the content comes from surveys and experiences from members of Yahoo! Personals. Dating hopefuls who sign up will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card, presumably to fund a first date.

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

January 19, 2006

Google's Non-Evil Stance on Privacy & Democracy

Google's refusal to hand over aggregate search information to the Bush administration -- while the other major engines reportedly have -- is zinging through the blogosphere this morning (I first read about it on John Battelle's blog).

Danny's got a great take on it from the privacy and search perspectives, but there's a marketing angle here, too.

MSN and Yahoo! are already suffering a consumer backlash resulting from their decisions to turn over information on Chinese bloggers to the authorities. There have been calls for boycotts of both companies, first in the blogosphere, now in mainstream media.

By taking the high road, Google's not only walking the walk insofar as it's "don't be evil" corporate motto is concerned, it's also garnering some serious goodwill as its competitors' reputations further tarnish insofar as democracy and human rights are concerned.

Way to go, Google.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 18, 2006

Branding the Chinese Internet Police

Meet JingJing and Chacha, the adorably cute new faces of the Chinese Internet Police! Visitors to the main portals of Shenzhen city, Guangdong see these as a little reminder that "the Internet is not a place beyond the law." Not sure whether that's meant to scare or reassure.

China Digital Times has the story:

Our reporter learned that these are the images of Shenzhen Internet Police, presented by Internet Surveillance Division of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, for the first time in China.

"The Internet police has existed for a long time. This time we publish the image of Internet Police in the form of a cartoon, the purpose is to let all internet users know that the Internet is not a place beyond of law, the Internet Police will maintain order in all online behaviors," said Director Chen of the Information Center, Internet Security and Surveillance division, of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau.

(via Rebecca MacKinnon)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 17, 2006

"PBS of the Web" Enters Pilot Phase

ManyOne Networks has released the pilot version of Digital Universe, a consumer-generated site that's been touted both as the next Wikipedia, and as "PBS of the Web."

From the press release: "Over the next several years, the Digital Universe will transform the experience of Web portals from advertising-ridden pages of text and pictures into an advertising-free, real-time multimedia universe of authoritative information."

The project will consist of multiple portals, all ad-free, all with a customized multimedia navigation system. Some will be consumer-generated, while others, like the Digital Universe Encyclopedia, being led by Dr. Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, will be the work of a worldwide network of stewards -- researchers, scholars and educators.

The utopian version of today's Web will be funded by corporate and individual donations, along with private-labeled services to "socially responsible" institutions, corporations and individuals. Services include Web hosting, e-mail, IM and multimedia content, with plans for IPTV and online games.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chrysler Plays Games with Film Contest

Chrysler launched a film competition using Activision's "The Movies" game. Called Chrysler in The Movies: Virtual Film Competition." CiTM launches during the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and includes a symposium sponsored by The Creative Coalition.

Filmmaker hopefuls will create two to three-minute films that include Chrysler's Pacifica, Crossfire, Chrysler 300 and PT Cruiser autos, which have been integrated into Activision's game. Films will be judged by a celebrity panel. The top ten will be screened at a virtual film premier during the video game industry's trade show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Young Creatives of the World be Recognized

The Clio Awards and Advertising's Intellectual Archive, ihaveanidea, together are launching The Clio Awards Future Gold: Young Creatives Program.

The idea is recognize the best junior creatives from around the world and reward them with the "career experience of a lifetime." Ihaveanidea will conduct a global search for the most talented junior copywriters and art directors working at advertising agencies. These 12 top candidates will be given Clio Passports to attend the Clio Festival and receive free accommodations in South Beach, Miami.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 5, 2006

Gates at CES: Ad Implications Are Between the Lines

Bill Gates' CES keynote had nothing directly ad-related, judging from Robert Scoble's blow-by-blow. The most interesting stuff had to do with the convergence of the digital home. Media Center will support both DirecTV and digital cable signals, and Vista will include HD-DVD. This means video could be all-digitized and on-demand faster than one might expect, which will in turn speed the arrival of interactive and hyper-targeted video ads on television.

Other notables: Vista will also have a search function in the start menu and an RSS reader in Sidebar. This all suggests a consolidation of content and services on the desktop, which of course means more ads on the desktop – a MSFT meme since early fall.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 4, 2006

Snowball Effect

Our round-up of Christmas cards certainly didn't encompass all greetings sent out by the industry; it served more as a sampling. Reader Dan Cordella, communications manager from Agency.com, sent me the ad network's "Agency vs. Clients" snowball fight game sent out before Christmas.

The contest will run through the end of January and boasts the winner will receive an iPod, though I believe only clients will be eligible to win. Too bad potential clients don't get a chance.

I'm told that to date, there have been over 400,000 unique visitors. Not bad for a seasonal game.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Rash of False Rumors

I've noticed a spike in the level of misinformation circulating about online media and advertising companies. In the last three days alone, we've had reports that Wikipedia will accept ads (debunked), that Google is running ads on its Belarusian homepage (debunked in same post), that Google will produce a PC and Google OS (debunked) and that Craigslist is blocking search engine crawlers (debunked).

On the upside, a correction followed each fake rumor within 24 to 48 hours, suggesting a system of checks and balances still functions in the world of tech news. But some of the damage and confusion (and wasted speculation) can't be undone.

I'm not trying to raise a media or blogger credibility issue here. I expect these failures of the truth are inevitable speedbumps on the NASCAR racetrack that the online ad marketplace has become. We've all learned to expect wild moves from Google et al, so perhaps it seems only natural to publish the craziest rumors first and ask questions later.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 23, 2005

Holiday Greetings to You and Yours

That blessed silence you hear results from the industry grinding to a halt for the long Christmas weekend. We at ClickZ are no exceptions. We'll take the weekend and Monday off, and return on Tuesday for the final wind-down of 2005. As we shutter the blog for the hiatus, the ClickZ team would like to wish you and yours the very best for the holidays. It's been an incredibly busy year. We all deserve a few days of rest. Hope yours are relaxing, warm, merry and bright.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Predictions for 2006

In case you missed it, Zach Rodgers gathered some really interesting opinions about what the coming year holds for online marketing/advertising. We'd love to hear your thoughts (comments, please!). Agree? Disagree? Have other ideas? I know a lot of people are already checked out for the holidays today, but hope you'll weigh in whenever you're back online.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

Skype: The Latest Promotions Channel?

VoIP provider Skype and EMI just announced a Coldplay fan will win a chance to chat with the band members -- via Skype. The contest launches today to promote their new single, aptly named "Talk."

To enter, fans leave a voicemail message for Coldplay on Skype, accessible through the contest Web site (wherever that is -- no URL was provided, nor could I find a link on the official Coldplay Web site). Contestants have 20 seconds to tell the band why they like the new song.

And if you can find that elusive site, you can buy the song as a download in various formats, including mobile.

Really interesting use of VoIP as a marketing medium. If only they'd tell you where the site is...

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 15, 2005

New JibJab Spot, Ads Courtesy of MSN

JibJab's got a new animation out tomorrow, on Bush's bad year. It'll run on JibJab.com and MSN Video, with monetization coming from video pre-rolls with adjacent Flash units.

I spoke to Greg Spiridellis, one of the creators, and he said there's no product placement. I was curious about that, since the studio (Or is it an agency?) has done commercial work for Budweiser, making animated spots in the style (and with the cache) of earlier JibJab movies. The JibJab thing has gotten a bit tired for some people, but the approach is interesting in light of today's merging of entertainment and advertising. Of course, film directors have done ads on the side for decades, but these have always suppressed the creators' identities. JibJab's Budweiser spots exploit them.

"It's a tricky thing to do well," he said of product placement. "There are interesting opportunities, as long as it doesn't degrade the integrity of the content. It's a brave new world, trying to find the balance. When we do ad work, the creative is as challenging, if not more so, than when we're doing original work. We're trying to balance that, and trying to make ads that we'd want to watch."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 14, 2005

Squidoo in public beta

Seth Godin's latest project, Squidoo, has entered public beta. The premise behind the site is that certain people know a lot about a niche topic, and other people are interested in finding out all they need to know about a topic in one place.

When Godin started talking about the project in October, he described it as a way for people to find out "not everything, but just what they need" about a given topic.

Some of the first "lenses" to be built include one on the Long Tail by Chris Anderson; Moleskine Resources by designer Mike Rohde, and Moleskinerie by Armando Frasco; and Understanding RSS by Godin.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 5, 2005

Social Networks Recognized in the C-Suite

A survey conducted by 6FigureJobs.com finds that of its 400,000 senior-level members, about 57 percent use one or more online networking service.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:23 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 17, 2005

Local Search Gets Bucks

Online community site Judy's Book received $8 million in a round of funding from VC firms Mobius Venture Capital; Ignition Partners and Ackerly Partners.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14, 2005

eBay Stats

Sellers on eBay can now easily look up statistics and pricing information on products and trends, for a fee. Last week the auction site launched eBay Marketplace Research.

Three subscription levels include a two-day Fast Pass for $2.99; a basic subscription for $9.99; and a pro-level subscription for $24.99.

Marketplace will serve high-volume power-sellers, but even casual sellers can invest in short-term access to get data on listing, bidding, and pricing trends. I'm not sure if there's information that can't be accessed by a diligent search of the site, but it is helpful info for a seller to have at his fingertips.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:41 AM | 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)

ClickZ Columnists Are People, Not Companies

I was just writing yet another e-mail to a corporate PR person who responded to a message I sent to someone else at her company -- someone I know personally, and to whom I'd written about potentially joining ClickZ as a columnist.

I realized it was the third such e-mail I'd sent this week. I'd like to share an exerpt in the interest of making our editorial policies a bit more transparent:

I'm interested in pursuing the discussion of a [column topic] columnist, but it's important to point out we consider our columnists to be individual contributors. I'm not inviting [your company] to write for us. Rather, I'm looking for a qualified individual practitioner...

On principle, we don't work through PR people insofar as our Expert columnists are concerned. We consider the relationship to be a purely editorial one. We need enthusiastic, motivated contributors with their own views and perspectives. No one who writes for ClickZ is "assigned" by their company to do so, or is spouting a company line.

Hey, we love publicists and marketing folks. We work with 'em all the time. But I tought our readers might be interested in a little of the editorial philosophy behind one of ClickZ's most popular sections.

Intersted in contributing? We don't always have slots, but we certainly do hang on to all legitimate queries and have surprised more than one person by actually getting in touch, sometimes even hiring them. Here's what we have to say to those who want to toss their hat into that ring.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ad:Tech's Adjacency Issue

Much chatter this year about what's become a decidely schizophrenic trait of Ad:Tech. There seem to be two parallel events: the conference, and the exhibit hall.

Attendees, particularly those from major agencies and trade organizations, are wondering aloud if the organizers ever plan to take a hard look -- and make some hard decisions -- about some of the more dubious companies exhibiting cheeck-to-jowl with legitimate product and service vendors. Now that the show has burgeoned out of the bust days into a thriving, profitable conference, many are hoping there will soon be an end to the shady affiliate companies, online casinos and hawkers of "30 Million Opt-In E-Mail Addresses!" list brokers hawking wares of questionable legitimacy (and legality) next to some of the most upstanding companies in the business.

It's always easy, not to mention tempting, to just take the money. Sometimes, it's a far better move not to.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 3, 2005

The MySpace Label

MySpace is launching its label. The first release is not a real album, but a compilation of mostly already signed acts lent by other labels. One of the bands on it, Hollywood Undead, is MySpace Records' first signed act and will have an album out next year.

News Corp. wholly owns the new label, but Vivendi's Interscope Records is a partner, and will step in as an investor when an act merits wider publicity and promotional efforts.

It further proves the beauty of MySpace does not lie in connecting young people to each another, but in basing those connections on music. Through the simple act of hosting an MP3, bands are finding each other and building distant audiences. Indie labels are finding artists to sign. And big record labels are finding audiences they can promote new releases to. An increasing number of songs are premiering on the site. And TV's getting involved: Look at the deal MySpace did with Fuse.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to Dial A Human

In what may be the best online CRM initiative ever, Intuit has a real value-add on its QuickBase site: Find-A-Human.

It's a cut-to-the-chase list of the phone numbers of major telcos, financial institutions, freight companies, insurers, government institutions -- the list goes on and on.

Best of all, the easy-to-read chart provides instructions for bypassing automatic phone menu purgatory and getting through to a human being at each company.

Now that's customer service!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

The 50 Cent Media Buy

No, not that 50 Cent.

The $5 buy isn't your cup of tea? Perhaps you'd prefer to purchase pixels by the dozen -- at 50 cents a shot.

You can do just that on Pixels Buy the Dozen. The homepage is a grid of 10,292 squares, each measuring 12x12 pixels. You buy pixels for $.50 each to display an ad or logo. Mouse over, and those tiny little squares blow up to 144x144. The minimum buy is a 12x12 pixel square. Pick your own placement, first come, first served.

It's all kind of conceptual, I guess. Said creator Lee Dodd, "Once the homepage is 100 percent sold out, that's it. No more space. The page will be quite a site to see as it fills up, and that's the goal."

Current advertisers include Teens 4 Jesus; Zelda Universe; a mortgage lender; and EatMyFlames.com, which offers to turn your car's exhaust pipe into a flame thrower.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The $5 Media Buy

UK company Python Design has hatched a novel new media buy: the $5.00 campaign.

What do you get for your money? A text ad that appears on sites throughout their network -- which frankly is pretty small, judging from the category links I clicked on.

"Your link remains within our network for as long as this site exists," is their promise.

Got five bucks to wager? Check out 5dollarlink.com.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

Eat Junk Food, Play Free Video Games

Nintendo has hooked up with McDonald's to bring free WiFi to Nintendo DS users at 6,000 restaurants. Nintendo games, including "Mario Kart," "Tony Hawk's American SK8Land," as well as future titles will playable for be free. The company is even hawking a dongle so the non-WiFi enabled can join in the fun.

Some purchase at McD is presumably required -- fries and a Coke at minimum?

Sounds like a pretty targeted way to reach a young male demo -- and to build in some Nintendo branding and product affinity.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

Print: Making Old Media New Again

The Wall Street Journal announced a major print redesign today, part of which will be stronger links to WSJ online.

Simultaneously, The New York Times announced OnMovies a print entertainment rag to be given away at cinemas. In June, its corporate parent bought a stake in the free paper Metro Boston. And didn't the Times recently announce they'd produce a free classified-ad paper for New York?

Craig, watch your back.

Print publishers are in try-anything mode. Smacking of desperation as readers -- particularly younger ones -- migrate to the Web in hordes, giving it away appears the dominant strategy of most. There's also a too-transparent "appeal to the younger demo at any cost" approach. I was horrified to see potty training merit the Op-Ed page today.

Fee-to-free has made the NYC subway a whole new ballgame. The exits and stairways are bottlenecked by hawkers thrusting at least two free papers (sometimes more) on disinterested commuters.

Genuine innovation is needed to save offline from online. How's that for a new spin on things?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 6, 2005

RipeTV: Three-Minute Programs with TiVo-Proof Ads

Cable and VOD play RipeTV launches soon with ultra-short programming that's designed to be fast-forward proof. The ads surround content similar to how score and player information surrounds the live action in sports broadcasts. The content is geared to young men, with lots of sports, gadgets and gratuitous cleavage shots. Following a summer test on Comcast VOD, it launches October 28 on Comcast, MSN, Akimbo and ripe.tv. A mobile phone channel is reportedly also in the works.

I had planned to cover this in greater depth, but my calls to the company have gone unreturned, and an e-mail bounced.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2005

Feeding Time

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Not a few readers have requested RSS feeds for ClickZ's Experts and Features sections. Until now, these weren't a part of the feeds we made available.

They are now.

Our techies are still working on some backend stuff before we can update the page. Can't wait? OK, here's the feed for ClickZ Experts, and here's the one for ClickZ Features.

Hope that helps satisfy your appetite.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

Waiting for Real Broadband

I want FiOS, and I want it now. More than that, I want all the services that are waiting in the wings which can be delivered only by super high speed broadband.

Lycos is relaunching next week. Alfred Tolle, their new CEO, was telling me recently about the new social networking services that will be added to Lycos' offerings. Imported from the high-speed capital of the Internet, Korea, Alfred could hardly begin to express the incredible features that Lycos essentially had to dumb down (my term, not his) to adapt to pokey U.S. broadband networks.

The subject arose again this week at the Yahoo!/OMD summit on Global Youth, Media and Technology. OMD CEO Joe Uva, shook his head as he uttered, "We're behind. We're losing." He was talking about technology adoption in Asia, and the super high speed networks that are helping make it possible.

I wish linguistic limitations didn't stand between me and the super complex, multi-featured Korean blogs I'm dying to see -- and use.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2005

NYPD Podcasts on NY's Most Stolen Devices

The voice of the NYPD can now be heard via podcast. Brief updates can be downloaded individually, or can be delivered to your desk of iPod by subscription.

The first installment includes traffic advisories and a phone-in interview with one of the many policemen who went to the New Orleans area to aid in the rescue and cleanup. The report was a bit stilted, but after a few podcasts it should become more comfortable.

Not too long ago the police reported that crime was down, except for the theft of iPods on the subway. As recently as last week I heard a warning over the subway's intercom for riders to keep their phones put away, and not to display iPod or other electronic devices due to theft.

What spurred the concept of offering podcasts to visitors of the NYPD Web site? Was it the increase in theft of iPods, or was somebody on the force or the public affairs department forward thinking enough to make it happen? Either way, an NYPD podcast could potentially end up in the hands of a thief with a freshly stolen iPod. Is there any way to use the medium to shame subway pickpockets?

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 8, 2005

Crispin's Cloud of Dust

Not that it wasn't already, but Crispin Porter + Bogusky's huge wins of VW (away from Arnold) and Sprite (away from Ogilvy) secure its status as agency to beat. And you know interactive will figure massively in its work for each client.

To take Volkswagen, CP+B must cast out BMW Mini-Cooper, for whom the agency produced two of its greatest interactive viral efforts of the past two years.

That Sprite left Ogilvy doesn't surprise me. The agency's work for that client, particularly as expressed in the Miles Thirst hip hop spokes-character, is annoying in a way that only people in suits trying to "get with the youth culture" can be. Others agree.

Speaking of Crispin: Watch The King score a touchdown . This spokesperson somehow gets more creepy, not less, with repeat exposures.

And speaking of big account moves: StrawberryFrog recently reeled in Heineken, a moderately heavy spender online. I recall it did a bunch of stuff with MSN Music around the Emmys, and a sponsorship of IFILM. Oh, and to my knowledge it's the only brewer ever to advertise on 404 pages.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 6, 2005

Virtual Worlds Raise Real Funds

On Friday we reported on a few businesses that made it easy for their customers to donate to the American Red Cross. Sony Online Entertainment found its own way to get players of EverQuest II to give; they can type in "/donate" in the game to initiate a donation.

The /donate text will launch a new browser window where players can easily enter their information. A credit card number still needs to be supplied. SOE has the ability to ping the credit card for activities like this, making transactions instantaneous, but didn't implement it this particular time because it would have caused a delay.

The /service concept was originally launched with a deal from Pizza Hut, where players could type "/pizza" to order food delivery. Reportedly successful, SOE plans to offer more programs and a company source said SOE is close to signing a deal very soon; one that will "make sense."

In addition to raising funds for the areas affected by the hurricane, SOE will suspend billing until players are able to get back online and play again. It will also preserve any items or structures from harm or decay until players are able to get back online.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2005

Glamour Mag Flirts with Film

Earlier this year, Glamour magazine ran a film promotion with Moxie Pictures titled "Reel Moments Video." The contest called for written accounts of inspiration moments from Glamour readers that could be developed into films.

Four stories were selected and made into short indie films. Information on the films is featured at subscriberdirect.com/glamour/reel_moments/home.htm. A DVD containing the winning entries was distributed to Glamour readers.

Celebrities like Lucy Liu and Katie Holmes participated in selecting four winners. The films also got celebrity treatment, actress Gweneth Paltrow and her friend Mary Wigmore together directed one of the four films. Wigmore has appeared in minor roles in "Shallow Hal" and "The Royal Tanenbaums."

The promotion was sponsored by Nokia, Bebe, Elezabeth Arden, and Mercury and will benefit FilmAid International. Glamour hopes it will boost the profile of women in Hollywood, and empower readers with the inspirational stories of the winners.

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

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