Google Prepares DoubleClick Answer March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIt’s a strange fact of life that Web “frienemy” (yes, we love that word) Google, doesn’t accept third-party ad tags. Given the news that competitor Microsoft is considering a bid for the ad-server DoubleClick, which serves graphical CPMs for a huge portion of the ad world, rumors have surfaced that Google is planning to build its own third-party ad server for graphical ads.
As yet, Google’s AdWords ads are served to publishers that have to sign up for the Google network, AdSense. Moving into DoubleClick territory, a bulky undertaking for big G, would solve “a BIG problem” writes performance marketing specialist Jeff Molander because “this would allow Google to not only offer conversion tracking but do so cross-platform… It also creates a point of differentiation in the CPA space: Ad targeting.” Why? Because Google could cross-reference its search-based targeting with an ad-delivery network to create something truly powerful, whereas Molander doesn’t believe DoubleClick’s ad targeting extends to its Performics unit, which manages search advertising and behavior targeting for advertisers.
Which beg the questions: Will Google do it? Will Google make it free like Google Analytics? Will it merge with Google Analytics? Will Google swoop in and buy DoubleClick? Battelle seems to think the search giant is definitely up to something
GoogleClick
Google does not take third party ad tags. That means that if you want to advertise on Google, you have to run your creative through Google. But a huge portion of the advertising world that Google is now going after – graphical CPM ads – runs through third party ad servers like DoubleClick.
Now, DoubleClick is for sale, the WSJ reports. Actually, I’ve heard it’s been shopped since early last year, but anyway….Microsoft is seen as an interested suitor.
Google can’t let this stand. It’s a major risk to its business to force advertisers to change behavior – it needs a third party ad serving solution.
So it will, without a doubt, build one. More soon.
Omnicom Expands Fuse March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentOmnicom Expands Fuse
March 29, 2007
By Kathleen Sampey
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NEW YORK Omnicom Media Group said it is expanding its Fuse brand to North America and has tapped PHD’s Steve Grubbs to run it, effective immediately.
Grubbs, CEO of PHD North America, will continue to be based in New York in the newly created position, CEO of Fuse Sports and Entertainment Group North America.
The unit aligns four of Omnicom Group’s sports and entertainment marketing agencies: Highway Entertainment, which distributes content; Optimum Entertainment, which provides entertainment strategies for TV, film and digital platforms; Optimum Sports, which focuses on media strategy and buying for sports-related marketing and provides rights negotiations and property development; and Full-Circle Entertainment, which provides content and production services in brand integration. Full Circle’s CEO Robert Riesenberg is adding presidential duties for Fuse Sports and Entertainment Group.
“It brings together a lot of synergies,” Grubbs told Adweek, when asked about the new structure. “Each of these four companies specializes in something different. If you can provide all of their services at once, with a single coordination point, that would produce a more powerful service offering.”
Taking over for Grubbs at PHD is that agency’s New York president, Matt Seiler, who is adding CEO, North America, to his title.
Grubbs, 55, reports to Omnicom Media CEO Daryl Simm.
“The coordination aspect is key,” Grubbs said of the four companies, whose heads now report to him. “Right now, we might have one client working with Optimum Entertainment. We need to see if we can also service that client with an even stronger resource by introducing one of the other companies to their business.”
The four companies will retain separate P&Ls, but comprise a single P&L for Fuse.
Seiler, 45, joined PHD in 2004. Before that, he was Omnicom Group’s integration leader for PepsiCo, for three years.
From 2000 to 2001, Seiler was managing director of the New York office of independent Wieden + Kennedy.
A longtime member of the Omnicom family, Seiler had been director of strategic planning for the company’s BBDO in New York from 1996 until 2000, when he left for Wieden. He has also worked at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
Grubbs declined to name clients of Fuse companies. Some of the clients serviced by Omnicom Group agencies include DaimlerChrysler, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, Mars and Adidas.
In a statement, Simm said that Grubbs’ “deep experience in this area, combined with his reputation with media companies and advertisers, puts Fuse Sports and Entertainment Group in a great position to bring new and innovative ideas to clients.”
'Media Meshing' Comes Easy to Hispanics March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment‘Media Meshing’ Comes Easy to Hispanics
March 29, 2007
By Nancy Ayala/Marketing y Medios
NEW YORK Roughly 80 percent of U.S. Hispanics are said to be broadband users, according to a quantitative survey by Experian Simmons Research, conducted from November to December 2006 for Yahoo! and Telemundo.
The study also concluded that Latinos consume and adopt media and technology at a higher rate than the general population.
Of the 2,636 respondents, half were foreign born; 36 percent were Spanish dominant; 52 percent were English dominant; and 11 percent of the survey takers said they were bilingual.
Connections to culture, community, friends and family play pivotal roles in the findings. First-person video testimonials added emotional observations to illustrate the data-heavy presentation for marketers still somewhat new to the Hispanic marketplace or finding new ways to engage Latinos in the digital space.
Multichannel opportunities abound to tap online Hispanics, who are enthusiastic adopters of video streaming and mobile usage, said Adam Chandler, director of U.S. sales for the Yahoo!-Telemundo partnership. “Online video [advertising] is a good opportunity for marketers who supply it,” he added.
Media and technology are not strange bedfellows, according to the research. Hispanic adults are engaged in 51 hours of daily activities, broken down by: technology (14 hours: landline calls, cell phones, online use, MPR players); media (13.5 hours: Internet, reading, watching TV, listening to radio); everyday essentials (15 hours: traveling to work/school, errands, cleaning); and time spent with family and friends (8.4 hours).
Spanish-dominant respondents stated that they consume two-thirds of their online content in English due to the lack of Spanish-language options, a departure from other forms of media they typically
The Anti-Spam Militia March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe Anti-Spam Militia
MARCH 30, 2007
People are taking the War on Spam seriously. If you are like most US e-mail users, you’re pretty experienced at it. You fight spam with purpose and multiple tactics, according to a new survey by the E-Mail Sender & Provider Coalition conducted by Ipsos. Almost three-fourths of respondents said that they have used e-mail for six or more years. Over 80% read their e-mail daily. E-mail users are also willing to expose spam at the drop of a hat. Over 80% of respondents said that they report spam or unsubscribe from e-mail lists. So where does that leave you, the e-mail marketer, when dealing with you, the e-mail user? If you are transparent in your marketing, it leaves you in good shape. If not, you become the enemy. Most respondents (80%) didn’t even open e-mails before reporting them as spam. The from, to and subject lines are therefore crucial in conveying e-mail intent. The good news for e-mail marketers is that over half of respondents said that they would be more likely to open and read e-mail from a sender who displayed a certified icon in their e-mail program. Most e-mail users are now experienced at determining if something is unwanted. Well over half of e-mail newsletters, many of which are opt-in, are merely skimmed in the first place, according to Nielsen Norman Group. eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman notes that clarity of intent can overcome some of these well-honed defenses, especially when sending newsletters. “Making e-mail value clear can persuade some skimmers to read more,” says Mr. Hallerman, who also advised “creating a newsletter whose quality gives it an inbox shelf life beyond the delete button, and putting the most important elements ‘above the fold’ (at the top of the message).” Get an in-depth look at social network ad spending. Read the eMarketer E-Mail and Word-of-Mouth: Connect with Your Best Customers report.
Uk News from Brand Republic March 30, 2007
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Just An Online Minute… Study: Gender Gap For Online Video Will Shrink By 2011 March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| Just An Online Minute… Study: Gender Gap For Online Video Will Shrink By 2011 |
| by Wendy Davis, Friday, Mar 30, 2007 1:15 PM ET |
| AROUND SEVEN IN 10 MALE Web users viewed online video last year, according to a new report by research firm eMarketer. While women also turned to online video, they did so in smaller proportions; just 55% of female Web users watched online video last year, according to the report. “Males consume online video more frequently and for longer periods than females do — even though more females than males go online,” writes eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson in the report, “Women Online: Taking a New Look.” The gender gap will shrink considerably by 2011, when an estimated 89% of online men and 85% of online women will view video over the Web, according to the report. Why will women increase their use of online video? One of the factors reportedly stems from print magazines’ efforts to put more video clips online. “Female-targeted magazines ranging from Us Weekly to Teen magazine to Good Housekeeping are all rolling out video content; whether women will gravitate there in the long term is uncertain, but in the near term, the more content aimed at women, the better,” states the study. EMarketer also reports that online video ads are causing some ill will among Web users. “Given a list of five negative aspects of online video, the top choice for both males and females surveyed in February 2007 by Synovate for ClipBlast! (an Internet video search firm) was that it was too commercial, with too many ads. Females were slightly more likely than males to feel this way,” the report notes. That might explain why eMarketer recommended the use of non-video ads. “Just because your consumer is watching video online does not mean that your ad has to be video as well,” states the report. “An animated ad, or one that contains mouse-over calls to action, could be even more effective, triggering interactions that may not have been possible with a video ad.” |
iTunes To Sell You Your Home Videos For $1.99 Each March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentiTunes To Sell You Your Home Videos For $1.99 Each
CUPERTINO, CA—Apple Computer, producer of the successful iPod MP3 player, is now offering consumers limited rights to buy their own home movies from the media store iTunes for $1.99 each.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the future of home-video viewing is now,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at a media event Tuesday morning. “As soon as you record that precious footage of your daughter’s first steps, you’ll be able to buy it right back from iTunes and download it directly to your computer and video iPod.”
Jobs emphasized that the videos will be presented unedited and in their original form, save for a small Apple logo in the lower right-hand corner of the image to protect the company’s copyrighted materials from Internet piracy.
Added Jobs: “No more searching through your movies folder for that footage of your 50th wedding anniversary. Now all you need is a 768Kbps broadband connection and your credit card, and every timeless personal memory you’ve ever shot will be right at your fingertips.”
“Apple has always been about access,” said MacAddict editor Ian Smythe. “Thanks to this revolutionary new software, all your clips—from your son’s bris to your father’s dying message—are available to you, your loved ones, and the 20 million iTunes users, who will be able to view them on up to five different computers.”
Apple currently owns an average of 20 gigabytes of digital footage per American family, and it has also acquired an enormous library of the tens of millions of analog-format home movies dating from the early decades of the 20th century through 2001.
“No more disappointment for Cynthia Hamill of Hartford, CT when she realizes she can’t find that tape of herself singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ in the bath as an 8-year-old,” Jobs said. “For only a couple of bucks, that cherished moment can again be hers.”
Early reaction to the home-video downloads has been positive. “$1.99 seems reasonable to be able to relive my high-school graduation anytime I want,” said Patrick Boyd of Pensacola, FL. “My parents don’t understand the technology, but I can help them get it running whenever they want to watch it.”
“It’s just a matter of convenience,” Mansfield, OH resident Samantha Davidoff said. “Why should I sift through the dozens of unlabeled DV tapes in my closet to find that submission tape I made for Extreme Makeover when I can just do a search on iTunes? Repurchasing my own stuff has never been this intuitive.”
However, some early users report running into technical glitches with the software.
“I was really looking forward to watching my son’s Easter greeting from Iraq,” Eugene, OR resident Luka Bartoli said. “But the image froze and an alert came up saying it was temporarily unavailable due to low bandwidth. I miss my boy so much.”
Some users say they have had trouble with the automated process by which previews are chosen for their new footage.
“We were all excited to watch [daughter] Tabitha’s birth when we got home from the hospital, but we could only view a 30-second clip before we had to buy it,” Harvey Gaddis of Tulsa, OK said. “All we could see in the preview were some of the initial contractions.”
Others say the pricing can be restrictive and is not always timely.
“I wanted to show my boyfriend a video I made for his birthday of me dancing in my underwear to our favorite song,” Jessica Dupree of Manchester, NH said. “But his credit card was declined. I guess he’ll just have to get it from someone at work.”
Despite these limitations, observers predict consumers will have little choice once they realize how vast and comprehensive the collection is. Many amateur filmmakers are already making a strong showing in the iTunes videos charts.
Eliza Quintana of Montclair, NJ, went online to purchase her daughter’s fourth birthday party to find that it had reached No. 5 on the top video downloads.
Said Quintana: “I guess I’m not the only one who thinks she’s the most adorable little girl in the world!”
AOL Unit To Handle Ads For NBC U/News Corp. Video Service March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| AOL Unit To Handle Ads For NBC U/News Corp. Video Service |
| Friday, Mar 30, 2007 8:00 AM ET |
| ADVERTISING.COM, A UNIT OF TIME Warner’s AOL, will handle display and video advertising for the new, as-yet-unnamed joint online video venture of NBC Universal and News Corp. The new service will be distributed online via AOL, MSN and Yahoo, and is NBC U and News Corp.’s answer to Google’s YouTube, and emerging broadband video players like Brightcove, Joost and Veoh. |
The Medium Is, Well, You Tell Us March 30, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| The Medium Is, Well, You Tell Us | |
| by Joe Mandese, Friday, Mar 30, 2007 8:00 AM ET | |
| IN A MOVE THAT SIGNALS just how blurry the business of media is getting, a unit of AOL has been selected to handle advertising sales for a new joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp. that will distribute television programming over the Internet. News that AOL’s Advertising.com would handle display and video ad sales for the new, as-yet-unnamed joint online video venture, is just one of a series of recent developments and alliances that point to rapidly changing roles – and relationships – among the world’s biggest media conglomerates. In an equally telling announcement, the Sirius satellite radio network announced a deal to begin distributing children’s TV networks like Time Warner’s Cartoon Network, Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Channel, and Viacom’s Nickelodeon as part of a new service dubbed “Backseat TV” (see related story in today’s MDN). Talk about your backdoor moves into another medium. In other news announced this week, two more major magazine publishers announced plans to scrap their traditional medium of print, in favor of the Web: Time Inc.’s Life and Meredith’s Child magazines. Major newspapers, consumer magazines and even trade publications like MediaPost’s are now offering video content online too., and digital out-of-home video networks are popping up on billboards, in stores, on elevators, gas station pumps and even in public rest rooms. In other words, radio, online, print and outdoor media are becoming television. Television is becoming online. And all media platforms are simultaneously blurring into each other. Welcome to the world of digital media, where content is “platform agnostic,” consumers expect to get it anywhere and anytime, and business relationships morph among competitors and collaborators at broadband speed. As rapid as these shifts seem, they are happening before even more fundamental changes begin to impact the media marketplace, including the next generation of mobile media devices capable of seamlessly delivering full-motion video and a variety of advanced interactive media content to the most ubiquitous and personal media device ever: the cell phone. Before personalized media controllers like SlingBox gain critical mass. And before a new generation of media “concierges” like Apple TV, Microsoft’s Media Center and Vista, and the networked TiVo systems completely alter the way people manage their digits. Given the rate of technological innovation, the shifts being witnessed now, are only the beginning of an even bigger transformation of a media marketplace in which most, if not all media content is available digitally. Consider this, executives familiar with the next generation of Sirius’ satellite radio tuner technology tell MDN that the fourth generation of its microprocessor will be capable of interacting with cell phones, a move that would give the satellite radio receivers the same kind of interactive backchannel that satellite TV players like DirecTV and EchoStar have via hard line phones wired into the backs of their receivers.
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Traditional TV Networks Embrace Third Screen March 29, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentTraditional TV Networks Embrace Third Screen
CBS, NBC Plan to Offer Mobile Inventory During the Upfront
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Published: March 28, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) — The mobile screen this year will join the TV screen and the PC screen at the table during the TV upfront.
This 360-degree integration is possible for the first time this year, said Cyriac Roeding, VP-wireless, CBS Digital Media.
MediaFlo
CBS and others can offer mobile ad inventory to marketers in this year’s upfront thanks to the launch of MediaFlo, a multicast mobile network. NBC Universal, Fox, ESPN and Viacom have all agreed to distribute their content over their own MediaFlo mobile channels.
Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, said his company has already lined up Intel and Pepsi to sponsor its mobile offerings. He was bullish about the prospects of mobile marketing and said his company would be aggressive in selling such offerings. “In short, we believe advertising can work on wireless,” he said.
NBC unveiled this week that its NCBU Digital2Go initiative — which includes linear video channels NBC News2Go and NBC2Go — will be available on MediaFlo, initially through Verizon Wireless VCast phones and later from other carriers. And to step fully onto the mobile platform, NBC Universal launched four sites for the mobile web: NBC, USA, Bravo and NBC Sports.
Unicast
“We’ve staked a huge claim,” said Salil Dalvi, general manager-wireless platforms, NBC Universal. “We’re aggressively offering our content in the marketplace,” he said.
NBC also plans to offer through a competing unicast service, MobiTV, full-length prime-time and cable entertainment shows on demand, as well as seven short-form video channels. MobiTV, an early entrant into the mobile video space, has some live channels, like CNN, but the bulk of its offerings is video-on-demand content, which works well with its unicast system. Unicast networks send out one signal from a cellphone tower to one phone, whereas multicast networks, such as MediaFlo, operate more like traditional TV programming, sending out one signal to many devices. For the major TV players, that means they can operate mobile networks in a similar fashion to a cable offering.
ESPN Mobile TV’s MediaFlo offering will include live college baseball and football in addition to made-for-mobile programs ESPN ReSet and ScoreCenter.
Prime-time shows
Fox Mobile will include prime-time shows such as “24″ and “Prison Break” as well as reality shows on MediaFlo. Like CBS, which is planning to bring “I Love Lucy” and other classics to the mobile screen, Fox plans to revive some of the shows from its archives for mobile phones, such as “Lost in Space.” CBS will also offer mobile news and weather alerts.
One network won’t be on MediaFlo, however. Bruce Gersh, senior VP-business development, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television, said during a panel discussion that ABC and MediaFlo just couldn’t come to business terms.
But he is not averse to ABC having its own mobile offering. “We’re learning already that it’s additive; it’s not cannibalistic,” said Bruce Gersh, senior VP- business development, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television.
