• Dynamic Logic Inc. Online Research Blog
• About Us, TOS and Privacy
• Connect With Us On Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

Tom Deierlein welcome back! January 13, 2008

Industry leaders at the iMedia Agency Summit Give Dynamic Logic’s own Hero, Tom Deierlein a well deserved standing ovation and welcome back as they join his efforts to support Iraqi children & civilians. For more info www.tdfoundation.org

See the video of his presentation HERE and please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the TD foundation.

iMedia article located HERE

Tom Deirlein’s amazing story can be found on MSNBC at this link

We are all very happy at having our friend and colleague home and healthy back home with us. It was never the same without you Tom

MediaPost people on the move January 9, 2008

MediaPost accounts on the move January 7, 2008

Spyware Guru Charges ComScore Panelists Victimized January 3, 2008

by Wendy Davis, Thursday, Jan 3, 2008 8:00 AM ET

ONLINE RESEARCH COMPANY COMSCORE CAME under attack this week, as spyware researcher Ben Edelman charged that the company’s tracking software is being installed without adequate notice to users. In a report Edelman published Tuesday, he accused retail giant Sears Holdings–which installs comScore’s software on some Sears.com users–of burying crucial information about comScore’s program in fine print that many people never see.

“[T]he limited notice provided falls far short of the standards the FTC has established,” Edelman said in his report, which confirmed earlier findings by a Computer Associates researcher.

Sears denied that accusation. Larry Costello, director of public relations and communications, said the company fully explains the nature of the tracking to the Sears.com users it invites to join comScore’s panel. “Clear notice appears in the invitation. It also appears on the first signup page, in the privacy policy and user licensing agreement,” he said. “We provide additional notice of the tracking feature in the form of a welcome email that is sent to everyone after they become a member.”

comScore did not respond to requests for comment.

comScore conducts market research by tracking Web users as they surf the Web but, unlike some of the more notorious companies to use tracking software, comScore also does not serve users pop-up ads based on their online history or slow down their computers.

Still, some advocates say that comScore’s tracking activity is so intrusive that comScore should have to follow the same requirements as adware companies. “Certainly most people would be concerned if they knew what was happening,” says Eric Howes, director of malware research at Sunbelt Software. “It’s incredibly invasive, privacy-wise.”

In settlements with the FTC, adware companies Zango and Direct Revenue agreed not to install their software without first providing clear and prominent notice that the programs will trail users around the Web and serve them ads.

This isn’t the first time that comScore has been accused of improper installations. In July, the privacy organization TRUSTe removed the company from its whitelist for allegedly using exploits to surreptitiously install software.

Edelman said the root problem is that comScore doesn’t make serving on its panel worthwhile to consumers. “The basic challenge is that users don’t want comScore software,” Edelman said in his report. “comScore offers users nothing sufficiently valuable to compensate them for the serious privacy invasion comScore’s software entails.”

NTIA Coupons – FCC – Late Night – NFL Network – Scripps January 2, 2008

THE NTIA is now accepting requests for coupons toward the purchase of the digital-to-analog converter boxes that will be required to use analog TV sets after the transition to digital in February 2009. 22 million coupons will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis. Over ten million coupons have been reserved for households that only receive over-the-air television. The government has setup a website and a 24-hour hotline to handle all coupon requests. Call 1-888-DTV-2009 today!

THE FCC has passed new rules allowing broadcasters to phase out analog signals prior to the February 17, 2009 deadline for the transition. Only broadcasters that need to end their analog signals early in order to achieve their digital transition will be allowed to do so. The change means that some over-the-air viewers will begin losing stations before the full transition occurs. In related news, the FCC is considering a test run of the transition in select markets to gauge its impact.

LATE NIGHT shows will return tonight, bringing back Letterman, Leno, Conan and Kimmel. Letterman’s production company has struck an independent deal with the WGA, allowing his program to return with his writing staff intact. Leno, Conan and Kimmel will proceed without writers and the WGA plans to picket all three. With one major WGA-supported late night show competing against several unwritten ones, the value of writers may soon be revealed.

THE NFL TRI-CAST of the Pats-Giants showdown garnered 34.5 million viewers, the most for an NFL game since 1995. CBS took in 15.7 million viewers while NBC reached 13.2 million. The NFL Network served only 4.5 million viewers.

E.W. SCRIPPS has officially stopped publication of the 126-year-old Cincinnati Post as well as The Kentucky Post. The two afternoon dailies had seen their combined readership fall from a peak of 275,000 in 1961 to just 27,000 before their demise. Only one employee from both papers was offered a new job within the company – at KYPost.com, a website that covers local news in Northern Kentucky.

* Get the story at Media30.com *

Hype, Optimism Overfloweth for Kiddie Virtual Worlds January 2, 2008

Online world mania

Following the success of kid virtual worlds like Club Penguin, Habbo and Webkinz, analysts predict 2008 will see more online playgrounds as kid and tween marketers catch onto the trend.

According to The New York Times, Disney — the parent company of Club Penguin — launched a “Pirates of the Caribbean” world for kids 10 and up, with worlds for the movie “Cars” and Tinkerbell coming soon.

Others jumping aboard the virtual train include Nickelodeon, owner of Neopets. Nickelodeon is pledging $100 million to the development of new worlds; meanwhile, Warner will develop worlds based on Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. Toy companies Mattel and Lego have also tacked virtual worlds onto their marketing budgets.

On the other side of the pond, Britain’s Mind Candy launched a world called Moshi Monsters last month, while a Swedish site called Stardoll signs up thousands of American users everyday.

The hype isn’t all froth. Webkinz — which recently came under fire for advertising to kids — logged some six million unique visitors in November 2007, up 342 percent from the same time last year.

eMarketer estimates that the 8.2 million children who are members of a virtual world will jump to 20 million in 2011.

Americans More Connected Online, Quite Ad-Tolerant January 2, 2008

Online, widely connected,
ad-tolerant

In just eight months, the use of online and mobile devices for entertainment rocketed among online US consumers, according to the second edition of the State of Media Democracy survey from Deloitte & Touche, reports Reuters (via MarketingCharts).

38 percent of consumers now watch TV shows online, compared with 23 percent eight months ago, the study finds.

And some 54 percent use social-networking sites, chat rooms or message boards. 45 percent said they have a profile on a social-networking site.

The report of the online survey of 2,081 US consumers, conducted Oct. 25-31, is slated for release in Jan. ‘08. Deloitte provided the findings early to The Hollywood Reporter, which reported some of the results:

Among the study’s findings related to advertising…

• 85 percent cited TV advertising as among the types having the most impact on purchase behavior; 65 percent cited online ads; and 63 percent pointed to magazine ads.
• However, 59 percent said they pay greater attention to magazine ads – and 55 percent cited newspaper ads – than any type of internet advertising.
• Online, search ads were cited as the most effective (78 percent), followed by interactive ads (62 percent), banner ads (60 percent), pre-rolls (31 percent) and post-rolls (19 percent).
• 67 percent said they would be willing to be exposed to more online ads in return for free content that’s valuable.
• However, 37 percent said they would rather pay for online content than be exposed to advertisements.
• 65 percent said they consider any type of internet ad more intrusive than newspaper and magazine ads.

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use January 2, 2008

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; Page M05

Despite more than 20,000 lawsuits filed against music fans in the years since they started finding free tunes online rather than buying CDs from record companies, the recording industry has utterly failed to halt the decline of the record album or the rise of digital music sharing.

Still, hardly a month goes by without a news release from the industry’s lobby, the Recording Industry Association of America, touting a new wave of letters to college students and others demanding a settlement payment and threatening a legal battle.

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

“I couldn’t believe it when I read that,” says Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA. “The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation.”

RIAA’s hard-line position seems clear. Its Web site says: “If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you’re stealing. You’re breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars in damages.” They’re not kidding. In October, after a trial in Minnesota — the first time the industry has made its case before a federal jury — Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $220,000 to the big record companies. That’s $9,250 for each of 24 songs she was accused of sharing online.

Whether customers may copy their CDs onto their computers — an act at the very heart of the digital revolution — has a murky legal foundation, the RIAA argues. The industry’s own Web site says that making a personal copy of a CD that you bought legitimately may not be a legal right, but it “won’t usually raise concerns,” as long as you don’t give away the music or lend it to anyone.

Of course, that’s exactly what millions of people do every day. In a Los Angeles Times poll, 69 percent of teenagers surveyed said they thought it was legal to copy a CD they own and give it to a friend. The RIAA cites a study that found that more than half of current college students download music and movies illegally.

The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy,’ ” she said.

But lawyers for consumers point to a series of court rulings over the last few decades that found no violation of copyright law in the use of VCRs and other devices to time-shift TV programs; that is, to make personal copies for the purpose of making portable a legally obtained recording.

As technologies evolve, old media companies tend not to be the source of the innovation that allows them to survive. Even so, new technologies don’t usually kill off old media: That’s the good news for the recording industry, as for the TV, movie, newspaper and magazine businesses. But for those old media to survive, they must adapt, finding new business models and new, compelling content to offer.

The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”

The industry “will continue to bring lawsuits” against those who “ignore years of warnings,” RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said in a statement. “It’s not our first choice, but it’s a necessary part of the equation. There are consequences for breaking the law.” And, perhaps, for firing up your computer.

Web Playgrounds of the Very Young January 2, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Forget Second Life. The real virtual world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set

Trying to duplicate the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children’s entertainment companies are greatly accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for children. Media conglomerates in particular think these sites — part online role-playing game and part social scene — can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers.

Second Life and other virtual worlds for grown-ups have enjoyed intense media attention in the last year but fallen far short of breathless expectations. The children’s versions are proving much more popular, to the dismay of some parents and child advocacy groups. Now the likes of the Walt Disney Company, which owns Club Penguin, are working at warp speed to pump out sister sites.

“Get ready for total inundation,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer, who estimates that 20 million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today.

Worlds like Webkinz, where children care for stuffed animals that come to life, have become some of the Web’s fastest-growing businesses. More than six million unique visitors logged on to Webkinz in November, up 342 percent from November 2006, according to ComScore Media Metrix, a research firm.

Club Penguin, where members pay $5.95 a month to dress and groom penguin characters and play games with them, attracts seven times more traffic than Second Life. In one sign of the times, Electric Sheep, a software developer that helps companies market their brands in virtual worlds like Second Life and There.com, last week laid off 22 people, about a third of its staff.

By contrast, Disney last month introduced a “Pirates of the Caribbean” world aimed at children 10 and older, and it has worlds on the way for “Cars” and Tinker Bell, among others. Nickelodeon, already home to Neopets, is spending $100 million to develop a string of worlds. Coming soon from Warner Brothers Entertainment, part of Time Warner: a cluster of worlds based on its Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and D. C. comics properties.

Add to the mix similar offerings from toy manufacturers like Lego and Mattel. Upstart technology companies, particularly from overseas, are also elbowing for market share. Mind Candy, a British company that last month introduced a world called Moshi Monsters, and Stardoll, a site from Sweden, sign up thousands of members in the United States each day.

“There is a massive opportunity here,” said Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group, in an interview last week.

Behind the virtual world gravy train are fraying traditional business models. As growth engines like television syndication and movie DVD sales sputter or plateau — and the Internet disrupts entertainment distribution in general — Disney, Warner Brothers and Viacom see online games and social networking as a way to keep profits growing.

But more is at stake than cultivating new revenue streams. For nearly 50 years, since the start of Saturday morning cartoons, the television set has served as the front door to the children’s entertainment business. A child encounters Mickey Mouse on the Disney Channel or Buzz Lightyear on a DVD and before long seeks out related merchandise and yearns to visit Walt Disney World.

Now the proliferation of broadband Internet access is forcing players to rethink the ways they reach young people. “Kids are starting to go to the Internet first,” Mr. Wadsworth said.

Disney’s biggest online world is Club Penguin, which it bought in August from three Canadians in a deal worth $700 million. At the time, more than 700,000 members paid fees of $5.95 a month, delivering annual revenue of almost $50 million.

Still, one world, even a very successful one, does not alter the financial landscape at a $35.5 billion company like Disney. So Disney is pursuing a portfolio approach, investing $5 million to $10 million per world to develop a string of as many as 10 virtual properties, people familiar with Disney’s plans said.

Tinker Bell’s world, called Pixie Hollow, illustrates the company’s game plan. Disney is developing the site internally — creative executives who help design new theme park attractions are working on it — and will introduce it this summer to help build buzz for “Tinker Bell,” a big-budget feature film set for a fall 2008 release.

Visitors to a rudimentary version of Pixie Hollow, reachable through Disney.com, have already created four million fairy avatars, or online alter egos, according to Disney. The site will ultimately allow users to play games (“help create the seasons”) and interact with other “fairies.” When avatars move across the screen, they leave a sparkling trail of pixie dust, a carefully designed part of the experience.

“We wanted to come up with a way to make flying around the site feel really good,” said Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online.

Disney’s goal is to develop a network of worlds that appeal to various age groups, much like the company’s model. Preschool children might start with Pixie Hollow or Toon Town, another of Disney’s worlds, grow into Club Penguin and the one for “Cars” and graduate to “Pirates of the Caribbean” and beyond, perhaps to fantasy football at ESPN.com.

“All the stars are aligning for virtual worlds to become a mass-market form of entertainment, especially for kids and families,” Mr. Yanover said.

If virtual worlds for adults are about escaping from run-of-the-mill lives, sites for children tap into the desire to escape from the confines of reality as run by mom and dad. “I get to decide everything on Club Penguin,” said Nathaniel Wartzman, age 9, of Los Angeles, who also has a membership to a world called RuneScape.

But shopping is a powerful draw, too; most sites let children accumulate virtual points or spend their allowance money to buy digital loot. “It’s really fun to buy whatever you want inside the game,” Nathaniel said in a telephone interview. For his penguin, “like for Christmas I bought a fireplace, a flat-screen TV and a Christmas tree,” he said.

Online worlds, which typically have low overhead and fat profit margins once they are up and running, charge a monthly fee of $5 to $15 and require the adoption of an avatar. Some sites are free and rely on advertising to make money; others are advertising and subscription hybrids. Webkinz relies on the sale of stuffed animals, which come with tags that unlock digital content.

The power of the virtual worlds business was shown recently when Vivendi announced a plan to buy Activision, a publisher of video games for consoles like the Sony PlayStation 3. Vivendi owns World of Warcraft, a virtual world for adults with more than nine million members and revenue of more than $1 billion.

Still, the long-term appetite for the youth-oriented sites is unclear. Fads have always whipsawed the children’s toy market, and Web sites are no different, analysts warn. Parents could tire of paying the fees, while intense competition threatens to undercut the novelty. There are now at least 10 virtual worlds that involve caring for virtual pets.

Privacy and safety are a growing concern, particularly as companies aim at younger children. Some virtual worlds are now meant to appeal to preschoolers, using pictures to control actions so that reading is not required.

And critics are sharpening their knives. “We cannot allow the media and marketing industries to construct a childhood that is all screens, all the time,” said Susan Linn, a Boston psychologist and the director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a nonprofit group that has complained of ads for movies on Webkinz.com.

Operators shrug off worries about fads and competition. “Are features like creating an avatar a long-term advantage for anyone? Probably not,” Mr. Yanover said. “The viability and sustainability of this business comes from the shifting behavior of kids and how they spend their leisure time.”

As for privacy and safety, companies point to a grid of controls. For instance, Neopets restricts children under 13 from certain areas unless their parents give permission in a fax. Several Neopets employees patrol the site around the clock, and messaging features are limited to approved words and phrases.

“Parents know they can trust our brand to protect kids,” said Steve Youngwood, executive vice president for digital media at Nickelodeon. “We see that as a competitive advantage.

• Subscribe Via Email

  Enter your email address:

  Delivered by FeedBurner

• Spam Blocked

  37,140 spam comments

  blocked by
  Akismet

• Recent Comments

  • Henry Kelly III on WPP Dips into Digital Marketing Technologies
  • Patrick K on Jessica Mitidiero adds more heaft to AdAge’s- Making Online Ads Suck Less
  • Chithra KarunaKaran on David O’Brien talks about SafeCount.
  • Tweets that mention Dynamic Logic Inc. Online Research Blog » Scott Gendleman writes about Online Video -- Topsy.com on Scott Gendelman writes about Online Video
  • Joe Green on Scott Gendelman writes about Online Video

• Our RSS feed

  • Jessica Mitidiero adds more heaft to AdAge’s- Making Online Ads Suck LessMark Blei
  • Scott Gendelman writes about Online VideoMark Blei
  • Spring is in the air! Alissa Coronna’s clients are warming up to digital.dynamiclogicbeaty
  • Danny Wysocki talks about coming to terms with not being a psychic in evaluating creative effectivenessMark Blei
  • A Research Ode to Jerry Maguire: Help Me Help You By Jayne HickeyMark Blei
  • David O’Brien talks about SafeCount.Mark Blei
  • Madeline Mulero- Keywords that translated to actions will help you build client and team relationships to bring resultsMark Blei
  • Ogi Radić asks- Can finding out what drives online ad awareness help create better ads?Mark Blei
  • Lauren Rodas Discusses Recruitment On Video Ad Networks And Caribbean Office EnvyMark Blei
  • Michelle Eule discusses the relationship between click though rates and branding metricsMark Blei

• Archives

  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (3)
  • March 2010 (6)
  • February 2010 (3)
  • January 2010 (8)
  • October 2009 (3)
  • September 2009 (4)
  • August 2009 (4)
  • July 2009 (8)
  • June 2009 (15)
  • May 2009 (3)
  • April 2009 (15)
  • March 2009 (5)
  • February 2009 (16)
  • January 2009 (33)
  • December 2008 (87)
  • November 2008 (91)
  • October 2008 (80)
  • September 2008 (58)
  • August 2008 (34)
  • July 2008 (71)
  • June 2008 (31)
  • May 2008 (27)
  • April 2008 (26)
  • March 2008 (5)
  • February 2008 (12)
  • January 2008 (19)
  • December 2007 (35)
  • November 2007 (49)
  • October 2007 (19)
  • September 2007 (12)
  • August 2007 (19)
  • July 2007 (86)
  • June 2007 (73)
  • May 2007 (241)
  • April 2007 (194)
  • March 2007 (187)
  • February 2007 (113)

• Pages

  • About Us, TOS and Privacy
  • Connect With Us On Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn
    • Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use

• Feeds

• Full
• Comments