Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Moustache madness sweeps Germany
Apr. 19 – German beard and moustache championship draws more than 100 men from various countries to compete for most extravagant look.
Organised by the Eastern Bavarian Beard and Moustache Club, the event drew competitors from many countries including Britain, Germany and Switzerland.
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Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , has a great story on the New Facebook Ad Network which seems to resemble the doomed Beacon program in THIS ARTICLE HERE
Identified Hits is a new Facebook ad network that is taking a page from the Beacon play book. Beacon, you’ll remember, is Facebook’s endorsement-based ad service that uses user actions on outside sites to endorse products and services in the News Feed. Identified Hits is utilizing the same concept to push Facebook applications with a concept it calls App Endorsements.
Like Beacon, App Endorsements take a user action — installing and using an application — and turn it into an advertisement built around an endorsement from the user. Unlike Beacon, these ads don’t run in the News Feed, and they’re completely opt-in from the start.
An App Endorsement (see the sample below) is more effective at driving traffic to an app, according to Identified Hits founder Nathan Blecharczyk, because they are personal. That’s the same argument Zuckerberg and company made for Beacon. Blecharczyk, wisely looking to avoid the sort of conflict that was caused by Beacon when it was rolled out last fall, was quick to highlight differences between the two services. “These ads differ from Beacon because they are strictly opt-in and do not broadcast actions from outside of Facebook,” he told us. “[Also] every one of our ads allows the viewer to opt out of receiving future ads from any particular advertiser.”
Identified Hits ads are sold on a CPM basis and are shown on the landing pages of publisher apps in its network. Because ads are only sent to friends of users of the advertisers, and only sent to publisher apps that those friends have installed, Identified Hits will need to build a fairly large publisher network before they have any kind of usable inventory. In other words, in order for App A to get an ad shown on App B, users of App A need to have friends who use App B.
The company says that they’re showing ads on app canvas pages rather than the News Feed because the News Feed messages are easily overlooked. More likely it is because ads of this nature are not possible in the News Feed except via official channels, and because if they were they would likely violate Facebook’s terms of service.
Another wrinkle is that these ads are completely opt-in. Users are asked to explicitly grant permission for their likeness to be used in an advertisement before any are shown on canvas pages of their friend’s apps. We’re skeptical of how many users would actually do that, but Identified Hits says that it has seen “yes” rates are high as 70%.
This article sourced via Social Networking Watch
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Social network platform Ning joined Slide in the Half Billion Dollar Club by raising $60 million (after banker fees) on a $500 million pre-money valuation. Like Slide, Ning used influential investment bank Allen & Co. to represent them in the deal.
Venturebeat broke the story based on a perusal of SEC filings, and Tech Crunch confirmed it with Ning co-founder Marc Andreessen.
“We have raised about $60M net at $500M pre from a set of institutional investors (who we’re not naming, since they said they’d prefer privacy, which we’d like to respect),” he said in an email.
Andreessen on how they’ll use the money:
“We raised the money to enable us to keep scaling given our accelerating growth (over 230,000 networks on Ning now, growing at over 1,000 per day) and to make sure we have plenty of firepower to survive the oncoming nuclear winter. At current growth rates, we don’t need it to get to cash flow positive, but having lived through the last crunch, it’s good to be conservative with these things.”
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Published: April 21, 2008
Perhaps Internet metrics should come with a warning label: “handle with care.”
Stock in the measurement firm comScore slid in after-hours trading on Thursday after Google reported surprisingly strong first quarter earnings. Why the decline? Analysts were primed for a poor performance from Google after three straight months of comScore reports showing a slowdown in paid clicks on the Web giant’s sites.
Google derives income when users click on advertisements, and the apparent deceleration — comScore projected only 2 percent growth in paid clicks in the United States, compared with 30 percent growth in the previous quarter — led many analysts to cut their estimates in anticipation of Google’s earnings news. It also prompted speculation that the economic downturn was affecting the online advertising market.
But on Thursday Google reported a 20 percent rise in paid clicks from comparable quarter in 2007. Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, pointedly said on the earnings call that “paid click growth was much higher than has been speculated by third parties.”
The swipe at measurement firms like comScore did not go unnoticed. Technology and media leaders have long held reservations about the data provided by the companies who serve as Internet traffic reporters. Using panels of self-selected individuals and samples of users who share access to their online activity, the companies measure page views, spending habits and advertisement engagement. Their numbers sometimes vary significantly from the internal measurements of Web sites.
Last week, though, comScore’s estimates were shown to be directionally correct. The growth in Google’s paid clicks is slowing, although perhaps not to the extent that comScore had projected. Google’s 20 percent growth figure included international traffic, leading analysts to presume that a rapid rise in paid clicks in other countries offset slower growth in the United States, where comScore’s measurements were made.
But analysts cannot know for sure because of a “dearth of public information” available about Google’s revenue drivers, said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst for comScore, in a blog post on the company’s Web site about the discrepancies.
Magid M. Abraham, the chief executive of comScore, said the company shared its paid click estimates only with analysts who were aware of the limitations of the data. When it enters the bloodstream of Wall Street, however, the qualifications are often lost. “At the end of the day, our data is really only one element for predicting profit and loss,” Mr. Abraham said, “but people become overly focused on it.”
Mr. Abraham said comScore intends to accelerate its introduction of international paid click measurement.
ComScore’s stock closed down 40 cents, or 1.70 percent, at $23.18 a share on Friday.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , By Saul Hansell
Rory Cellan-Jones, a blogger for the BBC, calculates an interesting statistic from Google’s earnings release yesterday.
Google earned $803 million, about £407 million, in the United Kingdom in the first quarter. If you assume that rate won’t grow, that makes £1.6 billion for the year. And since Google’s British earnings are up 40 percent from a year ago, it is a safe bet it will grow.
That means Google will overtake the ITV television network as the biggest seller of advertising in Britain this year, Mr. Cellan-Jones figures. ITV sold about £1.5 billion of advertising last year.
Britain’s biggest commercial television business — the original “license to print money” — is about to be overtaken by an American upstart which only arrived in the UK in 2001.
That should be no surprise. As best as I can tell, Google sells more advertising than any company in the world. This year Morgan Stanley estimates Google’s total advertising revenue will be $21.9 billion. Excluding the payments it makes to companies that display its ads, Google’s total ad revenue will be $15.7 billion.
Time Warner, the largest media company in the world, earned $8.8 billion in advertising revenue last year. Viacom had $4.7 billion in ad revenue last year. I’m still working through the numbers at the other big conglomerates, but it seems clear that none of them sold more than $16 billion in advertising.
Google, as it made clear yesterday, is hardly slowing down. It stated a goal of becoming the largest seller of Internet display ads in the world (overtaking Yahoo). More significantly, it is devoting enormous effort to building a system for television ads that will rival its text ad system. For now, it is focusing on its YouTube unit. But it plans to extend these to other forms of video, delivered both over the Internet and by digital cable and satellite systems.
If Google succeeds — and that is hardly guaranteed — it could easily double in size or more, and thus dwarf any player in advertising.
We don’t know what effect this will have. Google will argue that it is making the world of marketing more efficient and thus better for everyone. Many in the media business are not so sure that this efficiency helps them.
But it is a good bet that the licenses to print money that have been relied on by companies like ITV around the world are increasingly being transferred to Mountain View.
Media Shop’s New York Office to Handle Planing and Buying
By Megan McIlroy
Published: April 10, 2008
NEW YORK (Adage.com) — Omnicom media agency PHD has grabbed its first global account since appointing a new worldwide CEO this October. Footwear marketer New Balance has consolidated its global media operations with the agency after making PHD its North American media agency in October. … FULL ARTICLE
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , At Venice Festival, Shops Ponder Their Place in Increasingly Digital World, Original Article HERE
By Matthew Creamer
Published: April 21, 2008
VENICE, Italy (AdAge.com) — If you went to the Venice Festival of Media this year, you couldn’t help but think about profit margins. Not the slim ones of media agencies, but the presumably fat margins of the water taxis that are the fastest and most expensive way to zip around the collection of islands that make up to this old city . Even a short trip, say 15 or 20 minutes, could run
as much as 100 euros — or about $160 — all for the privilege of a pitched, bouncy, herky-jerky ride that on a bleary morning might conjure stern memories of the previous night’s bellinis. Propping up the taxi companies, which are the only option for harried visitors, is a basic economic principle: a scarcity of ways to get the job done.
No such luck for today’s media agencies.
A predominant theme running through the presentations and panel discussions was that in today’s advertising marketplace, there is no end to the competition for two roles the media agency is vying for: the seat at the right hand of the marketing team, directing its advertising spending, and the role of content czar (or “content jockeys,” as Universal McCann CEO Nick Brien put it), managing the endless geyser of content big brands let loose today. The scrum includes parties as diverse as production houses cranking out branded content; consumers who have involved themselves in the branding process; and, of course, the ad agencies off of which media shops were spun — perhaps mistakenly — more than a decade ago.
Lingering insecurity
That question of whether the two agencies should be reunited, or rebundled, long a soapbox issue for creatives, got little truck with a crowd clearly reveling in its independence. But that doesn’t mean the media agencies have worked out the inferiority complex that so often drives them to navel gazing at these events. One of the audience-poll questions asked whether media agencies are set up to become strategic leaders for brands — a tee-up, you’d think, given the audience. Yet the crowd was divided just about evenly among the three possible answers: yes, no and not yet.
You could argue that a third wasn’t a bad vote of confidence given that most of their agencies weren’t even around 15 years ago. But somehow it’s hard to escape the feeling that if you have to ask whether you’re in power, then you’re probably not.
That’s where the Venice Festival of Media comes in. Now in its second year, the conference is meant to be the media-buyer and -planner community’s version of Cannes, with the crumbling beauty of the palazzo-lined canals standing in for the crumbling beauty of La Croisette. The Venice event has a long way to go to match the liver-besieging week of the Cannes awards for decadence, scale or centrality in the industry. But it already rivals it for logistical nightmares. The 850 attendees — twice last year’s turnout — were spread out among hotels on different land masses, putting large amounts of power in the hands of those sunburned water-taxi drivers and giving reason for griping. Venice very quickly emerges as a curious choice of venue for anyone working on anything resembling a schedule.
Nevertheless, most polled said they’d come back next year, even if they coupled their logistical complaints with a few quips about the dullness of much of the content. It’s their event and, in a short time, a sense of ownership has developed, a cheering development for master of ceremonies Charlie Crowe, chief executive of festival owner and organizer C-Squared. In just a year’s time, the buoyant, pocket-squared Mr. Crowe capitalized on the inaugural buzz and made the festival something approaching a must-attend, if more for the networking than the panels.
Talking to themselves
A clear challenge for the third installment will be to improve the content. Too much of this year’s festival was dominated by stale discussions of media planning, hackneyed calls for more digital competence, and meditations on branded content that anyone who’s picked up a trade magazine would know inside and out. The big names were there onstage — Jack Klues, a thundering Alexander Schmidt-Vogel — but they weren’t challenged enough. Hot-button issues such as the rebates agencies receive in many parts of the world were given too-short shrift in light of how important they are to local buyers and sellers. And, typical of an ad conference, there was too much of the industry talking to itself.
The high point contentwise was most certainly a series of panels of media-agency CEOs. One British attendee describe the two-hour session as “a bit knockabout” on the way out, as good a descriptor as any, even if there weren’t any major disputes. The panels offered a rare chance to see the people who control a massive chunk of the world’s media spending on one stage, and it was a clear framing of the challenges facing media shops by the people who run them.
A major continuing challenge is the deep involvement of procurement executives in marketing processes putting downward pressure on the profitability of agencies of all kinds. For all the talk about strategic value and making investments in technology, said MindShare CEO Dominic Proctor, “five minutes later we’re in a haggling match over whether it’s a 1% or 2% [fee] on a service. That’s a habit we have to break.”
With that, Mr. Proctor hit on one of most difficult contradictions facing agencies. Just about everyone agrees the media world is increasingly confusing and requires smart strategists to navigate it. We also know that brands have never been so important to the C-suite. Yet the threat of agency commoditization looms as large as ever. While procurement is often the whipping boy in these situations, one agency CEO argued that corporate bean counters — or, for that matter, clients and media sellers — can’t be blamed if media agencies don’t continue their ascent.
“More than any other time in the last 20 years, our destiny is in our hands,” said Steve King, worldwide CEO of ZenithOptimedia.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Sarah Fay to Take Over as CEO, North America(Via Advertising Age)
Published: April 21, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — David Verklin, CEO of Aegis Media Americas and one of the advertising industry’s most visible figures, is stepping down from his role later this year, his 10th at Aegis Media. Sarah Fay will take over as CEO North America.
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , | rainware |
| Euro RSCG Baltimore |
| Euro RSCG Baltimore was awarded a marketing assignment from Brainware, a software provider to Global 2000 corporations and government agencies. Billings were not disclosed. |
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| Various Accounts |
| imc² |
| imc² was named agency of record for MARS Direct and My M&M’s and My Dove chocolate brands. The agency will manage the strategic direction of MARS Direct and its brands, in addition to creating, planning and buying all media, including online, display, search, DRTV, print, direct mail and outdoor. |
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| Gatorade and Tropicana |
| TBWA/Chiat/Day and Arnell |
| PepsiCo shifted creative duties for its Gatorade and Tropicana brands from Element 79 to TBWA/Chiat/Day and Arnell, respectively. |
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| Pizza Inn |
| TDA Advertising & Design |
| Pizza Inn named TDA Advertising & Design as its advertising agency of record. The incumbent, Launch Agency, Dallas, did not defend. The account, valued at $5 million, will go to broadcast, print, outdoor, online and POP advertising. New work launches in July. |
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| Carnival Cruise Lines |
| In Review |
| Deutsch, McCann Erickson and Arnold are the three remaining agencies vying for Carnival Cruise Lines’ $70 million marketing services account. |
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| HP |
| Omnicom agencies |
| HP has formed a strategic relationship with Omnicom Group. Omnicom will offer on-demand printing for direct mail pieces, packaging, marketing collateral, point of sale materials and traditional advertising to its clients using HP products. In addition, Omnicom’s BBDO was awarded the international management of HP’s Imaging and Printing Group’s advertising business, making BBDO the group’s advertising agency for all geographies outside the United States, replacing Publicis. The assignment is valued at $200 million. |
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| Hong Kong Tourism Board |
| Grey |
| Grey was tapped by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to handle global advertising chores for the next three years. Media planning and buying duties will be handled by MindShare. |
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| Columbia Sportswear Company |
| Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners |
| Columbia Sportswear Company selected Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners as its marketing communications strategy agency of record. Borders, Perrin & Norrander previously served as lead agency for more than two decades. |
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , VIACOM, MGM and LION’S GATE will launch an “as yet un-named” premium cable channel in the fall of 2009. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said the channel will “meet the needs of varying distributors and take advantage of online distribution.” The deal may hit Showtime right where it hurts, as all three companies are major sources for their programming. Premium channels are good business; let’s see how many consumers will
MICROSOFT is experimenting with a subscription-based model to sell its popular Office software suite and other applications to consumers in the U.S., as the company faces heightened competition in its core desktop-products market. Is this going to work? Or, will inertia force the status quo, either way this is an experiment worth watching.
GOOGLE will sell more advertising this year in the United Kingdom than the ITV television network, until now the largest ad seller in Britain. In fact, Google’s numbers are staggering. Morgan Stanley estimates Google’s total advertising revenue to top $21.9 billion this year, making it the largest seller of advertising in the world.
In semi-related news, GOOGLE VIDEO will receive a face lift this week. Search results can now be viewed in a variety of ways, including a “TV view” which allows users to stream video and search for content at the same time. Yep, everyone wants to be “Google for video,” even Google!
MYSPACE and PLAYLIST.com announced a partnership which has resulted in the number one application on the new MySpace application platform. The Playlist.com widget allows consumers to create video playlists powered by YAHOO’s music video license. Playlist.com touts 23 million registered users. A big number for a successful application you’ve never heard of.
See More at http://www.shellypalmermedia.com/
