Articles of the Day
The Crowded, Crowded World of Social Networks - Since eMarketer published its first report on social network marketing, companies have latched with almost religious fervor onto the notion that consumers want to be socially connected online, whether on mass-appeal sites such as MySpace, on targeted niche sites and video sites, or on mobile phones — in fact, almost everywhere. As a result, eMarketer has increased its estimate of US ad spending on social networks to $900 million in 2007, up from the previous estimate of $865 million.
Real Cities Rolls Into comScore’s Ad Top 50 - The Real Cities network broke into comScore Media Metrix’s top 50 ad rankings for the month of April, reaching 16% of the U.S. online population at number 36. Real Cities, which unites 130 local news sites into a national network, may have benefited from such hot April news-related topics as the pet food recall, which comScore Media Metrix reported also led FDA.gov to experience the Web’s largest traffic surge during the month–up 72% from March–and Nestle to rise 34%, largely due to its Purina brand.
Facebook, Friendster Offer Free Classifieds - Move over Craig. Facebook on Friday said it would add free classified ad-listings to its popular social networking site.
Orbitz’s Away.com Leverages Social Commerce with Ask & Answer - Away.com, a subsidiary of Orbitz Worldwide, has signed on as one of the first major sites to use Bazaarvoice’s new Ask & Answer service–bolstering purchase decisions by allowing users to post and respond to specific product and service questions right alongside standard product information.
Digital Future, Cautious Present for Ad Holding Firms - Advertising’s major agency holding companies are now firmly aligned with their global media-selling counterparts: The future is digital. And that’s going to mean big changes, just as it has for every other industry affected by this phenomenon. But some would say that Big Advertising is still several steps behind Big Media in addressing a shift that could have a comparatively greater affect on their business.
User Data Debate Persists Among Privacy Advocates - Reporting from the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Montreal last week, the Times brings back an old issue that continues to hang over the ad industry: consumer privacy versus the collection of user information. Just last fall, the Center for Digital Democracy filed a fresh complaint with the FTC detailing how the combination of user profiling, data mining and targeted advertising threaten consumer privacy.
Murdoch’s Dow Jones Bid Reflects Online Potential - According to one measure used by financial analysts, Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion takeover bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. values the publisher higher than Google. Let’s explain that: The $60-per share offer represents 40 times DJC’s projected 2007 earnings, compared to the current price of Google’s shares, which values the search giant at about 32 times projected ‘07 earnings.
Why Americans Love Marketing To Themselves - The traditional media model isn’t just shifting, it’s collapsing. It’s a new world when consumers start taking the initiative to create marketing messages for companies whose products they like. However, brands are our culture, which means that when we take photos of ourselves with the products we love, as Cadillac asked its owners to do in a recent campaign, we do it with pride, and because we want to.
Web Distribution Is CBS’ Manifest Destiny - After trying and failing with an online video strategy requiring users to come to one destination to view content, CBS Corp. is shifting gears. As it was offline, CBS believes that distribution is the name of the game on the Web. Of course, so do broadcast competitors NBC, ABC and Fox. While NBC and Fox, through the NBC-U News Corp-Microsoft-Yahoo-etc. video partnership, may have already achieved the largest distribution (before releasing anything), CBS this week is set to extend its menu of video content to as many as 10 different Web sites, from Time Warner’s AOL to the online video startups Joost and Veoh.
A La Carte Paid Video Downloads Are A “Dead-End”: Report - A la carte paid video downloads, such as those offered at Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Unbox, will peak in 2007, generating $279 million in revenue, up from $98 million last year. Instead, ad-supported and subscription based models will drive the online video market, according to Forrester Research. Forrester’s survey showed that only 9 percent of online adults have ever paid to download a movie or TV show. And that tiny minority is primarily composed of “niche of media junkies” willing to spend heavily on such content; they do not represent mainstream consumers, according to the study.
Ask.com To Spend Close To $100 Million in Advertising This Year - Ask.com, still trying hard (they’ve launched an unscrutable billboard campaign in LA, and other cities), will spend about $100 million in total ad spend this year, IAC CEO Barry Diller disclosed at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit today. Ask.com held 5.2 percent of the U.S. Web search market in March, up 0.2 percentage points over February, according to Comscore.
