Articles of the Day
IAB: Online Ads Soar 35% in 2006, To $16.9 Billion - Branded display ads and search placements helped the online ad industry post its best year ever, according to numbers released by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Google AdSense For Video Starts Testing - Google was mum yesterday on which select publishers and advertisers are participating in its closed test launch of “AdSense for Video,” the search giant’s much-anticipated in-stream ad service that could transform the industry by bringing ad revenues to online videos across the Web spectrum.
Microsoft’s Mehdi Downplays Likelihood Of Yahoo Deal - Microsoft has most of the pieces it needs to fulfill its advertising ambitions with the $6 billion aQuantive acquisition, and remains “very committed” to its year-old adCenter platform, a senior Microsoft ad exec told the Goldman Sachs Internet Conference.
This Bud’s Not For You - Branded content has a future. Branded destination sites, not so much. That’s the word from analysts and agency types trying to decipher the potential demise of Anheuser-Busch’s hugely ambitious entertainment network, Bud.TV.
E-Centives Evolves Into Invenda - One of the original digital marketing companies has re-branded itself and set up three business units: Collabrys, ConsumerREVIEW and E-centives.
Online Advertising Future: Automation Or Data? - The past 24 months have been some of the best in the history of online ad networks. All the leaders in the space have been growing rapidly, and that growth has culminated in some stellar M&A deals. But what will happen to the future of display advertising? That’s what many are asking now that a new model has entered the online ad industry. Remainder of article goes on to discuss the inherent flaws in ad exchange marketplaces.
Local TV Web Sites Gaining on Newspaper Sites - A new 85-market study, available at the Editor & Publisher/Media Week Interactive Media Conference May 23-24, comparing local TV and newspaper web sites reveals that local TV stations are gaining strength with online visitors.
Pharmaceuticals Stay Healthy Online - The Internet is fast becoming the digital equivalent of the Physician’s Desk Reference. An average of 55.3 million people per month, or 31% of US Internet users, visited a Web site in the health information category in the first quarter of 2007, according to comScore data. That traffic represents a healthy 12% increase over the same period in 2006. At the same time, the US Internet population grew only 4%.
Microsoft Ad Chief: We Don’t Need Yahoo - Microsoft chief advertising strategist Yusuf Mehdi on Wednesday put the stop to rumors linking Microsoft to a potential Yahoo acquisition. “We think we have all of the pieces to reach our target,” Mehdi said, though he added that smaller acquisitions are a possibility, which would rule out Yahoo. The Web giant’s current market valuation is $40 billion. “Yahoo has a great business. Kudos to them, but we’re bigger globally. We have half a billion people,” he said.
What’s the ROI For Second Life? - Business Week reported a few days ago that big companies like News Corp. and Sony Corp. are taking a close look at virtual worlds — primarily those catering to young kids and tweens, like Club Penguin and Webkinz.com. For many companies, from ad agencies to news outlets to the NBA, there’s a certain cachet about having a presence in Second Life. But, GigaOm asks, what’s the ROI on these marketing expenses?
Ask Isn’t Sweating The Competition - If you’re in the search engine business and you don’t work for Google, you probably think and talk about Google all the time anyway. If you’re Yahoo, you wonder why Google still does a much better job monetizing its search traffic. If you’re Microsoft, you’re wondering how many more millions to invest to gain a few percentage points of market share. And if you’re Ask.com, you might ask, is there a niche or something here for us? Ask’s new ad campaign is all about its superior search algorithm, a word the company is trying to introduce into pop culture. If it can get people talking about and wondering what algorithms are, Ask may yet convince people to take its taste test.
Schmidt: Google Will Organize Your Life - Google CEO Eric Schmidt shared an interesting view of what he foresees in the Web giant’s future with the Financial Times. Schmidt said gathering more personal data is key to the company’s core goal of organizing the world’s information. “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalization,” he said. “The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow ?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ “
Leaning Forward, Web Users More Open To Video Ads - Nearly six in 10 Web users (59%) have watched online video ads, according to a new study by The Kelsey Group. “YouTube has largely popularized the concept of watching short videos on a computer screen and has likewise familiarized consumers with the idea of watching short video ads,” states the report. What’s more, people aren’t just watching ads, but the majority of those who view an ad also either visit a Web site or take some other action, according to Kelsey, which based its report on a survey.
