Articles of the Day
aQuantive’s McAndrews Holds Forth On Microsoft Deal - Fresh off a deal to sell his agency to Microsoft Corp. for $6 billion, all eyes were focused yesterday on aQuantive president and CEO Brian McAndrews, the digital adman of the hour at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ first-ever Digital Conference in New York.
Pre-Roll: Too Few Advertisers, Too Many Videos - A Promax audience heard that pre-roll is suffering from too few advertisers buying up lots and lots of inventory.
CNN, YouTube Team For User-Generated Presidential Debate - In the spirit of open engagement, CNN and YouTube will team up to produce two Presidential debates driven entirely by questions submitted through the video-sharing goliath.
For Niche Media, Aggregation is Key - Niche online advertising formats, including broadband video platforms, RSS feeds, blogs, and mobile network, were the focus of a Digital Hollywood panel.
About.com Ad Revenues Up 21.6%; Outpace NYTimes.com Growth - While overall ad revenues decreased 8.5% in May, The New York Times Company reported positive news for the Internet side of the business, with About.com leading the gains. About.com’s May advertising revenues rose 32.6% year-over-year, to $7.4 million. The growth was attributed to increases in both display and cost-per-click advertising, and also reflect the recent acquisitions of ConsumerSearch.com and UCompareHealthCare.com.
IDC Forecasts Decline in Search’s Share Of Online Ads - Search’s share of online advertising will decrease from last year’s 40% to 32% in 2011, forecasts research firm IDC. In its study, “U.S. Internet Advertising 2007-2011 Forecast and Analysis: Funding the Consumer Internet,” IDC predicts that Internet ad spending will grow three times faster than overall advertising during the next five years–from $16.9 billion in 2006 to $31.3 billion in 2011.
Virtual World Bubble Unlikely - It seems that talk of a bubble necessarily follows the emergence of any new Internet phenomenon these days. The social networking bubble was followed by the online video bubble, which was followed by a general venture capital/private-equity-led Web 2.0 bubble. Now we may be heading into a virtual world bubble. Watch, a widget bubble will be next. Mind you, none of the other “bubbles” burst. There’s been consolidation and shakeout, but nothing so massive as to affect an otherwise robust Internet media economy.
FTC To Review Yahoo, Microsoft Ad Deals - Last month’s spate of advertising acquisitions by major Web firms and ad-holding companies has created a pile of work for the Federal Trade Commission. While Google-DoubleClick, the first such announcement, is still receiving the third degree, the FTC this week approved ad giant WPP Group’s proposed acquisition of interactive ad serving giant 24/7 Real Media.
Facebook’s Feeding Frenzy - Legions of dreamy-eyed entrepreneurs gathered at the Facebook Developer’s Meetup, looking to develop the next big thing for the social network. The mood could best be summed up by the appearance of one entrepreneur who wrote, “I NEED an APP” on his nametag. Existing Web companies were also looking to develop Facebook apps, hoping to capitalize on the social network’s 25 million-plus user base.
