Articles of the Day
MySpace Data-Driven Ad Plans Outlined By Levinsohn - Peter Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, outlined the company’s plans to mine the data from MySpace profile pages to deliver interest-based ads in 10 key advertising categories. One key intent is to create a formidable marketing competitor to Facebook. He spoke Tuesday at Merrill Lynch’s Media & Entertainment Conference.
It’s Official: AdWords + Widgets = Google Gadget Ads - After months of testing first reported in Online Media Daily, Google has officially launched Gadget Ads–widgets that advertisers can use to spread their messages across the search giant’s content network. At least one beta advertiser is pleased so far.
Nine Billion Videos Viewed Online in July - According to a comScore recent release, nearly 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched an average of three hours of online video during the month of July, with Americans viewing more than 9 billion videos online. Google Sites ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 2.5 billion videos viewed (27.0 percent share of videos), 2.4 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 390 million (4.3 percent), followed by Fox Interactive Media with 298 million (3.3 percent) and Viacom Digital with 281 million (3.1 percent).
IAC Takes Majority Stake in Game Developer GarageGames; Launching Gaming Site InstantAction - Interactive Corp. (NSDQ: IACI) is getting serious about games: it has taken a majority stake in game developer GarageGames.com, and will launch gaming site, InstantAction in private beta today, reports WSJ. The company plans to focus on 3-D games in the browser, more advanced than the casual games genre. Eugene, Oregon-based GarageGames launched in 1999, and has provided game development tools for platforms like Xbox 360. But more recently it began developing its Web-based platform as a step toward distributing games as well.
MySpace and Facebook: Not Competitors? - For all the talk about MySpace vs. Facebook, there are vast differences between social networking’s top two; they might even be able to coexist peacefully. Content-wise, MySpace and Facebook couldn’t be more different. There’s a strong hint of old media to the former’s model for expansion, while Facebook is about the development of new software to help its users interact with one another.
Relevant Advertising (Behaviorally Targeted) Yields More Receptive Prospects - Revenue Science, Inc. announced the results of a study on consumer receptivity to online advertising, conducted by JupiterResearch, that found that more online consumers are consistently more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual advertising, outperforming contextual by as much as 22 percent in some categories.
Google Clear August Search Share Leader - With 63.98% of all U.S. searches, Google led the pack for August, Hitwise reports. MSN, meanwhile, continues to show the most marked decline among the leading search providers.
EyeWonder Rollout Adds Rich Media Ads To IM - Eyeing instant messaging as an untapped ad platform, rich media shop EyeWonder has launched a new service for advertisers to run video and rich media campaigns across major IM clients.
NBC Goes Direct With Free Ad-Supported Downloads - To accommodate consumers’ varied viewing habits, NBC now plans to offer its shows as free, ad-supported downloads. Come October, viewers should be able to walk away with full-length episodes of prime-time and late-night programming–ranging from “Heroes” and “30 Rock” to “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
MTV Launches Activist Social Network - In the wake of “Flux”, MTV on Thursday announced another social networking initiative, Think.MTV, aimed at young people interested in social activism. Whereas Flux is more of a distributed set of social media tools, Think is a destination site that aims to connect Web users on sociopolitical issues, like discrimination, the environment and sexual health.
AOL Underlines Web Portal Woes - AOL, like its Big Web competitors, has made a few significant moves into the advertising network business–moves that will likely increase the company’s aggregated revenue and advertising effectiveness. But acquisitions like the behavioral targeting firm Tacoda are band-aids for a much bigger problem: AOL’s core business, the Web portal business, ain’t really growin’– enough. Time Warner recently admitted that gains at its Web unit won’t match that of the greater U.S. online advertising market–bad news for a company that just started getting serious about advertising two years ago.
ABC, NBC Update Online Video Strategies - In yet another example of TV networks scrambling to distribute programs online, ABC today said it will stream a number of its shows including “The Bachelor,” “Brothers & Sisters” and “Grey’s Anatomy” on AOL. The news comes one day after NBC announced plans to offer downloads of TV shows online. As ABC already plans to stream many of these shows on its own site, ABC.com, adding AOL as a partner won’t necessarily give consumers more options. But it should help ABC to reach more people — such as AOL users who haven’t thought to visit ABC.com on their own for programs.
