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Today In Online Marketing News – Wednesday May 7, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Wednesday May 7, 2008

• When Everything Is Media, What Is Media Worth? By Troy Young | Advertising Age. This is a great article. “The market has struggled to place value on social media as an ad vehicle, but with more than 30% of Internet traffic driven by social activities, a lot is at stake. This struggle is part of a larger media phenomenon that is raising significant new challenges for publishers and media professionals. Specifically, what is inventory worth, how do media channels compare and what creates premium value?… Let’s think about the implications. First, more monetizable ad inventory will pressure media prices as a whole. This is a function of volume and the cost structure of emerging media platforms. Content and distribution costs are significantly reduced or eliminated in many new platforms. We are seeing this today with sub-50-cent CPMs on basic bulk inventory.”

• Social networking Web sites compete with class reunions By Associated Press | Technology Review.

• New Firm Combines Social and Behavioral Ad Targeting By Zachary Rodgers | The ClickZ Network. Media6degrees uses a combination of cookies and ad server logs to pinpoint a person’s interests and generate anonymous profiles of their real friends.

• Addressable Advertising Gets Closer to Reality By Betsy Cummings | BrandWeek. Is there competition on the horizion in the world of online marketing? “Marketers, media buyers and network executives heading into the upfronts this month have all been looking at a new technology that could revolutionize the industry. That technology—addressable advertising—has been mostly hype. Until now. Industry watchers say addressable advertising—the ability to target TV ads by household so that, say, a 50-year-old man watching Lost would see a different ad than a 14-year-old girl watching the same show next door—is getting closer to a national rollout.”

• Andreessen to Facebook Board? By Kara Swisher | All Things Digital. Silicon Valley luminary Marc Andreessen has been asked to join the board of Facebook, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation. Anderson co-founded Netscape and currently is working on Ning.

• IAB Introduces Online Video Ad Guidelines By Mike Shields | MediaWeek. The IAB’s new guidelines cover three basic forms of online video ad formats.

• Survey: Short Form, Multiplatform Content Will Drive Growth By By John Eggerton | Broadcasting & Cable. Accenture Poll of Media Executives Says Online, Mobile Content Will Drive Revenue Growth.

• The True Story of a Bogus Blog By Andrew Adam Newman | AdWeek. A class project, sponsored by Coach, highlights the fuzzy world of online ethics.

• The Hard Sell: How to Market Products That Are No Longer Popular By Knowledge@Wharton.

Posted in Behavioral Targeting, Fraud, Mergers And Acquisitions, Online Marketing, Recession Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Tuesday, May 6, 2008.

• The X Factor: The risky business of ad banners By Sean X Cummings | iMediaConnection. Cummings argues, “The way most agencies conceptualize banner ads is seriously flawed. The internet is a fundamentally different consumption medium than TV, so wake up!.”

• Lessons from the father of venture capital By Martin Arnold | Financial Times via Los Angeles Times. A synopsis of the life of Georges Doriot, the founder of the U.S. venture capital industry.

• PopularMedia Debuts Social Media Management Platform By Tameke Kee | Online Media Daily. Here comes another “Social Media platform” we’ll see if there is any value with this one, but I doubt it.

• Why Yahoo Shares Lost Only 15% By Robert Hof | BusinessWeek. The bottom didn’t fall out of the stock after Microsoft yanked its bid. One reason, says CEO Yang: “We have more alternatives” than before the offer.

• Cutting Costs with Online Coupon Sites By Catherine Holahan| BusinessWeek. Web sites that offer money-saving discounts are enjoying a resurgence in the current economy, as consumers surf for bargains.

• The great ringtone hunt By David Einstein | San Francisco Chronicle. Q:I would like to get some cool ringtones for my daughter’s cell phone but don’t want to pay an arm and a leg. It seems that most Web sites I find on Google are a rip-off. You either have to sign up for a year at $9.99 per month, or they don’t openly tell you how much it costs. Do you have any recommendations?

• Google, From Stirrer to Spoiler, Ends Microsoft’s Yahoo Search By Miguel Helft | The New York Times. Microsoft and Yahoo were pushed to the brink of a multibillion-dollar marriage and then to a sudden breakup this weekend by the same player…

• Google PR Chief Flees To Facebook By Stan Schroeder | Mashable

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertising Agencies, Affiliate Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Creatives, Legal, Mergers And Acquisitions, Monitization, Online Marketing, Recession Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Monday, May 5, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Monday, May 5, 2008

• 10 experts weigh in on marketing to U.S. Hispanics By Joe Kutchera | iMediaConnection. Executives from AOL Latino, Google and Terra to name a few chime on their experience marketing to Hispanic users.

• Netflix Broke the Rules and Won By Bill Snyder | Stanford GSB News. Discussed is Netflix’s business model and how they filled suit against Blockbuster for copying their online subscription model.

• Integration missteps at AOL led to first flat ad quarter By The Associated Press | The New York Times. No surprise here, AOL had a bad first quarter, apparently they did not integrate their recent acquisitions efficiently.

• Lotame Defines Social Media Ad Metrics By Les Luchter | Online Media Daily. This is an interesting read for anyone who advertises in the social media space.

• United Online To Acquire FTD Group for $800 Million By CenterNetworks.com | CenterNetworks. Ok so this was last week, but still big news.

• Tips for Marketing on the Social Web By Harry Gold | The ClickZ Network.

• The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right By Frances X. Frei | Harvard Business Review. Extensive study of the world’s best service companies reveals the principles on which they’re built.

Posted in Ad Networks, Mergers And Acquisitions, Monitization, Online Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Friday, April 25, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Friday, April 25, 2008

• Should Anti-Spyware Programs Fight Snooping I.S.P.’s? By Saul Hansell | The New York Times. Will spyware software block the cookies needed by ISP targeting companies like Phorm?

• Three Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Convert to Leads By Bryan Eisenberg | The Clikz Network. Eisenberg argues that lead generation sites fail to convert for three basic reasons. “Visitors don’t understand what value they get in exchange for giving their information. Visitors don’t understand what value they get in exchange for giving their information. Visitors don’t understand what value they get in exchange for giving their information.”

• Barneys and Friend – Pattern Recognition Skills By Arianne Cohen | FastCompany.com. I found this article very interesting. Basically Barneys is using a technology from a company called Proclivity to serve relevant targeted email to users based on their browsing – very interesting.

• AOL Buys Fantasy Football Site Fleaflicker By David Kaplan | paidContent.org. This month’s AOL acquisition is Fleaflicker – stay tuned to see who they acquire next month.

• User-Generated Content & Social Media IAB.net | Interactive Advertising Bureau. This guideline was released last week - readers will find it relevant.

Posted in Ad Networks, Behavioral Targeting, Legal, Mergers And Acquisitions, Online Marketing, Social Networking, UK Marketing | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Thursday, April 24, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Thursday, April 24, 2008

• Engagement is great, but show me the money By Bill Seely | iMediaConnection.com. This is a great read for anyone who is ROI focused - very practical examples.

• Ning Valuation Right On By Steve Rosenbaum | AlwaysOn. Ning is valued at 500 million and here is why.

• Facebook Platform Faces Rough Road Ahead, Despite Successes By Mark Hendrickson | TechCrunch. Anyone who has advertised on Facebook applications knows that conversions can be very difficult to come by. Discussed are the low Facebook Application CPM’s averaging some 15 cents.

• Justice Department looking at Google/Yahoo test By Diane Bartz | Reuters. Google and Yahoo! are being investigated for possible anti-trust violations

Posted in Creatives, Legal, Mergers And Acquisitions, Monitization, Social Networking | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Wednesday, April 23, 2008.

• A Nosedive for Netflix by Arik Hesseldahl | BusinessWeek. Any players in the affiliate space should be watching this one as the online DVD rental model continues to evolve. Netflix has always been an online marketing leader, but they are faced with some significant challenges ahead – AppleTV…

• Microsoft Won’t Raise Yahoo Bid; Doesn’t Need Company By Sara Gay Forden and Alex Armitage | Blomberg.com Will Microsoft back out of the Yahoo! deal now that earning are up?

• Making Money, the How-To Way By Miguel Helft | The New York Times. Discussed is our fascination with how-to guides and how they are successful online.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Mergers And Acquisitions, Monitization | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

• Security firms scrutinise Phorm | BBC News. This is an interesting one – Phone’s cookies may be blocked by security programs. I can only imagine the lawsuits that will fly if that happens.

• Google Isn’t The Only One By Clarie Cain Miller | Forbes.com. Nice perspective on the atmosphere from last weeks Ad-tech in SF. Like many online marketers I welcome the recession, the more money spent online the better. Even as an advertiser that will have to compete with other advertisers I welcome this. It’s all about performance!

• Lead-Generation Blueprints in 30 Minutes: How a Company Quadrupled Marketing By Mike Gospe | MarketingProfs.com. This is a brief synopsis from a recently released book – sounds like a must read.

• Churn, Churn, Churn by Gary Stein | The ClickZ Network. This is a great article that every online marketer should read. It doesn’t matter if you are on the sales side or the advertising side – great article.

Posted in Legal, Recession Marketing | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Monday, April 21, 2008

Here are some of the articles that caught my attention today: Monday, April 21, 2008

• Online Advertising Is a Lagging Indicator of a Recession By Saul Hansell | The New York Times. Hansell describes the mood from online marketers as being positive. All in all the online marketing world will not be in for the recession it had in 2000, but it will still feel some of the pain.

• When is the best day to send? By Caroline Smith | Brontoblog.com I have often been asked what the best day to send email is. According to this report it’s Tuesday followed by Wednesday.

• The charmed life of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. By Josh Quittner | CNNMoney.com. Brief history on Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and how his company is sustaining and thriving in an ultra-competitive marketplace.

• Bezos On Innovation by BusinessWeek. Here is another interview with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos reflecting on his 13 years at the helm of Amazon’s ship.

• A Widget’s Worth by Catherine Holahan | BusinessWeek. Discussed are the popularity of widgets on social networks such as Facebook and how developers are trying to monetize them.

• One Place for Your Many Online Lives by Heather Green | BusinessWeek. FriendFeed is a way to track everything that your friends and colleagues are doing – it aggregates data from 30 sites like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and places it all in a easy to use interface.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Mergers And Acquisitions, Monitization, Online Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments »

Off to Ad-tech | San Francisco

I am off to San Francisco today so posts will be light - if any for the next few days until I am back on Thursday.

Posted in Online Marketing | No Comments »

Today In Online Marketing News – Monday April 14, 2008

Here is an article that caught my attention today: Monday April 14, 2008

• The Internet Runs on Ad Billions by Randall Rothenberg | Wired.com.

Randall Rothenberg CEO and President of the IAB chimes in on Regulation arguing that it is all advertiser enabled – if the advertisers are regulated the services consumers enjoy could be in peril.

Posted in Ad Networks, Legal, Monitization, Online Marketing | No Comments »