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May 2004
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AdSense 'Smart Pricing' Brings Back Contextual BuyersKevin Lee points out a new observation about changes to Google's AdSense program as well as a search engine marketing axiom derived from the constant evolution. It turns out that the changes Google made to AdSense improved the contextual listings... continue reading »WhenU Intros 'Product Placement' PlatformWhenU today launched a new platform that lets pop-ups appear without the extra browser window. Ads can appear over or under web site content in customized shapes. Billed as a "Desktop Product Placement Platform," WhenU hopes that the format will... continue reading »Dotglu Goes to the DogsKirshembaum Bond & Partners' online group Dotglu landed two KBP clients, Kao Brands Co. and Hartz Mountain Co. Kao holds personal care brands such as Jergens, Ban and Curel. Hartz runs one of the best distributed lines of pet care... continue reading »Another Way for Viral Marketing to Go Awry: LamenessSchick decided to use a viral marketing video spot to get the message out to hairy Canadians that the company has a new, four-bladed razor. An oddly effete animated shock jock (perhaps he's just overly shaved) stands in front of... continue reading »Top Ten Net CPG Advertisers SurpriseNielsen's AdRelevance reports that the most commonly seen consumer goods advertisers on the web include many names that might surprise many in the Internet marketing field. The list notes the top ten advertisers by impressions received, rather than by spending,... continue reading »Google Updates Blogger, FinallyGoogle finally updated the Blogger program it acquired with Pyra labs more than a year ago. In that time the Google engineers have been giving the program a new set of guts so that it can handle several orders of... continue reading »Google Makes Defensive Gmail ExplanationGoogle in its "a few words about privacy and Gmail" page added a note in an effort to calm fears about Gmail privacy concerns and clear up misconceived rumors that have been spreading around the web. It told users that... continue reading »PDA Advertising Successful, OverlookedYou might think everyone on the planet has a PDA, but alas, that isn't true. "Only" seven percent on U.S. households are predicted to have a PDA user by 2008, according to Jupiter. But PDA users are most often the... continue reading »Google Working on Keyword List MakerGoogle is preparing to launch a complementary technology to its contextual ad program, an engine that will determine what lists of keywords will be most likely to trigger a visit to an advertiser's site. Google hopes that the technology will... continue reading »SuperPages Adds Self-ServiceVerizon's SuperPages joined the ranks of other major net publishers by adding self-service functions to its online listings. Advertisers can now set up and monitor campaigns without having to deal with a SuperPages rep. Now those rep services will come... continue reading »Net Subscription Revenues Up, but MixedSpending for subscriptions and other online content grew rapidly last year, but enormous gains in the dating category masked a decline in reported entertainment spending. Dating sites saw revenues rise to almost half a billion dollars from about 300 million... continue reading »Dixie Chick Boosts Site Stats with OffspringTalk about alternative marketing. Reversing a slide in site visits, the Dixie Chicks marked a 1,134 percent increase in web traffic after the mandolin player had twins on April 27. A picture posted to the site sent fans in droves... continue reading »Kerry Beats Bush on AmazonAmazon.com's application allowing site visitors to donate to political campaigns is running toward the Democrats, with about five times more money going to John Kerry's campaign that that of President George W. Bush. Kerry received $150,000 to date, and may... continue reading »Agencies Sprout Interactive Groups InternationallyInteractive marketing has grown in international markets to such an extent that even the most ossified media firms in the most staid countries are sprouting new interactive divisions. India is watching as Leo Burnett, Lowe and Ogilvy & Mather develop... continue reading »Study Shows Click Rates, Rich Media RisingA study of ads run through DoubleClick's serving system revealed a few interesting findings. Rich media ads increased from about two of every five ads in Q1 2003 to about half of all ads in Q1 2004. Those rich media... continue reading »Judge Restrains SpamCop, Sets HearingSpamCop, the IronPort company that blacklists reported spammers, was barred by a federal court from sending complaints to Internet companies about mass emailer OptInRealBig.com. The Northern District of California court ordered a temporary restraining order and may extend it, pending... continue reading »Google Starts Biz BlogRick Bruner points out Google's new blog that started up on Monday. Pyra founder-cum-Google program manager Evan Williams writes the self-referential official company digest, and appears to be doing so with at least a little vetting from other company officials.... continue reading »Avenue A Names Ad Sales Expert to Head SearchAvenue A named an ad sales expert run its search engine marketing division. Rob Wilk comes most recently from Overture, and will report directly to Art Muldoon, the general manager of client services in the New York City office. AdWeek... continue reading »Yahoo Compounds Google's Rank MistakeEver since Google made public (by putting a metering device on its toolbar) its PageRank scores for each web page, Danny Sullivan has been shaking his head. The rankings caused search engine marketing industry convulsions, and it turns out that... continue reading »11 eBay Categories Turnover More than $1 BillionIf eBay were a country, its gross national product would be leaving Guatemala in the dust. The auction giant just announced the eleven categories in which it's doing more than $1 billion of revenue. Click for list. Internet Retailer reports.... continue reading »Office Depot Saves with Online Invoicing, PaymentsOffice Depot was able to convert its corporate customers - 99 percent of whom did not indicate they wanted to pay online a few years ago - to online payments by first giving them what they initially wanted: online invoice... continue reading »Reuters Adopts RSSReuters is adopting the Really Simple Syndication (RSS), giving a boost to the content distribution standard seen commonly in blogs. The news wire will allow sites to publish headlines and one-line story descriptions of several important categories, as well as... continue reading »Canadian Ecommerce Grows in One CategoryCanadians are turning to domestic ecommerce sites finally, with spending growing about 20 percent in the last quarter of 2003 relative to the year before. Canada's balky ecommerce growth has been somewhat of a mystery, especially given the opposite trend... continue reading »Earthlink: Lawsuits First Spam Defense, Tech to Come LaterWired interviewed Earthlink's chief privacy officer about whether or not its efforts to "sue the pants off spammers" is working. The Internet service provider has teamed up with Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo in suing hundreds of alleged spammers. The Earthlink... continue reading »Political Ads May Spur Online Media DemandThe efficiency of message distribution and proven effectiveness in fundraising efforts will drive a record year for political advertising, according to all the newly-minted experts. The Associated Press wrote a wrap-up of online political developments, all of which seem to... continue reading »Judge Reverses Self on SpamCop RestraintEven before it went into effect, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong dissolved her temporary retraining order against SpamCop on behalf of OptInRealBig.com. In a statement she said that the issues turned out to be more complicated than they first appeared to... continue reading »Click Rates to Head Downward AgainThe reversal of the seemingly inexorable decline in clickthrough rates reported by DoubleClick yesterday is probably temporary. The study reveals that most of the slight clickthrough increase for the quarter came on the back of increased rich media use, which... continue reading »CBS Site Sweeps Past Other NetsCBS's "reality" show Survivor is asking viewers to vote on the web for their favorite contestant, who will win a $1 million consolation prize. The vote rocketed the CBS website past those of fellow TV networks ABC and NBC, as... continue reading »Do-Not-Call Father CannedThe Bush Administration announced a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman before the current one could even resign, the Washington version of the door hitting someone on the way out. Outgoing FTC Chairman Tim Muris vigorously drove the Do Not... continue reading »Microsoft Update to Target SpywareMicrosoft's planned update for a Windows XP will make at least five changes to thwart the inadvertent installation of spyware. Roughly half of the world's computers run Windows XP. The update will include a pop-up blocker, a reduction in the... continue reading »VNU Launches Own Viral SpotTrade publisher VNU launched its own viral ad campaign, called "The man who thought he knew everything..." The 30-second spot promotes its Computeract!ve book, a British information technology magazine. The spot appears to have been made with a very low... continue reading »Gays More Susceptible to Online AdsGays are more affected by online advertising, according to a new Harris Interactive study. Gays are more likely to use gay-specific sites for travel reservations and about two and half times more likely to access political news online. Gays appear... continue reading »Eyewonder Bows 'VideoStitial'Eyewonder launched a new between-page TV commercial ad format it calls the VideoStitial. The form debuted on BusinessWeek Online and Forbes.com in ads designed by Euro RSCG 4D. Previously, Eyewonder provided pop-up ads, but now the company is gunning for... continue reading »Bush Breaks Big Online CampaignThe campaign to re-elect President George W. Bush broke its first online efforts, scattering a large budget across more than 50 sites, including Yahoo, MSN, Weather.com and Parents.com. The ads use Laura Bush to advocate to women and couples for... continue reading »Coke Launches GPS Can PromotionThis Summer, Coke will randomly place 120 GPS- and cell phone-equipped Coke cans throughout their North American distribution. Called the "Unexpected Summer," the sweepstakes hopes to build sales for the ailing Classic line. Consumers who find one of the 120... continue reading »Judges Starting to Use Google Instead of LexisCNET documented several cases where judges used Google searches as support for decisions. Judges often must rule on topics about which they know nothing, and it seems that they are admitting to turning to web search engines to brush up... continue reading »Google to Allow Banner AdsWhile not allowing them on its flagship Google site, the search giant is allowing banner ads into its AdSense advertising network on those publishing sites that choose to allow them to display. Four of the most popular Interactive Advertising Bureau... continue reading »Yahoo Heads Off Gmail ThreatPlaying catch-up, Yahoo announced it will let its free email users have storage of up to 100 megabytes, 25 times what they have available currently. But this figure is still ten time less than what Google's experimental Gmail application affords... continue reading »Filtering Canadians May Improve ROIA comScore study shows that Canadians are much less efficient advertising targets than Americans. The study shows that Canadians conduct many more searches on average than Americans, creating more online search ad impressions. This, combined with the fact that Canadians... continue reading »Overture Hitches with Canadian PartnerOverture will partner with NetWorldMedia to expand its presence in Canada. NetWorldMedia generated about 120 million search queries last month and has about 8,000 advertisers. Canadian net researchers have been puzzled by ecommerce research that shows Canadians are holding off moving... continue reading »Goodby, NEC, Nike Win in One Show AwardsGoodby Silverstein & Partners too the most One Show Interactive Awards this week, winning for work on Discover and HP. The ad awards are geared to stand-out creative and do not consider campaign effectiveness as a criterion. NEC's in-house agency... continue reading »Yahoo to Provide Content as Well as Links to ContentYahoo executives pointed out several key differences between its business model and Google's to analysts during a special day-long effort to highlight Yahoo's market advantages and contrasting strategies. Of particular note were Yahoo's stated plans to offer content as well... continue reading »How to Manage the Brand-Blog InteractionClickZ's Pam Parker wrote a how-to on how PR executives can manage the brand relative to the blogosphere. She pointed out various tools to determine a company's blog footprint, showing where references have been posted, and also gave some good... continue reading »Northern Tool Case Study Shows Froogle Banes, BenefitsNorthern Tool provides an interesting case study for both the benefits and hassles of feeding data to comparative shopping engines. When the company first started giving Froogle data on their products and prices, the engine wound up delivering all of... continue reading »Ask Jeeves to Get PersonalAsk Jeeves told investors it had a relatively unique opportunity to get more personal with its search results, as it has both email and registration information that can help target listings. The search company recently doubled its marketshare by acquiring... continue reading »WhenU Dealt Search Engine Death SentenceYahoo and Google both gave pop-up purveyor WhenU a search engine death sentence, dropping links to the firms sites after determining that WhenU was "cloaking," or putting up linked dummy sites whose sole purpose was to make its web address... continue reading »Newspapers Taking Back Seat in Local Online AdsAs search engines get local and yellow pages sites improve their offerings, newspaper sites are beginning to take a back seat in local advertising online. This will become more of a problem for small and regional papers - less so... continue reading »Troy Trailer Promoted via Yahoo U.K.Yahoo's British division is promoting the new Troy movie, becoming the first U.K. site to use a full-length cinema trailer as online creative. PHDiQ planned and bought the campaign for the Warner Brothers studio. Reviewers generally agreed that the remake... continue reading »Atlas to Sign New ClientsAtlas DMT, the online ad tools division of aQuantive, will announce the addition of several second-tier advertising clients for its suite of online serving and tracking tools, including its relatively recently acquired Go Toast search keyword management system. Atlas has... continue reading » |