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January 2005
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E*Trade to BBDOAdWeek [link unavailable] reports that the $60 million E*Trade account - one of the most unpredictable large accounts in the U.S. - went to BBDO after a review and a fourth quarter test run. Incumbent Martin/Williams, another Omnicom shop, found... continue reading »Google's Cleansing of Affiliate Arbitragers Gains Praise, WarinessAfter cleansing itself from often redundant and sometimes misleading text ads put up by affiliate arbitragers - those companies making a small margin between the cost of a click and the reward gained from sending a customer to a real... continue reading »Bloggers Compile List of Blogger Hostile CompaniesDana VanDen Heuvel points to a list of companies that have allegedly "fired, threatened, disciplined, fined or not hired people because of their blog." On the list are the famous cases, such as Delta Airlines and Friendster, but 20 other... continue reading »Carat Interactive Gains New HeadAs Carat Interactive President Sarah Fay spends more of her time running pan-agency interactive brand Isobar, Carat named Toby Gabriner to run the relatively venerable Carat Interactive. Gabriner came to Carat with its acquisition of Freestyle Interactive about two years... continue reading »No Gomez News is Good News for Online RetailersThe news from e-commerce site monitoring firm Gomez this year was that there wasn't much news. Internet Retailer reports that the firm showed consistent levels of performance across most categories, even during the stormy holiday shopping periods. In previous years,... continue reading »Online Retailers Look Overseas for GrowthWith U.S. online sales already accounting for mid single digit share of retail sales, online retailers are looking to foreign markets to help them boost growth, according to the Times. But it isn't proving as easy as merely translating sites... continue reading »Major E-Newspapers Fret over Subscription versus Ad ModelReuters reports that the New York Times is considering whether or not to make its free-with-registration site subscription-based. "It gets to the issue of how comfortable are we training a generation of readers to get quality information for free," said... continue reading »iVillage Buys Medial Publisher HealthologyiVillage announced it acquired Healthology, an online content producer of health information for $17.2 million, mostly coming in the form of cash. Healthology has about 1,200 hours of doctor-authored streaming video content, as well as about 2,000 available written articles... continue reading »Kraft Nixes Google Campaign Due to Lack of Publisher MonitoringSearchEngineWatch points to a few articles describing the travails of Kraft's star-crossed search text ad campaign, which was pulled after the ads starting appearing on a white supremacist site. Google, upon hearing complaints, pulled all of its ad programs from... continue reading »Report: Chinese Search Market at $114MMAsiaPulse reports that China's search engine marketing market will reached about $114 million for 2004. It said the market would grow about 60 to 70 percent over the next year.... continue reading »Jupiter: European Net Market to TightenRevolution reports that JupiterResearch predicts a rapid rise in online ad prices in Europe, as the new media grow in popularity there. In the next five years, the annual adspend on the internet is slated to grow to $6.2 billion.... continue reading »Yahoo to Break Trade CampaignMediaPost reports Yahoo will break a trade campaign online today, concentrating on its network's ability to target ads at narrow groups. A print component will launch in a week. The campaign will run on WSJ.com and NYT.com, as well as... continue reading »ValueClick Upgrades Publisher OfferingValueClick announced it upgraded the interface it presents to publishers so they can manage their inventory on ValueClick's network. Publishers now have more tracking information, the ability to stop and start specific campaigns and filter ads by offer type.... continue reading »Music Services to Gain AdsMusic download sites hint that they may soon become advertiser-supported, at least in part, according to MediaPost. Yahoo's MusicMatch and RealNetworks' Rhapsody services both are lining up ad efforts. The shift comes as Apple's iTunes music service surpassed and then... continue reading »Yahoo Desktop Search Beta ReleasedYahoo finally seems to have launched its desktop search beta version, although it isn't very much changed from the existing version of the X1 product it purchased some months ago to jumpstart its development efforts. SearchEngineWatch reviewed the new version,... continue reading »2004 Retail Sales up 26 Percent to $66.5 BillioncomScore reports in a story on Internet Retailer that the final figures for 2004 show that online retail spending rose 26 percent, from $52.9 billion to $66.5 billion. That compares to all-sales growth figures of only a few percent, according... continue reading »Microsoft to Test Search Beta System on Search.MSN.comSearchEngineLowdown reports that MSN is about to connect the fire hose of its search traffic to its beta search product. Only a portion of the customers will be routed through the new system as a means of testing how ready... continue reading »Mac Bloggers Seek Journalism's Legal ProtectionsThree Apple Mac-oriented blogs that focus on rumors that typically swirl around the "other" computer company around this time of year, prior to its new product releases, found themselves subpoenaed by Apple for documents that might show the computer giant... continue reading »MarketWatch Founder Settles SEC Charges He 'Scalped' Newsletter ReadersOne of the founders of MarketWatch.com settled with the SEC charges that he "scalped" newsletter readers by selling out of positions he recently recommended, according to CNET. Thom Calandra agreed to pay $540,000 to settle civil fraud charges that he... continue reading »AvantGo Adds Customization, SponsorshipsAvantGo upgraded its download-the-net-to-your-PDA service, according to DM News. Users can now access more online content and do so in a more personalized fashion. And some of the added features specifically benefit advertisers, according to the ClickZ account of the... continue reading »Two Ad Execs Indicted for Actions when at AOLA federal prosecutor yesterday indicted two former AOL executives, along with four people associated with PurchasePro.com, a company that allegedly went along with AOL's scheme to inflate its apparent advertising revenues. Former business affairs executive Kent Wakeford and former vice... continue reading »Akamai to PJAAdWeek reports that Akamai chose Cambridge, MA-based PJA for its marketing duties. The very small budget (reportedly $600,000) will be spent in the first six months of 2005.... continue reading »Organic Fills Out Creative TeamsOrganic Online is fleshing out its creative strength in the face of several client wins, according to ClickZ. After winning SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Autodesk and Harrisdirect, Organic is opening up a new office in L.A. and promoting its San Francisco... continue reading »HotJobs PR to Euro RSCG MagnetAdWeek reports that HotJobs.com picked Havas shop Euro RSCG Magnet for PR. Magnet beat out four undisclosed shops and incumbent Fleishman-Hillard. HotJobs.com is owned by Yahoo.... continue reading »Verizon SuperPages to TM AdvertisingVerizon SuperPages chose McCann's TM Advertising as its agency of record and tasked it with creating both an online and offline identity, according to ClickZ. The account typically shows measured media of about $15 million. TM Advertising's interactive chief said... continue reading »VeriSign Payments to be MassiveVeriSign reports in Internet Retailer that it will process $40 billion in online payments this year for its 125,000 business clients. That means that if VeriSign were a member of the E.U., its retail economy would be roughly average among... continue reading »MSN to Include Syndication FeedsMicrosoft's MSN will experiment with Moreover Technologies' news aggregation service to provide users with the ability to locate and access syndicated site feeds that will flow into their personal pages, according to CNET. The service will also allow a feed-only... continue reading »Party Pre-emptively Registers Potential Challenger's NamesCNET reports that, in what seems to be becoming standard procedure for party hacks, Republicans have pre-emptively registered many of the logical names for Attorney General Tom Reilly, a Democrat, to use were he to run against Republican incumbent Mitt... continue reading »Village Voice to Exploit Net, AdvertisersThe Village Voice will sully itself with online capitalism, according to ClickZ, having re-designed its website to take advantage of the internet's daily capabilities and made room for additional advertising. The Voice gets about 1.6 million unique visitors each month,... continue reading »Web Simulcast for Queer Eye Spin-offAs Bravo spins off Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, it will simulcast the premiere episode on the web as it airs on the west coast television feed at 11 p.m. tonight. AdWeek reports AOL will host the episode for... continue reading »Hiring Explodes Among Direct Marketing FirmsA Berhhart Associates poll of direct marketing companies showed that three out of four planned on hiring this quarter, according to DM News. The firm's president said this was one of the strongest job demand periods in the 16 years... continue reading »DDB Bows Marmite Fan Site, and Detractor SiteNetImperative reports that Marmite launched two new sites, one for fans and one for detractors. The famously awful-tasting pot meat, akin to the U.S.-based Spam or, at worst, the Australian-based Vegemite, will be positioned as a sandwich ingredient in an... continue reading »Kraft to Abandon Kid MarketingMediaPost reports that Kraft Foods will cut out marketing to kids under the age of 11 in an effort to get ahead of the movement to curtail advertising to children as a means to prevent obesity. Kraft already avoids media... continue reading »Navy Boosts Contract to Campbell-EwaldThe U.S. Navy awarded Warren, MI-based Campbell-Ewald a $10.2 million contract boost to its previously-awarded assignment as part of the Navy's efforts to find new recruits in the first quarter. The Navy Recruiting Command is having the Fleet and Industrial... continue reading »eFunds to Buy ClearCommerceInternet Retailer reports that payments processor eFunds announced it will acquire fraud prevention firm ClearCommerce. eFunds said it will pay $19.4 million in cash and close the deal by the end of the quarter. ... continue reading »DoubleClick: December Search Revs Rocket even Faster than CostsDoubleClick's Performics division said it found that December brought with it an enormous rise in click traffic from paid search campaigns. Clicks increased 144 percent over the average seen in the third quarter. Conversion rates also increased, going up 124... continue reading »Y&R to Cut 45-50 JobsAdWeek reports that Y&R's New York office will lay off between 45 and 50 people after having lost business from Computer Associates and facing the withdrawal of major client AT&T from consumer advertising altogether. The two clients together account for... continue reading »FTC Delays 'Commercial' Email Rules to MarchThe FTC granted a reprieve to online direct marketers, according to ClickZ, allowing them to come into compliance with rules published in December for the Can-Spam Act as late as March 28, rather than the earlier stated date of February... continue reading »Translations.com Teams with iCrossing to Concept International SEMClickZ reports that iCrossing teamed with Translations.com to come up with multi-language search engine marketing products. The two firms are currently looking at how they can combine their offerings to, for instance, enable large U.S. firms to customize SEM practices... continue reading »eMarketer Looks for Trends among Portal WarseMarketer said it released a new report on the stiff competition among major search and portal outfits Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Several trends it identifies: the eventual supremacy of the internet as a means to deliver music and video;... continue reading »Search Share Solid, But Perceptions ShiftingSearchEngineWatch looked at the results of a longitudinal Keynote study that shows some movement in the search audience's preferences. MSN and Yahoo made great perception gains since the last survey in May of 2004, and AskJeeves also fared well. AskJeeves... continue reading »MediaPost Buyers Anticipate Higher Q1 SpendingA survey of 100 MediaPost media buying subscribers done with the help of Deutsche Bank and Insight Express showed that four out of five said they expected more online spending in Q1 2005 than they saw in Q4 2004. 41... continue reading »TheStreet.com Looks to 'Pull a MarketWatch'Following CBS MarketWatch's half-billion dollar sale to Dow Jones, TheStreet.com announced it hired investment bank Allen & Company to consult with its board of directors in looking at potentially similar options.... continue reading »Talent Agency Brings in Games Exec for DealsUnited Talent Agency hired former GameSpot and GameSpy exec Jonathan Epstein to help bring together deals between its talent pool and video game makers, according to ClickZ. Epstein will start a San Francisco office for the Los Angeles-based firm.... continue reading »Microsoft Security Settings Disable AdSenseA Webmaster World thread pointed out by SearchEngineWatch indicates that setting Microsoft's security settings to "high" disables Google AdSense placements on any pages served from that computer. Sites can apparently choose the higher level of security or pay-per-click ads but... continue reading »Havas Media Hires OMD Digital ExecHavas Media named Jill Griffin to be senior VP and group account director for both its New York and San Francisco offices, according to AdWeek [link unavailable]. She will oversee the online media portion of ING Direct and Air France,... continue reading »Tech Rags to Ride Again, Advertisers WantedMercury News ran an analysis of the bevy of new tech titles coming out in recent weeks, many of them rehashed versions of bubble-borne titles, like Red Herring. This time around, most seem to be relying to a greater degree... continue reading »LookSmart Paints Grim Picture, Rejiggers Sales GroupIn a move not uncommon for firms with new CEO's, LookSmart issued lower financial guidance for this past quarter and announced it would shake up management, according to ClickZ. LookSmart hired CEO David Hills from 24/7 Real Media only a... continue reading »NetIQ to Jumbo ShrimpBtoB Online reports that NetIQ hired JumboShrimp Advertising to run a rebranding campaign, along with ongoing demand marketing and marketing support. The agency is currently developing a cross-media campaign designed to launch NetIQ's entry into the security management services field.... continue reading » |