Mozilla has announced the winners of its Firefox Flicks advertising contest, initiated after the release of Firefox 1.5 to give Firefox users the opportunity to create their own advertisements for the open source web browser, reports ArsTechnica. The 30-second ads...
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While direct marketers currently have more ways of sending their messages to the masses than ever before, consumers have more ways to ignore those lines of communication as well, according to the keynote speaker John Greco, the Direct Marketing Association...
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Kmart has moved its estimated $200 million media buying and planning duties from MediaCom to WPP sister shop MindShare, writes AdAge (via MediaBuyerPlanner). There was no review. MindShare handles media buying and planning for Sears, now parent company to Kmart...
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News Corp's MySpace and Walt Disney Pictures are working together to build buzz for the summer release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," MediaPost writes. MySpace will pick one "friend" of the movie's profile (brands are allowed to...
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TV Guide editor-in-chief Ian Birch announced las week that the magazine would launch, in the May 1 issue, a new weekly column called "Downloads" that features information about the best television shows available for download or online viewing each week,...
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Microsoft's fiscal year third quarter ad revenue at MSN trailed overall growth in online advertising, totaling $357 million, a 7 percent increase from 2005 - compared with 80 percent rise in ad revenue at Google and 36 percent at Yahoo,...
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To attract small business advertisers on Yahoo Local, Yahoo is offering a relatively simple flat-fee structure - dubbed Featured Listings - instead of auction- and keyword-based ads, reports ClickZ. Featured Listings are guaranteed to appear on local search results pages...
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Search giant Google is apparently unhappy with software titan Microsoft for making Microsoft's MSN Search the default search engine for the search box in the new Internet Explorer 7 web browser, writes the New York Times. Contending that Microsoft is...
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Though video-on-demand penetration has been growing, its TV usage share seems to have leveled off and may even be decreasing, according to a report last week by Nielsen Media Research, writes MediaPost. VOD ratings have grown 600 percent since Nielsen...
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Yahoo has launched a technology website - Yahoo Tech - to help consumers research, buy and use technology products in 18 categories, reports MarketWatch. All advertising inventory on the site for the three-month launch period is sold out. Yahoo Tech...
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MSN Live is now powering Amazon's Alexa and A9 search results instead of previous search partner Google, reports Search Engine Lowdown's Garrett French, citing Aaron Wall at Thread Watch and others. Previously, Alexa's search results were essentially Google results -...
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To better facilitate global trade, UPS has enhanced several of its web-based technology tools, DM News writes (via MediaBuyerPlanner). UPS has updated "My UPS" on UPS.com to better serve small businesses, enhancing the number of services that can be accessed...
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News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media (FIM) has purchased, for an undisclosed price, small internet startups Newroo and kSolo, Reuters reports. Newroo allows users to aggregate website and blog content in real time; kSolo's service lets users sing, record and share...
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Greater market share and the use of Intel chips are likely what's making Apple's Macs a target for viruses, with seven new vulnerabilities reported in the Mac OS X operating system, writes the Associated Press. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said...
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates revealed Friday a software program aimed at offering newspapers a new alternative to digital publishing that makes content easier to read on a computer screen, writes CNET (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Gates debuted the program developed by the...
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After months of haggling, Apple has renewed contracts with the four largest music companies to sell songs through its iTunes store at 99 cents each, despite the music industry's efforts to institute a variable pricing model, reports the Financial Times....
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Online music service Napster will be pursuing internet advertising dollars with an ad-supported online music service, reports AdWeek. Listeners will have up to five free plays of more than 2 million songs; they then can buy the songs for 99...
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A comedy section has been added at MySpace.com in an effort to generate revenue from the social networking site, with Sierra Mist a prominent product sponsor, writes paidContent. The section includes content from users but it's not user-generated; the emphasis...
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Technology media, research and events company International Data Group (IDG) has launched a pay-per-click ad auction platform - TechWords - across its six U.S. technology-related websites (including cio.com, computerworld.com and networkworld.com) using a private-label version of Quigo's AdSonar, reports ClickZ....
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The Wall Street Journal's online edition on Monday began to allow free access to visitors - for the third time in its 10-year history - and will keep it that way for 10 days, until May 10, reports MediaPost. The...
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Online video players are beginning to reach out to media buyers and advertisers by creating upfront marketplaces of their own. ROO - following Klipmart's upfront initiative launched last month and Heavy.com's upfront that began in March - announced yesterday its...
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Interactive marketing firm Think Partnership will expand its search business in Europe and into Asia with the acquisition of Web Diversity, London, reports DM News. Think also announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire online sales...
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UK broadcaster UKTV is airing niche sporting events online and then running the highlights on the TV network, writes Media Life (via MediaBuyerPlanner). The UK network uses TV to promote the paid online service. On April 13, the UK operator...
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Because marketers are trying to reach younger audiences through videogames, Midway Games of Chicago is increasing ad options for new game releases, reports AdWeek. The recently released NBA Ballers: Phenom, a basketball-themed game for Xbox and PlayStation 2, includes T-Mobile,...
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Helio on Tuesday began a U.S. cellular phone service aimed at young people who use cellphones for web surfing, hoping to break into the U.S. market by targeting niche segments, reports Reuters. Chief Executive Sky Dayton says its pricey plans...
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According to a new JupiterResearch report, wireless carriers can significantly increase their subscriber base and revenues by targeting teenagers and parents with separate marketing messages. The report, "Teens: Mobile Subscriber Acquisition," finds that 58 percent of teens have cell phones...
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Google will display more ads for commercial-related keywords in its paid search results than in its non-commercial results, Google said last week, DM News reports. More ads will be displayed for keywords that are more commercial in nature, such as...
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MSN Search and Google produce the most relevant search results according to a study by search marketing firm IntraLink, which conducted 250 test searches on the major search engines this spring, writes DM News. In the study, MSN search-results relevance...
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Hoping to increase search engine market share, IAC will today break a branding campaign for Ask.com that will air on national TV, including NBC's "Today" show and "Saturday Night Live, reports MediaPost. The campaign was created by ad agency Berlin...
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Microsoft was granted a patent (number 7039699) on Tuesday for "tracking usage behavior in computer systems" with invisible images and "small sized cookies" to track visitors, writes Techdirt. The patent application was filed on May 2, 2000 (application number 563706).
"The...
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It's certainly time for some bold moves by struggling U.S. carmakers, and Ford is hoping that making "Bold Moves" its tagline to replace "Built for the Road Ahead" will get buy-in from the targeted consumers - "not just a demographic…[but]...
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Some in Microsoft leadership are promoting a bold alliance in the battle against Google's hegemonic internet presence (particularly in search an online advertising) - joining forces with Yahoo, writes the Wall Street Journal (via SearchEngineLowdown), citing sources familiar with the...
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A class-action lawsuit was filed Monday against Yahoo and unnamed third-parties, accusing them of "syndication fraud" against advertisers who pay Yahoo to display their ads on search results and on partner sites, reports Brian Krebs on the Washington Post's Security...
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National TV is came ahead of newspapers and public radio as the most trusted news source, according to 82 percent of the 10,230 adults questioned in a 10-country survey conducted by U.K.-based GlobeScan on behalf of Reuters, the BBC and...
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As more Americans experiment with digital media, TV peripherals such as the digital video recorder (DVR) and dedicated game console are beginning to emerge as competitors to the still-dominant PC as the preferred digital entertainment platform in the home, according...
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According to a Return Path analysis of all acquisition campaigns sent through its Postmaster Direct Network over the last two years, click rate goes down dramatically when the subject line is longer than 50 characters (via MediaPost). Click-through rates for...
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A JupiterResearch study has found that 53 percent of online digital video recorder (DVR) subscribers used their DVRs to skip some commercials. If these households were to skip all commercials, the cable and broadcast TV advertising revenue at risk in...
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CBS hopes to claim the multiplatform spotlight early this year by debuting - as soon as today - its anticipated broadband video player on an ad-supported free broadband channel before the upfronts begin in two weeks, according to sources close...
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Apple has launched the first national ad campaign for Macs in more than a year, taking advantage of Microsoft's announced delay of its Vista operating system until early 2007 - possibly the second quarter, according to Gartner research - writes...
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Media buyers and planners feel more satisfied with their pay and benefits than they did last year, with 41.4 percent of respondents in a Media Life salary survey saying they were satisfied, compared with just 34 percent who said so...
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Extending its pay-per-call ad network to include text messages, Ingenio will be providing sponsored listings to UpSNAP's SMS-based directory assistance service FREE 411, writes ClickZ. Users will see the pay-per-call ads only when they search for a listing in a...
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John Battelle's high-end blog ad network Federated Media Publishing has launched an automated ad-planning tool with a simple interface for finding relevant blogs on which to place ads by inputting targeting data such as age, sex, income and lifestyle, reports...
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In its attempt to tap into the flood of advertising revenue, Microsoft on Wednesday made its pitch to the representatives of hundreds of major ad agencies and marketers (including Target, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson), who were...
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be announcing the official U.S. launch of adCenter today as the MSN Strategic Account Summit concludes, writes Jennifer Slegg in the Search Engine Watch blog, adding that the much-touted platform, in pilot mode since mid-October,...
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Nearly half - 48 percent - of online retailers say their chargebacks for fraudulent purchase transactions constitute less than 0.1 percent of sales, matching the credit card chargeback rate of physical stores, the Merchant Risk Council reports in its Fifth...
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Islamic Fundamentalists' mores may be right out of the Dark Ages, but their media skills are certainly 21st century. Islamic militants have apparently modified U.S. combat videogames as part of a propaganda campaign to recruit young fighters against the U.S.,...
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Vertically focused contextual advertising solutions provider IndustryBrains has announced a new agreement with e-business and technology news publisher ECT News Network and said it has renewed its relationship with investment advisory service The Motley Fool. IndustryBrains is providing its solutions...
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The Federal Trade Commission's first major spyware lawsuit has ended with a more-than $4 million judgment against Sanford Wallace, a spam king turned "spyware master," writes CNET. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire...
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According to a consensus among media buyers and some network executives, the broadcast part of the upcoming (May 15) upfront will be flat to weaker, with buyers holding back ad dollars from network TV for other media, including cable and...
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AOL will offer its 41 million instant messaging users free phone numbers in 50 metro areas, allowing others using regular phones to call them while they are online, writes the New York Times. Time Warner unit AOL also plans to...
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