HyVee is partnering with content/software provider Grocery Shopping Network to bring its e-commerce site and brick-and-mortar stores closer together. Customers can use HyVee's e-commerce site to find items at local stores and place them on a printable shopping list with...
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Apple was the top computer hardware manufacturer site in May 2009, likely because of consumer interest in its new iPhone model, which sent blog posts soaring after it was announced, according to (pdf) a report from Nielsen Online.
Nielsen's "Consumer...
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Online transactions with virtual currency in online gaming has become so widespread in China that the government fears it will affect the actual economy, The New York Times reports.
The country is currently one of the world's largest markets for...
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Twitter users are more engaged with music - both online and offline - than non-tweeting counterparts.
They also are more likely to spend money on downloaded music, according to research from The NPD Group.
Findings from the firm's latest music...
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Although the potential benefits of social media marketing are huge, many marketers are afraid to take the leap. But to remain relevant in the digital world and survive the economic downturn, businesses would be prudent to leverage social media networks...
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Google plans to experiment with targeting ads based on credit scores, offering users with high FICOs more expensive luxury goods and services than those with lower scores, writes Mashable.
Google is launching the initiative in tandem with Compete, which has a...
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Over one-third of Americans (37%) say TV ads are most helpful to them in making a purchase decision, while nearly half say they ignore internet banner ads, according to (pdf) a poll from AdWeekMedia and Harris Interactive (via MarketingCharts).
In terms...
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Yesterday the Online Publishers Association announced that 37 members, including The New York Times, Forbes, ESPN, CNN and MSNBC.com, are planning to start running the new, larger ad units the organization introduced last March.
With brands like Bank of...
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Bing is now displaying Twitter results for select users that it deems to be "prominent and prolific." Relevant Tweets will appear in search results, as will a link to "see more Tweets" from the same user.
The data is fed to...
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Two-thirds of email marketers plan to integrate their email and social media campaigns in the second half of 2009.
48% have already formulated a strategy for achieving this initiative, according to a survey by StrongMail Systems, Inc.
In addition, the...
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Agencies and Marketing Execs:
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen is pursuing other pastures at Google — news that's nearly a year old, but that wasn't well-known until recently.
Biz Buzz:
The Ford Foundation has just granted $300,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation. Funds will go...
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To help its over 200 million users better manage their personal and professional lives — which increasingly intersect on its website — Facebook is testing new privacy controls.
The tools enable users to decide which groups or people are able to...
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Nearly 55 million Americans - or one out of every four internet users - visited an entertainment news website in May 2009, a 7% increase vs. the previous year, according to an analysis based on data from comScore's Media Metrix...
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With its new Happily Ever After online dating service, Borders UK demonstrates book retailers using the internet to reach out to customers in non-traditional ways is not just a US phenomenon.
Borders UK, which Risk Capital Partners acquired from US book...
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Internet ad spend will keep growing despite the recession, but the nature of the spend will transition from display ads to online alternatives, writes AdAge.Â
Total internet ad spending in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region will grow...
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Despite significant growth in the number of Twitter accounts since last year, 53% of those who registered with the much-publicized micro-blogging service have no followers.
56% are not following anyone, and 55% have never even tweeted, says a report from HubSpot...
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Hoping to rock the waves in the real estate listings arena, Google has expanded its own property listings, buttressing them with extra search functionality for locating property listings on Google Maps.
A search for "seattle real estate," for example, still features...
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Debunking the superstition that viewers are only willing to watch short films over the 'net, advertisers and producers are increasingly discovering that users are willing to watch streaming video that's over two minutes long.
The popularity of slapstick amateur YouTube videos...
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Location-based media network Danoo has acquired IdeaCast from National CineMedia, operator of the largest digital cinema network in North America for cinema advertising, for an undisclosed sum, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.
The move helps consolidate the highly fragmented digital out-of-home industry, creating one...
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Of the 1.1 billion people ages 15+ worldwide who accessed the internet from a home or work location in May 2009, 734.2 million visited at least one social networking site during the month, a penetration of 65%, according to data...
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In yet another hard-pressed effort to keep federal regulation at bay, a coalition of major media and marketing trade associations have issued self-regulatory principles for behavioral advertising (pdf).
The principles, drafted by American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers,...
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Breaking news of Michael Jackson's sudden death dramatically slowed the internet, crippled Google, crashed Twitter, sent iTunes and BitTorrent downloads skyrocketing and made for a huge portion of TV news and radio airplay, according to The Nielsen Company, Billboard and...
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Agencies and Marketing Execs:
Serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen is going the VC route.
Mobile:
Nokia is reportedly developing a phone that runs on Android software, an iPhone contender platform developed by Google.
Opinion:
Mark Cuban rhapsodizes on how freemium-based business models inevitably lead to death.
Overseas:
The...
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Over the last 30 days, the US Patent Office has published several patents for Amazon that lend insight on the company's future plans for its Kindle book reader.
One patent, filed in December 2006, will grant customers that purchase a print...
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Sprint has unveiled kiosks in the lobbies of movie theaters where Sprint customers can scan a code from their phones to get coupons for popcorn and sodas.
The campaign, in 500 theaters across the country, will continue through December, MediaBuyerPlanner writes.
Cinema...
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The number of tech-savvy mothers in the US who use social media has jumped 462% since 2006, while the number who use cell phones to go online has increased 348% during the same time period, according to a recent research...
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Google has decided to take the "beta" label off its Gmail service, which has operated for five years and, since its April 2004 launch, now serves tens of millions of users, according to The New York Times.
A "beta" designation indicates...
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Nearly 60% of marketing and management professionals think social networking can significantly influence their company's brand awareness.
However, less than one-quarter say they are "actively engaged," with it, according to a survey from the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Social Media Council...
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Zmags, which operates an Interactive Collateral Management service that enables traditional marketers to better reach online users, has released an update to its Publicator offering that automatically converts PDF-based marketing collateral into shareable digital material.
Dititizable documents can include brochures, magazines,...
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In partnership with Sawhorse Media, which operates a handful of niche Twitter aggregator sites, Technorati has launched Twittorati.com, "where the blogosphere and twittersphere meet."
Twittorati aggregates tweets from major blogs. Users can filter tweets by topic, see most-tweeted blog posts and...
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SoundExchange, a nonprofit that collects royalty fees for copyright owners from digital radio services, reached an agreement with several pure-play webcasters that is an alternative to the unpopular rates established by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007, MediaBuyerPlanner reports.
The deal,...
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More than half (54%) of professional communicators think Twitter is a fad and believe that the burgeoning number of users and tweets will eventually reach a plateau and likely decline, according to a poll by Ragan Communications and PollStream (via...
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Google has formally added a Creative Commons filter to Image Search. The options appear in Advanced Search, and enable users to filter for images they are permitted to reuse with attribution, modify or use commercially.
In May, Yahoo added a Creative...
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There were 342 digital media M&A transactions in the first half of 2009. This represents a total of $4.2 billion in deal value, according to an analysis and report by digital M&A advisory firm Peachtree Media Advisors, MarketingCharts reports.
While the...
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Ad Networks and Analytics:
Online audience analytics firm Quantcast is angling to raise $50 million at a $300 million pre-money valuation. Sources say the company has received a number of term sheets for unspecified amounts; identities of the lead investors are...
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Yesterday EyeWonder debuted PageMorph, a homepage-takeover ad format that manipulates the page upon which it sites by apparently shrinking, crumpling, stretching or affecting a real-time screenshot of the content with other means.
"Publishers are looking to create premium placements to sell...
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FriendShopper.com is jumping on the retail social networking bandwagon with a service designed to connect consumers in a real-time, centralized environment.
FriendShopper.com allows users to manipulate integrated social tools like instant messaging and content sharing in a customized environment meant...
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Bing increased Microsoft's share of the US search market by 1% last month and continues to slowly but steadily chip away at Yahoo and Google, according to an analysis conducted by StatCounter.
Data for the month of June reveal that Microsoft...
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Today the Associated Press launched a digital news "microformat," whose objective is to synopsize the content and metadata of online news stories.
The system was developed in tandem with AP and The Media Standards Trust. It shall be open-source, non-proprietary and...
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Despite the recession, US consumer participation in loyalty and rewards programs is rising across all demographic segments and has grown 19% since 2007 among the general population, according to a study by COLLOQUY (via MarketingCharts).
Activity in specific demographic segments...
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This week Justin.tv launched "Live," an application that enables Facebook Page administrators to create a streaming video tab.
The app features a Facebook live stream on one side, enabling watchers to chat, update their status for other viewers to see, and...
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Prior to his Friday trip to Ghana, President Barack Obama has received thousands of text messages about Africa — messages of both support and criticism, says the White House.
The texts were sent after the Administration set up country-specific SMS codes...
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Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co., which on July 19 will begin an effort to respond to electronics inquiries posted by Twitter users, is digitally expanding its marketing efforts via the TiVo digital video recorder (DVR) service. Best Buy is...
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The latest forecast from Forrester Research predicts interactive marketing in the US will hit nearly $55 billion by 2014.
What's more, it will grow - at a compound annual growth rate of 17% - from 12% of overall ad spend in...
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Last month the Swiss postal service launched Swiss Post Box, a program that enables subscribers to receive scans of certain snail-mail messages via email.
Upon receiving the scans in their inbox, users can decide which they want to openyg, then read...
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Nearly eight in 10 (78%) US advertising and marketing executives confess to making at least one mistake when sending out email at work, including emailing a message to someone it wasn't intended for or copying someone on a message they...
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Nielsen has launched an online audience measurement panel in the US, comprised of over 230,000 panelists and 30,000 websites — the largest and most representative online audience measurement panel in existence, according to Nielsen.
The panel is over eight times larger...
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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its first-ever Mobile Buyer's Guide, a primer for marketers and agencies seeking a starting point for buying mobile advertising.
The wide proliferation aof smartphones, coupled with users' growing appetite for mobile interactive experiences, has...
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The number of US internet users playing online games in May 2009 rose to 87 million, up 22% vs. last year, as budget-conscious consumers opt for cheaper entertainment alternatives, according to data from the comScore Media Metrix service.
The online...
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Paid advertising on online social networks is expected to drop 3% in 2009, to $1.1 billion.
However, it is expected to rebound next year and emerge from the experimental phase, rising 13.2% - to $ 1.3 billion - in 2010 and...
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