Web Marketing Gamification

Publishing:

• Gannett's vice president of ad solutions has a blunt answer to programmatic pressures, and other ad network-oriented commoditizations, which might as well serve as the motto of truculent publishes everywhere: "If it's shit, we're not doing it.". That said, his revenue is down now that he's conducted a network-ectomy of the flagship USA Today site. They're doubling down on branded offerings.
• Among the issues already covered regarding "viewable" impressions, several ad executives who have tried out the nascent technologies designed to determine, track and report viewability find that they are clunky, expensive and inconsistent with one another.
• An interview of Todd Sawicki gives some insight into what makes "native ads" doable, and how that can be royally screwed up by a publisher.

Social:

• Superbowl advertisers mentioned Twitter more than six times as often as they mentioned Facebook, which means, well…, which means that Twitter uses a format that requires hashtags, and Facebook does not.

Branding:

• MediaPost is taking media data on brand loyalty and producing a week-long series of tables. Perhaps coincidentally, the first day's set of tables all involve products with substances known to be highly addictive. Now that's effective brand loyalty strategy.

Ad Tech:

• An attendee of the Webtrends conference brought back screenshot snaps.

Mobile:

• eHarmony is finding itself in the mobile app business, as more and more of its market uses the service on smartphones and tablets.