Articles of the Day
Google/DoubleClick Deal Draws More Fire From Privacy Groups - The drumbeat grows louder from opponents to the Google/DoubleClick merger as three consumer-interest groups yesterday filed an amended complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for the agency to impose stringent restrictions on data use and collection before letting the $3.1 billion deal go through.
Consumers Like 30-Second Pre-Rolls, OPA Study Finds - The longer pre-roll ads leave a more positive impact on consumers than 15-second ones, according to a study released Wednesday by the Online Publishers Association. Some analysts, however, did not buy the idea that consumers would respond more favorably to longer ads.
DoubleClick Division Says Panama Lowers Search Costs - Yahoo fared well in DoubleClick Performics’ Search Trends Report for the first quarter, with the research finding sharp decreases in Yahoo search costs due to the new Panama platform.
NBC Universal Adds Widget Partner - NBC Universal has partnered with widget maker Clearspring Technologies to increase the spread of its content throughout the Web. Users will be able to personalize widgets–carrying NBC news, entertainment, and sports–and post them on their own blogs, social networking profiles, Web sites, and even wikis.
ComScore WhitePaper Details Cookie Deletion Impact On Audience Results - Digital measurement firm comScore has publicly released its white paper addressing how cookie deletion affects server-based audience measurement. The study estimates that without appropriate adjustments, site-server audience reports can be inflated up to 2.5 times the actual number of unique visitors.
Retailers Turn to Shopping Social Networks - Shopping social networks have become increasingly important in helping shoppers make decisions, and retailers are catching on. Indeed, stores and designers are launching pages and making product pitches on Shopbop, Shopstyle.com and Stylehive.com, which are serious drivers of sales.
Television 2.0: Content Convergence - It’s been a looming change for so long that it seems TV’s complete digital transformation can’t come quickly enough. But even before TV’s Next Big Thing (is it Joost? Is it Brightcove? Is it Apple TV?) fully establishes itself, media futurists are looking towards Television (Content) 2.0. By that time, TV will already be a fully interactive, on-demand, personalized experience, and the TV spot will either disappear completely or be scaled back to 15-seconds. The migration of TV content to the Web and Web-based devices is one thing, but imagine the resulting transformation of content. Consumers will one day watch news broadcasts by choosing relevant categories; similarly, demographic information will be key as content makers create programs for specific audiences.
What’s Next In Ad Targeting? - I’ve been involved with ad targeting technologies since the beginning of the Web, having founded both Real Media and TACODA. I’ve seen the industry evolve from early fixed banners on Web pages, to rotating ads to registration-targeted ads to cookie-based targeting to sequential targeting to search targeting — and now to behavioral targeting. What do I think is next? Predictive targeting.
CDN Limelight Networks IPO Today; Raises $240 Million; Stock Up Around 50 Percent on Day 1 - A good opening day for the company: shares of Limelight jumped 48 percent after its IPO, as investors bet demand will grow for its business delivering video for sites including ABC.com and Netflix, reports Bloomberg….stock rose $7.18 to $22.18 at 4 p.m. EST on Nasdaq.
Cost Per Action Ads Help Marketers Win Consumers’ Hearts, Minds And Wallets - At several points during her presentation, Kim Malone, Google’s director of online sales and operations, told attendees at the Future of Online Advertising conference that Google has a number of new AdSense initiatives coming this summer, but that she’s being watched and would be shot if she offered any details. Therefore, she concentrated her talk to AdSense’s Cost Per Action (CPA) clickable ad network and why its right to get a burst of attention, but perhaps not the best thing for branding.
How Not To Waste Billions Of Advertising Dollars - Over $112 billion of U.S. ad spending is wasted, says Greg Stuart, former CEO and president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, opening the two-day Future of Online Advertising conference in New York: “This is a problem. Here’s what needs to happen.” Stuart has also authored a book on the situation, What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails And How To Guarantee Yours Succeeds.
