Helpful. Or Creepy?

What if you could look at your cell phone and see a heat map of where everybody in the city was at that very moment? The more people at any given location, the redder it would appear on the map. That’s what Citysense does. It is a mobile application that is supposed to help you figure out where the hottest clubs and night spots are so you can go there (or avoid them, depending on your preference).

It senses where the most popular places are based on the location information emitted by everyone’s cell phones, shows the places with the most activity, and then links into Yelp or Google to help you find out what is at that location. Over time, it learns about where you like to go (fancy restaurants or punk rock clubs) and shows you other people like you, and where they are—right now. And it does all of this anonymously. (You can’t see your where your actual friends are). Citysense only works in San Francisco right now. It is available as a mobile download for the Blackberry and soon for the iPhone as well.

The application is essentially a demonstration for a startup called Sense Networks that is emerging from stealth mode today. Citysense is built on top of the company’s main technology platform, Macrosense. The company ingests billions of data points about people’s location from cell phones, GPS devices, WiFi, and even taxis. The company also collects geo-location data from everyone who downloads Citysense, or any future app (although, the company considers the data to be yours, and you can delete it from the database at any time).

Location-Tracking Startup Sense Networks Emerges from Stealth To Answer the Question: Where Is Everybody?

The question is, Is this an advertising medium? Because you can't advertise ON it. But if you're an advertiser with a product that can benefit from the buzz of being "hot spotted" in real time, then this is thrilling. From TechCrunch. Thanks to Mike Brooks for the tip.

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“No one wants a relationship with their mustard.”

Well, exactly. (Unless, it is Col. Mustard, of course, who is endlessly fascinating!)

This odd but spot-on observation was about why big packaged-goods advertisers–who are the really big spenders of the ad business–might be less than interested in leveraging social-media advertising and its promise of deep engagement with consumers.

No one wants to interact over mustard or mayo or ketchup or most products that pay the rent up and down Madison Avenue.

Social Ads Not Cutting the Mustard? | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

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Microsoft's Ballmer on Yahoo and the Future - washingtonpost.com

Among other things, he confirmed that Microsoft's discussions with Yahoo have continued, predicted that in 10 years all media will be delivered via the Internet and professed that he is confused by Google's moves in the mobile-phone market.

Microsoft's Ballmer on Yahoo and the Future - washingtonpost.com

Ballmer goes big by predicting that all media - including newspapers and magazines - will be digital by 2018. Okay. That's his opinion. And he could be right.

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The Berlin School Blog: Professor Robert Weisz on the Need to Manage Emotions

The Berlin School Blog

Emotional intelligence, that is the degree to which the business leader is able to understand and manage emotions effectively in the workplace, is a key success factor in leading creative teams and organisations in today’s business world, according to Professor Robert Weisz, faculty member at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.People have four basic emotions; fear, anger, joy and sadness. When under stress, these emotions are triggered impact our effectiveness. When our emotions are in balance we are content, creative and productive and in a state of growth. On the other hand, when out of balance we are in a state of survival. The role of the creative leader is to manage the emotions effectively in order to create an environment conducive to growth and creativity.

The Berlin School Blog: Professor Robert Weisz on the Need to Manage Emotions

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Robot Conducts Symphony - Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology

AP: "Honda's ASIMO robot conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performs 'Impossible Dream' during a concert in Detroit, Tuesday, May 13, 2008." Watch video (if you can get it to play past the pre-roll).

Robot Conducts Symphony - Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology

This is just for fun. But I love robots. And a few minutes before I die, I want my brain embedded into one of these Sony pups!

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MediaPost Publications - Mobile Feedback: Screenvision Launches Cinema Polling - 06/05/2008

Screenvision is integrating interactive polling via mobile text messages into its pre-show advertising. Depending on its success, the interactive polling, set to debut in the top 10 DMAs around the middle of the month, may eventually extend to Screenvision's High Definition digital network of approximately 7,000 screens; altogether Screenvision reaches about 14,000 screens, when analog theaters are included. The first advertiser to associate its brand with the poll feature, Verizon Wireless, is sponsoring polls about the audience's musical tastes. They will then be calculated via a live feed, with the results instantly displayed onscreen in the form of a bar chart.

MediaPost Publications - Mobile Feedback: Screenvision Launches Cinema Polling - 06/05/2008

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YouTube - Shell Game Interactive Video

YouTube - Shell game hard - Straight from Google Labs. Notice the Google t-shirt in the background. This is a very good development for engagement in online video.

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Geeky. Very Geeky.

The MySpace Intervention

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Ooyala: Backlot

Ooyala Backlot is a video management platform that gives you control over the delivery, organization, analytics, and monetization of your online videos.

Ooyala: Backlot

This is the player used on Bebo. Very nice interface. Great visual experience. Need to look into its promise of analytics etc. Note to self: Read this later.

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Habeas Study Confirms Strong, Ongoing Demand for Email in Direct Marketing, Mobile and Web 2.0 Applications

"Far from being eclipsed by Web 2.0 and other emerging communications methods, consumer expectations suggest that email will be the workhorse channel around which future online communications will revolve," Cahill continued. "This tells us that email will be as central to online commerce and communications in the future as it is today. Organizations that build trust with consumers by implementing forward-looking online reputation management strategies will differentiate themselves and gain a long-term competitive advantage by establishing themselves as a trusted online brand."

Habeas Study Confirms Strong, Ongoing Demand for Email in Direct Marketing, Mobile and Web 2.0 Applications

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MediaPost Publications - Top TW Exec Promises Net/TV Will Converge - 06/03/2008

The long-ballyhooed convergence of the Internet and TV is coming, perhaps within the next year, according to the top executive at Time Warner Cable.

TWC will soon offer a device--a wireless cable modem--allowing the Internet to sync up to the big screen. And further "network everything in your home," per CEO Glenn Britt, although details were not provided.

Britt said Friday at an industry conference that "the idea that the Internet is separate is going to very quickly go away--you're going to get everything on whatever device you want." He noted that Apple TV has been an unwieldy "first step," and in general, it remains "pretty hard" to bring Internet streams to the TV.That, he said, will change in no more than two years. "It's going to be very easy," he said.

MediaPost Publications - Top TW Exec Promises Net/TV Will Converge - 06/03/2008

That's some big talk. Does TWC have enough credibility for this to hold up? Isn't TWC about to be spun off by the mothership? Meanwhile, yesterday a DM piece dropped in my mailbox at home -- it was from AT&T for U-Verse. Welcome to the new Cable Wars. This is just beginning to get interesting. Then again, will a recession dump all over this party? Will millions of Americans simply cut the plug and adopt rabbit ears for their shiny new HDTVs?

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Lifestyles Condoms Aim for the Funny Bone

Lifestyles Condoms new series of online videos entitled Noah and Baron Talk Man Sh*t. The Webisodes, posted at www.lifestyles.com, run three to five minutes and depict American stand-up comedians Noah Starr and Baron Vaughn as they venture across Europe.

Lifestyles is looking to inform consumers about their product both by using humor and with open discussions about sex. "The Noah and Baron videos embrace the idea that safe sex can be fun sex at the same time," said Carol Carozza, vp of marketing at Lifestyles Condoms, Red Bank, N.J. "Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls, but safety and open lines of communication should always be top priority."The video shorts are representative of Lifestyles Condoms' advertising theme, "What's yours?" Agency AMP, Boston, handled production, which took place in The Netherlands, Sweden and Slovakia.

Lifestyles Condoms Aim for the Funny Bone

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Video Insider » Blog Archive » As Recession Ensues, Will Most Advertisers Default To Easier-To-Justify TV Buy?

This year’s upfront selling season seems to have come with its own wrinkles that haven’t exactly continued the pattern of the past few. Instead of the continual devolvement and advertiser mutiny that we’ve seen in the past couple of years, what seems to have occurred is exactly the opposite — advertisers returning to spend upfront dollars, despite continued network ratings declines and further ad skippage.

This seems to be happening for several reasons. First, those same advertisers that held out in years past wound up paying even more in a scatter market that produced windfalls for select broadcasting and cable networks last year. Strike or no strike, they had to advertise somewhere — and the scatter market strategy wasn’t exactly value-priced. Not so sound a strategy for this year, it seems.

Second, we’ve got a ratings mess — complete with everything from program ratings to C3 ratings to average live commercial ratings — even to exact minute ratings. From the creative sidelines, it seems like there’s a free-for-all of buying criteria out there that makes locking in a TV CPM upfront… well, a lot less free for all.

Third, and perhaps most significant, is the acknowledgment that we’re headed towards a deeper recession — leading most traditional advertisers to forgo the whole “shift to digital” trend and simply fall back on the ol’ tried and true TV schedule that they figure will at least keep retail sales going and maintain their brand health measures in this uncertain economic/election year into next.

If you’re an advertiser, put all three factors together and you’re left with fear and control as your buying motivations. Which is not exactly a great place to be if you’re reliant on an industry in as much chaos and entrenched thinking as the agency business is. Combine the two dynamics and it’s not exactly a setup for guerilla-like innovative planning and gutsy creative execution either.

The real challenge for us agency folk is, instead of just taking the money, we should be out there helping lead the more enlightened advertisers to see that more inventive digital and enhanced TV programs can actually out-engage pure impression-based models based on effective frequency if they’re crafted correctly. That means demonstrating how to leverage the digital channel as more than just a vehicle to top off television awareness measures with rich-media banners. It means showing how we can truly immerse consumers in deeper, richer storytelling that is driven by their TV buys and helps activate more trial and sampling, e-couponing and sales results than simply telling the same old brand health measures and purchase intent story.

In these recession-facing times, those who lean into digital by going way beyond the brand site and rich-media banners is one way to separate the marketers and agencies on offense… from those just playing awareness defense. Even the networks themselves, notably ABC, NBC and Turner, have leading-edge, robust custom digital program offerings to help augment even the most defensive TV schedule with tremendous online engagement opportunities.

Meanwhile, if you’re like most agencies feeling the pain of marketer CFOs freezing or cutting budgets while they move to keep cash on the balance sheet and take a wait-and-see posture until Q4, your answer isn’t “wait and see” before you can truly judge whether the digital shift is continuing to expand. The answer is for us all to go on offense and prove why a more engaged consumer is more valuable than a mere impression.Otherwise, for most marketers, the move to digital will simply amount to Searching for more answers… and keywords.

Video Insider » Blog Archive » As Recession Ensues, Will Most Advertisers Default To Easier-To-Justify TV Buy?

A hearty "Amen, Brother" to Alan Shulman for this. Many factions among agencies and their clients are looking for a bail out like the early 00's dot com melt down. They can go back to all TV all the time while wagging a finger at the Net. However, I truly think the jury's still out. The recession may not run deep(er); what if we're in the second or third quarter of a get-along-hum-drum kind of economy that'll last for years? What then? Or what if a back-to-TV backlash simply doesn't work? The fall out could be severe. The winners few. And the losers might shock us.

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Live ad by Honda designed to keep viewers tuned in - International Herald Tribune

Live ad by Honda designed to keep viewers tuned in. This is live, at 14,000 feet, over Spain," a man shouted over the roar of the wind, as he and a group of fellow skydivers plunged toward the earth near Madrid. Before deploying their parachutes, they created human formations spelling out the letters H, O, N, D and A.

Live ad by Honda designed to keep viewers tuned in - International Herald Tribune

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Search Engine Marketing | Austin, Texas | Apogee Search

Apogee Search uses proven techniques, powerful Web analytics tools, and a deep expertise in statistical evaluation to generate solid, measurable results at every stage of the search engine marketing process.

Search Engine Marketing | Austin, Texas | Apogee Search

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Yahoo's BrowserPlus is a Game Changer. Finally! - Silicon Alley Insider

BrowserPlus is a browser plug-in unlike any other. As most of you know, a Browser plug-in allows you to add functionality to your browser that it is not built-in. For example, the most popular Browser plug-in is Adobe's Flash Player.The reason BrowserPlus is significant is because it is really the plug-in to end all plug-ins. The idea is that once you have BrowserPlus installed, you can install different feature modules as needed seamlessly and without restarting your browser. Right now, installing plugins, while not exactly painful, is enough of a speedbump that, outside the Flash Player, getting people to install them is fairly hard.

Yahoo's BrowserPlus is a Game Changer. Finally! - Silicon Alley Insider

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Enterprise Adoption of Web 2.0: It's Happening - ReadWriteWeb

If you're a business who has been ignoring the Web 2.0 trend and the spread of social media: look out, the tide is shifting and you're about to be left behind. The rise of social media didn't happen overnight, the power of the internet to unite people, the ubiquity of broadband, the rise of Gen Y, the development of new technologies for socializing on the web - all of these things and more have led to the rise of social media. And this new force is affecting change in the way that companies do business - now and for many years to come.

Enterprise Adoption of Web 2.0: It's Happening - ReadWriteWeb

The lead of this article seems a tad harsh ... or overly hyped up. Nevertheless, the message is clear. Social media for business and, duh, consumers is quickly reaching maturity -- or as I prefer to say around the office and with clients, it's becoming "normal."

Other examples of formerly "techie" activities that have reached normality:
- Getting email on your wireless device; the Blackberry is normal while the iPhone is superbly normal
- Browser plug-ins; Flash is normal
- Digital photography on both ends - a digital camera and web-based sharing/printing apps; Flickr is normal
- GPS; does everybody give their TomTom a pet name? (Ours is "Jane")
- File sharing; iTunes is normal; with Miro and legal Napster, P2P is normal
- Blogs; the Huffington Post and Maya's Mom are normal

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Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media To Release Interactive Web Content

They are preparing to launch new interactive web content (with an emphasis on the interactive part) and are doing a bit of a road show to see what Silicon Valley thinks of their ideas. I had a chance to see some of the content and hear their monetization strategy. And while I can’t say much yet, this is clearly going to be really entertaining stuff. Advertisers in particular are likely to flock to the platform.

Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media To Release Interactive Web Content

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MediaPost Publications - New MRM Chief Creative Reveals Plans For Agency - 06/02/2008

"In most big markets, MRMWW is already a full digital shop--the U.S., UK, Germany, China. If you look at Microsoft and Intel as examples, they already spend most of their marketing dollars on Web and digital efforts. As for the rest of our clients and surely for new business, I guess the question is not if, but when."

MediaPost Publications - New MRM Chief Creative Reveals Plans For Agency - 06/02/2008

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Fantastic 3D Visualizer Plug In for Firefox, IE and more

PicLens | Immersive Views Across the Web

PBwiki Makes Wikis for Business

Case Studies

The Financial Times is the world's leading source of securities pricing and financial information, providing news and information to over 1.3m people in 140 countries. In addition to the daily paper publication, the Financial Times includes a pan-European network of national business newspapers and online services as well as a strong portfolio of magazine brands, websites and events targeting specific areas of the financial world.

murketing » “Buying In”

"Buying In has vast social implications, far beyond the fields of marketing and branding. Most importantly, from the policy point of view, it obliterates our old paradigm of companies (the bad guys) corrupting our children (the innocents) via commercials. In this new world, media-literate young freely and willingly co-opt the brands, with most companies being clueless bystanders desperate to keep up. Consuming and interacting with products has become the new turf for the identity politics game, stirring the kind of savage feelings previously reserved for matters of ethnicity and class. I really don’t know if this is good news or bad news, but I can say, with certainty, that this book is a must-read."
– Po Bronson, author, Why Do I Love These People?

murketing » “Buying In”

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MediaPost Publications - Site Seen: URLs Prove Valuable In Print Ads - 05/28/2008

The Magazine Publishers of America is set to release a new study showing that including URLs in magazine ads drives readers to advertiser Web sites. The analysis of 833 print ads in seven magazines, performed by VISTA's print effectiveness rating service, showed that ads with Web addresses were up to three times as likely to drive readers to a Web site, depending on the magazine category.The biggest increases came in the home, women's service and travel categories, where ads including URLs were 103%, 98% and 186% more likely to drive readers to an advertiser Web site. Ads with URLs in the fashion category also did well, producing a 52% bump.New research from VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating Service, based on an analysis of 833 ads in seven different magazines, reconfirmed that ads with URLs are more likely to drive readers to advertiser sites overall, as well as across the range of magazine genres. Less spectacular gains were found in the financial category, with a 22% lift, and men's, with a 38% lift.According to the MPA, the VISTA findings corroborate a meta-analysis of nine earlier studies by Marketing Evolution. This meta-analysis showed that when URLs were included in magazine ads, they boosted the percentage of study subjects who visited the advertiser Web sites 6%, to 19% of the test group.

MediaPost Publications - Site Seen: URLs Prove Valuable In Print Ads - 05/28/2008

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Gaming The System - Forbes.com

Justin Hall, chief executive at GameLayers, is busy turning Web surfing into a game. PMOG (Passively Multiplayer Online Game) layers game mechanics--via a Firefox extension--on top of daily browsing activities. Players can scatter booby traps and rewards across the Web, stumble across Web pages annotated with links and notes, or construct trails to favorite sites that entertain or inform the PMOG masses.

Gaming The System - Forbes.com

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Advertisers to Consumers: We'll Text You - WSJ.com

Analysts like to make bold predictions about the growth of mobile advertising. Most have overshot reality.But at least one slice of the business appears to be catching on, according to marketers: ads sent via text message. A growing number of companies are using cellphone text messages to lend more interactivity to their ads. For instance, Coors Brewing's Coors Light beer recently added a text-message component to its traditional sponsorship of the NFL Draft. Football fans opted to receive draft alerts, and each message contained a squib about Coors Light.[graph]Some marketers like text-message ads because -- unlike most ads -- viewers asks to receive the message, which means the marketer doesn't bombard the viewer with unsolicited commercials. The potential audience is also attractive: Almost all cellphones can send and receive text messages. Finally, marketers say, the results of text-message ads are much easier to measure than those of mobile Web ads.

Advertisers to Consumers: We'll Text You - WSJ.com

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HD Day Conspiracy Theory - Update

The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable television customers for decades, is moving toward extinction.A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes, yet still receive advanced "two-way" cable services, such as pay-per-view movies.In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV's control rather than one tied to the set-top box.

Wired News - AP News

So the cable companies are okay with letting us jettison our horrible set-top boxes. Nice. And once the functionality of receiving, recording, storing and retrieving our favorite programming is encased in the idiot box itself, then we can also receive, record, store and retrive over-the-air HD programs on demand. Cable remains valuable insomuch as it delivers dozens more channels through its pipe. But Xbox Live and Apple TV bring me everything through the Net. Tough call.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "The next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet"

Eric Schmidt: MySpace did not monetize as well as we thought. We have a lot of traffic, a lot of page views, but it is harder than we thought to get our ad network to work with social networks. When you are in social network, it is not likely that you´ll buy a washing machine. It is not a long term problem but it is taking us longer than we thought. We are trying new ways, new approaches all the time.

FAZ: The share of the social networks in the online advertising market is very small. Which role will social networks play in the future?

Eric Schmidt: It is obvious that people spend a lot of time in social networks. I believe there will be some new advertising products, that will work, but I don't think they are invented yet. We and others are working on social advertising products.

FAZ: Which sort of social advertising do you mean?

Eric Schmidt: The advertising has to be more entertaining, more interesting, more immersive compared to what we have today. That is my opinion. We are not there yet but I am optimistic that it could work very well. What it needs to get there - trial and error. That´s the way we do it at Google.

Netzökonom : Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "The next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet"

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drupal.org | Community plumbing

Drupal.org is the official website of Drupal, an open source content management platform.Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.

drupal.org | Community plumbing

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About Us - Overview of the Turn Smart Market - Turn Inc.

Turn—the world's first Smart Market for online advertisingTurn is transforming the huge, yet highly inefficient display advertising industry through advanced technology that optimizes performance, provides greater control and insight, and—bottom line—yields greater profits for advertisers and publishers alike.Turn addresses the challenges and inefficiencies of earlier generations of simple CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per impression) advertising by providing a smart market that: * Blends and automates multiple targeting approaches to maximize performance * Goes beyond the click in measuring consumer response to online ads * Gives unprecedented control to advertisers and publishers in an auction market * Shares market data to provide insight that leads to greater effectiveness

About Us - Overview of the Turn Smart Market - Turn Inc.

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Prototype - Cloud Computing - So You Don’t Have to Stand Still - NYTimes.com

What, you may be thinking, is cloud computing? Basically, it means obtaining computing resources — processing, storage, messaging, databases and so on — from someplace outside your own four walls, and paying only for what you use.

It’s a mushy term that is being applied loosely to many things on the Web. Salesforce.com is now called a cloud application — after all, companies let it store their sales data, rather than running it on their own systems. Facebook, too, is a cloud platform, because software developers write applications for it and distribute them on it.

Prototype - Cloud Computing - So You Don’t Have to Stand Still - NYTimes.com

This is a must read article. For marketers, you need to draw a line from computing services to content delivery. The entire media space is moving toward a "cloud" structure in which the content (or equivalent of software) resides in the "cloud" from where any one of us obtains it "on demand." Get it? Not yet?! Then read this.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Timeless. Funny. Sure, it's not exactly new. But it's ... funny!
24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot - CollegeHumor video

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Why Print Coupons?

Hello? Is anybody home? Coupons on your mobile phone ... Yeah. You'd think there'd be a few CPG or QSR companies that would want to try something like this out. Huh? There are?!?! Really?!?!

Goal: To Make Fans Love Hockey - WSJ.com

As the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings face off in the Stanley Cup finals, which start Saturday, Mr. Bettman, 55 years old, is that rare top executive who was behind the wheel when his business went over a cliff and now has the opportunity to put it back together. He is doing so by making a classic management choice: Instead of obsessing over growth, he is concentrating on keeping the league's existing customers happy.

Goal: To Make Fans Love Hockey - WSJ.com

I've heard and read this adage time and time again over the past decade (and more) ... but too many marketers and agencies refuse to execute against the strategy. Acquisition versus retention. Why not do BOTH?!?! Then I hear ... "Well, it can't be done." And I say to myself, "Why not!?!?!" Isn't that what "viral" is all about? And "word of mouth"? You start with a core constituency -- loyalists, influencer, connectors -- and as their enthusiasm grows and affects pockets of the population around them ... the buzz grows and newbies enter the fray. Pretty soon, you've got a movement. It's what I like to call a phenomenon.

Why just be a brand? Your brand can become a phenomenon.

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ComScore Metrics, circa 2008

• 185 million U.S. people age 2+ online in a month, spending an average of 29 hours online per person*
• 80% of 824 million global Internet users now outside of U.S.
• 99% of online population search in a month, conducting 22 searches per searcher**
• 75% of online population stream a video, viewing an average of 70 videos per viewer per month***
• Up 36% vs YA
• 66% of online population visit a social networking site, spending 4 hours per month per visitor*
• 40% of online population visit a blog site in a month*

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Pheedo :: About

Pheedo creates new kinds of profit driven advertising services through distributed content, like RSS, for our publishers and advertisers. Our pioneering efforts have resulted in triple digit revenue growth for leading publishers and have connected millions of content hungry readers to top tier advertisers.

Pheedo :: About

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Number of Online Videos Viewed in the U.S. Jumps 13 Percent in March to 11.5 Billion

Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (85.7 million), where they watched an average of 51 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (54.3 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.5 million) and Viacom Digital (26.6 million).

Other notable findings from March 2008 include:

• 73.7 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• 84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).
• 47.7 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).
• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.

Number of Online Videos Viewed in the U.S. Jumps 13 Percent in March to 11.5 Billion

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AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

The survey found that young consumers get their news in an irregular fashion, and generally have no ritual of news consumption, like reading the newspaper or watching the evening news every day. However, the survey also found that young people, in addition to facts and updates, wanted the news to be presented with context. “They wanted to find a path to the backstory,” said Kennedy. “And they wanted to find a path to what’s going to happen next.”

Other significant findings of the survey included the fact that most of the survey group shared news with each other, whether via text message, e-mail, or social networks, like Myspace and Facebook. Also, the survey found that 16 of the 18 participants got their news through e-mail, a medium which traditional media like newspapers rarely employ.

AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

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Bloomberg.com: TIME WARNER sells Cable Unit

`Time Warner is a company in the midst of a sweeping transformation,'' said Matt Kaufler, a portfolio manager at Clover Capital Management in Rochester, New York, which owns 1.7 million shares. ``There will be more steps before year-end. This is headed toward being a pure content company.''

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

Okay ... here's another entry in my ongoing "HD Day conspiracy theory" of Feb 17, 2009. Just start connecting the dots and you start to see a pattern. Viacom diversifies and becomes a "content company." Now Time Warner hedges against being a "cable company" and plans to "transform itself" into a "content company." Once all media become digital, the business model or models will shift; and the big players are positioning themselves for what's next.

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Dynamic Logic: Beyond the Click

Analysis from Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® database shows that advertising on Games & Contest (Gaming) Web sites¹ can be highly effective in increasing brand metrics for various brand sectors and demographics. In particular, CPG advertisements on Gaming sites tend to perform much better among women ages 45+ compared with younger females. And this is not a small audience — in fact, 8.3 million women ages 45+ say they access the Internet to play online games, according to Focalyst².

Dynamic Logic: Beyond the Click

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MediaPost Publications - ComScore: LinkedIn Tops Social Networking Sites In April - 05/21/2008

LinkedIn was the fastest-growing social networking site in April, with traffic increasing 361% to 8.7 million unique visitors from $1.9 million a year ago, according to comScore.MySpace easily remained the category leader with $58.7 million users, but has only grown 3% since last year.

No. 2 Facebook is up a healthy 56% over the last year to 22.5 million. AOL Hometown has seen the steepest fall-off in traffic, dropping 25% to 6.3 million in the last year.Among blog sites, WordPress was the biggest gainer in April, growing 160% to 16.6 million visitors.

Blogger held the top spot with more than 38.4 million, up 40% from a year ago. By contrast, traffic to Xanga.com has slipped 33% to 2.4 million.

MediaPost Publications - ComScore: LinkedIn Tops Social Networking Sites In April - 05/21/2008

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Dish and NBCU Team Up on Interactive Ads - TVWeek - News

TV Week

Dish Network’s satellite television service will provide interactive advertising capabilities to NBC television networks and owned-and-operated stations.Paying subscribers to the Dish service will have the option to use their remote controls to access more information, coupons and discounts from NBC advertisers, who now will be offered ways to reach consumers using the medium.“Inserting on-screen triggers in the full suite of NBCU networks allows viewers the ability to interact with an advertiser’s brand and request more information, a powerful proposition that we know to be valuable to both advertisers and viewers.” Dish Network VP of Advertising Sales Michael Finn said in a statement Wednesday.The service also is available on NBC channels on Dish Network’s digital video recorder service; the two companies say they will continue to work together to develop new interactive products to serve advertisers.

Dish and NBCU Team Up on Interactive Ads - TVWeek - News

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Mobile Insider » Blog Archive » Mobilizing The Mall Crawl

Imagine if you will a smart phone application that locates your current position in the shopping mall, searches for the item you want, and then directs you to the nearest store with your target in stock. Now, imagine if competing retailers knew from your search and eventual destination, where you were headed next and could send you ads keyed to the path you were taking. A competitor could poach you with a special discount, so you might buy those Adidas shoes from Foot Locker instead of the original destination. The mall could turn into an exciting place, where shop keeps actually vie for your business in real time.

Mobile Insider » Blog Archive » Mobilizing The Mall Crawl

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Geeks Crash a House of Fashion - New York Times

You might think that Condé Nast’s headquarters at 4 Times Square — where the September issue of Vogue is viewed as one of humankind’s crowning achievements — would be the last place to look for Web innovation. With its fat, luscious magazines and elevators full of thin, luscious people, it would seem to be the antithesis of the sneaker-wearing run-and-gun aesthetic of the Web.After all, rather than run the risk of dulling the luster of the printed Vogue or Gourmet, the company produced Style.com and Epicurious.com, which took some content from the magazines, but kept the Web at arm’s length.But there have been signs that the company is serious about constructing a digital business that is less beside the point. Soon after getting his hands on Wired.com, Steven Newhouse, chairman of Advance.net, the digital division of the parent company, moved to buy Reddit.com, a social news site along the lines of Digg, although smaller.Last week, all the attention was focused on the $1.8 billion grab by CBS for eyeballs with the purchase of CNet. But during the same week, Condé Nast bought Ars Technica, a small but very influential Web tech site; Webmonkey, a site for Web developers that will be restarted today; and Hot Wired, a storied brand from early Internet days — which ran the first banner ad ever. The price was not disclosed, but the company probably spent another $25 million on the acquisition, according to executives there familiar with the deal.

Geeks Crash a House of Fashion - New York Times

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Games Girls Play - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

It turns out boomer women do play computer games.And do they ever. The business of cranking out casual games--snack-sized alternatives to time-consuming fare like "World of Warcraft"--is mushrooming. Consumers paid $2.25 billion for such games last year, and the demand for titles like "Diner Dash" is growing 20% year-over-year, according to the Casual Gaming Association.And while casual games appeal to everyone from pre-teens to old men (the world's richest man, Warren Buffet, 77, haunts online bridge parlors while using the handle "T-bone"), women over 35 are the most likely to pay for them; 75% percent of those who pay for casual games are women, and 72% are over 35 years old.

Games Girls Play - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

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Wannabe ‘Bridezillas’ based on the hit TV reality show can now make themselves over by uploading their pictures into original online videos based on the offbeat reality series.Oddcast developed the idea and provided its proprietary 3D VideoStar software for the virtual Bridezilla makeovers starting on the show’s site today. Visitors can transmute their mugs onto the bodies of the Web Bridezillas in one of six 15-second vignettes, choose from a few different voices to add for an audio track and send to friends.

So they become the ones making scenes and performing stunts just like the reality stars on the cult hit series, whose new season debuts June 1 on the Women’s Entertainment Network.

WE TV Turns People Into ‘Bridezillas’

Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It

Download :: The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It
This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the
Internet from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering
precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of
its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending
its cycle of innovation—and facilitating unsettling new kinds of
control.

The book is available to download under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 license: Download PDF.

MediaPost Publications - MINI Takes Wii, Online Gamers For Ride With Pinball Game - 05/15/2008

BMW Group's MINI is targeting gamers with Clubmania Pinball, a branded casual game for the PC and Nintendo Wii. The game, which features the 2008 MINI Clubman, is part of a multichannel campaign that grew out of a 30-second TV spot crafted by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners (BSSP).

The Clubman's unique barn-style rear doors were the main feature in BSSP's initial execution, dubbed "Pinball," and they opened outward like the flippers in a pinball game. "The point of the spot was to launch the vehicle and show off the Clubman's signature design," said John Butler, creative director at Sausalito, Calif.-based Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. "It was a great chance to show what made the Clubman different--and use something that was physically on the vehicle in the ad. And we thought the game was the perfect segue."

One Third of >30 YOs in USA = No Landline

3 in 10 get all or most calls on cell phones : NPR

The survey also found that:
—Low-income people are likelier than the more affluent to have only cell phones.
—Those with only cells tend to be living with unrelated roommates, renters rather than homeowners, and Hispanics and blacks rather than whites.
—About a third of those under age 30 only have cell phones.
—Households with both cell and landline phones who rarely or never get calls on their landlines tend to be better educated and have higher incomes.
—About 2 percent of households reported having no telephones.

The National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the CDC, involved in-person interviews with people in 13,083 households done from July through December of last year.

Technorati Tags: npr, mobile phones, metrics, US data, convergence

Internet TV Will Let You be a Couch Potato in Traffic | Autopia from Wired.com

USTelematics is skipping the satellites that KVH Industries and Sirius Backseat TV rely upon and betting on WiMax wireless technology to bring TV to your car. It will deliver IPTV to its Voyager in-car entertainment systems and has announced a "mobilecast" program called 4VDO that will deliver broadcast and video programming.

Internet TV Will Let You be a Couch Potato in Traffic | Autopia from Wired.com

We need this like a hole in the head. Or we can embrace this as a new revenue stream. I'll think the former, and work for the latter.

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MediaPost Publications - Advertisers Get Buzzed On YouTube With New Targeting Capability - 05/14/2008

With the latest targeting tool from YouTube, companies like Lionsgate have begun to ride the buzz on the video-sharing platform, running their in-video overlay ads on clips that are surging in popularity. Google quietly rolled out the tool on Tuesday, although it had been in development for several months, with Lionsgate as one of the pilot advertisers.YouTube buzz targeting works on an algorithm that looks at a number of viewer activities, including how many times a video is chosen as a favorite, how favorably it's rated, and how quickly it picks up views, to determine which clips are about to "go viral."

MediaPost Publications - Advertisers Get Buzzed On YouTube With New Targeting Capability - 05/14/2008

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Finding cracks in Facebook - May. 13, 2008

Since September 2006, when Zuckerberg opened Facebook to nonstudents, the site has grown 12-fold, making it one of the fastest-rising dot-coms in history. Visitors tripled after Facebook expanded internationally last year, and they continue to spend more time on the site: 20 billion total minutes in March 2008, vs. 6.4 billion a year prior. But the number of U.S. visitors has leveled off, fluctuating between 30 million and 35 million, according to comScore. And that's not all. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of the adults who signed on last summer to see what the fuss was about are done with their social-networking experiment.

Finding cracks in Facebook - May. 13, 2008

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Coming Soon: A Web-Wide Social Network? - Advertising Age - Digital

Sites are blendingThe moves are unrelated, according to the companies involved, but they all suggest what many web watchers and pundits have been expecting: that social-media tools and services would spread throughout the wider web, rather than stay contained within a single service.

Coming Soon: A Web-Wide Social Network? - Advertising Age - Digital

Want a look at what a more open social online environment may look like? Check out my FriendFeed account - http://www.friendfeed.com/miggon/.

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MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

America's business elite, the so-called "C suite" that run our country's medium and large size businesses, are changing their personal media habits and spending much more of their time online. That may come as little surprise given the corresponding shifts that have taken place in the consumer population but the new findings, released this morning by global market research giant Ipsos, provides tangible proof of the impact digital media is having on one of the most difficult to reach, but most important media targets of all.

MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

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HBO seen selling shows on Apple's iTunes - Yahoo! News

Time Warner Inc's HBO cable network is expected to start selling shows on Apple Inc's iTunes digital entertainment service, with flexible pricing, a source familiar with the discussions said on Monday.

Episodes of some HBO shows are likely to be sold at more than the standard price of $1.99 per episode, the source said, marking the first time Apple has agreed to selling content at different prices in the United States.

HBO seen selling shows on Apple's iTunes - Yahoo! News

More ranting from me about the impact of HD Day (that's Feb 17, 2009 if you haven't marked your calendar yet). Conspiracy theories aside, the number of content-driven media companies re-positioning themselves for on-demand-all-the-time TV is exploding. To wit, HBO is one of the most successful of the wired era's subscription TV services. Why in the world would they sell shows on iTunes? Because we're only nine months away from going all-digital all-the-time in TV land. Here it comes.

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Why Tracking Marketing Is Now So Tough - Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

Despite the best efforts of research firms to pump out data that seem to forecast how marketers are doing, complexity is growing faster than the ability of research firms to cut through it.

Why Tracking Marketing Is Now So Tough - Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

My mantra is and will continue to be - embrace complexity. Look, the fundamentals of great communication won't change - a simple story well told remains the gold standard for advertising. However, the means by which every brand story is told -- is expressed -- is now and henceforth shall be COMPLEX. Get used to it.

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"Big Radio" Finally Joins the Convergence

As more and more announcement such as this are made, it's clear that the major players are positioning themselves for a shift in the business model. The pace of change is pushing the media networks to seek answers. So, how are the major agency networks doing?

MediaPost Publications - Clear Channel Launches New Digital Alliances - 05/12/2008

Clear Channel Radio is offering a number of new digital content features at its station Web sites. The first wave of rolling launches began a few weeks ago with Erockster, a new socially mediated online broadcast that tweaks content according to listener ratings. It culminates today with the official unveiling of a new partnership with Gracenote to make song lyrics readily accessible to Web visitors and a deal with Clearspring for widget syndication.

The nation's largest radio group is also announcing a partnership with StudioNow, an online network of video advertising freelancers, to help local advertisers get online.

Uh Oh, Here It Comes ... Contextual TV Ad Placement

MediaPost Publications - Advertisers Get Google TV Ads, Dish Network Reach - 05/02/2008

Google has taken its TV ad-buying service, Google TV Ads, out of beta and opened it up to all U.S. advertisers--allowing businesses to reach up to 13 million Dish Network households via any of its 94 cable networks, on a national, market-by-market or strictly local basis.

Complexity is the New Simplicity

You should recognize two points in this article that reflect what you've heard from me over and over -

1. Whereas advertising since 1980 has worshiped "simplicity" we now must embrace "complexity" (or perish).

2. All media "are interconnected to within two degrees of separation" meaning what is heard or seen in one "channel" jumps to other communities of people in other channels very, very quickly.

MediaPost Publications - How Deep In The Sand Can You Shove Your Head? - 05/30/2007

I am referring to an article that appeared in today’s New York Times, “Is Wal-Mart Too Cheap For Its Own Good?” You see, while the article may be all about how Wal-Mart is having a tough time breaking out of the low-cost, low-end market, the bigger-picture message is this: not only is the report likely right on the money from a brand equity point of view, it was leaked to the mainstream press via an online property, wakeupwalmart.com. Technology and consumers are playing a very large role in how the brand is able to transition from a world that was, by all accounts, fundamentally different 40 years ago, to one today where all media are interconnected to within two degrees of separation (if you are lucky).

MediaPost Publications - Mag Bag: Barnes & Noble Teams With Zinio - 05/09/2008

The Barnes & Noble Web site, www.bn.com, is teaming up with Zinio to sell digital magazine subscriptions alongside the print formats. The deal covers over 1,000 magazine titles, offering discounts of up to 90% off the newsstand price. The companies are also offering single-copy digital sales of 12,000 back issues from hundreds of titles. Print order fulfillment is being handled by M2 Media Group.Zinio produces digital magazines that can be "paged" through like their print versions. But with the addition of interactive content on the "pages," they allow the reader to follow links from articles and advertising to Web destinations. Subscriptions to Zinio's digital magazines are usually delivered via email. In 2007, www.bn.com began using Zinio's technology to offer Web users a "See Inside" feature for books; the "See Inside" feature will now extend to magazines as well.

MediaPost Publications - Mag Bag: Barnes & Noble Teams With Zinio - 05/09/2008

Former OgilvyInteractive exec Jeanniey Mullen is now the marketing chief at Zinio, fyi.

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Socialized: Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo '08

Socialized: Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo '08

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MediaPost Publications - Gas Station Video Nets Expand, PumpTop TV Biggest - 05/07/2008

As place-based video explodes, one of the myriad sub-species--video networks that operate displays in gas pumps--are growing at an especially rapid pace. In addition to expanding their footprint, the three major competitors--PumpTop TV, Gas Station TV, and the FuelCast Network--have signed deals with major content providers and advertising partners.With a network covering 550 gas stations, PumpTop TV now claims to be the biggest such network in the country, and the operation is kicking into overdrive--installing displays at an average of four new stations a day, according to Dick Paulsen, president of AdtekMedia, which owns PumpTop TV.

MediaPost Publications - Gas Station Video Nets Expand, PumpTop TV Biggest - 05/07/2008

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Addressable Advertising Gets Closer to Reality

Addressable Advertising Gets Closer to Reality: "Industry watchers say addressable advertising—the ability to target TV ads by household so that, say, a 50-year-old man watching Lost would see a different ad than a 14-year-old girl watching the same show next door—is getting closer to a national rollout.

How quickly the industry adopts addressable advertising on a mass scale remains to be seen. But what has been promised for years by cable operators is now inevitable, instead of hopeful, said experts. 'The technology exists to make it happen. And the motivation exists to make it happen,' said David Graves, principle analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. '[The industry] could agree or disagree on the timeline, but it's going to happen.'"

MediaPost Publications - Clear Channel Taps Reactrix Displays For Airports - 05/06/2008

Clear Channel Taps Reactrix Displays For Airports - 05/06/2008: "Clear Channel Airports, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor, will have full responsibility for the operation, sales and licensing of Reactrix's StepScape displays for its airport partners. Clear Channel has partnered with most major airports in the country outside New York City, including Chicago O'Hare, Boston Logan, Dallas-Fort Worth Intl., Philadelphia Intl., Phoenix Sky Harbor and San Francisco Intl.

Like its other StepScape displays in malls and other public areas, the Reactrix system will project digital images onto the floors of airport terminals, which attract passersby by responding to their motion. Once engaged, the user is invited to explore the interactive display, controlling it with different gestures that are tracked by motion sensors."

Survey: Digital Ads to Surpass Traditional Within Five Years - 05/06/2008

More than half of media and entertainment executives expect digital advertising to surpass traditional ad revenue in the next five years.That's according to Accenture's 2008 Global Media Content Survey, in which 62% of executives said digital content would be monetized by a variety of approaches including search, sponsorships and performance-based advertising.The projections mark a big leap from today, when the Internet today accounts for less than 10% of marketing budgets overall. And the Accenture report suggests media bosses may be overestimating how well prepared they are for the digital era.

MediaPost Publications - Survey: Digital Ads to Surpass Traditional Within Five Years - 05/06/2008

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Summize Conversational Search

Summize Conversational Search


So this wacky search engine is just for Twitter searches.

Addictomatic: Inhale the Web

Addictomatic: Inhale the Web

Super cool search aggregator Addictomatic combines results from gobs of engines - Google, YouTube, Ask, Newsvine, etc. So you get a bigger picture of what impact a topic has online. Try querying "KFC" and you'll see.

MediaPost Publications - Google Opens TV Ads To All U.S. Advertisers - 05/02/2008

Google has taken its TV ad-buying service, Google TV Ads, out of beta and opened it up to all U.S. advertisers--allowing businesses to reach up to 13 million Dish Network households via any of 94 cable networks, on a national, market-by-market or strictly local basis.To kick off the service, Google said it will cover up to $2,000 in costs for users to create their own TV commercials through its Ad Creation Marketplace. The campaigns must begin airing by June 30, and the advertiser must spend at least $2,000 weekly on its buy for four consecutive weeks.Advertisers using Google TV Ads launch their buys directly from their Google AdWords accounts. They can target their campaigns by markets, networks, dayparts, specific programs and even program content, such as "fashion" or "health." The service can also offer suggested plans based on desired demographics.

MediaPost Publications - Google Opens TV Ads To All U.S. Advertisers - 05/02/2008

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Stations Go 'Back' to the Future - 5/5/2008 - Broadcasting & Cable

The Backchannel model can work in a number of ways. Kokernak gives the example of watching John Mayer perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live, then using the remote to purchase the Mayer song on iTunes. Or, a viewer of an auto ad can click on an icon to get more information on the car (as well as local dealer information) sent to their Backchannel Web account. Instead of trying to remember a Website that pops up in an ad or a promo for The Office, a click sends the URL straight to the user's account.

Backchannel's true believers say interactive TV might've finally reached its tipping point. “The idea of convergence is as old as time, but no one's been able to come up with the K-I-S-S—Keep It Simple, Stupid—technology,” says WJAR President/General Manager Lisa Churchville. “[Backchannel] is simple and accessible, and you use it in a way that's extremely familiar—clicking your remote.”

Stations Go 'Back' to the Future - 5/5/2008 - Broadcasting & Cable

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Complexity is the New Simplicity

You should recognize two points in this article that reflect what you've heard from me over and over -

1. Whereas advertising since 1980 has worshiped "simplicity" we now must embrace "complexity" (or perish).

2. All media "are interconnected to within two degrees of separation" meaning what is heard or seen in one "channel" jumps to other communities of people in other channels very, very quickly.

MediaPost Publications - How Deep In The Sand Can You Shove Your Head? - 05/30/2007

I am referring to an article that appeared in today’s New York Times, “Is Wal-Mart Too Cheap For Its Own Good?” You see, while the article may be all about how Wal-Mart is having a tough time breaking out of the low-cost, low-end market, the bigger-picture message is this: not only is the report likely right on the money from a brand equity point of view, it was leaked to the mainstream press via an online property, wakeupwalmart.com. Technology and consumers are playing a very large role in how the brand is able to transition from a world that was, by all accounts, fundamentally different 40 years ago, to one today where all media are interconnected to within two degrees of separation (if you are lucky).

Uh Oh, Here It Comes ... Contextual TV Ad Placement

MediaPost Publications - Advertisers Get Google TV Ads, Dish Network Reach - 05/02/2008

Google has taken its TV ad-buying service, Google TV Ads, out of beta and opened it up to all U.S. advertisers--allowing businesses to reach up to 13 million Dish Network households via any of its 94 cable networks, on a national, market-by-market or strictly local basis.

Viral Marketing ... Gone Bubonic

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Viral marketing has gone positively bubonic. While this unconventional approach to building buzz online is nothing new, it has achieved full-blown plague status in the walk-up to the summer movie season."Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "The Dark Knight," and "Hancock" are just some of the movies employing viral marketing -- and the sheer volume is only part of why this strategy has becoming problematic.For the uninitiated, viral marketing involves hatching multiple interconnected Web sites that plug a movie by extending its story lines online. That in turn gets blogs and social networks linking in -- hence its viral nature.Gone are the days when marketing a movie online involved simply buying a URL like DarkKnight.com and uploading a trailer. Warner Bros. has launched more than 30 Web sites during the past year in support of the latest in the "Batman" franchise, a trail of virtual bread crumbs intended to sate fans until the July 18 release.Although the bulk of these campaigns play out on the Internet, they also frequently move offline, often in the form of wacky public events intended to amass die-hard enthusiasts. One "Knight" site provides clues pointing to screenings that were scheduled for Monday in 12 different cities.

Studios' viral marketing campaigns are vexing | Technology | Reuters

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Google Pricing System Plagues Players Like P&G - Advertising Age - Digital

For years, consumer-package-goods marketers saw search advertising as mainly for direct response, not branding. But now that more are heeding data showing search's potential as a branding vehicle, they're running into a new problem: The pricing model wasn't really set up to serve them, and in some respects it thwarts them.

Google Pricing System Plagues Players Like P&G - Advertising Age - Digital

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