MMA: Spam Not a Threat to SMS

Nearly 10 percent of U.S. online customers in a JupiterResearch survey said they have already been plagued by text-message spam, while the same number said they had received SMS pitches that they wanted, Internet Week reported. But in Europe, where more people use cell phones and send text messages than in the States, more than 80 percent of surveyed mobile phone users said they had received text message spam, according to a Swiss university and the International Telecommunication Union poll.

TV Guide Considers Rate Base Cuts

TV Guide, a magazine that has already reduced its rate base by nearly 3 million since 1998, is considering cutting it again, this time by as much as a third, according to the Wall Street Journal (via Folio). “The only reason to divulge its preliminary decision is because they might be looking for an advertiser reaction,” says Dan Capell, editor of Capell’s Circulation Report.

Ad Revenue Trends Upwards for Biz Pubs

For the fifth month in a row, ad revenue in business publications has climbed, with revenues from May up 3.59 percent over May 2004. Combined revenues from the first five months of 2005 show an increase of 4.27 percent over the same period last year, according to the Business Information Network report for May 2005. Top growth categories for year-to-date totals include Banking, Financial, Insurance, which increased 35.15 percent, and Government, which increased by 22.39 percent.

DMA Develops Deceased Do-Not-Contact List

The Direct Marketing Association has created what it calls the Deceased Do-Not-Contact list, DM News reports.

The industry-wide suppression file is a list of names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of deceased consumers that must be honored by all DMA member companies but also will be available to non-member firms. Mailers who subscribe to the Mail Preference Service will automatically get the updates.

Lists of deceased people are already available from several companies but aren’t used widely because of the costs involved.

Bluetooth Marketing Faces Privacy Concerns

Nokia is launching a Bluetooth marketing campaign in the UK to promote its 6680 handset - joining the growing list of big brands like Volvo and EMI that have experimented with Bluetooth marketing - but some lawyers, trade bodies and agencies have expressed concerns that brands running these campaigns are in breach of privacy regulations, New Media Age reports(via Adverblog).

Fear Not the Cookie Monster

According to eMarketer’s just-released “The Cookie Report,” (via MarketingVox) web advertisers and publishers must convince internet users of the benefits of cookies, which vast numbers of users are reported to regularly delete; unless consumers are convinced not to do so, the online ad industry could face major problems, according to the report. Consumers should come to understand that “cookies are harmless, that they don’t violate privacy and that they are not a type of spyware.”

“A key promise of online advertising has always been its greater accountability, because it’s more readily measured,” says eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman. “Since that measurement often relies on cookies, online marketers have a problem - a big problem.”

Online Users: Search No Farther than Google

Online users conducted 12.8 billion searches in the second quarter of this year, up 5 percent from the first quarter, according to data released by Nielsen/NetRatings yesterday. Of those, 6.09 billion were performed on Google, more than Yahoo, MSN, America Online, and Ask Jeeves combined, MediaPost reports.

PointRoll Adds Ad Sequencing

Rich-media firm PointRoll said it would provide advertisers the capability to sequence online ads, showing viewers a progression of messages based on how many times they had viewed an ad and whether they had interacted with it, writes AdWeek (via MarketingVox).

Art of the Buy/Sell Relationship Dying Fast

With the streamlining of the media buy/sell process comes an unfortunate side effect: that potentially viable media properties are eliminated simply because they don’t fit into the buyer’s idea of what a media vehicle should look like, and can’t be compared to other buys using a standard set of metrics, says Adrants’ Steve Hall. The rise in technology enabled automation, decline in social skills thanks to email, and the human tendency to avoid conflict is killing the art of the relationship, but it doesn’t have to, Hall says, if both sides agree there are always going to be elements of a media property that are unique and unable to be compared equally. “An apple isn’t an orange and it never will be, but apples and oranges are both, still, food worthy of consumption.”

YES Hits Homerun

YES Network’s Wednesday night coverage of the Yankees/Texas Rangers tilt marked the fourth consecutive prime time telecast to rank No. 1 in the New York DMA among men 18 plus, Mediaweek reports. Last Thursday’s Yankees-Red Sox telecast, which started the primetime streak, drew a 7.7 rating, the second-highest rated game on YES this season, behind the April 3 Yanks/Sox season opener, which pulled an 11.6. YES could continue to hit homeruns - the Yankees just a half game off the pace in the American League East.