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Microsoft announced the launch of its adCenter Incubation Lab (adLab), a joint effort between MSN’s adCenter and Microsoft Research, MarketingVOX reports. It is “a state-of-the-art lab in Beijing with a mission to research and incubate advanced technologies for MSN’s adCenter, designed to provide advertisers with rich targeting capabilities based on audience intelligence information,” Microsoft said in its statement. The company highlighted one of those innovative technologies: video hyperlink ads.
The technology “can detect product items displayed on a television screen during a show or commercial,” Microsoft said. Consumer can then “zoom into products featured on the television screen and click through to detailed product descriptions and information on where the products can be bought,” according to the announcement.
“Until now, there is no way for the user to actually interact with these ads in the video,” Microsoft data-mining analyst Li Li is quoted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as having said.
The company also announced that it would officially launch its adCenter advertising platform in the U.S. by June.
Microsoft wants a bigger piece of the online advertising market and is attempting to catch up with Google and Yahoo. “We are determined to establish Microsoft as the top leader in this space,” said adCenter general manager Tarek Najm, according to the paper.
The new technologies were displayed and the adLab announcement made Thursday at the Microsoft adCenter Demo Fest on the Microsoft campus, an exposition of research and innovation in digital advertising technology from Microsoft researchers.
adLab will be headed jointly by Ying Li, Ph.D., of Microsoft adCenter in Redmond and Jian Wang, Ph.D., of Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, and will consist of a team of dedicated scientists with specializations in the areas of data mining, information retrieval, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, auction theory, visual computing and digital media.
Publicis has acquired full-service agency W&K Communications, continuing its Asia expansion that began several years ago.
W&K will be pulled under the umbrella of Publicis’s Burnett agency network, and will be renamed Leo Burnett Beijing Advertising, writes Adweek.
Other recent Publicis…
Last week, Aegis Group CEO Robert Lerwill resigned unexpectedly, sparking speculation that a takeover may be on the horizon.
Lerwill stepped down officially today (Monday), with Aegis chairman John Napier taking over his duties on an interim basis, writes MediaPost. People…
Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine has created :30 spots for two advertisers who have made 3- to 4-page commitments in the magazine, to run on the CBS Outernet network.
The spots will be shown on CBS Outernet’s supermarket TVs, writes Mediaweek. In a…
It’s official: with a full 28 days of data, ABC can claim to be the top network in terms of adults 18-49, its fourth November win in the demo. CBS can also claim a victory, winning in households and total…
Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360, MarketingCharts reports.
The research, which aggregated a year’s…
Email, news gathering and paying bills continue to be the most widely used online activities among U.S. adults, but downloading TV programs, watching videos and making web phone calls posted the biggest overall growth, according to data from Mediamark Research…
