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February 14th, 2006

MSN, Yahoo to Lure Searchers with Prizes

Desperate to chip away at Google’s search lead, MSN will try to lure searchers with shiny prizes and charitable donations, with the idea that if users try MSN Search, they’ll like it - and stick around, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox). Its promotion, called MSN Search and Win, will for the next few months give away prizes to random users who search on certain keywords, including gift certificates from American Express, Target, REI and Nike; and digital cameras and MP3 players.

Related topics: Promotions, Signs of What's to Come, Online Networks, Campaigns of Note, Acquisitions/Biz Buzz, Interactive...    email this    permanent link

B-to-B Email Lists in Short Supply

The limited quantity of email lists continues to present a problem to b-to-b marketers, according to BtoB. Eric Snider, exec vp at catalog direct marketer SkillPath, said, “There aren’t too many email lists out there in the marketplace.” He added that, while there are plenty of list marketers who would like to play a role, email names for rent are “pretty limited.” Part of the challenge is that marketers want to protect the identity of their customers, particularly when getting permission to send email can be so hard-won. Other challenges include spam and phishing, resulting in the fact that for a large majority of marketers, email is still a retention vehicle rather than one used for acquisition.

Related topics: List Marketing, Planning, Sign of Doom, Signs of What's to Come, Email, E-Commerce, Interactive, Agencies, Business-to-Business, Demographics, Direct...    email this    permanent link

Epsilon Acquiring DoubleClick Email Solutions

Alliance Data Systems‘ Epsilon announced it has reached an agreement to acquire DoubleClick Email Solutions, a leading provider of targeted email communications and marketing services and an operating unit of DoubleClick, MarketingVox reports. DoubleClick Email Solutions’ 220 full-time employees will be integrated into Epsilon Interactive (formerly Bigfoot Interactive) operating unit and brand. Total consideration for the transaction is expected to be approximately $90 million.

Related topics: List Marketing, Planning, Signs of What's to Come, Email, Buying, Interactive, Acquisitions/Biz Buzz, Agencies, Direct...    email this    permanent link

Montessori Mag Gives Advertisers High-Income Audience

A new vehicle for advertisers to reach high-income, well-educated households is now available via a new bi-monthly magazine, M: The Magazine for Montessori Families, Brandweek reports. The magazine is 100 percent subscriber-underwritten, allowing it to be selective about advertisers. The target audience is parents in their mid-forties with a household net worth of at least $1 million.

Related topics: Magazines, Planning, Wealthy, Women, List Marketing, Entertainment, Direct, Branding, Buying, Demographics, Print...    email this    permanent link

Court TV Offers Proof that Ads Actually Ran

Court TV plans to prove to the advertising industry that it delivers a greater return on investment than other outlets by providing fool-proof electronic verification that the spots in their advertising schedules actually ran as ordered, Mediapost writes. The proof will come via the cable network’s deal with Verance, a verification service offering digital watermarking technology.

Related topics: New Tech, Media Department, Planning, Signs of What's to Come, TV Cable, Measurement/Analytics, Entertainment, Interactive, Agencies, Buying, Demographics, Television...    email this    permanent link

Super Bowl Discounts Reached 40 Percent

Advertisers who waited until the last minute to buy Super Bowl spots got them at a 40 percent discount, AdAge writes. Those discounts - rumored from off-the-record sources to be worth about $1 million - meant good deals for those advertisers, considering that the game’s ratings were up over last year. One such advertiser, Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ Westin, wouldn’t be specific, but chief marketing officer Javier Benito said he got “a very good deal.”

Related topics: Men, Planning, TV Network, Entertainment, Don't Believe the Hype, Agencies, Buying, Demographics, Television...    email this    permanent link

CMP Shutters ‘Secure Enterprise,’ ‘IT Architect’

CMP will cease publication of Secure Enterprise and IT Architect following their March issues, BtoB reports. Secure Enterprise, with a circulation of 45,000, was launched in September 2003. IT Architect has been around since 1998, originally titled Network Magazine. It was rebranded IT Architect last September.

Related topics: List Marketing, Magazines, Planning, Demographics, Business-to-Business, Direct, Interactive, Branding, Print...    email this    permanent link

Edith Roman Associates Wins Haymarket Lists

Edith Roman Associates has been named list manager for postal and email lists of 250,000 b-to-b subscribers from Haymarket Publishing, DM News reports. Haymarket’s products focus on IT security, healthcare, public relations, marketing, and media. Subscriber files include SC Magazine, PR Week, Pharmaceutical Marketers Directory, McKnight’s Long Term Care News, Medical Marketing & Media, Monthly Prescribing Reference, Nurse Practitioners’ Prescribing Reference, and Revolution Magazine (which has ceased publication).

Related topics: List Marketing, Magazines, Planning, PR, Healthcare, Email, Agencies, Business-to-Business, Buying, E-Commerce, Direct...    email this    permanent link

MySpace Feels Success and Burden of High Traffic

The top social-networking site MySpace has grown to over 54 million users since its debut in 2004, attracting 2 1/2 times the traffic of Google Inc. and complaints that some site members are using MySpace to cause harm, reports Yahoo News. The free, ad-supported site allows registered users to personalize their profile features, upload photos, message friends, and update an online journal.

Related topics: Signs of What's to Come, Viral Marketing, Youth, Search Engine Marketing, Planning, Buying, Demographics, Online Networks, Interactive...    email this    permanent link

Bill Gates to Challenge iPod

Chairman Bill Gates announced Friday that Microsoft and its partners will challenge the Apple iPod’s dominance by continually developing new digital media devices, writes Podcasting News. Microsoft will work with partners to create better music players that are less expensive, connect in better ways, and do photos and video better.

Related topics: Signs of What's to Come, Viral Marketing, Demographics, Branding, Interactive, Outdoor, Radio...    email this    permanent link
February 14th, 2006

Payola Investigates Nation’s Top Radio Stations

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has the Federal Communications Commission questioning hundreds of radio stations in his pay-for-play payola investigation, writes Radio Ink. Nine of the country’s largest radio conglomerates have been subpoenaed in the payola investigation of artists and songs, which, according to AZ Central, Spitzer says got airtime because of payoffs by recording companies.

Related topics: Regulatory, Planning, Buying, Radio...    email this    permanent link

Coca-Cola Sponsors Olympic Bloggers

As an extension of Coca-Cola’s longstanding Olympic marketing efforts, six college students from around the globe received free airfare and accommodations during the winter games in Torino, Italy, as compensation for blogging their experiences on Coca-Cola’s new site, Torino Conversations, which went live February 8th, writes Mediapost. The students represent Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, and the U.S. and have agreed to keep their blogs positive.

Related topics: Europe, PR, Sponsorships, TV Network, Entertainment, Campaigns of Note, Interactive, Blogs, Branding, Television...    email this    permanent link

Digital Billboards: The Wave of the Future

Though the concept of digital billboards has Pennsylvania government and state agencies worried, companies in the billboard industry expect digital billboards to replace nondigital billboards, saying that the benefits overshadow the concerns, reports PhillyBurbs. The full-size 48-foot-by-14-foot digital billboards have already arrived in some areas of Pennsylvania.

Related topics: Planning, Regulatory, Signs of What's to Come, New Tech, Demographics, Agencies, Buying, Creative Issues, Outdoor...    email this    permanent link

Vargas’s Pregnancy Complicates ‘World News Tonight’ Decisions

World News Tonight will face more challenges, it seems, with the impending birth of Elizabeth Vargas’s second child, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. With co-anchor Bob Woodruff still hospitalized from injuries from a roadside bombing in Iraq and no timetable for his return, ABC might be forced to replace - at least temporarily - both members of its anchor team when Vargas goes on maternity leave sometime in August.

Related topics: Planning, Feature, Entertainment, Creative Issues, Buying, Television...    email this    permanent link
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