DoubleClick today announced that it has agreed to acquire Falk eSolutions, a global provider of online advertising delivery and marketing management solutions, based in Germany. The transaction is expected to close this month. The acquisition, rumored last week, will significantly extend DoubleClick’s reach into Europe, expanding its global presence and localization capabilities, according to the company.
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Following its launch in 2003, BlueHippo Funding - a Maryland-based company that sells plasma TVs and computers nationwide to consumers with poor credit - grew quickly using radio and cable TV advertising to pitch computers to people unable to access traditional credit. After years of receiving hundreds of complaints about the company, the Federal Trade Commission has launched a formal investigation of BlueHippo, writes The Chicago Tribune.
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In a recent memo to his staff, the newly appointed Atlantic editor, James Bennet, announced the departure of national correspondent William Langewiesche and managing editor Cullen Murphy to Vanity Fair, writes the Gawker.
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Clear Channel Radio today announced it will encode broadcasts from its Houston radio stations for the upcoming test of The Media Audit/ Ipsos electronic-measurement system. Clear Channel Radio joins CBS Radio, Cox Radio and Radio One in supporting The Media Audit/Ipsos test.
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Kraft and Pfizer are joining P&G, Unilever and SC Johnson to support Project Apollo, a joint venture between Arbitron and VNU’s ACNielsen unit to create a single-source system that measures media exposure and product sales, Mediapost reports. Neither Kraft nor Pfizer have officially announced their participation, but their names were on an invitation that was sent to media companies for a meeting about Apollo taking place in New York next week.
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Early figures from CBS SportsLine’s free, live video streaming of the opening round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday show that the online coverage is already approaching records, keeping in tune with CBS executives’ claims that the event will be the biggest live coverage in the internet’s history, writes Mediaweek.
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Radio Disney started Radio Disney Now! podcasts last year to reach listeners between 6 and 14 years of age when they weren’t listening to the radio. This June, the company will include ad-supported podcasts in its lineup of content on satellite radio, cable TV and video-on-demand, Ad Age writes.
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The Newspaper Association of America has launched a $50 million ad campaign - which broke today, with retro-looking ads running in 700 daily newspapers and in trade magazines, as well as online versions (which are somewhat intrusive and distracting) - with the tagline, “Newspaper advertising, a destination, not a distraction,” reports the New York Daily News (via MarketingVox). Confronted with declining circulation and market share, the NAA’s effort intends promote newspapers to advertisers.
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An online contextual-advertising start-up has raised $48 million in venture capital from a single investor. The company, Adknowledge, places behaviorally targeted ads in web pages and emails and hopes to offer an alternative to text ads via keyword searches.
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The struggles felt by the entire newspaper industry - including flat or declining advertising revenues, declining circulation, and increasing newsprint costs - continue to hurt the award-winning Washington Post, reports Media Life.
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Plans toBroadcast network development meetings last week drew praise from media buyers who left excited by the fact that all four nets seem to be determined to produce quality programming with big-name talent, Adweek writes.
ABC drew some fire for being less forthcoming about shows and scheduling strategy than Fox, NBC, and CBS, but president Stephen McPherson said that was because March is still early in the development process and he did not want to mislead buyers.
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Research released by NBC Universal shows that households without digital video recorders (DVRs) skip more TV commercials than those that use DVRs, writes AdAge. According to the analysis of the Nielsen Media Research data by Alan Wurtzel, president of NBC Universal TV Research and Media Development, the drop in TV ad effectiveness in homes with DVRs is less than 3 percent, while non-DVR households had a drop of 7 percent.
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After Volkswagen received objections to the tagline “Turbo-Cojones” used in its controversial new ad campaign dubbed Speedy Gonzales targeting Hispanic consumers, the automaker is pulling its billboards from Miami, New York and Los Angeles, writes Autoblog.
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MSC Industrial Direct Co. - repair, maintenance, and operations supplier - announced on March 16 that it paid $349.5 million for J&L Industrial Supply, the catalog division of $1.8 billion Latrobe, manufacturer/marketer Kennametal, writes Multichannel Merchant.
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Hutton NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly announced Thursday, at the network’s pre-upfront meeting with advertisers, that the network gave early orders to two new dramas, called Kidnapped and The Black Donnellys, Mediaweek reports.
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