Online video players are beginning to reach out to media buyers and advertisers by creating upfront marketplaces of their own. ROO - following Klipmart’s upfront initiative launched last month and Heavy.com’s upfront that began in March - announced yesterday its plans to conduct its own upfront, offering advertisers the chance to buy spot time across its network of 130 affiliates, Mediapost reports.
Technology media, research and events company International Data Group (IDG) has launched a pay-per-click ad auction platform - TechWords - across its six U.S. technology-related websites (including cio.com, computerworld.com and networkworld.com) using a private-label version of Quigo’s AdSonar, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVOX). TechWords ads will appear in search results on the U.S. sites and contextually alongside news and other content.
Online music service Napster will be pursuing internet advertising dollars with an ad-supported online music service, reports AdWeek (via MarketingVOX). Listeners will have up to five free plays of more than 2 million songs; they then can buy the songs for 99 cents or subscribe to Napster’s download service, for $9.95 to $14.95.
The top 10 media buying agencies in the world account for only a fraction of U.S. and worldwide ad spending and the percentage is up only a touch since last year, in spite of agency consolidation, according to Mediapost. Share of buying from the top 10 was 30.0 percent of the $569.8 billion that Universal McCann forecaster Bob Coen estimates was spent on media last year. That percentage is up a bit from 29.3 percent in 2004, proving that consolidation is, indeed, having an impact, but only a small one.
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The U.K.’s Evening Standard is relaunching today with more news pages, a more London-centric slant to news and full color in a bid to appeal to young urbanites while battling a threat from a free evening paper on the London Underground, Media Week writes.
Yahoo has launched a technology website - Yahoo Tech - to help consumers research, buy and use technology products in 18 categories, reports MarketWatch (via MarketingVOX). All advertising inventory on the site for the three-month launch period is sold out. Yahoo Tech will be promoted across the Yahoo network and on its search engine when users type queries for technology products. Hewlett-Packard, Verizon Wireless and Panasonic are exclusive product-category sponsors.
Sirius Satellite Radio has announced the launch of its new exclusive Scandinavian music program ‘Nordic Rox,’ which will play hit music from Sweden. The first episode debuted April 30 on Sirius channel 18, The Spectrum.
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Within the next five to eight years, the convergence of direct marketing and television could have a greater impact on direct marketers than the industry’s convergence with the internet, according to the presentation given by the president of Libey Inc. - a direct marketing advisory and intermediary firm - Donald Libey, at last Friday’s VT/NH Direct Marketing Group’s annual conference, DM News writes.
Starbucks Corp. has signed Hollywood talent agency William Morris to suggest music, film and book projects for the Seattle-based coffee retailer to consider marketing and distributing in its stores, writes the Los Angeles Times.
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The 2 percent drop in local radio sales for March - a drop that has stayed constant since the beginning of the year - overshadows the gains in revenue reported for national spots, according to the RAB, writes MediaWeek.
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General Motors’ executive director of advertising and marketing operations Betsy Lazar warned attendees of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureaus Cable Sales Management Conference - which began Sunday and wraps up today - that in order to stay abreast with consumers switching to digital media, planners and ad clients should change their course “with a great sense of urgency,” writes MediaWeek.
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With the World Cup approaching its June 9 kick-off date, a slew of 15 major global brands - including Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald’s and MasterCard - have started debuting their soccer-related ads referencing the tournament, writes MediaPost. World Cup-related ads will account for an estimated 50 percent of overall page space and ad time in several western and emergent countries, according to a report from ICOM - a global network of independent ad agencies representing about $2 billion in ad revenue.
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The New York Times has named Alexis Buryk, group vice president of advertising, to the position of senior vice president of advertising. She will succeed Jyll Holzman who has resigned for family reasons. Buryk will oversee all advertising sales for the newspaper.
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Heading into sweeps this May - which begin on Thursday and finish May 24 - ABC, Fox and CBS find themselves in a tight race for the number one spot for the season and will resort to stunting to try to pull ahead of the competition, writes Media Life.
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Third Screen - a company providing mobile advertising and marketing software services - has launched MADX|Agency - a premiere mobile advertising management and delivery platform for ad agencies and advertisers, writes BtoB.
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Formulating tactics to make local and national broadcasters’ increased use of new-media ventures - like cell phone text alerts - profitable was a key topic of discussion during two recent industry events in Las Vegas: the Radio-Television News Directors Association conference (RTNDA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
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