Publicis Group and Indianapolis-based real estate firm Simon Property Group are forming a new retail-based digital media network dubbed OnSpot which will sell advertising to clients of the agency and other advertisers, MediaPost reports.
eBay has won the bid to develop an electronic trading system for buying and selling TV media, mere days after an ad industry task force unveiled the plan to test the idea, reports MediaPost (via MarketingVOX). After meeting with potential providers of the auction infrastructure, including Google, eBay was selected “based on their scale and their expertise and their…credibility in doing this kind of thing,” according to Ray Warren, president of Carat Media Group Americas and a member of the task force.
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Transport for London has announced that incumbent Viacom Outdoor - the U.K. division of U.S.-based advertising firm CBS Outdoor - is the preferred bidder for the lucrative London Underground ad contract, beating out French rival JCDecaux, writes Reuters U.K.
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In the largest settlement yet in New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer’s payola investigations, the Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world, has agreed to pay $12 million to settle claims that execs paid radio programmers to play its music, writes The New York Times.
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DirecTV yesterday morning announced its new 24-hour network BabyFirstTV, which caters to kids aged 6 months to 3 years and will not be supported by advertising, Mediaweek writes.
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New York’s Clear Channel R&B/hip-hop station WWPR (Power 105.1) fired morning man Troi Torain - the “Star” of the Star and Buc Wild Show - for making continuous on-air threatening comments towards rival WQHT (Hot 97) weekend personality DJ Envy’s wife and 4-year-old daughter, writes MediaWeek. The termination followed City Council members’ public denouncement of Torain, during a news conference Wednesday at City Hall.
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Reed Business Information’s list management division DM2-DecisionMaker has announced its strategic alliance with Harris Interactive Service Bureau to jointly create online research panels of decision-makers, writes BtoB. The Expert DecisionMaker Panels will soon be available and will allow DM2 to provide companies targeting hard-to-reach business-to-business decision-makers with access to its lists of subscribers.
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Preppy clothing chain and apparel cataloger J. Crew said that in August it would launch its new Madewell chain, which will carry women’s clothing at prices 20 percent to 30 percent less than J. Crew merchandise, writes BrandWeek.
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Black Box Corp.’s new 128-page spin-off catalog, Multimedia and Networking Solutions, targets users of digital signage as well as other multimedia presentation products by offering networking technologies, high-resolution scalers, plasma and LCD screens, and media converters, writes Multichannel Merchant.
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Following the Warner Bros. move to make off-network episodes of Two and a Half Men available for online streaming, Sony Pictures Television (SPT) said yesterday that once its new series the Greg Behrendt Show debuts this fall, it would offer stations the ability to stream same-day, first-run episodes of the new show over the stations’ own websites, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
Miller Brewing Co. announced that Starcom USA would continue its 10-year-long management of the brewer’s $240 million media account, having beaten out Aegis Group’s Carat and WPP Group’s MindShare, who were also considered in the review that began in January, writes Ad Age.
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Google execs reiterated the company’s commitment to online and offline search advertising, including magazines and television, as well as announced the arrival of Google Co-op beta - an online community in which users can give input on improving search - during Wednesday’s Google Press Day, writes DM News.
State Farm Insurance announced Monday that it has expanded its partnership with USA Basketball by signing a three-year marketing agreement that makes State Farm the official sponsor of the men’s and women’s senior national teams, providing brand awareness in several media events, including interactive fan tours and in-arena exposure, writes BrandWeek. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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Major client defections, earnings restatements and management changes during the past year - as well as slower revenue growth compared to other advertising companies - have resulted in Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc.’s reporting a wider quarterly loss, writes Reuters. For the first quarter of 2006, the ad services company had a net loss of $182.1 million compared with last year’s restated loss of $151.4 million.
Family Circle magazine’s redesign includes a new cover approach that “takes a softer color palette, a restrained approach to typography and less-manic coverlines” and is an improvement, writes Bryn Mooth, editor in chief of HOW magazine, in Media Bistro. Inevitably, however, newsstand sales will dictate the success of the redesign, Mooth added.
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