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Real-life members of MySpace are apparently getting fed up with the fake profiles created by marketers for their brands.
MySpace users are growing disenchanted with the social-networking site because it’s “becoming too corporate, overrun with ads, and less authentic,” writes MediaPost (via MarketingVox). The article points to a dilemma that publishers of similar sites face: the measure of their success is advertising revenue, but granting marketers extensive access can undermine the authenticity and appeal that made the site attractive to users, and therefore advertisers, in the first place.
Nielsen BuzzMetrics CMO Peter Blackshaw, who monitors online “buzz,” says users are discussing corporate presence on social networks. “As advertisers try to figure out the CGM [consumer-generated media] space, they’re kind of blurring the line between authentic content creation and advertising. That could definitely backfire,” he is quoted as saying.
A Universal McCann study recently found, for example, that only 10 percent of users said corporate messaging in blogs “can add value to my experience.”
CBS Radio and Yahoo, two of the largest online radio providers, are combining their online radio stations, beginning early next year.
CBS Radio’s 150 stations and LaunchCast’s 150 online stations will be integrated into Yahoo’s music site, powered by CBS…
Cox Enterprises, Inc. announced today that the company is bringing together its three media units - Cox Newspapers, Cox Television and Cox Radio - under a new organization named Cox Media Group, Inc., effective January 2009. The subsidiary will be headquartered…
Target is one of the first brands to create an iPhone application. The Target “gift globe” allows iPhone users to shake their phones to launch a snow-fall effect.
When the snow clears, a gift idea from Target is revealed. Users…
ABC is set to launch a slew of new series in a midseason shuffle. Primetime: What Would You Do? returns Tuesday, Jan. 9, in the 10pm time slot. The show is a hidden camera experiment in which actors stage scenarios…
Only 28% of the audience of an average news program, website or magazine gets valuable information about products and services advertised there, making news venues less effective at conveying ad messages than all forms of media combined (see chart), according…
Effective immediately, any telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message must include a quick and easy way to opt-out of receiving future calls. The opt-out must work both for consumers who answer these calls in person and for those whose…
