Google Recruits Media Buyers, Madison Avenue Frets

Some on Madison Avenue are concerned about Google’s plans - recently, it’s been hiring New York-base media buyers - to expand into the media planning and buying business, what the ad agencies consider their turf, writes MediaPost (via MarketingVox). Though Google says its efforts are merely a test limited to print, it has also hinted that the scope of that test might expand to other offline media as it expands the realms of exploration in pursuit of a core mission - “using Google’s technology to serve relevant, targeted ad messages on behalf of advertisers and agencies,” as MediaPost puts it.

NBC Sells 90 Percent of Olympics Inventory

NBC has said that it has sold 90 percent of its Olympic sales goal of $900 million, according to AdAge. However, some buyers suggest that completed sales are actually 5 to 10 percentage points less than the network has claimed.

Media Buyers Bored with Howard Hoopla

Media buyers and planners are bored with the Howard Stern hoopla, according to a poll last week from Media Life. “He’s leaving. Big deal,” wrote one respondent, which mirrored the sentiments of a number of readers, according to the article. As for Stern’s impact on Sirius and the terrestrial stations he is leaving, 35.5 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “The big move’s a failure. It’s laughable Sirius paid this man $500 million…”

Bollore Speaks out on Havas, Aegis

Vincent Bollore has conducted his first press conference this morning since taking over Havas in June, according to Adweek. While investors had hoped that he would outline a growth strategy for the Paris-based company, he instead revealed that the firm is expecting a dip in sales and operating margin in 2006. However, he also claimed to be in Havas for the long-haul, saying, “I’m not there by coincidence. I’m not passing through. I’m there for a long time,” writes Brand Republic.

Networks: Most DVR Playback Viewers Skip Ads, Some Pay Attention

In a report issued at today’s press conference held by the six major television networks, executives said that the DVR will only increase viewership to major network programs, reports CNET News. For example, homes with a DVR watched 5.7 hours of TV daily, compared with 5.1 hours for homes with a DVR. And, DVR households still watch about 90 percent of their television at original broadcast time. The 10 percent of recorded shows is mostly composed of the most popular shows during a given season.

Sirius Subscriber Numbers Slightly Screwy

While Sirius Satellite Radio has reported 359,000 new users in the third quarter, nearly double the increase in the same quarter last year, Scott Moritz of TheStreet.com points out that those figures - far more impressive than the 48 percent subscriber growth rate at rival XM - could be the result of “liberal math.”

Ad Shift from Newspapers to Internet Slower Than Some Think

A new report from Banc of America Securities says that the shift of dollars from traditional media to the Internet is happening slower than previously suggested, Editor & Publisher reports.

The research firm looked at 100 leading national advertisers that spent over $1 billion with newspapers. Indeed, more than one-third of ad dollars flowing out of newspapers are moving to the Internet. The advertisers studied spent roughly the same in 2004 as in 2003 on newspaper advertising; however, they upped their Internet spend by 29 percent.

New Yorker/Target Ad Combo Either Innovative or Alarming

As magazine publishers increasingly face the question of paid product placement and the blurring of the sacred line between editorial and advertising, the August 22 New Yorker has hit the stands with its much-publicized featuring of a single advertiser, Target, throughout the entire issue. Depending on who you ask, the move is wildly innovative or alarmingly shocking. “It seems like a pro-active move to maintain financial vitality at a very challenging time,” wrote Jon Friedman of MarketWatch, about the issue. “They must meet the clamor for the delivery of information, news and entertainment in increasingly convenient and timely ways.”

Auto Industry: About Product Placement, It’s Not Just Us

Automakers, eager for exposure in magazines beyond traditional ad pages, have recently been nudging publishers rather aggressively for new opportunities or “contextual ideas,” and now it seems publishers are doing some nudging on their own, according to AdAge. Magazine publishers have begun presenting their share of ideas, said Julie Roehm, director of marketing communications for Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler. For example, one publishing house suggested a new feature about driving cars and trucks that would include a web component sponsored by Chrysler.

ComScore Blog Study Raises Eyebrows, Ire

Keyboards were clicking this week as bloggers both hailed and blasted the results of a comScore’s blog-user study (PDF), “Behaviors of the Blogosphere,” issued this week, with the two best-known blog networks squaring off and trading accusations, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox). The study was cosponsored by Six Apart and publisher Nick Denton’s Gawker Media blog network, which was accused of bias by rival Weblogs Inc. Network (WIN) publisher Jason Calacanis.

Media buyers have long sought the demographic data that the study offers, and all major blog publishers will likely benefit from findings that blog audiences tend to be wealthier and younger than the average web audience. But Calacanis accused comScore of bias and inconsistency.