Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Publisher Goes For Scarcity, Custom
PaidContent’s David Kaplan writes that MSNBC.com’s new single-page, site redesign “promises to do an end with clicking on stories and on ads.” There still seems to be a bit of clicking when AdExchanger.com took a look but the MSNBC initiative is clear as an MSNBC rep told Kaplan, “Msnbc.com is in the business of selling advertiser experiences, not ad units.” The news website is going for integrated, custom campaigns rather than standard IAB ad units. It should also be noted that the site still sets plenty of cookies that could be used to extend reach through exchanges for MSNBC advertisers. Read it.
AOL And Display Advertising
Reuters provides a round-up of Wall Street analyst insights on AOL. Most are in a wait-and-see mode. But, Credit Suisse analyst John Blackledge isn’t. He puts the company in the “sell” column and adds, “They are betting on content and display and the reality is it’s very competitive to grow eyeballs. I just don’t think they are going to grow display advertising.” Read more.
Ad Network Syndicates Content
Vertical ad networks are getting creative as IDG Tech Network is leveraging IDG’s video library for its publisher network in an effort to generate more video content that the network can sell against. IDG Tech Network’s CEO Peter Luongo says in a release, “Many of our network sites have a strong interest in bringing professional video to their sites, but don’t have the technical platform or access to the right content.” With a shortage of compelling video inventory on the B2B side of the house, this syndication strategy would appear to be a no-brainer. Read more.
Providing feedback to colleagues or direct reports? GRP Partners’ Mark Suster weighs in with his own best practices for feedback. Suster says that not everyone does a good job with feedback, “If I give each of my direct reports one honest, well-thought through, well-written review every year I’m doing better than 90% of everybody else so that’s valuable.” Read more.
Web Style Guide 4 U
Yahoo! has its extensive style guide available with tips and tricks for web writers on Yahoo! and elsewhere. The “Ask An Editor” feature answers to such questions as “Our house style sheet treats ‘smart phone’ as two words because our dictionary does, and so does ‘The Associated Press Stylebook,’ but one of our departments insists on using ‘smartphone,’ one word, because they say that’s more common in the industry and better for SEO. Which should take precedence: house style, industry practice, or SEO?” Read more.
New Day, New Dataset
ClearSight Interactive, an offshoot of AcquireWeb, a database marketing services company, announced that it is making its targeting dataset available through RocketFuel and LucidMedia’s platforms. ClearSights’s dataset “models IP Address geo-locations to neighborhoods through self-submitted permission-based website registration data and integrates traditional offline aggregated data indexed at the Zip+4 and census block level.” Read more.
The Subtle Science Of Bidding
From Efficient Frontier’s blog, EF’s Dr. Sid Shah acknowledges the recent “stir” that his Search Engine Land article caused. In the article, he goes deep into Google search ad listing considerations -some which seem applicable to Google’s display business. One of Shah’s conclusions: “Position is only an artifact of the auction. It doesn’t determine anything. Aside from brand considerations, don’t pay undue attention to it. Instead pay attention to bid, CPC, clicks and ROI. They are your true performance metrics.” Read more on the EF blog.
Keywords Of A Feather
The Search Engine Roundtable blog takes note of new paid search experiments going on with Google’s “Related AdWords Ads” which Google confirmed to SE Roundtable “was a ‘beta experiment’ that would use ‘relevant broad match keywords another opportunity to reach their target audience.'” Is real-time bidding for keywords and paid search placements far away? As long as ads are relevant, why wouldn’t Big G go RTB on its paid search inventory? Read more about possible ad matching according to trademarks.
MyTurf Targeting ISPs
The Fort Worth Business Press profiles a new Austin-based startup called, MyTurf, which “provides a way to shift control of online advertising from ad networks to Internet service providers (ISPs), allowing advertisers to deliver online display ads that are local.”Read more.
Google Ad News
Google is providing a Google News feed on display advertising, search advertising and many other topics. Read more about it on the Google Agency blog. And, see the feed.
Creative In HD
Pictela announced that Hearst will begin running Pictela OPA ads – with “stunning high definition content” – across Hearst properties beginning with a campaign from Gilette Venus. In the fall, Pictela will offer its own version of an OPA ad unit with large custom executions for Fashion Week and the holidays thereafter. Read more on Pictela.com.
Invite Media Getting Google-d
It was “onboarding day” for recently-acquired Invite Media at Google. Nat Turner of Invite Media tweeted as much and offered a photo of his team getting its brand new Apple laptops. See it. (source: @natsturner)
Mobile Search Wars
Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of mobile ad exchange Mobclix, provides his thoughts on how the mobile search wars are beginning to take shape between Google, Apple, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Subramanian writes, “As the market grows, Yahoo!, Google, Bing and Apple will become more cut throat. Don’t expect to see Bing ads on Google Mobile Ads or Apple featuring Yahoo!. Likewise, we may not see as many new Google and Bing apps in the App Store in the near future.” Sounds like the ad exchange space, potentially. Read more.
DSP-Like Capabilities
Epic Advertising CMO Mike Sprouse takes a mid-year look at his broad, 2010 predictions on his company’s blog which are generally on the mark. He suggests that the DSP hubbub has reached Epic, too, “Many companies even if they are not considered true DSP’s, they do offer DSP-like capabilities and have already begun bringing those to market. Offering a full-service solution was some of the positive effects of our company’s merger, for instance.” Read more.
