Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Facebook 2010 Revs: $1.2 Bil
eMarketer takes out its crystal ball on Ad Age and says that Facebook will make $1.2 billion in revenue this year and half of that will be self-service. Meanwhile, eMarketer says MySpace will bring in $347 million this year, “a 26% drop from the estimated $470 million from last year.” Read more.
Politics $$$ In Display
Political action group MoveOn is accusing Target of taking sides in a Minnesota election and is using its ad budget online to try to fight what it perceives as Target’s anti-gay marriage stand. ClickZ’s Kate Kaye writes of the campaign: “MoveOn is running Google display and search ads along with Facebook ads in conjunction with the anti-Target campaign. Many of the Google ads are targeted to zip code-based searches for Target stores. The company is also aiming Facebook ads at people listing Target as their employer in their profiles.” Read more.
CMO Pain!
AdWeek’s Noreen O’Leary looks at a new Accenture study which shows “‘expectations for marketing have never been higher’ at a time when ‘the challenges have never been greater.'” An Accenture rep chimes in: “Marketers must meet today’s challenges with laser-focused precision that is guided by insights from robust customer analytics capabilities that inform decisions about who they should target through what channels and with which messages.” Sounds like a move towards digital to me. Read more. And, download the Accenture (PDF).
Simulmedia’s Dave Morgan, who has been warning about the privacy debacle for quite a while now, says on his MediaPost blog that it’s time for online companies to “bake-in” privacy solutions. He writes, “Our more reactive efforts to “retrofit” strong privacy protections into our existing businesses are fine, and need to continue, but we also need to be thinking and acting in parallel to those efforts to make privacy protection a fundamental part of everything that we do going forward. Significant benefits await companies that do this well.” Read more.
More Net Neutrality
Yesterday, Google released its position on Net Neutrality on its public policy blog as the Company tries to answer industry criticism. Google counsel Richard Whitt responds to the idea that Google has “sold out” on net neutrality. He writes, “Google has been the leading corporate voice on the issue of network neutrality over the past five years. No other company is working as tirelessly for an open Intertnet.” Read it. All Things D’s Peter Kafka notes the blogosphere’s response: “The hive mind quickly concluded that the search giant and the telco giant (Verizon) were trying to fool Americans, by proposing a deal where the old Web stayed ‘open’, while giving them the go-ahead to lock down a new ‘private’ Web, as well as the wireless Web.” Bzzzzzz – read more on the hive.
Do-Not-Track Now
Datran Media’s Steven Vine asks for privacy legislation in an opinion piece in Ad Age. He argues for a Do-Not-Track list. Vine says, “A global opt-out is a sledgehammer. While a sledgehammer is exactly what a few consumers are looking for, most would prefer a scalpel. Look at Google’s Preference Manager, where ‘compared to the number of people who choose to opt out entirely, four times more people merely edit their categories, while ten times more people do nothing at all.'” Read more. It makes sense in terms of moving the privacy issue along which will bring brand dollars online faster as Vine suggests. And, privacy advocates may like this at first – but when they realize this is a universal cookie to be owned by some non-profit or government entity that essentially tracks a user’s interests, well what then?! Ban the universal cookie? Is it back to square one? Read more.
What Is Profit?
The Wall Street Journal takes issue with a trend where certain private company CEOs say they are profitable when, in fact, they are not. The latest culprit in the WSJ’s eyes is Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt who has always maintained that his company is profitable when his company’s recent SEC filings says it isn’t. What’s not clear is what everyone means by “profitable.” Two different accounting standards around EBITDA appear to exist which can make one seem profitable – or not. Read more.
Kroger Leveraging Digital
D.L. Stanley of Brandweek looks at how Kroger is successfully leveraging the popular past-time of couponing digitally. By partnering with San Francisco-based YOU Technology, Kroger has created a destination where deal searchers can print their favorite coupons. Stanley notes, “Redemption rates are considerably higher for digital coupons — somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent — per ABI Research. Some retailers have reported 40 percent redemption rates for highly targeted offers.” Read more.
ValueClick’s New Platform Services
In a release during this week’s eTail conference in Baltimore, ValueClick unveiled its new platform services group which will be led by ValueClick’s Nancy Hall. Previously the company had discussed the platform on last week’s Q2 2010 earnings conference call. Key components of the Platform Services offering that were identified in the release include: The Data Platform, The Audience Platform, Technology Platform, Services. The company is drinking the demand-side platform Kool-aid. Or is this the new agency? Read it.
Expedia And Yahoo!
Tnooz reports that Yahoo!’s European travel offering will now be powered by Expedia. Tnooz (travel news) says, “Expedia is running the travel search and booking functionality on six of Yahoo’s travel major portals across Europe, edging out previous metasearch partner Kelkoo.” Read more.
More Display Stuff From Google
Google continues to educate the masses about display advertising on it Google Ad Agency Solutions blog. In the last of three posts, the marketing team identifies three tools that advertisers can use with their Google – and thus DoubleClick Ad Exchange – Display Network buys: “Campaign reporting and optimization (…); Web analytics and optimization (…); Measurement beyond the click (…),” Read more.
PubMatic Gets UOL
In a press release, publisher-side, yield optimization company PubMatic announced that it has bagged publisher United Online which “has implemented PubMatic’s solution to help manage non-guaranteed ad inventory and revenue.” Read it.
Co-chairs Selling Stock
Citybizlist notes the sale of over $8 million worth of InterCLICK stock by the board’s two co-chairs: “Michael Brauser parted with 1.2 million shares for $4.44 million, while Barry C. Honig sold 1.1 million shares for $4.1 million. Brauser retains 111,325 shares and Honig, 190,217.” See the SEC filing for Brauser and Honig.
You’re Promoted!
Former Ad.com exec Jeremy Helfand of United Online has been elevated to the newly-created position of President, United Online Media Group according to a press release. In his new position, “Helfand is responsible for all domestic advertising sales under the United Online umbrella of companies including FTD, Classmates, MyPoints, NetZero, Juno, and MySite.” See his official bio.
