Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Brand Effectiveness Study
On the Microsoft Advertising blog, Microsoft’s Head Of Research & Market Insights EMEA Anita Caras announces new research that looks at the effectiveness of brand campaigns in digital. The whitepaper looks at 20 campaigns across 4 EMEA countries and was done in conjunction with ComScore and Eyeblaster. Positive outcomes of brand campaigns include “Branded search-term activity,” “Visits to brand sites” and “Uplifts in numbers of engaged visitors to brand site (measured in pages consumed and time spent on the brand site).” Read the post. And, download the whitepaper.
Malware In Congress
CNET’s Elinor Mills reports that WhitePages.com has halted the delivery of ad network campaigns that were suspected of delivering malware on its site. Incredibly, the people who discovered the malware attack may have been related to the United States Senate as a Senate rep said that Senate computers had been infected by malware from WhitePages.com and the Drudge Report the day before. They’re reading the Drudge Report in the halls of Congress? You gotta be kidding me. Nope.
Specific Media Travel
On website Travolution, Ian Dowds, UK VP of Revenue at Specific Media, discussed momentum for the online ad network in the travel space. Business doubled in January compared to the year ago period and Dowds told Travolution that “two of his top five clients in 2009 were in travel, and that 22 travel clients booked 30 campaigns in January 2010 – up from just 11 clients in the same month in 2009.” Read more.
Rubicon Project To Fill AOL Europe Gaps
Daniel Farey-Jones of Mediaweek UK says that Rubicon Project has been asked to take over AOL inventory in Europe for “all countries where AOL has had a network-only sales policy.” These countries include Spain, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands . Read more.
The Digital Inflection Point
On Media.Asia, OMD Worldwide CEO, Mainardo de Nardis discusses the future of digital advertising saying, “The rapid evolution of digital platforms and consumer behaviour is causing a similar inflection point for marketers.” His point: change or die. Read more.
I Want My Super Computer
Do you have your high octane, data crunching server yet? It seems like a lot of digital ad tech companies are buying into the Netezza product line which had been developed in the world of finance among other places. interCLICK is the latest client of Netezza TwinFin computing power. Read more.
WSJ’s Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies
Research firm VentureSource and some Wall Street Journal-types have created a list of what it believes are the Top 50 Venture-backed companies. From the world of advertising, #12 is Glam Media, #38 is Adchemy and #46 is iCrossing. The list was based on attributes called Equity, Executive, Valuation and Board rankings. Bad boards mean low scores. Read the summary article. And, see the list.
HTML 5 Vs Flash
PC World’s Tony Bradley looks at the HP Slate and the Apple iPad and it turns into comparison of Flash vs. HTML 5 with complete hysteria in the comments. “Each platform has a unique functionality and a different target audience–neither of which really needs Flash in order to find value in the tablet device itself.” Read more.
Yahoo! Partner Insights
On the Efficient Frontier blog, updates to technology of the Yahoo! Partner Network is the feature du jour as YPN’s “domain exclusion and the relative size of the Yahoo! Partner Network .. represents a major opportunity for increased efficiency and growth.” Read about YPN changes.
The Exclusive Mobile Ad Opportunity
ClickZ’s Zach Rodgers reports that Google has started running ads on the mobile website version of m.YouTube.com. Rodgers says, “Ad placements will be sold by the day, and each day’s advertiser will own all inventory on the mobile site for that day – just like they do on YouTube’s regular home page.” Given the lighter volume of YouTube inventory, it might make a better sales pitch to say to an advertiser, “You will own the entire mobile presence of YouTube.” Read more.
Taxing Ads
Looking to catch up on the tax implications of various states who are in the process of or think about an ad tax? The Performance Marketing Association has put together the latest update to its state-by-state rundown and finds, for example, that “A new ad tax bill, Number 5481, was proposed on March 8th in Connecticut. The language in this bill specifies a $2,000 per quarter threshold, which is much lower than the typical $10,000 threshold in other state’s ad tax bills.” Read more.
