News Hotline

• MEC Forecast: Emerging Markets Grab Brand Attention, Health Apps Key
  by Steve McClellan Yesterday, 5:51 PM

  Fewer cash payments and more haggling over transactions are among the big consumer trends that global media shop MEC, a unit of WPP, has identified in a new consumer marketing trend report for 2012. Brands will also start paying significantly more attention to Chinese consumers and those in ...

• Tag Management Becomes Serious Ad Business
  by Laurie Sullivan Yesterday, 5:18 PM

  Tag management companies have begun stepping up services for collecting and blocking data from ads and analytics platforms. Tealium now supports a feature that blocks the ability to gather data. It recognizes Web browser headers when consumers activate the do not track options, preventing tags from collecting d ...

• Lowe's Hopes Pinterest + Facebook = Higher Engagement
  by Mark Walsh Yesterday, 3:57 PM

  Lowe's is hoping for big things as one of the first brands to feature its Pinterest presence in Facebook through a new tool from social marketing firm Vitrue. Since Pinterest heavily draws females, Lowe's has been actively cultivating that audience by posting product images ties to home dcor ...

• NBCU Joins Digital 'Newfront'
  by Phyllis Fine Yesterday, 3:52 PM

  TV power NBC Universal will present at "The Digital Content NewFront," a two-week series starting April 19 in which mostly digital companies will court advertisers by presenting "web video as an alternative to TV," writes Michael Learmonth. While the NewFront founders like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft "see the ...

• Time Inc.'s Lang Reshuffles Exec Lineup
  by Phyllis Fine Yesterday, 3:52 PM

  In her first executive shakeup since coming onboard as CEO two months ago, Time Inc.'s Laura Lang has axed two execs and hired consultant Bain & Co., according to minonline's Steve Cohn. One insider sees the latter move as a possible forecast of more layoffs to come, ...

• 'BH&G' Launches Pinterest Contest
  by Phyllis Fine Yesterday, 3:52 PM

  In another example of shelter/women's mags taking advantage of Pinterest (we recall a recent story about Country Living), Meredith's Better Homes and Gardens debuted the contest Pin to Win, in which readers compete for a cash prize by curating a pinboard with images taken from the mag's Web ...

• In Stunning Reversal, Male TV Personality Cited For Weight Gain
  by Phyllis Fine Yesterday, 3:27 PM

  The latest in man-bites-dog* news: British chef and former reality TV star Jamie Oliver got testy when a journalist asked about his weight gain. And his rep blamed "unflattering photos"! We assume Oliver's current mission -- he "was in Australia to promote his partnership with the government to ...

• Late-Night Shows' Ratings Tight, But 'Nightline' Grabs Most Viewers
  by Wayne Friedman Yesterday, 2:58 PM

  With more than two-thirds of the TV season completed, all three broadcast networks' main late-night shows --- and most cable ones -- are in a virtual dead heat among key viewers that advertisers want. But looking at overall viewers, ABC's "Nightline" is tops, averaging 3.9 million viewers, which ...

• Halo Strategy Unit Gets New Name, Branding Makeover
  by Steve McClellan Yesterday, 2:40 PM

  In a bid to better guide clients through the increasingly complex and demanding consumer landscape, The Halo Group, the New York-based branding and marketing communications agency, expands its strategy group. It is getting a branding makeover and will now be called the Brand Experience and Performance Strategy Gr ...

• Fitch: Trad Radio Holds, Digital Poses Threats But Less Revs
  by Erik Sass Yesterday, 2:23 PM

  In the near term, radio faces a number of threats in the evolving media landscape from the Internet and mobile. While traditional radio broadcasters' digital initiatives could capture "a sizable portion of digital listening," Fitch doesn't expect their digital efforts to produce significant revenue for another year or ...

• Salem Revs Rise, Entravision Drop

  Salem Communications, which owns a number of radio stations with predominantly Christian and conservative opinion formats, reported that total revenues increased 6.2%, but Hispanic broadcaster Entravision declined in the fourth quarter of 2011. ...

• New-Media Money Buys Old Mag, A Bastion Of Liberalism

  New Republic, the almost-100-year-old magazine that "helped define modern American liberalism," has a new young owner: 28-year-old Chris Hughes, "a new-media guru who co-founded Facebook" and was once Mark Zuckerberg's roommate at Harvard, write Brian Stelter and Michael J. De La Merced. Terms of the sale were not ...

• When Qualified Leads Fall Short

  Consumer leads traveling through a company's marketing funnel don't always convert or sign up in the end. They may stop at several pages to make an informed decision. Jason Shah believes "too many startup founders, product managers, and user experience designers are letting the dogs and loud music ...

• PPC Hero Chats With Marin's Matt Lawson

  In a one-on-one chat with Marin Software VP of Marketing Matt Lawson, Laura Johnston digs into the most important trends related to paid-search marketing. Most of the discussion revolves around mobile marketing and whether it will outpace desktop search marketing. Remember Siebel Systems, which Oracle announced in 2005 ...

• Google Remains Top Search Engine Despite Privacy Concerns

  The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a study Friday indicating that Google may be risking its dominant position with searchers. The study found that 83% of U.S. search engine users rated Google as their preferred search engine, despite recent privacy concerns.  Among search engine users, about three-fourths ...

• The Problem With Google Maps

  As Google Maps continues to lose big name clients, experts are asking what it means for Google, and the future of digital mapping. The most obvious answer is that Google competes directly with the same companies that have recently announced plans to cut back on Google Maps, including ...

• Blogs Bigger Than Ever (Among Women)

  Thought blogs were a fading fad? On the contrary, the category has continued to flourish in recent years, escalating. “If the trajectory of growth is any indication, the saturation point for blogs doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight because the study speculates that consumer interest is still ...

• Is Google Forcing Wallet On Developers?

  Google is reportedly pressuring app makers and mobile game developers to use Google Wallet. Driven by its desire to rival Apple’s iOS platform, Google could be engaging in anti-competitive activity and actually hurting developers’ bottom lines. “Google warned several developers in recent months that if they continued to ...

• Mediacom: Broadband Unit Up, Local TV Sales Dip

  Mid-size cable operator Mediacom Communications took in slightly better financial results in the fourth quarter of 2011 for its two main cable/broadband/phone divisions. However, local TV advertising sales dropped 2%, and its video business was flat. ...

• Dove Loves Social For March Madness

  Tapping into what might be the largest online sports viewership of the year, Unilever brand Dove Men+Care plans one of the biggest social media pushes in NCAA men's basketball tournament history. "Journey to Comfort" will include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and Viggle, as well as TV spots, all ...

• Chocolate Milk Ad Campaign For Athletes

  Chocolate milk makers are aiming for jocks. The national milk processors organization known for "Got Milk?" is launching the campaign just as cities from Los Angeles to the District of Columbia have eliminated chocolate milk from schools, and consumption has dropped four of the past five years. This ...

• Apple Shows iPad Sales Numbers

  Apple CEO Tim Cook showed a slide at the launch event for the new iPad demonstrating that Apple sold 15.4 million iPads last quarter, more than any PC maker's total PC sales during the same quarter. ...

• Chrysler Has Big Social Media Success

  Twenty million people have seen Chrysler's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl spot online. The video placed second place overall in the annual contest sponsored by YouTube and Ad Blitz. The Jeep brand's Facebook page has generated more than 2 million friends, more than any other auto brand, company ...

• Can EA Avoid Madden NFL Cover Jinx?

  Tim Tebow, Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Rob Gronkowski and Victor Cruz and Jason Pierre-Paul of the Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants are among 64 players fans are voting on to determine the athlete who will appear on the cover of EA Sports' ...

• 7-Eleven TV Off To Strong Start

  7-Eleven TV showed solid results in its first year of operation by increasing both sales and revenue in participating stores, according to Harris Corp., which deployed the digital out-of-home screen technology across 4,344 7-Eleven stores in 2011. In those locations that incorporated 7-Eleven TV, national carbonated beverage brand ...

• NCAA Partners Back First Four Festivities

  The frenzy that is March Madness added another element last year with the introduction of the First Four, which officially opens the NCAA men's basketball Division I Tournament. This season, the First Four is expanding to include several days of pre-tournament festivities, which NCAA corporate partners and local ...

• Most Web Users Dislike Behavioral Targeting, Personalized Search

  The majority of Web users say they don't want to receive ads targeted based on behavior or search results personalized based on their prior activity, according to a new report by the Pew. Despite the ad industry's efforts to tell people how to opt out, only 38% of ...

• New Marine Corps Effort Aims For Diversity

  The campaign, which highlights the breadth of the Marine Corps mission both in military operations and in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in places like Haiti and Japan, aims to boost diversity among potential recruits. ...

• Mag Bag: 'Cosmo' Boasts 100,000 Digital Subscribers

  'Cosmopolitan,' one of the best-selling magazines at print newsstands, is also taking the digital world by storm, according to publisher Hearst Magazines, which said the saucy women's lifestyle title is the first Hearst magazine to attract over 100,000 digital subscribers. ...

• Rentrak's Crowning Achievement: Hallmark Nets Will Use It For 'Dual' Upfront Ad Guarantees

  Cable network operator Crown Media Holdings this morning unveiled a long-term contract with Rentrak to use its TV Essentials TV ratings, and said it would offer "dual ratings guarantees" to advertisers and agencies buying its Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel networks during the 2012-13 upfront advertising marketplace. ...

• Vans Teams With Anti-Smoking Effort At SXSW

  Shoe manufacturer Vans is teaming up with truth, a youth smoking prevention campaign, at the South by Southwest music festival. Events include live music, a movie premiere, custom gear giveaways and online. ...

• comScore Can Keep Data Confidential, For Now

  A federal judge has ruled that comScore can hold off on disclosing confidential information, including names of clients, to Web users suing the company for alleged privacy violations. ...

• Pinterest Outpaces Twitter For Publishers' Referral Traffic

  Marketers could find a gold mine in Pinterest, but could have challenges with copyright laws. Last month the site sent more referral traffic to publishers than Google and Twitter, according to a traffic report released this week. ...

• Dial For Men Gets The Ladies' Pinterest

  Dial for Men product board topics will follow common Pinterest themes like crafts, fashion, home dcor, recipes, and vacations, but featured items will match the interests of men more comfortable driving nails rather than pins. ...

• How The New iPad Will Create TV-Like (But Even Better) Ads

  Faster and with an improved screen, the new iPad, hitting the market March 16, will help marketers finally realize the potential of tablet advertising: "to run the kind of rich magazine or even TV-style ads that still command most of the advertising dollars spent," writes Robert Hof. ”For ...

• New Owners Pull Out A Plum -- TV, That Is

  New owners have rescued Plum TV -- the small cable network targeted to the utra-rich -- from bankruptcy. Joseph Varet and Morgan Hertzan, who co-founded lifestyle entertainment content producer LXTV, bought Plum for $1.7 million. They plan to broaden the channel's audience "to include the wealthy along with ...

• Tracking The Trends: Naked, Pregnant Celeb Mag Covers

  So how many covers have featured naked and pregnant celebs since the original, infamous Vanity Fair shot of Demi Moore some 21 years ago? Um, we lost count, but there's a whole bunch chronicled in this piece by Amy Wicks, illustrated by the latest in the trend (Jessica ...

• Netflix Might Pick Up Canceled 'Terra Nova'

  Netflix has "expressed interest" in picking up  the Australian-shot time-travel drama "Terra Nova," from its studio, 20th Television. Fox canceled the show, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg,  two days ago. ...

• TLC's 'Muslim' Show Canceled

  TLC will not be showing a second season of "All-American Muslim" because of its "relatively meager "ratings, Brian Stelter reports. The show, which "received praise last fall for reflecting the average lives of Muslims in the United States," also briefly courted controversy when two advertisers pulled out after ...

• Faster Networks, Better Metrics Propel Mobile's Future

  Media and technology executives are looking forward to high-speed wireless networks powering growing mobile media consumption. But they acknowledge that a lack of cross-media measurement tools will continue to hamper efforts to monetize audiences across different devices. ...

• NBCU To Participate In Digital Content NewFronts

  NBCUniversal is joining other big digital companies in participating in a digital media version of a TV-style "upfront" event -- becoming the first traditional media company to do so. NBC says it will "present innovative solutions for marketers across its vast portfolio of Web, social and mobile properties, ...

• Buddy Media Names New President

  Buddy Media has hired ex-Salesforce.com executive Susan St. Ledger as president, leading global revenue generation and overseeing the social media marketing firm's sales and client teams. ...

• CPG Companies Grow By Targeting Hispanics

  Marketing efforts targeting Hispanics are correlated with overall revenue growth for consumer packaged-goods companies and CPG-based retail companies, according to a study. Hispanics now make up 17% of the population, wielding a total $1.2 trillion in buying power. ...

• Pubmatic Acquires MobiPrimo, Integrates Mobile Into Ad Platform

  As hot for mobile as its publisher clients, PubMatic just announced the acquisition of MobiPrimo. An established mobile development technology firm, MobiPrimo clients include Nokia, Motorola and Microsoft. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ...

• Understanding Social Media 'Personas' Is Key

  A new study from Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council of North America and The Integer Group defines four types of social media "personas" and key insights about how they engage with brands and shop. ...

• DDB Moves Global Creative Center, CCO To China

  In a move that speaks volumes about how the economic, marketing and advertising worlds are changing, DDB, part of the Omnicom agency network, has confirmed that its Global Chief Creative Officer Amir Kassaei will relocate from New York to Shanghai to establish the agency's "global creative center" th ...

• Mobile Apps Reveal Ask.com's Cultural Shift

  Ask.com launched a free mobile app that allows anyone to create a poll, representing a cultural change at the question and answer search engine. ...

• Pandora: Luxury Marketer Makes Jewelry Social

  When it comes to jewelry, women want to share. At least that's the philosophy driving the success of Pandora, the Danish company that makes those pretty little charms jangling on so many women's wrists these days. ...

• Time Warner Cable Launches 'Enhanced' iTV

  In the wake of the cable industry's new advertising effort Canoe Ventures scaling back, more companies continue to talk up their future interactive TV services for advertisers. ...

• Tips On Optimizing Twitter Tweets

  Saturation levels in Twitter continue to make it difficult to be found, according to Lisa Buyer. who points to research that shows Twitter growing at a rate of around 11 accounts per second and reaching 500 million registered users in March. So she outlines some guidelines for marketers ...

• Facebook KPIs Influencing Search

  Setting clear marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) becomes crucial before implementing any online marketing campaign because the real value of Internet marketing can come from the data and the obvious results. Shaad Hamid presents a straightforward strategy to determining the correct KPIs for branding and conversions, as well ...

• AdWords API T&Cs Get Update

  Google gives us an overview of changes it made to AdWords terms and conditions for API clients. The overview outlines six changes, including an update to the definition of an AdWords API client, modifications on the definition of an "End-Advertiser-Only AdWords API Client," and clarifying when Google may ...

• Google Voice Search For Windows 7.5

  Google has redesigned the search app for Windows 7.5 smartphones. New features include Google Autocomplete, Voice Search, and My Location. The app is available in the Windows Marketplace in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German.  ...

• Apple, Publishers Facing Antitrust Suit

  The Justice Department reportedly plans to sue Apple and five top book publishers for allegedly colluding to raise the price of e-books. The five publishers facing a potential suit include CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster; Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group; Pearson PLC's Penguin Group; Macmillan, a unit of ...

• The PC's Uncertain Future

  Is Apple right about the post-PC era? Well, in 2011, worldwide PC shipments totaled 352.8 million units -- which translates to a 0.5% increase from 2010 -- according to new data from Gartner. According to Gartner, last year "redefined the landscape of the device market," with more people ...