• Ross Fadner, Jan 30, 2007, 11:00 AM
  • OfficeMax Takes A Page From CPB Playbook Ad Age OfficeMax, an online office-needs retailer, took the bold step of eschewing television advertising altogether, taking what it would have spent on a TV spot to develop 20 Christmas-themed microsites. The idea was to promote its stores as a gift-giving destination for that special worker in your life, but the microsites were mostly created for fun.

    If executed properly, "fun" can catch a "viral wave." One of its sites, ElfYourself.com, became a sensation, generating 11 people per second, 36 million in total (it was taken down after Christmas). The result: a 20% bump in holiday traffic.

    Of course it's impossible to attribute all of that to the viral marketing effort, but it certainly had an impact. The site received press attention from Entertainment Weekly, MSNBC and several blogs. Crispin Porter Bogusky's Subservient Chicken was the inspiration behind ElfYourself, which let consumers customize their own elfs, adding anything from their pictures to recorded messages in an elf voice. Read the whole story...
  • Microsoft Chief: Time To Zero In On Google Financial Times Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer offered some fresh words on the software giant's struggle to compete with Google in the world of online advertising. Now that Vista is out, Ballmer says Microsoft's next big challenge is to tackle Google's territory.

    But wait a minute? Hasn't Microsoft been saying that for years? Ballmer says that heretofore, the threat of open source software has been Microsoft's principal concern. Well, Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie may have been piping on about the Google threat since mid-2005, but this time, Microsoft is serious.

    Ballmer underlines the importance of Internet search where MSN's market share continues to fall (sounds familiar). At last count, Nielsen/NetRatings said MSN had an 8% share compared to Google's 51%. This time, Ballmer says the software is out to play hardball, hinting that Microsoft could tap into its $30 billion-plus cash surplus to acquire its way into a better search position: "There may be blockbuster [deals], but the No. 1 thing for us is our own development, and let's call them technology acquisitions." Read the whole story...
  • YouTube's Ad Video Shift Was Inevitable Marketwatch YouTube is changing, something the online video provider must be worried about. Until now, the company never had to pay a penny to get users to upload content. But it also never made any money.

    Video advertising is coming to YouTube, and Google is hoping this doesn't tick off its user base, which delivered 1.75 billion page views in December, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. YouTube had to move in this direction eventually; monetary incentives will soon be necessary to keep the good content creators around.

    In being acquired by Google, YouTube has bought itself more time to tinker with its business model, but there's no doubt Google needs YouTube to be a key growth driver in the future. Smaller players like Revver, Break.com and Metacafe have dabbled in revenue-sharing, but they make little money, their producers make far less. In truth, these companies need a YouTube audience to be successful. Read the whole story...
  • Operating Software Offers Biz Lessons The Washington Post Salon.com co-founder Scott Rosenberg calls Microsoft's Windows Vista "a sad software lesson." It took the software giant five-plus years to finish Vista--the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq when the project started. However, the bigger question isn't that why it took so long to complete, but rather, what should this tell us about our dependence on bulky software?

    The main problem is that essential underpinnings of a software app, like Office or Windows, are static, having to be "painstakingly written line-by-line" and cannot be replaced. The digital world moves so fast Microsoft had to press "reset" and start writing the OS over halfway through its completion.

    Software writers embark on grand adventures to fix big problems, which, while inspiring, is perhaps less-preferred to Google's beta strategy or the open source Linux strategy: Putting it out there is more important. Later a company can make incremental improvements to rescue us from bugs and viruses and make our computers easier to use. Read the whole story...
  • Apple Points Way For Web TV Business Week Apple may be ticking the technology world off with its insistence on limiting the files played on its iPod, but it's taught its competitors that simplicity sells. Cool design helps, too, but Apple devices can be connected with relative ease, one of the main reasons for its success.

    This is the lesson tech companies' are applying to their Web TV efforts. Companies like Sony, HP and others are creating software that can be used across devices like PCs, TV's, video-game consoles, handsets and DVD players. Connected software also makes it easier for third-party developers to develop products for a particular company.

    Analysts say this is precisely what's needed for Internet TV to thrive. Microsoft estimates the market will be 70 million in just two years, up from 5.3 million this year. iSuppli projects 65 million. Companies like Comcast, Sony and AT&T will compete with Google, Microsoft, Apple and startups such as Brightcove and Joost. Convergence will ultimately lessen demand for some hardware products, like DVD players and eventually set-top boxes, but that's the nature of the beast. Read the whole story...