Thirteen months after its official launch, a major portal -- MSN -- has signed on to use DART Motif, DoubleClick's rich media advertising product. According to the MSN Web site, Motif has been added to the list of available third-party, rich media advertising products. The move means MSN's advertisers will be able to choose from in-page, expandable banners, and floating flash ad formats. Motif has been on the market since July 2003, but has struggled to gain acceptance from online's Big 3: America Online, Yahoo!, and MSN. It gained what analysts have referred to as "partial" acceptance from AOL, meaning AOL accepts non-expanding banners and nothing else, but struggled to penetrate the major ISP market, which is dominated by smaller third-party, rich media providers like Eyeblaster, Unicast, and PointRoll. According to Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliott, who broke the news on his analyst Web log this week, the move marks a major step forward for DoubleClick. "This starts to give Motif some credibility," Elliott said. "Without portal acceptance, a rich media tool is essentially unusable," and the reason, he said, is very simple. According to Jupiter Research, the top four online sites claim 38 percent of all usage minutes and 49 percent of all ad spending. "Most advertisers can't afford to skip half the market." Sarah Fay, president of interactive shop Carat Interactive, and a DoubleClick client, echoed Elliots sentiments. "Motif has to get the support of the bigger portals in order to make it a viable product," she said, adding that Carat has been partnering with DoubleClick in the development of Motif, in addition to using it. Fay noted that the new partnership doesn't give DoubleClick an advantage, either. "Not that it isn't a win; we see it as more of a requirement," she said. "In the long run, we have a global deal with DoubleClick, and obviously, we're betting on the DoubleClick horse," with the hope, she said, that "eventually [all of their offerings] will be rolled into one." "From the start," Jupiter's Elliot noted, "DoubleClick's biggest issue has been site acceptance, and getting a couple of the portals on board should do wonders for this product." However, he pointed out that Motif has yet to gain "full" acceptance from AOL. To do this, Elliott said DoubleClick needs get Motif's expandable banners and floaters approved, but AOL's partial acceptance shows that the company is committed to finding a solution to that problem. So why does portal acceptance take so long? According to Elliott, "[Portals] have a million different pages coded in a million different ways, they've got lots of producers who need to approve the formats, and they have to do all that testing," he said. MSN's acceptance of Motif has come at a good time for DoubleClick, which may face stiff competition once aQuantive unit Atlas DMT unveils its rich media platform later this year. Elliott noted that Atlas may have already sidestepped the ISP acceptance problem by scooping up Ad4ever, a small rich media company, earlier this year. "Ad4ever still has current acceptance on the big three," Elliott said, "which is a good sign for Atlas." He noted that while this does not guarantee them acceptance, it could help facilitate the process. According to MSN Director of Advertising and Marketing Eric Hadley, "DoubleClick's DART Motif is an innovative and efficient solution for executing rich media and we're pleased to certify our key properties for DART Motif campaigns."
Friendster, the free online social networking community, on Monday named Charlie Barrett vice president-sales. Barrett joins Friendster after a two-year stint as senior vice president of sales for America Online's AOL Media Networks, where he coordinated advertising sales for the Western region based in San Francisco. Prior to his post at AOL, Barrett was executive director of sales for the Northwest region at Yahoo! At Friendster, Barrett will manage all ad sales initiatives and build a sales organization. Friendster already has an advertising operations unit and relationships with interactive rep firms, but, "honestly, I'm sort of the first member of the ad sales team," Barrett noted in a phone interview with MediaDailyNews. "I don't intend to have an army of people out there selling, but we have a tremendous opportunity in a fledgling category." At AOL, Barrett had 25 people reporting to him. As for his replacement, AOL is evaluating its options both internally and externally, according to people familiar with the matter. At Friendster, Barrett plans to cultivate relationships with entertainment companies--including Hollywood studios, auto, and consumer marketing companies--"that are looking to build buzz around their brands." He said he doesn't want Friendster to get pigeonholed as a social networking company. "We have a referral model ... It's a platform for exchange of information about oneself, one's passion, and trying to find others who are also putting out information about themselves and their passions," Barrett said, adding: "We are most likely going to be a media-driven platform for some time, and will work to develop premium service offerings as we determine what our members want." Barrett said he'd like Friendster to be part of a significant product launch and major film releases. "I would love to see a consumer product show tangible successes using the word-of-mouth platform." Friendster CEO Scott Sassa was a major factor in Barrett's move to the company: "Scott was absolutely the key risk-eradicator for me. His understanding of the consumer marketplace and his ear for pop cultural trends was very comforting. The VCs behind us didn't hurt either." Privately held Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures, and individual investors. Sassa, a former NBC Entertainment executive, joined the company in June. Even so, Friendster has been hard-pressed of late to re-create the wave of buzz it rode last year when the online community enjoyed an exclusive cache among hipsters and the mediarati. Friendster has 9 million members.
Nielsen//NetRatings last month sent the burgeoning search advertising marketplace into a tizzy with a report suggesting that demand is outpacing supply in the search market, and that future growth will be contingent upon innovation in localization, personalization and specialization from search providers. But one category of search, so-called "vertical search," is growing fast. Many content providers now feel it's important to include such on-site search in their business plans, and as some vertical-specific content providers are discovering, vertical search presents unique opportunities. "In a B2B context, search can successfully be combined with browsing," notes Greg Sterling, editorial director of The Kelsey Group (TKG). He says such B-to-B players are developing new ways of capitalizing on their search technology, such as licensing it to other sites, selling display advertising, pay-per-click search, or even paid inclusion. A good example of this is KnowledgeStorm, an Internet technology search provider, which today is set to announce a partnership with ECT News Network's CRM (customer relationship management) Buyer Resource Center. The CRM Buyer Resource Center is intended to be a meeting place for buyers and sellers of CRM technology, where they can access data, make vendor comparisons, and conduct research on available IT solutions. The company also licenses its technology to WSJ.com, InfoWorld, and Techcenter.com. KnowledgeStorm Executive Vice President of Products, Technology and Marketing, Jeff Ramminger, notes that you could apply the term "micro- vertical" to the kind of service Knowledgestorm will be providing for CRM Buyer, because the company will only be mining a certain sub-section of its database in providing content to CRM Buyer. KnowledgeStorm will power the co-branded, on-site search engine, providing CRM Buyer's readers with relevant information on CRM products and services from its database of IT products and services. CRM Buyer will then take a cut from sales generated by KnowledgeStorm's paying vendor customers. Ramminger notes that it's easier for a search provider like KnowledgeStorm to provide specific vertical information than a Web search giant like Google, because KnowledgeStorm pulls data from structured content rather than a massive Web crawler that constantly scans billions of Web pages. This, he says, translates into a more "predictable" search experience for the end-user. According to Ramminger, KnowledgeStorm doesn't directly compete with Web search providers like Google or Yahoo, or even tech sites like CNET. Because it sells to a specialized IT market, Ramminger says KnowledgeStorm can charge each of its B2B vendors for inclusion in the company's database. This is called paid inclusion, a controversial search tactic that is currently deployed by Yahoo and its subsidiary, Overture. Paid inclusion is the process of paying for guaranteed inclusion in the "organic" search results of relevant queries. Google has shunned the process, and industry pundits have referred to the process as "unfair," even "evil." Having said that, Yahoo doesn't require companies to pay for inclusion in its database like Knowledgestorm does. In fact, paid inclusion is just small part of the company's search strategy, whereas for KnowledgeStorm, paid inclusion is the company's search strategy According to the TKG's Sterling, the playing field is a little bit different for vertical search providers. He says that if a given company in a B2B context has literally cornered its market-no matter how small-it can charge for inclusion in its results the way KnowledgeStorm does. Sterling says the playing field is different for B2B companies because the community is small and the information profitable to everyone. "It's all about what your market position is," For high-traffic sites with steady competition, he says pay-per-click is a better model, but for business-facing vertical search providers with small, but effective reach, they can charge for guaranteed inclusion as long as they've cornered their market and can deliver the right metrics.
New data from Enpocket's quarterly mobile marketing report, Mobile Media Monitor, shows that mobile phone ownership and usage continues to increase rapidly. The study's findings reveal that 128 million US adults now use a mobile phone, and usage of different interactive mobile features like ringtones, games, and text messaging continues to surge. Mobile phone penetration increased 8 percent from 53 to 61 percent in the third quarter, according to the results. Mobile, in general, is often thought of as a youth medium, but its highest penetration actually occurs in the 35-49 age group, where 7 out of 10 people have a mobile phone. Usage and income are also intertwined: 83 percent of those earning $75K or higher regularly use a mobile phone versus 38 percent among those who earn less than $20,000 per year. Despite this, most mobile marketing initiatives are geared towards younger demographic segments. For example, on the strength of several interactive text messaging initiatives by major media companies, text messaging, received a quarter-over-quarter boost. Three percent of mobile phone owning adults have sent text messages to a TV show-more than double the tally from last quarter-and two percent of adults have sent text messages to a radio station, also more than double the second quarter figure. In other key findings, Java and BREW mobile game downloads grew a whopping 75 percent quarter over quarter, from 4.4 million downloads in the second quarter to 7.7 million downloads in the third quarter. Mobile game downloads doubled quarter over quarter among 18-25 year old phone owners: in the second quarter, 11 percent of 18-25 phone owners were downloading games versus the third quarter, in which 22 percent downloaded games. For advertisers looking to penetrate this fast growing mobile segment, advergaming is a viable consideration point. Other areas of significant mobile growth include graphics, and monophonic and polyphonic ringtones. Eleven million active adults downloaded wallpaper, icons, logos, and other graphics in the third quarter-a 57 percent increase over the second quarter. The number of people downloading monophonic ringtones reached 18.6 million adults, a 32 percent quarter over quarter increase. Polyphonic ringtones increased 28 percent to 11 million adults. "As the demand for content on mobile phones increases, it presents a huge opportunity for brands to connect with their customers anywhere they are on this truly personal device," Enpocket CEO Jonathon Linner stated. "The Mobile Media Monitor offers invaluable insight into the evolving mobile marketing and behavioral space, allowing marketers and carriers to deliver more valuable content to consumers." If figures from the rest of the world are anything to go by, the U.S. mobile market should brace itself for continued growth and innovation. According to research firm Strategy Analytics, worldwide revenues from mobile data services will hit $61 billion in 2004, and reach $189 billion in 2009. The firm said that Text messaging will provide the largest source of revenue, accounting for 46 percent of mobile revenues in 2009, while mobile entertainment-ringtones, games, and music/media, will comprise 28 percent. Marketing figures were not gleaned from the report. According to Boston-based research firm the Yankee Group, the U.S. mobile market will reach $2.8 billion for 2004, and $14.5 billion for 2008. However, these numbers do not indicate what percentage of the overall spend will belong to mobile marketing. "Mobile marketing is an awfully tricky area," warned Yankee Group Analyst Roger Entner. "Mobile advertisements are viewed by a lot of people like spam- even where permission has been established," he said. The latest installment of the Mobile Media Monitor (US) survey was based on 1,000 telephone interviews conducted by NOP World for Enpocket Insight in late July 2004, and relates to the period May 2004 to July 2004. The base was representative of US mobile phone usage.
I am a prolific reader, on and offline, but have rarely read a business/industry book that has made a memorable impact. Biographies and case studies are valuable exceptions, but I'm not a big fan of "10 Easy Steps to This," "Eight Ways to That." The ups and downs of the Internet world have brought out a particularly bland, hyperbolic litany of poorly written polemics. In the media world, these range from how the Internet will (still) kill everything we know and love, to the Internet is more hype than substance. Out of the ashes of this cacophony, comes Dan Gillmor's "We the Media - Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People" (O'Reilly Press, with a companion Web site at http://wethermedia.oreilly.com.) Gillmor is one of the most respected journalists and thinkers about new media, has long written for the San Jose Mercury News and keeps his own provocative blog. It is, therefore, no surprise that he has written the most important book about how the media world is changing - not tomorrow, but right now. So let's pause a moment and take a brief quiz. How many of you can accurately identify the following terms:Blogs, Wikis, InstaPundit.com, Creative Commons Copyright, Feedster, RSS, Reed's Law, Slashdot, Ohmynews. I bet you're batting less than 1,000. And these are only a fraction of the issues changing our landscapes that Gillmor addresses at length. For anyone in the news and information world, for anyone who cares about and needs information in their daily lives, this book is for you The ways traditional media is being battered are legion, but perhaps the greatest force of all goes to the essence of what most media companies are: aggregators. The Internet has forever changed the need for aggregation - not eliminated it outright, but changed it significantly. Go to any section, any subsection, of a newspaper and there are dozens of online competitors building destinations for those areas only. How many people, five years from now, will buy record "albums?" If you own an iPod you know the answer. If you had a choice, would you buy basic cable as packaged by others, or choose the stations - choose the PROGRAMS - that you want when you want them? If you have a TiVo you know the answer as well. People want what they want when and how they want it. And, as importantly, people want to be heard - and to hear from each other. Experts and editors have their place, but only ONE place in the media world not of the future, but of right now. And in no place is this change more apparent, and more significant, than in journalism and other content generation. Gillmor refers to this as an extension of the open source philosophy that has become so powerful in software development. Opinion and expertise flourishes in a thousand places, and "the first article may be only the beginning of the conversation in which we enlighten each other. We can correct our mistakes. We can add new facts and context." Gillmor offers a crystal clear tour of the news and information world of today. With useful historical context, he describes the rise of blogs and their impact. He describes the constituencies of news gatherers and news makers in a world where every citizen has access to a platform of reporting. He explains the technologies that enable greater and faster information distribution. He outlines the entrenched reactions and protective machinations of traditional media, and where they are inevitably doomed to fail. He hits all assumptions on privacy protection with a two-by-four. The stories are as amusing as they are provocative. Bloggers at an investors conference instantly reported background they found online about Quest's Joe Nachio while he was presenting, instantly raising issues countering his presentation. President Bush had an "off the record" meeting with local constituents, one of whom happened to also keep a blog afterwards. Gillmor's artistry is in writing in a language that the digerati will find technical enough, but will never lose us regular civilians. There is little or no hyperbole here, few talk of "revolutions." With his keen reporter's eye, but with no polemic, there is a clear description of worlds that are playing out with inevitable ramifications to the future of news and information and elsewhere. (e.g., how CEOs can communicate with the market and their employees, how children will learn and interact, how communities are and will mobilize politically.) If I had one criticism of the book, it is that it contains only scant discussion of the business models in the worlds as they play out. This was likely intentional, but does tend to leave the 800-pound gorilla of how traditional or ANY media organization will pay for all this content and interaction. There are, of course, also downsides to "citizen journalism." Who to trust in the cacophony of the Web remains an interesting question. And, there is still a place - and Gillmor argues a primary place - for the quality reporting and expertise that makes great journalism of increased importance in our fast-changing world. But there is nothing in this book that makes us in traditional media or journalism comfortable, which is why everyone in this business - from content creation to advertisers trying to find ways to reach these audiences - should pay careful attention. We have entered a world where the individual matters most. If, as Gillmor raises, "a scarcity of airwaves ... turns out to be an artifact of history and outmoded technology," that anyone can soon download or upload whatever they want when and how they want it, all bets are on the table. For publishers, for citizens, and for marketers.