With instant messaging becoming as hotly competitive among the major portals as search advertising or e-mail hosting, Yahoo! Wednesday said it is testing an upgrade of its Messenger instant-message service by enhancing PC users' ability to make free worldwide voice calls. The upgrade integrates its existing voice feature--which currently allows users who are logged onto Yahoo!'s PC Messenger to converse in real time and leave voice mail messages--with a call-history archive as well as free ringtones. The revamped service also improves the ability to share photos and add entries into personal Web logs. Yahoo! is linking IM blogs through its Yahoo! 360 offering--still in limited release--as well as music, through the new Yahoo! Music Unlimited service. Yahoo! also said it will include better junk mail filters as well, improving spam protection. According to comScore Media Metrix, demand for e-mail and instant messenger programs soared in April as the leading providers of online communication tools updated and heavily promoted their products. Microsoft, for instance, released a new version of its MSN Messenger program, resulting in a 24 percent increase in unique visitors in March. Rival Instant Messaging provider America Online upgraded its service last week, adding new features such as a revised browser window and the ability for members to create blogs. And AOL is currently testing improved IM software with the code name Triton. In the future, AIM users will be able to use the AOL Internet Phone service, recently made available to AOL subscribers who pay extra. AOL Wednesday also announced plans to integrate its instant messaging service into Turner Broadcasting System's upcoming game service, GameTap. The service will allow subscribers to play popular and classic games--and a customized version of AIM will be integrated into GameTap, allowing users to chat during game play, and invite their friends to play the games available in Turner's network. Microsoft's MSN Messenger and America Online's AIM both currently offer similar Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, services, which enable PC users to make free calls. Skype Technologies also offers chat and file sharing similar to instant messaging--and users can make free PC-to-PC calls, and can call ordinary phones for a fee. Yahoo!'s service will be available in 18 localized versions in a number of countries including the United States, China, France, India, and Italy.
MSN will create an official "Rock Star" Web site, complete with exclusive streaming video content filmed by a separate crew, as part of its deal with reality-TV honcho Mark Burnett. The deal between Mark Burnett Productions and MSN also involves the portal site agreeing to host blogs and music files related to the show, said Conrad Riggs, who negotiated the agreement for Mark Burnett Productions. "Rock Star," which will air on CBS starting in July, features aspiring musicians competing for a spot as the lead singer of the 1980s pop band INXS. The show was filmed at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, which housed the winners of open auditions held in January and February. "This is an opportunity to reach millions of engaged consumers in an entertaining way," said MSN Product Manager Karen Redetzki. "[The deal] is about utilizing the assets on MSN and bringing 'Rock Star' to life through those assets, and allowing consumers to experience things beyond the show." MSN also is rolling out a host of advertising opportunities associated with the show's site, including interstitial ads in the streaming video feeds, universal ad package display ads, and branding opportunities on MSN Messenger. Redetzki said that MSN hasn't yet received any commitments from advertisers. Negotiation for ad sales began on Tuesday. Riggs said Mark Burnett Productions selected MSN because the Web portal offered them a very high level of integration with the portal's relevant services like MSN Video and MSN Music. "They made us an unbelievable proposal as to how they would support the program online, content-wise, and how it would be cross-promoted though the MSN network," he said. Riggs cited MSN's music offering as a reason why they signed with MSN to promote the show. "We think ['Rock Star'] will tie in really well with MSN Music and all their plans to make inroads into this space," he said. "There will be a lot of musical tie-ins." Recently, Mark Burnett Productions also signed an extension to its deal with Yahoo! to promote their reality show, "The Apprentice." That deal has similar provisions, in which Yahoo! hosts original content from the show on its site. "Just like in the TV business, we like to work with more than one network. It's good for us to be in business with multiple portals," said Riggs. "Yahoo! and MSN are the current leaders in the content area, so that'd be another reason why we signed up with MSN."
Online ad spending related to real estate will surge to an estimated $1.8 billion this year--a 55 percent increase from last year's $1.16 billion, according to a forecast released Wednesday by Borrell Associates. The report also predicts that total ad spending on real estate will increase to just $11.3 billion this year, from $11.2 billion in 2004--which means that the online share of real estate ads will grow to 15.9 percent this year, from 10.3 percent last year. "The sudden growth indicates that agents, brokers, and developers have moved from the experimentation phase, and are beginning to commit sizable portions of their marketing budgets to online media," wrote Borrell Associates in a memo summarizing its research. Borrell predicted that online media will continue to grow its share of realty-related ad dollars--and that by 2009, more ad dollars related to real estate will be spent online than in newspapers. Borrell also reported that brokerage firms and agents advertise heavily on search engines, and that the high-end of prices is around $2 a click. The company said that Yahoo! Search data on Tuesday showed that in some markets, agents pay even more--from around $3 in Portland and North Virginia to more than $6 in San Diego and Palm Springs.
The start of the Major League Baseball season gave 11.2 million Web surfers reason to visit MLB.com in April, leading to a 63 percent month-over-month jump in traffic--the largest of any ranked "Ad Focus" entity--comScore reported Wednesday. Also in April, the National Football League Draft gave NFL Internet Group sites a 13 percent boost, and an 18 percent increase in page views over the 2004 Draft, according to comScore's Media Metrix monthly analysis. Apparently, no one forgot Mother's Day this year, as jewelry, luxury goods, and accessories ranked as the top-gaining category in April with a 19 percent increase in unique visitors over March. comScore e-commerce research also found that online spending in the jewelry and watches category reached $24.6 million for the week ending April 24, and then increased 13 percent to $27.8 million for the week ending May 1, just one week before Mother's Day. Music downloading sites also saw significant traffic in April, which comScore attributed to extraordinary holiday sales of Apple's iPod digital music player. Traffic to MP3.com rose 51 percent following an extensive campaign to promote its music store and assure customers that its music was compatible with the iPod. RealNetworks, which announced a product update for its Rhapsody music subscription service, also generated significant traffic. Another segment that attracted noteworthy traffic numbers was the career services, training, and education category, with 8.1 million unique visitors. This was due to both high school and college graduates making plans for the future, comScore reasoned. CollegeBoard.com, which offers information on member universities and administers the SAT and Advanced Placement programs, led all other sites in this category with 2.2 million visitors in April, an 18 percent increase over March. FastWeb drew two million visitors in April, and PrincetonReview.com saw an 18 percent rise in visitation during the month.
The subgroup of Wall Street Journal Online subscribers who can be characterized as "engaged investors" are more likely than average members of the population to visit Web sites related to online trading, financial news, travel, cars, and news about computers and consumer electronics, according to behavioral targeting company Revenue Science. Revenue Science declined to release any information about how the so-called "engaged investors" of WSJ.com compare to readers of other financial publications. Other advertising executives say that without such information, the knowledge that some WSJ.com subscribers are more likely to visit certain categories of Web sites probably is of limited use to marketers. "I don't want to compare the Wall Street Journal to the general Web," said Alan Schanzer, managing partner at Mediaedge:cia's The Digital Edge. "For me to make that information useful . . . I'd have to look at the Wall Street Journal versus Forbes.com versus MarketWatch." (Dow Jones owns both MarketWatch and WSJ.com, but the data released by Revenue Science refers specifically to WSJ.com paid subscribers.) David Morgan, CEO of behavioral targeting company Tacoda Systems, a Revenue Science rival, added that marketers that advertise to a specialized audience already assume that group differs from the general consumer. "The critical information there is how are the engaged investors on the Wall Street Journal.com compared to the people that are on the Forbes.com investment page," he said. "If you're an online trading site, you already know you want to be on a financial site." He added that most advertisers don't question him about how visitors to a specialized site compare to the general Web population. "They tend to ask much harder questions," Morgan said. Revenue Science, which provides behavioral targeting services for Dow Jones, compiled the information about WSJ.com "engaged investors" in conjunction with Nielsen//NetRatings. First, Revenue Science identified WSJ.com readers who were particularly interested in investing by looking at how often they visited certain sections of the WSJ.com site and how long they remained on the sites. A portion of that group also belonged to a Nielsen//NetRatings panel, meaning that Nielsen tracked their activity throughout the Web. When Nielsen//NetRatings compared the WSJ.com "engaged investor" subset to the general population, it found that the WSJ.com's engaged investors were 240 percent more likely to visit online trading sites; 150 percent more interested in financial-news and information sites; more than 100 percent more likely to visit airline and hotel sites; more than 100 percent more likely to visit news sites for computer and consumer-electronics news; and 75 percent more likely to visit car sites.
Click! By Paul DeBraccio The implication of broadband is great for publishers: Increased click-through rates, new forms of media that will increase site stickiness, a great variety of creative that can be used and sold at higher cost-per-thousands. What is not to like? However, with every good advance in technology comes the need for guidelines so we can all reap its benefits. Fairly regularly, we get request-for-proposals that ask for "big ideas" with little or no guidance as to what those ideas should include. Most agencies do not specify the format, thus making it a bit more difficult to present the best proposals. (Not everyone, please do not crucify me for this statement!) My clients feel that we should present specific unit standards for broadband akin to the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) universal ad package. Yes there are broadband media guidelines, but with the recent explosion of the medium, there needs to be guidelines that all major agencies agree to and use. I think the IAB-proposed minimum for streaming is a step in the right direction, but I think agencies need to adhere to a limited size for pop-up streaming and streaming theaters. Do the same size limitations apply? Has there been research as to why the online industry has selected 15- and 30-second spots other than by default? My clients ask me what they should do to be competitive, and I tell them to do everything they can. I am happy that streaming has finally made it, but can't we all agree on specific units, lengths, mid, or pre-roll, etc.? Counter-Click! By Jason Heller "A broadband world" used to be an aspiration, but it has now become a reality. Nearly one-third of the U.S. population has a broadband connection, making better online experiences for the masses and allowing for more opportunities for emotive marketing in relevant environments. Savvy media buyers have been riding this wave for some time, leveraging the fact that most marketers are still sitting on the innovation sidelines and not using video and rich media units to break through the online clutter. Enter 2005 and beyond. What happens when marketers significantly increase video and rich media advertising? What happens when these rich units become the norm? Will consumers become desensitized as they have become to other forms of online (and offline) advertising? Not if we keep it fresh and relevant. Incorporating video and rich media will vary from category to category. The result can be very engaging and effective. As publishers begin to implement new advertising units and programs, it is important to remember that relevancy is still a key factor in online marketing effectiveness. "Richness" alone is not the golden bullet that the broadband preachers of yesteryear thought it might become. The fact that Google and Yahoo!'s combined revenue was greater than that of the big three TV networks' primetime ad revenue, as well as the surge in consumer-generated media, prove the value of relevance. So, while some publishers and buyers will have a simple shootout at the OK Corral, the savvy buyers will be meeting with consumers at a common intersection of every city and town in the world ? the corner of Rich and Relevant.