New proposals to establish controversial "do not e-mail" child protection registries advanced this month in three states, bringing to five the total number of states now considering such legislation--Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, and Iowa. Michigan and Utah remain the only states to have established do not e-mail registries, although Utah's law currently faces a court challenge. The laws generally prohibit marketers from sending material considered harmful to minors to children's e-mail addresses. In Michigan and Utah, parents can submit their children's e-mail addresses to a registry, and then marketers of potentially inappropriate messages pay a fee to ensure that their e-mail lists don't contain any addresses on the registry. Four marketing associations and two advocacy groups have filed friend of the court briefs in a lawsuit filed in November by The Free Speech Coalition, a trade organization representing members of the adult entertainment industry. The organizations challenging Utah's law--the American Advertising Federation, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Inc., Email Service Provider Coalition, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Center for Democracy & Technology--argue that state laws are pre-empted by the federal Can-Spam act. They also argue that state laws such as Utah's impede interstate commerce, violate free speech rights, and are too vague about which types of e-mails are banned. For instance, the opponents argue, the law potentially encompasses e-mail ads for an event that is open to children but sponsored by a marketer such as a liquor company. They also maintain that creating a "Do Not E-Mail" registry potentially harms minors by generating a database of children's e-mail addresses. Should that directory fall into the wrong hands, it could be used to target children, rather than protect them. But proponents of do not e-mail registries say they will prevent purveyors of pornography, alcohol, and cigarettes, among other material, from marketing to children.
Online marketing firm Miva, formerly FindWhat, today is slated to launch a single interface for agency marketers to manage their multiple SEM accounts. Miva is also broadening the free access of its API, which it hopes will allow enterprises to fully automate ad campaign management programs from account set-ups to reporting. The new Agency Center 1.0, so-called, gives its users a bird's-eye view of the interface, which provides information for multiple accounts from a centralized location. The changes are the result of growth within the industry, which has led to overwhelmed agency marketers responsible for managing their companies' contextual pay-per-click campaigns, according to Seb Bishop, director and chief marketing officer at Miva. "This is a sign that the industry is growing," said Bishop. At least one analyst concurred. "This is clearly a big time saver for marketers--an efficiency tool--as the industry grows and becomes more complicated," said Chuck Richard, vice president and lead analyst at Outsell, an industry research firm in Burlingame, Calif. Miva garnered 1 percent of search spending this past holiday season, according to a survey of media executives conducted by Deutsche Bank in conjunction with MediaPost and released in mid-January. That same study showed that 57 percent of search spending went to Google, while Yahoo garnered 23 percent of spending, and MSN accounted for 5 percent. Ask Jeeves also got 1 percent. Independent of the Deutsche Bank/MediaPost study, Miva recently hired Deutsche Bank to help it explore new options aimed at boosting its value for shareholders. The company will pursue various strategies--including a possible sale, which has been widely speculated in the last several months. Other possibilities include selling securities, assets, recapitalizing, or making acquisitions. Miva was one of the early successful adopters of pay-per-click advertising, but last August the company had to pay Yahoo subsidiary Overture Services $8 million for using technology it had patented. Miva's estimated public value is just above $170 million.
"American Idol" might be trouncing the Olympics on TV, but NBCOlympics.com is poised to win the online competition for viewers. For the week ending Feb. 12, NBCOlympics.com drew 2.3 million unique users at home and work--nearly five times as many visitors as the site of "American Idol," IdolonFox.com, which attracted just 509,000 uniques, according to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings. In a testament to the growing use of home broadband, NBCOlympics.com overall has garnered 55 percent more visitors from home than the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. On TV, however, ratings have plummeted compared to the 2002 Olympics. Two other Olympics sites, Torino2006 and Olympic.org, also lured large numbers of Web surfers. Torino2006 drew 748,000 visitors, while Olympic.org received 433,000 visitors. NBC has aggressively promoted its Olympics site; efforts have included a deal with Google to place video clips at the top of search results. NBC provided Google Video with hundreds of pre-game previews and in-game 15-second previews from NBCOlympics.com. When users type Olympic-related keywords into Google's search box, the clips are displayed above Google's natural search results. NBC also tapped the New York Times Co.'s About.com for content, including an "About Olympics" blog. About.com is also promoting NBC's Olympics sites on About properties.
Coldwell Banker launched its new ad campaign Sunday night on prime-time television, but rather than simply plug its brand, the 15-second spots are expressly designed to drive consumers online. Indeed, the ads, created by Publicis Groupe's Kaplan Thaler, focus mainly on laptops streaming video featured on the company's Web site. "The Web site is the real focus," said Charlie Young, senior vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker. Young cited National Association of Realtors research, which found that three out of every four home buyers now conduct preliminary research for purchasing a new home online. The campaign also includes a significant online ad buy, said Young. Display advertising will appear through the year across major portals like MSN and Yahoo, as well as more targeting buys such as MarthaStuart.com and HGTV.com. Kinesis Marketing, Coldwell's online agency of record, is handling everything--including a major search marketing campaign across all major search engines. Young added that the company plans to increase its online spend by 30 percent this year. Specifically, the campaign is pushing a number of services for buyers and sellers--all of which can be found online--like a side-by-side home comparison feature, the "Home Value Estimator," a sales associate locator, and the four essential questions consumers should ask real estate associates. Commercials will run during prime-time airings of "Law & Order," "Crossing Jordan," and "Grey's Anatomy"--the spots interspersed "60 Minutes" on Sunday night. They will also run on cable.