Yahoo chairman and CEO Terry Semel Tuesday said the company was pushing back a planned upgrade for its search marketing division until at least the end of this year. The upgrade, code-named Project Panama, is expected to bring Yahoo's search platform more in line with Google's. The new platform will allow advertisers to rotate in different creative units for the same keyword, and will offer a new ad control panel and better means to monitor and forecast campaign results, among other features. Earlier this year, Kelsey Group analyst Matt Booth told OnlineMediaDaily that the new system would likely result in an immediate 15-20 percent increase in revenue. Yahoo previously said it planned to roll out Panama in the third quarter, but Semel said during Tuesday's quarterly earnings call that the company was delaying the rollout to prevent disruption in ad purchasing and management during the holiday ad season. "We think this is the right decision for ensuring the most successful commercial launch possible," he said, adding that advertisers should prepare to start using it in 2007. The move surprised many search industry observers, especially because it appears that Yahoo has little reason to delay upgrading its platform when doing so will position the company to compete better against Google. At the same time, the delay also doesn't hurt search engine marketers, said Josh Stylman, managing partner at Reprise Media. "It's a pretty intense platform change," he said. "Frankly, we'd rather make sure that it gets released properly and in a stable environment, rather than rushing it out before it's ready." Yahoo's net income in the second quarter totaled $164 million, or 11 cents a share--in line with projections. Revenue from the quarter was $1.12 billion, up from $875 million in the same quarter of 2005.
Media companies and investors are getting serious about comedy on the Web. The launch of a new comedy channel by MySpace on Tuesday is the latest sign that humor-driven sites are fast becoming prized Web 2.0 properties. Sites such as JibJab, The Onion, and CollegeHumor.com have either recently landed venture funding or are reported to be acquisition targets of big media outfits. For MySpace, its new comedy section is the latest in a series of channels it has rolled out recently that focus on topics such as movies, music, blogs, and books. The goal is to create more controlled and advertising-friendly areas on MySpace apart from the site's mass of user-generated content. Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, said at an investor conference earlier this year that MySpace is looking to attract more brand name advertisers. Sierra Mist will be the main sponsor on MySpace Comedy, which will serve as an online community for stand-up comics and comedy fans. More than 7,500 comedians are already using the site to post tour dates and share audio and video clips, according to the company. Through a partnership with The Improv comedy club chain, MySpace members will also have access to behind-the-scenes club footage, editorial content, and online contests. JibJab Media is another comedy site gaining the attention of investors and advertisers. Best known for its animated presidential election satires, JibJab last month received an undisclosed amount of venture financing from Polaris Venture Partners. "It's pretty self-evident that people like to laugh, and the Internet is another place they want to laugh," said Jon Flint, managing partner at Polaris. The firm is also an investor in broadband entertainment network Heavy.com, which has its own comedy channel featuring well-known stand-up comedians. Flint said that JibJab would add new comedy channels in the coming months that would appeal to a broad demographic ranging in age from 18 to 50. JibJab recently soft-launched Jokebox, its own community area for members to share humorous videos and jokes. The section is sponsored by Budweiser, and Flint said future comedy channels would also be ad-supported. Meanwhile, big media players may be angling for their share of online laughs. Viacom may be seeking to buy satirical news site The Onion, according to an unconfirmed reports Tuesday in Variety and popular blog Huffington Post. The report surmised that The Onion would complement Viacom's Comedy Central network. A spokesman for Viacom's MTV Networks declined to comment on the report. Likewise, a spokesperson for InterActiveCorp wouldn't comment on a report this week on gossip blog Gawker that the company is close to making a major investment in CollegeHumor.com. that values the site at $20 to $30 million.
NBC Nightly News has launched its first video blog, "Early Nightly," which will be hosted by TV anchorman Brian Williams and reside on MSNBC.com. For the feature, Williams will offer his unscripted take on the news of the day; the spots will be filmed shortly after the news team's morning editorial meeting. Randy Stern, MSNBC's deputy editor for the East Coast, said the new video log marks an effort to give consumers insight into what occurs behind the scenes. "There's a justifiable demand to increase the amount of transparency so people can see what goes on," Stern said, adding that the blog would focus on "what they're talking about at the editorial meetings, what they're dealing with--what they think may be a big story." Asked whether the vagaries of the journalistic process could somehow cast NBC in an unflattering light, Stern said, "At first we were worried: what if something seems like a huge story at 9 a.m. but turns out to be nothing? Will that make us look like we don't know what we're doing?" But Stern said that in the end, NBC decided that viewers would accept that editorial decisions and news-gathering are fluid processes. When Williams is unavailable, the V-log will be hosted by NBC News correspondents or producers. As for the concern that it might "cannibalize" the NBC Nightly News audience, Stern said that the V-log content will be substantive but mostly promotional in nature--teasers for the night's programming. One out of every three two-minute entries on the V-log will feature a pre-roll 15- or 30-second ad, Stern said--but cautioned that this model may well change as industry standards evolve. While MSNBC prefers 15-second ads for pre-roll, Stern said their use was limited by the simple lack of inventory of that duration with suitable creative.
E-mails delivered to AOL addresses saw click-through rates rise by 30 percent when the messages had been "certified"--meaning they were delivered with intact links--than when delivered without the certification, according to a study released Tuesday by e-mail certification company Goodmail Systems. For the study, Goodmail sent messages on behalf of Time Inc. to more than four million magazine subscribers who had accounts with AOL--a corporate sibling of Time Inc., and the only major Internet Service Provider so far to start using Goodmail's certified e-mail delivery program. Half of the e-mails had been certified by Goodmail, so they arrived with a Goodmail icon and with all images and links enabled, while the other half were sent absent certification. Goodmail intends to eventually charge marketers a per-message fee to certify e-mail, but did not charge Time Inc. for the e-mails sent as part of the study. The Time Inc. e-mail campaign informed subscribers to Fortune, Business 2.0, People, Sports Illustrated, and Entertainment Weekly magazines of a new customer service site, and asked them to visit and update their profiles. Click-through rates were 30 percent higher for the certified messages than the non-certified, while log-ins at the site were 28 percent higher, according to the study. "The increase in response rate was driven entirely by the icon and the full-links and images," said Goodmail's John Ouren, senior vice president of sales and business development. He estimated that all of the certified and non-certified e-mails were delivered, but that few to none of the non-certified e-mails arrived with links and images intact. (AOL's default settings disable images and links, unless consumers have previously had added the sender to their address book, or unless the sender participates in AOL's "enhanced whitelist" program.) Earlier this year, Goodmail and AOL forged a controversial partnership for paid e-mail delivery. Under the program, AOL agreed to deliver e-mail certified by Goodmail with all links enabled and images intact. The deal drew opposition from broad coalition of people and organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, MoveOn.org Civil Action, labor union AFL-CIO, and the Democratic National Committee. They started an online petition urging AOL to reconsider the deal, arguing that it would amount to a "tax" on e-mail. They argued that much legitimate e-mail currently is blocked by spam filters that wrongly identify wanted e-mail as spam, and argued that AOL now has a financial incentive to let those false-positives continue--and even proliferate--in hopes that senders will start paying for guaranteed delivery. Yahoo also intends to start using Goodmail for certification services later this year--but that deal is only for transactional e-mail, such as bank statements and ticket confirmations, while AOL intends to use Goodmail for marketing and transactional e-mail. Goodmail Tuesday also announced it was offering e-mail senders who wish to use its certification program a 90-day free trial period.
In an effort to boost its Web properties, Hearst-Argyle has hired CNET veteran Eric Koepele to serve as a new director of digital media sales. Koepele, former vice president of ad sales at CNET, will oversee sales at some 30 local station Web sites, as well as the Weather Plus digital television channels operated in partnership with NBC. "I'm looking forward to building out multi-platform media-distribution strategies that deliver better access and convenience for Hearst-Argyle's audience," says Koepele, "while creating engaging and effective marketing platforms for the company's clients." He cites the strength of Hearst-Argyle's local content and community relationships, and says that digital distribution "of that great content will allow us to further strengthen the company's relationship with its audience and clients." In the first quarter of this year, Hearst-Argyle reported a $3.2 million increase in revenue from digital media. In the second quarter, the company says Web sites affiliated with its local stations--which are part of the Internet Broadcasting network--generated over 330 million page views. As growth in the ad market for local stations has slowed, station groups are increasingly looking to develop their Web and other digital businesses as alternate revenue streams. Hearst-Argyle stations, for example, are experimenting with providing content for mobile phones, a potential arena to develop an ad market. At CNET, Koepele led the sales team for CNET.com, Download.com, and News.com. Hearst-Argyle says he was successful at attracting advertisers outside the technology category, such as automotive and telecommunications marketers. He joined CNET in 1999. "Eric's experience and success in developing advertising revenues for well-branded news-oriented Web sites at CNET makes him an ideal executive to direct our digital sales efforts," says Terry Mackin, Hearst-Argyle's executive vice president.
Google last quarter captured 44.7 percent of all U.S. searches--almost as many as Yahoo (28.5 percent), MSN (12.8 percent), and Time Warner (5.6 percent) combined, according to new data released Tuesday by comScore Networks. Overall, U.S. Web users performed 8.8 billion searches on Google sites last quarter, marking a 55 percent increase from the second quarter of 2005. The search volume at sites owned by Yahoo and MSN also increased, but at a slower pace. Yahoo saw 5.6 billion searches in the second quarter, marking a 21 percent increase from the same time last year, while MSN-Microsoft sites drew 2.8 billion searches--up 8 percent from 2005. While search volume slowed somewhat from May to June, it still far surpassed that of 2005. comScore reported that U.S. Web users conducted 6.4 billion searches last month--marking a 6 percent drop from May, but a 29 percent increase from last year. Google accounted for 2.9 billion of June searches, while Yahoo claimed 1.8 billion and MSN-Microsoft garnered 818 million. In the toolbar arena, Google and Yahoo each accounted for about half the market, with Google claiming 49.6 percent of toolbar searches, and Yahoo garnering 46.1 percent.
E-mail testing can be measured like a batting average--if you're a .300 hitter, you are in the big leagues. I've always been amazed that even really good baseball players can miss more than half the time and still be considered great. (I'd sure like those odds on my work projects, please!) E-mail house program testing is similar. You won't get a home run every time, but every hit is solid progress and really important. Since there are literally an infinite number of elements to test, and only a few of them will result in dramatic findings, it can feel like your testing program is striking out. Maintain your emotional and professional fortitude--and stick with the testing program even when you don't see big results every time. Even incremental results can turn into real revenue. We all know the testing essentials--like limiting the number of elements per test; always testing subject lines; rinsing and repeating; having a very clear goal; and measuring what you are testing. If the test isn't about the call to action, then clicks might not be the right measurement. On the other hand, if clicks are the ONLY thing you can measure, be sure to set up tests that impact the call to action. Also be sure to include testing in all your prospect and acquisition e-mail marketing. Test concepts, subject lines and headlines prior to rolling out - we've seen upward of 12 percent lift with just one test mailing. Here are three testing tricks to help you improve your e-mail returns: 1. Develop educated testing hypotheses. Use all the assets at your disposal to inform your testing. Watch trends in e-mail response by age of file and type of e-mail. Test impact on new subscribers vs. long time subscribers. Test secondary offers in promotions vs. transactional e-mails.What headlines pull best in search, direct mail and on the Web site? What are the logical merchandise up sells and cross sells to provide on the landing page? What can you learn from paid keywords vs. your site-search that informs your prospect vs. customer communications? 2. Segment. Not all subscribers are created equal. Millions of dollars of research have gone into understanding the motivations of different generations, and even inter-generations. So why expect that one test to your entire, diverse house file will result in a meaningful learning? In particular, test prospect actions distinct from customers. Set up different tests for recent purchasers and the long inactive, men and women, big spenders and first-time buyers. 3. Technology is your friend. The trick here is touse it or mimic its effect. I'm very encouraged by the impressive results of multi-variant testing of Web pages. Basically, this is page-serving technology that allows many elements to be tested at once, creating dozens or hundreds of different user experiences and allowing data to be analyzed in near real time. There are several vendors with proven success, including Offermatica and Optimost. Use a multi-variant approach (with or without the technology) to develop a "best landing page" scenario for the various personas of subscribers you are testing. If you don't have multi-variant technology at hand, use learnings from your search landing pages to optimize. Since none of the multi-variant technology providers can serve dynamic e-mail messages (yet), start by creating multiple versions of simple e-mail messages that just have a headline and strong call to action and optimize all other elements on the landing page. Other elements include copy, copy length, images, color, button size and placement, etc. Now combine these learnings to create more successful e-mail messages overall