Sony Friday took down the phony blog AllIWantForXmasIsaPSP.com, just two days after confessing that it was behind the marketing effort. The flog, or fake blog, went live late last month--but visitors were immediately suspicious of the site. Visitors soon discovered that the authors, who purported to be a pair of PSP-fanatic teens, were actually marketers from the agency Zipatoni. Last Wednesday, Zipatoni posted a message admitting that they created the site. The message also said that the site would be used for straightforward PSP publicity in the future. Jim Nail, chief strategy and marketing officer for Cymfony, a buzz measurement firm, said that the decision to shutter the site was the right one. "The proper response is take it down, take responsibility and embrace the new reality that companies can't just talk at consumers, they must learn to speak with them in an honest and authentic way," he said. Despite Sony's efforts to get the blog off the Web, however, at least one mirror site exists. UK Resistance, a United Kingdom-based gaming blog, saved the site's front page even before it came down. "When all the posts get deleted and the site gets closed because it's just too embarrassing to carry on having it on the internet, a recent back-up of the page will be located here," the blog author wrote. "It's simply too good to let fade away." The AllIWantForXmasIsaPSP.com is the latest ill-fated PSP viral marketing effort to draw consumer ire. Last year, Sony hired graffiti artists to paint murals of kids playing their PSPs, which prompted other artists to deface the advertisements.
AOL executive Jim Bankoff, who spearheaded several recent high-profile initiatives including the launch of celebrity gossip site TMZ.com and the free broadcast of Live 8, has resigned from the Internet company. Two other high-level executives--Joe Redling, president of AOL mobile and chairman and chief executive of AOL International, and John Buckley, executive vice president for corporate communications--also will exit. AOL declined official comment, but is expected to make a formal announcement this week. The exact timing of the departures hasn't yet been determined, according to a source in the company. The resignations are the latest fallout from the sudden decision last month to oust CEO and chairman Jonathan Miller and replace him with NBC vet Randy Falco. Within days of Falco's appointment, former Netscape General Manager Jason Calacanis gave notice. Calacanis, who sold Weblogs to AOL for $25 million last year--a move orchestrated by Bankoff--joined venture investment firm Sequoia Capital as an "entrepreneur in residence." Bankoff, an 11-year AOL veteran who held the title of executive vice president for programming and products, had recently overseen high-profile efforts aimed at luring visitors to the site for its content--which the company made available for free last year as part of its shift to an ad-supported business model. In addition to spearheading the Live 8 broadcast last year, and leading the development of popular celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, Bankoff also oversaw the launch of "Coaches"--a venture promoting self-help books. AOL's head of advertising, Mike Kelly, is remaining with the company, as is Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of products, marketing and distribution, and Stephen Swad, chief financial officer.
From Bob Dylan's weekly radio show to Oprah Winfrey's "Oprah & Friends" channel, XM Satellite Radio is now highlighting the company's original content rather than its radio players on its newly renovated Web site. The revamped, largely flash-based site, which launched last week, was also simplified to encourage subscriptions and account management online rather than by phone--taking pressure off XM's call-centers during the busy holiday season. "We created a whole new front end to push as many people through online channels to reduce costs for XM," said Eric Moore, client director at agency Avenue A | Razorfish, which redesigned the site. Avenue A has worked with XM Satellite Radio's e-business and marketing group for two years on various projects, including last year's redesign of its online radio player. The redesigned site highlights XM's roughly 170 channels, including concerts and music series, commercial-free music channels, sports, news, talk and entertainment programming. Other XM radio content includes Tom Petty, Opie & Anthony, Major League Baseball, and NASCAR. The new site features discovery features such as "artist search," while "what's on now" helps users identify ideal XM channels and delivers real-time display of the artist names and song titles. In October, XM launched a holiday ad campaign, including network and cable TV, print, interactive, direct marketing and retail. The campaign is XM's first creative from its new ad agency, Lowe New York, using the tag line: "170 channels to find what turns you on. Are you on?" The new XM site reflects other design work from Avenue A, such as the entirely flash-based site for Mercedes AMG, a division focused on high-end, high-performance Mercedes. Other Avenue A clients include AstraZeneca, Best Buy, Disney, Kraft, Microsoft and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. XM remains the market leader with more than 7.2 million subscribers, but Sirius has been growing faster, posting four straight quarters of more net subscriber additions. Sirius finished the third quarter with 5.1 million users. During the second quarter, XM pegged its year-end forecast at 8.5 million.
Public relations firm Edelman has joined forces with RSS technology company NewsGator for "Hosted Conversations"--a branded ad unit that contains an RSS feed of blog posts and comments related to the marketer sponsoring the ad. The widget-based ad units also link back to the comments and RSS feeds displayed. For instance, a unit for a pharmaceutical company might carry an RSS feed of blogs and media that discuss health care issues, and also will carry links to those blogs/online publications. Each of the pages will be moderated by Edelman staffers, who are tasked with selecting content about specific topics. Rick Murray, president of Edelman's social media division, me2revolution, said the company will not advise its clients to avoid posts that are critical of their brands. "We try to find the quality writers--the quality content," he said. "But if someone disagrees with the client, that ought to be part of the conversation." Edelman is currently pitching the service to clients, in the areas of consumer goods, technology, financial services and health care. Murray said the first ads would likely appear by the end of January. The RSS aggregation technology platform is provided by NewsGator, and the ads can be run in a simple banner ad space, or in a more dynamic placement, including pop-outs and rollovers.