Google has been testing the ability to lay consumer FICO scores on top of its Google Content Network to identify people with good credit. The strategy will enable the search engine to help advertisers target a specific type of consumer through display and text ads, according to Masha Korsunsky, Google's senior industry marketing manager, financial services. The project is one of two initiatives that Google recently explored to help advertisers reach "credit-worthy consumers" online. For both projects, Google partnered with Compete and the research firm's 2 million U.S. consumers who opt into these types of projects. "Let's say we have an advertiser who wants to reach consumers with a high FICO score who applied for mortgages in the first quarter," Korsunsky says. "We can provide the advertiser with a list of Web sites on our Google content network that index against this segment." Korsunsky says Google's Content Network can reach 70% of credit card applicants with a high FICO score, 87% of mortgage applicants with a high FICO score, and 90% of the people who visit small business sites who have a high FICO score. The strategy is not limited to advertisers who want to reach consumers looking for a credit card. Based on the search research, Korsunsky says other industry segments, such as luxury retailers and hotels, could also use this data to reach "high credit-worthy consumers." Compete's sister company integrated the FICO data with searches done by participating consumers who applied for a credit card between January and March 2009. Through this data, Google would analyze the search behavior that led the applicants to apply. Compete panelists were placed into three categories based on their FICO score: Super Prime (720 and above), Prime (600 to 719), and Sub-Prime (below 600). More than half of the people who looked for a new credit card online fall into the Super Prime segment. This segment performs many searches because they are not as "credit hungry as some of the other segments." The research shows that 34% of applicants do five or more queries while they shop. These consumers are significantly more likely to apply for a card. Consumers with high FICO scores demonstrate some unique attributes that show they shop carefully for the best cards. For example, shoppers begin using search earlier in their application process, they use the term "best credit cards" at three times the rate of lower FICO shoppers, and they are more likely to use branded terms. Another interesting fact: Consumers with high FICO scores use non-branded search terms more than branded -- approximately 60% of high FICO searchers. They tend to search on terms, such as "travel rewards," "low rate," and "balance transfer." "Marketers expanding into a term like 'credit card' into a campaign -- they should have their ad copy prequalify a good credit shopper," Korsunsky says. "So adding copy like 'have good credit, apply for a card today' would let marketers filter out people without good credit."
Days after unveiling a major digital advertising alliance with Microsoft, Publicis reportedly is discussing an even bigger deal with the software and digital publishing giant that would make it the undisputed leader in the interactive advertising services industry. Microsoft has retained investment banker Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for interactive services shop Razorfish, and Publicis is a leading candidate, reports the Financial Times. Microsoft acquired Razorfish (formerly Avenue A/Razorfish), as part of its $6 billion acquisition of digital agency holding company aQuantive in 2007. Microsoft has rapidly integrated most of the publisher-facing components of aQuantive's assets, including ad server Atlas, but has maintained an arms-length approach to Razorfish. While ownership of a major digital agency has helped inform Microsoft about the needs of advertisers and agencies, Microsoft executives have maintained that the agency has effectively operated autonomously since the acquisition, raising questions about its long-term fit within Microsoft. Razorfish is one of the world's largest free-standing interactive advertising shops, and its acquisition by any of the major agency holding companies would alter their rankings in the digital services sector. According to RECMA's most recent interactive agency report, Razorfish ranks as the fifth largest interactive agency in the world with a global workforce of 1,960 people, just behind Publicis' Modem/Dialog organization, with 2,100 employees. With an organization of 3,800, WPP's Ogilvy Interactive unit currently is the industry's largest, and has helped give WPP bragging rights as the biggest digital advertising services holding company in the world. WPP chief Martin Sorrell and Publicis chief Maurice Levy have been especially competitive in their claims of digital marketing services dominance, and Publicis' acquisition of Razorfish would clearly tip the balance sheet in Levy's favor. Citing unnamed analysts, the Financial Times estimated that Razorfish could fetch as much as $700 million for Microsoft. Some of Razorfish's top clients include Kraft, Nike and Audi. For Microsoft, the timing of a divestiture of Razorfish may make sense. The company has accomplished much of what it set out to achieve with its acquisition of aQuantive, amassing a critical mass position in the digital advertising marketplace. "Microsoft has now grown an advertising business in excess of $2 billion and that's a big number for our company, a big number, and we're very serious about it," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said during a keynote at the Cannes advertising festival in France last week. During the Cannes festival, Microsoft announced several advertising alliances with agencies, including a multi-tiered deal with Publicis that includes development of both digital content and a customized online ad exchange. Under the arrangement, Microsoft will back a production pipeline from the Publicis-owned PBJS studio -- with the holding company's clients having the first opportunity to attach advertising to the content. Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center will also be involved in production strategy.
Underscoring criticism that CNN initially received for its light coverage of the Iran election, the cable news network rarely ranked in the top five search results for terms related to the event. That's among the findings from a pair of "Internet snapshots" Nielsen took June 18 and June 24 to learn more about the interplay of news and social media in what some termed the "Twitter revolution" because of the key role the micro-blogging service played in relaying news about the protests that erupted after the disputed election. "The Iranian election is yet another watershed moment in the ongoing evolution of news and media, further blurring the lines between being, reporting, and following the story," according to the Nielsen report. In contrast to CNN, Wikipedia on June 18 featured within the top two Google search results in four of five of the leading election-related terms spanning "Iran," "Iran protest," "Iran election," "Mousavi," and "Ahmadinejad." Yahoo or Yahoo News was also in the top five for four of the five terms. At least one social media source shows up within the top 10 search results for each term, usually directly above a traditional, major news source such as WSJ.com, Nielsen found. For "Ahmadinejad," YouTube, Yahoo, Boing Boing and Politico.com all ranked higher than CNN. The best showing for a traditional news outlet was MSNBC --grabbing the top two slots for "Iran protest," suggesting that it was a more popular source for breaking news rather than background information about Iran or key players in the election. In the second search snapshot on June 24, social media had another strong showing, with Wikipedia in the top three search results in four of the five keywords or phrases, and YouTube rising up to make the top 10 for all terms. In the second week, Twitter emerged in the top 20 results, in connection with results for the two candidates. Traditional news sources including CNN and the BBC also rose up to the top more. AOL, which has taken steps to expand its news and political coverage recently, doesn't seem to appear among any of the top search results on June 18 or June 24. CIA.gov got on board in the second week as the second-highest-ranking result after Wikipedia in searches for "Iran." "What this means is that general human curiosity is driving people to look to all available sources for information -- the conflict in Iran presenting the latest and perhaps most sophisticated example of how the world has changed for journalists, the media and increasingly active media consumers alike," concluded Nielsen. With Michael Jackson's death last week abruptly pushing aside the Iran election story -- and temporarily taking down sites like Google News and Twitter -- Nielsen may have to pursue a separate study on the go-to sources for celebrity news. Wikipedia would probably still rank high.
A federal appellate court has sided against adware company Zango in its dispute with spyware removal vendor Kaspersky Lab. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Kaspersky is immune from liability for offering programs that delete ad-serving software. "A provider of access tools that filter, screen, allow, or disallow content that the provider or user considers obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable is protected from liability," the 9th Circuit wrote. The ruling upheld an earlier decision by a federal district court dismissing Zango's lawsuit on the grounds that the federal Communications Decency Act shielded Kaspersky from liability. That law's "good samaritan" provision protects interactive computer services from liability for good faith efforts to restrict objectionable material. Zango filed suit in 2007, alleging that Kaspersky was interfering with Zango's relationships with its customers by deleting its ad-serving software. Zango shuttered earlier this year, but the legal proceedings continued. The 9th Circuit's decision, issued last week, marked the first time an appellate court ruled on whether the "good samaritan" provisions apply when anti-spyware companies decide to remove programs they deem objectionable. For that reason, the case was closely watched by other Web companies as well as consumer advocates. An umbrella group called the National Business Coalition for E-Commerce and Privacy, whose members include major companies like Eastman Kodak, JP Morgan Chase and Experian, filed a friend-of-the-court brief last year, asking the 9th Circuit to rule in Zango's favor. They argued that a ruling in favor of Kaspersky could allow any company to offer software that interferes with other companies' programs under the guise of protecting people from objectionable content. A pro-Kaspersky ruling "will effectively empower security software purveyors as the ultimate arbiters of 'objectionable' content on the Internet," the group argued. But consumer advocates including the Anti-Spyware Coalition, the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation weighed in against Zango. The FTC brought a complaint against Zango in 2006, which resulted in the adware company's agreement to pay a $3 million fine.
The layoffs keep coming at News Corp. interactive units. Just a week after MySpace announced plans to cut its workforce by 30% -- or roughly 425 employees -- Fox Interactive Media unit Photobucket has let go a third of its staff -- or some 35 workers. The cuts, first reported by industry blog BoomTown, will affect roughly 75 FIM employees -- the remainder of whom resided at various other divisions of the News Corp. unit, including its IGN video game and entertainment division. "As part of our continuing review of each of the FIM business units, employees were informed of job cuts today at several of our sites," according to an FIM spokesperson. "We made these cuts to ensure that our resources are aligned properly with our business goals, and at a scale that will enable us to operate as efficiently as possible." Last week, the "restructuring" plan at MySpace crossed all U.S. divisions of the News Corp.-owned social network. "MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today's marketplace," said Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s CEO of Digital Media and chief digital officer. The move marked MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta's first major move since replacing MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe in April. "Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said Van Natta. Largely in an effort to bolster MySpace and its other Web properties, News Corp. paid $250 million for Photobucket in May 2007. Then best-known for helping users post images on MySpace member pages, Photobucket rose to prominence as a one-stop shop for uploading digital pictures and videos online. Yet, as MySpace's star has fallen over the past year, Photobucket's has inevitably followed. Today, social media king Facebook has over 200 million users, compared with MySpace's 130 million, according to comScore.
Web video delivery startup Nokeena Networks has raised $6.5 million in a second round of funding led by Mayfield Fund. Founded in early 2008, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company plans to use the funds to further develop its core technology, which aims to help media companies achieve a higher-quality video experience online. Appealing to video-crazed content publishers, aggregators and online distribution networks, Nokeena recently introduced Media Flow Director, a software-based media delivery service that claims to support the delivery of up to 40,000 streams of "guaranteed uninterrupted throughput" from a standard server. Break Media, for one, has enlisted the Media Flow Director to support the delivery of user-generated content. Rajan Raghavan, co-founder and CEO of Nokeena, remarked on the difficulty of securing venture capital in the current recession. "Our ability to complete this investment in the current economic environment underscores the immediate and prospective value we are delivering." The continuous consumption of high-quality media over PCs, high-definition TV and mobile devices has indeed generated huge increases in the volume of online traffic that must be delivered by media publishers and distributors. Year-over-year, total online video streams were up 34.8%, which amounts to a whopping 10,043,049,000 streams in May, according to according to Nielsen Online VideoCensus. To boot, the time that U.S. consumers spent watching the Web video was up a full 48.9% year-over-year that month -- which translates to 188.7 minutes spent. Nokeena previously brought in $8.7 million from Clearstone Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures -- both of which participated in this latest round. Nokeena faces keen opposition from larger rival companies like BitGravity, Akamai Technologies and Limelight, to name a few.
A Minnesota appellate court has ruled that posting sensitive information about someone on MySpace can be an invasion of privacy. The decision stemmed from an incident in 2006, when Minnesota resident Candice Yath went to a clinic to seek medical treatment for a sexually transmitted disease. Shortly afterward, someone created a fake profile of Yath on MySpace. That profile carried the name "Rotten Candy," but included a photo of Yath. The page said that "Rotten Candy" had a sexually transmitted disease, cheated on her husband, and was addicted to plastic surgery, according to the court's opinion. The profile, which had garnered six "friends," was removed a few days after it came to Yath's attention. Yath sued the medical center and other individuals who worked at the clinic for violating her privacy. Minnesota allows lawsuits for invasion of privacy, but only when someone publicizes private information that, in the words of the court, "would be highly offensive to a reasonable person" and is about a matter that "is not of legitimate concern to the public." The defendants argued that the information on the MySpace page wasn't "publicized" because Yath had not proven that more than a handful of people saw the site. But the appellate court rejected that theory, ruling last week that once material is online, "more than one billion Internet surfers worldwide" can potentially view it. Therefore, the court wrote, posting information online potentially generates even more publicity than publishing it in newspapers or broadcasting it on television. "A town crier could reach dozens, a handbill hundreds, a newspaper or radio station tens of thousands, a television station millions, and now a publicly accessible webpage can present the story of someone's private life, in this case complete with a photograph and other identifying features, to more than one billion Internet surfers worldwide," the court wrote. "This extraordinary advancement in communication argues for, not against, a holding that the MySpace posting constitutes publicity." Despite that ruling, the court dismissed the invasion of privacy claim because Yath had not proven who created the MySpace profile.
Electronic Arts has set up a media sales organization to offer marketers and advertisers consulting services aimed at video game sponsorships and promotions. The strategy offers cross-platform services, from add-on downloads for PC and console games to mobile and co-branding in retail stores and across the Web. Support into new distribution channels through EA's Global Media Sales group means assistance to define roadmaps for business objectives and retail sales, advertising, micro-transactions and subscription-based services. As part of the offering, EA has begun developing a research department to provide analytical data to advertisers, according to Elizabeth Harz, EA's SVP of global media sales. The department and required resources took six months to pull together, both internally and externally, Harz says. "I'm trying to create standards and dashboards for analytics and research that will scale across the industry," she says. "With all the partnerships we have at EA, we have done more of a one-off approach to share specific metrics. But we are creating standard measurements and analytics by working with a group of agencies and the IAB to develop specific tools." Harz, who EA plucked from Yahoo to spearhead efforts, says the video game publisher has recently signed a deal with Direct TV to support the National Football League (NFL) across a variety of distribution platforms. Hudson Square Research Analyst Daniel Ernst says advertising in games remains sparse because it all comes down to finding the products that match the game. "You're not going to promote an iPod in a history game," he says. The context is wrong. EA has cross-licensing issues they need to watch because they produce many games with franchises. "Advertising in video games, not just for EA, has been a bit like throwing spaghetti against the wall," Ernst says. "I think what EA is doing makes perfect sense." The NFL represents just one of many deals that EA hopes will cut across platforms now that the new structure has been put into action. Think McDonald's, Progressive Insurance, Country Crock, Toyota, and Dr. Pepper. EA and Dr Pepper on Thursday announced a multimillion-dollar marketing agreement that brings original content to consumers through a portfolio of games. Codes found on more than 500 million Dr Pepper products will give gaming fans access to exclusive premium content on select EA titles throughout 2010. The Sims 3 is the first title to participate in this campaign beginning early next year. Codes from specially marked Dr Pepper packages will unlock exclusive premium downloadable content that could include one-of-a-kind beach party items or all the elements of a perfect tailgate party. Relationships with retailers that both Dr Pepper and EA have give the duo an opportunity to execute wide-scale promotions in stores, too. Spoken like a true marketer, Harz's efforts will focus on Global Media Sales, setting up a "best in class media sales organization similar to those you encounter at premiere media brands, such as Google and ESPN," which includes marketing, operations, research and sales.
Nearly half (48%) of Americans would drop their mobile data plans completely if they had to cut household expenditures, according to a new study by Strategy Analytics. At the same time, only 10% would drop their home broadband subscription. Ben Piper, director of Strategy Analytics' multiplay market dynamics service, said in a statement that the technology research firm wasn't surprised that consumers placed a high value on home broadband. "What surprised us was the vulnerability of mobile services," he said. Under the same expense-cutting scenario, 12% of Americans said they would drop their pay-tv service completely, while 41% would scale service back to a lower tier. Fifty-six percent would make no changes to their home fixed voice service, compared to 51% for mobile voice. "These results suggest that while American consumers consider home broadband service to be a vital utility, they see mobile data service as simply a 'nice to have,'" noted David Mercer, vice president of Strategy Analytics' digital consumer practice.
When I attended Internet Week's Social Media Camp, marketing pro Chris Heuer presented a slide in the initial Social Media 101 session that read: "Spin doesn't work. People smell BS a mile away." Ironic, I'd say. Tell me if this doesn't remind you of late-90's nuttiness: social media gurus conducting Twitter seminars for anxiously paying attendees and clients... people are signing book deals based on tweet compilations. Just last week, Twitter is on the cover of Time magazine ("Twitter and the change it brings"). One Social Media Camp seminar was about "the science of retweeting." Ashton Kutcher battled it out with CNN for the most followers. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jason Calacanis offered $250,000 to Twitter to become a "suggested user" because he equated it with another "Super Bowl." Now with investor community whispers of Twitter becoming an e-commerce tool, it's time to wonder if it can really walk the walk. The anecdotal and empirical evidence about Twitter's shortcomings is snowballing as fast as the microblogging site's growth is slowing. The media hype turning point may be upon us. I'm not talking about abject failure -- Twitter has proven to be a financial boon for Dell Computer, apparently helping to generate more than $3 million in sales since 2007 from its @DellOutlet account. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is milking his Twitter account for everything it's worth to show how cool both he and his company are, selling shoes over the Internet. For breaking news and massive outspoken protests (such as the recent #cnnfail Twitter trend) and customer service outreach (notably with JetBlue), the service has absolute merit. I follow certain journalists to get a sense of what they are writing about and what's on their minds. But Twitter is turning out to be like a huge party that everybody RSVP'd for and very few people showed up. You know that feeling you may have had in the back of your mind wondering how interesting it would really be to let everybody know about what you were doing every hour? You may have been right -- it's not interesting at all. To me, it started with the ingenious New York Times article at the end of May that revealed most celebrity Twitter feeds were concocted by ghostwriters. Suddenly, Twitter had a little hollow ring to it, that it was a bit of a smoke and mirrors act. And if Hollywood couldn't bother Twittering, then what about other CEOs and well-known names? Then came the one-two punch this spring: Nielsen Online issued a report that "more than 60% of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month," followed by last week's Hubspot reseaerch that showed that more than half of Twitter's 4.5 million registered users have never posted a tweet. This is going to be a business? I've heard all kinds of stories of mega-celebrities with tons of followers putting links in their Twitter feed, only to see the click-through traffic produce very disappointing numbers. Recently, digital traffic measurement firm Compete said monthly unique visitors grew only 1.47% in May. When the cold light of day arrives, and Twitter's ROI is scrutinized by corporate America, marketers, PR firms, Hollywood, and everybody else who drank the Kool Aid, it may turn out that Twitter is only effective with a certain niche of early adapters, or highly mobile and connected individuals. Twitter may be more comparable to the specialized smaller audience of Wired magazine versus the colossal mass outreach of Good Housekeeping. Spin? Oh, yes, it does work.