While Madison Avenues continues to ponder whether social networks truly are an advertising medium, some new research indicates that despite their growing appeal with the college crowd, they are having little or no impact on academic performance. The research, which was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics, found that heavy and light users of social networks generally had the same ratio of "good" and "bad" grades - roughly two-to-one. The study may have bearing for marketers who are also trying to understand how social networks are influencing lifestyles, work and academic lives of consumers. "The study indicates that social media is being integrated with rather than interfering with students' academic lives," said UNH adjunct professor Chuck Martin, whose marketing research class conducted the study. "College students have grown up with social networks, and the study shows they are now simply part of how students interact with each other with no apparent impact on grades," added Martin, who is also director of the Center for Media Research, a unit of MediaPost Communications, the publisher of Online Media Daily. Martin said the research should help quell fears among parents that their children are spending too much time on social networks and not enough time studying or participating in classwork. The researchers surveyed 1,127 UNH students across a range of majors, and found that their patterns of grades were remarkably similar regardless of whether they were heavy or light users of social media. Light users were defined as those who used social media fewer than 31 minutes per day, while heavy usage was defined as exceeding 61 minutes per day. For the purpose of the study, social media was defined as Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. Sixty-three percent of heavy users received high grades, compared to 65% of light users. Researchers found similar results with lower grades. While 37% of heavy users of social media received what were defined as lower grades, 35% of light users received fell into that same category. The study also showed that Facebook and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms with college students, with 96% of students saying they use Facebook and 84% saying they use YouTube. Interestingly, only 20% said they use blogs, 14% said they use Twitter, a mere 12% said they use MySpace, and just 10% said they use LinkedIn. Not surprisingly, a significant share of the respondents - 43% - said they have increased their usage of social media from a year ago. Eight percent said their increase was significant. Only 18% said it had significantly decreased. The majority of students said they use social networks for social reasons (89%) and entertainment (79%). About a quarter of students said they use social media for educational reasons (26%), and 16% for professional reasons.
Condé Nast has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against unknown users who allegedly hacked into the company's computer system, downloaded unpublished photos and articles, and then published them online. In papers filed in federal district court in New York, Condé Nast alleges that a host of material -- including a big chunk of GQ's December issue -- surfaced last month on the blog FashionZag. The lawsuit alleges that the material appeared on FashionZag around two months after an unknown user obtained access to Condé Nast's computer system and copied more than 1,100 files. Initially, FashionZag posted five alternate covers of the December GQ, according to the lawsuit. Condé Nast says it successfully sent a takedown notice to ImageBam.com, which hosted the photos, but that FashionZag then uploaded material to bayimg.com -- an image hosting site created by the founders of The Pirate Bay. By Nov. 14, FashionZag allegedly posted almost all editorial content and photos from the December issue. "This subsequent posting, mischievously presented under the heading 'GQ December 2009: The Rest of It,' was willfully done by defendants to thumb their noses at Condé Nast and the copyright law," the complaint alleges. Condé Nast additionally says that FashionZag posted material from the December issues of Vogue, Teen Vogue and Lucky. The publisher is alleging copyright infringement and violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and is seeking damages and an injunction. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl allowed Condé Nast to immediately subpoena Google and AT&T to discover the identities of the bloggers and alleged hackers. Google hosts the FashionZag blog, and the IP address of the alleged hacker resolves to AT&T, according to the legal papers. Santa Clara University Law professor Eric Goldman says Condé Nast appears to have a solid case and to have alleged sufficient facts to unmask the FashionZag blogger and the original hacker. "It's a well-pleaded complaint," he says. "On its face, they made the case that there's a problem."
News Corp. outlined its plans to use a portion of its broadcast spectrum to deliver TV, newspapers and other content to mobile devices in a filing Tuesday with the Federal Communications Commission. Promising to "reinvent and recreate the content experience from the ground up," News Corp. described a mobile media platform built around providing local news and information but also spanning everything from prime-time TV shows and movies to celebrity interviews to books, newspapers and magazines. In addition to on-demand offerings, the mobile system would also provide live coverage of sporting events and breaking news as well as the ability to access the Web, check My Space or Facebook pages or go to Hulu free of technical glitches or slowdowns. "Consumers would have access to the best content, delivered in ways that are personally tailored to consumers on the go, all through the touch of an icon on a screen, with short-cuts to favorite shows, alerts when new episodes are available, and recommendations to try something new from favored genres, actors, producers or writers," stated the filing in response to an FCC notice of inquiry issued Dec. 2 seeking comment on whether parts of the broadcast spectrum should be reallocated for wireless broadband. Broadcasters have strongly opposed the FCC possibly taking back some of the national airwaves from TV stations to help meet growing demand for wireless broadband services. The idea is under consideration as part of the agency's wider efforts to develop a national broadband plan. TV executives say they want to use their broadcast spectrum to offer more digital channels as well as programming for mobile devices. To that end, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch earlier this month told the Federal Trade Commission at its meeting on the future of the news media that the company has been working for two years on the project to deliver mobile TV over its airwaves. In its FCC filing Tuesday, News Corp. reiterated that it plans to use its remaining broadcast spectrum to roll out an ambitious mobile content platform over the next two years. The media conglomerate argued that its "broadcast + broadband" strategy would provide the most efficient means of delivering programming to mobile devices. "Rather than delivering 'American Idol' 26 million times to the 26 million viewers who watch this show AT THE SAME TIME, on average, in a given week, a one-to-many broadcast network could transmit 'American Idol' once to mobile devices, using a tiny fraction of the bandwidth at a tiny fraction of the cost than would be required for millions of one-to-one deliveries," stated the News Corp. report. The company stressed that its mobile content plans are still under development, noting that media-centric smartphones emerged only two and a half years ago. But with the adoption of a mobile TV broadcast standard (ATSC-MH) in October, News Corp. expects development to ramp up. Currently, only 15.8 million people -- or about 7% of U.S. cell subscribers -- watch TV on mobile phones, according to Nielsen. Not surprisingly, News Corp. does not envision government playing a major role in expanding the mobile frontier. "In short, broadband+broadcast does not require wholesale government intervention, massive upheaval, or a redistribution of resources," it said. Whether the FCC would include any suggestion to use broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband in its national broadband plan to be presented to Congress in February is unclear. But in exploring how broadcasters might aid broadband efforts, the agency said in its Dec. 2 inquiry that it's "reviewing various spectrum bands to understand if all or a portion of the spectrum within these bands could be repurposed for wireless broadband services."
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has been nominated to the board of directors of the Walt Disney Co., Burbank, Calif. Sandberg, 40, took the role of COO at Facebook in March 2008, after leaving Google -- where she managed the company's online sales efforts, which support AdWords and AdSense services. She also held a position as chief of staff at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration. Sandberg's experience at Google in AdWords and AdSense could provide Disney with a much-needed perspective around online advertising -- both contextual targeted ads and paid search. Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Co., suggests that the appointment signifies the convergence of social networking with old media entertainment. Disney's appointment solidifies the company's move into the forefront of social media and networking. "It's a cheaper way than buying the company," she says, pointing to News Corp.'s MySpace acquisition as an example of an expensive endeavor. Sandberg is also a director of Starbucks and serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including The Brookings Institution, The AdCouncil, Women for Women International and V-Day. "Sheryl has been at the forefront of a technological revolution that's opened up a world of new possibilities for consumers and which has greatly affected the way we do business," said Robert A. Iger, Disney's president and chief executive officer. "Her unique insight, born of great practical experience, will be of considerable value to Disney's shareholders." Disney shareholders will vote on Sandberg's nomination and the re-election of the company's other dozen directors at the next Disney annual meeting, March 10, in San Antonio, Texas.
In an effort to bolster confidence among protective brand marketers, digital media-verification company DoubleVerify has launched a new product to prevent and block ads from appearing next to inappropriate content. The new BrandShield product, which has already been tested by select agency and ad network partners, draws on DoubleVerify's existing platform and technology which currently verifies over 20 billion monthly impressions on behalf of marketers in a range of verticals, including telecom, pharma, retail, finance, CPG, and entertainment. The effort is a direct result of client demand, according to Oren Netzer, co-founder and CEO of DoubleVerify. "DoubleVerify clients have been asking for a real-time, scalable and reliable solution to protect against their ads appearing online near inappropriate content, before it occurs," said Netzer. "Real-time inappropriate content prevention changes the playing field and significantly reduces advertiser exposure to this threat to their brand equity." Launched in May 2008, DoubleVerify launched its real-time verification solution for online ad transactions this past May. Tracking the delivery of clients' ad campaigns theoretically allows marketers and their agencies to identify and remove budget waste from their campaigns, safeguard the reputation of their brands online, uphold regulatory compliance requirements, and verify that they fully capitalized on their marketing opportunities. According to DoubleVerify data compiled, using embedded pixels in client advertising and a patent-pending crawler system, 70% of impressions that are delivered on the Internet are implemented in a type of HTML code called nested IFRAMES. When nested IFRAMES exist, other solutions have difficulty identifying which site and page the ad is actually delivered on, which means they need to "block" the ad in 70% of the cases and are effectively creating a 70% discrepancy between sell-side and buy-side impression counts. DoubleVerify had ported its capability to "see through" nested IFRAMES from its existing reporting and remediation service as well, giving it the ability to accurately qualify and see-through nearly 100% of the impressions and minimize any possible discrepancy issues. This summer, DoubleVerify closed a $3.5 million Series A financing found led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures and private investors. Earlier this month, video ad network Tremor Media tapped DoubleVerify for increased accountability and transparency of video ad campaigns. Tremor serves in-stream and in-banner video ads across a network of over 1,500 mid-tier and premium sites including WWE.com and WSJ.com. The company has increasingly sought TV ad dollars, which it believes will increasingly migrate online. BrandShield's ad blocking capability is expected to be available through a managed rollout, starting January 15 to existing DoubleVerify clients.