Media Contacts, the interactive media agency of Havas Digital, has named vertical ad network Adify as a preferred ad network for developing custom networks on behalf of clients. "We are streamlining our business to partner with the best and most strategic partners for our clients," said Ed Montes, managing director, Havas Digital North America, in a statement. "We selected Adify Media as a preferred network because it delivers unmatched quality of audience and transparency." Adify, a unit of Cox Enterprises, operates more than 200 niche networks, including those run by Six Apart, Pajama Media, the Travel Channel and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. It claims a total audience of more than 109 million and has a proprietary ad-targeting solution to select sites where certain users spend more than 25% of their time. Media Contacts plans to take advantage of that technology in creating branded networks for clients in the travel, health care and retail sectors beginning in the second quarter and launching one or two each quarter during the rest of the year. "The big question is can a customized network focused around content deliver higher engagement than another form of targeting, and that's what we're most interested in finding out with this approach," said Adam Kasper, managing director of digital innovation at Media Contacts. While he would not detail exactly what the networks would entail, they likely feature branded content across individual sites and may include third-party affinity advertising as well like other Adify networks. In gauging the success of these efforts, Kasper said the agency would look more to traditional brand metrics such as awareness and consideration rather than conversions or clicks. "It's a good thing to have a network focused on these type of upper-funnel metrics because that's the way for digital to gain share of brand budgets," said Kasper. Media Contacts boasts a wide range of major brands including Coca-Cola, Audi, Citibank, Delta and Ikea. Rather than seeking particular audiences or affluent consumers through Adify, the agency is looking for new ways to engage clients' existing users. "We're partnering on this because we found [Adify's] technology to be of potentially large value and not because they deliver a specific demographic," he said. "Hopefully, they can deliver whatever audiences we need."
Fortune 500 companies fail at search engine optimization, and many still don't link paid-search keywords to SEO campaigns, although they collectively spend about $3.4 million daily on 97,559 keywords, according to a report. The Conductor Research Q4/2009 Fortune 500 Report released Wednesday identifies that only 25% of those keywords rank in the top 50 natural search results on search engines such as Google, Microsoft Bing or Yahoo. The Fortune 500 report analyzes national search results and optimization effectiveness, as well as trends and integration plans for the corporate and the consumer brands during the December 2009 quarter. Analyzing the most expensive keywords that companies bought allowed Conductor to measure intent by assuming these words should float to the top of natural search in query results. "Since they spend all that money on paid-search keywords you would expect these companies would want the keywords in natural search to correlate with investments on the other side and make them as visible as possible," says Nathan Safran, senior research analyst at Conductor Research. The group made slight improvements in aligning natural search with their paid campaigns, increasing the percentage of companies in the top 50 natural search results to 25% in the December 2009 quarter -- up from 17% in the year-ago quarter, but overall the Fortune 500 remains largely invisible in natural search. Results also identify that only 2% of the domains surveyed show a significant number of terms in the top results. Many companies still have not adopted a culture that identifies what it takes to build and support a natural search campaign, Safran says. Still, 15% of the companies demonstrate mid-to-strong presence for their most advertised keywords. And, 53% have no natural search visibility for their most advertised keywords. Fortune 500 natural search visibility decreased with longer search queries, and 68% of keywords were found on a landing page, such as amazon.com/cell phone, compared with a top-level domain page, such as amazon.com. Compete ranked each keyword, gave it a score and averaged it into a grade. Grades A and B note the best, but Grades C through F average poor visibility across keywords. Compared with Q4 2008, the results this year identify a major gap between the companies that rank well for some terms and ones that have poor visibility. Even among the top performers, there were no companies that had a majority of terms ranking in the top 25. The group also did not improve on their overall visibility score, rating a 'D-' and scoring 61 on the visibility scale, the same score it received in our previous research. The report breaks down the companies by market segment, including retail, finance and insurance, manufacturing, transportation and warehouse, food services, construction, science and technical, and more. It shed light on keyword distribution of the retail and information subcategories, and search visibility by industry. Conductor also found that the Fortune 500's visibility remains in inverse proportion to the length of the search query. The most significant drop occurred in searches with greater than seven words. The inconsistency between the visibility in query results for one- and two-word searches increased in this year's study, with one-word searches scoring a 70 on the search visibility scale and two-word searches scoring a 65, compared with 62 for both one- and two-word searches last year.
MTV Networks has turned to Quantcast to help advertisers refine their targeting of specific audiences on key properties like MTV.com and ComedyCentral.com as well as across its network of more than 200 sites. The partnership will allow marketers to segment audiences into various demographic categories like moms and "higher-income men" through Quantcast's Web-tracking technology rather than simply targeting a particular MTV site. The Viacom unit started working with Quantcast in 2008 as part of an initiative that let Web publishers receive traffic and usage reports via tags placed on online content. Now MTV is ready to put the user data collected by Quantcast to work in helping brands target display and video ads across the 200 owned-and-operated sites as well as its Tribes network of 240 affiliated blogs. "This new capability now provides our advertisers with efficient targeting, adjacency to quality content, and extensive reach. There are very few media companies capable of solving for all three of these primary needs of advertisers," said Kevin Arrix, who heads digital ad sales for MTVN, in a statement. MTV has signed onto Quantcast's Media Program launched last year, allowing marketers to buy specific audiences on third-party sites based on audience data derived from their own sites. The idea is that brands can find the same type of users that responded to its promotional campaigns or online properties on other sites across the Web. So a marketer could try to match its preferred audience with a similar one across MTV's online properties. Quantcast and other analytics firms have benefited from the growing shift from content-based media planning and buying to buying particular audiences regardless of online location. The firm boasts having detailed audience profiles across all 220 million U.S. Internet users and getting uptake from nine of the top 10 media agencies. But tracking techniques that underpin deeper targeting of Web users have also increasingly raised privacy concerns among advocacy groups as well as in Congress and federal regulatory agencies including the Federal Trade Commission.
Six months after the opening of TAXI's European arm, the agency has tapped Steve Mykolyn to lead the Amsterdam-based operation as chief creative officer. Mykolyn will retain his existing responsibilities as chief creative officer of TAXI North America. TAXI CEO Rob Guenette said, in effect, that the dual-leadership role made a consistent vision across the company's disparate arms more likely. "TAXI Europe and all TAXI offices' leadership structures are lean with strong ties to peers in other places," said Guenette. "This allows operational autonomy while maximizing opportunities for knowledge sharing to everyone's benefit." Mykolyn joined TAXI in November 2000, and has since led such client accounts as WestJet, Canadian Tire, and Koodo. In his new role, Mykolyn will report to TAXI Chairman Paul Lavoie -- who most recently held the CCO role for TAXI Europe. "My approach has always been to foster a shared vision among smart, talented people," said Mykolyn. "It's really the key to success across disciplines and cultures." Founded in Montreal in 1992, the agency's offices include Toronto, New York, Calgary (2005), Vancouver, and Amsterdam -- the most recent to open in 2009. Stateside, clients include New York Life, Blue Shield of California, Rail Europe Group, Metro International, and New Holland Agriculture. TAXI Europe clients include KPN Royal Dutch Telecom International, Heineken, TNT Post, BNP Paribas, ING, and the Hi and Telfort telecommunications brands. Meanwhile, client assignments in Canada include TELUS Consumer Solutions, Pfizer's VIAGRA, Burger King, Heineken, Canadian Tire, Reitmans Group, Bombardier and Dairy Farmers of Canada.
The advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center is asking the Federal Trade Commission to require Google to give users more control over its controversial week-old Buzz. In a complaint filed Tuesday, EPIC argues that Buzz "violated user privacy expectations, diminished user privacy, contradicted Google's own privacy policy, and may have also violated federal wiretap laws." The group is requesting that the FTC order Google to make Buzz opt-in and to stop creating social networks out of people's Gmail address books. "Google really tried to transform their email service into a social networking service and, in doing so, didn't give users the choice in any meaningful way to opt in," says EPIC attorney Kimberly Nguyen. The result, she says, is that Gmail users "were automatically pushed into having their address book contacts publicized to the world." A Google spokesperson says the company has already made changes to the program and intends to continue revising it. "We designed Buzz to make it easy for users to connect with other people and have conversations about the things that interest them," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Buzz was launched only a week ago. We've already made a few changes based on user feedback, and we have more improvements in the works." When Google initially rolled out Buzz the feature automatically transformed users' Gmail contacts into their followers -- and made that group public by default. Much like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz enables users to broadcast their posts to a network of followers. Google obviously aimed to jumpstart its new social networking feature by using Gmail data to create social networks, but critics say that the company didn't take into account that users expect their email contacts to remain confidential. "An address book really reveals a lot about a person," Nguyen says, adding that people's email contacts include the names of their lawyers, doctors, coworkers and others who users would prefer not to publish. Business Insider senior editor Nicholas Carlson called attention to this issue last week in a post mentioning that journalists who used Gmail could find their confidential sources had become known to the world at large. Since launching on Feb. 9, the company has already revised Buzz twice. In one of its most recent changes, the company replaced a feature that automatically includes other users as followers with one that merely suggests followers. But EPIC argues that the revisions don't go far enough to protect people's privacy -- in part because users can only block specific contacts from following them after-the-fact. EPIC also alleges that Google still isn't adequately informing users that lists of followers are publicly available. "Google has not announced any changes to the pop-up screen that appears when a user initially posts on Google Buzz," the group says in its FTC complaint. "Users are still unaware that showing the user's connection means showing connections publicly to everyone, and having them publicly indexed by search engines."
While most consumers prefer their online content free, many are willing to open their wallets and purses for particular offerings, according to new research from Nielsen. What sorts of content are consumers willing to pay for online? Mostly movies, music, and games, according to a survey of some 27,000 consumers across 52 countries. Meanwhile, content created online -- like blogs, podcasts, and video -- are the least likely to attract consumer dollars, Nielsen finds. In between are an array of news formats -- newspapers, magazines, Internet-only news sources and radio news and talk shows -- created by professionals, relatively expensive to produce, and, in the case of newspapers and magazines, commonly sold offline. "Yet much of their content has basically become a commodity, readily available elsewhere for free," notes Nielsen. As a result, nearly eight out of every 10 respondents -- 79% -- said they would no longer use a Web site that charges them, presuming they can find the same information at no cost. Meanwhile, more than three of every four survey participants -- 78% -- felt that if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or television service they should be able to use its online content for free. That said, 62% of consumers said that once they purchase content, it should be theirs to copy or share with whomever they want. Overall, 71% of global consumers said online content of any kind has to be considerably better than what is currently free before they will pay for it. With regard to consumers, Nielsen notes: "As a group, they are ambivalent about whether the quality of online content would suffer if companies could not charge for it." Nearly evenly split, 34% thought so, 30% did not, while the remaining 36% expressed no firm opinion. Regardless, publishers continue to experiment with a range of payment models, from full-service subscriptions to individual transactions, or micropayments. The New York Times, for one, is planning to debut a "metered" pay model next year, which will require subscriptions for high levels of content consumption. Among those surveyed by Nielsen, about half -- 52% -- favor the latter, although the researchers admit that micropayments "have proved cumbersome to implement in the past." Either way, only 43% of respondents said an easy payment method would make them more likely to buy content online. On the other hand, 47% of respondents said they would be willing to accept more advertising to subsidize free content.
Splitting with some other consumer watchdogs, the Center for Democracy & Technology is backing a proposed $9.5 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit stemming from Facebook's Beacon debacle. In addition, a group of consumers in Texas who initially attempted to intervene in the case have reversed course and no longer oppose the settlement. The proposed resolution calls for Facebook to fund a new privacy think tank that will support programs aimed at educating users, regulators and enterprises about privacy. Facebook director of public policy Tim Sparapani, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's Chris Hoofnagle and journalist and Web safety advocate Larry Magid will serve as the initial directors. The Center for Democracy & Technology argues that the three board members are "outstanding choices" whose selection should quell any concerns about Facebook's potential influence over the foundation. "Hoofnagle and Magid are well-known privacy advocates and are absolutely unimpeachable in their independence and their dedication to and experience in protecting consumer privacy online," the group argues in a letter filed with U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in federal district court in San Jose. The Beacon program, launched in 2007, told Facebook members about their friends' activity at outside retailers, like Zappos and Blockbuster. It initially operated by default, but Facebook later changed the platform to opt-in. In November of 2008, a group of 19 consumers filed a privacy lawsuit in federal district court in San Jose against Facebook and its Beacon partners. The proposed settlement, arrived at last year, calls for Facebook to pay damages ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 to those 19 people, but no one else would receive any monetary awards. The deal also requires Facebook to permanently shutter Beacon. Earlier this year, EPIC and other privacy groups argued that the settlement should be rejected on the ground that Facebook will have too much control over the new foundation. The organizations also questioned whether the settlement was fair, given that Facebook theoretically could have been liable for nearly $1 billion just for allegedly violating the federal Video Privacy Protection Act. That statute prohibits companies from sharing information about people's movie rentals without their consent and provides for damages of up to $2,500 per violation. In addition to the lawsuit filed in San Jose, three consumers filed suit against Blockbuster in federal district court in Texas. Those Facebook users initially opposed the potential settlement in San Jose, but recently settled with Blockbuster for around $50,000 total. Court documents show that those consumers will receive $22,500, while their lawyers receive $27,500. On Monday, the Texas consumers' lawsuit against Blockbuster was dismissed.
Aside from the Fan pages that attract consumers to brands, marketers recognize that Facebook paid-search ads and friend referrals have become strong marketing tools. While no one can confirm when -- or if -- Facebook might surpass Google as the top source for traffic to brand Web sites, recent data from Compete suggests the social network has surpassed Google when it comes to sending more people to content portals, such as MSN and Yahoo. The referrals are not necessarily done through links or widgets, but by typing in a new URL in the browser. So, the real question becomes: what do people see on Facebook that drives them directly to portals such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo? Some marketers might suggest paid-search ads, friendly chatter, Fan pages and widgets influence consumers. No matter what drives the traffic from Facebook to portals, the findings make Facebook the No. 1 referrer with 14.80% market share in January -- up from 13.04% in December, according to Compete. EBay follows, contributing 7.27% in January; google.com, 7.24%; myspace, 3.01%; craigslist.org, 1.84%; youtube.com, 1.23%; microsoft.com, 1.16%; comcast.net, 0.84%; and monster.com, 0.46%. "The data analyzes cross visitation between Facebook and content portals," says Jessica Ong, director of online media and search at Compete. "As Facebook continues to grow, it will cross paths with some of the larger sites like portals. That's why we see Facebook sending more traffic to the portal category of Web sites." Facebook's growth catapulted the social network past Yahoo to become the No. 2 online site in January 2010, with about 133 million unique visitors, just under Google's 147 million unique visitors. Facebook experienced 121.41% growth in December 2009 compared with the prior year, according to the research firm. Ong points to Yahoo's redesigned home page that supports a "My Favorites" section down the left rail where people can add content, including Facebook. She says that's another factor driving cross-visitation between Facebook and Yahoo. Evidently, Google recognizes this, too. Google recently listed Facebook as a competitor in its annual 10K U.S. Security and Exchange Commission filing, according to Search Engine Land. Measuring traffic from friends' posts to portals and Web sites has been difficult, according to Ong. "Compete is trying to figure that out based on our data, but Facebook probably can," she says. "We have had many requests for that data."
Research firm Email Data Source (EDS) said it is launching a new service showing both the reach of email campaigns and percentage of inbox deliverability. EDS is attaching it to an existing email and social media analytics tool, Email Analyst. The system will offer the "percentage of active email inboxes that receive an email message ... (and) the percentage of emails actually being delivered to the inbox versus the spam folder." Data can be broken out by an ISP, be it Yahoo, AOL or Gmail. EDS said other services offer data on emails blocked by ISPs, but its system can gauge "where a message goes once it is delivered" -- which has been a challenge. "Together, these two metrics bring a new degree of accuracy to list size and inbox placement that was never available before," EDS said. EDS said it is providing an independent verifier of audience measurement for email, which can "help marketers evaluate email partners and vendors." EDS conducted a January study of reach and inbox deliverability covering four leading newspapers: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Washington Post. The NYT performed the best in reach ("4,500 per million active email accounts") and had "an average of 96% delivery to the inbox (meaning approximately 4% of their emails were delivered to the spam folder)." The Washington Post scored second in reach (3,400 per million) with the same inbox delivery percentage. USA Today led with 97% deliverability, but had a reach of just 1,000 active email accounts per million, EDS said. The LA Times trailed with the lowest reach of 300 active email accounts per million, and a 92% deliverability rate.