Bing will partner with Fox News to bring an interactive experience to the president's State of the Union address Tuesday. The platform, Bing Pulse, will gather social media sentiment and feedback from viewers in real-time. Bing's political site will host the event. Site visitors will need to enter their gender and political affiliation. The system will allow a comment or reaction from the same person every five seconds. A live tracker will count the number of "pulses" submitted and line graphs will show how people react to the language and the speech. The results will split gender and affiliation to show how the individual groups react. The Bing Beat, a live social sentiment analyzer, will also use Twitter tweets to analyze issues around gun control, immigration and fiscal cliff, according to Mark Penn, Microsoft CVP of strategic and special projects. The feedback will offer information on positive or negative reactions about a specific topic, according to Penn. This "nonpartisan" effort builds on Bing's election coverage last fall, when the site gathered election news and data. The Bing Elections 2012 site drew nearly 8 million visitors on election night. In separate prepared videos, former President Jimmy Carter and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich expressed their thoughts on the efforts. Gingrich called it the nation's largest "focus group" that hopefully will resonate with the nation's leaders. Bing is advertising both on-air with promotions through a partnership with Fox. As well as amplifying the news through Bing’s social media sites. Penn said the White House was not involved with the project.
Continuing a bold turnaround, AOL on Friday said fourth-quarter revenues were up 3.9% year-over-year -- to nearly $600 million -- which represented the company’s greatest sales gain in eight years. AOL’s quarterly performance was so strong, in fact, that it caught some analysts off guard. “Admittedly, I am a bit surprised the earnings went up as much as they did,” said Shar VanBoskirk, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Yet while impressive, AOL’s revenue growth is no miracle, according to VanBoskirk. “I'm not surprised to see AOL's earnings go up, based on the growth we see happening in the online display advertising space,” she said. “There is lots of money going into online advertising today.” AOL "appears to have turned the corner," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali wrote in a Friday research note. Tim Armstrong, AOL chairman and CEO, attributed the strong quarter to healthy increases in global ad revenue, which grew 13% year-over-year. Looking ahead, “AOL has strong momentum entering 2013 and is positioned to continue on our growth path,” Armstrong said on Friday. Half-agreeing with Armstrong, Cantor’s Squali wrote: “AOL is entering 2013 on stronger footing, but our visibility into revenue acceleration/margin improvement remains relatively poor.” According to Squali: “Management commented that it's currently seeing (year-over-year) growth in domestic display, but was hesitant to project sustained (year-over-year) growth for 1Q.” Overall, global display revenue was flat in the fourth quarter, according to AOL, while domestic display revenue actually experienced a 3% decline. Going forward, AOL said it will manage its business by segments, including “The Brand Group” (AOL.com, the Huffington Post, Patch, TechCrunch and MapQuest); “The Membership Group," which consists of offerings that serve AOL’s registered account holders, both free and paid; and "AOL Networks,” AOL's offerings to publishers and advertisers using AOL’s Third Party Network, as well as AOL Properties inventory sold by AOL Networks. Faring especially well, AOL Networks fourth-quarter revenue increased 37% versus the prior-year period, driven by 31% growth in Third Party Network revenue, which included $9.2 million in advertising revenue sold by Ad.com Japan. (AOL began consolidating Ad.com Japan in the first quarter of 2012.) Third Party Network revenue reflected revenue from the sale of inventory from third-party properties through Advertising.com, while its growth continues to be driven by an increasing number of publishers and advertisers on the network as well as increased sales of premium packages and products, according to AOL. In addition, AOL Networks revenue growth also reflected an 88% increase in the sale of AOL Properties inventory sold through Advertising.com. AOL also reported on Friday that cost of revenues increased $230 million year-over-year, which it said was driven by a 25% -- or $21 million -- increase in Traffic Acquisition Costs related to 37% growth in AOL Networks revenue, and increased TAC related to search-marketing initiatives. Overall, fourth quarter adjusted OIBDA of $123.3 million excluded $13.3 million of special items, including $7.1 million of patent sale and license costs, primarily related to a special year-end employee bonus related to the patent transaction, and costs associated with the $5.1 million acquisition of Buysight.
Sailthru, which specializes in content personalization, has closed $19 million in a Series B venture round led by Benchmark, but including prior investors RRE, DFJ Gotham and AOL Ventures. The funding brings the company’s total raised to date to $28 million. New York-based Sailthru plans to use the new capital to expand staffing, accelerate product development, and continue to enlarge operations in the U.S. and internationally. “We are increasing the size of the team in engineering, account management, marketing…it’s all about expansion so we can continue to improve our products and offer more products,” said Sailthru CEO Neil Capel. The company’s technology allows clients such as The Huffington Post, Fab and Thrillist to send behaviorally targeted email newsletters, as well as offer tailored Web site content, recommendations and e-commerce services based on users’ browsing habits and preferences. Sailthru typically enters into one-year, software-as-a-service (SaaS) contracts with clients, based on their volume of e-mail and Web site traffic. By delivering content personalized for individual users, the company says business customers have seen a three to five times increase in open rates and more than a 200% uptick in time spent on sites. Sailthru has filed for a trademark for the term “Smart Data” to describe its approach to targeting that relies on automated collection and analysis of first-party data to customize client communications in real-time. “As opposed to the normal amalgamation of data sets into some Big Data repository where it’s looked at and then humans make decisions,” said Capel. Through its focus on providing highly personalized content, Capel said Sailthru increased revenue 270% in 2012, with an average monthly growth rate of 9%. The company recently opened a San Francisco office and plans to expand in Europe in the second quarter. Sailthru’s headcount has roughly doubled to 85 since mid-2012, and Capel expects the sales staff alone will double in size this year. The company’s growth was accelerated last year through a pair of acquisitions. It bought Frame, which makes software allowing e-commerce businesses to optimize their Web presence for the iPad, and Seamless Receipts, which offers retailers tools for creating targeted promotions and tracking shopper analytics. Capel said the company had no further acquisition plans at present, but that it was interested in creating more tools for boosting engagement across social media and mobile platforms. “Everything, when it comes down to it, is going mobile, and we just really need to focus on making that as relevant an experience as possible.”
On Super Bowl XLVII Sunday, tablets and smartphones were the second screen of choice, particularly for women, while men seemed to gravitate toward social networks. While both genders became more active online at halftime and during the power outage, mobile device use by females spiked significantly and remained high throughout the second half of the game, per eXelate data. Male mobile device use only surged in the game's closing minutes. Desktop computers powered way down for the big game. In fact, many turned off machines as the network began running prep commentary about an hour prior and then use began again. Brands running multichannel marketing campaigns experienced the most amount of traffic from mobile devices on their Web sites. The football game wasn't just about beer and snacks. Audience segments show the leading interests of fans range from personal wealth management and men's fashion to flowers, jewelry and organic items. "Although we saw an overall reduction in Internet use during Sunday's game, in our publisher network, we saw spikes in browsing significantly above levels that were typical among advertised products for the day," said eXelate SVP Analytics Kevin Lyons. "These spikes in activity were especially noticeable during the halftime show and blackout." Advertisers saw 23% higher traffic than normal on day of the event, 46% higher on the day after the event, and the week prior to event delivered lower traffic than last year, according to Adobe Systems. When it comes to activity on social media sites, men outnumbered women, according to Trendrr.TV, which logged more than 52 million social media interactions -- up from 17.5 million. Men outnumbered women in social game activity, 56% vs. 44%. Mobile devices dominated 88% of the activity vs. 12% on the Web.
Amazon and Overstock are asking New York's highest court to overturn a law requiring some online retailers to collect sales tax. The so-called "Amazon tax," passed in 2008, requires Web marketers that pay commissions to New York-based affiliates -- including other online companies -- to collect sales tax from consumers in the state. Amazon and Overstock filed suit days after the law was passed. They argue that the law unconstitutionally interferes with interstate commerce. A trial judge upheld the law, but Amazon and Overstock appealed and the case reached New York's Court of Appeals this week. Amazon and Overstock argue that New York can't require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax unless they have a "substantial nexus" to the state, such as brick-and-mortar stores. They are relying on a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that catalog companies need not collect sales tax from consumers unless they had outlets in the state. The ecommerce companies contend that affiliate marketers -- including Web publishers that garner referral fees when visitors click on online ads -- don't constitute a sufficient in-state presence to justify the tax-collection requirement. The ecommerce companies argue that online retailers don't necessarily know when affiliate marketers are based in New York. "Advertising alone is insufficient to give rise to a 'substantial nexus,' and the physical location of these third parties who post advertisements on their own websites is typically unknown and irrelevant to both the retailers and the individuals visiting these sites," they argue in their court papers. The New York State Department of Taxation, which is defending the statute, argues that the law "restores a level playing field between brick-and-mortar stores and their Internet-only counterparts." New York requires all state residents to pay sales tax on purchases. When online retailers don't collect the taxes, consumers are supposed to self-report the amount they owe -- but observers say the practice results in underpayment. After New York's law went into effect, around 200 online retailers, including Overstock and Blue Nile, stopped working with affiliates in the state. Amazon didn't drop New York affiliates, but stopped working with affiliate marketers in North Carolina and Rhode Island, which also passed similar laws. More recently, Amazon recently agreed to start collecting sales tax in California, Pennsylvania and other states. The company also reportedly intends to build warehouses in a host of states in order to offer same-day delivery. If it does so, those structures would be the type of physical presence that allows states to require sales-tax collection.
Newspapers and magazines may find the tablet a saving grace with older readers. They have an easier time reading text on tablet computers than print on paper, according to a new study by German researchers -- which may speed adoption by older consumers who enjoy daily news reads, provided that consumer electronics marketers can alter habits. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany studied the amount of cognitive effort required to read text displayed on different media, including paper, e-readers and tablet computers. After dividing participants into two groups, one consisting of 36 subjects ages 21-34, the other of 21 subjects ages 60+, the researchers tracked eye movements and brain activity with electrodes to determine how much neural power was required to read text presented in the various formats. The older readers displayed a lower level of brain activity when reading text on an iPad tablet, the study found, and finished each page of text three to four seconds faster, on average. The researchers attributed this result to the tablet computers’ bright, backlit screens, which enhance contrast and make it easier to distinguish text. Younger readers showed no appreciable differences in the amount of time or mental effort required to read a page of text, regardless of format. In November, a study published by researchers at New Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that tablets could help people with moderate vision loss read. The study tracked the reading speeds of 100 subjects with moderate central vision impairment when using iPads and Kindle tablets, versus print. Subjects reading text in 18-point font on the iPad gained at least 42 words per minute in their average reading speed compared to print, while subjects reading the same size text on a Kindle gained an average of 12 words per minute compared to their print reading speed. Patients with the worst vision (which the study defined as 20/40 or worse in both eyes) showed the greatest improvements when reading on tablet devices instead of print text. People with the worst vision loss also said the iPad provided the most comfortable reading experience. According to data released by Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, in August 2012 27% of American adults ages 50-64 and 13% of adults ages 65+ owned a tablet computer. Those figures were up from 15% and 7%, respectively, in January 2012, and just 4% and 2%, respectively, in November 2010.
Nearly one-third of viewers to the Super Bowl were so taken with commercials during the game that they watched at least one of the spots again online afterwards. A new survey from media shop Mindshare polled nearly 2,200 adults in the days following the game (Feb. 4-6) and 31% of those who watched the game indicated that they watched a Super Bowl commercial again online. The survey also found that viewers to the game engaged in a substantial amount of social media chatter about the commercials during and after the game. Nearly a quarter of the respondents (24%) posted a comment on Facebook about a Super Bowl commercial. And nearly as many -- 21% -- said they texted someone about a spot that appeared in the game. Some 20% said they “liked” or followed a Super Bowl advertiser’s brand Facebook or Twitter page, while 19% said they shared a link to a Super Bowl commercial with a friend or family member. Fourteen percent said they tweeted about a spot in the game. Of those polled, 72% said they watched the game. Among Super Bowl viewers, 27% said they had purchased or planned to purchase at least one of the products featured in a Super Bowl spot. More than half of the audience watched the big game on traditional television sets at home (56%), per the survey, while 9% watched via Web-enabled TV sets.
Smithsonian is a good magazine. The January issue has a fascinating piece about the genetic components of morality; the convergence of politics, urban planning and organized crime in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and a Ron Rosenbaum interview with Jaron Lanier about the Web dystopia he helped create. The ads are kind of fascinating too. Nothing in the automotive category or consumer goods. No fashion, no financial services, no tech, no airline, no alcoholic beverages, no retail. But for a back page from V8 vegetable juice, the issue is financed wholly by direct-response advertisers and a mess of house ads for various Smithsonian enterprises. That’s a function of two factors: 1. The overall media economy. The magazine business as a whole is circling the drain. 2. Demographics. The average Smithsonian subscriber has been dead since 2008. The question becomes, then: what price survival? Smithsonian is, after all, the official magazine of the Smithsonian Institution, which is in turn the cherished (tax-supported) vault of the nation’s knowledge, culture, technology and history. As such, it both enjoys and confers the priceless prestige of the institution. It is a significantly greater honor to be featured in Smithsonian than in, for example, High Society. But just as the cachet of Smithsonian rubs off on its advertisers, the nature of the advertisers rubs off on Smithsonian. The Alaska cruises and self-help videos are probably neutral in that regard. The large-font, intentionally-dumb cell phones and VideoEye magnifier are a bit geriatric, but demographically on target. But that is a telling fact. Seniors are not merely more informed than the rest of the population, they are also as a group more vulnerable. Fixed incomes, fear and gathering confusion combine to define a cohort at risk -- at risk, for example, from sleaze. The New York Mint, a private direct-response outfit in no way connected with any government, is peddling the Gold Australian Kangaroo coin to those rare collectors clever enough to snap up $26.80 worth of gold for only $74.50 plus shipping and handling. Thanks to the miracle of magnification, the 3-inch-wide image shows off every detail. The actual coin is the size of an M&M, albeit not as thick. If that opportunity isn’t exciting enough, the same advertisers offer a “full Quarter-Pound Bag” full of vintage buffalo nickels for only $49 plus S&H. That’s 22 or 23 coins, worth -- if they are in good numismatic condition -- between $5 and $25. If not in good condition, their copper and nickel scrap value for the whole bag is $1.15. “Supplies Limited – Order Now!” Presumably, this does not constitute criminal activity, but it should be disqualifying conduct for doing business with an arm of the (tax-supported) Smithsonian Institution, should it not? And if bilking people on gold and collectibles isn’t disqualifying, consider perhaps “Grow Young with HGH…The Reverse Aging Miracle.” Continued use of HGH will make a radical difference in your health, HGH is particularly helpful to the elderly who, given a choice, would rather stay independent in their own home, strong, healthy and alert enough to manage their own affairs, exercise and stay involved in their communities. (Note to Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration: The Smithsonian is just across the street.) Incredibly, in January’s Smithsonian, that’s not the worst of it. Two pages later comes a crackpot screed from John Ellis, proprietor of WaterCuresAnything.com, who has luckily defeated one or two laws of physics to reconfigure the water molecule to stop disease and enable energy independence. Pay heed -- he went to the same prep school as JFK and sold one of his machines to the cousin of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. So… There is in his incoherent ramblings, however, one trenchant sentence: “We advertised in the Washington Times, Popular Mechanics and now Smithsonian that are read by our world’s top scientists!” Yes, he explicitly trades on the prestige of the publications cynical or desperate enough to take his money. Even as you read this, some gullible senior is paying $2,800 for a miracle water machine because it has the Smithsonian’s imprimatur. Which is just disgusting. This is what I mentioned to Lori Erdos, the magazine’s business development director, and she did not disagree. “We’re on it,” she said. “That ad will never appear in Smithsonian again.” But if John Ellis is disqualified, what about the rest of them? If all the sketchy ads are culled from the magazine, there had better be a very big upswing in Alaska-cruise demand, or there will be very little left. And so once again, the question: What price survival? I’m not sure -- but I know there is life, and life with dignity. If a miracle water machine is what it takes to keep Smithsonian alive, it pains me to suggest, maybe it’s time for someone to think very seriously about pulling the plug.