It didn't take long for Wenda Harris Millard - part of the original cast of DoubleClick - to stir things up in her new role as Chief Advertising Sales Officer at Yahoo! If you've been to the Yahoo! homepage today, you know what I'm talking about - the Pizza Hut ad. A pizza pushes through the middle of the screen, gets sprinkled with pepperoni and sausage and flies over to the square ad for Pizza Hut Ultimate Lover's Pizza on the right side of the page. There it rests until users click to see the toppings sprinkle on …

If you've been working with audio and video ads, eyeblasters, and other interactive ad technologies, the newest release from DoubleClick may seem like a let down. The company's media division today launched what they term a Shaped Pop-up ad unit, and although it’s not exactly exciting, it's definitely worth noticing. Developed by DoubleClick Studio, Shaped Pop-ups have the functionality of a pop-up box and use flash technology, but unlike most ad formats already in existence they can be designed in a range of shapes while still being tagged, trafficked and delivered much like standard banners. Naturally, the Shaped …

It appears that amidst all this talk of a softening economy, a troubling trend has emerged: credit-card companies are aggressively working to increase their customer base and encourage more spending, while credit-counseling services are seeking to reach people trying to get out of debt. The good part is that this is all happening through online ads. Jupiter Media Metrix today reported that online advertising for consumer credit services increased 93% so far this year, making it the largest online advertising segment within the financial services industry - one of the three industries that advertises the most online. …

How often do we get to hear an advertising success story these days? I've got one for you. Back in April, Taco Bell Corp. signed on as the first promotional partner for the launch of the Microsoft Xbox video game system. In October, Taco Bell unveiled details of the partnership, which included an extensive national sweepstakes program as well as primetime network television, radio, print and online advertising. Looks like their efforts paid off. Nielsen//NetRatings today reported that surfers at-home flocked to Xbox.com during the week ending October 28, to access information about the November 15th launch …

After reading Joseph Jaffe's column in MediaDailyNews today, I decided to look back on my own calendar and remember where I was at this time last year. Interestingly enough, I was at Thunder Lizard's Web Marketing 2000 show in New Orleans - the show that to me signified the end if an era. As I remember, the organizers pulled together some good speakers, but very few people showed up to listen to what they had to say. The era of spending thousands of dollars on attending each and every industry event was ending. People became very selective and …

After yesterday's minute, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of MediaPost readers who emailed me asking for contact information for the Ad Council. Today, I received another press release that falls into the category of relief efforts and I thought you might be interested in passing this on to your creative departments. The events of September 11 prompted the $17 billion per year promotional products industry's two leading organizations - the Advertising Specialty Institute and the Promotional Products Association International - to establish a new "Industry United Fund" initiative. The group coordinates the fundraising and …

The Advertising Council today announced the completion of a communications strategy created to guide the development of public service announcements in response to the events of September 11th. According to the strategy, the Ad Council's newly-formed Coalition Against Terrorism (formerly known as the Crisis Response Team) will begin to create messages that will "inform, involve and inspire all Americans to participate in activities that will strengthen our nation and help win the war on terrorism." The organization, founded in 1942 as the War Advertising Council after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, last year oversaw the donation of $1.55 …

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced today that after a comprehensive review of online publishing industry issues, it has commissioned two studies of online advertising with Millward Brown IntelliQuest. According to the announcement, the first study will explore the media consumption habits of the at-work online audience, while the other will examine the role of online advertising in the overall media mix with the goal of providing a better understanding of how online ads work in conjunction with other media. Michael Zimbalist, acting executive director of OPA, said these studies will “further establish online advertising as a media …

As you may know, MediaPost hosted a conference in New York yesterday. We invited 100 of the best minds in the industry and asked them to come up with some answers. Surprisingly enough, they did. The panelists debated, the audience pitched in and at the end of the day we were left with a prescription for the future: In the next year, the online advertising landscape will continue to be dominated by the big three - AOL, MSN and Yahoo! More importantly, our panelists thought that most of the ad campaigns running on these few big sites will be …

Looks like the holiday shopping season is going to start very early this year. According to a new report by online credit card issuer, NextCard, nearly one third of online shoppers will begin their online holiday shopping before November. The NextCard eCommerce Intentions survey found that almost two thirds of online shoppers will shop before mid November, indicating a desire to take care of holiday shopping well before Thanksgiving. Almost one third of online shoppers will be early-bird shoppers, starting before November. However, the majority (58%) will begin shopping in November, with more than half (29% of total respondents) shopping …