A podcaster can easily report how many people downloaded his show each day. But how do advertisers know they actually listened? Podbridge says it can tell them. When a listener subscribes to a podcast affiliated with Podbridge, she downloads software (just once) that measures whether she listens, when, and what ads she hears. She also provides -- just once -- anonymous metrics such as her age, location, and listening habits.

With more than 10 million listeners expected to download podcasts this year, advertisers hope to leverage this new media to reach consumers. San Francisco-based Kiptronic is attempting to simplify the process of matching podcasters with advertisers.

Hitwise's recent acquisition of HitDynamics allows the online intelligence provider to beef up its product suite. Now customers can conduct research, planning, and execution on paid search campaigns within a single interface. The U.K.-based HitDynamics offers a platform combining search campaign management, search marketing reporting, and conversion tracking analytics that will integrate seamlessly with Hitwise's offerings. "Initially [HitDynamics] will be a stand-alone business, but the plan is to integrate it into the Hitwise suite and provide a tool for 1,200 customers that are doing their own search marketing in-house," says Andrew Walsh, CEO of Hitwise. …

Studying consumers' past behavior is the best way to predict future behavior. And companies are always looking for new sources for acquisition lists. Now they can do both with ResponderInfo, a new search engine from e-marketing agency ConsumerBase that pulls data directly from the firm's 76 million-record consumer database. The downloadable information is based on clickstream data collected when consumers respond to e-mail offers sent by the firm's Web sites, including Offerz.com and eShopFirst.com. Marketers build prospecting lists by selecting from more than 40 clickstream categories and then narrowing them down by attributes such as e-mail or …

It's old news by now: NBC's television coverage of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics was a five-ring flop. Prime-time coverage got spanked by "American Idol" and other programs. The Web, on the other hand, carried the torch.

With a deal with MSN Video under its belt, Lightningcast, a video advertising technology firm, is set to deliver in-stream video ads to the site's 9.4 million monthly unique visitors. But rather than focus only on broadband or Internet video advertising, Lightningcast's technology platform is aimed at video delivered over Internet Protocol, which means more than just broadband video. "We've been focused for five years on the complexities of delivering advertising into IP video. For us, that means broadband, that means wireless, that means podcasting, that means IP/TV, it means the digital home," says Tom MacIsaac, Lightningcast …

How do you market God? Brad Abare, a Christian and an advertising professional, thinks it's about time churches got better at it. "We think we have the greatest story ever told -- the answer to all of the world's problems," says Abare, founder of ChurchMarketingSucks.com. "But we don't necessarily know how to tell everybody about that." The year-old Web site hosts insightful, often passionate debates on topics ranging from ad design to whether marketing is compatible with Christianity. Abare agrees that marketing can be a dirty word to some. The key for any marketer, he says, is to be …

Bandwidth and space-on-the-page are both at a premium when it comes to video ads, since large files can cause problems for even the speediest broadband connections. And outside of interstitials and pre-rolls, video ads tend only to run in a rectangle embedded in the copy. Now, Viewpoint's Enhanced Player, a newly released component of the Viewpoint Media Player, allows publishers to host smaller file sizes -- on average, about 30 percent smaller than the previous release. Moreover, the player allows publishers to host ads with a nontraditional viewing window, either within the ad unit or floating over the html …

Carat Fusion has come up with a way to test online offers quickly and inexpensively. David Roth, director of search engine marketing at the agency, refers to it as "the tail wagging the dog." Carat uses "paid search to refine our offers for other [online media], which then generate the demand that search catches and converts into a sale," Roth says, adding, "It comes full circle, starting and ending with search." Carat began using the method in late 2005, when a consumer electronics client was trying to come up with the right offer. "They wanted to know, 'Should we …

After years of search engine trials, the online pay-per-call model got real for some marketers last year.