Consumers seeking a sneak peek at Amazon.com's first original series "Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher" can access preview clips of the first episode at www.amazon.com/entertainment. The clips thus far include interviews with Stephen King and Armistead Maupin, plus a live performance by Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas. The 30-minute weekly online program will begin streaming June 1. In addition to interviews with authors and artists and live musical performances, the 12-episode program will also include a surprise special delivery segment, promoting sponsor United Parcel Service. The segment will have randomly selected customers open their doors to discover a celebrity along …

Per Hoffman, founder and president of virtual agency Adcandy.com, wants to democratize the advertising business by actively soliciting input from creative types outside agency walls. Here, he gives an Adcandy state-of-the-union address as the site approaches its first birthday. OMMA contributor Larry Dobrow had a few questions for Hoffman. OMMA: Has the site and community evolved the way you intended? Hoffman: I've been using the Wright Brothers analogy a lot: It flies. It does for very little what other companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for. From a business perspective, companies want the user …

When it comes to Web advertising, small niche publishers face a quandary. Their sites attract committed audiences with the kind of high-quality demographics advertisers want. Yet their relatively tiny page-view counts have largely made them non-entities when it comes to real world advertising revenue. Kanoodle's BrightAd Cookies program seeks to help smaller publishers monetize their customer bases by "selling" their cookies. BrightAd Cookies allows publishers to generate revenue by providing advertisers access to their audience not only when they're on a site, but after they leave via targeting cookies. Once publishers sign up for the …

Sci-fi fans waited decades for the next generation of the late-1970s TV series "Battlestar Galactica" to arrive. When the Sci-Fi Channel made their wish come true in January 2005, the programmer knew it would find an instant fan base. But it wanted more. Thanks to its merger into the NBC-Universal family, Sci-Fi was able to pack a lot more marketing into the show's launch. Debuting first as a miniseries event, "Battlestar Galactica" was promoted on such NBC-Uni channels as Bravo and USA Network. Now well into its second season, the show pulls in about 2.3 million viewers a week, …

"Lazy Sunday," an online spoof rap video created by "Saturday Night Live" players Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, is hilarious and brilliant. The dweeby duo nail the genre's absurd conventions, from the giant puffy coat to the menacing glares and crazed gesticulations, while relating the most benign activities: buying cupcakes, debating the merits of Yahoo Maps versus MapQuest and picking up Mr. Pibb and Red Vines at a convenience store. The juxtaposition of mundane leisure and hard-core hip-hop is side-splittingly hilarious. All those brand names make the online video compelling from a marketing perspective, too -- it's delicious viral …

Lexus drives its new luxury sedan into the market with a multidimensional push Why live in one dimension? That's the question Lexus posed as it planned the campaign to launch its sporty, revamped is sedan last fall. Crafting the marketing to introduce the vehicle, Lexus and agency Team One took a multimedia approach designed to appeal to a demographic outside that of the typical Lexus buyer. With the new IS, Lexus targeted a younger, hipper consumer -- the kind who might buy a BMW 3 series vehicle. Paul Ratzky, Team One's consumer engagement director, says the Lexus …

For all its promise, behavioral targeting has a lot of hurdles ahead.

An open mind and a collaborative spirit are the tickets to the social networking party.

The broadband TV picture flickers into focus.

Advertising and content struggle to find the right formula.