Archive for the ‘Internet News’ Category

Yahoo Slashes 2,000 Jobs

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Scott Thompson was named CEO of Yahoo three months ago. He came from the world of PayPal and was supposed to be a signal that Yahoo was looking for a reorientation. It’s a no-brainer that Yahoo has lost the battle over search and social to Google and FaceBook, but not necessarily the battle over display advertising. On Wednesday Thompson announced that Yahoo would be slashing jobs as it also slashes its offerings in an effort to be really good at one thing instead of mediocre at 1,000.

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It appears that Yahoo is going after video content and the display advertising panacea that comes along with it. This is not to say that Yahoo is looking to displace YouTube. Rather, Yahoo wants to be instrumental in cord cutting as the destination people go to for their usual TV content.

Yahoo has already inked a deal with ABC News and hopes to do more. There is also original video content in the works. More content, especially original content, will help drive more people to Yahoo and the ad inventory Yahoo displays. The social media agency that advertises with Yahoo should, in time, see improved numbers. There might also be opportunities for the creative agency to help with the original content and drive more people to conversion sites independent of the Yahoo networks.

Thompson’ experience with PayPal, a service more focused on partnerships with other brands instead of the usual stand-alone orientation of Yahoo, should also help the social media agency. We can expect to find Yahoo much more cooperative and interested in helping out partners. It will take time for Yahoo to revamp that orientation and make products more suitable, but the payoff should be nice.

Yahoo Makes Slashes

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Posted in Internet Advertising, Internet News | No Comments »

Federal Trade Commission Reignites the Privacy legislation Debate

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

The FTC issued a report on Monday morning calling for more rules and practices governing “data brokers”, which are firms that trade in personal information like names, addresses and purchasing information. The FTC does acknowledge industry self-governing standards that were implemented and are in the process of being implemented. However, the FTC calls for more governance than the self-imposed kind.

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Not only should those self-imposed rules remain in place, but the industry should also create a centralized database outlining their practices. Congress is also being called upon to create legislation that would also provide more safeguards for individual consumers. Congress would codify the rules as well as create a system of rights that customers can appeal to. It would also clarify that do-not-track means not only do-not-advertise but also do-not-collect.

These concerns are old hat, which is not to say unfounded. The social media agency needs to do what it can to be fair and transparent as well to explain the benefits of these practices. Even though the FTC called for certain action, keeping public opinion in check is necessary to prevent Congressional legislation from overreaching. While the social media agency is often not the one doing the tracking, they are involved in the concerns and need to make sure the system appears as necessary and beneficial as possible.

The FTC Deals Privacy

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Posted in Customer Serivce, Internet News, social media | No Comments »

Spotify Hits The End of Trial Period

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Early adopters to the Spotify service are finding their six-month trial at an end. Many of those users are not upgrading, which means they are now looking for a music streaming service.

Spotify

This is good for the digital agency. Even though Spotify exploded on the scene, it will hurt itself by ending free streaming services after the trial period expires. The other services provide an advertising outlet and will gain more users. The front-runner is probably Pandora. It is already well known and it allows the user to experience new music through its recommendation engine. Grooveshark will compete with Pandora to gain more user share. The quality of the track falls short some because it’s all uploaded music. There is also MOG Free Play and Rdio to consider.

The digital agency should, however, focus on the services that offer a recommendation engine. It’s no secret what people listen to when they are able to select, but there is something to be learned when a random track comes on and the user can either listen to it or dismiss it. Data measuring these cycles can help improve the effectiveness of ads, especially rich format ads.

Spotify brought people into the streaming music service and now that is kicking many of those new users out of their system others are picking up the slack. This is a great opportunity for the digital agency to step up and capitalize on this opportunity.

Growth of Streaming Music

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Posted in Internet News, music | No Comments »

Tablets To Replace Laptops

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

The exploding tablet market has always been entertaining to watch. Not only did the genre explode onto the scene, but it helped reshape the way digital agencies need to approach mobile computing. Although the issue had always been about supplementing computing needs. The thought was that people would have tablets and smartphones and also either a laptop or a desktop. According to a new study by Poll Position that assumption is suspect.

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46% of adults believe that tablets will replace laptops. This belief is especially true among adults (30-58) and young adults (18-29). This has a couple of meanings for the digital agency. People either think tablets are productive enough or that they are close to productive enough to be productivity devices in the near future. This will open up space for the digital agency to target tablet ads towards productivity devices and not just as consumption machines. The digital agency needs to also recognize this as the beginning of the end for non-mobile marketing. If productivity turns to mobile devices then it makes sense to only specialize in advertisements geared towards mobile devices, which can be displayed on desktops.

Even if the tablet does not replace the laptop, this belief will accelerate tablet sales. Tablets will take a larger share of people’s computing attentions in the future.

Tablet Future

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Posted in Internet News, Mobile, Technology, tablets | No Comments »

Games Increasingly Appeal To Women

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

There are now more women who play games online than men. There are games that are made to be female-centric but women’s willingness to play games that do not fit in this category is growing. Over the past two years console game playing by women has significantly increased. A new study — studying console gaming and browser based games but not social games — by comScore Media Metrix has some interesting results for the digital agency.

The good news for the digital agency is that women do tend to have different gaming characteristics than men. Women prefer to play less competitive and more story-driven and character-driven games. The other important data to come out of the new study is that once the gamer hits the 35-year-old mark, then women are more likely to continue playing games than men.

It is no secret that people appreciate games and rewards. Some of the more effective ads involve an aspect of gaming and the digital agency can use the demographic data to help craft gaming-like ads to appeal to customers. As women become more amenable to online gaming then the ads targeting them can too.

Woman Gamers

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Posted in Internet News, Online Gaming | No Comments »