Targeted-Ad Initiative Is Crucial for MySpace†

Questions Multiply On Site's Potential to Turn a Big Profit

Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2008 — When News Corp. reports its fiscal 2008 earnings Tuesday, investors will scrutinize the company's plans to generate more advertising revenue from the enormous amount of traffic on its MySpace social-networking Web site.

One initiative that could be critical to MySpace's success, according to media buyers and industry analysts, is a system that lets marketers aim their ads at particular groups of users. As part of this "hypertargeting" system, MySpace has analyzed the profiles of its users to gauge their interests and then categorized them into more than 1,000 "buckets," including rodeo watchers, scrapbook enthusiasts and "Dancing With the Stars" viewers.

MySpace Signs Up Glam New Member: Cartier†

Global Campaign Challenges Assumptions About Social Networking

Advertising Age, June 30, 2008 — The latest marketer to target the reaches of MySpace? Cartier. Cartier, a brand better known for diamond necklaces and $10,000 watches, will advertise its latest collection, Love by Cartier, in a deal which was done out of MySpace's office in France but will span multiple countries. It's yet another reminder that mainstream Web 2.0 sites have broader audiences than people often assume (last year Neiman Marcus chose YouTube as a place to publicize its 100-year anniversary).

MySpace Might Have Friends, but It Wants Ad Money

Monetizing social networking Web sites is proving to be an arduous road and ad revenues have not come in as quickly as planned

New York Times, June 16, 2008 — When the News Corporation added MySpace to its portfolio nearly three years ago, it expected that if its base of 16 million users kept growing — and each user kept adding friends, sharing photos and swapping flirty messages — the advertising dollars would roll in.

The social networking site has grown — to 118 million worldwide users — and the flirtations have not stopped. But the cash is not coming in as quickly as the company had hoped.

New reloadable debit card from Edo targets teens

DMNews, June 2, 2008 — Edo Interactive has launched the Facecard Prepaid MasterCard, giving teenagers and young adults a new way to spend money and retailers a new way to market to this audience...Funds can be loaded onto the card via reoccurring direct payments from a bank — a parent, for example, could use this option for a child's allowance — or from other debit or credit cards and payroll direct deposit.

What Accountants Can Teach You About Using Social Media†

H&R Block Cast a Wide Net With a Campaign That Included Profiles, Videos, Twitter and Widgets

Advertising Age, May 14, 2008 — Tax software isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marketing in social networks or on YouTube, spaces dominated by movie trailers and goofy viral videos. But H&R Block proved that it, too, can be successful in the space, but it's about matching content to the social community and then making that content valuable to consumers, said Amy Worley, director of digital marketing for H&R Block.

MySpace Unveils Music Service, Partners with Record Labels†

Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2008 — MySpace and the music industry unveiled Thursday an online music service to challenge Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, even as the digital retailer announced it has become the top music seller in the country after less than five years in the business.

MySpace has formed partnerships with three major record labels — Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment — to offer the social-networking giant's members a range of new music-listening and merchandising features. MySpace Music will offer free, ad-supported audio "streaming" and sell digital downloads that will play on a variety of music devices, as well as concert tickets, merchandise, and ring tones and other content for mobile phones.

From MySpace to YourSpace

A Web blockbuster is evolving to try to stay ahead of rivals.

New York Times, January 21, 2008 — Two years ago, Chris DeWolfe, the co-founder and chief executive of MySpace, was talking about international expansion with Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation bought the social networking site in 2005. According to Mr. DeWolfe, an entrepreneur used to moving at Internet velocity, he suggested that MySpace could expand to “four or five” countries in the next year.

What about 13?” Mr. Murdoch said.

That was one of Mr. DeWolfe’s first lessons in just how fast business is done inside the News Corporation.

Social Networking with the Elite

Tired of the Web masses? Now you can find your own gated communities on the Net—if they'll let you in

BusinessWeek, November 15, 2007 — Are you on the digital A-list? It's no longer enough to get invited to exclusive conferences or be asked to join professional organizations—many movers and shakers are taking their hobnobbing online, where a new crop of social networks aim to keep out the riff-raff by demanding credentials at the virtual door. As MySpace (NWS), LinkedIn, and Facebook have expanded to people of all ages, classes, and affiliations, there's a backlash against the open culture of social networking.

Girl Power

No rich relatives? No professional mentors? No problem. Ashley Qualls, 17, has built a million-dollar web site. She's LOL all the way to the bank. :)

Fast Company, September 1, 2007 — ate last year, Ian Moray stumbled across a cotton-candy-pink Web site called Whateverlife.com. As manager of media development at the online marketing company ValueClick Media (NASDAQ:VCLK), he was searching for under-the-radar destinations for notoriously fickle teenagers. Beyond MySpace and Facebook, countless sites come and go in the teen universe, like soon forgotten pop songs. But Whateverlife stood out. It was more authentic somehow. It featured a steady supply of designs for MySpace pages and attracted a few hundred-thousand girls a day. "Clever design, a growing base--that's a no-brainer for us," Moray says.