Marketers Threaten To Put Majority Of Budget Online

MediaPost Publications, November 13, 2007 — BIG-NAME BRAND MARKETERS ARE FED up with traditional media channels and are threatening to shift the lion's share of their budgets online, according to Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Universal McCann.

"If this happens for another year, significant clients will want to walk," Brien said at an Interactive Advertising Bureau conference on Monday in reference to a general climate of discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI.

Without naming any specific clients, Brien added they are "just waiting to increase their online spend to 50% or 60% [of their total budgets]."

Marketers Unprepared For New World Disorder: ANA

MediaPost Publications, October 12, 2007 — THEY SEE IT ALL AROUND them. More than 90% of the 250-plus marketers surveyed for a cross-industry study set for release at the ANA Annual Meeting say they plan to increase their digital spending. But plenty of obstacles stand in the way of fully embracing the new world disorder of fragmentation and personalization of media--culture being the biggest one.

NBC Making a Clean Start in a House of Mixed Media

After it bought the Web site iVillage.com last year, NBC Universal bragged that it had landed a digital darling. But few people are boasting about iVillage now.

New York Times, August 13, 2007 — After it bought the Web site iVillage.com last year for $600 million, NBC Universal bragged that it had landed a digital darling. The women-focused Internet business was a perfect fit with the “Today” show, executives said, and would turbo-charge their online efforts.

Can the Washington Post survive?

Newspapers are dying. At the Washington Post Co., CEO Donald Graham is banking on the Internet to save serious journalism. If he can't figure this out, nobody can.

FORTUNE, August 6, 2007 — Barry Svrluga, a 36-year-old baseball writer for The Washington Post, was on his way to the barber when an e-mail pinged his BlackBerry telling him that the Washington Nationals had sent two struggling pitchers to the minor leagues. Svrluga detoured to Starbucks, wrote a 572-word commentary on his laptop and posted it to his blog, Nationals Journal at washingtonpost.com. After his haircut he swung by the Post's newsroom to do a live question-and-answer session online with fans. That night, after filing a story for the newspaper, which he calls the "$0.35 edition" in his blog, Svrluga recorded a ten-minute podcast for the Web site, with sound bites from team officials and players.

Like most reporters at the Post, Svrluga has become platform-agnostic,... continue reading

It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World

Hoping to deliver personalized messages to consumers, advertising giant Publicis is pursuing an ambitious global digital ad strategy.

New York Times, August 6, 2007 — It is only a matter of time until nearly all advertisements around the world are digital.

Or so says David W. Kenny, the chairman and chief executive of Digitas, the advertising agency in Boston that was acquired by the Groupe">Publicis Groupe for $1.3 billion six months ago.

Now Mr. Kenny is reshaping the digital advertising strategy for the entire Publicis worldwide conglomerate

GE-NBCU Invests in Healthline, Gaming†

Busy Peacock Equity Fund Shows a Penchant for Advanced Ad Applications

Advertising Age, July 17, 2007 — Putting at least $250 million where their mouths are, NBC Universal and GE Commercial Finance are placing bets on the web 2.0 world, having teamed up on a joint venture, recently rebranded the Peacock Equity Fund, to help identify young digital companies that could help them play in the advanced advertising space.