Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
AOL To Crank Content
AOL will compete the content model laid out by content machine, Demand Media, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Steel. Steel writes, “AOL is putting the finishing touches on a high-tech system for mass-producing news articles, entertainment and other online content.” Tons of brand-safe inventory on the way! – it only gets better for audience buyers with appended data for their targeting strategy. Read it. When will we hear about the AOL demand-side platform (DSP) strategy? Stay tuned.
Comcast Placing Bet
After buying out Vivendi’s remaining 20% stake in media conglomerate, NBC Universal, GE appears on the verge of selling NBC to Comcast. In a New York Times article, media analyst Craig Moffett at Sanford C. Bernstein says that among the opportunities in the deal for Comcast is that it “could use its power in film, with Universal Studios, to expand video-on-demand offerings by altering movie release windows to make movies available on-demand the same day they are released on DVD.” Read the article.
Q4 In Review – Already
Steve McClellan of AdWeek reviews Q4 results with the help of TNS Media Intelligence and says that even though there were “no miracles” in sight with overall ad spending suffering a double-digit decline,” there were bright spots including holiday campaigns that started earlier than ever from big box stores Walmart, Sears and Kmart. Read about it.
Whither Media
DraftFCB Bundling Services
David Sterrett writes in Crain’s Chicago Business that DraftFCB is continuing to re-tool its business model as it bundles media and creative in one house. Chairman Howard Draft tells Sterrett that it believes it has the roadmap for success with its Chicago office that it plans to bring to NYC and says, “Our goal is to try to build the Chicago office’s mentality, culture and style throughout our global organization.” Bundle here (sign-up required).
MDC Getting Acquisitive
Jim Edwards of BNET talks to MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal about a range of issues past, present and future. Nadal told Edwards that MDC wants to buy more agencies and added, “We said we’re going to be very acquisitive on our last call [with Wall Street analysts].” Read the article.
PayPal Seeing Black
According to PC Mag’s Mark Hachman, Black Friday been very good to Pay Pal as the company reported that on Saturday it “processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to 2008.” In that PayPal claims to manage payment of 1/4 of all online electronic commerce transactions, the global economy’s Magic 8 Ball like reads “Signs point to yes” in regards to economic recovery. Read more.
Hof Leaves BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek media writer, Rob Hof, is leaving the magazine today for new adventures according to his new blog outpost – http://robhof.wordpress.com/ … Hof writes, “It’s time (and yes, WAY overdue) to set up a more independent presence online.” Bookmark it.
Marketing Clouds
Though pictured at the top of the article in intimidating martial arts robes (no joke), John du Pre Gauntt lets cooler heads prevail and tells marketers on Jack Myers’ MedaBizBloggers that it’s time to start thinking about “clouds” and “cloud computing” as infrastructure is outsourced in the name of efficiency. Read more.
Addressing TV
Always good to see Ad Age sip from the digital cup – in an educational FAQ article, Ad Age’s Andrew Hampp takes a crack at defining “Addressable TV.” Read it here. In another Ad Age piece, Brian Steinberg looks at what addressable TV, convergence and a digital future will mean to content and advertising and who benefits. Read it.
More Ad Networks, Not Less
According to Broadcast & Cable, former AOL exec, Kevin Conroy, is spearheading Univision’s efforts to create a new online advertising network which targets not only users of the Univsion broadcast network website, “but also third-party publishers in the U.S., Latin America and Spain. Read the article.
Media Hell
ICON International’s Jim Meskauskas goes off on advertisers who he says are “cheapening” their digital campaigns by driving on such as goals as buying the least expensive media possible. In the IMedia Connection article, Meskauskas argues that when you commoditize media, your business is going to hell (AdExchanger.com paraphrase). Read more.
AdMeld Clients Double
According to an article by Gavin O’Malley of MediaPost, AdMeld’s growth pace continues its momentum as it’s doubled its “high touch” client list since June. O’Malley says new, AdMeld large publisher clients include Daily Kos, Hearst Television, The New York Post and Time Out New York. Read more.
DOOH UGC D’OH
Like any media, when you’re buying a digital-out-of-home (DOOH) placement, you may need/want to know its surroundings and context – or even understand the implications of the embedded UGC feed. From Manolo Almagro at the Daily DOOH comes a story about Lamar, a company which owns a network of bulletin boards. A local Alabama TV station bought a board and decided to marry its Twitter feed to a smiling image of its 6 o’clock news team. The result – not so good. See it.
