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New Google Display Chief

In an article, Ad Age's Michael Learmonth introduces the new head of display at Google, Barry Salzman, who makes a return engagement of sorts after working at DoubleClick until 2002. According to Learmonth, Salzman will be "head of media and platforms for the Americas, a new position charged with overseeing all non-search advertising for Google's content network and its video-sharing site YouTube, as well as its display-ad platforms DoubleClick Ad Serving and DoubleClick Ad Exchange." Read more.

Brands Coming Online!

Brands are on their way... to social media! According to an article in MediaNewsDaily, Kellogg's COO John Bryant said the company is "moving aggressively into social media [and] tripling spending over the past three years and experiencing 'great returns on this investment.'" Look on the bright side, display lovers. A brand is moving online AND there's addressable display in social. Read more.

ValueClick Reports Q4; Comments On Ad Networks

Earlier this week, ValueClick reported its 4th quarter of 2009 earnings and it was in-line with analyst expectations. Revenue increased by less than 1% year-over-year to $110 million and, overall, the numbers were in line with expectations which included $35.1 million EBITDA. Net was half that. Read the release. In the transcript for the earnings call with Wall Street, CEO Tom Vadnais said: "The display affiliate marketing and technology revenues outperformed our expectations." When Needham & Company analyst Mark May suggested that ValueClick is a slow grower compared to other ad networks, Vadnais fired back with: "They talk about hundreds and hundreds of ad networks out there. I never have seen a list of them all. We’re not aware that others of our size are growing faster than us. If there are new ones on a percentage basis with a small base, they’ll grow higher on percentage, but we believe we’ve got a much broader and more diversified platform." Read the whole transcript.

Addressable TV Is Da Bomb

MediaPost's Joe Mandese takes note of new research by sales rep Comcast Spotlight and Starcom MediaVest Group which says that addressable TV tests are showing a 32% improvement over its non-addressable brethren when it comes to keeping the TV watcher's attention. Read more.

Holy Grail With LBS-Style

Loopt says in a VentureBeat article that it has cracked the code regarding how to monetize location-based services content - but it's not saying exactly how. Smelling vaporware? Loopt CEO Sam Altman suggests, “The Holy Grail of performance advertising is actually delivering someone to a store" and that it's about to release a product that will do just that. Blammo!

No Monopolies Reported

John Paczkowski reports on AllThingsD that the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal has finally passed all U.S. Department of Justice anti-competitive tests - and that goes for the European Commission, too. Evidently, both governmental organizations have discovered that Google is actually ahead in search. Read more.

Clicker Gets $11 Million

AllThingsD's Peter Kafka looks at more money pouring into the online video trough as video search engine, Clicker, has hit the jackpot with $11 million filling its coffers. The company touts itself as "the complete guide to Internet Television." Peter Kafka paraphrases Clicker's CEO, Jim Lanzone, who says, "The money will go in the start-up’s bank account for now." Here's to interest-bearing accounts.

Gannett Keeping Secrets

Gannett has successfully petitioned the SEC to keep its digital revenue targets secret says David Kaplan of PaidContent. The company believes that if it divulges its projections, it will loop its competitors in on the Gannett "secret sauce" (and the exec bonuses tied to it) which could include media technology company, PointRoll, and Ripple6, a social media monetization platform. Read about it.

Amazon The Ad Play

Matt Hulett, chairman of Mpire, ponders on the topic of Amazon and whether it could turn into a huge advertising company. Hulett writes, "I have always wondered why Amazon had not more fully invested in building a world-class advertising play. Amazon possesses all of the necessary components to build a world-class advertising platform." Read more.