US headquartered Pluck, a social media platform provider, will announce today that it will provide the Sun-Times Media Group with social media and networking tools, across the newspaper groups suite of Web sites.

The Sun-Times group is in good hands with Pluck, as the company is headed by Richard Rosenblatt, the individual who was responsible for selling MySpace to NewsCorp. Nonetheless, through the Pluck relationship, Sun-Times online readers will be able to take part in discussion forums, comment on blogs, and share content, along with a plethora of other community tools

“By adding new capabilities to our site, such as reader comments, photos and blogs, we are significantly expanding interactivity with our readers,” said Catherine Lanucha, director of content for the Sun-Times News Group.

Other publishers using the Pluck platform in some fashion are Belo, Cox Newspapers, Hearst, Gannett, and the obvious NewsCorp, and this is just a sampling of their very impressive client list.

written by Beverly Crandon

Audi, notably the first OEM to do so, has come up with a media campaign surrounding an iPhone application, representing their 2009 A4 model.

The application comes in the form of a game called the “Audi A4 Challenge” and by installing the application, iPhone users can drive the 2009 model, which doesn’t go on sale until September 2008. The application is a free download and if you don’t have an iPhone, you can play the Web version of the game here.

Jeri Ward, Audi’s general manager of marketing and strategy says, “I think our customers and potential customers are smart, tech savvy, and tend to use devices like iPhone”. Ward also says that the 2009 A4 campaign will be heavily digital media based.

What really makes this story interesting is the fact that we are seeing yet another traditional print advertiser engage in new media in a completely new way. Although Audi is the first to take advantage of the iPhone as a mind-share builder, it is guessed that other OEM’s won’t be too far behind, especially if Audi does not have an exclusivity deal.

written by Beverly Crandon

Gannett is taking its relationship with video company Mogulus one-step further and has decided to partially finance the start-up. Mogulus has received 2.7 million in financing to date and now Gannett’s 10 million dollar investment will give the start-up the flexibility it needs, to compete in the ever crowded world of video vendors.

Mogulus and Gannett have already had a relationship spanning the past three months, but Gannett’s announcement of funding for the start up further ferments the relationship and in my mind could very well lead to an acquisition. It is important to note that up until this point, Gannett has termed the relationship as one formed out of a product need only, but I strongly question the truth of that. “Now, with Mogulus, all our journalists–including print and Web reporters–can deliver live, multi-camera broadcasts of news events to our customers,” said Craig A. Dubow, chairman, president and CEO of Gannett, in a statement.

Mogulus provides a browser-based Studio application to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand internet television to broadcast anywhere on the web, through a single player widget. Their service comes in two types Free (ad-supported) and Pro (white-label, no-ads, pay for usage). To date Mogulus has gained 100,000 users and more than 3,000,000 unique viewers.

written by Beverly Crandon

LinkedIn and the New York Times have just announced a content partnership that will provide LinkedIn users with targeted news and advertising. This announcement follows a list of new media ventures that the Times has started to dabble in and the LinkedIn relationship couldn’t have come at a better time for the media giant, given the release of its second quarter results.

Moving forward, LinkedIn members reading an article in either the business or technology section of NYTimes.com will see a box featuring five stories selected for them, based on their LinkedIn profile. The online ads the user sees will also be targeted to their profile. Kay Luo, spokesperson for LinkedIn, said, “We felt that The New York Times is obviously a great brand and useful in delivering news to our people.”

written by Beverly Crandon

Newspaper Web sites have been labeled the equalizer to combat falling circulation rates, but a recent report from the Readership Institute made it clear that in the grand scheme of things, newspaper sites and their penetration have not increased in some very important metric areas, since 2005.

Readership.org, supported by personnel from North Western Education, completed a survey of 3,072 individuals across 100 DMA’s (Designated Market Areas). The survey respondents were asked questions primarily relating to newspaper Web sites and their frequency of usage. The respondents ranged between heavy print newspaper readers, mild print newspaper readers, all the way through to those who have “never read a newspaper”.

When asked about their newspaper Web site visitation, only 21% of respondents said they had visited their local newspaper site, within the past 30 days, this opposed to 15% in 2003, when the Readership Institute first started to conduct this survey annually. The bad news for newspapers however, is that although the numbers of people gravitating to their Web sites have increased, the user engagement levels have not. They have remained the same since 2005. This metric is somewhat disappointing, given the changes to user expectations and general online functionality, even within the past two years much less three. It becomes apparent that for many local newspapers, knowing that they at least have a Web compliment is enough. The success of many pure play sites that dabble in the same type of advertising that the dailies do, should be proof enough that the readership profile, when online, has changed and will continue to change. It is not enough to remain content with just ensuring your print content appears online.

As we’ve stated before on this blog, publishers need to look at their Web property as an extension to their brand. An opportunity to attract a new audience and with that, new advertising dollars.

A full copy of the Readership Institute report could be downloaded here.

written by Beverly Crandon

AOL’s ADTECH has been selected by Gannett to be the publishers online ad serving provider. The contract deal includes the managing of all advertising on Gannett’s local newspaper sites, their broadcast sites, USAToday.com, along with the plethora of niche sites owned by Gannett.

“We selected ADTECH because their top tier technology will allow us to seamlessly execute and deliver for advertisers at both a local and national level,” said Chris Saridakis, Gannett senior vice president and chief digital officer.  “With the ADTECH platform, advertisers of all sizes will be able to easily reach our affluent, active online audience, whether it’s through broad national campaigns, audience segmentation, or locally targeted campaigns.  Gannett can now enable national and local advertisers to engage with any audience segment they could ever hope to reach.”

According to ADTECH, the deal has been in the works for the past 15 months and is expected to reach its full roll out in February, when USAToday.com is added to the list of sites being managed by ADTECH.

Gannetts properties will be serviced using Helios IQ, an ADTECH ad server platform.

ADTECH has already been established as a strong contender in Europe and they are hoping that this newly announced Gannett relationship will aid them in breaking ground in North America.

written by Beverly Crandon

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada released its annual online advertising report and the numbers  show that 2007 was a banner year.

Online advertising revenues in Canada grew by 38% in 2007, to reach 1.2 billion and according to the IAB, this means that online ad revenues in Canada have more than quadrupled in only five years.  Of the growth in Canada, Paula Gignac (President of IAB Canada) said “The sky’s really the limit for Online, as new developments in targeting technology, creative (it’s great to have our first Video advertising revenue number), and integrated strategies are happening on an almost daily basis — all with the goal of helping marketers capitalize on online’s ever-growing and engaged audience. Online advertising is no longer below the line in any way — it’s now an essential component of any marketing mix.”

According to the IAB, the 2007 online ad revenue breakdown was as follows:

• Display - $432 M
• Video - $9 M
• Search - $478 M
• Classifieds/Directories - $305 M
• Email - $17 M

From a geographical perspective, approximately $260 million (21%) of the $1.2 billion, came from French Canadian Online properties.

The IAB breakdown of 2007 online ad revenues, by advertiser category was as follows:

• Automotive - 16%;
• Media + Entertainment (Music, Film, TV) - 8%;
• Financial - 11%;
• Leisure (Travel, Hotel, Hospitality) - 7%;
• Packaged Goods - 6%;
• Retail - 9%;
• Technology - 10%;
• Telecommunications - 7%; and,
• Other - 26%

You can download a summary of the report here: IAB Canada 2007 Online Ad Revenues

written by Beverly Crandon

The AARP and the Centre for the Digital Future just released findings from their Digital Future Project report. In summary, the results indicate that 76% of Americans over the age of 50 say the Internet is now the most important source of information for them. The same group has also increased their participation factor in online communities and online gaming environments. Amongst other key findings, the report indicated that of the 50+ online community, 42% of them read the news online on a daily basis and 58% of them log on to their online Internet communities, daily.

All of these statistics are key to publishers because for the longest time, the myth existed that a publishers ‘over 50′ audience contained their interaction to off line media only. The Digital Future Project findings, however, disputes that conception.

written by Beverly Crandon

The Yahoo! HotJobs group announced this week that they have expanded their Smart Ads product. With the product re-vamp, employers and agencies will now be able to transform job listings into display ads, using the intuitive self service application.  All display ads made under the Smart Ad product, will then be presented to job seekers using behavioral targeting methodologies, based on Yahoo’s deep database tracking knowledge (R.E.A.L).

“For employers to remain cost effective and competitive in the evolving recruitment marketplace, they need solutions that leverage technology to efficiently connect them with the most relevant candidates,” said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. “Like the groundbreaking R.E.A.L. search algorithm launched in February, the solutions unveiled today are more examples of Yahoo! innovation and research applied to the recruitment industry.”

In addition to the Smart Ad product expansion, Yahoo! HotJobs also released something they are calling ‘Company Profiles’. This product allows an employer to communicate and clearly represent their brand on the Yahoo network, through usage of a dedicated page that spells out the company’s culture and job openings. An integrated video module is also at an employer’s disposal.

The Yahoo! network now garners 140 million unique visitors per month.

written by Beverly Crandon

Needing more qualitative data on what consumers are looking for online? Well MyBuys has released the results of their e-tailing survey, which queried 1,345 consumers about online shopping preferences and their propensity to buy. Many of the questions surrounded behavioural targeting and suggestive selling and the results, no doubt, were very interesting:

• 77% of consumers report that they have made additional purchases when they have encountered personalized product recommendations online.
• 75% of consumers are willing to provide some meaningful amount of personal information in exchange for a more personalized, relevant shopping experience.
• Personalization is only an upcoming initiative for 41% of merchants.
• More than a third of merchants say they simply lack the resources to make personalization a higher priority.

The last point above is further highlighted when profiling local merchants who do a notable amount of advertising online. Local merchants often times do not have the bandwidth or financial capital to appropriately roll out behavioural ads or suggestive selling, through recommendations formed from a consumers online shopping habits. However, media publishers have both the capital and the wherewithal to consult industry leaders and apply tried and tested applications that they can in turn broker to local merchants.

Considering some element of behavioural advertising on an ad publishing network not only provides another revenue stream, but it also enables a publisher to further connect buyers and sellers in a pointed way.

Publishers should take a page out of the rule books of many of the online shopping sites out there – ebags.com, amazon.com, apple.com and their iTunes store, all do a great job at recommending items “you may like” based on what you have recently browsed or purchased.

written by Beverly Crandon