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Posted
Sep 05 2008, 09:40 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Microsoft is paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to help promote its Windows operating system. The first one is out (I've included a link below), and you can decide for yourself if it was worth it. The ad has some cute moments, and it may be considered effective in that it has a lot of people talking today. Is it funny? No. Will it help sell Windows? No. Microsoft calls it an "icebreaker" to reintroduce itself to viewers.
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Posted
Sep 04 2008, 12:22 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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In a slowing economy, advertisers are falling back on the tried-and-true text ads that show up alongside search results, according to the WSJ. That's Google's strength, while Microsoft and Yahoo have pinned their hopes to flashier display ads on Web pages. Good news for Google, which owns 70% of the U.S. search advertising market. And good news for those of us who still hate display ads, despite new assurances that they're becoming more relevant and less annoying.
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Posted
Aug 21 2008, 10:22 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Microsoft has been pretty quiet while Apple waged war with its "I'm a Mac" ads. Now it's firing back by paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to star in its own ads. But is Seinfeld the right pitch man?
Microsoft would look silly if it tried to provide a young, hip counterattack to Apple's young, hip Mac guy (the actor Justin Long). But, as Silicon Alley Insider points out, being cool has never been part of Microsoft's success formula. Seinfeld appeals mainly to old fogies, says SAI. (Bill Gates is also appearing in the commercials.) Perhaps old fogies are the target audience here?
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Posted
Jun 04 2008, 11:27 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Stock market darling Baidu might be in for a little trouble. Baidu, the top search engine in China, is in hot water for providing links to pirated copies of Chinese and international songs. A Chinese copyright official called Baidu the "largest and most incorrigible purveyor of pirated music in China." Baidu shares took a small hit this week as it faces a possible advertising boycott. Recall that Baidu, sometimes thought of as the Chinese Google, set a record on Nasdaq three years ago when shares soared from $27 to $125 on its first day of trading. Baidu has continued a strong climb since then, and trades these days at about $350.
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Posted
Apr 23 2008, 12:06 PM
by
Kim Peterson
WebMD shares got hammered today after the company said it wasn't going to make as much this year as it thought. The reason? Advertisers aren't spending as much, falling back on shorter-term ad buys instead of long-term commitments. WebMD diagnosed "increased caution in the current business climate." WebMD makes itself out to be the victim of spiraling trends in the advertising industry, but analysts aren't so sure. WebMD's advertisers are drugmakers and other healthcare companies generally thought to be safe plays even in this economy. Yes, we've seen some disappointing earnings news recently from Eli Lilly and Pfizer, but other companies like Novartis are doing well.
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Posted
Apr 18 2008, 01:12 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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Google shares soared today after its first-quarter earnings report, and the company has comScore to thank for much of its good fortunes. That's because many analysts had lowered their revenue and profit estimates for the quarter after comScore's tracking data suggested paid-click growth was trending flat to down. The result? Google had the luxury of reporting earnings against diminished expectations. And it blew those expectations away. First quarter profit was $4.84 per share, way ahead of Wall Street's forecast of $4.53. Net revenue was $3.7 billion, ahead of the $3.61 billion analysts had forecast. How nice to have someone lower the bar so much that Google could just hop right over it and see its shares rise by 20%.
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Posted
Mar 04 2008, 12:24 PM
by
Kim Peterson
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The Google freefall hit a notable mark today: its shares are trading lower than where they ended 2006. Shares slid as low as $435.78, but closed today at $444.60. That's down by a third since November; the company's market cap has dropped during that time to $140 billion from $232 billion.
Give Intel some of the blame. The chipmaker lowered its Q1 profit margin forecast, and when Intel does that it drags the whole tech sector down. There was also news today that one of Google's top sales execs is jumping ship for social-networking darling Facebook.
But bigger issues are felling Google -- concerns about slowing revenue and profit growth, and about the economy affecting Google's paid click business. A report out last week by research firm ComScore showed a 7% drop in the number of times people clicked on Google's advertising links in January. The number of paid clicks per Google search query fell by 8%.
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Posted
Sep 19 2007, 09:49 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Someday soon, we'll long for the days when Google ads behaved themselves. When they used to sit calmly on the side of search results, quietly hawking cheap airfares or brand name watches.
Today Google said it's testing advertising widgets, officially known as Gadget Ads. These ads can be animations, videos and even mini Web sites, and are designed to interact with Web users. Advertisers can measure exactly how much video was watched or how long a game was played.
You can see examples of the ads here. Be warned: the Sierra Mist one is so painful your eyes will need hours to recover
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Posted
Sep 17 2007, 01:16 PM
by
Kim Peterson
I'm a little mystified by AOL's reasoning behind moving its corporate HQ to New York City from Dulles, Va. (See release). AOL says it's to be at the "center of advertising." Is that really necessary?
You obviously don't need to be headquartered in New York to sell advertising online. Valleywag says New York is closer to CEO Randy Falco's home in White Plains. If that's the case, a round of applause for Falco for getting an entire company to move just to shorten your commute
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