June Media Updates

PointRoll Releases AdArchitect to Streamline Rich Media Design, Development and Production

AdArchitect Leverages Leading-Edge Technologies to Reduce Turnaround Time and Enable More Robust Functionality for Rich Media Display Ads
NEW YORK, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and leading provider of rich media advertising, today launched AdArchitect, a collection of tools that helps designers and developers easily create, develop and deliver rich media ads. By streamlining the rich media ad development process, AdArchitect reduces production time by at least 30 percent.
The AdArchitect toolset leverages leading technologies that promote efficiency and enable more robust interactive display ads. The technology can be used to create an advertising unit across any of PointRoll's rich media executions, including expandable, polite, and floating formats. AdArchitect ultimately expedites the production cycle, saves time and reduces costs for advertisers and agencies.
In addition to full technical support, AdArchitect includes:
PointRoll Creative Manager, a convenient desktop application that seamlessly integrates with PointRoll's AdPortal platform and enables users to upload files, build ad units, and make demos all within their existing workflow. Creative Manager is built on the Adobe(R) AIR(R) framework and functions regardless of the installed operating system or changes in the Adobe Flash authoring environment, making it a unique and advanced tool in the rich media development space.
PointRoll Flash API, a custom API that allows users to add any PointRoll Flash feature into their rich media experience regardless of complexity. The PointRoll Flash API gives users full flexibility and design control while ensuring that all creative units have PointRoll's leading analytics tracking.
PointRoll Flash Components Library, a collection of drag-and-drop elements that allow users to easily add and customize complex features without a deep understanding of ActionScript. Users can create full-featured rich media ads, customize complex Flash elements, and easily integrate rich media features without writing code.
"AdArchitect addresses our customers' need to streamline the development process, works with all PointRoll ad formats, and allows clients to update existing features in real time," said PointRoll CEO Jason Tafler. "For brands and agencies that require a more user-friendly and comprehensive tool that reduces the time needed to produce more engaging and interactive rich media campaigns, AdArchitect is the answer."
Each of these time saving and ad-improving tools helps advertisers create highly engaging rich media display ads which provide a 550 percent lift in engagement over standard ads and more than a 60 percent increase over flash banner ads. "PointRoll's AdArchitect increases our efficiency tremendously by reducing turnaround time and makes it easier for us to meet project deadlines," said Jason Sutterfield, Interactive Technology and Production Director at The Martin Agency. "We are excited that PointRoll has taken the initiative to develop a tool that meets key needs for developers and agencies. Incorporating Adobe AIR technology makes AdArchitect more responsive than a browser tool, and by making the development process faster we can provide updates for clients in under an hour."
AdArchitect works within a user's existing workflow as the API and components are enabled inside the Flash Authoring environment and the Creative Manager resides on the user's desktop via an Adobe AIR application. The product suite is ideal for a wide range of skills levels as it includes components that minimize the need to code and a well-documented API for users with advanced ActionScript skills.
"PointRoll's AdArchitect is extremely well-designed, easy to use, and very intuitive," said Joseph Graiff, Technical Group Supervisor at CDMiConnect. "It has helped us streamline our design processes and develop creative units faster, which is a key consideration for any agency. AdArchitect enables us to conserve time and effort when launching new campaigns and updating existing creative, so that we can be as efficient as possible."


H&R Block Moves to DDB

Omnicom Group shop adds creative portion of $130 mil. business without a review
H&R Block has shifted creative duties on its ad account to DDB without a review, the Omnicom Group shop said today.Major media spending on the brand totaled $105 million last year and nearly $130 million in the first four months of 2009, according to Nielsen. Those figures do not include online spending.Interpublic Group's Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis had handled the business since 2000. In addition to traditional advertising, DDB will handle digital efforts via its Tribal DDB subsidia ry.Media duties are not shifting and remain at Omnicom's OMD.Sources said that the shift came after several months of meetings between DDB and H&R Block, whose president and CEO, Russ Smyth, knew the agency from his 21 years at McDonald's, a key global client of DDB. Smyth rose to president of McDonald's European operations before exiting in 2005."Having worked with the agency before, I know we can expect a great partnership that will help grow our business and enhance our brand," Smyth said in a statement. "DDB has a proven track record for generating strong creative that builds and maintains leadership brands."DDB North American president Dick Rogers, who worked with Smyth when he was at McDonald's and contributed to the agency's pursuit of H&R Block, said he was "thrilled" to get the opportunity to help reposition an "iconic American brand." DDB will pull creative ideas from its core U.S. offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. Account management will be led out of New York.Campbell Mithun landed the account in 2000 and successfully defended it in a 2006 review. DDB's Chicago office was among the five finalists in that contest.


AOL buys Tim Armstrong’s Patch

It’s good to be king, but who knows if it will pay off.
AOL has brought Patch Media Corporation, a local news and information platform aimed at serving local towns and communities and Going, a local platform for people to discover and share information about things to do in a number of leading cities across the country. Both Patch and Going offer local experiences, content and self-service applications for consumers and advertisers. AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong is the principal investor in Patch.
“Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today — there’s a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily,” Armstrong said in a statement. “It’s a space that’s prime for innovation and an area where AOL has a significant audience and a valuable mapping service in MapQuest. Going forward, local will be a core area of focus and investment for AOL. The acquisitions of Patch and Going will help us build out our local network further with excellent local services that enable people to stay better informed about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”
Founded in December 2007 and headquartered in New York, Patch combines localized, professional journalism with community contribution and a platform that puts all town assets online – in effect, digitizing the community. Patch, which expects to be available in a dozen communities by the end of the year, currently has “Patches” in five communities with four more in development.
Launched in September 2006 and headquartered in Boston, Going is one of the leading local communities for 20-somethings looking for things to do in cities across the country. Going is available in 30 leading U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Boston, with several more planned this year. Going also provides local promoters, event organizers and venues a fully automated, self-service RSVP, ticketing and advertising engine to maximize the attendance and value of their events.


Quibblo.com Named Best Advertising Media Web Site

Quibblo.com Named Best Advertising Media Web Site at 7th Annual American Business Awards(SM)
Pangea Media, a leader in online quizzes and quiz technology, announced today that the company's popular tween/teen quiz site, Quibblo.com, was awarded the top "Advertising Media Web Site or Blog" for 2009 at The American Business Awards (Stevie Awards) ceremony, held on June 22, 2009 in New York City.
Boston, MA June 26, 2009 -- Pangea Media (PangeaMedia.com), a leader in online quizzes and quiz technology, announced today that the company's popular tween/teen quiz site, Quibblo.com, was awarded the top "Advertising Media Web Site or Blog" for 2009 at The American Business Awards (Stevie Awards) ceremony, held on June 22, 2009 in New York City.
Quibblo.com was recognized for its ability to provide marketers with innovative advertising opportunities that enable them to target a select and engaged audience. Quibblo.com enables advertisers to weave their messages into the site's content by customizing quizzes or sponsoring quiz categories. The site has run campaigns for advertisers including Kohl's, MTV and DreamWorks, among others.
"As online advertising becomes an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, advertisers are seeking new strategies to better target individual audiences," said Seth Lieberman, CEO of Pangea Media. "This award is validation that Quibblo delivers a fresh approach to advertisers, providing them with innovative ways to reach and connect with their audiences through social media channels."
Stevie Awards were presented in over 40 categories including Best Overall Company of the Year, Executive of the Year, and Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year. More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration. More than 200 executives across the country participated in the judging process to determine the finalists and Stevie Award winners.



Tremor Media Touts New Web Video Ad Format

Forget the standard pre-roll. Ditch the overlay. Tremor Media today is set to release V-Choice, a set of new online video ad placements that the company claims will successfully marry the sight, sound and motion of TV spots with the control and interactivity that users expect on the Web.The company, which boasts a video ad network that reaches 57 million unique viewers (comScore, March), has just completed a beta test period with several top advertisers, including Procter & Gamble, Universal Pictures and Ubisoft. Now, it plans to roll out V-Choice ads to the general market.V-Choice units are now available on Tremor’s 900-plus site partners. The network has tapped Web metrics firm Quantcast to provide both demographic and user interaction data for campaigns.When encountering V-Choice ads, users are first shown a short five- to 15-second teaser video spot, either before or during content, and then have the choice to skip the ad entirely or view more content. That’s a better alternative for all parties, according to Tremor CEO Jason Glickman. “This is a whole different experience,” he said. “Publishers like it because it's a great user experience. For advertisers, it opens up a whole new world. It kind of changes the game for in-stream ads.”Among the new V-Choice offerings are “showcase” units, which enable brands to present multiple ads or products in a single campaign, allowing users to choose which ads to watch (if any) and in some cases to determine the length of commercials. For Universal Pictures’ upcoming movie Land of the Lost, Tremor has been testing an in-stream video ad on sites such as Fandango.com. The placement gives users the option to view a film “teaser," full length trailer, or to visit the movie’s Web site.Other showcase campaigns could direct interested users to sample different videos for a group of brands -- such as different car models from the same company -- or even long-form video content, such as product demos.Allowing for even more interactivity and potential creativity are V-Choice “storytelling” units, which let advertisers present campaigns in chapters, with users controlling the navigation. Tremor executives said these units should work for advertisers’ whose campaigns have extended scenarios and also support vehicles such as branded entertainment Webisodes.


Microsoft puts Razorfish up for sale

Microsoft has appointed Morgan Stanley to find a potential buyer for Razorfish, its digital agency.
Publicis, the French marketing company that says it is planning more acquisitions in online advertising, is thought to be a possible bidder.
Microsoft acquired the agency, formerly called Avenue A Razorfish, as part of its $6bn takeover of aQuantive in 2007.
One analyst valued Razorfish at $600m-$700m, based on sales of about $400m last year and profit margins for similar businesses of 12-13 per cent.
The analyst said: “Much more than that would be overpaying”, adding that even in digital marketing, valuations had fallen since last year, when Advertising Age trade magazine reported a valuation of $800m
In August, two years after the aQuantive deal, more favourable tax implications will provide an opportunity for Microsoft to sell an asset some view as a conflict of interest with Microsoft Advertising, which sells technology to rival agencies.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Razorfish, which has headquarters in Seattle, is one of the largest digital agencies, with 2,000 employees. Clients include Audi, Nike and Kraft.
Maurice Lévy, Publicis chief executive, said funds from a refinancing this month could be used for acquisitions, particularly in digital and emerging markets, which are performing better than traditional advertising in the US and Europe.
“There are some opportunities” for acquisitions, he said.
“Obviously if we can take advantage of the current situation to be ready to take these things, it’s good.”
Publicis had previously said that its issuance of €719m ($1bn) in convertible bonds was related to a refinancing due in 2012.
Mr Lévy said there was currently a “window where it looks like it is relatively easy to raise money” even if there was no “immediate need”.
He did not name potential targets and declined to comment on whether he would be interested in acquiring Razorfish.
But one analyst, who asked not to be named, said: “Publicis would be willing to look at everything. It has the best balance sheet and the most to do.” Razorfish is “the more likely name”.
Publicis and Microsoft Advertising on Friday announced a broad strategic agreement, including Publicis’s VivaKi unit using Microsoft technology to place targeted advertising on television set-top boxes.
Other agency groups, such as Omnicom and WPP, which are facing the same structural shift of marketing budgets into digital, could also be interested in Razorfish.



Google Holds 65% Search Share in Pre-Bing Rankings

Americans conducted 14.3 billion searches at the five core search engines in May 2009, with nearly two-thirds (65%) of searches performed on Google, 20% on Yahoo and 8.2% on Microsoft Sites, according to comScore qSearch data.
Though the total number of searches was down 3.8% over April 2009, Google's share of searches rose eight tenths of a percentage point, up from 64.2% in April, observes MarketingCharts. Shares for Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL declined slightly. Ask Network (3.9% of searches) was up one-tenth of a percentage point, while AOL LLC (3.1% of searches) declined two-tenths of a point.
May search data did not include figures for Microsoft's new search engine Bing, which was launched June 1. Bing figures will be included in comScore's June search analysis.
Separate comScore research from the first two weeks of Bing's launch showed that it had gained enough traction in the search market to rattle Google.
Total Core Searches
Google Sites accounted for 9.3 billion core searches in May, followed by Yahoo Sites with 2.9 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion.
The total number of searches was down across the top engines overall, with AOL experiencing a 12% drop in the number of searches, and Google experiencing a 3% drop. Ask Network had the smallest percentage decrease, down 1%.
Expanded Search Rankings
In the comScore May 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 13 billion searches. Yahoo Sites ranked second with 3 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.2 billion) and AOL LLC (721 million).
Nielsen Online also released May search data, which put the total number of searches at 9.9 billion and Google holding a 63.2% share. Nielsen's figures showed the number of searches between April and May 2009 increased, in part because Nielsen data also tracks a number of smaller players that have experienced recent growth.