From the category archives:

Advertising

ValueClick On The Fritz

by Jason Wilk on December 1, 2008

ValueClick, the holding company that controls major advertising/shopping properties Mediaplex, Comission Junction and PriceRunner, is on the fritz. Big time.
Display advertising is one of the ValueClick’s biggest revenue drivers, which at the moment is the least economical ways for advertisers to spend their money due to low CTR, high bounce rates and often immeasurable demographic metrics.
All of Internet advertising is taking a hit though. Google saw a major drop in their stock when they pulled back their earnings forecasts this week, while ValueClick has seen their stock drop to $5.42 from a high of $29.97 this year. Ouch.
This isn’t all ValueClick is worried about. The Google Affiliate Network is quickly becoming the largest CPA advertising network in the world over Commission Junction, a profitable asset for ValueClick. Google is already gaining speed and as soon as they integrate analytics for publishers, it will be over for ValueClick affiliate marketing.
Lastly, their PriceRunner comparison shopping search still has momentum in Europe, but back home they are a second thought, even more so now with people’s wallets closing shut from the financial crisis.
Their market cap is down 60% this year to $474M. Watch out for even further falling prices. We called this drop off in October, since then their stock price has fell significantly.
In related news, Sam Paisley, their former head of M&A has already left for SpotRunner.

Is it possible ValueClick will be the first major tech stock to bite the dust?

A tiny exclusive

by Jason Wilk on November 26, 2008

iPhone users in the UK are up in arms over the iPhone 3G commercials that claim it is “really fast”, showing the phone load internet pages in under a second.
As we all know here, the 3G has not lived up to its name, but no one has taken it to the streets. In the UK, The Advertising Standards Authority says that in a test, the 3G iPhone commercial is misleading and that the 3G is not absolutely faster than the 2G predecessor
After respecting viewers’ complaints, the ASA said the ad must never appear again in the same misleading fashion.
Apple is saying the ASA should let it slide since within the commercial is an asterik which says ‘Network performance varies by location’. This time you’re wrong Apple. Speed that phone up along with your stock price.

by Jason Wilk on November 25, 2008

Market share results in the search game came in yesterday.
Google’s growth rate slowed in October to 29.9 percent, while Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s came off the flat line.
Yahoo’ s U.S. search volume grew 7.7 percent (up 0.6) and Microsoft’s grew 4.2 percent (up 1.2).
Together they still only account for 29 percent of U.S. search market share, but what if Microsoft’s secret Kumo project were to be the project that would result out of a Yahoo acquisition).
Keep LiveSearch as a CashBack incentive search program and continue to increase lead generation money for shopping and travel destinations. Let Yahoo operate it’s search homepage and powerful content properties. Launch Kumo as a Google search competitor, sell ads across all three destinations, increase market share with another brand and slowly creep up on Google. Launch Kumo with LiveOffice products, better mail, and many Yahoo BOSS API elements. I’m not saying this will 100% work, I’m saying if I were doing business development for Microsoft, I would be pushing hard for this to happen.

by John Jorgensen on November 25, 2008

adbrite

AdBrite CEO Iggy Fanlo predicts that within 6 months, half of their ad inventory will be sold on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis instead of cost-per-impression (CPM).
AdBrite serves 25 BILLION ad impressions per month across 85,000 sites. Average CPM is between 50 cents and $2.
This isn’t surprising. CPM ads have been generally looked upon to serve a brand awareness function, creating an ROI that is near impossible to track. Direct-response CPC is much more straightforward.
AdBrite laid off 40% of their staff in October.

by Jason Wilk on November 21, 2008

Looks like advertising in the tech world is getting a shake down.
Federated Media, which sells ads across many top tier blogs and websites is showing a 35% cut in TechCrunch CPM rates and Om Malik just announced he is jumping ship from FM to go with the IDG Group.
TehCrunch CPM rates now @ $23.40 down from $36.70 in the last few weeks.