As Podcast Ad Biz Sees Static, One Firm Shifts Focus

When it comes to placing ads in video and audio podcasts, how dynamic does the serving need to be? And do marketers care about the exact number of impressions they bought, or is "number of downloads" an adequate metric? A recent move by podcast ad management firm Podbridge suggests the answers to those questions may be "not very" and "downloads will do."

Through a new partnership with Limelight Networks and an ad distribution relationship with MSNBC, Podbridge has reduced its dependence on a dynamic ad insertion and measurement method it pioneered. In doing so, the company may be signaling a belief that marketers don't require the ad management standards from downloadable media that they do from other interactive channels.

Podbridge distinguished itself early on in the area of ad management for downloadable media by going beyond measuring only the download rate for podcasts. It also offered, via a plug-in, knowledge of exactly which podcasts and ads had been heard and which had languished in a user's iTunes library. Perhaps most importantly, Podbridge also supported dynamic insertion, so if someone hits play on a podcast three weeks or three months after downloading it, the ads remain current.

Now, Podbridge is partnering with Limelight to access its content delivery infrastructure and serve online ad campaigns without requiring a server-side installation from publishers or a client-side one from end users. For publishers who choose to go this route, the Podbridge plug-in will not be used, with the result that ads will be neither measurable by impression nor served on the fly.

"Advertisers are willing to pay just for downloads," said Podbridge CEO Murgesh Navar. "For certain types of content, measurement of downloads equals measurement of views."

For instance, when a consumer doesn't watch a podcast they've subscribed to, iTunes eventually stops downloading new episodes. "Downloads becomes a close proxy to views," Navar said. "We do not need the ability to change the advertisement because the content expires as well."

Additionally, he noted it may be superfluous to offer dynamic ad insertion for news programming such as that offered by MSNBC, since "there's hardly any chance someone's going to watch it three months or six months from now." MSNBC offers video and audio downloads of shows like "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Meet the Press," and "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

Indeed, NPR and other current events driven podcasters have had success selling sponsorships and ads based on download metrics and hard-coded corporate underwriting announcements.

Podbridge still plans to offer publishers and advertisers a sample-based measurement of actual ad views by tracking subscribers who have already installed its plug-in. It will also continue to provide its plug-in and server-side solution for publishers that want it.

"Podcasting started out being a long-tail behavior," said Navar. "What you're beginning to see here is that this medium is now being embraced by brand name publishers. It's something marketers are extremely comfortable with."

MSNBC will sell its own ads for insertion using Podbridge's system. Podbridge also offers a podcast ad network with partners such as BBC and Clear Channel radio.

Video Game Sector Boosts Online Ad Spending

Mention video games in a conversation about interactive marketing, and in-game advertising immediately comes to mind. Yet video game publishers are online advertisers in their own right. And while interactive ad spending from this sector was for several years less than what one might have expected from an industry focused on the young and hyper-digitized, its investment in online ads has increased of late.

"Our budget's growth year-on-year has been in the double digits," said Ubisoft Senior Manager of Digital Marketing Paul Caparotta. "Our spends are rivaling print, we're seeing tremendous growth."

Spending on display advertising for Ubisoft increased from $1.6 million in 2004 to $2.6 million in 2005 and $3.2 million last year, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence. In the same time, the publisher's TV buy dwindled from $16.1 million in 2004 to $13.8 million in 2006. Ubisoft did not release figures on actual spending.

The budget shift has been echoed by other publishers. Electronic Arts' online display ad spend topped $5 million last year, according to TNS. TNS tracked video game publisher Capcom's online spend for 2006 at nearly half a million dollars, up from $388,000 in 2004. The TNS data do not include rich media, video or other non-display formats.

"It is a huge priority for EA, and has been a growing priority over the last five years," said Carolyn Feinstein, VP of consumer marketing at Electronic Arts. "We spend close to 20 percent of our media online."

Rich media and video units are common online media placements for many publishers, but building a brand identity often includes microsites, viral marketing, search, and the creation of entire communities. Budget allotments to fuel these campaigns for many companies have come directly from other media.

Each campaign is dynamic, and game publishers see themselves as progressive when it comes to execution. "One of the things I think is great about video game marketing and video gamers in general [is they're] open to ground-breaking media applications," said Ubisoft's Caparotta.

Gaming industry Web sites often serve as the foundation of video game industry ad campaigns, though certain game releases are aimed at a broader audience and include media buys on non-gamer sites.

"It's a balance," said Caparotta. "With the next generation of hardware… we are finding more video games are becoming pervasive, usage is growing, and mainstream sites are becoming more of a target for us."

Microsites are often a focal point of these campaigns, as was the case with a promotion for EA'sMadden Franchise last year. "Advertising took you to that site, and it was a place you wanted to go back to every day. We try to employ that tactic a fair amount," said Feinstein.

Community also plays a key role. Capcom launched a CAPCOMunity channel in the past year to provide a pipeline of early and exclusive information to its fanbase. Visitors get exclusive peeks at new titles and can read blogs authored by Capcom staff. "A lot of our activities are now linking back to CAPCOMunity," said Jack Symon, director of brand marketing at Capcom.

Capcom built its community in addition to individual Web sites for each brand, which the company calls brand worlds. These follow an entire franchise, including various games, licensed goods such as action figures, and TV and movie titles associated with each game series.

For the release of "Rayman: Raving Rabbids," Ubisoft created a hub on MySpace where it put up videos of the game's characters, and accepted user generated content. Work on the campaign was done by AKQA, and Ubisoft said it "fulfilled all the ROI benchmarks we established," Caparotta said.

Online advertising provides a deeper level of communication not easily achieved on other channels. "We use online advertising to tell a high-impact message," said Feinstein. "The online space keeps directing them to deeper and deeper interaction."

Is There a Market for Dynamic Ad Placements in Downloadable Media?

ClickZ published a story today on a move by Podbridge, a podcast ad management and ad network firm, to expand its offerings beyond a dynamic ad insertion and measurement method it pioneered for downloadable media. By allowing hard-coded ad placements and the measurement of mere downloads (as opposed to actual ad views), the firm seemed to suggest there's a stronger market -- or at least an unignorable one -- for static ad placements versus dynamic ones.

After the article ran, Podbridge CEO Murgesh Navar reached out to me to affirm his belief in the ongoing potential for dynamic ad swapping in downloadable media. Here's what he wrote:

Now that the monetization of the medium is being proven by the front running news/info content it is time for the evergreen content to come into podcasting. But evergreen content has the requirement to swap ads "after" download. The requirement here is "dynamic at play" and measurement of play. Our iTunes plug-in solution addresses this as a complement to our [Limelight Networks] integrated ad serving.

Mobile Advertisers Embrace the iPhone

Are declarations about the iPhone changing mobile an overstatement? Perhaps. But Omar Hamoui, CEO and founder of mobile ad network AdMob, said the iPhone is definitely opening some exciting doors.

"What's important for mobile advertising is, obviously, to have the eyeballs or user base to consume the advertising," said Hamoui. "The original assumption behind the iPhone was you can browse the entire Web on your iPhone. What a logical person would think, therefore, was that the iPhone was going to have the same advertising you see on the Web. So why would a company design special ads for the iPhone? There is no need."

But Hamoui, whose company just released a special ad unit designed for the iPhone, said the assumption was wrong.

Just because iPhones have browsers capable of rendering the "real" Internet and not just WAP sites doesn't mean there's no need for ad units specially designed for iPhones. "We run a mobile ad network," he said. "We started to see a significant amount of iPhone traffic on those formatted-for-mobile sites," said Hamoui. "On top of that, we started to see a whole bunch of applications for iPhone, Web apps, being created."

He noted Facebook and Netvibes just announced iPhone-enhanced interfaces.

Additionally, companies began asking AdMob about creating ads specially-designed to take advantage of iPhone's unique features. "There are a whole host of consumer sites coming out with iPhone- friendly spaces, plus we were getting requests to our sales force asking, 'How can we engage with iPhone users?'"

Apple's new gadget isn't cheap, so companies can safely assume iPhone owners have money and are willing to spend it. That makes them a demographic worth targeting. "We saw supply from publishers and demand from advertisers," noted Hamoui.

AdMob's new iPhone ad unit allows interactivity that can't be created on other mobile devices. "It's a much more interesting and enriched type of mobile advertising than we could do before," said Hamoui. "Because the iPhone has Javascript, the iPhone ad units are capable of doing sophisticated stuff."

For example, AdMob's new iPhone ad unit for Starbucks includes a Starbucks ad that, when clicked, slides down allowing the user to enter a Zip Code. Doing that opens the iPhone's Google Maps application which directs the owner to the nearest Starbucks.

The key to making iPhone-enhanced mobile ads is to allow them to leverage the Safari browser's functionality without using too much bandwidth, said Hamoui. The AT&T EDGE network being used by iPhones isn't the fastest. "What we're really doing is basically taking advantage of a full-featured browser and just making the interface iPhone-sized, making it lightweight," he said.

Clearly, AdMob is not alone in hopping on the iPhone bandwagon.

Ingenio, which operates a pay-per-call ad network, recently released an application for the iPhone called TouchCall. Company CMO Marc Barach said TouchCall simplifies phone number searching for iPhone owners. "Simply tap on a button that says 'florist' and connect to a florist in a given market," he said, noting the searches are also monetized by Ingenio audio ads.

Then there's HarperCollins, which just announced it is making digital book content available for the iPhone platform in a program called Browse Inside. The company said it will initially offer iPhone-enhanced samples -- the first 10 pages of chapters one and two -- from 14 new books. The books can be purchased or pre-ordered right from the iPhone.

"The Browse Inside feature for the iPhone is part of the ongoing effort to advance technology, and allows mobile consumers to tap into the power and convenience of online book discovery," said HarperCollins in a statement. "We are excited to be a part of it."

Double Fusion Adds Web Properties to In-Game Network

Video game-centric search engine Wazap enlisted Double Fusion to sell and place advertising on the U.S. version of the site. Inventory on Wazap allows Double Fusion to extend advertiser reach through integrated packages, the companies said.

"Our focus is on delivering the largest gaming audience possible to advertisers, and allowing advertisers to have multiple touch points to gamers, including in-game, around-game, and select Web opportunities," Double Fusion President and CEO Jonathan Epstein told ClickZ News.

Double Fusion's sales force may leverage Wazap to offer sweepstakes and promotions that don't necessarily work well in-game. "A number of our advertisers say they love in-game, but want to collect names," said Epstein. "By providing a platform such as Wazap, we can provide deeper programs, sell better ad buys."

Similar to other in-game ad networks, Double Fusion typically sells to consumer brands, an advertiser group Wazap is eager to court. "Double Fusion has the best footprint for talking to consumer product companies who want to reach gamers directly, not just in the game," said Thom Kozik, president of Wazap U.S. Kozik said Wazap provides a venue for richer interaction not possible for ads running in games.

In-game advertising placement is Double Fusion's focus, though it handles Web-based advertising for a handful of sites, including in-game and Web ads for ijji.com's "Rounders Poker." Advertisers get one unified report. In addition to custom deals like promotions and sweepstakes, ad units include standard IAB formats such as leaderboards and skyscraper units, as well as rich media plcaements. Larger ad opportunities are possible.

"We are looking for opportunities to do roadblocks, where we can do sponsorships of sections or genres on the site for a particular advertiser," said Kozik.

Wazap, a vertical search engine for video gamers, launched in Japan and Germany in 2003 and in the U.S. earlier this year. Double Fusion has an existing international presence, and eventually could expand its representation of Wazap to include its international sites

Microsoft Driving Game Promotes Live Search Maps Service

When you're driving down the Strip in Las Vegas and you get crunched between a Mad Momma in her green station wagon and a Golden Oldie who laments he "doesn't have any insurance," then adds "there's nothing like the feel of some new support socks and the open road," don't worry. It's all part of Microsoft's latest effort to introduce users to its Live Search Maps Web site.

Microsoft, with its agency EVB, has created Live Derby 2007 as a "Pac-Man" style game where players can drive their car along city streets and pick up points while avoiding other drivers like Mad Momma, Golden Oldie and others. What makes the game different from other maze style games is that the mazes use actual Microsoft Live Search Maps of San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Las Vegas and London, complete with satellite imagery. The "power-boost" locations players can drive through to charge up their cars are actual locations in those cities, and players can click on those destinations to access the real listings using the Live Search Maps interface.

"You have these maps and it's only so exciting, but you add an element of a chase or a maze to it makes it more interesting," said Nick Mitrousis, an associate technical director for EVB who worked on the game. "You're playing with real world data. The links are right out to Live Search."

Microsoft has often sought to get its brand name noticed through more traditional banner and text ads; the company decided to create a game using Live Search Maps to reach out to users in a new way.

"We actually didn't want consumers to think about it as just another marketing initiative being pushed at them, we wanted to give them a great game experience and share it among their community," said Kevin Hagwell, senior product manager for Live Search Maps for Microsoft. "We wanted to show the real information because that's the value of the product."

The challenge of getting people interested in mapping technology led digital agency EVB to consider how to "integrate all the features of the maps but do it in a way that is really fun," said Daniel Stein, CEO of EVB. "It's easy to do advertising that talks about the features of a program like Live Maps, but the truth is with a virtual product like that you really need to show it and draw people in to involve them."

Microsoft Seals aQuantive Deal, Creates New Ad Solutions Group

Microsoft has completed its acquisition of aQuantive and created a new Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group to focus on its ad platforms and the advertiser and publisher community.

The new division will have responsibility for nearly all of Microsoft's ad platforms and services, including Atlas, DRIVEpm, MSNDR, Microsoft AdCenter and aQuantive's agency arm, Avenue A / Razorfish. The new group will also have control of an Emerging Media Group which includes in-game advertising firmMassive and mobile ad firm ScreenTonic.

The APS group will be run by Brian McAndrews, CEO of aQuantive, who will report directly to Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division (PSD). Also reporting to Johnson is Steve Berkowitz from the Online Services Group, which includes the MSN.com portal, Windows Live services and Live Search, and Satya Nadella from the Search & Advertising Platform Group.

AQuantive co-founder Mike Galgon has been named chief advertising strategist and will report to McAndrews. As part of the Emerging Media Group, the Massive and ScreenTonic divisions will report to Cory Van Arsdale, who in turn will report to Karl Siebrecht, president of Atlas.

Additionally, MSN stalwart Yusuf Mehdi has been named to the newly formed post of senior vice president, Strategic Partnerships in the Platforms & Services Division.

The company also stated that following the completion of its acquisition of AdECN, CEO Bill Urschel and his staff will report to Alex Gounares, corporate vice president, adCenter and Commerce, under Satya Nadella’s Search & Advertising Platform group.

Both aQuantive's and AdECN's employees are expected to maintain their current offices in Seattle and Santa Barbara respectively.

One holdout in the consolidation of advertiser-facing services and technologies in the APS group is Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions sales force, which will continue to report to Berkowitz in the Online Services Group.