Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

Ad Age just published their conversation with IAC head honcho Barry Diller, in the wake of the splitting / spinning IAC is doing with its properties (IAC is spinning off four divisions into separate publicly traded companies). Putting aside the series of softball questions and  cookie cutter answers the one real interesting part of the whole conversation revolved around Barry’s interest in AOL. Here is how the brief AOL exchange went down:

Ad Age: Are there sizes of acquisitions you’d rule out?

Mr. Diller: Never. We’d never rule anything out. … I don’t want to set the world up for surprises. We’ve tended to surprise people every year with something. So I hope there’ll be a few more, but hopefully not shock.

Ad Age: There’s still talk that Jeffrey Bewkes could break up Time Warner. Would you ever be interested in AOL?

Mr. Diller: We’ve talked over the years about our interest in AOL and never been able to get Time Warner to engage with us. I’ve always said AOL is great opportunity for somebody. When and if Warner doesn’t want it, I’ll certainly be at the door.

So why is this so interesting? Of course IAC, and any online focused company would be interested in AOL and in fact AOL’s deep list of properties combined with solid traffic and relatively efficient adverting models would fit perfectly into Mr. Diller’s future / current online plans. All IAC needs is a nice influx of cash in order to offer an amount Time Warner couldnt refuse to get AOL off their hands…oh wait isn’t that what IAC is planning? Mr. Diller has shown over the years that he loves brand names and what brand is bigger then AOL (well at least one he can afford to buy)?

Regardless of whether or not IAC buys AOL it is safe to say that someone, somewhere, will snap it up. AOL has been dragging down Time Warner for years and I am sure that sooner or later AOL will be sold off - my guess would be 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2008 at the latest.

ZenithOptimedia released a forecast Monday stating that online video and local search will drive 30% growth in online ad spending this year. ZenithOptimedia had this to say in their report: “We have revised our forecasts for Internet advertising upwards yet again, we now forecast 29.9% growth this year (up from 28.6% three months ago) and 85% growth between 2006 and 2009 (up from 82%). Online video and local search are the new, fast-growing segments, but display, classified and the rest of search are still growing rapidly as well.” The forecast goes on to point out that the share of worldwide ad spending for newspapers will decline, again

This report is only the latest I have read that predicts continuous growth in interactive ad spending. In fact I think that this report is conservative in its estimates. We are only starting to see the possibilities online video brings to advertisers with new technologies and ad opportunities popping up every month. Just think of all of the syndicated content that has yet to reach the public. User generated content has created the interest but professional shows will be the true driving force behind the innovation and growth that we will see in the future.

MySpace is on to something big, really big. Peter Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media (the News Corp. unit that owns Myspace), outlined how MySpace will take down Facebook at a Merrill Lynch’s Media & Entertainment Conference on Tuesday. How do they plan on doing this? By targeting ads to the data on a users personal pages of course! Take a few minutes to digest that…got it? Ok. After more then six months of testing, MySpace is ready launch what they call “interest targeting technology” to a broader MySpace audience. This new initiative will allow advertisers to target consumers with advertisements based on the information they put into their profiles.”What we’re talking about is very new — the ability to make [marketing] decisions based on user interests,” Levinsohn told the roomful of investors and analysts.

The algorithms powering MySpace’s new ad targeting system works by grouping users into 10 key interest group like autos, fashion, finance, sports and games. Along with the targeted groups the ad system determines ad placement by key demographic stats and previous ad interactions. This targeting reaches 3 million plus active MySpace users and during tests within the auto category it improved the likelihood that members would interact with an ad by 70%. 3 million users * 70% = $$$$.

Levinsohn views this as only the beginning for MySpace, with future enhancements enabling even more direct targeting. Levinsohn also spent some time comparing MySpace directly to Facebook, mentioning key stats like MySpace users visit 30% more often than Facebook members.

So who do you think MySpace thinks the most about?

Apollo Group, which is best know for their for-profit University of Phoenix, announced late yesterday that they would be acquiring online ad network Aptimus for close to $48 million. By acquiring Aptimus, the Apollo Group will have be able to maintain their marketing push but in a much more cost effective manner.

Aptimus, based in San Francisco, will continue to provide its services to advertisers and web publishers, their clients include Proctor & Gamble, Nokia, Dell, Vonage and many more.

Apollo Group is one of the largest advertisers online and considering the consolidation of major ad networks it shouldn’t come as to big of a surprise that advertisers would step in and scoop up what is left. Apollo did make it a point to say they will continue their existing relationships with competing ad networks

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I can and have spent hours scrolling through pages and pages of the best ads online - if you do anything with online advertising you should put this site in your favorites.