Ad Spending Returns to Double Digits

Worldwide ad spending returns to double-digit growth
The global economy took a severe hit in 2009, but the online advertising market proved resistant to the effects of the recession. Unlike spending on all other major media, worldwide online advertising spending increased, growing 2% to $55.2 billion, according to eMarketer. This year will bring a return to double-digit growth, with online ad spending set to reach $61.8 billion worldwide. By 2014, eMarketer forecasts that figure will leap to $96.8 billion, growing at an 11.9% compound annual rate, despite the slow, uneven and fragile global economic recovery. To read more about eMarketer’s coverage of online advertising and the report “Worldwide Ad Spending,” click here.  eMarketer (7/22)

Google Integrates Images In Text Ads

Google debuts text ads with images
Google is deploying a new ad format on its image search results that allows marketers to include a small image alongside a typical text ad. The format, called Image Search Ads, was deployed along with a redesign of the image search results, which includes a “hover pane” that allows users to expand images by mousing over them. The Wall Street Journal/Digits blog (7/20)

Google Partners with Wind-Power Business

Why Google is getting into the wind-power business
Google, as part of its goal of becoming “carbon-neutral,” has reached a 20-year agreement to sell 114 MW of power generated by an Iowa wind farm. Google could receive Renewable Energy Certificates for selling the power, which is sufficient to provide energy to several data centers, but instead will “retire” them, according to this article. Ars Technica (7/20)

Yahoo! Bing Begin Transition Test with Paid & Organic Search

Yahoo! launches keywords test with Microsoft
Yahoo! and Microsoft have entered a “critical” new phase of their search ad partnership: a test phase to ensure that keywords from Yahoo! advertisers will work with Microsoft’s adCenter software. The outcome of the testing will figure in the partners’ ability to launch their search alliance this fall as planned, according to this article. The Wall Street Journal (7/20)

New Privacy Bill – A Mixed Bag

New take on privacy bill mixes self-regulation and FTC oversight
An online privacy measure introduced this week by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., is more in line with industry calls for self-regulation of behavioral ads than a previously introduced version from Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., according to Mike Zaneis, the IAB’s vice president of public policy. The legislation also allows for consumer lawsuits of companies that don’t participate in an industrywide opt-out mechanism for targeting, and includes FTC rule-making authority. Zaneis was not supportive of the lawsuit aspect of the measure, saying, “The private right of action is problematic. The penalties are exorbitant.” MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (7/20) , ClickZ (7/21)

Foursquare Partners with ‘New York’

‘New York’ Partners With Foursquare

by Erik Sass

New York is joining the check-in parade with this week’s announcement that it has joined forces with Foursquare, the popular location-based social-media site. The move will enable the magazine to create co-branded social-media loyalty programs for readers visiting participating businesses. Media Post’s Online Media Daily (7/22)

Paid Search Lifting Small Businesses

Paid-Search Advertising Becoming Ticket For Small Business

Small businesses in jewelry, loans, mortgages and recruitment services significantly increased spending for search engine marketing and advertising in Q2 2010. Loan companies spent 25% more sequentially in the second quarter, followed by mortgage companies at 23.9%; jobs and recruitment, 14%; and travel, 8%, according to the State of Small Business Online Advertising Q2 2010 report released this week. Media Post’s Online Media Daily (7/22)

iPhone Study

Study: iPhone Has Active, Affluent Users

Apple’s latest earnings report showed the iPhone continues to power the company’s growth, with profit up 78% from a year ago and revenue up 61% to $15.7 billion. And that’s including only two days of iPhone 4 sales before the end of Apple’s fiscal third quarter. The company has said it has sold 3 million of the devices so far despite the controversy surrounding its antenna reception problem. Media Post’s Online Media Daily (7/22)

Search Ad Market Up 24% in Q2

Search ad market was up 24% in Q2
The search ad spend, helped by the retail, travel and auto segments, in the second quarter increased 24%, compared with the same period for 2009, according to Efficient Frontier. The report also indicates that marketers paid higher cost-per-click prices at leading search engines over the same period. MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (7/13) , PaidContent.org (7/13)

Strong Growth for Google & Microsoft

Strong growth for Google, Microsoft in net U.S. ad revenues
Advertising revenues for Google and Microsoft, both of which reported strong gains in the first quarter of 2010, will continue to grow for the duration of 2010 and 2011. eMarketer estimates Google’s net U.S. advertising revenues will increase 20.8% in 2010, up from 6.1% growth in 2009. Microsoft, backed by strong performance from Bing, will increase its net U.S. ad revenues by 14.4% this year and 10.6% in 2011, up from a two-year period of negative growth in 2008 and 2009. Ad revenues at Yahoo! and AOL, meanwhile, are expected to decline again this year, at respective rates of 2.2% and 10.3%. To find out more about digital marketing and eMarketer’s coverage of media spending and the report, “U.S. Ad Spending: How Big Is the Bounceback?”  EMarketer (7/14)