1020 Placecast announced a deal today that will marry its location-based ad delivery engine to Alcatel-Lucent’s “geo-fencing” technology.
As we’ve written, Placecast delivers ads based on location and a number of other “vectors” that are closely tied to that location (time of day, upcoming holidays, nearby events, etc.). These things can be good proxies for user …

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “Marketing Tools Stretch Ad Dollars,” exemplifies our thinking about the evolution of the ad market. The article details how Chrysler Corp. uses fresh data on the performance of its TV commercials to tweak them to be more effective. Ad performance is measured by traffic and activity on …

Broadband is at the top of the agenda for the Obama administration and the FCC, with digital TV a close No. 2, according to influential Washington lawyer Dick Wiley, who was speaking at BIA’s Winning Media Strategies.
Broadband is going to be “the big one,” with a special focus on underserved, vulnerable parts of the population, …

New digital technologies using ATSC-DTV standards are redefining the TV experience and enabling new business models, said Glenn Reitmeier, VP of tech standards and policy for NBC Universal, who was speaking at BIA’s Winning Media Strategies conference in Washington, D.C. “We are at a really exciting phase” akin to General Sarnoff’s use of radio receivers …

The use of online video, social networking and mobile services has “exploded” in the past year, and Internet radio is a big contender to join this group in 2009, according to Arbitron Executive VP of Sales Pierre Bouvard, who was speaking at BIA’s Winning Media Strategies conference in Washington, D.C.
“Online video popped like the Internet …

Today the Winning Media Strategies conference kicked off in Washington, D.C. One of the fruits of the BIA/Kelsey marriage, it’s bringing the Kelsey conference format to BIA’s longstanding audience and constituent base in local broadcast media.
One thing that stood out as a theme throughout today’s sessions was the mobile opportunity. It was mostly discussed in …

The Canadian start-up MyVirtualPaper.com has finalized a deal with the Mexican directory publisher Seccion Amarilla to create SEO-ready Web pages using a small-business advertiser’s existing business papers (think menus, fliers, brochures and catalogs). One of the MVP product’s key selling points is that it takes much of the complexity out of the interaction with the …

I’ve spent some time over the past few weeks talking to Glympse, a company that is today launching its flagship mobile local product. Or perhaps I should call it a mobile location tool. The app — available initially for G1 (Android) phones — notifies friends and family of a user’s location.
Other features track the user’s …

The recent battle between Burger King and its franchisees on the reallocation of local media dollars to its national brand advertising indicates a wider battle between franchisees and their corporate owners.
MediaPost writer Dave Morgan points out:
“We’re in a severe recession. Everyone is being asked to do more with less, and it’s natural to expect business …

Here’s some irony: By going national, AmericanTowns has become more local. The company, founded in 1999 by former Time Warner exec Mike Kelly (who later went back and became president of AOL Media Networks) was one of the original hyperlocal sites.
Kelly’s idea was to build out a template, serve affluent suburban communities, and have local …

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
Google Mobile Product Search Integrates Bar Code Scanner
A few weeks ago, Google announced it will optimize its online shopping search service for iPhones and Android. We liked this move but argued it only gets …

A few weeks ago, Google announced it will optimize its online shopping search service for iPhones and Android. We liked this move but argued it only gets you halfway there: The feature set could really be unleashed with the capability to scan bar codes and search local inventory feeds.
Today, we were granted part of that …

NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller says that “radio and NPR [are] doing very well, but we have to think now about becoming our own disruptors before we take the path of newspaper companies.” Speaking on a Fast Search Webinar, the former GM for NYTimes.com opined that “digital media is more compatible with radio than …

The U.K. directory publisher Yell unveiled its SEM offering today, which features an alliance with Google to become an AdWords reseller. The service offering will include the creation of SEO-friendly landing pages as well as Google AdWords.
From the press release:
Yell has launched a new service for SMEs — the Search Marketing Service — that will complement our …

Outside.in, the three-year-old placeblogger/hyperlocal company, is in the enviable position of being able to focus on building its blogger platform and network. Its lead investors, including Union Square Ventures and Esther Dyson, have given it an especially long leash, convinced (like Twitter and others) that revenues await high-volume sites down the road. And the company …

I recently spent some time talking with Cirius Technologies, whose AdLocal platform targets mobile ads based on users’ location. BizDev Manager Tomi Brooks claims the company is seeing 2X clickthrough rates on mobile ads that are location targeted versus those that aren’t.
The self-service CPC-based mobile ad platform has an intuitive interface that has similarities to …

TechCrunch today reveals some screen shots it received for the upcoming version of Loopt, which indicate a greater focus on places.
Loopt is an application we’ve written about a bunch and was one of the first apps to operate at the three-way intersection of local, mobile and social. This will be an important combo for mobile …

The New York Times may be on shaky ground  financially, but its R&D unit shows off some fascinating prototypes of what news and advertising will look like in a two-part video-and-talk with Zachary Seward from Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab.
Most of the efforts are geared on a seamless transition from a number of “well-enabled gadgets,” including …

Google’s done pretty well with text ads based on keyword search. But do content page keywords really unleash the potential for Weather.com beyond “cumulus clouds,” or for MSNBC.com beyond “election results”?
In fact, media sites such as Weather.com and USAToday.com are likely to attract a certain type of person who may be ready to do something …

We’ll be speaking on a webinar at 12 EST today run by local search marketing firm OrangeSoda. The subject will be local search for national brands — an area where there is lots of confusion and room for improvement. You can register to listen here.
Local Search for National Brands
Your customers may be closer to home …