static2Advertising/Marketing

YouTube is reminding some of its top content producers that placing their own ads in their videos violates the site’s terms of service. YouTube and owner Google obviously don’t want producers selling their own ads for a variety of reasons, ranging from the simple fact that it cuts them out of the ad dollar equation but also because it has the potential to create a situation where a producer-placed ad conflicts with a YouTube-sold ad. Cause that’s just awkward.

But…I thought 2009 was supposed to be the year of mobile advertising? Is..that…not actually happening? Apparently not.

While it might not be growing at the same rate is has been the last couple years, 2009 is still on track to end with online being the fastest-growing portion of advertising spending. Specifically, a new survey says more money will be heading to online ad networks as marketers look to increase the reach of their ads. Of course the survey was conducted by an online ad network.

A new bit of research by Nielsen shows that people at gas pumps outfitted with digital screens not only find them interesting and entertaining but also recall the ads displayed with a high amount of frequency. That’s good news for the advertisers looking to target drivers at the pump.

Advertisers want to start basing what they pay networks on an engagement model. Oh good. Cause we all have a single definition of what “engagement” means, right? Right?

Media

I think it’s great that some media companies are taking positive steps to embrace digital media in their business models, I think it’s a bit slanted to give them a pass on their early online efforts by saying they just got “steamrolled” by Google like everyone else. Quite the contrary, there was a whole segment of the population that embraced Google and found ways to work with its algorithms and such. That segment is, to borrow a phrase, the people formerly known as the audience. Newspapers now want to make up for lost time by acting like victims but the reality is they missed a lot of boats early on.

I think Newsweek’s idea to not worry about breaking news and instead focus on context and deep reporting is exactly what it and other organizations need to do to survive. Stop competing with everyone on search and start doing what blog writers who have other jobs can’t, which is utilize resources they don’t to go beyond the breaking news and add value to stories.

TVWeek has become the latest publication to announce it will shut down its print edition and go online only.

Online

Twitter will begin indexing the links people include in their updates, meaning their search feature will become much more rich, going beyond whatever people are able to say in 140 characters in into the stories behind those links.