Monday, April 21, 2008

The Plot Thickens

Even while Microsoft courts NewsCorp in an effort move forward with its Yahoo takeover plans and to strengthen its position in the social networking space, NewsCorp’s MySpace has initiated internal changes to bolster its potential to generate cash from online advertising. The company, which has an existing partnership with Google to host online ads at MySpace, has announced the promotion of Jeff Berman from EVP-marketing and content to the new post of president of sales and marketing. Berman is tasked with “coming up with ad solutions for MySpace’s brand partners, including strategies for driving online traffic optimization and integrating the company’s hyper-targeting technology and ad-serving into campaigns.” Berman, who began his career in public relations in the political and non-profit space, will no doubt face delicate political hurdles in the weeks ahead. He is taking on his post while the major players in the industry are scrambling to find ways to compete with Google. MySpace is using its ability to effectively target as a differentiating benefit to advertisers. Separately, the company launched a community ad program in beta “designed to help advertisers create communities around their brands.” This effort aims to maximize the benefits of social computing for advertisers, providing the opportunity for social media to facilitate interaction with an advertiser’s product while enriching the user experience as part of a community. The two levels of the “Community Builder” platform, “Self-Service” and “Full-Service” provide advertisers with updates on the effectiveness of their campaigns within the community. The “Self” option manipulates the cost-saving attribute of Web 2.0 self-service, placing the onus for web development, coding, and maintenance on the customer. Could MySpace be taking notes from Google?

Full article: http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-myspace-ups-berman-to-president-sales-and-marketing-begins-testing-comm/

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