Marketing Trends & Research

• Measuring social engagement
  While banner ads on social-media sites typically have lower click-through rates than ads on content sites, a study by social ad network Lotame points to higher engagement levels among users who click on such ads. Lotame CEO Andy Monfried said: "It's weird to assume they're not interested in ads because they're on social media sites. Advertisers need to treat social media in a different fashion from other forms of online media." Adweek (9/28)

• Hard times for ad biz, but "up from horrible"
  Writers Stuart Elliott and Stephanie Clifford provide "highlights, lowlights and sidelights" from Ad Week. The tone of the event was positive, sessions were crowded and attendance was up at the IAB's MIXX Conference and Expo. "One of my board members said, 'It's bad, but it's up from horrible,'" said IAB president and CEO Randall Rothenberg, in reference to the business climate. Rothenberg added, "People started feeling an uptick in business a couple weeks ago." NYTimes.com (9/27)

• Will marketers pick up the tab for reform?
  Trade groups are looking to avert any new taxes or changes to current tax deduction policy in bills to reform health care and the financial services industry currently wending their way through Congress. An early proposal to fund health-care reform in part by eliminating the deductibility of direct-to-consumer drug advertising appears to be off the table. A draft of a bill to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency was released last week, and reportedly is less sweeping than initially feared by trade groups. Adweek (9/28)

• Mediaweek's 2010 outlook
  Mediaweek magazine released its roundup of projections for growth (or contraction) in measured media for 2010, broken down by type. The digital forecast calls for growth in search, display, mobile and video. Mediaweek (9/27)

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Company Watch

• Rise in social influencers helps spur new online segment
  Startups AddThis and ShareThis are top providers to blogs and Web sites of "sharing buttons" that help users circulate an article or link. The companies monetize the buttons by providing information on the users and their sharing habits to publishers and marketers. The rise of social media has added greater import to such tools, as any user potentially can become an influencer, according to this article. NYTimes.com (9/26)

• Amid rising unemployment, Monster.com looks for growth
  Despite a recession and rising unemployment, jobs Web site Monster.com is looking to raise its profile with foreign acquisitions and new search functionality, while cutting costs. Currently, Monster.com trails rival CareerBuilder.com in terms of share of the North American online job-search market, according to this article. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (9/27)

• AT&T says Google is violating net neutrality principles
  In a letter to the FCC, AT&T says that reports that Google is blocking certain exchanges from its Google Voice application suggest a violation of network neutrality principles. Richard Whitt, Google Telecom & Media Counsel, responded with a blog post saying, "The FCC's open Internet principles apply only to the behavior of broadband carriers -- not the creators of Web-based software applications." Multichannel News (9/25)

Agency News

• Agencies talk about the exchange business
  Increasingly ad impressions are being bought based on demographic characteristics rather than by publisher, a process that transforms the traditional planning function. In a panel discussion titled "Agency Demand Platforms: Is Everyone a Media Trader?" held last Friday, agency reps discussed the advantages and pitfalls of the ad exchange approach. MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (9/27)

Marketer News

• Panel shows how humorous viral clips get made
  Producers of humorous branded viral clips in theory have more creative freedom on the Web, but must respect a client's wishes for how edgy the segment should be, according to one participant at the "Just for Laughs" panel at Ad Week. Another panelist, Josh Abramson, co-founder and president of CollegeHumor, where the same creative minds put together branded and nonbranded clips, said it's just as important to use an "editorial filter" when producing ad-sponsored material, as with regular clips. ClickZ (9/28)

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Interactive Media

• More marketers using text mining to assess brand buzz
  Domino's, Cisco, Hormel and Microsoft are among an increasing number of top marketers using automated text mining to track virtual buzz about their products or company profiles. However, such automated tools have a mixed record of accuracy and can lead a brand astray if they're not calibrated correctly, according to this article. Adweek (9/28)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by IAB SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• New breed of TVs brings greater convergence with PCs (The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model))

• Report: Global digital ad spend to be nearly $65B in 2010 (Adweek)

• Users, marketers flock to social nets over past 12 months (ClickZ)

• Report: Mobile marketers playing catch up with users (ClickZ)

• FCC looks to approve net neutrality rules (The Washington Post)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Career Development

• How to recover when you lose a promotion
  If you lose out on that promotion you've been craving, the worst thing you can do is get emotional and confront the boss, writes Career Couch columnist Eilene Zimmerman. Instead, ask your boss for specific feedback on what you can do to position yourself for the next promotion and then follow up with an action plan. NYTimes.com (9/26)

Google: Head of Agency, North America - New York Google Inc. New York, NY AT&T eCommerce Team AT&T Atlanta (and various locations) Media Planner SEM, Interactive LM&O Arlington, VA Google: Sales Strategy Associate, Sales Strategy and Operations Google Inc. Mountain View, CA or NY, NY Google: Head of Industry, Local and B2B Verticals - San Francisco Google Inc. San Francisco, CA Google: Agency Lead - New York Google Inc. New York, NY Account Executive - San Francisco Hulu San Francisco Account Executive - Los Angeles Hulu Los Angeles Account Executive, Dallas TX Hulu, LLC Dallas, TX Account Director AKQA New York, NY

IAB News

• The Best Job in the World: IAB MIXX Awards Best in Show
  Congratulations to Tourism Queensland and CumminsNitro for "The Best Job in the World" which took home the coveted Best in Show honor at the 2009 MIXX Awards. Groundbreaking campaigns were recognized for innovation and impact --- along with their creators, brand marketers and agencies answering the call for a creative revolution. View all the winning creative at www.mixx-awards.com/gallery.com.

  And start thinking about how your next campaign can win the most important awards in interactive advertising next year.

SmartQuote

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." --Charles Dickens, English novelist