Facebook turns 6 with over 400M users, plans redesign
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on February 5th, 2010
Facebook has turned six, crossed 400-million users and launched another major redesign of its web services to improve users’ ability to navigate and find features.
Also Friday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook is developing a web-based email and messaging system to compete with similar services like Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or AOL Mail. Facebook, which had roughy 200 million users a year ago, declined to comment.
The redesign announced Thursday will be implemented on a rolling basis until all users are included. It features tools to make it easier to find games and applications and to chat and share video. Read the rest of this entry »
Gartner sees $6.2B phone app spend
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on January 22nd, 2010
Consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores, while app related advertising revenue is expected to generate $600 million worldwide, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner on Friday also predicted that worldwide information technology spending would rise 4.6 percent to $3.4 trillion in 2010. IT spending dropped globally by the same percentage in 2009. All major segments (computing hardware, software, IT services, telecom, and telecom services) are expected to grow in 2010.
Games are the top mobile application, with mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continuing to grow and attract increasing amounts of money, Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner, said in a statement.
Three Bay Area Schools Are Finalists in “Got Milk” Giveaway
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on January 15th, 2010
Three Bay Area high schools are in the running for thousands of dollars in prize money and they need your help to win.San Jose’s Santa Teresa High School, El Molino High School in Forestville and Dublin High School are all finalists in the “Got Milk – White Gold” arts giveaway.Students at those schools made their own video versions of the “Battle for Milk-quarious” ad campaign. For the next two weeks, the public is invited to vote for its favorite video and the winning school gets $20,000 for its arts programs.Every finalist is guaranteed at least $2,500. To see the finalist’s videos and to vote for your favorite go to www.milkquarious.com
Apple Buys a Mobile Ad Company
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on January 5th, 2010
Apple encroached onto Google’s turf on Tuesday with its acquisition of Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company.
The sale, which Quattro announced, is the latest sign that the mobile phone is the next battleground for technology companies, particularly for Apple and Google, which are increasingly in competition. Apple paid close to $300 million for Quattro, according to a person briefed on the deal. Read the rest of this entry »
Partner Agency Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners selected “Small Agency of the Decade” by Adweek
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on December 14th, 2009
When John Butler, Mike Shine and Greg Stern left Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco in 1993 to open their own shop across the bay, they were warned that no one would ever take them seriously in Sausalito. Sixteen years later, Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is thriving with $30 million in revenue and 150 people on staff. Over the course of the last 10 years, the independent agency has added national players like Mini, Priceline, RadioShack and Greyhound Lines. The shop, an early proponent of integrated services, was ahead of the curve in ramping up its digital capabilities, acquiring SF Interactive in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »
Google acquires Teracent
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on November 25th, 2009
Google Inc. has agreed to buy Teracent Corp., a San Mateo display advertising startup.
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) praised Teracent’s technology in a blog posting for being able to “pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors” and for being able to make such choices “depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the web site, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.”
Founded in 2006 by CEO Vikas Jha, Teracent was backed by New Enterprise Associates.
Twitter has revenue, plans more with ads
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on November 20th, 2009
Twitter Inc. has about $4 million in annual revenue and should see more soon when it adds advertising, a top executive of the popular micro-blogging business said Friday.
Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo told a San Francisco conference sponsored by TechCrunch that the current revenue is the result of data-sharing agreements with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
HeadQuarters Advertising Inc. relaunches its brand
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on November 13th, 2009
San Francisco, CA – HeadQuarters Advertising Inc., the leading Hispanic Market
advertising agency in San Francisco, has redefined itself as the Hispanic Brand ActionTM
agency that offers full service brand and direct marketing solutions to reach the total US
Hispanic Market.
HeadQuarters is a Hispanic Brand Action agency focused on reaching Latinos
regardless of language or acculturation. Their core competencies stretch beyond
communication: they are strategists, researchers and innovators passionate about the
Hispanic market. They balance planning, creativity, strategy and production with a
company’s goals to find the soft-spot required to render the best ROI.
HeadQuarters believes that every communication touch-point is a potential point-of-
action. Measuring the touchy feely stuff called brand impression is no longer enough.
Advertising needs to be more accountable. The goal is to deliver real and measurable
ROI beyond mindshare and to make the intangible, tangible.
From: www.headquartersadv.com
Wall Street Journal launches San Francisco edition
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on November 6th, 2009
The Wall Street Journal says its new San Francisco Bay Area edition will launch Thursday, with a weekly section devoted to local news.
It joins The New York Times in moving into big media markets that have seen local newspapers struggle amid an advertising and economic slump.
The foray is designed to lure local advertisers and boost circulation. They see San Francisco as a good place to start because it has a high number of educated, affluent people — the kind advertisers want to reach.
Both newspapers have a base of readers in the area. The Times, which launched editions in Chicago and the Bay Area earlier this month, has about 40,000 weekday subscribers in San Francisco. The Journal, owned by News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co., has about 92,000.
The Journal’s front section will carry local business, political and sports news every Thursday. Its Web site will also have a new page devoted to local news.
From: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5WUnNpBQTEhy3W4O2yekJwNvToQD9BOUQF03
Lee Clow Retires
Posted by admin in SF Advertising on October 30th, 2009
It seems that we’re never in short supply of TBWA drama lately. As an addendum to this morning’s news of Jason Nichols and (possibly) Joe Shands’ exits, the latest scoop from Chiat LA-la-land is that Lee Clow himself is now stepping in to sort out the Nissan/Infiniti account, leaving GCD Kerry Feuerman “relegated to retail style ads for Nissan” according to tipsters.
We’re hearing that Clow is intent on “cleaning up the lackluster work of the GCD and mass exodus of top Nissan creatives because of lack of confidence.” Apparently the Nissan and Infiniti accounts are “down to only 6 creatives” (though we’re not sure if that means each or combined). Since it seems AgencySpy and Chiat aren’t on speaking terms these days, verification of this is a bit tricky. If you have more info, feel free to hit us up at agencyspy at gmail dot com.
