Yahoo Inc has lost its lead of the US market for online display advertising to MySpace and its parent company News Corp’s Fox Interactive Media and MySpace, new industry data shows. Fox Interactive’s collection of sites, led by MySpace, drew 56.8 million advertising views in June, compared with Yahoo’s group of sites which had 53.1 million, according to data from web audience measurement firm comScore this week.

But while the statistic marks the rapid growth of MySpace in terms of advertising viewership, analysts say the social network site has struggled to draw top-dollar ad rates relative to Yahoo, known for attracting premium advertising rates.

“Social media gets all these ad impressions but not necessarily get the dollars,” said Colin Gillis, analyst at Canaccord Adams. MySpace’s cost per thousand (CPM) page views are significantly lower than that of Yahoo, he said.

A MySpace executive said it is closing the gap with rivals such as Yahoo, Time Warner’s AOL and Microsoft Corp’s MSN after the revamp of its home page in June, which has drawn in big-name sponsors such as Sprint and Wendy’s.

“Our CPMs have grown significantly,” Jeff Berman, MySpace president of sales and marketing, said of June’s growth spike. “Category by category, year over year, we’re up double digits.”

Measurement methodology questioned

According to comScore data for advertising impressions, June was the first month that Fox Interactive has surpassed Yahoo, which saw ad views dip by around 12% from May.

While it may be too soon to say that MySpace has overtaken Yahoo for good, comScore data shows that Yahoo’s share of the display market has been trending down since July of 2007.

Yahoo questioned comScore’s measurement methodology.

“We believe there could be issues with the measurement that could be misrepresenting Yahoo and we are reviewing comScore’s methodology and working with them to resolve these issues,” Spokesperson Adam Grossberg said in a statement.

ComScore spokesperson Andrew Lipsman countered that Yahoo’s month-on-month drop in display ad view was an “organic decline” unrelated to any changes in the firm’s measurement methods.

Yahoo has often championed its leadership in web display advertising - based on comScore data - even as it lost ground to Google Inc’s dominant lead in search advertising.

More compelling ad proposition

Yahoo agreed in June for Google to supply it with ad services to run alongside Yahoo’s own web search system.

Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research said the redesign of the MySpace home page earlier this summer created a more compelling advertising proposition for brand marketers such as Sprint and Wendy’s.

“It shows how the redesign is allowing MySpace to reach far beyond the ’social media’ advertising category and to target far larger portal advertising budgets,” said Greenfield in a blog posting for investors.

He said this was a negative omen for big portals like Yahoo as well as MSN and AOL.

ONEsite, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise community and social networking software, announced today the launch of its new Class A datacenter and a series of wide ranging performance enhancements to the patent-pending technology of the ONEsite Platform.“It took two years to grow through 1 million users and now we are growing at 1 million users every two months,” said Bob Crull, ONEsite’s CEO. “Our platform is both flexible and fast. If a company wants to engage their users, we have the software and infrastructure to ensure it is a pleasant experience.”

With media and entertainment clients that include Clear Channel and Univision, ONEsite has created a system that can not only handle a high volume of day to day traffic, but the capability to deliver a consistent user experience even under an intense spike in traffic. The latest enhancements provide a 10x increase in performance and the capability to handle over 20 million users with hardware on hand and rapidly scale to support exponential growth.

The ONEsite platform is architected to scale horizontally. Its caching strategy delivers 70-90% of pages directly from the cache while still providing users with an interactive, dynamic experience. The newly launched datacenter and architecture upgrades greatly enhance the effectiveness and capacity of its proprietary clustered server environment.

ONEsite maintains dual datacenters in Oklahoma City and is able to provide consistent operations with the loss of either datacenter. The company is a subsidiary of Catalog.com with a 14 year tradition of delivering innovative, scalability internet applications and services. Ineffective scalability that has crippled many growing social networks and their providers does not affect the ONEsite platform which has been specifically architected to provide the performance and scalability critical to the success of its clients.

About ONEsite
ONEsite offers full-featured social networking platform built on patent-pending technology. Its open, scalable architecture provides one of the highest levels of functionality, flexibility, reliability, and interoperability in the industry. ONEsite technology is complemented by a talented and experienced team that delivers more enterprise-class community destinations than any other white-label social networking provider.

ONEsite has a proven ability to create the distinctive, engaging and successful social experiences demanded by leading media, entertainment and lifestyle brands including Clear Channel and Univision. ONEsite offices are located in Oklahoma City, Los Angeles and Seattle with expansion underway in New York and London.

For more information visit: www.onesite.com .

The coolest ad technologies aren’t the ones that cost the most–they’re the ones that engage users. Thankfully, this year’s crop of cool tools doesn’t require the kind of attention your MySpace page does. From reaching people on their mobile to enhancing your online videos, these innovative ad trends can set you apart as a tech-savvy company while reaching users right when they’re ready to buy–and encouraging them to buy more.Bar Codes With Extra Info
While you may think of “airline check-in” or “mail tracking” when you see the black-and-white squiggles that make up QR, or “Quick Response” codes, these 2-D data matrices are beginning to find their place in advertising.

Steve Stoute and Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter announced today that they will form a new advertising agency dedicated to reaching the multicultural consumer. The firm will be majority owned by Mr. Stoute, 37, and Mr. Carter, 38, with Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG: 8.26, -0.18, -2.13%) holding a 49% stake in the new company. Stoute is the founder of Translation Consulting + Brand Imaging, a leading brand consultancy for the urban youth market which works with many of the world’s best-known brands. Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter is a recording artist, the former president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records and an owner of the New Jersey Nets. The agency, called Translation Advertising, will be headquartered in New York and will work with clients on a full range of advertising and marketing programs.In October of this year, Interpublic Group acquired Stoute’s marketing consultancy firm Translation Consulting. Translation Consulting, which focuses on brand planning and strategic consulting with clients looking to engage with the urban and youth markets, will continue to be led by Stoute and will remain a separate entity from Translation Advertising. Stoute and Interpublic management will jointly oversee the hiring of a senior management team for Translation Advertising, made up of marketing professionals from across the industry.As a stand-alone agency, Translation Advertising will be accessible to and partner with Interpublic’s leading network of full-service agencies. The new company will focus on creating advertising programs for clients, including television, print and radio, which are aimed at African American and culturally-blended consumers. As the agency grows, it will seek to partner with sister IPG companies to deliver specialty marketing services, such as special events and activation.”We saw a place in the market for a new agency. The current fashion and standing that African Americans hold in the world today - especially in American culture - isn’t fully represented in the advertising community,” commented Mr. Stoute. “We want to show this community in advertising that’s fresh, accurate and perfectly executed. And we’re excited to be doing it with a great partner like Interpublic, which has such deep relationships with the world’s greatest marketers. Our plans for this new agency have been repeatedly speculated at in recent press reports. As a result, we’re announcing Translation Advertising a little earlier than anticipated.”"Translation Advertising is a new and exciting venture,” said Mr. Carter. “Interpublic shares a vision of representing and connecting with the African-American culture and community in an honest and responsible way. This partnership with Interpublic and Translation Advertising is a natural business pairing. I look forward to sharing ideas and breaking new ground once again in a new area. We are not looking to just have an agency, we are looking to perfect our relationship with the consumer.”"A priority at Interpublic has been to create a forward-looking strategy to reach a mix of evolving consumer segments. Translation Advertising is an important piece in this comprehensive approach to the changing market. The African American community is a crucial element of the population for our clients, and Translation Advertising gives us a strong partner to connect with that market,” commented Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic. “What’s more, Translation Advertising allows us to address this key market by leveraging our new relationship with Steve, instead of pursuing additional acquisitions. Having Steve and Shawn on board in this venture creates a strong and highly-visible team. They are both tremendous businessmen, with great insight and experience into connecting brands with consumers for many of the world’s biggest clients.”About InterpublicInterpublic is one of the world’s leading organizations of advertising agencies and marketing services companies. Major global brands include Draftfcb, FutureBrand, GolinHarris International, Initiative, Jack Morton Worldwide, Lowe Worldwide, MAGNA Global, McCann Erickson, Momentum, MRM Worldwide, Octagon, Universal McCann and Weber Shandwick. Leading domestic brands include Campbell-Ewald, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch, Hill Holliday, Mullen, The Martin Agency and R/GA. For more information, please visit www.interpublic.com.SOURCE: Interpublic Group

Interpublic Group Philippe Krakowsky, 212-704-1328 or Jerry Leshne, 212-704-1439

Paul Icamina - AHN News Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The digital generation is more vulnerable than ever to increasingly intrusive Internet advertising, says Kathryn C. Montgomery, an expert on children and online marketing at American University’s (AU) School of Communication.

“Digital marketing has made (children and teens) more vulnerable to the influence of Madison Avenue,” says Montgomery who was consulted last week by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on privacy-related issues and digital marketing practices.

Online behavioral marketing collects information about a consumer’s activities online - including searches, Web page views, shopping cart behavior, social network relationships and broadband video use, Newswise reported.

That information is used to target the consumer with advertising that reflects the consumer’s individual interests.

Montgomery is the author of the new book “Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce and Childhood in the Age of the Internet” (MIT Press). It documents how children are targeted by fast food and snack food companies that subtly slip marketing messages in everything from avatars to video games.

As president of the Center for Media Education, Montgomery led the way for the congressional passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act in the 1990s.

She is co-author of the report “Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age” sponsored by the Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Center for Digital Democracy.