There is no doubt that Microsoft is pulling out the stops with its launch of its renovated search service, now called Bing, with $100 million in marketing dollars.
But, besides lifting the software giant’s share of the search market in early surveys, has it also given Microsoft’s stock an added boost?
Yes, indeed, but only just over the last 30 days.
Now what?
The party-all-night social-networking site that has been MySpace so far got a massive morning-after shock yesterday when 30 percent of its workforce was laid off.
And today, MySpace, which is still 1,000-strong, has to face the cold, harsh light of day in the aftermath of the restructuring and get busy quickly figuring out a way to reinvigorate a brand that has suffered after a stunning rocket of a start many years ago.
So, based on many sources I have spoken to over the last week, here’s a rundown of the next steps MySpace will likely be taking and who’ll be making them.
Well, what else is Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz going to do, but talk smack?
Not at BoomTown–that was so two weeks ago!
About potential partner Microsoft, of course!
And, especially about its new Bing search engine.
And, most especially of all, since new stats from comScore yesterday showed that the new look and marketing push for Bing are showing promising initial signs.
Rut-roh!
Allen Olivo, SVP of global brand marketing at Yahoo, is leaving the company, according to sources.
The departure is the latest at Yahoo, as major executive changes continue. It was announced today internally, which Yahoo confirmed to BoomTown.
Olivo was responsible for all aspects of its advertising and brand marketing strategy worldwide for Yahoo, which is about to undergo a major new push under CEO Carol Bartz.
Former top Yahoo advertising exec David Karnstedt, who has been parked at a Silicon Valley venture firm since he left the company, has been named president and CEO of Efficient Frontier.
Interestingly, another former Yahoo exec, Ellen Siminoff, has also been CEO at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based search engine marketing firm. She is now chairman.
Who can resist an all-pork post yesterday in the New York Times about a recipe that has taken the Internet by, well, greasy storm?
The piece, by Damon Darlin, chronicles what started out as an Internet marketing scheme for a site called BBQAddicts.com, but that has turned into one of the more popular dishes online of late.
The dish? “Bacon Explosion.”
One of Yahoo’s top marketing execs, Eric Hadley, who came to the company with a lot of acclaim in November, is set to leave for a new job in Microsoft’s MSN online service, several sources said.
Hadley had previously worked at Microsoft, although he had come to Yahoo from the CMO job at Heavy.com. At Yahoo, he was hired as its VP of U.S. field marketing.
It’s yet another sign of renewed executive unrest at Yahoo. Yesterday, BoomTown reported that Zimbra founder Satish Dharmaraj was leaving Yahoo, which was later confirmed by the company.
We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.
Here’s an interview that Walt Mossberg did with Michael Dell, the founder of the once-high-flying computer company who has returned as its CEO. Dell was forced to resume the role in 2007 after changing market conditions caused the company to falter and competition from Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Sony increased.
This is part three of three parts.
An unusual Israeli-Palestinian joint venture start-up, which makes a cloud-based Web operating system letting users access their desktops from any computer with an Internet connection, is alleging a trademark violation by Microsoft in its new $300 million advertising campaign.
G.ho.st, which stands for “Global Hosted Operating System,” claims it has a pending trademark registration for the tagline “no walls.”
Microsoft disputes G.ho.st’s contention.
Here are videos of three of the new “I’m a PC” ads, from Microsoft’s next phase of its Vista-doesn’t-bite advertising campaign.
You can decide if you like them or not. But BoomTown is declaring them a vast improvement on the quirky initial commercials that featured Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
The software giant seems to be returning from its short visit in hipville to a more normal marketing message, with an it’s-a-small-world-after-all panoply of people declaring that they are all PCs.
While the very quirky ads rolled out by Microsoft to tout itself, starring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, got a ton of hype, it turns out there will be no more than than three already released.
It seems the churros have gone cold.
According to a Microsoft spokesman, the ads were apparently just a warmup for more to come, as early as tomorrow, and though the new ones will not use Seinfeld in any significant way, they might still feature Gates.
First off, as Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski pointed out to me today, you have to give Yahoo props for using Gogol Bordello as the soundtrack and–more to the point–actually knowing about Gogol Bordello in the first place.
“Since when does [Yahoo CEO Jerry] Yang listen to gypsy punk?” asked Paczkowski in an email to me today.
Since Bill Gates started eating churros with Jerry Seinfeld and adjusting his skivvies hands-free, that’s when!
Oh dear, Yahoo has succumbed to the hipster, ironic thing–an unfortunate marketing virus that has hit Microsoft of late, too–in an under-the-covers “Start Wearing Purple” online marketing campaign.
It is hard to look away from the swirl of media that the untimely and tragic death of Heath Ledger has engendered, and the Internet has jacked the frenzy into overdrive.
Along with an explosion of Web stories and video about the late actor–unfortunately too, please-don’t videos from outside the home of his family seem particularly appalling–there has also been controversy around a very prominent online marketing campaign that has been going on related to the next in the blockbuster Batman series, “The Dark Knight.”
Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience Division Cammie Dunaway will be leaving Yahoo on November 2.
Yahoo officials confirmed the departure to me and said Dunaway was seeking “new opportunities.”
Is there a trend in my post yesterday about the deal former Hollywood execs Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman struck with Pepsi to make original online content that the entertainment and marketing arm of the beverage giant will have a chance to fund and sponsor?
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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