Lessons Learned from Second Life By Dr. Tracy Tuten, Author of Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World Virtual worlds give participants an opportunity to be whoever they want, wish or hope to be. With a custom designed "avatar," you can look, behave and speak any way you want. It's your "second life," after all. Brands, however, don't have that luxury. They bring established reputations and perceptions into a realm where everything is new and anything goes. The "Wild West" nature of virtual worlds frightens brand managers schooled in carefully crafted and controlled messages, and Second Life indeed chased many away. But with technology -- and especially social ...

Shedding Light on Dark MarketingBy Dr. Tracy Tuten,Author of Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 WorldDark Marketing is slowly making its way into the advertising lexicon, and for good reason. Rock bands like Nine Inch Nails and burger giant McDonalds (MCD) have unleashed its brand engagement and reinforcement capabilities with results marketing chiefs can cheer. But, for many in the industry, the term is still more likely to conjure an image of Darth Vader opening a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos instead of what the concept delivers: legions of brand enthusiasts actively participating in an artfully designed and carefully executed brand marketing campaign that spans countries and continents.It's powerful stuff. Here's a brief primer, and, for brands that can, a "how-to-market darkly" checklist.Let there be Light...

Is Yahoo! (YHOO) eager to shed some flab? The appointment of Bain & Co. to look at opportunities to streamline operations and improve efficiency may well be a sign that some jobs are on the line at the online giant. According to an analyst quoted by Dow Jones, a 10% headcount looks reasonable at the time being.

Trying hard to tide over tough times, Yahoo launched Apt on Wednesday, a new system promising to cut the costs and complexity of online advertising. Chief Executive Jerry Yang termed the system "revolutionary" a day after the Yahoo board gave the nod to broach talks with Time Warner (TWX) on the future of the AOL unit.

Financial Times quoted Hilary Schneider, executive vice president of Yahoo US, as saying that Apt would allow Yahoo to tap into a $9.5bn local online advertising market. The stock was up 47 cents at $19.24 in

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I have been coming across many comparisons between Apple (nasd: AAPL) and Google (nasd: GOOG) lately, especially given that Apple’s market cap surpassed Google’s last week. A recent example is Felix Salmon, who doesn’t think Apple should be worth more than Google as he argues in “Apple vs Google.” Mark Krieger compares Apple to Google and concludes Apple’s valuation is lofty and due for a pullback. The authors do make some great, valid points, yet their conclusion is ultimately flawed due to the failure of comparing on a free cash flow basis. Cash flow, not accounting earnings, determines an asset’s value. For the matter of an Apple-Google comparison, there are significant differences in free cash flow production, hence return on invested capital (ROIC).

I present the following analysis of the similarities/differences between the

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a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kaO6aTrkklM/SAxlLhB0igI/AAAAAAAAAN8/7basFxW-mu4/s1600-h/GOOG_banner.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kaO6aTrkklM/SAxlLhB0igI/AAAAAAAAAN8/7basFxW-mu4/s400/GOOG_banner.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191635718970313218" //astrongdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "strongGoogle Inc (nasd:GOOG) $439.16/strong- Google shares have dropped about 40% from its high around $750 due to concerns of slowing growth. Considering the long-term picture, coupled with GOOG shares historically being overvalued, Google’s current valuation is attractive. Google a the dominant player on the internet with a strong competitive position that will provide sustained growth and high margins for many years. In the internet space, Google is a must-own, and finally its valuation is reasonable./spanbr //div/strongbr /strongOnline Advertising Market Growth:/strongbr /The internet is still growing in terms of users and usage- More people are spending more time online. Devices such as the iPhone, are contributing to this trend. Online advertising only accounts for 10% of total ad spending. As advertising on the web continues to grow, Google stands to capture ...

I have read this in multiple places but am on the lookout for ‘contagion’ plays from the mortgage fallout. This is an interesting one titled “Will Mortgage Collapse Hurt Web Ads?”

Some interesting points:

- Financial advertisers account for more than a third of all web advertising, and as the plunging share prices of investment banks clearly demonstrate, the mortgage crisis is affecting a lot more than the mortgage sector.
- Half of the top 10 were mortgage or credit-related marketers