Advertising and marketing

The world of online advertising is in a tizzy today.

First Google revamps its AdWords model with enhanced advertising campaigns, and now Yahoo has announced that it is teaming with Google.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based corporation confirmed this afternoon that it has formed a new partnership with Google for "contextual advertising."

This basically translates to targeted advertising in which online ads displayed on Yahoo's digital properties better relate to what the user is looking at currently as well as past search and content patterns.

Specifically, those ads will derive from Google's AdSense for Content and AdMob … Read more

Apparently advertising really works. Well, at least if it contains a nerdy geek making out with a blonde model.

Web hosting company Go Daddy announced yesterday that it had its biggest Super Bowl sales day ever after its infamous ad aired on Sunday. The site got more new customers and overall sales than after any of its other Super Bowl campaigns.

"Attracting new customers is what advertising is all about," Go Daddy CEO Blake Irving said in a statement. "We set all-time Super Bowl Sunday records for mobile sales, Website Builders, website hosting and new customers." … Read more

Google has won a landmark advertising case in Australia with a ruling that the Web giant was not responsible for misleading advertising that ran on its site.

The five judges of Australia's High Court unanimously ruled Wednesday that Google did not violate trade laws by allowing companies to purchase AdWords related to competitors' names. The decision overturned a Federal Court's ruling last April that found four advertisements purchased on the site between March 2006 and July 2007 were misleading and in violation of Australia's Trade Practices Act 1974.

Google appealed the decision, arguing that it was merely … Read more

Facebook advertisers will soon label and identify which ads use information from outside Facebook to target you -- at least, if they choose to.

The blue "AdChoices" -- developed by a coalition of advertisers and marketers specifically to show consumers when they are looking at targeted ads using third-party information -- will make its appearance after months of complaints from ad agencies and advertisers, AdAge reported today.

Although this is meant to make this type of advertising more transparent, users won't see the icon unless they try to opt out of the ad.

Facebook confirmed the change, … Read more

The final numbers are being tallied, but based on overnight ratings, it looks like Super Bowl XLVII had record viewership. We're thrilled to know that tens of millions of people saw our promos.

In case you missed them, here they are for your viewing pleasure:

"2 Broke Girls - Spectacular"

The making of the "2 Broke Girls - Spectacular"

"Under the Dome"

David Letterman and Andrew Luck

"The Big Bang Theory"

CBS comedies

"We are the Champions"

"Thank you"

The digital wallet has been anointed by many as the future of payments. In the present, however, virtual-pay apps remain largely untouched and misunderstood.

Only 51 percent of U.S. consumers are even aware of digital payment providers other than PayPal, and a teeny-tiny percentage of people -- 12 percent spanning all brands -- have actually used applications such as Google Wallet, MasterCard PayPass Wallet, or Square Wallet, according to a new study from analytics firm ComScore.

ComScore analyzed data from a panel of 1 million U.S. consumers and two separate surveys of U.S. Internet users in November … Read more

Anyone watching the Super Bowl this evening saw a great game -- and one of the greatest embarrassments in pro sports history: a power outage that halted play for a full half-hour.

As the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers -- and tens of thousands inside New Orleans' Superdome and millions watching on TV -- waited, Oreo came up with an idea so brilliant and bold that it out and out won the night.

"Power out? No problem," the tweet read, along with a hastily put-together image of an ad showing an Oreo and the … Read more

Some brands will make you wait to see their Super Bowl ads.

Not Samsung.

Having teased quite brilliantly with its mockery of the NFL's strict trademark regulations, Samsung has now released the full version of the real thing.

The real thing from The Next Big Thing again features Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd.

Like Samsung's Galaxy Note, this ad is a slightly bloated but likable affair, indulgently allowing its stars to free-associate with good humor and not so much dwelling on niceties such as, well, the products.

Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk again comes along for the ride, … Read more

WALTHAM, Mass.--The makers of Wheat Thins cereal may have a hit Super Bowl commercial on their hands.

I believe this because I watched the ad on my computer while another computer watched me watching it over the Internet. The ad combined a box of Wheat Thins, night vision goggles, fear of Bigfoot when there should have been fear of the Yeti, and a thieving neighbor. It seems my "emotional valence" score -- which can be roughly translated to mean my overall emotional reaction -- while watching all this was unusually high, at least once the Yeti and … Read more