The Anvil's End of Summer Reading List

Editor’s Note: If you fell behind on your industry reading this summer, fear not. Our resident experts have been busy tweeting the important headlines and white papers. And, to make it even easier, we've summarized the top ones below. To follow us regularly, just go to twitter.com/MediasmithInc and press the follow button.

A Note from our CEO and Founder, David L. Smith:

If there is a theme to these articles, it seems to be one of guarded optimism. After a horrendous last half of 2008 and a record breaking negative 2009, the industry was ready for some relief. Despite talks of a "double dip" in the recession, spending is up, not only in traditional areas such as the TV upfront marketplace but in digital. The wholesale move of some clients to digital seems to be underway full steam. And areas like gaming, social and mobile are starting to benefit from their growing audiences, which are on the verge of becoming mainstream. That said, there are plenty of issues ahead, ranging from feared malware attacks within the banners themselves to an industry that may be viewed as out of control by Washington relative to the use of targeting. Read on and feel free to give us your input. We are looking forward to an exciting fourth quarter to wrap up a turnaround year.

Industry Numbers: How Are We Doing?

Industry Numbers: How Are We Doing?
July 8 - Ad Industry Optimism Reaches Highest Point Yet: Improves For All Media, Especially Digital
Nearly a third of ad execs now expect to increase ad spending over the next 12 months: "Advertising optimism" is a leading indicator of ad spending.
Full Article

August 16 - Social Network Ad Spending to Approach $1.7 Billion This Year
The US's gradual economic recovery, combined with marketers' incessant focus on reaching consumers in social media, has led companies to make big increases in social network ad spending in the first half of 2010.
Full Article

August 16 - comScore Releases July 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings
In 2010 to date, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content during the month for an average of 14.7 hours per viewer. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property with 143.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.1 million viewers.
Full Article

August 17 - The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet
Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting.
Full Article

August 18 - Mobile Gaming Market Tops $800 Million in 2010
Over the same period, ad support will nearly double in importance, accounting for 6.5% of revenues in 2010 and 12.3% of the total in 2014.
Full Article

August 18 - First-Half Outlook: Better Than You'd Think
Analysts say television had a big first half, with scatter, spot and cable all up. The Internet has held up well through the recession, and even print categories such as newspapers and magazines have seen their pace of decline ease, though they're still not in the black.
Full Article

August 30 - How iPad Usage is Shaping Up
With newspapers, magazines, books and gaming some of the top uses of the iPad thus far, the tablet is building the reputation content owners and advertisers hoped for as an entertainment-oriented device.
Full Article

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Mediasmith Wins Best Digital Media Plan of the Year at sfBIG Awards

Mediasmith was awarded Best Digital Media Plan of the year this summer at the first annual sfBIG Star Awards for their Haiti Earthquake Relief campaign for World Vision. The campaign beat out other finalists that included Mediasmith's SEGA Iron Man 2 - the Video Game and Universal McCann's Bing campaigns. The sfBIG Star Awards recognized the best among local agencies, ad campaigns and industry leaders.

See here for the full press release.

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Social, Social, Social
July 7 - Foursquare is Five Times Larger Than Gowalla And Growing 75 Percent Faster Every Day
How fast is Foursquare growing, and what can we expect for the future?
Full Article

July 13 - Consumer Reports Slams New iPhone
This marks the first time an Apple phone has been criticized by Consumer Reports.
Full Article

August 15 - Why Companies Click on Twitter
What kind of tool is Twitter for users, or have we started employing something fully for enjoyment?
Full Article

August 23 - Google Tests Instant Search Results
Google's search-feature testing, along with a recent spate of acquisitions, suggests the company is aggressively exploring ways to maintain its dominance in the search-engine arena.
Full Article

August 26 - Can Twitter Turn a Revenue Trickle into a Stream?
The three top motivators for US Twitter users to follow companies are to get updates on future products, to stay informed about the activities of a company and to receive discounts and promotions, according to an ExactTarget study. If brand marketers can use Promoted Tweets creatively to achieve these goals, they will find a receptive audience at the other end of the Twitter stream.
Full Article

August 27 - Google Expands Its 'RealTime' Search of Tweets, Buzzes
Google's new offering paves the way for selling advertisements on the real-time search page or possibly within search results themselves.
Full Article

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New Season, New Look!

Check out the new format of the Anvil on our website, http://www.mediasmith.com. The new journal format is much easier to scroll through and read, and now our articles feature a comments section so we can interact with you. Leave us a note, start a conversation, we want to hear from you!

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Networks and Targeting
July 16 - Ad Nets Not Doing Enough to Stop Fake Ad Sales and Malware
Advertising networks and publishers say they have done their best to stop the practice, but executives at companies that monitor these networks and sites for Trojans say it's not enough.
Full Article

July 22 - Web Users Demand Control over Ad Targeting
Research from online ad preference management provider PreferenceCentral calls into question whether consumer education is a solution for marketers.
Full Article

Whether you agree or disagree that The Wall Street Journal covered the web targeting and cookie topic correctly and completely, one thing is for sure. Congress and the FTC will have read these articles and regard them as fact. Read on to get up to date on the WSJ findings.

July 30
The New Gold Mine: Your Personal Information & Tracking Data Online
Personal Information Exposed Via Biggest U.S. Websites - Protect Your Privacy
Lawsuit Tackles Files That 'Re-Spawn' Tracking Cookies - Digits
Video - How Advertisers Use Internet Cookies to Track You

July 31
Glossary - Online Privacy, Web Tracking & Information Security

August 1
How To Use Microsoft's InPrivate Filtering - Digits

August 2
Microsoft Quashed Personal Privacy Features of IE8 Browser

August 3
So Many Trackers, So Little Time - Digits

August 4
Anonymity in Name Only - Tracking Technology on the Web

August 6
How Companies Track Corporate Reputation - The Numbers Guy
The Dangers of Web Tracking - The Great Privacy Debate

August 7
Why Online Tracking Isn't Bad - The Great Privacy Debate

August 19
As Web Surfers Share, Marketers Track