TiVo Adds Yahoo Services, Podcasts, Games

"TiVo is beefing up their HME [home media engine] offerings by centrally hosting applications and partnering with Yahoo, whose weather, traffic, and photos are available by entering Yahoo account info on the TiVo box. Also being previewed are Internet radio (Live365), a podcasting application, Fandango movie tickets, and some games. Beta testing is scheduled to continue into early 2006."
-- zatznotfunny



Earlier:
Should TiVo Become WebTiVo?

How To Disable Junk Mail, eMail and Phone Calls

Here's something for people on the other side of advertising barricades - a how-to on disabling most of the direct marketers' work. My favorite tip: "The only help you'll get from the Post Office in controlling junk mail is for explicit stuff. Fill out USPS forms 1500 if you wish this type of mail to stop. You define what you find to be explicit -- if that's an automobile parts catalog the post office won't disagree with you."

Earlier:
Turning Off In-Game Advertising
How To Disable Most of Internet Advertising
How To Block RSS Ads

Study: Limit Game Ads

"A new report "Playing with Brands" released by Mediaedge:cia analyzing in-game advertising cautions against marketers potentially flooding the gaming universe with ads, as it also throws some cold water on a few of the more exuberant spending predictions for the industry."
-- Media Post

TiVo to Launch Searchable Advertising on Demand

"TiVo the creator and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders [love their positioning] announced that it plans to offer the first television-based advertising search solution in Spring 2006. The new product will deliver relevant, targeted advertising to subscribers that want to view particular advertising categories.

Ads will be delivered to subscribers who can conduct a search for a product by category or associated with keywords, utilizing the same keyword search techniques offered with Internet advertising, resulting in increased relevancy for the consumer, as well as efficient, measurable results for the advertiser.

Media and advertising agencies including Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group and The Richards Group, as well as Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, have worked with TiVo to provide their expertise in the development of this product. Agency research and development techniques will contribute in determining relevant categories of interest, such as automotive, travel, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods, as well as determine relevant pricing models."

-- press release [heavily edited here to cut out all "revolutionary" and "leading" references]

Earlier:

• TiVo To Personalize Viewing Experience With Electronic Tags
• TiVo Serves Films, Ads on Demand
• TiVo Goes Compatible with video iPod, PSP
• Should TiVo Become WebTiVo?
• TiVo Tests Banners, Plans Interactive Format
• TiVo Launches Banner Ads

"The Movies" Game To Boost DIY Machinima Ads

Brace for more DIY ads (or brand-busters) as the machinima technology becomes more accessible.

"Lionhead Studios had released a new game "The Movies" that among other things is a tool that allows video game players to create their own machinima and then export their work and upload it to the Web. Marketers already have started placing ads against machinima. On the streaming video site Heavy.com, for instance, a machinima called "Pimp My Weapon," made from Sony's game "God of War," got six million streams in its first week.

The Lionhead tool, "The Movies," positions the player as a Hollywood studio owner. In addition to the business management aspect of the game, players can shoot their own movies--designing costumes, choosing sets, adding subtitles, and dubbing audio. The finished product can be uploaded to a community site run by Lionhead, sent to friends, or posted online."
-- Media Post

See the game's review and screenshots at Gamespot.

Earlier:

• Machinima Advertising
• Advertising and Episodic Gaming
• The "Video Mods" Show
• Unexplored: Deus Ex Machinima

Rolling Stone To Come Out With Lenticular Cover

To celebrate it's 1,000th issue in May 2006, Rolling Stone will come out wrapped in a lenticular "3D" cover. "It would celebrate the history of the magazine by showing a collage of about 100 people who have been central to the nation's music, politics and pop culture since Rolling Stone's first cover, which was dated Nov. 9, 1967. Magazine's publisher said the 3-D cover would probably be the most expensive in magazine history, but he would not specify how much it would cost. One reason for the expense is that the 3-D process, technically known as lenticular, involves hand-feeding material into the presses. Lenticular does not require the use of special glasses."
-- NY Times

Digital Assvertising With LED-powered G-Strings

Analog assvertising is for low-tech losers, now that G-strings with programmable LED displays are widely available.

Analysts Predict Growth in Online Video Ads

"Online advertising revenues continued to expand at breakneck speed in the third quarter, surpassing US$3 billion for the first time in history and growing nearly 34 percent over the same time frame last year. In their quarterly report on Web marketing, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said sales totaled a record $3.1 billion for the quarter and predicted ad sales may top $12 billion for all of 2005. That would shatter the previous annual record of $9.6 billion set in 2004.

Some analysts believe the next wave of online advertising will be even larger, with multi-media ads bringing targeted video messages to the internet in droves. Today, broadband still makes up a small fraction of the overall online ad spend, leaving plenty of room for growth, analysts say."
-- E-Commerce Times

Billboard as Shower

This installation works like a flat shower that shoots out water droplets with different frequency. The difference in distance between droplets results in an image.
-- Billboardom

Google Tests Pay-Per-Call Ads

Bloggers spot AdWords ads equipped with telephone icons. From Google's FAQ: "We're testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone."

Earlier:
AOL Launches Pay-Per-Call Ads
Advertising Model: Pay-Per-Call