promotion

YouTube has launched a new format that lets people bypass ads or pick which ones they are willing to view.

In an attempt to benefit both consumers and advertisers, the new TrueView video ads will give viewers the option of skipping an ad after the first five seconds and will only charge advertisers if their ads play for their entirety or 30 seconds, whichever is shorter.

Further, viewers can select which ads they want to see, giving them the option to choose ones that might be more relevant to their interests. YouTube is promoting the format as a boon for … Read more

Twitter has scored some of the most prime advertising real estate on the Internet: Google's search pages.

In what Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan called a first, Google has agreed to show Twitter's promoted tweets on its real-time search results page. The companies will share revenue from clicks on those ads, Sullivan confirmed with Google, although the nature of the split wasn't disclosed.

Twitter allows businesses to purchase ads in the form of tweets that show up at the top of search results for a given topic. Those ads will also now appear in Google search … Read more

Twitter is trying out a new feature to display ads, or promoted tweets, directly in a user's Twitter stream, but the company admits it's watching carefully to see how people react.

The site expanded its "promoted tweets" feature yesterday, starting slowly by displaying the ads only for those who use HootSuite, a third-party Twitter client. Promoted tweets are tweets that advertisers pay to show to a large number of people, similar to the way advertisers pay for sponsored links that appear among search results at Google.

Those who access Twitter through HootSuite will begin to see … Read more

Since Microsoft launched the idea of avatars with its "New Xbox Experience" system software update this time two years ago, the company's executives and employees have regularly been presented in avatar form at the company's gaming events. But that's about as far as it's gone--short of today.

In honor of the launch of Microsoft's Kinect motion-gaming camera later this week, the vast majority of Microsoft senior executives now appear as Xbox avatars on the company's press page.

One big omission is Windows and Windows Live division president Steven Sinofsky, whose mug has … Read more

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? The jury's still out on that one. But in the world of television, there's no debating that if viewers can't find the shows they are interested in, the audience loses out, and so does the media ecosystem it feeds.

This is a timely issue as we look at the initial results of the most recent fall television season, in which a handful of new series across network television have already been canceled. Is it that people didn't know about the … Read more

As chronicled on this hallowed digital space, from May to September we logged hundreds of hours in conference rooms, editing stations, on planes, in massive crowds of costumed revelers, on football fields, and on the sandy beaches of tropical islands--all in the name of the fall television season launch.

Together with our marketing and creative teams on both the East and West coasts, we brainstormed, we listened, we tweaked, we went broad, and we went viral. We dominated traditional media and new media. We even prototyped a V.I.P (Video-In-Pineapple). All in the name of show promotion.

And … Read more

In an attempt to make money from more parts of its service, Twitter is rolling out a new form of advertising called "promoted accounts." In short, it will let advertisers buy a spot on Twitter's sidebar with a suggestion of Twitter accounts you should follow--that is, if it's relevant to accounts the user is already following.

Such a feature was first rumored in July, though it had originally been suggested that it was going to be aimed at individuals. This program--at least in its beginnings--is being launched with businesses in mind.

A blog post about the … Read more

Hello, I'm Peggy Yu, senior manager of business development at Download.com. Just like promotions posted in this space by Catherine Hwang, I'm here today to help bring Download.com users the best software deals available. Today we have a particularly good deal for popular maintenance suite Glary Utilities Pro. For the next 24 hours, we have an exclusive offer of 50 percent off Glary Utilities Pro.

Why would you want Glary Utilities Pro? Glary Utilities Pro offers a simple, but nicely designed tabbed interface for performing system cleanup and maintenance. Its basic scan includes a Registry cleaner, … Read more

Do you ever feel like you're being followed? Do you ever wonder whether someone (other than Google) knows your every move because they see it?

Well, a delightfully progressive marketing promotion in Brazil from Unilever's Omo detergent tries to bring some joy to that troubling sensation.

According to AdAge, some fine, free-thinking commercial minds decided to slip a GPS tracking device into 50 boxes of this extremely popular detergent. This is not an attempt to pursue shoplifters--though what an excellent idea that might be.

No, this is actually a promotion. This is a step into the ideal future, … Read more