Two Procter & Gamble Co. marketers are joining Rockfish Interactive to form a Cincinnati branch of the fast-growing Northwest Arkansas-based digital agency, giving a shop that counts behemoths Walmart Stores and P&G among its clients an additional foothold as it seeks to double headcount for the second year in a row.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In a sign of Google's renewed belief in AOL's future, the search giant has outbid Microsoft to retain AOL's search traffic for another five years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney reports it is structured as a revenue share and does not include any upfront payments or guarantees. Ad Age talked with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong about the deal.

ADOTAS – The 80s had Madonna, the 90s also had Madonna, the 00s had Britney and in the teens we have Lady GaGa. Or is it Katy Perry? I’m not very good at keeping track of mainstream pop divas.

I wasn’t really surprised to see Ms. Stefani Germanotta as the featured musician on the Apple page for its new iTunes-based social network Ping (I was surprised to see than she likes Iron Maiden old Metallica and Faith No More). I swear I must see eight different headlines about the pop star every day, no matter what website I go to. Popular music needed a larger-than-life character a la Grace Jones and wa-lah — here is what the industry manufactured (whines the truly independent — read unsuccessful — musician who needs a day job to support his hobby).

Ping resembles a Twitter for the music obsessed, allowing iTunes users to follow their favorite musical artists, as well as friends, and see what they’re doing and listening to. It aims to be the musical discovery service MySpace never was. Silicon Alley Insider set up this handy-dandy tour.

Apple chose an interesting tag line — “Set your inner groupie free.” Apple is aware what groupies do, right? They want us to offer up our bodies to our musical idols through their social network? Perhaps they’re trying to sex it up a bit, but being a starf—er isn’t much of an appeal… At least not to me

When it was introduced yesterday, users could find their friends via Facebook Connect, but that’s gone today. Apple CEO Steve Jobs told AllThingsD that Ping is not hooked up with the social network because Facebook’s terms were “onerous.” Perhaps FB is feeling threatened?

Actually all the social networks should feel threatened. Where are the ads? we in the marketing world ask. Well there aren’t any because Ping is supported by iTunes sales. It’s another Apple walled garden that may take a lot of attention away from other networks, ones that subsist on ad revenue.
However, the tech media is already complaining about problems in functionality (as well as the name choice). There’s also the drag that classic rockers like The Beatles aren’t featured on iTunes (I’ve also got some 30-year-old bad news if you want to see what John Lennon is up to these days — RIP, Working Class Hero). There seem to be some overtones of Google’s much maligned Buzz — can Apple get away with adding a social element to a popular service?

And also, tell me the chorus of “Poker Face” doesn’t remind you of Glenn Frey’s “You Belong to the City.”

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Time Warner's U.K. children's TV channel Boomerang wanted to bring the pet-loving brand to life with a party in a London park for its adoring viewers and found the answer in a doggy ice cream van.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Steep discounts lured shoppers in August, contributing to a surprisingly strong performance from the nation's retailers.

BUENOS AIRES (AdAge.com) -- Nike Argentina is playing with the concept of air itself to promote the launch of the latest Nike Air Max with an online game that lets consumers make the shoe float and fly through the air.

ADOTAS – Chatting yesterday with Arnie Gullov-Singh — CEO of Ad.ly, which has built an endorsement ad network for third-party Twitter applications — he commented that the Twitter folks have been quite careful in rolling out their ad products because while revenue is awesome, the last thing they want is to alienate their users. Gullov-Singh has some good connections — he’s known Twitter COO Dick Costolo since he was heading up his baby Feedburner and Gullov-Singh help build the Fox Audience Network with new Twitter President of Revenue Adam Bain.

Huh, I thought, if only another highly popular social network put its concern for user experience above its revenue dreams… Or at least made it appear that way.

But Twitter is not your average social network as it’s encouraged developers to build third-party apps off of its microblogging stream (even though developers had a bit of a hissy fit when Twitter acquired Tweetie to be its eponymous mobile app). In a blog announcing the full embrace of app authenticater OAuth, the site even acknowledges (seemingly without envy) that most users have fooled around with third-party apps, which tend to offer more functions in terms of filtering (which also leads to some skewed search stats)

User experience trumps all, which is why Twitter informed developers last December that third-party apps would only be allowed to use OAuth to access the stream, a switch the company flipped on Aug. 31. Previously developers could choose between Basic Authentication and OAuth, but BA requires the user to supply a username and password, which would be stored in the cloud or on a device.

That’s not the safest route — OAuth offers increased security by authenticating apps without storing a user name or password, which will prevent malicious apps (or “Snidely Whipapps,” as I like to call them) from stealing Twitter credentials and tying them to the railroad tracks. Tweetdeck, Seesmic and other high-profile apps already use OAuth, which I am now picturing as a certain handsome mountie, as well as Facebook and Yahoo, which take advantage of the authenticater to allow users to share social content in several locations.

Apparently the transition has been a bit bumpy with user complaints of login troubles and a weird dialog box appearing on tech websites such as Wired and ReadWriteWeb asking for user name and password for API access. Enter the requested information and… Nothing happens — the dialog box remains.

It’s the OAuthcalypse! Repent Twitter sinners! Or quit whining and update your widget code.

For all those panicking and tweeting “The end is night,” Twitter sent out an email to users this morning explaining the switch to OAuth — and they didn’t use any big, confusing words! — as well as the expanded rollout of its t.co link-wrapping feature.

Currently links in Direct Messages are converted to t.co and go through Twitter, which checks for malware before sending the user to the destination. (It also will make sure that you’re wearing a helmet as well as knee and elbow pads.) Twitter is planning to roll out this feature to all users by the end of the year. Marketers should perk up their ears as t.co will also be used to measure the number of clicks a link gets and incorporated into the Resonance algorithm that is used with the microblogger’s Promoted Suite of ad products.

“Ultimately, we want to display links in a way that removes the obscurity of shortened link and lets you know where a link will take you,” the company wrote.

Twitter board member and venture capitalist Fred Wilson wrote a blog post called “The Twitter Inflection Point” back in April ahead of the Chirp developer conference that caused a bit of a furor. Wilson suggested that while developers had performed a swell job filling in the gaps in services, Twitter the company should have supplied services such as link-shortening in the first place. Well, now big T is picking up the slack, which has some developers grumbling (louder than usual — I’m pretty sure developers are perpetual grumbling machines).

Wilson’s advice to developers at the time was “move on” — even politely phrased, that’s not something spurned partners appreciate hearing. But Twitter has developed a pretty extensive ecosystem and realizes the importance of third-party apps. The OAuth switch and t.co rollout are first and foremost for user safety — it’s really refreshing to see that matters more than anything else to the Twitter folks.

Finally in Twitter news (sure has been a busy week for those kids), the iPad application has arrived and it looks good. The company added developer Loren Brichter, the brains behind Atebit and the winner of 2009 Apple Design Award, to the Twitter mobile team in April to design the iPad application, and seems like he lived up to the hype. The iPad app truly takes advantage of the tablet’s functions, employing planes for easy navigation as well as media. Check it out here.

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ADOTAS – Bing came a-courtin’, but AOL decided it was going to stay married to Google when it comes to search. The new five-year search deal inked by the two companies actually expands their relationship to mobile search and YouTube, which will feature AOL video content.

AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong called the more “another important step in the turnaround of AOL. AOL users will be getting a better search and search ads experience from the best search company in the world – Google.”

It’s a little bit of surprise because in July AOL said it was contemplating three search partners — an open marriage if you will. Bing was rumored to being itching for a piece of the pie, but the new deal makes AOL’s search Google-exclusive. The Wall Street Journal suggests AOL was just trying to make Google jealous and get a sweeter deal.

Always looking to expand one-year-old Bing’s share of the search market, Microsoft was in talks with AOL but balked at the rates. According to comScore, AOL boasted 2.3% of U.S. search queries, but an anonymous Microsoft executive told AdAge that the company wasn’t sold on AOL turning it all around as the portal’s search share has been on the decline. Questions are lingering whether AOL has got what it takes after a cringe-worthy quarterly report and the departure of a few key veteran executives.

But them Bing boys may not have been taking a look at the bigger picture — AdAge also noted that beyond search share, AOL users tend to be clickers, which of course drives ad revenue. Still, I’m with WSJ in thinking AOL used Microsoft to ruffle Google’s feathers — naughty girl!

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BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and its Canadian equivalent Health Canada have found no link between Pampers Dry Max diapers and diaper rash or other skin conditions, the agencies announced today, despite a social-media uproar on Facebook and elsewhere this spring linking the products to rashes and "chemical burns."

We monitor discussions on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Digg, and present the good news and the bad news for big brands with current social-media buzz.

ADOTAS – It’s a rapidly changing mobile space, and the Mobile Marketing Association, which hosted a pretty kickass conference during Internet Week NYC that was packed to the gills, is repositioning itself to better represent the evolving ecosystem.

The repositioning is based on feedback from member and nonmember companies from around the world. Unveiling a new look at the MMA Forum in Sao Paulo, the company introduced five building blocks for tending the growing industry: promoting the channel, educating all parties, creating authoritative metrics, establishing best practices and public advocacy and self-regulation.

“In its formative years, the MMA placed great emphasis on helping build a global industry, creating standards and guidelines to support the growth of a new industry,” said Federico Pisani Massamormile, MMA Global Board Chairman and interim CEO. “In many ways, the need to act as evangelists for the mobile channel has evolved into to a need to get brands and agencies to increase spend on a channel they’re now aware of. Marketers understand the need to include mobile in their plans, but still need support to find the right role for mobile in the marketing mix.”

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The ability to lead change and to get results is precisely what distinguishes the great CMO from the good CMO. There are eight critical leadership competencies that top leaders, including top marketing leaders, must have -- and outstanding CMOs outperform good CMOs in all eight competencies.

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Kimberly-Clark's Huggies is taking on Procter & Gamble's Pampers in the U.K. with a branded-content initiative that uses well-known comedians to focus on the funny side of parenting. The U.K. diaper market is dominated by Pampers and private-label products, prompting Huggies to look for a different way of communicating with consumers.

ADOTAS – While merely the mention of “ad verification” will make many an ad network or exchange executive furl his/her brow, they know those services are increasingly what advertisers want. Damn that customer for always being right!

ContextWeb, which runs the independent ad exchange Adsdaq, has partnered with Mpire to offer its ad verification and optimization service AdXpose to clients. Networks within the exchange will be protected from make-goods and charge-backs while brands will perceive Adsdaq as a safer place to play.

“Advertisers are increasingly requesting campaign verification by third parties to minimize fraud and wasted ad spend, and to ensure that ad exchanges and networks are fulfilling their contractual obligations,” said Jay Sears, general manager of Adsdaq exchange. “By offering AdXpose’s services as option to our customers and prospects, we’re sending them a clear message that we’re a trusted partner, we’re looking out for their best interests, and that their success is as important to us as it is to them.”
while

Mpire is integrating ContextWeb’s Real-Time Classifier into AdXpose to boost its ability to analyze and classify page content. Recently the company earned the TRUSTe seal of approval for its treatment of user data.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google renewed its search deal with AOL for another five years, locking down a large source of search queries that convert well, and blocking Microsoft's Bing from getting a foothold at another big portal.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Five years after the founding of YouTube, a few video ad campaigns have crossed a big psychic milestone: 100 million views and counting.

ADOTAS – When running a large-scale search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, there are some things that marketers typically assume. For instance, it’s natural to assume that search ads appear in search and content ads appear in content. Constantly policing this would be far too time-consuming to be worthwhile. That assumption, however, appears to be slightly flawed.

Recently, while reviewing some of the search query reports for one of our clients, we came across some very interesting trends. The query with the third-highest impression volume was “prints patterns pillows pillows throws home décor home.”

This query triggered the keyword “decorative pillows,” which was set to Google’s broad match. However, this was very obviously not the kind of query that a user would enter in a search box, and certainly not 20,000 times, as the impressions in the report would suggest. This query also sported a click-through rate (CTR) of .02%, very similar to what would be expected on the content network.

To find answers, I did what anyone in our industry would do… I searched. I copied the long query and pasted it into Google. The top result was a page on Target.com that bore a page title similar to the query I saw. When I looked at the bottom of the page on this site, I saw my client’s ad. This client is opted out of the content network, so how could their ad appear in a context such as this?

I dug a little further and looked at the source code of Target’s site. I found that their site was using Javascript to send its page titles to Google as a search query through the AdSense for Search program, not through the content network. In essence, Target is showing search ads on a content page using a script to simulate a user-entered query.

When I went back to my search query reports, I found over a thousand queries that bore similar characteristics to the one I initially investigated. Spot-checking these by searching them on Google invariably led me to pages on Target.com. When I aggregated the performance of these queries, I found a cost per conversion that was more than triple that of the rest of the search partner network and four times that of Google.com search.

In addition, I discovered a few other sites, including Macys.com, that were sending queries using a similar method. However, many of the queries sent by scripts on these sites look very much like standard search terms, making them difficult to identify and evaluate separately from actual user-initiated searches.

The big issue here is that my client was paying search CPCs for a placement that is a content placement with no way to set a bid based upon performance. Since Google does not provide an option to block individual sites in the search partner network, nor do they allow us to set different bids on a site level or even for the partner network, I came up with a solution that appears to be working.

First, I duplicated all of my campaigns. All of the original campaigns were opted out of the search partner network while all of the duplicated campaigns were opted in, but their bids were lowered substantially. I also set many of the hardest-hit keywords to exact match and lowered the bids on any keywords that had a CTR that looked like a content placement.

The results were immediate. The search partner network now provides our client a cost per conversion close to the level we see on Google. Our aggregate CTR jumped from .5% to 2.9%. Functionally, we gave Google keywords with a higher CPC that they will select to show on a Google search before the lower-CPC duplicates, but we gave them only one option at a lower CPC when the query originates from the search partner network.

A great number of competitor retail sites were included in the ad units on the ecommerce sites I came across. I recommend that all search engine marketers look through search query reports, separate out the search partner network, and look for any queries with a very high impression volume and a very low CTR.

You should be especially concerned if that query looks like a website breadcrumb or is nonsensical. If you find that you are affected, you may want to consider duplicating your campaigns and taking some degree of control over these placements.

So the question remained, how can this be within Google’s AdSense terms of service? A little bit of further exploring led me to a page in Google’s help documents for advertisers that suggested that search ads may appear on pages within a site’s directory: “Your ads may appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site’s directory, or on other relevant search pages.”

Upon asking my Google rep, I was told that this is, in fact, an example of this kind of directory placement and some “premium partners” are allowed to do this. So basically, Google considers drilling down into the content of some sites to be a type of directory search, even though there is no query entered by a user.

What Google tells their publishers appears to be substantially different. Google’s terms and conditions page for AdSense for Search partners states, “Queries must originate from users inputting data directly into the search box and cannot be modified.”

This seems pretty clear-cut; AdSense for Search can only be initiated by user queries. Why, then, does Google make exceptions for “premium publishers?”

This seems incongruous, as it seems that Google disallows this practice in general, but provides exceptions for a few large retailers who subscribe to AdSense. It is possible that Google has some internal mechanism that evaluates a “directory” site against some unknown criteria for inclusion in the directory search category.

It is also possible that some premium publishers did not want the considerably cheaper content ads on their pages and lobbied for the higher-yield search ads.

The bottom line is that advertisers have zero transparency, zero control and usually zero knowledge of the existence of this practice. Regardless of why this is happening, Google will change this practice only when enough advertisers have made enough of a clamor to effect change.

If every advertiser reduced their bids to a level commensurate with the worth of this type of traffic, it would effectively bring the overall CPCs down to the worth of the lowest common denominator in the network, including the CPCs on Google’s own site. I doubt that is something Google wants.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Even Apple, which lives in a bubble of its own device-centered success, can't resist the lure of social networking. CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday formally thrust the company into the social-media fray with an iTunes-based network, Ping.

ADOTAS – Much of the user furor over Digg’s revamp has been directed at founder Kevin Rose, who took over the reigns as CEO on an interim basis when Jay Adelson was pushed out supposedly for the lack of progress on the Digg revision. Considering the bile being spit at Rose since the public unveiling, Rose has decided to step away from the spotlight as Digg confirmed former Amazon higher-up Matt Williams is going to take over the CEO role.

The CEO search had been on for several months and Rose had hinted that a name would appear a few weeks ago, but the company couldn’t have picked a better time to bring in a new face. Rose said on the company blog that even though Williams is taking over day-to-day operations, he will still remain actively involved in the “product.”

An 11-year Amazon vet, Williams’ last position was general manager for consumer payments. He came to Amazon when LiveBid.com, which he founded and CEOed, was acquired in 1999. Seems as if he’s managed to fly (soar?) beneath the radar — here’s an interview with Williams from a few years ago.

Some commenters on Mashable are applauding the appointment, calling him “an undiscovered talent, now discovered,” while on just about every other site commenters are expressing their sympathy for the guy who gets to clean up the train wreck.

As for the user uproar over the Digg revamp — which circles around changes in submission policy that appear to spurn power diggers while making it easier for publishers, brands and celebrities to flood the social link-ranking site — Rose said:

“I know it has been a wild past week since the launch of our new platform. Introducing change is never easy, and bringing something as radically different as Digg version 4 was bound to generate a strong reaction. We are absolutely listening and really value everyone’s feedback as we take Digg in new directions.”

Rose also posted a list of changes made — most important, updating the algorithm so a single source couldn’t dominate the homepage like rival Reddit did — and ones coming soon, including improvements on user recommendations.

Rose seems to be taking this moment to fall on his sword, saying, “OK, it’s all my fault, but this new dude is going to make things all better.” Hopefully irate users will give Williams a chance to clean things up, though Rose did tell AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher earlier this month that being Digg’s CEO is “a pain in the ass and something I would never wish on my worst enemy.”

The top comment on Digg’s company blog sums it up pretty well — tmar89 writes, “Talk about dumping a pile of flaming shit onto the new guy. Or maybe this was the master plan all along? To destroy your own creation before you leave? Excellent…”

The Los Angeles Times blog suggests Williams take a page from Facebook, which “lets things stew for a bit and eventually finds either a mountain or a molehill. Molehills disappear rather quickly. Mountains normally get addressed through company blog posts, often by Chief Mark Zuckerberg. Those messages have offered an excuse, some reasoning or an unusual alternative.”

Not bad advice — bottoms up, Williams.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- After a six-month try-out in Australia and New Zealand, Google is planning to announce today that it is bringing sponsored map icons to the U.S., allowing companies to pay for their logos to show up directly on Google Maps, indicating the location of their business.