vMix

Tribune Interactive is partnering with Topix.net to host free online classifieds, and also with vMix, a one-year-old video sharing startup, to add social media to its newspapers’ websites.

According to Editor & Publisher, Topix will host free online general classified ads across Tribune’s 12 newspaper websites, starting with baltimoresun.com. The move is a response, albeit a bit late, to Craigslist.

vMix will help Tribune online properties, such as the LA Times, Chicaco Tribune, and New York’s Newsday, to manage user-generated videos, photos and blogs. The deal comes as a surprise, since vMix is merely one of hundreds of video-sharing sites competing against the heavyweight that is YouTube.

Tribune tapped vMix for the company’s positioning to primarily help corporations with the Web 2.0 phenomenon, and its agreement to handle everything to get “total community interaction… video, blogs, ratings, polls - everything,” vMix CEO Greg Kostello told CNET.

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Hoping to boost business in the real world, Leo Burnett Worldwide is setting up shop in a virtual world.

Burnett, which has recently lost major accounts, including Cadillac and the U.S. Army, is opening an “ideas hub” in Linden Labs’ virtual world Second Life, where nearly a million people interact, AdAge reports. Burnett says it’s the first ad agency to buy virtual real estate in the virtual realm, where marketers such as American Apparel and Adidas have been testing virtual wares to boost their brands.

“I don’t want brands shackled by geography,” Burnett’s chief creative officer Mark Tutssel is quoted as saying. “It lets all of our (2,400) creatives live in the same place,” breaking down physical barriers to interact and share ideas, Tutssel said.

Meanwhile, CNET has apparently also set up a virtual outpost inside Second Life, according to Micro Persuasion. The “property” looks like CNET’s San Francisco offices and has an amphitheater where CNET will host events and its reporters will conduct interviews.

As Second Life’s membership soars, businesses and advertisers are beginning to create a presence in the virtual world in hopes of making real-world profits.

With Second Life’s online population nearing one million, more companies are beginning to flock to the service as a way to reach members - and digitally test marketing initiatives that could be applied offline - the New York Times reports. Around 30 companies have now set up shop in the virtual world, according to Philip Rosedale, chief executive of Linden Labs, the San Francisco company that operates Second Life, and corporate interests now own some 5 percent of the virtual world’s real estate.

The site is a relatively inexpensive way for businesses (including at least one ad agency) to reach and interact with consumers, test marketing plans and new product ideas, as well as provide information on current products. Nissan, for example, has set up a virtual racetrack that allows users to “test-drive” its Sentra. Moreover, a presence in the virtual world can translate into real revenue.

That’s because users have their own currency, the Linden Dollar; at current exchange rates, one dollar buys 400 Linden Dollars. An article of virtual clothing, such as a shirt, costs on average about 200 Lindens, or 50 cents. Second Life claims that as much as $500,000 a day in actual dollars changes hands on the site and that amount is growing by up to 15 percent a month.

The iVillage Loft
in Second Life

As part of a national TV, outdoor and online branding campaign, women’s portal iVillage has launched a presence in virtual world Second Life - but unlike many other in-world campaigns, the strategy driving the NBC-owned site’s is based on the actual dynamics of the community.

On December 14 and every two weeks thereafter, a local resident will curate a “girls’ night out” inside Second Life, with a group of avatars that will congregate at the iVillage loft on Sheep Island, developed by ElectricArtists, writes ClickZ.

“To be able to go into a virtual world and enable the avatars to communicate, to get together, for us is wonderful,” said Linda Boff, CMO of iVillage Properties. “This was a way to promote connection, to do it in a way that’s really what Second Life is about.”

Other elements of the iVillage national campaign include an SL-related blog, four TV spots, outdoor advertising and banner placements. The broadcast executions show women dealing with humorous or exasperating public situations, then discussing them online at iVillage.

The effort coincides with the launch of “iVillage Live,” a new talk show that will be simultaneously broadcast and streamed online.

Budweiser and Pizza Hut have expanded the effectiveness of their Super Bowl ads by developing a mobile aspect of the campaign, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Budweiser, working with mobile marketing firm ipsh, created a real-time voting promotion for fans who register at www.budweiser.com. Consumers voted via SMS to voice their opinions on Budweiser commercials as they aired. After the game, participants have special access to a bonus commercial on the website. Some will be able to see all the Budweiser commercials on their mobile phones.

Pizza Hut embedded hidden codes in all its commercials. Viewers who hunt for the codes and text them in earn a chance to win everything from cars to entertainment packages to free music downloads.

“With close to a billion people watching, it’s a prime opportunity to make a connection that lasts longer than thirty seconds,” according to Nihal Mehta, CEO of ipsh.

For the fifth year in a row, DVR-subscription company TiVo will track how Super Bowl viewers interact with the broadcast, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
Based on a sample of 10,000 anonymous viewing homes, TiVo will measure how viewers pause, rewind and otherwise time-shift while watching the game.

Interest in the program, including the commercials, is gauged by measuring what broadcast content is watched in “play” mode, regardless of whether it’s been time-shifted. That includes portions of the programming that are viewed repeatedly.

Last year’s most popular segments, based on how often they were replayed, were the touchdown by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the ads from mortgage company Ameriquest.

User-generated Doritos spot
on YouTube

Superbowl XLI marked the first time that every spot featured during the advertising event of the year was immediately available online on a wide variety of sites for viewing and scrutiny by users.

YouTube’s SuperVote page not only allows users to view every Super Bowl ad video on one page but also encourages live voting to pick the top ad of the season (via PaidContent).

CBS Sportline posted new ads after every quarter of the game, and iFilm has a dedicated section. AdAge features a chart on all who advertised, while AOL and USAToday also feature voting - with the former streaming the spots online as they aired during the game.

In addition to the famous :30 spots, there was a host of banner ads to complement the TV push, and they’re archived at adverlicio.us. (Site editor James Gardner termed this year’s efforts mediocre at best, despite a few gems).