Tsavo Media To Pay Yaho...

Tsavo Media , which operates a network of roughly 300 websites and blogs as an indirect subsidiary of Canadian online publishing and advertising company Cyberplex , is being retroactively charged $4.8 million “over a reasonable time period” by Yahoo for sending the latter company’s advertisers “low quality traffic” in 2011. To boot, Cyberplex president Ted Hastings (formerly Tsavo Media’s CEO), apparently jumped ship. It’s a curious story, to say the least. Tsavo Media, once led by former MySpace CEO and previously AOL SVP Mike Jones , was acquired by Cyberplex back in May 2010, for a reported $75 million . The company’s network of Internet publications includes crappy websites like LumaGardening.com , ThinkFashion , TechSerious , WealthyGeek , Twirlit , DiscoverFame and KidGlue . Now, according to a press statement released earlier today, a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Cyberplex has been appointed to “review the status of Tsavo Media and strategic alternatives available to create shareholder value out of that division, which is currently heavily encumbered by debt under Tsavo Media’s credit facility with American Capital”. I bet this wasn’t what they had in mind when they acquired Tsavo Media. But then again, what good could have come out of buying a crappy content generation machine anyway? Cyberplex had this to say about the sticky Yahoo situation it now finds itself in: The Company reported today that Tsavo Media has been engaged in discussions with Yahoo! to address concerns regarding the quality of traffic provided to the Yahoo! advertising base, and Tsavo Media’s reliance on Yahoo!’s traffic quality reporting system. Tsavo Media has now been informed that it will be required to pay to Yahoo! approximately $4.8 million over a reasonable time period currently being discussed, notwithstanding prior information that indicated good quality traffic at that time. This amount may be partially offset by achieving certain performance incentives and anticipated improvements in average revenues per click, but the Company noted that there can be no assurance as to how much, if any, of this payment to Yahoo! would be offset through these incentives and improvements. Translation: unless a miracle happens, we’re going to have to cough up some serious dough, and we can only hope we don’t have to pay everything all at once and in the near future. The Company noted that Yahoo! provides bi-weekly quality reports to Tsavo Media, which are extremely important to Tsavo Media in the management of its systems, analysis, forecasting and ultimately its day-to-day business decisions. Yahoo! recently communicated to Tsavo Media that notwithstanding the good quality score reports that had been provided throughout most of 2011, Yahoo! would retroactively charge Tsavo for what Yahoo! is now saying was actually low quality traffic, ranging back over many months during 2011. While the Company and Yahoo! remain in discussions on this issue, the Company now expects that Yahoo! will enforce its decision to charge back this amount citing its right to do so pursuant to the terms of Tsavo Media’s agreement with Yahoo! Translation: first Yahoo says we did a good job last year, but now they say we did a bad job, and according to the deal we agreed upon they can actually retroactively charge us for it. “We are very frustrated by the timing of these events after spending almost one year rebuilding the Tsavo organization while negotiating a settlement with American Capital”, said Geoffrey Rotstein, CEO of Cyberplex. “These events are disappointing given all of the hard work the Tsavo employees have invested to rebuild the organization and because they continue to take away and distract from all of the other positive developments and momentum being created within both Tsavo and the other divisions of Cyberplex.” Translation: Oh FFF******CCCKKK.

Facebook’s Real Problem...

There is a lot talk about Facebook. The billionaires, the millionaires, the speculation, the complaining, the changes. You name it, the list goes on. Of everything I have read, one quote summarizes it all from Wall Street Journal article . It comes from Veronica Stecker the media manager for Omaha, NE based retailer Gordmans . Simply put in just 44 words (or 255 characters including spaces according to Word’s word count function). We still don’t have a huge correlation between Facebook fans and return on investment in an actual sales in store. Until that metric becomes a lot more solid, I don’t think our company or other brands are going to be full-fledged into Facebook advertising. Agree? Disagree? Have an opinion? How will this observation impact Facebook as it tries to own the world? Have a great weekend. Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

For It Before They Were...

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Google spent approximately $390,000 (out of $3,760,000.00 total) on SOPA and PIPA lobbying including efforts to educate lawmakers on SOPA and the DMCA. The question, then, is whether the massive search and advertising giant was for or against the bill – and why so much money was spent to argue the case. The document, available online in PDF here , is fairly succinct and covers a number of topics, thereby explaining the massive cash outlay. Here’s the specific mention of SOPA: S. 968 – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011; S. 978 - Commercial Felony Streaming Act; S. 2029 – Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act; H.R. 3261 - Stop Online Piracy Act; Digital Millennium Copyright Act service provider safe harbors; Trans-Pacific Partnership. The document also mentions a number of other lobbying topics including “Regulation of online advertising; privacy and competition issues in online advertising” and “Renewable energy policies” so it’s not all SOPA all the time over at Google’s New York offices. However, there is a key word missing in the filing – whether Google was for or against the bill and what, if any, opinion they injected into the lobbying effort. Google was unavailable for comment for this piece but it’s clear that most organizations with a dog in the fight spent some money on lobbying. Wikimedia spent a mere $10K on their efforts , at least according to documents we found. The MPAA made its interests clear in the media but less clear in FEC filings , pouring in $850,000.00 in lobbying money while mentioning nothing of its stance. According to one reader who performed a bit of data mining on the documents , top spenders are, in order: RIAA $535,750 The Information Technology Industry Council $390,000 Google $312,500 CSC Holdings $295,000 Comcast $265,816 These numbers are clearly elusive. There’s no value in admitting your position in these documents and clearly there’s no requirement. All we have is a trail of cash going from company to lobbyist to politician. What is said during these glad-handing sessions is unclear, but given the predilections of some of the filers, assumptions can be made. More interesting are these numbers on the aggregate. While we don’t know what was said, the $1,799,066 represented above talks and it’s clear big business has more resources to pass favorable legislation than any nerd army massing online at SOPA’s gates.

AOL Beats The Street, Q...

AOL reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings this morning. The company, which owns TechCrunch, reported revenue of $576.8 million, which is down 3 percent from Q4 2010 revenue of $596 million. Earnings came in at $0.23 per share, or $22.8 million, which is down 66 percent from $66.2 million a year ago. Analysts expected $0.16 per share. AOL says total revenue decline was its lowest rate of revenue decline in 5 years. While global advertising revenue was 10%, subscription revenue declined by 18%. AOl also saw a 15% growth in global display revenue and a 20% growth in third party network revenue. “AOL took a large step forward in Q4 and I am very pleased with the way we ended the year,” said AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong. “Our Q4 results highlight AOL’s ability to methodically improve our consumer offering and financial performance. We continue to invest in AOL and will continue to improve our operations during 2012.” The company says that traffic was flat from Q3 2011 as “growth in the Huffington Post Media Group sites offset declines at MapQuest and AIM.” View this document on Scribd

10 Things the FBI Knows...

The following post comes from our Inbound Marketing Channel sponsor HubSpot. The FBI recently posted a Request for Information (RFI) for a “social media application.” But, it was really a request for a social media monitoring application. Why? Because the FBI recognizes what many inbound marketers already know and many others are discovering: There’s gold in them thar social media data. You can use the same social media monitoring attributes the FBI wants to use to catch bad guys to generate and nurture leads, identify hot spots (good and bad), and close more deals. Catch problems early – Social media, the Bureau says, is a “primary source of intelligence because it has become the premier first response to key events. By monitoring the conversations about your brand and products in social cyberspace, you can discover problems before they mushroom into reputation-damaging situations. That’s what Crave America restaurants did using a tool from newBrandAnalytics . Monitoring the conversation about their new Sweet Heat cocktail, they quickly picked up consumers’ opinions that the drink was too hot and adjusted the recipe by giving bartenders the leeway to mix the drink per consumers’ personal tastes. Geo-location Capabilities -  Social media have geolocation tools baked into the applications or devices delivering the applications. Using social media monitoring tools, such as the one in MarketMe Suite , you can identify geo-target opportunities or nip regional issues in the bud. Be a Fly-on-the-Wall  - Using social media monitoring tools, you can candidly listen in on conversations the way Dell Computers will in its new Social Media Listening Command Center using tools from Radian6, something which the company claims has allowed them to convert one-third of critics into fans. Multiple Touchpoints  - The FBI’s RFI is requesting the application allow users to search across myriad parameters. This will give them—and you—the ability to gain multidimensional views of your customers and prospects, allowing you to develop pinpoint offers based on people’s interests, actions, and opinions. Real-Time Rules  - The dialogue in social media moves so quickly that any social media monitoring tool needs the capability to search, gather, and analyze the conversation in real time. The FBI will use it to detect serious threats to national security. You’ll use it to strike while the iron is hot and reach out to customers and prospects while you are top of mind. Tools like TwitSprout update stats hourly. Curation Counts  - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare, Tumblr, and on and on. The number of posts, tweets, messages, and more in social media is in the gazillions. Choose a social media monitoring tool that can summarize data the way you need it in order to maximize the time you spend monitoring social media. Nothing Beats Social Media -  The FBI’s research has determined that a “geospatial and analysis mapping application” (that’s Bureaus-speak for a social media monitoring tool) is “the best known solution for attaining and disseminating real time open source intelligence and improving… situational awareness.” And, situational awareness in real time is what every marketer needs to hunt down leads, act intelligently on them, and move them down the sales funnel. You Gotta Speak Tweet  - One of the requirements in the FBI’s RFI includes providing a glossary of “Tweet lingo.” Twitter’s 140-character limit has spawned its own language. Tools like Klout can help marketers learn to speak and translate Tweet-speak to make the most of the conversations captured, maximizing leads found and nurtured. Flex Your Teamwork  - A good social media monitoring tool provides the means for users to define the parameters of their monitoring, to easily create templates, and to quickly and easily share the information across your team. Improved Decision-Making   – Social media monitoring tools, says the FBI, provide enhanced strategic, operational, and tactical information for improved decision-making. And, nothing improves your lead management ROI or your leads-to-sales ratio like improved decision-making. Many of these tools, MarketMeSuite, Klout, Kred , to name a few, help you find the influencers shaping your brand’s reputation in the marketplace. To understand the importance of influencers, consider this: Your best customer, though they may shop with you every week for years on end, can’t hold a candle to the way your registers will ring if Lady Gaga came there once and decided to tweet about your awesome products. That’s what the FBI knows about social media and what you should know too. The views and opinions in this post do not necessarily represent those of Marketing Pilgrim. About the author Jeanne Hopkins, VP of Marketing @ HubSpot and co-author of “Go Mobile”, the best-selling mobile marketing book on Amazon.com.