Hasta La Gadget!

It may be no surprise that people are favoring web video and streaming TV shows over regular television nowadays, but while both cable television and broadcast television are taking a hit, broadcast TV is seeing a steeper decline in ratings this season, and that’s forcing advertisers to rethink what avenues to advertise on.

According to various analysts, it’s expected that advertisers are going to spend more of their ad dollars on cable television and web video outlets like Hulu. It’s expected broadcast networks’ dollar volume could drop by 2%, while cable television’s volume could rise about 5%. Of course, these aren’t huge gains or losses, but every percentage point matters, especially when you’re facing lower ratings.

However, CBS CEO Les Moonves says that ad demand for broadcast television (at least for CBS) is growing, and Moonves expects CBS to lead in “volume and CPM increases” this season. However, ratings have taken a dive at all four big television networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) since the start of the fall season back in September.

Specifically, among viewers ages 18 to 49 ( which is the demographic that’s most prized by advertisers,) the average numbers for primetime audiences were down 23% at FOX, 7% at NBC, 3% at CBS; and 8% at ABC. However, CBS was the only major network to see an increase in overall viewership this season, with a 2% rise.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Broadcast TV ratings continue to fall, ad sales go down with it is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Remember the marketing campaign called the “Windows Phone Challenge” (also known as “Smoked by Windows Phone”) that put Windows Phone devices up against other smartphones in a series of challenges that ultimately gave Windows Phone the advantage? Yeah, Microsoft is bringing it all back with some new television ads that will air this month during NCAA March Madness.

The first ad to make an appearance in the rebooted marketing campaign puts the Nokia Lumia 920 head-to-head with Samsung’s Galaxy S III in a photo-taking challenge in low-light conditions. The 30-second advertisement demonstrates the remarkable low-light capabilities of the Lumia 920′s PureView camera, while the Galaxy S III’s photo appears really dark.

Of course, it’s not really a fair fight to begin with. The Galaxy S III is almost a year old, while Nokia’s Lumia 920 just came out a few months ago. Of course, we’re not doubting the 920′s amazing photo-taking abilities (take a look at our full review), but how about Microsoft waits until next month when the GALAXY S 4 comes out for a true fair fight?

At the end of the advertisement, you see the Galaxy S III owner trade in the Android phone for the Lumia 920. Obviously, the commercial targets Samsung’s last-generation flagship directly, and suggests that the device takes “bad smartphone photos.” Of course, we’ll leave that judgement up to you, but we’d be more interested to see a Lumia 920 vs. GALAXY S 4 challenge more than anything.

Microsoft bringing back Windows Phone Challenge with new TV ads is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It has proved to be a frustrating day for Google users. Before the announcement that Google Reader (and a bunch of other services) will be shut down as part of the company’s spring cleaning round two, developers took up digital arms after realizing that their ad-blocking apps were pulled from the Play Store.

Such popular ad-blockers that were pulled include AdBlock Plus, Adfree Android, Adaway, and a host of others. The reason? For violating the service’s Terms of Service. As such, Google is being trigger happy today and putting the kibosh on such applications. While developers are complaining, it is only fair to point out that Google was clear on what is not allowed.

According to the Google Play Store’s Terms of Service, any and all ad-blockers are in violation, the sole reason they have been pulled. Says agreement 4.4 in regards to what is not allowed, “Any app that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator.”

While it is a frustrating day for the developers of ad-blockers, the cries of which they are quite vocally voicing on Twitter and such networks, it is a good day for other developers who have lost revenue due to these applications. Many developers provide apps for free, relying on the money generated by the advertisements they utilize in the place of a flat-rate app fee.

[via Android Community]

Google pulls ad-blockers from the Play Store for violating Terms of Service is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tumblr is looking to implement advertisement on its mobile apps. The online-blogging service has seen its number of mobile users skyrocket in the past six months, and it plans on using that success as a monetizing tool. The Tumblr mobile-ads won’t be like those annoying pop-up ads featured in various free apps and games. Tumblr will instead just have “featured posts” for companies that join in on its program.

By monetizing its mobile app, Tumblr hopes that it will make its first annual profit. The service will let companies pay to promote their posts through Tumblr’s app. Lee Brown, head of sales for Tumblr, stated that the average advertising purchase on Tumblr is a little under six figures. By implementing mobile ads, Brown says, “We expect that the monetization will lead us to profitability this year.”

Though the “promoted posts” advertisement seems a bit unconventional, Tumblr is trying to keep its user-experience pleasant for everyone. Brown said, “We’re not really selling ads, we’re just promoting their content.” The promoted posts is a perfect medium to get companies more exposure to their products while also preserving the Tumblr experience. Brown says that the marketers will have to provide their campaign that, like any other Tumblr user post, will be circulated throughout the network. He says, “Marketers have become accustomed to buying scale as opposed to earning it.”

Tumblr gets over 16 billion monthly views spread around hundreds of blogs. The company can see a huge increase in revenue by implementing its new mobile ads feature. It’s very thoughtful of them to take its users consideration in mind when thinking of how they can generate revenue from ads. Brown stated that Tumblr, “is not going to get into the regular ad network.” It has found a win-win-win situation for itself, companies, and its users.

[via Bloomberg]

Mobile Ads are heading to Tumblr is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Environmentalists and advocates alike are up in arms over Google‘s recent advertisements promoting products made from endangered elephants and whales. The Environmental Investigation Agency has written to Google CEO Larry Page asking the company to remove around 11,500 advertisements dealing with the promotion of these products on Google’s Japan Shopping site.

The EIA says that Google “has laudable policies that prohibit the promotion of endangered wildlife products including whale, dolphin and elephant ivory,” but the agency says that these policies “are not being enforced and that’s devastating for whales and elephants.” The EIA is unsurprisingly shocked by this discovery.

However, Google says that advertisements for these types of products are not allowed on their various sites, and a Google spokesperson said that as soon as they detect ads that violate the company’s advertising policies, they are removed immediately, but it seems the EIA and other activists aren’t satisfied just yet.

Most of the elephant ivory ads showing up on Google are for “hanko” Japanese name seals, which are high in demand. Other products being advertised on the Google Japan Shopping site include products made from various kinds of whale species. It turns out that poaching claims the lives of as many as 30,000 African elephants every year. At this point, Google hasn’t mentioned what they’ll do with the ads, but our guess is that they’re working to remove them as quickly as possible.

[via GlobalPost]

Image via Flickr

Google asked to remove ads that promote elephant and whale products is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.