1) Google has been very busy pandering (rather than building meaningful relationships with) entertainment media Goliaths.

According to Sam Harrelson (CostPerNews.com, Revenews.com), he sees:

... the Jellyfish.com acquisition as another sign that Microsoft is aiming more for the merchant/retail segment of online advertising rather than the shotgun approach of Google (GOOG) with AdSense and Yahoo’s (YHOO) with its publisher network. Instead of focusing on context, they seem to be coming at the online advertising space from a very ‘vertical-minded’ approach.

Firing back? That’s right, firing back in a war that has gone largely un-noticed but is quite serious considering it’s a battle for industry dominance in a market segment (cost-per-acquisition affiliate marketing) that is too small to house 3 big players, let alone a company like ThinkPartnership (THK). This segment of online advertising, unlike search, has been stagnant for years now with many advertisers taking a “what have you done for us lately?” attitude toward networks like CJ. How to grow it?

Attention… engagement… call it what you want it’s here and it’s now. It’s what will soon become the new “currency” for advertising. What’s ultimately behind the Google - DoubleClick deal that has everyone (including former Anti-trust Kingpins AT&T and Microsoft) screaming bloody murder? The attention of consumers; not their clicks nor their page views but something else.

According to trusted sources (one of which will confirm the story here on ThoughtShapers in days ahead), President Steve Denton is wasting no time in setting up a more comprehensive media buying organization—positioning the company to cover more online advertising turf and better serve its clients.  Built exclusively on cost per acquisition [CPA] lead generation programs for retailers and service-based advertisers, Linkshare has historically not provided a wide array of traditional advertising services.  It’s Japan-based parent, Rakuten, is non-plussed with that fact given its entry into the U.S. via the nearly half billion dollar acquisition of Linkshare… a company billing in the $45 million EBITA range.  Simply stated, it’s “go time” for Linkshare and diversification is in order.  Linkshare needs to show serious revenue growth and become a more serious e-commerce platform player, as Rakuten indicated from the get-go.

AOL’s bid is at a 10% premium to TradeDoubler’s closing price at the end of last week. Things are heating up as AOL said its bid is supported by the Swedish firm’s management. Looks like it’s time to go to work drumming up support among Tradedoubler’s other owners as Swedish takeover rules require the acquisition of two-thirds of a company’s stock for overall control.

1) Scale: They’re focused on it.

2) Blends: Their model leverages multiple existing/proven ad models (behavioral targeting, user profiling, etc.)

The future clearly belongs to companies like J.L. Halsey (JLHY) who are moving in the direction of a single package offering [CRM email, Web and marketing metrics, content management, search metrics, etc]. I’ll bet a nickel Jeff Pullen of Q4Digital understands this opportunity.

According to one mid-sized Web retailer I spoke with last week,

The future for what could be a killer application for Google—its Checkout service—continues to be underestimated and mis-understood. This is less about eBay (EBAY) owned Paypal and more about extending the life cycle of Google’s advertising product [the AdWords connection]. More importantly, Checkout could be one piece of a soon-to-be unveiled, soup-to-nuts e-commerce offering for small to medium enterprises [SMEs]. What would fit more nicely aside document sharing via Docs and Spreadsheets?

In examining Checkout’s potential impact, the questions we should be asking are:

Upon my review of documents obtained from the courthouse, the process to petition Yahoo! for credits is a remarkably laborious one that, in the end, works against tens of thousands of advertisers who purchased click-based advertising from Yahoo! (formerly Overture).  Based on my research, the process is intentionally geared (by lawyers for Yahoo! and for Class) to be a difficult one that not only promises advertisers next to nothing but automatically opts them into the Class without their consent.  As the clock winds down this is looking more and more like a sure thing… a slam dunk for Yahoo! and the Class’s representation… not the Class itself.

$5 Million: A Small Price to Pay

“What this means is that there would be one global account director per account, that pulls in resources to sell as needed - PPC (pay-per-click), Print, Radio, Video, Display, etc.”

And this news comes on the heels of a new, more dangerious click (syndication) fraud tactic launched by what’s being called the Kmeth Worm… again, aimed at Google and receiving relatively no coverage in industry or traditional media.

In fact, he is. Google (GOOG) will, indeed, be a CPA (cost per acquisition) advertising force to be reckoned with and it could literally happen overnight if Google plays its cards right.  The company recently announced that it is giving consumers a new, remarkably convenient, powerful choice of payment and is tying this to the merchant’s advertising costs / business profitability.  That’s hot… huge… powerful and, in the end, will likely motivate merchants into action.