Airware, a startup that is creating a software platform for commercial drones, said it had raised $10.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Google Ventures also participated. As part of the deal, Andreessen Horowitz partner Chris Dixon will join Airware’s board.

The Newport Beach, Calif., company said it would use the money to expand staff for its universal development platform as the market for non-military drones expands.

Airware founder and CEO Jonathan Downey said that uses of drones will be increasing for a wide range of purposes, from checking infrastructure to monitoring mining operations to preventing poaching.

In an interview, Downey said that he expects to compete with a range of ex-military efforts, but that the most successful companies will be those that provide a platform to allow for the widest range of innovations.

“This is going to be about a lot more than we know or can guess,” he said. “The industry is at its very beginnings.”

Dixon agrees. “Hardware is the new software,” he said about the investment in Airware, which he said he discovered after attending conferences about the fast-moving drones business, noting that the overall field of robotics has “overpromised and underdelivered.”

Airware came out of both the Lemnos Labs and Y Combinator incubators and had raised seed financing from First Round Capital, Firelake Capital, RRE Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Promus Ventures and several Y Combinator partners.

Latest example: The social giant’s new commercial for Facebook Home, the brand new software that turns your plain ol’ Android phone into a Facebook phone.

It features a daydreaming employee messing around on the new device, and of course has CEO Mark Zuckerberg center-stage. But the real star of the strange commercial is a screaming goat, who yells in the face of an excited Zuckerberg talking to the troops on Facebook Home’s launch day.

Like I said. Weird.

The company first delved into strange territory last year with “Chairs,” the commercial it released when it hit the billion-user mark. It was a bit of a head-scratcher.

This one for Facebook Home is pretty cute, though, however strange it may be.

Enjoy.

In the midst of last week’s earnings call, after the company had released strong results, Demand Media CEO and co-founder Richard Rosenblatt made an unusual declaration about its once-tight affiliation with now-disgraced professional racing cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Said Rosenblatt about the Santa Monica, Calif., social content company to Wall Street analysts about the status of the relationship in the wake of Armstrong being stripped of his many Tour de France titles:

“Our relationship is with the Livestrong Foundation, not with Lance, and we are aligned in empowering people to live healthier lives, and we support the important work of the foundation. We have built a powerful destination, popular applications and a very engaged community. None of this has changed and we have seen no material impact on the consumer traffic or metrics.”

In reality, the once-close relationship between Demand and Armstrong ended a while ago, even though the athlete’s cancer-fighting charity has been a high-profile shareholder since early 2008. At the time, Demand struck a four-year exclusive deal with Livestrong to create a health and wellness site, and also got a perpetual license to the Livestrong.com domain name.

But Armstrong — despite appearing at the Web 2.0 conference in 2008 with Rosenblatt — eventually had little to do with the Demand brand.

And it is down to zero involvement now, after he recently stepped down as chairman of Livestrong, due to the doping controversy. That mess has caused a lot of the brands he was tied up with, such as Nike, to disassociate themselves from Armstrong himself, although not from the Livestrong Foundation.

That has also been Demand’s direction, especially given that the commercial Web site, which has become the No. 3 health property in the U.S., is one of the company’s strongest ones. That adds up to about 26 million monthly unique visitors, a gain of 97 percent since last year.

But with that success, why did Demand make the statement at earnings — as well as putting up a blog post recently clarifying that it had “no direct relationship” with Armstrong?

Apparently, according to several sources, Demand had to move to be as explicit has possible, not because of consumers, but because of advertisers.

“The advertisers did care about the affiliation,” said one source. “So it was time to say in no uncertain terms to them and shareholders that Lance Armstrong has nothing to do with Demand.”

Or, as the blog post in late October noted rather strongly:

“We don’t believe the struggles of one individual should detract from the millions of real people who have benefited from work that’s been done to prevent cancer and improve the lives of those unfortunate enough to have it.”

Or, as they say in bike racing, Armstrong had simply become too much of a wheel sucker.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the ad will eventually make its way to the TV, but did not provide any details on timing or what channels it would be targeting. Based on the 60-second video, it looks like Nintendo is again going after its super casual core demographic: Kids and families. The commercial goes through a number of different scenarios for how the Wii U and its new tablet controller will be used in the living room, from watching Netflix to playing games or singing karaoke with friends and family.

For now, these are just some of the ways Nintendo has imagined customers using it, but if it’s lucky, consumers will shoot videos of themselves using the new console in the home. If you recall, Nintendo has gotten a lot of free press in the past from home videos going viral. To jog your memory, check out Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit. Free advertising just doesn’t get better than that.

What with Hurricane Sandy here in the East and the management upheaval swirling around Apple in the West — complete with the ouster of its mobile software head Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett — excuse us for taking so long to get up this latest adorkable video from John Elerick.

It came out earlier today and is the second of the “Banned” mockumentaries, which spoof the slick Apple commercials using top execs chattering on about its products.

Also below is one Conan O’Brien’s TeamCoco just put out that will air tonight about the many sizes of the iPad mini.

Forstall was one of those Apple execs, though he was not featured in these videos. But he was ousted earlier today from the tech giant for a range of problems, including refusing to sign a company apology letter about how bad the new mapping software that Apple recently released to replace Google’s maps was.

Here’s the new one on the recently released iPad mini and the first on the iPhone 5, as well as the TemCoco one:

Facebook’s recent commercial — titled “The Things That Connect Us” — which compared the social networking giant to chairs, as well as bridges and doorbells, got a lot of criticism for being a little too twee.

(The best review of the ad — which came as Facebook got its one-billionth user — was from Motherboard’s Adam Clark Estes, who noted: “Still not getting the chair thing. When was the last time you were trying to round up some friends and were like, “Hey friends, come on over. I’ve got chairs.”)

And now, natch, it is getting some mockery.

Here’s one that was just posted comparing Facebook to another kind of seat — a throne of sorts, actually.

Enjoy the spoof, as well as the original Facebook commercial, below it:

The 30-second spot shows a day in the life of a woman who uses products she discovered on OpenSky, including a meat and cheese platter recommended by Bobby Flay, an iPhone case from Alicia Silverstone and perfume from actress Mariel Hemingway.

As the company gets ready for its second-ever Christmas season, OpenSky founder and CEO John Caplan calls the TV commercial a “modest test” to tell the world about the emerging commerce company. The commercial, created by ad agency dw+h, officially begins airing today on Bravo, the Food Network and HGTV.

Since its start in 2011, the company has been focused on connections-based e-commerce, meaning that consumers “follow” people on their network to receive product recommendations. The end result is that consumers can find new items serendipitously, much like scrolling through Pinterest or Facebook, rather than entering terms into a search bar. “In traditional e-commerce, consumers suffer from the paradox of choice,” Caplan said. “And in connections-driven commerce, everything they’ve seen is relevant to who you are. It’s entertaining and it’s engaging.”

A year ago, the company raised $30 million in capital; today, it has two million members who have made more than 30 million connections. In six words, he boldly calls it, “Pinterest with a universal shopping cart.”

Some of the company’s other metrics are also trending in the right direction: The average repeat buyer makes seven purchases a year and places an order size of around $85. Caplan declined to provide the company’s annual revenue, but said sales jumped almost 50 percent between August and September. During a recent week, sales topped $700,000.

The company provides plenty of incentive for experts to become product endorsers since they receive a share of the gross profit from each item sold. Shaquille O’Neal, who recently joined, already has 180,000 connections and has adopted the theme of doing “the shopping for the kid in all of us.” In a video, he recommends a turntable that plugs into your computer and converts vinyl to digital, while telling folks to follow him at OpenSky.com/shaq. Honestly, it’s more entertaining to watch than OpenSky’s commercial, but here’s that anyway:

As first noticed by The Verge, the commercial shows off some of the devices that have been rumored to be announced at Amazon’s press conference tomorrow in Los Angeles.

For those watching closely, you may be able to spot a new e-reader with a glowing screen; the company’s current Kindle Fire (or possibly, an updated seven-inch device); and a larger-screened device — although, in my opinion, it’s being held too far away from the camera to presume that it is equal in size to the iPad.

In general, the commercial does a good job describing how Amazon is a part of your daily life, whether it’s because you ordered something online that arrives in the mail, or because you downloaded something electronically.

The narrator says: “We are the reinventors of normal. We dream of making things that change your life and then disappear into your everyday — of making the revolutionary routine.”

More live coverage coming from AllThingsD at 10:30 am PT tomorrow.

Here’s the commercial, via The Verge:

Originally known for selling books, the Seattle company is adding 14 new categories, including “test, measure and inspect,” “janitorial and sanitation,” “office,” “cutting tools and hydraulics,” “pneumatics” and “plumbing.”

The categories go way beyond the stock carried by Office Depot and Staples, and will likely compete against other online- or catalog-based suppliers. AmazonSupply inventory includes hand dryers, drill bits, printer paper, cash registers and many more-obscure products.

The Web site itself has an industrial feel, with very little art or illustration and a fairly extensive browsable index of products.

Prentis Wilson is listed as the VP of AmazonSupply, which offers such perks as free shipping on eligible orders of $50 or more, 365-day returns, corporate lines of credit and a dedicated customer-service center.

Now, that’s evil!

I am still dubious on this particular online commerce concept, although this is perhaps one of the funnier commercials for a new start-up called Dollar Shave Club.

It has garnered a lot of attention (and some high-profile funding) so far, mostly for the clever CEO Michael Dubin hawking the service’s simple razor offer in the tone of the recently successful Old Spice ads.

Enjoy:

(c) Tim Vetter / Flickr

This last weekend, Foursquare founder Naveen Selvadurai announced in a blog post that he was leaving the company, three years after launching the check-in service with Dennis Crowley. In a terse note, Sevaldurai wrote that he would remain on the company’s board and as an adviser, as well as the “single most vocal user” of the popular check-in service.

But, he added, “spring is time for things that are new, and i realize that i have a desire to do something new as well. i’m not sure about my exact next steps.”

Spring forward indeed, because — according to numerous sources inside and outside the company — the impetus for Selvadurai’s departure was a lot more complex and fraught than he or the company indicated.

To be fair, this is not uncommon for start-ups at all. Twitter went through the mother of all contentious partings — twice, in fact — in an ongoing battle among its founders. Tech is rife with similar examples, most often of lesser drama.

And it is much the same with Selvadurai and Crowley, who had together become New York’s highest profile entrepreneurs in recent years. The pair cut a wide swatch of fame, including doing commercials together (see video below).

But times change and sources said that they had come to the conclusion over a series of talks over the last several months that there was no place for Selvadurai any longer at the fast-growing start-up.

“This company grew very quickly and a lot of senior management has been added,” said one person with knowledge of the situation. “It got to the point where Naveen was not in charge of much.”

Indeed, since Foursquare began adding execs — I have a list below — he had become ever more sidelined, ending up with a small team focused on platform efforts and supporting APIs.

“Naveen was no longer heading any meaningful area of functional responsibility, so things got tense,” said another source.

Still, according to several people familiar with the situation — unlike the highly charged parting that took place at Twitter — the departure was not ugly or closely related to either a recent stock sale by employees or its most recent funding in June that valued Foursquare at $600 million.

“Dennis and he don’t hate each other — things just changed,” said one person.

Said another source: “When you look at all the external stuff, Naveen’s leaving was really not tied to anything in particular. The business was really starting to mature … and there is eventually a line in the sand between building a product and building a company.”

Indeed, rather than a scrappy start-up, Foursquare now has 111 employees, up from 50 last year, and has moved into a new phase of trying to evolve from simply being a check-in service.

As that was happening, said multiple sources, the discussions about roles at the company became more pronounced.

“The way this company has been structured, the talks centered on how to contribute to a company and Naveen and Dennis agreed that there was not a place for him day to day,” said one person. “But that does not mean he still will not be contributing to the future of Foursquare in a different way.”

The pair both emailed Foursquare’s staff about the change, although Crowley’s public goodbye on Twitter was short and, yes, sweet:

After 3 yrs, my @foursquare co-founder is moving onto new projects & big ideas. Can’t wait to see what’s next @naveen! naveenium.com/stream/next

— Dennis Crowley (@dens) March 5, 2012

Like I said: Things change.

Here’s the current Foursquare management team:

Dennis Crowley, CEO & co-founder
Evan Cohen, COO (joined January 2010)
Holger Luedorf, head of business development (joined summer 2010)
Alex Rainert, head of product (joined April 2010)
Harry Heymann, head of engineering (joined summer 2009)
Susan Loh, head of talent (joined fall of 2010)
Jon Steinback, director of marketing and communications (joined fall of 2010)

And here are some of the latest stats from the service:

* Over 15 million users (up from just over five million this time last year).

* Over 1.5 billion check-ins.

* Five million check-ins per day.

* Over 750,000 businesses affiliated.

And here’s the video that Foursquare’s co-founders did together for USA Network last year:

Image: (c) Tim Vetter / Flickr

The game, which is a take on Scrabble, has been working its way into the cultural fabric, as Zynga is happy to remind us with a lighthearted list of milestone moments, including Alec Baldwin’s meltdown that led to getting booted off a plane (see the entire list below).

But yesterday, it became part of one of America’s biggest pastimes: Football.

If you were watching the Super Bowl, you may have briefly seen Words With Friends creators and brothers Paul and David Bettner in a cameo performance during Best Buy’s commercial. The funniest part is that they get busted for playing on a plane.

In addition to Zynga, the commercial also noted other mobile innovations, including inventors from Shazam, Square and Instagram.

Words with Friends was acquired by Zynga through the purchase of Newtoy and is actually part of an entire franchise of games that includes Chess With Friends, Hanging With Friends and the latest addition, Scramble With Friends.

In Apple’s App Store for iPhone, Words With Friends has regularly been the leading game in the word category since 2010, until Hanging With Friends became the leading game in June 2011. In August 2011, Zynga released Words With Friends on Facebook, where it has continued to be one of Zynga’s top 10 most popular titles. Currently, it ranks sixth, with Hanging With Friends now placing at 10th.

In fact, the Words With Friends franchise as a whole likely represents the company’s most played titles, even if it doesn’t monetize as well as other social game titles, like FarmVille, Poker or CityVille. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

In recognition of Words With Friends and its appearance in the commercial, here’s Zynga’s list of the game’s biggest cultural moments:

1. In the words of Jamie Lee Curtis, waiting for a word is “like a young lover waiting for words from her beau.”
2. It’s credited for being a matchmaker and a flirt because strangers can play each other and chat.
3. It helped save lives (See Gizmodo story here.)
4. Celebrity couples do it every day (Alec Baldwin is the best example.)
5. It’s the subject of ‘rapper braggadocio’ — word up, Fabolous and Big Boi.
6. John Mayer tweeted, “Words With Friends is the new Twitter.”
7. Finally, people no longer have to think you’re talking about wrestling or pandas when you type WWF.
8. The New York Giants are fans. (See the WSJ story.)
9. It became an official FAA violation when one smart celeb got kicked off a flight. (See above.)
10. And finally, the game co-starred in a Superbowl XLVI commercial.

And here, if you missed it, is the commercial:

The commercial was originally supposed to be kept under wraps until game day, but Gawker Media’s car blog, Jalopnik, spoiled the surprise last Friday. Honda put the full ad on YouTube early this morning. Jalopnik says Honda hired “The Hangover” writer/director Todd Phillips to create it.

In the spot, Broderick reprises his role from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” calling in sick from work in Los Angeles, instead of from high school in Chicago. Instead of crooning a karaoke version of “Danke Schoen” during a parade, this time Broderick gets caught up in a Chinese New Year parade. His CR-V is taken for a joy ride, not by garage attendants, but by a valet parker at a posh restaurant.

Here’s the spot, for those of you that would rather just watch it. Maybe … nine times?

For the past 14 years, Shatner has been the company’s celebrity spokesperson, and for the past five years he has played the role of the “Priceline Negotiator,” a James Bond-like character who stops at nothing to help people find the best travel deals. The latest ad is a cliff-hanger, with Shatner apparently blown to smithereens aboard a plunging bus after giving the escaping passengers some quick travel booking tips.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based company said Shatner will remain under contract, but it’s unclear what will happen to him after his last deal.

Priceline said it decided to kill off the Negotiator character in order to focus on its fixed-price hotel inventory, which is its fastest-growing segment. It will continue to offer its Name Your Own Price hotel service.

The hotel-booking industry is constantly getting more competitive, with several new players, including Kayak, Google and a hotel-backed search service called Room Key.

While Priceline’s future commercials are expected to explore the aftermath of the bus crash, we’ll see if it gets that far. Right after the new ad started airing, the American Bus Association asked Priceline to pull the ad because it “damages the reputation of our industry.” And as for Shatner — well, maybe he transported off the bus just in time, or there was a rift in the time-space continuum, or somehow he managed the kind of escape that kept James T. Kirk going through umpteen shows and movies. Or maybe not.

Priceline’s stock fell 56 cents today to close at $518 a share.

Here’s a look at the new commercial:

In 2007, after its CEO, Antonio Perez, appeared on stage at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference, I was invited to visit the HQ of Kodak in Rochester, N.Y., to see up close the transition to a digital imaging company he was attempting.

At the time, I wrote:

“That shift has obviously been painful, including huge cuts in its employee base, due to the sharp decline of its market might. Since 2004, Kodak has cut its employee head count from about 64,000 to 30,600 as it has undergone a massive restructuring.”

Yesterday, Kodak gave up that effort and filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. Where it will go from here is anybody’s guess.

While the iconic company has tried to leverage its patent portfolio, suing Apple, HTC and Samsung, it needs more than just that as it seeks to remake its ailing business.

Here are the two videos I did with its execs of the ideas back then that obviously did not work out, as well as one of the classic “The Times of Your Life” commercials (I dare you not to tear up watching it, a potent memory of the emotional power Kodak once had over consumers):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120119/the-times-of-its-troubled-life-a-2007-visit-to-kodak-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120115/homeaway-packs-a-more-subtle-message-in-new-ad-campaign/ http://allthingsd.com/20120115/homeaway-packs-a-more-subtle-message-in-new-ad-campaign/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:00:13 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=163804 HomeAway hopes its new commercial, airing during today’s Golden Globes broadcast, will make its Super Bowl blunder a thing of the past.

The new campaign — set to the tune of “Let’s Stay Together,” by Al Green — is much more tame than last year’s ad. The 30-second spot focuses on creating family memories around campfires, swimming holes and hiking trails; memories that often can be made in or near homes — not in hotels.

HomeAway, which operates vacation-rentals marketplaces, including HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com, went out on a limb for its Super Bowl commercial last year. If the point was to generate buzz before filing for its initial public offering, it was a success.

But the Austin, Texas-based company ended up having to yank the ad after drawing criticism over a particularly disturbing image: In the commercial, a doll — which was obviously not a child — was thrown against a wall to demonstrate how cramped hotel rooms can be, compared to more spacious rental houses.

The updated — and more subtle — campaign will air in select markets during NBC’s broadcast of the 69th Golden Globe Awards. Following its debut, the spot will air on the Travel Channel, the Food Network, HGTV and other special promotions, including the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, the Academy Awards on Feb. 26 and the “Survivor” finale.

Second time’s the charm?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120115/homeaway-packs-a-more-subtle-message-in-new-ad-campaign/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111223/gogo-goes-for-ipo/ http://allthingsd.com/20111223/gogo-goes-for-ipo/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:57:32 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=156621 Another day, another IPO on the docket.

This time it’s GoGo Inc., maker of GoGo Inflight Internet service, which you’ve probably used at some point if you’ve ever accessed Wi-Fi during a flight.

The company is filing for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $100 million.

GoGo’s S-1 doesn’t say how many shares it plans to sell or at what price. But it does plan to trade under the stock symbol — you guessed it — GOGO.

There are currently 1,177 commercial airplanes offering Internet access through GoGo: That’s about 85 percent of North America’s Internet-enabled commercial aircraft.

According to the filing, GoGo’s consolidated revenue increased to $113.8 million from $60.1 million, a year-over-year increase of 89.3 percent in the nine-month period ending in September. Despite increasing revenue, the company still lost $25.8 million in the first nine months of 2011.

A large portion of GoGo’s revenue comes from its customers in the business aviation market, for which it provides both broadband connectivity and satellite-based communications systems. GoGo’s business aviation arm has sold approximately 6,000 ATG and satellite-based communications systems for private planes and has signed agreements with all of the largest fractional jet operators, according to the filing.

On the the commercial side, the company cites the emergence of the “connected lifestyle” for consumers, coupled with the projected growth of the worldwide travel market, as evidence of demand for its in-flight product. In 2010, there were approximately 2.7 billion scheduled passengers on commercial aircraft worldwide, with 630 million in the U.S. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of passengers worldwide is expected to grow to nearly 3 billion by 2012.

GoGo plans to expand internationally and to penetrate even more of the business aviation market, with the number of business jets in the North American and global business markets expected to grow by 8.3 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, by 2015.

One of Gogo’s biggest risks is its dependence on partnerships with North American airline fleets for about half of its consolidated revenue. Approximately 45 percent of its commercial airline revenue — generated within a nine-month period ending September 30, 2011 — was acquired through Delta Air Lines; approximately 18 percent came via GoGo’s partnership with American Airlines, whose parent company, AMR Corp., recently filed for bankruptcy.

The company also cites as risks the increasing demand for in-flight WiFi, and the possible incapacity to meet that demand, as well as the need to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies in network infrastructure.

Low on the risk list, though still worth noting, is that in June of 2006, Gogo purchased at auction a $31 million, exclusive 10-year license for three megahertz, air-to-ground spectrum, outbidding at the time JetBlue LiveTV LLC and a company called Space Data Spectrum Holdings. GoGo expects to renew that license, but the FCC could, in the future, decide to auction additional spectrum for ATG use that is not currently designated for that purpose.

Illinois-based GoGo Inc. was originally incorporated in Texas in June of 1991 as Aircell Inc., and later became Aircell Holdings Inc. On June 15 of this year, Aircell Holdings Inc. officially changed its name to Gogo Inc.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, UBS, Allen & Company, Evercore Partners and William Blair & Company are listed as the underwriters on the IPO filing.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111223/gogo-goes-for-ipo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111220/google-resigns-firefox-search-royalty-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20111220/google-resigns-firefox-search-royalty-deal/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:49:54 +0000 Liz Gannes http://allthingsd.com/?p=155488

Mozilla is set to announce that it has signed a new three-year agreement for Google to be the default search option in its Firefox browser.

It’s a critical renewal for the Silicon Valley software maker, since its earlier deal with the search giant has been a major source of revenue to date.

The companies said the specific terms of the commercial agreement are not being released. But, in 2010, Google contributed 84 percent of Mozilla’s $123 million in revenue.

A previous version of the arrangement had expired at the end of November. Mozilla said at the time that it was in “active negotiations” with Google.

The relationship has not been without some tension of late. Since the first search royalty deal was signed in 2008, Google’s own Chrome browser has become a significant competitor. Just last month, Chrome overtook Firefox in global usage for the first time, according to StatCounter. Both browsers — software which is used to navigate the Internet — have about 25 percent market share.

Mozilla also has partnerships with other search providers, including Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon and eBay.

Here’s the full announcement Mozilla will soon put out:

Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox

We’re pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google. This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years.

“Under this multi-year agreement, Google Search will continue to be the default search provider for hundreds of millions of Firefox users around the world,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla.

“Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come,” said Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Search, Google.

The specific terms of the commercial agreement are confidential and are not being released.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111220/google-resigns-firefox-search-royalty-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111201/viral-video-shrieking-monkeys-dont-make-good-gifts/ http://allthingsd.com/20111201/viral-video-shrieking-monkeys-dont-make-good-gifts/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:22:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=149066

This is a commercial, for sure, and it came from a PR pitch that begins with the words “shrieking monkeys.” But this video for a photo-books product made me laugh out loud.

And it was not only the shrieking monkey part. I also liked the nail-gun incident and the flaming robo-vac.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111201/viral-video-shrieking-monkeys-dont-make-good-gifts/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111125/circling-the-tv-ads-google-hawks-itself-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111125/circling-the-tv-ads-google-hawks-itself-video/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:34:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=147434

Google, which doesn’t do a lot of this kind of advertising, has posted a commercial on television for its social networking effort, Google+.

The search giant has done it before for its Chrome browser and other products, but it’s a rare occurrence. So, here’s the ad, which pushes the motto: “Sharing, but like real life. That’s a plus.”

The reference is to the onerous method of sorting all the various people in your life into “circles” as part of the service. While many find it exhausting (me!) to constantly be defining social relationships, it is apparently now a marketing plus.

Get it? Plus!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111125/circling-the-tv-ads-google-hawks-itself-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111123/shop-online-to-avoid-screaming-bieber-fever-on-black-friday-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111123/shop-online-to-avoid-screaming-bieber-fever-on-black-friday-video/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:32:33 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=147108

How did I miss this fantastic holiday commercial for Macy’s, featuring teen heartthrob and singing sensation Justin Bieber?

Called “Screamers,” it’s a very sly take on the proclivity of people to emit high-pitched utterances around the Biebs.

But this time, it works.

Adorkable all around:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111123/shop-online-to-avoid-screaming-bieber-fever-on-black-friday-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111027/aols-biz-dev-svp-and-strategy-chief-heads-to-spotify/ http://allthingsd.com/20111027/aols-biz-dev-svp-and-strategy-chief-heads-to-spotify/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:19:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=137184

Jared Grusd, AOL’s SVP of business development and chief of strategy, is leaving the New York Internet giant to work at Spotify, according to sources close to the situation.

At AOL, according to his bio, Grusd “oversees the organization responsible for all domestic and international strategic partnerships and commercial alliances for AOL and each of its operating units. He is also responsible for identifying and evaluating new corporate strategies and opportunities for the company.”

The marathon fiend and former Google exec — who held top legal-deal jobs there — also serves on AOL’s Executive Management Team.

It is not clear what the well-respected Grusd will be doing at the online music service, which has been expanding its executive ranks as it has moved aggressively into the U.S. market. But sources said it was a high-level position in New York.

Spotify recently hired former Clear Channel exec Gerrit Meier as GM of distribution and partnerships, reporting to U.S. head Ken Parks.

Spotify also just scooped up former AOL sales head Jeff Levick — another Google alum — as its chief advertising officer.

The departure of Grusd further thins out the exec ranks at AOL, which is still mired in a turnaround under the leadership of CEO Tim Armstrong (yes, he too is a former Googler!).

I lobbed a query into AOL PR for comment, and am awaiting news of my news.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111027/aols-biz-dev-svp-and-strategy-chief-heads-to-spotify/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110831/exclusive-mailchimp-buys-phil-kaplans-tiny-start-up-tinyletter/ http://allthingsd.com/20110831/exclusive-mailchimp-buys-phil-kaplans-tiny-start-up-tinyletter/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:58:01 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=115762

MailChimp, the Atlanta-based email marketing service, has bought TinyLetter, which is well-known entrepreneur Phil Kaplan’s most recent start-up.

While MailChimp focuses on more commercial clients — including AllThingsD — who want to send email newsletters and manage subscriber lists, TinyLetter is aimed at individuals who want similar services.

In an interview this morning, Kaplan said he sold the nine-month-old company, which he self-funded, in order to take advantage of MailChimp’s infrastructure and scaling capabilities.

He will remain an adviser to MailChimp, which now has about 950,000 newsletters, with about two billion emails sent monthly. It has 100 employees.

In contrast, TinyLetter has about 30,000 newsletters and sends out about one million emails a month.

Kaplan would not disclose terms of the acquisition deal, even though I asked him nicely several times. But the TinyLetter brand will remain.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110831/exclusive-mailchimp-buys-phil-kaplans-tiny-start-up-tinyletter/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110516/travelzoos-first-ever-tv-ad-campaign-aims-to-raise-its-profile-in-crowded-deals-space/ http://allthingsd.com/20110516/travelzoos-first-ever-tv-ad-campaign-aims-to-raise-its-profile-in-crowded-deals-space/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 13:00:57 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=5394 Travelzoo, which has one of the original deal sites, has launched its first-ever TV advertising campaign following in the footsteps of both Groupon and LivingSocial.

The three-week campaign is timed with the upcoming summer vacation season and is based on the 1980s hit “Hey Mickey.” The chorus, sung by a troupe of dancers, repeats the catchy phrase: “Top 20!! On Wednesday!!!”

For 12 years, the publicly held company has been sending subscribers a weekly email highlighting the top 20 travel deals. More recently, it has expanded into offering daily deals, but Groupon and LivingSocial have leapfrogged the company in terms of awareness–if not momentum.

The ad features what they are calling the “Travelzoo Top 20” dance, choreographed by Jennifer Hamilton, known for “Austin Powers,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” The commercial airs nationwide tonight on “Dancing with the Stars” and will run until the end of May.

It will be paired with a Facebook contest called “Let’s Get the Nation to Dance for its Vacation,” which requires entrants to learn the dance routine (including a lot of shoulder shrugging) and upload their a video for a chance to win a vacation. The contest runs until June 1.

Both Groupon and LivingSocial kicked off their first advertising campaigns during the Super Bowl. Groupon’s now infamous commercials were yanked after consumers found them distasteful and offensive. Groupon has yet to relaunch its ad campaign, while LivingSocial has evolved its ads to something that also includes a lot of dancing and singing.

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