Interpublic Group

Oscar Night Means a Torrent of Twittering. Trendrr Gets Ready to Tally It Up.

Peter Kafka in Media on February 26 at 9:39 am PT

Like the Super Bowl and the Grammys, tonight’s Academy Awards will generate a flood of social media commentary — and lots of work for the start-ups trying to track all of that.

Make the Rent Check Out to "Google"

Peter Kafka in Media on December 3, 2010 at 4:24 am PT

See? Google isn’t a one-trick pony, after all: The search giant is going to become a landlord, after spending $1.9 billion on a building that takes up an entire New York City block. One interesting tenant: Spotify.

Wanted: Online Ad Sales Heads for Both Yahoo and Microsoft

Kara Swisher in News on March 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm PT

Even though they are two of the Internet’s largest advertising businesses, both Yahoo and Microsoft are without top execs to lead those units. Worse, both are just entering a complex online ad sales and search partnership together, which will require a lot of management firepower. Yahoo’s main online ad sales head just left and Microsoft has been searching for one for a year now. So, here’s the skinny on who is in the running.

Weekend Update 10.31.09–Heartbreaks, Heartthrobs and Heart Attacks

Drake Martinet in News on October 31, 2009 at 12:10 pm PT

BoomTown’s week began onstage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, Kara wasn’t filling in for Oprah; she was doing something much cooler.

Whoops! Are Reports of the Ad Recovery Greatly Exaggerated?

Peter Kafka in Media on October 28, 2009 at 7:55 pm PT

Here’s the counterpoint to Publicis’s mildly optimistic take on the ad market yesterday: Rival ad-holding company Interpublic Group’s report, which is mildly pessimistic. But the takeaway is the same: If things get better, anyone who’s not Google won’t see much real sign of it until next year.

The Shocking Spot Runner Lawsuit Vs. the BoomTown Video of CEO Nick Grouf in Happier Days

Kara Swisher in News on April 20, 2009 at 10:33 am PT

As everyone knows by this morning, Spot Runner–the heavily-funded and once-hyped online-offline advertising agency–is being sued by one of its more prominent investors. Ad behemoth WPP essentially paints an ugly picture of Spot Runner as the Bernie Madoff of Web 2.0. It is alleging in a lawsuit that Spot Runner, in a “pump and dump” scheme, sold over $54 million in “secondary” shares to line its own pockets without telling WPP much, all while losing money, running out of funding and not building a sustainable business. Here’s the background and also an interview BoomTown did with CEO and co-founder Nick Grouf in better days.

Advertising Giant IPG: We’ll Admit It–The Ad Market Doesn’t Look That Great

Peter Kafka in Media on October 28, 2008 at 7:01 am PT

The third-quarter results of ginormous advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group are out, and they’re really not that bad, considering that both the overall economy and the ad business have been sinking for most of the year. But, as has become all too common in the sector: There are warnings of rocky seas ahead.