Yahoo’s Bartz Promises Movement on Ad Products and Revenue

Yahoo’s Carol Bartz hinted at new offerings for CPG advertisers and the long-awaited transition to the APT ad serving platform this morning at the company’s annual meeting for investors. Repeating the firm’s recent “science, art, and scale” mantra, Bartz promised investors the company will deliver when it comes to driving revenue and better monetizing ad inventory.  Bartz said Yahoo has been actively marketing its display offerings to advertisers and agencies, but more surprising, said the firm has been running product tests on behalf of consumer packaged goods advertisers. She hinted that Yahoo is helping CPG advertisers better understand how online activity informs real-world shopping behavior.  “We’re very, very immersed with some customers in how to marry the online/offline experience,” she told the investor audience. “CPG is getting very interested in these things,” she continued, adding that Yahoo can set up product sample trials at scale with two million consumers rapidly. “We’re out there testing that; we’re out there marketing it,” she said.  Bartz also hinted the company will unveil new display ad capabilities later today during the investor event. “You are going to see special creativity, special art for online advertising,” she said. “Not enough creativity has gone into what the medium will allow,” said Bartz, lamenting that currently online advertising is not creative enough and often simply mimics print or other media creative.

Read More: ClickZ

Zynga Teams With Yahoo On Social Games

Highlighting efforts to ease its reliance on Facebook, social game company Zynga Wednesday announced a partnership with Yahoo to offer its games throughout the Web portal’s network including the home page, Yahoo Games and Yahoo Mail.  The deal comes on the heels of a new five-year agreement that Zynga struck last week with Facebook, where it operates hugely popular games like “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars” that have aided the social network’s growth.  But relations between the companies have more recently become strained over Facebook’s plan to take a 30% cut of revenue from Zynga’s sales, forcing it to use Facebook’s virtual currency in applications. Zynga had reportedly also considered leaving Facebook altogether to launch its own social gaming network.  Terms of the Facebook-Zynga deal were not disclosed. But by pursuing more outside distribution deals with major sites like Yahoo, boasting 600 million monthly users, Zynga can presumably expand its user base beyond Facebook.

Read More: MediaPost

Wired Introduces Adobe-Built IPad Edition

Wired magazine has introduced its much-anticipated iPad edition, a slick $4.99 app that was built by Adobe in a 10-month development process despite Apple’s midstream ban on software written with Adobe Flash. Adobe wound up writing the code in Objective-C, an Apple-approved language.  At first look, the app, an enhanced version of the June issue, appears to push magazines further toward their potential on tablet computers. That’s partly because the graphics that play a big part in Wired’s print edition lend themselves to interaction and animation, but the app also introduces some elements that other magazines can readily adopt.   Readers can slide their fingers on certain pages to see a Lego Lamborghini assembled brick by brick, for example, or to rotate Mars and pull up information on the spacecraft that have landed at different spots on its surface. Video could show the same progressions, but touch control seems more involving.

Read More: AdAge