SHAWN GOLD has resigned as SVP of Marketing and Content Development at MYSPACE to form consulting firm SOCIAL APPROACH. In an interview with Shelly Palmer at Digital Hollywood in LA, Shawn confirmed a rumor that was posted to paidcontent.org last week and said the new company plans to “help brands take advantage of social media messaging, distribution and communications.” Gold is very bullish on MySpace and won’t vacate his position until mid-November.
GOOGLE will soon launch OpenSocial, a set of API’s that will allow developers to create applications that are compatible with any social network that chooses to participate. Developers can write an app just once using standard computer languages and have it automatically translated into a specific network’s language – with support for universal concepts such as contacts, profiles and events. OpenSocial goes live on Thursday with support from LinkedIn, Ning, Plaxo, Salesforce, Friendster, Oracle, and (of course) Google-owned Orkut.
NBC UNIVERSAL has signed a deal with IGA WORLDWIDE to sell in-game advertising. The arrangement will allow NBC U Digital Media to offer advertising clients packages with multi-platform solutions. IGA claims in-game ads will grow at an annual rate of 33% for the next five years.
AOL is expanding a TACODA campaign to educate consumers about targeted advertising. The campaign will attempt to explain the underlying technology and even offer a product that will allow users to block the company’s targeted ads permanently. AOL believes transparency and openness will lead to greater acceptance by consumers.
FOX has sold about 90% of spots available for this year’s Super Bowl months ahead of schedule. 30-second spots are going for as much as $2.7 million, which will include featured placement on MySpace during the game. Advertisers will also get the chance to parade their spokespersons into the stadium on a new red carpet pre-show hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Automakers, movie studios, and interactive companies have made up a large percentage of early buyers.