Advertising & Marketing

Microsoft is trying to persuade politicians to take out targeted ads on Xbox Live, Skype, MSN and other company platforms as midterm elections begin heating up around the country. To plug the idea, Microsoft officials handed out promotional materials Thursday at CPAC, the annual conference for conservatives. It’s the latest move by tech companies to Continue Reading →

Since employees are one of the most expensive lines on most P&Ls and have a significant impact on revenue and profitability, entrepreneurs must personally take responsibility for hiring employees. As a journalism major who worked as a newspaper reporter for a short time, I find that the core journalism questions can help with most decisions, Continue Reading →

Sorry to burst your high-flying dreams, but Funny or Die is behind HUVr, the mysterious tech company claiming to have invented the first hoverboard. The truth behind this massive viral campaign came out after a costume designer who worked on the shoot posted the experience on her online resume, which has now been removed. The Continue Reading →

I love viral marketing. There’s something awesome about a company bucking the traditional path of advertising their product and going in a completely new direction. Whether you’re pushing a hit TV show, deodorant or a pointless movie remake, there’s something inherently charming to me about doing your own thing. (EDIT: It turns out the campaign Continue Reading →

Overstock.com has surpassed $1 million in sales generated from Bitcoin transactions. The retailer partnered with Coinbase on January 9 to let consumers purchase items with the digital currency, meaning the milestone was achieved in less than two months. As you can see in the charts above shared by Coinbase, more than 4,000 customers made purchases Continue Reading →

Dish has agreed to restrict the ability of its Hopper DVR to automatically skip over ads when Dish customers watch ABC shows, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The agreement comes as part of a larger retransmission deal that will continue to give Dish the ability to carry broadcast and cable networks Continue Reading →

Microsoft is planning to use pop-up warnings to entice Windows XP users to upgrade. The software maker is ending support of XP on April 8th, and will start distributing notices next week to machines running the 12-year-old operating system. Pop-up warnings will appear on March 8th following the monthly patch cycle of Windows Update, and Continue Reading →

The first thing you want to do? Start with a quick opening line so people pay attention. Then, you can make the next paragraph a bit longer and fill it with details pertinent to your topic. It’s important to remember online readers increasingly have shorter and shorter attention spans. So even if you have a Continue Reading →

Reddit on Friday announced plans to donate 10 percent of its advertising revenue receipts in 2014 to 10 non-profits chosen by its own community. The company says no ad revenue will go excluded: everything from a $5 sponsored headline to a large ad campaign will be added together before one tenth is donated. Reddit will Continue Reading →

If you ask the professionals, the best restaurants in America are fancy-pants establishments like Alinea in Chicago, the French Laundry in Napa Valley, and Le Bernardin in New York, where a meal will set you back hundreds of dollars per person. But if you ask the foodies on the customer-reviews site Yelp.com, you’ll get a Continue Reading →