Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang received a base salary of just $1 during 2007, according to an April 29 regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission:

“Mr. Yang is a founder and one of the Company’s largest stockholders based on beneficial ownership of the Company’s common stock during 2007. Given the value of Mr. Yang’s existing equity stake in the Company and the fact that a substantial portion of Mr. Yang’s net worth is dependent upon the value of the Company’s common stock, the Compensation Committee and Mr. Yang agreed that it would be appropriate to pay him a base salary of $1 for his services to the Company during 2007. Mr. Yang did not receive an annual bonus or long-term equity incentive grant from the Company during 2007.”

In preparation for the May 12 pricing change, the US Postal service is now selling denominated 42-cent stamps in coils of 100, 3,000, and 10,000. The coils can be purchased at US Post Offices and online at shop.usps.com.

According to the USPS, this is the “first time ever” denominated stamp coils have been sold prior to a pricing change.

In response to “numerous inquiries” about Google’s first quarter results, comScore’s Andrew Lipsman blogged again yesterday about why the paid click data released by the Internet research company differed from Google’s:

The main difference between the paid clicks trends reported by Google and comScore can be traced to the fact that the comScore paid click data cited in financial analysts’ reports (and subsequently reported by the media) are U.S. data only. Analysts’ efforts to use comScore’s domestic data to estimate Google’s global trends were misguided. In fact, a detailed analysis by comScore of the global paid click data publicly reported by Google indicates that Google’s U.S. trends are:

1) Weaker than their global trends, but

2) Are consistent with comScore’s U.S. paid click data

It also needs to be noted that comScore does not currently provide a measurement of global paid click data and has never claimed that its U.S. data can be used to “predict” global trends. In fact, in late February, comScore posted on its blog a warning of the potential misuse of its U.S. paid click if used to predict Google’s first quarter global financial results. Unfortunately, despite this, many in the financial community and in the media have chosen to do otherwise.

See the comScore post entitled Reconciling comScore’s and Google’s Paid Click Data Part 2: It’s the U.S. versus the World for more on the topic.

People have been talking about mobile for the past few years, but it seems like there has been a lot more action taking place in the past few months. At ad:tech this year I noticed a lot more mobile vendors exhibiting and a number of panels dedicated exclusively to this medium. At this morning’s panel “What can mobile do for you? A Mobile Marketing Primer,” Chris Murphy, director of digital marketing at adidas USA shared some of his experiences  using the mobile device to promote his brand and to sell shoes. The mobile device is key to a young audience,  and it seems like more and more marketers are doing it. I had a call this morning with McDonald’s on the very topic.
And while it is not new, it was good to see some mobile players on the show floor yesterday –the MMA, Mobile Messenger and mobileStorm touting best practices and mobile marketing platforms. For anyone looking for the low down in mobile marketing (excuse my self promotion), check out my special feature on mobile in this week’s issue of DMNews.
http://www.dmnews.com/Mobile-rising/article/108808/

If you launch an ad network, throw a party at ad:tech and people will notice. Both Datran Media and the Rubicon Project followed this rule and it seemed to work. Datran took the early road –dinner, shots of tequila and dirty jokes—and the Rubicon Project picked up the action with a post dining soiree –trapeze acts, a great DJ and more shots of tequila.

So what is all the celebrating about? For Datran Media it is the establishment of its new ad network division the Aperture Network, a predictive targeting  technology that combines transaction-based behavioral data and demographic data– including e-mail data. This very much keeps in the theme of personalization that has been uttered throughout ad:tech.

The Rubicon Project is also trying to make online ads more personal with the launch of its new free ad server for Web site publishers. The new server is designed for publishers looking to manage multiple ad networks in one platform.

Interestingly, this firm was founded by Frank Addante, an early member of StrongMail, one of the sponsors of tonight’s party. It seems that the combination of e-mail and ad networks is something to drink tequila to…

There is a certain amount of cliché around your friendly neighborhood mailman, donning a cap and summer shorts while strolling by whitewashed fences. However, it is difficult to deny that letter carriers play an important role in any American community. Certainly, mailers that are investing in quality paper and postage know the channel is trusted, in part because of its physical presence and hand-delivered nature.
The latest in heartwarming USPS news comes from McCausland, IA, where the American Postal Workers Union recently donated $30,000 to renovate the town’s lone post office The 300 residents of the town raised a total of $55,000 through bake sales, hog roasts and soup suppers to pay for the wiring, plumbing, heating, and cooling needed for repairs. Town funds contributed an additional $55,000 to purchase the building.
Four years ago, the building was closed because of mold contamination and the “temporary” post office did not meet USPS standards and was due to close on April 25.

The ad:tech awards this year came with a fun party at Mezzanine. The food and drinks were flowing and the agency winners were dancing late, all in their freshly won trucker hats –a part of the trophy.

Some of the 2008 Limelight AwardWinners that stood out…

Best Banner Ad: WaMu Friendly Banner, Avenue A | Razorfish

Best Interactive Broadcast Ad: Nissan Rogue Campaign, TBWA\Chiat\Day\Tequila

Best Large Format or Overlay Ad: Assassin’s Creed Roadblock, AKQA

Best Next Generation Ad: HEMA Rube Goldberg Viral, CCCP

Best Use of Rich Media: HP Gwen Stefani Yahoo Paper Dolls, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign: Moosejaw - Growth and Profit, Schaaf Consulting

Best Branding Campaign: eBay – Renew & Rethink, Agency.com

Best Business-to-Business Campaign: EyeWonder Client Testimonials, EyeWonder

Best Consumer Campaign: Nokia Jealous Computers, These Days

Best Direct Response Campaign: Soccer Club Sells Seats with DRC, eStara

Best Email Marketing Campaign: Sun APAC Re-engagement, Acxiom Digital

Best Integrated Campaign: Heinz Top This TV Challenge Website, Smith Brothers Agency

Best Mobile Campaign: Motorola “Say Goodbye”, The Hyperfactory & Ogilvy

Best Multi-Cultural Campaign: Vivemejor, Media 8 Digital Marketing

Best Social Media Marketing Campaign: Bamboo on Facebook, Guerilla PR

Best Word of Mouth Campaign: Elf Yourself, EVB & Toy

Best Campaign Optimization: Lincoln Educational Services, iCrossing

The retail industry’s woes are getting hard not to notice. DMNews reported on Monday about the financial industry’s growing lack of confidence in catalog and multichannel retail operations, forcing some, like BlueSky Brands, to close while others, such as Red Envelope, recently warned that they may have to cease operations. Yesterday, the New York Times had its own report about the growing wave of bankruptcies among retailers, pointing out that while the trend may have started with smaller retail companies like Sharper Image, which recently filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy protection, it is quickly spreading to larger, national chains such as Linens & Things. Like our story, the NYT report also points to the banks’ contributing role in these bankruptcy filings.
In the Linens & Things example, however, the financiers appears to be willing to work with the retail chain for now. Linens & Things said yesterday that it has delayed a $16.1 million interest payment while it discusses a capital restructuring with creditors that could help it avoid bankruptcy. The retail chain also said its lenders have agreed to delay exercising their right to stop making loans to the company. Linens & Things has blamed the combined effects of the credit crunch, the housing downturn and the slowdown in consumer spending for its financial woes.
What do you think will determine which multichannel merchants will survive this current environment and which ones won’t?

In a call for “a modern agency,” digital agency leaders questioned what I’ve been questioning myself for the past few weeks: What will — and what should — the modern agency look like? Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, moderated the panel and shared the stage with Greg Smith, senior partner and COO of Neo@Ogilvy, Grant McDougall, EVP at Carat and Tom Bedecarre, CEO at AKQA, weighed in on this weighty matter.

“Many clients are frustrated by the current agency construct,” Kingdon pointed out, adding that clients are often frustrated by having to referee when various agencies work on an integrated campaign.

Bedecarre said he believes the separation between digital and traditional agencies is obsolete; that some of the best digital work he’s seen, for example, has come from traditional agencies.

Smith added that while the creative work may be changing, and agencies are taking on more of a consulting model and tasks that they haven’t been asked to do before, there is still the same agency structure.

He also pointed out that it is CMOs themselves that need to change, because it is younger CEO’s — both physically and in terms of attitude — that are open to new types of media.

At an early afternoon press briefing, over boxed lunches and plenty of press releases, eight Ad:Tech exhibiting companies were given the opportunity to spout for five minutes about their latest news. While each company spoke eloquently about their mostly equally-interesting technologies, the newsworthiness of the briefing was probably highest in what they all had in common: A goal to provide their clients with better targeting and personalization opportunities in terms of connecting with consumers.
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Digital out-of-home advertising provider SeeSaw Networks, for example, touted its partnership with mobile social platform LocaModa as a new way to engage consumers at social places like bars and restaurants and then encourage them to interact on social networks through their mobile phones. Ad:Tech diamond sponsor (and therefore ubiquitous) AdShuffle offered up its online ad and landing page optimization technology to lower cost-per-acquisition. Ion interactive introduced its iPhone-optimized landing pages to better target the mobile user. And Linkstorm put targeting in the hands of the consumer with its Banner Xpander, which overlays cascading menus onto banner ads, allowing users to quickly locate products on a Web site instead of clicking through a dozen pages to find what they want.
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And the theme of targeting and personalization didn’t stop there — my meeting with Robert Bergquist, president of Widemile, over a cup of green tea was a fascinating education into the world of optimization, which ultimately seems like Web analytics on steroids to me.
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As a first time Ad:Tech-er, it’s a bit hard for me to figure out who is at the top of their game and who is just following the herd. But maybe it’s hard for anyone to figure that out — your insight is welcome!