Internet marketing made easy

Barack Obama’s campaign spent over $3 million on TV ads in one state on Monday.

He’s spent about double that on the Web since January.

So on Monday, I sent an RFP out to half a dozen e-mail service providers. By Tuesday, all but one had gotten back to me. By phone.

As McCain-running mate Sarah Palin pairs Barack Obama with “domestic terrorists,” the Obama camp is flinging mud right back. The campaign is counteracting the William Ayers-related attacks, while dredging up John McCain’s Keating 5 past.

It’s evident by now that the credit crisis will cast a pall over the ad sector, but how bad will it get? One indicator of the future health of the space is the abundance of venture capital. Are any marketing technology start-ups still boasting new funding rounds?

ClickZ couldn’t resist an offer from Dan Solomon, CEO of interactive communications firm Virilion, to examine online marketing lessons from the 2008 campaign for U.S. president.

I meant to post about this earlier, but remember way back when on Friday night when, during the presidential debate, John McCain mentioned a study costing taxpayers $3 million to study bear DNA as an example of pork-barrel spending? “I don’t know if that was a criminal issue or a paternal issue, but the fact is that it was $3 million of our taxpayers’ money. And it has got to be brought under control,” he quipped.

The clock is ticking on the great Google-Yahoo search union of 2008, yet new hurdles keep rising up. The latest challenge: Canada’s Department of Justice has retained a big name litigator, David Kent, to look into the deal’s underpinnings.

Updated: The curtain went up last night on MySpace Music, a joint venture with major labels and indie distributor the Orchard to provide free ad-supported music streaming.

Yahoo’s taking it from all sides over its impending search ad partnership with Google. The latest group to complain is The World Federation of Advertisers, which has requested that the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition block the deal. The organization of organizations believes it will be a detriment to competition and increase ad prices worldwide.

Congratulations are in order for my colleagues over at the event programming team at Search Engine Strategies (SES) and Search Engine Watch who’ve been promoted.