ChasNote

From Ad Age.

“Hollywood’s oldest talent shop, the 110-year-old William Morris Agency, is partnering with a triumvirate of digital media, wireless and advertising executives to create a joint venture called Agency 3.0, a digital-marketing-services company seeking to marry digital technology to strategically developed content….

“In an interview with Ad Age, Mr. Johnson said TV advertising ‘is becoming less effective,’ in part because ‘it’s highly disconnected from the creative process.

“His partners’ new venture aims to ‘bring the ad dollars that much closer to the creative process,’ Mr. Johnson said.

Smart idea and an impressive team. I bet, though, they will come to regret that name.

Intel has underwritten the launch of a version of PopURLs dedicated to enterprise IT content, PopURLs Blue. Another great example of Intel’s strategy to sponsor product enhancements at existing third-party brands that already reach their customers, like the launch of Digg Images, Digg’s Arc visualization widget, and a better music experience for My Space members.

Coinciding with the launch of a new sponsorship program on Boing Boing (Microsoft’s sponsorship of mobile posts), Boing Boing founder and editor Mark Frauenfelder explains how his site can accept ads without corrupting the site’s editorial integrity. Turns out, the approach at Boing Boing is a lot like the approach at NY Times, the BBC and CNN.

Silicon Alley Insider, another site featuring Microsoft-sponsored mobile posts, uses the “map it” feature to help their readers crash a formerly hush-hush advertiser party.

Another site puts Microsoft-sponsored mobile post widget to good use, RealTravel.

Looking to bask in the glow of audiences whose experiences are improved by sponsors, Microsoft has rolled out “mobile post” technology across 20 FM sites, such as Duct Tape Marketing, Stowe Boyd and Open Road TV. It’s great to see marketers making the effort to add value to the media experience.

The project team on the above includes Matt Nessier and Patrick O’Neil at Universal McCann; Jared Katzman, Josh Mattison, Marcia Simmons, Stephanie Loleng, Andy Yang, Nate Vogel, Ivan Kanevski, Frank Leahy and Matt Jessell at FM; and many content-creating members of the extended FM family such as Stowe Boyd, John Jantsch and Doug McConnell.