MySpace's New Self-Serve Ads Blur Boundaries Between User Profil

http://www.beet.tv/2008/09/myspace-launche.html

Yesterday night MySpace launched its Self-Serve Ad Service, which will allow MySpace users to post advertisements directing viewers to their profile pages. Nick O'Neill at Social Times writes that the service seems to be targeted toward musicians, but its a tool companies can take advantage of as well. Major advertisers are creating profile pages for their products, termed branded communities, to make their advertising social, MySpace SVP of Marketing, Entertainment and Content Angela Courtin told me at the Omma Global conference last week.

Self-serve advertisers have to pay only for each click on their ad rather than each impression, so it will be relatively cheap for whoever decides to use it, whether a band, small business, or major advertiser trying to direct traffic to a branded experience.

Self-Serve Ads could help further integrate advertising into the social community by blurring the boundaries between user profiles and branded profiles. We're not sure how this will impact user experience, but it's certainly a win for advertisers.

In this segment, Courtin discusses various other types of advertising and social advertising available on MySpace.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer