________________________Advertising_________________________ => ENGAGE LOWERS BOOM -- Accipiter pricing is reduced by 50% => ADKNOWLEDGE/DOUBLECLICK PARTNER -- ClickWise becomes DART => RICH MEDIA -- Pacific Bell's DSL gives rich media a boost

______________________Opinion/Rumors________________________ => The Jacobyte -- Zip2, 24/7 swallows CLIQNOW!, Goodcompany

________________________Advertising_________________________

ENGAGE LOWERS BOOM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Engage Technologies has reduced the pricing of Accipiter AdManager by 50 percent, a pricing move that's certain to cause major ripple effects in the ad-management arena. The table below shows what a typical site might pay before and after the price decrease:

------------------------------------------------------------ - Before-and-After Price Comparison of Accipiter AdManager - Version Daily Ads Served Before After ------------------------------------------------------------ Lite <100,000 $17,000 $ 8,500 platinum 2+ million 89,000 44,500 source: jun. 1998 engage technologies

Standard support costs are 18 percent (premium support: 25 percent), plus $1,500 per day for training. So, an average Platinum customer might have paid $108,000 ($89,000 plus $16,000 support and two training days). Now, the same customer would pay $55,500, a significant cost savings.

When asked whether increased competition from ad service bureaus motivated the pricing decision, Accipiter CEO, Chris Evans, tells ICONOCAST: "There is still a lot of interest in running server software locally." IMGIS vice president of marketing, Michael Tanne, counters that "selling [ad-management] software is a no-win situation."

"We are approaching realistic pricing," says Astrology.Net co-founder and CEO, David Fox, who has been looking for an ad-management solution for his three-million impression site for the past few months with no luck.

With NetGravity on an IPO roadshow and AdKnowledge entering a strategic partnership with DoubleClick (see below), Chris Evans remarks: "From a competitive standpoint this really changes the landscape."

ADKNOWLEDGE/DOUBLECLICK PARTNER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AdKnowledge announced that it will, from now on, only focus on the "buy" side of the ad-management equation. To that end, the company formed a strategic partnership with rival DoubleClick and will incentivize its existing 50 ClickWise customers to transition over to DoubleClick's DART system.

The companies will work together to streamline the process of buying Internet advertising by more tightly integrating DART with AdKnowledge's MarketMatch and SmartBanner, which, AdKnowledge claims, are in use at more than 100 agencies.

There's no question that DoubleClick stands to gain most from this partnership. The company will be able to add 50 "90 percent" prospects to its 220 client roster, while AdKnowledge, who inherited a flawed ClickWise product from ClickOver, is relegated to playing DART "front-end."

"This deal is all about companies having to blend sales with ad management," says Real Media president Dave Morgan. "There's not enough revenue on either side to support a business, so you need both."

=> http://www.adknowledge.com/News/980603.pr.dc.html

RICH MEDIA ~~~~~~~~~~ The argument for richer media got a big boost last week from Pacific Bell's announcement that it would begin rollout of DSL [Digital Subscriber Line, better known as ADSL] in 200 California communities within the next few months. The new service, priced at $89 for 384 Kbps and $339 for 1.5 Mbps, promises real-time delivery of video files:

------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Download Time Comparison of Analog modems and ADSL ---- Video 28.8Kbps 384 Kbps ------------------------------------------------------------ Video length 15 seconds 15 seconds File size 5.6MB 5.6MB Time to download 197 seconds 15 seconds ------------------------------------------------------------ Source: Jun. 1998 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE JACOBYTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Two job-related items. Greg Stuart needs 10 people fast! He's interested in any marketing, business development or ad sales types who would like to live in Chicago (OK, not all at once everybody!). Auto, newspaper or Internet experience folks should send their resumes to: greg@cars.com.

The Jacobyte

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Michael Tchong is editor of The Iconocast, an e-mailed newsletter. He may be reached at michael@iconocast.com

Copyright 1998 Cowles New Media