Daily Buzz 7/20

Publicity-hungry celebrities are a driving force behind social media, especially on Twitter, where the top tweeters include Lady Gaga with nearly 12 million followers, Justin Bieber with 11 million, and Kim Kardashian with eight million.
Indeed, a rush of celebrities signing on to Twitter in early 2009 corresponds to the period when the site’s U.S. traffic exploded, according to comScore data.
Yet today they receive no direct compensation for the content they place on Twitter or Facebook, where Lady Gaga has accumulated more than 40 million fans.
That provides an opening that Google would be smart to exploit.
Given recently launched Google+, with over 10 million users, still is small compared with Twitter or Facebook, it might seem a tough sell to attract stars to the platform. (www.wsj.com)

This summer, kids TV programmers are a little boy crazy. That’s because boys watch more animated series than girls and represent a lucrative sales opportunity for videogames, toys and sports merchandise.
Disney is staking a company-wide effort to attract 6- to 11-year-old boys on teal-hued Perry the Platypus—a departure for a company known for princesses and “Hannah Montana.”
Starting Sept. 1, Perry will make a guest appearance on some four million packages of Nesquik, replacing Nestlé’s Nesquik bunny.
And he is the focal point of a promotional tour of a 4,000-pound Airstream trailer converted into a “platy-bus”; fans can climb aboard and play 3-D videogames set for release with the Aug. 5 premiere of Disney’s TV movie “Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension.” (www.wsj.com)

International Sports Management officials are planning to launch an “all-out effort to maximise” British Open winner Darren Clarke’s potential off-course earnings, according to Karl MacGinty of the Irish INDEPENDENT.
Clarke’s sponsorship portfolio “shrank as he slid out of world golf’s upper echelon in recent years, leaving Chandler with a clear field in which to work.”
Larry Dorman reports Clarke will receive a “more than $3 million bonus from the apparel division of the sporting goods company Dunlop, whose logo Clarke has been wearing on the front of his golf shirt since 2008 in an unusual agreement.” (www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

Steelers RB Rashard Mendenhall yesterday filed suit against Hanesbrands, “asking for more than $1 million in damages” after the company’s Champion brand terminated his endorsement deal in May, according to Darren Rovell of CNBC.com. (www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

Competition from Google hasn’t stopped Apple’s iPhone and iPad from selling at impressive rates, according to the earnings report the company released Tuesday. Just as important, Apple executives painted a picture of a thriving app marketplace where developers are making a significant amount of money.
In the quarter ending June 25, Apple said it sold 20.34 million iPhones (up 142 percent from a year ago) and 9.25 million iPads (up 183 percent). Those sales helped Apple reach $28.57 billion in revenue and $7.31 billion in profit—chief executive Steve Jobs called it “our best quarter ever” in the report. (www.adweek.com)

Another quarter, another less-than-stellar report from Yahoo. While executives at Apple spent Tuesday afternoon blowing away analysts with reports of yet another record-breaking performance, CEO Carol Bartz and CFO Tim Morse used their quarterly conference call to explain why they were reporting a mixed bag of “good,” “encouraging” and “unsatisfactory” results.
While the company said net earnings per diluted share were up 18 percent to $0.18, compared to $0.15 in the second quarter of 2010, they said revenue fell 5 percent from the second quarter of 2010 to $1.08 billion. In after-hours trading, the stock dropped about 2 percent to $14.29. On the call, Bartz said the company made progress in search and engagement on its media properties, but took some hits in U.S. display ad revenue. (www.adweek.com)

Video streaming service Hulu, which is currently in the process of wooing potential bidders, is sweetening the deal: the site is planning to offer suitors five years of access to shows from its media company owners (Fox, Disney, and NBCU), including two years of exclusivity, Bloomberg reports.
According to the agreement, TV networks would still be allowed to post shows to their own sites during the exclusivity period, and there would also be exceptions for on-demand services offered by pay-TV networks. Details of the rights and other financial data will be given to bidders who sign a non-disclosure agreement. Amazon and Microsoft, both in the running as buyers, are unlikely to bid without guaranteed access to the owners’ shows, sources said.
So far, Hulu’s bankers Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim partners have met with 10 to 12 potential buyers, sources said. Those include the aforementioned Amazon and Microsoft, as well as Google, Yahoo, and AT&T. (www.adweek.com)

It seems that Facebook’s biggest threat these days isn’t necessarily Google + but itself. According to the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) e-business report, the social network is the least-loved major website on the Internet.
The annual study, founded at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and published in partnership with analytics firm Foresee Results, tracks customer satisfaction across three categories of e-business: social media, portals and search engines, and online news. This year’s report, released today, is the twelfth of its kind.
While Facebook’s score increased 3 percent (from 64 percent last year to 66 percent this year), it still came in last in the social media category and in the overall index. With a score of 78 percent, Wikipedia topped the social media category, followed by YouTube at 74 percent. According to the study, MySpace dropped off the index because it doesn’t have enough users for a statistically significant sample. (www.adweek.com)

Fast food restaurant Boston Pizza has become an official sponsor of the UFC in Canada. The company is already the official sports bar and pizza of the UFC in Canada and the new deal extends their contract to include a series of promotional opportunities. UFC events will be shown live in Boston Pizza outlets.
“As a brand that focuses on giving our guests more of what they want, we are thrilled to be partnering with UFC Canada to give the many dedicated MMA fans who watch live events at our restaurants the best possible experience,” said Steve Silverstone, executive vice president of marketing, Boston Pizza International. “The UFC has built an incredible brand with passionate fans and we’re excited to have it associated with Boston Pizza sports bars.” (www.sportspromedia.com)

Chipotle must be doing something right, though it came up short based on Wall Street’s expectations for the hot brand.
The company’s second-quarter same-store sales were up 10%, and net income was up 9% to $50.7 million, vs. the year-ago period. Total revenue for the quarter was $571.6 million, up 22.4%.
But while the chain reported strong results, the company’s profits missed Wall Street’s expectations. Earnings per share for the quarter was $1.59, missing analyst’s expectations. The average of 21 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for estimated profit of $1.67 per share. (www.adage.com)