IAR Bits and Bytes

Warner Bros. Trots Out Web Campaign for Film

Warner Bros. Pictures is throwing millions behind its release of the summer comedy “Cats & Dogs,” although that figure likely won’t include extensive promotion the studio is launching with fellow AOL Time Warner companies.

Cartoon Network will host movie content like character profiles and a “Cats & Dogs” poll, in addition to a banner ad campaign designed to drive traffic to the official movie site, www.catsanddogsmovie.com. Similarly, sister broadcast network Kids’ WB is launching a Web poll and will carry similar promotions.

Time, Inc.-owned Entertainment Weekly will deliver promotional emails to members of EW.com, while AOL Instant Messenger will feature ads promoting the film.

The main non-AOL feature of the online campaign consists of an eBay auction, in which the studio is auctioning off prints of the film’s “actors” and their voice counterparts.

Avenue A Shutters London Office

Seattle-based online marketing firm Avenue A said it’s closing its 10-month old London office.

The move is aimed at reducing international expenses to focus on U.S. clients. The unit had about 16 employees, and will finish up current client assignments.

The company also said that it would provide “updated financial guidance” during its second quarter conference call late next month.

Enliven Expands Flash Offerings

In a bid to round out its product offerings, Waltham, Mass.-based rich media ad firm Enliven debuted drop-down Flash ads.

Actually, the ads can expand in any direction, although it’s expected that most marketers initially will use the offering to create banners that “drop down” on click or mouseover, to reveal more information (similar to offerings by players like PointRoll and Microsoft’s MSN).

The offering completes the current product offerings picture for the pioneering rich media banner firm. Previously, the company offered expandable ads in Macromedia Shockwave format only.

The product is aimed at appealing to advertisers — who can create larger ads than can fit in a normal-sized banner — as well as publishers, who can deliver an ad that can show more information by expanding, rather than linking to another site.

SparkLIST Offers Subscriber Purchasing

Milwaukee, Wis.-based email list manager SparkLIST.com now offers a product whereby marketers and publishers of email newsletters can purchase subscribers.

The pay-per-subscriber offering complements the company’s other offerings, which includes email list hosting, management and email creation.

SparkLIST.com generates the email addresses by promoting advertisers’ email newsletters via co-registration and affiliate deals with Web publishers.