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As more businesses realize the value of interactive website
features and social media techniques, DelMonte, makers of Meow Mix cat food, has recently debuted a new interactive website and a game show to promote its new Wholesome Goodness line of cat food.

The website features interactive games called Cat Capades, which allows players to use their “house cat” instincts to overcome household obstacles and challenges.

“We know that cat parents feel a kinship with their cats,
and it’s not uncommon for them to ‘know”
what’s going on their heads—what they think and
feel,” Alison Olsson, account executive for Agency.com,
said in a recent email to DMNews. “We knew this would be
especially fun for cat lovers, because they are familiar with
many of the cat behaviors highlighted in the games.”

Social media strategies are being employed by many companies in
the hopes to reach an increasingly Internet savvy and Internet
based audience. Cereal companies, like General Mills, have
offerings similar to the Meow Mix Site, including an interactive
avatar-based town called Millsbury, which is designed to provide
a place for children to share avatars and items with other
Internet users in their demographics.

Based on trends in Internet usage and social media prevalence
and popularity, it isn’t a stretch to imagine the
websites of the future as increasingly more interactive and
geared toward specific interests and demographics.

A proposed search advertising deal between search engine giants Google and Yahoo has prompted some major national advertisers, including Wal-Mart, Pepsi, Ford, and Sara Lee to send a letter of protest to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to ComputerWorld.com, the Association of National Advertisers—the group responsible for representing the corporations involved, the letter, sent to Assistant General Thomas Barnett is a result of a “comprehensive independent analysis of the deal, which under Yahoo Inc. would run advertising from Google Inc. alongside its search results.”

“A Google-Yahoo partnership will control 90% of search advertising inventory,” said ANA President and CEO Bob Liodice in a recent post on the ANA website.

 When asked for comment, Google’s senior manager of global communication and public affairs, Adam Kovacevich  released the following statement: “Numerous advertisers have recognized that this agreement will help them better match their ads to user’s interests, and that ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction.”

The Justice Department is currently reviewing the proposed four-year deal, which would generate an estimated $250 to $50 million in operating cash flow during the first year and up to $800 million during subsequent years.