Advertising Roundup: Glam Courts Men, Google Wants Yahoo’s Competition, and More

Wachovia takes its $145 million ad business to Ogilvy — Although the North Carolina-based bank is coping with heavy losses and a sinking stock price (and possibly even exploring a sale), Wachovia has nailed down an agency to handle its advertising next year. No surprise that its ad spend will likely be smaller in 2009 “given market conditions.” [Source: AdWeek]

Glam Media cuts staff, prepares to launch “Men” — The female-focused ad network will eliminate seven percent of its workforce due to “routine” cuts, says CEO Samir Arora. In other news, Glam is hoping to duplicate the success it has had targeting women (reaching 44 million a month) with a new channel aimed at men. The project is currently known as “CodeBlue.” [Source: VentureBeat]

Google says competition with Yahoo will remain “vigorous” – Google launched a new website outlining the “facts” and countering supposed misconceptions about its proposed ad deal with Yahoo. Among its arguments: “This kind of arrangement is commonplace in many industries, and it doesn’t foreclose robust competition. Toyota sells its hybrid technology to Ford, even though they compete against one another in selling cars.” So in other words, Google will be like the more fashionable Prius peddler, and Yahoo will have to do its best to catch up. [Source: Marketing Vox]

Financial services were bullish on Web ads in 2008 — A recent report from TNS Media Intelligence reveals that despite the bearish market, credit card companies, banks, mortgage companies, investment brokerages, and mutual funds led the growth in Web display ads this year, spending 23 percent more in the first half of 2008 than the same period last year. Dot-com companies came in second. [Source: ClickZ]