January 15, 2009
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My day job is running a digital advertisng media agency. Like every business today, we recognize that it cannot be "business as usual" in 2009. Thus, some of my resolutions for the year which I thought worth posting in this blog:
Figure out how to monetize Twitter:
Twitter is clearly the fastest growing phenomenon in the social media arena. Facebook and MySpace have been problematic from a banner effectiveness standpoint. But they have proven effective for more branding oriented functions such as widgets. LinkedIn provides really unique targeting. And our company has made hay with it through the network effect. Two large clients have come about through these connections.
Twitter is so many things. It could replace news bureaus as it seems to have a lot news first if you follow the right Tweeters. Dell has proven that it can work for eCommerce with a claim that they have sold more than $1MM in goods through Twitter. And it is clearly effective for keeping tabs on the social marketing milieu. It has games and activities, brand buzz tracking, famous people and spam, which probably means that there is something in Twitter if it is worthwhile for the spammers.
Neither we or Twitter have nailed down the formula for monetization yet. Maybe in 2009.
Perfect the integration of social, emerging media tech and search with web display:
We’re actively working on this. “Back in the day” silos meant that clients had to determine media mix with a separate agency for traditional media and web. Now a lot of advertisers give their digital agency emerging media technology assignments, a search company their search business and a social or guerilla start-up their social efforts. This means that once again the client must act as media planner, doling out dollars and determining mix. Media planners should be doing this from an integrated viewpoint. This will simplify strategies, tracking and optimization and yield better information on attribution.
Help move industry metrics issues ahead:
Pick an issue. There are plenty that are unresolved. Single pixel for tracking. Video measurement. Attribution management or e-Map. The fact that the research numbers from comScore and NetRatings understate what sites think their real audience is. (Quantcast may be a solution here). And we still have not effectively solved reach and frequency. There is more, but it would be a good start for the industry to have clear standards and good products for the above.
Introduce minimum of 2-3 new companies to the digital world:
One of the frustrating and on the other hand really great things about digital is that not all clients embrace it. It is frustrating when clients either dabble in web display, have their search run by the webmaster who reports to IT, keeping it out of the marketing mix or eschew the “unproven” forms of digital such as mobile, widgets, social media, etc. But this is also the great opportunity. Taking a company that has yet to see the light into one or more digital venues and having them see the light makes it all worth while.
There’s more, but if we as a company and an industry can move the ball ahead a little on the above issues, it will brighten up the dark days we have seen of recent.
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January 5, 2009
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comScore just released November data on online video growth. November saw a +34% vs. year ago growth with 12.7 Billion online video views for the month. While Google and YouTube still have clear leadership, it has dropped to 40%, down significantly from 2/3 of all video viewing just a short time ago. While most of the other players have been around a while, upstart Hulu.com is now at #6 in the rankings and growing rapidly. In a related story, NetFlix announced a deal with LG where no set top box or OTT box like Roku would be necessary. The HDTVs from LG will stream Netflix directly.
Whether you watch videos on your PC or want to get videos via the Web on your TV, the number of options are growing rapidly at a time when the traditional networks seem to be having an identity crisis according to an article in AdAge.
Consumers seem to be understanding that they are in control of when they watch what. And the new technology companies are taking advantage of the lack of momentum on the part of the traditional networks.
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December 23, 2008
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Last post, I talked about the Social Media Heyday and how the two way communication from consumers is impacting everything from brands to politics.
In the last week, I have been impressed by how social media is becoming a proxy for the news, specifically via Twitter. When Twitter first came out, I thought it was undistinguishable noise. Then I was on the road, in a hotel room with CNN on and saw that they were scrolling “Tweets” across the bottom of the screen rather than take calls for questions. Hmmmm, you can filter Twitter? I later discovered search.twitter.com. If you have not searched this for comments on your company, you are missing out.
So I signed up for Twitter. Immediately, people began following me and I decided to follow my rules about social media, which was to be careful where I played. I did start to follow those I knew or those in my industry. For those I thought were connected, I could also see what they were following. I spent a little more time on it than average this weekend (I am mediadls on Twitter) on Twitter and find my self signing up for some sources like CNN, NY Times, various Google News feeds, etc. These plus the more vertical feeds are helpful but I find that the most effective Tweets are those who are ahead of the news bureaus on a story.
This produces an effect some are calling social journalism. The two way communication of the social journalists of Twitter is powerful. Take the Denver plane crash over the last weekend. A passenger called 2drinksbehind Twittered a now famous Tweet just after getting off the plane. He then proceeded to keep up the dialogue and gathered more and more followers. Who did the news agencies go to for interviews? This guy. He now has over 2,000 followers on Twitter.
On another front, Anderson Cooper of CNN has his on Twitter account. He commonly starts Twittering early in the day as he gets ready for his show and continues sometimes during the breaks of the show. In addition, he fires up his Beat360 blog just as he is starting each show. I now understand why this person is so appealing. He is really plugged into the viewer. And he permits the viewer to be plugged into him and get “the rest of the story.”
One last point. As a function of the several hours I spent on Twitter over the weekend, I found that when I went to read my morning paper Monday, the only headlines that were news to me were features and sports. The powerful combination of news as it happens and the thousands of people “reporting” the news is yet another nail in the coffin of the newspaper medium.
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December 17, 2008
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Been tough to post the last few weeks due to illness (bad cold, hopefully nothing more). Amazing things are going on in the social space which merits discussion. The "mommy blogger" incident which caused Motrin to pull a campaign. This signals to advertisers and all companies that they must monitor what is being said about their company 24x7. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools for doing this. More in another blog soon.
On another front, San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom chose to deliver his annual "State of the City" address via YouTube rather than at a press conference. In interviews with the press, he said that this permitted him to give out the whole story (7 1/2 hours worth!) to his constituants. He went on to say that the previous delivery mechanism, a speech which was largely attented by reporters, tended to get boiled down too much.
On the heels of the remarkable use of social media by President Elect Barak Obama, these are heady times indeed for social media. One of the best examples of the convergence of media and technology.
The consumer IS in charge.
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November 16, 2008
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Interesting “study” being conducted for GPS enabled phones by UC Berkeley, Nokia, and NAVTEQ. Called the Mobile Millennium Traffic Pilot, it gathers real time information from GPS enabled telephones for traffic congestion updates.
Unlike other solutions, it gathers more than just the major roads as it supports minor roads too, which can be major congestion points in urban areas. Participation is open to anyone with a GPS-enabled mobile phone who lives in the Northern California area. The pilot program is scheduled to run for four to six months with up to 10,000 participants.
I’ve downloaded this to my Blackberry Curve. It also works with the Pearl and a number of Nokias like the E71, E61i, N96 and N95.
On my Curve, it comes up on the applications menu. The only problem is that it is slow in the first implementation producing some latency with the menu. Green lines are obvious on roads that are clear and or moving at the limit with yellow and red lines for the bigger problems. A yield sign shows up where there is some identifiable problem and when you mouse over it, you get a pop up explanation.
If you are in the SF Bay Area or traveling through, go to traffic.berkeley.edu for information on the download.
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November 11, 2008
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Research firm Anderson Analytics has taken advantage of a new policy that permits market researchers to survey LinkedIn users and find out who they are/target them for both research and marketing according to AdAge. This public study, conducted by Anderson alongside LinkedIn and text-mining company SPSS is revealing.
The first cross tab categorizes the business/social networking site into four buckets: “Savvy Networkers (31%), Senior Executives ((28%), Late Adopters (22%) and Exploring Options (21%).
Additional information gleaned indicates that 61% are willing survey takers and 68% have never been on a research panel. A fresh research audience is a good thing.
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November 5, 2008
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As a part of the long talked about project to scan all books and make them available on the web, Google has agreed to open an online store as a part of its $125MM Book Search settlement according to Silicon Alley Insider.
Anticipated to be an iTunes for books type of offering, the initial collection of books will consist of copyrighted, out-of-print books. The format for the books is currently unclear as is the timing of the service.
However one thing is clear. Google will be doing a big time service to the academic and other communities by making the out-of-print books of the world available to all on the Web.
Pricing will be based on an algorithm (not surprising as Google seems to run its company on algorithms) and Google will keep 37% of proceeds for itself with 63% going to the rights holders.
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October 29, 2008
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At a time when advertisers are wondering if the bloom is off the rose for web display advertising, some data points have come in that establish the contrary:
1) Web penetration continues to grow. While double digit growth is no longer possible with the large base, penetration is expected to go from the low to the high 60% range over the next six years according to eMarketer.
2) In a major proof point for web display over search, Microsoft’s Atlas division rolls out their Engagement Mapping, which some have been calling Multiple Attribution Protocol. This takes advantage of the falling prices for storage and keeps all actions by a consumer relative to a campaign. Impressions, clicks, view-throughs (those who are exposed to an ad, don’t click but go to a site later), searches and site visits along with variables like ad size, use of rich media, etc. Testing has established that the custom of accrediting a sale or action to the last click (often a navigational search of Google or another search engine) is faulty and the advertiser should give more credit to banner and other display formats while lowering the value of search for most campaigns. Engagement Mapping enables that reallocation.
3) MediaPost’s Center for Media Research reports on a recent study performed by Forrester Consulting for Internet TV Service Veoh that shows that viewers who are engaged, those who spend the most time consuming and sharing long form content are more receptive to advertising.
Just when a lot of people were about to give Google a “game over” salute, proof that display advertising is far from dead emerges.
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October 20, 2008
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In writing a blog about the convergence of media and technology, there are so many places to start. I’ve chosen to start with one of the oldest media known to man, paper.
In the 60’s, talk about the future paperless office was all the rage. With computers, paper was going to go away and everything was going to be electronic. As a recent column in The Economist observed, “the global consumption of office paper more than doubled in the last two decades”. It turned out that it was not enough to have the technology, the people who were using it were printing out more things than ever. Not to mention the older, technophobic bosses who had their e-mails printed out by their assistants to read on the train, scribbling their responses back rather than actually use email. They go on to point out that the use of paper in the office is just now starting to wane and is a function of the sociological change of the younger generation growing in responsibilities.
This last point is exemplified by a recent strip in the daily comic, Zits. Having a teen age son, this comic strip has always resonated with me. Check out the strip from last week with two kids twittering to each other and one telling the other that he’d heard that kids used to write notes on paper and secretly pass them around in class, BT (before twitter).
So, will paper eventually disappear? Will we all go out and buy Kindles or something similar?
I don’t think so. As a person who embraces new technology, I still like the feel of some things in magazine form. And as I feel my 18 year old represents to some degree “the test market of the future”, I appreciate that he still looks at magazines, even though most of them are game and music pubs.
For the last few years I’ve felt that the work that Anoto is doing with digital pen and paper will keep paper alive. I look forward to the day when my physical magazine has digitized paper. The dream is that we’ll be able to check off information in a box on the ad page with our digital pen and get the information in our email next time we log on. Whatever happens, it is going to be an interesting ride.
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