’Tis the season for meaningless lists
Posted on 10 December 2009 | 2 responses
I sat in the audience of the DPAC Awards show this week employing my college algebra to calculate the length of the event by amount of Lucite sitting on the table next to the stage. I was pulled out of this haze by a heartfelt acceptance speech from the CMO of Bush’s Baked Beans who, as he thanked his agency, The Marlin Company, confessed that he didn’t know “beans” about digital advertising. No one does, it’s changing too damn fast for anyone to stay on top of everything, but it doesn’t stop some of us from parroting what we have heard from others. So here’s my, and people that I trust, take on the upcoming year…
2009 may have been a bear in terms of advertising spending, but it has also been a bull for investment and innovation in digital media technology. As we welcome 2010 we should scan the horizon for the opportunities that will shape our reality next year and in years to come.
Moving from managing media to audiences
For the last 18 months the buzz has been building over audience buying and optimization. Demand side platforms (DSPs) like MediaMath, Turn, Invite Media and DataXu are elbowing their way into the spotlight. Together with replicant providers like BlueKai and eXelate they are shifting the paradigm on buying non premium inventory and also putting agencies back in the media buying driver’s seat with private networks. Burned by being bypassed in the adoption of Search 7 years ago, agencies eager to leverage the new technology may shift 30% or more of media dollars away from the ad networks in the coming year using DSPs and real time bidding. No longer is content a proxy for audience.
Dynamic creative targeting & optimization
I have been screaming about this for years now. ”One-to-one marketing” has taken several big steps forward in 2009 with products from Tumri, Teracent (recently acquired by Google), and Eyeblaster. Publishers are also getting on the ball and leveraging their user insight to enable more accurate messaging; Yahoo’s Smart Ads program is a great example. Honestly, I would be happy if agencies would simply develop multiple creative and auto optimize. Baby steps.
Finally, the promise of digital
While both of the above are individually exciting, their combination is a game-changer. At long last the true potential of Digital can be harnessed — Delivering right message to the right person at the right time. Add to this perfect storm of creative optimization, audience planning and real-time ad exchanges, and feedback loops to apply learning from past campaigns… and finally the budget floodgates may open and speed the transition of dollars from traditional to online.
Campaign verification
For years agencies have been buying media and blindly trusting publishers to live up to their commitments. Ten years ago this is why we developed 3-pary ad serving. Today, agencies use campaign verification services from companies like DoubleVerify, Media Trust and AdSafe Media to make sure ads for premium brands are not located next to questionable content, to validate various targeting commitments, to uncover undesired placement allocations, etc…
Privacy legislation
I flamed out on this in a recent post. As we contemplate benefits of the right message, right person, in real time, the privacy issue looms even larger. The European Union adopted a law recently requiring user consent before companies are able to track user behavior via any storage and retrieval method (i.e. cookies, Flash Shared Objects, etc.). On this side of the pond a bill is in the works from Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, would force marketers to disclose what and how information is gathered by cookies that they use, with a possible opt in clause. Anyone concerned about the future of this industry should take an active interest and inform themselves about the value exchange between marketers and consumers. Check out organizations like Future of Privacy Forum, Network Advertising Initiative and IAB.
Much maligned in-stream video sees a brighter day
In-stream video advertising (e.g. pre-rolls) has been around for a while now, but 2010 is likely to be the defining one for this important channel. Budgets will begin to follow eyeballs from TV to online as media consumption changes. In 2010 agencies and brands brave enough to do this will be rewarded by a more streamlined and standardized process as more publishers adopt third-party serving using the IAB VAST and VPAID standards.
I keep hearing that Mobile is going to be big.
We’ve all heard it before, but there are several developments in this channel that would allow it to come closer to the mainstream. Cross channel campaign management and serving of mobile ads across multiple mobile publishers and devices will become much easier as agency-side and publisher-side players increase integration efforts. Tracking and analysis of mobile activity is also maturing quickly and will be catching up with display standards as companies like Ringleader enable unique tracking across publishers. In 2010, we will also see growth in the use of rich media advertising in mobile devices.
Social campaign management and tracking
I think it’s impossible to misunderestimate the importance of social media in the marketing mix. Over the last two years we’ve seen numerous approaches to social marketing experimented by marketers including Facebook apps, branded widgets, in-banner tweeting, YouTube video uploads from ads, and many more.
Though 2009 may have been a trial run for many companies using social media, CMOs expect social initiatives to have a direct impact on their bottom lines in 2010, according to a study from Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club.
Nearly three out of four CMOs (72%) who did not attach revenue assumptions to social media in 2009 say they will in 2010, according to the survey; in addition, 64% of CMOs say they plan to invest more in social media in the next year.
Holistic channel strategies
With the explosion of outdoor digital media outlets in places like billboards, elevators, taxis, etc. the advent of scalable outdoor digital advertising is inevitable. What could expedite growth of this emerging channel is the development of tracking technologies. Image processing technology companies like Quividi are able to measure not only audience reach, but also viewer attributes like gender and age and even estimate the level and duration of active attention to ads. Let’s not forget about live Twitter feeds!
You tell me…
What we have here is a lack of imagination
Posted on 8 December 2009 | 2 responses
I didn’t intend for this blog to be a criticism of traditional media, but come on guys work with me here. The above video is supposed to be the “Disney” reimagination of print brought to you by those futurists at Time, Inc, but what it ends up being is evidence of how far behind these greybeards are. This is one uninspired vision of the future. Where is the innovation and harnessing of newly established consumer behaviors? Where is social for god’s sake? Most telling is the lack of a clue as to how they plan on monetizing their content. Kinda like the challenge they’re currently facing with the print version of SI. Maybe they can take Murdoch’s lead and bar Google from bringing them 100s of 1000s of free eyeballs.
Sea also: The online catalogue lives, unfortunately.
I have met the enemy, and he is us!
Posted on 4 December 2009 | No responses
Holy shit are we in trouble, AND I’m not overacting! We are impaling ourselves with our own spears as the Neanderthals are banging in the door of our cave. As I write, a bill in the works from Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., chair of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, would force marketers to disclose what and how information is gathered by cookies that they use, with a possible opt in clause. The EU has already passed a law requiring Internet users’ consent before cookies. Simultaneously, a perfect storm of creative optimization, audience planning and real-time ad exchanges finally may trigger the budget floodgates to open and speed the transition of dollars from traditional to online.
We had better get our act together pronto and demonstrate the value of well targeted advertising to the public and opportunistic lawmakers. Until consumers understand that they have a much to benefit from an exchange with marketers, they have every right to be suspicious. But, they are just as aware as we are of the magic that occurs when the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time… it’s not advertising, it’s valuable information that makes their lives easier.
Don’t even get me started about the hack job above which is paid for by my IAB membership. It is bad on so many levels. It reminds me of the old Far Side cartoon where after making a clumsy mistake, a brain surgeon cracks to his colleague, “Oh well, at least we’re not doing advertising.”
The South is struggling to understand the blue bird
Posted on 25 November 2009 | No responses
unfortunate
The mercurial bitch that is Innovation left her teeth marks in the ass of a local news channel in Alabama… and in Mobile, I guess, that means someone will hang for it. Unbelievably, WPMI has suspended Shea Grandquest, General Manager, and Wes Finley, News Director, for one week without pay. This picture has been making the rounds on the internets after being posted on Twitter by a driver in the Mobile area who was indeed putting himself and his fellow drivers in danger by tweeting and driving.
I’m wondering what would have happen to these two in Memphis?
Video a strong performer, just not in Social
Posted on 18 November 2009 | No responses
When it comes to online advertising, savvy marketers are using video to work both ends of the consumer funnel to drive results, but Social seems the Kryptonite to its Superman powers. Data from Eyeblaster released today bears this out… online video advertising over performs next to email and editorial content, but lags in social networks and gaming environments. The study also confirms that video advertising boosts engagement–doubling Dwell Time and increasing Dwell Rate by 20%. As a result, video yields double the ROI of non-video Rich Media.
As marketers increasingly leverage online video, this new research, analyzing billions of impressions, provides insight into what, where, when and why video advertising engages users online. An examination of users’ behavior by frequency of exposure shows that campaigns with video advertising achieve better results with fewer exposures when compared to rich media campaigns without video. For example, users exposed to an ad with video twice achieve the same Dwell Rate of users exposed to a non-video ad three times
Download the complete study, Online Video Advertising: Doubles Engagement, Boosts ROI, at http://bit.ly/EB_Research_OnlineVideo.
SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/ebtraining1/section-time-and-video-performance
Daily Digest for November 15th
Posted on 15 November 2009 | No responses
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Liked Dale Watson.
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Created 5 stations.
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USS New York & Yankees Help Celebrate 2009
Posted on 11 November 2009 | No responses
For the last 3 years I have been tasked to manage the voting process and party for the Eyeblaster Awards. This year was my most challenging and rewarding year. For me it reflected 2009.
I was asked to cut my Marketing budget significantly this year while increasing scale and momentum from the previous year. Like many agencies/brands, 2008 represented the year that digital finally began to enjoy a larger slice of the pie as the gap narrowed between “traditional” media channels and a more holistic mix… At least until the bottom dropped out in the Fall. The shift was a long time coming and the prospect of losing ground was deflating. But alas, we trudged on, and lo and behold the sun continued to rise every morning. I now find myself in the 11th month of 2009 and my company is flat with 2008… flat, the new up… something to celebrate.
Apparently I was not the only one open to a little cheer. Voting and registrations for the 8th Annual Eyeblaster Awards far exceeded last year, and had it not been for game 6 of the World Series, I would have had 500 people waiting in line to get in the door of the party. As it was, I easily surpassed my ambitious attendance goal anyway. The night was made all the more memorable seeing Jeter and A-Rod storming the field in victory and being honored by the crew of the USS New York crashing the party and dancing with all the hotties. See all the pix!
And we had some great campaigns to showcase.
The North America People’s Choice Award and the North America Judge’s Award went to Creative Agency Bridge Worldwide and Media Agency Starcom for the Pringles Can Hands campaign. This campaign ran in multiple markets worldwide.
Both UK Creative Agencies Hi-ReS! And Feed, along with Media Agency MEC Global were recognized with the International People’s Choice Award for the Chanel No.5 global homepage takeover, while the International Judge’s Choice Award was awarded to Creative Agency MediaFront and Media Agency Mediacom NO (Norway) for IKEA Set the Table.
R/GA was honored as the winner of the 2009 Cross Channel Effectiveness Award for itsDear Mr. President Campaign, which combined social media with online display advertising.
Washington Bunnies Take Augmented Reality Vanguard
Posted on 7 September 2009 | No responses
While we still struggle to develop commercial applications for Augmented Reality, researchers at the University of Washington are wiring Terminator cotton tails with bionic contact lenses that overlay data and graphics on the real world similar to those AR iPhone apps that we have all seen. Currently being tested on a lucky few rabbits (I guess it was either this or Hello Kitty eyeliner) the lenses consist of a single LED display but could eventually include 100s to build detailed images, photographs and other likely components of augmented reality.
Ultimate Honky Tonk Mix
Posted on 6 September 2009 | No responses
Pepsi Flexes its Digital Muscles For Michael Jackson
Posted on 26 June 2009 | Comments Off
From the grave the King of Pop still sells soda.
In a nod to Pepsi campaigns from my childhood, the soda pop brand’s agency OMD is using Smart Versioning technology from Eyeblaster to dynamically update its current online campaigns to honor Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Even its digital billboard in Manhattan’s Times Square features gloved one as well.
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