An "old Dude's" take on MySpace November 21, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBy ERIC DEGGANS
c.2007 St. Petersburg Times
The younger generation may depend on Web socializing, but older ones learn: It’s just fun.
When I log onto MySpace, I feel like a king.
Thanks to my diligent efforts and the kind of networking only a weekend musician can indulge a bustling band of 1,132 friends waits for me. Everyone from old college buddies to local bandmates and distant players I will never meet forms my network.
The story is the same on Facebook, where I’ve assembled more than 300 friends, including pundit/blogger Arianna Huffington, comic actor Jeff Garlin, my editor here at the St. Petersburg Times and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. At LinkedIn, my 243 professional connections include folks from every newspaper where I’ve worked.
In these worlds, I’m a monarch of social networking, connected to a vast line of friends, acquaintances and stone cold strangers. As everyone from TV ratings company Nielsen Media Research to pop singer Kylie Minogue debuts their own social networking sites, opportunities for such connections will only increase.
But as I consider these sprawling relationships, I’m struck by one thing: I have no idea what to do with them.
Read the rest of this very good Article by CLICKING HERE
MediaPost, Accounts on the Move, November 19, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| Fifth Third Bancorp |
| OLSON |
| Fifth Third Bancorp tapped OLSON to handle its advertising and marketing communication services business, following a review. |
| Medical Resources |
| Lazur Hoyvald Goldstein Partners |
| Lazur Hoyvald Goldstein Partners was named agency of record for Medical Resources. The agency will provide branding and marketing services for the corporation’s network of fixed-site outpatient medical diagnostic imaging centers. |
| Blockbuster |
| Doner |
| Blockbuster has split with its creative agency of record, Doner. |
| Culver’s Restaurants |
| MARC USA |
| Culver’s Restaurants selected MARC USA as its marketing agency of record, responsible for all advertising, PR and media buying for the 368-restaurant chain. The agency bested Cramer-Krasselt, McClain Finlon and BVK for the win. Jacobson Rost previously handled the account. |
| Brookfield Zoo |
| zig |
| zig was named agency of record for Brookfield Zoo, which is managed by the Chicago Zoological Society, following a review. Leo Burnett previously handled the account. Scope of work will include strategy and both traditional and non-traditional creative. |
| Invisible Fence |
| St. John & Partners |
| Invisible Fence named St. John & Partners as its agency of record, to handle strategic brand planning and analytic services for the company. |
| Yankee Spirits |
| Strategis |
| Yankee Spirits named Strategis as its agency of record. The account, previously handled on a project basis, was awarded without a review. Spending was not released. |
| Microsoft |
| In Review |
| Microsoft is seeking an agency to handle a creative assignment, valued at $300 million. Lead Microsoft agency McCann Erickson, JWT, Fallon and Crispin Porter + Bogusky are pitching the assignment. |
| Bank of America |
| In Review |
| Bank of America placed its media account in review, valued at $250 million. Prometheus Media currently handles the account. |
Video, interactivity could nab Web users by '10 November 19, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBy David Lieberman, USA TODAYMon Nov 19, 6:56 AM ET
NEW YORK – Enjoy your speedy broadband Web access while you can.
The Web will start to seem pokey as early as 2010, as use of interactive and video-intensive services overwhelms local cable, phone and wireless Internet providers, a study by business technology analysts Nemertes Research has found.
“Users will experience a slow, subtle degradation, so it’s back to the bad old days of dial-up,” says Nemertes President Johna Till Johnson. “The cool stuff that you’ll want to do will be such a pain in the rear that you won’t do it.”
Nemertes says that its study is the first to project traffic growth and compare it with plans to increase capacity.
The findings were embraced by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA), a tech industry and public interest coalition that advocates tax and spending policies that favor investments in Web capacity.
“We’re not trying to play Paul Revere and say that the Internet’s going to fall,” says IIA co-Chairman Larry Irving. “If we make the investments we need, then people will have the Internet experience that they want and deserve.”
Nemertes says that the bottleneck will be where Internet traffic goes to the home from cable companies’ coaxial cable lines and the copper wires that phone companies use for DSL.
Cable and phone companies provide broadband to 60.2 million homes, accounting for about 94% of the market, according to Leichtman Research Group.
To avoid a slowdown, these companies, and increasingly, wireless services providers in North America, must invest up to $55 billion, Nemertes says. That’s almost 70% more than planned.
Much of that is needed for costly running of new high-capacity lines. Verizon (VZ) is replacing copper lines with fiber optic for its FiOS service, which has 1.3 million Internet subscribers.
Johnson says that cable operators, with 32.6 million broadband customers, also must upgrade. Most of their Internet resources now are devoted to sending data to users – not users sending data. They’ll need more capacity for the latter as more people transmit homemade music, photos and videos.
“Two years ago, nobody knew what YouTube (GOOG) was,” Johnson says. “Now, it’s generating 27 petabytes (27 million gigabytes) of data per month.”
Schools, hospitals and businesses could add to the flood as they use the Web for long-distance education, health care services and videoconferencing.
Service providers might not appreciate how fast Web demand is growing, Johnson says: “Comcast doesn’t know what’s going on in AT&T’s (T) network, and vice versa. Researchers are increasingly shut out. So nobody’s getting good, global knowledge about the Internet.”
Introducing SyncTV: MediaBytes 11.19.2007 November 19, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentSYNCTV will launch in private test form today, offering an online a la carte channel lineup with downloadable DVD-quality programs. The PIONEER spinoff will offer online channel subscriptions for a few dollars per month and sell individual episodes for $2. The company also promises forth-coming compatible media players and a public test version of the service in January. SyncTV will not be iPod-compatible.
NBC has picked up Quarterlife. The Internet show will appear on the network (and its web site) in six hour-long episodes after it concludes its current Internet run in early 2008. NBC has taken an equity stake in quarterlife.com, acquired DVD and foreign distribution rights and will help finance the project. Despite this investment, show creator Marshall Herskovitz says Quarterlife is losing money.
MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT released data to the FCC that supports Chairman Kevin Martin’s claim that the 70/70 regulatory threshold has been met. MAP told the Commission that the threshold was passed in 2005 and that cable is currently used by 77% of Americans. Martin is expected to to propose a vote on the 70/70 regulation during the Commission’s November 27 meeting.
NBC and PROCTER & GAMBLE have started a new niche web portal for pet owners. Petside.com will offer anything and everything pet-related, from advice to product links. The two companies will use the site to promote their own products and shows and will split revenue generated by third-party advertisers (including competitors). The joint venture is an experiment that, if successful, will spawn other niche sites.
STRIKE NEGOTIATIONS between the WGA and the AMPTP will resume on Monday November 26. WGA East president Michael Winship wrote a letter to members of the Guild thanking them for raising public awareness of the issues facing writers and reminding them that, for now, the strike continues. Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live has reportedly fired over 50 production staffers.
MARTIN Under Fire: MediaBytes 11.15.2007 November 15, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentKEVIN MARTIN is drawing ire from consumers, the cable industry and even his own FCC. Three consumer advocate groups have submitted a filing to the FCC that says Martin’s plan to relax media ownership rules will destroy competition, reduce local news and taint editorial pages. The NCTA has also logged complaints about Martin’s plan to increase cable regulation by lowering rates for leased channels and possibly forcing a la carte programming. NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow accused Martin of manipulating data to support his agenda and said “The FCC is broken.” Lastly, two Republican FCC commissioners have requested the data that Martin used to support his claim that cable is used by 71.4% of the country and therefore legally subject to increased regulation.
COMCAST has been sued by a customer over its practice of throttling connections with peer-to-peer file-sharing services. The Plaintiff is arguing that Comcast used false and misleading advertising about the speed of its connections and violated both federal computer laws and user contracts. He is seeking class action status for all customers from California and seeks to collect financial damages.
EDGAR BRONFMAN issued a sobering warning to outside industries to avoid the mistakes that have decimated the music business. Bronfman admits that the music industry was fooling itself for years by assuming its product would be unaffected by the changing distribution paradigm. He says the music industry committed major errors “by standing still or moving at a glacial pace” and believes that doing so created a war with consumers by denying them what they wanted. Bronfman urged other industries, specifically the mobile carriers, to quickly adapt to emerging technology and consumer demands.
VUDU will offer downloadable HD content from Paramount, Universal Studios and Lionsgate. Vudu’s on-demand box allows consumers to rent titles over high-speed Internet connections. It currently offers 5,000 standard-definition titles.
RCRD LBL is offering yet another ad-supported music business as a joint venture between Downtown Records and Internet entrepreneur Peter Rojas. RCRD LBL is a hybrid blog and record label that will post free, unrestricted music on its site. The company has signed major advertisers for the site, including Puma and Richard Branson’s Virgin America airline. Artists will receive advances on a per-song basis and share in licensing deals but will not get a cut of advertising.
* Get the Story at Media30.com *
Now Microsoft Wants To Be In The Advertising Business Because Google Is In The Advertising Business.Or How I Woke Up To Realize That Googles PW3NES Me November 15, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBy Mark BleiMicrosoft wants to be in the advertising business because Google is in the advertising business. Meanwhile, it can’t do its real job.
Thats the part of John Dvorak’s latest post on PC magazine’s website that grabbed hold of me. How much suckage are we forced to take from Microsoft’s bureau of paranoia before we start to demand better service from our providers? And are we in fact on the Vista Death Watch ?
I or anyone who had the experience of buying a PC when Microsoft ME (or as it’s better known “The Mistake Version“) was the standard OS that was coming with new computers would say yes, and gladly.
Bitter me? Why yes I am thanks- I still recall the glee I had when buying my first real powerhouse PC with what was in 2000 was mind crushing speed and more Gigs of space then any human could ever conceive of using ( that would be all of 46 gigs, with my current Itunes collection in 2007 now at a conservative 270 gigs, ). I now have USB disks with more gigs then that original computer but when I bought it she was the dream system of any Griefer Gamer, Troll, or your average PC nerd. Imagine my horror when I took this other-worldy PC (which I think was also the first time I ever spent more then $50 online ) out of its box to find that the OS on it was a horrible mess of bad reg codes, wizards that popped for no reason, drives that would never see a full defrag and and Genuine ME identification codes that Microsoft wouldn’t accept as valid.
Microsoft ME has the distinction of being the cause of first time I was ever happy to get a Dell product that failed to work out of the box. Why? Because it gave me the opportunity to beg and plead with the folks at Dell to “downgrade” me to Windows 2000, which they did and for which I’m very grateful and which worked fine on my computer for near 7 years without ever giving me a BSOD notice and made me a Dell loyal customer to this day. By the way, I’m still using that box today and have XP on it so my kids can play the latest Sims. Part of me still wants to go and toss off XP and reinstall the Win2K on that system ..just in case.
Anyway, the benefit of Dell granting me the favor of “downgrading” me to the most stable version of Windows ever produced meant that by the time I was forced to buy a new box and move to XP, XP had time to get through it’s growing pains and I did not have to go through the pre-security package nonsense. If you ask me Vista is and should be another doomed MS product.
Quoting Dvorak
So what went wrong with Vista in the first place? Let’s start off with the elephant in the room. The product was overpriced from the outset. Why was it so expensive? What was special about it? All the cool and promised features of the original vision of Longhorn were gutted simply because it was beyond Microsoft’s capability to implement those features.
This failure to deliver what was promised—even after several delays in the product’s release, by the way—did nothing to excite anyone. It made the company look bad. It directly resulted in a no-confidence vote that was manifested in a lackluster reception and low sales. Microsoft should have scrapped the project two years ago and instead patched XP until it could deliver something hot.
To make things worse, there are too many versions. Exactly what is the point of that? Don’t we all just want Vista Ultimate? The other versions seem like a way to maybe save money for some users who cannot afford to get the real thing. You can be certain this version glut results only in complaints about what each variation is missing.
Microsoft’s initial approach to marketing this turkey was obviously going to be to put it on just new machines, which would eventually saturate the market, but the PC manufacturers squawked and demanded the continuation of XP sales. Though there is some chatter about how Linux could use this lull in the Microsoft juggernaut to make some real headway onto the desktop, this is unlikely to happen. But Microsoft, with all its paranoid thinking, might have believed it to be possible. So XP is still with us and will be until deep into next year.
I should mention here that much of this mess, I strongly believe, is due to Microsoft’s recent obsession with Google and online search. Now Microsoft wants to be in the advertising business because Google is in the advertising business. Meanwhile, it can’t do its real job
Read the rest of this great article HERE.
And while we’re on the subject of The Microsoft Google Cluster…
Google managed apparently to slip one by almost the entire universe the other day when they rolled out IMAP support on their popular mail product. Do not mistake me IMAP is not in and of itself a bad thing. The roll-out however happened in such a way that many of us found out that Imap was a supported system when for many of us our gmail stopped downloading from the POP Interface and was suddenly defaulted to the IMAP supported one. It was weird..I woke up yesterday morning to discover that 2 of my gmail accounts stopped popping,gmail which was up until yesterday actually my most dependable service provider and suddenly started working with all the grace of Joe Cocker after a Brain embolism . They all stopped forwarding, and they all were on the newer version.
IMAP is great but creates an issue if you work with more than one account that is POP oriented. I have two primary accounts that I use and then some sub-accounts that I use for subscriptions, blogs etc..I have many accounts that I own through Godaddy that POP, and suddenly two of my three gmail accounts decide they don’t like POPing anymore and want to be an IMAP account.
The havoc that this creates is when you’re trying to view both POP and IMAP mail. Outlook or at least the 2003 version of it that I use won’t allow you to view them both or mix the inboxes, so you end up having to tab through both the accounts which if you don’t remember to do can get you into some trouble.
Gmail is supposedly offering to allow people to use the old POP supported system but I spent most of last night trying to get that to work after deciding that the IMAP migration was one I would prefer to avoid. Eventually Gmail agreed to start popping again , after I downloaded the GMail Pop Troubleshooter application which kindly caused my Outlook to have a seizure and took an hour to rebuild itself, and at last update of this post which was updated at 3:00PM the last two hurdles to getting popping back was two updates from Microsoft that caused my Genuine Advantage Validation thingy to die, and then as a last kiss before giving me back control of my system Gmail insisted on re-downloading every email I have ever gotten on this machine duplicated 27 times. Thats 6000 emails times a factor of 27 bringing my total deletions by the end which I mercifully hope will be today (because gmail is where I have my work email forwarded to when I’m not in the office in New York and I’m not in NY much these days) to a modest 162,000 em
ails, which is more than enough to kill Outlook permanently if I’m not fast on the delete.
It seems to me that in the end Google’s going to make it hard for you not to IMAP .It’s supposedly part of their new Social Networking strategy (I’ll simply be happy if this new network doesn’t argue with me in Portuguese, about why my countries politics are flawed anymore). Hey man , you don’t have to tell me why my country is flawed. I’m married to a Canadian- if I want to hear about why my country is so flawed I only have to sit down for dinner.
Regardless, I prefer more choice in my Gmail but this is what you get when you buy into free unlimited email.
Remember, with Gmail you’re not a Google customer, you’re using a free Google product under their terms and they own you. For those of you who are dependent on a gmail free account for your primary email the question is- are you ready to migrate all those accounts you have spread through the web and are now your primary account because Google wants you to IMAP and you want to POP?
I just want to add that the irony is not lost on me that as I write this Fear Of a Black Planet started kicking on my Itunes ( it’s 5Am on a Thursday, what did you expect Chopin?) I remember all the discussions about possible theories of what life would be like under the rule of our new Google overlords . Should we be in Fear of a Google Planet? Frankly I’m more afraid of a Microsoft based planet OS then a Google one. At least a Google world would be more secure and Google doesn’t yet seem like they aim to lay claim to any of my media rights, and that’s certainly been an issue with Vista as well . I suppose all except the media which I get from YouTube or Google Video but I don’t view those as mine really- it’s theirs for as long as they choose to lend it to me.
So now the question I ask is -Can the brand that is you withstand an email address change? 10 years ago that question would have been a joke but now it’s a deadly serious question . So what is your answer…are you going to change your primary email address or are you going to learn to IMAP?
Thats right baby- we are all PW3ND by Google and we walked right into it, so you might as well just roll with it because if you are at all Gmail reliant you are already on the train .
This posting is a personal opinion article by Mark Blei who is in International Business Development for Dynamic Logic Inc and the author of this blog. None of the content of this article is meant to be an opinion of Dynamic Logic, It’s parent company Millward Brown or anybody but the writer.
Bebo's Open Media – MediaBytes 11.14.2007 November 15, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentLive from OMMA Video Hollywood – A Look at the Numbers November 15, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentKara Manatt, Research Director at Dynamic Logic, presents some topline findings about consumer attitudes towards online video ad formats.
Finally someone has released some data comparing the length of video content to the length of video advertising. Unfortunately, users aren’t very generous with their time. For a 10 minute clip, users are willing to accept 14.7 seconds of advertising. While they understand the new value exchange, advertisers still have a lot of work to do in order to create shorter form video ads. When the data excluded people who will not accept ads at all, the acceptable length of the ad nearly doubles.
Users also prefer a :30 second pre-roll rather than splitting up the ad into 2 :15 units. Thats good news for advertisers who have a longer timeframe to tell their story and keep a continuous message.
Dynamic Logic also looked at branding metrics in addition to user attitudes. Across the board, video advertising showed significant lift, with the largest increases in online ad awareness, message association and aided brand awareness. Brand favorability only showed a .2% lift over other marketnorms. However, all of this lift may be short lived. looking at rich media market norms, the current impact on branding is far less than it was when rich media was first introduced to the market.
Exploring best practices, having an interactive experience with the brand is one of they keys to success. Companion banners extend the branding opportunity beyond the video impression. Keeping the content consistent with other marketing efforts also is beneficial. When we first introduced pre-roll at one of my previous jobs, we stressed this with the message “Online, Offline, In Line.” Still holds true.
Overall, online video advertising continues to outperform other online advertising formats. Thats good stuff.
Viral Videos Ads: No Marketing Panacea November 13, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentby Christina Goodman, Monday, Nov 12, 2007 12:15 PM ET IT’S NO WONDER VIRAL VIDEO advertising is being talked about. The lure of creating mass-market, high-impact communications without incurring the cost of media space is very enticing. The ability to reach the elusive and hard to influence audiences combined with the potential for creating positive brand fame is an attractive mix. However, the reality is that viral video ads will be able to offer only a handful of marketers the positive end results and rewards they seek. Most brands will be better off directing their energy and efforts into optimizing conventional targeting methods within paid-for media. When it comes to viral video ads, it seems that many within the industry may also agree. Earlier this year, a Dynamic Logic study among MediaPost readers revealed that most people thought viral marketing to be a fad and not a viable option for all marketers. In fact, when asked to rate it on a continuum from “fad” to “mainstream,” half rated it as more of a fad than a widely usable marketing tactic, and only about a quarter (24%) felt that viral was something that any marketer could create. Despite such little insider confidence in the future application of viral advertising, there is still increasing interest in creating viral campaigns. In this age where consumers have more and more choices, content and advertising are being controlled by what consumers want, how and when they want it, forcing marketers to rethink their old ways of communication. In some respects, viral advertising is a way of reaching consumers that gives them ultimate creation and viewing control — including the media platform they choose to watch it on, whether it is viewed on the Internet, or using their iPod or mobile device. Shifting focus and control to the consumer does not guarantee a promising outcome, particularly where viral videos are concerned, and marketers need to consider both the positives and negatives of launching a viral marketing campaign. Viral ads may not always end up enhancing the brand image carefully conceived and desired by the marketer. Viewers may find the video entertaining and funny, but may not recall the message or product associated with the video. In some viral video ads, the content may involve a brand or a product with an undesirable message that may negatively impact the brand image. That said, surrendering brand control is, to some degree, an inevitable part of advertising in the future. In a recent Millward Brown study where 32 different viral video ads were tested among 3,000 people, the results suggest that there is a strong correlation between ad enjoyment and endorsing it to friends. However, enjoyment alone was not enough to ensure the ad would be passed along. Now that certainly makes a successful viral campaign even trickier. So what are the keys to a successful viral video? According to this research, viral ads need LEGS, a convenient acronym that means viral ads have to have a Laugh out loud quality, Edgy content, must Grip your attention and most often have some Sexual content. Given that few campaigns (viral or otherwise) have LEGS, few will be able to create a successful viral campaign as Dove did with Evolution, and in most cases the reach is low. It comes back to the bottom line — a question of opportunity, cost, and return on investment.
Social Network Traffic Surpasses Web-based Email in UK November 12, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Getting connected
for retail success
October traffic to the top 25 social networks, including Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, accounted for 5.17 percent of all UK internet visits, compared with 4.98 percent for the “Computers and Internet – Email Services” category, such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail, according to Hitwise, writes MarketingCharts (via ResearchRecap).
This marks the first time UK internet visits to social networks outnumbered visits to web-based email services, Hitwise UK Research Director Robin Goad wrote.
“A growing proportion of the UK online population is choosing to communicate with friends via social networks rather than email,” he added.
Moreover, social networks now send as much traffic to retail websites as do web email sites, according to Hitwise data:
Younger internet users — those age 18 to 34 — tend to visit social-network sites more than they do web email sites, whereas the reverse is true for those 35+, Goad writes.
