Context Matters for Online Ads June 17, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentJun 17, 2009
NEW YORK Like print ads, context matters when it comes to the effectiveness of Internet ads, according to new findings from media researcher McPheters & Co. Analyzing the effectiveness of Internet banner ads, McPheters, collaborating with Condé Nast and CBS Vision, found that online ads running on sites with related content were 61 percent more likely to be recalled than ads on venues with unrelated content — a finding that would appear to undercut the case for behavioral ad networks..
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iMedia on a roll today May 19, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentWow, what a great newsletter today from iMedia- really topical and interesting stuff.
There is a great article on 4 costly metrics misconceptions
Another on “How Twitter and email can benefit targeted marketing.”
How we screwed up online advertising, and finally some guidelines for successful video advertising.
By the way, if you want to make sure that your online advertising buys are working as hard for you as they possibly can, or if you are interested in optimizing your video campaigns you can always take all the guesswork out and give us a buzz.
No Improvement on Horizon for ‘Standard’ Online Advertising December 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentA slow-to-no growth forecast in the US for “standard” components of the interactive advertising market – such as banner, display and pop-up ads – is not cyclical and shows no signs of improving quickly, even if the nation’s economy starts to move upward and out of recession, according to a forecast report from Borrell Associates.
Though the report projects that overall 2009 spending on traditional, offline media will decline 1.4%, and spending on interactive will increase 7.2 %, it notes that these figures do not tell the whole story.
In fact, 2009 will be the first year since the start of century in which banners, pop-ups, and interactive display advertising overall will show little or no growth, and may likely decline.
For local interactive media, the big slowdown began a year earlier than Borell initially anticipated, magnified and accelerated by the credit crisis. The spending levels by local advertisers – which grew at a frenetic 47% this year – are expected to slow to a paltry 8% in 2009.
Read The Rest—>No Improvement on Horizon for ‘Standard’ Online Advertising
Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads August 22, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIn what it calls the latest “evolution” of its ad model, Facebook is testing a new set of ads aimed at boosting click-throughs and further tapping into the social graph on behalf of marketers. The first three types of Engagement Ads now in trial let users post comments, become a “fan” of a brand’s Facebook Page and send virtual gifts. Within the units, people can also read friends’ comments, and see who else is a brand fan or who shared virtual items. All three flavors of Engagement Ads will appear in the new home page placement alongside the News Feed on the right. They will also show up in members’ News Feeds as people interact with the ads. The new Engagement Ads build on Facebook’s Social Ads, which typically appear in the News Feed and allow marketers to run ads tied to users’ actions within the network. This includes actions that people take on branded applications running in Facebook. Within Social Ads, Facebook is also rolling out a new program that would allow marketers to pay to expand the number of friends who learn about a user’s interaction with an application. Currently, Facebook uses an algorithm to figure out who among a user’s friends would be most interested in learning about a given activity. Under the new plan, marketers would have the option of sending a sponsored notification (marked as such) to all of a members’ friends. So if someone used a Fandango app to buy tickets to see “Pineapple Express,” Fandango and Sony Pictures could pay to tell all of their friends on Facebook about it. The social network triggered a privacy backlash last year when it launched its Beacon ad program, which notified members about their friends’ e-commerce activity outside Facebook. The company revised Beacon to require members’ opt-in consent, but the program was the subject of a class action filed only last week. In a briefing Thursday on the new ad initiatives, Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization, said the new Social Ads program would avoid the same privacy problems as Beacon because it only relates to users’ activities within Facebook.
| READ THE REST OF THIS MEDIAPOST ONLINE MEDIA DAILY ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE |
Google Facing Third 'Parked Domain' Suit August 14, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| by Wendy Davis, Thursday, Aug 14, 2008 7:00 AM ET |
 For the third time this summer, Google has been hit with a fraud lawsuit stemming from its parked domain program, which serves pay-per-click ads on otherwise empty Web pages.This latest case, a potential class-action lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Chicago, was brought by Bartlett, Ill. container company JIT Packaging. The case joins a putative class-action lawsuit filed in San Jose, Calif. last month by Hal Levitte, an attorney who took out search ads, and one brought in San Jose by online retailer RK West, which operates the e-commerce site Malibu Wholesale. As in the other two lawsuits, JIT Packaging alleges that Google displayed search ads on “low-quality” sites that yielded almost no conversions. The Illinois company specifically takes issue with Google’s AdSense for Domains and AdSense for Errors programs, which place ads on sites that have little or no editorial content. Users often land on such sites after mistyping a URL. Examples cited in the complaint include jcpennycom.com and bedbathandbeyondcom.com. “The quality of these sites as an advertising medium is substantially lower than sites on the rest of Google’s network,” the lawsuit alleges. JIT also asserts that many of these sites violate trademark, copyright or cybersquatting laws because they include a brand name in the URL. READ THE REST OF THIS GREAT ONLINE MEDIA DAILY POST BY CLICKING HERE FOR MORE GREAT MEDIAPOST PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE |
Digital Opens Door to Ads August 13, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentNEW YORK Historically, TV and print news outlets have offered limited opportunities for advertisers, at least compared to their entertainment brethren. Recently, however, companies including The New York Times Media Group, the BBC, CNN and MSNBC.com have come up with some innovative digital options.
Shoba Purushothaman, CEO and co-founder of The Newsmarket, a Web-based video marketing and distribution platform, said it’s encouraging that the news industry is recognizing it can’t simply take traditional ad models and apply them to digital platforms. “It’s not about slapping it on the Web and saying it’s going to work,” said Purushothaman.
That point is not lost on The New York Times Media Group, which late last month partnered with business social-networking site LinkedIn. In the deal, LinkedIn members who read the business and technology sections on NYTimes.com will automatically have articles related to their professional interest set up for them on the site. (This is made possible by a cookie on LinkedIn.)
Denise Warren, svp and chief advertising officer for The New York Times Media Group, said the agreement allows the organization to tap into “executive decision makers.”
Advertisers will receive targeted information based on profile data — e.g., a person’s industry, job, gender and geography-gathered by the NYT Media Group. Sales reps will help advertisers choose the appropriate platforms — including mobile, video and blogs — for ads ranging from banners to leaderboards.
Last year, for the first time, BBC.com — the international Web site for the BBC (outside of the U.K.) — began selling advertising globally. In April, a multiplatform sales force was launched in the U.S. to sell advertising across BBC.com, BBC America, BBCAmerica.com, BBC World News and BBCworldnews.com. (Advertising on BBC America and its Web site had been sold by Discovery Communications.) Two ad units are available, both offering video capability.
Currently, when users in all markets go to BBC.com, they’re routed to bbc.co.uk.
But the Web site is launching a U.S. edition in the second half of 2009 that will cater to U.S. appetites, according to Mark Gall, svp of advertising sales for BBC America and BBC.com.
CNN “turned a corner” when it struck a partnership in June 2007 with Google’s YouTube to present the network’s presidential debate coverage, according to Greg D’Alba, evp and COO of CNN ad sales. Starting with the 2004 elections, CNN had made a concerted effort to attract election-coverage sponsors with packages that offered a variety of platforms. In 2004, only four jumped on. Now the network has 12 sponsors, including AT&T, Cisco Systems, Exxon Mobil and Hyundai.
The perception is growing that CNN’s product is for a range of demographics, not just “the gray-haired gentleman with a huge portfolio of wealth getting ready to retire,” said D’Alba. Roughly six additional sponsors have inked election coverage packages, he added, though he declined to name them as those advertising flights have not yet begun.
READ THE REST OF THIS GREAT ADWEEK ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE
Leftover Ad Space? Exchanges Handle the Remnants ( Via New York Times) July 29, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentJoe Zawadzki’s traders spend their days in front of two computer screens, feeding their systems with data and trying to perfect their trading algorithms.
But they are not analyzing stocks. They are analyzing advertising.
What they are measuring is activity on advertising exchanges, where companies bid to place their online ads on space provided by publishers. As advertising exchanges gain popularity — Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have all moved into this arena recently — Madison Avenue is borrowing tactics from Wall Street.
It is reminding some observers of what happened when technology came to the stock exchange, including the arrival of trading advisers like Mr. Zawadzki’s firm, MediaMath, that are running numbers and promising to offer sophisticated financial instruments.
For now, Mr. Zawadzki is using the exchanges to buy and sell ads instantaneously as opportunities arise — a spot market, in Wall Street lingo — but he is working on more complex trading strategies.
“Right now it’s more the in-the-moment, taking advantage of the spot market with aggressive bid management,” said Mr. Zawadzki, whose firm is based in New York. “But we’re certainly thinking about where that goes later in terms of secondary markets, derivatives, options, hedges, all the rest.”
Big publishers try to sell Web site advertising space through their sales forces at high prices. Most cannot sell all their inventory, so they send the leftover, or “remnant,” space to an ad network or to an ad exchange. These deliver an ad, but at lower prices than the publishers’ sales forces fetch — usually around $1 per thousand impressions, versus the $20 and up that top sites’ sales forces ask for.
Ad networks and ad exchanges are both in the business of selling remnant inventory, but they do it in slightly different ways. The networks, which function as middlemen, sell chunks of inventory through their sales forces, which can simplify the buying process for advertisers.
Exchanges, on the other hand, let advertisers buy ads directly, and place them one by one. Because there are usually lower fees, buying off exchanges tends to be cheaper — though more labor-intensive — than buying through networks.
In 2007, exchanges sold about 15 percent of the remnant inventory, and about 5 percent of online display advertising overall, according to ThinkPanmure, a research and financial services company. Most of the other 85 percent was sold through networks.
The major appeal of exchanges is that with some analysis, advertisers can buy ads one by one, and track the performance of each ad. This contrasts with ad networks, which roll up broad audiences for advertisers (often using the exchanges) through their own sales forces.
Ad exchanges have gotten a few big boosts lately. In 2007, three major portals announced they were buying exchanges. Yahoo bought the Right Media exchange for $650 million; Google announced it was buying DoubleClick in April, which had announced weeks earlier it was setting up what is now called the DoubleClick Advertising Exchange, for $3.1 billion; and Microsoft acquired the exchange AdECN.
Last month, the advertising holding company Publicis Groupe said it would start working with DoubleClick and Right Media’s exchange to buy advertisements. The advertising companies Havas Digital and WPP have announced similar deals with Right Media in recent months.
But it is not so much the exchanges themselves that is interesting the advertising world — it is what can be done with them.
“The exchanges are just a platform to buy and sell media, but you have to layer the measurement and data on top, which could come from different areas: some agencies will build it, some agencies will partner,” said Darren Herman, head of digital media at the Media Kitchen agency.
“We use the analogy of, anybody can trade on the financial markets, anyone can get an eTrade account, but it’s how you’re smart about how you use your eTrade account that determines how well you’re going to do trading,” Mr. Herman said.
With some Wall Street-like analysis, advertisers can find individual Web surfers, figure out how much to pay to show them an ad, and analyze how those ads have performed. Firms like Mr. Zawadzki’s are analyzing which of those users might be attractive, then tracking whether people click on the ads they see. If an advertiser wanted to reach a very specific group — say, people in Atlanta who have already visited its home page — it might bid more to get that audience.
The growth of exchanges has a clear benefit to advertisers, allowing them to test multiple ads quickly with specific groups, potentially minimizing expensive campaign testing and focus-group work.
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Americans More Connected Online, Quite Ad-Tolerant January 2, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Online, widely connected,
ad-tolerant
In just eight months, the use of online and mobile devices for entertainment rocketed among online US consumers, according to the second edition of the State of Media Democracy survey from Deloitte & Touche, reports Reuters (via MarketingCharts).
38 percent of consumers now watch TV shows online, compared with 23 percent eight months ago, the study finds.
And some 54 percent use social-networking sites, chat rooms or message boards. 45 percent said they have a profile on a social-networking site.
The report of the online survey of 2,081 US consumers, conducted Oct. 25-31, is slated for release in Jan. ‘08. Deloitte provided the findings early to The Hollywood Reporter, which reported some of the results:
Among the study’s findings related to advertising…
- 85 percent cited TV advertising as among the types having the most impact on purchase behavior; 65 percent cited online ads; and 63 percent pointed to magazine ads.
- However, 59 percent said they pay greater attention to magazine ads – and 55 percent cited newspaper ads – than any type of internet advertising.
- Online, search ads were cited as the most effective (78 percent), followed by interactive ads (62 percent), banner ads (60 percent), pre-rolls (31 percent) and post-rolls (19 percent).
- 67 percent said they would be willing to be exposed to more online ads in return for free content that’s valuable.
- However, 37 percent said they would rather pay for online content than be exposed to advertisements.
- 65 percent said they consider any type of internet ad more intrusive than newspaper and magazine ads.
Traditional advertising tactics fail on social networks September 3, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentTraditional advertising tactics fail on social networks
New research suggests that most marketers continue to use traditional marketing tactics on social networking sites, and it’s affecting their return on investment.
Forrester Research released the results of a study last month appropriately titled “Marketing on Social Networking Sites”. The results indicated that traditional advertising techniques and microsites were still being used to “push” messages to users of these networks. However, the return on investment from these type of campaigns remains low.
“We believe that marketing needs to turn itself on its head,” said Gurval Caer, president and chief executive at marketing agency Blast Radius. “The goal should not be messaging customers, but rather should be building relationships from the first moment of a delightful experience that will make people’s lives easier, better and richer.”
Forrester found many Internet users were interested in viewing marketer’s profiles – one-third of Gen Y users and nearly half of adults. The best way to engage them on social networks was, the report said, to make use of branded viral elements and to form personal relationships as “friends”, much like “how bands promote themselves on sites like MySpace”.
Pharma afraid to expand web based advertising due to regulatory fears. Yet somehow I can still get 70 offers to buy V1@gra a day without problems June 14, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment| DTC Brands Prescribe More Mag Pages, Longer TV Spots, Little Web | |
| by Joe Mandese, Wednesday, Jun 13, 2007 7:45 AM ET | |
| THE THREAT OF REGULATORY OVERSIGHT appears to be having a profound effect on one of the most dynamic advertising categories of the past decade – direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads – and if another category facing scrutiny follows a similar pattern, the major media could see big shifts in advertising plans by food marketers. Those are some of the preliminary conclusions being drawn by analysts at ad tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence as it begins drilling into some of the micro economic data that have been influencing the U.S. advertising expansion, or in the case of the first quarter of 2007, a lack thereof. “Pharma seems to be little farther along than food advertising, but we are starting to see some interesting patterns,” says Jon Swallen, senior vice president-research at TNS MI, which Tuesday issued a revised forecast, reducing expectations for U.S. advertising growth this year (see related story in today’s edition). Swallen says the impact of regulatory oversight appears to have already affected advertising spending, as well as the mix of media used by pharmaceutical advertisers. That conclusion is drawn from a “deep dive” into data for the category that TNS MI has just completed, and it reveals some interesting patterns. For one thing, except for a brief scaling back in total ad spending that occurred when the pharmaceutical industry adopted a voluntary code of conduct for advertising prescription drugs to consumers, ad spending has actually skyrocketed. During 2006, pharmaceutical ad spending surged 14%, and according to TNS MI’s most recent data, it jumped another 6.7% during the first quarter of this year. “Initially, it seemed that drug companies were following through on their pledge to delay the introduction of new drugs, and to conduct more testing before they began advertising new brands, but in retrospect it represented a finger in the dam,” says Swallen. “All it did was defer, not eliminate ad spending for new drugs. After the voluntary deferral period, that pent-up money for new product introductions came back into the marketplace and DTC pharma ads shot up 14% in 2006.” But the surge has not benefited all media equally, and the voluntary code appears to have an even more significant impact on the mix of media used by the DTC category. To make good on its pledge to provide more detailed information to consumers about the effects of prescription drugs, as well as on alternative forms of treatment, pharmaceutical marketers appear to be favoring media that allow them to tell long-form advertising messages. That, in turn, has led to a bonanza for magazines, as prescription drug marketers have begun buying additional pages to provide additional disclaimer and informational copy to accompany their image and brand advertising claims. That trend suggests that a major factor in the overall growth of consumer magazine ad spending this year has been a surge in ad pages purchased by prescription drug brands. Magazines were the second fastest growing ad medium behind the Internet during the first quarter of this year, according to estimates by TNS MI, Nielsen Monitor-Plus and the Magazine Publishers of America, and Swallen suggests that increased pharma spending is a key reason. During the first quarter of 2007, total DTC spending rose 6.7% to $1.2 billion among the media tracked by TNS MI, but spending in consumer magazines soared 25.5% to $376.2 million. While broadcast and cable TV spending was also up, its rate of growth was more moderate than in magazines, and Swallen thinks that also has to do with the effects of the pharmaceutical industry pledge to provide more information to consumers. Instead of buying 30-second TV advertising units, the major DTC brands have been buying 60-second TV commercials to provide more information, but have cut back on the total number of units they air. “We kind of associate DTC advertising with TV, but magazines have been benefiting more than television, and the chief reason is the code of conduct and an effort to be more conscientious about providing extra information to consumers,” says Swallen. “As a result, DTC advertising has become more information-rich and that has favored magazines vs. TV, and longer commercials in TV.” Interestingly, that strategy has not been a boon for other media capable of telling long-form advertising messages, especially newspapers, which plummeted 65.3%, and Sunday magazine supplements, which dived 40.8%. It also has not been a major benefit to the Internet, which would seem to be an ideal medium for telling long-form advertising messages, or for driving traffic to DTC brand Web sites for more information. DTC spending on the Internet rose only 4% during the first quarter. TNS MI’s Swallen says it’s still too early to tell how regulatory pressures surrounding obesity and food marketing might impact total ad spending and the mix of media used by food marketers, but he says the shifts could be equally as profound as with prescription drugs.
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