Digital Marketing Commentary (Now With 15% More Snark!)

August 15, 2011

online video: engagement measurement

Filed under: Digital Media, digital media buying, Video — Tags: , , , , , , , — jilliantate @ 11:55 am

So I was just watching the below clip from beet.tv, and it raised a lively discussion between me and the offline research colleague who sits next to me. We’re both learning about measurement in each others’ worlds by osmosis, since we share the “R&D pod” with two other teammates. But the below clip really gave us some great points to exchange information on:

http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/beet_tv?layout=4&clip=flv_b3c43796-17d4-4117-a21b-7240a7d57d46&color=0xe7e7e7&autoPlay=false&mute=false&iconColorOver=0×888888&iconColor=0×777777&allowchat=true&height=340&width=560

Watch live streaming video from beet_tv at livestream.com

First of all, there’s some discussion in this clip about how GRP’s aren’t the best fit for online video measurement, since they measure eyeballs, and do not gauge engagement or involvement with the brand. What would a new metric, beyond GRPs or views, looke like though? What could be added on to gauge effectiveness, prove the engagement, and show that the advertiser has really connected to their audience?

I had a couple ideas on adding social connectivity to video. For example, in YouTube pre-rolls, it may not be enough to just rely on YouTube Trueview as a metric for engaged users. It would be awesome if Google added a +1 button to the pre-roll ads on YouTube, and gave an advertiser the opportunity to tie it to a +1 of the brand everywhere else. It would also be great if the +1 would positively affect the YouTube search for that video, and boost the commercial in YouTube search results, so it would gain more views as an independent YouTube posted video.

Similarly, it would be really helpful to add Gigya social sign in type functionality to online video, allowing for “Likes”, or other soft indicators of allegiance to a video. Assuming everyone’s logged in on some social network at all times, whether Facebook or Google+, why not take advantage of those logins to allow users to indicate interest in content?

My offline colleague and I agree that GRPs are the best broad, branded metric to measure any video content by, because it still gets in front of eyeballs. Even if the user isn’t paying attention (and they are more likely to pull up another window in front of an online ad), they still see or hear the brand name. But there does need to be a new school of measurement to gauge video effectively…especially since otherwise, all video media placements might be viewed as equal in quality. If video is only effective when it meets the “three C’s” (content, context and connectivity), what additional engagement metrics should be layered on to judge whether those three factors have been adequately met, and the video is indeed conveyings its message to an engaged consumer?

February 9, 2011

AOL Buys Huffington Post – “Content Is King” Again?

Filed under: Digital Media, digital media buying, State of the Internet — Tags: , , , , , — jilliantate @ 7:05 am

You heard me. “Content is king.” Back when that was still a viable strategy, I was a teenager. It seems strange to see it come back as a viable strategy, let alone one that is driving both this AOL Deal, and the meteoric rise of Demand Media.

On Monday, February 7th, AOL and the Huffington Post announced the creation of a “New Media Universe” with the acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315M. Arianna Huffington will now transition from being the founder of the Huffington Post to being the leader of the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group. HPMG will cover all AOL content, including not only content on AOL and HuffingtonPost.com, but also on AOL owned content sites such as Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.

Huffpo and AOL Universe

The "New Media" Universe

This new merger is part of AOL’s strategy to become a content based media group, attracting eyeballs – and advertiser revenue – by providing unique, proprietary and valuable content. AOL describes their content as “a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.” AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher describes the acquisition as part of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s “aggressive, if risky, strategy to focus the long-troubled company as a content and advertising powerhouse… For AOL, the deal gives it a popular branded site that is very good at generating lots of page views and impressions very efficiently–which is the company’s whole thrust these days.”

The move to premium content is part of AOL’s attempt to discover new revenue models. Over forty percent of AOL’s revenues are still coming from dialup subscribers, 75% of which have broadband service in addition to an AOL dialup account (the company’s failure to clarify that users can keep their @aol addresses without dialup service is to blame). With the acquisition of the Huffington Post, AOL gains traffic that is easy to monetize in three ways. First of all, the traffic increase is from HuffPo’s young, affluent audience and will allow AOL to increase rates on premium content (of which they will have more with the content expansion). Second, the Huffington Post’s practice of aggregating the first few paragraphs of stories from other sites has made HuffPo an SEO magnet. Digital executive Ian Schafer was quoted as saying, “AOL just bought SEO”. This will in turn increase traffic, which will create more display banner impressions to be sold. Third, AOL will increase non-display revenue through the influx of traffic by taking advantage of the millions of additional eyeballs to their other advertising products. It is likely that there will be an uptick in volume on Sponsored Listings (AOL’s search and contextual text ad products).

AOL may also begin to leverage their prowess in content in more revenue generating ways. IMS hopes that a focus on quality content means that more advertorial opportunities will be made available. It’s possible that AOL may also use a future reputation as a high quality content site to engage in revenue sharing with other sites. For example, AOL and Everyday Health announced a partnership last month where Everyday Health would be the destination for all AOL health traffic. AOL users interested in a health story will soon be driven through to an Everyday Health site to read it. For this traffic, Everyday Health shares revenue with AOL. If more users visit AOL for quality, trusted content, AOL could extend partnerships like this to other networks willing to pay for the quality traffic.

IMS will continue to watch AOL and HuffPo for further developments and opportunities. At this time, we anticipate the greatest opportunities for our clients to be in Sponsored Listings and contextual ad opportunities: two AOL products which have always performed well for us.

January 31, 2011

Expect More “Effective” Privacy Measures in 2011

Filed under: digital media buying, State of the Internet, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — jilliantate @ 9:26 am

By the way, I mean “effective” with quotes, like in the “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks

FireFox and Google Chrome browsers made headlines this week when they announced new “plug ins” that would effectively screen users from being targeted by advertisers and marketers. The “Keep My Opt Outs” plugin for Chrome is an extension for users who aren’t “comfortable with personalization of the ads they see on the web”. Google calls it a “one-step, persistent opt-out of personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies adopting the industry privacy standards for online advertising.”

FireFox and Google Chrome browsers made headlines this week when they announced new “plug ins” that would effectively screen users from being targeted by advertisers and marketers. The “Keep My Opt Outs” plugin for Chrome is an extension for users who aren’t “comfortable with personalization of the ads they see on the web”. Google calls it a “one-step, persistent opt-out of personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies adopting the industry privacy standards for online advertising.”

This follows on the heels of the announcements made by the IAB and DMA to voluntarily self-regulate as part of the National Advertising Initiative (NAI). The NAI centers around an “Advertising Option Icon”, triangular icon indicating program participation, which is to be displayed in or near online advertisements or on Web pages where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. By clicking on it consumers will be able to link to a clear disclosure statement regarding the data collection and use practices associated with the ad. Consumers will also be presented with an easy-to-use opt-out mechanism, so they may not be targeted by that advertiser in future.

However, while the NAI is an initiative adopted and paid for by marketers and advertisers on a voluntary basis, these new privacy plug-ins must be adopted and installed by consumers in order to be effective. At this time, only the Google privacy plug-in is available for Chrome, which is only used by 12.4% of the US online population. Firefox, which has 26.9% of the browsing population, does not have a definitive release date for their user-secured privacy technology. It’s unlikely that these kind of “opt outs” will be used by more than a very small percentage of the population, who is tech savvy enough to use one of these browsers, and install the plug ins.

Valleywag, Gawker Media’s tech blog, took an even more cynical approach to this show of privacy protection. A post written on January 24th observed that “Google itself is easily the biggest perpetrator of precisely the sort of tracking this software is designed to prevent. Its advertising wing, DoubleClick, has trackers on 70 of the top 100 websites, a ubiquity second only to Google Analytics. The DoubleClick tracker follows you around the web and targets ads at you based on your surfing habits. It also builds up a demographic profile of you and targets ads that way. Google trackers also target ads at you based on searches you’ve run on Google.com. Finally, the indiscreet configuration of Google’s search engine is essential in providing your search keywords to all ad trackers; Google stubbornly refuses to change this setup.”

The Gawker observation, while extreme, is likely more accurate, and therefore more relevant for marketers and advertisers. Google also seeks to bring back display advertising, an initiative for which the user of targeting and customized ads will be crucial, in order to show improved click through rates. Wide range adoption of privacy protection software could detract from display advertising success. Similarly, effective blocking of cookie and tracking data could prevent DSP’s and ad exchages such as Yahoo’s Right Media, or MDC’s Varick Media, from effectively targeting and bidding on impressions to consumers most likely to convert. Just as a low buy-in rate from advertisers has resulted in an absence of the NAI’s triangular icons “in the wild”, a similarly low install rate from consumers will likely keep these new privacy measures from impacting ad revenues in 2011.

IMS will continue to work with new anonymized targeting technology to find ways to effectively reach the ideal customers for our clients. We will also continue to balance targeting and effective personalization to ensure that it does not create the impression or perception of intrusion on consumers. Should new privacy measures arise that change our ability to reach a target market, we will advise on changes or alternate strategies.

Resource links:

http://searchengineland.com/browsers-to-offer-behavioral-targeting-blocking-62334

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5742225/dont-be-fooled-by-googles-fake-new-privacy

September 2, 2010

Tempur-Pedic’s CEO Talks About Their Facebook Page

Filed under: Digital Media, direct response, facebook, social media — jilliantate @ 10:03 am

In this video, Mark Sarvary, CEO of Tempur-Pedic, talks about the integrated strategy his company took. Their commercial, “Ask Me”, told consumers to ask on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube about the company’s mattresses. “Ask me about my Tempur-Pedic!”

But what if you don’t know which of your friends have a Tempur-Pedic bed? That’s why, when “Ask Me” launched, I initiated a strategy to catch all those TV driven consumers. We had set up a Facebook page and a YouTube channel for the client back in Q2 2008, but neither was gaining the kind of popularity that would make them central hubs for conversation. Knowing that a brand’s Facebook page needs a certain critical mass, we applied our usual DR media buying tactics to drive more users to that page. Using a combination of site-wide “become a fan” ads (which were less expensive than homepage ads), and the inherent evangelism in the product, IMS drove almost ten thousand new fans to the Facebook page inside of three months.

Now, when consumers shopping for a mattress go to “Ask Me”, they find a vibrant Tempur-Pedic Facebook page, with 13,000+ “likes”, where they can ask their questions and read other owners real, uncensored stories. In this video from February, when the page was just over 10,000 fans, CEO Mark Sarvary talks about how more and more people are coming to that Facebook page every day, and how that fits in with the overall Tempur-Pedic strategy.

If the video doesn’t show up, above, it’s here on CNBC.com”

July 7, 2010

Twitter Announces New Advertising Model

Filed under: digital media buying, direct response, social media, twitter — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — jilliantate @ 9:18 pm

I just sent the below out to my team, for distribution to clients. We may not use a lot of Twitter here at my DR focused agency, but this may actually be a viable ad model…when Twitter figures out how much to charge.

Digital Breaking News: Twitter Releases “@Earlybird” Advertiser Channel

July 7, 2010 – Twitter today announced the release of a new advertising channel: the Early Bird Twitter feed. This Twitter account is owned and operated exclusively by Twitter, and will be used to promote deals and discounts which are exclusive to Twitter users. As of 2pm PST on July 7th, 2010, the @earlybird account on Twitter had over 16,000 followers, with approximately a thousand more following every hour.

For Twitter, this gives the site a real means of advertising income, without having to deviate from their community culture. The plan for Twitter to begin offering sponsored tweets was first announced April 13th, 2010, at AdAge Digital, when the site founders, taking a cue from sponsored search, promised to only place sponsored tweets at the top of Twitter search result pages. However, the model was experimental, and still being tested to be sure the tweets “resonated” with the audience. Now, Twitter has a dedicated advertising feed, one where users are given incentive to join through deals and discounts. Since following @earlybird is entirely voluntary, Twitter is able to keep their users happy, and avoid any model which could be considered invasive advertising.

For advertisers, this now provides a new opportunity to introduce their brand to new customers. Deals and discounts are proven incentives for users to sign up to receive advertiser offers. In a recent eMarketer study, 37% of users who “Liked” a brand on Facebook, did so because they were incentivized with coupons or exclusive discounts. Deal based sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial also command huge mailing lists of subscribers who receive daily offers via email. The promise of financial incentives has proven very attractive for the online audience, inciting thousands of people to sign up to receive regular communications featuring a variety of advertiser offers. The @earlybird stream on Twitter is very likely to command a similarly extensive following of highly responsive users.

While Twitter has not been a significant part of Integrated Media Solutions campaigns to date, this new advertising opportunity may prove to be an option for clients in future. This will be a national advertising opportunity, with over 100,000 “followers”. Recommendations will be made based on pricing and campaign goals, in keeping with IMS’ practice of media portfolio management

More information on Early Bird from Twitter can be found at:

http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/111-features/articles/208505-what-is-earlybird

Jillian Tate
Director, Digital Strategy
jtate@imediasolutions.com
@jilliantate

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