I love actionable market research as a means of powering marketing. But the cost can be prohibitive in some circumstances, and for many smaller and boutique brands. A company called Ask Your Target Market (on the web at aytm.com) hopes to bring the value of quantitative market research to more brands and situations by making it vastly more affordable.
“Powered” by a panel of more than 2 million possible respondents, AYTM enables people to define a pool of respondents and field quantitative research for a very low cost per respondent. The minimum cost for respondents is indeed quite minimal – 95 cents per – though with some specs like gender, family situation and region, the costs get a scosh higher. But in experimenting with their audience definition tools I found that more specific targets (reflective of what a large brand might want) could be had in the $5-$10 per respondent range. Still a bargain at twice the price. Thrice even.
Specs you can use to target your audience include:
Age – By age ranges or with a minimum or maximum
Employment status – Full time, part time, retired, student, or not working
Ethnicity – The usual breaks here
Household income – Options to select a range or a maximum/minimum only
Education – The usual breaks
Geographical location – Regions, states
Gender – No surprises here
Relationship status – Single, married, divorced, widowed
Additionally, they have people categorized by 168 behaviors and psychographics, like “have a Facebook account.”
One of the interesting things they offer is an estimated completed by date. Or rather time, because the turnaround of a project from launch is ridiculously short. Getting a survey of about 100 Moms, for example, would have taken about 2 hours when I did my demo.
Not two months
Not two weeks
Not even two days
Two miracuolously short hours.
Think about THAT the next time you want to run some spec creative by consumers for a pitch.
Anyway. To use the service, you visit the site, input your respondent specs, define a number of completes, and upload the content (like video or documents) that you want people to respond to. You can field a standard questionnaire or take advantage of skip logic to go deeper into issues and segments without overwhelming people with question counts.
Here’s their short and sweet demo vid:
I don't think this platform can entirely replace custom research. But so many of the projects we want to field, at least in my experience, could be more than met with this sort of standardized offering. At a cost that is smaller than that available from a custom research provider by a factor of ten or more.
But even more important than the potential savings is the opportunity to do real research in more instances and situations. We don’t need to fly blind anymore. And THAT is most definitely a good thing, especially as society and lifestyles get more and more complicated.
Good stuff you should definitely check out.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Showing posts with label Company of the day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Company of the day. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Start-Up Watch COD: ReviewSpotter gives online retailers a way to make the most of their reviews
We all know that online reviews have strong persuasive power for consumers looking for reassurance about what and where they buy. No matter how beautiful your TV ads…no matter how attractive your web pages…there’s really nothing like a user endorsement to get people comfy with clicking the buy button.
According to Forrester, more than seven out of ten consumers say that they are more likely to buy from a site that bears positive consumer reviews on its pages. And I’ll wager that for smaller businesses that 70% figure actually UNDERSTATES the importance of such endorsements. First, because when we don’t know a retailer we are less likely to trust it with our personal information. Second, because we need assurance that the sites we choose offer a good value. Reviews help on both scores.
The challenge for small and medium-sized businesses is that the reviews for an individual retailer are scattered across the web, and can be difficult for consumers to find. And we know that when things are difficult to find online, consumers often abandon their searches and move on.
An offering called ReviewSpotter is a review discovery and presentation widget that helps retailers benefit from such reviews, at a very low monthly cost.
Review Spotter starts by scrounging the web looking for reviews for a particular online retailer. They then make the reviews available in a semi-customizable widget that can be easily incorporated into a site. As part of the service, the platform continues to sift through the web looking for new reviews to add to the rotation on the widget. The widget itself ONLY features positive reviews and ratings, and clients can actually select the reviews they wish to feature in the unit.
Consumers that are interested in seeing the retailer review where it originally appeared can simply click anywhere on the widget and a new browser window is spawned. That’s a nice feature because it reassures suspicious consumers that the reviews are real.
Improving results on a website is less about monumental changes than taking small steps. Including reviews on your site can help in that stream of incremental improvement. At just $40 a month, with no contract, offerings like this are certainly worth serious consideration.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
According to Forrester, more than seven out of ten consumers say that they are more likely to buy from a site that bears positive consumer reviews on its pages. And I’ll wager that for smaller businesses that 70% figure actually UNDERSTATES the importance of such endorsements. First, because when we don’t know a retailer we are less likely to trust it with our personal information. Second, because we need assurance that the sites we choose offer a good value. Reviews help on both scores.
The challenge for small and medium-sized businesses is that the reviews for an individual retailer are scattered across the web, and can be difficult for consumers to find. And we know that when things are difficult to find online, consumers often abandon their searches and move on.
An offering called ReviewSpotter is a review discovery and presentation widget that helps retailers benefit from such reviews, at a very low monthly cost.
Review Spotter starts by scrounging the web looking for reviews for a particular online retailer. They then make the reviews available in a semi-customizable widget that can be easily incorporated into a site. As part of the service, the platform continues to sift through the web looking for new reviews to add to the rotation on the widget. The widget itself ONLY features positive reviews and ratings, and clients can actually select the reviews they wish to feature in the unit.
Consumers that are interested in seeing the retailer review where it originally appeared can simply click anywhere on the widget and a new browser window is spawned. That’s a nice feature because it reassures suspicious consumers that the reviews are real.
Improving results on a website is less about monumental changes than taking small steps. Including reviews on your site can help in that stream of incremental improvement. At just $40 a month, with no contract, offerings like this are certainly worth serious consideration.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Magnetic delivers search retargeting to millions and millions
am a huge believer in the potential of search retargeting to drive strong ROI for brands. The model, for those who may be unfamiliar, is that a search retargeting firm serves banner ads to people based upon their recent search history.
Now why, you might ask, would you bother targeting with banners instead of just buying the search results? Well, it’s actually not an “instead,” it’s an “in addition to.” Everyone knows SEM delivers blockbuster results. The problem is that there are not enough instances of searches to satisfy the demand from brands. You can only buy the number of searches consumers organically make. And then only one company gets to be first on the results. And even if you are first, there is by no means a guarantee that people will buy as a direct result of seeing or even clicking on your link.
Search retargeting adds critical touch points to the bottom of the funnel ecosystem, giving brands an opportunity to follow up with consumers are clearly in consideration and buying mode. The banners appear in both contextually linked content and on quality sites where the searchers visit after their telltale searches.
Magnetic was the first company in the space, and collects more than five billion data points monthly through its partnerships with most of the leading search providers. Ergo more data. These partners provide Magnetic with 100% of their search queries, so the company can develop more precise user profiles of consumers.
But there are other distinctions as well. The data they get are mostly from search and e-commerce environments – that’s an important element of their value proposition. According to Magnetic, many search retargeting options are based upon data that come largely from sharing widgets. That’s OK, but the thing is that these widgets tend to appear more in news, blogs, and general edit than in environments where shoppers are actively looking for buying options. Think of it this way –would you rather show banners to someone who searched in a commercial environment, or on CNN?
There are a variety of ways that brands can benefit from Magnetic’s data. First, they can buy inventory direct from the company. Second, Magnetic works with other sellers, providing data to pubs and networks as a means of identifying more likely prospects. Finally, users of exchanges can also leverage the company’s information.
Founded in 2008, the company has amassed a broad range of blue chip customers. It’s an impressive list particularly because many of their customers are highly sophisticated DR marketers.
Through the use of the exchanges, Magnetic can make available inventory on virtually any type of site. For brands with very high levels of concern over brand safety, they can white list a set of sites that fulfill the advertiser’s specs. For example, many of their advertisers insist on inventory ONLY on the Comscore 250.
On the data provider side, sites need not provide data solely to Magnetic – they can continue to sell their data to companies like Yahoo, Google, and Bing. They can simply add Magnetic to their set of paying contracts and make more money. Always a good thing.
As I say, I am a big believer in this space. As a means of driving scale for transactional advertising, search retargeting can and should be a powerful extension of an SEM program. Definitely worth a look!
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Now why, you might ask, would you bother targeting with banners instead of just buying the search results? Well, it’s actually not an “instead,” it’s an “in addition to.” Everyone knows SEM delivers blockbuster results. The problem is that there are not enough instances of searches to satisfy the demand from brands. You can only buy the number of searches consumers organically make. And then only one company gets to be first on the results. And even if you are first, there is by no means a guarantee that people will buy as a direct result of seeing or even clicking on your link.
Search retargeting adds critical touch points to the bottom of the funnel ecosystem, giving brands an opportunity to follow up with consumers are clearly in consideration and buying mode. The banners appear in both contextually linked content and on quality sites where the searchers visit after their telltale searches.
Magnetic was the first company in the space, and collects more than five billion data points monthly through its partnerships with most of the leading search providers. Ergo more data. These partners provide Magnetic with 100% of their search queries, so the company can develop more precise user profiles of consumers.
But there are other distinctions as well. The data they get are mostly from search and e-commerce environments – that’s an important element of their value proposition. According to Magnetic, many search retargeting options are based upon data that come largely from sharing widgets. That’s OK, but the thing is that these widgets tend to appear more in news, blogs, and general edit than in environments where shoppers are actively looking for buying options. Think of it this way –would you rather show banners to someone who searched in a commercial environment, or on CNN?
There are a variety of ways that brands can benefit from Magnetic’s data. First, they can buy inventory direct from the company. Second, Magnetic works with other sellers, providing data to pubs and networks as a means of identifying more likely prospects. Finally, users of exchanges can also leverage the company’s information.
Founded in 2008, the company has amassed a broad range of blue chip customers. It’s an impressive list particularly because many of their customers are highly sophisticated DR marketers.
Through the use of the exchanges, Magnetic can make available inventory on virtually any type of site. For brands with very high levels of concern over brand safety, they can white list a set of sites that fulfill the advertiser’s specs. For example, many of their advertisers insist on inventory ONLY on the Comscore 250.
On the data provider side, sites need not provide data solely to Magnetic – they can continue to sell their data to companies like Yahoo, Google, and Bing. They can simply add Magnetic to their set of paying contracts and make more money. Always a good thing.
As I say, I am a big believer in this space. As a means of driving scale for transactional advertising, search retargeting can and should be a powerful extension of an SEM program. Definitely worth a look!
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start Up Watch COD: Kiip delivers real world rewards during mobile gaming “achievement moments”
IMHO, mobile advertising has always been a dicey arena. We want to deliver marketing messages in this most lean forward of environments, but at the same time stay on the tolerate/detest divide. Or at least that balancing USED TO BE what drove our thinking.
A really intriguing start-up called Kiip (pronounced keep) completely utterly absolutely upends this very balancing act. Instead, they offer a remarkable and ingenious way to have people actually look forward to marketing messages. To deliver on this promise, they threw off the shackles of “screen real estate” thinking. Meaning that they are not focused on how much of a mobile screen they can fill with an ad. Rather, they pinpoint time-based opportunities when real world rewards can be provided for in-game achievements. Yep, you get actual things for doing well in mobile games.
Let’s compare and contrast two gaming scenarios to show the difference in thinking. And appeal.
Under the standard ad-supported model, ads appear in launch screens, as overlays on the game screen, and as interstitials between levels in a game. Finish level three? Watch an ad and then start playing level four. It’s certainly a serviceable model in that it is exposing a brand message to a captive audience. But in this scenario, the ads really aren’t providing consumer value. Rather they are something to be endured (or despised) because they keep us from what we want to do. Yes yes it’s just for a few seconds. But in our ADD world, they may well be very frustrating seconds for your target.
Enter Kiip. No banners or addy interstitials here. Rather, they offer players tangible, real world rewards for achievements like completing a level. Just finished level three? Yay for you. As your reward, we’re going to give you a mobile coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Not a blob of electrons that looks like a Dr. Pepper. An actual Dr. Pepper you can go out, obtain, and enjoy.
What I love about this is how it flips the consumer's openness to the marketing message from something endured to something welcomed. Brand message receptivity goes from negative to positive. And how the real world nature of the reward ensures that the consumer exposure herself more than once to the message. See the reward, save the reward, redeem the reward.
Another aspect of this that I find intriguing is the potential to thematically tie offers to games. So, for example, getting free bacon when you exterminate the pigs in Angry Birds. Success never ever tasted so good. But anyway. Rewards are targeted demographically, so that games attracting an adolescent male audience would naturally offer different rewards than games that attract women 35+. The model is priced based upon a cost per reward redeemed basis. Tech Crunch reports a price range from 25 cents to $3 per.
Given the redemption costs and the cost pers, this isn’t a cheap way of reaching consumers. But it certainly is a rich, positive, and multilayered one. Me likey likey. Apparently I am not the only one that’s taken with this great new concept. They have already signed programs with lots of big brands, among them Sephora, Popchips, 800 Flowers, Carls Jr, Homerun, and Dr Pepper. Not bad for a company that a month ago only had a splash screen for its website.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
A really intriguing start-up called Kiip (pronounced keep) completely utterly absolutely upends this very balancing act. Instead, they offer a remarkable and ingenious way to have people actually look forward to marketing messages. To deliver on this promise, they threw off the shackles of “screen real estate” thinking. Meaning that they are not focused on how much of a mobile screen they can fill with an ad. Rather, they pinpoint time-based opportunities when real world rewards can be provided for in-game achievements. Yep, you get actual things for doing well in mobile games.
Let’s compare and contrast two gaming scenarios to show the difference in thinking. And appeal.
Under the standard ad-supported model, ads appear in launch screens, as overlays on the game screen, and as interstitials between levels in a game. Finish level three? Watch an ad and then start playing level four. It’s certainly a serviceable model in that it is exposing a brand message to a captive audience. But in this scenario, the ads really aren’t providing consumer value. Rather they are something to be endured (or despised) because they keep us from what we want to do. Yes yes it’s just for a few seconds. But in our ADD world, they may well be very frustrating seconds for your target.
Enter Kiip. No banners or addy interstitials here. Rather, they offer players tangible, real world rewards for achievements like completing a level. Just finished level three? Yay for you. As your reward, we’re going to give you a mobile coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Not a blob of electrons that looks like a Dr. Pepper. An actual Dr. Pepper you can go out, obtain, and enjoy.
What I love about this is how it flips the consumer's openness to the marketing message from something endured to something welcomed. Brand message receptivity goes from negative to positive. And how the real world nature of the reward ensures that the consumer exposure herself more than once to the message. See the reward, save the reward, redeem the reward.
Another aspect of this that I find intriguing is the potential to thematically tie offers to games. So, for example, getting free bacon when you exterminate the pigs in Angry Birds. Success never ever tasted so good. But anyway. Rewards are targeted demographically, so that games attracting an adolescent male audience would naturally offer different rewards than games that attract women 35+. The model is priced based upon a cost per reward redeemed basis. Tech Crunch reports a price range from 25 cents to $3 per.
Given the redemption costs and the cost pers, this isn’t a cheap way of reaching consumers. But it certainly is a rich, positive, and multilayered one. Me likey likey. Apparently I am not the only one that’s taken with this great new concept. They have already signed programs with lots of big brands, among them Sephora, Popchips, 800 Flowers, Carls Jr, Homerun, and Dr Pepper. Not bad for a company that a month ago only had a splash screen for its website.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Compass Labs uses real-time social comments to pinpoint user interests and deliver targeted ads
How do data companies and targeting engines determine your interests? Most of them use cookies to determine the sorts of content you’re consuming and the sites you’re visiting. It’s been proven effective, But if we get real for a minute, we need to admit to ourselves that Display response rates tend to be so microscopic that even small improvements in targeting make a difference. I’m not diminishing the power of BT to improve results but rather pointing out that the standard approaches and algorithms needn’t be perfect to have an impact.
But what if we could be CERTAIN about what a consumer was interested in. More specifically, interested in buying?
Compass Labs is an interesting new company that thinks it has a way to do just that. Rather than inferring user passions and needs, it analyzes what people actually tell the world they are interested in through their social media activity.
Put it this way: Would you rather put a Cadillac banner up in front of:
A consumer that has visited a lot of luxury auto content?
Someone who just typed “I am interested in buying a Cadillac” in their Twitter status?
Of course it’s not quite as simple as that; based on what I read from my friends and connections, comments are rarely THAT obvious. But the basic principle behind Compass Labs is that more effective targeting is possible when we interpret people's comments than when we read the tea leaves of their Internet travels.
Theirs is a real-time ad targeting and serving platform that puts ads into social environments precisely when users identify their interests. These ads appear in Facebook, Twitter, social media apps, and thousands of community posting boards across the web. In total, the company says it can reach 200,000,000 web users in any given month with highly targeted messages that offer stronger response and conversion rates.
Publicly available social media information enables Compass Labs to offer a broad range of targeting options, including users’ current interests, lifestyles, purchase intent, demographics, location and other factors.
Here’s their pitch vid from last year’s Under the Radar:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10810222
As is often the case with advanced targeting, the benefits to DR marketers are obvious. But brand-side advertisers can also benefit by impacting brand perceptions among people who in earlier stages of the buying funnel.
Flipping the coin over for a sec, there are some significant benefits to the pub side as well. Obviously Facebook and Twitter benefit from more ads, and higher value impressions. But for pubs that offer forums, this stream of advertising revenue can be almost 100% incremental because it has traditionally been so hard to convince advertisers to place messages in UGC environments. Advertisers tend to fear the unknown, and forums may as well be renamed “Unknown Zone” as far as content goes.
With this new dimension of precision targeting, millions more page views can get monetized – and at strong rates.
I haven’t worked on any programs using them, but I think the concept is rather compelling, and warrants a serious look from DR and Brand advertisers.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
But what if we could be CERTAIN about what a consumer was interested in. More specifically, interested in buying?
Compass Labs is an interesting new company that thinks it has a way to do just that. Rather than inferring user passions and needs, it analyzes what people actually tell the world they are interested in through their social media activity.
Put it this way: Would you rather put a Cadillac banner up in front of:
A consumer that has visited a lot of luxury auto content?
Someone who just typed “I am interested in buying a Cadillac” in their Twitter status?
Of course it’s not quite as simple as that; based on what I read from my friends and connections, comments are rarely THAT obvious. But the basic principle behind Compass Labs is that more effective targeting is possible when we interpret people's comments than when we read the tea leaves of their Internet travels.
Theirs is a real-time ad targeting and serving platform that puts ads into social environments precisely when users identify their interests. These ads appear in Facebook, Twitter, social media apps, and thousands of community posting boards across the web. In total, the company says it can reach 200,000,000 web users in any given month with highly targeted messages that offer stronger response and conversion rates.
Publicly available social media information enables Compass Labs to offer a broad range of targeting options, including users’ current interests, lifestyles, purchase intent, demographics, location and other factors.
Here’s their pitch vid from last year’s Under the Radar:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10810222
As is often the case with advanced targeting, the benefits to DR marketers are obvious. But brand-side advertisers can also benefit by impacting brand perceptions among people who in earlier stages of the buying funnel.
Flipping the coin over for a sec, there are some significant benefits to the pub side as well. Obviously Facebook and Twitter benefit from more ads, and higher value impressions. But for pubs that offer forums, this stream of advertising revenue can be almost 100% incremental because it has traditionally been so hard to convince advertisers to place messages in UGC environments. Advertisers tend to fear the unknown, and forums may as well be renamed “Unknown Zone” as far as content goes.
With this new dimension of precision targeting, millions more page views can get monetized – and at strong rates.
I haven’t worked on any programs using them, but I think the concept is rather compelling, and warrants a serious look from DR and Brand advertisers.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Social Twist delivers strategic precision in digital promotions
The digital world is becoming packed with start-ups focused on finding new ways to distribute coupons. I don’t like most of them one bit. The last thing we need to be doing in digital is creating more platforms that destroy brand value.
But there ARE good reasons and good ways to distribute promotional offers. And in my view, one of the “good guys” in digital promotions is Social Twist, a platform that helps brands deliver more powerful promotional periods by incenting users to distribute offers and information to their friends.
The big difference between Social Twist and so many of the other coupon distributing schemes is strategic precision. This company understands that in order to deliver a promotion with genuine brand-enhancing value, you need to have tools and methods to define the scope, manner of distribution, offers, and redemption methods that jibe with brand objectives and goals. They certainly aren’t the only company that understands the need for strategic precision, but their breadth of possible solutions is unusual and rather impressive.
Specifically, Social Twist can deliver:
Social Engagement Banner ads that place sharable promotional offers in IAB ad units. Such units incorporate refer-a-friend with the discount, enabling users to pass on the good news of savings to others.
Group Buying Discounts are programs that encourage users to get their friends to pool demand for a product in exchange for a discount.
Group Couponing is the promo format that made Groupon famous.
Multivariate Offers: Referrals get any one of a set of random offers. You can also giveaway different offers for existing customers and non-customers.
Geo-Qualified Offers: This tactic leverages the propensity of consumers to share offers with eople close by, and can be a valuable tool for local or regional marketers as well as new store opendings, expanding distribution, and the like.
Refer-a-Friend Offers: These encourage consumers to share an offer.
Share Your Experience Offers: These reward consumers for posting their experiences and testimonials.
Social Coupons: These reward users who make referrals with higher value coupons.
Social Contests: These enable a contest to go social to grow participation
Social Sweepstakes: These enable a sweeps to go social to grow participation.
Here’s their intro vid:
That’s an incredibly broad range of offers, all layered with social to grow impact. Naturally, the tools that are right for an individual brand are going to vary depending upon its objectives. Their breadth of capabilities has helped Social Twist attract a broad range of blue chip advertisers, including:
In short, if you’re looking for broad-based discounting, there are any number of digital vendors that can provide it. If you need precision, it’s great to know that there are companies like Social Twist that can get granular with your goals and devise precise tactics to meet them, all layered with social sharing.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
But there ARE good reasons and good ways to distribute promotional offers. And in my view, one of the “good guys” in digital promotions is Social Twist, a platform that helps brands deliver more powerful promotional periods by incenting users to distribute offers and information to their friends.
The big difference between Social Twist and so many of the other coupon distributing schemes is strategic precision. This company understands that in order to deliver a promotion with genuine brand-enhancing value, you need to have tools and methods to define the scope, manner of distribution, offers, and redemption methods that jibe with brand objectives and goals. They certainly aren’t the only company that understands the need for strategic precision, but their breadth of possible solutions is unusual and rather impressive.
Specifically, Social Twist can deliver:
Social Engagement Banner ads that place sharable promotional offers in IAB ad units. Such units incorporate refer-a-friend with the discount, enabling users to pass on the good news of savings to others.
Group Buying Discounts are programs that encourage users to get their friends to pool demand for a product in exchange for a discount.
Group Couponing is the promo format that made Groupon famous.
Multivariate Offers: Referrals get any one of a set of random offers. You can also giveaway different offers for existing customers and non-customers.
Geo-Qualified Offers: This tactic leverages the propensity of consumers to share offers with eople close by, and can be a valuable tool for local or regional marketers as well as new store opendings, expanding distribution, and the like.
Refer-a-Friend Offers: These encourage consumers to share an offer.
Share Your Experience Offers: These reward consumers for posting their experiences and testimonials.
Social Coupons: These reward users who make referrals with higher value coupons.
Social Contests: These enable a contest to go social to grow participation
Social Sweepstakes: These enable a sweeps to go social to grow participation.
Here’s their intro vid:
That’s an incredibly broad range of offers, all layered with social to grow impact. Naturally, the tools that are right for an individual brand are going to vary depending upon its objectives. Their breadth of capabilities has helped Social Twist attract a broad range of blue chip advertisers, including:
In short, if you’re looking for broad-based discounting, there are any number of digital vendors that can provide it. If you need precision, it’s great to know that there are companies like Social Twist that can get granular with your goals and devise precise tactics to meet them, all layered with social sharing.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: CodeBaby delivers website avatars to help users understand what you can do for them
People consume information in different ways. Or at least they would if different ways were available to them. While those of us that spend huge amounts of time on the web are very adept at figuring out where to go on a website, and what to do, many other people find it challenging. Or boring. Or difficult. Or impossible.
Or just not pleasant. For example, data indicate that men and women browse differently. When you think about the percentage of UI people and web designers that are male, do you think it’s possible that some web pages aren’t entirely optimized for female viewers? This is a broad example, but I am sure you get the implications. Many of our careers live and die by site metrics, and small steps that can improve those metrics can make our professional lives…richer. Pun intended.
Which brings me to an interesting company and offering called CodeBaby, which creates attractive animated avatars that can be included on websites and in elearning products to help differentiate offerings and make them easier to understand.
Companies can create custom CodeBaby characters that reflect the essence of their products. For example, the child protection offering NetNanny uses a – wait for it – Nanny to introduce their services and describe why they are important. The Nanny also takes users step by step through how to sign up for a trial.
There are five core benefits to using CodeBaby:
Emotional Connection: While on a basic level people realize that these animated avatars are not people, the familiarity of a person to “person” experience may make them more comfortable and engaged, and more likely to buy.
Drive Desired Behaviors: CodeBaby increases the likelihood and instances of users taking desired actions, improving site metrics as important as sales, revenue, and trial.
In-Page Interactivity: The CodeBaby offering can enable characters to interact with actual page content and navigation elements. You can light up a “buy” button or highlight content and offerings to help users find what they are looking for.
Standards Based Integration: The company prides itself on ease of implementation and safety.
Analytics and measurement: Using key metrics the client can optimize and fine tune its CodeBaby experience to optimize desired metrics.
The key to a technology like this is making it available, but not distracting. As I scrounge for information on a daily basis I find many sites with tools and concepts that get in the way rather than help. As a site designs its CodeBaby program, it needs to take that sort of thing very seriously.
Perhaps the best way to give you a sense of this platform is to show you a CodeBaby. Here’s an example from an online retail site that sells stained glass. It features the voice of the proprietor, which I think adds a nice authenticity and personal touch to this implementation:
Pricing for this service varies based upon both the number of views per month a site drives, and the number of segments in its CodeBaby program. Prices go from $299 a month for a small site and nine or less segments, on up. There is a one-time implementation fee to begin a program of twice the monthly fee.
If find this concept intriguing. Those of us living in the SV bubble often forget that not everyone lives like us. Particularly if your site focuses on reaching and converting “regular people” who CAN imagine an afternoon without a celly or a PC connection, I think this is something for you to consider.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Or just not pleasant. For example, data indicate that men and women browse differently. When you think about the percentage of UI people and web designers that are male, do you think it’s possible that some web pages aren’t entirely optimized for female viewers? This is a broad example, but I am sure you get the implications. Many of our careers live and die by site metrics, and small steps that can improve those metrics can make our professional lives…richer. Pun intended.
Which brings me to an interesting company and offering called CodeBaby, which creates attractive animated avatars that can be included on websites and in elearning products to help differentiate offerings and make them easier to understand.
Companies can create custom CodeBaby characters that reflect the essence of their products. For example, the child protection offering NetNanny uses a – wait for it – Nanny to introduce their services and describe why they are important. The Nanny also takes users step by step through how to sign up for a trial.
There are five core benefits to using CodeBaby:
Emotional Connection: While on a basic level people realize that these animated avatars are not people, the familiarity of a person to “person” experience may make them more comfortable and engaged, and more likely to buy.
Drive Desired Behaviors: CodeBaby increases the likelihood and instances of users taking desired actions, improving site metrics as important as sales, revenue, and trial.
In-Page Interactivity: The CodeBaby offering can enable characters to interact with actual page content and navigation elements. You can light up a “buy” button or highlight content and offerings to help users find what they are looking for.
Standards Based Integration: The company prides itself on ease of implementation and safety.
Analytics and measurement: Using key metrics the client can optimize and fine tune its CodeBaby experience to optimize desired metrics.
The key to a technology like this is making it available, but not distracting. As I scrounge for information on a daily basis I find many sites with tools and concepts that get in the way rather than help. As a site designs its CodeBaby program, it needs to take that sort of thing very seriously.
Perhaps the best way to give you a sense of this platform is to show you a CodeBaby. Here’s an example from an online retail site that sells stained glass. It features the voice of the proprietor, which I think adds a nice authenticity and personal touch to this implementation:
Pricing for this service varies based upon both the number of views per month a site drives, and the number of segments in its CodeBaby program. Prices go from $299 a month for a small site and nine or less segments, on up. There is a one-time implementation fee to begin a program of twice the monthly fee.
If find this concept intriguing. Those of us living in the SV bubble often forget that not everyone lives like us. Particularly if your site focuses on reaching and converting “regular people” who CAN imagine an afternoon without a celly or a PC connection, I think this is something for you to consider.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Adapt.ly makes advertising across the social web a breeze
A few weeks ago during ad:tech, I saw a company called Adaptly compete in the Social category of the Start-Up Spotlight competition. They faced stiff competition, and while they did not win, there was this sort of divide in the audience of perhaps 200 people – half the room seemed absolutely rapt by the offering, while the other half saw value, but didn’t appear to have a near religious experience watching their presentation.
I am convinced that the divide was between those who regularly purchase media – especially social media – and those a few steps away from this task.
Because if you buy media, you saw tremendous utility. As part of their assignment, Social companies were asked how they would spend $500K on behalf of a client. What adapt.ly did was LITERALLY book and launch a campaign with $500K in spending.
In about three minutes.
For rather than talking on a high level about the philosophy behind their offering, they launched their social buying platform and defined targets and spends for a number of social sites and opportunities.
Let me back up a minute. What adapt.ly offers is a buying, management, and reporting platform for advertising across a broad range of social media platforms. All from a single web-based console. Where can you buy ads? Check out this list:
Facebook
Twitter
Linked In
Stumble Upon
MySpace
AdMob
Plenty of Fish
As you know, each of these platforms offers ads in very different formats, and each of their self serve buying platforms works differently. Adapt.ly:
Provides a management layer between you and the social venues, so that you can buy everything you want from a single interface.
Automatically versions ads if you desire to optimize performance. In effect, they make the process of testing hundreds of copy versions automatic.
Offer real-time performance information
Provides the tools to enable you to quickly reallocate resources to stronger performers, or adjust your targeting specs to take a different tack in advertising on some or all of the values.
While I don’t buy much social advertising, I do so occasionally, chiefly for B2B clients, and the speed and ease of Adapt.ly really impressed me. So too did the idea of the automatic copy testing. In my view, far too little attention is placed on copy testing in text ads, and Adaptly offers a powerful and simple solution to capitalize on the untapped opportunity.
Here’s a vid that shows the platform in action:
The other reason I liked this idea is that Adapt.ly clearly understands the need for scale in social. It’s all very well and good that there are tools that enable brands to reach a hundred or even a thousand super influencers, but big brands with big budgets need ways to drive reach and other metrics at critical mass scale. If you are in 30% of US households, it’s difficult for 100 influencers make a meaningful impact on the bottom line, no matter how powerful they may be. And no brand or agency has the resources to spend $20,000,000 or $100,000,000 $25K at a time.
Adapt.ly has stepped into this need gap in a big way, and I for one will be watching them closely over the next months and years. Hard to imagine a concept with more appeal than making the ridiculously complicated process of buying social media so much simpler. This team has got something big on their hands.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
I am convinced that the divide was between those who regularly purchase media – especially social media – and those a few steps away from this task.
Because if you buy media, you saw tremendous utility. As part of their assignment, Social companies were asked how they would spend $500K on behalf of a client. What adapt.ly did was LITERALLY book and launch a campaign with $500K in spending.
In about three minutes.
For rather than talking on a high level about the philosophy behind their offering, they launched their social buying platform and defined targets and spends for a number of social sites and opportunities.
Let me back up a minute. What adapt.ly offers is a buying, management, and reporting platform for advertising across a broad range of social media platforms. All from a single web-based console. Where can you buy ads? Check out this list:
Linked In
Stumble Upon
MySpace
AdMob
Plenty of Fish
As you know, each of these platforms offers ads in very different formats, and each of their self serve buying platforms works differently. Adapt.ly:
Provides a management layer between you and the social venues, so that you can buy everything you want from a single interface.
Automatically versions ads if you desire to optimize performance. In effect, they make the process of testing hundreds of copy versions automatic.
Offer real-time performance information
Provides the tools to enable you to quickly reallocate resources to stronger performers, or adjust your targeting specs to take a different tack in advertising on some or all of the values.
While I don’t buy much social advertising, I do so occasionally, chiefly for B2B clients, and the speed and ease of Adapt.ly really impressed me. So too did the idea of the automatic copy testing. In my view, far too little attention is placed on copy testing in text ads, and Adaptly offers a powerful and simple solution to capitalize on the untapped opportunity.
Here’s a vid that shows the platform in action:
The other reason I liked this idea is that Adapt.ly clearly understands the need for scale in social. It’s all very well and good that there are tools that enable brands to reach a hundred or even a thousand super influencers, but big brands with big budgets need ways to drive reach and other metrics at critical mass scale. If you are in 30% of US households, it’s difficult for 100 influencers make a meaningful impact on the bottom line, no matter how powerful they may be. And no brand or agency has the resources to spend $20,000,000 or $100,000,000 $25K at a time.
Adapt.ly has stepped into this need gap in a big way, and I for one will be watching them closely over the next months and years. Hard to imagine a concept with more appeal than making the ridiculously complicated process of buying social media so much simpler. This team has got something big on their hands.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Addroid replaces the video middleman with a middleSaaS
Digital media is ridiculously complicated to buy and to develop creative for. Anything that makes that process simpler, faster, and cheaper is likely in a great place to get adopted and gain significant market traction.
Which is why Addroid is garnering more and more attention in our business. Addroid is a SaaS-based ad development environment and solution that makes it easy to make video ads to run in IAB banner sizes. Their goal is to replace expensive middleman technologies like the rich media providers with a drag and drop solution that creates an attractive add more or less immediately.
The cost structure of running video can be pricey. Serving a video ad is significantly more expensive than a Flash banner. According to Addroid, using one of the major rich media solutions companies (MediaMind, EyeWonder, PointRoll, and even DoubleClick) adds a cost of about 40 cents to the CPM versus a gif banner. Their platform takes that down to 15 cents.
Developed by an agency called Neoganda, Addroid is web-based, and provides an ad development environment where you quickly add creative elements and publish a video ad.
Here’s a video where their Founder explains the value proposition and shows the drop dead simple process of ad development:
If you watched the video, you learned that going after the rich media company business is only part of their vision. They believe that brands and agencies would develop a lot more video ads instead of Flash banners if they could. By significantly reducing the video markup, they believe that they have created a pricing sweet spot to drive a dramatic transition in the industry.
Lemme tell me why I think they are on to something big. There are entire industries like entertainment and auto that would surely drop Flash but quick if video were more affordable. But many of the categories that would be most interested in making such a change are very value-oriented.
Oh, let’s call a spade a spade. These categories are filled with cheap sumbitches, though I don’t mean that as an insult. Let’s take entertainment as a for instance. When you have only a couple weeks and a limited budget to hype a film, you need to make every impression and every dollar count. So we shouldn’t be surprised that their buyers don’t throw money around willy nilly.
Which is why, I think, we still see Flash banners for some movies and TV programs, even though video would surely be more compelling.
A reduction from 40 cents to 15 cents represents a big drop in cost structure.
And there’s another cool thing. By replacing Flash banners with HTML video units, advertisers can better reach and persuade tablet users, 99 and 44/100s of whom are on iPads that don’t run Flash.
The name threw me a bit. I was expecting a mobile solution. But no matter, it is clearly designed to communicate the idea that they have replaced the middleman with a droid – or rather a SaaS.
So adding that up. Cheaper. HTML 5. Cheaper. Faster. And cheaper. I would imagine that more than a few of those reading this are already dialing.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Which is why Addroid is garnering more and more attention in our business. Addroid is a SaaS-based ad development environment and solution that makes it easy to make video ads to run in IAB banner sizes. Their goal is to replace expensive middleman technologies like the rich media providers with a drag and drop solution that creates an attractive add more or less immediately.
The cost structure of running video can be pricey. Serving a video ad is significantly more expensive than a Flash banner. According to Addroid, using one of the major rich media solutions companies (MediaMind, EyeWonder, PointRoll, and even DoubleClick) adds a cost of about 40 cents to the CPM versus a gif banner. Their platform takes that down to 15 cents.
Developed by an agency called Neoganda, Addroid is web-based, and provides an ad development environment where you quickly add creative elements and publish a video ad.
Here’s a video where their Founder explains the value proposition and shows the drop dead simple process of ad development:
Addroid Demo from Matt Cooper on Vimeo.
If you watched the video, you learned that going after the rich media company business is only part of their vision. They believe that brands and agencies would develop a lot more video ads instead of Flash banners if they could. By significantly reducing the video markup, they believe that they have created a pricing sweet spot to drive a dramatic transition in the industry.
Lemme tell me why I think they are on to something big. There are entire industries like entertainment and auto that would surely drop Flash but quick if video were more affordable. But many of the categories that would be most interested in making such a change are very value-oriented.
Oh, let’s call a spade a spade. These categories are filled with cheap sumbitches, though I don’t mean that as an insult. Let’s take entertainment as a for instance. When you have only a couple weeks and a limited budget to hype a film, you need to make every impression and every dollar count. So we shouldn’t be surprised that their buyers don’t throw money around willy nilly.
Which is why, I think, we still see Flash banners for some movies and TV programs, even though video would surely be more compelling.
A reduction from 40 cents to 15 cents represents a big drop in cost structure.
And there’s another cool thing. By replacing Flash banners with HTML video units, advertisers can better reach and persuade tablet users, 99 and 44/100s of whom are on iPads that don’t run Flash.
The name threw me a bit. I was expecting a mobile solution. But no matter, it is clearly designed to communicate the idea that they have replaced the middleman with a droid – or rather a SaaS.
So adding that up. Cheaper. HTML 5. Cheaper. Faster. And cheaper. I would imagine that more than a few of those reading this are already dialing.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Ample Media drives better contact acquisition, maintenance, and insights
Many companies spend a large part of their digital budgets for the purpose of acquiring contact information to power CRM programs. But as these contacts are acquired, a sizable portion of them have errors that snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. By which I mean that you spent all that money for the click and visit, got them to the form, but because they made errors in their data entry, their input makes them unreachable. You’re out all that money, and they are out the opportunity to hear more about your business and what it can do for them.
I met someone from Ample Media at ad:tech and was fascinated to learn more about their service. There are a variety of components, but the part that was most compelling to me was their ability to help users correct mistakes that they make in entering their data – and correct them in real time.
Let me explain with an example. Let’s say I reach a contact for and enter my email address as:
Oldseeksnewyahoo.com
The platform analyzes my input and recognizes that it is an invalid email address. So it alters me to that fact and gives me the opportunity to correct my error. But by now you know me well enough that I am fully capable of making two mistakes in a row. So I type…
Oldeseeksnew@yahoo.com
Notice the extra e after old. Their platform checks the Yahoo database in real time and discovers that Oldeseeksnew@yahoo.com is not a valid email. So it gives me the opportunity to get it right again. And with any luck the third time will be a charm and I will finally get it right.
It also works on phone contacts, recognizing invalid area codes and numbers and giving users the opportunity to correct an entry. For postal addresses, their solution can check to ensure that an address exists, and append the consumer-delivered entry with additional info like zip plus four that can significantly reduce your mailing costs. Their platform also monitors for obviously bad phone, email, and postal addresses submitted by malicious actors so that you aren’t carrying bum entries in your data that increase email serving and data management costs.
Those are all what they call the Point of Entry services. But their offering also helps improve the validity and value of an existing database by refreshing existing entries with newer information and appending additional data that can empower segmentation and research insights.
For some, these services may seem like nice-to-haves rather than need-to-haves. But depending upon your customer base, the losses and additional costs mitigated by services like those of Ample Media can make a significant difference in both valid acquisitions and the usefulness and economic value of a database over time. If you are going to the trouble of BUILDING a database, it should be fairly simple to understand why those types of benefits can make a real difference in your bottom line.
As I said, the whiz banginess for me was the real time aspect that helps users ensure that they input correct data. We all know what a tremendous savings having user-submitted data provides. But more accurate data entry will naturally drive even more value from this important marketing resource.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first
I met someone from Ample Media at ad:tech and was fascinated to learn more about their service. There are a variety of components, but the part that was most compelling to me was their ability to help users correct mistakes that they make in entering their data – and correct them in real time.
Let me explain with an example. Let’s say I reach a contact for and enter my email address as:
Oldseeksnewyahoo.com
The platform analyzes my input and recognizes that it is an invalid email address. So it alters me to that fact and gives me the opportunity to correct my error. But by now you know me well enough that I am fully capable of making two mistakes in a row. So I type…
Oldeseeksnew@yahoo.com
Notice the extra e after old. Their platform checks the Yahoo database in real time and discovers that Oldeseeksnew@yahoo.com is not a valid email. So it gives me the opportunity to get it right again. And with any luck the third time will be a charm and I will finally get it right.
It also works on phone contacts, recognizing invalid area codes and numbers and giving users the opportunity to correct an entry. For postal addresses, their solution can check to ensure that an address exists, and append the consumer-delivered entry with additional info like zip plus four that can significantly reduce your mailing costs. Their platform also monitors for obviously bad phone, email, and postal addresses submitted by malicious actors so that you aren’t carrying bum entries in your data that increase email serving and data management costs.
Those are all what they call the Point of Entry services. But their offering also helps improve the validity and value of an existing database by refreshing existing entries with newer information and appending additional data that can empower segmentation and research insights.
For some, these services may seem like nice-to-haves rather than need-to-haves. But depending upon your customer base, the losses and additional costs mitigated by services like those of Ample Media can make a significant difference in both valid acquisitions and the usefulness and economic value of a database over time. If you are going to the trouble of BUILDING a database, it should be fairly simple to understand why those types of benefits can make a real difference in your bottom line.
As I said, the whiz banginess for me was the real time aspect that helps users ensure that they input correct data. We all know what a tremendous savings having user-submitted data provides. But more accurate data entry will naturally drive even more value from this important marketing resource.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first
Friday, May 13, 2011
Start-Up Watch COD: Resonate Networks identifies target customers based upon their values and attitudes
It's absolutely amazing the amount and type of data sources now in use or in development for targeting. One of the most interesting data sets I've heard about is information on consumer values, an area pioneered by Resonate Networks.
Resonate combines information on values and attitudes with more conventional data sets to more precisely target users. Over the course of an engagement, the network is refining audience criteria to more precisely identify attitudes that correlate to a brand's specific KPIs.
So what are these unique targeting criteria?
Values
Beliefs
Attitudes
Partisanship
Ideology
Engagement on particular issues
These sorts of info are combined with media habits and geographic indicators to build audience profiles. Then Resonate buys media matching those characteristics direct from pubs, and delivers your ads.
Let's start with the "gimme" use cases. Political candidates, issues advertisers, political parties. Duh. It won't surprise you to learn that they have offices in Reston VA and DC. But its relevance is much broader than that. Brands can connect with users that share their company values, like interest in "green" or child nutrition, or nature/environment. Now let's go broader still. Brands highly interested in influencers can identify ideal prospects based upon their level of engagement on particular topics and issues. Hence the office in New York.
From there, let's talk about more precision messaging. By understanding the SEGMENTS of an audience, you can deliver more precise messages that connect with user groups emotionally. That segmentation could be in the form of design elements, copy, offers, you name it.
As examples, they offer these three profiles to hint at the breadth and depth of consumer insight they can provide:
Consumers who buy brands/products that demonstrate their personal success, are aesthetically appealing & make them feel rewarded
Mothers with children under 16 who support menu labeling & believe childhood obesity is a serious societal issue that brands need to help fix
Influentials who regularly read the WSJ & frequently watch CNN or Fox News, & oppose increasing taxes
Now some of these dimensions might not seem relevant to your brand. But by understanding whether a consumer cares about climate change, you could deliver a messaging featuring a Prius versus an Escalade. By understanding the individual's desire for prestige, you could serve up a BMW versus a Volvo ad. By understanding a Moms' level of involvement with child nutrition, you could choose between delivering an ad for Corn Pops versus Honey Bunches.
Let's play a game. I want you to imagine two people. One an Obama Democrat. The other a Palin Republican. Which do you think would be a better prospect for:
Pesto
Cheese Doodles
Chevrolet
Plantain Chips
Snow Shoes
Old Spice
Surfboards
Countess Mara Ties
We could spend days agreeing or disagreeing on these. And I'm not saying that these items appeal EXCLUSIVELY to one of these groups. But we deal in numbers of a fraction of a percent, and on that level, even a small skew can mean big profit.
The point is that attitudes and beliefs are the rational and emotional underpinning for how we see the world. And we reflect how we see the world in what we buy.
And this isn't all politics. There's more to it than that, as we discussed earlier.
Some of these connections are going to be less black and white than others, So Resonate says it takes a more consultative versus transactional approach to client engagements. They know data relationships better than we do, or can develop a testing plan to unearth the relationships between your brands and consumer attitudes.
Will it make a difference for your brand? No idea. But it may well make a difference for some brands. And as we look for new data sets with which to target, this is certainly an interesting one. Certainly not the same old thing with a different logo slapped on it.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Resonate combines information on values and attitudes with more conventional data sets to more precisely target users. Over the course of an engagement, the network is refining audience criteria to more precisely identify attitudes that correlate to a brand's specific KPIs.
So what are these unique targeting criteria?
Values
Beliefs
Attitudes
Partisanship
Ideology
Engagement on particular issues
These sorts of info are combined with media habits and geographic indicators to build audience profiles. Then Resonate buys media matching those characteristics direct from pubs, and delivers your ads.
Let's start with the "gimme" use cases. Political candidates, issues advertisers, political parties. Duh. It won't surprise you to learn that they have offices in Reston VA and DC. But its relevance is much broader than that. Brands can connect with users that share their company values, like interest in "green" or child nutrition, or nature/environment. Now let's go broader still. Brands highly interested in influencers can identify ideal prospects based upon their level of engagement on particular topics and issues. Hence the office in New York.
From there, let's talk about more precision messaging. By understanding the SEGMENTS of an audience, you can deliver more precise messages that connect with user groups emotionally. That segmentation could be in the form of design elements, copy, offers, you name it.
As examples, they offer these three profiles to hint at the breadth and depth of consumer insight they can provide:
Consumers who buy brands/products that demonstrate their personal success, are aesthetically appealing & make them feel rewarded
Mothers with children under 16 who support menu labeling & believe childhood obesity is a serious societal issue that brands need to help fix
Influentials who regularly read the WSJ & frequently watch CNN or Fox News, & oppose increasing taxes
Now some of these dimensions might not seem relevant to your brand. But by understanding whether a consumer cares about climate change, you could deliver a messaging featuring a Prius versus an Escalade. By understanding the individual's desire for prestige, you could serve up a BMW versus a Volvo ad. By understanding a Moms' level of involvement with child nutrition, you could choose between delivering an ad for Corn Pops versus Honey Bunches.
Let's play a game. I want you to imagine two people. One an Obama Democrat. The other a Palin Republican. Which do you think would be a better prospect for:
Pesto
Cheese Doodles
Chevrolet
Plantain Chips
Snow Shoes
Old Spice
Surfboards
Countess Mara Ties
We could spend days agreeing or disagreeing on these. And I'm not saying that these items appeal EXCLUSIVELY to one of these groups. But we deal in numbers of a fraction of a percent, and on that level, even a small skew can mean big profit.
The point is that attitudes and beliefs are the rational and emotional underpinning for how we see the world. And we reflect how we see the world in what we buy.
And this isn't all politics. There's more to it than that, as we discussed earlier.
Some of these connections are going to be less black and white than others, So Resonate says it takes a more consultative versus transactional approach to client engagements. They know data relationships better than we do, or can develop a testing plan to unearth the relationships between your brands and consumer attitudes.
Will it make a difference for your brand? No idea. But it may well make a difference for some brands. And as we look for new data sets with which to target, this is certainly an interesting one. Certainly not the same old thing with a different logo slapped on it.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: Aisle 411 is your mobile shopping valet for finding, deciding, and saving
Find, choose, save, and have fun doing it all. That’s the concept behind Aisle 411, an iPhone app geared to helping people have better shopping experiences.
Aisle 411 offers a variety of consumer services including:
Find It: Aisle 411 makes it easier for you to find specific items in participating stores. It actually shows the location for an item on a map in stores that have made one available to the service. You can also use Aisle 411 to physically plan your store visit.
Learn It: By scanning a UPC, you get connected to info and reviews of the item. It can help guide decisions on new items and in crowded categories.
Save It: Scan the UPS of an item to see if there are any offers for it. Or review the offers the app automatically delivers to you in store. You can also say or key in a UPC to save. The offers are delivered to your store card, so it’s easier to redeem with Aisle 411 than with rebates and coupons you need to print or clip. Savings appear on your receipt.
List It: You can make shopping lists via the app or on PC, and segment your list by retailer. So your Safeway items on one list, and your Home Depots on another.
Additionally, Aisle 411 incorporates – you guessed it – social and game mechanics to help make shopping a more fun and rewarding experiences. Users can check into stores, publicize their check-ins via Twitter and Facebook, and earn badges based upon their visits and purchases. If being mayor of a Piggly Wiggly isn’t floating your boat anymore, Aisle 411 lets you become the store Captain. OK, OK, I don’t actually know if Piggly Wiggly is a participating retailer. I just like typing the words Piggly Wiggly. But you get the point.
There are also state badges and hidden badges you unlock by visitng areas of a store and performaning desired actions. It astounds me how many people find badges so compelling sometimes, but they do so there you go!
Here’s a little film to give you the Gestalt:
As tens of millions of people begin to use their phones to help make their shopping experiences better, applications like Aisle 411 are working hard to deliver on the promise. While based upon the app reviews, the service still has a few bugs, I am bullish on both the opportunity and the set of services they are providing. After all, they are incorporating a variety of services in a single app. Many other apps have a smaller set of capabilities.
I haven’t experienced the app myself as (on the date I wrote this in April) there is no Android version. But there reportedly will be quite soon. I’ll be watching for it.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Aisle 411 offers a variety of consumer services including:
Find It: Aisle 411 makes it easier for you to find specific items in participating stores. It actually shows the location for an item on a map in stores that have made one available to the service. You can also use Aisle 411 to physically plan your store visit.
Learn It: By scanning a UPC, you get connected to info and reviews of the item. It can help guide decisions on new items and in crowded categories.
Save It: Scan the UPS of an item to see if there are any offers for it. Or review the offers the app automatically delivers to you in store. You can also say or key in a UPC to save. The offers are delivered to your store card, so it’s easier to redeem with Aisle 411 than with rebates and coupons you need to print or clip. Savings appear on your receipt.
List It: You can make shopping lists via the app or on PC, and segment your list by retailer. So your Safeway items on one list, and your Home Depots on another.
Additionally, Aisle 411 incorporates – you guessed it – social and game mechanics to help make shopping a more fun and rewarding experiences. Users can check into stores, publicize their check-ins via Twitter and Facebook, and earn badges based upon their visits and purchases. If being mayor of a Piggly Wiggly isn’t floating your boat anymore, Aisle 411 lets you become the store Captain. OK, OK, I don’t actually know if Piggly Wiggly is a participating retailer. I just like typing the words Piggly Wiggly. But you get the point.
There are also state badges and hidden badges you unlock by visitng areas of a store and performaning desired actions. It astounds me how many people find badges so compelling sometimes, but they do so there you go!
Here’s a little film to give you the Gestalt:
As tens of millions of people begin to use their phones to help make their shopping experiences better, applications like Aisle 411 are working hard to deliver on the promise. While based upon the app reviews, the service still has a few bugs, I am bullish on both the opportunity and the set of services they are providing. After all, they are incorporating a variety of services in a single app. Many other apps have a smaller set of capabilities.
I haven’t experienced the app myself as (on the date I wrote this in April) there is no Android version. But there reportedly will be quite soon. I’ll be watching for it.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD:Offermatic users opt-in to receive targeted offers through their credit cards
The online targeting industry is built on the idea of "opt-out" – that users are participating until such time as they make an effort to opt out of data-based advanced targeting. Assuming a clear and prominent disclosure of practices and a genuine means of opting out,
I think that's fine. I mean, something has to pay for 24/7/365 free access to the Library of Congress we call a computer that is sitting in our laps. Most targeting companies insist that if we moved to an opt-in model – in which consumers had to act to participate – then we’d have tremendous challenges driving revenue and profit that powers digital. I agree.
But a start-up called Offermatic breaks with the herd, using a model in which consumers receive rebates, rewards, discounts, and other offers by linking their credit cards anonymously with the service. In other words, they OPT IN to connecting their purchase and browsing history in exchange for great values.
It works like this. You join – without, BTW, providing any PII beyond an email address, and then connect your credit card(s) to the service, giving consent to your bank to provide transaction information to the service. Based upon your purchase patterns, you receive offers geared to your interests, favorite stores, location, and so on. Discounts and offers are STEEP – 50% - 90% is the range for initial offers.
Offers are delivered in emails. The user clicks on an offer, visits the site, and loads it onto their credit card. Provided they take the desired action within the specified time frame, they receive the discount or whatever without having to clip or print coupons or send in mail rebates.
More than just transaction data are used for targeting. Offermatic also measures browsing history, searches, site visits, and other metrics to develop a more precise targeting model.
Here’s a video that serves up the concept for consumers:
So here’s a totally cool dimension for retailers – Offermatic can use the transaction data to serve offers ONLY to people with desired characteristics. So, let’s think back to that infamous Gap offer through Groupon. Remember the one? $25 for $50 voucher. 440,000 takers. Certainly drove store traffic. But how many of those people were already Gap customers. It stands to reason A LOT. After all, a 50% discount is even more likely to appeal to a current customer than a nonuser. So a lot of that 50% was basically profit thrown into a fireplace.
Groupon, mass. Offermatic, precise.
With Offermatic, Gap or Target or YOU could make the offer only to non-users, or lapsed users, so that the deal drives new business into your stores. OR, you could reward current users who make incremental purchases. The point is, the choice and precision are yours to control.
Post purchase, Offermatic can send reminders to drive additional actions, or reward users who publicize their purchases in social media. Plus, Offermatic can deliver reports that tell you who your users are, what impacts the program had on loyalty, and other great data that any marketing org would want. You also get benchmarking to show how your metrics compare to purchase patterns of competitors.
In my view, Groupon's gonna have a tough fight on their hands when retailers get a close look at this outfit.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
I think that's fine. I mean, something has to pay for 24/7/365 free access to the Library of Congress we call a computer that is sitting in our laps. Most targeting companies insist that if we moved to an opt-in model – in which consumers had to act to participate – then we’d have tremendous challenges driving revenue and profit that powers digital. I agree.
But a start-up called Offermatic breaks with the herd, using a model in which consumers receive rebates, rewards, discounts, and other offers by linking their credit cards anonymously with the service. In other words, they OPT IN to connecting their purchase and browsing history in exchange for great values.
It works like this. You join – without, BTW, providing any PII beyond an email address, and then connect your credit card(s) to the service, giving consent to your bank to provide transaction information to the service. Based upon your purchase patterns, you receive offers geared to your interests, favorite stores, location, and so on. Discounts and offers are STEEP – 50% - 90% is the range for initial offers.
Offers are delivered in emails. The user clicks on an offer, visits the site, and loads it onto their credit card. Provided they take the desired action within the specified time frame, they receive the discount or whatever without having to clip or print coupons or send in mail rebates.
More than just transaction data are used for targeting. Offermatic also measures browsing history, searches, site visits, and other metrics to develop a more precise targeting model.
Here’s a video that serves up the concept for consumers:
So here’s a totally cool dimension for retailers – Offermatic can use the transaction data to serve offers ONLY to people with desired characteristics. So, let’s think back to that infamous Gap offer through Groupon. Remember the one? $25 for $50 voucher. 440,000 takers. Certainly drove store traffic. But how many of those people were already Gap customers. It stands to reason A LOT. After all, a 50% discount is even more likely to appeal to a current customer than a nonuser. So a lot of that 50% was basically profit thrown into a fireplace.
Groupon, mass. Offermatic, precise.
With Offermatic, Gap or Target or YOU could make the offer only to non-users, or lapsed users, so that the deal drives new business into your stores. OR, you could reward current users who make incremental purchases. The point is, the choice and precision are yours to control.
Post purchase, Offermatic can send reminders to drive additional actions, or reward users who publicize their purchases in social media. Plus, Offermatic can deliver reports that tell you who your users are, what impacts the program had on loyalty, and other great data that any marketing org would want. You also get benchmarking to show how your metrics compare to purchase patterns of competitors.
In my view, Groupon's gonna have a tough fight on their hands when retailers get a close look at this outfit.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: MyLikes rewards influencers for taking brand messages viral
If newspapers and magazines and TV stations and web sites get paid to communicate brand messages, why not brand fans? Millions of people talk about and endorse brands in social media every day – and more and more brands are exploring ways to encourage more such sharing.
With the remarkable credibility of personal endorsements, there should be no doubt that we are going to see more and more marketers search for ways to dial up the social influencing in support of their brands.
MyLikes is a social media advertising and marketing tool that helps brands do just that. Essentially, MyLikes is a community of influencers who are offered compensation in exchange for TRANSPARENTLY communicating messages about brands in their Twitters, FaceBook Pages, Tumblrs and Blogs.
Users join the community by linking to one or more of their existing social media presences, and then identify their passions. By communicating their favorite topics and items to MyLikes, users get a customized dashboard of company offers that fits their lives. If you care about entertainment, then you are going to see offers related to movies and TV shoes and whatnot. If you are a cook, expect to find offers related to food and recipes. You get the idea.
Users select the offers that match their brand interests and communicate them to their social graphs. For every click that these communications spawn, the influencer is compensated.
When I joined, the offers I received ranged in potential compensation from four cents to fourteen cents per click. The four cent offers were generally for people to click and participate in online activities, while the 14 cent offer was to communicate information specifically about an Acer computer. It appears that the more overtly salesy the offer, the higher the compensation. Which stands to reason since the advertiser herself is setting the compensation figure.
One of the offers I received on my MyLikes offer page was an invitation todistribute the link to a quiz rating how much like Charlie Sheen’s the respondent’s partying style is. By posting a message linking to the quiz, I would be compensated 7 cents for every click the offer received.
The service prepopulates a Tweet that you can of course edit. When the Tweet appears in your stream, it is identified as an ad and the source is shown as MyLikes.
So I looked at the offers, picked one that I liked, Tweeted it. Easy peasy. Then I sit back and watch the money roll in.
(And just in case you are curious, I don’t party like Charlie Sheen. Shocker to those that know me, I know…)
That’s the consumer side to all this. On the brand side, the advertiser pays only when an influencer drives a legit click. One of the big questions I had about this was how they plan to avoid spammy clicking behavior. Their model actually monitors the community by analyzing extraordinarily high click rates, and each member’s behavior to ensure that the visits driven by the platform are legitimate.
In fact, all member profiles are public, as is the list of likes that have identified. This is another tool to help the company and its clients separate the evangelist wheat from the spammer chaff. You can field a campaign in moments using their searchwords-like ad platform.
My Likes has already garnered a set of leading advertiser clients, including The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Unilever, Sony Music, and Universal Pictures. Check out a whole mess of 20-second case studies here. (I need to remember this awesome case format the next time a client asks for these on their site. Nice.)
I like the simplicity of this platform, and how singularly focused it is on the problem of getting brand likers to become active evangelists. It delivers the transparency the FTC is looking for, and actually ensures that people who work hard on behalf of brands get compensated for their efforts.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
With the remarkable credibility of personal endorsements, there should be no doubt that we are going to see more and more marketers search for ways to dial up the social influencing in support of their brands.
MyLikes is a social media advertising and marketing tool that helps brands do just that. Essentially, MyLikes is a community of influencers who are offered compensation in exchange for TRANSPARENTLY communicating messages about brands in their Twitters, FaceBook Pages, Tumblrs and Blogs.
Users join the community by linking to one or more of their existing social media presences, and then identify their passions. By communicating their favorite topics and items to MyLikes, users get a customized dashboard of company offers that fits their lives. If you care about entertainment, then you are going to see offers related to movies and TV shoes and whatnot. If you are a cook, expect to find offers related to food and recipes. You get the idea.
Users select the offers that match their brand interests and communicate them to their social graphs. For every click that these communications spawn, the influencer is compensated.
When I joined, the offers I received ranged in potential compensation from four cents to fourteen cents per click. The four cent offers were generally for people to click and participate in online activities, while the 14 cent offer was to communicate information specifically about an Acer computer. It appears that the more overtly salesy the offer, the higher the compensation. Which stands to reason since the advertiser herself is setting the compensation figure.
One of the offers I received on my MyLikes offer page was an invitation todistribute the link to a quiz rating how much like Charlie Sheen’s the respondent’s partying style is. By posting a message linking to the quiz, I would be compensated 7 cents for every click the offer received.
The service prepopulates a Tweet that you can of course edit. When the Tweet appears in your stream, it is identified as an ad and the source is shown as MyLikes.
So I looked at the offers, picked one that I liked, Tweeted it. Easy peasy. Then I sit back and watch the money roll in.
(And just in case you are curious, I don’t party like Charlie Sheen. Shocker to those that know me, I know…)
That’s the consumer side to all this. On the brand side, the advertiser pays only when an influencer drives a legit click. One of the big questions I had about this was how they plan to avoid spammy clicking behavior. Their model actually monitors the community by analyzing extraordinarily high click rates, and each member’s behavior to ensure that the visits driven by the platform are legitimate.
In fact, all member profiles are public, as is the list of likes that have identified. This is another tool to help the company and its clients separate the evangelist wheat from the spammer chaff. You can field a campaign in moments using their searchwords-like ad platform.
My Likes has already garnered a set of leading advertiser clients, including The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Unilever, Sony Music, and Universal Pictures. Check out a whole mess of 20-second case studies here. (I need to remember this awesome case format the next time a client asks for these on their site. Nice.)
I like the simplicity of this platform, and how singularly focused it is on the problem of getting brand likers to become active evangelists. It delivers the transparency the FTC is looking for, and actually ensures that people who work hard on behalf of brands get compensated for their efforts.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Prezi makes engaging presentations that go zoooom
People that know me know that I make an insane number of presentations. Like 2-10 a week. Lemme tell you, I know my .pptx better than anyone. I’m not going to claim that the PowerPoint developers call me for advice, but if I ever see a 425 area code on my caller ID, I’ll know who it’s from.
But I’m not here today to talk about PowerPoint. Rather, I want to tell you about Prezi, a remarkably nonlinear presentation tool that actually makes information exciting and delightfully entangling for audiences.
The idea behind Prezi is to make your content more engaging, and give it a more natural flow, by changing the basic foundation of a presentation from a series of separate slides into a virtual canvas that works like a white board. Prezi lets you glide from region to region of your virtual whiteboard, enabling you to deliver an animated experience that really is more interesting than a whole mess o’ slides.
I think of Prezi as that whiteboard plus a camera that allows you to move the field of vision from place to place. But it’s more than that. You can zoom in and out of content, or create a nonlinear flow that groups thoughts, ideas, and images in a more natural and viewer friendly way.
Video 411 below:
There are certainly plenty of times when nonlinear might work better for a preso. Imagine trying to talk about eight aspects of something. In a slide format, you’d probably have a list of eight things, and then tick them off one by one, returning over and over again to the same slide, maybe with a highlight box around the one you are going to move on to discuss. With Prezi, you could arrange all that in a circle. Drift from place to place by zooming in and out, so that the viewer gets the sense of the totality as much as the eight distinct ideas.
In addition to providing good in person presentations, you can also create presentations for online use. It’s as easy as cutting and pasting an embed code. This is an environment that, in my view, really benefits from the nonlinear structure to hold an audience and enhance their viewing experience.
Prezi also says that its technology can make a presenter feel more confident. I can see how that is true in that just as the audience may find a linear progression a bit cumbersome to follow, so too can the person leading the meeting.
If THIS presenter is any indication, Prezi’s ability to imbue relaxed confidence is pretty remarkable.
Oh, hey, I am not busting the guy’s chops for being VEEERY relaxed. In fact, I envy that.
Mastering the basics of Prezi doesn’t take long. Personally I didn’t find it any more challenging than those first few minutes with PowerPoint or Word, though the flowing nature of it does take a bit of adjustment. The adjustment comes in mindset. It’s easy to get carried away with the bells and whistles of Prezi and forget that its purpose is to help you communicate more clearly.
The flow of a good Prezi reflects the best way to connect ideas, not the most prodigious use of whizbangery. But once you get over those first few giddy moments of clicking and zooming and video embedding and and and, you move on to a permanent state of understated giddiness. You can make really exciting and engaging content that is a pleasure to present.
Hey, I am not throwing out my PowerPoint Eagle Scout badge any time soon, because I know it so well that I can knock out a 20 minute preso in maybe two hours. Prezi takes me longer than that, but there are certainly cases where its power is more than worth the time. I will say with total sincerity that there are times when I feel very fortunate to have access to the power of Prezi. And if you make perhaps fewer but more important presentations than I do, you may find yourself moving to Prezi for everything you have to present. It’s that cool. It’s that powerful.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
But I’m not here today to talk about PowerPoint. Rather, I want to tell you about Prezi, a remarkably nonlinear presentation tool that actually makes information exciting and delightfully entangling for audiences.
The idea behind Prezi is to make your content more engaging, and give it a more natural flow, by changing the basic foundation of a presentation from a series of separate slides into a virtual canvas that works like a white board. Prezi lets you glide from region to region of your virtual whiteboard, enabling you to deliver an animated experience that really is more interesting than a whole mess o’ slides.
I think of Prezi as that whiteboard plus a camera that allows you to move the field of vision from place to place. But it’s more than that. You can zoom in and out of content, or create a nonlinear flow that groups thoughts, ideas, and images in a more natural and viewer friendly way.
Video 411 below:
There are certainly plenty of times when nonlinear might work better for a preso. Imagine trying to talk about eight aspects of something. In a slide format, you’d probably have a list of eight things, and then tick them off one by one, returning over and over again to the same slide, maybe with a highlight box around the one you are going to move on to discuss. With Prezi, you could arrange all that in a circle. Drift from place to place by zooming in and out, so that the viewer gets the sense of the totality as much as the eight distinct ideas.
In addition to providing good in person presentations, you can also create presentations for online use. It’s as easy as cutting and pasting an embed code. This is an environment that, in my view, really benefits from the nonlinear structure to hold an audience and enhance their viewing experience.
Prezi also says that its technology can make a presenter feel more confident. I can see how that is true in that just as the audience may find a linear progression a bit cumbersome to follow, so too can the person leading the meeting.
If THIS presenter is any indication, Prezi’s ability to imbue relaxed confidence is pretty remarkable.
Oh, hey, I am not busting the guy’s chops for being VEEERY relaxed. In fact, I envy that.
Mastering the basics of Prezi doesn’t take long. Personally I didn’t find it any more challenging than those first few minutes with PowerPoint or Word, though the flowing nature of it does take a bit of adjustment. The adjustment comes in mindset. It’s easy to get carried away with the bells and whistles of Prezi and forget that its purpose is to help you communicate more clearly.
The flow of a good Prezi reflects the best way to connect ideas, not the most prodigious use of whizbangery. But once you get over those first few giddy moments of clicking and zooming and video embedding and and and, you move on to a permanent state of understated giddiness. You can make really exciting and engaging content that is a pleasure to present.
Hey, I am not throwing out my PowerPoint Eagle Scout badge any time soon, because I know it so well that I can knock out a 20 minute preso in maybe two hours. Prezi takes me longer than that, but there are certainly cases where its power is more than worth the time. I will say with total sincerity that there are times when I feel very fortunate to have access to the power of Prezi. And if you make perhaps fewer but more important presentations than I do, you may find yourself moving to Prezi for everything you have to present. It’s that cool. It’s that powerful.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Admantx Redefines Targeting With Emotion
What makes content a great environment for ads? I think most of us would agree that all things being equal, context is beneficial, as is high quality edit. Nice design that ensures ad noticing value is also beneficial.
But what about emotional content and tone?
While the ideal emotional surround for your brand may vary, I ‘m certain that finding an appropriate match would boost results. Consider:
Editorial about the importance Moms play in our lives would surely boost the impact of a greeting card banner or vid.
An article about lonely puppies in shelters would motivate more of us to click on that Petfinder banner.
Content about the excitement of Fashion Week would likely make many a shopaholic more likely to interact with and click on a Saks ad.
But analyzing the emotional tonality of content is rather difficult when there are quadrillions of web pages out there. So I was very interested to learn about a company called Admantx, which provides greater intelligence as to the appropriateness of a given page of content for your messages. Admantx is a cloud-based platform that teases a tremendous amount of semantic meaning from web content.
Every sentence on a page is analyzed for five flavors of meaning:
Subject Matter: A noun is, to quote School House Rock, a person place or thing. Or a brand in our world o’commerce.
Category: Does the content relate to a particular class of advertised products? And if so, which one(s)?
Emotions: Is the content happy, sad, depressing, uplifting, etc. etc.?
Behaviors: By understanding the actions described on the page, the platform can offer a better match to products, brands, and categories.
Motivations: What are the underlying drivers?
Other companies offer some of these types of analysis. Where Admantx stands out is in its ability to supplement some of the rational analysis with rich emotional and motivational insights. This nifty graphic shows how the analysis of just one sentence wrings tremendous meaning from the words on the page.
Using all this information, Admantx delivers a better fit between the marketer’s message and the context in which it appears.
Here’s a vid that describes the value proposition.
One big advantage of this approach versus other targeting methodologies is that it is based upon an analysis of the page, not the person. As such, it bypasses all of the privacy issues that have been occupying a great deal of our thinking over the past months.
Admantx focuses its selling efforts on online publishers, social networks, ad networks and DSPs, who use the platform to:
Drive better response rates for their advertiser clients
Reexamine their “ROS” inventory to determine if it can be marketed and sold for higher rates
Analyze the emotional meaning of the content that they are producing so that they can adjust their editorial approach to attract more ad dollars
Monitor their content in real time on an ongoing basis
As such, it is a tool that can make a significant difference on how well sites, content and pages are monetized.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
But what about emotional content and tone?
While the ideal emotional surround for your brand may vary, I ‘m certain that finding an appropriate match would boost results. Consider:
Editorial about the importance Moms play in our lives would surely boost the impact of a greeting card banner or vid.
An article about lonely puppies in shelters would motivate more of us to click on that Petfinder banner.
Content about the excitement of Fashion Week would likely make many a shopaholic more likely to interact with and click on a Saks ad.
But analyzing the emotional tonality of content is rather difficult when there are quadrillions of web pages out there. So I was very interested to learn about a company called Admantx, which provides greater intelligence as to the appropriateness of a given page of content for your messages. Admantx is a cloud-based platform that teases a tremendous amount of semantic meaning from web content.
Every sentence on a page is analyzed for five flavors of meaning:
Subject Matter: A noun is, to quote School House Rock, a person place or thing. Or a brand in our world o’commerce.
Category: Does the content relate to a particular class of advertised products? And if so, which one(s)?
Emotions: Is the content happy, sad, depressing, uplifting, etc. etc.?
Behaviors: By understanding the actions described on the page, the platform can offer a better match to products, brands, and categories.
Motivations: What are the underlying drivers?
Other companies offer some of these types of analysis. Where Admantx stands out is in its ability to supplement some of the rational analysis with rich emotional and motivational insights. This nifty graphic shows how the analysis of just one sentence wrings tremendous meaning from the words on the page.
Using all this information, Admantx delivers a better fit between the marketer’s message and the context in which it appears.
Here’s a vid that describes the value proposition.
One big advantage of this approach versus other targeting methodologies is that it is based upon an analysis of the page, not the person. As such, it bypasses all of the privacy issues that have been occupying a great deal of our thinking over the past months.
Admantx focuses its selling efforts on online publishers, social networks, ad networks and DSPs, who use the platform to:
Drive better response rates for their advertiser clients
Reexamine their “ROS” inventory to determine if it can be marketed and sold for higher rates
Analyze the emotional meaning of the content that they are producing so that they can adjust their editorial approach to attract more ad dollars
Monitor their content in real time on an ongoing basis
As such, it is a tool that can make a significant difference on how well sites, content and pages are monetized.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: HubPages goes further to appeal to advertisers and marketers
Say you're a publisher -- one that doesn't have nine digits of uniques or a "founded" date of 1998. How do you compete with leading established players in the content space?
It ain't easy. Most buyers have go-to publishers they use to reach and connect with certain audiences. These buyers tend to be satisfied with their choices -- after all, if they weren't satisfied with them, they wouldn't be buying them.
I want to emphasize that this isn't about buyer laziness. Rather, in a time crunched environment where results are essential, most buyers choose to go with media options that they know consistently deliver. Does that mean that something that might work EVEN BETTER may get overlooked? Perhaps. But in the absence of strong reasons to believe that a new choice will outperform the go-tos, buyers tend to stick with what they know.
So for newer media players, no matter how good their content, it's tough to attract the attention and dollars of leading digital buyers. To break into that exclusive club of preferred advertising solutions, new entities need to do more for advertisers.
HubPages is a community of more than 200,000 writers who join to get a forum through which to discuss what they are passionate about. These enthusiastic writers have created more than 1.1 million topical "hubs" through the company's easy-to-use page building tools and search-friendly architecture. The site reaches between 16-21 million uniques a month and its authoritative pages tend to score very well in the major search engines.
The topics covered by HubPages are legion, from Autos to Business to Games to Health to Personal Finance to Travel. There are, for example, almost 18,000 hubs about cars alone. From General Motors Corporation (18) to Vintage Cars (16) and Hot Rods (26). They range from slick and corporate to digital expressions of one person's all consuming obsession.
As we all know, the search engines love content-rich pages that are updated often, and the HubPages community delivers. Essentially, these 200,000 "Hubbers" are super bloggers anxious to monetize their knowledge and expertise through HubPages' revenue share programs. And the community offers a number of avenues to getting paid for your content.
HubPages feature a variety of ad formats from other companies, including Google AdSense, Kontera, Amazon, Advertising.com, Microsoft pubCenter, ValueClick and Glam Media. But it is with HubPages' own ad formats that the company is working particularly hard to earn the attention and dollars of the buying community. In addition to the gimme IAB sizes, HubPages offers a variety of truly massive and multi-functional placements that born integrate from page content and stand out from it. Like this:
Their large units can combine text, Flash, apps, pre-roll, and interactive video in experiences that are very much "foreground." I liken them to even larger versions of AOL's Project Devil units.
Similar to a Federated, HubPages can also work with brands on content integration including Hubber endorsement and special sponsored content with more extensive information about a brand than may be available anywhere else. Their ad services team can also make custom, and assist in the production of creative for the company's large ad sizes.
Why do they do all this? I think it relates back to my first point. In order to demonstrate that they can deliver more, they need to do more for brands and viewers alike. In addition to the creative freedom available, the community also offers a broad range of targeting options, including:
Channels
Seasonal
Audience Segments
Demographic
Behavioral
Geographic
Purchase
Keyword
Time/Day
So brass tacks. Will HubPages perform better than other content sites for you? Dunno. I would imagine it will depend upon the brand and the objective. But I do think they are offering the content, targeting, and creative options to warrant a look see.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
It ain't easy. Most buyers have go-to publishers they use to reach and connect with certain audiences. These buyers tend to be satisfied with their choices -- after all, if they weren't satisfied with them, they wouldn't be buying them.
I want to emphasize that this isn't about buyer laziness. Rather, in a time crunched environment where results are essential, most buyers choose to go with media options that they know consistently deliver. Does that mean that something that might work EVEN BETTER may get overlooked? Perhaps. But in the absence of strong reasons to believe that a new choice will outperform the go-tos, buyers tend to stick with what they know.
So for newer media players, no matter how good their content, it's tough to attract the attention and dollars of leading digital buyers. To break into that exclusive club of preferred advertising solutions, new entities need to do more for advertisers.
HubPages is a community of more than 200,000 writers who join to get a forum through which to discuss what they are passionate about. These enthusiastic writers have created more than 1.1 million topical "hubs" through the company's easy-to-use page building tools and search-friendly architecture. The site reaches between 16-21 million uniques a month and its authoritative pages tend to score very well in the major search engines.
The topics covered by HubPages are legion, from Autos to Business to Games to Health to Personal Finance to Travel. There are, for example, almost 18,000 hubs about cars alone. From General Motors Corporation (18) to Vintage Cars (16) and Hot Rods (26). They range from slick and corporate to digital expressions of one person's all consuming obsession.
As we all know, the search engines love content-rich pages that are updated often, and the HubPages community delivers. Essentially, these 200,000 "Hubbers" are super bloggers anxious to monetize their knowledge and expertise through HubPages' revenue share programs. And the community offers a number of avenues to getting paid for your content.
HubPages feature a variety of ad formats from other companies, including Google AdSense, Kontera, Amazon, Advertising.com, Microsoft pubCenter, ValueClick and Glam Media. But it is with HubPages' own ad formats that the company is working particularly hard to earn the attention and dollars of the buying community. In addition to the gimme IAB sizes, HubPages offers a variety of truly massive and multi-functional placements that born integrate from page content and stand out from it. Like this:
Their large units can combine text, Flash, apps, pre-roll, and interactive video in experiences that are very much "foreground." I liken them to even larger versions of AOL's Project Devil units.
Similar to a Federated, HubPages can also work with brands on content integration including Hubber endorsement and special sponsored content with more extensive information about a brand than may be available anywhere else. Their ad services team can also make custom, and assist in the production of creative for the company's large ad sizes.
Why do they do all this? I think it relates back to my first point. In order to demonstrate that they can deliver more, they need to do more for brands and viewers alike. In addition to the creative freedom available, the community also offers a broad range of targeting options, including:
Channels
Seasonal
Audience Segments
Demographic
Behavioral
Geographic
Purchase
Keyword
Time/Day
So brass tacks. Will HubPages perform better than other content sites for you? Dunno. I would imagine it will depend upon the brand and the objective. But I do think they are offering the content, targeting, and creative options to warrant a look see.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Atmio makes developing mobile landing pages good/fast/cheap
We’ve all heard the expression…”Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.” The idea of course is that it is impossible to purchase a service that is simultaneously high quality, inexpensive, and ready to go now.
Well, a company called Atmio thinks it has a solution to improving consumer experience and conversion rates for mobile web users -- a solution that delivers on all three. They see a huge opportunity in providing software that solves a host of the problems that have slowed companies from making the most of mobile web opps.
Atmio is a software company that makes products specifically to improve the mobile web shopping, learning, and buying processes. When customers seek to consider and purchase items through their mobile devices, Atmio improves their experience by offering easy to use tools that empower online marketers to make powerful and effective landing and shopping environments.
There are three components to their solution:
Mobile landing page generator that is very easy to use.
Behavioral targeting engine that enables dynamic changes to the landing page based upon visitor characteristics
Analytics that can be delivered through their Business Engine or Google Analytics.
The opportunity for developing better buying experiences on the mobile web couldn’t be clearer. By 2014, more people are expected to be surfing through mobile devices than through PCs. They’ve already crossed that threshold in a number of Asian countries. And the advent of tablets is only accelerating the trend. What’s more, the enormous range of phones and associated capabilities can make it difficult and expensive to deliver good mobile web experiences consistently and economically.
To use the Atmio page making platform, the marketer simply logs in and starts laying elements out onto a page. When they have a design they are happy with, they can test it on a phone and then deploy. The platform ensures that pages properly render on the full range of smart phones, which further reduces development costs. It works for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows 7 phones, and more.
The company serves up a long list of use cases where the companies offerings can drive better metrics:
Landing pages for mobile ad campaigns
Offering a mobile landing page alternative for CRM programs, to accommodate that that are reviewing emails over their phones
E-Commerce Mobile pages can enable you to capture buyer information to simplify the buying process for consumers
Event marketers can offer up a simple mobile landing page experience tailored to eventgoers
Retail QR pages: Instore displays can bear QR codes that take shoppers to specific info and offers online
Print and direct mail campaigns can bear a mobile url as an alternative, to accommodate people who prefer going online via phone.
Salesforce-Create pages that collect lead and other info and transfer it directly into salesforce
Santa Clara based Atmio offerings are SaaS services, and has four different grades of capabilities. You can see a comparison of these services here.
There’s no question that mobile web browsing will continue to grow rapidly, and that the need for improved transactional and other metrics for mobile web browsers will become more and more acute for online marketers.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Well, a company called Atmio thinks it has a solution to improving consumer experience and conversion rates for mobile web users -- a solution that delivers on all three. They see a huge opportunity in providing software that solves a host of the problems that have slowed companies from making the most of mobile web opps.
Atmio is a software company that makes products specifically to improve the mobile web shopping, learning, and buying processes. When customers seek to consider and purchase items through their mobile devices, Atmio improves their experience by offering easy to use tools that empower online marketers to make powerful and effective landing and shopping environments.
There are three components to their solution:
Mobile landing page generator that is very easy to use.
Behavioral targeting engine that enables dynamic changes to the landing page based upon visitor characteristics
Analytics that can be delivered through their Business Engine or Google Analytics.
The opportunity for developing better buying experiences on the mobile web couldn’t be clearer. By 2014, more people are expected to be surfing through mobile devices than through PCs. They’ve already crossed that threshold in a number of Asian countries. And the advent of tablets is only accelerating the trend. What’s more, the enormous range of phones and associated capabilities can make it difficult and expensive to deliver good mobile web experiences consistently and economically.
To use the Atmio page making platform, the marketer simply logs in and starts laying elements out onto a page. When they have a design they are happy with, they can test it on a phone and then deploy. The platform ensures that pages properly render on the full range of smart phones, which further reduces development costs. It works for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows 7 phones, and more.
The company serves up a long list of use cases where the companies offerings can drive better metrics:
Landing pages for mobile ad campaigns
Offering a mobile landing page alternative for CRM programs, to accommodate that that are reviewing emails over their phones
E-Commerce Mobile pages can enable you to capture buyer information to simplify the buying process for consumers
Event marketers can offer up a simple mobile landing page experience tailored to eventgoers
Retail QR pages: Instore displays can bear QR codes that take shoppers to specific info and offers online
Print and direct mail campaigns can bear a mobile url as an alternative, to accommodate people who prefer going online via phone.
Salesforce-Create pages that collect lead and other info and transfer it directly into salesforce
Santa Clara based Atmio offerings are SaaS services, and has four different grades of capabilities. You can see a comparison of these services here.
There’s no question that mobile web browsing will continue to grow rapidly, and that the need for improved transactional and other metrics for mobile web browsers will become more and more acute for online marketers.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Longboard Media reaches shoppers when – wait for it – they’re shopping online
As the demands for ROI and accountability from digital marketing continue to grow more acute, more than a few companies are innovating to find ways to connect with active shoppers. After all, this model is the key to why search sucks up such a high proportion of online dollars. And now we have in-store mobile apps, and search retargeting, and and and.
The people at Longboard Media have become successful by recognizing that some of the most ingenious ideas are dead simple. In their case, they’ve built a business with one profound concept:
To reach and persuade shoppers, why not connect with them when they’re shopping?
Dammit I hate it when I see a start-up idea that was right there in front of me, but so obvious that I couldn’t see it. Another set of people (though truth be told, a group of people I like very much) have the opportunity to get rich, while I get the opportunity to write 504 words about their genius.
But no matter. My sour(ish) grapes aside, the concept behind Longboard should be under the slang dictionary under “sure thing.” They’re an ad network that focuses exclusively on a shopping vertical – that is, they aggregate inventory exclusively on shopping and comparison sites. Actually, given that they sell just 16 sites, with perfect transparency, they really fit under the rep firm moniker as well. Here’s a list of some of the properties they represent:
Buzzillions
Overstock
Smarter
Shop.com
Shopwiki
Productwiki
Geodelic
Shopsavvy
Become
Wize
This Next
Systemax
When you look at that list, it’s pretty easy to conclude that the people they are packaging up for advertisers are definitely in the buying mode.
Reaching more than 55 million people monthly, Longboard offers the opportunity for both focus and scale. Demographically, they represent a fairly broad cross section of demos, and a nearly even split of men and women. That surprised me a little given that women buy around 85% of total stuff, but I suspect it reflect men’s greater interest in online information seeking.
Targeting options are numerous, from demo and geo to retargeting, product and category level segmentation, and complementary product matching. In total, they offer solutions for 54 product categories. In addition to IABs, they offer page sponsorships, badge/buttons, text links, video, and custom programs based upon specific advertiser specs. All rich media formats supported.
While the concept is magically kerplunk, their technology platform is quite intricate and sophisticated, making it possible for them to deliver rather imaginative and customized programs suited to very specific business objectives.
It’s tough to know what else to say about these folks. It’s all there in the dead simple concept, and a set of business practices that offer what brands seek when they’re looking to cost effectively reach shoppers. Since so many purchases are either being made online or are being informed by online searches for information and advice, the concept is an absolute natural. Especially when brands in their 54 categories want to sell stuff ASAP.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
The people at Longboard Media have become successful by recognizing that some of the most ingenious ideas are dead simple. In their case, they’ve built a business with one profound concept:
To reach and persuade shoppers, why not connect with them when they’re shopping?
Dammit I hate it when I see a start-up idea that was right there in front of me, but so obvious that I couldn’t see it. Another set of people (though truth be told, a group of people I like very much) have the opportunity to get rich, while I get the opportunity to write 504 words about their genius.
But no matter. My sour(ish) grapes aside, the concept behind Longboard should be under the slang dictionary under “sure thing.” They’re an ad network that focuses exclusively on a shopping vertical – that is, they aggregate inventory exclusively on shopping and comparison sites. Actually, given that they sell just 16 sites, with perfect transparency, they really fit under the rep firm moniker as well. Here’s a list of some of the properties they represent:
Buzzillions
Overstock
Smarter
Shop.com
Shopwiki
Productwiki
Geodelic
Shopsavvy
Become
Wize
This Next
Systemax
When you look at that list, it’s pretty easy to conclude that the people they are packaging up for advertisers are definitely in the buying mode.
Reaching more than 55 million people monthly, Longboard offers the opportunity for both focus and scale. Demographically, they represent a fairly broad cross section of demos, and a nearly even split of men and women. That surprised me a little given that women buy around 85% of total stuff, but I suspect it reflect men’s greater interest in online information seeking.
Targeting options are numerous, from demo and geo to retargeting, product and category level segmentation, and complementary product matching. In total, they offer solutions for 54 product categories. In addition to IABs, they offer page sponsorships, badge/buttons, text links, video, and custom programs based upon specific advertiser specs. All rich media formats supported.
While the concept is magically kerplunk, their technology platform is quite intricate and sophisticated, making it possible for them to deliver rather imaginative and customized programs suited to very specific business objectives.
It’s tough to know what else to say about these folks. It’s all there in the dead simple concept, and a set of business practices that offer what brands seek when they’re looking to cost effectively reach shoppers. Since so many purchases are either being made online or are being informed by online searches for information and advice, the concept is an absolute natural. Especially when brands in their 54 categories want to sell stuff ASAP.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: Gazehawk makes heat map usability studies fast and affordable
As a tool for improving the usability of websites, heat maps are quite valuable. They can literally show you where people’s eyes go on a page so you can understand the likely consumer paths. And indeed the unlikely consumer paths. In either case, the information helps identify strengths and opportunity areas (Jeez, I have been in advertising too long – I find it impossible to type the word w*aknesses anymore) of a particular design, and the relative merits of alternative designs.
An interesting start-up called Gazehawk has developed a platform to make heat map testing something that virtually any business can afford. Essentially it uses your webcam to track the visual activity of browsers to reveal what they are paying attention to, and how they navigate a site.
The service, however, provides more than just heat maps. It also collects comments and observations from your respondents, a replay of the web cam “shows” of your respondents, and personalized recommendations based upon the test results.
There are four packages currently available for purchase:
A $495 starter pack that provides ten respondents, heat maps, and gazing studies. Ideal for early iterations, or for small organizations that might otherwise forego any form of testing and “roll the dice.”
An $995 A/B test that offers two sets of ten respondents, heat maps, and gazing studies. This is a good approach for organizations trying to better understand the relative merits of two different designs.
A $995 Professional package that puts your design through the paces with 20 respondents, and adds more advanced reporting to the basic heat map and gazing study bundle.
An enterprise offering that can be integrated into a site for ongoing or periodic testing of new content, design changes and features. Pricing for this offering will depend on the breadth and depth of service required.
I was thrilled to find this offering. I have worked on many web site designs and builds in the past, and testing has always been a bit of a googly. Inevitably there are cost overruns on certain features or design elements, and often the first area that gets cut is usability.
Often, a kind of ersatz testing methodology gets shoehorned into the schedule – something like bringing a couple dozen people in from Craigslist to go through the motions of site usability, and then report on their experiences. I’m not saying such a methodology has NO value, but the usage situation is so artificial, and ultimately we must rely on what they want to tell us.
It’ll be interesting to see how the availability of such services transforms our industry. As we all know, there is, over time, a converging sameness to site designs, whether it’s the Appleesque nav/three box/three small box stack, or a handful of other approaches that are easy to execute. On the one hand, sameness s good in that it helps consumers know where to look as they enter new domains. On the other hand, truly remarkable design and UI is few and far between.
Gazehawk promises a number of great improvements to their service over time as well, from the ability to target respondents by demo to new visualizations of valuable consumer information. I am very excited seeing this much great stuff from a very new company and look forward to watch them grow.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
An interesting start-up called Gazehawk has developed a platform to make heat map testing something that virtually any business can afford. Essentially it uses your webcam to track the visual activity of browsers to reveal what they are paying attention to, and how they navigate a site.
The service, however, provides more than just heat maps. It also collects comments and observations from your respondents, a replay of the web cam “shows” of your respondents, and personalized recommendations based upon the test results.
There are four packages currently available for purchase:
A $495 starter pack that provides ten respondents, heat maps, and gazing studies. Ideal for early iterations, or for small organizations that might otherwise forego any form of testing and “roll the dice.”
An $995 A/B test that offers two sets of ten respondents, heat maps, and gazing studies. This is a good approach for organizations trying to better understand the relative merits of two different designs.
A $995 Professional package that puts your design through the paces with 20 respondents, and adds more advanced reporting to the basic heat map and gazing study bundle.
An enterprise offering that can be integrated into a site for ongoing or periodic testing of new content, design changes and features. Pricing for this offering will depend on the breadth and depth of service required.
I was thrilled to find this offering. I have worked on many web site designs and builds in the past, and testing has always been a bit of a googly. Inevitably there are cost overruns on certain features or design elements, and often the first area that gets cut is usability.
Often, a kind of ersatz testing methodology gets shoehorned into the schedule – something like bringing a couple dozen people in from Craigslist to go through the motions of site usability, and then report on their experiences. I’m not saying such a methodology has NO value, but the usage situation is so artificial, and ultimately we must rely on what they want to tell us.
It’ll be interesting to see how the availability of such services transforms our industry. As we all know, there is, over time, a converging sameness to site designs, whether it’s the Appleesque nav/three box/three small box stack, or a handful of other approaches that are easy to execute. On the one hand, sameness s good in that it helps consumers know where to look as they enter new domains. On the other hand, truly remarkable design and UI is few and far between.
Gazehawk promises a number of great improvements to their service over time as well, from the ability to target respondents by demo to new visualizations of valuable consumer information. I am very excited seeing this much great stuff from a very new company and look forward to watch them grow.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
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