Professional content sites naturally have a love hate relationship with embeddable vids. The reach and distribution are great, but the monetization is a bit of a problem because, well, when someone snaps a clip and sticks it on YouTube or wherever, there's no revenue for the content owner.
But embeds are inevitable, and more and more companies are recognizing the inherent value in ad supported embeds. CNN, for example, picked last week to introduce embeddable video on its stories, and it was a marvelous day to do so. Why? Take a look:
Since this was just about the biggest story we were expecting, at least until McCain picks his Veep nominee, it was excellent timing.
CNN could use the ratings help, by which I don't mean the vid views but rather the idea that embeds reinforce their leadership in news and drive people to the site to view more.
The only surprise to me is that there isn't preroll on every airing.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wedding DON'TS from Yahoo
The following has nothing whatsoever to do with digital marketing. But as someone who has been a best man 12 times, in 20 wedding parties, and has attended more than 50, I plagarize the following article from Yahoo as a reminder to future wedding guests on what to to and not do as a wedding guest. Read it so I don't have to criticize you behind your back at the next nuptials we both attend. Cuz I can be vicious to people who, for example, wear white when they are not the bride. It's her day, not yours.
9 Things You Should Never Wear to a Wedding
1. White Is Not Right It seems obvious and yet so many guests seem to forget. Material that is mostly white with a small pattern is a no. White suits are a no. If there's a question...no. White garb is meant for one person only and that's the bride! Always. End of story.
2. Skip the Shorts Shorts at a wedding? It's just wrong; even if you dress them up with a blazer or a pair of sexy heels. Guys, no matter how preppy you make 'em, and, girls, no matter how stylish Charlize Theron looks in them, shorts just won't do at this affair.
3. Keep it Classy Up-to-there miniskirts, shirts with more buttons undone than not, and bustier tops are best left for a night out with the girls (or that person you really want to wow). We know you're sexy, you know you're sexy, but a wedding isn't the place to show off. Play down the sassy and play up the classy.
4. Coattails Don't Cut It If it's a black tie wedding, men are going to be renting a tux or digging one out of storage, so tap into your inner James Bond. But keep it in check -- a classic or modern-cut style is the best bet. Stay away from extra frills like tails, ruffles, loud colors, or satins which are inappropriate and overly fancy. Even if you plan to be the funny man in a powder blue '70s number, refrain. All attention should be on the groom (and his tricked-out honey, of course).
5. All That Glitters Is Not Gold Stay away from anything lamé, sequined, shiny, or glittery. It's distracting (both in person and in those precious keepsake photos). Again, the newlyweds are the star attraction, so resist the urge to be a "shining star."
6. Lose The Leather Leather rocks (where would our shoe collection be without it?!) but it's not the best choice for anything above the ankle on a day of "holy matrimony." Leather jackets and skirts are probably too casual, and leather pants are just too flashy. Even if the bride and groom are hip enough to roll with it, opt for something more sophisticated.
7. Mad Hatters Whether you wear a baseball cap to show your allegiance to the A's, disguise thinning hair, or hide a bad hair day, a wedding (even the most casual summer ceremony) is the last place to don one. Go hatless and hit a home run!
8. Give The Wild West A Rest Bandanas, cowboy boots, and ten-gallon hats all make it onto the list of what not to wear. Unless the betrothed couple has planned a themed bash and requests that guests get decked out in ranch gear, save these goodies for another day, pard'ner.
9. Dress to the Nines Don't be too cool to don your finest fixings. Honor the couple's union by leaving your jeans at home -- even the really nice ones! Unless the invitation mentions a beach barbecue or luau, forego the casual fare and plan on turning it up. It's a wedding after all!
9 Things You Should Never Wear to a Wedding
1. White Is Not Right It seems obvious and yet so many guests seem to forget. Material that is mostly white with a small pattern is a no. White suits are a no. If there's a question...no. White garb is meant for one person only and that's the bride! Always. End of story.
2. Skip the Shorts Shorts at a wedding? It's just wrong; even if you dress them up with a blazer or a pair of sexy heels. Guys, no matter how preppy you make 'em, and, girls, no matter how stylish Charlize Theron looks in them, shorts just won't do at this affair.
3. Keep it Classy Up-to-there miniskirts, shirts with more buttons undone than not, and bustier tops are best left for a night out with the girls (or that person you really want to wow). We know you're sexy, you know you're sexy, but a wedding isn't the place to show off. Play down the sassy and play up the classy.
4. Coattails Don't Cut It If it's a black tie wedding, men are going to be renting a tux or digging one out of storage, so tap into your inner James Bond. But keep it in check -- a classic or modern-cut style is the best bet. Stay away from extra frills like tails, ruffles, loud colors, or satins which are inappropriate and overly fancy. Even if you plan to be the funny man in a powder blue '70s number, refrain. All attention should be on the groom (and his tricked-out honey, of course).
5. All That Glitters Is Not Gold Stay away from anything lamé, sequined, shiny, or glittery. It's distracting (both in person and in those precious keepsake photos). Again, the newlyweds are the star attraction, so resist the urge to be a "shining star."
6. Lose The Leather Leather rocks (where would our shoe collection be without it?!) but it's not the best choice for anything above the ankle on a day of "holy matrimony." Leather jackets and skirts are probably too casual, and leather pants are just too flashy. Even if the bride and groom are hip enough to roll with it, opt for something more sophisticated.
7. Mad Hatters Whether you wear a baseball cap to show your allegiance to the A's, disguise thinning hair, or hide a bad hair day, a wedding (even the most casual summer ceremony) is the last place to don one. Go hatless and hit a home run!
8. Give The Wild West A Rest Bandanas, cowboy boots, and ten-gallon hats all make it onto the list of what not to wear. Unless the betrothed couple has planned a themed bash and requests that guests get decked out in ranch gear, save these goodies for another day, pard'ner.
9. Dress to the Nines Don't be too cool to don your finest fixings. Honor the couple's union by leaving your jeans at home -- even the really nice ones! Unless the invitation mentions a beach barbecue or luau, forego the casual fare and plan on turning it up. It's a wedding after all!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
White Paper Thursdays: Email Benchmarking
From the Sherpa, a free Exec SUmmary of the 2008 Email Benchmarking Study. Download it here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
White Paper Thursdays: Greener Brand Pastures
From Chris Sherwin from Forum for the Future, best practices for taking your brand to the green zone.
Get it here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Get it here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
White Paper Thursdays: The State of Media
A really interesting paper on the changing face of all media, not just digital:
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Media Metrics: The True State of the Modern Media Marketplace -- Version 1.0 (Thierer-PFF) - Upload a Document to Scribd
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
12Seconds.tv: Sort of a Vwitter Type Offering
12Seconds.tv is getting a lot of good press lately. If you live under a rock and haven't heard about it, this offering enables consumers to distribute UGC videos of up to 12 seconds in length to mobile and PC users.
This is a pretty neat service -- I think they are poised to do very well. The distribution approach is an absolute natural, and a 12 second length is absolutely idea for this desperate-to-display culture and our collective short attention spans.
In a nutshell, Twitter meets Video. Or Vwitter, as I like to call it.
At first I wondered whether 12 seconds was enough to communicate something. But check out these three to see what you can get across. Note, number three is a bit racy.
12 Second Song on 12seconds.tv
I <3 Pacific Cookie Company Outlet!! on 12seconds.tv
Best Iphone App Ever - iWash on 12seconds.tv
This is a company that knows how to describe itself succinctly:
What is 12seconds
12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It's a super easy way to share what you're doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You can use your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share your thoughts, or tell them how you're doing. We are building a video status platform that will help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.
Well, I guess it isn't surprising that a company built on a 12 second consumer model isn't terribly verbose. And look! Not one mention of robust or realtime in there neither!
In addition to sending options, 12Seconds.TV also offers a widget that lets people bring you with them. It is also embeddable in things like blogs and social media pages.
This Santa Cruz start-up appears to be all or mostly elf funded. I love it when an idea is so big it doesn't need too much help from Daddy Warbucks.
Check them out. And send me YOUR vid to the email address listed in the sidebar near the top.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
This is a pretty neat service -- I think they are poised to do very well. The distribution approach is an absolute natural, and a 12 second length is absolutely idea for this desperate-to-display culture and our collective short attention spans.
In a nutshell, Twitter meets Video. Or Vwitter, as I like to call it.
At first I wondered whether 12 seconds was enough to communicate something. But check out these three to see what you can get across. Note, number three is a bit racy.
12 Second Song on 12seconds.tv
I <3 Pacific Cookie Company Outlet!! on 12seconds.tv
Best Iphone App Ever - iWash on 12seconds.tv
This is a company that knows how to describe itself succinctly:
What is 12seconds
12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It's a super easy way to share what you're doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You can use your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share your thoughts, or tell them how you're doing. We are building a video status platform that will help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.
Well, I guess it isn't surprising that a company built on a 12 second consumer model isn't terribly verbose. And look! Not one mention of robust or realtime in there neither!
In addition to sending options, 12Seconds.TV also offers a widget that lets people bring you with them. It is also embeddable in things like blogs and social media pages.
This Santa Cruz start-up appears to be all or mostly elf funded. I love it when an idea is so big it doesn't need too much help from Daddy Warbucks.
Check them out. And send me YOUR vid to the email address listed in the sidebar near the top.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
White Paper Thursdays: Online Shopping Trends
Another great report from the fine people at ACNielsen, this one about online shopping trends in the US and around the world. Download it here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
White Paper Thursdays: Luxury Brands Around the World
A great report from ACNielsen about the importance of luxury brands around the world, and consumer attitudes about quality and value in such brands. Download it here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
White Paper Thursdays: 7 Elements of a Viral Video Campaign
An interesting and succinct analysis of what makes a viral idea...viral. Check it out here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
WHITE PAPER THURSDAYS! DYNAMIC LOGIC PAPERS
Dynamic Logic offers several white papers that I think are worthy of your attention. They are also all available for free. If any of the topics below interest you, click the link and spawn the PDF.
Integrating Online Video Into the Marketing Mix
Seniors Online
The Promise of Online Video
Integrating Online Video Into the Marketing Mix
Seniors Online
The Promise of Online Video
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Pigs CAN Fly!!!
From the Wonderful people at ValleyWag:
120 technology brands tracked by Covario, a search-engine marketing firm, including Adobe, Lenovo and Intel, increased their spending on Yahoo search ads from the second quarter to the first, and decreased their spending on Google. Yahoo ads got 14.3 percent of their budgets — up from 10.3 percent. Google's take decreased from 85.6 to 81.2 percent. It's the first time Yahoo won market share from Google among Covario's clients since the first quarter of 2007, reports the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo says it's gaining share because Panama's improvements mean advertisers are starting to get more for less, which encourages them to spend more. Covario VP Craig McDonald guesses that Yahoo is benefiting from combining its display and advertising sales teams. Either way, since Yahoo will soon outsource much of its search-advertising sales to Google, Google wins even when its losing.
120 technology brands tracked by Covario, a search-engine marketing firm, including Adobe, Lenovo and Intel, increased their spending on Yahoo search ads from the second quarter to the first, and decreased their spending on Google. Yahoo ads got 14.3 percent of their budgets — up from 10.3 percent. Google's take decreased from 85.6 to 81.2 percent. It's the first time Yahoo won market share from Google among Covario's clients since the first quarter of 2007, reports the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo says it's gaining share because Panama's improvements mean advertisers are starting to get more for less, which encourages them to spend more. Covario VP Craig McDonald guesses that Yahoo is benefiting from combining its display and advertising sales teams. Either way, since Yahoo will soon outsource much of its search-advertising sales to Google, Google wins even when its losing.
More Evidence of Underage Chinese Athletes at the Olympics: This Time From Cached Baidu Pages
I don't know about you, but I have no doubt that China juggled the ages of a number of athletes so they could compete. In addition to all the government media that in the past reported athletes being as young as 12.
The latest evidence comes from cached pages of Baidu.
The IOC's response? One guess. Nope, I don't see the need to investigate. The passports check out fine. Move along people, nothing to see here.
Cheating is not new to Beijing - this passage from ARS Technica makes that abundantly clear:
In 2000—three years after the minimum qualifying age for Olympic Gymnastic competition was raised to 16—Chinese gymnast Yang Yun won a bronze medal for her performance on the uneven bars. Yang's passport showed her as 16 years old at the time, but the gymnast herself later admitted on Chinese national television that she and her coaches had lied about her age, and that she had been just 14 at the time. There's also evidence that Chinese gymnast Li Ya was just 13 when she competed at the World Championships in Anaheim back in 2003.
I love the spirit of healthy competition and good sportsmanship that the Olympics bring forward. Just love it.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
FCC Thunder for Comcast! Yeouch!
Well, the FCC has formally issued its order to Comcast, coming down hard on their clandestine slowing of P2P traffic. The document contains pretty strong language for a government missive.
This post from ARS Technica shows that the FCC is pretty well aligned with the net neutrality movement. Here's an excerpt:
"We invite Free Press [a complainant in the case] and other members of the public to keep a watchful eye on Comcast as it carries out this relief," the Commission concludes. "Using the information provided by Comcast, pursuant to this Order, as well as information submitted by the public, we will closely monitor the company's network management practices."
The FCC formally rejected both Comcast's view of what happened AND their insistence that the FCC lacked the authority to govern this action.
I for one am surprised that a GOP led FCC would come down this hard on a big ISP.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
This post from ARS Technica shows that the FCC is pretty well aligned with the net neutrality movement. Here's an excerpt:
"We invite Free Press [a complainant in the case] and other members of the public to keep a watchful eye on Comcast as it carries out this relief," the Commission concludes. "Using the information provided by Comcast, pursuant to this Order, as well as information submitted by the public, we will closely monitor the company's network management practices."
The FCC formally rejected both Comcast's view of what happened AND their insistence that the FCC lacked the authority to govern this action.
I for one am surprised that a GOP led FCC would come down this hard on a big ISP.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Opt-In ISP Targeting: ATT Mulls a Different Route
As the NebuAd controversy has materialized, one of the principal criticisms of their agreements with ISPs -- and about BT in general, has been the reliance on an opt-out model. As you know, opt out requires the consumer to actively engage and tell the ISP and BT providers, "No, don't track me." The alternative, opt in, hasn't gotten a lot of traction, at least in the US, principally because there is an expectation that most people would not bother to opt in even if they were fine with the idea of targeted advertising.
Based upon the feedback provided by major ISPs in their responses to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, however, it appears that one major ISP is considering opt in as the right thing to do. This according to an analysis last week in the NY Times Here is an excerpt from Saul Hansell's analysis of ATT's vision:
While the company said it hadn’t tested such a system for monitoring display advertising viewing habits or committed to a particular technology, it expressed much more interest in the approach than the other big Internet providers who also responded to the committee’s letter.
AT&T did however promise that if it does decide to start tracking its customers online, it will “do so the right way.” In particular, the advertising system will require customers to affirmatively agree to have their surfing monitored. This sort of “opt-in” approach is preferred by privacy experts to the “opt-out” method, practiced by most ad targeting companies today, which records the behavior of anyone who doesn’t explicitly ask to not to be tracked.
The passage and entire article interested me greatly because ATT fully discloses their keen interest in participating in the online ad revenue boom, but their parallel determination to ensure that consumers are satisfied with their approach and choose to participate.
This is nothing short of gutsy. I have to admit that I have never seen opt in as a realistic solution for the current approaches to BT because while the consumer does receive value in the form of better online content paid through higher CPMs, they do not get something tangible in their hands for participation. I think this benefit is too abstract for most consuemrs to grasp and value. I do NOT subscribe to the theory that targeted advertising has significant consumer value to the average consumer, at least in the rational abstract.
Is ATT right? I hope so -- this is definiotely a situation in which I would be delighted to be wrong. And perhaps they are anticipating a different consumer value proposition for the solution they ultimately select. Is it possible that ATT is seeking a solution that provides real consumer value in exchange for participation? And I mean REAL consumer value, not their ersatz value trumped by companies like Phorm with their phish protector.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Based upon the feedback provided by major ISPs in their responses to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, however, it appears that one major ISP is considering opt in as the right thing to do. This according to an analysis last week in the NY Times Here is an excerpt from Saul Hansell's analysis of ATT's vision:
While the company said it hadn’t tested such a system for monitoring display advertising viewing habits or committed to a particular technology, it expressed much more interest in the approach than the other big Internet providers who also responded to the committee’s letter.
AT&T did however promise that if it does decide to start tracking its customers online, it will “do so the right way.” In particular, the advertising system will require customers to affirmatively agree to have their surfing monitored. This sort of “opt-in” approach is preferred by privacy experts to the “opt-out” method, practiced by most ad targeting companies today, which records the behavior of anyone who doesn’t explicitly ask to not to be tracked.
The passage and entire article interested me greatly because ATT fully discloses their keen interest in participating in the online ad revenue boom, but their parallel determination to ensure that consumers are satisfied with their approach and choose to participate.
This is nothing short of gutsy. I have to admit that I have never seen opt in as a realistic solution for the current approaches to BT because while the consumer does receive value in the form of better online content paid through higher CPMs, they do not get something tangible in their hands for participation. I think this benefit is too abstract for most consuemrs to grasp and value. I do NOT subscribe to the theory that targeted advertising has significant consumer value to the average consumer, at least in the rational abstract.
Is ATT right? I hope so -- this is definiotely a situation in which I would be delighted to be wrong. And perhaps they are anticipating a different consumer value proposition for the solution they ultimately select. Is it possible that ATT is seeking a solution that provides real consumer value in exchange for participation? And I mean REAL consumer value, not their ersatz value trumped by companies like Phorm with their phish protector.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
SnapTalent: A Different Take On Recruiting 2.0
A little while a go I wrote about Trovix, a semantic search product designed to better match candidates to potential job openings, and NotchUp, an outfit that enables companies to pay people to interview for positions. I found both models intriguing, though had a little agita over NotchUp -- I mean, it'd be nice if someone actually wanted to work for your company enough to interview. But thems the realities of our 2.0 world.
Well here's another interesting reality - SnapTalent. Their model is also unique and I want to take a few minutes to tell you about.
In one word: hypertargeting. SnapTalent helps companies find people with precise skills that work for target companies who may or may not currently be in the job market.
About a year ago I worked on a project for a company with 130,000 employees, and their HR team said that the toughest part of their job is trying to get people who are basically content in their current jobs to consider a move. Qualitatively these are valuable people because they are presumably skilled (they're currently employed in their specific specialty,) and they have the capacity to be positive about an employer. That last bit is of enormous value because let's face it, work is...work...and you can look at many job situations and employers as a collection of wonderful, middling, and lousy things. No job is perfect, and we all know there are good and bad apples at every company who look at a situation and either see opportunity or misery.
Well, with SnapTalent, you get to reach the right people through a precise targeting model that pairs specific recruiting ads to skills and employers. Whether the would be candidates are looking or not! By examining both page content and the IP addresses of surfers, SnapTalent can identify likely prospects and field ads when they visit sites in their recruitment ad network.
This isn't for burger flippers. Surely the bull's eye here is techies, developer types with precise skills and employers or universities that can meet highly specialized needs.
SanpTalent ads are fielded in a widgetlike thing that is easy for publishers to add to pages, so there are few barriers to joining the network and participating in the revshare with the company.
Importantly, the ads are not just little AdSense text things -- you can add photos, video, and actually build them on the platform itself. By adding this sort of rich and engaging content you can dramatically increase noticing value. And noticing value is a big deal in a concept that is aimed at least partly at people who aren't really looking for a new gig.
To reach them, you have to make people WANT to work for you, and rich media can certainly help better convey your company essence than 82 characters in a text link. The other great thing is that there is long term benefit in developing an HR brand.
There's is a CPC model, and the pay to play starts at just $250 for 500 clicks. Real time analytics tell you about your impressions to date and your clicks so you have a sense of who you are attracting, what ads are working, etc.
SnapTalent was funded by Y Combinator, the outfit that helps promising concepts in those earliest stages with money and mentoring.
Reviews from blogs, trad media, and tech employers seems to be VERY good. I'm bullish on these lads and lasses. Maybe they'll expand to the ad biz recruiting business soon!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Well here's another interesting reality - SnapTalent. Their model is also unique and I want to take a few minutes to tell you about.
In one word: hypertargeting. SnapTalent helps companies find people with precise skills that work for target companies who may or may not currently be in the job market.
About a year ago I worked on a project for a company with 130,000 employees, and their HR team said that the toughest part of their job is trying to get people who are basically content in their current jobs to consider a move. Qualitatively these are valuable people because they are presumably skilled (they're currently employed in their specific specialty,) and they have the capacity to be positive about an employer. That last bit is of enormous value because let's face it, work is...work...and you can look at many job situations and employers as a collection of wonderful, middling, and lousy things. No job is perfect, and we all know there are good and bad apples at every company who look at a situation and either see opportunity or misery.
Well, with SnapTalent, you get to reach the right people through a precise targeting model that pairs specific recruiting ads to skills and employers. Whether the would be candidates are looking or not! By examining both page content and the IP addresses of surfers, SnapTalent can identify likely prospects and field ads when they visit sites in their recruitment ad network.
This isn't for burger flippers. Surely the bull's eye here is techies, developer types with precise skills and employers or universities that can meet highly specialized needs.
SanpTalent ads are fielded in a widgetlike thing that is easy for publishers to add to pages, so there are few barriers to joining the network and participating in the revshare with the company.
Importantly, the ads are not just little AdSense text things -- you can add photos, video, and actually build them on the platform itself. By adding this sort of rich and engaging content you can dramatically increase noticing value. And noticing value is a big deal in a concept that is aimed at least partly at people who aren't really looking for a new gig.
To reach them, you have to make people WANT to work for you, and rich media can certainly help better convey your company essence than 82 characters in a text link. The other great thing is that there is long term benefit in developing an HR brand.
There's is a CPC model, and the pay to play starts at just $250 for 500 clicks. Real time analytics tell you about your impressions to date and your clicks so you have a sense of who you are attracting, what ads are working, etc.
SnapTalent was funded by Y Combinator, the outfit that helps promising concepts in those earliest stages with money and mentoring.
Reviews from blogs, trad media, and tech employers seems to be VERY good. I'm bullish on these lads and lasses. Maybe they'll expand to the ad biz recruiting business soon!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
ISP Targeting: In the EU The Gun Sights Are On Phorm
I'm not suggesting for a moment that the heat is off NebuAd, but in the EU at least the company in the sights of regulators is Phorm. You may recall that Phorm had a positively disastrous time in the UK last Summer when they quietly launched their version of an ISP based ad network with BT (nee British Telecom), Virgin Mobile, and TalkTalk. Well, quietly is not the right word. Secretly is actually the correct term. Or perhaps covertly.
Phorm is the new name developed by a spyware operation called 121Media, which used offers of free secondary utility applications to convince people to download their adware/spyware products. Tomato/tomahto. As with Gator, the early days of this business in particular were loaded with examples of people not understanding that they were allowing 121Media to track their behaviors and field targeted ads. 121Media claimed it was those pesky partners that distributed their software that were to blame for these atrocities. Several millions of Americans including myself will find the story rather familiar -- we downloaded apps that gave Gator permission to field ads to us based upon serving habits. Then, when we realized what we had done, we found Gator all but unremovable.
OK, so Phorm. They changed the name of the company and shifted their focus from getting people to download their offering to getting ISPs to sell them the non PII portion of the info that made ad targeting possible.
Only trouble is, they didn't tell the people that were being tracked in the test. Some 18,000 of them. I don't mean they buried the revelation. They didn't tell them AT ALL, even in an intentionally quiet way.
How was this all discovered? Well, by a reader of TheRegister.co.uk, as outlined in this post. Here's an excerpt:
In June 2007, Reg reader Stephen noticed his Firefox 2.0.0.4 installations making suspicious unauthorised connections to the domain dns.sysip.net every time he visted any website. Naturally worried his machines had contracted some kind of digital infection, Stephen performed a series of exhaustive malware scans, which all came back clean.
He wasn't the only BT subscriber to notice that his browser was making the mysterious contacts around July last year, as this thread archived at Thinkbroadband.com shows.
"I spent all weekend wiping my disks clean and reinstalling from backups (four PCs seemed to be affected). I spent a further two days researching and installing all kinds of anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit utilities. But even after all that I still have this problem!" Stephen told us at the time.
Having failed to trace the source of the dodgy redirect in his own network, he contacted BT to suggest one of their DNS servers may have been hijacked. BT dismissed the idea, yet the browser requests were still making an unauthorised stop off at dns.sysip.net.
Worried that his business' financial data might be being monitored, Stephen continued to investigate. A Whois search for dns.sysip.net revealed the domain was registered by Ahmet Can, an employee of a new online advertising company called 121Media. The address is now registered through a third party private domaining agency. 121Media rebranded itself as - you guessed it - Phorm in May 2007.
This is, you'll be unsurprised to learn, indeed the same Phorm that BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse recently revealed they had agreed to sell their customer's browsing habits to, despite the questions over its links to spyware. For helping Phorm target advertising, the ISPs are set to bag a cut of click revenues.
So, throughout the test period Phorm and BT had a novel consumer communications system.
DENY DENY DENY!
BT actually called the hijack process by which the system worked a clear incidence of malware.
But then! On 2/14/2008, BT and two other companies announced they had a deal, and that the hijack process was
validated under best industry practices, both through an independent audit conducted by Ernst & Young (View report PDF) and a Privacy Impact Assessment undertaken by Simon Davies, MD of 80/20 Thinking and Director of Privacy International.
Malware...revolutionis[ing] current standards of online privacy and fully protect[ing] the identity of consumers. Tomato...tomahto.
Phorm was paired with an application called Web Wise which was supposed to make people feel OK about the tracking. It was and is a phishing detector.
The British government essentially decided not to deeply pursue whether laws had been broken in the BT test. They issued their opinion that things were okiedokie, but many European web experts disagreed, as outlined in this post on TheRegister.co.uk.
(Has the US started exporting Bush Administration officials? ;-) We've have loads more folks like this, UK, if you want them. 2 for 1 sale through November.)
Here's a morsel:
"The explicit consent of a properly-informed user is necessary but not sufficient to make interception lawful.
"The consent of those who host the web pages visited by a user is also required, since they communicate their pages to the user, as is the consent of those who send email to the user, since those who host web-based email services have no authority to consent to interception on their users' behalf."
And the EU earlier this summer insisted they do so. Here is the text of the letter that was sent to the Brits by Brussels:
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you in relation to certain issues arising from the past and future deployment by some major United Kingdom Internet Service providers of the technology provided by a company called 'Phorm' to serve their customers with targeted advertisements based on prior analysis of these customers' internet usage.
In March 2008, a number of news items appeared in the media concerning the planned use by United Kingdom ISPs of the Phorm technology. Many of these publications raised issues concerning the impact of this technology on the privacy of Internet users. The information published on the web also included an e-petition submitted to the Prime Minister and a complaint made to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). In addition, in early April 2008, BT published a briefing according to which it had performed trials of the Phorm technology in autumn 2006 and summer 2007. In a TV interview, a BT representative confirmed that these trials had been performed without informing the customers affected and obtaining their consent.
The European Commission has already been contacted by Members of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom who communicated the concerns of their constituents regarding the deployment of Phorm technology. The issue has also been the subject of several written parliamentary questions addressed to the Commission by MEPs asking the Commission to comment on the applicability of WU legislation and also to set out its intended action in relation to the previous trials. Finally, a number of individuals have also written to the Commission directly to express their concerns and invite it to intervene in the matter.
In order to provide the response that is expected from it, the Commission needs to base itself on a clear understanding of the position of the United Kingdom authorities. Several EU law provisions concerning privacy and electronic communications may be applicable to other activities involved in the deploment of Phorm technology by ISPs.
In particular, Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications, which particularises and complements for the electronic communications sector the general personal data protection principles defined in the directive 94/45/EC (Data Protection Directive), obliges Member States to ensure the confidentiality of communications and related traffic through national legislation. They are required to prohibit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communications and the related traffic data by persons other than the users without their consent (Article 5(1)). The consent must be freely given, specific and an informed indication of the user's wishes (Article 2(h) of Directive 95/46/EC). Traffic data may only be processed for certain defined purposes and for a limited period. The subscriber must be informed about the processing of traffic data and, depending on the purpose of processing, prior consent of the subscriber or user must be obtained (Article 6 of Directive 2002/58/EC).
In the light of the above, we would highly appreciate it if the United Kingdom authorities could provide us with information on (1) the current handling by the United Kingdom authorities of the issues arising from the past trials of the Phorm technology by BT and on (2) the position of the United Kingdom authorities regarding the planned deployment of the Phorm technology by ISPs.
As regards the first issue, according to applicable EU law the responsibility for investigating complaints concerning such trials and determining whether the national legal provisions implementing the requirements of the relevant EU legislation have been complied with lies with the competent national authority(-ies) in the United Kingdom. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is responsible for enforcing the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), has made a number of statements on Phorm. In its latest published statement of 18 April 2008, the ICO analyses the conformity of the deployment of the Phorm technology with the DPA and the PECR. At the same time, the ICO indicates that it does not have responsibility for enforcing the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), which has been invoked by some individuals who question whether the use of Phorm entails an unlawful interception of communications under this Regulation. In this respect, the ICO refers to a statement by the Home Office, which says that it is questionable whether the use of Phorm's technology involves an interception within the meaning of RIPA and that it does not consider that RIPA was intended to cover such situations. The ICO concludes on the issue of RIPA by stating that it will not be pursuing this matter. At the same time, the ICO statement does not include any indication as regards the intentions of the ICO in relation to the investigation of possible breaches of other relevant legal provisions* in the past trials of the Phorm technology.
Second, as regards the issues arising with regard to the planned future deployment of the Phorm technology, there appears to be a certain discrepancy between how it is envisaged by the ICO, the ISPs and Phorm itself. One of the most significant issues in this regard is the way in which customers will express their consent to the application of Phorm technology in their case. While the ICO seems to suggest that the consent of users for the Phorm technology should be on an opt-in basis and also BT seems to confirm this approach, Phorm has indicated that it intends to tackle user consent through providing 'transparent meaningful user notice'.
I would therefore be grateful to receive the response of the United Kingdom authorities on the following questions:
1. What are the United Kingdom laws and other legal acts which govern activities falling within the scope of Articles 5(1) and 6 of Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications and Articles 6, 7 and 17(1) of Directive 95/46/EC?
2. Which United Kingdom authority(-ies) is (are) competent (i) to investigate whether there have been any breaches of the national law transposing each of the above-mentioned provisions of Community law arising from the past trials of Phorm technology carried out by BT and (ii) to impose any penalties for infringement of those provisions where appropriate?
3. Have there been any investigations about the past trials of Phorm technology by BT and what were their results and the conclusions of the competent authority(-ies)? Are there ongoing investigations about possible similar activities by other ISPs?
4. What remedies, liability and sanctions are provided for by United Kingdom law in accordance with Article 15(2) of the Directive on privacy and electronic communications, which may be sought by users affected by the past trials of the Phorm technology and may be imposed by the competent United Kingdom authority(-ies) including the courts?
5. According to the information available to the United Kingdom authorities, what exactly will be the methodology followed by the ISPs in order to obtain their customers' consent for the deployment of Phorm technology in accordance with the relevant legal requirements and what is the United Kingdom authorities' assessment of this methodology?
Given the urgency of this matter I would highly appreciate receiving your reply within one month of receipt of this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Fabio Colasanti
The EU has far stricter definitions of online privacy protections.
The Brits demured from responding, so the EU has since issued a "prewarning" followup letter.
This is beginning to become a rather significant embarassment for the UK government, BT, and Phorm. More as it develops.
If you are looking for more on Phorm, make sure you head over to TheaRegister.co.uk. They are clearly at the forefront of this investigation and issue. After all, they broke the story and typically break every significant development on the topic.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Phorm is the new name developed by a spyware operation called 121Media, which used offers of free secondary utility applications to convince people to download their adware/spyware products. Tomato/tomahto. As with Gator, the early days of this business in particular were loaded with examples of people not understanding that they were allowing 121Media to track their behaviors and field targeted ads. 121Media claimed it was those pesky partners that distributed their software that were to blame for these atrocities. Several millions of Americans including myself will find the story rather familiar -- we downloaded apps that gave Gator permission to field ads to us based upon serving habits. Then, when we realized what we had done, we found Gator all but unremovable.
OK, so Phorm. They changed the name of the company and shifted their focus from getting people to download their offering to getting ISPs to sell them the non PII portion of the info that made ad targeting possible.
Only trouble is, they didn't tell the people that were being tracked in the test. Some 18,000 of them. I don't mean they buried the revelation. They didn't tell them AT ALL, even in an intentionally quiet way.
How was this all discovered? Well, by a reader of TheRegister.co.uk, as outlined in this post. Here's an excerpt:
In June 2007, Reg reader Stephen noticed his Firefox 2.0.0.4 installations making suspicious unauthorised connections to the domain dns.sysip.net every time he visted any website. Naturally worried his machines had contracted some kind of digital infection, Stephen performed a series of exhaustive malware scans, which all came back clean.
He wasn't the only BT subscriber to notice that his browser was making the mysterious contacts around July last year, as this thread archived at Thinkbroadband.com shows.
"I spent all weekend wiping my disks clean and reinstalling from backups (four PCs seemed to be affected). I spent a further two days researching and installing all kinds of anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-rootkit utilities. But even after all that I still have this problem!" Stephen told us at the time.
Having failed to trace the source of the dodgy redirect in his own network, he contacted BT to suggest one of their DNS servers may have been hijacked. BT dismissed the idea, yet the browser requests were still making an unauthorised stop off at dns.sysip.net.
Worried that his business' financial data might be being monitored, Stephen continued to investigate. A Whois search for dns.sysip.net revealed the domain was registered by Ahmet Can, an employee of a new online advertising company called 121Media. The address is now registered through a third party private domaining agency. 121Media rebranded itself as - you guessed it - Phorm in May 2007.
This is, you'll be unsurprised to learn, indeed the same Phorm that BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse recently revealed they had agreed to sell their customer's browsing habits to, despite the questions over its links to spyware. For helping Phorm target advertising, the ISPs are set to bag a cut of click revenues.
So, throughout the test period Phorm and BT had a novel consumer communications system.
DENY DENY DENY!
BT actually called the hijack process by which the system worked a clear incidence of malware.
But then! On 2/14/2008, BT and two other companies announced they had a deal, and that the hijack process was
validated under best industry practices, both through an independent audit conducted by Ernst & Young (View report PDF) and a Privacy Impact Assessment undertaken by Simon Davies, MD of 80/20 Thinking and Director of Privacy International.
Malware...revolutionis[ing] current standards of online privacy and fully protect[ing] the identity of consumers. Tomato...tomahto.
Phorm was paired with an application called Web Wise which was supposed to make people feel OK about the tracking. It was and is a phishing detector.
The British government essentially decided not to deeply pursue whether laws had been broken in the BT test. They issued their opinion that things were okiedokie, but many European web experts disagreed, as outlined in this post on TheRegister.co.uk.
(Has the US started exporting Bush Administration officials? ;-) We've have loads more folks like this, UK, if you want them. 2 for 1 sale through November.)
Here's a morsel:
"The explicit consent of a properly-informed user is necessary but not sufficient to make interception lawful.
"The consent of those who host the web pages visited by a user is also required, since they communicate their pages to the user, as is the consent of those who send email to the user, since those who host web-based email services have no authority to consent to interception on their users' behalf."
And the EU earlier this summer insisted they do so. Here is the text of the letter that was sent to the Brits by Brussels:
Dear Sir,
I am writing to you in relation to certain issues arising from the past and future deployment by some major United Kingdom Internet Service providers of the technology provided by a company called 'Phorm' to serve their customers with targeted advertisements based on prior analysis of these customers' internet usage.
In March 2008, a number of news items appeared in the media concerning the planned use by United Kingdom ISPs of the Phorm technology. Many of these publications raised issues concerning the impact of this technology on the privacy of Internet users. The information published on the web also included an e-petition submitted to the Prime Minister and a complaint made to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). In addition, in early April 2008, BT published a briefing according to which it had performed trials of the Phorm technology in autumn 2006 and summer 2007. In a TV interview, a BT representative confirmed that these trials had been performed without informing the customers affected and obtaining their consent.
The European Commission has already been contacted by Members of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom who communicated the concerns of their constituents regarding the deployment of Phorm technology. The issue has also been the subject of several written parliamentary questions addressed to the Commission by MEPs asking the Commission to comment on the applicability of WU legislation and also to set out its intended action in relation to the previous trials. Finally, a number of individuals have also written to the Commission directly to express their concerns and invite it to intervene in the matter.
In order to provide the response that is expected from it, the Commission needs to base itself on a clear understanding of the position of the United Kingdom authorities. Several EU law provisions concerning privacy and electronic communications may be applicable to other activities involved in the deploment of Phorm technology by ISPs.
In particular, Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications, which particularises and complements for the electronic communications sector the general personal data protection principles defined in the directive 94/45/EC (Data Protection Directive), obliges Member States to ensure the confidentiality of communications and related traffic through national legislation. They are required to prohibit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communications and the related traffic data by persons other than the users without their consent (Article 5(1)). The consent must be freely given, specific and an informed indication of the user's wishes (Article 2(h) of Directive 95/46/EC). Traffic data may only be processed for certain defined purposes and for a limited period. The subscriber must be informed about the processing of traffic data and, depending on the purpose of processing, prior consent of the subscriber or user must be obtained (Article 6 of Directive 2002/58/EC).
In the light of the above, we would highly appreciate it if the United Kingdom authorities could provide us with information on (1) the current handling by the United Kingdom authorities of the issues arising from the past trials of the Phorm technology by BT and on (2) the position of the United Kingdom authorities regarding the planned deployment of the Phorm technology by ISPs.
As regards the first issue, according to applicable EU law the responsibility for investigating complaints concerning such trials and determining whether the national legal provisions implementing the requirements of the relevant EU legislation have been complied with lies with the competent national authority(-ies) in the United Kingdom. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is responsible for enforcing the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), has made a number of statements on Phorm. In its latest published statement of 18 April 2008, the ICO analyses the conformity of the deployment of the Phorm technology with the DPA and the PECR. At the same time, the ICO indicates that it does not have responsibility for enforcing the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), which has been invoked by some individuals who question whether the use of Phorm entails an unlawful interception of communications under this Regulation. In this respect, the ICO refers to a statement by the Home Office, which says that it is questionable whether the use of Phorm's technology involves an interception within the meaning of RIPA and that it does not consider that RIPA was intended to cover such situations. The ICO concludes on the issue of RIPA by stating that it will not be pursuing this matter. At the same time, the ICO statement does not include any indication as regards the intentions of the ICO in relation to the investigation of possible breaches of other relevant legal provisions* in the past trials of the Phorm technology.
Second, as regards the issues arising with regard to the planned future deployment of the Phorm technology, there appears to be a certain discrepancy between how it is envisaged by the ICO, the ISPs and Phorm itself. One of the most significant issues in this regard is the way in which customers will express their consent to the application of Phorm technology in their case. While the ICO seems to suggest that the consent of users for the Phorm technology should be on an opt-in basis and also BT seems to confirm this approach, Phorm has indicated that it intends to tackle user consent through providing 'transparent meaningful user notice'.
I would therefore be grateful to receive the response of the United Kingdom authorities on the following questions:
1. What are the United Kingdom laws and other legal acts which govern activities falling within the scope of Articles 5(1) and 6 of Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications and Articles 6, 7 and 17(1) of Directive 95/46/EC?
2. Which United Kingdom authority(-ies) is (are) competent (i) to investigate whether there have been any breaches of the national law transposing each of the above-mentioned provisions of Community law arising from the past trials of Phorm technology carried out by BT and (ii) to impose any penalties for infringement of those provisions where appropriate?
3. Have there been any investigations about the past trials of Phorm technology by BT and what were their results and the conclusions of the competent authority(-ies)? Are there ongoing investigations about possible similar activities by other ISPs?
4. What remedies, liability and sanctions are provided for by United Kingdom law in accordance with Article 15(2) of the Directive on privacy and electronic communications, which may be sought by users affected by the past trials of the Phorm technology and may be imposed by the competent United Kingdom authority(-ies) including the courts?
5. According to the information available to the United Kingdom authorities, what exactly will be the methodology followed by the ISPs in order to obtain their customers' consent for the deployment of Phorm technology in accordance with the relevant legal requirements and what is the United Kingdom authorities' assessment of this methodology?
Given the urgency of this matter I would highly appreciate receiving your reply within one month of receipt of this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Fabio Colasanti
The EU has far stricter definitions of online privacy protections.
The Brits demured from responding, so the EU has since issued a "prewarning" followup letter.
This is beginning to become a rather significant embarassment for the UK government, BT, and Phorm. More as it develops.
If you are looking for more on Phorm, make sure you head over to TheaRegister.co.uk. They are clearly at the forefront of this investigation and issue. After all, they broke the story and typically break every significant development on the topic.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Age and Gender Breakdown of Major Social Nets
NBC Olympics Internet "Ratings"
NBC viewership has been colossal for the Beijing Olympics, though my rosy estimates of earlier on on Internet's expected share of total viewings are off by a longshot. Here's a summary I found on TV Week:
The numbers for the web are impressive, but not colossal. Perhaps this is because the timing of events is basically overnight for the US, when we are asleep. And of course there is the fact that an event looks better on a 42 inch flatscreen than on a iPhone.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
The numbers for the web are impressive, but not colossal. Perhaps this is because the timing of events is basically overnight for the US, when we are asleep. And of course there is the fact that an event looks better on a 42 inch flatscreen than on a iPhone.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
AKQA/.Mobi Study Provides Additional Insight on the iPhone 3G Phenomenon
Sales of the iPhone 3G have been nothing short of remarkable, and of course the key driver is the ability to access the mobile web – for downloading apps, for acquiring content, and for entertaining oneself.
Whenever I see something take off like this, I like to consider whether the device solved a problem or created a new need. For example, I’d say iPod created a new need (a desire of a musical world on one’s own terms), while Diet Coke solved a problem back when it was launched (until DC, diet colas tasted lousy.)
A recent study jointly produced by AKQA Mobile and dotMOBI seems to indicate that iPhone 3G solves a problem – the need for a more positive mobile web experience. Now, the desire for a better mobile web experience should come as no surprise – it is the logical progression and expression of the consumer desire to get more faster.
But the data from this study point to some areas of dissatisfaction that a great number of consumers were experiencing before iPhone 3G launched. Let’s have a look at some highlights.
The data indicate that while the mobile web is very important to users, especially below 35s, it also says 44% of US users had a very disappointing first experience. The figures were even higher for UK users, which showed a 51% dissatisfaction rate with their first experience.
This is just one of the interesting bits of info in this study. Download it for free today.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Whenever I see something take off like this, I like to consider whether the device solved a problem or created a new need. For example, I’d say iPod created a new need (a desire of a musical world on one’s own terms), while Diet Coke solved a problem back when it was launched (until DC, diet colas tasted lousy.)
A recent study jointly produced by AKQA Mobile and dotMOBI seems to indicate that iPhone 3G solves a problem – the need for a more positive mobile web experience. Now, the desire for a better mobile web experience should come as no surprise – it is the logical progression and expression of the consumer desire to get more faster.
But the data from this study point to some areas of dissatisfaction that a great number of consumers were experiencing before iPhone 3G launched. Let’s have a look at some highlights.
The data indicate that while the mobile web is very important to users, especially below 35s, it also says 44% of US users had a very disappointing first experience. The figures were even higher for UK users, which showed a 51% dissatisfaction rate with their first experience.
This is just one of the interesting bits of info in this study. Download it for free today.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Kindle Fever Says Citigroup
According to Reuters, Citi has upped its estimate for 2008 Kindle sales from 190,000 to 380,000. That, my friends, is double. Citi is estimating that Amazon will sell at least 150,000 in Q4, which would be a very nice quarter indeed for the device. Now that Amazon has been able to up the quantities of the device that are available, the future of the device looks bright.
Interestingly, Citi also projects $10B in sales for Kindles and Kindle content by 2010.
Bingo Bango Bosco for Monsieur Besos.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Travel Ad Network: Coffee, Tea, or Profit?
I am really excited that C:SF is doing a new project with Travel Ad Network, because I like the company and its model so much.
Regular readers know that I am a big fan of vertical ad networks -- the media sellers that aggregate inventory in a key sector and add value through technology and industry knowledge.
You may NOT know, though, that I think travel will be a leading web growth sector over the next five years. And I think this because:
1. Digital works for travel, from both a DR and a brand building perspective.
2. It is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to differentiate purely through experiences. This is CERTAINLY true in airlines, where financial realities are driving the nickel and diming that aggravates us yet which we understand as inevitable. But I think commoditization has become a potential issue across the board -- as more and more of those multiple hundred million dollar resorts go up. While in Hawaii recently, I heard an 8 year old say "So they have a dolphin in the tank. Big deal. I've seen that before." What can a hotel do to impress that little pint sized cynic? And since i am on a rant, the Wynn Hotel in Vegas cost $1B. What next? $5B?
3. Online is increasingly the resource of choice for consumer info on destinations. We want our specific needs and interests catered to, and online is really the only resource that can provide a high level of information customization.
4. Tough economic times will drive travel companies to focus increasingly on media that drive concrete and accountable metrics.
Big growth is gonna happen, people! Betcha $10!
But as this growth materializes, travel is increasingly finding itself in the same position as the auto category -- where more and more dollars are chasing what appears to be a finite amount of inventory.
Ad networks can really help in such a situation, and one that I think is poised to grow well in travel has the rather easy to remember name of "Travel Ad Network." The way ad networks help in such a situation is to grow the amount of available inventory by aggregating sites beyond the top ten along with vertical content on general interest sites. This brings lots of new high quality inventory to the marketplace, while simultaneously simplifying the processes of buying, trafficking, reporting, and optimization.
I like TAN because it aggregates high quality inventory from across more than 50 travel sites -- many of which attract highly involved and passionate audiences. These are the sort of people that will be increasingly critical to an industry that may face downward margin pressure; passionate people can be expected to pay more because they care more.
One key differentiator in any network - vertical or horizontal -- is the percentage of inventory that is remnant versus from exclusive representation agreements. There's nothing wrong with remnant, but when you see a vertical that doesn't entirely rely on it, you can surmise that they offer some unique strengths worth examining. TAN has built its business on exclusive representation agreements, and works with high quality sites like Rand McNally and Lonely Planet.
Because many of the sites they represent are large, TAN currently offers the third largest monthly reach in the travel vertical:
This theory is further borne out by the demos of the network, which offer a disproportionate number of people in that highly desirable $100K plus group.
While most networks focus mostly on the standard four creative units -- the four core IAB sizes, TAN has chosen to create a much broader range of marketing vehicles that add to the number of potential consumer touchpoints and offer what may well be a more compelling creative palette.
Hear are just some of their options:
Destination or content on page
Behavioral targeting
Re-targeting
Location or IP address targeting
Day/Day part or time of day scheduling
Frequency of visitation targeting
Customized placements
Targeted text links
Destination spotlights (advertorial)
Email/CRM
Custom post-campaign ad effectiveness studies
Of course, one of the key ways that ad networks add value to publishers and advertisers alike is through technology, especially in the areas of targeting and analytics. TAN offers a full range of targeting options and people report that their reporting systems are quite strong.
News of TAN is definitely out -- after all, they've been around since '03. But I feel as though they are sort of a sleeper of the industry -- attracting strong clients already...
...but poised for big growth as news of their strengths gets out. As travel experiences great growth, expect TAN to grow even faster.
That's why I am so excited that our team will be working with them. Hey, you can take this post with the proverbial grain, but I genuinely do think TAN is worth your attention if you are interested in the travel vertical and a high quality audience.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Start-Up 101
Carat Insight Reports on Global Ad Spending
So...the dreaded R word. It's always scary in the ad biz to acknowledge a recession, but truth beats ignorance, and this new report from Carat Insight, entitled "Advertising Progression Through a Recession" is a great analysis of the state of the economy and how to cost effectively build your brand despite tightening sales and resources.
For those of you not familiar, Carat Insight is a special unit within Carat that analyzes critical trends and developments in the media space globally so that the company and its clients can capitalize on them effectively. I worked at Carat, and while I was never on this august team, I can attest that these people are smartypantses, and I mean that in a very complimentary way.
I'm not going to regurgitate the entire report, but here are some highlights.
Carat notes that the economy is the number one concern of US adults, as demonstrated in this Nielsen survey data:
Concomitant with that info is the fact that consumer confidence is WAY DOWN over even just a year ago.
Interestingly, many Americans blame the Iraq War for key economic issues:
Now, none of that stuff may come as a surprise to you. But what about these items:
1. Consumers are moving to lower end and club stores, as is evidenced in this survey data from ChangeWave:
2. Interestingly, until the most recent recessions, advertisers used to GROW spending during downturns, albeit at slower rates than during growth cycles.
That was a surprise to me, perhaps because during my entire career (which is covered by those two recessions, ad spend always declined.
3. And there is the PIMS study growth matrix, which analyzes the effects of ad spending changes on market share in upturns and downturns. This graph is a pretty comprehensive analysis across a large variety of industries.
Net net, advertise and gain share.
Anyway, I have barely scratched the surface of the excellent content available in this study. Download it now and you'll see how valuable it is.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Vongo RIP
Vongo is no more...
Vongo was a movie downloading platform for portable devices. Unfortunately only 7 portable devices, and none of the 7 was the iPod.
Ars Technica reports that customers are being referred to Verizon StarzPlay, a virtually identical service.
Now that Vongo is dead, its web site directs interested parties to Verizon's Starz Play—a service launched in May that practically mirrors Vongo, except under new branding. The only differences are that the monthly fee is slightly lower ($5.99 per month instead of $9.99), and there are no longer pay-per-view movies available. Starz Play is apparently part of the company's new (new) marketing strategy. "We felt like the upside for us from a business standpoint was to wholesale it to affiliates...Vongo had fulfilled its mission by generating interest," a Starz spokesperson told PaidContent.
That must be a hell of a lot of interest in order to justify shutting down a service, ditching its branding, and relaunching it as something else. In reality, there likely weren't many people using Vongo, and Vongo's new branding under Verizon is unlikely to take it much further.
Vongo RIP.iPod knockoffs will never be the same.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Vongo was a movie downloading platform for portable devices. Unfortunately only 7 portable devices, and none of the 7 was the iPod.
Ars Technica reports that customers are being referred to Verizon StarzPlay, a virtually identical service.
Now that Vongo is dead, its web site directs interested parties to Verizon's Starz Play—a service launched in May that practically mirrors Vongo, except under new branding. The only differences are that the monthly fee is slightly lower ($5.99 per month instead of $9.99), and there are no longer pay-per-view movies available. Starz Play is apparently part of the company's new (new) marketing strategy. "We felt like the upside for us from a business standpoint was to wholesale it to affiliates...Vongo had fulfilled its mission by generating interest," a Starz spokesperson told PaidContent.
That must be a hell of a lot of interest in order to justify shutting down a service, ditching its branding, and relaunching it as something else. In reality, there likely weren't many people using Vongo, and Vongo's new branding under Verizon is unlikely to take it much further.
Vongo RIP.iPod knockoffs will never be the same.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Lane et al v. Facebook, Inc. et al
I NEED TO ALERT YOU THAT I HAVE MADE CHANGES TO THIS POST ON SEPT 9. I CHOSE TO MAKE THE CHANGES IN THE TEXT RATHER THAN ISSUE A CORRECTION BECAUSE THIS POST IS WELL INDEXED AND I DUNNO IF THE CORRECTION WOULD BE. I MADE THE CHANGES TO CORRECT A COUPLE OF ISSUES IN MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CASE. THE CHANGES WERE MADE AS A RESULT OF THE COMMENT LEFT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST -- A COMMENT YOU SHOULD READ. I REGRET THE ERRORS.
A really interesting lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in CA Northern District Court. Against FaceBook and the various companies involved in its much maligned "Beacon" advertising program that debuted last fall and had to be changed from "opt out" to "opt in" several weeks later.
You see, the Beacon system transmits transaction info from the merchants to FB for EVERY purchase (or rental,) and then FaceBook parsed it to match it to members.
The lawsuit focuses on a number of counts. This is not a complete list, these are simply the ones I think are relevant to the typical readers of this site:
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Suit alleges that the act of collecting the data was a violation of the above act. The act prohibits the interception of communications without consumer consent.
Video Privacy Protection Act
One interesting aspect of this is the role of Blockbuster, Fandango, GameFly, and Overstock, all of which sell or rent prerecorded media. Because video transactions are governed under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA.) The law was passed in 1988 as a result of the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, and the fact that his video rental records were obtained and published in a variety of media outlets. As I recall, Judge Bork's rentals were about as tame as they come, but the disclosure was considered such an invasion that the law was passed. So how could Blockbuster and the others legally participate in this program on an opt out basis? Or is the member the discloser to FB? Naturally, other sites that sold video would be in violation as well. That sound you're hearing is my head spinning.
I looked online for info about the VPPA -- what is unclear to me is whether ONLY video tapes are covered or if the law would cover DVDs and CDs as well. Based upon the info I found, it appears that the law was written in a manner that suggests broad interpretation is warranted, but I couldn't find any case law where the courts have verified that. Obviously, the breadth or narrowness of the interpretation would affect whether other companies named in the suit violated the law as well.
California Laws
Alleges that certain California laws offering fraud and privacy protection to consumers were violated.
What also makes this sue-overable is that if EVERY purchase and rental was sent to FB, then the purchases of people who WEREN'T members were transmitted. This is actually the most interesting bit to me.
You can get a copy of the suit, and a tight analysis, over here at Tech Crunch.
A number of companies are named in the suit in addition to FaceBook and the ones mentioned above -- the merchants that passed the data. Specifically:
Blockbuster
Fandango
Hotwire
Sta Travel
Overstock
Zappos
Gamefly
A FaceBook press release states that there were 44 companies participating at the time of launch -- ergo, the suit also names "john doe" companies who were participating but whose names are unknown.
Assuming that PII was exchanged here (and how could it not have been?,) this will be an important case to watch. It's the part about nonmember data that I am most interested in -- surely THEY have a decent case.
I tell ya, privacy and privacy law is a big rat's nest, ain't it?
And don't forget. I am the layest of laypersons. Not a lawyer. Just a marketing blogger trying to keep abreast of privacy issues.
Finally, as to the comments below about Dallas attorneys, I don't know what is relevant there, but would be grateful for insight.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write?
A really interesting lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in CA Northern District Court. Against FaceBook and the various companies involved in its much maligned "Beacon" advertising program that debuted last fall and had to be changed from "opt out" to "opt in" several weeks later.
You see, the Beacon system transmits transaction info from the merchants to FB for EVERY purchase (or rental,) and then FaceBook parsed it to match it to members.
The lawsuit focuses on a number of counts. This is not a complete list, these are simply the ones I think are relevant to the typical readers of this site:
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Suit alleges that the act of collecting the data was a violation of the above act. The act prohibits the interception of communications without consumer consent.
Video Privacy Protection Act
One interesting aspect of this is the role of Blockbuster, Fandango, GameFly, and Overstock, all of which sell or rent prerecorded media. Because video transactions are governed under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA.) The law was passed in 1988 as a result of the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, and the fact that his video rental records were obtained and published in a variety of media outlets. As I recall, Judge Bork's rentals were about as tame as they come, but the disclosure was considered such an invasion that the law was passed. So how could Blockbuster and the others legally participate in this program on an opt out basis? Or is the member the discloser to FB? Naturally, other sites that sold video would be in violation as well. That sound you're hearing is my head spinning.
I looked online for info about the VPPA -- what is unclear to me is whether ONLY video tapes are covered or if the law would cover DVDs and CDs as well. Based upon the info I found, it appears that the law was written in a manner that suggests broad interpretation is warranted, but I couldn't find any case law where the courts have verified that. Obviously, the breadth or narrowness of the interpretation would affect whether other companies named in the suit violated the law as well.
California Laws
Alleges that certain California laws offering fraud and privacy protection to consumers were violated.
What also makes this sue-overable is that if EVERY purchase and rental was sent to FB, then the purchases of people who WEREN'T members were transmitted. This is actually the most interesting bit to me.
You can get a copy of the suit, and a tight analysis, over here at Tech Crunch.
A number of companies are named in the suit in addition to FaceBook and the ones mentioned above -- the merchants that passed the data. Specifically:
Blockbuster
Fandango
Hotwire
Sta Travel
Overstock
Zappos
Gamefly
A FaceBook press release states that there were 44 companies participating at the time of launch -- ergo, the suit also names "john doe" companies who were participating but whose names are unknown.
Assuming that PII was exchanged here (and how could it not have been?,) this will be an important case to watch. It's the part about nonmember data that I am most interested in -- surely THEY have a decent case.
I tell ya, privacy and privacy law is a big rat's nest, ain't it?
And don't forget. I am the layest of laypersons. Not a lawyer. Just a marketing blogger trying to keep abreast of privacy issues.
Finally, as to the comments below about Dallas attorneys, I don't know what is relevant there, but would be grateful for insight.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write?
FaceBook #1
Web site Seeking Alpha has reported that FaceBook is now the #1 social networking site, with 132MM uniques worldwide in June. They also published this fascinating chart that shows you where the growth is:
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
SearchtoPhone: Yellow Pages That Find You
Do you have a gorilla costume in stock?
Have any Olivetti typewriter ribbons?
Do you sell Dyson vacuums?
You may never have to call store after store again now that SearchtoPhone is in the house.
This is Buck Rogers stuff in importance, though deceptively simple in how you use it.
It works like this:
1. Call a number
2. Record what you are looking for.
3. Search to Phone sends your need to registered merchants that match your search terms.
4. Within 60 seconds, a vendor calls you back with that gorilla costume!
I KID YOU NOT!
Free to the consumer, merchants pay when they have what the user wants and they agree to a connect charge to be linked to the needy consumer who is ready to buy.
SearchtoPhone offers literally hundreds of categories in which merchants can classify themselves. And by recording the user's area code and zip, the system ensures that only local merchants are contacted.
Assuming a reasonable conversion rate for the merchant, this is a big Big BIG idea. I love the idea of merchants responding to you with real info rather than being connected to a disinterested clerk.
And at connection fees of 99 cents a call (unlimited length) the service is pretty easy for even small merchants to incorporate into their budgets. Assuming they have sufficient staff, chains and big box retailers could also benefit.
Check it out on the their site and by sending your next need to them.
SearchtoPhone is part of the Boulder Co - based TechStars incubator and mentoring program. Another nice idea from those gals and guys!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Emsense: Better Communications Through Brain Wave Measurement
If you are as intrigued yet skeptical of focus groups as I am, you may find the offering of Emsense quite compelling as an alternative research tool. Ditto if you wonder about methodology problems associated with quantitative research.
Emsense offers a way to gauge response to commercials, video games, and political content. Using a “two node” headset, the user views content and their bodily reactions are recorded in real time. This is EEG (electronencephalography) combined with biometrics. Buck Rogers stuff, but thanks to EmSense very executable with a relatively fast turnaround.
The “two node” bit is important because it makes their technology easy to deploy and portable. In the past, EEG equipment took an hour or more to “install” on someone because of the need for so many nodes to track various bodily responses.
This photo swiped from CNET gives you a little more perspective on the device itself, and how it tracks bodily responses in real time.
Oh, and it's not just brain waves - the Emsense headset also measures pupil dilation, heart rate, breathing rate, perspiration, and more.
This kind of research may seem a bit beyond the pale for ads -- where ARS and other ludicrous yet oddly predictive measures hold so much sway. But getting genuine response info -- willingly provided yet involuntary response info, oddly enough ;-) -- through a research technique that is also affordable may prove to help marketers make significant advances in message and creative effectiveness.
Years ago, I used a tool called Ameritest that used consumer dials to let people demonstrate the extent to which they disliked an ad second by second. The Ameritest I know is long gone, but the idea of moment by moment tracking has at least as much appeal now as then. With this advancement, there's no guesswork -- you get a real read on the involuntary bodily activiites that demonstrate genuine engagement, empathy, and excitements.
This article in AdWeek outlines how Coke has already used the tool to help decide which ads to show during the 08 SuperBowl. Here's an excerpt:
Coke became a client of EmSense late last year to help it decide which two TV ads to place in the Super Bowl. (It was the first time the company used brainwave and biometric data to help select and edit its Super Bowl ads.) In the weeks leading up to the game, the client produced about a dozen new ads for possible placement. The Coke marketing team was counting on EmSense to help it make the right choices.
...
According to Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America, the device not only helped whittle down the list of spots, but also aided in editing the two ads chosen to air -- "It's Mine," in which parade balloons vie for a bottle of Coke, and the "Jinx" ad with James Carville and former Senator Bill Frist. For example, she says, the music in "It's Mine" was adjusted in the days leading up to the game to build to more of a crescendo than in the original version of the spot.
Don't think this stuff is just for selling colas, though. My suspicion is that these fellas are pretty busy in this election year helping pols make ads, speeches, and sound bites that will help their words and actions resonate with consumers. We know, based upon this WSJ article, that the Romney team was using them extensively.
That same article, however, notes there are some skeptics on the predictive ability of this type of research:
Some prominent scientists say neuromarketing firms may be promising more than they can deliver. Liz Phelps, the director of a neuroscience laboratory at New York University who has reviewed recent studies, is critical of the idea that images of brain activity can predict how people will behave -- especially when it comes to politics. Last month, the journal "Nature" criticized a study conducted by a neuromarketing firm this year that had used brain scans to measure people's responses to the 2008 presidential candidates. "Does anyone need a $3 million scanner to conclude that Hillary needs to work on her support from swing voters?" it said.
I don't believe those comments actually represent an indictment of the tool, just exercising some caution about the results. Having a methodology that essentially prevents a person from misrepresenting their feelings is a nice step forward. Emsense seems a great thing for brands to explore as a means of testing their communications. Find out more here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Emsense offers a way to gauge response to commercials, video games, and political content. Using a “two node” headset, the user views content and their bodily reactions are recorded in real time. This is EEG (electronencephalography) combined with biometrics. Buck Rogers stuff, but thanks to EmSense very executable with a relatively fast turnaround.
The “two node” bit is important because it makes their technology easy to deploy and portable. In the past, EEG equipment took an hour or more to “install” on someone because of the need for so many nodes to track various bodily responses.
This photo swiped from CNET gives you a little more perspective on the device itself, and how it tracks bodily responses in real time.
Oh, and it's not just brain waves - the Emsense headset also measures pupil dilation, heart rate, breathing rate, perspiration, and more.
This kind of research may seem a bit beyond the pale for ads -- where ARS and other ludicrous yet oddly predictive measures hold so much sway. But getting genuine response info -- willingly provided yet involuntary response info, oddly enough ;-) -- through a research technique that is also affordable may prove to help marketers make significant advances in message and creative effectiveness.
Years ago, I used a tool called Ameritest that used consumer dials to let people demonstrate the extent to which they disliked an ad second by second. The Ameritest I know is long gone, but the idea of moment by moment tracking has at least as much appeal now as then. With this advancement, there's no guesswork -- you get a real read on the involuntary bodily activiites that demonstrate genuine engagement, empathy, and excitements.
This article in AdWeek outlines how Coke has already used the tool to help decide which ads to show during the 08 SuperBowl. Here's an excerpt:
Coke became a client of EmSense late last year to help it decide which two TV ads to place in the Super Bowl. (It was the first time the company used brainwave and biometric data to help select and edit its Super Bowl ads.) In the weeks leading up to the game, the client produced about a dozen new ads for possible placement. The Coke marketing team was counting on EmSense to help it make the right choices.
...
According to Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America, the device not only helped whittle down the list of spots, but also aided in editing the two ads chosen to air -- "It's Mine," in which parade balloons vie for a bottle of Coke, and the "Jinx" ad with James Carville and former Senator Bill Frist. For example, she says, the music in "It's Mine" was adjusted in the days leading up to the game to build to more of a crescendo than in the original version of the spot.
Don't think this stuff is just for selling colas, though. My suspicion is that these fellas are pretty busy in this election year helping pols make ads, speeches, and sound bites that will help their words and actions resonate with consumers. We know, based upon this WSJ article, that the Romney team was using them extensively.
That same article, however, notes there are some skeptics on the predictive ability of this type of research:
Some prominent scientists say neuromarketing firms may be promising more than they can deliver. Liz Phelps, the director of a neuroscience laboratory at New York University who has reviewed recent studies, is critical of the idea that images of brain activity can predict how people will behave -- especially when it comes to politics. Last month, the journal "Nature" criticized a study conducted by a neuromarketing firm this year that had used brain scans to measure people's responses to the 2008 presidential candidates. "Does anyone need a $3 million scanner to conclude that Hillary needs to work on her support from swing voters?" it said.
I don't believe those comments actually represent an indictment of the tool, just exercising some caution about the results. Having a methodology that essentially prevents a person from misrepresenting their feelings is a nice step forward. Emsense seems a great thing for brands to explore as a means of testing their communications. Find out more here.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Where Should You Go To Learn? Confabb Knows...
Not a day goes by when I don't receive a slick one pager for a digital conference. It can be a dilemma to figure out which ones give you the most bang for the buck.
At Catalyst, we stick primarily with the conferences put on by AdTech, iMedia, and Jack Myers. You're know what you're getting with these, and what you're getting is very valuable. But in other fields, or indeed if you are a specialist focused on specific segments of an industry, there are thousands of them out there.
Which ones make sense, and which are the best?
For those questions and more, Confabb is a great place to start. Confabb combines the web's most comprehensive listing of conferences on ANY subject with powerful social media tools that can make the conferences richer -- and ensure you don't end up at the time wasters.
Confabb is organized into a large number of categories:
Building and Construction
Business
Computers and Internet
Education
Electronics
Engineering and Technology
Environment
Fashion - Textile
Food and Beverage
General Purpose
Government
Health and Medicine
Industry
Information Technology
Interdisciplinary
Natural Resources
Physical and Life Science
Recreation - Leisure - Entertainment
Regional
Services
Social Science and Humanities
Society
Within each area are subcategories. For example, the broad category of business includes:
Accounting (124)
Advertising (31)
Agriculture (126)
Banking (66)
CIS (1)
Corporate Performance (7)
Economics (54)
Energy (31)
Finance (194)
Franchising (73)
General Business (78)
Hospitality (27)
Human Resources (48)
Insurance (20)
Investment (288)
Management (227)
Manufacturing (142)
Marketing (356)
Mathematics (5)
Property Mgmt/Real Estate (161)
Public Relations and Advertising (123)
Retail (57)
Sales (86)
Security - Risk Management (282)
Six Sigma and Quality (14)
Supply Chain (30)
Transportation (77)
Transportation (36)
Travel and Tourism (223)
Travel and Tourism (156)
Utilities (8)
Visual Communication (14)
The number after each subcat is the total quantity of conferences tagged for that topic. It really is an amazing collection of info.
Conferences can be listed for free. But you have to thoroughly answer more than 20 questions, to ensure that the info is comprehensive. And useful to prospects.
When prospects and attendees register, they get access to:
Advanced Search
List of Attendees
List of Speakers
Schedules and Topics
And the social networking functions add a great deal as well. Registered users get to see photo streams, ratings, RSS feeds, side events, and a lot more
To make money, Confabb offers dedicated semicustom websites to better market the features, attendees, and speakers for a show. These dedicated sites can also help attract press and high profile speakers that will make your show virtually irresistible to attendees.
Confabb makes it a lot easier to find the right shows and meetings for you. Register and give it a try. Oh, and if you offer a conference, make sure you list it on the site.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Future Sales Prospects Bleak for Motorola Cellies
According to a recent Changewave study, Motorola is not the phone of choice for future buyers. In fact, the number who are planning to buy a Motorola celly in the next 6 months is down to 7%. A far cry from 34% just two years ago.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
iPhone Success Comes From Palm Hide
Yep, as iPhone has increased share, it's not Blackberry that's suffering. Not one bit. It's Palm. Check out this data from Changewave:
Natch the most interesting bit is that despite the iPhone noise, Blackberry continues to reign supreme.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Natch the most interesting bit is that despite the iPhone noise, Blackberry continues to reign supreme.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 6 AdMob, AdInfuse, Millenial, Ringleader, Quattro, and Third Screen
If you want ads on iPhone apps, you don't have to go to a new provider. The leading ad networks for mobile are also offering to deliver ads on them.
AdMob is offering $1Million in ad credits to developers if they sign up to use the AdMob platform. This clear effort at a landgrab could be higly compelling to a number of players, especially smaller players. The program offers up to 200 developers $5K each in credits. Certainly AdMob has deeper pockets than many of the startups, which could make a difference in the effort to attract the best developers quickly.
I haven't heard of any iPhone App speciifc activity from AdInfuse, but they have been at the forefront of iPhone advertising for awhile so I would imagine something will be publicized in the near future. Similarly, Third Screen has been quiet about their plans as well. Ditto Quattro and Ringleader.
Millenial Media announced an iPhone app ad offering on July 9 -- a bit ahead of some of the others in the space. CHeck out the press release here.
AdMob is offering $1Million in ad credits to developers if they sign up to use the AdMob platform. This clear effort at a landgrab could be higly compelling to a number of players, especially smaller players. The program offers up to 200 developers $5K each in credits. Certainly AdMob has deeper pockets than many of the startups, which could make a difference in the effort to attract the best developers quickly.
I haven't heard of any iPhone App speciifc activity from AdInfuse, but they have been at the forefront of iPhone advertising for awhile so I would imagine something will be publicized in the near future. Similarly, Third Screen has been quiet about their plans as well. Ditto Quattro and Ringleader.
Millenial Media announced an iPhone app ad offering on July 9 -- a bit ahead of some of the others in the space. CHeck out the press release here.
iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 5 PurpleTalk
A very different, developer centric model is PurpleTalk, which offers an ad exchange model. Basically, when apps are launched, splash screens feature a banner ad for another app, encouraging cross trial. Here's how they explain it:
The AdShare program developed by PurpleTalk is the most cost effective way to promote your iPhone Apps. PurpleTalk partners that participate in AdShare will include a small PurpleTalk module into the applications they’ve developed. Then, each time a user launches an application that has this PurpleTalk module, a brief splash screen appears that promotes a different application on an embedded banner. Through these splash screen promotions, users will become aware of many different applications, including yours.
There's very little other info on their site in terms of revenue model. Models like this are fairly common in the blogger world, where apps promote one blog on another, with a ratio of 9 exposures on other blogs for every ten on yours. That enables the company to sell exposures on the remaining inventory. I tried one, and got lots of exposures, though relatively few clicks. But that experience may well be very different because of the more focused viewing area on an iPhone and the fact that the ads appear on a splash screen versus in what (on my blog at least) is a rather busy sidebar. With this model you are certainly reaching an audience predisposed to downlaoding apps. I mean, they already did by definition!
I don't know if that is their model. Their pages explain that developer do not earn money for the ads but rather points that entitle them to ad exposures on other apps.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 4 Medialets
A key part of the differentiating message of Medialets is that they develop creative experiences that enhance consumer experience rather than offering up ad formats people tolerate to get their free app.
This is what ReadWriteWeb had to say about this aspect of their business:
Medialets is being careful to make sure that their advertisements don't mar the otherwise unique and innovative user experience of the iPhone. While developers don't necessarily need to have their apps approved to work with Meidalets, the company will help them design ads that remain unique and beautiful, too. Medialets provides a supportive developer community and will offer demos and code examples for the developers to use.
What makes this level of creativity and customization possible is their team, which they report has members who have been working with the iPhone OS since its beginnings at NeXT twenty years ago.
That's a long time, indeed.
My inference here is that this custom approach is aimed at the inevitable convergence between content and brands. That this offering can cover much deeper consumer experiences and interactions than just text ads or banners. The benefit of this approach is that they can focus sales efforts on innovator advertisers, who likely have a greater predispostion to try things now. The drawback might be that some advertisers will find the custom idea too much work. This is the classic push me pull you of digital marketing right now -- I want deep, broad reach, and easy.
Fortunately, they are offering a development team that can make the process of developing such apps easy for the agency. That's absolutely essential with this model.
With the deeper kinds of interactions they offer, it's important to have a solid reporting and analytics platform, and their site outlines this in some detail. That'll make agency learning curves shorter, and potentially provide the sort of case studies that can get them real publicity and sales traction.
Deep experience may also broaden the appeal of this ad channel from primarily
geographically sensitive advertisers to more national and global brands with bigger budgets and comprehensive brand goals.
Anyway. What is clear is that Medialets is quite different from other offerings, and that difference may well be relevant for you.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 3 Pinch Media
Offering a broader range of ad units than AppLoop, Pinch Media uses the JumpTap mobile ad platform to field ads
Their search offering uses an auction based ad system just like Google AdWords, so the highest bid gets the placement. One advantage over Google's operation, though, is that geotargeting is based upon actual versus surmised location. Their text ads are sold CPC, which is really the most sensible way to do so because that is what the market wants and expects.
These guys have resources from a variety of sources:
Pinch Media’s seed funding comes from Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, and several strategic angels - Dave Morgan, Jerry Neumann, Mike Yavonditte, and Sharkey Goldstein Capital.
The reporting isn't outlined on their site, but presumably it offers the expected metrics -- after all it's on the Jumptap platform.
Obviously a more robust solution than AppLoop, Pinch Media clearly has the money and platform to make a serious run for this market. They feature dozens of apps on their site, so their developer acceptance must be pretty strong thus far.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
The graphic ads use standard mobile banner and interstitial sizes, which makes sense given that advertisers do NOT need another creative loop to jump through. because their offering is iPhone specific, the creative specs will offer a bit more creative freedom than mobile campaigns developed for the lowest common denominator phone. Graphical ads are sold CPM, which lets them charge more for more immersive or intrusive experiences.
These guys have resources from a variety of sources:
Pinch Media’s seed funding comes from Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, and several strategic angels - Dave Morgan, Jerry Neumann, Mike Yavonditte, and Sharkey Goldstein Capital.
The reporting isn't outlined on their site, but presumably it offers the expected metrics -- after all it's on the Jumptap platform.
Obviously a more robust solution than AppLoop, Pinch Media clearly has the money and platform to make a serious run for this market. They feature dozens of apps on their site, so their developer acceptance must be pretty strong thus far.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 2 AppLoop
So, I have a big soft spot for the "two guys in a garage" sort of start-ups -- companies led by people with vision, commitment, and a belief in themselves and what they are doing.
BTW, the garage part is optional in my idyllic daydreams, and I have no illusion that in AppLoop's case there are two Eames chairs and drafting tables sitting next to a 74 Pontiac FireBird (with decal.) But founders Eric Kerr and Jacob Eiting are going it alone, and seem to be rightly proud of that. They are, in their own words not looking for venture.
They also both look smart, which of course is neither here nor there, but there ya go. Importantly, they have much better haircuts than Jobs and Wozniak had when they got their start. So years from now when they are millionaires there won't be any embarrassing pics to make them cringe. These two guys clearly have got it together. I am quite impressed by their offering and the way they present it and themselves on their site. Based upon their profiles, they are also very likable.
See their demo here:
AppLoop Demo from AppLoop on Vimeo.
Their focus appears to be geography, as in targeting ads by location, which also supports a DIY advertising model that can be appealing to local as well as distributed national businesses. As their site explains,
AppLoop connects your business with early-adopting, wealthy, and active consumers while they're on the go and looking to spend money. iPhone users are market mavens - will they drive their peers to your brand?
There's is a self service model for developers, and the documentation is so simple and easy to understand even I could understand it.
For developers they offer an analytics package outlining:
Installs
New Installs
Engagement (Usage)
Georgraphy (Nation, State, City)
Revenue Earned
For advertisers, they offer an easy to use DIY model that lets you track individual ads and set targeting geographies quickly and easily. Their's is a CPC model a la Google AdWords. that at least takes the risk out of advertising in this nascent media area.
Naturally, two guys running a business are focusing on DIY, and have wisely built their business around geography and local advertising, where DIY text ads have been demonstrated to be both popular with advertisers and acceptable to consumers.
The ad biz is a tough one, and it remains to be seen whether a bootstrap business like this can win the game. But perhaps winning in their case will be in selling their system to another ad network relatively quickly - having a small advertiser DIY solution could be of significant benefit for many ad networks struggling to achieve their own forms of critical mass.
I genuinely wish them all the best. They are EXACTLY the sort of people that move digital forward faster.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
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