Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.
In this fourth installment, I’ll continue to provide capsule descriptions of the companies that iMedia Agency attendees expressed excitement about in a recent survey. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were listed in at least one survey response. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
TRAFFIQ: Traffiq is a web based media management platform that automates many of the processes of planning, buying, reporting, and optimizing digital media. Using TRAFFIQ you can:
• Discover the best sites for your effort
• Distribute and manage RFPs
• Buy inventory
• Bid on audiences in real-time
• Deliver and serve campaigns
• Analyze performance
• Consolidate billing
Transis: Transis also promises to simplify the media planning, buying and reporting process. A significant area of focus for Transis has been automating the RFP and negotiation process by eliminating the emails, faxes and spreadsheets that fill a planner’s day and inbox.
Tube Mogul: Tube Mogul offers a variety of video distribution services, from content to advertising. All the services share a foundation level of tracking and analytics that helps provide marketers greater understanding of the impact they are driving with their efforts. TubeMogul's core business is a video DSP service that they say offers greater analytics and transparency than other video options available. Many know the company as a video distribution platform that helps brands distribute their own content across the web. The company offers both a free distribution service (OneLoad®) and an ad network (Playtime) that generates views of brand videos by featuring them as standalone content on players across the web. Both services offer extensive analytics to understand who, how, and where videos are being watched.
Visual IQ: Visual IQ is a marketing analytics and intelligence products company that promises to improve marketing performance. Their Visual IQ Marketing Intelligence Platform is an online based set of analytics tools that help transform raw marketing data into actionable intelligence.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Companies That Interest iMedia Agency Summit Attendees – Part Three of Four (N through Tra)
In this third installment, I’ll continue to provide capsule descriptions of the companies that iMedia Agency attendees expressed excitement about in a recent survey. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were listed in at least one survey response. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
Qponomics: A location based mobile couponing application that enables smart phone users to explore relevant offers available in their areas. To use the coupons the consumers presents their smart phone and the bar code is scanned. The coupons work on iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android (Google), Windows Mobile and Palm platforms. A slide show how to lives here.
RocketFuel: A network platform to help manage, run, evaluate, and optimize online campaigns, the foundation of RocketFuel is what they call “progressive optimization” – a process by which automated testing and user level targeting are deployed. Rocket Fuel claims to combine a host of types of data to help deliver more relevant ad experiences at the user level - demos, behaviors, dayparts, creatives, etc.
Shazam: A mobile music discovery engine that lets users identify and purchase music they hear while on the go. For the life of me I cannot figure out how brands might participate with this, but it is cooler than dry ice.
Track Simple: Track Simple is an open platform that accepts data from multiple sources and enables users to combine and examine that data easily and effectively. For agencies, this automates the collection of data (no more Control C Control V into Excel) and then enables point and click analysis. The system then generates easy to use and interpret live reports, and offers an optimization engine that lets an analyst runs scenarios and assess the impact of their decisions on results. Data can come from search, display, rich media platforms, social, mobile, video, email, online couponing, site side, ecommerce, and proprietary brand data sources.
Qponomics: A location based mobile couponing application that enables smart phone users to explore relevant offers available in their areas. To use the coupons the consumers presents their smart phone and the bar code is scanned. The coupons work on iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Android (Google), Windows Mobile and Palm platforms. A slide show how to lives here.
RocketFuel: A network platform to help manage, run, evaluate, and optimize online campaigns, the foundation of RocketFuel is what they call “progressive optimization” – a process by which automated testing and user level targeting are deployed. Rocket Fuel claims to combine a host of types of data to help deliver more relevant ad experiences at the user level - demos, behaviors, dayparts, creatives, etc.
Shazam: A mobile music discovery engine that lets users identify and purchase music they hear while on the go. For the life of me I cannot figure out how brands might participate with this, but it is cooler than dry ice.
Track Simple: Track Simple is an open platform that accepts data from multiple sources and enables users to combine and examine that data easily and effectively. For agencies, this automates the collection of data (no more Control C Control V into Excel) and then enables point and click analysis. The system then generates easy to use and interpret live reports, and offers an optimization engine that lets an analyst runs scenarios and assess the impact of their decisions on results. Data can come from search, display, rich media platforms, social, mobile, video, email, online couponing, site side, ecommerce, and proprietary brand data sources.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Ralph Lauren 4-D Kicks Digital A**
The Official Ralph Lauren 4D Experience - New York from Ralph Lauren on Vimeo.
Seems like only yesterday that most fashion houses were barely willing to build web sites.
The Companies That Interest iMedia Agency Summit Attendees – Part Two of Four (D through M)
Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.
In this second installment, I’ll continue to provide capsule descriptions of the companies that iMedia Agency attendees expressed excitement about in a recent survey. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were suggested in the survey. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
DataLogix enables DR marketers to connect online and offline data for more effective targeting. They do this by applying the offline data to their Affiniti™ tags. This enables a marketer to target based upon “real world” behaviors. In addition to offering their own ad network which touches 210MM consumers monthly, they also work with a variety of networks and exchanges to make access to this connected data easier.
Efficient Frontier is a leading digital media optimization engine that improves the performance of auction based online media buying and execution. Results are optimized based upon the key metric that is most desired by an advertiser, and are optimized across engines or platforms, not piecemeal. They are most known for their SEM optimization offerings, but also can optimize auction based Display. Here’s a vid on their Search service:
InviteMedia is the DSP platform acquired by Google for $81M earlier this year. Their Bid manager® service enables you to buy across multiple exchanges, as well as offer a proprietary exchange practice. The Google acquisition reflects the desire to make Display media buying more like search.
Media Mind: Eye Blaster has changed its name to Media Mind to reflect a sea change in its positioning and capabilities. Once content to bill itself as a turnkey solution to deliver richer rich media, it now messages as an everything platform that serves, delivers rich media, search, standard banners, video, dynamic ads, and mobile ads and lets brands manage and execute it all on a portfolio level. Data is also a big part of their new message, reflecting the ability to target with, collect, analyze, and optimize to relevant data.
In this second installment, I’ll continue to provide capsule descriptions of the companies that iMedia Agency attendees expressed excitement about in a recent survey. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were suggested in the survey. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
DataLogix enables DR marketers to connect online and offline data for more effective targeting. They do this by applying the offline data to their Affiniti™ tags. This enables a marketer to target based upon “real world” behaviors. In addition to offering their own ad network which touches 210MM consumers monthly, they also work with a variety of networks and exchanges to make access to this connected data easier.
Efficient Frontier is a leading digital media optimization engine that improves the performance of auction based online media buying and execution. Results are optimized based upon the key metric that is most desired by an advertiser, and are optimized across engines or platforms, not piecemeal. They are most known for their SEM optimization offerings, but also can optimize auction based Display. Here’s a vid on their Search service:
InviteMedia is the DSP platform acquired by Google for $81M earlier this year. Their Bid manager® service enables you to buy across multiple exchanges, as well as offer a proprietary exchange practice. The Google acquisition reflects the desire to make Display media buying more like search.
Media Mind: Eye Blaster has changed its name to Media Mind to reflect a sea change in its positioning and capabilities. Once content to bill itself as a turnkey solution to deliver richer rich media, it now messages as an everything platform that serves, delivers rich media, search, standard banners, video, dynamic ads, and mobile ads and lets brands manage and execute it all on a portfolio level. Data is also a big part of their new message, reflecting the ability to target with, collect, analyze, and optimize to relevant data.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Companies That Interest iMedia Agency Summit Attendees – Part One of Four (A through C)
Thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.
One of the new traditions of the Agency Only Day at iMedia Summit is to survey attendees about the things that most intrigue them for the months ahead. This year, we surveyed the agency leaders asking the following question:
We'd like to get the group sharing about the innovations they have found/are impressed with. Are there specific new companies/offerings you find particularly intriguing at the moment and are seriously considering for use in 2011?
In total, the group identified 21 companies they found noteworthy. The key themes seem to be analytics, automation, and simplification, which makes a lot of sense in our increasingly fragmented environment.
Because several of the companies were new to me, and on the principle that there may be others in the iMedia Connection audience who could not attend the event but still might find these companies interesting, I put together the following summary. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were listed in at least one survey response. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
AdKeeper: is a virtual clipping service that enables consumers to clip ads that interest them for later review. AdKeeper overlays a “keep button” on every ad you see as you browse the web. If you are interested in the info, or video, or offer in an ad, you simply click the keep button and it is placed in your AdKeeper. Yu can later review these offers, send them to friend, and print them. Here’s the explanatory video:
Better Advertising is a privacy and choice platform for media delivered through advanced targeting. It gives businesses an easy, standard method to provide evidence of compliance with industry guidelines and provide consumers with more transparency into, and control over the interest-based advertising (another term for BT) they receive. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in BT with confidence and generate better advertising results.
Clear Saleing is a marketing optimization engine that helps agencies and marketers measure the success and impact of various digital marketing efforts, and optimize the mix based upon profitability. Best suited to online purchases, the offering tracks profitability across media, ensures the impact of various media are accurately attributed, and helps optimize digital plans with a portfolio perspective. Get the sponsored Forrester report on the profit impact of Clear Saleing here.
Many of us are already familiar with Clear Spring as they have been around for a while. Their message for advertisers today is as an “Audience Platform” that enables advertisers to reach the right users at the times they are ready to act. They focus on two kinds of audience aggregation: intent-based segments at various points in the purchase cycle, and influence segments composed of people likely to share messages to social media. These super sharers help brands generate a greater virality in social media. Clearspring segments/data are available through the leading demand side platforms. The basis of their data collection and segmentation is gathered from their “Add This” button network that makes content sharing easier. By collecting data at the point of share, Clearspring gets a strong picture of people’s interests, intents, and passions.
Clovr Media is a consumer service that lets consumers send offers directly to their credit or loyalty cards. These Card Linked Offers (CLOs) replace coupons, digital coupons, and other tangible discount media. They also make the results of online promotional activity trackable with 100% attribution. There are consumer advantages, of course, but also tremendous advantages for manufacturers and retailers. The process of manually dealing with printed coupon redemption is one that resembles the children’s game Mousetrap, so having it all occur digitally is a boon for all. Here’s the vid that explains it all.
ChaCha is a mobile answers service that lets consumers ask questions from a variety of locations (mobile, iPad, PC) and receive answers quickly from human guides. Advertisements support the service and are delivered in text messages, as graphical phone ads, as sponsored online results, and as in app ads. A sponsored frost and Sullivan white paper on how brands can work with ChaCha is available from this page.
One of the new traditions of the Agency Only Day at iMedia Summit is to survey attendees about the things that most intrigue them for the months ahead. This year, we surveyed the agency leaders asking the following question:
We'd like to get the group sharing about the innovations they have found/are impressed with. Are there specific new companies/offerings you find particularly intriguing at the moment and are seriously considering for use in 2011?
In total, the group identified 21 companies they found noteworthy. The key themes seem to be analytics, automation, and simplification, which makes a lot of sense in our increasingly fragmented environment.
Because several of the companies were new to me, and on the principle that there may be others in the iMedia Connection audience who could not attend the event but still might find these companies interesting, I put together the following summary. Before anyone contacts me wondering why their company wasn’t on the list: If your company is on the list, its’ because you were listed in at least one survey response. If you aren’t, it’s because no one listed you in their survey response.
AdKeeper: is a virtual clipping service that enables consumers to clip ads that interest them for later review. AdKeeper overlays a “keep button” on every ad you see as you browse the web. If you are interested in the info, or video, or offer in an ad, you simply click the keep button and it is placed in your AdKeeper. Yu can later review these offers, send them to friend, and print them. Here’s the explanatory video:
Better Advertising is a privacy and choice platform for media delivered through advanced targeting. It gives businesses an easy, standard method to provide evidence of compliance with industry guidelines and provide consumers with more transparency into, and control over the interest-based advertising (another term for BT) they receive. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in BT with confidence and generate better advertising results.
Clear Saleing is a marketing optimization engine that helps agencies and marketers measure the success and impact of various digital marketing efforts, and optimize the mix based upon profitability. Best suited to online purchases, the offering tracks profitability across media, ensures the impact of various media are accurately attributed, and helps optimize digital plans with a portfolio perspective. Get the sponsored Forrester report on the profit impact of Clear Saleing here.
Many of us are already familiar with Clear Spring as they have been around for a while. Their message for advertisers today is as an “Audience Platform” that enables advertisers to reach the right users at the times they are ready to act. They focus on two kinds of audience aggregation: intent-based segments at various points in the purchase cycle, and influence segments composed of people likely to share messages to social media. These super sharers help brands generate a greater virality in social media. Clearspring segments/data are available through the leading demand side platforms. The basis of their data collection and segmentation is gathered from their “Add This” button network that makes content sharing easier. By collecting data at the point of share, Clearspring gets a strong picture of people’s interests, intents, and passions.
Clovr Media is a consumer service that lets consumers send offers directly to their credit or loyalty cards. These Card Linked Offers (CLOs) replace coupons, digital coupons, and other tangible discount media. They also make the results of online promotional activity trackable with 100% attribution. There are consumer advantages, of course, but also tremendous advantages for manufacturers and retailers. The process of manually dealing with printed coupon redemption is one that resembles the children’s game Mousetrap, so having it all occur digitally is a boon for all. Here’s the vid that explains it all.
ChaCha is a mobile answers service that lets consumers ask questions from a variety of locations (mobile, iPad, PC) and receive answers quickly from human guides. Advertisements support the service and are delivered in text messages, as graphical phone ads, as sponsored online results, and as in app ads. A sponsored frost and Sullivan white paper on how brands can work with ChaCha is available from this page.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
4 Companies Making A Difference In Your Quest For Engagement
Teaser: One thing that's apparent in the rush toward engagement -- there is no one way to drive it. But here are just a few of the solutions that can help you sustain the vital marketing relationship.
Highlights:
Solve Media's Type-In replaces captchas with relevant brand messages
EXPO TV leverages consumer insight to create a video community that advice seekers and brands can join
AOL's Project Devil enables consumers to explore brand messages and information on their terms in a low-distraction environment
The Meebo Bar gives publishers an easy way to make their content social and drive incremental viral traffic
Gigabytes of speeches, articles, and blog posts have pointed to the need to drive deeper engagement with consumers. It's a topic that goes right to the heart of digital media's advantages -- two way communications and the opportunity to deliver bona fide experiences. But in all of this discussion, the definition of engagement quickly gets squishy.
• Is a click engagement?
• How about a "like"?
• Is there a minimum time threshold required to qualify as an engagement?
• Do we need engagement standards across the industry?
One thing that's apparent in this rush toward engagement -- there is no one way to drive it. Both new and established companies are taking different approaches to the goal. Today I want to discuss four companies with that are making distinctive in-roads toward helping marketers forge deeper connections with audiences. Each company's product is designed to create ongoing brand impact -- a rich real-world experience, or greater message recall, or delivery of deep and compelling information to drive brand choice.
Solve Media: Engagement inspired by your third grade teacher
What do you do if you want to make sure you don't forget something? Solve Media hopes we remember the advice of our third grade teachers (in my case Mrs. Briggs): You write it down, or type it into something. Solve Media (disclosure, a Catalyst S+F client) was founded to leverage that idea for marketers.
The core offering is the Type-In -- a unit that replaces the frustrating "captchas" that confront us when we want to register or gain access to content. Every day, almost 300 million of these exasperating captchas get filled out; many more than once because they can be so difficult to decipher. Enter Solve Media.
See the ad, type in the message, and you're done. Here's a short vid that makes it all clear.
"Type-Ins are dead simple," says Ari Jacoby, co-founder and CEO of Solve Media. "Lots of companies are focusing on layers of technology and data sets to coax higher response rates. All of that is important work. But we took a different road. Our platform offers a genuine and guaranteed value exchange, without new infrastructure or privacy issues for clients. The consumer gets what she wants, and the client and publisher get real value."
Does it work? Solve commissioned a third-party Wharton School of Business study that showed a 111 percent higher level of brand recall from Type-Ins versus banners, and 12 times the level of message recall. Further, it appears that people are at least as likely to complete a Type-In versus a captcha in order to get what they seek. Internal Solve Media data indicate that 40 percent of consumers who encounter a Type-In engage and type the information correctly.
Mrs. Briggs from third grade was right.
Type-ins are sold by pay-per-completed-type-in. You only pay for those instances when consumers type the message correctly. Many large publishers are implementing this new platform because it creates new inventory, reduces customer frustration, and gives advertisers impact. Some pubs are also exploring the platform as an alternative method of paying for content. For example, a major metro newspaper could deploy a Type-In instead of charging a monthly fee for content. Since so few consumers are willing to pay cash for content, this technology offers a way to get consumers to pay attention and for publishers to monetize their product.
Solve is newer than the other companies discussed in this piece, but they have already garnered an impressive client list, including Toyota, Microsoft, Expedia, Universal, and Dr. Pepper.
EXPO TV: Engagement through personal endorsement
We've all seen the data that consumers trust the recommendation of a regular person -- any regular person -- more than ads. More and more consumers are turning to the web to find consumer POVs before they buy. EXPO TV http://www.expotv.com/, a New York based start-up, is leveraging this consumer insight to create a video community that advice seekers and brands can join. In just a couple years, they've cultivated a remarkable client list.
Endorsements online aren't new. But EXPO TV has created a community of product fans and reviewers who volunteer to deliver their thoughts in stand-up-presenter videos. Consumers appear onscreen to discuss the merits (and issues) of products.
Here's an example:
See all Personal Care & Hygiene reviews at Expotv.com
This video and several others were tested in a comScore study measuring the effectiveness of consumer word of mouth videos versus commercials. The study found that these homemade creations, despite their decidedly unslick production values, have comparable persuasive power to professional ads.
It's easy to see why so many consumers find this sort of video compelling. So compelling, in fact, that some progressive brands, like Gain do, have made these the centerpiece of their brand web presences.
Consumers can rate any product that they like, but brands can encourage consumers to rate their offerings in a variety of ways. You can sponsor a contest, use their Tryology program to send out samples in exchange for honest reviews, even build dedicated brand pages on the site. Additionally, EXPO can distribute videos directly to retailers, who use them as an aid to sale, as in this example from Amazon. By partnering with EXPO, you get rights to use consumer videos whenever and wherever.
All videos are transcribed and matched to products, right down to the SKU. One result is that when you look up consumer products in Search, EXPO videos are often among the top 10 results.
EXPOTV lets consumers speak freely. They ask consumers for honest opinions. Fans praise freely. And consumers that have questions or issues are welcome to respond and add videos to the EXPOTV site as well. But what's interesting is that the tenor of video is almost universally positive -- 85 percent.
EXPO TV has more than 75,000 regular video-making participants, and its vids have garnered more than 40 million views since the platform was launched.
AOL Project Devil
A major new engagement initiative from AOL, called Project Devil http://advertising.aol.com/creative/projectdevil, has just been launched with a premier list of charter advertisers including General Mills, Unilever, Lexus, Sprint, and Procter & Gamble.
This new creative execution enhances consumers' experiences as they interact with content, and drives significantly greater engagement. Devil does this by enabling the consumer to explore brand messages and information on their terms in a low-distraction environment.
Devil ads are larger units, 400x1200 compared to the standard 300x250 units. That gives brands a 100 percent voice on the page and offers a multitude of content in a single, unbroken space. The modular unit enables the brand to insert virtually any form of content into one of the template unit zones.
These zones can include video, interactivities, choosers, store finders, deep product information, and the like. In essence, they treat the product and the process of learning more about it as "news". Here's an explanatory video:
The Devil offering also makes significant changes to the overall page experience. Rather than competing for attention with a bunch of sponsored messages, Devil ads are the only paid marketing offered on those pages.
To really see the experience, you need to look at a Devil ad in the context of a web page on which it appears. This view gives you a sense of what they are going for -- genuine content integration rather than garish, blinky "click now" annoyances at the periphery of the screen.
According to AOL, Devil is a paradigm shift for digital advertising, where ads have historically been designed to distract users from the content they sought. Their website puts it this way:
Most online ads today are designed to distract the user. So as ads have proliferated, the user experience has suffered -- along with the user, of course. In many other media, ads are part of the experience. Far from detracting from the writing or programming, they contribute to it. Nowhere is this more possible than on the internet. Project Devil is our first step toward realizing this potential.
A nice vision and a cool unit.
Meebo: Connecting brands to my social graph
Given Meebo's http://www.meebo.com/ heritage of making social sharing easier, it's only natural that their solutions for brands focus there as well. Last year the company launched the Meebo Bar http://www.meebo.com/websites/. It gave publishers an easy way to make their content social and through that functionality drive incremental viral traffic.
Meebo users that arrive on the participating sites automatically see the toolbar at the bottom of their browser, in front of a small strip over the site content. As the user scrolls down, the bar is persistent, moving with the user's field of vision. It's polite yet intrusive -- let's call it "poltrusive."
The toolbar offers brands several ways to communicate with consumers, drive engagements, and spread messages virally. Here's a picture of the "unopened" toolbar, which features what they call a "media alert."
The user hovers over or clicks on the alert, which opens a large 900x400 window. What appears in the window is up to the marketer -- video, Flash, static images, interactivities, advergames, store finders -- virtually anything a brand might find useful.
Engagement times average 30-50 seconds. Advertisers only pay for engagements, not impressions; the settings on the bar are such that accidental rollovers are not counted.
Consumers can also drag and drop marketing messages into their social media platforms -- Facebook, Twitter, AIM, email, and more. The sharing feature encourages both longer and stronger interaction by the user, as well as free distribution of brand messages across users' social graphs. A recent program for Hershey's Kisses invited users to customize the wrapper on a virtual kiss and send it to friends and family through their favorite social channels. It gave Hershey a presence on lots of social networks through a single buy on their platform.
Of course, consumers' willingness to take a message viral depends upon the creative, and Meebo offers advice to marketers on how to make messages more viral. Additionally, because the platform is a permanent part of participating sites, it affords the opportunity for dayparting. Said Carter Brokaw, CRO of Meebo:
"One way in which we differ in the marketplace is that because we have a platform that is persistent on websites, we can serve impressions based on time, and that drives engagement."
Targeting naturally improves response rates. Marketers can choose demographic as well as psychographic and interest based targeting, or a combination of these techniques.
Conclusion
I like what these four companies are doing because their approaches start with a consumer insight and use it to create something unique.
For Solve, that insight relates to how human memory works. With EXPO TV it's our innate desire to understand what others think. AOL's Devil uses size, functionality, and low distraction to break through our distraction filters, while Meebo leverages our desire to interact with friends to drive advertiser value.
Leveraging consumer insight is surely essential to driving sustained engagement, and it's great that these and other companies are taking such distinct approaches to realize the same goal.
Highlights:
Gigabytes of speeches, articles, and blog posts have pointed to the need to drive deeper engagement with consumers. It's a topic that goes right to the heart of digital media's advantages -- two way communications and the opportunity to deliver bona fide experiences. But in all of this discussion, the definition of engagement quickly gets squishy.
• Is a click engagement?
• How about a "like"?
• Is there a minimum time threshold required to qualify as an engagement?
• Do we need engagement standards across the industry?
One thing that's apparent in this rush toward engagement -- there is no one way to drive it. Both new and established companies are taking different approaches to the goal. Today I want to discuss four companies with that are making distinctive in-roads toward helping marketers forge deeper connections with audiences. Each company's product is designed to create ongoing brand impact -- a rich real-world experience, or greater message recall, or delivery of deep and compelling information to drive brand choice.
Solve Media: Engagement inspired by your third grade teacher
What do you do if you want to make sure you don't forget something? Solve Media hopes we remember the advice of our third grade teachers (in my case Mrs. Briggs): You write it down, or type it into something. Solve Media (disclosure, a Catalyst S+F client) was founded to leverage that idea for marketers.
The core offering is the Type-In -- a unit that replaces the frustrating "captchas" that confront us when we want to register or gain access to content. Every day, almost 300 million of these exasperating captchas get filled out; many more than once because they can be so difficult to decipher. Enter Solve Media.
See the ad, type in the message, and you're done. Here's a short vid that makes it all clear.
"Type-Ins are dead simple," says Ari Jacoby, co-founder and CEO of Solve Media. "Lots of companies are focusing on layers of technology and data sets to coax higher response rates. All of that is important work. But we took a different road. Our platform offers a genuine and guaranteed value exchange, without new infrastructure or privacy issues for clients. The consumer gets what she wants, and the client and publisher get real value."
Does it work? Solve commissioned a third-party Wharton School of Business study that showed a 111 percent higher level of brand recall from Type-Ins versus banners, and 12 times the level of message recall. Further, it appears that people are at least as likely to complete a Type-In versus a captcha in order to get what they seek. Internal Solve Media data indicate that 40 percent of consumers who encounter a Type-In engage and type the information correctly.
Mrs. Briggs from third grade was right.
Type-ins are sold by pay-per-completed-type-in. You only pay for those instances when consumers type the message correctly. Many large publishers are implementing this new platform because it creates new inventory, reduces customer frustration, and gives advertisers impact. Some pubs are also exploring the platform as an alternative method of paying for content. For example, a major metro newspaper could deploy a Type-In instead of charging a monthly fee for content. Since so few consumers are willing to pay cash for content, this technology offers a way to get consumers to pay attention and for publishers to monetize their product.
Solve is newer than the other companies discussed in this piece, but they have already garnered an impressive client list, including Toyota, Microsoft, Expedia, Universal, and Dr. Pepper.
EXPO TV: Engagement through personal endorsement
We've all seen the data that consumers trust the recommendation of a regular person -- any regular person -- more than ads. More and more consumers are turning to the web to find consumer POVs before they buy. EXPO TV http://www.expotv.com/, a New York based start-up, is leveraging this consumer insight to create a video community that advice seekers and brands can join. In just a couple years, they've cultivated a remarkable client list.
Endorsements online aren't new. But EXPO TV has created a community of product fans and reviewers who volunteer to deliver their thoughts in stand-up-presenter videos. Consumers appear onscreen to discuss the merits (and issues) of products.
Here's an example:
See all Personal Care & Hygiene reviews at Expotv.com
This video and several others were tested in a comScore study measuring the effectiveness of consumer word of mouth videos versus commercials. The study found that these homemade creations, despite their decidedly unslick production values, have comparable persuasive power to professional ads.
It's easy to see why so many consumers find this sort of video compelling. So compelling, in fact, that some progressive brands, like Gain do, have made these the centerpiece of their brand web presences.
Consumers can rate any product that they like, but brands can encourage consumers to rate their offerings in a variety of ways. You can sponsor a contest, use their Tryology program to send out samples in exchange for honest reviews, even build dedicated brand pages on the site. Additionally, EXPO can distribute videos directly to retailers, who use them as an aid to sale, as in this example from Amazon. By partnering with EXPO, you get rights to use consumer videos whenever and wherever.
All videos are transcribed and matched to products, right down to the SKU. One result is that when you look up consumer products in Search, EXPO videos are often among the top 10 results.
EXPOTV lets consumers speak freely. They ask consumers for honest opinions. Fans praise freely. And consumers that have questions or issues are welcome to respond and add videos to the EXPOTV site as well. But what's interesting is that the tenor of video is almost universally positive -- 85 percent.
EXPO TV has more than 75,000 regular video-making participants, and its vids have garnered more than 40 million views since the platform was launched.
AOL Project Devil
A major new engagement initiative from AOL, called Project Devil http://advertising.aol.com/creative/projectdevil, has just been launched with a premier list of charter advertisers including General Mills, Unilever, Lexus, Sprint, and Procter & Gamble.
This new creative execution enhances consumers' experiences as they interact with content, and drives significantly greater engagement. Devil does this by enabling the consumer to explore brand messages and information on their terms in a low-distraction environment.
Devil ads are larger units, 400x1200 compared to the standard 300x250 units. That gives brands a 100 percent voice on the page and offers a multitude of content in a single, unbroken space. The modular unit enables the brand to insert virtually any form of content into one of the template unit zones.
These zones can include video, interactivities, choosers, store finders, deep product information, and the like. In essence, they treat the product and the process of learning more about it as "news". Here's an explanatory video:
The Devil offering also makes significant changes to the overall page experience. Rather than competing for attention with a bunch of sponsored messages, Devil ads are the only paid marketing offered on those pages.
To really see the experience, you need to look at a Devil ad in the context of a web page on which it appears. This view gives you a sense of what they are going for -- genuine content integration rather than garish, blinky "click now" annoyances at the periphery of the screen.
According to AOL, Devil is a paradigm shift for digital advertising, where ads have historically been designed to distract users from the content they sought. Their website puts it this way:
Most online ads today are designed to distract the user. So as ads have proliferated, the user experience has suffered -- along with the user, of course. In many other media, ads are part of the experience. Far from detracting from the writing or programming, they contribute to it. Nowhere is this more possible than on the internet. Project Devil is our first step toward realizing this potential.
A nice vision and a cool unit.
Meebo: Connecting brands to my social graph
Given Meebo's http://www.meebo.com/ heritage of making social sharing easier, it's only natural that their solutions for brands focus there as well. Last year the company launched the Meebo Bar http://www.meebo.com/websites/. It gave publishers an easy way to make their content social and through that functionality drive incremental viral traffic.
Meebo users that arrive on the participating sites automatically see the toolbar at the bottom of their browser, in front of a small strip over the site content. As the user scrolls down, the bar is persistent, moving with the user's field of vision. It's polite yet intrusive -- let's call it "poltrusive."
The toolbar offers brands several ways to communicate with consumers, drive engagements, and spread messages virally. Here's a picture of the "unopened" toolbar, which features what they call a "media alert."
The user hovers over or clicks on the alert, which opens a large 900x400 window. What appears in the window is up to the marketer -- video, Flash, static images, interactivities, advergames, store finders -- virtually anything a brand might find useful.
Engagement times average 30-50 seconds. Advertisers only pay for engagements, not impressions; the settings on the bar are such that accidental rollovers are not counted.
Consumers can also drag and drop marketing messages into their social media platforms -- Facebook, Twitter, AIM, email, and more. The sharing feature encourages both longer and stronger interaction by the user, as well as free distribution of brand messages across users' social graphs. A recent program for Hershey's Kisses invited users to customize the wrapper on a virtual kiss and send it to friends and family through their favorite social channels. It gave Hershey a presence on lots of social networks through a single buy on their platform.
Of course, consumers' willingness to take a message viral depends upon the creative, and Meebo offers advice to marketers on how to make messages more viral. Additionally, because the platform is a permanent part of participating sites, it affords the opportunity for dayparting. Said Carter Brokaw, CRO of Meebo:
"One way in which we differ in the marketplace is that because we have a platform that is persistent on websites, we can serve impressions based on time, and that drives engagement."
Targeting naturally improves response rates. Marketers can choose demographic as well as psychographic and interest based targeting, or a combination of these techniques.
Conclusion
I like what these four companies are doing because their approaches start with a consumer insight and use it to create something unique.
For Solve, that insight relates to how human memory works. With EXPO TV it's our innate desire to understand what others think. AOL's Devil uses size, functionality, and low distraction to break through our distraction filters, while Meebo leverages our desire to interact with friends to drive advertiser value.
Leveraging consumer insight is surely essential to driving sustained engagement, and it's great that these and other companies are taking such distinct approaches to realize the same goal.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Meet You!
My faithful readers, here's a look at who you OldestLiving.com readers are!
Big hugs to all the young rich asian nonparent masters degreers and doctorate holders that make this tree of digital life what it is!
Big hugs to all the young rich asian nonparent masters degreers and doctorate holders that make this tree of digital life what it is!
The Internet's Greatest Marketing Bloopers
Everyone loves a good blooper -- until your own brand becomes the butt of the joke. Let's examine some digital flubs and what we should take away from them.
Who doesn't love a TV blooper? They are fun to watch -- flubbed pronunciation, forgotten lines, double entendres. You don't even need to be a mean person to enjoy them because bloopers are mistakes, but not deadly ones.
In an environment as dynamic and ever changing as digital, it's natural that even the smartest in the digerati make bloopers in judgment or execution. Many such online marketing bloopers are the result of the changing reality brought on by the advent of digital, and as such are quite understandable. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from them.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, then perhaps this article can help us avoid straightjackets by pointing out a few digital bloopers and what we should take away from them.
1) Don't assume you can isolate messages
The web provides enormous opportunities to segment and tailor creative messages. But it also breaks down demographic, geographic, and other boundaries. Segmentation and tailoring does not prevent some segments from hearing and seeing what you are saying to others.
Remember this ad from Absolut, which depicted the pre-1848 Mexican and U.S. borders? Run only in Mexico, the ad was designed to be a funny nod to Mexican pride. The brand surely felt it had found a powerful visual to help la gente identify with the brand. Unfortunately, right-wing American bloggers got hold of the ad, and within hours were lined up to ban Absolut, call it reverse racist, and on and on. Former CNN personality Lou Dobbs switched to Grey Goose over it.
Now, in large part due to income disparities and population, Americans drink more Absolut than Mexicans. So the company had to scramble to apologize to Americans who might have been offended. Here's what the brand issued:
"This particular ad, which ran in Mexico, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Mexican sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal."
-- Paula Eriksson, VP of corporate communications, V&S Absolut Spirits
But from a digital perspective, the key takeaway is that you need to assume that everyone can see everything.
2) Avoid building the branded destination website
Most of us have created a digital something in the misguided hope that significant numbers of people care about it and our products as much as we do. If you're like me, there's a $500,000-plus error in your past that reflects this sort of "Field of Dreams" mentality.
It wasn't so long ago that lots of brands were building massive websites in hopes that consumers would spend half their online time interacting with branded games, participating in brand chats, talking to brand experts, etc. While less common these days, the branded "destination" site still appears periodically in the digisphere.
It's fairly unlikely that you can attract and hold the sort of audience you are dreaming of. Why? Because just as The New York Times shouldn't go into the chewing gum business, you probably shouldn't go into the content business. It's not what most of us do. Better to stick to what you know.
The classic example of this is Bud.tv, a $30-million experiment that folded in 2009. Now, hold the phone. I am not ragging on Bud here. If any brand could develop a compelling content destination, it'd probably be these guys. After all, the company "gets" its customer and knows how to bring the funny in a 30-second spot.
But even Bud couldn't define and deliver a place where its customers would want to "live" online. The hype and anticipation of Bud.tv were ultimately met with lukewarm consumer response -- despite a broad range of decent-to-good video, activities, and game content on the site.
The hard, cold reality: Bud makes beer, not movies and games. And you make pine-scented air fresheners or electronics or weekend getaways or whatever it is that you make. Not entertainment.
3) Don't field social media programs just before the weekend
Arguably, no one is better at marketing to moms than Johnson & Johnson, so its misstep on Motrin was a bit surprising. Motrin developed a tongue-in-cheek ad that poked fun at moms who love baby slings -- fabric baby carriers that keep your child right next to your body. Motrin suggested that moms who wear them cry more than moms who don't, presumably due to back and neck strain. Here's the ad:
The video went up late on a Friday. While of course social media is a 24/7/365 proposition, most marketing and PR people are at home on Saturdays, and probably not monitoring the social sphere for consumer reaction. But as Motrin soon learned, mommy bloggers and mommy Twitterers do not take Saturdays off.
The maelstrom of negative reactions was fierce , and it built throughout the weekend. By the time Monday came along, Motrin faced a tsunami of angry moms.
Motrin responded quickly. Down the ad came, and with its disappearance the controversy more or less ended.
We could dissect the ad and try to take creative lessons. But hindsight is 20/20. I think its best that we remember that we live in a connected world, and individual opinions matter. And when we don't participate in the dialogue about our brand, bad things happen. So never field campaigns or social media on the weekend. Because listening to early reactions is critical to ensuring success. Had the campaign gone out on a Monday, J&J could have addressed the concerns in near real time, provided it was using one of the many social insights platforms currently available. Nothing good comes from not being around at launch time.
4) Never claim "hackproof"
When a medium reaches more than a billion people, it's safe to say that there is someone out there who can hack whatever you can make. How long does it take before Microsoft launches its latest security update before the next virus hits?
It's not just software that has been hacked as well as shamed online. The people who make Kryptonite bicycle locks found themselves in a whole mess of negative publicity http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/14/kryptonite-evolution-2000-u-lock-hacked-by-a-bic-pen/ way back in 2004 when Engadget was able to pick its signature high-end lock using only a ballpoint pen.
And of course there's LifeLock http://www.lifelock.com/, which famously posted its CEO's social security number everywhere to prove how protected its members are. While said CEO was able to use the service to avoid damage to his credit, his identity was stolen many times. Meaning people used his social security number in a variety of ways, but none had material impact on his credit. Because LifeLock had stated or implied (tomato-tomahto) absolute security, it lost the PR battle, even if its CEO can still easily get a new mortgage.
In short, claiming hackproof is like waving a red flag in front of 6.5 billion bulls. You might be able to outrun the pack, but at least one is getting its horn into your gut.
5) Don't "wing" it without a social media policy
It seems that many companies have recognized the importance of social, and the value of a "live" company presence in social media. Unfortunately, some jumped straight to social media execution without first developing a sound social media policy.
Hospital nurses cell-photoing an embarrassing X-ray and posting it on a social net . Earnest social media managers making statements that are inappropriate. The number of examples in which companies would have been helped by offering explicit and well-considered social media policies is legion.
Fortunately for those who made or are making this misstep, many organizations have made their social media policies public, and reviewing these can help companies understand, anticipate, and address potential issues before they arise. With all these examples publicly available, there's no reason or excuse to wing it anymore. Naturally, companies need to strike a balance between natural and genuine thoughts and opinions with the need for strong corporate controls. Fortunately, more and more companies are succeeding.
6) Don't ignore privacy concerns
Most industry participants are certain that advanced targeting technologies pose no threat to consumer privacy. That doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that consumers and the government think that they pose a threat. The WSJ article last July was just one of the stories that are slowly rousing public concern about online privacy.
You can say people are confused. You can say people are being paranoid. Or moronic. But you are in the people-pleasing business, not the people-judging business.
"Judge not lest ye be booted out on your snotty arrogant a*s, you self righteous b*stard."
(Book of Jim 1:1).
Ask Phorm if privacy concerns matter. Or now defunct Gator/Claria/JellyCloud http. Or better yet, ask Jon Leibowitz, FTC chairman .
The self-regulation efforts from a cross-industry coalition, encapsulated in the "Power i" program, have created a great means of informing the public and enabling cool, rational decisions about advanced targeting. Get on board.
Many thanks to the fine people at iMedia Connection for publishing this first.
Who doesn't love a TV blooper? They are fun to watch -- flubbed pronunciation, forgotten lines, double entendres. You don't even need to be a mean person to enjoy them because bloopers are mistakes, but not deadly ones.
In an environment as dynamic and ever changing as digital, it's natural that even the smartest in the digerati make bloopers in judgment or execution. Many such online marketing bloopers are the result of the changing reality brought on by the advent of digital, and as such are quite understandable. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from them.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, then perhaps this article can help us avoid straightjackets by pointing out a few digital bloopers and what we should take away from them.
1) Don't assume you can isolate messages
The web provides enormous opportunities to segment and tailor creative messages. But it also breaks down demographic, geographic, and other boundaries. Segmentation and tailoring does not prevent some segments from hearing and seeing what you are saying to others.
Remember this ad from Absolut, which depicted the pre-1848 Mexican and U.S. borders? Run only in Mexico, the ad was designed to be a funny nod to Mexican pride. The brand surely felt it had found a powerful visual to help la gente identify with the brand. Unfortunately, right-wing American bloggers got hold of the ad, and within hours were lined up to ban Absolut, call it reverse racist, and on and on. Former CNN personality Lou Dobbs switched to Grey Goose over it.
Now, in large part due to income disparities and population, Americans drink more Absolut than Mexicans. So the company had to scramble to apologize to Americans who might have been offended. Here's what the brand issued:
"This particular ad, which ran in Mexico, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Mexican sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal."
-- Paula Eriksson, VP of corporate communications, V&S Absolut Spirits
But from a digital perspective, the key takeaway is that you need to assume that everyone can see everything.
2) Avoid building the branded destination website
Most of us have created a digital something in the misguided hope that significant numbers of people care about it and our products as much as we do. If you're like me, there's a $500,000-plus error in your past that reflects this sort of "Field of Dreams" mentality.
It wasn't so long ago that lots of brands were building massive websites in hopes that consumers would spend half their online time interacting with branded games, participating in brand chats, talking to brand experts, etc. While less common these days, the branded "destination" site still appears periodically in the digisphere.
It's fairly unlikely that you can attract and hold the sort of audience you are dreaming of. Why? Because just as The New York Times shouldn't go into the chewing gum business, you probably shouldn't go into the content business. It's not what most of us do. Better to stick to what you know.
The classic example of this is Bud.tv, a $30-million experiment that folded in 2009. Now, hold the phone. I am not ragging on Bud here. If any brand could develop a compelling content destination, it'd probably be these guys. After all, the company "gets" its customer and knows how to bring the funny in a 30-second spot.
But even Bud couldn't define and deliver a place where its customers would want to "live" online. The hype and anticipation of Bud.tv were ultimately met with lukewarm consumer response -- despite a broad range of decent-to-good video, activities, and game content on the site.
The hard, cold reality: Bud makes beer, not movies and games. And you make pine-scented air fresheners or electronics or weekend getaways or whatever it is that you make. Not entertainment.
3) Don't field social media programs just before the weekend
Arguably, no one is better at marketing to moms than Johnson & Johnson, so its misstep on Motrin was a bit surprising. Motrin developed a tongue-in-cheek ad that poked fun at moms who love baby slings -- fabric baby carriers that keep your child right next to your body. Motrin suggested that moms who wear them cry more than moms who don't, presumably due to back and neck strain. Here's the ad:
The video went up late on a Friday. While of course social media is a 24/7/365 proposition, most marketing and PR people are at home on Saturdays, and probably not monitoring the social sphere for consumer reaction. But as Motrin soon learned, mommy bloggers and mommy Twitterers do not take Saturdays off.
The maelstrom of negative reactions was fierce , and it built throughout the weekend. By the time Monday came along, Motrin faced a tsunami of angry moms.
Motrin responded quickly. Down the ad came, and with its disappearance the controversy more or less ended.
We could dissect the ad and try to take creative lessons. But hindsight is 20/20. I think its best that we remember that we live in a connected world, and individual opinions matter. And when we don't participate in the dialogue about our brand, bad things happen. So never field campaigns or social media on the weekend. Because listening to early reactions is critical to ensuring success. Had the campaign gone out on a Monday, J&J could have addressed the concerns in near real time, provided it was using one of the many social insights platforms currently available. Nothing good comes from not being around at launch time.
4) Never claim "hackproof"
When a medium reaches more than a billion people, it's safe to say that there is someone out there who can hack whatever you can make. How long does it take before Microsoft launches its latest security update before the next virus hits?
It's not just software that has been hacked as well as shamed online. The people who make Kryptonite bicycle locks found themselves in a whole mess of negative publicity http://www.engadget.com/2004/09/14/kryptonite-evolution-2000-u-lock-hacked-by-a-bic-pen/ way back in 2004 when Engadget was able to pick its signature high-end lock using only a ballpoint pen.
And of course there's LifeLock http://www.lifelock.com/, which famously posted its CEO's social security number everywhere to prove how protected its members are. While said CEO was able to use the service to avoid damage to his credit, his identity was stolen many times. Meaning people used his social security number in a variety of ways, but none had material impact on his credit. Because LifeLock had stated or implied (tomato-tomahto) absolute security, it lost the PR battle, even if its CEO can still easily get a new mortgage.
In short, claiming hackproof is like waving a red flag in front of 6.5 billion bulls. You might be able to outrun the pack, but at least one is getting its horn into your gut.
5) Don't "wing" it without a social media policy
It seems that many companies have recognized the importance of social, and the value of a "live" company presence in social media. Unfortunately, some jumped straight to social media execution without first developing a sound social media policy.
Hospital nurses cell-photoing an embarrassing X-ray and posting it on a social net . Earnest social media managers making statements that are inappropriate. The number of examples in which companies would have been helped by offering explicit and well-considered social media policies is legion.
Fortunately for those who made or are making this misstep, many organizations have made their social media policies public, and reviewing these can help companies understand, anticipate, and address potential issues before they arise. With all these examples publicly available, there's no reason or excuse to wing it anymore. Naturally, companies need to strike a balance between natural and genuine thoughts and opinions with the need for strong corporate controls. Fortunately, more and more companies are succeeding.
6) Don't ignore privacy concerns
Most industry participants are certain that advanced targeting technologies pose no threat to consumer privacy. That doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that consumers and the government think that they pose a threat. The WSJ article last July was just one of the stories that are slowly rousing public concern about online privacy.
You can say people are confused. You can say people are being paranoid. Or moronic. But you are in the people-pleasing business, not the people-judging business.
"Judge not lest ye be booted out on your snotty arrogant a*s, you self righteous b*stard."
(Book of Jim 1:1).
Ask Phorm if privacy concerns matter. Or now defunct Gator/Claria/JellyCloud http. Or better yet, ask Jon Leibowitz, FTC chairman .
The self-regulation efforts from a cross-industry coalition, encapsulated in the "Power i" program, have created a great means of informing the public and enabling cool, rational decisions about advanced targeting. Get on board.
Many thanks to the fine people at iMedia Connection for publishing this first.
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