The Ice Underneath the Surface

As I recall, about 90% of an iceberg is under the surface of the water. Is the digital industry like an iceberg?

Recently I was asked to put together a presentation outlining the key trends and stats for digital in 2010. As I made my slides, I was struck by the tremendous level of activity in areas we don’t talk about very much.

Part of my approach was to divide the industry into nine sectors, and analyze each in turn. My cuts were:
· Affiliate and Lead Gen
· Content Publishers
· Data and Insight
· The Giants
· Mobile and Digital Out of Home
· Networks, DSPs, and Exchanges
· Search
· Social
· Video

You can argue with my “cuts” and I’ll just make a W on my forehead. It’s my presentation, and it makes for some pretty salient and telegraphic sector trends. But however you cut it; it’s plain that there are huge sectors of our business that get very little attention, at least from the “branding” side of the pundit world.

Take Digital Out of Home. Bad enough that I am making it share a category, the reality is that it is an absolutely enormous business, eclipsing some of the hotter sectors by factors of five. Or more. The CPMs they get would make pub and network sellers need adult undergarments if they could match ‘em.

Or affiliate. Affiliate has a sort of grey reputation because there are some bad actors in the fray, but there are also thousands and thousands and thousands of companies making great, honest money as both affiliates and brand marketing organizations.

And then there’s Search. If press ink (electrons) were divvied up by share of total spending, there would be five Search stories a day on page one of every marketing journal. Now, there are those who feel that the topic doesn’t warrant that much press attention because it is a one and two tenths horse race. I won’t comment on that here, other than to say that paying more attention to Search could probably yield more dividends for many marketers.

There is of course, a fallacy to my point of view – that quantity of press is a surrogate indicator of planner or marketer attention. My suspicion is that it is, at best, a weak surrogate indicator. After all, maybe most marketers have all the sectors but social and mobile all figured out.

Yeah, right.

But if we really are spending much of our time focusing on a couple of the smaller business sectors, we are not taking a strategic approach to digital. I’m not suggesting we should talk about Social or Mobile or Video less. I am simply asserting that we need to consider other, less “sexy” sectors more. Because I’m guessin’ there’s gold in them thar segments.

COD: Toozla - an audio guide to the world

I love seeing all of the innovation going on in the travel and tourism sector. On my most recent trip to Australia, for example, I used iPad based city guides instead of books, and was delighted with the convenience.

Well, a Russian start-up called Toozla has an even more fascinating and intriguing way to learn and explore new places. The Toozla platforms uses geolocation to pair wikipedia, tourist book, expert, and user generated entries to specific GPS locations. If you're standing outside the Hermitage, for example, you can start your Toozla mobile app and get a narration of the history and facts of this important landmark.

But it's not just Russian landmarks, not by a longshot. Toozla's reach is international with more and more cities getting online. And the breadth of information sources that power Toozla provides huge opportunities for exploration of eateries, restaurants, out of the way spots etc. With the delightful to Toozla benefit of geo-loco ads. Here's a vid from their website that simulates the experience:



to give you a sense of the range of info Toozla has or is planning to include in its mobile travel service, take a look at this list from their web site:

•National ministries of tourism.
•Local tourist boards.
•City tourist information centers.
•Individuals, companies and organisations who have professional content that they want to share with a wide audience.
•Producers of audio guides.
•Publishers of hard and soft-copy guides.
•Travel websites.
•Internet booking agencies.
•Tour operators (both incoming and outgoing).
•Travel agencies.
•All travellers worldwide.
•Museums.
•Restaurants.
•Hotels and other accommodation.
•Shops.
•Any business/service with local operations.
•Big FMCG brands.
•International hotel chains.
•Car rental companies.
•Travel equipment companies.
•Mobile operators.

How cool is that. I'd liken it to an approachable AR layer on major markets around the world.




Want restaurant tips for the immediate area you find yourself in? Toozla can do it. Want to know who that statue represents, but see only a Cyrillic plaque? Toozla will tell you.

I love this concept. The key challenge will be to make this potentially enormous amount of information useful but not overwhelming. No one wants a pop up 10% off from every patisserie in Vienna. No one wants a 10% off coupon from every tea shop in the lake District. But when you want one, you definitely want one. Toozla's approach to this challenge is to organize the bits of info into topical channels that help the user get to the sort of information they want -- historical or commercial, for example -- more quickly.

The use of Wikipedia combined with the private sources of information I think is great because it means that lots of destinations that may be off the beaten path will also be powered by Toozla independent travel experience.

A great concept and I wish them all the luck in th world.

The fate of ad networks in a post-exchange world - iMediaConnection.com

Sharp as always - Monsieur Dreller on the Fate of Ad Networks

COD: Garmz.com Out to Upend the Fashion Pyramid

Most of us recognize that the best innovations come from small companies - people with dreams who believe that they have a better way of doing things.

That's the idea behind Garmz.com, a new site that lets up-and-coming designers upload their ideas and have the community vote, give feedback, and buy their creations.


I tell you, global is the name of the game here. During my recent visit, the featured fashions were from Bulgaria, Suriname, Belarus, Romania, German, New York, and London, just to name a few.

What makes it a boon to the budding designer is that their designs compete head to head with those from around the world. Site members vote and give feedback on components of an item and the overall look. The designs with the most feedback are actually put into production -- at no cost to the designer -- and the site and designer split the proceeds. Designers can either use human templates from the design kit or make their own. A cool little "safety pinning tool" lets the designer attach comments about fabrics etc. that can be viewed on rollover.

If you are ready to buy a chosen creation, you can review prototype photos and place your order right on the site. This Vienna, Austria based company even offers free returns to EU residents.

Design presentation is simple and elegant. Stylized illustrations make you want to explore and explore and explore. The illustration style itself calls to mind those amazing Bonwit Teller ads in the late 1950s and 1960s.

By enabling new designers to showcase their ideas to large audiences, Garmz is out to change the top down status quo in fashion. In so doing, it's clear that they are going to drive a great deal of innovation!

7 Stellar Examples of Branded Content from the Fashion Industry

This Mashable piece has some excellent examples of how fashion is leading the way with branded content. Great stuff!

7 Stellar Examples of Branded Content from the Fashion Industry

COD: Solve Media and the Captcha Ad Phenomenon

I've written about Solve Media before, but I thought I'd begin this new series of "company of the day" by starting with them. They offer a solution that replaces those unbloodybelievably annoying Captchas with ads that ask the consumer to type in a brand message where they used to have to type gibberish.

I thought of Solve as I watched my father one morning struggling to read the Captcha on Yahoo mail, then switching to the audio alternative, then switching back to the text, in order to create a new email account. He managed after about 40 seconds, but the opportunity of eliminating that wasted time and palpable aggravation is one of the reasons why this platform is doing so well.

Here's a vid that explains it all better than I can:



Since the last time I wrote, Solve has also launched a video version of their platform, enabling brands to create even richer and more memorable experiences in this low clutter ad vehicle.

Solve commissioned a third-party Wharton School of Business study that showed a 111 percent higher level of brand recall from Type-Ins Wharton School of Business study 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.

There are a few naysayers -- people who find this sort of advertising too intrusive. I get the concern but really disagree with them. Solves are fundamentally at least as secure as Captchas, and far easier on the compliance front. I'm sure my father would have much preferred typing "Refresh everything" to his Captcha experience. It also enables consumers to "pay attention" instead of "pay cash" for content that they want. Since something like 85% of consumers vow never to pay for online content, the opportunity to do a value exchange with something other than cash will surely be an appealing alternative for them.

Big brands are getting on board in big numbers. It's a great innovation that's worth genuine consideration.

Note: Solve Media is an occasional client of Catalyst S+F.

Company of the Day (COD) is Back

After an 18 month hiatus, I am going to try to return to the tradition of reviewing a company a day on this site. Hey, my traffic isn't like Yahoo's, but I figure every little helps when a small outfit is looking for publicity and trial. I want to help in my own small way. If you are looking for snark, look elsewhere. For me this is about focusing on offerings I like and adding a few more electrons to their quest for publicity and broad scale awareness. Each day I'll be posting one at around 9AM Pacific time. I hope you find them interesting. First one arrives in just one minute!

Boys Will Be Girls

Check Out This Important Announcement From Ryan Digicrest

Mr. Adam Bergman has made a delightful pledge on his blog. I love his "Rants of a Modern Day Elitist" and the things he has to say about everything.

Occasionally he also virtually invites me into Shoe Culture, though as a Boomer I use the word "Shoe" begrudgingly.

Because as anyone over the age of 45 knows, a shoe is leather, and comes in black, cordovan, or with a certain generosity of spirit, brown. What he writes about are those colorful abominations that pretend to be shoes but are actually souped up Keds. But I forgive him, because he's an amazing guy and an amazing thinker.

But just so we're clear:

This, my friends, is a hot shoe.



This, however, is an overpriced piece of plastic and polyester.



Write on, Mr. Bergman!

I Wuvs Ya T-Mobile

I just dumped the iPhone for a G2 from T-Mobile. I am so happy. It wasn’t a magical transition. T-Mobile transposed my home phone with my ATT celly number, so that took a day, and then there was a bit of a problem with what services I had ordered. That took another day. But through it all their customer service people were magical. They made it clear that they cared and wanted to put things right.

The G2 is very nice, but not as easy or intuitive as an iPhone. But then, much of the capability of an iPhone was theoretical given that I live in the Bay Area and mostly travel to NYC.

Their Australian partner managed to give me five bars most everywhere I traveled, but ATT itself couldn’t consistently connect me from my bedroom in Oakland.

Oh, I know, the iPhone users on ATT suck down a lot of bandwidth. More than anyone if I remember that market research correctly. But here's the deal, if your network can't handle more iPhones -- phones that cost a mint every month -- perhaps it's time to stop selling them until you throw a few more towers up in t
he SF financial district.

I had no complaints about ATT customer service. There people were lovely as well. Imagine what it is like to deal with jackass digital netizen webizens who are striken with the world’s most overtaxed network.

ATT had been my choice two years ago because of the mind bogglingly dreadful customer service from Sprint. And because they had iPhone. But mostly it was because being a valued Sprint customer, whose calls were very important to them, was equivalent to constant dry heaves.

I swear that their endless IVR reached through the phone and shoved needles in my corneas. Oh my god that company was the worst! I don’t blame the reps. After all, they didn’t create the system that made me wait hours only to tell me I had to call someone else. They weren’t the MFs that sent me four phones I didn’t order, charged me $2000, and then had the audacity to say it was my problem to ship them back. That EVO is darned cool, but nothing is worth the walking on hot coals required to be a Sprint custo—be a warm blooded serf that the Sprint leech drew hemoglobin from.

Off that soapbox. This is about lovely T-Mobile. Cheaper by far than ATT and Sprint were. And get this – I actually have a signal in my living room. Something ATT only managed on cloudless days, and Sprint only managed so they could deliver the cornea needles, or so I always imagined.

I wuvs you T Mobile. I wuvs my new phone. I wuvs actual mobile phone service. I wuvs the T Mobile people. If they got rid of their IVR at the beginning of a call, this would be what I imagine Heaven is like. Being with them hasn’t been perfect, but when they screw up, as everyone and everything does at times, they apologize. That’s all I ask. Well, that and not shoving needles into my eyeballs.

I'm a nice person -- ask anyone. So I suppose I should apologize for my Sprint bile above. But I've wanted to pee on Sprint for years ever since they treated me like so much gum on a shoe solle, and now that I have T-Mobile, I know that a mobile company can actually be pleasant to work with.