March 31, 2004
Overture Brings Web-Style Ads to UK Mobile Phones
UK mobile phones will soon be sporting advertiser-sponsored search engine links in the style of those ubiquitous Web advertisements after two major players struck a deal with Internet search specialist Overture Services.
Posted by richard ting at March 31, 2004, 11:12 AM
March 25, 2004
Mobliss Hops on the PGA Tour
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004
Wireless company Mobliss has partnered with the PGA TOUR to distribute a mobile application enabling golf fans to access the PGA TOUR from their wireless device. Starting in the Q2 '04, wireless subscribers will be able to follow their favorite PGA TOUR tournaments and players in the airport, on the road or while playing their favorite course. The application is powered by the PGA TOUR's ShotLink scoring system, developed in partnership with IBM, providing real-time leaderboards, statistics and the ability to graphically view each course and shot taken on the TOUR.
from MediaPost Communications
http://www.mediapost.com
Posted by richard ting at March 25, 2004, 11:10 AM
March 22, 2004
Time to Reinvent the Ad Agency?
Time to Reinvent the Ad Agency?
By Sean Carton
March 22, 2004
www.clickz.com/experts/ad/lead_edge/article.php/3328541
Should the ad agency be reinvented? These days, that question may seem pretty pointless. We've changed to deal with the Internet's challenges. Take a hard look at your agency (or your internal marketing department) and examine how things get done. You may realize things aren't as different as you thought. That's bad.
Most agencies now handle traditional and interactive through parallel structures. Sure, account supervisors may oversee an entire account through all channels (to some extent), but in the trenches most agencies maintain parallel structures: one runs online stuff, the other runs offline. Creative functions the same way. There are traditional creatives and interactive creatives. There's some convergence on the media end, but most agencies assign specific media to media buyers.
Where does search engine marketing (SEM) fit in? Mobile? Where does Web development (not ad production) fit? Where does database management and its links to CRM, direct e-mail, and sales force automation fit? Who handles strategy? Who directs creative? Who really understands all that's going on?
To be fair, things are much more complicated than 10 years ago. We still work in traditional media (radio, TV, print) but also have content with a host of digital (and soon-to-be digital) options. Web sites, e-mail, SEM, advergaming, product placement, and VOD. Challenges from DVR, digital satellite, and direct mail. And there's relatively esoteric online media, such as blogs, RSS, and viral marketing. Saying there's a lot of stuff to consider is an understatement.
Many traditional media are going digital, threatening the way advertising's been done for a nearly a century. Addressable cable boxes and capabilities to targeting TV advertising are on the horizon. DVRs provide new possibilities for on-demand, long-form spots. VOD is cropping up. Though it's mostly ad-free (at least on my Comcast network), that's bound to change and create new challenges. Even print isn't immune. New developments that allow customizable, high-res PDF creation on the fly offer a host of new possibilities for localized national advertising.
The list goes on. Like it or not, technology has a major impact on how advertising works. Yet advertising has been slow to respond. We still don't have an industry-accepted definition of an online impression (it's being worked on), much less a definition of a TV "impression" for addressable cable (that's being worked on, too). Meanwhile, savvy clients accustomed to the Internet's accountability are demanding the same accountability in traditional media. It just isn't there.
All in all, the traditional agency model is in trouble in at least five ways:
Niche providers: Look at your agency. Unless you're a big multinational with a whole stable of linked companies providing every service imaginable, you probably outsource many core tasks. E-mail marketing companies, SEM companies, and Web development companies do a lot of the work, and take lots income, for many agencies. Even media companies are getting in the mix. Many agencies outsource media buying to big buying companies. Many of them are adding creative to their mix, effectively competing with the agencies.
Measurability: As stated above, savvy clients are used to actually measuring how many people saw an ad, at least online. The growth in pay-for-performance online advertising habituates clients to only paying for leads they get. Expectations change and quarter-by-quarter return on investment (ROI) goals are set. Measuring services are pressured to come up with better metrics. As a result, justifying what we do is getting harder. As addressable set-top boxes come down the pike, things will only get hotter.
Data: A byproduct of all this measurement is measured data. Who owns it? You? The client? The third-party server? The cable company? Who can access it? How can it be used? Does your agency have database management capabilities to store, much less analyze, it? Can it be shared among various media systems? Will there be standardization? If you can't yet answer these questions, you'll probably soon stay up nights trying to answer them.
Technology: Keeping up with the latest media offerings and capabilities is a huge task. Even if someone in your agency is tasked with keeping up on the latest, getting that knowledge to others who need it is a huge challenge.
Because it's so tough to keep up, many agencies turn to niche companies (e-mail, SEO, CRM, Web development) to handle technological stuff. These companies can be Trojan horses when they're in front of a client who suddenly realizes she's paying an agency to be a middleman but it isn't adding much (perceived) value.
If agencies want to get back into the game, they must invest substantial time and financial resources. Along comes another technology, the cycle repeats. But resisting technology doesn't work.
Payment: Commission-based compensation has been on the way out for a while. Most work today is on a fee or project basis. Longer relationships aren't as common. Spending $50,000 to pitch a $150,000 project doesn't make sense. Outsourcing drains income (more important than bogus "billings"), yet agency structure hasn't changed. The risk factor is way up, while margins are going way down.
What's the solution? Options for agencies to study to plan future strategies:
Concentrate on creative: Losing money on outsourcing and hemorrhaging on the demand of today's media climate? Your structure makes multiple-layer account management a profit-suck? Cut back. Focus on creative. Creativity will never be a commodity.
Concentrate on strategy and outsourcing management: The flip side is to get rid of creative and become a brand strategy and marketing management company. Fire the creatives, ditch media buying, outsource everything. Focus on managing the relationship with the client and with your stable of vendors. Think of yourself as a producer (in the film/TV sense), not a one-stop shop.
Find a strategic resource who understands the new world: Only keep account leaders who fully understand new challenges. Tough, but manageable if you do what's necessary. With management that sees the big picture, other pieces could fall into place.
Define roles and boundaries, and get it in writing: Another temporary patch is to clearly define roles and responsibilities of everyone in the agency and all outsourced vendors. Don't assume vendors won't poach your clients. Don't assume everyone in your agency knows what to do. Trust, but verify.
Give up and concentrate on one channel: A risky strategy, but worth considering. Don't want to deal with traditional? Don't. Don't want to deal with the Net? Don't. It may be tough (or impossible) to land large, full-service accounts, but if you pick your clients correctly and become an expert in one thing, it could work.
Do everything: Become a multinational conglomerate. Way easier said than done, but the current climate may validate the benefits of big holding companies. However, if they can't correctly manage the whole advertising supply chain, they're in same boat as the small players.
Educate and collaborate: Probably the most achievable and immediately actionable of all strategies. Everyone, client and agency, is in the same boat. Have the courage to raise these issues with clients. Work together to come up with the best solution. You may be surprised at the response. Recognizing there's a problem is the first step to recovery.
Posted by richard ting at March 22, 2004, 03:39 PM
March 18, 2004
Advertising on IM Has Yet to Pop
by Ross Fadner
Advertising on instant messaging applications has yet to catch on in a big way, but MECA Communications (May Everyone Connect Always), a Redding, Calif.-based company, wants to change that.
MECA provides a software application whereby multiple instant messaging platforms (like those offered by MSN, Yahoo!, America Online's AIM, and ICQ) are consolidated into a single application that offers advertisers marketing and promotional opportunities. AOL's instant messenger incorporates space for paid advertising. As of yesterday, house ads for AOL 9.0 Optimized appeared on the AIM product.
The skin of the MECA window offers advertising opportunities. Consumers have the option of choosing the background or skin of his or her MECA window. The types of skins vary from geographic locations to Rolling Stone magazine covers. When users chat with one another, they have the opportunity to share skins, and to interact with favorite brand images. MECA says that 10 million skins are shared on its platform every day, at a growth rate of 20 percent per quarter. However, MECA executives declined to specify how many consumers have downloaded the application. The MECA user base is primarily females ages 18-29 and males ages 13-24.
Instant messaging is hot--93 percent of 13-to-17-year-olds and 84 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds use IM, according to Opinion Research Group. Whether IM aficionados will put up with advertising on the popular platform remains to be seen.
MECA said it provides rich media-enabled inventory beneath the message text, branding opportunities on buddy list pages, and a new cross-promotional feature that incorporates content integration into the messaging marketing mix. The MECA service also allows its users to interact with the actual content produced by advertisers through media channels that appear beneath in the MECA window. For example, one channel may offer users the ability to stream a MP3 file or view clips of one of Elektra Entertainment's artists. Another channel might contain information about a user's favorite sports team, and offer discounts on related merchandise. A marketer could also implement sweepstakes, discounts, and coupons via the skins.
Bruce Klickstein, President, MECA, says that promotional opportunities abound within this kind of infrastructure. "The channels concept provides the ability of total content integration," he says. "Anything on an advertiser's Web site can interact with the messaging system. We're taking content and engaging consumers by merging with the instant messaging protocol--taking advantage of the instant nature of it."
The channels system is also completely viral in nature, as the users choose which channels they want to receive based on interactions with friends' channels. "We're using instant messaging as the infrastructure," adds Klickstein. "This is not some big brother branding company doing this, it's your friend Joe."
The MECA marketing mix allows for fully interactive campaigns like the channel partnerships or short, quick campaigns. "We wanted to give advertisers a simple turnkey way to experiment in the instant messaging space," notes Vijay Chattha, a company spokesman. Another plus for marketers is that it offers them the full sweep of AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN users. MECA pre- launched with five channel partners, including Marvel, Reunion.com, HipWave, and Astrology.com.
Interestingly, MECA has yet to strike a deal with any of the major instant messaging service providers. Klickstein concedes that MECA has been trying "for years" to strike partnerships with AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!, noting that the marketing potential of an alliance could be huge. "It's going to happen whenever they're ready," says Klickstein. However, the online kingpins may have other ideas.
Posted by richard ting at March 18, 2004, 03:34 PM
2003 Global Brands Scoreboard
Check it out at:
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/brand/2003/index.asp
Posted by richard ting at March 18, 2004, 03:21 PM
Eyewonder's New Format Offerings Indicate Broader Adoption of Video Ads
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004
by Kate Kaye
The online video ad space just got a bit more crowded---sort of. Streaming video technology firm Eyewonder, Inc. has rounded out its player-less streaming video ad offerings with new formats and a host of interactive features. The expansion indicates a broader commitment to Web video among advertisers and agencies, and represents a competitive shift in strategy for Eyewonder.
“Up until six months ago we didn’t feel the market for online video advertising was ready to handle and proactively support all these different features and formats,” explains Mike Griffin, executive-VP sales and marketing at Eyewonder. The company made its decision to expand its format menu after gauging advertiser client interest, which has grown gradually.
Until now, says Griffin, advertisers “have been walking before they run” when it comes to experimenting with streaming video. “They’ve walked a long way,” he concludes.
Banner ads, multilayer ads, expandable ads, floating ads, pop-up ads, and pop-out ads are among the latest additions to Eyewonder’s format lineup. In the past, Eyewonder’s streaming technology has enabled audio and video mainly within standard in-page units. Eyewonder has also developed a custom format that plays video directly within the latest version of America Online’s Instant Messenger client, AIM. Eyewonder’s technology deploys video automatically with no need for a player or plug-in, and detects user bandwidth to optimize the viewing experience.
And there is another significant switch for the company, according to Griffin: Eyewonder’s official relationships as streaming video partner with ad tech providers Eyeblaster and PointRoll are kaput now that Eyewonder is offering competing formats. Griffin emphasizes, however, that a future pairing of Eyewonder video with Eyeblaster or PointRoll formats is not ruled out.
Like its streaming video competitor, Klipmart, which offers similar ad formats, Eyewonder hopes to guide advertisers away from simply streaming its television ads online, toward integrating interactive capabilities to take full advantage of the what the Web has to offer. In conjunction with its new formats, Eyewonder has unveiled features that can be mixed and matched, including video zoom, a zip code locator, email collection, file downloads, video replay, slide shows, and frequency capping, as well as polling with real-time results. In addition, the dynamic data feature links ads directly to databases, to enable access to such things as up-to-the-minute weather reports or real-time stock tickers.
“These features allow the advertiser to create a dialogue with consumers, and allow the user to have more control over the experience to get more information out of the ad unit,” adds Griffin.
Ads for Intel’s Centrino chip and Motorola that use the new formats are currently running. The Intel ad using Eyewonder’s video pop-out format launches a separate window featuring additional video clips, and allows the user to submit an email address for more information. An expandable ad for Motorola that launches a small video window from a skyscraper-style ad unit can be seen currently on ITV, a U.K.-based commercial TV network Web site.
Eyewonder recently made a foray into video content publishing through relationships with online teen community site Bolt.com and health care information provider Choice Media. Both are using the company’s technology to deliver video content, as well as selling Eyewonder-enabled in-stream video ads that run within that content. “Using our technology for in-stream ads as well as in-page ads opens up inventory levels for video ads online,” suggests Griffin, who believes that in-stream video ads could help bring about the promise of attracting TV-like ad budgets to the Web.
Posted by richard ting at March 18, 2004, 02:57 PM
Eyeblaster Teams Up With Yahoo! To Promote 100K Banner Format
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004
by Kate Kaye
In its advent, rich media advertising spelled doom for the plain vanilla banner ad. Now, it just might come to the banner’s rescue. Ad technology firm Eyeblaster has teamed up with Yahoo! to promote Eyeblaster’s 100K Polite Banner unit. In addition to running a 100K banner campaign in trade publications, Eyeblaster is hoping that Yahoo!’s decision to slash additional technology fees will coax more advertisers to try the gradually loading unit.
“Awareness of the 100K banner is not as high as we’d like it to be, so we’ll be stepping up the marketing of the format,” affirms Paul Kadin, executive-VP, marketing and strategy, Eyeblaster.
Typically, site publishers won’t accept banners with file sizes exceeding 30K in order to ensure quick page loads. The 100K Polite Banner, however, has a maximum file size of 100K, and is accepted by Yahoo! as well as publishers that accept other Eyeblaster formats. Because the larger Eyeblaster banners load in stages, they don’t slow down page loading. In addition to ensuring a non-disrupted user experience, the units allow for more creative leeway. The Polite Banner technology can be incorporated into any of Yahoo!’s standard banner formats, including monster ads, north banners, rectangles, skyscrapers, and super banners.
“Advertisers can create a richer experience, and the polite loading won’t affect user experience,” a Yahoo! spokesperson says. “It’s a win for both consumers and advertisers.”
And that could translate into more banner ad sales for Yahoo!, especially in conjunction with the new pricing incentive. Eyeblaster, like other rich media technology providers, charges publishers a fee to use its ad technologies. Publishers usually pass that cost on to advertisers by tacking technology fees onto media fees. Although Yahoo! is playing down the price reduction, its decision to remove the technology fee from the cost of running 100K Polite Banners on its site indicates that the Internet giant is willing to put its money where its mouth is. The pricing change is effective immediately, according to Eyeblaster’s Kadin.
To help promote the format, Eyeblaster will launch a campaign employing the 100K Polite Banner unit. Ads that read: “All banners on Yahoo! now support 100K, powered by Eyeblaster” will run in ad industry trade publications.
Posted by richard ting at March 18, 2004, 02:40 PM
Times Co.'s New York Times Digital Embraces The Fatboy; Signs With PointRoll
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004
by Ross Fadner
Since it began offering its services to content providers’ bottom line at no additional serving fee to advertisers, PointRoll has reeled publishers in right and left. In its latest coup, PointRoll today said it added the New York Times Digital, the digital unit of The New York Times Co., and its NYTimes.com and Boston.com properties, to its PointRoll Included network.
The PointRoll Included network consists of advertising tech-serving relationships with national and international publishers, portals, and networks including America Online, Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, and Yahoo! The idea behind the network is to propagate advertisers’ usage of PointRoll’s rich media products both by making the cost of using PointRoll comparable to that of standard banner and leaderboard ads, and by simplifying the buying process. PointRoll’s Included network gave advertisers incentives to use more rich media advertising; rich media was often viewed as cost-prohibitive by some advertisers.
Jason Krebs, VP-sales and marketing, NYTimes.com, says that NYTimes.com has worked successfully with PointRoll in the past, and that progressing to the next level was simply economical. “In the past we saw many repeat purchases of PointRoll,” he says. “Then they came to us with a more economical equation that improves our bottom line.”
Krebs observes that rich media ads like PointRoll’s are beneficial to publishers, advertisers, and consumers. “We’re thinking about the needs of our readers first and foremost. Certain forms of rich media ads are absolutely beneficial to our readers because it gives them more information within the banner,” he says. He adds that advertisers are also served because readers don’t have to leave the site to interact with ads.
Robert Levitan, chief marketing officer, PointRoll, notes that Yahoo! was the first major content publisher to enter the PointRoll Included network. “Before,” he says, “all the major publishers accepted PointRoll, but it was never included in their media kit.” Yahoo! joined PointRoll Included in July of 2002. Levitan says that the new business model was “honed and perfected by Yahoo!” in the fall of 2003.
PointRoll’s ads are mini, stand-alone HTML Web pages, notes Jules Gardner, CEO-PointRoll. “Any technology you can use on a Web page can be used inside a PointRoll ad,” he says. He says that the business model shift reflects the natural evolution of the PointRoll product and rich media in general. “The more PointRoll’s ads are served up, the less dependent agencies will have to be on their ad server,” Gardner says, adding that “ad serving from an agency perspective may cease to exist.”
PointRoll’s ad technologies consist of the floating BadBoy, the banner snap-out TowelBoy, and its most popular, the rollover FatBoy. PointRoll claims that 10 percent of consumers presented with a FatBoy rollover actually scroll over the ad for more information. Consumers who scroll over the ads interact with them for an average of eight seconds. Since PointRoll ads don’t show up in a new window, pop-up blockers can’t block them.
The addition of the NYTimes.com properties caps a successful week for PointRoll, which landed another big fish on Monday--CBSMarketWatch.com. “We’re adding ten more vertical category leaders in the next month,” Levitan says. PointRoll executives also told MediaDailyNews that a new advertising technology is on the horizon--one without any size restrictions--in the near future.
In cutting back the cost of its ad technologies both to publishers and advertisers, PointRoll has shown that it’s willing to sacrifice revenue for exposure and ultimately, increased volume. But offering rich media at no additional cost could backfire. The rest of the rich media community could soon follow PointRoll in lowering costs to advertisers in order to generate increased sales and awareness for the interactive ad formats.
Posted by richard ting at March 18, 2004, 02:39 PM
New Social Site: AARP for GenY
By Janis Mara | March 18, 2004
A new invitation-only social networking site hopes to profit by letting marketers reach its young, professional members.
SmallPlanet.net, billed by its CEO as a sort of online AARP for the 18-to-35 set, snapped up more than 1,500 members and seven marketing partners since its soft launch Mar.10.
Social networking sites are one of the most talked-about current trends, with a flurry of deals taking place in early March. The issue remains as to how these sites are going to make money, with different models and plans being attempted. For example, Tribe.net, a networking site with a classifieds model, partnered with CareerBuilder.com to give consumers access to job listings earlier this month.
L.A.-based SmallPlanet.net plans to address this issue by letting marketers offer its members discounts on goods and services such as gym memberships, car insurance, health insurance and other such items, according to CEO Hunter Heaney.
"The providers get business at an extremely low acquisition cost, we get a percentage and our members get a great deal," sand Heaney.
The site caters to young professionals in the 18-to-35-year-old demographic, who find themselves faced with inordinately high car insurance rates and, often, difficulty finding health insurance, Heaney said. This follows the model of organizations such as the AARP or AAA, which offer group discounts to their members.
Members vote on the site as to what goods and services they want, and the company then finds marketers interested in reaching the group and posts the relevant information on the site. The invitation-only site is free to members, who were initially seeded by friends and associates of its three founders, all of whom fit the age demographic. Heaney's partners are Diego Reyes and Gabriel Weinert.
"The idea is that if everybody's invited in by someone else you have a better-quality network. We won't grow as quickly, but it's more important to have loyal members," Heaney said.
In its first week, SmallPlanet.net has negotiated discount contracts with six L.A. gyms, including the upscale Sports Club and Bodies in Motion, for its members. The L.A. office of Andreini Insurance Company also signed a contract.
The meat and potatoes income will come from national providers such as credit card companies, insurance companies and manufacturers of the high-end, cutting edge technologies such as camera phones and music delivery systems beloved by this demographic, Heaney said.
Though ads have a strong presence on many social networking sites, including Friendster and Myspace.com, Heaney said SmallPlanet would accept no advertising.
"We want to find providers who will offer fair and honest deals. We don't want to seem like we're influenced by what companies might spend in terms of advertising dollars," Heaney said.
Nate Elliott, associate analyst with Jupiter Research, which shares a parent with this publication, says it's a creative idea. "Most social networking sites are looking to create revenue through advertising, which would be a difficult way to build a business, or dating, which won't work," he said. "They're looking at a different idea of making money and that clearly is a first step."