Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Targeting Canadian Online Shoppers - eMarketer

Targeting Canadian Online Shoppers - eMarketer



Targeting Canadian Online Shoppers

DECEMBER 31, 2008

More than four out of 10 Canadian dollars spent on e-commerce go abroad.

Seeing an opportunity to offset slowing online sales at home, some US online retailers have targeted the Canadian e-commerce market. One approach is to launch a Canadian Website. Another is to allow cross-border purchases. Either way, several retailers executed in time for the holiday season.

Pure-play e-tailer NewEgg, an information technology and consumer electronics retailer, launched a Canadian Website in October 2008. It uses its US facilities for both fulfillment and customer service, and later may opt to enter distribution partnerships and launch a Canadian fulfillment center.

Internet Retailer reported in October 2008 that Saks Direct, the e-commerce division of Saks Inc., would fulfill orders placed by customers in Canada from its US Website. Shoppers in Canada at Saks’ main site automatically see local featured merchandise, promotions, pricing, customer service and delivery options.

In September 2008, Overstock.com, a pure-play online discount retailer, announced it would start serving international consumers in 34 countries, including Canada. International shoppers can purchase any of 600,000 products on the site priced in local currency.

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“Many international markets are underserved by online retail,” said Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, in a press release. “With the weakness of the [US] dollar, the time has never been better for international customers to purchase American goods, creating a great opportunity for us.”

Other US-based retailers that already sell to consumers in Canada are beefing up their offerings. In October 2008, Amazon launched a new electronics store on its Canadian Website. Until that time, Amazon had sold mostly books and music on its Canadian site and did not allow products to ship across the border from its US site.

Statistics Canada data revealed the extent of cross-border spending. In 2007, 44% of B2C e-commerce spending in Canada went to foreign retail Websites, up from 37% in 2005. A weakening US dollar caused a surge in Canadian spending on US Websites during 2007’s holiday season.

Domestic vs. Foreign B2C E-Commerce Spending in Canada, 2005 & 2007 (% of total)

Of course, money from Canada isn’t a cure-all for US online retailers. Since the US dollar has regained much of its strength over the past year in relation to the Canadian dollar, price is less of an incentive for online consumers in Canada to shop across the border. In spite of US retailers’ marketing across the border, some analysts say there may be a drop this year in the percentage of Canadian online spending on foreign Websites.

“Compared to last year, when the Canadian dollar was at—or above—par leading up to the holiday season, we expect to see a significantly lower number of Canadians spending their holiday budget south of the border this year, which will help out our Canadian retailers,” said Brent Houlden of Deloitte, in a press release.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Twittad Let Your Ad Meet Tweets

Twittad Let Your Ad Meet Tweets:

twittad-let-your-ad-meet-tweets
"TwittAd was formed to give Twitter users and advertisers the opportunity to meet for product placement & website promotion on a Twitter user profile. Our goal is to not fill Twitter with ugly & obnoxious advertisements. We give advertisers templates and ideas to help keep the integrity of Twitter background images. See How TwittAd can work for you today!"

Monday, December 29, 2008

Despite Debate, Brands Find Value on Twitter - ClickZ

Despite Debate, Brands Find Value on Twitter - ClickZ: "It's been called a tech-geek fad, a business flop-to-be, and a waste of time for most marketers, but the fact is big name brands are on Twitter. While detractors argue brands don't even belong on the quick messaging platform, they are there -- from Ford to Dunkin' Donuts to Whole Foods. They're engaging in experiments with customer service, branding, and corporate culture-building in the decidedly public forum.

Some see Twitter as an extension of the marketing department; others view it as a customer service tool, and some say it's best for corporate communications.

Scott Monty tackles it from the communications side. Before joining Ford Motor Company in July as its global digital and multimedia communications manager -- a position the automaker created for him -- he had a decent following through his personal account on Twitter. 'I wanted to get down and personal with people,' said Monty, who believes Twitter enables that more so than Facebook, MySpace, or blogs. Getting personal made sense for Ford, which, according to Monty, hopes to 'humanize the brand.'"

The Next Step in User-Generated Content

DECEMBER 29, 2008

Paul Verna, Senior Analyst
With so much user-generated media populating the Web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever in 2009. In the coming year, expect to see real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input—like a cross between Techmeme and FriendFeed.

Techmeme is an aggregation tool that uses algorithms to scan the Web for tech-related news stories. FriendFeed is also an aggregator, but it lets users set up custom feeds to pool content from other social sites.

These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself. They could make it easier for consumers to find video and other content.

Furthermore, in a climate in which advertising is the main (some say the only) means of monetizing user-generated content, aggregators stand to earn more per visitor than the sites that actually carry the user-created content.

An August 2008 study by YuMe and Collins Stewart estimated that online video advertising CPM rates for content aggregators and creators ranged from $20 to $35, compared with $10 to $15 for user-driven sites such as Bebo, Metacafe and YouTube. In addition, the approximate sell-through rates on aggregation sites were 50%, as opposed to 10% for user-generated content sites.

These estimates put aggregators somewhere between premium sites and user-generated sites in terms of the CPMs they command and the rates at which they sell their ad inventory.

To be clear, the trend at hand concerns user-driven aggregation, and the YuMe/Collins Stewart study looked at professional aggregators. It does not specifically address user-generated aggregation, but it reinforces the need for such tools. The larger point is that aggregation is becoming increasingly important as more and more content proliferates across the Web.

Now that the concept is being co-opted by average users (not just analysts and bloggers), it seems that all the pieces are in place for user-generated aggregation to be a real story in the coming year.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

PMA mission statement and first year objectives



PMA mission statement and first year objectives


Performance Marketing Alliance

The Scope working group has finalized the PMA mission statement and our objectives for the first year.

PMA Mission

The Performance Marketing Alliance is the not for profit, trade association for the performance marketing industry. Our core objective is to be a catalyst for industry growth by promoting best practices, establishing guidelines and standards, and increasing awareness of the effectiveness of performance marketing.

Initial PMA Scope

· Drive membership
· Publish best practices and standards
· Coalesce issues facing the industry
· Coordinate advocacy efforts

Congratulations to Beth Kirsch and the members of the Scope group, in coming up with a concise and meaningful mission statement. The message is also well contained, and yet flexible enough to allow our future members to shape the PMA. Us marketers all know how hard that can be!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Google Pursues Patents to Monetize Social Networks - MarketingVOX

Google Pursues Patents to Monetize Social Networks - MarketingVOX:

Google Pursues Patents to Monetize Social Networks


Is it a wonder they fail?

The US Patent and Trademark Office published a handful of patent applications from Google, betraying the search giant's ambition to monetize social networks.

Recent reports find 70% of online adults use social media, and a whopping 93% of online Americans expect companies to have a social media presence. But social networks have proven difficult for advertisers to monetize. If a traditional media site generates a 2% click-through rate on a good day, "on Facebook, you're lucky if you're going to get 0.3%," said CEO Jaffer Ali of online ad firm Vidsense.

Google's three proposed patents — Open Profile Content Identification, Custodian Based Content Identification, and Related Entity Content Identification — rely on language processing and other algorithmic features to locate data patterns in conversations, profiles and friend lists. If the technology is leveraged to serve better advertising, users will be more likely to click through (and ultimately purchase), reports IEEE Spectrum.

Open Profile and Custodian present a way to mine data from both a user's social networking profile, and the profile s/he is currently visiting. For example, linguistic cues or sentiments ("enjoy," "don't like," "hiking," "gardening") may be drawn from a profile that reads, "I really enjoy hiking, especially long hikes when you can camp out for a few days. Indoor activities don’t interest me at all, and I really don’t like boring outdoor activities like gardening." Based on that data, ads can be served as appropriate.

Meanwhile, Related Entity gleans data from lists of friends, or groups to which a user belongs.

CEO Hussein Fazal of agency AdParlor observed none of the patents pursue business strategies that haven't already been tried, but the language-processing and pattern-recognizing algorithms may be key to their success. For its part, Google has not disclosed the structure of its algorithms.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Google Focuses on Retail Basics - eMarketer

Google Focuses on Retail Basics - eMarketer
Free Newsletter

Google Focuses on Retail Basics

DECEMBER 19, 2008

Online giant draws strength from brick-and-mortar sales.

Despite slowing, search advertising spending growth is predicted to stay in the double digits for the next five years. Clearly Google stands to gain from that trend, so one might expect the company to encourage retailers in their online sales along with their offline efforts. Yet John McAteer, industry director of retail at Google, told eMarketer the vast majority of its business will continue to involve supporting physical store sales.

FREE Whitepaper from Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO: “Digital Marketing NOW: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn” Download Now.

“If you look at any retailer, maybe 92% of the revenue is coming from the brick-and-mortar channel, so the most important platform to make successful is driving people to a store,” Mr. McAteer said. “A small percentage of retailers’ spending is online, and the majority of their advertising dollars are still being spent offline.”

US Search Advertising Spending Growth, 2007-2013 (% change)

Mr. McAteer said that marketers knew best what media worked best for them, and what their mix should be. He also said marketers would demand increasing transparency in their media and tactics.

“Within 12 months, you’re going see a lot of retailers talking about how they are measuring in-store success from their online marketing, and it will open up a whole other way of looking at ROI from your dot-com spend,” Mr. McAteer said. “As smart retailers start to figure it out, they will probably shift more of their marketing dollars online.”

It’s not surprising for Google to suggest that online ad and marketing spending will increase, but marketers themselves tend to value online tactics highly.

Search was second only to e-mail when it came to which tactic CMOs would cut last, according to a survey fielded in October 2008 by Epsilon.

Marketing Tactic that US CMOs Would Cut Last, October 2008 (% of respondents)

How Much Money are You Losing with CPA Offers?

Think back to your last killer ad campaign. How many sign ups did you send to the back end company? Probably thousands… and you probably made several thousands of dollars in cash during the process. Seems like good money, but you received your money while the back end company is still cashing in on those users every day! You paid the cost to acquire that lead, why not keep them around a little longer? Here’s how…

Instead of Getting Paid Once for a Lead, Get Paid Several Times Over

STEP 1: Signup to Aweber… it’s only $20 a month and it will pay for itself in the long run!
Why do you need Aweber? Simply because it’s one of the best mailing and automated systems around! Through Aweber you will build an awesome mailing list to continually up sell to your site visitors, that will keep generating money for you forever! Don’t want to spend $20 a month, there are other free mailers and autoresponders around, but Aweber gets the job done for me.

STEP 2: Create a Site / Landing Page
Instead of direct linking to your ad campaign, you should have your own landing page or site. If you already have a landing page, perfect. Instead of pushing your site visitor off to your cpa landing page, have them submit their email address first. You can keep your current site or landing page in tact, just remove the links and add in a submission form.

STEP 3: The Process
- Promotion: You can promote your cpa offer the same way you always have, whether that be ppc, social networks or organic search.

- Building Your Landing Page: If you have a cpa offer that has a landing page that sells itself, you don’t need to write much on your site. You just need to list key points and get the user to submit their email.

- Email Process: Once the user hits your landing page, the goal is to get them to submit their email. In the chart above, I show my free landing page template which explains the key points on the offer. I would then have a subscribe form on that page which tell the user to submit their email to receive “Five Quick Weight Loss Tips“, or simply to ask the user to input their info to see if they are qualified. This form would be through Aweber. After the submission of the form, the user can then be passed on to the affiliate offer, which they originally came for. Through Aweber, this is a double-opt in process. If you have an alternative mailing solution, you can increase conversions by doing single opt in, and sending the user right to the offer after they submit their info.

Not only have you now engaged the user into a process, increasing the chance they will signup for your end offer, but you now have their email address on record. Once they receive that email from Aweber to confirm their info, you can follow up to them with other related offers, or setup an auto-responder to send them an email a few days later and ask if they requested their free trial.

The opportunities here are limitless and open to any niche market. Get creative and you may find some new ways to heavily increase your ROI. Don’t let your next big ad campaign only make you money once… but forever.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

PLATFORMS :: How Apple and Facebook Influence Salesforce.com

How Apple and Facebook Influence Salesforce.com

I’ve got to confess that for the last 10 years I’ve largely ignored Salesforce.com. I knew it was growing through sales of its service, a very fancy Rolodex that helps companies keep track of customers and prospects. And I knew it evangelized the idea that applications for big companies can be delivered through Web pages rather than as software run in a company’s own data center.

Marc Benioff. (Credit: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times)

But I’ve tried to add just a bit of simplicity to my life by avoiding enterprise issues to write about technology used by consumers. When I sat down for the first time last week with Marc Benioff, the company’s chief executive, it became clear that Salesforce is now taking some interesting ideas from consumer-facing companies like Facebook and Apple. And it is also in the middle of a metamorphosis that could put it in the center of the development of services that consumers will start using.

Essentially, Salesforce is changing from a company that sells one suite of corporate applications to a platform on which many software companies can deliver applications. It has even added features to let its clients develop Web sites on which they can interact with and sell to the general public.

And, as I wrote on Monday, it is developing systems to let its applications trade data with other companies that offer cloud computing services, like Google, Amazon.com and Facebook. (My first instinct when talking about this sort of technology is to note the privacy questions that come up when clouds start talking to one another.)

As is so common these days, this strategy puts Salesforce in the position of trying to cooperate with the companies that are its biggest rivals in the world of cloud computing. Mr. Benioff has lots of reasons why Salesforce can compete with these companies, as well as I.B.M., Microsoft and all the others launching themselves into the clouds. I’ll leave it to others to write about the software architecture and data-center design of Salesforce.

But I do want to take note of how the company is connecting to consumers and the ideas emerging in consumer technology. One theme is how the sort of face-to-face sales effort that Salesforce has helped companies manage is now merging with the self-service ethos of the Web.

Mr. Benioff showed a high-tech, high-touch application developed for the Harrah’s casino chain to help the personal sales representatives it assigns to high rollers. It creates a Web site for the gamblers that lets them communicate about coming trips with their representative. It’s sort of like Expedia, but you don’t have to work out the details. You simply identify when you want to go, where you want to eat, and what shows you want to see. Your rep figures out the times and dates, then posts the resulting reservation back on the site.

As for drawing inspiration from the consumer technology world, Salesforce is just starting its own version of Apple’s iPhone App store, but for businesses. Until now, third-party software developers had to manually process sales for their applications that are delivered over the Salesforce system. Now there is an online store that lets existing Salesforce users click to buy add-on software themselves.

Perhaps most interesting to me was how the broad path that Salesforce is on mirrors that of Facebook (and in some ways that of Yahoo and Google).

Both Salesforce and Facebook started out as rather handy Web-based services for keeping track of contacts. And both have realized that these lists of people, and the underlying technology to manage them, can be central to a lot of different problems that their customers may want to solve. So both are now turning into “platforms” on which other companies can create and run a wide range of applications.

“We came into this by accident,” Mr. Benioff said. “We did not start the company as a platform company.” But he said that the process of creating one program that serves customers turns out to be a great way to build a more flexible environment. Other programs, like Lotus Notes and Microsoft Excel, evolved in a similar way. Even Microsoft Windows was first an add-on application for Microsoft DOS.

“All platforms started as killer apps,” Mr. Benioff said.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Consumers Pursue Personal Interaction with Brands Online - MarketingVOX

Consumers Pursue Personal Interaction with Brands Online - MarketingVOX: "Consumers Pursue Personal Interaction with Brands Online

Consumers Pursue Personal Interaction with Brands Online


Click to enlarge

Two-thirds (62%) of consumers say direct and personal communication with a company's online brand representative is preferable to ads or promotional materials from that company, according to research conducted by OTX Research on behalf of DEI Worldwide.

The word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing research study, "The Impact of Social Media on Purchase Behavior" (pdf), also finds 63% of consumers say they would like to personally share opinions online about a brand or product with such a representative. And 67% of consumers are likely to pass along information from a brand representative to other people, MarketingCharts reports.

Additional survey findings:

  • 54% of consumers say information from a company's brand representative who directly interacts with them online is more valuable than information they find on companies' websites.
  • 57% of consumers are likely to take action based on the information from a brand representative, such as shop at the retailer or buy the product.
  • The top categories that consumers search for online information about are electronics/telecommunications, entertainment and travel.
dei-otx-social-networking-surveys-searches-fall-2008.jpg
  • Consumers rely on social media websites as much as company websites for product information, and 70% of consumers have visited a social media website such as message board, social network, instant messenger, blog, video sharing site or chat room in order to get information about a company, brand or product.
dei-otx-where-consumers-search-information-fall-2008.jpg

The survey also discovered that people who search for information exclusively via social media websites are more likely to spread the word. More than one-third of consumers have passed along information found online, and among those, six out of 10 used social media websites to pass along the information. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said that most of the information they passed along was positive.

dei-otx-what-consumer-do-information-online-fall-2008.jpg

"These findings are particularly interesting because they support what we have been saying all along, that word of mouth is a valuable marketing tool that should be combined with traditional media to create an integrated marketing strategy," said Lou Cuming, CEO of DEI Worldwide.

Kmart Harnesses Power of Influential Bloggers - MarketingVOX

Kmart Harnesses Power of Influential Bloggers - MarketingVOX: "Kmart Harnesses Power of Influential

Kmart Harnesses Power of Influential Bloggers


Click to enlarge

Kmart kick-started a social networking campaign by giving six well-known bloggers $500 gift certificates to go on a shopping spree in a Kmart store — then share the experience with readers.

The bloggers could write anything at all, positive or negative, and all of them clearly disclosed the arrangement in their posts, http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles..san&s=96540&Nid=50294&p=96845">writes MediaPost (via Retailer Daily).

The purpose was to get people talking about Kmart in the blogosphere and increase Kmart's "share of social voice," which was assessed before Dec. 2 - when the campaign began - at a value of 12.8% according to Vitrue's Social Media Index (SMI) online conversation measurement system.

The SMI system is a daily share-of-voice index that shows the extent of online conversations about that brand, including mentions on social networks, blogs and Twitter, and video- and photo-sharing sites.

On Nov. 11, for example, Kmart's index was 14.49%, but JCPenney's was nearly 25% and Sears's just over 50%. On Dec. 10, Kmart's SMI was up to 23.2%, a 59% increase over its average SMI in November, surpassing JC Penney's (12.5%); Sears's SMI was 43.1% on that day, seven percentage points lower than before Kmart's campaign (Sears owns Kmart).

To boost "Kmart talk" online, the company ran a contest whereby web users could enter to win $500 gift certificates of their own. They could leave a comment on one of the bloggers' Kmart posts with a holiday wish list of Kmart items, or use Twitter to leave the message provided on each blog's posting area.

As of of Dec. 5, readers left more than 2,000 related comments and there were 2,500 entries in the contest. Collective reach across the six blogs and Twitter was estimated at about 500,000 consumers.

Sears decided to sponsor its own blogger shopping spree and certificate contest - to launch in mid-December.

An October report asserted blogging has become integral to the media ecosystem. Blogging was also listed as one of the major media companies felt pressure to leverage in an "Enterprise 2.0" world.

Friday, December 19, 2008

B2B Marketers Plow Ahead in 2009


DECEMBER 19, 2008

Counting on digital marketing for leads and future sales

More than six out of 10 business-to-business (B2B) marketers surveyed in December 2008 by BtoB Magazine said they planned to launch new ad campaigns next year.

Considering the state of the economy, it could be worse. Nearly seven out of 10 marketers surveyed at the end of 2007 planned to launch new ad campaigns this year. Given the study’s sample size (211 B2B marketers), the difference of 9 percentage points is not huge.

One-quarter of respondents said they planned to reduce their marketing budgets in 2009.

Budgets for digital campaigns should fare better than those for traditional media, judging by a study fielded in August and September 2008 by Hearst Electronics Group and Goldstein Group Communications. More respondents to that survey said Websites and search engines were their best sources of leads than any other means, including trade shows, long a favorite of B2B marketers.

Although the sample size of the Hearst/Goldstein study was limited to 99 B2B marketers, the results are useful in a directional sense.

Online was the only sales channel more respondents said they would use in 2011 than in 2008.

Omnicom plans to cut up to 3,500 jobs - DMNews

Omnicom plans to cut up to 3,500 jobs - DMNews: "Omnicom plans to cut up to 3,500 jobs
Dianna Dilworth
December 18, 2008

The Omnicom Group is planning more layoffs, with its global work force of 70,000 expected to be cut by up to 5%.

An Omnicom spokesperson confirmed the plans, but would not say which agencies would be affected by this loss. BBDO Detroit, the agency that represents Chrysler, recently announced layoffs due to the car company's spending cuts.

“Given current economic conditions, our companies have reviewed their staffing levels as they relate to their current business requirements. Some, but not all, will have to make adjustments,” said a company statement. “We will end 2008 as we began it with a well-balanced mix of business by discipline and geography, outstanding teams and talent across all of our agencies, and an outstanding client roster. Economic challenges are faced by all businesses today but we believe that our well-diversified portfolio of businesses positions Omnicom well to withstand the current economic turmoil.”"

Thursday, December 18, 2008

SEO/AFFILIATE MARKETING BLOG :: Internet Marketing Consultant Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae - SEO and Internet Marketing - Sugarrae

GREAT SEO AND AFFILIATE MARKETING BLOG



Internet Marketing Consultant Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae - SEO and Internet Marketing - Sugarrae

Internet Marketing Consultant Rae Hoffman aka Sugarrae - SEO and Internet Marketing

I’m Rae Hoffman an Internet Maketing and SEO consultant. You may also know me by my online nickname Sugarrae. I assume you’re on this page because you want to know about me or my SEO consulting services.

Professional:

I’m the Principal of Sugarrae SEO Consulting and do various types of Internet marketing; search engine optimization, viral marketing, affiliate marketing, site auditing, link development road maps and tons of other little nooks and crannies of this business. I run various affiliate and content websites – ranging from those in highly competitive to those in niche areas. I am also the owner of MFE Interactive. I fell into this industry by accident, but I couldn’t imagine ever doing anything else. As the business name might suggest, I’m also for hire, though not for sale.

I spend an insane amount of time online. Some of it reading at the forums I used to moderate (and posting) at forums and on various social media sites and most of the rest working, Facebooking, Twittering and talking on messenger (also known as the Internet water cooler). If I’m offline more than eight hours at a time, you can bet I’m speaking at a conference, sitting on a Q&A panel or hanging out with friends in various locations.

If you wound up here after listening to my radio interview on Good Karma about hiring an SEO consultant, practice what I preach and check out what the search engines have on me if you want (you can also check out my LinkedIn profile):

– Google:
Sugarrae | Rae Hoffman

– Yahoo:
Sugarrae | Rae Hoffman

– Live Search:
Sugarrae | Rae Hoffman

“If you are looking for a consultant who understands not only how to optimize a site, but also how to get it a ton of traffic, Rae Hoffman has got to be on your list. Her instincts from Web site design and development, to on-site SEO, to off-site marketing make Sugarrae an invaluable resource for anyone lucky enough to gain access to her skills.” - Scott Smith a.k.a. “caveman”, Partner in Clientside SEM

“Finding an internet marketing consultant that has front line knowledge, and isn’t afraid to give you an honest assessment of your websites strengths and weaknesses, is a rare combination. Rae possesses both of these skills and brings years of first hand marketing experience to all her projects. If you’re ready to cut through all the usual agency bureaucracy, get down to business and get your project on the right track, she should be on your short list of consultants to get in touch with.” - Michael Gray

Personal:

I’m a single mom to three gorgeous kids who are my lights and my strengths. I love to travel and always bring an extra suitcase when I do because the one thing I love to do more is shop. I also own, according to many, an “insane amount of shoes”.

I have some kind of weird fascination with the mafia – real life stories for the most part and I know a weird amount of facts about American mobsters. I own a shelf of books on the topic – both fact and fiction (with a strong lean towards fact). Surprise, surprise – my favorite TV show is the Sopranos and my favorite book of all time is The Last Don (spare yourself from the movie). Of course, a very close second is: Bringing Down the House.

I am taken with the sport of gambling – Pai Gow, Craps and Texas Holdem being my vices of choice. I’m a “regular” at several Las Vegas and Canadian casinos and am pissed about not being able to play at my favorite online poker rooms anymore. I’m also a huge football fan as well as being a massive MMA Fan (mixed martial arts for those of you who don’t know the acronym).

CityMommy :: mommy blogger community

CityMommy
Great place to look at connecting with blogger affiliates for the new platform and for campaigns for baby, health etc

21 of the Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs

21 of the Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs: "Monday, December 15th, 2008 by Andy Beal

21 of the Best WordPress Plugins for New Blogs

I have a confession to make. I’ve been holding out on you.

As someone that preaches being Radically Transparent, I’ve not been very forthcoming with the list of WordPress plugins we use on Marketing Pilgrim. By keeping them a big secret, I shamelessly thought I’d keep an advantage over competing blogs.

Well, no more! Consider this my Christmas present to you all. Enjoy!
Ad Rotator - rotate ads anywhere on your site

This is actually the newest plugin added to Marketing Pilgrim. It allows me to set up simple text files with multiple ads in each. I then reference the text files anywhere in the blog template and the plugin will rotate between the ads found in the text file. Before using this plugin, I could only offer advertisers the option to manually switch out ad creatives every 2-4 weeks.
Akismet - best comment spam filter ever!

This should already be installed for your WordPress blog, but you may need to activate it. It’s secret? It aggregates information from all Akismet users–which means it will block you from a spammer, even if they’ve never commented on your site before. The only downside? Sometime it produces false-positives, resulting in legit comments heading to spam-jail.
Author Im"

Top 10 2008 Marketing Resources for the Coming Decade at CostPerNews

Top 10 2008 Marketing Resources for the Coming Decade at CostPerNews
7B7D4107-C04F-441E-927A-495ACC684EC9.jpg

According to Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille, I hate Top 10 Lists.

So, to get out of my shell a little, I’ve spent a great deal of time and effort putting together the most meaningful things I’ve read over the past year (thanks, Delicious!) to help you stay on top of the coming trends facing online marketing.

See, I pride myself on catching things early. Jeff Molander called me a futurist once. That was the biggest honor I’ve ever received from an online marketer.

I throw a lot of play-doh at the wall to see what’ll stick, but occasionally I get things right. I called Twitter early and my marketer pals thought I was ridiculous when I tried to explain myself here or at the Affiliate Summit in early ‘07. Tumblr has been a decent success. RSS is still developing but I’m still pushing it hard. The semantic web is quickly catching up to web2.0, so I’ve got my eyes on a few things there.

All of that said, here are the things I’m keeping my eye on in 2009 and beyond. It’s a little glimpse into my mind… if you will.

I sincerely hope you learn something and that you enjoy!

1. Joseph Priestley (uber marketer): This guys is (was?) a brilliant marketer. You’ll love him. Just read the whole thing. Trust me.

2. Marketing Vision: John Updike nails the marketing theory of discovery and changing landscapes.

3. Philosophy of Marketing: Insight, relevance and connections…what all good great marketers strive for in their campaigns.

4. Social Media Marketing Defined and Refined: Yes, social media marketing is the new hotness. But do you know how to turn it into reality?

5. The Possibilities of Marketing: Process Marketing will be huge in 2010. Know what it is? You should. Read this.

6. Viral Marketing 2.0: Forget that old-skool viral marketing mumbo jumbo. Pathogen marketing is going to be hot in the twenty-teens. Get your prescription for success now!

7. The Goal of All Marketers: At the end of the day, this is why I do what I do.

8. Marketing Yourself at Conferences: You must have these skills for conferences.

9. Advanced Twitter Usage for the Advanced Marketer: Do you use Twitter? Are you a marketer? Know all the basics? Then read this.

and last (or first if you’re starting with 10, which is cool) but not least:

10. Putting it All Together for the Future: Marketing is rapidly evolving. This guide will help you plan out your next moves to keep you relevant in the coming decade of media upheaval.

Anything I missed?

Here’s to a successful 2009 and beyond!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Economic Challenge: E-mail success in a tough economy - DMNews

The Economic Challenge: E-mail success in a tough economy - DMNews: "Online Exclusive
The Economic Challenge: E-mail success in a tough economy
Dianna Dilworth
December 15, 2008

While times are tight for marketers and consumers alike, now is as good a time as ever to use e-mail marketing. E-mail is cheap, measurable and affords marketers the ability to test, target and measure in ways that more traditional channels such as direct mail and print cannot. Companies looking to weather these tough times should take advantage of the channel and refine their e-mail programs.

“Since e-mail is quick to set up, design and deploy, marketers can expand or contract their campaigns as necessary to accommodate budget changes,” says Chip House, VP of industry and relationship marketing at ExactTarget.

Here are four ways experts recommend tackling the tough economy using e-mail:

Segment, test and be relevant

Know your audiences and segment them accordingly, says Kelly Dedman, VP of client services at CheetahMail. “Test and optimize creative approaches, types of offers and offer thresholds to get a sense of what might drive response. Consumer behavior this year may be quite different than i"

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

SEOptimise —UK :: SEO Blog & Search Engine Marketing News

SEOptimise — SEO Blog & Search Engine Marketing News

Review MarketLeverage Affiliate Network | Pay Per Click & Affiliate Marketing

Review MarketLeverage Affiliate Network | Pay Per Click & Affiliate Marketing:

/ Internet Marketing / Review MarketLeverage Affiliate Network
Review MarketLeverage Affiliate Network

December 11, 2008 by Christoph
Filed under Internet Marketing

I am expanding the number of affiliate networks I am using and so I joined MarketLeverage about 5 months or so (?) ago. Marketleverage is a newer affiliate network that broke into the market with a lot of advertising on affiliate blogs this year. Initially I ignored them for a bit as I was still expanding my affiliate efforts and did not want to spread out to thin, but then reversed my opinion due to the need for some specific offers they had.

The thing I really like about Marketleverage is the communication. My affiliate manager Chelsea is very pro-active in letting me know about things and always responds quickly and detailed if I have questions. Their website is easy to navigate and the email notifications I am getting are very helpful in finding good offers. I especially like the Top 20 list inside my account web pages as it provides data on the top products on their network. Payouts are usually on the upper side of things and often beat what other networks offer.

Unfortunately I am not running too many things with them at the moment as the main offer I was upon, was retired and taken down. Still"

Monday, December 15, 2008

Digitas lays off 2% of its US work force - DMNews

Digitas lays off 2% of its US work force - DMNews: "Publicis Groupe's digital unit, Digitas, is laying off 2% of its 2,100 US employees in a restructuring effort. Employees were informed of the decision on Wednesday.

Digitas declined to comment on the move but released the following statement: “In response to changing client needs, we have taken the difficult step of restructuring staffing levels at some of our US offices. We have redeployed talent wherever possible, but the realities of the current economy did require that we let some talented people go in order to best position the agency for continued growth and success.”

Many have pointed to shrinking budgets, particularly for big-name Digitas clients such as GM and American Express, as a key reason for the company's decision.

Digitas employees outside of the US — about 900 in total — will not be affected, and no executives appear to have been included in the cuts. No other layoffs are planned for the near future."

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Deliverability.com: Spam on Twitter

VERY GOOD EMAIL MARKETING BLOG & PLACE TO FIND MARKETING PARTNERS

Deliverability.com: Spam on Twitter: "Spam on Twitter

I noticed a new phenomena on Twitter yesterday. I got email notifications from bogus account names that my Twitter account is being followed.
Obviously the first thing one does is checking what user is following you and the only message one sees is a commercial ad.

Here's what I got on my Gmail account:
Twitter spam

Maybe Twitter's user account registration system is being 'worked on' by hackers or someone was doing this manually, but this definitely is able to put some message and link through.

Maybe Twitter should implement reputation-based mechanisms with Report Spam buttons to their system just like ISPs do. Spammers are trying to appear at every possible place with eyeballs and Twitter definitely has a lot of them.

Did you receive any similar 'follow' notifications?"

Saturday, December 13, 2008

How to Change the World: The Ultimate Mommy Blog List--Blogs for Moms by Moms

How to Change the World: The Ultimate Mommy Blog List--Blogs for Moms by Moms: "The Ultimate Mommy Blog List--Blogs for Moms by Moms
iStock_000000492509Small.gif

Update August, 2008: If you want to see the world's most complete collection of mommy blogs, go to Moms.alltop.

While poking around the BlogHer site, I found what must be the definitive list of blogs for moms. I provide it below. If you know a mom, please forward this list to her. I’m pretty sure she’ll find something of interest. Here is the permalink:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/07/the_ultimate_mo.html

Note: There is a contingent of readers of my blog who do not like when I write about blogs/blogging/bloggers. I’d guess there’s also a contingent who do not like when I write about non-business, non-tech, non-male subjects. To these readers, I say in advance: “You can never support a mom, much less a mommy blogger, too much, so deal with it.”"

Display Boosts Search Performance - eMarketer

Display Boosts Search Performance - eMarketer: "ECEMBER 12, 2008

Display + Search > Search alone.

Impact of Online Display Ad Campaigns* on Search Activity** in the US, by Advertiser Category, August 2007-August 2008 (% lift)

US Online Advertising Spending, by Format, 2008-2013 (% of total and billions)



Display and search are directly correlated, judging by a Specific Media study of comScore data. Brand- and segment-related searches (for cars, automakers and vehicle classes) jumped by more than 100% in several categories after consumers were exposed to display ads for those brands.

FREE Whitepaper from Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer CEO: “Digital Marketing NOW: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn” Download Now.

“Display advertising significantly impacts search, site visitation and engagement,” said Chris Vanderhook, COO at Specific Media, in a statement.

Impact of Online Display Ad Campaigns* on Search Activity** in the US, by Advertiser Category, August 2007-August 2008 (% lift)

Search clickers exposed to display advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those who were not exposed, according to a September 2008 study of Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping system by Atlas Solutions.

In a ClickZ article, Microsoft’s Young-Bean Song said the study results suggested that search alone was not a cure-all for customer acquisition.

“The issue we have with navigational search is that it completely obliterates the value we’re creating from other digital marketing we’re doing,” Mr. Song told ClickZ. “The idea that search is this magical fount"

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Best Buy Remix - Welcome to the Best Buy Remix Developer Network

Best Buy Remix - Welcome to the Best Buy Remix Developer Network: "Welcome to the Best Buy Remix Developer Network

Welcome to the Remix developer portal. Remix is an API that gives you access to BestBuy.com's product catalog data. What you do with it is up to you.

We are currently in the public beta phase of the set of API's and tools that make up Best Buy Remix. Feel free to browse the documentation, register for an account, apply for an API key and contribute to the development of this API.

We're on Twitter as @bestbuyremix -- follow us for updates. And we do have an affiliate program, where you can earn commissions if the traffic you send to BestBuy.com results in a sale. For more information see: https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=2045991&h=488
Getting started is easy:

Follow the steps below to start using the Best Buy Remix API

* Browse the documentation.
* Register for a user account.
* Apply for an API key.
* Join a discussion in the forums.

Click here to get started

* Home
* Widget Gallery
* Documentation
* Forum
* Blog"

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

MediaTrust ALERT :: Depressed Dow Drives Americans into Arms of Online Dating - MarketingVOX

DATING OFFERS DATING OFFERS DATING OFFERS!
Depressed Dow Drives Americans into Arms of Online Dating - MarketingVOX: "Depressed Dow Drives Americans into Arms of Online Dating

Drink up

A handful of online dating sites are reporting activity spikes following September's global financial crisis.

'On days when the US Dow Jones industrial went down […] by more than 100 points, more people were likely to log in and spend more time on the site,' stated Senior Research Scientist Gian Gonzaga in an interview with Reuters.

'People seek out companionship in times of stress. Studies repeatedly show that being in a relationship can help a person's psychological and physical health.'

CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony of Match.com corroborates Gonzaga's view. 'During these trying times, people are looking for hope in their inbox,' he said.

November brought Match.com its largest membership increase in the last seven years.

But even lesser-known dating sites, like Perfectmatch.com, are seeing bounty. The latter reported a 47% hike in membership in the three months to November compared to the previous quarter.

An Opinion Research Corp. poll, sponsored by eHarmony, found 57% of Americans worry more about their love lives amidst the credit crunch. Married men were most affected, with 63% stressed over love.

And 75% of poll-takers between 25 and 34 worried whether the economy would negatively impact their love lives. Younger, single respondents were more likely to pursue a relationship as a result of these concerns.

Older respondents, which were more likely to be married, still worried financial issues would harm their existing relationships. "There are often more fights over bills and household budgets" among couples in climates like this one, Gonzaga pointed out.

The Opinion/eHarmony poll comprised 1,092 users. Meanwhile, a survey by Avalanche LLC — which operates date.com, matchmaker.com and amor.com — found 84% of people are spending more time online or over the phone before meeting face-to-face.

With all that in mind, it bodes well for the online dating industry that the Dow is down 35% this year.

Online dating services became aggressive advertisers in '07, with eHarmony spending the most: $110.1 million in total as of February last year. March.com followed, spending $66.4 million in total.

Their efforts weren't wasted. Prior to 2008, Mediamark Research found US adults were increasingly receptive to online dating, which was previously stigmatized as an arena for the desperate and unloveable. Men were slightly more likely to log onto an online dating site (52.2% versus 47.8%), and people between 18-34 consisted of over half of the online dating population. Single parents were significantly more likely than average to pursue a 'net-based romance.

The face of online dating in general has evolved since then. Online speed dating debuted late last year. And last month, online dating conglomerate eHarmony lost a three-year-old suit for refusing to match gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The company will launch a gay dating site, "Compatible Partners," in early 2009

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Twitter Groups

Twitter Groups: "TwittGroups.com

Who said that Twitter needs to have Groups?
Now you can create your own Group tag and invite your friends on Twitter to join you. Expand your Twitter experience by sharing links and allowing other to follow you and join your group.

Create a new Group or Join an existing group. Follow people with the same interests as you. Find new people to follow. Let people follow you. Share your favorite website links.

Create and promote your own groups... It is that simple...

Create A Twitter Group
Join A Twitter Group"

Monday, December 8, 2008

Ad-Spending Forecasts Are Glum

Estimates Vary, but Economic Crisis Is Expected to Spur Cuts in U.S., Abroad

For the advertising and media industries, the worst is yet to come, according to some of Madison Avenue's most closely watched forecasts.

Fallout from the global financial crisis will bring cuts in total ad spending next year both in the U.S. and abroad, though predictions vary widely. Publicis Groupe media agency ZenithOptimedia expects U.S. ad spending to drop 6.2% in 2009 to $161.8 billion. WPP's agency GroupM sees a decline of 3% to $157 billion.

Continued growth in emerging markets will help offset declines in North America and Western Europe, according to both firms, which predict that global ad spending will decline by 0.2% in 2009.

Both companies plan to present their forecasts Monday morning at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. Their predictions have been keenly anticipated as industry observers seek signs of how severe an impact the economic downturn will have on the ad business.

Another high-profile forecaster, Robert J. Coen, senior vice president and director of forecasting at Interpublic Group's Magna, also plans to present his predictions at the conference Monday. IPG declined to release its forecasts ahead of time.

Forecasts from Zenith and GroupM represent differing views on ad spending in 2008. Zenith says the current ad spending downturn started in the third quarter and has accelerated through the end of the year, with U.S. ad spending down 3.8% in 2008 to $172.5 billion. Group M is predicting that U.S. ad spending increased 0.3% this year to $162 billion.

In addition to weakness in spending from automotive and financial advertisers, GroupM predicts that retailers will be under pressure following the critical holiday sales season. It says that while it has yet to see wholesale cancellations among its clients, advertisers are now watching every penny.

Spending cuts probably will be most severe for newspapers, magazines and radio as advertisers shift dollars to digital media. One bright spot continues to be Internet, which will keep on growing, albeit not as quickly as in recent years. Online ad spending is expected to increase 5% in 2009, down from 16% growth in 2008, according to GroupM. TV spending also should fare relatively well in the downturn. Advertisers are familiar with using that model to build brands, and TV viewing tends to rise in recessions because TV is a low-cost entertainment option, according to Zenith.

Still, these forecasts paint rosier pictures than recent predictions from Wall Street analysts, which also are split.

Just last week, Fitch Ratings cautioned that U.S. ad spending next year would drop between 6% and 9%, in line with the steep downturn experienced in 2001 following the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. That year was the worst ad recession since 1970.

Fitch predicts that the current downturn will extend well into 2010, probably causing broad pullbacks in both the national and the local markets, pressure across a wide spectrum of advertising categories including retail, auto and financial services, and a glut of ad space thanks to the Web and other emerging media.

UBS is forecasting that U.S. ad spending will fall 6% in 2009 but doesn't anticipate the ad spending decline will be as steep as in 2001.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Social Networkers Aren’t There for Ads



DECEMBER 5, 2008

Users want to communicate with each other, not necessarily with brands.

Monetizing social networks was challenging enough before the economic news got so gloomy—it will get even harder now. That’s because the huge traffic numbers at MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and the rest do not necessarily translate into ad dollars.

More than one-half of the US population surveyed uses social networking sites, according to IDC, but the ad dollars have not followed. The research company found more than 75% of social network site users logged in at least once a week and 57% did so daily. IDC also said more than 61% of those users spent more than 30 minutes per session on social network sites, and 38% remained parked for 1 hour or more.

Good news for marketers, right? Not necessarily. Only 57% of social network site users said they clicked on an ad in the past year, compared with 79% of all Internet consumers.

Barak Rabinowitz, co-founder of Amuso, a site that invites users to create and participate in entertainment contests and game shows, described the challenge of monetizing social networks as the “elephant in the room” of online advertising. Writing in VentureBeat, Mr. Rabinowitz said: “[It’s] 400 million social networkers creating and consuming content, clustering around shared interests and activities—all who have yet to be tapped in any major way by Web marketers.

“Search continues to be the most lucrative advertising strategy. Users are specifically seeking information in that arena. On social networks, people are primarily concerned with communicating with their friends, not looking to buy items or services.”

Despite phenomenal growth, social networks have yet to reach online advertising nirvana—that heady place where behavioral targeting tools aim for specific groups with offers specially tailored to members’ interests. It’s a place where marketers are able to serve ads, promotions and offers to friends of friends based on a pal’s recommendation, and where word-of-mouth marketing spreads like a flu virus in January to create waves of self-selecting consumers eager to interact with marketers.

However, IDC found just 3% of users polled said it was appropriate for publishers to use their data (contact information and the like) for advertising. The report referred to ad targeting on social networks as a “stillborn” idea.

Given the tepid situation for advertising on social networks, coupled with the deepening recession, what is the prognosis?

In May 2008, eMarketer projected advertisers would spend $1.4 billion to place ads on online social networks this year. eMarketer also forecast ad spending on social networks would reach $2.4 billion in 2011.

With the country in recession and online ad spending growth slowing, social network ad spending will be affected even more heavily. eMarketer will issue a new US social network ad spending forecast later this month.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Not ye olde banners


Nov 27th 2008 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition


Internet advertising will be relatively unscathed in the downturn

Illustration by David Simonds
Illustration by David Simonds


AT THE beginning of the year Jeff Zucker, the boss of NBC Universal, a big television and film company, told an audience of TV executives that their biggest challenge was to ensure “that we do not end up trading analogue dollars for digital pennies”. He meant that audiences were moving online faster than advertisers, thus leaving media companies short-changed. Now, near the end of the year, the situation looks even worse, as the recession threatens to turn even the analogue dollars into pennies. Will this hasten the shift towards internet advertising, or will it decline too?

Advertising rises and falls with the economy, though how much is a matter of debate. Randall Rothenberg, the boss of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade association for digital advertisers, points to the remarkable stability of advertising at about 2% of GDP since 1919, when the data began to be collected. This would suggest that ad budgets will move roughly in line with economic output.

But Mary Meeker, an internet analyst at Morgan Stanley, believes that modern ad budgets rise and fall much more than GDP does. According to her estimates, if the economy stops growing, ad spending is likely to fall by 4%. If the economy shrinks by 2%, overall ad spending may fall by 10%. As for the online segment, recent history is cause for pessimism. Between 2000 and 2002, during the dotcom recession, online ad spending in America fell by 27%.

Yet the web has changed a lot since 2002. Back then, gaudy display “banners” on web portals such as Yahoo! and MSN were the preferred technology. These still exist, but they now account for less than 20% of online ad spending. More than half goes to search advertising on Google and rival search-engines, which place small text ads next to results based on the keyword of the query, and charge only when a user clicks on them. In brand advertising, “rich media” ads are taking over from banners. These allow users to interact by clicking, so their engagement can be tracked.

All this makes spending on advertising much less speculative, so that it starts to be treated instead as a cost of sales. This is one reason why online advertising should suffer less than other sorts. This week eMarketer, a market-research firm, predicted that online-advertising spending in America, which makes up about half the global total, will increase by 8.9% in 2009, rather than the 14.5% it had forecast in August. The firm thinks search advertising will grow by 14.9% and rich-media ads by 7.5%, whereas display ads will grow by 6.6%. In short, online advertising will continue to expand in the recession—just not as quickly as previously expected.

Another reason for optimism, says Mr Rothenberg, is that online advertising is making obsolete the old distinction between marketing spending “above the line” and “below” it. In the jargon, above-the-line spending drives brand “awareness” (probably on television) or “consideration” by a consumer planning a purchase (probably in a newspaper). Such spending is often slashed in recessions. Below-the-line spending includes promotions or coupons to whet the consumer’s “preference” for the brand as he nears a purchase, or schemes such as frequent- flyer miles to increase his “loyalty” afterwards. These budgets are more robust.

Online marketing increasingly aims for awareness, consideration, preference and loyalty all at once. Mr Rothenberg gives the example of a rich-media ad for Kraft, a food company, in which a yummy image raises brand awareness, a click reveals a recipe that increases consideration, another click provides coupons and yet another click initiates a game that can be shared with friends. Marketing managers can therefore defend their online budgets as being both above and below the line.

The industry is also cautiously excited about two new forms of online advertising. The first is video. So far nobody has found a way to advertise inside online clips on a large scale. YouTube, which Google bought for no less than $1.65 billion two years ago, is “a huge end-user success,” says Eric Schmidt, Google’s boss, “and we’re awaiting the monetisation.” This is his way of saying that YouTube, despite showing 5 billion video clips a month, has trivial ad revenues. The site is experimenting with text “overlays” inside clips and sponsored videos for specific search terms, but it is early days. “If only we could schedule the revolution,” jokes Larry Page, one of Google’s founders.



If something close to one is in fact near, it may not come from YouTube. Ads on Hulu, a video site that is a joint venture between Mr Zucker’s NBC Universal and News Corp, another media giant, appear to be selling well. Hulu is different from other video sites in that it only shows professionally produced videos, such as programmes and films from NBC, Fox, MGM and Warner Brothers. It runs a relatively small number of short, fun “pre-roll” ads. These incorporate some of the advantages of the web. Viewers can, for instance, vote on how good a particular ad was.

The lesson appears to be that the problem was not the format but the fact that so much of the footage online, especially on YouTube, is “user-generated”. Brands are wary of putting their ads next to amateur clips because they may be boring or offensive. This is less likely to be a problem with professional content. From a small base, says Mr Rothenberg, online-video ads grew from 1% to 3% of all interactive ads in America in the first half of the year.

The other hope is for ads on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. They are experimenting with a variety of advertising formats, though none has yet proved very successful. Their big weakness is that users go to social-networking sites to socialise, not to shop (as they might on search engines). Their biggest strength is that users spend so much time there. Two years ago 11% of time spent online was at Yahoo! and MSN, two web portals; now their share is down to 5%, and 5% of online time is spent at YouTube and Facebook.

Online traffic, in other words, is moving towards sites where advertising has so far proved ineffective and is therefore cheap. This, says Ms Meeker, presents an opportunity for innovation and arbitrage by clever marketing managers as they cut their conventional ad budgets. It may also provide a glimmer of hope for the advertising industry as it enters recession.

Web Marketing That Hopes to Learn What Attracts a Click


ONLINE advertisers are not lacking in choices: They can display their ads in any color, on any site, with any message, to any audience, with any image.

Now, a new breed of companies is trying to tackle all of those options and determine what ad works for a specific audience. They are creating hundreds of versions of clients’ online ads, changing elements like color, type font, message, and image to see what combination draws clicks on a particular site or from a specific audience.

It is technology that could cause a shift in the advertising world. The creators and designers of ads have long believed that a clever idea or emotional resonance drives an ad’s success. But that argument may be difficult to make when analysis suggests that it is not an ad’s brilliant tagline but its pale-yellow background and sans serif font that attracts customers.

The question is, “how do we combine creative energy, which is a manual and sort of qualitative exercise, with the raw processing power of computing, which is all about quantitative data?” said Tim Hanlon, executive vice president of VivaKi Ventures, the investment unit of Publicis Groupe.

“I think it’s clear that the traditional process of agencies is clearly not going to survive the digital era without significant changes to our approaches,” Mr. Hanlon said.

The push to automate the creative elements of ad units is coming from two companies in California, not Madison Avenue.

Adisn, based in Long Beach, and Tumri, based in Mountain View, are working both sides of the ad equation. On one, they are trying to figure out who is looking at a page by using a mix of behavioral targeting and analysis of the page’s content. On the other side, they are assembling an ad on the fly that is meant to appeal to that person.

Both companies assume there is no perfect version of an ad, and instead assemble hundreds of different versions that are displayed on Web sites where their clients have bought ad space, showing versions of an ad to actual consumers as they browse the Web.

That might lead to finding that an ad for a baby supply store is more popular with young mothers when it features a bottle instead of diapers.

(Adisn and Tumri both measure the ad’s effectiveness based on parameters the advertiser sets, like how many people clicked on the ad or how many people actually bought something after clicking on it. They compare those with standard ads they run as part of a control group.)

Adisn’s approach has been to build a database of related words so it can assess the content of a Web site or blog based on the words on its pages.

Adisn then buys space on Web sites, and uses its information to find an appropriate ad to show visitors to those sites. If a visitor views pages about beaches, weather and Hawaii, it might suggest that the visitor is interested in Hawaiian travel.

Based on that analysis, Adisn’s system pulls different components — actors, fonts, background images — to make an ad. For example, it might show an ad with a blue background, an image of a beach, and a text about tickets to Hawaii. “Once we’ve built this huge database of hundreds of millions of relationships” between words, said Andy Moeck, the chief executive of Adisn, the system can “make a very good real-time decision as to what is the most relevant or appropriate campaign we could show.”

Simple Green, the cleaning brand, began working with Adisn this year to advertise a new line of products called Simple Green Naturals.

“If it’s a woman looking at a kitchen with a stainless steel refrigerator, they can show a stainless steel product,” said Jessica Frandson, the vice president for marketing for Simple Green. While Ms. Frandson gave Adisn a general idea of what she wanted, she also let the agency do almost random combinations with about 10 percent of her ads to see which of those combinations had the highest click-through rates.

“If it wants to be purple and orange, if that’s going to be appealing to my customer, then so be it,” she said.

Even Mr. Moeck said he was often surprised by the success of certain ads. “Some of it, I just scratch my head and say, ‘I have no idea,’ ” he said.

Tumri’s approach is slightly different. It creates a template for ads, including slots for the message, the color, the image and other elements.

Unlike Adisn, it does not buy ad space, but lets clients — like Sears and Best Buy — choose and buy space on sites themselves. And rather than building a contextual database like Adisn, Tumri uses whatever targeting approach advertisers are already using, whether it is behavioral or contextual or demographic, and assembles an ad on the fly based on that information.

“It’s reporting back to the advertiser and agency saying, ‘Guess what? The soccer mom in Indiana likes background three, which was pink, likes image four, which was the S.U.V., and likes marketing message 12, about room, safety and comfort,” said Calvin Lui, chief of Tumri.

Some advertisers are using that information just to see which version of the ad works best, but Mr. Lui emphasized that the appropriate ad is not static, and changes all the time as content on the page changes.

While the planners and buyers in advertising agencies are intrigued by the idea of measuring each part of an ad, the creative staff that designs ads is less focused on measurement and more focused on the overall effect.

“I think the creative community has to get very comfortable with results-based outcomes in marketing,” said Mr. Hanlon, whose company has an interest in Tumri. “There are a lot of creative people who didn’t sign up for that kind of world.”

Bant Breen, the president of worldwide digital communications at Initiative, the Interpublic Group media buying and planning firm, had a similar view. “The traditional creative process right now is not structured to essentially deliver hundreds of permutations, or hundreds of ideas for messaging,” said Mr. Breen, whose firm is using Tumri to determine which ads are working.

“There’s no doubt that there will be a lot of data that can be collected that could be applied to the creative process.”

But, he said, “that’s not necessarily an easy discussion to have with great art directors.”

Monday, December 1, 2008

AFFILIATE BLOG :: ChrisDOT - Beta Stage

ChrisDOT - Beta Stage

ChrisDOT - Beta Stage

Widgets Are Made for Marketing, So Why Aren't More Advertisers Using Them?

Bob Garfield Examines a Tool That Is Cheap, Easy and a Great Expression of the Post-Advertising Age

Some guy lives in Albuquerque, which is great, because it is sunny and really convenient to Vista Encantada and Hoffmantown. But he has relatives in Denver, a limited budget, a lot of outstanding family obligations and a seven-hour, 450-mile gulf between them. Then, one hot and dry Thursday, he's sitting at a computer, and it goes ... "DING!"

An icon on his desktop has some breaking news: a special Albuquerque-Denver fare on Southwest Airlines for $49 each way. It sends him that alert because he's asked for it, by downloading the Southwest "Ding" widget. Most of the time it just sits there, apparently idle, a tiny Southwest logo on a tiny Southwest tail section reminding him, at some extremely low level of consciousness, that Southwest exists.
BACKCOUNTRY.COM
Widget: Steep and Cheap

How It Works: Advises users of special deals -- mainly loss leaders -- that draw them into the online shopping experience.

Agency: In-house
But then it dings, and then he clicks, and, because Uncle Ramon and Aunt Ruth Ellen simply must be dealt with, he books.

"After the first year, we hit the 2 million mark for downloads," says Paul Sacco, senior manager for online strategy and development at Southwest Airlines. "And it's still performing." In the third quarter of 2008, Ding generated 10 million clicks.

Wanna get away ... from the Old Model? Look no further than widgets, the mini software applications downloadable to browsers, desktops, social-networking pages, home pages and mobile phones. The widget may not be the holy grail, but it's arguably pretty damn grail-ish -- maybe the highest expression so far of online marketing in the Post-Advertising Age. And though it is very much on the cutting edge of Web 2.0, it is based on the hoariest of principles. In fact, to be properly visionary on this subject, you must begin by looking way back to the future.

For the past half-century (and for about five more minutes) TV advertising has been at the apex of marketing communications. Then, in no particular order, newspapers, magazines, radio, out of home, direct mail, point of purchase, collateral (brochures, for example) and -- in the murky, mucky darkness at the very bottom of the deepest abyss of marketing prestige -- advertising specialties.

For example, a ballpoint pen emblazoned with your insurance agent's logo. Or a wall calendar, fridge magnet, coffee mug, yardstick, foam beer-can sleeve, ashtray, key fob, emery board, pocket diary -- any cheap giveaway item meant to remind the consumer of you every single time she measures fabric or swigs a Pabst or files her nails.

Not that the 30-second spot represents high culture, exactly, but it's hard for mere words to convey how déclassé the advertising-specialty niche is. Still, I'll try: What funnel cakes are to cuisine, free fly swatters are to marketing. In a digital world, advertising specialties are as analog as you can possibly get.

Until they go digital. Branded widgets are the refrigerator magnets of the Brave New World. These compact, portable little software apps -- from video players to countdown clocks to makeup simulators -- are inexpensive to distribute, free to the user and (often enough) distinctly useful. At a minimum, they carry an ad message wherever they go.

That's at a minimum. At a maximum, the widget is something like the magical connection between marketers and consumers, not only replacing the one-way messaging long dominated by media advertising but vastly outperforming it. Because online the link is literal and direct, and along its path, data of behavior, preference and intention are left at every step. Oh, and your target consumers actually go out searching for your branded gimcrack. Oh, and they display it within easy reach. Oh, and they pass copies along to their friends and associates. Oh, and because they've been turned on by a friend, they are hospitable and receptive recipients. And, oh, in case this didn't quite register the first time I mentioned it, the barriers to entry are preposterously low. "The money is a joke," says Hillel Cooperman, ex-Microsoft big shot and founder of small Seattle software-development shop Jackson Fish Market. "It's a rounding error in the marketing business."

Ditto that, says Michael Lazerow, CEO of branded-application house Buddy Media, New York, especially when it comes to the cost of advertising (or, as he calls it, "app-vertising") the widget itself. "It is so cheap. This is the steal of the century."

That's because 500 million social-network users, each generating 1,200 page views per month, represent 600 billion monthly opportunities for an ad impression. Hence, almost everything is a remnant, and "you can buy inventory for basically nothing," he says.

Of course, that invites online marketers to embrace another throwback concept: an endless fusillade of mass messaging with no distinct target -- which is pretty much what digital marketing was supposed to be the solution for, wasn't it? But more on the economics of widgetry to follow. For the moment, let's look at some examples that demonstrate why, at least for the time being, it represents the very apotheosis of digital marketing. As my pal Jessica Greenwood of London's Contagious magazine sums up, the widget's value is "like a basic unit of utility. The marketing becomes part of the product."
  • None more so than Miles, a 3-D desktop avatar that looks like a refugee from "Teletubbies" but resides on your desktop to encourage (i.e., nag) you to run, and keeps track of your progress via the astonishing Nike Plus technology. He also keeps you apprised of local weather, running events, promotions. And he organizes your RSS feeds, so you can easily download to your iPod. From Tribal DDB.
  • UPS Widget. This guy looks like Miles' tan cousin. He allows you to schedule and track shipments worldwide with a click or two. If you are any sort of frequent shipper, why wouldn't you install him on your desktop? From McCann, London, and Skinkers.
  • CokeTags is a Facebook app that displays your favorite links, allowing you to itemize your online self -- and keep track of who is following the trail of self you blaze. From the Advance Guard and Linkstorm.
  • Steep and Cheap is an alert mechanism from the Backcountry.com catalog that advises users of special deals -- mainly loss leaders -- that draw them into the online-shopping experience. It's essentially like the Southwest Ding and works because the audience is as much a social network of the outdoorsy as a list of gear customers. In-house.
  • InStyle's Hollywood Hair Makeover allows users to lift the coiffures of Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, et al. and superimpose them on their own photos -- for fun and/or to show a stylist. A superficiality bull's-eye! From Buddy Media.
  • So you're in Singapore, old enough to drink in bars and young enough for that to be a lifestyle. Download Johnnie Walker's Jennie widget, and there is a totally cute avatar that guides you to the coolest saloon events and then, if you're half in the bag, safely home. From OgilvyOne.
Utility plus brand
Kind of hard to imagine users installing and using these ingenious apps and not appreciating the sponsor every single time -- a concept that for, say, a banner ad is even more unimaginable. As high-tech entrepreneur and former digital-marketing analyst Peter Kim puts it, "When you can combine utility with the purpose of your brand, that's the opposite of why people hate marketing. Instead of fooling them with the old brand-marketing song and dance, it's not a promise; it's a reality: 'This is what the traffic is like.
NIKE
Widget: Miles, a desktop avatar

How It Works: Encourages you to run; keeps track of your progress via Nike Plus technology. He also keeps you apprised of local weather, running events and promotions.

Agency: Tribal DDB
This is what the weather is. This is what the stock market is right now.'"

Yeah, I'm grateful to John's Hardware when I kill insects dead, dead, dead with my free fly swatter, and I'm grateful to Johnnie Walker when it helps me find the best Singapore bar and my stumbling way back to my bed, bed, bed. That's the kind of dynamic that gets folks excited, folks such as Newsweek and GigaOm's Om Malik, who each declared 2007 "the year of the widget." And why? Because the marketer essentially gets to set up shop where you live, work and play.

"Inside the destination and the context people are already engaged in," says Niall Kennedy, founder of consultancy Hat Trick Media and host a month ago of the third-annual Widget Summit in San Francisco. "I liken this to a small Cincinnati retailer setting up shop in all the cities of the world instead of waiting for people to come to visit Cincinnati."

Yet in 2008 the entire segment will amount to something like $100 million. That's not nothing, but even in the midst of economic implosion, it's a sum even an endangered species such as NBC Universal can shake out of the sofa cushions -- which drives software developer Hillel Cooperman right up the wall. As he ventures out to AdTech and other prominent forums about marketing's future, he is confounded by his inability to capture advertisers' attention. Even as they bemoan the continuing collapse of traditional media and worry aloud about where to spend their money, he says, it's as if he's invisible. "And I'm jumping up and down. 'Hellooooo! Over here!'" he says, the frustration ringing in his voice. "All the stars are aligning. Everybody around me says, 'You're in the right place at the right time.' Yet it's still like pulling teeth."

Hmm. Magical connection. Pulling teeth. Those two images are hard to reconcile, but let's do try. There are plenty of reasons marketers have been slow to exploit the possibilities -- and why, no matter how grail-ish it can be, the widget's place in even a fully digital marketing economy may have a relatively low upper limit.

"The whole concept of a widget is just misstated or overblown," says Ben Kunz, director of strategic planning for Mediassociates, a media-planning firm. "It's not the channel; it's what you do with it that's important."

Kunz actually likes widgets a great deal; he's just queasy to hear them oversold, given what he says are their inherent limitations -- not the least of which is the difference between engaging with a piece of software and engaging with the sponsoring brand. "There's a lot of hyperbole out there about engagement," he says.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Widget: Ding

How It Works: Park it on your desktop, tell Southwest Airlines the prices and destinations you're looking for and it will update you on the latest deals from Southwest.

Agency: GSD&M
For instance, if Schick Quattro sponsors a widget that lets a guy embed his face on the hunky body engaged in a pillow fight with two barely legal teens -- and it has -- does this carry over to razor purchases? "Does throwing pillows at each other," Kunz asks, rhetorically we suppose, "really influence anyone?"

Even if the answer is yes, there are plenty of other issues to consider.
  • Nonstandardization. There are lots of incompatible platforms: desktop, iGoogle, mobile, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Pending software-code universality, you must create a half-dozen or more versions of every widget.
  • Dubious relevance to low-interest categories. What makes perfect sense for Johnnie Walker and Nike may not necessarily apply to Charmin.
  • Cost. While, as Cooperman correctly observes, the cost of creating a widget is enticingly small, and the cost of distributing one is low compared with media advertising, the price tag is also typically open-ended. Marketers can be socked with fees up to $5 every time some Courtney or Madison embeds a widget on her MySpace page. So if you get lucky, you could also get unlucky. "Open-ended" is hard to budget for.
  • Scale. There is only so much space on a desktop or a Facebook page or a mobile-phone screen. As Kunz observes, "Sure, you can give them utility, but there are only so many slots for that utility. In my world, there may be 100 things that I use a computer for. So conceivably you can create a widget for each one of those things, but you've limited the inventory." That means the vast majority of marketers are shut out the vast majority of the time.
Then there is the Great Widgetry Schism, a fundamental philosophical difference among users and developers as to what the technology is best suited for. In commissioning a widget, do you wish to be all the rage with those notoriously fickle Courtneys, who create viral sensations that spread far and wide but quickly peter out? Or do you shoot for endurance, residing on home pages and desktops perhaps in perpetuity? The bias among widget shops seems to be entertainment over utility, essentially using widgets much like ads: to briefly get users attention and then start over when that attention wanes.

"It's a campaign model," says Liza Hausman, VP-marketing for Gigya, the largest widget-distribution agency. "Advertisers are still going to have to move the needle in a particular time frame. There are people who are looking at widgets as customer relations management or long-term dialogues. That's not where we focus."

SCHICK QUATTRO
Widget: Trim Flixx

How It Works: Upload your face onto a hunky guy's body and pillow fight with barely legal teens. We're not sure why.
Hausman says this model also conforms well with consumer behavior, especially among the habitués of MySpace, et al. There, she says, a user's page is an ever-changing expression of self, which often is expressed in the form of a showcase for the user's latest discovery. In short, says Hausman, "users like to update their pages." In addition, if you assume that utility-based widgets tend to reside on desktops, vs. social-networking pages, the utility imperative comes at the expense of virulence.

"That is a one-to-one relationship," Hausman says. "That widget is seen only by the person who put it there. Those widgets help you get through the day: news, weather, info," compared with social-network-page widgets that reside "where people are putting a public face on their world. And the widget there has a 1-to-many, many exposure."

That argument would seem to be backed up by data. A study by online-market-research firm Marketing Evolution found that return on investment from widgets increases in approximately direct proportion to virulence. The study, of campaigns from Adidas and video-game publisher Electronic Arts within MySpace, found that 70% of the ROI was attributable to consumer-to-consumer proliferation. The consulting firm calls this the "momentum effect," and clearly the momentum is a function of the kind of sharing that, say, the Southwest Ding doesn't much enjoy.

"I have no vested interest," says Marketing Evolution CEO Rex Briggs. "But I do tend to lean that way, mainly because we know there are decay curves to advertising. Keeping it novel and fresh generates a larger response. Part of it is the ability and desire to pass along what you're saying. Something new makes it newsworthy, worthy of passing it along to others, and there's value to that."

On the other hand, companies such as Gigya absolutely do have a vested interest and a structural bias against the enduring-utility model: Duration militates against repeat business. If a client successfully lands a widget on a zillion desktops or social-networking pages, and it stays there, the client has far less incentive to commission subsequent efforts, which, obviously, is bad news for the software designers and distributors. Furthermore, the problem with entertainment widgets such as games is the same one that afflicts any form of viral marketing: Virulence is hard to achieve. No matter how many Courtneys are out there, it's really hard to be the Next Big Thing that, however briefly, captures their imaginations. As Cooperman puts it, "Games are just like music and movies and books. It's a hit-driven business. I think it's fair to say nobody knows how to make a hit in any of those industries."

JOHNNIE WALKER
Widget: Jennie, a cute avatar

How It Works:If you're in a strange land and looking for a drink, Jennie will guide you to the bar and back to your hotel.

Agency: OgilvyOne
Whichever side of the schism you embrace, widgets offer advantages that hardly any other marketing tool can match. Chief among them: portability. Can't get people to visit your website? Once they visit, you can't lure them back? Try the amazing new Website-in-a-Can! It's compact! You can store it on your desktop, your Bebo page . . . or you can fold it up and put it in your toolbar! Fun time, party time, anytime!

And it really, really works! Logs data like a website, enables direct commerce like a website and becomes a destination like a website, only without the user having to leave the virtual house. She merely goes to the cupboard and opens up a can. For free, of course. Because Website-in-a-Can is so cheap to produce, folks can just give it away.

Buddy Media, one of the biggest creators of branded apps, fills two floors of a slightly skeezy office building on Broadway just above Columbus Circle. It used to be a Fred Astaire Dance Studio, with a ground-level Indian restaurant and water seeping down the bare-brick walls after every rain. Now it's a code factory, where workers load raw zeroes and ones into their Macs and forge software parts -- parts that are in turn assembled in various combinations to form custom applications. Using that small inventory of a few hundred in-stock parts, Buddy Media can turn out widgets fast and cheap.

"If you're going to do a 728-by-90 banner ad," says CEO Lazerow, "you might as well do an app. Because it's going to take the same amount of time and cost." What he doesn't advise is buying for reach and frequency. His buzz term is "reach and engagement," the idea of cultivating a few people instead of pestering a lot more. "Instead of reaching 80 million people, let's reach a million in your target and spend 10 minutes with them." Buddy Media has no difficulty establishing the engagement part. Its hairdo widget for InStyle magazine had more than 300,000 installs, 185,000 in the first six weeks. The average time spent on each visit was seven minutes -- three hairstyles' worth -- and nearly half of the users returned to it more than 25 times. "They basically cost less than traditional banners, and you get 75 times greater time spent than with regular banners and five times more time spent than with TV ads."

One believer among his clients is Keith S. Levy, VP-marketing for Anheuser-Busch, which created a Bud Light Dude Test widget to leverage [Note to readers: I have just used the word "leverage" as a verb. This will never happen again.] a Bud Light ad called "Dude."

"The multiplier effect of the web is extremely powerful," Levy says. Though the 300,000 downloads are laughable compared with a TV buy, "you're really getting a relationship with the consumer." Another widget, created just for the lucky winners of the Bud Light Party Cruise promotion, for instance, established an ongoing community of 4,000-some evangelists such as rowyco, who (according to his MySpace page) is a 24-year-old Arizonan whose nickname is an obscene acronym, whose slogan is "Hardcore for Life," who likes country and metal and tricked-out motorcycles, and who is working on a business degree at Paradise Valley Community College. His friends are Judith, Diana, Courtney (!), Crazy Christene, Justin, The Rouch and -- right at the top of the list -- Bud Light Party Cruise.

Compare this effort, for instance, with Bud TV, which at a cost of $15 million for the first two years alone, attempted to create a content destination more or less paralleling the tube. What Anheuser-Busch earned for its trouble was a squizzillion views of the hilarious commercial "Swear Jar," the enduring enmity of many state attorneys general, and zero MySpace friends. One day in late November, Bud TV's global web ranking, according to the online-analytics site Alexa, was 26,253,061. To put that in perspective, moisttowelettemuseum.com was ranked 5,681,20947. As they say over at A-B, lessons were learned. Though he won't characterize Bud TV as a boondoggle, when pressed to look at the relative efficiency of Bud TV and pocket-change widgetry, Levy offers, "Did we have to build a stationary network where people have to go and get stuff? No."

Of course, engagement -- and even community -- cannot be directly correlated to sales. But, excuse me, apart from direct-response advertising, what can? As for the other outstanding issues casting suspicion on the sustainability of widgetry, let's take one more look:
  • Platform incompatibility. While some functionality is sacrificed, something close to universal code is not far off. Lazerow says by the spring, his apps will be, with a minimum of tweaking, one size fits all.
  • What works for a sexy brand might not work for Charmin. Upon further reflection, why not? Given about two seconds thought, I came up with about 10 toilet-paper-relevant ideas in varying degrees of offensiveness, from SoftCam (rotating video of a basket of kittens, baby butts, ducklings, etc.) to a Full-of-Shit-o-Meter (feeding news quotes from celebs, athletes and pols that are transparently disingenuous or worse).
  • Cost. Yes, $5 an install can add up, but many vendors charge much less. More to the point, though, who says that the calendar is the right allocation tool for marketing expenditures? As long as we're reinventing commerce, should we not consider the possibility that marketing programs will be financed for as long as they perform, without arbitrary campaign boundaries? "I guess I can't understand the marketers' narrow-minded definition of the controlled calendar, because that's not how consumers' minds work," says Briggs. "It's like Coca-Cola saying, 'All those people with the Coke memorabilia from the '50s, I want it out of their house, because that's not the Coke message today.'"
  • Shelf space. Even if you accept that there is a finite amount of real estate on the world's 500 million social-networking pages, the universe is expanding by the second. "Saturate the market?" Lazerow says. "We're not even close. I can't see a world in which we're going to saturate this market."
Audience migration
Oh, and one final thing. If you are a marketer who's spent the past decade investing in a robust website to attract customers and prospects, and you're therefore disinclined to cannibalize your traffic by giving away Website-in-a-Can, don't get too smug. Your audience is making that decision for you.

INSTYLE
Widget: Hollywood Hair Makeover

How It Works: Steal the hottest hairstyles from the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz and plop them on your own head.

Agency: Buddy Media
In the past three months, according to Alexa, Apple.com's page views per user are down 9%; Comcast.net is down 1%; Dell.com, down 22%; AT&T.com, down 18%; Xbox.com, down 9% and so on as corporate e-bastions begin to experience the same audience fragmentation that is killing old media. "As popular as your site may be," says Kennedy, the reality is that people are actually visiting Yahoo, MySpace, Google and Facebook thousands of times more than they're visiting you."

Tony Zito of MediaForge, which handles Steep and Cheap, calls this "the slow death of the destination website." Consider the source -- the man sells widgets -- but even if he's hyperventilating, the trends are a bit ominous.

If Mohammed has indeed cut back on his visits to the mountain, it may be time for the mountain to go to Mohammed.

After all -- Ding! -- the fares are pretty low.