It's still the wild west when it comes to mobile ad tracking and ad serving. Although some agencies have started to test out various third party ad serving solutions, the delivery of many campaigns are still reported on by publisher, ad network, and rich media company ad servers. Many of these ad servers are proprietary ad servers with a range of capabilities.

There are also companies that are in the process of developing their own "mobile cookie" or proprietary tracking solutions. Some of these solutions require the implementation of third party tracking tags that are Javascript tags. Javascript tags are not yet widely accepted by mobile publishers and ad networks for various reasons from concerns over security to lack of ability to implement it in the ad server. It is much like the early days of online advertising (think circa 1999) when online ads were still primarily gif and jpgs, only pixel tracking was common, and publisher ad server reporting was the norm. We are in a very similar stage right now in mobile and we need to come together as an industry to be open to new methods so we can start to provide better measurement solutions for our clients.

Naturally as more Smartphones come into the market, we will see more rich media advertising in mobile which will help drive ad serving improvements just as we saw online. Until then, let's push for testing new tracking options in the market so we aren't stuck partying like it's 1999.

Rumors of Facebook’s advertising fall from grace are greatly exaggerated.

We could throw some bricks at GM—claim that their announcement yanking $10 million in advertising from Facebook is a pure publicity stunt from its CMO, telling the ad industry it can’t be swayed by anyone.

But the more likely story is this.

Digital Advertising Measurement Is A Lie & GM Believes It
GM has failed to be the truly analytical advertiser it should be.  It has believed the lie of online advertising followed by a herd of advertisers.  The lie isn’t that Facebook ads don’t work.

The lie is that measurement of online advertising uses woefully flawed systems built 15 years ago.  90% of top advertisers are still falling victim to this lie.  GM is using antiquated measurement equivalent to a yardstick only 2 inches long.

It’s called the last ad problem.

Even the smartest Silicon Valley technologists and Madison Avenue experts are barely familiar with the chasm of the last ad problem, so it’s worth illustrating:

Last Ad In Wins is For Losers
Imagine an Internet purchase on Zappos.  A consumer sees a contextual display ad for a jacket on Facebook because their friend just liked or commented on it.  They open a different browser tab to surf Zappos.com.  Time goes by and they order the $300 jacket by typing the brand term “Zappos” into search and make a purchase.  100% of the success with current ad tracking systems goes to that last clicked ad, merely a navigational endpoint before purchase, not what got the consumer going.

So if 5, 15 or 25 ads were involved from the top of the conversion funnel to the bottom, the bottom one gets all credit.

You’ve heard of line cutters; these are funnel cutters—stealing all the credit by jumping in at the end.  Facebook, however, typically resides at the top and middle of the funnel.

All those legacy tracking systems, they have just one slot for which online ad is credited with success (display/search/ facebook/affiliate, etc).   Just one?

GM Failed Advertising 101
Are we to believe that college-educated media buyers on the GM account pouring many hours on optimization should accept there’s only one ad responsible for a conversion?  Only one?  Even though the advertiser may be investing in five channels…there’s only one ad responsible for a conversion?  There are never two, three, or perhaps 17?  Never?

Are we to believe that even though the purchase funnel was created in 1898 by E. Lewis there’s no purchase funnel online…beginning with Awareness, Intent, Desire, and action.  None?

It’s a lie, and this is the reason why Facebook got decapitated by $10 million, but GM obviously doesn’t realize it.

Ford Gets an A+
I spoke to a senior executive at Ford’s ad agency this week.  And although they are not fully engaging attribution modeling which solves the last ad problem, Ford understands that a team of ads contribute to conversions.  Intuitively, Ford knows that Facebook is in the top and middle part of the purchase funnel.

But being cut by a huge brand, ignorant of the biggest problem in online advertising, is also a wake-up call to Facebook.

Facebook Needs Attribution
Facebook has mostly been a closed system when it comes to analytics and technology like view-through pixels and viewable impression measurement.  In some respects, who can blame Facebook for being a little closed in its platform when tracking systems cut out everything except the bottom of the funnel?  But if Facebook continues to allow its advertisers to operate by measuring with yardstick that’s 2 inches long, it’s not helping advertisers or itself.

In the meantime, though, a Facebook intern may take this article, and post it on a Facebook page with a title of “Got Measurement?”  I can think of 10 million reasons to get measurement.

Mark Hughes is CEO of C3 Metrics

For those of you that track analytics or keyword reports, either on your own or through your agency, (not provided) should be old news. The not-so-recent search encryption update from Google has had a larger impact on analytics than expected, as (not provided) is polluting top keyword reports regardless of your industry. The update allows users that are logged into Google to encrypt their searches so that the keyword they used to find your site is not revealed in analytics and is instead (not provided). While this is a step forward for privacy – in theory (see below) – it has made the job of the Data Analysts and SEOs a bit harder. After all, if you don’t know which words your consumers are using to find your site, how can you properly target them online?

Now Firefox is getting in on the search encryption fun, if something like search encryption can really be considered fun. Their most recent browser update defaults to a private search, regardless of the search engine you’re using. In other words, if you’ve recently updated Firefox and have not changed your default settings, your search keyword is (not set) for Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Search marketers are not seeing which keyword search led you to their site when they check their Google Analytics.

Alone, these two updates may not have amounted to much, but together they are hiding a fairly large portion of data, enough to force consideration of what analytics does for you and how you can replace the lost information. While some articles are providing specific examples of the damage (not provided) can do, even anecdotally it is clear that marketers needed to take notice of this update. However, having less than 10% of your data affected is not usually enough to cause real damage or a change in approach. But what if over 20%, or up to 40% of your data is hidden? With (not set) being triggered by Firefox in addition to Google’s (not provided), that is just what is happening to some site owners. Needless to say, if you have full data for 1,000 keyword searches you’re going to be more effective targeting users than if you have the data for just 600 such searches.

Why isn’t (not provided) Showing Up in AdWords Data?

I have no quarrel with Firefox offering an update that could appeal to users and help to differentiate itself from other browsers (read: Explorer), but here is where I pick a bone with the change. Those paying for ad placement within the Google search network can see which keywords led to a user clicking on their ad. So if you’re paying Google, they are providing you with the keyword search of their logged in users; it is just for organic search, the type for which marketers can’t pay for top placement, that the privacy implementation is coming into play.

It is worth repeating that if you click on an ad, and Google gets money for that ad, they will “unblock” your private search. That is because it has already been sold to marketers at an arranged cost – the cost of the ad placement. But if you click on a natural result, and Google gets no money, you can keep your privacy. So that begs the question: Why update privacy now? While I can’t get inside Google’s head (if I could, I’d be rich) and say for sure “why now,” I can say that marketers should be looking at other ways to collect data if they want the complete picture.

What this all means is that SEOs and other online search marketers for small business, the types that can’t afford an Omniture or a Webtrends analytics platform, must ponder a day when Google’s free analytics goes away or is diluted. While Google Analytics is currently the most cost-effective option for site performance measurement for most businesses, the day when Google makes you pay for the best, most actionable data seems a bit closer now than it had been a few months ago.

Given that, it might be time to consider your options for replacing the lost information, though there is no impetus act on those ideas immediately (or as long as GA remains free). While solutions will vary with site data needs, some options include more in up-front data collection such as User Experience studies, or perhaps generating an e-mail database and CRM campaign to collect user information. There are a lot of ways to collect data, and if Google has any additional plans to shift the access to data, you need to be ready with other solutions.

It’s obvious, but sometimes it takes a mother to show us that the well-worn path is not always the right path. And this is why your mother can actually buy media better than you.

Some Historical Perspective

See, here’s what she knew that can help online marketers right now. All online ad tracking systems used today are legacy systems built 15 years ago.  They erroneously give all credit for a conversion to the very last ad in line.  So if 10 ads were involved from the top of the conversion funnel to the bottom, the bottom one gets all credit.  You’ve heard of line cutters (folks who cut in line), these are funnel cutters—stealing all the credit by jumping in at the end. Why do we still measure everything this way?  Because that’s the way it was done, and we’re following everyone right off the media cliff.

We Are To Believe What?
Today, all those tracking systems have just one slot for which an online ad is credited with success (display/search social media/affiliate, etc).  Just one?  Are we to believe that college-educated media buyers pouring many hours over optimization should accept there’s only one ad responsible for a conversion?  Only one?  Even though the advertiser may be investing in five channels…there’s only one ad responsible for a conversion?  There are never two, three, or perhaps 17?

Are we to believe that even though the purchase funnel was created in 1898 by E. Lewis there’s no purchase funnel online…beginning with Awareness, Intent, Desire, and Action.  None?

Committing Media Suicide
Of course, anyone who looked at this situation with some perspective (like your mom) would  draw some parallels.  Your mom knows it takes many dates before you get married in the real world--and in the online world, it takes many impressions and clicks to convert.  Not just one.

What would your mom say?  In a slightly surprised and slightly irritated tone, she’d say, “What are you doing?  Just because everyone else is doing it that way, why would you do that!!  If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?  Of course not; you’re smarter than that!”

Your mom is or was smarter than every online advertiser who’s not using an attribution model.  And if your mom can see it, your client and your boss are going to see it very soon.

Now What?
What moms do is take a very complex problem and make it simple.  Same thing with attribution. It involves millions of views and clicks and thousands of transactions and attribution when used with a two-way communication platform, makes it easy enough that even your mom could buy media better than you (if you continue using legacy ad tracking systems).

Here’s how.  In a fractional attribution model, 100% of revenue, say from a Zappos transaction, is split and attributed among Originators, Assists, Converters plus what we call a Roster.  This can be done so that all four pieces of the pie equal 100%, and each of these four has a very different pie percentage--by industry, and by client.

Each ad player deemed worthy of attribution credit is tied to purchase funnel chronology with algorithms, like skipping brand term search credit when in last position and skipping credit for non-viewable impressions.  The fractional revenue is apportioned to the ad players on the team, which become the numerator of a fraction--and the cost of the ad player becomes the denominator of the fraction.  Divide them, and you have a trademark number called attributed value-to-spend-ratio.  A ratio of 2.0 means:  for every $1 you spent on a certain ad you get $2 in attributed revenue back.

With this one number, attribution modeling takes complex, big data and simplifies it.  You just gave birth to a new way of measurement:  an accurate way of measurement.

Growing Up
But as your fractional attribution baby grows up, its capabilities grow, too.  You might want to run sensitivity analyses or even conjoint analyses in C3 Metrics’ attribution sandbox as your data set gets more robust--or have our team of award-winning marketing scientists and Ph.D.s validate and adjust weights at finer levels with transaction-stream detail.  But for now, by not jumping off the media cliff with everyone else, your mom can buy media better than most.

You’re smarter than that.  Your mom knows it, too.

Mark Hughes is CEO of C3 Metrics

With apps such as Pandora, Slacker, TuneIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio available at your finger tips, internet radio has become a popular way to access audio stream. Through the eyes of the advertiser, this phenomenon provides the opportunity to get what they really want: active consumers willing to engage in their brand.

Unlike traditional radio, many of these on-demand apps offer customized playlists, allowing the consumer to design the type of content they want. With registration data often including zip codes, this allows the advertiser to place relevant and compelling ads based on the consumers personalized music selection and their location. Internet radio can provide national reach or local market targeting and allows consumers to interact and engage with the advertisers website or Facebook page.

So what do these Internet stations offer and how do they differ in both a consumer and advertising perspective? Here is a brief summary of just a few of the popular stations being used today:

One of the main stations, and arguably the most well-known one is Pandora. According to a study released from Nielsen in June 2010, Pandora is one of the top three most downloaded apps from the Apple app store and consistently ranks in the top five most used apps in the BlackBerry and Android stores.

Like Pandora, iHeartRadio allows users to listen to stations based on artist, song or album. The difference with iHeartRadio is its vast majority of song selections. iHeartRadio listeners can choose from a massive catalog of more than 11 million songs and 400,000 artists- more than 10 times the number of songs offered by Pandora.

Another popular consumer choice is Slacker Radio. What sets Slacker apart from its competitors is that it has professional DJ’s that customize the song selections and stations. This offers more personalized content than the other technology run sites.

Stitcher is the leader in internet radio for the “world beyond music.” This online site “stitches” together news, sports or talk shows from stations like Fox News, CNN and ABC.

TuneIn allows you to listen to live local and global radio from wherever you are. Whether you want to listen to sports, news, music or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations and 120,000 shows. It gives you the effect that you “right there with the people and places that are important to you.”

Spotify allows branded apps and channels that allows an advertiser to provide an added value to their target audience. Louisiana Tourism recently used this to their advantage. When the campaign is no longer live…the channel lives on as a wonderful reminder. Spotify utilizes the king of social networks; Facebook. You can share your playlist with your friends. They have taken this one step further with the “life sound tracker.” Using the tracker, consumers can select friends on Facebook and Spotify will generate a playlist containing music from upcoming concerts in your area based on a mash-up of your friends’ music. Users can then have the option to generate a Facebook invite and send it to their friends.

Although Internet radio offers advertising opportunities across both online and mobile platforms, users can also pay a fee in order have an ad-free experience, which could be dismaying to a media partner.

But in an article written about Pandora, media and marketing specialist Kathryn Koegel, states:

“Typical radio stations play nine minutes of ads per hour according to a 2006 study and in a study of clutter on radio, it was reported to be as high as 20 minutes per hour on some stations*. A service like Pandora currently runs a maximum of three audio ads or less per hour and banner ads only appear on a device when a phone is not locked or dimmed thus only when the consumer is interacting with the device.”

The research shows that only 9% of Pandora subscribers pay to use the product. It is also shows extreme growth in the amount of users listening to Pandora on their mobile device versus the web. It allows optimization as we saw with a recent client. By paying attention to ongoing measurement, we saw that mobile’s click-thru rate was much higher than the web; therefore we switched impressions to only mobile.

As marketers, we can conclude that the majority of consumers do not mind advertising, especially if it is targeted to the listener. However, we must stay ahead of the curve in terms of unique and targeted advertising. With mobile technology rapidly advancing, the way consumers listen to radio will continue down this ever-changing path.

For those that have not come across it yet (and there are plenty), AR is considered the next phase of Virtual Reality (VR). Where VR is a completely virtual space not bound by physical reality, AR combines the real world with the virtual world. It is a live, view of a real-world environment with elements that are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics etc.

Still confused? Well, that might be part of the problem.

Tesco in the UK recently launched an Augmented Reality (AR) program on their website that allows you to view items in their catalogue in your real world. So if you want to see how a TV would look in your living room before you buy it – this can be done. The practical application of this sort of technology is endless.

However, the technology being in its infancy, it is still rather clunky. For the Tesco AR to work, you first need to print out a “marker” so the AR program knows where to place the product. You need to place the marker on your TV cabinet. You then need to position your webcam so it sees the marker within the environment you want to view. Then, you can only rotate the marker – which is great if you want to see the back of the TV, but not much good if you want to look at the whole environment from a different angle.

So, we are back to the question – is it great technology that is just too complicated, or is it the beginning of something incredible?

To be fair, those of us who have been frustrated with the user experience to date, realise it is probably because we can see the real potential.

Imagine staring down 5th Avenue in NY or Covent Garden in London and wondering where to start. You grab your phone, aim your mobile camera at the street and as you walk down, signs on your mobile screen let you know what is on special at which store and what the items look like. Maybe it will even be able to show what the clothes look like on. Pretty amazing.

Some of my generation might say “won’t your arm get tired?” or “wouldn’t it be easier to walk down the street and see the sign in the shop window that says 40% off or just search online for the cheapest TV?” But remember what the chairman of IBM said in 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Sometimes we cannot even imaging where advances in technology will take us, but surely any step that enhances the consumer experience and makes relevant information more accessible is a positive one.

I’m sure my hypothalamus is hardwired for chocolate – that old adage, “out of sight, out of mind” may work for some folks – not me. If there’s chocolate in the upper reaches of the pantry or it’s buried two-feet deep behind various foodstuffs in the fridge, my brain immediately sends out tracking signals – a cranial GPS (Godiva Positioning System), I reckon.

So not surprisingly, as a self-confessed ‘chocoholic’, I was thrilled a few years ago when I started reading reports about how dark chocolate – eaten in moderation (inhaled is more accurate for me) – may be good for the heart.

Some dark chocolate confections even contain various vitamins, nutrients and probiotics; research has also shown that flavonoids – antioxidants found in cocoa beans – may help lower blood pressure and LDL (think ‘Lousy’ – it’s the bad acronym) cholesterol, and also improve blood vessel function.

In fact, noted Joy Dubost, a nutritionist and spokesperson for the Washington, DC-based Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, “the higher the percentage of cocoa, the higher the flavanol content, the higher the antioxidant content and thus we believe the greater positive health benefit.”

All of the aforementioned now fully justifies my quarterly trips to Ghirardelli’s in San Francisco – I now order guilt-free the hot fudge sundaes with dark chocolate sauce.

This then got me wondering about innovative marketing campaigns various companies have rolled out to drum up sales for their dark chocolate products, and in some cases if interesting enough, plain old milk chocolate.

Cadbury

One campaign that Cadbury would probably like to recall/reboot was to promote Bliss, a chocolate product.

The august British company (established 1824 and now owned by Kraft Foods) ran an ad for the product with the heading, “Move over Naomi, there’s a new diva in town.”

Supermodel Naomi Campbell wasn’t thrilled about being compared to a chocolate bar and even her mum, Valerie Morris, chimed in, saying “I’m deeply upset by this racist advert. Do these people think they can insult black people and we just take it? This is the 21st century, not the 1950s. Shame on Cadbury.”

Cadbury, it should be noted, did do the right thing – the company pulled the ads and issued an apology to Campbell.

On the flip side, another campaign rolled out by Cadbury India fared much better. The objective was to publicize its premium dark chocolate brand, Bournville and further promote the catchphrase, “You don’t just buy a Bournville, you earn it.”

Cadbury launched a blog called The Dark Truth and introduced a virtual character – Old Hound. In one story, another virtual character, Mark, a friend of Old Hound, disappeared. While trying to find Mark, Old Hound got a clue that if he collected 100 stories about people receiving something after they have earned it, he would discover the whereabouts of his friend. The posts generated more than 2,000 daily readers.

Haagen-Dazs

A few years ago Haagen-Dazs rolled out its Dark Chocolate Orange flavor at 14 outlets in Singapore and Malaysia. A campaign slugged ‘Slow Melting in Progress’ was aimed at female professionals in their 20s and 30s who are “engrossed with their profession and family and tend to forget themselves in the process, neglecting to pamper themselves.”

That verbiage seems a bit askew but the radio/print/web campaign apparently worked as Dark Chocolate Orange became a popular flavor in that corner of Southeast Asia.

Cocoa Metro

Cocoa Metro, located in Auburndale, MA, markets various dark chocolate drinks. Their catchphrase on their home page immediately grabs your attention: 'Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.'

The sweet maker recently rolled a multimedia ad campaign. One image depicts how Cocoa Metro’s decadent chocolate can be consumed – via juice boxes, pop cans and flasks, for example. Another series of ads relies more on clever verbiage and fonts to capture your attention (having a refrigerated backyard bunker full of chocolate seems like a very sound idea).

Rom

While not a dark chocolate, this campaign merits a brief mention. Rom is a hugely popular Romanian chocolate bar, first introduced in 1964. It features the Romanian flag on the wrapper and probably everyone from Bucharest to Brasov to Baia Mare has gobbled one down.

To fuel international sales and branding, the company rolled out a week-long hoax – the American flag was used on the packaging and various YouTube videos explained that due to a poor economy and a frustrated youth culture, Rom was ditching its Romanian heritage. Literally tens of thousands of angry Romanians vented their outrage on Facebook, YouTube and countless blogs.

The campaign was a stunning success – it reached almost 70 percent of all Romanians. Rom’s Facebook page fan total increased by over 300 percent and it’s estimated the company generated about $500,000 worth of free media. McCann Erickson’s Bucharest office also garnered two Grand Prix Cannes Lions awards in the ‘Promo/Activation’ category (for advertising programs that bring on immediate responses/engagements), and the ‘Direct’ category for direct marketing.

There are scores of other examples but quite frankly, I’ve written enough – time for some chocolate.

As the price of oil rises, it’s become economical to invest in new technologies thatrecover previously expensive sources of natural gas and oil. Two techniques - natural gas 'fracking' and shale oil extraction –have emerged as viable alternatives that.Both approaches require new technology, place a premium on available inventory and are disruptive to existing producers. These are not methods you use when oil is cheap and plentiful.

Oil isn’t cheap and plentiful like it used to be. 30 years ago China and India weren’t growing at 10% a year and the internet was nothing more than an academic and military communications tool.

The parallels between the energyeconomy to the current ad technology ecosystem are not obvious at first. But when you take a look at the ad ecosystem - and Terry Kawaja’sLumascape - the parallels are stunning. As demand for more has risen over the last two decades, more companies and more technologies have arrived to fill the gaps and create new sources of inventory to satisfy new demand.

When oil was first 'discovered', in western Pennsylvania in the middle of the 19th century, it was very close to the surface. This madeextraction simple, but messy and inefficient. John D Rockefeller's consolidation of the early oil industry into Standard Oil introduced efficiency. As worldwide exchange for trading oil and its derivatives developed, the US dollar was standardized as the Reserve Currency to stabilize the market. Since thattime all oil, even internationally, is bought and sold only in US dollars.

The development of this complex system for extracting, trading, transporting and refining oil took  nearly a century to develop. By comparison, the same process took the online ad industry less than 15 years.

Within the ad tech ecosystem, Doubleclick was Standard Oil. Overture would have been British Petroleum, but they ceded this mantle to Google.  24/7 Real Media became Dutch Shell. Various other ad networks became versions of Philips, Citgo, Getty, Chesapeake Energy and Lukoil.

A barrel of Oil? In today’s ad world, the standard measure is CPM.

Over time, vertical control of oil field operations left the control of the 'oil' companies and became separate businesses. The rise of the SSPs echo this development, as companies like AdMeld, The Rubicon Project and Pubmatic became the Halliburtons of the ad world and helped manage yield. Their plumbing provided the raw material for Google AdX and other exchanges to monetize. Media companies like Yahoo, seeing the value of their own fields, sought to buy technologies like Right Media to better monetize their own inventory and then applied this technology to other companies’ fields. DSPs like Turnand Invite developed ways for buyers to target the fields that best met their needs.

Still, during all this time, these companies were recovering most of the easy stuff: web display ads on the best publishers' pages. Using a standard set of recovery tools - iFrames, JavaScript, and Flash - these OPEC-like players competed for the ad inventoryby bidding for the highest quality impressions, or the best crude oil, that they could find. Like wildcatters of the old days, Publishers realized that more home page inventory meant more revenue and created new editorial products to be sold. As long as the users visited and occasionally engaged, all was good. Publishers even started to monetize impossibly tiny audiences on impossibly small screens via mobile apps and companies like AdMobwere created overnight to pursue and exploit this market.

However, throughout this flowering of ad technology innovation, one humongous source of potential inventory has stubbornly avoided profitable exploitation:  the real estate residing within email newsletters, alerts and notifications. Breaking news. Friend and game requests. Transactional messaging. Status Updates and reminders.

Email, the universal tool of communication - the number one way for publishers to remind you to visit their site, for social media services to notify you of a post, and for etailers to send you your confirm – has until recently relatively untouched by the ad tech revolution. Unmonetized except by retail email marketers. While retailers have long appreciated email as an effective marketing tool, the issue is that, in the hands of a publisher, email has long been underutilized and has remained a loss leader. Big time.

Why is that?

Cost. The hassle factor of buying and selling email inventory. It’s been too hard to sell, and too hard to buy. Everyone else has been selling impressions and clicks while email has been selling sends. And selling them asynchronously. The time has come for a change.

The amount of premium display inventory available in email dwarfs that of display. There are approximately three billion email addresses in existence today, four times the number of Facebook users. Much of that email volume, estimated at 170 million messages a minute, is being read using HTML readers, which, similar to display, are capable of serving images. As more users move to smartphones, the number of HTML5-enabled readers grows by the minute. All of this is for a solution to recover the valuable latent ad inventory locked within it.

The reason email inventory hasn’t been exploited is very simple: without flash, javascript and iFrames – the drilling tools of the ad tech ecosystem –advertisers and agencies couldn’t buy it the way they can buy display. And publishers couldn’t sell it like they could sell display.  So it just sat there. Until now.

LiveIntent has ‘fracked’ the latent inventory lying dormant within email newsletters, alerts and notifications and has made it available for buyers and sellers just like every other form of interactive inventory that’s been created.

With this revolutionary extraction method – no flash or javascript required - email advertising finally has developed the real-time technology to unlock the high-attention, opted-in ad inventory of the newsletter, which allows it to be bought and sold as efficiently as display. Publishers can now fully monetize inventory, something that had been nearly impossible and cost-prohibitive prior to this innovation. Advertisers can now target, bid and buy impressions within emails where users are routinely spending 20 or more seconds - impression quality that approaches billboards or television.

This is a really big deal. With the growth of the smartphone, people are spending increasing amounts of time reading email. Where before it was a desk-bound activity, now people – for good or bad – can read email anywhere they want, and on devices that render in HTML5, often a better platform than what they have on their desktop computer.

Advertisers can now buy email ad inventory that can truly be called local and mobile. Publishers can now make money sending email like their counterparts within the retail sector.

What’s most exciting? People click ads in email at a rate 10x in traditional display. People spend almost 30 seconds in an email when they open it.  Why? Because unlike in display, with it’s high bounce rate and short time on page, readers of opt-in newsletters have asked to receive the content, and there is high trust factor when requested content is paired with an ad.

So if you were deciding whether you were going to create another subsection on your website, another page four clicks down, think twice. There is another property that you own, another property that you can sell, and you push it to your best customers – it’s your email newsletters, alerts and notifications. Use this inventory and you’ve ‘fracked’ your way to some new revenue that technological innovation has created for you.

Definitely worth a read on some of the major issues, Namely’s CEO, Matt Straz pointed out in a bold MediaPost article, “People who work at agencies are frustrated because RFPs are still largely managed through email. A single RFP sent to a dozen publishers can result in hundreds of emails going back and forth among the parties.” Clearly, the process is tedious and lets be honest – it can be maddening.

A special poll recently conducted by STRATA (with agencies of varying sizes that are on a wide spectrum of buying systems) turned up some alarming information, mainly that many people have thrown their hands in the air when it comes to the Digital RFP process. While 27% say they plan to purchase a platform to handle the process – a more surprising 58% said that they will not buy a system to handle this increasingly important media process.

So what are they left to do? Here is the shocking part for all of us in the media buying software industry – only 25% say they will use their media system. Ouch. Nearly half said they will use Excel to handle the process. A process that Straz labeled in his article is a pain in the neck for literally everyone, including the sellers, buyers and publishers.

I’m not saying that STRATA removed the Digital RFP sword from the stone when no one else could, but we have recently launched a Digital RFP module to our buying system that boils the request/response workflow process down to a couple of clicks while expediting negotiations and inventory selection.  I’d be lying if I didn’t say that we are pretty excited about it. BUT, there remains a problem. It is a problem of a mindset that is stuck in a traditional process. It is a mindset that as we have noticed for years – where Digital is great but Traditional remains the bread and butter. Well over a third of STRATA Survey participants say that they don’t ever see Digital ad spend being greater than Traditional.

What does the industry need to do? Educate. We as system providers need to educate the agencies on what is needed to streamline the process that includes Digital RFP. Yes, it is different than Spot TV or Print. But they can be equally or even more effective (sorry, Excel isn’t efficient). If agencies feel comfortable leveraging these tools, that will come across to their clients and demonstrating the value of Digital will be simple. I know for us at STRATA, we have the tools in place and it is up to us to educate agencies to help push this ever-changing advertising avenue forward.

Instead of discussing well-worn topics, such as the value of contextual placements and contextual targeting, I’d like to touch briefly on another effect of content dynamics.  You see, the content of a website changes.  It changes all the time.

Dynamic content implies that the environment in which your ad displays is constantly shifting. In turn, that means that the level of distraction around your ad is constantly in flux. Does this detract from the delivery of your message? What about a poorly written article? What is the affect on your advertising of a highly engaging writer?  Does this lead the consumer to be more likely wooed by your message?

I am not touting the presence of unique technology to solve for this problem. I am speaking to the fact that algorithmic optimization, “silicon”-based optimization, so to speak, is a far-off notion. There are just too many variables. Once you think you have the answer, something in the environment changes, and all your calculations for content go awry.

Making a display campaign work in today’s environment is still a combination of art and science. You need to have the technology to hone in on your target audience and improve your ROI, while providing the visibility to apply art to the equation. The level of engagement of a consumer with the environment significantly affects the ability of an ad to garner their attention.

If technology can rapidly adjust your landscape and offer visibility, you can bring to bear the human mind to help determine how to jump to the next level without wasting a lot of money.

Optimization is art and science. Changing [dynamic] content and its impact on performance is just another example of the multitude of variables that must be considered to maximize ROI.

OK, Google...I am trying. Really I am. So #WTH- Why This Hard?

I don’t know about you, but I am finding it difficult to adopt and adapt to Google’s social platform. The main reason? To me, it’s still just another social tool and not yet an intuitive behavior. I’m not running to upload pictures of my recent afternoon with the girls, or post the location and a picture of the amazing burger I’m enjoying. With G+, I am still trying to figure out where my friends are, and apparently, I didn’t get the invite to the cool kids “hangout.”

Last night in a Facebook exchange with an industry peer, my friend echoed what the vast majority of users are saying about Google Plus: “It’s like going to a playground, where no one is playing.”

“Yeah,” I responded, “...and hopping on the seesaw by yourself.”

Last week during a chat at #SXSW, Guy Kawasaki pressed Vic Gundotra (Google’s VP for Engineering), on the perception that, right now; G+ is a virtual ghost town. Gundotra, in his now famous response, defended the giant.

“Make sure you’re using it correctly,” he responded with a laugh. I’m not sure how many laughed.

While I found his statement amusing, I think it gets to the heart of the problem. I don’t want to have to learn how to use it correctly. If was intuitive, it would become an ingrained social behavior for me and countless others. Like with Facebook, everyone would be on the playground, and playing, not just hanging by the fence.

Gundotra was also quoted in a recent New York Times interview. “Not only is Google Plus not a ghost town,” he said, “…we have never seen anything grow this fast. Ever.”

The company recently shared its Google Plus user numbers, citing that nearly 50 million people have created a Google Plus account and use Google+ optimized services daily, totaling about 100 million active users in a 30-day period.

Hmm...let’s break this down. “Google+ optimized services” include Google.com, the Android Marketplace, and YouTube, so in reality the hard numbers can’t be attributed strictly to Google+. In a view from outside the company, a report released last month by ComScore, says Google Plus users spend about three minutes a month on the social network. By comparison, ComScore says that people spend an average 405 minutes a month on Facebook, the service Google Plus is trying to displace.

So to what does Gundotra attribute to Google Plus's success? Advertising. He says that Google ads, where someone has clicked the +1 button, currently yield a 5 to 10 percent click-through-rate uplift on any ad for a company that has the “social annotation” on their websites.

Ok, how many of you are actually clicking on that fun little +1 button? Rarely? Yeah, me either.

What I do find compelling is that Gundotra went on to explain in that NYT interview that G+ ads differ from other social competitors ads, (such as Facebook and LinkedIn), as the Google+ ads serve up a “socially enhanced ad at the time of intent” rather than a randomly placed ad that pops up in your social feed after you mention a particular topic. If I am searching for a new #iPad case and people in my Google Plus Circles have +1’ed a particular one, Google will serve me the ad for that case. The current flaw with that theory? I’m not utilizing my Google Plus Circles, and no one I know is sitting around clicking +1 buttons. #FAIL.

At the end of the day, like all good things, use and appreciation of Google Plus is going to take some time. And if that doesn’t happen soon, it seems Google will continue to be content with politely bullying us around the playground until we all hop on the seesaw.

I'm interested in what you think.  Are you using or do you plan to start using G+? You can get me @saminj58 or info@r2integrated.com. Want to learn more about @R2integrated? Click here.

In terms of pricing, Oscar TV ad spots outrank most award shows. But the actual “worth” of these spots have come into question in recent years, as viewership of the awards show has waned, especially among younger demographics. The Hollywood Reporter published a report in their February 17 issue that showed how hosts and best picture nominees affect overall viewership. After pulling together additional data for review, there is some truth to the analysis.

The chart proves that during years with big pictures such as the “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” in 2004 won, viewership was at a high of 44 Million.  But when critic darling, “No Country for Old Men” won in 2008, viewership was at only 31 Million.  This year may also be difficult for viewers to get behind since “The Help” is the only box office hit among the nine best-picture nominees.  Other networks are also competing heavily as multiple programming options are set to distract viewers such as TNT airing the NBA All-Star Game against the Oscars, likely peeling away male audiences.

However, with viewership in question, digital efforts are being put in place to build interest in this year’s festivities.  The Academy is hoping to attract younger viewers by streaming the show live online this year, including a pay wall for viewers to get exclusive high level content. ABC also increased its online advertising efforts, placing rich media and display ads on targeted web sites in the 3-4 weeks leading up to the Academy Awards to build interest in the TV broadcast*.

Also announced this week, ABC and the Academy are working to boost viewer engagement before, during and after the live telecast through an all-access application for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.  The official application is part of the new Oscar Digital Experience, which includes increasing Facebook, Twitter and overall social media engagement.

Big brands that notoriously spend large budgets on TV ad spots are also increasing social media efforts to help bolster advertising campaigns. Hyundai, Diet Coke and JC Penney have all tripled social media efforts and are working to coordinate messages with digital platforms.

Are our big TV events of the year becoming more and more digital? Even the Academy is “going digital” in their own way – they’ve announced plans to incorporate electronic voting in 2013. The Academy and advertisers are staging a new way to keep the Oscars relevant with broader demographics. Balanced with perhaps another look at the format of the show, Digital could set the stage for our next award winning performances.

*Source - Kantar

So many companies have developed sophisticated technology to automate campaign performance.  The problem is that no matter how good your technology, you still need statistical relevance to make decisions.  Statistical relevance requires volume, and volume costs money.  Asking an advertiser to spend a lot of money to “see” if something works is just not a proposition that goes over well.  On the other side, companies that take display deals on a CPA basis have to decide how much to spend to find that sweet spot.

That’s where the art comes in.  If technology can rapidly adjust your landscape and offer visibility, the human mind can determine how to jump to the next level without wasting a lot of money.  Sites, creative, frequency capping—all levers that can be played with to find that balance of volume and performance.

There are so many variables that it becomes a tangled web.  Take the “transition impression” concept.  When you first enter a site, you have yet to engage in the content, which means that an ad has a much better chance of making an impact on you.  Once you have engaged with the site, you are less likely to be distracted by extraneous content, such as advertising.

The analogy we use here at Underdog Media is one about driving a car. Consider these two scenarios: making a turn vs. driving straight ahead.  If you are making a turn, you are very engaged in your surroundings and more likely to notice things, like a pedestrian, that might effect your actions.  While driving straight, you are less likely to notice things going on around you.

Optimization is art and science.  Transition impressions—and their impact on performance—are just one example of the multitude of variables that must be considered to maximize ROI.

Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi discussed the economic outlook for the next couple of years in opening comments.

While he says full recovery is a few years away, he is optimistic and predicts that 2012 will be better than 2011, and 2013 will see additional improvement.

Mark indicated that the next big opportunity for US companies is in China, but that products and services must be re-imagined in order to succeed in that very unique and different culture. This holds true for content as well.

Our next speaker Peter Francese, Demographic Trends Analyst for the MetLife Mature Market Institute, noted that the state of the union for publishers is strong, considering how limitless the demand for content has become.

He broke down the various demographics that will be consuming the most content. He focused on both the young–noting that children are starting to access content online at around 5 and 6 years old–and grandparents, of which there are 65 million in the US alone.

For the latter, he said that when users encounter a new life stage, e.g. becoming grandparents or seniors, the need for content that explains the new worldview increases.

Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and Director of Interactions and Experience Research, Intel Labs, INTEL, spoke next about how Intel uses anthropology to better understand how its products fit into this changing landscape.

She highlighted the fact that the world is not just more connected, but that the US is no longer the center of the web-driven world.

“17% of the world’s Internet users were based in the US in 2010 vs. 65% 10 years ago,” she said.

“You need to be clear about who you are targeting, not just creating a fantasy of who your user is,” Bell said. “It is essential that technology providers and content providers make things that cut through the clutter.”

She highlighted a number of trends that impact the publishing space. For example: the proliferation of devices. While consumers are struggling with what devices are relevant to their lives, they have decided that no one device will do it all.

But not everything is changing; Bell is quick to point out that Americans still watch five times more TV in a month than spend hours on the Internet.

Plenty more to come tomorrow and don’t forget to tune in at 9:15 am ET and 9:50 am ET for the next two live streamed sessions from the summit.

This post originally ran on the OPA Blog.

Most people within the marketing community are no strangers to seeing QR codes attached to advertisements and products these days. Even many tech-savvy consumers know how to create QR codes for promotion or information sharing, which is the beauty of their open platform design. Anyone can use them, read them, and get creative.

QR codes have created a new way for brands to engage their audience with products and services, and there are already quite a few examples of ways that “traditional” QR codes are getting pushed further, including the logo-friendly SnapTag. SnapTags are a gussied up version of the mobile interactive code options. Instead of the static-like appearance of QR codes, they’ve created a sleeker option that focuses more on branding with a cleaner code look based on gaps placed throughout a ring. Digimarc, another QR code boundary pusher, takes the cake by attempting to create mobile interaction with everything from an image to sounds.

Clearly, this mix of technology and advertising is steadily improving with new forms and functions constantly. That being said, functional improvement is meaningless if the platform is not applied with the right strategy and tactics in the real world.

I recently found myself standing in the Philadelphia subway and spotted a QR code on a candy advertisement across the rails. At the safest distance, without dangling myself out in front of a pending train, the closest I could get to the QR code was about 12 feet. The QR code took up a small portion of the lower left corner of the ad, and when zoomed in on became blurred. When I got back above ground, the decoder application was incapable of deciphering it. This brought another issue to my attention, if I hadn’t already known what a QR code was and installed a reader application, how would I even know that it failed or received additional information if it had been successful? Quite frankly, how much time are we anticipating the average commuter will put into interacting with that advertisement?

It’s quite easy to see how far down the rabbit hole you can go. Depending upon the platform, there are different applications for your mobile device. What if you can recognize the symbol itself as something you should be able to interact with but don’t know how? Are the creators anticipating that brands will use valuable ad space they could be using for brand recognition to explain to their potential customers what the symbol is and how to use it? Is multichannel marketing turning into something everyone feels they must do on every form of advertising, for every product, every time?

All of these questions boil down to an engagement and demographic stew. If your product’s target demographic isn’t within the range of those who are always at the ready to find out what’s on the other side of that symbol, you should be reaching out to them in creative ways that they respond to, not simply attaching every button and symbol you can to each campaign. It won’t be long before your once full of impact campaign is doing nothing but help further other companies and gadgets for free on half of your advertisement.

The end result of this subway advertisement experience should be people stopping on their way home to pick up a candy bar and indulge.  There is very little commitment beyond just that. If the product is great they’ll be back. If it’s not a hit with the consumer, there is very little that tweets, posts, and fun codes can do.

I’ll continue to wonder what’s on the other side of that QR code, which I’d prefer to come across on the actual candy bar. Maybe I’ll have to stop on the way home to pick one up…in which case the QR code inadvertently succeeded.

Everyone does it so why fight the trend. Reviewing the previous year as the “The Year of something or some other,” is almost mandatory nowadays – so as 2012 begins we take a look at the last 12 months.

The year started out with predictions for the “Year of the App” or “The Year of the Smartphone”. Both are true, but in reality, 2010 was the year that both began to dominate the mobile market.

What really changed in 2011 was that app developers started to make money – and some serious money. The model changed from premium apps to “Freemium” with the rise of interactive advertising and in-app purchases. This shift was so strong, that according to IHS Screen Digest Mobile Media Intelligence Service, 96% of the billions of apps downloaded in 2011 were free. Additionally, 45% of the top-grossing apps in the iPhone App Store and 31% of the top-grossing Android Market apps were free.

And remember, these figures do not include advertising which would push the revenue of free apps even higher.

However, it’s the future potential of mobile advertising that is most exciting. Time spent on our mobile surpassed time spent reading print media in 2011 and is rapidly approaching radio. However, advertising spend on mobile only makes up 1% of total media spend compared to 10% of time spent. This contrasts with 25% of ad spend for print and 10% for radio. The potential growth for Mobile ad spend is huge as mainstream advertisers begin to realize mobile will eventually be the most pervasive form of media – maybe even passing TV in the future.

Already the percentage of ad spend on mobile doubled from 2010 while the others remained static or declined. Take-up of mobile advertising is tracking the early days of the internet in terms of the differential between time spent and spend, although adoption of mobile media is much more rapid than the internet was.

So we say, 2011 was definitely the “Year of App Monetization” but maybe we are jumping the gun because we suspect 2012 will be more so.

Lego is actually my favorite activity with the kids. Sometimes we just build one of the elaborate Star Wars or Harry Potter sets, but more often than not, we create structures that come purely out of their imaginations. We always find that the success of these creations can be traced to two key elements. One: Assemble a vibrant collection of different and unique Lego parts. Two: Organize them so key elements are easy to find and use. When you have those two states, you can build creations that are unexpected, delightful, and completely different than you had originally planned.

This is such an apt analogy to the state of online targeting right now. There are currently no lack of platforms and providers of data and technology in the space. And many of them are focused on helping advertisers or publishers to collect, aggregate and use standardized sets of data. From this comes the ability to create broad and (hopefully) differentiated audience segments for online targeting. But this is like playing with an incomplete set of Lego blocks. Or if you have kids, one of those sets where a large percentage of those blocks have found their way under beds, into vacuum cleaners and other black holes of toys you can’t find. What happens when you need that special online behavior, or that special action which indicates high levels of interest? What about when basic site behaviors or conversion pages don’t tell the whole story about the shopping cycle or lifestage of a consumer?

This is where the value of large data volumes comes into play, and where a structured, organized process for collecting and using granular data is a huge asset and advantage as part of a targeting strategy. Notice that I used the word “asset.” Data should always be an opportunity for online marketers, not an obstacle. Just as the goal of my kids and me is to build out a durable, creative Lego asset collection, it should be the goal of any online marketer to follow industry best practices to build their valuable data asset with every relevant and actionable audience attribute possible. To this end, I see three critical changes that need to happen for online marketers:

1. Move beyond basic building blocks. The real fun with Lego comes when you get past the standard pieces that make up the majority of a structure and move into the trim, corner pieces and even decorative blocks – the details that really make it exceptional. Once you decide you want to move beyond basic data building blocks, and basic audience definitions, it’s important to consider what other data elements are valuable in online targeting. The truth is, there’s no lack of actionable online data.
2. Try new things. Often when building a Lego set, there are pieces which don’t seem to fit, or designs that don’t make sense until the final structure is in place. It’s the same with audience targeting – as marketers build their audiences, it’s not always the most straight-forward set of rules that make the most sense. Removing pre-conceived notions, testing and continually reiterating the audiences is the way to ensure you’re always moving forward.
3. Play nicely with everyone. There are no ethics or rules with Lego. At least not written ones. But there are the unspoken principles of sharing and cooperation. In the audience targeting business, rules are a bit more strict and sensitive, as well they should be. Using targeting technology to benefit and delight consumers is key. Cooperating and engaging with groups like the IAB and NAI will help communicate the positive elements of using audience targeting technology. Integrating with worthy technology partners is also key to creating the most successful structure for clients.

Embrace the excitement and opportunity of building your own data asset structure. And be sure to use every piece available, and your company will be on target for 2012.

One: Premium Advertising: By premium ads we mean the digital ad opportunities that are laser-targeted on in-market customers and customers that are most receptive to marketing messages. Precision audience targeting gives travel brands access to their best prospects, at scale in a safe environment. It’s not about remnant inventory purchased via a general network or exchange. Data has been secured to the point where brands should feel comfortable with the ability to cross-pollinate loyalty programs and share other non-personally identifiable information.

Two: Mobile: Mobile ad partners cannot own a space on the mobile interface. But they can enhance branded app experiences through uses of an embedded browser. Several companies, including Adara Media, are working with several leading local deal aggregators and national advertisers to optimize the mobile experience with user data and online campaign performances. It will support various mobile actions such as click to call, click to download, and click to purchase.

In 2011, brands, publishers and advertisers began embracing and leverage more mobile video as a way to maintain engagement with user. In 2012, this channel with continue to evolve as more consumers adopt and consume video on their smartphones and tablets.

With traditional video pre-rolls, marketers can tell who is watching the video. However, with mobile and social, it is easier to understand where users are accessing content. This year’s growth in the mobile video advertising channel is a sure sign that it will increasingly become a significant part of an overall digital strategy.

Three: Optimization: Data is useless unless it is refined and made actionable across channels. Travel brands have access to a cross-channel email and display ad channels to effectively deliver against marketers’ objectives. The cross-channel approach provides a complimentary, non-intrusive method to reach exact, desired customers on third party websites. It coordinates display ads with other channel communications. Finally, it can individualize and personalize messaging, because display ads are delivered to known customers, and messaging can be tailored.

Data is at the core of all three developments. Data will also be at the core of more efficient and targeted spending for the travel business.

As technology continues to change consumer shopping behavior, retailers responded in full force this year. Consumers visited circular sites from mobile devices 60% more than last year on Black Friday and a staggering 149% more on Cyber Monday. We saw the same trend with tablets as well with a 124% increase in iPad visits on Black Friday and a 233% increase in iPad visits on Cyber Monday. Additionally, IBM found that iPad users purchased nearly twice as much as people using mobile devices.

This holiday season marketers need to adjust their campaigns across individual devices and take “couch commerce” seriously. Tailoring advertising by device means more than just shrinking ads to fit a mobile screen or inserting 15-second television spots into pre-roll ads. Tailoring means managing messages, creative and delivery to better engage with consumers. Mobile and tablet advertising offer many interactive features that make so much sense around the holiday shopping season. Locally targeted ads can drive consumers into the nearest retail location or offer location-based deals customized for individual consumers. With eMarketer forecasting that one in three online consumers will use a tablet by 2014, it is essential for retailers to tailor their content and advertising to individual platforms to be successful in reaching consumers.

Overall, we saw record numbers with our ShopLocal product suite this year. Here’s an infographic of the results we saw specifically with pre-Black Friday shopping this year:

Baseline Criteria:

Let’s assume that for Year One you will only use third-party ad-serving networks, instead of direct selling. This is as simple as adding their code snippets to your pages, to automatically feed their ads to your site.

Because it’s rare to find one service that can fill all your inventory, I recommend a primary service and a backup service. I also like to use a combination of two ad types: CPM (revenue earned per 1,000 ad views) and CPC (revenue earned per click). For the sake of these sample projections, however, we’ll focus solely on CPMs, as it’s easier to calculate.

In terms of ad providers, I’ve used Contextweb for CPM and Google AdSense for CPC. There are plenty of others to consider, but you may have to qualify for their minimum page view requirements, and that may not come until later.

Year One Assumptions:

• 2 CPM ad slots per page
• 80% of your inventory filled (a common percentage with a 2-service approach)
• $1.20 earned per 1,000 pages viewed

You start by projecting monthly page views. Hopefully you have a beta site or some similar sites where you can review the average page views per visitor. If not, Compete.com will let you compare the number of monthly visitors for similar sites.

Depending on the type of site content, pages per visit can generally average as low as 2.5 to 3 pages per new visitor and between 8 to 10 pages for a repeat visitor. These numbers are based purely on my own experience managing sites.

Once you have a projection of monthly total page views, it’s time for simple math:

Total Page Views divided by 1,000 x $1.20 = Revenue Earned

You now have revenue projections for Year One.

Future Years:

When projecting revenue over Years Two through Four, increase your $1.20 per 1,000 page views first to an average of $3 CPM, then ultimately to a maximum average of $10 CPM. These are general guidelines and it’s best to be conservative.

To accomplish these increases in CPM rates, you may want to approach one of the larger or specialized ad networks to begin selling your inventory directly, or to even hire an outside sales team. You could approach a firm like 24/7 Real Media to employ their ad serving management tool and sales representation. You may want to contact them now and get their input as you start your projections.

As you build traffic and dramatically increase ad inventory, you will also want to analyze the benefits of adding an in-house salesperson or staff, with the goal of earning higher profit margins and providing better service, especially for advertisers coming to you directly. The base expense per sales person will range from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the industry, location, compensation package offered, and the advertising and marketing support required. This does not need to completely replace your outside sales solution.

I hope this is helpful for those of you hard at work on a business plan for the next great dot com. I’d be curious to hear the input of others, those experienced in the ad selling game, to further this conversation.