A recent blog post by David, highlights the perils of relying on so-called “accepted wisdom.”  Similar to relying on conventional intuition, “accepted wisdom” is indicative of a failure to question assumptions and support conclusions with facts.  It is, as the author notes, the “number one enemy” of marketing success.  Edelman cites an example in which Google realized they were using two similar – but different – shades of blue in the hyperlinked calls to action in their ad products.  Rather than simply go with the intended shade as most companies would have done, Google tested both blues, only to learn that one delivered dramatically higher results than the other.  Similar situations occur every single day in marketing departments:  The designer who designed the landing page wants to see the page aligned with his original vision.  The marketer instead opts for the less aesthetically appealing version that delivered a higher conversion rate in multivariate tests.  “Accepted wisdom” would have us choose the prettier page; data drives us to choose the one that works best, pretty or not.

Analytics make it easy for us to make those decisions.  While data can seem overwhelming for some, when distilled and properly analyzed, it becomes actionable, a roadmap to successful marketing.  A good analytics or data management platform can tell you everything you need to know about your audience – what they click on or engage with, what they’re buying or not buying, where they are, how old they are, what they like or don’t like.  With that information at your fingertips, it’s harder to make a bad decision than a good one.  But you have to have a thirst for data - you can’t just go with the pretty design.

Below, David shares why intuition is still important, and how to make data work for the marketing process.

Does Big Data Mean the End of Intuition?

Simple answer: No way.

Marketers need intuition more than ever before.  The masses of data that they can analyze, and the tools available, can certainly find interesting patterns on their own, but that is just one ingredient in the value creation recipe.  Since there’s so much data out there, good intuition (and by that, I’m including judgment as well) is necessary to set priorities for what to look for, what matters to the customer, what the competitive landscape looks like and how behaviors are changing over time.  That intuition and judgment comes from a deep understanding of customers—ethnographic research, shop-alongs, discussions—to know what to do with the data.

Excavating insights from data fuels the design of experiences and products, which still cannot be automated.  So many of our interactions with customers are not all digital and automated.  People still shop in stores, call phone reps and send tweets expecting a human interaction.  We need intuition to think ahead about how to deliver the experiences and products to the front lines where people are interacting with customers.  From data discovery through design and then delivery, great "intuition" will still drive the winners, who shape the customer decision journey to their own advantage.  Yes, you can optimize search terms, display ad placements and personalized interactions, but that is no substitute for intuition, judgment and innovation.

To make data work, you have to envision the people who will be using it:

·      Align everything against the Customer Decision Journey.

Think "next interaction to cultivate,” not just "next product to buy.”  Think about measures of interim performance across the decision journey, not just conversions.

·      Make the data easy to understand for your employees on the front lines.

Whether they are reps who handle customer interactions or managers who are evaluating the next program to create, new visualization tools can highlight what is important and why it is happening.

·      Use data to help the customer.

Enable them to see how the information they provide you helps them, so they are comfortable with increasing the sharing involved.  Help them track their activities, find new ideas, set goals or connect with others.  Make that data exchange part of the value proposition itself.

·      Don't lock the analysts in a separate room.

Mix it up.  Seat integrated teams together, who can analyze and act on the data, but keep the analysts connected as a community.  They need to share ideas and grow, but they also need to deeply understand the context of the business.

We are working with many clients right now, who are re-engineering their marketing processes to integrate new data tools, and we learn a ton from seeing what it really takes to make things happen at the rock-face of execution.  That takes people, which means you need judgment and intuition.  At least, that’s my intuition.

To learn more about how data science is changing the role of intuition, watch presentations from the recent Advertising + Data Science Congress (ADS-CON).

Recently, I sat down with Paul Pellman, CEO of Adometry, and he shared some insights around this discussion. 

What is your take on how the data science revolution in advertising changes the role of intuition?

To start, creatives don’t have any reason to worry about their jobs. Quite the opposite, to be honest. At the end of the day, getting the right message to the right audience at the right time is still a bit like riding a bicycle with your hands tied behind your back. It’s possible, but it takes a ton of practice and no matter how many times you’re successful the next time is still going to be an adventure.

Like many innovations, the foremost impact of data science in the advertising industry is one of efficiency and economies of scale. The number of marketing channels keeps increasing, placing a growing burden on advertisers to understand where they can get the biggest impact for their finite resources (budgets and talent). To an extent, data — and more importantly, the insight derived from that data — allows advertisers to quantify intuition, either confirming hunches so that companies can feel more confident “doubling down” on marketing strategies or highlighting new opportunities.

Keep in mind these nascent technologies are just now reaching the mainstream, so there surely will be growing pains as advertisers learn to harness analytics and data-driven optimization recommendations as part of ongoing planning.

What are the key considerations for advertisers as they consider how to integrate data science into their strategies and campaigns for reaching target audiences?

Advertisers shouldn’t be afraid of the data or what it says. In our business, this typically manifests itself in the form of analysis paralysis, which I define as ‘inactivity due to fear of work required.’ Our attribution platform uses a number of variables and data sources to provide marketers with insights and observations about which of their media is most effectively driving conversions. Talented marketers play a critical role ensuring campaigns are appropriately targeted, but without good measurement data they are tackling only one part of the equation.

My advice to any organization serious about understanding the impact of all marketing efforts is to first do an honest assessment of what they can measure. Identifying the holes, or where the data is lacking depth, typically will lead you to the areas where investing in data science will have the greatest impact.

What’s on your data science and advertising reading list?

• Nate Silver’s book, “The Signal and the Noise”
• Harvard Business Review, “Advertising Analytics 2.0”
• McKinsey, “Measuring Marketing’s Worth”
• “On Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins
• “The Face of Big Data” by Rick Smolan
• Occam’s Razor column by Avinash Kaushik
• “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis
• “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott

To learn more about how data science is changing the role of intuition, watch presentations from the recent Advertising + Data Science Congress (ADS-CON).

Agencies report that auto brands are moving into digital channels more quickly than other brands – and why not? The luxury auto story can be told elegantly online with rich media. As with TV, there’s an opportunity to roll HD video featuring beautiful images of the car in motion with atmospheric music, but rich media has the advantage of being interactive in addition to being very visual. Consumers can click to take a tour of the car, zoom in on specific features, even locate a vehicle in local inventory and make an appointment for a test drive at the dealership. Rich media was practically made for luxury automotive – and 95 percent of auto brands believe it can have the same impact as TV.

According to the research, auto makers currently allocate 40 percent of their budgets to digital. Surprisingly, luxury auto marketers lag behind the rest of the pack, investing only 28 percent of their budget. The luxury brands do plan to catch up in the new year, as 40 percent anticipate double-digit growth in digital. Moving their campaigns online would be prudent: It’s where their audiences are. 98 percent of affluent consumers spend time online – on average, more than 26 hours a week. Between desktop and mobile devices, affluent consumers can be reached online at work and at play, at any time of day or night.  Automotive brands hoping to reach this audience should be there too.

Those who are shifting their budgets online are being progressive and moving quickly beyond the relative safety of old-school display. The number of auto brands leveraging digital video has nearly doubled since last year, increasing by a full 94 percent. In fact, moving forward, more than 60 percent of auto brands plan to shift a portion of their TV advertising budgets to online video. Social and mobile are also growing, with considerable increases over the past year, proving that automotive brands are ready to really interact with their audiences.  Social and mobile have also gone very visual lately, led by Instagram, Pinterest and others, and these image-based services offer a lot of benefit for luxury auto dealers. Beautiful, shareable images are certainly a great way to market beautiful cars.

65 percent of agencies report that auto brands are expanding to digital channels more quickly than other brands, and that’s good news: Luxury auto makers in particular have a lot to gain in the shift to online media. As the web evolves and adapts to accommodate more brand advertisers, new ad formats and standards are emerging. There are more opportunities to share brand narratives in rich media, and in top tier publisher sites as they begin to offer premium inventory to accommodate the new ad formats. With an industry focus on measuring engagement, as well as on brand safety, the time is ideal for luxury auto marketers to dip their toes in.

Better recognized as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle states that 80 percent of results derive from 20 percent of effort. This mathematical phenomenon may reveal a surprising secret to boosting the effectiveness of display advertising. The key to applying this principle lies in knowing which 20 percent to focus on. In other words, your advertising efforts don't necessary need to be 100 percent right, as long as the most relevant components are dead on.

Research Ad Effectiveness

These days, display advertising effectiveness data is accessible online. You can easily research brand data to distinguish between what is effective and what isn't. This isn't rocket science; it is verifiable and tangible knowledge of what consumers respond to.

Most digital advertising hosts run simple A/B tests to identify specific elements that are successful. Using both a test group and a control group, advertisers are able to compare small changes to an ad to see which has more impact. The statistical results of testing are used to tweak creative content to generate a better version.

Digital publishers and agencies often work together on optimizing advertising for a mutual benefit. While the agency tracks a publisher's success rate, the publisher must ensure performance or risk being dropped from the campaign.

The 20 Percent

Using the above mentioned tools, there are three main steps that you should be taking to leverage your effort. This represents your 20 percent. Even if you do nothing else, by following these steps you will improve your performance.

1. Test your ad copy. Know which copy works and why.
2. Test your publishing sites. Identify your top performing sites and focus your efforts on increasing the amount of creative volume you publish with clear winners.
3. Don't sacrifice profit for increased ad exposure. Pay attention to the frequency that the ad is shown and what type of response you are getting. Set the limit of how often the ad is displayed at an optimal level.

Have you run an ad campaign and been frustrated by a lack of clear effectiveness? Consider making small changes to the strategy to find the combination that works best for your business and message. Also, working with a digital agency can help make the process easier, since you benefit from the deeper experience of your agency’s operations staff.

Just look at what the Google Dev Team has to say about this issue:

“Device manufacturers are welcome to backport the change if they wish. However, Android 2.2 is final as far as our codebase is concerned — with the exception of critical bugs, we can’t really make changes to it. Regardless, there’s nothing that can be done to fix this on affected devices without an OTA, which is again up to device manufacturers.”

There is a better approach for the mobile advertising industry – Universal Device Recognition. This approach does not depend on a device-provided identifier like the Android Device ID, does not leave any permanent identifiers on the device and works across all devices all the time.

Cord cutting isn't just a consumer topic.  Business models can fall victim to the trend, as well.  Google recently announced that it will be shutting down its marketplace for traditional television advertising to focus on digital video solutions such as YouTube, AdWords, and ad serving tools for web publishers. With this decision, it’s clear that even the largest advertising platforms can no longer invest in trying to better the 'old' system, and must move full-steam ahead with digital video to stay competitive. Google is just the precursor to a future where successful media companies will fully embrace digital video across all platforms as a means to re-engage audiences’ fragmented attention.

Even though efforts have been made to rework television advertising products by mimicking digital innovations, fragmented audience attention, layered with dated systems and workflows, makes this incredibly difficult to support. While it’s true that the majority of video is still consumed via traditional television, viewers’ attention is more often focused on the connected device in their hand than what’s on screen. According to a report recently released by Google “90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV.” With so much multitasking between connected devices, capturing 100% of target audience attention on the television is near to impossible.  Google tried to remold the TV advertising model by bringing online video advertising features to the television set, which included an online marketplace for small businesses, the opportunity to pay only for delivery using Google AdWords, and the availability of granular performance metrics. However, these solutions could not alter the existing structure of a medium that was not designed to be interactive for shortened attention spans, nor was it built with the same capabilities afforded to digitally-focused advertising platforms.

Media companies must have the foresight and means to move over to digital video before TV advertising models keep them, and their partners, behind. Google is forward-looking, diversified, and nimble enough to have understood the changes on the horizon in time to adapt, and to focus their energy on where the future is going, instead of where the past has been. Not everyone has been so prepared. Companies like Canoe Ventures promised to breathe life back into cable television advertising. But even with the backing of six of the largest US cable companies (Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House) and TV ads that gave incentives to interact through the remote, the platform proved cumbersome when applied to the existing model, systems, and workflow. Instead of simply purchasing nationwide spots as they were used to, advertisers had to navigate varying technologies and standards of the different cable operators and many chose to simply not opt-in, forcing Canoe to downsize dramatically last February and scale back to VOD only.  By simply comparing the slow adoption speed and many stumbles of EBIF, where commentators are still questioning whether or not audiences will use it,  to the rapid and broad scale adoption of VAST/VPAID within its first year alone, it is evident that digital can evolve more rapidly.

Instead of trying to squeeze long-standing TV advertising models into digital frameworks, the simpler and wiser solution would be to spend the same amount of effort moving to online video and connected devices. Unlike traditional television advertising, audiences cannot simply walk away or fast forward on the DVR when an advertisement comes on screen. Whether researching a product or reading an article, audiences are fully engaged with the online content on connected devices. They searched out the ad-supported content with the understanding that viewing the ad is part of the requirement for accessing it. And because digitally-connected platforms allow for granular segmentation around interests and demographics, the chances of an ad ringing true with the viewer are much higher. The fact that audiences are already engaging in this way means that companies don’t have to expel energy trying to make the system connect with them and can better apply themselves to creating brilliant creative ad units.

The shift to digital video advertising is being accompanied with similar migration of the content it is supporting.  Whether they are on the cable dial or not, large media companies are investing in publishing content to as many digital platforms as possible.  Dow Jones’ WSJ Live apps available across all connected devices are great examples of the opportunities that lie ahead for video producers and advertisers alike.  Google is not the first or the last large platform to make the switch to digital video.  Within the coming year successful media companies will realize that video ads and content delivered through apps, websites, and other digital television and video platforms hold more promise for reuniting fragmented audiences and delivering ROI.

Panelists included Bill Kee, Product Manager at Google; Jeff Greenfield, COO & Co-Founder of C3 Metrics; John Bates, Product Manager for Predictive Marketing Solutions at Adobe; and Paul Pellman, CEO of Adometry. Moderated by myself, the event provided an opportunity for each company to share their opinions on the topic and debate over which method is most effective. Additionally, we had great participation from the audience, which fueled questions around QR codes, offline and online measurement and implementation.

Below, I’ve outlined a few key takeaways from the panel:

• Attribution currently captures all of the effects that offline media has in the digital space. But as television and print channels begin to recognize and embrace digital, marketing mixes will begin to shift. Attribution now offers digital media the opportunity to engage in a conversation on its own terms – and as a result, marketers should consider how all media is working (e.g. what channels are effective and what channels are simply not worth it).

• While digital has had a major influence on today’s marketplace, offline media and digital are joining forces in new ways, such as smart phone technology and QR codes. Along with this innovation, marketers are now to attribute offline efforts to digital experiences.

• When it comes to implementation, several opinions were voiced on the panel:
  • C3 Metrics believes in starting small and layering in one piece of data at a time so that there are incremental increases. This is especially helpful when working with clients who do not fully understand attribution.
  • Adometry, on the other hand, uses an algorithm, and believes the first bite should be more significant. Building reinforcement through proven data and insights is the key to change.

• Most panelists agreed that last-click is not accurate. But if this is the case, then why is it so widely used?
  • C3 Metrics explained that last-click is simple to understand, so CMOs naturally gravitate to that method first. It’s something that can be explained in a few minutes, so it’s an ideal first method to share with a CEO or board members.
  • Adobe disagreed on this point, asserting that since last-click is so erroneous, it’s foolish for marketers to rely upon it for measurement.
  • Google, on the other hand, has found success by looking at all of the different options, viewing them as opportunities to invest in attribution models those marketers haven’t invested in before.

• So, what does the future hold for digital ad measurement? Ultimately, attribution is a step in the right direction toward prime digital optimization. And the key to success will be bringing digital and offline media together.

While the Attribution Revolution panel brought a variety of opinions to the table, it remains clear that the attribution debate will not be shelved anytime soon. Marketers are only beginning to increase their digital advertising spend once an effective form of measurement is in place – and it’s in the best interest for both brands and agencies to embrace attribution.

To learn more about attribution and to view the full panel discussion, please visit: http://www.magnetic.com/attribution-revolution/.

Over the last six decades, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, direct mail and free standing inserts were the primary channels for reaching and serving ads to a target audience. More recently, advertisers have recognized the importance of digital advertising and have been putting more of their local advertising dollars online. According to a report by media research company BIA/Kelsey, the rate of digital ad growth outstrips total local media expenditures and is expected to rise 2.6 percent annually through 2016 to $151.3 billion.

So what do advertisers and brands need to consider when allocating local advertising budgets online?

• It’s the scale and reach, cost-effectiveness, speed and flexibility of digital that enables advertisers to efficiently drive in-store traffic. Digital intrinsically offers greater flexibility for a campaign, and localized digital advertising solutions allow advertisers to target different ads to different neighborhoods around the country.
• Not every consumer lives within close proximity of a retail store. National retailers waste a lot of national ad spend on consumers who live outside a store’s retail trade area. This waste gets only more pronounced as retailers get more local. With localized advertising solutions, only consumers who match a retailer’s shopper profile and who live within a specific radius of a retail location will see your ad.
• Although most advertising programs require brands and retailers to create campaigns weeks or months in advance of when they’d like to generate interest in their product or services (for example, during a certain time of year or around a special event), highly localized digital campaigns of any size can launch within a matter of hours because you can leverage existing creative assets.

Once advertisers have found ways to properly target digital ads on a neighborhood level, they should see a lift in product sales and engagement with the brand at a specific retail location and/or a lift in traffic for retailers at specific locations.

For more on giving digital campaigns a local edge, click here.

That said, the demise of all other digital-based advertising at the emergence of this social channel is poppycock. I have often noticed that the digital experts in our space lack a historical view of advertising. The digital VC community—which has zero media and advertising expertise, but that invests heavily in digital companies—exacerbates this.

Dynamic new media and emerging communication channels often see meteoric growth. A leveling off always follows growth, as the channel finds its rightful place within the media mix of any advertisers’ plans. All you have to do is look back at the emergence of search marketing and you can see the parallel. It was not so long ago that it was proclaimed that display, at the hands of search, was dead. That proclamation was nullified, of course, when Google re-invested in display with the purchase of DoubleClick.

We can delve into history and find countless examples of new media coming of age, such as: broadcast television, cable television, etc. We can track their meteoric rises and their plateauing as they find their rightful place in the media mix. That’s not to say some media channels don’t suffer—changes in content distribution models do create disruptions beyond maturation, as we have seen with digital content vs. print and satellite radio vs. terrestrial.

In the case of social media, we are bound to see continued growth as marketers find new ways to leverage the channel. Does that mean the death of all other forms of digital advertising? Highly unlikely.

The QR code is not the CueCat.

Remember the CueCat? The adorable cat-shaped scanner was going to make it easier for consumers to find advertiser websites (apparently, typing a URL into a browser was considered too onerous?) by simply scanning a special UPC code that had a cute cat-shaped logo next to it. Thousands of newspaper and magazine subscribers received the USB scanners that had one use — to bring you to a website, assuming that you would actually take the newspaper, walk over to your computer, fire up the machine and CueCat, and scan away.

PC World remembers — calling it one of the “25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.” Gizmodo called it the “#1 worst invention of the 2000s” (“If it sounds like a needlessly cumbersome way to use the Internet, that's because it is!”).

To be fair, a lot of things that seemed like great ideas in 2000 (“Who Let the Dogs Out,” Kozmo.com, Reindeer Games) seem kind of stupid now.

Which brings me to the QR Code, which are either amazing, or terrible, depending on which headline you believe:

“QR Codes Gaining Prominence.”
“QR Codes are Hopeless.”

(Of course, headlines are meant to grab a reader’s attention and are, by definition, lacking in subtlety, but these two do a particularly good job of articulating the pro and con.)

The debate in the advertising trades related to the efficacy of QR codes has picked up lately. It’s hard to believe that these simple, pixilated two-dimensional codes — and the smartphone apps that make them work as a “call to action” for display ads — could inspire such rancor.

On the “prominence” side, supporters point to recent high-profile campaigns from major brands such as JetBlue, Best Buy and Macy’s. The Macy’s campaign, which is featured prominently throughout its stores, is particularly groundbreaking because it includes an educational element — links to videos that show users just how to use these things.

Which points to the major argument of those in the “hopeless” camp: You need a video to show you how to use these things.

Naysayers point to a litany of shortcomings. Consumers need to download a specific app to the phone to make it work. You need to be connected in order to make them relevant — making some high-profile campaigns placed in subways useless. Once you’re connected, the content isn’t particularly compelling — typically, it’s just a link to a website or landing page to provide further information.

I truly believe the first two challenges will be overcome:

•    Beyond the subway and a few remaining airlines, how many truly “disconnected” public places are there? And for the handful of cities with underground transit, most are working with carriers to provide 3G service for commuters.
•    Ten years ago, no one knew how to send text messages, and shortcodes might as well have been Greek. Now, SMS is ubiquitous. The adoption curve for QR codes — particularly as smartphones expand market share — will be similar, provided consumers see some value in trying them.

The third challenge is going to require some work on advertisers’ parts: Consumers will embrace QR codes when advertisers make it worth their while to do so.

QR codes are where SMS-based calls to action were five years ago: Despite the inherent benefits of brands engaging with customers via mobile, consumers didn’t see the value. Why should I send a text message to my favorite potato chip brand? I’m just going to get annoying commercials via text message. But once advertisers made it worthwhile — through mobile loyalty clubs, members-only content, special events and sales, or other content that made customers feel like they had “insider status” — they opted in.

The same is true for QR codes. Most of the time now, they point to a company or product website, or maybe a special landing page — a lukewarm call to action that lacks any real activity.

Instead, advertisers should see this as a way to reward customers who have taken the time to download an application and scan their code by taking them right to:

•    A “QR Club” that provides them with special status, rights and privileges; after scanning the  QR code, customers can opt into the club in order to receive ongoing alerts and special content via SMS. Beyond the special status awarded to the customer, this “QR Club” will actually have the customer giving you permission to engage with them on an ongoing basis via their mobile device.
•    Invitation to special insider events for the “QR Club,” including branded scavenger hunts (which could include more QR codes!), product demonstrations or celebrity appearances;
•    Branded videos or movie trailers that feature product placement or other unique content that can only be accessed by scanning a QR code; or
•    Special insider information about new products and services, including ways they can get them first.

Like most nascent marketing technologies, the impulse to anoint QR codes as prominent or hopeless is strong. I believe the medium isn’t the problem — it’s the message. By providing content that consumers truly want to see, marketers can reap significant benefits using QR codes. And they don’t even need to plug in cat scanners to do so.

SuperBowl miniature screens for Social media advertising

Social Media Temptation:

The Super Bowl according to accepted belief, is the second largest food consumption day in the USA after Thanksgiving day. So when a major advertiser decides to not splash out on advertising during this acknowledged "National Holiday", it would set the entire advertising and media spheres abuzz! This is exactly what has happened on every major discussion forum, even on large online business social networks such as LinkediN.

How Pepsi could have used Social Media at the SuperBowl:

What if Pepsi were to have installed a temporary Wifi Network at the Stadium itself. A private stadium wide network, where access was free but via a Pepsi branded landing page or gateway page. The connection to the outside internet would also be there, but could be regulated to reach only popular Social Networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. This choice would be completely at Pepsi's discretion.

Here's how it could have been implemented and 4 advantages:

1. - Pepsi would have instantly brought Social Media advertising, into the Real World and on-ground, right at the Super Bowl
2. - Thousands of Blackberry, Iphones and Smartphones would have been converted into miniature SuperBowl Screens, if Pepsi was streaming a live feed to them or showing instant replays, and of course, Pepsi Commercials
3. - All that a smartphone user would have to do is turn on their Wifi enabled devices and log on to the Pepsi Private Wifi Network.
4. - Pepsi could have turned this into a direct source of revenue. Example: On every Pullring of a can of pepsi a password could have been printed (for single login) giving time limited access to the Wifi Network. This would actually help in sales and consumption of the product.
5. - Ticker tape like real estate on the main SuperBowl scoreboard screen could have been rented by Pepsi, showing Tweets sent out live by the fans at the Stadium, via the private network. Or this could me moderated and outside tweets from fans at home could also stream in.
6. - Fans could upload live snapshots to their facebook accounts from the stadium.

This would have brought online Social Media networking face to face with real people on-ground! an experiment worthy of a separate study in itself. Pepsi could have accomplished both, on site advertising mixed with social media advertising, and possibly driven up sales of it's product in one go.   Read the rest of this article and more ideas for Pepsi Vending Machines here: http://realvision.ae/blog/2010/01/4-ways-pepsi-could-have-used-social-media-advertising-at-the-superbowl/   

Traditional Media Advertising is out; Social media platforms are in:

If you are one of those in Media and Advertising, having a rough day at the morning breakfast brainstorming sessions in your corporate boardroom or agency "creative den", trying to convince the "suits" that they need to undo past thinking and, and make way for the revolution in how advertising and marketing will be done (pause for breath)… then take heart!

Here are 7 reasons to give them something to think about, when your asked that well rehearsed question: "What about ROI? how do we measure and justify ROI on this new fangled social media advertising thing".

1) ROI becomes a need for justification when spending on Billboards, TV and Print than when signing up a Twitter account or starting a FB page. The investment for this is already part of the salary for one of the junior staff.

2) Does every penny have to count? When budgeting for traditional media, there is always unaccounted funds allocated as "misc". The entire exercise of starting a social media campaign is LESS than the misc expenses.

3) ROI needed to be shown on traditional media, because of the amounts involved in creating it and the additional amounts needed if it was to be replicated. ie. the consumer cannot not replicate a newspaper… to spread the advert. All this has changed, Social media allows the consumer to "be" the advertiser in a huge peer-to-peer network. So why the insistence on ROI justification for something that you did not spend much on yourself, besides the effort to initially send out the tweet and create a templated FB fan page?

4) Take the latest success story of Social media. It is said to be the reason AVATAR crossed the 1billion dollar mark so fast. What did they do differently other than tweet, open an FB page (and some webcasts of interviews on the page) . Even a webcast is now less than the cost of a print ad in a national newspaper. Take a nokia / iphone and webcast for free on services such as Qik or Ustream.

5) A single employee with the help of  semi automated Twitter and Facebook posting software is all it takes to keep a social media campaign alive. The biggest thing to keep it successful is feeding regular tidbits and answering questions now and then to the fans online.

6) ROI is needed to be calculated and factored in, for PASSIVE media advertising and marketing. For Social media the rate at which a brand message spreads (viral) is the ROI.

7) The most important reason that ROI does not need to be justified – Each and every Social Media Campaign that has been started, can liveFOREVER on the Internet, all it takes is a "re-tweet" to go viral again. Never before in the history of advertising was this possible, unless the Ad was historic enough to be archived.

This is where traditional advertisers and marketing people unfortunately (and I do get chastised a lot for saying this) have to re-learn all they knew, and re-write the text books on advertising. It's not only advertising and media platforms that have been disrupted (cliche)… other areas where marketing and advertising agencies have missed the boat is for example the missed opportunity for 3D ads in Cinemas, prior to the start of a 3D blockbuster. You have a captive audience, with glasses in hand, and no 3D advert playing.! It goes to show that there is a big gap between where the world is heading (the new generation) and where "established" methods of thinking and media is still at.

Advertising will be about convincing a few people (the niche) and letting the virus spread from there. We have to realize that 100 years of advertising and marketing has to be undone. Why? because in the past 100 years there was no dynamic media delivery platform as versatile as online Social networks. Advertising was always a passive medium. Today the audiences ARE the advertisers.

Socialnomics:

Socialnomics is something that was not on ANY economics or MBA course that was taught during this past decade. This is testament to the reason that some of the foundations of thinking, on advertising and marketing needs to be rewritten from 2010 onwards.  This short video introduction is worth watching, for every traditional advertising executive, account manager and marketing head who is questioning  or resisting change.

If you do have more reasons to NOT have to justify ROI on social media campaigns, please send them in below via comments.

Digital Advertising in Nightclubs

Targeted Digital Advertising; the "Why"

Targeted advertising is "in"; mass media advertising is out. We can already see how in-effective mass media advertising is, with the decline in revenues faced by traditional media delivery platforms such as television and print. Even Digital mass media advertising is slowly suffering, with the introduction of built in email spam filters and laws against cold calling and unsolicited SMS coming into force in many countries. It was always a hit and miss affair anyway. The idea that you spam everyone,  and hopefully attract or trap many.

With control of media consumption now in the hands of the consumer, there is a focus on media delivery that places importance on quality over quantity. Just as the shift from traditional to Digital Media by consumers allows them granular control over what they consume, the same advantage can be used to the benefit of the advertiser, tailoring and targeting the brand message to a desired demographic, thereby achieving a higher and measurable success rate, than blindly "broadcasting" a message that never reaches the audience because of automated filtering and end user control.  Targeted Digital Advertising can be applied to segments of society, such as the financially more stable Senior Citizen, but focus has always been on the cool and younger Gen Y or Millennials, as an audience .

Targeted Digital Advertising in Nightclubs; the "How"

Interactive Visuals - Perfect for Brand Entertainment

The aim of every advertiser is to get a consumers attention. It used be a matter of "eyeballs". That form of metric was not always straightforward to gauge success, because there was no guaranteed way to measure how many eyeballs saw an Ad. For example, for a Digital Signage flat screen or Billboard in a shopping mall, while the footfall may be 1000 per hour, there is no guarantee that 1000 pairs of eyeballs saw and registered the ad on the billboard. Some times there are eye tracking devices, but a casual glance does not mean that the Ad was registered. Interaction is always a sure fire way of guaranteeing that the brand message has been absorbed, but until such a time that people Interact with a Billboard, the search for ideal Media delivery platforms continue.

Nightclubs are an ideal targeted platform to address the affluent, and young adult demographic. This has of course been realized and not wasted by brands that deal exclusively with this demographic. But in most cases and barring a few sponsored events, the brands using this media platform have only been the ones that cannot advertise freely over mass media, i.e. tobacco and alcohol brands.

Nightclubs are a place where people are at their relaxed best. They are there to be entertained, and unlike other entertainment media platforms such as television or venue based locations such as Cinemas, where the entertainment is passive, Nightclubs offer the perfect interactive entertainment venue. All that a brand needs to know is, how to provide the audience or consumer with a "Brand Entertainment" experience.

Brand Entertainment:

In most advertising scenarios, the brand message is pushed, in-between the entertainment. This is noticed in everything from Radio, television, Cinema and even a magazine. The key difference in christening the Nightclub as a media platform, is that it allows the brand to entertain!   in order to avoid cross posting the entire article, read the rest here.