Apr 212016
 

One of the most crucial roles for advertising agencies today is leading a path through what is changing and what is not for clients. It’s vital that instead of clamouring for solutions, jumping to conclusions and joining bombastic “X is dead” conversations, that we understand these changes further. We need to understand the motivations, the behaviours and, most of all, establish the opportunities and threats. It’s from deep understanding and real empathy that we can create solutions and strategies.

via Adblocking could be the best thing for the advertising industry | Media Network | The Guardian.

 

Jun 032013
 

 facebook

We’ve put together some useful tips on how to create your first Facebook advertising campaign.

If you are a brand that’s new to Facebook advertising, the first thing you’ll need to do is open a business account.

Note: This process is a bit different than opening a private Facebook account and is used solely for business purposes. You can create a business account even if you don’t have a personal Facebook account. To get started, first you need to create a Facebook Page.

Business accounts:

Accounts are not publicly available

Accounts do not have individual profiles

Are used to manage Pages and ad campaigns

First steps:

Create a business account by visiting this link

Once there, choose from six classifications that best suit your business

MORE:   Getting Started: How to Create your First Facebook Ad Campaign

 

 


 

Jan 042013
 

old-tv

In the past, marketing teams placed media “buys” in a limited number of traditional channels, such as broadcast or print ads. These channels acted largely independently. Measurements were straightforward, typically in the form of reach and audience. Social and mobile media are different in every respect. The new engagement channels are deeply inter-dependent, and their performance linked tightly to each other. This phenomenon has a name — its called media convergence.

Consider this data point. By 2013 lead management campaigns across four or more digital channels are expected to outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300 percent. Thats because of the way customers use social and mobile media.

Yet CMOS are struggling. One study conducted by SapientNitro revealed that 82 percent surveyed believe improving marketing coordination across traditional, online, and social channels is moderately or extremely challenging. And the number one obstacle cited to digital marketing growth was lack of a single, cross-channel digital marketing platform.

Heres why. Customer behavior is extremely nimble across this landscape and buyers are influenced — and influence others — in buying decisions and brand loyalty as they move in and out of various websites, social platforms, and mobile media. For example, 83 percent of consumers globally are likely to visit a website recommended by a friend on Facebook, and more than half say comments posted on retailers Facebook and Twitter pages, whether positive or negative, also influence their opinions

MORE:  How to balance traditional, online, and social media – iMediaConnection.com.

 

 


 

Sep 102012
 

The New York Times yesterday reported that Apple is negotiating with record labels for a Pandora-like service, and calls it a move that “could shake up the growing field of internet radio.” The service would customize music to users’ tastes – like Pandora does. Just like Pandora, Apple’s offering would carry advertising, but through Apple’s iAd platform. Terms of the deal are unclear (e.g., if Apple would share ad revenue with labels or pay them through a licensing fee). Also unclear, whether or not the service will be ad supported and free, or with an ad-free subscription offering (which Pandora offers for $36).

Pandora is probably one of the five biggest mobile ad businesses in the US, asBusinessInsider describes; but still struggles with how to sell ads profitably. As the company said in an investor call earlier this week, “To date, we have not been able to generate additional revenue from our advertising products as rapidly as we have been able to grow our listener hours on mobile.” In short – it has all the listeners it wants, but struggles to monetize that listenership.

But, it tries hard.

MORE:  Apple Plans Pandora Rival (And Why That’s Bad For Advertising) – MarketingVOX.

 


Aug 202012
 

You don’t need a spending forecast to tell you that online video is gobbling up an increasingly larger share of today’s advertising dollars. More advertisers are spending more money on video — whether we’re talking about pre-roll, branded YouTube channels, or integrations with existing content producers. But more money doesn’t necessarily mean smart spending.

Right now, YouTube has two strong opportunities for brand advertisers. They can either partner with established YouTube stars, or they can go their own way and launch a brand channel. (Obviously, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.)

But while most of us are familiar with the opportunities and challenges of those two options, we’re less conversant with the nuances of YouTube’s culture. In the face of that knowledge gap, only a handful of brands have truly prospered with video. Many brands, perhaps even the majority of brands, haven’t had much success with video, and frankly, a lot of brands simply misunderstand platforms like YouTube, their audience, and the acts that have used YouTube to launch their careers.

Connect with the industry. Want to meet the brands that are driving the future of digital marketing? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Sept. 9-12. Request your invitation today.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend VidCon in Anaheim, California. While there were some good breakout sessions that were clearly aimed at marketing types, the real action was down on the floor, where fans lined up seeking autographs from their favorite YouTube stars.

Of course, “star” is a funny word in this context. Being big on YouTube doesn’t make you a household name. For every pack of teenagers I saw gushing over their favorite YouTube star, there was a somewhat bewildered adult chaperon who would say things like, “Whose autograph do you want, and why are they famous?”

As a category, it’s easy to dismiss YouTube stars as flukes — amateurs who got lucky early with a weird gimmick or a cheap stunt. But YouTube stars have something all brands crave — an audience. And they also have something else — a solid understanding of what will and won’t work on YouTube.

Watching the frenzy on the VidCon floor, as diehard fans rushed from one booth to the next, I couldn’t help but think that the marketers in their breakout sessions upstairs were missing the real lesson. Yes, in some cases, these YouTube stars present a huge — and relatively untapped — opportunity for branded integrations. That’s important for some advertisers. But let’s put sponsorship opportunities aside for the moment, because there’s something more fundamental that all marketers can learn from these YouTube stars. Each of them, in their own way, has broken some important ground in the Wild West that is YouTube. And if you’re looking to take your brand’s YouTube channel to the next level, it’s worth studying the people who’ve already blazed that trail.

MORE: YouTube video basics from its brightest stars (single page view) – iMediaConnection.com.

 


Aug 202012
 

Brands and their marketers would like to shift more budget to online video — really. They know perfectly well that consumers are there waiting. But online will never have the gravitas of TV advertising until one very important change takes place.

It’s not technology or inventory (or lack of it) that’s the problem. It’s not the sites or the screen size or the devices. And it’s certainly not measurability.

It’s how video is sold online. And until it changes, TV will rule.

Digital video, specifically in-stream, is marketed as a TV-like experience. Indeed, like TV, viewers must watch the entire ad to get to the desired content (although they rarely do in either medium). What’s fundamentally different, however, is the connection between the programming and the ad — the emotional or thematic link that captures a viewer in the right frame of mind for a specific product or idea. And it’s totally missing online.

MORE:  Why online video remains in TV’s shadow – iMediaConnection.com.

 


Aug 132012
 

Facebook has recently begun asking users to “tell us what you like” after they hide an ad. The module then links to the page discovery browser, which presents a number of pages that users can Like and add to their interests.

When users see a Facebook ad they don’t care for, they can click the X that appears in the top right corner. The ad will be hidden and users can indicate why they didn’t like the ad. This week we noticed that after this step, Facebook now prompts users to visit the pages browser. The site, which Facebook introduced in 2010, shows icons of pages that are popular in a user’s country, but also factors in pages which are popular among their friends.

MORE:  Don’t like Facebook ads? Facebook wants to know what you do like.

 


Jul 252012
 

Global revenues from social media are projected to hit $16.9 billion in 2012, a 43.1% jump over the previous year, according to Gartner.

The bulk of that will come from advertising, which will contribute $8.8 billion. Social gaming revenue is next at $6.2 billion and subscriptions account for another $278 million. The researcher predicts “moderate growth” for the segment in coming years, though Gartner declined to share specific figures.

MORE:  Social Media is Now a $16.9 Billion Business [REPORT].

 


Jul 052012
 

Wildfire has run hundreds of successful campaigns for brands across all three networks and can share with us exactly what works and what doesn’t. In Part 1 of their Social Advertising series, part of the Adrants white paper series, the reports shares:

- Best practices for writing ad copy
– Which creative images are most popular with audiences
– The differences in layout and styling on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
– What not to do when advertising on Facebook

MORE: How to Create Successful Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Ads – Adrants.

 


Jul 022012
 

The search giant today unveiled its 2011 Economic Impact report, and said that its search and advertising tools, including AdWords and AdSense, drove $80 billion in economic activity across the U.S. last year. The company was able to reach that figure with help from “1.8 million businesses, Web site publishers, and non-profits across the U.S.”

In order to arrive at that figure, Google used some fancy math. The company estimates that businesses that use AdWords make $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on the advertising platform. In addition, the company assumed that a business will receive five clicks in search results for every one click on their ads.

MORE: Google: We drove $80 billion of U.S. economic activity last year