Archive for March, 2007
March 14, 2007 at 10:57 am · Filed under Interactive Advertising News, Campaign Review, Blogging and Viral Marketing, Web Analytics & ROI
Avenue A | Razorfish released their 2007 Digital Outlook analyzing trends in online advertising spending, media consumption, and user behavior. There are lots of great insights here (disclaimer: I work at AA|RF) that is worthwhile reading for any online marketing professional.
Some Interesting Trends:
- Search spending as % of total budget decreased attributed mainly to boosts in brand advertising (display banners, sponsorships, etc.) - Could Search be hitting a peak in spend? Have advertisers already exhausted their keyword lists and has search engine usage plateaued?
- Yahoo! and AOL are firing on all cylinders for display advertising (heavy revamp of Yahoo! properties has helped) but also reflects a continued decline in billings for Search (Panama is helping a bit)
- The Digital Class Key Findings:
- Human-computer interaction is about to get intense
- The network is ubiquitous
- There’s no middle
- The Internet is where general interest goes to die
- Information seeking equals entertainment
- Transparency is king
- Social networking ascends to utilitarian status
- Let’s stay friends
- Giving back is good
- Dust is settling on the music library
- Blogs have yet to achieve media brand status
- More mobile phones, less talking
Of particular note that I’ve touched upon several times on this blog about the causality of view-based conversions.
From the 2007 Outlook:
View Based Conversions Study
March 7, 2007 at 12:35 pm · Filed under Personal Opinion
*Update: There’s a response by an insider on the NY Daily News*
*Link to an opinion published over a year ago when (red) launched by Jagdish Bhagwati, a professor at Columbia who is also on the advisory team to Kofi Annan’s Africa council.*
AdAge published “Costly Red Campaign Reaps Meager $18 Million” two days ago and dozens of comments have already flowed in on AdAge - the majority of which are negative towards the (red) campaign. *(red) responds to AdAge article*
Here’s what the article basically pointed out:
- The (red) campaign has raised $18mm worldwide since launching about a year ago
- Some experts estimate that almost $100mm has been spent promoting red through Gap, Motorola, and other (red) partners
- (red) is a brand - not a non-profit - which was created by a for-profit company with the expectation that partners licensing the (red) trademark would have to give certain % of profits to the Global Fund.
- Private donations to the Global Fund are a small portion of their total funding sources (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $650mm alone).
- Mark Rosenman, a non-profit activist and public-service professor, summarizes the concerns: “There is a broadening concern that business is taking on the patina of philanthropy and crowding out philanthropic activity and even substituting for it,” he said. “It benefits the for-profit partners much more than the charitable causes.”
Major Themes from the Comments (mostly from professional Marketers):
- Products were “outrageously” overpriced. Many comments noted that a poorly made t-shirt was marked up signficantly benefiting the retailer more than the charity.
- Money could’ve been given directly to the charity instead of being spent on marketing.
- There is skepticism about the true intentions of the companies involved with the (red) campaign.
Personal Opinion
The (red) campaign is an extremely dividing issue but I think it’s important I share my thoughts even if I’m going to get flack. I personally think that the (red) campaign is the wrong way to approach the problems in Africa as pointed out in the Financial Times commentary above. Live 8 and countless efforts to tackle issues in Africa have proven to be futile in many ways due to corruption and focus on care instead of cure and prevention. Anti-viral drugs will help those currently affected but will do little to help those who may be infected in the future. Money would be more effectively spent on prevention and cure.
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March 4, 2007 at 5:58 pm · Filed under Interactive Advertising News
A user released a music video called “How to Kill a Brand” on YouTube this past week slamming Sony’s Playstation 3 for all of its shortcomings. The video included overlays of soundbites from Sony’s Phil Harrison, President of the division that handles the Playstation, over a remake of the popular song “How to Save a Life” by the Fray. As of today, the anti-PS3 video already been viewed over 472,000 times on YouTube with over 2,500 comments.
Video and Analysis after the Jump
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March 3, 2007 at 10:28 am · Filed under Interactive Advertising News, Blogging and Viral Marketing
Just a few days ago, bloggers were talking about how KFC was following in the footsteps of JetBlue in releasing a video response from its president in response to the rat infestation in their NYC restaurant.
It appears that the video is no longer available and it was never really publicized to begin with, living buried within the KFC site. However, you can see that it did once exist since it comes up as the top search result on Google for “KFC President video”.
If anyone has the video saved somewhere, I would love to see it.
Kudos to Influx Insights and Jeremiah Owyang for covering this well in advance.
