Unicast

Sunday night's Season 4 premiere of Mad Men brought in 2.9 million viewers and was the most watched episode of Mad Men ever, which means 2.9 million of you saw the PR stunt that Peggy Olson and Pete Campbell pulled off.

After fretting over possibly losing the Sugarberry Ham account, Peggy suggests that they hire two actresses to fight over a ham at a grocery store in order to generate press over the product. The stunt is a success and Pete and Peggy are awarded additional dollars to their advertising budget.

What this scene reminded me of is this – we are all looking for ways to get our brand or our clients’ brand out there without having to break the bank.

With the advent of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, companies are jumping at the chance to generate buzz around their product. But is it really working?

According to a recent report that was released today by digital agency 360i, 90% of tweets come from consumers and only 12% of consumer tweets mention a brand. The top brands mentioned on Twitter are Twitter itself.

Furthermore, only 1% of consumer tweets that mention a brand are part of an active conversation with that brand, meaning that companies are failing to engage their consumers in a conversation.

So what does this mean for businesses both large and small?

Unfortunately in this case, showing up is not half the battle. Businesses need to build relationships with their consumers and take on a personality. As 360i states, “there remains a largely untapped opportunity for brands to create deeper connections with consumers via earned media and to learn more about what motivates them with online listening through Twitter.” The real value for companies who join social networking site is to create a conversation that allows brands to become a more meaningful part of people’s lives.

Everyone’s favorite site to watch full episodes of television on the web, Hulu made lots of news this week. One report has video game enthusiast rejoicing as it was announced that Hulu is close to signing a deal with Sony that would bring a paid version of the site to the Playstation. According to the Bloomberg report the Playstation version would still present users with the opportunity to watch both current and archival shows in their entirety. The deal would open Hulu up to a larger market and allow them to compete with Netflix.

In other Hulu news rumors continue to fly that the site is close to bringing Viacom programs back to the site. In mid March Viacom pulled two of Hulu’s most popular shows The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. However this time these shows may only be available in a new subscription based version of Hulu. In addition to adding Viacom shows it is also reported that Hulu may add shows by CBS to this subscription only service.

A lot of controversy has come up surrounding Apple’s recent change to its developer terms prohibiting Google and other third party affiliates from collecting analytical data from iPhone and iPad apps. We will leave it for the courts to decide, but it’s not completely clear if this is an attempt by Apple to monopolize an emerging market, protect their stake in the smart phone market from Google and others, or just Apple being “different” (which doesn’t seem to be so different anymore). Despite what tricks Apple may have up their sleeve, there are a few daunting realities surrounding this information collection that are no secret to all parties involved.

The sheer volume of data collection coming from mobile users is going to increase exponentially. With the growing popularity of mobile computing, marketers are going to want to start looking at things like location, time, and previous interactions within the mobile device.

The value of this data is going to increase. With new metrics being collected, data will be used to create more innovative ways of ad delivery, and of measuring success. In a dynamic online advertising environment where tiny changes to ad design or placement can mean a world of difference in performance, it forces marketers to buy in, or bust.

And lastly, Apple clearly wants to collect and do things with this data that it doesn’t want Google to know about. This is really no surprise from Apple, but does create artificial barriers to competition and stirs up even more bad blood between fierce competitors, who most certainly will be required to play nice at some point in the future. However, for the foreseeable future, Apple has the tablet market cornered, and doesn’t want to provide information to anyone who may infringe upon that.

Competitor AdMob’s CEO Omar Hamoui wrote in a blog post, “"Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress."

This may be true Mr. Hamoui, but is it “an attempt to monopolize, combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations” as prohibited by the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890?

This will have to be left for Washington to decide, and with a law originally written in 1890 with no concept of “information” as a commodity or mass marketing in general, it could really go either way. In the meantime, the data keeps rolling in.

What do you do when Apple reports that two million iPads were sold in less than 60 days? You create the first-ever tablet task force, duh!

With the debut of iAd fast approaching on July 1, 2010, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has created the Tablet Task Force to help create an infrastructure that would help support a variety of rich new advertising opportunities for the inevitable emerging technologies of tablets and e-readers. In the short period of time the iPad has been on the market, developers have created over 5,000 apps that take advantage of all its features and not to mention more than 200,000 apps already in the App Store that were created for the iPhone or iPod touch. The objectives of the Tablet Task Force are to explore and define the best practices in the area, build a solid foundation for ongoing growth and provide guidance on the development of ad standards.

“The ad market is developing for tablets and e-readers as the excitement builds for those devices.” said Bob Carrigan, CEO, IDG Communications Inc., Co-Chair of the Tablet Task Force and a member of the Executive Committee of the IAB Board of Directors. “Their growth will create new revenue for media companies, agencies and technology companies and new experiences for users.”

Although, IAB was the first to create a tablet task force, they won’t be the last to create a support group that will help developers answer all their questions, especially with the current controversy and skepticism surrounding applications such as iAd. In just the last month, Apple has had a number of potential antitrust cases arise regarding its developers terms to exclude analytics companies from collecting data on users.

One thing’s for sure, we wouldn’t love Apple without a little bit of controversy along with a little bit of smoke and mirrors. Let’s just hope that the Tablet Task Force will help bring clarity to this rapidly growing market. In the mean time, let’s kick back with a bucket of popcorn and a coke and see what is in store for us in the next few months.

For more information on the Tablet Task Force, and to download “tabvertising—iPad and other tablets: the advertising and marketing opportunities,” please go to: www.iab.net/tabvertising

On March 7, 2010, James Dillon and James Egan, who lead our global and publisher solution initiatives, had the opportunity to attend the AdMonsters Publisher Forum XXII where they met and dined with some of our industry’s biggest publishers. The event was held at the Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center in Morristown, New Jersey and drew in over a hundred leaders in the online advertising space whose roles focus on online advertising operations and advertising technology. Unicast was a proud silver sponsor of the event along side several companies such as Collective, Operative, and Adsoftware.

Jim Egan had this to say about the event "this was definitely a solid networking event with Publisher Ad Ops professionals, who are often times in the driver seat for making vendor decisions on the publisher side. I definitely felt it was a worthwhile investment and I'm looking forward to attending the next Publisher forum in August."

The majority of the agenda for this event is comprised of member-led sessions, workshops, and breakouts covering a wide variety of relevant topics; some examples include ad serving technology, inventory management, organizational structure, business process automation, ad operations policies, rich/streaming media, and case studies.

For more information on this event or to learn about other AdMonsters events coming soon please visit http://www.admonsters.com/events

Advertisers can spend over $10 million on buying television time during the biggest football game of the year and that isn’t even counting the cost it takes to produce the spot itself. Sometimes, it’s the majority of their budget for the entire year, all for only a minute or two of face time in front of viewers (who are most likely distracted by beer and socializing) or the chance to be voted #1 in USA Today’s Ad Meter_^SM poll. What if advertisers used that money for something else, something better?

So, in a daring act of altruism, Pepsi relinquished “their multi-decade, multi-million dollar Super Bowl opening ad position_¹” as well as other slots throughout the game and instead, offered everyone a chance to change the world. The gist is simple: Pepsi is offering $20 million in grants of varying sizes to individuals, groups, and organizations that have the most inspired idea with the most online supporters. Submissions started coming in mid-January and so far, there are 729 ideas in the running for a March 1 decision.

Pepsi has created a site called “Refresh Everything” to support this noble campaign: http://www.refresheverything.com/ where users can submit their ideas and/or vote on others’ proposals. The campaign has been viral for the most part, but Pepsi is still spending some bucks on TV commercials. As this is long running initiative, it will be interesting follow their advertising efforts and see which mediums they choose to utilize the most.

While some of the ideas are small, like sending Girl Scout cookies to our troops overseas, and some are larger in scope, like helping to provide free healthcare to those less fortunate, the point is that Pepsi is choosing to take the road less travelled. And that will make all the difference.

¹ http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/the-pepsi-refresh-project-social-campaign/

Learn More About the Pepsi Refresh Project:

http://www.refresheverything.com/how-it-works

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33797502

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/the-pepsi-refresh-project/

I recently had the opportunity to meet with an agency that was in the very early stages of a new campaign. Coming up with the creative for a campaign can be an exercise in prognostication—what will engage the consumer? What are the results we want and how can we get them?.........

I am reminded of one ad that we ran that had 0% CTR. That’s right—this ad drove no traffic whatsoever to the client’s website. But when I think back over all of the ads I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a LOT), this one sticks out in my mind as one of the best. The ad featured a game that was very cartoonish, silly and cute, but it really drove the point home of what that company did and what they were good at. It took the company’s logo and associated it with a single idea. To this day, when I see one of their TV ads, I think back to how clever that little ad was. And the ITR on it was astronomical.

This leads me back to the agency that’s just starting their new campaign. For the team starting to build new creative, I think it’s a good idea to start with the question “What kind of report do you want to see at the end of the campaign?” Usually, you want one with high ITR and/or CTR, depending on what the goal of the campaign is. But those aren’t just numbers; a high CTR means that what you’re doing is working—people were engaged enough by what you created that it made them want to go out and buy something or find out more about it. High ITR is a little more tricky, but if you’ve done things right, it means that people are enjoying themselves while your logo is in front of them, and while that might not add up to immediately heading for the website to buy, the benefits can go more long-term when they’re carrying around that association in their head.

A few weeks ago Nielsen posted their top 5 online advertising trends for 2010. Most of this article is common sense to people who work in the world of rich media. However two of the trends mentioned in this article did interest me. The first was their number two trend:

“New models emerge to take advantage of smartphones. Accurate mobile measurement will be required to stay head of the snowballing growth of that media platform.”

In June of 2009, I bought my first smartphone and one of the things I noticed immediately was how bad most ads appeared on it. To me this seemed like such lost opportunity. I hope that in 2010 advertisers become more aware of how great the possibilities are for this forum and open up to the idea of taking risks and exploring new and emerging technologies that support this medium. With the growth of smartphone adopters there is tremendous potential for advertisers to really connect with audiences but only if the mobile advertising is done right.

The second trend on this list that excited me was the number five:

“More interesting and interactive online ads appear. Increased use of more creative advertising and content models online such as video, attention-seeking page takeover ads and mechanisms for greater interactivity will drive the next era of Web development.”

I personally love ads that provide the user with more than just the typical 300x250 or 728x90 banner advertisements. Adding interactive elements such as games, photo galleries, multiple videos, and quiz is a sure fire way to increase a users time spent with an ad and can contribute to a much more successful campaign.

When we get involved with clients who haven’t worked with us before, it’s exciting for them to know how many possibilities there are for their ad units.  But it can also be daunting to figure out what things are going to work best in a medium that may be new to you.  The sheer number of options combined with an almost-always tight deadline might throw you.  So what to do?

Don’t worry-we can help!

Here are a few tips to get you started on your way to a successful online ad:

1.   Know Your Goal

Are you trying to drive traffic to your website or increase brand awareness?  The answer can determine what kind of creative you need.

2.   Get Some Samples

You can view our online gallery at http://www.unicast.com/Showcase.aspx.  As you look through the work, notice which ones are jumping out at you the most and why, as well as which ones have your same goal in mind. 

3.   Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Sure, things like videos, animation, games, email functionality, Twitter interaction and 3D are all cool, but do you need all of it in the same ad?  And even if you pick just one, will it help you accomplish your goal, or will it just take up space in your CPU usage?  We have a ton of great features to offer, so find the ones that are right for you and keep it to that.

4.   Consider The Assets You Already Have

Do you have things you can pull from your website?  Layered PSDs?  Flash assets from other ad units you may have worked on?  If so, these make a great jumping-off point instead of having to start from absolute scratch.

5.   Pick Your Best And Send It Over

We prefer to work with the highest resolution images and video that we can lay hands on.  We can play around with the file size to get it where it needs to be, but if we start with great quality, we have a better chance of ending with it.

6.   Still Lost?  Let’s Talk!

We’re happy to get on a call with you any time to discuss your creative.  Whether we’re building the creative or converting what you’ve built, it’s always better for us to work things out on the front end and get you exactly what you need instead of sending you multiple revisions later.   

An acquaintance of mine always reminds me that, “there is no such thing as a draft if it is sent to the client”. I was mulling this over and could not agree more. If something is going to the client, this first version of the document/prototype should be as close to the final agreed product as you can deliver. After the client reviews the information, you want to focus on their feedback and requested revisions – not look back on what you have not delivered or completed. You never have a second chance to make a first impression. Would you rather see a clean product that just needs some minor refinement or a sloppy draft with poor spelling, grammar, and incomplete data? So focus on delivering every time like it is going “live”.