ComScore: Online Ads Boost Brands Just as Effectively as TV Campaigns

Television advertising may be some of the most expensive marketing a brand can engage in, but consumer goods brands could do just as well pouring their ad dollars into the Web. A comScore study has found that online advertising is at least as effective as television advertising when it comes to selling consumer package goods. In fact, it's slightly better.

ComScore compared the online behavior of its panelists with their purchases at the checkout lines of supermarkets. Compared with a control set that wasn't exposed to the online campaigns, the 200,000-consumer study found that online ads for consumer package goods lifted retail sales by 9% on average, while television campaigns only boosted retail by 8%.

In a press release, comScore's executive chairman chalked online marketing's success at elevating consumer goods to its increased targeting ability, particularly in hitting the right demographic segment. That seems reasonable enough; the study showed that 80% of the online campaigns catalyzed significant statistical boosts in their brands' sales figures, so the right ads must have been finding the right consumers most of the time.

But the significant questions is this: Why are media buyers paying so much for television ad space? More importantly, why are the gatekeepers of online media selling a superior advertising tool for peanuts? Television advertising still has the ability to reach out and touch vast audiences in a short period of time, but with the advent of DVR and the rise of Internet TV, the tube isn't the advertising behemoth it used to be. The Web, on the other hand, is gaining an increased share of consumers' time every day.

Meanwhile, television upfronts--negotiations in which networks try to sell the majority of their ad space for the year--were dismal for 2009; the five largest networks reported a 22% decline in year-over-year revenue. Part of that can be attributed to the economic downturn, but nothing makes businesses take note of where they are wasting money quite like a stalling economy. These numbers are clearly heartening for those that have been saying all along that Web advertising, with its niche targeting, the piles of data it generates, and its potential for interactivity, is undervalued. For television, the research certainly doesn't spell the beginning of the end, but it does dish a harsh dose of reality: At least in some segments, television is losing ground, and the chances of regaining it are slim.

Courtesy of: Clay Dillow Wed Aug 19, 2009 at 12:50 PM

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/clay-dillow/culture-buffet/online-ads-boost-brands-just-effectively-tv-campaigns

BS Embeds a Video Playing Ad in a Print Magazine

As if it wasn't clear enough how impactful video is, CBS is stepping up their game with VIDEO in the MAGAZINE September issue of Entertainment Weekly. A mutant hybrid of print and video advertising, if you will. Here is the article from Wired with more details.

Megan Clark

Atlanta Business Video

In the latest example of finding media innovation where you’d least expect it, CBS is embedding a video player in a print ad in Entertainment Weekly that will serve up a buffet of its fall TV lineup.

The CBS foray into a print-digital alliance plays full-motion video at a crisp resolution. The ad, dubbed by CBS and partner Pepsi Max “the first-ever VIP (video-in-print) promotion,” works like one of those audio greeting cards. Opening the page activates the player, which is a quarter-inch–thick screen seen through a cutaway between two pages concealing the larger circuit board underneath.

The audio quality is equally good (extremely poor video shot by this reporter notwithstanding), but beware: There are no volume controls, and in a quiet environment, it’s quite loud. This is surely a intentional design feature, aimed at getting the attention of people nearby.

Unlike the wholly unsatisfying debut of the e-ink cover in Esquire magazine last year, this works.

The video-enhancement will appear in the September issue of Entertainment Weekly, but only in what sounds like a relatively small subset of the circulation: The promo itself will be in every copy, but the video portion only in some subscriptions delivered to New York and Los Angeles. It was released Tuesday to media outlets.

Upon getting to the ad, there is a 5-second delay before anything happens — there is enough on the page to probably hold the unassuming reader’s attention for that long, if nothing else the eerie stare from Neil Patrick Harris — and then a 5-second still promo before the promo for the player’s developer, Americhip.

Next up is a pre-roll featuring a bespoke setup by three characters from the network’s hit Big Bang Theory sitcom. ”I weep for civilization,” opines Emmy-nominated Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) at the end of the clip, scripted to reveal that the über nerd was tricked into appearing in an ad in Entertainment Weekly rather than “the current edition of Physics Today.”

As impressive as this step is, the true marriage of print and digital multimedia still seems quite far off, and eons away from the streaming updates in the newspapers of Minority Report fame.

Still, it is boldish, baby steps like this that bring about dramatic shifts in media. That said, the logical extreme of the current wave of tech innovation heads more toward digital reproduction of a print experience, as the Kindle DX aspires to do for newspapers, rather than to ultrathin hardware pasted to paper.

In a more-limited context, is there much of a future for this branch?

It’s an expensive undertaking, but it does seem well suited for milestone events like a new TV season or as part of a marketing blitz for a certain genre of movie — think a Watchman trailer in Entertainment Weekly.

Part of the lure of this technology as an advertising mechanism is that it adds a “medium is the message” value and thus reaps free publicity from stories like this. But when the novelty wears off, and without serendipitous newsstand sales — which Entertainment Weekly will not benefit from this time around — there’s not nearly as much upside.

And therein lies the dilemma of even bothering to extend the digital experience into a bits medium: In the end, how many people will actually see this rather than just hear about it?

John C Abell, Wired

Nationwide Video Advertising

Click to Play

Post your video content on all the most popular sharing sites for one easy low price. Analytics are available. Call 404.343.3540 or check us out at http://www.AtlantaBusinessVideo.com

The Possibilities at Atlanta Business Video

Click to Play

ABV provides quality video production for your website for applications such as; video presentations, video marketing, viral video web sites, training, product introductions and other corporate video communications business needs.

In Home Healthcare for Seniors by Atlanta Home Helpers

Click to Play

Home Helpers has locations across North America serving those members of the community needing assistance with everyday living activities. Call us today at 404.624.4663 or visit us online at http://www.homehelpers.cc/metroatlanta58278 Distributed by Tubemogul.

Atlanta Business Video Production 2009 Demo Reel

Click to Play

Atlanta Business Video provides all of your video production needs- with all of the professionalism and quality of a large studio, without the large overhead and high prices! Visit our conveniently located studio in Buckhead for a free video consultation today! Call 404-343-3540, or visit http://www.AtlantaBusinessVideo.com Distributed by Tubemogul.

E-Mail Marketers Fail the Test

Testing…1, 2, 3…

In this down economy, where marketers are under increasing pressure to wring out as much value as possible from of each dollar, measurable ROI has become critical. Testing and optimization mean more bang for the buck.

Still, e-mail marketing agency eROI found in a May–June 2009 survey that 37.1% of US e-mail marketers did not test their e-mail campaigns at all.

Among marketers who failed to test campaigns, the most common reason was that they simply did not know how (nearly 33%). Another 27.4% reported not having enough time to do so. A few (8.5%) said they did not actually see the value in testing.

More than 85% of those marketers who tested their e-mail campaigns scrutinized subject lines. Far fewer (54.8%) tested calls to action, and around one-half made efforts to optimize design and body copy.

In addition to content, e-mail marketers also tested the best timing for their campaigns. Almost one-half considered midday the optimal time to send marketing messages, followed by the start of the business day.

Respondents also reported that Tuesday was the best day of the week for marketing e-mails, with Wednesday coming in second.

eMarketer estimates $392 million will be spent on e-mail advertising in the US in 2009. Campaign testing may determine how wisely those dollars are put to work for marketers.

Found at eMarketer by Roger Stix at Atlanta Business Video

Google Gets Faster, Less Spammy With Revamped Search Engine

Google has released a test version of its main search engine that the company claims is faster and more accurate than its current search page.

Unlike some previous experiments and changes that tweaked the user interface for Google Search, this release is focused on the backend, with changes that are designed to improve results. According to a post on Google’s Webmaster Central blog, the charges are part of a larger effort to “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”
With Microsoft riding a new wave of popularity in the search world, thanks to the popularity of its new Bing search engine and the company’s coming collaboration with Yahoo, Google is clearly feeling some pressure to improve its own search offerings. Not to mention the growing focus on real-time search, fueled by the popularity of Twitter and Facebook, both of whom recently rolled out new search features emphasizing the visibility and accuracy of real-time results on their services — Facebook on Monday and Twitter last month.
You can play with a sandboxed version of the new search engine — dubbed “caffeine” — at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ (there’s also a Firefox search plugin available). The results, while similar, are also clearly different, and, in our testing, considerably improved over the current incarnation of Google Search.
For example, a search for “Webmonkey” yields a slightly different set of results, with our Twitter account one spot higher and several more suspicious, spam-like sites gone altogether.
Indeed, killing spam results seems to be one of the strong points of the new search infrastructure, with some searches — like for example, “search engine optimization” — offering quite different and, in some cases, far fewer results.

Of course the new, presumably smarter, backend means that it could be time to rewrite the SEO rules slightly. Thus far Google hasn’t altered its suggestions for web developers who want to optimize their search, but clearly the differences between new and old will mean some tweaks in way you optimize your sites.
But it’s still a bit early to start worrying about. For now, Caffeine is still very experimental and, according to the Google’s blog post, incomplete.

Google is currently looking for feedback from web developers. There’s a “Dissatisfied? Help us improve” link at the bottom of the new page which allows you to send the engineering team your thoughts on the differences between the new and old infrastructure (be sure to use the word Caffeine somewhere in the body of your message).

By Scott Gilbertson from Webmonkey
Found by Megan Clark from Atlanta Business Video

History of Music Sales

Swan Songs?

The music industry’s deathwatch kicked off about a decade ago, but it seems the vigil could soon be over.

According to data from the Recording Industry Association of America, since music sales peaked in 1999, the value of those sales, after adjusting for inflation, has dropped by more than half. At that rate, the industry could be decimated before Madonna’s 60th birthday.

The speed at which this industry is coming undone is utterly breathtaking.

First, piracy punched a big hole in it. Now music streaming — music available on demand over the Internet, free and legal — is poised to seal the deal.

The problem is that if people can get the music they want for free, why would they ever buy it, or even steal it? They won’t. According to a March study by the NPD Group, a market research group for the entertainment industry, 13- to 17-year-olds “acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007.” CD sales among these teenagers were down 26 percent and digital purchases were down 13 percent.

And a survey of British music fans, conducted by the Leading Question/Music Ally and released last month, found that the percentage of 14- to 18-year-olds who regularly share files dropped by nearly a third from December 2007 to January 2009. On the other hand, two-thirds of those teens now listen to streaming music “regularly” and nearly a third listen to it every day.

This is part of a much broader shift in media consumption by young people. They’re moving from an acquisition model to an access model.

Even if they choose to buy the music, the industry has handicapped its ability to capitalize on that purchase by allowing all songs to be bought individually, apart from their albums. This once seemed like a blessing. Now it looks more like a curse.

In previous forms, you had to take the bad with the good. You may have only wanted two or three songs, but you had to buy the whole 8-track, cassette or CD to get them. So in a sense, these bad songs help finance the good ones. The resulting revenue provided a cushion for the artists and record companies to take chances and make mistakes. Single song downloads helped to kill that.

A study last year conducted by members of PRS for Music, a nonprofit royalty collection agency, found that of the 13 million songs for sale online last year, 10 million never got a single buyer and 80 percent of all revenue came from about 52,000 songs. That’s less than one percent of the songs.

So it was no surprise that The Financial Times reported on Monday that Apple is working with the four largest labels to seduce people into buying more digital albums. It’s too little too late.


By Charles M. Blow from The New York Times
Found by Roger Stix from Atlanta Business Video

Online Video Comes into Focus

A whole new picture.

Only a few short years ago, viewing video online was an exercise in frustration. The few sites that featured video content forced viewers to download clips or launch dedicated streaming players.

No more.

It seems like there is video everywhere you look online.

“Today, the online video experience is light-years away from its humble origins. Propelled by YouTube, Web portals, premium sites and other sharing destinations, the Web has exploded with video content—most of it available for free to the consumer in browser-friendly interfaces,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report,Video Content: A Premium Opportunity.

eMarketer projects there will be 144 million online video viewers in the US this year, growing to 188 million viewers in 2013.

“Best of all,” says Mr. Verna, “the bulk of the current video inventory is sharable through social networks, blogs, microblogs, e-mail and other social platforms.”

That capability makes every video a potential viral hit and opens opportunities for content distributors and marketers.

The quality of the content is rising, too.

“Gone are the days when the space was dominated by short user-generated clips aimed primarily at a collegiate crowd,” says Mr. Verna. “Now, video offerings cater to all age groups and interests, from teenage sports buffs to news junkies to retirees who enjoy classic movies.”

An indication of the growth in TV show viewing comes from Knowledge Networks, which found that from 2006 to 2008, the percentages of US Internet users who accessed full-length TV shows grew by large margins across every age category.

As the medium matures, monetization models are also coming into clearer focus.

“Most video inventory is funded through ad support. This includes user-generated content, news clips, humor videos, TV shows and special events such as the Olympics,” says Mr. Verna. “On the other side of the coin, feature films and mainstream sports content continue to be monetized through subscriptions and download fees.”

e-Marketer Article

Roger Stix

Atlanta Business Video

Companies want applicants with social-media skills

So, if you're looking for a job, prove that you are technologically savvy.

If you can’t Tweet, you might get beat — in the job hunt, that is.

The landscape of today’s job market is shifting, and the shift favors individuals who are savvy in social media.

“If you’re in advertising, marketing or communications, the more information you can put out to people where they want to see it, the better,” said Bob Van Rossum, president of MarketPro, a marketing recruitment company. “If you’re in one of those fields, it’s now required for you to be pretty savvy in the social media area, even if it’s not your primary focus.”

Atlanta job postings on a number of Web sites include Twitter and Facebook requirements for applicants.

A senior account executive position at Softscribe Inc. requires “5 years Tech PR Agency Record + Twitter.”

Mosaic Sales Solutions describes the “key characteristics” of its ideal Atlanta market training specialist as “an avid user of the Internet, blogs, Twitter and/or has a Facebook page or other social networking account.”

Valtech Technologies seeks an Atlanta scrum master/project manager whose critical responsibilities will include “social collaboration including work spaces like Wiki’s, blogs, Twitter, etc.”

That’s listed right above “proven ability to establish clear and effective objectives and milestones.”

“It is now the rage,” said Brett Stevens, president of SearchLogix recruiter company. “Do you Facebook? Do you Twitter?”

Stevens said social media skills are particularly important for jobs in tech business, sales, public relations and media.

That’s because social media networks provide cost-effective ways for companies to put out their message and provide information to people in a personal, one-on-one way, Van Rossum said.

“It’s marketing without the perception that you’re trying to market to someone,” Van Rossum said.

In non-marketing or PR jobs, Stevens said, social media skills are not as critical, but they can indicate to employers how technologically savvy an applicant is.

“They just want to know can you do it,” Stevens said. “It’s not a must-have.”

But that may change soon, according to Van Rossum.

Over time, he said, social media skills will become important to everyone — not just those in marketing and communications.

“Social media will become very accepted and even if you’re an IT person or an accounting person, long-term, you will need to be able to use social media and be able to communicate on behalf of your company,” Van Rossum said.

In the meantime, if you really love Tweeting and Facebooking, there are plenty of jobs requiring only that.

A sampling of job postings on Monster.com: “Social Media Ninja,” “Social Media Strategist,” “Director of Public Relations and Social Media” and “Conversation Manager.”

In Atlanta, the American Advertising Foundation is looking for a Social Marketing/Micro-blogging Campaign Manager, and Network Communications, Inc. in Lawrenceville seeks a Social Media Coordinator who can develop content for Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

These kinds of social media jobs began emerging about six months ago, Van Rossum said, and most of them are six to nine-month contract positions with companies looking to have a social media strategy set up for them.

This social media craze among employers is creating some complications for job applicants and employees, Van Rossum said, such as blurring the lines between personal and professional lives.

“Facebook pages aren’t about business, they’re about you as a person, but how people perceive you as a person will ultimately impact how they perceive the place where you work,” Van Rossum said. “It’s a very complicated challenge.”

Van Rossum’s advice to job applicants? Use social media to search for jobs and use your own Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to protect your “brand” image.

Van Rossum said his company uses Facebook, blogs and LinkedIn to advertise positions and “reach people where they are,” and that social media provides opportunities to show you’re an expert in your field by generating interesting content that will get you noticed by employers.

Writen by Alyse Knorr from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Found by Roger Stix, at Atlanta Business Video