Facebook Extends Lead As Fave Young Adult Site

Facebook Extends Lead As Fave Young Adult Site

MARCH 2, 2007

Where did college students spend winter break?

source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004636&src=article1_newsltr

If they're like the rest of 17-to-25-year-olds surveyed by Youth Trends, they likely spent part of that time on Facebook.

The social networking site topped the list of favorite sites in Youth Trends' most recent quarterly survey, and it is now the first choice of nearly 70% of females ages 17-25.

[CHART: http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/081001-082000/081455.gif]

"Although we heard some rumblings anecdotally and from some of our more hyper communicative panelists that Facebook reached a pinnacle," said Josh Weil of Youth Trends, "the results of this report say otherwise."

The survey is conducted quarterly, and the previous quarter marked the first time that Facebook was tops among both women and men.

 [CHART: http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/081001-082000/081454.gif]

Two blogs were in the female top 10 list for the first time: Pink Is the New Blog and What Would Tyler Durden Do? (WWTDD). Both blogs have an entertainment/gossip focus, which Mr. Weil says "is consistent with Gen Y females' current adoration with content surrounding celebrities and their 'uh oh' moments."

MySpace was second on the top 10 list for females, but it remained sixth for males, with the percentage of 17-to-25-year-old males listing it as their favorite moving up slightly from 13% in the previous quarterly listing to 14%.

It's no secret that social networks are increasingly attractive to marketers. eMarketer estimates that $865 million will be spent on social network ads this year, largely on the strength of News Corp.'s recent acquisition of MySpace.

[CHART: http://www.emarketer.com/images/chart_gifs/077001-078000/077945.gif]

Last fall some industry watchers wondered if social networking was cooling off. Facebook said at the time that its traffic was not slowing, and a spokeswoman told eMarketer the company had been working with comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings to improve measurement of the site. She said Facebook had more than 10 million registered users.

MySpace also noted at the time that the site experienced a slump between August and September in 2006, but that growth had resumed. Of course, as sites grow larger, growth rates typically slow.

The long-term trends for social networking sites are, for the most part, positive, not only in popularity but also in time spent there — especially by young people. Young people account for a vast proportion of usage of MySpace, Facebook and other social networks.

"The average 12- to 17-year-old spent 260 minutes on MySpace and viewed about 808 pages. By contrast, the average 35- to 54-year-old spent 179 minutes on the site and took in 560 pages," Ad Age reported in October (but did not cite the source of the data).

In other words, teens consumed 44% more content and spent 45% more time there than did older users.

For a deeper look into social network ad spending, read eMarketer's Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending Update report.

 

"Return on Influence" Is Social Media's New ROI

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
ROI Is Social Media's New ROI
By Joe Marchese

Looking for ROI on your online marketing campaign? There is a 50% chance you are looking for the wrong thing. That's because ROI is out -- the new thing for increasing sales and building brands in social media is ROI. What I am saying is that before you can really discern return on investment, you need to understand how you are going to achieve influence for investment and return on influence.

Social media is all about influence and, like it or not, everyone who participates is an influencer. Social media decides what's in and what's out. Social media allows brands to be amplified or destroyed in the blink of an eye. And social media is as fickle as a high school lunchroom. I am not just talking about MySpace and Facebook here -- although they do represent a sizable chunk of social media. Social media is all media developed by, incorporating or facilitating the formation of community for the purpose of self-actualization. This definition includes everything from major media's online video components to upstart video-sharing sites, from the MySpaces of the world to the fledging baby boomer social networks -- and everything in between. And what social media delivers for investment can't always be captured in clicks and actions. What social media delivers in return for investment is cultural and generational influence.

Positive return on investment is a great thing; however, just looking at traditional return on investment skips an important step. Advertisers and agencies need to be looking to maximize influence obtained through their investments, and return on that influence should be the end goal of the total investment. Important to remember is that investment to obtain influence can take a number of forms. The easiest way, obviously, is to look at dollars spent, but influence isn't always for sale (at least not in an efficient manner). The pivotal balance for maximizing influence obtained through investment is to balance investment in creative, which enhances the content in which it resides, with investment in purchasing distribution for said creative. There is any number of ways to optimize a particular combination of creative and distribution, once you find the right platforms. It's true that social media means more expense on the creative side, since it demands greater content pull, and explicit acceptance of messaging, than traditional media does. But social media does not eliminate the ability to purchase distribution, as there can be a number of advertisers able to produce creative relevant to a particular piece of social content.

The battle isn't over once social media decides to lend an advertiser its influence, since advertisers then need to capitalize on that influence. This means controlling the message, not to garner a single transaction, but rather to leverage the influence lent to the advertiser for its investment to build premium brands that command premium margins. I am still not sure why I buy Coke or Pepsi instead of the cheaper store brand, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with this factor. Maximizing return on influence is again a balance, a balance between investment in creative messaging (back to relevancy) and ensuring that online brand experience/messaging resolve in the real world. Making sure the experience resolves in the real world is 50% product quality and 50% product availability. Insuring premium product quality may be outside of marketing and advertising's control, but ensuring that the premium product is available (for its premium price) to social media influencers and those influenced (commonly one and the same in social media) is promotional marketing at its finest.

Return on influence takes into account the lifetime brand creation and/or lift delivered by brand advertising within social media. Now their devil is in the details; how do you calculate influence? How do you create an efficient market accessing influence? How do you measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign when the campaigns goals aren't to drive immediate actions (or if immediate actions only represent a portion of the total value)?

The takeaway is this: if all advertisers are looking at is immediate return on investment, there is a good chance they are missing the real potential for maximizing their investment in social media -- and probably spending way too much in the process. But it's not the advertiser's fault entirely; the platform hasn't been built that efficiently facilitates accessing the type of brand-building influence offered by social media ... yet.

Joe Marchese is President of Archetype Media, developing the next generation brand advertising platform, and aiming to bridge the gap between Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley.

Unaided Advertising Recall Significantly Higher With Mix of Radio and Internet

Unaided Advertising Recall Significantly Higher With Mix of Radio and Internet

According to research from the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) released at the Radio Advertising Bureau's (RAB) Management & Leadership Conference, recall of advertising is dramatically enhanced when a mix of Radio and Internet ads is used together compared to website ads alone.

The report demonstrated that unaided recall was four-and-a-half times higher, and aided recall was more than twice as high with consumer exposure to one radio and one Internet ad compared to two Internet ads alone. Furthermore, the report states that a mix of radio and Internet exposures revealed a clear potential to elevate other kinds of consumer impact, ranging from website visitation to emotional bonds.

The study first examined existing data about radio and Internet advertising to determine how the two media are likely to intersect. Several key points on how Radio and the Internet might work well together in a media mix emerged:

• Both radio and the Internet reach light users of other media
• Radio and the Internet connect with consumers differently and in potentially complementary ways
• Radio can drive traffic to websites
• Radio and the Internet have unique reach patterns, and that can make them work powerfully in combination. On a daily basis, Radio and the Internet together reach 83 percent of the 18-54-year-old population
• Consumers often use Radio and the Internet simultaneously, with up to a third of Internet usage being accompanied by Radio listening during some times of the day

Michael Orgera, Vice President, Director of Research, Universal McCann, said "... With so many media choices and so many ad messages... understanding how radio and the Internet together can significantly boost advertising attention levels is a tremendous advantage when creating a multi-platform campaign."

And Rex Conklin, Media Director, Wal-Mart, and member of the RAEL Research Committee, noted,  it's been gratifying to see advertisers and agency representatives work closely and candidly with broadcasters to establish clear direction for research studies..."

The full study, plus previously released research from RAEL, are available here.

Tween Social Networking Takes Off

Tween Social Networking Takes Off

source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004613&src=dp1_newsltr

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

Even preteens have social networks now.

Sites like Club Penguin, Whyville.net, Habbo Hotel, Imbee.com and Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis offer tweens a MySpace of their own. The sites offer either fantasy worlds (members at Club Penguin have tuxedoed birds as avatars) or more standard fare like blogging and music sharing.

Club Penguin had four million unique visitors in January 2007, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Parents like the sites' security (no random chat offers here), but they are still cautioned to monitor for cyber-bullying and the amount of time their childen spend playing online.

There's also the question of ads. Ad-free sites make money strictly through membership subscriptions and promotional tie-ins. Whyville and Disney Xtreme Digital (DXD) have plenty of third-party advertising, and DXD also has Disney branding in spades.

Information for Children with Asthma (AstraZeneza)

http://www.bubbliboo.com/

 

Digital Shops Exploiting General Agency Skill Gaps

 

Digital Shops Exploiting General Agency Skill Gaps

by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Feb 27, 2007 6:00 AM ET

THE WEB AND RELATED DIGITAL technologies are exposing major weaknesses in traditional agency skill sets, according to a study released yesterday by Forrester Research. This trend, the study finds, is working in favor of specialist digital shops, which marketers are increasingly calling upon to fill skill gaps. "Marketers first turned to digital specialists to build Web sites during the dot-com bubble," explained Peter Kim, Forrester Research analyst and author of the report. "Now, the specialist trend has expanded as marketers seek fresh approaches from digital shops--like Avenue A | Razorfish and Critical Mass--as well as creative independents--like Modernista!, Tugboat, and Mother--eroding the core value proposition of traditional ad firms." Digital agencies, Kim noted, have even begun winning "traditional" agency work as in the case of Agency.com, which has created print and outdoor ads for IKEA United Kingdom, and AKQA, which now serves as Yell.com's main agency. Beyond confirming what many have long suspected, the study illustrates a major rift between marketers and agencies with some harsh survey results: On aggregate, agencies scored a dismal Net Promoter rating of 21%, showing just how few marketers in the fourth quarter of last year would have recommended the same agency services they themselves pay for. "Today, agencies must deliver technology--in addition to creative--expertise, and many traditional agencies struggle to adapt," Kim said. Indeed, according to the study, marketers today view ad agencies as the least competent among service providers to deliver marketing technology. Huge gaps exist between marketer and agency perceptions of the ability to deal with changes in TV, Internet, and consumer-generated media, according to Forrester. To illustrate his point, Kim points to recent agency blunders like Wal-Mart's fake blogs (the product of a PR agency) and GM's Chevy Tahoe user-generated ads. Forrester fielded a survey with the American Marketing Association and interviewed eight vendor and user companies, including: Avenue A | Razorfish, H&R Block, Hill Holliday, JWT, Kia Motors America, and Xerox. Notably, despite the fact that agencies wield influence over a majority of the marketing budget, a whopping 76% of marketers do not measure the return on investment of their lead agency relationship.

MS. DEWEY

For those who have not seen microsoft's underground search project, it's worth checking out.  Simply put, it's a different way of making "search" more engaging.   I call it, "the subservient searchbabe".

"Return on Influence" Is Social Media's New ROI

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
ROI Is Social Media's New ROI
By Joe Marchese

Looking for ROI on your online marketing campaign? There is a 50% chance you are looking for the wrong thing. That's because ROI is out -- the new thing for increasing sales and building brands in social media is ROI. What I am saying is that before you can really discern return on investment, you need to understand how you are going to achieve influence for investment and return on influence.

Social media is all about influence and, like it or not, everyone who participates is an influencer. Social media decides what's in and what's out. Social media allows brands to be amplified or destroyed in the blink of an eye. And social media is as fickle as a high school lunchroom. I am not just talking about MySpace and Facebook here -- although they do represent a sizable chunk of social media. Social media is all media developed by, incorporating or facilitating the formation of community for the purpose of self-actualization. This definition includes everything from major media's online video components to upstart video-sharing sites, from the MySpaces of the world to the fledging baby boomer social networks -- and everything in between. And what social media delivers for investment can't always be captured in clicks and actions. What social media delivers in return for investment is cultural and generational influence.

Positive return on investment is a great thing; however, just looking at traditional return on investment skips an important step. Advertisers and agencies need to be looking to maximize influence obtained through their investments, and return on that influence should be the end goal of the total investment. Important to remember is that investment to obtain influence can take a number of forms. The easiest way, obviously, is to look at dollars spent, but influence isn't always for sale (at least not in an efficient manner). The pivotal balance for maximizing influence obtained through investment is to balance investment in creative, which enhances the content in which it resides, with investment in purchasing distribution for said creative. There is any number of ways to optimize a particular combination of creative and distribution, once you find the right platforms. It's true that social media means more expense on the creative side, since it demands greater content pull, and explicit acceptance of messaging, than traditional media does. But social media does not eliminate the ability to purchase distribution, as there can be a number of advertisers able to produce creative relevant to a particular piece of social content.

The battle isn't over once social media decides to lend an advertiser its influence, since advertisers then need to capitalize on that influence. This means controlling the message, not to garner a single transaction, but rather to leverage the influence lent to the advertiser for its investment to build premium brands that command premium margins. I am still not sure why I buy Coke or Pepsi instead of the cheaper store brand, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with this factor. Maximizing return on influence is again a balance, a balance between investment in creative messaging (back to relevancy) and ensuring that online brand experience/messaging resolve in the real world. Making sure the experience resolves in the real world is 50% product quality and 50% product availability. Insuring premium product quality may be outside of marketing and advertising's control, but ensuring that the premium product is available (for its premium price) to social media influencers and those influenced (commonly one and the same in social media) is promotional marketing at its finest.

Return on influence takes into account the lifetime brand creation and/or lift delivered by brand advertising within social media. Now their devil is in the details; how do you calculate influence? How do you create an efficient market accessing influence? How do you measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign when the campaigns goals aren't to drive immediate actions (or if immediate actions only represent a portion of the total value)?

The takeaway is this: if all advertisers are looking at is immediate return on investment, there is a good chance they are missing the real potential for maximizing their investment in social media -- and probably spending way too much in the process. But it's not the advertiser's fault entirely; the platform hasn't been built that efficiently facilitates accessing the type of brand-building influence offered by social media ... yet.

Joe Marchese is President of Archetype Media, developing the next generation brand advertising platform, and aiming to bridge the gap between Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley.

Unaided Advertising Recall Significantly Higher With Mix of Radio and Internet

Unaided Advertising Recall Significantly Higher With Mix of Radio and Internet

According to research from the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) released at the Radio Advertising Bureau's (RAB) Management & Leadership Conference, recall of advertising is dramatically enhanced when a mix of Radio and Internet ads is used together compared to website ads alone.

The report demonstrated that unaided recall was four-and-a-half times higher, and aided recall was more than twice as high with consumer exposure to one radio and one Internet ad compared to two Internet ads alone. Furthermore, the report states that a mix of radio and Internet exposures revealed a clear potential to elevate other kinds of consumer impact, ranging from website visitation to emotional bonds.

The study first examined existing data about radio and Internet advertising to determine how the two media are likely to intersect. Several key points on how Radio and the Internet might work well together in a media mix emerged:

• Both radio and the Internet reach light users of other media
• Radio and the Internet connect with consumers differently and in potentially complementary ways
• Radio can drive traffic to websites
• Radio and the Internet have unique reach patterns, and that can make them work powerfully in combination. On a daily basis, Radio and the Internet together reach 83 percent of the 18-54-year-old population
• Consumers often use Radio and the Internet simultaneously, with up to a third of Internet usage being accompanied by Radio listening during some times of the day

Michael Orgera, Vice President, Director of Research, Universal McCann, said "... With so many media choices and so many ad messages... understanding how radio and the Internet together can significantly boost advertising attention levels is a tremendous advantage when creating a multi-platform campaign."

And Rex Conklin, Media Director, Wal-Mart, and member of the RAEL Research Committee, noted,  it's been gratifying to see advertisers and agency representatives work closely and candidly with broadcasters to establish clear direction for research studies..."

The full study, plus previously released research from RAEL, are available here.

Brightcove Enables New Washingtonpost.Newsweek Ad-Supported Video

Brightcove Enables New Washingtonpost.Newsweek Ad-Supported Video

Tuesday, Feb 27, 2007 6:00 AM ET

WITH THE HELP OF VIDEO technology company Brightcove, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is launching ad-supported Web video channels across all its online properties. Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive -- the online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company -- will feature daily newscasts from the Washington Post's stable of journalists, news documentaries, and international coverage. The Washington Post site currently features a video series on "Being a Black Man," that explores the lives of black men through their shared experiences and existence. Newsweek.com and the online magazine Slate already have launched ad-supported Internet video channels using the Brightcove Internet TV service.

Digital Shops Exploiting General Agency Skill Gaps

Digital Shops Exploiting General Agency Skill Gaps

by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Feb 27, 2007 6:00 AM ET

THE WEB AND RELATED DIGITAL technologies are exposing major weaknesses in traditional agency skill sets, according to a study released yesterday by Forrester Research. This trend, the study finds, is working in favor of specialist digital shops, which marketers are increasingly calling upon to fill skill gaps. "Marketers first turned to digital specialists to build Web sites during the dot-com bubble," explained Peter Kim, Forrester Research analyst and author of the report. "Now, the specialist trend has expanded as marketers seek fresh approaches from digital shops--like Avenue A | Razorfish and Critical Mass--as well as creative independents--like Modernista!, Tugboat, and Mother--eroding the core value proposition of traditional ad firms." Digital agencies, Kim noted, have even begun winning "traditional" agency work as in the case of Agency.com, which has created print and outdoor ads for IKEA United Kingdom, and AKQA, which now serves as Yell.com's main agency. Beyond confirming what many have long suspected, the study illustrates a major rift between marketers and agencies with some harsh survey results: On aggregate, agencies scored a dismal Net Promoter rating of 21%, showing just how few marketers in the fourth quarter of last year would have recommended the same agency services they themselves pay for. "Today, agencies must deliver technology--in addition to creative--expertise, and many traditional agencies struggle to adapt," Kim said. Indeed, according to the study, marketers today view ad agencies as the least competent among service providers to deliver marketing technology. Huge gaps exist between marketer and agency perceptions of the ability to deal with changes in TV, Internet, and consumer-generated media, according to Forrester. To illustrate his point, Kim points to recent agency blunders like Wal-Mart's fake blogs (the product of a PR agency) and GM's Chevy Tahoe user-generated ads. Forrester fielded a survey with the American Marketing Association and interviewed eight vendor and user companies, including: Avenue A | Razorfish, H&R Block, Hill Holliday, JWT, Kia Motors America, and Xerox. Notably, despite the fact that agencies wield influence over a majority of the marketing budget, a whopping 76% of marketers do not measure the return on investment of their lead agency relationship.