Trad Agencies Must Narrow Their Interactive Credibility Gap

Trad Agencies Must Narrow Their Interactive Credibility Gap

by Ellen Siminoff, Friday, March 30, 2007

Source: mediapost

BY NOW YOU have probably read about the new Forrester report, "Help Wanted: 21st Century Agency," that sheds light on the widening capabilities gap between traditional ad agencies and the smaller, specialized digital shops when it comes to new media marketing. If you haven't yet seen it, the report placed the spotlight on the demand from marketers expecting their agencies to deliver expertise in emerging areas, such as search engine marketing and interactive advertising, and marketers' growing discontent with their agencies. The report identified technology being at the heart of the skill gap that appears to be growing and leading to marketers' dissatisfaction with their agencies of record.

Traditional ad agencies' relevance and growth is at stake if they don't adapt to the changing needs of their clients and the shift of marketing dollars to new channels. What are commonly called "below-the-line" marketing strategies are becoming much more mainstream in reaching the desired audiences with right message through the right medium. It sounds obvious, but the Forrester report uncovers marketers' doubt that Madison Avenue is adapting to the changing landscape.

NOTE: If the Forrester report doesn't convince you, then also consider a recent study <http://www.centerformediaresearch.com/cfmr_brief.cfm?fnl=070105>  by Evalueserve for Sapient that found only 10% of the more than 100 CMOs and senior marketers surveyed in the U.K and U.S. "seek to partner with large advertising agencies for their online marketing."

Last summer, I penned a column for Search Insider that dealt with this very issue, and in particular how it relates to the SEM space. I talked about the requisite for traditional agencies to expand their SEM offerings and the demand from clients to integrate it into their overall campaigns.

Never was this more apparent than this year's Super Bowl ads. Very few big brand advertisers used their million-dollar plus investments to drive consumers online to continue interacting with their brands and maximize spend. According to various media reports, Pizza Hut and Salesgenie.com did a solid job providing a call to action to viewers to head online to continue the dialogue. In fact, in a recent Advertising Age article, Reprise Media's Peter Hershberg noted that Pizza Hut smartly used paid search to send people to a Pizza Hut-branded YouTube channel rather than its own corporate site.

It was disheartening for me, if not selfishly as an SEM executive, knowing that there was so much that other big advertisers could have done to extend the reach of those ads beyond the 30-second or minute TV spot. Also in the same Advertising Age article, Anne Frisbie, vice president of category at Yahoo Search Marketing, commented that she felt Super Bowl marketers could have done a better job bidding on search terms and could have milked more out of the TV ad buys if they'd coordinated search campaigns better.

As I have written before, and many of you know, these specialized digital media capabilities don't appear overnight, nor are they easily grown with a few new hires. It's a trial-and-error process that takes a lot of work and experience. It also takes lots of data (and I'm talking terabytes) and sophisticated, scalable technology that can handle all of the different "what-if"/tradeoff scenarios, particularly if your campaign consists of thousands and thousands of keywords. Unlike the typical ad buy for impressions, search is a dynamic marketplace with many factors (prices, competitors, variations of keywords, time of day/day of week/month of year, seasonality, copy, usability, etc.).

The Forrester study referenced the notion of "media-agnostic thinking." The report's author, Peter Kim, was quoted in the media saying that it is crucial for big agencies to be able to counsel their clients on the hottest and most effective marketing channels. But we all know you simply can't be all things to all people. In fact, clients expect and want best-in-breed services that can come only from multiple agencies. In that same Evalueserve survey I referenced above, 68 percent of those surveyed said they prefer to work with multiple agencies because of the benefits of specialization.

So the most effective way for big agencies to gain expertise, as I suggested previously, is through strategic partnerships with specialized shops. Building new capabilities -- in particular, technology -- from scratch takes years and tons of money. With the right partners, the traditional agency can seize more of their clients' spend and more importantly, retain/grow business by being able to offer services in the emerging channels through strategic partnerships.

I believe the best solution for agencies is co-opetition where everyone wins -- especially clients, who get what they need/want from their agency of record, i.e. best-in-breed services.

Ellen Siminoff is CEO of search engine marketing agency Efficient Frontier Inc. She can be reached at ellen@efrontier.com      

Trad Agencies Must Narrow Their Interactive Credibility Gap

by Ellen Siminoff, Friday, March 30, 2007

Source: mediapost

BY NOW YOU have probably read about the new Forrester report, "Help Wanted: 21st Century Agency," that sheds light on the widening capabilities gap between traditional ad agencies and the smaller, specialized digital shops when it comes to new media marketing. If you haven't yet seen it, the report placed the spotlight on the demand from marketers expecting their agencies to deliver expertise in emerging areas, such as search engine marketing and interactive advertising, and marketers' growing discontent with their agencies. The report identified technology being at the heart of the skill gap that appears to be growing and leading to marketers' dissatisfaction with their agencies of record.

Traditional ad agencies' relevance and growth is at stake if they don't adapt to the changing needs of their clients and the shift of marketing dollars to new channels. What are commonly called "below-the-line" marketing strategies are becoming much more mainstream in reaching the desired audiences with right message through the right medium. It sounds obvious, but the Forrester report uncovers marketers' doubt that Madison Avenue is adapting to the changing landscape.

NOTE: If the Forrester report doesn't convince you, then also consider a recent study <http://www.centerformediaresearch.com/cfmr_brief.cfm?fnl=070105>  by Evalueserve for Sapient that found only 10% of the more than 100 CMOs and senior marketers surveyed in the U.K and U.S. "seek to partner with large advertising agencies for their online marketing."

Last summer, I penned a column for Search Insider that dealt with this very issue, and in particular how it relates to the SEM space. I talked about the requisite for traditional agencies to expand their SEM offerings and the demand from clients to integrate it into their overall campaigns.

Never was this more apparent than this year's Super Bowl ads. Very few big brand advertisers used their million-dollar plus investments to drive consumers online to continue interacting with their brands and maximize spend. According to various media reports, Pizza Hut and Salesgenie.com did a solid job providing a call to action to viewers to head online to continue the dialogue. In fact, in a recent Advertising Age article, Reprise Media's Peter Hershberg noted that Pizza Hut smartly used paid search to send people to a Pizza Hut-branded YouTube channel rather than its own corporate site.

It was disheartening for me, if not selfishly as an SEM executive, knowing that there was so much that other big advertisers could have done to extend the reach of those ads beyond the 30-second or minute TV spot. Also in the same Advertising Age article, Anne Frisbie, vice president of category at Yahoo Search Marketing, commented that she felt Super Bowl marketers could have done a better job bidding on search terms and could have milked more out of the TV ad buys if they'd coordinated search campaigns better.

As I have written before, and many of you know, these specialized digital media capabilities don't appear overnight, nor are they easily grown with a few new hires. It's a trial-and-error process that takes a lot of work and experience. It also takes lots of data (and I'm talking terabytes) and sophisticated, scalable technology that can handle all of the different "what-if"/tradeoff scenarios, particularly if your campaign consists of thousands and thousands of keywords. Unlike the typical ad buy for impressions, search is a dynamic marketplace with many factors (prices, competitors, variations of keywords, time of day/day of week/month of year, seasonality, copy, usability, etc.).

The Forrester study referenced the notion of "media-agnostic thinking." The report's author, Peter Kim, was quoted in the media saying that it is crucial for big agencies to be able to counsel their clients on the hottest and most effective marketing channels. But we all know you simply can't be all things to all people. In fact, clients expect and want best-in-breed services that can come only from multiple agencies. In that same Evalueserve survey I referenced above, 68 percent of those surveyed said they prefer to work with multiple agencies because of the benefits of specialization.

So the most effective way for big agencies to gain expertise, as I suggested previously, is through strategic partnerships with specialized shops. Building new capabilities -- in particular, technology -- from scratch takes years and tons of money. With the right partners, the traditional agency can seize more of their clients' spend and more importantly, retain/grow business by being able to offer services in the emerging channels through strategic partnerships.

I believe the best solution for agencies is co-opetition where everyone wins -- especially clients, who get what they need/want from their agency of record, i.e. best-in-breed services.

Ellen Siminoff is CEO of search engine marketing agency Efficient Frontier Inc. She can be reached at ellen@efrontier.com      

Novartis Suspends US Marketing and Sales of Zelnorm

Novartis Suspends US Marketing and Sales of Zelnorm

Swiss company Novartis AG said today it is complying with a request from the FDA to suspend US marketing and sales of its irritable bowel syndrome treatment Zelnorm. Novartis said it took the action after it notified the FDA about a retrospective analysis of pooled clinical trial data that shows a numerical imbalance in cardiovascular events in patients taking Zelnorm compared to those on placebo.

Google Prepares DoubleClick Answer

Google Prepares DoubleClick Answer

<http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&forwarddg=1&art_aid=57981&Nid=28848&p=212886>

Source: John Battelle's Searchblog

It's a strange fact of life that Web "frienemy" (yes, we love that word) Google, doesn't accept third-party ad tags. Given the news that competitor Microsoft is considering a bid for the ad-server DoubleClick, which serves graphical CPMs for a huge portion of the ad world, rumors have surfaced that Google is planning to build its own third-party ad server for graphical ads.

As yet, Google's AdWords ads are served to publishers that have to sign up for the Google network, AdSense. Moving into DoubleClick territory, a bulky undertaking for big G, would solve "a BIG problem" writes performance marketing specialist Jeff Molander because "this would allow Google to not only offer conversion tracking but do so cross-platform... It also creates a point of differentiation in the CPA space: Ad targeting." Why? Because Google could cross-reference its search-based targeting with an ad-delivery network to create something truly powerful, whereas Molander doesn't believe DoubleClick's ad targeting extends to its Performics unit, which manages search advertising and behavior targeting for advertisers.

Which beg the questions: Will Google do it? Will Google make it free like Google Analytics? Will it merge with Google Analytics? Will Google swoop in and buy DoubleClick? Battelle seems to think the search giant is definitely up to something.

 Read the whole story... <http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&forwarddg=1&art_aid=57981&Nid=28848&p=212886> 

Parkinson's Drug Pulled From Market

Parkinson's Drug Pulled From Market

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
Published March 29, 2007, 1:45 PM CDT

WASHINGTON -- A drug used by several thousand patients with Parkinson's disease is being pulled from the market because of reports of heart valve damage.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that pergolide, sold under the name Permax and also in generic versions, is being withdrawn at the agency's request.

There are other drugs in the same class that can be substituted, Dr. Robert Temple of the FDA's office of drug evaluation said at a briefing.

At least 14 patients have needed to have heart valves replaced, Temple said, adding he believes that is an underestimate.

He estimated that between 12,000 and 25,000 people currently used the drug, which is known as a dopamine agonist.

"Our conclusion is that pergolide has no demonstrated advantage over other therapies," Temple said. "We believe almost all patients can be converted to another drug."

Pergolide came on the market in 1988. Temple said label warnings were added in 2002 after some reports of heart valve problems were received.

In 2006, a boxed warning regarding the risk of serious heart valve damage was added to the labeling for pergolide.

Temple said withdrawal was requested after two recent studies, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicated high rates of valve leakage -- up to 20 percent -- in patients taking the drug.

He said patients should not stop using the drug abruptly, however, urging them to consult their doctor and either switch to another drug or to gradually reduce the amount of pergolide used.

Other dopamine agonists used for Parkinson's disease are not associated with heart valve problems, FDA said.

Pergolide is marketed by Valeant under the trade name Permax and sold and manufactured as the generic drug pergolide by Par and Teva.

Temple said a few people may not be able to change to another drug and the agency is making arrangements to have pergolide available for them.

The new studies also found an increase chance of heart valve damage from another dopamine agonist, cabergoline, sold under the name Dostinex, the FDA said.

Dostinex is not approved in the U.S. for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, but is used at lower doses for other disorders, Temple said. At the lower doses there appears to be little chance of heart problems, the agency said.

___

On the Net:

Food and Drug Administration:

Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

just in case crack wasn't addictive enough

This is one of the most insane web 2.0 mashups I have ever seen... what happens when you cross Google Maps and Twitter?  TWITTERVISION.

 

Honestly... you just have to see it for yourself.

 

 

-----------

just in case crack wasn't addictive enough....

You JUST KNOW the Twitter junkies are going to love this:

"Twittervision is a browser app using Google Maps to show Twitter comments as they happen in (more or less) real time."

Thanks to Zardos over at Metafilter for the link.

advertising 2.0 does not exist

advertising 2.0 does not exist

source: http://www.gapingvoid.com/

I've been having a lot of advertising-related conversations recently. Here are some thoughts that keep popping up:

1. There will always be a market for somebody who can sell your stuff better than you can. Advertising 2.0 does not exist. Marketing 2.0 does not exist. Whatever new tech and media comes along, this simple truth remains.

2. It takes at least nine months to conceive and launch a full-on, mainstream Madison Avenue ad campaign. Nine months is a long time, if you ask me. The world changes faster than that. No wonder Madison Avenue is so damn unhappy all the time.

3. I find both Saatchi's "Lovemarks" and its sequel, "The Lovemarks Effect" [links here] utterly unreadable. Together they form a shallow and vapid tragicomedy, of sorts. Which is a pity, because on another level I quite agree with Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts central Lovemarks thesis, i.e. that Love is what drives our new marketing realities. And he obviously an extremely smart and capable guy. But what started out as a great idea from a lone individual has been utterly butchered by the grim realities of his employer's already-existing business model.

4. Have you also noticed how on the cover of "The Love Marks Effect", there's a picture of all these small metal cookie cutters, shaped like love hearts? What are you saying, Guys? "Cookie Cutter Love"? I know. Unfortunate. Sad. Comic. All that.

5. Saatchi & Saatchi: "We're not an ad agency, we're an ideas business." Right. Oh well, I'm sure they're trying to get there one day. Maybe they'll succeed. Who knows.

6. So a lot of clients have been recently asking their ad agencies, "So what can you do for us in Web 2.0?" And the agencies have been replying, "Lots! Lots and lots and lots and lots!" Bullshit. Ad agencies have so far been hopeless in this space. I don't know of ONE SINGLE piece of work coming out of a traditional ad agency in the last five years that has been even halfway original, thought provoking or effective. Captain Morgan's? Beyond lame. Juicy Fruit? Beyond lame on steroids. Glenfiddich? A missed opportunity.

7. Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the very fine London ad agency, used to pitch their clients, "We makes brands famous". Right. Like movie stars. Like celebs. Like the guys getting out of the limos and walking down the red carpet. Like the ones who get all the money and invites to the fancy parties. While the rest of us stand behind the velvet rope out in the cold, looking in with longing. Great. Super. Lucky us.

8. I am totally with Mark Earls, who in his seminal book, "Death of Marketing", wrote, to paraphrase: The word "Brand" is a very silly one. It's pretty meaningless. Instead, ask yourself what your enterprise is actually for. Define yourself in terms of an actual "Purpose-Idea" [I love that term, which he coined btw], instead of an abstract object. Think verb, instead of noun.

9. The good news for Google Adsense is, it seems to work. Or at least, it seems to do what it says it does. The bad news is, if it's the only game in town, its monopoly on a certain type of advertising [the type that requires relatively little thought, basically] means with so many people joining the throng with nowhere else to go, Hello, obscene price rises etc.

10. Live by SEO, die by SEO.

11. I've never flown on Jet Blue, I've never seen a Jet Blue commercial, I've never been on their website. But I know all about Jet Blue, and think highly of it. Why? Because bloggers I know are always talking about it. This is exactly what Seth Godin means by "remarkable" i.e. People. Like. Talking. About. It. If you happen to have a unremarkable product, I suppose you have no choice but to do a remarkable ad campaign, like Crispin Porter's "Burger King" campaign. That is, if your boss or client will let you. Which is unlikely.

12. If somebody looks like they're trying to impress you with their "future of advertising" credentials, ask them if they they themselves have their own blog. If they don't, they're full of it. It's a good acid test. Just my opinion.

Hyundai's "Locate Three Strangers" Contest

Hyundai's "Locate Three Strangers" Contest

Hyundai is running this Mash+Seek contest where they pick 16 people, split them in four groups, and then have the contestants locate the three other people in their teams. The only lead is a quarter of a face, although Hyundai is promising more tips. "The first team of four to find one another wins a new Elantra each."

This is a very cool way to do "consumer-generated content" because guess what? The challenge is not only about locating someone, it is also about making yourself visible, somehow. Blogs? Postings on Craigslist? Google AdWords? I'd do a typical chain letter asking everyone to forward it on.

ToonDoo Powers People-Made Comics

ToonDoo Powers People-Made Comics

ToonDoo.com is a very cool site (via Techcrunch) that lets people create and share their own cartoons in the familiar YouTube style. It comes packaged with some clipart, but you also can upload and crop your own elements. ToonDoo is also running contests, which, if sponsored, might become part of their revenue stream.

If you are into making comics but can't draw, Comic Life seems to be a great tool that creates stylized comic strips out of your pictures.

I'm also playing with Marvel's Comic Book Creator.

Product Placement in Lonelygirl15

Product Placement in Lonelygirl15

"Lonelygirl15, the pseudo-video diary that became a YouTube phenomenon last year, has signed its first major product placement deal with Hershey’s for its Icebreakers Sours Gum brand.

In a video posted on March 20 on the official Lonelygirl site, Lg15.com, the show’s main character Bree is seen offering her friends a piece of Icebreaker’s gum, and a closeup of the product is shown. The sponsored episode of scripted teen drama is slated to eventually be featured on YouTube and other video-sharing sites in the near future, said officials."
-- MediaWeek

Earlier:
First Ad on Rocketboom Goes Live
Wired on Lonelygirl15, Future of TV

Study: Second Lifers Unhappy with Brands

Study: Second Lifers Unhappy with Brands

Press release: "In a survey of 200 participants conducted by the agency Komjuniti, Second Life users (“avatars”) were questioned about their perceptions, their satisfaction with the products on offer and the brand content in the online community.

The first thing to stand out is that 72% of respondents expressed themselves as being disappointed with the activities of the companies in Second Life. Over a third of them were unaware of the branded presence and 42% said they thought it constituted nothing more than a short-term trend, lacking durable commitment from the companies. Just 7% consider that it has a positive influence on brand image and their future buying behaviour.

The most positively judged were brands from industries such as hotels [Loft?] and retail [American Apparel?].

The aim has to be to build communities around Second Life sites and look to serve them over the long term. One-off promotional initiatives are punished over the long term with a lack of attention by Second Life users and can provoke a negative consumer backlash effect on the brands in real life."

Earlier:
How to Advertise in Second Life, Part 2
How to Advertise in Second Life

 

Neuro Study Predicts Viral Success

Neuro Study Predicts Viral Success

OTOInsights: "One to One Interactive and Innerscope Research had 25 individuals observe 11 viral videos that were uploaded to NewGrounds.com. Our hypothesis was that neurological measures of media engagement could accurately predict the ratings that the NewGrounds online community assigned to viral content.

While observing the 11 viral videos, each participant wore Innerscope's state-of-the-art smart clothing which translated noninvasive measures of brain activity into an easy to interpret, time-locked index of emotional engagement. One to One Interactive developed multiple regression models to determine if a video’s rank score on the NewGrounds website could be predicted from the results of the study. The results of the analysis revealed that the reviewer assigned score (1-10) on the New Grounds website could be predicted with an accuracy of 76.8%."

Operated inside Second Life

Operated inside Second Life

These are businesses and organizations originating in real life that have operated in Second Life and were not founded specifically for Second Life, but have involved themselves in the world.

0-9

• 20th Century Fox held a premiere for X-Men: The Last Stand in Second Life.^{[28] [29]}

A-F

• Adidas Reebok will be creating a permanent presence in Second Life with assistance from Rivers Run Red^{[30] [31]}
• American Apparel opened a branch inside the virtual world selling digital renderings of clothings modeled after real-life merchandise.^{[4] [32]}
• American Cancer Society has held a version of its Relay For Life national fundraising event inside Second Life.^{[3] [33]}
• Axel Springer AG together with Bild.T-Online, have produced a tabloid-style newspaper for Second Life, The AvaStar in December 2006.^{[citation needed]} AvaStar Island was built by Aimee Weber.^{[citation needed]}
• BBC Radio 1 recreated the 2006 One Big Weekend event on a 64 acre virtual island in Second Life.^[34]
• Bigpond has created 11 islands called "The Pond" for their Broadband, Cable & ADSL members. Bigpond's Second Life
• Centric, an advertising agency based in Los Angeles, opened its Second Life office in October 2006. Centric has also started a De-advertising campaign by buying adspace in Second Life and turning it into public parks^[35].
• Creative Commons is building a community in Second Life around Creative Commons licenses and standards through events and projects in the virtual world.^[36]
• Dell sells PCs in Second Life. [1]
• Disney employed Second Life Resident Fizik Baskerville (and others in his team) to create content based on production designer's specs for the films The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,^[37] Pirates of the Caribbean^[38] Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest^[38] & Pirates of the Caribbean 3^[38] and The Chronicles of Narnia^[38]
• Endemol is creating a version of Big Brother in Second Life.^{[39] [40]}
• Eudoxa became the first public policy think tank to host a seminar in Second Life
• Forward Together, the PAC headed by former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, is integrating Second Life into its campaign strategy .^[41]

G-L

• Harvard Law School and Harvard Extension School offered a course called "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion" within Second Life in 2006.^[42][43]
• IBM recently met in Second Life to discuss the effects of Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) on business.^[44] Recently other IBM companies joined SL, as for instance IBM Italia, founded by avatar Eadoin Welles.
• Leo Burnett Worldwide has established a creative hub in Second Life for globally dispersed staff to interact within.^[45]
• Lichtenstein Creative Media has set up a 16-acre virtual broadcasting facility in Second Life, from which it has delivered live radio broadcasts.^[46]
• Institute of Rural Health: Rameshsharma Ramloll, faculty at the Instititute of Rural Health at Idaho State University has lead the implementation of *play2train*, a 32 acre virtual environment for emergency preparedness training in Second Life. This project is funded by (Health Resources and Services Administration) HRSA ^[47]

M-R

• Market Truths Limited provides quantitative and qualitative market research services to both organizations in Second Life and organizations interested in Second Life. Research methods include surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observational and experimental research.^[48] Market Truths won the SL Business Plan competition run by The Electric Sheep Company and Edelman.^[49]
• Max March Industries operates a popular radio station called MaxMarchRadio that plays inside the virtual world, develops high-end virtual estates and high-rise residences, and operates several businesses that operate inside Second Life such as STYLEMAKERS (avatar makeovers including skin, hair, and clothing) and The GIFT, a wildly-successful creator of virtual gift boxes and shopping bags that can package objects purchased elsewhere inside Second Life so they can be given to other users as gifts. Another site is maintained with blogs and news from Max March Industries, that is Max Updates^[50]

^[51]

• Mazda is giving away their concept car Hakaze on Nagare Island and is presenting kite surfing.^{[citation needed]}
• MLB.com broadcast the Home Run Derby and a Red Sox-Yankees game into SL, with the help of the Electric Sheep Company.
• MTV held a fashion show which was later broadcasted on G-Hole, a show on MTV's IPTV channel, Overdrive.^[52]
• The New Media Consortium, led by CEO Dr. Laurence F. Johnson, built a virtual campus in the spring of 2006 that includes a library, museum, planetarium, auditorium, classrooms, and a welcome center. In the fall of 2006, the communtiy affilitated with the campus had grown to nearly 1000 educators, and the NMC Campus expanded from 1 sim to 7. Plans included a machinma school and a life sciences center. The NMC has hosted several events on the virtual campus including IBM's Global Innovation jam,^[53] a Howard Rheingold keynote speech,^[54] and an Second Life artists event^[55]
• PA Consulting Group have established a presence in Second Life.^[56] The firm uses Second Life to host virtual conferences, recruitment events and as a tool for its clients to simulate new product and service offerings.
• Reef Ball Foundation has a site in Second Life, trying to create more online awareness for their ecological preservation activities.^{[verification needed]}
• Reperes market research institute, launches Reperes Second Life, virtual platform of watch and research thanks to the creation of a community: a panel of avatars which may be called upon to address issues faced by brands seeking to establish themselves or develop their offer on Second Life.^[57]
• Reuters has a news bureau which reports news in the virtual universe.^{[14] [58]}

S-Z

• Slacker Astronomy planetarium in the Carmine region displays audio and video shows about astronomical topics and hosts chats with professional astronomers.
• Social Media is a consulting company founded by Gunnar Langemark (Second Life: Gunnar Langset) and is physically located in Denmark. Social Media is in Second Life to do research and to consult with clients who want to know about virtual realities like Second Life. Gunnar Langemark has 20 years experience with next generation computer media. You can find Social Media in Second Life by doing a search for "Social Media".
• Starwood Hotels in conjunction with The Electric Sheep Company and marketing firm Electric Artists is premiering their new hotel brand, aloft, in Second Life via a virtual construction of the hotel before the actual hotels are built.^[17] The building process was documented on virtualaloft.com.
• Sun Microsystems
  • Sun held a metaverse press conference at the launch of their Second Life region Sun Pavilion in October 2006.^{[citation needed]}
  • Sun participated in a press briefing at the CNET headquarters in Second Life in October 2006.^{[citation needed]}
• TELUS Mobility (TELUS) opened a Second Life retail outlet offering replica mobile phones with Second Life specific features. In the near future the store may be offering its real lineup of mobile phones with a twist, to Canadian avatars.^{[citation needed]}
• Text 100, a leading global technology PR firm opened its virtual office in Second Life in August 2006.^{[verification needed]}
• Toyota (via Millions of Us) have offered a virtual replica of the Scion xB^[30]
• Universal Motown Records Group created a presence within Second Life.^{[59] [60]} The Universal SoundScape Music venue was created by InWorld Studios to promote the rock band Hinder and the hip-hop sensation Chamillionaire.
• The University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy owns its own Second Life island. The island is used by the Center's Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Project to host events and displays on the role of MMOGs, in public diplomacy.^{[61] [62]}
• Wells Fargo has created a game called Stagecoach Island within Second Life, in which young players earn virtual money by answering financial questions, thereby teaching them the basics of managing their money.^[63]
• The World Transhumanist Association has used Second Life to recruit and organise a transhumanist following within the virtual world and established a large island and conference centre called "Uvvy Island" to disseminate transhumanist ideas and provide unrestricted access to useful materials (including, among other things, videos and webcasts from WTA) to interested but geographically unrelated parties. Uvvy Island is organised like a regional Chapter, and even holds Chapter status within the WTA, holding weekly meetings, talks, and debates on various subjects.^{[64] [}

 

Brand map of Second Life

http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=424

 

Video Ads on Web Get Twice the Interaction as Standard Image Formats

Video Ads on Web Get Twice the Interaction as Standard Image Formats

by Jack Loechner, Wednesday, Mar 28, 2007 7:30 AM ET

Video Ads on Web Get Twice the Interaction as Standard Image Formats The results of recent research by DoubleClick Inc, of 300 online video ad campaigns, shows that audiences click the "Play" button more than they click on image ads, video ads are typically played two-thirds of the way through, and video ad click rates are far higher than those of image format ads. Rick Bruner, research director at DoubleClick, said "Online video ads are quickly becoming the medium of choice to drive both brand awareness and sales..." The overall average interaction rate for ads studied in this analysis includes the sum total of mouseovers, expansions, interactions with the video control buttons, clicks and other events, divided by the total impressions served. Online video ads experience click-through rates ranging from 0.4 percent to 0.74 percent depending on the online video format. Consumers are roughly twice as likely to play (or replay if a video starts automatically) an online video ad unit, as they are to click through on a standard JPG or GIF ad (the standard CTR for image ads is between 0.1 and 0.2 percent). For video ads embedded in Web pages, the most common length of play was 30 seconds; the next most common length was 15 seconds. There is little difference in the length of play between ads that expand to a larger display window and standard video ads that do not expand. On average, video ads play approximately two-thirds of the way through, or 19.1 seconds for a 30-second ad and 10.3 seconds for a 15-second ad. Marianne Caponnetto, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for DoubleClick, concludes "...The best standard data... on audience measurement of TV commercials is limited to reach and frequency or specialized brand studies... online video metrics available today, like interaction rate, play rate, video completion rate and so on, give advertisers much greater insight into how consumers are actually engaging with the ads and their brands." For more details, please visit DoubleClick here.

 

CMP Technology To Debut The Friday ITch, A Weekly Business Comedy Show From CMP TV

CMP Technology To Debut The Friday ITch, A Weekly Business Comedy Show From CMP TV

Jim Earl, formerly of The Daily Show, Head Writer and Martin Sole, known for his HBO credits, Producer

 

Manhasset, NY - March 29, 2007 - Tomorrow, CMP Technology will debut The Friday ITch, a weekly comedy show from CMP TV that highlights topical news items touching the business technology industry and pokes fun at them. The three-minute internet TV program finds humor in all the madness that takes place in the business technology marketplace, and will be a lively and entertaining break for viewers.

"The Friday ITch is the newest addition to our growing lineup of web video programming, which includes informative branded programming such as CIOs Uncensored, 3 Takes and Light Reading TV," explained Fritz Nelson, Executive Producer of CMP TV. "We're on a mission to create a wide array of programs, from the practical and educational to the insightful and entertaining. We want to surround web visitors with rich media options."

Current research validates online video as a significant media platform for marketers. According to KnowledgeStorm Emerging Media Series 2006 research developed in conjunction with Universal McCann, 78 percent of business technology professionals say video makes online content more compelling or valuable.

Nelson added, "We understand that managing technology is hard work and it's important to take a break from time to time. We hope that this video serves as a brief fun diversion for IT professionals."

The show is produced, directed, written and hosted by experienced broadcast TV professionals, including Jim Earl, an Emmy-winning writer formerly of The Daily Show. Earl has a long list of industry credits that include the new Marc Maron Radio Show, The Man Show and Burly TV. Martin Sole, who brings more than 20 years' experience in the UK Broadcasting industry, is the producer. His past projects include The 9/11 Conspiracies and HBO's Band of Brothers.

The Friday ITch appears across the TechWeb Network, including InformationWeek, Network Computing, Optimize, intelligententerprise.com and TechWeb.com. A new episode of The Friday ITch can be seen every Friday at www.techweb.com/tv.


For more information on CMP TV, contact:
Fritz Nelson, Executive Producer, at fnelson@cmp.com

Just An Online Minute... Just Another Teen Soap Opera On MySpace

Thursday, March 29, 2007 by Wendy Davis

Just Another Teen Soap Opera On MySpace Former Disney chief Michael Eisner's new studio, Vuguru, will create a new 80-episode serial drama, "Prom Queen," that will run on the social networking site MySpace. The show, a murder mystery, will unfold in 90-second installments, starting Sunday. For Eisner, the move obviously marks an attempt to devise entertainment that will appeal to teens. At the same time, the initiative begs the question, why would anyone on MySpace need to watch a soap opera? They're living them. University of California at Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd recently authored a report detailing how teens break up with each other on their MySpace pages, leaving messages to each other for all their friends to see. "By breaking up through MySpace comments, the heartbreaker is attempting to assert their view for everyone else to see so that they cannot be accused of saying something else in private, different from what they believe that they did say," she wrote, in a paper she discussed this week at the ETech conference, according to CNET's News.com. Even teens who don't end relationships via MySpace have plenty of fodder for vicarious drama. Last summer, Blink-182 alum Travis Barker famously criticized his estranged wife, Shanna Moakler, on the site. Nicole Richie also used her MySpace page to launch an attack on her ex-stylist, "raisin face," a/k/a Rachel Zoe. Hard to imagine a scripted drama can compete with the likes of that.

 

MTV goes '4D' with virtual-worlds push

MTV goes '4D' with virtual-worlds push

By Daniel Terdiman
http://news.com.com/MTV+goes+4D+with+virtual-worlds+push/2100-1043_3-6171474.html

Story last modified Thu Mar 29 06:17:48 PDT 2007

NEW YORK--It already has one of the most valuable brand names in television. Now MTV is hoping it can repeat that success as a marketing leader in virtual worlds.

That was the cable giant's message during a three-part keynote address Wednesday morning at the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference here.

The company is calling its new cross-platform strategy "4D." Essentially, the approach will attempt to combine content from MTV Networks' television shows with fully 3D virtual worlds and then put it all through a feedback loop in which people can interact with TV personalities and create content that becomes part of the shared experience.

"We really believe that this is going to profoundly change the ways that brands like MTV interact with their audience," said Matt Bostwick, senior vice president for franchise development at MTV Networks' Music Group. "There's no tight storyline you're following. It's an open experience."

Already, MTV has launched two branded virtual worlds, Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills. These take the story lines of hit shows Laguna Beach and The Hills, respectively, and weave them into a large, public 3D digital environment in which users can meet the shows' stars, or "live" the lifestyles of the programs.

Now, MTV is preparing to unveil Virtual Pimp My Ride, a virtual-world version of another of the network's hit shows.

Playing on the notion that the three TV shows take place in Southern California cities, MTV has created a virtual "highway" that will make it possible for users of each of the three virtual worlds to visit the other two.

The environments were created using Makena Technologies' There.com platform, but each are closed off from the general There.com virtual world.

The MTV keynote was among the early sessions of this two-day conference, the first of its kind to bring together major media companies and virtual-world platform developers in a bid to advance marketing in 3D environments. The most talked-about virtual world at the event is Second Life, but other players, including There.com, Entropia Universe, Whyville and platform developer Multiverse Networks, are also on hand.

MTV seems particularly enthused about the way it's leveraging its virtual properties as advertising media. And to a room full of major media executives eager to hear how they too can make money in virtual worlds the words of Bostwick and two other MTV executives were very good news.

According to Bostwick, more than 600,000 registered users have signed up for Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills in just six months, and the company expects that number to rise to 3 million by the beginning of December.

Dream metrics for advertisers?
He added that the metrics for the two virtual worlds were an advertiser's dream: 64 percent of users come back regularly, users visit 1.4 times per week for an average of 37 minutes each time, and users have so far logged more than 72 million minutes in-world.

Earlier in the keynote, MTV Networks Executive Vice President Jeffrey Yapp said that according to the company's internal metrics, 99 percent of users of its virtual worlds are exposed to branded content, and as many as 85 percent voluntarily interact with those brands.

"What's in it for you guys?" Bostwick asked. "Our ad model is to take people from the current exposure model, which works well (on TV), and to go from seeing an ad to interacting with your brand."

He then showed a series of slides illustrating what MTV, as part of its 4D TV concept, is calling "4D branding."

Among the images were those showing avatars using branded cell phones as a tool for communicating in-world, as well as kiosks where participants can examine digital images of real cell phones. He also showed a series of shots of avatars buying Pepsi-branded drinks and riding Pepsi-branded hoverboards and scooters.

In addition, he explained that the designers of Virtual Laguna Beach had built in a Pepsi-branded "skills ladder" system in which users had to complete a series of tasks, each of which earned them "Pepsi points."

"They became status symbols," Bostwick said. "You couldn't buy them. You had to earn them."

And lest anyone argue that users of virtual worlds don't want to be marketed to, especially not by major real-world brands, he pointed out that one out of three Virtual Laguna Beach users had interacted with some form of Pepsi-branded content. There have even been active forum discussions in which users asked others how to get ahold of that content, he said.

Ultimately, MTV and other media companies at the conference are banking on an explosion of interest in the medium to drive a corresponding surge in ad dollars.

To juice it up, MTV is focusing intently on how to bring more of its content into virtual worlds, making it one of the leading media companies in the space.

For example, Bostwick explained how a cast member from one of the network's shows could do a live TV event, then go straight in-world to interact with avatars. Later, he suggested, users might be able to create video content in-world that could make its way back onto TV.

"We really feel like this programming bridge between TV and virtual is really important, particularly for taking mainstream users into this context," Bostwick said. "But the link to TV is the starting point, not the ending point. We really think where the fourth dimension comes in, where TV leaves off, is the people. Traditional chat rooms and social-networking sites feel so yesterday when you come into a virtual world."

He said users of MTV's virtual worlds had so far used 6.4 million emoticons, initiated 2 million chats, accepted 320,000 invitations to chat privately, and added new people to buddy lists more than 92,000 times.

"Our goal is to let them create their own storylines and content," Bostwick said. "We think this will come full circle when the content flows from inside our worlds onto the screen."

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Public trust eroding

Public trust eroding

Source: Med Ad News Staff //MARCH 2007

Significant differences between the public’s view of pharmaceutical companies and the industry’s self-perception have caused the pharmaceutical industry to lose the trust of patients, physicians, and others. The differences in perception are contributing to the decline in the industry’s reputation and causing messages about the industry’s value to society to fail, according to analysts with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In a nationwide survey of consumers and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders, including physicians, health insurers, researchers, and policymakers, PricewaterhouseCoopers found the public believes that the industry has put profits before patients, abandoning its original vision of improving human health. As a result, the public disregards the benefits that pharmaceutical companies bring to health care. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts, unless the industry takes decisive steps to understand and narrow the gap between its actions and public perception, its damaged reputation will continue to pose a threat to the long-term success of the industry.

"How an industry that has saved so many lives can be held in such low public esteem is difficult to comprehend," says Peter Claude, partner, pharmaceutical and life-sciences advisory-services group, PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwc.com/pharma). "Yet in the current climate of distrust, the public is questioning the industry’s motives and practices from sales and marketing to pricing to drug development. Pharmaceutical companies need to demonstrate a better balance of their primary health-care mission with their fiduciary obligation to shareholders through patient-focused behavior."

According to Mr. Claude, research has shown that a 5% positive change in corporate reputation translates into a 3% to 5% positive change in market capitalization.

Key findings of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ survey reveal striking differences in the public’s versus industry’s perceptions about pharmaceutical companies. About 74% of consumers underestimate the average financial investment required to research and develop a new drug by more than 50%.

Consumers are split between believing that pharmaceutical companies consider important unmet medical needs when deciding to develop a new drug instead of choosing to develop me-too and lifestyle drugs with the greatest sales potential. This compares with 71% of industry stakeholders and 91% of pharmaceutical executives who say health needs are a top priority for pharmaceutical companies.

About 94% of consumers and 81% of all those surveyed said drug companies are too aggressive in promoting unapproved uses of their product. Fewer than half of pharmaceutical company executives agreed.

About 62% of those surveyed agreed that drug companies often manipulate or suppress negative clinical trial results to maximize sales. Four out of five pharmaceutical executives disagreed.

More than seven in 10 of those surveyed agreed that drug companies spend too much money and effort attempting to prevent generic drugs from competing with their branded products. Consumers strongly agreed that drug companies should be working with generic drug manufacturers to make generics available upon expiration of their branded drug’s patent.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found consumers and others believe that pharmaceuticals comprise a much higher percentage of total health-care costs than they do in reality. Two-thirds of consumers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that prescription drugs account for between 40% and 79% of U.S. health-care costs. In fact, just 10% of health-care spending goes to drugs, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts, this disconnect may stem from the fact that pharmaceuticals can consume a higher share of consumers’ out-of-pocket spending than other components of health spending. "The rise of consumer-directed health care will only feed the public’s distorted view of how much drugs contribute to overall health spending," says Brian Riewerts, partner of the pharmaceutical and life-sciences advisory-services group for PricewaterhouseCoopers. "As consumers share more of the cost of care and make their own decisions about health services and products, they will be far more sensitive to drug pricing — yet they clearly do not appreciate the cost and financial risks of drug research and development. Worse, pharmaceutical companies are not educating the public because they do not have adequate tools or transparency to accurately track and report the cost of innovation."

About 86% of consumers underestimated the cost of bringing a new drug to market. Independent studies place the cost of developing a single marketed pharmaceutical product in excess of $800 million. Part of the public’s misconception may stem from the fact that consumers neither understand who funds drug discovery nor appreciate the cost of failure that factors into each success in the drug-discovery process.

PricewaterhouseCoopers found that consumers place more value on a pharmaceutical company’s reputation when deciding whether to use a given pharmaceutical product than pharmaceutical executives believed. About 78% of consumers said when given a choice, they will consider a drug company’s reputation when choosing which product to take. Only one out of three pharmaceutical executives thought reputation was a factor.

One of the chief ways patients become familiar with a company is through direct-to-consumer advertising, which poses a double-edged sword for the industry. In an era of growing consumer power, direct-to-consumer advertising can provide valuable information to a large audience of consumers. Only 10% of consumers and others surveyed think that direct-to-consumer advertising provides complete and useful information, compared with 40% of industry executives. Almost 94% of stakeholders agreed that drug companies spend too much money on drug promotion overall, including direct-to-consumer advertising as well as physician education and overall sales-force initiatives. Surprisingly, almost three-quarters of industry executives agreed.

PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of consumers and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders

• 74% of consumers underestimate the average financial investment required to research and develop a new drug by more than 50%.

• 55% of consumers believe that pharmaceutical companies consider important unmet medical needs when deciding to develop a new drug.

• 45% of consumers believe that pharmaceutical companies choose to develop me-too and lifestyle drugs with the greatest sales potential.

• 71% of industry stakeholders and 91% of pharmaceutical executives believe that health needs are a top priority for pharmaceutical companies.

• 94% of consumers, 81% of industry stakeholders, and 47% of pharmaceutical company executives believe that drug companies are too aggressive in promoting unapproved uses of their products.

• 62% of stakeholders believe that drug companies often manipulate or suppress negative clinical-trial results to maximize sales.

• 73% of stakeholders believe that drug companies spend too much money and effort attempting to prevent generic drugs from competing with their branded products.

• 86% of consumers underestimated the cost of bringing a new drug to market.

• 78% of consumers, when given a choice, will consider a drug company’s reputation when choosing which product to take.

• 10% of stakeholders and consumers and 40% of industry executives think that direct-to-consumer advertising provides complete and useful information.

• 94% of stakeholders believe that drug companies spend too much money on drug promotion overall.

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Industry Group (pwc.com/pharma)