Good Read: Drake Morton

The Margin Of Error

A/S Ratio: Abbreviation of advertising to sales ratio and indicates the money which is allocated to advertising as a percentage of product sales revenue at either wholesale or retail level.

by Luke Perrie , Thursday, April 30, 2009

One of the aspects of online marketing that makes it so fantastically alluring to even the most frugal of e-commerce advertisers is its, shall we say, accountability. Any serious online marketer can tell you what your “return” was on that $1,000 you spent in online advertising yesterday, usually calculated as an A/S Ratio percentage. This is partially what makes online marketing such an attractive recessionary marketing channel for advertisers in many different verticals. And while this accountability of a dollar-spent-to-dollar-gained ratio certainly makes online advertising the Rocky Balboa of the marketing channel boxing ring, a simple A/S Ratio calculation can often be dangerously misleading.
(more…)

This is where Social Media Was for March 2009: Drake Morton

Very Good Read: Drake Morton

10 Things You Need To Know

About Selling Engagement

by Kevin Mannion , Thursday, April 23, 2009

Anyone who has sold both print and digital advertising can tell you that there are differences between how each is bought and evaluated. As a rule, digital media is numbers and results-oriented, while print has traditionally relied on a more conceptual sell. Online selling is geared to the spreadsheet; print to the PowerPoint presentation. Print selling emphasizes market knowledge, educating clients –especially on the marketer side — on buying dynamics, and telling a compelling sales story that shows clients how they will succeed. Digital selling is fast, RFP-oriented, emphasizing media technology knowledge and campaign metric optimization.

(more…)

 You Need to Understand This: Drake Morton

How Buying Decisions Are Made

We absorb information through our sensory perceptions and process this information unconsciously, automatically, habitually. How these perceptions are processed by our conscious mind determines the decisions it will make. So, even though our conscious mind is actively absorbing all manner and forms of impressions, it is totally unaware of most of them. It can literally do it in its sleep. In fact, it can’t stop doing it! (more…)

Brand Mentions Preferred over Ads

APRIL 20, 2009

Young people especially receptive.

Want to get Internet users to visit your Website or follow your brand?

The best way to accomplish those tasks, according to ARAnet, based on polling by Opinion Research Corporation, may not be advertising.

Compared with banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers and sponsored links, articles that include brand information were most likely to lead US Internet users to read—and act.

(more…)

Are You Measuring Real Success?

by Todd Friesen , Friday, April 17, 2009

I’ve been doing SEO for 10 years now. I was there to witness the passing of Infoseek (RIP), Black Monday at AltaVista and the unstoppable rise of Google. In all that time and through all that change there is one thing that has remained constant and generally never ceases to amaze me.

People still have very little idea how to measure success online. There a few recurring scenarios that pop up all the time when I’m talking to potential clients about search marketing:
(more…)

Need to Read: Drake Morton

The ‘Clickthrough’ Of Digital Out-of-Home

By Joe Mandese, Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The other day, I wrote a story for MediaPost’s MediaDailyNews reporting on a new service digital out-of-home advertising aggregator Adcentricity announced that will add a suite of mobile applications, plug-ins, and enhancements to place-based media buys. The move is significant, not simply because it will bring scale and ease-of-use to the rapidly converging mobile and out-of-home media marketplaces, but because it recognizes the inherent synergies between the two location-based forms of media. (more…)

Is The Big Shift Underway?

by:  Eric Franchi, Monday, March 30, 2009,

This week, I was having a conversation with a colleague who has been at the top of the digital agency world for the past decade. This is the kind of person from whom you tend to learn something every time you chat — a real maven. We touched on a variety of topics, including online video. Specifically, I wanted to get his take on why we aren’t seeing a seismic shift of budgets from TV to online. The online user base is highly engaged, and there is more premium content and measurement ability than even one year ago. My question centered around the marketers who are interested, but not at the level of going all-in.

(more…)

We projected this would be the case: Drake Morton

When Juggernauts Collide:

Email Marketing Meets Video Marketing

“increase gifts by 23% over the previous year’s fall campaign”

by Tyler Willis , Tuesday, April 7, 2009

In the face of a tough economic climate, Stanford University’s Scott Jahnke started exploring ways to increase donations from alumni. Jahnke is the Director of Student and Young Alumni Development, putting him in charge of generating donations from Stanford’s recent graduates — one of the harder demographics to reach. (Full disclosure: Stanford has been a client of my company.)

(more…)

Leveraging Existing Customer Relationships
by Dave Hendricks , Monday, April 6, 2009

Successfully navigating your business through today’s tumultuous economic climate is a challenge at best. With consumers avoiding malls and brick and mortar stores in droves, there has never been a better time to engage your company’s email subscriber database in an effort to make up for lost sales. However, while this is a smart step for marketers to take, it must be done in an intelligent manner that recognizes each consumer as an individual with a unique response and demographic profile.

(more…)