Interesting Information: Drake Morton

Video Forecast: Sky’s The Limit?

by Lewis Rothkopf , Monday, May 23, 2011

I’m often asked to offer predictions about what the online video landscape will look like several years from now, which I always respectfully decline to do. Our industry is so dynamic, with new players emerging daily, it’s relatively impossible to offer meaningful forecasts more than 12-18 months away. However, a smart colleague recently challenged me to use this space to do just that, in light of the increasing ubiquity of video across multiple devices and the resulting fragmentation of audiences. Perhaps the time is now right to look at the progress we’ve made as an industry over the last six or seven years and put a stake in the ground for 2013.  Right or wrong, it will be an interesting exercise two years from now to examine our younger selves’ vision of the future.

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Good Read: Drake Morton

Putting Insights Into Action: Operationalizing Attribution

by Anto Chittilappilly , Friday, May 13, 2011

I recently spoke to an audience of search marketers on the topic of operationalizing the valuable results and insights that marketers and their agencies can discover through the attribution management process, and how frustrating it can be trying to translate these into repeatable, ongoing processes if you don’t know where to start.  Here are a few highlights from the advice I shared with them.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

You undoubtedly have a set of critical success metrics or key performance indicators that you already use.   These could include revenue, ROI, CPA, ROAS, LTV - any number of business performance measures that are important to you and other stakeholders within your organizations. You’ve not only operationalized the ability to track these metrics and report on them, but to make changes to the systems that impact their performance in order to optimize them.  You have processes in place for changing bids, pausing keywords, channeling more funds to one publisher/network/search engine than another, etc.
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Need to know: Drake Morton

Six Actions The Video Ecosystem Needs

To Take Now To Double Video Marketing Spend By 2014

by William A. Lederer , Thursday, May 12, 2011

While we all have grown immensely over the past year, online and mobile video is still Precambrian:  an underdeveloped, but now sizable medium in its own right. If we are going to take our act to the next level soon, there are six actions that should take priority to ready ourselves and the medium for major new investment from marketers.

Strengthen Physical Delivery and Make Ad Operations and Workflows EasierFirst and foremost, we need to take a step back. Just as in other high-tech industries, shiny new objects get all the attention, while some of the most basic obvious issues get pushed under the rug. Video delivery and fulfillment technology must continue to advance and become more transparent to better address concerns of both consumers and advertisers. Concurrently, video ad operations and video workflows must become easier.

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Need to Know: Drake Morton

Intergrate The Online Marketing Experience

by Laurie Sullivan

Search will remain the core structure, feeding data to all other media. It is the highest-converting medium, but only 2% of the conversions occur from engines. Optimizing and integrating “the experience” will become a focus for online marketing in 2011.

Joshua Palau, vice president of marketing at Comcast, finds it ironic that 86% of consumers skip through commercials, but many of today’s television shows talk about advertising. Since very few consumers convert online, how do marketers market to the 98% of consumers who won’t click on an online ad? Maybe it’s not the click that needs optimization, but rather the metrics behind the media. (more…)

 Need To Read: Drake Morton

Marketers embracing QR codes,

for better or worse

(CNN) — A confused crossword puzzle. A psychedelic postage stamp. A bar code on drugs.

This is how a QR, or Quick Response, code may appear to most people. You may have noticed these black-and-white squares showing up in subway ads or in pages of magazines. Thanks to our growing addiction to our smartphones, you’ll likely be seeing more of them.

QR codes are showing up in more and more places: posters, storefront window displays, TV advertisements, business cards, websites and even on T-shirts. When accessed with your phone, a QR code takes you to a landing page where you’ll usually find special promotional content. (more…)

Interesting Information: Drake Morton

Audience Measurement Ain’t Easy

by Josh Chasin , Saturday, May 7, 2011

In the digital space we have something that no other medium has ever had before: the ability to collect empirical census data on the behavior of machines.  Boy, is this an incredibly helpful thing to have!  Since consumers access the Internet by using one of these machines (like TV or radio, but unlike print or place-based media), the ability to empirically track machine behavior has been one of the lynchpins of the success and growth of the online medium.

TV companies are only now coming to grips with the fact that they too have the ability to track the behavior of some machines (those with digital set top boxes). The development promises to throw TV audience measurement into its greatest period of flux and uncertainty ever (well, that and C3.)  Fortunately in the digital space we’ve grown up with it.
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Good Read: Drake Morton

How To Create Brand Content That Stands Out

by Paul Kontonis , Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Today, brands are thinking differently about how to reach consumers: not by interrupting consumers’ experiences with advertising messaging, but by offering value through original and co-created content. This content allows a brand to tell its own story, bring to life its core sensibilities, and connect with consumers in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Now more than ever, brands face an array of choices for branded content — from cooking shows to healthy eating, fitness to balancing your life, reality shows to scripted comedy. It’s also a challenge to choose which entity will be your partner: cable networks, film studios, portals, online communities, video ad networks, online celebrities or independent producers?

Here are five things to consider to make your branded content stand out and succeed:
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