Good Read: Drake Morton

Tuning In To Media-savvy Girls:

10 Things To Know

By Denise Restauri  Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012

1. This is the time of the girl – we’ve seen it coming, and it’s here. Global organizations focusing on girl “upliftment,” serving future family “upliftment” is working. There are now more girls in U.S. universities than boys.

2. Address the “missing in media” puzzle. Geena Davis Institute on Gender Media:

Myth: Gender imbalance issues have gotten better. Fact: Statistically, there has been little forward movement for girls in media for six decades.

3. Youngster media queens are naturally on the rise. “It wouldn’t be fair for all the girls to buy princess and all the boys to buys superheroes cause… [some] girls want superheroes.” Check out 4-year old Riley on Marketing.

4. Know it and show it: Girls are into what they are into. They are a self-feeding society. Businesses that are on the outside need to get inside.

5. Sharers, creators and carers. They’ll share the “wow” stuff, and if such stuff isn’t out there, they’ll create it.

6. Real, extreme, & fantasy. Girls want to know about real girls doing real things (changing the world), and they want fantasy and extreme. They want it all.
(more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

Rooting Out Worst Practices

by Sherrill Mane, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012

Welcome to one of our first New Year’s reminders. Perhaps we can make 2012 the year when “Best Practices for Conducting Online Ad Effectiveness Research” become standard operating procedures.  And, in a year of action, let’s encourage the vendors to do the research on research that the esteemed Dr. Paul Lavrakas recommended in his 2010 “An Evaluation of Methods Used to Assess the Effectiveness of Advertising on the Internet.” The list of issues and items to consider when adopting best practices is rather long, largely due to the inadequacies of the current research methods and the costs of doing better work.

Let’s address some of the most common misconceptions and root out some worst practices:

1.  It is essential that agency buyers work with their colleagues in research and analytics to determine what the objectives of the research are and which methodologies are most appropriate.
(more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

Behavioral Targeting And Paid Search

by Roger Barnette , Thursday, April 21, 2011

Paid search has a blind spot. Unlike display advertising, paid search marketers do not have the ability to do impression-level (or user-level) creative and bid optimization.   Because of this limitation, search marketers have not gravitated towards user-level analysis and understanding and instead focus more on keyword level understanding.  As performance-based digital marketing channels are converging, this “blind spot” for search marketers is becoming a large issue.

Proper user behavioral analysis includes understanding the ads that a user has viewed (media attribution) as well as the user’s interaction on a marketer’s web site.  Too few marketers have implemented cross-channel media attribution.  Even fewer can tie together attribution with user behavior online.  The upside for marketers who can do both is huge.

(more…)

Good to Know: Drake Morton

‘Buying’ Audiences

by Chris Young , Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Thanks to a convergence of technology and consumer habits, both fueled by the advancements of the 21st century, there is a growing trend among digital advertisers to purchase their key audience rather than buying specific destination media — which is a positive development for marketers.

(more…)

Very Good Read: Drake Morton

You Must Understand Your Markets

Wants and Needs,

“Then, Ask To Be Invited”

Behavioral Targeting Misses Mark

OCTOBER 7, 2009
Despite the concerns of some consumers and privacy advocates, marketers have defended behavioral targeting on the basis that Internet users would prefer to look at relevant advertisements and offers.

But a study from researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of California Berkeley School of Law and the Annenberg Public Policy Center reports just the opposite.

“Contrary to what many marketers claim, most adult Americans (66%) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests,” according to the paper. “Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages— between 73% and 86%—say they would not want such advertising.” (more…)

Interesting Read: Drake Morton

Microsoft Links Behavioral Targeting

Across Web, Mobile, Xbox

eight-week campaign for mobile media can run between

$250,000 and $300,000

by Laurie Sullivan , Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I have mixed thoughts about being targeted ads on my mobile phone. While I’m the first to admit my love for technology, and that my AT&T BlackBerry goes wherever I do, I’m a little sensitive to ad targeting, especially when Neiman Marcus serves up an ad to me somewhere across the Web after I’ve abandoned the shopping cart on their site. (As far as I can tell, they seem to be the only retail store following me.) So, how would you feel if an ad for a store you frequented online was served up on your mobile phone browser?

Microsoft last week began offering behavioral targeting for ads running on its mobile network. But while the service offers a range of online targeted categories — about 100 –to advertisers buying mobile display inventory, the launch really means so much more.
(more…)

Time To Clean It Up: Drake Morton

Behavioral Targeting Creates Filter And Purge Technology Gap

by Laurie Sullivan , Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The lack of technology that sorts and stores the mounds of data collected from cookies and ad tags could contribute to the slow adoption of behavioral targeting, according to some advertising insiders.

The culprit becomes the terabytes of data from hundreds of thousands of ad impressions collecting geographic location, content on page, time of day, interaction with ads, frequency in which ads serve up, and more.
(more…)

This is a Must Read: Drake Morton

A Must-Read For BT Wonks

by Steve Smith , Friday, June 5, 2009

The academic studies of online privacy and the technologies behind data collection are coming on strong of late. I have been covering them here in recent months because as a former egghead (I say that lovingly) in the media studies field, I have seen this movie before. As legislators and regulators turn their eye towards a commercial endeavor, scholarly research and opinion that ordinarily gets shared among a relative handful of experts suddenly becomes widely cited, misquoted, turned into gospel.

Regulators need some semblance of impartial authority when diving into complex technical matters, and, frankly, academics need funding, which usually comes from government sources. The upshot is that people in the digital media industries may as well spend some time now hitting the scholarly books, because they will meet them in the legislative and FTC hearing rooms many of them will be attending in the coming years. (more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

The Real Big Shift in TV and Online Video

by Simon McGrath, May 19, 2009

The debate continues on Video Insider and throughout the industry: When will there be a significant shift of ad dollars from television to online video?  Most recently, Eric Franchi’s “big shift” articles captured the attention of many readers and sparked a number of responses.  That’s a sure sign of a good article and a hot topic. But as some of you expressed in your comments, I think questions about if, when and how “the big shift” will occur lead us into the wrong debate.  Granted, the Internet has emerged as a major disruptive force for the advertising and publishing industries.  If you’re a masochist and follow “The Media is Dying” on Twitter you can get minute-by-minute updates on the latest publishing death spiral, mainly with print media outlets.

(more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

Filtering Out The Noise

by Phil Leggiere , Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Search has often, and deservedly, been praised as the gold standard of online ad efficiency, the central repository of the world’s “database of intentions.” Yet the fact remains that most of the best intention-signaling consumer behavior occurs outside the search context.

(more…)