Excellent Read: Drake Morton

Are Your Emails Anticipated & Appreciated?

by Ryan Deutsch, Thursday, July 8, 2010

As with many of you, I have been in the marketing technology space for a little while. During that time, I have heard (and certainly spoken) my share of buzzwords. In fact, I could probably throw together 500 words on email marketing buzzwords — stay tuned for that blog post in the coming weeks! Anyway, two words I do not hear often enough in relation to email are “anticipated” and “appreciated.” There are two interesting trends occurring in the email marketing space that make these particularly relevant: the flash sale and localized marketing.

Link to vMail / video email

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Interesting Read: Drake Morton

Opportunities And Challenges In Online Video Delivery

by Gannon Hall , Wednesday, June 23, 2010

In the last decade online video has grown from an esoteric hobbyist activity into a multi-million dollar business built around a thriving ecosystem of content creators, publishing and monetization platforms, and various enabling technologies, services and devices. Like many industries born out of the mass consumer embrace of the Internet, online video continues to evolve rapidly. It was only five years ago that the first video was uploaded and shared on YouTube, yet a scan of industry news today reflects a growing conversation around the myriad devices and endpoints from which audiences consume video.

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You Need to Know: Drake Morton

Video Dominates Rich Media Tactics for

Online and Direct Marketing Professionals

March 27, 2010

According to the Unica State of Marketing 2010 study, video is the most adopted rich media marketing tactic today. Videos, created by marketing, rank first followed by streaming media, YouTube, podcasts, and ads within online videos represent the rich media tactics expected to be used most in the coming year. Year?over?year growth in the next 12 months for all these tactics is expected to be in the 20% range.

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Good Read: Drake Morton

The ‘Cadillac’ of Online Video Advertising

by Alex Rowland , Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Most online video advertising today sucks. It essentially comes in two main flavors: annoying (pre-rolls) and distracting (auto-play banners and overlays). And if you look at where money is being spent in online video advertising today, it is weighted heavily toward the annoying end of the spectrum.

The good news is that brands are evolving their approach to online video and experimenting more aggressively with longer-form videos that can stand on their own. In response, a new standard is taking shape that prescribes best practices to both the creation and distribution of these videos. You could call this standard the “Cadillac” of online video advertising.

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The closing paragraph

really puts this article in perspective.

These three drivers are the forces that are changing marketing. When I look at them for commonalities, one comes to mind: in each, we have to get better at knowing the people on the other side of the transaction. We have to spend more time understanding what influences our prospects’ buying decisions, how we can participate effectively in the process and how we can help satisfy their intent. All of this depends on us getting to know our prospects better. It’s not a “market”; it’s dozens — or hundreds, thousands or millions — of individuals. And we have to learn to have conversations with each of them.

The emotional bound of marketing: Drake Morton

The Shape of Marketing: 2010 & Beyond

by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, December 24, 2009 (more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

Ad Dollars Flood to Social Nets

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

Following eyeballs

The Nielsen Company reports Internet users increased the time they spent on social networks by a substantial margin in August 2009. The sites took up 17% of all time spent on the Web in August, up from just 6% the prior year.

Meanwhile, advertising spending on the top social networking and blogging sites more than doubled, jumping from $49 million in August 2008 to about $108 million in August 2009.

Please click on the Vistine Media link to see how you can make your

social networking projects really work for you.

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Very Good Read: Drake Morton

Add Direct Response To Get More

Out Of Rich-Media Ads

by Jason Tafler , Friday, September 25, 2009

As new technologies and more engaging content emerge on the Web, consumers expect more from online advertising and brands demand more value for their ad dollars. Many marketers struggle with creating cutting-edge ads that grab viewers’ attention and drive ROI in a meaningful way. Companies that are getting the most out of their ad buys are using new methods to deeply engage consumers with creative rich-media ads that also incorporate direct-response elements.

These do not have to be standalone strategies; each can play an important role in any comprehensive campaign. Depending on the marketer’s objectives, rich-media campaigns can include features such as data collection, lead generation, printable coupons, targeted product and pricing information, and ticket or product purchasing directly within banner ads, shortening the path to conversion. These capabilities not only provide marketers with more insight into their target audience, but increase consumer interaction time. According to PointRoll benchmarks for 2008, rich media provides a 562% lift in response/return over standard ads and 62% lift over flash banner ads. Depending on the campaign, including a direct-response element increases response by 42%, with an additional 3% increase in brand time.
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 Good Read: Drake Morton

Online Helps Marketers Do More with Less

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

Making each dollar accountable.

The harsh reality of marketing in a recession: Three-quarters of marketers had their budgets cut this year, and two-thirds were expected to drive more sales with an equal or lesser budget, according to the “2009 ANA/MMA Marketing Accountability Survey” from the Association of National Advertisers and Marketing Management Analytics.

The No. 1 strategy for marketers who wanted to improve effectiveness without spending more, according to the June 2009 poll, was shifting from traditional to digital media. More than one-half of respondents also reported shifting spending away from brand-building initiatives, and 38% were putting more spending into lower-cost media.

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Interesting Information You Need to Use: Drake Morton

The Future Of Video Advertising

by Philip Leigh , Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Most everyone agrees that future video advertising will be significantly different.

At least five changes are likely.

1.  The advertising market will shrink for several years. Digital media projects that five years from now the aggregate advertising spend will be smaller than it was last year. Total advertising revenues from all modes in 2013 are projected at $245 billion as compared to $285 billion in 2008. Internet advertising will gain share from 8% to 22%.

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 You Need to Read: Drake Morton

WPP Profit Dropped 47%

in Second Quarter

More Than Half of Company’s Revenue Came From Nontraditional Advertising

By Michael Bush
Published: August 26, 2009

       NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Using words such as “severe” and “surprise” to describe the recession’s impact on its business, WPP, the world’s largest advertising conglomerate, said today that its profit was down 47% for the second quarter. And WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said it will be a while before marketing executives begin to spend and take chances the way they did just a few years back.

 ”Given the fact that we stared into the abyss six or nine months ago, people are going to take a long time to go back to where they were,” Mr. Sorrell said. “It’s going to be a long time before this generation of managers, who were managing businesses that are faced with the extinction of credit lines, severe sales compression and inventory being eradicated, begin to take risks. They won’t until they are 100% sure things are on the uptrend.”

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