Who Clicks, Why, and Does It Matter

Great post by Gavin O'Malley in MediaPost today....http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=149267

This is even more proof that clicks are not the intended measure of web advertising, and will likely go the way of the 468x60 banner. (Yes, I Occasionally see a random 468x60 out in the wild, and makes me chuckle a bit - I further digress to around 2002 @ SF Big party where Scott McLernon came to the front of the room with a casket for the dead ad unit size - "The Official Death of the 468x60" was declared!

Campaign measurement and performance is critical to understand the investment in ad spend. Many advertisers have become much more sophisticated and savvy with regards to understanding the impact their online advertising has for driving brand health metrics, or ROAS.

We're heading in an interesting direction here at BuzzLogic, and working to help brand advertisers to understand organic brand lift metrics within the conversational media space. Specifically, we're finding that when advertisers place media within dense conversations which are relevant, influential, and authoritative to the marketing communication strategy... we're seeing significant organic, positive lift. To me, this tells an insightful story for the brand which a click simply can't.

I'm glad to see that our organization and the industry in general is looking towards new solutions and advanced analytics that will hopefully power our industry to get off the "click-through-rate" reporting methodology.

The first step of change is simply to identify there is a problem... Love the MediaPost post this morning as it's further validation that the industry does indeed have a problem.

Is BP Bad For The Media Business?

Of all the bad news stories in the past several years, there is likely none (at least for me) that is as bad as the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf. To me, this is certainly on par with 911. Every time I read a blog, or a news site, or turn on the TV, or listen to the radio discussing the big Oil Spill I get a little sick to my stomach. Kind of a grimace.

I'm finding myself clicking away from websites, turning the radio station, and flipping the channel on the remote when I see coverage of the disaster on TV. I simply can't bear to watch the story any longer.

So, are media companies actually turning off their audience by pounding us with the story? Even if they feel like they're increasing viewership, what message are they sending to their advertisers.

Many advertisers today are looking to avoid context associated to the Oil Spill. As we all know, brands are generally looking for heart warming stories like the Olympics to surround their brand, not global disasters. I suppose we can't make the story go away, but some media companies will soon realize that constant focus on this topic will likely hurt their media business.

Like everyone else, I'm hopeful however, that this story will change our views for alternative energy and drive us towards a world less dependant on oil for energy.

BuzzRoll Ad Units - Hub and Spoke

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=126586

Cory Treffiletti nailed it on the point of social media marketing / advertising with this one!

Those who know me, know that I am a very strong advocate for the hub and spoke model for advertising programs in the blogosphere. I have been building this type of solution for top brands in Technology, Automotive, Communications, and CPG verticals. The real trick here is finding and encouraging the type of content which is relavent to the target audience and adjacent to the brand message. Also, partner selection is critical, and you're almost always better off partnering with "sites" who have a strong organic, endemic audience who is among your target audience. Content distribution widget ads are really taking off in social media. There are many flavors out there in the market. Technorati has a nice one, Federated has been using these for years, Six Apart has launched their version, and here @ BuzzLogic we invented probably the most powerful version. We call it BuzzRoll, it's an ad unit which carries content in many formats including blog posts, tweets, video, along with other custom utilities and API's.

Great stuff Cory!

Online Advertising in San Francisco

It's been a wild ride for online media for San Franciso over the past decade. The crazy days of Mediaplex, Lot 21, March 1st, Exile on 7th, SFO Interactive, etc. All those ad agency brands are gone and far away. Some like Mediaplex just changed the strategy.

That was understandable, as 98% of all the media dollars came from IPO or VC capital, and bound to soften or get killed until the big brands embraced the web. Well, as we all know, it's all big brands on the web today... and once again a very robust industry.

What concerns and puzzles me is why, for the most part, are the big brands leaving their SF based ad agencies. VISA is now in LA. HP is now in Chicago. Sprint is in NYC (remember way back when Organic had the biz in SF), Fox in LA. Seems like a slow and sure exodus, and is likely causing some agency brain drain locally. NYC & LA seem to be winning the most new business, while Chicago & Boston are holding their own.

I certainly hope that our local ad agency community survives and thrives. There are so many great online agency people here in SF!! It's weird, as so many internet start ups, and success stories are born right here, you would think the agencies would be able to attract clients based on their close proximity to some of the hottest internet companies...

Let me know if you know why this is happening?