Economy Calls For Online Lead Generation

MediaPost Publications Economy Calls For Online Lead Generation 02/10/2009

An Interview With Sir Martin Sorrell

amidst all the doom and gloom it's good to hear a bit of optimism

Economy Weighs Heavily on Marketing

This article talks to the pressures that Marketing Execs are feeling.

The article suggests based on uncertainty, Marketers that may stick to their knitting and steer clear of more unfamiliar digital concepts.

"When asked what marketing concepts are "most important," they ranked as the top four customer satisfaction (79%), customer retention (76%), marketing ROI (65%) and brand loyalty (61%). And while those ideas were also deemed as "very important" in last year's study, each was boosted by anywhere from four to 12 percentage points this time."

The article suggests that digital may feel the brunt of this retrenchment. I would suggest that proper digital strategy and execution should make digital even a stronger part of the media mix. This may require marketers to rethink how they are currently going about their digital business.

Ecommerce down

This WSJ article discusses the recent Holiday retail shopping season results.

Discounts were not enough to drive sales as hoped.

"While online spending was down just 2% from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve compared with a drop of 5.5% to 8% for retail as a whole, e-commerce strength wasn't widespread. Instead, it was clustered around several big-name Web sites such as Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc."

Job Losses in Marketing and Advertising

This AdAge article gives some numbers (and historical perspective) on job losses and cuts.

"Employment in advertising/marketing services -- ad agencies and the like -- reached an all-time high in November '07, on the eve of recession; it's fallen by 1.1% (8,500 jobs) since the recession began. Hot spot: marketing consulting jobs, now at a record high."

The final comment about marketing consulting, raised my brow. Obviously marketing and related services are still crucial to business, just new ways to account (and pay for) it need to be identified.

Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession

"Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession
In most media, 2009 will bring unkind cuts, and Madison Avenue will never be the same. But Internet advertising seems to be holding up"

Full article @ BusinessWeek

Global AD spend 2007

How dramatic will this list change next yr?

globalmarketing2008.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Display Advertising in 2008

Clickz has an update on the state of online display advertising.

"Display growth dropped from around 16 percent in Q1 2007 to 8.5 percent in Q1 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Meanwhile, the Interactive Advertising Bureau weighed in with its overall online ad revenue tally, courtesy of PriceWaterhouseCooopers; spending growth decreased from 26 percent in Q1 2006 to about 18 percent in Q1 2008. "

I think the most interesting element of this is the following:

"As the current oil market affirms, lower demand can lead to lower prices, especially when it comes to a commodity. Like it or not, display ads have become just that. "The eCPMs across our business have gone from about $2 down to about 40 cents, and I imagine within the next year, two years, it will continue to plummet," said J. Moses, co-founder of Hearst's UGO Entertainment at the recent UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. Moses and others blame the increasing efficiencies and refined targeting enabled by ad networks, along with surplus social media ad inventory for declining CPMs. "No one would have predicted that better tools would produce a lower yield for publishers, and that is exactly what has happened," he said"

All of these targeting technologies that the industry has proffered over the years to increase efficiency and increase yield have done just the opposite. 2009 will be a year of change, methinks.

State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report

This study has some great stats on the current state of Twitter

State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report: "'State of the Twittersphere' report"

RADIOHEAD | 12 CAMS, CREATE YOUR RAINBOW

radiohead has always done such a great job connecting with their fans. Here's is another great example of it:

RADIOHEAD | 12 CAMS, CREATE YOUR RAINBOW | WOWOW ONLINE

What is viral marketing?

Seth's Blog: What is viral marketing?: "What is viral marketing?

"Viral marketing is an idea that spreads--and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause."

Google Leads in Ad-Serving Share

an amazing stat

Google Leads in Ad-Serving Share - Advertising Age - Digital: "DoubleClick and AdSense are responsible for more than half of all online-ad-server calls, or 31% and 26% respectively, Attributor reported. The next closest was Yahoo, at 10%, followed by AOL and Revenue Science, both at 7%. Surprisingly, Microsoft, which owns the Atlas ad-serving system, had only 4% of the market."

People With Inspired Names

(from today's adage)

Johnny Surprise: VP, ad agency Mile 9

Wing Pepper: Exec VP-Microsoft Worldwide, account director, MRM Worldwide

Jessica Ring: Spokeswoman, AT&T

Anne Globe: Head of worldwide marketing and consumer products, Dreamworks Animation SKG

Lord Sharman of Redlynch: Former chairman, Aegis Group

David Dollar: Country director for China and Mongolia, World Bank

Ben Money: VP-international advertising sales research, Asian media firm Star

Ed Moneypenny: CPA; director and audit-committee Member, New York & Co.

Chris Fortune: Bank analyst, T. Rowe Price

Carolyn Buck Luce: Global pharmaceutical leader, Ernst & Young"

Daytime is Primetime for Online Video

AdAge had an article yesterday that makes a case for daytime, (9AM-5PM) being prime time for online video.

"During the traditional work week -- i.e. Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- 65 percent of online video viewers streamed at least one piece of content in October, versus 51 percent of viewers who did so on weekends from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to Nielsen Online’s October VideoCensus report."

Should be no susprise to anyone with broadband access at their desk, I guess, but for some of the old timers out there, this may be one of the remaining times where you have a "captive" audience. DVRs and other time shifting methods have made prime time TV pretty meaningless for many demos at this point.

Interesting disclosure at the bottom of the article states that Adweek is owned by Nielsen...

10 Ways to Improve Your Web Page Performance

from time to time we can get a little geeky. But the reality is that one key to keeping your audience engaged is not to lose them due to kludgy page design & implementation. Here's a good article w/ ways to improve upon that.

10 Ways to Improve Your Web Page Performance - Six Revisions: "There are a million and one ways to boost your website’s performance. The methods vary and some are more involved than others. The three main areas that you can work on are: hardware (your web server), server-side scripting optimization (PHP, Python, Java), and front-end performance (the meat of the web page)."

Do Brands Belong on Twitter?

"Thinking about what might be best for people, in my opinion Twitter should not only not charge brands for membership, but also ban them altogether...."

Completely agree with this...having individual evangelists is the way to go.

Do Brands Belong on Twitter?:

Digital Influencers are Influenced by TV and Print

This Ad Age article goes on to state that "84% of digital influencers go online to find out more about something only after first reading about it in magazines and newspapers or hearing about it on TV or the radio."

The research says that traditional media can strike up Word of Mouth.
So to drive engagement for categories that were used in the research- Green, Beauty and Health.

"This [study] just further clarifies that when it comes to influencer marketing, or PR for that matter, it's not one size fits all," Ms. Wilson said. "I know people know that but it's really niche when you look at the motivations of the influencers and where they go for information."

Online Advertising And Its Impact On Web Design

a great primer

Online Advertising And Its Impact On Web Design | How-To | Smashing Magazine: "Although advertising is a concern for website owners and those pushing products or services, it is also has an impact on Web designers, because they have to be able to design and develop websites that can produce ad revenue and still meet the needs of visitors. Clients with websites that depend on ad revenue need a design that provides the necessary screen space and a proper layout for selling ads, and advertisers need placement that will get them the exposure they seek."

Disney Engagement

pertinence to the matter at hand

Error - washingtonpost.com