Saturday, May 31, 2008

Quest For Marketing Lists, Second Step.

I always look to see how others are doing in marketing and advertising to pickup what ever the knowledge in this field. Because I need to bring out MyAdlets into the world as soon as possible in good footing. There has to be an Apple somewhere out there, for me to munch on, daily.
It is like the previous article about the AdAge Power 150. I learned a lot form that list. So I set out to look for more lists which are similar and Bam! I came across a list of lists, not much but five of them (but good enough to keep me busy for a while!). The lists were laid out in with information on as to why they are important and a lesson to be learned from each list. How they made it to the list. Once you realize that the underlying core is getting out there, whatever the best for you. It is the contacts you make and the people you know and it helps if you are known, does not matter which industry.
The list is made by Rohit Bhargava, and I think you will be glad that he made the 5 Great Marketing Blog Lists if you are into learning and using all those marketing knowledge. One thing I am glad about is that Todd Andrlik's AdAge Power 150 was the first on his list with this suggestion;
The Lesson: Create a truly authoritative way of measuring influence, and let others share it.

You will find this lesson and four more at Digitalmediawire.

Mobile Internet Market Measurement Company, M:Metrics, Inc. Acquired By Comscore, Inc.

Reston, VA, May 28, 2008 -- comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement. The acquisition makes comScore the immediate leader in measuring the emerging and strategically important mobile Internet market and adds to comScore’s leading position in measuring PC-based Internet usage.

The transaction involves a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issuance of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.

M:Metrics offers three primary measurement products:

· MobiLensTM, a syndicated monthly online survey that captures overall mobile phone usage, including device information, data usage, media consumption and demographic characteristics of a representative sample of more than 40,000 mobile device users. MobiLens is available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

· MeterDirectTM, the industry’s first on-device meter that passively measures the mobile Internet behavior and media consumption of more than 4,000 existing Smartphone panelists. The M:Metrics metering technology is compatible with more than 280 device models. MeterDirect is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.

· M:AdTM, the first competitive tracking service for mobile advertising that continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile Web destinations to reveal leading advertisers across a variety of market segments. M:Ad is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.

Going forward, comScore will increase the size of the metered panel and will offer measurement of combined Internet usage across both PC and mobile-based online access platforms. The combination of the two companies is expected to result in substantial operating synergies, cost savings and enhanced revenue growth by building a larger customer base, combining two highly productive sales forces, and leveraging comScore’s global panel and scalable technology infrastructure.

“With the substantial growth of 3G devices and Internet friendly handsets, we believe we are now at an inflection point in Internet usage on mobile devices,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore’s president and chief executive officer. “Our acquisition of M:Metrics makes comScore an immediate market leader in this space and positions comScore to deliver significant shareholder value as wireless carriers, telecom equipment providers, media companies, advertising agencies, online publishers, and marketers extend their reach into the mobile Internet world.”

“M:Metrics brings compelling products and an established, customer base of over 180 clients. Adding comScore’s capabilities and scale to this mix will significantly enhance the company’s future growth and performance,” continued Dr. Abraham. “We see compelling opportunities to increase the market penetration of M:Metrics’ products within comScore’s customer base of over 950 clients and to cross-sell comScore’s portfolio of products into the wireless industry, including the major carriers and device manufacturers. In addition, we plan to leverage comScore’s panel, technology infrastructure and sales force to expand the metered mobile panel and develop new offerings that can significantly increase the growth and profitability of M:Metrics’ business.”

In connection with the acquisition, the co-founders of M:Metrics, Will Hodgman, president and chief executive officer, and Seamus McAteer, chief product architect, will join comScore’s management team.

“comScore is the ideal partner for M:Metrics and clearly the right company to leverage and build upon M:Metrics’ leadership in mobile measurement. The combined company will provide our customers with a compelling portfolio of cross media online measurement and analytics.” said Will Hodgman, president and CEO of M:Metrics. “We are excited about joining comScore and leveraging its vast capabilities, blue chip customer base, and innovative technologies. By combining forces, I am confident we will be the pre-eminent Internet and mobile marketing intelligence provider in the world.”

The acquisition agreement was signed, and the acquisition was closed, today, May 28, 2008, having been approved by the comScore Board of Directors and M:Metrics stockholders. The transaction will be accounted for under purchase accounting rules.

comScore is expecting the M:Metrics business to be profitable on an Adjusted EBITDA basis by the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, and to be a significant positive contributor to Adjusted EBITDA in 2009. M:Metrics’ revenues are currently forecast to be approximately $11 million to $12 million for the full year 2008, and will contribute $6.5 to $7 million to comScore’s reported revenues for 2008 post-closing. The acquisition also enables comScore to lower its future tax payments by realizing a cash benefit of up to $7 million through the utilization of up to $20 million in M:Metrics net operating loss carry forward (NOLs).

Pro forma financials resulting from the M:Metrics acquisition will be reported in an amended 8-K that comScore expects to file in late July, when comScore also plans to announce its earnings for the second quarter of 2008.

M:Metrics, Inc. was represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York City based investment bank that specializes in the media and information industries.

Conference Call
comScore will host a conference call and simultaneous audio-only webcast on Thursday, May 29, at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time). The conference call can be accessed in two ways:

* By telephone at 719-325-4869, pass code 2461159

* Via a webcast at http://ir.comscore.com/events.cfm.

A replay of the webcast will be archived and available for playback beginning at noon that day, accessible from the same link.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Quest For Knowledge and AdAge Power 150

Since I am all about advertising in small bits, adlets, I set out to see how big boys and girls are doing. I had so much resources as advertising is a large arena with so many players and bystanders. So after shifting through a lot of fronts that appear to be Advertising and Marketing bigwigs, I landed on Advertising Age's front page, also known as AdAge.com.
Advertising Age is a hub for all your advertising and marketing needs and I am spending a quite a lot of time learning just going through the site. There are many sections that you could find new and old information on, but explaining will be harder but letting you go there and see for your self is much easier. So follow the link below.
But One gem I found there was the AdAge Power 150, created by: Todd Andrlik and managed by: Charlie Moran.
The Power 150 is a ranking of the top English-language media and marketing blogs in the world, and the creator himself is a marketing executive and blogger, Todd Andrlik. But on his site, ToddAND.com, he says he shortened his name to make it easier for visitors to handle the name. Again Toddand is a treasure trove for anyone to catchup with things you don't and do know about marketing.
The Power 150 is selected after calculating and comparing a large number of criteria and rankings. Such as Technorati, Alexa, google pagerank, etc with;
Todd Points (1 to 15): As the only subjective measure in the Power 150 algorithm, 1 to 15 opinion points were assigned to each blog. Todd Andrlik values frequent, relevant, creative and high-quality content. The use of audio, video and graphics is also heavily weighted in the Todd Points.
You can find all these information here.
So now I have a list of 620+ advertising and Marketing bigwigs to learn from. So if you are a single star like me better head over there.
Advertising Age
AdAge Power 150.
Watch out I plan to get myself in to the list.

Viral Nike Advertising, Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold, 23,279,011 Views and Counting.

This hand held video of Ronaldinho if Brazil receiving the touch of gold (when he first gets the gold Legend). This was posted two years ago and still an active video and counting. I am a soccer fan and I have Ronaldinho's #10 Official FIFA World Cup Jersey in my collection. I think this will continue to collect more views and attract viewers until next soccer world cup in South Africa 2010, the truest world cup game.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Phishing For Your Google Adwords Account Info On The Rise, Bigmouthmedia.

Online fraudsters are targeting Google AdWords users in an attempt to steal internet traffic and gain access to the banking details of businesses and individuals.

According to the latest research from bigmouthmedia, the volume of 'phishing' emails designed to trick customers into handing over their AdWords account login details has increased rapidly within the last six months. Analysis of traffic statistics for April reveals a rise of 240% on the monthly average for 2007.

Although web users are familiar with fraudulent emails seeking usernames and passwords for online banking facilities, Google Phishing is a relatively new phenomenon. Victims are targeted not only for the details that would leave them open to identity theft, but will also find their AdWords traffic redirected to the perpetrators' site.

Many commentators see the sudden spike as a reflection of Google's rising significance, with organised online crime now targeting the search giant in much the same manner as it would attack a major bank.

Bigmouthmedia conducted the research by analysing the company's email traffic over an 18 month period. After measuring the flood of automatic phishing attempts sent to email aliases across the organization in 2007, calculating the monthly average and comparing those results to statistics from 2008, the almost three-fold leap in attacks was identified.
Original article.

“MySpace meets Craigslist” @ Flugpo, The Socialized Classified Ad Network!.

Flugpo is set to revolutionize online classified listings by integrating community building features to their popular website Flugpo.

Earlier this week, the free social classifieds website relaunched their website and introduced a new feature which allows members to identify their profiles as a personal or business account. This useful feature helps those who come to the site, spend less time weeding through profiles not specific to their searching needs. In doing so, Flugpo unconsciously and unobtrusively asks visitors “who would you like to find?”

Flugpo is often referred to as “Myspace meets Craigslist” by their staff and members. Created in the 2007, Flugpo takes an interesting approach to classified listings by eliminating the anonymity features found with Craigslist and allowing the members to connect with one another. �The classifeds, as the world knows them now has no community, said David Metz, founder of Flugpo. Each classified posting is linked to the profile of the member posting the ad. Given the current landscape of Internet safety, Flugpo is quick to address safety concerns by connecting all classified listings with a “face and name.”

To check out what Flugpo has to offer, visit the official Flugpo website.

Mark Kroese, of Microsoft’s Advertising Business Group, discusses growth in digital advertising and a content-delivery platform in action.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 20, 2008 – Advertising leaders from across the world are converging on Microsoft headquarters this week for the advance08 Advertising Leadership Forum. Formerly called SAS (Strategic Advertising Summit), advance08 provides a forum for discussion on the latest trends in advertising media. Attendees this year will hear first hand from Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, about the vision behind the division’s newly-formed Advertising Business Group and its goal of delivering relevant advertising content to effectively engage consumers in Microsoft’s “beyond the browser” media environments: gaming, video, music and mobile.. PressPass spoke with Advertising Business Group general manager, Mark Kroese, to get the lowdown on what this division will mean for advertisers and consumers.

PressPass: Can you tell us more about your role and the vision behind the Advertising Business Group?

Kroese: I approached Robbie Bach last year with the idea that we should start thinking of the Entertainment & Devices (E&D) division as a publisher of user advertising funded experiences. Robbie liked the proposal and we spent three months drawing up a strategy to create advertising that really delivers value to each individual consumer.

The Advertising Business Group (ABG) grew out of this meeting. As a business unit within the E&D division, ABG focuses on creating appealing advertising opportunities for the mostly non-browser E&D products, by which I mean advertising within gaming, video, music and mobile experiences. We work within E&D to develop appealing opportunities for prospective advertisers in these targeted non-browser venues. Once these opportunities have developed into solutions, Microsoft Advertising, led by senior vice president Brian McAndrews, serves these ads through a comprehensive advertising platform. From the point of view of Microsoft Advertising, ABG is essentially another publisher customer, such as MSN, Facebook or Windows Live. We just happen to offer advertisers additional environments – beyond the PC screen – to reach consumers.

PressPass: What are some of the biggest trends and opportunities you’re seeing for advertisers?

Kroese: Traditionally, when people think of digital advertising, they think of search advertising or the banner ads they might see on MSN or the Yahoo! home page. This kind of content used to account for at least 90 percent of digital advertising, but we’re seeing tremendous growth in digital advertising for the beyond–the-browser environments.

Today, fully one-quarter of all digital advertising is being done in the so-called “beyond the browser” environments of gaming, video, and mobile - areas that were previously considered to be niche advertising opportunities. Search and display ads will continue to be a very large market and Microsoft Advertising will continue to invest in them, but ABG’s focus is on opportunities in gaming, video, music and mobile where we see the growth of ad inventory and advertiser interest in connecting with audiences.

Companies are also becoming more cost-conscious amid current economic conditions. This is driving increased demand for advertising that is cost effective and demonstrably delivers results. At the same time, advertisers want to provide ad experiences that feel personal to the consumer- the ability to offer the right ad to the right person at the right time in the right place. This allows each member of the viewing audience to feel that the ad was designed specifically for them, and that it represents an informational tool they can actually use.

The environment and context within which an ad is offered is central to reaching this goal. For example, the Xbox is an incredibly effective platform for reaching the 18-34 male audience. But this is just the first layer. If you dig deeper, your target consumer is an 18-34 year old male who just finished watching a particular movie that they downloaded from the Xbox marketplace. When you consider all these factors you can then assemble a very rich array of deeply contextual information that can be used to serve up a highly relevant advertisement.

PressPass: Why should advertisers consider video games, mobile devices and digital video in their marketing mix?

Kroese: There are three essential reasons why advertisers should consider advertising in these areas: reach, engagement and impact. In terms of reach, our collection of video, gaming, music and mobile ad inventory today encompass more than100 million unique users per month. That’s a huge audience - larger than that of many cable operators.

In terms of engagement, most of us can identify with having worked on our computers with the television playing in the background. In most cases, the laptop is the primary focus because it’s highly interactive. The same can be said for playing a game or viewing an ad on your phone. These environments offer highly engaging, active experiences. For instance, with Xbox Live we’ve seen a twelve percent click-through rate. That’s phenomenal engagement – especially when compared to the industry norm of .5 percent for a traditional banner ad. The reason for this increase is that people are engaged with the advertising; they’re paying attention because it’s a primary task for them.

Thirdly, these click-through rates deliver tremendous impact, so we generate a high rate of repeat business from advertisers undertaking campaigns with us. They recognize that the campaigns represent money well spent.

PressPass: How does advertising tie-in to Robbie Bach’s vision of connected entertainment?

Kroese: One of the simplest and most iconic ways of describing Robbie’s Connected Entertainment vision is that users want a three-screen experience. That is, they want to take the same content and view it as a 10-foot experience via Xbox or on the big screen in their living room, a standard two-foot PC experience and a two-inch experience through an MP3 player or mobile phone.

This concept of media free flowing from one form factor to another is central to our connected entertainment vision. And as it turns out, advertisers want the same thing; they want their advertising experience to follow the consumers across the three-screen experience. That’s a big reason why our advertising strategy is directly linked to this overarching Connected Entertainment vision – so we can give advertisers a way of getting a three-screen experience that connects with their audiences across all those environments and user scenarios.

People are constantly on the move, so the ability to download a movie to their Xbox and then transfer it to a PC or mobile device is highly desirable. It’s no longer about the TV or PC on their own; it’s about both plus the mobile phone or music device. The gaming console is no longer just about gaming; it’s about gaming and video. The phone is no longer just about voice; it’s about voice and search and video. And the MP3 player isn’t only about music; it’s about music and video. Consumers are demanding content that spans these different screens. It’s only natural that advertisers will want to span these three screens too.

ABG’s goal is to help advertisers connect with their audience across these different screens with an ad inventory that‘s easy to buy, easy to sell. That means using common ad formats and minimizing the need for advertisers to build new creative for our ad inventory. After all, producing such content is expensive, so they want to take the creative assets they have and, with little or no repurposing, run them across the different environments. We’re creating an ad inventory that enables them to do that.

PressPass: How and when does Microsoft plan to bring this vision of connected advertising to reality?

Kroese: In many ways, it’s already happening. Today, advertisers can buy advertising that’s incorporated within our Web-based, casual gaming environment. They can have their ad campaign flow across the various parts of Xbox, the gaming tab in messenger and in to MSN Video.

At Advance ’08 we’ll be demonstrating how our ad inventory is driving growth in our Windows Live and Xbox Live platforms. Soon, we’ll be extending many of these opportunities to mobile, music and video experiences as well, so we expect these areas to take off also. Finally, we’re experimenting with ad inventory in Windows Media Center’s free internet TV offerings as well as on the Windows Mobile smart phone.

PressPass: Are there any companies that are already benefiting from this vision?

Kroese: Yes. Nissan’s “Forza2” campaign, which incorporated advertising into the blockbuster game title (program drew over 35,000 participants), and McDonald’s sponsorship of a free Austin Powers video download of last year, which turned out to be one of the most popular download we’ve had to date.

Both of these campaigns are great examples of what we call “value exchange”- the viewer receives something of value, which in turn helps shift their perception of the ad experience and increases their awareness level of the advertiser. In McDonald’s case, the Austin Powers download is an example of a movie that was picked because of its affinity to the Xbox demographic and this was borne out by very favorable user feedback. At Advance ’08 we’ll also talk about Nike’s SPARQ Training ad campaign, which presents a whole new way of thinking about the Nike brand. We worked with Nike to create a landing page on the Web that immerses them in the Nike brand and offers extensive information about the company.

This is a great example of beyond-the-browser ad experiences that are highly-targeted and deliver value to both consumer and advertiser. Creating such experiences is the focus of the Advertising Business Group.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Microsoft's plan to build a big, successful search business, and Kill Google.

Silicon alley insider managed to talk to Microsoft about it's new "Get Cashback From Microsoft Live Search!" and found out also about Microsoft's latest macro plan to kill Google.

The plan is based on three premises (That Microsoft took 13 years to understand, according to Microsoft itself):

  • Today's search is klugy, and it will change.

  • Microsoft has unique assets that will allow it to capitalize on this change

  • Microsoft will lead the innovation of the next-gen search product and business models
But before abandoning all those AdSense and AdWords programs and make Microsoft (which page) your home page, read about your next gen search engine still will be Google! ;) follow this link!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Get Cashback From Microsoft Live Search!

I guess this is one way to optimize your search engine. If it is the ground breaking announcement that Microsoft was making, I don't think it raffled any feathers, unless from smirks. But there are people who like these stuff. Now how to get Google to index these pages! This way I can search and get discounts at the same time.

On the other hand the cashback program offers an advantage for advertisers in that they only have to pay when they sell an item, known as a "pay-per-action" fee. It also avoids the problem of click fraud, or bogus clicks, Which is being controlled with better algorithms by the likes of Google and other PPC Pay-per-click Providers. The PPC also provides another benefit over PPA. Site visitors. PPA might only bring visitors only if you have lowest prize on Live site. Making People aware of what you are selling is also a part of advertising.

So this might be a solution for small business to harness some spending during these cash strapped times.

With the U.S. economy slowing, Microsoft's cashback program may be more appealing to advertisers with smaller budgets who only want to pay for completed transactions rather than for click-throughs from Google ads, said Mike Davis, senior analyst for Ovum in London.


HOW IT WORKS

Users who sign up for accounts will be able to search for eligible products on the Live Search cashback site, or look for special icons next to search results through the main Live Search engine.

When users click through to a merchant's site and buy eligible products, a designated percentage of the purchase price -- ranging from about 2 percent to more than 30 percent -- will be deposited into their Live Search cashback accounts.

Refunds will accumulate in the account and be available via direct deposit to a bank or PayPal account, or by check. The Microsoft site lists conditions for payout, including a $5 minimum balance. It also references a 60-day waiting period after purchase to account for the possibility of returns.

Microsoft will charge merchants for the Live Search cashback advertisements only when a user makes a purchase.

Source: Microsoft Live Search cashback Web site

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Will These Ads Sell In America? Like Bud Light??

I mean other America not in California or Massachusetts. Is the media going for equal opportunity or cashing on in the new grounds? Answer to both is yes. It is called Advertising!
Dolce & Gabbana;

And Levi's;

Thursday, May 8, 2008

A recession could accelerate the trend to web based CPC advertising.

I came across this post by Don Dodge, "Will advertising revenues drop in a recession? Who will win and who will lose?"
Usually recession takes out the trust of life blood of of economy out to a drive and after that it is a chain reaction, everything but essentials will fail. But in order to climb out of such a hole should it ever happen, will be harder. Even though Advertising and marketing may get cut first, you will have to advertise in order to promote your products in a awakening economy. Some will have to continue advertising in the best possible method to sustain continuity. So some advertising and marketing may get cut but search advertising (give them what they look for), CPC will live through as Don says, Advertising in general will fall, but CPC Internet advertising will increase.
"The trend towards Internet advertising has been growing for years. Still, less than 10% of all advertising dollars are spent on the Internet, up from about 6% a few years ago. The trend will continue and probably accelerate with a recession. This is great news for search engines like Google, Microsoft Live Search, and Yahoo Search."
In fact the recession might be a shot in the arm for internet advertising!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Recession 2008 Hits Scoble and Begins Advertising On Twitter!

Advertising takes different forms and it is the advertiser who makes the rest of the game interesting. Some advertisers are so strong and capable of getting the likes of Scoble, eat their own words.
Techcrunch who kept tabs on this type of stuff says, "Uber-blogger Robert Scoble, who in 2006 argued that having advertisements on blogs destroys trust, appears to be no longer content with… adding advertisements to his blog. Now he’s experimenting with Twittering adverts for perennial sponsor Seagate. He later twittered “I am just having a little fun getting a conversation about microblog advertising going”."

But you can't blame Scoble for trying to beat recession 2008 and Seagate trying sell some hard drives. But something I like about this is that twitter might get advertising into it's feeds! Will it share with users or not. Or will they let Scoble take over their network and run his ads on it?

Monday, May 5, 2008

Page Rank Viewing! Know Your Pagerank All The Time.

Most of the time when I visit a websites, specially if I am evaluating them, I take into consideration the site content combined with multitude of other factors. Page Rank is one of them. But every and each time you visit a site, if you have to jump out to another site to check the pagerank the process could be tedious. So what do I do? Since I use Firefox for browsing, 90% of the time, I use Live PR extension to Firefox. This sits on my status bar displays the pagerank of any site I am visiting. I also keep a tab of my own site ranking. All my blogs have rank 3 or higher. Even this relatively new one, MyADLETS is getting there.
The other thing is this tool gives me laughs some time, if I see a SEO site advising you of how to get your rank higher, and has one or zero most of the time, it is a laughing matter. So first lesson on SEO is to make sure the folks teaching you know what they teach.
You can get Firefox from here and the extension after you have install the Firefox, from the Firefox addons site. Search for live pagerank.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Recession 2008, Survive It and here is the 20th tip

Yes for the other 19 tips you will have to go else where. (ok I will give you the directions.) . The recession is around us. Filling up the tank cost $35 bucks ;) , ok I drive a small car!
"Even Jay Z in his latest music video doesn’t choose to flash American money, he shows off euros. That says a lot.", from a comment on Scobleizer.
USDA is telling that Americans get the best deal in food world wide, but this news item says otherwise!. What about these graphs?
I also see people trying to change jobs so they don't have to drive and can afford to get this best deal. One way or the other you need to get through this hard times, so it is better to have as much as advise possible. Scobleizer gave me 19 of ways and asked for more.

20. Read Scobleizer.

And don't forget to look through your ads, your friendly grocery store might have deals!