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Targeting, fear and reality

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:34:00 -0500

I joined my first Internet company in 1995 (Firefly Network, formerly Agents, Inc. and long ago acquired by Microsoft), and we started out by making recommendations to people. For example, we could recommend cool music you might like based on music you liked. Think Pandora – but 16 years ago without iTunes or broadband. We did the same thing for movies, books and websites – and realized we potentially had valuable information about our consumers that advertisers could use for targeting.

Our community registered and gave us personal information about their entertainment preferences, so we were among the first to deal with privacy implications. I remember the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation dedicated to protecting privacy and freedom of expression. We knew we were onto something profoundly valuable and potentially dangerous. Not to mention – very creepy.

We learned two valuable lessons, and they still apply today:

The consumer needs to be in control of their personal information. I think virtually every website with registration has a privacy policy and controls for consumers.
Advertisers don’t target individual consumers. They target groups. It’s just not scalable for an advertiser to delve into the personal details of 270M US consumers. Or even 100. We were able to offer targeting to users who love Bon Jovi. Advertisers asked what in the world they could do with that? Marketing is done in market segments – with automated personalization where possible. The CEO of Bizo gives a great explanation of this in his blog on Targeted Advertising.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an expose about the number of cookies and beacons on many leading sites. Congress and consumers are alarmed by what they don’t know and how those websites might be unfairly or irresponsibly using information about them.

Advertisers don’t want to freak out their prospects. Targeting is done in segments for economies of scale. Those market realities create a natural limit to targeting actual individuals. Opt-out abilities for consumers to control if a visit is tracked at a specific site are a healthy improvement to the industry. Consumers mostly don’t want to pay for internet content and they hate annoying ads – so consumers should appreciate targeting once they understand that the advertiser has NO IDEA who they are.

I’ve been in this industry for 15 years. My parents still don’t understand how an advertisement winds up on a webpage. They’re pretty smart folks and I’ve explained it more than a few times. I’ve settled on letting them know that the telemarketers and catalog companies that bombard them and us (even with NO CALL LIST) have much more private information than any website or web advertiser. If they want to see generic, annoying ads – block all cookies. If they want no ads, pay for content that is ad-free. And if they want free, quality content, then they need to understand and accept that sites track their visits - not their identity - in order to put them in segments that are large and interesting to advertisers. And if they want to know how it all works…I’ll show them again.

Know your networks

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:29:00 -0500

John Gaffney puts a stake in the ground on the distinctions between conventional ad networks and vertical media networks -

http://www.digidaydaily.com/stories/digirant-defining-your-network/.

Gaffney recommends that advertisers seek out and leverage vertical media companies for their superior content – and admonishes networks to be clear about if they are a content company or a targeting company first. That doesn’t mean one shouldn’t target within premium content or that a targeting company shouldn’t access the unsold inventory of premium publishers – it’s about the core of the value propositions.

Like Mr. Gaffney, Adify believes that vertical ad networks (vertical media networks, content networks) are first about identifying and curating the very best content on specific topics that engages specific audiences. Conventional ad networks are first about optimization and targeting to find the audience most likely to convert (click, buy, engage) across unsold inventory from many publishers.

One of the ways to distinguish a vertical media network from an ad network is if they offer end-to-end transparency specifying their content partners before, during and after a campaign is delivered. A vertical media network or content network is proud of its content partners and is selling engaging placements in context. These vertical media networks perform as branding vehicles where advertisers can engage with their target audience without waste and in a memorable way.

One of the comments stated that the real problem is not the distribution method but rather that consumers ignore online advertising. Advertising out of context in ANY media is ignored – even if it might be interesting to the consumer in another context. Banners are supplemental - integrated packages that make the advertiser stand out and enhance the consumer experience are noticed - and are what vertical media networks offer and recommend rather than pure run of network or run of category banners.

Can machines build brands?

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:44:00 -0500

There are two topics that are all the rage in online advertising - machine-based buying and redirecting TV dollars to online. The two conversations frequently overlap (see article in MediaPost) but it’s more than possible that machine based buying will keep TV branding dollars off the internet. In fact, display advertising seems to have an inferiority complex to search advertising – and is trying to be more and more like search. Publishers need to be wary that chasing search will lead to their demise. Success is leveraging what you do that is unique and valuable.

There seems to be a belief that if we find the right algorithm and give it the right data, we will put the right ad on the right page at the right time and the consumer will engage or, even better, buy. There is an entire ecosystem emerging that exists to reassure brands that the “right place” is still brand safe. Data and algorithms are amazing tools and advertisers have been studying them and optimizing based on data since the inception of advertising. Now we are looking to technology and data to deal with the shortage of media planners and the cacophony of options available through the internet. Publishers find that their unique content is degraded into “inventory". Frankly, machine based buying and search terms are both great avenues for direct response advertising and should be used for that aspect of a media buy and publisher’s advertising mix.

There is no machine that can create a compelling brand experience with multiple, interactive ad units that relate to the content on the page (but maintain editorial independence) and leave the viewer impressed. Only content experts, working in tandem with creative advertising professionals, can create those experiences. With a 15/30/60 second TV spot, advertisers create their own experiences where they have 100% of the viewers’ attention. Interstitials and pre-roll videos recreate that online. But the number of viewers who see an interstitial or pre-roll is tiny compared to TV.

Advertisers and premium publishers have a mutually beneficial opportunity here – one that does not involve machine-based buying in the least. Together, advertisers and publishers can create scalable, unique brand experiences. Combine compelling creative with the right context and a partnership to create a memorable user experience and you have brand magic.

My 3rd grade son had a homework assignment in June that entailed finding and reporting on three advertisements he saw that he liked. He had to report on where he saw the ad, who the ad was targeting, its message and if he thought it was effective. We didn’t find a single winner in the online advertising space (he chose Honda Accord-Cog, Pepsi Pinball, P&G Thank You Mom). He had seen Pepsi and P&G on TV. We found all three on YouTube. His favorite was P&G because he loved the Olympics and it had to do with the winter games – and he loved that it made his mother cry every time we saw it. He became aware of Crest and Tide. He’s years away from buying – but P&G has started a brand experience with him.

There is no reason that online experiences cannot be as compelling – if publishers and advertisers partner rather than buy and sell.

Internet Audience Fragmentation Leads to Better Advertising Performance?

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:02:00 -0500

Do you remember when everyone was panicked about audience fragmentation? When, it seemed like overnight, the Internet grew from email, to millions of websites for every possible interest, passion, and fetish that you could imagine? Suddenly, advertisers were scrambling with how to find their target audience outside of the big guys.

Behavioral targeting evolved as a way for advertisers to cope with the ever fragmenting online audience. Just track what people are doing, and serve them an ad based on their surfing behavior. Simple. Sure, as an industry, we’ve had our ups and downs when it comes to privacy and how we use people’s data, but we’ve gotten pretty good at behavioral targeting and reaching groups of people relevant to our advertisers’ campaigns.

I am not disputing that behavioral targeting works. But perhaps one of the biggest hurdles that behavioral targeting faces is the fact that, most of the time, it is out-of-context. Contextually targeted advertising works and more often than not, it works better than behavioral targeting. It does. An example, I recently was reading an article on a consumer advocate site about appliances. To the right, was an ad for a cell phone company (huh?). Later, when I was on to something else, I was targeted in my email with an ad for appliances. By then, it was too late; my mind had already switched to something else. That’s just reality. As a result of the Internet and its inherent immediacy, people are different now. They change their minds and attention within seconds and if we don’t get them when and where it matters, then we can forget about getting them at all.

The point? The Internet is fragmented and it is not going to get better. Behavioral targeting works, but if you’re able to reach someone in-context on a site that is ALREADY targeted, then why do you need behavioral at all? This article in MediaPost yesterday argues just that point. People who have already shown an interest in a particular topic, just by the fact that they have shown up on website, eliminates the need to collect data on that user and, if you target to that user with a relevant product, then you are more likely to see performance than simply by employing behavioral techniques.

This is where networks like Adify Media come in. Adify Media is a unique collection of highly targeted, contextually relevant sites. We’ve consolidated the fragmented audience in such a way that advertisers are seeing great results just by the fact that our users have self-selected themselves simply by visiting a site specific to their unique interests or passions. As regulations constrain our industry more and more, advertisers will continue to see a great benefit from working with companies who bring them their target audience, in-context without questions of privacy.

Online Display Ad Market Rebounds, According to comScore

Thu, 13 May 2010 19:12:00 -0500

May 13th 2010, comScore reported its findings on Q1 2010 data in the US online display advertising market. Total ad impressions, excluding video ads and house ads, tallied in at 1.09 trillion. This represents a 15% increase in ad impressions over Q1 2009.

This comes as surprisingly good news, as often advertisers scale back their spending in Q1 after front loading their budget to the previous quarter to capitalize on holiday consumption. What we are seeing is certain types of online advertising spend rapidly increasing. As comScore points out, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in social media ad impressions, with Facebook leading the way with 176 billion ad impressions in Q1 of this year. In addition, we are seeing huge increases in commercialized impressions in vertical ad networks, such as Glam Media and the vertical ad networks powered by Adify.

One thing social media and vertical ad networks have in common is that they are communities of sorts, with social media typically being communities organized around individuals who share interests in common, and vertical ad networks being communities organized around publishers who produce similar content. This level of increased commercialization of community focused media indicates online ad agencies and brand marketers are acknowledging the power and scalability of online communities, in their various forms. All this points to an online advertising buying market that is looking to reach their audience wherever their audience will engage.

Above The Fold

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:17:00 -0500

We posted last week about a yearlong study conducted by comScore, Microsoft, and Eyeblaster that revealed that the key to attracting and keeping eyeballs is to pair innovative creative with relevant content. This probably isn’t a huge surprise to anyone, but it should validate the fact that knowing your audience and targeting to relevant users with compelling creative is of utmost importance.

Now, let’s combine this analysis with ad placement.

We’ve all been arguing for years about ad placement on the page, specifically that above the fold is the Mecca of ad placement. Performance, many have argued, is all about WHERE the ad is placed. Media companies have even created technologies specifically for delivering ads only above the fold (for a premium, of course). Those same proponents for placement argue, quite convincingly that people just don’t want to scroll or that people don’t understand HOW to scroll, so your ad MUST be placed higher on a page. The Internet has been around for 10+ years now, I would venture to guess that people know how to and ARE scrolling to view content. Especially if it’s content that they care about…

We were curious how the experts viewed ad placement, so did some research. We found several studies about the topic, but thought that this one from Google was particularly compelling. This study shows a heatmap highlighting the best to worst placements on a page. The results validate that yes, above the fold is still a better performer, but this also reveals that:

Ads closer to the center of the page tend to perform better.
Ads placed at the end of articles tend to do well, even though they're below the fold.
Ads placed near site navigation or other rich content tend to do well, too.

Which brings this full circle.

If someone is viewing engaging content, like the relevant content found on specialty sites on Adify Media, then ad placement is secondary. Yes, being in-view will always be preferred, but it’s important to realize that quality content combined with relevance helps lessen the importance of placement on the page. If a user is engaged in an article that is relevant to their passions or interests, they will scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll (you get the point) to read the entire article. And, remember, a more engaged user is a user who is more likely to convert.

Adify Media brings really, really, really relevant media to advertisers. Combine this with our exclusive custom beyond-the-banner opportunities and you’ve the perfect combination for a successful campaign – regardless of where your ad is placed.

Place Ads Where People Spend Their Time on the Web Page

Fri, 07 May 2010 18:16:00 -0500

comScore, Microsoft Advertising and Eyeblaster announced the results of a yearlong study to find out how conversion results were impacted by ad interactivity, associated content, and viewing time. The study was designed to demonstrate the impact of Eyeblaster’s Dwell analytics capabilities. The research proved, once again, that the winning combination for online advertising success is to pair quality creative with relevant content that keeps users engaged. It’s simply not about the algorithm.

Adify publishers create really, really, really relevant media on the blogs and sites where passionate users spend over 25% of their online time. These are the sites where audiences engage with their passions and meet up with communities that share their interests. When we talk with advertisers about maximizing success, we tell them that our audiences will engage with and favor their brands because their advertising is associated with audience passions -- however, the ads will only convert if the creative is compelling. That’s because people who engage with sites with really relevant media are paying attention to the content. In this context, the advertising has to be equally relevant, innovative, and compelling. When the creative is on par with the content, wow, the results are great – as shown by the comScore, Microsoft and Eyeblaster study.

“Marketers striving to increase the time consumers spend on a display ad should place the creative pieces around editorial content that require thorough reading, the research suggests. Place ads where people spend time on the Web page. The longer consumers spend on the publisher's Web site and with the content, the higher their dwell rate becomes.” MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan
Key statistics reported in MediaPost from the study:

Campaigns with ads that produce a low dwell rate increased site traffic by only 10%, compared with those with a high dwell rate which increased site traffic by 17%.
Consumers exposed to campaigns with low dwell times increased brand related keyword searches by only 12%. In (amazing!) contrast, consumers exposed to campaigns with high dwell times increased brand-related keyword searches by 39%.

The statistics are compelling – engaging creative on premium content gets branding AND conversion results. Really, really, really relevant media works.

To find out more, check out Mediapost's coverage of the study.

Privacy and What Advertisers Want to Know

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:01:00 -0500

The other day, I was shopping for a gift for my daughter’s third birthday. My mother wanted to know what to get for my daughter and I was going to send her a link to the American Girl doll, Rebecca. I visited American Girl’s product page, but I didn’t buy the product.

Minutes later, when I checked my webmail, an American Girl ad appeared in the right-side skyscraper. It stood out because I had just been to the company’s site. As an online advertising professional, I knew I’d been cookied. Mattel was clearly making use of an ad network to retarget me.
Here’s how it worked:

That timely American Girl ad illustrates the most common (and most effective) form of behavioral targeting on the Internet: If I’d forgotten the brand name of the dolls, the advertisement would have jogged my memory. If I‘d intended to buy the doll myself, I likely would have clicked. And if I had bought the doll in the first place, I probably would not have seen that particular ad at all. Instead, I would have been cookied as a person who had just completed a transaction. Or perhaps I would have seen a great deal for Rebecca’s hats, dresses, and shoes.

This highly effective form of targeting requires responsibility on the part of the ad network. Adify recently joined the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) to publically convey Adify’s compliance with best-practices privacy standards. That means Adify complies with the industry’s highest standards of privacy protection for consumers who visit sites in any network on our platform. It was very easy for us to comply with the NAI standards because we never collect personally identifiable information and we don’t connect cookies with visitors’ real identities.

While the FTC holds hearings and politicians make speeches about the perils of online advertising, it’s important for consumers to realize that most advertisers don’t want to alienate consumers; they want consumers to buy their products. Consumers who feel stalked, violated, or intruded upon make very unlikely customers. That means reputable online advertisers have little use for identifying information captured without a consumer’s freely giving it up.

As my American Doll experience shows, advertisers can use cookies to deliver relevant advertising to consumers without ever needing to know who an individual consumer is. For consumers who refuse to be targeted in any way, Adify offers an opt-out process, which prevents all cookies from Adify or any networks on our platform. (We did this long before we joined the NAI, though the offering is also a part of NAI standards.) Of course turning this option off means you might miss out on a great deal on your daughter’s favorite doll fashions, but we’ll leave that between you and your kid. Overall, giving consumers what they want – from privacy settings to great product offerings -- is in every advertiser’s best interest.

Reconciling Performance and Privacy

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:50:00 -0600

Ari Rosenberg highlights how the very strategy that online advertising used to capture initial advertising spend in the 90s is undermining us. His analysis focus on the inevitable privacy quandary for online advertising. As a member of NAI – Network Advertising Initiative – Adify is striving to protect consumer privacy and gives consumers choices.

Asking for permission is only part of the problem and if we address only that part without addressing the insights in the first half of your article, we will undermine the online advertising industry. CEOs are always seeking the return on investment for advertising - and good heads of marketing do analyze the performance of all their marketing - advertising and otherwise. But to tie a specific ad to a specific outcome is either the holy grail or fools gold. And that's what our industry has done - to ourselves and to much of the rest of the advertising industry.

To influence a consumer at the point of purchase is amazing - hence why Ad Words are such a great business (one of the reasons). But to build interest in a particular product and brand and to build affinity for a specific brand and model, that takes repeat experiences, strong word of mouth and compelling advertising. The only performance that ultimately matters is revenue - not just today or this month, but long term, sustainable, repeatable revenue. Online advertising needs answers to help brands build those relationships, intentions and preferences.

Aligning Publisher and Agency Incentives

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:23:00 -0600

We’ve recently been introduced to a promising hybrid model used to sell online inventory that is part CPM and part CPC. Finding a pricing mechanism that encourages good behavior and aligns publisher and agency incentives has been a big challenge for our industry. Publishers tend to favor CPM pricing since what they will be paid for their online inventory is fairly predictable, and the risk for non-performance is placed on the agency. Agencies tend to favor CPC or CPA pricing since they are only paying for performance, and the risk of non-performance is placed on the publisher.

Critics of CPM pricing cite that it gives publishers an incentive to design their site to produce impressions, at the expense of user experience, and a decreased amount of time spent with the advertisements from each impression. Critics of CPC pricing note that it devalues publishers’ inventory, especially since the number of users that click on display ads has declined dramatically in recent years such that 85% of all display ad clicks are generated from 8% of the internet audience.

The goal of many in our industry is to create a pricing mechanism that avoids these pitfalls. A hybrid pricing model known as IPC, or Impressions Per Connection seeks to do just that. It was developed and patented by Ari Rosenberg, the former vice president of sales at IGN, and founder of Performance Pricing. The model has already been used by such agencies as Mindshare, Universal McCann, Digitas, Icon International, Carat Fusion, Initiative, Starcom Mediavest, and Publicis, among others. What is compelling about this model is that it provides for the sale of a publisher’s inventory on a CPM basis, but gives incentives to agencies for making advertisements that perform well.

How it works is that an IO is signed with CPM pricing, but if the campaign hits certain performance thresholds, the agency receives bonus impressions. This is totally counter-intuitive since one would expect that a higher performing campaign would cost the agency more, not less. There are a few reasons this pricing model is set up to lower eCPM for advertisers when their ad is performing well. One of the reasons is to provide the agency an incentive to produce engaging creative that will hit the performance goals. Another reason is that while eCPM is variable, the amount the publisher is paid is not, so the publisher can plan and budget based on a predictable payout.

The model is, in essence, a compromise between CPM and CPC/CPA pricing that also encourages good behavior from agencies to produce engaging creative, and so benefits the visitors of the publisher’s site. From a publisher perspective, CPM pricing is still preferable, and from an agency perspective, CPC/CPA pricing is better, but IPC pricing is a model that just might work for both and make the online landscape a better place for everyone.

There’s more to just reach…

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:07:00 -0600

A recent article on Ad Age speaks to the value of ad networks as the Internet continues to fragment. The author accurately points to the many media companies who once shunned networks, but then have either moved to buy them, or create their own to take advantage of their inherent value: reach, targeting, price.

Reach is the core attribute that Adify Network Builder was built on. We created our business based on the premise that we could help media companies extend their targeted reach by building a vertical network on our platform. So, needless to say, this article resonates with us particularly well.

But one thing that this article does not address is the type of reach. Our network builders have hand-selected sites that were expertly identified by our proprietary site selection methodology to be the most ideal match to reach and engage users on special interest topics. Reach isn’t just reach – it’s all about who you reach and how much time they engage with your ad.

With Adify Network Builder as the anchor, Adify Media has reach into a unique audience on the mid-tail with very little overlap among other networks. Our audience is highly engaged and is transacting more than the audiences of many other large networks. Why reach a user jumping on and off of a portal, when you can reach them on their favorite special interest site where they are spending more time?

Targeting and price are closely tied to reach as it relates to an ad network. If you are working with an ad network with great reach, but can only find your target user for the 5-10 seconds that they are on a search engine, than what good is that? And if you are being charged for targeting to that fly-by-night user even though they are very unlikely to notice your ad – than you are getting the raw end of the deal. Ad networks are very important to the online advertising ecosystem but we should recognize how that ecosystem is changing as users become more savvy. More than just providing reach, targeting, and pricing benefits, there are ad networks, like Adify Media, that take these three key elements to the next level and help you reach, target, and price inventory according to a new set of standards.

Call The Other Guy When You're Ready to Compromise

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:23:00 -0500

In Steve McClellan’s AdWeek article from 10/12/09 titled “Doing Battle With Media Complexity,” he discusses the very salient and real problem facing advertisers today: not knowing where, when, to which audience their ads are being shown or with what program their ads run on television-placed campaigns. Any problem that has the possibility of damaging a brand’s good name in the marketplace is a significant one indeed.

The article referred to today’s “fragmented TV landscape.” We can carry this idea over to the online world of digital media - with the growing number of websites out there, one can see that fragmentation can easily be taken to an exponential limit online.

The technology that’s mentioned in the article is said to catch in near-real-time any campaign placements that don’t comply with the advertisers’ campaign goals. While technology is good, technology combined with human experts is even better when battling the intricacies of online media campaigns. Together, they ensure your ads are being served correctly. Using the technology we’ve developed, ads are served at the advertiser’s specified day, time or geography. Using our human experts to catch what technology alone cannot, ads are served to the right audience within the right context and on appropriate sites. Take this week’s example of “invisible ads.” Both technology and human experts, in this case a Harvard professor, notice anomalies and investigate using judgment – but this occurs after the fact. To head problems off at the pass, our sites are editorially reviewed not once but twice, first by expert content curators and then by our seasoned ad ops team.
We’ve always felt it is good business to be proactive when running a client’s online media campaign. This means giving the client full transparency into their campaign’s entire site list, providing real-time, site level reporting and having a human expert view and verify each site on our network to guarantee brand safety.

For some advertisers, it’s not their concern to uphold their brand’s name. Their objectives are different. For those premium brand advertisers that faithfully protect their online reputation, consider partnering with a company that holds true to your standards. Ask them the tough questions and hold them accountable. Take the time necessary to understand their value propositions and how they can truly carry forth your online campaigns with excellence. Anything less could spell disaster.

You name it - There’s a network for that.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:19:00 -0500

eMarketer published a report by Econsultancy and Rubicon Project today titled The Pros and Cons of Ad Networks. The report highlights the many aspects of networks that are appealing, and not so appealing, and brings home the important point: networks are not a ‘one size fits all’ model.

The Good
Many advertisers still turn to ad networks for reach, cost, targeting, and technology. There is wide appeal to keep including networks in media plans and possibly even add more networks.

The Bad
Transparency and brand protection are still issues for many advertisers. Lack of control over placements and content is a big deal that this industry cannot seem to shake.

The Ugly
“…you get what you pay for. Lower costs need to be balanced off against the sometimes reduced ad impact.” (David Hallerman, eMarketer analyst)

The industry has made huge strides. Ad networks have gone from a necessary evil, to a necessity. Many advertisers have gone from avoiding networks to embracing them and media planners have gone from not understanding what an ad network is, to spending 60% of their time (or more) meeting with new networks and trying to determine who to add to the plan. Ad networks have arrived.

We do still struggle with transparency. For brand advertisers, like those running on Adify Media, it is of the utmost importance to know where their ads are running, down to the site level. The true value of an ad network is exponentially magnified when an advertiser can take advantage of the brand safety of an individual buy, with the reach of a network. There are networks for that.

But let’s consider direct response advertisers. Their goals are far different from a large brand advertiser. Yes, brand protection is important, but not more important than performance. Their basic philosophy for buying online is: get more conversions. They believe that finding people who want their product or service is more important than where they find them. There are networks for that.

I have to disagree with Hallerman’s comment about the impact of advertising being sacrificed by buying through an ad network. By impact, does he mean performance, eyeballs, target audience reach? I would argue that networks, especially brand safe networks, increase the impact of advertising.

By buying directly from a publisher you get eyeballs, yes, because your brand is displayed on a top, highly trafficked site but is performance actually impactful on those sites? Your brand is showcased with dozens of other advertisers each day and is completely lost by the user, who visits these large sites often and has likely tuned out the ads. What about reaching your target audience? You get reach from this strategy, but it is the right reach? We call this the ‘spray and pray’ approach in our industry. You get great reach and maybe some advertisers consider that ‘impactful’ but you don’t get reach into your target audience.

In order to get the most bang for your buck when partnering with an ad network, you have to find one that fits well with your goals. There is a network for just about every advertiser and every campaign goal: You want behavioral, there is a network for that, you want reach, there is a network for that, you want transparency and brand safety, there is a network for that, too.

That is the beauty of ad networks – there is one that fits every size. If you are looking for a 100% transparent ad network, that can reach your exact target audience among highly engaging niche content sites with impactful advertising, we are the network for that.

Candy is King!

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:02:00 -0500

In many ways, the exhibit booths at last week's MIXX Conference were living, breathing come-to-life ads that were all vying for attendees' time and attention. Our booth had a very steady flow of visitors and since I managed our overall booth presence, I have to wonder - What made our "living, breathing ad" work so well?

A conference during Advertising Week consists of multiple vendors luring people into their booths, attending several panels, listening to keynote sessions, walking the conference floor to meet up with current and prospective clients in between checking emails on the BlackBerry, scarfing down the sub par food you managed to grab to sustain enough energy to do all of the above the following day all while realizing you probably should have worn a more comfortable pair of shoes. We were all jockeying for attendees' time and attention in what we all know is a very noisy, fragmented environment. So how can you get people to pay attention to your booth?

The same 3 tenets that we believe differentiate our premium ad network from others in the marketplace hold true and can be applied to this particular case.

Transparency - Our booth displayed several glass candy jars front and center. There was no hiding what our booth was all about - candy, in orange and grey, our company colors. Our candy jars were literally transparent. Attendees' knew exactly what was in front of them and they preferred some candy over others. Some liked everything that was set out. But the key was that they got to see all their options before selecting what they wanted.
Quality - The candy that we offered was of quality. They were orange and grey plain and peanut M&Ms, orange and silver-wrapped Hershey's kisses, Reese's peanut butter cups (very trusted brand names!), chocolate-covered malt balls in orange and silver-foiled Jordan almonds that really looked like silver. Attendees saw what we were offering and they quickly realized we were giving them a lot of really good candy to choose from, all displayed in a very pleasing fashion. No remnant candy here - the hodge-podge mix you can pick up from any corner drug store with questionable-looking no name candy inside would have thrown the whole candy buffet off.
Engagement - This is where we shined. It's amazing how something as basic and simple as candy is so easy to engage everybody with. Men, women, younger folks, older crowds, associates to VPs - all of them were transported back to an old-time candy shop as they stood at the front of our booth. Everybody received a small plastic bag and could pick and choose and scoop in their own candy. And it made them feel happy and excited because candy should do that. It made them feel so good sometimes that I saw people coming back a few times the same day and following day. People were spending minutes, not seconds, in our living, breathing ad, engaging with the candy and our brand.

It may seem like such a simple concept but, oftentimes, simplicity wins out. I'm reminded of my friend's beloved acronym. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. It really doesn't get much simpler than candy.

Why Cox bought Adify

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:45:00 -0500

For those of you still wondering why Cox acquired Adify, this interview with a Senior Manager at Del Monte, should help shed some light…

In the interview, Doug Chavez expresses the importance of not just using one form of media to promote, launch, or build a brand, especially in the CPG world – “we have proven that digital media can work harder when it’s used with other media”.

Since joining Adify, I have had a couple of people ask me why Cox bought Adify. This interview should shed some light on the reason for the purchase. Cox has been in the media business for decades. They started with newspapers, and then extended to radio, TV, direct mail, and now to digital media. Cox has built their business on the concept of consolidation in allowing consumers to get all of their media needs in one place. This same principal applies to advertisers – Cox believed in the idea that although digital media is powerful, it is much more effective when it is combined with other media, like TV, radio, or even Valpak.

The two once distinct and separate worlds of offline and online media are now converging and companies like Cox are at the forefront of providing advertisers with the means necessary to make their advertising efforts cohesive, compelling, and successful.

Cox understands the 2009 fragmented consumer and built a company that allows advertisers to touch consumers from many angles with the same message. There is more to gauging campaign success than just looking at one individual piece – it’s looking at how every part of your media plan moves the needle. Offline is not going away, as an advertiser, you just need to figure out how to bridge the two worlds to make your buys more effective.

Vertical ad networks are worth the hype

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:20:00 -0500

In today’s Digiday: Daily, The President and CEO of Audience Science attempts to de-mystify the current enthusiasm for vertical ad networks by claiming that behavioral targeting does the same thing, at scale, as a vertical ad network.

It’s an interesting theory.

Adify offers behavioral targeting to our network builders and advertisers because it is, as Mr. Hirsch points out, a terrific way to reach a known-consumer who has interest in an advertiser’s offer – wherever they are on the Internet. It can be particularly effective at the last step in the advertising cycle – when someone is behaving as if they are ready to buy.

Considerable research from comScore and the Microsoft Atlas Foundation has shown that placing advertising budgets heavily against that last click is short-sighted as the volume of searches and conversions rise considerably if a brand has built awareness, perceived value and loyalty through engaging brand advertising (and good products). This is the type of advertising that is delivered on vertical ad networks – engaging, brand advertising that builds momentum for a product and service. This sort of advertising cannot rely on consumer that have a short-term interest in buying – it must go further and engage with the consumer who is interested in the latest trends, like Mr. Hirsch, and will at some point talk about, recommend or potentially buy the advertiser’s product or service.

Media plans are multi-faceted for a reason – consumers engage with advertising differently at different points in the purchase cycle. Advertising vehicles must be matched with the capability to reach the right point in the purchase cycle. Vertical ad networks offer brand-safe content, highly engaged audiences and unlimited rich-media options to build brand equity and product interest. Behavioral targeting networks offer consumers showing likely purchase intent and put your best offer in front of them to convert in the short term. Both are good in the media mix – in their proper capacity.

So, why are people so interested in vertical ad networks right now?

Because the high quality inventory attracts educated, affluent consumers who spend considerable time visiting these sites
Because advertisers can create meaningful brand experiences on vertical ad networks that are recalled by consumers
BBecause people’s passions aren’t cultivated within cookies, they’re cultivated with content

Marketing works, but maybe not how you think…

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:42:00 -0500

As an advertiser, you send a direct mail piece to your target audience. You reach out to them with an online ad. You launch a full-scale TV and print campaign. You even go so far as to buy a billboard placement. Now that the money is out the door, how do you measure success?

I thought about this just yesterday as I rummaged through my mail and found a catalog addressed to me called ‘1st Wishes’. The catalog was filled with decorations for children’s 1st birthday parties – which we all know are sacred (and quite expensive, especially for those naïve first-time-parents/suckers out there).

As a marketer, this precise marketing made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside since my daughter will be turning 1 in October and we’ve just begun planning her birthday celebration. The timing for the catalog was impeccable (they obviously purchased my name from the hospital or Babies R’ Us or somewhere else that knew my daughter’s birth date).

Anyhow, with my best intentions, I decide to go online to said catalog’s website and being browsing party decorations. But because I could not remember the name of the catalog, I ended up conducting an online search on Bing for ‘1st birthday decorations’ and up popped a bunch of sites that specialize in JUST that special occasion (how would have thought?). I ended up spending an absurd amount of money at another site (Birthday Direct), but not the original site that marketed to me.

In this situation, Bing won for the click, and Birthday Direct won for the purchase. But poor 1st Wishes lost, let’s say, $1.00 by sending me a catalog that I did not end up purchasing from.

However, I would argue this actually was not a complete loss for 1st Wishes. First, I did notice and flip through the catalog. Second, I went to visit the CATEGORY of 1st birthday decorations. And finally, I am writing about it here.

Let’s talk about the second point – the fact that I visited the category. So my awareness that there is a category like this has now gone from nothing to complete awareness. I can now inform all my friends and family members about these sites and I will continue to come back to the category around the same time every year and I won’t necessarily always shop the same vendor.

So my question is this: did 1st Wishes really lose? As marketers, it is important to look at both global wins and individual wins. 1st Wishes didn’t ‘win’ me as a customer, but they did ‘win’ a new person to this category.

Call Off the Ad Network Apocalypse!

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:22:00 -0500

At Adify, we’re in the business of helping enterprise media companies and niche entrepreneurs create ad networks; in fact, we just announced 200+ networks in June. We’ve definitely contributed to the large numbers of ad networks in the market today, most of which, as Warren Lee points out today in AdAge, were predicted to be “toast” by now.

But, as Lee explains, the market factors that spurned the rise of ad networks – increased online usage, growing number of websites, fragmentation, publisher lack of a sales force - aren’t going away. Ad networks are solving problems for both advertisers and publishers, and really only creating problems for the media buyers and planners who need to understand what each of them can contribute to the overall media plan.

CPMS Up or Holding Steady According to New Adify Data

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:24:00 -0500

Think online CPMs are trending down? Think again.

Today we released the Adify Vertical Gauge. This new quarterly report from Adify shows average CPMs for key verticals across the online advertising industry.

Adify Vertical Gauge data shows that premium inventory on vertical ad networks has held a steady value for three consecutive quarters. Also, several key verticals have seen significant gains during the period we’ve studied.

In particular the Adify Vertical Gauge shows a sharp rise in CPMs for the Real Estate and Sports verticals. Travel, Technology, Automotive, and Health, which are perennial leaders, have continued to command the highest absolute CPMs consistently.

Download the full report for more details.

Black Friday is Coming – Start Your Advertising Engines

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:19:00 -0500

It’s the middle of summer but your attention should be on November. That’s right, it’s time to plan for the biggest offline and online shopping days of the year – the Friday and Monday after Thanksgiving.

Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your products will be planned purchases for the holiday season? How will you build momentum to ensure consumers choose to shop at your store come Thanksgiving?

You need to start considering your holiday sales strategy today because the vast majority of consumers (87% according to BIGResearch’s June 2006 Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey) research products online prior to purchasing. While consumer research habits are well known, in today’s economy consumers are extra-dedicated to digging up deals. (Witness this year’s back-to-school frenzy.) Discounts, coupons, and promotions create significant margin pressure for retailers who need the holiday season to make their year. If you’re waiting until the last minute to blitz consumers with your best Black Friday deals, you’re ensuring price pressure.

Why do you need to get into consumers’ minds today to make holiday sales months from now? Simple: Tight budgets = shorter shopping lists. With consumer confidence low and the economy still in troubled waters, shoppers are likely to cut back on the number of gifts they plan to give and their total holiday budgets. No one wants to forgo holiday presents altogether, but consumers are sure to consider their purchases carefully before exchanging gifts this year.

In fact, savvy buyers with tighter budgets are likely already making their lists so they can get the most from their limited budgets this holiday season. And because consumers are already weighing what to buy for the holidays, product advertisers need to get on those short lists today.

Now more than ever product advertisers you need compelling advertising to make consumers consider your product. Equally important: delivering your advertising to consumers in the places where they are most likely to remember your message. Your Black Friday and Black Monday success depend on choices you make today about creative implementations, landing pages, and messaging.

Does your campaign have what it takes to plant a seed today that grows into sales for the holidays? If you’re not asking this question today, you’re behind schedule.

As soon as consumers decide what they will be buying, they’ll be looking for the right place to shop. Though online buyers tend to favor trusted retailers, there’s nothing like a recession to make consumers more open to switching brands. The upside of this economy is a strong opportunity for you to capture new customers and build loyalty through online advertising.