Stemato.com - Stephen Tompkins’ Blog

In the past I have used my blog as a forum to both praise and criticize my college. Well today, I am proud to say that I am a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Why do you ask? Well, I was reading Bruce Nussbaum’s Innovation Design blog and I noticed that Businessweek had ranked the world’s top design schools. That is right I said WORLD’s Top Design schools. And SCAD was amongst the handful of North American schools that were chosen.

So without further adue, I will let SCAD shine today. Congrats Savannah College of Art and Design and thank you very much for the top notch education that you gave me. I am forever indebted to you.

Here is a link to the SCAD section.

Here is a link to all the College chosen.

A couple weeks ago, I read Bruce Nussbaum’s blog on the growing gap in China between Chinese designers and Western designers. I found it to be a really fascinating look into China’s economy for a number of reasons. For years, they have primarly relied on cutting cost and driving efficiencies to become the Global Supply Headquarters. Now that many other countries have begun to catch up to the Chinese, they are transforming themselves to meet the future needs of the world.

This transformation according to Nussbaum’s article is in the form of becoming more innovative and creative.  Apparently the Chinese government is throwing millions of Yuan into the design education departments at many of the universities in China. This is a great first step but I think to truly begin to transform the mindset of the people is to foster creativity from the start. You cannot just start in college.

Innovation and creativity is something that is nurtured over a lifetime and can take years to fully blossom. You cannot simply think that pouring money into design schools will solve a cultural problem. Chairman Mao squashed many of the innovative thoughts of his people during the Cultural Revolution.

I visited China last year and was instantly in love with the place. It’s a vast and amazing culture that spans thousands of years and has morphed from innovators to efficiency experts and more. But in order to meet the new innovation needs in this complex global economy, it’s going to take a major shift from the current thought process. Design education is a great step but its going to take a massive cultural transfomation in everything from education to social systems to clothing design to meet this challenge head-on.

One thing is sure to me though. If anyone can meet this challenge because of their diverse history and succeed, it’s the Chinese!

Raise your hand if you have been hugged or kissed on Facebook against your will by some intruding application that seeks to mine and destroy all your personal information. Ok, you can all put your hands down or if you did not put it up then you should pay very close attention to what I am about to write. Those virtual hugs, kisses and fairy dust that are hurled around Facebook are not as innocent and cute as they seem. That is right. They are pirates looking to steal you and your friends’ information for free. So stop buying into it!

First, I should admit that I have fallen prey to a few of these dumb applications over the years. But as of Monday, I will not ever fall for them again. In fact, if I see you doing one in my newsfeed I will block it and you from being in my feed. I know it sounds like harsh treatment but it’s time to use Social Media sites for what they were intended to be used for. Not throwing fairy dust or finding out that because I answered 5 questions I exhibit traits of Chester Arthur. I mean seriously, the insanity has to stop!

Why am I taking such drastic methods?

Because what most people don’t realize is when you load those quizzes and such you are giving the creator of these applications the ability to access your personal data to use for their own purposes. This is sometimes done legally (to post in your newsfeed) and other times illegally (to steal the password for your AIM account). And, the simple fact is that Facebook does not have enough of security monitoring to know what these applications are doing with your info. Nor do they probably care because you authorized it (Read the fine print next time you decide to see what 80’s movie character you are.).

So, the next time you decide to kiss or hug me via Facebook give me a call and we can set it up in person because I am sick of the illegal notifications, and I am sure you do not want your data stolen!

Measuring ROI for online campaigns is time consuming work full of numbers and spreadsheets that seemingly go on forever. The media planners days are filled with data crunching and searching for the metrics they need from various sources. Everything from time spent to search queries crowd the typical day and marrying this data together has become a great challenge. It seems everyone has a custom solution.

And as online marketing tools progress, products that deliver excellent data visualization tools will hold a significant competitive advantage moving forward. Why? Well, the ability for a planner to quickly gather the data they need to make decisions is crucial to success and a great dashboard is the lynch pin of this process.

With this in mind I started thinking about Search Marketing interfaces. The differences between many of them are minor but the experience differences are major. The ability to consume keyword group data and which keywords are performing is integral an integral function for search marketers.  But many interfaces create a complicated gossamer of reports and internet pages to give you the information you need. It can feel like Indiana Jones searching for the Ark of the Covenant to find what you need.

Many of these interfaces gives you great amounts of aggregate data but fall short in providing a great quick glance at the keyword and keyword group level. I am aware of all the dashboards that these programs have but I still need more. Its this keyword data that have been thinking about lately. What if you could quickly see in graphical terms what is performing vs. underperformers?

In the following weeks, I am going to build out a sample of this data visualization that I am talking about.

Recently, I was reading an article in AdAge about a new study Google conducted attempting to show the relevance of its Content Network. The article states that nearly 20 percent of clicks coming from over 25,000 advertisers  and representing some 7 billion clicks were from the Content Network. With 20 percent of clicks going into display advertising, I cannot help but wonder what does the massive amount of money going to search ultimately mean to the online advertising landscape.

Is search the ultimate conversion driver? And does it justify the uneven amounts of money flowing into it?

Without showing the inherent role of assisting search that display and rich media assets play in the online advertising funnel you are missing part of the equation. In fact, I read an article today that emphasizes the point that most planners still view search and display as separate entities. This seems like backwards logic in today’s integrated online world. With so much Research available online that shows search and display together can lift your online performance planning these together becomes crucial. In fact, marketers are leaving money on the table when they view campaigns as separate entities.

A quick look at estimated advertising spend from analysts would appear that search alone can conquer the web without any help from display. But the truth of the web is that conversions are varied and full of many different intents and assisted from various angles. One conversion could be from search and another from email marketing. The reality is that both users were exposed to some form of branding before they actively engaged your product.

The realization that search and display work together will be a fundamental element of planning’s evolution. Furthermore as marketing progresses on the internet expect planners to begin integrating these processes much more.

Disclosure - I work for Microsoft Advertising’s Atlas Media Console.

Today, I wanted to do some shameless self-promotion. I have been working very closely with some great talented folks in Milpitas and New York to launch the Nielsen Online Analyst Blog called “Connecting the Dots.” Its been a really fun project and they even allowed me to post on the Blog!

We already have some great post up from many of the analysts, I have been working with at Nielsen Online. I look forward to all the great insights to come in the future. So, I want plug anymore just head over to “Connecting the Dots” and browse some really cool information.

Special thanks to everyone who worked so hard on this project with me.

A follow up to my Buzz for the Triple Crown from last week:

Horse-racing fans eagerly anticipated the Belmont Stakes this weekend as Big Brown competed for the Triple Crown. After breezing through the Kentucky Derby in May and the Preakness later that month, Big Brown surged to the head of the pack with a major spike in online conversations referencing the “Triple Crown.” Even after a disappointing loss at Belmont, Big Brown was still able to influence a significant amount of discussion although much less optimistic in sentiment.

The first wave in consumer discussions took place on May 3rd, as Big Brown captured the Kentucky Derby crown at Churchill Downs. Sentiment drivers included the remembrance of second runner-up Eight Belles, who collapsed after the race and was immediately euthanized, Big Brown’s big win and references to Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who shattered his leg in the Preakness later that year.

Online chatter for the “Triple Crown” peaked on May 17th as Big Brown won the Preakness, up 18.5% from May 3rd, while conversations increased 64% for “Big Brown” in the same time period. Most conversation centered on Big Brown’s run at the second leg of the triumvirate and whether he had the stamina and strength to do it.

The final and largest spike for Big Brown came last weekend as his completion of the historic feat was on the minds of the digital world. Belmont Buzz was almost three times as much as the two previous races with 0.15%. However sentiment was noticeably less optimistic as Big Brown failed to gain the Triple Crown. Many of the messages referenced him being in the same class as the 11 horses that have won the first two legs but lost at Belmont. Ultimately, though, the data showed failing to win the Triple Crown is still something to buzz about.

The query we ran is located here.

Horse-racing fans are eagerly anticipating the Belmont Stakes as Big Brown will compete for the Triple Crown on June 7th at Belmont. After breezing through the Kentucky Derby in May and the Preakness later that month, Big Brown caused an uptick in online conversations around the Triple Crown. The first spike in consumer discussion took place on May 3rd, as Big Brown captured the Kentucky Derby crown. Conversation drivers included the remembrance of second runner-up Eight Belles, who collapsed after the race and was immediately euthanized, Big Brown’s big win, and references to Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who shattered his leg in the 2006 Preakness, and then put to rest. Online discussions for the Triple Crown peaked again on May 17th as Big Brown won the Preakness, up 18.5% since May 3rd, while conversations increased 64% for Big Brown.

The horse racing world is eagerly anticipating the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, will compete for the Triple Crown on June 7th at The Belmont Stakes in Elmont New York. With two-thirds of the Crown complete, Big Brown has been causing an uptick in online conversations leading up to and the day of the events.

The first spike in consumer discussion took place on May 3rd as Big Brown captured the Kentucky Derby crown. Conversation drivers for the first spike were not solely focused on Big Brown’s win. Other topics driving discussion included Eight Belles (the tragic runner-up who was euthanized on the spot after the race) and Barbaro, the 2006 Preakness Winner who was put to rest after shattering his leg during the race.

Online discussions for the Triple Crown peaked again on May 17th as Big Brown won the Preakness Stakes; it was up 18.5% since May 3rd, while conversations increased 64% for Big Brown. Discussions were primarily based around whether Big Brown would be able to capture the Triple Crown or if he would fall short like Smarty Jones.

Special thanks to Sandra Parrelli for helping with the data/idea to this post. And have fun at the race this weekend.

Below is my post for both the BlogPulse Blog and the Hey! Nielsen Blog:

Is it possible to predict how much buzz a movie opening will get based on the buzz three days before it opens? Using BlogPulse, Nielsen Online’s free tool that mines data from over 78 million blogs, I queried two recent movie premieres (Iron Man and Speed Racer) and one about to open today (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull).

The results are interesting, showing that buzz levels for each movie seem to be equal as they spike and decline in the days before and after the opening. Does this pattern hold true for all premieres? Three days before the premieres of Iron Man and Speed Racer their buzz levels began to spike and eventually tripled on opening day. Iron Man went from 0.182 to 0.486 percent of all blog posts and Speed Racer went from 0.055 to 0.195 percent of all messages measured by BlogPulse.

The buzz level for Indiana Jones three days before was 0.273 percent of all messages. If the theory holds true on opening day, we will see the spike for Indy triple to somewhere in the 0.8 percent range… well beyond Iron Man which has been the biggest blockbuster this year. We’ll check back next week to compare the buzz and the box office for Dr. Jones.

I just read this interesting story from the NY Times about online ad spending and the economy. It basically says that display advertisement is down across the board and search remains strong. Its not super surprising to think that in a time of economic slowdown that search with its increased ability to track is weathering this storm well. But I am slightly caught off guard that display has had such significant declines in recent months.

The NY Times reported 16% growth this April compared to 20% last year making the slow down about 4% year-over-year. Not a major slowdown but still enough to be alarmed especially in a weakening market. Although its too early to declare an end to online advertisement’s growth, the companies that can better attribute steps in the online sales funnel to display, stand to gain a great competitive edge.