What would the internet look like without ads? No banners, no search and no rich media to interrupt your surfing experience just plain old experience. At first thought it sounds amazing but looking closer into at this proposition reveals some ugly truths.
- Most people today go to the internet to research product information. Whether we admit it or not, many of the digital ads we see help us to determine the products we research later to buy. With better targeting think of the possibilities of products you never knew existed that could present themselves to you.
- Online ads are much less intrusive than TV commercials. The so-called “banner blindness” factor has helped to make them just blend into a page seamlessly. In fact, I photoshopped all ads off a few page only to find there was no real difference in new content space available. In most cases, I felt more content would be even more distracting.
- If the internet is about discovery then online ads have a spot at the table. What is more about discovery than advertisements? Product A is amazing but without promotion, where does it go?
Can anyone else think of other reasons I may have missed? I would love to hear ideas and feedback on the notion of an internet without ads. What is your scenario?
Many people think targeting is the silver bullet to online advertising. I believe it will be a great step forward for all us industry folks and am excited to get better ads. But my question is, have we made any leeway? My answer is no.
Take for example, my Facebook profile. I can remember last year seeing many ads for young single men. I am not exactly looking for a young single man nor would I be using Facebook to find them if I were a gay man. This ad was so far off the mark I figured Facebook was in its infancy with targeting and reading profiles and forgave them.
But alas! I was wrong. Today, I sign onto Facebook and what do I get. Gutter cleaning in San Francisco or somewhere far from NYC. I guess this could be forgiven since I work for Microsoft (which is somewhat of a western company) but the fact that I am not part of a network out west makes it much harder for me to forgive. I would think geo-targeting on Facebook is the easiest to do. I mean I have enough information on the profile that a mule could figure out where I live.
I am completely lost by this and most targeting. Targeting means giving me things I am interested in more than average. Not something I do not or will not need.Simply taking a singular statement on my profile is not enough. You have to apply algorithms and such to make really give me good ads.
Deep insights about my profile are available and I want targeting to move the ball forward this year. Instead I get gutter cleaners and single available men. I anxiously await a new day in targeting.
Most people are assuming that display ads will take a big hit next year with the economy slowing but few people are predicting it to totally have the bottom fall out. Until now. Recently Gawker chief Nick Denton posted a blog saying that online execs could see declines of 40% next year.
This seems a little ridiculous when you think about it. Here are my reasons why:
- Economic slowdowns will force marketers to tighten budget and further prove ROI. Internet advertising is best suited for this.
- Small to mid-size companies have yet to migrate to search and display in large numbers. Local targeting will improve this should send more companies online.
- Newspaper and magazine money continues to move to the internet further helping it weather this crisis.
Certainly the three listed above will help to keep ads above the norm when it comes to growth into next year but only time will tell.
This post is way overdue but on the eve of one of the greatest elections I have witnessed I just could not help. At work (Microsoft), we received an email telling us about this great political application to try out. I was intrigued so I downloaded it. The results were eerie and totally not staged.
Above is the map after I went through all 50 states and made what I thought would be the election results. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw that it was a tie. Wow, can you believe it? Not 200 again, please.
Anyway, not going to say much about tomorrow, as my personal state has been a little off lately but I will be back like the champion that I am. 
In any event, if you read this before tomorrow, I highly recommend you download and try this fun and innovative tool out.
Download application here, I promise you will enjoy it.
Yesterday, I read this article from Marketing Vox about online youth’s attitude towards medical information online. And its fascinating to me in light of my last blog post, about local medical search, that more doctors have not exploited this growing trend to establish themselves as local market leaders. With so many online tools available such as targeting and reach, it seems to be a no-brainer to be the first to plant a flag in the online world.
Do small companies innovate enough when it comes to online media and the wealth of new technologies available to them? I recently asked myself this question while talking to my Dad in Florida about my new job. We were talking about online advertising and the possibility of running a small search campaign to advertise a new less-evasive knee surgery that he recently learned. He was completely unaware of the fact that for very little investment on MSN (disclosure: I work for Microsoft), Yahoo or the Other Guy he could run a Zip Code targeted search-term campaign.
It comes as quite a surprise to me that most local physicians on the ground are not utilizing the natural democracy of the web to their favor and buying up more search terms. Every year more and more people search and find medical information online. In fact, ”Harris Interactive, a national polling firm, found last month that 150 million people this year sought online health information.*” That is a staggering number of people searching for solutions to their medical issues and certainly a great target-pool for new business.
As my Dad and I talked further about acquisitions and costs to him, we reasoned that with one patient a month coming from CPC and a medium sized budget of 10k he could essentially make a profit. This was really unscientific reasoning but when you sit down and really look at the numbers, I am positive they would still end up well in the black. We spoke further and he was not totally ready to make the dive but in a few months I imagine he will be back with his partners asking more questions.
I am still left to wonder, when will small businesses exploit local search for its natural strengths?
Interesting reads pertaining to this posts found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/fashion/10Skin.html?ex=1208491200&en=867d0d88185b59b0&ei=5070&emc=eta1
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_tumor10.129bd70.html
News today from the IAB and Pricewatherhouse Coopers, suggest that Web ad sales dipped in the second quarter. Big surprise? Not at all considering the current state of the economy. I just read this article from Yahoo and the surprising thing to me is display and search’s stubborness in the face of a global economic slowdown.
It reports that both graphic (13% YoY) and search (24% YoY) ads showed strong growth in the second quarter. I think the real test will come in the third quarter when we see if these online ads can show further resiliance as the economy crumbles even further. My guess is search will be fine but display may show a slight slowdown.
This morning I had my first look at the joint MSN-NBC Olympics videos on the web using Silverlight. I have to say, on first look, the video looks much better than any Flash video’s on the web. Pixelation was at a minimum and the it did not buffer for the 9 minutes I watched President Bush. Realizing my connection speed here at work is fast but still I was impressed with the quality.
I hope more online companies migrate to a platform with this style video. For now, I will just have to enjoy the limited videos that use Silverlight. Check this link out to see some of the material.
Sorry for the long delay in posting, I have been literally swamped trying to get the Atlas system down. I am finally feeling some level of aptitude in understanding the Media Console and hope to be able to post more frequently. I don’t want to talk about the Media Console yet but I will say that it is a powerful tool just as advertised.
The focus of this post is training I just took in Redmond on the Microsoft campus. It was three days of rapid deployment on Microsoft APS. In case you did not know, Microsoft purchased aQuantive last year and within that acquisition was Atlas Solutions, my new employer. Needless to say, I enjoyed most of the presentations and have a much better understanding of the organization and how we operate. It’s nice to be part of something this big and know that Microsoft is fully behind making it work!
Most of the trainings were high level introductions to online advertising and the APS product suite with the exception of the “services and standards” session led by Ken Weyel. I have to say this session gave me so much food for thought that I am still thinking about it. Ken had a nice presentation style and delivered so many insights it was tough to keep my brain focused.
At the heart of his presentation were the four brand promises we deliver as Microsofties and how we can better serve our clients. At one point in the session he asked us to break out into groups and rank the promises from most important to least important.
This exercise had obvious answers on the surface but when you put your mind behind it you could really blow a circuit. We finally settled on our rankings but I am still not sure if I am comfortable with them. And as we discussed the findings with the larger group I only confirmed my assumptions that to really rank them would compromise the integrity.
The four qualities to make up the APS experience could be debated forever to know real conclusion as to their importance. But one thing is certain to me, all four must be working for a great experience and that is what I want to promise. So thanks to Ken and all my Redmond colleagues for a great couple of days and wish me luck in my quest to deliver on the “big four.”
This week has been really interesting for me. I started a new job and left an old one behind. I made some great friends and really enjoyed my time at Nielsen. It was a lifetime of learning in a year. Thanks to all my Nielsen friends.
I guess the last few lines has you wondering where my career has taken me. The answer is to Atlas Solutions as a TAM. I am super excited and have been there three days but learned so much its amazing. I am looking forward to this path and all the challenges it has to offer it.
But, I digress. This post is about Twitter and the recent influx of followers I have recently received. As Twitter gains in popularity, I expect to see more notifications from people with backwards followers ratios but this week has seen a influx of dotcoms following me.
Is there something in the water that is making these folks think intruding into my lifestream will make me follow them back?
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