Got Social Intent?

I’ve got the worst excuse for not blogging for a while: I started a social media company. Ironic, huh?

We’re called Social Intent and we help brands ‘friend’ customers though Social Network-centric marketing strategies, backed by development of innovative social web technologies, including applications for Facebook and MySpace.

This month we’ve been working on a co-marketing project between Coca-Cola and Sony in promoting the new James Bond movie. You can check out the app here.

My eBay seller community site for sale

As some of you may know, I recently built an online community site for eBay sellers, helping them protect themselves against bad and unprofitable bidders (since that eBay doesn’t allow sellers to leave negative feedback on bidders anymore).

The site has been getting rave reviews from ebay sellers and industry bloggers. Even the Wall Street Journal called me to ask me about it!

I’m looking to sell it now as I need cash for my next project! (and I like building things more than I like managing them…;-) )

 

AT&T visionary commercials from 1993

AT&T has gotten some of it’s edge back with the iPhone. Too bad they had to resell technology from Apple when they could have kept their Bell Labs division focused and funded on innovation and made the move themselves. Just take a look back at this commercial from 1993 about where AT&T was heading.

They could have been a contender, they could have been somone.

Introduction to Internet Advertising by IAB ex-Chief

I just came across a thorough presentation compiled by Greg Stuart, former CEO and President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It is called an “In-Depth Introduction to Internet Advertising” and is a whopping 82 slides. However, it contains many great sound-bites as well as stats that any interactive marketer should have in their arsenal.

Here are a few stats that I’ll share next time I talk to a ‘traditional media’ marketer:

64% of US households answered “Computer with Internet Access” to the question “If you had to live on a deserted island and could only take one thing with you.” 18% said books, 6% said TV, 6% said radio, 4% said cell phone and 1% said newspaper subscription.

General Motors, the 3rd largest US advertiser, is ready to shift half of its 3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next 3 years.

In a multi-advertiser cross media optimization study (measuring on-line and off-line effects) sales increased by 11% on average from customers who had been exposed to online advertising, compared to those who hadn’t.

It cost about 4 times as much to increase purchase intention via magazine advertising and 11 times as much via TV – compared to online advertising.

There’s a lot more to read, especially on ad formats, measurements, online challenges (oh yeah, it’s not all honky-dory). You can find the full presentation here

There is no best, one-size-fits-all online ad format

It’s hard to be a marketer today with so many new, exciting technologies to pick from, each one casting itself as the holy grail of campaign performance. Video, widgets, search advertising, social apps, in-game ads, virtual worlds, expanding banners, behavioral targeting, location based mobile ads, digital out of home advertising, even radio via Google!

I can’t tell if it’s a media planner’s dream or nightmare, but a fair share of us probably feel more confused than enlightened.

What I am pretty sure about, however, is that they all have some merit, but none of them is a one-size-fits all solution. What’s good for branding might not be a recipe for lead generation success. Choice of format, targeting, message and measurement all need to align with campaign goals.

In a recent report from Forrester research called“Getting more out of online ads” advertisers are encouraged to take a more holistic approach to planning and executing online advertising programs.To paraphrase, they recommend advertisers to:
- first determine their business goals
- then identify desired customer action and how they can entice this action
- and finally how to track and measure actual customers’ actions vis-à-vis the campaign goals

Pretty common sense when put this way, isn’t it?

eBay (a)Live and Kicking Sellers

“Next item on the block is eBay auctions: Going once, going twice, gone – to the big retailer in the back.”

Ebay is moving radically away from their roots – in what seems like a desperate attempt to boost their stock price. There’s a new sheriff (CEO) in town and all the mom-and-pop merchants who’ve made a living or sought additional income from eBay are pushed aside in favor of big businesses – like Buy.com using eBay as a fixed-price outlet for their overstock.

While eBay isn’t denying anybody from setting up their lemonade stand on the site, their new policy and fee changes are greatly favoring retailers with large, fixed price inventories over the little guy doing auctions. In addition, they are revising the revolutionary mutual feedback system between buyers and sellers that created a sense of trust. Only buyers can leave feedback on sellers, and sellers, unless they have something positive to say, are unable to leave buyer feedback on the transaction. Now sellers are unable to know if the bidder on their auction is a reputable buyer or someone who doesn’t like to pay for auctions they’ve won, or returns everything they buy damaged.

Furthermore, there are already reports of buyers extorting sellers for better deals after the sale is made using this new feedback system as leverage. This is a tough pill to swallow for merchants who’ve spend years building their eBay presence and reputation.

eBay Live, a show that traditionally feels more like a revival meeting than a business convention, is starting today. I wonder if the tone will change this year?

Never before have sellers been this critical and upset – resulting in the creation of a cottage industry of services, such as RepXchange – where sellers find new protection in sharing their blocked bidder lists, to fill in the gap where eBay has left a void.

James Brown & Banner Advertising

James Brown, the Hardest Working Man in Show Biz, earned his titles with his splits, hard hitting grooves, riffs and stabs. Carrying the funk scene on his shoulders for years, even when funk was in the funk, was a tall order for a short man. But he did it.

The interactive advertising industry, like the music industry, has its own lineup of characters to make sure the beat goes on. For online advertising, the hardest working medium in the biz has to be the banner ad. Like Mr. Brown, it has survived new trends and new kids on the block, yet has found ways to get on up and get even.

Banner’s got a brand new bag

Recently, renewed interest in the banner ad has been fueled by new targeting technologies coupled with more visually engaging and interactive Flash and video formats. The hardest working ad format in the biz, is working even harder. But working for what?

It seems that the industry has chosen to take advantage of these technological improvements in two ways: Create more relevant advertising (via better targeting) and secondly, more engaging ads (via richer media experiences).

More relevant advertising generates more clicks. Can’t argue with that logic. However, I’m not sure advertisers have quite figured out what to do with the new rich(er) media ads. My gut feeling says that many advertisers are investing in this type of advertising purely for their branding effect. Maybe the thinking is “if we can’t make users click, let’s at least make the experience memorable, and score high on brand recall and awareness.” That’s a tall order for a small banner.

Take them to center stage

So, I have an issue with this thinking. If you want to do brand advertising, why resort to a 728×90 or 350 x 250 pixel canvas on a 3rd party site? Why wouldn’t brand advertisers’ primary goal be to get the user to click away from the publisher page and into a rich, interactive environment completely under the control of the advertiser? Why tap-dance in a closet when you can do splits center stage?

A different second act for the banner

At Linkstorm we have chosen to take a different approach to improving banner efficiency that stands in contrast to both how “other vendors” think about targeting as well as engagement.

Targeting: We believe that the best targeting technology can never truly know what the user really wants. Our format is designed to allow the user to quickly identify and navigate to content that is relevant to them.

User Engagement: We believe that the best place to convert a customer, whatever the campaign goal is, is on the advertiser’s site, not in the banner. Our banners are therefore designed to be a conduit rather than a destination, where we increase both the quantity and quality of the traffic the advertiser receives. Simply, more & better clicks.

- vidar

Adtech San Francisco

Just back from exhibiting at ad:tech SF. Lots of fun and interesting new companies. Can’t be easy to be a marketer with so many exciting, new ways to get in front of one’s customers…

Linkstorm, with only 8 other companies out of the hundreds of exhibitors, were selected by ad:tech for a special ‘hot new company’ press briefing, and it was very encouraging to see the interest among the attending press and bloggers.

Other companies that I though were interesting included:

Placecast / 1020 inc.

Lotame

AdShuffle

and ion interactive

The Brilliant Google App Engine Strategy

Google gets it and is ready to do to the web what Microsoft did for the Desktop.

Microsoft won the desktop wars not only because everybody was using their OS, but because they also ensured the continued success of their OS by having the best developer tools to ensure a steady stream of new applications.

Now, with the web is the new OS, Google is the only company who is seriously building an ecosystem of applications and developer tools and resources to develop, host and launch new applications. (Yahoo and Microsoft is dabbling with this too – but they are followers with no clear strategy or credibility. They are focused to catching up to Google as an ad machine, and are thus many steps behind).

What’s so smart about Google is that their approach is always a little more long term focused than their competitors. The App Engine, Google Gagdets, Gadget Ads, OpenSocial, Android, etc. will shortly be highly integrated web OS components that will ensure Google’s dominance. Like Microsoft, these Google initiatives may not be designed to play well with other technologies, but then again, that’s how you create lock in.

Facebook apps will be a footnote in the history of cross-platform apps. Amazon’s EC2 and S3 services are doomed for death by Google. 

The Demise of eBay?

After years of having pioneered reciprocal feedback and reputation management between buyers and sellers, eBay wants to abandon that system in favor for one where only buyers can leave negative feedback on sellers.

eBay’s reasoning is this: buyers who receive negative feedback are less likely to go back to eBay to shop. Why? Because sellers don’t want the business of buyers who have slighted other sellers in the past. eBay makes money on a transaction, whether it’s a deal ‘gone sour’ or not, thus they don’t want the seller to have a reason to cancel bids.

This ‘customer is always right’ model is more in line with how traditional retail works both online and offline where the merchant is the only party being scrutinized. However, this is a radical departure from the peer-to-peer roots of eBay, where the small, independent seller would be protected against buyer fraud or misbehavior.

Regardless of eBay’ s spin, this is not a win for them or the consumer. Well-behaved buyers will only suffer from this change as their reputation, just like a seller’s reputation, can be used as a valuable currency that brings in savings and efficiency to the market.

1. A buyer with a good reputation is not at risk of having their bid for a product canceled, whereas a buyer with a bad reputation will.
2. When dealing only with buyers with good reputation, the seller is able to offer products at a lower cost because they don’t have to factor in the cost of potential frivolous complaints, returns or buyer fraud.

As a former power-seller on eBay, I found that one of the most time consuming, and profitability-challenging parts of selling on eBay was to deal with customers who exploited the already ‘sacrosanct’ status they enjoyed on the site.

This new direction will cause many eBay sellers to look for alternative outlets or stop selling altogether. The ability to know and qualify your customer was a key advantage that the eBay platform had over other outlets. Adding this to eBay’s recent increases in the transaction costs from sellers, sellers are finding that eBay is turning into an undesirable venue to do business.