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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Measurement Challenges Stump Marketing Executives - eMarketer
Social media is one of the most difficult forms of marketing to measure. Most marketers know that company executives want to be able to measure marketing tactics and campaigns. But as the marketing mi
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Quality Grows as Top Factor in Car Buying Decisions
45% of Americans say that quality is the factor that most influences their car-buying decision, representing 22% growth from 37% who cited the factor in 2010, according to a CarMax survey released in December 2011 conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. Data from the survey indicates that price is the second most influential factor, voted by 22% of respondents, down from 28% in 2011. Fewer Americans also cite safety as being most influential when choosing a car, selected by 15% of respondents this year, compared to 22% in 2010. By contrast, resale value has grown in importance, rising from 4% of respondents last year to 7% this year, while environmental or green factors have remained unchanged at 6%.
Quality More Important to Men, Affluent
Men are 46% more likely than women to take quality into account when choosing a car (54% vs. 37%), while consumers with a household income of at least $75,000 are also more likely than those with lower incomes to pick quality as the most important factor in their decision (55% vs. 40%). Price is almost twice as likely to be the most influential factor among those with a household income under $75,000 than among those who are more affluent (27% vs. 14%), while safety is more of a concern for parents than it is for adults without a child under 18 (20% vs. 13%), much the same as it was in 2010 (27% vs. 18%).
Women Want an Easy Transaction
Meanwhile, according to a separate CarMax survey conducted by Ipsos released in November, roughly 1 in 4 women said what was most missing from their last car-buying experience was a quick and effortless transaction. A fair trade-in value, trustworthy salesperson, or low, fair pricing (all at 15%) were most missing for relatively fewer women. In 2009, when a similar study was conducted, the leading element missing from the experience was also a quick and easy transaction (25%), followed by a fair trade-in value (19%), a trustworthy salesperson (15%), and low, fair pricing (13%).
Financing Relatively Unimportant
Just 13% of women felt that a reasonable finance rate was most lacking from their car-buying experience, unchanged from 2009. However, women residing in the South (17%) and West (15%) appeared far more likely than those in the Northeast (6%) to cite this as a missing element of their experience.
About the Data: The Ipsos poll concerning car-buying factors was conducted October 6-11, 2011 among a nationally representative sample of 1,001 randomly-selected adults aged 18 and over, who were interviewed by telephone. The poll concerning women’s experiences was conducted online from October 4-11, 2011 among a national sample of 510 women aged 18 and older from Ipsos’ US online panel.
Related topics: Wealthy, Women, Traditional, Environmental/Green, Research, Men, Automotive, Behavioral Marketing, Demographics, Measurement/Analytics, Direct
Political Campaigning Enters Age of Technology
Political Campaigning Enters Age of Technology
Lawmakers and Campaigns Are Looking For a More Active Web Presence
- By Kate Tummarello
- Roll Call Staff
- Dec. 13, 2011, Midnight
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRep. Joe Wilson used Google AdWords to direct controversy-spurred Internet searches to their official websites.With more and more constituents looking for information about their Members of Congress online, offices and campaigns are spending more time and energy focused on online advertising. While traditional banner ads and video advertisements that play before or during online videos continue to be used, some offices and candidates are reaching out to constituents.
A favorite for attracting traffic to Congressional campaign websites is Google AdWords. With AdWords, the search engine giant allows advertisers to bid against one another to see who can place their text-based advertisements on a search result page. Advertisements are targeted to appear alongside specified search terms and within specified locations. The winning bidder gets an ad displayed alongside the organic search results until another advertiser places a higher bid.
According to Wesley Donehue, CEO of political Internet firm Donehue Direct, Google AdWords is the place to start when people are looking to find out more about a candidate or current Member. Donehue’s firm has worked with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who became the target of much Google searching after he yelled, “You lie!” at Obama during a 2009 speech.
“When a hot news story breaks and people want to learn more about it, [Google] is the place to go,” said Donehue, who helped Wilson direct traffic to his campaign website after the incident.
Herman Cain’s presidential campaign used Google AdWords earlier this year. For a while, searching terms related to the sexual harassment claims being levied against him — including the name of one accuser, “Sharon Bialek,” or “Herman Cain Scandal” — would bring up sponsored results linking to his campaign material.
Targeting Constituents
The advertising technique that is gaining in popularity for Senate campaigns and House offices and campaigns is Facebook ads, which can now be narrowed down to target certain ZIP codes.According to a blog post by Facebook that was last updated about four months ago, targeting by ZIP code was introduced to give advertisers better access to users in more specific locations.
“Intentionally or not, ZIP codes have become particularly useful for detailing definable community populace attributes. Most influential research on demographics, including the U.S. Census, use ZIP codes as their most fine grained level of segmentation,” the blog post says, explaining that the targeting “opens up another avenue for advertisers to market to their desired audience.”
According to franking rules, House offices can advertise online, as long as the advertisements are directed only to constituents and do not include pictures of the Members.
Facebook’s ZIP code targeting is mostly accurate in directing Congressional ads to that Member’s constituents, said Andrew Foxwell, manager of new media and marketing at iConstituent, a digital communications firm that has worked with more than 300 Congressional offices and has done ads for 90 of them.
Foxwell estimates that about 150 Congressmen are using Facebook advertising. According to a case study done about the company, offices that placed Facebook ads with the help of iConstituent for one week received three times as much constituent interaction on the Member’s official Facebook page. The case study summarized the results as being a “10X return on investment as compared to a traditional, glossy paper mailer for one-tenth of the price.”
For Donehue, Facebook is the way to go if you want to target specific groups in a geographically small district.
“Facebook is the best way to go if you’re trying to reach a really niche audience,” he said, citing Facebook’s ability to target based on user-supplied, specific information. “You can’t get that level of targeting through Google.”
Donehue added that this could change if Google’s social media platform, Google Plus, gains steam. Google then would have access to similar information about its users, giving it a better ability to target advertisements.
Two-Way Traffic
Foxwell views Facebook ads as a way not just to advertise to constituents but to engage with them.“Facebook and Twitter are essential tools for a 21st-century democracy,” he said. “If we can collectively re-engage our citizens using technology and social media by breaking down barriers for meaningful dialogue, then we are doing something right by ensuring these mediums are used by Members’ official offices.”
Of course, the marketplace of ideas is a rough-and-tumble place. But that doesn’t bother Foxwell.
“Even if you get people speaking negatively, at least their voice is being heard,” he said.
Others have reservations when it comes to Facebook ads, despite the low price. Jacobs said Facebook users are often on the website for social, not political, reasons. “When you’re on Facebook, you’re not looking for that information like you are when you’re searching on Google,” he said.
Jacobs also said that getting the attention of Facebook users, such as getting people to “Like” a page or status update, is not necessarily the same as getting voters. “You’re getting them into your Facebook group, you’re not getting their email address,” he said, adding, “I’d rather get 10,000 email addresses than 100,000 Facebook fans.”
On the engaging aspect of Facebook: Well-known politicians don’t need to advertise to get feedback, and lesser-known politicians can look like they just want attention. “You want to at least show the flag. But Facebook users have already become savvy enough that they see through gimmicks designed to get them to click on an ad,” Jacobs said.
While Jacobs would suggest covering one’s bases by purchasing Facebook ads, he urges clients to also devote resources to other methods. “We had far more success with video and paid search, both in terms of the percentage of the clicks that turned into sign-ups and the cost per acquisition,” he said, referring to the 2010 campaign of then-Rep. Tom Perriello, although the Virginia Democrat lost.
Bid on a Tweet
The next big thing on the horizon for Congressional offices and campaigns? Promoted content on Twitter.According to Twitter Director of Communications Matt Graves, promoted tweets, which appear within a user’s Twitter feed even if they are not following the advertiser’s account, were introduced in April of last year, and promoted accounts, which appear as the first suggestion of “Who to follow” along the right side of a user’s home page, were introduced in October 2010.
Both of those features operate on a bidding system, where advertisers bid to have their tweets or account names appear on users’ Twitter home pages. Promoted trends, which appear slightly farther down the right side of a user’s home page, were introduced in June of last year and can be purchased for $120,000 per country per day, Graves said.
According to Graves, targeting on Twitter is done by a few factors, including which accounts — and national campaigns — a user already follows, any lists the user is on and the self-reported content of a user’s profile, such as describing oneself as a “political junkie.”
Graves said that a benefit of the promoted content on Twitter is its placement within the site.
“These are just normal tweets,” he said of the material that appears either within a user’s Twitter feed or directly alongside it. “They’re appearing where people expect them to appear.”
Although it’s not accessible to Congressional offices just yet, people are already looking forward to the continued opening of promoted content on Twitter.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Jacobs said, explaining that, in his experience, Twitter’s setup encourages users to leave the site to consume outside content more than Facebook’s does. “People are much more accustomed to click links on Twitter that take them off Twitter,” he said.
Jacobs also pointed to the placement of advertising on Twitter. “Ad placement is much more advantageous than Facebook,” he said, citing studies that show how users read websites. Typically, he said, users read more of the top of a website and less as they scroll down. “Twitter advertising is much more mobile-friendly than Facebook advertising,” he added.
But whether you’re in office or running for one, using Google AdWords or Facebook, or waiting patiently to hop on the Twitter bandwagon, strategists often stress the importance of tailoring online advertising strategies to the race.
“Every race, every candidate, every district is different,” Donehue said.
Correction: Dec. 13, 2011
The article incorrectly stated that Congressional campaigns cannot purchase promoted content on Twitter. Twitter promoted content is currently open to Congressional campaigns.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Online Standards Inch Closer to Standarization
Nine months into an industrywide initiative to overhaul and standardize the Wild West landscape of online metrics, organizers are taking cautious steps into a pilot testing phase through 2012, acknowledging the profound implications of their work for everyone on the buying and selling sides of the media ecosystem, not to mention those who currently measure its traffic.
The Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative, a joint venture of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), has progressed from outlining general goals and operating principles toward a six-month testing period slated to begin in the first quarter of 2012, noting even that shift has been a tender one given its seismic potential for advertising in a cross-platform world.
Story continues after the ad
And while the two biggest players currently in online audience measurement, comScore and Nielsen, are not represented among the 3MS panel’s 40 members — a deliberate exclusion — both companies said that they have a good working relationship with the panel and have already taken proactive steps to offer metrics products that meet the new standards as they drop.
The problem of online metrics can be tidily and nearly universally summarized: “Look at four different measurement services and you’ll get four radically different pieces of information,” said David Cohen, global digital officer for Universal McCann in New York. “This has been a problem from day one and continues to be a problem today, so what we’re trying to do is step back, create a currency that is now extrapolatable across media types and move toward that.”
The vexing persistence of inconsistent online metrics may even be hampering the growth of digital and cross-platform ad sales. “I’m sure it’s not helping,” Cohen said. “To spend $100,000 in online advertising is far more complicated than $10 million in television.”
Steve Hasker, president of media products for Nielsen, agreed. “It doesn’t engender the kind of confidence in online display advertising that publishers would like and the industry would like,” he said.
So when the three advertising trade groups announced the 3MS initiative in February, the move was met with a loud chorus of support from all corners of the industry. Perhaps one of the most important validations came from George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the New York-based Media Rating Council, a private, nonprofit organization established by the industry in the 1960s at the urging of the U.S. government and charged with auditing and accrediting audience measurement research.
“It has been a great wake up call to the industry to focus on metrics, governance and making things more consistent,” Ivie said.
In June, the 3MS group announced its first major step, the articulation of five guiding principles for digital measurement. The first was to move toward a standard of “viewable impressions” rather than the served impressions currently counted to measure traffic. Since ad units are often outside a viewable space or don’t fully load before the ad server can see them, impressions are often substantially overcounted.
The second principle pushes online advertising to move to a currency based on audience impressions, not gross ad impressions. A third calls for the creation of a transparent classification system to mitigate the myriad ad types found in online media as opposed to traditional media. A fourth principle acknowledges an industry inundated in digital interaction metrics, many of which are irrelevant to brand marketers. It calls for identifying and defining metrics most valuable to brand marketers and defining and implementing reliable standards for the existing metrics.
The fifth and final principle may prove to be the initiative’s Holy Grail: making digital measurement increasingly comparable and integrated with other media. Doing so would facilitate cross-media platform planning, buying and evaluation, all of which is presently encumbered by digital’s stubborn exceptionalities.
The 3MS committee isn’t exactly starting from scratch. The MRC’s rigorous accreditation process, through which it can take metrics products years to pass, has a number of products both within and at the finished end of its pipeline that are addressing some of these standards. Ivie pointed to a product accredited over two years ago by Salt Lake City-based RealVu, for instance, which he said “essentially invented viewability,” along with other products currently under review by comScore, Nielsen and Omniture.
Still, the work in front of the panel is daunting. Sherill Mane, senior VP of industry services at the IAB, is one of the key players orchestrating it, and she said that plowing ahead into the testing phase wasn’t an option.
“Now that we have coalesced as an ecosystem around some guiding principles and some proposed solutions and we’ve embarked upon developing specifications for testing those solutions, it’s becoming increasingly clear that there are a plethora of variables that we have to take into account as we develop the tests, and the level of care and the level of detail is quite enormous,” Mane said.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
National Brands Look to Local Online Efforts - eMarketer
Online accounting for more local ad spending as local makes up a greater share of digital total. In the past, a combination of mass media and traditional local advertising was enough to draw consumers
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Yahoo users searched for more international news than Bing users
The Casey Anthony trial was the most searched news story on Yahoo, as it was on Bing. However, news interests diverged from there.
Compared to Bing users, Yahoo users were more interested in finding news about unemployment, the Arab Spring and the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Before you conclude that Yahoo users are more high-minded than Bing users, they were also more interested in the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
2012 Trends: Cloud-Based Music Streaming - eMarketer
A mainstream activity—but only when it’s free. Despite better-than-expected business in the first half of 2011, the recorded music industry remains plagued by a decade-long decline in CD sales&m
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
2012 Trends: Video Leads Online Ad Growth - eMarketer
US online video ad spending to grow 43.1% in 2012. Whether they think of it as magnetic content or advertising, marketers are increasingly focused on creating video assets. This type of media reproduc
Monday, November 28, 2011
Retail Becomes Fastest-Growing Mobile Category - eMarketer
More than one-third of smartphone users access retail sites. As smartphones become more mainstream, mobile is becoming more pervasive in all aspects of consumers’ lives. And online shopping is quickly
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Screen Size and Conversion Rates
While search advertisers experience higher click-through-rates for mobile phone and tablet search campaigns than for desktop search campaigns (at 166% and 137% respectively) according to a November 2011 report from Macquarie Group, those clicks are less likely to convert to sales in a direct relationship to screen size. The report employed Efficient Frontier advertiser data. Efficient Frontier found that mobile conversion rates were at just 31% of the average desktop campaign’s, while tablet conversion rates were much more on par (96%). Meanwhile, the average cost-per-click (CPC) on mobile phone search campaigns was slightly higher (108%) than for desktop search campaigns, although CPCs for tablet campaigns were on average 85% of desktop search campaign CPCs.
Mobile ROI Jumps, But Remains Behind
Lower conversions for mobile search campaigns resulted in ROI of only 50% of the desktop campaigns, although this represents a significant spike from mid-2010, when mobile ROI was only about 10% of desktop levels. According to Macquarie insight, however, for those Efficient Frontier clients that market high-end/high-value products and services, tablet campaign ROI was more than 50% higher than the comparable desktop metrics.Tablet Use Peaks Late in Day
The report also found that search activity on desktops, smartphones, and tablets tends to pick up at 8am, with peak usage for all devices occurring in the evening. Mobile phone impressions tend to peak first at about 7pm, followed by desktops at 8pm, and tablets at 10pm. Tablets’ relatively later peak time corresponds with Q1 data from Nielsen, which found that 70% of tablet owners use their devices while watching TV, while another 57% use them while lying in bed.Mobile Has Shortest Query Lengths
Search engine query lengths appear to correspond with screen size: desktop queries have the longest average word length (2.57) and character length (22.16), followed by tablets (2.1 and 20.22 respectively), and mobile phones (1.18 and 18.12 respectively).According to September data from Experian Hitwise, roughly 9 in 10 US search queries that month consisted of 5 words or less, while about 7 in 10 consisted of three words of less. One-word queries led with about 26% of the monthly total, while two-word queries followed with 24%.
About the Data: The Macquarie Group analysis was completed with an index built on data from Efficient Frontier’s search engine marketing customers. More than 3 billion monthly impressions representing 30 plus customers were analyzed for the report.
Screen Size and Conversion Rates
While search advertisers experience higher click-through-rates for mobile phone and tablet search campaigns than for desktop search campaigns (at 166% and 137% respectively) according to a November 2011 report from Macquarie Group, those clicks are less likely to convert to sales in a direct relationship to screen size. The report employed Efficient Frontier advertiser data. Efficient Frontier found that mobile conversion rates were at just 31% of the average desktop campaign’s, while tablet conversion rates were much more on par (96%). Meanwhile, the average cost-per-click (CPC) on mobile phone search campaigns was slightly higher (108%) than for desktop search campaigns, although CPCs for tablet campaigns were on average 85% of desktop search campaign CPCs.
Mobile ROI Jumps, But Remains Behind
Lower conversions for mobile search campaigns resulted in ROI of only 50% of the desktop campaigns, although this represents a significant spike from mid-2010, when mobile ROI was only about 10% of desktop levels. According to Macquarie insight, however, for those Efficient Frontier clients that market high-end/high-value products and services, tablet campaign ROI was more than 50% higher than the comparable desktop metrics.Tablet Use Peaks Late in Day
The report also found that search activity on desktops, smartphones, and tablets tends to pick up at 8am, with peak usage for all devices occurring in the evening. Mobile phone impressions tend to peak first at about 7pm, followed by desktops at 8pm, and tablets at 10pm. Tablets’ relatively later peak time corresponds with Q1 data from Nielsen, which found that 70% of tablet owners use their devices while watching TV, while another 57% use them while lying in bed.Mobile Has Shortest Query Lengths
Search engine query lengths appear to correspond with screen size: desktop queries have the longest average word length (2.57) and character length (22.16), followed by tablets (2.1 and 20.22 respectively), and mobile phones (1.18 and 18.12 respectively).According to September data from Experian Hitwise, roughly 9 in 10 US search queries that month consisted of 5 words or less, while about 7 in 10 consisted of three words of less. One-word queries led with about 26% of the monthly total, while two-word queries followed with 24%.
About the Data: The Macquarie Group analysis was completed with an index built on data from Efficient Frontier’s search engine marketing customers. More than 3 billion monthly impressions representing 30 plus customers were analyzed for the report.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Black Friday Weekend Shoppers Expected to Grow Y-O-Y
One-third of US consumers say they will “definitely” be shopping this Black Friday, up 23% from 27.1% of consumers in 2010, according to a November survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) conducted by BIGresearch. Data from the survey indicates that up to 152 million people plan to shop Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), higher than the 138 million who planned to do so last year. Of those, 74 million say they will definitely hit the stores, while the remainder are waiting to see if the bargains are worth braving the cold and the crowds.
These results are mirrored by a November survey from ConsumerSearch.com, which found that 61% of respondents plan to shop in store this Black Friday. According to the survey, the biggest draw by far for shoppers is the lure of discounts and deals (87%), followed distantly by the overall excitement of the day (37%) and the chance to complete holiday shopping early (30%). Of those who plan to avoid stores on Black Friday, the biggest reasons include disliking the crowds and commotion (78%), hating long lines at checkout (65%), and not wanting to wake up early just to shop for deals (54%).Whether the greater foot traffic will generate increased spending is unsure, though: according to a November poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of RetailMeNot.com, just 11% of adults plan on spending more this holiday shopping season compared to last year, while 37% say they expect to spend less.
Ad Circulars Most Popular Sales Tracking Device
According to the NRF, 1 in 2 consumers plan to keep up with advertising circulars throughout the holiday season to keep track of retailers’ holiday sales and promotions announcements. Close to one-third say they will tune in to watch retailers’ holiday commercials and specifically keep track of the email coupons they receive from retailers, while 1 in 4 will seek out coupon websites such as RetailMeNot.com and FatWallet.com. A smaller proportion will follow company sales announcements on social media: 17.3% say they will monitor retailers’ Facebook pages, and 11.3% will check out group-buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. Meanwhile, the proportions are slightly higher among tablet owners who plan to shop for or research holiday items this year: 31.2% will check out retailers’ Facebook pages, while 21.3% will seek out group buying sites.
Free Shipping, Discounts Favorite Offers
Results from the RetailMeNot poll show that when it comes to preferences toward promotional offers this holiday season, free shipping (26%) ranks first, followed by a certain percentage off (23%), buy one-get one free offers (20%), and a certain dollar amount off (18%). Free shipping tends to be more enticing to women than to men (31% vs. 21%), while college graduates (31%) and parents (30%) are more likely than others to say that a certain percentage off makes them most inclined to make a purchase.
An October survey from the e-tailing group found free shipping to be the most important site promotion, rated by 73% of consumers as a top 2 very important or critical feature when making a purchase from a website.
Clothing and Accessories Top Intended Gifts
According to the RetailMeNot poll, 54% of adults say they are interested in making a clothing and accessories purchase this holiday season. Other popular items include books, movies and music (44%), consumers electronics (37%), toys (34%), and bath and beauty products/treatments (26%). These results differ markedly from a November BDO USA survey: a majority of merchants responding to that survey believed that consumers electronics would be the top performing product category this holiday season, with just 16% expecting toys to be top performers, followed by apparel (11%), home goods (10%), and lifestyle goods (8%).
Meanwhile, according to the ConsumerSearch survey, nearly one-third of respondents identified toys as the item they dreaded purchasing most. The top reasons why included having to fight through crowds (43%), fear of buying the wrong version or type of product (42%), concern about cost (40%), and fear of not having enough knowledge about the product (38%).
Other Findings
- 83% of the respondents to the ConsumerSearch survey claimed that they enjoy the holidays more when a store gives them a free gift with their purchase.
- The RetailMeNot poll found that nearly half of working adults plan to spend time holiday shopping online during work hours this holiday season, including 11% who plan to spend 5 hours or more doing so.
About the Data: The NRF survey polled 8,502 consumers and was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from November 1-8, 2011. ConsumerSearch.com conducted their survey of members of Research Now’s Consumer Panel in November 2011, polling 1,003 respondents. The RetailMeNot.com poll was conducted November 7-8, 2011. For the survey, national samples of 1,007 adults aged 18 and older from Ipsos’ U.S. online panel were interviewed online.
Related topics: Research, Promotions, Online Networks, Men, Sign of Doom, Signs of What's to Come, Retail, Traditional, Women, Viral Marketing, Measurement/Analytics, Magazines, Behavioral Marketing, Interactive, Direct, Print, Demographics, E-Commerce, Financial, Entertainment, Email, Television
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Why Not Occupy Newsrooms?
A great read about "golden parachutes" and how many in media are taking advantage.
"Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction..."
Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/business/media/why-not-occupy-newsrooms.html?_r=1
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Third Quarter
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Five big things for Tennessee-Alabama
BY MIKE STRANGE
GOVOLSXTRA.COM
POSTED OCTOBER 22, 2011 AT 12:14 A.M.
1. The Saban Spread: Alabama is a four-touchdown favorite, and that's throwing in a two-point conversion. Welcome to life in the Nick Saban era. Besides 'Bama's 12-10 squeaker in 2009, Saban's other three Crimson Tide teams have beaten the Vols by 31, 20 and 24 points. It's up to Tennessee to prove Vegas wrong.
2. The Fab Four: In Saban's 61 games as Alabama's coach only four opposing backs have rushed for 100 yards. Tennessee's Tauren Poole is one of them, gaining 117 yards last year in Alabama's 41-10 win in Knoxville. Poole had a promising showing last week against LSU. The Vols need him to make it a Fab Five today.
3. Turnovers? Yeah, Right: The best way for an underdog to level the playing field is by producing turnovers. Alabama has gone 50 consecutive offensive possessions without giving up a turnover. In four SEC games, the Tide hasn't turned it over once. Repeat, not once. The Vols, meanwhile, are looking for their first interception since opening day.
4. Snap Shuffle: Alex Bullard makes his first start at center in hopes of addressing an irritating problem of providing Matt Simms with accurate shotgun snaps. He swaps jobs with James Stone, who moved to left guard. Simms is going to have plenty of issues without wondering whether the snap will be at his ankles or his ears.
5. Get Rich: Alabama tailback Trent Richardson is on the Heisman Trophy shortlist and for good reason. He has six consecutive 100-yard rushing games, the longest streak in the nation. The Vols' defense has to load up in the box to make Richardson earn every yard and make Alabama take some shots in the air.
See more about the Tennessee Volunteers at www.GoVolsXtra.com
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Football. Poole Keeps Focus on Game Ahead
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Video: Steve Jobs At Stanford: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.'
* Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy: Persuading The World To Pay For Content
* Letter From Steve Jobs
* Updated: Steve Jobs Resigns As Apple CEO, Cook Taking OverOn June 12, 2005, college dropout Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford. It was a year after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and faced death for the first time. Jobs spoke frankly to the graduating class that day—and to millions beyond who have watched the video in the intervening years—about the life-altering experience and the lessons learned. With the news of his death Wednesday at 56, it feels like one of the most appropriate ways to celebrate his life. The text is here; the video is embedded below. More on Steve Jobs in our archives.Related* Apple Co-Founder And Chairman Steve Jobs Has Died
* Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy: Persuading The World To Pay For Content
* Letter From Steve Jobs
* Updated: Steve Jobs Resigns As Apple CEO, Cook Taking OverOriginal Link: http://feeds.paidcontent.org/~r/pcorg/~3/lj7FBVZJ2Os/
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Yahoo! News and ABC News Announce Alliance
Yahoo! News and ABC News form a powerful alliance!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/abc-news-yahoo-news-announce-online-alliance/story?id=14650998
1 in 5 Mobile Users Don't Want Coupons
Almost one in five (18%) smartphone/tablet users do not want to receive any coupons on their device, according to [download page] data released in October 2011 by Prosper Mobile Insights. This is a higher percentage than say they want to receive mobile coupons via social media check-in (10%).
Email (51%, more than one response allowed) is by far the most popular method of receiving mobile coupons, followed by manual search (32%), scanning a QR code in-store (32%), and text/IM (31%). In addition, 26% of smartphone/tablet users prefer to receive coupons automatically when they are near a store.
3 in 4 Mobile Users Browse Products/Services
Prosper Mobile Insights data shows that three in four (76%) smartphone/tablet users have used their device to browse/look for products and/or services. Locating a store/store hours closely followed in popularity (73%).
No other mobile activity was anywhere near as popular as these two activities. Almost half (49%) have researched specific products, while 47% have received text messages with specific offers and 46% have read customer reviews. Other popular mobile activities include making purchases (40%) and scanning QR codes (37%).
Other Findings
- Two in three (67%) smartphone/tablet users somewhat or strongly agree that location-based mobile coupons are very or somewhat useful, while 23% neither agree nor disagree.
- Only 45% of smartphone/tablet users somewhat or strongly agree they are concerned about security issues and their location being tracked, while 30% neither agree nor disagree.
- Four in 10 (42%) smartphone/tablet users have used their device as a coupon.
e-tailing group: 1 in 3 Online Consumers Has Performed Mobile Shopping Research
Approximately one in three online US consumers have performed one of several mobile shopping research activities in the past three months, according to a September 2011 study from the e-tailing group and PowerReviews. Data from “The 2011 Social Shopping Study” indicates that a leading 33% of online consumers have both checked for sales and specials and looked up store information such as hours, location and maps via mobile device in the past three months.
About the Data: Prosper Mobile Insights surveyed 348 smartphone and tablet users on their devices between September 22-24, 2011.
Related topics: Telecom, Research, Promotions, PR, Text Ads, Wireless, Mobile Content Usuage, Mobile, Retail, Online, Personalization, Online Networks, Demographics, Branding, Behavioral Marketing, Interactive, E-Commerce, Email, New Tech, Measurement/Analytics, Integrated/Cross-Media/Convergence, Financial, Direct,
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Vols report card: Oct. 2
Friday, September 30, 2011
Healthy H1 2011 Gains Put US Online Ad Spending on Track for Record Year - eMarketer
Spending nears $15 billion in 2011’s first six months. The weakened US economy has most industries facing tough times. But the latest numbers from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Pricewat
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
"Let's Do It": Famous Last Words Of Executed Criminals
* 11 Signs That You Will Be Obese
* Eight Fascinating People You'll See At IGNITIONMost of the time people don't get to pick their last words. Executions are an exception.While strapped into the electric chair or tied to a noose or standing before a firing squad, criminals have spoken dramatic one-liners that became famous.Aileen Wuornos: "I’ll be back like Independence Day"" I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I’ll be back.”While working as a prostitute, Aileen Wuornos reportedly killed six men between 1989 and 1990, claimed they attempted to rape her. At her Oct. 9, 2002, execution by lethal injection, Wuornos stated, "I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all, I’ll be back.”Wuornos' life has been the subject of Hollywood speculation, including Charlize Theron's famous 2003 movie 'Monster', as well as a 1992 documentary "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer," made by Nick Broomfield.John Wayne Gacy: "Kiss My Ass""Kiss my ass."The "killer clown" tortured, raped, and murdered 33 men between 1972 and 1978. John Wayne Gacy earned his moniker, and possibly started the scary clown phobia, because he dressed up as Pogo the Clown to entertain at kids' birthday parties.One of America's most famous serial killers was arrested in 1978, and executed on May 10, 1994. His famous last words are also a popular angry retort. G.W. Green: "Let’s do it, man. Lock and load. Ain’t life a [expletive deleted]?""Let’s do it, man. Lock and load. Ain’t life a [expletive deleted]?"G.W. Green was convicted in 1991 of killing John Denson, a Montgomery County, Texas, juvenile probation officer. He was executed Nov. 12, 1991.See the rest of the story at Business InsiderPlease follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.See Also:* Angry Chinese Villagers Riot In Guangdong
* 11 Signs That You Will Be Obese
* Eight Fascinating People You'll See At IGNITIONOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/v0FJNtVUMzY/they-said-what-famous-last-words-2011-9
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Facebook Changes Upend Advertiser and Agency Models
The media is already dissecting yesterday's Facebook event, where the company unveiled major new changes to their platform. Par for the course, really. Drama always accompanies any change to the Facebook site or platform.
But I see drama brewing in a place unaccustomed to it, and involving a different kind of media — the media buying agencies that wield most of the money spent on advertising on the Facebook platform and the companies they represent.
It would seem that the more time consumers spend on Facebook (over 53 billion minutes a month, according to Nielsen), the more the advertising economy would benefit, as more advertising inventory — what Facebook sells and media agencies buy — becomes more plentiful.
But alas, something appears to be broken, or breaking.
The classic, traditional media buying agencies (the big ones, most of them owned by the ad agency holding companies) are used to buying nouns — impressions, commercials, search results, clicks. These are "things" that display once, and then disappear, unless more of them are bought. Publishers have traditionally sold those "things" to them in an environment that operates with fairly little friction. Everything fit on a spreadsheet, or through an ad network. Even when optimizing to a transaction, they do so with tacit knowledge of what each transaction is worth.
One of the most significant new Facebook platform changes emphasizes their move towards making consumers' connections to content and activities more meaningful. Simple and vague "likes" are giving way to "listening to", "read", "hiked", "eating". The Facebook graph is becoming verb- and story-based. It presents a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to create and amplify positive engagements consumers are having with their products, or the lifestyles those products represent.
If all this doesn't sound like something that media agencies do for a living, you're right. Earning, amplifying, and optimizing towards engagement is just not what media agency systems and personnel are meant to support. Technology platforms here and there sprout up to help them do it better, but even those platforms become commodities if engagement-driven efforts are not handled and managed expertly, in an always-on way. Facebook's massive reach and importance to the web at large, and its major engagement-maximizing changes on the horizon, mean engagement-led (and not impression-led) advertising has never been more important.
To make the most of Facebook's changes, brands must:
- Understand what the value of each kind of consumer engagement is to their business.
- Be comfortable with the fact that they are generally not actually "managing communities" on Facebook, but rather, programming content and engagement channels.
- Create experiences that enhance other experiences.
- Find each and every way to ensure that as many of the right people have those experiences as possible, so they can efficiently affect their short- and long-term business goals.
Engagement across — and through — the Facebook platform will demand that these aspects be managed holistically and be optimized towards engagement. And as Facebook finds its way into other areas of media and our lives, this will become even more important. Siloed agencies don't help make these kinds of things happen. Silos are for storing. And Facebook is about sharing.
Media agencies have always been about breadth, reach and conversion. Advertising in social media should always be working towards a goal of delivering meaningful engagement at scale, and augmenting the value of the media that exists between people. This requires complicated planning, strategy, and execution across disciplines that are not in the wheelhouse of traditional media buying agencies — or in the wheelhouse of many agencies for that matter.
It is not all a loss for the classic media buying agency. As Facebook collects more data, and (likely) eventually begins powering display advertising infused with its data and intelligence, impressions can continue to be bought at scale, helping to deliver a brand message to as many people as possible — which will always be necessary.
But a comprehensive advertising plan now demands an engagement component that complements reach and frequency models. The dawn of the engagement age and agency is near, and the upcoming Facebook platform changes will only bring it about sooner.
Be prepared.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Millennials More Comfortable with M-Commerce - eMarketer
Younger shoppers show different mobile behaviors. As m-commerce becomes more widely adopted, distinct demographic characteristics are emerging. More smartphone and tablet owners are researching produc
Monday, September 12, 2011
IAB Brings Scale to Mobile: Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence Issues Guidelines for Creating In-App Ads
Home » Ad & Media Strategies » IAB Brings Scale to Mobile: Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence Issues Guidelines for Creating In-App Ads
IAB Brings Scale to Mobile: Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence Issues Guidelines for Creating In-App Ads
Otilia Otlacan | September 12, 2011Public Comment Periods Opens for ‘Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions’—MRAID—Which Standardizes Communication Between Ads and Apps To Increase Efficiency
NEW YORK – The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence (http://www.iab.net/mmcoe) released “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions,” or MRAID (http://www.iab.net/mraid), for public comment. This initiative defines a common API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile rich media advertisements, establishing a framework of principles and guidelines to help the mobile marketplace reach new levels of consistency, efficiency and effectiveness.
The growth, versatility and potential of in-application advertising have drawn strong interest from agencies, publishers, vendors and ad designers. However, accompanying this industry enthusiasm has been a surge of disparate APIs from numerous rich media vendors working with publishers to enable these dynamic ads. Multiple, incompatible APIs force advertisers to re-write the programming behind their ad creative several times for a single campaign, creating complexity and adversely impacting their resources.
“Standardizing the development of mobile rich media creative will be a strong benefit for both the mobile and the ad industry overall,” said Anna Bager, Vice President & General Manager of the IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “MRAID provides creative developers with opportunities to achieve reach and scale efficiently.”
“As the premier digital media company, Yahoo! works with many different advertisers and rich media vendors,” said Alex Linde, Director, Mobile & Tablet Advertising, Yahoo! and IAB MRAID working group member. “We know first hand how challenging it would be to bring scale to mobile advertising without a standard for in-application mobile rich media ad serving and a single set of industry-accepted guidelines for agencies and designers. We believe that MRAID is essential to sustain momentum in this rapidly growing industry.”
Under the IAB’s draft MRAID guidelines, if a mobile app is “MRAID compliant,” it will read, understand and correctly display ads developed using the MRAID instruction specification. At the same time, MRAID-compliant mobile rich media ads will operate within MRAID compliant applications from any publisher – allowing agencies to quickly and easily run rich, interactive mobile creative across apps from various publishers.
The public comment period for the IAB’s release of MRAID will run through September 30, 2011. Once the public comment period closes, the MRAID working group will meet to evaluate comments received, make any needed changes to the draft MRAID spec, and release final version of MRAID 1.0. Comments are being accepted by email at mobile@iab.net.
For a copy of the public comment version of MRAID 1.0 and more information about MRAID, the working group and its members, please visit: http://www.iab.net/mraid
About the IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) [www.iab.net] is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.
Otilia is the founder and editor of AdOperationsOnline.com, launched in 2008. She currently provides online business consulting through her company, RightFit Media, and blogs about all things online at www.otiliaotlacan.com.No related articles.
Tags: alex linde, iab mobile marketing center of excellence, mobile rich media ad interface definitions, mraid, Rihanna;, video and mobile advertising
Category: Ad & Media Strategies, Digital Intelligence, IAB, Mobile Advertising, Online Advertising Challenges
