WPLV24-DigitalMarketingBlog

SXSW 2015 : it's almost time!

2015-02-28T23:26:00.000-05:00

This year the SXSW Music Conference will offer attendees a JOB FAIR, TRADE SHOW, GEAR EXPO, GAMING EXPO, HEALTH EXPO, ART EXPO, Music And Film Festivals plus have plenty of activities for advertising executives, Marketing professionals, Information Technology geeks, nerds and hackers and plenty of barbecue for the many industry members, guest speakers, aspiring artists and entrepreneurs alike.

last year, more than 150,000 attendees, 30,000 worldwide advertising and marketing creative professionals, 3,000 volunteers and at least 2,000 local, regional, national and international artists have made arrangements to take part in 800+ educational sessions and present in 100 stages and this year promises to be even bigger so stay tuned for a full report from TheWirelessCowboy.tv and WPLV24 on those people, products and processes that will enhance our Intellectual Property Monetization theme.

So, how long have you been waiting for your BIG BREAK?

AT SXSW 2015 there are countless networking opportunities to explore that question however, I will highlight a few of the most important to young entrepreneurs and artists ready to MONETIZE their digital content .

"MONE TIZE" OR SHOULD I say Magnetize....

The Pebble watch company earlier this week RAISED $500,000 in their first 15 minutes of a crowd-funding campaign on KickStarter and finished their first day with almost $10,000,000 million dollars becoming the fastest campaign to reach their funding goal and an ALL TIME SuperStar both in time and sales. Remember that in total for last year there where ONLY 6 million smart watches sold ( between Samsung Gear S, Motorola Moto...) but the Apple watch, which is coming in April is expected to sell 40 million TO EXPLODE the wearables market... so I am not sure if the Pebble watch will survive, but my point is that regardless, it has found a MAGNET and is capitalizing on it with their CROWD...

are you?

While the JOB FAIR is a must until you find YOUR MAGNET, It is the TRADE SHOW that brings the biggest crowds since it gives you a chance to experience the latest technology from other entrepreneurs JUST LIKE YOU in the Arts and Entertainment industry for Music, Film, TV, Theater, Gaming and Health. Why be famous if you are not healthy.

The entire effort is caped by various in-festival events, contests and awards like Start-Up Austin from the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The #SXSWReleaseIT hashtag for short pitches. The Peter Thiels prestigious fellowship program. The V2V Venture Pitch Finally The Film Start-Up Alley and Music Start-Up Village will open the floor to national and international companies.

STAY TUNED FOR SXSW ACCELERATOR UPDATES :

ANALYTICS

  DataBox - BigData API connector and visualizer

  Blab - Consumer conversation predictions

  SocialGimpz - Mobile big data measurements

  FlipTu - Social media management aggregation platform

DEVELOPMENT TOOLS

  OP3Nvoice - Open Source API SDK for audio video search

  Tsugi Builder - Cloud mobile app compiler IOS, Android & Unity project ( test/deploy )

WEBSITE DESIGN

  AddSearch - Add search to any website for ANY device

  Nano Media - Mobile ads NOT 320x50px banners

  ViddyAd - Commercially licensed videos and images

  Samba.me - Video sharing with reaction shots

  Surfly - Surfing the web together

BUSINESS TOOLS

  PivotDesk - Office space hosting

  PlayCanvas - First cloud hosted 3D game SDK

  SonarDesign - Create, share, publish, monetize, promote APPS

  Waigo - Cloudless translations

  InsideMaps - 3D furniture modeling in home

  ShopStoree - Store virtualization

  Ferris - Social video app

  Shoto - Private auto cloud photo sharing

  MightyCast - Cloud connecting physical objects

  MentorMob - Crowd-sourced learning guides

ENTERTAINMENT

  FilmMaker Live - Collaborative visualization

  Cinematique - Interactive motion touch video

  Zepp Labs - Mobile motion capture

  HexAirBot - Quadcopter with Arduino SDK and WIFI cam under $159

GADGETS

  Artiphone - IOS sensor instrument

  Eyeris - Webcam with emotions recognition

  PPLConnect - Share cellphone with ANY web device

  Skully Helmets - Augmented reality ( AR-1 )

  Avegant - Wearable head mounted displays ( the Glyph )

  Theatro - Wearable Enterprise Augmented retail SAAS

TOOLS OF THE TRADE :

GODADDY.COM ( GetFound )

  USE it to Host your website

  USE it to Build your website

  USE it to Get your website/company found

  USED with Google, Yahoo, Yelp, FourSquare

SPOTIFY.COM

  USE it to Upload your music and distribute

  USE it to Create playlists for promotional branding and marketing

  USE it to Create merchandising promotions

BEATS MUSIC

  USE it to Upload your music and distribute

  USE it to Create playlists for promotional branding and marketing

  USE it to Create merchandising promotions

DISTROKID.COM

  USE it to Distribute unlimited music for $20 a Year

  USE it to Distribute on Itunes, Spotify, Beats, Rdio, Deezer, Amazon, Google Play

SONGAMPR.COM

  USE it to Lower your capital investment on merchandising

  USE it to Outsource your merchandising operations

  USE it to Sell merchandise on Spotify and Beats Music

  USE it to Manage your inventory

  USE it to Mark-Up your merchandise

  USE it to Create landing pages with e-commerce for your merchandise

  USE it to Process your transactions and fulfill your orders

  USE it to Collect your profits

  USE it to Manage your customer service

ARTISTILINK.COM

  USE it to Link Songampr page URL to your Spotify and Beats Music

REDITT.COM

  USE it to Crowd-source ideas and content

  USE it to Recruit an army for "street credentials"

  USED by BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, CNN and ESPN

  USED by PR, agencies, brands, creators, start-ups, film-makers

AMIR15 : HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2015-01-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

LET'S MAKE 2015 A HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! !

I want to thank all my Social Media friends for their continued support and interest.

2014 was my best CONTENT CREATION year.

I owe it all to my sense of commitment to y'all.

Yeeh-Haa!!!

I have POSTED a link to my "2014 End Of Year Report" printed publication for your review ...

IndustryReports: WPLV24-TV : Digital Marketing Report for the Music Industry 2014

This yearly magazine encompasses the entire year of articles from my Digital Marketing blog at www.thewirelesscowboy.tv. It is a FULL COLOR, GLOSSY PRINTED and SHIPPED reference to my online content which also includes a centerfold INFOGRAPHIC as well as an ACTIONABLE BUSINESS/MARKETING PLAN,…

... and will be providing some additional discounts via SPECIFIC LANDING PAGES before March 01, 2015 the official launch of my 2015 EDITORIAL CALENDAR.

I look forward to a new season of Industry Research which starts next week with

#CES2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thanks,

Rick Marquez

AKA WPLV24-TV

@ www.TheWirelessCowboy.tv

AND www.TheWirelessProducer.com

AMIR14 : Research - Industry Forecast ( 33 of 52 )

2014-10-27T15:52:00.002-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : PROMOTERS

IS THE INDUSTRY EXPANDING?

The MAJOR promoters “Live Nation” and “AEG” are certainly expanding. For them, business is always expanding vertically and horizontally in terms of business lines and contracting in terms of tickets pricing and sales.

However, for the entire nation and for that matter the world, the economic hardships of a tough recession and a slow recovery had amounted to a decrease in both ticket sells and events of around 12-15 percent circa 2006-2010. By all accounts the industry has been bouncing back for the global conglomerates who own, operate or manage while booking for their own venues either nationally or internationally.

A multi-tiered ticketing approach had been in place to deal with the almost 40% of unsold tickets in the industry during the downturn and has become the norm today, as well as ticket price reductions, and expanded sponsorship revenue streams for merchandising, new media and even recording activities or LIVE streaming to add greater value.

Because promoters are competing with the large conglomerates they are finding themselves acting like music companies promoting not only the events but any un-signed undistributed record/cd for the artist on tour. There are also digital bundles with ticketing companies and websites, website-TV streaming that gets world wide attention, Traditional radio specials and TV (promotions), posters and handbills are important since some major record companies do not service regional areas anymore.

There are many independent producers, labels, distributors and promoters now that can access the internet marketplace like MySpace, YouTube, iTunes and big box retailers like Wal-Mart.

Will this trend continue?

The industry has steadily bounced back from the recession and as un-employment decreases and the economy stabilizes, tours and concerts have grown double digit internationaly as well as nationally. On the average fans will attend 3 large LIVE events because that experience is difficult to achieve otherwise however, there's is a trend to larger multi-day events at outdoor venues which are typically cheaper to rent for the promoter and can sell to larger crowds that are willing to sit in non-traditional seating arrangements.

These ticket prices used to be lower but have increased in price from $150 to $300 and this year might jump to $400-500 hundred dollars for General admission. My concern is that if the fan is willing to make that investment it might be at the risk of not attending any other large event for the rest of the year.

I am hoping that this might turn out to be a great cross marketing opportunity. A "Black Friday" for entertainment which rather than just expanding the fan base might actually be a plate tectonic shift from indoor to outdoor vis-a-vis the festivals and our disruptive social media technology of the day can ride the wave.

A great opportunity as far as this magazine and my blog are concerned and certainly something to capitalize upon by JOINING my YouTube channel and Tweets from WPLV24 or by SUBSCRIBING to my RSS feeds and blog at www.thewirelesscowboy.tv

AMIR14 : Research - Promoter Demographics ( 32 of 52 )

2014-10-20T10:53:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : PROMOTERS

WHERE ARE THEY MOST ACTIVE?

Of-course the bigger venues will always reside in popular metropolitan areas with higher population densities and education levels with more disposable incomes. Costal states like California ( the 7th largest economy in the world and a population of 45 million ) New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Florida and Georgia have been mecas for the music industry for decades but even central states like Texas, Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan make themselves known for their large populations and cultural diversity. Among the most popular cities are Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta and Miami.

Today's promoters know these demographics well and have been consolidating with mergers and acquisitions for more than a decade offering artists a One Stop shopping experience that provides both Venue and Promotion across the nation and even globally. For an artist or band the appeal of this approach is obvious and translates into the biggest acts dealing exclusively with these top tier.
But what if you are a mid-size venue / promoter in the business who can deliver quality promotions on your own or third party facilities? You can focus on niche, alternative markets through single promotions or through multi-city / multi-venue "block bookings" either on your own or with the larger promoters.

If you are a small Local or Regional promoter the best way to produce and present an artist is to maximize every show by targeting the full potential of the market and the venue. Your intent is to account for every seat, every ticket, every marketing opportunity and merchandising sale as to minimize costs for everyone including the artists. Increasing profitability can be achieved by focusing on Digital Marketing of both exclusive venues and the artists position in those markets. Developing a network of alliances with other agents, promoters, labels and marketers will help you maximize each opportunity to sell out a venues total capacity and develop your regional audience

The best approach to take is to Act locally but think Globally since there’s a gap between the artist who is being promoted through a national touring platform and the artist who is being secured solely for a single date in the local market. The promoters must adapt the national touring platform to a regional one and vise-versa. Offering multi-city and multi-venue to artists who aren’t on a national tour and promoting national up and coming artists through individual dates in their region.

This flexible approach allows the promoter to capture a string of artists and dates that can support and synergize each other creating unique cross marketing, sales and merchandising opportunities in any venue space. These venues have seen the bigger acts migrate to the ONE Stop shops and have had to open their doors with lower price points and more localized acts.

This can certainly be a source of sustainable incomes in the era of iTunes, Pandora and YouTube and has been best exemplified by the Summer Music festivals we discussed last year on my digital marketing blog and this year starting March 1 at TheWirelessCowbot.tv and WPLV24.

AMIR14 : Research - Top Promoters ( 31 of 52 )

2014-10-14T10:35:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : PROMOTERS

WHICH PROMOTERS GENERATE THE MOST REVENUE?

The biggest owner/operator promoters are Live Nation and AEG. Together they own or operate 240 venues and account for almost 70 million tickets sold yearly around the world with upwards of 8 Billion usd dollars in revenue. These conglomerates have a huge advantage over smaller venue renting promoters and have begun to branch out into A&R representation, music label activities, ticketing and of-course as operators of some arenas even merchandising, restaurants and parking.

Their large capital access allow them to run outdoor music festivals like Coachella and StageCoach in the usa and since they already had team sports and sponsorship divisions it was natural to entertain the masses with dance festivals as well. They feel some competition from independent promoters like Creative Artists Agency and WME at the local and regional level in North America but globally they stand alone atop.

TOP INTERNATIONAL PROMOTERS

LIVE NATION

142 venues, 2K artists, 22K events, 69 Music festivals

52 Million tickets sold
6 Billion in sales from 3 divisions

60% USA 38% EU 2% Tickets
Artist Nation manages 200 Artists including U2 and Madonna

AEG

98 venues, 10K events

12 Million tickets sold
2 Billion is sales from 3 divisions

50% venues, 25% Teams, 25% Tickets

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

140 venues, 4K events

6 Million tickets sold
1.4 Billion is sales from 2 divisions

90% venues, 10% Merchandising

TOP NORTH AMERICAN PROMOTERS

LIVE NATION

U2, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Nickelback, Jewel, JayZ, Drake, Shakira
Aerosmith, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Kenny Chesney

AEG
Taylor Swift, Rolling Stones, The Who

CREATIVE ARTISTS

Bon Jovi, Eagles, Justin Bieber, One Direction, Kanye West , Maroon5, John Meyer, New Kids, Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, Tim McGraw, Jeff Durham, Shannai Twain, Keith Urban, Chicago, Journey, Kiss, Pitbull, Willie Nelson

WME

JZ/JT, Luke Bryan, Bruno Mars, Miranda Lambert , Rihanna, Blake Shelton, Depeche Mode, VANS Tour, Alicia Keyes

research conducted using data reported by both Billboard magazine and PollStar at www.billboard.com www.pollstar.com

AMIR14 : Research - Promoter Pay ( W30 of 52 )

2014-10-07T02:47:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : PROMOTERS

HOW DOES A PROMOTER GET PAYED?

There are many types of promoters and each with different experience levels and revenue streams. From bar and club promoters at the ground level for local artists and events, all the way up to event management at the highest pop star and international venues. We focused on the Outdoor festival circuit last year but only because it was the most entertaining manner we could find to stay motivated through all of the research and analysis but a promoters job is universal across industries and products or services.

BAR/CLUB promoters can make $100, $500 and even more than $1,500 per night while helping small venues fill in their off nights or pack their weekends and holidays. They need not hire staff like DJs since the establishments already have those in place.The promoter does need to have a game plan to create buzz and drive the crowds to the establishment. These promoters can be payed on a per head count basis anywhere between $10 in big city market and $100 usd for "model type" patrons. If they areconsistant they can demand flat fees from $100-800 per night.

When the promoter is able to guarantee glamour customers , rich and famous or VIP big spenders they can also request a % of bar sales or bottle sales anywhere between 10-30%. The venue owner will often place a minimum that must be sold in order for commission to be payed and if it is not met then the promoter must pay the difference. The bar/bottle sales option requires a lot of experience and confidence from the promoter itself so be cautious. If you commit to 5 days a week of promotions or 4 weekends a month you can easily bring in $50,000 a year ( 25 per hr )

PARTY promoters mature into existence from the previous stage. They will need to hire DJs, entertainers, support staff and even manage the venue rentals and catering in some cases so start-up capital is needed. Risk in these types of promotions is high with insurance for the venue becoming a must in certain genres like hip-hop ($2500 per night ) but certainly "better safe sorry".

Return on Investment can range between 1K and 10K per party but this requires careful market research, advertising and marketing with a sound understanding of business planning that insures success. It is not a stretch to expect to run 25-50 events per year and expect a yearly total of $25,000-$500,000 in gross if you are committed to the job and not the lifestyle. That's $12.50 to $250 per hour in shift worker lingo.

EVENT promoters can make 10x or more but require long planning timelines, carry high risks and demand large amounts of working capital. The typical payouts are tied to revenue splits of 80/20, 70/30 and 50/50 for regional and national events. This is often taken from ticket sales and door sales but a seasoned promoter will include merchandising and cross marketing revenue streams as well.

Media buying costs are much higher as this type of event requires regional media buys as discussed on page 10-18 and media schedules that can have daily frequencies, regional reach and month long runs of both traditional and digital channels. These events are high profile so there is very little room for mistakes and the competition is high from large A&R organizations as well as the record companies and publishers that are offering 360 deals to top artists in order to capture this profitable revenue stream.

AMIR14 : Research - The Promoter ( W29 of 52 )

2014-10-03T10:22:00.003-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : PROMOTERS

WHAT DOES A PROMOTER DO?

A successful promoter takes control of every aspect in a tour or show. From research and planning to hiring support staff, supervising the production schedule and settling compensation.

RESEARCH
Geographic, demographic and psychographic research for regional population densities, per capita incomes, education & cultural diversities proximity to universities plus venue rental fees associated with stage size, attendance capacities and supporting staff required and amenities.

PLANINING

The promoter needs to start 12-16 weeks from the event.

1) Use existing contacts and previous events in order to spread word of mouth
2) Use Advertising and Marketing tools to promote the show, ( Print, Radio,TV, Cable)
3) Direct Mail should be sent out to allow for delivery using bulk USPS rates
4) Set-up ticket sales outlets, online vendors and printed tickets or ticket-box
5) Printing of tickets can be Co-OPed with outlet store name and coupons as advertising

8-12 weeks from the event
6) Distribute, log and affidavit numbered tickets for vendor sales/receipt tracking
7) Print and distribute advertising collateral to build buzz using local media community

4-8 weeks from the event 8) Hire support crew for Load-in, TicketSales, Ushers, LoadOut on contract or per diems
9) Send out FREE PR to Local Radio, TV, News to maximize marketing budgets
10) Your Direct Mail should have arrived so follow with tele-marketing, tally results and fulfill
11) Start Radio advertising 30-60 sec spots, 4x a day during the week for at least 1 month

2-3 weeks from the event
12) Set-up Interviews with artist(s) for industry news and media press release
13) Monitor ticket sales every day and re-distribute more if necessary
14) Check with facilities manager for insurance, lights, sound checks and security

Week of the show
15) Set-up ticket sales, receipts and tickets along with money collections before the show
16) Confirm arrival, sound check, dressing rooms and set-list with artist manager
17) Set-up production schedule and share with all staff involved to commit

IMPLEMENTATION
* Day of Show Logistics
* Meet building manager to open and inspect venue 8hrs prior to showtime.
* Meet support staff with production schedule and duties 6hrs prior to showtime.
* Meet with supervisors to do a walk through of the building 4hrs prior to showtime.
* Meet with ticket booth manager for accounting for door sales, receipts and holds.
* Meet with ushers and security 2hrs prior to showtime.
* Meet with the band and manager to arrange settlement times.
* Supervise showtime and get cash and tickets from ticket booth manager.
* When show-time is over settle out w/crew & band, supervise venue load-outs & close.

AMIR14 : Research - The Place ( W25-28 of 52 )

2014-09-24T12:01:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : VENUES

WHAT CAN A VENUE DO FOR AN ARTIST?

Performing at the right venue can be the difference between a huge payday and cancelling a tour, both the artist and the promoters have a lot to lose if they make the mistake of playing a venue that's not appropriate.

There are many different categories to consider with capacities, stage types, costs and popularity. Up and coming unsigned local artists generally play at bars in their local communities. These venues tend to have capacities of 50 to 250 and might have an open mic night or a house band. These venues are a great place to develop your stage presence and get used to the logistics of performing live. The income is not the major driving force at this stage unless it's the weekend and even then it will probably just cover the night's expenses.

When a local act gets tired of opening or closing a local bar and they have a big enough fan base and budget they will venture into moving to a venue like a casino, ballroom, auditorium, hall, playhouse or even a hotel, market or zoo where they might have an audience of 250-1000. If the band can deliver the entire audience themselves they may be able to run their own shows but this is rather difficult to do while playing at the same time. At this stage the band can begin to build the stamina and momentum needed to master their own music and get a manager to help them grow.

Now, the more enterprising artists will use a manager or booking agent from the start and provided their chops are up to par will get entry into larger community sponsored events like performing arts centers, county fairs, small theaters, cabarets, pavilions, band-shells, amphitheaters or outdoor festivals which offer multiple bands and stages. Local festivals will need to fill 3 or 4 stages and can potentially drive 1,000 to 5,000 attendees providing the opening acts with a large audience. Entry into these festivals can cost a band from $500 to $1500 but it is a well worth expense as they can exploit their attendance socially, gain new fans while making themselves available to possible label and publishing scouts at the festival. Unfortunately, these events are held yearly only so if the band can plan ahead the momentum from these events can lead to A&R representation or publisher interest if nothing else it can lead to participating in even larger festivals like SXSW in Texas or Boonaro in Tennessee.

Moving to the big shows requires that you be signed and managed by a large label or publisher that can sell thousands of tickets to the larger theaters with capacities of 5 to 10 thousand seats. Hockey arenas and national baseball fields accommodate from 20 to 60 thousand patrons and the largest football fields have capacities from 60,000 to 100,000 fans. Go NFL!!! The biggest seating venues are found in car racing with the Indy 500 holding upwards of 250,000 paying customers. Certainly very difficult to entertain that many folks :-)

So, indeed the right venue can do a lot for a new or established artist. Sometimes just knowing that your favorite artist played there also is reward enough, ie CBGBs, Troubadour or House of blues.

WHERE ARE THE MOST VENUES?

According to the www.TheIndieVenueBible.com there are more than 30,000 Venues, over 3,000 Booking Agents, with more than 3,000 festivals and 2,000 colleges that are always looking for a few good artists. They break the list into regions, states and cities as depicted below...

REGION STATES Agents Venues Population

Northeast NY, NJ, PA, CT, MA, RI, VT, NH, ME, DE 400 5,200 65 Million

Northcentral IL, IN, KY, MI, WI, OH, IA has the most 290 4,900 50 Million

Southeast DC, FL, MD, GA, NC, SC, TN, AL, MS, VA 240 4,800 72 Million

Southcentral TX, LA, OK, CO, AR, KS, MO 250 3,900 50 Million

Northwest WA, AK, WY, MN, NE, ND, SD, ID, OR,MT120 2,500 26 Million

Southwest CA, AZ, NV, UT, HI, NM 370 3,500 56 Million

Some of the best cities for artist have a mix of population densities and supply chain support. I am referring to cities that emulate the Music City. Nashville, Tennessee has more than 180 recording studios, 130 music publishers, 100 live music clubs and 80 Recoding labels. California and New York have similar reputations as music capitals but much larger populations and venues and the biggest music conferences take place in Miami with the Winter Music Conference as well as Texas with the South by South West at the start of every spring.

Other metropolitan cities where the cultural diversity, per capita incomes and population densitties converge follow below.

Metropolis State Musical Acts Population

New York City NY 115,767 8.0.M of 19M

Los Angeles CA 175,083 4 0 M of 37M

San Diego CA 46,267 2.0 M of 37M

Austin TX 35,953 1,0 M of 25M

Chicago IL 69,963 2.8 M of 12M

Phoenix AZ 35,293 1.5 M of 06M

Philadelphia PA 45,508 1.5 M of 12M

Washington DC 41,518 600 K of 600K

Seattle WA 37,224 600 K of 07M

Atlanta GA 41,747 500 K of 10M

Las Vegas NV 27,513 500 K of 03M

Miami FL 33,637 2.3 M of 18M

Tampa FL 28,339 300 K of 18M

Newark NJ 26,443 300 K of 09M

research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov, the 2010 US Census at www.census.gov and The Indie Bible at www.indievenuebible.com.

WHICH VENUES GENERATE THE MOST REVENUE?

Until you get signed by a record label like Sony, RCA, Mercury Nashville, MCA, Warner Brothers, Capitol, and Columbia or you get a publishing deal from the likes of Universal Music Publishing Warner-Chappell Music and you get famous you will not gain entry into the largest International or national stadiums and arenas hosting 10,000 seats or more. However, you or your manager can book shows during of-nights at local/regional festivals, bars, clubs and smaller parks and recreation venues like amphitheatres until you have the capital to invest on these larger venue.

TOP INTERNATIONAL

Venues State Capacity Owner-Promoter
The O2 Arena UK - London 20,000 AEG
Barclays Center NY - Brooklyn 17,732 FCRC/AEG
The Wells Fargo Center PA - Philadelphia 19,500 Global Spectrum
Palais Omnisports FR - Paris 17,000 AEG
Staples Center CA - Los Angeles 19,079 AEG

TOP NORTH AMERICAN VENUES

Venues / Promoters State Capacity Owner-Promoter
Barclays Center NY - Brooklyn 17,732 FCRC/AEG
Staples Center CA - Los Angeles 19,079 AEG
American Airlines Arena FL - Miami 19,600 Basketbal Properties/AEG
The Wells Fargo Center PA - Philadelphia 19,500 Global Spectrum
Sprint Center MO - Kansas City 18,500 Kansas City/AEG
Prudential Center NJ - Newark 18,711 Apollo/AEG

MOST SOUTH FLORIDA EVENTS

Venues / Promoters State Capacity Owner-Promoter
Bi-Centennial Park FL - Miami 45,000 Miami-Dade County
Bank Atlantic Center FL - Sunrise 20,737 County-Sunrise Sports Ent
American Airlines Arena FL - Miami 19,600 County-Basketball Properties
Broward Center Au Rene FL - Ft-Lauderdale 02,700 Broward County
Dreyfoos Hall FL - Palm Beach 02,195 Palm Beach County
Fillmore Theater FL - Miami 02,500 County-LIVE NATION

research conducted using data reported by both Billboard magazine and PollStar at www.billboard.com www.pollstar.com

HOW MUCH DOES RENTING A VENUE COST?

Obviously the bigger the event the higher the investment and operational costs. Take for example the Ultra Music festival run by Russell Faibisch. Production costs might reach $25-30 million dollars this year but when he started it in 1999 at the age of 21 and still attending Florida International University, he borrowed 10k from the bank and drew 10,000 fans. In 2014 he is expected to attract 300,000 fans and 300 performers. It might generate as much as 25 million a day or 75 million dollars in economic activity for the city of Miami including the rental of the Bayfront-Bicentennial Park and other city services. His event alone brings in 12% of the total revenue for the parks operator and $500,000 on top of the previous $600,000 he payed for almost 200 police officers to patrol the event. Rental for the park should last 15 days from set-up to breakdown and cost another $250,000 or 15K per day. ( According to an NHL report on arenas the cost of operating an arena ranges from 6 million a year for small arenas 6K or less to 16 million for 20k+ which is equal to a monthly cost of 500k-1.3 million usd. The figures below are per day based on an NBA report wich found operational costs of $700-800 usd per seat for much larger arenas of 20-40k seats. Leasing payments for rental ranged from $3-7 million per year while there are many venues that publically price their venues online others handle it privately. )

Below are a few estimates based on this research and other public rental information on some of South Florida's most popular venues.

Venues / Promoters Capacity Operator     Rental Fees

Bicentennial Park 45,000 Bayfront Park Trust     $7K-15K+
Bank Atlantic Center 20,737 Broward/SSE/BBT     $10k-40k +
American Airlines Arena 19,600 Basketball Properties    $20k-40K +
Broward Center Au Rene 2,700 Broward County    Greater of 10K or 10% tkts ( * ** )
Dreyfoos Hall 2,195 Palm Beach County    $7k-15k + $1-3 tkt + fee ( * )
Fillmore Theater 2,500 LIVE NATION    Varies on Season and Style
Parker Playhouse 1,168 Broward County    $2.5k + 3.5% tkts + fee ( ** or $1K)

* Services Included : Single performance of 4 hrs with Box Office Services, House Management, Internal    Security, Existing Sound and Lighting Inventory.
** Extra Charges : Front office, Security and Cleaning $100-150 per hour,
4% of Credit Card processing 10% Group Sales 25% Merchandise
4% Production Fees + Drapes, Lights Sound, Spots, Mics, Pianos...
*** Not Included : Stage Labor, Extraordinary sound/lighting equipment rental, Props, Credit card   charges, Insurance, Sales Tax, Ticket Surcharge, Traffic Control (external),   Piano/Piano tuning, Spotlights $50-150 Fees.
**** Bar and Catering : Hosted Bar Beer & Wine $10 per hour per person top Shelf $20
Catering HORS D’OEUVRES $30-50 per dz ( Butler, BBQ Luau
   20% Gratuity and sales Tax extra

AMIR14 : Research - The Venue Costs ( W28 of 52 )

2014-09-24T11:56:00.003-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : VENUES

HOW MUCH DOES RENTING A VENUE COST?

Below are a few estimates based on this research and other public rental information on some of South Florida's most popular venues.

AMIR14 : Research - The Top Venues ( W27 of 52 )

2014-09-16T11:57:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : VENUES

WHICH VENUES GENERATE THE MOST REVENUE?

TOP INTERNATIONAL

TOP NORTH AMERICAN VENUES

MOST SOUTH FLORIDA EVENTS

AMIR14 : Research - The Venue Locations ( W26 of 52 )

2014-09-09T10:50:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : VENUES

WHERE ARE THE MOST VENUES?

REGION STATES Agents Venues Population
Northeast NY, NJ, PA, CT, MA, RI, VT, NH, ME, DE   400 5,200 65 Million
Northcentral IL, IN, KY, MI, WI, OH, IA has the most   290    4,900 50 Million
Southeast DC, FL, MD, GA, NC, SC, TN, AL, MS, VA   240 4,800 72 Million
Southcentral TX, LA, OK, CO, AR, KS, MO 250 3,900 50 Million
Northwest WA, AK, WY, MN, NE, ND, SD, ID, OR, MT 120 2,500 26 Million
Southwest CA, AZ, NV, UT, HI, NM   370 3,500 56 Million

Other metropolitan cities where the cultural diversity, per capita incomes and population densitties converge follow below.

Metropolis State Musical Acts Population
New York City NY 115,767 8.0.M of 19M
Los Angeles CA 175,083 4 0 M of 37M
San Diego CA 46,267 2.0 M of 37M
Austin TX 35,953 1,0 M of 25M
Chicago IL 69,963 2.8 M of 12M
Phoenix AZ 35,293 1.5 M of 06M
Philadelphia PA 45,508 1.5 M of 12M
Washington DC 41,518 600 K of 600K
Seattle WA 37,224 600 K of 07M
Atlanta GA 41,747 500 K of 10M
Las Vegas NV 27,513 500 K of 03M
Miami FL 33,637 2.3 M of 18M
Tampa FL 28,339 300 K of 18M
Newark NJ 26,443 300 K of 09M

research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov, the 2010 US Census at www.census.gov and The Indie Bible at www.indievenuebible.com.

AMIR14 : Research - The Venue Types ( W25 of 52 )

2014-09-03T15:02:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : VENUES

WHAT CAN A VENUE DO FOR AN ARTIST?

So, indeed the right venue can do a lot for a new or established artist. Sometimes just knowing that your favorite artist played there also is reward enough, ie CBGBs, Troubadour or House of blues.

AMIR14 : Research - The Product ( W21-24 of 52 )

2014-08-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

2014 SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON

Steamiest Festivals in August

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS

WHAT DOES AN ARTIST DO?

Now, I think you are all pretty aware of what an artist does and the website www.celebritytalent.net has a great tool to gage their value, but have you ever considered how many people are involved in the supply chain that supports them?

I want to detail the compensations for those folks as well.

Consider that the music industry is a leading indicator for the health of the economy in general. According to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov and the National Endowment for the Arts www.arts.gov, its contribution to GDP is almost 5 percent and employs more than 3 million people with the largest share being motion picture and video industries at 300K employees. In 2013 the government will classify R&D for the National Endowment as an investment and not an expense for the first time in its existance.

Intellectual property patents and copyright account for 5 trillion dollars in USA economic GDP publishers creating, producing, distributing, broadcasting and exhibiting copyright material contributed 1 Trillion dollars in GDP and account for 100-200 billion in exports while employing 5 million workers. Arts and Culture account for 3% of America's GDP according to the National endowment for the arts, even so, it is common for many artists to struggle until they become profitably marketable and signed. The majority of the biggest profits go to a few of the top artists but the supporting and supply chain staff can make still make a comfortable living.

Below are a few of the Bureau of Labor Statistics associated with the music and entertainment industry should the lifestyle of a new artist be less than comfortable...

Code Employment Category # Workers Incomes Hourly

13-1011 Agents, Artists Managers, Performers, Athletes 11,770 088,260 $44

27-1010 Artists and Related Workers 84,990 073,980 $37

39-5091 Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance 1,950 067,580 $34

27-2042 Musicians and Singers 42,100 062,000 $31

27-2000 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 489,840 056,890 $28

27-0000 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, & Media 1,750,130 054,490 $27

27-2099 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 16,630 044,000 $22

27-2031 Dancers 11,390 044,390 $22

27-2012 Producers and Directors 87,010 041,680 $21

27-2040 Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers broad 67,050 030,000 $15

27-2031 Dancers 11,390 020,000 $10

research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov

HOW DOES AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST GET PAYED?

A BUNDLE OF RIGHTS has been granted by the United States that include the right to profit from your Intellectual Property creations, so let's explore them...

COPYRIGHTS are the most productive way for an artist to profit exponentially for their complete works until the LIFE of the last surviving author ends PLUS 70 years at which point the work is placed in the public domain. Songs, song books, plays, pictures, images, photos, recordings, lyrics and melodies can be registered at the Library of Congress with as little as $35 usd or expedited ASAP for about $800 usd. The fees cover standard forms for (C) Lead Sheets of lyrics and melody registered as unpublished or published singles or compilations (SR) Sound Recording 30 second hooks or fully mastered recordings on contract from record labels, producers and independent creators (PH) Phonograph Recording with lyrics and music (R) Trademark titles and slogans for a limited time (P) Patent ideas or inventions and literary works.

REPRODUCED (M) Master Record or Master Use license for Music Labels )

DISTRIBUTED ( Lend, Rent or Lease)

PERFORMED (PRO) Performance Rights Organizations License Non-Broadcast Public view

DISPLAYED Publishing rights Mechanicals, Synchronization licenses, Grand Rights for Theater and New Media

BROADCASTED (S) Synch license or Blanket license for Radio, Film, TV, New Media

DERIVATIVES Permission to create derivatives from an original work

UNIONS like SAG, AFTRA, AFL/CIO charge a fee to protect an artist's rights & police the industry.

PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS like BMI, ASCAP & SEASAC manage royalties.

PUBLISHERS like Harry Fox Agency Acquire 25-50% of your Rights for 1 yr and exploit the works charging for performance licenses in public or broadcasts of radio, television or new media, mechanical licenses for other artists or companies that want to use the original work for advertising, marketing, printing. They also cover re-recording of the originals on major or independent labels and cover albums. They even represent software companies.

ROYALTIES are Collected and disbursed by the PROs, Publishers and Exchanges.

SoundExchange and SoundCloud have rate cards for Broadcast fees ranging from $49-$2000. BMI, ASCAP SESAC and Harry Fox have Mechanical fees ranging from .09c per 100k printed

Harry Fox has Grand Rights Performance/Synch Licenses fees of 9.1c < 5 min or 1.7c per min

CREATIVE COMMONS is a new way to protect your ownership and rights that allows works to be shared freely. They are beginning to MONETIZE this classification method by using (NC) Non-Commercial use (SA) Share Alike (ND) share with No Derivatives allowed (CC) (BY) to Give Credit to Authors for their work.

WHO ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?

The Biggest artists are those that get signed by a major record label and have the full financial support and expert A&R teams of the biggest promoters like Live Nation or AEG. These mega stars are offered 360 deals for 5-10 years where the label handles every aspect. New artist already signed by a label without a 360 can still work a publishing deal known as a Development Advance and it can range in the 100K-200K usd area. Independent artists under contract with publishers like Harry Fox directly can expect 10k-40k usd in advance and 50% of royalties until the advance is re-couped at which point they get 75% while the publishers still get 25%. These are usually 1-2 year deals with an option to renew.

TOP 20 INTERNATIONAL TOURS

BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Beiber, Bruce Springsteen,

Rihanna, CirqueDuSolei-MJ, Taylor Swift, DepecheMode, One Direction

Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Muse, Fleetwood Mac, Kenney Chesney

Roger Waters, Bruno Mars, Jay-Z/JT, Elton John, Cirque DuSolei-Corteo

The number one artist internationally was BonJovi generating $259 million usd across 97 cities and 102 shows Internationally. He was able to keep the price down at $95 usd and averaged a total of 27k tickets per show or $2.6 million gross. Beyonce racked up $188 million in ticket sales while attending to 77 cities. Her average ticket price was $111 usd brought in around 21k fans to every show, for a per show gross of $2.4 million in sales. Bruce Springsteen and CircqueDuSolei both managed to reach the 4 million dollar mark per show by filling their venues to the tune of 39K and 34K fans per event.

TOP 10 NORTH AMERICAN TOURS

Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac

One Direction, Luke Bryan, Zach Brown, Bruno Mars and Beyonce

The number one tour was Taylor Swift as she generated a total of $112 million dollars in ticket sales and toured 47 cities adding a second date in almost half of her cities with an average ticket price of $85 usd and 28k tickets sold per show. BonJovi came in second with $107 million in sales 58 cities visited but only 4 second day additions while his average ticket price was $95 usd he only had 19k fans per show. The most expensive show in the USA last year was that of the Rolling Stones at $226 average ticket price they managed to bring in 38K attendees per concert bringing in a total of $88 million usd for the entire 11 city tour ( an average of $8 million per show )

research conducted using Billboard.com and Pollstar.com.

WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?

INTERNATIONAL

According to the Pollstar.com 2013 ticket sales matrix the top ten international artists toured Europe in April, May and June. North America through August and Latin America in September and finishing the year down under in Australia through November when most tours come to an end.

Internationally BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Bieber, Bruce Springsteen Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Depeche Mode, One Direction and Paul mcCartney took the top ten grossing musical concert tours. Together they averaged 69 cities and 96 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $94 usd. 154 million was the average gross sales per artist for the year and further segmented into a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.3 million in sales.

These artists had many single city/country concerts but most had various events in countries like the United Kingdom, France as well as Germany and Ireland with Australia becoming a great english speaking market for all averaging 3 nights per artist. Latin America as expected had Brazil and Mexico with the most concerts, as it should be in relation to their large populations.

NORTH AMERICA

North American tours tend to launch in March and April just in time for Spring Break and go on till the end of the summer in August. A seasoned artist will have between 25 and 50 shows per year.

Now, for the 2013 American circuit it was Taylor Swift, BonJovi, Kenny Chesney, The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac taking the top five spots, together they averaged 40 cities and 46 shows per artist while the median ticket price was around $118 usd for the top 5. This was heavily skewed by the $226 usd ticket for the Rolling Stones tour. However, I am using the top 5 not the top 10 as with the worldwide charts but still get a similar $92 million usd as the average gross sales per artist for the year with a per show total of 23k tickets sold and 2.9 million usd in sales.

Anyway, while the cultural diversity and sheer populations of states like California, Florida and New York demands multiple dates it was the Northeast and their 100 million+ audience that was hard to resist for any artist in any genre. The cultural diversity, per capita incomes and large metropolitan centers with college and university concentrations made the North East states a promoters dream. States like Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania and DC who welcomed every musical genre from classical to rock and hip hop and of-course good old country.

Now don't get me wrong there will always be a descent market in the South East and Mid Central parts of the country for a little fiddle but traditionally these are states like North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

AMIR14 : Research - The Top Artists ( W24 of 52 )

2014-08-20T10:19:00.001-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS

WHERE ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?

INTERNATIONAL

NORTH AMERICA

North American tours tend to launch in March and April just in time for Spring Break and go on till the end of the summer in August. A seasoned artist will have between 25 and 50 shows per year.

AMIR14 : Research - The Top Tours ( W23 of 52 )

2014-08-13T14:44:00.002-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS

WHO ARE THE BIGGEST ARTISTS?

TOP 20 INTERNATIONAL TOURS

BonJovi, Beyonce, Pink, Justin Beiber, Bruce Springsteen,
Rihanna, CirqueDuSolei-MJ, Taylor Swift, DepecheMode, One Direction
Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Muse, Fleetwood Mac, Kenney Chesney
Roger Waters, Bruno Mars, Jay-Z/JT, Elton John, Cirque DuSolei-Corteo

TOP 10 NORTH AMERICAN TOURS

Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac
One Direction, Luke Bryan, Zach Brown, Bruno Mars and Beyonce

research conducted using Billboard.com and Pollstar.com.

AMIR14 : Research - The Artists Compensation ( W22 of 52 )

2014-08-05T19:16:00.001-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS

HOW DOES AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST GET PAYED?

A BUNDLE OF RIGHTS has been granted by the United States that include the right to profit from your Intellectual Property creations, so let's explore them...

REPRODUCED (M) Master Record or Master Use license for Music Labels )
DISTRIBUTED ( Lend, Rent or Lease)
PERFORMED (PRO) Performance Rights Organizations License Non-Broadcast Public view
DISPLAYED Publishing rights Mechanicals, Synchronization licenses, Grand Rights for Theater and New Media
BROADCASTED (S) Synch license or Blanket license for Radio, Film, TV, New Media
DERIVATIVES Permission to create derivatives from an original work

UNIONS like SAG, AFTRA, AFL/CIO charge a fee to protect an artist's rights & police the industry.

PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS like BMI, ASCAP & SEASAC manage royalties.

ROYALTIES are Collected and disbursed by the PROs, Publishers and Exchanges.

SoundExchange and SoundCloud have rate cards for Broadcast fees ranging from $49-$2000. BMI, ASCAP SESAC and Harry Fox have Mechanical fees ranging from .09c per 100k printed

Harry Fox has Grand Rights Performance/Synch Licenses fees of 9.1c < 5 min or 1.7c per min

AMIR14 : Research - The Artists ( W21 of 52 )

2014-08-01T11:37:00.004-04:00

INDUSTRY RESEARCH : ARTISTS

WHAT DOES AN ARTIST DO?

So... hopefully your mind took a little trip down melody lane to a more relaxing place than all this work stuff. ;-( I know the feeling. Why do you think I chose the music industry as my first report? Now, I think you are all pretty aware of what an artist does and the website www.celebritytalent.net has a great tool to gage their value, but have you ever considered how many people are involved in the supply chain that supports them? I want to detail the compensations for those folks as well. Consider that the music industry is a leading indicator for the health of the economy in general. According to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis www.bea.gov and the National Endowment for the Arts www.arts.gov, its contribution to GDP is almost 5 percent and employs more than 3 million people with the largest share being motion picture and video industries at 300K employees. In 2013 the government will classify R&D for the National Endowment as an investment and not an expense for the first time in its existance.

Intellectual property patents and copyright account for 5 trillion dollars in USA economic GDP

publishers creating, producing, distributing, broadcasting and exhibiting copyright material contributed 1 Trillion dollars in GDP and account for 100-200 billion in exports while employing 5 million workers. Arts and Culture account for 3% of America's GDP according to the National endowment for the arts, even so, it is common for many artists to struggle until they become profitably marketable and signed. The majority of the biggest profits go to a few of the top artists but the supporting and supply chain staff can make still make a comfortable living.

Below are a few of the Bureau of Labor Statistics associated with the music and entertainment industry should the lifestyle of a new artist be less than comfortable...

Code Employment Category # Workers Incomes Hourly

13-1011 Agents, Artists Managers, Performers, Athletes 11,770 088,260 $44
27-1010 Artists and Related Workers 84,990   073,980 $37
39-5091 Makeup Artists, Theatrical and Performance 1,950   067,580 $34
27-2042 Musicians and Singers 42,100   062,000 $31
27-2000 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 489,840   056,890 $28
27-0000 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, & Media 1,750,130   054,490 $27
27-2099 Entertainers and Performers, Sports Related 16,630   044,000 $22
27-2031 Dancers 11,390 044,390 $22
27-2012 Producers and Directors 87,010   041,680 $21
27-2040 Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers broad 67,050   030,000 $15
27-2031 Dancers 11,390 020,000 $10

research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov

AMIR14 : Concerts in July ( W17-20 of 52 )

2014-07-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

2014 SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON

Hottest Festivals in July

TOOLS OF THE TRADE : ANALYTICS

ON-PAGE OFF-PAGE

Web analytics is the multi-discipline art of decoding your winning DNA or your competitors to discover architecture, design, navigation, advertising and marketing optimizations that augment your previous success into the future. Analytics websites and software can help you find these opportunities to monitor how web pages and rich media assets perform by entering code that will track in real-time the traffic and actions of consumers looking for those solutions from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day, in any language and from every device. Neat, haa?

The real fun begins once you collect that data for 1 or 1 million you can create all kinds of reports to begin to gain insights into the customers mindset using a large number of Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Psynographic data points which at some point will even include Real-time BIOMETRIC information :-o kinda scary, but hey that's the world we live in. ;-)

Anyway, on the next page we list some of the more common and beneficial fields available for use but remember there are always new ones being added so be on the lookout. In the end if you are a mensch and believe in treating your customers as you would want to be treated you will wind up using this information to create the perfect balance of giving the customer what they want in order to get what you need. a Win-Win in any book.

ON-PAGE analytics helps you measure how your site is performing in terms of speed, functionality, navigation and ease of use. It measures traffic on your site. Where that traffic came from? How they got there? What computer they used and what language they speak? What they are looking for and what they clicked on? How long they looked at your site and what they bought? If they had purchased before and when. Finally, how they left and what they clicked last.

OFF-PAGE analytics measures the world around you. Who is popular. Why they are popular. What customers are looking for. How they are communicating and where they are shopping? How much they are spending and on what? Basically, it delivers a receptive audience for what ever you wish to say because it is exactly what they are talking about as well. That's kinda like preaching to the choir but think of the applause at the end. On the other hand perhaps you are not afraid of confrontation and if it's a tough crowd you want then a tough crowd yee shall have.

RESEARCH TOOL AD-NETWORKS AD-SOFTWARE Multi-Search CODING

AdPlanner   Google Adwords Search   AOL & ASK Javascript, PHP
AdSense PPC

AdsIntelligence   Bing AdCenter Search Yahoo Javascript
Bing Ads PPC

AdsIntelligence   Yahoo AdExange Search   Bing JQuery
StreamAds PPC

QuantCast AOL Sonar Search JQuery JavaScript
AdLearn PPC

WEBSITE TRAFFIC TRACKING

There are many Analytics software vendors that help track a companies website traffic and record each visitors geographic, demographic and even pyschographic flow to their online content or products in order to generate a historical and predictive dataset that is used to manage online consumer behavior and sales. However, companies generating more than 10 million in sales tend to migrate to the biggest vendors since they require complex implementations that merge data sets from various ERP systems in order to track their entire business cycle from product to place and promotion. These may contain Human Resources software like PeopleSoft from Oracle, Supply Chain Management applications from companies like SAP along with CRM/SFA tools from IBM and Microsoft, Siebel, Maximizer, Goldmine, Act and many others.

Google has been helping smaller companies that simply want to track their website's traffic or social media interactions in order to increase sales without the need for large scale software implementations however cloud companies like Salesforce.com and now Adobe.com are gearing up for the fight by proving integrated solutions in the CRM, CMS and analytics worlds.

Google Analytics

( FREE but $150K per year after more than 10 million hits per day )

Google Analytics scales extremely well from one to thousands of products, is multi-lingual and multi-channel and can integrate well with third party APIs for ERP, SCM, HR and CRM/SFA while providing a low cost of entry. Because of its popularity and ease of access it has a large community of support along with its user friendly interface and powerful dashboard. Tracking traffic stats like visitor counts, unique visitors, entry pages, navigation flows, page views, time on page, events per page, events per visit, exit links, exit pages, time on site and average visits per day comes natural to Google by way of their search engine knowledge and they can leverage that experience to help you achieve better conversion rates and lower bounce rates for any given business cycle objective or marketing campaign. With Google Docs, Google Voice and YouTube they make a very compelling value proposition at the expense of privacy and security.

Adobe Marketing Cloud

($500k+ per year for Analytics•Campaigns•ExperienceManager•MediaOptimizer•Social•Target)

Adobe has been offering content creation tools for almost 30 years and over the last 10 has been focusing on CMS and website design. Their value proposition lies in their ability to create an ecosystem that includes API integration to back-end systems for ERP, SCM, CRM/SFA and complex data sets along with using proprietary workflows to create, store, collaborate, schedule, auto publish, optimize and repurpose the front-end visualization of that data for consumer facing digital applications like websites. Further-more they can contextually target ANY DEVICE across channels and leverage their third party acquisitions to provide ad serving and management including A/B & multi-variate testing, realtime KPI/KBO reporting, off-line and on-line ad hoc multi dimensional projects w/out the need for extensive IT coding and support. Their only missing piece is the experience that Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines posses.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGMENT

You can implement a CRM solution inexpensively on your next Office Depot trip by getting Act, Goldmine, Sage or spend the extra time and money to customize one of the more sophisticated implementations like SAP, Oracle or Siebel. It all depends on your budget and ERP goals as explained on the previous pages.

Regardless of the delivery method they all provide a similar feature-set that includes contact management of companies, departments, people and groups. A built-in or integration to an email service including calendaring and scheduling. A workflow engine for opportunity management of activities, product development, inventory, pricing, leads, sales funnels, chatter and cases or projects. A campaign management area for advertising, mass mailings and digital marketing and finally a dashboard for KPI metrics monitoring and forecasts.

Salesforce.com

($65 per user/month to $1200 per 5 users/year for Group•Professional•Enterprise•Unlimited)

Saleforce is deployed solely the cloud as a Saas or software as a service. While it is the most popular, easy to implement and most cost effective CRM/SFA solution it comes with a few caveats. For example your data security and service reliability is out of your control to some extent and vertical integration or scalability is outsourced to a third party development community making for limited integration with back-office software like ERP, SCM and HR. Data import is available but field force management and instant messaging can be difficult solutions to introduce and they were not native to the service. Performance can be difficult to anticipate but speed to market is unparralled. Pricing tiers range from $65 to $125 that include marketing lists and mass mailing campaigns as well as territory management and quotas. Customer service is provided using their Service Cloud. Chatter keeps everyone connected with an instant messaging solution and ExactTarget is their 1:1 campaign management tool. Finally Force.com adds application development and CMS while Data.com houses a large B2B company list.

Microsoft CRM Dynamics

($45 - $59 per user/month for •Professional•Plus - Boxed, Cloud or hybrid Software)

Microsoft is leveraging their existing Outlook user interface and MS Office applications to provide a familiar experience to consumers while including and easy path to online migration with different levels of web based browser, mobile and ofline access. The solution offers a robust customization template for data types, workflows and role-based views while utilizing the popular .net infrastruture and development tools like Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Servers. Along with their sales solution they also provide a customer service option, a data driven MarketingPilot tool for traditional advertising and digital marketing including PPC as well as an integrated social media insights option called Yammer that helps you Listen, Engage, Collaborate, Amplify, Solve, Innovate and Analyze along side your loyal customers. Their most recent update also includes a retail option for POS, store operations, ommni channel SCM merchandising and e-commerce with improved project management utilities and customizable dashboard.

CONTENT / WEB MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

A good website is crucial to the success of a business in the 21st century and there's no better way to manage one than through the use of CMS. While there are many features to consider when selecting your software it is reassuring to know that there are some basics that ANY CMS solution must have. For example a solid security protocol with end user access control lists and user profiles. The application should be able to handle secure sockets layer content or https:// along with offering load balancing and database replication. An online administration dashboard is a must as well as a rapid development interface that is drag and drop, WYSIWYG and has templated wizards for standard reusable components. If an abstracted macro language and plug-ins are not available if must at least have a robust object model that can manage the merchandising needs, functions, methods and properties of an e-commerce site.

WordPress

( Free with Paid Upgrades available )

Wordpress started out as a blog creator but has blossomed into a full CMS application. It can be easily installed on a server in five minutes via a wizard for the core components which can auto update automatically in the background without large downloads. The basic features are free but you can purchase premium features ( $25-$100 1x) as well as third party plug-ins, extra storage, and private domain redirecting ( $5-25 per year ). The site can be hosted for free as a sub-domain.wordpress.com or at a cost from a shared or dedicated PHP server. These range from $10-50 per month including domain registration for shared space which is less secured so paying for extra security and back-up services is a must. An expert developer/programmer can charge $75 hour with a large third party plug-ins developer community providing premium features at set costs however they can bring potential security risks. There are many buil-in features in the core like image and multi-media upload support and a user friendly dashboard for management plus thousands of ready built themes that make the tool fun and easy to use from day one however it's native open source programming language of php can be difficult to learn for many so it is common to opt for a turn-key solution contractor to build their first website ( 2k-3k for 5 pages ).

Joomla

( FREE with PAID extensions and private hosting upgrades available )

Joomla is the 2nd most popular FREE CMS out there requiring the same PAID developer/programmer and hosting upgrades as wordpress but providing stronger security through user authentication via OpenId and LDAP. The Joomla installer is straight forward but very configurable and meant to work on common shared hosting packages. It comes with an attractive administration interface, complete with intuitive drop-down menus and other features along with EXTENSIONS to its core functionality allowing the creation of great social media themed sites. Development costs range depending on complexity from $100 per page to $500 if training is provided. These may include graphic design and site architecture modules ( home, navigation, slideshows, forums, discussions, captcha, social media, rss, search, virtuemart zoom-ins, merchandising, checkout, payment and PayPal options, shipping, SEM, SEO, PPC, PPP )

AMIR14 : Concerts in June ( W13-16 of 52 )

2014-06-18T09:22:00.003-04:00

2014 SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON

Warmest Festivals in June

STRUCTURED ANALYSIS : SELF

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly... "The harder I work the luckier I get." If you want to succeed at anything in life, you must know what you are GOOD at and find work doing it, you must know what you are BAD at and learn to work around it so it does not affect your work and make for an UGLY situation. The business world knows this as SWOT, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and you can see it in action on page 46 later. For now we will use them to understand your brand but also to analyze your business FRONT OFFICE (customer facing) initiatives like your marketing campaigns and website and BACK OFFICE ERP or CRM applications

PROCESS MAPPING. The first step in any analysis is to map the current AS-IS using a drawing program known as flow charting. You should prepare a list of the processes you want to understand. Next you will gather information from all those involved and after SWOT analysis is complete, agree on improvement changes to staff, technology or process, if necessary.

INTERNAL OPTIMIZATION relies on ANY, MANY or ALL of your back office and front office analytics but actually goes a step further by allowing you to implement html code into web pages. The code allows you to directly monitor activity on your website and to create real-time reports. When you understand what works you can optimize your website accordingly affecting, folder structure and html file naming conventions, navigation flows, anchor links, categorization, meta-tags, titles, headings, alt-descriptions, keyword phrases, densities, proximity and relevance as well page themes, color schemes and fonts. External files for html/javascript, cascading style sheets and multi-media should be compressed in order to increase page load times.

FRONT OFFICE SWOT includes internal and external aspects with the EXTERNAL visibility, reach and buzz of your company, products, services, advertising and marketing campaigns being the easiest and least expensive to perform. This involves researching though external sources how many business directories, online classifieds, ads, companies, partners, affiliates, consumers, customers, social media fans and blog subscribers are talking about you or searching and using your solutions. There are many vendors like Nielsen.com ratings and CommScore.com that can help you obtain this information and I have included a matrix of them on my blog.

BACK OFFICE SWOT involves Enterprise Resource Planning Software modules ( ERP ) used to manage the back office tasks like supply chain, inventories, pricing, accounting, human resources / payroll and even sales or customer service functions. These can be difficult to implement and costly so often they are handled by one person only which can be incredibly stressfull and time consuming. Customer Relationship Management software ( CRM SFA FFA ) provides the inventory, sales and customer service aspects of ERP but at a much lower cost of ownership and maintenance. This allows for lower implementation costs but there are still many technical hurdles to overcome. Last but not least, Information Technology ( IT ) infrastructure which lays down an internal network ( LAN, WAN, WIFI VPN ) so that you can install and run your necessary back and front office software. Most business have at least this in place as it is easily scalable from low cost consumer products to large scale enterprise installations that require CEO, CMO and CIO approval & executive management staff. See Page 23 for vendor matrix.

STRUCTURED ANALYSIS : MARKETING

PRIMARY SECONDARY

There are many reasons why knowing the market you serve is important but the two main that we will cover in this publication are Start-up of a new business ( MARKET ANALYSIS ) and Growth of a current business ( MARKETING ANALYSIS ).

Both share similarities in statistical data sourcing ( Census.gov, Business.gov, SBA.gov, BLS.gov, DOL.gov, BuyUSA.gov, etc... ). More importantly their data collection and analysis of Primary and Secondary consumer segments use the same Quantitative and Qualitative standard methodology for capturing Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Psynographic info.

The resulting dataset provides historical benchmarks upon which current and sometimes real-time data can be used to discover leading and lagging macro economic indicators that support the desired business goal.

MARKET ANALYSIS is a part of every Business Plan and used to seek startup capital, therefore it needs to be as accurate and direct as possible including an industry description, current size, forecasted growth, current lifecycle stage, economic indicators for employment, income and earnings.

A successful analysis will also include additional divisions of the market and its consumers indicating prospective customers from a Primary and Secondary segment of the total market.

Primary Research will find distinguishing characteristics by asking questions for "critical product needs", "last purchase made", "where are they located?", "seasonal or cyclical purchasing?", "pricing points and gross margin targets", "volume discounts and "how much market share can be gained?".

Competitive Analysis should identify your competition by product line, service and market share while providing SWOT.

MARKETING RESEARCH is part of every Marketing Plan and used to understand if a company is meeting the needs and expectations of its customers, products and services. Analyzing the data will help you understand which products and services are in demand, and how to reduce risk.

Primary research is performed by asking questions directly to analyze current sales and the effectiveness of current practices using interviews, surveys, questionnaires and focus groups. "Why are you purchasing now?", "Which other products do you like?", "What price would be fair?", "How would you make it better?"

Secondary Research is used to analyze data that has already been published to asking the same questions.

STRUCTURED ANALYSIS : Competitive

Ever wonder how your competition does what they do? Well you don't need the NSA to help you snoop on them. Today, companies like Compete.com, CoreMetrics.com and Webtrends.com to name a few are making it easy for anybody to understand any business. The power of the data factory has enabled a new business to start-up and scale faster than ever before but it also means that since most companies have some exposure to the Cloud it becomes rather easy almost foolish not to spy on your competitor's industry visibility, consumer and supply chain reach.

Google, Yahoo and Bing make it real simple to spy right on the search engine query itself. enter a few keywords and you can see how your target company ranks in the SERP, It gets better when you search using Yahoo.com [SITE EXPLORER] Google.com [LINK : DOMAIN ] or [SITE : DOMAIN] to find their backlinks or outbound links. For Bing use the website MarketLeap.com.

Another simple trick is to [VIEWSOURCE] on your competitors website. There you can find all kinds of goodies including [KEYWORD DESCRIPTIONS] to ascertain some of their SEO optimization tactics. Seotoolset.com has a [PAGE ANALYZER] feature that searches your competitors content and sorts it based on keywords repeated to reverse engineer their strategy. You should also install their SEMTOOLBAR browser plug-in and try Multi-Page Analyzer which charges $29.95 a month and can certainly pay for itself with just one sale.

My recommendation would be to spy on the top three companies in your industry or your direct competition and average the results of your findings so that you can optimize your own efforts with similar if not better results. Some companies will even go as far as hijacking their competitors traffic but I strongly advice against such black hat strategies since they usually do more harm than good in the long run. I promise you slow and steady wins the race so long as you are willing to work as hard as your competition. It just takes a bit more thinking and you will also wind up working smarter. Remember you must be EQUAL before you can set yourself APART.

Now, when it comes to content the game changes a little. You can use CopyScope.com WordTracker.com or the Google Ad Planner to not only research competitive keyword phrases but also find single keyword strategies, long tail combinations and even negative keywords that allow you to optimize your content, landing pages and SEM campaigns. Understanding proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast will help you improve conversion rates, quality scores and reduce your advertising costs on Google AdWords/AdSense, Bing/Yahoo AdCenter and others. Remember "high traffic" and "high conversion" keywords do not have the same costs or results.

Last but not least, just like in self-analysis, blogs, directories, social media, rss feeds, shopping feeds are great ways to search for link magnets, link buying, link baiting, link requesting and link exchanging. What's good for the goose kinda thing... Again these are just some of the most important issues so feel free to use the matrix to explore more advanced tools.

One topic that I will leave for a later publication will be website design standards for your web pages, landing pages and ads. A good Content Management System ( CMS / WMS ) will answer all your questions if not a good designer..

AMIR14 : Concerts in May ( W9-12 of 52 )

2014-05-20T13:52:00.002-04:00

2014 SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL SEASON

Coolest Festivals in May

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : KPIs

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Now that we feel more comfortable with traditional advertising options for your marketing goals let's get a bit more aggressive with our sales tactics. Of-course you can always count a traditional advertising for brand awareness on channels like print, radio, film, broadcast television and cable however, those options can be less than transparent in their campaign metrics and do not provide real-time methods of measuring and adjusting your campaigns to improve sales.

If you wish to continue to focus on brand awareness I understand its perceived value however my research and your own experience will validate that the wireless internet of everything has taken over and so we will focus on 21st century Digital Marketing tools moving forward.

Did you know that this year more Americans will surf the internet from the cellphone than from their desktops at home. By the end of the decade there will be more cellphones than humans and the trend is to enable them all with broadband speeds, global position systems, cameras and electronic wallets. If your mouth is not salivating at this prospect right now perhaps it will by the end of this section.

77% of all business have a website and they are reaching out to their consumers online during any of the phases of strategic planning, tactical development, implementation and monitoring using display networks, advertising agencies, affiliate programs, email campaigns, social media, mobile advertising and search engine marketing.

There are a few key performance indicators that will help you and your inter-departmental team better understand how to monitor each of these and reach your milestones more confidently.

Let's list some of these marketing goals and their associated key performance indicators...

R E A C H

* Impressions served

* # of Visits

* # of New Visits

* % of Returning Visitors

* % of New Visitors

* Visitor Demographics

R E S P O N S E

* Search Engine used

* Referring Domain

* Search Key phrase used

* Search Keyword used

* # of Responses

* # of Unique Responders

A C Q U I S I T I O N

* Page Stick/Landing

* Page Slip/Bounce Rate

* AVG # of Visits per Visitor

* AVG # of Pages per Visit

* AVG Time 2 Purchase

RETENTION

* Page Frequency

* AVG Frequency

* Return Action

* Action Value

Lifetime Value

C O S T T O R E V E N U E T R A C K I N G V A R I A B L E S

CPM

Cost Per Mile

CPC

Cost Per Click

CPA

Cost Per Acquisition

CPA

Cost Per Action

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : SEO

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

While performing SEO on your website can help you expand your reach, solicit response and acquire new customers the results can take 3-6 months to be fully realized but only last 1 to 2 years depending on how competitive your industry is.

Remember that by 2020 40% of all purchases will be online and more than 90% will be searching the web for product info or a better price even while at the store purchasing from. Since more than 50% of web users never click on PAID ads, it is important that you optimize your website for search engines. Take into account that more than 60% of web searching and 40% of all digital advertising is performed on Google so your product or service needs to be on display there first and foremost. You will work on Bing, Yahoo and the others later.

So, how does SEO help you? It answers the questions for each and every possible consumer type you want to target so that when they type a SEARCH QUERY looking for something that you have, provide or sell YOUR INFORMATION shows up before YOUR COMPETITORS info catches their attention. This area is called the SERP or Search Engine Results Page and studies have shown that consumers usually click on the top 3 links and have an attention span of about 10 seconds once your LANDING PAGE is displayed before they decide to continue deeper with you or go back to a competitor link. It should take you less than a week to optimize your website but depending on how many pages you have it might take longer to update and re-submit your sitemaps.xml, robots.txt files for spiders, web crawlers and robots to re-index.

But how do you figure out this new content to include? It's called "self analysis" or keyword search for your on-page content and off-page popularity on the web. By finding out what keywords and key phrases are begin used by your customers to talk about you or look for your products. Researching your competition in the same manner can help you understand what separates you from the competition.

Once you find these short and long-tail combinations you can decide which have a higher probability of getting your company to the top of the search results page and insert them into your file names and HTML code to ensure proper densities and proximity. Use them in your meta-tags, heading tags (H1-H5), cascading style sheets inside external files or internal code. Update internal and external anchor links, file names, titles, descriptions and alt tags for all of your audio, video and image assets as well as the internal html code on your web pages. Basically your entire website should be written strategically to reflect how customers look for you and not how you see yourself.

Sounds easy enough right? Don't fret it... in the "Tools of the Trade" we will see many applications that can facilitate this process and remember that whenever your business process changes you will need to consider re-optimizing again. :-) SEO is not a ONE TIME fix but a constant choice.

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : PPC

PAY PER CLICK

PPC has two main players currently but Online Classifieds and Directories are slowly making their move on sites like Craigslist and eBay billing 3 billion usd a year or 6% of sector. Let's focus on the 20-30 billion usd that will be spent yearly in Display and Search ads during the next decade.

The Display Networks have been around since the onset of the web with companies like DoubleClick ( now Google ) while consumers spend less and less time on vertical websites when researching purchases ( as little as 5% versus 95% on search engines ) it is interesting to note that both Display and Search share almost the same % from the total digital spend at ~40% . The Display ecosystem holds many players between Advertiser and Publisher/Audience including advertising agencies like WPP Omnicom, IPG and Publicis; Ad networks like Google, Yahoo and InterClick; Ad Exchanges like DoubleClick and AdBrite and Search Engine platforms like Bing, Ask and Baidu.

There are of-course many others in the supply chain like Demand Aggregators, Yield Optimizers, Shopping Feeds and DSPs. These players have either Licensing business models or a % of media spend. They use CPM or Cost Per Mile to determine pricing as is the case with Demand Side Platforms that aggregate demand and increase performance allowing advertisers to bid on a per single impression basis rather than per 1K, similar to SEM below.

The Search Marketing model takes the lion's share of attention since it is much more easily accessible to small business owners and does not have a strict requirement in equipment, process or even knowledge. It is sold on an auction basis to the highest bidder and has been very popular with small to medium sized companies looking to sell online as it does not even require a shopping cart. Google for example uses a simple formula to determine the ads rank based on the following variables :

CPC x CTR x QS = SERP

Let's translate the formula Cost Per Click refers to the highest bidder getting the highest rank on the results page. Click Through Rate is the success rate of your ads and how often it is clicked because of compelling text relevance to the searched query. Last but not least is the Quality Score which compares your ad text with your landing page to ensure that they are relevant to each other. So... If you play by the rules you will be placed as close to the top of the Search Result Page in relation to what other bidders for that search query are willing to pay.

So research your customer personas, buying funnel actions, test your ad copy and landing pages understand your lines of business, ads, ad groups and keywords, keyphrases and negative keywords. Manage your bids ( implicit, explicit, manual or auto ramp to maintain your page rank with broad or exact match types to phrase. Exact matches increase relevance in crucial bidding wars but remember that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing have their own management dashboards, search algorithms and developer APIs so get ready for some fun.

Google accounts for 2/3 of all ads with Yahoo, Bing and the other display networks taking the remaining 33% but Pay Per Click advertising is not exclusive to the Search Engines although they do take a large portion of the total spent on ads you can certainly purchase advertising directly on high traffic verticals like AOL, CNN and others or even contract with an Ad agency that can handle all of the complexities for you.

Last but not least is of-course the mobile advertising and social media worlds are emerging platforms that promise contextual Geographic, Demographic and Psychographic real-time segmentation of your target audience with Biometrics just around the corner it is no wonder that the internet of everything also means everyone.

Because of the many constant changes and innovations in the consumer electronics spectrum and digital marketing advertising models it is recommended that you review your strategy 4-6 times per 18 month period to avoid critical inflection points.

Remember that PPC is not everything. You still need a product or service in demand, a price that is competitive and a value proposition that is compelling.

DIGITAL MARKETING 101: PPP

PAY PER PERFORMANCE

PPP programs are extensions of the sales force. Referral and Affiliate middleman between Merchant and Consumer with independent Networks to audit performance in the case of affiliates.

The difference between the two programs is that under a referral the lead is generated out of good will and honest love for your product from the referrer. These referrers come from the merchants active customer base and they love the product or service so much that they want to refer friends and family. Yes, they are rewarded for that sale but that is not their primary motivation.

MERCHANT(Brand) REFERRER(Current Customer) CONSUMER(New Customer)

Affiliates on the other hand work only as hard as your commissions ( unless cookie stuffing ) Think of these affiliates as independent contractors that increase the brand awareness, lead generation and ultimately revenue streams for free. These companies and entrepreneurs are selling the merchant's products and services using content sites, syndicated, comparison, coupon or promotional sites, bloggers and even virtual game currencies and niche directories with little risk to the merchant who only pays them if there's an actual sale made from their efforts. Sweet!!!

MERCHANT(Brand) NETWORK(Auditor) + PUBLISHER(Affiliate) CONSUMER(New Customer)

Now don't get me wrong there are still risks associated with these relationships, specially to the brand name, better business bureau standing and sales but for the most part if monitoring is in place understanding the publishers good and bad activities should be easy and the learning experience alone is worth the risk, never mind the increased traffic and sales potential.

A major risk known as "Cookie Stuffing" occurs when the publisher benefits from a merchant's customer during the check-out process on the shopping cart if the customer decides to search for "discount codes" or coupons. When they open a new browser window, google "Discount Code" + the merchant's name and click on the links displayed, the landing pages launched set first party cookie values with the publisher's info. When the user returns to complete the sale already started, the publisher can take credit for the sale. The publishers are not entirely guilty since they are also using SEO, PPC and DISPLAY advertising to promote the merchants products but this and many other issues fuel distrust in the relationships between merchants and affiliates.

For this reason many merchants and affiliates simply choose to use an outside management company known as a network to be the middleman. CommissionJunction.com is one of the most successful even if they charge a flat fee of $500 a month or take 20-30% of affiliate payments from the merchants account because they resolve these conflicts. ( typically 4-20% of sale )

So how do you get started on these digital marketing options? Next month I will explain both the analysis steps and the tools of the trade before you move on to the industry research portion and the sample industry highlighted in the second half of this publication.

AMIR14 : Marketing - PPP ( W12 of 52 )

2014-05-20T13:44:00.005-04:00

DIGITAL MARKETING 101: PPP

PAY PER PERFORMANCE

PPP programs are extensions of the sales force. Referral and Affiliate middleman between Merchant and Consumer with independent Networks to audit performance in the case of affiliates.

The difference between the two programs is that under a referral the lead is generated out of good will and honest love for your product from the referrer. These referrers come from the merchants active customer base and they love the product or service so much that they want to refer friends and family. Yes, they are rewarded for that sale but that is not their primary motivation.

MERCHANT(Brand) REFERRER(Current Customer) CONSUMER(New Customer)

MERCHANT(Brand) NETWORK(Auditor) + PUBLISHER(Affiliate) CONSUMER(New Customer)

A major risk known as "Cookie Stuffing" occurs when the publisher benefits from a merchant's customer during the check-out process on the shopping cart if the customer decides to search for "discount codes" or coupons. When they open a new browser window, Google "Discount Code" + the merchant's name and click on the links displayed, the landing pages launched set first party cookie values with the publisher's info. When the user returns to complete the sale already started, the publisher can take credit for the sale. The publishers are not entirely guilty since they are also using SEO, PPC and DISPLAY advertising to promote the merchants products but this and many other issues fuel distrust in the relationships between merchants and affiliates.

For this reason many merchants and affiliates simply choose to use an outside management company known as a network to be the middleman. CommissionJunction.com is one of the most successful even if they charge a flat fee of $500 a month or take 20-30% of affiliate payments from the merchants account because they resolve these conflicts. ( typically 4-20% of sale )

So how do you get started on these digital marketing options? The next 7 pages will explain both the analysis steps and the tools of the trade before you move on to the industry research portion and the sample industry highlighted in the second half of this publication.

AMIR14 : Marketing - PPC ( W11 of 52 )

2014-05-15T22:38:00.003-04:00

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : PPC

PAY PER CLICK

The Display Networks have been around since the onset of the web with companies like DoubleClick ( now Google ) while consumers spend less and less time on vertical websites when researching purchases ( as little as 5% versus 95% on search engines ) it is interesting to note that both Display and Search share almost the same % from the total digital spend at ~40% . The Display ecosystem holds many players between Advertiser and Publisher/Audience including advertising agencies like WPP Omnicom, IPG and Publicis; Ad networks like Google, Yahoo and InterClick; Ad Exchanges like DoubleClick and AdBrite and Search Engine platforms like Bing, Ask and Baidu.

There are of-course many others in the supply chain like Demand Aggregators, Yield Optimizers, Shopping Feeds and DSPs. These players have either Licensing business models or a % of media spend. They use CPM or Cost Per Mile to determine pricing as is the case with Demand Side Platforms that aggregate demand and increase performance allowing advertisers to bid on a per single impression basis rather than per 1K, similar to SEM below.

The Search Marketing model takes the lion's share of attention since it is much more easily accessible to small business owners and does not have a strict requirement in equipment, process or even knowledge. It is sold on an auction basis to the highest bidder and has been very popular with small to medium sized companies looking to sell online as it does not even require a shopping cart. Google for example uses a simple formula to determine the ads rank based on the following variables :

CPC x CTR x QS = SERP

So research your customer personas, buying funnel actions, test your ad copy and landing pages understand your lines of business, ads, ad groups and keywords, key phrases and negative keywords. Manage your bids ( implicit, explicit, manual or auto ramp to maintain your page rank with broad or exact match types to phrase. Exact matches increase relevance in crucial bidding wars but remember that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing have their own management dashboards, search algorithms and developer APIs so get ready for some fun. ;-)

Google accounts for 2/3 of all ads with Yahoo, Bing and the other display networks taking the remaining 33% but Pay Per Click advertising is not exclusive to the Search Engines although they do take a large portion of the total spent on ads you can certainly purchase advertising directly on high traffic verticals like AOL, CNN and others or even contract with an Ad agency that can handle all of the complexities for you.

Last but not least is of-course the mobile advertising and social media worlds are emerging platforms that promise contextual Geographic, Demographic and Psychographic real-time segmentation of your target audience with Biometrics just around the corner it is no wonder that the internet of everything also means everyone.

Because of the many constant changes and innovations in the consumer electronics spectrum and digital marketing advertising models it is recommended that you review your strategy 4-6 times per 18 month period to avoid critical inflection points.

Remember that PPC is not everything. You still need a product or service in demand, a price that is competitive and a value proposition that is compelling.

AMIR14 : Marketing - SEO ( W10 of 52 )

2014-05-07T10:17:00.001-04:00

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : SEO

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Remember that by 2020 40% of all purchases will be online and more than 90% will be searching the web for product info or a better price even while at the store purchasing from. Since more than 50% of web users never click on PAID ads, it is important that you optimize your website for search engines. Take into account that more than 60% of web searching and 40% of all digital advertising is performed on Google so your product or service needs to be on display there first and foremost. You will work on Bing, Yahoo and the others later.

So, how does SEO help you? It answers the questions for each and every possible consumer type you want to target so that when they type a SEARCH QUERY looking for something that you have, provide or sell YOUR INFORMATION shows up before YOUR COMPETITORS info catches their attention. This area is called the SERP or Search Engine Results Page and studies have shown that consumers usually click on the top 3 links and have an attention span of about 10 seconds once your LANDING PAGE is displayed before they decide to continue deeper with you or go back to a competitor link. It should take you less than a week to optimize your website but depending on how many pages you have it might take longer to update and re-submit your sitemaps.xml, robots.txt files for spiders, webcrawlers and robots to re-index.

But how do you figure out this new content to include? It's called "self analysis" or keyword search for your on-page content and and off-page popularity on the web. By finding out what keywords and keyphrases are beign used by your customers to talk about you or look for your products. Researching your competition in the same manner can help you understand what separates you from the competition.

Once you find these short and longtail combinations you can decide which have a higher probability of getting your company to the top of the search results page and insert them into your file names and HTML code to ensure proper densities and proximity. Use them in your metatags, heading tags (H1-H5), cascading style sheets inside external files or internal code. Update internal and external anchor links, file names, titles, descriptions and alt tags for all of your audio, video and image assetts as well as the internal html code on your web pages. Basically your entire website should be written strategically to reflect how customers look for you and not how you see yourself.

Sounds easy enough right? Don't fret it... in the "Tools of the Trade" we will see many applications that can facilitate this process and remember that whenever your business process changes you will need to consider re-optimizing again. :-) SEO is not a ONE TIME fix but a constant choice.

AMIR14 : Marketing - KPIs ( W9 of 52 )

2014-05-04T10:43:00.001-04:00

DIGITAL MARKETING 101 : KPIs

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

If you wish to continue to focus on brand awareness I understand its perceived value however my research and your own experience will validate that the wireless internet of everything has taken over and so we will focus on 21st century Digital Marketing tools moving forward.

Did you know that this year more Americans will surf the internet from the cellphone than from their desktops at home. By the end of the decade there will be more cellphones than humans and the trend is to enable them all with broadband speeds, global position systems, cameras and electronic wallets. If your mouth is not salivating at this prospect right now perhaps it will by the end of this section.

77% of all business have a website and they are reaching out to their consumers online during any of the phases of strategic planning, tactical development, implementation and monitoring using display networks, advertising agencies, affiliate programs, email campaigns, social media, mobile advertising and search engine marketing.

There are a few key performance indicators that will help you and your inter-departmental team better understand how to monitor each of these and reach your milestones more confidently.

Let's list some of these marketing goals and their associated key performance indicators...

R E A C H

* Impressions served

* # of Visits

* # of New Visits

* % of Returning Visitors

* % of New Visitors

* Visitor Demographics

R E S P O N S E

* Search Engine used

* Referring Domain

* Search Keyphrase used

* Search Keyword used

* # of Responses

* # of Unique Responders

A C Q U I S I T I O N

* Page Stick/Landing

* Page Slip/Bounce Rate

* AVG # of Visits per Visitor

* AVG # of Pages per Visit

* AVG Time 2 Purchase

RETENTION

* Page Frequency

* AVG Frequency

* Return Action

* Action Value

Lifetime Value

C O S T T O R E V E N U E T R A C K I N G V A R I A B L E S

CPM

Cost Per Mile

CPC

Cost Per Click

CPA

Cost Per Acquisition

CPA

Cost Per Action

AMIR14 : WMC APRIL 2014 ( W5-8 of 52 )

2014-04-25T00:40:00.003-04:00

WMC 2014 - March 21-30, Miami, FL

Almost 30 years ago the first Winter Music Conference was started in 1984 by Louis Possenti and Bill Kelly, since then it has grown to be the largest electronic dance music event of its kind.

WMC is attended yearly by more than 300,000 dance fanatics, 100,000 business seminar enrollees, 3,500 music industry professionals and on average a staggering 2,000 performing artists and DJs showcased at over 500 seminars, workshops, parties and exhibits over the course of 9 days.

Last year there where more than 400 accredited journalists covering the event. It is expected that this year 56% of the attendees will be in the 22-30 age demographic while 32% will fall in the 31-40 year range. Reported income levels range from 26% earning $70,000 or above and 37% earning $35,000 or below, leaving the remaining 35% at the $35,000 to $70,000 level.

As far as educational levels reported 39% had earned an undergraduate degree, 27% where currently attending college, and 12% where either high school graduates or attending high school. The remaining 22% had graduate degrees or enrolled in masters programs.

The industry professionals represented include 12% song-writers / artists, 11% disc jockeys, 11% producers / re-mixers, 9% music labels / AR, 7% managers, 5% journalists, 5% booking agents, 5% venue / event promoters and ticketing, 4% multi-media creative, 3% marketing and PR, 3% advertising and brand creation, 2% PROs and publishing, 2% legal services, 2% radio, 2% digital distribution, 2% technology, 2% software, 1% social media, 1% film/TV, 1% event staging / lighting / sound, 1% recording engineers / studios, 1% music festivals.

Now with such a large audience what where some of the traditional advertising and marketing opportunities available at this years Winter Music Conference?

EXHIBITING BOOTH

Exhibiting during the event for face to face contact with industry and artists is available..

* 8'x10' Booth can cost $1850 giving the company

* 1 FREE Delegate Registration for the event

* Display of your company sign ( 7" x 44")

* PLUS 1 FREE 1/8 Black and White ad in the conference guide.

Standard convention amenities provided ( 2 Chairs, 6' Table, 8' Back Drape, 3' Side Drape )

REGISTRATION PACK/SACK

Includes, branded sack and lanyard

* Conference/Consumer Guide ( 35,000 printed )

300 dpi PDF / EPS / Jpeg (CMYK) requirements

Ads larger than 6 MB that must be compressed or delivered on CD

* The Guides have various advertising options including :

Inside Front Cover

Inside Back Cover

Full Page $3250

1/2 Page $1950

1/4 Page $1170

1/8 Page $480

MARKETING INSERTS

Marketing Collateral ( 3250 qty )

* Can be included in the attendee registration sack in the following formats :

Letter size ( 8x11) $1470

Brochures and Catalogs $2059

Publications $3353

The events can offer Video Kiosks as well but you must provide a DVD Video Master using DigiBeta, BetaSP, Beta or SVHS formats and subscribe to a per day rotation of 2-8 Plays per day at a cost of $350 to $1250 for a 4 Minute or less branded video.

MUSIC CD

Music CD Compilation must in provide CD Audio Master at 44.1khz/48Khz and be properly labeled with Track, Title, Time, Writer, Publisher and contact info as well as being less than < 4 Minutes total running time to be included there is a charge of $750.

WMC 2014 INFLUENCIAL PANELISTS

JUMPSTART YOUR CAREER

Bob Celestin - Law Offices/Robert A. Celestin
Michael Epstein, Esq. - ChaseLawyers
Yoly Sista - Rayo Entertainment & Kwaze
Martijn Tjho - FUGA/Song Flow
Edward Unger - Juicy Results

CREATE AND MANAGE YOUR EVENTS

Patrick Whalen - DPS Inc event production arena
Ian Hoffer - Aurora Sound and Light Design
Glyn Morgan - Future Sound of Breaks
Rio Pena - We R Miami Productions
Abrigael Kevin Ramos - GLOWINTHEDARK
Albert Maurits Seto Budhai - GLOWINTHEDARK

SOCIAL MEDIA FANS

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vine, Pinterest, SoundCloud and MixCloud

Paul Reed - Life In Color
Nick Decosemo - Mixmag
Roger Balta - EdmodoFM Satellite Radio
Meindert Kennis - Spinnin' Records
Jessica Poche - Azucar Digital Distribution
Jake Udell - Th3rd Brain

BLOGS

DJ Ron Slomowicz - NotableDance.com
Josh Bennett - LessThan3/Kid Alien
Jai Cao - EDM Tunes
Dan Roy Carter - Dancing Astronaut
Lainie Copicotto - Aurelia/Club Planet
Ma-less - Do Androids Dance
Dani Deahl - danideahl.com
Jose Woldring - The Media Nanny

ADVERTISING/MARKETING

Susan Stipcianos - The Dream Team Agency
Dan Roy Carter - Dancing Astronaut
Laura Mejia Cruz - The Dream Team Agency
Philip Daleweif - The DJ List
Toto Jaramillo - DJ Mag La Colombia
Clive Morgan - Daily Telegraph
Rob Muir - CUE Music Group

BRAND-BUILDING

Justin Goldberg - Measurement Arts
Jean-Oliver Dalphond - PixMob
Vasili Gavre - Together Creative
Ted Keyes - Abercrombie and Fitch
Mark Swartz - Music Markit

REVENUE STREAMS

Jared Rosenberg - Ticketmaster
Troy Gilmore - Sleeping Giant Music
Albert Ramirez III - SESAC
Colleen Theis - The Orchard
Cat Kreidich - The Orchard
Dan Matusov - Hochberg Law, P.C.
Erik Mendelson - Digiwax Media
Erica Munday - Entertainment One
Nick Gunn - We Are Nexus
Mark Jones - Wall Of Sound
Cary Vance - Promo Only Promotions
Bartel - WKTU
Ben Burris - WXJZ-FM, Party 100.9
Will Calder - WPOW Power 96
Manny Esparza - Fusion Radio Network
Nick G - Ghetto House Radio/GHR
Tommy Nappi - Atlantic Recording
Noah Sheer - Island Def Jam
Cees van Der Zwan - Spinnin' Records
Erik Velez - Beatgasm
Jeff Z - Pandora

ENTERTAINMENT LAW
Entertainment attorneys for copyright and trademark, distribution and licensing, touring and merchandising, online retail and mobile app linking, digital downloads and social media, digital performance and live show royalties, PROs and interactive service payments.

Seth Lawrence Berman - Nixon Peabody LLP
Bob Celestin - Law Offices/Robert A. Celestin
Joseph Dieuvil, Esq. - Hoskins Dieuvil PC
David Rappaport - Davis, Shapiro
Michael Weiss - Nervous Records

TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING

According to a recent IBIS world report there are close to 13,000 advertising and marketing companies employing almost 170,000 marketing professionals while the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than 2,600,000 supporting workers for the advertising, marketing and promotion industries. These include sales managers, producers, animators, art director, actors, editors writers and graphic designers along with many other professionals that have direct input in the creation, management and monitoring of ads for Print, Radio, Film, Broadcast TV, Cable and the internet.

A good advertising campaign can help larger companies that can afford to budget for expensive production and extensive coverage to launch, grow and innovate as they cycle, mature and decline. They can purchase multiple branding channels of communication and saturate a market so a consumers mind is filled with their message. Pervasiveness of brand at the consumers point of sale will reinforce and stimulate the IMPULSE BUY from need to WANT which account for 2/3 of all purchases made at malls and in general throughout the economy as a whole.

Today's agencies know this and charge a standard 15% commission on their media buys while accounting for 2%-3% of the 17 trillion in US GDP. Their advertising effectiveness depreciates by 30% within a short 12 month cycle. The 300-500 billion in advertising spending is split 60% nationally and 40% on local markets among the various mediums roughly as follows : 23% on print advertising and direct marketing although the general consumer is only engaged in that activity 6% of the time, 42% on TV as it should be considering that the average American spends 44% of their free time watching the tube, 22% on web advertising reflecting the average American who spends 26% of their free time surfing and 10% of the ads go to radio which takes up 14% of consumers discretionary free time. Last but not least 2% of the money goes to mobile which is expected to grow from its current 12% of our free time to more than 50% due to smartphones and broadband ubiquity. By the way, mobile advertising is expected to grow by 2015 to almost 400 billion usd in ad spends and account for more than 10% of all retail sales.

So how do companies and advertising agencies decide where to spend 1/4 trillion dollars?

They segment the 314 million US population into geographic, demographic, psychographic and psynographic categories. Conduct market and marketing research in order to determine message, tone, voice, reach, frequency and distribution variables for their ad campaigns and media buys.

GEOGRAPHIC fields are generally standard labels like country, state, city, zipcode, area code but things get a bit more sensitive when talking about demographic data.

DEMOGRAPHIC data like gender as in male, female, gay, lesbian bi-sexual, trans-gender or religion, ethnicity, language, education, income, and family size. Age is one of those values that we are all accustomed to. ( 13-17, 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 , 55-64, 65-74, 75+ ).

PSYCHOGRAPHIC and PSYNOGRAPHIC attributes are given to lifestyle purchasing options like attitudes, beliefs, values and social versus self image as it relates to purchasing decisions like "Keeping up with the Jones" and the psychology of impulse buying.

ADVERTISING PARTNERS

A good marketer will wear many hats but a great marketer will bring many heads together including the Chief Executive Officer, The Chief Marketing and Chief Information Officers as well as the Chief Financial Officer to the round table for strategic and tactical agreements. Perhaps your company is not that large and in fact you are one and the same as far as dealing with the operations , marketing, technology and accounting for your company. If that is the case these next few pages are really important for you.

In fact, large companies utilize not only the human resources capabilities to expand exponentially and act quickly but also technologies like ERP enterprise resource planning software like People Soft or SAP, Lotus Notes, Siebel, Salesforce and many others depending on your industry. These tools have allowed small ideas to blossom quickly through what some have called the data store.

Much like the industrial revolution streamlined physical production of goods by centralizing the tools of production in the factory floor, the digital revolution and the web have aggregated their intellectual service tools on the cloud and now most companies are protected from expensive internal solutions that require challenging API integrations. These are now simply provided with turnkey solutions that increase productivity and decrease your operational costs by scaling at will.

Now, traditional marketing programs can be handled in house either by one marketer or a small department but depending on the number of projects, the frequency and the complexity you may decide to invest in your own marketing department or outsource to one of the 13,000 advertising / marketing agencies available. Consider that the cost of a seasoned national marketer can run in the median range of $80,000 dollars a year or roughly $40 and hour so it may be prudent to test your metal by outsourcing to an agency of record and opting to pay the retainer fees and advertising costs instead of a full salary to employees.

With the explosion of marketing software and the internet you may be able to sample some freelance work or perhaps contract help on a flat per project fee basis. Further more there are many marketing consultants that prefer a flat fee plus a percentage of growth or business generated through the campaign especially if your project is digital in nature. Remember that local and regional projects will always be a good place to start before you expand into more advanced national and international markets.

Last but not least, consider the co-op, referral or affiliate advertising and marketing models where you reach out to complementary companies and work together to recruit your best customers as champions of your product with loyalty rewards. This was known as revenue sharing in the old days and today it is more commonly known as affiliate programs.

Should you decide to outsource this aspect of your business please consider that the marketer will want your business development staff to have a product catalog that is priced competitively and ready for consumption with a pricing model of Cost+ IMU Markup, Premium Pricing, Bulk Discount, Wholesale tiers or One Off / Lost leaders. This will accelerate your time to market.

IN-SOURCE / OUT-SOURCE

Should you relinquish such an important part of your sales growth to a perfect stranger or an imperfect friend? Certainly the resources necessary to run these campaigns can be more than you might expect and cost a lot more than you would be willing to invest. If only for that reason it might be justification enough but the reality is that even advertising and marketing agencies are having a tough time assimilating the necessary skills and technology needed to integrate digital marketing and traditional marketing into a cohesive line-up of products called Integrated Marketing.

According to www.inc.com's top 5000 agencies report, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis, WPP, BBDO, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett are among the biggest agencies in the world. They are responsible for iconic campaigns like the Marlboro man for Phillip Morris. These ads made an indelible impression in our collective consciousness and for that the advertisers & agencies were nicely rewarded. But even these companies continue to merge for size and acquire new comers for scope to keep up with emerging technologies.

The times have changed and we are no longer a nation of naive followers but rather a culture of individuals seeking personal expression and attention. Perhaps this is why most large enterprises are willing to manage a roster of 50 to 100 agencies as www.forbes.com reported instead of consolidating to one or two? I think that in this ever changing era where every 18 months there's a new and improved technological advance that revolutionizes and disrupts established transactional norms of conduct, you can not just pick one partner. Advertisers, like consumers need the flexibility of many options if only to keep the agencies as honest and efficient as possible, working hard to understand the "Next Big Thing" and how the advertiser can earn another customer in this faster than light economy.

Advertising agencies have a hard time justifying that their advertising drives as many sales as expected. Direct Marketing agencies went further in setting up models to track their success but they both continue to have difficulties evolving to the urgency of now and the web of tomorrow.

For example take a simple paper sales sheet .

The paper, weight, color, brightness, texture, opacity must be chosen long before it is deployed. The ink might be PMS pantone, CMYK separated, soy based, metallic, varnished, UV coated, acquesed or silk-screened BUT can only be printed ONCE in 1 - 4 color, digital or webpress. The message can be indicative, imperative, receptive, persuasive or active, but not contextual in real-time and this is just for a single sales sheet. We are not even discussing the mailing list, mail/purge, address verification and USPS postage, sorting and mailing if you wish to send it out.

To make matters worse , the internet has taken that process and allowed the advertiser to make those very same decisions IN REAL-TIME, every single time for every single consumer as the letter is displayed on different platforms like web, cellphone, tablets and laptops or desktops. Television, Radio and Print will have a hard time attempting that feat of flexibility for at least another 5 to 10 years and might find that it takes 50-100 years for the singularity to embrace them as effortlessly as the smaller devices for individual broadcast and not the masses.

ADVERTISING WORKFORCE

Now that you understand a bit more about the role of advertising and marketing in your business development strategy I want to give you a snapshot of the salaries that you will need to consider in your business or marketing plans in order to justify the investment in your desired business goals. Remember that the same research used to start your business can also be used to plot your next career move with the full confidence that you are making the right choices.

STRATEGIC WORKFORCE

Code___Employment Category____# Workers ___Yearly____Hourly
11-2021 Marketing Managers            171,430            $129,870    $65
11-2020 Sales Managers                    516,170            $123,260    $62
11-2000 Advertising/Marketing/PR   598,110            $121,150    $61
11-2022 Sales Managers                    344,730             $119,980   $60
11-2031 Public Relations                   053,520             $108,260   $54
11-2011 Promotions Managers          028,420             $107,060   $54
13-1161 Market Research                  392,740             $067,380   $34
27-3031 Public Relations                   201,280              $061,980   $30
TACTICAL WORKFORCE
Code___Employment Category_____# Workers ___Yearly____Hourly
27-1011 Art Directors                        031,570              $094,260   $47
27-2012 Directors                              087,010              $092,390 $46
27-2010 Producers                             157,550               $084,520   $42
27-3021 News Analysts                     005,170               $078,450   $37
27-2011 Actors                                   070,540              $070,000   $35
27-1014 Multimedia Artists               029,270              $069,560   $34
27-3043 Writers and Authors             041,990              $068,420   $34
27-3040 Writers and Editors              187,190              $065,130   $33
27-4032 Film and Video Editors        021,500              $064,060   $32
27-3041 Editors                                  099,040              $062,440   $31
07-4030 Camera Operators                 037,910              $057,540   $28
27-1000 Art and Design Workers       499,620              $049,960   $25
27-1024 Graphic Designers                191,440              $048,730   $24
27-3020 Reporters                               050,740              $048,510   $24
27-3022 Correspondents                     045,570              $045,120   $22
227-3011 Announcers                         031,340              $041,860   $21
27-4021 Photographers                       056,140              $036,330   $18

Research conducted using the Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov and the 2010 US Census at www.census.gov as well as Salary.com.