The following is an excerpt from my recent column on  MediaPost.

The Rise of Programmatic Marketing
“There is a buzz afoot about the rise of programmatic media buying, or real-time bidding (RTB), but what is often overlooked is the broader — and, in my opinion, more significant — shift to programmatic marketing as a whole.

But what does the word “programmatic” even mean?

Programmatic generally means that a program or algorithm has been written that is executing a set of commands.  Real-time bidding is considered “programmatic” because a computer program executes the actual media buy.  Humans really are not suited to the task. Not only are we too slow, but we’re generally…”  Read More

Redirect Containers – Brands are spending considerable time engaging key influencers through social media.  However every link that is sent out is a missed opportunity to capture data.  Tweets that contain links are a perfect example.  Currently, companies use services like bit.ly to shorten their links.  However a “redirect container” could play a vital role in harvesting 1st party data.  A redirect container would allow a marketer to forward every click to a partner (ie. a DMP) thereby allowing them to cookie the user and/or harvest 1st party data before continuing to follow the original link.  A daisy chain approach would allow multiple “redirect pixels” to be turned on.  Data collected could be leveraged for other campaigns or you could run very simple tweet-retargeting campaigns.

Email containers - Email is one of the most powerful ways to communicate with your customers, yet it is difficult for marketers to modify all emails going out from a company.   A simple example would be the idea of a dynamic signature.  I personally update my signature to reference recent company news and events, however this is incredibly tedious.   An email container system would allow marketers to easily turn on 3rd party services.  For example, a new innovative service might allow marketing departments to standardize all email signatures while also updating them with links & recent news.  This wouldn’t work across every email client, but it would get decent coverage.  Further, an email container is a logical place to fire pixels should a marketer wish to easily run email retargeting campaigns.

In summary – tag container companies should consider extending their concept of a container to other mediums where data is available.  We’ve got clients interested in these solutions today – so get in touch if you want to brainstorm more.

“Retargeting is a fairly simple concept. The goal is to turn potential customers into actual customers by bringing someone to your site who has shown an interest in your product or service.  The practice has gained a following in recent years because it consistently drives sales and revenue. Increasingly, due to strapped media budgets, marketers are relying on retargeting to boost the bottom line.  But here’s the truth: While everything you know about retargeting is not wrong, it is likely incomplete.”

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/183439/retargeting-for-retailers.html?c=99736#reply#ixzz27c8jYxdR

Funny video from Daxthink.com – “Cookies are stealing my life and selling it to criminals. Cookies are responsible for third world famine. Cookies were seen on the grassy knoll.”

The ability to link-out would be a huge benefit for affiliate marketers looking to drive traffic to their campaigns.  If external links were allowed you could imagine a great deal of effort would be used to produce viral videos that ultimately are used to sell a product (the soap opera model). Until then, the only way to add links are to use services like LinkedTube which lets you add links to YouTube videos embedded on your site.

Checkout this demo: