Brands used to be built by memorable TV moments.

There was as time when your life revolved around your favorite TV series. I remember saying I will meet you at 10 p.m. — after Friends.

There were also those TV ads that when they came on, we knew Christmas was coming. As a child I remember the Coca-Cola ads every Christmas with the big white furry polar bears playing with a bright red coke can, red and white just like Santa Claus. A few years ago they took those ads off TV and people complained it wasn’t Christmas without them — so they brought them back.

Then we grew up and in the ’80s, two devices came along that changed TV viewing and advertising, microwave ovens and video recorders.

When I was out with friends, too busy to come home for a family meal. I was telling Mum, “Leave it in the microwave.” She was going crazy; we didn’t sit together to eat anymore. Then video recorders came along and we were asking, “Can you record this and watch it when I get back?” We weren’t sitting together watching TV anymore and we were fast-forwarding the adverts.

Where we now? Internet — instant this, instant that. Needing information at our convenience. Now we can watch TV by ourselves on iPhone and with Sky+, you can watch your favorite series anytime… what does this leave the world of advertising?

Some things have not changed, however. If advertisers want something solid, something that is going to last, whether personal or brand, they still need to invest in relationships with consumers.

It still takes time… they need to learn to build brand moments online to create lasting customer relationships.

Advertisers can build the most beautiful brand experience on the web, but if people don’t come to it is useless. People are not getting the brand connection advertisers crave. Because buyers are interested not in just one click, but a series of interactions, created by questions and answers.

That’s nice, does it come in red?! How much does it cost? Is it safe for the kids? And we talk and discuss, continually trying to find out more… mostly independent advice.

We see something — we discuss, we find information. This combination of searching online and seeing display advertising work together with the aim to create what advertisers call a “conversation with the brand.”

People learn by repetition and more so when linked to an emotional connection.

Take for an example the blockbuster Cartier campaign that includes a three-minute film that shows a leopard roaming through snow, deserts, and the streets of Paris until he meets his reincarnation as a diamond bracelet. It’s surreal, lush and incredibly cinematic.

And people are engaging with this ad, seeking it out online and sharing it with friends. This is ACTIVELY INTERACTING with adverts for 3 minutes!! Taking six times as long as with a TV advert and investing real emotional involvement.

It is a beautiful example of online branding driving offline conversions. This type of work will become more common in the advertising we see as the notion breaks down that advertisers work to promote brands via offline methods like television or outdoor advertising and use online advertising to get specific responses (such as clicks through to a site to make a purchase). More and more, online advertising will seek to be compelling and emotional, and when successful will aim to make you feel something for the brand rather than just make another click.

This is a key turning point for advertising and the future for online marketing.

As published on Huffington Post

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When you work in digital marketing, mentioning TV in the same breath probably conjures up pictures of Don Draper fraternizing with women, long lunches, and drinking whiskey from a decanter in plush offices. So not much has changed, then?

Everything has changed. That heyday of the creative director as demi-god seems a far cry from today’s ROI justifications to squeeze every lost drop out of every cent before being allowed the good fortune to even look at a dollar bill. For all the advancements in digital media, one thing is certain — we are still not working remotely on Hawaiian beaches (fragmentation passed off as innovation, DSPs passed off as an answer to declining CTRs, and interaction passed off as consumer engagement has ensured this.)

The very fact that TV still commands 50 percent of the half-a-trillion dollar global media budget is that it unashamedly presents itself in the homes of each and every consumer and says “look at this, it’s beautiful and you know you want it.” And lo and behold, the resulting “ker-ching” of cash registers proves this to be true.

Meanwhile, digital marketers are adjusting knobs and dials trying to figure out if consumers did click and, if so, where. Marketers are trying to figure out how to de-dupe consumers when they clicked more then once, or what happened if they didn’t click at all. This translates to excel spread sheets, late nights, etc. (Um, no thanks.)

Yet with the rise of smart phones and tablets, something has happened in the last few years that followed the meteorological rise of social media. That is when you are sitting in front of high value entertainment and something piques your interest when presented imaginatively, the passion spills over into intrigue and sharing.

It is estimated that 25 percent of consumers go online after seeing a TV ad. That’s a huge spike right there. That’s not to mention that half of all TV watchers have a second electronic device in their hands, such as a smart phone or tablet, whilst in a comatose state on the couch engrossed in anything from “The Vampire Diaries” to “Mad Men.” But whether you are checking your email or talking on Facebook, the habit is now truly synced for TV watchers. So much so, the biggest topic of discussion on social media by far is TV content. We just love it and we can’t get enough, because with every wave of consumer technology — from video recorders to X-Box and Hulu — technology just drives TV viewing up and up, and with it the potential for advertising dollars and media measurement.

We first saw it when we combined search and display — one of the first major moves to consolidate our fragmented industry. We discovered that 30 percent of people searched once they actually saw something. This sounds obvious as, clearly, one doesn’t tend to look for something they have never heard of. Yet this next organic wave of “dual screening” — watching linear content on the main TV screen — whilst interacting on a second screen in your hand, is going to change everything we know about media to date.

Now don’t get me wrong, the ability to place-shift content and carry TV with you in your pocket is going to grow exponentially, especially as the promise of 4G becomes a reality — but the forecast of $254 million by 2015 isn’t something the TV producers are too worried about. The big shift is in the delivery of video — not through traditional broadcast methods– but increasingly via the internet infrastructure. Right now Google estimates that 40 percent of all internet traffic is video, within the next two years it’s expected to top 91 percent! Take the Super Bowl — the largest TV event in the U.S. — as an example. On February 5, 2012, it was streamed online for the first time and 2.1 million unique viewers spent 78.6 million minutes watching it, making it the most viewed live-stream event ever. We can expect the Olympics 2012 to dwarf this.

Already 30 percent of U.S. homes find their TV sets are connected to the internet, whether directly or via an over-the-top service like cable or BluRay live. Best Buy saw 30 percent of all new TVs sold last year were “connected” and they are planning on this being 90 percent by 2015. The distinction between TV and online is quickly becoming blurred — and this is clearly shown in the impending explosion of online video. But let’s be honest, sitting in front of your laptop isn’t the future for online video, it’s going to be video distributed over the internet to the very best screen in your home, your television. So what does this mean for the digital marketer?

The rise of tablets and smart phones is the next wave of what we saw with the desktop PC being outpaced by laptops. Not only that, but this increasingly means “apps.” Go to any major portal or significant website via your handheld device and I guarantee you will have seen this kind of message: “Download the app for this site here.” Online is beginning to radically shift as well as print media, and from BBC iPlayer to HBC GO, we are seeing TV beginning to shift. A recent In-Stat survey estimated that over 60 percent of connected households will use a TV app at least once per week. As you would expect, Netflix and YouTube currently dominate the TV app space, but with the rise of companion apps from major TV networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS it isn’t long before we can assume that TV stations themselves will just become apps.

But for all the talk of smart TVs and the rumor mills around a 50″ Apple iTV, consumers don’t replace their TV sets the way they do their mobiles. We typically replace our mobile every 12 to 18 months compared to every 7 to 10 years for TV sets, though that figure is now beginning to drop. This means for TV to shift we need to think of things connecting to the TV, as opposed to an actual smart TV in the near future. And that, my friends, is the race between OTT boxes from cable companies to Roku, Apple TV, etc. and wireless companion devices of the smart phone and tablet era. Long-term, my money is on the latter.

When you look into what tablet and smart phone users are doing when watching TV, we discover that about 19 percent are searching for content related to TV advertising, a huge percentage of which are looking for coupons and discounts. This means that if we can simplify the process of finding related information or even sharing with friends whilst in front of the TV using a companion device, we can find a hybrid lean-back experience with lean-forward engagement.

Whether it is snapping a QR code on the screen, or letting high-frequency audio be picked up by a listening app on your smart phone or tablet, you can trigger a related response on the second screen. This doesn’t just have to act as a single redirect mimicking a click-thru, oh no. Multiple audio signals can be picked up within TV content or ad content to create multiple trigger points such as to collect characters by swiping your phone at the TV as shown by Wieden and Kennedy in its Honda Jazz TV ad, whereby the more interactive characters collected on the phone, the more hidden features one could discover.

But that is only TV ads. What about content itself? Adding meta data to all TV and film content means that potentially the trigger points of Daniel Craig sporting the latest Omega Seamaster in a Bond film becomes a trigger for the companion device to show an ad. Ever wondered what shoes Sarah Jessica Parker was wearing? Well now you can know without even doing a search.

Rolling a phone in front of a TV that triggers a response is just the next iteration of rich-media. It combines picture-in-picture across devices, whilst allowing a mass-reached broadcast medium to be overlaid with highly targeted personal ads that are user-initiated. It’s the 21 century expandable ad! It’s an in-stream plus a companion ad. It is HTML5 at its finest, set within an organically tactile device your toddler or grandmother will just intuitively “get.”

No more explaining to my mother what I actually do. No more convincing your CEO about online banners working, and them never actually seeing your work. Finally we are going to converge TV and online, and out-of-home content with interactive advertising, search and social media sharing within the most personal of devices. Not only that, but the chance for discount coupons and offers (or even payments) will happen right on a phone in your hand. Before you can even type “What is that hand bag she has?” your phone tells you and lets you look at it in 360 degrees, review it, buy it and show off to all your friends on Facebook that you are awaiting delivery of that very beautiful designer bag, all before the ad break even comes on the TV. Bingo! Winner, winner, chicken dinner (which, incidentally, you just ordered for home delivery via your mobile after seeing the latest Kentucky Fried Chicken ad.)

And the best part? Not only is this highly targeted advertising, being able to deliver individual ads to every single person in any given living room, or theatre or high-street, It offers measurability, accountability, consumer engagement, stunning creativity, and all with consumer-initiated opt-in. Did you hear me privacy advocates? I said “consumer opt-in!”

But before we jump up and down with extreme jubilation, I want to throw a note of caution. Along with this, will come an exposure of actually how bad TV is. We will show that assumed reach isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — after all, that’s why broadcasters turn the sound up in ad breaks, because those TV guys secretly know you are going to the restroom. After all, that’s where all the Facebook status and Twitter updates originate, isn’t it? This two-way, return path of data means advertisers will ask questions about TV budgets and talk ROI. Agency margins will be squeezed, media prices will be squeezed, and then we will end up with a DR conversation and DSP’s for TV. (Hold on, haven’t we been here already?)

The bottom line is TV is changing. The notion of online video is permeating all media channels, and modes of measurement are going to be a hybrid from evaluating the value of an emotional connection through exposure as well as a tangible engagement through interaction. TV is just a large high-quality monitor that displays video content, irrespective of how it is transmitted to it. But everyone knows this will be increasingly via internet. It isn’t going to die. It’s just going to become a lot more dynamic, targeted, and measurable — complemented with “huge” production budgets. And that my friends, is the future of digital.

So go get yourself a decanter, put it in your office, and dream of the day you will actually have the dollars to fill it with a nice single malt and the time to enjoy it, whilst browsing Hawaiian getaways on your tablet device. And in the meantime, go figure what a “spot” or a “TRP” is.

As published on iMediaConnection

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One of the biggest consumer trends in television these days is “Dual Screening”. More and more viewers use a mobile, tablet or a PC at the same time as they watch a show on TV to augment their viewing experience. According to Nielsen, in the third quarter of 2011, 68 per cent of tablet users, and 63 per cent of smart phone users said they use their mobile device several times a week or more while watching TV.

With social media going mobile, “dual screen” mobile or PC-based interaction often consists of using a social networking site to facilitate side discussions about the plot or characters on the show. In fact by far the most popular topic on social media to be discussed is actually TV content. Media experts have already recognised dual screening as an opportunity to get people to participate or play along, allowing a generic mass audience broadcast on the first screen (the TV) and an more personal interaction on the second screen in the individual’s hand. It is picture-in-picture across devices that has followed on from the TV content saying ‘find more information online’ and making it a more seamless experience. With such behavior now commonplace with consumers, broadcasters and brands are racing ahead to capitalise on this activity by finding ways to engage viewers with tie-in content.

Dual Screens Debut with the Super Bowl

In the US, the Super Bowl is also well known for being a big event in marketing. This year was no exception, with five major global brands using the event to launch their dual screen ads including Best Buy, Chevy, Toyota, Pepsi and Subway. Previously, Heineken launched what they claimed to be the first “dual screen” mobile marketing campaign around the 2011 UEFA Champions League in Europe.

This is not such a surprise since sporting events are ideal for dual screening. Firstly, they are incredibly social and passionate events that typically need to be watched live in groups. Secondly, they don’t have a strong narrative and contain multiple ad breaks allowing the audience to drop in and out, cross to another screen, interact with social media and then back again without losing the thread. It works best when it is close to reality, and it does not demand too much attention, so it can generate discussion and allow time for breaks to take place.

TV shows with a complex linear narrative (dramas for example), which demand and earn the audience’s full attention, are a different proposition. While they do offer a great environment for product placement, which can be enhanced by interactivity on a second screen, this may require the user to pause the linear content. In this regard, dual screening could clash rather than complement their experience, but it does allow for a radical rethink on how TV advertising can be interspersed with content to create a more seamless experience.

Dual screening also makes sense when there is already a major investment in advertising or sponsorship so adding an overlaid interactive component only helps brands leverage the money already spent. Major sporting and cultural events provide a perfect opportunity for dual screening during the ad breaks, but it is the natural intrigue of ‘what’s that character wearing’ that will create the biggest reform of TV advertising.

It is this celebrity endorsed thinking that may be driving dual screening to be explored outside of sporting events. Early reports have revealed an expectation there will be another round of dual screened ads for the upcoming Oscars.

Rethinking TV programming

Once the right type of show for dual screening has been identified, the whole process of creating TV content is likely to change to create points in the narrative that will allow or encourage complementary viewing on a second screen. Metadata needs to be added at strategic points that can be grabbed by viewers on their mobile devices. For example, a viewer could ‘roll over’ an image of an actor to be directed to additional information about the character, view extra pictures and summaries of previous episodes. In addition, there could be information about the clothes they wear, the resort where the clip was shot, coupons, links to buy, etc. For advertisers, the possibilities and potential tie-ins are endless.

This type of approach opens up a whole new dimension to TV advertising without actually changing TV advertising per se, where every celebrity is a potential spokesperson. Visualise ordering a dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker online, or ordering a special ingredient while watching Heston. Ad creative instead of appearing at predetermined intervals between shows or breaks in the action, would be initiated by the viewer based on their own initiative, within the context of their preferred programming – providing an opportunity for personalised interactions with brands. It is user-initiated additional content as opposed to just finding new formats for TV.

Dual screening also means creating complementary content online that is browse-able: short, non linear and un-demanding, but highly personalised. Content that augments rather than clashes. This requires coordinating between both online and broadcast advertising, so as well as revolutionising the experience for viewers the ad industry itself will need to make major changes to make it possible for these difference disciplines and formats to mingle and work together.

Already, there are many types of dual screening connectivity being explored. Beyond the ‘find us on Facebook’ links at the end of TV shows and ads or ‘Twitter handles’ for TV journalists and hosts, we are also seeing QR Codes – those square patterns for mobile phone scanning – at strategic points within TV shows. A clever new variation uses high-frequency audio that is embedded in TV content and undetectable by humans but able to be detected by companion apps on secondary screens. Most of the dual screen ads seen in the Super Bowl drove re-directs to complementary content just by listening to the onscreen action. Yet the next stage will see much more interactivity in real-time. This has been pioneered in campaigns such as Honda’s Jazz ad, where a viewer could collect characters and find hidden extras by simultaneously interacting with the TV ad with a mobile app. Here, multiple audio markers were contained within a single piece of linear video content.

As well as driving what’s on the mobile screen via the TV, an intriguing development is that the reverse will also start to occur. The proximity of the mobile device means it is possible to detect the location and potentially the personal preferences of viewers. That will make it possible to customise the dynamic data in the TV programming or TV adverting itself – either based on what purchasing outlets are nearby or by the individual’s preferences. This is one factor that will help to make TV ads more personally relevant to whoever in the room as more and more TVs themselves become ‘connected’. Second screen experiences driven by soundprint technology are really starting to deliver on the decade old promise of interactive television.

Turn on, tune in, get online, talk back

Harvard Business Review recently concluded that advertisers should see dual screening as an opportunity. Equally, the signs are that us multi-taskers are receptive to this type of communication. We pay active attention to TV ads, and are more likely to engage when a product interests us; we go online to learn more, or even purchase right there and then. It is estimated that 25% of us go online after seeing a TV ad!

Additionally, marketers are gravitating toward mobile second screen experiences because, as smartphone and tablet penetration grows, so does the number of consumers who are using their mobile devices to follow up on an ad they see on TV. Adding an interactive component on smart phone or tablet both extends the time spent with a campaign, gives people an opportunity to participate, and uses a more cost-effective and measurable channel to build a dialogue between a brand and its audiences.

So as the technology gets smarter, we can also expect to experience smarter marketing built around quality content, more relevance, more interaction and user-initiated investigation of desired products. Stay tuned for more exciting developments, right here on this channel. And in your living room. And on your mobile, tablet, laptop…

As published on Huffington Post

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HTML 5
Now that Adobe has killed Flash for mobile, the move to embrace HTML 5 will undoubtedly be the hottest potato for 2012, HTML 5 is still in its infancy in regards to browser standards, and the pressure will be on to understand the benefits over Flash.

Mobile rich media
The increase in internet time spent with mobile devices will drive advertising to explore opportunities across touch-screen devices. However, there will be a distinction in delivery between standard ads on 3G and rich media for download when connected to Wi-Fi.

Facebook apps
To date, Facebook has been challenged when trying to give brands any opportunity to reach its hugely mobile subscriber base. Now, Facebook has relaunched its mobile offering incorporating HTML 5 apps. The potential for advertisers is definitely there — once agencies figure out how to increase exposure of a potentially buried brand.

Targeted coupons
The many discussions about direct-response focused activity will see a push beyond click-through to look at better ways to maximize consumer response. From online-targeted ads through social media mobile apps to QR codes on billboards or TV screens, agencies will look for technology to move display inventory closer to the end of the purchase funnel — and that just means more coupons.

Social buzz
It’s long been accepted that display drives search, yet it seems social media is rallying people from all media disciplines together — irrespective of whether your focus is online or offline. Justifying brand activity through social buzz will be taken to new heights in 2012 and will have a couple of profound effects.

Brands as publishers
With some brands now having more Facebook “likes” and followers than some media owners, the need to keep the end consumer engaged will hit overdrive. Expect to see brands employ skills from content producers and look at new ways to commercialize their own inventory.

Dual screening
Interacting with content on the screen next to you, while simultaneously viewing linear video content on a large public screen, will become more common, and thus, advertisers will be attracted to this trend. These advertisers will look to develop dual story line content to allow a deeper brand experience for those who choose to interact.

Planet of the TV apps
Due to a shifting consumer base moving from content on demand to content on the move, media owners will look to adopt and monetize apps over browser content — and ultimately TV channels. Expect not only magazines and newspapers to make the shift. A number of TV broadcasters will equally follow suit.

Cross-media measurement
With agencies from China to the U.S. already buying combined reach across TV and online channels via a single iGRP, the media divisions are beginning to be eroded. Questions over methodology will dominate discussions and be hotly debated, but the need for consolidation could overtake the granular thinking. Expect digital and TV buyers alike to each begin to learn the other’s lingo.

Audio watermarking
My top tip for 2012 is to expect audio watermarking to not only make a debut but to become the biggest rising star. Knowing who is in the lounge through connecting TV and mobile together via high-frequency audio signals will not only challenge ratings mechanisms but also pave the way for a new breed of targeted advertising across connected media channels. Naturally questions over privacy will make headlines, though consumer opt-in dual screening and social sharing may bring a natural balance here. Interesting times ahead!

As published on iMediaConnection

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MediaMind recently held its annual Digital Experience Day (DED) 2011, a global summit series held in North America, Europe and Asia, that brought together leading industry leaders and experts to explore the consumer changes that are happening now. We explored the interactive and social experience that TV now provides. TV no longer offers a passive, social experience where one has to huddle around the same set and fight for the remote control. In fact, traditional ways of viewing television are now competing with the plethora of tablet devices on the market that keeps viewers entertained and occupied from just about anywhere they choose. But it’s not just about replacing the larger screen with smaller ones, we are increasingly bonded around quality content – from TV shows to interactive games – and utilizing Social Networks to fulfill those real-time experiences and discussions between multiple viewers scattered across numerous living spaces.

Recent research from Nielsen shows that the average US home with a cable subscription receives 130 channels and yet tunes in to only 18 channels. That means 86% of these channels are never watched, suggesting that channel surfing is dead; challenging costly cable subscription models. And yet, of the $500 billion in global advertising, TV advertising still takes the lion’s share. By 2015, it’s expected that 50% of Internet users will watch TV content through online connections.

But that’s not to say TV as we know it is dead; quite the opposite. TV has a quality and scale that digital has yet to achieve. We will always need linear video content, but we just won’t need to consume it in the same way that we used to. We are now in the beginning stages of the marriage between online and offline. And for this to work out successfully, TV planners need to understand how digital works and vice versa. We are already seeing agencies using an iGRP to buy reach across media channels to maximize cost-efficiencies. These agencies are hoping to have completely integrated media buying teams within 18 months.

It’s both a convergence and a collision. On one side, we have a chance to reset our thinking and talk about enhancing the branding mechanism by overlaying interactive experiences via a mobile device and measure TV content through real-time social discussions such as comments on Facebook and/or Twitter. Yet the danger is as we seek to measure TV in the way we do online, it runs the risk of squeezing TV advertising budgets to the likes of online DR forced to justify spend via call to action. There are interesting times ahead for the whole media community and it certainly was the hot topic of debate at DED as we debated through the challenges of moving towards app-driven Smart TVs.

See the presentation “Convergence or Collision” or watch the video.
 

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As we head into an era of targeted advertising – delivering the right message at the right time – we shift from tracking impressions to that of individuals. Beyond online behaviours, sensor-based Near Field Communications (NFC) are about to offer complete transparency into consumer life cycles through the collation of data on habits both in and out of the home. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) will inevitably become the next-generation cookie for trans-media advertising, triggering relevant ads across any screen you are in front of. Ad targeting will eventually deliver maximum efficiency by reducing wastage across all media disciplines. In such a utopia, we can expect to touch the socio-political nerves of the masses that are split in viewing technology as something that could make lives’ easier and the treat of Big-Brother.

Consider the open sharing of personal data through social media against the proportionate rise in home-shredder sales for fear of ID theft. Add to this that it wasn’t so long ago people were tricked with pop-up ‘system’ error messages to try and get them to click. One realises that if consumer reaction rightly caused publisher lock-down then, it’s no wonder that the fear of sneaky, underhand techniques or invasion of privacy suggests political lockdown now. This is why the EU directive is far wider reaching then ‘banning the cookie’ in May 2011; it actually addresses Behavioural Advertising, Social Media and NFC/RFID.

The answer for widespread acceptance has got to be that of seen in a value proposition that is currently overshadowed through assumption; that ‘my’ data is there to be enjoyed and used by everyone. Advertising technology companies must become transparent in their dealing with the end-consumer and move beyond new initiatives to highlight when someone is being tracked, to move into an open discussion to empower individuals to make choices similar to shopping on the high street. Walk into a store and pick-up something and a well-meaning assistant will ask, ‘can I help?’ The more information I am prepared to give away in dialogue, the greater the assistant’s ability to help me make an informed purchase decision. However, I could equally turn and say, ‘no it is OK. I am just browsing.’ The art is in knowing that this decision could be altered in the next store I visit. ‘Just browsing’ could be for that day, or that shop – not for all time.

Display advertising needs to offer the same assistance akin to how we have come to see search. Partly the need is to see many more first-party cookie-strategies working much more long-term with the consumers against their preferences, providing there is a way for them to work at a granular level. Similarly a real-time decision engine needs to go beyond the ability to opt-out for good but to related to each and every exposure whist rewarding consumers to share their likes – or dislikes – of any given ad or brand.

At the heart of all of this is a matter of trust. Not only consumer trust in the technology being there for their benefit, but equally a matter of advertisers having confidence in their partner companies not to use that data as a commercial commodity against them. Neutrality is absolutely crucial to be embedded within infrastructure, where data may be seen, investigated and utilised to enhance the dialogue between a brand and their consumers, but never seen as ‘owned’. The consumer always must be in control and have that right to choose help or not irrespective of media channel.

But in order for this to become a reality now to preserve the utopia of our future, ultimately brands, agencies and publishers are going to have to start thinking less about owning data, and more about gaining trust with and rewarding those who are prepared to share it.

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Sound familiar?

As Social Media continues to infiltrate our daily lives, many more advertisers are beginning to understand the merits of advertising within these channels. Yet, the irony is that the majority of my updates from my Twitter stream and Facebook wall feed are through mobile devices, like my SmartPhone. The social media ads that we discuss that are both PC and browser based are not truly representative of today’s audience. Advertisers are missing out on a greater opportunity to achieve better engagements with today’s consumers.

It is estimated that 35% of our time spent online involves some sort of communication. Yet interestingly, right from day one when I had my very first 14.4 modem, I was installing ‘apps’ to connect with friends: from CompuServe, AOL and ICQ – to Live Messenger, Outlook, Skype and beyond. The majority of social interaction that I’ve had in the past 15 years has not been based in a web browser, but instead with an app on my desktop. Initially, it was through my PC followed by my laptop and now more with my mobile device. The methods may have changed, but the behaviour has not.

According to recent MediaMind research, desktop ads such as those in instant messenger apps far outperform browser-based ads across all metrics, from the number of people engaging to time spent interacting to the resulting CTR. All metrics are at least double in favor of app-based ads. This is especially true in Rich Media ads where size may matter in browser-based ads, but when it comes to desktop-based ads, it’s all about location, location and location! Think about it. If a consumer is spending a greater amount of quality time within a certain environment, potentially with a more concentrated focus, it naturally shows in favor towards the ad engagement. A communicative environment can naturally lead to users wanting to share what they are looking at with their friends, i.e. ‘tear-and-share’. If you are in doubt, look how many ads appear on your Facebook wall feed. Advertising is the new virtual graffiti! It’s an exciting insight into how today’s users value brand message targeting and shows their likelihood to respond to more to ads in apps across all devices.

There are now a plethora of new desktop-based apps offering integration for Social Media; such as Tweetdeck for Twitter, FaceTop for Facebook, or LinkedIn connector for Outlook. Even something like YouTube access is becoming split between a laptop browser and phone/pad app, and increasingly more so via TV or gaming consoles. Yet despite the entire buzz around Fan Pages and ‘likes’ in ads that are driving advertisers to take Social Media marketing seriously, there hasn’t been a big discussion around consumer usage vs advertising to date. Nor has there been a shift in favor of mobile advertising across the same Social Media networks. It’s hard to believe, considering that 50% of Facebook, 80% of Twitter and 100% of FourSquare is mobile based. It’s probably safe to say that Social Media now equals mobile, and vice versa. The two are intrinsically woven together.

We are already seeing more mobile-based strategies created for Social Media apps that focus on highly targeted ads that correspond with a consumer’s activity. Following the likes of FourSquare and ShopKick, Facebook launched Places and Deals to offer targeted ads against consumer loyalty, even offering coupons. AT&T has also jumped on board with their new ShopAlerts program to reward their customers by notifying anyone with special deals and offers if they happen to be near an AT&T store. It’s an important two-way value proposition for both consumer and advertiser alike. The only kicker is that these are all a DR message and requires clicks, as opposed to an engaging brand interaction that we have benefitted from online or forthcoming NFC capabilities of next-generation mobiles.

Even media publications have begun offering beautiful interactive ads within iPad magazines, something where offline ads account for 60% of those pages and where we pay daily or monthly to obtain. The shift and demand for digital magazines shows a huge potential for targeted, timely and creative brand executions that are housed within apps. If current trends are any indication of browser vs limited app-based on a desktop, there may well be something very important not only for publishers, but also for the software industry and the mobile industry at large. That is app-based ads may well outshine their browser-based counterparts in both the amount of advertising that can be delivered, and the value to the end consumer, shown by the depth of engagement metrics.

Now the likes of Skype are looking to introduce desktop ads in their apps, perhaps we are about to see a growing trend in moving online advertising beyond the browser. Maybe in time we will see consumers opting for a full version of Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office for the home that is ad-funded with relevant targeted messages as opposed to the existing reduced feature approach. When we consider the possibilities of digital ads in apps vs browsers we may just witness an unparalleled explosion of new marketing techniques and measurements for advertisers and their agencies on a scale that may dwarf online to date. I guess only time will tell, but what an exciting proposition that lays before us all!

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“Have you ever seen an ad like this… anything close?” (cue: canned laughter)

This is how Steve Jobs ended his first demonstration of iAd using HTML 5 at the recent iPhone OS4 event.

Now I might be an Apple fan-boy, but sorry Steve, this time I really do think you are away with the pixies. The monetisation of content – whether in media or applications – is totally respectable. But the whole concept of an application developer becoming primarily responsible for driving advertising on mobiles? Laughable.

It is as if in Apple’s terms rich media has just been discovered. Except for most of us, it’s kind of like ten years old already, and any rich media vendor worth their salt is already developing rich media ads for mobile browsers and applications. Yes, they will work across ALL mobile handsets, including the iPhone and iPad. Yes they will work within apps. Yes like all rich media the user will be able to experience the brand right where they are. It should all go without saying, really. Certainly Eyeblaster seems to think so…

A key issue with mobile is that it is not as straight forward as connecting an agency system to a publisher system via a third party server in the way we do with the web – due to the many, many variants of how mobile has grown up organically without central direction. Yet, mostly it’s because each publisher wants to OWN the data, the process – they want complete control. I have seen this happen in inStream, it’s happening in out-of-home, and equally it’s happening within mobile. Guys, when will you realise that in order for scalability, there needs to be openness coupled with an agency interface, independent validation and external qualification?

The whole concept of third party ad servers is that they act as conduit between media owner and developer and do so in a way that is across networks and/or territorial boundaries – in as streamlined a manner as possible. Because digital is beyond pretty gimmicks, its down right complicated.

I want to compare the same campaign in France vs Germany. I want to compare the ads on Yahoo! vs MSN. I want to compare ads between a Nokia N-series vs an iPhone. I want to know that frequency works around the user, that sequencing messages works around the consumer’s exposure and interaction – across networks, across territories, and eventually across media. I need a single point of tracking between sites, potentially between devices. Why? Because ad ‘frequency’ is a basic necessity of any media strategist looking to build a relationship with the consumer; neither wanting to over burden the end user with too many intrusive ads, nor over charge the advertiser through wastage. I simply cannot do this when I lock data within one publisher environment – web, out-of-home or mobile.

The most positive thing we have seen in display media is the ability to see how display does not drive ever declining clicks – but how active engagement via Dwell leads consumers to increase their search for further information. This is the heart of cross-channel. I need collated data to do that. Linking display and search was serious progress for a fragmented industry. That is what modern ad serving is becoming about: integration of data points and exchanges to reuse data for targeting.

So with Apple’s vision for hosting their own ads – even if we forget the Flash v HTML 5 argument for a moment – I would like to know of what value this will be to the agency’s, the advertisers, even the programmers who will invariably end up trying to build ads for certain clients with potentially no regard for corporate guidelines. Increase in pressure, for less reward? The ability to serve a rich media ad is one thing but we all know its much bigger then that. Process time. Data. Evidence of success to the person with their hand on the purse strings.

Am I really going to expect an already over-worked designer to now have to create a plethora of ads in different systems and ultimately offer no data-correlation to their media strategist – just for the sake of offering the latest gimmick to an advertiser? Mobile advertising needs to be about progress. Not one step forward and ten steps back. And if you think Apple will build them all for you, I have two points on this; A. Scalability – good luck! B. Creative agencies prepared to merely hand over build to someone else and losing all brand control don’t deserve the advertiser’s account in the first place…

It’s also about reach, about making the numbers stack up. It’s not just those who have installed apps, but are both actively using them regularly and equally prepared to engage with ads within them. The jury’s still out on that one. There are only a few of the many installed apps I use each day, for example. Then there are the ads themselves. Urmm, Apple, all your cool stuff is hidden behind a static ad with a click through. We’ve all realised this is not the most natural consumer behaviour a fair while back now. As a point of reference, all other handsets will use animation to grab the users attention, trigger the response and lead them into the interaction – maybe because they use Flash?

Full-screen video in an ad. Download wallpaper. Link to GPS. Heck, we have even thought about call-back and add to favourites, augmented realty and visual search, couponing and data collection, link to bar-code readers… and even how it will link to out-of-home ads. And of course location-based targeted ads sequenced against the consumer life-cycle across devices – and that’s just the tip of the ice-berg for an ad server. Process systems working around agencies pain-points have been moulded in excruciating fires and formed under pressure over the last ten years.

Cupertino. Seriously. Lay off the coke and wake up and smell the coffee. In fact, Steve maybe I’ll pop round a bring you a steaming large latte… or a nice hot cup of tea. I think we need to talk.

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Remember the day you first discovered Google search. Now, think back to what search was like before, using Altavista and Lycos. It was pretty painful stuff. Google with its plain vanilla HTML interface, simple black text, blue links and one sole graphic did nothing but revolutionize my search experience, and judging by the brand it has built since, I don’t suspect I’m the only one.

In fact, many of us can’t imagine life without Google, despite the valiant contender efforts of Bing and the old faves of Yahoo and AOL. That is until you head East. When we first adopted Google we were all on dial-up and time waiting for graphic rich content was secondary to getting data results – fast! Yet, in a culture where consumers have always had high-speed broadband from day one, such as South Korea, who has the world’s deepest penetration of Internet users, those rules just never applied. In fact for them, search has always been an entirely different affair.

When you take a look at Naver or Daum, the Google and Bing of Korea, you realize that to the majority of Korean’s search engine sites are more like portal websites where search results are fully integrated with images, video, music and user Q&A’s, which boasts 50,000 questions a day posted by users to share information with fellow locals. It reminds me of a more sophisticated Yahoo! search portal. The concept of a simple text search is pretty alien to Koreans and is quickly becoming alien to us to when you consider the time we are now image and video searching ourselves. This is only part of the reason Google has had a hard time way out East.

Both Korea and Japan, the second largest advertising economy behind the US, are also the leaders in 3G adoption across mobile devices, with over 70% of mobile penetration. As a result, more people use mobile devices then PCs to access the Internet, a trend we are beginning to see in the West led by Social Media access.
As consumers find natural, more convenient and faster ways to interact with information and content databases, we are about to see those little text input boxes finding themselves being used less and less. It’s not just that searching on mobile is increasing, but it’s also the way users are conducting searches that’s shifted. When you consider the fact most mobile phones already have an inbuilt cameras, and are seeing handset manufacturers poised to adopt Quick Response (QR) code and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers throughout 2010, it is not just contactless payments via your cell phone that will become commonplace, but comparing prices in real-time that will make a radical change to our purchasing habits.

Quick Response (QR) codes are appearing on everything from print to outdoor billboards as seen in Universal Pictures movie Repo Man and Volvo. It has caused movie studios or car manufacturers to enable the auto-opening of mobile pages by pointing mobile phones at such posters, all tracked through ad serving systems. Applications like Red Laser on an iPhone allow barcode reading of products to automatically search for price comparisons, while on the move. We are also seeing the use of cameras to find information through augmented reality overlaying the natural world with interactive information. And now, RFID will take this even a stage further, when proximity to items can auto-trigger further information, a trend already firmly rooted in Eastern cultures.

Though still in it’s infancy in the West, it is these concepts that will move quickly towards critical-mass adoption and challenge everything we thought we knew about search and optimization, or the relationship between display and search across channels. In fact, it’s these forms of mobile technology that’s facilitating a level of location-based advertising which will move consumers beyond a video search on YouTube and bring a new simplicity to search and consumer activity that will give the classic search a run for its money.

This article first appeared on AdAge

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The first commercial use of the Universal Product Code appeared on a ten-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum in Ohio back in 1974. Since then, the bar code has saved millions of dollars annually and brought valuable consumer insights to brands. Bar codes save on efficiencies, which ultimately impacts price. So if I told you that traceable technology also translates into cost savings for the consumer, would you opt in? It’s not just about advertising, it’s a way of tailoring incentives and increasing relevancy for the end user.

Today, the cookie, a digital cousin of the bar code, is vilified out of fear and ignorance about consumer privacy. The EU government, likely followed by the U.S., seeks to enforce opt-in for the storage of any information on consumers’ machines. Actually, cookies rarely contain personal identifiable information. If consumers’ right to privacy were truly the issue, would it not also apply to the rich vein of commercial data collected by Visa, Time Warner and even your local grocery store? So why fuss about cookies? Without cookies, navigating the internet would be a painful experience full of repetitive tasks and irrelevant messages.

An addressable era

In 2010, we enter a world of addressable advertising that delivers highly personalized, relevant messages to consumers in a value exchange with advertisers. Addressable advertising harnesses behavioral and purchase data to assess buying intent and customization of messages, much like Amazon recommendations. The end results are less intrusive ads and more valuable information being delivered. The topic of data collection has an unparalleled ability to raise the blood pressure of advocacy groups focused on privacy issues, for good reason. But consumers are innately aware of the value of personal information and are willing to exchange small details for ease of use, or in pursuit of a deal. Amazon has made a science of this by applying this concept to advertising. Increasing relevancy and eliminating the intrusiveness associated with advertising is a direct benefit to both the consumer and the advertiser. Personally, I would welcome never having to see a feminine hygiene ad on my TV again.

Until now, addressable advertising has flown under the radar. In the U.S., Sprint developed applications to identify consumers as they move through a store and pass within eight feet of an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) reader. Similarly, Mini Cooper used personalized billboards aimed at drivers in major U.S. cities, and Coca-Cola has launched new freestyle vending machines with 100 choices of soda in real-time to consumers. In Japan, McDonald’s targets consumers with special offers via mobile phones and enables them to order and pay for food wirelessly. In turn, McDonald’s captures data and sends consumers personalized offers. To put this into context, by 2004, Walmart, a pioneer in RFID product tracking, collected 460 terabytes of data from RFID tags, twice as much as the internet.

Science fiction vs. science fact

NFC (near field communication) technology is not new, but it is almost mainstream as mobile phone manufacturers in the West adopt built-in RFID readers to follow their Asian counterparts. Simply put, RFID are wireless micro-computers that contain memory storage. RFID replaces bar codes on products, facilitating a world where we check information or prices online by scanning mobile phones over a product in-store and even wave-and-pay as consumers make transactions. American Express, Visa and MasterCard have created contact-less credit cards using RFID with brands like Arby’s, McDonald’s and KFC already on board. In other markets, RFID enables “smart” home appliances to adjust things like temperature via an internet connection, or turn on the oven from your mobile device. Each consumer action produces data, most of which is valuable when it comes to addressable marketing.

Ultimately, digital marketing with RFID would mean identifying individuals or groups to deliver uniquely targeted messages to through advertising and POS. Any digital screen would be available to serve targeted ads in or out of the home through “location-aware” sensors afforded by NFC. This assumes that a unique identifier has been given to every single individual and is linked to his/her purchasing behavior via tagged items.

Today, there’s nearly three times the amount of RFID “smart chips” operating compared to internet users. Big Brother or not, tracking behavior and collecting data to deliver more targeted messages benefits both advertisers and consumers. The tipping point will come when the fear of tracking is outweighed by the benefits to the consumer. In the meantime, let’s try to keep the cookie from crumbling and watch closely as we move into RFID territory.

This article first appeared on AdAge

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