The ZenithOptimedia blog

Is Pinterest the Next Big Social Network in Europe?

2012-02-23T17:32:00.001Z

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Google Heads-Up Display Glasses Are Coming by the End of 2012

2012-02-23T17:16:00.001Z

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More than half of UK businesses plot marketing budget increase - Marketing news - Marketing magazine

2012-02-23T17:03:00.001Z

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Embed the Path to Purchase Into Your Facebook Photos | Moxie Pulse

2012-02-23T16:39:00.001Z

Do you suspect that you sometimes lose potential sales when a person sees a product of yours that they want on Facebook, but then gets distracted before they follow through with buying it?

Of course you do!

Now ThingLink has come to the rescue with ThingLink Tabs, a new product in the company’s line of interactive image tools that allows you to add links anywhere inside an image on your Facebook page.

Implications: Releasing a groundbreaking gadget? Selling tickets to a movie? Promoting a new model of wristwatch? ThingLink Tabs will help you sell your wares to people that see a photo of the product on Facebook.

(And their other products allow you to make images interactive on Twitter, Wikipedia, Flickr, Spotify and Soundcloud.)

Cultural Macrotrend: Hyperlife

via All Facebook

This image uses ThingLink. Learn more »

Originally Thinglinked @ samirvine.co.uk

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Report: Facebook, Google Sprint Ahead in U.S. Display Sales | Digital - Advertising Age

2012-02-23T16:24:00.001Z

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The ad that only plays to women: the future of marketing or useless gimmick? - Advertising - Media - The Independent

2012-02-23T16:09:00.001Z

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Google to pilot cable TV service - Brand Republic News

2012-02-23T15:44:00.001Z

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Gannett to put up paywalls at 80 titles | Media | guardian.co.uk

2012-02-23T15:29:00.001Z

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The advert that can tell who you are | Media | The Guardian

2012-02-21T12:19:00.001Z

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Marketing Budgets Rise for Some Giants as Outlook Improves - New York TImes

2012-02-21T12:04:00.001Z

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Australia’s First-Ever National Multi-Screen Report Reveals Evolution in TV Viewing | Nielsen Wire

2012-02-20T17:50:00.001Z

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Survey: New U.S. Smartphone Growth by Age and Income | Nielsen Wire

2012-02-20T14:51:00.001Z

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The Sun to launch Sunday edition on Feb 25th

2012-02-20T09:57:00.001Z

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Paid Owned Earned by Nick Burcher

2012-02-17T16:55:00.002Z

Nick Burcher, our Head of Social Media and Digital Innovation, has written a book called Paid, Owned, Earned about the complexity of media channels confronting brands, agencies and advertisers. With a multitude of case studies and original thinking it provides a clear framework on how best to approach the fragmented media landscape.

The complexity of media that now sees multiple channels accessed through multiple devices has created major challenges for today's marketing and advertising professionals. Consumer time is split between TVs, laptops, iPads, X-Boxes and smartphones, with traditional media, websites, videos, social networks and apps all competing for attention, meaning it's difficult for brands to decide how best to reach and engage their audiences. Paid, Owned, Earned defines the constituents of each area of 'paid', 'owned' and 'earned' media and shows how they are linked together. It proposes a blueprint for how to think and navigate across this space using a framework made up of key elements such as communities and content, social media optimisation, seeding and viral distribution, broadcast mass media, social performance media and measurement.

Please have a look at the attached sampler.

Paid Owned Earned by Nick Burcher

American Families See Tablets as Playmate, Teacher and Babysitter | Nielsen Wire

2012-02-17T12:17:00.001Z

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Need Inspiration? Check Out Gap’s Digital Catalogue! | Moxie Pulse

2012-02-17T12:00:00.001Z

Ever have one of those moments when you’re browsing through a clothing retailer site, see a model wearing an item you really want, then have to dig around the online catalogue looking for that one particular item? It’s frustrating and time consuming, but Gap is working to change the face of the traditional catalogue.

Gap has teamed up with digital agency AKQA and 6 fashion and lifestyle blogs to launch a new experiential digital catalogue called Styld.by that allows consumers to share looks that include Gap clothes. Bloggers are able to curate an outfit with a Gap product to best showcase their own individual style to give consumers a more authentic view point. The images are then pulled from the 6 blogs, aggregated onto Styld.by paired with a description of the product, and gives consumers the option to bookmark or share the image on social platforms.

Implications: Digital catalogues have evolved from living within traditional retail sites to blogs by everyday consumers. Brands can use bloggers as curators to keep consumers up to date on the newest trends and technology of the season while also providing a constant stream of inspiration to the consumer.

Cultural Macrotrend: En Vogue

via ClickZ

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Twitter Opens Self-Serve Ad Platform to 10,000 Businesses | Digital - Advertising Age

2012-02-17T11:42:00.001Z

Twitter is rolling out the self-serve ad platform it's been testing to 10,000 small and midsize businesses next month through a partnership with American Express, in a bid to broaden its revenue streams.

Starting tonight, American Express cardmembers and merchants can register to use the platform on a first-come, first-serve basis and also receive $100 in advertising credits to put toward bidding on promoted tweets and promoted accounts -- hopefully whetting their appetites for more. Twitter had begun the roll-out of self-serve, which lets advertisers make electronic payments instead of being invoiced by the sales team, in mid-November with a group of fewer than 20 advertisers and ultimately expanded the group to about 100.

Read the rest at adage.com

French Websites See Strong Rise in Engagement - comScore

2012-02-17T11:30:00.001Z

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Bleacher Report Utilizes YouTube to Connect with Sports Fans | Moxie Pulse

2012-02-16T14:05:00.001Z

Bleacher Report, a popular digital sports media network of unpaid amateur sports reporters, announced today that they will be launching new, hyper-specialized YouTube channels. The new channels include a year-round focus on the NFL draft, college recruiting updates, and candid interviews with NFL stars. Another channel will daily updated with a round-up of buzzworthy stories.

Implications: Online video has become a necessary component for media and consumer brands. Traditional websites are no longer enough, and all brands need to have a video presence.

Cultural Macrotrend: Free Agent

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ZenithOptimedia launches Performics UK - Brand Republic News

2012-02-16T13:50:00.001Z

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Facebook to Release Timeline for Brands This Month | Digital - Advertising Age

2012-02-16T13:31:00.001Z

Facebook will bring its Timeline profile pages to brands this month in the U.S., according to executives briefed on the company's plans.

At its F8 conference in September, Facebook introduced a dramatic transformation of profile pages for its more than 800 million users with the Timeline format, which generates picture-heavy, scrapbook-like collages spanning users' entire history on the social network. It has been rolled out slowly, and users still have the choice to opt in.

Read the rest at adage.com

CBS eyes strong ad sales in 2012 - FT

2012-02-16T13:14:00.001Z

CBS has said it sees clear signs the US economy has been improving, citing strong sales of political, automotive and local advertising.

Les Moonves, chief executive, said last minute advertising buys were up and that local advertising was strong even before accounting for an expected surge of political advertising. Speaking of a US election year in which $2bn is expected to be spent by candidates – of which CBS hopes to get 9-10 per cent – Mr Moonves said, “We’re looking forward to a lot of nastiness on both sides.”

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Rad the full story at ft.com

How To Migrate Traditional Media Dollars Into Web Equivalents | Moxie Pulse

2012-02-16T12:57:00.001Z

As the audience for digital media declines and the audience for traditional media remains stagnant or shrinks, marketers are trying to figure out how to best shift their money from traditional to digital advertising programs and what the closest equivalents are in the terms of audience, capabilities, strategic usefulness and goals.

Digital ad spending now accounts for 22.2% of all ad spending, $39.5 billion out of $165.7 billion industry dollars. And that number does not reflect the true weight of digital in the advertising space, as digital campaigns more efficiently connect with specific targets based on the information available about online participants, which allows enhanced targeting.

So how can you best shift your television, radio, newspaper, magazines and out-of-home money into the digital space? We’re not talking about new and different forms of digital media that are unlike anything we’ve seen before. We’re talking about platforms that amount to digital translations of analog media.

The 1^st Screen

For television, the obvious heirs to the throne are web shorts and internet-enabled TV services such as Netflix and HuluPlus. YouTube and other platforms that specialize in short videos are currently running TV spots before the clips start (pre-roll). Hulu is working on a more traditional model, interspersing TV spots amongst the show’s content, though the commercial breaks are shorter. Users also sometimes have options such as to which of several ads to watch or whether to watch one long ad or several short ones.

Your 15 and 30 second TV spots can be delivered to these companies and used as-is, though it is recommended to consider the audience and medium and to create spots with the web environment in mind, if you have the funds to do so. This could be as simple as cutting an ad down to a shorter run-time or shooting alternate versions that acknowledge the fact that the ad is running on the web.

Your Own Personal Radio Station

Podcasts are unlikely to replace the radio for people that keep it on in their car without really paying attention, but for the music-focused and NPR-loving set, the shift has already happened to a major extent. Podcasts that have large audiences will run spots similar to those found on terrestrial radio, but typically for products aimed at a narrower demographic, as we have many, many more podcasts than we do radio stations and they offer marketers the ability to reach certain niches.

Other popular podcast advertising techniques involve give-aways hosted by the talent and, ironically, in-program endorsements along the lines of TV sponsorships in the early days of that medium. Marketers will provide a podcaster with a portfolio of information on a product along with a flexible script and then the podcaster will relay the message himself, in his own style and the voice his audience knows and loves.

You can reach out to podcasts with sizable audiences that fit your target demographic and negotiate deals that are similar to what you find in the traditional radio space. And because audio is a relatively cheap format to record in, you can even create many versions of your ads that are tailored to the particular podcasts and audiences you are dealing with.

Out-of-Home Doesn’t Have to be Static

Billboards are interesting because there are a number of corollaries to this advertising tactic. In some ways banner ads are like billboards, sitting off to the side and mostly depending on being noticed in the peripheral vision – “brand building” as it is called in marketing circles.

Billboards and in-store signage can be used to trigger mobile experiences through 2D codes or URLs, and this brings rich interactive experiences to consumers when in the past, they would have just had a graphic design to look at.

For example, Coca-Cola and Charmin are offering consumers the chance to order products while traveling the Philadelphia transit system and have them delivered to the user’s doorstep.

When building and deploying out-of-home media, consider how it can connect to a consumer’s mobile device for an richer and more interactive experience.

Digital Doesn’t Destroy Retail, It Can Invigorate It

E-commerce has put a small dent in retail sales, but is hardly replacing brick and mortar storefronts. More useful in the marketing mix are m-commerce capabilities built into the retail experience, whether this be in the form of coupons, personalized recommendations or simply the ability to buy an item in-store on your phone and have it shipped to your house.

For example, Macy’s Backstage Pass program brings fashion experts and designers directly to shoppers, while they are in the store, through their mobile device. The content that is provided includes seasonal and trending fashion advice from fashion celebrities suchb as Tommy Hilfiger, Greg Norman, Rachel Roy and Irinia Shabayeva.

Look around your retail locations and try to spot opportunities to turn a one-way message like in-store signage into an impulse purchase opportunity through the use of mobile coupons and commerce.

Publish or Perish

Newspaper and magazine advertising can also be compared to banner ads, where free content is being subsidized by visual marketing messages scattered throughout the content.

And online listing sites such as Craigslist have all but replaced the local “For Sale” listings found in the backs of newspapers.

This is one of the easiest adaptations to make and one you are likely already on top of. Create interactive banner ads with a compelling call to action, use rich media when appropriate to build commerce, social and video functionality into those banners, and place ads in online listings rather than printed ones.

Quicker Direct Response Than Ever Before

Email, one of the digital marketing mediums that has been in use for the longest time, has pulled a lot of money away from the direct mail industry, which still exists but is declining on a consistent basis.

Email is cheaper to deploy, can drive to a path-to-purchase and is more often accessed when a consumer is a mood to take action, such as first thing in the morning or during the work day.

Digital Isn’t All Magical Gizmos and Groundbreaking Revelations

In many ways, the digital world is replicating the physical world, albeit with some smart enhancements and extra capabilities. You should take a look the current shifts in digital vs. traditional advertising spending and try to stay marginally ahead of the curve. Traditional media is not going away any time soon, but we do have a whole new set of media that your average marketing is neglecting to some degree. So don’t go overboard, but stay ahead of the pack, since there is less clutter and more opportunity for impulse purchase and interactivity in the digital space.

Greg Steen 02.14.2012

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Zynga's Earnings: Social Gaming Revenue by the Numbers - Mashable

2012-02-16T12:43:00.001Z

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UK TV adspend remains healthy despite economy concerns - Brand Republic News

2012-02-16T12:34:00.001Z

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