Posts filed under ‘banner ads’
Giving Mobile Ads a Makeover
Google, Apple and Others Seek to Push Beyond Banners, Text Messages
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO And EMILY STEELGoogle, Apple and several start-ups are trying to break the mold in mobile advertising, hoping to persuade marketers to spend more on a format that the technology industry has been hyping for years, with little to show for it.
Until now, mobile advertising mainly consisted of small banner ads tucked into the corner of a mobile Web page or text-message ads that often resembled spam. As a result, the mobile-advertising market remained relatively small, even as mobile phones proliferated.
Google, Apple and others are putting money into changing that. In November, Google announced a $750 million agreement to acquire AdMob Inc., a company that sells a variety of mobile ads, including some that show the location of a retailer’s closest store on a map or allow mobile-device users to download music or watch a commercial between levels in a game.
This week, Google is also expected to launch a new type of mobile-search ad for high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone, says a person familiar with the matter. People who search for pizza, for example, might see a search ad with a phone number that they can click to call a nearby pizzeria.
Apple, meanwhile, bought mobile-ad company Quattro Wireless in January. On Monday, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company acquired Quattro to offer “a seamless way for our developers to make more money on their apps, especially those that are providing free apps.” An Apple spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Amid much fanfare Wednesday, Apple introduced a multimedia tablet-style computer called the iPad. priced at as much as $829 for high-end models with 3G wireless capacity.
Marketers are carefully watching the iPad, which can run software applications similar to iPhone apps, along with other new products, as they look to broaden their strategies beyond first-generation mobile ads, such as text-messages ads.
Volkswagen started testing text-message ads in 2008 and hired digital ad shop AKQA to develop a mobile-advertising strategy for the brand last year. The company built a mobile-specific Web site and even launched its new GTI hatchback via a mobile game.
Now, the auto maker is building applications on its mobile Web site that allow VW owners to schedule service appointments or pay their bills and for prospective buyers to track incentives, said Charlie Taylor, Volkswagen’s general manager of digital marketing, in an interview.
Best Buy‘s chief marketing officer, Barry Judge, wants to use mobile to make standard ads more interactive. A print ad or billboard, for instance, might give consumers an address they could text-message for more information.
Best Buy also is thinking about how to use mobile marketing to enhance customers’ shopping experiences, such as by building new applications or including special codes on its products to provide more information about them.
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“This is going to be a big area. It may dwarf what the PC Internet does,” Mr. Judge says.
While the Google-Apple race heats up, start-ups like FourSquare and Loopt, are trying to sell marketers on new ways to target customers on their mobile phones.
Mobile social-networking service Loopt is developing a service that can target offers to the cellphones of people who walk into a specific store a certain number of times, says Loopt Chief Executive Sam Altman.
“Advertisers want to reach people near their doorway, and when they are at that critical moment about making a decision,” he said.
FourSquare, a software application that allows users to tell their friends when they have “checked in” at various locations like a restaurant, is looking at ways to charge for a similar service that sends special offers to people who regularly check in at an establishment or are nearby. Today, more than 600 venues are using a free version of the service, FourSquare says.
Tristan Walker, FourSquare’s head of business development, says the company may develop a paid offering, and is looking at ways to give marketers more data about the types of people who visit their stores, like which store they visited just prior.
“You could potentially turn it into a Google-like ad model where people bid on the latitude and longitude of where they want their ads to appear at certain times of day,” he says.
All the activity comes as mobile ads have yet to live up to what the tech industry says is their huge potential. Spending on mobile ads in the U.S. remains small–just $416 million in 2009, up from $320 million in 2008—according to market-research firm eMarketer. That’s a fraction of the $22.4 billion U.S. online advertising market.
Growth has been slower than expected as many mobile Web sites have yet to generate significant traffic and marketers have had a tough time creating campaigns. EMarketer predicted last February that mobile-ad spending would be $760 million in 2009, growing to $2.4 billion in 2012. The research firm now estimates that mobile-ad spending will reach just $1.1 billion by 2012.
“The growth has been disappointing,” says Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital, the group within WPP working to develop the ad company’s digital offerings. “The only large numbers on the table are the prices of the acquisitions—not the amount of revenue they’re generating.”
In an interview last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said serious growth in mobile advertising will take time. “It’s probably the case that the real impact on mobile [advertising] will come from products that aren’t yet built,” he said.
In particular, he cited potential advertising opportunities around new software applications, like augmented reality software, which gives people information about what their phone is pointing at, acting as another pair of eyes.
Apple could be another wild card.”The relationship that Apple has with developers [of apps for the iPhone] is a really tight one,” said AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui, in a recent interview. “I don’t really have a clear view of what that’s going to mean, but I do think it will be very different.”
AdMob and Google are continuing to operate as independent companies as they await word from the Federal Trade Commission, which is reviewing the deal on antitrust grounds. Google has said it remains confident “the FTC will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile-advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes.”
Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com and Emily Steel at emily.steel@wsj.com
Digital Marketing Factbook: A Glimpse Inside
Source: MarketingProfs.com
How US consumers spend their time online has shifted significantly in the past five years, according to Online Publishers Association (OPA) data presented in the Digital Marketing Factbook (Q4 2009) recently published by MarketingProfs.
The Digital Marketing Factbook, designed to be a comprehensive source of data and research for online marketers, includes chapters on email, search, and social media—with 144 pages of findings, including 110 charts and graphs from 60+ sources.
In 2004, US consumers spent 42% of their online time on communications-related activities such as reading and sending email, whereas now they spend only 27% of their time doing so, according to the OPA data cited in the Factbook.
What’s filled the gap? Community-focused social networking sites such as Facebook, which now account for 13% of users’ time, up from virtually nothing in 2004:
Key findings:
- In addition to devoting more of their online time to community sites, consumers today are spending more time on content sites and search, and less time on commerce sites, than they were in 2004.
- As for what specific activities US adults perform online today:
—90% send or read emails
—88% use search engines
—76% check the weather
—75% buy a product
—72% get news
—66% to make or buy a travel reservation
—60% to look for news or information about politics
(According to April 2009 data from the Pew Internet & American Life project included in the Factbook.)
Overview
The “Online Overview” that opens the Digital Marketing Factbook presents the information above, as well as data on Internet usage worldwide, typical marketing budgets, most successful and most used tactics, and marketing ROI—including, in all, 21 charts.
Following the overview are chapters on email, search, and social media marketing, all of which are sampled in this article.
“The Digital Marketing Factbook is more than just a compendium of charts. Marketers can use this information-packed resource to plan their online marketing campaigns and implement go-to-marketing tactics,” said MarketingProfs President Roy Young.
“Armed with data regarding consumers’ online habits, preferences and inclinations, you’ll be able to best craft your digital message to reach loyal customers, reach new ones and retain them.”
The Factbook is available for purchase by nonmembers for $199—or $119 for MarketingProfs Premium Members. Basic Members (just provide your email address to become one) can obtain a copy for $159 until Saturday, Oct. 31.
What Marketers Say
Senior marketers were asked which components of their current digital marketing programs—search, email, display advertising, social networking, and mobile advertising—delivered the best results. Only 11% cited social networking—an especially striking figure when you consider that consumers spend 13% of their online time on social networks, and this percentage is likely to grow.
Here’s what senior marketers said of the results they get from components of their campaigns:
Key findings:
- Search marketing delivers the best results (33%); search and email still constitute the core of a solid online media plan.
- Mobile advertising… whoa.
Email Marketing
Nearly everyone uses email, and this medium is repeatedly ranked as one of the most cost-effective (and effective) forms of marketing.
The Email Marketing section of the Digital Marketing Factbook covers how, when, and why consumers and businesses use email, as well as providing marketing benchmarks, such as average open rates, that can help you judge your own efforts. In all, this section of the Factbook contains 18 charts.
What Consumers Say
Global email users were asked the following question: As a result of opening permission-based emails, how often do you normally take each of the following actions?
Key findings:
- Consumers in Asia appear more responsive to email offers than those in other regions, though a higher percent of consumers in North America would enter a sweepstakes or promotion.
- Asian consumers are also more likely to forward emails than consumers based elsewhere: 51% forward emails, compared with 39% of North Americans and 32% of Europeans.
- In another question, consumers were asked about what makes a subject line effective. The results showed that discount offers have universal appeal, but many subject lines are much more popular in Asia than in Europe or the United States (familiar brand names, new product announcements).
- European and North American consumers respond much the same to subject lines, although Europeans are more likely than Americans to find free product offers attractive (66% vs. 57%).
What Marketers Say
Looking at the most important email marketing initiatives that businesses consider implementing, we see that the top-ranked ones reflect a desire to improve relevancy. Some 66% of respondents are looking to increase the performance of their campaigns and 52% are looking to improve segmentation and targeting:
Other findings:
- According to a survey of 623 email marketers, almost 50% of respondents report that sending emails at midday (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) is the best time of day to do so.
- The start of the business day (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.) is considered second best at 31.5%. Though every emailer should test for himself or herself what the best time of day is, this can help guide initial efforts.
Search Engine Marketing
The first stop for just about any type of information imaginable is an online search. This section of the Digital Marketing Factbook is full of information about how consumers seek information and how businesses are ensuring that their potential customers find it: e.g., which search engines are the favorites worldwide, how those favorites perform in different regions, and how to improve search marketing efforts.
This section of the Factbook contains 34 charts.
What Consumers Say
A survey of 320 Internet users found that search engines were the most valuable information source for someone making a purchasing decision:
Key findings:
- Survey respondents ranked online rating systems second and discussion forums third.
- Consumers ranked social networking sites low among the options; it will be interesting to see whether consumers come to rely more on these sites in the months and years ahead.
Not all searches take place on search engines. Though not nearly as large as Google, a site like eBay hosts about as many monthly searches as Microsoft or Ask. With such volume, search marketers should be taking these sites into consideration when planning PPC strategies:
Other findings:
- Data from comScore suggests an interesting trend: a steadily increasing length in the phrases people use when searching for something. This means that the long tail of lesser-used, but more productive search phrases of 3+ words is growing. More exact searches mean more efficient targeting. More sophisticated usage as search becomes more mainstream is the most likely factor responsible.
- Hitwise data based on a sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users shows the same phenomenon: the length of search queries has increased over the past year. Searches of eight or more words increased the most (18%), although two-word searches made up the majority of searches, amounting to 23% of all queries in 2009. Understanding the middle of the long tail is a key part of maximizing the efficiency of a PPC campaign.
What Marketers Say
The search marketing firm SearchIgnite put together an aggregate analysis of its clients’ activity in Q2 2008 compared with Q2 2009 to see the effects of the market downturn. What it found is that its clients have been able to get more PPC impressions and clicks while spending less.
For marketers with intact budgets, this is good news, because it means decreased competition and more cost-efficient PPC ads:
Social Media Marketing
The Social Media Marketing section of the Digital Marketing Factbook features the latest stats on usage of social media, including data for how usage differs across various demographics. Learn about who is reading blogs, chatting with friends or business contacts, putting up a blog, tweeting or creating a Facebook or MySpace page.
This section contains 37 charts.
What Consumers Say
Of the 418 social network users surveyed online by Knowledge Networks, almost one-quarter “sometimes” turn to social media for information on travel or travel services and “sometimes” got purchase advice on clothing or shoes, but very few do so “regularly.”
Other findings:
- According to BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Usage Survey of 22,000 consumers, women are far more active on social networks than men, with the exception of the career-oriented LinkedIn.
- According to a study of 711 women social network users, nearly half of all social networking women belong to four or more networks. Based on focus groups conducted by ShesConnected, the primary reason given for joining multiple sites was “no one site meets all of my needs or interests.” This insight may be particularly useful for marketers trying to help meet certain product-specific information needs.
- Some 57% of white-collar Baby Boomers report they use the networking site LinkedIn, while another 55% have a Facebook profile. This data comes from a survey of 1,660 business professionals age 45 to 63.
What Marketers Say
According to a survey of CMOs, 65% of companies use social networking sites for marketing. Those firms that do use social media do so toward a wide range of marketing objectives:
About the data: The Digital Marketing Factbook, designed to be a comprehensive source of data and research for online marketers, includes chapters on email, search, and social media—with 144 pages of findings, including 110 charts and graphs from 60+ sources.
The Factbook is available for purchase by nonmembers for $199—or $119 for MarketingProfs Premium Members. Basic Members (just provide your email address to become one) can obtain a copy for $159 until Saturday, Oct. 31.
Online Spending Passes TV in UK
Source: eMarketer
Online ad spending has been fortunate in the economic downturn—recession-resistant due to its high level of accountability, Internet ad revenue growth has remained positive as spending in all other media dropped.
In the UK, the effect has been so dramatic that online took the biggest slice of advertising revenues in the first half of 2009. Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) put online revenues at 23.5% of the total from January to June, 1.6 percentage points ahead of TV.
This makes the UK the first major economy to see online spending overtake television.
“Internet advertising has beaten all expectations to achieve growth in the most challenging market conditions,” said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB UK, in a statement. “Online display has performed notably well against its peers in TV, print and radio despite more than £1.5 billion being wiped off the advertising industry.”
Paid search led online growth, while spending on display ads and classifieds fell.
Interestingly, the UK TV lobby is fighting back. Lindsey Clay, marketing director of industry body Thinkbox, told The Guardian that it is “meaningless to sweep all the money spent on every aspect of online marketing into one big figure and celebrate it. Online marketing spend is made up of many things, including e-mail, classified ads, display ads (including online TV advertising) and, overwhelmingly, search marketing. They should be judged individually.”
“Of course online encompasses a wide range of formats and approaches,” commented Karin von Abrams, eMarketer senior analyst. “And the UK is a unique market, where—thanks to the BBC—a large portion of TV broadcasting is not ad-supported.
“But few interactive marketers will want to forgo the celebrations,” Ms. von Abrams continued. “The UK has been especially hard-hit by the global recession, and the pace of recovery is still uncertain. Online advertising is rightly credited with saving the UK ad industry from meltdown in this difficult period. These Internet spending figures will also give advertisers renewed confidence, and encourage further investment in online strategies.”
Keep up on the latest digital trends. Learn more about an eMarketer Total Access subscription, today.
Check out today’s other article, “Behavioral Targeting Misses Mark.”
Consumer-Goods Brands Likely to Triple Online Spending in India Next Year
But the Medium Still Faces Challenges as Broadband Penetration Lags
By Robin Thomas
Fast-moving-consumer-goods brands in India are upping their spending on online advertising — and how. According to the WebChutney Digital Media Outlook Report 2009, the online spending of the FMCG category, which stands at about $3.3 million (Rs 16 crore), is expected to increase to almost $14.8 million (Rs 72 crore) in 2009-10, a whopping 353% jump.
For a long time, FMCG brands have been using TV and print media, and though these media still lead the pack, the use of online advertising is also on the rise. For instance, in August 2009, Coca-Cola India launched its campaign for Sprite on the internet first. Pepsi, ITC Group and Colgate-Palmolive are some other FMCG brands that have begun using online advertising in a big way. In fact, the second half of 2008 saw Pepsi increasingly take to online advertising.
Amardeep Singh, co-founder and VP of Interactive Avenues, explained: “FMCG brands are increasingly spending online. Today you have clients like Colgate-Palmolive, Sony, ITC Group and so on who are getting active online and using the internet as a medium to build reach. With the growing number of internet users, people have started using the internet as a reach-building medium, and thus more advertisers are waking up to the fact that the internet is fast becoming an integral part of their media plan.”
On the other hand, Saurabh Bhatia, co-founder and chief business officer of video-ad network Vdopia, said, “FMCG brands in India are increasingly spending online, and this is a growing trend. Nevertheless there is still a long way to go, because FMCG brands are still experimenting with the medium, whereas by now it should have already been a part of their media plan.”
Mr. Bhatia added: “One major reason why FMCG brands must market their products online is because their competitors are not yet there; hence, for an audience, there is very little exposure of the FMCG brand, which, in turn, brings in a lot of freshness and curiosity, which the brands can reap benefits from. Since FMCG is majorly about brand and branding, the internet can play a very critical role. … However, unfortunately the decision makers are mainly from a generation that did not spend their time on the internet, which is another challenge.”
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Exchange4media covers advertising, media and marketing in India through its exchange4media.com website and daily e-newsletter; print magazine, Impact, published weekly; and Pitch, a monthly.
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Mr. Singh explained further: “Until now, brands were looking at performance of the medium to acquire the customer, but the moment they start looking at the reach and frequency metric of the internet, then automatically FMCG advertisers will come on board.
“The internet as a medium is not a static medium but a very dynamic one. With online video coming on board, FMCG brands will use video advertising in a big way. However, for online-video advertising to take off in the country, there is a need to increase broadband penetration, and once the penetration of wireless broadband devices increases, you will see an increase in video consumption. As a result a lot more FMCG brands will also be seen coming on board.”
Said Mr. Bhatia: “At the decision-maker level, there is a lack of understanding amongst the clients about the digital media, hence there is a need to for the internet companies to educate FMCG brands about the value of the internet as a medium, and this is one area where they have not been very successful.
“Broadband penetration must reach the tier-two and -three towns as well. In fact, we are seeing increasing trends of internet consumption beyond metros as well. The presence of online video is a huge, welcome trend for the internet industry per se because it gives an opportunity to the FMCG brands to experience the medium in the most common denominator that they have been using, which is the 30-second commercial, thus making FMCG brands feel that internet advertising is no alien, but can be far more interesting.”
While the FMCG brands are no doubt increasing their online spending, online advertising for these brands is more or less on an experimental basis. However, with increased broadband penetration and the growth of online-video advertising in India, FMCG brands are bound to take to online advertising in a big way.
The story was originally published at Exchange4Media.
Gartner: Mobile Advertising To Grow 74% In 2009
By Mark Walsh
A new Gartner report projects that mobile ad spending worldwide will grow 74% this year to $913.5 million but not really accelerate until 2011, when advertisers are expected to boost mobile spending as part of an overall shift toward digital marketing channels.By 2013, the research firm expects mobile ad spending to surpass $13 billion, with the Asia-Pacific region leading the way, followed by North America and Europe.
“After 2011, the trend will continue as smartphones and flat-rate data plans become more affordable to mainstream users,” states the report, titled “Mobile Advertising Grows Quietly. “The growth in mobile advertising revenues is primarily driven by mobile Web banner ads, but it also has a strong growth component from mobile search, downloadable applications and SMS advertising.”
Underlying the growth of these formats is increased consumer use of smartphones, which Gartner expects to account for 45.5% of all mobile phone sales in 2013, up from just over 9% in 2008. The embrace of smartphones — especially the iPhone — coupled with a rise in flat-rate data plan pricing, signals that a fundamental change is underway in how consumers interact with high-end devices.
While data usage is growing most rapidly among smartphone users, Gartner analyst Andrew Frank points out that that the increased mobile media consumption is leading Web publishers to create more user-friendly versions of their mobile sites, “which in turn is lifting mobile Web access among non-smartphone users.”
A recent NPD report also noted that regular mobile phones have also increasingly adopted smartphone features such as Qwerty keyboards and touchscreens.
The report highlights location-based targeting, long hyped as one of the killer apps of mobile advertising, as still underutilized by finally coming into its own with the spread of GPS technology. “GPS-aware apps now provide a much simpler and more cost-effective means of achieving location targeting, while lowering the risks of consumer backlash,” since no personally identifiable information needs to be sent by users.
Gartner expects location-based ads to find an audience among young mobile users who are increasingly using mobile devices to navigate and connect with friends on the go. The firm suggests that media companies will have to develop (or acquire) local directory services like Yelp and Citysearch to fully take advantage of location-based advertising on cell phones.
Another as-yet unfulfilled opportunity in mobile advertising lies in third-party advertising in mobile apps. Despite the explosion of apps sparked by Apple’s App Store, most have yet to integrate advertising. And among those that have, the prevalence of house ads indicates that revenue growth is significantly lagging the opportunity afforded by rising usage.
Gartner also predicts that mobile handsets will increasingly complement other types of advertising as a “universal back channel,” especially for out-of-home media. The firm’s research supports the idea that young consumers in particular will accept free mobile content subsidized by advertising.
Even so, the report acknowledges that user acceptance generally, and regulation of more highly targeted and personalized forms of advertising, remain a potential hazard for advertisers, content providers and carriers. Other barriers to mobile ad growth cited by Gartner include the proliferation of non-standard devices and metrics and mobile spam, especially in connection with SMS text marketing.
While encouraging advertisers and agencies to look at precise targeting by time and location, the firm advises them to maintain a keen sensitivity to privacy issues and permission strategies.
Do Consumers Care About Web Privacy?
Experience of Ad Net Fetchback Shows Many Opt Out of Opting out
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Freaking out about the easier opt-outs proposed by some online-privacy advocates? Maybe you don’t have so much to worry about.
In June, Fetchback, an advertising network that specializes in ad “retargeting,” added a link within its ad units that, when clicked, took consumers to a page that explained who the advertiser was and how the ad got there and gave contact info for Fetchback, as well as a way to opt out of future targeting.
When Fetchback compared the rate at which people opted out before it added the link and after, it found that it actually went down slightly.
It’s early data and a limited sample — two weeks’ worth, both before and after — but it shows that fears that consumers will choose to eschew web targeting en masse are perhaps overblown. In a small number of instances, adding the link actually resulted in messages from consumers who wanted to know more about the advertiser or offer the ad was promoting, and it also generated a few new business queries for Fetchback.
“You’re so focused on [the potential downside] you don’t actually think about how it opens communication,” said Fetchback CEO Chad Little. “Consumers don’t know how easily to get in touch with the person delivering the ad because they don’t know who’s delivering it.”
Similar to Fetchback, Google also affixes an “About This Ad” label on many of its AdSense ads, which leads to a page with privacy information and an opt-out option. The firm didn’t specify how many of its customers had chosen to opt out.
Not the end
It’s not hard to see why those who traffic in online advertising worry. In the ongoing debate surrounding privacy and online advertising, one of the persistent fears is that making it easier for people to opt out of online data collection will be the downfall of the business — billions of dollars gone in a flash as every consumer opts out.
And the Fetchback findings — as well as the enhanced targeting in general — are not likely to satisfy privacy advocates.
If anything, this might be seen as more proof that the entire concept of opting out is flawed, as consumers aren’t aware of what’s going on and, it could be argued, even when they are, don’t particularly care enough to bother jumping through the hoops necessary to opt out.
Right now, retargeting firms and the rest of the online ad industry work in a world where targeting is the default, and consumers can choose to opt out of that. The industry, and particularly ad networks, fear a future where that default would go away and instead consumers would have to opt in to be tracked online.
The opt-in model is favored by most privacy advocates, some of whom are planning to provide Congress with a detailed proposal around the issue this week.
Easier opt-outs
Ideally, the online-ad industry wants to remain self-regulated, and improving the friendliness and ease of opting out is one way to convince legislators and regulators it takes the job seriously. More than a half dozen industry organizations recently launched a new set of regulations in hopes of staving off government involvement.
Opt-out mechanisms feature prominently, but when there is no link in or around an ad unit, opting out for behavioral or cookie-based targeting typically requires users to find the privacy page of the site on which the ad appeared, which directs them to opt-out options.
That’s not good enough, said Mr. Little, in a world where people want access to the info.
“We are trying to solve this problem by making privacy policies worded toward the lowest common denominator,” he said. Some concerns around enhancing opt-out revolve around clients — whether advertisers will care that there’s an extra link in the ad. Mr. Little said he got very little pushback from clients and that the company had to redesign a couple of ads to accommodate the link.
Charles Curran, executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative, a voluntary self-regulatory organization, said publishers need to worry less about being scared that more visible information and opt-out policies will result in an uptick of consumer’s eschewing targeting, and more about the confidence the general public has in the medium.
Meanwhile, on the other end, privacy advocates argue for the strictest possible guidelines, ones that would require that consumers express explicit permission to let ad sellers track them.
One of the most outspoken privacy advocates on the issue, Jeff Chester, who heads the Center for Digital Democracy, said the Fetchback numbers sound “unscientific and self serving.”
