Why Digital Agencies Are Indeed Ready to Lead

They Understand the Technology, the Speed of Iteration and Analytics

By Jacques-Herve Roubert 

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Jacques-Herve Roubert

Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop — with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren’t ready to lead.

So why does the debate continue? Does offline or online really matter to an oblivious consumer who’s only interested in “no-line” communications? Are we spending too much time focusing on who should lead and not enough asking: What’s next?

Ana Andjelic’s DigitalNext post, provocatively titled “Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead,” mentions several reasons why digital agencies aren’t ready to lead, one of which was their lack of experience in the business (as compared with the “decades of experience” that traditional agencies are known for). I’m sure there are instances where decades of experience can directly translate into success, but there are certainly instances (uh, Lehman Brothers?) where deep roots had no bearing on their ability to produce — and produce well. Furthermore, a certain percentage of the individuals now working and thriving in digital agencies came from traditional agencies.

Additionally, most of the world’s most ingenious inventions were not created overnight, but took years of hard work, research, observation, trial and error, and collaboration to fine tune. The digital ecosystem has required much of the same exploration — and, in most cases, into technologies that are new to all of us. As James March himself said, “Exploration involves being an amateur for a while, but only as a step on the way to being a professional.”

And while the structure of an interactive agency may often mimic “one big crazy family” (by the way: Whose family isn’t crazy?), how could making sure everyone’s opinion is heard be a bad thing? Most interactive agencies subscribe to the notion that you never know where the big idea or concept will come from. Sometimes the big idea can come from the exploration of a new technology or method that enhances consumer connection.

Here’s why:

• That was then, this is now. Like it or not, the days of the ingenious, 30-second TV spot are over. Today’s creative ingenuity lies within the idea, the technology, the concept, the innovation and, perhaps most important, the Holy Grail: consumer connection. Word of mouth is more prevalent than ever and interactive communities have an increasingly louder and more influential voice and are stronger (and sometimes the only) sources of breaking news stories. No one understands this better — nor is better equipped to handle the swift demands required — than the digital agency.

   

• Teaching an old dog new tricks. The “new trick” is immediacy. It’s about faster response times and the concept of immediacy. E-mail, IM, Twitter, Facebook, cellphones — all of these technologies set the stage for consumers wanting and expecting immediate responses, not to mention, immediate access to products and services. Traditional advertising agencies are not adapting to this mentality because they are still working with processes and organizational structures that were developed in a time when the internet and the concept of immediacy simply did not exist.Digital agencies understand that brands are being held to higher-than-ever consumer expectations. The plethora of data we can garner from a $50,000 media buy can leave traditional agencies’ heads spinning with insight and analysis. The truth of the matter is: Interactive agencies are forcing traditional agencies to integrate with digital media to better track and measure campaign results through custom URLs, short codes, etc.

   

• Kickin’ it old school. Not only are the days of the 30-second TV spot gone, so too are the traditional advertising agency gurus like David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach. Today, those figures have been replaced, instead, by financially backed entities. Rather than exploration and exploitation, digital agencies need their own gurus and legends that can lead by example.

Five or 10 years ago, I might agree with the argument that digital agencies weren’t ready to lead, but after sitting at the table with other agencies for the past decade — traditional, branding, public relations, marketing — it’s clear that digital agencies have proven their value, not to mention their ability to innovate, inspire, and create the big idea.

Perhaps the synergy and balance between exploitation and exploration is off kilter for digital agencies, but more and more we’re starting to see the agency structure itself change with new hires in technology and social media. And marketers are noticing:

• According to Media magazine, AKQA was named the lead agency for Nike India earlier this year.
• Precor named Ascentium its agency of record in October 2009. According to Forrester’s Q2 2009 Interactive Agency Wave, Ascentium “received the highest client satisfaction scores in this year’s review.” The assignment with Precor includes strategic planning and execution of all offline and online campaigns.
• McAfee hiring Tribal DDB as its agency of record in 2008. This assignment included all TV, print, outdoor, and digital.

The balance may not be there today, tomorrow or next month. The truth of the matter is digital agencies have earned their right to sit at the head of the table because they’ve brought what consumers and marketers are looking for: new innovations in measurement; flexibility and nimbleness; and, most importantly, ideas that bring what a magazine spread or 30-second TV spot cannot.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Now president-CEO of Nurun, a global interactive marketing agency, Jacques-Hervé Roubert began his career in advertising at Havas Conseil and subsequently held senior executive positions with BDDP and Young & Rubicam.

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.”

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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.

 

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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.

Radiohead Blazes a Marketing Trail

By ERIC PFANNER

PARIS — Epochal pronouncements from rock stars should sometimes be taken with a dose of skepticism. In 1966, John Lennon declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Since the 1960s, Jesus has enjoyed a bit of a comeback, while the Beatles’ music is still unavailable from legitimate digital music services.

But people in the music industry tend to listen to Thom Yorke, lead singer in the British alternative rock group Radiohead, for Radiohead has cultivated a reputation as one of the most future-proof bands around.

The quintet, who met while attending private school in Oxfordshire, bucked the music industry establishment two years ago when they left their record company, EMI, and released their latest album, “In Rainbows,” direct to fans, on the Internet. In a nod to the new economics of a business ravaged by digital piracy, they employed a novel pricing formula: pay whatever you want.

So, when Mr. Yorke announced a change of course for the band, saying it planned to stop making full-length records and turn its attention to singles, it sounded like an epitaph for the album, the broken backbone of the record industry’s longtime business model.

“None of us wants to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again,” Mr. Yorke told the Believer, a literary magazine based in San Francisco. “Not straight off. I mean, it’s just become a real drag. It worked with ‘In Rainbows’ because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.”

Radiohead’s shift to singles reflects a change in music fans’ preferences. Instead of buying whole albums, they now stream or download just the songs they want. That, along with unauthorized copying, has decimated industry revenues.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, U.S. sales of albums, in physical and digital form, fell 14 percent last year, continuing a multiyear decline. While consumers bought more than a billion individual digital tracks in the United States, which accounts for a majority of online sales worldwide, they bought only 65 million digital albums in 2008.

Efforts are under way to try to make albums less of a drag. Apple and the major record companies are reportedly working on projects to include liner notes, lyrics, artwork, music videos and other extras with digital downloads.

They could start by examining Radiohead’s experiment with “In Rainbows.” The band’s publisher, Warner Chappell, reported that more than three million copies of the album were distributed in the first year, in digital and physical formats. Some people paid nothing, but the album still made more money than either of the band’s previous two records, Warner Chappell said. And the marketing buzz from the “pay what you want” model helped drive the CD to the top of the charts.

Why give up on albums, then?

Some Radiohead followers were convinced that Mr. Yorke’s comments signaled that the band intended to release an EP, or extended play, album, rather than downsizing to singles.

Their case seemed to be bolstered by cryptic comments included with the recent online leak of a new Radiohead song, “These Are My Twisted Words.” Bloggers, constructing a “Da Vinci Code”-style trail of links from these comments, concluded that the EP was due last week. Alas, for Radiohead fans, the day of the expected release, Aug. 17, passed with no news of a new record. Some bloggers suspected pranksters; others said it was all a multilayered plot by Radiohead, demonstrating the band’s mastery of viral marketing because it kept fans chattering.

“The band is fast becoming as synonymous with technological mischief as they are with music, and for that, we can only salute them,” wrote Contagious magazine, an online publication that focuses on digital advertising.

The faster the music business figures out what Radiohead is up to, the better. After all, if Mr. Yorke and Co. keep having to expend their creative hoo-ha showing the industry the way forward, will they have any left for their music?

Letter from Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos.com to Employees

The following email was sent to our employees today:

Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009
From: Tony Hsieh (CEO – Zappos.com)
To: All Zappos Employees
Subject: Zappos and Amazon

Please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. (My apologies for the occasional use of formal-sounding language, as parts of it are written in a particular way for legal reasons.)

Today is a big day in Zappos history.

This morning, our board approved and we signed what’s known as a “definitive agreement”, in which all of the existing shareholders and investors of Zappos (there are over 100) will be exchanging their Zappos stock for Amazon stock. Once the exchange is done, Amazon will become the only shareholder of Zappos stock.

Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say “Amazon acquires Zappos” or “Zappos sells to Amazon”. While those headlines are technically correct, they don’t really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)

We plan to continue to run Zappos the way we have always run Zappos — continuing to do what we believe is best for our brand, our culture, and our business. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are switching out our current shareholders and board of directors for a new one, even though the technical legal structure may be different.

We think that now is the right time to join forces with Amazon because there is a huge opportunity to leverage each other’s strengths and move even faster towards our long term vision. For Zappos, our vision remains the same: delivering happiness to customers, employees, and vendors. We just want to get there faster.

We are excited about doing this for 3 main reasons:

1) We think that there is a huge opportunity for us to really accelerate the growth of the Zappos brand and culture, and we believe that Amazon is the best partner to help us get there faster.

2) Amazon supports us in continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Zappos brand and with our unique culture.

3) We want to align ourselves with a shareholder and partner that thinks really long term (like we do at Zappos), as well as do what’s in the best interest of our existing shareholders and investors.

I will go through each of the above points in more detail below, but first, let me get to the top 3 burning questions that I’m guessing many of you will have.

TOP 3 BURNING QUESTIONS

Q: Will I still have a job?

As mentioned above, we plan to continue to run Zappos as an independent entity. In legal terminology, Zappos will be a “wholly-owned subsidiary” of Amazon. Your job is just as secure as it was a month ago.

Q: Will the Zappos culture change?

Our culture at Zappos is unique and always evolving and changing, because one of our core values is to Embrace and Drive Change. What happens to our culture is up to us, which has always been true. Just like before, we are in control of our destiny and how our culture evolves.

A big part of the reason why Amazon is interested in us is because they recognize the value of our culture, our people, and our brand. Their desire is for us to continue to grow and develop our culture (and perhaps even a little bit of our culture may rub off on them).

They are not looking to have their folks come in and run Zappos unless we ask them to. That being said, they have a lot of experience and expertise in a lot of areas, so we’re very excited about the opportunities to tap into their knowledge, expertise, and resources, especially on the technology side. This is about making the Zappos brand, culture, and business even stronger than it is today.

Q: Are Tony, Alfred, or Fred leaving?

No, we have no plans to leave. We believe that we are at the very beginning of what’s possible for Zappos and are very excited about the future and what we can accomplish for Zappos with Amazon as our new partner. Part of the reason for doing this is so that we can get a lot more done more quickly.

There is an additional Q&A section at the end of this email, but I wanted to make sure we got the top 3 burning questions out of the way first. Now that we’ve covered those questions, I wanted to share in more detail our thinking behind the scenes that led us to this decision.

First, I want to apologize for the suddenness of this announcement. As you know, one of our core values is to Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication, and if I could have it my way, I would have shared much earlier that we were in discussions with Amazon so that all employees could be involved in the decision process that we went through along the way. Unfortunately, because Amazon is a public company, there are securities laws that prevented us from talking about this to most of our employees until today.

We’ve been on friendly terms with Amazon for many years, as they have always been interested in Zappos and have always had a great respect for our brand.

Several months ago, they reached out to us and said they wanted to join forces with us so that we could accelerate the growth of our business, our brand, and our culture. When they said they wanted us to continue to build the Zappos brand (as opposed to folding us into Amazon), we decided it was worth exploring what a partnership would look like.

We learned that they truly wanted us to continue to build the Zappos brand and continue to build the Zappos culture in our own unique way. I think “unique” was their way of saying “fun and a little weird.”

Over the past several months, as we got to know each other better, both sides became more and more excited about the possibilities for leveraging each other’s strengths. We realized that we are both very customer-focused companies — we just focus on different ways of making our customers happy.

Amazon focuses on low prices, vast selection and convenience to make their customers happy, while Zappos does it through developing relationships, creating personal emotional connections, and delivering high touch (“WOW”) customer service.

We realized that Amazon’s resources, technology, and operational experience had the potential to greatly accelerate our growth so that we could grow the Zappos brand and culture even faster. On the flip side, through the process Amazon realized that it really was the case that our culture is the platform that enables us to deliver the Zappos experience to our customers. Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) made it clear that he had a great deal of respect for our culture and that Amazon would look to protect it.

We asked our board members what they thought of the opportunity. Michael Moritz, who represents Sequoia Capital (one of our investors and board members), wrote the following: “You now have the opportunity to accelerate Zappos’ progress and to make the name and the brand and everything associated with it an enduring, permanent part of peoples’ lives… You

are now free to let your imagination roam – and to contemplate initiatives and undertakings that today, in our more constrained setting, we could not take on.”

One of the great things about Amazon is that they are very long term thinkers, just like we are at Zappos. Alignment in very long term thinking is hard to find in a partner or investor, and we felt very lucky and excited to learn that both Amazon and Zappos shared this same philosophy.

All this being said, this was not an easy decision. Over the past several months, we had to weigh all the pros and cons along with all the potential benefits and risks. At the end of the day, we realized that, once it was determined that this was in the best interests of our shareholders, it basically all boiled down to asking ourselves 2 questions:

1) Do we believe that this will accelerate the growth of the Zappos brand and help us fulfill our mission of delivering happiness faster?

2) Do we believe that we will continue to be in control of our own destiny so that we can continue to grow our unique culture?

After spending a lot of time with Amazon and getting to know them and understanding their intentions better, we reached the conclusion that the answers to these 2 questions are YES and YES.

The Zappos brand will continue to be separate from the Amazon brand. Although we’ll have access to many of Amazon’s resources, we need to continue to build our brand and our culture just as we always have. Our mission remains the same: delivering happiness to all of our stakeholders, including our employees, our customers, and our vendors. (As a side note, we plan to continue to maintain the relationships that we have with our vendors ourselves, and Amazon will continue to maintain the relationships that they have with their vendors.)

We will be holding an all hands meeting soon to go over all of this in more detail. Please email me any questions that you may have so that we can cover as many as possible during the all hands meeting and/or a follow-up email.

We signed what’s known as the “definitive agreement” today, but we still need to go through the process of getting government approval, so we are anticipating that this transaction actually won’t officially close for at least a few months. We are legally required by the SEC to be in what’s known as a “quiet period”, so if you get any questions related to the transaction from anyone including customers, vendors, or the media, please let them know that we are in a quiet period mandated by law and have them email tree@zappos.com, which is a special email account that Alfred and I will be monitoring.

Alfred and I would like to say thanks to the small group of folks on our finance and legal teams and from our advisors at Morgan Stanley, Fenwick & West, and PricewaterhouseCoopers who have been working really hard, around the clock, and behind the scenes over the last several months to help make all this possible.

Before getting to the Q&A section, I’d also like to thank everyone for taking the time to read this long email and for helping us get to where we are today.

It’s definitely an emotional day for me. The feelings I’m experiencing are similar to what I felt in college on graduation day: excitement about the future mixed with fond memories of the past. The last 10 years were an incredible ride, and I’m excited about what we will accomplish together over the next 10 years as we continue to grow Zappos!

-Tony Hsieh

CEO – Zappos.com

Multi-Click Attribution: Tracking the Way Conversions Actually Happen

By Daniel Riveong

Interactive marketing has long sold itself on the promise of accountability and ROI measurement. Yet, at the same time there continues to be challenges in solving John Wanamaker’s problem: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Indeed, the common analytics tracking for online marketing campaigns are simplistic at best. It cannot measure how display ads (seen as branding) can impact search (used mostly for sales). Nor can most analytics tracking attribute the multiple searches and visits a person did that ultimately led to a purchase (See image above).

Enter Havas Digital and Yahoo. Their panel, Search + Display—Moving Beyond the Brand vs. Direct Response Model, not only showcased Havas Digital’s solution to this question but show great case studies of the insight and optimizations gained from a better and more true multi-channel analytics. (Note: all of the images in this post was taken by the Havas Digita/Yahoo PowerPoint presented at ad:tech)

MODERATOR:
Rich LeFurgy, General Partner, Archer Advisors

PANELISTS:
Dan Boberg, VP, Advertiser & Agency Professional Services, Yahoo!
Ed Montes, Executive VP, Managing Director US, Havas Digital US
The Promise for Advance Attribution in Analytics
The benefit of building a system that can do sophisticated attribution tracking lies in being able to track what are known marketing truths but have been difficult to readily measure:

1. Display (Brand) Supports Search (Sales)
There has been countless studies revealing that running display banners, which may or may not have been clicked on, increasing searches for the brand and eventually in to sales. As far as data go, the panelists quote two of the most often cited statistics on the matter:

1. Display + Search Provides Improved Branding
   “Exposure to a display advertisement increased related trademark term searches (brand, company or product names) by an average of 26 percent” – Yahoo/ComScore study of Fortune 100 advertisers, “Close the Loop: Understanding Search and Display Synergy”
2. Display + Search Provides Higher ROI
   “Users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: 22% better than search alone, and 400% better than display only.” – The Atlas Institute, “The combined impact of Search and Display advertising – Why advertisers should measure across channels”

Having an attribution system that can readily attribute how much a display campaign drove search ROI would shift our perception for display as “just” a branding tool.

2. Tracking Beyond the Final Click
By default, most analytics systems attribute sale to the last link the customer clicks on. It completely ignores the fact that people may conduct multiple searches and clicks to a ecommerce website before than actually make a purchase.

All marketers know that the “last click” is not correct. If a search marketer blindly believed in the “last click” and on strict ROI measurement, we would all just bid on our branded terms and go home.

Case Studies
Working with Yahoo, Havas Digital did build such an attribution system that would help track the two issues above. Havas Digital and Yahoo presented several case studies on the system, called Armetis. Here are slides from a few of their case studies.

Case Study #1: When display drives sales-based ROI…for other campaigns

The above is a case study from an automobile manufacturer. While sponsored search drove the most “last click” conversion, the entire marketing picture shows that display advertising assisted in the conversion of 163 visitors. So scaling back down display advertising dollars may, in fact, cause lower sales for other marketing channels like search.

Case Study #2: Why some highly converting keywords cannot stand alone

From the above report, Campaign 2 seems to be both costly at a cost per conversion of $422 and one lowest leads performer. However by looking at search assist, we see it has been drive in assisting in leads for other campaigns. Without such data, a search marketer may have been too eager to kill campaign #2, yet end up driving lower leads for other search campaigns.
Closing Thoghts
While Havas Digital’s Artemis attribution system looks very impressive, there is no such thing as a perfect tracking solution. As the panelists pointed out, there are still large limitations based on the fact that users delete cookies and that cookies need to last (and survive) more than 90 days in order for tracking systems to properly attribute the multiple exposures and clicks that lead to a conversion. Then of course, comes the more complicated questions of how to weigh how far back can a banner show to user “claim” to have assisted in driving a sales one, two or five months later. The joke the panelists mentioned that one flaw is an agency could blanket the entire web with display banners and then claim “attribution” for any sale that happens there after.

In end, however, we do need tools like these to really optimize campaign and paint an ever more accurate picture of what really drives engagement and sales. Yet even the tool described here by both Havas and Yahoo were noted by both companies as still rough and far from complete. Indeed, the quest for ever better analysis is an interesting problem to me; I plan to write a follow-up to this soon on my own blog at Emergence-Media.com.

Zugara’s Augmented Reality & Motion Capture Shopping App

Consumers rarely watch TV alone

Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million From Twitter

By Claire Cain Miller

These days, lots of companies are talking about their “Twitter strategy,” but few have figured out how to measure what amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter does for their businesses. Dell has shown that it can go directly to the top line.

Dell said Thursday night that the company had earned $3 million in revenue directly through Twitter since 2007, when it started posting coupons and word of new products on the microblogging site. In the last six months, Dell Outlet earned $1 million in sales from customers who came to the site from Twitter, after taking 18 months to earn its first $1 million. Dell has also earned another $1 million from people who click from Twitter to Dell Outlet to Dell.com and make a purchase there.

Dell joins companies like Starbucks, JetBlue and Whole Foods as one of the most active corporate Twitter users. “It’s a great way to fix customer problems and hear what customers have to say, it’s a great feedback forum and it leads to sales — how can you miss?” said Richard Binhammer, who works in Dell’s corporate affairs office and is active on its Twitter accounts.

Twitter made exactly $0 from those Dell sales, something that will very likely change. Twitter’s founders have said that it someday hopes to make money from its corporate users, with paid accounts that offer additional features like analysis of the traffic to businesses’ Twitter profiles and verified accounts so customers know they are not dealing with an impostor. When asked whether Dell would pay Twitter for an account, Mr. Binhammer said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Dell uses Twitter to send out coupons, including some that are exclusive to its Twitter followers. It is particularly useful for the Dell Outlet, Mr. Binhammer said, because the inventory of returned and refurbished products fluctuates. If it gets 30 flat-screen televisions one week, for example, it can alert its customers. Dell Outlet has 624,000 followers on Twitter.

Dell also announces company and product news and talks directly with customers, responding to complaints or asking for feedback. There are about 200 Dell employees who talk to customers on Dell’s Twitter accounts, from a gaming expert to a server expert to members of the chief technology officer’s staff, Mr. Binhammer said.

For example, as I wrote in an article on the various ways people use Twitter, Dell heard on Twitter that customers thought the apostrophe and return keys were too close together on the Dell Mini 9 laptop and fixed the problem on the Dell Mini 10. Now, the Dell Mini product development team is asking around on Twitter for new ideas for the next generation of the computer.

Put All Your Rewards Cards On Your iPhone With CardStar

By Ben Popken

If you’re sick of grocery store rewards cards clogging up your wallet, and you love whipping out your iPhone in public, have we’ve got an app for you. CardStar lets you punch in all your reward cards into your iPhone. At checkout, just click the CardStar icon, select the merchant from your saved list, and show the screen. They can scan the barcode right from the image. Usually $.99, the app is currently free for a limited time. A handy way for iPhone users to reduce clutter and fumbling for rewards cards when shopping.

Showtime Taps Amazon’s Kindle for Advertising

Cable Network Uses E-Reader to Promote ‘Nurse Jackie’

by Michael Bush
Published: June 01, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Showtime may have finally cracked the code on using Kindle as an ad medium. Starting today the cable network is offering Kindle users a free, downloadable version of the pilot script for its new series “Nurse Jackie,” featuring Emmy Award winner and former “Sopranos” star Edie Falco.

A free download of the pilot script for Showtime’s new series ‘Nurse Jackie’ will be available at the Kindle Store until Aug. 31.

Working with its media shop, Omnicom Group’s OMD, Showtime will use banner ads throughout Amazon.com and on the Kindle storefront to promote the free download, which will be available until Aug. 31. Along with cover art and a title page, the script comes with show scheduling information and a call to action urging readers to visit Sho.com to watch the premiere of “Nurse Jackie.”

“We were looking at the Kindle as a new concept platform that no one has figured out,” said Jon Haber, U.S. director of OMD’s Ignition Factory. “And while there is no advertising model on it yet, we still saw it as an opportunity to use our client’s content as advertising.”

The idea of using Kindle, a text-based electronic reader, to promote a TV show may seem odd, but it falls directly in line with Showtime’s typical modus operandi when it comes to hyping a new series, said Stuart Zakim, VP-corporate public relations at Showtime.

“We try and use a new platform that no one else has used yet every time we introduce a new show,” he said. “It’s a value-added proposition to a media buy we have done with Amazon, but nevertheless the idea is still unique.”

‘Another avenue for sampling’
Mr. Zakim said Showtime has streamed pilot episodes of other series such as “Fat Actress” and used other sampling techniques for series such as “The Tudors” and “Californication.” “This is a variation on a theme that has proven very successful for Showtime,” he said. “We’re a subscription-based business, and sampling is one of the key marketing tools we use to get people to view our shows, and Kindle provides another avenue for sampling opportunities.”

The script will be available within the Kindle Store, which is accessible through the Kindle, iPhone and iPod Touch and at Amazon.com. The online component will lead users to a product page featuring a product overview and download details. The show will premiere on Showtime on June 8.

“Nobody has figured out what the future ad model for a device like the Kindle is going to be,” OMD’s Mr. Haber said. “And while this is not an ad per se, it’s content, it is the first step in figuring out how marketers can use this platform and provide some value to consumers from a content standpoint while finding a way to raise awareness and buzz about a product, or in this case a TV show.”

While Showtime is the first to use Kindle as an ad platform, media is no stranger to the device. A variety of mostly print-based media — newspapers, magazines and blogs — use Kindle as a distribution platform, charging subscription fees for the content. Amazon recently announced a large-format Kindle, which will be better for distributing textbooks and newspapers.