The minsider Blog

Advertisers Still Fear Social Media

Steve Smith — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:31:01 +0000

For all the hype and hoopla over Facebook in the last year, the overwhelming share of traffic still goes to Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace, according to the latest breakdown of social networks by Hitwise. Fox Interactive Media continues to struggle to make the social model work for advertisers, however, as the relative ineffectiveness of advertising in these spaces becomes conventional wisdom among buyers. There is loads of room for novel ad and content packaging that makes social media make better sense to ad buyers. eMarketer estimates that about $1.56 billion in ad spending will go into these venues in 2008, up from $920 million in 2007.

The Social Centers

Chart: Top 10 U.S. Social Media Sites and Online Communities (by market share of visits)

1. MySpace        41.50%
2. Facebook        8.29%
3. YouTube        7.39%
4. Craig’s List        2.81%
5. Yahoo! Answers    .99%
6. Yahoo! Groups    .94%
7. MySpace TV    .93%
8. Yahoo! member directory        .78%
9. myYearbook    .73%
10. Bebo        .67%

Source: Hitwise

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Must-See Web TV: The Guild

Steve Smith — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:00:02 +0000

While the much hyped and poor Quarterlife series crashed and burned in its attempt to jump from Webisodic series to TV prime time, another project has become a real viral online hit. The Guild is a ten-part sitcom series by a gamer and indie filmmaker Felicia Day. The show, which is distributed on YouTube and at www.watchtheguild.com, is a clever look at online gamers but told in a way that appeals to a wider audience. The three-minute episodes are funded entirely by PayPal donations by fans, more than half of which are women. So there, Hollywood digital wannabes. The Guild is a superb example of excellent Web-only content organically grown from the makers’ experience, not manufactured by middle-aged producers trying to look as if they understand digital youth. With over 6 million “hits” (who uses that term anymore?) to its video episodes, this is a genuine online video phenom worth watching both as a model for the platform and as a funny show.

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For Social Media Ads, Frequency Matters

Steve Smith — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:00:49 +0000

Citing new research on its own base of 30 million social media users, ad services provider Lotame says that ad campaigns into user-generated content require much higher frequency caps in order to capture these users when they are ready to pay attention. Frequent visitors to blogs and network profile pages are so highly engaged in their posting and mailing activities during their first session they pay no attention to ads. During later sessions in a 24-hour cycle these same users are in a more passive mode that can respond well to the message. The company suggests media planners try to target the core influencers in a given social vertical but also hit them repeatedly, sometimes up to 17 times, with an ad.

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CNNMoney.com is an Online Video Star

anovak — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:20:03 +0000

As part of the Time Inc. Digital Showcase line-up in Manhattan last week, CNNMoney.com flashed its fat video wallet by showing the room full of press only just what Broadband video has done for their site, both in the past and for the future. According to Jonathan Shar, general manager/SVP for CNNMoney.com, the site, which holds content for Fortune, Money and Fortune Small Business magazines, had over 19 million video streams for 2007, a number that is basically unparalleled in the online business/financial news space. “Video has easily become the main feature of our site,” Shar noted, “and it will only grow in the next two years.”

Most interestingly, Shar informed us that instead of just piling video responsibilities on top of the current editorial staffs’ shoulders, they hired a full video staff of twelve (yes, TWELVE) editors and producers, including Caleb Silver, who is executive producer for the video channel. While the staff is huge and thought to only exist in budget fantasy lands like Time Inc., so is the video undertaking, which includes have an original video on each page so that users can read articles while watching the content-complimentary video at the same time.

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AllRecipes’ Measuring Cup Runneth Over

Steve Smith — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:04:14 +0000

The recipe site AllRecipes.com is leveraging its user logs wisely to promote the brand with press and media buyers alike in its Monthly Measure look at audience trends. Available in an attractive PDF format here, the internal metric shows how recession and tax time hit food hunters in April. Keyword searches on perennial chart-topper “chicken,” for instance, grew 140% year-over-year, while “pasta” was up 210%, and up from #9 to #3. Meanwhile, “ham,” “carrot cake” and “sugar cookies” all slipped off visitors plates and declined. While we are not sure what we ourselves would do with such knowledge, it is a good sign that content providers are recognizing the market and promotional value in their own data. Used wisely, publishers can elevate their brand by becoming a visible resource to press and marketers.

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Social Media Ads: More Is More

Steve Smith — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:46:28 +0000

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Fear of a Mobile Planet?

Steve Smith — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:31:55 +0000

In the first of what is sure to be many articles in a similar vein, media planner Ben Kunz writes at BusinessWeek Online about how mobile media threatens Google’s online revenue model. The smaller screen slows for fewer ads and less ability to monetize. If substantial shares of Web traffic move to handsets, this could spell trouble for the very digital models that media companies were hoping would save their dwindling offline businesses. Well, not likely. TV didn’t kill movies and the Web didn’t kill print, and it is likely that profitable models will be found to exploit mobile. The Eyeball’s take is that mobile gives media brands the opportunity to recapture lost users. His nibs is rediscovering Time, CBS, USAToday, and Car and Driver precisely because their mobile extensions stand out and advertise their core value propositions so well. The real economics of mobile for most media brands should be how this platform helps engage the user across all other platforms, how it can be one arc in the loop of TV/Print,Web, email, SMS and WAP.

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Green: The Color of Hypocrisy

anovak — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:45:12 +0000

So here we are the end of Earth Week and the planet is still polluted and globally warmed. Publishers and advertisers alike have been filling our eyes and ears with their sudden strikes of earthly consciousness in an effort to appeal to those of us who sleep better at night knowing we support green brands. Vanity Fair did the green issue. So did Time. So did Elle. Even Black Enterprise joined the party.

But here’s the thing: I’m ok with lying to myself about my “sofa” commitment to saving our planet. I know that nodding in agreement to Al Gore’s face when I see it plastered on a billboard in Times Square isn’t really “doing anything” but it makes me feel better and frankly, lying to myself is a sharply-honed skill that I just can’t unlearn. I may not have a soul, but I do have a brain and I can tell when I’m being served tap water when I ordered bottled. Basically, I don’t like it when brands lie to me, especially brands that I’ve known and loved all my life.

The actual and physical environmental actions taken by consumer magazines is debatable; they’ll do things like claim they use a certain percentage of recycled paper in their pages and who am I to dispute that? If I had the ability to tell what percentage of a piece of paper was comprised of recycled materials, I wouldn’t be writing for a living. But this I do know: if a magazine is truly committed to this whole green thing, why not go digital for Earth Day? Isn’t that the only truly green option? Suggesting a publication to go digital for a month and sacrificing advertisers who might not be on board is asking a lot, but I don’t think it’s asking more than Vanity Fair is asking of me when it shoves environmental consciousness down my throat on any number of it’s hundreds of pages (recycled or not). If risking losing all those ad dollars for a month is just not feasible, then how about cutting pages in half in the name of the environment? All I’m saying is there are other options.

Personally, I find the brutal honesty in Vogue’s fall and spring fashion issues refreshing at this point. The arrogance of publishing issues that enormous and even listing the number of pages on the cover is simply awesome. Just sell me what I’m really buying and spare me the notion that you care if polar bears are getting uncomfortably warm in the Arctic Circle.

For a list of digital publications and to see how it all works, check out Nxtbook.

Also check out Zinio and Texterity, two other great digital media companies.

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Mobilize Those Rock Hard Abs!

Steve Smith — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:34:54 +0000

While reported elsewhere as somehow entirely new and novel, Men’s Health will follow HFMUS and Maxim in making its pages interactive via mobile technology. Using provider SnapTell, readers will be able to send phone cam images of the ads into a database that recognizes the page and sends back additional information. Several years ago, ElleGirl and other HFMUS magazines started a similar program with Mobot. Last year Maxim had a “mobile” issue with SMS short code prompts next to articles and ads. The return channel of SMS response to the photo snap can link to any manner of WAP site, coupons, videos, etc. For advertisers that value add is that it calls greater attention to the ad creative itself and extends the relationship with the user. It is unclear how the magazine will cue readers to taking the snap, how involved the instructions will be for use, and whether users will have to email the image to specific address or use a downloadable application to send in the pic. All of these elements have been barriers in the past to getting good performance from this approach.

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Changing Guards at Aegis and AOL

Steve Smith — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:06:50 +0000

Some interesting people notes coming in this week indicate sea changes in the digital ad industry The outspoken and ubiquitous Madison Ave. figure David Verklin steps down from his CEO post at media agency Aegis Media as the long-time Mad Man makes a planned departure. His protégé Sarah Fey takes the job as Aegis announces a reorganization. Verklin says he is moving on to a new stage in his career, probably involving media rather than another agency. Part of Verklin’s legacy at Aegis is initiating a full integration of traditional and digital media planning, a move that is being echoed throughout other major agencies.
Meanwhile at the always-tumultuous AOL, Tacoda continues to disappear soemwhere within the Platform A plan. In what looks to be an almost total removal of old blood from the Platform A and AOL bloodstream, Tacoda president Daniel Jaye leaves AOL, following Curt Viebranz and David Morgan’s recent departure from the company. Other members of the marketing and ad sales group also exited AOL as new Platform A head Linda Clarizio accelerates the consolidation of technologies and teams in the AOL ad networks.

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