Monday, September 22, 2008

banner ad blindness

Eye tracking and usability research has indicated that not only are banner ads not clicked, they're not even noticed, a term dubbed "banner ad blindness," so they apparently don't even count for much in the branding department.

Banner Ad Blindness

If a marketer determines that advertising is an integral part of their online marketing plan, and often they do, there are several formats and technologies that are capable of outperforming traditional display ads - by a lot - why aren't more people using them? Video ads for instance. Video ads are seeing anywhere from 10 - 20X CTRs over traditional display ads. They are also demonstrating recall of up to 4X over television ads. Why? Well, look at the graphic above, when a video ad plays the viewers attention is already focused on the content that was previously occupying that space. There are also rich-media banner ads that in addition to rich media content have the feature sets that make it possible for users to share and embed content directly from the ad.

Source: http://blog.heavybagmedia.com/2008/06/19/why-is-everyone-still-dumping-money-into-banner-ads/


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Upcoming Conference: DPAC II Day 2: Tuesday - 10.28.08 - NYC

Advertiser Track: Is The Widget The Future of Digital Advertising? As Publishers, Media Companies, Networks, Bloggers and the long tail use and push the ad widget, will the marketers come rushing in? As widget companies abound and offer simple DIY design tools that make it possible for any size media company and agency to create customized and inexpensive widgets for their advertisers, will this be the next killer app for brands? And how are agencies and brands using them now? What type of communication strategies and approaches are marketers using to engage consumers? Where and how do widgets fit into media plans? And what metrics do you use to track their efficacy? Lastly, do they have the right stuff to be the future of digital advertising? Moderator:  Matt Goddard, CEO, R2integrated Speakers:  Christian Oestielin, Product Manager, Google Gadget Ad  Dr. Augustine Fou, SVP Digital Strategist, MRM Worldwide Heidi Henson, Director, RockYou Advertising

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Missing Link Marketing - UPDATED

The New Landscape - It's an ocean out there. 

The new landscape into which advertising and marketing programs are launched today is dramatically different from the "old world" of one-way media such as TV, print, and radio advertising. 

The "ambient information" available today also empowers customers to do as much (or as little) research as they want before they decide to make any purchase. 

The "always-available-ness" of this information makes it more useful to consumers because they can find it when they want it rather than be hit with it when they don't -- e.g. when checking email, watching TV, etc.

The Modern User's Expectations and Habits - Give me what I want, when I want it, where I want it. 

That said, "too much information" also presents a challenge for modern consumers -- how to hone in on the right bit of information that he or she needs at that moment in time from the ocean of available information. 

In the new landscape, modern consumers have developed habits and finely tuned skills to help them find and use information as well as cope with its abundance, variety, and differing levels of trustworthiness and timeliness. 

Consumers ... if they can't find your information on the first few pages of search results, you don't exist. 

If answer to the missing link is not found, they may simply not buy, postpone buying, or just buy what they know (previously purchased product, service, or brand). 

The right info, at the right time, to the right person, through the right device.

So, couldn't every person have a different missing link? Yes. Doesn't that mean that it would be very hard if not impossible to identify every customer's missing link, let alone solve it? Yes. And even if we could identify each user's missing link, wouldn't it be cost-prohibitive to get a message out to each individual addressing his missing link? Yes.

All of the above would be unfathomable in the age of one-way media. But in the new digital landscape there are new tools, services, and methods which can help solve these missing links

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Original article from October 22, 2007. 

http://mktsci.com/missing-link-marketing-executive-brief.htm

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The Need For Speed - Using Social Media to Speed Innovation

Posted September 22nd, 2008 by Augustine Fou
Beyond the well-known examples of social media Web sites like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and others, what exactly is social media?
Beyond the obvious characteristics of user-generated content, many-to many interactions, conversations with peers, raw and uncensored, etc. what are the defining characteristics of social networks that are not generally talked about? Why are they valuable?

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(requires free registation)

Recap: Defining Characteristics of Successful Social Media

1. Increases in value over time, from the collective actions/work of the community.

2. Provides real-time or near-real-time information in statistically significant numbers.

3. Leverages the collective work of the community to vet accuracy and relevance.

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A Game for the Mentally and Dexterously Gifted

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/397166185/

Mobius PLAY is a toy/puzzle by designers Paul Sandip and Suhasini. It challenges manual dexterity and mental concentration. The toy constitutes a continuous mobius ring having its ends permanently joined together and a dual snout magnetic roller. One has to hold the mobius ring in one hand and try to move the magnetic roller along the track. Just looking at it and trying to figure out how. . . is brain teasing me. Beautiful concept - a toy sexy enough to stand as an art piece.

Designer: Paul Sandip & Suhasini Paul

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