While search advertising generates a much greater sales lift among the consumers it reaches, the far broader reach of display advertising can more than compensate for display ads’ lower sales impact
The Eternal Dilemma
Posted by vlad
on July 29, 2008
Is Google A Content Company?
Posted by vlad
on July 28, 2008
So, if you’re the New York Times or Wall Street Journal you:
1. Hire John Markoff and Walt Mossberg (on staff)
2. Distribute their technology reportage
3. Sell advertising against that reportage
4. Pay Markoff and Mossberg
5. Create an archive on NYTIMES.com and WSJ.com of their work.
Let’s run Google’s Knol through this same process:
1. Hire writers (on contingency) — check
2. Distribute these pages in Google’s search results — check
3. Sell advertising against it in the form of AdSense — check
4. Pay the writers via AdSense split — check
5. Create an archive on Knol for future monetization — check
Is Google A Content Company? Of Course It Is. So What Should Publishers Do?
Couldn’t have said it any better.
Information is Not Knowledge
Posted by vlad
on April 02, 2008
THE BEST-INFORMED PERSON I EVER KNEW was a friend of my grandfather’s back in the Bronx, where I grew up. Every morning of every day of his life, this elderly man — his name, as I recall, was Boris — would dress impeccably in a suit and waistcoat and shuffle to the public library, where more than a dozen of the day’s local and out-of-town newspapers were threaded through bamboo poles and hung from racks. One by one, Boris would read them all, front to back; at dusk, he would walk home alone. This daily pilgrimage was conducted with ecclesiastic solemnity, a quiet, dignified homage to the majesty of knowledge. Even as a little boy, in that intuitive if primitive way that children comprehend important things, I understood the fundamental truth that Boris was, in some clear but compelling way, a douche bag.
Usage of Context in Online Advertising
Posted by vlad
on March 18, 2008
Last week’s Economist has an interesting article about call center software.
One trick, which can shave seconds off each call, is to take into account “context data”—such as the caller’s location, the local weather, the time of day and records of their recent transactions—when routing a call […] Context data may also include information gleaned from news reports. Storms, sporting events and transport strikes, for example, can affect callers’ moods and purchasing dispositions
I haven’t seen any good, successful examples of usage of “offline” semantic context data in online ads. Can the tone and manner of messaging be adjusted based on the weather? Should different sets of ads run depending on what’s on TV in that geographic location at that particular moment? I can imagine the combination of daypart targeting with deeper semantic data making a big difference in some situations.
Interesting to see the call center industry go through the same optimization hell as the online ad industry.
John Hagel: Shift Happens
Posted by vlad
on March 03, 2008
The basic paradox of the Internet can be framed very simply: The very platform that makes advertising both more relevant and more measurable is the same platform that longer-term will challenge and ultimately undermine the basic role of advertising in communicating with customers.
Edge Perspectives with John Hagel: Shift Happens – The Future of Advertising
Kanye West To Make Montreal Debut in May
Posted by vlad
on February 15, 2008
Kanye West - fresh off his four-Grammy night on Sunday - will perform his first-ever Montreal concert in May, it was announced Wednesday.
oh god oh god oh god I’m so going. Go get the torrent of Kanye’s performance with Daft Punk at the Grammies!
Starcom: Clicks Are Dead to Us (For Branding)
Posted by vlad
on February 13, 2008
Starcom’s press release on “heavy clickers” is heavily discussed today.
The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000.
What is usually neglected in the commentary is the most important conclusion: clicks are not a good measure of brand-building campaigns to begin with. And they’ve never been considered as such, anywhere outside of direct response objectives.
The real question is whether this 6% of online population clicks on punch-the-monkey and win-an-ipod ads, which constitute the majority of display advertising online, or are they represented across the whole display ad spectrum? Were torrent sites considered on the same level as WSJ or NYT? And how is the demographic composition different for search engine ad clickers?
Microsoft and Yahoo, At Last
Posted by vlad
on February 01, 2008
Almost feel dirty to be writing about this given the volume of news coverage the news generated (the most eloquent likely here by Paul Kedrosky), but this is clearly a good thing for everyone except Microsoft and Yahoo.
As with any merger, this means at least a year of inactivity, inertia, lack of innovation, and ultimately loss of revenue. Those who have gone through larger mergers know what it’s like. The list of those who will profit from it includes Google, of course, but also dozens of other companies that will fill the vacuum in advertising platforms that exists even now. PubMatic, Adchemy, OpenAds, AdBrite and many others will all have a good run. Keep in mind that Microsoft hasn’t even been able to make anything good out of aQuantive almost a year after that deal has finalized.
Starbucks Breaks Down, Tries to be McDonald’s
Posted by vlad
on January 23, 2008
Starbucks Corp., the company that popularized the $4 cup of coffee, is testing a $1 cup and free refills of some of its offerings.
