Shift Market

Yet another awesome remix of the famous scene, the best one yet.

This just hits too close to home. Awesome deck.

For those reading the post through facebook or tumblr — there is a slideshare presentation embedded. Thanks Florian for the link.

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Today the news of Google’s imminent release of their free ad serving platform, Ad Manager, hit the web. Imminent, because for years now the commoditization of ad delivery for publishers has been in the air. And yet surprisingly, at the time of this writing this isn’t even a topic on TechMeme. A short post on TechCrunch completely misses the point, claiming this move to be Google’s entry into the ad management game.

Saying that is like saying that the acquisition of Urchin was Google’s entry into web analytics. It is, of course, everything but that. The parallel is interesting to make. Both services require significant investment, and both will be offered completely free to the publishers. Most importantly, both serve the unique purpose of collecting data on traffic, ad performance, and audience in order to maximize Google’s ad revenue.

Although at first sight this seems like yet another announcement of a small app, this move is fundamentally important because it is clearly putting Google in a blatant conflict of interest. Ad Manager’s promise is essentially the ability to use it as you please, which may include ads from third-party networks and exchanges. However, witnessing the performance of all ad inventory on a site, including ads served by other sources, puts the small publisher’s revenue directly at the mercy of Google’s SkyNet. Since the publisher’s AdSense revenue share is completely arbitrary, the revenue given back may simply match the eCPM being attained with other networks.

In addition, running ads from other networks and exchanges may serve as an optimization test for Google’s own ad products. If before Google had third-party ad performance results only from Analytics, now they complete the picture by serving the inventory first-hand. This means that a site that runs, say, a credit card ad from ValueClick without much success, automatically discloses to Google this information, allowing it to make the decision of not serving credit card ads on that same site in the future. In other words, they will use others’ money to make their product more lucrative for themselves. And of course, since the acquisition of DoubleClick cleared, AdSense is just the beginning of it.

Interestingly enough, Google Analytics now shows me this gem of a message:

At least they have the decency to ask.

The exact same strategy is being pursued in traditional advertising. A few days ago, Google’s Tim Armstrong announced the upcoming “dashboard” allowing advertisers and agencies to track the performance of all their online and offline initiatives — including results from Google’s competitors (and I won’t even get into their partnership with Publicis).
For other companies working in the space of ad delivery and optimization, such as the recently funded OpenX and PubMatic, as well as my so far unannounced project, this shows that we are on the right path. It makes little sense for publishers to put wolves in charge of guarding sheep.

This area is ripe with opportunities, but as always, openness and disclosure are key.

The show is just so damn good. Please go torr rent it.

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?

You may consider this as a confession of an addicted user.

It’s Friday, and I can’t help it but express my opinion about the multiplying Starbucks around downtown Montreal. Especially since the previous post is about Starbucks as well.

Ever since I came back from Japan I’ve been completely addicted to the nectar of gods brewed there. It all started in Tokyo because of a Starbucks right outside our hotel, it quickly became a daily ritual. Then a twice-a-day ritual, which is where it’s at now. Sometimes it’s more, but it’s rare. Fun fact: there are now 21 Starbucks locations in Montreal, compared to just a couple a few years ago.

So here’s the thing: all these locations are not all made equal. Here is the review, as a public service. From me to you, so to speak. In no particular order.

The one in Chapters on Ste-Catherine: Pretty good, but usually all-anglophone. I don’t know how to say “petit corsé” in English, so I end up always ordering in French. Service is good, but Chapters opens at 9AM. Not so convenient.

Rating:

The one in Cours Mont-Royal: Worst service ever. I’ve never seen anything worse than there, in any city in Canada or overseas. Slow, everyone always looks completely lost and depressed, not familiar with products. Overall bad vibe as well. Morning or evening, no change.

Rating:

The one in Place Montreal Trust: Pretty good, I would classify it as second best after the one on Ste-Catherine. Wait times are sometimes long because of all the traffic there, but it’s alright. There is a confrontational employee there (seen her engaged in verbal fights with customers at least three times), but she’s usually right so it’s OK.

Rating:

The one on Ste-Catherine: Best one in Montreal, as voted by me. Good vibe, good people, excellent staff, excellent location.

Rating:

The one in Bonaventure: Probably 2nd worst after Cours Mont-Royal. Long wait, clueless and depressed staff.

Rating:

That is all for now. If there’s some sort of a Starbucks detox I could go through, please let me know.

Most interesting news today: Rogers Media to sell WOM services under BzzAgent name in Canada.

Another great example of media behaving increasingly more like advertising agencies, because people are increasingly behaving more like media.

According to WPP’s Group M, the first country where Internet ad spend will surpass that of TV will be Sweden, and it will happen in… 2008. U.K and Denmark will follow. Interestingly enough, Swedish broadcast statistics institute MMS released a report in late 2007, stating that two out of five Swedes between the age of 16 and 30 regularly watch pirated TV shows. Unsurprisingly, Sweden is the also the country that gave us The Pirate Bay and features a very high percentage of population involved in filesharing.

A good write-up on the study, with all the details, was done by The Guardian here

One of the things I like about every end of the year is “best of” lists. Here is my own.

Best album: Kanye West - Graduation (PitchforkMedia review, Amazon page). Without any doubt, this album comes up as a clear winner. Kanye musically dominated the year for me, starting with the infamous “mixtape” in spring, carried on with the release of the actual album, and then the leak of a live recording, “Late Orchestration.” Radiohead’s In Rainbows is unfortunately and suprisingly a relatively distant second, followed by Daft Punk - Alive 2007. A notable mention also goes to Beirut -The Flying Club Cup, Burial - Untrue, Common - Finding Forever, Fields - Everything Last Winter, Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta, and UGK - Underground Kingz.

Best movie: After The Wedding, although technically it was released in Denmark in 2006 it got here in 2007. I probably missed a lot of movies out there as this is the year when I almost did not go to the movie theatres.

Best TV series: Dexter. The only series that eased off the pain of losing The Sopranos. Brilliant writing, gripping acting, gruesome action — everything a good series needs. To paraphrase the catchphrase — I can’t believe it’s not HBO.

Best new web service: Tumblr.

Best new magazine: Monocle. Business Week has a fair write-up about the magazine here. For fear of not rendering is justice I will refrain from describing the publication. But it’s awesome.

Best new word: Vajayjay

Well, in my continuing struggle with the choice of mechanisms of expression on the interweb, the latest try is to use the quickpost WordPress plugin. The idea is the same as Tumblr — you use a bookmarklet to quickly post tidbits of information, usually a quote, a photo, a video or a link. This is blogging for the hyperactive generation and it seems to work: my account on Tumblr shows much more activity than here, if that is a testament to anything.

Of course, Tumblr still looks so, so much better than anything else out there…