Archives for the month of: October, 2009

Measurability Will Prevail Despite UKOM Development

October 27, 2009 //

Set for launch in January 2010 and and unveiled last week, the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM’s) Audience Planning System is aiming to enable marketers to more effectively target their online advertising campaigns based on accurate audience metrics for publisher sites. This is a big step for online display advertising as up until now there has been no industry standard, non-biased view on a particular websites audience demographic. It will undoubtedly help digital media planners to more accurately hit target demographics and user groups across the web and whilst in its infancy and still to narrow in its approach (it is based on panel data from just 35,000 web users) it is without doubt a positive development.

It seems clear to me however from the article written in Marketing (21st October) that traditional brand marketers, and digital marketers from traditional marketing agencies, seem to be seeing this as a way of justifying continued spend on large budget, online branding campaigns based around “building awareness”. In my experience what this means is that they can once again propose extremely extravagant and largely expensive digital media plans without needing to worry about return on investment, tracking, optimisation, or any of the other facets of online advertising that make it so different and more appealing than offline activity.

In the past few years most display advertising planners have realised that they can no longer hide from the accountability of online. As tracking technology improves and companies get more attuned with online and what they should expect, brand based marketing has declined and advertisers are looking for accountability from all of their ad spend, and this is how it should be. The worry with some of the comments in the article (some contained here but not the full detail) are that this could mean that once again, media planning agencies are able to get away with controlling large brands online budget in the name of “brand building” and aren’t held accountable for their actions.

Its not that I do not believe online campaigns can build brand awareness, just that this too needs to be measured. Tracking technologies have advanced to the point where effective conversion attribution is possible and all touch points down the online conversion chain can be monitored. Yet too many large brands continue to persist with untracked, or badly tracked, online campaigns in the name of brand building and offline conversion. With or without the new UKOM audience planning, media buyers need to understand that it is conversions and measurability that drive online adaption and growth, not hiding behind the banner of “brand building”.

Categories Display Advertising

Google Wave: Ripple or Tidal?

October 19, 2009 //
1

They claim it is the evolution of communication, the best bits from email and microblogging, “an unbelievable, powerful demonstration of what is possible in the browser”. The world of twitter was abuzz with talk of invites, delays and initial reactions. But is Google Wave going to live up to the initial hype and revolutionise Internet collaboration and communication? Lets look at the good points and the draw backs:

Whats Good about Google Wave?

I have only played around with it a little, but here is what I would say are the good points:

  • Collaborative Group Communication:  Very useful for collaborative group work.  The ability to invite people to conversations, drop in files, links, maps and gadgets, all make for a useful conversation tool.
  • More flexible than messenger: Remains available once you close your browser, can easily drag and drop files, links and users.
  • More Real Time Than Email: Pretty cool to be able to see people typing in a conversation in real time.  But more than cool it is actually useful.  Also in comparison to group emails this is a much more efficient way of communication as you have a real time dialogue and aren’t waiting for responses.
  • More Privacy Than Twitter: Only those invited see the conversation, therefore has the conversational feel without the mass broadcast of information.

Why Won’t Google Wave Take Off?

  • Who’s Using It?: OK so a short term one until uptake and invites grow, but not everyone has access to Google Wave, which limits its usage.
  • Do We Need Another Tool?: Ive noticed already that very few people who I have a connection with who are on wave are ever logged in.  Twitter, Messenger, Facebook, Email, Yammer, do we need, or have we got time for, another tool?
  • What Do We Use It For?: Nobody I have spoken to seems to have a solid use for it.  Yes, collaborative working, but not everyone had an invite, or stays logged in enough to collaborate!
  • Its Not Different Enough: This is going to be the key.  It doesn’t do anything I cant get done through another tool.  OK so it might be smoother and cooler, but it doesn’t have a significant advantage which would want to make me change.

What do you think of Google Wave?  Will it take off or wipe out?

Heres oneof the better videos I have seen about its uses, one which covers the main features and one where somebody got a bit creative with it, enjoy.



Categories Google