Blogger David Armano started the appeal on his blog, Logic + Emotion, for Romanian immigrant, Daniela and her 3 children who are struggling financially since Daniela filed for divorce against her abusive spouse.  At present Daniela, Brandon, Daniela and youngest Evelyn are staying with David as they try to get back on their feet and he appealed to the blogging and digital community to help raise $5000 dollars to support them.  At last check they had raised $12,663.60 and rising well in excess of its target.

David used the popularity of his blog and also his connections on social media tool twitter to raise awareness of the appeal and it has spread like wildfire around the social media community.  I found out about it through a tweet by someone I follow on twitter and the amount of retweets I have seen already is obscene.  The twitter community has taken hol of this story and is showing that even in the hardest economic times people are willing to show their charitable side and help the needy.

The Digital Lookout has made its donation, if you would like to contribute follow the link below.  Do your bit, and pass the message on.

Daniella’s Apartment Fund

Mergers and Buyouts

A lot of headlines have been written this year about various potential mergers and buyouts, mostly in the world of the search engines.  Whether it is Microsoft buying Yahoo, Yahoo partnering with Google, or Yahoo merging with AOL barely a month has gone by without a new story about the battle for search engine supremacy.  And where has it got us?  Back where we started with Microsoft and Yahoo still trying to find the best way to dethrone Google.
Away from search (slightly) there was the Google Double Click deal which caused a stir, something which is still yet to show real significance.

Google Pushing Non Search Products

At the Above and Beyond event in September Google discussed everything, apart from web search.  A clear sign of intent that they are looking to diversify in 2009 and place the Google strangle hold on other markets such as mobile marketing and display advertising.  On top of this they launched Google Ad Planner which allows digital marketers to plan digital campaigns outside of search and Google Ad Creator which allows people without flash experience to build display adverts.

Quality Score

Two lots of wholesale changes to quality score in 2008.  The first in September where minimum bids were removed and dynamic quality score was introduced.  On top of this Quality Score began to be displayed on a 1-10 scale and Google began showing the estimated first page bid for all of your keywords.

This was then followed at the end of October when they began normalising click through rate based on an ads position when factoring it into quality score calculations.  Further changes were launched at the same time which affected when and why an ad appeared in the valuable “yellow box” positions at the top of the results.

Google’s Gambling U-turn

One of the biggest stories of the year outside of the merger talk was Google’s U-turn on their policy of not allowing gambling advertisers.  Amazingly, in the face of a difficult Q3, Google’s halo slipped and they decided to begin allowing legitimate gambling advertisers onto the Adwords programme.  Opening up millions of pounds of additional turnover in one swift move.

Google Trademark Bidding

As always, changes on Google, are big changes.  And with the removal of trademark protection they ruffled a few feathers and made themselves a few quid in the process.  Their argument was that quality score and min bid would take care of it, but then they removed min bid and left a lot of trademark owners with a headache and high CPCs on brand terms.  Now Google find themselves with a high profile court case on their hands!

Social Media

Once again on of the hot topics of the year in many different guises.  Whether it was Facebook getting a Facelift, Google launching and subsequently pulling lively.com, or Barack Obama using social media tools to become US President the word social, closely followed by media, network or utility have been uttered many a time in 2008.

Browser Wars 3.0

The launch of Google Chrome announces browser wars 3.0 and looks set to see this space slightly more interesting than usual in 2009.  Although it does have a lot of people questioning what information you would be giving away to Google by browsing using Google Chrome.

Best Practice Funding

As Google’s dominance grows, their charity slows!  Google announces that as of Jan 1st 2009 they will no longer be offering best practice funding to search marketing agencies that resell Google Adwords.  No big deal for direct advertisers but for agencies slow to adapt it could mean a few casualties in 2009 as the more innovative and transparent PPC agencies learn to live without handouts.

There’s my recap of the year, anything I’ve missed?

It’s been another fast paced and exciting year in the digital world we operate in and no doubt 2009 will follow suit and through up surprises and changes which give me something interesting to write about!

The announcement isn’t a huge shock as networks of this type have been becoming less and less popular for a long time now (flexible digital marketing is the future remember!) but the question I am asking is, are Adrevenue the first in a long line of casualties in the current economic climate, or are they the anomaly?  Is this really the start of Web Bust 2.0 or just a blip?

There has been much talk about digital being the go to medium in the impending recession, but in reality, every advertising channel is going to suffer as companies tighten the purse strings.  Blind advertising networks and inflexible digital channels only ever had a limited shelf life as Internet marketers look for accountability and transparency on spend.  Are they the first casualty in what is bound to be a tough year for all forms of media?

What do you think  A one off, or a sign off things to come?

The system will include a shopping cart tool which populates as items are marked as used as well as the functionality to find recipes and order the ingredients at the touch of a button.  You will also be able to plan a weeks worth of meals using the diary planner tool and order all the food you will need to produce it at the end.

It is a very ambitious project for Tesco but the benefits of getting it right are obvious.  Through tying people in to the tool through purchase they are essentially guaranteeing their grocery orders for the period it is in use.

This project fascinates me as it is a real insight into how the Internet could (and should) be used in years to come.  i have speculated in the past about the use of digital TV to make purchases direct from the television and this is a similar revelation.

The future of the Internet could well involve taking it away from the confines of the PC and integrating it fully in our everyday lives through mobile, TV and innovative systems such as the one Tesco are looking to produce.  by definition the Inetenet is “The wide collection of connected networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols” and bears no connection with the means used to interact with it.  Hats off to Tesco for foreseeing what the future might hold and trying tor preempt it, it si this sort of innovation which will push the Internet and its usages forward.

The figures which have come out of the Microsoft report show a 2x improvement in website visits through a combined approach along with a 54% increase in likelihood of a user conducting a brand search if they had been exposed to a display advert.

You have to take into consideration the producers of these pieces when reviewing the results they show you.  Atlas earn their money based on the amount of activity you are undertaking so have a vested interest in increasing it (plus they earn off both impressions and clicks with display).  Yahoo have seen a downturn in the last quarter in the premium CPM display advertising and so it is in their interest to get you buying more.  And similarly Microsoft need something to prop up their lack of progress in paid search.

So you have to take what they say with a pinch of salt, but that’s not to say there is nothing at all in it.  i do believe an effective online plan involves a balance of all elements.  Search as the flexible, movable return based feast, affiliate marketing as the finite guaranteed return and display advertising to boost the brand and increase awareness.  That said I am an advocate of flexible solutions for display advertising and don’t think that any placement is worth more than £10 CPM, there isn’t enough branding to warrant anymore than this amount.

So whilst I would view the actual stats displayed with an air of scepticism, the general principal is sound in my opinion.  A balanced approach with a blend of channels means you get the best of each without placing all your eggs in one basket.

View Microsofts findings here

Paid Search and performance based display advertising, such as Right Media and their Yahoo Direct Programme, were actually up a much greater percentage than the overall picture with the drop in revenues coming from “premium display advertising”, i.e. the CPM based placements across the Yahoo portal.  This ties in with what I have spoken about before regarding the future of digital media buying being a more flexible, reduced cost environment with many more placements being bought on an auction model or at the very least on a CPC basis.

There are two main causes for me believing this is the way digital display advertising needs to go:

1. The Global Economic Climate: advertisers cant afford to be paying premium CPM rates in the name of “brand building” when the economic climate is so fragile.  The next 12 months for advertisers, both on and offline, is about making sure a return is gained on advertising spend, and £20+ CPM, is never going to bring about a direct return no matter who you are.

2. Advertisers are Getting More Savvy: being from a paid search background and working for a results driven agency, when I spent some time media buying I was astounded at the stunts that some publishers tried to pull with their CPM’s.  Just because it is a high traffic or niche area of the site does not mean that anybody is paying anymore attention to the ad on that page than they are on the less popular pages.  An ad is an ad and 99% of Internet users can spot them a  mile off.  Thankfully more and more companies and media buyers are now beginning to think this way too and not buying the expensive slots thus meaning prices fall.  The old model of media buying also doesn’t play to the strengths of online, they make no sense.  So I am advertising online, where I can review performance real time, change ads real time, but your telling me I have to book for a minimum one month period no matter how it performs? It just doesn’t add up.  Publishers need to start operating in the online world rather than the offline media buying world.

So even more evidence from Yahoo that traditional media buying online is on its way out, but who can be the first to capitalise from it with an effective flexible ad platform?

A recent poll by toprankasked 400 business marketers “What 3 Internet marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 6 months?”.  The results showing SEO top of the digital agenda with 149 votes, Blogging second with 134 and Pay per click third with 107.  These are pretty high statistics for a group of people who were not necessarily Internet focused and would undoubtedly be considering these channels against other offline possibilities.  It shows a growing confidence in these channels from mainstream marketeers and a growth in understanding of the benefits to the business.

Similarly Jonathan Mendez is Spitting in the Face of Pessimism regarding the recession and saying that Internet firms with a solid model should be relishing the prospect of economic downturn as long as their business model is built on the right foundations.  Suggesting that Internet advertising models which are based on return and performance are set to benefit, and even prosper in a period where marketers will be prudent with their spending.

I have to agree with these pieces, when the purse strings are tightened, the only channels which will be considered are those which can bring the least risk.  and with their measurability and accountability online channels are bound to come out on top.  What they maybe dont account for is that the advertisers businesses also have to survive in order for them to be spending money.  Many finance companies for example are cutting online budgets at the moment, not becasue the channel isnt performing, but because their OWN market is in disaray, similarly with property advertisers.  But on the whole, digital marketing should come out on top which bodes well for those involved int he industry.  Bring on the recession I say!

The planning of online display advertising has for a long time been the least flexible of the online disciplines with placements requiring to be booked for a minimum one month period in most instances and with little optimisation or flexibility available once in place.  The solution to this has been to utilise the advanced adserving technologies to improve the tracking and optimisation of display adverts and for the biggest agencies to book up inventory on popular spaces and resell it later to their client base.

But is all this about the change?  Google has had their placement network in place for a while which allows for all the functionality and flexibility of search through their display partner network, but they never quite had the distribution.  More recently they have signed up a few bigger partners and are now trialling accepting 3rd party ad serving tags which will please digital media planners.  This has made Google a more viable addition to a media plan and it sounds from the press releases that AOL and Yahoo’s platforms will be similar (even if they both claim to be revolutionary!).

I think this is the way display advertising needs to go.  A move away from long term bookings and static CPM rates and towards a dynamic environment with real time placement bidding and the ability to pause and activate display campaigns through campaign interfaces.  MSN and Yahoo have already tried this with their DR model with limited success but they still require a set period for the insertion order and also only offer their remnant, unsold inventory through the system.  In reality, the only flexibility comes from the auction model, which can only be updated once a day, so isn’t actually very flexible!

The future I foresee for display advertising brings it in line with the pay per click method of campaign advertising we are all familiar with.  Real time optimisation of placements and publisher sites in line with campaign objectives and goals.  No lengthy sign ups necessary and no “mates rates” for the bigger agencies, a simple, transparent(ish) auction model with real time optimisation capabilities.  This would be great for the real, hard working digital agencies, but bad news for the lazy media agencies, as it would require hard graft to optimise a display advertising campaign in real time based on performance metrics.  It would also be bad news for the publishers as it would invariably drive down the cost of their placements.  But in a world of economic turbulence and with advertisers demanding more from their advertising spend, it could be the saviour for online display advertising which has long benefited from traditional advertising naivety to just how measurable digital marketing can be.

For a two page, center piece article  I have to say that this seemed to me like a massive over reaction to the success of digital in the past few years.  The article eventually comes to some sensible conclusions about the evolution rather than death of direct mail and EHS Brann CEO Matt Atkinson makes the most valid point “consumers are not saying they don’t want direct mail, they are saying they don’t want junk mail!”.  it is not about cutting direct mail from you marketing mix but rather becoming more intelligent and targeted in your activity.  This is likely to mean volumes will drop but not necessarily that return will follow, more likely you will just become more efficient.

Every piece of the marketing mix has a benefit, either direct return or impact on other media.  Do you think there would be so many searches for finance companies brand terms on the search engines if the companies didn’t do so much offline activity? Of course there wouldn’t, it is all about striking the balance and appreciating the impact one media has on another.  I have experienced it first hand when a company has cut offline activity as they are getting better returns online only to see a drop in overall performance as their offline exposure stops pushing people to the search engines.

With the growing emergence of digital channels it was always going to impact other channels in one way or another, after all, economic circumstances aside, there are only every going to be a finite number of people in the market for your product at any given time.  It makes sense then, that if a percentage of these people start to use the Internet to find a supplier then the number of people using the other channels should see a dip.  What marketers really need to consider though is how to make the most of the whole marketing mix in order to maximise the opportunities the market holds, and rather than wield the sword at the under-performing media, stop to think about the impact they each have on one another.