Digital Hive

Only 64%!?

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING GAINS IN FAVOR AMONG ADVERTISERS

Lack of Web Inventory, Rising Costs, Clutter and Effectiveness Cited

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- Sixty-four percent of interactive ad agencies surveyed by iMedia and research firm Ponenom Research are currently using behavioral targeting in their client's online campaigns.

The proper study of mankind is marketing?

Too much of traditional customer research has focused around testing ad concepts - or worse still testing that curious nonsense "the ad-lob" (let's ban it once and for all?! Comments?).

The imperative of pull marketing to listen harder has given rise to innovative ways of getting closer to customers, such as the use of marketing anthropologists. This article from the FT is about anthropologists going into big corporations to help understand better the values, rituals, and social structures of the workplace. The meanings of work.

As a Brit I'm painfully aware of how anthropology was often hijacked by imperialism; it was used not only to understand but to control better far-flung, alien corners of the Empire. Is the use of anthropology in marketing another misapropriation of this liberal science? Any thoughts?

Can a brand be too user focused?

So I got wind of Puma's groovy summer eBrochure and immediately checked it out.

What's good is - they are literally using a human hand as the nav device. You use your mouse to move the hand to the edge of the page you want to turn, and click your mouse to have the hand turn the page. There's also fun interactive features where you use the hand to do something that reveals product benefits or features (check out the third spread with the urban mobility protective jacket).

What's not as good is - it's clumsy to use. Even after you get the hang of the mouse/click functionality, it's hard to get what you want when you want it out of this interface. While I love Puma's stuff and enjoy seeing what's new, this is just too much work for me.

Super Bowl vs. Super Game

As an extremely rational person I love seeing hard evidence of how the media world has changed. Here's the latest.

This week's Adweek poll asks: 

You are offered one of the following, free of charge, for your client. Which do you choose?

A deal to be featured in five high-profile videogames 52%
A single spot in next year's Super Bowl 48%

TOTAL RESPONSE - 818

For Gen Y, by Gen Y?

"The good news is we have attracted them. The bad news is they are who they are." Speaking candidly in a recent Economist article, Scion's Division Manager, Jim Farley was referring to Gen Y adults. They are more educated, more empowered, & more saavy than any other generation. In short, they can smell marketing BS a mile away.

Truth has harnessed the power of this insight in the latest web component of their famous anti-smoking campaign. Beyond its entertainment value, the site offers Gen Yers free downloads (i.e. silly ringtones, e-cards, and a laugh-o-matic) that will enable everyone to spread the word beyond the hallowed halls of cyberspace. It is ironic & entertaining, and almost feels as if it were created by Gen Y, for Gen Y. Come to think of it, it probably was.

Narrowcasting: a 21st century media gold rush!

Come early June – for only $1.99 - you will be able to download a 45-minute course on how to find, select, prepare, and serve whole hog from a culinary expert who prepares over a hundred such roasts a year. And if you’re itching for more BBQ-related videos, fear not. Atlanta-based DaveTV offers 999 more. Boasting over 100 channels featuring 100,000 hours of licensed programming, DaveTV is just one of several start-ups specializing in a new niche of narrowcasting.

And we thought Cable TV and pay-per-view could offer us esoteric programming.

While initially available only for download on your computer, DaveTV will soon offer set-top boxes for $200 that enable you to play their content on your TV. Another start-up, Brightcove Networks Inc. is looking to replace these boxes with a special technology that links TVs to newer computers that run Microsoft Windows Media Center software. All three tech giants (Microsoft, Google, & Yahoo) are already developing video search engines to harness the power of this paradigm shift. At some point, experts believe big companies will takeover. But not before a mass of small players make their move.

Beyond the obvious fragmentation of TV audiences, this new landscape has enormous implications for active branding. Narrowcasting is sure to attract the more time-crunched, affluent audiences who are bored with the traditional TV fare. And the possibilities for active branding platforms will soon become infinite.

Don't play this Podcast too loudly!

In an effort to reach young listeners with risque marketing messages at the same time it avoids FCC decency rules, condom maker Durex has purchased product placement advertising in podcasts.

Podcasting is a new medium that uses the Internet to distribute radio-like audio files for downloading into iPods and other MP3 players. The digital distribution system operates outside of the Federal Communications Commission's regulatory jurisdiction.

Although it only emerged as a viable mass medium within the last six months, podcasting is already a craze among younger "digerati." The new entertainment technology has also quickly drawn mainstream advertisers like General Motors Corp. An estimated 22 million Americans have iPods or MP3 players that can play podcast audio files.

Durex last month.....

Low budget rocks!

In case you need a reminder that the expense you put in to reaching people and the actual reach you get out often have very little to do with each other, here is a hilarious webcam moment that reached millions and cost nothing to produce.  Gary is, quite literally, a rock star!

I am thinking of doing a Macarena version myself and charging a "pay per click-thru" fee to any client who cares to take me up on it!  Now, if I could only get them to sign off on the content...........you be the judge.

Is it art?

So many of us are hooked into the latest and greatest in viral experiences on the web (and elsewhere.)  But by definition, they are fleeting, oftentimes 'of the people' and always reflective of our culture's desire to participate in the obscure and infectious.  But what happens when this stuff from the ether is pulled out and put on a wall - as with the current exhibit at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC?

This particular institution has always been a bastion of the wacky and 'outsider', but now is taking on the ultimate in insider experience - the viral stuff that creates buzz on the web.  Really makes you stop and think.

NY Times professes that this stuff needed to be picked up on TV or in print to be validated and truly spread - I think not, but then again, I don't work for a major print enterprise.

Quality, not quantity

We are in the middle of an advertising revolution.  People have been sick of being bombarded with dull and un-inspiring messages for a while, but now they have the means to tune it out.

In a recent Yankelovich report on marketing receptivity, nearly 70% of people polled said they are interested in products which block advertising and 56% said that they avoid buying from companies who overwhelm them with too much marketing.