Quantifiable creative; blogging enhances SEO; search surges; kids more plugged in than ever; celebrating Guy Day, and more
Three simple steps to better creative Let’s face it, a lot of agency creatives like to blather on about “inspiration” and the “creative process.” But, says iMedia Connection blogger, Robert Boman, (who is also Javelin’s Interactive Creative Director), “Marketing is a profession, not an art show. Your work’s got to be far more than just eye candy. It needs to be smart. It needs to be trackable.” He offers a handy, three-step process for creating measurable marketing.
Survey says: Blogging enhances SEO Writing on TopRank’s Online Marketing blog, Lee Odden reveals the results of a TopRank survey that asked 326 marketing pros if they thought blogging had a positive effect on their SEO. Most did. In fact, more than 87 percent of respondents said blogging had “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives.” A common reason why some companies don’t blog or quit blogging? Resources.
Search usage jumps 50% in one year
According a new PC World report, Web search jumped a full 50% from 2008 to 2009. In fact, last year there were more than four billion searches each day. “We knew this was going to happen,” says Tribble Ad Agency blogger TheFounder, “and it’s going to get bigger and bigger for quite some time. Search has become the definition of marketing and advertising.” All true, but you heard it here first.
There’s a scene in the first season of “Mad Men” in which advertising anti-hero Don Draper asks his boss, “What do women want?” The answer he gets is flippant to the point of rather ugly sexism. But in the male-dominated world of early-1960s advertising, Draper was on to something. He knew instinctively that to reach America, you had to reach out to America’s new, emerging, liberated woman, a fact later borne out by daytime shows from “Phil Donahue” to “Oprah” and beyond.
Today, the audience to reach is teens, both male and female. Last time, we discussed some salient general facts about teens, their buying power ($125 billion and climbing) and the time they spend online. Today we’ll talk about who these teens are, what they want, and how advertisers like you can reach an audience of nearly 25 million Americans.
In the first of a three-part series on teen trends, we discuss today’s teens and what they’re doing online
Ah, the kids these days. They’ve been pilloried and misunderstood—and striven to be understood—by their elders even before James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo portrayed them with such affection in “Rebel Without a Cause.”
But today’s teens (those aged 12 to 17) not only have tremendous buying power, they also have dramatic influence over what goes on online. In 2008, teens represented nearly 25 million people in the U.S. alone, according to MRI, and, says a report by TRUStudy, pumped some $127 billion into the U.S. economy last year. In fact, according to a recent study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, today’s youths spend about seven-and-a-half hours with electronic media each day.
Put your arithmetic cap on, because we’re going to run a few numbers past you.
TV to Web shift; the top women of social media; Jaron Lanier warns against the wisdom of crowds; helping Haiti, and more
Shift happens
According to the New York Times “Bits” blogger Nick Bilton, the Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien late-night slap fight is an indicator of the coming shift from TV to the Web. In fact, Bilton thinks Conan should ditch TV and go straight to the Web. But is the world ready for anytime O’Brien? And can the Web match TV in ad dollars? iMedia Connection’s Mario Sgambelluri wonders. May we politely suggest a smarter mix of both?
Social media: Where the gals are
TopRank’s Lee Odden names the top 25 women in social media. We’re happy to see our old FoY (“Friend of Yahoo!”), Charlene Li make the list. Congrats to all 25. You go, gals!
Jaron Lanier says you are not a gadget
Virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier—that dreadlocked brainiac who brought you the cool robotic glove—has a new book out, reviewed in Sunday’s New York Times. “You Are Not a Gadget” questions whether the social media trend is really such a good thing after all. Among other criticism, Lanier says that the so-called “wisdom of crowds” might not actually be so wise, especially when designing new products. Listen up, manufacturers and advertisers. Sometimes going with your gut can work better than design by committee. Just look at the iPod.
Yahoo! rings in 2010 with search advertising enhancements that deliver
Last fall, I answered the question “Does search still matter to Yahoo!” with a definitive YES. But words only go so far, which is why Yahoo! is rolling out new search enhancements for users and advertisers.
All about control Next week, we’ll update our Sponsored Search product with two new features aimed at giving advertisers more transparency into and control over their accounts. Our Network Distribution feature will let you run your ads on Yahoo! search pages, our partners’ sites, or both. If you run your ads on our entire network, you can also set different bids for Yahoo! or its partners.
Personal social media ROI; embeddable live social media counter; Yahoo! social science; “mobilizing” your website, and more
Your personal social media ROI
Twitter and Facebook can be a time-suck. We all know that by now. But there must be a pay-off, right? Maybe, maybe not. AdAge’s Simon Dumenco explains how to gage your personal social media ROI.
7 reasons you don’t need to justify ROI for social media advertising These days, Web advertising is all about the math—click-through rates, open rates, engagement modeling, registrations, etc. But, iMedia Connection’s Clyde DeSousa argues, social media advertising is a different animal, and he offers seven “justifications” for social media advertising that you can use when trying to convince the “suits” in the corner office to go for it.
Social media hall monitor Social media gadfly, Gary Hayes of Personalize Media, has just released a widget that counts social media in real time: stuff like new blog posts, members added to Facebook, the amount of money spent on virtual goods globally, Tweets and more—what’s happening now, for the last day, the last week, the last month and the last year. That’s one impressive widget, according to this, the 330 jillionth blog post this year. You can embed the widget, as we have below.
I’m goin’ home
And when I wanna go home
I’m goin’ mobile
Well, I’m gonna find a home
And we’ll see how it feels
Goin’ mobile
Keep me movin’
Back in the early 1970s, goin’ mobile usually meant being out of touch except by pay phone or postcard. If you wanted to take “home” with you, you had to buy an RV, or be a tortoise. The neat thing about goin’ mobile today is that you can take home with you, right in the palm of your hand. That’s a boon for users—and for advertisers who want to touch potential customers at home, wherever that happens to be at the moment.
We have a new post on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog that describes how to best use the new Ad Delivery Report available within your Sponsored Search interface. Drive on over to get the full details.
Yahoo! and Electus’ Ben Silverman announce new content, ad delivery concept
Three words: Content, content, content.
Over the past decade, cable TV has experienced tremendous growth because of its ability to develop programming for very specific audiences, telling the stories that those audiences love to hear. At the same time, it has provided opportunities for advertisers to reach their core audiences, telling the stories that advertisers need to tell.
Like cable, online today is poised to do just the same, and more. Yet, despite the targeted programming capabilities available, online publishers and advertisers have yet to take full advantage of the medium in terms of content development. That’s where today’s announcement comes in.
Three simple steps to better creative
There’s a scene in the first season of “Mad Men” in which advertising anti-hero Don Draper asks his boss, “What do women want?” The answer he gets is flippant to the point of rather ugly sexism. But in the male-dominated world of early-1960s advertising, Draper was on to something. He knew instinctively that to reach America, you had to reach out to America’s new, emerging, liberated woman, a fact later borne out by daytime shows from “Phil Donahue” to “Oprah” and beyond.
In the first of a three-part series on teen trends, we discuss today’s teens and what they’re doing online
You’ve heard the 
