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Industry Trends
September 2nd, 2010 08:15 AM
How Many Screens do You Need?
Gamers lead the way for multi-screen consumers
It may be time to start rethinking the purchase funnel. Engaging with media, discovering and researching brands, and making purchase decisions are no longer limited by time and place. Consumers now engage in similar activities across several different screens, and the choice of screen affects each purchasing decision’s path.
So it’s important that marketers engage their audiences by placing the right tone and message in the right environment, all while preserving a cohesive experience.
It’s a multi-screen world, after all
Those are the primary conclusions of a new white paper titled “The Multi-Screen World: Marketing At The Crossroads from Microsoft Advertising,” produced in partnership with Wunderman.
The study defines a multi-screen consumer as someone between the ages of 18 and 64 who accesses the internet at least two times each week using both computer and smartphone, a group that now includes about 33 million Americans. It’s a desirable target audience, too: They have higher discretionary income and higher mean household income than average.
Information unbound
Several trends emerge from the data, many of which emphasize consumers’ growing desire for control over their experiences. For example, half of these multi-screen people use a DVR for watching television. Most (70 percent) use their phone to find information while on the go. Even networked game consoles are put into the service of this goal, with 23 percent using it to watch video and 39 percent using it to socialize.
In fact, gamers are the category to watch for predicting the future. Compared to other groups, they tend to be social influences who spend fewer hours passively absorbing content, and more time interacting with content and connecting with others as they play games, send text messages, and post reviews or comment on blogs.
You can read more about this study’s implications here.
— Chris Marlowe
(Image by dan taylor via Flickr, CC 2.0)
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September 1st, 2010 01:16 PM
Ad News and Views from Around the Web
The year of display; when good brands get bad press; location bonanza; tweeting up a storm and more
Will this be the year for display?
A new report from the Rubicon Project says it just might be. CPMs among the optimization firm’s top 20 index have surged 47% from the start of this year to date, according to a report from BrandWeek.
The power of “negative” buzz
What happens when your time-honored brand suddenly gets associated with something… unsavory? What do you do? Earlier this week, Edgar Valdez, also known as “La Barbie,” the suspected kingpin of a notorious Mexican drug cartel, was arrested by authorities while wearing a famous-name polo shirt. Time to rebrand, or just ignore it?
Location: the next digital bonanza?
“Now that Facebook has entered the location-based services market, ‘places’—and the information generated by users about those places—is the next digital bonanza.” So writes Sheila Shayon on Brandchannel.com. But where to go next? Invoking Flickr founder Caterina Fake’s new startup Hunch.com, which uses Twitter and Facebook polling data to better target users’ desires, Shayon offers six tips on how to get your locale-based offerings to the right customers.
A verification bill of rights
As networks and demand-side platforms have grown ever larger, writes Goodway Group COO, Jay Friedman on Adotas, advertisers’ control over where their ads appear has flown out of control. “And when something is out of human control, someone is going to cheat,” he notes, citing malware, nudity and profanity ads as chief culprits. He proposes an eight “amendment” bill of rights for advertisers to help ensure the appropriate ad shows up at the appropriate place. Number one: “You have every right to know that your ads only appeared within the provided site list during and after the campaign, and to see the URLs of any sites on which your ads appeared outside of that pre-approved site list.” Not exactly “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” but a compelling idea.
(more…)
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August 30th, 2010 10:57 AM
Yahoo! Looking Forward
Innovation is the name of the game at the 2010 Yahoo! Partner Summit, Part II
Last week, we showed our partners a little look-ahead on things to come at the 2010 Yahoo! Partner Summit, and shared some of the findings with you. This week, we unveil more of what was learned from this truly remarkable, candid conversation.
In the afternoon, partners split up into separate tracks: Search Partners and Integrated Partners. Here are a few highlights from the afternoon sessions:
(more…)
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August 27th, 2010 12:58 PM
Yahoo’s July 2010 Retail Insights
Backpack season arrives early
Retail Pulse, the monthly report that taps into Yahoo! data to track changes in U.S. online shopping trends, confirms that back-to-school shopping started earlier than in 2009:
- “Back to School” searches on Yahoo! entered the top term list as early as the first week of July.
- Search for “backpacks” on retailer sites surged after July 5.
- Users who visited Office Supplies sites also increased over four consecutive weeks.
Women’s passion for fashion
The report also highlighted that search in the Apparel category has increased over four consecutive weeks, recovering from a four-month slide. Specifically, Yahoo! Shopping click volume in the Clothing category saw an up-trend. The number of women aged 18-49 who visited sites in the Department Store category has also increased since July 5.
— Dianne Molina
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August 25th, 2010 11:25 AM
How to Get More People to View Your Content
Distributing your original content can lead to greater engagement and increased sales
It’s no secret that creating original content for your website is a terrific way to get your marketing messages across, establish yourself as an expert, and humanize your company and its employees.
By writing articles, blogs and white papers, companies can offer a real service to their current and potential customers and clients. It is essential, though, that the content be well-written, informative and understandable for your target audience. It is worth the investment to either have an accomplished copywriter on your staff, or to seek the services of a professional copywriter.
Creating meaningful content is just the first step, though. The key is delivering that content to as wide an audience as you can. Fortunately, there are many online platforms through which you can distribute your original content.
Properly marketing your content across multiple platforms requires an investment of time and money , but that investment is often rewarded with a spectacular return, as increases in viewers frequently translate to increases in clients, customers and revenues.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds
An RSS feed is a simple way to “subscribe” to a blog, the same way you would subscribe to a magazine. You can use a program called an RSS reader (Bloglines and the one provided on your MyYahoo! page are popular and easy-to-use examples) to subscribe to blogs. Once you’ve subscribed, you don’t have to check each site individually—just fire up your RSS reader, and you’ll see all of the new content that’s been created since the last time you checked.
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others
If your company has a social media account (or multiple accounts) on a service such as Twitter or Facebook, use it to announce the publication of your latest content piece. Virtually all social media accounts allow you to hyperlink directly to your online content. If your friends or followers like the content piece, they are also likely to tell people in their networks about it, creating an ever-growing audience.
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August 25th, 2010 09:42 AM
Ad News and Views from Around the Web
Online ad spend rises (again); telling stories in social, Quaker’s new campaign; kill the buzzwords and more
Online ad spend to outpace ad spend on other gadgets and media
Online ad spend will grow 14% next year to nearly 60 billion smackers, while the overall market is expected to increase just 5%. And the fastest growing slice of the digital pie will be local (60%), with targeted display offering the second-fastest-growing slice (50%). This according to a forecast released by Borrell Associates and reported in AdWeek. Do you know a company that does display and local really well? We do.
Give your social media posts a little panache
Think you can’t develop a story in 140 or fewer characters? Think again. Writing on ClickZ, Heidi Cohen offers five tips on how companies can imbue their social media posts with a story line, and another five on the attributes of developing a ripping yarn on same.
Earth Quaker
We all know the value of a good breakfast. When we were kids, it was “toast, juice, milk and…” whatever breakfast cereal was being pushed. But “does your breakfast make you amazing?” Quaker Oats say theirs does, or is about to. The venerable cereal company is about to embark on its “amazing” campaign, and Quaker CMO Kristen Lynch gives the details in AdWeek. An amazing breakfast should help humans go.
(more…)
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August 24th, 2010 02:36 PM
Make a Date with Carol Bartz
Yahoo!’s CEO to discuss today’s biggest marketing challenges
Will you be in New York City on September 14? Then clear your morning for a little VIP networking with Carol Bartz.
Yahoo!’s CEO will join Macy’s CMO Peter Sachse at a program called “The Power of the Consumer: Understanding today’s complex audience,” sponsored by The AD Club of NYC. The event is the first of a three-part Leadership Breakfast Series and will feature a panel discussion moderated by Michael Learmonth, Digital Editor of Ad Age, that promises to:
- Explore the needs of today’s consumers
- Reveal how to emotionally connect your brand with an elusive online audience
- Discuss how to build effective campaigns and create meaningful consumer experiences
“The Power of the Consumer” will be held at the New York Athletic Club from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Tickets are $65 for AD Club members and $95 for non-members. Seats are limited.
To attend, RSVP online today or call (212) 533-8080 x209.
—Dianne Molina
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August 23rd, 2010 09:52 AM
Yahoo! Style
Rave reviews for the new Yahoo! Style Guide
We’re a bit persnickety about the English language here at the Yahoo! B2B Marketing department. Anyone who has ever enjoyed the PBS series “The Story of English,” or relied on their Strunk and White for advice pretty much feels the same. But English, as every savvy English speaker knows, is an ever-evolving tongue that takes in thousands of new words and expressions each year from other languages, the sciences, technology and plain old common usage. It’s a steamroller of free expression that you just can’t stop.
The rules may change, but it’s important to note that there are rules, whether you’re writing a script for a play, a screenplay for a film, a novel, a marketing Web page or even a tweet.
That’s why Yahoo’s indefatigable editors developed The Yahoo! Style Guide: Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World, a 528-page guide to writing well for the Web.
The reviews are in and, boy, are they positive. Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, said: “Yahoo!’s editors have given the rules of the writing road a smart and timely reboot. It’s Strunk and White for the online world.” While Seth Godin, famed blogger, futurist and Squidoo founder, opined: “Do you have an online style? You need one. People judge your writing, and if you’d rather not be a n00b, here’s a great place to start.”
(more…)
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August 23rd, 2010 09:00 AM
Poll: Is the Web Dead?
Wired’s Chris Anderson says that the Web as we knew it is over. What do you think?
Writing in Wired magazine—as well as on its website—editor-in-chief Chris Anderson says that the Web is dead, and is already being supplanted by apps. The article has sparked a lively debate across, well, the Web.
“Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display,” writes Anderson. “It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule.”
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If the Web truly is dead, what impact will it have on digital advertisers—search, display, whatever. Feel free to opine in the comments.
— The Team
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August 20th, 2010 04:40 PM
Video: Yahoo’s Wendi Sturgis on Innovation at SES
A sneak peek into the new Yahoo! Content Syndication Exchange
Speaking at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Francisco, Wendi Sturgis, Vice President, North America, Business Development and Partnerships Group at Yahoo!, talks about what’s being called (for now) the Yahoo! Content Syndication Exchange—a new platform that will allow publishers to draw down Yahoo! search and other content, content from our vast array of partners, from Associated Content, from Facebook, Twitter, and more.
— Michael Mattis
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