4A’s Conference Round-Up

The Yahoo! Advertising blog’s got you covered

This week, your indefatigable Yahoo! Advertising correspondents went on a field trip to the 4A’s “Transformation 2010” conference in San Francisco. (Those 4A’s stand for the American Association of Advertising Agencies.) While there, we did old the meet and greet, tweeted, and posted to Facebook our take-aways from some the smartest minds in the advertising world. We even did a little live blogging and took some video, too. (Lookin’ good, Carol!)

Below is a round-up of some the most interesting sessions, in case you couldn’t be there in person.

How Social Media Has Transformed the Communications Landscape
Who: Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor in Chief, The Huffington Post
What: Huffington spoke with considerable humor about how the Internet in general and social media in particular have changed the way people interact with media content. “We”—meaning users as well as media outlets—“are consuming news, sharing news, developing news. We are all part of that story,” she noted. Online readership is up 34 million in the past few years, while newspaper viewership is down 7 million. The key for understanding and engaging the online medium for publishers and advertisers is  “transparency and authenticity.” At the 4A’s conference, she mentioned what she calls the “four E’s:” engagement, energy, empathy, enthusiasm, enrichment. These are the real drivers of audience behavior online.
So What?: The shift in attention to online presents a huge opportunity for advertisers and marketers because the most engaged consumers are the most loyal consumers. Notable quote: “If Carol Bartz is outspoken, what does it make me, a demure shrinking violet?” Probably not, Ms. Huffington.

More on this session via AdAge.

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Video: Carol Bartz on Science, Art and Scale

 “No one can do this as well as we can.”

In an informal conversation at the 4A’s conference, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz says that only Yahoo! can offer everything advertisers need for successful digital advertising: science, art and scale.

Science, Art and Scale

Carol Bartz: What Yahoo! offers advertisers

Yahoo! can bring advertisers a combination of strengths that no one else can, Yahoo! CEO  Carol Bartz said in a keynote speech at the 4A’s Transformation 2010 conference today, because only Yahoo! offers them three things: science, art and scale.

Carol, speaking to the advertising industry group in San Francisco, said, “We want Yahoo! to be the partner you turn to for answers and solutions, and most importantly—when you want results.” By providing science, art and scale, Yahoo can help advertisers and agencies master online advertising.

Science
“Science is incredibly important,” Carol said. “Without it, we’re all flying blind.” She said it’s even more important because the Internet is moving so fast that it’s creating chaos for advertisers. In order to help advertisers sort through that information, Yahoo! can advertisers better insights, better data, and better targeting. “This means less wasted impressions and a better ability to reach your audience,” Carol said. (more…)

Ad News and Views from Around the Web

Yahoo! and Twitter team up; advertising is good; ad groups 101; Yahoo’s head of search on the Microsoft alliance, and more

Yahoo! gets all Twitterpated
Last night we announced a new partnership with Twitter that integrates Twitter’s real-time social experiences with Yahoo’s global network of more than 600 million users. Together with the recently announced Facebook integration, this relationship is a key part of advancing our social strategy, transforming Yahoo! into a highly customizable social experience that lets people unify their activity from their many social experiences across the Web. Good for users. Great for advertisers. For more details, head on over to Yodel Anecdotal.

Affiliates beware: Cali sales tax looming
Many search and display advertiser run affiliate networks, whereby they become the middle-men between consumers and suppliers. It’s a good business and one that provides an essential service. But the State of California is considering imposing a sales tax on affiliate sites that have suppliers in the state. While aimed at the big boys like Amazon.com and Overstock.com, the law could affect any affiliate site with relationships in the Golden State. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Carolyn Said explains.  

Online ads help shoppers save
Advertising is often taken to the pillory for being self-serving. That’s just not fair. Good advertising serves an essential need in society. Without it, how would you know that there’s a better—or cheaper—mousetrap out there? eMarketer explains how online advertising is helping consumers save cash in tough times.

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Demystifying Mobile, Part III

Mobile marketing measurement is important, but don’t panic

In the third of our three-part series, Paul Cushman, Director of Mobile Sales Strategy at Yahoo!, outlines the importance of measurement in any mobile strategy and offers a simple formula for doing it right. For Part I, click here. For Part II, click here.

I’m shocked by the number of clients who start a mobile campaign with no idea how they are going to measure success. I’m not talking necessarily about goals, as this is a new channel to many brands and setting benchmarks is a legitimate and relevant approach at the start.

But make sure you are measuring and that you talk to your mobile advertising vendors about this. There are good in-house and third-party solutions out there that can improve the data a campaign generates.

Why is this important? Say the client comes in and says “I want an iPhone app!” (Let’s ignore the fact that this is akin to walking into the agency and saying “I want to do radio ads” without first asking whether or not you should even be doing radio).

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What Do I Do With All This Data?

Yahoo’s Scott Burke answers your questions

It’s a pretty common question among online advertisers: How do I use all the marketing metrics I’m inundated with? In an article posted yesterday on Ad Age, Scott Burke, our VP of engineering, user data and analytics, tackles that question with some pretty detailed answers, and talks about what’s important now—whether it’s clicks, time spent, the delta between search and display analytics, and much more. Click over to Ad Age for all the details.

—The Team

(Image by Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr CC 2.0)

Audiences on Demand, Part I

Demand-side platforms and why they evolved

In the first of a multi-part series, Marc Grabowski, Yahoo’s head of mid-market display for the North American Region, explores demand-side platforms, or DSPs, one of the most important current trends in the digital ad display market.  DSPs aggregate advertising demand and place media buys for audience-targeted inventory across multiple supply channels—such as exchanges and publishers—while controlling exposure of a message to the audience. Below, Marc uncovers the origins of DSPs and discusses why they have evolved.

Not too long ago, advertisers and agencies figured out that they could buy advertising by audiences—not just by editorial source or, for that matter, by their relationships. That change in buying has created ripple effects that have arguably helped display advertising become more complex than search.

As a result, today we live in a place where networks aggregate publishers. Exchanges aggregate networks and data informs the buy instead of simply justifying it. And the lines between agencies, publishers, and ad networks are blurring as each one shoulders additional burdens to earn greater share of ad dollars spent online.

Display advertising has arguably become more complex than search.

A brief history lesson
Four or five years ago, agencies came to the realization that they should buy beyond editorial adjacency and invest in audiences—so, instead of buying advertising from one group of online sites, they buy impressions among, say, 18-to-35-year-old males, regardless of publisher. Soon after that, the volume of impressions across the Internet spiked due to a proliferation of user generated content. Ad networks created one solution to this problem by aggregating many sites into a single buy. Agencies eventually began buying from multiple ad networks and publishers—up to 800 sites in some cases.

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Ad News and Views from Around the Web

Advertising beyond the Super Bowl; New Yahoo! ad formats hit the press; does social really sell?; Right Media’s future, and more

Advertising the Super Bowl, and beyond
Mitch Spolan, our VP of North American field sales, has just posted a point-of-view commentary on MediaPost, on how digital advertisers are seeing gold in big-ticket events like the Super Bowl, which have traditionally been dominated by TV, radio and print. “Cultural events like the Super Bowl still matter,” says Mitch. “The good news for online marketers is that people are increasingly turning to the Internet for coverage of these events, and audience size and engagement is beginning to reach—and sometimes exceed—that of the original broadcast.” That goes whether you’re a search or display advertiser. To see how advertisers are making the shift online and get some tips for yourself, click over to MediaPost.

New ad formats stop the presses
That Mitch Spolan is redoubtable and seemingly ubiquitous.  Last week he unveiled several new, flexible, creativity-driven ad formats. “Advertising is about telling stories,” says Mitch. “And these formats allow brand advertisers to do just that.” We’re not the only ones excited about these new formats. Check out the write-ups in AdWeek, MediaWeek and paidContent.

Social’s fine, but does it sell?
With all the hype around social media marketing and how it’s good for your brand and customer support, the question arises, “Fine, but does it sell?” AdWeek’s Brian Morrisey asks that question, and adds, “What’s a Facebook friend worth?” He answers with two telling case studies.

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Search Innovation in Five Minutes

SearchSpeak 2010 video spolights Yahoo! search initiatives  

Earlier this week we blogged about SearchSpeak 2010, an event that took place at our Sunnyvale campus. At SearchSpeak, some of the smartest and savviest Big Cheeses at Yahoo! took folks through the search and search marketing innovations we’ve introduced over the past six months, and some of the innovations we’re working on for the future. This short video provides a synopsis of the coolest things that are going on here at Yahoo!

 For more, visit the Yahoo! Search blog.

—The Team

Changing the Creative Canvas on Yahoo!

Your creative palette at Yahoo! just got a whole lot better

If you know me, you know that I’m not the tallest person around. I’m 5’6” (and a half!) and I like my height…but even I’ll admit that there are times when I wouldn’t mind being a bit taller.

The online advertising canvas is similar. You can do great things online now, but chances are if you’re in advertising, you wouldn’t mind a little more room to get creative, and more space to grab your customers’ attention. That’s why we’re rolling out several new display advertising options to give you a larger canvas for your creativity.

Built for telling stories
You may recognize some of these new formats – they were introduced by the Online Publisher’s Association (OPA) last year. We believe we are one of the first, if not the first, portals to adopt more than one of these formats. Why are we adopting them? Because advertising is about telling stories, and these formats allow brand advertisers to do just that.  We want to promote innovation, creativity, and imagination in online advertising.

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