Agency Style

Online Media Market's Strong Outlook

2010-12-20T16:02:00Z

The economic recovery might be slow but at least one sector is adding jobs at a respectable rate. Internet media companies and Web portals have added 14,300 jobs since the recession began, according to Ad Age DataCenter's analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. All told, these companies account for a sizable 12 percent of U.S. media employment. Showing gains over the past year, ad agencies added 2,600 jobs and marketing consulting has seen an addition of 1,200 jobs.

Another sign of recovery and progress in the online world comes from eMarketer. They estimate that, for the first time ever, online ad spending will surpass that of print ads in newspapers. Total online ad spend is predicted to hit $25.8 billion this year.

Procter & Gamble is Shopping for a Mobile Agency

2010-12-01T21:45:00Z

Procter & Gamble is reviewing their mobile strategy. And their current mobile agency, Brand in Hand, is not part of the process. P&G is looking for an agency that can bring a global presence to its mobile strategy. Some agencies rumored to be involved are Starcom MediaVest Group, Razorfish and Digitas. According to Ad Age, P&G spent $4 billion in U.S. advertising in 2009.

P&G often leads the way for many other businesses. So, this strategy to move globally into mobile is fairly significant and worthy of most other business' attention. It's also worth noting that the fastest growing mobile countries are those in the developing world.

CTR for Standard Banners Hit Bottom in '09

2010-11-16T21:20:00Z

MediaMind has released a report which shows that the global click-through rate on standard banners stopped declining in 2009 and 2010 and has remained fixed at around 0.09%.

The study titled “Standard Banners –Non-Standard Results" reveals that one of the main reasons for the drop in CTR is the success of online display advertising as the increase in the number of online ad impressions outpaced users’ rise in clicks. This as you might imagine resulted in lower CTR. The study also found that users who are exposed to relatively few ads are more likely to have a high CTR as compared to users who are exposed to a high number of ads.

“The new findings are an encouraging sign for advertisers,” said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-Founder at MediaMind. “Although CTR is only a partial measure of online success, the leveling of CTR shows that online advertising has reached a level of maturity and that advertisers have become more sophisticated in luring users’ interest.”

Collaboration Platform for Traditional Agencies

2010-11-11T21:40:00Z

PBworks has introduced its PBworks Agency edition, a hosted suite of tools that improve collaboration among creative professionals at advertising, PR, marketing and design agencies.

One of the reasons the Web has not seen more traditional agencies venture into the interactive arena is that the tools they have grown accustom to made it difficult to integrate the work of numerous people, capture changes in one location, and collect feedback that can be used for future campaigns.

The PBworks agency edition hopes to solve that problem. The platform enables agencies to create a social environment fo their internal teams and external clients to collaborate more effectively, manage projects, connected teams with shared workspaces, standardize processes and workflows, and maintain a knowledgebase of past work and best practices.

"Agencies are among our most vocal customers and they have provided us with incredibly helpful product feedback," said Jim Groff, PBworks CEO. "Agency Edition gives them the ideal tool for managing the creative process and producing even more creative and innovative results for their clients."

2010's Best Rich Media Ads

2010-11-05T13:43:00Z

What were 2010's best rich media advertisments?

MediaMind announced the winners of its MediaMind Rich Media Awards (formerly Eyeblaster Awards) during ad:tech this week in New York City and we thought you might want to take a look. More than 75 creative and media agencies submitted their campaigns to the 9th annual awards.

2010 Judges' Award Winners:

North America - GamesRadar Rabbids Go Home, Future US
International - Nissan Qashqai – 3D Homepage Takeover, Digitas, OMD

2010 People’s Choice Awards Winners:

North America – Avatar DVD Release, ThinkJam UK/Moxie Interactive/Avatar Labs, Vizeum/ Twentieth Century Fox
International – Despicable Me – YouTube Takeover, Feref UK, Mediacom UK

“The 2010 winners reflect a growing trend in digital advertising for smarter, more interactive and engaging ads,” said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-Founder at MediaMind. “Advertisers are clearly exceeding consumers’ expectations by creating sophisticated ads that provide a rich experience.”

Ringing Up the Revenue in Mobile

2010-10-28T14:46:00Z

U.S. mobile ad spending will grow nearly 50 percent to more than $1 billion next year, according to eMarketer, setting the stage for continued growth as marketers ramp up mobile efforts to match consumer demand. Historically I have never been an advocate of pay per call advertising, but mobile may just breath new life into the model.

One of the companies well positioned to benefit is RingRevenue, which recently annouced record mobile campign growth with thrid quarter call volume up more thn 500 percent. In January 2010, mobile campaigns drove roughly 25 percent of calls on the RingRevenue platform according to the company, but by September, mobile’s share grew to more than 50 percent.

The performance is apparently not too bad either. Calls driven from mobile campaigns (at least for RingRevenue clients) see impressive conversion rates across a wide variety of vertical segments, including insurance with average conversions of 27 percent, financial services at 12 percent, home services at 34 percent, and education at 15 percent.

“With mobile users accessing the web in greater numbers, it makes sense for advertisers to let consumers connect live when they want to,” said Jason Spievak, CEO of RingRevenue. “Mobile advertising goes hand-in-hand with pay-per-call, as it allows consumers to do what comes naturally on their mobile device – make a phone call. And with nearly 100 percent of us carrying our mobile phones with us all of the time, pay-per-call campaigns make it easy for consumers to respond to an ad regardless of where they see it—on their mobile, online or offline.”

Customer Satisfaction Key to Revenue, Engagement, and Referrals

2010-10-28T14:36:00Z

Clients of Foresee Results are outperforming industry averages in regard to the satisfaction of their site visitors.

In a recent report produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) - which is strategically aligned with Foresee, news websites including ABCNews.com, CNN.com, FOXNews.com, MSNBC.com, NYTimes.com and USAToday.com were found to have customer satisfaction levels, on average, of 74 on the study’s 100-point scale. In contrast, ForeSee Results clients scored a 76, two points and 3% higher than the average for news websites. ForeSee Results’ benchmark of news and media companies includes a variety of news, media, and information-based websites such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS Interactive, ESPN, Forbes, IDG News, National Public Radio, PBS, PBS Kids, Voice of America, the Weather Channel, and others.

“Our customers chose to work with us because they care deeply about prioritizing the customer experience on their website,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results. “It follows logically that they would have higher customer satisfaction scores: they’re paying attention to it and they have our best-in-class methodology and expert analysis to help them improve it.”

It doesn't take a Web guru to understand that higher satisfaction leads to more visits, extended reach and high revenues. When comparing the future intentions of less satisfied site visitors to highly satisfied site visitors, the company research indicates that the highly satisfied visitors have a 62% greater likelihood to subscribe, 84% greater likelihood to recommend the website and a 43% greater likelihood to return to the website.

“We are helping many types of news and media clients use customer intelligence to answer the most pressing issues facing them,” said Eric Feinberg, industry director for ForeSee Results’ media and entertainment practice. “We’re giving clients actionable insights that determine their course of action when it comes to content development, subscription options, advertising value, audience segmentation and helping them piece together the full picture of the customer experience—before, during, and after the web visit.”