Agency Style : advertising

Online Media Market's Strong Outlook

Mike Phillips — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:02:00 GMT

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.

CTR for Standard Banners Hit Bottom in '09

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 21:20:00 GMT

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

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:40:00 GMT

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

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:43:00 GMT

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

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:46:00 GMT

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.”