'Net Features : digital advertising

PixelMags Offers HTML5 Compatibility to Advertisers

Michael Garrity — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:30:00 GMT

PixelMags, the content distribution software and publishing tools provider, has recently amped up its Ad Network, Ads by PixelMags, by introducing full HTML5 advertisements.

The company specializes in magazine application publishing and have established services for both publishers and advertisers. Ads by PixelMags is designed for the digital magazine industry.

Now, in conjunction with Starz and Anchor Bay Entertainment, PixelMags is allowing digital publishers to take advantage of their content delivery software (CDS) and HTML5 capabilities and third party companies are able to promote themsevles to PixelMags' readers. The new HTML5 pages are fully interactive and can do things like display videos and allow users to buy products without ever leaving the app.

The first advertisements displayed are for the Blu-Ray releases of the popular shows Spartacus and Camelot.

PixelMags makes it possible for advertisers to run adds in multiple magazines, rather than just one, which gives them the opportunity to reach as broad or specific of an audience as they want. The entirety of PixelMags' reader database, which includes over 200 different magazines, is now open to advertisers.

Among the new features introduced by Ads by PixelMags are enhanced ad placement opportunities, the ability to choose the ad page of an issue and allowing advertisers to control and edit their advertisements. There is also the option for advertisers to specifically target certain demographics, such as age, sex or device (iPhone or iPad).

Partnership Launches IP Audience Zone Targeting

Michael Garrity — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 01:15:00 GMT

Every year, the online retail industry sees considerable growth during the holiday shopping season over the previous year, making Digital Element's new parnership with Semcasting to launch a new privacy-sensitive online marketing tool great for e-tailers.

The goal of this new tool is to target potential consumers in their "digital neighborhoods," the most important places to reach online shoppers.

Digital Element is a leading provider of geolocation and IP Intelligence technology. Their pairing with Semcasting will provide its IP-to-ZIP code targeting technology with Semcasting's IP Audience Zone Targeting solution, a technology that automatically scores and categorizes online traffic into user demographic segments, allowing for secure and full qualified audience coverge.

This melding of technologies will go beyond the estimated 35 percent of consumers targeted by cookies.

"Instead of relying on an increasingly limited base of cookied users, IP Audience Zone Targeting allows retailers to personalize the website experience using an advanced, privacy-sensitive, and demographically appropriate targeting process," says Semcasting CEO Ray Kingman, "Our solution classifies - in real time - anonymous web visitors in order to automatically provide personalized content and targeted promotions specific to digital neighborhoods across America, based on user type and demographic profiles."

IP Audience Zone will be able to identify a Web user's location down to their ZIP code by using a multi-step analytical process that incorporates Digital Element's NetAcuity Edge technology. After that, they will segment the ZIP codes by audience type and assign the demographics associated with them as sub-ZIP code micro areas for precise digital targeting.

Semcasting's IP Audience Zone gets its data from the premiere directing marketing database containing information on over 227 million individuals and more than 126 million households. They then map that to the U.S. Internet using IP addresses.

With retail e-commerce expected to grow by approximately 13.7 percent in 2011, for sales in excess of $188 billion, this solution can help retailers enhance reach and frequency, while enriching the analytics of digital campaigns through the targeting of website visitors based on the demographic and psychographic data used in other advertising mediums.

Facebook Connects with Nielson

Michael Garrity — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

In a world that is slowly being taken over by DVR, the Nielson Company have found new ways to use their very select skills. Known for being the group who work on gathering television ratings, Nielson are branching out and teaming with social networking giant Facebook to offer a ratings service for their ad campaigns.

This new project will emphasize "gross ratings points," which muliply the reach of an ad by the frequency that the audience sees it. This new system will replace traditional online metrics that have been somewhat unreliable in the past, such as clickthrough rates or impressions, and will allow marketers to buy ads for Facebook in the same way they would buy ads for print, television, and other online sources.

Nielson's Online Campaign Ratings system was first announced last September and is now planning on beginning the service on August 15.

Though Facebook is probably a solid (and obvious) choice for a first data provider for the service, Nielson made sure to say that Online Campaign Ratings is not specific to a single site.

Currently, Facebook is set to take the number one spot in US display advertising revenues according to eMarketer.

Just a month ago, the social networking website began working with digital business analytics company comScore on a similar measurement system to track the reach and frequency of their display advertisements. That system also measures the efficiency of Facebook activity through gross ratings points.

Facebook is also developing Insights, yet another marketing tool that measures traffic and activity through gross ratings points.

These big changes in Facebook's advertising schemes could alter the way in which companies promote themselves on the site. At the very least, it could change the way they pay to do it.

Targeting the Affluent Through Digital Advertising

Michael Garrity — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:40:00 GMT

Advertisers have long been puzzled by how to get rich people to respond to their work. Traditionally, the wealthiest American consumers, which usually means those who live in homes that bring in at least $100,000 in annual incomes, are the hardest group for marketers to reach through media like television or radio, but a recent study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows that these consumers are flocking to embrace digital media, and the ads that come with it.

Attracting affluent consumers through online advertising is critical for two reasons. According to the survey, affluents currently comprise 21 percent of US households, but own 70 percent of all consumer wealth and spend 3.2 times more than other Americans on their purchases.

In addition, they are also far more technologically savvy than their counterparts. Currently, 98 percent of affluent customers use the Internet, while only 79 percent of the general population is online. Comparatively, affluents spend 26.2 hours on the Web, and only 17.6 watching television and just 7.5 listening to the radio. The general population, however, spend 34 hours watching television and 16 listening to the radio, while spending just 21.7 hours on the Internet. Affluent consumers are also twice as likely to own smartphones and nearly 80 percent of affluent Americans polled said that they have become "intertwined with technology" over the past decade.

"Affluents have long been one of the hardest to reach and most important consumer groups," said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Industry Services, IAB. "They're now more important than ever - not only do they control most consumer spending power, but they may be the key to leading our economy out of the recession. And the new research shows that when it comes to digital media, the old paradigm has been superseded: the wealthiest Americans use digital media far more than their less affluent counterparts.”

The study in question, which was conducted for the IAB by Ipsos Medelsohn, who have been surveying the affluent market since 1977, found that not only does this affluent target group use the Internet more, but they are also more likely to recall ads that they see. They also tend to be more award of advertised brands, products, and services. In the survey, 88 percent of affluent customers recalled being exposed to at least one digital advertisement in the previous week, compared to just 84 percent of non-affluent users. Moreover, affluents could remember 21.1 ads on average, whereas non-affluents only recalled 20.2.

IAB also reported that affluent consumers were more likely to be aware of new products, companies, and websites after seeing digital ads for them.

Perhaps most importantly for advertisers, however, is that 59 percent of affluents in the study said that they took action based on a digital ad that they had seen over the past six months.

"While that number doesn't differ significantly from other Internet users, it is of great significance to advertisers seeking to reach this elusive, yet important, market segment," said Mane. "The combined reach, exposure and influence of digital as an ad vehicle to affluent households is simply unprecedented."

Affluents were also reported as being more likely than non-affluents to share information about themselves in order to "get a more customized online experience." What they really want, according to the study, is a customized experience that contains ads relevant to their current shopping interests, no matter where they are scouring the Internet.

“Affluent consumers have increasingly come to desire relevant and customized experiences, in part because they are living technology-infused lifestyles,” said Bob Shullman, President of Ipsos Mendelsohn. “Virtually all the affluent are online. Their ownership of tablets and e-readers has increased by 50 percent over the past six months, and shows every indication of continued growth. They have come to expect the benefits of digital media, even if it doesn’t alleviate all work-life pressures.”

Armed with this new information, advertisers and businesses can now try to find new ways into the pocketbooks of America's most wealthy.