Competitors continue to join Lotame in the race to, UGC
(user generated content) monetization.
In response to the August 6th 2007 New York Times
article, “It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World.”
As
Lotame continues our strides into the world of social media, a shadow of
competition ceaselessly lingers. The web
2.0 monetization solution is a race, a race with a large hurdle to climb; The
challenge is enormous, but the value creation is enormous. However, the goal, and rightfully so, is to
attain the largest piece value creation pie possible.
Featured
in an article dated August 6th 2007 from the New York Times titled
“It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World”, Publicis Groupe is noted for acquiring Digitas,
a Boston advertising agency, for $1.3 billon. The
article demonstrates how Publicis is armed and ready to go for a large piece,
of that promising online advertising pie.
News
of a competitor can affect an industry and its members on many levels. As this news is pro-industry, it can only
help publicize the objectives and motivations. Lotame now has further ammunition to say, “Our focus has been accurate, and our strategy clear.” While specifically targeting
social media websites, We are able to focus on our strategy to supply the
publisher-advertiser connection with greater efficiency and value.
Interestingly,
February 2007 revealed Publicis’ strategy to revolutionize digital advertising
not only on the web, but for all forms of media. David W. Kenny, of Digitas, has the vision to
“build a global digital ad network…the network will decide which advertising
message to show at which moment to every person who turns on a computer, cell
phone or eventually a television.” The
idea of targeting towards cell phone users and television viewers is both new
and challenging in the world of digital advertising. The statement is bold and welcoming, gaining
the interest of participants and consumers of the industry.
Lotame,
being a growing participant, has developed what we believe to be a unique
technology that collects not only navigational history, but virtual user
interactions as well. These virtual user
interactions or VUI’s, are a form of verb data collection that provides more
accurate capabilities of matching data with advertising messages. Although we are now solely dedicated to
social media, Lotame technology has the potential to work with any form of
digital media as that ability comes into fruition.
Focusing
on what is currently technologically possible; Publicis is using the term
“digital ad network” as the same type of targeting tool that Lotame has,
Lotame’s Crowd Control. However, as
mentioned previously, the Crowd Control technology is currently dedicated to
social media websites, while Publicis has its sight set on a cross
platform/cross media opportunity.
Publicis
has additionally acquired the Communication Central Group, a digital agency in China. Realized by many, the international market will
be a significant piece of the pie. “Analysts
within Publicis estimate [the Chinese market] is growing at about 20 percent a
year, much faster than global growth in the market, which hovers around 5
percent a year.” It is Kenny’s belief
that digital advertisements developed in many international countries will go
directly to mobile and internet campaigns. As information like this becomes better understood, more and more will
act upon it; joining the pursuit of the pie.
The
international market is being pursued by Lotame as well. As our size is much smaller when compared to
a company such as Publicis, we rely on the work of account managers hired
specifically for international regions, who are specialized in foreign languages, such as Cantonese, and Mandarin. (China)
Because
advertisers are realizing that their future will be based off of targeting
specific consumers, changes to advertising strategies are being made. Kenny estimates that “some companies are already
running about 4,000 versions of an ad for a single brand, whereas 10 years ago
they might have run three to five versions.” Soon the time will come when advertisers and publishers need a steady
connection for successful monetization. Who will supply that connection?
Lotame’s
answer is to provide a connection that solves the problem social media publishers’
face of having an overabundance of undervalued inventory. The solution relies on collecting and
interpreting hard to understand data, of which advertisers will pay a higher
CPM, because they will be able to find consumers inside of social media, that
are most receptive, loyal – and engaged with their brand.
Is
Publicis the answer to multi media connections? Will Lotame branch out to monetizing other forms of media as goals of
the industry evolve? Only time will
tell.
“There
is a massive transformation happening in the way consumers live and the data we
have about them, but very few companies have stepped up to it yet.”
The race is on.
Recent Comments