YOU AIN'T GONNA LEARN WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW

A Bit of Good News on Lotame

A bit of good news from our team........Andy

Lotame Reaches 52 Million U.S. Users Within Social Media; U.S. Reach Now Larger Than Facebook

June 23, 2008, 8:00 AM

NEW YORK, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Lotame Solutions, Inc., a leader in online advertising within social media, announced today that it now reaches over 52 million U.S. users across dozens of social networks. The company has also been accepted as a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), an organization comprised of leading interactive companies in the online arena.

"Lotame is proud that our partners have both increased performance and maximized returns from social media," said Andrew Monfried, Founder & CEO. "Giving brands the opportunity to develop and target their own customizable audiences differentiates us, and the fact that we are now a member of the IAB demonstrates our value."

"We've recently partnered with Lotame because they look at social media in a whole new way," said Steve Polsky, President and COO of Flixster, the leading social community focused on movies. "Their ability to target interest groups across social media has the potential to deliver increased engagement for brand advertisers, better advertising for users, and increased monetization for sites such as Flixster. We're excited about their offering."

"Innovators like Lotame are making social media inventory even more valuable," said Andrew Cohen, General Manager of Fotolog, the global photo blogging community. "And working with Lotame has increased our exposure with major brand advertisers in the United States."

In just over 18 months, the company has managed to outpace Facebook in the U.S., according to the independent web measurement company Quantcast. The company's rapid growth is based on its approach to social networking sites. Its business model is to aggregate the mid-tail of social media independent of MySpace and Facebook. "There are hundreds of social sites that have a tremendous user-base," said Scott Hoffman, Lotame's Chief Revenue Officer. "We give brands a new and compelling way to reach users inside of social media and community platforms."

"Lotame's monetization techniques work so well because of their targeting capabilities," said Joel Smernoff, President and COO of Paltalk, the premiere online video-based chat community. "A brand can build and target their own audience, which gives Paltalk's four million active users only the most relevant ads, all of which translates into higher CPMs."

Lotame's Crowd Control Technology examines user-actions such as uploading, blogging, and commenting, and then layers this data with interests such as finance, sports, and entertainment. The formula then factors in multiple data points including age, gender, recency and frequency, all of which are completely anonymous. The end result is the most robust user profiles available which allows brands to directly target their message to engaged consumers, and not simply web pages.

"Lotame has been able to provide us with intelligence about our users that we have not seen from other sources," said Derek Van Stratten, VP at the Huffington Post, one of the largest and most prominent online political forums.

"Lotame puts data at our fingertips that would normally require expensive analytics software," said Michael Lehman, VP Marketing at Meez, a leading online entertainment social network. "It's great added value."

In order to accommodate its rapid growth, the Maryland-based company has opened sales offices in New York, and added over 20 new employees to its team, including 10 new sales representatives. Last month, Lotame also built a state of the art data center to expand its technology division.

"The Lotame team is hands down the most efficient in monetizing social media. They have created an extremely innovative media company with quality people and amazing analytical tools," said Hart Cunningham, Founder & CEO of Perfspot.

"Lotame gives us access to specific custom audiences for our clients," said Darren Herman, Head of Digital Media at The Media Kitchen. "This level of targeting will become the standard in the near future as our clients demand the best."

Lotame Solutions, Inc. Founder & CEO, Andrew Monfried, will speak on a panel entitled, "Behavioral Targeting: How to Connect with the Right People in Social Media," at the OMMA Social Conference being held at The Yale Club in New York on Monday, June 23.

About Lotame:

Lotame is a company dedicated to providing solutions within social media. Our patented Crowd Control Technology offers social networks the most advanced monetization techniques, and allows brands to build and target customizable consumer audiences. We aim to increase revenue for our publisher partners and give advertisers the opportunity to target over 52 million users across multiple social networking sites. Please visit www.lotame.com for more information.

About the IAB:

Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the continuing growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive's share of total marketing spend, and of its members' share of total marketing spend. The IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices, fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates marketers, agencies, and media companies, as well as the wider business community, about the value of interactive advertising.

About Flixster

Flixster (www.flixster.com) is a community for movie fans of all shapes and sizes. Whether you are a die-hard horror fan or lover of romantic comedies (or both), Flixster is a place where you can find others who share your taste and through them discover new movies that you will love. A little less than two years old, Flixster is already one of the largest movie sites on the web with over 15 million unique visitors and over 1 billion movie ratings.

About PalTalk:

Paltalk is the premier real-time, video-based chat community. With more than 4 million members and thousands of chat rooms to choose from on virtually every subject. Members interact with each other through real-time voice, text and video chat. For more information please visit www.paltalk.com.

About Meez:

www.meez.com is a leading online social entertainment network that fuses avatars, gaming and a robust virtual economy to create more interactive online communities. Our platform supports the building of animated 3D avatars, live interactions in virtual spaces and competitive online gaming, creating an immersive environment where users can personalize their experience and connect with friends

About PerfSpot:

PerfSpot (www.perfspot.com) was created to provide the perfect web portal for people of any age, gender, or background to share their interests and favorite things on the web.

About Fotolog

Fotolog (www.fotolog.com) is the world's leading photo-blogging site, one of the world's largest social networking sites and a global cultural phenomenon. More than 13 million members in over 200 countries use Fotolog as a simple and fun way to express themselves through online photo diaries or photo blogs.

About Huffington Post:

The Huffington Post is a news and opinion website which in three years has become an influential media brand -- "The Internet Newspaper." The site offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living and green, and is a top destination for news, blogs and original content. The Huffington Post ("HuffPost") has over 10 million unique users each month and is the most- linked-to blog on the Internet, per Technorati. The Huffington Post has 1,500+ influential bloggers -- from celebrities and politicians to academics and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics making news today, including: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Wesley Clark, Nora Ephron, Ari Emanuel, Mia Farrow, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Gary Hart, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi, Margaret Cho and Alec Baldwin. A comprehensive list of the contributors to The Huffington Post can be found in its bloggers index: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/index/.

About The Media Kitchen

The Media Kitchen (www.themediakitchen.tv) is a new kind of media strategy, planning, buying and management company designed to address the gamut of communications challenges clients face today. The Media Kitchen defines media as "anything that can carry a branded message and impact the consumer" and believes that media strategy should be an essential component to any brand's message, not merely a means of distributing it. Clients include Panasonic, Limited Brands, PBS, Delta Airlines, MoheganSun, Windstream Communications, Starz and Bank of NY Mellon.

  CONTACT:
  Anthony Rapacciuolo
  PRcision LLC
  Phone: (212) 404-1451
  Email: ajr@prcision.com

4 Minutes and a Buzzer

4 minutes and a Buzzer…..

 

Last week at Lotame, we embarked on an adventurous exercise.  

 

The event was billed as a “sharing of idea in 4 minutes.”   Lotame is now north of 40 employees, and growing.  We have engineers, developers, software specialists, business analysts, and some very skilled operations folks who are helping us, both – create value and scale our business.   We continue to grow in people (employees) as well as – industry traction (growth of revenue and results) amongst our clients -- both publisher and advertiser……

 

I’m excited, humbled, and honored about our accomplishments, and journey that our team has traveled on to get us to this point……and, there is much still to do.   We are at the base of this mountain, called Social Media – and starting to scale this challenge uphill….we’ve got our proverbial hiking boots on.

 

But, one often overlooked factor in a hyper growth organization, is the WILLINGNESS AND ABILITY of a company to listen to its people…..it’s most important ingredient.

 

Listen to its DNA.  The way each of us must listen to our human bodies – to see signs of progress, growth, and health (not..) 

 

A company actually listening to its employees?

 

Listen is what we did – see copy of email sent to team below.

 

From:

Andy Monfried

Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 10:32 AM
To: Team
Subject: 4 minutes of Ideas.....

 

Gang:

 

Next week….

 

I had an idea, and I’d like to do it next Thursday 5-29-08 at 11:00-1:00pm.

 

Titled the “Elk Ridge Open Brainstorm” – I’d like each employee to attend a 90 minute open meeting…..

 

Why, and what is the meeting about?

 

The meeting is about “sharing ideas” and brainstorming our company – and it’s evolution in a fast paced industry.

 

Ideally – I’d like each person to come with ONE IDEA about how they think their concept can add more value to what we are doing…..

 

It can be:

 

1)       a new idea

2)       a new business model

3)       a new technology (or a new spin on some of our technology)

4)       a new way of selling what we do

5)       a new way of marketing what we do

6)       a new way of “running” the company

7)       a new way of looking at our data

 

What I’m literally asking for is your input.  Please give it some thought…..I’d like each of you to come a bit prepared, as in a mission statement or a sentence about what you want to discuss (it does not have to be one of the choices above) it can be anything you think of……but here is what I’m asking

 

a)       you have an idea prepared so please give it some thought

b)       you can present your idea and discuss it.

c)       We can debate it

d)       We have time to debate it. (after you present your new idea)

 

By my count, we have roughly xx people who will attend this on Thursday. 

Starting at 11:00 am each person gets to read, or discuss their idea.

We as a group spend 4 minutes per person discussing the brainstorm.

After 4 minutes we move on to the next person.  So, the schedule looks like this:

 

11:00-11:04 – Robert XXXX

11:05-11:09 – Dave XXXXX

11:10-11:14 – Andy XXXXX

11:15-11:19 –Kevin XXXXX

 

(Jessica, will continue to fill out the rest – but you get the idea)

 

We will have a timer that will buzz after 4 minutes to move on to the next person…..(the 4 minutes includes group debate)

 

Jessica will be taking notes, (and anyone else that would like to help) – and, we will reward the top 3 ideas…(as determined by moi’)

 

Lunch will be brought in at the conclusion of our group 4 minute segments…..(please let Jessica know if you will be out next Thursday)

 

I’m very excited for this – and I’m looking forward to each of your input, guidance and creative ideas to CREATE MORE value…..utilizing your most important element, your insight…..

 

Big love, and enjoy the weekend.

 

Andy

 

************************************************************************

 

Key takeaways:

 

1)      Many people “pre-loaded” their presentations into a conference room computer, or plugged their laptops into a projector

2)      The presentations and question time stopped immediately when the timer buzzed, and we moved on to the next person – there was approximately 30 seconds tops between presentations

3)      Typically the presentations were 3-5 slides, which allowed for 1-2 minutes of questions, and 1-2 minutes of questions or bouncing of ideas around the room.

4)      Great ideas were shared – and it began a ton of brainstorming inside of 4 minutes, forcing many to be VERY CONCISE, and quick.

5)      Great ideas are being explored and may go into production shortly

6)      Insight and Ideas were discussed and brought forth THAT I’VE NEVER THOUGHT OF , which was so awesome……

7)      We are making a “book” of these ideas, like a time capsule

8)      We had a timer/clock on the table preset to 4 minutes for each employee…..

 

 

This exercise and event was both team building, as well as a “listening exercise” – FOR EVERYONE.  It was not a company meeting, or a speech – but rather a genuine environment where  -- ANY CRAZY OR HALF BAKED IDEA COULD BE EXPLORED, AND SHARED.

 

I can tell you from the results, that EVERY single concept presented had validity, and had so called “legs…”   All were well thought out, and all were well received.

 

4 minutes of listening……

60th Anniversary

In 1958, Abbas Eban sat down with Mike Wallace on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Israel.

This interview is insightful, historical, and moving.....it stands the test of time.

If you would like to see the perspective on the "issues" facing Israel on it's 10th year of existence, YOU MIGHT BE SHOCKED TO SEE THAT MANY (IF NOT ALL) OF THE CHALLENGES REMAIN THE SAME.

The overiding issue/challenge, similar to 50 years ago -- is that Israel is still alive and flourishing 50 years later....(after this interview)....Israel still EXISTS.

(keep in mind, after you watch this interview that 2 major wars 67-73 -were inflicted against Israel, and thousands of terrorist attacks)

Here is the interview...love to hear your thoughts on the historical perspective in the comments below.

New Creative and our Brand

NEW CREATIVES - and our Brand....

We now have a new campaign running on IMedia.   I'm psyched about our new look branding creatives -- and a big hats off to the gang at BlueFountainMedia.   Blue Fountain is a " is a creative boutique firm specializing in professional website design, development and marketing.  From start up concept to complete backend programming and marketing, we Spring Ideas to Life!"   

Big stuff happening all around.....see look below.

Adtech 2008

A picture of our folks who attended Adtech in San Francisco, April 15-16, 2008.  Of the 10 years I've been exhibiting at internet show's - this one was the BEST.  Big congrats to our entire team who helped make it, "just exactly perfect..."

Concepts for Survival in a Slowdown Part One

I remember the early months of 2000, so clearly.   I recall picking up the phone and having the following conversation with my then CFO.....

Me: "We gotta slow down our hiring, we have to slow down the tremendous speed at which we are growing our headcount"(read:payroll)..." (we had gone from 60 employees to nearly 200 in a 6 month period)

Him: "Why, we are having record months, and we are judged by our board based on, revenue per employee -- (which was the key metric in 98-99-00) --why should we slow down...?"

Me: "Because, our agencies are telling me that clients are taking longer to approve media plans, our pipeline is filled with things that are longshots - and the campaigns we are starting to see are much smaller in dollar number..."

Why do I write this?

Because, leaders of companies need to have heart to heart talks with their salespeople, not only sales VP's and managers.....but, their Account Management, Traffic Coordinators - and young sales rep's -- they will give the real scoop about what is happening in the marketplace......all too often, VP level folks wait till until the last possible moment - to deliver negative news.

But, what happens in companies, that are saddled with middle management, and multiple layers between CEO's and, client facing staff?    DELAYS AND CRITICAL TIME TO ADJUST, IS LOST.

The data on a slowdown may come through an excel spreadsheet.  The data on a slowdown may come through a, "all of a sudden drop in daily delivered revenue, or end of month missed target..."  And then, its too late.

2 major online media companies that I know of, are seeing double digit quarter over quarter DECLINES in their revenue...(q4 07-q1 08).....this potentially means that companies need to quickly adjust to a potential slowdown in spending, by their customers....

Some thoughts:

1) be more catering to performance based advertisers (read direct marketing)... media companies, who will fill their coffers with CPA deals, and then optimize to the best performing ones will do better.

2) in a market downturn online, and specifically in the inventory (supply) vs request (demand) business - it critical to have a staff that understands, and can deliver upon the thesis of -- MINIMIZING LOSSES AS OPPOSED TO MAXIMIZING GAINS.  Critical difference, and one that many companies take far too long too grasp.

3) be willing to make resource decisions around the best clients - who spend during a downturn...

4) be humble, and never think your brand is immune from the evolutionary forces in the marketplace.  I was at a conference a few weeks back and a VP of Sales at a dinner said, "we are immune from a recession, and in no way will it effect our company.." I cringed, and recalled watching a PBS show on the middle class in 1926-1932.....it was nearly wiped out.  One of the greatest economic (and untold stories) of our country is the rebound during this time period. 

5) be willing to spend significant time coaching your best employees - and over communicate company goals, their performance, and key metrics.  I have found that key employees want to be kept in the loop, and not shocked about anything.....use the time to build closer bonds to valuable staff.  It pays dividends down the road.

6) look at every single proposal that goes out of the inbox of your staff/company.  (I am guilty of not doing this) but I vividly recall a sales leader who did this with me, and it certainly made me work harder to make sure that the proposals sent out to clients, hit all the key points, in order to have a higher probability of winning the business.

7) be willing to extend both your personal brand, and the company brand.  be risky, sell differently, be unique.....COMPANIES THAT DIFFERENTIATE WIN, and in a slowdown  - it's often the company that shows the most "moxie" and personal willingness to extend, that wins.

8) a company assessment of where you are placed on a media plan.  Often times, 3 or 4 companies get slotted at the top of every media plan by an advertising agency.  They are must have's for any client -- and they may be classified as, "reach" companies, "efficiency builders" or "targeted placements."  Figure out quickly, AND BE WILLING TO ASK, where is my organization placed, and why?  And, then figure out ways - to stretch ACROSS where you have been penciled in, and possible ways in the future to create more value for the client...this helps to potentially, move on up the "food" or media planning chain.

9) rely less on email, and more on good old fashion people skills.  email is NOT people skills. 

10) give way more love and good vibes than EVER. passion goes a long way in any business, and it's often under utilized - and, overlooked.

11) promote any PR - and celebrate mentions - good or bad. 

There are far more than this, but I'd welcome any ideas or feedback from folks who read this blog, and are certainly more tuned in than I....

Rock on.

A Sax to the Soul, Martin Fierro

As I sit to write this post, all I can think of is - "many hours of smiles."
"Many hours of amazement."  "Many hours of dancin."  History, blowing through the fabric of my mind......of which I was one of the many recipients....

"Martin Fierro, a renowned jazz-rock saxophonist who played with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead and became an elder statesman of the jam band scene, died of cancer Thursday at Marin General Hospital. He was 66.

Known for his fiery playing, magnetic personality and zany on-stage antics, Mr. Fierro, a longtime Marin resident, was one of the Bay Area music community's most beloved characters."

I came to know Martin (Mar-TEEN) through his association with one of my favorite guitar players, Steve Kimock.   Seeing Martin at a show was an experience, a laugh, a smile, and simply unforgettable.

He would tell a joke between songs.  He would often times, share "on stage banter" with the crowd....but for Martin, (and my musical experience with him) I always felt as though the music (and projects/bands/concerts/collaborations) that he participated in, were more than simply, expressions of his talent.....they were - powerful emotional currents, running from his heart, to saxophone, to my ears, and my soul.

His eye contact at a venue was priceless.  He made a point of connecting visually, and he knew how to gauge, as well as ENGAGE.

Martin had the pleasure of blowing saxophone for Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, as well as some other very influential bands (Mother Earth, Quicksilver Messenger Service,Legion of Mary, ZERO)......but, most of all, he was a unique spirit in every sense of the term.

Mr. Fierro, who sometimes wore feathers or a headdress on stage, was revered for his penetrating sense of humor. He deflated heady egos with his signature saying, "Chut up!" His ebullient greeting, "Hello meester!" earned him the nickname "The Meester."

"He made me believe in the spiritual power of music," said Matt Eakle, flutist with the David Grisman Quintet. "If there is magic in the world, Martin knew how to channel it."

Blair Jackson over a DEAD.net wrote a great piece, titled: Rest In Peace, Martin Fierro.

If you want to hear how good Martin was, you can stream a show he did with ZERO in Arkansas in 1998.....it is one of my all time favorite live performances by any band.  The 3-21-98 show is HERE.

The past 20+ years, I've spent a lot of time driving.  Driving around the country, up and down the east coat, and likewise out west.  I've traveled the country to see music, and on many occasions MARTIN FIERRO has been a huge part of that experience.

From my personal standpoint, I never got to say thank you to Martin for all the enjoyment, smiles, and good energy he has given me as I stared out the windshield, looking at the highway - with many miles ahead....

Sometimes the saxophone he blew would make my sigh, sometimes grin, and sometimes cause me to shed a tear. 

Today, I salute a gentlemen who - "hit my soul" in so many ways. 

Thank you sir MARTEEEEEN, and I know you are jammin' in heaven with Garcia, Cippolina, and a few others......

I'm sure the tape deck's are rolling......

Stream of Thoughts, Ideas and Concepts

A stream of thoughts, both personal and professional coming at you from the trenches of a, User Generated Braincloud:

1) I'm really enjoying how the business is progressing.  I'm especially gaining value at watching how our people are confronting challenges, problems, and opportunities.  Our entire business is focused on helping to solve the problem of "creating more value in social media" - regardless of the platform......format, site, or medium -- wherever a CONSUMER CREATES CONTENT -- we see a tremendous opportunity to extract new data......and add value.  Watching this process evolve has been thrilling and humbling.......

2) Learnings.  The sheer amount of important data (and unimportant) data we collect is staggering -- the stuff that makes me smile (and go ahhhh) is watching our "Business Intelligence" team filter through the seemingly unimportant, to FIND THE KERNEL OF CRITICAL DATA THAT YIELDS AMAZING RESULTS......breakthrough's, and the sharing of theses learnings with our brand advertisers has been fun...and frankly, awesome.

3) Changing the Conversation.  My new motto is "Lead, follow, or get out of the way..."  I truly believe our message to advertisers is that - User Generated Content is as different to internet media, as search and keyword buying is to straight banner placements....... it is a totally different animal - and needs to be looked at as such.  You cannot look at both with the same planning or results tools.  I recently learned that whole agencies are being developed around "social media planning."  This reminds me of 7 years ago, as SEM or "search engine marketing" shops opened up, and took market share away from digital agencies that were slow to embrace and learn the power of search marketing for their clients.......Lead, follow, or get out of the way. 

4) Both of my kids (twins) lost their front teeth in a 4 day period last week.  I was not home for this, as I was traveling......really bummed me out big time.

5) I saw Jackie Mason on Broadway, and I laughed so hard I cried for 2 hours.  I needed it.....and it was awesome.

6) SBT and Influencers are the driving force of UGC.  If you don't know what SBT is, you will soon.

7) I hope AOL is successful in their launch of Platform A.  I still have A LOT OF Time Warner stock, and it is not doing so well.

8) I have never been more jazzed about working.  I'm lucky enough to truly be doing something that I enjoy, and it does not feel like work.  What is the value of that?

9) The Phillies will win the National League East.

10) I find myself listening to 4 stations on Sirius, and none of them "rotate content".....Channel 10 Springsteen, Channel 12 Rolling Stones, Channel 32 Grateful Dead, and Channel 100 Howard Stern.  The commonality is in line with my personality, like Popeye, "l like what I like....."

11) A new site is up which features Lemon goods -- and the site is pretty slick.

12) Their is a inverse relationship between hard work, and your handicap (golf score) - don't let anyone fool you.   I love golf - and I played 3 rounds last week in Palm Springs....(shhh, I was at a media conference)

13) I miss Jerry.  Spring is time for a tour. 

14) Shine a Light is coming out next week, going to the premier. (Stones movie by Scorcese) -- I'm psyched.

15) Rock on.

The Value (or not) of a Click

My co-worker and friend Scott Hoffman wrote a piece about how agencies and marketers value success in online media.  There are still many people who think a "click on a banner (CTR) is the holy grail of internet advertising."

You see, Scott was an early employee at Yahoo!...he was one of the people who helped Yahoo deliver results (revenue) as well as "scale" their sales organization....and, he did it from the lean days of working with the company in it's initial stages.....

I have tremendous respect for Scott, and his accomplishments at Lotame have been nothing short of, "heroic and amazing..."

Below is his view on judging online media based on "clicks."  I wanted to share it with my blog readers, because I believe it has a ton of value, makes alot of senses....and is just plain correct.

The click regime must be overthrown:

(A manifesto for online marketers to reach the elusive majority of non-clickers)

By Scott Hoffman aka “ScottyRocksBig”- March 3, 2008

In today’s world of online media, a consumer is far more likely to see a “catch the gorilla” banner than to see an advertisement their purchasing patterns. Why is that? Why are advertisements geared toward “tricking” the consumer to click the prevailing norm? What makes a brand think that a “click” is the most relevant measurement of success?

The Answer...the online advertising economy rewards marketers and publishers on the click. In the same way Pavlov’s dogs reacted by salivating to the sound of a bell, industry executives drool when they see high CTR’s even if there is little relevancy behind it.  The click has become the great arbitrator of value within a media campaign.  Effectiveness of entire online media schedule’s are judged on the great and mighty click. Online giant, Google, has generated tremendous wealth from this simple action.  We have all become really good at generating clicks. This is the point in the evolution of media however, that marketers need to realize that even though they still salivate when the “bell” rings, there may not be food on their plate! 

Click, Click, Click…

But what is a click? Ask anyone around you (or even yourself) and they will emphatically tell you that they “never click on a banner.” Guess what, now there is research available that supports your friend’s claims. According to a Jan 2008 study conducted by Starcom MediaVest, only 6% of the web population has been “trained” to click on ads.  That leaves 94% of us outside the marketing feedback process. Think about it, who is going to click on an advertisement about bleach?

Now ask the non-clickers how they decide on which restaurants they frequent, what cars they drive, what laundry detergent they purchase. They will have hundreds of different answers.  Not one of them, however, will say that clicking on an advertisement was part of their decision making process. According the click regime, these individuals representing 94% of the purchasing power and revenue dollars, aren’t important because they didn’t “catch the gorilla.” 

A Lesson from the Past

So how do you really measure the impact online advertisements have on consumers?   If someone simply views an ad does that directly impact them? I personally believe that for the vast majority of the online population, seeing advertisements alters purchase intent. To clarify, just think about the advertising theory of old which (some call it common sense), that says consumers cannot want what they do not know exists.  So that brand new MP3 player with all the new features will never sell one unit unless people are aware of it. End of story, that’s it and everything else is just gravy. 

My father, who was a successful clothing retailer his entire life (and never once took a marketing class) imparted this pearl of wisdom to me when I helped him out in our store.  “People only buy the clothes that we display on the shelves, not in the stock rooms, fill up the shelves.”  In other words make people aware of your products.

Stop it with the Click already…it’s annoying…and lazy

I know that it is technically easy to measure to a click. It is also technically easy to measure almost any activity that a user does on a web site after a click. Truth be told, it’s pretty easy to measure anything, if the user reacts to it. Existing web marketing companies have become very good at it, but I am proud to work for one that is advancing how and what is measured.   We correlate user engagement and behaviors and layer that data with surfing patterns.  This allows us to build the most customizable and targeted audiences that “look like” the people who clicked.  The trick becomes measuring the impact of advertising on the users who didn’t click. Positioning, brand appeal, consumer acceptance, marketplace conditions…these are outside of the prevue of the media executive today…what is within our reach is to deliver these advertisements to an interested audience thereby increase brand awareness.

Share of Mind

The success of a media campaign should be evaluated on how effectively a marketer can tap into the intelligence of a consumer.  In the analog world it’s easy.  Think about a ½ hour Sitcom TV show.  If an advertiser delivers a :30 second commercial within the show, the viewer spent 1.6% of his/her time being made aware of the product or service being promoted in the commercial. In the online world the math is a little more complicated, but with the automated nature of the web, those data points to calculate are much easier to come by. Being able to gauge whether a marketer has commanded share of mind with a consumer is far more valuable than understanding a click. 

Don’t buy it? Don’t believe the hype? That’s fine, last night I went to a movie which was heavily advertised on the internet and I never clicked on the banner, go figure. 

More to come…

Scott Hoffman - CMO/Lotame

People Watching from Seaside to the Rock

  As a kid, I spent many summer nights on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, NJ....

My friend Kenny Smith and I would sit on the benches (along the edge of the boardwalk) and we would just gaze at people walking by.  We might sit for a few minutes, that somehow evolved into hours....but our mission and introspection was always the same.

In the unspoken word (sitting with my friend) I learned to appreciate, much more than "watching people on a boardwalk during summer nights..." But, more than that it  - was the APPRECIATION OF people watching, the sheer enjoyment of watching human drama pass by - like trees on the side of the road, gazing out the window of a car.

Seeing and witnessing all different walks of life, and TRULY taking it all in - without Kenny and I speaking to each other, without communicating -- BUT KNOWING WE WERE EACH SEEING AND EXPERIENCING the same visual -- but through our OWN UNIQUE LENS.

It stayed with me, and it is something I want to pass on to my children.

This past weekend, my wife and kids joined me in Rockefeller Center -- doing the same thing that Kenny and I did in Seaside Height, 25 years ago.

We watched people.  I spoke of how each person passing by has a "life."  How each person's has their own unique story to tell.....and how a face can tell a thousand things -- all without speaking.  We sat on a bench, and I noticed each of my children (at 6 yrs old) start to appreciate the value of just, "taking it all in..." 

Around this post are some of the images, of watching people and their ACTIONS, on a random Satuday in New York City with my family.