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March 9, 2010 by Peter Koeppel.
Twitter CEO Evan Williams recently confirmed that the website has received new funding of $100 million, which added to the microblogging site’s previous funding makes for a $1 billion valuation for the microblogging service. Among the investors are Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners (all of whom doubled their original investment), T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners.
This may seem surprising to many who questioned Twitter’s ability to make money at all with its free social media service, especially considering that to date, Twitter has yet to earn a dime. Is it realistic to think these investors are going to see real advertising money in the future?
It’s still hard to say. There’s no current online advertising model that seems applicable to a distributed service like Twitter. Twitter has proven invaluable to marketers who use it to connect with their customer base, but so far it’s yet to bring Twitter itself anything of value except its enthusiastic investors.
Ideas for how to use Twitter as a revenue-generating company vary from running keyword ads next to tweets as Google does for its searches and for blog content. However, so far there are no plans to put ads on Twitter until 2010.
Though Twitter has yet to make money for itself, this hasn’t stopped other companies from thinking they have something here. So far Twitter has turned down acquisition bids from Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Thus far, Twitter seems to be sitting on a gold mine that no one knows how to drill.
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February 21, 2010 by Peter Koeppel.
The best place for a local small business to advertise for a reasonable price used to be the local newspaper, but with print publications folding left and right, those ads are no longer getting the returns they used to.
While many technology-based businesses are already learning to adapt their advertising strategies to the web, small storefront businesses may be intimidated by the Internet and uncertain how to translate their 2-by-3-inch print ad to that medium.
Enter Jivox, a small start-up company in San Mateo that offers small businesses the online tools to create a good-looking video ad for a reasonable price. Once the ad is created, Jivox takes the mystery out of web advertising by marketing the video to websites that potential customers might be visiting, like their regional newspaper site and other related online media. That means the small business doesn’t need to figure out where their offline customers are spending their time online.
With the dual assistance offered by Jivox – creating the ad in the first place, and then finding the correct audience online – a lot of the mystery of the web is removed, and it gives many of these companies a genuine chance to compete with other, larger companies who can afford to have a whole section of their marketing department devoted to figuring out new media advertising.
The company is run by Diaz Nesamoney, a successful start-up entrepreneur twice before, and this looks like another great offering. He’s already signed on the assistance of CBS and Media-News Group, as well as hundreds of eager small, local businesses who are grateful for a leg up to the big leagues of Internet advertising.
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November 30, 2009 by Peter Koeppel.
So it’s a little surprising to hear that Edmunds.com recently reported there are a shocking number of cars out there that still sell for sticker price – or more.
Some of these cars are rarely, if ever, sold below sticker in the entire history of the auto industry, including such movie stars of the car world as the Aston Martin (of James Bond fame) and the Ferrari (which has always spoken for itself). BMW also has several cars that are doing very well in sales – especially those models that only produce a few thousand of each every year.
Beyond the crème-de-la-crème of autos, the other sector that’s doing very well is hybrid vehicles. Both Ford and
Those who are praying the American auto industry makes a rebound can find good news in the General Motors’ Camaro. The car is reincarnation of the classic muscle car, and it is actually selling for above sticker price – as much as $2,500 and more.
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May 13, 2008 by Peter Koeppel.
The facts are amazing: Even though women still earn less money than their male counterparts (78 cents for every dollar a man gets), women make more than 80 percent of the buying decision in all homes. No wonder infomercial advertisers strive to capture the attention of females. But what complicates matters for marketers is how women shop. Unlike men, women research items more extensively and are less likely to be influenced by ads. This means marketers need to fine-tune their advertising messages and be seen in marketing venues that women deem credible.
Today, companies are paying more attention to the style and form of their products in an effort to appeal to women, and marketers are shifting away from only running television ads in favor of promotional efforts in venues women trust, such as reviews in women’s magazines and spots on TV shows like Oprah and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Such activities prove that marketing today is getting more fragmented. What used to work in the past won’t necessarily work today. So in order to have your product or service reach the female market-even if it’s not a female-oriented product-you need to view marketing a bit differently than you did a few years ago.
A recent article in Advertising Age magazine details how women spend their leisure time. In it, columnist Mike Vorhaus asked women of all ages to identify from a list of activities their favorite leisure activity. What he found in the female category impacts all drtv advertisers who have a product that targets women-or who simply want to get a piece of the buying power that women possess.
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March 12, 2008 by Peter Koeppel.
Tracking the use of online campaigning by this year’s presidential candidates is seemingly a loss cause. The prevalence of social networking, viral video and blogs makes it nearly impossible to gauge, until later and perhaps after-the-fact, the impact the Internet has had (or will have) on this year’s election.
(Even four years ago, would anyone have known or even imagined a CNN presidential debate in which Facebook or You Tube figured so prominently?)
A recent report by ClickZ.com says that the use of measurable online campaign methods, such as paid display advertising, is on the rise. Since about January 2007, presidential candidates have been using the Internet and Internet ad space as means of reaching out to potential voters.
The amount of campaign dollars put towards the online effort is still low in comparison to traditional efforts such as broadcast advertising and television ads.
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February 18, 2008 by Peter Koeppel.
According to a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter, the Writers Guild of America strike isn’t harshly affecting TV and the networks.
Instead, the article reports that television advertisers are sticking to their guns and standing by the networks. In fact, while most advertisers had the option to back out of up to 50% of their upfront purchase in late January, few actually acted on that option.
The WGA website also claims that even if advertisers and media buyers requested their money back, it wouldn’t be a significant issue for these TV networks. In the article, MPG Senior VP Group Account Director Jason Janefsky, is quoted as saying, “The networks don’t care if advertisers exercise options or take money back. They can spin the inventory for a higher unit cost.” In other words, no skin off the networks’ backs.
Additionally, the networks are saving, from a financial standpoint, on all those cancelled writers contracts, along with the elimination of its non-writing staff. Despite the writers strike, now in its third month, the networks continue to move forward with a positive outlook and healthy hopes for the future.
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January 8, 2008 by Peter Koeppel.
It’s no secret that the proliferation of services like TiVo has changed the way viewers access and “digest” television.
As a response to this still-evolving trend, TiVo has announced that it’s formed the Interactive Direct Response Advertising Group, an entity that aims not only to help the drtv community fully understand the challenges of advertising in the age of DVR, but, more importantly, to offer real and viable alternative advertising solutions to the DR community.
In a press release, the company acknowledged what many of us already know: TiVo and DVRs lessen the need to “channel surf,” thus potentially lowering viewership for infomercials and other direct response television advertisements. (We know that many, if not most, viewers fast-forward through commercials.)
Relevant solutions?
What’s positive about the formation of this group is that it promises to find and present valuable, timely and workable (in other words, real) solutions for the portions of the direct response market that are impacted by this growing trend.
The DR community’s goal vis-a-vis TiVo and DVR is to “relate to customers directly from the remote control.” One proposed solution includes TiVo’s Interactive Advertising Platform which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on tags that appear over television commercials in the Ad Showcase area if and when they want to request additional information or view special offers.
For infomercial advertisers, this change in approach presents a unique opportunity to create customized, easily-trackable and actionable offers specifically for the TiVo viewer.
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November 15, 2007 by Peter Koeppel.
The big misconception in online media buying is that you can’t reach Boomers via the Internet. In fact, Baby Boomers make up one-third of the 195 million web users in the United States, according to JupiterResearch. Additionally, infomercial ad buyers targeted Boomers with close to 5 billion dollars in ads in 2004, out of 13 billion spent in web advertising. So don’t think that Boomers aren’t online and that they reject technology. Nothing could be further from the truth.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, over half (54%) of 60-69 year-olds go online, and 72% of 51-59 year-olds surf the net. Further, studies show that Boomers spend more money online that the average web user, yet they’re still the most underserved audience on the net. Therefore, if you want to serve this demographic, consider the following.
Create a network. Boomers crave social networks. Sites like FaceBook.com and MySpace.com target younger people, and LinkedIn.com focuses on business professionals. While Boomers do participate in such online social networks, they usually discover that these sites have little to offer them. If you want Boomers to be a regular visitor to your site, offer them a place where they can connect with each other and explore topics of interest to them. It may be helpful for you to check out a new site, TeeBeeDee, tbd.com, which is specifically designed for Boomers and is positioned as a Facebook for Boomers.
Offer the right information. Boomers are most interested in such topics as alternative health, entertainment, finance, health, hearth and home, hobbies and fitness, and travel. Boomers are frequent and engaged online users, so make sure your site has the kind of information they are most interested in. This generation is also going through a life stage filled with lots of tough issues, including retirement, investment planning, and healthcare. If your product or service can help Boomers better plan for these life transitions, then you need to prominently state so on your site and offer lots of information on the topic.
Go easy on the multi-media effects. Boomers don’t want a web page to be overwhelming. Therefore, limit how much “stuff” you have going on the screen. Remember, Boomers don’t like to multi-task, so don’t try to pull their attention away from the core information they came to your site for.
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October 24, 2007 by Peter Koeppel.
Of the people who went to NBC.com to watch an episode of their favorite show online, forty-eight percent of users viewed a stream of at least one segment of “Heroes,” the site’s top show. Interestingly, NBCU’s research showed that thirty-five percent of the users went online to sample “Heroes” for the first time, and that ninety-six percent of them continued watching the series, both online and over traditional TV. So in this case, online viewing of shows is actually prompting more live TV viewing. NBCU is utilizing this data to pitch clients on a “360 degree” package that allows advertisers to reach and further engage viewers both through conventional TV and online.
One other interesting pattern revealed by the NBCU team was a slight increase in online viewing of NBC Rewind shows during lunchtime on workdays, suggesting that online drtv might be producing a new form of primetime. However, the study also shows that the heaviest usage of the site continues to be at nighttime, during conventional TV primetime hours.
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October 1, 2007 by Peter Koeppel.
A recent study by iProspect and JupiterResearch that looks at the influence of offline channels on online search behavior had some very interesting findings that helped confirm what I suspected - that offline media channels are having a major impact on online searches and online purchase behavior. The study found that 39% of online searches that are influenced by offline media channels such as DRTV, print and radio advertising ultimately make a purchase. Results from the study also showed that 67% of the online search population is driven to search by offline media channels.
This data from iProspect confirms what people in the direct response advertising industry have been noticing for several years, that offline media channels such as direct response TV, radio and print are clearly influencing a staggering percentage of online searches and sales. The study clearly demonstrates that marketers who are relying on online advertising only are not harnessing the synergies that exist between search and offline advertising channels. I don’t feel this is a short term trend. I expect the influence of offline advertising on online search will continue to grow. We’ve worked with several Internet retailers that were able to take their business to the next level by adding direct response television to their media mix.
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