September 23, 2009: summarized from Business Wire --GameLogic, Inc., a provider of interactive marketing services for the U.S. regulated gaming industry, announced its newest product, Poker Play, a tournament-based poker system specifically developed for regulated U.S. casino and lottery operators.
Poker Play, coupled with the GameLogic’s existing product suite, will deliver targeted real time offers to drive on-line engagement, loyalty and on-property participation to a younger adult player demographic. GameLogic’s existing network of clients will provide critical mass for a vibrant and all-live-play environment, while retaining unique branding for each individual property. Poker Play is a turn-key solution that can be run as members only, free to play, advertising sponsored, or as advergaming.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/JuYhx
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Social Net Ads: Fewer Clicks, More Engagement
September 27, 2009: summarized from Ad Week -- Conventional wisdom holds that social media advertising does not perform nearly as well as ads running on non-social sites, at least by standard measurements like clicks.
That's true, according to a new study by social ad network Lotame, but it misses an important distinction: the same ad placements on social sites can draw far higher levels of engagement. And that's an increasingly important point for brands.
Lotame examined over 100 rich-media campaigns it ran during 2008 and the first eight months of this year on sites like Bebo, Flixster and The Huffington Post. It compared the performance of those campaigns in aggregate to the industry standard measurements published by Google ad serving unit DoubleClick.
It found that click-through rates for ads on social sites were lower than the DoubleClick average across all ad sizes, formats and types of advertiser.
The good news for social sites: While users are unlikely to leave the site and visit advertisers' venues, they are more likely to interact with some aspect of ads. Such interaction can include playing videos or expanding the ad messages on-screen. For example, the completion rate for in-page videos was 68 percent on Lotame compared to 62 percent in the DoubleClick sample. Expandable video units showed similar results.
The differences were more apparent in interaction rates. Lotame's figures showed double response rates in expandable units, both with video and without, and for in-page video.
"It's a difference in the way users in that space interact with ads," said Lotame CEO Andy Monfried. "It's weird to assume they're not interested in ads because they're on social media sites. Advertisers need to treat social media in a different fashion from other forms of online media."
Monfried is not alone in his contention that current modes of measuring online ads fall short, particularly in social media, where users are spending lots of time. Companies like Videoegg are pushing a cost-per-engagement model and Betawave touts time as a measure of attention. Even former Internet Advertising Bureau chairman and CNET founder Shelby Bonnie lamented the state of metrics in a recent blog post that called for the industry to "kill the CPM."
Read more at: http://bit.ly/5WQfU
That's true, according to a new study by social ad network Lotame, but it misses an important distinction: the same ad placements on social sites can draw far higher levels of engagement. And that's an increasingly important point for brands.
Lotame examined over 100 rich-media campaigns it ran during 2008 and the first eight months of this year on sites like Bebo, Flixster and The Huffington Post. It compared the performance of those campaigns in aggregate to the industry standard measurements published by Google ad serving unit DoubleClick.
It found that click-through rates for ads on social sites were lower than the DoubleClick average across all ad sizes, formats and types of advertiser.
The good news for social sites: While users are unlikely to leave the site and visit advertisers' venues, they are more likely to interact with some aspect of ads. Such interaction can include playing videos or expanding the ad messages on-screen. For example, the completion rate for in-page videos was 68 percent on Lotame compared to 62 percent in the DoubleClick sample. Expandable video units showed similar results.
The differences were more apparent in interaction rates. Lotame's figures showed double response rates in expandable units, both with video and without, and for in-page video.
"It's a difference in the way users in that space interact with ads," said Lotame CEO Andy Monfried. "It's weird to assume they're not interested in ads because they're on social media sites. Advertisers need to treat social media in a different fashion from other forms of online media."
Monfried is not alone in his contention that current modes of measuring online ads fall short, particularly in social media, where users are spending lots of time. Companies like Videoegg are pushing a cost-per-engagement model and Betawave touts time as a measure of attention. Even former Internet Advertising Bureau chairman and CNET founder Shelby Bonnie lamented the state of metrics in a recent blog post that called for the industry to "kill the CPM."
Read more at: http://bit.ly/5WQfU
15 Email Design Tips
CM Comment: Some ideas to keep in mind.
September 25, 2009: summarized from Smart Biz -- Designing an effective email is not difficult, but it has a few unique aspects that should be considered in the design process. Regardless of design however, the message should be clear, simple and easily identifiable. The following tips are basic reminders for good email design.
1. Do not use too many or too large graphics in your email marketing. Ideally, you would have about 60 percent text and 40 percent graphics in your emails. It is never a good idea to send an email that is one giant image. Keep in mind that many email clients have images turned off by default.
2. Use the HTML alt tag for important images. Not only does the alt tag display text while images are loading, you can use it to describe the graphics.
3. Provide a link to allow people to view your email as a Web page. Some people just prefer to look at things in a browser and your HTML email may not render well in every email program out there. Many Email Service Providers (ESPs) have a standard mail merge value such as {{{browse}}} for viewing emails in a browser window.
4. If you do use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), keep in mind that email newsletters only supports inline CSS. Ideally, you would stay away from CSS altogether in your email design as some email programs will jus strip it out.
5. Be sure to send a text version of your email along with the HTML version. If you create both an HTML and a text version most ESPs will send the email as a multipart format, which means that the text version will be presented to those services and programs that cannot handle HTML. It is good to remember that some email programs and mobile devices can only handle text emails.
6. Do not rely on background images. There is no guarantee that your background images will display properly on all the different email programs, and if they are stripped out, they may alter your message.
7. Since you are designing for email programs and mobile devices, be aware of file sizes of images. You do not want to bog down your emails with large image file sizes.
8. To accommodate as email programs and mobile devices try to limit your email width to no more than 600 pixels.
9. Avoid things like flash, java script, etc., as many email programs do not support these things properly.
10. Tables are important component of email design and have made a comeback as email marketing has grown. Make sure to use the table attributes to maximum advantage in your email marketing design.
11. If you do use tables, keep it simple with a two-column table with a row across the top. Email programs are not as sophisticated as web browsers so avoid complex table layouts.
12. Your company name should be apparent in the "From" address, subject line, and content of your email. This decreases the chances your email newsletter will be mistaken for spam.
13. The law requires either a physical address or P.O. Box in all email marketing emails. Be sure to include this in every email you send. Most ESPs will not allow you to send emails that do not comply.
14. Make sure your subject line is relevant and avoid over hyping with all CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks! Email receivers and spam filters have come to automatically associate these things with spam.
15. Test your emails against a list that includes a variety of email clients, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, and so on. Do this as a quick test before you send out your production email to make sure everything looks all right.
Keep these tips in mind, paired with compelling and relevant information and offers, and the result will be a solid and successful email.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/ezvZ1
September 25, 2009: summarized from Smart Biz -- Designing an effective email is not difficult, but it has a few unique aspects that should be considered in the design process. Regardless of design however, the message should be clear, simple and easily identifiable. The following tips are basic reminders for good email design.
1. Do not use too many or too large graphics in your email marketing. Ideally, you would have about 60 percent text and 40 percent graphics in your emails. It is never a good idea to send an email that is one giant image. Keep in mind that many email clients have images turned off by default.
2. Use the HTML alt tag for important images. Not only does the alt tag display text while images are loading, you can use it to describe the graphics.
3. Provide a link to allow people to view your email as a Web page. Some people just prefer to look at things in a browser and your HTML email may not render well in every email program out there. Many Email Service Providers (ESPs) have a standard mail merge value such as {{{browse}}} for viewing emails in a browser window.
4. If you do use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), keep in mind that email newsletters only supports inline CSS. Ideally, you would stay away from CSS altogether in your email design as some email programs will jus strip it out.
5. Be sure to send a text version of your email along with the HTML version. If you create both an HTML and a text version most ESPs will send the email as a multipart format, which means that the text version will be presented to those services and programs that cannot handle HTML. It is good to remember that some email programs and mobile devices can only handle text emails.
6. Do not rely on background images. There is no guarantee that your background images will display properly on all the different email programs, and if they are stripped out, they may alter your message.
7. Since you are designing for email programs and mobile devices, be aware of file sizes of images. You do not want to bog down your emails with large image file sizes.
8. To accommodate as email programs and mobile devices try to limit your email width to no more than 600 pixels.
9. Avoid things like flash, java script, etc., as many email programs do not support these things properly.
10. Tables are important component of email design and have made a comeback as email marketing has grown. Make sure to use the table attributes to maximum advantage in your email marketing design.
11. If you do use tables, keep it simple with a two-column table with a row across the top. Email programs are not as sophisticated as web browsers so avoid complex table layouts.
12. Your company name should be apparent in the "From" address, subject line, and content of your email. This decreases the chances your email newsletter will be mistaken for spam.
13. The law requires either a physical address or P.O. Box in all email marketing emails. Be sure to include this in every email you send. Most ESPs will not allow you to send emails that do not comply.
14. Make sure your subject line is relevant and avoid over hyping with all CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation marks! Email receivers and spam filters have come to automatically associate these things with spam.
15. Test your emails against a list that includes a variety of email clients, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, and so on. Do this as a quick test before you send out your production email to make sure everything looks all right.
Keep these tips in mind, paired with compelling and relevant information and offers, and the result will be a solid and successful email.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/ezvZ1
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
FireKeepers Casino and GameLogic Team Up on Player Loyalty Club Launch
September 17, 2009: summarized from Business Wire -- GameLogic, Inc., a provider of interactive marketing technologies for the regulated U.S. gaming industry today announced that FireKeepers Casino has successfully launched New PlayTM, GameLogic’s new player acquisition platform. Over 75,000 eligible prospects have been captured to date, including more than 50,000 converted to carded club members ahead of the property’s grand opening.
FireKeepers combined New Play’s web-based player registration and profiling with its interactive new player portal including PlayAway™ games — all working in concert to attract prospective patrons, capture them into the casino’s marketing database, provide them a daily chance to win, and ultimately instill in them a strong sense of “stake” in the Red Hot Rewards, FireKeepers player loyalty program — all before the property ever opened.
Launched 90 days ahead of the FireKeepers grand opening, New Play registrants quickly began the process of building a bond with the casino and its Red Hot Rewards. On average, they interacted with FireKeepers, through the New Play web portal, three times each week for more than 20 minutes each day. These prospects built a “stake” in the club by visiting the casino online, playing games and regularly winning drawing entries. By the time FireKeepers opened on August 5th, tens of thousands of club prospects had invested numerous hours of time accumulating coupons for thousands of drawing entries — all redeemable on-property, once the property officially opened.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/6VOoi
FireKeepers combined New Play’s web-based player registration and profiling with its interactive new player portal including PlayAway™ games — all working in concert to attract prospective patrons, capture them into the casino’s marketing database, provide them a daily chance to win, and ultimately instill in them a strong sense of “stake” in the Red Hot Rewards, FireKeepers player loyalty program — all before the property ever opened.
Launched 90 days ahead of the FireKeepers grand opening, New Play registrants quickly began the process of building a bond with the casino and its Red Hot Rewards. On average, they interacted with FireKeepers, through the New Play web portal, three times each week for more than 20 minutes each day. These prospects built a “stake” in the club by visiting the casino online, playing games and regularly winning drawing entries. By the time FireKeepers opened on August 5th, tens of thousands of club prospects had invested numerous hours of time accumulating coupons for thousands of drawing entries — all redeemable on-property, once the property officially opened.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/6VOoi
The 10 Myths of Social Media
CM Comment: Some good insights worth considering.
September 15, 2009: summarized from Entrepreneur Magazine -- The emergence of social media as a crucial paradigm in virtually all sectors of the economy has led to countless assumptions and new ideas about consumer behavior and marketing activities. Yet many of these concepts, when implemented and examined closely, have led to surprising conclusions--many of which contradict the validity and relevance of these ideas in the first place and have been examined previously for decades.
While we are now living in what some call the "golden age of data," this is not the dawn of a new age of related theory. "Many social commerce problems have been addressed previously, and massive amounts of data will not change the continuing need for the understanding of basic and primitive customer behavior which provides the correct lens to view social media data," says Eric T. Bradlow, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Interactive Media Initiative.
Bradlow, along with 150 or so B2B marketing and advertising professionals, is in Atlanta today and tomorrow for the Lift Summit--a two-day conference presented by OfficeArrow and WIMI, where real-world examples of social commerce strategies and tactics that are said to drive sales lift, increase customer loyalty, and produce actionable metrics and measurable results are on display. Bradlow opened the first-ever B2B social commerce summit by presenting the following 10 paradoxes of social/interactive media:
Myth No. 1: Today is the golden age of media metrics. While it's true that we can now measure nearly any media metric we want, don't believe for a second that academics and others haven't been working on answering key ROI questions for decades. While this is the golden age of data, do not confuse that with the golden age of knowledge!
No. 2: The rise of data mining suggests you do not need any substantive data knowledge; you just need data. Data will never trump simple theory, and simple models of behavior outperform complex models out-of-sample time and time again. Most phenomena and human behavior is fairly simple.
Myth No. 3: Customer engagement is always good thing. Some people believe engaging your website visitors--not just informing them--is the next critical metric marketers must measure. The truth is, many customers are just looking for a "quickie." Need proof? Visit Weather.com and see how many clicks it takes you get a 10-day forecast for Atlanta! Click stream data tells us more people simply want to gather information or place an order and move on.
Tip: Be careful of the metrics that you optimize against. There is no single metric, and there certainly is no single metric that is correct all of the time (especially when it comes to engagement). Optimize for engagement purposes only the right areas of your site--not all.
Myth No. 4: One-on-one marketing is the future of B2B and B2C Markets. Unlimited targetability is the promise of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer social media marketing, but here's the problem with unlimited targetability: Customers are too "antsy" (i.e., unpredictable) for it to succeed. Grouping similar customers based on behavior as scale is obtained makes money. 1 to 1 is great conceptually but difficult to pull off.
Myth No. 5: Focus on ethnic/gender/lifestyle marketing. The cross-group differences are often "mean"ingless. No one is at the mean; all the action is in the variability of the group. Do not chase (mean)ingless differences.
Myth No. 6: Viral marketing is where it's at. The truth: Viral marketing usually creates nothing more than a sniffle. While it is true that viral marketing is tremendously effective for some companies right out of the gate, when you compute the ROI--how much product you move--it usually does not work. Viral marketing is effective for business-to-business marketers with concentrated markets, but less so for business-to-consumer organizations. Need proof? Check out JibJab.com and see what they're up to these days!
Myth No. 7: Mass marketing is dead. Mass marketing is far from dead and is equally effective as ever; it is just really hard to do with all the different media channels available today. If you drop mass marketing in favor of social media marketing, beware because you need a butt load of people in social media to use your product and share recommendations for you to be able to move the needle in a significant way.
Myth No. 8: The Long Tail rules! If you're unfamiliar with the term "Long Tail," look at a sales chart of all items sold, and you quickly see that a relatively small number of popular products account for a high percentage of sales, while a large number of not-so-popular products also accounts for a substantial percentage of sales. The wide assortment of less popular products comprises what is called the "Long Tail." The problem with focusing so much of your time and effort on the Long Tail is that the presence of more media channels is not leading to cannibalization. Rather, heavy users use each channel heavily, and the heavy users are consuming more product! Invest in heavy users; do not radically alter blockbuster resource allocation or product portfolio management strategies to chase the long tail. A few winners will still go a long way--probably even further than before.
Myth No. 9: Ad creation is a delicate art form. True, somewhat, but modeling/statistical science is a good place to start. Predictive modeling is good art!
Myth No. 10: Content is king. If content is king, then distribution would have to be the ace! Putting content in front of the right consumers and many consumers is key! There is no question content is important but the power is controlled by the distributors. For small companies with low volumes of website traffic, this means getting links from successful sites... if you have no traffic then all of your content will go to waste. Wide distribution is needed for significant impact. Referral programs allow for your content to spread wide.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/78Sj4
September 15, 2009: summarized from Entrepreneur Magazine -- The emergence of social media as a crucial paradigm in virtually all sectors of the economy has led to countless assumptions and new ideas about consumer behavior and marketing activities. Yet many of these concepts, when implemented and examined closely, have led to surprising conclusions--many of which contradict the validity and relevance of these ideas in the first place and have been examined previously for decades.
While we are now living in what some call the "golden age of data," this is not the dawn of a new age of related theory. "Many social commerce problems have been addressed previously, and massive amounts of data will not change the continuing need for the understanding of basic and primitive customer behavior which provides the correct lens to view social media data," says Eric T. Bradlow, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Interactive Media Initiative.
Bradlow, along with 150 or so B2B marketing and advertising professionals, is in Atlanta today and tomorrow for the Lift Summit--a two-day conference presented by OfficeArrow and WIMI, where real-world examples of social commerce strategies and tactics that are said to drive sales lift, increase customer loyalty, and produce actionable metrics and measurable results are on display. Bradlow opened the first-ever B2B social commerce summit by presenting the following 10 paradoxes of social/interactive media:
Myth No. 1: Today is the golden age of media metrics. While it's true that we can now measure nearly any media metric we want, don't believe for a second that academics and others haven't been working on answering key ROI questions for decades. While this is the golden age of data, do not confuse that with the golden age of knowledge!
No. 2: The rise of data mining suggests you do not need any substantive data knowledge; you just need data. Data will never trump simple theory, and simple models of behavior outperform complex models out-of-sample time and time again. Most phenomena and human behavior is fairly simple.
Myth No. 3: Customer engagement is always good thing. Some people believe engaging your website visitors--not just informing them--is the next critical metric marketers must measure. The truth is, many customers are just looking for a "quickie." Need proof? Visit Weather.com and see how many clicks it takes you get a 10-day forecast for Atlanta! Click stream data tells us more people simply want to gather information or place an order and move on.
Tip: Be careful of the metrics that you optimize against. There is no single metric, and there certainly is no single metric that is correct all of the time (especially when it comes to engagement). Optimize for engagement purposes only the right areas of your site--not all.
Myth No. 4: One-on-one marketing is the future of B2B and B2C Markets. Unlimited targetability is the promise of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer social media marketing, but here's the problem with unlimited targetability: Customers are too "antsy" (i.e., unpredictable) for it to succeed. Grouping similar customers based on behavior as scale is obtained makes money. 1 to 1 is great conceptually but difficult to pull off.
Myth No. 5: Focus on ethnic/gender/lifestyle marketing. The cross-group differences are often "mean"ingless. No one is at the mean; all the action is in the variability of the group. Do not chase (mean)ingless differences.
Myth No. 6: Viral marketing is where it's at. The truth: Viral marketing usually creates nothing more than a sniffle. While it is true that viral marketing is tremendously effective for some companies right out of the gate, when you compute the ROI--how much product you move--it usually does not work. Viral marketing is effective for business-to-business marketers with concentrated markets, but less so for business-to-consumer organizations. Need proof? Check out JibJab.com and see what they're up to these days!
Myth No. 7: Mass marketing is dead. Mass marketing is far from dead and is equally effective as ever; it is just really hard to do with all the different media channels available today. If you drop mass marketing in favor of social media marketing, beware because you need a butt load of people in social media to use your product and share recommendations for you to be able to move the needle in a significant way.
Myth No. 8: The Long Tail rules! If you're unfamiliar with the term "Long Tail," look at a sales chart of all items sold, and you quickly see that a relatively small number of popular products account for a high percentage of sales, while a large number of not-so-popular products also accounts for a substantial percentage of sales. The wide assortment of less popular products comprises what is called the "Long Tail." The problem with focusing so much of your time and effort on the Long Tail is that the presence of more media channels is not leading to cannibalization. Rather, heavy users use each channel heavily, and the heavy users are consuming more product! Invest in heavy users; do not radically alter blockbuster resource allocation or product portfolio management strategies to chase the long tail. A few winners will still go a long way--probably even further than before.
Myth No. 9: Ad creation is a delicate art form. True, somewhat, but modeling/statistical science is a good place to start. Predictive modeling is good art!
Myth No. 10: Content is king. If content is king, then distribution would have to be the ace! Putting content in front of the right consumers and many consumers is key! There is no question content is important but the power is controlled by the distributors. For small companies with low volumes of website traffic, this means getting links from successful sites... if you have no traffic then all of your content will go to waste. Wide distribution is needed for significant impact. Referral programs allow for your content to spread wide.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/78Sj4
The Internet as a Diversion
September 10, 2009: from Pew Internet and American Life Project -- Three-quarters of online economic users--those Americans who use the internet to keep up with news about the economic recession or their own personal finances--go online to relax and take their minds off of the recession, according to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
Listening to music and watching online videos are among the most common of the activities we evaluated; roughly half of all online economic users have done each of these activities to relax. Approximately one-third of online economic users have played online games or chatted with friends (on a social networking site, listserv or other online group), while an additional 22% have taken their minds off of their economic or financial circumstances by creating or posting content online.
The Internet as a Diversion
Listening to music and watching online videos are among the most common of the activities we evaluated; roughly half of all online economic users have done each of these activities to relax. Approximately one-third of online economic users have played online games or chatted with friends (on a social networking site, listserv or other online group), while an additional 22% have taken their minds off of their economic or financial circumstances by creating or posting content online.
The Internet as a Diversion
The Click Remains Irrelevant: 'Natural Born Clickers' Return
September 14, 2009: from comScore Inc. -- "The Click Remains Irrelevant: 'Natural Born Clickers' Return" was presented by comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni on September 14, 2009, at the iMedia Summit in Coronado, CA.
The curse of the Internet as "the most measurable medium" is perpetuated by continued industry reliance on "the click" as a relevant measure of display advertising efficacy. The industry simply needs to get off this click crack in order to earn a rightful place in marketers' budgets and mindsets.
In February 2008, research published by comScore, Starcom, and Tacoda, entitled "Natural Born Clickers," helped to disconfirm the value of the click by demonstrating that only 16% of people were responsible for 80% of all display advertising clicks and that this audience was demographically weak from a marketer's perspective. This and other industry research has helped to prove the necessity of measuring display advertising's effectiveness beyond the click. Still, many questions loom about how to best quantify the value of display advertising.
comScore Chairman and co-Founder Gian Fulgoni presents a first look at updated results from the Natural Born Clickers study, including an analysis of the click vs. non-click consumer as well as a framework for how to best measure the total impact of display advertising, providing a compelling case for the migration of traditional advertising dollars to the online channel.
Download presentation at: http://bit.ly/7MBkm
The curse of the Internet as "the most measurable medium" is perpetuated by continued industry reliance on "the click" as a relevant measure of display advertising efficacy. The industry simply needs to get off this click crack in order to earn a rightful place in marketers' budgets and mindsets.
In February 2008, research published by comScore, Starcom, and Tacoda, entitled "Natural Born Clickers," helped to disconfirm the value of the click by demonstrating that only 16% of people were responsible for 80% of all display advertising clicks and that this audience was demographically weak from a marketer's perspective. This and other industry research has helped to prove the necessity of measuring display advertising's effectiveness beyond the click. Still, many questions loom about how to best quantify the value of display advertising.
comScore Chairman and co-Founder Gian Fulgoni presents a first look at updated results from the Natural Born Clickers study, including an analysis of the click vs. non-click consumer as well as a framework for how to best measure the total impact of display advertising, providing a compelling case for the migration of traditional advertising dollars to the online channel.
Download presentation at: http://bit.ly/7MBkm
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