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January 18, 2008 | Eric Ista: Cloverfield: Lost in Manhattan

“Cloverfield,” a good old-fashioned monster-attacks-big-city movie that premiers today has already had a monster-sized presence on the web.

December 31, 2007 | Ron Lee: 2008: Year of the virtual world for kids?

Move over Second Life. Kid-focused virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Webkinz, and a string of site start-ups loom as the new and hot Web playgrounds for 2008.

December 28, 2007 | Greg Ness: ANA’s Marketing Predictions for 2008

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has put together a list of 2008 Trends To Watch. Incidentally, the way they released this information is on one of several blogs they maintain, which in itself sends a signal about the growing use of new media tools. The membership of the ANA is comprised of executives from over 400 companies that represent 9000 brands and are responsible for over $100 billion in marketing and advertising expenditure each year. Here are some key take-aways from the ANA list:

• Creativity and innovation still rule, but 2008’s creativity will be focused on devising better way to leverage technology and reach audiences online. There is “no turning back” to the traditional advertising model. In fact, the ANA said a digital marketing platform “offers richness in information management, communication delivery, metrics—and portability.”

• Marketing and advertising accountability remain top-of-mind with many marketers.There are still 42 percent of companies dissatisfied with their marketing ROI measurement methodology. The ANA predicts this will lead to companies developing a Chief Accountability Officer.

December 04, 2007 | Greg Ness: Advertising Spending Up 6.7% In 2008; Internet Leads The Way

Zenith Optimedia projects worldwide advertising growth at 6.7 percent next year, but the only category on a long-term growth trajectory is the Internet. In fact, they predict that Internet advertising will overtake radio advertising in 2008 and magazine advertising in 2010. On a national level, most other media categories will remain relatively flat over this time period. The exception is newspapers, which are expected to continue losing appreciable advertising market share during the next three years. Television advertising in the U.S. should be helped next year by the Olympics and the presidential election.

December 03, 2007 | Greg Ness: Tough Questions for CMOs

MarketingProfs asks, Are you ready for 2013? BusinessWeek asks, Will you have your job in 2013?

The two links above are strongly related. According to the MarketingProfs post by Paul Barsch, two factors loom large over the next five years for chief marketers: 1) the accelerating growth of information technology, and 2) the proliferation of data (it doubles every three years). Unless CMOs learn to partner with the IT department, and harness all that data into usable insight and cost-effective, revenue-producing marketing campaigns, their tenure will be short lived. That is the subject of the Business Week article. It reports the average longevity of the CMO position is now only 26 months. Lofty management expectations for quick results from the CMO position are partially to blame. Another major factor is the learning curve challenges faced by CMOs when it comes to understanding and utilizing the new media choices. As the Business Week article states:

November 26, 2007 | Greg Ness: Accenture & Others: Traditional Agencies Are Having Trouble Adapting To A Digital World

A study by consulting firm Accenture says traditional agencies are going to have the most to lose as the shift to digital advertising continues. Accenture surveyed 70 business leaders in advertising, media, and technology for the study. The conclusion of many of those leaders according to this story at ClickZ was that “traditional agencies are incapable of adapting to the digital era.” Furthermore, the article cites other significant conclusions by the Accenture study team:

“Advertising will become more performance based…Advertising agencies, to survive, must master technology to target advertising, perform customer analytics, measure performance, and interact with customers. Fewer than one in four respondents said their companies are equipped to do so now.”

November 25, 2007 | Greg Ness: YuMe Out To Tame Video For The Internet

Advertising on the Web has been evolving from text-based, to static or animated display ads, and, most recently, to video. While advertisers would like to take advantage of the video capabilities a growing broadband-powered Internet is providing, trying to harness online video-based marketing has been a bit chaotic. A company called YuMe would like to bring some order to the chaos.

Similar to the way a keyword entry in a search engine brings you to both relevant organic and paid text ads, the YuMe network would help deliver video-based advertising in the same manner. In addition, it would provide the same types of controls and measurement capabilities that have made services like Google’s AdWords so popular.

November 23, 2007 | Greg Ness: Reach x Frequency = Old Thinking

The advertising industry prides itself on fresh thinking. The only consistent rule in advertising seems to be “There are no rules.” However, on the media-buying side of the business, there has been a rule that has driven thinking for almost a half century: Reach (R) x Frequency (F) = Gross Rating Points (GRPs). Reach measures how many people could potentially see your message, and frequency measures how many times those who are reached might see that message. Gross rating points purport to measure the “media tonnage” and effectiveness of a schedule delivered to a specific demographic audience. There is a more thorough discussion of the formula via Google Books.

November 14, 2007 | Greg Ness: IBM: Prepare for “The End Of Advertising As We Know It”

Five years ago, Sergio Zyman, the former chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola, penned a book entitled The End of Advertising As We Know It. Zyman asserted that marketing had strayed too far from its original purpose to generate sales, and he was one of the strong voices urging marketers to make sure their efforts and creativity could demonstrate a solid return on investment. Apparently, many in business listened to Zyman (and others that championed the same message) because most CMOs today will tell you proving a good return on marketing dollars is an absolutely vital part of their job description.

Now, five years later, IBM has released a report with the same title: The End of Advertising As We Know It. According to the opening paragraph of the report, “The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.” The report link above will take you to a full PDF of the report, and there is also a summary available.

November 13, 2007 | Ron Lee: Mobile Banking: Ready for Prime Time?

The mobile banking arena is heating up, and, just in time for the holidays, so too is the marketing push from banks to get people to use the service. American Banker (registration required) reported that Wachovia and SunTrust have launched new services, and AT&T Corp. will unveil today new handsets with preloaded mobile banking software.

November 08, 2007 | Lon Keller: Sundog: The Podcast

Today we have launched Sundog: The Podcast.  Visit the website and subscribe today!

On the show, we’ll take an entertaining look at the news, trends and best practices surrounding the worlds of internet marketing, Web 2.0 development and traditional media, and focus on how all these tie together to improve your company’s bottom line.  Our first show focuses on the challenges businesses face controlling their brand in today’s Web 2.0 environment.  Thanks to Greg Ness, Eric Ista and Matt Charpentier for guest-starring on episode #1!

November 08, 2007 | Greg Ness: Media Shifts Continue

There have been a number of news stories in the last couple days that highlight the continuing shift in media consumption in the United States. As media habits change, so do preferences for advertising budget placement.

On the plus side, Internet advertising is expected to double in the next four years according to eMarketer (Online Advertising on a Rocket Ride). The report notes during the last year about 70 percent of the country’s top 100 advertisers decreased spending in traditional media and increased spending for Internet advertising. It appears this trend will continue.