Comcast Still Running Untargeted Ads

Earlier this month, I wrote about Comcast serving up poorly targeted ads. They still haven’t fixed it. Are they listening to customers?

Yes.com Tells You the Song on the Radio

It would have been so cool if they had things like this when I was a kid. I know what some of you are saying, “Dave, they do have stuff like this and you still are a big kid!” Well my youthful appearance aside, the concept of yes.com is certainly neat. Hear a song and know the time it was played and don’t know what it is? No problem. Just go to yes.com within 24 hours and you can look it up, rate it and even buy it from Itunes if it’s available. You’ve got to like that. The rating is potentially a great example of customer listening if the feedback were to reach a critical mass.

I would have done one thing differently in launching the site however. While it was a smart more to put the radio station access panel on a different site(many sites with two audiences fail to do this and blur their value proposition), yes.net, to segment the customer base, they only got it partially right. The yes.com site is nowhere in the top ten for the phrase “find song on radio” and the yes.net site shows up with out a description tag. They should have launched a “coming soon” e-mail collection page for yes.com and developed a linking campaign to it as it should be the #1 Google result for the term.

ad:tech Chicago 2006 - Developing an Integrated Local Media Strategy

Warren Kay – Yahoo!

Fred Lebolt – Chicago Sun-Times

Shawn Reigsecker, Founder and President, Centro

Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio, Inc.

Local based online advertising will likely mirror offline advertising; becoming 1/3 of all spending over time.

Fred Lebolt - Integration must occur before local and then integrated local. Most have not begun the integration process. Audience targeted delivery. F+B+M = A Frequency + Branding + Messaging = Audience - the integration piece. Marketing analysis to figure out integrated strategy. The second strategy is local strategy. To me it means geography. Advertisers say they want mass media at the local level. Changing these messages is work. Hard work. Having the offline piece is our greatest advantage. Client example – US Cellular, bundled offline and online campaign covering.

Warren Kay – Two sides of the equation – location and advertisers. National advertisers increasingly want to tailor – zip code, etc. Subscription based model for small businesses.
Pay for performance that is variable. National advertisers can adjust the message. Online portal. We struggle with what is local internally. Local small businesses spend money nationally.

Marc Baruch – We are so early in this game. 98% of businesses have never purchased online advertising. There is a huge disconnect. When I think of integration, I think that is step two. Getting more people online is step one. Driving customers to a web site is a tactic, not a strategy. Pay for performance is the model for now. Before we get to integrated platforms, we need an expanded group of products. Any media is not susceptible to pay for performance adverting. I think integration is a long way off as the number of ways to do things is expanding.

Shawn Riegsecker – We are the leading provider of local media. We have access have access to over 3,000 publishers. This is a really timely topic. This is the first local panel at an ad:tech. When you think about clients, very few are truly national. How search drove advertising for the last few years, local will be doing now for the next several years. Brands want content. When I talk, I talk about national versus local, I’m not talking local versus local. I come at it form a different view. We are missing out on the largest content play available. You can’t buy the search engine front pages at the local level. To move forward, there needs to be a common platform.

ad:tech Chicago 2006 - Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Framing the Market and the Value Chain

The one that is clear to me is that the mobile marketing space has more questions than answers.

Panel:
Peter Fuller – Founder and Managing Partner, i-Jump
Courtney Jane Acuff, Associate Director, Denuo

Numerous doors of entry:
Reaching consumers:
SMS (text messaging)
WAP (wireless web)
MMS (multimedia)
WAP banners
Video
Starstar dialing (new data dialing service)

Wireless web - about 5% using it currently.

Rich brand experience coming via MMS

The carriers don’t always play nice in the sandbox. Aggregators play a role. Agencies need to understand

Zoove.com – domains

Putting it all together:
Think of the mobile phone as a newspaper, television, Internet, game player, note passer (text), wallet and telephone - in one.

Create a complete user and brand experience, as you would create typical offline cross-media campaign.

Services that you can make money on like service communications are interesting.

Metrics piece needs to be figured out.

In the end it’s all about money, revenue streams are in question.

It’s frustrating and exciting, that things become obsolete constantly.

A discussion about best practices and the challenges of making them work is adopted.

McDonald’s – 15 million Big Mac boxes – game pieces – lead to opt-in.

Axe – free ring tone promotion

Kellogg’s – healthy eating tips.

Cost - $50,000 minimum to play – technical integration, properly, short code, hosting – the media to support it.

Making Search Even More Efficient! Increasing Your Search Ranking Via PR and Search as a Branding Mechanism

Frederick Marckini, iProspect

You tube is a search engine you can search using keywords.

Estimates Youtube is getting more reach than Myspace, estimated to be worth $600 Million

How we search where we click. There is no paid or natural.

Tabs are pre-empting search. You need to be in all of the tabs. 4x the reach with number one ranking. What is the number one ranking now though?

72% organic and 28% ads Google

Yahoo 40% organic 60%

All search is meta search. Invisible tabs – content pre-empts search results.

4x improvement from 2-9 to #1 in Google.

Tactics: pay-per-call, 92% of people conversion activity occurs offline -survey customers offline to find ideas.

Offline affects conversion rates and lowers CPA.

Yahoo! And Google News tabs are important. They can show up either in the news tab or in search results forever.

Keyword research – different audiences use different vocabulary ”Swirl marks” – paint “Lending” - GPS vs global conversation

“Prior learning” – educational learning – “get into the language of your customer” longer the query – the higher the conversion rate. – but 88% comes with 1 or 2 words.

Search Funnel is a myth. There is no funnel. Broad search, then destination retailer.

Header term, General Term, Specific (branded), Destination/Retailer Search

How to spot an SEO savvy web site. Web site must have text and links to be found. Keyword prominence, frequency, placement, link quantity, link quality, link context, title tag is now your meta tag, domain name, use text, don’t use pictures for text.

Allison Kane, Atlas Search –
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution, to the complex symbol leading to changes in brand image.

Brand Location – Are you easy to find? 40% of brand keyword and URL search clicks are first time visitors. 60% are repeat purchasers. Make sure you are first in natural search results. Measure your brand terms separately.

Brand Building – When they are between brands, building the brand. Lexus and performance. Search is not full of branders, there are more people with a direct marketing background. Where is search leading your clients to?

Brand Experience – Do you use search to deliver positive brand experience. What about existing customers, should I be thinking about them? Example – “Nordstrom returns” search. Very few brands are utilizing customer experience keywords.

“Branding online comes from experience not the exposure” – Jakob Nielsen

Greg Jarboe – SEO-PR
(crowd gets extremely attentive for Greg’s speech)
75% of journalists search the Internet for previous stories on their subject.

Yahoo News is number two in online news. New York Times is number nine.

A “Consumer” magazine “reports” Press releases can often outrank the news stories.

Knowledge workers are increasingly turning to press releases due to lack of others.

Superpages.com - Replaced sex for gender. Save your client for being found for the wrong term.

Romantic dining got ranked number 2 in Yahoo News and number 5 in Google News.

Morningstar.com is running press releases.

Tivo for search. Tracking links.

3,229 visits generated 2,715 clickthroughs - a 84% conversion rate!!!

It’s not just the press release. Track the publicity.

Can a press release increase your branding? Yes!

Where to submit – used to use PR Web - has become your own link farm. All Wire Services are not equal. Conduct tests.

ad:tech Chicago 2006 - Disruptive Technology for Fun and Profit, Sponsored by Avenue A | Razorfish

Moderated by Dave Friedman, president, Avenue A | Razorfish Central region

Denise Chudy, Google

Marc Stephens, Michael Miller, Bruce Woolsey - Avenue A | Razorfish

This session was awesome in that they just took questions from the get go and it was a confident and free flowing session with a lot of progressive thought and positive energy in the room!

Mark – Apple, Ipod, Itunes

Denise Chudy – Automotive – now Consumer Package Goods – General Motors is taking risks.

Michael Miller – Online properties of ATT – ATT/SBC – through Word of Mouth

Bruce Woolsey – New Media – Buzzmetrics – algorithms of data analysis – leveraging data of combinations Gatorade – Buddy TV – interactive – 125,000 friend on myspace from simpler. People are still cautious with banners.

Denise – Use Google Video

Michael – how to you measure the value of the something on myspace. Using myspace is a delicate balance.

Mark – It will continue to evolve.

Michael – Dremel – don’t try to replace fragmented discussions.

Bruce – Get over the fear. It’s done. More ways to engage with consumers!

Denise – build the niche audience. Movie studios are getting word out quickly.

Audience – How do I make fragmentation my friend?

Bruce – Mobile media. You don’t need to be yet. 18 months from now, it is going to be different. Do some test marketing with Mobile.

Audience - Where do you see marketing going?
Bruce – Evolution. People are in control. Do you really want to copy TV? (as it is dying).

Mark – Higher level of accountability points to the digital side leading it.

Michael – Percentage wise – are less than 5%

Audience – How do you see mobile marketing transforming and developing in the US?

Denise - Click to call – relevancy – short messages – testing it in Japan – Google Maps. When they are looking – not push.

Mark - Largest platform. Can’t blast things out. The industry needs to self-police this issue. Mobile is going to be powerful. Ad supported content.

Dave Friedman - Could there be ad supported content model for mobile?

Bruce – Video is going to be interesting. Advertainment. Branded applications. I can download running routes.

What disruptive technologies are getting ready to launch and create adoption?

Denise – API adoption in consumer brands.

Mark – Google Video and Youtube are game changers.

Michael - The existing forms are getting better and better.

Bruce – Advertising approaches where the consumer is in demand. Interactive video is the most powerful medium we’ve ever had to use. How does one chose that?

ad:tech Chicago 2006- Warm and Cozy SEO

I had taken notes about this session but Lee Odden’s notes had a much more detailed description of the events, so I encourage you to read Lee’s blog entry on this session. Way to go Lee.

ad:tech Chicago 2006, Blogging, RSS, Podcasting, Vidcasting

Brian Bloom – Liggett Stahower
Heather Stefick – Hentel – Duck brand duct tape
Michael D. Moore – Director – Purina Interactive
Robert Claypoole – Product Director - Vistakon

Moderator: Henry Copeland, CEO, Blogads.com
Heather: Duct tape was invented in World War 2. Used afer the war and use spreads to this day. Fun, Friendly, Helpful, Imaginative. Expand market to tech-svvay audience. Duct tape has a cult like following. 30 million hit of duct tape during prom dress contest month. World’s largest duct tape flag – as large as a basketball court. Festival – 25,000 event visitors (personal engagements), 4,903 website hits, 27.5 million impressions.

Purina – Michael D. Moore – Purina.com/downloads
Re-purpose existing assets; little to no new content creation
Created podcast from radio show. Ties in heavily with event marketing. Numerous usage of RSS feeds. SMS tips, wallpapers, ringtones. Audio outpacing Video by 4x.
Uses Arc Worldwide – based in Chicago.

Vistakon – Robert Claypoole – Editorial strategy of podcasts – tracking, cross-promotion are very important.
Authentic content, integrate it in future marketing initiatives. “If only our lawyers were as excited about this as everyone else was.”

Question: How do you promote the podcasts?
Answer: Feedburner, other content, banner ads, Yahoo front page (Purina) and mentioning in other podcasts (Vistakon).

Podcasting is an intermediate step to blogging.

How do you make a podcast search engine friendly?
Michael – not yet. No transcripts used currently

Direct response – wireless comparable to e-mail. RSS – publisher mindset.

Change Management – support is critical.

Vistakon & Purina – testing and learning. No management barriers, support, small tests, low risk, raise the profile to legal, etc.

Many podcasts led to page on Itunes site for Purina. Media choices – shifts from traditional advertising also being seen at Purina.

Hiring from Outside Your Industry is Smart

I’m reading “Creating Customer Evangelists” by Ben McConnel and Jackie Huba right now. It’s a great book and a lot of world has not fully implemented the powerful lessons of the book.

The chapters on Mark Cuban stand out in regards to the hiring of Matt Fitzgerald as Chief Marketing Maverick: “Instead of selecting a marketing person from the NBA or the sports industry, Mark consciously made a decision to hire someone from outside the industry,” Fitzgerald says. “He believed the NBA marketing community was too in-bred so [Cuban] was looking for a marketing person with a fresh perspective and ideas.”

These concepts when combined with Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book, “Naked Conversations” make a powerful foundation for transformation. What is needed is these parts with a dose of change management as these changes are not at all little.

Catch-up: Through the Voice of Peter Harkins

In our increasingly thriving tech community here in Chicago, one of the more unique people is Peter Harkins. Peter is incredibly bright and talented in terms of both programming and comnon sense beyond his years. He is responsible for the current version of the Sociable plugin. In fact, I recently learned that an introduction I made led to him getting a desirable programming project. Not that he needed the help, he turns down several programming job offers per week. Ah to be a programmer and not a leader capable of becoming one of the most notable agents of change management of the 21st century!

Anyway, I bring Peter up for a few reasons. He has an amazing a sick wit and yet is so humble. He is one of many of my new friends that I’m so glad to have met, I’d love to be in a position to partner with him someday to drive a company to greatness. First he wrote a nice summary of this week’s Vox Non-launch Party. Then there of course there is that now famous programming post. Then if you live in Chicago, you will find more than just a little humor in this post about Ron May of The May Report.

Steve Ballmer Speaks - Should Steve Spin Off MSN?

There is an interview in the Wall Street Journal today with Steve Ballmer.

First I’d like to say that I wish they would have hired me to do the interview as it was mostly a rehash of many things Steve has already said save the Bill Gates is leaving and how does this affect you.

For example the article says: “Google Inc., meanwhile, has outpaced Microsoft online, poached key Microsoft employees and will likely become an even greater Microsoft rival in years to come. The Internet search company’s rising share price has raised debate over what more Microsoft can do to retain and attract employees.”

An intelligent question about whether MSN needs to spin off a portion of MSN to create a high growth currency would have been nice on this issue.

Asking about Yahoo! when Microsoft just hired the CEO of Ask is just plain silly - especially since this issue has been talked to death. A question about what exactly Steve Berkowitz’s mandate is and whether Ask might be acquired makes a million times more sense than to rehash the Yahoo speculation.

If anyone at Waggoner Edstrom is listening, I would to have one of the first public MSN interviews of Steve Berkowitz, a groundbreaking and unique conversation, you may find my contact information in my about section.

Larry Levy – A Chicago Original

There was a great video interview with Larry Levy in Crain’s Chicago Business this week. For those of you who do not know Larry, he is the founder is the Levy Restaurant empire based in Chicago.

Some highlights from the article if you don’t have a few moments to view it include:

“Partnership in a business is like a marriage or a family. Your separate ambitions change over time.”

“Always follow your passions.”

On the people to hire…

“The single most important thing for entrepreneurial success is to surround yourself with brilliant people who are better at what you are asking them to do than you are. Bar none. There is nothing more important than that. It is very hard for entrepreneurs to do that. It’s always been easy for me. I’ve always understood what I’m good and what I’m not good at.”

“A lot of entrepreneurs are not capable of surrounding themselves with people that are wrong that they are wrong and push back some times. And I love it! I only want to be around people that do that.”

Larry talks about how open and helpful people were to him when he started out. It’s unfortunate that Larry feels “I can’t describe why I think this but it’s not as good as it used to be that Chicago is not as open to entrepreneurship as it used to be.”

I reached out to him via phone as I was excited by his short chat.

Cellular Startups and Carriers the Next Google(s)?

The Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article today about how celluar carriers are shying away from partnering with Yahoo! and Google and instead forming partnerships with smaller entities that they can control. It’s interesting and exciting to me because it’s a modified pay per call play - not just search. This is truly exciting and potentially extremely lucrative.

I would like to invite Brian Lent, CEO of Medio and Dan Olschwang, CEO of JumpTap to have an interview or podcast on this blog shortly. Learning more about the specific people involved at the major carriers would be most interesting to me and I might make the same offer if they were to contact me. Seeing this article gives me significant context to the comments in the recent Google earnings conference call. I look forward to networking more with people in the mobile marketing space.

UPS - Not Customer Focused

Today’s WSJ Journal talks about UPS software. Well, I actually consider UPS to not be customer focused and in need of resetting it’s priorities. What I mean is that the person being shipped to is the ultimate customer not the shipper. The person receiving the package is the one paying for both the shipping and your salary and is the true ultimate customer. It’s about time UPS spent both time and money on acknowledging that reality and serving that customer as a true customer not an object there for UPS convenience.

Hardly any of their software focuses on satisfying the one receiving the package. Allowing people to control the last mile of the package, electronically instruct UPS where and when to leave it is where they should be focusing their efforts. In my post about my recently purchased Dell computer, I discussed how UPS shipping was the worst part of the experience. When is UPS going to recognize the people being shipped to as the true customers of the organization? Millions of people are impatiently waiting for you to change.

(In my case this is made worse as the local office refuses to put a regular driver on my route - after several years)

Yahoo! Messenger is Down

Many sites in blogosphere are lit up like a Christmas trees this evening with complaints of Yahoo! Messenger being down.

What gives?

Inflated Homeowner Appraisals - WSJ Article

Now that the housing market has finally turned we learn that many of the loans were written on questionable valuations of housing once people try to refinance those outrageous nuclear no money down interest only loans. And the LTV’s (loan to values) are now inverted almost across the board on these loan types. The article blames the appraisers, but where is the blame on the ethics and others in the marketing chain:

- The home builder selling extra houses during the boom making extra profits off increasingly lower quality houses.

- The mortgage bankers and banks making fees off of the loans and then reselling them. Will they take the coming credit loss themselves or will they try to pass it onto the American taxpayer and not back to their shareholders like they should. Remember when you used to put down 20% on a house purchase, there was a reason for it that we will soon be asking why it was abandoned.

- The publishers that made it all too easy to advertise without educating the consumers, many who had no idea what interest only or ARM meant.

- Where were the reporters that write now on these subjects as if it’s new news of what drove the boom for the past five years? That silence was deafening.

Sales and Marketing Evangelism - Chart of Changing Ways

marketing and sales evangelism

Nissan Pulls New Zealand Ad, Loses Opportunities for Buzz

Nissan pulled a racy ad in New Zealand.

“Japanese car maker Nissan said Friday it has pulled a raunchy commercial starring ”Sex and the City” actress Kim Cattrall from New Zealand television after complaints over its content. Cattrall, who played the sex-obsessed, promiscuous Samantha Jones in the HBO series, appears in the ad purring with excitement about Nissan’s new sedan. “Why didn’t you tell me it was so big? I just wasn’t prepared for it,” she said, gushing. ”The all-new Nissan Tiida makes you feel really, really, really good inside.” She tells a salesman: ”Ah! That was amazing. Absolutely fabulous! I mean, the great body and the way you moved it.”

Nissan lost a chance for significant buzz here with International news stories and not having the New Zealand version of the ad up on Youtube. Shame on you guys for hiring an ad agency who doesn’t think bigger than that.

It also brings into question the age old car industry practice of renaming cars with different templates around the world when they are the same model. The new Nissan Versa in the US appears to be the same car and could have benefited from this as well. Another lost opportunity here for Nissan.

Google Blog Post: Findings on Invalid Clicks - Earnings Call Summary

Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager, Trust and Safety posted a blog entry about a 47-page report filed by a Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin in a Texarkana court today.

It’s good to see the transparency and postings of these findings, however it’s posting on a Friday afternoon won’t get good news cycle coverage. The only thing I would like Shuman (who owes me a return phone call btw if you are reading this) to clarify is if Dr. Tuzhilin was paid by Google for his report. Otherwise it is a good post.

In other Google news, Google reported a surge in earnings. The discussion in the conference call focused on the importance of partnerships, headcount June 30 - 7,942 - hiring aggressive in 3rd quarter especially in sales and marketing and new products. Maps for mobile and creation of new ways for mobile ads to reach people are also an area of focus. Adsense for Radio was discussed (I find this area very exciting). Several other items were also brought up.