Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: advertising (Page 3 of 3)

Notes from the Lake: ad:tech Chicago Kicks Off

It’s a gorgeous day on Lake Michigan, out here on Navy Pier. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a great weather here — blue sky, no wind, upper ’70s. The lake looks spectacular. SkylinenavypierTourists are everywhere here, and the Chicago people are, bar none, the best when it comes to hospitality. Why are we inside on a day like this? 🙂 Anyway, I got here to the conference center about 10:30 and hit the showfloor soon after it opened. Had a great conversation with Mark Carlson, CEO of SimpleFeed in his booth. Adtechshowfloor This is a company with technology to help retailers, media companies, and marketers of all types use RSS feeds to sell their wares — instead of struggling with email marketing, which he says has a whole raft of problems. SimpleFeed’s online application has a dead-simple UI that lets even non-tech people set up and manage feeds — PR people, product managers, anybody. No geek needed. The firm counts some 50 customers now, mostly Fortune 1000, but, at a minimum charge of $2000 per month, even some smaller firms are taking advantage of the service. SimpleFeed is a Sequoia-backed company and launched at DEMO ’06. I remembered them from that event, and they’ve come a long way since then, Carlson says, increasing their customer count by 10x. Their partners include many of the major email marketing services – who, surprisingly, don’t see them so much as competition, but as a natural evolution in the practice of online marketing.

The coolest really new thing I’ve seen so far is definitely Adjustables — just appearing for the first time in the U.S. It has patented technology for integrating ads, banners, logos, etc within streaming online videos — instead of those annoying pre-rolls or banners surrounding the player. Adjustables The firm is based in the Netherlands (with a new office in SF), and just launched at ad:tech Hamburg in May. Their ads are clickable so the viewer can interact with the video at just the right moment — say, when a car appears, he can click on a logo or ad for the car. The default is that, when clicked, the video pauses, while the viewer goes to the advertiser’s site. The intregration of the ad with the streaming video happens on the viewer’s computer. Ads can be targeted by geography or behavior. “Is anyone else doing this?” I asked cofounder and VP marketing, Menno Biesiot. He said YouTube and Metacafe are working on something similar, but his firm sees this as validation, and leading to standard-setting in this area of much-needed innovation. The software is available now for download at the company’s site, and a demo is available there. I was impressed with the presentation, and with the look and minimalism of the ads. Not too distracting, about as tasteful as ads can be in this medium, from what I’ve seen. Check it out and see what you think. Navypierboat

Off to a lunch session now, sponsored by Avenue A|Razorfish, about “The New Brand Equity.”

Let’s Party Like It’s…2007?

The whispers continue out there about a Web 2.0 bubble burst, including my own reference to it a couple of posts ago. But, lest we despair, friends, check out this graph from eMarketer today. So what if one bubble may actually burst — who cares? Online advertising is rockin’!

Onlineadspendgraph

Gee, looking at the graph, I always knew 2002 was a freaking horrible year. This sure shows it. Guess it wasn’t just for tech in general, but for the closely related online ad market as well. But, with 2006 showing as good as it does here, how much greater will the graph look when our current year is added in?

I’d say we have a bonafide blockbuster super-growth industry on our hands here, folks! Me thinks I wanna go back into advertising… 🙂

Here’s a key quote from the today’s article, the real story behind the numbers:

“One key market shift can be seen in how display ad spending grew at a higher rate than even paid search advertising,” says eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman. “Brand-oriented marketers are just starting to ramp up spending, and we’ll see greater growth in that area over the next few years.”

Look out when the big brand advertisers start reallocating a lot more of their TV and print budgets to online. It’s coming — you can bet on it — and that will rock the online world even more. You think it’s euphoric now?

Yeah, baby!

Screw AdSense – Bloggers Deserve a Buck a Word!

That’s the new mantra for bloggers seeking decent ad revenue according to online marketing guru Mike May, writing for MediaPost’s “Online Publishing Insider”. In his rabble-rousing piece, which went online today — “Compensate Citizen Publishers Like People, Not Web Sites” — he makes an interesting case. How did he arrive at a buck a word? That’s the going rate for freeelancer writers. And Mike’s proposal is based on this key notion: “The value of citizen publisher content to advertisers or sponsors should be no less than the value of freelance writing contributions to publishers.” Hey, I like it, Mikey likes it…what’s not to like?

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