by admin on May 25, 2010
During the keynote at Google I/O last week, in which Google introduced both Google TV and the latest version of Android (Froyo), VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra talked about advertising with regards to mobile (and this was before the AdMob acquisition got the green light from the FTC). "It turns out we know a little bit about advertising," he said (and I'm paraphrasing, based on my live notes from the event). "This year is Google's tenth anniversary of providing ad solutions. We've learned a few things. If you want a healthy ecosystem, you need advertisers and we have hundreds of thousands of them. We're not new at this game."
"We have some tools like DoubleClick, Analytics, AdSense, AdWords, - the tools the industry knows and loves are being extended to the mobile environment," he added. He may have said these things with mobile in mind, but it doesn't change much when you think about TV. If anything, you can ad Google TV Ads to the conversation.
In fact, throughout that day at the Google I/O event, there were multiple parallels drawn between Google TV and Android apart from the fact that they actually integrate with one another. For example, during a press conference I attended, Jason Kincaid asked if the web was ready for big screens, and Google Senior Product Manager Rishi Chandra said that we'd probably see a similar situation play out as we did with mobile in that sites will start optimizing for that experience.
Gundotra said that just like they've built ad formats for Android, they'll probably do the same for Google TV too.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was also in that press conference, noted that ads will be on websites, sold through websites, and they'll be sold through Dish Network (one of the Google TV launch partners). One can only assume that future partnerships may also play a role in how advertisers are able to reach Google TV users.
The bottom line is that there will be no one way to reach users. Then of course, there are the ad opportunities within and around the content itself, which would obviously be on a by-provider basis.
During the conference, Google TV Technical Director Vincent Dureau said Google's building a platform - yes it's going to create opportunities for Google, he said, but it's going to create them for everyone else too.
Chandra said, "We want to get the product experience right first."
That experience will not even be available until the fall, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. In the future, Google will likely roll out new ad formats and solutions as time progresses past the product's general availability. Like with everything else Google does, we can no doubt expect gradual improvements and tweaks over time.
If there's one thing for certain, it's if Google TV really does take off and become a household name, advertising with Google will be more attractive than ever. It would be interesting to see the kind of cross-format web/TV campaigns that would come out of it.
by admin on March 3, 2010
by admin on March 1, 2010
Small and medium-sized business (SMB) marketers are becoming increasingly convinced of the positive results of video email, social media and personalization, according to a new report from GetResponse.
Over 80 percent of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010 and over 90 percent of SMB marketers who use video emails report it delivers significant conversion rates.
More than half of respondents said video emails can increase click-through rates. One in three marketers believes video can improve brand image and increase customer loyalty. Over 20 percent of marketers believe that video emails can also reduce support and training costs. Only 4.7 percent of email marketers do no see any benefits from using video email.
"Today's marketers are mindful of the importance of delivering relevant content and one-to-one messaging based on preferences and behaviors," said Simon Grabowski, founder of
GetResponse
.
"It's all about putting the 'human element' back into marketing through the use of video and social media conversations."
Other highlights from the survey include:
- Social media: A 113.2 percent increase in use of links to new messages on social media pages; a 109.1 percent increase in use of sign-up forms on Facebook, etc. fan pages; 88.8 percent will increase share options and 71.6 percent more will place "follow us" links in email messages.
- Personalization: 53.80 percent of SMB respondents said they intend to increase targeting and personalization in 2010; 52.40 percent will try to improve email title and subject line personalization.
- Behavioral targeting: Nearly 75 percent of marketers claim that behavioral targeting can result in significant or moderate increases in email marketing effectiveness. Only 2.8 percent did not consider behavioral targeting an effective practice.
by admin on March 1, 2010
by admin on January 14, 2010
by admin on January 12, 2010
Someone with a very interesting political background will soon be in charge of Google's corporate communications. The company's hired Jill Hazelbaker, who's worked with both John McCain and Michael Bloomberg in the past, to replace Matt Furman.
A quick note about Furman's departure: according to Jessica E. Vascellaro, he's leaving on his own terms be closer to his family, and has already lined up another job. So you didn't miss some major PR fiasco, and this development shouldn't correspond to any big changes in policy at Google.
Hazelbaker may bring a unique perspective to the table as the search giant has to deal with the government more and more, though. Her experience in politics is impressive, considering that she was the communications director for John McCain's presidential campaign.
More recently, she's served as a spokesperson and media strategist for Michael Bloomberg's mayoral reelection campaign, too.
Of course, these connections imply that Hazelbaker is a Republican, and it's no secret that Google leans to the left. It'd be interesting to know whether the search giant is trying to diversify and appeal to different groups, or if it just hired the best person for the job regardless of political affiliations.
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by admin on January 11, 2010
Starting in mid-March, Yahoo Shopping will no longer be a solo act. Yahoo announced today that it's arranged to have PriceGrabber take care of some of the technical details, and it'll be able to make one more cutback thanks to the adjustment.
A post on the Yahoo Developer Blog explained, "[W]e have decided to enter into a strategic partnership with PriceGrabber to power the Product Submit functionality of Yahoo! Shopping as of March 11, 2010. As a result of these changes, Yahoo! will no longer provide the Shopping Web Services API, including Shopping Results (the 'Yahoo! Shopping Syndication Services') to you . . ."
Not all developers are taking the news well, and considering that Yahoo and PriceGrabber haven't offered anything in the way of free alternatives, it's a little hard to blame them. Yahoo might hurt itself with this move, too, since less interest from developers could equate to less attention for Yahoo Shopping.
Still, Yahoo's accounting department surely had a say in this decision, and it's hard to imagine that traffic statistics weren't taken into account. So this may help Yahoo save a significant amount of money while also allowing it to make a new corporate friend.
For what it's worth, Yahoo also told developers, "It has been our privilege to provide you with Yahoo!'s shopping syndication product, and we hope to continue our relationship with you in other areas long into the future."
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by admin on January 7, 2010
by admin on January 5, 2010
A while back, Google launched an extensions gallery for its Chrome web browser. Ad-blocking add-ons are among the most popular for Mozilla's Firefox, so it stands to reason that they will be for Chrome as well. With Google's primary source of revenue being its ads, a lot of talk has surfaced about Google letting people block its own ads with its own product.
Is Google was smart to allow ad-blocking extensions for Chrome? Discuss here.
A recent article from the New York Times has elevated the discussion, calling the allowance of ad blockers a "test" for Google.
Google wants people to use Chrome. For that to happen, it has to give people what they want. One point of view would be that the people who are most likely to block ads would just as use another browser that allowed them to do so if Chrome didn't.
Google doesn't think that ad blockers will have much of an impact on advertising anyway. In December, Google Engineering Director Linus Upson participated in a panel discussion about the subject. He, Charles McCathieNevile of Opera, and Mike Shaver of Mozilla discuss it in the following clip:
Upson says it's "unlikely ad blockers are going to get to the level where they imperil the advertising market, because if advertising is so annoying that a large segment of the population wants to block it, then advertising should get less annoying." He thinks the market will sort it out. The others appear to take similar stances.
The real question is how many people are really going to make the effort to block ads? As Wladimir Palant, who runs Adblock Plus on Firefox, told the NYT, ad blockers are still used by a "tiny proportion of the Internet population, and these aren’t the kind of people susceptible to ads anyway."
Based on what Upton had to say in the panel discussion, Google is pretty confident that it can deliver ads people actually want, and that people (for the most part) will not want to block them if they see that relevance.
What could hurt Google more is if Microsoft or Firefox implemented their own ad blocking capabilities by default. This would lead to average users browsing an ad-less web, because just as most people don’t go out of their way to download ad-blocking add-ons, they are unlikely to go out of their way to allow ads in such a scenario. However, it is pretty unlikely that this will happen, particularly on Microsoft's end. They of course have their own ads to worry about.
If ad-blocking from the browser actually did become a big problem for Google, one would have to wonder if the company woulnd't find some kind of work-around. For example, what would stop them from serving ads directly in the Chrome Browser itself (in a toolbar area for example)? One could envision sponsored link-style ads like those served via Gmail. With Google's interest-based advertising, relevance would still be at the forefront. But it probably won't come to that anytime soon (at least not as a solution to the perceived issue).
Wondering how many people actually use Chrome anyway? Ad-blocking from the browser does after all only matter if people are using that browser. Well, the latest numbers from Net Applications have Chrome's market share surpassing that of Apple's Safari browser. It's worth noting that Google just released Chrome for Mac last month as well.
As Doug Caverly mentioned, "Chrome's only been around for about 16 months, after all, and Safari's had something like six years to make friends."
Google's Chrome OS is set to make things interesting later this year, as well. Chrome use is growing and will continue to do. Ad campaigns from Google may ease that growth along.
Google made a bold move when it opened up its extensions gallery, allowing for ad-blocking extensions. Could this turn out to be a huge mistake on the company's part or is Google's confidence completely justified? Only time will tell for certain, but Google has long stood behind the promise of trying to deliver the best user experience. If users want to block ads, Google is going to let them. Share your thoughts here.
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by admin on December 29, 2009
Nearly half (40%) of email marketers plan on increasing their budgets for the channel in 2010 and 47 percent said their budgets would stay the same, according to a new survey by Silverpop.
In the coming year, more than half (52%) of email marketers said increasing customer loyalty was a top email marketing goal. Overall, 51 percent of respondents want to drive incremental revenue with their email program; 65 percent of those with larger email budgets says that's that their top goal in 2010.
"When consumers' purse strings tighten, savvy marketers remain respectful but attentive, so their brands are top of mind when their customers are once again ready to buy," said Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop.
"Today's marketers are mindful of the important role relationship building plays in a successful marketing strategy, and they understand the unique ability of email to engage customers."
While marketers remain positive about the role email will play in meeting their goals in 2010, they are also prepared to face related challenges. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said the biggest challenge in the coming year will be "inbox clutter.
Overall, more than eight out of 10 (84 percent) plan to include social media into their email programs in the coming year, and 38 percent will add SMS. Marketers with budget increases are even more likely to add these to their programs; 89 percent will incorporate social media and 44 percent SMS.
"Linking email to popular social networks can be a very successful strategy," Nussey said. "If the messages are timely and relevant, recipients will share them with their networks, and the opportunity for additional exposure increases exponentially. And as customers become more mobile, their marketing must reach them in more timely ways and through channels such as SMS."
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