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Items by Clo Willaerts

IAB Europe Congress Blog

• 

  CPM price for large websites is dropping

  Posted: May 14th, 2008, 8:27am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  
  
  
  
  PubMatic : AdPrice Index: "eCPMs for large Web sites (more than 100 million page views per month) dropped dramatically by 52 percent from 38 cents in March to 18 cents April. Medium Web sites (1 million to 100 million page views per month) were nearly flat, with monetization dropping from 34 cents in March to 33 cents in April. Small Web sites managed to improve their monetization, increasing from $1.18 in March to $1.29 in April."
  
  You could see this as proof of "The Long Tail". Or it's just a sign that for large websites it's just too much work to offer higher-priced targeted ads. Most "large" websites I know mainly do Run Of Site or even Ron of Network campaigns for their display ads.
  Another possible reason is because there's a big gap between pages that attract lots of traffic (like webmail, forums, contests) and pages advertisers want to be on (like portal-style content pages).
  
  In any case: time to move on to more interactive and permission-based advertising.
• 

  The urge to go public

  Posted: April 22nd, 2008, 8:39am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  Dutch journalist, writer and feminist Karin Spaink is not the first one to review Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur; how todays Internet is Killing our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy. But she sure has some interesting viewpoints. Let me quote two (emphasis in bold is mine):
  

  "If the printed press [...] move to the internet, which many in the end will to do, they can cut on printing and distribution costs, thereby freeing a considerable part of their budget. Money that can be used to pay journalists and editors with. Yes, parts of the newspaper industry will suffer and people will lose their jobs – from paper producers and printers to newspaper delivery boys."

  
  

  "we are witnessing the private going public. People increasingly use the internet to capture, comment upon and share their lives. And while I’m not always sure what to make of that, in itself there’s nothing new about the phenomenon, only about its scale. People have always kept diaries, wrote updates for their friends and family, made snapshots documenting their life. The manner in which they did so changed whenever technologies changed, but the urge to share has always been present."

  
  For the record: I don't agree with either statement. First of all: there's a lot less advertising money to be made in online than in print media. And secondly: the urge to share is relatively new - simply because only now there's an audience that is large enough to have some effect. Only fifty years ago the biggest amount of people you would preach at would be sitting in a church building.
• 

  Magazines attachment fever

  Posted: April 22nd, 2008, 5:05am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  In 1965, two engineers at IBM invented the scratch and sniff strip, while looking for a way to make carbonless paper. By 1979, the perfume strip was inserted for the first time into a printed magazine. The scent was so strong that "you could kind of smell it before you even opened the magazine," recalled Diane Crecca, vice-president of sales, marketing and business development at Arcade Marketing, which invented the scent strip.
  
  And it doesn't end there.
  
  "With blinking lights, pop-up ads, kiss-on lipstick samples, scratch-off scents, melt-in-your-mouth taste strips, and even pocket squares, advertisers are stuffing magazines full of just about anything to make their advertisements stand out.
  One reason for the phenomenon is better technology, which makes it less expensive to put unusual objects in magazines and which helps advertisers create more sophisticated inserts. [...]
  But there is another dynamic at work: with so much of the publishing industry shifting toward the Web, magazine executives are trying to use their print products as a tactical advantage."
  (Source: For magazines, 'be clever or die' - International Herald Tribune.)
  
  They are forgetting the "product plus" magazine attachments: the books, cds and dvds that are now sold together with many of today's newspapers and magazines. And who sometimes make more money for the publishers than the regular print editions do...
• 

  Mobile internet: dead before it's even born?

  Posted: April 21st, 2008, 4:52am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  The end of Mowser - RussellBeattie.com: "I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I'm tired of wasting my time."
  
  This bitter quote was made a few days ago by web developer and entrepreneur Russel Beatie, one of the founders of mobile web transcoder Mowser. Mowser is closing up shop: "Sadly, Mowser is closing its doors due to lack of funding."
  
  What followed was a blog storm of modest size, based around one question: Is Mobile Web Dead?. The answer is: it's not even born yet, and it's already hugged to death by advertisers, marketeers and mobile operators. To be honest I hope that consumers will run the show this time: most people I know see their mobile phone or smartphone as an extension of their identity. This means they are willing to pay for services that they really want (like staying in touch with their friends), but also that they are very reluctant to receive messages from any party they do not see as "part of their social circle". This is bad news for mobile advertising and mobile marketing. But good news for all kinds of mobile-based social network services.
• 

  UGC: show me the money!

  Posted: April 17th, 2008, 4:45am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  eMarketer has an interesting question today: Can User-Generated Content Generate Revenue?: "“Since many of the growing numbers of Internet users creating social media are also consuming it, this is a content chain that feeds on itself,” says Mr. Verna. “There is a seemingly infinite demand for content, and there are legions of Internet users armed with laptops, cell phones and digital cameras ready to deliver.”"
  
  Despite the large usage numbers, advertising revenue for user generated content is still painfully low. Not because, as Andrew Keen puts it, “Nobody wants to advertise next to crap.” But because advertisers and their agencies are not willing to let go of control. They want to keep their eye on the prize: their company or product logo, displayed as BIG as possible. Anything else is only adding more noise to the signal.
• 

  Copyright anno 58

  Posted: April 9th, 2008, 11:24am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  
  Atomium: "The image of the Atomium is protected since its construction. It's mandatory to gain approval from the asbl/vzw Atomium and the SABAM, before copying or broadcasting the image of the Atomium. It is also necessary to mention 'copyright asbl/vzw Atomium'."
  
  A weird situation, especially with the 50th anniversary of the Anno Expo '58 coming up. Belangrijk bericht aan de bezoekers / inzenders / photoshoppers / lezers: "Maar elk beeld waarin –na bewerking- de contouren of het silhouet geheel of gedeeltelijk van het Atomium in blijven staan, kan toch ook niet zo blijkt. Dus geen “Ceci n’est pas l’Atomium”, “Patatatomium”of “Lamotium”…
  Echter, een Patatomium met enkel aardappels en frieten in de vorm van een ijzerkristalstructuur gegoten, en niet met een bestaande Atomiumfoto als basis, kan wel."
• 

  An incredible dance partner

  Posted: June 10th, 2007, 11:20am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  The Future of Interactive Advertising @ the FastCompany blog: "(President and CEO of Agency.com) Chan Suh's prophecies were the most eloquent, although perhaps the most hopeful: he explained that the face of interactive advertising will change to become 'an incredible dance partner, who knows when you are going to take a sudden step, knows when you're going to dip, and who knows what state of mind you're in based just on your behavior.'"
• 

  GoogleBurner is coming your way

  Posted: May 19th, 2007, 2:13pm MDT by Clo Willaerts

  What Is The Value Of Online Display Ads?: "Now that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and WPP have spent collectively $10.4 billion to acquire the largest online display ad platform companies (DoubleClick, Right Media, aQuantive, and 24/7 Real Media) on the bet that display ads will be a key driver of growth for online ad spending, it’s fair to ask exactly what the value of an online display ad is."
  
  The answer? Pretty bleak: display banners can "foster familiarity" but since the advertisers themselves obsess over clicks, the ROI is pretty low.
  
  Google AdSense, on the other hand, is sucking away larger and larger chunks of the online budgets every month. Why? Because GoogleAds "use the format of the universal call to action on the web — the text link."
  
  Interesting to see what happens when (or rather, if) Google buys Feedburner, "the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds". RSS advertising is coming our way and my bet is, that it's going to be mainly text-based too.
  
  Who'll serve the ads? "GoogleBurner" will. Who'll buy them? The same advertisers who are happy with GoogleAds' ROI. But who will be the media? The usual suspects (portal sites and other online media), but also the bloggers. I know some of the bloggers love reading RSS feeds for its ad-lessness, but when they can make money by inserting AdSense (or DoubleClick) ads in their own blog's feed, believe me: they will.

  
  UPDATE (May 23 2007): $100 Million Payday For Feedburner - This Deal Is Confirmed.

• 

  Internet advertising complaint department is very busy

  Posted: May 13th, 2007, 12:30pm MDT by Clo Willaerts

  The (British) Advertising Standards Authority has just published their 2006 Annual Report: the changing face of advertising. This report (.pdf) reveals that (in the U.K.) the number of complaints about internet advertising in rose by 33%, which makes is the 2nd most complained non-broadcast format. Five years ago, in 2001, the Internet ranked as the eighth most complained about of all nonbroadcast media.
  This has of course to do with the importance of internet as an advertising medium. And with the fact that the online audience does not hesitate to use it's own medium backchannel to complain about advertising that is offensive to them.
  Curious? Have a look at the Top 10 most complained about ads: the number one is a really weird ad from the Gay Police Association.
  The ASA is, by the way, not able to sanction "faulty" internet ads. But they do have a clear mission: "It isn't just the change in advertising that has been remarkable over recent decades, but where and how that advertising appears." The challenge is not to create innovative advertising, but to make sure advertising techniques and concepts remain "legal, decent, honest and thruthful - and socially responsible too."
  
  Found via 901am.com.
• 

  Serial resetters and online gamers distort visitor metrics

  Posted: April 18th, 2007, 4:10am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  
  Top ten websites by time per visit
  

  
  
  1. RuneScape (the massive online adventure game by Jagex Ltd) - 6hrs 32mins
  
  
  2. Electronic Arts Online (online game service) - 3h 07m
  
  
  3. Bebo (MySpace Alternative) - 2h 37m
  
  
  4. Facebook (social networking service for students, corporate, and geographic communities) 2h 28m
  
  
  5. eBay - 1h 55m
  
  
  6. King.com (free online games) - 1h 53m
  
  
  7. Adventure Quest (Role Playing Game) - 1h 35m
  
  
  8. Fox Interactive Media (MySpace) - 1h 11m
  
  
  9. Club Penguin (kid-friendly virtual world) - 1h 10m
  
  
  10. Cartoon Network (free games featuring Cartoon Network characters) - 1h 09m

  
  Web counting tools 'need change': "The post Web 2.0 world is best represented by measuring time spent on particular websites, argues [Nielsen/NetRatings] analyst Alex Burmaster."
  
  From the same BBC article: ""It is clear that a certain segment of internet users clears its cookies very frequently. These 'serial resetters' have the potential to wildly inflate a site's internal unique visitor tally, because just one set of 'eyeballs' at the site may be counted as 10 or more unique visitors over the course of a month," explained comScore president Dr Magid Abraham."
• 

  Cost per influence

  Posted: April 16th, 2007, 7:08am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  The Devil & Online Advertising: "Jim Coudal at The DECK uses the term Cost Per Influence in their advertising model and I think it is a step in the right direction. I think we have to consider the value of the traffic on a site and the influence it has on it’s traffic."
  
  The term Cost Per Influence as an alternive metric was discussed way back in 2004 by Ross Mayfield. The accompanying format would be Sell Side Advertising.
  
  Robert Scoble dug it up again last year (New audience metric needed: engagement) but the funny thing is no one from the advertising industry really picked it up. Anyone?
• 

  Pick their brains

  Posted: April 10th, 2007, 3:42am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  
  Quick linkdump:
  Ads of the World (recent, blog): "an advertising archive and forum discussing great work worldwide"
  ihavenidea (articles, blog): "Because the advertising industry we want to work for doesn't yet exist."
• 

  Lonelygirl15 is boring

  Posted: April 5th, 2007, 9:00am MDT by Clo Willaerts

  
  If, in the midst of all the 2006 buzzwords, we had to go for the ultimate one, it would be "web video" or rather, YouTube. The stats that are published last week in the newteevee.com article Go Stat Wild: February Video Traffic confirm the obsession of marketeers, advertisers, investors and mainstream media over YouTube. The poster child of user generated content. The ultimate fulfillment of Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame prediction. The company that was consuming terabytes per day in bandwidth, and would have succumbed under these costs if it wasn't for Google.
  
  It's ok to obsess over a bright new kid, but the side effects are somewhat annoying me. A few examples:

  
  
  1. The majority of web video consumers are not using the hosted services. If they forward web videos, they'll often use peer-to-peer networks, instand messaging or even plain old e-mail (with the video as an attachment!)
  
  
  2. Every big internet player feels obliged to launch a me-too-youtube initiative. Me-toos are boring.
  
  
  3. Advertisers ask their agencies for campaigns that depend on user generated content. Only an utter minority of, say, the Belgian internet users is able to capture, edit en upload a pretty decent web video. And even if they do so, it wouldn't be to review this or that product. Most succesfull user generated web videos are variants on the lonelygirl15 meme, or the "my cat sneezed" variant. Lonelygirl15 is stuck in YouTube. And for frequent updates on your pet's health the kids now prefer Twitter.
  
  
  4. There is no such thing as wisdom of the crowds. Really want to know what pleases the crowd? It's Idols, or any other show involving freaks. Anything involving bikini girls is a good second, and my guess is that cute animals are on the third spot.
  
  
  5. It's no use to search for an advertising model. Pre-roll advertising annoys consumers. In-video product placement is tricky but might work in some cases. And launch a tv ad of movie trailer in Tubespace and hope it will go viral? Good luck with that. You'll have to compete with all the freaks, the bikini babes and the cute animals.

  
  Does this mean we have to give up the idea alltogether that advertisers can somehow get in the mix again? Of course not. The only mistake advertisers can't afford to make is to export their "old skool" advertising formats onto the new web videosphere. This means: no intrusive advertising, no display advertising, no dirty tricks, not even subliminal advertising.
  
  The only thing left to do is to re-think advertising. It will take a while before new advertising standards will arise. In the meanwhile, all an advertiser can do is follow this mantra: be passionate, be proud, and be honest.