This is a good thing because it is less of a wasted ad impression because it has some relevant information.  My personal goal around ads I see is to never see an advertisement for something I do not want.  By placing an ad for something I want, may have already purchased, or bailed from a conversion funnel in the past creates a higher affinity to that product.

Many people are afraid of this technology, mainly because it appears at first glance to be an invasion of privacy, but in reality it makes for a much better experience when faced with the fact that advertisements are a integral part  of the web ecosystem.  Smarter ads that can convert to sales are the best way to keep the content free.

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Retargeting? Yes please.

Last year Amazon bought Zappos and many feared the change. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, sent around a note to employees explaining the transaction, what would change, and what would not.

Since that time Zappos has been commended on its execution of customer service at a level that is now admired by many companies.

This past weekend, gearing up for SXSW, I bought my first pair of shoes from Zappos. I tweeted this fact soon after buying my sneakers and got some funny replies. Some friends couldn’t believe I did not have an account. My sister even welcomed me to the world of online shopping, as I am usually the one to tell her about the latest website touting some technical feat.

However, soon after my tweet, Zappos got back to me – upgrading me to a VIP customer and shipping my shoes overnight. Wow!

First let me say Thanks Zappos!

Second, this is the continued “Wow” affect that Zappos delivers to customers – even new ones like me. After fending off friends and family from poking fun – I shared this story with them. I then shared this story with a few other folks over the last few days. Now I am even blogging about it here.

Customer service is a powerful tool. If the goal is to get tweets and blog posts – you have failed. If the goal is to get the “wow” factor, then you have to open a dialogue with customers, deliver high quality service and support, and most importantly don’t expect anything in return. This results in customer loyalty, return customers (which in some ways is the same thing) and a powerful form of advertising you cannot buy; word of mouth.

Will my story and blog post make a meaningful difference? Probably not. Although all the little wins add up in a big way and you can be sure I will remember how Zappos treated a first time customer, even though I am late to the shoes via Internet game! You can be sure if I run into anyone from Zappos at South by Southwest I will be sure to say hello.

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Zappos and the continued power of customer service

One thing I have noticed as I watch in real time is a growing trend of brands using social network URLs instead of their own. Below are examples from Uniball and Toyota. I remember seeing another for an upcoming movie but I forgot the name and campaign.

The first example is Uniball which makes pens and pushes people to their Facebook page for more info. They do not have a copy of the commercial online (that I could find) which is the first problem. The second is that if you visit their corporate site www.uniball.com there is no mention of the ad either or the Facebook page.
The URL that is getting so much airtime is below
Facebook.com/uniball

Going to the Facebook page you can either login to connect with and become a fan of Uniball or click through to enter your information to get a free pen.

What is the metric of success here? Free pen signups? Facebook page fans?

The second is a bigger brand, Toyota, pushing people to their YouTube page Youtube.com/toyota (via @amandapey)

In this case the video page automatically starts playing the commercial. If the metric of success is eyeballs on the video, this page behavior is artificially inflating the “videos watched” number. It is also notable that you cannot embed the videos from here but only share via a YouTube link.

So what is the advertising goal of these campaigns?
What are the metrics of success?
How do you measure accountability and targeting?

I am not suggesting that sending folks to another companies domain is a bad idea in all cases, but I wonder the value of have non integrated campaigns running and potentially confusing customers. It is tough to have a sound message across all platforms, but it should be considered when people search for, interact with, and ultimately buy from your brand in so many different places.

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Social Network URLs – the future of advertising?

Along with having some smart advertising introduce the new layout, integrated well with the IAB standard units, they highlighted another section at the top of their navigation: CNN NewsPulse

This dashboard approach combines a few items you have probably seen elsewhere on content sites. You have probably seen “most emailed”, “most read”, or “hottest” articles from an internal system or a company like Surphace powering a module – but this is first time I have seen this done in front of a large audience. Sites like BuzzFeed are a great example of these engines at work. Putting hot content in front of people and promoting things that do well and letting the audience know when things go viral.

CNN however has created a popularity index which is some combination of activity happening around each article.

These types of data driven decisions are what makes content that is good rise to the top. Influences such as web video plays, twitter links, passed links, emailed stories, etc… should all lead to more data about a story which can be used to help put relevant content in front of someone at the right time. This is starting to happen today.

There has been great discussion recently around headline optimization and A/B testing by the Huffington Post, as well as others doing similar things. I think these types of activities will only increase.

The benefit of optimizing stories, layouts, and even headlines is a better experience for the reader. Some may argue that this changes the dynamic of the publication – but that is exactly what is needed. The old way is being overcome by a wave of real time data and this allows an editor to embrace this data wave and make informed decisions about what to put in front of readers.

It is also clear that offline devices should become smarter as you use them not stay the same. This trend is happening with the power of data to influence front page news and will only continue.

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CNN NewsPulse and the future of content

At first, much like any other new public forum, Spencer has to spark conversation and ask a few questions. But what follows is usually a dialogue between users of the system, or newcomers. This allows people the opportunity to meet people behind the service, but also get an idea of what really goes on before taking the plunge and becoming a paying customer.

This is a great example of loading up the top of your sales funnel.
Started by this tweet.

By inviting current and prospective customers to talk together you are building a brand ethos.

The beginnings of these chat rooms are always tough, like any new group, but once the conversations get started the rest is easy. You have to seed the discussion with news, updates, offers, invitations, or even soliciting feedback. Soon the conversations will happen between others in the room and you have achieved your goal.

This approach may not work for all businesses and brands, but if you can get a handful of people to click through to a chatroom once a month – you know you have interested people.

Many companies have two way communication via blogs and comments – but there is something powerful about a real time chat where you actually get to interact with the folks behind a business.

Post from: Eric Friedman
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Talk to your customers – and let them talk to each other

In the last few years the research behind sentiment analysis has ranged from thumbs up\thumbs down and emoticon faces to more advanced methods.

A few companies mentioned in the article above are trying to sort out the signal from the noise like Tweetfeel, twendz, and twitrratr and others like Trendrr (can I buy a vowel please alex). Each has their own way of parsing data, mainly Twitter data, to mine the conversations for sentiment.

In the larger universe of analytical tools you have companies like BuzzLogic, TechRigy, Radian6, Visible Technologies, Viral Heat, and a bunch of new startups all trying to solve this marketers puzzle.

At the low end these services cost $10.00-$20.00 per month and on the high end thousands. Depending on what you are tracking, how far back you want to go, and how hands on of a solution you need, someone is building a sentiment analysis tracker for your.

The goal here is to track beyond mentions. For example, if your brand is mentioned 2,654 times – how do you know what the sentiment of most\some\all of those messages are? Where are conversations happening about your brand in the first place? How can you respond back to solve problems, answer questions, and apologize where necessary?

In thinking about the sentiment analysis market, I am trying to frame thinking 5 years out when brands will themselves have more conduits to their customers. Will systems still exist that brands do not know about and are not tracking? Or will the convergence of connectivity mean a more aware corporate culture that does not need to use yet another tool in their arsenal. Perhaps 5 years is too short of a timeline, but certainly they will have a grasp on this in 10-20 years.

I am curious to know what tools I should be looking at and how people are solving brand tracking probelms today. Let me know if you have ideas in the comments below.

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Post from: Eric Friedman
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Sentiment Analysis

Since starting this blog I have been getting an increasing amount of PR firms pitching various products, promotions, companies, and more. My information is easy enough to obtain, or you can even fill out a form and I like being this reachable.

Lately it seems that the quality of these email “pitches” has gone down. It is not that I write about them in the first place, but it is as if they do not even read blogs to begin with (let alone actually reading this blog).

It is possible that I have been writing long enough simply to have my email on some PR blast lists (annoying) but even if this is the case, the quality “requests” have gone way down.

Below is my list of greatest offenders, offenses, and examples of what not to do.

1. Ridiculous news story happens and CEO of X Co. would be happy to discuss it
2. New product announced that has literally NOTHING to do with my blog or audience
3. Interview available with person X but no context given for a reason
4. Product or service announcement with no link and usually 8-10 paragraph description
5. Feature launch for a company I did not know existed – PR firm looking for a follow up article
6. Paid links in an article
7. Paid links on the homepage
8. So called “sponsored” posts – pay per post
9. Outreach by a unqualified individual
10. Mail merge failures
“Hi :namefield: I enjoy your :variable: blog, and wanted to discuss….”

I can’t tell you how many times I get an email with something from the list above. I sometimes write back to give advice or feedback on the so called “outreach” and offer tips (seriously) and I have never ONCE heard back. I know these folks get the emails as I have feigned interest in later emails and gotten a response.

Either way this is simply a rant on the state of outreach and the so called “social media experts” that are everywhere.

Like always the personal and eloquent connections and outreach work 10X better than spray and pray but I have to assume there is some success rate as the volume of these inquires is increasing.

Post from: Eric Friedman
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Outreach, PR firms, and Blogging

Image courtesy of ShutterStock

I am not sure there is any particular strategy for current employees to do things differently but below are my thoughts on what Condé or other publishers should do TODAY without any delay. This could apply to almost any print conglomerate right now going through a dip, and the right team can turn things around.

I am writing this as a marketing, technology, and startup VC person and it should be looked at as a manifesto to fix what is currently going on within these organizations. I did not touch on the writing or publishing departments as I am not as well versed in those, and they could probably be left as is with the right digital team behind them. (perhaps even hire back some of that lost writing talent let go in the past)

From now on hire Net Natives – these are people that live and breathe the Internet and understand the underlying platforms, accountability, and plumbing of the connected web.

Take control of your web properties – now. The web needs to be embraced first and foremost and the physical products (read: magazines) need to be seen as a part of this new ecosystem.

Hire someone that is net native to handle and run all the hiring of Sales, Business Development, Engineering, Designers, and Project Managers. This is most likely a major role that would have each digital head reporting to her. Reproduce this role where appropriate with each property you have – some overlap or multiple properties can go to one person. Have this new team meet with folks like UnderCurrent and Reprise Media immediately.

Reorganize the sales force
Everyone should be selling strategic ideas not full page print ads with added value banner spots on the web properties. This means your sales force has to be net native too, and has an understanding of brand needs, engagement, conversations, and accountability back to their customers and who they serve. They need to understand how to use Business Intelligence systems, tracking pixels, and ad delivery networks all work together. Demographic and psycho-graphic targeting should be a walk in the park.

Have IN HOUSE developers
Working with the best digital team of developers\designers in NYC? Great – hire them all and have them work 100% on your properties. Take their entire team, a well oiled machine that is used to cranking out projects on time and under budget, and have them start working in tandem with the sales team to get amazing things accomplished.

Don’t have a team in mind? Hire net native engineers and designers that have shipped completed projects.

Let them have 10%-20% time to work with new technologies, the latest startups API’s, and other cool projects as long as they touch your properties. Give them a sandbox of your data and previous assets to play with and they will come up with interesting things.

Expose their work to your more adventurous readers. This is a virtuous cycle that will pay off.

Hire agile business development people
BD guy for 20 years? Probably a bad candidate. You want people who EMBRACE the latest technology, and can work with your new in-house developers to integrate the latest and greatest solutions to make your lives and your visitors lives easier. This means taking risks. You are going through a dip right now and the way out of it is not to continue the status quo and get blinded by FUD.

Cap the deal cycle process. Cut it to 1/3 of whatever it is today. 90 days from meeting to SLA? Do it 30 days next time.

No more wasting your own companies time, or the time of the other companies.

No more brain sucking meetings to get strategy, synergy, and strategic partnerships done.

Boil it all down; Does this BD initiative create a better experience? Yes – continue. No – move on.

Have great project managers
These are folks that can run and produce a project with a competent team of designers and programmers at their disposal. They are tightly integrated into the sales process – TALKING TO CLIENTS – and then translating their needs back to their team that trusts them.

Gone are the days of micro-sites that disappear after the brand promotion is over.

SEO is now your friend and you build on the foundation layered from each project that comes before it.

But how do we integrate all these people together?

Make up small teams of people that each own a project within the organization. Every project has a specific lead and small team behind it.

A flat organization with small teams working on solving problems allows you to comprise each team with one of the following described above;

1. Digital Manager would have the following direct reports:
a. Sales person
b. Project manager
c. Engineer
d. Designer

With this system in place every initiative and business line is accounted for. The organization can scale, as well as provide growth opportunities to go from smaller groups to larger groups with bigger projects. Leadership roles will emerge, and promoting executives from within as well as outside the company would become more viable.

Small groups would own projects, yet be contributing to the great family of products they would be a part of. Accountability and healthy competition would be in place and hopefully lead to a productive and great new culture.

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What Publishers Could Do (Condé Nast)

It seems to me that more and more companies are working towards what the cable and phone companies are calling the triple play package. This is where you get phone, Internet, and TV service all from one provider all with one bill, hopefully lowering the overall price and making things less complicated.

I have found recently that this convergence is starting to happen (or at least trying to happen) in the world of online advertising. I think the three plays in this case are Search, Display, and Other (which could be video, audio, etc…)

Right now there are specialized firms that concentrate on each of these areas; Search Marketing firms, banner optimization companies and ad exchanges, and video networks or overlay companies. Each is vying for advertising dollars to provide value in the form of results back to the advertising agency or brand they are working for.

In the case of banners, this process happens in the form of end of campaign (some in campaign) data as Clicks, Impressions, and Actions. This may or may not be able to be integrated back into your Business Intelligence system to track against other advertising efforts.

In the case of Search Marketing, this process happens in the form of daily, weekly, or monthly reports that have Clicks, Impressions, Actions, and perhaps a view other metrics. This usually ties into other search campaigns going on, and hopefully ties into your BI system to track against other advertising effort.

In the case of Other, lets use video, the process happens in the form of reporting surfacing activity, interaction, and clicks – similar to banners. The results here are hopefully exportable, but certainly not integrated with your Business Intelligence reconciliation effort.

Companies are now trying to integrate these advertising efforts together by using one delivery system such as ATLAS or DART, or one business intelligence system to suck in all the metrics in the form of .xls, .csv or other format and tie everything together.

For this data reconciliation to happen correctly you need a keystone or unique identifier within all three data sets. In the case of online advertising this comes in the form of a unique ID associated with each campaign down, and hopefully down to the specific row in the table.

The benefit of having a unique key that travels along with each creative, action, or ad copy is that you can then input the data back into one system to track and take action upon.

By connecting your advertising efforts of Search, Display, and Other together you get a Tripe Play data reconciliation happening which provides true ROI on every $1.00 that goes out the door. Without doing this reconciliation you cannot know your true ROI.

Currently this is not possible with less tracked forms of media such as TV, print, Radio, OOH, and a few others – but that is another conversation.

For the past few years there have been specialties in the forms of hybrid agencies with a ton of technology, and the last mile of service to get the job done. Many are working on solutions they want to put in the hands of the agencies and brands themselves. This is a complicated pivot for the world of advertising, and a complex problem to put in the hands of a media planner or media buyer within an agency.

I look at this as the last mile in fiber optics, something Verizon has recently started to try to solve with bringing FiOS to homes.

Fiber optics has been around for awhile and within the grasp of consumers – but telco’s have never been able to solve this last mile problem. As early as a few years ago telco’s were able to bring fiber to the node (FTTN) but not to the premises (FTTP). Only recently have we seen companies willing to absorb major fees and do 6 hour service calls to accomplish this FTTP last mile problem.

This is the problem occuring with high yield banner networks and high efficiency search marketing companies. Each have specialties and staff trained to use their tools. They are reluctant to take on a new medium let alone report on a new type of ad – yet all need to converge.

The self serve tools coming out of these companies are a good first step. Translating these tools into API’s that can be used across companies with varying specialties is the next step. Disintermediating the agencies themselves with this new breed of agency follows that evolution. Finally, putting these tools, concepts, and specialty at the brand and company level makes the new super agencies obsolete.

I do not have a time frame on any of this, and I am not even sure this prediction will come true. My thesis is based on what happened and what is continuing to happen to large agencies and what has happened in the television upfront buying market over the past decade.

Today, it seems these new systems will not reach the traditional agencies for some time. Only recently has search marketing expertise been brought in house, acquired, or built up by the large players. Some brands have taken on the burden of building themselves as well.

Right now the convergence of reporting systems, ad delivery networks, tracking correctly, and making each dollar spent accountable and as hard working as possible are problems worth solving.

I have had great conversations around this topic recently with folks working on solving them, and I invite anyone working within this area to chime in and tell me their thoughts. This blog is sometimes a free flow of ideas for me to understand a market and this post helps me do exactly that.

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Working towards the Triple Play (the last mile problem)

It is rumored that the NY Times is going to start charging folks for its content online. Would you pay $5.00 per month? Would you pay more? less? Blogs have weighed in elsewhere but I wanted to take a poll with my readers and get a dialogue going about this idea – below please let me know your thoughts.

Please discuss below.

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Would you pay for the NY Times?