IAB Declares War On Web Measurement Firms

DISCONTENT OVER THE STATE OF Web traffic metrics is coming to a head.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau late last week issued an open letter to comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings requesting they submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes.
Although the IAB has spent years pushing the two major Web audience measurement services, an audit by the independent Media Rating Council is more likely now because there's a sense of urgency and greater industry support, said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of IAB since January. The issue of bad metrics, he said, was the resounding issue that IAB members named when he assumed the job.
"The IAB and the MRC have been asking for this since 1999 and they haven't even established a timetable," said Rothenberg, alluding to the measurement firms. "Tensions are running high as the Internet becomes the center of all marketing."
The Association of National Advertisers is now onboard supporting the audit, while Rothenberg said he expects the American Association of Advertising Agencies and other trade organizations to join the fight shortly.
The goal of the IAB and its industry members is to achieve transparency in audience counts and to revise out-of-date methodologies, according to Rothenberg, adding that "despite a multiplicity of reported discrepancies in audience measurements, comScore and NNR each has resisted numerous requests for audits by the IAB and the Media Rating Council since 1999."
To establish the source of apparent discrepancies between the audience measurements of comScore and Nielsen and those of the server logs of the IAB members, the IAB has asked that both comScore and Nielsen obtain audits of their technologies and processes by the Media Rating Council.
Media companies have often complained about large discrepancies between their own log files and panel companies' versions of their traffic.
In addition, the owners of sites serving niche audiences say their traffic can be ignored completely because panels represent a miniscule fraction of the total Web audience and do not accurately reflect all segments.
"All measurement companies that report audience metrics have a material impact on interactive marketing and decision-making," Rothenberg wrote. "Therefore, transparency into these methodologies is critical to maintaining advertisers' confidence in interactive, particularly now, as marketers allocate more budget to the platform."
Neither comScore or Nielsen responded to requests for comment regarding the IAB's letter.
Media buyers applauded IAB's efforts despite the fact that they rely on a number of other market indicators besides comScore and Nielsen.
"We need those tools to be as [accurate] as they could possibly be, so I don't know why they'd resist an audit," said Sarah Fay, president of Aegis' interactive ad agency network, Isobar, U.S.
"But," Fay added, "At the end of the day, their numbers are used more as a directional tool rather than a holy grail for our decision making."
In the letter, Rothenberg asks for a summit meeting with the IAB's Board of Directors on interactive audience measurement, along with an agreement to a near-term timetable for independent audits and accreditations of comScore's and Nielsen's companies' interactive-audience measurement processes.

Microsoft Eyes The Future of Web Development

MICROSOFT UNVEILED TWO tools that it plans to use to extend its reach into the Web 2.0 landscape -- voice-activated search service via TellMe Networks, and Silverlight, a browser plug-in set to rival Adobe's Flash. On the mobile search front, San Francisco-based TellMe Networks launched its free, voice-activated search service. The service allows users to search for local businesses by name or category, and then either hear or view the result via their mobile phone, creating an ideal platform for contextual ads. Microsoft's deal to acquire TellMe for an estimated $800 million underscores the growing importance of voice-activated applications for mobile search. Microsoft, along with other technology companies, is looking for the next area of search growth and mobile is key.
Microsoft earlier this week launched Silverlight, a plug-in for playing media files and displaying interactive Web applications. Silverlight is part of a full suite of cross-platform Web development tools slated for release in the second quarter. Both tools will run on Windows and Mac operating systems.
Given the rapid growth of rich media-enabled content and online video, any platform that's able to compete with Adobe's Flash represents an important source of revenue for the software giant. Microsoft could face hurdles in enticing both Web content developers and the media companies that use them to switch to Silverlight in lieu of Flash. Considering the software giant's previous failed attempts at cross-platform applications, Web developers, bloggers and industry executives alike are skeptical.
"Microsoft, historically, has never demonstrated a commitment to maintaining a cross-platform solution," said Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen in a statement. "I'm not sure our customers or the people that are trying to deliver that content will have [a high] degree of confidence ... if they go with Microsoft."
Though Microsoft may be hurling anti-trust insults at Google in the wake of the search giant's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, it still has Web dominance in its sights and is moving aggressively on developing mobile applications for search.

WPP Invests in Video-Sharing Community VideoEgg

LURED BY THE SWELLING POPULARITY of video-sharing communities, WPP has made a strategic investment in online video technology company VideoEgg.
Working with VideoEgg, WPP plans to explore various types of video ad-serving methods developed by the technology startup. Founded in 2005, VideoEgg manages an online video ad network--the "Eggnetwork"--along with offering clients opt-in ad technology, which stands in contrast to unpopular pre-roll video advertising.
"Our clients want to understand how to use online communities to build brands and communicate with consumers, particularly younger consumers, who are spending time in these communities," explained Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital.
According to Rob Norman, CEO GroupM Interaction, WPP's investment arm, working with VideoEgg "provides a more focused way for our clients to participate in the growing world of social networks and user-generated content."
The Eggnetwork includes roughly 60 social networks with more than 15 million monthly unique users and as many as 20 million streams each day. Better-known clients include AOL and social network Bebo.
This is not the first time VideoEgg has worked with the agency world. Last year, Omnicom Group subsidiary Organic used VideoEgg's technology to promote Fox's "The O.C." The promotion ran on VideoEgg's ad network and destination sites including AOL, MTV and MySpace.
WPP has already shown its willingness to explore new media opportunities through investment. Earlier this year, for example, it took a 2.5% stake in mobile search and advertising firm JumpTap. Through the investment, WPP has joined with JumpTap to develop new techniques for targeting mobile users, as well as case studies for brands that are planning mobile campaigns.
Other agency investments in emerging media include WPP's backing of Spot Runner, which has created a Web-based system for planning and buying TV advertising.
Video networks seem like a logical next step for WPP. Indeed, U.S. online video ad expenditures are expected to total $775 million in 2007--up 89% from last year, according to market research firm eMarketer. To be fair, however, that number still only represents about 4% of the projected U.S. online ad spend of $19.5 billion.
Late last year, VideoEgg raised $12 million to expand the company's recently launched video ad network. The series C venture financing came from a group of investors led by Maveron. Previous investors August Capital and First Round Capital also participated in the round.

Google Earth Provides Images Of Darfur Genocide

Little more than two weeks after Google came under fire for replacing satellite images of New Orleans with pre-hurricane Katrina data on its Google Maps service, the Web giant, in conjunction with the Holocaust Memorial Museum, announced that it would provide current images of the war-torn Darfur region in Sudan, where some 200,000 people have been killed since 2003.Using high-resolution imagery, Google Earth users can zoom into Darfur to view more than 1,600 damaged or destroyed villages, in an attempt to provide the average person with better evidence of the genocide. The Sudanese government has repeatedly denied that genocide is taking place.According to Reuters, the remnants of more than 100,000 homes, schools, mosques and other structures in Darfur are now visible on Google Maps. These are believed to have been destroyed by the janjaweed militia. "When it comes to responding to genocide, the world's record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most," said Holocaust Museum director Sara Bloomfield in a statement. Added Elliot Schrage, Google's vice president, "At Google, we believe technology can be a catalyst for education and action" --although he had nothing to say about the replaced images in New Orleans. - Read the whole story...
Google 411 Puts Directory Assistance Under Pressure Business WeekDoes Google 411 signal the end of big telecoms' directory phone assistance? It certainly changes things. The days of calling 411 and paying a dollar or more for help appear to be numbered, as Google 411 and a bevy of startups offer free, ad-supported directory service. Those high-cost days have been on the wane since mobile search began connecting users to free yellow pages listings and Web sites. But with Google 411 and other services, consumer can now find people for free, on landlines as well as their cell phones.

Creating A Successful Online Video Campaign

AS ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING BECOMES more prevalent, the question of what goes into creating a successful video campaign becomes increasingly important. We have already seen that, as in all forms of advertising, some campaigns just come together better than and outperform others. We have seen that there are several areas that in varying degrees are critical to the success of a video campaign.
Some of the most successful campaigns we have seen are when clients execute a campaign that includes multiple targeting schemes, placements and creatives. This gives vendors and publishers the opportunity to try different things and report back on the learnings that can be used for future initiatives.
For example, one campaign utilized both Web-only video and repurposed broadcast spots. The company tested both so it could compare click and recall results between the two creatives. Much to the surprise of company strategists, the repurposed broadcast spot had a 25% higher click-through rate and resulted in higher consumer recall. There's been a lot of discussion lately about the need to bring Web-only assets to interactive campaigns. In many cases, unique and interesting digital content should be created, but when an advertiser does have strong broadcast creative, there is no reason not to leverage those assets online. At the time, this particular company was in the middle of an extensive broadcast spend so the collaboration across both mediums made strategic sense.
The campaign also included a companion ad, which turned out to be where the company learned the most. Through extensive A-B testing, it was able to conclude that standard JPEG and GIF images outperformed the accompanying rich media placements when it came to click-through rates. One test included running a companion video next to the video player itself, which from a click-through standpoint significantly underperformed. The creative that included more direct calls to action and benefits messaging delivered a click-through rate of nearly two times the video companion ad.
Overall, the company's perspective was to continue testing, refining and evaluating video -- because the possibilities are endless.

Which Major Newspaper Will Be First?

As regular readers know, I like to write about the newspaper industry from time to time. Not only did I work in the industry earlier in my career, but like many of us, I have a deep personal attachment to the product. I love reading news. I love reading newspapers. Newspapers have been in the news lately, with this week’s announcement of Sam Zell’s highly leveraged effort to buy the Tribune Company just one of a number of a number of “big” recent stories about the industry and the future path of newspaper publishing companies. So, with that as a backdrop, I ask you, “Which major newspaper will be first?” No. I don’t mean which major metropolitan U.S. newspaper will be the first to collapse under its own weight and shut down, though I do expect that we will probably see one of those yet this year, or early next. In this case, I am focused on something more positive. I want to know which major newspaper will truly and dramatically change its business model and recognize that digital is its future and mass print is its past. Which newspaper will recognize that the headlines that it keeps publishing about its own businesses -- “newspaper ad revenue down 3% year over year” or “newspaper ad revenue was soft again last quarter” or “newspaper circulation fell 6% over last year” -- are not going away? Ad revenue in most large newspaper markets will keep dropping 3-5% per year for the next five years. Real circulation -- excluding the tons of papers dumped on schools, hotels and the constantly-churning “free ten-week trial” -- will keep dropping 3-7% per year for the next five years. Those two things are going to happen. Major metropolitan newspapers are largely powerless to stop them. Why? It’s simple. Every day, fewer people are reading daily newspapers than did the day before. Every day, more people are using the Internet for their news and information. Every day, the cost of energy, health care, pension benefits, wages, ink and newsprint in the cost-heavy industry goes up. Every day, more talented people leave the industry than join it. Every day, someone somewhere launches another new niche media product -- many times, a print product -- that continues to whittle away advertising revenue. That is daily newspapers’ future, and they must confront it. What are most large daily newspapers doing about this? First, many deny it. Time and time again you hear them say “the decline will plateau” or “we’re just a quarter away from an uptick.” Denial is bad. It prevents the implementation of solutions. Then, there are those that grudgingly accept the decline but think that it will be long and slow and controllable, and that digital revenue will grow as print revenues declines, thus insuring the long-term life of the franchise. That kind of vision would be nice if the newspaper business didn’t have an enormous fixed cost structure, but it does. There is not much difference in costs to print 5% fewer newspapers. You still need the presses and the sorters and the trucks and the press operators and the truck drivers. You still need the newsroom. You still need the sales staff. Of course, you don’t necessarily need the baseball team. Most newspapers have been responding to their declining financial fortunes -- and loss of favor with Wall Street -- by incrementally reducing the cost structures of their business. They have been cutting bit by bit, quarter over quarter. Laying off, and then laying off again. Not only has this slow death killed morale at the papers, but it has typically been done with no vision for the future. The only future for those who survive cuts is hope that they will survive the next as well. Death by a thousand cuts -- not a great way to operate a healthy business. What else are they doing? They are mashing together their fledging and fast-growing digital businesses with their tired and declining print businesses. It helps hide the print revenue decline -- a bit. It helps the print folks make their numbers -- a bit. It creates the opportunity to tout a vision of “integration” -- a bit. It demoralizes and scares away many of the very best digital talent -- a lot. For example, anybody who thinks that online salespeople and print salespeople are alike, sell alike, think alike, or truly want to work together, has not spent much time with both of them or truly asked for and listened to their opinions. What should declining metropolitan newspapers do instead (and even those not yet declining, but soon to follow?
They should dramatically shrink their core mass reach product and its cost structure. When I say dramatically, I mean dramatically -- by 40% or 50%. This will not only mean publishing less in the paper, it will mean publishing a lot less papers, maybe one-half as many. Newspapers need only watch the U.S. auto industry to understand why they need to do this. They must get much, much smaller. Stop dropping massive, multi-pound treatises on people’s doorsteps that fewer than 5% of the recipients can even think about reading cover to cover, and instead execute a massive shift into niche and non-daily publishing. Print can still be a great medium, just not the way that most large newspapers practice it today.
They should quickly get rid of their sacred cows. This means everything from embracing -- and respecting -- content from their readers to selling off their printing presses and paper companies to changing the way they work with advertisers and selling them measurable results, not just space.
Stop or unwind the forced digital integrations. Their digital media businesses might share the same brand name, and some of the content, but the future of local digital media is worlds away from the past of print newspapers. Forcing them together only serves to slow down the immediacy with which the print side will confront its decline and guarantees that the digital side will never be a viable long-term competitor for the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of local audiences and advertisers. I am sure that I will get some flack about this column when I attend the Newspaper Association of America Publisher Conference in New York next week. But I think that most of the great newspaper folks know in their heart that I am right. The future of newspapers is not about a slow “controlled descent.” Things never work out that way. It is about implementing aggressive, proactive and -- for the newspaper industry -- radical changes to survive and thrive in the future.

Marzan Interactive Endorces Body of Truth by Dan Hill

Dan Hill, President, Sensory Logic and Author of Body of Truth: Leveraging What Consumers Can't or Won't Say Dan Hill is president of Sensory Logic, Inc., a scientific consumer insights firm that specializes in gauging subconscious reactions to advertising, store environments, and product design, packaging and presentation. Sensory Logic specializes in facial coding to read the face to learn about consumer reaction to a company and its offer. Clients have included Target, General Motors, Toyota, Capital One, GoodYear, Nationwide Insurance, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories, Texas Instruments, Sherwin-Williams, Staples, Nextel, and other Fortune 500 companies.

http://www.amazon.com/Body-Truth-Leveraging-What-Consumers/dp/0471444391/ref=sr_1_35/104-7972842-8968743?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175548736&sr=8-35