Tales From the Digital Side

This presentation is a bit long, but very interesting. A must see if you look at web analytics data.

This is great news! Google’s content/ad network that allows advertisers to run banners across many publishers has been a very consistent sources of resume submissions in many media campaigns. Up until now though, we were not able to track impressions level data and could only tracking resume submissions that were made after someone clicked on an ad. We’ll now be able to track those that see the ad, but don’t click , or post-impressions resume submissions (post-impressions resume submissions on average account for 60-70% of all resume submissions).

I ain’t measuring it no more! I know, You probably just got comfortable with using it to compare your digital campaigns. But the truth is, click-through rate (CTR) has little to do with the effectiveness of your campaign. If it is your sole measurement of your campaigns, you are probably not making the best decisions. Read the rest of this entry »

For most of my career, I’ve been challenged and/or heckled by someone asking/stating “Come on, those banners don’t work?!” or “Well, I never click on banners”. And I have steadfastedly stood by my graphic ad friends, because they do add value.

I’m not alone anymore! According to research published in the Journal of Consumer Research and more understandably discussed in an article by Science Daily, banner ads have an effect, even if you don’t notice them. Even when people cannot recall the ad, the repeated exposure to the ad leads to familiarity and that leads to positive feelings. The relationship between exposure and positive feelings is a direct one, with positive feelings increasing as exposure increased. This supports the value of using banner ads as part of your digitial branding strategy. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Life (SL) is probably one of the coolest marketing vehicles out there. It’s way more fun to research than your average media buy with the boring* rate cards, the comScore MediaMetrix or @plan audience profiles, Quantcast data, and lessons learned from past campaigns. In Second Life, I get to fly around, teleport, I made myself a business suit (if you’ve been in SL, you know this is possibly the lamest thing anyone has ever done in there), I’ve made some friends, scoped out some office space, I joined some groups, I visited Dell Island, American Apparel, and Millions of Us (THE experts on using this medium) and I acquired a bed, a desk, a Dell Computer, a bikini, some T-shirts, a chair, some dance animations, and some beer.
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Ask anyone. Especially any of the creative teams I’ve worked with. I am slightly (no, that’s a lie - extremely) obsessive-compulsive when it comes to optimizing the interactive marketing campaigns my clients are running. I can often improve ROI by at least 100% by carefully reviewing metrics and optimizing the creative for each buy on the media plan. It’s not brain surgery, but it does require some attention (and maybe an anxiety disorder) to get an interactive campaign to produce significant results.
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