January 28, 2008
Kudos to MSN Video for Mac Accessibility
I'm done my fair share of razzing the good folks at MSN Sympatico over some of their apps either not being compatible on Mac or being released way after the Windows version.
So, I thought it's worth giving some credit where credit is due now that the MSN Video Beta is up and running. It works well on Firefox on my Intel MacBook Pro. It didn't seem to want to go on Safari, but if I was them I'd have looked after Firefox user first. It will be interesting to see if it does eventually run on Safari.
It's a bit surprising to see the use of Flash as the playback technology, given Microsoft's usual loyalty to use their own Windows Media platform as well as their rising star, Silverlight.
Regardless, the MSN video portal content is great, so it's nice to have access.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 14, 2007
Making change happen faster in Adland
It seems like a lot of blogs ramble on about things that the author thinks should happen or their opinion on what did happen.
This role of reporting or offering opinion is all well and good, but in some ways I think it's follows traditional journalism a little too closely. For those of us interested in being agents of change, what if we put a little more effort into writing in such a way to practically help the process of change actually happen.
Got your client to make the leap to skip TV in the ad budget and plunk it down on online? How about sharing that with the rest of the group.
I find that anecdotal stories are often more persuasive than a stack of research, especially if it's a story about a recognizable brand and the story ended well. And if the client is leaning towards it, it just might the nudge to get them to take the leap.
So, here' my short list of ideas:
1) Make plans when you are budgeting to allocate to online advertising well up front of developing the campaign media plan.
Halfway through the year or the campaign is not the time to come up with some brilliant strategy for the use of online. In fact, it may take you a couple of years to win the battle, but keep bringing it up. Change takes time.
The best conversation I ever had with a client in terms of results of getting more focus in online advertising went something like this in a budget meeting:
"I'm thinking this year I'd like to spend half our ad budget in online media. Whaddya think?"
And there's been no looking back since then. It's been a wonderful success all around.
2) When you're pitching that big online media plan in the planning meeting, have some strong creative concepts to go with it.
Let's be honest. Budgeting is a rational process but like any decision, it's also emotional. If you're pitching an idea, be excited about it! And have a really good idea so other people can get excited about it too!!
Everyone loves to work on new and interesting things as long as they don't feel like it's putting them in a risky position. You need to create enthusiam and be able to make it happen.
If you can't do those two things, you're not going to be able to move the yardsticks.
3) Allow yourself extra time to execute the new big idea.
If it's a big idea or novel, you probably haven't done it ten times already. So, allow yourself some extra time to make it happen. The last thing you want is be late on delivering the big idea you got everyone so excited about. It's nice if it's a positive experience all around.
4) Make a big deal out the results once they come in.
We're trying to change old patterns of doing things. It needs to be crystal clear to all involved that this new way of doing things works so that it ultimately becomes the way that things are done.
You can tell a lot about an organization's priorities by where the resources are allocated. Go and fight for you piece of it. Once you do that, you can make all your best laid plans come to be.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 1:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2007
Massive Opportunity - An In-Game Advertising POV
I'll be candid.
I am really tired of a lot of advertising out there.
That might sound like something odd to say for someone in advertising, but I feel that way for the most part because I know most conventional advertising is largely ineffective at reaching me - a high-value demo (if I do say so myself). As an example, I watch a high-definition channel from my local cable provider that is programmed out of Toronto instead of locally. I listen to very little radio - only a few minutes a day in the car. Other than the music I listen to is from iTunes. I don't read the local newspaper. The most news I get is from the Globe and Mail RSS feed in Google's Gmail.
One thing I have been excited about is the in-game advertising offering available through Massive Incorporated, one of Microsoft's recent acquisitions. I became acquainted with this company before all that and I really like what they are doing for advertising.
Here are some thoughts on why I think in-game advertising is such a good media placement.
Perhap the biggest merit of in game-advertising is that the ad is placed in an environment where the user's attention is extremely focussed.
Have you every talked to someone playing a video game? You don't exist. And God-forbid you walk in front of the TV! They will freak out/or try to look past you to continue what they were doing before the interruption. There are no potty breaks or PVR fast forwarding as there is with broadcast television. And it's hard to ignore because it's embedded in the game environment - unlike convential banner advertising that we have all learned to ignore because it's existence on the page in no way supports our agenda as a user and is generally placed on the periphery of the content.
It's the most measurable placement in it's delivery of a quality impression.
Massive counts an impression once it has been on screen for a cumulative 10 secs. A 9 second impression doesn't count or cost anything. So when you pay for an impression you know it has been seen. This is its biggest advantage over any banner ad (it's closest sibling to an existing media choice by technical definition). You can not measure how many times a consumer has looked at your banner ad. You only know when the web browser has requested it from the server and placed it somewhere in a webpage. There is no way of know if the user has scrolled past it on the page or more than likely not paid a bit of attention to it because they are looking at the part of the page that they are interested in (which I'm sorry to say is not the ads). In this way, I would argue the length of the impression and the placement of the impression are far superior.
There is a certain caché of the in-game the placement by positioning your brand as a peer with the other advertisers currently doing placements in this channel.
This one is hard to quantify but would you rather have an ad in Fortune or the local chamber pub if the same amount of people would see it? Would you rather appear beside an ad for some other global brand or appear alongside a local restaurant or auto dealer? Placing an ad in a game has the benefit of placing you alongside other global brands that are placing ads. In the process, I think this demonstrates a higher brand value and esteem because of the company you are keeping as an advertiser.
First mover advantage.
This stuff is new. It's good positioning for a brand to be where the new things are happening. And if you place localized ad (that they can offer by measn of IP geotargetting), it's going to be noticed by users - especially now when it's new.
It's a more modern & immersive type of placement.
The usual "content you like" then "ads to pay the bills" then "content you like" then "more ads to pay the bills" is getting a bit old in places. Branded content and product placement is a big growth area in advertising (some would argue the future of advertising - I hope to goodness it'll be tastefully done) but it makes it difficult for local brands to play the game because their audience and brand is geographically constrained. While no character in the game is going to interact virtually with your product in the game (today anyway - tomorrow maybe), this is an opportunity to secure a more immersive ad placement than the usual fare and I think that makes it a little more palatable to a cynical and advertising-weary public.
It's skews towards the elusive 18-34 demo which is often identified as a key audience but is hard to find in conventional media placements.
They've fled radio. They multitask on the computer (likely chatting on MSN) while watching television. Forget most print. Gaming has become a social hub with new web-networked consoles and voice communication connecting you with your friends during game play. And if they've left conventional media, it's been to come here.
It's a media placement that gives access to early technology adopters and influencers.
Find someone who gaming on an XBOX360 console and you've got someone at ease with technology, an early adopter and very likely someone who influences the technology decisions of those around them. Take me as an example - since buying an Apple computer in the spring - two other Apple computers have been purchased by members of my family because of my influence. Influencers are a worthy target when promoting technology-based products or services.
It's inexpensive to get in the door and an excellent value in comparison to other electronic placements.
In my opinion, it's a very modest investment for chance to delve into and gain some experience in an emerging online marketing opportunity alongside the big boys. The CPM may be higher than a conventional banner ad but it's well worth it. Industry click-throughs on banner ads are well below one percent. Banner ads are much weaker in terms of recall. (I'd defy anyone to recall a half dozen they saw yesterday). Frankly, I'd value an in-game ad at 10 times a conventional banner ad for all of the reasons above.
So, it's been interesting to see the brands that are placing advertising. It's generally the leading-edge clients and agencies with larger budgets that are pushing forward. I know Taxi has been placing ads for BMW Mini (good on ya!). I know some telcos and cellphone providers are advertising. As more agencies and clients figure out the value proposition here, it could get pricey and exclusive. But depending on how game title developers react to the demand for an 18-34 male demo, they may add a bunch of ad inventory opportunities into the game (but at the risk of gamer backlash). This is a delicate balance for them and I expect this will change something in terms of the consumer model for game pricing.
I'm going to be talking more about this. It's the most interesting and worthwhile ad product I've seen in a long time.
Advertising NEEDS more of this kind of thing...
Check out the Massive website at:
Posted by Derek Leverington at 10:08 PM
September 23, 2006
iTunes tries to sing a different tune
Naming is one of the most underemphasized aspects of brand design.
The most common mistake - names that are too abstract or non-descriptive - often done in the name of sounding cool or creative. One of the best practices - naming a product/service so that it associates itself with the product category without explanation - so I kind of get it after just hearing the name.
One of the better examples in recent memory of good product naming - iTunes.
This has it's own catch-22. What about something wonderfully named like iTunes when you want to expand the offering to video-based content when the name suggests a music-based offering.
Well, it looks like the first thing Apple did is quit calling it the iTunes Music Store in favour of shortening it to iTunes Store. (At least, that's how it appear in my lamer Canadian version where I can't actually purchase movies).
I'm really interested in seeing how this works out. Success in one category doesn't alway ensure success in a seemingly related market. And the competitors are started to stack up in this category with several other recent high-profile video download launches - Amazon among them.
I'm watching this case study with interest. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Apple evolves the naming of iTunes gradually to position the brand for market leadership success in the movie and video content category. Although currently used to name their simple video editing software - the name iMovie is kicking around the stable.
They face some challenges though. The name is one. The other is that they are up against a more sophisticated digital right management technology in Microsoft's Windows Media DRM. Fancier technology affords control is this is the kind of thing that content owners like Hollywood studios get seduced by. Although for all the WM DRM technology innovation, Microsoft and partners have come nowhere near replicating iTunes success.
And I don't care how wonderful the Zune is - Microsoft is at a huge disadvantage is trying to make up ground in this race. This isn't like switching where you buy your cup of coffee. Consider the collective consumer investment in iPod players, the money spent on proprietary iTunes songs and getting used to the best user experience around - I'm not going to be switching to anything else anytime soon and I don't think I'm alone in that view.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 9:41 PM
April 17, 2006
Some marketers get on new marketing opps, some just don't
I loved that Burger King is looking at developing it own video game:
Via www.kotaku.com
It's been amazing to me as I've watched companies like Burger King out there making creating opportunties that more companies aren't more eager to look at new innovative ways to reach their audiences. Most are content to sit around and let the first mover advantage go to someone else.
I'm not sure if CP+B is behind this initiative too, but the growth in the equity in the BK brand in the last 3 or 4 years has been unbelievable. BK has been the best example out there in my opinion for a company creating new touchpoints with their audience using technology.
I'm going to land a copy of the BK game for my XBOX for sure.
And undoubtedly buy way more burgers...
Posted by Derek Leverington at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 5, 2005
Scary Viral
http://www.schooliscoming.com/
There's a first time for everything and this viral is particularly scary.
Not that the content is frightening, the scary part is that my 8-year old daughter heard about it before I did, RSS-bearing interactive geek that I am.
Now that's scaring me.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)