SEO Werkt!

The psychology behind how we spend our money is a wondrous thing. I’ll gladly throw down $1 a day for a Diet Coke, but I’m reluctant to spend $1.50 on a box of pasta that would feed my whole family when I can get it for less than that on another day. I’m also reluctant to pay for additional levels on my iPad games. I’ve done it once or twice, but it’s not an easy button push.

For whatever reason, mobile users will do almost anything to keep from paying for an upgrade – including engage with ads.

The data comes from a new study by the Yankee Group called “Redefining Virtual Currency.” It’s an informative read and it’s free, so you should check out the whole report if you’re in the app biz. Disclaimer time: the survey was paid for by Tapjoy, a company that is in the mobile advertising biz. Not saying the data is biased, I just want to be clear.

The report says that 1 in 3 mobile owners are downloading 2 to 3 apps per month. 1 in 5 are downloading 4 to 6 apps a month. Almost all smartphone owners and more than 85% of tablet owners have at least one free app on their device.

When it comes to paid apps, the numbers drop. 63% of smartphone owners and 64% of tablet owners have paid for an app. Smaller, but still, very good numbers.

It gets better. 54% of smartphone owners and 41% of tablet owners have paid for an upgrade to an app.

So, we know they’ll pay – but the flipside is, they’d rather not. Free is better, of course. Even if it means watching an ad in order to get a reward.

What kind of reward is worth the effort? This is my favorite chart from the study:

71% would watch an ad in return for a free coffee! LOL. Make that a Diet Coke and I’m in. I also find it fascinating that “paperback book” was the second most popular choice. Who says people don’t read? At the top of the list is the tablet app, coming in 7% higher and a smartphone app. Why? It’s not that tablets are more popular, it’s probably because tablet apps cost more. I haven’t seen a study but that’s been my experience.

Mobile users are already warming up to the idea of exchanging time and information for digital goods. 53% of tablet owners in the survey said they already viewed commercials in exchange for a free app download. I don’t think I have but I probably would if the opportunity presented itself.

Which brings me to the point – this is an opportunity for marketers that hasn’t been fully explored. Pretend you like to hike. You get a free hiker’s guide app but to get more hiking trails in your area you must pay an additional .99. Or you can submit your email address to a company that sells hiking gear and get the upgrade for free.  It’s a three-way win. The customer gets a personalized upgrade. The retailer gets a targeted email to add to his mailing list. The app developer gets a kick-back for every email he collects.

According to the study, The virtual currency market is currently sitting at $47.5 billion in the US. By 2017, it’s expected to rise to $55.4 billion. Who doesn’t want a piece of that?

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With so much going in the Internet and social media space sometimes it feels like you just missed something. After looking at this article from AdAge I had that feeling. It looks at the problem of waste that many advertisers are experiencing in the mobile space and how an accreditation process could give advertisers some solace that what they are paying for is what they are actually receiving.

The article says

The debate over the value of mobile advertising typically focuses on what effect, if any, it has on brand lift, sales and getting consumers into stores. But advertisers have been wasting money on mobile in the literal sense because a significant portion of the ads they’re paying for never properly display on devices.

Now, networks and publishers are being pressured to more accurately report how well they deliver ads in an attempt to legitimize the industry and increase mobile-marketing spending.

When you use the words ‘legitimize the industry’ that gives you a real good look into just how broken things may be. So who has gone through this process? Apple.

Apple’s iAd earlier this month became the first major mobile-ad network to be fully accredited by the Media Ratings Council as adhering to the standards the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Mobile Marketing Association jointly released earlier this year.

During the auditing process, iAd demonstrated accurate reporting of impressions, taps, tap-through-rate, visits, views, views-per-visit, average time spent, conversions, unique devices and unique device visits. Apple said its mobile ad network is more streamlined than others and that it only charges for ads that fully render on users’ screens.

This process is not cheap with a price tag of around $100,000 but right now a few other platforms are going through it including Google’s DoubleClick.

The issue is not just for the ad servers either. Publishers are seeing their culpability in this problem.

The Weather Co.-which had the 14th most unique mobile visitors in the U.S. in March, according to ComScore-said it compensates advertisers for any discrepancies by “overbooking,” or offering them more ad inventory than they paid for with the understanding that some may fail to render. The company also said it improved its discrepancy rate from more than 20% to less than 10% after it switched to using DoubleClick for Publishers Premium for its ad serving last fall.

Weather Co.’s VP-digital monetization echoed the need for ad counting to be standardized.

“There’s no agreement about how to measure it, and that’s just not fair to anybody,” he said.

Once again our industry promotes the measurability of online advertising down to the smallest piece of data but comes up short in delivery. At some point people will get fed up with the hype v. reality chasm that sometimes exists. But with mobile growing so rapidly and change happening virtually every day maybe everyone will be too busy to notice?

Your take?

Yesterday, Frank posted the news that Yahoo bought Tumblr. The big takeaway was this quote from Yahoo’s announcement:

We promise not to screw it up.  Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going.  We will operate Tumblr independently.  David Karp will remain CEO.  The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.  Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.

Yahoo (which used to be hip. . . but this is what happens with age) attempted to replicate the kind of wry humor you find on Tumblr with an animated gif that changes from “Keep Calm and Carry On” to the words Yahoo!, Tumblr, then the final graphic you see here on the right.

Wait. Am I reading that correctly – Yahoo + Tumblr = Now Panic and Freak Out?

Let me check on that. . . ‘

Yep, it’s signed Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo! Maybe tomorrow she’ll come back and say the account was hacked and she didn’t post that message.

Bizarre.

So here we are a day later and it’s all about the ads. Come on, you didn’t think Yahoo was going to take over Tumblr and not use it as an ad platform?

As popular as the site is, it’s been hemorrhaging cash for awhile and sources now say that it was months away from closing the doors if this buy hadn’t happened. Karp told Bloomberg that even so, he wasn’t shopping for a buyer. The Yahoo deal was simply providence. In that case, this buy-out is good news for all the Tumblr fans who might have had to find a new social network had things gone a different route.

Which brings us back to the ads that Karp has publicly spit on in the past. The last time Tumblr talked advertising, it was all about content marketing and visual design. None of this Old Navy ads in the sidebar biz. They were going to keep it native and creative.

Good luck with that.

Now there’s talk of building an ad exchange network for Tumblr using cookies to deliver relevant ads. In order to preserve the artsy nature of the site, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer says their considering asking bloggers for their permission before running ads on their posts. If they agree to split the revenue the way YouTube does, they might have a shot at it. But Tumblr’s audience is known for its anti-establishment stance so it’s hard to imagine that the big players will agree to random advertising.

Of course, Yahoo could always play the mommy card – do what I say or find somewhere else to play.

It’s hard to say how far the users can be pushed before they pack up their toys and leave. Tumblr is unique. It has elements of LiveJournal, Pinterest, DeviantArt and Facebook all rolled into one. There might be a similar start-up elsewhere on the web but I haven’t seen it.

If you’re an enterprising, young developer, now would be a good time to start creating another social network because with Yahoo behind it, Tumblr could be MySpace very soon.

ABC just completed their 2013-2014 TV Upfront presentation. They did it with their usual dose of self-deprecating humor and lots of jabs at the other networks. Their new season is full of crazy comedies and high-concept fantasy shows such as Once Upon a Time in Wonderland  (Is Alice mentally ill),  Resurrection (a boy returns from the dead 32 years later.) and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

With shows like these, you know ABC is in for another season of high ratings in the young demographics and lots of social media buzz. Because of that, the network is pushing forward with two concepts that will help advertisers reach that coveted audience.

First is the Watch ABC app. This app allows viewers to watch live ABC shows on their tablets and smartphones. Up until now, you could only use the app to watch rebroadcasts 24 hours after the initial airing. This is nice if you’re playing catch-up, but murder if you’re getting spoiled by your friends on Twitter.

As Jimmy Kimmel puts it, “now you need never miss your favorite ABC shows just because you’re driving, again.”

What this means is that appointment television is back. Instead of using the DVR (with its ability to skip commercials), ABC fans will be able to watch shows as they air from almost anywhere. It truly is the definition of TV Everywhere.

To go along with this, the network has changed their ad strategy to something they call ABC Unified. This is the ability to schedule advertising across all screens from one place. Ad buyers can schedule a commercial for TV, pre-roll ads on mobile and even Hulu, and I’m sure they’ll help you buy placements on ABC’s social media sites, too.

But what’s advertising without metrics? ABC’s President of Sales said that the network will be using the brand new Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to measure the consumer response not just on TV but on tablets and smartphones.

It’s a breakthrough in how networks determine the popularity of a TV series and maybe it will mean longer runs for shows that are popular online but not so much on TV.

ABC is also breaking a few other old school rules this season. Instead of presenting a traditional slate of fall shows and mid-season replacements. ABC has created a number of limited run shows specifically designed to air during the winter break so they cut down on the number of repeats. They also plan of delivering new, scripted shows 12 months of the year. Face it, the days of the summer rerun season are over.

Now, for all you geeks out there, here’s a look at ABC’s most anticipated new series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Enjoy.

Buying and selling advertising space isn’t very entertaining. It’s all facts and figures, boxes and percentages – it’s boring. Sorry, ad sellers, it is. . . but it doensn’t have to be.

Microsoft UK set aside the facts and figures in favor of a sweet, animated video series called a SkypeOpera. These digital shorts use storytelling to show how effective advertising on Skype can be. The current series is called Skype: The Proposal. It’s a five-part series featuring Charlie and Lizzie. Charlie wants to create an amazing proposal experience but things never go as planned.

In each episode, the couple uses Skype to get in touch with each other and with friends. Along the way, they encounter all the different types of Skype advertising. Each ad is perfectly tailored to their current situation (of course) and contrived though it may be, it’s still a solid example of how Skype ads can work for your business.

In the first episode, Charlie and Lizzie are having a video chat about meeting up for dinner. While they talk, an ad for 10% off flowers fills the right side of Charlie’s screen. Perfect. He clicks it and orders flowers for his girl then makes an early break from work. As he waits for Lizzie to arrive, his best friend pings him via Skype mobile to warn him that their boss is looking for him. Oops, too late – now Charlie has to choose between his girl and his career!

What’s fun is how seamlessly Skype and the ads fit into the storyline. If you click through to the accompanying data sheet, you’ll find that most Skype conversations last more than 30 minutes, 50% of Skype users log on at least twice a week and they say it’s a more personalized experience than Facebook. That’s why the ads have a 37.1% lift in purchase intent.

In the third episode, Lizzie uses a unique type of ad called a Group Calling Voucher to video chat with five friends at once. Currently, if you want to video chat with more than one person, you have to have a pro account.

With the Group Calling Voucher, a Skype user sees an ad offering this service free for one week. The user types in their name and Skype ID and they receive a branded voucher that allows them to call for free.

This is cool. Imagine you run a bridal salon. You could give the bride a Group Call Voucher so she can call all of her bridesmaids to discuss the wedding. It’s a neat idea.

The takeaway here is that a little creativity goes a long way. By using animated storytelling, Microsoft gets their point across more effectively than any chart full of numbers. After you watch these videos, you’ll see how Skype advertising makes sense. It’s relevant and intuitive and hey. . . the videos are just plain cute.

If you’re a Skype user, you’ll also get a kick out of the use of the Skype sound effects in the video. They’re so realistic I went to my Skype box to see who was calling! Charlie, if Lizzie turns you down, let’s talk!

You can watch the full series at Skype-Opera.com.

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You’re skimming your favorite tech website and settle on an article about ways to save money on your cell phone bill. This is good information so you read it without noticing the notation that says it’s a sponsored story from T-Mobile. Or more accurately, you don’t realize that you’ve noticed. Your brain caught it, processed it and now associates T-Mobile with saving money on your phone bill.

Ah, the insidious power of the native ad. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. . I’m saying, it’s a thing and it explains why native ads are more effective than banner ads.

Native ads make natural connections – banner ads are disjointed connections. Which one is the brain more likely to latch on to?

Last week, IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough presented an infographic that showed how much more effective native ads are over banner ads. It’s interesting because in addition to survey questions, they also used eye tracking to collect data.

The main takeaway:

Consumers looked at native ads 53% more frequently than display ads.

Again, not surprising, since native ads are tucked into the data stream while banner ads appear outside the stream. It’s kind of like pointing out (as one of my Twitter followers noted on a previous article of mine) that more than 90% of all moms have had children. Actually, I’m surprised that the native ad number wasn’t higher. If you’re scanning your Facebook or Twitter feed, you can’t help but look at the ads that show up between posts from your friends and family.

But the effectiveness of native ads goes beyond prime placement. Good native ads continue the conversation. If I’m on a tech site, I probably own a mobile phone and I’m probably paying a lot for the service – thus, an article about how to go mobile on a budget makes perfect sense. And it sounds like an article a reporter for the site would write anyway. That’s the real key to native – you could take the word sponsored off it and it blends seamlessly with everything around it.

Native ads are so informative and / or fun 32% of readers said they’d be likely to share them with friends.

Native ads are more effective than banner ads. Hardly anyone would disagree with that. Great. So why don’t we all just forget banner ads and go native? Because native ads take manpower. They take effort. They take massive amounts of creativity and artistry and that means that they’re out of reach for the average business. Let me amend that – out of reach on a regular basis. Any company can afford to pay a blogger for a sponsored post. If you choose the right blogger, that’s totally native. If you create your own branded videos and they show up in your subscriber’s playlist, that’s native, too.  But on a large scale? It’s not going to happen any time soon.

There’s one other issue keeping native down and that’s the fine line between content and advertising. Content doesn’t have too many restrictions, but advertising has to follow rules or you might incur the wrath of the FTC. Or worse, the wrath of Google! Google doesn’t like sponsored content. If their little bots decide that your carefully crafted advertorial is more ad than. . . torial (?), they could hit you with a strike that will cost you more in traffic than you’ll gain in brand lift.

There’s no doubt that native advertising is the way to go, we just need to be careful about how we make the transition from here to there.

The headline tells the story really but if you want more this comes from the DoubleClick Search blog

Back in October, we announced the beta release of display remarketing from search ads, which allows advertisers to use insights from paid search clicks to remarket to audiences across ad exchanges via DoubleClick Bid Manager, or the Google Display Network (GDN) — all with a seamless, tagless workflow.

We’re excited to announce that display remarketing from search ads is now out of beta, and is available to all DoubleClick Search customers globally.

And now for something completely different, a video from Google.

Happy remarketing!

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Of all the social media networks, Tumblr is the one whose users seem most likely to rebel against advertising. Why? Because even though the photoblogging site is loaded with brand name accounts, the entire site still leans heavily on the artistic and the offbeat.

The people who appreciate a Tumblr such as One Tiny Hand (photoshopped pics of celebrities with one, tiny doll hand in place of their real hand) probably aren’t going to respond well to display ads for Old Navy in their mobile feed. But Tumblr thinks they have that covered because their ads are special. Tumblr ads are content based so they’re hardly noticeable in the stream.

Right now they’re running a campaign for the film The Great Gatsby. This is advertising done right. The mobile ad invites you to follow the official movie Tumblr. It also includes the word Sponsored and a dollar sign in the header so you know it’s been paid for.

The official Great Gatsby tumblr is exactly what it should be – a glorious celebration of the fashion and style of the era. The majority of the posts are works of fan art like the one you see here. I love it when studios embrace the fans rather than shun them. Posting fan art on Tumblr is a no brainer and it’s great word-of-mouth for the movie.

Tumblr’s been on a quest to become profitable and this is a huge step in the right direction. Mobile is a must for them, since the number of people using their app has quadrupled over the last eight months. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had more mobile users than web users by the end of the year.

As always, the trouble with mobile advertising is the lack of space which makes any disruption all the more noticeable and irritating. Tumblr’s going for welcome and informative. So far, so good. Other mobile advertisers should take note.

One final note, Tumblr just released their first app for Windows Phones. It looks like mobile is going to be the key to this network’s survival.

Apple on Friday evening began providing its developers with the first maintenance update to its Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion operating system released just weeks ago.

Following an earlier appearance of benchmarks scores for an unreleased iMac and a presumed 13-inch Retina display MacBook Pro (MacBookPro10,2) on the Geekbench website, a second MacBookPro10,2 score has surfaced this month to suggest the model wiill debut with 8GB of standard memory like its larger 15-inch cousins.