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Pandora’s Changes Show What is Soon to Come?

By
Pesach Lattin
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0

A huge chunk of new things happening in digital marketing these days are occurring in the mobile world, as many opinions point toward the eventual takeover of desktop by mobile. While I think that will be very unlikely to hold true, it is hard to deny the growth that mobile has been showing in the past few years. More marketers need to begin focusing a larger portion of their efforts on mobile marketing, as consumers have continuously proven that they are beginning to use mobile platforms more and more, and even have begun to rely on them. Even though I believe that desktop internet marketing will not be rapidly diminishing in the near future, there is no denying the growth of mobile these days. A good example of what actions marketers should begin to take as well as an example of how mobile is changing the web comes from Pandora.

Pandora, the widely used and ever famous internet radio company, began making some changes upon noticing a huge shift to mobile platforms by users in late October. These changes were reported by AdNewsNow, and they are not exactly the most recent news, but they definitely show how mobile is affecting big name companies on the web. The company’s Chief Marketing Officer Simon Fleming-Wood is quoted in the article saying, “Most Pandora users now have never used Pandora on the desktop.”

The company started around the turn of the millennium, and since then had been mostly a desktop web radio service. What the company has started to realize is that their mobile app is seeing the majority of their traffic, and that their desktop web platform is seeing less and less traffic. In fact, 75% of all of the company’s listening hours now come from mobile devices.

So what have they started to do? Well, now seeing that they have started to morph into a mobile service, all they could do was keep their users happy by spiffing up their mobile app and focusing a lot more of their effort onto mobile users. By doing this, they will keep users happy. However, by keeping mobile users happy, the company will begin to see growing mobile traffic which leads to a growing interest from mobile marketers to the company’s mobile service.

I suppose the moral of the Pandora story is that soon, many internet services are going to see the majority of their traffic from mobile users. This transformation has already begun. Sure, people will still produce desktop internet traffic, but the amount will decrease by a noticeable amount. It has reached the time to start focusing a larger amount of marketing efforts into mobile and keep the masses happy. Consumers have gone mobile, and with them marketers will have to make the transformation. Traffic is now split between the two platforms, with some marketers still showing interest in only one. Pandora has done what many companies will begin to do, and marketers should be ready for the switch.

POF Creates Conversion Exclusions

By
Ben Louie
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3

POF is now offering the ability to EXCLUDE people who have already converted on YOUR CAMPAIGN! In other words, you will not continue to spend $ on people who have already signed up to whatever you’re advertising. In a sense, POF is optimizing for you!

We chose to do it this way because we recognize that advertisers or affiliates could be running multiple campaigns with multiple offers/promotions so we didn’t want to limit you in any way. Meaning, someone who has converted on campaign A will no longer see ads from campaign A but will still continue to see ads from campaign B.

The reverse is equally as useful as well! For example, you run a coupon promotion for Restaurant A in June and you’ve built yourself a list of people who have successfully reached the coupon page. Now, in November, you want to run another promotion for a different restaurant (Restaurant B). Well, you can target “show to converters = yes” and you will only advertise to those people you know were interested in Restaurant A and thus, have a higher chance of signing up to a promotion from restaurant B.

Like the “Clickers” (ability to target people by how many ads they’ve clicked) option, we have decided to add this feature to the small ad campaigns exclusively (110×80 text ads and 310×110 small banners). That is where all the inventory is so this is where it’ll be most useful! The minimum deposit for this feature will be $500.

So I repeat, this option is only useful when:
a) You implement our conversion pixel on your offer
b) You run enough traffic, the more you run, the more beneficial this option is
c) Have multiple offers to test out

Our self-serve ad platform is located at https://ads.pof.com and the minimum to get started is only a $25 deposit. I look forward to answering any questions that you may have about advertising on POF!

Do Your “Standard” Industry Contracts Protect Your Best Interests?

By
Richard B. Newman
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1

Even the very best business law attorney may not be able to assist a company to enforce a poorly drafted agreement.

The litmus test for the enforceability of a business contract often manifests itself in the form of litigation and judicial resolution of specific terms.  However, at this point, valuable rights are potentially subject to limitation and it may be too late to correct ambiguously phrased or conflicting terms.

Far too often, big money transactions are documented by utilizing a “standard” terms and conditions.  Bad idea – doing so can easily jeopardize contract enforceability right out of the gate.

Networks have numerous deals pending simultaneously, often with significantly different concerns and material terms.  Additionally, terms reflected in an advertising insertion order or an invoice may be in direct conflict with the principle agreement.  Commonly, inconsistent terms include unaccepted leads, payment, breach and termination.

There is simply no “one size fits all separate transactions” contract.

Can you live with the possibility of not getting paid?  If not, consult with an Internet marketing and advertising lawyer in order to ensure that material terms are both desirable and judicially enforceable.  Working things out after a business relationship has already started to deteriorate is not realistic.

Another common practice is the recycling of critical arbitration and forum selection clauses without ensuring that a dispute is handled in accordance with the specific business transaction involved.  For example, companies are often surprised to learn, after it is too late, that their very own contract provisions require arbitration as a condition precedent to initiating a lawsuit.

Contractual terms pertaining to how, where and under what circumstances a dispute will be resolved are critically important.

Similarly, limitations of liability in the event of a breach, cure provisions, the time periods within which claims must be made, restrictive covenants, attorneys’ fees and indemnity clauses are often glossed over and mistakenly perceived as inconsequential.  You must understand the nexus between these legal issues, the nature of the relevant business transaction and what situations are most likely to occur down the road.

All business transactions inherently involve unforeseen events.  However, drafting contract terms on a per-transaction basis will go a long way to protecting your interests and reducing risk.  Merely hoping for the best with your business relationships is not enough.

Information conveyed in this article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice. No person should act or rely on any information in this article without seeking the advice of an attorney.

CPALEAD Grows Revenue Through Mobile

By
Press Release
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1

We’re pleased to announce that we have completed a new mobile version of the Content Locker and a new mobile version of our dashboard which are available to publishers immediately – login through www.cpalead.com/mobile. (Also, see our note on Monetizing new and different content across various platforms)

In creating a mobile version of our platform, we’ve ensure that the CPAlead Mobile Content Locker is fully optimized for all mobile browsers which account for approximately 19% of all clicks for affiliate traffic.

We believe that this will translate into a significant revenue adjustment, up to 15% , for the majority of publishers given the current amount of mobile traffic that flows through the network and the increase in conversions we’ve seen thus far as a result of our mobile addition.

In releasing a mobile version, we here at CPAlead also believe that we are preparing publishers for the future as mobile traffic has been growing at a staggering rate. In fact, mobile traffic has doubled each year since 2009 according to online statistics.

With the recent expansion of our services, we are excited to note that CPAlead is the first and only business in the Content Locking space with the ability to monetize any and all digital content with you across multiple platforms, social niches and web properties (adult, crude and offensive material are prohibited. See our terms of service for further details and guideline or speak with an account manager).

We invite all of our current publishers and everyone in the performance marketing community to give us a try. Our Affiliate Managers are on hand and ready to help with set, optimization and more.

Together, we’ll ensure that you get more out of your content than ever before.

Using Reviews to Your Advantage

By
Pesach Lattin
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3

Reviews are not just for restaurants anymore, since a huge chunk of the world’s business takes place on the internet now. There are countless experts in the digital world, putting their reviewing skills to work on products from various brands and businesses. These expert reviews have a huge influence on a consumer’s decision to buy, or not buy for that matter. This is why a company called NetShelter Technology Media has released what they have named inPowered. This new service that they are offering will essentially help online brands and businesses manage the expert reviews on their products, and effectively use these reviews to their advantage, as so many neglect to do today.

The new service’s functionality is as follows, as stated in the NetShelter’s announcement;

The inPowered platform, first conceived with Samsung and other select customers, curates and amplifies influential content from independent tech bloggers to drive brand influence in a measurable way. inPowered ads provide authentic and relevant information to consumers to make better purchase decisions.

The company has deemed the service as an earned ad platform that will allow advertisers to pin point the most useful expert reviews, and then effectively promote their product on social networks using them. They show up on specific websites as sponsored articles, in a similar way as Sponsored Stories appear on Facebook. However, these reviews will ultimately be a more useful way to advertise, as they give consumers an expert opinion which is what they usually look for first upon buying products anyway.

The service will use a standard click-through pricing for these sponsored articles, and the amount varies based on sharing of the content. The experience is much in the hands of the advertiser. Once content is found, a brand can create one of these earned ad campaigns and choose exactly where on the web that they want to place it.

Here is what Peggy Ang, the VP of Marketing as Samsung Electronics America had to say about the service:

“This new ad platform from NetShelter enables us to introduce the Smart TV experience by leveraging key influencers. The new Facebook integration further extends this to our fans and broader tech consumers. It’s authentic, organic, turnkey and delivers an influence multiplier effect in a measurable way.”

This will be a great product, especially for electronics brands on the web, as these products are the ones that consumers often seek reviews for. Brands in the electronics industry will be able to use the positive expert reviews to their own advantage now, so that consumers can hear it directly from the experts and not be bombarded with advertising jargon that can often get confusing to the everyday person. Turning reviews into an earned advertising opportunity is a pretty great breakthrough from NetShelter, and surely it will see good use. The importance of reviews is much too often underestimated, and now it will be clearly evident with the success of these new earned ad campaigns.

Google Redesign Hits the Desktop Web

By
Pesach Lattin
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0

Even though people have for a while said that search marketing is on the road to its end, it is not going anywhere. Marketers are still as interested, if not more interested, in search as they were in past years. Another thing that everyone knows is that Google has dominated the search advertising world for quite some time now, and they show no signs of letting up. Google is constantly improving on their search marketing offerings, keeping marketers happy with the results they see. Now, marketers spend a lot of money on search, trying to get their results as close to the top of the results page as they possibly can. Something that affects search results more than some marketers think is the actual design of the results page itself. It will not matter where your results appear if a results page is poorly designed, because that is part of what makes people click.

I bring this up because Google has just announced a redesigning to their search pages.

You’ll notice a new simpler, cleaner design on the search results page — we’ve been working on ways to create a consistent search experience across the wide variety of devices and screen sizes people use today. We started with tablets last year, got it to mobile phones a few weeks ago, and are now rolling out to the desktop.

With the new design, there’s a bit more breathing room, and more focus on the answers you’re looking for, whether from web results or from a feature like the Knowledge Graph…

Sure, considering the design of the page where your search results are going to appear is not the biggest consideration that needs to be taken, but it is one. This new Google design, which we have already seen on their mobile platform for the past few weeks, will help internet users search more effectively. Not only that, but users will potentially have an easier time finding marketers’ paid results, which could make this redesign of even more importance. Nothing too extreme will change, and Google’s functionality will not be altered at all, which could be the worry for some people.

The same advanced tools you’re used to are still there when you need them. Just click on “Search tools” to filter or drill down on your results…

Google has seen some good attitudes toward the new design from users of the company’s search on mobile platforms, so I can only assume people will feel the same way about the desktop version. The company has provided images in their blog post, and the design looks quite clean and more functional, just as they’ve stated. For marketers who rely on Google to supply them with an effective environment for search advertising, this new design will inevitably help with advertising somehow. It may seem like a simple redesign could have very little effect for marketers, but Google stated that they are working on better ways to find, “answers you’re looking for.” This could mean that users will also be able to more easily find the advertisements that pertain to their search.

Half of Mobile Users Share Ads?

By
Pesach Lattin
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0

There can never be too much information regarding the status of mobile in marketing these days. It is not rare for marketers to have mobile on the brain, and information on how well it is doing can be quite useful. So, even though there have been thousands of surveys and studies conducted on the subject of consumer mobile habits, there is a constant search for more. The next installment of the mobile success timeline comes today from RadiumOne, a social marketing provider. They recently conducted a study that paid close attention to the mobile habits of consumers, particularly in the age group of 18-34 which they have deemed “Generation C.”

According to RadiumOne, this “Generation C,” has shown some results that stand pretty consistent with other recent studies and reports of this year. Here are the real important points and items detailed in the results of the survey, as were reported in the companies press release:

  • 47% of respondents indicated they have clicked on a mobile ad in the past 3 months
  • 54% made a purchase from a mobile device in the last 6 months. Of those, 32% made 1-3 purchases, 14% made 3-6 and 9% made 6+ purchases.
  • 79% of respondents revealed that mobile purchases are largely driven by personal recommendations (41%) and sales based content (38%).
  • Half of the respondents (50%) used their smartphones to share offers such as coupons, sales and ads with friends – at the rate of 1-3 times per month (31%), 3-6 times per month (16%) and more than 6 times (3%).
  • More than half (55%) of respondents used their mobile device to comparison shop at least once per week. Of those, 33% use it 1-3 times, 14% use it 3-6 times and 8% answered 6 or more.
  • 39% of respondents viewed between 1 to 5 videos each day on their smartphone while 9% viewed more than 5 videos a day.
  • 37% used a smartphone and 19% used a tablet device while watching T.V.

Clearly, the results have covered all the bases. None of this data is too much different from data we have seen before regarding consumer mobile habits. However, something that is not often covered is the sharing that these mobile consumers do. The fact that half of all surveyed users share coupons, deals and advertisements on mobile devices was sort of surprising to me, but is good news nonetheless. Mobile sharing could potentially be a key factor in successful mobile marketing, just as it has been quite important in desktop social media marketing. Sharing is always a good sign.

Aside from the sharing of ads and deals, mobile is still looking good according to RadiumOne. Social media still holds a lot of importance in mobile marketing, and it will continue to for a long time, as long as people continue to use social networks every day. The results from the survey do a great job at explaining themselves, so absorb them and rejoice in the good news.

Affiliate Marketing’s Dirty Secret

By
Pesach Lattin
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5

I wrote this article a bit over two years ago. I just re-read it and realized that most of what was said came true. Read this article and think about companies like Epic Media Group aka Kinetic Social or COPEAC that have closed since this article was written. Some bloggers have said that my articles are negative, one “famous” blogger took me on for saying this in 2010. Who was right?

I had quite a bit of mails regarding my last article and the changes the industry is going through.  Many people were interested in knowing exactly what was going on in the industry, especially which companies are probably going to go out of business and which companies are having problems. I’m not going to play the name game, but needless to say there is a reason right now for the enormous changes that are happening in the industry. Companies are announcing mergers, putting themselves on the block to be sold, and many are in the final stages of shutting their doors. There is a little dirty secret that is only being talked about behind closed doors in the industry and more a lot people need to pay attention.

Last year, several major and no-so-major affiliate networks grew in leaps and bounds from nowhere.  Many of these companies were making millions of dollars off of continuity programs, often with backend “flogs” and other questionable methods of promoting their programs. 2009 was a very, very good year for them, and some of them were reporting upwards of $20-30 million extra for the last quarter of 2009 in revenue from those programs lone. They went out bought other companies left and right for ridiculous amounts of money and invested in having dozens of high paid executives.

However, something bad happened at the end of 2009 – both the FTC and the Credit Card Merchant companies announced that they would start cracking down on continuity programs from Dieting, Teeth Whitening and the similar. The FTC was investigating these offers, and in turn the Credit Card Merchant processors were seeing enormous charge backs after 3-6 months, and starting to question the integrity of the companies behind this.  Many companies were offering continuity programs, with no customer service and little fulfillment abilities; customers were not getting their products, and when they did complain could never find someone on the phone.

Combine this with the continued complaints about fake news sites, credit card merchant processors decided to make a significant change in 2010. They suddenly cut off a dozen major continuity companies, refusing to process new orders. These companies came back from the holiday vacation, with no ability to charge new customers and suddenly found themselves without a business model. Most of the companies were somewhat virtual – they had outsources their own distribution (when a product was actually delivered) and often were being run in business suites in places like Boca Raton. The owners seeing that their days were numbered, shut down, took what profits that there were and left the affiliate networks holding the bag.

Several major companies that had seen huge profits over the previous quarter were now faced with not being paid by multiple companies.  I’ve heard that some of the major affiliate networks suddenly were owed as much as $15-20 million – much of it they could never collect because it was from companies that were basically non-existent, with no assets, no guarantees.

Here’s the dirty secret, no one is talking about. It’s now April, four months after all of this happened — most companies only have 60-90 days cash flow (some less). Companies that had announced in 2010 great expansion, possibly going public, perhaps buying other companies are faced with the real dilemma that they have a huge loss that they can no longer afford.

What is going to happen in the next few months? I honestly don’t know – I know as I mentioned in a previous article, we will see significant changes. These changes will often be promoted as positive steps, but be rest assured that many companies are making changed in order to save their ass as their investors, the boards, and the banks start to look at this enormous loss.

Read the announcements you get from various companies about their future – notice a lack of actual numbers. Companies are being sold right now, without any announcements of the amount, or marketed with terms like a “Deal worth $100 million” but not naming the cash amount of the deal. Since they are private companies they are allowed to do this, without actually mentioning the real amounts. The reason is simple – many of them are taking a way out to ensure they don’t go out of business, selling for almost nothing, selling to get rid of the enormous debt that they are about the encounter.

Credit right now to affiliate companies should be given sparingly. Consider who you do business with, how they made their money and more importantly if they can really pay. A company in a good position will often stick with what they are doing best, focus on their company growth – a company with a bad position will be out there looking for ways to save themselves from being shut down.

Obama’s Social Networking: What to Learn?

By
Pesach Lattin
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2

Yesterday’s election had social media buzzing, with countless political posts occurring every minute. Many marketers, I’m sure, wish there was this much activity on social media all year round. People were posting opinions, reading others, and debating all night, especially after the re-election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. However, it was not only the average, everyday internet users that were blowing up news feeds and posting like crazy. There were brands using the election for posts, there were politicians debating one another on Twitter, but possibly the most important posts were coming from the candidates themselves.

Not only did Barack Obama’s victory post on Facebook break some sort of record for amount of Likes on a single post, it showed us something about the prominence of different social media websites and networks in today’s society. This could ultimately tell marketers which networks they should pay most attention to.

How do the president’s victory posts have anything to do with the importance of social media networks? Well, it was not so much the content of the president’s posts as it was where he posted them.

As everyone probably saw, Barack Obama posted a picture of himself and the first lady embracing in celebration of his re-election on Facebook, with a message reading, “Four more years.” This, he probably assumed would reach the majority of his supporters. He posted a very similar post on Twitter, with the image and the message showing the same. This became the most tweeted Tweet in the network’s history. Clearly, a lot of Twitter users are fans of our president. Along with these posts, a different image was posted on Barack Obama’s Tumblr page, showing him touching fists with another man inside the White House with the same message as the posts above.

Barack was clearly trying to reach his supporters in places that proved to him to be the most populated by internet users. The significant fact here is that upon being re-elected, Obama made no changes to his Google+ account, which still shows him telling followers to vote. Furthermore, there was no announcement or celebration on the president’s Instagram page, nor on his Pinterest page. It seems the president did not feel that these networks were worth the post.

As we all can tell in the months before the election, these candidates and their campaigners do a lot of research into the hottest marketing trends, especially in social media marketing. They seem to know where things should go and how to get political ads seen. So, if the president did not post to these networks and nobody else did for him, what does it mean for these networks? I suppose that what I’m trying to say is this; If the President of the U.S.A, a man who needs to reach as many people as he possibly can, did not post anything to these networks upon winning the election, how valuable can they really be in the marketing world? It is something that puts a perspective into the social media importance levels even though you would never expect it to.

Driving Miss Data

By
Lance Hemenway
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4

Data collection and analysis permeates your life every day. From plugging your daily food intake into your fitness app, to the number of Facebook friends you have, to the choices you make about where eat, on some level data spurs your decision making.  Hopefully, it plays an even larger role when you sit down to chart the future of your sales and marketing campaign. Not only does your data serve as a road map, it should be in the driver’s seat. But if you aren’t mindful of your collection and analysis methods, your data could take you in the wrong direction. Avoid these common mistakes to make sure your data keeps you on the right side of the road and on the path the greener pastures.

Wearing Big-Picture Blinders. There’s no doubt that you have data pouring in from all sides. If you’re not an expert in data analysis, this can be pretty overwhelming. It might be tempting to pinpoint a few metrics for analysis. Resist that urge. Instead, take an integrated approach and consider the impact of all metrics to your bottom line. Think about how each metric interacts with the others. If you keep a narrow focus, there’s a good chance you will misinterpret your data, which could send you in the wrong direction.

Failure to Keep An Open Mind. It’s normal to have preconceived notions about what you will find when you begin to explore your data. The danger is in trying to force the data to support these notions. If you have to work hard to make your numbers jive with your thinking, you need to take a step back and expand your thinking. You should be able to get the same results using different analysis tools. If one method gives you a different result, don’t discount it. Study it closer. A different result is telling you something. Yes, it’s frustrating when the data doesn’t line up. But it can also be exciting because unexpected results can drive us in a new direction full of untapped markets that we might not have considered otherwise.

Ignoring Your Gut. John Naisbitt, a well-known global trends expert, said, “Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.” In other words, even if you have the world’s best data analysis tools, you still need to ask yourself if the results make sense. You know your business better than anyone, and you know if something feels “off.” Listen to your gut. Dig deeper if you think something isn’t quite right. You may be wrong, but you may be right.

Data analytics can be tough stuff, and fortunately, there are numerous tools designed to help you quickly and accurately make sense of the wealth of data you collect. But you have to be an active participant in the process. If you become a backseat driver, you might find your data driving you down a dark path.

Local Mobile Ad Spend to Reach $5.8 Billion by 2016

By
Pesach Lattin
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0

These days, without even considering mobile advertising as an option as a marketer, you may find yourself in a bit of a rough spot. That is to say, you probably will not be doing quite as well as others, since mobile is quickly shaping up to be a leading platform for advertising. Soon, spending on ads for mobile devices will be higher than anyone could have imagined only a few years back, and the digital advertising world will be taking a slight turn toward handheld devices. In fact, a new study from BIA/Kelsey predicts a 54% growth in mobile local ad spend by the year 2016. Although not quite as large as some of the other predictions made about growth in ad spend, this number is a realistic forecasting.

To look closer at the big picture, in 2011 local mobile ad spend represented about 0.6 percent of the total. In the even that BIA/Kelsey’s prediction was to become true, mobile would represent upwards of 3 percent of total local ad spend by 2016. That is quite a jump in just five years, and with mobile growing so rapidly all over the country, there could be a chance that it could exceed the company’s expectations slightly.

Do not get confused though, for these numbers do not represent the national ad spend. However, the company did predict that mobile local ad spend would beat out national ad spend by 2016, passing it in growth rates. In four years, BIA/Kelsey has predicted that mobile local ad spending will make up about 58 percent of total ad spend, and that mobile ad spending will reach about $9.92 billion in 2016.

What will cause this rapid mobile growth? Well Michael Boland, program director of mobile local media at BIA/Kelsey tells us some of the factors that will have an impact.

Growth drivers include smartphone penetration, location data, ad targeting innovation and advertiser evolution to utilize these factors for higher-performing mobile local ad campaigns. New mobile ad formats will also drive demand including Facebook’s quickly evolving options like sponsored stories and app install ads – currently accounting for 14 percent of Facebook’s revenues and quickly growing.

Local mobile ad spend has already begun catching up to national mobile ad spend, as BIA/Kelsey’s study shows that in 2012, $1.2 billion was spent on local mobile advertising, while $1.5 billion was spent on national mobile advertising. The company expects local mobile ad spend to surpass national ad spend by the year 2014, and then continue to grow its lead from then on.

So, it would appear the BIA/Kelsey is very confident in their prediction that by 2016, the local mobile ad spend will equate to upwards of $5.8 billion, 58% of the total mobile ad spend in the country. Local advertising is constantly getting larger and more recognized by advertisers, while at the same time mobile platforms continue to grow. Therefore, these predictions are understandable and quite reasonable, as long as local mobile ad spending continues toward the direction in which it is already headed.

Performance Marketing & Digital Wallets

By
Chris Johnson
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2

The much anticipated digital wallet battle invoked another contender in August as a number of top US retailers joined forces to create a new service for the mobile payment revolution.

On Wednesday, August 15th, a number of retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy Co, 7-Eleven, Sears Holdings and Shell Oil Products US announced that they are jointly creating the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), an application payment system that will be available on “virtually any smartphone” firmly adding themselves to the growing list of mobile payment solutions.

The interesting twist to the MCX application is that it could well give these retailers a true hold on customer wallets as it plans to withhold not just the mobile payment solution, but a combination of downloaded vouchers, gift cards and loyalty schemes enabling them to close the sale within the app – and keep them returning.

“MCX will leverage mobile technology to give consumers a faster and more convenient shopping experience while eliminating unnecessary costs for all stakeholders,” said Mike Cook, corporate vice president and assistant treasurer, Wal-Mart. “The MCX platform will employ secure technology to deliver an efficiency-enhancing mobile solution available to all merchant categories, including retail stores, casual dining, petroleum and e-commerce.”

“We believe MCX is uniquely qualified to offer the most comprehensive mobile payment options for consumers,” said Terry Scully, president of financial and retail services, Target. “By participating in MCX, merchants are in a position to effectively deliver innovative payment approaches that aren’t available today.”

“As merchants, no one understands our customers’ shopping and payment experience better than we do, and we’re confident that together we can develop a technology solution that makes that experience more engaging, convenient and efficient,” said Mark Williams, president of financial services, Best Buy.

Ownership of the Digital Wallet

This announcement is the latest to add fuel to the fire over who will own the digital wallet. It’s an area that has recently seen Google, Visa, Mastercard, Mobile Carriers and Tech Start-Ups creating mobile payment solutions – a heavyweight set of competitors who know that the hold they could have on this lucrative market.

There seems to still be an unsure timeframe for mass NFC-related roll out across mobile handsets, and even Apple’s passbook hasn’t launched with NFC functionality and instead opting for a semi-safe interim platform in QR codes. It’s therefore most likely an NFC-enabled iPhone is still some way off, especially with the recent iPhone5 lacking the hardware.

Involving Performance-based Marketing?

Where does this leave performance-based marketing? We’ve seen a real shift in how disrupting and influencing the customer journey has become the primary focus for many publishers as they look to create new platforms and offerings that are increasingly accessible to the ‘agile’ consumer.

The sheer potential of being able to deliver discounts to a consumers digital wallet that are redeemed either online or in-store (and payable on performance metrics) is too good to miss, however the shift in how advertisers and publishers get to the point of being able to disrupt today’s consumer is important. This move begins with the shift in online to m-commerce, and then on to the realm of digital wallets.

Avoiding the Monopoly

To avoid the potential monopoly that such digital wallet heavyweights could hold from the start of the customer journey to the finish line, I’d personally be thinking about how I can integrate with them to offer something different. How?

What is it that we do as performance-based marketers that these larger companies don’t? Is it about knowing your users, knowing how to drive them to the shopping basket or knowing how to influence customers to utilise you before and during (and sometimes after) they hit the basket?

This is an interesting development that I’ll be closely following over the coming months. You

Ad4Game Deploys Infobright for Metrics

By
Pesach Lattin
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0

ad: tech NY, NEW YORK (November 7, 2012) – Infobright today announced that Ad4Game, one of the Internet’s leading game advertising networks, has deployed Infobright Enterprise Edition (IEE) to support analysis of growing volumes of metrics that the company uses to optimize the performance of ad campaigns that run on gaming sites worldwide. With the help of Infobright’s high performing analytic database, Ad4Game is able to quickly mine terabytes of machine-generated web data tracking ad clickthroughs and other statistics, so that it can match advertisers with the gaming content most likely to generate conversions and ROI.

Ad4Game’s network represents many of the most popular online gaming companies — including Sony Online Entertainment, Disney, Atari, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and more — reaching over 400 million unique visitors and serving billions of impressions per month. The company’s customers include advertisers as well as content providers, with each relying on Ad4Game to supply detailed reports on the performance of their advertising campaigns.

“Fast, accurate campaign analytics are central to Ad4Game’s value proposition,” said Omar Tahiri, CEO of Ad4Game. “Our advertisers want to maximize clickthroughs and conversions. Content publishers want to optimize eCPM and earnings. This demands real-time insight into how ads are performing, so that adjustments can be in minutes, if necessary. With Infobright, we’ve found a database solution that can keep up with the volume and speed of incoming data, so that Ad4Game can continue to focus on what we do best: getting results for our advertisers and content publishers.”

Prior to deploying Infobright, Ad4Game was using MySQL to collect online data on ad impressions, clickthroughs, and other metrics relevant to campaign performance. But as the company’s business has grown, this row-oriented database could not keep up with the massive amounts of data being generated about customers’ ad campaigns, nor could it quickly turn around the kind of ad-hoc analysis necessary to optimize performance in real-time. The company selected Infobright because, like MySQL, it is very simple to use, but also capable of running even very complex queries on large volumes of data exponentially faster. In addition, set up and implementation was extremely cost effective.

Today, queries that previously took 10 minutes or more on MySQL now take no longer than 25 seconds using Infobright. And due to the data compression (up to 57:1) that Infobright is able to deliver, Ad4Game expects to be able to scale its analytics services affordably, even as data loads reach into the terabytes.

“Ad tech companies like Ad4Game differentiate themselves by providing value-added analysis that helps customers make the most of their campaign investments,” said Don DeLoach, CEO of Infobright. “Infobright’s database is an ideal solution for these types of businesses because we are well-suited to analyzing online and machine-generated data fast, effectively and at a very affordable cost.”

Ad4Game is attending Adtech NY, November 7-8, 2012 in New York City. Visit the company’s booth #2045.

Instagram Moves to Web Profiles

By
Pesach Lattin
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2

It is always important to keep tabs on the web’s more prominent social networking platforms, and one of today’s biggest hits is Instagram. People use the network to share moments and stories in their lives with their friends and family, but their claim to fame is that it is done entirely through images that can be edited and filtered by users with a few quick taps. It is not just the everyday social networker that is spending time on the network, though. There are numerous brands that use the network, some of them being brands whose names are commonplace in everyday conversation. These top brands tapped into the network early, and have since seen that it has a lot of potential as a very useful marketing tool.

There is a problem that brands and marketers have had since Instagram’s beginnings, though. The network does not function like some of the other more prominent networks do, in the sense that they are a solely mobile service. When visiting the Instagram desktop website, all that appears is a simple page, welcoming users to Instagram, introducing them to the network, and directing them how to download the app. They do not have a desktop version of the network, so all of their traffic so far has come from mobile platforms.

This is what has kept many marketers from taking advantage of Instagram as a marketing tool, I’m sure. However, an announcement that the company made today will have brands and marketers really quite excited. Instagram has decided to do what they should have a while back; the company has announced new profile pages available to users on the web. These pages will still use images as the primary form of socialization on the network, but it will now allow for users and brands to view their Instagram feeds on the desktop web.

Here is a bit of the actual announcement from Instagram:

You’ve asked for Instagram on the web and we’ve listened. Over the next few days, we’ll be rolling out Instagram profiles on the web!

Your web profile features a selection of your recently shared photographs just above your profile photo and bio, giving others a snapshot of the photos you share on Instagram. In addition, you can follow users, comment & like photos and edit your profile easily and directly from the web. It’s a beautiful new way to share your Instagram photos!

It is pretty clear why brands should be excited about this announcement. For brands that have not already started using Instagram, the network will now be a more effective place to put a social media advertising campaign into action. Not to mention, images and video are rapidly becoming the most popular content among consumers. As a newer and more prominent social media platform, Instagram will offer a lot to marketers, as there are a large number of mobile users that are already using the network. Since the addition of web pages is a product of request from Instagram users, the company’s traffic will only grow from it, and as more people flock to the site, there will essentially be more opportunity for brands and marketers.

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