July 4, 2008

• Larry Chase's Web Digest published 10 rules for ad copy - for search (PPC) campaigns.  The bottom line is that ROI can be impacted by a wide variety approaches - all in 105 characters. 
• Agencies continue to explore new business models - pay for 'viewership' and other performance metrics.  This as executives continue to move to the content side - networks or publishers. 
• Recruitment Campaigns: the marines are running ads specifically targeting women (and their parents)  while the Army uses tissue boxes to encourage teens to stay in school and get their high-school diploma and the Navy is using Bluetooth enabled phone booths to broadcast a short recruitment video.
• The ability to syndicate Information used to require large fixed costs (think supermarket data).   Now with the ability to use a news feed, e.g. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) ANY content can be spread quickly.    This makes the web a living, breathing organism -- with social type outlets being the hub of the universe.   The biggest challenge is that social media is NOT like traditional media with clear-cut negotiated spaces with standardized ad units and cost per thousand (CPM) pricing.
• No surprise, but Accenture's Global Broadcast Consumer Survey notes that people are more loyal to TV shows and content than to channels or networks.  This suggests that the distribution channel is no longer the key to media planning but content profiles are.
• The barriers behind cross-platform apps for mobile devices continue to come down.   Rather than having to write everything for every platform and dedicate a processor each to communication, applications, and video/audio.   By having a 'virtual' platform development time and integration are slashed.   This portends a whole new experience on smart phones - the new platform for content.
• Marketing Sherpa's Online Benchmark highlights the evolution of online display ads.  As click rates go lower and the clicks come from the same people (20% account of 80% of the clicks) the 'only' argument left is that display ads should be used for branding.   Yet, less than 50% use display ads for branding purposes. 
• Political Search - MediaPost released some research on how people search for political information.  First, the Internet ranks second only to TV as the most influential source. Positions on issues are what people want to understand - which makes for an interesting counterpoint to the sound bite - centric TV news.  From the report: 
  

  87% of voters searched about a particular issue. The following list features the top 10 issues that were searched for, and the percentage of respondents who searched for them:

  1)Health care - 49%
  2) Economy - 49%
  3) War in Iraq - 48%
  4) Gas prices - 44%
  5) Immigration - 37%
  6) Social security - 37%
  7) Jobs - 35%
  8) Education - 35%
  9) War on terror - 30%
  10) Environment - 30%

Understanding how people search your category should be paramount in the planning cycle.