The future of digital marketing? Part 2

The future of digital advertising may finally not end up to be interactive commercials build into a handdryer after all. After the rise of ads in videogames, like the ones in Xbox Live, things can get much more virtual yet. According to Red Herring, corporations are now rushing to join the virtual world.

This week Cnet described how Reuters opened a commercial office in Second Life, a virtual, three-dimensional world where users create and dress up characters, buy property and interact with other players. It followed Adidas, Toyota, Sony BMG, Sun Microsystems and Starwood Hotels, who all have set up shop there. With almost a million users who spend about $ 13 million a year within the virtual world, something is happening indeed.

In fact, more is happening in Second Life than you may think! This week, IBM has created an island in this virtual world, where employees can meet and discuss innovation. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technology strategy and innovation at IBM, explains it as follows (Source: The Register). "The idea is that participants – from IBM research and development departments around the world – can contribute whatever they feel is important to create a productive environment in which to conduct and manage "business"."

Message to Belgian advertisers: start today claiming your spot on Tatuu.com, the fantastic Belgian virtual world upstart!

Comscore metrics for MySpace in debate

A report discussed on Cnet last week claimed that more than half of MySpace's audience was over 35, which is kind of a surprise. The study from ComScore reported that 51.6 % of U.S.-based visitors to MySpace in August where in this group, up from 39.5 % the previous year. Now that would not go unnoticed by advertisers, especialy those who want to target the group below age 35 .

It is not clear however to what extent the Comscore data paints the right picture. Comscore looks at (unique) visitors instead of the MySpace users. The latter consists of the heavy user base, which can be more effectively reached due to the repitition effect. Since other bloggers debate even the validity of MySpace's own user demographic data, it looks like this discussion will continue for some time. No problem for our blogs: it's always healthy to keep a good debate alive.

Yahoo! commits to its strategy

Yahoo! is joining the Right Media Exchange, allowing advertisers to bid on its non-premium banner or display ad inventory, rather than having to go through ad agencies or networks. Cnet reports that the exchange has more than 11,000 buyers and sellers. Since Yahoo! is really strong in display advertising (albeit not yet in Belgium), this is great news for brand marketeers.

According to the WSJ, Mr. Semel told analysts on Tuesday that Yahoo! will be "laser focused" on improving its search-ad revenue generation, widening its lead in display advertising and seizing opportunities in the fast-growing areas of video, mobile access to Internet services and social media such as photo sharing. Meanwhile, following mobile-ad announcements by Yahoo! and Microsoft, Google was reportedly caught testing cell phone ads, but no details of a clear strategy on its part are known.

The future of digital marketing?

When contextual advertising gets a whole new meaning...


This is great prove that your imagination is the only limit. Go on, be an innovator!
Source: Engadget

What color do you choose?

Huge excitement and debate this week, as Google announced that it is taking over YouTube, the popular online video site.
To my opinion, this is a good strategic move, but at the end of the day, it is what you finally do with your acquisition that really makes it a commercial success or not. Then again, according to the Wall Street Journal, "online video advertising is in such hot demand from advertisers that the ad rates are sometimes higher than on broadcast TV."

Honestly, this last statement seems really unrealistic to me, because the online video experience cannot compare with the emotional impact of the big TV screen. It does highlight however where the next advertising battle will be fought. On the one hand, there is excitement about the Web 2.0 services, and with good reason. On the other hand, there are clear signs that the digital developments of TV broadcasting are just as promising.

The great thing about the internet is that, at least in theory, you can target your messages and measure your ROI with much more precision than through the traditional media. At the same time, internet advertising has yet to reach the emotional vibe of traditional TV and radio advertising, which is vital to create a deeply embedded brand connection and mindshare. In that sense, Google’s acquisition of YouTube provides a good hedge against the strong dependency on the more functional text-ads, and indeed, if used smartly, provides some extra-ordinary opportunities.

While the internet players may evolve to provide a deeper consumer connection to advertisers, broadcasters are gearing up to provide the same advantages that internet offers, but to a potentially larger group than internet does. With digital broadcasting, players like Telenet Digitaal, Belgacom TV and the broadcasters will be able to offer fantastic reach (including the 50% that are not on internet), targeting opportunities and ROI tracking for advertisers, while maintaining the creative emotional impact of TV. Online shopping and payments become a breeze from your tv-set, all within a safe walled-garden environment. It’s no surprise that international companies like Microsoft are also betting big on this trend with services like MSNtv.

And then we are not yet talking about that other upcoming digital battlefield, mobile. Cnet reports that MSN is partnering with San Francisco-based Ingenio to provide the embedded ads when mobile search requests are performed with Windows Live Search. Users can click on the advertisement and make a phone call directly to whoever is advertising--restaurant, store, service provider and so on.

That initiative even pales with the commercial services that mobile players like Vodafone and Orange are already offering today. I’d say, for all these players, the future is certainly bright… but whether it’s mostly Orange, red (Vodafone), yellow (Telenet), blue (MSN) or a combination of all colors (guess who) remains to be seen.