How Does Facebook Make Money?
Facebook revenues reached $500 million in 2009, up from $300 million in 2008, according to Fortune editor David Kirkpatrick, who cites “well-informed sources” in his upcoming book, The Facebook Effect. Facebook expects revenues to reach $800 million in 2010. Where did 2009′s $500 million come from? Self-service ads, which appear on the right side of the screen on Facebook, accounted for about $250 million to $300 million. They look like this:
Read More: BusinessInsider.com
DSP Focus: A Multitude of Possibilities
DSPs, or demand-side platforms, are hot. The online trade press is full of articles and commentary, but the definition of a DSP is still amorphous. Is it an agency exchange buying business unit like Cadreon or VivaKi? Or is it a technology platform that enables exchange buying? For now, DSP is used interchangeably to mean both of these things. This will change as we begin to realize that the agency units are, in fact, specialized media buying units no different than the specialized buying units that have existed in agencies for outdoor, local market TV, newspapers, etc. They use DSPs to do their job – whether that DSP is owned technology or outsourced. But this current framework of specialized display buying powered by a technology to aggregate display inventory is too narrow. It may deliver more efficient display buying, based on better audience composition, but this is a relatively minor advancement from the client’s perspective.
Read More: MediaPost
On-the-Fly Advertising Swiftly Becoming More Commonplace
Time was that marketers, particularly package-goods marketers, were known for their deliberate pace. Media plans and ads were created months in advance, and mid-course changes took months. But in a growing number of cases even the biggest marketers in the world, such as Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever, are adjusting creative and media plans on the fly within days, weeks or even hours based on changing events or the shifting tides of social-media feedback. Rapid-fire changes may still be more exception than rule for big campaigns, but they’re fast becoming routine in a marketing culture increasingly driven by real-time data dashboards. Consider Scotts Miracle-Gro making weather-triggered ads the centerpieces of its marketing plans; Visa running ads in the last winter Olympics featuring medal winners within minutes of their victories; P&G creating new Olympic ads based in part on social-media feedback from old ones; and Unilever’s Dove Men Plus Care putting video ads on major sports websites featuring New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ “victory shower” within hours of him winning the Super Bowl.
Read More: AdAge
