Advertising Companies Fret Over a Digital Talent Gap

When the Ad:tech advertising technology conference hits New York next week, marketers, advertising agencies and recruiters may spend less time listening to the panelists and more time working the floor to find new employees.

A talent gap is growing between the skills that many new advertising jobs require and the number of people who have those skills. The dilemma, one familiar to many industries across the country, is particularly acute for jobs that require hard-core quantitative, mathematical and technical skills.

The talent pool, advertising technology company executives say, is not a deep one. And those who have the skills are in high demand, often fetching annual salaries that can reach $100,000.

“There is pain for hiring in digital at all levels,” said John Ebbert, managing editor of AdExchanger.com, a Web site dedicated to advertising technology.

“The marketers, the publishers, the ad tech companies, the agencies, data management companies — they’re all going for the same type of employee.”

Read More: NY Times

64% of Digital Ad Spend Controlled by 5 Companies

I was doing some calculations for my own purposes and wanted to find out what percentage of the digital media ad spend (search, display, mobile, etc) is controlled by Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, and Microsoft.  Well, after searching through their 10K’s, it’s about $40.1B, or roughly 64% of the worlds digital media ad spend.

According to a ZenithOptimedia press release on October 3, 2011, worldwide digital advertising accounted for about $64.03B.

Google generates approximately 364% more revenue from advertising than it’s next closest rival, Yahoo!.

With Facebook at $1.86B in advertising revenue (excluding virtual currencies/goods) for 2010, it puts them at right behind Microsoft but ahead of AOL.  With Facebook only now starting to monetize their platform, you can start to see how big an impact they could have on the dominance of the digital advertising landscape.

And of course, you can really see how dominant Google is.

Read More: Darren Herman

Will Digital Advertising Wait for Your Brand?
 
In the digital world, speed kills. Not the brands behind the wheel, but the ones on the side of the road debating whether to jump in.

I was reminded of this recently while speaking with a brand marketer for one of the world’s top financial services companies. Her company has been slow to embrace digital, only her hesitation had nothing to do with the technology that powered digital advertising and everything to do with the fundamentals of brand marketing. Can digital tell a story? Can it connect the right content with the right audience? And most consequentially, can it be measured?

All good questions, though perhaps not the ones I typically hear from brand marketers. But my gut tells me these are precisely the questions all digital advertising bystanders want answered. They deserve close attention.

The Most Interesting Ad in the World

So what makes a successful brand campaign? In a word: stories. Viewers are presented with protagonists with whom they can identify, and journey with them as they work through a conflict to achieve resolution. On TV, this needs to happen in 15, 30, or 60 seconds. But on the web, you’re restricted only by the enthusiasm of your fans. Consider the wildly popular Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” ads. While brief on TV, an impressive eight-minute web-based version geared toward the brand’s super fans has gone viral.

What drives brands like Dos Equis to seek out digital distribution outlets? It’s simple: customers. If brands need to take customers on a journey, then they must pick them up where they are, not where they want them to be.

Read More: ClickZ

Jumptap MobileSTAT Report: Rich Media Gooses ROI
Ad Network Releases September Network Findings

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jumptap, the leader in targeted mobile advertising, released its MobileSTAT Report covering network data for the month of September which revealed, among other things, that rich media ad units provide significant lift in click-through rates.

In an experiment, Jumptap reviewed more than 300 million campaign impressions, across several major Fortune 1000 advertisers that ran both rich and standard media with similar creative and messaging. The results were striking; campaigns run with rich media ad units showed prominent lift over those with standard media.

• One major retailer saw a 337 percent lift in CTR over their standard mobile banner campaign.
• A popular luxury auto manufacturer saw a 357 percent lift in CTR.
• An advertiser for a new theatrical release picked-up a 340 percent lift in CTR.
• A quick service restaurant acquired a 455 percent lift in CTR.
• A major athletics manufacturer saw lift of 214 percent in CTR.
• A consumer electronics company experienced a lift of 362 percent in CTR.

“The demand for relevant, dynamic content is growing. Advertisers want targeting combined with ad units that engage consumers and promote brand awareness,” said Paran Johar, CMO, Jumptap. “With ad units that facilitate user interaction including video and audio, rich media offers higher performance levels and greater measurement. These units, paired with Jumptap’s superior targeting capabilities, result in higher CTR and create powerful brand impact.”

Read More: Businesswire

Economy Fuels Ad Shifts From Traditional To Online

Advertising on social networks soared during the first half of the year, jumping 20% in the U.S. and 12% in the U.K., according to PwC. Those rates were above what the firm projected and are “fueling” the collective Internet advertising market, which is in one sense benefiting from the struggling economy.

Search remains strong as does mobile, with the spread of tablets and smartphones. “It appears that the weakening economy is accelerating the shift of advertising from traditional media to the Internet,” PwC wrote in an update of its sprawling media outlook for 2011-15.

Social networking is also playing a role in a buoyed TV market, with it “stimulating interest, and live viewing, in shows.”

PwC said its projections across the ad market for 2011 remain on the “conservative side” and below others. Agency Zenith, for example, now forecasts a 2.5% increase in North America overall, while PwC projects 2.2% growth.

Globally, the figures are 3.6% and 3.1%, respectively.

There are three regions, however, where the two firms diverge considerably. In Asia-Pacific, Zenith calls for 5.5% growth, while PwC is at 2.4%. PwC says strength in China and India is being dragged down by a slower Japan.

Read More: MediaPost

Google, Private-Equity Firms Mull Bid For Yahoo

Google Inc. has talked to at least two private-equity firms about potentially helping them finance a deal to buy Yahoo Inc.’s core business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Google and prospective partners have held early-stage discussions but haven’t put together a formal proposal and Google may end up not pursuing a bid, this person said. It is unclear which private-equity firms Google has talked to.

Any deal tying two of the biggest Internet companies would be sure to attract antitrust scrutiny.

Federal antitrust lawyers in 2008 thwarted a Web-search advertising partnership between the companies.

Read More: WSJ