Matt Freeman: Marketers Need More Specialization, Fewer Agency Relationships

When Matt Freeman jumped from startup shop Betwave to Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mediabrands back in January to head up its newly launched division called Ventures, which was responsible for overseeing 16 separate agencies, he landed right in the middle of the action.  The day after he joined the company it was announced that Nick Brien, former CEO of Mediabrands at the time, and the man who hired Mr. Freeman, was stepping down to run Interpublic’s McCann Worldgroup. Mr. Freeman, along with Matt Seiler, global CEO of Universal McCann; Richard Beaven, global CEO of Initiative; and Tara Comonte, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Mediabrands, were then named to the office of the chairman, the new management structure that would run Mediabrands. But such situations aren’t really anything new for Mr. Freeman or all that daunting.  In fact, it’s probably nothing compared to the time his family moved to Italy and his mother informed him that he and his brother would be starting classes at an Italian public school that year. “We don’t speak Italian,” he remembers telling his mother. “Good luck,” she told him.

Read More: AdAge

Automating Success With Creative Optimization

Many sci-fi films portray a world where computers take control over mankind. It’s a scary concept and yet, in the near future, we may find even within our own industry, a world where computers make creative decisions for us.  But there’s no need to fear or panic. Unlike “Terminator” or “2001: A Space Odyssey,” these computers won’t turn against us. Instead, they will help us to facilitate smarter and more effective advertising.  The future is closer than you think and soon enough, creative optimization algorithms will change the way that advertisers interact with their target audience. It will enable advertisers to customize creatives and engage users on a personal level.  So what exactly is creative optimization? It’s a learning algorithm that receives constant feedback based on the user’s interaction with the ad. The algorithm changes the creative depending on the users’ feedback and can display the versions of creatives that are more likely to receive clicks, conversions, interactions or dwell.  By constantly comparing the results from each version of the ad, creative optimization automatically serves the most effective ads. Creatives can also be optimized to maximize performance for each target segment, taking the work out for advertisers who don’t have to waste time playing the guessing game. Advertisers can upload all of their creative ideas and let the algorithm serve the versions that users will respond to the most.

Read More: Adotas

The End Of Location Based Applications?

Bradford: Demand Media Will Take Out AOL First, Yahoo Later

Joanne Bradford, the newly minted chief revenue officer for Demand Media, seems to be drawn to seemingly insurmountable challenges. In her previous role as head of U.S. advertising sales for Yahoo (which she left in March of this year), she was tasked with re-vamping the ailing portal’s display business. Now, at Demand, she’s striving to increase sponsorship dollars for a closely watched startup that is often seen as a risible attempt at journalism, a “content factory” churning out articles and video made to turn up in generic search results.  Ms. Bradford talked to Ad Age about her new role and her focus on re-shaping the Demand narrative.

Read More: AdAge

Will A Real Advertising Conference Please Stand Up And Can the Rest Sit Down?

To what degree are conferences considered content versus sponsored marketing pitches? In the scheme of things, are attendees considered loyal readers or are they viewed as caged pigeons?  Going in, you know there are going to be keynote speakers and breakout sessions and Q&A discussions, all sandwiched around networking opportunities and recreation. Nothing wrong with that formula, even though I bet little has changed since Marconi authorized the first radio confab. The problem I have is not with the conference agenda; it’s with the speakers delivering “content” spiked with their own agendas.  Conferences need sponsors, to be sure. That’s how the conference owners make money. Much like media editors, they sell advertising so that they can afford to secure a place in which to deliver content that attracts an audience. Where conferences like the one I recently attended differ from respected media outlets is that this conference did not offer the veneer of editorial independence.

Read More: MediaPost

Comeback on Display

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of Internet display advertising are greatly exaggerated. This is especially true in local markets where advertisers, seeing a limit to what search can do, are embracing display ads.  That’s a happy trend for local TV stations’ branded content sites, which depend on display for two-thirds of their online revenue.  “Display is on a sharp rebound,” said Jon Swallen, svp of research for Kantar Media, which reported U.S. display ad spending gained 5 percent in the first quarter this year to $2.2 billion.  TV stations have seen their online business surge 26 percent in Q1 over Q1 2009, per the Television Bureau of Advertising.  ”Marketers hit a wall with search. When the efficiency starts to level off, they look to other ways to expand business, and that’s where display has come in,” said Eric Koepele, director of digital media sales for Hearst Television, which has seen display revenue grow by double-digit percentages this year.  “At the end of the day, marketers have to stand out. If there’s no brand awareness from search, they’re just like everyone else,” added JonPaul Rexing, senior director of sales for ESPNlocal.com.

Read More: AdWeek

Get Ready for the Coming Land War in Online Display Ads

Online display advertising — an $8.7 billion market in 2010 — is undergoing change at a pace not seen since Google transformed search and invented PPC advertising. The change is welcome, as display catches up to the market for search advertising in terms of efficiency and targetability. But, the transformation will bring a sharp struggle for margin in the online ad delivery chain, leading to a new wave of digital M&A. Online display, primarily a brand advertising medium (as measured by revenue), has traditionally been sold on the basis of sites and specific media placements, or via ad networks that aggregate sites into vertical channels. Now, with the evolution of online ad targeting techniques and the rapid growth of a market for consumer targeting data, it is increasingly common to sell advertising on the basis of audience, reaching individual web users based on specific data about that user. The data — behavioral, demographic, geographic and contextual — is generally persistent and useable across ad campaigns via a tracking cookie.

Read More: AdAge

Yahoo’s Interest In Foursquare Is Real

Yahoo is most definitely looking to buy a location-based startup like Foursquare, a CEO at one of Foursquare’s many rivals tells us. He knows, because Yahoo (YHOO) approached his startup for acquisition too.  A source close to Yahoo confirms — kind of — telling us: “We talk to everybody.” Our startup source says Yahoo has made it clear that acquiring a company in this space was a top strategic priority. He says that he’s reached out to other executives in the space, and learned that Yahoo has been talking to everyone in the space for the past few months. If Yahoo can’t get Foursquare, he expects them to pay ~$25 million for a smaller player. But startups aren’t biting because Yahoo has a reputation for killing small companies it acquires. He says that startups in discussions with Yahoo learn that they’ll be slotted into Yahoo! Local, but still walk away confused about how their business would fit into the organization. In talks, he said “seven different people claimed” he would report to them.

Read More: BusinessInsider

An Open Invitation to Customize Ads

I’ll be the first to say that last week’s column painted a fairly rosy picture of the current state of online advertising: advertisers work hard to deliver relevant messaging and consumers respond positively, appreciative as they are for the more meaningful ads. Any digital marketer will tell you, however, that many consumers don’t feel advertisers are doing them any favors. If you can believe it, they’d just as soon not get advertising that’s relevant at all.  If that sounds crazy, you may be forgetting how strongly many Internet users feel about their privacy, and how they’re increasingly aware that relevant advertising generally can’t be achieved without following their online behavior. Late last year, researchers released the results of a study on consumers’ opinions about behavioral targeting. An overwhelming 66 percent of respondents said that they “do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests.” That number climbs to between 73 and 86 percent when those surveyed are provided with further detail about how their data is collected for this purpose.

Read More: ClickZ