Ad Sales Blog

Join me for a FREE digital magazine webinar tomorrow

On November 3rd I will again be talking about the next generation of digital magazines on a webinar entitled , "Digital Magazines - Strategies for Today & Tomorrow" run by BtoB and BtoB's Media Business magazines. Needless to say, I'll be in charge of the "tomorrow" part. Show time is at 2 PM EST. I'll be presenting along with Brigitte Johnson, Executive Editor, Tree Farmer Magazine.

Registerr for free

Special thanks to the webinar sponsor, Nxtbook Media who is also a sponsor for the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project   

See my Folio show digital magazine presentation on demand

You can see my Folio Conference presentation featuring preliminary research from the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project.

It takes a little work but it is free: first go to this link and egister: http://www.folioshow.com/virtual/registration.

 Next, continue with free registration. It will tell you thanks for registering. Close the window and you should get an e-mail in your inbox.

2. Open the e-mail. Make sure you are able to view pictures in your -email viewer. If you use Outlook and it blocks graphics, right click on any graphic and click “download pictures”

3. You will see a large red button that says “Enter.” You will need to disable pop-ups and click the button.

4. Now log in using the user name and password from your registration.

5. As you enter the screen click on “Theater” then  scroll ALL the way down on the left until you see a yellow button that says “Click Here to View On Demand Presentations.” 

6. After you get to the theater screen, scroll right to the “Spotlight Symposium on Digital Magazines” section. Then click on “The Opportunity for Cost Reduction and Revenue Growth” and to view the presentation.

It's a little work to get there. I hope it's worth it.

 

How Chris Brogan walks the walk

Social media guru and uberblogger Chris Broganwas coming to town. I was going to see him and Tweeted about it. Having never met Brogan I was surprised and delighted to receive a funny Tweet back (on left). 

I got a laugh but insight as well.In Chris' response was reinforced many social media best practices.

First, as with implementing any social media program, Chris listened before he acted. He must have been monitoring social media networks, including Twitter, and noticed my Tweet about his upcoming appearance.

Second, as with any social media program, his response had a conversational, personal style. In this case, along with his wonderful sense of humor. 

Finally, he was starting to build a community. Every presentation is a community building event; in the best a presenter arrives before a crowd of unrelated people, speaks, and leaves behind a community of people with shared interest, knowledge, and passion. Brogan was starting his community building even before he stood before his audience.  

The Trust Summitwhere Brogan spoke along with Julien Smith, David Maister, and Charles H. Green was a tremendous success.

I especially enjoyed seeing Charlie Green, who long ago almost single handedly created the conversation about trust in business, share the stage with Brogan who advocates social media tools as the new trust builders. The two shared common values and different styles. All the presenters were terrific.  

 

UK follows Denmark as second country where Internet ad revenue overtakes TV

In the US where television advertising still commands the largest share of ad dollars what has happened in the UK is unthinkable; Internet advertising revenue has surpassed TV ad revenue for the first time. From a recent report in the The Guardian newspaper: 

 The UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75bn online spend in the first six months of the year.

UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the six months to the end of June, a 4.6% year-on-year increase, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. To put this in perspective, in 1998, when the IAB first measured internet advertising, just £19.4m was spent online.

The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.

The IAB's figures show that of the total of £1.75bn spent on internet advertising, £1.05bn, or 60%, was spent on search advertising on websites including Google, up 6.8% year on year.

The UK is not the first country where internet ad spend has overtaken TV spend, Denmark reached the milestone about six months ago. But it is the first major economy to do so.

How soon do you think this will happen in the US? 

Read the entire article in the Guardian 

Oct 27th: The day publishers learn to sell ads in digital magazines

After months of research, I will be sharing initial findings from the study I have been managing, The Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project. On October 27th I will present at two venues. First, a live address in New York at the DPAC4 conference along with crusty publishing legend Bob Sacks who will be keeping me on my toes. Click on the banner and go the DPAC4 site for details:    

Here is my session description:

2:15pm: Can Digital Magazines Become a Widely Accepted Advertising Platform? Josh Gordon thinks so. As director of the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project he has interviewed the pioneering publishers now successfully selling advertising into “interactive magazines” which, unlike digital replicas of print publications, are designed to be digital from the start. Gordon will share the two success principles interactive magazine publishers must embrace, and present preliminary findings from the first ever study focusing on just interactive magazine readers. If you work in marketing, this presentation will state the case for advertising in interactive magazines, if you are a magazine publisher you may see the future of your business. Speakers: Josh Gordon, Director, The Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project & Bob Sacks, Publisher, Precision Media Group.

Later that same day... If you are not in NY or cannot swing the DPAC admission(about $600) you can register for a FREE webcast as part of the Annual Folio Show Digital Magazine Symposium. For the first time ever the annual Folio conference is virtual. Admission for the entire program is free if you register. Click here to register.

My session will be part of the digital magazine track: 3:00-3:45 p.m. SESSION A: THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR COST REDUCTION AND REVENUE GROWTH

I hope you can join me for one of these sessions!

PS: On November 3rd I will again be talking about the next generation of digital magazines on a webinar entitled , "Digital Magazines - Strategies for Today & Tomorrow" run by BtoB and BtoB's Media Business magazines. Needless to say, I'll be in charge of the "tomorrow" part. Show time is at 2 PM EST. I'll be presenting along with Brigitte Johnson, Executive Editor, Tree Farmer Magazine.

Register for free

PPS: I'd like to thank the sponsors of the Digital Magazine Ad Engagement Project, my friends at Zinio and Nxtbook Media.   

How viral video works

 

Here is a great video that explains what makes successful viral videos tick. Please sit thorough the cliche intro about the historical beginnings of communications. What is extremely insightful comes after when the video describes how viral videos are different from just any video short, how they propagate, and why they work. Worth watching!!  

The thing about overlap...McDonalds takes its shot at Starbucks

When you sell media there is always overlap. Your magazine readers read other magazines, your website visitors visit other websites, etc.

But overlap can also be used to strategic advantage if you come up with a plan to pull traffic away from competitors. That is what McDonalds did to Starbucks in May of this year with a special promotion designed pull overlap business their way.

According to Experian Simmons who tracked the results of the program, "For some time, the percentage of McDonald’s customers who also visited Starbucks trended steadily at around 17 percent. This trend quickly changed upon the launch of the McDonald’s McCafe coffee line in May of 2009. In one week, the percentage of McDonald’s customers also visiting Starbucks dropped below 15 percent and remained below 15 percent for about 9 weeks."

Think about your competitors that overlap and consider what content you could deploy that could bring them over to your side.  

Media planning contorted by social media

if you want ot sell media these days you need to understand the effect social media is having on the minds of the media buyer. This amazing slide show by Hike Hess, VP of Research at Carat, lays out just how the move to social media is blowing many media buying conventions.Packed with lots of great stats Hess shows us the way:

Ama Social Media Pres100109

View more presentations from garystein.

White papers most influential collateral for tech buyers

According to the “Eccolo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report,” white papers are the most influential form of collateral for tech buyers. Eccolo surveyed the use of B2B technology collateral during tech purchases. When compared to other collateral, white papers came out on top. 

Tech buyers found "most influential": white papers 38%, brochures 28%, case studies 22%, videos 9%, podcast 3%:   

The study also offered useful information on how to make white papers more influential: 

"When asked to rank which factors would most likely increase
the influence of a white paper, respondents most
frequently responded that providing detailed technical
information would increase influence, closely followed by real-life use cases and new industry developments. Likewise, we asked respondents to rank those factors that would decrease the influence of white papers. Respondents most frequently indicated that poorly presented information would decrease a white paper’s influence, closely followed by too much focus on a product or vendor, and no inclusion of real-life case studies."

Download the study for free (reg required).

 

To catch a blogger...

Bloggers have more influence on the web than ever. Many see their influence being as great as paid advertising. But can bloggers be influenced? Last year's Technorati: State of the Blogosphere study shows us the way. When bloggers were asked what content or advertising moves them:

The biggest influence on bloggers is, by far,other bloggers. To catch a blogger's attention, you or your organization need to launch a credible blogor find credible presence on the blogosphere itself. This is good news for content publishers who can create targeted blogs that sponsors may want to support.  

Read the entire Technorati study  

A PR pro asks,"Why advertise in the trades?"

B to B advertising has been hit hard of late (don't I know it!). An advocate has emerged from an unlikely source, Caryn Cohen, a partner at Wall Street Communications, a PR firm that is missing the credibility that media trade brands bring to a market. Why more PR firms have not taken this stand I do not know. Every time an online or print product from a trade brand dies in a market the PR professionals serving it lose a valuable tool. Caryn's post appeared on her company's LinkedIn group. I thought it was too good not to share: 

Many companies have either cut advertising or drastically reduced their spend in the trades for obvious reasons.... the economy. However, I'd like to make a case for why it is important to try to find the funds to continue to advertise, even just a little bit, in the trades - even in tough times.

It is not because advertising will help you sell your product or services, gain market share, or any of the other marketing 101 reasons you might think.

Why advertise? Because we need to support the trade media brands (print or online, whatever) so they stay in business! I am not talking charity here.... I am making a case that it is good for your business to make sure these media brands stay in business.

Why do you care if they stay in business? These brands provide credibility to your marketing messages. Their readers, subscribers etc. are loyal to these brands because they provide them with information about the products and services in their respective industries that they need to know about to make decisions. These media brands have the thousands of subscribers they have because they are viewed as a credible resource for information. So when your company is covered by a journalist in the trades, that information has much more credibility than if the company provided it on it's own to the reader.

As a PR professional, it is my job to get my clients covered in the media. But if the editorial outlets don't stay in business, where can I push my client's messages? Direct to customers? Social Media? Sure, those things are fine as PART of the marketing mix - but do not under estimate the value the credibility of the media has for your business.

I hear of too many PR agencies telling clients to invest in PR or social media campaigns instead of advertising. I think this is so wrong and really doing a disservice to their clients and to their respective industries now and for the future.

We must support the trades so they stay in business to carry the valuable editorial information about you to your customers. It doesn't matter if it's print or electronic - it is about the media brand (and the journalists that make it up).

You don't need to run an expensive ad plan... if everyone just found some money to run in the trades it would make a difference.

Great journalists are looking for work because these brands are suffering. We all need to act like a community and support each other.

Please let me know your thoughts on this!

How Many Visitors Should Your Site Get?

Sometimes it is hard to know if all your efforts to promote your organizations website are paying off. By measuring its own customers Hubsport has provided companies with a valuable benchmark. The chart shows the median weekly unique website visitors for 1,324 HubSpot customers for the 7 days ending Septemberer 10, 2009. So, if you're a 6-10 person B2B company and you're getting 124 unique visitors a weekly you're about average for similar companies.

OK so now ou have a point of comparison and he compared. The next question is what are you gong to do about it?  

Is nothing sacred? Dunkin' Donuts folk singer ads?

A new kind of ad sponsorship seemsto be blowing in the wind, street musicians. I snapped this photo one block from Grand Central Station in New Your City. Instead of the musician's guitar case asking for a donation, it asks by passers take their spare change to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. I think the folk singer is too well dressed to look authentic. A great way to support the arts or a sell out? What do you think? Is this a good idea?     

Can “search credits” save the newspaper and magazine industries?

I have never believed that newspapers had a problem charging for their content. Newspaper content has always been free or nearly free. When I was growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts I remember being shocked to hear that the 25 cents we paid for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette barely paid for the delivery boys. It actually cost a couple of dollars to print and deliver that daily paper and money to pay for it came from advertising.

But if advertising is lacking in a newspaper’s business model why not restructure so newspapers are paid for their original content creation based on the “Internet currency” easiest to monetize; attention delivered. Simply stated, if newspapers could get more attention/eyeballs, they could get more online readers, and more ad revenue. 
The arbiter online “attention delivered” is search. Google, Yahoo, and Bing, determine where vast majority of online attention is directed. But search is blind to many things, among them, whether content is original or aggregated. This “blind evaluation” heavily disadvantages original content publishers and favors aggregators.

It is hard for original content producers to become aggregators because it is hard to aggregate content from direct competitors. Ironically, it is easier for organizations that generate no content, and compete with no other media, to be aggregators.
So here we have an unsustainable model: the people aggregating content are getting the majority of the traffic, and therefore revenue. The people creating the original content get less traffic and revenue.

Addressing this issue for the news business, media consultant, Arnon Mishkin, partner with Mitchell Madison Group, says,

 “The vast majority of value gets captured by aggregators linking and scraping rather than by a news organizations that get linked and scraped. We did a study on several sites that aggregate purely a menu of news stories. In all cases there was at least twice as much traffic on the home page as there were clicks going to the stories that were on it. In other words a very large share of the people who were visiting the site were merely browsing to read headlines rather than using the aggregation page to decide what they wanted to read in detail.”
Long term this is an unsustainable model. But I propose it can be made to work with “search credits.”

 I propose we reward original content creators with “search credits” which would raise original content higher in competitive search rankings than the same content posted as aggregated content.  

There are already people in place who could make this happen. Most original content producers have SEO staffers who would be delighted to tag their content as original if it meant higher rankings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Search engines could adjust their algorithms to respond those those tags.

With aggregators and original content producers alike often getting a majority of their traffic from search, giving “search credits “ to original content creators would justly reward content originators and assure their survival. Their survivial is also good news for content aggregators. 

Newspapers, and other original content producers, would find their search rankings rise, their web traffic rise, and their revenues rise.
I challenge Google, Yahoo, and Bing to consider the harm they are doing to original content producers by giving the same search rankings to original and aggregated content.

Can content producers such as, magazine and newspaper publishers organize to insist that original content be prioritized higher at search organizations? I'd be willing to help out anyone at the MPA, ABM, or the NAA who wants to start the conversation.

Read Arnon Mishkin's post, "The Fallacy Of The Link Economy" on the Paid Content website

Twitter is for risotto lovers, travelers, friends, and the ADD generation

Users are passionate about their social media tools, especially Twitter. Here are some ways people describe Twitter, we found on the web, along with the links where we found them:

Twitter is for... Risotto lovers, listening, teenagers?, twits, tossers, douchebags, transmitting outrage, you, travelers, people who like to agree to agree, civic journalists, ADD generation, smaller things, not for teens, and friends.

Twitter is like a...diary that you keep under everybody else's mattress, sauna: we are all in the same space, we show everything, but are not really looking at each other, going to your local middle school, handing out crack cocaine and mega phones, bar scene and many users will jump ship as soon as something better comes along, fungus, it grows on you and then it is hard to shake, super-brain that everyone can use, massive water cooler conversation, secret handshake that is pretty opaque to people unfamiliar with the concept, giant snowball that has just rolled off the top of Mt. Everest and it’s gaining mass and strength at an incredibly fast pace, pipe line of your personal life that can be maintained without any effort, party you can come to any time of the day or night, day of hyperactivity, with rapid-fire communication, some of it nonsensical and other parts of it brilliant — all happening at a scattershot and furious pace, 'gateway drug' to social media networking,  tomato plant; it needs lots of love and attention to bare any fruit