With the $1.5B purchase of online professional services company Lynda.com by LinkedIn, it seems much has been said about the allignment of mission statements, LinkedIn looking to connect people to jobs and Lynda.com offering the services to improve job candidacy.
An article from re/code did a nice job of outlining how the deal will create value for LinkedIn in digital marketing speak.
Beside a similar mission, Lynda offers a foothold in the college segment, while instantly beefing up LinkedIn's content library.
Here, LinkedIn is looking to increase penetration across outbound students as they enter the professional world, while the lack of original content across LinkeIn creates less reason for members to check in more frequently.
If the deal helps LinkedIn to strengthen these areas, it will surely widen the platform's appeal to digital marketers as new marketing opportunities open up. Targeted display around deeper/wider content opportunities and enhanced data sets will only help to increase advertsing demand.
Showing posts with label John H. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John H. Show all posts
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
NFL to stream a live game in 2015
The NFL announced it's plans to stream a live game in the upcoming season. The week 7 game will be broadcast locally on TV, while the game is streamed nationally online via it's website.
Although, there is little interest outside of the local Buffalo and Jacksonville markets, the NFL should achieve it's goal, as it "...acknowledged that the trial effort is designed to understand the market for digital rights."
With the NFL going direct to the consumer in an otherwise perhaps irrelevant game, the Buffalo/Jacksonville game should foot the bill as a base case in how to monetize their popular product across a fragmented fan base.
Although, there is little interest outside of the local Buffalo and Jacksonville markets, the NFL should achieve it's goal, as it "...acknowledged that the trial effort is designed to understand the market for digital rights."
With the NFL going direct to the consumer in an otherwise perhaps irrelevant game, the Buffalo/Jacksonville game should foot the bill as a base case in how to monetize their popular product across a fragmented fan base.
Further, as this platform grows, it will be interesting to see how they plan to leverage the vast amount of customer data that the platform generates.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
US Bank; kittens and mortgages
Forbes.com ran a story on US Bank's recent Buzzfeed campaign, highlighting how digital marketing continues to shift creative content historically dominated by TV's to various online mediums, or as US Bank Social Media VP Kelly Colbert maintains “There’s been a shift in the social media/digital space from media efficiency to creative excellence,”
As opposed to traditional big budget one size fits all TV campaigns, digital marketing allows brands to fine tune their approach, segment/allocate and deliver their branding message at a lower cost. Also, speed to market is faster, as brands will use initial responses to further refine the marketing message, Colbert explains; “Our strategy is to build creative for, say, our top six audiences.”
The Forbes story further highlights how the Buzzfeed campaign was a great facillitator to engage customers, specifically due to willingness of US Bank to take a less conservative approach that focuses purely on presenting product vs. a more visual and emotive campaign. If interested, viewers could further explore by clcking into US Bank's 8 tips directly from Buzzfeed content that US Bank posted.
As opposed to traditional big budget one size fits all TV campaigns, digital marketing allows brands to fine tune their approach, segment/allocate and deliver their branding message at a lower cost. Also, speed to market is faster, as brands will use initial responses to further refine the marketing message, Colbert explains; “Our strategy is to build creative for, say, our top six audiences.”
The Forbes story further highlights how the Buzzfeed campaign was a great facillitator to engage customers, specifically due to willingness of US Bank to take a less conservative approach that focuses purely on presenting product vs. a more visual and emotive campaign. If interested, viewers could further explore by clcking into US Bank's 8 tips directly from Buzzfeed content that US Bank posted.
Saturday, March 07, 2015
Advertising on Alibaba Marketplaces heats up
According to an article published by the WSJ this week, advertisers are jockeying for position on Alibaba properties; tbao and tmall where daily banner ads run as much as 180,000 yuan ($29,242).
From the various seller responses, it is not clear that future will include the same vibrant diverse marketplace as it does today, which was perhaps the primary driver that led to Alibaba's success.
The article paints a picture where Alibaba offers an auction environment, where sellers with the deepest pockets will outlast the smaller players that cannot keep pace with necessary spend to maintain ideal product placement on Alibaba properties.
But this is not a new story. Sellers on Alibaba can draw from the experiences of eBay sellers, who at first prosper, yet as the relationship dynamic shifted in favor of eBay, sometimes find themselves increasingly at odds with eBay's policies.
Hence, if Alibaba continues this path, will it also face a similar path to growth as it's US counterparts eBay and Amazon, which depend on both volumes and community growth across both buyers and sellers?
From the various seller responses, it is not clear that future will include the same vibrant diverse marketplace as it does today, which was perhaps the primary driver that led to Alibaba's success.
The article paints a picture where Alibaba offers an auction environment, where sellers with the deepest pockets will outlast the smaller players that cannot keep pace with necessary spend to maintain ideal product placement on Alibaba properties.
But this is not a new story. Sellers on Alibaba can draw from the experiences of eBay sellers, who at first prosper, yet as the relationship dynamic shifted in favor of eBay, sometimes find themselves increasingly at odds with eBay's policies.
Hence, if Alibaba continues this path, will it also face a similar path to growth as it's US counterparts eBay and Amazon, which depend on both volumes and community growth across both buyers and sellers?
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Corporate Marketers Increase Digital Spend
Econsultancy published a teaser from the results from their annual survey; The Marketing Budgets 2015 Report, which 600 companies participate and help marketing professionals get a read on various marketing trends, across an array of channels and technologies.
While marketers clearly are devoting more resources to online channels, those that aren't don't appear to be doing so for lack of desire. As per below results, while budgets and ROI don't appear to be constraints, clearly there is a lack of resources and expertise available increase allocation of budgets towards digital spend.
This 64-page report looks in detail at how companies are allocating their online and offline marketing budgets for 2015.
The responses from the two below questions republished on econsultancy's site reveal some interesting changes in the approach to digital marketing.
Q: What best describes your plans for your digital marketing budget in 2015?
While marketers clearly are devoting more resources to online channels, those that aren't don't appear to be doing so for lack of desire. As per below results, while budgets and ROI don't appear to be constraints, clearly there is a lack of resources and expertise available increase allocation of budgets towards digital spend.
Q: What is preventing your company from investing more money in digital marketing?
As a result, it would appear that this is an ecouraging sign for the broader health of the industry, as those with the necessary skillset appear to be more of a scarce resource in light of the growing, and in some cases, pent up demand.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Lenovo Superfish Spyware Misstep
If you were one of the 16M consumers in Q4 2014 that recently bought a new Lenovo model before January, and you thought there was a material improvement in the "shopping experience using their visual discovery techniques." it was by design.
Specifically, If you owned one of the models listed in the below Lenovo release, you likely had the Superfish spyware program installed on your machine. Superfish is spyware program supported by any web browser, which alters your search results to show you different ads than you would otherwise see.
Superfish also tampers with your computer's security enabling online attackers to track your web traffic, obtain sensitive information, such as your online banking details, and even infiltrate your computer.
Lenovo has since made a significant PR and operational scramble to rectifiy the situation by making consumers aware of the security concerns and provide details on how to uninstall the program.
Yet, this incident clearly raises a more fundamental issue relating to delicate element of trust that plays a key part in the digital marketing ecosystem. With the publishing side of digital advertising already affected by the conerns of online fraud, rattling the consumer's confidence with potential security threats is clearly does not inspire confidene in a growing industry.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Huggies goes digital to Reverse the Declining Birth Rate - Happy Valentine's Day!
I nearly fell off my chair when I came across this article on Huggies (a Kimberly Clark brand) partnering with Pandora to roll out the "baby making station" channel online.
In the crowded and competitive marketplace of selling diapers, anecdotally speaking here with my 20 month year old son, I applaud the Huggies team for coming up with a creative way to reach a perhaps new and lesser addressed segment of the market; soon to be parents.
In the crowded and competitive marketplace of selling diapers, anecdotally speaking here with my 20 month year old son, I applaud the Huggies team for coming up with a creative way to reach a perhaps new and lesser addressed segment of the market; soon to be parents.
Besides directly affecting the declining birthrate, another potential accomplishment from the campaign is creating tremendous brand equity with a pipeline of consumers that didn't know they have a problem that needs a solution until 9 months from now.
http://adage.com/article/cmo-
http://adage.com/article/cmo-
Saturday, February 07, 2015
TWTR and GOOG dance...FB and TWTR tango
Twitter confirmed that Google will once again license a Twitter
data feed, enabling users to search real time twitter posts, vs. Google crawling
the Twitter site.
As user growth continues to taper for the 140 character
messaging company, this deal is helps to further validate the Twitter business
model (licensing revenue is up $41M from $16M YOY), while the market also agrees;
TWTR rose 17% since the 2/5 market close through the 2/7 close, due the
announcement of the deal.
This is welcoming news to Twitter investors, in light of the
recent announcement of FB to begin selling ad media in real time with the
ability to target users based on their conversations. If you were logged onto FB during the
Superbowl this past Sunday, you might have noticed targeted videos being
triggered in mid conversation through your news feed
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Order your Beer/Wine/Alcohol Online.......(if you live in SF or LA...and then it still depends)
Hey folks, I came across this start-up while listening to Bloomberg radio and couldn't catch the name, so I watched it afterwards on Bloomberg.com (mm...mmm...does that kool-aid taste delish.)
Basically, the "Saucey" app allows you to order drinks from retailers online in a few neighborhoods in LA and SF and are expanding block by block. In the process they collect a vig for being the intermediary.
The interesting digital marketing aspect of Saucey is apparently some of the partnerships they are working on to allow consumers to better engage with brands like Budweiser. Apparently, they plan to offer technology that allows a consumer to click on a display ad and order six-pack from the closest retailer, right from the cozy confines of their own home.
So, in the spirit of objective, empirical digital marketing research, I downloaded their app (available both on IOS and Android.) Seemed a little slow, and based on my GPS position, I got blocked from trying to order some lovely "Liquid Sunshine" aka Whiskey.
So, in the spirit of objective, empirical digital marketing research, I downloaded their app (available both on IOS and Android.) Seemed a little slow, and based on my GPS position, I got blocked from trying to order some lovely "Liquid Sunshine" aka Whiskey.
Otherwise, the reviews are mixed (primarily due to the lack of coverage, even within the city-limits), but the presentation is there. Looking forward to the NY/NJ rollout. Check out the interview below:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-01-27/saucey-the-business-of-liquor-delivery
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-01-27/saucey-the-business-of-liquor-delivery
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Augmented Reality Is Changing the game for Advertisers
Where virtual reality exists to create rich computer-generated environments,
augmented reality (AR) has the ability to project layers of graphics, animation,
sounds and smell, https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534&v=si32CRVEvi4 , yes smell, onto real physical objects such as billboards, clothes, packaging etc.
While much of the technology is still in the early stages of
commercial use, there are several AR products already in the marketplace with
advertisers from luxury jewelry to beverage producers to musicians leveraging
the technology to enhance their marketing campaigns. As such, advertisers have the ability to
engage with customers on a level previously not possible; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6irc0jwKC8
The AR industry has been evolving for several years now and has shifted
towards a more segmented structure.
Companies have the ability to leverage out of the box applications to
create one-off campaigns, or decide to fully develop custom apps and solutions for
their customers, such as the below furniture app; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YV8lo-OxZQ#t=80
Forward looking, as applications for AR continue to evolve,
where reality stops, advertisers have virtually unlimited options at their
disposal to market their products in a digitally enhanced world. Further, the benefits of AR go beyond the
marketing budget, as AR will help marketers to not only better track
advertising spend, but will also help companies become smaller in the brick and
mortar sense, while expanding online.
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