Question Focus Areas:

Author: Mary Meeker, Scott Devitt, Liang Wu Morgan Stanley

download now: Ten Questions Internet Execs Should Ask and Answer (49 pages)

Intuitive and affordable, our platform is simple enough for even the least tech-savvy business . . . → Read More: GEOTOKO – Engage your Mobile Customers]]> Geotoko is an easy to use platform that allows brands, businesses and agencies to create their own branded location-based promotions (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, give-aways) and to simultaneously publish them on multiple location-based services like foursquare, gowalla, facebook places, yelp, twitter etc.

Intuitive and affordable, our platform is simple enough for even the least tech-savvy business manager to use, and flexible enough to suit the needs of the most creative marketer or agency.

Geotoko officially launched at Techcrunch Disrupt in NYC in May 2010.

Build Promotions On Multiple Location-Based Platforms

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“Let’s say you’re a basketball team with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as . . . → Read More: Google Remarketing]]> A real step forward for e-marketing…

“Let’s say you’re a basketball team with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as they subsequently browse sites in the Google Content Network. In addition to your own site, you can also remarket to users who visited your YouTube brand channel or clicked your YouTube homepage ad.

You can also run a number of remarketing campaigns at the same time. For example, you could offer discount game tickets to users who’ve previously visited your tickets page, advertise VIP hospitality packages to users who clicked on your “How to get to the arena” page, and advertise a sale on team merchandise to users who previously visited your YouTube brand channel.

Remarketing is a great way for businesses to reach users who are likely to be highly receptive to their ads and special offers. It helps advertisers and websites get higher returns.

It also means more relevant and useful ads for users, and more opportunities for your customers to receive special offers and discounts that may be of interest to them. As we announced when we launched our beta of interest based advertising, we want to put users in control of the ads they see, so anyone can opt-out of remarketing by using the Ads Preferences Manager. Our remarketing product complies with industry standards developed by self-regulatory groups such as the NAI and IAB and IAB UK.”
From http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/now-available-reach-right-audience.html
To get started with a remarketing campaign, check out the information Google have put together.

The Wired Wealthy. Using the Internet to Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors. March 24, 2008 An in-depth survey and study by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHARITIES . . . → Read More: Internet to Connect with Major Donors]]> “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different than you and me.”
“Yes. They have more money.”

The Wired Wealthy. Using the Internet to Connect with Your Middle and Major Donors.
March 24, 2008
An in-depth survey and study by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHARITIES AND CAUSES
Following are recommended strategies and tactics for organizations committed to building stronger relationships with their wired wealthy donors. Some of these recommendations are equally applicable to all online donors, and indeed to all online constituents. And while it certainly makes sense to adopt most of these recommendations universally, from a financial point of view, it is the wired wealthy whose happiness will contribute most to your bottom line.
Unfortunately, there is no obvious shortcut for separating the reclusive All Business donors from the eager Relationship Seekers and so forth. What you can do, what we urge you to do, is create and provide options that lets the wired wealthy customize their online relationship with you. As one donor we interviewed asked, “Why are my only choices either email me or don’t email me?” If we offer one overarching recommendation, it is to find a way to get beyond this all or nothing choice.

• Don’t panic … but don’t assume doing nothing is an option. Most wired wealthy donors are not fundamentally unhappy with online communications. But they aren’t delighted either. Using the online channel better should be a development priority. And, recognize that your middle and major donors are coming to your web site, and what they see may influence their giving decisions. Ask yourself: Is our web site up to the task? Are our emails inspiring?
• Segment your list. Your best donors want different things from you.
  • Your All Business group – and probably the others – want the smoothest possible online donation process, and the best possible case for giving on your site. Emails for All Business should be scarce, but should include an annual tax summary and periodic donor reports on where the money is going and what you have accomplished
  • Your Casual Connectors and Relationship Seekers are open to cultivation. Look at your emails and your home page as opportunities to inspire.
  • Tell great stories, both on your web site and in your emails. Use powerful, evocative images.

• Report back to donors via email at least once per quarter detailing some of theways you have used their donations.
• Provide and promote some engagement options, including video, podcasts, your blog, and action opportunities. Permit donors to opt out of communications promoting these special engagement options if they are not interested.

Finally, that all-important group of Relationship Seekers is looking for engagement. In addition to the engagement options above:

• Invite highly motivated donors to blog about you, join your LinkedIn group, or review you favorably on CharityNavigator’s new donor comment area.
• Recognize donors who have been giving for some time, or who have helped to recruit others.
• Solicit ideas and suggestions from donors on a regular basis.

• Power to the people – make donor control your new mantra. If at all possible, provide donors with some control over the content and frequency of emails. Create email options for your wired wealthy donors. Let them choose between a minimal package of emails that includes an annual renewal reminder, a tax summary and more comprehensive email options. Ask donors for their information and frequency preferences and create customized emails that reflect content interests.
• Let the message drive the technology and not the reverse. For this group of donors in particular, don’t get stampeded into whatever the latest thing is online. Don’t replace quality with quantity. Don’t communicate when you have nothing to say, just because there is a scheduled email. Try to segment emails by interests, but don’t assume you know what those segments are; ask your donors. Make inspiration a metric that guides much of what you communicate.
• Pay special attention to video. Maybe this is the single exception to recommendation four. Relationship Seekers are heavy users of online video and express significant interest in seeing more. Hire a professional producer, and ask a test group of donors what they think before launching to a wider audience. No single video is going to change everything; a series of modestly produced short videos will get more mileage than one blockbuster. Most “viral videos” never go “viral.” Don’t measure success merely by looking at how many times a video has been viewed. The real measure is whether the right people – your wired wealthy Relationship Seekers – have seen it, and whether it has inspired them.
• Make listening an every day tactic. We found the participants in this study to be not at all shy about expressing their likes and dislikes. With online communications and philanthropy in general in a state of flux, keeping close tabs on the evolving preferences of your constituency will be critically important. Even the act of asking has cultivation value; donors will be pleased you are listening. Here are three ways to make listening a key element of your communications plan:
  • Track “over the transom” comments. Chances are your organization already gets a fair amount of unsolicited email from list members and donors. Are you seeing it? Is someone at least distributing summaries of the issues that are coming up repeatedly? A handful of emails may represent a much larger group of folks with similar concerns.
  • Establish a donor advisory panel. This is rapidly becoming a fixture in the commercial sector. Recruit a few hundred donors (and possibly list members) to serve as a sounding board for future issues, tactics and campaign ideas. Survey them at least once a month so they feel like they are being utilized.
  • Ask for feedback in your newsletter. Ask readers to rate each issue, and then ask for additional open-ended feedback.

Download the full research >>>

CHICAGO – Media agency Starcom USA, behavioral targeting network Tacoda, and digital consumer insight company comScore collaborated on a research study whose results call into question click-through rates as a primary . . . → Read More: Heavy Clickers Distort Reality]]> Starcom, Tacoda and comScore’s “Natural Born Clickers” findings suggest “the click is dead” as go-to measurement of effectiveness for brand-building display advertising campaigns

CHICAGO – Media agency Starcom USA, behavioral targeting network Tacoda, and digital consumer insight company comScore collaborated on a research study whose results call into question click-through rates as a primary source of accountability for Internet display advertising aimed at brand-building. Called “Natural Born Clickers,” the study reveals that a very small group of consumers who are not representative of the total U.S. online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behavior.

Full findings of the study, its methodology and results are being presented this afternoon at the iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point, Florida.

The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.

“There is more and more emphasis by advertisers for greater return-on-objectives in campaigns, particularly in the digital space where the accountability data is so readily available,“ says Starcom USA Director of Connections Research and Analytics Grant Prentice. “Natural Born Clickers shows us that we can’t count on click-through rate as our primary success metric for display ads; Starcom is more reliant on shifts in brand attitude metrics and analytics tying on-line exposure to sales as the true measures of online advertising efficacy.”

“While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore. “For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.”

“One of the underlying values of looking at people and not just pages in our business is that we are able to help uncover behavior that is counterintuitive to what much of the media world assumes about online audiences,” says Daniel Jaye, CEO of TACODA.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 800 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Starcom USA is a full-service media division of Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com), which is ranked one of the largest media communications agencies in the world and encompasses an integrated network of highly specialized consumer contact companies. Starcom’s organization includes strategic marketing communication architects who are highly specialized in media management, response media, internet and digital communications, as well as multicultural, entertainment, sports sponsorship and event marketing and media. With over 900 employees in the U.S., Starcom delivers brand-building results for many of the world’s leading companies.

TACODA®, Inc. (www.tacoda.com), a wholly owned division of AOL and a Platform A company, runs one of the worlds largest and most advanced behavioral targeting advertising networks. Since 2001, TACODA has provided a comprehensive range of behavioral targeting solutions to thousands of web publihers and brand marketers. Its patent pending technologies power TACODA Audience Networks™, which enables brand advertisers to target relevant messages to specific audience segments. TACODA Audience Networks™ has more than 4,500 sites reaching over 120 million monthly unique users. Major US media partners include Dow Jones, The New York Times Company, NBC Universal, Hoovers, HGTV.com, FoodNetwork.com, KBB.com and USAToday.com.

Article from  Starcom MediaVest Group