It's alive! As scheduled, Apple debuted its highly anticipated tablet device on Wednesday -- for many, representing the dawn of a new age in media consumption. Christened the "iPad," the device is expected to be available in March for a (surprisingly low) minimum price of $499 (Wi-Fi enabled, with a 3G version to follow a month later). With it, users can browse the Web, read and send email, view photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, and read e-books. "iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices," said Apple head Steve Jobs, who unveiled the product at a private event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The iPad is half an inch thin, weighs 1.5 pounds, and touts a 9.7-inch IPS display. Like an iPhone, the iPad has a multi-touch screen, which is "super responsive, super precise," according to Jobs. The iPad will come in two versions: one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. AT&T is supporting the latter with a 3G prepaid data plans, but -- despite rumors to the contrary -- there was no mention of Verizon Wireless as an additional carrier on Wednesday. "The iPad is priced lower than expected because it is less revolutionary than expected," says Forrester analyst James McQuivey. "Apple has taken the safe route of offering its existing customers an option that goes beyond today's iPod Touch in size and capability, but it has not offered a new category of devices that tackles the 5-6 hours of media we each consume every day." Apple has an opportunity to create a new kind of media experience -- but it's not there yet, says McQuivey. And it may not be alone: "As it stands, a quick, well-structured response from Amazon in the next version of Kindle could easily be a contender here." The iPad is powered by a 1 GHz A4 chip, 16 Gigabytes of memory, and 32 or 64 Gigabytes of storage. It also features Wi-Fi, and the latest Bluetooth. Photos, music, movies and apps can be imported directly from Macs, PC computers, or digital camera, and automatically organized as albums. At launch, the iPad will include 12 new apps designed especially for the device, and will be capable of running nearly all of the more than 140,000 apps in the App Store. Similar to the iPhone, every app is expected to work in both portrait and landscape mode. Hoping to inspire a whole new category of applications, Apple has released a new Software Development Kit for the iPad so developers can create new apps designed specifically for the new device. Apple also announced a new iBooks app for the iPad, which includes a new Apple iBooks bookstore, which will feature titles and catalogs from participating major publishers, including Penguin, HarperCollins and Macmillan. MLB.com also demonstrated its own app, which resembles interactive TV in many ways and allows viewers to watch augmented live feeds of games and access special features. Also announced on Wednesday was new version of iWork for iPad, which is described as a desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch.
Microsoft has become more aggressive in integrating data from other search engines that can offer expertise in a specific subject. Last year, Bing began pulling in health, mathematics and science data from WolframAlpha, and real-time status updates from Twitter, followed by recipes from Delish.com and MyRecipes.com earlier this year. In 2007, Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook. Expanding into the local market to capitalize on local search, Bing has inked a deeper relationship with Localeze. The two companies plan to announce Thursday that the deal pulls into Bing Local and Bing 411 about 14 million Localeze listings, including data on more than 500,000 businesses. All have been verified and managed by the local businesses. The way Localeze organizes and groups keywords will benefit those searching on apps with small display screens on mobile browsers. The company organizes keywords into groups, so the groups can be presented in the initial results, providing the ability to drill down more easily. For example, advance auto parts may group into products where consumers can click and drill down to tires, filters, and wiper blades. For services, they would have an option to click on inspections, tune up, or oil change. Microsoft already pulls in local data from Localeze. The two became partners in 2005, offering information such as hours of operation, products and services, credit cards accepted, and languages spoken. Bing will now attribute local search results on Bing using Localeze content. Reliable-SEO Founder David Harry thinks Bing needs to innovate, rather than grab from other sites. As the underdog, the search engine should learn how to play the media game as well as Google, he says, aside from the data pulled from other engines. Regardless, Bing plans to eventually pull in other data supplied by Localeze. The business listings will become the "anchor" to tie in data from social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, according to David Dague, Localeze vice president of marketing. "With the surge in social media, the information becomes more important," he says. "Not just the Web site for the business, but other places the person searching could get information." Despite Microsoft's access to hundreds of brilliant engineers, Bing will tap into innovations built by Localeze. The companies that provides data on businesses and focuses on local business results will add fields, such as Twitter handle, Facebook page information, and reviews from Yelp and other consumer-oriented sites.
The Apple iPad may not be a game-changer for mobile marketing, but the new device will give advertisers and agencies a larger canvas for creating messaging and content for consumers on the go. That's the early takeaway from digital advertising executives and analysts following the long-awaited launch of Apple's tablet computer Wednesday. A consensus was that the iPad is essentially a bigger iPod touch -- with all the advantages that implies, as well as the drawbacks -- chiefly, the lack of Flash support for powering rich media ads, video and games. But marketing experts agreed that size matters, and with its 9.7-inch screen, the iPad opens up the mobile landscape to more visually compelling advertising and potentially new types of media interaction. "We're incredibly excited about the increased surface size we get to play with for a multi-touch device," said Domenic Venuto, managing director, media and entertainment at Razorfish. "Whether it's an advertising or publishing client we're building new experiences for, this breathes new life into the category." Razorfish has built applications for Microsoft's Surface table computer, including a program for Audi that lets multiple users configure a virtual 3-D car model, as well as a computer version of the old Table Toss game. But where the 30-inch Surface is geared to commercial use, Venuto said the iPad brings similar functionality to a smaller, consumer-focused device. "The possibility for apps that allow interaction by multiple users has been brought into a much more accessible product," he said. Apple said the iPad will run almost all of the 140,000 apps already in the App Store, including ones already purchased. Apps can be viewed in a small "iPhone"-sized box, or expanded to full screen. Apple is also releasing a new software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone for the creation of new apps tailored to the iPad. To help developers and advertisers monetize and distribute apps on Apple's tablet, Jumptap Wednesday said it was introducing a new ad platform that will support almost any mobile device, including the iPad. "We expect the Apple tablet to be a catalyst for a new generation of innovative applications, and we play a key role in accelerating the adoption of such services," said Paran Johar, the mobile ad network's chief marketing officer. Other mobile ad networks are likely to make similar moves allowing marketers to extend mobile campaigns to the iPad. Because the device's larger screen is more like the desktop Web experience, it may be easier to extend digital campaigns to mobile. "From an execution standpoint, what we could do is start a campaign online but move it to these portable-type devices," said Phuc Truong of Mobext, the mobile marketing arm of Havas Digital. The biggest hitch for advertisers and developers is that the iPad, like other Apple devices, doesn't allow them to run Flash-based ads or content. "That doesn't necessarily limit us, but it takes away a popular option for development," said Venuto. He added that bypassing Flash also increases production costs, since existing Flash-powered assets can't simply be extended to the new platform. Venuto said he was also disappointed that the iPad launch in San Francisco didn't including the unveiling of any new magazine editions built for the iPad. Conde Nast Digital President Sarah Chubb toldThe New York Times the publisher planned to have tablet-ready versions of some magazines when the iPad ships by the end of March. Time Inc. is also preparing tablet editions of its U.S. titles. When it comes to broadening the mobile media audience, few were sure exactly what the iPad's impact would be. With an entry price of $500 for the 16GB model, the device is certainly less expensive than the expected $700 to $1,000 range. Because of the lower price tag, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster increased his 12-month sales forecast for the device from 1.9 million to between 3 and 4 million. "This [iPad] goes well beyond early adopters," noted Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. "But if all you want to do is surf the Web and check email, there are cheaper ways to do that." Those options include getting a less expensive netbook or an iPod touch. If Apple does succeed in establishing a "third category" of products between smartphones and laptops with the iPad, one sign might be recognition by the Nielsen Company. "We're dealing with a brand new form of device and a new form of media consumption," said Jon Gibs, vice president for online integrated analysis at Nielsen, in reference to tablets, netbooks and e-book readers. Does that mean Nielsen is going to add a new category to its Three Screen Report covering media consumption on TV, the Internet and mobile phones? "My sense is that we're going to approach it initially from a mobile perspective, but as the market continues to develop we're going to have to decide what to do with this category of devices," he said.
Over the holidays, shoppers in search of deals didn't discriminate between channels, according to new research from display ad provider Eyeblaster. "For marketers, knowing that consumer habits online mirror the offline channel shows that the combination of display advertising and e-commerce resonates with the end user," said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-founder at Eyeblaster. For its research, Eyeblaster analyzed conversions from more than 10 billion impressions and thousands of ads that were served in North America during the holiday season. The top three online shopping periods imitated offline spending habits with the highest conversion rates occurring from November 30 to December 2 - i.e., Cyber Monday and the Tuesday and Wednesday following it; December 19 to December 23 -- the five days preceding Christmas; and December 28 to December 30, a.k.a., after-Christmas sales. Still, consumers were less inclined to shop online during the holiday itself as conversions hit their lows on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas. "This research also highlights the unique potential of addressable advertising in making digital channels even more effective conversion producers." In addition, during Cyber Monday, conversions increased by 15.9% from the previous day conversions -- reaching their all time high on the Monday following Christmas. What's more, while consumer behaviors remain consistent across channels, Eyeblaster outlined several unique opportunities that digital channels present marketers, including targeting based on-site behavior; sequenced messaging with tailored ads according to projected path to conversion; and coupling the buying power of ad exchanges with the real time bidding potential of demand side platforms. Overall, U.S. holiday shoppers spent $29.1 billion between November and December of 2009, which represented a 4% increase in seasonal spending year-over-year, according to new research from comScore. According to comScore, Tuesday, Dec. 15 ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year -- and of all time -- at $913 million. It also represented one of nine individual spending days to surpass $800 million during the 2009 holiday season. The heavy spending on this day represented a surprise total on the heels of a somewhat lower-than-expected $854 million spent on "Green Monday," Dec. 14, 2009. Thanks to aggressive retailer promotions, Cyber Monday -- Monday, Nov. 30 -- ranked as the second-heaviest spending day of the season, the highest it has ever ranked on this list, with $887 million in spending, according to comScore. For Eyeblaster's research, conversions measure users who have browsed the advertiser's Web site after viewing an ad and have signaled their intent to purchase or have completed the purchase online. Conversions represent a range of actions an advertiser would like the consumer to take, which can include downloading brochures, submitting a form or completing a transaction online.
As expected, a coalition of ad industry groups have agreed on a uniform online icon aimed at letting Web users know when they are seeing ads based on Web-surfing activity. The move, announced Wednesday, is part of the industry's attempts to stave off new privacy regulations by improving the way companies inform consumers about online ad targeting. In the past, many companies that engaged in behavioral advertising -- or sending people ads based on sites they had visited -- notified users in lengthy and complex privacy policies. Those legalese-filled documents were criticized by many observers, including Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz, who said that not even the savviest Web users were likely to decipher such privacy policies. The new icon, a small 'i' in a circle, will also carry text like, "Why did I get this ad," "Interest Based Ad," or "Ad Choice." (Online auction site eBay pioneered the use of "AdChoice.") Users who click through will be taken to a page that explains online ad targeting. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Direct Marketing Association and the Council for Better Business Bureaus (BBB) said Wednesday that companies' use of the icon and link will indicate their adherence to self-regulatory principles. The icon was developed by the corporate funded think tank Future of Privacy Foundation, which last May tapped ad agency WPP to create designs. The "i" logo was selected over the other finalist, an "asterisk man". The Direct Marketing Association is still working on drafting a landing page, said Linda Woolley, executive vice president, government affairs. The organization also is recommending that its members begin using the icon by June. Jules Polonetsky, co-chair and director of the Future of Privacy Foundation, said that a survey of 2,600 Web users showed that the three phrases selected outperformed other options like "custom ads" and "your info and ads." Even so, many people still needed more context to understand that the icon and phrases were about the ad-serving process, as opposed to the product being advertised. "It is not a complete solution," he said. "It is going to need some educational support." Research commissioned by Polonetsky's organization also found that many people appear to have concerns about online privacy. Nearly six out of 10 (59%) respondents agreed with the statement, "I feel that as a result of my visiting websites, others know more about me than I am comfortable with." In addition, 64% agreed with the statement: "I feel that as a result of my visiting websites, my privacy has been invaded by others who collect data about me." The FTC is currently examining online privacy and is slated to hold a roundtable Thursday to focus on privacy and social networking.
Wednesday night, the French blog Nowhereelse.fr posted what is most likely a fake Tablet, or as the ad tags it (and which Apple has actually trademarked), "iPad" spot. The :30 ad is convincing enough, with an iTunes-fresh twee indie jingle in the background and that splatter imagery from Apple's announcement of its "latest creation." But the product shot of the Tablet is what seems to give this away as a hoax. It offers no clearer view of the device than the many images already floating around on the Web, and a cheesy glare effect indicates this is a forgery. So the wait for the big reveal continues. Unless that's what Steve Jobs wants us to think and this was the big reveal. At any rate, this is clearly not the work of TBWA, which handles all the iPod spots (a rep said they had no idea where the spot came from), although it is a fine parody. UPDATE: The name turned out to be correct, but the ad still looks like a fake or an early prototype that got scrapped.
As companies try to improve consumer messaging around online ad targeting in anticipation of new privacy regulation, technology platform company [x+1] this week released an application giving marketers and agencies the ability to integrate customer and third-party online and offline data to target ads. The platform, Open Data Bridge, supports targeting data across multiple channels, such as display ad, Web site and email campaigns. The service, being offered as part of [x+1]'s trading desk platform, has been tapped by several undisclosed "large" clients. The platform can integrate both offline and online data. Clients often will provide cookie pools or offline data that [x+1] can bring into the platform. Other data comes from third-party companies offering demographic stats, such as TargusInfo and eXelate. Other types of data include in-market and lifestyle segmentation from BlueKai, social graphs from XGraph, and contextual from AdSafe Media, which analyzes all elements of page content, including text, images, events and domain information to rate the brand safety of a page. Kenneth Rona, vice president of data strategy and analytics for [x+1], says the challenge to integrate data from third-party companies begins with different data formats, but doesn't end with incomplete database fields. Another challenge relates to integrating data across multiple campaigns. "We have a business around display media and site optimization, so we can use the data across both channels, as clients demand it," Rona says. "We can fold in the data to the optimization engine, POE, and use data variables for campaigns to figure out which are predictive in a multivariate way." Clients want an integrated view of channel performance, so they not only can see results from online campaigns, but offline, too. Advertisers that bill consumers who log on to a Web site that requires registration can pull in data they tie to a cookie and pass off the cookie ID with consumer information without personally identifiable information (PII), of course, he says. Within the next 10 years, Rona says companies will have one view of offline and online customer data. That data will tie together information from IP addresses on set-top television boxes, mobile phone and PC Web browsers, email campaigns, and more. Technology moves closer to reality, but challenges exist, he says. "You need to connect the link from the cookie on the set-top box IP address -- to the email, for example," he says. "We're not doing this." Vendors that have access to multiple data channels will have the ability to do a nice job of cross-channel attribution, Rona says. These type of companies include AT&T and Verizon, because both have access to data coming from consumer homes via set-top boxes.
The record labels and peer-to-peer file sharing service user Jammie Thomas-Rasset are gearing up to go to court for what will be a third file-sharing trial. On Wednesday, Thomas-Rasset rejected an offer to settle the case by paying $25,000 to a music charity and asking the judge to vacate his earlier ruling slashing damages. Thomas-Rasset was found to have infringed copyright by illegally sharing 24 tracks on Kazaa. Recording Industry Association of America spokesperson Cara Duckworth says the labels intend to pursue another trial. "It is a shame that Ms. Thomas-Rasset continues to deny any responsibility for her actions rather than accept a reasonable settlement offer and put this case behind her. Given this, we will begin preparing for a new trial," she said in a statement. Kiwi Camara, one of Thomas-Rasset's lawyers, says he intends to pursue the argument that damages of more than around $1 a song -- the cost of a track online -- are unconstitutional because they have no relationship to the actual damages in the case. Late last week, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis in Minnesota reduced a jury's award against Thomas-Rasset from $1.92 million to $54,000. Davis gave the Recording Industry Association of America until this Friday to either accept the award or seek a new trial solely on damages. The federal copyright statute provides for damages of between $750 and $150,000 per infringement. Last June, a jury found Thomas-Rasset liable for copyright infringement and assessed damages of $80,000 per track. Davis slashed that to $2,250 a track or $54,000, saying that even that amount was "significant and harsh," but "no longer monstrous and shocking." An earlier trial in 2007 resulted in a jury verdict of $220,000. But Davis set that verdict aside and ordered a new trial because of a mistaken jury instruction.
After 23 years of conducting advertising research, I have reluctantly come to this conclusion: Most digital ads aren't very good, and unless advertisers alter their approach to digital-advertising research, many are likely to assume the medium doesn't work for them and prematurely give up on it. Why are so many online ads so very bad? It's not because the medium is inherently weak, as some suspect. Rather it's because very few online advertisers are getting useful feedback about their online efforts and so aren't exploiting the medium's extraordinary power to create dynamic and, most important, mutable advertising that consistently attracts and holds reader interest -- and promotes sales and branding. Here is the problem. Most online advertisers are still using research methods that made sense in the last century and for the advertising vehicles of the time. Those research methods employ what we might call an "exogenous" approach: the advertiser and research are on the outside looking in, using surveys with small samples and asking respondents to report on their attitudes, buying habits, and advertising readership. Of course, there are several problems with this approach, two of which are that: a) some respondents lie, and b) the rest, being human after all, are often inaccurate, uncertain, or incomplete about their attitudes, buying habits, etc. Yet, some digital publishers still use sample-based online surveys to measure evaluate advertising effectiveness for their clients, and none of the information gathered from a survey is likely to provide advertisers with the kinds of insights that can turn a weak advertising campaign into a juggernaut. It doesn't have to be this way. With a little creativity - and a willingness to break new ground - an online publisher can move almost any advertiser from the outside to the inside: from simply observing and waiting for advertising results or for a research report, to delving deeply into the center of an advertising campaign, getting vital intelligence about what's working, what isn't, and why - and, most important, quickly enacting and testing changes to increase the power of the ad until it starts to fully realize its goals. Surveys don't allow you to do that. Web analytics does. And if they're going to thrive, publishers have to become more adept at web analytics to demonstrate their true value, which is real and considerable, but awaits discovery through the use of accurate measurement tools. Advertisers don't need surveys, not when they can harness the flow of information at far less cost with web analytics, which delves deeply into the center of an ad campaign and allows you to monitor and test creative elements (headlines, layouts, photography); engagement with the material (time spent on a page, downloading of featured items, usage of links to Facebook, etc.); and action elements (quality and content of inbound phone calls, coupon downloads, requests to contact representatives). No survey can even approach the quality and utility of this kind of advertising information. With this kind of information, the advertiser gets real-time, behavioral feedback, not fallible memories of behavior. Perhaps more important, with the analytic information in hand, the advertiser can immediately improve the creative, an opportunity that no other medium provides to this extent. And the publishers who can provide advertisers with this service? They reclaim the client relationship from ad networks and earn client loyalty for providing such a valuable service. This win-win approach isn't new, just recontextualized: Right now, Google provides and promotes the Google Analytics system to its advertisers for free. The reluctance of so many publishers to provide analytics tools for their clients has negated the Internet's great advantage - its measurability - and publishers have missed the opportunity to demonstrate their value, which our analytics data suggest is considerably higher than they - or their advertisers - fully appreciate. Survey research, done right, is still a valuable tool for print and broadcast advertisers. But digital advertisers who ignore the power of web analytics in favor of survey research are more likely to approach excellence than to achieve it.