Filling the void soon to be created by Curt Hecht, Kurt Unkel has been named president of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Nerve Center. “Curt Hecht has built a strong foundation for the VivaKi Nerve Center, and Kurt Unkel is just the right person to drive our vision forward,” VivaKi CEO Jack Klues said Thursday. Hecht, meanwhile, is joining his old VivaKi colleague David Kenny at The Weather Channel Companies, where he will now serve as chief global revenue officer. "This is a huge win for The Weather Channel,” Kenny said. “Curt has a deep understanding of our industry.” Regarding The Weather Channel, Hecht called it “a great brand" with "scale and leadership in digital and a fully distributed cable network.” In his new role, Unkel will report directly to Frank Voris, global CFO for VivaKi, while also receiving advisement from Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy and innovation officer of VivaKi. A member of VivaKi parent Publicis Groupe for more than a decade, Unkel most recently served as EVP and general manager of Audience on Demand -- one of the Nerve Center’s hottest practices. Seen as one of VivaKi’s biggest revenue drivers, Audience on Demand presently services more than 350 clients and manages approximately 15,000 daily campaigns across display, search, video, mobile and social. Separately, Sean Kegelman has been named EVP of partnerships at the Nerve Center, and is expected to lead global partnerships with companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and Facebook.Marco Bertozzi has also been elevated to executive managing director of Nerve Center EMEA, where he will focus on continued expansion of the Nerve Center throughout the region. The Nerve Center was formed in 2008 to provide tools, technology and offerings that give VivaKi agencies and their clients an edge in the areas of digital media and marketing solutions. Prior to joining the Nerve Center, Unkel created and led digital strategy, investment, analytics and ad operations teams across Publicis Groupe, with a special focus on General Motors.
Mobile is quickly becoming the "backbone" to advertising strategies, with Google+, the "social spine" supporting Gmail, YouTube, Wallet and other applications for about 170 million users. That's what Larry Page, Google co-founder, told investors during the company's first-quarter 2012 earnings call Thursday. Page did not go into a lot of detail about the company's mobile strategy. The decision did not go unnoticed. "We are surprised that Google didn't go into more detail about on the call, as we see mobile bringing in more than 10% of revenue and growing," said Roger Barnette, IgnitionOne president. "Smartphone and tablet search accounted for 12% of total search advertising spent in Q1, and ad spend for these devices rose 221% year-on-year this quarter." eMarketer estimates that Google's share of overall U.S. mobile ad revenue reached 51.7% in 2011. As for Google's core revenue-generating business, the company continues to capitalize on its lead in clicks related to ads served on its sites and those of network members. The Mountain View, Calif. company reported in its Q1 2012 earnings report that clicks rose 39% in Q1 2012, compared with the year-ago quarter, and approximately 7% sequentially. Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and those of network members, declined approximately 12% in Q1 2012, compared with the year-ago quarter, and approximately 6% sequentially. About 69% -- $7.31 billion -- of total revenue came from Google sites for Q1 2012 on revenue of $10.65 billion for the quarter ended March 31, up 24% from the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 24% in the quarter, compared with Q1 2011. Google's partner sites generated $2.91 billion -- or 27% -- of total revenue, representing a 20% increase. Revenue from outside the United States totaled $5.77 billion, representing 54% of total revenue, compared with 53% in Q1 2011. Revenue from the United Kingdom remains flat year-on-year at $1.15 billion, representing 11% of first-quarter revenue. The overall U.S. online ad market rose 22.7% to $8.9 billion in Q1 2012, compared with the year-ago quarter, according to eMarketer. The research firm estimates Google's share of the annual $39.5 billion U.S. online advertising market will reach 44.9% in 2012, up from 41% in 2011. eMarketer estimates that about one in 10 advertising dollars spent in the U.S. will belong to Google as the ad market rises to $169.5 billion in 2012, up from $158.9 billion in 2011. Three trends in Q1 drove business. Companies want solutions for all devices, major brands have realized the worth of online advertising, and cross-media measurement continues to gain traction. Companies have finally realized the online channel drives in-store sales, and more than 10 million people now use Google Analytics, according to the company. Google also confirmed this week that it acquired .Google top-level domain (TLD) name ahead of ICANN's April 12 deadline, adding to the traditional .com, .org, .net and others.
The Search Agency has begun to develop business strategies and metrics to measure the concept created by Jim Lecinski, managing director of U.S. sales at Google. That idea -- the zero moment of truth (ZMOT) -- emerged last year as an offshoot of Procter & Gamble's "the first moment of truth," which describes the initial few seconds that consumers spend in a store aisle at the shelf. ZMOT, a philosophy in the theory of marketing, becomes the zero moment. Social or search activities on the Internet are added to the original three developed by P&G. It occurs, for example, when a consumer pulls out a mobile device, takes a photograph of the product on the store aisle shelf, and reads a rating or review before making a purchase. Companies such as General Mills and Butter Lane Cupcakes have adopted the concept. TSA plans to reorganize services to support the model. A formula for metrics will support practical applications, explains Mike Solomon, VP of marketing strategy at The Search Agency. "ZMOT is reorganizing our thinking," he said. Solomon has begun putting together a companion guide to measure ZMOT. The measurement system will apply to nearly all parts of a search campaign and augment traditional marketing funnel measurements. About a dozen of his clients have begun to weave this method into their business model. Those metrics will show that other actions help to create the relationships. For instance, companies need to start paying more attention to even the smallest measure of intent, such as the action of downloading a resource product guide. This creates a lead generation tool. Or, makes the content shareable and considers that a metric point of value. Soloman said that not all metrics need to tie into an ROI metric -- not everything will create revenue, but rather a point of value. It helps to build a keyword list based on consideration. The challenge, however, becomes putting the theory into practice. Plenty of companies continue to put the theory into practice to build on relationships, according to Lecinski. He said that complementary books on how to take advantage of Google ZMOT have begun to emerge, as well. He is working on updating the original version, but declined to commit to a date. Google published Lecinski's ebook in June 2011. More than 150,000 downloads later the topic continues to spawn business strategies at search agencies, but also job openings at large corporations. Aside from automakers, Symantec now has a director of ZMOT, and Microsoft recently opened and filled a job for a ZMOT Lead, responsible for evaluating and developing strategies to take advantage of third-party information. The description reads: "By identifying and planning for ZMoT we can take advantage of these sources to surface information to communicate the value in our products that other customers and reviews have recognized."
Consumers who read digital newspaper content respond to digital advertising as well, according to a new survey commissioned by the Newspaper Association of America and performed by Frank N. Magid Associates. Newspapers have a wide digital reach, with 60% of respondents saying they looked at an online version from a laptop or desktop in the last week, while 26% said they looked at an online version using a smartphone, and 12% looked at an online version using a tablet. (There was overlap between these categories; overall, 67% of respondents fell into one or more of them.) The survey, conducted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 1, 2012, consisted of 2,518 online interviews among adults 18+ who use the Internet, followed by another round of 1,179 online surveys for statistical balance, as well as nine focus groups conducted across the U.S. Among digital newspaper media consumers, the NAA-Magid survey found that 66% said they act on digital ads displayed with the newspaper content, while 61% of tablet users said they act on newspaper tablet ads, and 59% of smartphone users respond to ads with newspaper content viewed on those devices. While print ad revenues may be declining, newspapers’ print products are also still reaching large audiences, with 66% of respondents saying they looked at the Sunday print edition of a local newspaper in the last seven days, and 64% saying they looked at the weekday edition in the same period. Overall, 80% of respondents fell into one or both of these categories. 73% of respondents said they have used printed circulars included in newspapers in the past 30 days, and 74% said they make a point of looking at printed Sunday circulars. The preferred means of consumption varied considerably by age cohort, with 65% of adults ages 18-34 saying they read the newspaper on a computer in the last week, compared to 48% of adults 65+. Likewise, 41% of adults ages 18-34 read the newspaper on a smartphone, versus just 11% of adults 65+.
When it comes to embracing social media, the financial services industry has never been among the most aggressive in staking out its place on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking platforms. That’s partly because financial services, like the pharmaceutical industry, is more highly regulated than others. Nevertheless, a new study suggests that financial institutions have made significant strides in the last four years. Nearly 90% of the financial firms studied now have a social media presence of some kind compared to only 20% in 2008, according to Corporate Insight, which provides research and consulting services to the financial industry. Standing out from the pack, however, has been American Express, which launched its OPEN Forum for small business in 2007 and has continued to expand its social initiatives since then. Corporate Insight ranked AmEx as the top financial brand in social media based on its analysis of 90 companies across four types of social properties: Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, proprietary communities, and blogs. (LinkedIn was excluded because most communications among members are private, making it difficult to gauge engagement.) The research outfit weighed three main factors -- audience, content and engagement -- when evaluating each firm’s social media efforts, with the greatest emphasis on engagement. AmEx maintains five Facebook pages covering separate programs including OPEN Forum, Small Business Saturday, Members Project and Business Travel Connexion, along with its main page. The pages collectively have attracted about six million fans. “One thing [American Express] has done is target subsets of its clients, like small business owners and individuals with specific products,” said Alan Maginn, senior analyst at Corporate Insight. “The firm also does a good job of interacting with its customers through the various social media channels rather than simply pushing out content. AmEx also received high marks for its presence on Twitter, where its main account had 350,000 followers, up 100-fold since 2010. It averages 12 tweets per day, typically linking to articles on the AmEx official Web site or promoting deals and contests. The company also operates a dedicated customer service account (@AskAmex) and another for OPEN Forum. Other AmEx social media programs include its much-publicized Sync partnership with Foursquare. It provides deals and discounts to cardholders who check into businesses and restaurants with the location-based service. The card giant also teamed with location-based gaming service SCVNGR to offer deals to members and extended the Sync initiative to Twitter. The Corporate Insight report did not disclose rankings for any other financial firms studied in addition to American Express. But it did highlight social media moves by a handful of other companies. Zecco, for instance, last year introduced a stock trading service for clients on Facebook through its Wall Street application. It provides access to real-time stock quotes and charts, share investing ideas, and place trades from within the social network. Separately, online retail brokerage firms E-Trade and optionsXpress last spring launched their own social communities where members can share portfolio information or their trade predictions. Full-service brokerages like Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney are also getting in on the act, if belatedly. The firm launched a pilot program last summer allowing 600 advisors among its 18,000-strong workforce to begin using Twitter and LinkedIn. Corporate Insight found more broadly that Twitter has edged ahead of Facebook as the most popular social tool for financial companies. As of the end of 2011, 92% had a Twitter presence compared to 88% on Facebook. Even more conservative entities, like full-service brokerages and mutual fund companies, tend to prefer Twitter to Facebook. “We suspect this is due to the fact that firms can focus entirely on their own communications through the Twitter platform while Facebook requires the review and moderation of comments posted on the company’s page,” stated the report. Financial institutions are increasingly using Twitter for customer service, while Facebook and Twitter have gained as recruitment vehicles. Still, only about 10% of the properties reviewed in the study provide information on career opportunities.
The MLB.com At Bat app perennially jumps to the top of the charts when the latest version is released at the start of each baseball season. This year’s edition is no different, ranking as the top-grossing app for the iPhone and Android since its February release. It has also been the top-grossing app for the iPad. What’s new is that At Bat 12 has hit the 3 million download mark only eight days into the regular season, a level it took until August 22 -- 145 days into the season -- for the app to reach last year. Since baseball’s opening day April 4, the new At Bat app has delivered a daily average of over 800,000 live audio and video streams, roughly double last year's rate. It’s likely that the steep rise in iPad adoption has been a key factor in accelerating downloads. Apple sold nearly 40 million iPads worldwide in 2011 and the newly introduced model appears to be off to a strong start in 2012. More people have iPhones and Android devices now too, with Nielsen estimating that smartphone penetration has reached nearly 50% in the U.S. For its part, MLB.com added performance enhancements like high-resolution graphics for Apple’s Retina display on devices, while keeping the season subscription price at $14.99. That isn’t to say that the popular app, which so far has earned a 3.5-star rating in the App Store, is without complaints. One reviewer groused about full-page ads accompanying each news article, while others lamented box scores not being included in the free content. There are also the usual gripes about the $15 subscription fee-- well above the $1 or $2 typically charged for an iPhone app.
A federal judge has ruled that the bulk of a privacy lawsuit against the Internet service provider Wide Open West should go to arbitration. Wide Open West was among six Internet service providers that partnered with controversial behavioral targeting company NebuAd in 2007 and 2008 to test its ad-serving platform. The company, now defunct, worked with ISPs to gather data about Web users' activity in order to serve them targeted ads. NebuAd's platform, which made use of deep packet inspection technology, drew objections from privacy advocates as well as lawmakers. One of the major criticisms was that ISPs were able to provide data about everything consumers did online -- including their searches and activity at noncommercial sites. NebuAd said its data collection was anonymous, and that consumers could opt out of the program. But in 2008, after news of the tests came to light, consumers sued NebuAd and the six ISPs, arguing that the companies unlawfully installed "spyware." The complaint against Wide Open West alleged violations of the federal computer fraud law and wiretap law, as well as invasion of privacy, unjust enrichment and violations of Illinois state law. Wide Open West filed a motion to send all but one allegation to an arbitrator, arguing that its terms of service require arbitration of disputes -- except those alleging wiretap law violations. U.S. District Court Judge Edmond Chang in the Northern District of Illinois late last month agreed with the ISP, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that such arbitration clauses are enforceable. Chang didn't send the wiretap law claim to arbitration; instead, he put that claim on hold pending resolution of the other allegations. Most consumers prefer proceeding in federal court, where juries can award large amounts of damages, rather than in arbitration. The subscribers who sued Wide Open West might be able to keep the case in federal court by making the strategic decision to abandon all claims other than the wiretap law allegations. As of Thursday, the publicly available court records didn't reveal whether the consumers would do so. NebuAd shuttered in late 2008, shortly after news of the tests came to light. Last year, the company agreed to a $2.4 million settlement (to be paid by its insurance carriers). Two-thirds of the money will go toward various privacy organizations, while $800,000 will go to the lawyers who brought the case. The ISPs have been fighting the cases, with mixed results. So far, lawsuits have been dismissed against CenturyTel and Embarq. A case against Knology was sent to arbitration. Litigation is still pending against two other ISPs: Bresnan and Cable One. The consumers who sued Embarq appealed the dismissal to the 10 Circuit Court of Appeals, where they are arguing that U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson wrongly dismissed the lawsuit. Robinson threw out the case last year, ruling that NebuAd alone was responsible for any wiretap law violations, and that Embarq subscribers consented to NebuAd's behavioral targeting platform by failing to opt out of the program.
Can't go on vacation (or even to a movie or ball game) without checking email or logging into social media? When was the last time you spent a solid uninterrupted hour just reading a dead-tree book or magazine? A growing number of folks log into social media when they watch TV (some say in an attempt to save shows looking like they might not be renewed). A University of Chicago study found that most people say Facebook, Twitter and email are harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol. You know this is true, because you have to practically beat your kids to stop them from texting during meals (or any other time, for that matter.) But you are probably just as bad; after all, a Neverfail survey reports that more than 50% of folks say they send emails during a meal with family or friends. You probably think you're impressing your boss by being "on" 24/7, when really you are just feeding your addiction to the fear of "missing something." Perhaps there is truth in Jeff Einstein's contention that "In recent years we have entered what I call the Great Age of Addiction & Loss, an age characterized most notably by an irrefutable addiction — both as individuals and as a nation — to all things media." Out where I live, drivers are running over and killing pedestrians because they can't resist the urge to answer the phone or send a text while behind the wheel. Back when I used to do a fair amount of distance running, if I didn't see a driver's eyes meet mine, I stepped off the road. As advertisers, in this new media world order, we need to rethink our traditional concepts of impressions and engagement, since we are now only getting snippets of audiences' attention. Tom Cunniff, one of the smarter, more thoughtful marketers out there, earlier this week wrote that we are in "the age of Ambient Media" because all of our devices are on and available, with our attention flitting from one medium to the next, or to none at all. Everything is devolving into an endless media stream. As individuals, we need to take a moment and disconnect. I recently took a couple of my kids on a spring break vacation and purposely left my BlackBerry at home. It was great. Since I have clients, I logged into my laptop a few times a day to make certain there were no emergencies, but I didn't read the usual endless e-blasts from the trade pubs, nor even watch TV. Never plugged into an iPod. Just read a book. What you notice when you unplug is how utterly pervasive media is around you. On the beach, at the pools, in the restaurants, folks all around us were plugged into an electronic this or that. Suddenly, even the Muzak at every venue -- including the weight room and the spa -- was annoying. Interestingly, the backlog of TV shows I record each week was so overwhelming on my return that I deleted about half of them and never missed a beat when I played the following week's episode. So tuning out was not the end of the world I expected it to be. In fact it might even be beneficial. A religious studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania teaches a class called "Living Deliberately," which has no exams, no formal papers and little required reading. However, students are expected to modify their lifestyles with a set of restrictions drawn from monastic traditions: They must give up alcohol and refrain from using electronic communications. Apparently, the students who enroll find that living without the Internet makes a profound difference in their lives. "Every student who has taken this class has said without exception that they have done better in their other classes, and they have been able to focus more," says the prof. "This is the best thing for their work they have ever done." Hmmmmmm.