Trusted social signals and word of mouth have become important input for consumers making a purchase decision. Now a group of ad industry entrepreneurs and veterans have adapted that model to support businesses through the DMR Index, an online platform created to evaluate technology and solve the biggest problems facing advertising agencies and brands today. The index emerged from DMR Partners, which launched about nine months ago as a thought-leadership group to focus on issues in the online ad industry. Those identified issues in social TV, cross-device retargeting, augmented reality, location based targeting, and others became the initial focus of the DMR Index. The searchable database is now in beta. Gayle Meyers, DMR co-founder, said companies that provide the services will create and update profiles and maintain registration information. The entry will also connect to Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter and other sites. "There's a variety of measurements like ROI, audience adoption and performance," she said. "Agencies will go in and rank the companies. They can make themselves anonymous or known." Think of a cross between LinkedIn, Hoovers and LUMAscape slide. The site supports a search and review tool to help agencies and brands find and feel comfortable about doing business with companies in specific niche areas within digital advertising. It will help to connect clients with the best vendors and solutions, as identified by advertisers' reviews and comments. Reviews and rankings of companies are only available to view by agencies and brands. Social elements include sentiment through a thumbs-up or thumbs-down symbol. The service is free today, but the company plans to roll out several levels of services for a fee. Data and analytics on the back end are on the product roadmap for the future. The site, which is self-funded, also gets support from consulting work with clients. Partners on the site include Alec Andronikov, who started inFreeDA Free411, acquired by AT&T, as well as MoVoxx, acquired by MOTR; Gayle Meyers, former senior executive at ValueClick, who earlier in her career was part of team that took 24/7 Media public; Sean Finnegan, former CEO of IPG's Geomentum, and prior president and chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest Group, as well as Omnicom Media Group CEO; and Jessica Joines, former VP of new business development at Universal McCann, DDB and OMD.
To date, few researchers have drawn a direct correlation between the rise of social and email marketers’ woes. That, however, is not keeping those marketers from developing social strategies. Take Constant Contact, which is seeking to put more social spin on its core email and CRM platforms with the help of Fanplayr. A self-described “gamification” specialist, Fanplayr will add gaming and social media layers to Constant Contact’s campaigns. “These tools are all proven to help small businesses win customers and build successful relationships with them,” said Rick Jensen, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at Constant Contact. Last year, the company bought BantamLive, which it used to launch a new effort in January to help small businesses run social marketing campaigns on Facebook. In addition, the company has been seeking ways to exploit its presence in local organizations to move beyond e-mail lists. Earlier this year, it acquired mobile loyalty platform CardStar, Inc. CardStar offers an app that aggregates loyalty card numbers for easier in-store use. It had more than 2 million active users at the time of the deal. Also this year, Constant Contact bought MobManager, which helps businesses handle the back-end administration of daily deals, and eventually launched SaveLocal -- its push into the coupon market. The Waltham-based company reported $214 million in revenue in 2011, the vast majority of which came from its core business of running the back end for group e-mails. Despite the rise of social networks and texting, marketers still rely on email as a highly engaging and measurable way to target consumers. Recent research, however, has suggested that the channel is rapidly deteriorating from increased ISP filtering, sinking sender reputations and inbox overload. As a result, for the first time in three years, inbox placement rates (IPR) declined 6% during the second half of 2011, according to a recent report from email and reputation management firm Return Path. Worldwide, that brought inbox placement rates to a record low of 76.5% -- compared to 81% in the first half of 2011. Historically, IPR have remained steady at around 80%, with one in five marketing emails blocked, or delivered to consumers’ spam folders. Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path, blamed the rapid decline in IPR on what he called a “perfect storm.” He said “clients are having difficulty in getting their emails delivered, ISPs are tightening requirements on reputation metrics and the number of companies using email to market continues to increase."
Cotton Inc. is rolling out two new TV spots, the latest iteration of its “The Fabric of My Life” campaign, featuring actresses Emmy Rossum and Camilla Belle. The new effort is a tale of two cities, with Rossum, best known for her lead role in HBO’s “Shameless,” taking viewers on a ride through her native New York, from black-tie events to straphanging. And Belle’s spot tells a Los Angeles story, with the Brazilian actress tap dancing through the lobby of the Chandler Pavilion, and then shopping in a farmer’s market. The ads, created by DDB, are supported by such digital assets as a multimedia tour of Emmy Rossum’s closet, categorized by occasions, which allows users to share clothes through social media and buy similar looks for themselves, and a blog by Belle. There will also be audio and lyric downloads of the new cotton songs. Cotton Inc. says that The Fabric Of My Life campaign, now in its fourth year, has been backed by $65 million, and has generated a 50% recall score among the primary demographic (women 18-34), and 40% recall among the secondary demographic (women 35-54). It will reportedly spend $20 million on the Rossum and Belle effort. “Cotton is everyone’s hometown fabric,” says Glenn Sciachitano, Cotton Inc.’s advertising director, in its release, “and we are delighted to have two such beautiful and talented young women represent the distinctive styles of their hometowns, which influence fashion trends across the U.S. The range of cotton fashions in the commercials shows that whether you dress East Coast, West Coast or anything in between, cotton fits.” The new effort comes amid tumultuous times for the cotton business. Moody’s Investors Service recently raised its outlook for the U.S. apparel industry, saying that plummeting cotton prices, which have dropped 60% in the last year, should improve profits, and that the economy’s slow recovery should keep demand on an even keel.
Trusted social signals and word of mouth have become important input for consumers making a purchase decision. Now a group of ad industry entrepreneurs and veterans have adapted that model to support businesses through the DMR Index, an online platform created to evaluate technology and solve the biggest problems facing advertising agencies and brands today. The index emerged from DMR Partners, which launched about nine months ago as a thought-leadership group to focus on issues in the online ad industry. Those identified issues in social TV, cross-device retargeting, augmented reality, location based targeting, and others became the initial focus of the DMR Index. The searchable database is now in beta. Gayle Meyers, DMR co-founder, said companies that provide the services will create and update profiles and maintain registration information. The entry will also connect to Web sites, Facebook pages, Twitter and other sites. "There's a variety of measurements like ROI, audience adoption and performance," she said. "Agencies will go in and rank the companies. They can make themselves anonymous or known." Think of a cross between LinkedIn, Hoovers and LUMAscape slide. The site supports a search and review tool to help agencies and brands find and feel comfortable about doing business with companies in specific niche areas within digital advertising. It will help to connect clients with the best vendors and solutions, as identified by advertisers' reviews and comments. Reviews and rankings of companies are only available to view by agencies and brands. Social elements include sentiment through a thumbs-up or thumbs-down symbol. The service is free today, but the company plans to roll out several levels of services for a fee. Data and analytics on the back end are on the product roadmap for the future. The site, which is self-funded, also gets support from consulting work with clients. Partners on the site include Alec Andronikov, who started inFreeDA Free411, acquired by AT&T, as well as MoVoxx, acquired by MOTR; Gayle Meyers, former senior executive at ValueClick, who earlier in her career was part of team that took 24/7 Media public; Sean Finnegan, former CEO of IPG's Geomentum, and prior president and chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest Group, as well as Omnicom Media Group CEO; and Jessica Joines, former VP of new business development at Universal McCann, DDB and OMD.
To date, few researchers have drawn a direct correlation between the rise of social and email marketers’ woes. That, however, is not keeping those marketers from developing social strategies. Take Constant Contact, which is seeking to put more social spin on its core email and CRM platforms with the help of Fanplayr. A self-described “gamification” specialist, Fanplayr will add gaming and social media layers to Constant Contact’s campaigns. “These tools are all proven to help small businesses win customers and build successful relationships with them,” said Rick Jensen, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at Constant Contact. Last year, the company bought BantamLive, which it used to launch a new effort in January to help small businesses run social marketing campaigns on Facebook. In addition, the company has been seeking ways to exploit its presence in local organizations to move beyond e-mail lists. Earlier this year, it acquired mobile loyalty platform CardStar, Inc. CardStar offers an app that aggregates loyalty card numbers for easier in-store use. It had more than 2 million active users at the time of the deal. Also this year, Constant Contact bought MobManager, which helps businesses handle the back-end administration of daily deals, and eventually launched SaveLocal -- its push into the coupon market. The Waltham-based company reported $214 million in revenue in 2011, the vast majority of which came from its core business of running the back end for group e-mails. Despite the rise of social networks and texting, marketers still rely on email as a highly engaging and measurable way to target consumers. Recent research, however, has suggested that the channel is rapidly deteriorating from increased ISP filtering, sinking sender reputations and inbox overload. As a result, for the first time in three years, inbox placement rates (IPR) declined 6% during the second half of 2011, according to a recent report from email and reputation management firm Return Path. Worldwide, that brought inbox placement rates to a record low of 76.5% -- compared to 81% in the first half of 2011. Historically, IPR have remained steady at around 80%, with one in five marketing emails blocked, or delivered to consumers’ spam folders. Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path, blamed the rapid decline in IPR on what he called a “perfect storm.” He said “clients are having difficulty in getting their emails delivered, ISPs are tightening requirements on reputation metrics and the number of companies using email to market continues to increase."
Cotton Inc. is rolling out two new TV spots, the latest iteration of its “The Fabric of My Life” campaign, featuring actresses Emmy Rossum and Camilla Belle. The new effort is a tale of two cities, with Rossum, best known for her lead role in HBO’s “Shameless,” taking viewers on a ride through her native New York, from black-tie events to straphanging. And Belle’s spot tells a Los Angeles story, with the Brazilian actress tap dancing through the lobby of the Chandler Pavilion, and then shopping in a farmer’s market. The ads, created by DDB, are supported by such digital assets as a multimedia tour of Emmy Rossum’s closet, categorized by occasions, which allows users to share clothes through social media and buy similar looks for themselves, and a blog by Belle. There will also be audio and lyric downloads of the new cotton songs. Cotton Inc. says that The Fabric Of My Life campaign, now in its fourth year, has been backed by $65 million, and has generated a 50% recall score among the primary demographic (women 18-34), and 40% recall among the secondary demographic (women 35-54). It will reportedly spend $20 million on the Rossum and Belle effort. “Cotton is everyone’s hometown fabric,” says Glenn Sciachitano, Cotton Inc.’s advertising director, in its release, “and we are delighted to have two such beautiful and talented young women represent the distinctive styles of their hometowns, which influence fashion trends across the U.S. The range of cotton fashions in the commercials shows that whether you dress East Coast, West Coast or anything in between, cotton fits.” The new effort comes amid tumultuous times for the cotton business. Moody’s Investors Service recently raised its outlook for the U.S. apparel industry, saying that plummeting cotton prices, which have dropped 60% in the last year, should improve profits, and that the economy’s slow recovery should keep demand on an even keel.
While Americans publish their personal information for all their friends to see, the majority don’t like that employers are asking for access to this personal information. According to a new survey by American Pulse, 57.3% of Americans think social media is “here to stay,” that nothing can replace it. 40.8% think something new will come along, while only 1.9% believe society will revert to older forms of technology. Women are more likely than men to agree that social media will be around for the long haul. However, some employers are asking current and future employees to grant them access to private social media profiles. If an employer asked for social media passwords, 2 in 5 would quit or withdraw their application in order to find another job, and only 1 in 10 would hand them over. Response to Request By Employer For Personal Social Media Passwords Response% of Respondents Do not use social media 22.2% Quit/withdraw my application and find a different job 40.2% Hand them over; need a job 10.9% Edit my social media profiles first, then hand over the passwords 10.5% Delete my social media pages 16.1% Source: American Pulse Survey, March 2012 Only 11.4% of Adults 18+ said they were comfortable showing their social media profiles with a potential employer. While the majority would prefer not to friend or follow their bosses, men (14.7%) are more willing to share their social media profiles with employers than women (8.3%). Dianne Kremer, Senior Analyst at BIGinsight, notes that “... men may be more willing to share social profiles at work because they are more dominant on ‘professional’ social media sites... Twitter and LinkedIn users are primarily male, while personal sites like Facebook and Pinterest attract more female users...” Additional key findings in the study show that:
Pinterest user Kristin Kowalski recently caused a stir by raising questions about whether users of the service exposed themselves to liability by pinning photos. In the post "Why I tearfully deleted my Pinterest inspiration boards," Kowalski said that the site's terms of service -- which said users were only allowed to pin photos they owned or licensed -- made her wary of the service. Kowalski, like many other users, pinned other people's photos to her inspiration boards. "I immediately thought of the ridiculously gorgeous images I had recently pinned from an outside website and, while I gave the other photographer credit right in my pin ... I most certainly could not think of any way that I either owned those photos or had a license, consent or release from the photographer who owned them," wrote Kowalski, a photographer and attorney. Kowalski also took issue with the portion of Pinterest's terms that said users would have to pay the company's legal bills, as well as any judgment, should litigation result from their pins. "If some photographer out there decides that he or she does not want you using that photog's images as 'inspiration' or otherwise and decides to sue you and Pinterest over your use of that photog’s images, you will have to hire a lawyer for yourself and YOU will have to hire a lawyer for Pinterest and fund the costs of defending both of you in court," she wrote. "Not only that, but if a court finds that you have, in fact, violated copyright laws, you will pay all damages assessed against you and all damages assessed against Pinterest." Her post clearly struck a chord with Pinterest, which revised its terms of service. The new terms also inform users that they can sometimes post images created by others under the fair use doctrine. But the company's terms still include problematic provisions requiring users to indemnify the company for any legal costs or judgments. For her part, Kowalski says she's still not sure that pinning other people's photos is okay, given the legal uncertainties. "Fair use is tricky and complicated," she writes. "This doesn’t give me much comfort that any fair use analysis I conduct before I pin something is going to be accurate or that a court would agree with me." Is she right to be so wary? It's often hard to predict how courts will view fair use questions. But the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation says that many users will be protected. "Posting pictures with captions and commentary, designed to spur further commentary and collaboration, are paradigmatic fair uses," the EFF says. "Most users seek no commercial benefit, and only use as much of the underlying image as is necessary for the commentary. Thus, a typical Pinterest user, to the extent she draws from copyrighted works, will be making acceptable fair uses of those works."