Feb
29
Today, Brandon Andersen (Business Development) circulated an article in AdAge that is a must share. A new survey shows clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in the digital space. Premier Studios is privileged to be one of the few agencies that represent a new model and are well equipped to help our clients succeed in the digital space. Following, is a portion of the article…
TNS Media Intelligence polled more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. to gauge how they are faring navigating the world of social media.
Clients complained that their agencies — creative, media, public relations, design and others — typically treat social channels like traditional media. In other cases, their ideas are not backed up by practical skills in the area. What’s more, one client pointed out that his agencies have little of their own experience using social networks or video-sharing sites for themselves.
“I think traditional ad agencies have very little contribution to make,” Bryan Simkins, a marketing specialist at FedEx, told TNS. “They are mostly driven by their compensation models which are made for closed media. Those models don’t apply in open media.”
The increase in social media has led other analysts to highlight the dearth of skills at agencies to help clients navigate the social landscape. Forrester Research, for instance, published a report last month that found agencies are poorly structured to help clients leverage opportunities with communities of shared interests.
“The existing marketing partners do not understand the ins and outs of the social media space,” David Harris, e-business manager at Suzuki, told TNS. “They can do more harm than good if they apply old models.”
“You get the sense that agencies talk a good game,” he said. “They put up a good presentation about what social media is, but when you get to implementing campaigns, the day-to-day management skills are not meeting the marketers’ expectations.” That could haunt agencies as more clients make social media a top priority.
Nearly 50 percent of marketers said social-media efforts needed to be handled at an executive level with “significant” resources. Another 30 percent agreed social media is a “revolutionary opportunity.”
“One of the big barriers right now is people are struggling with where this lives and how it is incorporated into their organizations,” Nail said, pointing out that social media cuts across marketing, public relations and customer service.
Brandon Andersen has also written a white paper regarding Social Media. You can also read it here.
Feb
25
The Oscars: All 195 Minutes Worth
Filed Under Random Thoughts | Author: Gerald Smith | Leave a Comment
I really tried to watch the whole thing. Three hours and fifteen minutes of self-congratulatory hype. It is a little much for handing out only 24 awards. This equates to just over 8 minutes per award. It’s amazing they would ever think of cutting off an acceptance speech. Which they did! I loved it when Jon Stewart invited Marketa Irglova back out to the stage following the commercial to complete her speech. Check out the Thank You Cam on the Oscars web site.
My favorte moment was when “ONCE” won for best song, “Falling Slowly”. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova accepted shortly after singing the song live. It was pretty special considering it was an indy film, shot on two handy-cams in three weeks. Glen said the budget was 100k. Simply amazing.
I would love to know what the budget is to produce this event/awards presentation?
Feb
16
The forward to the book “Join The Conversation” [Joseph Jaffe] was written by Stan Rapp, Chairman of Enguage Associates. His introduction to the book is impressive and lays the foundation for an awesome read. I would highly recommend the book.Stan Rapp says “The long-standing separation between buyer and seller is replaced by the miracle of infinite shared space ready to be transformed into countless formats staking out common ground on the world side web. To be a successful marketer in the age of engagement, there are four fundamentals to keep in mind:
- The Internet is the Center of the Universe.
- The Experience is the Brand Differentiator.
- The Database is the primary Marketplace.
- The Technology is the Explosive Ingredient.
How true. This defines our company [Premier Studios]. While #1 and #3 are shared fundamentals for everyone, fundamentals #2 and #4 are what make us unique. That is exactly why our focus is on brand-experience. We believe “brand-experience” is the future for brands looking to connect with customers. The fact is, that is what consumers want.For the few true lifestyle brands (those brands we choose because they contribute to who we desire to be as individuals), brand-experience is a must. Apple is the ultimate brand-experience brand. All channels are about experiencing the brand. Whether you are using the products, surfing their website, opening their packaging, it’s all about brand-experience. What’s worth discussing is “did they choose brand differentiation?”More to come…
Feb
4
Making Money With Web Video?
Filed Under Marketing, Random Thoughts | Author: Gerald Smith | Leave a Comment
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 57% of Internet users watch video online, and among users ages 18-29, that number jumps to 74%. So, “how do we make money on the internet with video content?”
Interestingly, most consumers mindset is that Internet content mirrors the decades-old model of free television. For 75 years television content was free. It was the audiences that were being bought and sold. Sound familiar? In the early 70’s with the introduction of HBO and similar premium channels, it was finally accepted that some programming content could render additional revenue. The value-exchange was that this premium content would be free of advertising.
With the onset of the Internet and access originally coming through the major telecom providers, the Internet was seen as something similar to telephone service (a 20th century model - way back when…). The idea being that you pay a base rate for accessing the technology (local calls) and then pay per-minute on top of that for long distance (higher value exchange services). Over time, and with deregulation, telecom providers have adjusted their model to converge voice, video, and data into a single digital stream.
Consumers are more than willing to pay for accessing the technology because the value-exchange is the expanse of free content afforded them. Over time the perception of this value-exchange has increased and perceived costs for access have decreased.
Making money with video content on the web is simple, you must sell eyeballs. The days of paying subscription rates are over. The days where technology-providers are willing to share their fees with you because consumers demand your content have passed. So it’s back to the original model of buying and selling audiences. Today, these eyeballs (in pairs) are selling for around $20 per 1,000 (CPM). So if your content is attracting 100,000 viewers per month, advertisers would be willing to pay you $2,000 per ad.
Enter YouTube. Millions of viewers accessing amateur (user-generated) content each month? So where are the ad dollars? YouTube reports the far majority of its ad dollars are generated primarily from professional content. Parent company Google is investing a lot of energy in turning YouTube into a profitable venture. But when it comes to advertising, amateur content draws less sponsorship interest than video developed by professional media outlets. YouTube is currently running ads on videos from more than 3,000 professional producers and 70 independent channels. While amateur content may be what YouTube is best known for, it’s not necessarily what advertisers are looking for.