Publishing in the Digital Era

Although the attendance was fairly meager, today's Publishing in the Digital Era panel brought together an all-star group to share their insights on how to evolve an old business to the realities of a new world. Joining Moderator Randy Bennett of the Newspaper Association of America were panelists Christian Hendricks, VP of Interactive Media at McClatchy Company, Michelle Slack, Director of Digital Media at Hearst Newspapers, Sylvia Mariano, Executive Director of Edmunds Inc., and Karen Dorst, Account Development Director at Mansueto Ventures (publishers of Inc, and FastCompany).

Of all the groups represented on the panel, Edmunds was clearly the farthest along on a path from print to digital. In fact, they discontinued all print projects in 2005. Now, all their revenue comes from online ads, and sales of data and research derived from their highly niched user base. In response to the moderator's question as to how difficult that decision was Mariano answered "it was easy, printing an annual book that would be immediately out-of-date was painfull".

From the very beginning Edmunds embraced user generated content. Now, user generated content is given equal importance to editorial content within the organization. So, when the web 2.0 revolution rolled around their priorities were more about making it easy for users to interact than in creating processes from scratch.

Karen Dorst's group was also early to the online community business. Fast Company first created an online community in the 90s, but has seen tremendous growth in the past three years.

Hendricks from McClatchy, and Slack at Hearst, are both managing organizations in the midst of a significant transition. "We reach really local markets, but the majority of all online marketing is done on a national level," said Slack. Offline, the percentage of total advertising split between local and national is skewed in the opposite direction in the favor of local. "So we're trying to reach those customers."

Both representatives of the newspaper groups maintained that there is very little cross-over between their online and offline audience. However, both seemed to have a different view of the implications of this. Christian Hendricks at McClatchy believes they can increase the numbers of online readers ultimately using their offline products. "75% of our online readers never touch our offline products". Michelle Slack at Hearst seems less sure of that as a priority. "We are not necessarily concerned about moving online visitors to our offline products".

These old media companies are trying to do a few very challenging things all at once. They are trying to :

• Reach a local advertiser, who was comfortable with an offline sales process, online.
  
• Leverage their unique virtues of strong editorial capabilities while at the same time creating very deep user generated content areas in their online offerings.
  
• Maintain effective pricing for their local offerings online by offering more tailored solutions, in the face of lots of online competition that tends to drive prices lower.
  
• Take advantage of the fact that they do have a local ad sales force, while the Google's and Yahoo's of the world do not. But, you have to wonder which would be more effective, a local sales force, or a simple online process for placing ads like the AdWords system. They are trying to gain the virtues of both.
  
• Maintain offline businesses that still represent the bulk of their revenues, even though they are seeing very little growth.
  
• Offer more effective solutions for advertisers that may span online and offline. This can make things more complex. "We are becoming more of an agency for local advertisers" says Hendricks.
  

There have been some bright moments. "When you publish a story and in one hour there are 150 comments, it obviously impacts loyalty" said Hendricks. For Hearst, Slack said they've been able to publish very good content in niche areas that would just be too expensive to cover comprehensively with a professional journalist.

Christian Hendricks seems to have an almost Zen-like take on the online media environment : "We view Google/Yahoo as the water, and we're the fish. We want to integrate our assets into their environment." I think if you want to be a fish, the first thing you need to do is grow gills - not an easy prospect.

Mighty Fun at ad:tech

Around 11 tonight I decided to head over to the party at Mighty hosted by a whole coalition of marketing and media groups, and I'm glad I did. They had a really good mix of great DJ and live bongo drummer, dancing, open bar, and general merriment. Some may have noticed the teams of dancing girls on the stage as well.

But, I think the highlight of the night was this group of breakdancers. Check it out:


Pretty good right? Just after that, an especially brave ad:techer got out there and showed us what he had. Which was not all that much, but he gets a lot of credit for going for it.

On the way back I was looking for some people to share a cab. Nearby, I overheard this conversation:

guy: "so where do you work?"
girl: "myspace"
guy: "oh, cool"
girl: "yeah, so..." (she was feeling it)

About that time a cab rounded the corner, my hand went up, cab pulled over. But MySpace let me know in no uncertain terms that a) she and friend were next, and b) I wasn't welcome to share a cab with them.

Fortunately, Denise Tipton and her group from Partner Weekly came out about that time. They were a friendly bunch, and they didn't mind sharing cabs a bit. Thanks guys.

And the Schwag Award Goes To...

Someone told me today that the word "schwag" came from the name for the bag that thieves used to carry their stolen booty in days of yore. Of course, Google thinks it is bad marijuana so don't quote me on that.

Regardless, anyone at ad:tech who came within 50 feet of the exhibit hall soon becomes very familiar with this term. If you've ever seen those videos of people scrambling over each other at a Walmart midnight opening the day after Thanksgiving, then you'll understand the seriousness with which some people scour the exhibit floor for tchotchkes.

Now, before you head out tomorrow to get you some of that, let us guide you to the real gems. Fellow blogger Brad Waller and I searched to find the best and brightest goods from all over the hall today. And now, we present them to you.



After gathering the goods we recruited an expert panel of judges, who all happened to be in the press room at that exact moment, to determine The Top Five Tchotchkes of AdTech 2007. So, without further adieu here are the results:

#5 - Google's glow ball.

Ok, we've all seen rubber balls that glow when you bounce them, right? But, this thing really, really glows. Enough to mesmerize the judges and thereby win this moment of glory. I hate to break this to you, but they are all gone now though. All but this one carried by a not-very-fast kid. Sorry buddy.

#4 - LeadPile's Photo Frame

Now, this was a quality issue. Look at that thing. It's shiny. And heavy too. That impressed the judges quite a bit. If it didn't say "LeadPile.com" on it I might actually put a picture in it. In fact, this is so nice we weren't entirely sure it was a give away. But, into the bag it went. We've got Schwag to judge here people.

#3 - The Red Dot CMS 8' Retractable Ethernet Cable

Ok, similar to the phone version we've all seen in the past, but this one is Ethernet. That's cool right? Oh, it's not? Well our judges thought it was, so you're wrong. I think it has something to do with the feel of it unrolling, then snapping right back in your hand. It is satisfying.

#2 - DoubleClick's iPod Speakers

That's right, iPod speakers! As a give away. Those guys are so loaded right now they just can't give it away fast enough! Well, thank you very much, we were all very impressed. And you know, you just missed #1 by the thinnest of margins.

But, the numbers don't lie, and the number one is....

#1 - Think Partnership's Little-Magnetic-Wire-Cat-Kind-of-Thing

Ok, it small but kind of cute. It sticks to metal. You can bend it all around. One of our fellow bloggers, I won't mention his name, looked and this little guy and just fell in love. "I can see that sitting on my desk every day." And, guess what? Mike wasn't the only one who felt that way. Other judges loved it too.

So, that's it. Congratulations to all our winners. If you think there were others that were perhaps more deserving just remember: we're the judges here.

Proposed New Rule: No Bathroom Texting

Steve was mentioning a few images from the exhibit hall he's trying to purge from his brain. Well, is it just me, or is it strange to see guys standing at the urinal "hands free" because they are too busy typing on their blackberry?

What are the rules of etiquette here?

Measurement and Metrics : The Debate Rages On

Measurement and Metrics. Should you measure? Should you not measure? And if you measure, should you refer to the result of your measurements as metrics? some argument, instead we saw a very harmonious discussion of the challenges of measurement and the implications of data in our very ROI driven business.

Rick Bruner, Director of Research and Industry Relations at Doubleclick was joined by Young-Bean Song, VP of Analytics at Atlas Institute, Chad Parizman, Director of Online Analytics at Scripps Networks Interactive (home of The Food Network & other television properties), Darren Stoll, Macys.com Director of Marketing Analytics, and John Squire, Sr. VP Product Strategy and GM Search Services at CoreMetrics.

All panelists agreed that one of the biggest challenges they currently face is how to "go beyond the last ad seen." When you begin looking at all the touch points of your campaign instead of the last point leading to an ultimate conversion point - sale, newsletter sign-up etc - you begin to get a much more nuanced impression of your overall campaign effectiveness. According to Young-Bean Song, Atlas looked at this issue and saw that search-derived visitors who had previously been exposed to display advertising saw a 22% increased likelihood to convert.

Darren Stoll from Macys.com agreed. "Historically, we've given the last click credit for sales, but now we see there is a whole chain of events in the customer sales lifecycle." They are still struggling with this issue, and are now developing a scoring method to help them evaluate the impact on potential future sales from a given marketing opportunity. From personal experience, I know that can be an incredibly complex venture. To help them consolidate tracking Macys.com requires users to register to use their site and measure their activity from those visitors.

John Squire said that he felt some marketers are in too much of a hurry to search for the brand new homerun campaign rather than taking the time to optimize their existing programs properly (more of that GMOOT effect that Geoff Ramsey mentioned yesterday).

Young-Bean Song took the contrarian position (here comes the debate) that view-through conversions are "just not a measure of direct response." View-throughs, where a visitor who as been exposed to an ad later, but not immediately, converts was likened to attributing beer sales at a baseball stadium to the beer banner in the outfield. Instead, Song feels view through statistics would be better used as a measure of media placement quality.

When asked what is missing from the current measurement equation, Chad Parizman of Scripps Networks answered "Talent." "Finding people who can make sense of the numbers is a big challenge right now." Song identified lack of a de-duping process from groups involved in multiple CPA (cost per acquisition) deals across many ad networks leads to potentially significant overpayment.

I was hoping that they'd address the recent comScore report on cookie deletion, and one audience member did ask about the impact of cookie deletion on their metrics. Song offered that from their studies "your conversion counts are understated by at least 12-15% right now." According to their numbers 12% of visitors reject 3rd party cookies immediately, and another 10% will delete them within a week. The effect of this is that your reach will be overstated significantly, your frequency will be understated, and your conversion rates will be artificially lower.

eCommerce 2.0: Levi's, Lego and Why You Wish You Had their Brands

Any session with Geoff Ramsey is guaranteed to be a fact-fest. Today, as moderator of the eCommerce 2.0 session, he did not disappoint. Here are a few from the first five minutes of the session:

• 92% of adults regularly go online when considering a purchase
  
• online search influences 20-30% of offline purchases
  
• 78% of internet users in America shop online
  
• 50% of online adults watch video on YouTube
  
• video adspend for 2006 was $410 million out of $16 billion in total adspend, but is expected to grow to $2.9 billion by 2010
  
• there are 72 million blogs online, but only 7-10% of Internet users are active blog readers
  
• MySpace has 60 million users
  
• Google's Eric Schmidt said "We are in the worldwide advertising market." A 600 billion dollar market
  
• 25% of online visitors go to social media sites
  

Ramsey moderated a panel with Finlay Robb, Chief Marketing Officer of Lego Direct 2 Consumer, and Patrice Varni, Director of Internet Marketing and Online Business at Levi Strauss & Co.

Both Levi Strauss and Lego have extremely well known, and well liked brands. The challenge for Varni and Robb has been how to build on this affinity in ways that build trust and higher levels of engagement with their customers. And both were very forthcoming with their respective company's efforts to do just that.

Lego has created an online portal to Lego products that is now the 3rd largest kids site in the world. Much of what they've done with their site has been directly in response to feedback from visitors - "they told us what they wanted from the site." Robb characterized their efforts online as a process of learning what they can do to support their large enthusiast community.

One interesting thing that Lego does is identify certain individuals from the community and officially sanction them to speak on behalf of Lego. They give them advanced notice of product announcements and help these individuals build their reputation online. They also host some sites for people who are major lego enthusiasts.

At Levi Strauss they've debated how much control over their brand to give over to consumers. For instance, they've determined to include consumer product reviews on their site despite the risk of negative responses. For them, the risk is worth the tremendous amount they will learn about their products and their consumers. Varni said one thing that has been successful for them was shooting video specifically for online use, rather than repurposing offline ads. Also, they've found that behavioral targetting of media to consumers who've previously visited their sites worked very well, but that they have not gone as far as they could with this tactic because of potentially violating their consumer's privacy.

As a partner in an interactive agency myself, I was happy to hear that the Lego search marketing campaign really took off two years ago when they outsourced the task to an outside group. They now attribute 16% of their sales to this program.

For both Levi Strauss and Lego, the emphasis seems to be not how to roll out the next homerun campaign, but rather to keep from overreaching and in some way harming their customers' already strong affinity for their Brands. We should all be so lucky.

Dispatch From DC (or You Can't Save the Village Idiot All the Time)

While everyone packed into the room next door was learning how to harness the unsuspecting masses into pitching their wares for them - at Viral and WOM - I was learning how those very actions may later be deemed deceptive or an invasion of privacy. Boy, are those people going to be sorry they filled that room before I made it in there.

In truth, this session was a very interesting and timely. Gary Arlen, President of Arlen Communications was Moderator. His firm represents Sony, the NFL, Microsoft, and The Washington Post among other well-known groups. Joining him as panelists were Christine Varney, head of the Internet Practice Group at law firm Hogan & Hartson - clients include MySpace, DoubleClick, eBay, and others - and Alen Chapell, President of Chapell & Associates, who's firm helps organizations "increase the transparency of their business practices." To me, Alen sounds like a person you call when something has gone terribly wrong.

The panel started out telling us of a few of the regulatory sharks that now swim in our waters -The FCC, The Department of Justice, the FBI, State Attorneys General, and even District Attorneys. Their message was that our activities as marketers are creating the framework that will later be used by the government for analysis from a regulatory perspective. That may sound fairly benign, but probably not something you want to experience.

If you have a marketing product, she encourages you to think objectively about the questions:

1. Is it deceptive?


2. Is it invasive?

If your product is either, you need to weigh the legal risks you may face.

According to Varney, who at one point worked for the FCC, the regulatory priorities have shifted along with national politics. Democrats have tended to favor privacy issues, and Republicans have been more focused on what constitutes "deceptive advertising." With Democrats back in control of Congress, she believes that we'll soon be seeing privacy on the agenda again in the near future.

Allen Chapell used the ringtone business as an example of an industry that is ripe for regulation. In his scenario, a child with a phone on a family plan can easily subscribe to a ringtone subscription without the parent's knowledge or consent. So, in that scenario he would advise the industry itself begin establishing standards to help avoid later scrutiny.

Gary Arlen gave us a quick run-down of some of the current issues of interest in the regulatory field:

• Network Neutrality - The FCC has picked up this topic again recently


• Patent Issues


• Anti-Trust - He was entertained that Microsoft was one of the first to cry out about the anti-trust issues of the Google/DoubleClick deal.


• Copyright Issues


• Pharmaceutical Advertising


• Spyware


• Trademark Issues - they gave a nice "shout out" to my state's (Utah) incredibly sharp legislators who write "mind-boggling" legislation tailored to the interests of Utah business. Way to go guys!


• Taxation - there is a strong push to implement some kind of comprehensive taxation system.

My favorite part of the session was when Christine Varney was reminiscing about her days at the FCC. Apparently their department's motto at the time was "You can't protect the Village Idiot 100% of the time." Another gem was "people will sell their mother's entire life's history for 10 cents off a Big Mac." When asked what would surprise you most in the coming year, her response was "that they actually did something." Not that I'd want you to have the impression that Ms. Varney was flippant; she seems quite serious and capable. But, with answers like these I'd love to hear the stories she might tell at an ad:tech party later.

Attendees Caught The Viral Bug

The planning team that scheduled the rooms for this morning's sessions apparently didn't get the word that Word Of Mouth is a hot topic. If you arrived only 10 minutes early you (and I) missed out. The audience had already filled the room, and the hallway, to capacity. If you look really close, you can see one of the speakers through the door:



Meanwhile though, the session on government regulation next door (in a room twice as big) had plenty of seats. Sounds like a job for the Department of Planning for Planning Department.



Off to learn what Big Brother has in store for us.

Die Hards Stay On for the Paid Search and Your Brand Roundtable

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of attendees staying on for the last session. Hard to believe these polite, attentive (if a bit tired) people were the same riotous crowd from last night's Blue Lithium party. In some way, it feels good to be part of a group that might turn on you in a second. Keeps you on your toes.

Barbara Coll, President of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) moderated a panel including Kevin Ryan of Wahlstrom Interactive, Kevin Lee of Did-It.com, David Karnstedt of Overture, and Fredrick Marckini of iProspect.

Despite the fact that the table was rectangular rather than round, the session jumped right in to the question of whether it is really important to be number one in search. Kevin Lee's comments reflected the general consensus - it depends. The overall marketing strategy, current position in natural search, and the level of control desired over your messaging influences the importance of being number one.

Of course, it can be quite expensive to appear prominently for broad categories. Is it worth it? David Karnstedt of Overture pointed out that in the context of price paid for offline mindshare, top prices online are still quite reasonable.

Often times, companies miss out by neglecting to emphasize their own name as a targeted search phrase. Fredrick Marckini identified that a Google search for Overture does not find Overture.com in the top ten natural search results. And, sure enough, he's right. They do appear in the sponsored AdWords listings. The first result is for the old GoTo.com domain, which Overture no longer owns. If you search for Google on Yahoo, Google is the first result. This in itself would make for an interesting case study on brand awareness online.

Kevin Lee confronted the fact that search volume is often a limiting factor for online brand building campaigns. There are only so many people looking for your product segment online. How do you go beyond those numbers? Lee illustrated a potential solution with an example: Why couldn't Coke create a website entirely focused on American Idol singer Clay Aiken, brought to you by Coca-Cola? Traffic potential is enormous because it is in the entertainment vertical.

I'm sure there would be a number of contractual issues to work out with this kind of strategy, but it seems like a great idea. Right now, there are only three bidders on AdWords for "Clay Aiken" - Amazon, a ticket reseller, and Ebay.

The conversation concluded with a discussion of affiliates and search. Should brand names rely on channel partners and affiliates to compete for them in paid search? Panelists encouraged a careful examination of the opportunity costs associated with abandonment of direct consumer contact. But, as Kevin Lee noted, ultimately online search is an auction marketplace where the superior business model and execution will win out.

Integrating Search Into The Cross Media Marketing Mix

On the final day of AD:TECH, only the truly dedicated show up for the sessions. And, during this final day the focus turned towards search. In the 10 a.m. session, Integrating Search into the Cross-Channel Marketing Mix, moderator Gary Stein of Jupiter Media began the discussion by suggesting we think of a marketing ecosystem, rather than a mix. Stein feels the word Mix overly simplifies the myriad interactions between each media.

Stein went on to set the stage with some statistics about the evolving search marketplace. Notable were:

• Search marketing is becoming more complex, and marketers are taking a more comprehensive approach. The percentage of search advertisers targeting more than 1,000 phrases grew from just 4 percent in 2003, to 22 percent in 2004.
• This growth in complexity is a driving force for analytics solutions and management tools.
• There is a disconnect between marketers goals and the measurement of results. While nearly all marketers seeking direct sales acquisition measure results of their efforts, few with brand awareness goals do the same.
• Large marketers, defined as those with greater than $1 Million annual budgets, are gaining as a proportion of total search advertisers.

Mike Bruno, Director of Online Marketing for D&B Sales and Marketing Solutions, described a qualification process they use for search-derived registrants on ZapData.com. It went something like this:

1. They first identify whether new registrants on the site are already D&B customers. If so they route the contact to the existing D&B point of contact.
2. If the lead is identified as a high potential client, the contact is routed directly to D&B telephone sales.
3. Contacts of unknown potential are routed to phone pre-qualifiers for follow up.
4. Low potential clients are routed into a sophisticated email trigger system to help filter out those of significant value.

One way they identify the potential quality of the lead is by the search terms they use when finding ZapData. Broad based phrases which indicate a client need, but not a particular solution, fall into their Interest category, Progressively more specific phrases are categorized as Consideration, Performance, Action, and Loyalty. The leads even more qualified than the Loyalty category were described as the "Glenn Garry Leads". Bruno did not specify whether coffee in the office was for anyone but closers.

Scott Skurnick, Manager of Search and Affiliate Marketing at Circuit City, described the counter play between ROI and Brand Presence objectives in online marketing. At Circuit City he separates the tracking of search campaigns with branding objectives from those with a direct sales/ROI focus. Targeted keywords are separated into buckets, with the more general phrases generally attributed to branding campaigns. The spectrum of bidding strategies ran the gauntlet from branding focus to ROI focus:

• Premium position in broad category phrases.
• High click volume words and phrases.
• High sales volume phrases.
• An efficient spend of budget.
• Cost per sale emphasis.

Chris McGarry of Covad discussed the challenges they have marketing a service that is only available to a small subset of Americans in major metropolitan areas. Thirty percent of his potential prospects cannot use the service in their area, and another thirty percent are already customers without knowing it through their partnerships with Earthlink, and AT&T.

The session finished with a brief introduction from Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro to research he performs on search engine user behavior. Hotchkiss found that people like to start broad with their search queries, and then narrow them down. Results at this broad level can modify the direction of the more specific searches. So, if you are not present at the broad level you may pay a cost in terms of lost customer acquisition opportunities.

More research from Enquiro can be found here.

Blue Lithium, the Good and the Bad

These are the things I learned tonight at the Blue Lithium party.

- Trapeze artists are always popular. I highly recommend them to anyone considering hosting a future AD:TECH party.

- AD:TECHers quickly become surly unless there is an open bar.

- There is no good time to cut the music off to present your corporate video.

- You only have about 30 seconds to say what you want to say after cutting off the music. If it is an open bar, maybe make it one minute.

- If there are scattered boos from the crowd, don't respond with "Don't boo, I'll kill you." It just doesn't come off right, even when you are joking.

For a short Quicktime video of the trapeze act, click here.

Map the Buy Funnel for Fun and Profit

You've spent your budget bringing targeted visitors to your website. But what happens when they arrive? Could you be missing that one key element that would help you double your conversion rate? This afternoon's session Conversions - Mapping the Buy Funnel served as a brief conversion analytics overview and discussion of site factors influencing visitor conversion.

According to Moderator Guy Creese of Ballardvale Research, help is available. There are over 40 analytics tools on the market, with most of them having reached feature parity in the last year. These solutions have grown from tools focused on the needs of IT decision makers to product suites capable of arming the entire corporation with valuable customer insights.

Douglas van Duyne, Senior Director of Customer Experience Products and Design at Keynote Systems, described some of the methods they use to help Fortune 500 businesses refine their online customer experience. You have to figure anyone with a title like that must know what he is doing. Some of this knowledge was chronicled in his recent book, The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience. Among Van Duyne's recommendations were:

• Focus on content, ease of use, performance, brand value, and customer satisfaction.
• Eliminate distractions that could lead visitors out of the buying process.
• Avoid giving unpleasant surprises such as a high shipping cost revealed deep into the checkout process.
• Address potential deal breakers early in the process.
• Focus on building trust throughout the relationship

Iggy Fanlo of Shopping.com identified three drivers of online sales:

• Brand
• Experience
• and Information -- which leads to Trust.

Interestingly, Shopping.com has begun to integrate trust ratings via their Epinions information into the comparison shopping ranking system. Now, the top three listings on the site still go to the highest CPC bidder, but lower rankings are sorted first by "trusted store" status. And, Gray Market products, those originally intended for non-US markets and often sold without a US warranty, are listed below other listings.

Even simple site changes can have dramatic effects on conversion rate. When Shopping.com increased their product image sizes from 75x75 pixels to 100x100, it increased conversions 30 percent.

Michael Behrens of Web Metro, identifies a number of issues you should consider when analyzing the buying funnel:

Pre-Funnel Considerations

• The source of traffic.
• The tracking tools you will use to monitor activity.
• The analytics methods you will employ to understand that traffic.

Buy Funnel Considerations

• Site and company credibility.
• Product value.
• Service/support value
• Guarantee/Warantee value
• Establishment of transactional trust

In practice, Web Metro uses several key metrics to evaluate the performance of client sites. These include the monitoring of exit/dropout rates, overall conversion rates, evaluation of most traveled path vs. desired path, and use of the back button (which often identifies a trouble area). Behrens identified several analytics tools they rely on including Click Tracks, Web Side Story's HitBox, Net IQ's Web Trends log analysis software, and their own proprietary ROI tracking system.

Phillip Krim, CEO of Amalgamated Enterprises and a Web Metro client, profiled his experience analyzing and improving the buy funnel of the Sleep Better Store. His initial motivation to act was motivated by something many in this industry might relate to: after a new site launch they discovered what had seemed like a much better design actually did not serve the desires of their customers, leading to a 73 percent homepage drop out rate. They discovered that their customers were already farther into the buy cycle than they anticipated, and were already planning to purchase. So, they re-worked their site to address why the customer should buy from them and conversions improved significantly.

Sometimes the steps to improved conversion are counter-intuitive. 21st Century Insurance found that actually adding steps to the conversion process improved the value of overall returns. By analyzing the dropout rate of each of its nine checkout steps, they found one in particular saw an 85% loss rate. By adding a step to present new options to the customer at that point, overall conversions increased in spite of the longer process.

Surprisingly, only Keynote routinely integrates demographic factors like gender into their site conversion process modeling.

NOT a SWOT and We're Better for It

Speaker Geoffrey Ramsey, CEO and Co-Founder of eMarketer, first made an admission, "They gave me this title and I had to look up the definition." So, while his presentation was not a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis of online vs. offline media, you could have written your own analysis by the time he finished his hour-long brain dump.

Fortunately, he was one of the few speakers to supply a printed copy of his presentation, in advance, to the audience. My fingers were not capable of moving quick enough, and right about now I'd be answering a lot of questions like "Why did you quote him as saying all online media buyers will be fired in two years".

He didn't say that by the way. In fact, the future looks quite bright. And not that kind of pie-in-the-sky, I-don't-know-why-this-is-working-it-just-is kind of bright we've seen before. Instead, while the entire media world is becoming more fragmented, online media of many forms is becoming more and more relevant.

Here are five Mega-Trends Geoffrey identified that are all interrelated and affect all media (his emphasis):

1. Consumer skepticism and resistance to advertising
2. Increasingly the consumer is in control
3. Media fragmentation is out of control
4. "Mass reach" efforts are being complemented by improved targeting -- to maximize efficiency
5. Marketers are held to new levels of accountability

Consumers attitudes towards advertising are becoming increasingly negative. One statistic quoted from a Yankelovich Partners study said "65% feel constantly bombarded with too many marketing messages". This is hastening the rise of the empowered consumer. Personal video recorders, iPods, online search, pop-up blockers and the Do Not Call Registry were all identified as examples of consumer control.

Television, still the king of reach, is being impacted by these trends. The average household has 85 channel choices, simultaneous media usage is diverting attention from programming with lower ratings, and personal video recorders like Tivo allow consumers to skip commercials (which they do). The speaker asked whether there is a disconnect with these realities when last year's Upfront was up 15 percent. He quotes John Hayes, CMO of American Express "Where else in the world can you be convinced to pay more for a commodity that is experiencing diminishing returns?".

So, the speaker contends that "mass reach" is increasingly giving way to targeting. And not just online. Outdoor billboard are evolving to enable day-part specific messaging, products in the grocery aisle are "speaking" to you, and cable TV is an increasingly targeted television opportunity.

Meanwhile, online advertising spending increased by 21 percent from 2002 to 2003. Projections for 2004 growth range from Gartner's 3.2% ("What were they thinking?" asked Ramsey) to Forrester's 23 percent. "But we may all be wrong, because the first quarter looks like it increased 39 percent".

Which media stand to benefit from an increased emphasis on targeting? According to Ramsey those good for targeting are:

• Internet
• Radio
• Cable TV
• Magazines
• Direct Mail

While network TV, newspapers, and outdoor are "not so good".

According to Lightspeed Research conducted for Advertising Age in 2003, direct mail and Internet are the best medium for proving return on investment according to US marketing professionals. I suppose we may have already known that, but Ramsey also had a statistic showing that budgets for marketing managers that track their results grow twice as fast as those who do not.

So, what does the future hold? The future of advertising from the speaker's perspective is:

1. Involving
2. Measurable
3. Personal
4. Actionable
5. Consumer-led
6. Targeted

Accountability will finally come to TV with advertising measured at the ad level instead of the program level, and interactive television serving consumer demands. And, advertising will be increasingly AOD -- Advertising On Demand.

One last bit of advice that may sound contradictory coming from research syndicator. "Use syndicated research only as a guidepost - your own data is more actionable."

Even with his late afternoon second day time slot, he was still able to captivate the audience by delivering a stream of valuable insights. It was just that impressive.

Online Moms a Key Audience for Online Marketers

Ignore Moms online at your own risk. This group is a powerful force directing family spending habits. And for many Moms, the Internet is their most prefered source of information.

JoAnne Erickson, Director of Research and Brand Development at Disney Online described some of the key learnings from Disney's study of 1,800 online Moms. They've developed an impressive set of information about the preferences and influence of this group.

There are 31 million Moms online today. With their study Disney hoped to find out what makes these Moms tick, how they are different from each other, and also how they are similar. They identified four key segements of wired Moms:

• The Tech Nester - Comprising 32% of online Moms a woman in this segment feels that the Internet is a key part of her life, and that it has actually brought her family closer together. She spends 10 hours online a week, excluding email and actually prefers online shopping to the offline experience. All this time online is coming from time spent watching television and reading the newspaper.
• Mrs. Net Skeptic - This Mom is Married, generally with two young children and represents 31% of online Moms. She uses the Internet with her children but is more protective of them online. She spends 6 hours a week online excluding email.
• The Yes Mom - Generally a working Mother, professional, with two older children. She is pressed for time and uses the Internet more than other media for information and represents 14% of the wired Mom population. She has a high average income of $58k/year, and spends 8 hours a week online excluding email.
• Passive Under Pressure - This group used the Internet less than other groups, and more frequently represented single Moms.

Disney chose to focus on the first three groups, all of which have a very high reliance on the Internet. These groups represent a total of 74% of online Moms. And, their study found that the similarities between these groups were even more important than their differences.

• They all have a need and desire to simplify their lives.
• They all use, trust, and appreciate the Internet.
• They are all key decision makers in their households.
• 84 percent say they would miss the Internet more than any other media if it went away.

The new Internet Mom is the primary decision maker for most everyday items household items. They research their purchase decisions online, and are also the key or joint decision maker on big ticket items like vehicles and travel.

If you want to reach these Moms online your best strategy is to focus on providing value through your marketing efforts. Informational advertising is often perceived as a benefit, rather than an annoyance. Provide tips, ideas, and suggestions that are family related. Give real information. And, connect with family needs in your messaging.

This was one of the few sessions I've attended this week that was less than half full. And, one of the most frequent requests I've heard from audience members in other sessions is to be more specific. They should have attended this session for a fast paced, one hour data download on a very important online audience, that was nothing but specifics.

Tribal Fusion, Atlas DMT, DoubleClick & Business.com All Compete for Partygoers

There was no shortage of shmoozing at the very full Monday night party line-up. When it comes to marketing to marketers, every group has their own approach. However, the one consistent feature of every party is the open bar.

After warming up at the Overture Mixer at the The Palace Hotel, we took in the DoubleClick and Atlas DMT get togethers at the W, a couple of blocks away. These parties, and the Business.com event right across the street were smaller events, fun, but still low key enough for a conversation.

This was not the case with the Tribal Fusion party at Suede. They have a reputation to uphold at this point for holding blow outs. And, they didn't disappoint. Held at local bar Suede, there was a long line waiting to get into the packed club when we arrived.

I sincerely hope Tribal Fusion generates some new business from the attendee list, because there was no opportunity for networking once inside. The dancers with spinning neon glow tubes were a nice touch though.

And by the way, thanks to the folks at Trafficbuyer.com for the ride in their 30-foot white Hummer/Limo.

Financial Services Focuses on Customer Experience

The Financial Services Panel featured influential decision makers from VISA, CountryWide Home Loans, Manulife Financial, and Ameritrade. As billed in the AD:TECH program, this industry is one of those most impacted by the advent of the Internet. These organizations manage billions of dollars, and are highly reliant on a trusting relationship with their customers. And, their marketing behavior reflects the importance they place on this relationship.

Manulife is a relatively unknown brand, but since their merger with John Hancock they are a global financial services company operating in 19 countries. For them, growth within their current customer base is a high priority. Ralph Vizi, VP of Strategy and Research at Manulife Financial described how the company recently spent $20 Million on complete revision of the online and offline experience.

One result of this exercise was a new tool to help customers set a financial retirement goal in less than five minutes. They found that customers that participated in the program did see a net increase in assets, and a 20-33% increase in website usage.

The point of all this, is that Manulife is trying to understand their customers existing life goals, and then create solutions to help them accomplish those goals. This was a theme repeated by Kelly Passey, Director of Incentive Marketing at VISA.

According to Passey, VISA, as a B2B provider of card solutions to over 14,000 banking partners, has focused on providing tools to member banks. These tools allow the banks to customize their VISA service offerings to their clients. Passey's presentation focused on a tool developed with SBI/Razorfish to allow member banks to create custom incentive programs through a web based interface. Banks can pick and choose benefit programs for a number of vendors, all pre-negotiated by VISA.

The second half of the presentation focused on customer acquisition. And here, the institutions were following a well-beaten path. Rich media, has been found to be particularly effective. Rhonda Winchell, Director of Advertising for Ameritrade detailed their use of full page peel-backs on Yahoo Finance as part of a Last Market Hour program. During this promotion they would run media between only 3-4pm for a full week with the tagline "What can you accomplish in an hour?"

Rich Grobel, Vice President of Countrywide Home Loans described his steps towards a fully integrated online and offline marketing program. Their customer model defines "Delegators", "Validators" and "Self Directed" individuals as moving progressively more towards an online or phone-only loan transaction.

These groups seem to approach online marketing as you might expect them to with so much trust on the line…conservatively. As Kelly Passey said "We're bankers, we understand risk, and we don't like it."

Google Brings Out The Crowds for Sponsored Breakfast Forum

It was standing room only for the Google Sponsored Breakfast Forum. Along with the scones and coffee, Google served up a couple of case studies hand picked to illustrate some of the benefits of the AdWords product.

First up was Esurance, a provider of online quotes and comparisons for auto insurance. They currently spend between 25-40% of their budget on SEM, and their presentation served as a basic overview of AdWords best practices. Among there observations were:

• Be careful with AdSense. Their experience showed that there is a great volume opportunity in content targeted listings, but lower potentially lower conversion rates unless you target correctly.
• Employ negative phrases.
• Mine your keyword list .
• Don't get in bidding wars with your competitors.
• Optimize your landing page. They've seen up to a 30% improvement in yield from their campaign by targeting the landing page to the matched phrase.
• Understand SEM in the context of the larger campaign.
• Optimize to the total customer lifetime value.

This last one has been the source of some controversy lately as some in offline media question the obsession with R.O.I. Their point is that measuring immediate conversions only is a shortsighted view.

The next presenters were clearly designed to feature Google's local targeting features. The company, Table for Six, is a local San Francisco Bay Area dating service recently featured on 60 minutes. Brad Finklestein, Director of Online Marketing, said that most of their marketing budget is focused on print and radio. But, online marketing is a growing part of their mix, particularly with Google's Local Targeting features. Using local targeting they were able to target more broad phrases like "dating" and still ensure they were reaching a local audience. Currently 72% of their online leads come from SEM.

The sponsored breakfast was exactly what you would expect, some very successful case studies of companies effectively using AdWords. But, given the popularity of the service, it was just the kind of message the packed house was ready to hear.