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New firms are also focusing on the mob mentality
of word-of-mouth marketing to discover product influencers on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Leveraging the communication and influence power of social networks for marketers and advertisers is an important new
channel to be developed and utilized. The increasing prominence of social networks as the means to communicate and share information among consumers and
their ‘friends’ provides many ways to identify, target, and reach segments of unique consumers clusters who quantifiably
can be targeted for specific content, products and services. Here are a few of the social networking marketing firms:
Cubics.com charges via CPC (Cost Per Click) model, the publisher only pay
for an ad display when somebody clicks on that ad and goes through to a client’s web page. The price
per click is set by the advertiser, as a part of a bid system. The minimum CPC is 10 cents ($0.10 USD) / click.
In the CPM (Cost Per Thousands Views) model the publisher are paying a flat rate to have your ad displayed one thousand
times. On the other hand, CPM campaigns can be useful when a client is simply trying to "get the word out" or when
they are receiving so many clicks that it's cheaper to advertise by CPM.
Ads can be graphical or text-based; graphical ads must be less than 500kB in size.
Cubics can display CPM (cost per thousand views) and CPC (cost per click ads). Cubics displays hundreds
of millions of impressions every day, using behavioral analytic technology optimizing the placement of ads where they perform
the best. New campaigns may take up to one to two days to start running with significant volume.
ContextOptional.com is yet another social marketing agency which provides
clients a comprehensive media plan, including strategy formulation, promotion, and development for targeting their messages
via Facebook and other social networks. The agency services include strategy and design, viral application and branded
page development as well as social media planning and buying. ContextOptional offers a social marketing dashboard which combines
application development, deployment, and ad optimization, for unified reporting across social networking platforms, detailed
statistics and reporting for viral optimization, user conversion funnels and individual feature performance.
For example,
ContextOptional developed a viral and interactive application to change brand perception and drive awareness for Microsoft
Office 2007. It created a social communication tool expanding on Facebook's "poke" concept.
Rather than simple poking, users were able to throw staplers, take colleagues to a liquid lunch, steal chairs, send
underpants through inter-office mail, and of course upgrade their machine to Office 2007. Microsoft used Context's Social Ad Optimizer technology to
prioritize media spending among four distribution partners. The result was over 4 million branded pokes were sent in the first
two months of the campaign. Social discovery and viral channels drove increased awareness and high levels of brand engagement.
SocialMedia.com notes that 7 out of the top 10 websites today are social and hence is where targeted messages for products and services
should be concentrated via its targeted applications. SocialMedia reaches over 35 million unique users per month via
5,000 applications with over 1,000 developers for targeted ads in Facebook, bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Hi5 and Friendster.
The SocialMedia Advertising Platform combines proprietary ad serving technology coupled
with social data to deliver targeted audiences on its social networks. Their Leverage Appographic(tm)
product targets specific groups of social apps that deliver to clients’ target marketing objectives. SocialMedia
concentrates on delivering relevant messages by making advertising part of the social interaction. Their
SocialMedia Creative Services provide marketers with customized branded applications and other services that maximize consumer’s
entertainment, engagement and expression using social media. The social network Facebook itself offers targeted ad on its network at Facebook.com/ads/ the ads
are target by age, gender, location, interests, etc., offering pricing via clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).
As part of its ad service Facebook also includes metrics for viewing the performance of campaigns. Another player in the field is Powered.com
who uses the term “social commerce” to describe how their social marketing, social networking and social media
solution works in the areas of consumer learning and the research process, both before and after consumers purchase products
online. Powered cites the following industry statistics as signs of the social revolution for marketing
on the web are everywhere.
As with
most social networking agencies Powered provides content, technology and marketing strategies to its clients.
It helps client brands offer valuable, education-based category and lifestyle level content that consumers want.
Powered offers enterprise class technology that delivers an integrated suite of social capabilities. Their
marketing team provides strategies to plan, execute, measure, and optimize their client’s social program for maximized
effectiveness.
PandemicLabs.com is another marketing firm that specializes
in viral and social media marketing. They help conceptualize, implement and track internet-based campaigns that use the power
of the social web to increase sales, customer retention, customer loyalty, website traffic, and brand recognition. A free social networking tool is available
from KickApps.com to power audience growth and engagement on user websites. KickApps
allows for users to build their own community with social networking and photo and video sharing capabilities, enabling them
to create their own widgets, custom video players and much more. TheKbuzz.com is another innovative word of mouth (WOM) marketing firm that creates and sustains buzz
through marketing concepts, communities, and conversations. The WOM agency uses buzz builders (college
students) to conduct research via their Buzz Builder Alumnae network on Facebook, the firm also uses a Buzz Patrol to promote
products for theKbuzz at events and Buzz Ambassadors to spread the word about new products or services to build brand buzz
for clients.
getfoundnow.com offers news and techniques on search engines, social network marketing strategies, blog writing tips, and other advanced tactics such as analytics
and usability. AdSlate
by Jivox.com is an interactive online service that allows businesses to create and place video advertisements
on the Web. AdSlate walks clients through the design process, then works with them to select the best
websites on which to feature their ad. Clients can define their budget and desired run dates – all
interactively – the Jivox service concentrates on local, potential customers. The AdSlate services
are free-of-charge - all that clients pay for is the cost to run their video ads. The service is designed for small to mid-size
businesses who want to create, target and run video ads. Jivox’s
AdSlate provides the tools clients need to create their online ad campaign. They can design an ad using
Jivox’s library of royalty-free stock images, video clips and music or upload their own custom images, they can add
messages, coupons or promotional offers. They can upload their videos to the AdSlate for placement, or
they can use Jivox’s design partners. AdSlate guides clients on targeting their audience
based upon criteria such as demographics and behavioral patterns. Through a series of algorithms – AdSlate selects the
local and relevant web sites on which to place their clients’ ads – sites that maximize their investment by delivering
the audience that they desire in the most cost-effective manner. network
of over 600 branded local television, newspaper, radio and weather related sites as well as some national brand sites and
portals. A new behavioral analytics vendor NebuAd.com is partnering with
several large Internet service providers (ISP) to track users behaviors across all their Web activities, including visits,
intervals, keywords and searchers. By taking this approach NebuAd believes it can assemble a vast data-collection
network of millions of consumers, which it can then target specifically with ads that are relevant to them via such exchanges
as RighMedia.com. NebuAd believes by taking this approach they can target for example, car shoppers by observing what types of car
they searched for, where and what they compared in their searches at different car sites. NebuAd believes also they can link
the consumer search activities with offline lifestyle demographics to refine the placement of relevant and timely ads.
Behavioral analytics is the first step, the second is digital advertising where rich media can be embedded in a webpage
or streamed as a video ad to mobile devices. The defining characteristic of these tantalizing messages
is that they are targeted and dynamic in nature. Typically this mode of digital marketing and delivery
is that of an animated, interactive presentation designed to lure consumers to take some action and purchase some product,
service or content, the vehicle of delivery is streaming rich media, such as that provided by richmedia.com. Normally rich media is delivered on the Web, but the prevalence
of mobile devices offers yet another new channel to reach consumers via streaming video and audio. Behavioral
analytics – truth be told – can be performed and executed in any digital channel. The accuracy of behavioral analytics
results can be enhanced by the merging of offline and online information; however because of the dynamic nature of today’s
consumers their zip code may not be as valuable as their IP address, location however is a small piece of the puzzle.
Behavior is 80%.
Today, marketers and enterprises have access to consumers’ identity and their location
(IP address) as well as their online behavior and personality and preferences. Web mechanisms such as cookies,
beacons and widgets all play a pivotal role in tracking and creating the type of data that can be model via behavioral analytics
to be able to present relevant ads. Today, consumers are their computers; as such cookies are a reliable and proven method of aggregating the type of
data ideal for behavioral analytics. There have been privacy concerns with Web mechanisms, such as beacon
and cookies but the concerns that they are used to target individuals is actually a misnomer. These mechanisms are actually
tracking computers and the digital markers that reside in their hard disk for letting marketers and merchants know the return
and activities consumers perform while visiting websites. The demographics and psychographics are also obtained from public
records and can often be at a general level such as a zip code. The crux of the privacy concerns are that
these mechanisms are being used by marketers and enterprises to improve their response to customer demands for relevancy in
the content and offers that these consumers expect and require. The same holds true for ad and social networks where marketing mechanisms and metrics are use to track users as they
move from one website to another in order to gain information about their interests, in order to match ads that are uniquely
relevant to them. A new paradigm is also evolving in which the behaviors of wireless users and their devices
are beginning to take place. Targeting on the basis or frequency and recent activities bases on historical behavior is critical
in the modeling via inductive behavioral analytics. Consumers demonstrate what is useful and valuable to each of them by their
actions in websites and the mobile world. As with the Web – today mobile behavioral analytics can also be conducted for targeting handheld
devices – firms such as mmetrics.com offer several metrics for mobile behavioral analytics.
M:Metrics products include MobiLens for market intelligence to help companies profit from mobile convergence.
M:Metrics also offers their MeterDirect for behavioral measurement of the most active mobile media consumers and MobilAdvisor
which provides baseline metrics on key trends and topics. With increasing numbers of mobile device users around the world demanding immediate access
to mobile Internet data – including web-based e-mail, news, weather, sports, and various forms of entertainment –
behavioral analytics can also be deployed in this new consumer channel. The Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) is the global, open specification that allows mobile users to easily access mobile internet services and interact with
information instantly.
Most of today’s
mobile phones, smart phones and PDAs have built-in WAP browsers that allow mobile users’ access to the Web.
The
WAP gateways serves as the bridge between the mobile device and the servers that provide the mobile content to the device
and serves as the raw data source for behavioral analytics. New firms such as Amethon.com also offer mobile analytics which capture the underlying
TCP/IP traffic allowing analysis of HTTP, WAP and other relevant protocols. A limited amount of statistics can be generated
from the WAP including the following information: - Bandwidth
(total, average per visit, total per file type)
- Hits
(average per visit, number of downloads, page view breakdown)
- Visits (entry page, average duration, click paths, referring search engine)
- Visitors (browser type, user agent, operating system)
- Handsets (make, model, screen resolution)
- Mobile Operator
(country of origin, operator name)
- Geo Location (country
of origin, RDNS lookup: a process to determine the hostname with a given IP address)
These
new mobile ad networks, which deliver marketing messages to an array of handsets, are beginning to segment messages via age
and gender but can also be fined tuned as responses to offers begin to take place over time for behavioral analytics.
With time this market segment will evolve, expand and refine the data aggregated and lead to new levels of behavioral
analytics for the billions of wireless devices worldwide. The following are some of key players in the
field of wireless marketing.
AdMob.com offers several advertising campaign strategies to marketers
and their clients including the following marketing options: ·
Landing
pages: So that
when potential customers
click on your client’s ads their landing page can function both as a brand building solution as well as a direct marketing
tool. ·
Click
to video: Video is a way to build brand value and deliver your target audience
to a rich viewing environment that dynamically displays your client’s message – this option is a great way to
actively engage consumers about new products, contests or promotions. · Click to call: This option is an effective user acquisition and lead generation
tool, taking advantage of both the mobile phone’s data and voice capabilities – with a single
click from your client’s ad users can call their nearest retail outlet. · Store locator: People take their mobile
phones with them on-the-go – with this option users can use the iPhone maps to enter their zip code to find the nearest
store: it converts clicks to in-store sales. · Capture personal information: This option collects lead generation information directly from your target
audience – it allows users to provide registration information or other details directly from your client’s ad. · Download promotions: This option allows your client to build their brand through mobile content –
it attract new audiences and bring repeat customers by offering ringtones, wallpapers, or games to users who enjoy customization.
 AdMob.com offers multiple strategies to wireless marketers AdMob offers multiple ad formats to meet the unique needs
of marketers and advertisers. Their performance ads provide ROI so that marketers can place and measure the success of mobile
ads in reaching new users that drive their client’s brand awareness – their iPhone ads take advantage of its dynamics
maps functionality. AdMob also provides free advertising reports with market level data, providing insight
to marketers and their client’s into trends in the mobile ecosystem. Quattrowireless.com provides action-oriented ads to mobile web users via their proprietary
Juicing™ technology. Their Quattro ad server supports a personalization platform to ensure ad targeting
precision – with reports on mobile specific views including such metrics as type of carrier, name of device, device
class, origin, geo location and demo breakdown count. Quattro provides the iPhone applications
Where™ one of the most popular location application based on contextual, demographic and behavioral information.
Key word search enables marketers to perform targeted widget ads, so that a user seeking shoes could be directed to
a Foot Locker (male) or Neiman Marcus (female) nearby store.
 Where™
in iPhone is powered by Quattro Jumptap.com
offes a comprehensive set of ad formats including banners, interstitials, paid search and sponsored calls. JumpTap
offers a full advertising network with both display and keyword-based inventory – they use behavioral targeting to make
the ads they display more relevant. Screentonic SA was yet another vendor in this market sector until it was acquired
by Microsoft to compliment its Digital Advertising Solutions platform. Voice-recognition and wireless technologies are converging. Consumers can talk to their pocket
devices in their search for directions to places, stores or other friends – the results of these searches will be delivered
with a targeted ad via behavioral analytics. Vlingo.com and Yapme.com are providing cellular carriers the ability to let their customers search for destinations
or people while driving via software that can be used for behavioral analytics for mobile marketing and advertising. Yapme created it voice recognition technology
in part because studies have found that over 66% of all young mobile device users – text while driving. Yap9™
uses a very lightweight voice to text client,
which connects to its server platform where the conversion takes place. Yapme can handle text messaging, while SimulScribe.com now PhoneTag can convert
speech into email – still another evolving market for behavioral analytics.
Because of the advantage of knowing the exact location where a search is being
made, targeted offers can be made for GPS-specific local merchants based on the category and frequency of the search.
Nuance.com is the voice-recognition provider for Sprint, while Microsoft purchased TellMe
for its speech-driven search application for mobile devices. Clearly one successful practitioner of wireless marketing is Pandora.com the wildly popular customizable
AI-based radio station and its iPhone ads. The ads do not interrupt or disrupt
they don’t jump up at the user, they simply frame the experience – appearing between the musical album cover and
the Pandora controls – as a result, the ads feel more integrated. Now if the type and genre of the
music can be associated to the kind of advertiser – such as rock
= beer or electronics = smooth jazz – then behavioral
analytics can really be used to target and monetize the wireless musical billboard.
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