Intent vs. Social: There’s a question hanging over social media: Will personal relationships ever be as powerful as intent, at least when it comes to its role as an advertising signal? Judging by the valuations assigned to companies like Facebook, the answer is clearly yes. But Facebook has such a massive audience that it could make money off this in any number of ways. Search is unique. It is, in the words of ex-Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, “a beautiful system.” Google was able to return to us exactly what we’re looking for. The advertising problem, while not trivial, is pretty straightfoward. Intent-based ad signals have proven very valuable. Network connections are trickier. Jonathan Mendez, CEO of Yieldbot, reacted with a terse “bullshit” to the notion put forth by Buddy Media on the heels of its funding valuing it at $500 million that we’re moving from an intent-based world to a people-based world. Mendez points out that Google grew its revenue more in comparison to a year ago than Facebook is forecast to bring in this entire year. It’s clearly early, so that should change. Few expect the people-based world to replace search. But it should take away the prominence of its role as an information gatekeeper. Whether it’s monetized as effectively, that’s another story.
Quote of the Day: Yahoo’s ill-fated “It’s You” ad campaign is gone but not forgotten. One Business Insider reader summed it up thusly: “Calling the ‘It’s You’ campaign ‘horrible’ is like calling the Titanic a minor boating accident.”
Groupon Blues: Things move fast in the Web-darling world. Groupon has gone from digital wunderkind to posterboy for the bubble in a blink of an eye. The latest salvo against its business model comes from the Harvard Business Review. Keep in mind Groupon has already been termed a “Ponzi scheme,” so it should have pretty thick skin at this point. HBR is more gentle, simply saying it doesn’t have a viable business model. The problem, in HBR’s point of view, is Groupon hasn’t figured out how to turn a profit, yet it keeps expanding. HBR even brings up the dreaded Pets.com comparison.
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Inside the NFL’s youth-focused social strategy
As part of the NFL Content Creator Network, which expands the features of youth-focused platforms, the league is engaging with fans in new, innovative ways through games, technologies, or just through creative social media engagement through a variety of creative tools and platforms. Creators are targeted within strategic verticals such as fashion, gaming, wellness, and music, as well as those from TikTok, SnapChat, Twitter, and Instagram focusing on humor, food, art, animals, or football-related content on and off the field
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Publishers test personalizing newsletters with varying degrees of success
Publishers are testing personalizing newsletter content based on readers’ interests - but it doesn't always work.
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Indie agency Known beats out incumbents to land AMC Networks’ media business
In essence, Known is helping AMC Networks become more of a direct-to-consumer client as the programmer expands into more streaming options on top of its linear foothold.
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Sponsored<strong>How marketers are responding to shoppers’ wants this holiday season</strong>
Matthew Tilley, executive director, marketing, Vericast With the holidays right around the corner, the economy may force some consumers to adjust their plans and stretch their dollars even further. While some shoppers may rein in their spending, others will still go all out despite a cloudy economic outlook. Given the current economic climate, consumers are […]
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How agencies adapt as bots evolve
Social media bots may represent just a sliver of an app's total users, but it turns out they may be generating more content than we were previously aware. The challenge is separating the good ones from the bad.
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Publishers feel the crunch of cookieless browsers like Apple’s Safari
Bid enrichment provides publishers the means of sprucing up their cookieless impressions to improve their value in advertisers’ eyes.
