Real Fast Food Innovation

Finally the Fast Food restaurants are listening and providing innovation that not only saves time but allows you to eat on the go AND keep your hands free. Check it out.

Madison Avenue Blues

A song for media folks everywhere.

Why you want to know about Quantcast

Waste is always a problem, who needs to reach people who are not part of the target? Just last week I was on Facebook and saw ads that were so far off that I would have fired the agency responsible if I was the client. So what does Quantcast have to do with this? When you buy tv you only pay for the demo that you target but online you pay for every single impression whether they are targeted or run of site (network). Quantcast changes that, you can buy custom demos on sites and eliminate much of the waste or so the theory goes. So then the question becomes what do I need site ratings for if I can just pull the numbers that fit? Could be an interesting fall season if they decide to push their wares north of the border.

Caramilk secret revealed

So they have decided to continue the mystery of Caramilk campaign - how they get the caramel inside the bar. Full disclosure – this is my favourite chocolate bar so please feel free to buy me one whenever.

However the problem is time’s have changed and expert information is at our fingertips. Here’s the real process for those who really want to know. It was the top Google search result and the second Bing result. Which brings up the interesting question – why spend so much money promoting a mystery that can be solved in 14 keystokes and two clicks?

NFB’s Ryan…

…in an ad. So I was just browsing through the news and noticed a VideoEgg format ad for the NFB. A quick mouseover launched a high quality video and for the next 14 minutes or so I watched “Ryan” in an expanded video ad. Brilliant animation and story; no wonder it won an Oscar. How many times have I watched the Oscars to hear an NFB film was nominated but never had the chance to see the film? Ok so now the NFB has over 900 films available to see on demand through the web, objective of the ad accomplished, however I wonder if it would be better to continually place these gems throughout ads on the web?

The last click revisited

Media Contacts released more research looking at measurement. Again as marketers we need to drill further down on understanding all the numbers that online media generates. People see display ads and click on search so how do the two come together and how should we allocate budgets? Tough question but our research folks are untangling the knot. Now if somebody could convince “cookie deleters” not to bother we could get even better numbers.  Nonetheless, let’s keep it in perspective, some markets are still using diaries to report offline media usage.

Steam Whistle ad

Euro has a new steam whistle ad. Nice strong simple idea well executed. Now I need some beer loving online media outlet to throw in some impressions to help promote – anyone?

DoubleGoo

This column guest written by Rob Griffin (Media Contacts’ search expert).

At the most recent Search Insider Summit, I was on a panel about the future of search. It was fantastic and I loved hearing the new things that Gary Milner from Lenovo is doing. What a great time to be in digital media, and especially search. At the end of the panel, the moderator asked our esteemed group of panelists what advice we would have for the audience in these exciting and fast-paced times. Mine, after much deliberation, was to get the basics right before you trot off and start testing all the new things that are available. It’s easy to lose your way and not have anything to benchmark-test against. This is true of agencies, advertisers, vendors, and the search engines — though what defines the basics will vary for each. Those of us on the advertising and agency side have felt the pain of the engines often not adhering to any such rule, as new products get rolled out in a fever pitch to beat the competition to the punch. This became painfully obvious recently while working with a new client, Wrapsol, that makes really cool phone and computer protection systems. (On a side note, can I say how much I enjoy working with clients that have products I love? So great.) OK, back to the proof in my pudding. In this case, our issues were with DoubleClick and Google — or as I have fondly come to refer to them, “DoubleGoo.” They have some of the best products on earth, but a growing concern I have always harbored is not if, but when, they will lose touch with their foundation. Wrapsol set up Google Checkout and Google Analytics and we have been rolling out PPC on AdWords with DARTsearch. You would not believe — then again, maybe you would — the issues Google has getting GA to track GC and integrate them with an AdWords campaign managed with DoubleClick. Granted, much of the Google Analytics issues can be site-dependant, but some better insight certainly would reduce the pain and time to get it right. And with Google Checkout, the confirmation page lives off the advertiser’s site, and getting a pixel on that page requires an intimate knowledge of GC or digging through “self-help” sites regarding implementation. Why not employ a seamless link from my cart to an analytics radio button as required in GA setup for tying paid search to GA? Our DoubleClick reps are running around trying to be helpful, but have yet to produce anything meaningful. Google has expanded so quickly that they can’t seem to find the right experts to help us either. My guess is that this is compounded by staff reductions across both companies, but either way we are left sorting this out via trial and error. And today the news we get is that Google can’t track order information with Google’s own Checkout product because of various variables being passed around. Heck, the last time I checked, GA and AdWords don’t even have the same click-counting methodology. I think Google needs to back up and get their basics in order so they have a foundation to grow from or they risk a breakdown. This is especially true as TV becomes addressable and their Google TV product continues to gain momentum. But if Google wants to continue on their march for dominance they need to do a few things in my opinion that are the make up of their basics: Get the foundation in order. This means provide better transparency and better tracking for the core AdWords and AdSense products. This includes better integration with Google Analytics and DoubleClick’s DARTsearch. Better integrate their new products. They have to keep innovating to diversify revenue as search is growing up and I doubt it can maintain the hockey stick growth we have all enjoyed for much longer. But they can’t diversify very successfully if the tools create inefficiencies in use and can’t cooperate to drive performance. Learn to be a service company. One, their self-service area is fraught with issues, and if you don’t get it right the first time, you will lose valuable data. But also, look at the level of services Omniture offers to get set up right, and look at the hefty fees they get to charge to help clients do it. Good money there. Right now with Google, we figure it out ourselves, or we can potentially outsource this to any number of self-proclaimed Google tool experts. How or why would Google let this happen? The answer goes back to the advice I gave at SIS. They need to get their basics in order before they keep expanding their march for “world domination,” because if they don’t they’ll end up looking more like ” Pinky & The Brain” versus the superpower, new-economy company that they have every right to be.

Marketing to women

Which campaign do you think does a better job?

Harley or Dell

Ritz song challenge

If Ritz cracker get’s to 10,000 views, then the jingle will be expanded into a full song and recorded by a band. Have a look.