We are developing a free Web-browser plug-in called “BOZO BLOCKER,” with the ability to filter ANY Web page, preventing user-specified unwanted content from being displayed. Unlike mere “porn” filters and the like, BOZO BLOCKER will allow you to create and save “blocklists” of any names (for example, any instant celebrities you never heard of or heard too much about already, and don’t want to hear about ever again) and banish them to permanent obscurity.

Also under development is a service which will allow users of the plug-in to connect to our BOZO BLOCKER server in Rachel, Nevada, and query our free “Stupid” or “Clueless” name-lists, or the paid/premium “Clue-Repellent” master name-list which puts the kybosh on the usual objectionable celebrities, plus Web instant-wealth gurus, famous political wingnuts, SEO Magic Oil vendors, and many more. This is similar to the anti-spam email “blocklists” offered free and commercially by wonderful companies such as SPAMHAUS.ORG.

BOZO BLOCKER will follow in the tradition of many other Web-content blockers that filter out annoying pop-up windows, porn, blinking banners, and so on.

The programmer who conceived this project has asked to remain anonymous, claiming that his trailer was repeatedly vandalized “by men with black sunglasses” when he released a free advertising-blocker a few years ago. See also “Browser makers warned against ad-blocking.“

With all the “downsizing” and layoffs and outsourcing going on in the business world, I thought it helpful to provide some best practices for losing your corporation’s Marketing Director. This is the person who, after great effort in academia and experience gained at previous jobs, has been given the responsibility and authority to lead your company’s marketing team to success — without guidance or (ahem) interference from higher management. The techniques described here could just as easily be used to cook a marketing “manager,” or Vice President, supervisor, and so on.

In a volatile economy, marketing directors are routinely hired and then suddenly, mysteriously allowed to “pursue other opportunities” (not “fired”). They serve as ritual sacrificial pigs (goats if you prefer) in lieu of companies’ top executives, so that any lack of quarterly profit or loss of market share can quickly be blamed on the outgoing marketeers. Don’t take it personally, it’s just that you’re here to make ME look good.

First, the ingredients. Keep it simple. No veggies or garnish. Also, without exception, marketing management is considered “savory,” not sweet. So the usual salt and spices for meat are enough. Don’t overdo it, spending money improving the flavor of something you’ll only throw out, eh?

Now some thoughts about your cooking method. Roasting is good, requiring only a sad Friday-afternoon announcement in the conference-room that “our favorite marketing queen” is leaving, followed by cheap snacks and lite beer for everybody. Stewing is a bad idea, since it gives the Marketing Department staff too much time to remember all the great ideas and cautionary advice the outgoing marketing executive tried without success to “sell upstairs”….

Where were we? Oh yes, cooking methods. For maximum entertainment value, many CEOs slowly spin the departing marketeer in a rotisserie, hoping that such highly visible “enhanced interrogation” will dissuade potential insurgents and motivate the troops. Like all cruelties-formerly-known-as-torture, this treatment merely inflames the remnants of your demoralized Marketing Department (who may then target the CEO’s Humvee in the parking-lot).

Which brings us to “flambé” — traditionally the fastest, most fear-inspiring method for dispatching a Marketing Director. Not pretty, but one can make this look like an accident.

So be nice to the heads of Marketing. They work hard spreading good news about your company, but guess whose heads will roll if there’s even a whiff of bad news.

– Bruce Mewhinney at ELYMEDIA.COM

I want to EMAIL this blog-post to friends

OK, I have to confess. I’ve become absolutely addicted to Twitter. In a good way. I think. I love the immediacy. I love the ability to follow very smart people and find out what they are thinking and doing. I appreciate the sophistication of the humor, and the trade buzz and political commentary. But it’s an addiction nonetheless.

I’ve neglected blogging. Mea Culpa. I vow to return to the real world on Monday. Really. After a weekend more of tweets.

OK, OK. For a little meat, I’ll also include my version of how to use Twitter for business. Stay tuned.

I know this won’t sound very politically correct, given how Web 2.0-ish we are at Elymedia, but we are seeing that companies are pulling in their marketing horns, getting cautious all around, and looking for safe and reliable methods. Cost-per-lead and cost-per-click programs have become The Little Black Dress of marketing. Good in all kinds of circumstances — product launches, keeping the sales force cranking, keeping the pipeline predictably full, even in trying times.

I don’t think we as a media agency have ever been asked to look farther afield, negotiate harder, or suggest the unthinkable (what? CPA vs. CPM?) to publishing reps. But such is the economy we are in.

So, a few things along the lines of the Little Black Dress/classics to consider with your media mix in the current economy

1. Do you know what you can afford to pay per lead, or per click? The corollary to that is: do you know what your lifetime value, or return on media dollars, or contribution to profit is? Any of those metrics will help you assess what you can truly afford.

2. Be very clear on your objectives for each campaign. Looking for leads? Branding and recognition? Reach? Sales of a particular product? Testing one offer against another? These are all valid, but decide first and publicly. If you can’t define the objective (and by the way, be sure everyone is in agreement — sales team, marketing folks, agencies et al) then how can you figure out if you have been successful or not?

3. After you have decided on the objective, be sure you can measure it. And then do so, and report results to all who need to know. We are frequently stunned by the amount of money and effort spent to construct a campaign, only to see the back-end analytics get garbled or ignored in the race to the next quarter or campaign. Figure all that out before giving the green light.

4. Save some budget for testing. Even a little. If you don’t, you won’t be ready to grow when the economy eases up a bit. And it will. Really.

So, if we’re done panicking about how BAD “the economy” is today, why don’t we slap ourselves upside the head and go outside to look at what the weather is REALLY up to? Yes, we’re stuck under that immense National Debt left behind by our former national “leaders” (think of it as your third mortgage), but the sky isn’t really falling yet.

Many big companies currently have their heads in the sand and their Web marketing/advertising budgets pinched rather tight, but there are lots of farsighted, fast-moving smaller companies which are pushing ahead while the Major Players just cautiously “wait and see.”

If your corporation wants to be one of the fast-moving companies which, despite a difficult financial environment, budget aggressively to steal Other People’s Market Share, be reassured that others are succeeding in this pursuit:
“Web ad sales rise slightly from prior quarter” 
[nice quote from David Silverman at PriceWaterhouseCoopers: "I think, given the economic environment, seeing any increase in any economic activity — let alone advertising — would be a bit of surprise, but speaks maybe to the strength of interactive advertising."] 

Look around carefully at the companies which are maintaining or even dialing up their marketing budgets lately, and you’ll notice that such companies are doing well while the Major Players are doing almost nothing. “When the going gets tough, call in your Web-marketing agency!”

No surprise, but the economy is taking its toll on media of all kinds.  The NY Times Media has announced 51% decline in profits and is teetering at the precipice.  That venerable institution has started my Sunday mornings ever since I can remember.  It would be a tragedy to see it go, or even cower in a corner.  Techcruch is keeping tabs on the layoffs (which seems a bit goulish, but oh well) as VC’s encourage getting lean and mean early.  Below are a few tips for all marketing and media professionals to help get through this:

1.  Stay positive.  I know, sounds like PollyAnna but you can’t make good decisions, either professionally or personally from a position of negativity or fear. 

2.  Double down where you are. And prepare in advance.  Bill Sanders of RealBranding did a fabulous 2 part post on this.  Read it.  All of it.

3.  From a media buying perspective, think globally.  Within the enterprise can you counter the tendency to silo and cluster as many departments together as feasible?  Walking across the aisle or cubie, you may find opportunities to consolidate objectives or at least spends and get much better pricing for any media.

4. Also from a media buying perspective, think long term.  If you can possibly forecast 2 – 4 quarters out and make even minimal commitments, you can command much better pricing.  The market is soft and softening.  Take every advantage of it.  We are pounding on pricing and not-so-subtly-nudging our clients to make even the most conservative of commitments past a single quarter and have been able to negotiate some great deals with this strategy.

5.  Work your customer base, current assets, and tried and true marketing activities.  Are you sure you know where past successes have been?  I’m amazed at how many companies minimize the analysis of all aspects of past campaigns for the sake of trying something new.  Can you put a new headline on previously used email copy, rework the abstract to a white paper so it appears fresh, and save money on creative?  Are you contacting your current customers often enough and with cross-buying opps?  Are you sure you have captured all of your customer base?  Does the training dept, or HR, or tech support have pockets of folks that aren’t consolidated on the main marketing database.  Revisit your in-house email strategies, Newsletter schedules – CRM is the cheapest and most responsive marketing method their is.

6.  That said, don’t stop marketing, and don’t stop testing – even modest testing.  You will still need to find new opportunites when the old successes tire.

Above all stay connected – to your family, your peers, to your boss, your agencies, to your professional network and keep talking.  Web 2.0 and social networks were never more important than they are now.  Collaboration will trump isolation any day.

Sigh.  Why did I think that eliminating TV would make a difference?  The kids have now switched their attention to other sources of entertainment, interaction, and fun.  Actually not such a bad thing.  YouTube has entered both of thier lives in a major way.  Did you know that there is an enormous amount of content on StarWars video games – cheats, hints, spoofs etc? Just ask Sammy.  They haven’t yet figured out the interactive nature of all of this – commenting, trading info.  Maybe next week.

Social Networking and gaming are new to me.  As a result of my earlier blog post, Gamervision has come to my attention, and it’s quite awesome – even to the Mom of the afore mentioned 11 year old male.   Launched early 2007, it offers a unique blend of satire, news, reviews and fan sites for all aspects of gaming and comic book culture.  The site has enjoyed substantial growth within this extremely competitive media sector thanks to a rich user experience centered around networking and self-publishing features that avoids cluttered advertising. The site currently hosts about half a million unique members, all registered since its launch in January 2007.  The staff also creates a plethora of original content ranging from niche-interest blogs to several full-run video series slated for release in late 2008. I think if Sam does well on all of this homework this week, I’l turn him on to it.

As I watch my son explore YouTube and now gaming sites, I’m quite amazed at how strategy and problem solving comes into play, not to mention the level of sophistication some of these game sites have reached.  And what an incredible art form it is! 

I’m hoping to attend Comic-Con next year.  Having watched what an incredible franchise the Marvel comics have become in all forms of media, and growing up with Anime, I need to know more!

I love Twitter, much to my surprise.  I originally (2 yrs ago?) dismissed it as silly.  Who wants to know what anyone had for breakfast?  But the smart Twitterers use it intelligently and look to other Tweets for quick info on events worth attending, issues that are important (both within the industry and the world)

 But Twitter has infrastructure problems and many have moved to Friendfeed instead or in addition to Twitter.  Friendfeed aggregates multiple sources of posts and comments for every member and makes the perusal far more easy to follow. Check out their About area and see the number of apps that are pulled in to the stream.  The only organizational structure to Twitter is a time log.  There is a search capability, but one must be patient with Twitter.

 Check out Chris Brogan’s take on best uses of Twitter in business.  He presents 50 ideas for using Twitter in business.  It’s a great way to start.

At a one-day conference on behavioral targeting in San Francisco two weeks ago, the major themes were privacy, Web 2.0, privacy, predictive modeling. And did I mention privacy?

I’m a huge fan of behavioral targeting especially since it’s becoming more and more sophisticated. And we have previously examined predictive modeling techniques used by Valueclick, aCerno, and Epic Advertising — each adopting very different methodologies to serve up highly targeted ads to the right audiences. AdBrite, another ad network, has now just announced it’s throwing its hat in the behavioral targeting ring.

At the conference, some of the interesting discussion topics, both on the panels and in the halls, were:

Behavioral Targeting for TV Ads? The Internet will morph with the TV to create one large media delivery vehicle in the next 15 years as standards and technology evolves. Will there be the option of doing behavioral targeting with TV placements and will the public allow it?

The Creepy Factor. “Things are only going to get creepier,” was a common remark heard at the conference. Many vendors struggled with increasing the sophistication of their applications and technology versus “creeping people out” with the implication of additional perceived intrusion into their privacy. If the objective of behavioral targeting is to serve up only the kinds of ads that the consumer would be interested in seeing, then we need to know more about, if not the consumer, then the cookie that represents that view. The two concepts seem to be counter productive, but the balance will be achieved with better education of consumers and more refined technology.

Data Portability (two words) vs. Dataportability(one word). The former is defined as the option to use your personal data between trusted applications and vendors. The latter is a fairly new organization, the DataPortability Project. It is a group created to promote the idea that individuals have control over their data by determining how they can use it and who can use it. This includes access to data under the control of another entity. The project’s stated mission is to consult, design, educate, and advocate interoperable data portability to users, developers, and vendors. Do check this group out and its Web site, which contains lots of valuable content. I know I’ll be following them.

Privacy. The most interesting, and contentious panel focused on privacy. Speakers included several lawyers, an AlmondNet executive, and a representative from TrustE. The lawyers for the most part, sided with the consumer to the extreme — any possible invasion of privacy — even if just perceived, is unacceptable. The industry, critics contended, is clearly not doing an adequate job of policing itself, and needs third-party regulation. The conversation was quite heated. It was exciting to have participants from outside the marketing industry throwing cold water on those of us within it. We get so wrapped up in the nuances of what we are doing that the outside view is sometimes a shock.

I was very impressed with the overall concern regarding privacy exhibited by all of the major behavioral targeting vendors including Acxiom, Revenue Science, AOL Platform A’s Tacoda, Tribal Fusion, ValueClick, and others. Their excellent contribution on panels around this issue, coupled with their participation or leadership on privacy committees or organizations (the Interactive Advertising Bureau and others) may be prompted by self-preservation but is certainly well intentioned and very well informed.

I will continue to watch the vendors utilizing predictive modeling. Having grown up in the direct response industry, where predictive modeling was born and still rules many prospecting efforts, I can’t wait to see how that expertise will translate to online marketing and how the consumer will continue to respond to this.

We have been doing a monthly column with ClickZ on Behavioral Targeting for several months.  OMMA (Mediapost) had a one day conference on the topic in SF yesterday which really was excellent.  Major themes were privacy, Web 2.0, privacy, predictive modeling and did I mention privacy?

I’m actually a huge fan of BT especially as it is becoming more and more sophisticated.  We have written previously about the predictive modeling techniques being used by ValueClick, ACerno and Epic Advertising - three companies using very different methodologies to serve up highly targeted ads to the right audiences.  AdBrite, another ad network,  has now just annouced that they are throwing their hat in the BT ring.

But the panel that was the most interesting, and contentious, yesterday was the one on privacy.  the panel consisted of several lawyers, a VP from AlmondNet, a fellow from TrustE.  The lawyers for the most part, sided with the consumer to the extreme – any possible invasion of privacy – even if just perceived, was unacceptable.  The industry is clearly not doing an adequate job of policing itself, and needs 3rd party regulation.  The conversation was quite heated – exciting actually to have participants from outside the industry throwing cold water on those of us in it.

My bet is still with the predictive modeling vendors.  Having grown up in the direct response industry, where predictive modeling was born and still rules many prospecting efforts, I can’t wait to see how that level of expertise translated to online.

I love LinkedIn.  And I’ve been watching it grow in breadth and depth – lots of new apps and sophistication and members in the last 6 mos or so.  They just raised another round of capital, and I can’t wait to see what they will do with it. Steve Patrizi, their director of ad sales will be speaking at the Morning Forum on Web 2.0 that we are producing in conjunction with the SVAMA.  Here are the details if you are interested in attending:

The June meeting: The Business Side of Social Networking

Social media is booming in the business world and is changing the way that professionals manage their own brand, discover business solutions and opportunities, and find and recruit employees.  Learn how to use this emerging platform to optimize your own professional success and to help your company reach and connect with affluent and influential business people.

Steve Patrizi, Director of Advertising Sales, LinkedIn

Steve runs advertising sales and operations for LinkedIn. Prior to joining LinkedIn in September of 2007, Steve managed advertising sales teams at Microsoft’s MSN division and held various sales management positions at the print and online editions of The Wall Street Journal. 

June 25^th, 8:30am-10am

Scott’s Seafood Restaurant and Grill

855 El Camino Real

Town and Country Shopping Center (Embarcadero and El Camino)

Palo Alto, CA 94301  /  (650) 323-1555

Cost: Currently $5 to SVAMA members, $15 for non-members

Click here to register.

For those of us who have been frenzied,(well ok challenged is bit more sedate) at the daunting task of staying on top of the many blogs and social networks that are of interest, I have glimpsed a solution.  I just had the  most amazing demo of a new program/web app from eCairn today from the CEO Dominique Lahaix   As I look through the verbiage on their site, it really doesn’t do justice to what they are all about.  They are currently in, if not stealth, then beta mode, and are completing modules and build-outs at a rapid clip, so the marketing copy is not keeping up.  

Their application falls into 2 camps

“Conversation” application – Makes it easy for an individual or group to identify, track, learn and engage communities.  The user driven menu allows for easy blog search, blog monitoring and clipping capabilities to build a bloglist for any purpose – or multiple purposes, from personal to Marketing/Enterprise driven objectives.  It would be take time but the user could easily compile a list of several hundred blogs using this program.  Ecairn will also provide back end solutions to compile a blog list in the thousands of blogs.  The list is organized so that recent posts, filtering, linking to the blog for a comment, and then coming back to eCairm to annotate the action.  Reporting capabilities are (or will be) available to note what actions were taken where and when.  The abiltiy to link to social networks along with the blogs, and seemlessly shift between the two without losing track of the process if fantastic.  A starred list can be used to monitor the most favorite or trafficked blogs.

 The second application is for advertising in the blogosphere and Social networks.  A similar list can be compiled of blogs, feeds and SN’s that accept advertising – with the ability to view rankings, rates and make comparisons.  I’m not sure if you can place ads from within the application, but it seemed like you could do everything else.

 I’m excited as a media agency owner helping our clients map out Web 2.0 strategies, and as a Web 2.0 junkie.  There’s hope! 

“It’s the data, stupid”, might well be the mantra of the direct response industry.  Or a corollary “database segmentation and analysis is the key to ROI”.  Much of the analytical methodology and discipline is now popping up with a variety of BT products and solutions.

I spent quite a bit of time talking to a variety of Ad Networks, publishers and other suppliers around what’s new in BT during Ad-Tech in San Francisco in April.  I may sound like a broken record, but I continue to be astounded at how much the methodology behind many of the new targeting solutions are firmly based in direct marketing, data-driven practices now moving in to the online space. Utilizing techniques of working with anticipated click streams to predict future behavior, as opposed to merely measuring past behavior, the level of sophistication is rising.  Good news for the advertiser! 

I met with Don Mathis, president of Epic Advertising (previously known as Azoogle, plus an acquisition or two) to discuss how they have using BT and some upcoming changes.  Epic Advertising now encompasses two main units focused on online consumer traffic acquisition: AzoogleAds and Bazaar Advertising. AzoogleAds continues to provide broad-based traffic acquisition services leveraging the company’s leading performance-based ad network business. Bazaar Advertising continues to provide search engine management and marketing services, specializing in keyword discovery, purchase and optimization of online search campaigns.

While the company had previously offered a robust, classic BT solution to it’s advertisers, just this week, they are announcing the official launch of Performance CPM (pCPM), a patent-pending metric that allows advertisers to track performance-marketing campaigns by measuring “induced visits.” Advertisers can now determine campaign effectiveness utilizing a new, more comprehensive approach and gives a new definition to the concept of “behavioral”. 

 The premise of pCPM is rooted in induced visits, or visits to an advertiser’s site tracked beyond direct clicks.  A visit to an advertiser’s site is “induced” if it results in any way from an ad, even if there is no immediate response or direct click path from ad to site.  This metric goes beyond traditional campaign measurement tactics by employing scientific techniques to discern the broadest types of cause and effect, excluding things like “accidental clicks.” I was intrigued with Bill’s further explanation of “induced visit”:An “induced visit” from an ad is any visit that can be statistically linked to viewing the ad.  Because it is statistical, you can’t just have one induced visit; you have to look at lots of ad-views, and lots of site visits, and then do some careful correlations to discover how many more site visits you got with the ads – than you would have had without them. The math behind the metric is just subtle enough that others aren’t doing it, but it’s actually fairly simple, and has been used in signal processing and neurobiology for decades.  Along with measuring induced visits, the metric encompasses elements from traditional tracking methods – CPC, CPM and CPA – as well as inherent branding impacts to offer a more holistic view of an online advertising campaign’s success.  Because pCPM involves only statistics, it avoids any retention of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).    The ability of the advertiser to use these new metrics to increase performance of their BT campaigns will only increase their effectiveness in optimization. Don stated, “This method lets our advertisers do two new things:  they can see the impact of an ad beyond direct clicks, and they can put a solid measure of user-impact on their traditional brand-oriented CPM campaigns. We believe our method, marrying marketing and technology, is the next step in online marketing campaign tracking and will serve as a model for the industry. ” It all started to sound like smoke and mirrors until I spent additional time talking to Bill Softky, their “Chief Algorithm Officer”.  His academic background is in brain science and pattern recognition, and his mathematical work on neural irregularity and correlations is intimately related to the statistics of online advertising traffic. 

 Another company that offers a very sophisticated behind the scenes approach to BT (they refer to it as “dynamic” marketing) is Collarity which is actually a behavioral platform that optimizes content and ad targeting and is utilized by major publishers on the back end.   I spent some time talking to Deborah Richman, SVP Marketing and Business Development:

“We’re undergoing a revolution in behavioral targeting because it won’t take so much work to target anymore.  Publishers and advertisers spend a lot of time categorizing and defining content.  With behavioral platforms like Collarity, all people visiting a site can dynamically and effortlessly define what’s interesting instead.  This drives far better targeting from the existing ad inventories.  In fact, this will be necessary if ad targeting is to work and effectively monetize social and multimedia content today.” 

Current behavioral ad targeting is based on pre-set categories or segments, whether demographics, interests or site subject matter.  Targeting occurs when sites/destinations identify content based on what is mapped to these attributes.  Targeting also occurs when people are directly identified or tagged based on where they have visited.  One of the down sides is that some portion of visitors are targeted while others are not  

Current contextual ad targeting can vary based on the content on each page, as well as categories set by publishers.  Visitors will see the different ads on different content pages.  The ads are shown based on words on the pages.  Multimedia content and ads are depending on keywords tagged to them  

Several problems that Collarity’s behavioral platform addresses are that it applies to every visitor anonymously, without tagging them.  It dynamically targets ads, based on evolving content and interests.  Each visitor sees different ads as they click around and are “joined to” communities of interest. Much higher consumption and satisfaction for visitors, with ads that seem more relevant.

While this is once again in danger of falling into the smoke and mirrors genre, it really does not, once you look behind the scenes.  Publishers using Collarity harness 100% of all visitor click streams, anonymously.  These include content and ad consumption of all types – which is a significant statement given the explosion of social networks and CGM based sites now.  Community segments form based on intensity (rather than popularity) of interests.  Based on these dynamic segments, both content and ads are show to visitors 

A bit more detail: They optimize text, banner and video ads, relying on ad inventories and feeds used by a publisher.  They can deliver the most relevant ads, which typically doubles consumption of ads.  Ad buyers can see these dynamic profiles from publishersGenerally, they experience far better results from dynamic targeting and the Publishers end up selling more impressions and later higher CPMs;   

The common theme between the two companies is the ability to tap into the nuances of intuited or induced behavior to predict future performance. As we as an industry become more expert and rigorous in our technological capabilities, we all will benefit with far more relevant ads, less ad budget waste and happier end users.  What’s not to like?

While I am madly updating our blog roll, I wanted to call out blogs in the Web 2.0 area that I think are worth the daily/weekly read.  That is, so far.  This list grows exponentially each month and it’s difficult to keep a lid on it for my own sanity.

 That said, below are current faves in the business arena.  I won’t bore you with my food blog addiction – we can have that conversation another time, just email me.  In all cases, I suggest you subcribe to their RSS feeds, to make the perusing more efficient.

Web Strategy by Jeremiah Jeremiah has been in the Web 2.0 space for forever and has experienced and explored it from many different angles.  His intelligent coverage is excellent.

Marketing in a Web 2.0 World  LaSandra is an active participant in the Web 2.0 community – speaking, contributing, commenting, twittering.  Worth following!

TechCrunch  A classic.  Go there daily

Adrants another classic – more on gen’l online marketing, but lots lately on 2.0

DishyMix blog  This podcast is an ongoing education on the quickly evolving online and web 2.0 space.  The blog is a back up to the Dishymix podcast series.  Intelligent, always cutting edge, worthy of a weekly listen and view.  Subscribe now! 

Let me know what your favorites are.  There is so much terrific content out there in the blogosphere that it’s easy to miss gems.

I’m still exhausted from all that is Ad-Tech.  Very disappointed with most of the keynote presentations – too broad, too generic.  Much of the talk through out the show was on Web 2.0 and 3.0 and social networking and CGM in general.  Two of the sessions that I attended were outstanding.

Marketing with Downloadable Media: Podcasts and Vidcasts – Buy Ads in Existing Content or Make Your Own Show?  was a terrific overview of the podcasting, vcasting and other downloadable media landscape.  Moderated by Chris MacDonald (of LibSyn), and the panelists were Jim Louderback (Revision3), Kin Robles (National Podcasting System), Mark McRery (Podtrac), Roxanne Darling (Beach Walks with Roz).  If you are just getting your feet wet in this new medium, check out these folks and their companies for a good cross section of the players in this arena.

Making Widgets and Gadgets Work for You was both a great overview (what’s a widget and how does it differ from a gadget etc) but strategic and tactical at the same time.  I really walked away with a great sense of the importance of widgets in the overall scheme of things,  and why, and where to start.  Also kudos to whoever pulled together the panel (the moderator Jerimiah Owyang, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research probably) for combining the analytical side with Jane Felice of comScore, Ed Davis VP product development for major publisher ESPN, Ed Schoen product dev with Facebook, and the Hooman Radfar (CEO of Clearspring - makers and distributors of widgets).  (Jump to the Ad-tech website to get bios of these people).  I loved that the moderator was taking comments and questions from Twitter real-time.  Very cool.

I think the real front-runners of a new media can be found in the trade groups, clubs and societies that spring up to support them. One that I’ve got my eye on is The Association for Downloadable Media,

I’ve been very interested in the progress of the ADM, since I’m such a podcast fan, both from a personal as well as a professional perspective.  I don’t think enough of our clients are taking advantage of this medium in their communications mix.  We are encouraging all of our high tech clients to have their white papers converted to podcasts (or video – but that’s another story), and seeking out online placements for their audio files as well.  The ADM will be running a series of forums and hosting a party. I will certainly be attending some if not all of the sessions. Check them out. 

Some of the issues the ADM is wrestling with are on their site.  But their biggest challenge is their effort to establish terminology, standards, guidelines and best-practices that make downloadable content easy to justify, buy, scale and measure both in advertising efficacy and audience metrics.  Once content is downloaded, all trackability and visibility disappear.  So standard measurements of eyeballs (eardrums?), repeat listeners, pass alongs, Behavioral Targeting possibilities vanish if they ever exitested.  Kudos to this group for taking this on!

They will present their first Standards and Guidelines at Ad-Tech SF on April 16th.  I’m sure there will be a podcast to download later, if you can’t be there in person.

Elymedia has been producing a monthly series on Web 2.0 for the SVAMA.  Our topic is Emerging Media, or Web 2.0 and the format, speakers and topics will change monthly.

The next meeting:

Emerging Media Morning Forum
How To Make Podcasting an Integral Part of Your Communications”This SVAMA Emerging Media Morning Forum will help prepare you for the next big step in Web 2.0… successful integration of podcasts into your business communication mix. Why do you need this? Not only have podcasts have become an integral part of communications, but video and audio podcasts enable them to present information through a dynamic, repeatable and increasingly mobile platform. You’ll hear the six killer podcast applications, see why production value is critical and learn how to engage your audience. Delve into what it takes to establish a successful podcast series and how to sustain it. Learn tips on how podcasts can access your target audience when other channels can’t. Presenter: Kin Robles
April 23, 2008
8:30am – 10:00am
Scott’s Seafood Restaurant and Grill
855 El Camino Real, Town and Country Shopping Center (Embarcadero and El Camino), Palo Alto, CA 94301
Presenter Bio:
Kin Robles joined Brian McMahon as Co-Founder of the National Podcasting System in 2006 after observing advances in video technology and Internet distribution. An agent for change in marketing, public relations, communications and human development while at the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Kin’s 26 years of experience enabled him to immediately understand the potential for podcasting in the corporate sector. He resides with his family in Moraga, California, and is active with Bay Area non-profit organizations. Kin is a member of the Association of Downloadable Media. I’m a newly converted podcasting junky.  click here to register.

The biggest issue that I’m hearing about regarding Web 2.0 is the lack of metrics. How do you measure, what do you measure, and what tools assist you in defining success? MarketingProfs just conducted a great online virtual trade show called B2B 2.0 Expo. It was very well done — lots of content, the right vendors present, and it seemed to be well attended, judging from the sessions I listened in on.

It’s hard enough just making a case to upper management for budget for blogs, podcasts, wikis etc. They all take time, resources and research. But justifying that time and those resources on an ROI basis is the real challenge. Some of the sources that were referenced for Web 2.0 metrics were Technorati (no surprise), Radian6.com (which is new to me), and a book by K.D. Paine: Measuring Public Relations.  In fact, K.D. has a very cool blog, with much more detail on the ins and outs of measuring Social Media.  I’ll be spending more time reading there, in my frantic attempt to keep up with this subject.

I’ve fallen in love with podcasts.  I usually have my iPod shuffle glued to my ears while working out, and I have recently discovered the business section of iTunes (duh, where have I been?).  Rather than be overwhelmed by e-newsletters in my inbox, and print pubs that I don’t have time to read, piling up on my desk, I can instead absorb great info in what usually would be downtime.  Good stuff. So, I’m currently addicted to DishyMix, from Personal Life Media. Susan Bratton, an industry legend in her own right, hosts weekly interviews with online media execs, moguls, interesting people and legends. Recent episodes have included Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak; Wenda Harris Millard, President of Media for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; and many others. Suz’s questions are great and range from industry trends and perspectives to the silly/fun – predictions for 2008 food trends, personal stories etc. I came across PLM while doing a Web 2.0 media plan for a client and spent some time on the phone with Suz to flesh out the opportunites. This podcast network is really done right. There are multiple shows on a variety of related topics, all with weekly podcasts, blogs, and Web pages with transcripts posted on the PLM site, along with a blogs for each show and additional content. The advertising opportunities are many and varied. This is a real find, from the perspectives of a happy consumer or an advertiser.

We will be conducting a monthly breakfast meeting on Web 2.0 beginning Wed. Feb 27, at Scott’s in Palo Alto, CA.  The topics and format will change monthly, but will always have a focus on emerging media.  If you know of anyone who might be interested in speaking, please contact us. More on the meetings here.  Hope you can join us!