Archive for January, 2008
January 30, 2008
In the latest cut from VM’s quarterly Vector Media Study, consumer behaviour relating to personal security and privacy issues suggested that proactive steps taken around cookie deletion, and as a consequence, online ‘tracking’ is more prevalent than first suggested.
The Vector Study revealed 22.85% deleted cookies once a month, 30.96% once a week, 11.24% after every session, 28.71% infrequently and just 6.24% never deliberately deleted their cookies (either 1st or 3rd party).
Interestingly, in the 65+ age group, 42.86% deleted their cookies once a week, and an incredible 28.57% deleted cookies after every session. The 25 to 34 age group, however, is less likely to delete cookies on a more regular basis, with just 4.08% deleting cookies after every session against the average of 11.24%.
Sample:N=800, SD=1.19
Cookies are completely benign, and in fact, are there to add value to the consumer’s experience. However, this relatively high frequency of deletion is worrisome, in so much as the effectiveness of measurement systems and processes are undermined by the constant re-issuing of unique cookie IDs to individual browsers. Simply put, the ’system’ has to deal with more unique cookies than there are actual people. Over-counting becomes prevalent, which ultimately impacts external and internal business reporting and associated revenue drivers.
January 30, 2008
The closure of The Bulletin is a disaster. A disaster for CVC because it reflects on the group’s media stewardship and capacity to think laterally (and rapidly) in a period of seismic media shifts. Yes, the publication was running at a loss, and yes circulation was almost half of previous highs (the latest, 50,039), but the publication represented a business which created original, sometimes insightful commentary and analysis.
And content of this persuasion, particularly for such an under-reported market/community like Australia, is becoming increasingly rare. CVC is not a philanthropic agency, and no one is suggesting that the financial group has a universal service obligation (USO) to sustain the publication at all costs, but CVC needs to get smarter about sustainable business models in a media landscape where flux is the norm. CVC’s call to exercise its termination option over the weekly will no doubt be one of many over the next few years should some archaic internal rate of return be used as the sole arbiter of all its media options.
CVC needs to better recognise that its assets are intangible in nature, personalised by the IP in the newsroom and features desk. That IP, more often than not, will support any reform process which is transparent enough to acknowledge that maybe a printed version of the magazine, and even the brand itself, is unsustainable. Instead, the IP should be re-calibrated to power new journalistic brands and products delivered exclusively in a digital format across multiple platforms, including digital television.
Maybe the brand increasingly failed to make its mark, unable to persuade current affairs junkies of its proposition, but in our media-saturated lives, the lifecycle of media brands is accelerating and the notion of creative destruction has tremendous validity. It doesn’t take hindsight, just the ‘media gene’ to recognise when the rules of the game are changing and make a strategic shift - at product or organisational level - to keep yourself on the field. CVC simply cramped up and dropped out of the game.
January 29, 2008
The Nine Network was once accused of hording their TV stars, banking them even when they had no permanent on-air role. And so it is with newspapers, as they push the production boundaries of their own starlets, using websites to leverage individual talents beyond the commodity of general news.
Let’s face it, when breakings news (including investigative journalism) becomes even less frequent, mastheads need to differentiate themselves beyond news gathering, pushing instead the “jagged and shiny”, including controversial and titillating opinion pieces.
So who are these soap box stars, who pontificate on the day’s proceedings, or worst, stare into our soul to reveal primal urges and motivations?
Content analysis of staff bloggers on the Sydney Morning Herald, including the level of interaction and response they generate from readers, suggests some notables. Equally, the analysis shows the types of content which ‘performs’ well. In the six month period between July and December 2007, more than 39,000 reader responses were recorded. The top 50 posts alone generated almost 14,000 responses.
Of those top 50 staff posts, 45% of all reader responses focused on ‘life & leisure’, with authors such as Samantha Brett and Sam de Brito completly dominating the category. Sports accounted for 36%, with Ben Willing playing a major contribution. These two categories were followed by ‘travel’ (9.4%), ‘entertainment’ (4.8%), ‘technology’ (2.8%) and ‘news’ (1.3%).
Articles such as ‘movies that men cry’ and ‘is admitting you need a a man (or woman) taboo?’ generate fantastic response rates - 392 and 375 reader responses respectively. In fact of the top 50 posts, the average number of responses was 278, compared with an average of 44 across all posts over the six months. In sport, the top posts included ‘Australia v England (rugby union) with 833 responses (the highest of any post in that period) and the A-League Round 7 preview (410 reponses).
Content snapshots like this provide insights into the future of editoral design and development - not positive if you value opinion peices of a more cerebral nature. These insights extend to how buyers and planners need to more accurately assess the value of opinion writers, paying greater attention to reader response rates (i.e. engagement) and less emphasis on audience numbers (i.e. browsers).
January 28, 2008
In a competitive marketplace, enterprises seek to differentiate themselves through service, marketing and innovation. It is this third component – innovation – which suggests that customer orientated technologies and content can be unique identifiers of an enterprise, and as a consequence, have a bearing on its brand.
In short, DNA segmentation ideally needs to be at an enterprise level to more accurately correlate innovation and content development with the appropriate customer segment, each one with a particular level of awareness of, exposure to and readiness to engage.
Example: DNA Segmentation at an enterprise level
The corollary of this type of segmentation is that a minority of customers (example, 5%) might have a DNA level of between 5 and 7 in the context of mobile viral campaigns, but in the specific case of online payments (credit/debit card, PayPal etc.), these same DNA scores that might represent a segment as large as 35%. The moral of the story - DNA segmentation needs to be as dynamic as the technology and content it seeks to represent.
Therefore, in a very practical sense, an enterprise would be unwise to invest in an MMS pilot campaign targeting even just one-fifth of its customer base (based on a market-wide assessment that MMS virals have engaged 20% of the mobile market) when the enterprise itself might find that, in terms of mobile marketing, customers with a DNA score of between 5 and 7 represent less than 10% of the total customer base. By identifying this discrepancy between market and customer-base maturity rates, the enterprise is better informed and consequently more comfortable about its decision to commit to the digital option.
It is important to point out here that an enterprise might conclude that its own customer base (or at least segments within) has a higher DNA rating than the wider market. That being the case, the enterprise has a tremendous opportunity to the set the agenda within its own industry, and consequently, further differentiate itself in terms of the digital option. That is, innovate in terms of customer interfaces and digital communications.
January 27, 2008
Our two villians this week certainly share at least one thing in common - male pattern baldness. Luther, despite his more modern persona as an egotistical, clever though second-rate thug , was in fact orginally scripted as a business mastermind, owning much of Metropolis, but with no moral compass, and a perchant for murder. It’s a habit that started early, beginnning with the planned deaths of both parents to ensure be was the beneficiary of their millions. However, despite the richness of his persona and psychology, Luther’s Blogsearch result returns just 5,672 results.
Based on the EG Index, Luther scores a 1.56 - supported by highs in charisma, intelligence, lack of reformability and to a lesser extent, leadership. His score, however, is undermined by a lack of super natural powers (SNP), (and we all know how this put him at a disadvantage when General Zorg and his comrades blasted onto planet Earth), as well as his general level of susceptibilty (he is only human after all).
His competitor is Davros, a creation of immense intelligence, ambition, hatred and meglomania. What more could you want in a guest? Following a 1000-year war which took an enormous physical toll on the guy, the scientist persisted in developing a technology fondly known to us as the Daleks - a mechnical master race with a limited vocabulary (matched only by their inability to traverse stairs. Interestingly, though, escalators are not all together out of the question!)
On the Google Blogsearch, Davros scores a respectable 70,253 results, and on the EG Index scores an impressive 1.70. Near perfect in many respects, the mastermind is hampered in any final showdown by his susceptibility - the guy’s locked into a mobile iron lung - a lack of charisma (way too serious) and simply little to speak of in terms of SNP. Once again, its the guy in the breathing apparatus which takes the cake.
In our second round, the correlation between an individual’s EG score, and their level of popularity, remains very strong.
Next week: Regan McNeil (aka the demon Pazuzu in The Exorcist) and Michael Myers (of Halloween fame). What a fascinating encounter that will be.
January 24, 2008
Despite the proliferation and ever nearer domination of the advertising model, its not necessarily a lay down mazaire that every piece of communication will be subsidised with advertising, or more accurately, accepted by the end consumer as an advertising medium.
One very recent example of research into consumer attitudes towards permission-based SMS messaging (Source: PureProfile 2007, N=1,000), which is pushed to handsets, suggests that certain age groups have very definite views on this type of push marketing. A majority of people aged 55 and above do not want to be subject to this form of marketing. By contrast, the 18 to 44 age group are more open to the concept - with a few caveats.
First, they want these messages to be personally relevant. If this criteria is to be met, and the relevancy optimised, subscribers will need to be more forthcoming with lifestyle and interest data to see value in the ‘response-loop’.
More interestingly, is the idea that consumers should be paid for their time and access to their ‘network’, in this case, their mobile phone or PDA. The revenue-share option is not often spoken about in the context of display advertising or push marketing, but in this research the 18 to 34 demographic most definitely consider they have dibs on a percentage of the revenue generated by such a tactic.
“Sure I’ll accept this advertisment for hair shampoo, just remember to credit my phone account at the market rate of 1.5c per SMS!”
In research conducted on behalf of Victrix Media, 31% considered mobile advertising (predominantly display and SMS) to be unacceptable (sounds eerily familar to the early online days), but 80% of those were willing to accept advertising if it resulted in subsidised calls. (N=1,200, Standard deviation=0.4)
The mobile Internet will blossom in the coming years, yet the usual ‘consumer contract’ of passively accepting advertising in the browser or email account is unlikely to be tolerated. Instead, the mobile space is sure to spur the drafting of an alternative consumer contract, one that rewards consumers for their time and personal space.
January 24, 2008
VM Index slipped again this week, shedding almost 3.5% to 877.56 - that’s more than 12% since the start of the year.
Large declines over the week included Macquarie Media (-10.5%), Photon Group (-10.7%) and Austereo (-9.3%). In fact all stocks in the VM Media Index were down this week, with the exception of Western Australian Newspapers (+3%) and, not surprisingly, Consolidated Media (+10.5%). However, despite this recent rise in CMJ’s fortunes, the company is up only 2% for the year-to-date.
The last four weeks have been savage on the media sector, with every stock in the VM Index down (with the exception of CMJ). Standouts include Seek (-21%), Crown (-19.5%), Macquarie Media (-15.7%) and Photon Group (-15.7%). Stocks which seem to be holding a rag tag defence against the market flux include News (-2%), Prime Media (-1.9%) and to a lesser extent, Ten (-7%) and Austar (also down 7%).
January 24, 2008
A customer’s Digital Network Awareness (DNA) is an indicator of the person’s digital maturity or savvy.
It is arguable that many enterprises rely too heavily on aggregated consumer data - captured at a market level - to assess specific product opportunities. This is particularly true when there is an assessment made of trends and preferences in the context of digital media consumption.
In short, every company or enterprise has a customer base with particular media and technology nuances. This is especially true in a market dominated by the concept of the ‘long tail’, where market segments can be ‘mapped’ and made commercially viable on a much smaller scale.
Terms like ‘digitrati’ and ‘early adopters’ are generally well known, however the DNA descriptor encapsulates the person’s awareness and exposure to digital communications, media and technology within the context of their readiness or comfort level to engage a brand or enterprise using these same media outlets and technologies.
The taxonomy of a customer’s DNA is built around three bands of digital awareness:
1) Awareness of the technology/media;
2) Exposure to (including demonstration of) the technology/media;
3) Readiness/preparedness to engage the technology/media.
Scaled, the DNA figures will be influenced by how much ‘prep’ a customer has undergone, principally through awareness (word-of-mouth and media (broadcast and narrowcast)), exposure to the technology and/or media as well as the person’s readiness to actually use/engage with the technology or brand.
This taxonomy segments a customer base by their DNA, as opposed to definitions designed around broader market samples.
This delineation is deliberate for a very simple reason. In a competitive marketplace, enterprises seek to differentiate themselves through service, marketing and innovation. It is this third component – innovation – which suggests that customer orientated technologies and content can be unique identifiers of an enterprise, and as a consequence, have a bearing on its brand.
In short, DNA segmentation ideally needs to be at an enterprise level to more accurately correlate innovation and content development with the appropriate customer segment, each one with a particular level of awareness of, exposure to and readiness to engage.
It is this level of segmentation, this level of intimate customer knowledge, which gives the enterprise its sustainable advantage.
January 22, 2008
Achieving scale through consolidation can be executed in a number of ways. There is the obvious M&A avenue, with the transfer of assets from one balance sheet to another, and then there is the consolidation of IP, or knowledge about one’s market. How’s this?
Imagine capturing or centralising customer data across a range of brands and suppliers which is then supplied back to the enterprise in an aggregated form. Having a more comprehensive perspective on their own customers, the enterprise is more empowered to use this shared (but limited) customer data to enhance (or optimise) the customer experience.
These enterprises could be within the same industry, or more interestingly, could be complimentary in nature – a car service centre, a personal lending group and a travel agency, for example.
Recent announcements about Google’s OpenSocial program spun the line that this sharing of APIs across participating social networks would free up resourcing and introduce new efficiencies for operators, their members and API developers. If there wasn’t already, these audience economies will justify further development on even larger scale API-type projects, along with a host of possible backend set-ups and processes.
Critically, the sharing of personal data (sign-ins, registration details etc.) will possibly re-activate a percentage of dormant accounts along with the stimulation of general activity, such as search, frequency and time online.
One obvious commercial outcome is the strong possibility of a virtual ad network spanning several key social media platforms, including MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and interestingly salesforce.com. Targeting rules based around frequency could, for example, include exposures on other platforms aside the immediate publisher.
In the context of consolidation, data portability (or more correctly data integration) is a sophisticated and innovative method of achieving scale without the merger of brands or cultures.
From an advertising perspective, data portability could be a very powerful component to the whole discipline of behavioural targeting. There are essentially three key data streams needed to optimise behavioural targeting: a) the person’s click stream, b) registration details and their c) user generated content, which creates a semantic component to their profile – what was the tone of their comments? What was referred to in their comment? Did they use terms like “recommend”, “advise”, “good”, “very poor” etc.?
In turn, these variables develop a type of master key, or CRS score, hopefully on the fly. The appropriate architecture is to feed these scores through to ad servers and CMS systems to generate dynamic, score-related content and advertising environments.
Where is all this going in terms of data portability? Well, couldn’t a visitor moving between sites carry their CRS score with them? This ensures ad and content targeting on the immediate site responds to the visitor’s behaviour on the prior site (s). This network of participating sites is now differentiating themselves through the two concepts of data portability and behavioural targeting.
The pertinent commercial question is: could a group of online publishers in Australia, loosely affiliated through the local chapter of the IAB, agree on standards that would facilitate data portability, particularly in the area of behavioural targeting?
A network of sites, for example, which already experiences substantial audience cross-over, could take advantage of this ‘migration’ by identifying premium page customers moving from one publisher to their own site.
Should these same ‘premium’ readers engage with unsold inventory (remnant inventory) of another publisher, then these unsold pages can be re-classified as premium (with a corresponding rise in CPM). This is all based on the reader’s broader, intra-publication profile.
January 22, 2008
Further to the recent peice on the Id Score, Myspace recently announced it will further invest in content development (including its own record label), effectively taking on portal-type qualities. Strategically, the social component is viewed more as the loss-leader, ancilliary to the main game of ‘legitimate’ (read: market savvy) content. In short, Myspace is seeking to reduce its Id Score and in doing so, improve its advertising and brand engagement metrics. It’s the only way.
