Social networking, viral marketing, Web 2.0... which trends are for real, and which are just the marketing version of a Pet Rock?

Learn how to leverage today's online strategies while ensuring you can capitalize on tomorrow's in the Interactive Strategist. In it, Internet media specialist Tessa Wegert tells you what works, what doesn't and--more importantly--why.

 
Posted: February 11, 2010 | 9:27 ET
File Under: Ad/Media Spending | Web 2.0


The old Bob Dylan song, "The Times, They Are a-Changin'" wasn't written with the digital marketing industry in mind, but it certainly applies to what lies ahead for those of us active in the field. A recent Ipsos report confirmed what most of us already suspected: marketers and advertisers are completely modifying their media mix in an effort to incorporate more digital channels.


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Posted: December 10, 2009 | 10:41 ET
File Under: Ad/Media Spending | Online | Social Media | Mobile/Wireless | E-Mail



Like all digital strategists, you're probably asking yourself what's in store for 2010. Even if you already have media plans finalized through the first quarter, it's always prudent to stay abreast of industry trends. One way to do this is by analyzing what your peers are doing and determining the degree to which your efforts are in line with their own. Another is to look at the activities of your vendors, who have the best interests of your future campaigns in mind.

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Posted: November 10, 2009 | 12:18 ET
File Under: Online | Media | Social Media | Video

We may not like to admit it, but media strategists, buyers, creative developers, and digital marketers of every ilk make mistakes. We've already looked at some of the more common offenses, including failing to follow through with blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages, and assuming that consumers are as excited about sitting through our repurposed 3-minute commercial spots as we are. Sadly, these aren't the only wrongdoings our target consumers are subject to in the online media space.



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Posted: October 13, 2009 | 11:17 ET
File Under: Online | Media | Social Media | Video

As any experienced media strategist knows, the business of online advertising is not without its flaws. We've struggled with e-mail marketing, working for years to renew consumer trust after spending the previous years overloading them with messages they couldn't easily control. We increased our ad sizes to get Internet users' attention, decreased them when our audience was dissatisfied, and again pumped them up in order to be able to deliver more engaging ads. This is still, at its core, an experimental business, and as is always the case in such matters, it requires a certain degree of trial and error.

As such, our beloved medium has facilitated countless mistakes. These have come in virtually every shape and form, from social media gaffes to mobile marketing missteps.

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Posted: September 11, 2009 | 10:55 ET
File Under: Online | Branded Content

If there's one thing that publishers have learned since the birth of online advertising over a decade ago, it's the importance of being flexible. Now more than ever, they are flexible when it comes to the type of ad units they accept, where those units are placed, and most of all, the traditional definition of what constitutes advertising versus editorial content.

In the beginning, site sales reps were known to stick to their media kits, offering only what their organization had previously deemed to be acceptable forms of advertising. This system worked for advertisers when the medium was still considered to be a supplementary part of one's overall advertising strategy, and when placing ads on the Web was more of a novelty than a necessity. As competition increased, however, and consumers became more accustomed to online advertising and better able to avoid it, marketers began to realize that, if they were going to be noticed, they would have to deliver something more unique.

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Posted: August 6, 2009 | 10:02 ET
File Under: Online | Social Media

Perhaps we should give microsites a new name. There's really nothing "micro" about them anymore.

These offshoots of brand sites are typically used to promote individual products or marketing campaigns. Historically, they've been limited to a few pages of content, and at times even consisted of a single Web page that's more on par with a campaign landing page than a site proper. Not so anymore. Today's microsites offer rich and comprehensive user experiences related to both a marketer's product and brand. They're the source of some of the most interesting online marketing efforts we see, surpassing even banner ads in their creativity and superior execution.

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Posted: July 9, 2009 | 13:02 ET
File Under: Ad/Media Spending | Online | Interactive

Isn't it ironic that one of the most important aspects of online advertising is also one of the hardest to grasp? The pricing models that apply to online media are vastly different from their offline counterparts, and to make matters more complicated, they're in a constant state of flux. The popularity of online media pricing models seems to ebb and flow in harmony with ad unit and placement trends, creating much confusion among media strategists when it comes time to plan their campaigns.

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Posted: June 11, 2009 | 15:37 ET
File Under: Online | Contextual

Anyone who's heard a nasty rumour that has turned out to be misinformation knows the importance of keeping things in context. The same rule applied to online advertising, but for very different reasons. Contextual advertising (also known as content match advertising) has climbed the targeting technology ranks to become an increasingly popular feature of interactive campaigns. The ability to place advertising in relation to contextually relevant site content has proven to be both effective and well received by Internet users.

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Posted: May 13, 2009 | 11:08 ET
File Under: Online

We've all heard the expression, "bigger is better." After some new developments in display advertising, marketers are preparing to find out whether that's true of banner ads. Over the past two months, the industry has been abuzz with the news that 27 major We've all heard the expression, "bigger is better." After some new developments in display advertising, marketers are preparing to find out whether that's true of banner ads. Over the past two months, the industry has been abuzz with the news that 27 major site publishers will be experimenting with three new ad units. The effort is being spearheaded by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) in an effort to "inspire creativity and high-quality advertising, provide a greater share of voice for the advertiser, introduce a measurement to capture impact, and enhance interactivity to build user engagement with brands."

The industry excitement stems from the size of the units: they're all huge, and will take up considerably more site real estate than has ever previously been allocated to advertising.

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Posted: April 9, 2009 | 11:37 ET
File Under: Online | Social Media

Much has been written about the social media "Big Three": MySpace, Facebook, and now, Twitter. These are just a drop in the bucket, though, when you consider the sea of social sites that exists and continues to grow. Some--like Classmates.com, Bebo, and Flixter--might be familiar, while others, though popular in their own right, may not yet have made it into your regular rotation.

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Posted: March 12, 2009 | 11:54 ET
File Under: Online | Social Media

A colleague, upon coming across yet another new social site, posed an interesting question the other day: does anyone actually have the bandwidth to keep up with this stuff? If you work with interactive media of any kind, the answer shouldn't be "do I," but "how could I not?" The social networking space has already evolved far beyond what was anticipated, with services like Facebook and Twitter registering millions upon millions of unique users (around 68,557,000 for the former and 5,979,000 for the latter, according to recent numbers. We have a responsibility to our clients to understand these tools. We can also greatly benefit from using them ourselves.

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Posted: January 27, 2009 | 11:49 ET
File Under: Interactive | Online | Testing

It isn't the first aspect of an online media campaign to draw attention, nor does it sell a concept to a client, but the landing page is critical to virtually every Internet ad campaign. Even the most strategic site placement and effective creative can't generate the results every advertiser seeks without an equally effective follow-through. Think of it in terms of a golf swing: perfect contact with the ball (or Internet user) doesn't mean squat if you can't complete the action.

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