By Giles Ivey

Online advertising needs to be more transparent, accountable, and also more engaging. Marketers who believe that engagement starts and ends with the click of a Facebook ‘like’ button are missing the point.

We need to think about how brands can move away from more traditional ‘look-click’ ads, and instead work towards building stunning creative that drives deeper audience engagement and participation. This type of creative can deliver measurable results with the metrics that marketers need to demonstrate ROI.

The term ‘engagement’ has come under fire lately. The great marketing buzzword is now seen as little more than smoke and mirrors term designed to get brands to part with their cash. Perhaps that’s a little melodramatic, but we are seeing a backlash from brands against some of the traditional forms of engagement marketing because much of this activity is inherently unaccountable.

Flooding Liverpool Street station with dancers at 11am is one tactic, but this type of stunt engagement is at best difficult quantify. It’s also somewhat haphazard in that it is almost impossible to know exactly who will be passing through the station at that time. That’s not to say it isn’t a clever marketing trick to raise awareness of a brand or product, but in these tough times brand owners need something more than ‘clever’; they need results. They need to be able to see people interacting with their brands and they need to know their campaigns are delivering. Unfortunately, much of the time, we don’t really know that this is happening. Yes we can surmise, or guess, but we don’t know for sure.

The fact is, to corrupt the famous line from Orwell’s Animal Farm, some forms of engagement are more equal than others. For one thing marketers seem obsessed with Facebook ‘likes’, but what is the real value of this if brands are driving people to Facebook but then doing little with them once they are there? It would be interesting to see exactly how many people come back to a branded Facebook page after clicking the ‘like’ button. Currently these stats are conspicuous in their absence.

Like for like's sake: The rush for empty engagement

For engagement to work, it needs to lead to a consumer action rather than simply being engagement for engagement’s sake. Clicking the ‘like’ button is not enough…spending time with a brand online, sharing something on social networks or making an online purchase directly from an ad are actions that can be measured and quantified.

Over the past decade, we have seen an increasing migration away from traditional media towards digital. This has led to brands looking for new ways to connect with their target audiences. Times were a lot easier for marketers when all they had to worry about was which paper to run their ads in and what time slot to show their TV ad. Today they have a raft of choices, yet the reality is consumers are most likely to interact with brand advertising online or on some sort of mobile device.

However, the current structure of online advertising leaves a lot to be desired. The go-to model for online advertising is CPM (cost per thousand), with brands paying every time someone navigates to the page their ad is on. Not surprisingly CPM doesn’t deliver staggering results – an industry standard of 0.3% or 3 clicks out of every 1000 page impression, and how many of those are people clicking on them by accident?

CPE (cost per engagement) on the other hand is a model that delivers transparent and measurable results, as well as a click through rate of 1% (almost 300% more than CPM). How does it work? By putting a time delay on expanding online ad units (normally a 3-2-1 countdown), advertisers are only charged once the online ‘experience’ has fully loaded – this removes charging for any erroneous rollovers. These online experiences can include anything from video, to games, to social network interactions. And they are also measurable. We can tell exactly how long people have stayed with the brand experience, what they have done and also, where they have interacted with a social network - way beyond anything you could possibly hope for via CPM.

The fundamental basis of CPE is about creating online experiences that encourage consumers to undertake an action on behalf of the brand – sharing, posting, tweeting, starting a conversation or watching a video. Through CPE consumers spend an average of around 23 seconds with brands. This is as powerful as any other form of engagement marketing channel and can be crucial when it comes to building relationships between brands and audiences.

No media channel is 100% measurable and there are faults with every measurement. But an engagement online when you are putting a message in a certain environment, where you know your target market will be and only paying when someone actually spends time with your brand, has got to be more appealing – and indeed more transparent – than trying to capture the attention of whoever happens to be walking through Liverpool Street at 11am on a Tuesday morning.

Giles Ivey is UK Managing Director of SAY Media.

For a magazine enthusiast like me, the words 'online magazine' don't often conjour images of anything exciting. I like my mags to be little works of art. I'm a mag-snob, and I'm not ashamed to say so. Monocle might be pretentious, but I love it. I happily pay the premium for Wired (US) instead of the UK version as the American edition is much more fun, even if the design is a little reckless. Another current favourite is the quarterly M/I/S/C, edited by the brilliantly monikered Idris Mootee, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the world of media and creativity. I especially love trawling the newsagents of Soho, looking for those enormous coffee-table busting magazines that boast gorgeous front covers and limited print runs. 

Online, things are often a different matter. Publishers, as a general rule, make bloody awful website versions of their magazines. They know what looks good on paper, but fail to translate that skill online. This is often because of a technology gap that requires the services of an IT department. Before you know it, a crystal clear artistic vision get trampled upon by HTML code and search optimisation creating flabby, ugly, inflexible content graveyards.  

Fortunately, things are beginning to change, thanks to the work of folk like those at SAY Media , the digital publisher and consumer engagement specialist. They have raised the bar for online magazines with the redesign of its international home interiors website, Remodelista.  The new publishing format makes it easier for editors to create beautiful, cross-platform media experiences, readers to navigate and discover relevant content and products, and advertisers to reach highly-engaged audiences. New features include better tools for writers and a modern content management system that creates an “art department in a box” allowing for richer content experiences for readers and advertisers.

New search and navigation tools allow readers to search Remodelista’s entire content library by room, colour and type of product, from bathroom fixtures to flooring. The site’s variable scrolling function allows readers to focus on featured content while easily accessing new content in a separate reference bar.

The new City Guide section features more than 1,000 posts on hotels, lodging and restaurants all over the world, organized according to location. Weekly issues give readers a quick means to browse back issues by theme and date, and enhanced sharing capabilities allow them to pass on relevant content more easily via Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

 Remodelista’s new design features a premium environment that gives advertisers a clutter-free canvas to engage a highly influential and specialised audience. Similar to Remodelista’s sister site xoJane.com the site features one large brand ad unit per page. The new adaptive scrolling technology increases brand visibility by lengthening the time the ad unit remains on-screen – an innovative approach to online marketing.

"Remodelista’s redesign brings many user-focused improvements, including the City Guides section that will give the editorial team an exciting opportunity to grow our audience here in the UK. City Guides are a natural development from Remodelista's keen interest in design from around the world." - Christine Hanway, London-based Executive Editor of Remodelista

Vending machines, especially when deployed in the variety and scale they are in Japan, offer and effective push-button shopping alternative. But society evolves and retail practices with it, so now for those occasions when the idea of pressing buttons on a vending machine is just too much to bear, Asahi drinks has produced a WI-FI enabled vending machine.

But offering a simple wireless connection to a Wi-Fi enabled device to aid with product selection is only part of the genius. Each of the Asahi drinks machines will also act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing a number of devices to get online at the same time, for up to 30 minutes each. The vending machine's home page will offer links to product details and local area information. Currently there are 1,000 machines to be rolled out over the coming year. 

Spotted on Japantrends.com

by Sri Sharma

"For brands looking to leverage Facebook my advice is simple; use Facebook for what it was designed to do"

Sri Sharma offers his predictions on the big things brands should devote their time and budget to and offers advice on how brands can act to stay ahead of the game.

Online will be used specifically to drive in-store retailing

The harsh economic climate and pressure from pure play retailers has created a huge headache for high street retailers in 2011. There is no sign of these pressures lifting in 2012 but in online, retailers may have found a saviour.

Technological advances, such as Google Wallet and NFC (near field communication) mean that brands can now track the impact of online activity on in-store sales. More importantly, technology is also allowing brands to drive relevant in-store traffic. For example, features within Google paid search for mobile such as hyper local ads and proximity bidding, now enable brands to serve relevant ads to consumers when they are in the vicinity of the store, along with directions to the store.

Brands looking to leverage online to drive in-store retailing should adopt a holistic approach to their marketing. By thinking outside of their traditional remit, be it online, offline or in-store, and having joined up thinking marketers will see the true potential available. This will enable them to develop a programme of testing that leverages social media, paid search & existing loyalty schemes to drive in-store traffic, delivering significant returns in 2012.

Online marketing will be driven by smart multi-channel attribution

In 2010, many predicted that brands would ensure they had a complete, single view of their customers in 2011. Better automation technologies and the mainstream adoption of products such as Google Funnel (an evolution of Google Analytics) have helped this become a reality.

The next logical step is for brands to seek meaningful insights from the data they have collated. In 2012, I believe we will see more brands using econometric modelling to get deeper insights about their customers from their data sets.

For brands that haven’t already invested in creating a single, complete view of their customers across all channels they operate in, this is the first step for 2012. For those that have invested in creating this multi-channel view, 2012 is the time to use a combination of experience and sophisticated analysis, such as econometric modelling, to glean deeper insights that will improve overall marketing effectiveness.

Bing/Yahoo!’s share of the search market will flatten out globally

Owning 90% of the search market globally, Google is seen by consumers and advertisers alike as the unequivocal market leader. Google also owns 98% of the mobile search market globally.

Yahoo! and Bing have lost out in the search stakes.

Given that mobile and tablet usage, and therefore, search, is growing at a faster rate than desktop, more people are likely to turn to Google than to Yahoo! or Bing.

For brands looking to invest wisely, Google is the safe choice. And, with over 100 innovations from Google in the past year alone, it should be where brands prioritise their efforts, particularly when it comes to mobile advertising. However, if you’re looking to expand internationally, it is important to recognise that in two of the key markets – Russia and China – the key search engine isn’t Google but the local engine – Yandex and Baidu respectively, which have their own advertising platforms.

Brands will invest more in generating a deeper understanding of customer intent

Discounting is as important today as it was at the start of the recession in 2008. With the forecast for 2012 looking gloomy, demand for discounts is expected to increase again.

Against this backdrop, many brands are looking at their promotional strategy. However, the clever brands will be looking beyond promotion and discounting. Indeed, I believe that we will see an increase in the number of brands looking to get a deeper understanding of what it is that drives their customers to buy their products – be it a price promotion or an emotional connection with the brand.

To generate the deeper understanding that will ensure revenue potential is maximised, brands should look closely at industry level customer research and analyse their own CRM data. This will enable them to segment customers more effectively and target them more successfully. In search, once brands have an understanding of intent, they can start testing messaging through their paid search programme and iteratively tailor campaigns to prompt the best response.

By meeting customer expectations, brands can ensure that their equity is not diminished by excessive discounting. This will also improve loyalty levels.

Facebook won’t master social commerce

Throughout 2011, Facebook dominated headlines and, with a rumoured IPO on the cards for April 2012, it is likely to remain at the forefront of every marketers mind. However, I think brands that buy into the hype that Facebook will become a one-stop-shopping mall will be disappointed by the returns they receive.

Mark Zuckerberg presents the Open Graph changes.

The updates to Open Graph (announced at the F8 conference back in September) looked to be a real step towards social commerce, enabling users to be more specific in their posts, e.g. rather than purely “Liking” a brand they could tell their friends “I love this” or “I’ve just bought this.” However, Facebook hasn’t been so successful in its other forays into social commerce. For example, Facebook Deals closed just four months after it was launched.

For me, the mixed response to social commerce stems from the understanding of what Facebook is. When Facebook started its clear objective was to connect users. This has subsequently stretched into enabling brands and consumers to connect in creative ways. However, I don’t believe it will now evolve into a successful mass tool for direct shopping.

For brands looking to leverage Facebook my advice is simple; use Facebook for what it was designed to do, i.e. make the world more connected and enable easier communication, and leave it at that. Facebook should be used to build your brand and engage with your customers, not direct response.

Sri Sharma is founder and MD of Net Media Planet. 

by Wesley Lynch.

Admit it, as a niche or luxury brand you probably scoff at social media. What, you wonder, does your brand have to do with some pimply kid on a skateboard messaging his friends?

But you’d be wrong on two counts. A KISSMetrics report reveals that social media users are both wealthier and older than you think. Among the social platforms, Twitter has the most high-income earners (27% earn over $75 000 p.a.). An impressive 37% of Facebook users are over 45.

And they’re not monitoring their kids either. They’re ditching their satellite news channel for a more well-rounded perspective (Twitter), and they’re polling their friends, who know their likes and dislikes, for advice on what to get a loved one for Christmas (Facebook).

It’s obvious, then, that social is an underestimated and underrepresented medium in the niche brand marketing mix – a fact borne out by their brands conspicuous absence from social platforms.

Besides the surprising facts quoted above, here are a few things you probably didn’t know about social, things that ought to ease your fears and suspicions about the medium.

New authorities 

Forget Google and brand websites – social media is the new authority on topics across the board. If someone is looking for a really great wine or to form an opinion on a topical affair, chances are they’ll poll their friends or  poke around the ‘walled garden’ of Facebook rather than wade through search engine results or undertake an arduous trawling of websites.

So if you’re not on social media, you’re missing out on some highly qualified audiences doing some very targeted comparative shopping and acting on very powerful recommendations.

Millionaire aspirations

Today, industries like IT produce younger millionaires who bring a new casual luxury segment to the market, a segment perhaps not fully recognised yet by the high-end brands. Gangsta rappers with their penchant for ostentatious wealth, luxury cars, bling and designer wear, bring a different style again to the consumption of luxury brands.

With this democratisation of luxury brands, aspiration is keener than ever. Ordinary companies now toast their successes with Dom Perignon; kids and other low-income earners simply must have the latest iPhone.

Brand exclusivity and social

Given these developments, going social is not a move away from exclusivity. It is simply an extension of the brand community.

Today, brand communities form around groupings that actually consume the brand – not abstract metrics such as wealth. (Besides, with the above examples of young IT professionals and upwardly mobile rappers, the correlation between disposable income and age is being steadily eroded).

Niche brands should take social media channels seriously as a portfolio of tools, technologies and platforms facilitating the discovery and sharing of their content by an increasingly discerning social community.

Cartier experimented with MySpace back in 2008

It can be done

Where to from here? While it is not a widespread phenomenon yet, niche brands are increasingly flocking to the social Web. From Cartier’s MySpace account to Tiffany’s Facebook page and the Jimmy Choo treasure hunt on Foursquare, brands are figuring out how to do it.

To follow in their footsteps, other niche brands investigating a social strategy should engage the services of a technology and creative team that has been there and done that. Decide what you want from a social campaign or presence, find the local and global examples that inspire you, and track down the team that can deliver.

Wesley Lynch is CEO of Realm Digital.

Okay, so such a thing might not really exist but in attempt to help the online world get a little bit closer to the discovery of the perfect website, ROI Media in South Africa has crunched some data and viewing habits to help create an infographic guide.

This won't stop people getting to flash with Flash, nor will it stop well established sites needlessly experimenting with successfull layouts just for the hell of it (Yes, I'm looking at you lot at the bbc.co.uk homepage), but if this helps stop just one wayward web design, its creation should be applauded. Some of the stats are a bit familiar, but there's some nice user experience insights. It also tracks the continued meteoric rise of the tumblr blogging platform.

By Stuart Durham

Applications for a new generic top level domains (gTLDs) are set to open in January 2012, changing the way some brand owners control and manage their online brand presence.  For advocates of the new gTLDs, these ‘.brand’ domains are a marketing game-changer, but the changes have also attracted some vocal critics.

Advertising associations, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Direct Marketers Association, have been particularly vocal in their opposition to the new domains, claiming the new gTLDs will increase cybersquatting and make it ‘easier for online felons to cloak themselves in the names of trusted brands’

Online trust is a huge and highly emotive issue for brand owners but the argument that the new gTLDs will lead to some kind of cybersquatting free-for-all just doesn’t stack up.

Cybersquatters won’t apply for a new TLD

Cybersquatters are opportunists who have long thrived in an environment where ‘no questions asked’ domain names can be purchased for just a few pounds. At $185,000 USD just to apply for one of the new gTLDs, ICANN has set the bar deliberately high so that only organisations that satisfy ICANN’s requirements get the chance to operate their own new TLD.  Secondly, ICANN is unlikely to allow confusingly similar names or ‘typos’ to be approved in the application process – so for example, if .hsbc is approved, .hbsc won’t be allowed.

Ownership of a .brand enables brand owners to exert far greater control of who uses their name on the internet. By creating and owning a unique piece of online real estate, brands are able to exert full control over who resides in that space – making cybersquatting impossible on a .brand domain.

Scoping the threat in new generic names

What about the expected new generic names like .music, .web or .shop?  Some of these new names will have restricted registration requirements to allow only companies or individuals in the industry or community the name represents – for example, .hotel could be restricted to only hotel operators – reducing likelihood of cybersquatters on those domains.

So that leaves only the new open registries.  While it is hoped they will set responsible registration rules, the chance for cybersquatting on the new open names will exist.  However, while it is hard to definitively say how many new open registries there will be, it is likely the number of truly open new TLDs will be significantly smaller than the total number of new gTLDs.

Big brands – the primary targets of cybersquatters – won’t necessarily have to register all their brands in the new open TLDs.  They could register in only those which they feel are higher risk, and monitor the rest of the new domains for any infringements and take action on a case-by-case basis.  Or they could just take a purely monitoring approach for the new TLDs.  It will depend on the risk profile of the organisation, but the point is that blanket registration across the new open TLDs is not the only effective option on the table.

It’s worth remembering that there are already 200+ top level domains in existence today which cybersquatters can choose from, and savvy brands are monitoring these for infringements to take action where necessary.

Using the new TLDs to lower risk

Perhaps most significantly however, a .brand provides brand owners with a simple visual cue to help Internet users distinguish between real sites and fake ones, something which the current domain name system has failed to achieve.

Research Melbourne IT DBS conducted with YouGov found 48% of consumers rate brands as either fair or poor in adequately distinguishing their sites from counterfeiters.  A similar proportion (51%) admit they find it difficult to differentiate between sites selling genuine goods and those which sell fake or counterfeit items.

A .brand gTLD is not an overnight solution to these issues. But in the long-term, if brands educate and encourage customers and other stakeholders that their .brand site is the one to trust, internet users will make the trustworthy .brand domain their first and only choice.

By casting off the shackles of the existing naming system, the new gTLDs present an opportunity for brand owners to create communities of trust and reassurance for their audiences.

With so much of the long-term future of the Internet to be based on authentication and trust, savvy brand owners can use the forthcoming changes to their advantage for long term online brand benefit.

As whimsy as it seems to put Shippam’s Paste and engaging social media campaign in the same sentence, the brand’s twitter profile has amassed over 6,000 followers (‘Shippamates’) in less than a week, with followers increasing by thousands daily.