Xenobie

Twitter

These days, there is hardly a meeting with a large marketer that does not include a discussion about twitter... and for a good reason. You see now Dell making a sizeable amount of money with their Dell Outlet twitter account where they promote deals; last i saw, they had around 250,000 followers. Who needs coupons when you have twitter! Jetblue has around the same number of followers and is mostly focused on customer service. Think of the potential of twitter for brands that need to keep a sustained relationship w/ their consumers, such as in pet care where people have such a loyal relationship with their pet food brand or in pharma where non-comliance to prescriptions is the biggest revenue hit. Twitter is becoming more and more interesting everyday!

A key Component of Web 3.0

While we are still grappling with the potential of web 2.0, an increasing number of people are talking about web 3.0.  Web 3.0 relates to the concept that information finds you, that through the combination of tagging, linking and personalization, the right information will find you at the time you need. 

Web 3.0 may also include new ways to visualize and interface with information; see this TED2009 video of recent work at MIT Media Lab:

Brands battle back

I just came back from the IAB ecosystem 2.0 conference in Orlando.  The title of the conference was "Brands battle back" - based on the premise that the internet has proven its success as a direct response medium but has yet to prove its value as a branding medium. A thought that crossed my mind listening to the keynote presentations and conversations was the so-called "measurability" of the internet adopted a darwinian behavior... and led naturally to the direct response world.  When you consider the amount of $$ invested in internet technologies, platforms and exchanges related companies that are mostly - if not all - focused on optimizing and creating value for the direct response world, you understand why we are where we are... imagine if the same amount of $$ and entrepreneurial creativity were invested in launching companies focused on making internet brand advertising great, measurable and ultimately more valuable than the alternative media... i believe that is where the next wave of innovations is going to focus on for the next few years... (which by the way may not lead to higher CPMs across the board)

Eyetracking

Interesting google blog post on eyetracking studies. In addition, see video below..amazing how fast our eyes navigate through a page and how fast our brain records information and makes decisions.

Ogilvy Digital Labs

We announced recently the formation of Digital Labs around the world.  Our goal is to come up with applications and user interfaces that leverage new platforms (social media, gaming, mobile, digital OOH) and drive engagement with consumers. So far our Singapore office has developed some pretty cool apps you can view some on youtube (check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pSxRid8XNI).  Recently we had our team at E3 interviewing leading game developers.  Check it out.

Powerset

Take a look at the video.  Powerset just launched a search engine using natural language processing technology.  The goal is to have computers better understand and recognize how humans use natural language.  The benefits for the users would be an improved interaction with content, in terms of retrieval, access and organization.  Pretty cool!

Powerset Demo Video from officialpowerset on Vimeo.

MSFT proposed acquisition of YHOO

Well, there is no surprise here.  When Ballmer stated that he expected Microsoft to generate 30% of its revenue from advertising within the next few years, it was clear that this goal could not be achieved without an acquisition of a large online ad player.

The deal makes sense for all the reasons that have been mentionned since the announcement: a solid number 2 against Google, larger scale, complementary assets...

More interesting to me are two topics that have not be discussed much: the Yahoo brand and Jerry Yang.

Yahoo has a much stronger brand equity than Microsoft or MSN among consumers.  Yahoo stands for the web, for an early digital leader; it is the default home page for millions of users... while it has lost a bit of its appeal over the past few years due to Google extraordinary growth, the Yahoo brand remains one of the top digital brands in a world that is increasingly digital.  My hope is that should the deal go through, Microsoft would 1) keep the brand and 2) invest in it.

The other thought that crossed my mind is Jerry Yang's state of mind.  Was Microsoft offer all what he was waiting for when he decided to come back... was the strategy to "dress up the bride" to ensure a sale of the company he founded at a "reasonable" price?  or did he come back because he loves his company and believes deeply that he can turn it around... if that is the case, what is Jerry's state of mind? 

I believe Jerry deeply loves his company and believes that it can be turned around... i can't wait to see how he personally reacts to Microsoft unsolicited offer.

Bill Gates Predictions from CES

I am always interested to hear what Bill Gates has to say.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185114685/bctid1369762390

Facebook

Facebook is facing some "friends" backlash.  The social ad platform is getting some criticism around its consumer privacy or the lack of protection of consumers personal info / actions.  Here are some thoughts:
- consumer privacy is a perception; if consumers feel you are violating their privacy, you are... regardless whether you are from a legal point of view or from a "privacy policy" point of view.
- all ads will be digital and targeted soon; that means that all marketing messages will be delivered through IP-based networks and ad-servers AND they will all be targeted whether the targeting is based on context, geo, behaviors, inferred demographics based on OS / browser / ...
- online marketers appear to be held to a higher standard than direct mailers, list management companies, direct marketing specialists.  I am all in favor of clarifying standards but let's be fair and apply the same standards to the entire industry... not just the online guys because they are new or have less presence on Capitol Hill
- consumers need to be more educated about how targeting works and how personal information can be used to taylor marketing messages.

Ultimately, online advertising is still a nascent industry and we are all trying new formats, new technologies and new ways to grab a bit of the consumers attention.  Facebook social ad platform is very interesting because it leverages the social graph and the natural / human tendency that humans have to share their likes and dislikes with their friends.  Whether the beacon should be opt-in or opt-out is secondary compared to the innovation that Facebook is bringing to the marketplace.  I trust that Facebook will listen to its users and adjust its social ad platform accordingly.

Future of Content

Quite interesting how media companies have evolved over the past few months.  Most media sites that provide video content are now allowing consumers to provide that content on their own web pages... the model is starting to take shape: media companies offer content to be distributed but it gets served from their servers and contain ads in various formats. Suddenly, everyone can be a publisher though the ad revenue still flows to the media and content owners... i guess that's right!

See below an interesting video of Reuters CEO. Apologize for the low quality.