An article in today's AllThingsD provided some interesting details about the performance of YouTube home page ads, as measured reported by TubeMogul. Source: TubeMogul That's nearly a 10x difference between the highest and lowest performing ad. According to Ad Age, the cost of a YouTube home page ad is approximately $400,000/day. That means Bertolli paid $8.40 for each user initiated view of its video. In comparison, e*Trade got quite the bargain at only $.88 per view. Granted, this doesn't take into account the value of the millions of impressions that a site such as YouTube delivers. But if the goal... Continue reading

If 2009 was the year of iPhone apps, then augmented reality (AR) may be the darling of 2010. It’s that Hollywood technology that’s found its way into Burger King banner ads, a slew of “must-have” smartphone apps, the cover of Esquire and Adidas shoes. So, what’s it all about? AR enhances the “real” physical world with contextually specific imagery or information. The AR experience is typically triggered in two ways. The first is through location recognition via GPS/compass-enabled smartphones or other devices. With Wikitude, for example, you can point your camera phone toward a famous landmark and see an overlay... Continue reading

If you're like me, you probably have a steady stable of "best in class" case studies that you trot out a few times a year for inspiring brainstorms or the latest deck about transforming your business. This is the month to freshen up those JetBlue-GE-Amazon-Ikea-Wal-Mart-[insert your favorites here] war horses. There's a bumper crop of unexpected inspiration on this month's newsstand. In the Atlantic Magazine article "Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead" the band's forward thinking business practices are featured including customer loyalty cultivation, merchandising and profiting from "giving it away." On this last point, the Dead's lyricist John Perry... Continue reading

Here's a thought provoking study from Journal of Advertising Research “How Rich-Media Video Technology Boosts Branding Goals.” The research compared performance of various ad formats (rich media w/video, rich media w/o video, GIF/JPG, simple Flash). The findings? Rich Media with Video unit was the strongest performer in aided brand awareness, brand favorability and purchase intent. The big surprise is that GIF/JPG was the strongest performer when it came to message association (associating brand with value proposition) and here’s their explanation: “the strong performance of GIF or JPG formats on message association suggests that advertisers have a messaging discipline for these... Continue reading