Hyundai boosts performance with search and display

A new Hyundai case study by MediaMind reviews the impact of a cross channel search and display campaign.  Hyundai wanted to follow users on their full journey – from viewing their Rich Media ad on a homepage or on an automotive site, through searching for the brand until scheduling a test drive on their site.  

This was easy with Channel Connect for Search.  CC4S provided integrated reporting and analytics at the user level for every touch point with the campaign and demonstrated how each channel contributed to the overall results of the campaign.
Leveraging data, Hyundai was able to increase campaign performance dramatically.  “We were able to boost Hyundai’s return on investment by increasing test drives by 14%,” said David Fernandez, Managing Director at Reprise Media. 

“Using MediaMind’s advanced technology; we were able to completely understand the consumer journey through multiple display channels and their relationship with search engines. Ultimately, we delivered 22% more traffic by reducing click costs through an integrated online campaign”.

For the full case study, click here.

Ariel Geifman | Principal Analyst, MediaMind Research

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Digitally Creative Cocktails

 

On a chilly August night a few weeks ago, MediaMind and Gorilla Nation treated some of their digital partners to a night of warming winter cocktails and delicious food at Charlie’s Bar, Melbourne Australia.

 

Vanya Jakovljevic (Sales Manager, ANZ) and Simon Holt (Sales Manager, ANZ) held the fort for the MediaMind crew, whilst Sally Wood (Sales Manager Victoria) and James Perry (Director of Ad Sales, Australia)[d1]  represented the Gorilla Nation team in what can only be described as “creative networking”.

 

Agencies in attendance included Mindshare, Zenith Optimedia, Mediacom, Universal McCann, Carat, Mitchells and Starcom.

 

Now, I can already hear you say “whatever did a room full of digital minds talk about in a bar for three hours?”  Perhaps there was discussion of the recent report that Australia’s online ad industry has broken the $2bn mark and is poised to exceed $3bn in the next four years. Perhaps they speculated on what Google’s answer to Facebook would be like, and whether the phrase ‘Google Me’ would catch on. Or perhaps there was just a general buzz about MediaMind’s upcoming Digital Experience Day (DED) due to hit Australian shores in late October.

 

Whatever the topic of conversation, it appears that all involved had a good time. Tom Woodcock, Digital Project Manager at Mindshare, revealed that he thought, “Most media events are vast deserts of banality. Thankfully MediaMind and Gorilla Nation bucked the trend, allowing genial and interesting conversations in a pleasant and fun environment.”

 

MediaMind and Gorilla Nation have worked in concert in the past to produce several entertainment campaigns, such as the recent digital promotion of 20th Century Fox’s blockbuster, Predators:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what are you doing to keep warm this winter?

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Singapore Youth Olympic Games Go Digital

Singapore reccently ushered in the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in the garden city of Singapore.   It featured 7,000 performers, laser, light, fire, and water shows, dazzling fireworks and watched by 27,000 spectators and millions around the world. See gallery on Flickr.

The event is two years in the making and the result of a global marketing and PR campaign to raise awareness and participation for the Youth Olympics.

With McCann Worldgroup, Singapore taking creative duties and Zenith Optimedia, Singapore heading media, there is an obvious push to use every little trick in the digital marketing bible. Here are some of my observations on how well digital was used for this campaign to reach out to the youth audience:

1.    Websitewww.singapore2010.sg

Brilliantly done with information on every little detail of the YOG. Filled with photos, videos, event line-up, ticketing, merchandise and many more.

Frequent updates and you can even watch live updates all day at www.youtholympicgames.org.

2.    Social networking

The YOG spared no effort in utilising popular social networking channels:

- YouTube

- Flickr

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Community Site – WhyOhGee for blogs

3.    Display Advertising

The online campaign was both interesting and attention grabbing. A global online campaign that targeted key markets in APAC and Europe.  Zenith worked with MediaMind to manage and deliver all ad-serving for its online display campaigns.

4.    Viral campaign

A viral campaign was also released in April 2010 that featured runner Asafa Powell and a teenager challenging Powell to chase after him.  The video was part of the “Power of Youth” marketing campaign for the YOG, to raise awareness for the Game.

5.    Virtual Worlds – Singapore Odyssey 2010

A 3D Virtual World of Singapore developed based on the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. It offers youth a way to participate in quests and games styled on a futuristic theme allowing youths from across the world can interact with one another while discovering the spirit of the first Youth Olympic Games. Think Second Life – very cool!

My assessment of SYOG’s digital effort – 8 out of 10!  Unfortunately, many people I spoke to knew little of the games – but then again my friends are not exactly target youths.  I¹m just proud to have this event hosted in my country ­ Singapore!

Where is Singapore? Tip: Its not in China, see this link:

http://www.mapsofworld.com/singapore/singapore-location-map.html

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Scott Lemos – Sony Pictures

This week we talk to Scott Lemos, Digital Marketing Manager for Sony Pictures Releasing, about films, meatballs, and where he seeks inspiration.

 

 

How long have you been with Sony Pictures?

 

As they say – I am ‘part of the furniture’ around here.  I’ve been with the company for 14 years.

 

 

What is your idea of a perfect work day?

 

I have always been more efficient early in the morning, so my day starts with a brisk walk to the train station then put the iPhone to use on the short commute to the office.  I grab a coffee on the way in the door then as I work closely with our team in Los Angeles, it’s on the phone catching up with the U.S. team and approving microsites and digital assets for our upcoming films.  A check of the overnight box office tracking reports to see how our films are performing then the daily ritual of uncluttering my desk which always makes me feel more productive and calm for what lies ahead for the rest of the day!

 

 

How do you seek inspiration, or when does inspiration find you?

 

It’s usually the simplest of things that feeds my inspiration and almost always when I’m not looking for it – be it reading a magazine, chatting with friends or listening to music.

 

 

 

What was/is your favourite brand experience that has been served by Eyeblaster? Why?

 

It’s always fun working on our big blockbuster films as I have more scope to be creative and budgets allow for great and diverse rich media executions.  Over the years there have been many but one that comes to mind was last year’s hit – “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs”.  My objective was to bring the fun, colourful film content to the user within the ad unit and Eyeblaster was the perfect vehicle to help us achieve this.  One such execution enabled the user to select any letter of the alphabet and a corresponding food starting with that letter rained down the screen.  This resulted in us delivering a well balanced campaign that produced a solid end result – box office success!

 

    

How did you get started in digital advertising?

 

Long before the world of ‘digital marketing’ as we know it today, I was asked to maintain what was then a very basic company website.  As digital rapidly gained momentum, my role started to expand and I found myself riding the wave and being immersed in all things digital.  Now when I look back on it, it was very much like a switch was flicked and my world at Sony Pictures changed forever.

 

I’m proud of the fact that Sony Pictures realised the importance of digital marketing & a need for digital advertising within the traditional marketing mix.  It gave me the opportunity to grow my role and start up a new ‘digital marketing department’ within the Australian team.  A few years later, other International Sony Pictures territories followed suit and employed Digital Marketing Managers and we are now a group of about 15 Digital specific Managers lead by a first class digital team in the U.S.

 

Who is/was your mentor? Whose work do you admire, or what campaigns have inspired you lately?

 

I am very fortunate to have guidance from a strong digital team in our Los Angeles studio.  Over the years I have learnt a lot from some of the best digital specialists in the industry.  Some very positive, inspiring leaders who encourage me to take risks and try new things.  Not all work out the way you hoped but you learn from this and gain a better understanding and a whole lot of experience along the way.

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Driving Campaign Results

Driving Campaign Results

Driving Campaign Results

When 90% of car buyers now begin their research online, it only makes sense that more and more budgets find their way to Display. A recently released study by MediaMind Research shows that despite the decline in car sales, there has been an increase in the average number of impressions per automotive advertiser in 2009. This recession resilience signals a move from less effective advertising channels to online display.

more…

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Relevance and Creativity – Jonathon Betts

This week, we speak to Jonathon Betts, Joint Head of Implementation Planning and Investment at MediaCom.


How long have you been with MediaCom?

I joined MediaCom Australia in May 2008, so just over 2 years. 

 

What is your idea of a perfect work day?

 
Having made it through emails by 10:00, sitting down with the team to see the ideas they’re working on with suppliers for client campaigns. Grabbing a bite to eat and then speaking to clients about their digital objectives. Seeing some great comms planning work from the teams here at MediaCom and getting excited about how we could deliver these in digtial.

 
   
How do you seek inspiration, or when does inspiration find you?

 I have always been a problem solver, so any new challenge sucks me in. When you get a great brief to work on it’s fantastic to start looking for insights and crafting ideas. When your solution involves doing something genuinely new you don’t want to stop working on it.

 
 What was/is your favourite brand experience that has been served by Eyeblaster? Why? (We will feature an image of your creative with a link)

 
I like advertising where we’re delivering a fantastic creative experience or delivering something relevant to people looking at a website.   

For Fast & Furious we had a great synchronised video ad, each different placement on the page was coordinated and the story was told across all formats.










For Justin Bieber we had live updates from various social networks feeding in to deliver an up to the minute message.

  






 How did you get started in digital advertising?
 
 I started at a specialist digital agency in the UK, i-level. I started working on campaigns for Yell and British Telecom. I think we managed to run the first ever “overlay” campaign in the UK for Yell.

 
 Who is/was your mentor? Whose work do you admire, or what campaigns have inspired you lately?

 
At i-level there were two people I learned the most from: Faith Carthy and Ed Ling. They were both inspiring in the different ways they approached the media business and the work they did for clients. They always insisted on the best from people and made it fun too.

 
I like campaigns that don’t see a boundary between media and creative and offline and online. Some of the most successful draw people in and make people want to spend time with campaign. The online hype campaign for the Dark Knight was immensely successful at getting people excited about the movie, involved in the campaign and building buzz before it launched.

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Right back at you

Here at MediaMind, we enjoy a clever quip and a speedy response, so this week we take a look at The Story of 2010 so far in Australia and the response astute advertisers have had to the political shake up.

 

Last week’s leadership spill, which resulted in the appointment of Australia’s first female  Prime Minister, caused a bona fide media frenzy. From live and continuous coverage on television and radio networks, a special midday edition of the major mastheads, to the explosion of mass Twittering, Blogging and video streaming online, the media storm the leadership spill caused was nothing short of phenomenal, with Fairfax Digital announcing that it became their biggest-ever online news story.

 

It’s also an advertiser’s playground.

 

Though many felt sorry for departing ex-PM Kevin Rudd (affectionately known as ‘Mr. Sheen’ by some), few could deny the hilarity and cleverness that ensued as we relished in the fast ‘comebacks’ issued by copy writers around the country.

 

The below, taken from The Australian 28th June, details some of the timely advertisements that quickly appeared in newspapers alongside the coverage of Kevin Rudd’s leadership demise and the rise of Gillard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s fantastic to see creative react so quickly to topical news events; they are eye catching, inspire word of mouth discussions, and have managed to play on the Australian’s love of humour. However, due to the production schedule of newspapers, the delivery of these fantastic quips was delayed by a full day.

 

This is where the beauty of digital advertising comes into play. Digital campaigns can be updated simply and almost immediately; within minutes, an editorially responsive advertorial is served up hot and fresh to information hungry consumers.

 

Take, for example, the Pepsi “Joy it Forward” campaign served by MediaMind in 2009. Using MediaMind’s Smart Versioning tool (which was already enabled) the Pepsi team responded swiftly when the saddening news broke of Michael Jackson’s untimely passing. The live campaign transformed from this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

To this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a few short moments.

 

Another overseas example can be found in the Team Suzuki campaign run by its agency Questus, who were presented with the challenge of updating the team’s ads with fresh race data. In the past, changes were made via a delayed and cumbersome process that could often take hours. However, since having their ads served by the MediaMind Smart Versioning technology, the team can now quickly create, serve and measure all dynamic content ads:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in APAC, a recent Diageo-Johnnie Walker sponsorship of Fox Sports coverage of the Ashes between England and Australia demonstrated how effective timely advertorials can be. The ads were updated daily based on the team’s results, with one of the messages proudly exclaiming, “Here’s to the next victory”:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using this technology, agencies can save time and money whilst delivering fresh and relevant content, which in turn can strengthen the brand’s relationship with consumers.

 

Has anyone out there seen some particularly clever and timely advertisements online lately? We would love to hear about them, so do comment below.

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Advertising as Entertainment

Entertainment is the fastest growing activity on the Internet. In addition, 99.6% of online users in the U.S use the Internet for entertainment. Advertisers in the entertainment industry should seize this opportunity to create more entertaining and engaging online display ads. A report from MediaMind and comScore releases new data on entertainment advertising and analyzes how to use display advertising to boost box-office revenues.

 

 

The Internet is now inextricably entwined with our daily lives. With this ubiquity comes an opportunity for the entertainment industry, as well as an expectation from the discerning consumer. Entertainment websites now reach 99.6% of the U.S. online population every month, who spend an average of 227 minutes per user on entertainment-related content.

 

dwelling on entertainment

 

An analysis of billions of impressions shows that the click has become irrelevant as a measure of online marketing success, especially for entertainment. Users are more likely to engage and interact with entertainment campaigns compared to other verticals, but they are less likely to click. Furthermore, 95% of users who interact with entertainment ads never click, which makes it imperative to deliver and measure the total brand experience wherever the consumer engages.

 

To measure the branding success of display, MediaMind offers its Dwell metric. New research by comScore, MediaMind and Microsoft Advertising shows that Dwell has a direct effect on brand metrics.

 

The research shows that consumers who saw campaigns with high dwell were three times more likely to search for brand-related keywords and showed stronger brand survey lift than those exposed to campaigns with low dwell. Furthermore, campaigns with high dwell increased advertisers’ site traffic by 69% and increased brand engagement—increasing page views and time spent on the brand’s site.

 

The success of display advertising is linked to box office revenues. comScore AdEffx Action Lift directly measures the effect that entertainment marketers’ online advertising has on consumers’ interest in a film by passively measuring their Internet activity. Mathematical analysis of this activity can be used to predict box-office results.

 

To download the full 20-page report, including exclusive data and insights from comScore and MediaMind, click here.

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Eyeblaster Evolved to MediaMind

Introducing a Bigger Idea in Digital Marketing

So what’s the news?
We are announcing the rebranding of Eyeblaster to MediaMind.


← Replay video


Who are we?
• A global provider of digital advertising technology solutions that optimize the use of media, creative and data for enhanced performance.
• Our unique technology platform incorporates multiple media and data sources providing marketers with a comprehensive, cross-channel view of ad campaigns. MediaMind embraces the full cycle of intelligent advertising, delivering campaigns that are audience aware, connecting data and creative for relevant messages irrespective of device.

Why the change?
• As the expectations of digital consumer continue to evolve, so have we.
• The success and vision of our MediaMind platform has exceeded the scope of the Eyeblaster brand.

Why should you care?
• Advertisers have a hard time communicating in a changing, fickle environment.
• New technologies claim true addressability, but leave advertisers confused and overwhelmed by fragmentation.
• The MediaMind name reflects our strategic focus on addressing this challenge.

How are we different?
• Performance Tools: Advanced capabilities for better advertising performance (e.g. cross-channel attribution, dynamic creative optimization, cutting-edge consumer experiences, mobile advertising, etc.)
• Platform Approach: MediaMind is a broad platform for multi-channel advertising opportunities. Integrated workflow planning allows campaigns to achieve reach and scale in display, search, rich media, video and mobile.
• Publisher Neutrality: MediaMind offers recommendations and solutions that best suit each advertiser’s needs. Advertisers are never forced into specific opportunities or inventories.

Who shares our vision?
• The MediaMind platform has been adopted as a primary marketing vehicle by hundreds of advertisers and agencies worldwide, including MEC Global, Dentsu, Doner and MediaCom.

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Happy New (Financial) Year

As we dip our toes into the new financial year, we reflect on how digital land fared in the first six months of the calendar year and what lies ahead.

 

The Good

 

 

The online ad market grew by 17 per cent. Online expenditure for the financial year for 2010 reached nearly $1.5 billion, with the finance sector the biggest spender. As Paul Fisher, CEO of IAB Australia, puts it: “Less than two years ago, many advertisers were asking ‘why should I advertise online?’ Today, the question we hear most is ‘how or where should I advertise online?’”

 

Hitwise revealed that 49 of the top 50 search terms entered by Australian users into search giant Google were brand names. If you missed Eyeblaster’s research on the effectiveness of a search and display combination for your campaign, click here.

 

Newspaper circulation went down again – not good news for the print industry, but think of all those users heading online for news content…

 

The Bad

 

 

Political commentary website ‘New Matilda’ is to close its doors in June 25th, with its editor Marni Cordell citing ‘difficulties in the Australian ad market’. It’s always sad to see the demise of a publication; however New Matilda arrived in an already saturated market (competing with established political titles such as The Punch, The Drum, and The National Times). New Matilda was muscled out due to tough competition – not because of a ‘tight ad market’ (which actually grew by 17 per cent).

 

App Attack: At the start of the year there were more than 134,000 applications available and every 2.5 minutes another app is born. Unfortunately, according to a study by Pinch Media just 30 per cent of people who buy an iPhone application actually use it the day after it was purchased. Furthermore, after 20 days, less than 5 per cent of those who downloaded an application are actively using it. My advice? Choose mobile websites over apps – they’re cheaper to create, accessible from any phone with an internet browser, and the mobile search engine index, separate from PC search, is basically empty (think of coming up first for all of your keywords in every search).

 

The Curious

 

 

Steve Jobs believes that PC’s are “like trucks”. Well, only in the sense that in the future “they are still going to be around…but only one in x people will need them.” Jobs was speaking about the rise of the portable devices (like the tablet iPad, and mobiles) at the recent D: All Things Digital conference in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Future

 

Online advertising expenditure is tipped to surpass $2 billion by the end of June.

 

At the risk of banging the ‘social media’ drum yet again, Facebook topped Google’s Ad Planner list of ‘The 1,000 most-visited sites on the web’. With a phenomenal reach of 35.2 per cent and 540,000,000 unique users, the future of creative on Facebook – and all social media for that matter – is quite exciting.

 

The National Broadband Network – Faster download speeds? Yes, please. The NBN will begin rolling out from July 2010, with a view to have speeds of 100 megabits per second available to 90 per cent of Australians. For online advertisers, this will mean the scope of interactive and data rich features will widen considerably. This is a very positive thing for the industry at large; many creative ideas can now be translated onto the Australian advertising landscape, and conversion maximising techniques (that are often data heavy, like video) will be easy to deliver to a wider net of consumers.

 

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