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Demographic targeting has always been the mantra of advertising. That’s old hat. The new mantra for new-age advertising seems to be “Super Targeting”. Reaching the 18 to 20 year olds is not enough anymore. For example, an advertiser might need to target the 18 to 20 year olds who do all of the following:

1. love their ipods
2. listen predominantly to Hip-Hop
3. play atleast two sports
4. watch thriller movies
5. participate in online movie and music discussion communities
6. are active members on facebook and myspace

You get the idea……
The onset of social networking and social networking aspects and technology in websites like video websites, music websites and other popular portals and forums has given the advertiser a great set of tools to make his demographic targeting super-fine. Not only can he address the age demographic, but he can also target a small, niche and a vertical population segment within the desired age demographic. This is unprecedented in the advertising world. Never before was reaching out to such specific segments of the population so easy as it is now.

Such ads, served to super fine targeted communities will be extremely effective. They command premium price. But, the advertisers are happy to pay more to target a hard to reach group of people.

Social networking technology will grow more and more sophisticated that the advertiser will have more options to effectively concentrate his advertising dollars on the specific demographic of his choice.

Did you see a red sports car advertisement while checking out the “swim suits” on Sports Illustrated?? No surprises there… Thats “old hat” targeting.

Now, imagine this scenario :

• You are a middle aged school teacher.
• You love classical music.
• You participate actively and share information on Zecco’s Stock Investor Community.
• You just made a killing in the stock market, which has made you a star on Zecco.
• You just posted on Facebook that you love the new Lamborghini.
• You are presently chatting in a social network for middle aged school teachers.
• In the banner space where you always saw ads for Beethoven, Mozart Music CDs , you now see an ad for the New Lamborghini that you love so much !!

Scary? Uncanny? Absolutely!

Coincidence?? Probably not!

Welcome to the new world of “super targeting”, where you see exactly what you desire!!

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Volumes in mobile advertising have become interesting for the first time. At the Mobile World Congress happening in Barcelona today, AdMob Inc. announced that they served 2.4 billion impressions in January’08 (up roughly six-fold since January’07).

The iPhone is expected to reach ~5% of ad impressions by early 2008. This is much higher than the number of iPhones as a percentage of total cell phones. Although this news is pormising, the iPhone was conspicuous in the last position on the chart.

Other interesting companies to watch out for : Nokia/Enpocket , Ad Infuse Inc. , Amobee Inc. , Medio Systems Inc.

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A very good CNBC report on the Product Placement Industry, what it is and how it functions today.

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The Online Video industry is exploding! ComScore reported yesterday that a record 10 billion online videos were watched in December 2007. The reasons that most contributed to this unbelievable growth were

• The stale and boring programming on broadcast television (caused by the WGA strike and Television’s uninteresting and stereotypical programming).
• The increasing popularity of online video sites.

YouTube was the top site within the Google family. It captured more than 97 percent of videos watched on the Google video sites.

This table gives numbers on Unique Video Viewers.

141 million Americans headed to the Web for videos, says ComScore. The top 3 players were -

• FIRST : Google/Youtube was first with 79 million unique viewers.
• SECOND : Fox Interactive Media was second with 43.9 million unique viewers.
• THIRD : Yahoo Inc. was third with 38.2 million unique viewers.

Other Interesting Stats for the month of December 2007 -

• The average viewer consumed 3.4 hours of video during December’07.
• The video consumption of an average viewer increased 34% in the last year.
• The average video duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average viewer watched 72 videosin December’07.

This table gives numbers on Total Videos viewed.

The most interesting questions to ask would be :

• How can these videos be monetized effectively?
• What advertising model should be used that would best suit online videos?
• Can we advertise smartly enough to avoid taking online video back to the time of annoying television ads.
• Is anyone up for the challenge?

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There is a school of thought that believes that content creators are considered “sold” when they allow companies to integrate the brand with their content. How reasonable is this school of thought ?. When I see Letterman’s late night show, every guest that appears on the show ends up promoting one of his or her content explicitly. But still , the interview with this guest is considered to be a content and 30-second advertisements follow this so called “content”. But in reality the guest is there to promote their agenda and in that process end up contributing to Letterman’s show. So all the fuss about product placement diluting the creative value of the content is not well founded.

Many movie makers need to use props for the movies, regardless of whether it is sponsored by a brand or not. One of the key ways to strongly establish a character quickly in a movie is through the character’s preferences such as what products does she like, how does she dress, talk and what are her favorite hang out places in the movie etc. This establishes her lifestyle and through that her character in the movie really well without too many shots. Converting these props into revenue generating vehicles is one of the best strategies that a producer can employ to support their budget. I dont see how the the content’s creative value is diluted in this case, as long as it is tastefully done.

I just got back from watching a movie called Juno. It had two prominent product placements, sunny-D and Tic-Tac. Tic-Tac had the most prominent marketing message. The protagonist says to her boyfriend “Well you know, because they’re your fave - and I figured you could never have enough of your favorite one calorie breath mints.” However interestingly, Tic-Tac is better integrated into the script of the movie than Sunny-D. Her boyfriend’s character is established with a strong liking towards Tic Tac, where as Sunny-D is something the main character carrys with her in the first scene.

The interesting aspect about product placement is , if done well, even though the audience realizes that these are product placements, they perceive this as an integral part and a required part of the story. This is similar to how the viewers are tolerant about late-night show guests promoting their movies or the band performing on SNL with an intent to increase their record sales.

So movie makers and producers will soon realize, if they have not already done so, that their props are great sources to generate additional revenue and that product placement is a win-win strategy to offer good entertaining experience to their viewers without having to force intrusive advertisements on the viewer.

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Webisodes are the online equivalent of TV episodes. Webisodes like KateModern and Sofia’s Diary are attracting a large and crazed following in the UK and Europe. KateModern, a Bebo driven webisode is the most popular in the EU. It is so popular that local language editions are expected in Poland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Holland.

Bebo’s other webisode - Sofia’s Diary is based on a Portugese soap opera. It has become so popular and is growing so fast within Bebo that it has made Bebo the greatest social networking website in Europe. Sofia’s Diary is an interactive teen web drama and is being launched as a joint venture of Bebo and Sony Pictures. Sofia’s Diary webisodes are interactive 1-3 minute episodes that have tremendously impressed advertisers because they reach teens and the twenties. Similar to KateModern, Sofia’s Diary will telecast the real time life of UK teenager Sofia. Daily videos and messages are also posted on Sofia’s Bebo profile. The shows are a mix of real life and fictional events and viewers are kept involved with real time interaction with the show’s characters.

With Webisodes becoming so popular, they are attracting Product Placement deals. KateModern has signed multiple six-figure deals to place brands like Orange, MSN, Procter & Gamble, Disney and Atlantic Records. Sofia’s Diary is in talks with major brands to integrate their brands in the show. Bebo’s partnership with Yahoo! will further help Bebo to provide better sponsorship and product placements in Sofia’s Diary.

Campbell Ryan Film Productions Ltd has been signed up to professionally shoot and produce a technically high quality first season of Sofia’s Diary.

Sofia’s Diary is Written by BAFTA-winning Irish writer Danny Stack, Melanie Martinez and Marta Gomes.

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The Writer’s Guild of America(WGA) strike has come as a blessing in disguise for many independent content creators. It has enabled them to understand the power of the internet as a direct distribution medium. Many have told me that they are thinking about taking their content directly to the web without going through studios and distributors. Every producer is trying to become his own distributor.

All this is good news. More creators are bringing their videos directly to the web. These professional and semi professional content creators who make quality content will slowly but surely attract viewership on the web. As the content creators migrate to the web, so will the advertisers. Where viewers go advertisements will follow. Newer ways of advertising on these videos need to be invented and the videos needs to be distributed widely and monetized effectively to benefit the creator, advertiser and distributor.

We can expect the networks to start taking financial hits as more and more ads start to go to online media. The networks are huge but they will feel the pinch!

Take a look at a network-by-network roundup of content that has not been aired because of the WGA strike. Also included are previously announced alternative series orders and midseason replacement series.

Its a long list. The networks should be afraid of this trend.

ABC shows not yet aired this season:

• ACCORDING TO JIM (comedy)
• CASHMERE MAFIA (drama)
• DANCE WAR: BRUNO VS. CARRIE ANN (alt)
• DUEL (alt)
• ELI STONE (drama)
• SUPERNANNY (alt)
• WIFE SWAP (alt)
• LOST (drama)
• MISS/GUIDED (comedy)
• OPRAH’S BIG GIVE (alt)
• WANNA BET (alt)

CBS shows not yet aired this season:

• AMAZING RACE 12 (alt)
• THE CAPTAIN (comedy)
• JERICHO (drama)
• JINGLES (alt)
• MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD (alt)
• THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE (comedy)
• SURVIVOR 16 (alt)
• SWINGTOWN (drama)

The CW shows not yet aired this season:

• CROWNED: THE MOTHER OF ALL PAGEANTS (alt)
• EIGHT DAYS A WEEK (comedy)
• FARMER WANTS A WIFE (alt)
• ONE TREE HILL (drama)
• PUSSYCAT DOLLS PRESENT: THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT DOLL 2 (alt)

FOX shows not yet aired this season:

• 24 (drama)
• AMERICAN IDOL 7 (alt)
• CANTERBURY’S LAW (drama)
• HELL’S KITCHEN 4 (alt)
• KITCHEN NIGHTMARES 2 (alt)
• NEW AMSTERDAM (drama)
• NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (alt)
• RETURN OF JEZEBEL JAMES, THE (comedy)
• TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (drama)
• UNHITCHED (comedy)

NBC shows not yet aired this season:

• 1 VS 100 (alt)
• AMERICAN GLADIATORS (alt)
• AMNESIA (alt)
• THE APPRENTICE 7 (alt)
• CLASH OF THE CHOIRS (alt)
• IT CROWD (comedy)
• MY DAD IS BETTER THAN YOUR DAD (alt)
• WORLD MOVES (alt)

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Media2win and WebChutney are two interactive advertising agencies that are into creating online ad-campaigns through animated viral videos. Brands are gobbling up the nifty little viral videos that M2W and WC are able to produce. Big names like Microsoft, Lenovo, Google, TataSky, Infosys, Cornetto and HappyDent are queuing up to place orders for funny animated videos that are so attractive, well done and funny that they distribute themselves virally.

These firms charge anywhere from $1250 to $20,000 to produce an animated viral video ad-campaign. Their clients - Brands find this deal pretty attractive since its a one time investment and the distribution, being viral, costs nil. The video serves the purpose of brand promotion for as long as it remains out there and is being watched - not such a bad deal for the brand.

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The nature of Brand Integration means that the video in which the product has been placed will serve as an advertisement for the brand for as long as the video is watched. You still see the Reese’s peanut butter candy when you watch Steven Spielberg’s ET. Reese’s candy was integrated in the movie in 1982 and it will continue to remain a part of the movie. It is 26 years since the ET was released and Reese’s Candy is still visible to anyone who watches the movie today. Reese’s will continue to be visible tomorrow, a decade from now or even a century from now.Can this be true for any other form of advertisement? I dont think so. No other form of advertising is active on such a long term basis - into perpetuity.

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Positioning the brand and then protecting it is the most important task of an enterprise. No compromises can be made and no corners cut when it comes to protecting brand equity.

I was recently traveling from India to the US by a plane of a certain Airline company that I will not name . The Airline company is one of the best run airlines in the word and on my trips to Asia, I make it a point to travel on their planes. I have only had positive experiences with them. On my most recent trip, I noticed something funny on the food tray put before me by the courteous air hostess. On the food tray was a small cup of packaged water with the words “Shake well before use”! printed on the plastic seal top.

“Shake well before use”? It was water. Are you kidding me? Why would I shake water well before use? Were there any settled sediments that I was supposed to agitate before drinking the water?

Then I saw the orange juice(with pulp) in a similar pack. It was packaged by the same company that packed the water and it had the exact same plastic seal top with the exact same words. The food packing company had used the same plastic seal top on both the water and on the orange juice.

The packing company had obviously cut corners or had carelessly let this happen. Either way their brand image had fallen before my eyes. An even greater crime - They had also affected the brand image of their customer - the otherwise praiseworthy airline company. I was wondering for a long time how such a well run airline company could have let such a thing happen. I thought they were the perfect Airlines. They were not. Their brand image had been dented.

The most minor and trivial things can hurt your brand. Its not just you, its also the other companies that you work with that can negatively affect your brand image by doing something stupid. No compromises and no cutting corners when it comes to your brand. You can never be relaxed and laid back when it comes to protecting your brand and its equity.

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