That Interweb

Respect the Viewer

Words of wisdom on pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads and how to use them from Amanda Congdon. Check it out because the sister speaks the truth.
http://starring.amandacongdon.com/2007/08/03/secrets-to-online-advertising/

McCann CEO is my hero!

(CEO not pictured here. These are other Ad Tech heroes. Or not.)

Nick Brien, Universal McCann CEO, gave the keynote address at this years Ad Tech and spoke truth to power. His comments are a must read. In sum:

1) It's not about new media, it's about new marketing.
2) Legacy thinking is bad. Bad for clients, bad for agencies.
3) Brands need to be destinations and experiences, thus consumer insights must be better.
4) Consumer generated content is a powerful thing
5) New model calls for collaboration between media companies, agencies, and brands.
6) New model is scary. Don't fear it, love it.

From Brien's mouth to the ears of clients and agencies everywhere.

See the summary of Brien's address in AdAge.

NOTE: Here's the podcast of Brien's keynote address.

Play with my widget

Once upon a time, widgets lived only in business management classes as fictional manufactured items. Now they exist in the real world and are a multimillion dollar business.

The September issue of Business 2.0 has a great article about how widgets are driving the Facebook economy. I suggest reading it but the gist is that widgets can be created by anyone and money can be made from them. They can be fun, silly things or hard core e-commerce. The one thing the most successful widgets have in common is that they tap into the “social graph” — the web of connections between users and their friends.

Why a widget is a good idea, or how to sell a widget to your client?
1) Users voluntarily put your brand on their page, validating it, and sharing it with their friends.
2) It’s the ultimate form of online word-of-mouth
3) One time production cost and then minimal residual costs since there’s no media to buy.
4) Gives the user an intimate brand experience that general advertising can’t
5) Widgets spread virally so there’s no need to advertise them

Not to toot my own horn, but I did a MySpace widget for Chili’s Grill & Bar. It took an awful lot of convincing to get them to agree to it but it’s been a huge success.

The Chili’s Chalkboard for MySpace cost less than $20,000 to produce and has generated more than 4,000,000 impressions in six months (the widget launched 5/4/07). More importantly about 90% of those impressions are from boards on personal MySpace pages and not on the Chili’s page.

Widgets can be a powerful tool and you can create one for almost any client. Check out appaholic.com for the most popular apps and to see their measurement analytics.

UPDATE
As of 11/4/07 the Chalkboard widget has had 5,303,196 unique visits. There are now 29,126 unique boards on peoples' pages.

UPDATE
As of 12/9/07 the Chalkboard widget has had 8,826,575 unique visits. There are now 45,558 unique boards on peoples' pages.

UPDATE
As of 2/8/08 the Chalkboard widget has had 12,428,000 unique visits. There are now 59,661 unique boards on peoples' pages.