Usable Clicks - Latest Comments

Re: McDonalds Early Risers Campaign Made Me Smile

kskobac — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:48:59 -0000

Thanks Steve! Glad you find the writing valuable

Re: McDonalds Early Risers Campaign Made Me Smile

stevesarner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:44:39 -0000

Interesting and cool execution - glad to have it featured here. UC is a great resource for keeping ahead of the curve!

Re: 15 Insights from the Social Media Boot Camp

mahsdfjaksdh — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:52:22 -0000

greart post

Re: Revver Wake Up

Say It So They Buy It — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:36:58 -0000

Interesting, isn't it. So many people put their videos online and then embed them in pages with links, telling people to click the link. But YOU were upfront with a link, even if not commercial, and they wouldn't display you. Go figure.

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blog - http://bit.ly/24eYTO

Re: 15 Insights from the Social Media Boot Camp

nick gonzalez — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:21:37 -0000

Thanks for this too. Really great summary.

Re: 15 Insights from the Social Media Boot Camp

Steve Wax — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:22:14 -0000

Hey, really nice summary of the ideas. It was great fun to participate yesterday -- even if Sam Ewen and I were the token "executioners".

Re: 7 Minutes to Reinvent the Internet (for Advertising)

Brian McFarland — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:13:13 -0000

Kevin,

What a thoughtful, well written synopsis of the outstanding event yesterday. Your intelligence and strategic approach to digital marketing is incredible, and we appreciate the energy and passion in which you pursue your work and career.

Brian

Re: Revver Wake Up

Jim Crews — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:17:43 -0000

We don't use Revver specifically. We try to blanket the video networks for maximum coverage for our originally produced content. Revver does things a bit different with revenue sharing with partners but if that means sacrificing other branded channels, its clearly not worth it.

Re: Revver Wake Up

Kevin Skobac — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:26:57 -0000

I'm curious - why do you use Revver over other options? What do you get as a content producer, brand, and advertiser? I can't remember seeing someone use them in a while.

Re: Why Non-Standard Ads Should Be The Exception Not the Rule

Mike Bohn — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:30:28 -0000

Agreed, there are a bunch of great executions out there. The reason they're great, in my opinion, is that the executions were non-standard or custom. They are one of a kind and special.

It all boils down to scarcity and the demand it creates. There are a lot of great analogies, but professional sports is a good one.

There are a huge number of prospective players, and a finite number of teams/spots. This scarcity, and abundance of demand creates competition among those prospective players, pushing the cream to the top (unless you're in Detroit).

If you created 100 more teams, every Joe Schmoe could get some playing time. Would you really want to watch football then? How many games, watching horribly out of shape wannabees, could you watch before you burned out of the sport all together?

Re: Why Non-Standard Ads Should Be The Exception Not the Rule

Jeremy Sanchez — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:33:04 -0000

This post is spot on. I was just having a conversation with a designer a couple of days ago about how, if abused, these new formats are going to be a UX nightmare. In a lot of ways the giant pushdown ads are worse than popovers and interstitials. At least those are modal and can be dismissed.

It seems like a no-brainer to me that the higher CTRs are fleeting. Like Kevin said, as soon as publishers start to treat these placements as commodities, and we see them filled by the freecreditreport people, those numbers will certainly take a dive.

I like what some properties (like Pandora) are doing with integrated creative, but standardization of these larger ad sizes is almost a tacit endorsement for their abuse. Why innovate when you can get a gigantic above the fold placement.

Re: Why Non-Standard Ads Should Be The Exception Not the Rule

Kevin Skobac — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:38:09 -0000

There are a lot of great thoughts here. I agree that brands and properties need to tread lightly and with respect. If larger ad-space drives more interesting creative and less ad-clutter, then it seems like a good experiment worth testing. I love the Pandora model with 1 integrated creative only around the player at any given time, but I know Pandora is a specific case (BTW Pandora performs very well). The work that Apple has done with these ownerships has been fantastic, in terms of subtle but interesting creative (I'm thinking of the Washington Post ad where the guy climbed the ladder). However, I don't want to see sites overrun with large bland ads all of the time, where I can barely focus on the content I'm there to digest (I agree with some of your ideas on regulating this).

Mashable is trying something interesting. They're reducing the number of ads per page, and (supposedly) being more picky about which advertisers they allow target their community. Through this they expect to provide more value to their users, generate higher CTR's, and be able to increase CPM's.

One personal peeve - I kind of hate push-down ads.

Re: Why do we waste our time (and why you should do the same)

Recambiant Marketing — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:46:53 -0000

This kind of thinking is exactly why I would love to work with guys like you...

Re: Usability, Everyone Get Involved

Kevin Skobac — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:23:52 -0000

For the last two mornings, I've arrived at Starbucks to get my cup of coffee around 9AM, the busiest time for the store, what I usually try to avoid. Each morning, the branch owner has come into the store and gotten at the end of the line like a regular customer. He waits through the whole line, timing the experience on a stop watch, watching the behaviors of the customers in line, and watching how his workers handle the crowd. This seems like an interesting active study in user experience not on the web but in a physical market. He sees how efficiently his environment is able to convert customers, where there is drop off (customers leaving) and where he is encouraging return (people buying more each morning) or lack of (people frustrated that might not come back). Presumably he meets with his management team to work on refining the user experience based on this observational feedback.

Re: Why do we waste our time (and why you should do the same)

Tanayia — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:58:38 -0000

Thanks for this! I'll re-read this when I start get discouraged as a blogger. Just confirms that even if you have a brilliant idea that it usually still takes time for it to reach mass appeal, and all that really matters is that the geeks like it :)

Re: The Era of 2-Way Communication With Media And Brands

Kevin Skobac — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:35:46 -0000

"12 Seconds", like "140 characters", requires such minimal commitment from consumers that it liberates them to just get a quick point out without stress. It's a great avenue for feedback, for ideas, etc. I would love to see brands ask "give us your 12 second thought" everywhere, even out in the world. I'd love to see one of the workers in Starbucks carry Flip cams and offer to record anyone's 12-second thought on the brand, on their store, etc - right as they're living the experience.

Re: The Era of 2-Way Communication With Media And Brands

Jim Crews — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:24:33 -0000

There is no denying the impact twitter has had on short form citizen hyper-journalism as well as providing a dead simple (and free) way for brands to interact with consumers. How do the short form and mobile video services get involved from a brand perspective?

Does Kelloggs have cereal eaters upload 12seconds.tv clips on what topping they like most on their morning cereal?

Re: Media Buyers It’s Your Turn

kevin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:37:51 -0000

This is great advice. I speak with website sales reps every day that are coming to me with relaxed rules and restrictions on buying, as well as cut rates. Previously, untouchable (due to cost) things like homepages are being sold half-day, or at steep discount if you have flexibility on which day you'd like to run. package deals can get you big discounts as well. Placements that used to require full sponsorship are now being opened up to smaller buys. Video inventory is now pacing with demand, allowing price on premium video to fall. This is the time to work with partners and push that you need more value for your spend.

Re: Yahoo! Rich Ads for Search Misses the Point

Ricky — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:57:43 -0000

Agree as well, considering the pharma space with its challenges of changing their brand pages often to allow video content, this could allow them to provide video content without revising their deep linking, search copy or brand site often. But it comes down to dollars and cents.

Re: Yahoo! Rich Ads for Search Misses the Point

Dan — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:13:24 -0000

@ Kevin- I completely agree the price terms need to be negotiated for this product to make sense. In this economic climate, there will certainly be discounts galore (who's pays rate card prices anyway)

As far as 'poaching' organic clicks, I disagree here. This product allows for taking over the majority of real-estate on the SERP page and it's important to understand that organic results for branded terms usually send searches to the company homepage (ie, you are at the mercy of the search engine to determine your landing page with organic results). Paid Search and this product, allow you as an advertiser to control where the user is directed post-click. This could work for promotions, special events, sales, super bowl commercials, etc.

Since they are positioning this product as a flat monthly fee, it shouldn't matter how many clicks are driven to this product or the organic results.

I potentially see this working for movie studios that can negotiate multiple movies for a set fee. They could show trailers which would yield tremendous CTRs and user experience (for the engine) searching for these movie titles would be extremely strong.

If they could somehow eliminate competitors from appearing all together for branded terms this might be something I'd be interested in. But again, this kinda defeats the almighty auction-based model that works oh so well...

Re: 7-Eleven Fails With Online Execution

AVC — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:30:20 -0000

Definitely an interesting strategy by 7-eleven by not making their ad's clickable. I worked on a similar initiative with a client that ran a homepage ad on one of the top 3 portals for an alcohol brand and the ad was not clickable. On one end yes their objective was brand awareness and with well over 350K users viewing the ad in one day you are certaintly gaining awareness but at what cost?
Most consumers in my experience want to learn more if they see something of interest so why not facilitate that process by letting them click-through to your site? In my opinion there are only gains to be had and new consumers to be captured.

Re: 7-Eleven Fails With Online Execution

Jim Crews — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:31:08 -0000

Sorry kevin - more let downs. You can see here in their yellowpages listing that the number used in the ad is one of their actual listed numbers.

Re: 7-Eleven Fails With Online Execution

Kevin Skobac — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:13:12 -0000

Interesting story! I hope they're using a dedicated phone number for their online ads (which are acting as print ads). This way, they can track how many calls come in from out of state, and how many leads fall flat. It's ridiculous that 7-Eleven used digital media so poorly, and it's ridiculous that Yahoo! couldn't give them better support in doing a hyper-local digital campaign.

Re: Product Strategies to Stem the Erosion of Ad Rates

Mike Bohn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:42:05 -0000

I agree Val, advertisers are certainly looking for greater efficiencies in this market.

I do think though, that if a business can develop and refine a product that meets a specific user need, they'll attract a unique audience that can't be found elsewhere.

I've found that if you can attract that kind of unique audience, the value is inherent, and surfaces through increased engagement, click-through, conversion rates etc. Networks tend to have a tougher time competing with that kind of relevance and effectiveness.

Re: Product Strategies to Stem the Erosion of Ad Rates

mccubcakes — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:12:58 -0000

and advertisers want to pay those bargain bin prices, especially with the thinning media spends - it's hard to show the value of that premium inventory when you can get it elsewhere...at a lower cost...