Influx Insights Tag Feed: online

what's happening to your online plan?

Influx Insights — 2008-02-12T22:17:22Z

According to some recent research from Starcom, your online plan might be up in flames, that's because just 6% of users are accounting for 50% of clicks.

These "Natural Born Clickers" just seem to love those banners and seem to be clicking way more than any other member of the population.

The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

I thought online was going to save us, now it just looks like its created another problem.

What's going to happen when the people you want, don't watch and don't click?

Posted by Ed Cotton

broad utility in a banner

Influx Insights — 2008-01-11T10:59:25Z

Federated Media has spent some time educating the ad industry on the power and potential of blogs and their authors.

Recently, they've been developing content that goes beyond the banner and utilizes their blog network. An interesting example of this is a recent campaign for Toshiba laptops that's been running on the FM Network, sites like Boing Boing.

It's a simple banner that allows you to ask a laptop question and get a reponse from experts or the community in general. The linkage to the brand's positioning is through the notion of "experts", Toshiba being the laptop experts.

Browse around the site and you will find answers to all kinds of laptop questions and importantly, they don't all "plug" Toshiba laptops.

It's an interesting idea and a good example of going beyond the banner to create a branded utility.

My only criticism of the idea is about its uniqueness. The problem for Toshiba is the web is awash with tips and advice for laptop owners or prospects, it's a hard area to "own".

However, the idea of link ad content to expert content is a really smart one and it's just a matter of time before someone does something amazingly creative and useful by linking the two together.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the data rich, online world

Influx Insights — 2007-11-22T20:08:15Z

Valve, the makers of the game Half-Life , are sharing all kinds of stats on their web page.

One of the most interesting are the "death maps" which show the locations, on certain game maps, where most players get shot (as heat).

It's just one example of how rich and detailed information can be streamed and used to create a better undertstanding, based on real behaviors.

Via Super Collosal

Posted by Ed Cotton

online video is mass media for the young

Influx Insights — 2007-07-26T09:51:38Z

Pew’s latest report on online video consumption is an interesting read. It shows that although viewing is starting to mainstream (57% of all internet users have watched video online), it’s still got some ways to go to become a major challenger to traditional media (only 19% watch online video every day).

However, it’s clear that some of the impact needs to be explored by demographics. The younger 18-29 year old age group is simply a lot more engaged with over 70% having ever watched and 31% doing it every day.

There is so much video content online and people are watching a wide range of types of material, but news and comedy stand out, with comedy being the most popular for young adults. Ads rate surprisingly high in the list, just below sports and politics.

In terms of behavior with online video, it’s the young leading the way again, they are simply way more active with 67% of 18-29 year olds sending links compared to 45% of 50-64 year olds and 23% of 18-29 year olds rating video compared to just 4% of 50-64 year olds.

The Pew report indicates that online video is clearly here to stay and amongst young adults has established itself firmly as a mass media on the menu of media they actively consume and participate in.

Quite simply, every advertiser with an 18-29 demo should be using online video. How they creatively breakthrough is another challenge.

It remains to be seen if initiatives like the recent YouTube political debates can take online video behaviors to a broader demographic base.

Posted by Ed Cotton