Topics for 5/16/2010 Show

Here are the proposed topics for this week's episode of The BeanCast, and as usual we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.

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This week's panel will be Jeff Cutler (Freelance Journalist), Joseph Jaffe (Powered), Erik Proulx (Please Feed The Animals) and Ken Wheaton (Ad Age).

TOPICS

Facebook Knows Where You Are: Facebook must have been saving up announcements for months, because now they're coming fast and furious. And the latest one is monumental as they enter the location-based market in a big way. As Ian Schafer of Deep Focus points out, FourSquare, the current king of the hill, has 1 million users. Facebook has 450 million and adds a million more a day. What does Facebook's play mean -- will it float all boats or sink all competitors? What's the incentive for users to participate -- there's no game and no impetus to participate right? Doesn't this acerbate an already tense situation with regulators over privacy? Facebook is obviously concerned about privacy, because CNET reported they had an all-hands over the issue of privacy this past Thursday -- are they being too reckless or even ruthless? What about this reported trend to share less detail on social nets (even the President calling for it) -- will this derail Facebook's intentions? On the good side, how valuable is this new data overlay on top of all the other data they are collecting? It occurs to me that even though this data is getting richer and richer, few advertisers know how to leverage it effectively yet -- does such a rich data source mean anything to us if we can't use it right?

Mobile Predictions Overstated?: An interesting opinion by the former CEO of Double-Click, Kevin Ryan, in last week's Wall Street Journal. Despite Google buying AdMob, Apple's iAds and all the location buzz, he feels that predictions of the potentials for mobile advertising are vastly overstated. Is he right -- will mobile ever be a dominant force? What does mobile mean these days anyway? Is Facebook or Twitter part of that equation? By all accounts promoted tweets is getting rave reviews. Is the future of mobile just an extension on existing web marketing -- is it social marketing -- what are your thoughts? What about serving ads by relevance, which is the Apple/Google play -- will this even be around in a few years?

Dire Postal Warnings: Postmaster John Potter had some ominous warnings about the state of the U.S. postal service. His claim? If changes like reducing work force and stopping Saturday delivery don't happen now, the post office won't be able to make payroll by the Fall. Is this only a problem for the direct marketers or should all agencies be concerned about this situation? I know quite a few folks associated with the DMA and the post office and they all know the business model needs to change -- so is the problem a consumer one, a government one or a mailer one?

The Inside Obstacles To New Agency Models: Adweek offer a fascinating look into the problems TBWA faced in their efforts to implement a more digitally focused agency model. Are the problems they faced typical of agencies wrestling with a digital future? Why is there such continual resistance when all the agencies know they need to change? Why are some agencies better at making this transition than others? They cited in-fighting and turf battles as major problems, but would these factors even matter if the effort was truly understood and supported by top managers?

Landing a Dream Job With Search: Finally, a young creative name Alec Brownstein is getting a lot of viral buzz for his campaign to land a new job. For a total cost of $6 he bought Google search terms for the names of five top creatives and created ads for them, knowing that they all would be Googling their own names. He got an 80% response, 40% conversion (in the form of job offers) and 100% employment. Which leads me to the question, does anybody in advertising really understand what is possible with search buys yet when something like this surprises us?

Tags: ad+age, erik+proulx, jeff+cutler, joseph+jaffe, ken+wheaton, please+feed+the+animals, powered

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Comment by Howie Goldfarb on May 15, 2010 at 9:39am: Facebook has 80 million US consumers use the service each day. (60% of users are not in the US) Your part of the Facebook fluff! Don't be, your better than that =)! 2 of 3 U.S. Consumers do not use Social Media each day.

That said 80 million is a lot. Way more than watch American Idol. But I think FB is peaking. And I notice the biggest Social Media champions all have their FB profiles on complete privacy lockdown (yes Bob, Joseph, Bill G, Angela...I did a survey) & I know a lot of people who have accounts who only go onto the site intermittently. And the level of activity for the site is very low.

Numbers are for Facebook Site Only and using the 200 million active user number vs 450mil
We click Like 9 times per month
Less than one comment per day per active user.
Becomes a Fan 4 times per month.
Updates their status once every 6 days.
Uploads 8 photos per month.
= not much engagement

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I am already prepping for the next 'bright shiny new object' (Joseph Jaffe Copyright 2010) for social networking so I can advise clients because I think its going to come faster than you think. And wait until that 14 year old with the smart phone gets stalked/attacked. It will happen. Location based makes this stuff easier (not just for Facebook). But excited to hear the discussion on this.

I am in Mobile Advertising. All that stuff you just brought up for Geo-Loc etc. That is Mobile Advertising. It includes a ton of stuff. You take your IPad somewhere and get a banner ad? That is Mobile. SMS/2-DBar Code Opt-In's- Mobile. Driving with your Google GPS that takes you down to street view where the gas station your needing shows up? Mobile. Geo-Fence so you get an alert as you drive by North Face? Mobile. So it is actually much bigger and evolving in ways that encompass a lot of types of advertising. I think it is and will be bigger than Social Media even though it will use Social Media as part of its technology.

Postal- we all hate direct mail marketing. and it works. 3% response rates blow away Digital by far. But imagine the trees that could live if we cut that biz in half.

Lastly New Agency Obstacles. You know you need to change but its hard to kill revenue streams. Like Sub Prime. The banks knew they would implode just not when...so why not ride it out. Problem is the ones that said OK we made enough lets bail in a timely manner are still around. The ones that didn't do not exist anymore. Coincidence? I think not. BUT is digital the way to go? We need traditional advertising. We still watch 97% of video on TV. I still block digital ads and paid search via Fire Fox, and we still drive and see Billboards. In fact in some cities driving around/commuting = more time than being on ones smart phone or watching TV.

Comment by Howie Goldfarb on May 15, 2010 at 9:41am: A note on Facebook. If I used 450mil the activity numbers go even lower. And since some people do a lot of activity that reduces other people. If I click Like 10 times today technically 9 people are not clicking Like even once.

Comment by Bob Knorpp on May 15, 2010 at 10:01am: Not sure I understand the USPS comments. There's no doubt that people use the mail, but there's also equally no doubt that the service as it exists is unsustainable. My questions are not whether the post office needs to survive, but more shouldn't we all be more concerned as advertisers that that the government just isn't facing reality about needed changes.

Also, the mobile stuff is broader than even location, which is my point. I think Ryan's comments are true -- mobile, as it is hyped, is not going to succeed. But mobile as part of the larger connected world will be huge. We need to stop segregating based on screen size. To a certain extent, segregating the platform is just about optimizing content to the relevant situations of mobile use of the internet and not about creating a new vertical.

Thanks for the comments, as always, Howie.

Bob

Comment by Howie Goldfarb on May 15, 2010 at 4:30pm: I agree with both your points and damn that is flipping the funnel! Now you are free to get loaded!

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Topics for 5/16/2010 Show

TOPICS

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