ScribeMedia.Org: The Business, Technology and Culture of Digital Media » Naked Media http://www.scribemedia.org Intelligent Debate. Passionate Media. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:30:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en © pubs@scribemedia.org () pubs@scribemedia.org() Intelligent Debate. Passionate Media. The Business, Technology and Culture of Digital Media pubs@scribemedia.org No no http://www.scribemedia.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg ScribeMedia.Org: The Business, Technology and Culture of Digital Media http://www.scribemedia.org 144 144 Social Networking, Data Mining, Media and Privacy http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/24/social-networking-data-mining-media-and-privacy/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/24/social-networking-data-mining-media-and-privacy/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:10:00 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1733 Had the pleasure Wednesday of seeing Michael Chin of Kickapps do a (kickass) presentation in my Digital Marketing class at Baruch’s biz school. He demonstrated not only how social media centered around a brand or organization can cultivate enthusiasm (and generally give an indicator of sentiment), but also how much mineable data there is about each participant in the network. That data goes beyond the typical demographic info — zip code, age, gender and so on — into deeper direct or inferential matter about everything from the person’s preferences, lifestyle,“friends,” and even to clues about what enthuses, delights and annoys them. One avid basketball fan Chin showed, for example, had put a wealth of info about herself in reams of discussion posts, videos, comments, still photos on a team’s fan site. That’s a gold mine for that team if it chooses to access it.

Chin, at the Social Times conference (which Scribe and my company helped produce the media for) a few weeks earlier had told me that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can become a lot more than the grid-driven database systems we have today. True, powerful tools like SalesForce.com allow collaborative workers to share information and better serve (and sell and upsell) clients and potential customers. Just call a rep at your cellphone provider to see, in action, how a good customer database system can tell the person on the other end of the line all kinds of things about you that might get you to either stay happy with them or pay for more service.

But those systems pale in comparison to the kinds of data we’re giving about ourselves on personalized media like social networks and Twitter. Imagine if through some sort of Semantic Web application a company could glean information not only on what info you offered, and tags you’d left, but also the things you were passionate about, what you’d been writing and saying, asking for and complaining about. Imagine if the company could handle the complaint or fuel the delight of that passionate, highly involved (ok, “engaged”) fan — how much might she crow about you, then, an not only increase her loyalty but also help spur others into the fold?

True, it’s a lot of work. And some of the work is subtle and requires a very human touch. We don’t today have an algorithm that can mine such soft and random data in this way (though a recent Open Calais demonstration did wow me to the possibilities), and it takes a human touch to understand the not-so-fine line between delighting someone and making them feel you’ve gone over the creepy edge into invading their privacy.

And what about the cost? Chin half-jokingly bristled when I asked if he could map social media back to a return on the investment. It would take a lot of data and crunching to even try to get at whether the dollars spent mining the social info is more cost-effective than the more blunt-force forms of marketing and communication more prevalent today. Certainly, none of it lives in a vacuum, and it goes along with other messaging, so it’s next to impossible to separate out the effect. And there is, of course, more than a hint of self-serving in Chin’s remarks (use social media, and delight your customers!). But that doesn’t make his point invalid.

We can assume, be nearly sure, that the data mining, perhaps driven by Semantic Web-type applications (even a quick run through “Wordle.com” can show you the terms someone is using most, let alone the Calais system of auto-sifting) will improve and that the point at which the parsing needs to get handed over to a human will be pushed further down the line, weighted more to technology and less to the humans. It makes sense for the people at media companies — who can help mine and sell their data — social networks and marketers to think along these lines.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/24/social-networking-data-mining-media-and-privacy/feed/ First Interview on Naked Media http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/17/first-interview-on-naked-media/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/17/first-interview-on-naked-media/#comments Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:42:11 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1701 Register now.]]> Alan Schanzer, who’s leaving MEC Interaction as managing partner to become chief strategy officer at Undertone Networks will give his first in-depth interview since securing his new post. He’ll be appearing with Chris Cunningham, the CEO of Appsavvy, which just received $3.1 million in financing. Noon, Tuesday, Oct. 21.

They’ll talk about where the smart ad dollars go. Even as the economy contracts, digital media is expected to grow. But there are so many choices — so much “fragmentation” — that it can be daunting to know where to spend ad dollars to reach the right audience. Display ads on major media sites? So-called “vertical” networks? Search engines like Google? Or will everyone retrench to the “quality” brands of known media in TV, radio and print? Our guests will talk about where the smart money is headed, how to understand the ad market, when and where to spend, and take your questions.

More details here.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/17/first-interview-on-naked-media/feed/ Media Money Conference: ‘The Sky is Falling’ (Unless ….) http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/15/media-money-conference-%e2%80%98the-sky-is-falling%e2%80%99-unless/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/15/media-money-conference-%e2%80%98the-sky-is-falling%e2%80%99-unless/#comments Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:58:47 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1696 A big theme at the Media and Money conference the last two days in New York (as, no doubt, at all kinds of conferences in money capitals all over the world), was how the economic trouble is going to make things suck.

In the opening keynote — you know, that rally the troops, rah-rah session that sets the tone — Les Hinton, CEO of conference co-sponsors Dow Jones in the opening minutes mentioned the crash of 1929, the crash of 1987 (calling it “minor” compared to what’s happening now), and cracked an old Eddie Cantor joke about how buying a stock for his old age made him an old man in weeks. On the first panel, Merrill Lynch managing director Jessica Reif-Cohen said the recession would last 18 months, and since advertising is a “lagging indicator” for the economy, things in media would be bad for a quarter or two past that. And Miles Nadal, chairman and CEO of marketing communication firm NDC, quoted a CNBC commentator on the Squawk Box show as saying “we’re in a 10-15 year climate of this kind of decline” and talked of a “precipitous decline in print spend.” ContentNext research analyst and Kent State professor Lauren Rich Fine said media will underperform the GDP in coming years because the profligacy of content will keep ad rates from rising.

Of course, many of the folks talked about why THEY were in position to do well during the downturn. Wenda Harris Millard, the president of media and co-CEO of Martha Steward Living Omnimedia, said she was glad she worked where she did, because of the strength of their relationship with their consumers. John Squires, EVP of Time Inc, thanked Reif-Cohen for recommending their stock and said that even in down times consumers would take high-quality magazines like the ones Time Inc. produces. Dow Jones execs talked up the brand, noting demand for their high-quality business information. And nearly all the digital folks said they would keep growing because their media efforts were more measurable at a time when folks wanted proved return on advertising investments AND because there’s growing audience, and growing ad dollars, moving to online. Susan Whiting, EVP, Nielsen Company, and Chairman, Nielsen Media Research (Nielsen were the conference co-sponsors), bolstered the DJ execs’ claims, saying traffic to the online financial trading category was up 20 percent during the crisis news; WSJ.com, Yahoo finance and such were up 30 percent, and traffic to general news and information sites spiked 14 percent around the time Congress was rejecting the first bailout rescue plan.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/15/media-money-conference-%e2%80%98the-sky-is-falling%e2%80%99-unless/feed/ Google’s In-Game Advertising: Not to Be Ignored http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/08/googles-in-game-advertising-not-to-be-ignored/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/08/googles-in-game-advertising-not-to-be-ignored/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:46:36 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1649 I was asked by a reporter from CNET (where I’ve contributed) what I thought about Google’s announcement that they’re launching advertising for games. A lot’s not clear about what Google’s doing, but that they’re getting into gaming is certainly an endorsement of the platform as a place for ads, and means others will pay attention. It’s never prudent to denigrate a Google effort , any more than it is for Microsoft. (Remember how many poo-poo’d the idea of Internet Explorer being able to become a dominant browser?).
Here’s some of my quotes from the piece:
To Dorian Benkoil, the founder of Teeming Media, an online business consultancy, Google’s success at placing in-game ads, like that of its competitors, will come down to how well it is able to integrate those messages in games.

“What I’ve seen,” said Benkoil,” is that the community of gamers tend to be very vocal and emotional about anything that they find that isn’t well integrated into a game. So if Google is doing an AdSense initiative, I would hope that they would do it in a seamless way that isn’t interruptive of the gaming experience. Because if not, they would face some backlash.”

Benkoil said that his research has also indicated that in-game ads may not be as effective as those in other media. That’s because, he suggested, gamers spend a lot of time on the sites and in the games where they play, but they are deeply engaged in what they’re doing and are not very interested in looking at things, like ads, that may be a distraction.

Minor niggle: I didn’t really say “my research” but rather just conversations with media buyers and planners. I also mentioned that I teach an MBA-level digital marketing course, where we happen to have done games as a platform last lesson.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/08/googles-in-game-advertising-not-to-be-ignored/feed/ Avoiding Text Messaging Fees Via Twitter http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/02/avoiding-text-messaging-fees-via-twitter/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/02/avoiding-text-messaging-fees-via-twitter/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:19:16 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1617 A significant portion of the recent Naked Media show was on fees for mobile (cellphone) use, and how people are going directly to the Web to get video and other material rather than subscribing and paying a new fee for a subscription, on top of their data plans.
Occurred to me today that the mobile Twitter app (interestingly, link is a Blogspot blog) is a way to avoid text messaging fees. You can post to the mobile Twitter site, and hit people directly (if they follow you), and also blast the wider group. Less of a sure thing than text messages — which you can be pretty sure are consumed by those you’re sending to — but it’s a way for people to go “off-deck” for text messages, too, from their handhelds, and end-run another money maker for mobile carriers.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/02/avoiding-text-messaging-fees-via-twitter/feed/ Naked Media: Mobile (Wo)Man on the Street http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/01/naked-media-mobile-woman-on-the-street/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/01/naked-media-mobile-woman-on-the-street/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:39:50 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1604

For another of our Naked Media “Man on the Street” interviews, we went out to find out ahead of our show on mobile communication to ask how people are really using their cellphones and smartphones. And, as usual, we discovered that the average person — at least in the Wall Street district park we frequent — doesn’t use a lot of the whiz-bang stuff. That doesn’t mean, of course, they don’t love the devices.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/10/01/naked-media-mobile-woman-on-the-street/feed/ ABC’s Albert Cheng: It’s Revenue Per *Episode* http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/29/abc%e2%80%99s-albert-cheng-it%e2%80%99s-revenue-per-episode/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/29/abc%e2%80%99s-albert-cheng-it%e2%80%99s-revenue-per-episode/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:03:39 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1599 Last week, while much of the New York media zigged over to Ad Week ongoings, we zagged to San Jose, California, for Streaming Media West. There, Disney-ABC digital media EVP Albert Cheng showed off ABC TV’s new Web-based video player and said that what seems like a “closed” strategy — forcing people to watch the network’s video in its window — was really very open, because it wants to give viewers video when where and how they want, while protecting the brand. (More on that front here.)

At the same time, Cheng gave a lesson in understanding digital media revenues. While he showed a chart with advertising rates of $40-50 CPMs (cost per thousand views), and said MySpace and its ilk are much lower, he also said you have to look more holistically and figure out how to make more per episode from the Internet than TV. At ABC, he said, the gap “isn’t all that huge, not dollars to pennies, more like comparing a full-grown adult to a teenager.” “We need to fully leverage the engagement and interactivity that online offers,” he said.

And, he said, the company is not only technologically agnostic but also, if we heard correctly, “economically agnostic,” meaning as long as they make money, they’re not going to fret over what the model is. “History has taught us that businesses that leverage their strength in one medium can prosper in others,” he said.

He also said something we often whisper and shout around here: that long-form video can and will hold sway. Cheng said long form will account for 69% of viewing in 2013 vs. a much smaller sliver today. Only we don’t think that’s necessarily reruns of “Desperate Housewives” or “Dancing With the Stars.” There’s room for it all.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/29/abc%e2%80%99s-albert-cheng-it%e2%80%99s-revenue-per-episode/feed/ The Next Naked Media Show http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/the-next-naked-media-show/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/the-next-naked-media-show/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:46:55 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1557 Next Naked Media: All About Mobile. Noon ET, Thursday, Send questions, in comments.

Jerry Rocha, Senior Director of Mobile Media and Advertising at Nielsen Mobile and Bob Walczak, CEO of Ringleader Digital, a mobile advertising network, join host Dorian Benkoil for a lively discussion that will cut through the hype and buzz. (As hype-y and buzzy as that may sound.)

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/the-next-naked-media-show/feed/ Things I Learned from David Rose http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/things-i-learned-from-david-rose/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/things-i-learned-from-david-rose/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:41:18 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1556 UPDATE: David Rose makes it even better, improving on the below.

Angel investor and pitch expert David Rose was in fine form at the Shake Shack gathering this evening, holding court and telling us the key traits he tells his biz school students make an entrepreneur. They are, as I remember:

  • Integrity. The most important trait. Rose won’t give money to you if a whiff of dishonesty crosses his sensors. He’s giving you his money for your idea, and he wants to make sure it’s in the right place.
  • Passion
  • Great idea
  • Domain experience (helps if someone’s done something related before, and, perhaps, had successful business)
  • Leadership

You also need a team: sales, tech, BizDev, … and an entrepreneur, who can be one of the folks doing other function(s) on the team, someone to marshall the others — a team can’t really be bought, Rose says, and who lives, eats and breathes the stuff. Someone who is by nature that person, an entrepreneur. Someone who, if this one fails, is going to make it on the next one, or the next, or one of the ones after that and so is worth the investment because s/he’ll eventually pay off. You need 30X potential return, because only 1 of ten ventures will make it, and it has to pay for all the rest, at a rate that’s better than if you, say, put your $$ in a hedge fund.

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]]> http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/16/things-i-learned-from-david-rose/feed/ Naked Media: Mobile Media — Defining Opportunity http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/12/naked-media-mobile-media-defining-opportunity/ http://www.scribemedia.org/2008/09/12/naked-media-mobile-media-defining-opportunity/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:44:23 +0000 Dorian Benkoil http://www.scribemedia.org/?p=1539 Naked Media - Going Mobile

Photo by Gaetan Lee

Naked Media Registration

Date: September 18
Time: 12pm (aka: High Noon)
Price: Free

To register for this Webcast, please visit ScribeLive.

About Naked Media

Naked Media cuts through the bloviation, challenges the conventional wisdom and gets at real issues that provide “aha” moments for the executives who are watching and participating. You can watch past episodes here.

For years, mobile has been “the next big thing.”

In the U.S., that may finally be happening. Higher speed 3G networks have arrived, and new devices, including the iPhone, are taking advantage. Google’s Android project promises more functions, and carriers like T-Mobile say they’ll have new smart phones, including RIM’s Blackberry and others that provide everything from email to Web interactivity.

But are users really interested? And can advertisers make money? We’ll share data from Nielsen, and ask both guests tough, specific questions that will help viewers understand where the opportunities really are, and where things are going — everything from whether the iPhone and Blackberry are right for business, what content works best, and whether anyone’s got truly successful mobile video.

About the Guests

Jerry Rocha is a Senior Director of Mobile Media and Advertising at Nielsen Mobile. Having spent many years in the wireless industry, he is a recognized expert in the areas of consumer mobile applications, new media, and mobile entertainment/content.

He was responsible for the launch of several successful consumer entertainment applications while at Cingular Wireless. At Nielsen he is driving the measurement standards of mobile and converged media. Recently, he has turned his attention to Teens and Tweens — one of the fastest growing demographics in wireless.

Bob Walczak is CEO of Ringleader Digital, a mobile advertising network. He founded the company in 2005, based on his idea to serve targeted ads during the lag time experienced while mobile sites load and now oversees the company’s day-to-day operations. Ringleader’s mobile ad formats and technology platform serve ads on mobile devices. Prior to Ringleader, he most recently served as the Director of Client Services for Vertrax, a provider of location-based mapping, routing and logistics services for the energy supply industry.

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