Friday, April 27, 2012 | Edited by Daniel Moores
Integrated Marketing Ideas from the CBS Radio Altitude Group

Rich Lobel, EVP of the CBS Radio Altitude Group, spoke on an RAB-produced panel at the NAB Show in Las Vegas recently. He began by quoting Richard Branson: "If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less."

Rich went on to share ideas, philosophies, and tips on creating integrated marketing ideas for advertisers. He takes integration beyond integrated media. He also talks about integrated content. Hear highlights of his comments in this 13-minute video.

(Source: John Potter, VP/Training, RAB)
'Viewability' Better Than Clicks to Measure Online Ads

Continuing to lose face among marketers, new research shows that clicks and total impressions are far from the best way to measure online conversions.

Rather, new findings from comScore and Pretarget -- both of which market ad targeting services -- show a stronger correlation between ad "viewability" and hover time, and conversion rates.

The findings indicate that the traditional way of buying mass impressions and hoping for conversions; i.e., "spray and pray," is not the most effective approach, according to Kirby Winfield, senior vice president, corporate development at comScore.

"It once again demonstrates the perils of relying on click-throughs for measuring the performance of display ad campaigns, with this metric showing virtually zero correlation with total conversions," Winfield said.

To arrive at these initial findings, the "intent targeting" specialists at Pretarget analyzed 263 million impressions over nine months across 18 advertisers in numerous verticals. Pretarget then used comScore validated Campaign Essentials to collect "viewability," and hover data and a Demand Side Platform (DSP) to collect click and cookie-based conversion data.

Pretarget performed a Pearson correlation analysis of the data, including gross impressions, "views" -- 75% of ad within screen, either above the fold or after scrolling -- time in-view, hover/engagements and total hover/engagement time, clicks and conversions.

"This study shows why other non-click metrics of engagement, such as interaction or hovering, may be much more important in evaluating campaign performance than the click ever was," Winfield added. "It's time to start measuring the impact of campaigns using metrics that really matter, not just the ones that are most easily measured."

According to Winfield, traditional display ad impression measurement and reporting simply verifies the number of ads that were sent by an ad server to a user's browser. For a variety of reasons, this way of counting impressions does not ensure that the ad was ever rendered within a browser.

In addition, ads can load below the fold, which means that most users will probably never see the ad unless they scroll down. In the worst cases, some ads load within 1x1 pixels and therefore never render as viewable impressions.

The results showed that ad hover/interaction (correlation = 0.49) and viewable impressions (correlation = 0.35) had the highest correlation with conversion, while gross impressions (correlation = 0.17) was significantly lower.

Perhaps most interestingly, clicks (correlation = 0.01) had the lowest correlation with conversion, far under-performing all other metrics analyzed in the study. These findings suggest that advertisers and media planners ought to break their addiction to clicks and instead look to more meaningful metrics for evaluating campaign performance.

The Pretarget analysis supports several third-party studies with consistent conclusions, Winfield noted.

MediaMind "2009 Benchmark Report" released in July 2010 found that "on average, increasing Dwell (hover) from 5% to 15%, increases conversion rate by 45%, from 0.4% to 0.6%." Also of note, Casale Media's 2011 "Ad Visibility Report," found that "ads appearing above the fold were 6.7x more effective at generating conversions than those appearing below the fold."

Pretarget previously found that approximately 89% of display ads on its network load above the fold or appear after a user scrolls down, creating an opportunity for a user to see the banner.

(Source: Online Media Daily, 04/24/12)
Local Online Radio Looks Strong in 2012

According to the first edition of its quarterly Investing In Radio Market Report, BIAKelsey reports over-the-air local radio station revenues in 2011 reached $14.1 billion, a 0.4% increase from the year before. Radio's online revenues increased 15.1% in 2011, reaching $439 million.

The report anticipates online revenues in 2012 will continue to grow at a fast pace, becoming an important portion of station income. Overall radio industry revenues are expected to reach $14.6 billion in 2012, a 3.5% rise over last year, bolstered by the national election. Online radio ad revenues will grow from $505 in 2012 to $767 million in 2016.

Mark Fratrik, vice president and chief economist, BIA/Kelsey, says "...the industry always picks up steam in an election year...news stations, in particular, continue to be leaders in many markets by creating comprehensive over-the-air and digital portfolios...to drive deeper advertiser engagement and prove their value..."

The study shows the wide variations between some markets and identifies several small and mid-size areas that were able to distinguish themselves in 2011.
  • Portland, Maine, market had the largest increase in revenues over 2010, with $25.4 million, or 22.8%
  • Worcester, Massachusetts, posted a 15.8% increase, with $12.9 million in revenue
  • Ann Arbor, Michigan, a 10.5% increase with $6.1 million in revenue
  • Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where revenue grew to $45.3 million, a 9.9% increase over 2010
(Source: The Center for Media Research, 04/20/12)

Daily Sales Tip: Successful Cold Calling

Five thoughts:

1. Do lots of research: LinkedIn, Jigsaw, press release, etc. Do not call someone unless you have background info.

2. Keep it short on the phone. Push for a face-to-face meeting.

3. Don't ask insincere questions in an initial calll; e.g., "How are you today?" I find it hard to avoid doing this. It just feels polite.

4. Make sure you know exactly what you are trying to accomplish and the steps to get there. Gently steer the conversation toward your goals. Don't wait for the prospect to take you there.

5. Don't get discouraged. I used to make 100 phone calls for every 2 people I got on the line. Eventually the law of large numbers will catch up with you and you will find the right person with the right need.

Source: Nate Potter, Senior Account Manager, Honeywell

1-800-232-3131 | www.rab.com | To unsubscribe, CLICK HERE and enter REMOVE in the subject line.