A Multi-Channel Marketing Approach – Closer to Reality than Online Advertisers Think

Three to five years ago, as the digital marketing landscape was rounding into form, a very popular phrase amongst agencies, online marketers, publishers and ad networks was “the multi-channel approach”. The concept was that advertisers should not evaluate their marketing efforts in a silo based on data from one particular channel, but rather, they should look at their efforts across platforms as part of a whole; with each marketing channel being individual brushstrokes that together make up a larger canvas.  In today’s fragmented marketing world, has anyone been able to achieve this concept?

A multi-channel marketing approach in 2011 means that advertisers are utilizing every delivery platform and channel available to reach their target audience at various stages of the purchase funnel. I would argue that until recently, the real promise of “multi-channel marketing” was somewhat unfulfilled. In the U.S., while mobile advertising has been talked about for years, the proliferation of smart phones and tablets has enabled marketers to truly engage with consumers on mobile. Likewise, one could argue that social media was more hype than substance for advertisers until the past year or so, with marketers realizing that they needed to engage people where they were spending most of their time…on Facebook.  Video has also taken hold in recent years, to be sure, thanks to increased bandwidth and some engaging content distribution outlets like Hulu and YouTube. One would be remiss in a conversation about multi-channel marketing to leave out search, or traditional platforms like outdoor, print, TV and radio. Those all factor into a balanced portfolio of marketing strategies, much like a good investment portfolio.

Astute readers would point out the one constant hurdle to properly evaluating a multi-channel approach: attribution. Our Co-CEO covered this very point at a recent conference. Attribution…how does an advertiser properly “credit” the impact that each prong in your marketing strategy provides?

The question can’t easily be answered without more information. Certain media channels are more track-able than others. Also, perhaps the goals of an advertiser are not tied up in specific tracking of a campaign. If you put a billboard up on the Sunset Strip or in Times Square you will not be able to back that spend into a measurable ROI. Likewise, many off-line formats do not offer the tracking capabilities that most digital media do.  So for purposes of this discussion, we will focus on the promise of a well-diversified digital media strategy that seeks to reach people at the various stages in the conversion funnel.

Why is a multi-channel digital advertising approach more important today than ever?  Because it addresses one of the biggest obstacles for today’s marketer: the intense audience fragmentation that is likely an irreversible trend nowadays. Think about your own life and what you consume: you likely carry around a Blackberry or mobile device for both phone and email access; you probably watch a handful of videos a day; you certainly conduct searches on Google, Yahoo or Bing; there’s a good chance you visit Facebook or another social network daily, both online and via your mobile device; and finally, you may consume music via your iPhone, or books via an iPad or Kindle.

This doesn’t even take into consideration listening to your satellite radio driving home from work, or flipping the TV on after dinner, or reading a magazine prior to bedtime.

In the course of one day, consumers come into contact with – conservatively – 7-8 major media channels. All of which signal tremendous opportunity for advertisers wishing to reach their fragmented audience. Each day we see with our own clients what a successful multi-channel approach can do. Quite frankly, it is the only way to reach and influence consumers throughout the various stages of the marketing funnel:  brand awareness, consideration, preference, purchase, and loyalty.  Integrated marketing plans across mobile, social, video, online display, search and affiliate channels ensures that you are reaching your audience comprehensively, yet also through very targeted means with measurable ROI. It simply gives you, the advertiser, a greater chance to influence and succeed. If you are advertising online and only considering, or currently working with partners who can provide access to one or two channels, you’re limiting the influence you will have on your intended audience and failing to achieve the full efficiency from your advertising spend.  You are also falling behind your competitors that are thinking much more holistically.

Don’t leave blank spots in your marketing “canvas” by failing to implement a comprehensive multi-channel approach that includes strategy, execution, and measurability.

Chris Pirrone – EVP & GM, Premium Display, Traffic Marketplace

The Importance of Corporate Culture – One Year Later

Last year around this time, I penned an article for iMedia Connection which got quite a bit of commentary, pingbacks and responses. The article cited examples specifically from Zappos, who was a subject of the featured piece in our company’s monthly print publication. What I attempted to do in that article was outline a handful of core beliefs or qualities that could be applicable – and crucial – to most any business nowadays, including setting the right values, having the right people, treating people well, managing more like a coach than a boss, and having your culture fit the business or industry you are in.

One year later, I’d like to tackle another topic which is related to a company’s overall business success: what happens when two separate business cultures merge or combine.

The reason this is an important topic is because we are seeing it more and more every month, especially in the interactive space. Companies are merging or acquiring other companies at a pretty rapid pace. For every “major” merger or acquisition which combines very recognizable companies or brands, like Aol & Huffington Post for instance, there are dozens of other smaller combinations most of us never hear about in the mainstream press.

The forecast by most pundits is that this dynamic and rapid pace of consolidation won’t change any time soon.

If true, one of the major things businesses will have to deal with is the merging of corporate cultures. The formal word for it is “integration”. Companies will be looking to answer the question “how do we most effectively integrate the efficiencies of each organization and positive aspects of their cultures with one another?”

Well, in the time since I wrote last year’s article, a lot has happened: my company conducted a major acquisition in May 2010. Epic Media Group now operates several business units, including Traffic Marketplace and most recently EpicSocial. At the time, our acquisition target was relatively similar to Epic, in terms of business and industry (it wasn’t like we were a consumer package goods company buying a publishing company), yet, with two very different and distinct corporate cultures, management styles, and geographies. The new entity was able to back up our “Best Places to Work” accolades from 2009 with the same in 2010, so we did something right. But, in general, what should newly-combined entities always focus on? I list for you five things from my observations and experience that might help:

If you think you’re communicating often enough across the company, multiply it. One of the toughest things to integrate comes in the form of communication outlets and platforms. Some companies have weekly newsletters or utilize an Intranet for internal communications. Some have regular “All-Hands” sessions. Some do communications a little more informally. It is important to take quick stock of what has worked best in the past, how employees respond to different types of communications, and where past communications may have faltered or been ineffective. Not sure what may be effective? Why not ask your employees? Do a quick anonymous survey and ask them how they would like the new company and upper management to communicate with them. If you heeded last year’s advice from my column and have the right people in the right places, you’ll get constructive answers from them.

Pay attention to offices outside headquarters. In our case, and I’d imagine even more so with other companies which come together, the number of satellite offices outside of headquarters can dramatically increase. Think about what has the potential to happen to culture when the number of operating offices doubles or even triples. It is important to pay as much attention to people at other offices as the people working at the headquarters (with in-person visits, electronic communications, video conferences and the like).

Speaking of location, leverage new geographic opportunities for staff. This is something I think that is important for high-achieving staff and employees: the opportunity to spend more time in a different location, or to relocate. In our case, where it was merited and warranted, we had people move from LA to New York, New York to San Francisco, and New York to London just to name a few. Not only should these types of changes enhance business, communication and culture, they show an ability for companies to be flexible and be constantly adapting – which is especially important if you’re in any type of interactive or fast-moving, sales-focused industry.

Embrace different styles. Often, when companies and cultures come together, it is a terrific opportunity to embrace different styles or different perspectives. Sometimes, without even realizing it, we all become creatures of habit. Injecting new people and new cultural ideologies into day to day business can be incredibly invigorating and effective. Embracing differences can actually be a good thing when harnessed properly, accepted and fostered.

Have reasonable expectations. This is probably the most difficult one, because when companies come together it is for a reason. The stakeholders believe it will be a “1+1=3” equation. Because of this, the pressure is high to integrate cultures and workforce quickly and effectively. Understand that corporate combinations are tough; perhaps the most difficult thing in business to actually accomplish well. Effective integrations don’t happen magically and don’t happen in three months. Set the right expectations for yourself and for your company, and you will come to see that it is a process – not a quick outcome – which can and should be illuminating.

– Mike Sprouse, Chief Marketing Officer

Ad:Tech NYC – Thank You!

We would like to thank all our clients and partners that attended Ad:tech New York. You all helped make the show a great success for Epic Media Group! We look forward to seeing you in April, in San Francisco.

For those who missed out, Mediapost did a nice little write-up about Epic’s client event hosted at Hudson Terrace. You can read about it here. We’re proud to continue setting the standard for events in the industry.

A packed house!

A fun time had by all!

Kelly, we’re glad you made it in time for the White Castle delivery!

Always a big hit!

Epic Media Group Q&A on AdExchanger

Be sure to check out the in-depth Q&A with Epic’s Art Shaw posted on Adexchanger.com. You can click here to view it.

Increasing Social Media Engagement & ROI

A few months ago, our social media arm, tmpSocial, announced the acquisition of Social Suitcase thereby extending our platform and capabilities into an industry-leading position. Since then, you have heard relatively little about our expansion, which was by design. If you follow the social media industry even remotely closely, you know that there is a barrage of companies out there promising the next, biggest advancement in social media monetization and engagement. Publishers are left wondering what is real and what is fiction, what works and what doesn’t, who is reputable and who is not.

Sometimes, it is “all bark and no bite” in our industry, and we wanted to wait until we had actual tangible products launched that publishers were actually using, data from those launches, and success stories before you heard from us again.

Well, that time is now.

Over the past four years, before it even became fashionable, we were doing extensive research into the best practices on how to generate additional revenue from millions of gamers and users via alternative payment methods like toolbars, video views, application installs, and other high-touch engagement campaigns. How best can publishers monetize their audience? What we found set the basis for what we have built – our “suitcase”, if you will, of offerings.

We currently have seven tools built and running with great success already: Ultrawall, BrandBox, BrandCast, BrandPop, JSON/XML feeds, a Soft Offer Tool (Video and Application installs only) to create Offer of the Day implementations, and Brand Display (traditional display advertising within high-quality static branded inventory). Instead of launching one tool, we wanted to allow publishers to integrate many points of contact for interacting within a virtual economy.

Our results thus far have been impressive and we have made some major findings backed up by real data. For instance, the softer the offer, the more direct messaging to the user, the higher the likelihood of scaling the monetization rates of those users. We have paid publishers hundreds of thousands of dollars from just soft inventory like video views and application installs which have a much better rate of engagement. The takeaway is that multiple placements and direct integration of tools increase overall conversion rates and monetization.

One recent case study provides even more insight: an application install within a standard offer wall typically yields a 24% click to conversion rate. With an average of 20-40 cents, depending on the geography of the offer, a publisher with 100,000 DAUs could expect to convert this offer around 2,400 times in the first day. The exact same offer, directly integrated above a flash gaming unit or within the game flow which directly hits the user’s vision, will convert at a whopping 89% from each click. That is almost a 4x boost in overall monetization. In addition, these tools are much less likely to produce fraud and customer service issues because of their soft nature.

While this is only one of many examples, it shows the value of creating unique placements that blend into game play as a way to extract higher lifetime values from your user base. Data and success stories like this are a major reason why we are so focused on application installs and video views; they are becoming the hottest thing within the virtual currency marketplace and is a major focus for us and an example of our unique knowledge and tool set.

Earlier this year, as we sought to expand our capabilities, ABC News did a segment on us. When we initially announced the expansion of tmpSocial, we were humbled by the buzz we got. Now, we’ve been listening to all of our clients and partners telling us there is a need for real products that offer real results, not just hollow promises backed up by flimsy products.

We have some very interesting expansion plans for our tool set in the next three months offering more integration points to monetize your audience. Stay tuned! We look forward to serving our current and future social clients in the months ahead.

Jason Beckerman, Vice President of Social Strategy

Ad Networks: The Next Generation

In a recent post, we at Epic Media Group predicted the interactive marketing industry will consolidate somewhat in the months ahead. In that post, we had purposely used terms like “interactive marketing industry” and “digital marketing services companies” instead of “ad networks.” Today, we are addressing what ad networks look like now, and what they will look like in the future.

For a few years, certain industry pundits and followers have claimed ad networks would become irrelevant over time. Since our business has been categorized as an ad network, we certainly didn’t believe that and concrete industry data refutes this as well. In fact, old school ad networks have given rise to much more comprehensive digital marketing services companies that are deeper than the traditional ad network of a few years ago.

As we and other industry experts have stated, the interactive marketing ecosystem is cluttered and this chart exemplifies this point. The chart is useful as a snapshot showing all the various service providers and types of services in the chain; however it is also somewhat outdated in terms of what many of these companies are striving towards and are currently delivering for advertisers and publishers in practice today.

Speaking only for Epic Media Group and Traffic Marketplace, I can tell you we don’t consider ourselves just an ad network by the traditional definition. Sure, there is a major piece of our business that is driven by a network effect, meaning we leverage tremendous scale and reach for advertisers and agency partners by garnering distribution via dozens of safe, targeted, high-value publishers simultaneously rather than one-to-one. However, to say that’s all we are is incredibly short-sighted. Referring again to the ecosystem chart above, we could be categorized within mobile networks, performance-based networks, rich media networks, yield optimizers, DSP’s, and creative optimizers. Not to mention what we’re doing in brand protection; technology, RTB (real-time bidding) and our platform; emerging media; and across specific verticals.

While it’s easy to analyze the companies that support the industry by putting them into buckets, it can be inaccurate. Modern interactive marketing companies are a lot more strategic – and diversified – than the ad network of even a few years ago. This does not diminish the value of running massive networks; it simply doesn’t tell the whole story of what some intermediaries provide or are focusing on strategically.

Consider one definition of an ad network: “a company that connects advertisers to web sites and publishers that want to host advertisements.” If that’s all it is, you can see why hundreds of ad networks were born over the last several years.

We have stated before that the lines are blurred in the interactive marketing space unlike any other medium. People and industry experts like to analyze things in nice, neat buckets. Offline, there are direct response advertisers and publishers at one end; brand advertisers and premium publishers at the other; and there is a one-to-one relationship between advertiser and publisher in most cases.

Online, it just isn’t the same simple model, yet analysts like to put together charts such as the one linked to above with service providers lumped into specific buckets. The reality is that there will likely never be a one-to-one advertiser/publisher relationship in interactive marketing. But is it accurate to say that there are, by my count, 22 potential other parties in the advertising chain? No, but it looks great on a PowerPoint slide. New, digital marketing services companies are already performing many of the functions niche companies serve today – under one roof, no less.

The strongest ad intermediaries have businesses today that look like a good investment portfolio. They are well-diversified and bring a host of solutions to their advertising and agency clients. To some extent, they’re a one-stop-shop which was the goal of the formation of Epic Media Group. A few other companies have followed this strategy as well. Using the financial services analogy, a good intermediary’s portfolio is data-driven, squeaky clean from a compliance and brand protection standpoint, focused on technology and expansion of one’s platform, and possessing an eye toward forming long-term partnerships.

The ideal portfolio digital marketing services companies must provide to advertising clients includes in no particular order: 1) generating scale; 2) the ability to run ads on a number of devices and platforms; 3) targeting ads based on the distribution type (display, search, social, etc); 4) protecting their brands; 5) optimizing campaigns utilizing technology and real-time bidding capabilities; and do all of this on a global scale. While a network effect may be underlying a few of these items, it is not the sole thing companies who support the interactive marketing space nowadays hang their hats on; it’s much broader and more comprehensive.

It is a fair assumption to claim that there are many ad networks still out there based on the old definition, and still provide some value in that capacity. But, there are a handful of companies that go beyond that and are considered the next generation of Ad Networks. For those who believe things like RTB are replacing the ad networks of old, it is actually the networks themselves which are doing so.

Michael Sprouse is the Chief Marketing Officer for Epic Media Group.

Ad Networks and Demand-Side Platforms

The interactive ad industry is widespread with buzzwords, catchphrases and acronyms. Which new, abbreviated, “next gen” solution will unleash its “game changing” power on the digital marketing landscape? Will Demand Side Platforms (DSP) rule this brave new world? At Epic Media Group, we don’t believe so. With information moving so quickly, it is no surprise that there are so many opinions and a great deal of confusion. Hot topics like data, transparency, real-time bidding (RTB), trading desks, and search re-targeting further complicate the industry landscape for most industry onlookers rather than simplify it – fueling circular conversations that last for months.

Demand Side Platforms are making noise, sure, but just like a trendy new band, the sound may be different to your ear. Simply put, a new genre does not make all previous genres irrelevant. In fact, if you deconstruct the name Demand Side Platform it becomes far less complex than it seems. As our CMO, Mike Sprouse, recently pointed out on this blog, advertisers want online advertising to be simpler and we think that will begin happening in the near future. Simplification begins with our industry’s acronyms.

The term “platform” – a word we use a lot at Epic Media Group – means a plan of action, scheme or design. Platform is also defined as a raised, level surface – like a train platform or a stage. Technically speaking, it is a hardware architecture and framework that allows software to run.

Strong platforms should be designed to support all of a company’s business channels, allow for cross-channel functionality, and leverage massive amounts of data and data analytics to deliver advertiser campaigns across all channels. The “P” in DSP references the capability to place bids, in real time, for impressions available on inventory exchanges with a user interface that provides some degree of reporting. A strong technology platform must encompass a lot of things and is an integral part of any ad intermediary’s business.

“Demand-Side” is just another way of saying Advertiser-Side. So a DSP simply provides access to a technology set designed to serve the demand or advertiser side of the business. In other words, DSP’s focus on the advertisers’ goals, which is precisely what companies like Traffic Marketplace concentrate on.

The difference between the top ad networks and Demand Side Platforms is that networks buy inventory directly from publishers that – in our case through a very stringent, in-house compliance process – are then cleared as “brand safe”. Demand Side Platforms buy inventory largely from the exchanges…the very place where advertisers previously forbade the networks from running their campaigns due to concerns about (you guessed it) brand safety.

By definition, the top networks are considered Demand Side Platforms in practice and have been for years. The primary differences are: 1) How the inventory is sourced and 2) the inventory source itself. The top ad networks are an integral part of today’s display advertising ecosystem and are constantly undergoing measures to boost their capabilities.

Be looking for our next blog post in a few weeks which will debunk myths about top networks and explain why these companies are no longer simply “ad networks” by the traditional definition.

Charlie Black
General Manager & Strategic Development – Platform; Epic Media Group

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the Epic Media Group’s new blog home. On May 18, 2010, Epic Advertising and Connexus Corporation announced our merger as well as the new company brand name of Epic Media Group. Beginning in July 2010, all new blog posts will be right here. To look back at the archives, simply go here. Please continue to come back to this blog for news about the company, thought leadership posts and insight from company executives! Every two weeks (on Wednesdays) we will be posting content if not more frequently. 4EP8MWJC3EEA