I have been studying the whole concept behind Zynga’s recent success (Farmville, Mafia Wars etc.) and I just can’t stop thinking about how interesting it is.
Basically all of the other online games used to draw users to a social infrastructure (user accounts, social networks etc.) build on their own. The great thing about Zynga is that it targets already built social infrastructures (like Facebook, the iPhone AppStore). It lowers costs and it increases exposure and potential revenue.
What if brands would use the social networks to market products just like Zynga markets their games?
Artificial Intelligence, in the sense we hope for and expect does not exist at the moment. At least not available to the general public (there are rumors of Google, the military and others building such a thing).
It has been the dream of advertisers worldwide to communicate one-to-one to potential consumers and I assume that we are not that far from reaching it. We have the tools to build it. The general public wants it.
I expect this to be the main feature of communication worldwide (not just advertising) in the century to come.
However – limiting such a thing to just advertising, or advertising as we know it, sounds ridiculous to say the least.
Last night I was invited to debate weather online advertising is overrated. Two people representing conventional agencies (some of the best) and two representing interactive agencies. Things got a little heated, we’ve got a little carried away (Latin characters, you know…) but in the end we had not reached our conclusion.
I couldn’t help think about it all day and reached some conclusions of my own
All media serve one purpose: communication
In the end we must see the holistic view: we do it for the client. And the client has separate objectives from the agencies’ . These objectives don’t really depend on GRPs or CTRs. They depend on keeping the business growing, having a larger and more satisfied customer base and others.
We can do this for the clients using our tools. Interactive agencies work with some tools, classic agencies work with others. In the end it’s the result that counts.
All media are not created equal
TV is more popular than Internet. So are newspapers. Radio used to be there too. Therefore they get more viewers and advertising.
TV also gets more money, more influence bla bla… you get the point.
However… rarely has human kind adopted anything as fast as it did adopt the Internet. As you can see here Internet has been adopted faster than automobiles, air travel, television, cell phones … well – everything.
This has caused quite a commotion with business in general. “Man, we have this new thing, the Internet”. “What does it do?”. “Well…I am not quite sure. But everybody’s doing it”.
Companies are not yet sure of what to make of it. Should they use it? Should they ignore it? Is this “Internet Advertising” thing good or bad? What is it with this “bloggers” and such? And how come all this Google-Doogle companies are making so much money – they have no product.
But they are there. Real or not their services are accessed and used by billions. They worth billions. Media companies are shifting to internet based, on demand services. Paid or not. News Corp invested 600 millions in something it’s yet to understand and monetize.
Advertising is a concept. Subject to change.
What Ogilvy invented might not last beyond the next 50 years. What Burnett used in the eighties might not have any kind of relevance for iTV or something similar to Apple TV.
What happens when written media is electronically updated, kind of like your RSS reader? Syndicated too, just like it. What happens then to the old-school ads?
What happens when people start being the advertising agencies? Think about it. Things like affiliate marketing take out the agency and connect the publisher directly to the client.
And in the end – what if … just saying … what if someday there will be no advertising left. Just information. Created, organized, consumed by the masses?
For the next week you will be driving a remote controlled car in our Bucharest office. You only get a chance to drive it for 2 minutes than you will wait your turn again.
There has been some electronics, server side, video, flash programming there but the main idea is that you will get a chance to have some fun with us.
Using LinkedIn’s new Polls Application I started a survey regarding the Interactive Agency. Here it is. I would be thankful if you would help me with your voted opinion.
One of the ideas that keep bugging me is interactive advertising outside the “computer room”. I believe there is real potential of interacting with people on the streets, in their favorite environment, while shopping, out walking etc.
If you’re thinking privacy this is my concern too. When is “Interactive” too much? When does it turn “Stalking”? I am concerned with these questions too but I believe the current means of advertising, mass messaging outdoor commercials, mass delivered TV ads are way more intrusive and disturbing than Interactive Advertising – powered “info-mercials”.
I’ve been busy with some of the things going on in the agency.
We’re getting ready to launch a big website, the Sono campaign is doing great (the sales have doubled and the registered users are almost there too).
We have finished working on a big project, the first of it’s kind in Romania and we can’t wait to launch it in a private (I’d say exclusive) beta. We started working with a great brand as their interactive agency for strategy, creative and online media.
We will have some interesting things we’re planning, business wise, for 2009 Q1 and Q2, that will surely bring us closer to all you english speakers and iphone lovers .
We’re getting ready to start a new agency project, a new concept for online, entertaining and helpful. Stay tuned.
PS: Have I mentioned that my friend and MB Dragan’s Creative Director Alex Buga has just relaunched his blog/portfolio with a kick ass new design and layout?
“You don’t make silk purses out of saw’s ears” says an old proverb. That goes very well with interactive advertising too.
While searching for new clients look for more than financial stats. Search for a deeper understanding of the services you are providing, a good management, a professional approach to your business relationship, chemistry and others.
True story: at some point we gained a new account, a very influent company in a fast growing domain. We made an one year deal and started working. We’ve implemented a new website, with some never-before features like an intelligent search engine that would register user’s preferences and recommend offers that would match these preferences, an easy to use layout and state of the art newsletter engine and many others.
We’ve done such a good SEO job that in less than four months the main categories would rank among the first three search results.
We’ve run a successful blogvertising and rich media campaign that helped the website gain exposure. The AdWords campaign was as efficient as it gets and users would spend more than 7 minutes on the websites, looking for offers and contacting sales representatives.
Overall the new business brought in by the website had grown from less than 5% to almost 50%. The traffic grew by more than 1000% and the newsletter registrants doubled. I would call this good interactive advertising.
But…The principal was a man that didn’t quite understand this “internet mumbo jumbo”. So, when the recession stroke he decided to cut the internet spending, although he was warned that this move would cut new deals by almost half. He did it anyway.
Among other great decisions was the layoff of other important members of the company that dared to disagree with him. As we were asked to do things that would harm their company we disagreed and closed the account.
We had one last invoice to collect and as I phoned the CEO last week he too resigned his position and was now currently with another company.
So you see…you can’t make silk purses out of saw’s ears. Focus on working for people that have the business ability to distinguish between personal choices and professional ones.
I am not one of those “Internet is the only way” guys but I do believe accountable results are better than mass market messages. I believe in convergence rather than Internet revolution.
But … something spectacular is building up. I forecast a huge budget movement from TV, radio and outdoor to online. The conventional agencies feel it, the clients know it.
.