Page 40 of 85

Facebook Ready to Bring PayPal into the Walled Garden

February 19, 2010 / Andy Boyer

We’ve all seen this coming, but Facebook’s announcement earlier today that it would allow consumers and advertisers to buy ads and virtual items via PayPal, may be the latest watershed moment for Social Media.

The Wall Street Journal positions this as a move to improve International revenues, so they can “generate advertising revenue from small companies in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, where credit card use isn’t prominent.” Now, I’m sure that’s part of the reasoning, but it seems like there is something much bigger in store that the WSJ is missing.

The part of this that the WSJ glosses over is that, “Facebook said it would also allow people to purchase its own “Facebook Credit” currency through PayPal. Currently, users must give Facebook their credit cards to purchase the credits, which they can spend on virtual gifts for other people. They can also spend the credits on items made by businesses that build software for Facebook, such as gaming companies.”

I think this is the big deal here. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be that much of chasm between using your credit card to make a purchase, and using PayPal. But there really is. With this system, now all of a sudden on my Facebook profile, I can say, “I have two Mariners tix, who wants them. Price is $80 total.” A buyer could update my status and PayPal account simultaneously, and I can email my tickets over to them. So all of a sudden, Facebook becomes Craigslist, but with trusted friends instead of sketchy strangers. Sure, up to now I *could have* inserted a bit.ly link or something unnatural to the Facebook environment and allowed my profile to be a marketplace. But with the PayPal technology integrated into Facebook, it should be pretty seamless for anyone to sell goods or services from their profile.

And once we get the credit cards out of the way, we blow open micropayment opportunities. You may put a small version of a beautiful sunset picture on your Facebook page. And if I send you $.25 from my PayPal account you’ll email me the high-res version. It’s not paying your mortgage, but if 10 people do that, then your latte got paid for. We could imagine possibilities for hours.

The only odd thing is that Facebook wasn’t able to build their own version f PayPal. But since PayPal is owned by eBay, maybe this is the beginning of a tighter deal between the two companies. Go ahead and let your brain wander around the concept of an eBay/Facebook merger…

NBA Stars Give Up Community Appearances to Argue About Collective Bargaining

February 13, 2010 / Andy Boyer

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement is up after the 2010-2011 season. The players, who make unlimited amounts of money and have guaranteed contracts that last forever, are negotiating to expand or at least keep those rights with the owners who have been given billions of dollars of tax subsidies from municipalities across the country.

Meanwhile, no matter how you cook the numbers, anecdotal evidence from sportswriters across the league says attendance is down, corporate sponsorship is down, and ad spending on television is down. So somehow the NBA will have to make an argument to its TV networks that the league is more popular than ever (in order to get a huge TV contract) but also show the Players’ Union that it needs to change its contract structure (so they don’t bankrupt the league.)

Both sides will have to get public opinion on their side. So, they’ll try to fool folks into thinking they care about the community. But remember things like this when you see a “Made for TV” charity event in the future (from ESPN.com):

The sides met Friday, with negotiators for the players fortified by the presence of All-Stars such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett, who came to the meeting instead of attending the community service events they were scheduled for.

Well, I’m glad they have their priorities in line.

Olympic Dreaming

February 13, 2010 / Andy Boyer

Let’s pretend for a moment that the Olympics were about pure athleticism, the thrill of amateur athletes pursuing their dreams, and the overwhelming sentiment that we CAN all come together as one world, free of politics or finance.

Well, if that were indeed the case, instead of the reality that the IOC is a profit making money machine intent on protecting it’s global monopoly; well then the image below would actually be an embedded video player, and you’d be able to watch Olympics video from any one of the millions of blogs that would be syndicating it. Instead, this is merely a screen shot and when you click on it you’ll go to their site, so you can see a Panasonic ad banner along with your videos. <sigh>

When Social Media Goes Meta

February 12, 2010 / Andy Boyer

It doesn’t get much more meta than this. As part of a UW student’s project, in which he interviewed folks about Social Media, I got a side question about Social Media for personal brands.

So here I am, on the web site I keep to somewhat maintain my own personal brand, repurposing content from this site,which Derek uses to maintain his own personal brand, talking about why it’s important to have a personal brand.

(And a side note, apparently my personal brand is to have a huge head, tilt it at a 45 degree angle, and make funny faces at the end of videos.)

In Case You Missed the Super Bowl Parade…

February 11, 2010 / Andy Boyer

Forbes Super Bowl Ad Viewer

February 10, 2010 / Andy Boyer

Thanks to Forbes.com for putting this handy Super Bowl Ad Viewer together.

You must have Adobe Flash Player 9
or higher installed to view this content

New Ad Report – TV $ Down, Social Media $ Up

February 9, 2010 / Andy Boyer

You always have to take these kind of reports with a grain of salt, but Mediapost reports on a new Forrester Research/Association of National Advertisers survey, based on responses from 104 U.S. advertisers in 21 industries, including Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, ING, Kraft, Marriott, State Farm and Clorox. All told, they represent nearly $14 billion in media budgets.

Here are some highlights from the report, which kind of illustrates how many irrational people there are making marketing decisions:

TV marketers plan to spend 41% of their media budgets on television in 2010 — the same level as a year ago. (However, this is down from the 58% level of two years ago.)
BUT…62% percent of companies say TV ads have become less effective in the past two years due to increased advertising clutter.

So, even though 62% of the marketers admit TV ads are less effective than before, they are going to spend the same amount as last year. Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I like hanging out with ad agency folks on sound stages.”

More insight:

Virtually all advertisers believe the TV industry needs new audience metrics beyond reach and frequency; 82% of respondents would be interested in ratings for individual commercials.
BUT…While 78% are interested in targeting consumers more precisely, only 59% would be willing to pay a premium for it.

So, advertisers admit the TV spot is hard to measure. But no one wants to give up any of their media buy to improve targeting capabilities. Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I can blame the product guys if the ads aren’t working.”

80% of advertisers say future branded entertainment deals will grow. And in 2010, 38% say they will spend more on branded entertainment as an alternative to the 30-second commercial.
19% say the 30-second spot will be dead in 10 years, down from 28% a year ago.

So, advertisers want to move away from 30 second spots and into branded entertainment. But these same people think the 30 second spot will live forever.

Now the good stuff:

Social media, Web advertising and search are stealing budgets from TV and other media. Of those surveyed, 77% said they would be moving TV dollars to social media this year; 73% plan to shift money to online advertising, and 59% will be spending more on search-engine marketing and 46% on e-mail marketing. Other non-TV traditional media doesn’t seem to be part of this trend. Only 15% said they plan to increase spending in traditional media such as radio, outdoor, magazines or newspapers.

Advertisers want targeting (online advertising, email and SEM). They want stronger engagement (Social). And they don’t see much future potential in radio, outdoor, etc… The question is, do they expect lower CPM’s in these channels in comparison to TV? If they want to shift budgets to mediums where they can get a direct measurement of success, why don’t they want to force TV to do a better job of measuring?

There’s an obvious part of this survey that is missing, which illustrates how there’s still a knowledge chasm. No one asked how many of these companies are going to integrate their social and online campaigns with a TV buy. It’s obvious TV is still needed – at least for the largest 104 advertisers – to drive awareness and brand. But it’s not an either/or. These guys have the chance to use the 30 second spot to drive branded entertainment deals online, and capitalize on an engaged social audience. For me, how these 104 companies are going to integrate those campaigns is the really interesting question.