PardonMyFrench

Are You Still Not Using Google's Ad Planner?

I've been directing online advertising campaigns since the mid 90s for very large companies (AT&T, DLJ/Harrisdirect) as well as small companies and political campaigns (ex - John McCain for President). When I've worked for big companies I had access to media planning tools and I've used them all - Nielsen, @Plan, comScore; in fact, I met with some of the current comScore executive team before they became executives. Usually these services are great for planning, but when you actually made a specific media buy these analyses don't match what actually went into market.

These types of services cost a monthly fee that as a small business owner I find a little tough to swallow and it was a little tough to swallow for the political agency I do work for.  So, that's why I'm a huge believer in Google's Ad Planner tool; the new enhancements including actual ad placements make this invaluable to the small advertiser.  This is just another reason why working with Google helps small advertisers operate like big advertisers without all of the upfront costs:

1. Ad Planner allows you to build media plans and forecasts by demo and geographic targets for FREE
2. Ad Planner provides pretty, professional charts for your plans for FREE
3. Build your own banner ads gives you the chance to run flash ads for FREE.  Sure they are slightly better than average creatives, but did I mention they are FREE?
4. Paid search is the great money equalizer because you are rewarded for great relevancy; plus the geo targeting, time of day targeting, creative building, and budget management are all FREE
5. Google's Content network allows you to buy on a CPC or CPM basis across big and small sites all using demographic and content targeting

The actual media buys themselves of course costs money but you can have everything run via credit card which gives you maximum freedom to lower or increase spends or shut it off whenever you want.  Plus, if you spend a moderate amount per month (~$10K) you can get access to one of Google's account teams.

Yes improvements to the Ad Planner are just another reason why Google is your best friend for advertising, especially if you are a small business or small client.  The only complaint I have with the Ad Planner is the lack of ability to geo-target at anything other than Country, State, Metro, or City; plus the City targeting is annoying because they aren't grouped alphabetically by state, but alphabetically by Metro (try looking for specific cities in Virginia).  However, I'm happy with the tool I have because it does most of what I want for FREE and I know Google will continue to make improvements.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Rupert Murdoch's Google Battle - Not So Crazy

(A quick small post - longer than Twitter, shorter than my normal posts).

I read a few posts yesterday about News Corp threatening to deny Google's spiders access to their sites and this includes the Wall Street Journal.  Now, I had the pleasure of negotiating with WSJ when I was with AT&T and even though I got the better of them for AT&T"s Personal Network plan, it created a lasting impression with me.  I've also advertised with them many times including during the 2008 General Election. While advertising revenues are important to them, they are clearly focused on subscribers.  So I wasn't surprised when Murdoch threatens to block Google.   

Hitwise's Bill Tancer put out some great charts that shows what they think Google's traffic is to WSJ and it is a whopping 25%; plus they report that 44% of traffic from Google is new.

WSJ knows this too.  WSJ journal sees other print companies who give their content away from free struggle with sales revenue - while it is coming in from the web, it isn't fast enough to replace the crash on the print side.  

WSJ has always been about subscriptions first and advertising second.  They know what the true hit would be by blocking Google.  I bet they don't care about the new traffic number.  I bet people will still know about them and the branding from the traffic doesn't matter to them.  Their advertising rates are still super high, so the traffic hit while bothersome, probably doesn't make a dent in their overall revenue numbers.  Me, I don't think Murdoch is bluffing.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

V and President Obama

Yes I know I'm a week behind but I watched my DVR version of V's premier last night and I absolutely loved the show.  While watching it I called my wife over to see certain plots in the show that reminded me of President Obama's campaign (before you liberals and Obama apologists jump on me, let me finish) - specifically the message of hope, change, universal health care, the use of technology, and the grass roots networking of the youth.  

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone else noticed the connection, so I went to Google and found there was a bit of a controversy brewing especially from conservative commentators.  I was on vacation in Disney World so I missed the initial push and even if I was home I probably would have missed it anyway because believe it or not, I don't spend a significant amount of time listening to talk radio unless it is on ESPN. Here's my take on this:

1. Any conservative cheering this show on as a commentary of President Obama is off base; there are similarities but I'll get to that in a second
2. Obviously this plot line has been done many times in science fiction before and I'm not talking about the original series.  Most recently the plot line was featured in Marvel Comic's Secret Invasion where alien Skrulls previously invaded the Earth and kidnapped many of Earth's heroes to help facilitate a take over.
3. The idea of a utopia without disease or death reminded me of a Star Trek Episode called This Side of Paradise.
4. Heck one could even revisit parts of Germany in the 1930s as a parallel story line.
5. Now what every one of these story lines usually has is a charismatic leader and here's where they definitely borrowed traits from President Obama's campaign.  These include:

• Savvy dealing with the media; including the part of tantalizing the reporter with making him famous for the interview (I don't believe Obama ever promised this, but it makes for good conspiracy talk)
• Use of grassroots organizing (Peace Ambassador) including setting up area captains and offering rewards (Again there weren't monetary rewards from Obama's campaign, but more name recognition and the sense of making lifetime contributions to the campaign)
• The promise of the use of better and more modern technology (there was quite a lot of time spent with tagging on the show)
• Universal health care
• The if you are not with us, you're against us mentality; this actually could have been borrowed from not just Obama but politics in recent memory.  For an interesting read on a Who Are "They" in the Obama Administration read this post on the National Review (BTW - the "They" the author refers to is anyone on the opposite side of the President).
• The message of hope and change

There are so many easy to spot references that it didn't take non-politicos much time to make the link.  I don't believe it is a commentary of the Obama Administration because the plot is almost Science Fiction 101, but the writers definitely borrowed themes from the Obama campaign.  

I enjoyed the show.  I don't believe it is politically charged and certainly not a commentary against the Administration.  Enjoy it for what it is - a well done remake of Aliens trying to take over the world.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Daggett and Lonegan - Both Ignored The Web and Lost

I'm back from an 8 day vacation in the Happiest Place on Earth - Florida version so I have a lot of posts to catch up on.  Don't worry I'm going to avoid binge posting!

Back in June I wrote the reason Lonegan lost was the complete lack of use of modern internet marketing tools to get his message out to Republican Primary voters.   Well, the Daggett campaign followed up that "case study" with an even worse internet effort which was confirmed by Ali with these words of political marketing folly "From our research, we have discovered that NJ voters are primarily reachable via TV and other media -- not internet -- and that is why we have focused our efforts where we have"

Look I've only been working as a consultant for 4 years in the political marketing arena and I focus almost exclusively on online advertising in this space.  That runs the full range from search marketing, emails, displays ads, media buying, Facebook, and everything in between.  I do focus on search and media buying, but that doesn't stop me from working in other areas.  I've also been during pure online advertising since the late 90s (search, display, media buying) but where I was a little weak to start was translating into politics.  However, I have a great teacher in Becki Donatelli and listen to everyone else I've had the pleasure of meeting and that includes smart people from the Democrats.  One book I keep around is Joe Trippi's book The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

Joe's book chronicles Howard Dean's rise and then fall in the 2004 Democratic primary.  What powered Dean's rise may now seem a little quaint  - MeetUp, blogs, campaign blogs and videos, heck even a fund raising bat on the homepage, but the message is applicable to every campaign starting way behind with little name recognition.  

IF YOU ARE RUNNING AN INSURGENT CAMPAIGN YOUR ONLY AVENUE OF WINNING IS MAKING THE INTERNET THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF YOUR METHOD FOR GETTING YOUR MESSAGE OUT.

Steve Lonegan lost the Republican Primary to Chris Christie because he didn't use the internet and relied on tired and worn out marketing tactics like direct mail. Chris Daggett lost any momentum he gained via the debates because his campaign chose to ignore the internet at the insistence of their media company who of course made more money by NOT pushing their message out via cheaper and more effective channels.  Without going into too much detail in tactics, here are my top 5 priorities insurgent campaigns MUST do

1. Start very early
2. Kick out traditional media agencies until there is enough money to buy effective GRPs in target markets
3. Only use the internet for paid advertising because it is the most efficient, shows measurable results, and is the great equalizer when you are facing better funded campaigns
4. Invest in great creative developers especially ones like my friend Justin Germany who can create web ads and when you are ready, great TV ads.
5. Grassroots organizing is just not about going door to door and making phone calls, it involves using internet tools like Facebook, Google, wireless, and blogs to identify supporters, communicate with them, find like supporters, and then mobilize them.

That's how you run a modern insurgent campaign - not by listening to old style media consultants who insist the only way to run your campaign is by using old and really useless techniques.  Don't end up like Steve Lonegan and Chris Daggett - people who wasted their opportunities by relying on 1970s styled marketing

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Vote Chris Christie in NJ - Your Only Hope To Get Rid of Corzine

Yes you should vote for Chris Christie on Tuesday.  It is our only hope to rid the state of the economy killing, private job shrinking, and government expanding Governor Jon Corzine.   Look I get that Christie hasn't explained how he is going to cut property taxes, restore rebates, and slow down the growth of government.  I get that I really do.  I also get that if you are a conservative he has pissed you off going back to the primary against Lonegan.  However....

1. The polls are tightening and Corzine can still win this
2. Chris Daggett is finished.   He is not surging in the polls.  Perhaps if he started earlier and used online effectively instead of listening to their traditional media agency (see the quote* below from Ali of the Daggett Campaign on why they didn't have any online strategy) he'd have a chance, but he listened to the wrong advisors.
3. Google Trends right now is pointing to a toss up but Corzine isn't far behind; Daggett is finished
4. Obama is extending his influence in the race even though he knows that Corzine has done a terrible job with this state in creating jobs and spurring the economy.

4 more years of Corzine is a horrible thought.  And for each of you saying to yourselves, well if we have Corzine again at least next time we can run a conservative candidate.  That's the wrong kind of thinking that led some of you conservatives to not vote for Senator McCain - and look how that has turned out.

If you are on the fence, vote Christie.  If you are a conservative, hold your nose and vote Christie.  If you want to make a protest vote for Daggett, now is the wrong election for a protest vote; the only thing that matters right now is to ditch Corzine and Christie is the only vote that can do it.  

Sorry true believers.  The way I look at this vote is to get rid of Corzine first and the only way to do that is to vote Chris Christie.

(Disclosure:  I have had ABSOLUTELY NO INVOLVEMENT with the Christie Campaign.  In fact, my 9 year old son still asks me why would I vote for him if he didn't hire me.  Answer: CHRISTIE IS THE ONLY CHANCE TO GET RID OF JON CORZINE)

*Here's the bizarre, campaign strategy killing decision by the Daggett campaign to NOT use online to network, advertise, and generate grass roots support as posted by Ali from the Daggett Campaign (BOLD is done by me). 

"From our research, we have discovered that NJ voters are primarily reachable via TV and other media -- not internet -- and that is why we have focused our efforts where we have. I can imagine you have strong opinions as to how we should be using our money, but actually the media company who has led every successful independent in this country is spearheading our efforts, so we are deferring to the experts."

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Senator Menendez's Health Poll - It Doesn't Matter At All

I just stumbled across Senator Menendez's health insurance poll on his Senate website and it made me almost laugh out loud.  As this screen shot show's Menendez's poll is 80% against health insurance reform, but one has to wonder why the consistent liberal Senator would even care about what the voters of NJ think.  I track his votes online on Open Congress and from what I've observed he votes consistently with other Democrats.  So either.... 

1. Menendez is so far down the liberal base that he actually believes NJ is a solid liberal state that will vote along with whatever President Obama wants without question.
2. Menendez is up for reelection in 2012 and wants to see how this issue resonates
3. He actually might listen to NJ?
4. This is just another useless poll that nobody pays attention to including Senator Menendez

The only logical answer is #1 but #4 is probably a close second.  My guess is that Menendez and staff are so really disconnected from the state that they have no idea how NJ would react.  One thing I know about this state is that on average we have a mind of our own and while there is a solid Democratic base here, the rest of the 60% or so of the state is very independently minded; that includes Conservatives.  You'd think he'd know that too, but then again what do you expect from a Senator that rarely changes his vote from other Democrats.  

#4 is a real possibility because the question is so vague that nobody knows what they are really voting for.  The bills in the Senate and House are so complicated that they couldn't be simplified down to a single question.   Most people that I've spoken to are supportive of many reforms but where people separate is when it comes to deficit spending and how the public options is included or not; that nuance is not included in Menendez's poll

Anyway this poll no matter what it says is an insult to New Jersey voters everywhere...

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

This is Just A Sloppy Banner Ad from Christie Campaign

I don't make much money from the banner ads running on my site.  The reason I have them there is to see ads that run specifically in the state.  Banner ads like this very poor quality display ad from the Christie Campaign.  

You might think I'm picking on them for one banner ad but from the very beginning I've been  writing that they don't get online advertising and modern political marketing.  And with two weeks to go they continue to demonstrate the lack of attention paid to online advertising with this very sloppy creative execution - fuzzy graphics, terrible imagery, and two click to play videos plus, the click through as usual goes to their homepage which shows a lack of understanding on how to drive to the correct message on the site.

Judge for yourself.  Is it any wonder with 2 weeks to go this campaign is in a dead heat? Plus, a third party candidate who also doesn't get modern politics (see the comments left by Ali (daughter?) from Daggett campaign) taking votes from the Republican challenger who looked invincible to some (not me) a few short months ago.  Maybe if the dreaded and well hated Governor Corzine snatches victory from the jaws of defeat, people will finally put to bed any question of the importance of having a well run online strategy.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric 

Confessions of a 10 Year AT&T Vet - I Like Google Voice

Those of you who read this website might not know that I worked at AT&T for 10 years.  In fact, after my first year of graduate school I started as an intern at an internal consulting group called Business Operations Analysis - kind of a nerd factory of nerds that was even part of Bell Labs for a short while.  After about 4 years in BOA I joined the consumer marketing groups and stayed there for about 6 years progressing up the ranks to Division Manager of a 25 person group called eAT&T or OneRate Online.  I dropped a lot of direct mail (probably about 100 million) and made millions of outbound telemarketing calls over those 6 years of marketing. 

One of those campaigns was for a product called TrueConnections.  TrueConnections is/was a follow-me 500# so that your callers called one number and you could program the number to ring at various numbers you owned.  Of course AT&T charged you for it and back in the mid 90s it seemed pretty cool, but as I recall it was too niche of a product targeted at Road Warriors and we didn't sell many plans.  Personally I didn't really use mine and didn't have much use for a product like that until last week.  That's when I got my Google Voice invite.

Now some of my AT&T brothers and sisters will turn their noses up at this product and when it first came out I didn't care for it either.  However, after setting it up last week I'm hooked.  Here's my experience with it so far:

1. Domestic calls are free.  I get that - no big deal, but if you don't make international calls, what's better than free?
2. Yes there's some issues with making calls on its network using your iPhone but I don't care.  I have one of those all you can eat plans with AT&T and have some rollover minutes.  I want Google Voice for the inbound calling features, not the outbound so the iPhone fight doesn't impact me.
3. It took me about an hour to pick out my number.  You can try coming up with a vanity number but I couldn't come up with one I liked, besides I'm not convinced a vanity number isn't a pain for dialers.  In the end I chose a local number that I think is easy to remember - 908.867.8001.
4. Setting up which numbers ring when you dial my Google Voice # was a piece of cake as is the user interface.
5. Ok - then came the time consuming part which took me about 2 hours.  In order to really get some use out of Google Voice you need to organize your contacts and put them into groups.  Each one of these groups can have different ring options and different voice mail greetings.  For example:

• Vendors that you don't want to hear from go straight to voice mail
• Friends and Family ring my three numbers, but the home phone only rings after 6 PM
• Connell Donatelli and Campaign Solutions co-workers get a special greeting

So after a few hours of organizing my contacts and then a few minutes setting up my voice mail greetings I experienced the last really cool part (so far) of Google Voice.  After someone leaves you a message you get an email or a text message notification that you have a new voice mail.  And, if that isn't cool enough Google does an ok job of transcribing the voice mail into text.  My experience with it so far is that this feature isn't something to rely on but cool none the less.

A single number for people to call you on for free?  Email notifications, transcription of voice mails to text, and individual greetings and call routings by group - those are a lot of cool features.  

I like Google Voice and so will my AT&T brothers and sisters.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Chris Daggett's Online Marketing Won't Allow Him to Be Viable

(Disclosure: I received several emails after my last post.  I am not involved with Christie's campaign.  I've never spoken with them.  I do want Corzine to lose and I AM NOT advocating that Daggett should drop out).

Chris Daggett's campaign isn't viable unless he can get into the mid-30s as I wrote last week.   Yes I get that The Star Ledger just endorsed him for Governor and Google Trends' finally has a pulse.  

It doesn't matter.  He has no online marketing. The website isn't ready for prime time, it looks he had a cousin build it for him on a WordPress template.  There are no Google ads trying to direct people looking for information on him.  I've seen no display ads, his Facebook fans are about 10% of his competitors and his YouTube page has little subscribers, little views, and really looks like it is a page dedicated for Halloween.  There are no Facebook widgets to grab.

This isn't an insurgent campaign.  There is little evidence to suggest that.  If this campaign had a chance they would have been employing modern internet marketing techniques, however, I can't find a single piece of evidence that the Daggett campaign even noticed what happened in the 2008 election.  Yes Daggett is receiving matching funds and this allows him to be in the debates which he has dominated so far. However, did anyone stop to ask besides paying his staff and buying political signs what he plans to do with the rest of the money?

Clearly it isn't to invest in modern marketing techniques.  I've heard there was a live TV commercial floating around, but I haven't seen it live.  One has to ask why on earth would they run TV ads in this market?  How many GRPs could they actually buy?  Could it even make a dent in your viewing habits if it could even cut through the Corzine buy?  Does anyone want to bet me there will be a horrible waste of direct mail coming your way to a mailbox near you or annoying robo calls to your home phone?

If this was really an insurgent campaign someone there would have used online to network properly and market his plan.  Maybe if Daggett had started ANYTHING online months ago they would have actually been viable.  Unfortunately for them they didn't and they will end up being nothing more than the General Election's version of the Steve Lonegan campaign which also failed any semblance of a modern marketing plan.

At this point from my cheap seats in Long Valley, NJ Daggett isn't viable.  I get that some people are disappointed with the Christie campaign and hate Jon Corzine.  However, NJ needs to get rid of Corzine first and Daggett can't do it.  I get the idea of a protest vote.  I really do.  This isn't the year for a protest vote.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

P.S. Here's an interesting and short article from the Nation Review called Chris Daggett, Jon Corzine's Bodyguard.  

P.P.S Please read the comments for a response from the Daggett campaign. 

Election 2009: New Jersey Governor - Rasmussen Reports™

« If it's in the news it's in our polls. «« Rasmussen produces some of the most accurate and reliable polls in the country today. »-Larry Sabato, University of Virginia « Rasmussen, an organization with fast zeitgeist reflexes.... «-The Politico« If it's in the news it's in our polls. «« The best place to look for polls that are spot on is RasmussenReports.com «-Michael Barone, The Washington Examiner`« If you really want to know what people in America think, you can't find a better place to look than Rasmussen Reports « -Susan Estrich

via www.rasmussenreports.com

This race is ugly but the 33% undecideds are very problematic for christie

How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice - Google Voice - Lifehacker

Google's upped its pace handing out invites to Google Voice, the service that controls all your phones with one number. For those just arriving, we're offering up a beginner's guide to setting up, transitioning to, bug-fixing, and actually enjoying Google Voice.

via lifehacker.com

Just got my invite so still figuring it out

Revisiting Roblox

A few months ago I made this post called Is Roblox Safe? Not Sure So I Blocked It and I've received a lot of traffic from this post.  Some from parents looking for answers and some from Roblox supporters as you can see from the comments in the post.  Usually my answer to these comments is that I have little kids and I don't want them that involved with consumer generated content.  Also, don't forget that the trigger for my further investigation was that my firewall-antivirus software Bit Defender flagged the site as not child friendly.

Well last Friday I received an email from the CEO of Roblox David Baszucki.  He was kind enough to want to talk with me about my blog post.  I guess that means that either a) someone sent him the link or b) he or his marketing team was watching Roblox's google results.  We spoke within the hour of his email...

1. He wanted to talk about which software I was using to protect the laptop (Bit Defender) and they were going to consider adding it to the software they test.
2. He wanted to reassure me that even though the content is consumer generated they flag obviously offensive ones and remove or if something is marginal, but gets flagged as inappropriate they investigate immediately.  
3. He spoke with me about the ads I was seeing and told me that they carefully monitor what appears on the site
4. Finally he wanted to know why I thought they were associated with Lego because they are extremely cautious.

Anyway, I thought he was very professional and that they do try hard to monitor the site.  As I wrote earlier, then later in replies to the comments, and then when I spoke with David, I have little kids and I don't include Roblox on the list of sites they can visit.  I do think Roblox is a lot more professional then when I wrote that post, but for Jacob and Kaela it isn't for them.  When they get a little older - perhaps around 13 I will probably change my mind, but right now, no; I don't even let them on YouTube without me.  

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Bruce Springsteen Still Rocks and Crowd Surfs

My family and friends attended Saturday night's Springsteen concert and it was a great time.   My wife and daughter had seats in the lower level while my son Jacob and I had an awesome time in the pit.  The setlist was great - 28 songs, 3 hours, and cover to cover Born in the USA.  It wasn't the best concert I'd ever seen (that's either closing night of the reunion tour in MSG or Atlantic City on the Rising Tour), but I'd give it a solid B.  Bruce was awesome as usual as well as Nils, Roy, and the Mighty Max.  A couple of quick observations:

1. Even Bruce must agree with my post that Working on A Dream is one of the worst if not the worst Springsteen album of all-time.  Why else does Bruce only have two songs in the setlist at this point?  Compare it with the end of the Magic Tour where about 4-6 songs still remained in the tour.
2. Watch the youthful 60 Bruce Springsteen crowd surf.
3. The pit procedure was quite reasonable - especially because Jacob and I got a bracelet and were about 15 deep in front of the stage.
4. Jacob wants to see him again in the pit - how about Buffalo?

PardonMyFrench,

Eric