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« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
Vonage RIP
OK - it has been trading in the $1 range since Wednesday and I think it is safe to say, you can remove it from your radar screen. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of all the posts I've made for the past two years on them even though they were some of my best. I'd list them all out here, but that seems like a waste so for the full posts hit this link. However, my first post What The Vonage was one of my favorites.
Just as their stock started trading on the $1 range they started a blog banner buy which is
very funny and a little interesting. Very funny because their ads are running on my blog right now (see screen shot), but what makes it interesting is if this is a last ditch effort to keep their once mighty ad spending going or are they trying to reach out to some influential bloggers. Usually when I advertise on blogs its because it is either a) cheap or b) I'm targeting a certain group of readers and bloggers.
Well good luck to some of my former AT&T comrades that are working there now. It is a real shame the executives mismanaged this company; it could have been a great place to work in NJ. Oh speaking of NJ, I'm off to Springsteen's rehearsal show at Continental Arena.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
I Still Believe That MySpace Is The Web 2.0 Version of GeoCities
I saw this Fortune article called As Facebook Takes Off, MySpace Strikes Back and I really had to smile. I think it shows a lack of understanding to compare MySpace with Facebook, but before I rant a little bit lets take a look at some of the pluses that MySpace has according to the article:
- 45 billion page views and the most traffic on the internet
- Americans spend 12% of their time there
- Almost half of its members are 35+
- MySpace is a mishmash of modern media - rich with music and video and comedy. It's like a rock & roll club - chaotic, loud, and packed. Many user profiles are florid and flamboyant, with flashing text and music that starts playing as soon as you arrive.
- You can befriend a crab or AT&T
- It's free
Seriously, that's the pluses according to the article and those traffic numbers
are formidable but I personally think that's their downfall. There is no common thread between these pages and the best way to describe MySpace is a loose confederation of pages joined together. I mean just compare the two designs for individuals. Facebook has standard layouts that you can add applications to, but at the end of the day, the designs are Facebook's. Meanwhile MySpace while allowing you to make your own personalized page looks like 42nd st of my youth - just a series of blinking lights and porn. You can friend anyone or anything and the ONLY requests I ever get are from scantily clad women with names like Bambi and Candi. I get a few Facebook requests per day and they are all legitimate.
The only part of the article that resonated with me is that MySpace is cashing in on blog bling, but then you have to question how long that will last. I spend 10+ hours per day on the internet and I NEVER RUN ACROSS A SINGLE MYSPACE PAGE. I have plenty of Google Alerts setup and never find anything from those pages. If they are cashing in on blogs then when was the last time you saw a blog post from them? Seriously where are these blog pages?
That's why I believe that MySpace is just a Web 2.0 version of GeoCities. Back in its day, GeoCities was the 5th most trafficked site on the internet. Users had their own pages with plenty of bling and were part of neighborhoods. These pages allowed them to express themselves and of course had music and pictures, but there was no consistency even within a neighborhood. They added advertising, went IPO and then was purchased by Yahoo for $3.5 billion. Now it is the equivalent of an internet junkyard and the last time I ever saw a page I caught a virus because of a behind the scenes drive by download.
I still have no use for MySpace. Not that I'm so mature (which I am definitely not), but the lack of control makes the pages look like 42nd street - just a bunch of blinking lights and porn. The folks at Fox are going to monetize the traffic and in the short term have it churn out money. Music, dating sites, movies, and entertainment will spend money to have their ads show up on those sites, but the end of the day, it will be GeoCities part 2. Mark it down.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Not Only Do Lowermybills.com Ads Suck, They Have Horrible Timing
About a year ago, I wrote one of my best posts ever called Online Ads I Love and Hate and then followed that post up with LowerMyBill Ads - The Worst Ads Ever, so I always have a spot in my blogging heart when I can pile on them. Kind of like Vonage and the new, new, new AT&T. So not only does Lowermybills.com have the worst online ads of all time, the longer this housing crisis drags on them more insensitive their ads become. Its not bad enough that companies like them have helped fuel the unhealthy exuberance in the housing market, but when other financial companies have the good sense to pull back a tad, these marketing simpletons keep plowing away with their cheap rates message.
Will interest rates drop? Well if you read the WSJ, many analysts expect the Fed to do
something to ease the credit crunch. Are housing prices dropping? I think in certain areas the answer is yes and according to this article, builders are marking homes down in NJ by hundreds of thousands of dollars. So because of the defaulting sub-prime mortgages that were repackaged as mortgage backed securities, you have housing prices going backwards and more Americans losing their homes or are unable to continue to get loans. This makes for a tough real estate market.
The geniuses at Lowermybills.com keep pushing the same types of messages like house payments fall again or maybe you are paying more than your neighbor. Are these payments going down because of interest rates or mortgage gimmicks? Who can waste their time to figure this out and I sure hope you don't. Look if you are running a major acquisition campaign like these guys are probably doing, then you know exactly which ads you are running and how they are doing. It just seems like somebody there ought to step back and take a look at the macro picture to see if there is a better way to message rather than continue to go after the same types of folks that are probably feeling the housing crunch more than anyone else. It is time for Lowermybills.com to lower their tone a bit and take the time to retool this ugly campaign...
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Guessing What Yahoo Is Up to These Days
In yesterday's WSJ in the Heard on the Street column they reviewed Yahoo's plan or as they wrote "lack of major overhaul" and then one of my favorite bloggers and must reads, Kara Swisher echoed the statements but filled in some more blanks with her post called Day 56: Yahoo's Sacred Cows Are Spared.
You can read both articles and as you know as a long time reader, I try not to regurgitate other posts just to get a little traffic. However, basically they both wrote about potential Google or MSN/Yahoo combinations and what Yahoo isn't doing to appease investors. Me? I won't argue with those assessments because I too think they should combine with MSN on the search business to compete with Google. However, I do think their recent acquisitions of BlueLithium and RightMedia offer more insight into what Yahoo's plans are for the future. Before I dive into my plan, lets look at a few data points...
- I believe the BlueLithium purchase is not about boosting Yahoo's behavioral targeting
ability but more about expanding their reach beyond Yahoo properties. - RightMedia's purchase was about acquiring an auction buying platform that buyers and sellers can take advantage of.
- Google's sales process is less about buying pay per click search ads and more about using their expanding and more visible content platform. PPC ads are what gets you in the door and deliver cost effective results, while display advertising is where Google can increase their share of your advertising dollars.
- comScore's July 2007 Ad Focus Ranking shows 2 Ad Networks ahead of Yahoo (Ad.com is owned by AOL) and Google's content network right on Yahoo's heals in 4th place. You add Google's reach via search and you probably get to 80% of the entire universe at a very cost effective CPC.
So what's a Yahoo to do? Buy a social network like Facebook for a few billions or a less desirable social network? Probably not. They already have Flickr and Yahoo 360/Groups which doesn't really help them monetize traffic. My guess is for Yahoo to continue to expand their non-Yahoo inventory and use RightMedia to build an auction process around the inventory. The more sites they can add outside of Yahoo the bigger and badder (in a good way) they get. Couple that with their Google-size database of web surfing behaviors and a better buying models for advertisers, they can put the tools in place that can combat Google.
Sure if Yahoo combined with MSN they might be able to compete with Google on the search side, but that is only a minor skirmish to Google. Google is going after a much bigger share of your ad dollars in the form of video ads, display ads on their huge network, radio, print, TV; you get the idea. Yahoo needs to compete with Google for the future of your ad dollars and that future is a lot bigger than search results ads.
Think of Yahoo as a huge advertising network and the tools it needs to compete on that for a larger share of your advertising dollars. TV dollars, behavioral targeting, and bigger networks; that's what it is building.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
9-11 Thoughts Revisited
***This is a repost from last year. I received a lot of good feedback, so I reposted it***
I thought my post from the other day would be enough for me, but with my kids asking questions while we are watching the football game I feel like making a post. Instead of the normal paragraph form, I'm just going to list out random thoughts that I'm having...
- No I never worked in the WTC and in fact the first time I even ventured into the Path Station was probably in the mid-90s
- No I didn't know anyone that was there that day
- When I joined CSFBdirect and had my office "downsized" I chose a cube by the window because at least when my AT&T friends called me I could say I had the greatest view in the world
- WTC became my beacon when I finally came out of the covered roadway after being stuck in traffic on my way to the Holland Tunnel
- I absolutely loved heading over to WTC during lunch to browse the Border's Book Store
- For some reason, I still carry a Hale and Hearty Soup frequent buyer card in my wallet, punched last on 9/7 at the kiosk that used to be in f
ront of the Path - I was supposed to have a meeting the morning of 9/11 in AOL's lower Manhattan offices that was canceled the day before - I still keep the copy of my calendar from that week
- We used to go for drinks in Moran's some times after work even though it had over priced drinks
- My last time through (9/7) I was in a hurry and didn't stop by the Warner Brother's Store to pick my son up a stuffed Bugs Bunny; 5 years later I don't let time get in the way any more
- My wife had a doctor's visit to determine whether she was pregnant (which she was); that still creeps me out when you hear about all of the people that didn't know they were pregnant that day and lost someone
- My last normal time in NYC was watching the ladies US Open Final between the Williams sisters on 9/9; I haven't watched tennis live since then
- It helped me to write down what little things changed that day so I could remember what it was like before 9/11
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
The Disappearing Fewest Dropped Calls Claim by AT&T
I saw this article in the LA Times called AT&T Changes Cell Ad Mantra and I had to laugh while kicking myself at the same time. The article writes this in case you don't want to signup for the free subscription:
AT&T's boast was about "fewest dropped calls" -- until recently. Now, it's about "more bars in more places."Why did AT&T ditch its long-running advertising campaign? A spokesman for the wireless unit of AT&T Inc. said it was due to a decision to focus on coverage, "because this is what our customers tell us over and over again is important to them." Ira Spiro, a West Los Angeles lawyer representing an AT&T customer in a federal lawsuit against the company, called that explanation "folderol."The hostilities over fewest dropped calls -- which sent AT&T and Sprint to court last year -- continue.
OK, so why did I kick myself? Well when they first started to promote "fewest dropped calls" I tried looking for the survey that they were backing the claim up with, but couldn't get access to it. After hours of searching, I finally came close to an AT&T press release and gave up when I couldn't find the actual study. I also trashed my post which was basically going to say "see how the new, new AT&T plays around with data" because I couldn't back that claim up. Now obviously the LA Times has better resources and was able to put out the post I couldn't.
OK, so why did I laugh? Of course I never believed that claim. I personally (on the
marketing side) led the marketing of AT&T's first direct mail (and OTM) campaign promoting their wireless service during the project code named Cheetah and as you can see from my Why AT&T/iPhone Won't Live Up to The Hype post, I thought AT&T's biggest problem was their shaky network. All you new iPhone/AT&T users see what I mean by shaky network; that's why I didn't buy the iPhone and won't until Verizon comes out with a clone or the iPhone somehow ends up on that network.
Since I was on that AT&T wireless bundling team from 1995 - 2000 or so, I had an AT&T Wireless phone, but dropped it when I was traveling back and forth to Jersey City while with Harrisdirect. AT&T's less than stellar network kept dropping my calls on Route 78 in Newark. I've been using Verizon ever since and will not switch until their network has trouble...Wireless service is about the network, phones come and go.
So what else is funny? How some lawyer at AT&T probably got suckered by the marketing team into allowing these ads. I of course know nothing on how the new, new, AT&T works, but back in the Long Distance wars of the 90s the lawyers took claims very seriously and you couldn't run an ad like this without supporting documentation that would stand up in court. Plus, as I recall the old and better AT&T had an arbitration agreement with MCI and Sprint to defend claims without going to court.
Surprised that the claim isn't running anymore? You shouldn't be especially if you bought an iPhone and are not stuck with AT&T's network and sub-par customer service.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
McCain's Online Ads Continues to Lead All Presidential Candidates in July
Nielsen Net Ratings published a report that looks at the Presidential candidate's online activities; you can find the report on this link. MediaPost had a nice summary and focused mostly on online website visits, but yours truly was more interested in the online advertising activity. And guess what? John McCain's online advertising is still the biggest and the best out there.
According to Nielsen's report, we were the only ones that ran any display advertising in July,
but I find that a little odd since I've seen ads for at least one other candidate. What I love even more is that we are leading all candidates by almost twice as much in search activity as the next guy proving once again that we have mastered Google and that we rely on our search campaigns to get the word out on John McCain and where he stands on issues. I wonder why more campaigns don't use search and instead continue to pour money into TV, print, and DM when search is so much more relevant, more cost effective, and quantifiable. Oh well.
BTW - as you can see from the table, McCain's nearest search competitor had decent impressions in July, but as I wrote the other day, I can not find any Romney search ads any more. So if you assume the July numbers are reasonably accurate, that's a huge falloff in impressions. My guess is that they either cut back their spending and max out early in the day or they have some new retooled strategy that minimizes online advertising. Strange.....
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Old School Facelift #1 - Cole Brothers Circus
I decided to start a new category this weekend while I was down the shore (that's at the Jersey Beaches for you non-Jersey readers). It's called Old School Facelift and what I'll do is point out everyday occurrences that I think could use a new media strategy to boost sales. Basically, offering free advice to any local or national business when the mood strikes me. So, what hit me this weekend? The family and I attended the Cole Brothers Circus.
Yes a circus and the traveling kind when they come to your town and put down a big tent.
Not the sad shell of a circus which is now Ringling Brothers which probably makes Barnum and Bailey flip over in their graves. The Cole Brothers Circus was an absolute low tech blast . There were motorcyclists in a giant cage, clowns, a family on the trapeze, horse shows, juggling, elephants (complete with the always popular jumbo excrement), and a woman shot out of a cannon. Seriously, it was a great, great show and I highly recommend it. The only problem with it was that the big tent was about half full.
Yes. Half full, but before you laugh and think I'm crazy, trust me when I tell you that everyone, old and young, left with smiles on their faces. It really was great and when I compared it with the Ringling Brothers show we saw two years back at a giant sports arena, the Cole Brothers Circus had nobody sleeping; unlike the Ringling Brothers show which was a giant snooze festival. So, I got to thinking how can The Cole Brothers Circus increase attendance when they pull into your town?
FIVE GUARANTEED IDEAS TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE AT THE CIRCUS
- Search Ads - Yes that's a no-brainer and they should fund it immediately. There are no real ads around circus, cole brothers, ringling brothers (other than ticket master), plus I'd add in family activity words. In order to save money, they can geo-target and/or zipcode target the words to maximize coverage and finally in order to have end-to-end tracking put coupons on the website for a free soda to measure conversions.
- Circus Blogs - I tried looking through Technorati for circus blogs but didn't really find anything useful. Think about how much mileage they could get out of a blog about life working at a circus, how to be a clown, or life being in the Flying Ponce Family. It would be cool and probably get a ton of traffic.
- RSS Feeds and Email Subscribers - Yes I personally believe email is on its way out, but hey you have to include it right? Every one of those blog posts should have an email and RSS feed pushed out and if they do it right, links to offers and links to find when the circus is in town. Heck, even have a refer a friend offer to sign-up for the feeds.
- Embrace The YouTube World - Yes, stop hogging your videos and realize that people love to post their own videos at YouTube. Make a YouTube channel page, Facebook page and allow people to post their videos there. Nobody really is trying to capture your content, they'd rather see it in person and show it to the world. That will help with brand awareness. Heck, why not stream the shows for free on your website.
- Create a Circus Wiki - There I said it, but there is so much information about the Circus and why should they just rely on Wikipedia? Stock it with information, the history of the circus and wrap it under a giant frame with your branding and circus location information. Turn to those friends you have listed and enlist them to fill information in on your Wiki. Basically, build your content and watch the traffic grow.
That's it for now. I'm sure the top 5 mentioned above will be repeated as I put more posts on the subject. If you get the chance, go to The Cole Brothers Circus; it really is a great, low tech event to be experienced by all.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
Stuff
- Eric Is AdWords Qualified
