Next New Network’s online programming model of “TV for the internet, not TV on the internet“ is a world apart from other programming platforms like Hulu TV and Slingbox.

Hulu and Slingbox make TV programs available online, but Next New Networks is TV for the internet, not TV on the internet, and instead of re-purposing Television shows for the web, they serve up micro-television networks made up of original short-form programming. NNN currently features a dozen distinct networks covering automotive, entertainment, humor, fashion, and lifestyle, with each showing 3 to 8 minute episodes, produced daily or weekly. All original. All free.

Revolutionary Advertising Opportunities

While Next New Network offers traditional web advertising opportunities – banner ads, pre-rolls, and commercial breaks – they’re also innovating the ad models of the future by developing programming around advertisers. The programming isn’t driven by the advertiser, per se, but it’s linked to their product. Case in point: when Warner Brother’s released Friday the 13th, NNN used their Backyard FX show to create 4 custom episodes that recreated effects from the movie using household materials. The value? Instead of Warner Brothers forcing their voice on consumers, the platform did it naturally. Consumers watching the Friday the 13th - inspired videos didn’t see the movie logo flashing on the screen, but were exposed to the movie in a much more organic setting.

Other advertising opportunities include custom brand integration (host mentions, sponsored segments, custom vignettes, product placement, and custom episodes) as well as companion banners and in-video media impressions.

The Networks

Remember when MTV used to play music videos? Next New Networks does, and seeing as one of their founders is a former MTV exec, it makes sense that their latest microtelevision network is $99 Music Videos, a program that brings together independent bands and up-and-coming filmmakers.

Every video must follow 4 rules:

1. It must be made for $99 or less.
2. It must be shot in one day.
3. It must be edited in one day.
4. It must be a collaboration between the band and the filmmaker.

$99 Music Video: “Whisky” by Lowry

$99 Music Video: The Making of “Whisky”

Targeted Pop Entertainment:

• $99 Music Videos (Original music videos made and edited in one day for under $99)

• Indy Mogul (DIY filmmaking network)

• Channel Frederator (The original online cartoon network)

Humor

• Barely Political (Smart, funny sexy political satire)

• Barely Digital (Satirizes tech news with irreverent humor)

Automotive:

• Fast Lane Daily (Network for car news, fast)

• VOD Cars (Network for speed, car fun)

• Garage419 (Network for auto enthusiasts)

Fashion & Lifestyle:

• Threadbanger (DIY fashion network)

• TMIweekly (DIY fashion network)

• Ultra Kawaii (“The insanely cute pet network”)

• Viropop (“Green” is the new pop culture network)

We are all guilty of it. Getting too wordy when writing.

Example: The amount of total sales increased in the field of technology due to the utilization of blah blah blah…

I see it all the time on marketing materials, magazines, catalogs and websites. I’ve spent the past few years in real estate marketing. Many times I have had to sum up a 100+ unit, 10-story historical, live/work, luxury development with a million wonderful amenities and fantastic design into a postcard, including square footage, price points and photos. Not to mention a clean and easy to read layout. So, it was obviously important to write concisely to communicate my message. And it is not as easy as it looks.

The Importance of Brevity

The purpose of writing is to communicate a particular message. It is harder to be brief with this message than it is to write a lengthy piece. This is because we want to communicate all of our ideas into one spot. The point of brevity is not to say less, but to communicate a message more concisely. By deleting needless words or sentences and editing, this is possible.

Important questions to ask yourself are Can it be better? Can it make more sense? What details could I leave out? Can I restructure my sentences?

Trim the Fat

How do you turn all of the information you have gathered into a concise, focused piece? The tighter the message, the easier readers get roped in. So it is important to make every word tell part of the story. I took a class on writing for brevity through MediaBistro.com a few years back and picked up a few pointers that have helped write more concisely. Here are a few things I learned and use in my writing today:

Eliminate words

Superfluous nouns, verbs, articles, prepositions- that obscure meaning rather than clarify it. The Elements of Style, a classic reference book for clear and concise writing, says that “the fact that,” “who is” and “which was” are the most commonly used needless words. Here are a few more examples:

“the field of technology” and ”the technology industry” BECOME “technology”

“the amount of total sales increased” BECOMES “sales increased”

“the number of” CUT

“have a tendency to” BECOMES “tend to”

“are going to” BECOMES “will”

“some of the people” BECOMES “some people”

“I am writing in regards to” BECOMES “I’m writing about”

Choose your words carefully

Choose concrete, precise, everyday terms to those less specific and familiar is a way to do this. Here are some examples:

“organization” BECOMES “group”

“utilize” or “utilization” BECOMES “use”

“morbidity” or “mortality” BECOMES “illness” or “death”

“interface with each other” BECOMES “collaborate”

Use active voice

This helps to make every word tell, verses a passive voice, which is more verbose and less dynamic.

“The class was taught by me” BECOMES “I taught the class”

“This is the first time that USF has enrolled any female students” BECOMES “Women will attend USF for the first time this fall”

“There’s a lot of support of the proposition” BECOMES “Many people support the proposition”

Write First, Edit Later

Don’t worry about writing concisely on the first try. Go back later and make edits. Then have someone else read the piece and give feedback (ideally, someone who is of your target audience.) They will likely tell you words or sentences that sound redundant or don’t make sense. Then go back and make more edits. And while brevity is important, so is clarity. If your piece is brief, but not clear, then the purpose is defeated. When you get brevity right, you can say more with less words.

First Healthcare and now, newspapers?

The New York Times recently reported on European newspapers finding creative ways to thrive in this economy. While many European newspapers are facing the same problems as those here in the States, there are a few standouts that have found creative ways to stay afloat and even profit, in what seems to be a dwindling industry.

What’s the Big Idea?

Making money on something other than newspapers!

Here is the jist of it: German publisher, Alex Springer, owner of Bild, the biggest newspaper in Europe, reported their highest profit in 62 years. And instead of looming talks on how to survive this recession, they are looking to expand by searching for acquisitions in Germany, Eastern Europe and possibly even here in the United States. Instead of trying to protect existing publications, they acquired or created new ones, some of which distribute the same content to different audiences.

In the online world, the top European performer is VG Nett, a Web site loosely affiliated with Verdens Gang, a tabloid newspaper that has reported a profit margin of more than 30 percent and rivals Google as the most popular Web site in Norway. VG Nett generates most of it’s revenue from advertisers but is now starting to raise money from it’s users. About 150,000 people pay up to 599 crowns (about $90), a year for a weight-loss club and they recently started charging up to 780 crowns a year for live streams of soccer matches. Additionally, a social network connected with VG Nett charges users to upgrade their profiles, but access to news on the website, remains free.

A Few Points That Stand Out

I am fairly fond of Alex Springer’s acquisitions and creations of new publications. As a culture, we always like ideas that are new and fresh. And this is an opportunity to break apart a large, failing publication, and give it an opportunity to recreate itself and reach out to new or different readers.

Selling added-value services to readers as VG Nett has done is a creative way to rework the standard business model. These don’t seem to be your typical added value services that are mostly for the benefit of advertisers. Instead, they are to benefit the reader. But during a recession are we willing to fork out the extra bucks for such trivial things?  Again, it is all about being creative and I like that the added value focus on the reader, the core of any newspaper, not the advertisers.

These points seem so simple and embracing of the fact that the industry has changed. Did the American publishing industry see this coming for a long time, but fail to recognize it? The American newspaper business model has been set it stone for so long, while digitalization has clearly been the stronger force over the past decade.

Thinking Out Loud

One major problem here in America is that we have already dug ourselves in a hole and need to figure a way out. The previously mentioned European publications were able to nip it in the bud in order to keep themselves out of the dilemma we see ourselves in, so will their business models do us any good?

As I write and research this topic, many thoughts come to mind…

How do Americans value newspapers verses Europeans?

What about branding? The most valuable thing that many Newspapers own is their brand. If they start branching out they could drive some profit from the use of it.

Should the government subsidize ailing media? Or does this vastly interfere with our freedom of press? French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced in January that €600million in emergency aid for his country’s troubled newspaper industry and declared that every 18-year-old in France would get a year’s free subscription to the paper of their choice to boost reading habits. Sarkozy instructed publications to improve the content of their articles, bring in younger readers and transform business models in exchange for emergency aid worth €600m over the next three years. Sounds like our government’s relationship with the car industry.

And what role does internet advertising play? While internet advertising is not growing as fast as it once did, it is still outpacing more traditional forms advertising channels. The newspaper industry saw its print ad revenues drop by 17.7 percent last year, while online advertising only dropped by 1.8 percent, according to a report by TechCrunch based on numbers from the Newspaper Association of America.  I realize that internet advertising does not make as much money as more traditional forms did in their heyday, but the numbers say it all. American publications did not seem to adjust to the internet as well as some of their European counterparts. The internet has always been secondary to the hardcopy, while it has clearly been the stronger force.

Again, these are all just thoughts, and I would love to hear yours.

Personally, I think that we need to stop dwelling on the fact that “print is dead” and restructure business models with that in mind, which I am sure (or rather, I HOPE) is what is going on behind closed doors. And just like any major change, it will take adjustment but I think that if we can take some of this into consideration, it will put us in an even better position 5-10 years down the road.

I never think about wireless hotspots except when I need one, but when I need one it’s imperative that I find one, and when I find one it’s usually the case that they charge for access, and when I see that they do, I keep walking to find another. There are some places (airports, hotels, a Starbucks in Kansas) where there are no wi-fi options save one, and so I pony up the fee and cry a little inside. What irks me, though, is that even though I pay for the connectivity, I don’t receive any of the security features I receive at home: open-networks are just that, open to the world.

In HotSpot Shield by Anchor Free, though, I’ve found a wi-fi security platform that I’m loving from both a marketing perspective (it serves contextually relevant ads to a tech-savvy and affluent niche) and a consumer perspective (its free and secure.) HotSpot Shield privatizes and secures (via VPN) any public network, wired or wireless. The platform is ad-supported, and I can stomach something being ad-supported so long as its minimally disruptive and there’s legitimate value, and I think the value to consumers here is a no-brainer.

The value to advertisers, though, is what really piqued my interest…

Key takeaways:

• Anchor Free reports that their Media Network serves nearly 1 billion ads per month to more than 13 million mobile web users across 190 countries and 5,000 web site properties
• 3 million of those 13 million consumers make $100,000+ annually (comScore)
• Ad media = videos and contextually-relevant banner ads
• HotSpot Shield usage grew by 500% in 2008 and they locked in some major advertisers (American Express, McDonalds, New Line Cinema, et. al.)
• They report an 8% click through rate (CTR) on their video ads. That’s HUGE! (Consumers are presented with a 30-second spot upon turning on HotSpot Shield.)
• Users = captive, mobile, affluent, tech-savvy, security-conscious
• AnchorFree has seen huge adoption in places where the Internet is otherwise censored… they report 1/4 of the English-speaking population of the United Arab Emirates uses HotSpot Shield

HotSpot Shield: http://www.hotspotshield.com

AnchorFree: http://www.anchorfree.com/

P.S. I’ve decided to spare you some clever/lame joke about The Daily Anchor / AnchorFree, but just know that I’ve spent the last 20 minutes trying to think of one.

Like I said in my A Little Bit of Good News In a Bad News World post a couple of weeks back, I am SICK of hearing bad news everywhere. So that is why I was happy when, while researching this week’s article, I found that advertisers are infusing their ad campaigns with positive messages. It all started when I was walking up the street the other day and saw an ad on the side of a bus for Quaker Oats.

Have you seen these new ads? They are so cool! Lots of white space, and a close up, cropped shot of the Quaker Oats guy with the words “Go Humans Go.” In case you are unaware, there are quite a few Quaker products out there. Quaker says they are using this as an opportunity to unite all their products into one campaign and promote Quaker Oats as a “super grain” that helps people’s mind and bodies, says Annie Young-Scrivner, Chief Marketing Officer at Quaker Oats. Hey, if you can’t feel good about yourself because you are unemployed or making less than you were, then why not do what you can to feel healthy? Right?

A Shift In The Message

I touched on the subject when I wrote about the influence that Obama’s ad campaign had on big advertisers such as Pepsi, Ben and Jerry’s and Ikea in early 2009. A few years ago, the message was focused on the brand for the purpose of branding a particular product. For example, Pepsi’s 2008 television commercial slogan was “Pepsi is #1” and in 2007 it was “Taste the one that’s forever young.” These days, the message is focused on the consumer by using a positive message to get us through these tough times such as “Hope” and “Every Generation Refreshes the World” And it seems consumers are relating to the optimistic messages. Using words such as “hope,” “yes,” “go,” and “opportunity” are just a few ways advertisers are phrasing their campaigns. In order to relate to consumers, we are seeing advertisers shift from using celebrities, gimmicks, and pretty faces toward clever, simple, and positive messages.

Pepsi’s arch enemy, Coca-Cola is doing just the same with their recent “Open Happiness” campaign. Per a press release on Coke’s website, the central message of this campaign is to invite “the billions of people around the world who love to pause and refresh themselves with a Coke to ‘Open Happiness’ and continue to enjoy one of life’s simple pleasures.” Additionally, the new  campaign will continue to invite people to bring positivity, optimism and fun into their lives through engaging creative and an updated message. Check out one of the commercials below. Just like what movies and video games do during a recession, Coca Cola’s “Open Happiness” campaign takes our mind off of reality for a bit by incorporating humans with a fantasy world.

Similarly, Western Union is taking the time to give themselves fresh look with a new global brand campaign that centers around the word “yes!” Using real people from all over the world and the power of the word “Yes!”, they have developed a series of ads with their new slogan in many languages. A voice-over in one of the ads says “Every day, millions of people around the world are moving their lives forward, making things happen. Saying ‘yes’ to a brighter future”

The campaigns website, www.thepowerofyes.com, gives consumers the opportunity to share the power of their own optimism and opportunity and for every story shared, Western Union will donate $1 (up to $100,000) to one of three educational non-profits organizations: Academy for Educational Development, Mercy Corps or Room to Read. The creative behind Western Union’s campaign is focused on the optimism and hope inherent in the word “yes!” and highlights tangible acts that bring the brand to life.

Visa recently launched their first global advertising campaign, entitled “More People Go With Visa.” In a press release, Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa Inc. said “The ‘More People go With Visa’ campaign is an invitation to make the most out of life every day, a powerful message. It’s not about spending more, it’s about using Visa for those things that are important to you every day.” Again, I see a shift in the message here. Remember those credit card ads promoting using your card for that vacation you have always dreamed of? It seems those are long gone. Now, Visa is focusing on consumers using their Visa card for important everyday needs. The message is optimistic yet realistic. Additionally, the new campaign will focus on consumers using their Visa debit cards, versus a credit card. A wise decision, with so many consumers worrying about credit card debt and overspending.

Final Thoughts

We are seeing a shift in marketing messages and advertisers are trying to relate to consumers in a much more realistic way. This isn’t a time for the vanity, selfishness and outrageous statements that we’ve seen promoted in ad campaigns in the past. This is a time for us all to come together and power through this, and a key factor to that is maintaining a positive attitude.

Every Some Fridays The Daily Anchor offers up the best articles we’ve read all week. Most are recent, some are old, but hopefully they’ll all be useful, interesting or entertaining. The list isn’t huge and it isn’t exhaustive, because if it were there’d be no chance you’d read them all.

• 18 Questions Your CEO Forgot to Ask When Building Your Website | Stuntdubl
  2 year old article but still full of great resources

• Pepsi Tries to go Natural | Reuters
  Psst: Using natural sugar still won’t make it natural

• 40+ Sources To Download High-Quality Royalty Free Stock Images | InstantShift.com
  30+ of these sites I’ve never heard of before… great to have alternatives

• Twitter: We Can Do What Google Can’t | AdAge
  A little insight on why Twitter rejected Facebook’s $500 Million buyout offer

• Facebook Launching Real-Time Homepage | Mashable
  Facebook used to update Newsfeeds every 10-15 minutes. That’s so 2007. Taking a cue from Twitter, real-time updates have arrived

• 26 New and Awesome Web Apps You Probably Don’t Know About | Crenk.com
  All 26 of these are brand new to me. I’ll need to check them out this weekend

• Skittles Dives Head First into Social Media Marketing | MarketingVOX
  They get a concussion in the process, too

• Social Media for Restaurants | Social Media Explorer
  Know any restaurant owners? Send this their way

• Top 10 Tools for Your Blog or Website | Lifehacker
  Tools for launching and maintaining a web presence

• The Best Complaint Letter Ever? A letter to Virgin Atlantic | Yahoo! News UK
  One man’s expression of his culinary misfortune on a recent transcontinental flight: “Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their [sic] with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about. Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:”

• The Best Company Names of All-Time (slideshow) | Inc.com
  Um, Inc.com’s list of the best company names of all-time

• Snickers Creates its Own Language: Snacklish | NY Times
  Snickers + Taxi = Snaxi

• How to Do a Killer Resume – Model it After a CEOs | BNET
  10 tips

• VIDEO: 25 Things I hate About Facebook | by Julian Smith

Image credit: Survey.com

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

We have all muttered those words before. It usually has to do with a personal experience with a friend, foe, lover, family member or whatever, but it’s relatable to marketing as well. Have you ever had someone tell you they would do something and then they do something else? That’s called inconsistency. And when all is said and done, it is the action that we tend to remember, not what we were told what was going to happen. So why don’t brands remember this in marketing? Sure, words themselves are very powerful when marketing your brand [insert slogan here,] but if there is no consistency, then what is the point? When your actions don’t match up, the words are meaningless.

Small Businesses and Marketing

I see this problem a lot with small businesses, especially those that don’t have a real marketing team. A lot of times, marketing gets pushed to the side when budgets are tight and small business owners tend to think that they can handle it themselves. Au contraire! What happens is about 10 people get their paws on an idea, logo, marketing piece, website, et cetera and it turns into a hodge podge of ideas. Marketing by Committee leads to inconsistency and a message that leaves the customer confused. Are you promising something that you cannot follow through on? Or something that your employees cannot live up to? Do you promise to deliver on a certain timeline but are always late? You better shake those habits.

Not only is consistency important in the message, but in the look. Lately I’ve been seeing TV ads for a law firm that were clearly made in the early nineties. When I see the ads I always wonder who would hire this firm: if their ads are so old and outdated, then they must practice law the same way. Similarly, have you ever come across an advertisement, been intrigued, and then gone to the website only to wonder if you were on the right site? Great ads with no follow through will lead to zero conversions. Instead, why not create a targeted landing page that hammers home your message? It is said that the average person sees 3,000 ads per day, so clearly it is important to send the same message over and over again so that it sinks into the viewer’s head. I have come across so many people that don’t see the power in this. Whether you are marketing to the masses or a specific niche/industry, those that are interested in your product will see your message if you are consistent.

What To Do?

Building a marketing team or hiring even one dedicated person is really the best way to make sure your message is clear, concise and consistent. If budgets are tight or you don’t need a full time marketer, then contract the work out to a professional as a low-cost, high-return alternative. There are many aspects of marketing (design, pr, writing, etc.) and if just one aspect is neglected then it can screw up the whole plan. Contractors, consultants or full-time marketers will have the right tools to make sure every marketing piece, website or advertisement will look professional and not homemade.

If hiring a new employee, consultant, or contractor isn’t an option, remember to at least keep your message consistent (can I say consistent one more time?) and keep in mind, what worked for you 10 years ago isn’t going to work today. The rules and trends in marketing are ever changing. This advice seems simple, but like I said, so many small businesses end up with a muddled message because they pull information from many different places. By keeping all aspects of your marketing plan consistent you’ll have a better chance of establishing your brand in the marketplace.

To get up to speed on the ever-changing world of marketing, think about getting a masteral in management or marketing so you can handle your business the best way, consider enrolling at university of phoenix mba.

Editor’s Note aka shameless self promotion: I’m sure many small business owners reading this article are in no position to hire a full-time/salaried/benefited employee, let alone build a multi-faceted marketing team. I’d like to offer you an alternative. The creative minds behind The Daily Anchor are also available as niche-specific Consultants covering Online Marketing, Sales, and Print & Online Advertising, and we’d love to talk to you. Throw out your preconceptions about consultants, contractors, and their bloated rates and archaic methods. We’re a new crew with a new way of doing business. Say hi: andrew@thedailyanchor.com

Regards,

Andrew S. Lennon
Editor-in-Chief  | The Daily Anchor
Online Marketing Consultant | SEO, SEM, Web Development & Design, Social Media

This is the first in a series of posts in which The Daily Anchor will bring in fresh perspectives from “the real world,” in an effort to see outside the confines of our media-bubble.

Every marketer and advertiser is inherently prejudiced: we are incapable of divorcing ourselves from our professional perspective, and our notions of what consumers might think are as contaminated as the Tennessee Valley.

I Wouldn’t Buy It Even if You Forced Me – Oh Wait…I like This One…

by Leigh Walker | Guest Editor | The Daily Anchor

Find a better way to reach me! First, if you’re doing any kind of email spam, just stop. No young adult wants to go into their e-mail account and find over 100 messages that are advertising things they don’t want or need. Do you honestly think a 19 year old wants to get constant e-mail alerts about your product? Searching a database for people’s e-mail addresses and then sending them useless information is not a way to have them subscribe or purchase your product. And this goes beyond email spam… unless I specifically sign up for your newsletter, I should never see an email from you.

Advertisements on social media sites are just as bad as the one’s that I receive in my e-mail.  When I’m checking out my friends’ profile on Facebook, there’s always a weight management drug or liposuction ad specifically aimed for girls my age. It seems that advertisers specifically aim their products at people my age because they feel that we’re all self conscious about our appearance.  Newsflash: placing ads on MySpace or Facebook like that are not going to encourage me to try your products, especially since I’ve grown up in the technology age and know what ads to look at and what to ignore.

On the other hand, Apple does a great job of reeling in people my age. Most of the products I have are all apple; MacBook Air, iPhone 3G, iPod 80 GB, you name it I probably have it or have had it at one point.  The Mac vs PC commercials catch my attention the best. Comparing and contrasting two different products allow viewers to truly absorb what is being said.  Apple products are completely reliable – which is why people purchase so many of their products.  Yes, they may be pricey, but the quality is worth every penny.

If a product has prestige, it will most likely be obtained someway.  If it has a good rep because people said so, it’ll get purchased.  If it’s pretty or looks cutting-edge, it’ll more than likely get purchased.  Ads that show beneficial factors of the product, for me, will draw me in more than ads that just try to be clever.  The more we know about a product within a 30 second to minute commercial, the more likely people my age will remember that product.

SkyMall Magazine is the largest magazine with the most advertising, but their advertising gets people on a plane to end up ordering an item or two – or three – or four.  The iPulse, for example, was a hit item in the SkyMall Magazine back in 2005 and yes; I purchased one from The Sharper Image. Its pretty lights created by the music coming from an MP3 player or iPod intrigued me immensely.  But isn’t that how most companies that create products create revenue; through advertising and impulse buyers?

Well I’m no expert but the advertisements of pretty things or incredible technology that are posted around shopping centers trigger that whole, “Ooh! That’s interesting, let’s check it out!” or the whole “Wow. Pretty. I want it…NOW!” ordeal.  I’ve been in that situation before with designer handbags.  I see an ad in the mail for a new COACH handbag and I go crazy if it’s the right size, color, and style.  I end up going to the outlet store and finding it.

So what does this mean for all you advertisers and marketers out there?  Well, stated plainly and simply, find a better way to target your audience and draw them in. Most ads are just as bad as email spam. If you want to grab my attention, do your research on what interests people in my generation, and base your ads off that. Show me something interesting, tell me about its beneficial factors, and compare and contrast to other products. If you make it look good, establish a good rep, and build prestige around your product, then even if your product costs more than your competitor’s, I’ll purchase it from you.

Leigh Walker is a 19 year old Journalism Major at San Francisco State University, and hails from San Rafael, CA.

Photo credit: Tidewater Muse

Sometimes things are just better left the way they were. Lately, through the thousands of social marketing tools that have entered our world, customers are getting a chance to speak out like never before. Here are a few recent examples of how customers have responded and some questions about what is really going on here.

Case Studies

PepsiCo announced this week that they will be scrapping the sleek redesign of Tropicana orange juice cartons that launched just three months ago, and go back to the old style of packaging next month. What gives? Consumers spoke and PepsiCo listened. Although, I tend to be a fan of a sleek and clean design, I can understand where Tropicana fans are coming from. The old packaging included the longtime Tropicana brand image, an orange with a straw in it, which I have to admit, I tried to do with my own orange and straw when I was younger. Customers expressed their views on the redesign in letters, emails and phone calls. Do a Twitter search, and you will find a ton of buzz around the topic as well.

Facebook caused quite an uproar last week when they changed their terms of service, which included language that would allow them to keep user information in perpetuity, even after your account is deleted. Needless to say, FB users were not happy about this one. There were Facebook groups formed, Twitter was blowing up, and people were posting article links about the topic on the FB page and updating their FB status to bring attention to the situation. And as We The People cried out, Facebook responded and went back to the OLD terms of service immediately.

Last November, Motrin posted an ad on their website that caused a big uproar with moms all over the country. It was in reference to carrying a child in a sling or a wrap, rather than pushing them in a stroller or carrying them in your arms. The evening it came out, it was the most tweeted item on Twitter. A Motrin Ad!!! The ad was promptly pulled from the website and Motrin’s VP of Marketing released an apology.

You can see a trend in these three stories and the trend is Social Marketing. Through email, Facebook, Twitter and blogs, these subjects became highly talked about by consumers and they were talked about quickly. So quickly, that these major companies made rapid changes to what caused the uproar.

How Do You Feel About This?

I feel torn on where I stand with having this kind of power as a consumer. First, I think the power of social marketing is shining bright in these situations. Consumers have an opportunity to come together and voice their opinions at a rapid pace.

But, secondly, what does this mean for future redesigns, change or terms, et cetera? I think we have all learned in our professional careers, that there are always going to be complainers; people that can absolutely, positively complain about everything and anything under the sun. And if there is change, whether significant or small, some people will accept it or be happy about it and some will not.

Just a Gimmick?

But, could this also a marketing/publicity gimmick? Something to get the consumer talking about their product? I mean, really, who sits around and discusses OJ? And in an economy like this, I would venture to say that most of us are buying what is on sale at the grocery store. But, if you do a Google and Twitter search of Tropicana people are really talking about this! Ditto with the Motrin Ad and Facebook Terms of Service. We talk about it and tell a friend about it, and the next time our friend is at the grocery store and sees the OJ, they think about your conversation and buy it.

I am not really sure how to end this, except to say that I would love your feedback, thoughts, questions or any other similar situations you have recently heard of (please, spare the comparisons to New Coke back in ‘85 though!) The value of these social marketing tools is indescribable and the voice it gives to consumers is a huge advancement in an era where things have become so mechanized. But at the same time, everyone has an opinion on everything… although, I think I am erring to the former, because we have all been treated inhumanely by someone or a company before (hello, airlines!!) and it is good to know that we as consumers can have a voice and be heard.

If social media sites draw some of the highest traffic on the web, why have they had such an awful time figuring out how to generate revenue?

Traditional banner ads have been an epic fail, and with no shortage of sites to choose from users would revolt and traffic would plummet if sites implemented fee-based membership structures. The sole exception to the banner ad rule is perhaps LinkedIn, whose niche audience has proved to be receptive to business- and employment-related advertisements.

Interruption Marketing is Dead

The lead adopter of social media, the Millennial Generation, is wholly immune to traditional advertising. They don’t listen to the radio or read print newspapers, they gloss over magazine ads and fast forward through TV commercials, and they probably haven’t ever clicked on a banner ad. Millennials make their purchasing decisions based almost solely on brand loyalty, word-of-mouth reviews, and capricious whim. The more you try to interrupt their day-to-day experiences, the more distance you put between them and your product.

Take this already ad-immune audience and add another complicating factor: people visit social media sites for a distinct purpose  – to be social – and advertisements become nothing but an annoying distraction that cheapens the experience.

To extrapolate from my own experience, I rarely – if ever – click on banner ads anywhere on the Internet, but at least when I’m browsing the open web I’m in a full-blown state of Attention Deficit Disorder and am prone to click on anything I find genuinely interesting. When I’m on Facebook, though, my attention is fully dedicated to the task at hand – checking in on my friend’s updates and escapades. I’d be hard pressed to find a banner ad that deserves a click-through more than photos of friend’s debauchery from the night before.

Just as I’ve learned to avoid the temptation of uber-processed food crap at grocery stores by skipping the aisles and shopping on the perimeter (think: produce, protein, dairy, etc.), I’ve learned to wear blinders on social media sites, too. I focus on the 700 or so pixels at the center of the page and ignore the ads in the margins. And no, Mr. Social Media Site, if you add horizontal banners within that center-mass I won’t start clicking, I’ll just adjust my blinders.

New Platforms Require a New Approach

Social media sites offer web-based social experiences. Duh. Social experiences inherently preclude a susceptibility to advertisements. It’s no different than if you were conversing with a friend in a cafe; you’d probably be far less likely to read some placard on the counter than if you were alone (well, depending on the friend.) Now imagine you’re in a cafe with 300 of your friends and they’re passing around photos, do you think anyone would even notice the placard? Read it? Act on the offer?

If the problem with traditional advertising is that banner ads are distracting and detract from user experience, then the future of social media advertising rests on making ads part of that experience.

I’m not talking about embedding ads in profile pictures or in user-to-user messages; that’s still like trying to mix oil and water, just in a different bowl. I’m talking about sewing ad offers into the very fabric of the platform in such a way that the ads actually enhance user experience. Yes, ads that consumers would be happy to see, and not only see but engage with. Google, for example, has found a way to generate revenue (sponsored listings via Google AdWords) while adding value for their users (relevant search results.) The integration is seamless and there’s no distraction or detraction.

Back to the cafe: There you are, surrounded by 300 friends (must be quite a cafe,) looking at someone’s photos from Bay to Breakers, and you decide you need a caffeine boost. The cafe wants you to read that placard to hear about their new promo, so what if they offered some incentive – a double soy latte, maybe – if you’d read the placard start to finish, with no commitment? I’d probably try to read it twice.

The New Approach? Make Ads an Integral Part of the Experience

Offerpal Media, based in Fremont, CA, has found a way to do just that: embed ad offers into the fabric of the social media experience. Last week I met with Matt McCallister, Offerpal’s Director of Marketing, to discuss their unique approach on social media advertising. From what I heard, Offerpal is set to revolutionize the industry in 2009.

MySpace, SecondLife, Facebook, Friendster and a host of other social media sites have all opened up their Application Programming Interface (API) to allow 3rd party developers to develop applications for their platforms. This has given way to the creation of virtual worlds in which users can earn virtual currency as they progress through a game. The platform may be different, but the concept is exactly the same as we’ve seen on video game consoles over the past decade; someone playing a game can earn virtual currency by completing goals or challenges, and then use that money to buy virtual property/guns/clothes/etc.

Offerpal has created an advertising model that ties into the virtual currency system on those community-based applications by allowing users to earn currency in exchange for participating in ad offers. In short, as a user progresses through a game they are presented with offer-based ads that will enhance their experience of playing the game.

How does it work?

Offerpal provides an iFrame that is embedded in a publisher’s website. The user never leaves the site, and the iFrame stacks multiple offers on each page – 20-25 offers/page – and also breaks them down by categories (surveys, signup form.) With 2,000 offers in their system, Offerpal says the wide variety “enables users to find an offer that they would have been interested in anyway (‘I’ve been meaning to sign up for blockbuster DVD rental account’, or ‘I needed a new quote on auto insurance,’) which translates to very high quality leads for advertisers.”

Just like Google search results, users are only likely to look at the first few pages of offers. Thus, Offerpal presents them first with the offers they’re mostly likely to choose based on profile data, social behavior, and past engagement offers.As users fill out more offers they become further qualified and the ads become more targeted; if a user always selects surveys over lead forms, then the system starts presenting the user with surveys as the first choice. Ohe goal is to increase the quality of the experience, thus prolonging the time spent playing the game and creating additional opportunity for revenue generation.

A Quick Example

The #1 application on MySpace is a game called Mobsters. Think “The Godfather” in game form. The game involves role playing, and as a user begins their mob career as a petty thief, they need to complete missions and earn virtual currency in order to build their criminal empire and leverage money as power (I’m seeing some parallels to real life here.) In the game, users can click on a “Godfather” link, and the Godfather offers them “favor points” for taking part in ad offers. OfferPal has teamed up with MySpace and dozens of other social media sites, advertisers, and creators of applications like Mobsters to present users with over 2,000 ad offers. Playing a racing game? JiffyLube might sponsor a scenario in which you need to get an oil change in order to improve your car’s performance.

Click here for an 1191 x 951 image.

Virtual Currency Can Generate Some Very Real Revenue

The Cost Per Impression (CPM) and Click Through Rates (CTR) of traditional advertising on social media sites are notoriously low. Offerpal’s engagement-based ads, however, require a user to complete an action (e.g. fill out a lead form, sign up for a free trial, fill out a survey, download a ring tone, watch a video ad, etc.) in order to be compensated with the virtual currency. For advertisers, this means immediate conversion. Advertisers pay via Cost Per Action (CPA) – a flat fee per survey-completion or free trial or signup.

Everybody wins: Advertisers see previously unheard of conversion rates, which gives social media platforms access to substantial means of revenue generation. For consumers, advertisements become a seamless part of the user experience, encouraging them to engage rather than ignore.

As for Offerpal, they’ve recently secured $15 million in Series B funding, so if their growth in 2008 was any indication of their future success, I think they’re primed to revolutionize social media advertising.

The Bottom Line For Advertisers

When it comes to social media advertising, traditional marketing is antiquated and ineffective; a waste of your ad spend. The ad-mentality and online behavior of the Millennial generation makes them all but inaccessible, and trying to “interrupt” them with classic methodologies is only going to widen the gap. Whether you embark on a partnership with Offerpal is beyond the scope of this article, but what matters is that you realize engagement-based offers are the future of social media advertising. Don’t try to interrupt consumers, make your offer seamless.  Don’t distract them from a social media experience, help to enhance it.

To learn more about Offerpal, you can visit their website or download their media kit (PDF.)

Photo credit: Elisa HH