For those who have been following me of late on Twitter, you will know I have been wrestling for some time on the measuring of online advertising – especially heightened in relevance due to recession and demands for greater accountability. Steeped within a false notion of “display advertising is dying”, argued by the misinformed who are quoting declining click-thru rates, and materialized through falling CPMs of display media – which will undoubtedly kill off some ad networks over the coming months. We have shown that any intelligence around online advertising over the last ten years plus has been reduced by some to ‘kiss-me-quick’ instant ideologies propagated by code-junkies and barrow-boy buyers.

Clicks originally seemed to afford us an innate intelligence into the future of media, but that was yesterday – and that was all we had. To limit advertising to such simple gratification is to grossly miss the systematic behaviour that results in perception changes and heightening desire afforded by greater stimulation of senses – the nature of true engagement.

Youth take note, you are out of touch with reality seen within a bigger holistic media picture formed through the fires over time, yet we welcome your continued challenge of the status quo. Grandparents your esteemed intellect and knowledge is admirable, yet under question as your reasoning for resistance and reluctance to ask why is being superseded by a tsunami of consumer change that will leave many swept away.

Yet the desire of all of us on both sides of the media fence is to hone our craft and perfect our art form; something we once termed ‘commercial art’ as it was not merely aesthetics alone, but with a duty to inform and educate – and as such had a price-tag of value. It is this pursuit which we try to measure in some kind of simple an tangible way – and offer touch points of an indication of intent – in a manner that is transparent, scalable and portable across all media.

Between the no-mans-land of GRPs and laborious but insightful web funneling there may well be an indication of exposure that seeks to satisfy just that. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you “Dwell” – a measurement for modern media.

Eyeblaster Analytics Bulletin Issue 4 | Trends of Time and Attention in Online Advertising

Download, digest and dispute. We welcome the debate.
And I hope you too will come to Dwell in the land of opportunity.Dean Donaldson | Director of Digital Experience

P.S. Knowing that for some, surface statistics are not sufficient, I have also recently submitted a thesis on Dwell to the Academia world. So feel free to peruse if you want the whole nine yards.

Online Display: The demise of Click, the rise of Dwell
A study into measuring the intrinsic value of online display media and investigation to the nature of advertising and consumer engagement in general. The document is based around a calculated argument for shifting away from historic response-based metrics into a more natural measurement of consumer stimulation.

As part of our Favorite Brand Experience series, we’re pleased to bring you an interview with Soichiro Nishigaki, Creative Director at Fallon Tokyo.

Your idea about the perfect working day?
The perfect working day to me would be to start with riding a bicycle with my iPod on a brilliantly sunny morning. If my loving iPod shuffles to give me songs of Dave Matthews Band, it would be perfect! At the office, no meeting in my calendar, being creative, leaving office around 6pm (not only me but all of my team) and having a happy time drinking beers with my team.

Favorite Brand Experience:
Recently I found the side-kick banner. This way, the user can go deep for getting an experience without leaving the site.  These days there are many rich banners that come floating up or expand without the user’s initiation.  Personally I always think that those kind of things are just really really annoying to users. It could be giving a negative impression for your brand. But this side-kick format provides you with a rich experience with a lot of entertainment and surprise only when the user wants to see it. I like that.

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When are you inspired?
Sometimes it just hits me or coming out from talented folks in my team, but it’s not always that way.After spending hours and days and nights with my team, killing small ideas, stretching, twisting, re-starting.. and then, suddenly brilliant simple idea comes out which we all say “this is it.”
 

What needs to be changed/improved in order to achieve ultimate engagement with users?
First of all, I’d say, we all should do have a clear objective, which means all the people from client, agency and productions should be trying to achieve the same goal. Online engagement with users takes place in various ways it is constantly changing. You can’t say ‘this is the only right way to go.’ Communication through digital can be anywhere and has so much potential. So we all need to be working closely together, being flexible and challenging.

This article originally appeared in iMedia Connection. 

Find out how VW have utilised Twitter, what CNN hoped to achieve with their African exploration, and how Nike are recruiting the Premiership’s finest feet to wow customers.

Advertisers and their agencies are packing more power and content into their ads, realising that users increasingly prefer to dwell on the ad itself, rather than clicking through and leaving the site they started from. Five ads in this month’s Creative Zone highlights illustrate how important this approach has become.

1. VW: Twitter in banner
Media agency: Mediacom
Creative agency: Crispin Porter and Bogusky

VW has been using social profiles to boost ad relevancy by integrating banner advertising with Twitter. The ad engages the user by asking them to enter their Twitter name into a text box. It then analyses what the user has been tweeting about in order to suggest what should be the ideal VW car for them.Even if the user doesn’t have a Twitter account they can still ask for a suggestion and click through to the VW site to read about the car in more detail.

2. CNN: homepage takeover – Africa Expedition
Media agency: Horizon Interactive
Creative agency: Creative Eye T

his overlay ad for the History Channel’s Africa Expedition programme offers users a wealth of content. The space afforded by the CNN homepage takeover has allowed them to launch the ad with a video preview of the show, but users can also play a game, join their Facebook group, download an iPhone app and even set a reminder for their digital TV recorder.Much of the content is geared towards maintaining contact with the consumer long after they have closed the ad, with enough variety to suit a range of preferences and interests.

3. NIKE: Malaysia
Media agency: GroupM MY
Creative agency: Compass Interactive MY

This Nike Ignite skin was developed for consumers in Malaysia and presents a very eye catching set of images as famous footballers such as Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Robinho sweeping across the screen, which scrolls downwards automatically as they appear. You can’t help but take notice.The border around the page end offers users wallpaper downloads for the players and invites them to get involved in the Nike Ignite challenges to develop their football skills. 

4. Transformers: U.K.
Media agency: MEC Interaction U.K.
Creative agency: Creative Partnership U.K.

The Creative Partnership put together an ad for the new Transformers Revenge of the Fallen movie, which allows users to view video and images within an expandable banner and skin. It focuses on the opposing sides within the film to present the varied content without giving too much away.Users can also click through to the official site for the film, but the banner itself does a great job of previewing the film. It’s a great demonstration of just how much variety advertisers and agencies are now offering from within their ads.

5. Apericube

Media agency: Isobar FR
Creative agency: Planete Interactive FR

The Apericube ad promises ‘guaranteed reactions’ and it delivers. The user chooses from an Apericube coloured cheese cube that is ’stolen’ from one of three actors. The ‘victim’ whose cheese was taken jumps out of the banner and wrestles the cheese back from the user’s ‘hand’ all over the homepage. The ad uses mouse-tracking, interactive video and an interactive game to keep users entertained.

As part of our Favorite Brand Experience series, we’re pleased to bring you an interview with Kee Jon-Tjin (Jon), Senior Consultant (Yellow Brick Road Sdn Bhd in Malaysia).
 

The perfect working day:
My idea of a perfect working day is to work from virtually anywhere I am. Home, Starbucks, Shopping Mall (Hey, anything is possible with technology today right?). Being almost omnipresent in my industry, answering every question and problem that clients/agencies face with online (Star Wars –  3D Hologram Style).  

Your muse best comes when:
I am most inspired whenever there is food. Serious! It gets my strategic juices flowing. The more obscenely gross the amounts of food available and consumed, the bigger the idea (Big talk for a skinny guy)

Favorite Brand Experience:
My favorite brand experience served via Eyeblaster is a campaign that was executed for KFC Snackables. The collaboration was an effort by MRM Worldwide (creative) and Carat (media). I had a hand in strategically using Yahoo! Games as one of the main portals to reach and engage their target audience.

The creative was a purpose shot video for online, one of the first in the Malaysian digital industry.  There was a very tempting and clear call to action to engage with the brand. Every time a user feeds the character with one of the special hunger buster KFC snackables, an amusing entertaining sequence takes place and dramatically engages with the character.

The reason I love this ad is that we are able to show the KFC client the true meaning of rich media, and measurement metrics beyond just impressions and click throughs.  KFC definitely imprinted their brand into thousands of engaged minds in Malaysia with this campaign.

Who is your mentor?
I am lucky to have 3 mentors today. Pete Yoong, Rene Menezes and Pete Foo. This “Holy” Trinity are pioneers of Yellow Brick Road and are well known in Malaysia and regionally. Despite their wealth of experience in the digital industry, their unrelenting eagerness to advance themselves in the ever changing industry shows me what passion really is. I don’t think these guys have jobs. They have a lifestyle that lives and breathes to change this industry. I am glad to have found this same passion after working with them for over 3 years. We are rocking this industry to greater things!