As the world watched in eager anticipation of change-afoot following the recent US Presidential election, I personally was waiting with baited breath for the results of the Eyeblaster Awards 2008. With all eyes being on the US, New York has not failed to deliver another card up its sleeve and has truly celebrated the very best in digital advertising – and it looks like this year there was more than a couple of show stoppers. As U Talk Marketing highlighted, “breakthrough creative from mythical zoo animals and colourful apparel to touch screen innovation,” this is change happening in real-time, and here is why.

North America Nominees

International Nominees

2008 is the year when cross-channel advertising finally came to be, moving beyond mere banner adverts online into how to work with consumers to deliver brand communication as they look for information across all media. So it is great to see OMD Los Angeles and AKQA London walking away with the first award for the most effective use of cross-channel campaign integration for their respective US and International markets.

OMD used an effective integration of search vs. display advertising to drive awareness and increase viewership for both Beverly Hills 90210 and America’s Next Top Model. Now I personally have got to review the data and have seen the resulting high conversion rates, and the effectiveness of combining both search and display together. When analyzed across a single report, I can tell you to see it in black and white it is incredible how consumers become aware of something from a variety of media sources, and then need to seek further qualification before finally converting. It is the most natural process for human behaviour as little display media in the real world expects a consumer to respond immediately, but expects they need time to digest and research - to finally have a means of evidence on a campaign by campaign level is incredibly powerful for media justification. To see the types of adverts or search terms that are being utilised throughout the conversion life-cycle… this kind of approach is going to revolutionise strategic planning for that advertising community moving forward.

As for AKQA London and their multi-faceted global attempt to raise the profile for Nike surrounding the European football championship, AKQA managed to deliver one of the largest video widget campaigns ever attempted. It ran across more than ten countries and managed to strike chords with a challenging audience though a range of humorous videos that they kept seeding out through the banners and allowed users to pick up the content and add it to their own social networks, homepages, blogs, etc. Anyone who has ever sat at one of my presentations will know just how passionate I am about this campaign that has managed to circumvent all the assumed rules of social network advertising and bring a brand and their audience together to create a hard-core group of brand advocates in their exceptionally personal environment. For a brand to have earned real-time access to a consumer’s personal space by invitation is truly ground-breaking. Again, it is this kind of approach that is revolutionising the interplay with brand communication by allowing the users to get involved where they are and choose how they want to proceed, and once more give us a timely reminder of the change in today’s consumer behaviour.

As for the evidence of the very best in Rich Media;

HP TouchSmart by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco won the North America People’s choice for a superb creative that managed to dazzle and entertain the average consumer for two whole minutes – no mean feat in today’s fast-paced world – and help convey the future of touch screen computing with stunning 3D navigation, slick video, and product info leading to where to purchase. When you think of two minutes dwell time, that’s four times the average duration of a TV spot, and at the user’s own discretion and choice. Digital effectiveness indeed!

Springfield by OnTwice Interactive, Spain won the International People’s Choice for a page and eye-turning creative piece that shows how to take a traditional clothing catalogue and enhancing it with animation and video. This market never ceases to deliver creative inspiration. Utterly simple in execution, but is just stimulating for a consumer to get involved with a brand where they are, in a way they are historically familiar for this sector and ultimately drive a deeper desire for purchase intent.

San Diego Zoo by M&C Saatchi, Los Angeles won the North America People’s Choice and well it should. This is a beautiful execution that reminds me of Dr. Doolittle’s ‘Push-me-pull-you’ where users can design their own animal, send to their friends encourage a viral nature, but in essence it is all about a zoo is a learning experience of discovering new animals, and re-addresses the notion of mere animals in captivity. Armed with the creating of names for your newly designed animal, it again is ensuring consumer attention moves way beyond the mere paid advertising and becomes a talking point amongst friends. Laced with interaction and armed with viral and word-of-mouth marketing, I simply love the balance of strategy and technology here.

Non-stop Fernando by Lean Mean Fighting Machine, UK took the International Judge’s Choice. No surprise these veteran’s of digital advertising yet again push the limits of what can be done in a publisher’s space on behalf of a brand and managed to deliver 14 hours 40 minutes of video into a banner for Emirates. These guys simply do not believe in technical specifications and is a testament of how to collaborate with an ad serving vendor to achieve the impossible. Touching on the personal intrigue we have in a big-brother way observing other people’s lives, you can’t help but keep jumping around the time frame to find out what Fernando is up to next. Advertising that can truly hold attention, we all have so much to learn.

When we add in the fact that one last year’s winners Adidas ‘Impossible is Nothing’ took a Cannes Gold Lion award earlier this year, am sure you will agree, 2008 has laid on an amazing show of inspiration for the industry from across the globe.

With the holiday season looming upon us and in the midst of all this talk of credit-crunch and cutting budgets, the pressure seems to be on the digital industry right now to find answers to help assure confidence. Fortunately, Eyeblaster’s latest Analytics Bulletin seems to be helping do just that.

Bringing the perspective that with the average household being a bit strapped for cash at the moment, the need to hunt for a bargain is ensuring more and more people take to the web to uncover the last minute find to be had.

With a shift of emphasis from mere clicks as a way of justifying success, the report takes its perspective of this bargain hunt and helps show how online activity is a key part of a consumer’s experience in information gathering post-exposure to a marketing message, be that on or offline.

What I found interesting is, when looking at the key dates in the run up to the New Year we see a couple of spikes, one around the last-posting days for sending presents as people spend huge amounts of time online, and then in the traditional last holiday week of the year – when sales are rife. Consumers are spending up to 3 minutes per page looking for information and that means from a marketers perspective, the ability for high-impact brand exposure can be 6x the traditional 30 second TV spot, and within an environment where consumers are already in a consideration-to-purchase mode. The evidence is also seen in the number of videos started, interactions and clicks rising sharply as a result of this extra time spent on page, with no extra media cost.

With inquiry being a natural next step in the consumer life cycle following brand/product exposure, I personally find the move to merge display and search data into a seamless report the most exciting turning point for the online industry and convinced 2008 will go down as a key moment of maturity for digital advertising. Armed with ability to now see consumer paths-to-conversion, Eyeblaster has not been shy in releasing its first research into this area. The preliminary results have found staggeringly that up to 30% of clicks on paid searches happen as a result of being exposed to an online display advert first. When we consider no other media channel expects to measure an immediate result in situation, such as a click, but operate as a stop-and-think sign-post which pushes a consumer into a research/inquiry phase from another source, finding results for a display campaign success within search are for me the most logical and holistic way forward in campaign measurement.

In a media-whipped world of doom and gloom, one thing is for sure, people are looking forward to a Happy Holiday armed with bargains they have found online. In the meantime, for the rest of us who need to instil confidence in the market-place to maintain media budgets, we have been crying out for this kind of research, and I am confident those who are mature in digital advertising will equally take such a view.

Download your copy of the Eyeblaster Analytics Bulletin: Branding the Holidays now.

Le’Nise Brothers, head of interactive, PHD Rocket has just posted a great article on iMedia UK.

Offering a rallying cry for sensibilities, she argues that the key is:

“…understanding of the role of digital in the wider comms mix. Digital isn’t a channel or medium - digital complements and enhances other part of the communications plan, which means that a silo approach where the digital agency / department receives briefs long after the comms planners / comms agency have crafted a solution will never work. Consumers don’t consume media in channels, so why should media be planned in channels?”

She is a woman after my own heart!

Lets face it, clicks DO NOT equal response and are unnatural behaviour towards advertising. They are neither a branding metric nor a derivative Direct Response metric. They only time it can be argued if the latter has clear call to action saying click here to buy, and even then we see appalling fall-off rates.

You simply cannot and will not measure “animated” advertising on TV, Outdoor, Print and dare-say Mobile via a click to prove effectiveness, and neither do I believe it is the most effective way of measuring online display advertising. It is floored and based on historic user experience from Search and we simply would not measure any other media channel by such an immediate trigger-happy response. Every other channel takes a message to the people, not the people to the message (on a landing page).

0.5% clicks is suggesting that 99.5% of people exposed have had no effect. We now know through studies that most of the clickers are not the target audience anyway (reducing actual CPC to your CPM) and have ZERO recollection of the brand - so what is the point of the click? Most people exposed to an ad campaign (wherever) make an emotional connection with a brand that leads them into exploration and inquiry later on - this could be measured within the ad itself, or via search for further info or possibly (but relatively small numbers) on a client direct site. I would argue we trust reviews on places like Amazon more than client site information these days in terms of consumers moving through a conversion funnel.

With this in mind we must measure effectiveness in terms of exposure in situation such as Dwell Time (i.e. the number of seconds user interacts with a creative of their own volition) and then any resulting effect seen along a path-to-conversion - doubtfully clicked and more likely searched. From data I have I can tell you that 10-20% of impressions are touched and played with for 1 minute on average (twice as long as TV spot) and up to 30% of people searching have been “exposed” to an online display ad first. These are lot more exciting and interesting numbers to demonstrate digital advertising effectiveness then the measly few who bothered to click…

Eyeblaster has now officially released its Channel Connect for Search. See Press Release.

For me personally, this is one of the most key developments in online advertising, notably because rather than fighting a declining click-rate, it addresses real consumer behaviour as opposed to assumed behaviour. It gives agencies and advertisers confidence in measuring the effects of online advertising by breaking down the silos of display and search and getting to the heart of the matter – if people are not clicking on display adverts, then what the heck are they doing?!

Very few people click on adverts – about one in a thousand. As a consumer, you would have to be very far down the purchase funnel as a result of supporting media in order for you to click and convert immediately as a result of a display banner. Clicking away from content to a website to me is the equivalent of asking me to get off a bus on the way to work just because I notice a sign through the window saying “discount here today.” Reality being is even if I was interested, I would make a mental note and go back later at my convenience. No matter how keen you were, most of us would still go to work first – we have our own agenda – it is a huge call to action to expect me to get off that bus unless I was already on my way there. But, I still ‘noticed’ the sign…

We are therefore forcing and measuring unnatural human behaviour. No other media channel is expecting users to respond “now”, rather they work together to build up a story where results are seen within a period of time. The lack of immediacy has no reflection upon effectiveness.

Online advertising has created a rod for its own back. Its accountability is also its downfall. This is all about to change.

Often what is missed by mass-media however, even if successful in gaining results, is the consumer journey and process in between exposure and conversion – measuring the true behavioural effects over time. In my analogy, did people research the company and/or product prior to going back there to make a purchase? After all, few of us buy without qualifying first.

We are about to find out…

What is the strategy behind Eyeblaster’s launch of Channel Connect for Search?

The link between awareness and interest has always been a key aspect in a purchase funnel. Traditionally, mass-media advertising has driven foot-traffic to brick and mortar shops where sales staff have been able to answer inquiries live. With web 2.0, much of this conversation now happens online, as consumers look for product reviews and ratings to help qualify their research methods from trusted peers, beyond mere information.

Being able to measure the effects of display advertising beyond an immediate click-through has always been at the heart of rich media. Much of the missing data regarding brand effectiveness beyond the impression is seen by consumers seeking further information – in a way they feel more in control – and that is via search. Linking search and display is in essence being able to measure the conversation between a brand and the consumer more completely. It is now possible to follow the conversation across multiple impressions and channels to the final conversion, giving marketers full visibility of their sales funnel.

What challenges does Channel Connect for Search help agencies and advertisers address?

For any advertiser, it is a mistake to disregard the 99.5% of people who do not click on an advert. No other media are measured on an immediate response, rather a piqued interest that moves a consumer along a conversion cycle. The linking of the data sets of both display and search give insights into actual user behaviors and helps justify investment in display advertising beyond the click. Pulling the results from both areas brings a more unified analysis on behalf of an advertiser as well as revealing the bearing each discipline has upon the other. From an agency perspective, it reveals crucial insights as well as a huge time saving in concatenating or de-duping information. It also helps agencies develop a more natural strategy for advertiser-consumer dialogue, with less forced emphasis on immediate clicks as a way to measure campaign effectiveness. In other words, unified reporting provides clear evidence that the credit for conversions must be distributed beyond the final impression, whether it be search or display.

What brands have used/will use Channel Connect for Search?

Channel Connect for Search was a response to Eyeblaster customers across the globe. They asked for an easy way to integrate their digital advertising channels that provided unified apples to apples reporting. We are currently running major campaigns for many verticals, including pharma, cosmetics, broadcast entertainment, automotive, financial, and consumer packaged goods.

How will Eyeblaster get the word out about the service (i.e. marketing tactics)?

Eyeblaster has a heritage of innovation for helping the advertising community develop against a sea-tide of change in consumer behavior. Eyeblaster has this year gone through a rebrand, representing our evolution from a pure rich media vendor to delivering cross-channel digital consumer experiences. Our staff from around the world are already geared up to discuss this turning point with their agency contacts. With a fresh look and message, a new challenging advertising campaign focused on an industry coming of age, as well as multiple industry speaking opportunities discussing advertising 2.0 – building brand-consumer relationships in a digital age – it is indeed a powerful and exciting and timely message for the digital industry.

Press comments on Channel Connect for Search:

• DM News: Eyeblaster releases cross-channel analytics tool




• ClickZ: Eyeblaster Tries to Bridge Gap Between Display and Search




• Wired: Eyeblaster Announces Search and Display Tracking Tool




• Mobile Marketer: Eyeblaster helps brands, agencies track consumer behavior




• Marketing Vox: Banner Ads Influence Search Conversions; Eyeblaster Tries to Prove It




• Biz Report: Eyeblaster takes marketers beyond the last click




• Business Wire: Life’s Good for LG Electronics as Mindshare Connects Search & Display

It’s an exciting time for Eyeblaster.

As digital starts to permeate every media channel out there, the blurs of online have never been seen more clearly as in the case of mobile. It is redefining our concept of the web and communication.

Consider the digital landscape. From humble garage roots over a relatively short time span, Google, Apple and Microsoft have come to be household names all fighting for media dominance - at the very least a huge piece of the global media pie across all channels. Yet the irony is that with all its clever marketing and design, Apple’s iPhone could not be taken seriously until it had GPS integration with Google maps and was hooked up to Microsoft Exchange!

There is indeed a platform war going on out there, and Eyeblaster is ingrained in this conversation. That is why Eyeblaster is proud to be the premium sponsor of OMMA Global Conference 2008 “Platform Wars”. As we find ourselves in the midst of change from a rich media provider to delivering global cross-channel consumer experiences across all digital media; from inBanner to inStream and inGame, from display to search to mobile to IPTV and beyond.

This week’s Eyeblaster sessions in the US have been entitled “Courting the Consumer: Spending quality time with your audience” where I was discussing brand measurement. The industry has to move from impressions to audience targeting, and find new metrics for online brand activity – it is in a pubescent time as it begins to mature. Branding takes time: From creating initial impact as a result of exposure, to an increased time spent with a brand, to a deeper emotional connection as a result of interaction, to the resulting investigation via search or conversational ‘buzz’ within social media.

A click therefore is a tiny aspect, and often a skewed, measurability for today’s digital world – and has no real relevance to brand managers seeking to measure emotional connections; impact simply cannot always be measured immediately. Comparing post-impression to post-click activity this is certainly proving the case as anywhere between 5-10x more conversions happen as result of seeing as opposed to clicking on ads. The click also has no relevance for digital media in terms of TV and out-of-home as they begin to receive digital connections. It is about exposure, not just interaction.

There is hope however, measuring the Dwell time, the number of seconds spent engaging with a brand, offers a consistent point of measurement for diverse creative executions. It shows the shift of a user in wanting to explore a brand in situation. With the average Dwell time being a minute across all rich media creatives – that is 30 seconds longer than the average TV ad - and at a user’s request. It offers a huge confidence for anyone considering digital brand building.

In terms of the after effects, perhaps this can be seen in terms of measuring actual user journeys. Seeing a consumer’s path to conversion; viewing the movement beyond ‘seeing’ something via display advertising, to ‘inquiring’ about further information via a search engine – and ultimately how the resulting targeting could allow further display creative’s to be even more relevant to the consumer purchase funnel.

This is something at the heart of Eyeblaster’s channel connect strategies, breaking down silos between search and display or mass-media and online. We are beginning to help agencies join the dots.

From iMedia Brand Summit in San Diego to OMMA Global Conference in New York this week, the questions and discussions from advertisers and agencies alike certainly seem to agree – how do we build and measure emotional impact with our audiences in a fast-paced digital world…

It really is a time for change.