For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Navigating The Twittersphere

How To Market On Twitter

by Nate Elliott, November 19, 2009

Successfully engaging with consumers on Twitter requires both the right overarching strategy and a series of small best practices. Interactive marketers must ensure that consumers can find their brands' accounts, confirm that they are legitimate, and . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Case Study: The NHL Uses Tweet-Ups To Energize Its Fan Base And Reach New Audiences

by Nate Elliott, November 4, 2009

To create excitement around the start of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the National Hockey League (NHL) worked with fans to organize a series of tweet-ups that took place simultaneously around the world — energizing more than 1,000 fans directly and . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Three Steps To Measuring Social Media Marketing

A Measurement Framework Based On Objectives, Not Technologies

by Nate Elliott, October 29, 2009

Interactive marketers know they're not good at measuring the effectiveness of social media: On average, they rate their own efforts to measure social initiatives at only 4.5 out of 10. Marketers fail because they focus on the metrics that are most easily . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Online Video Ad Creative

Digital Studios, Crowdsourcing Vendors, And Video Contests Offer Marketers New Sources Of Creative Content

by Nate Elliott, October 28, 2009

As interactive marketers' use of online video advertising grows, more of them face the challenge of finding video ad creative. For many interactive marketers, this means simply repurposing TV spots; however, television creative isn't always appropriate . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

The Analog Groundswell

Using Social Media To Create And Amplify Offline Influence

by Nate Elliott, September 11, 2009

Smart interactive marketers know that consumers trust each other more than they trust the things they hear from companies and the media — but most fail to realize that face-to-face offline influence is both more common and more powerful than online influence. . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Brands Should Reach Gen Xers Through Word Of Mouth

by Nate Elliott, August 25, 2009

The once "ambivalent" Generation X — adults ages 30 to 43 — has become a mainstay of the workforce. This generation has adopted social technologies and is highly vocal as nearly half tell their friends and family about products that interest them. Brands . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Video Contest Checklist

How To Choose The Right Premise, Prize, And Promotion For Your Contest

by Nate Elliott, July 7, 2009

User-generated video contests help marketers listen to and energize users and provide them an inexpensive source of promotional video content. But contests can require significant time and money and don't always succeed. Interactive marketers who plan . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

User-Generated Video Contests

Best Practices For Driving More Entries And Creating Viral Impact

by Nate Elliott, July 7, 2009

Many interactive marketers — encouraged by a string of high-profile user-generated video contests — are beginning to run online video contests of their own. These contests help marketers listen to and energize young users and can even assist with traditional . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Why Marketers Should Ignore Engagement with Rich Media

Marketers Must Look Beyond Measurement's Shiny New Toy

by Nate Elliott, June 26, 2009

Interactive marketers — especially those with branding goals — have been keen to embrace richer and more complex ad formats. But richer ads often bring with them richer metrics, and many marketers — who are unfamiliar with these new measurements and unsure . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Online Directories And Internet Yellow Pages In Europe

by Nate Elliott, May 29, 2009

Most Europeans follow traditional national preferences when looking for directory information: British and German users prefer offline directory options, while French users — trained by Minitel to get phone numbers and addresses on their computers — show . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Coordinated Multichannel Campaigns

Strategies For Capturing Users' Reactions To Brand Advertising

by Nate Elliott, May 15, 2009

Most marketers invest heavily across a wide variety of marketing channels but still struggle to fit the pieces together: Only 45% of online advertisers coordinate Web design and search with their advertising creative. To achieve better coordination, marketers . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

How To Set Goals For Paid Search Success

by Nate Elliott, May 13, 2009

Search engine marketing dominates the online advertising landscape: Nearly half of US online ad spending is dedicated to paid listings. However, too few search marketers understand how to measure the business value of paid search campaigns. As keyword . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

The Joy Of Text

Using The Golden Rule Of SMS Marketing In Europe

by Nate Elliott, May 5, 2009

With nearly three-quarters of European mobile subscribers using short message service (SMS) each month — and barely one-quarter using any other mobile service — SMS remains the one mobile marketing option able to deliver a large number of users. However, . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Best Practices For Integrated Sponsorships

Defusing Technical And Logistical Landmines

by Nate Elliott, April 28, 2009

Twenty-eight percent of US interactive marketers have run a content sponsorship or advertorial in the past year. However, marketers consistently run into roadblocks that result in less than ideal creative execution and even missed launch dates. To plan . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Return To The Behavioral Bandwagon

Online Ad Targeting In Europe Is Finally Rolling — And Just In Time

by Nate Elliott, March 31, 2009

With the economy in trouble and interactive marketers working hard to justify their budgets, online ad targeting can provide a vital boost in campaign performance. Spurred on by new offerings from Google and other vendors, marketers' use of online ad . . .

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Monetizing Online Video In Europe

Balancing The Needs Of Advertisers And Users

by Nate Elliott, February 27, 2009

With European online video ad spending set to more than quadruple in the next five years — nearing €1 billion in 2013 — the majority of publishers have now set their sights on the in-stream video ad opportunity. Advertisers prefer pre-roll ads to other . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Benchmarks And Best Practices For European Online Video Advertising

by Nate Elliott, February 27, 2009

Our June 2008 Online Video WebTrack evaluated the state of European online video advertising by reviewing 583 online video clips and 137 in-stream ads across 49 sites. Interactive marketers have more opportunity than ever before to reach Internet users . . .

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

European Online Advertising Through 2013

Search Will Fare Best In A Recession As Channel Shift Accelerates

by Nate Elliott, February 4, 2009

As the economic recession starts to bite into advertising budgets, growth in online advertising will slow: European online ad spending will grow just 10% in 2009, down from 30% annual growth in 2007. Search will fare best as interactive marketers focus . . .

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Shopping Site Features in Europe

Improving Search Functionality, Product Imagery to Increase Sales

by Nate Elliott, December 2, 2008

As tough economic times force Europeans to spend less, they plan to do more product research online. The online retailers whose sites offer the most useful features and information will be well positioned to turn browsers into buyers.

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Social Selection

Choosing the Best Social Network for Your European Social Marketing Efforts

by Nate Elliott, November 21, 2008

Although nearly 40 percent of European online advertisers now market on social networks, most social networking site users remain unreceptive to advertising. Advertisers' choice of which network to use can make the difference between success and failure.

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Video and Image Optimization

Leveraging the Growth of Blended Search in the US

by Nate Elliott, November 11, 2008

The majority of Google searches in the US return blended search results (e.g., video, news, maps, images). However, too few marketers leverage the opportunities presented by blended search.

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

SEO for Blended Search

Optimizing Nontext Assets to Improve Organic Rankings

by Nate Elliott, November 7, 2008

Search engines have been blending specialty search results (e.g., video, news, images, blog posts) into their standard search result pages for several years. However, too few marketers are leveraging the enormous opportunity presented by blended search.

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Search Marketing in the Nordics

Focusing on Post-Click Conversions to Overcome Rising Prices

by Nate Elliott, September 26, 2008

Paid search spending in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland) has grown rapidly in recent years as marketers and search engines have sharpened their focus on these markets.

For Interactive Marketing Professionals

The Future of Influence

Understanding and Activating Influential Europeans

by Nate Elliott, September 25, 2008

Most online users trust the advice of other users—even those they've never met—more than they trust product Web sites, advertisements, or professional reviewers. All over Europe, marketers are searching for ways to leverage the power of consumer influence.

For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

Online Classifieds in Europe

Consumers Moving Online More Quickly than Advertisers

by Nate Elliott, September 11, 2008

As consumers continue to shift their classified ad use to the Internet, and advertisers follow, online classified ad spending in Western Europe will exceed €2 billion in 2009.