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Navigate show some Compassion

August 31, 2011 By

Following hot on the heels of our appointment by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, we are delighted to announce that we have been appointed by the leading farm animal welfare charity, ‘Compassion in World Farming’ after a competitive pitch.

Our remit will see us work on all digital media channels including PPC, Affiliates and Display with a particular focus on donor recruitment and lead generation.

Matt D’Alton, joint MD of Navigate Digital said “We are really proud to be working with Compassion in World Farming and are delighted that they have chosen to work with us.  Our primary objective will be to drive new donors and to highlight the terrible conditions many farm animals are unnecessarily made to endure.  We are passionate about helping Compassion in World Farming achieve their objectives in the coming months and will be rolling out some really engaging campaigns which we are excited about”.

Carl Cawthorne, Fundraising Director at Compassion in World Farming commented “We chose Navigate because we felt John and Matt’s pitch combined sound, detailed proposals to support our ambitious digital objectives with a clear enthusiasm for the project and our cause. They went the extra mile to explore the opportunities and challenges we face, and we look forward to working with them across a range of digital media.”

The appointment comes during a period of sustained growth for us – our client portfolio now includes brands such as Palmer’s, Park Resorts and Yotel as well as other third sector organisations including Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, London Borough of Newham and Friendship Works.

 

ABOUT COMPASSION IN WORLD FARMING – www.ciwf.org.uk

Compassion in World Farming was founded in 1967 by a British farmer who became horrified by the development of modern, intensive factory farming. They campaign peacefully to end all cruel factory farming practices. They believe that the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet deserves a focused, specialised approach – so they only work on farm animal welfare.  Compassion in World Farming is based in Godalming, Surrey.

 

Filed Under: Display, Search Marketing

New Business for Navigate….

August 25, 2011 By

We’re delighted to announce that we have been appointed by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research – the only UK charity solely dedicated to research into blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma – to manage their online display activity, following a competitive pitch.

We have already planned the charity’s  first display campaign– aimed at raising awareness of the brand amongst those people directly affected by blood cancer, which breaks during the first week of September on sites including WebMD and Net Doctor.

It goes without saying that we are really excited about working with Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.  Their life saving research is key to finding causes, improving diagnosis and treatments, and running groundbreaking clinical trials for blood cancer patients.

Our remit will see us work on all aspects of their digital media strategy with a particular focus initially on raising brand awareness.

http://leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk

Filed Under: Display

OBA – Consumers need educating too

June 29, 2011 By

It only feels like yesterday that there was a flurry of media attention and columns written about the revised Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive but what has happened since?

I had almost forgotten about it until a client meeting earlier this week in which we were discussing the issue and the client wanted to know if there was any update – which to my knowledge there hasn’t been since the 25th May. I have sporadically seen the ‘i’ icon in the corners of some display ads but that is about it.

So what do we know so far about it? The DCMS, ICO and IAB are working together to work out how best to implement the required changes for advertisers in the UK and have a year so and that it may be having to provide opt-in to cookies via browser settings – which will have important implications for the future for OBA.

Having spoken to a handful of people (admittedly my friends and family – which isn’t entirely an accurate profile of society) I get the impression that the average consumer (i.e. not working within the industry) isn’t aware of the issue and the advanced advertising techniques available to brands. They were all in favour of being shown more relevant and targeted ads to them which is the premise of behavioural advertising. As personal experiences shown with numerous Navigate Digital clients, consumers do respond to it which is shown through greater ROI vs standard run of network/section targeting.

However I can forsee a situation where if the need to opt-in takes place that consumers are faced with headlines about privacy invasion and are thus dubious about opting-in.  I really hope that when it comes down to implementing the changes next year, consumers are aware of all the facts involved and understand why behavioural targeting is used and aren’t just faced with sound bites and hear say. Of course we need to make sure that data collection is more transparent and that there are rules and regulations in place but there is a need to educate consumers who don’t even know it exists. We need a bottom up approach to ensure that everyone is informed but I fear that this may unlikely.

Filed Under: Display Tagged With: ,

The digital world in April

May 6, 2011 By

There are a number of daily digital developments and internally we always look to keep up to date with important and interesting stories within the digital and marketing space. We know that it isn’t always possible for everyone to keep a track of the key stories so every month we will compile what we feel are the top stories of the past month and post them on our blog to share in case anyone missed any notable developments. There are obviously hundreds and hundreds of stories but below is just a selection of key stories for the month of April.

Google launched their new +1 social search service as their major attempt to become more social. Here is a useful video explaining what it is and our thoughts on the development are here. Critically this will benefit consumers who search via their Google Accounts to  ‘leave their seal of approval’ on relevant ads for their friends to see.

Facebook have turned their attention to marketers and developed Facebook Studio as a platform to showcase creativity. Here is our take on it  and we are hopeful that it will lead to a greater pool of knowledge but it remains to be seen…

Behavioural targeting was once again thrust into the limelight as EU legislation is due to come into play later in May. To summarise, it essentially means that businesses who collect and store cookie data from visitors to their websites should gain consent for this moving forward – with the ultimate aim to protect consumers online. This is likely to have an impact on behavioural advertising moving forward and the Online Behavioural Advertising Framework has been launched as a self regulatory initiative. There are sure to be many developments over the coming weeks and here is our view on it.

The BBC have united with a number of commercial radio stations to launch an unified Radio Player that allows users to search by station, location, programme, presenter and interest on one site rather than having to go to each individual site to change the station. This will by no means be a challenge to offline radio but the ultimate aim is to make consumption of online radio easier. In terms of online advertising for the player, we still need to go to each sales house as there is no unified sales point as yet. The player is in its infancy but it will be interesting to monitor developments and listening figures over the first year to see how it evolves.

Online music service Spotify announced that users of its free service would be restricted to ten hours of listening a month with songs playable up to five times only free of charge. The move comes as they look to move people to their premium subscription account (in which there is access to exclusive tracks and also unlimited streaming) and as they also announced their plans to rival iTunes. The move coincided with this week’s nmain which research shows only 3% of people subscribe to music streaming services and shows the reluctance to pay for online content.

And finally, this last story isn’t a digital development but it is a campaign we came across and liked. Air France recently took to the streets of Manhattan with a free food gourmet truck which was promoted via their social media platforms and just demonstrated how brands can cross the bridge between online and offline ‘social’ campaigns

Filed Under: Display, Search Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

How the mighty have fallen

April 14, 2011 By

It was interesting to see this week that once again Specific Media topped the IPA’s online media owner survey in terms of ‘overall satisfaction’.

Specific have been a consistent presence at the top of the IPA rankings for three years and even when they were formerly known as Adviva in 2007, they were ranked 3rd – the first year the IPA ran the survey.

Their recipe for success is simple – they look after their clients.

I’ve been in the media game for a while now – 14 years this year and had it drummed into me in my first few months of employment at the DM agency, Brann, how important it was to manage clients properly. I’ve always remembered this and have taken it with me to all the agencies I worked at before setting up Navigate Digital in 2007. First class account management is now central to our proposition and something I hope all of our clients appreciate.

Anyway, I digress. We work closely with Specific Media – yes they have a good proposition that delivers results, but the people they employ and the way they manage our (and clearly other clients) business is excellent. They listen, are proactive, care about the results they deliver and most importantly understand digital.

It’s not rocket science but it seems that with the exception of a few, media owners still haven’t fully grasped what good account management means. Invariably it’s the little things that go a long way – challenging briefs, being innovative, being proactive and something that very few media owners do – supplying post campaign analysis and feedback (as opposed to taking a budget and running).

We’re in an industry that is still comparatively young to the world of press, radio and cinema – but given that digital is now the biggest medium in the country, one would expect the standards of those whose work in it to be exemplary.  However it seems that many media owners have perhaps focused too much on staffing up quickly with junior sales teams that simply don’t know how to sell to or manage clients properly. (As a point of note, it was interesting to see that four companies that showed the most improvement were cross platform media owners – Haymarket, The Guardian, ITV.com and IPC Media).

Hopefully this survey should act as a wake-up call for big brands such as MSN (now Microsoft Advertising) and News International who are bottom of the ‘overall satisfaction’ league table. In 2007 MSN topped the overall satisfaction survey – but this year came bottom. According to Brand Republic a Microsoft spokesman said the company was “committed to improving customer experience”, pointing to the appointment of Ravleen Beeston as its new head of account services group. Ms Beeston certainly appears to have her work cut out.

The IPA media owner survey is a really interesting insight into how media owners are perceived within the industry and is a piece of research that should be taken seriously. In 2008 Marketing Week ran an article with the headline “Online media owners are failing to satisfy media planning and buying agencies”. It seems that 3 years on the same old problems exist – just with different vendors. Admittedly someone will always be last in the rankings of a survey such as this but by listening to what agencies have to say and sticking to some basic rules of account management there is no reason why overall standards within the industry shouldn’t improve.

Filed Under: Display Tagged With: , ,

The Battle Of Cookie, 2011

April 12, 2011 By

 25th May 1938, The Spanish Civil War – the bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.

25th May 1940, World War II – The Battle Of Dunkirk begins.

25th May 1977, Star Wars premiers for the first time.

3 dates from history that changed the world forever.

Whilst 25th May 2011 is likely to pass most of the UK population by, for many of us in the digital industry it’s poised to be a significant day, as the long awaited ‘Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive’ from the EU comes into force.

However, despite the apparent importance of this new legislation a sense of confusion shrouds it, with many people in the industry still unsure exactly what it is or what should be done about it. 

To clarify – the legislation stipulates that from May 25th, all online businesses in the UK that collects, stores and uses data on visitors to their websites, should gain consumer consent for cookies to be dropped on to their computers.  Put simply, the EU is attempting to ensure that the digital world is on a similar footing to the rest of the advertising world in terms of data privacy and ensuring that consumers are ‘protected’ online.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (headed by Navigate Digital’s friend Jeremy Hunt) will be responsible for implementing the directive in the UK and they have been working with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and IAB to work out how best to help marketers meet the requirements of the legislation in the UK. 

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, recently said “We are proactively working with the government, businesses and the public sector to find a workable solution (to the impending legislation). We recognise that the internet as we know it today depends on the widespread use of cookies and there are of course legitimate business reasons for using them. So we are clear that any changes must not have a detrimental impact on consumers nor cause an unnecessary burden on UK businesses”

Given the proliferation in use of retargeting and online behavioural advertising (OBA) over recent years (which relies on the use of cookies to work effectively) it is clear that many people in the industry are worried about how it will impact online advertising – with some observers saying the law could ‘decimate’ the industry.

In my opinion this whole issue has been fuelled by a minority of scare mongers who simply don’t understand online marketing.  Naturally consumers who ‘don’t get’ online are a little uneasy about the concept of  OBA and retargeting techniques because until now, there has been little information about how it works and the privacy issues that surround it but to say it could decimate the industry is totally ridiculous.

Hopefully the coming months will shed some clarity on the issue.  Having spoken with Specific Media in the UK it appears that independently of the EU legislation, the industry is already making significant progress on increased user consent and control via self-regulation. Essentially, this will result in a European version of the US DAA “Ad Options” programme where a “more info/opt-out” icon is added to online advertising (see picture).

Specific Media described this icon to me as being similar to the “Caution Filling Is Hot” message found on McDonald’s apple pies – “it will discreetly advise the user what the situation is, ensuring the maximum value from their online experience to the benefit of all parties involved”.  We shall see.

What is apparently that key industry bodies and publishers all need to work together to quickly deliver a set of clear guidelines.  Whilst it is unlikely the ICO will enforce the legislation against businesses and organisations in the short term, it is clear that greater consideration needs to be given to how cookies will be used going forward.

Until more direction is given by the DCMS and ICO, advertisers and especially media owners need to be as transparent as possible in their collection and use of consumer data – and as subtly as possible provide users options to opt out, but without scaring them away forever. 

Implementing a ‘best practice’ process now will ensure they are at the front of what is still a rather long and confused queue of publishers, advertisers and agencies.

For more information, see these links:-

http://www.youronlinechoices.com

http://www.aboutads.info

http://www.easa-alliance.org/page.aspx/386

http://www.ico.gov.uk

Filed Under: Display Tagged With: ,

Technological advances serves up food for thought for Media Buyers

April 1, 2011 By

It’s my wife’s birthday next week and I’m taking her to ‘The Fat Duck’ to celebrate.

Nothing particularly unusual there you might think – but when it came to choosing where to take her I struggled to find somewhere I hadn’t been before.

This isn’t me showing off or being some kind of Michael Winner wannabe – but I, like many people in the media industry have been fortunate enough in the past to be invited to lunch at some of the country’s top restaurants.  The digital media industry

For years relationships in the media industry have been built and trading deals secured, over tables at eateries such as Claridge’s, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and The Ivy.  Planners and Buyers of all levels have been spoilt and schmoozed into spending money with media owners based on the size of their hosts expenses budget and not necessarily the quality of the product they are selling or the results that it might deliver for their clients.

However, this traditional way of doing business is looking increasingly archaic as a new kid on the digital block is putting performance ahead of buying power.

The figures released this week by the IAB and PwC showed that in 2010 display advertising encouragingly grew by 27%.  A number of reasons were cited for this growth – including the usual reasons of audience growth, broadband speed increasing and bigger advertising budgets.

However, if like us you have been following the rise of DSPs (demand-side platforms) you are no doubt aware that this growth has actually been massively fuelled by the uptake of the latest addition to the digital media planning & buying armoury – real time bidding (RTB). Real-time and data-driven technologies are now affording advertisers greater targeting and media efficiencies – putting more emphasis on data than ever before.  Essentially this means that media buyers need to become lighter on their feet and more responsive to change.  Digital is a medium that is constantly evolving – and it is important that the people who work in the industry evolve with it.

Navigate Digital have been monitoring these changes to the industry for some time now and have established a dialogue with some key players in this space.  I’m pleased to say that relationships with these suppliers have been based on a hunger to understand how it can benefit our clients and fill a knowledge gap and not around filling our stomachs.

Agencies that are constrained to archaic trading deals and attempt to fob clients off with media plans that look the same for each campaign they run will soon be found out.  No longer can big agencies hide behind their apparent ability to buy media cheaper than smaller agencies because what is now apparent, is that in the current digital media landscape it is increasingly about what you know and not necessarily who you know.

Don’t get me wrong, having a healthy working relationship with key vendors is important and the proliferation of DSP’s certainly won’t see the demise of the media lunch or need for personal relationships – but forward thinking agencies and clients now realise that campaign data and not lunch dates are becoming more important in determining where and when media budgets (especially for direct response focused campaigns) should be spent.

Filed Under: Display Tagged With: ,