Closed social networks the next fad? Maybe so...

As social networking expands, the niche aspect and sexiness of "select" & "exclusive" takes on a whole new turn as businesses get more into the social media thing through the usual suspects of Facebook, MySpace, etc... to engage their customers with "special offers'' that you need to sign up on the page for. Exclusive clubs go back a long time, and there are many on-line now like Small World http://www.asmallworld.net/login.php, and Black Card Cirlce https://www.blackcardcircle.com/, but the opportunity for companies, specifically in this hotels, takes the business model to a whole new place.

It is a way to take the LinkedIn style of networking to a whole new place that allows for more interaction, such as what the Pod hotels are doing with exclusive meet-ups for people staybing in their hotels, in some cases, planning to meet weeks in advance. This same exclusive group model can lend itself to so many ideas, such as any thing that is a chain or linked in group that provides opportunities to get together in other cities, while keeping exclusive company.

B2B Conferences take hit in down economy

Bound to happen, conferences and trade shows take hit as B2B events downscale as less companies look for other ways to get businesses talking to each other. This decision will definitely have reverberation in many ways, not just opportunities for business people to meet on their specific industry, catering, hotels, et al...

This could also be one one of the big reasons that MAC World will make next year their last, with CES definetely happy as they happen at the same time.

As companies test and samples new ways to reach their core constituency, B2B will always be around but will re-engineer itself as it looks to new ways to engage companies and clients, with the most likely avenue being web seminars ona regular basis, less glamaourus meet-ups and scaled down events, and possibly bi-yearly conferences.

Any way that it goes, conferences and events targeted towards the B2B market and in connecting business are core to... well business. They are needed, but hopefully they return and remain in a way not just focused on digital models as those sponosred parties are always a nice place to meet and discuss business.

MINI continues to innovate in advertising

This is a great story. Innovation in advertising, which in some cases translates to content. A German advertising agency has created a MINI ad that brings to life - literally - the new convertible that MINI is launching in Europe. A German company created a technology called Metaio, which is a form of augmented reality. The user takes the advertising out of the magazine and places it in front of their webcam. The picture then appears on the screen, replicating what it looks like but in a convertible style in 3D. Truly amazing.

This has so much potential and not just for advertising but for content companies in terms of intricate story lines, on-line gaming, etc.. The biggets opportunity is to utilize old fashioned media in a way that maintain's it "sexiness" while embracing and promoting what is here and what is next. No word on what U.S. companies are embracing this technlgy but definetly something keep an eye out for in an advetising or media campaign sometime soon.

Mobile CPM's levarage in U.S. market

Mobile CPM's are starting to come down from the high of $50 to $ 60.00 to an average of $15.00. That's a big bump, what's the affect for the sudden change in elevation and downward spiral? Many people measured the 50 - 60 dollar avg. into their financial projections, so that will come as a shock as mobile spreads thinner in terms of video. While the projections may be less than expected and favoured, it still offers many, many opportunities. Those opportunities exist in WalMart looking to sell the iPhone, thousands of homes & customers cancelling their home internet and cable TV packages, with droves of people using their mobile device as their key avenue to the internet. Mobile is here and will grow an dengage the user in more ways than people are using now, while video and other kinds of media is included in that, tangible and functional applications like grocery shopping lists, Point of Purchase, and too many to list. While the CPM drops for mobile ROI, the need for robust and targeted mobile apps and content, much of it delivered through advertising, grows at a fevered pace as companies try to provide the services, technolgy companies try to create grounbreaking apps, and content cerators try to engage an uaindece on the move. This all points to positive and sutainable growth over the next 6 months, and which might even surpass expectations and revenue projections again.

Can lack of development be good news for digital spend.

As the economy falters many people forget that all around people are trying to cut costs, and now we can include and add to that list the fall TV development schedule. Who knows what the real reason is and will it be the smart one, but as studios are looking to cut money due to a advertising slowdown most development schedules have been scaled by close to 30%. This presents two opportunities, one for original content for on-line, and two, for TV studios to rethink their strategy of the past few decades. The second one could be by revisiting a stripped down development schedule that is focused on and still develops and purchases original scripted & unscripted projects for TV, but rethinks how they promote those series. One way could be to produce short-form cost-effective programming content, embracing the on-line production model, and deliver in shorter pieces like interstitial and through various on-line portals. With this model advertising dollars could be spent on-line increasing revenue for some sites, most likely deals would be put in place with Hulu, YouTube, etc... to make sure that their shows are seen through their portals. If done properly it could save millions of dollars, although the prospect of job losses suck, but it is a model that should be tinkered with to see the merit of it, with themuch thought put into possible job losses.

Change is defenitely a coming...

Mobile advertising provides some up ina down market

Sequoia was one of many VC firms that recently stated they were pulling back the strings on new investment based on the recent market crash, and coming storm clouds. Somehow AdMob, and Seqoiua, and some other VC firms missed that memo. Any well. Ad-mob, a company that manages ad buys and advertising for distribution through mobile platforms, recently recieved another 15.7 million in a third round of funding, and specifically with Sequiao spear heding through their new "growth fund" of 1 billion.

While many companies have scaled back in these uncertain times it is still veyr important to realize two things:

Digital media is not slowing, and the U.S. market while very robust in terms of usage, lags behind many otehr countries in terms of technolgy and viable revenue models that actually work.

The mobile advertising market is definelty maturing with more companies and ahenghies looking at the plaform as avery viable and appealing way to reach their audiences, it still is far from its glory days.

So, overthe very short term it might not be that greta of anivestmetn, but looking at internationally a s ameasuring stick, as well aa in the U.S. as it moves rapidly towards a mobile focused economoy that is in man ways 70-90 english speaking, this is a very long-tail and briliant move as Afd-Mob is very well run and has a good product.

Lets look forwrad to seeing more of these balnced but forwrad looking funding announcements of mobile companies.

Does Out-of-home really provide the best ROI?

Out-of-home video has taken off the last for years as a place for content and targeted message to be seen. In Europe and parts of ASIA, Out-of-Home, specifically digital signage at grocers, malls, etc... are turning out to be a viable distribution platform for people with unique and targeted content to be seen while people get through their days.

Now with media buyers and content producers looking to reach new audiences, a new study shows that digital screens in grocery outlets and out-of-home might be the best place to get the best ROI. I know surprising at first but when considering the following it really is not that crazy after all.

Out-of-home includes screens on buildings large and small, as well as grocery stores, malls, and many other platforms that include receiving media on a screen other than the key 3 - mobile, internet, and TV.

If you are a media buyer or content producer, or someone just really interested in pricing engagement, then you would be interested in hearing that ROI has the best return on teh audinece remebering where and when tehy saw the ad. With a betetr return than TV and on-line maybe out-of-home is not such a bad place to reach an audience.