37 sites will have the new advertising format. It is very important that advertising stays up to date and innovative, so the companies can profitoff the ever changing internet. I found this very interesting.
These features will include: The Fixed Panel (336 wide x 700 tall), which remains in view as a user scrolls up or down the page. • The XXL Box (468 x 648), the extra wide side-of-page ad that expands to 936 x 648 and includes page-turn and video capability. • The Pushdown (970 x 418), which opens big to display the ad and then after seven seconds rolls up to the top of the page (collapsing to 970 x 66). An initial group of 24 OPA members including The Times, Forbes and ESPN committed to begin making the new standards available to advertisers by July. More than a dozen other Web publishers have since joined the effort, with the 37 participating sites reaching a combined 132.2 million visitors, according to the OPA.
Twitter has been called the shiny new toy of social media. I have learned from Don that twitter fits an older more tech savvy demographic. Well twitter is allowing customization on their pages that will hopefully catch the interest of younger users. Customization has become key in social media as social media inherently celebritizes the user. Everybody is a star on facebook, myspace and now twitter. This website surveys the different types of themes and applications you cna put on your twitter.
WetPaint.com is a site that lets you create a community site for any topic. Its a way for everyone to operate a site and build a community that shares a similar interest. I found the wetpaint page a Television community site. This community site is a TVfan index of what shows are most popular with Wetpaint users. I am unsure about the validity of the Tvfan index page but the website does offer a service rarely seen.
CrowdEye succeeds in giving greater context to results, digesting meaning through graphs,categorizing search terms and highlighting links, as well as displaying recent topical tweets.
Happin.n: Searches through Twitter for tweets any user suggested topics. Crowdeye and collecta provide similar service for twitter.
This article on iMedia was pretty interesting. It talked about current trends and how they can effect your business and marketing strategy. These trends ranged from the growth of social media in digital advertising and marketing to the economy and the inevitable cuts is budget.
Here are some article highlights * Twitter broke into the mainstream, turning many on to its power as a branding channel * Despite dire predictions, display has remained resilient * More brands have embraced social media, helping them solve potential brand disasters quickly * The economy has left several top advertisers in tough shape, which could be devastating for agencies in the future
Running a website is essentially like running a business. Having plenty customers is analogous to having plenty page viewers. But how can we reach out to potential viewers? Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website. Don sat me down and discussed exactly how to gain direct views and drive traffic to my site. He expressed to me that on search engines there are "natural" and "paid" searches. A natural search can be obtained through the relevancy and of the page and the popularity of the page. A paid search is obtained through paying to have your content advertised.
I could also drive traffic to this blog by advertising it on my facebook status and my twitter tweets. This is a direct way of getting to a close network of people I may already know to view my site. Also engaging people about the site instead of simply posting about it may also be very helpful.
I should make sure that the content on my blog reflects what my blog is about to build page relevancy. (A blog about digital marketing should literally mention digital marketing numerous times) I also learned I could link in and link out of sites to drive traffic.
All of these techniques are ways of promoting my blog and getting my page views. How successful is your site?
8 hours and 27 minutes is the average amount of time the average American spends in front of the TV. Wow. That gives a lot of opportunity for advertisers. This article talks about digital TV and its potential in the advertising world. The article claims that internet advertising is immature and not yet proven it self to be highly effective advertising medium. I am not sure how internet advertising is not proven itself as highly effective if internet advertising brings in billions of dollars a year. However the article proceeds to talk about how the arrival of digital TV technology is the wake-up call for TV advertisers because it enables a new way to communicate with their constituents.
The term “Remote Control Marketing” was used to describe a marketing technique that viewers will experience when they could control what they would like to interact with online.
This article is very interesting as it talks about the success of a show, created by the Whedon brothers, exclusively on the web. The article also addresses how advertisers have jumped on the opportunity to advertise on the newest frontier; the internet. I have learned from this article that viewers will watch quality shows via any media. Broadcasting quality shows exclusively over the internet for free keeps the viewers happy and can potentially bring many viewers to a website. Companies want to capitalize on this by running advertisements to promote their brand.
The web show Dr. Horrible was a great success that companies were not able to profit on until the show was uploaded onto hulu.com. This brought in large profit for the Whedon brothers and for whatever advertiser ran ads on hulu.com.
Was this particular success story unique?....... Could this happen again with other upcoming web shows? …….Absolutely! I believe that as long as there is quality material that attracts a large audience, companies could use it to advertise…
The old and New. I spend a lot of time on facebook. Before facebook, My time was spent on Myspace. Before myspace my time was spent on Aim and chatrooms. Where will this lineage of social networking send me? Google Wave might me it.
While arriving in taxi accompanied by Don Steele, I had misconceptions of what Digiday: target was about. Digiday brought together many brands and technologies to examine how they can effectively target their audience and broaden their audience. I believed this seminar that Don was taking me to would be a more open digital exposition featuring many different brands trying to sell physical hardware or software. However I found that this exposition sold mostly different forms of service powered by software. I was happy to see how many people know and respected Don. I graciously feed off his company and was introduced to many influential and innovative people. I was surprised to see how vast the market of audience targeting for the internet is. This internship has exposed me to world I have not acknowledged before. I learned that the digital space has its own unique language and terms, which I am learning slowly. I learned a bit more about Behavior targeting, which is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be interested. I gained knowledge of why when I m searching for sneakers online I will see ads for Nike and Reebok. Search engine optimization is responsible for this. SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. I learned direct marketing as commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, and telemarketing, blasts) with consumers or businesses, which is unsolicited. I have learned that direct marketing has its downfalls if the consumer does not want to be marketed to. At digiday geo marketing was briefly mentioned. Geomarketing is the integration of Geographical intelligence into all marketing aspects including sales and distribution. Digiday expressed how the internet has improved on Geomarketing with IP addresses and iphones. I also have received a better idea of how e-commerce is conducted through service providers. Digiday taught me a lot. It was like being thrown into a foreign world and slowly learning how that world operates and what languages or terms are regularly used. I could see and relate to how MTV Networks marketed their service and product, as being an intern for the company, however other companies still puzzled me as to how they make profit or how they conduct their business. I took the time to take a few hand-out pamphlets to see what these companies actually do. After researching online I was able to see how The Rubicon project offers a service so dramatically different than how MTVN provides a service as Rubicon deals with more with inventory. Digital marketing is a slowly revealing world. I am thankful for the eye opening opportunity.
"While working in Digital Marketing you must stay ahead of trends and popular website communities. Hopefully this website community/ micro managing social outlet will not fall victim to the same fate as myspace, sconex, xanga, friendster etc"
My first day went extremely well. Don took the time to further elaborate on what it is that I will be doing by assigning me projects and going over them with me. This blog was one of the long term goals to accomplish for the summer.
After he introduced me to the office and gave me a red and black notebook to take notes in, he wanted me to go on twitter and find out what the social networking community have been saying about a new series premiering that Thursday, Tosh.0. Jessie James is a Dead man, and E3 were also to be reviewed on social networking sites. This was an important task because it helped gauge the buzz these new shows and events were generating. I then realized how important the feedback of digital marketing is. If you don’t know how successful you are in your marketing efforts, how will you know where to improve? It was also a fun task to do. I quickly put together the information in a short PowerPoint presentation and seeked further instruction from the big guy.
After the PowerPoint presentation was created Don asked me to come see him in his office. …..Don communicates via Aim and email. This is surprising. At other jobs if I had my aim open all day, it was a sign I was goofing off instead of working. …. As I sat in his office I was pleased to see that he was in jeans and a cotton long sleeve shirt and had southparkstudios.com playing on his desktop. I was dressed in a tie slacks and shoes. I quickly learned it was fine to be comfortable and dress down….. I digress. Don reviewed my work, complimented me on it and offered how to improve my research skills. He showed me some tricks with PowerPoint, what to look for in twitter comments and what to follow up on and how to search on twitter. He was moving very quick and speaking very fast, my pen and paper was moving just as fast as I took notes.
Don informed me about Stephen Colbert in Iraq. He told me that Colbert was going to be in Iraq and wanted me to do a special project for him about it. -The project was to look online for military sites and out reach to them- This was a good way to reach the demographic and audience of military personnel. I immediately began working on this as I got back to my desk. I proceeded to explore the internet for military community sites. I was successful in finding a couple and frequently checked in with Don for guidance and ideas.
While I was at my desk, clicking away. Don informed me about a budget meeting I should attend. I went to the meeting with my notebook ready to take notes. My notes were incomprehensible, no coherent sequence of bullet points. Just quotes, stats and other garbled information….. I was very confused….. I was impressed as the seat at the head of the table was left open and Don took position right at the head without hesitation. I wondered if it was left open by chance or by respect. However Don helped facilitate the meeting with help from Megan. Megan works in mobile, she is very intelligent and hard working. (I got a chance to interview her later in that week.) The meeting ended with my note pad full of question marks. I discontinued taking notes, they would have been useless, so I instead took notes of any questions I had from the meeting.
I spoke about the notes and questions briefly with Don but was concerned about finishing my assignment. I continued to work and meet the coworkers around me until the days end. I learned about a number of sites, alexa.com (which I later found out was less accurate than I had hoped), colbertnation.com, imedia.com, dmwmedia.com, 360i, and omniture.com. I was loaded with information from the first day of work and needed time to process and get comfortable with it all. At the end of the day I checked in with Don. He congratulated me on a fine first day of work and then kicked me out his office and sent me home.
Off the Q train at 42nd Street for orientation for my position working as an intern for MTV Networks Digital Marketing!! The orientation room is full of smiling student-interns all hoping to make the best impression possible. I pleased to see everyone in such good spirits and anxious to get started, I know I was. Orientation was extremely welcoming and accommodating. At orientation I did not expect the extensive amount of "welcome aboard paperwork". Sign here, date here kind of stuff. Orientation lasted about 5 hours. After orientation was over and I have introduced myself to other interns and staff, I felt it was time to meet the big guy.
Wait …
Let me back up and introduce myself, I am Shariff. 20 years old from Flatbush Brooklyn NY. I go to LafayetteCollege and I major in Government Law/ Philosophy. I like long walks on the beach, puppies, etc, etc.
Back to business. Even though orientation was over I was anxious to meet my supervisor Don Steele. So I hoped in the shuttle to the west side to meet and introduce myself.Let me tell you a little about Don,
Don Steele is the vice president of digital marketing for the MTVN Entertainment Group. He is executive vice president of digital media at MTVNEG. Don is responsible for setting the strategy and implementing all digital marketing initiatives for the Web sites and digital brands of COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV and TV Land cable channels. Prior to COMEDY CENTRAL, Don managed all e-commerce business at Food Network. He also worked in digital for DELiAs.com after working in the catalog industry at Mitchell & Ness. He was instrumental in the marketing and launch of southparkstudios.com and indecision08.com. He works closely with the mobile group, driving development of WAP sites and iPhone applications.
He is much respected in the world of digital marketing. Don Frequently speaks at events such as OMMA, DPAC, DigiDay, SES New York and Chicago, eTail and Social Times
Don graduated from WashingtonCollege in Maryland and lives in the Bronx with his wife and two children.
Don is very successful in his pursuits of digital marketing. Off the bat while talking to him, he told me about the “ownership of your career”, so Don is immersed in the world of digital marketing and also in the world of MTVN digital marketing. There’s a difference. Don is able to effortlessly choose what is good for the brand and how to effectively market for that brand.......
So back to the 8th floor, where my department resides. Don introduced himself to me with a humble handshake. We then began discussing what I will do for this summer and what I hope to learn from this great interning experience.
I want you, the reader, to both be entertained and informed as to what I do here as an intern for digital marketing at MTV network. It’s an amazing opportunity for me, once in a lifetime opportunity, and I will use this web log exactly as such. I will be logging what I have done, what I have learned, how I feel, experience I have felt, and most importantly the progression I have made. Thank you for reading….
