Understanding the Economics of Digital Compared to Traditional Advertising and Media Services

Calling this recommended reading would be too light, this is essential reading for anyone working in Marketing. Full stop.

"Understanding the Economics of Digital Compared to Traditional Advertising and Media Services,” is a definitive text explaining how digital is unlike any other medium at a marketers disposal. The book quantifies why digital cannot be viewed using traditional non-digital benchmarks, and how both agency and client will benefit from a greater understanding of the economics driving digital. Presented by The 4A’s and written by McCann COO Joe Burton, this is a users manual for the web2.0 marketplace.

In it, Burton examines:

• the cost and service differences between traditional and digital
• commission rates
• reach and frequency targets
• return on investment capabilities of digital
• key drivers that contribute to the costs of digital advertising
• the differences between digital and traditional executions

The glossary is similar to a document I created for work, a lexicon of digital marketing terms, and in itself is worth hanging on to if you're new to digital marketing.

I would urge all digital and non-digital marketers to give this a read.

Expandable Banner Ads

This is one of the best examples I've seen of an expandable leaderboard ad. The interaction is a fluid user-controlled slide with a corresponding animated (pseudo-video) sequence. The only trouble with running something like this in Ireland is that almost all publishers have strict rules on expandable open and close interactions. Generally speaking it's either click-to-open-click-to-close or mouse-over-to-open-mouse-off-to-close, which almost certainly rules something like this out of the question. A pity really.

Check out these other expandables:
Sony PSP
BT Shredder
Renault: Power Uphill

AdAge Powe150

Just opened up my emails to find out that Digitology has been listed on the AdAge Power150 Media and Marketing Blog list! Seriously chuffed. I guess now the pressure is really on. Time to step up to the plate so to speak.

One in 8 million

One in 8 million is the New York Times storytelling project. The concept is simple; show New York as a "305-square-mile parade of people, all with something to say". So basically this is a collection of "passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions". Check it out – it’s an absolute must.

Wolfram Alpha – Beyond Google

I’ll forgive you if you don’t know who Stephen Wolfram is. To be honest, unless you’re a certain type of geek, you will not have come across his name. Believe me, this is unfortunate because Stephen Wolfram is building something special. Something very special indeed. What Stephen’s building isn’t just special, it’s perhaps one of the most impressive and significant concepts in the last centaury, and that’s a big statement.

I’m going to make a very small presumption; I will assume you are familiar with Google. Google is the preferred search engine for almost everyone’s daily interweb questions. Google is limited though. Google is a search engine, and it will search for information as per your specified parameters. Wolfram Alpha is a different animal altogether. Stephen Wolfram has no interest in killing Google or building something to compete with them (not directly anyway). Wolfram Alpha will be an "answer engine" rather than a search engine.

I couldn’t be more excited about this. I have spoken so many times about Web3.0 and the Semantic Web. I thoroughly believe the future of the net will be governed by intelligent systems that are able to interpret data, and driven by a new need for the people using it. The total quantity of unique data on the net is growing, fast! Simply searching through it would take a very long time.

That’s where Wolfram Alpha comes in. Basically Stephen and his team have built what they calls a "computational knowledge engine" for the internet. This means that you can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you. It won’t just scan through the net and spit out a list of sites that contain your search term. It will actually computes answers for you. It will understand and then compute answers to questions.

Think about it. That’s pretty huge. And I don’t just mean ‘how many litres in a pint’, I mean ‘what were the political motivations behind the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq’. Google can’t do that!