Promo - February 2008 - (Page 16)

B rian Q uinton Interactive Social Tease Monetizing MySpace and Facebook Social networks are not going away—not if usage and membership stats are any indication. It’s estimated that 37% of online U.S. adults and 70% of U.S. teens log into a social network of some sort every month. And marketing research firm eMarketer predicts those proportions will rise to half of all adults on the Internet and 84% of the teenage demographic within four years. Given the shifting appeal of the new, there’s no guarantee that today’s most popular social networks—MySpace with 76 million global members in December and Facebook with 37 million—will still top the charts in 2011. But chances are good that they’ll at least still be forces to reckon within the social networking universe. The problem for these social networks now is finding a way to make them pay. Both MySpace and Facebook earn revenue primarily from ad delivery, and last November both announced new enhancements that they say will enable marketers to connect more directly and more effectively with their networking members. MySpace’s approach is the more conventional of the two. It revealed plans to group members, who break into more than 1,000 subgroups according to the interests they’ve publicly expressed in their profiles. Marketers can then create and place ads that fit those shared interests. The platform is expected to go live by early 2008. The News Corp.-owned company began this “hypertargeting” effort last July with 100 special interest groups. Since then, ad click-through rates calculate as much as 300% higher than the average less than 1% clickthrough display ads get on a basic Web site. At the time of the November announcement, more than 50 significant marketers had signed on to MySpace’s ad program, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Taco Bell. “MySpace is able to scrape non-personally-identifiable data from profiles and group people into different buckets for ad targeting,” says eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “They have enough information to know that not only is a person a videogame fan but whether they like PlayStation or Wii.” One potential problem with MySpace’s twist on the triedand-true targeting approach may be ad blindness. While social network users spend more time on the sites than average Web users do on other URLs, they are also much more focused. That focus may also lead them to ignore ads—even hyper-targeted ones. JupiterResearch analyst Emily Riley says MySpace’s oldschool ad strategy comes naturally from its origins as a content company. “I can’t fault MySpace for taking that route,” she says. “It’s traditionally been very hard for social networks KID STUFF For some Web communities, the fight isn’t over photos and tacit endorsements; it’s about waffles and bee suits. The kid-centric virtual world of Webkinz.com was adfree until last October, when members could click on a “Bee Movie” ad and win their pet some honey or a bee costume. In early December, clicking on ads for the movie “Alvin and the Chipmunks” earned outfits or a plate of virtual waffles for their character. These were the first third-party ad initiatives on the site, which members join by using an access code in packaging of Webkinz toys. The site boasts some 7.3 million unique users a month, mostly children, and the new ads got mixed early reviews. Advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched an e-mail campaign in December to urge Webkinz to cease selling outside ads on the site. “Parents thought the bargain was that they were buying the stuffed animals and in return getting a Web site without marketing aimed at their kids,” says CFCC spokesman Josh Golin. Privately held Webkinz has been silent about the ad initiative but in October outlined some in-world ad principles to the fan blog WebkinzMom. Ads will be only for “quality, family-friendly products” (no junk food or violent toys) and approved directly by Ganz. Premiums to be won will not be explicitly branded, and the ads will not contain links to sites off Webkinz.com. Bottom line: Among parents made anxious by marketing to kids, Webkinz probably has less to worry about than fast-food sellers and cereal makers.—Brian Quinton 16 February 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://Webkinz.com http://Webkinz.com http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - February 2008

Promo - February 2008 Contents Editor's Note Reality TV Products Rebound - Soon? The Real World Young But Not Stupid Social Tease Health Quencher How Effective? Big Game in Big Easy Commentary Mailbox Marketing Q&A: Coke's Kruse Control Gift-Card Monte Room Service The Agency Center Resource Center Can't Beat Loyalty Index of Advertisers

Promo - February 2008

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