The graphic below gives a sector breakdown of US VC investment for Q1 this year (thanks to Udemy) and as you can see all the interest is in social and advertising. Perhaps not surprising given the LinkedIn IPO, Groupon filing, progress at Facebook and rude health of the online advertising market.
Banner Ads. They first started in 1994 and are therefore almost as old as the Web itself. They were very effective back then, with the original ad garnering a 78% click-through rate (CTR)! I guess from there we had nowhere to go but down.
Nowadays banner ads get on average 0.2% CTR meaning for every 1,000 ads that are served up only 2 people click on them. And as Jon Steinberg of Buzzfeed points out, the CTRs for social media banner ads are just 0.08%.
Holy Shiitake!
Despite its creation more than 15 years ago, banner ads have been surprisingly resilient despite their lack of efficacy. In the IAB study that revealed the graph above, brand advertisers indicated that their number one objective in online advertising was “creating awareness” followed by “creating purchase intent” or “likelihood to recommend” the product. Yet these seem to be the least effective attributes of banner advertising.
Microsoft Vet Everson Says It Is About More Than Ads and Collecting ‘Fans’
Carolyn Everson made a big splash when she jumped the Microsoft ship for Facebook in February. She’d only spent nine months in charge of global ad sales at Microsoft before being wooed away by the promise of the social network’s advertising potential. Ms. Everson started her job as Facebook’s VP-global sales a month ago, and this interview with Ad Age is her first in her new role.
As Facebook heads toward 700 million users — including most major brands — it is becoming more and more of a crucial media outlet for advertisers.
Facebook had been seeking a sales leader since Mike Murphy stepped down last fall to be an adviser to Facebook partner Zynga. Microsoft is an investor and longtime ad-sales partner with Facebook, so Ms. Everson had plenty of opportunity to become acquainted with her new boss, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
Microsoft’s initial reaction to Ms. Everson’s sudden departure was anger and a potential lawsuit — Steve Ballmer had hired her himself after a years-long search. Prior to joining Microsoft last year, Ms. Everson was MTV Networks ad sales’ chief operating officer, where she spearheaded a $500 million multi-year advertising deal with Microsoft at the end of 2007. She has also managed web operations for Primedia and Zagat in addition to holding posts in cable TV and Disney. Ms. Everson will work in New York, where she can stay up close and personal with her friends on Madison Avenue. She is in charge of a team that is more than 300 people strong, spread out worldwide and growing daily.
A really good presentation from Terence Kawaja on slideshare.
Digital is just now finding its true value as a media channel Display media is at a critical inflection point. Media from Evolution to Revolution.
A funny commercial from Sony Ericsson: Three blond models are testing smartphones.
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