And yeah, I know; I have some phone calls to return…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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I’ve enjoyed a terrific career making advertising but three years ago, when my prior agency’s fortunes changed suddenly and radically, I looked up and realized the world had changed while I was busy making TV campaigns. I had largely ignored the biggest revolution in marketing: the pervasiveness of digital screens, the stunningly-swift adoption of social networks and the increasing presence of mobile marketing.

I started blogging everyday to force myself to explore all these emerging platforms and immerse myself in the new reality. As Facebook continued to work it’s way every deeper into our lives, I started to recognize how social networks can provide savvy brands with crowdsourced PR. I was amazed how transparent and public people had become, sharing remarkable details of their personal lives. I learned about search and geo-tagging and the seamy creepiness behind unchecked online tracking. And I probably saw more than my fair share of virals and flashmobs and public self-destruction at the hand of Twitter.

I learned a lot, both by actively searching for subjects to discuss and happily, by reading comments posted and emailed from smart people offering their own points of view.  It’s been wonderful catching up.

But I gotta cut back. We’re doing lots of interesting things up here in Minneapolis, expanding the agency as we build and activate all sorts of brand communities for a wide range of clients. And I need to dedicate more time to that process.

So thanks for reading, thanks for your attention, thanks for your help. Going forward, I’ll post every now and then–habits can be tough to break–but my pace is definitely gonna slow.

Because advertising’s pace certainly isn’t.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Olson

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This news story has been popping up all over the web, along with allegations that it could be a total scam.  Apparently three Austrian Apple fans/development geeks spent the past two years developing a fifty-two inch table monitor with a working iPhone interface that they dubbed “Table.connect.”

And apparently, that’s not entirely legal.  Thus their insistence on anonymity.  And thus the suspicions.

Still, their YouTube demo video currently boasts over 2.14 million views.  And it’s a whole hill of fun to watch because, well, it’s an iPhone screen and it works like an iPhone screen.  Oh, and it’s huge.

Their prototype table uses a dock to transfer the information from a hacked iPhone into the massive touch screen but the developers believe they could hack any touch-input device as an input.  You can find more details about the device on their blog.

Only time will tell whether or not we’ll see a device like this in the future but one thing’s for sure: it would make mobile surfing a whole lot easier to read.

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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It makes sense.  Everyone carries a cell phone these days and the penetration of smart phones increases dramatically every quarter.  People use their phones to research all kinds of things during shopping trips so the aperture seems right.

The only problem is that despite all the headlines and conferences, no one can point to a single “kick ass mobile ad.”  Because there’s no such thing.  And don’t hold your breath for one anytime soon…

A post this morning on Digiday reports on a nationwide survey conducted by Sybase 365, a self-described “mobile commerce and content delivery company.”  The Sybase folks breathlessly report that over 30% of all consumers would buy things from their mobile devices if they were offered a discount or coupon.  From this, they conclude mobile commerce is about to hit “critical mass” because “mobile commerce ties the physical to the virtual world.”  Oh boy, pinch me.

Yes, this is advertising.  No, it’s not particularly interesting.  This is advertising at it’s most transactional, purely functional level.  It is database activation and optimization: certainly a necessary and useful pursuit, but not one laden with personal meaning or consumer engagement for the brand.  It’s commerce yes, but not content.

Hopefully, if the mobile platform proves relevant to consumers, someone will find a way to innovate brand messaging on mobile screens.  I just hope that by that point, my eyes aren’t too far gone to notice.

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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As much as I love Cupertino design and think the iPhone is a fascinating little device, it’s basically a crappy phone.  It drops calls like a butterfingered juggler and the promise of 4G connectivity is laughable given it’s frustratingly sporadic 3G coverage.

Conventional wisdom says I should blame AT&T and truth be told, I do.  But I never felt right giving Apple a pass on this one.    Which is why I was cheered to see this piece written by Danish mobile consultant John Strand.  In it, he dares to tell the truth about this wildly popular device: it has barely over 1% of the total global mobile phone market.  As Strand points out, “there are more people with Polish passports in the world than iPhone users!”

Strand argues that the iPhone is a niche device.  And he’s right.  What’s interesting is how much sway it has in the media.  He compares it to Paris Hilton–he just doesn’t understand why it gets so much attention.  Given that most agencies regularly offer iPhone app ideas to clients, this information does give you pause.

As an advertising person, I’m particularly culpable for this misinformation.  We have all been so moved by it’s elegance, so enraptured by it’s digital life integration, so charmed by it’s apps, that we forgave far too many other sins.

Which is yet another reminder: never underestimate the power of coordinated, synchronized PR.

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By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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More informative however, was this second story about Pizza Hut’s iPhone app.  The headline is how that pizza chain generated over one million dollars in sales off of this app by making it easy to use, and offering 20% off every order coming through it.  This ongoing discount is a perfect example of a value add–why should I put your branded app on my phone?  Oh, because you give me real value for doing so.  Maybe that’s why their app has been downloaded over a million times.

In similar fashion, both Papa John’s and Domino’s are rolling out mobile ordering sites as well and claim large incremental boosts to their sales volume.  And really, doesn’t that make intuitive sense?  I won’t buy a car via mobile, but making pizza delivery simpler is a real benefit.

And doing it for 20% off is a positively killer app.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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...And Everyone's Watching

For advertisers, that’s terrific news. But candidly, it’s even better news for traditional ad agencies that long specialized in television production. Because despite the flurry of new formats and technologies, the fundamental consumer desire to watch video thrives unabated in a platform agnostic manner.  Clients who ran to new media shops based on the strength of their technical prowess alone may want to reconsider; the viewers are there, but you can’t assume they’re an eager advertising audience.  It takes compelling content to earn an audience, and that starts with story.

Two recent posts on this subject actually make for an interesting compare and contrast. Last week, Chris Rohrs, the president of the Television Bureau of Advertising (find their rather hideous website here), posted a persuasive editorial in Adweek where he cited recent Nielsen       time spent data that registered the highest numbers in their nearly sixty-year history.  Nielsen suggests the average American household spends eight hours and twenty-one minutes in front of the TV every day, with the precious Teen demo logging nearly three and a half of those hours.

He went on to cite a March study from Ball State’s Center for Media Design, hailed as the “largest observational look at media usage ever conducted.”  Rohrs takes great delight in that study’s finding that ninety-nine percent of TV viewing in 2008 was done on a “traditional” TV with less than 5 percent of that viewing using DVR playback.  Web video from YouTube, Hulu and all other Web/cell phone media accounted for less than one percent of all viewership.

Obviously Mr. Rohrs has a bias to present but still, he uses these facts well to rebut the conventional bromide of so many new media advocates: “television is dead.”

Of course it isn’t Chris.  Say it with me, won’t you?  ”Television is not dead, it’s just diversified.”

And that’s the point Gavin O’Malley made yesterday on MediaPost: viewership on all three screens has never been higher.  Special events added extra fuel to online viewership numbers as people watched the Inauguration and the Final Fours from their desktops.  Again citing Nielsen, US online video usage grew thirteen percent year-over-year while mobile jumped more than fifty percent.

The two mens’ numbers around DVR use seem to conflict but the undeniable truth is that we are watching more video than ever…which must have something to do with this great nation’s rampant obesity, but that’s another blogpost.

Call me self-interested but my takeaway from all of these findings is that agencies deeply schooled in television production can no longer be cast as behind the times.  The collective skill and experience all that commercial production engenders gives us a leg up over any putative content provider, particularly if we’ve moved aggressively into new media anyway.

Like so many things, the means don’t matter nearly as much as the ends.  Facile skills on specific platforms mean nothing if the content isn’t there.

Stories, drama, ideas always come first.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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The Right Message At The Right Time

But content won’t be the biggest challenge for creatives over the next few years; context will.  Advances in data farming and technology-empowered customization will challenge creative imaginations to anticipate and empathize, to visualize and speculate around consumer engagement occasions like never before.  Soon, it will no longer be enough to dream up a surprising idea; we will have to go further and determine how to customize that idea based on variables like target age and gender, time of day and social setting, even changes in weather, news and collective mood.

To truly exploit context demands a more fully immersive imagination: a skill previously unasked of advertising creatives, yet one that will increasingly drive the differentiation and success of marketing platforms.  Messages that reference, or at least acknowledge, the world surrounding them will find more receptive audiences.

Context has long been the promise of mobile marketing.  For the past few years, we’ve been promised the revolution of using GPS location to activate messages regarding local offerings and attractions.  It also promises to improve search as algorithms grow more sophisticated at filtering meaning based on user data.  And it promises to reinvent usage of the humble coupon, creating ever more relevant offers based on demographics and location…and perhaps even astrological signs.

Historically, traditional agency creatives have ceded the entire contextual domain to direct marketers.  But as technology continues to improve and refine user data, innovative thinkers will dream up ways to use this information to exponentially improve the relevance, engagement and impact of their ideas.

Because the most powerful messages are deeply personal.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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