A New Wave of Skinned & Tethered Rich Media Ad Units

While at SpaceCamp over the last couple days (in gorgeous Santa Monica), there was a lot of discussion around engaging advertising formats and units. Most of the conversation was around advertising on social media and UGC - which clearly adds a variety of additional complexities. When it comes to advertising formats, two verticals tend to be most aggressively leading the charge: video games and celebrity 'news'. I spend a lot of time actively looking for online ads and understanding what network is trafficking them.... but most consumers have trained themselves to visually block out traditional units (728x60, 160x600, etc). I know from my experience, for instance, that the 728x60 atop this blog doesn't perform anywhere close to the square unit within each post.

Go to IGN.com and PageSix (from the NY Post) to see aggressive, cutting edge advertising (and they've been doing this for a while). They are doing two interesting things:

1. Selling 'tethered' units to the same advertiser. So an advertiser gets two traditional units that site beside one another. The benefit of this is that the units can speak to one another and represent a significant portion of the page - consequently, they get a greater rate than each unit would sell for separately. Typically these units are rich media.

2. Selling 'skins' where the page template is themed and effectively becomes a major advertising unit. Perez Hilton was actually one of the early adopters of this format.

This clearly only works when you either sell your real estate directly or through an agency - but the result is advertising that

- clearly cannot be overlooked - delivers greater value for the advertiser and consequently greater eCPMs for the publisher - and because the units are so rich and stimulating, a relevant and engaging user experience for the reader

Would you rather see these sorts of ads or, frankly, the types of units that appear on this page? The reason this works best (for now) in Video Games and Gossip is that those two audiences are visually stimulated and more welcoming of aggressive promotion. I suspect this will expand quickly - look for sports, video and technology to follow.

IGN - an example of 'tethered' Best Buy flash units:

Page Six skinning their page to promote the new Pamela Advertising show

Page Six's 'tethered' unit for the new VH1 P Diddy show

Sergey Brin: iPhone Users Conduct 30x More Mobile Searches (and other fascinating stats)

On Sunday July 13, Apple announced that 10,000,000 apps had been downloaded via the App Store. A little over a week later - on July 21st, 25 million apps have been downloaded. Now there are 1,0001 apps in the directory - but there doesn't seem to be major acceleration in the volume of new content being released. For instance, there were nearly 500 apps for iPhone's debut... so the directory has doubled since the iPhone's launch.

I expect that there will continue to be a lull in new apps as developers and development teams are hard at work pushing out new products (which is a relatively lengthy experience). I also suspect that Apple will streamline the process of approval and developer registration... I registered for an account five days ago and haven't received a single confirmation / follow up.

So why is this important?

First, the iPhone offers an opportunity for businesses to acquire users en mass and/or define business models. For instance, Pandora had 350,000 app downloads in the iPhone's first week - and that's 350,000 users since you must register to use the service. In Pandora's 18 month life-cycle, they've apparently hda 12,000 monthly subscribers through their other mobile offerings / platforms... but with Apple, Pandora has an opportunity to monetize the free app and their huge user-base with innovative advertising.

Second, mobile search is being redefined by the iPhone. Via VentureBeat (quickly becoming my go-to-morning read): "Google’s Sergey Brin says iPhone is pushing trend toward mobile search – During Google’s recent Q2 earnings conference call, Brin estimated that “on a rough order of magnitude” iPhone users do 30 times as many mobile web searches as users of other devices."

The major question I have is how will Apple get involved directly in the mobile monetization chain. They have undisputedly defined and accelerated the mobile market... but they are currently missing a huge portion of the business by only being the dock and charging the directory fee. Every additional iPhone search is opportunity for Google, AdMob and the Pandoras of the world... and not for Apple.

InGameNow Opens API for Sports Scores & Interaction. What Can You Do With It?

InGameNow formally launched a few weeks ago - giving sports fans the ability to receive real-time scores and analysis via the web, the cell phone and instant messenger.

Today, InGameNow took a major step forward by opening a private API. We are looking for developers who are interested in using our APIs to develop something interesting with our sports community and content... and there are numerous opportunities to engage users and enable real-time interaction / information-sharing for sports fans.

So whether you are interested in taking sports mobile, creating sport / team specific communities, or something completely unique... InGameNow wants to hear from you. You can contact me directly.

InGameNow: Twitter for Sports

RedLasso Waves the White Flag; Bloggers Learn the Consequence of Relying on 3rd Party Content

On March 1st, I wrote that "RedLasso Video Is Taking Off… Out of Nowhere". Since then, RedLasso has become a key tool for most sports and celebrity bloggers who are able to rapidly create videos from network and cable television. The sports world in particular has used RedLasso to grab game highlights and ESPN clips. Today, in a move that really isn't *too* surprising, RedLasso is "suspending" their product's service: "We are left with no alternative but to suspend access to our video search and clipping Beta site FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE." Notably, the emphasis on "FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE" was not mine.

The email suggests that service suspension is around video search and clipping - meaning that no further videos can be made.

... But, the suspension is far more wide spread as it appears that no RedLasso videos are working across the web... effectively suspending the entire RedLasso service and product.

Blogs everywhere are gasping right now as much of their content has been rendered 'dead' and it's an important lesson in the consequences of not owning your own content and/or relying on third parties.

from: Gil Edwards date: Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 11:07 AM subject: An Important Message from Redlasso.com

To Our Loyal Friends and Users:

We would like to thank you for your continued support of Redlasso. You have been essential to making Redlasso a household name online. Unfortunately, due to the legal actions taken against Redlasso by two networks, we are left with no alternative but to suspend access to our video search and clipping Beta site FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. The networks have provided a big blow to the blogger community’s right to exercise the first amendment and comment on newsworthy events. It is anti-Web.

During this service suspension, we will continue our conversations with content providers, with the goal of establishing formal partnerships that will quickly help us restore access to the Beta site. When we return, we will let you know immediately.

For our business and Radio To Web clients, Redlasso will continue to operate and provide those services to you without interruption.

Again, thank you. The team at Redlasso.com

I'm Reinstalling Disqus - Two Months After Turning Disqus Off

Two months ago, I wrote this blog's most read article: After 5 Days on Disqus, I’m Turning Back to WordPress Comments. The quick, controversial summary is that I installed Disqus and, after concerns of not being able to fully leverage that content for SEO and on my own site, I reverted back to the standard Wordpress comment system. Apparently I wasn't the only blogger struggling with whether this issue - the comment debate was rich and included prominent bloggers, Fred Wilson (a Disqus investor) and even Daniel Ha (Disqus' CEO). I concluded that post with the following:

I think Disqus is close. And I expect that I’ll give it another test-drive shortly. But it’s going to take some additional benefits as a blogger (I clearly see the benefits as a reader); and as I think about services I’m willing to pay, perhaps that’s the solution for Disqus: offer premium accounts. I’d be willing to buy that.

Well, I've concluded that it's time to "give it another test-drive" and here is why: 1A. I have become a more engaged, excited FriendFeed user. This is important because, while I still struggle with the SEO fact, it could be argued that a moderate-to-highly trafficked blog will see greater traffic gains through Disqus' FriendFeed integration than through the incremental SEO benefits of the comments. Outside of selfish traffic reasons, following my readers through FriendFeed (via Disqus) is a great, interesting benefit... which leads to:

1B. I've become more interested in discussion and interaction than in absolute pageviews. Obviously, traffic and discussion are correlated, but I'm hoping that both grow with Disqus (and at the very least, that discussion grows).

2. I believe that Disqus will solve the SEO piece ... And hopefully not in a super-technical, API-only way...!). I also assume that Disqus is actively working to fix this.

3. On the same note, I am not sure that WordPress is actively working on a Disqus-like product ... And at this point, that is likely the only solution that I would give preference to.

4. I really respect the way that Disqus reached out directly to me via the blog and email and offered assistance. I am always willing to give my support to products and people who I feel connected with - and Disqus has been great

5. Frankly, I am jealous of other sites that have implemented Disqus. I know many of my readers and commenters have Disqus accounts and I am hoping that they will be more motivated to interact when Disqus is live. I love Fred Wilson's blog and make it a daily read over my morning coffee... but the community he has built and the commenting that exists there is some of the web's richest content.

And with that - Disqus is live... hopefully to stay! I have more work to do on the blog (when not swimming Alcatraz) this weekend, primarily migrating to the newest WordPress version so that I can use the iPhone App.

AdMob Nails Universal Mobile Advertising via the iPhone

Earlier in the week, I wrote about how AdMob, Google and Developers seem best poised to monetize iPhone Apps ...instead of Apple. Now AdMob is demonstrating that monetization can uniformly move beyond Applications and across all of the browsing / web-based utilities that the iPhone enables. AdMob has released a suite of iPhone specific real estate / ad units - and the interactivity is far better than the mobile text ads that are rendered through the Blackberry, sit across many sites and/or are used by Applications like Sports Tap (who uses Google). The question is how much rich inventory currently exists for these formats? Asking advertisers to produce a new 'standard' of creatives is always difficult and a potential bottleneck.

I love AdMob's approach: universally release the new ad units and showcase the formats in a simple, well presented video that coincides with MobileBeat 2008. I am excited about the innovations coming out of AdMob and companies like Twitterific and the New York Times who are creatively integrating ads into their popular iPhone applications.

A Guide to Swimming Alcatraz

This Saturday, I will compete in the famed Alcatraz swim race for the seventh time and will joined by last year's winner and co-founder of InGameNow, Steuart Martens, and Widgetbox CEO Will Price. We will be swimming in the Alcatraz 100 swim race which was recently named one of the ten best open water swims behind other famous events like the Waikiki Roughwater Swim and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. It's clearly not tech related (so if you read this blog for tech news, I apologize), but I am frequently asked about the Alcatraz swim and, with the race a couple days away, I thought it was worthwhile to post a guide to swimming Alcatraz.

Two Alcatraz Courses There are two Alcatraz courses: the most common is from the rock almost directly south into the Aquatic Park beaches. This swim is (if swum perfectly) 1.25 miles long and the last quarter mile is actually protected within Aquatic Park (in a cove near the wharf with a concrete opening for boats). The second course, shown below, is into the beaches of Chrissy Fields. This course is roughly 1.75 miles long and is far more difficult because it requires better sighting and mapping - in addition to better conditioning. The mixture of currents makes the Chrissy Fields swim very difficult. As an example, I swam the Aquatic Park course as part of the Alcatraz 100 race in 2004 and placed 2nd with a time of 28:14. Of course conditions were not equal, I swam the Chrissy Fields course in July 2006 and it took 39 minutes.

View Larger Map

Alcatraz Water Temperatures The hardest part about the swim is clearly the frigid water temperatures which can range from 57-63 degrees depending on the time of year and the city's weather. The first year that I swum the race, the water was around 63 degrees and last summer it was just under 60... I recommend a wetsuit, although Steuart swam the race last year in nothing more than a Speedo. Either way, it's important that you condition yourself for the water temperature and swimming in a wetsuit. Aquatic Park is a great place to get a feel for what the water is like and how different swimming in a wetsuit is. One piece of advice I give is that you will always find Aquatic Park colder because, on race day, your adrenaline is so great that it somewhat soothes the cold.

If you are particularly worried, you can wear swim caps made of wetsuit-like materials - if you don’t have one, you can wear multiple latex caps. Always make sure that your cap is neon colored as its much safer should you need attention or assistance.

If you can’t practice in Aquatic Park, it is recommended that you prepare by showering in cold water (seriously).

Starting the Race Pretty simple and pretty gut-wrenching. Hundreds of swimmers - mostly in wetsuits - stand on the deck of a big cruiser-boat. The race director blows a shotgun and everyone dives in and races to shore. The stronger, more aggressive swimmers dive out first. If you want to avoid the crowds and are doing the swim more for accomplishment than for time, I recommend waiting for the competitive swimmers to dive in first.

Alcatraz Currents Other than the cold, the most challenging aspect of the Alcatraz swim are the currents. On an average day, if you jump in next to the rock and lay back - you will be under the Golden Gate Bridge within 45 minutes! The currents push out towards the bridge, so you must sight east of the landing spot. For the Aquatic Par

Be warned - NEVER aim for the swimmers ahead of you. They will most always be to the your right and, by following them, you will be much further west than they are by the time you reach that point! They have already fought the currents to get to their current positioning - if you must follow a leading swimmer, aim EAST.

Also of note, it is ALWAYS better to overshoot East rather than West. Take a look at the images below used by GPS tracking - you will notice how off course some of the swims are. There is nothing worse or more difficult than having to fight the currents and swim upstream to correct earlier mistakes. It is always easier to swim downstream!

Who is Monetizing the Free iPhone Apps? Google, AdMob, Developers - But Not Apple

I believe that most of the content-based iPhone applications are going to be free over time... and early indications are that this is the case with top free apps include the New York Times, Wordpress, Twitterific, Sports Tap, Jott, etc subscribing huge numbers of new users and downloads.

But as free becomes more prevalent on Apple's App Platform, it's early business model starts to crumble. The premise is that developers charge for downloads and Apple takes a cut of each purchase; but developers are doing two things that jeopardize that model:

1) justifying the apps and 'free' distribution as an effective lever for user acquisition. Jott and other brands are experiencing huge recognition and user-growth.

2) monetizing the app with-in-application advertising.

The latter point is fascinating because it cuts Apple out of the direct monetization path. Here are three prominent free applications and their in-app monetization:

SportsTap has a persisent Google Mobile ad atop each 'page'. Notably, I've missed clicked the remarkably-small "home" icon and accidentally made SportsTap a fair amount of AdSense revenue.

Twitterific introduces ads inline among the message stream. The ad unit seems to be built and sold in-house. It's good looking and says "Ads via the Deck".

New York Times also seems to be selling in-house ads that are colorful and persistent on the bottom of each article page. No ads appear on the home screen or category screens.

So who wins here? It's a major platform for AdMob to extend their mobile advertising reach and for Google Mobile to make a serious splash. Google has struggled to win mobile thus far but could hypothetically increase publisher payouts to win real estate being opened via the iPhone (akin to how Yahoo tried to win real estate during the Yahoo Publisher launch). The ad formats aren't (yet) standard, so I also suspect we will see a significant amount of ads sold in-house by the major players... similarly, I don't suspect there will be huge ad variety in the short term (inventory and quantity of advertisers does not yet match the available real estate).

But what will Apple do? Clearly the platform growth is important and beneficial... but as Google, AdMob and Developers monetize their applications, you can bet that Apple will try to figure out how to get in that stream.

The iPhone 3G is Game-Changing; Game-Ending for Google Android, Blackberry?

I'm likely not stating anything revolutionary here, but it is worth noting that what Jobs and Apple have built with the iPhone 3G is revolutionary. I traded my Blackberry in for the iPhone two days ago now (reactions are here) and the phone itself isn't the revolutionary aspect - it's the platform. I continue to be blown away by the Application platform and store that Apple released. The quality of content and innovation being put out by developers is remarkable (and we've just scratched the surface) - and both the developers and Apple's iPhone SDK / Dev Center are to thank for that. The available libraries are rich and developers are putting them to use effectively and rapidly.

And Apple's ability to leverage iTunes as a distribution lever for the App Store is immensely powerful. How can Google Android and Blackberry compete? Assume that their platform is equally robust and useful... there is a significant first mover advantage here and neither has the distribution platform that iTunes has. Will developers with already-hot iPhone apps choose to build on a new platform / library, or will they find ways to take advantage of their iPhone success with new versions and apps? And, considering their business focus, Blackberry will struggle with consumer applications... which happen to account for a large percentage of iPhone's current top paid and free apps. Meanwhile, it is yet to be seen what time of user Android will appeal to... and I don't expect that developers will dedicate resources without first understanding Android's size and type of userbase.

On a different note, I am not convinced consumers fully appreciate what Apple and the developers have put together... just two weeks after launch. Let's use the New York Times application as an example. It's a glossy, good-looking front-door to the New York Times that dynamically updates itself and allows readers to access news by category, popularity, photos, etc. And on the 3G network - it makes reading a (fast) joy.

It's the #1 'news' application and the 21st most popular free application. Oh yeah - it's 100% free. It has 239 reviews. The average rating is 2.5 stars.

Wait a second... The New York Times is giving away their newspaper in a gorgeous, routinely-updated application that sits on your phone's 'desktop' and is 100% free? And it can be downloaded over the AT&T network in a matter of seconds? And people are rating this a 2.5? Sure - the app can be improved and there are tweaks that should (and will) be made... but think about what was available two weeks ago. To read the NYT, you had to buy the paper, check your email or visit www.newyorktimes.com. Remarkable stuff is going on and the levels of innovation are eye-opening.