Hasta La Creative!

This week, Adweek offered readers the gentle musings of YP CEO David Krantz. In case your Web browser doesn’t have that URL in its search history, that would be the former Yellow Pages. 

For the Millennials out there in AgencySpy land, that is what was once called a phone book.

It was a bundled array of print technology listing the numbers and logos of anyone in your neck of the woods. What was formerly the listing service of AT&T Interactive decided to skew a little younger by breaking out the two-letter moniker.

In the interview, Krantz stuck up for his brand, downplaying the influence 0f all those cool kids at Google and stuff.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You’ve heard of Vine, right? Of course you have–and we’ll go out on a sturdy limb in suggesting that most of our readers probably don’t think of Twitter’s six-second loop tool as the Next Big Thing in digital marketing.

This week, however, the company unveiled the latest step in its campaign to appeal to those of the agency persuasion: loop counts.

What does that alien phrase mean? Metrics to measure how many times people have clicked on given “vines” have been around for a while, but this one tells us how many times a given clip has looped–and it somehow controls for the “open tab” factor as well. The idea is that viewers will watch the most compelling Vines loop repeatedly, thereby increasing brand retention, etc.

In short, we can now get a better sense of how much Vine campaigns are worth–and, given recent agency trends focusing on more accurate measurement for social media campaigns, some think that this means more shops will have to take Vine seriously.

A few marketing experts weigh in after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Depending on where you work and how old you are, trends in digital/social advertising may be either your stock in trade or the biggest thorn in your side.

According to the always-reliable Market Research, however, the loud victory march of the Ninjas and their allies the Gurus isn’t quite as triumphant as one might think.

In fact, multiple reports show the shift from Old School to New slowing in some respects.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Yesterday, we brought you the story of a well-off British gent discussing how WPP’s GroupM will double its Twitter advertising budget to $100 million for 2014.

Today in what may seem like an attempt to show him up, Gallup released its latest study into the wild. It tells the world something the rest of us have known for years: Social media advertising is as good as flushing $100 bills down the toilet.

Here’s why those Benjamins are swirling down the drain.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Jack Morton celebrates three-quarters of a century in business this week by reminding you why you have so much trouble being creative at work, all via some good old-fashioned market research.

Stick with us here. Researchers conducting the study in question, titled “CREATIVITY: How Business Gets to Eureka!“, surveyed 7,000 young professionals in various industries and locales from California to Saudi Arabia in order to bring you these conclusions:

• While only 73% of all participants consider themselves “creative”, a full 85% of Jack Morton employees think so. The number even goes up by 1% when polling within the U.S.

Now click through for the why…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Don’t be discouraged by Facebook’s organic reach decline. Learn from experts how to continue to drive ROI with social.

It is now harder than ever to reach your audience online: new channels are fragmenting audiences, Facebook’s organic reach has declined to as low as 2%, and impressions of branded content are declining.

So what’s a brand to do? This eBook will show you how to:

• Boost Facebook post engagement
• Expand your reach via multi-channel campaigns
• Ignite consumer content sharing
• Develop a connected campaign strategy

Download the eBook now to learn how to maximize your online social efforts.

Aiming, perhaps, to save to lowly ad banner or maybe to coin a new buzzword, MIT SLoan School of Management Professors Glen Urban and John Hauser are out with a new study which finds morphing ads, banners that change based on known characteristics, result in 83% higher click throughs.

Urban says, “Everyone wants to make their banners and new media more effective. So far, 90% of the effort in banner advertising is on targeting, but that is only half the picture. Equally important is how you should talk to the people you target and that is what morphing is all about. This is an important tool for companies that want to innovate their banner advertising.”

Hauser notes that morphing has “tremendous potential” to increase ads’ productivity. “Companies work hard for 1% or 2% improvement in click-throughs, but if they morph ads based on thinking styles they can improve it by 83%. We also found that it can result in 30% better brand recognition. These are significant effects.”

In the study, which they conducted in partnership with companies like General Motors, the researchers broke the process into several steps. First, they monitored click streams to determine how a consumer makes decisions on the web. After they gathered enough click stream information, their algorithm determined the person’s cognitive style and matched that style to the optimal ad.

Urban notes their solution is the only algorithm that integrates cognitive styles with real-time morphing but they are eager to share it. “It’s very cutting edge, but anyone doing targeting with algorithms could implement our algorithms. This can help move the market to the next wave of action in banner advertising”

The next wave of banner advertising? That’s a bit like saying “the next wave of the Cue Cat” but let’s not be negative. Anything that makes any kind of ad more relevant to the user and more effective for the advertiser is a very good thing.

Here’s the full study.

In the No Shit Sherlock category, Adblock Plus is out with a study that finds “loud” online ads such as flash-like or animated ads result in 36% lower ad recall and a 76% decline in brand opinion.

The research study was conducted by analyzing eye movements of 1,200 research participants in North America and Europe as they viewed a set of test websites. Researchers measured which ads were viewed, how quickly ads were noticed on the page, and how much time viewers spent on each ad. Follow-up survey questions measured ad recall, brand perceptions, and other descriptive information about various ad types.

Among the key findings of the international research:

– Static ads are 300 percent more likely to be rated “easy to understand” than jumpy animated ads

– Flashy animated ads are 200 percent more likely to be considered “dated”

– Ads placed on clutter-free web pages are nearly 200 percent more likely to be seen, and are noticed 300 percent faster

– Participants’ opinion of the advertised brand was 76 percent more likely to be negative after viewing an animated ad versus a static ad

– Ad Recall falls 36 percent when ads are presented on a cluttered website

– Ads are more likeable when presented on an clutter-free website; viewers reported 129 percent higher likeability scores for ads on clean sites versus the exact same ads when presented on a cluttered site

– Likelihood to click (Click Through Rate) was actually lower for attention-grabbing blinking ads than for clean, static ads (26 percent very/somewhat likely for animated versus 31 percent very/somewhat likely for static)

Others have come to the same conclusion. Then again, none of this really matters, right? After all you aren’t actually using banners anymore are you?

Over the last several years, social media has emerged as an effective tool for generating leads. Two-thirds of online adults use social networking, and almost half use it daily. Customers and prospects are using it to discover new offerings and educate themselves as they go through the buying process.

Brands have seen social media become a vital channel with which to engage their customers, to amplify their messaging and to garner more qualified leads. This step-by-step guide shows you how to use social media to support your lead generation efforts, and serves as a blueprint for marketers who want to know the specific steps required to create lead gen campaigns that are promoted via social media.

Download the whitepaper now to maximize your social media’s ability to generate leads.

Think you know all there is to know when it comes to your (or your client’s) social media strategy? Certainly you have your ducks in a row but everyone can use a few additional tips and data points now and again, right?

Right. And we have them for you right here. Spredfast has put together “15 Stats to Inform Your Social Strategy.” The five-page tip sheet is broken into three sections: Social Network Trends, Social Consumer Behavior and Brand Intention and Results.

Download this tip sheet now and make sure you’re social strategy is as on track as it can be. If anything, the tip sheet will arm you with awesome stats for your next presentation.