Jonathan Levitt
January 2010
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The iPad might finally turn mobile advertising into a juggernaut
posted by in
Thu 28th
Ultimately, what will make or break mobile advertising–and, by extension, any content distribution strategy based around mobile ad revenue–will be clickability. Web publishers learned the hard way that it’s tough to keep digital inventory sold out at premium prices when average click-through rates are sub-1%.
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The computer, the Internet and Social Media are not the downfall of man
posted by in
Tue 12th
Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen social media galvanize thousands over politics, create as many industries as it has destroyed, and offer an abundance of visual and audio entertainment. But has all this incredible change actually changed us, or just the world we live in?
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Where the purchase process is breaking down
posted by in
Sun 10th
How do you find out what visitors hope to accomplish on your site? Ask them. Simple online surveys, using as little as four quick questions, are the best way to find out the real intent of your customers. No amount of behavioral analysis, click tracking, or user-generated content monitoring is going to deliver the same level of insight as pure voice of customer feedback.
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On Social Media Noise Reduction
posted by in
Mon 4th
Social media cleansing doesn’t have to mean a complete tune-out. With apologies to John Mayer and Matt Cutts and their Lent-like digital cleanses, a little noise reduction can be just as effective.
December 2009
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The only thing I’m prepared to predict, is change
posted by in
Wed 23rd
Through it all, my hopes for the future of digital marketing have remained unchanged. Back in October, I summarized the direction that I think marketing as a discipline has to head in. Marketing must become a participatory mode, where brands can talk WITH consumers instead of AT them. Conversational marketing deconstructs marketing and takes it back to its roots. It restores the sacred trust between buyer and seller–an unspoken compact that used to govern human relations before the industrial revolution. Connecting people is the most critical function of marketing, even more important than collecting data.
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Facebook: Abandoning our Father’s Secrets
posted by in
Tue 15th
In time, most of us will be always on: being disconnected will be the anomaly. What impact does this hyper-connectivity and its attendant transparency on society? I think much is still unknown – but if I had to guess the upside is that it will drive the human race forward at exponential rate.
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What’s the frequency Kenneth?
posted by in
Sat 12th
Technology has catalyzed a certain type of social mutation. A new class (not generation, because it cuts across age buckets) of individuals has sprung up, with hyper-connectivity to real-time digital information their collective sine qua non. This class is distinct from the proverbial masses, who have integrated the web into their information consumption routines without abandoning legacy media.
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Could 2009 be the Last Great Year of Free News?
posted by in
Mon 7th
News publishers—at least the ones that maintain expensive newsrooms– are pissed because their online revenues have failed to offset the bleeding in their print arms. They’ve sought out scapegoats. Thus, groups like the Fair Syndication Consortium have accused Google of running more than half of the unlicensed newspaper content currently floating around on the web. Talk about biting the hands that feeds you. Consider that Google sends news publishers, in the words of Eric Schmidt, “a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle.”
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If you don’t walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the masses, how can you market to them?
posted by in
Wed 2nd
The luminaries don’t like talking about unity. Absolutes make them uncomfortable. They are conditioned to prefer segmented, relative, hyper-contextualized data. And yet they position themselves as being eminently qualified to help companies get to scale and seduce the masses.
November 2009
-
Black Friday makes for preliminary validation of holiday growth forecasts
posted by in
Thu 26th
On the web, the initial prognostications for Holiday 2009 are rosy. comScore pegs online growth at 3% for the upcoming season. While not spectacular relative to pre-Recession year-over-year growth rates, +3% is certainly far more palatable that the 3% decline that online retailers witnessed last year. Others are even more bullish: Forrester analysts project online retail sales to reach $44.7 billion during November and December, a very healthy year-over-year increase of 8%.
The iPad might finally turn mobile advertising into a juggernaut
posted by in
Ultimately, what will make or break mobile advertising–and, by extension, any content distribution strategy based around mobile ad revenue–will be clickability. Web publishers learned the hard way that it’s tough to keep digital inventory sold out at premium prices when average click-through rates are sub-1%.
The computer, the Internet and Social Media are not the downfall of man
posted by in
Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen social media galvanize thousands over politics, create as many industries as it has destroyed, and offer an abundance of visual and audio entertainment. But has all this incredible change actually changed us, or just the world we live in?
Where the purchase process is breaking down
posted by in
How do you find out what visitors hope to accomplish on your site? Ask them. Simple online surveys, using as little as four quick questions, are the best way to find out the real intent of your customers. No amount of behavioral analysis, click tracking, or user-generated content monitoring is going to deliver the same level of insight as pure voice of customer feedback.
On Social Media Noise Reduction
posted by in
Social media cleansing doesn’t have to mean a complete tune-out. With apologies to John Mayer and Matt Cutts and their Lent-like digital cleanses, a little noise reduction can be just as effective.
-
The only thing I’m prepared to predict, is change
posted by in
Wed 23rdThrough it all, my hopes for the future of digital marketing have remained unchanged. Back in October, I summarized the direction that I think marketing as a discipline has to head in. Marketing must become a participatory mode, where brands can talk WITH consumers instead of AT them. Conversational marketing deconstructs marketing and takes it back to its roots. It restores the sacred trust between buyer and seller–an unspoken compact that used to govern human relations before the industrial revolution. Connecting people is the most critical function of marketing, even more important than collecting data.
-
Facebook: Abandoning our Father’s Secrets
posted by in
Tue 15thIn time, most of us will be always on: being disconnected will be the anomaly. What impact does this hyper-connectivity and its attendant transparency on society? I think much is still unknown – but if I had to guess the upside is that it will drive the human race forward at exponential rate.
-
What’s the frequency Kenneth?
posted by in
Sat 12thTechnology has catalyzed a certain type of social mutation. A new class (not generation, because it cuts across age buckets) of individuals has sprung up, with hyper-connectivity to real-time digital information their collective sine qua non. This class is distinct from the proverbial masses, who have integrated the web into their information consumption routines without abandoning legacy media.
-
Could 2009 be the Last Great Year of Free News?
posted by in
Mon 7thNews publishers—at least the ones that maintain expensive newsrooms– are pissed because their online revenues have failed to offset the bleeding in their print arms. They’ve sought out scapegoats. Thus, groups like the Fair Syndication Consortium have accused Google of running more than half of the unlicensed newspaper content currently floating around on the web. Talk about biting the hands that feeds you. Consider that Google sends news publishers, in the words of Eric Schmidt, “a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle.”
-
If you don’t walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the masses, how can you market to them?
posted by in
Wed 2ndThe luminaries don’t like talking about unity. Absolutes make them uncomfortable. They are conditioned to prefer segmented, relative, hyper-contextualized data. And yet they position themselves as being eminently qualified to help companies get to scale and seduce the masses.
November 2009
-
Black Friday makes for preliminary validation of holiday growth forecasts
posted by in
Thu 26th
On the web, the initial prognostications for Holiday 2009 are rosy. comScore pegs online growth at 3% for the upcoming season. While not spectacular relative to pre-Recession year-over-year growth rates, +3% is certainly far more palatable that the 3% decline that online retailers witnessed last year. Others are even more bullish: Forrester analysts project online retail sales to reach $44.7 billion during November and December, a very healthy year-over-year increase of 8%.
Black Friday makes for preliminary validation of holiday growth forecasts
posted by in
On the web, the initial prognostications for Holiday 2009 are rosy. comScore pegs online growth at 3% for the upcoming season. While not spectacular relative to pre-Recession year-over-year growth rates, +3% is certainly far more palatable that the 3% decline that online retailers witnessed last year. Others are even more bullish: Forrester analysts project online retail sales to reach $44.7 billion during November and December, a very healthy year-over-year increase of 8%.
