Are social networks last year's virtual worlds. Today the social advertising network AdNectar announced data confirming that its branded virtual goods campaigns can boost purchase intent among social network users by 20% or more. The data was sourced from both third parties and AdNectar's client advertisers and released as part of an AdNectar whitepaper. AdNectar's result figures are astonishing when compared to the at most 2% purchase intent lifts generated by traditional advertising campaigns.
“Virtual items have become mainstream and are integral to many of the top social media applications,” said Nir Eyal, CEO of AdNectar. “Users have come to expect them as a part of the social networking experience and they seek out better ways to communicate with friends. AdNectar simply replaces what is are generally generic offerings, with branded virtual items that add to the user’s enjoyment while driving awareness and sales for advertisers.” “The users always know more than the marketer about what they and their friends like. Study: Streaming media a growing cash cow. Technology Review: A Manifesto. Even 15 years ago, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, those 18th-century London gallants and the founders of the Spectator, would have recognized the modes of business that characterized our newspapers and magazines.
Not now. For 300 years, two related sources of revenues sustained journals: subscriptions and advertising. But the Internet taught readers they might read stories whenever they liked without charge, and it offered companies more-efficient ways to advertise. Both parties spent less. Today, media companies are sickly. As I write, the New York Times Company is threatening to close the Boston Globe if the latter will not produce $20 million in union concessions. What can be done to save them? The Götterdämmerung-of-mainstream-media argument has a weak and strong formulation. The strong version is most associated with Dave Winer, a grumpy California software programmer best known for helping to develop the Web-feed format RSS and for his blog, Scripting News. Editing Pontin's manifesto. Right-sizing the mass audience There's an important idea at the top that we shouldn't miss.
Pontin opens by arguing for a mass-media future in which the circulations of individual printed publications decline to reflect their natural audiences. The notion of "right-sizing" the audience for publications is long overdue in Pontin's profession. I learned it, of course, not from some mass media mogul, but from blogger/podcaster Dave Slusher in 2005. Why get smaller? Pontin's dictum "Publishers should charge fewer readers more for subscriptions" makes sense in this limited context, but keep your eye on this bouncing ball, because we'll be coming back to this point. And note this extremely important distinction: Pontin, who comes from the magazine world, already lives comfortably in the niche universe. Paid content and free content Pontin's manifesto point A.3 is worth quoting in its entirety because it's spot-on: And of course I agree. But let's pause for a moment. Back to advertising Oh dear. MySpace Might Have Friends, but It Wants Ad Money.