PV Media Group

The Power Of One

Originally published on the MediaPost Online Publishing Insider
By: Kory Kredit, VP Marketing, PV Media Group

We live in an economy of reduced marketing budgets and increased pressure to reach our audience using fewer resources. While I would welcome a larger budget and a handful of marketing geniuses at my disposal, I was reminded over the past week of the power that one individual could have, given a compelling story and the passion to communicate it.

It’s not likely that you’ve ever heard of Brian Wurzell. He’s not an editor for an online media publication. Brian is not a marketing executive for a fortune 500 brand or a creative director at an ad agency. You won’t ever see Brian’s name featured in MediaPost’s weekly “People on the Move” list or challenging Ashton Kutcher for a popularity contest on Twitter (he currently needs 2,648,546 more followers to catch up to the cinematic genius who gave us “Dude, Where’s My Car?”). 

 Brian is a lot of things including a talented musician, a passionate leader and a man in need of a good shave, but he’s not a media powerhouse. This didn’t prevent him, however, from reaching an online audience of tens of thousands of people across the globe to rally them around a cause that touched him deeply.

On June 29, Brian found out that his friend’s 5-year-old daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor that would require immediate surgery. The shockwaves of emotion that swept over that family, and those close to them, spurred Brian to take action to mobilize a community of online support for Kate and for his friend.

While Brian didn’t have access to a digital agency to launch a viral marketing campaign or a list of media contacts that could produce and distribute a touching human-interest piece, he did have compelling story to tell, a passion to tell it and access to the same online publishing tools that anyone with an Internet connection can use.

Over the next several days following the diagnosis Brian began sharing Kate’s story online. Brian and his wife Promise (OK – so he had some help, but work with me here) produced a short video interview with Kate’s parents and uploaded it to YouTube. They also posted some photos of Kate on their blogs along with her story. Using email, Twitter and Facebook, Brain began to reach out to friends and his network of contacts online to rally support for her. He also hosted a live streaming video prayer vigil for Kate on the day of her surgery.

As a result of these efforts, Kate’s story has been spread across the globe touching tens of thousands of people from Dr. Phil, who posted the video on his blog, to a talented singer/song writer Audrey Assad who wrote a song for Kate and countless others reaching from Australia to Amarillo, TX, from Kenya to Queen Creek, AZ.

In the six days since the video was posted on YouTube, it has been viewed over 42,000 times. The live streaming prayer vigil, which has continued to play on a recorded loop, has now been viewed almost 35,000 times. Audrey’s song for Kate has been listened to more than 6,100 times. As the message spreads, people have begun to flood to Kate’s blog to follow her story and offer their messages of support and encouragement.

All of this happened because one person was able to leverage a collection of online publishing tools and social media platforms to communicate a story they were passionate about.

What is the story you are trying to tell? Is it compelling? Interesting? While the stories we craft for our companies most certainly will not be as gripping as this one, Brian was able to illustrate how one person with limited resources can reach an audience if there is a story worth telling along with the willingness and resourcefulness to use new tools and mediums to communicate the message.

In the days to come, as you are crafting your story, take a moment out of your busy workday, away from your marketing meetings and creative brainstorming sessions to think of Kate as well. The challenges we are faced with in a down economy quickly fade away when compared to the difficult road that lies ahead for this precious little girl.

Evolutionary Or Revolutionary?

Originally published on the MediaPost Online Publishing Insider
By: Kory Kredit, VP Marketing, PV Media Group

Technically speaking, the difference between evolutionary and revolutionary is just one single letter. When speaking of technology, however, the implications of each word are worlds apart. While an evolutionary product is a step forward from where you currently stand, a revolutionary product forges an entirely new path. It is different, bold, and risky -- and also has the potential to be highly rewarding.

There are, of course, inherent risks involved in taking the evolutionary approach as well. An evolutionary product can often be duplicated by a competitor or even surpassed by the next step in the evolutionary time line. When you produce the 7-minute abs workout, for example, the 6-minute abs workout is just around the corner, as Ben Stiller pointed out in "There's Something About Mary."

When Microsoft recently launched Bing, its new search -- I mean, decision -- engine, it was a step forward, but far from revolutionary. In a recent MediaPost Search Insider article, Gord Hotchkiss took a deeper look into Bing's evolutionary advances, but also lamented that there was nothing truly revolutionary about it. Alternatively, Google took a revolutionary leap with the announcement of its new Wave technology. While Microsoft was hard at work plotting the next step in the evolution of search, Google chose to throw away the drawing board instead of simply going back to it. Rather than reinvent search, the company took a bold new path to revolutionizing the way we communicate online.

As I pondered these product launches from Google and Microsoft and their respective approaches, I applied the same filter to the online advertising arena. While the evolution in online advertising continues, we seem to be falling short when it comes to revolutionary ideas.

The display ad unit has evolved in size options, creative content and targeting capabilities. We've continued to see the emergence of unique variations on the display ad unit, like the advertising embedded photos from Pixazza, the social media ad unit that Digg recently announced, and a new entry from Premium Access Media (full disclsoure: this is a PV Media Group company) called the Anchor Ad, among others. While the evolution of online advertising is significant, has there been anything truly revolutionary in our industry over the past year? Two years? Three years? Looking back, the last really revolutionary advertising vehicle online was the launch of paid search, and that hasn't changed dramatically since its inception.

For online advertising to continue to grow and potentially overtake traditional media as the medium of choice for both brand and direct response advertisers, do we need another revolutionary idea -- or can we continue to move forward along the evolutionary time line? Is there a new social media advertising model out there just waiting to burst on the scene? Will video sites like Hulu and YouTube be able to create a new standard to successfully monetize both professional and user-generated video content? Is there another team of geniuses like Google's Lars and Jens Rasmussen hidden away in a back office somewhere, developing the next "wave" of online advertising solutions that will lead our industry into the Web 3.0 world?

If I had the answers to these questions I most likely wouldn't be spending my time writing a column that referenced the cinematic genius of Ben Stiller in "There's Something About Mary," which is why I prefer to turn the tables and solicit your expert opinions. Where do you think we are headed? What's the next big idea that is waiting to be discovered online advertising?

A Peek Into The Phoenix Suns' Online Expertise

Originally published on the MediaPost Online Publishing Insider
By: Kory Kredit, VP Marketing, PV Media Group

Growing up as a basketball fan in a couple of small towns in Iowa back in the '70s and '80s, my access to news and information about my favorite teams and players was limited to a handful of box scores in the local paper, a periodic feature story in Sports Illustrated and an occasional game on NBC. It was kind of like trying to suck a chocolate Frosty out of that tiny straw at Wendy's. What little you were able to siphon out of that yellow cup of frozen goodness was extremely tasty, but not nearly satisfying enough -- always leaving you wanting more.
 
Fast-forward 30 or so years and that skinny red straw has been transformed into a raging fire hose of digital information. Thanks to team Web sites, fan blogs and social media applications we now have access to more content then we could ever consume, and I love it!
 
To get a behind-the-scenes look at what the digital revolution looked like from the inside of a  professional sports franchise, I reached out to the Phoenix Sun's Vice President of Interactive Services, Jeramie McPeek.

Jeramie began working for the Suns 17 years ago as an intern while he was a journalism major at Arizona State University. After graduating in 1995 he was hired full-time and worked in the team's publications department, overseeing the team's monthly magazine, Fast Break.
 
Kory: How Did the Suns initially begin to leverage the Internet as a communication tool?

Jeramie: The NBA launched NBA.com and all of the team Web sites in 1995. I still remember getting the memo explaining what the league was planning to do in putting up this portal on the Internet Super Highway, and I had no idea what they were talking about.... I quickly fell in love with it, though, and thought it was really fun and cool to see the stories that I had written for the magazine also go up on the Web site.
 
Around 2000, I made the proposal to kill the Fast Break magazine and focus our efforts on Suns.com. We were spending around $200,000/year on the magazine and our season ticket holders would get it six weeks after we had written the articles. The content was outdated as soon as they got it. Our executive staff loved the idea and that was the turning point for us in terms of putting all of our efforts towards our digital products.
 
Early on the team Web sites consisted of the rosters and the team box scores. It took the teams quite a while to figure out how they could use it and it took the league a while to figure out how much they wanted to allow teams to do. I think we were the first team to really take advantage of our website and put a lot of effort towards it in the late '90s. We now have an interactive services department and an ecommerce / emarketing department that manages all of our digital media.
 
Kory: How has social media changed the dynamics of what you do online, and how you communicate with your fan base?

Jeramie: The change has been pretty dramatic. Back when MySpace started to get popular, there were a few teams in pro sports that got on MySpace and YouTube initially. My thought at the time was that Suns.com was our bread and butter. That's where we want everything. We don't want to dilute that and start to put out content on these other places because it takes away our page views & impressions from our Web site.
 
Some time in late 2006 or early 2007 I started to realize that you have to go fishing where the fish are. We've got all of these fans that are out there on MySpace and YouTube, at the time, who might never come to our Web site, but they consider themselves Suns fans so we started to change the way we thought about things.
 
We thought that maybe we needed to go where the fans were and connect with those people to build that relationship and hopefully be able to draw them back to Suns.com for certain great pieces of content that we have.
 
There was no reason that we couldn't put out content on some of those sites to communicate with those fans to engage them and grow that fan base. Ever since then we've been expanding what we do and now we're everywhere from iTunes  to YouTube to MySpace, Facebook, Twitter  and Flickr. We're trying to reach fans wherever they are. We also built our own official social network during that time period. We launched PlanetOrange.net in the fall of 2007, where fans can create their own profiles, blog, upload photos and video and make comments on all of the content as well.
 
One of my favorite stories is about a group of about 10 Suns fans from Australia and New Zealand. None of them knew each other until they got on PlanetOrange.net and connected and became friends on the site. They planned a trip from down under to come overseas and follow the Suns on a road trip for five games from Toronto to New York to Boston and Atlanta and ended up in Phoenix. That was an exciting thing to see that these fans met on our site, became friends and are such huge Suns fans that they decided to follow the team around the world. They blogged about it and uploaded photos on PlanetOrange.net documenting the trip.
 
Kory: Is there one medium that has been more effective that the other?

Jeramie: YouTube has been really effective for us. Our largest fan base is on Facebook with a little over 42,000 fans on our Facebook page. Twitter has quickly become the one network where we seem to have the most influence in the social media space and the most engagement with fans. I think that is because it is instant. We can send out updates, notes or quotes from our players and we get such an immediate response from fans replying or retweeting or asking questions. We've only been on it for six months now, but it's been the one that I think has had the biggest impact for us up to this point.  
 
Kory: What is the most innovative thing you've done online?

Jeramie: Our virtual locker room, SunsLockerRoom.com, that we launched two seasons ago might have been the most innovative thing we've done. We worked on that for a period of about six months and got all 14 of our players, our coaches, alumni, dancers, mascot all on green screen for video shoots for our expansive virtual locker room where our fans could click around the locker room to go into the training room, the players lounge, the coaches office, even the shower. We actually won an Emmy award for that site.
 
Kory: Has there been any resistance to the type of access that you provide online from players or management?

Jeramie: Not really. We've been really fortunate that we've had such great buy-in from upper management. They really see the big picture and understand the value of what we do. They let us go into closed-door practices and the draft day war room. During the playoffs we've traveled with the team and shot video on the team plane. Everything that is closed to the media, we've been given access to.
 
Kory: How do you deal with filtering content that might not be appropriate or does not support your brand?

Jeramie: On PlanetOrange.net, since that is our official social network and it is one of our sites, we do watch that one a little more carefully. We want fans to be able to express their opinions and feelings, but we ask that it be done respectfully.
 
As far as Twitter, we can't control what people are saying there obviously. Although, we did launch a site back in April called SunsTwackle.com. We partnered with Octagon digital to build a Twitter site, which aggregates and displays all Twitter messages related to the Suns. It's also got some great filtering that keeps out people talking about the actual sun in the sky. That site is pulling in all kinds of positive and negative tweets about the Suns. We do have the ability to remove tweets there or block a user if something is really out of line. We try to let the fans talk about and discuss the team honestly and share their opinions as long as they don't get inappropriate with their language.
 
Kory: How do you leverage your digital media outlets to drive revenue?

Jeramie: We've done a fantastic job selling our digital properties, Suns.com, PlanetOrange.net, SunsLockerRoom.com. All of those sites have dozens of sponsors integrated throughout them.
 
The majority of those inventory items are sold as part of a larger package with the Suns that a marketing partner comes in and buys. They get TV spots, signage in the arena, have a promotion on court and then they also have some kind of promotion online that could be banner ads, pre-roll spots before the behind-the-scenes videos or sponsoring our online take show. We have flash intros that incorporate sponsors and our virtual locker room had 12 or 13 marketing partners throughout the locker room. There was a Gatorade cooler sitting on the counter next to a player's locker. There was a Verizon BlackBerry Storm sitting on Alvin Gentry's desk where you could click and read Alvin's latest tweets, and a Subway sandwich on a table in his office. The majority of these online sponsorships did bring in incremental revenue or were part of a larger package, but the online piece was a key element of that package.
 
In terms of social media, that's an area where we are still trying to wrap our arms around and figure out the best way to monetize our social media efforts without annoying our fans or ruining their experience engaging with us.
 
Our other big channel of revenue is ticket sales. We try to utilize all of our digital platforms as best we can to create revenue streams for the organization, while at the same time focusing on the fans and giving them the behind-the-scenes and exclusive access and coverage they want for our team.
 
*******
 
It's clear that Jeramie and the Phoenix Suns have grown into a leading edge digital media powerhouse capable of turning on a fire hose of online content for hungry Suns fans across the globe. Speaking of hunger, I could really go for a Frosty right now. Who's with me?

Interview with Andrew Hazen

WebmasterRadio interviews Prime Visibility CEO Andrew Hazen at the 2009 Search Engine Strategies conference in New York. Listen to the interview below:

Online opportunities for your offline network

Published on the Long Island Business News
By: Andrew Hazen

We’re all aware that strategic networking can significantly increase our business while allowing us to meet and help others. But it is shocking to realize this kind of networking really only exists offline, which leaves tremendous Internet and other electronic networking opportunities unexplored.

Traditional networking involves people getting together to discuss objectives, such as potential new customers, and searching for ways to help others attract business. Those that excel at networking are continuously seeking out new methods to assist others, such as asking existing clients if they are interested in the products or services of others in their network.

In addition to in-person events, marketers need to consider how Internet marketing can play an integral role in a successful networking campaign. Take the following case, for example: Dr. Greenberg, a very well-known cosmetic surgeon, is launching a new product line called Cosmetic Surgeon in a Jar. In searching for ways that Dr. Greenberg can effectively and efficiently promote the launch, here is how the strategic Internet networking component comes into play.

First, Dr. Greenberg must identify his target audience. Upon deciding that it is females ranging in age from 25 to 75, the best strategic path would be to provide the following key elements.

An introductory offer sent via e-mail

Such an e-mail enables the doctor to test offers such as discounts, free shipping and the ever-popular “buy one item and get another at a special price.” But first, he must determine who will receive the offers. Again, Internet networking comes into play. Given Dr. Greenberg’s target audience, he contacts New York-based LoveMyShoes.com because its customer base represents the perfect demographic for his product line’s introduction.

The company’s e-mail list contains nearly 200,000 names and addresses of women aged 20 to 45 who buy shoes on the Web. The bonus is that these women are already experienced in purchasing online, so they should be comfortable acquiring Dr. Greenberg’s product line at CosmeticSurgeonInaJar.com.

Dr. Greenberg can encourage LoveMyShoes.com to distribute his information for free by either cross-promoting the site’s products in his e-mail blasts or on his site, or by offering to compensate the company on a cost-per-acquisition basis. For example, for every order that Dr. Greenberg receives based on the e-mail blast, he might compensate LoveMyShoes.com to the tune of $15.

Many other online networking opportunities exist for Dr. Greenberg. Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates sells high-end homes with values exceeding $1 million. Thus, its e-mail list is a perfect fit for Dr. Greenberg. The same goes for Lucille Roberts’ gym e-mail list, which contains hundreds of thousands of names and addresses for fitness-minded women who want to look great too.

A display ad or promotion on a strategic partner’s Web site

In addition to introductory e-mails, acquiring real estate on networking contacts’ Web sites also works extremely well by putting businesses in front of their ideal audiences.

Take Metro Candy, for example. Prior to the Halloween season, it networked with HalloweenScene.com. The two Web sites promoted each other via display ads and promos. The partnership offers a prime example of Internet networking at its finest – both a trick and a treat that gives customers looking for Halloween costumes access to a huge stash of candy.

Networking affiliates

Does establishing networking affiliations entail paying other parties to be included in their e-mail blasts or on their Web sites?

Not if I can help it. I avoid the exchange of money in online networking relationships, preferring free, mutual cross-promotion instead (i.e. cross Internet networking) among related brands to achieve strong results.

The other acceptable alternative, mentioned earlier, is the cost-per-acquisition model.

When networking, it pays to take the extra step of exploring the many existing online opportunities within your circle. Think of it as profitable social networking for your business.

Tweeting helps business to fly

Andrew Hazen was interviewed by Jamie Herzlich for an article on newsday.com. Experts from the interview below:

Hawk.com and Twilert.com that scour Twitter and help you find keywords you want to track, explains Andrew Hazen, author of "Search Engine Optimization: Plain & Simple" (Angel Dough Media; $29.95) and chief executive of Prime Visibility, an Internet marketing firm in Melville. Hazen uses these tools to track conversations daily on Twitter that mention search engine optimization or Hazen and Prime Visibility.

There's an abundance of Twitter tools on the Internet, notes Hazen, who has compiled a list of them at PrimeVisibility.com/twitter.

He uses Twitter to position himself as an expert source by posting helpful URLs and tips daily, as well as to drive traffic to his news aggregator site, BreakingNews.com, by posting headlines of the day on Twitter and providing a link back to the BreakingNews site.

...read the entire article on newsday.com

Golfing (and Fishing) for Charity

PV Media Group, AdOn Network and Premium Access Media made another attempt at competing in the 5th annual Fore Noah Golf Tournament this year. As evidenced by this photo, our foursome of Josh Hinsch, Seth Page, Dominic Salido and Kory Kredit didn't compete for the title, but we all enjoyed our fishing and golf ball hunting expeditions and even made slight improvements from our score in 2008. Overall the event was a huge success and raised $58,000 for the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation.

Check out the rest of the Fore Noah photo album.

The Kiss Hello

Originally published on the MediaPost Online Publishing Insider
By: Kory Kredit

How social do we really want to get? It's a question I've been wrestling with as it relates to our company Web site and one that Jerry Seinfeld wrestled with as well. In a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Kiss Hello," Kramer decides to post the photos and names of every tenant in the building to foster a friendlier living environment. Rather than passing anonymous neighbors in the hallway and giving the obligatory head nod, tenants would be able to greet each other by name and even offer a warm embrace. The social experiment goes too far for Jerry's liking when he is greeted by a kiss on the cheek from every female in the building, and a solid lip lock from Kramer himself.

Whether you're Cosmo Kramer in an apartment complex, or a consumer brand launching a Web site like  Skittles.com, sometimes you can be too social. I'm all for engaging customers in the social media space, but I'd just as soon kiss Kramer myself as use Twitter or Facebook as a company home page. That said, when assessing one of our company Web sites recently, it was evident that it needed an overhaul that includes some social elements. The site's shelf life as an effective communication tool was expiring and it needed more than just a fresh coat of JavaScript.

As I've begun working with our team to layo ut the new structure of the site, I've had to wrestle with the question: how social should it be? Gone are the days of a company site that's simply a static media kit filled with overhyped marketing copy written by marketing people like me. The five-page online brochure has given way to the Skittles Web site that turns over the marketing message to anyone with a Twitter account and the ability to fit "Skittles" into a semi-coherent 140 character tweet. For example, @mattfurukawa just tweeted that he is "at dinner with two awesome people, my pastor and skittles." While the "skittles" Matt is referring to could be a spiritual mentor -- which is great for Matt -- it doesn't really do much for the brand message of the sugar candy version of Skittles.

So, should our new site become a full-blown social media hub, or a more traditional corporate Web site with social media elements? As I look to invite our customers into an online conversation, is it really beneficial to make that the central theme of the Web site?

For inspiration, I took at look at a recent blog post on Webdesigner Depot titled "50 Excellent Corporate Website Designs". Of the 50 Web sites featured on the blog, here is the breakdown of the integration of social media into the design (includes Twitter, company blog, Facebook, etc.):

    Social media content integrated into the home page: 15

    Includes a link to social media content on home page: 25

    No social media content whatsoever: 10    

The most common social media integration was a blog feed on the home page with a small number of sites adding a twitter feed. Ironically, the site named "PimpMyTwitter" has no Twitter content and doesn't even list the Twitter address (although I am giving them extra credit for their company name). While company blogs, Twitter feeds and links to Facebook and LinkedIn pages were common, it was somewhat surprising that 10 of these newly designed Web sites (20%) had no social media content at all. The selection of these sites obviously isn't a scientifically accurate cross-section, but does provide a good selection of well-designed corporate Web sites.  

For our Web site, I am choosing to start out with a middle-of-the-road approach to adding social media. The site will include links to our social media connection points (blog, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, social media press releases) and possibly pull in our blog feed into the home page. I'm not willing to go as far as opening up the unfiltered social media fire hose like Skittles, but it is a step in the right direction to move our Web site forward with more a Web 2.0-like approach. For our company, this is a good middle ground between the anonymous head nod of the static marketing brochure site and the kiss hello approach that is too social. Think of it as the bro hug of social media integration.

Premium Access Media Launches Anchor Ads

Premium Access Media, a PV Media Group company, just launched an innovative new ad unit called the Anchor Ad.

The Anchor Ad provides premium placement in a unique display ad format that delivers a guaranteed impression for the advertiser. More effective than a standard banner, the ad is “anchored” to the bottom of the browser window above the publisher’s content and maintains its position as the consumer scrolls down the page.

You can view the demo below, download the PowerPoint presentation or contact a Premium Access Media ad sales rep for more info.

Anchor Ad Demo:

Anchor Ads from Premium Access Media from PV Media Group on Vimeo.

Premium Access Media's Anchor Ads Demo

Anchor Ads from Premium Access Media from PV Media Group on Vimeo.