OTOinsights

One to One Interactive Set to Bow New Neuromarketing Research Division: OTOinsights

Today, One to One Interactive announced the formation of its new neuromarketing division called OTOinsights.   In the next month, this blog will begin to take on additional duties to support this new division and to assist in disseminating the various research that is scheduled to be published over the course of the next year.  In the mean time, enjoy the below official announcement and do not hesitate to comment or e-mail us with any inquiries.

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One to One Interactive Announces the Launch of OTOinsights

New Research Unit to Provide Quantifiable Insights into Consumer Brand Engagement 

Boston, MA, November 12, 2007 – One to One Interactive, a leading digital marketing holding company, announced today the launch of its new media research company OTOinsights. This business unit will focus on the emerging discipline of neuromarketing and will offer a collection of both primary and secondary research to brands, agencies, and publishers. Initial OTOinsights products include: Quantemo, a neuromarketing research lab; t=zero, a secondary research offering that provides clients with timely critical analysis and insights about emerging digital platforms; and RedOktober, a trend-spotting service. The birth of the OTOinsights business unit began earlier this year with One to One’s acquisition of the Quantemo neuromarketing research lab. Quantemo offers a scientific approach to measuring a target audience’s emotional reactions to digital media via five modalities including:
1.)    Physiological stress through the measurement of heart rate, respiratory rate, and galvanic skin response,
2.)    Neurological focus by measuring EEG traces,
3.)    Behavioral via eye/mouse tracking technologies and digital video recordings of research participants,
4.)    Emotional through facial recognition software, and
5.)    Interrogative via traditional survey research methods.
Data collected is correlated on a second by second basis and assessed depending on the type of study performed. Quantemo currently offers usability testing and media effectiveness research. 

The second core product offered by OTOinsights, t=zero, is a collection of findings gathered through an ongoing partnership with researchers at the Indiana University School of Informatics. The team of researchers, which is led by Shaowen Bardzell, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Bardzell, PH.D., specializes in cultural computing in computer-mediated social spaces such as video games massively multiplayer virtual worlds and social networks. Current t=zero research projects are focused on affective interaction with internet videos, “serious games” for marketing, user engagement with in-game advertising, and successful disaggregated media applications on social networking sites.

“This is one of the first significant collaborations between the private sector and academia to publish a body of work that will break new ground in measuring engagement across several emerging media channels,” said Shaowen Bardzell, Ph.D.. “The commitment that One to One Interactive and their OTOinsights division to academic critical thinking and scientific method will no doubt play a significant role in their contribution to the burgeoning field of neuromarketing.”

A third OTOinsights offering, RedOktober, is geared to keep One to One employees, clients, and prospective clients, current with trends in new media. The service will offer up-to-date information about how trends are changing consumer expectations, and will reveal related business and marketing opportunities.

“The introduction of OTOinsights is exciting for our company, as it rounds out our vision to provide brands, agencies and publishers with truly quantifiable, scientific data to help measure engagement,” said Jeremi Karnell president and co-founder of One to One Interactive, “OTOinsights’ innovative research techniques will deliver much needed insights into human emotional response to digital media and will provide the strategies and subsequent tools needed to optimize one-to-one dialogues with consumers.”

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

ANA 2007 B-to-B Conference: Harnessing the Power of New Media Platforms

Last Thursday I had the honor of sitting on a panel titled ""HARNESSING THE POWER OF NEW MEDIA PLATFORMS" at the 2007 Association of National Advertiser's (ANA) B-to-B Conference in Chicago, IL.

Joining me on the panel were: Barbara Basney (Director, Global Advertising Xerox Corporation) and Ellis Booker (Editor B-to-B Magazine).  Frank Dudley (Vice President of Marketing Guideline Research) moderated.   Our talk centered around the results of a joint ANA/Guidlines/B-to-B Magazine study that explored the use of search, social networks, user-generated content, podcasts, blogging, etc. within B-to-B and B-to-C marketing efforts.

You may download the results of the study here:

DOWNLOAD PDF  | DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT

Overall findings include:

• For B-to-B marketers, a company’s website is the oldest and most often used new media platform that B-to-B companies are using.  Email marketing, online ads, search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing and webinars are also widely used.  Podcasts, blogs and video on demand look to grow over the next year, while little interest is shown in mobile and second life/social networking media platforms.
• B-to-C companies are also using their own website, as well as email marketing, and online ads. SEO-organic and SEM-paid have been in use for the past 3 years.  Blogs and video, both on-demand and viral, look to grow over the next year.  There are no plans to use webinars, Wiki or Second Life within the next year.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C: significantly more B-to-B marketers have been using email,,SEO-organic and webinars for more than 3 years, and have begun to use blogs.  They are also significantly less likely to use mobile, social networks or viral video in the next year than B-to-C marketers. B-to-C marketers have begun to use these platforms in the past year and the trend will continue.
• Of the B-to-B marketers that use these new media platforms, Brand Building is most frequently accomplished through blogs, second life, social networks, viral videos, wiki and their own websites.  Demand Generation is accomplished through email, online, SEO, SEM, and video on demand– while companies use blogs, podcasts and webinars to generate Customer Loyalty.
• Of the B-to-C marketers that use these media, blogs, podcasts, second life, viral video and wiki are use to accomplish Brand Building.   SEO and SEM are used for Demand Generation. And Customer Loyalty is mostly accomplished through emails, RSS feeds, and blogs.  Cross Selling is an objective for emails and webinars.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C, B-to-B marketers use email and webinars for demand generation significantly more than B-to-C.  Of the all marketers who use mobile and podcasts, significantly more B-to-C marketers use them for brand building.
• Effectiveness varies greatly when looking at B-to-B vs. B-to-C companies.  While both have seen success from their own website, B-to-C companies have seen significantly more success from paid key word searches, online ads, and social networks, B-to-B companies have seen success in webinars.
• B-to-C companies typically look at downloads and registrations to their website and specific events.  While B-to-B companies are more likely to measure effectiveness of new media platforms through purchase behavior, site visits and time spent.
• B-to-B Companies spend significantly less on media than B-to-C companies.  As a percent of revenue, they spend an average of .58%, while B-to-C companies spend an average of 1.18%.
• Currently, B-to-B companies are significantly more likely to allocate a higher percentage of their media budget (more than 20%) to new media platforms as compared to B-to-C companies.
• All marketers expect to spend more on new media platforms in 2007 compared to 2006, with significantly more B-to-C marketers trending towards an increase.
• Of the marketers that expect to spend more on 2007,  B-to-B marketers will spend it on their own websites, email and online ads.
• Typically the responsibility for managing new media platforms is added to an internal group.  New internal groups are formed about 15% of the time.
• Internal Marketing Departments and Interactive/Digital Media Agencies drive the use of new media platforms for B-to-B companies.  B-to-C companies new media strategies are also driven by Internal Media Departments, but also by Interactive/Digital Creative Agencies.
• All marketers are concerned about their lack of experience with new media platforms, followed by their inability to prove effectiveness/ROI.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

One to One Interactive Acquires Quantemo

On Monday, April 16th, One to One Interactive formally completed its acquisition of the Quantemo Usability Lab.  The Quantemo lab, its brand and technology platform will be incorporated as the foundation for a new neuromarketing research offering that is currently under development at One to One's professional services division OTOi. 

The Quantemo acquisition is One to One's latest step in marrying science and marketing.  This past year One to One has engaged in a number of bio-measures studies (see: Bio-Measures Able to Predict with 77% Accuracy an Online Communities Rating of Viral Video Content) that have sought to analyze the physical responses test subjects experience when exposed to certain media stimuli.  This data has in turn been used to predict, with high levels of accuracy, consumer behaviors across a variety of media channels and platforms. 

"We're excited to evolve the Quantemo technology to measure engagement across a number of emerging digital platforms, including social networks, blogs, podcasts, widgets, online video, rich media advertising, and virtual worlds such as Second Life.  Furthermore, we intend to extend the offering to measuring traditional offline marketing channels, our aim is to harneess the accuracy afforded to us by neuro-research to optimize our clients' marketing programs so that they are as relevant and engaging as possible in this new consumer controlled media landscape." - Jeremi Karnell, President

To date, the field of neuromarketing research has been predominately defined by researchers who use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of test subjects as they look at various products and advertisements.  The information gleaned from neuromarketing research is intended to provide deeper insight into the human brain for purposes such as more effective advertising and brand loyalty campaigns.  A significant barrier to the evolution of this research method has been both the high costs involved in a typical fMRI study as well as the method itself which limits research studies to only take place at the university or medical research facilities that house the large and expensive fMRI hardware.  One to One, through its acquisition of Quantemo, seeks to help expand the field of neuromarketing research by incorporating newer and less costly methods that measure skin conductivity, respiratory rates, heart rates, and EEGs as both an augmentation to and proxy for fMRI studies.

“I am very pleased to see One to One Interactive  taking Quantemo ™ to its full potential , with a state-of-the-art facility  in Boston and increased resources for very scalable study options. The future of digital marketing relies heavily on understanding and improving the user experience, and Quantemo™ has a unique position in the field of online research as the first method to objectively assess user emotions and mental effort. One to One Interactive and Quantemo will provide enormous mutual benefits that will ultimately help clients in terms of availability, scale and methodology.”  Theodore Agranat, Quantemo Founder

OTOi's neuromarketing research facility will be located at its corporate headquarters in Charlestown, MA.  The facility will include state-of-the art eye tracking, neurological and biological feedback platforms  as well as video and click-stream capture and analysis capabilities.  The facility will be used both for client-based studies as well as independent research conducted by OTOi.  OTOi's neuromarketing offering will also boast a mobile lab capability that will allow for research to be conducted at any location.

Don't Underestimate Microsoft

An article published in today's MercuryNews.com  titled "Hooked On Google" by Elise Ackerman explores whether or not Microsoft still has a fighting chance in todays changing technology/media landscape.  When compared to the enormous success  the likes of Google has experienced over the last couple years, the picture indeed looks grim.  Ackerman points out in his article:

"Microsoft's page views, an approximation of how long visitors spend at its sites, was down 12 percent in December to 18 billion, according to the research firm. Google's page views were up 90 percent to 13 billion.

Microsoft has steadily lost ground in search, despite developing its own search engine in 2004. As of November, Microsoft's share of Internet searches has fallen to 8 percent. Two years ago, when MSN search was released in beta, Microsoft share's of U.S. searches stood at 14 percent, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Microsoft's Internet slide is reflected in its online sales. During the quarter ended Sept. 30, sales for the online business unit were $539 million, down 5 percent in a year. Google, in cruel comparison, reported revenue of $2.69 billion, an increase of 70 percent."

In fairness, Ackerman does offer that despite the above situation Microsoft has had a rather active 2006 by introducing a "slew of online offerings":

"In addition to the widely praised Virtual Earth, an exact 3-D representation of major cities, there were three new search services, a new portal, online video, classified ads, mobile e-mail and social networking. And perhaps most importantly, there was new adCenter software released in May that was supposed to help Microsoft make more money from its online offerings."

However, I think this misses a more important point why Microsoft should not be underestimated. 

Reason 1: They are the only major operating platform that cuts across desktop PCs (Microsoft OS), Mobile Phones/PDAs (Microsoft Mobile), TV (Microsoft iPTV) which both Verizon and Comcast are deploying across their massive Fiber and Coaxial nets, and Game Consoles (Xbox & Xbox 360).

Reason 2: Due to the reach across their installed platform base detailed above, Microsoft is in an enormously unique position to be one of the first companies to have a viable cross channel digital media offering.  From behavioral targeted web, e-mail and search  properties, to instant message, in-game  (via their purchase of Massive Inc. last May), mobile  and interactive TV advertising the folks in Redmond seem to be slowly transforming themselves from a software company to a media company.  Even though it does not exist now, it does not take one to imagine Microsoft's plans for using adCenter as the hub of their emerging cross channel media universe.

Reason 3. One word: PASSPORT.  Microsoft Passport accounts are central repositories for a person's online data and can include personal information such as birthdays and credit card numbers. They can also act as a single key to access many online accounts.

Microsoft uses Passport authentication for its Hotmail e-mail service, MSN Messenger instant messaging service, XBox Live Service, and Mobile Services. Several online retailers, such as eBay, Canon, Expedia and Starbucks, also use Passport authentication. Microsoft estimates there are 200 million active Passport accounts. 

It does not take a rocket scientist to guess that Microsoft will use this Central Customer Information (CIF) file to help deliver more personalized content/advertising to its opt-in customers as its able to understand their behaviors and activities across digital media platforms.

Its important to note...that I am hardly a fan of Microsoft.  Indeed, I have switched my work computer to the Powerbook just a couple of months ago.  I am a huge fan of the iPod (with exception to their Nazi DRM platform) and also plan to be one of the first to buy an iPhone when it is released.  I also do not proclaim to have a crystal ball that give me any special insight that the points made above will make a lick of difference.  All I am doing is agreeing with Gartner analyst,  Allen Weiner, when he states at the bottom of Ackerman's article: Don't Underestimate Microsoft.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

 

Five Corporate Blogging Success Factors

Dr Walter Carl, the students in his Advanced Organizational Communication class (Spring 2006) at Northeastern University and John Cass and his colleagues at Backbone Media, recently published a research paper that seeks to uncover reasons, conditions, and factors that make a corporate blog successful. 

The research team interviewed twenty corporate bloggers from companies of varied size and industry, and asked each blogger a series of standardized questions.   After careful review, the research team identified five factors for a blog's success:
1. Culture
2. Transparency
3. Time
4. Dialogue
5. Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization

One to One Interactive launches Comcast into In-Game Advertising

OTOi, the digital marketing agency division of One to One Interactive, has recently launched an extensive in-game advertising campaign for Comcast's new Game Invasion High Speed Internet Product.  Via the Massive Incorporated video game ad network, Comcast is able to reach there target of male 18-34 hard-core gamers in a contextual way, adding to the realism of the game while simultaneously creating pervasive brand awareness.  Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), First Person Shooters, and Sports categories made up the buy.  Rainbow Six 4, Splinter Cell 4, Swat4, Anarchy Online, And1 Streetball, MLB 2K6, and Tony Hawk AW are just some of the titles where the Comcast messaging appears.  Some screen shot provided below:

 

 

One to One Interactive & IU School of Informatics Explore Research Opportunities

Last week, I traveled to Bloomington, IN to begin talks with the Indiana University School of Informatics regarding establishing a formal research partnership.  Former One to One Interactive staffer, Christian Briggs, brokered the introduction.  He is currently one of a handful of PHD candidates who will be the first to matriculate from the school.

My full day on campus was spent in the company of Christan and Martin Siegel (Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research).  I met with faculty from Complex Systems and Human Computer Interface (HCI)respectively.  The conversation with the Complex Systems group (mainly mathematicians and physicists who focus on the science of networks) centered around One to One's interest in research associated with advanced measurement and analytic models.  This is to assist with digital marketing accountability, predicting word-of-mouth campaign results, and measuring the impact that social media is having on algorithmic search results, among other things.  Conversation with the faculty from HCI mainly focused on issues of consumer privacy and enhancements in interfaces that allow individuals to opt-in and customize/control digital advertising.

Founded in 2000, Indiana University was the first in the nation to launch a School of Informatics.  One of the central tenants of the School's vision is to support and enhance interdisciplinary research projects in the field of Informatics, focusing on distributed systems technology, information theory and information management, human factors and human computer interaction, and the study of social impacts of information technology. 

In my opinion, our first meeting went extremely well.  There is a great deal of interest on both sides to further explore Informatics within the evolving digital media landscape and its impact on marketing and advertising.  This also supports a strategic goal for One to One in 2006 to strengthen it's ties with academia.  Too date, the firm has established a formal partnership with the Design and Usability Center at Bentley College, and engaged both MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society to participate in panel moderation for the MITX Digital Marketing Track the agency is managing.  Stay tuned for more developments to come.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Trendwatching.com | Customer Made

First Page Search Engine Listing Provides Brand Lift

Today, the Center for Media Research has highlighted a study conducted by Jupiter Research that revealed 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages of search results (These figures were just 48% and 81%, respectively, in 2002).

High-level findings include:

• 36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field.
• 41% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they seek, will change engines or their search term if they don't find what they seek on the first page of search results.
• 88% will change engines or their search term if they don't find what they seek on the first three pages of search results.
• 82% of search engine users re-launch an unsuccessful search using the same search engine as they used for their initial search, but add more keywords to refine the subsequent search.
• In a 2005 Jupiter Research, quoted in the report, 87% of commercial clicks take place on the natural (not sponsored) search results.

Monitoring your Online Reputation

The most recent findings from the Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and comScore Media Metrix estimates 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day.  Furthermore, they report in two surveys of American adults conducted between January 13 and March 21 that involved 2,871 Internet users, that 9% of Internet users now say they have created blogs and 25% of Internet users say they read blogs.  Another way to render these numbers is to note that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population (Internet users and non-users alike) have created blogs. That’s one out of every 20 people. And 16% of all U.S. adults (or one in six people) are blog readers which is approximately 20% of the size of the newspaper-reading population. 

Reporters, consumers, clients, investors and employees are learning about your organization every day when they search the Internet. Tracking, measuring and managing your company's online reputation (or your competitor's) is becoming increasingly important.  Your company's reputation is its most important asset, not being immediately aware of a negative or erroneous article, blog post or forum comments can begin to quickly and significantly errode that asset.  One nasty rumor that circulates freely on the Internet can have a lasting and damaging effect on your company's reputation, image, brands and public relations efforts. An article entitled "The blog in the corporate machine", published on February 9th, 2006 in The Economist, states:

The spread of “social media” across the internet—such as online discussion groups, e-mailing lists and blogs—has brought forth a new breed of brand assassin, who can materialise from nowhere and savage a firm's reputation. Often the assault is warranted; sometimes it is not. But accuracy is not necessarily the issue. One of the main reasons that executives find bloggers so very challenging is because, unlike other “stakeholders”, they rarely belong to well-organised groups. That makes them harder to identify, appease and control.

Monitoring thousands of news sites, millions of Web logs (blogs), message boards and user groups can be a daunting and time consuming task, however today's content discovery and  mining technologies can help your company track, react to and counteract damaging rumors and issues that exist and thrive in blogs and elswhere the Internet. But doing so requires a commitment that stretches from the CSR department to the executive suite.

Corporate marketing and PR departments must begin to augment their current interactive strategies with a Consumer Generated Media (CGM) strategy that focuses on anticipation, prevention, management and education.