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A phenomenon that has been present as a form of advertising for many years is now blossoming in digital media and the subject of much discussion in the industry:  native advertising.  Native advertising is content that promotes a brand or product in the native format of the website, publication, or platform in which it is presented.  Native advertising looks different for each medium – for instance, a Sponsored Story on Facebook, Featured Partner content on BuzzFeed, a branded or promoted playlist on Spotify, or a traditional advertorial page in a magazine are all types of native advertising.

As more advertising dollars flow away from traditional display advertising into native advertising, the seamless integration of brand messaging into entertainment, news, and other content that native advertising provides has generated concern and debate over the need for adequate disclosure and guidelines to ensure that consumers are aware that the content is advertising as well as the need to keep the content consistent with advertisers and publishers’ core brand values so that consumers will remain engaged.

Last week, the head of Google’s webspam team published a YouTube video reminding advertisers and agencies that they must clearly disclose that native advertising content is advertising, including links that they pay content creators to include in content or paid search links purchased through Google, which consumers may otherwise believe are freely-endorsed or top-ranked pages.  This is not a new issue for the publisher or advertisers who participate in paid search placement, and was highlighted by the FTC in a 2002 letter responding to Commercial Alert’s complaint against search engine companies alleging that consumers were misled to believe that search results are based on relevancy or actual page clicks, when they were really based on paid placement.  The FTC declined to take action against the companies then, but issued warning letters recommending that search engine companies ensure that paid search results are clearly and conspicuously disclosed to consumers.

The Way I See It

  • I see publishers, content creators, blogs, advertisers, and agencies beginning to pay more attention to the business and legal issues surrounding native advertising, with an emphasis on more clear disclosure that native ads are paid content while striving to retain the organic, seamless qualities that make native advertising effective.
  • Many publishers will, like The Atlantic recently did after a negative reaction from its readers to a native blog post sponsored by the Church of Scientology, revise their editorial guidelines focused on how native advertising will be formatted, styled, and disclosed.

    • Continue Reading Native Advertising Isn’t New, but Considerations for Advertisers Are Just Heating Up

I talk here on Madison Ave Insights a good amount about digital, social media, and mobile advertising trends and developments, and how they are changing the industry.  Advertisers are shifting dollars from traditional print and television to online media outlets and novel platforms – that is no question.  However, televisions are still in nearly every home in America, tuned to leading sitcoms, special programming, news, and sports.  So, how do advertisers determine which programs are worth allocating ad dollars to in order to reach target audiences?  Cue Sweeps periods.

The Way I See It

  • I see Sweeps, which are a data-collection periods used to determine local viewing information and provide a basis for scheduling programs – what gets renewed and what gets cancelled – and making advertising decisions for local television stations and cable systems, as a sort of precursor to the type of data-collection processes that advertisers are able to initiate online and on mobile.
  • I see many arguing that Sweeps are an outdated process and one that are no longer relevant in the age of new consumer data and because viewers can be determined through other aspects, especially given the new “second screen” trend of using social media to discuss TV programming while watching.

The Way The Industry Sees It

I sat down with Matt Seiler, CEO of Mediabrands, Interpublic’s media-buying division, to discuss the upcoming annual Sweeps periods and the relevance for the advertising and entertainment industries.

How and when did the Sweeps process begin? How have they evolved over the years to remain effective?

The concept of sweep periods are almost as old as television measurement itself. Nielsen began sending out viewing paper diaries in 1954 to capture demographic information, a practice that continues today in the smaller TV markets—almost sixty years later. Because the data is only collected at certain times of the year, networks and stations tend to heavy up on first-run and special programming in order to influence the ratings. This is especially mind-boggling when you consider that top and mid-tier markets are being measured electronically, fifty-two weeks per year. In terms of evolution over the years, there’s been virtually none, and better measurement of local television is something we strongly believe in. To Nielsen’s credit, they are currently exploring different forms of improved electronic measurement in smaller markets and we are involved in several committees to help guide the process.

How important are the Sweeps periods and data collected for advertisers in terms of allocating spend? Are there other factors that impact that decision as well?

To our dismay, it is still a significant consideration for our local investment staff because of the nature of the measurement. However, it is hardly the only factor involved in their decision-making, as we leverage all of the data at our disposal to help us buy smarter.

Continue Reading Television Sweeps Periods: Still relevant or outdated?

In this post I will examine the growth of retail store sales.  Sales at brick-and-mortar retail stores constitute 90% of all retail sales in the United States.  And many major retailers have found that their digital consumer engagement and investments made toward boosting their online presence has actually resulted in increased in-store visits.  In fact, with the economy rebounding, some major retailers who were forced to close stores during the financial crisis are now implementing large-scale growth strategies and seeking hot real estate in key markets.  So, how are the retail stores remaining relevant and competitive in the age of e-commerce and online shopping?

The Way I See It

  • I see major fashion brands continuing to build brand loyalty among customers and encourage return in-store visits among frequent shoppers in an effort to boost sales and word-of-mouth marketing.
  • Shopping remains a social activity, with family and friends using trips to retail stores and/or shopping malls as a social outing, but also tying into social and online media: people will check-in at retail stores on FourSquare, post photos of themselves trying on a new spring outfit at a retail store on Instagram, or Tweet about their latest obsession or shopping trip.
  • I see physical retail stores starting to use new tools to collect digital data on in-store visitors in order to improve the competitive edge retailers have, and they’ll use their access to data to improve customer experience and target marketing.
  • I see retail stores meeting a critical need: they allow customers to try on items for fit and styling options.  Many retailers have seen that while customers may visit their websites or social media pages to explore new apparel or jewelry, they still visit stores in order to be able to make sure the particular item fits well and fits their personal style – and also to score sale or clearance items only available in certain stores.
  • While the fashion industry must continue to embrace social media engagement and a digital presence in order to build brand loyalty and presence among customers, I believe brands will also continue to develop retail growth strategies through marketing and advertising to boost in-store sales and visits.

The Way the Industry Sees It


I sat down with Seth Farbman, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Gap, to discuss brand strategy to maintain a competitive edge and continue retail growth.

Gap is well-known for having a strong brand presence traditionally, with advertising, in-store marketing, and retail offers, as well as online in social media through customer engagement, online promotions, and other tools.  In the spring, we see a lot of bright colors coming into play.  What advertising and marketing tactics compose a strong retail strategy to drive sales both in-store and online?

It all starts with keeping our brand relevant and connected to culture.  I’m very proud of our iconic marketing campaigns, because they’ve been strongly grounded in what Gap stands for— American optimism, democracy and the belief in the power of the individual.  However, a strong retail strategy must go beyond the traditional – it requires constant development of content and telling of stories that builds a lifestyle consistently across the brand.  Customers expect us to have personal, two-way relationships with them, so we’ve hired a team of digital experts and community managers to speak with them, instead of to them.  Our Styld.by social commerce program is an excellent example of how we deliver relevance that’s constantly fresh and exciting. It has been incredibly successful.

Are there certain in-store only promotions that retailers perceive as a factor in visits?  Do window displays remain important in this age to draw in potential customers, or is brand recognition and brand loyalty still the main factor to attract shoppers?

A brand that a customer feels is relevant to their life is the first step.  But windows and in-store marketing are a very important way we can share new styles and collections with customers.  We are fortunate to have amazing flagship stores in some of the largest cities around the world.  These are living billboards for us.  The store experience is a very effective way to turn casual shoppers into loyal customers.  Promotions are part of the excitement of shopping — everyone loves getting a great product at an excellent price – but simply being able to emotionally display new items in windows is still a great way to connect with people.

Continue Reading Spring Fashion Series: Retail Growth in the Digital Age

I talk here on Madison Ave Insights all of the time about the importance of mobile and social media for advertisers.  Technology is always changing, and with new technology comes a set of new challenges for industry groups, brands, and regulators.  In light of the rise of smartphones, tablets, and social media, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its online advertising disclosure guidelines.  Known as the Dot Com Disclosures, the guidance updates the original guidelines which were introduced in 2000, since, as we all know, a lot has changed since the turn of the Millennium.  While the general principles of traditional advertising law apply equally to online and mobile media, the updated guidelines provide specific guidance for making “clear and conspicuous disclosures” on mobile and social media platforms.

The FTC’s updated Dot Com Disclosures signal to marketers that traditional consumer protection laws apply to mobile marketing, regardless of space limitations.  While there is no set formula for a clear and conspicuous disclosure, when evaluating whether a disclosure meets this requirement, an advertiser should consider its placement in the ad and its proximity to the relevant claim.  Due to the smaller screen size and different format of mobile platforms, the FTC changed its definition of “proximity” from “near and, when possible, in the same screen” (from the 2000 version) to now be “as close as possible” to the relevant claim.

Mobile marketers may need to become creative if they want to continue to use hyperlinks, as hyperlinks need to be obvious and labeled to explain the nature and importance of the information to which they link – terms like “disclaimer,” “more information,” “details,” or “terms and conditions” may no longer be adequate.  The FTC also makes clear that the disclosures that are necessary to comply with the FTC Endorsement Guides need to be disclosed in space-constrained ads such as Tweets and cannot be disclaimed via a click-through or hyperlinked disclosure, but need to say something like “#Ad” in the Tweet.

The Way I See It

  • Mobile marketers should look at the FTC’s new guidance in a positive light.  For too long, we have been applying the FTC’s decade-old Dot Com Disclosures guidance to mobile media, which raised unique challenges given mobile’s space limitations.  With the flexible principles and specific examples presented in the updated guidance, mobile marketers now have the necessary tools to provide disclosures that meet FTC requirements.
  • I see the FTC making clear that if a platform does not allow marketers to make clear disclosures, that platform should not be used for advertising and this should be taken seriously in order to meet FTC standards and avoid any enforcement actions or false advertising litigation down the road.

On Tuesday night, I attended a fascinating event at The ADVERTISING Club called AD THINK, which is bridging the gap between tech startups and the advertising world.  As the event’s host, founder and partner of Evol8tion Joseph Jaffe, put it – we have seen a lack of creativity in digital advertising and with all of the creativity streaming from the high-tech startup boom, several stellar startups have emerged to bridge the gap between Madison Ave and Mountainview.  The event, which was standing-room only and will be the first in a series, brought five cutting-edge startup founders to deliver presentations on their products and attempt to woo a panel of experts who know a thing or two about successful startups, ad land, and how creativity and tech can work hand-in-hand.  The panel included: Brian Cohen, Chairman of New York Angels and the first investor in Pinterest; Andreas Dahlqvist, Deputy CCO of Global & Vice Chairman of NY for McCann Erickson; Nihal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Local Response (in 2001, he founded an agency dedicated solely to mobile – way ahead of his time); and Catherine Schenquerman, Digital Advertising Head of JetBlue Airways.

Even though I could talk about the all-star panel for a while, let’s talk about the startups – the true stars of the evening.  I was blown away by the creativity of each of these tech companies, and the potential that these startups have for the future of advertising and marketing.  The main theme among them was something we’ve talked about before: bringing data and creative together, as well as using data and analytics to improve and drive creative content for digital and mobile advertising.  I’m excited to see what’s next for each of these companies.

  • One of the founders of social intelligence company Bottlenose presented the analytics tools the platform offers brands, which, among other things, can correlate the volume of trending topics and conversations surrounding a brand on social media with key indicators (i.e., stock price, sales, website visits, Nielsen ratings, etc.) to uncover who and what on social media are driving important activities.
  • The founder of Customer.io started by saying, “E-mail is dead.”  We’ve heard it before, but his technology is actually using data gathered from e-mail marketing to help brands determine what to say and when to say it in order to achieve objectives from their e-mail marketing.  This could really bring e-mail back to life.

    • Continue Reading At the Intersection of Tech and Advertising

Surrounding a breakfast seminar, which was held at Davis & Gilbert today entitled, “Complying with the FTC’s Final Amendments to its COPPA Rule: What You Need to Know,” I thought a great post would be to examine that very topic.  In addition, I had the chance to speak to Wayne Keeley Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and interview him as my Q&A guest this week.

Advertising to children has long been laden with complex issues.  Advertising promoting products that target children have long faced criticism from consumer advocates and regulators who raise safety, health, or inappropriate content concerns.  In the digital age filled with online privacy and data collection concerns at every corner and constantly evolving technologies that put individuals – especially children – at risk, the Federal Trade Commission has increased its regulation and enforcement.  With the increased use of mobile technology and apps by children under the age of 13, the FTC initiated its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) in 2010 to allow children’s advocates, website and app developers, and advertising executives and coalitions to chime in on how the FTC should update the outdated rule to protect children from the new dangers of social media, location-based software, video chatting, photo sharing, and more.  With COPPA’s expanded scope, the FTC is making an effort to ensure its regulations cover new technology and innovation.

The Way I See It

  • I see the new COPPA rule expanding the types of companies that are required to obtain parental permission before collecting data and information from children to reflect the digital world we live in today.  COPPA clearly covers mobile and tablet apps, location technology tools, voice recognition tools, social sharing networks including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and online advertising networks, among others.
  • I see the FTC making strides in privacy and data protection regulation with the expanded COPPA provisions, and advertisers and marketers being forced to adapt to new rules for behavioral advertising in particular.
  • The advertising industry has long championed self-regulation for advertising to children, so while the new COPPA rules are broader, the industry may not have too many new practices to adapt.  Many have also begun taking stricter precautions in engaging with and advertising to children in anticipation of the expansion of COPPA.
  • I see that new restrictions on cookie-based and other identification systems could mean some websites targeting children may reduce or stop their use of advertising networks.

The Way the Industry Sees It


I sat down with Wayne Keeley, Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to discuss the FTC’s recent amendments to COPPA and what it means for advertisers, tech innovation, and regulation.

Let’s start by discussing CARU’s response to the expansion of COPPA.  Does the regulation overlap areas of the CARU guidelines?  In what ways is the regulation new for the industry?

Rather than overlapping, I believe that the COPPA rule modifications have brought the COPPA Rule more in line with CARU’s Guidelines.  CARU’s Guidelines represent self-regulatory practices.  Self-Regulation can sometimes go beyond what is required in the law and/or regulatory standards.  For example, CARU’s guidelines went beyond the COPPA Rule in those instances where website operators had a reasonable expectation that a significant number of children will be visiting their websites.  In those instances, CARU said they should employ age screening mechanisms to determine whether verifiable parental consent or notice and opt-out is necessitated.  The old COPPA Rule had an actual knowledge standard.  Under the new Rule, however, the FTC has provided an option for websites with mixed audiences that is closer to our self-regulatory model by providing that sites that target children as a secondary audience can screen users via an age gate.  Accordingly, operators will be required to provide notice and obtain consent only for those who identify themselves as under 13. This is a great example of how the experience gained under self–regulation can make a positive contribution to fashioning workable regulatory approaches as well.  The regulation is also new for the industry in that definitions are added and expanded and the FTC’s oversight of safe harbor programs is enhanced and strengthened. The new definition brings the collection of information for behavioral advertising within the regulation for the first time and will require child-directed sites to obtain parental consent before allowing the collection of information for interest-based advertising on their sites even if that information does not identify a specific child.

What does CARU see as the biggest threat to child safety and protection (i.e., location-based technology, personal data collection, etc.)?  Are there certain trends in social media or mobile technology that are red flags for CARU?

CARU has always seen the collection of personal information from young children as an important issue and had adopted data collection guidelines even in advance of the COPPA legislation.  That aspect has not changed.  The modified COPPA Rule responds to technological innovation (e.g., geo-location based technology) and current technology use (e.g., increase in use of Smartphones by children).  Social media and mobile technology have always been on CARU’s radar from their inception.  Their importance to CARU has grown in direct proportion to the increasing number of young children accessing social media and mobile technology.  While young children are increasingly adopting mobile and social media technology, the basic concerns underlying the creation of CARU – that young children are a vulnerable audience and therefore need protection – remain the same.  We look forward to working with responsible industry members to assure that these concerns are addressed. This is particularly true in the expanding area of mobile apps which are developing rapidly and are subject to the new COPPA rule as well as CARU’s general guidelines if they are child-directed.

Continue Reading Understanding the FTC’s Expansion of COPPA: A Conversation with the Director of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit

A few weeks ago, Chester Cheetah, the beloved “spokescat” for Cheetos, joined Twitter as @ChesterCheetah with a campaign to reach 50K followers.  And when he does, “a family gets a kitten.”  Chester Cheetah is just the latest of many brand mascots that have taken social media by storm in recent years.  Furthermore, digital media is allowing brands to create more developed story lines and detailed backgrounds for their mascots, resulting in consumers becoming more drawn to the characters, and, of course, to the brand and product they represent.  The insurance industry has made quite a splash with its brand mascots, including the GEICO Gecko and Allstate’s “Mayhem,” launching YouTube channels and earning verified Twitter accounts (i.e., celebrity status).  Creating such humorous and quirky characters allows insurance companies to engage with consumers and help them better understand the complex insurance offerings, while also staking a claim in the competitive insurance landscape.

Take Progressive’s “Flo,” the now infamous female insurance broker who dominates the company’s commercials.  Known for her humor and larger-than-life personality, Flo is the same way on Twitter – posting witty one-liners and tips on insurance topics of interest, things making the news, and Progressive Insurance offerings and updates.  She has over 19K followers on Twitter and more than 5 million “likes” on Facebook; Progressive’s Facebook page only has 58,000 “likes”.  Flo is featured in many YouTube videos and has led social games and giveaways through Facebook and Twitter.

The Way I See It

  • I see online and social media allowing brands to further develop characters and brand mascots to be more than just the face of the brand, but standalone, likeable characters.  They have colored histories, interests, and well-defined traits.  Brands have found success in fully developing their mascots, as consumers are more likely to engage with and like more complex characters.
  • I see companies taking risks with brand mascots on social media, as it allows them to test how consumers respond to initiatives without making too much of an investment.  For instance, M&M’s sassy Ms. Brown held a live video chat with Facebook fans and even has her own Pandora music-streaming channel, both of which take the traditional social media campaign one step further.

    • Continue Reading Brand Mascots Come to Life on Social Media

Back in October, I talked here on Madison Ave Insights about the FTC’s just-released Green Guides and what they would mean for marketers moving forward. The FTC moved against unfounded and overused “environmentally friendly” and “green” claims in marketing for a range of products. The standards as established challenge the use of unqualified general environmental benefit claims and asks advertisers to scientifically prove specific green claims.

One industry with a focus on the environment that needs to adapt to both the demands of the marketplace and the restrictions of the regulators is the automotive industry. At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, consumers saw the latest model introductions from the automobile industry – domestic and foreign – that presented consumers with each company’s take on the best options for price, performance, versatility, fuel economy and being green.

So what’s next for the auto industry in terms of the future – both the future of the environmental and continued explosion of digital?

The Way I See It

  • Automakers see a double edge sword – a marketing and sales benefit from better fuel economy, but at a higher cost to engineer and build vehicles that consumers will want and can afford. They are facing new regulations requiring them to increase fleet-wide average fuel use to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
  • I see the cycle of government pushing the industry and the industry reacting to the push to be a dangerous paradigm in the current political climate. I see the need for industry to move forward independent of government prodding by satisfying consumer demand with products that are innovative and revolutionary.
  • I see automakers, both current and new, pushing forward with battery-powered, electric cars and pushing the envelope with new retail standards and business strategy. I see electric cars as being a true “environmental” automobile.
  • I see the automotive industry continuing its comeback and becoming even more important as major advertisers.
  • I see the need for breathtaking creative, brilliant strategy and greater use of digital, social media and mobile.

The Way The Industry Sees It

I sat down with Joel Ewanick, President and Managing Director of Global Auto Systems. Currently Joel is involved in several projects most noteworthy is as Special Advisor to the CEO of Fisker. Until last summer, Joel was the Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer of General Motors and prior to that Joel was Vice President of Marketing for Hyundai Motor America. In addition, he is best known for being the guy behind Hyundai Assurance. I asked Joel to discuss what’s next for environmental marketing and how the auto industry is evolving with the times.

Why is having an environmental strategy to the automotive sector important?  How does an automotive company present a credible environmental position?

Having an “environmental strategy” cannot be skin deep, it needs to run through the organization like blood through your veins and become a part of the company DNA. It needs to be a total commitment. If a company does not embrace an environmental position, it will be seen as a marketing gimmick – the “sexy” subject of the day, it’s pandering to the consumers. Eventually the consumer sees through it and calls it what it is, “greenwashing.” If a company genuinely cares about the environment, it should demonstrate it in products, offerings, and actions. It starts in the board room, from the top! A commitment from the companies’ executive management, if not – the accounting for such a commitment will eventually derail the programs. It doesn’t happen overnight – it takes time, research, and constant development – from raw material sourcing, to manufacturing, through the sales process, ownership and full circle to the recycling of the automobile at the end of its life. It all needs to be taken into account. As in any industry, there are leaders and there are followers, those who embrace a true commitment to certain technologies no matter the time and cost because it’s the right thing to do. They will reap rewards in decades to come. Fuel Cell technology is a perfect case. Some companies are demonstrating a total commitment to the technology and are in it for the long haul; while others have started but then backed off because the return on investment may be a decade away. These companies are not dedicated or committed, they will be followers.

The auto industry has new fuel efficiency standards to meet.  Do you think this regulation will change the current “fuel economy” advertising strategies?  Will the fuel efficiency standards make the importance of fuel economy claims less powerful?

What will make the claims powerful is the cost of gasoline.  If we continue to experience significant increases in gas prices, like here in California, where gas is at $4.15 to $4.25, consumers will continue to flock to more fuel efficient brands, like Hyundai. If prices stabilize, it will still be important, but it will likely over time become another given, a commoditized feature in all automobiles, like safety.  Volvo and Mercedes Benz owned safety, but through legislation, all cars are basically safe.  It is now a given.  Eventually this could happen with MPG as new technologies emerge.  In the end consumers will look for value, and gasoline, for the foreseeable future, is part of that value equation.

Continue Reading The New Auto Industry: Friend of the Environment and Tech Star

It’s finally here. Football fans everywhere have spent the last year counting down to Super Bowl Sunday, the main event for the NFL. But advertising and marketing executives have spent the last year actively planning for Super Bowl Sunday. And let’s face it, a lot of people who are not football fans watch the Super Bowl for one thing: the commercials. The ads typically dominate water cooler conversation the next day, and now take over social media and traditional media as well – for many, the final score doesn’t even matter.

In ad land, Super Bowl Sunday is a holiday. A lot of us are like little kids on Christmas – only we’re glued to the television instead of staring at the chimney waiting for Santa to slide down. Year after year, brands deliver. The ads are creative, hilarious, inspiring. We talk about them for a year after they air… until the next Super Bowl. Which brand do you think will have the most popular ad this year?

The Way I See It

  • For advertisers, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year. I see brands paying millions of dollars for 30-second spots during the Super Bowl and investing in ads that they hope will draw lots of sales and big returns.
  • I see brands using Super Bowl commercials not just to entertain, but increasingly to engage the consumer offer by incorporating social media or mobile elements to their TV ads.
  • I see each brand that advertises trying to push the envelope with creative spots that will stand out to consumers – helping the brand to achieve a coveted spot as one of the top ads of the year, but also boosting sales for the brand.
  • I see advertising executives from all ends – creative, compliance, consumer, privacy, legal – coming together to create ads that define their brands, attracting consumers and creating buzz – and making sure that the buzz around an ad translates into buzz around a brand, which is often easier said than done.
  • What is the lesson for advertisers from the “blackout in New Orleans”? How do you protect yourself when there is a problem at a live event? I see advertisers thinking about integrated campaigns not just on the positive side – how they can all work together, but on the negative side – what happens if something goes wrong.

The Way the Industry Sees It

I sat down with Jeff Klein, Senior Director of Marketing at Frito-Lay to discuss advertising during the Super Bowl and the importance of the NFL’s biggest game for the advertising industry.

Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” has become one of the most anticipated consumer contests of the year and is very successful, having won the USA Today ‘Ad Meter’ polling in three of the last four years. On a larger scale, consumer engagement through the use of contests, giveaways, and social media engagement, has become a huge trend for brands around the Super Bowl. Do you think consumers now have different expectations about the types of initiatives that brands will launch around the big game? How has consumer engagement with Super Bowl advertising evolved in recent years?

I think expectations of brand communication and activation have evolved considerably regardless of the communication medium, but they are certainly amplified at the Super Bowl. The days of talking at your consumer and expecting some sort of action are long gone. It’s more about consumer engagement – how can you continually engage your target in a conversation that goes well beyond the 30-second ad. How do brands achieve this on the world’s largest advertising stage? That depends largely on a brand’s narrative, but you can bet there will be innovative ways to extend their messaging beyond the game. Doritos literally invented the crowdsourcing model around the Super Bowl, and a few brands have been inspired to take similar approaches. It works for Doritos because it’s authentic. It’s not just a Super Bowl campaign, it’s part of our brand’s DNA.

90% of Super Bowl ad spots were sold by early September 2012 – just over five months before the game airs. What makes so many brands look to invest in this expensive space year after year? What is it about the Super Bowl and its viewership that holds such importance for brands?

For brands, it is absolutely a huge investment, but it also offers a unique communication opportunity in today’s fragmented media environment. From a pure eyeballs perspective, no program comes even close to the reach Super Bowl offers. There are few opportunities better in the year to drive awareness of a brand’s positioning, innovation, or programming – and the timing of the game allows you to set the tone for the year. Beyond this, it’s important to understand that not all Gross Rating Points (GRPs) are created equal. It’s very easy for consumers to avoid a brand’s messaging with technology. Not only is the Super Bowl virtually DVR proof, but people actually tune-in FOR the commercials.

Continue Reading Advertising’s Big Night: Super Bowl 47

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended 2012 with a bang by adopting final amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For those of us who work in children’s advertising, these long awaited amendments came as no surprise. The final amendment, which goes into effect on July 1, 2013, came only weeks after the FTC issued a report that found that mobile applications have demonstrated “little progress” in addressing concerns about the privacy of children’s data.

COPPA was first enacted in 1998 and requires that operators of websites and online services that are either directed to children under thirteen or have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from children under thirteen notify parents and obtain their verifiable consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children. The FTC initiated the review to ensure that keeps pace with evolving technology, such as mobile devices and social networking. In other words, the FTC wanted to ensure that COPPA protects the six year old child you see on the bus everyday playing with his parent’s iPhone.

Fast forward to the present. In a move intended to give parents greater control over data collected about their children online, the recent amendments to COPPA increase its scope, requiring additional types of companies to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under thirteen. Specifically, child-directed sites or services that integrate outside services, such as plug‑ins and advertising networks, which collect personal information, are now covered by COPPA. Plug‑ins and ad networks whose operators have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information through a child-directed website or online service are also now subject to COPPA. In addition to expanding the kinds of companies under COPPA’s purview, these amendments also expand the types of information sites and services are not permitted to collect, use or disclose without parental consent. Geolocation information, photos, videos, and audio files that contain a child’s image or voice, and persistent identifiers that can be used to recognize users over time and across different websites all require parental consent prior to collection. One important exception to the rule is any circumstance in which an operator collects a persistent identifier for internal operational purposes-for example, site analysis and network communications. In such instance, no parental consent is required.Continue Reading FTC Amends COPPA to Strengthen Children’s Privacy Protections