Parents of teens get a horrifying taste of what their kids go through with a free iPhone app created by Liz Claiborne Inc.'s Love Is Not Abuse Coalition.

Ms. Van Dyck spent the last 10 months as Levi's global CMO, where she oversaw the company's global "Go Forth" campaign.

ADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by incessantly shifting trends. Founded in 2006 by CEO Peter Glaeser and COO Jet Patel (pictured), Sponsormob created the first CPA network for mobile, and now the company has rebranded itself, with a new slogan (“Mobile conversions. Data driven. Worldwide.”) and, more importantly, a new real-time-bidding (RTB) platform for mobile, which launched earlier in January. By offering RTB, Sponsormob aims to simplify processes for advertisers, with instantaneous and relevant ad placement that allows for a larger scale of ad purchasing across an array of publishers and, as a result, leads to more conversions. And because Sponsormob operates with ad networks, exchanges, yield optimizers, publishers and social media, it presents advertisers the opportunity to work with just one partner to handle all those needs.

In a recent Skpe chat, Jet Patel said that the new technology came about, on the publisher’s side, after “six months of development work. We’ve invested a lot of time.” As companies in the space catch up to Sponsormob’s earlier leads and focus on new ways to utilize the opportunities presented by mobile devices, Patel said, “We want to differentiate ourselves.” The capacity for RTB gives Sponsormob that edge — other companies, he said, “can’t really optimize on the go.” Sponsormob’s algorithm, he said, “yields greater results” through data optimization, and he pointed out that when working with a new client, his company conducts extensive testing, looking at the mobile carrier, the handset and tens of thousands of clicks in order to deliver the right ad to the right user at the right time.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how mobile devices — as wide-ranging and nuanced as the term “mobile” may be — present challenges and opportunities for advertisers, because of their portable nature and the highly personal relationship can users have to them. But Patel underlined the need for transparency. The user’s choosing to opt in to ads can lead to eye-popping click-through rates, and Patel acknowledged, “I think that’s the most important thing, that people opt in.” He pointed out the importance that “everything has legal liens — users are aware of what they’re downloading.”

When it’s transparent, though, methods of advertising via mobile can be both effective and creative. Patel cited Sponsormob’s Click-to-Call service. He said the insurance industry is one channel where it’s worked very well. The way it works is, a user clicks on an ad and is led directly to a call center. That process, he said, is “considered an elite. We’ve transferred it to mobile.”

Patel said he sees companies working with mobile technology approaching a point when they can target ads with the level of sophistication that the web has. “Come 2012, it’s catching up with a lot of things,” he said. “There are unique ways you can access users and engage with them.” He pointed to “apps focused on geolocation targeting” as key in the process, especially as inventory in mobile apps expands. Meanwhile, for Sponsormob specifically, he said that while up to now, “we’ve been focusing on direct advertisers, we’re looking at a solution where we can go to publishers” with more opportunities for branding and revenue. The company’s been focused on Germany and the U.S., he said, and it’ll give some more attention to the U.K. and France in the future. “The biggest difference [is] — well, the time difference!,” Patel said. “Things need to get done very quickly.”

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ADOTAS – In the latest episode of The Future of Engagement, marketing consultant and Influence People chief Murray Newlands’ video interview series, we meet meet Kimling Lam, marketing and communications director of SaaS company Meltwater Group. Lam talks about how brands can work with social media to find their audience, interact with them — that means sharing engaging, fun content unrelated to your brand in addition to messages about your brand — and monitor these conversations over time. She discusses the idea of social CRM, the applications for good customer service that social networks present, examples of how to stay abreast of social trends, and some of the myths of social media. “That you should be on every channel… is absolutely a myth,” she asserts. Instead, she says, brands should use the channels that work best for their message and their audience.

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DM CONFIDENTIAL - According to 11mark, three-quarters of Americans with mobile phones have used their phones in the bathroom, with more men than women reporting that they don’t go to the bathroom without their mobile phone.

Seventy-five percent of Americans with mobile phones have used their phones in the bathroom, according to 11mark. The gender split is nearly identical, with 74 percent of men and 76 percent of women saying they’ve used their mobile phones in the bathroom.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of men vs. 20 percent of women said they don’t go to the bathroom without their mobile phone, according to the report.

11mark goes even deeper into the details to find that:

• 20 percent of men and 13 percent of women participated in work-related calls in the bathroom
• 26 percent of men and 15 percent of women sent/read work-related email in the bathroom
• 41 percent of men and 36 percent of women browsed the web in the bathroom
• 13 percent of men and 7 percent of women made a purchase while in the bathroom

Android users are the most likely to use their mobile phone in the bathroom, with 87 percent of Android users saying so, followed by 84 percent of BlackBerry users and 77 percent of iPhone users.

BlackBerry users are the most likely to answer a call while in the bathroom (75 percent) and initiate a call while in the bathroom (48 percent). Meanwhile, iPhone users are the most likely to use social networking sites while in the bathroom (53 percent) and use an app while in the bathroom (67 percent).

According to 11mark, 91 percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners use their phones in the bathroom, while 80 percent of Gen X mobile phone owners, 65 percent of boomers and 47 percent of the silent generation do the same.

The report also highlighted that 16 percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners made a purchase while in the bathroom, while 10 percent of Gen X, 6 percent of boomers and 2 percent of the silent generation have done the same.

“Based on the trend, bathroom buying is poised for growth,” according to 11mark.

Getting down into the health aspects of this trend, 11mark found that 92 percent of respondents said they always wash their hands after using the restroom, while 14 percent said they always wash their phone after using the bathroom.

A separate report from Google and Ipsos MediaCT Germany found that more consumers use mobile phones than laptop/desktop computers in all five studied regions of the world (U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan).

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ADOTAS -Facebook launched Timeline at f8 last September. Like Keystone Kops on a chase, marketers instantly clamored to conjure up and share ideas on how they could take advantage of it. Then Facebook played the wily criminal foiling the chase. They made it clear that Timeline wasn’t for companies and their products. Rather, it was designed for those living individuals among their users. There would be no brand pages allowed, not for now anyway. A few weeks ago, they showed they were sticking to their guns by surprisingly going after a public service organization: Israel’s anti-drug authority had created a clever “split Timeline” to show how the same person could live quite disparate lives if he went down the path of drug abuse. Facebook labeled it a “fake profile” and asked that it be taken down.

Things have begun to get more interesting. Facebook recently announced and is now rolling out “Sponsored Story” ads, opening up one door into Timeline for branded content. On the heels of that came a fascinating blog post by business analyst Jeff DeChambeau arguing that Timeline is, in fact, explicitly designed for the benefit of advertisers. DeChambeau says that while its overlay is a calendar format, the content users populate within it is actually laid out much more sporadically than original Facebook pages. This affects deeper engagement when someone visits a Timeline page, forcing them to spend more time and energy to discern what they’re seeing. That engaged state of mind then makes them more receptive to new ideas. Cue the ads. (DeChambeau references Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, which breaks down human thinking into categories based on high and low cognitive effort.)
The idea that the Zuckerberg bunch is now deeply immersed in the field of behavior-based advertising is a theory backed by strong supporting actions. With Timeline, there is simply too much potential for what marketers can do with the format, starting with that big, beautiful banner at the top, to not eventually give them access to it or some variation of it. And as of this week, there have been reports that brand pages are on the way and may be launched on the last day of February, according to some rumors.

At our shop, we started tinkering with the beta after f8, first using it to curate an exhibit of our own work. From there, we moved on to creating real applications with an eye to what sort of programs might benefit the kind of companies we represent. Ultimately, we developed six key applications for how brands can leverage it.

1) Timeline is a wonderfully visual storytelling device that can help personalize brands. Its format enables communication from a personal, almost individual perspective. This enables marketers to develop compelling stories that can connect with consumers on an emotional level.

2) Its format is ideal for drawing people into story- and setting-based marketing for entertainment products. It’s now a common tactic to expand on a film or video game universe with prequels, side stories and other bonus content to generate interest prior to its premiere and to expand its audience after launch. Timeline represents one of the best marketing tools yet to develop and showcase this type of campaign.

3) It’s a great place to execute on buzz-building programs. An example would be a campaign building up to a big reveal or rollout that’s driven by consumers who participate and share. Traditionally, these campaigns use Facebook as a primary point of genesis, but then require the development of an open graph-connected microsite or Facebook canvas-based application. Now Timeline gives marketers a great tool for facilitating them right where the very off-limits “Wall” used to be.

4) It can be harnessed by long-standing brands and products. Brands with some level of built-in affinity or history can curate compelling exhibits showcasing their legacy, even their transformation through rebranding. The message that a brand has been around for a long time is powerful in adding legitimacy and relevance to it.

5) It’s a great tool to establish a pedigree for new products or startup enterprises. A new product can use it to feature its history, from concept to R&D to launch. For a startup company or new brand, it’s a great way present how it was founded or developed and the successful milestones it met along the way.

6) It gives marketers a place to curate exhibits and give consumers “behind-the-scenes” access to popular marketing campaigns. Highly creative campaigns have always managed to take on a life of their own, going viral or developing memes to become part of pop culture. Now there’s Timeline to exhibit work in a way that can be compelling to marketing savvy consumers. It could even be used to heighten buzz around a high profile campaign. With the Super Bowl around the corner, think of how a brand with some legacy there could showcase their old ads and build interest in their next one.

Let’s be clear. We’re not saying that brands should have access to a fan’s Timeline. We simply think its features and functions are a huge step in the right direction for brand pages. Rather than being suffocated behind a text well, its format helps integrate messaging into a single compelling story and lets fans interact with it. Facebook may feel there needs to be a “warming up” period before turning a new feature into another marketing channel for them. It has taken this approach before. But it’s just a matter of time. For brand stakeholders, it’s worth coming up with a general strategy, even drawing up a few rollout-ready ideas for when Timeline fully comes online.

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Breckenridge Brewery isn't in the Super Bowl but the craft brewer is likely to get folks in Denver talking on Sunday about the latest installments in its "Truth in Beervertising" parody campaign.

Joe Pytka was behind the camera in 1992 when Cindy Crawford took that sip of Pepsi, and put Michael Jordan on the court with Bugs Bunny for "Hare Jordan."

Who's the PR agency for Susan G. Komen for the Cure? Ogilvy, which was brought on eight months ago and now has its hands full trying to manage crisis communications for the charity now under fire.

ADOTAS – Fashion Week is about to descend upon New York City in a burst of swirling colors, bold new styles and weighty prognostications about what’s “in” and what’s “out.” These eight days in February are crucial. Retail buyers will make decisions that determine what men and women wear – and not just in the precincts of high society, but on Main Street, U.S.A.

Admit it — wouldn’t it be great to have an inkling ahead of time what the hot styles will be?

You could, of course, phone your favorite designer and ask him or her to give you a sneak peak. But if you are not on friendly terms with any designers, you could find your answer online. It’s possible – if you know where to look.

The explosion of social media in recent years, coupled with the rise of advanced analytics technology, has made it possible to forecast any number of trends. This isn’t just for fun – companies are starting to use the burgeoning field of social media analytics to make important business decisions.

Let’s say the head buyer at a major retailer wants a better idea of where fashions are heading. First, he could use sophisticated software to sift through massive amounts of online data to look at the universe of people who discuss fashion online. Starting with literally thousands of people, the powerful algorithms would narrow the list down to a small number of influential bloggers who are extremely passionate and knowledgeable about fashion.

The software would specifically home in on social media mavens who sit at the center of huge social networks and have many followers. Why is this important? A recent IBM inquiry into footwear styles illustrates this point nicely. Using analytics, we looked at the universe of people who discuss shoes online, ultimately identifying a dozen “fashoenistas:” folks who blog and Tweet, do podcasts, etc., about shoes.

We discovered that these bloggers aren’t traditional experts – they don’t work in the footwear industry. But they are incredibly knowledgeable about shoes — that’s why they’re so popular. They might spend countless hours shoe shopping and invest considerable amounts of money in footwear. They read everything they can find on the topic. They often have friends in the industry. They think about shoes far more than most people.

An analysis of what these fashoenistas wrote online from 2008 to 2011 showed that their discussions of increasing heel height peaked towards the end of 2009, and declined after that.  For example, between 2008 and 2009 they wrote consistently about heels from five to eight inches, but by mid 2011 they were writing about the return of the kitten heel and the perfect flat.

The fashoenistas were on to something. While heels on women’s shoes are still high in 2012 — as a visit to any shoe store will confirm – the trend appears to be changing, with lower heels becoming increasingly popular. The advanced insight provided by the fashoenistas is the kind of specific, actionable data that could be used by shoe manufacturers and retailers looking for insight into the kind of shoes to, respectively, manufacture and sell in the coming season.

Similarly, retail buyers could use social media analytics to forecast the most popular color for women’s fashions in a year’s time. Or skirt length. Or trends in makeup.

Nothing is going to replace Fashion Week – it’s a unique extravaganza, an amazing mix of fashion and commerce. But social media analytics can be indispensable in helping retailers understand trends that are yet to be born. It can help them see Fashion Week with new eyes. In a business where even a single misstep can spell disaster, that’s a pretty big deal.

 

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Ad Age has been working with Networked Insights, a social-media analytics company that advises brands and agencies on media planning, to track social sentiment surrounding Madonna.

ADOTAS - Who really clicks on ads anymore? That’s not necessarily a rhetorical question — it’s one of several mediaFORGE poses in this white paper, released earlier this week. mediaFORGE provides technology that aims to determine post-engagement attribution, which the company insists is a much better way to measure a campaign’s success than click-throughs are. If, as the paper suggests, what we call a “view” often isn’t viewed and what we call an “impression” doesn’t actually create an impression on the viewer’s mind, and if optimizing an ad campaign for a better click-through rate narrows your target audience to an unnecessarily small group of viewers who might not be the audience most inclined to make a purchase… then what needs to change, and how? mediaFORGE proposes engagement to be a better gauge of success than click-throughs, and naturally the paper’s authors explain how their company can provide the right answers to its clients — but along the way, they lay out a carefully researched argument that the era of CTR may be over. Below, you can read an excerpt, and you can read the whole thing at mediaFORGE’s website.

 

Engagement: Leading the Display Metric Revolution
A Position Paper from mediaFORGE

Executive Summary
Engagement is the metric that most successfully ensures ads meaningfully influence user behavior. Where clicks and impressions have inherent deficiencies as indicators of overall banner ad campaign success, engagement succeeds. There is an industry consensus that traditional display campaign measurement tools are inadequate. Limited viewable ad inventory challenges validity of attributed view-through conversions. Narrowing target audience to optimize campaigns for clicks leads to substantial opportunity cost. Campaigns should be optimized for engagement to maximize yield. Tracking ad engagement validates that impressions were viewable. Clicks are not the exclusive indicator of purchase intent.

To empower advertisers to make the right decisions when exploring campaign metrics, mediaFORGE has detailed its position on why optimizing campaigns for impressions, post-impression attribution, and click-through rate (CTR) does not give an adequate
understanding of campaign performance, and how post-engagement is able to substantiate performance with much more meaningful results.

I. Era of Dynamic Display Advertising

With today’s advanced technology, the best online display ads are rich with website-like capabilities, making ads personalized and allowing customers to have an interactive experience without ever leaving the page they’re browsing. A recent Adobe study revealed that consumers who were exposed to interactive ads had stronger engagement, message involvement and purchase intent than those who saw static ads. What’s more, advances in consumer tracking technology have enabled ad creators to feature tailored content that matches each individual’s shopping/browsing behavior – giving consumers a more personalized ad (and brand) experience than any other advertising medium. Combined, these innovative features not only make ads more noticeable and inviting to consumers, but they empower them to engage with advertisements without committing to a click. Engagement ranges from scrolling through featured products to searching catalogue inventory to watching a video. And because all this can be done within the ad, it extends the unique experience of visiting a brand site to properties throughout the web. The dynamic features of this new generation of online display ads has made them increasingly influential in the conversion process and more capable than ever of attracting shoppers that wouldn’t have otherwise returned to make a purchase. However, the value of dynamic display advertising would be completely lost without the ability to track engagement and, more importantly, its influence on user behavior. The great news is that this capability exists.

II. State of Interactive Ad Measurement

Recent conversations regarding the “Making Measurement Make Sense” (3Ms) initiative indicate that advertisers recognize the shortcomings of campaigns focused on impressions or post-impression attribution and with campaigns optimized for clicks. In explaining the genesis of the 3MS initiative, the IAB website states that “while consumers have embraced digital media and continue to adopt […] new media behaviors, the marketing and media business have yet to create the tools necessary to keep up with consumers’ behavioral changes.”  The organizations behind 3Ms (IAB3 , ANA4 , and 4As5 ) are making a clear call for higher quality performance metrics. What’s surprising is that engagement has, so far, been overlooked. As advertisers consider new standards for understanding display ad influence, it’s important that they recognize ad engagement, and subsequent post-engagement conversions, as a viable metric that will help improve optimization and attribution techniques. Not only does engagement add a more comprehensive evalutation of campaign performance, but it also fills doubt-raising gaps left by impressions, post-impression attribution and CTR.

…

V. Clicks

Knowing that impression volume and post-impression attribution give little insight into banner ad success, clicks and click-through rate (CTR) have become a crutch for those hoping to understand campaign performance. Historically, marketers haven’t had anything else to reference. If asked if they ever click on banner ads, almost everyone will say “no.” In fact, according to comScore/Starcom research, just 16 percent of Internet users would answer “yes” – and half of those (only eight percent of all users) generate 85 percent of all clicks.10  Very few people click on ads, and those that do, do so often. So, campaigns optimized for CTR only succeed by narrowing the targetable audience and serving ads to users that have a higher propensity to click. This is highly effective at increasing CTR, but will return deceptively impressive results for those marketing managers who think clicks are the ultimate indicators of campaign performance. The question that marketing managers must ask themselves is, “Is my now narrowed audience of likely clickers the group I’d really like to reach, and does this strategy yield the best possible outcome?”

No. mediaFORGE contends that, because typical users don’t click on banner ads, advertisers forfeit a large pool of opportunity by optimizing for CTR. For e-commerce advertisers, sacrificing profitable incremental revenue for marginal improvement of CTR is unnecessary. Not all buyers are clickers and not all clickers are buyers – in fact, most of them are not.

…

On average, those who engage with dynamic interactive display ads return and convert 44 percent faster than those who click through. This significant improvement suggests that, although a click-through is a demonstration of interest, it’s not the most convincing indication of purchase intent. mediaFORGE CTR ranges from .08 percent to 1 percent, while engagement rates range from 10 percent to 20 percent – an indication that users are more comfortable interacting with shoppable ads than clicking through to another website. In the case of retargeting, it’s unreasonably assumptive to think that users are immediately ready to return to a site from which they recently abandoned.Interestingly enough, those that do interact with dynamic banner ads also spend more on average than clickers. Sixty percent of campaigns studied had a five percent higher post-engagement average order value (AOV) than post-click.

Read the unexcerpted report here.

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ADOTAS – Another week, another round of new gigs. Here are the hires and promotions we heard about this week. Maybe you’ll spot some familiar names. Did we miss anyone?

• Steve Sincavage has been named chief financial officer of mobile ad/marketing messaging provider Mobile Posse. Previously, he’d been CFO of Rivermine Software.

• Advertising media software provider Telmar has named Corey Panno president of Telmar Group. He had been the company’s president for North America.

• Lucy Jacobs is now chief operating officer of Facebook Ads API developer Spruce Media. This is a newly created position. She had previously been adBrite’s vice president of sales, marketing and business development.

• Ad agency Brunner has promoted former vice president and director of public relations Shari Boyle to senior vice president and director of public relations.

• Digital communications agency Horn Group promoted former New York City office principal Ben Billingsley to the role of partner.

• Matthew Kirk was named chief scientist for enterprise social media management provider SocialVolt. He comes to SocialVolt from Wetpaint, where he’d held a software engineering position.

• Online ad campaign performance optimization company Maxifier has appointed Xiaoming Shao to the role of managing director for Asia Pacific. Shao had previously been managing director for Asia Pacific with AudienceScience.

• Nancy Marzouk is now chief revenue officer of tag management and attribution company TagMan. Previously, she served as vice president of sales at IgnitionOne.

• Eric Rosenthal has been named general manager of digital advertising technology provider OpenX Technologies‘ enterprise business. This is a newly created position. Rosenthal comes to the company from AOL, where he’d been vice president of national sales.

• Cloud-based telecom customer experience company Globys has appointed Chek Lim senior vice president of engineering. Lim had previously held the same position at Motricity.

• Diana DiGuido is now a senior director for client services with digital marketing company PM Digital. She had been an account director with Zeta Interactive.

• Ad tech company AudienceScience has named Stuart Colman vice president, international. He’ll simultaneously continue to serve his prior role as managing director for Europe.

• SaaS email/mobile/social marketing company Emailvision hired Andrew Bonar, naming him worldwide director of deliverability. He’d earlier spent several years as an independent consultant for a number of companies internationally.

 

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Here's an exclusive look at which NFL teams draw the best playoff ratings with a bonus list of markets that tune in even after their team is knocked out.

If we compare the most popular Super Bowl commercials from year to year, they all fall short of the one that got this magnificent obsession going in the first place: Apple's "1984." That iconic creation still leads everyone's list of the best ever. Why haven't we taken another huge leap and topped it?

Pepsi, the choice of a new generation, may look like its going old-school in its return to the Super Bowl, what with the castle and court and all.

Automakers are reaping the biggest increases in buzz among all the marketers that have released Super Bowl commercials early, according to YouGov Brand Index, a daily consumer research service.

Which ones have the truest fans of all? With social media we can begin to answer that question.

Securing the services of a supermodel to wear minimal clothing is standard for a Super Bowl advertiser, but hiring her based on her social-media credentials is a sign of the times.

In a 60-second apocalyptic-themed Super Bowl spot that will air during the game's first quarter, GM's Chevrolet brand manages to get in a dig at cross-town rival Ford.