The remarkable results surprised even us at Blue Ribbon seeing “click-through rates (CTR) of 13.55 per cent…”, among other incredible metrics.

You need to read the article, CAMPAIGN NEWS: Marilyn brings 50s glamour to recycling campaign.

According to today’s eMarketer article based on a September ‘09 MarketingProfs survey conducted among both B2B & B2C marketers (http://tinyurl.com/yblparr), a common refrain is “marketers found that the marketing tactics most often used on social sites are not necessarily the best ones.”

Why is this? Well, it’s because of grotesquely out-sized expectations among the brand manager classes that Social Media represents the best (spelled c-h-e-a-p-e-s-t) method of reaching consumers with an authentic and engaging brand voice.

Because I attend all of the fantastic iMedia Summit events, and also happen to be the founder of an interactive marketing services agency, I get to live inside the bubble of the digital media realm and see the swirl of offerings, strategies, technologies and triple-screen availabilities all day long. In fact, because ‘emerging media’ such as Social, Video and Mobile are hot topics, iMedia created a Summit called ‘Breakthrough’ which is unique in that it is open to both senior Brand Marketers and Agency personnel—and focuses exclusively on these topics.

And without a doubt, the bulls-eye of the Breakthrough Summit is Social. I can literally hear the sound of all (or most) of the air being sucked-out of the room whenever Social is being discussed in a panel session, or during a Keynote speech, or sponsor presentation.

No doubt, the stunning growth of social media and corresponding usage demands that marketers pay attention to it, and that major brands such as P&G or Unilever or Virgin America blaze trails in the category in an attempt to make it work against a specific set of objectives.

However, all the noise surrounding the social craze has somehow validated the idea amongst the ad budget holders that THIS is where they should focus their digital strategy, along with precious marketing dollars. And I say, that’s crazy!

It’s the equivalent of a big brand saying we’re pulling all of our traditional media dollars and share-shifting entirely to the Web, Social and Mobile because that’s where the hoopla is. I see it happening. This disavowal of other digital media forms in favor of Social.

I hear it from prospective new clients who want ‘buzz.’ I saw it when a major fast food company who had done zero advertising in digital channels told me they were going to conduct a ‘test’ with social media as a method of getting their franchisees stoked about digital. Much to my verbalized chagrin, that was the last $500K that that specific QSR spent on the Web. The deafening thud heard ’round the Web when that lead zeppelin crashed put the kibosh on any future digital consideration. That’s such a shame because I know how to sell more hamburgers on the Web and drive restaurant visits using all other digital channels, with a dash of social thrown in, but there is simply no way that social can lift burger sales all by its lonesome.

So dear reader, let me ask you. How can I socialize the idea that Social can indeed play a role in one’s overall digital marketing plan, but a right-sized role, maybe 15% (max) of total budget?

To that point, I recently read an article in the Grey Lady that got my media—think dinosaur-collusionary—hackles raised. It seems that this good ol’ fashioned newspaper collaborated with good ol’ fashioned TV to announce…GREAT NEWS!!! The ‘passive activity’ of viewing TV commercials is alive and kicking.

Read the rest of my blog here.

‘Here lies Matthew Greene. He died wondering why the marketers ?and their agencies that never spent more than 30% of available ?ad dollars through digital channels didn’t know they were doomed.’

Sound a little drastic you say? Go ahead and read my whole post on Marketing Malfeasance (at MediaBizBlog.com) and be sure to leave your comments for or against. It’s all a dialogue.

This is a seminal moment in the history of advertising in general, and digital advertising, specifically! The fact that a major advertiser deliberated, then decided that a HUGE slice of their total ad budget should go digital is a (sorry for the cliche) game-changer.

We’ve been saying for a long time that ALL advertisers should be dedicating a minimum of 30% of total ad dollars to digital channels, and here Intel goes, blowing the barn doors off of our challenge.

Many kudos to Intel, Deborah and the gang at Intel!

You made us proud!

Having just attended the iMedia Agency Summit (see the picture of the pretty Lost Pines Resort in Austin) where Mitch Spolan formally introduced the technology alliances, it was really interesting for us to see how our Agency peers would respond to Smart Ads’ offering. Mitch did most of the talking with hand-offs to Peter Kim, who ‘owns’ the Smart Ads product for Yahoo! I’m pleased to say that our peers seemed really stoked about it, and some were matter-of-factly trying to figure-out how to port-over the data from Smart Ads to/thru their respective ad serving and tracking dashboards.

I must say, Mitch took a HUGE risk in setting expectations really high for those of us in the room based on a recent case study with a major mass market retailer, boasting the following declarative statement (and I paraphrase)…”the results from the dynamic creative delivery drove similar results for the advertiser to their SEM campaigns”!

I only hope the expectations now aren’t artificially unattainable!

Regarding this growing social media whirl, we too are aware of, and participate in helping retail clients embrace social media. But it’s critical to note that there are a couple of declarative statements in Anne d’Innocenzio’s article that ring false—with me anyway.

1. Executive Director Scott Silverman’s contention that social media is more cost efficient than Search, and, more effective than standard online advertising, is far from proven. In fact, the article cites no evidence that the statement is true. Money where your mouth is and all that…

2. Further, this point of view is striclty seen through the prism of e-commerce retailers. And since only 7% (and less) of all revenues for store-based retailers occurs online, with 93% of most revenues occuring in-store, I really think that the opportunity for Social Media has more to with communities, and how to weave a retail community story and theme via this new medium.
Anyway, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

As the world’s biggest online publisher, I’ve got some important advice for today’s marketers: You must devote more of your marketing dollars online, or else you run the risk of marketing to consumers that are not as engaged, or worse, are just not there. http://tinyurl.com/coyn7o

We’ve just engineered a tremendously exciting test between Yahoo! (exclusively) and one of our clients where the focus is to measure and calibrate how online advertising lifts retail sales, using our Click2MortarTM system. Everybody is looking forward to seeing the results…so stay tuned!

This article from AdAge talks about an impending White Paper suggesting that Display Advertising can be as productive as Search Engine Marketing. Fancy that. It only took Google 10 years to figure-out this great truth that we wrote about, and documented, way back in 2005!

Not having seen the White Paper yet, I can only presume that their research and media sample included only Google Search and their Site Targeting product. If my supposition is correct, there are several critical areas Site Targeting lags behind the rest of the industry in as it relates to targeting features. But let’s wait and see what the Paper reveals before I get much deeper into the color commentary zone.

I suppose the good news here is that since Google has a much larger voice than little ‘ol Blue Ribbon Digital, that their latest pronouncement can only have a positive impact on Display as a much-maligned media channel.

We shall see…