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Obviously this is problematic for advertisers, who lose opportunities for consumer engagement with every user who chooses not to enter a site. Janrain suggests here that one easy solution would be the option to log in via social media, and according to the survey, the number of people who are receptive to the idea of using social media is on the rise: In 2010, 66 percent of respondents agreed social login should be offered across various sites, in lieu of setting up a unique account at each, and in 2011, 77 percent agreed to the same. Among that 77 percent, 78 percent said they’d posted a comment or sent a message via social media about a product or service with which they’d had a positive experience, and 83 percent said people in their networks influenced them to consider new products or services.

Since Janrain actually provides a social login tool, the company has something of a vested interest in that particular solution to the password problem. But marketers will have to weigh the social data they could access with a social login against the ability to collect the specific kind of data they want through a traditional login. The whole study is available at Janrain’s website.

God, what a process! Who has the time? I demand convenience — where’s the WordPress plugin, dammit?

Oh, developer Eightfold Logic just released it right here. That was quick, guys — thanks! For those of you who prefer another CMS over WordPress, I’m told Eightfold Logic is working on integrations with additional popular online publishers. In particular, I think software like InboundWriter will come in very handy for companies setting upon branded content endeavors like those described by MovableMedia’s Andrew Boer.

Here’s my coverage from last week detailing how InboundWriter goes about the real-time content optimization process and a study detailing real-world results:

During less employed times, I would skim the classifieds for editing positions and grimace when I saw “knowledge of SEO writing and editing techniques” under qualifications. If you haven’t noticed, I’m one of those snotty writers who is horrified by the prospect of marring my Joycean prose with search-engine friendly terminology and phrasing.

OK, maybe I’m just not that great at SEO — I mean, it’s not like there’s a simple set of rules to follow, or a major search engine that doesn’t constantly update its algorithm. Besides, isn’t there some copy monkey who can do it for me? (That endangered species prefers the title “copy editor” and increasingly, no.). Or maybe some software?

Well, now there is, and it helps with that pesky “social media engagement” thingy too. (Guess I can’t use the excuse anymore that the unwashed masses are too uneducated to comprehend my extended metaphors.) Social writing application InboundWriter employs multiple SEO techniques during the composition process to improve not just organic search (by as much as 25% according to the website) but also social media engagement.

Currently in beta, the cloud-based software offers real-time (that is, during the composition process) insight into understanding audience and search keywords from topics discussed in social media conversations, search queries and similar content on competing sites. InboundWriter is not a content management system or a CMS plugin — writers compose within the software and then move it to the company CMS to publish. In addition, the software offers granularity in how much to push a certain goal (e.g., driving retweets vs. higher rankings on Google).

A new study by online marketers and social media pioneers Bryan Eisenberg, Jay Baer and Pelin Thorogood suggests that such “real-time content optimization” produces real results. For example. Baer rewrote five blog posts using InboundWriter, and witnessed traffic jump 33% compared to when they were first published 30 days before. Six out of seven new blog posts created using InboundWriter ended up in the Google top 10 rankings for their targeted terms within two days of publication.

Finally this quite hilarious marketing video from the company suggests that put-upon writers like me should actually be pitying those poor SEOs all alone in the underbelly of an organization, completing menial tasks across countless URLS when they could be playing with their friends. (Not outside though — everyone knows SEOs are deathly allergic to sunshine.)

As soon as I do join a miles plan, I might be able to get in on the fun eMiles offers by delivering airline miles in exchange for interacting with targeted messages from brands. The company has already awarded more than a billion miles to consumers that join the permission-based ad platform. In the next few months, Drusch says, eMiles will have hookups with nearly every major North American airline’s loyalty program.

It’s a simple setup: members of frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs are invited to sign up for eMiles to receive extra miles for viewing ads and then offering feedback. Watching a 60-second video ad and answering three questions can earn a user 5 miles; more time-intensive activities can rack up additional points.

“It’s a five-mile thank you,” Drusch comments. “Nobody is going to jump through hoops for five miles; the consumer is going to do something he or she wants to do.

The permission-based marketing platform develops profiles of users through submitted data as well as the feedback given to advertisers. So all the ads users receive are targeted based on their interests.

“The key here is that the advertiser only pays when he or she answers the questions,” Drusch says. This way it’s an efficient use of the advertiser’s money and a cool and unique way to gather additional data about that advertising message.”

e-Miles platform truly transcends the one-way advertising model to foster communication between advertisers and consumers. Drusch offers Times Square billboards for the new CBS fall lineup as an example — CBS hopes you watch the show, but doesn’t have any idea whether their advertising is swaying you in that direction. On e-Miles, CBS can serve a trailer to its target demographic and then get feedback on how effective the message was. Through analyzing the responses with additional demographic data, the company can better target its messaging.

“You’re turning one-way communications into two-way conversations,” he says.

And it’s fascinating that eMiles works up and down the sales funnel — advertisers take the data gleaned from responses to approach consumers with a new message, giving them the potential to lead a high-funnel target all the way down to a conversion through customized messaging.

As the technological infrastructure is solid, e-Miles is focusing on scaling its efforts — on the supply side with access to the frequent flyer miles of all the major airlines and the demand with additional and more varied advertisers. Though the company has existed four and a half years, Drusch says its flown under the radar — but now is the time to expand e-Miles’ base of 4,000 advertisers. He also mentions that the company is eyeing new forms of currencies such as online gift cards.

While the trend appears to be “bigger is better,” I’d like to believe that the industry has evolved “beyond the banner” in online advertising. Storytelling through integrated sponsorships is far more effective at enhancing awareness, preference, and ultimately, purchase intent for the product or service being advertised.

Organically integrating a brand into site content provides a level of interaction that is nearly impossible to achieve with a standard (or nonstandard) media unit. Users are sure to rebel against these larger ad formats, whereas seamless integration of a brand into the content that users already want and consume means you are far more likely to actually engage them.

In a community setting, similar to social networks like Facebook, the power of word of mouth is magnified exponentially. Users are far more likely to trust their friends or people they know over those that they do not. This trust can help virally spread the word regarding an advertised product or service more easily. By “pulling” rather than “pushing” users into this type of messaging, the results are even more amplified.

Of course, there are inherent costs associated with integrated brands but it is difficult to argue with the overall effectiveness of these campaigns. They involve multiple departments within an organization; creative, development, engineering, sales, and account management, to name a few.

The team needs a full understanding of what a client’s objectives for the advertised brand are, and it helps to understand the offline marketing initiatives of the brand in order to effectively connect the dots between linear and digital. If you properly achieve this, the results speak for themselves.

It takes a lot of work to get this right. However, isn’t this what we should be accomplishing for our partners anyway? Sure, the results related to display speak for itself – advertisers are spending more money on these ad units, which is good for all of us connected to the industry. That does not mean, however, that this money is being spent as wisely as it could be, or better yet, that the money being spent and the clicks generated are leading to increased sales.

I am aware of the reports out there suggesting the obvious impacts on consumer behavior as it relates to display units, but also realize that CTRs are declining. The larger and more obtrusive these ad units become, the more frustration web users are going to experience, which in turn will lead to even more “banner blindness”, a term that is becoming increasingly popular, based on the declining CTR’s experienced throughout the industry.

As a result, we get innovation such as AOL’s “Project Devil” or other advances that really do not improve a site user’s experience. Is that really what is needed in an increasingly fragmented and more socially-connected Internet experience?

I would prefer to think that web users are more likely to accept sponsorships and other forms of integrated advertising that actually align with their overall experience on the site being visited. In essence, by doing this we are actually “listening” to them, and making the experience more relevant.

It’s certainly no secret that “interaction” and “engagement” are two of the most over-utilized terms associated with online advertising this century. But if we can get members of a community to spend more time with brands within more integrated environments, we are improving the overall experience and putting the brand in a more favorable light with users who would previously only see banners and largely ignore them.

I do believe we can do better as an industry. We need more innovation in this area. Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare obviously realize this, and are aiming to innovate consistently. Other sites in the social networking/virtual world space are also engaging users in a manner that is more consistent with a brand’s ultimate goal — whether it is awareness or a myriad of other ad effectiveness metrics.

I think that this trend will continue and I’d like to hope that we don’t end up in a zero sum game of “bigger is better.” Nobody actually wins in that scenario.

Knowing that consumers research online, retail advertisers now have a better opportunity to reach consumers online while they are making their purchase decision. However, the competition for users’ attention is fierce. Advertisers not only compete with one another, but also with the publishers’ content.

MediaMind’s data shows that retailers spend the majority of their display budget on standard banners. They hope to attract users by exposing them to a relatively low cost ad multiple times. But online advertising has another dimension that can boost the impact that the ad has on users — engagement.

Engagement can boost the return on campaigns and deliver better ROI. In order for advertisers to compete successfully in the market and boost their ROI, they’ll need to take a bolder approach to online advertising by combining more engaging ads into their media mix.

When designing a campaign, advertisers should include creatives that engage users by triggering the following reactions: First, the ad must be visually appealing enough to attract the users’ eyes from the publisher’s content to the ad itself. Second the ad should elicit curiosity and makes it worthwhile for the user to engage with the ad. Third, the ad should pull users to the advertiser’s website, or site-in-banner, via a powerful call to action.

Here are a few tips that will help you do that:

Use rich banners. The stats are very simple: rich media quadruples CTR compared to standard banners. Standard banners may be cheaper, but they are significantly less effective driving users to your site. Rich banners provide better experience and more information about your brands and products.

Use video. Rich media is great on its own, but banners with video are even better. Users who viewed rich media ads with video were 25% more likely to engage with the ads, as measured by dwell rate. Research from Dynamic Logic also shows that video ads are better at driving brand effectiveness metrics.

Make them dwell. Make sure that users can discover your products by having them engage directly with the banner. An analysis of thousands of campaigns served in 2009 and 2010, shows that banners with high dwell rate resulted in a higher conversion rate. In addition, users who engaged with an ad are more likely to end up on an advertiser’s site via search or browsing.

Call to action. Obvious as it may sound, many ads still get this wrong. An analysis by MediaMind shows that about 25% of user-initiated video banners did not have a call to action. Users who did see a call to action were 30% more likely to play the video. The best calls to action were those that were highly visible, specific and gave users a valuable return or reward for clicking such as discounts, promotions and giveaways.

Online advertisers have a great opportunity to leverage the user’s tendency to research online before buying. It’s simple math. To get more dollars, you need to attract more users. Therefore, make sure that your ads are visible, engaging, and draw users to your site.

Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman actually went so far as to suggest that everyone in digital advertising write thank-you notes to Jobs for introducing the iPhone. As a huge chunk of the online advertising space has turned into a yield game, he said, the iPhone has renewed interest in engaging with the actual consumer.

Certainly the mobile space has transformed how advertisers attempt to reach consumers, most notably through the app. Jennifer Stenger, who works in licensing and business development for mobile markets at the Associated Press, noted that consumers on mobile apps digest 10 times as many pages as online, while Handmark CEO Paul Reddick cited engagement rates 15 times higher than websites.

Mobile Roadie CEO and cofounder Micheal Schneider explained that an app is like tunnel vision for a brand — the user is completely immersed in the app and in effect, the brand. The engagement is unprecedented.

Reddick buoyed this statement by suggesting that the mobile app has give brands back their identities. The power of in-app purchasing is alluring while despite the limited space, in-app ads tend to have click-through rates north of 1%, said Brandon Kraham, senior director of ad sales for AdMob. In-app ads offer impressive ROI along with a wealth of new metrics for brands to measure engagement.

The geotargeting capabilities, Goodman noted, are quite interesting as metrics for marketers and can be overlaid against heatmaps for increased insight.

However, too many brands are suffering from “shiny new app syndrome,” said Rachel Pasqua, director of strategy for emerging technologies at iCrossing.

“Too many brands are getting apps developed just to have an app,” she said. “There’s a lot of rushing to get them out and not enough thought put into them — it’s like the gratuitous use of Flash when it first came out.”

It’s hard to design a relevant app, Goodman agreed, and brands need to think hard about design especially considering that most apps have less than 1,000 users 80 days after launch.

Discovery is a huge hurdle, especially in the labyrinthine App Store, Kraham said. An app can easily become lost in that marketplace, hence why AdMob offers brands the ability to target the iPhone network and advertise an app, pushing a brand into the App Store’s list of the most popular apps.

Also, marketers and advertisers need to approach every platform — while the iPhone tends to be the best for engagement, the number of consumers with BlackBerries is still higher. If you’re just focusing on one platform, Reddick said, you might as well ask, “Which 80% of the market do I want to ignore?”

But the importance of an optimized mobile landing page for a website is not to be underestimated. Sure, the mobile web page is “the lowest common denominator” and not as compelling to browse as an app, Reddick said, but Kraham noted that its something publishers must focus on because a great deal of mobile traffic is still going through the Internet.

Data: it’s all about picking the right audience

Efficiency: buying and optimizing media is too hard; why not just use an exchange and let the machine do it?

Transparency: are ad networks dead? Or adapting?

Optimize, optimize, optimize: math makes everything better

Dynamic creative: make sure you’re saying the right thing!

Real-time: everything in display will be auctioned off in real time… right?

All of these “new platform” themes promise better ROI, greater efficiency and deeper insights for marketers; and, higher CPMs for publishers. CMO heads are spinning. So much promise, so many platforms… but where’s the payoff?

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that display inventory can be much more effective. Beyond that, though, it gets fuzzy regarding what a marketer should do next.

Should we optimize our media buys? Implement dynamic creative? Test inexpensive inventory on new exchanges and real-time bidding environments? Use a data exchange to find people with real intent?

Or — do all of these at once?

Enabling more relevant conversations between marketers and consumers is the crux to better display advertising. As with any offline conversation, when you market online it’s important to know who you’re talking to, the context of the conversation, when you talk and what you say -– all of these factors are important.

If we apply the conversation analogy to recent innovations in online display marketing, then it leads one to think that maybe display marketers — and the platforms we use — might want to work harder to optimize the entire marketing engagement, rather than the ad.

Today, every consumer engagement in display media involves at least three controllable elements that need to be executed well:

• Select the Right Audience (media)
• Present the Right Message/Offer (creative) — the ad
• Present the Right Post-Click Response (landing page or other)

Where we often miss the mark today is when we optimize only part of this equation, or when we optimize all of the parts — but in silos.

The Wrong Way to Treat a Consumer

Given the way advertising is bought and executed today — i.e., media buys executed separately from creative design and landing page design — it’s understandable why we often act this way. Nevertheless, from the consumer’s standpoint, it’s just dumb.

Consumers want a relevant informational experience, not an ad. That means getting all three elements right during every display marketing engagement. In platform-speak, that’s called “optimization”.

Optimization of engagements requires that the three elements be systematically broken down into components that can be tested independently, but at the same time.

In media, that means describing audiences by demographic, attribution and intent. In creative, that means breaking down ads into core messaging components (such as intro animation, benefit statements, headlines, product image, offer price, call to action, etc.). In response, that means breaking down the post-click experience into messaging components (that, in our experience tend to be quite similar to dynamic creative ad components).

Now, optimizing engagements at a useful scale requires the use of robust, scalable technology that can ingest and make sense of very large data sets and creative assets in multiple formats; then you need to apply algorithms to optimize all components holistically to achieve a specific goal.

The trouble is that many of the data sets contain imperfect and overlapping content, and all of this needs to be done in real time. Not trivial problems, but many of them have already been solved –- just not together in one cohesive execution.

The Quick Win: Deeper, Real-Time Insights

A byproduct of taking a more granular approach to optimizing display engagements is the production of a stream of incredibly deep insights regarding what “engagement recipes” and click streams work best — and why. Insights such as how specific offers and products performed for specific channels, demographics and media are necessary.

Understanding the performance of all of these variables at such a granular level helps a marketer determine the true value of each campaign event (impression, click, conversion, site visit, etc.). This is the type of insight that a lot of vendors and agencies talk about, but few deliver.

The Payoff: Better Performing Display

So what’s the payoff for marketers? By optimizing all three elements at the same time — the audience, the message and the response –- some display advertisers are experiencing huge increases in performance, on the order of 100s to 1000s of percentage gains in ROAS. It’s still early, but the evidence is quite strong that this approach yields substantial improvements in lift, clicks and conversions.

The Long-term Benefit: Digital-as-Proxy

We’re working with leading brands that leverage technology to automate the generation, testing, personalization and optimization of dynamic creative messages.

One reason brands use dynamic creative is because the time and effort it takes to launch complex test campaigns is relatively low, the reach is quite broad and the value of the insights is high. They are executing campaigns not just to “hit a CPA” but also to learn which offers and responses work best with their target audience.

And these findings aren’t surveys – they are records of real actions taken by consumers. It is conceivable that this form of “always-on” insight may eventually serve as a sort of a proxy for the consumer across all channels, both online and offline.

Could the insights gleaned from online display campaigns actually drive the content of television, radio and print ads one day? They just might, if we can get more focused on improving the quality of online engagements with consumers, rather than ads.

With advancements in the smartphone market, new tablet PC form factors and other larger-screen mobile devices pushing consumption of online-based video, the increase in available content will be the core growth of digital video advertising inventory. Wherever consumer eyes wander, you can be sure that advertising will follow — and the rate at which consumers are consuming video on their PCs, their mobile devices and Internet-based TVs is growing rapidly.

According to the Nielsen third-quarter “Three Screen Report,” online video usage is on the rise, with Internet users watching 53 more minutes of video online in third quarter 2009, a 34.9% increase in viewing time from last year. In addition, the number of people watching mobile video has grown 53% year over year.

With more video being consumed on these alternative screen devices, brands will find new ways of advertising during this content and will subsequently continue to spend more on video based ad formats. Forrester predicts that video will be the fastest growing area of display advertising over the next five years.

Getting in Touch With Interactivity

As the inventory for online video ad placements has increased, advertisers have been quick to fill it with simple in-stream ads (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll). Consequently, a customer experience issue has arisen.

This is a different beast than your traditional cable or broadcast viewer: Don’t expect them to sit through 15 or 30 second in-stream spots that have been repurposed from your broadcast campaigns. Online consumers expect more and are driving innovations in our industry with the power of their clicks and engagement.

In 2010, advertisers, publishers, agencies and technology companies will continue to push the innovation curve with advancements in online and mobile format by focusing on developing highly custom, interactive and engaging video-based ad formats.

Premium content publishers like ABC, CBS and NBC have had huge success enabling their premium full-episode player environments with custom, immersive advertising experiences. In 2010, look for new technologies, formats and features that truly engage consumers, and offer opportunities to do way more than just watch the seconds countdown until their video resumes.

‘True’ 3D… Coming Soon to a PC Near You?

Three-dimensional movies like “Avatar” and “Up” have been a hot topic over the past year with ticket sales reaching record numbers as audiences have lined up at theaters for these incredible movie experiences. Will 3D make its way into our TV and PC viewing experiences in the near future, forcing advertisers to get on the 3D train?

The topic of 3D can be a confusing one as it relates to the interactive world when compared to the “stereoscopic” 3D world of movies like “Avatar” that we see in IMAX theaters. Digital technology companies like Unicast are pushing the envelope with rich media technologies (like Papervision3D) that enable the delivery of real-time, rich, three dimensional online and mobile ads.

You’ll certainly hear a lot more about 3D in 2010, but 3D comes in many shapes and sizes — especially in the online advertising world. I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies emerge with software and hardware solutions for online stereoscopic (“Avatarlike”) video in the future, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if you are waiting to see it in an ad near you in 2010.

HD Online: Gaining Traction

Hi-def content has become commonplace in our living rooms. The question for online advertisers is, why haven’t we seen the same adoption curve in video content online?

The simple answer is in the economics. The cost of serving an HD video file over the web is still much higher than a standard definition video file. This along with the variability of serving cost when offering users the choice between HD and standard video viewing has made advertisers reluctant to expand heavily into HD video for their ads. In 2010, look for continued reductions in serving costs and alternative pricing models that will empower advertisers to explore options for HD video ads.

Continued Online/Offline Integration

Now that video is completely digitally based, it seems inevitable that the two distinct advertising operational structures that we see today across advertisers, agencies and publishers will eventually converge and realize efficiencies of a truly unified model for video-based ad operations across traditional broadcast/cable and online/mobile platforms.

Integration is definitely a hot topic. According to a recent Forrester “2010 Predictions” report, “online technologies and processes are seeping into television media. … Television buyers and sellers should spend 2010 learning from their online brethren how to target, optimize, and automate bid-based buys in order to be ready when the television upfront takes a backseat to the ‘online-like’ rules of order.”

The reality is that there are a lot of factors that will prove to be influencers, or barriers, to this convergence. There is not yet a consensus in our industry on how or how much these two video workflows should converge.

In 2010, I expect that the following trends will continue to make this topic one to watch:

• Growth in the prevalence of online video (in terms of both content and consumption)
• The continued shift in budgets being allocated towards online and mobile video related media buys
• The desire for more robust and consolidate metrics and analysis around video campaigns across mediums
• Economic conditions and the forced reduction of staffing models employed by agencies, publishers and advertisers
• Technology advances in TV, mobile, cable and PC hardware

What other trends do you expect to see in digital video advertising in 2010? Share your opinion with the rest of the Adotas readership by leaving a comment.

So it wasn’t that surprising to hear that former big spenders General Motors and Pepsico beverages were forgoing the expensive slots (for anybody worried, Pepsico’s Frito Lay division will still be airing Doritos commercials). However, Pepsi isn’t forgoing advertising during the big game, but putting a digital and charitable twist on it.

As part of the charitable initiative the Refresh Project, Pepsi will launch the website RefreshEverything.com on Jan. 13, where visitors can suggest community rehabilitation projects. From Feb. 1, users will vote on which projects should receive what percentage of $20 million that Pepsi is investing in the Refresh Project.

While voting visitors will be asked to contribute their emails for updates on the project status, a Pepsico representative told DM News that the goal of the project is creating a dialog with consumers and learning other ways Pepsi can participate in social causes that interest them.

So instead of flash and celebrities, Pepsi is attempting to engage consumers in community service. No clue whether it will work, but the company certainly scores points for nobility.

You give them something to do. Something to click.

At least that’s what worked for ScanScout. The network’s Super Pre-Roll video ads offer interactive elements (shiny stuff). For example, in a recent campaign for Vaseline, a survey playing off of the ad’s visual theme lets you know what percentage of respondents also look for a silky smooth feeling in a moisturizer (24%, apparently).

People do love to pick up… I mean, click on shiny stuff — Super Pre-Roll Ads on the network had a click-through rate 350% higher than plain ol’ pre-roll ads.