SpectatorBytes

Upon learning of Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed, very few industry people (myself included) were surprised that Facebook needed to acquire a company to bring in talent to compete with Twitter. However, if one takes a step back, this news should have at least raised an eyebrow. Currently, Facebook is one of the hottest digital [...]

Over the past few months, I have noticed a rise in large images are increasingly dominating the user interface of content websites, particularly news sites.  The Huffington Post front page illustrates this trend. Here is a comparison of the current front page (below left) versus the version when the site was launched in 2006 (below [...]

The art of developing strategies for digital media businesses has become increasingly difficult. The dynamics of the Web continue to evolve at such rapid pace that media companies struggle to stay ahead of the curve. Changes in the marketplace force digital media players to focus on constant reinvention of their businesses. This is the [...]

Over the past couple of years, I have advised the digital companies with which I am and have been involved to minimize their marketing spending. Instead, I have advocated that management teams focus on product development and maximizing distribution, which I strongly believe is a superior recipe for success.
The list of digital products that [...]

Yesterday, AOL announced the formation of its publishing unit MediaGlow. This event marks an important milestone in the evolution of publishing on the Web. Big congratulations to Bill Wilson. It is a formal recognition that the value of publishing on the Web will primarily be accrued by highly-targeted sites that are able to create [...]

Last week, during a lunch with a former colleague and Jeff Ocampo-Tan, one of my associates at Velocity, we engaged in a discussion about the opportunity Facebook (FB) has in building its brand advertising revenues. The New York Times recently reported (see here) Facebook has faced some challenges in doing so far. However, these [...]

I recently attended an interesting “unconference” organized by WPP’s Mark Read and Yossi Vardi in Athens, Greece (Thanks to both of them for hosting this event). After reflecting about the many conversations I had in Athens about online advertising, I thought I would start outlining my thoughts on what is going in online advertising [...]

As I have discussed in previous posts, the Web is dominated by performance-driven rather than brand advertising. To explain my point, I have always cited the lack “Colgate Ads” around the Web. This is because growing up, Colgate was one of the leading brand advertisers on television.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I came [...]

A few posts back I wrote about the new dynamics of content businesses in a digital world (See here). In recent months, the mantra of “content is king” has returned to the forefront of these businesses as a way to highlight their value. This is not surprising. As distribution outlets proliferate thanks to the [...]

I have written several posts about the need for offering innovative ad solutions to brand advertisers. I wanted to share a couple of solutions for brand advertisers that two companies in our portfolio have developed (obviously I have a vested interest in the success of these two companies). Nevertheless, I think that they are offering [...]

For content producers and providers, the Web is bound to create significant value in the middle. Much has been said about the Web’s long-tail over the past few years, and certainly many companies are focused on the “head” since most offline models have been built around the “head”. However, the middle – which some [...]

Today’s major news headline is NewsCorp’s FIM sales reorganization (see here). While internal politics have been blamed for the changes in the blogosphere, in an strategic sense, I would expect the move to further help FIM built its brand advertising revenues. Here are some of the reasons why:
- Increases focus on creating “scalable” [...]

I recently came across an article in Ad Age that urged us to think differently and consider a scenario in which the Web is not a medium suited for advertising (Think Different: Maybe the Web’s Not a Place to Stick Your Ads). While the argument is well constructed, I believe the author may [...]