NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> AdTech Coverage: Paul Matteucci, MPath Interactive / Rpt #6
ONLINE-ADS>> AdTech Coverage: Paul Matteucci, MPath Interactive / Rpt #6
rhoy_at_o-a.com
Thu, 22 Jan 1998 07:17:41 -0600 (CST)
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AdTech: West Coverage - Paul Matteucci, MPath Interactive / Rpt #6
"The Next Internet Advertising Success Story: Entertainment"
January 22, 1998
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This is the sixth in a series of 10 reports from Richard Hoy, who
covered the AdTech: West conference in Los Angeles last week. You
will receive these reports in addition to your normal Online Ads
posts/digests.
These reports are archived at: http://www.o-a.com/adtech-archive.html
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This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
Match.com
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we'll play matchmaker with your product and a half-million affluent
singles. Our subscribers are people that are open to new adventures
(like your site, for instance). They are people who are comfortable
with an online commerce environment. In fact 50,000 of them log on to
meet each other every day. That means better targetability for you. We
target your banner based on demographic data supplied to us by each of
our subscribers. That's how we deliver your ad to the individuals you
want to reach. That's how we can offer you exceptional reporting as
well. This Valentine's Day, Match.Com will be a leading online
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site, too.
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Paul Matteucci, MPath Interactive The Next Internet Advertising
Success Story: Entertainment
Mpath Interactive is a company doing cutting-edge Interstitials, as
well as innovative ad placement within their content. Their gaming
network, called Mplayer ( http://www.mplayer.com/ ) has more than
275,000 subscribers who compete head-to-head through the Internet in
such games as QUAKE, Red Alert, Command & Conquer, Panzer General,
Deadlock, Scrabble, Risk and Battleship.
Paul pointed out that the reason many sites just weren't designed to
support brand building activities. They were designed for direct
response. Take search engines for example. They are designed for
information retrieval - the user gets in, finds what he or she needs,
and then gets out; usually in five minutes or less. This puts severe
restrictions on brand interaction, especially when your message is
forced into a 468 x 60 pixel banner. Yet it can be very effective for
direct response.
If your objective is brand building, then you need a site where users
hang around for long periods of time and you need ways for them to
interact with the brand.
"Interactivity on the Web used to mean people interacting with
machines," explained Paul. "What it means now is people interacting
with each other in a range of activities - from conversation, to play,
to work. The interaction between the people is the experience."
Paul terms this "People to People communities." And he defined four
kinds: chat, multi-player games, virtual classrooms and talk shows.
Mplayer focuses on multi-player games, and to some extent chat.
Mplayer is one of four online gaming communities with 275,000 plus
members. A year ago, communities of this size simply didn't exist.
Paul displayed a chart plotting usage on Mplayer, which showed almost
a doubling this last quarter (Dec 97) from the previous quarter (Sep
97). Paul attributes this to two things:
1.) the advent of content designed specifically to enhance the online
experience, and
2.) communities recruiting new members on their own.
Members of Mplayer spend 42% of their online time in the Mplayer
environment. The average length of visit is about one hour.
While members are engaged in activities, they are exposed to various
forms of advertising - banner ads, pop-up forms, sponsored content and
Interstitials. Some of the more innovative ad vehicles include placing
a sponsors logo on the back of the cards used in a solitaire game.
It is important to note that when members are engaged, they are really
engaged - they don't "flip" between channels or get up to go to the
bathroom during a commercial. They are immersed in the experience.
"A page view on a site like Mplayer while you are playing a game might
last 40 minutes," Paul explained. " It is hardly to be measured
equivalently to page views that last eight or nine seconds on a search
site in terms of potential marketing value and reach."
Paul pointed out that the best way to measure the success of a
campaign on a site like Mplayer is to do pre- and post-flight surveys.
He shared such surveys of a 12-week campaign that ran on Mplayer.
Though they were not controlled studies, the advertiser was doing very
little elsewhere. The creative placements were customized to the
client and the campaign cost about $75,000. The placements consisted
of four banner executions, two sponsored tournaments, a lobby
sponsorship, one interstitial ad, and one chat ad. After six weeks the
survey data showed:
-- brand awareness increase five times
-- purchase intent increased five times
-- perception as a leader in their field increased eight times
-- negative perceptions were reduced 40%
I had a chance to speak to Paul after his presentation, where we
recapped what he said and touched on new issues.
"There is a fundamental difference when you are part of the
experience," he told me, referencing the impact of advertising in an
environment like Mplayer versus simple banners. But to make it work
the best, Paul had several suggestions based on past experience:
--Interstitials should be limited to about one per session.
--The first thing a person should see when an interstitial pops up is
the ad, not the cancel button.
--Animate you ads.
--If you survey, make them short and quick. Show that you respect a
user's time.
--And finally, be sure you have multiple executions of your ad. Variety keeps
people interested.
Related Info/Links
------------------
Mpath Interactive
http://www.Mpath.com/
Mplayer
http://www.Mplayer.com/
Mplayer Advertising Info
http://www.mpath.com/advertising/online_kit/ad_packages.html
Paul's Presentation
http://www.mpath.com/news/building-great-brands/
The Bleeding Edge (pg. 50)
WIRED, Oct. 1997
Mpath Calls New Play
Web Week
http://www.webweek.com/97Mar17/industry/play.html
Online gaming strikes deals
News.com
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,16715,00.html
This ends the sixth report of AdTech: West. Stay tuned for more
post-floor reports, and detailed session synopses in the days
immediately following the conference.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
Match.com
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. Advertise on Match.Com and
we'll play matchmaker with your product and a half-million affluent
singles. Our subscribers are people that are open to new adventures
(like your site, for instance). They are people who are comfortable
with an online commerce environment. In fact 50,000 of them log on to
meet each other every day. That means better targetability for you. We
target your banner based on demographic data supplied to us by each of
our subscribers. That's how we deliver your ad to the individuals you
want to reach. That's how we can offer you exceptional reporting as
well. This Valentine's Day, Match.Com will be a leading online
destination for thousands of singles. We can make that true for your
site, too.
Try Match.Com now and we'll give you three months for the price of
two. To find out more, visit us at:
http://www.match.com/advertising/
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