NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 7/7/98 - Report #8
ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 7/7/98 - Report #8
richard_at_tenagra.com
Tue, 7 Jul 1998 17:14:28 -0500 (CDT)
_at_d.Tech.Chicago
Report 8
July 7, 1998
This is the eighth in a series of 10 reports from Richard Hoy, who
covered _at_d.Tech.Chicago. You will receive these reports in addition
to your normal Online Ads posts/digests.
This coverage is archived at:
http://www.o-a.com/adtech.Chicago/adtechChig-archive.html
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This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
e-mail: mailto:info_at_adknowledge.com
phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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GREAT BRANDS ON THE WEB: A HOTWIRED CASE STUDY
Rick Boyce
Senior Vice President, Advertising and eCommerce
Wired Digital
Today the whole online marketing industry dialog seems,
more than anything else, to be about lessons learned.
Hotwired is one of the few online properties that has
learned a lot of them.
Launched October 1994, Hotwired is arguably one of the
oldest commercial properties on the Net. Its history is
nothing but a series of "firsts." They were the first to:
--publish content
--require registration (scraped 10 months later, too much
of a barrier)
--integrate thread discussion with content (saw the
creation of rich dialog between writers and readers)
--incorporate chat in their site
--create real audio tours of sites
--offer users customized content
--implement frames interface
--implement java interface
And of course, they were the first to sell banner ads. In
fact, Rick Boyce is often credited as being the father of
the banner ad.
With all this history in the medium, Hotwired has amassed
a huge repository of what works and what doesn't. Rick
shared a little of that experience.
LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT INTERFACES
Hotwired had tried a lot of interface designs over the
years. And despite the fact that the breadth of tools and
technologies available today is better than ever, Rick
sees the trend being towards simpler interfaces. In
Howired's opinion, the three key design issues for any Web
site interface are:
speed - how quickly does it load?
relevance - is the information / functionality what the
target audience wants?
utility - how useful is the site's content and navigation
Rick said incorporating Java into a site interface is
common nowadays. But he points out that in order for it to
work, the Java interpreter has to boot up, which can take
several seconds. Hotwired learned long ago that users will
leave because of this and, as a result, dropped their
floating navigation pallet, which was Java-based.
LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT MARKETING
In Rick's opinion, some of the biggest challenges on the
Web are marketing challenges. Here are some of his
experiences/observations:
1.) Hotwired hasn't launched a new product since 1996. The
reason is simple - the marketing expense to launch a major
online product is just too great nowadays. Instead,
Hotwired focuses on launching brand extensions and
refining their existing products.
2.) Though it sounds minor, naming brand extensions and
product refinements is an issue because a company is
forced to introduce them so quickly in the online market.
Rick's advice is to standardize on a naming convention
early.
3.) Hotwired is a big believer in opt-in e-mail. From
their results, people they reach through e-mail pay more
attention to the advertising.
4.) People seem to be over the fear of shopping online,
which was so pervasive a year ago. eCommerce is Hotwired's
fastest growing source of revenue. Last year it accounted
for 1 to 2 percent of their total revenue. This year it is
expected to comprise 15 to 20 percent their total revenue.
However, ad banner sales still account for more than 75%
of Hotwired's revenue. Rick doesn't see this changing much
as it is still much easier to do an ad banner campaign
that other forms of online advertising, mostly because the
banner creative is standardized. To help gain similar
efficiencies with sponsorships, Hotwired developed
templates for the content areas they sell in that manner.
5.) Hotwired has discovered that their audience seems to
respond best to "how-to" journalism and services. An
example of this is Web Monkey, a section of the Hotwired
site with resources for Web developers. Along a similar
vein, Hotwired created a whole new content area called
Wired Collections. They organize all of their past stories
by major subjects. They then sell sponsorships to
companies related to those subject areas.
6.) Hotwired now designed its content in standardized
production templates. That way is becomes portable, in
case they decide to syndicate the content. On the flip
side, Hotwired realized that they don't need to make all
the content themselves and now looks for partnerships when
feasible. Hotwired partnered with Looksmart, for example,
to supply the directory content on HotBot.
7.) Ultimately, Rick contends that the best metric in
evaluating the success of an online promotion is to look
at the value of customer over time. Too many people, in
Rick's opinion, fall short and measure just the
click-though rate or cost per acquisition.
This ends the eighth report of _at_d.Tech.Chicago. Stay tuned for more
in-depth session analysis.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
e-mail: mailto:info_at_adknowledge.com
phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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