We apologize for the interruption of BIA/Kelsey website services caused by Hurricane Sandy. Our Local Media Watch blog has been affected by power outages at our data centers. We expect service to be restored next week and appreciate your patience as we work to solve these issues.
Until then, we've set up this page so we can continue to bring you coverage of important local media industry topics. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@biakelsey.com. Most importantly, at this time our thoughts are with everyone affected by the storm.
Local Media Watch Blog Posts
Nov. 1, 2012
Marchex Leads Way in Mobile Monetization, Spins out Domains
Charles Laughlin
For many of us, the Marchex story has been a difficult one to understand. But now the fog is lifting.
Today, Marchex announced it is pursuing a split into two companies. The move spins off the company's domains and clicksbusiness from its true core, mobile products.
Now, pay-for-call and call analytics, which has made Marchex one of the biggest mobile advertising companies around, will become a single business.
Marchex started incubating its mobile ad side just a few years ago and has seen it grow more than 10x, from $10 million to a $120 million revenue run-rate, and profitably. (See the Q3 release here.)
If you still can't follow, what Marchex is trying to do in mobile is the equivalent of Google's AdSense coming together with Omniture -- but for calls.
We've got to hand it to these guys. They've been able to quietly mastermind analytics to understand call outcomes and optimize mobile campaigns based on what they see is working. And they've done it under the guiding notion that – guess what? – people actually like using their mobile phones to talk.
"Clearly, mobile is where the world is going," said President Pete Christothoulou. "That means phone calls coupled with call analytics prove value and drive deep insights that clicks simply cannot.We see hundreds of millions of consumer calls to businesses and, with that scale, have unique insights that allow us to tune our algorithms to drive big jumps in customer performance."
A review of the Marchex platform suggests the company has pulled together theright pieces to finally take pay-for-call prime time. Here's why:It offers a large mobile network for its customers' mobile campaigns coupled with call analytics. And advertisers only pay for quality calls.
To achieve this, the company has gone well beyond traditional call tracking. This is real analytics at work. Marchex understands how to block bad calls from reaching customers; how to drive really good calls; what's happening, specifically, during those calls; and how to dynamically maximize mobile campaigns.
Marchex is doing this in local at scale with many SMBs and they have a huge national footprint.In some cases, they're driving a large part of the digital budget for many large national brands.
Oct. 30, 2012
Notes from Seattle Interactive: Microsoft and the Multi-Device User
Peter Krasilovsky
Hot trends in Web and marketing were all on display this week at Seattle Interactive, a large regional show with 190 speakers and an audience largely comprised of Northwest agencies, startups and technologists.
The change in media was brilliantly illustrated by a single question posed by a speaker. "How many of you responded to a Nielsen diary entry since this session started? (no hands raised) And how many of you have updated your social media status or posted?"(many hands).
Big data, social media, responsive web sites and all things mobile were among the key topics at the event. And so, clearly, was the hoped for revival of Microsoft, which is sharply pivoting with the launch of Windows 8 to a multi-device outlook.
The mixed reviews that have greeted Windows 8 suggest its strategy may have trouble catching on. There are deeper issues, too. Last week, at OMMA M Commerce in LA, fewer than four people in an audience of 80+ raised their hands when agencies and developers were asked if they were planning to support Windows 8. Apple iOS and Android rule the nest, for now.
But the turf at Seattle Interactive is naturally friendly to Microsoft. At least 5 percent of the phones were Windows phones (OK, not many). But you could see that the company's dramatic gyrations energizing much of the tech community.
One of Microsoft's big initiatives is to be the first of the major Website leaders to engage the "responsive Web" to personalize solutions and conquer "message overload" and "channel attribution."
Those are "old world problems, " noted Microsoft General Manager Abe Thomas, during a conference keynote . The "new world" problems, he says, are "social noise." A leader will develop strategies for the new multi- device consumer, "who wants a specific device in front of them at different times."
The challenge is the tremendous fragmentation among the operating systems, and now, the devices as well. Sixty percent of iPad owners have an Android device, not an iPhone, Blackberry or Windows phone, he notes. Almost everyone has a Windows PC. "Sooner or later, you will say: Microsoft, Apple, Google – Get it together."
Microsoft isn't necessarily working to work inter-operably, but it is "living and breathing the customer journey," becoming more transparent, and "knowing and respecting the competition," he says.
Categories: Conferences, Money, Technology
