Digital Media News

Contrary to popular opinion, the idea of content marketing and its importance isn’t a new one. Bill Gates first drew attention to the concept in his appropriately-titled 1996 essay ‘Content Is King’. In the essay, he talks about his predictions for the Internet after its recent birth and his message is simple: understand that companies who find ways to inform and entertain will thrive on the Internet and reign supreme. Content marketing is on the rise.

Gates’ 18-year-old prediction was accurate - it’s still an extremely important issue today. Content marketing should be adopted as a philosophy, not taken to and tested like a trend. There are plenty of misconceptions and assumptions about content marketing, so what’s it all about?

Connected television has quickly emerged as an essential part of the consumer environment. The term "Connected TV" simply refers to any kind of home entertainment device, from a smart TV to a PlayStation or Xbox, that connects to the internet. Unlike your standard television, these next-generation entertainment devices offer a new way for customers to consume information, through things like "streaming" services and on-demand content. 

Connected TV is a component of the "digitally transforming" environment that we live in today. Smart TV owners continuously use applications on their televisions today for everything from listening to music, to browsing for news, and even shopping online. As television continues to become more connected to the digital purchasing journey, today's brands have a brand-new way to interact with their clients and consumers.

Online advertising has the unique ability to reach out instantly to people across the entire world. If you're in the advertisement industry, then you probably know that online advertising has emerged as the primary platform for advertising in businesses throughout the globe - big or small. In fact, research suggests that in the following few years, online advertising will continue to outshine all other forms of promotion.

Of course, because of the possibilities that online advertising has brought to the marketing world, achieving the best results on the world wide web has become something of a challenge. Not only do you need to search for ways to maximize your online potential, but you also need to ensure that your efforts are more impressive than your competitors, otherwise you could end up getting lost in the crowd. With that in mind, here's some insight into how you can make online advertising work for your business.

Comic books are cool. Everyone remembers reading them as a kid. Many of us still read them. Almost of all of us still love them. When it comes to storytelling, it’s hard to beat the success of the comic book. The history of the comic goes way back - scholars can trace its origins to as far back as the Lascaux cave paintings (over 1700 years ago).

And it’s fair to say that the comic book scene is extremely vibrant today. Despite technology and our ability to read content on smartphones, laptops and tablets, comic books are a visual medium that expresses ideas in a popular way. And it’s this storytelling prowess that marketers today can learn from when they plan their campaigns).

ExactDrive’s Self-Serve Advertising Platform now offers real-time advertising and campaign reporting. Defaulted by Eastern Standard Time and updated hourly, the advertising and campaign reporting sections display analytics on advertiser, campaign ad creative levels. Impressions, clicks, and conversion data is provided along with creative attribution and transparent domain level analytics. In short, users are able to easily pull reports at-will for any advertiser and campaign being managed, down to the domain level or performance per creative. Any report pulled is exportable and can be adjusted and branded to the users’ needs.

The NEW Face of Robust Advertising Analytic Reporting

I have been an entrepreneur and a business owner one way or another in the online advertising industry since 2003. That's a healthy amount of time thinking about competitive advantages, payroll, regular banner ads Vs. dynamic display ads, campaign optimization strategies, brand safety, growth opportunities and so on.

I’d like to share a few insights that I have picked up along the way. Some thoughts are online advertising focused and others are just thoughts.

Welcome to 2014!

First, lets discuss the subject of this email. I think media buyers are the clear winners of binge drinking over New Year's. The online advertising industry gets a bit nutty leading up to the Christmas / Holiday Season. Come post tax day in April, accountants will be leading all professions in regards to drinking quantity and hangover intensity levels. Except for maybe Manhattan bankers, they seem to be equally hammered year-round.

A lot of people that work in the advertising industry believe that stress and advertising go hand-in-hand. Well, forget about stress, no really leave stress at the door whenever possible. It's the mind and body killer. Ever read "Dune"? Yes? Well then you know what I'm taking about. No? Well read the following closely then, this may just make your life feel so much less stressful. Oh, and everyone already knows that alcoholism will kill Don Draper, unless lung cancer kills him first.