Posts by Gary Stein (bio)

Movie Trailer Remixes | December 2, 2005 11:04 AM

Some clever soul has remixed scenes from The Shining into a new trailer that makes it seem like the feel good hit of the year.

Some other clever soul did the same job on Big...making it feel about as creepy as...well...The Shining.

Brands, good editing tools, blog-distribution. What a great world.

(via Metafilter)

Beal Blends Blog Buzz and Busca*! | December 1, 2005 11:26 AM

(*busca: spanish for 'search')

Andy Beal of Fortune Interactive announced the launch of the a new reputation management service. This is significant, because Fortune is an SEO agency (and Andy is a Search expert).

I've hosted 2 panels at Search Engine Strategies shows on the technology of buzz measurement. On the panel, I had people from companies like Inteliseek, Buzzmetrics. One of the underlying points that I was trying to make is that this technology has a lot applicability to the work of search marketing.

It will be interesting to watch as the search firms begin to tap into the deep, highly-relevant content held in blogs and discussion forums (of all types) for an understanding not only of what other items appear in a search-engine results page but also of what terms are bubbline up among target consumers which can, potentially, be brought into a search campaign

Science Wednesday: The Metrics of Surprise & WOM for Books | November 30, 2005 12:19 PM

Two academic pieces have drifted over the wall today, worth noting (and thinking more about)

* Computer Model of Surprise
Two researchers have outlined a statistical model of surprise. In essence, this is a model that isolates the factors that cause one particular communications element to leap out from a crowded field. They don't specifically state this, but most likely this is an element that will be remembered by the viewer.

The applicability to advertising is clear. This is a probability model that defines a messages chances at recall. The most interesting quote from the press release is the following:

[Researchers] Itti and Baldi work out a way of applying [probabilty] to the data in a video stream, providing a measure of how observing new data will affect the set of beliefs an observer has developed about the world on the basis of data previously received. "Data that does not change your beliefs is not surprising," says itti.

Clearly. The core mission of any communications piece, be it 30 second spot, bus shelter ad, or banner is to affect a change. The three pillars of advertising strategy are: "What does the target think now?"; "What do we want him/her to think?"; "What will get him/her to think that?".

* Economic Review of WOM on Book Sales
Two researchers at Yale have explored the effect of consumer reviews on Amazon and BN.com. They have quite a complex method of getting to their conclusions (which, assumedly, isolates errors and lends accuracy). The key conclusion though is more evidence of what many have already known:

We show that the addition of new favorable reviews at one site results in an increase in the sales of a book at that site relative to the other one. We find some evidence that an incremental negative review is more powerful in decreasing book sales than an incremental
positive review is in increasing them. Our results on the length of reviews suggests that consumers actually read and respond to written reviews, not merely the average star ranking summary statistic provided by the websites.

The Digital Living Room, Apple Style | November 29, 2005 05:25 PM

My Jupiter colleague Michael Gartenberg is providing some great thinking about a rumor that Apple is going to spin its Mac Mini into a media-hub. I definitely agree with him when he says this could be a really significant, big deal. Interestingly, I was just considering buying a Mac Mini for the SteinHaus for just this purpose.

I think this vision has a lot of traction, simply because it seems to bring together elements of interactive and broadcast content very seamlessly, which ultimately can spark a number of interesting advertising innovations.

Many of which will probably be more interesting than allowing TiVo owners the ability to search for commercials to skip.

Search Engine Brands: Google is The Guide | November 28, 2005 01:45 PM

There's been a bunch of buzz the last few days about the Search Engine Experiment. The live test lets you put in a search term: the results from MSN, Yahoo and Google are returned and you're asked to determine which set you think is the most relevant (and therefore best). Google wins, but not by a huge margin. And if you add up Yahoo and MSN, you can very reasonably say that more than half of all people (or, test-takers, if you want to be specific) say that they can find better results at "other than Google".

The question on everyone's mind (notably Seth and Guillaume) is "why?!". If you were to ask people (as Jupiter has) which search engine is best, you get around 70% saying Google. Clearly there is a delta of at least 20% of the audience between actual quality and perceived quality.

So, is the challenge figuring out a better search mousetrap? Nope. There are plenty of interesting experiments out there, and Google's reliance on links represents a significant challenge to keeping their index free and clean.

Comparisons to Coke vs. Pepsi or any other product fall flat as well, and don't really dive into the nature of the brand. The fact is, the Internet represents a great big mystery to nearly everyone. Some have basic needs, some more complex. But everyone needs a guide.

Various brands have taken this guide position over the last decade. Wired Magazine held it for a while. Apple was there (briefly, with the introduction of the iMac), as was Yahoo!

In some sense, the fight for this position is a zero-sum game: only one brand can occupy the guide position. Search engines need to not only look at their functionality, but rather whether or not this functionality gets them closer to the prized position of Guide. Google will continue to maintain this valuable position in the consumer's mind so long as their competitors focus on features, and not benefits.

Blogs with Ads vs. Blogs without | November 23, 2005 12:09 PM

Oh yeah...It's on.

Two graphics (suitable for placing on your blog, of course) declaring your philosophy toward putting ads on your blog. Interesting that the creators of these icons (and those who place them) see the need to advertise (heh, heh) their opinions on blogs. I suppose Consumer Reports (and Believer for the that matter) specifically state that they do not take ads, and that this--in some way--contributes to their position in the world.

Microsoft XBOX Makin' Friends and Enemies! | November 22, 2005 03:49 PM

Todd Bishop's Microsoft blog has a post about the XBOX launch. Evidently, Bill G. was there, at midnight, to hand out the first XBOX to.....a guy who works at Microsoft.

But: read the comments. There's one Ultra-Disgruntled Consumer who waited, but didn't get his XBOX. He releases a whole lot of e-vitriol, including this:

Even when I do finally get my XBOX I will not forgive Microsoft for ruining launch day.

I love it! The guy is clearly ticked, but not so much that he still won't go out and buy the device.

Well--I shouldn't make light of this. The process of waiting, watching and getting is clearly critical. He's let down, and while there's still intent, is there affinity? Not quite.

Of Course GoogleBase is about Classifieds | November 22, 2005 01:17 PM

If you have any doubts about Google's intention with Googlebase, you can either read today's NY Times article.

Or, you can browse the list of attributes you can use to structure your data-feed. Here's a sample:

- Number of bathrooms
- Actor featured in the video
- Imigration status required for the job
- Ethnicity for your personal
- Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)

I know there are recipes for Chicken Tikka Masala in there. But...I don't think that's the point of this application.

Google Separates Search and Contextual Bids | November 22, 2005 12:37 PM

Well. This is significant: Google, very quietly, has begun to allow advertisers to bid for content ads (AdSense) separately from search ads (AdWords).

Whether these two programs should be run as separate marketplaces has been a question hanging over Google's head since they introduced the program. In fact, Yahoo/Overture got a lot of mileage out of separating the two in their offerings.

When AdSense was new, we asked advertisers how they would adjust their bids, if the markets were distinct. The data is above: a little more than half would pay less; about a quarter would pay some amount more. Would those amount balance each other, keeping the revenue stream from contextual stable? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

But the only real way to read this is that Google realized that they needed to listen to advertisers. SmartPricing, actually, is a much better solution than letting people set their own prices, but only if it works in a way that is accurate, consistent and transparent. However, advertisers generally want more control. Google is actually giving them the option to control (you can allow SmartPricing to work, or you can set it yourself). This is good: by giving advertisers the option between the two methods of setting prices, advertisers can see which method is more effective.

Deep, Lush, Awesome: M&Ms; Site | November 21, 2005 04:39 PM

The new M@M's campaign is awesome. You can read a little behind-the-music stuff at ClickZ, but definitely spend some time on the site.

I am an admitted fan of online advertising & marketing, and this is a Big Web Site (in the way there are Big Movies). The production values are great, the story is compelling, the interface is clever. There's even a tie to consumption and integration with offline.

Good work, BBDO.