Is Facebook a fit?
by Roland Smart
Inside the social media echo-chamber, the pressure to bring brands onto Facebook is intense. Amid the rush, many brands lose sight of why they’re going there in the first place, when they should have a clear focus on how they’ll deliver ongoing value to their community on the platform. These are still early days, as big brands that can afford to invest heavily on the platform are still experimenting and learning. And, it’s important to note that not all brands belong on Facebook. In this article, I’ll discuss a handful of unlikely brands that have invested in the platform in order to highlight some questions you should be asking yourself to determine if Facebook makes sense for your brand. Hopefully some of the examples will also inspire you.
Read the entire article on iMedia Connection
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be participating on a panel at the Web 2.0 Expo this coming May 4th in San Francisco. We hope you can join us for a great conversation entitled: Social Or Anti-Social? The Next Generation of Online Display Ads. You can also get a 25% discount on your registration with code websf10fos. Here’s more information about the event: (more…)
April 16th, 2010
Last week during Apple’s iPhone 4.0 Preview, Steve Jobs announced iAd, a product that could help turn the mobile ad industry on its head. The new product lets developers quickly integrate rich, HTML5 ads into their applications — ads that Jobs says will meld the emotion of television commercials with the interactivity of online advertising. There’s just one problem — many of the rich ads you see online are built in Flash, which the iPhone and iPad famously do not support, and Apple doesn’t appear to be offering tools for building HTML5 ads. Sprout
, a startup that’s long dealt with rich Flash applications, may have the answer: its ‘Engage Ads’ platform allows advertisers to build rich ads and simultaneously deploy them in both Flash and HTML5.
Read the full article here.
Sprout is thrilled to announce that it’s now possible to export both HTML5 and Flash versions of the content created with the Sprout Engage Platform. This means, that it’s now possible to create rich-media Engage Ads that are interactive in both Flash based desktop browsers and non-Flash mobile browsers. We’re currently reviewing partners for our beta-release who are looking for a mobile ad solution that will combine their Flash and HTML5 production workflows. For more information about this program please visit our HTML5 beta program signup page or read our press release. (more…)
San Francisco, CA – Today Sprout, the leading software as a service technology platform for creating rich, engaging ads and social media applications, announced that the Sprout Engage Ad Platform, a visual authoring solution, can now export both Flash and HTML5 ads. Sprout is currently signing up beta partners interested in streamlining their workflow and scaling production of mobile ads for networks such as Apple’s iAd service.
“Steve Jobs’ announcement of the iAd platform and his goal of 1 billion impressions a day will challenge advertisers to scale their HTML5 production” said Carnet Williams, Founder and CEO of Sprout. “Apple is not providing a development platform, and advertisers’ current tools do not export HTML5, so Sprout is providing a solution that is scalable, offers a single workflow, and does not require hand coding.”
The platform supports expandables, 3rd party APIs and social data integration with the leading social networks. It also includes a rich set of analytics to measure performance and optimize for success.
“The Sprout platform is a visual authoring solution that does not require writing any hand code, it protects publishers from malvertising problems. Since code cannot be introduced, Apple can now focus their ad review process on ad content rather than the ad code” said Matthew McNeely, VP of Engineering at Sprout.
Brands, agencies and publishers interested in the HTML5 Beta Program may apply through the Sprout website: sproutinc.com/html5beta.
At Sprout we’re thrilled to start the process of identifying partners to participate in our beta-program. We believe this will make our Engage Ad Platform event more attractive to advertisers, publishers and agencies that are looking to scale production of rich, interactive, and socially connected ads that can be served in both Flash and HTML5.
Sprout and DoubleClick Simplify Ad Building and Ad Serving saving time and money
Creating rich, engaging Flash ads quickly and cost-effectively is at the top of the priority list for most ad operations teams. But client revision rounds can slow time to market when each change requires more coding, and bringing interactive features into ad units—RSS feeds, polls, or the ability to share ad content on Facebook or Tweet about it on Twitter— can be complicated. In late 2009, Sprout began efforts to integrate their Engage Ad Platform, a web-based visual authoring studio that eliminates the need for Flash coding, with DoubleClick Studio. The goal was to enable advertisers, publishers, and agencies to quickly create Flash ads that could be served and tracked through DoubleClick Studio and DART.
Geeknet Ag rees to Beta Test Sprout’s Engage Ad Platform An existing DoubleClick customer, Geeknet, understood the challenge of rapid rich ad creation and agreed to beta test Sprout’s solution. Matt Wessel, as Flash Developer and Ad Product Technology Specialist for Geeknet, creates ads for the site, which sells products geared toward technology and gadget lovers.
Sprout’s Platform Eases Pain Point of Flash Ad Creation for Geeknet “The Sprout social advertising platform was really easy to work with. As a designer I loved the amount of creative control I had over the ad. I wasn’t forced into a template or hindered in any way,” said Matt. Matt’s first ad included an RSS feed that brought dynamic news content right into the ad. “I was really pleased with how easy it was to bring an RSS feed into the ad,” said Matt. “All I did was drag and drop the component onto the canvas and link it to the correct URL. Working with RSS in Flash is hard but with Sprout it was really simple. In fact, it only took me about 15 minutes to build the ad,” Matt added. Once the ad was created, Matt was able to share a fully functional demo— rather than a static mockup—with the customer for approval. “One benefit of working with Sprout is that I have a functional mock-up to show customers. If the customer wants something tweaked I can do it right in the Sprout in real time.” Upon receiving approval, Matt used Sprout to auto-generate a DoubleClick Studio-compliant zip file containing a SWF and backup image. He uploaded this zip file to DoubleClick Studio and QA’d it as normal.
Sprout Ad Served Seamless ly via DoubleClick with Above Average Performance
The ad ran in mid-December and boasted an above-average click-through rate of 1%. Geeknet is currently creating a second ad unit using Sprout’s Engage Ad Platform; this time they’ll pull blog posts right into the unit to bring rich, meaningful content to their audience. They plan to keep working with Sprout and DoubleClick as these two companies continue to revolutionize display advertising. Sprout Engage Platform Benefits:
If you’re in New York City today or tomorrow, come join Sprout at one of two events. On Monday, April 5th, Sprout will be part of the IAB Marketplace and will be presenting between 10 am and 11:20 am. On Tuesday, April 6th, you can join us for Sprout’s Social Media & Advertising Summit where we’ll be presenting along with Appssavvy, Mud Worldwide, and Social Times.
The latter event is a wonderful half day summit chock full of case studies, best practices, and insights from industry thought leaders. The event is taking place at Le Poisson Rouge and includes a light breakfast and a networking lunch. Registration is available and we hope you can make it.
Are you an Account Executive or Creative Director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to successfully build your brand and drive sales by combining the next generation of display advertising with applications that plug into social networking platforms. The event is produced by Sprout, one of only fourteen Facebook Preferred Developers.
Presentations will focus on unveiling the next generation of rich, interactive, and social display advertising, how social network platforms are evolving, what new opportunities are available, and how to work with creative agencies and technology providers to capitalize on these opportunities. Social media case studies will highlight campaign best practices and a panel discussion will address key topics such as moderation, metrics and reporting, social media strategy, and corporate policy around social media.
Lunch will be served after the presentations and participants will have an opportunity to network and socialize.
Join us for an exceptional event packed with valuable insight for your brand.
8:30 – 8:45 Welcome & Breakfast
8:45 – 9:20 The Engagement Cycle – Roland Smart, Sprout
9:20 – 9:40 Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps: Julie Nielsen, appssavvy
9:40 – 10:00 The next generation of online display ads, Carnet William, Sprout
10:00 – 10:10 Break
10:10 – 10:45 The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking – Nick O’Neil, Founder All Facebook
10:45 – 11:15 Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program – John WIlliams, Mud Worldwide
11:15 – 12:00 Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
Nick O’Neil,
Founder, Social Times & All Facebook
The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking
Nick O’Neill is the Founder of Social Times, Inc., a digital media company focused on covering the growing social web economy. He is the
the social media industry expert, providing no holds bar commentary and insightful analysis on social networking and social media. Nick also speaks at conferences nationwide and has been written about in multiple national publications. With the opening of the Facebook platform, Nick saw a huge opportunity and has become fully dedicated to covering the social networking phenomenon via AllFacebook.com eventually expanding beyond with SocialTimes.com.
In 2009, Nick successfully led
Social Times Inc. to an acquisition by WebMediaBrands. Nick continues
to serve as the Director of Social Times and oversees daily content production as well as hosting events around the country. Nick graduated
Cum Laude from American University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. While Nick spends a lot of time writing content for sites, he
is a passionate coder, building tools to help readers track the rapid growth of the social networking space. Nick was also recently named one of the top 100 D.C. Tech Titans by Washingtonian Magazine.
Carnet Williams,
CEO, Sprout
The next generation of online display ads
Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.
Julie Nielsen,
Director of Product, appssavvy
Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps
Julie Nielsen is director of product at appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space. She drives product strategies and integrated sponsorship programs between social media application developer and publisher partners, and the rapidly growing number of brands and agencies engaged in tackling the emerging opportunities involving social media applications.
Julie was the first employee outside of appssavvy’s two founders. Since joining the company, she has been instrumental in the more than 200 socially-based campaigns appssavvy has delivered for brands, including Kimberly-Clark, Sony Pictures, Oakley, Coca-Cola, Target and Purina, among others.
Previously, Julie was part of leading Freewebs’ widget initiative. She began her career at Unit 7, a DM agency under the Omnicom umbrella of marketing companies. At Unit 7, Julie was active in developing campaigns for Pfizer, Wyeth, AstraZeneca and P&G. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa.
John Williams,
President, Mud Worldwide
Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program
As President of Mud Worldwide, a Social Branding and Marketing Agency based in Sausalito, California, John draws from a solid background in consumer packaged goods in addition to experience in a broad range of B2B product and services marketing. On the Agency side he has worked with Ted Bates Worldwide, Ketchum Communications and his earlier company The Sausalito group serving clients such as Colgate Palmolive, Warner Lambert, Bristol Meyers, Bank of America, E*Trade, McKesson, Chevron, Palm Computing and Motorola. On the client side he has held senior management positions at Manhattan Marine and Electric Company
and Semphonic a leading web analytics practice. From his native Australia he has worked in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US and brings new perspectives to issues surrounding best practices from strategic planning to execution of communications programs.
Roland Smart,
Sr. Marketing Mgr., Sprout
Presenting on the social network engagement cycle, and Moderating the Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion
Smart describes himself as “a marketer on a mission to evolve marketing away from the mess that traditional marketers have made. It’s time to stop broadcasting messages with megaphones and to start engaging the communities that form around brands. While companies understand what it takes to build products and services, it’s the community that understands how they actually work in the wild. Following this, I embrace the mission of Marketing 2.0, which recognizes that brands are built by communities, not just by companies. My work focuses on leveraging the fact that communities want to grow the brands that improve their lives. Thus, I’m interested in new social media tools, like Sprout, that empower communities to spread the word about the products and services they love. You can learn more about me and how I approach marketing on my blog at www.rolandsmart.com.”
Articles by: Roland Smart
