With the help of Facebook engineer Arturo Bejar, an article entitled “Facebook tracking is under scrutiny” on the USA Today website reveals details of how members are tracked on the social network, whether connected or not, and how their stored data is used. Visitors who do not have accounts on Facebook are also involved. The social network uses tracking codes, also known as cookies, which are placed on the user’s computer during a website visit. Widespread, they are useful to sites and online services to see if a user is logged-in, or if they have already visited the website. A good example being when you shop on Amazon, the products you were shopping for last week are staring you straight in the face this week.

Different cookies for members and visitors

Facebook uses two types of cookies: one for members and one for non-members of the social media platform.

For members with an account, Facebook uses a session cookie to keep the user connected as long as the same browser is used. The cookie stores and compiles data such as name, email address, friends’ lists and preferences. It also stores unique elements such as the IP address and technical information on the configuration of your computer and browser. Finally, it logs the page views that contain a Facebook plugin such as the “Like” button with time and date and internet address (URL).

Non-members who are sent a link to a Facebook page, as well as members disconnected from their accounts, are also tracked. In these cases, a browser cookie replaces the session cookie. A unique identifier replaces the personal data such as name and Facebook data. Although no longer associated with the account of the social network, the rest of the information collected does not change. The technical information is retrieved from the computer (browser, operating system, IP address) as well as the date and address of visited web pages, particularly if they contain one of the many Facebook plugins: “Like” button, shares, comments, activities, etc.

Facebook has no plans to stop collecting this information and this stance is further supported by its representative Andrew Noyes. He explains that Google, Microsoft and other major Internet behemoths already use this method for targeted advertising. The social network with 800 million members said they use different data for advertising to members connected in Facebook.

For ordinary visitors, the tracking is helping to improve security and the user experience. According to Facebook’s spokesman, the connection logs are used to identify fake accounts and block misuse. The collected data is used to understand and improve the use of plugins.

The choice to the user?

Cookies in themselves are not dangerous files from a privacy perspective. And, it is possible to filter or block cookies for individual websites or services, but it also eliminates handling the practical side of this file tracer. But whatever the purpose, a visitor or user of a service should be able to choose whether to accept the tracking of their browsing activity.

In 2012, the W3C standards body will set the standard for DNT “Do Not Track”. It will allow the user to indicate whether he wishes his surfing habits to be used. Facebook, as well as Google, Microsoft and other major internet players took part in the discussions.

At Banner, user privacy is paramount. We constantly monitor legislation to integrate the latest directives into our campaigns and we use a carefully selected suite of online marketing tools that enable us to protect the user’s rights.

Interested in finding out more? Why not read our white paper: ‘Here comes the cookie monster – making sense of EU Data Protection Legal Framework’

Compare this with Forrester’s marketing event at The Grove, where the rallying cry seemed to be “The Funnel is dead”.  Apparently, it’s now all about customer engagement.

So, were the apparently misguided Funnel attendees basing their businesses on a flawed metaphor? Will the event be called “Funnel” next year? Is the Funnel really obsolescent?

Or, are these new ways of thinking just a reflection of the ongoing requirement for analyst firms to develop new models where they can re-package existing principles to sell more white papers and analyst hours? After all, you have McKinsey pushing the Consumer Decision Journey (a circular process) and Forrester promoting their Customer Life-cycle model (another circular process). To my mind, as long as you understand the changes in the marketing landscape, you can easily map the phases from these new models on to good old Funnel.

The concept of the sales Funnel has been around for over 100 years, and as a metaphor it has worked well to illustrate the need to deliver a large number unqualified prospects into one end of the funnel to get a smaller number of qualified sales-ready leads out of the other. When there were fewer marketing channels and touch-points, it served us marketers pretty well.

But there’s a problem. One of the fundamental principles behind the Funnel is that it is linear, and until recently, it was a reasonably good model for the sales process: you’d buy a TV or press ad (Awareness); you’d send an email or DM to those who might be likely to be interested (Consideration); once you get a response you’d get on the phone and tele-market (Preference). Finally, you’d get those qualified prospects in front of a salesman (Purchase). So, as long as you had effective content for each phase, the flow of ever-more qualified prospects through the Funnel was straightforward.

These days things are different. With the proliferation of marketing channels, multiple screens and social media, our target audiences are no longer moving uni-directionally between our pre-prescribed phases or consuming our beautifully crafted marketing messages in the order that we intend. In reality, prospects are no longer passively consuming paid media thrust at them by big brands. Instead they’re engaging with content on their own terms — often on social networks — far outside the direct control of us marketers.

In my humble opinion, marketers need to change the way they promote their products to prospects and convert them to sales. And, maybe it’s just easier to adopt a new circular sales model touted by an analyst firm. What is most important, is that marketers have to understand that the landscape has fundamentally changed and that they need to:

1. Become more involved in the conversation beyond the confines of the corporate website. Don’t have social media and mobile strategies. Instead, have a marketing strategy, of which social and mobile are part.
2. Manage content effectively and cater for the fact that it needs to be used across multiple phases of the sales cycle (whatever model you use) and distributed in an array of formats to cater for the ever-growing demand for content on the customer’s terms.
3. Focus on marketing intelligence by integrating multiple sources of data to build a consolidated view of what’s working and ensure the most effective use of scarce marketing budgets.

In this digital couch, we look at three campaigns that have taken the fight back to the high street, using real situations and live executions to remind people that seeing is still sometimes better than clicking.

Mercifully, there will not be further mention of Santa and his posse. Bah humbug!

Saks On Fifth Avenue Goes All Snowy…

Projection mapping on a massive, holiday inspired scale.

If you have the money and the time, it takes a lot to beat a projection mapping installation. And with advances in technology over the last 12 months, this technique has grown increasingly sophisticated. Just have a look at some of the earlier Digital Couches to see how far the tech has grown and become more mainstream. With DLP (digital light projection) technology providing a paintbrush, department store, Saks on 5th Avenue, New York and global agency, Iris, have created a fantastic snowflake experience set to run over the Christmas season.

Setting World Records in Canary Wharf

Reebok and 3D Artists break world record in London.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. With winter looming and increasingly shorter hours of sunshine, people do not tend to voluntarily work outside all day if they can help it. But what happens when a brand like Reebok offers to pay for you to set a new world record? Street artists 3D Joe & Max were challenged to create the world’s largest outdoor street art piece to promote the Reebok CrossFit brand by painting up 1,160 square meters of Canary Wharf. The final effect is impressive, even if the work-out people at the end do, in my opinion, look a little silly.

Hey! Is that the new…

Samsung takes a clever bite out of Apple fanboys.

Every couple of months, Apple announces a new product. Yes, they make great technology and are worthy of their coveted titles, however even I, a self confessed Apple pundit, have to admit it is a little crazy people start queuing up days before a product launch to get their hands on the latest “iThing.” I am also prepared to concede that there are other companies out there making great devices. Samsung, the “number 2” in the smartphone race, has created a brilliant ad addressing these points while definitely not subtly poking fun at Apples “hipster” customers. A really great campaign from out-the-box Los Angeles agency, 72andSunny who also brought you the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 campaign you may have seen on TV or YouTube and one of my favourite (never-aired) campaigns for the launch of the Xbox 360.

Despite encouraging signs in 2010, there were many who just believed that QR Codes, or mobile bar codes, were purely an interim technology waiting for the newer, funkier technologies such as NFC and augmented reality to get their act together and take over. But, as is the way, this hasn’t happened yet. Sure, things have progressed, but they still do not yet offer compelling reasons for mobile manufacturers/networks to make the investment to universally include them. This is due to, amongst other things, some interoperability issues between Wikitude and Layar technology, the debate over user interfaces and the pros and cons of real-time versus cached data.

So what has happened?

Not surprisingly, purely due to the number of handsets sold, Android has become the pre-eminent OS when it comes to QR code usage (youscan.me)

What will be interesting to watch — given Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola and its investment in the Android OS — is the potential development of technologies that will combine scanning with geolocation and local search. The mind boggles as to the possibility of even more targeted advertising and response driven communication that will, ultimately, become mass market and of the greater good.

The US has finally woken up to the potential.

Finally! The land of “cellular” has realised the potential of QR and mobile barcodes. The US has witnessed phenomenal growth. If we look at Q1/2011 vs Q4/2010 and also at overall global growth, we can see that the top cities in the world for scanning usage are: Tokyo (in fact several wards of Tokyo on their own feature in the top 10), New York, Houston, London, Chicago, LA, Seattle and Moscow, showing the importance of the US in this arena. (i-nigma.com)

1. United States (181.1%)

2. UK (166.5%)

3. Netherlands (146.3%)

4. Spain (94.4%)

5. Canada (94.0%)

The growth of the “coupon” through sites like Groupon has helped push this. If we look at why US Consumers are using this technology we can see the importance of the “deal”. In other areas, we are now seeing QR codes being used to amuse, not just for transactions or to provide information.

The recent campaign in the US for Victoria’s Secret is pure, utter genius and a superb demonstration of how to take technology to a whole new territory.

The technology as the joke is, as Mastercard® would say, priceless.

The US Postal Service ran a campaign earlier this year encouraging users to utilise QR codes. The QR code promotion offered commercial mailers an upfront 3% discount on the prices for First-Class Mail and Standard Mail letters, which included a QR code inside or on the mail.

According to their data nearly one third of all Standard Mail in the past two months contained a QR code (multichannelmerchant.com)

So what is next?

From ‘umble origins it has grown. QR codes are easy to integrate into products and relatively inexpensive to print and produce, especially when compared to NFC systems that need a whole heap of associated tech to work. QR codes have also been around for a while now, so consumers (well, over 30% of smartphone users mghus.com) know what to do with them.

Marketers are waking up to the fact that QR codes are a very easy way of disseminating much more information than can be encapsulated in a simple print ad, and Smartphone penetration is proliferating at a phenomenal rate, helping to fuel this growth.

Top 10 users of mobile barcodes during Q1/2011 (excluding Japan)

(1) 1. United States

(2) 2. Italy

(3) 3. Germany

(7) 4. United Kingdom

(8) 5. Netherlands

(6) 6. Canada

(5) 7. France

(4) 8. Hong Kong

(17) 9. Spain

(15) 10. Switzerland

() – Position in Q4/2010

(youscan.me)

And things just got smarter

Sites and apps that will generate QR codes with in-built Google Analytics are springing up left, right and centre. How much longer will it be before they will incorporate Omniture or Hitwise coding? It is only a matter of time. Suddenly these seemingly clunky boxes or circles of squiggles become a meaningful, trackable marketing tool.

The wrap

IMHO QR codes are not going to just fade quietly into the ether. More and more ways will be found to use them to link the real to the virtual, to generate and analyse response, to track consumer behaviour, to disseminate more product information, to tease and to tempt.

And all this is currently achievable with technology available in your smartphone today.

What might the future bring? If I could predict that I would be a rich man but I can only see a future where the lines between real and virtual are increasingly blurred.

If I wait another 9 12 months before another update I hope I’m still writing about the advancements in QR code technology and usage. But knowing how quickly tech moves, I doubt it.

Bug Powered Mobile

How do you keep a tarantula on a treadmill and not off eating the other performers?

Qualcomm. The name probably means nothing to you, but the truth is, you are probably walking around with one of their products right now. You may even be using it to view this post. These days, everyone is into mobile processors, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon architecture is right up there with the big players. In recent years, ARM technologies like Hummingbird, OMAP, Tegra 2 and A5 have become the new Intel’s and AMD’s of the mobile processing world. While that is all fascinating for engineers and developers, what does that mean for us average people? Well, Qualcomm’s “Bug Circus Generator” video by agency, Denizen shows you exactly why you should care.

A Siri-eal Experience

Gimmick or game-changer. Voice operated Siri (somewhat) answers your questions.

Steve Jobs has passed away. While this is an incredible loss for the technology industry, this is a post about one of the legacies he left behind. Love it or hate it, the newest iPhone 4S is now available and impressively brings Siri, a “Digital Assistant” to the world’s leading smartphone. Now while many people argue that this technology is “nothing new”, one could argue the same thing for any number of technologies. What Apple, arguably, has done is successfully bring the technology to the mass market. Only time will tell how successful Siri has been. In the meanwhile, feel free to experiment with some of these on your new iDevice and see the new Apple Siri ads created by TBWA /Media Arts Lab below.

Just Desserts

Android’s Ice-cream Sandwich set to change everything, again…

Hot on the heels of Apples latest iPhone, Google has announced the release & SDK for their Android Platform version 4.0. Sticking with the delicious naming conventions, Ice Cream Sandwich brings with it some innovative and cleaver new tweaks, while championing the open-platform mantra that is keeping developers and consumers coming back for more. With industry leaders and researchers showing Android activations are topping 500,000 units a day, it’s no surprise that mobile developers are already announcing their compatible device line-ups starting with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus shown in the demo video below.

Want to try it out on your Android device? — Download the SDK here.

Collaboration means among other things, the sharing of best practice. I was taken through a bunch of innovative campaigns that our sister agencies have done for the likes of Vodafone, SAP and Microsoft that we can learn from and take those learnings to our clients. There’s an unrivalled experience across the network answering the unique challenge of targeting savvy B2B and B2C tech buyers.

We’re committed to collaboration on key clients. There’s little reason for us not to collaborate when we sometimes work with the same brands but in different markets around the world. Some of our clients have a desire for us to have people on the ground in specific cities in Europe and this collaboration between Banner and other Y&R agencies will make it a reality.

It also means working with clients across a number of Y&R offices will ensure we develop campaigns that will work consistently across the EMEA region. They’ll be executed efficiently and we’ll be able to ascertain success through shared reporting systems.

Finally, collaboration means the sharing of specialist digital resources. Sure, we can do most of it in-house – we’ve got some of the best project managers, digital designers and programmers in the industry, but when it comes to delivering particularly complex digital builds across multiple platforms, we’ve got unrivalled digital scale with VML. Banner will continue to drive the overall strategy, creative and programming, it’s just good to know that when there’s some heavy lifting to be done, there’s a tried and tested partner in the network who shares our vision.

I can smell something in the air. And, it’s called opportunity.

I’m looking forward to the next few months!

Skoda Off-road – Image Mapping

Czech car manufacturer Skoda is on a roll. They have had a very successful year so far, winning multiple awards for both their Fabia & Yeti lines of vehicles. Even the aging Octavia saloon is doing well. From the original Fabia “lovely things” campaign featuring “bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens” — which came out over 4 years ago — to the more recent Skoda Fabia RS “Meaner stuff” campaign, Skoda are now pushing their crossover flagship — the Yeti.

Using a projection technique known as “image mapping” (seen in previous Digital Couch articles), Germany-based agency Leagas Delaney turned the urban into jungle emphasising the 2011 Skoda Yeti’s off-road credentials. A great campaign idea but I’m personally not sold on the “simply clever” payoff line.

Here’s looking forward to seeing bigger and better things from Skoda in the future. Now can they please make a car without using so many squares?

Nokia takes a big Gulp

Nokia has not had the best year. With Apple and android taking a huge chunk out of the smartphone market, the Finnish manufacturer has gone from ubiquitous to: “Really? You still have a Nokia?”

But not a company to be put down, Nokia’s new N-Series devices have had some pretty impressive ad campaigns to match their smartphone technology. The N8 “Gulp” campaign, by UK agency Wieden+Kennedy, was shot on Pendine Beach in Wales with a bunch of spades and lots of time. Aimed at creating the world’s largest stop-motion video, sand, “Wallace & Grommit” creators Aardman came together to tell a fishy tale.

The most impressive feature? The entire video was shot on the 12Mpx N8 smartphone camera. It’s just a pity you have to wait nearly a minute and a half to find out.

“One way ticket to Bournemouth, please.”

I have been having this argument in the agency: “Summer 2011 has not been THAT bad.” Ok, so it’s no tropical paradise (yet), but still; this summer has certainly had its high points. For example, on the 11th August a new world record for the largest number of people in a single, enormous beach shower was attempted. Australia? Miami? Nope. Try: Bournemouth.

Lynx, renowned for its risqué advertising, attempted to get 152 “beachgoers” (read: bikini-clad babes) into a massive shower on Bournemouth beach, all using 1 bottle of Lynx body wash for their new promotional summer campaign. Agency BBH London put on quite a show to prove that “the cleaner you are, the dirtier you get…”

Did they set a new world record? Who cares!

Girl Genius. Source: Wired, 5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek, 06/08/09 (Online)

I have often wondered why I seem to be so alone in the world as a girl geek.

No matter how hard I try, I never seem to meet other equally geeky girls. For example, if I try and engage my girl-friends, in a conversation about handbags or shoes, fine; but if I bring up the benefits of having an Android smartphone versus an iPhone, they look at me like I am from Mars.

After many years of trying I have learnt that under no circumstances should I try and talk to them about how excited I am about the new release of the latest PS3 games and heaven forbid that I try and discuss Sci-fi with them.

Am I a modern-day phenomenon or are there more girls like me out there?

Natania Barron, writing for Wired in 2009 in ‘5 Tips for Raising Your Girl Geek’, discussed how having geek parents can steer girls down a certain path. Initially, I didn’t think I’d been raised by geek parents, but now, looking back over my 38 years, I realise that maybe their obsession with technology and love of sci-fi (My Dad took me to see the first Star Wars film at the cinema!) might have something to do with my being a Geekette.

In fact, the more I think about it the more I think my parents actually wanted a boy – as not only am I a card-carrying geek, but I am also sport mad. I apologise to my fellow female sports fans for implying that only boys like sport, but you understand.

So should I blame my parents for my being an outcast? I don’t think so.

I embrace my geekdom, am proud that I know what Android is, and pleased that I can generally repair my own laptop. I think it’s totally cool that I have a server in my house and my favourite leisure activity will always involve a game console. I might have even crossed a line — wholeheartedly pledging my allegiance to the geek flag — by marrying a man who works in IT and loves technology so much, he gets withdrawal symptoms when he is away from the internet for more than 24hrs. However, this marrying a geek thing seems to be on the rise if the content on the web is to be believed. During my research I stumbled across lots of geek dating sites and even a 2008 book called ‘A girl’s guide to Dating a Geek’.

What is the point of all this? Well the point is that it’s 2011 and technology rules. We no longer turn to CDs to listen to our music, DVDs are slowly dying out, e-books are starting to dominate, blogs and online newspapers are by far the best way to get your news and it’s no longer socially acceptable to have an ancient mobile phone that you can only call and text on. And if we are all using smartphones, iPads and Kindles, downloading films, watching TV on our computers/tablets and reading The Times online – where are my non-online geek girls? Online there are lots and lots of us, writing blogs, running websites for us geeky girls, but out here in the real world – nada!

I work in a technology-focussed agency, love what I do and where I do it, and work with lots of girls and boys. The boys are always sending around emails about the latest film/bit of kit etc, but not all the girls share my enthusiasm.

So if you know of anyone who can make this geeky girl smile by indulging in some geek chatter alongside handbags and football send her my way!

Carrying the (penlight) torch

Olympics athletes doing weird stuff for quirky Cadbury.

Yes, it’s still 2011, but if you are a budding sports star, or couch-bound enthusiast, it’s also officially one year to go until the London 2012 Olympics. And boy, have the sponsors made sure you know it. The much-reviled logo is set to burn your corneas for the next year and a bit, before hopefully being forgotten behind the actual event.

One sponsor taking a somewhat different approach to the onset of the games is Cadbury working with their long-standing ad agency, Fallon. Made famous for their quirky Glass and a Half Full Productions (originally flag shipped by “The Gorilla”), the new “Spots vs Stripes” promotion is set to take over your TV (a la Guinness Records) with ridiculous competitions. Watch Rebecca Adlington “flipping ducks” with her mouth. Not kidding…

Have they totally lost the plot or is this a genius way of getting you off the couch and chucking toast across your kitchen?

Umbro Illustrates

Illustration-rich story for Umbro Cosmos Blackout brand.

July 1977. New York experiences a catastrophic wide-spread blackout during a heat wave. The city was on an economic downturn and for many New Yorkers, this was the final straw. The blackout caused widespread looting, vandalism & violence. The event also happened to coincide with the day Carlos Alberto Torres, star defender, arrived to sign his contract with the New York Cosmos football team.

This fantastic illustrative video developed by agency Anomaly uses black, white and great story telling to bring the moment to life to celebrate sports apparel brand Umbro launch their special edition clothing range.

Along came ad exchanges which allowed publishers to provide agencies and advertisers with direct access to their inventory and more transparency than many ad networks had. Although auction-based models à la search were introduced, the target segments were often pre-set and companies had to work individually on an exchange by exchange basis.

What advertisers really wanted was the ability to bid on relevant people, across ad exchanges, at a price that was fair. And that’s what real-time-bidding (RTB) is offering.

Two things have happened to make this a reality:

1. Agency groups have launched their RTB / trading platforms to enable them to run campaigns across ad exchanges (via demand-side platforms), allowing them to control the targeting, maximum bid levels and frequency of exposure.
2. Targeting has been improved by plugging in data from the likes of Exelate and Weborama to be able to re-target relevant cookie pools, wherever they are online.

And this is as relevant to B2B advertisers as it is to B2C. To give a relevant B2B example: imagine a typical IT vendor looking to target SMB IT and business decision-makers. In the past, the only route to this audience online would have been the tech and business publishers. With real time bidding, advertisers will still continue to use those targeted sites, however they will complement it by:

1. Re-targeting customers off their own site on the networks / exchanges – either to cross / up-sell with targeted messages or even exclude customers if repeat purchases weren’t likely.
2. Re-targeting prospects off the back of the advertising they are already running on targeted sites by building cookie pools and re-messaging them when they are encountered on the networks / exchanges.
3. Even re-targeting from social profiles on Twitter / Facebook in the same fashion as above.
4. Targeting prospects that have been identified by data companies as SMBs and or are IT/business decision-makers.

Although some of the re-targeting options were available already before, RTB means that the agency / advertiser is in charge of who you are bidding for (as opposed to the ad network) and what price you are willing to pay in an auction environment.

Data was previously a missing piece as well, and it’s still not brilliant for B2B / technology. We need publishers to get on board, selling their cookie pools for one off, re-targeting use in order to get sufficient audience volumes. Some publishers like Future have already done this, and more will follow as they recognise the additional revenue stream they can earn from their premium audiences.

To give an example, 100,000 people on a site may generate 1.5 million impressions; however on the rest of the Internet, the same audience will generate perhaps 30 million impressions, most likely more. Selling the data will provide publishers with an opportunity to monetise their audience many times over.

The implications of real-time bidding are vast:

1. It’s changing the face of the online ad industry: demand and supply-side companies have been forming all over the place and ad networks are being squeezed as budgets shift to exchanges, leading to consolidation in the market.
2. Online media buying decisions are being done within the auction environment more and more, with less focus on relationships and the speed of decisions and optimisations are accelerating, à la search.
3. Advertisers will be paying closer to the true value of audiences, cutting out the waste and providing more targeted (and sequential) messaging along the purchase consideration cycle and focusing on optimising against their ROI goals.
4. Power is being taken back to the agency and advertiser from the ad networks.
5. Percentage share of display advertising will increase.

Real-time bidding is transforming the digital advertising landscape as we speak. WPP has been investing heavily in the MIG to capitalise on the opportunity, strongly believing that technology and data combined will transform the industry.

Here’s a helpful, if somewhat confusing, overview of the change that’s taking place in online advertising industry: