Archives for October 2009

Was Unsummit Perfect?

October 15, 2009 By Phil Wilson

From the comments in our usual post event video, you would have to believe that the recent Unsummit was an example of pure perfection in conference land. In reality, there very well may be some issues that founder Don Ball and organizers Mykl Roventine and Meg Canada should address…but damned if I know what they are.

unsummit3_logo OK, there is one comment I heard; “It’s not really an unconference.” True, the ‘un’ in ‘unconference’ might denote that there is no set agenda, that the space is provided and the topics are decided upon by those who show up. This style of meeting has spawned many a BarCamp like event, our own Minnebar to comes to mind.

However, as it pertains to UnSummit, the ‘un’ is a hold over from the inaugural event last year. Don Ball, not able to secure a ticket to the always popular MIMA Summit, decided to host a gathering of those interested in Interactive and Marketing who, like him, either couldn’t get a ticket or didn’t want to pay the relatively spendy ticket price. Hence, being held at the very same, the UnSummit was born.

It should be noted that, at it’s even loftier price, MIMA attracted 1000 folks to it’s recent 2009 Summit…and despite a few exceptions was well worth the price. It should also be noted that what little competition between the MIMA Summit and the UnSummit that might have existed in the very beginning, or perception of such, has long since disappeared. At least it should have. So while the UnSummit does borrow from the unconference concept in it’s presentation, it is really ‘un’ in name only.

OK, so next time perhaps there can be a few more open times and rooms to build some sessions on the fly.

No matter the format, the UnSummit was about bringing together close to 200 hundred interactive enthusiasts on a Saturday to learn from each other and discuss the future of the interactive and online world in a relaxed environment. From my standpoint, at the end of that day, that’s what everyone walked away with. But don’t just take my word for it…

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYb6ZJIn-Uo

Adaptive Avenue’s Next Generation Ad Technology

October 13, 2009 By Tim Elliott

header_1 Adaptive Avenue is a twice-patented online advertising technology that takes the concept of a display advertisement to the next level through a uniquely engaging experience. Such ’smart’ ad technologies represent the forefront of online advertising — they strive to improve relevance, consumer engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. In the case of Adaptive Avenue, the format is achieving a 2-4X (multiplier, not percent) increase in click-through rates — with better qualified prospects for conversion – relative to increasingly ineffective static display ads.

Traditional display advertisements constantly seek the ultimate hook — designed to be catchy, relevant, and timely. Their sole objective is to capture the attention and imagination of a (publishing) website’s visitors long enough to prompt a click on the graphical ad that steers traffic to another, completely independent (advertising) website — which, ideally, is a targeted landing page. At this point, there are numerous desired outcomes depending on the objectives of the advertising campaign, not limited to:

conduct a transaction/purchase
provide personal data in the form of a “lead”
offer feedback or take a survey

However, the reality here is that, more often than not, display advertisements under-deliver. Why? Because they don’t authentically engage users or offer them any real value. If viewers aren’t simply ignoring ads, they’re blocking them or defrauding them — thus the believably low click-through/conversion rates (based on the standard measure of clicks per one thousand impressions). It’s no wonder that most web surfers report an increasing aversion to online ads or have conditioned their viewing habits to ignore them. True, there have been notable improvements to the display ad model over the years — specifically Cost-Per-Action (CPA) pricing, contextual ads, and niche networks — but there’s still a long way to go before display ads become as effective as they can (and should) be!

So — what’s the Adaptive Avenue advantage? … [Read More…]

Podcast: Download (37.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Champagne Presence on a Beer Budget

October 11, 2009 By Steve Borsch

Champagne bottle ready for celebration Unless you’re independently wealthy and cost is no object, in these tough economic times you probably are interested in saving money. Add to that the acceleration in all of us doing more and more of our work virtually — and that work is moving toward a time when we’re more like “free agents” than employees — and it’s likely you’ll be interested in any opportunities to save money now and position yourself for the future.

There’s an old idiom to describe a person who is living beyond their means as someone with, “champagne taste on a beer budget.” But what if you could have a “champagne presence on a beer budget” and cut your costs while maintaining, or more likely exceeding, your current professional presence?

If you haven’t taken a serious look at every single one of your fixed and variable costs in the past six months to a year, you need to do so right now since you’re probably paying far more than you should for many of the services you use and feel are simply “table stakes to be in the game” and a must-have to project a professional presence. In this post, I’ll point out some ways that you can save money, meet or exceed your current professional presence and position yourself for an increasingly virtual future. … [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang Podcast 54: Live from #UnSummit ’09

October 10, 2009 By Steve Borsch

M8_Gang_Unsummit

The Minnov8 Gang was delighted to report on, and be a part of, the UnSummit ’09 unconference, held today at the incredible facility at the Hennepin County Central Library in downtown Minneapolis. Hats off to Meg Canada, Don Ball and Mykl Roventine — as well as all of the sponsors — who made it such a great event. We did some light liveblogging which you can see on this page.

We were pleased to have a slot to record our first live version of the Minnov8 Gang podcast. Hosts today were Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is up north searching for colder weather, we presume).

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:49 — 19.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Liveblogging Unsummit ’09

October 10, 2009 By Steve Borsch

If you’re trying to stay warm on this chilly Saturday and couldn’t make the Unsummit, three of the Minnov8 Gang are liveblogging Unsummit ’09 here.

MIMA-Thanks For the Take-Aways

October 7, 2009 By Phil Wilson

As we bask in the afterglow of another MIMA Summit here is a quick video of some new and old friends of Minnov8 (meeting twice weekly at a church basement near you) and their “take-aways” from this year’s event.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFnl6iND48

A Recap of MIMA Summit 2009

October 6, 2009 By Steve Borsch

Yesterday was the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit 2009 called “Migrate” and it was not only incredibly well done, but there were over 1,000 attendees, the largest turnout for an event of this type I’ve yet seen in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Minnov8 team was there with a booth and a plan to liveblog the event, archived here in case you missed either the event or the liveblogging.

Before I continue, accolades are due to the vision of the MIMA board and the flawless execution of the event by Jen Kane and team at KaneConsulting. The only downside — outside of their control — was the unfortunate technical issues with Wifi which made our ability to liveblog the event one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced as a team covering a live event like this one (we had to use our iPhones and the intermittent connections to upload what turned out to be minimal content for your viewing).

We were incredibly pleased to have been the media partner for MIMA at this event and want to thank the board, staff and Jen Kane for

Reactions to the sessions were mixed based on the people I talked with: those who are experienced in interactive marketing and social media found many of the sessions to be quite basic and somewhat redundant (same stories heard over-n-over again like Dominos, Motrin Moms, Dell Hell, et al), while others with less experience absolutely found the sessions enlightening and filled with new information. One attendee from a Fortune 100 company said to me during a break, “I know most of what was said in (session name), but three things were presented that turned out to be completely new information, and my criteria for a successful event is learning ONE new thing in each session I attend. On that count alone, MIMA was a resounding success for me.” I felt the same way and, frankly, am eager to view the videos of sessions I missed and access the slide decks of the presenters since there is so much value that was delivered at MIMA Summit.

The Minnov8 team has yet to process the event in full, but a few thoughts come forth: it would be useful to understand specifically who attends, what their level of experience is, what organizations they work for and so on. In addition, it would be fantastic to see significantly more vendor attendance with booths and, possibly, a two-day event in order to ensure that people had time to migrate through the a vendor exposition. I know I’d hoped to hear A LOT more about analytics software and would’ve loved to have had a chance to talk in depth with makers of analytics software and services.

As always at these events, the people are what matter. It sure was fun to see many of the same folks as at other events and to meet new ones. After the jump are two things from Minnov8 team member Graeme Thickins you will find interesting and useful. … [Read More…]

Podcast: Download (12.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Minnov8 Gang #53: A Chat with Mark Kurtz

October 3, 2009 By Steve Borsch

markkurtz The Gang talks with Mark Kurtz, Chief Growth Officer and VP of New Media at Gage where he’s responsible for strategy, execution, and revenue measurement of digital media experiences across a Fortune 500 client base. Mark has held senior marketing roles across technology and ad agencies in Australia, Asia, and the US. We talk about social media, online promotion, blogger relations/PR, and other cool stuff.

(Steve Note: I apologize for the atypically crappy audio quality on this week’s show. Recorded at home where we just remodeled our lower level, it turns out that (unbeknownst to me) the electrician had re-routed my cable connection through three splitters and my 16mbps download speed dropped to 700kbps, barely enough to record a group podcast. In turn, Skype also dumbed its quality down to manage the paltry bandwidth).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Bob Kirkpatrick from Music Alley, purveyor of podsafe tunes.