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MediaForge Launches Social Marketing Widgets
MediaForge is announcing the launch of what I am calling "social marketing widgets" today. The concept is pretty innovative and interesting. I spoke with founder Tony Zito to learn more about the product offering and why it works.
Here's how the service works:
- Brands purchase ads in traditional banner slots
- In place of the banner a widget is served from MediaForge
- The consumer can choose to install the widget and it's installed to their desktop
- The brand now has an instant link to the consumer to push sales, promotions, news, and basically anything else they wish
In my opinion it's better than any email campaign could ever hope to be. Your loyal consumers telling a brand to send them information direct to their desktop. Overstock was one of their beta clients and this new social marketing option helped to drive down consumer acquisition costs.
The company is based in Salt Lake City and there are 7 people on the team. Zito noted that they are able to create the widgets in less than a week and they are using Adobe Air technology to power the desktop widgets. They have been working on the development for about six months.
This concept is hot and I bet we will see more brands using this over the next year.
Sounds interesting, but not too novel. And while I agree more companies will turn to widgets vs. banners, its still only a slight step in the right direction. Its only taking digital marketing with a side of social media instead of completely shifting the marketing paradigm, which, of all people, digital marekting seems to be the slowest to adapt to...need i say it? beyond CPM and click-throughs to engagement (ps having a widget on your desktop and still measuring click-throughs is NOT 'engagement')
For the most part, I agree. However, I believe that for most brands there is no significant future for e-commerce in what we're now calling social media. For example, I would never want to place an Overstock or an Amazon widget on my MySpace page or Facebook profile. Although some e-comm brands have a lifestyle agenda, e.g., Nike (it's more than selling shoes), the majority of e-retailers do not engender a lifestyle and focus entirely on conversions (e.g., eCost). A more appropriate term would be conversational marketing/media.
I think the widget allows for actual commerce and special deals to be offered through the widget only whereas the banner ad clicks are just one measure. Isn't that engagement? If I were a brand and wanted to gain immediate feedback from my most loyal customers, what better way to get that than through a desktop widget? If I'm a fanatic of all things Britany Spears (sp?) and I can get a desktop alert from my favorite tabloid of something new and interesting to me, wouldn't I want that? By distributing these things through wide banner buys, both the publisher/brand and the consumer are reached in a graphically rich, expanded reach manner. If these advertisers are buying the banner anyway, why wouldn't they want to take this "slight step" as you say?
Would any of you actually put a widget for Overstock (or name a company you're loyal to) on your desktop? Would you click on an ad there even if it was targeted?
I wouldn't.
I am a huge Apple fan boy. I am not cluttering my screen with an apple branded window pushing me offers.
I don't see widgets being useful for marketing. Maybe I am the only one. Its hard for me to think of a compelling reason to voluntarily place ads on my screen, even if there was an incentive to do so.
William
This seems like the easiest upgrade sale to an advertiser ever. "Do you want that clunky banner ad that nobody looked at before to become a critical delivery mechanism to your prospective clients?"
Or you could also say to the advertiser, "Do you want to press a button and send news, product and sales info specifically tailored to your prospects immediate interests right to their eyeballs via the power of RSS contained within an interactive banner widget?".....DUH!!!