The following is an article by Kontera’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Ammiel Kamon that was originally published on the iMedia Connection blog.

The online shopping process isn’t just limited to your computer anymore.

Participating in the recent JD Power Automotive Internet Roundtable in Las Vegas, the biggest trends to emerge involved the potential of mobile and tablet, along with the importance of having a strong social media plan. There’s overwhelming data that speaks not only to the growth, but to the effectiveness of these emerging platforms for automotive marketers.

In the automotive vertical, mobile advertising has risen 239% in the last year and that appears to just be the tip of the iceberg.  Here are some quick facts I came across at the conference:

• Nielsen projects that by Christmas, one in two adults will have a smart phone.
• 50% of all new cars are expected to be purchased by either iPhone or Android owners.
• According to a JD Power study presented at the conference, almost ½ of in-market shoppers use their smart phones at some point during the process of choosing a car.
• 75% of in-market car shoppers engaged with social media on their phone.

With more and more affluent, in-market shoppers utilizing mobile devices during their decision making process, there’s no question that the automotive industry need to follow, a fact just as true regarding tablets.

However, it’s important to approach tablets with a unique strategy from smartphones, as shoppers use them for different purposes. For instance, Cars.com found their mobile site utilized for inventory search and car value lookups, while more new car related activity occurs on tablets. The key difference being with larger screens and better battery time, tablets lend themselves more to in depth research.

When properly optimized, tablets are a powerful way to reach interested consumers. Eric Miltsch of Auction Direct USA, reported how visitors accessing their used car website through a tablet are already converting 25-30% better than visitors from any other platform.

Even more than mobile and tablets, perhaps the hottest topic of conversation at the conference was about social media and how to harness it. Here are some fascinating statistics relating to social media:

• During 2011, 4 out of 5 new vehicle buyers are using the Internet in their buying process; looking at on average 3.7 models online.
• According to an Autoguide.com study, when purchase intent is expressed through social media 45% of the time it’s on forums, 21% on social networks, and 14% of the time on blogs.
• 2.4 million in-market shoppers used Facebook in some way to make a vehicle purchase decision.
• 58% of consumers are likely to mention their new car and/or buying experience via social media.
• 82% of mentions about car purchases on social media are positive.

As evident in these numbers, a tremendous amount of the consideration process occurs online and on social media channels like forums and social networks specifically. According to Robert Brown, the head of online marketing at Nissan, the majority of decisions made on social media platforms concern dealer reputation and vehicle reviews. This occurs on social media, as opposed to company websites because third party advocates carry more authority with prospective buyers.

These third party advocates represent a great untapped resource.  Scott Kelly, who manages the Ford brand online, wisely observed that the Automotive industry abandons the customer right at the height of their emotional excitement –right after the purchase. By extending the period of engagement, the number of positive testimonials will substantially increase, thus influencing the next cycle of in-market shoppers.

Additionally, the sphere of influence is very top heavy; by reaching out specifically to the hyper influencers that are the most active in forums, you can also significantly raise your social media profile.

In all, the general message at the roundtable was the status quo is not enough. The convergence of mobile, tablets, and social media are significantly changing the experience of shopping for a new car. In order to reach a qualified in-market audience, the way Automotive is marketed needs to evolve as well.

I, and the Kontera team were honored to be invited to the event, and pleased to share our viewpoints on the relevance and benefits of tight Editorial Alignment within the mobile, tablet and social domains. We highly recommend next year’s JD Powers Automotive Digital Marketing Roundtable to any marketers, publishers and technology vendors who are interested in the future on-line direction of the automotive media landscape.

What makes an effective brand advertising campaign?

That was the core question at “The Ad Effectiveness X-Factor” panel, held last week as part at the 8th annual Advertising Week in Manhattan. Moderated by Kontera’s own EVP of Marketing, Ammiel Kamon, the esteemed speakers were Jason Krebs the CMO of Tremor Media; Sean O’Neal, the CRO of Vizu;  Joe Zawadzki,  the CEO of MediaMath; Florian Kahlert , SVP of Dimestore; and Kontera President Hal Muchnick.

Each industry insider shared an internal case study that provided a unique perspective on brand media strategies for either video, social, editorial placement, or display audience buying. Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Always measure the success of a brand campaign by real time brand lift, not by clicks.
• With online in-stream video, it’s not enough to syndicate TV ads, adding interactive elements will dramatically increase engagement.
• The best day for brand lift varies by vertical. For instance with hair products, Wednesday is the best day, while Sunday is the worst.
• You can save as much as $100,000 in buy effectiveness by optimizing a campaign in real time. Depending on when you start getting stable data, you can start optimizing within a day.
• Video is very hot right now and showing particular lift for CPG brands.

Another repeated theme during the panel was how placement matters for engagement. Aside from Hal Muchnick’s presentation on Kontera’s Ritz crackers/Glee Social ad unit, both the Vizu and Dimestore case studies spoke directly to the effectiveness Kontera’s contextual ads. For instance, in their brand study of a leading over the counter pain reliever, Vizu found that Kontera’s Editorial Placed units significantly outperformed the portal and endemic sites running the same campaign.

It truly was a fascinating discussion and well worth checking out. You can see video of the entire panel here.

Why wait for users to find your Social Media channels, when you can bring the conversation directly to them?

Kontera Social Boost is a new Family of Social amplification ad products that connects advertiser’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or deal syndication messaging directly to qualified users.  Placed within highly relevant editorial content across the over 15,000 quality sites using Kontera, Social Boost is a great way to amplify word of mouth social sharing, increase the visibility of your brand’s social assets, and grow the number of fans and followers you have.  With Social Boost, brand advertisers are able to effectively combine their earned media marketing tactics with their paid media advertising tactics.

Here are the four types of Social Boost solutions that Kontera offers:

• YouTube Video Boost – Amplifies sharing and word-of-mouth buzz for an advertiser’s YouTube video content and their video channels. The syndicated YouTube videos are featured to interested consumers, within highly relevant editorial content across the web.
• Facebook Editorial Boost – Extends a brand’s social reach beyond the news feed to the broader web, through placement within highly relevant editorial content across thousands of sites. Brands are able to bring relevant and dynamic information from their Facebook wall, as relevant related information to the right editorial content.
• Twitter Editorial Boost – Syndicates the brand’s Twitter feed within relevant editorial content across 15,000 publishers. A brand’s “conversational” Twitter voice, when delivered alongside engaging branded creative, extends a brand’s social reach beyond the brand’s existing followers.
• Deal Syndication Boost – Accelerates online retailers’ and brands’ social commerce promotions by syndicating specific commerce offers within highly relevant content. Offers can range from time-limited deals to coupons and mini circulars.

An excellent example of Kontera Social Boost is Ritz’s Glee campaign, which was recently featured in articles by the New York Times and MediaPost.  As Ritz Crackers and the TV show Glee and are both brands associated with fun, Ritz built a promotion around the popular musical, giving away trips to meet the cast on set in Los Angeles. To enter the promotion, fans would have to “Like” Ritz’s Facebook page.  Kontera’s role was to create awareness of this Facebook promotion within editorial that was relevant to Ritz or Glee, and to expose the dynamic community to readers interested in these topics.

Here’s Sheeba Philip, the marketing director for Ritz explaining in The New York Times, the advantages of using Kontera for their campaign:

“A program like Kontera’s is really effective for reaching consumers with common and shared passion points,” Ms. Philip said. “It really was a push to drive people to Facebook to learn more about the brand.”

Kontera used a content sponsorship strategy across its many publishers, featuring a Related Social Content unit that dynamically filtered wall content for relevance to Ritz and Glee.  The brand’s relevant visually compelling information was placed within highly relevant editorial.

Kontera’s ability to identify qualified users based on their immediate interests unlocked a new audience for the brand’s social initiative.

To learn more please visit our Social Boost page.

According to Borrell Associates, online ad spending is expected to grow at a faster pace in 2011, reaching 51.9 billion dollars!

To gauge the real opportunity that the projected 2011 growth in ad dollars holds for the Kontera network, the important information to note is that, according to BA, the big driver behind this growth is targeted Display advertising – expected to grow almost 60% in 2011.

The last bit of information you should be aware of, is that the 2011 growth in targeted Display ads will happen alongside a continued 14% decrease in the familiar run-of-site Display ads – namely banners - which will continue to lose spending, as this early online ad format has been out-performed by new solutions.

Kontera In-Text Advertising solutions are one of the main technologies fueling the latest developments in the online advertising world. Kontera is uniquely positioned to benefit from the trends we’re already seeing, with our key offering going hand-in-hand with Advertisers’ online media preferences and end-users consumption patterns:

1. High Relevance Placement: Majority of web users experience “banner blindness”. Their attention is focused on the content of the page they are reading, ignoring its surroundings. According to comScore, consumers are exposed to 1,775 online ads each month, with banners getting as low as 0.1% CTR.
   
   Unlike Banners or other ad formats that feature the brand’s message in the margins, Kontera In-Text ads put the advertiser’s message in the Center of Attention and the Center of Interest of the users interacting with the webpage. Furthermore, the ad only appears when the user actively triggers it.
   
   

   

   Unlike traditional banner ads, where the advertiser has no idea if consumers actually looked at the banner or not, Kontera In-text ads provide meaningful views by engaged consumers that advertisers can actually quantify.

2. Fusing the Science of Search with the Art of Display: Kontera In-Text advertising is, in a sense, the next phase in the evolution of the digital ad offering. In the online media mix you have Search marketing and Display ads, such as banners and rich-media.
   In-Text advertising is offers the best of both worlds – fusing both the relevancy and user-intent of Search and taking them to the next level, alongside the branding potential of Display ads.
   
   
3. Topical Targeting Ensures Relevance and Far Greater Reach: Kontera’s exclusive Topical Targeting capabilities help advertisers reach relevant, qualified and engaged audience – at scale! The beauty of semantic Topical Targeting is that the advertiser is not limited to target only in endemic content, but the Kontera In-Text technology will ensure relevance, even in site content that is non-endemic.
   
   This allows Kontera to deliver far greater reach and relevance for the advertiser, within a brand safe environment, and ensuring the right ad is served along with the right content at the right point in time. Publishers enjoy premium ads displayed on their websites, within relevant content pages, and end-user receive a highly targeted advertising message that echoes their interests.

So… the bottom line:
Targeted Display Advertising – that’s relevant to end-users and performs for advertisers – check!

With an In-Text advertising technology that delivers results, and with the continued growth in online advertising budgets, specifically for new – and accountable – targeted Display ad formats, the next months are going to be record-breaking for Kontera’s advertisers and publishers partners worldwide!

Watch the short video interview with Ammiel Kamon, Kontera’s EVP Marketing, given at the iMedia Brand Summit held last month. See what makes Kontera’s In-Text advertising solution unique.

Check out more of our latest videos on YouTube