What is programmatic advertising?

March 23, 2013By Simon FosterDigital Media, Media Buying, Media Planning

If you are an advertiser you may have heard the expressions “programmatic buying”, “real time bidding” and “ad exchanges”. You may be wondering what all this is and what it means for advertisers, if you are then read on… “Programmatic” advertising, is effectively automated online media buying – often at large scale and at very … Read More

Facebook ‘likes’ don’t increase brand preference or sales

May 9, 2012By Simon FosterAdvertising Evaluation, Digital Media, Media Planning, Social Media

Here’s an iron for the fire: “Facebook ‘likes’ do not cause increased brand preference or increased sales so marketing campaigns designed to increase the number of ‘likes’ are unlikely to increase brand preference or sales.” I was moved to develop and explore this hypothesis after reading an article on the real cost of brand building … Read More

Social Media Metrics Made Simple: Focus on Sales and Customers

February 20, 2012By Simon FosterAdvertising Evaluation, Digital Media, Media Planning, Social Media

I am amazed that so many people spend so much time defining and discussing social media metrics. Why? Because the answers marketers (and shareholders) want are very, very simple. Marketers want only one thing from marketing budget investment. Marketers want sales – sales are key; almost everything else is a proxy for some point on … Read More