Press
First, an overview: I’ve been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Associated Press, New York Post, ABC News, CNN, USA Today, Mashable, and dozens of other outlets.
First, an overview: I’ve been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Associated Press, New York Post, ABC News, CNN, USA Today, Mashable, and dozens of other outlets.
Advertising Age named me one of the “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter” – an accolade echoed by Adweek, PR Week, The Drum, and Inc with their must-follow lists – and I’ve been called one of the “100 smartest people in social media” (not one of the 100 most modest though). Impact Radius named me #5 on their Top 30 Mobile Adverising Influencers list, AlleyWatch named me one of 15 people in NYC changing advertising, and TopRank called me a top B2B marketing influencer.
If you’d like to reach me, email david@serialmarketer.net and note it’s a press request in the subject so I can try to respond well in advance of your deadline.
Marketecture
Episode 125: Serial Marketer David Berkowitz
May 30, 2025
Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi are joined by David Berkowitz, a longtime marketer and founder of Serial Marketers and the AI Marketers Guild. They talk about the evolving role of community in marketing, how AI is reshaping creative work, and the uncertain future of entry-level marketing jobs. Plus, reflections on Mountain’s IPO, WPP’s AI push, and what it’s like to build a brand when your name comes with unexpected baggage.
OPENTOOLS
Perplexity AI Diversifies Revenue: Battling High Costs Amidst AI Industry Giants
May 21, 2025
David Berkowitz, the founder of both Serial Marketers and AI Marketers Guild, has taken on a new role within Marketecture Media as the Chief Community Officer. His inclusion signifies a seamless transition and continuity of the community-centric ethos fostered by these groups. With his leadership, Marketecture is expected to refine its community engagement strategies further, ensuring that advertisers can gain quick, relevant, and actionable insights from their community interactions. This strategic direction aligns with Marketecture Media’s broader goal of consolidating market share by integrating community-based learning into its business model.
adexchanger.com
Why The Small Get Smaller; Call It Community College
May 21, 2025
Marketecture Media, an advertising information resource created by programmatic entrepreneur Ari Paparo, has struck again.
This time, it acquired Serial Marketers and AI Marketers Guild, two community-based resources for marketers. Serial Marketer has a Slack channel with 5,000 users.
David Berkowitz, who created both groups, will join Marketecture as its chief community officer.
Marketecture has now done five takeover deals over the past year. The release claims six, but Serial Marketers and AI Marketing Guild are sort of a bundle.
Max Q
Startup Stories – David Berkowitz
May 8, 2025
In this episode, Mollie Jahner interviews David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketers Guild, discussing the importance of community in marketing, leveraging AI for effective strategies, understanding customer segments, and the significance of personalization. They explore the balance between technology and the human touch in marketing, emphasizing the need for marketers to learn from each other and adapt to the evolving landscape.
ITVT
Televisionation—Friday Fireside: David Berkowitz on Using AI for Marketing
May 1, 2025
The Friday Fireside welcomes David Berkowitz, Founder of The AI Marketers Guild and author of “The Non-Obvious Guide to Using AI for Marketing” (available on Amazon). David takes us through some of the ways AI can be used to enhance television entertainment right now (some obvious, some not so obvious), and more deeply engage viewers and subscribers.
The AI Hat
AI for Small Business: What’s Real, What’s Hype (According to 33 Experts)
April 15, 2025
AI hype is everywhere, but for small and medium-sized businesses, what’s one area of AI that’s genuinely transformative right now, and what’s one area that’s mostly just smoke and mirrors?
Beyond the obvious benefits, what’s one under-discussed challenge or potential pitfall SMBs are likely to encounter as they increasingly adopt AI, and how can they prepare for it?
Mike Grehan
Inside Marketing With Mike Grehan
April 10, 2025
INDIE Agency News
Jump Ball: OpenAI 4o is Nothing to Fear…Maybe
April 9, 2025
David Berkowitz, founder, AI Marketers Guild, said that it’s a bigger crisis for stock photo libraries, Fiverr illustrators, and other creators.
“If you’re used to doing big-budget shoots to show a can of beer from a thousand different angles, AI could already save you the trouble. It’s no more or less a crisis for creatives than what we’ve been seeing evolving for the past couple of years. And there’s an even bigger crisis of perception of creative as a value-add, not the core value-driver,” said Berkowitz.
Native Ad Summit
Jury Summit in New York: David Berkowitz on why humanity still matters in the age of AI
April 3, 2025
When David Berkowitz founded the AI Marketers Guild, it wasn’t because he saw a trend—it was because he saw a gap.
“There was nothing really peer-led across creative and media fields where folks could just learn from each other,” he says. “So this has just been a great way to spark conversations, accelerate learning, and get inspired.”
Today, Berkowitz is one of the most respected voices in AI marketing—not only for his insights on emerging tools, but for the human-first lens he brings to every conversation.
MediaVillage
Unlocking the Future of Leadership with Jack Myers and David Berkowitz on AIMG’s AI Insider
April 2, 2025
In a compelling conversation on the AI Insider video podcast for the AI Marketers Guild (AIMG), Jack Myers joined host David Berkowitz to explore the evolving intersection of artificial intelligence, creativity, and humanistic leadership. As a respected thought leader in advertising and marketing, Myers shared insights from his latest book, The Tao of Leadership: Harmonizing Technological Innovation and Human Creativity in the AI Era, offering a roadmap for leaders navigating today’s rapidly shifting landscape.
THE OUTCOME by Attain
The Travis-Taylor Effect: How the Power Couple Powers its Brand Partners
February 25, 2025
“The only thing more reliable than the Chiefs making the playoffs, and usually the Super Bowl, this decade is that Travis and Taylor will prove to be manna for marketers,” says David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketers Guild and a longtime advertising industry veteran.
Kochava Summit 2025
The Art of Measuring What Matters
February 19, 2025
David Berkowitz, founder of AI Marketers Guild (AIMG), joined Kochava CEO Charles Manning and Kochava CTO Ethan Lewis onstage to talk about the role agentic AI will play in transforming our industry. Berkowitz shared frontline insights and use cases from his observations working with thousands of adtech professionals under AIMG. He expressed that although agentic AI won’t replace your job, you might be replaced by someone who learns to integrate, leverage, and harness its potential better than you do. More…
Vivander Advisors
AI Success Stories in Hospitality: A Deep Dive into Digital Transformation
November 19, 2024
David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketers Guild, delivered a comprehensive look at AI’s impact on hospitality during HSMAI’s Curate event in Washington, DC. His presentation masterfully wove together ancient wisdom with cutting-edge technology, opening with a striking parallel between AI and the Greek myth of Prometheus. Read More…
HuntClub
The Five F’s of Fractional Leadership: Examining 5 Benefits and Pitfalls, According to David Berkowitz
September 04, 2024
More and more leaders who have held traditional, full-time CxO roles are seeing the benefit of fractional work. David Berkowitz, a serial founder and marketing leader with two full-time CxO roles and now, several fractional CMO roles, has been on both sides of the table. With his experience, he’s paving the way for companies to evaluate the need for a fractional leader, as well as helping leaders assess if it’s a good path forward for them.
LLNYC Agency Worldwide
What CMOs & Brands Need to Know About AI in Marketing with David Berkowitz, Founder AI Marketers Guild
September 03, 2024
In this week’s episode, David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketers Guild (AIMG), dives into the complexities of AI’s role in marketing from research to creative and beyond. Read More…
The Social Media Hat
AI in Action: Today’s Biggest Trends in Marketing Innovation with David Berkowitz
June 15, 2024
NoBrainer
The “Guilded” Age of Marketing AI
May 22, 2024
In today’s episode, AI Marketers Guild (AIMG) founder and fractional CMO David Berkowitz joins Greg Verdino and Geoff Livingston for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of AI in marketing.
GENIUSSTEALS.CO
Strands of Genius: David Berkowitz + The State of Marketing
MAY 10, 2024
DAVID BERKOWITZ , FOUNDER, AI MARKETERS GUILD
>> David Berkowitz guest curated Strands on May 9th 2024. Read it here.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what keeps you busy. How did you end up doing what you’re doing today?
I’m a connector, communicator, and community builder who has followed a very convoluted path that’s led me to work with some of the most wonderful folks and companies spanning agencies, brands, and tech companies. I’m spending a lot of my time these days building out the AI Marketers Guild community and the FOAF.pro fraction-of-a-fractional CXO network, both of which I launched last year.
GENIUSSTEALS.CO
Strands of Genius: AI Generated Garbage is Polluting Our Culture, AI Done Right, Beck’s Autonomous Beer
MAY 09, 2024
LOCATION: NYC
I’m a long-time Genius Steals fan who borrowed Rosie’s genius as much as possible when we worked together at the agency 360i. Now, I run communities — AI Marketers Guild, Serial Marketers, and the FOAF.pro fraction-of-a-fractional CXO network. For the record, I’m not THAT David Berkowits.
Editor’s Note (Rosie): Berky and I met when we were working together at 360i. I loved how he made being geeky feel cool, and also relevant to everyone else’s life. He was more of a grown up in terms of seniority, but still a child at heart. I can’t tell you a specific phrase that I remember him saying, but I can tell you the feeling I always got when I was with him: a shared excitement and enthusiasm. I could always count on Berky to be excited about something with me! And I’m so thrilled to have him curating again today 🙂
No event to show.
TheLetterTwo
AIMG: The Community Helping Demystify AI for Marketers
March 28, 2024
“[Generative AI] has been different on so many levels. The most impactful thing I’ve seen is how visceral generative AI is, that as soon as you start interacting with it, you don’t just see but feel what happens from that,” David Berkowitz, marketing expert and AIMG’s co-founder, tells me. “So there’s this kind of god mode that you get in. And a lot of the time, it’s likened to having superpowers, and I think there’s something to it.”
MarketWatch
Chief AI officer: A necessity for companies or an expensive impediment?
February 26, 2024
AIMG is in the news in this MarketWatch report! What do you think? Is a CAIO needed?
“Companies don’t need a chief AI officer,” David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketers Guild, said in an interview. ”The role might be a short-term fix, but it will go the way of the chief metaverse officer, chief digital officer or chief innovation officer. ”He continued: “AI affects everyone’s role and job, so one person alone can’t manage that. Each business segment — marketing, sales, customer support, HR, legal, R&D — they all need folks with AI expertise.”
The Customer
The Insider’s Scoop on CES 2024: Walking and Talking with Marketers
January 22, 2024
After a solo stroll past myriad media booths (TikTok featured its new Live Shopping, er, live, and Netflix had its first-ever large display), I met up first with David Berkowitz, a serial marketer and, in fact, founder of both the Serial Marketers networking group and the new AI Marketing Guild. We explored the Eureka Park section, which David describes accurately, if playfully, as the, “cutting edge, breakthrough, anything goes, bare-knuckle startup playground.”
INFILLION
Why AI Is This Year’s Ad Industry Buzzword (Again)
January 16, 2024
You probably heard a lot about artificial intelligence (AI) in meetings, at industry conferences, and in team brainstorms in 2023. Well, you’re going to hear about it a lot more in 2024. Infillion tapped the mind of David Berkowitz, a longtime industry insider who now runs the AI Marketers Guild, a networking and resource group for marketers looking to navigate the buzzword-filled, occasionally contentious world of AI.
We asked David about trends versus meaningful industry change, innovative brand uses for AI, and more. And, if you’re already experiencing AI overload, David has at least one reassurance for you: “It’s hard to have even more discussion about AI than what we had in 2023.”
TOOLKITS
What marketing leaders expect from brand publishing in 2024
January 3, 2024
Contributors included:
Sword and the Script
Will humans have to re-write AI’s draft of history? 42 marketing and communications predictions for 2024
December 26, 2023
Predictions that have little or nothing to do with AI:
18. A glut of AI-generated content
“During yet another ‘year of generative AI,’ it’s going to continue to get easier for anyone to write a press release and other press materials. There will be a glut of AI-generated content as well.
The same tools that should make PR pros’ jobs easier will contribute to a barrage of noise from amateurs and spammers. That means you’ll need to rely harder than ever on two very human aspects of your job next year: being strategic about what you’re creating, and deepening the relationships you’ve forged with key contacts.”
~ David Berkowitz, Founder, AI Marketers Guild
IBM
David Berkowitz on infusing AI across the marketing stack
November 17, 2023
Continuing in our series on the business of artificial intelligence (AI), we catch up with David Berkowitz, founder of the Serial Marketer consultancy, the Serial Marketers community, and the AI Marketers Guild. David has strong expertise in the application of emerging technologies to marketing, and has recently been focused on the role AI can play across functions, whether that be in content generation, data analysis, or contract review. AI can help with repetitive marketing tasks like writing similar content, but strategy requires human judgment. David created the AI Marketers Guild to help marketing experts make sense of AI through practical use cases and education.
springboard
Editing ChatGPT Outputs: 4 Essential Tips and Prompt Approaches
November 15, 2023
Another useful tactic for adjusting the output of ChatGPT is requesting a tone or “temperature” shift. According to Serial Marketer’s David Berkowitz, temperature is a technical term used by tools like ChatGPT to define how literal or creative a response might be. He goes on to explain that “Different temperature settings can cater to various marketing objectives and requirements.” He outlines those differences as follows:
Lower temperature (0.1 – 0.4):
Temperatures in this range produce more focused, conservative, and consistent responses. This is useful when the marketer needs factual information, precise answers, or messaging that adheres closely to a specific format or brand guideline.
Moderate temperature (0.5 – 0.7):
Temperatures in this range strike a balance between creativity and consistency. This setting can be useful for general content generation, where a blend of accuracy and inventiveness is desired.
Higher temperature (0.8 – 1.0):
Temperatures in the high range generate more creative, diverse, and unexpected outputs. Marketers may prefer this setting when brainstorming innovative campaign ideas, crafting engaging social media content, or seeking fresh perspectives on a topic.”
Of course, you can also use traditional terms when asking for tonal adjustments, like “make this more formal” or “rewrite this in a more conversational tone.”
Amplifying Cognition
David Berkowitz on AI in marketing, gaining superpowers, amplifying marketers, and the future of agencies (AC Ep12)
September 27, 2023
“There’s no substitute for trying everything. The great thing about AI is how immediately usable it is. As soon as you hear something mentioned in the news, a friend’s LinkedIn post, or elsewhere, just go and try it.”
– David Berkowitz
diginomica
Taking a careful approach to AI in marketing
September 12, 2023
My take
We can’t turn a blind eye to what AI is bringing to marketing, but we also need to be strategic about how we use it to improve content marketing and other marketing strategies. On the CMI webinar, David Berkowitz, Founder, Serial Marketer consultancy & community, and the AI Marketers Guild, said we need to embrace what’s ahead with a critical eye. He said we need to find where AI fits in to help us be more collaborative and productive. And I agree with that approach. We need to understand how AI can fit into our processes and then find the right technology.
Ask the #CMWorld Community
Sink or Swim? Unstoppable Impact of AI on Marketers’ Futures
Aug 22, 2023
Rick Howe
Talk Back to Television USA Today
August 17, 2023
Inside
FOAF Around and Find Out: AI and the Future of Fractional Work
July 16, 2023
New York is a hub for communities, and marketing leader David Berkowitz has created three that involve AI:
The AI Marketers Guild
The Serial Marketers community
A CXO network called FOAF.pro
David has been a marketing leader at various agencies and has contributed more than 600 columns to outlets such as Advertising Age, MediaPost, and VentureBeat. In this conversation, he shares predictions about AI, startups, big tech, and the future of work.
This Week In Voice
Closer to Fine
July 13, 2023
The AI Marketers Guild launches in NYC; PVCP announces Q2 startup funding.
The AI Marketers Guild – launched earlier this month – is dedicated to empowering marketing professionals in the rapidly evolving field of AI marketing.
The brainchild of longtime NYC marketer David Berkowitz, AIMG fosters a collaborative community, offers highly-targeted professional development and networking opportunities, and enables members to grow their businesses. Read More…
Missed the live “The 7 Types of Marketing Intelligence”?
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MediaPost
Experts Give Their Take On Logo Redesigns For Pepsi, Nokia, Fanta
April 7, 2023
“For Fanta, it went from looking like a lava lamp to a Saturday morning cartoon,” said David Berkowitz, founder of the blog Serialmarketer.net. “It used to scream, ‘Groovy!’ Now it screams, ‘Hey kids, want to bounce off some walls?!’ Granted, given its logo history for much of the ‘70s through the ‘90s, I’d have thought the logo was for an airline if I didn’t know what a ‘Fanta’ was.”
MediaPost
My Past Is Prologue
March 27, 2023
Chat GPT’s second, more refined query specific to the future of advertising:
Mandese: Can you compile a list of futurists who specifically predict the future of media in the ad industry?
Chat GPT: Certainly! Here are some notable futurists who specifically focus on predicting the future of media in the ad industry:
David Berkowitz: David Berkowitz is the founder of the Serial Marketer consultancy and is known for his work in digital marketing and media. He has written extensively on the future of advertising and is a frequent speaker at industry events.
Commsor
Introducing the Commsor Guild: Our Exceptional Creators and Industry Leaders
March 9, 2023
Back in January, we opened up applications for our reimagined creators and partnership program: The Commsor Guild.
We wanted to work with experts to bring valuable content, events, and courses to our members and audience. In turn, we’d help them become thought leaders in their industries and pay them for their time and expertise.
Now, after sifting through scores of brilliant applications, we chose 26 industry leaders for our first intake.
Adweek
Brand Safety in 2023: Marketers, Publishers and Platforms Feel the Danger Rising
January 9, 2023
Marketing leaders may be forced to submit to formal standards designed to protect companies whose reputations are increasingly on the line.
ITVT
Talk Back to Television: Berkowitz on Netflix Basic with Ads
January 5, 2023
This week’s episode of Talk Back to Television features media visionary, David Berkowitz, Founder of Serial Marketers. Our very timely topic is the future of Netflix Basic with Ads, and how all Netflix Basic with Ads subscribers can GET RID OF THOSE ANNOYING ADS for only $3 per month, and get access to the entire Netflix catalog.
Sword and the Script
Hopes, Dreams and Sage Advice: 40+ Marketing and PR predictions for 2023
December 20, 2022
AI-written content adds more noise
“PR and communications pros will be leaning way more heavily on AI-powered content development tools in 2023. These won’t be used for major bylines, important press releases, and other critical missives where every word counts. Rather, AI will be used to create a lot of filler and SEO bait. This will contribute to even more noise, and it will make high-quality corporate content both more appreciated and harder to find.” ~ David Berkowitz, Founder, Serial Marketers
Performance Marketing World
Under the influence: the impact of failure to disclose as watchdogs continue clampdowns
November 08 2022
David Berkowitz, SVP of Corporate Marketing and Comms at Mediaocean, points out that consumers can forgive influencers not marking content as ads, as they are almost expectant that any endorsement will involve some kind of deal. But will they forget?
“Consumers are increasingly savvy and likely expect that much of what celebrities and other influencers endorse involves some kind of transactional relationship. It’s rare for someone with a sizable following to tout their favourite book, trainers, or hotel without it being a sponsorship. It’s different from Ben Affleck routinely getting photographed grabbing coffee from Dunkin’ which he manages to regularly, albeit perhaps unintentionally, endorse.
“While consumers tend to be forgiving over influencers’ unmarked paid endorsements, it’s important for both brands and influencers to be mindful of the latest endorsement rules to minimise kerfuffles with regulators and avoid any negative press that follows suit.”
The message then? Transparency in posting content is vital, not only to ensure a fair playing field for your audience, but to avoid future scepticism from increasingly aware consumers. The publicity surrounding these rulings may not only hamper the industry, but future offenders will be less able to claim that they’ve made a ‘mistake’ with the examples made of those before them.
Marketing Communications Today
What Does the Future Hold for Search?
October 05, 2022
The uber-networker David Berkowitz answers our burning questions about search marketing and where it’s headed. Learn why paid search advertising is growing so quickly (hint: the proliferation of small screens is a factor). And what marketers should be doing to maximize this powerful tool. David has been predicting trends in this field long before most of us, and in this episode, he gives us the skinny. Read More
PMW
Amazon jumps ahead of Black Friday with ‘second Prime Day’ in October
Sep 27, 2022
David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing & Communications at Mediaocean, points out that retail brands and marketers need to think outside to Amazon box to compete for the shrinking disposable income of the average consumer this year.
“Like other key retail moments during this unpredictable year – and ongoing global health, supply chain, energy and cost of living challenges – retailers and advertisers need to make sure they capture the right mood of the moment,” Berkowitz said. Read more…
PRWeek
Delivering on thought leadership
Sep 13, 2022
No matter how you look at it, the people or businesses that lead with regular advice, useful information, and provide helpful tips get more traffic and more business. These thought leaders set themselves apart from the competition and provide true value – like Michael Lazerow, Steve Rubel, or David Berkowitz, for instance. And notice, you don’t even have to mention the place of employment for these thought leaders since they’ve achieved name brand recognition.
Arc
A Conversation with David Berkowitz: The Future of Marketing & Web3
Aug 11, 2022
David Berkowitz: “The biggest takeaway is, remember the fundamentals. So, all the questions you ask of any other campaign or program that you’re doing, just, it’s so easy to get sucked into that shiny new object syndrome, and you don’t have to. Read More…
MobileMarketing
Metaverse 101
July 28, 2022
David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing and Comms at Mediaocean, believes entertainment brands are a natural fit for the metaverse, aiming to deliver the most immersive experience possible, while gaming brands have set a precedent for virtual experiences.
“More recently, we’ve seen the likes of Snapchat introduce even more powerful AR capabilities and Spotify enter the metaverse with its launch of Spotify Island,” he says. “But beyond this, retail brands like Nike have come to the fore, seeing great success with their metaverse excursions and collaborations. The space will see rapid innovation, as other high-profile brands and industries follow suit with their own innovative ventures but, more crucially, it will increase marketer’s awareness of the deepening gap between our old conception of marketing and how it must function in this new world.”
ANA Magazine
Back-to-School Season Offers a Challenging Course for Marketers
July 8, 2022
“There still is a great sense of unpredictability,” says David Berkowitz, SVP of corporate marketing and communications at ANA member Mediaocean, whose clients include AT&T, Mastercard, and CVS. “It’s going to be a bit of a roll of the dice going into the school year.”
Ninety-nine percent of families with kids in kindergarten through grade 12 expect to buy school supplies in-store, while 86 percent will buy products online, according to a recent survey of 1,426 households by Field Agent. “Omnichannel will be more important than ever for the back-to-school season,” Berkowitz says.
Swapstack
Top 15 Marketing Newsletters You Need In Your Inbox!
June 07, 2022
David was metioned as:
top 10. Serial Marketer Weekly
Written by David Berkowitz
Newsletter Description: Keeping brands and agencies at the cutting edge of marketing
Subscriber Count: 2600
Cadence: Weekly
Topics Covered: Marketing, Branding, Business, Creators
TVREV
A (Media) Oceaean Washes Over Cannes
June 17, 2022
We sat down with the estimable David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing and Communications at Mediaocean to find out more about the splash they are making at Cannes this year with the Mediaocean Retreat, as well as what else they have going on, including a new acquisition in Drishyam AI. Read more…
TechRound
Expert Predictions on the Metaverse
May 17, 2022
Experts featured include:
David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing & Comms at Mediaocean
“It’s still a touch early to predict how widely the metaverse will be adopted, but Mark Zuckerberg’s foray into the metaverse has certainly been the spark that prompted marketers to take VR more seriously. As a result, we’ve seen more brands starting to dip their toes into the metaverse as a way to attract customers and get involved in the conversation.
Entertainment brands are a natural fit for the metaverse, aiming to deliver the most immersive experience possible, and gaming brands have set a precedent for virtual experiences. More recently, we’ve seen the likes of Snapchat introduce even more powerful AR capabilities and Spotify enter the metaverse with its launch of ‘Spotify Island’. Read More
ITVT
Televisionation Friday Fireside: Mediaocean’s Berkowitz on the Future of TV Advertising and More
March 31, 2022
Televisionation: Friday Fireside, the #1 television industry Webcast, features Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor, in conversation with prominent figures from the advanced-TV/video industry.
The Friday Fireside welcomes David Berkowitz, SVP of Corporate Marketing and Communications for Mediaocean. Both a media industry veteran and marketing visionary, David opines on the future of advertising on Netflix, the impact of creativity in television advertising and the complex relationship between television content, television platforms and television viewers. “Viewers might be watching ‘The Daily Show’ on their phones, their connected TVs or in Madison Square Garden surrounded by 20,000 people; but to them, it’s still television!”
Rally.io
NFT $CMO Coin
Mar 15, 2022
“I own some NFTs — mostly through Rally.io, where I run the $CMO coin and hold various creators’ NFTs as well. I like experimenting with them, like using football-themed NFTs as entry tickets for a Super Bowl pool. I do also have a number of moments from NBA Top Shot, even if I can’t name more than a handful of players in the whole league.” — David Berkowitz
Adweek
Apple Pauses Business in Russia, Adding Pressure to Major Marketers Staying Silent
February 03, 2022
A leader and a follower
“Apple is always a leader, even when it’s a follower,” said David Berkowitz, svp corporate marketing and communications of omnichannel platform Mediaocean and founder of the Serial Marketers community. “It has a lot of company—Google, Disney, Meta, Dell, Nike, Ford, and many others are changing how they do business in Russia. Apple is also one of several that is cutting off both product sales and distribution of Russian media. So it can make a statement on multiple levels. Given the overwhelming unity of the EU, NATO, and Ukraine allies, this is more a statement as to how Apple views itself as a member of the global community.” Read More…
Media Jungle
Joe Rogan Politics, Crypto Takes Over Marketing, Hackers Steal NFTs
February 2, 2022
MartechAsia
Voices from leaders: Why does data privacy matter?
January 28, 2022
“Data privacy continues to be a key factor for the advertising industry, as it is seen as the main driver behind tougher browser restrictions and the demise of the third-party cookie. However, instead of waiting for the digital giants to force its hand on changes, the industry should instead take proactive steps towards creating a more privacy-compliant ad landscape.
“This will not be an easy, one-solution-fits-all fix, but a continuous process, involving greater collaboration, to create an interoperable digital ecosystem, based on first-party data. Ultimately this will be a positive step for the industry, creating a better digital environment for brands and consumers.”
David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing & Comms at Mediaocean
TV REV
Hot Takes: CES 2022
January 13, 2022
David Berkowitz, Mediaocean’s new SVP Corporate Marketing & Communications points out that the benefit of a virtual event is that they were able to have more people attend. (And they still managed to get Sir Martin Sorrell to speak!)
As much as we missed getting together with our colleagues and clients in Vegas this year, we managed to connect with a much wider audience with our Mediaocean Retreat pivoting to virtual. More than 1,500 people registered to catch two days of sessions, including speakers such as S4 Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell, Twitter Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, author and futurist Rishad Tobaccowala, and CBS Chief Research & Analytics Officer Radha Subramanyam. Catch the recordings on-demand, and then download our new report that we released at the event, the 2021 Market Report and 2022 Outlook assessing the state of play in advertising and media.
MobileMarketing
Movers and Shakers: GroupM, M&C Saatchi, Merkle, Evil Geniuses and more
January 5, 2022
Berkowitz takes up marketing and comms role at Mediaocean
Omnichannel advertising platform Mediaocean has named David Berkowitz as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications. Leveraging decades of experience across top strategic marketing posts, Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content.
Prior to founding and running his own consultancy, Serial Marketer, Berkowitz’s roles included Head of Marketing at Storyhunter and Chief Strategy Officer at Sysomos. He was also Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, leading efforts for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Pizza Hut. Prior to that, Berkowitz was Vice President at 360i, crafting mobile marketing strategies for brands like Bravo, Coca-Cola and Oreo. He has also held leadership posts at iCrossing, Unicast, and research firm eMarketer, now Insider Intelligence. READ MORE…
Forbes
Pabst Blue Ribbon Apologizes For Inappropriate ‘Dry January’ Tweets
January 3, 2022
“For all the fuss about PBR’s beyond-tasteless tweet that got deleted, they still are running tons of tweets about Wet January,” wrote David Berkowitz, a senior vice president of corporate marketing at Mediaocean. “That’s in equally poor taste, given that it’s grade school sexual innuendo combined with making light of people trying to push back against alcoholism.”
Sword and the Script
20 PR and Marketing Predictions for 2022
December 21, 2021
Backlash to the blockchain deluge
The metaverse, Web 3.0, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will suck the air out of the room in terms of PR, but there will be a backlash. Those who focus on what’s real and relevant rather than trying to turn everything into a Web 3 story will find a welcome reception from journalists dying for a break from the blockchain-backed deluge.” – David Berkowitz, Founder, Serial Marketers
Break the Web
Fractional CMO: Should You Outsource The CMO Position?
December 21, 2021
David Berkowitz, Founder of Serial Marketers
Qouted
“A great fractional CMO knows what their strengths are so they can prioritize where they can add the most value with limited time available. They know where to find resources to fill in gaps. They know how to stretch budgets and minimize added costs. They know what they don’t know. And they’re transparent with their clients about demands on their time so that they can set clear expectations going into any project.”
By: Jason Berkowitz
NewDigitalAge
The NDA News Roundup: Peacock Engineering, ELVIS, Griffin and more
Dec 18, 2021
Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, has named David Berkowitz as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications. Leveraging decades of experience and a widely respected career across top strategic marketing posts, Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content. Prior to founding and running his own consultancy, Serial Marketer, Berkowitz’s roles have included Head of Marketing at Storyhunter and Chief Strategy Officer at Sysomos (acquired by Meltwater in 2018). He was also Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, leading efforts for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Pizza Hut. Previously Berkowitz was Vice President at 360i, crafting mobile marketing strategies for brands like Bravo, Coca-Cola and Oreo. He has also held leadership posts at iCrossing, Unicast, and research firm eMarketer, now Insider Intelligence. As a popular thought leader and columnist, Berkowitz has contributed nearly 1,000 bylines to Ad Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, Mashable, Adweek and others.
By: Eleanor Oakes
Performance Marketing World
Ones to watch: movers and shakers in performance marketing
Dec 14, 2021
Mediaocean has named David Berkowitz as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications. Leveraging decades of experience and a widely respected career across top strategic marketing posts, Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content. Prior to founding and running his own consultancy, Serial Marketer, Berkowitz’s roles have included Head of Marketing at Storyhunter and Chief Strategy Officer at Sysomos (acquired by Meltwater in 2018). He was also Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, leading efforts for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Pizza Hut. Previously Berkowitz was Vice President at 360i, crafting mobile marketing strategies for brands like Bravo, Coca-Cola and Oreo. He has also held leadership posts at iCrossing, Unicast, and research firm eMarketer, now Insider Intelligence.
By: Robin Langford
MEDIASHOTZ
Mediaocean Appoints David Berkowitz to Senior Marcomms Role
December 15, 2021
Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, has named David Berkowitz as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications.
Leveraging decades of experience and a widely respected career across top strategic marketing posts, Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content. READ MORE
By: Mark Johnson
RESEARCH LIVE
MediaOcean Appoints Svp Corporate Marketing and Communications
December 14, 2021
US – Omnichannel advertising platform Mediaocean has named David Berkowitz as senior vice-president of corporate marketing and communications.
Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content.
Prior to founding and running his own consultancy, Serial Marketer, Berkowitz’s roles have included head of marketing at Storyhunter and chief strategy officer at Sysomos (acquired by Meltwater in 2018 ). He was also chief marketing officer at MRY, leading efforts for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Visa and Pizza Hut. READ MORE
By: Colette Doyle
MARTECH SERIES
Mediaocean Appoints Strategic Marketing Executive David Berkowitz as SVP Corporate Marketing and Communications
Dec 13, 2021
Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, has named David Berkowitz as Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications. Leveraging decades of experience and a widely respected career across top strategic marketing posts, Berkowitz will oversee key functions for Mediaocean, including global public relations, analyst relations, corporate messaging and content. READ MORE
BY: Globe Newswire
MediaPost
Serial Marketer David Berkowitz Joins Mediaocean
December 13, 2021
Long-time advertising and media industry marketing, strategy and media executive David Berkowitz has joined Mediaocean as senior vice president-corporate marketing and communications.
He joins from his own consulting practice and founder of Serial Marketer, a Slack-based community for marketers he launched in 2018, and which he will continue to manage independently. READ MORE
By: Joe Mandese
MediaOcean
MediaOcean Appoints Strategic Marketing Executive David Berkowitz as SVP Corporate Marketing and Communications
December 13, 2021
Berkowitz’s arrival follows Mediaocean’s acquisition of Flashtalking, establishing the most scaled independent ad tech platform with over $200 billion in annualized media spend and more than one trillion monthly ad impressions. READ MORE
By: Mediaocean Team
Event by Spencer Gallagher
Agencyphonics Episode #55 David Berkowitz of Serial Marketer
December 2, 2021
David Berkowitz and I will be chatting live this afternoon about David’s experiences working both client and agency side. We will be discussing the importance of community-based marketing, cryptocurrency and Creator Coin, NFTs and DAOs.
GARRET Public Relations
22 Marketing Experts Share Their Best Advice to Help You Plan for 2022
November 28, 2021
To help provide some guidance, I asked 22 influencers to share their thoughts on this question: What one piece of marketing advice would you offer to brands as we head into the new year? Here’s what they had to say.
Marketing Advice for 2022
“Understand the latest technology. Don’t come up with an NFT plan; figure out how bolstering your offerings with virtual goods and tokens can meet your customers’ needs. Don’t come up with a DAO or Web3 or blockchain or crypto plan; resolve to understand the latest community-driven technologies better, and then figure out the right way to use them (or not). The rate of change may feel more daunting than ever, but you have the power to learn and adapt and grow based on the needs of your organization and the brands in your care.” – David Berkowitz, Founder, Serial Marketers
By: Michelle
Protocol
Social tokens promise fans a piece of the action
November 16, 2021
Ultimately, the benefits of putting fandom on the blockchain may be intangible. David Berkowitz, a marketer who runs a Slack community online for others in his profession, isn’t worried. He uses Rally to issue a $CMO coin, which is redeemable for ads in his newsletter, NFTs or other benefits. Anyone can buy or sell it, but he doesn’t see most people getting involved to make money on coins like this.
So why buy in? For many in crypto, the value is in proving the power of collective effort. There may be some upside — and plenty of downside — in speculation. But the ups and downs of crypto prices can’t erase the feeling of ownership a true fan has.
The Drum
Facebook beware? Study shows most Americans don’t care about the metaverse
November 1, 2021: By Kenneth Hein
Nearly three quarters of respondents (72%) say they aren’t likely to use a VR headset in next 12 months. Only 8% are very likely. “Facebook is overhyping the metaverse. Oculus Quest 2 is terrific hardware, but even the best such devices still wind up in a junk drawer within months or days after use,” says marketing consultant David Berkowitz. “Consumers show little appetite for buying extra hardware to interact with a more immersive experience.”
Nostra
Marketing Haven Podcast: David Berkowitz
By Arthur Root
Arthur Root sits down with David Berkowitz to discuss current marketing trends, SEO, developing communities, the future of NFTs, and much more.
Talkwalker
Social Media Trends 2022 Global Report
October 19, 2021
Talkwalker has teamed up with HubSpot once again to identify the trends that brands need to engage for success. As customers demand faster, more personal, more engaging experiences, brands will have to accelerate their consumer intelligence. These trends will help you focus your 2022 strategy, ready for the age of the ‘now’ consumer.
Including insights from:
Over 70 marketing professionals and industry influencers, including Emily Lim, David Berkowitz, and Mathieu Girolet.
Actionable insights you can develop straight away, to get a step ahead next year.
On-trend examples from brand trendsetters, including GoPro, TikTok, and Louis Vuitton.
TopRank Marketing
50 Top B2B Marketing Influencers, Experts and Speakers To Follow In 2022
By Lane Ellis
The business landscape of 2021 includes a wealth of B2B influencers who are shaping the future of marketing for 2022 and beyond.
To honor and celebrate our industry’s B2B marketing subject matter experts, including many who happen to be speaking at this week’s MarketingProfs B2B Forum virtual event, we’re thrilled to publish our annual list of some of the world’s leading B2B marketing influencers.
Each year MarketingProfs B2B Forum is filled to the brim with the latest insightful B2B marketing tactics and strategies presented by a powerhouse lineup of exceptional B2B influencers, and this year is no different.
MPB2B will take place October 13 – 14, 2021 and features a stellar group of B2B marketing professionals the programming team at MPB2B has carefully assembled, in an updated virtual format designed to bring you all the freshest industry knowledge without any of the screen fatigue.
In the spirit of helping B2B marketing professionals learn more and connect with new voices, we’ve compiled our latest list of B2B marketing influencers — many who will be speaking at #MPB2B — to follow and learn from in 2022 and beyond. READ MORE…
Workplace Intelligence Weekly
How to Advance Your Career in the Virtual Workplace
By Dan Schawbel
For this week’s Workplace Intelligence Weekly Newsletter, I interviewed my good friend David Berkowitz. David is the founder of the 2,500-member Serial Marketers community, the publisher of the Serial Marketer Weekly newsletter, and the originator of the $CMO creator coin who, in his spare time, runs a marketing consultancy. His 20-year digital marketing career spans strategy and marketing roles at agencies such as 360i and MRY, as well as startups such as Sysomos and Storyhunter. READ MORE
The Founders Live Podcast
David Berkowitz of Serial Marketers: Building Community Post-Pandemic Requires More Meaning and Intention
By Nick Hughes|Founder and CEO|Founders Live Media, Inc.
Nick Hughes is joined by David Berkowitz, founder of Serial Marketers from New York City. Serial Marketers is an inclusive community based in Slack, the 2,500+ Serial Marketers members share job opportunities, get recommendations for who to work with and what technologies to use, post event invites, showcase their latest projects, and support each other in countless ways. Nick and David have an amazingly refreshing and uplifting conversation around building community and what it really means to grow a purposeful community today – especially during and post-covid. We hear the origins of Serial Marketers and why he decided to start the group, and what shifted and changed when the world went into lockdown and continues to struggle with gathering in person. They both share insights and thoughts on the foundations of communities and the unique core values that bind people together. Lastly, they share tips and lessons of success along the way. This is a unique and fun conversation between two industry and community leaders who inspire large communities around the world, and we hope it helps you today!
EMA eMarketing Association
Shiny Objects – David Berkowitz – Criteria for New Marketing Channel Selection
By Kevin Lee
David Berkowitz (the marketer, not the other one, he has some fun stories where folks get confused) and I have known each other for decades and it’s always great to brainstorm. In this interview, David and I discuss how and when to add a new channel or feature to the marketing mix…Watch the interview.
The Trust Web Times
Trust Web Times Interview Series: David Berkowitz ;Serial Marketers
Interview Hosted By Marc Goldberg
MG: So tell me more about you are doing now.
DB: I’m working on some exciting corporate marketing engagements, much of which I’ll have to get into another time. I’ve been doing more work on the agency side lately, shifting somewhat from a lot of tech-focused work I’ve done the past few years, and I missed the kinds of misfits that the agency world attracts. I didn’t consider myself an agency person until the day I left Publicis Groupe in 2016 and wound up not working at an agency for the first time in 12 years.
Meanwhile, I keep running my weekly newsletter and the professional community I founded.
MG: So David Berkowitz name is famous and often tied to the serial killer also known as Son of Sam.? Who are you the son of? And you are a famous“Serial Marketer”. Can you tell folks more about the AMAZING community you built?
DB: I’m David, Son of Dan, Son of David, Son of Dan, and so on. My dad’s cousin was the Son of Sam, so we have a line of Sam Berkowitzes too. You don’t find too many David Berkowitzes born after 1977 though, the year of that infamous Summer of Sam — and fewer still whose family was living in Westchester County and whose dad was working in the Bronx.
Strands of Genius
Going Viral, Social Media Patters, Ruptures in the Mediascape
Guest curated by David Berkowitz
Each year we’re aiming to highlight 50 creative thinkers that have inspired us, by giving them the opportunity to guest curate this newsletter, Strands of Genius. David is the founder of Serial Marketer, and he and Rosie used to work together at 360i. – Author: Ashley D. | GeniusSteals.co
The Beyond Social Media Show
David Berkowitz Interview
Interview Hosted By B.L. Ochman
NUDGE
Crypto Community
Featured Idealist
Reader David Berkowitz put me on to Rally.io, a way to create tokens for rewarding engagement in your community. The tokens are backed by the website. It’s early days so really what you can do with it is quite open. Users can be gifted tokens or buy/sell them.
David mused on some of the things he’s thinking about here, I think if anything this helps community managers get better and more creative with their communities. And in a way gives permission to do so. Check out his $cmo coin. – Author: Ben Young
Ragan Communications
21 influencers share top tips for 2021 digital marketing
One of the Influencers who contributed tips
What one piece of marketing advice would you offer to brands as we head into the new year? – Author: Michelle Garrett
David is the 5th one to answer:
Remember to align your values with your value, and use that as the guiding force for how you relate to consumers. If you’re here to make people smile, have fun and be funny. If you’re a helper brand, show empathy. With any luck, 2021 will be a rebound from what a mess of a year 2020 was for so many people and businesses; the best way to earn loyalty, acceptance, and forgiveness from your customers is to stay true to what your brand is all about.– David Berkowitz
ADWEEK
Why Some Brands Are Considering Social Tokens to Monetize Engagement
Mentioned in the article
Lowering the barriers to audience development and rewards represented an instant appeal to David Berkowitz, founder of marketing tech consultancy Serial Marketer. In February, he began issuing his own CMO Coins through Rally’s platform to promote the value of his work and insights among marketing professionals.
Author: DAVID KAPLAN – Adweek’s Performance Marketing Editor and interim Brand Marketing Editor.
GlobalEdgeTalk
Building a Digital Community During the Pandemic with Serial Marketer David Berkowitz
Hosted by: Alex Romanovich
David Berkowitz is the principal of the Serial Marketer consultancy where he generates demand for growth-mode B2B startups. Prior roles include running marketing for video production marketplace Storyhunter, leading strategy at social listening firm Sysomos, serving as CMO of Publicis agency MRY, and co-founding the emerging media division of Dentsu agency 360i.
He has contributed more than 600 columns to outlets such as Advertising Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, and Adweek, and he has spoken at 350 events globally. Beyond consulting, he publishes the Serial Marketer Weekly newsletter and runs the 2,000-member Serial Marketers community on Slack.
FORBES
A Framework For A Creative Career
Featured in www.forbes.com
As a management consultant the last few years, my headline currently says “Marketing+Digital” while earlier, as a creative executive, I utilized flavors of creative leadership. David Berkowitz, whose digital community I recently profiled uses: “Serial Marketer generating demand for breakthrough B2B businesses.” – Author: Mat Zucker
Rally Network
Rally Digest #13
One of the four featured Creator Coins
David Berkowitz/ CMO Coin: David Berkowitz is the founder of the Serial Marketers community where he brings together thousands of global marketers with the mission to ‘Learn, Try, Share.’ He also runs the Serial Marketer consultancy to generate demand for breakthrough B2B businesses. The author of Berky’s Marketing English, he has spoken at 350 events worldwide and has penned more than 1,000 bylines for marketing and business trades.
Author: Kurt Patat
Build&Inspire
Business Networking is Alive – Now More than Ever
Featured Business Networking Leader
“I asked the founder, David Berkowitz, what he thought about networking today and the role of his community” – Author: Leo Morejon
“When the quarantine first hit in New York City in March, I remember that day thinking how the community went from a nice-to-have for me to a need-to-have. Fittingly, the group’s membership doubled from December 2019 to June 2020. Having an online community with people you can trust for feedback, information, and leads for your business becomes invaluable when our networks are more mobile than ever.” – David Berkowitz
In this Career Up Now Socially Distanced Close-Up podcast, Bradley Caro Cook interviews David Berkowitz, the Consultant and Founder at Serial Marketers. He is also the Digital Marketing and Strategy Lead at Research Your Health plus the Advisor at Vestorly and Dedicated.ai.
For David Berkowitz, entrepreneurship is more about creativity and less about the business aspect of it. He mentions that not everyone has a clear plan for their future; like him, some individuals learn firsthand and figure things out along the way. He advises entrepreneurs who are new to the field that learning from professionals is vital plus nowadays, there are so many ways to get in touch with experts, so there shouldn’t be any reason to hold back.
Let’s join David Berkowitz and our host Bradley Carp Cook for this riveting conversation.
AM BEST TV
Industry Experts Pan Controversial Cure Super Bowl Spot, Laud State Farm Humor
Featured as one of the Industry Experts who provided reviews
State Farm’s commercial scored solid reviews for hitting the right note. The Cure commercial was “meant to use humor and encourage a conversation about today’s polarized political climate, in which it is unfortunate that people cannot have different opinions without fear of reprisal,” company Chief Operating Officer Eric Poe said in an emailed statement.
Serial Marketer Chief Executive Officer David Berkowitz said he doesn’t know many people in the ad industry who would have approved the Cure commercial concept, “regardless of their gender, race, age or other factors,” pointing out that much of the criticism of the spot came from men.
“Diversity among creatives, marketers, and decision-makers could help prevent ad debacles like this, but so could sound judgment,” Berkowitz added.
“We regret that the commercial offended some select viewers,” said Poe.
…This content requires a subscription.
Author: Renee Kiriluk-Hill
Associate Editor
AM Best – Information Services
www.forbes.com
Building A Marketing Community For Marketers
Featured in Forbes
One community I recently joined is Serial Marketers, founded by David Berkowitz.
Started as an occasional public newsletter in 2016 (it was initially called “Serially Sporadic”), the email became weekly covering trends at the interaction of technology and marketing. By 2018, LinkedIn professional groups were stale or dying, having botched their advantage at the hub of careers and social media. Filling the void was an explosive growth of “walled” groups for business interest groups on new platforms such as Slack.
Having been once introduced on a blog by Aaron Strout of W2O Group as “a serial marketer, not killer,” the name stuck with Berkowitz and he used it to name his company.
In his roles at agencies including 360i and MRY as well as client-side at Sysomos, Berkowitz has had experience connecting people across areas of the industry and saw there was an entire class of peers who, like him, learned by doing. Serial Marketers’ motto is: “Learn. Try. Share.”—attracting people who learn when they can, and those with the inclination to give back to others.
With a community based on Slack, supported by a newsletter, events and services, Serial Marketers is quickly growing at a rate of 100 members per month, and they’re often sending more than 1,000 messages per week within the community.
I asked Berkowitz if it is the timing that’s right—or is it the product?
His answer is both. “I’m playing with a hypothesis that marketers needs have changed, so the community tools and formats need change with them,” he said.
What’s clear is that B2B communities like Serial Marketers can solve for these (at least) seven need states:
Job Seeking: People sign up for these communities to hunt for a job or new project. Berkowitz also senses a mentality of joining “so it’s there when you need it.”
Job Hiring: While many use recruiters and job boards, marketers will also look to these curated groups as a way to find or even lightly vet candidates for open positions.
Partnering: In addition to filling jobs, there is a desire to find good people to work with, whether it’s partnering on a project or referring business to one other.
Navigating a new space: Perhaps you’re new in a role or an industry, a digital community can be a comfortable way to learn concepts, nuances or ask questions.
Researching: Another area Berkowitz has seen a volume in activity is members tapping the community to evaluate martech platforms, especially CRM—a huge opportunity for the sales side. “Hubspot should be all over these communities,” he says.
Sharing: Marketers are extroverted by nature, and the communities provide ample opportunities to answer questions and share opinions. Nearly every group, including Serial Marketers, has an active #selfpromo channel. We’re all wired to sell.
Staying current: Whether it’s keeping up with trends, technology, or even books, communities provide threads on all of the above.
Channel choices all have an intentional role
For Berkowitz, the Slack group is a good way to organize conversations and keep niche high energy topics from polluting the whole conversation. Plus, members can do sidebars through direct messaging to get to know each other.
The newsletter, on the other hand, helps with updates to members, and mitigates the need to constantly come back to the platform to stay current.
Events further bring members together through a mix of “Salons” that include guest speakers and group interaction along with one-to-one speed networking events using the Upstream platform.
How do you market a marketing community?
Overwhelmingly, word of mouth including among influencers and being listed by other groups has fueled the community’s growth. After the first year, the membership of Serial Marketers shifted from Berkowitz’s 1st degree connections on LinkedIn to his 2nd degree. “It’s important to figure out who the catalysts are,” he said. “They’re not always who you predict they will be.” He’s also made it easy to do referral within the platform, so people can add their friends, who go through a simple verification process by a few staff.
Berkowitz however is also exploring other channels including a new partnership with ExecThread, which is already bringing in new members, contributing to its diversity, including more women and people of color.
Right now, Serial Marketers is fueled by revenue from premium membership and sponsorships. The activity within also has surfaced additional ideas such as Marketerfaves.com, a product recommendation engine which just soft-launched on February 1. The add-on services have become so varied and interconnected, and evolved so quickly, Berkowitz is creating a visual map to put it all into perspective as an ecosystem.
“What’s most important for a thriving community is that it needs to be a place where most of the value is driven by members creating value for each other,” he said. “When you have that, people engage and stick around, and your members will be your best advocates.”
Author: Mat Zucker – CMO Network
Captivate Podcast
Featured podcast interview
app.com
Cure Auto Insurance ad draws heat for its Super Bowl commercial
Press mentioned David Berkowitz’s tweet
Some reactions were incredulous, calling the company “tone deaf,” wondering if other people recognized the perceived issues with the ad, while others were quite blunt in their criticism.
“Who’s the one who should have vetoed the Cure Auto Insurance ad and didn’t?” asked marketer David Berkowitz.
PR Daily
21 influencers share top tips for 2021 digital marketing
Featured influencer
Here’s how 21 influencers answer this question: What one piece of marketing advice would you offer to brands as we head into the new year?
Remember to align your values with your value, and use that as the guiding force for how you relate to consumers. If you’re here to make people smile, have fun and be funny. If you’re a helper brand, show empathy. With any luck, 2021 will be a rebound from what a mess of a year 2020 was for so many people and businesses; the best way to earn loyalty, acceptance, and forgiveness from your customers is to stay true to what your brand is all about.
– David Berkowitz, founder, Serial Marketers
All Factors
150+ Marketers Share Their Marketing Predictions for 2021
Featured Marketer
David’s 2021 marketing predictions & trends:
“2021 is going to be a year where marketers try to do much more with much fewer resources. Most sectors of the economy will rebound, but not necessarily to pre-pandemic levels. Budgets for higher-ticket marketing services and any marketing expenditure that remotely felt like a luxury were decimated last year, and those will take time to recover. There’s a lot of pressure to grow though and to capitalize on the economy’s increasing strength especially when most American adults have access to a Covid vaccine in Q2.
Marketers are going to increasingly buy on value; more expensive options will have to work harder at proving themselves, while they will prioritize various ways to outsource staff and increase the power of their tech stacks.
They will also be driven more toward B2B communities and other avenues where they can efficiently get recommendations and build back their professional networks. Communities will fill some of the gap between live events that are slow to return and the fatigue of virtual events.”
David is the Founder at Serial Marketers, he works with tech startups and agencies to optimize demand generation, and he welcomes marketers of all stripes to the global community that he runs.
Protocol
What people in tech are cooking up this holiday season
We’ve rounded up some of the tech industry’s favorite recipes.
David is one of the few tech people being asked
Momma Berkowitz’s Potato Latkes
“My mom makes these latkes (potato pancakes) every year, and she taught me how to grate the potatoes by hand. Now I cheat, using the KitchenAid mixer’s peeler and grater attachments while saving myself a few Band-Aids. There’s nothing like the taste of this served fresh, and now I’ve taught my own school-aged daughter how to cook them and continue the family tradition, adding to the brightness of Hanukkah.” – David Berkowitz, founder of Serial Marketer
—
Velocitize
SHOULD WE PAY FOR TWITTER? NOT EVERYONE AGREES WITH SCOTT GALLOWAY.
Featured guest
Free for All
David Berkowitz, CEO of New York-based Serial Marketer, considers Galloway “one of the most brilliant people out there” and refers to himself as “almost a fanboy.” Still, he can’t accept the idea of a subscription model for both financial and moral reasons.
“When his email comes in, I read every word. I make sure I’m somewhere where I can focus. I do everything but buy his books,” he says. “If you made business predictions based on what Professor Galloway’s predicting, you’d do very well—like Amazon buying Whole Foods. He spelled out the whole transaction. As someone who loves his work so much and respects him so much, I think there are so many caveats you need to build into [the Twitter subscription model].”
Firstly, there may be people with significant Twitter followings who haven’t sold companies for millions of dollars and don’t want to or can’t pay for a Twitter account, Berkowitz says. Although an increasingly toxic place, Twitter does produce a beautiful serendipity because it is free.
Berkowitz says he wouldn’t have direct access to people such as Charlotte Clymer, the transgender veteran with nearly 350,000 followers; Amanda Goetz, the divorced mother of three children with 28,900 followers; Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential candidate with nearly 3 million followers; or, for that matter, his husband, Chasten, a teacher with 500,000 followers and a new memoir.
“My network is disproportionately white and middle-aged and disproportionately New York,” Berkowitz says. But on Twitter, “there are all those voices out there. How do you [start charging] without sacrificing all that?”
Cost-to-Tweet
From a financial standpoint, Berkowitz says he couldn’t even justify $200 a month for Twitter.
On a monthly basis, he pays less than that for vital business services: Mailchimp to publish his newsletter, Calendly to schedule appointments, Zapier to automate tasks, Dropbox to store and share files, and Trello to manage team projects. In addition, he runs a virtual lounge for nearly 1,800 marketers on Slack, for free. He also pays for a premium membership on LinkedIn, which, unlike Twitter, shows users who have viewed their profile, while providing an ample set of professional tools.
“What are you going to do for me that is better than all of those services combined?” he says.
—
Garrett Public Relations
21 Influencers Share Stellar Advice for Digital Marketing in 2021
Featured influencer
What one piece of marketing advice would you offer to brands as we head into the new year? –Michelle Garrett
“Get your analytics infrastructure in order. So many companies are in terrible condition, analytics-wise, and if you’re a mess, then you can’t make data-driven decisions. You want to be data-driven. You want to make decisions rapidly under changing circumstances, which defined 2020 and will continue to define 2021.
The toughest part of any disaster is surviving it long-term. When that initial wave comes through, be it hurricane or pandemic, a lot of damage is done, and that damage takes much longer to clean up. The effects of this pandemic will probably last at least half a decade, longer in some parts of the world. You’ve got to have a finger on the pulse of your business and your industry – and that requires good data.” –David Berkowitz, Founder, Serial Marketers
TMI with Kevin Ryan
The Pathology of Ghosting with David Berkowitz
Featured podcast guest
David Berkowitz is my long time friend, colleague, founder of Serial Marketer, and an all-around good guy that will never ghost you. In fact, David feels as though it’s important to write back to everyone — even if it’s just a brief reply. This week he joins me for a conversation on why people ghost, what to do about it, and why you don’t want to be a victim of ghosting karma. We also talk about our definition of being an agent of change, and how that doesn’t always align with what the company is trying to get out of its interview candidates.
Hacking the Hustle
A Beginner’s Guide to Starting an Online Community with David Berkowitz (Anchor, YouTube)
Featured podcast guest
Forbes
Advice for Marketers: Be Like Apple in 2001
David Berkowitz, a self-described ”serial marketer,” advocates playing up the positive. “Focus overwhelmingly on positive attributes,” he said. “Yes, it’s inconvenient that a store may only offer curbside pickup, but it’s a relief that a store will be open at all.”
Prove It Matters
Newsletters Suck – Featuring David Berkowitz
I was a guest on Leo Morejon’s video podcast series.
Community Finder
Creating Community for Serial Marketers
A featured podcast interview about the community
Business of Fashion
Why are Luxury Brands Advertising on Twitter
Twitter also offers a “firehose” of data, including every public tweet along with corresponding information on user names, location and engagement, said David Berkowitz, chief executive of Serial Marketer, a consulting firm.
“Instagram has always been somewhat of a black box in terms of data and in some ways, it’s gotten more difficult [to measure engagement] as they’re experimenting with hidden like counts,” he said. “What’s really different about Twitter is that Twitter not only has this scale of hundreds of millions of users — that might not be Facebook or Instagram size, but is clearly significant for any kind of media property — whose data they use as a revenue stream.”
Actionable Marketing Guide
Spring Cleaning Your Digital Life: What You Need to Do Now
Select a cloud option. They include services like Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, Dropbox and Amazon. These options often have fees that vary based on different plans. For example, David Berkowitz of Serial Marketer likes Dropbox since it works across devices.
The New York Times
A Royal Instagram Mystery
“If you really want to be in a position of power and just mess with people’s social media presence, you spend a while intentionally inflating another’s presence, and being a kind of puppet master,” said David Berkowitz, a marketing consultant for technology companies. “Then, you just start taking this stuff away.”
Kambr Media
How Airlines’ Use of Social Media is Evolving after a Decade of Learning
“The use of social channels for airlines mirrors broader usage,” explains David Berkowitz, a consultant and industry expert at Serial Marketer. “Facebook has become much more important for advertising, but less so for spreading content. Twitter has leveled off, but monitoring conversations there is as important as ever. Instagram is a very powerful channel for spreading branded content and telling stories. Snapchat hasn’t been quite as critical for airlines, and TikTok is going to skew younger too. LinkedIn is one of the more interesting channels given how airlines can reach business travelers and corporate travel managers.”
“Airlines absolutely have to consider how well they handle customer relationship management and mitigate negative feedback,” Berkowitz says. “One measure that can also be extremely important is how well they shift conversations from public to private channels. Many airlines were among the first brands to adopt Twitter’s direct messaging tools, and those help minimize public complaints.”
But over the past several years, the industry has witnessed a bit of a shift.
“Airlines were initially social media punching bags when these tools first came out; complaining was a way to get attention when call centers took forever to resolve a problem,” Berkowitz continues. “Now that novelty is gone, and airlines’ satisfaction ratings have generally risen for the past decade. That means airlines have been able to do more to promote their brand and not just defend it from attack.”
Communications Match
Digital Marketing in 2020: Insights from Serial Marketer David Berkowitz
Featured interview
Berkowitz’s resume includes head of marketing and strategy roles at Storyhunter, Sysomos, and Publicis Groupe’s MRY. He’s often quoted in major media on marketing, and has contributed columns for Advertising Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, Mashable, as well as Adweek. He is a regular industry speaker, an advisor to Fortune 500 companies, and a former editor at eMarketer. In short – he knows what he’s talking about.
In our conversation, he gets to the essence of digital marketing challenges and opportunities. The simple takeaways offer an opportunity for marketers and communicators to look in the mirror and ask key questions as we enter a new decade.
Kambr Media
Why Allegiant Air Is in the ‘Family Fun Center’ Business
Allegiant is certainly not the first company to try an unexpected brand extension, and even in the realm of airlines, there are some antecedents, says David Berkowitz, head of Serial Marketer, a consultancy focused on branding, product marketing, and demand generation.
“One of the most striking examples that come to mind is Hooters Air, which had about a three-year run,” Berkowitz says. “Airlines are a much tougher businesses than ‘fun centers,’ so there’s less of a risk for Allegiant with its approach.”
The biggest challenge is focus. Starbucks’ ability to add CD and music download sales in its stores was an example of a brand extension that made sense, Berkowitz points to Starbucks, which made a bold move with its music offerings.
The ubiquitous coffee chain considered music a core part of the Starbucks experience, rather than some afterthought. So it devised a program to tie it all together, Berkowitz says.“There were undoubtedly tons of customers who came into a Starbucks location and wanted to hear more from the artists who were featured there,” Berkowitz says. “That’s far different from WeWork opening up a line of schools, WeGrow, that it just shuttered; children’s education has absolutely nothing to do with pay-per-desk-per-month workspaces.”
Amazon provides another template for successfully employing a lateral marketing play.
“Amazon veering from selling books to hardware to storage to original programming is all incredibly difficult, and yet somehow the pieces fit together,” Berkowitz says. “You could argue that every ‘Elon Musk company’ is really some conglomerate held together by Musk’s ingenuity and will; so each is some off-shoot of the Musk brand, even if Musk also seems to be the best one at tarnishing his own brand. However you frame these approaches, they’re exceptions that defy the rule. Most brands do far better with focus and limiting options.”
Conversation Agent
4 Questions with David Berkowitz, Serial Marketer
Featured interview
David Berkowitz is well known and respected within the marketing community. And with good reason. He’s been educating us on emerging technologies in Advertising Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, Mashable, Adweek and his blog since I can remember. He’s also held Chief Strategy and Chief Marketing roles in companies and is all around generous in making connections for others.
We met as bloggers in the early days – he starter Serial Marketer at about the same time I started Conversation Agent – and have been in touch since.
Our big adventure together was a few years ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After speaking at Digital Age 2.0, we thought it a good idea to get on the same cab back to the airport for our flights to Newark and New York. Timing was not on our side, and we got stuck in a horrific traffic jam that lasted forever, it seemed.
I don’t know how David managed, but I flung myself out of the car at my terminal and went through passport check while holding my belly… somehow they let me go through quickly, maybe they thought I was expecting. I’m happy to report we both made our respective flights – bursting on the scene or (maybe) not.
Last summer, I received an invitation from David to a community he was building on Slack – Serial Marketers. More than one year later, I thought it would be fun to learn how the idea came about, and what’s next for marketing.
Heidi Cohen
How to Improve Consistent Content Results
As a content marketer, adapt this monologue approach to your cyclical offerings to get your audience ready to consume your content.
While the openings of podcasts, videos and webinars are similar to Late Night TV monologues, the letter portion of your email newsletter plays a similar role.
Content marketing example:
David Berkowitz uses the monologue approach to introduce his Serial Marketer Newsletter. Further, his letter provides context for his audience.
MediaVillage
Hulu’s Jeremy Helfand on Pioneering Video-First Advertising
I ran this interview
Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
Constructing a 21st Century Brand
David Berkowitz, principal at Serial Marketer, points to the AnyWare page on dominos.com that shows the variety of ways a customer can order a pizza, including Google Home, Amazon Alexa, smart TV, and smart watches. “Domino’s wants to make it as easy as texting a pizza emoji and you’ll have that pie delivered to you,” he says.
Nudge
An Interview with Marketing Whizz, David Berkowitz
Featured Interview
David Berkowitz has extensive experience on both the brand and the sell side, having worked at organizations such as eMarketer, 360i, Sysomos and Story Hunter. Today, David’s consulting through his Serial Marketer practice, helping agencies, media companies, and tech startups on everything from marketing, business development, corporate strategy, to innovation.
David Berkowitz has written over 500 articles, spoken at more than 300 events, developed marketing strategies for Fortune 500 brands, and guest-lectured at universities like Yale, Rutgers, and MIT.
Heidi Cohen
Social Media Tools: What 50+ Best Marketers Use
David Berkowitz – Serial Marketer (@dberkowitz)
–TheMostDangerousWritingapp.com – the most effective writing tool when I need to write long-form content
–Bond.co – for when I want to write elegant, handwritten notes (and personal messages like this still count as social media
–Slack – it’s how I run my own marketing community
Heidi Cohen
Social Media Definitions
David Berkowitz – Serial Marketer (@dberkowitz)
Social Media is media for the people, of the people, and by the people.
MarTechSeries
Interview with Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer, 4C
Q: Which other CMOs and VPs in Marketing Technology have a profound impact on your marketing vision? How do you keenly follow among these?
A: Two of my favorites are Ryan Bonnici and David Berkowitz. I follow them keenly on Twitter.
GeoMarketing
How and Why the Job of the CMO is Changing Dramatically
CMO on the Go podcast guest
The demand for personalized services by “connected consumers” has led most marketing professionals to adopt a new outlook of advancing their goals with the tools on hand while taking on the role of “chief silo-buster.”
On this week’s episode, we speak with David Berkowitz, the head of Serial Marketer, a consultancy focused on branding, product marketing, demand generation, and more. Among other things, we’ll be exploring the idea of how the CMO role has become a “hybrid” job that combines elements of marketing and technology seamlessly. While those roles are often at odds in terms of approach and incentives, Berkowitz discusses why brands need a clearer cross-functional position that breaks down walls between marketing skill sets and job descriptions.
TechCrunch
How the Apple Watch Changed the World
“I got the first-gen Apple Watch,” said entrepreneur David Berkowitz. “I loved it, and then I stopped wearing it a bit. As I did, I lost the charger and never bothered replacing it. I haven’t worn it since and haven’t seriously considered getting a new one.”
“I’m just not that customer,” he said.
Talkwalker
Social Media Trends That Will Impact 2019
“I think that there’s so much more of a focus coming up in terms of just getting more out of your data. Trying to get a sense of what it’s really doing for you beyond just merely quantifying it.” – David Berkowitz, Serial Marketer.
(also on Medium)
Lucidity
Q&A with David Berkowitz – The Serial Marketer
Recently we had the pleasure of speaking with (the other) David Berkowitz, founder and CEO of Serial Marketer and longtime digital marketing guru. In his over 500 articles written for major publications like AdAge and VentureBeat, countless talks at marketing and technology events around the world, and senior positions held at agencies like 360i and MRY, David has nurtured a reputation as a outspoken thought leader with his expertise, wit, and candor.
We talk to him about blockchain, programmatic advertising, and whether or not postcards are a viable identity management strategy in 2018. David is a Lucidity advisor.
El Espanol
La Generación Alfa no usa las redes sociales y los padres están perdidos
Según el especialista de Advertising Age, David Berkowitz, esta generación estará ligada a la movilidad, no valorará especialmente la privacidad y tendrán el cambio como un elemento más en sus vidas.
Econsultancy
A Marketer’s Guide to Chatbots
Quoted several times in this report
Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide
How to Improve Content Amplification on the Cheap: Network
Don’t allow this information to only be stored on personal contacts or other apps. But, as networker par excellence David Berkowitz recommends,“Keep it simple and don’t assume that you’ll remember everything!”
Whatagraph
Top 2018 Influencers That Might Inspire Your Inner Marketer
David Berkowitz
David is a Marketing Lead author at Storyhunter and a blogger on Serial Marketer. His informative and ironic Twitter posts catch reader’s attention and get you addicted to waiting for his new bits of short articles.
No Bad Ideas Podcast
Emerging Tech & Digital Marketing: A Conversation with David Berkowitz
David Berkowitz joins us for an episode focused on emerging trends in the world of digital marketing. David the Head of Marketing at Storyhunter, the video production marketplace, where he runs all branding, product marketing, and demand generation. For more info from David, visit SerialMarketer.net.
Digiday
Snapchat’s New Shot at High-Tech Glasses Comes with a More Traditional Marketing Strategy
“The first round for Spectacles was mediocre for selling glasses, but very successful for showing how Snap can innovate as a marketer first and product manufacturer second. It let the product live to see another day, too. This time, they have to show off the product, not the marketing,” said David Berkowitz, marketing lead at Storyhunter.
Geomarketing
What SMBs Need to Know about WhatsApp for Business
Featured interview
As for what SMBs should be thinking about when considering signing up with yet another social media platform, we turned to David Berkowitz, head of marketing for Storyhunter, a Brooklyn, NY-based video network that offers opportunities for collaboration among Filmmakers, journalists, production companies, agencies, media companies, and brands.
Beancast
Episode 479: A Case of Juice
Podcast guest
Mashable
2017 Was the Year Video Went Vertical
“Part of Snapchat’s appeal is that they’re not like everybody else, but that’s constantly a challenge when it comes to advertisers. Advertisers will do little to work more,” David Berkowitz, formerly chief marketing officer at global advertising agency MRY, told me at that time.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog
MarketingProfs Preview: 6 Hand-Selected Sessions for the B2B Marketer
How To Mine Social Data For Actionable B2B Insights
Speakers: David Berkowitz (Chief Strategy Officer, Sysomos), Gloria Potichko(Marketing Director, Georgia Pacific)
In an endless sea of social data, marketers often have a tough time fishing out the ones that matter. Let these seasoned insight anglers be your guides on a quest for clarity. They’ll explain which social media metrics matter and how they can positively impact your marketing initiatives.
TopRank
50 B2B Marketing Influencers Speaking at mpb2B (MarketingProfs 2017)
I’m on the list
David Berkowitz @dberkowitz
Chief Strategy Officer
Sysomos
Bloomberg
Trump Slams ESPN in Latest Sign Companies Can’t Avoid Politics
The hashtag #boycottESPN drew more than 60,000 tweets, mostly from people who appeared to be more conservative based on their other social media activity, said David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer at marketing tech firm Sysomos. Many of the people tweeting and retweeting had American flags in their profile and slogans such as “all lives matter,” he found.
LiveIntent blog
The Future of Advertising Agencies
While the shift has opened new budgets to agencies – for things like digital transformation, IT, and product development – it’s also released the floodgates to competition. “Agencies need to compete with media and technology companies […] and consulting firms are taking on more advertising work and often acquire agencies,” David Berkowitz, CSO of Sysomos, explains. Some firms even compete with their own clients in a sense, as brands bring more work in-house.
The biggest shift for agencies is that they need to work harder to demonstrate the value they provide, expands Berkowitz. “That’s not always about performance marketing,” he says. “A lot of the value revolves around brand and corporate strategy, or preventing or mitigating crises.”
MediaPost
Funny, You Don’t Look Anti-Semitic: ProPublica Exposes Facebook ‘Jew Hater’ Targeting
Sometimes even the proactive approach produces unintended, awkward consequences, such as the ones encountered by former MediaPost Social Media InsiderDavid Berkowitz, who labeled the phenomenon “Jewdar” in several columns documenting how Facebook advertisers began targeting him explicitly because he was Jewish.
AP
The Downsides of Cable Cord Cutting
New Yorker David Berkowitz still pays for cable, streams from Netflix and Amazon, and sometimes buys individual movies from Amazon. His three-year-old daughter already watches “Finding Dory” and “Finding Nemo” on two separate services. The prospect of a new Disney-only service isn’t reassuring. “Having a third thing in the mix seems like a lot to juggle,” he said.
To find stuff to watch, Berkowitz’s family uses a Roku box attached to their TV, which suggests streaming channels the family may like and lets them search for the shows and movies he wants to watch. There are also websites to guide streamers, like justwatch.com.
Berkowitz said he’s curious about the Disney service, especially since he expects to save money by cutting cable. “For us, if it’s $5 a month, it’ll almost be like that impulse buy, go to a store and pick up a candy bar,” he says.
The Drum
Marketers Believe AI Will Not Impact Creative Roles, New Research Finds
Commenting on the survey findings, David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer at Sysomos says: “As AI technology improves year on year, it’s only a matter of time before it starts to make a significant impact on the marketing industry. It’s certainly an area that’s important for us and this research shows that marketing professionals are clear that a change is coming, even if they’re not yet certain of how they should prepare for AI.”
MediaPost
Sysomos Offers Access to Hundreds of Millions of Previously Unseen Conversations: Remember, You Reddit Here First
“For marketers, it is an opportunity to understand what’s being said about their brands and how topics are trending in a place where people are incredibly candid, because people don’t have to use their real names and can really speak their mind,” explains David Berkowitz, a long-time social media expert who is chief strategy officer at Sysomos.
Largely because of its anonymity, as well as a strong “code of conduct” enforced by its community, Berkowitz says Reddit may provide a more honest and holistic view of what people really think about news, trending topics, and memes — including those that influence brands.
“There are rules against self-promotion on Reddit, so marketers may have a harder time getting their message out there. They can’t just jump into a conversation like they can on Twitter. In some ways, Reddit is more like Wikipedia and if you try to promote a brand, you will get your hand slapped by the community,” Berkowitz explains, adding: “It’s a place where brands need to proceed with caution.”
While marketing explicitly on Reddit may be dicey, Berkowitz says listening to what people are saying on Reddit may be crucial for brands to understand what consumer sentiment truly is about their brands, or issues and topics that might influence their brands.
Berkowitz says Sysomos has long coveted access to Reddit’s conversation data, and he believes it may be one of the last big social media frontiers of its kind.
He says marketers are keenly interested in digging deeper into communities on Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn too, and that the only other major, Snapchat, is loath to provide actual user conversation data.
Beyond that, he says most of the real social media interaction is in peer-to-peer applications that are unlikely to ever be made public, so Reddit represents a font of new data to understand what people are really saying about brands.
“There’s probably always going to be some push and pull between private and public conversations, but by share volume, public conversations keep increasing, so there’s still more and more to monitor,” Berkowitz explains, adding: “More importantly, there’s more that marketers need to do to understand it better.”
Visual Storytelling Institute
Why Visual Storytelling is on the Rise and How to Harness It with the Power of Visual Storytelling
David Berkowitz from MRY shared a great chart on how marketers can start shifting their mindset from storytelling to storymaking.
VentureBeat
David Berkowitz, Future Social, and the Week AI Took Over
Featured podcast interview
This week, Travis and Stewart talk about artificial intelligence. A lot. In fact, it appears marketing is being taken over by AI, machine learning, and cognitive computing this week, as every piece of important news includes an AI element.
After we hit the news, we get to interview the one and only David Berkowitz about the future of social media. And yes, you can expect AI to feature heavily in that, too.
GeoMarketing
How Amazon’s $13.7 Billion Whole Foods Acquisition Will Alter the Grocery Space — And Each Other
“The biggest challenge for Amazon now is that they offer so much choice,” says David Berkowitz, Chief Strategy Officer at marketing tech firm Sysomos. “For instance, there’s regular shipping, Prime, Prime Now, Prime Pantry, and Amazon Fresh. The same box of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies costs $21 via regular shipping and $15.59 via Prime Pantry; these kinds of price differences are common. As Amazon grows more complex, it will need to find ways to become more streamlined, straightforward, and simple.”
In a conversation with GeoMarketing, Berkowitz related a discussion about Amazon with his parents last weekend. He tried explaining the differences among Prime Pantry, Fresh, and regular Prime. By the time he was done, “I had confused myself and essentially convinced them to stick with going to Costco.” (As a bonus, at Costco, you get the $#1.50 massive hot dogs, he notes.)
“That there are now so many ways to order these products — website, mobile site/app, Amazon Smile (web/mobile), Dash, various Alexa-powered devices — adds to the convenience for customers — but only makes it more confusing,” Berkowitz says.
To realize the potential advantages of owning Whole Foods, Amazon needs to make buying groceries as easy as buying books,” says Berkowitz.
“I get that there are options with Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, and Audible, so Amazon shows me pricing options, and delivery options too,” Berkowitz says. “Digital options arrive immediately, while physical options have their own delivery times and costs. Amazon now has to do for Famous Amos cookies what it does for John Grisham novels.”
Raconteur
Listening to Social Media Prompts
What’s more, David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer at marketing technology company Sysomos, points out that people can choose to display different versions of themselves on social channels too. “Instagram lends itself well to this ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ phenomenon whereby individuals have both a public and a private profile. In each, they are being a version.
#Ad Age
SXSW Survival Guide
“Unless your room is very central downtown and you can drop off bags or swag while you’re in transit, don’t carry around your laptop, and try to avoid souvenirs from events unless it’s your last event of the night. Find an umbrella that’s compact enough that you can fit in your pocket or purse. Pack at least one spare phone battery that you keep on you at all times. Don’t even bother with anything under 10,000mAh. What, do you only use your phone to play ‘Snake’? No, you need at least 20,000mAh if you want to do this right. Consider the Anker PowerCore 20100, my personal favorite.” — David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer, Sysomos
“If it’s raining, cabs can literally take hours. Consider walking or canceling your plans until the rain lets up. I stayed in an Airbnb one year and waited three hours for a cab. I should have just walked the mile and a half in the rain and stuck to my schedule.” — Mr. Berkowitz, who’s attending his ninth consecutive SXSW
“Badge lines can be painfully long. Chat-and-cut is a totally fair move. Haters will hate, but it is better to be hated than to wait for hours in line.” — Mr. Berkowitz
W2O Group Blog
Coverage of my talk at the Pre-Commerce Summit
David Berkowitz: Chief Strategy Officer – Sysomos; Follow David on Twitter @dberkowitz
Key Takeaways:
W2O Blog
Highlights from W2O Group’s 2o17 Movers & Shapers
Coverage of my fireside chat
David: I find the term data-driven culture terrifying. We are steeped in data. That’s why I don’t like using the term. We need more people who can ask the right questions. It’s more about a question-driven culture. That’s what lead companies to more insights.
Per David: One of the only things that’s consistent in both the agency and the brand side—I want to work with the smartest customers possible. That pushes us on the partner side to ask the toughest questions.
Direct Marketing News
Falcons, Patriots: Not All Social Audiences are the Same
“First and foremost, this research underscores that not all fans (i.e. potential customers) are created equal, and it’s important to understand when to diversify your message,” says David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer at Sysomos. “As a national or big-brand marketer, you might want to consider diversifying your spend, allocation of resources and diversifying your message to both groups.”
“At a macro level, it demonstrates that it is important to understand what certain demographics are saying in one location versus another, and it’s important that your geo-fencing strategy should be sensitive to the groups you’re trying to target,” said Berkowitz.
If the days of blanketing social media campaigns across networks is gone, so should the concept of blanketing campaigns to different consumers.
“The subtleties of your target audience across platforms may be different and require adjusting strategy and resource allocation,” said Berkowitz. “As more and more niche functions and capabilities become available within social marketing technology, digital marketers and brands should try to employ a platform strategy that doesn’t just analyze data in silos.”
CIO.com
Government Workers Confront Trump on His Own Turf — Twitter
David Berkowitz, chief strategy officer at marketing tech company Sysomos, says it’s important to note that these accounts have not been verified because that’s part of the allure, but that lack of authenticity could also be used as a sort of bait and switch. “One could create an account purporting to be a rogue government worker, post a lot of content that seems to undermine the government, and then make up some outlandish, fictitious stories that in turn undermine that rogue account,” he says.
“This is the greater problem: It undermines the government, but it further shatters trust in everyone and everything. And it’s hard to escape that one’s view of it is highly partisan,” Berkowitz says. “Someone who favors this happening under Trump’s administration would most likely have been aghast if it happened under Obama’s. Facts themselves are now partisan.”
The power of Twitter, and social media more broadly, is to give people a voice and distribution network to connect with a global audience free from any intermediary, according to Berkowitz. “The resistance could hardly have coalesced so well without social media,” he says. “Many of these rogue accounts seem legitimate, and at least some probably are. In another era, these would have been people weighing whether to be ‘Deep Throat’ and contact a media outlet. Today, they are the media outlets.”
MediaPost
Best Buy Has a Lot to Retweet About
“They are very active in engaging with their audience; it’s something that they pay attention to far and away more than a lot of other brands,” says Sysomos chief strategy officer David Berkowitz. “They also have had a lot of experience in the gift cards, so that they have some track record for knowing what works,” he adds, “and they’re heavily motivated during the holiday season to really optimize that.”
“I do think that having paid [media] is something that not every brand has focused on and that will probably continue to be a bigger and bigger opportunity with each holiday season, especially as paid media becomes such a driving force of social activity in general,” Berkowitz says.
The Beancast
Episode 430: The Screen That’s in Front of You
Featured guest on this podcast episode
Marketing Land
What I’ve Learned from Growing and Unfollowing over 250,000+ Followers on Twitter
That week in San Francisco, I met tech luminaries such as Tim O’Reilly, Jeff Clavier, David Berkowitz, Jay Adelson, Kevin Rose, Randi Zuckerberg and one of the founders of Twitter, Biz Stone.
Wired
How Photos Fuel the Spread of Fake News
Such stories rely on images to sell bogus narratives. The people publishing and promoting fake news routinely take photos out of context, digitally alter them, or combine them with text to manipulate readers, knowing that people tend to accept photographs as truthful representations. “The images need to look legitimate enough to support the ‘realistic’ nature of the article,” says David Berkowitz of the social media company Sysomos. “If it’s too far-fetched, it won’t spread beyond the fringe, and the goal when someone is pushing fake news is to make it go mainstream.”
iTechPost
Apple Needs to Hire Teenagers to Develop Its Social Media Strategy
“Brands should actually be more selective right now given that major social media channels typically require paid media budgets to amplify messages to a wide audience,” says David Berkowitz, CMO at creative and technology agency MRY. However, Berkowitz also says it’s hardly a best practice for Apple to ignore, even neglect, its loyal user base.
Niswey
David Berkowitz on Marketing to the Marketers
David Berkowitz took to the stage at Inbound 2016 to share his experiences of being a marketer’s marketer.
VentureBeat
100 People to Watch in the Chatbot Space
It’s an honor to be included among the dozens of brilliant bot practitioners here.
CIO.com
Were Apple’s Leaked iPhone 7 Tweets Really a Mistake?
However, Apple’s disappearing iPhone 7 tweets could also be the result of the company’s relative inexperience with social media, according to David Berkowitz, principal of marketing consultancy Serial Marketer. “[Apple] joined the party exceptionally late, and then they didn’t care enough to give it the respect it deserves,” he says. “Most of that will be forgotten, but compounded with a product launch that some people find tone-deaf given its usability issues, it makes the company seem especially out of touch.”
Mistakes from Apple are rare, according to Berkowitz. “[Apple] sometimes makes controversial decisions, like removing headphone jacks and launching earphones that need constant charging, but mistakes are unusual,” he says. Berkowitz believes the Twitter incident will push the company to take social media more seriously and perhaps revise its access policies and approval process.
“If your biggest announcement of the year is going out, add an extra layer of scrutiny and approval,” Berkowitz says. “Practically every single notable social media screw-up I’ve seen from a major brand could have been prevented if another set of well-trained eyes checked out the content before it went live.”
The Beancast
Penguins Puking Rainbows
Podcast guest on this oddly named edition
MemoryTree
8 Virtual Reality and Marketing Experts Weigh In on Can Prepare for VR Mass Adoption
My contribution: The one thing businesses can do to prepare for the mass adoption of virtual reality is to consider the kind of value VR can deliver consumers, and hone in on that with your execution. Maybe it’s about providing a new way to showcase your products with a 360-degree perspective. Maybe it’s about telling a story in a way that requires people to explore their surroundings, with your brand either presenting the experience or playing a meaningful role in the story. A lot of VR experiences today don’t have a great payoff to make use of the medium, and that’s a learning process, so start dabbling early. And perhaps the most important thing anyone working on such concepts can do is to try out as many VR experiences as possible. You’ll quickly form opinions on what works and what doesn’t.
SF Chronicle
Pokemon Go Takes over SF — and the World
David Berkowitz, founder of New York digital marketing firm Serial Marketer, said his nephew has loved Pokémon since he was a child.
“This might be the very first global cultural experience that he has a nostalgia for,” said Berkowitz. “It’s like the dorkiest of things you can do, and now you see these twentyssomethings running around checking their phones playing Pokémon.”
SF Chronicle
SF Company Niantic Behind Pokemon Go Sensation
There’s potential beyond just traditional mobile-game revenue, though. Marketing analyst David Berkowitz said business owners could take advantage of the game’s popularity by offering their establishments as stations that are part of the gameplay.
“Right now, it’s just a game,” said Berkowitz, founder of consulting firm Serial Marketer. “But for local businesses, it’s pretty interesting.”
CMO.com
Marketers Search for Paid, Earned, Owned Balance
“One of the big reasons for the confusion with PEO is you often have one component in ascendance and another decreasing,” said David Berkowitz, who was most recently CMO of MRY, part of Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). “Right now ‘PEO’ is more like uppercase ‘P,’ lowercase ‘e,’ and lowercase ‘o.” [PEO is] increasingly driven by the media model, whereas when PEO started it was driven by the creative. Earned and owned media are still important, but right now paid is in the driver’s seat.”
Marketers should keep their eyes peeled on Facebook’s other digital properties to gauge how long it takes for the social media giant to shift to a paid-media model altogether, Berkowitz told CMO.com.
“You can almost use Facebook as a ‘PEO Index,’” he added. “Facebook News Feed skews almost entirely toward paid, with some earned and little owned. Instagram is moving in that direction. WhatsApp is still open-ended as it has the least brand integration. Facebook Messenger now is all about owned and earned with no paid media, and Oculus is all owned as well, with little earned and no paid.”
International Business Times
Congratulations! LinkedIn Influencers Welcome Microsoft to Their Professional Network
“I’m hoping, as a publisher by and large, that it’s one of those rising tide [things] where they can improve the user experience across everything they do,” said David Berkowitz, who runs his own consultancy, called Serial Marketer. “I love LinkedIn, but it’s so inconsistent. Mobile and web are two totally different experiences.”
Mobile Marketing Magazine
Olympic Ambitions
“The International Olympic Committee probably ranks Periscope somewhere between an ISIS attack and double toilet installations on its list of major threats to the Rio Games,” says David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of creative and technology agency MRY, referring to photos that emerged of cubicles featuring two toilets, with no partition, at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. “If too much good footage is available via unauthorised video streaming, that eats into broadcasters’ ad revenue.”
iMedia Connection
Why Middle Management is Stuck Picking up the Slack
Featured video
It’s not easy working at an agency. Ask anyone. Long hours, tight deadlines, and a constantly evolving landscape. As agencies are trying to keep up with the flurry of innovations and developments in the industry, many employees in certain sectors have to ask themselves some hard questions. David Berkowitz, former CMO of MRY, speaks to iMedia about who these employees are and how their roles are changing.
MediaPost
OMMA Programmatic Panelists Offer Insight on How They Vet Vendors
The panelists said it’s impossible to look at every email they receive in which vendors seek meetings. David Berkowitz, principal of Serial Marketer, his own consultancy and former CMO at MRY, said he’s spent a decade trying to create best practices around the issue. He keeps an “Idiots Tab” in Gmail for bad vendor pitches. Some pitches are a “total waste of time,” Berkowitz said. Vendors need to know that “no” means “no.” Emails that are too long won’t be read. And those addressed to the right person at the beginning but conclude with a different name, will be pitched…
Berkowitz said he asks himself, “How likely am I to learn something during the meeting? That’s the question. It doesn’t matter whether the company is large or small. If they help me see something in a different way, it’s a meeting I’ll take.”
Beancast
Episode 400: Tell That to the Washington Redskins
Podcast panelist
iMedia Connection
Why the Modern Competitive Matrix is Worthless
Featured video
David Berkowitz, former chief marketing officer at MRY speaks to iMedia about why agencies are realistically in the dark these days about who their competition is and how they should prepare. Discover the main pillars of fragmentation that have led to a shattered perception of who you compete against in the market.
iMedia Connection
How Do You Define the Modern Agency
Another part of getting business is having the talent on your side. How do you foster — and then keep — this talent? David Berkowitz, formerly of MRY, said that he put a huge focus in his role on acquisition and retention. He worked to get everyone involved in the creative areas they were interested. Of course, this is a double-edged sword, as it makes your employees “more poachable,” he added. “It’s always dangerous, but I was at an agency where we wanted to help people build up their own brands and get new opportunities. This is a great way to bring in talented people. It makes us vulnerable, but it’s worth it.”
Berkowitz added, “What I realized over time [is that] the CMO matters more internally than externally. People want a sense of direction. What’s our north star? Why are we showing up every day?” This is something you need to work to provide.
Beancast
Episode 394: Dropping the Mic
Podcast panelist
CIO
Why Snapchat is the Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing
Snapchat is reinventing social media and, as a result, it’s also redefining how marketing can be used in more nebulous forums, according to David Berkowitz, CMO at creative and technology agency MRY. In less than five years, Snapchat created a platform that is “absolutely loved” by a massive core user base of predominantly teens and 20somethings, he says. That means Snapchat is “fully mainstream” today, but some marketers are still hesitant to embrace the service. “[Snapchat] is a leader in private social media, which was a hard concept for marketers to grasp initially, as the default for socially sharing content used to be public.”
Campaign
The Power of Live Video
While many brands are experimenting with live video, occasions for live broadcasts are scarce and pulling them off can be a challenge. “Live video is so hard,” David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, which works with Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Visa, among other brands. “It’s a fun idea, but I’m not really sure you need that technology.”
ReplyAll
Digital Storytelling: How Brands Can Play a Leading Role
Featured interview
Storytelling keeps getting more interesting thanks to the new ways people interact with media, and the expanded tools for producing all kinds of stories, be they short or long, or text-only or using immersive 360-degree video. A major opportunity is what I like to call storymaking, where instead of just telling stories, brands build on the stories that their customers have with their products.
Washington Post
The Creepy, Inescapable Advertisements That Could Define Virtual Reality
David Berkowitz, the chief marketing officer at MRY, an ad agency whose clients have included Sony and Pizza Hut, said virtual-reality campaigns are “coming up in every client discussion,” and with ideas that are “all over the map.” But “most of the time (the idea) doesn’t even make sense just yet,” Berkowitz said. “It’s as if advertisers are trying to make this vision of the future a reality before everyone’s even ready for it.”
No one really knows whether VR viewers will, say, be more likely to buy a Volvo SUV after taking one for a “test drive” into the virtual sunset. The socially isolating influence of locking one’s eyes and ears into a computer-generated world — what Berkowitz has called a “virtual prison” — will also demand changes from an industry geared toward viral ad-making and commercials designed for the whole living room.
After visiting the Mobile World Congress — where Zuckerberg’s walk past a crowd strapped into VR headsets drew comparisons to a “Matrix”-style dystopia — Berkowitz said he found himself craving something he couldn’t get from a cookie-filled imaginary world.
SMG Rocks Blog (Germany)
Messenger is the Starting Point for Your Digital Experience
Featured Interview
Digiday
For the Love of the Selfie: Snapchat Comes to Major League Baseball
“Snapchat is making itself more appealing to brands in terms of data, targeting, and partnerships. It is positioning itself to be a media company that matters over the long haul,” said David Berkowitz, the CMO of MRY.
Associated Press
Offbeat Humor and Upbeat Messages Dominate Super Bowl Ads
“There’s relatively little going over the top,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at advertising agency MRY.
Partnered
ParentTech & Marketing to a New Set of Milllennials
There’s nothing marketers like more than a good new descriptor for an upcoming generation. MRY’s David Berkowitz got waay out ahead of that with a recent AdAge piece on “the Alpha Generation.” Based on “thousands of hours observing one member” Berkowitz describes how the 0 to 2 year old alphers are reinventing wearables, preferring to wear milk and cheerios all over their bodies rather than expensive fitness trackers; how they hate the sharing economy, preferring instead to declare items as “mine,” and finally how they are simply constantly changing, reinventing themselves it seems monthly.
In an email to Partnered, MRY’s Berkowitz wrote: “A big challenge with parenting today is how reliant both parents and children are on screens. That’s what makes devices like Amazon Echo so appealing; you can talk to them without getting sucked into any screen at all. I’m excited for how more devices can use voice controls rather than screens, keeping the technology in the background.”
Campaign Live
Mobile World Congress 2016: Video, 5G, VR … And oh, yeah, ad blocking
David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, saw the same phenomenon. “In the agency world, everything we’re doing has video at the center,” he said. “That wasn’t the case when I joined in 2013, but last year the distribution got so much better.”
Berkowitz said that Amazon’s other IoT product, Echo, was also drawing a lot of interest. Introduced last year, Echo is a small cylinder speaker that accepts voice commands a la Apple’s Siri. Though it’s unclear how marketers might harness such technology, Berkowitz said that “there have been some interesting discussions about devices like the Amazon Echo. People are trying to figure out what mobile’s like when screens aren’t part of it.”
International Business Times
How Snapchat Bet on a CES Takeover from Silicon Alley Giants
However, despite releasing a new product called “conversational ads” this week, Twitter did not generate that much positive attention from marketers. “Twitter has a fun-looking stunt with Twitter City, but I think they missed the boat not focusing on Periscope there. … I hope they are better prepared for SXSW,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY, referring to the tech and #music-themed festival in Austin, Texas, in March.
Forbes
CES 2016: Video Streaming — It’s Going to be Big
Allison Stern, Co-Founder, VP, Business Development & Marketing, Tubular Labs was the Panel’s moderator. Panelists included Ronald C. Pruett Jr., Chief Advisor, Al Roker Entertainment, David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY, Chrissie Hanson, Head of Strategy, West Coast, Mindshare,Eunice Shin, Director, Manatt Digital Media, Aaron DeBevoise, CEO, Network of One / RoundUp Media and of course – Steven Rosenbaum, CEO, Waywire Networks, me.
Digiday
Twitter’s New Pitch to Brands: Turn Everyday Fan Tweets into Ads
“Oftentimes the least sexy pieces can be the most important,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY. “Twitter getting the rights management piece down is a huge help, because for anything in social, lawyers play such a big role.”
Equities.com
MRY’s David Berkowitz Shares His Top Takeaways from CES 2016
Featured interview
Berkowitz: Parrot’s new drone, the Disco, can fly 50MPH for 45-minutes, so that’s a fun bit of one-upsmanship in the drone arms race. Automotive companies were really interesting this year, even with lofty expectations. GM announced its $500 million investment in Lyft to further self-driving cars. Ford is having cars integrate with Amazon Echo, along with Chinese drone manufacturer DJI. Nvidia is powering autonomous vehicle tech in Volvo and others. And in a big twist, Toyota is building it’s next generation of car software using Ford’s open source SmartDeviceLink.
Warc
Cutting Through the CES Clutter
According to David Berkowitz, CMO at creative marketing agency MRY, brands, agencies, publishers and marketing-tech providers are looking to new touchpoints such as VR, and at new developments in mobile. “The timeframe between ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’ keeps shrinking, though,” he told Warc.
Transport was a major theme as self-driving cars were displayed and carmakers announced various partnerships – Berkowitz said that CES had felt “like a massive car show” – while drones were again to the fore.
ClickZ
Personal Branding Lessons from Four C-Level Executives
If you have been in digital marketing for a while in the U.S., you’ll know who David Berkowitz is. Both an avid writer and speaker, you can find him at almost every industry conference, big or small.
Content marketing has definitely helped Berkowitz build his own personal brand through both published articles and social media channels. He started out as a writer and is now the CMO for agency MRY.
Berkowitz keeps his Twitter following by tweeting at least one post a day. Most tweets relate to digital marketing news and his own published posts.
The lesson? Write as much as you can so you have lots to share. And if you don’t have lots to share, well just share anyway.
Chute
Key 2016 Marketing Predictions from MRY CMO David Berkowitz
During our most recent webinar, MRY CMO David Berkowitz shared the hottest topics and trends that marketers need to be aware of (and wary of) for 2016. From virtual reality to ad blocking, watch the discussion above to get the debrief on what will matter most and how the trends will affect the full marketing landscape.
The Drum
Make the Client Uncomfortable – Advice from Marketing Experts on Creating the Best Branded Content
Don’t make branded content for the sake of having branded content
While branded content is one of the buzzwords of advertising these days, MRY’s chief marketing officer David Berkowitz said it’s important for marketers to keep in mind that there must be a clear reason for creating it in the first place – it has to help a company meet its goals in some way.
“It should be doing something for them and that should be clear from the outset,” said Berkowitz. “That sometimes gets lost.”
International Business Times
Imgur Ramps Up Advertising with Promoted Posts As Brands Hope to Mine Internet for Millennials, Men, and Memes
Those ads, among the just over 60 campaigns on Imgur, have been followed by Old Spice, PlayStation, MTV and Funyuns. Heading into 2016, Imgur and its partners are ramping up efforts with online advertising in part by focusing on sponsored content. “For marketers wondering what the next Pinterest or Snapchat is that’s worth paying attention to in 2016, Imgur’s one of the safer bets,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at MRY, a global advertising agency.
As a forum of user-generated content where, unlike Facebook and Twitter, users do not use their real names and instead opt for screen names, and where swearing is frequent, Imgur can be a difficult land to navigate. “For brands that can handle a little bit of free expression, though, this will be a great site to consider in the coming year if they’re not there already,” Berkowitz said.
Digiday
Organic Reach Zero: How a Twitter Timeline Shift Would Affect Brands
A little curation could wind up helping some brands, although there will be a “rich get richer effect,” said David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY.
“Marketers that already generate strong views and engagement should see their posts rise to the top in curated streams, while marketers whose posts flop will have fewer opportunities to get noticed and will have to pay even more for reach and engagement,” he said.
Tuesdays with Toni
Episode 14: The Twitter Chronicles
Guest on this podcast hosted by Toni Dawkins
Digiday
Agencies Try to Corral the Tyranny of PowerPoint
Self-proclaimed “slideware junkie” David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, said it’s such a way of life for him that he creates slideshows, hosted on SlideShare, even for things he won’t be presenting. (“The top 25 quotes from the 2015 Cannes Lions” is one.)
But his issue isn’t with all PowerPoint: just “terrible” ones. “I believe that is a scourge that must be done away with,” he said. “Namely, with those presentations designed to be delivered in person as opposed to read via email.” He gets pretty bad pitches sometimes, he says, and the worst ones are stored in his “internal presentation tracking spreadsheet.”
One way to cut that bad habit down is to limit meetings at the agency. “Meetings are the chief source of the PowerPoint tyranny, so by cutting back on meetings, you cut back on slides,” he said.
Nobody seems quite sure how the tyranny of PowerPoint materialized. Berkowitz calls it a “chicken or egg” thing. “Did people who were huge fans of PowerPoint all start joining agencies and infecting them with decks, or did agencies start imposing decks on everyone and create an army of millions of people obsessed with PowerPoint?” Berkowitz himself made a deck long before he even got his first agency job, so it might not be just agencies.
Adweek
Why Snapchat is Becoming the Hottest Social Tool for Agencies
Unlike more established platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat’s disappearing posts provide a playful environment for reflecting an agency’s culture—just the kind of content that works best for recruiting efforts, according to experts. “On Snapchat, the risks are a lot lower. It’s a place where we can experiment and have some fun,” explained David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY. “It’s not as high profile as Facebook or Twitter where people scrutinize every word and you have to represent the brand.”
MRY last week posted a clip on Snapchat of its community team blowing off steam with a game of wastebasket basketball. The agency said it will have staffers post similar videos a few times a week.
MediaPost
Like Lemmings off a Cliff, Agencies Glom on to Snapchat
Then there’s MRY CMO David Berkowitz touting the semi-risk-free aspect of Snapchat saying, “On Snapchat, the risks are a lot lower. It’s a place where we can experiment and have some fun. It’s not as high profile as Facebook or Twitter where people scrutinize every word and you have to represent the brand.”
The Real Deal
Spreading Out: How Do Brokerage Magazines Stack Up?
“It’s tough to maintain relationships when a transaction completes and the buyer may be five or 10 years away from needing such services again,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at New York City-based agency MRY. But a steady stream of content, he said, can “keep the brokerage top of mind.”
The Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today
CMO Today: Advertisers Turned Off by Snapchat’s Ad Offering / Tumblr for You
While some social ad buyers say that Tumblr still has an important place for the right brand, others say that the blogging platform isn’t just less relevant–it’s sometimes forgotten. “Tumblr is one of those things I still need to force myself to remember to include when asking about all the other platforms,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at the ad agency MRY. Ouch. Just add that to the long list of headaches facing embattled Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.
Digiday
Tumblr is Wooing Agencies with Tacos and GIFs, but Is It Enough?
“Tumblr doesn’t have that cool factor right now,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY. He said sites like Imgur and apps like Snapchat are dominating the conversation among 20-year-olds. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are out there every day with a new product innovation with ad implications, and Tumblr just doesn’t come up.
“Tumblr is one of those things I still need to force myself to remember to include when asking about all the other platforms,” Berkowitz said.
Digiday
How Snapchat’s Wooing Ad Agencies
“It’s hard for Snapchat to have higher consideration in an office full of twentysomethings,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY. “They’re all obsessed with it.”
Binghamton University’s Alumni Connect
Accomplished Panel Discusses Big Data’s Opportunities and Challenges
David Berkowitz ’00 is chief marketing officer for MRY, a firm that works with Fortune 500 brands including Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Visa. He says, with applications in the medical field and manufacturing, the value of big data goes far beyond its ability to help advertisers work harder and smarter.
“You see use cases of something like IBM’s Watson, which mines vast swaths of data to pinpoint diagnoses and help professionals do their jobs better,” he says. “In a split second, computers gather and analyze unthinkable amounts of information and come up with insights based on that. These are examples of big data creating a better world, not just better marketing.”
MarketingSherpa
How Marketers Can Engage Different Demographics on Mobile Devices
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content for MarketingSherpa, interviewed David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer, MRY, at the MarketingSherpa Media Center at DMA &THEN 2015, about engaging different demographics on mobile devices.
Wharton Future of Advertising Program
Getting Mobile Video Right
Catharine’s next guest, David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, shared Reichgut’s excitement for video marketing. MRY, a creative agency held by Publicis Groupe, “works with great brands like Visa, J&J, Coke, where we’re their digital or social agency lead,” he explains. For Berkowitz, video marketing has huge potential, but until recently has had a significant drawback. “Loading time was something that killed videos prospect for a while,” he says. “Marketers are lucky if anyone views more than a couple of seconds of their video, so it better load quickly. Now, that is possible.”
The difference video advertising can make, particularly when curated for a specific platform, was evidenced by Facebook’s recent addition of videos. “Everyone had expected Facebook to get into video for quite a long time, but it was hard for anyone to imagine how well that would work and how quickly that would happen,” says Berkowitz. He explains how Facebook set up its own, very specific, video operating standards. “On Facebook, the video automatically plays in your stream,” says Berkowitz. “And that is really key to marketers. You see some of your friends baby photos, some BuzzFeed stories, and then a video that’s targeted to you will play. You might not watch the whole thing, but as you scroll—whether it is Jeb Bush or a cute panda—you stop for a second.”
Facebook’s video standards also feature an interesting technological throw-back. “As far as Facebook goes, sound is off by default,” explains Berkowitz. “We’ve gone back to the silent film era.” This standard seems to uphold the assertion that respect is key: as Berkowitz and Catharine agreed, there’s nothing more annoying than an ad blasting sound you can’t figure out how to mute.
Video marketing, and marketing more generally, is changing the make-up of creative agencies. “On the video front there’s always a push and pull,” explains Berkowitz. “There’s so much hunger for more video content out there, but how much of these resources you should have in-house is a really tough question. It is easier than ever to be a freelancer, so retaining talent is not necessarily about keeping someone in-house, its about keeping someone for one job.” This diversification is, interestingly, mirrored in how content is promoted: the role of influencers increases daily. “An influencer is really anyone with an audience,” says Berkowitz. “More likely than not it’s a person with a really sizeable audience on a certain platform, like YouTube or Vine.” Getting a marketing message embedded in an influencers’ content—say on their Vine feed, or through their Snapchat account—is an amazingly powerful way of reaching their followers.
But for Berkowitz, video marketing still has some exciting catching up to do. “We need to focus on adapting video advertising to what works with how people engage,” he says. “What comes across in those first few seconds is what counts. So, does it work with sound or without? Should you shoot vertically or horizontally? Video offers a great potential to reach people in the way they want to be reached, and we need to make sure we are doing just that.”
CommPro
Top Marketing Leads on Distribution-Thinking, Micro-Moments, Mobile and Consumer Trust
David Berkowitz, MRY Agency’s Chief Marketing Officer maintains merely telling a story is dated. I think big things are coming in the next three or four years, when companies will stop putting so much emphasis on traditional media buys and spending money on events and experiential marketing. People have these sudden realizations and they want to go and find out information. If you don’t cater to these micro-moments, then basically you are losing out on that timing.
MediaPost
Does Twitter Need Dorsey? Five Things That Have Changed Since Jack’s Been Back
“It’s hard to tell what the previous leader gets the credit for. From the advertiser’s point of view, one of the most significant announcements Twitter has ever made is setting the standard for video views at three seconds. That’s a very generous standard for advertisers,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of global digital marketing agency MRY.
“A lot of it is getting their house in order,” Berkowitz said. “Some things that people have been clamoring more and frustrated when it’s not there.”
Digiday
Call Me, Maybe: Facebook Embraces Old-School Media Buying
“It’s great they’re making orders more accessible. If it’s more convenient for some to place an order, great,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY. “This is the problem with digital-native folks like me – it’s so foreign to how we’re used to things getting done.”
DM News
8 Content Marketing Don’ts
Part of having an effective distribution strategy is realizing that content’s life expectancy differs depending on the channel. Twitter, for example, typically hosts in-the-moment content said creative agency MRY CMO David Berkowitz, while Tumblr’s content can live on for a long time and not spike until way after it’s posted.
“Get to the heart of it,” Berkowitz said. “What do you want this content to do for you?”
CIO
Is Simplicity the Key to Social Media Success?
It’s difficult to clearly state the benefits of simplicity versus a breadth of features in social networks, because some of the most simple apps are slowly becoming more complex. “Snapchat is a great example,” says David Berkowitz, CMO of creative and technology agency MRY.
Instagram evolved much more quickly, according to Berkowitz. “It’s still about sharing photos, though looking at threads of comments to posts from popular photographers there, it often feels more like a rambling message board than a photography app,” he says.
Instagram added video a little more than two years ago, and its private messaging feature came soon after, in an effort to compete with Snapchat and other popular messaging apps. Apps such as WeChat, Kik, Line, Facebook Messenger and others, which started out as simple text, photo and video sharing services, eventually added a wide range of features, including gaming, ecommerce, event planning, news and more, according to Berkowitz.
Very few apps get more streamlined over time, he says. “Instead, it seems that every time an app posts an update in the App Store or Google Play, it’s adding some new feature.”
Inbound blog
Revenge of the Storymakers: David Berkowitz
Is storytelling the future of marketing? Let’s hope not. Merely telling a story is a dated, broadcast-era phenomenon. Instead, marketers should craft stories based on the stories consumers are already sharing, as those are the ones that matter the most. Learn how to do it in this talk featuring examples illustrating the 6 traits of great storymaking.
Contently
How Hating the Word ‘Content’ Made MRY’s CMO a Better Marketer
Featured interview
If you want pat answers, don’t go to David Berkowitz. The chief marketing officer of the agency MRY isn’t afraid to take a blunt stand that might irk some in the advertising industry.
At MRY, Berkowitz’s main responsibilities are to retain clients—like Microsoft, Sony, Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Visa—and attract new ones that want to reach young consumers in a multi-platform world. Since joining MRY in 2013, he’s helped his clients win awards such as Mashable’s Digital Innovator of the Year (Coke), Digiday’s Best Location-Based Campaign (Sony), and Cannes Lions Short List (Adobe for Cyber, 2015).
When Berkowitz and I sat down for a wide-ranging interview on content marketing, one of the first things he said was that he hates the word “content.” For the rest of our discussion, he touched on the difference between content and advertising, explained the most common symptom of bad marketing, and revealed how the toughest question he ever faced in a job interview influenced his approach to thought leadership.
MediaPost
Relevant Ads are All Relative
Of everything written these past few weeks about this topic, I think MRY CMO David Berkowitz summed it up best with a comment he posted on the MediaPost comment section: “Where we’ve really screwed things up is that people hate the experience we created so much that they want to steal from the media companies they actually like, potentially destroying those very sources of info and entertainment.”
Digiday
Inside Pinterest’s Plans to Win Advertisers and (Maybe) Beat Twitter
“Next year, Pinterest has a shot at overtaking Twitter as the second-most important social ad platform after Facebook,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY. “Pinterest is the most overtly commercial of any major digital media property.”
Mashable
How to Win at Digital Marketing
(Featured repeatedly in Twitter Chat recap)
Several digital marketing experts who joined us were: Alex Amado, VP of experience marketing at Adobe;Cammie Croft, deputy executive director of Amnesty International; David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY; Ellyn Fisher, senior VP public relations & social media for The Advertising Council; Gillea Allison, marketing director of Blue State Digital; Jason Musante, managing director & group executive creative director of Havas Worldwide; Neville Doyle, digital planning director of Colenso BBDO; Rodolfo Salazar, CEO of Ideaworks International; andSusan Lindner, CEO & founder of Emerging Media.
Digiday
5 Charts: How Millennial Women Explore Trends Across Platforms
And they can come out of left field, too. David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY, points out that the first billion-view YouTube video was a Korean pop hit. “If you’d said that people would be riveted by ‘Gangnam Style,’ a song whose lyrics few of them could understand, no one would have believed you.”
Today’s trends “come from places where brands are not necessarily hanging out,” Berkowitz says. So brands have to try harder to keep up. “The first step is making it a priority and saying, ‘You know what? We want to understand our culture better.’”
Thirty-two percent of survey respondents said they are more likely to discover trends on platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with Instagram overindexing among self-described “trendsetters.” So it’s clear where brands looking for, say, the next Snapchat Lenses or the successor to the rate-everything-including-people trend should set up their radars. “Tell me something new,” as Berkowitz put it. “Tell me something I didn’t read in The New York Times.”
The lesson: Don’t jump the gun. “Not everything that’s buzzing on Twitter or Facebook is a trend,” Berkowitz said. It might just be a fad. “A company doesn’t build a business model around a fad,” said trends expert Daniel Levine.
Digiday
A Day in the Life of an Agency Job — in Emojis
See the article for all the emojis
Berkowitz starts the day feeding his daughter her bottle. He plays with her until it’s time to leave. He walks to work, listening to a book on Audible. At work, his neighbor shares his dating and travel exploits with him. He might juggle a crisis, and then it’s time for lunch via Uber Eats. “The afternoon has vendors (often sheep) giving me their song and dance,” he said. He does press interviews and then meets someone for a beer or two. Then it’s home to the family.
Sirius XM Radio
Guest: Marketing Matters radio show hosted by Wharton’s Future of Advertising
See the recap at Wharton’s blog
International Business Times
Selfies at the US Open? Social Media-Addicted Tennis Fans May Lack Courtside Manners, but Brands Love Them
The audience at the U.S. Open skews to high earners. While bleacher tickets for New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium could be purchased for less than $20 (day of the game) on Sept. 1, tickets for evening sessions at the U.S. Open start at $75 and can reach $1,000 a seat. “These are big spenders who are showing up to the Open,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at ad agency MRY. “People going there expect to pay $10 for water.”
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which features 22 courts on 46.5 acres, also has stands and tents for guests to get involved in more experiential marketing campaigns. Berkowitz, who’s been attending the tournament over the past decade, said this is the loudest marketing he’s seen at the event. “They’re using as much real estate as possible and time during the event to get people to share this experience with others,” Berkowitz said.
That includes a further push into posting on social. Berkowitz said he noticed posts that were rather heavy-handed on the hashtags, mentioning #goserena, #serena2015, #serenaslam and #renasclub. “You don’t need to be a social media guru to get yourself on the board there,” Berkowitz said.
While the U.S. Open may attract wealthier attendees, Berkowitz said he has not seen or heard anyone scolding selfie snappers, nor does he think the practice necessarily takes away from the game. “With a lot of sporting events, especially at the Open, there’s a lot of dead time,” Berkowitz said. “I don’t know if anyone is really going to be that critical of people being on their cell phones. As long as people are quiet, then most of them won’t mind.”
MediaPost
You Can’t Convince Consumers We Aren’t Hucksters
David Berkowitz, the CMO of MRY, and one of the brighter bulbs in the interactive firmament, this week wrote (tongue not entirely in cheek) a byliner that outlined “How to Solve Every Crisis in the Ad Industry.”
David noted that “The crises hitting the ad industry keep multiplying. Ad-blocking stories have topped the trades and mainstream press for weeks. Talent shortages abound, though the great work produced by top talent is rarely properly rewarded. Twenty years after the first banner ad debuted, we still can’t agree on what an impression is. There are crises of confidence matched by crises of competence.”
His “fixes” made a lot of sense, like “an ad must be fully viewable on the screen for it to count,” and “call three seconds the minimum for what counts as a video view” — even if the more ethereal bromides like “Don’t steal” and “Reward great work” seemed a stretch.
Sprinklr blog
Why Consumer Attention is the Ultimate Commodity (and How to Capture It)
Given the popularity of content marketing, it makes sense that marketers can’t seem to stop talking about storytelling. But in his talk at INBOUND, David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, said that brands should move away from storytelling and toward “storymaking” – the co-creation, and sharing, of stories with customers. This represents a shift away from the traditional broadcast way of doing things and toward more collaborative, human marketing.
Berkowitz explained that while storytelling is idea-inspired, storymaking is fan-inspired; while storytelling is centralized, storymaking is decentralized; and while storytelling is predetermined, storymaking is unpredictable. With storymaking, brands rescind most of their control, but they’re rewarded with their audience’s full attention – after all, the users are deeply involved in the actual creation of the story, and they get to tell the story they actually want to hear, not what the brand thinks they want to hear.
Hubspot blog
Inbound15 in 17 Tweets
7. “Storymaking (a diferencia de storytelling) es participativo, inspirado en tus fans, impredecible, recíproco y auténtico @dberkowitz TWEET
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog
Trending Content of the Week
Revenge of the Storymakers: How Brands are Battling Storytelling In this annotated presentation from Inbound 2015, MRY Chief Marketing Officer David Berkowitz explains the difference between storytelling and storymaking. His video examples show what’s possible when brands co-create stories with their fans.
Webmaster Radio
MRY Tells Why Consumer Downtime is the Next Big Opportunity for Brands
The connected state of consumers blends work and play, redefining our downtime and creating new opportunities for brands to engage with people during the small burst of leisure time throughout the day. Peggy Anne Salz and Shahab Zargari talk with David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY, who delves into the new reality of downtime — which his company has dubbed ‘micro-leisure’ moments.
David provides advice and examples to help companies connect in a more meaningful and effective manner with an audience that increasingly demands bite-size content and advertising to fit the micro-moments of leisure time they spend on their mobile devices. A key takeaway: brands must be ‘real’, speak the ‘language of the Internet’, and focus on communicating their key messages in a manner of seconds.
VC Post
Brands Will Get Noticed at 2016 Olympics in New Ways
According to David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer of MRY, his firm has just released a report called Marketer’s Road to the Olympics. MRY is Marketing and Advertising Company that specializes in the blending media with creativity and technology to make remarkable brands. The report offers seven ways that marketing, media and technology will be used differently come 2016.
Digiday
How to Pimp Your SXSW 2016 Panel: A Guide
And the begging is now part of the process. “Once you start whoring for votes, you have to play the game and vote for everyone else’s, and soon you get bombarded with requests to play the game,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, who is an avid anti-pimper.
International Business Times
Ashley Madison Might Be Attracting New Users, but That Doesn’t Mean the Adultery Site Will Survive
“I feel like right now someone is crafting the perfect Tinder for married people,” said David Berkowitz, the chief marketing officer at ad agency MRY. “You would never sit at a bar and tell your friend you just joined Ashley Madison; it’s just from another time. If I’m still a consumer in that space, why would that be the product I consume?”
CIO
Inside Apple’s Odd, Yet Effective, Social Media Strategy
Apple’s minimalist presence on social media, such as its unwillingness to use the @AppleTwitter handle, seems to bear no impact on the company and its generally positive perception among customers. “Apple would be a terrible example to follow [on social] for most brands,” says David Berkowitz, CMO at creative and technology agency MRY.
It’s generally a bad idea for brands to follow Apple’s approach to social media, thereby lacking a centrally managed brand presence, according to Berkowitz. Many companies cherish, and in some cases require, the reach that social media provides, to promote new products or minimize damage if something goes wrong. But not every brand needs to be active on every major social network. “Brands should actually be more selective right now given that major social media channels typically require paid media budgets to amplify messages to a wide audience.”
However, Berkowitz also says it’s hardly a best practice for Apple to ignore, even neglect, its loyal user base. Considering the strength of Apple’s product-focused channels on Twitter, however, it’s clear the company employs “at least a competent if not very talented bunch of social media managers.”
International Business Times
Christie, Jindal Twitter Hashtag Fails Show Presidential Campaigns Still Struggle with Social Like It’s 2008
Some say that every four years a new technology will define political campaigning, but so far this year has been defined by learning — or perhaps re-learning — how to cope with the old ones. “Twitter hasn’t actually changed all that much. It’s a conversational platform, and with that, it’s so easy to lose control,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at global advertising agency MRY. “You’re going to have hecklers and trolls. For Christie, in particular, he’s becoming more known as the guy who can’t control his story rather than the guy who speaks his mind.”
Not every brand has been on the negative end, however. Starbucks and Walmart, brands once heavily scrutinized for epitomizing American gluttony and gentrification, both have run successful campaigns, MRY’s Berkowitz noted. “Starbucks and Walmart were once lumped in as behemoths of everything that’s wrong with America. Their use of social media has actually turned that around. We’ve seen that with [the] ‘My Starbucks’ [Rewards] idea,” he said.
The Verge
Snapchat Has Become a Wild West of Sponsored Content
While some form of sponsored content can be found on every social network, Snapchat presents a unique challenge for disclosing when a series has been paid for. “Snapchat in particular is pretty unusual because it’s all visual,” says David Berkowitz, the chief marketing officer at digital agency MRY. “It really does become much more of a decision between the influencer and the brand.” For most social channels, the popular answer is to drop “ad” or “#spon” hashtag into the post description. You might not always notice it, but if you’re wondering whether a pair of shoes was comped or paid for, you’ll know where to find the answer. But Snapchat doesn’t include any space for those hashtags, leaving marketers in an awkward place.
“It’s hard to be too cautious if you’re the marketer,” Berkowitz says, “especially because marketers have been fined for going too far.” In 2014, the FTC formally investigated a Cole Haan Pinterest campaign that asked users to re-pin Cole Haan posts in exchange for a chance at a $1,000 prize. The FTC concluded that the contest was fundamentally deceptive, and while it declined to press the matter in court, the letter signaled serious consequences for future campaigns that follow a similar path. As a result, marketers frequently point to the case as a cautionary tale.
Geomarketing
‘Customer Service’ Facebook Prank Highlights Importance of Digital Presence Management (top story on Geomarketing that week)
“This ongoing stunt demonstrates the challenges any brand faces in protecting their reputation,” says David Berkowitz, CMO at social media marketing agency MRY. In order to maintain a streamlined digital presence — giving customers the information they need and subsequently inspiring them to make purchases and visit stores — brands must have accurate listings, manage and respond to reviews, and deal with the aforementioned “trolls” who may opt to have a laugh at the expense of a brand’s reputation. But how should one respond?
“Most of the time, brands would be advised to either ignore attempts at satire or humor, or play along and show they’re in on the joke,” Berkowitz says. “[But] this “Customer Service” prank is different, as actors are posing as the brand, and any of these brands’ fans and customers could be understandably duped. With such exchanges public, many other people could be influenced, and it could wind up having a negative impact on a brand’s business. Marketers need to stay as vigilant as ever in terms of offense and defense. Marketers should be as responsive as possible to posts directed at them.”
In other words, it’s more important than ever that marketers keep a closely trained eye on their online presence, monitoring everything from their social pages to their proprietary website. And at the end of the day, as Berkowitz advises, “[they should probably just] remove posts that misinform others or immediately clarify the situation when the posts can’t be removed.”
MediaPost
MRY Launches Podcast That Tells You All You Need to Know about Snake People
“Everything MRY’s marketing team does address retaining and acquiring both clients and staff,” says David Berkowitz, MRY chief marketing officer. “This actually started fully on the retention side — a way to share knowledge here in a fun way that keeps our team’s skills sharp and ensures we are strategically advising our current clients. As the podcast spreads, we want to keep providing thought-provoking ideas for our current and future clients, and it should also help us stand out in a crowded marketplace for younger talent.”
VentureBeat
AOL, Harman Kardon, MRY Joining Mobile Advertising Roadshow in NYC June 16
David Berkowitz, currently CMO at the agency MRY, will also be joining our panel. AT MRY, Berkowitz directs the agency’s communications strategies for clients such as Visa, Johnson & Johnson, and Adobe. (MRY has been named Mashable’s Digital Innovator of the Year and MediaPost’s Social Angency of the year.
Chute
The Ultimate Guide to Visual Marketing
Quoted extensively in this white paper
E2M
In Conversation with David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY
Featured interview; excerpt below
Q: What types of marketing strategies work for you today?
A) For marketing a services firm, through B2B marketing, the two best options I have for marketing is promoting my agency’s work or ur people. Now, with the work, we’re dependent on what our clients are open to promoting at any given time, and we of course need to be respectful of that. Our business is all about trust. And of course, it’s not every day that the work we’re doing is meant to be front page news.
With our people, we have more opportunities. We have hundreds of bright minds and fascinating personalities acros the agency. There are constantly ways to share their perspectives, or to create something with them that they’re excited about. During my tenure at the agency alone, some of my colleagues have come up with some amazing ideas we’ve been able to produce, including: the world’s first Vine-a-Thon event series to create Vine videos on the fly; hosted events for Community Manager Appreciation Day; well read blog posts such as one from a creative who was a finalist on a reality cooking show about how her varied pursuits make her better at her job; a stunt where we were the first business to accept payments via Snapchat; a humorous video about drones coming to work at the office; and a funny video asking moms of some of our team what they think we do all day.
We also put a lot of trust in our team too. Last year, we had more than 20 people represent MRY in the press, and a lot of them were not those with the most senior titles.
Inbound Blog
David Berkowitz: Serial Marketer, not Serial Killer
By Aaron Strout, WCG:
“David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, is someone that has lived in the world of digital longer than many of us. He was an early adopter on many of today’s social platforms and one of the top marketing bloggers when blogging was still novel. Since then, David has become a leading voice in the world of digital marketing, writing a regular column for AdAge, speaking at leading conferences like Inbound in addition to leading marketing at a top digital agency.
In addition David is smart, funny, snarky, dry-witted, clever and selfless. That is fancy talk for David is an all around good guy.”
Broadcasting & Cable
MBPT Spotlight: Sprinklr Offers Marketers Insight into More Effectively Using Mobile Advertising
One of the 10 experts who offer advice in the whitepaper is David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital creative, marketing and technology agency MRY. Berkowitz advises marketers to not treat mobile advertising like advertising.
“Mobile gets extremely personal for consumers,” he says. “This is a device that’s always within arm’s reach and sometimes it’s even physically strapped to their arms. Think about value you can provide.”
Berkowitz adds that marketers can do things like making sure consumers are aware of time-sensitive offers that are targeted to their interests. They can entertainment consumers with content. They can offer contests and prizes.
“Mobile can do all of this, while helping you achieve your goals of building your brand, generating foot traffic, racking up leads or moving products,” he says. “Focus on the value exchange first and then see which advertising and marketing offerings can help you achieve it. Ultimately, think about the golden rule and respect your target audience in the way you hope others will respect you.”
International Business Times
Is Snapchat Ready for the Big Leagues of Advertising?
“Part of Snapchat’s appeal is that they’re not like everybody else, but that’s constantly a challenge when it comes to advertisers. Advertisers will do little to work more,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at global advertising agency MRY. “It has that added challenge that they’re not trying to be the typical publisher. There are things like [Spiegel’s videos] that other tech companies would never need to do.”
Today, Snapchat is advertising’s shiniest object. The question is whether it can build a business as fast as it has its user base. “They’ve had to make sure that people appreciate how much activity there is,” MRY’s Berkowitz said. “Now what Snapchat needs to do is figure out what are those ways that they’re going to be able to scale.”
Spredfast Blog
Experts’ Take: The State of Content
Even as we continue to create shorter, more condensed content forms—newspapers to blogs, Facebook posts to content with a halflife like Snapchat—people still have an appetite for longform. Just think about binge watching shows in the age of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. As David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at agency MRY, points out, “People actually want to watch 13 hours of video in a single weekend when there is something really exciting or culturally relevant happening.”
But, quantity without quality won’t cut it. “The trick is,” according to Berkowitz, “to do anything great. For a brand to hold people’s attention in any meaningful way for more than 30 seconds is tough as hell…it’s so hard.”
What lies ahead in content? According to Berkowitz, “Competing trends are taking place simultaneously. Look at Snapchat and Instagram, they’ve both done phenomenally well but have totally different approaches to the permanence of content, the effort to create it. And brands have to grapple with both.” But he thinks that the rise of private social messaging is the most exciting challenge for brands and content creators right now. “You have an audience trying to be unreachable… It’s going to get weird and far more complicated before there is a simple ad product you can buy to reach everyone.”
Huffington Post
Mobile Marketing Ad-vice from Ten Prominent Marketers
David Berkowitz, MRY, @dberkowitz
Don’t treat mobile advertising like advertising. Mobile gets extremely personal for consumers. This is a device that’s always within arm’s reach, and sometimes it’s even physically strapped to their arms. Think about the value you can provide. Can you make sure they know about a time-sensitive offer available nearby that’s targeted to their interests or preferences? Can you give them a few minutes of entertainment while they’re in transit or waiting in line? Can you make it easier for people to get around, find nearby points of interest, or connect with others?
Mobile can do all of this, while helping you achieve your goals of building your brand, generating foot traffic, racking up leads, or moving products. Focus on the value exchange first, and then see which advertising and marketing offerings can help you achieve it.
Digiday
Please Reply: Agency Execs’ Biggest Email Fails
If you’re in a position of power at an agency, vendor emails are pretty common. David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at MRY, hates when people send generic emails or, worse, when they address him as someone else. Formatting is also a pet peeve: “Showing a clear cut and paste job” is common, and annoying, he said. But his worst peeve is “salespeople who feel they should email me every day. Not a fan of hearing more from a vendor than I do my wife,” he said. “When I tell people something’s not a fit for me and they reach out a few weeks later trying to set up a call again.”
Actionable Marketing Guide (Heidi Cohen)
34 Experts Selected Their Favorite Earned Media
I’m a big fan of the Share a Coke campaign where Coke released cans and bottles with people’s names on them last summer. It generated massive amounts of earned media. The best may have been a certain major life event announced to the world by a couple playing around with personalized Diet Coke cans. David Berkowitz,
MRY; Twitter: @dberkowitz
Actionable Marketing Guide (Heidi Cohen)
Earned Media vs Owned Media: Which Yields Better Results
MRY’s David Berkowitz expresses this best: “Earned media is any content created about a marketer or brand that wasn’t directly created or commissioned by that marketer.” (Check out how 37 other marketing experts defined earned media.)
Bluewolf
Your Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Connections 2015
If you want to know what to expect in digital marketing five years from now, join the CMO of MRY David Berkowitz and engage in a discussion on emerging media and what that means for digital marketers.
CIO.com
Why Twitter Will Never Be Facebook (And That’s Okay)
“Twitter is always going to be a little weird,” says David Berkowitz, CMO at creative tech agencyMRY. “If it stops being weird, it’s going to be just like everything else.”
“Twitter has always had that challenge of requiring a little bit of extra explaining,” Berkowitz says. “It’s not just for one thing, there’s a whole language around Twitter that people need to learn.”
That’s a challenge Berkowitz says, but it’s not a unique one. “The first time anyone over 30 goes on Snapchat the typical response I’ve seen is the brain just short circuits. That hasn’t stopped Snapchat from being phenomenally successful.”
Twitter should focus less on addressing its deficiencies and more on promoting the strengths and defining characteristics of its platform, Berkowitz says. “There are a lot of things going for it that make it different than everything else out there,” including real-time conversations, spontaneity and a legacy in mobile, Berkowitz says.
However, Twitter’s ability to target ads based on demographics is woefully lacking compared to Facebook, (again, there’s that comparison) but that doesn’t concern Berkowitz, who says reaching scale at the right moment is equally important to marketers.
Twitter also does real-time communications better than anyone else, according to Berkowitz. Using Twitter to reach users during a narrow window of time for a specific action like tuning in to a TV show, buying a movie ticket or setting a DVR are all marketing opportunities that work well on Twitter. “All this becomes incredibly powerful and it’s hard to think of anyone that can do that right now better than Twitter.”
Campaign Live
Brand on the Run: Why US Marketers Should Care about Line
Like others, David Berkowitz, CMO at marketing agency MRY, says he thinks Line has potential, but “the big question mark is to what extent it takes over the States. For Southeast Asia and Japan, it is the big thing.” Nevertheless, Berkowitz says he thinks Line is starting to gather momentum.
“I think it’s just one of those things that’s going to go from very low to very high brand awareness very quickly,” Berkowitz says.
Forbes
Let Data Put You out of Business
David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at agency MRY, told attendees at the Oracle Data Cloud Summit that it’s not an either/or choice. MRY’s creative types “are among the most welcoming of bringing data into the mix,” he said, because they can use it to justify what they do—and ultimately bring their creative work to more people.
WSJ.com’s CMO Today
Brands Shy Away from Jumping on Hillary Clinton Bandwagon
Brands might choose to take a stance on a political topic if it’s something that reflects their core values, but it’s “much harder to wrap themselves around people–they’re far less predictable,” said MRY Chief Marketing Officer David Berkowitz.
“These are candidates that are lightening rods for a lot of controversy and a heated mix of opinions on them,” Mr. Berkowitz said of the candidates that have so far put their hat in the presidential race. ”Any brand can do far better sitting on the sidelines than really trying to jump in on [the conversation], whether positively or negatively.”
CMO.com
Ad Age Conference: Brands Need to Move from Storytelling to Story Making
David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY and moderator of the panel, said that marketers have been communicating with their audiences on digital platforms and telling stories from a “storyteller’s lens” rather than taking a “story-making” approach. According to Berkowitz, story making is when a brand facilitates and taps into the stories that consumers create and share about the brands they love. It’s the job of the brand, Berkowitz said, to help amplify the reach of those stories.
Kapuno.com (Cyrus Radfar)
Should Brands Move Away from Storytelling to Storymaking?
David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY said that marketers have been communicating with their audiences on digital platforms and telling stories from a “storyteller’s lens” rather than taking a “story-making” approach. According to Berkowitz, story making is when a brand facilitates and taps into the stories that consumers create and share about the brands they love. It’s the job of the brand, Berkowitz said, to help amplify the reach of those stories.
I may take it a step further and say that the best marketers are creating experiences that compel people to tell the brand’s story.
There are a few recent examples of awesome campaigns including one I shared earlier by Carlsberg, RedBull, and GoPro. They all have a commonality. These brands are investing in shareable experiences that allow their story to be shared.
Brands should create experiences that drive their advocates to share. I’m not talking just having a photo-booth to get tweets. Rather, I’m talking about people calling their best friend and saying “You won’t believe what happened yesterday…” Then, as David aptly state, brands should take what their advocates share and synthesize it in to something that the advocate is proud to share again.
The Proactive Report
Storytelling vs Story Making: Interview with David Berkowitz
Featured video interview
Actionable Marketing Guide (Heidi Cohen)
Earned Media Definition: 38 Experts Weigh In
1. Earned media is any content created about a marketer or brand that wasn’t directly created or commissioned by that marketer. (My perspective is that of a marketer at a creative agency.) David Berkowitz,
MRY; Twitter: @dberkowitz
Digiday
How Agencies Decide Who to Send to SXSW
MRY — which is sending about 25 employees — ran a social media contest that asked employees to give one good reason for why they should get to go. “The fact is, SXSW is just one of those great lobbying campaigns for agencies. Everyone and their mother wants go,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY. “The time leading up to it is one of the worst times to be the CEO of an agency.” Everyone else had fun with it, though. The winner was account exec Allyssa Kaiser, who put together an Instagram post featuring the stuff she’d take to SXSW. She’s a first-timer.
International Business Times
SXSW: TV Networks Spend Big in Austin to Attract Influencers
“South By is a hotbed of culture, and people document every minute of their experiences,” said David Berkowitz, CMO of digital agency MRY, a unit of Publicis Groupe. “It’s a testing ground for how well their programs are going to attract buzz. I’d like to see how this translates into viewership.”
CMO.com
Is YouTube a Social Media Platform or a Media Play?
David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY:
YouTube does allow anyone to upload content, but it’s overwhelmingly a passive experience. A few upload, and the vast majority watch. It’s an alternative to broadcast media, albeit a place where anyone does have the tools to broadcast. When our brands are interested in using YouTube, it’s overwhelmingly to drive views and then often some subsequent action like a Web site visit, rather than seeking comments or ratings. Remember YouTube’s first breakout hit? It was a Saturday Night Live sketch (“Dick in a Box”). It has been a broadcast platform ever since.
MarketingLand
Here’s What Innovative Brands Did on Snapchat for the Super Bowl
MRY’s CMO David Berkowitz echoed Redniss’ sentiment in his own exchange with me: The biggest barrier for marketers though is that most haven’t used it themselves. Don’t forget though that Facebook, Twitter, and even Google had that problem in earlier years. That will change for Snapchat too.
Social Media Week Blog
Attendee Spotlight: CMO of MRY David Berkowitz Shares His Top Picks for SMWNYC
Featured post
To help you discover the best of Social Media Week New York, we asked a few of our attendees to share their top picks for events, talks and masterclasses taking place throughout the week. Below, David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at agency MRY, gives us a look at the events he doesn’t want to miss:
CMS Wire
MRY’s David Berkowitz: The Power of Ideas and Collaboration
A lengthy featured interview, followed up by a text-based version
Mashable
David Berkowitz of MRY Explains What the Internet of Things Means for Marketers
Featured video interview
Ad Age
What’s Wrong with Storytelling? Get the Answers at the Ad Age Digital Conference
In October, Ad Age published a provocative column by David Berkowitz, CMO ofMRY, titled “The Beginning of the End of Storytelling: Brands Need to Be Story Makers, Not Story Tellers.”
Mr. Berkowitz argued that the future of storytelling
“isn’t about telling anyone anything. It’s about storymaking, where the brand facilitates and taps into the stories people are creating and sharing with each other. Storytelling is the epitome of the old one-way, broadcast mindset that so many of us in marketing are trying to leave behind. Storymaking, by contrast, is far more fulfilling, and exactly what will matter to the people all of our brands are trying to reach.”
Chute Blog
Hiring for a Modern Marketing Organization
David Berkowitz, CMO for MRY (and a man of few words): “We look for jack-of-all-trades. We need renaissance people at our shop.”
CampaignLive
The Foolproof Survival Guide to Mobile World Congress
So between seeing some fantastic new technology products and hearing brilliant experts wax lyrical on many hot topics around the mobile ecosystem, the upcoming MWC promises to offer brand marketers some important new pathways to connecting with their customers. As David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, wisely said recently in an article about CES, “Electronics are the gateway to the consumer.” As we get close to this essential truth, what is your plan?
Ad Age
What CMOs are Talking about at CES: Four Major Trends
But what does innovation in personal technology mean for marketers? It means that they need to evolve with their audiences. As MRY’s David Berkowitz mentioned here earlier this week, CES is less about new gadgets and more about how people prefer to spend their time.
Inc.com
30 Fluff-Free Digital Experts to Follow in 2015
David Berkowitz: CMO at award-winning agency MRY, frequent keynote, and always in the know on all things innovation and tech.
Adweek
For the Advertising and Tech Elite, CES is Shaping up to be the Next Cannes
David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, said he’s also seen the growth of the marketing convention within CES. He’s been coming for almost a decade and used to be the only ad person in the room.
This year, for the first time, there will be a location dedicated to the marketing, advertising and tech elite: the C-Space at the Aria, which is being run by MeidaLink.
“The C-Space is designed for marketers and the broader creative community. That’s a huge change that marks a big shift in approach to CES,” Berkowitz said. “In many ways this shadow show has nothing to do with CES in any meaningful way.”
While the tech world focuses on the hardware shown on the convention room floor these marketers, brands and software companies will be focused on where to put the ads.
“It’s almost a question of which show will you be attending,” Berkowitz said.
MRY is using the electronics show as a way to connect its brand clients with the startups that look to break out in Las Vegas and present new marketing platforms.
“A favorite spot of mine is Eureka Park where you have some companies that are a little bit weird and sometimes really innovative,” Berkowitz said.
Binghamton University’s Alumni Connect
Alumni Invest Time in Students’ Career Development
Fifteen years ago, David Berkowitz ’00 attended Metro Career Night unsure about what he wanted to pursue after graduation.
“I talked to a Binghamton alumnus who was in publishing and he said I should talk to his brother who worked in digital, which really wasn’t much of anything at the time,” said Berkowitz, who majored in psychology at Binghamton. “But, that got me down the path of going into digital media…I don’t think I’d be in this career if I wasn’t here at Metro Career Night…Binghamton had prepared me way better than I ever realized.”
Today, Berkowitz is chief marketing officer for MRY and was recently on the other side of the table, passing career advice along to current Binghamton University students. He was one of 100 alumni who volunteered at the annual Metro Career Night event, most recently held Jan. 14 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.
Chute Blog
Webinar Wrap-Up: Effective Content Marketing with MRY’s David Berkowitz
A full recap of the webinar, with tweets and video
CMO.com
Will 2015 Be the Year of Digital Transformation? Marketing Leaders Respond
Mobile In The Middle
A year of digital transformation is a year where mobile is at the center of all marketing–not just digital marketing. As a marketer, if you’ve figured out how to reach people through their mobile devices–the ones that are always within arm’s reach and accessed constantly–then you have a fighting chance at getting your message across through a medium where people may be paying attention.
–David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY
CIO.com
Why Ad Tech Consolidation is Good for CIOs
“There are a lot more ad tech [mergers and acquisitions] coming,” says David Berkowitz, CMO at creative and technology agency MRY. “There are so many companies out there trying to solve marketers’ challenges, and challenges keep getting more complex with more money going into digital.”
“The CIO will have no shortage of technologies to vet in the years ahead,” Berkowitz says. “Marketers may keep commanding larger tech budgets, but that doesn’t mean marketers understand the ins and outs of tech.”
Berkowitz says marketers will need support from their CIOs in coming years, as they face steep technology learning curves. “CIOs can also prove to be indispensable by helping marketers understand what to watch out for, and whether threats or opportunities involving technologies are being utilized.”
Healthy relationships between CIOs, CMOs and their legal teams will be essential in the future, according to Berkowitz.
Adding to the complexity is a bevy of new buzzwords, according to Berkowitz. It’s all about “programmatic,” “native advertising,” big data or some other catchy term.
“The more people use these terms, the less they mean,” Berkowitz says. “Programmatic and native are almost entirely at odds with each other, and yet you see some ad tech companies talking about ‘programmatic native’ without appreciating that it’s an oxymoron.”
Berkowitz of MRY agrees and says most publishers and marketers struggle to make money in mobile, especially those that don’t sell app installs. “There are a lot of buyers who are clamoring to improve the breadth and depth of their mobile-driven media offerings,” he says.
Although the shift may be difficult and seemingly never-ending, it is also inevitable, according to Berkowitz. “Getting what have traditionally been TV dollars to migrate to mobile is trickier, and yet as mobile cements its position as the ‘first screen,’ that will have to change.”
Conversation Agent
42 Conversations with Practioners, Authors, Editors and Leaders from the Agency Side of the Business
“Media’s not going away. There is a risk that a lot of the established media properties will be eroded as consumers continue to gravitate to properties that are more about conversations than content. Yet that line is blurring too.” [360i, David Berkowitz – now CMO at MRY]
Content Standard
Break Through Your Content Marketing Rut with These 3 Tips
Analytics from the Content Standard showed that the highest volume of traffic comes from these five cities: Boston, San Francisco, Houston, New York City, and Chicago. I asked five random people on Twitter what the “must-visit” place was in town. Here’s a routine-breaking list of suggestions:
New York City: Green-Wood Cemetery, an historic park founded in 1838. (Source: @dberkowitz)
Adweek
No, Begging Twitter to Verify Your Account Won’t Make It Happen
“I haven’t seen it as some kind of quid pro quo,” said David Berkowitz, CMO of digital agency MRY. “Realistically, brands that spend the most tend to have closer relationships with Twitter, so putting money on the table tends to help with relationships. But Twitter in general has done a good job in encouraging marketers and others to make the most of Twitter as a platform, so it’s possible to have relationships with others at Twitter beyond ad sales representatives.”
Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today
FTC’s Charges against Deutsch LA Seen as a Twitter Wake up Call for Industry
(also cited in WSJ’s CMO Today news digest)
Agencies have to exercise a lot of caution when talking about a client’s work on social media, though best practices in that area aren’t always well codified, said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital agency MRY.
“This will be a wake-up call for agencies in terms of how they communicate work they have in market and what they encourage employees to do,” Mr. Berkowitz said.
CanadianSpecialEvents.com
Breathe New Life into Your Event Marketing
Set up a contest for your next event. If you are a tradeshow or meeting organizer this is a great tool to host an out-of-the-box contest. Do promotion ahead of time through social and on your website asking people to download the app (maybe even put a link to download in your event app). Once they download tell them to give you the best story they possibly can from attending your event. Maybe you can even use this story as promotion for your event the following year! As CMO of MRY David Berkowitz said in a recent article, “brands need to be story makers, not story tellers.”
TICbeat
David Berkowitz: “Las redes sociales dan más poder a las marcas para conectar con las personas”
Featured interview
David Berkowitz es una de las mentes más interesantes que existe en la actualidad en el ámbito de la publicidad. Director de Marketing en la oficina de Nueva York de la agencia MRY, conferenciante habitual de eventos como Austin SWXW y colaborador regular de Advertising Age, este ejecutivo, que mantiene su propio blog (el popular site MarketersStudio.com) desde 2005, ha trabajado en el desarrollo de marcas colaborativas para clientes de peso como Visa, Johnson & Johnson y Coca Cola y es, según la publicación AlleyWatch, uno de los 15 neoyorquinos que más está haciendo en pro de la transformación de la publicidad. Con motivo de su presencia en la 6ª Conferencia Ideágoras, centrada en el auge del brandingcolaborativo y que tuvo lugar el pasado 6 de noviembre en Madrid, en TICbeattuvimos la oportunidad de charlar con Berkowitz sobre la reinvención de la publicidad y el marketing al calor del auge de las redes sociales y la colaboración.
CMO.com
Poised for Action: How to Organize for Real-Time Marketing
“Organizing for real-time marketing takes 99 percent preparation and 1 percent of actually marketing in real time,” said David Berkowitz, CMO of the agency MRY. “The infrastructure, processes, protocols, goals, and trust all need to be established well in advance if there’s going to be any long-term success.”
Having an individual team responsible for real time marketing is passé, MRY’s Berkowitz added. The reality is, the entire marketing team must be real-time.
Say Daily
Storymaking: The Next Evolution in Content Marketing
So if there’s enough confusion about the definition of storytelling, then maybe we need a new word. David Berkowitz recently wrote in AdAge about something called storymaking—where the brand facilitates and taps into the stories people are creating and sharing with each other. You could call it the next evolution in storytelling, or maybe just a proper redefinition of the way brands should be marketing to their audiences. Regardless, storymaking is how brands today are activating their customers and turning them into not only evangelists but also publishers, and it can provide real results.
Inc
Why Teal Pumpkins are All the Rage This Halloween
Storymaking, in a nutshell, means gathering tales about how your brand has become a part of your shareholders’ true-life experiences, according to David Berkowitz, CMO with Manhattan branding consultancy MRY. He shared these ideas in a column he penned in Ad Age called“The Beginning of the End of Storytelling.”
Here’s the concept: Storytelling, as most brands use it, is a one-way street, in which the brand monologues its tale. By contrast, storymaking is collaborative. The storymaking example Berkowitz likes to use comes from Coca-Cola and his wife, Cara:
Cara loves Diet Coke, so I asked her, “What’s Coke’s story?” The next thing I knew, I was living in a real-world version of the “carousel” moment from Mad Men. She started telling me about when Coke came out with cans with red tabs, and all her friends used to collect them. And then she told me about the games she played with her friends in sleepaway camp, where they’d break off tabs from Coke cans as a way to reveal which boys they liked. Thanks to this brand, I was learning more about the person in my life I have been the closest to for nearly a decade.
The Drum
15 Industry Influencres Worth Following on Twitter
Dave is chief marketing officer at creative agency MRY and sometimes contributes to Ad Age. His tweets will be insightful to those working in advertising in particular, but all agencies will be able to find some value in his twitter feed.
Media Life Magazine
How Snake People Connect to Their Cars
Featured interview on MRY’s automotive research. Excerpt:
What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this study?
What surprised me was how people of all ages value cars and smartphones for similar reasons, such as accomplishing daily tasks, giving them a sense of freedom, exploring new places, buying things, learning new things, and interacting with friends and family.
Even though this is the first study of its kind, by looking at the differences between consumers ages 35-plus and then Snake People, we can see how younger consumers are valuing their smartphones more for every single one of those things. And when a $500 device with a $100 monthly cost can deliver the same value as a $20,000 device with a $500 monthly cost, we’re in for waves of disruption ahead.
Mashable
Meet 15 of Advertising’s Rising Stars
MRY CMO David Berkowitz says Trahan is one of the agency’s rising stars, and is “constantly reimagining how to leverage social data and unlock new sources of business insight.
Adrants
An Inside Look at How These 3 Agencies Collaborate to Create Awesome Content
MRY CMO David Berkowitz concurs, saying, “All content marketing and native advertising comes out of our media team, which covers earned, owned, and paid media, in collaboration with the creative and production teams depending on the content involved. We have account managers and project managers handling the process, but then various media specialists executing the advertising. The client is involved throughout the process, from aligning on strategy and goals at the outset to reviewing creative and copy.”
MRY’s Berkowitz says most of the content created for clients is done in-house, but outside production studios or other specialty shops are tapped when needed. At TDA_Boulder, it’s a tight ship, with executive digital director Gene Paek saying, “We concept, write and direct all brand-created — as opposed to user-generated or influencer-created — content in-house for our clients.”
Brand Strategy Insider
8 Keys to Telling a Compettive Brand Story
Your story must be communal – David Berkowitz, the CMO at MRY, made the comment recently that the marketing industry is obsessed with telling stories, but brands need to become story makers, not just storytellers. “Do you think people really get brands’ stories?,” he asks. Great question. “Think of a brand you love … Do you know what its story is? … The future of storytelling isn’t about telling anyone anything. It’s about storymaking, where the brand facilitates and taps into the stories people are creating and sharing with each other. Storytelling is the epitome of the old one-way, broadcast mindset that so many of us in marketing are trying to leave behind.”
Inc
Storytelling is Out: Why Storymaking is the Future of Brand Marketing
This means gathering tales from customers about how your brand has become a part of their true-life experiences, according to David Berkowitz, CMO with Manhattan branding consultancy MRY. He shared these ideas at HubSpot’s INBOUND conference in Boston last week, elaborating on a column he penned in AdAge called “The Beginning of the End of Storytelling.”
Here’s the big idea: Storytelling, as most brands use it, is a one-way street, in which the brand monologues its tale to potential customers. By contrast, storymaking is inclusive and collaborative. The storymaking example Berkowitz likes to use comes from Coca-Cola. Here’s how he describes it in the AdAge article: …
I emailed Berkowitz to ask him about this after his talk at the INBOUND conference. “Small businesses have the disadvantage of more limited budgets and resources, but they often have far greater knowledge of how people relate to their products and services,” he replied.
What he means is this: As a startup or a small business, you probably already know your customer’s fondest memories about using your product or service. Off the top of your head, you can probably name a few things that are your customers’ equivalent of the breaking-off-the-tabs stories. The key to storymaking is to find the stories that “tap into some deeper emotional meaning,” notes Berkowitz.
For Berkowitz, storymaking relies on the classic how-to-please-your-customers analogy: People don’t want a quarter-inch drill but want a quarter-inch hole. In storymaking, the goal is to find the deepest emotional reason for those figurative holes. “The hole they want may be to hang a piece of artwork. And they might want that artwork displayed because it reminds them of that happy time and place when they bought it,” he explains. “In that case, the drill is the gateway to a constant stream of happy memories. That gives the owner of the local hardware store or the person running the drill plant a far more powerful way to connect with someone.”
Content Standard
How Emotional Storytelling Makes a Good Story Great for Business
Sometimes when faced with difficult questions, instead of using available research channels, I turn to average people for answers. In marketing, we tend to get stuck in our industry bubbles, and a straightforward answer can be hard to come by. MRY’s Chief Marketing Officer David Berkowitz described a similar revelation in his HubSpot Inbound presentation.
Berkowitz laments, “I’m a storyteller at a storytelling company helping deeper-pocketed storytellers tell their stories, and then I go on the road and tell stories about all that while listening to others’ stories until it’s time to go to bed and do the whole thing over again. This is my existence.”
In the end, a story goes nowhere and offers no value unless a relationship with the reader is established, Berkowitz concludes. Similarly, the four responses I encountered on Yahoo! Answers suggested that characters are what make a story great. Relatable, interesting, complicated characters fuel curiosity.
The Wall Street Journal
News and Ads to Debut on Snapchat
“Snapchat has been laying a lot of groundwork for making it a place that is safer for brands,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at ad agency MRY.
Digiday
10 Agency Tours on Hyperlapse
CMO David Berkowitz gave us a glimpse into perhaps any office’s most important room — the bathroom — then the rest of the agency.
Mobile Marketer
Auto Brands Must Leverage Mobile to Reach Snake People: Study
“Automakers are investing a lot in technological makeovers for cars, but consumers are most comfortable with the mobile devices in their pockets,” said David Berkowitz, MRY’s chief marketing officer. “Tech companies are positioned to move much faster in innovating the digital experience.
“Expect consumers to love their cars even more when the cars seamlessly connect to their iPhones and Galaxy’s,” he said. “In time, cars may just be giant mobile docking stations with wheels.”
“I’m surprised by how much white space there is for auto brands to be known as innovators,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “Instead, consumers are far more likely to think of tech stalwarts such as Apple and Google as the real pioneers, with automakers lagging.
“That’s an open challenge to auto brands, and it’s why there’s room for a brand like [luxury electric-vehicle maker] Tesla to say, ‘It’s a new century, and it’s time to build a totally new kind of vehicle from the ground up.’”
Alleywatch
15 People in NYC Who Are Changing Advertising That You Need to Know About
Yes, we remember when MRY was MR Youth and when the name ‘David Berkowitz’ meant serial killer Son of Sam.
Now it’s MRY, to you and who, in online advertising, marketing and social media circles, doesn’t know the agency’s Chief Marketing Officer. It was Berkowitz who launched Mobile Week and the world’s first Vineathon, and MRY has been named MediaPost’s Social Agency of the Year.
Previously, he spent seven years at agency 360i, where he co-founder of his agency’s social media practice in 2006 and led 360i’s Startup Outlook initiative – a guide for how brands can evaluate startups and incorporate them into their digital programs.
Berkowitz has contributed more than 400 columns to MediaPost, currently writes regularly for Ad Age’s Digital Next, has contributed articles to both the Economist and Mashable and still finds time to pen MarketersStudio.com, which he has been publishing since 2005.
He has spoken at more than 225 events globally, including SXSW, CES, iMedia, and Think Mobile, along with guest lectures at Yale, MIT, Google, and Coca-Cola. He has even delivered the keynote address at his alma mater Binghamton University’s Fall Commencement – an honor for any alum. His featured talks around the world include events in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Singapore, and Turkey.
Adweek
Can Brands Ride the Next Wave of Fitness Apps and Wearables?
“In some ways, it’s making mobile more exciting again,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY.
Mashable
The Future of Digital Marketing, According to Mashies Judges
Some tweets included among the best Q&A responses from this #Mashies Twitter chat roundup
Hubspot
What I Read and How I Read It: David Berkowitz
Featured interview on my media consumption habits and recommendations
Hubspot
25 Must-Tweet Inspirational Quotes from Inbound Experts
“Who we are is really defined by the work we put out.” ― David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY
Ad Age
Virtual Reality: Advertising’s Next Big Thing?
The most likely suspects to take the lead on developing VR experiences are brands like General Electric and Audi, which have cultivated reputations as early adopters of technology. However, the usefulness will be limited for other brands, said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of Publicis Groupe’s MRY.JC Penney, for example, can successfully sell products online via jcpenney.com and Pinterest without setting up a virtual store, which, realistically, consumers may not want to spend their time browsing.
In Mr. Berkowitz’s view, augmented reality is an example of a technology that has not lived up to its hype, even though brands continue to play with it, and VR could follow the same path. (A recent high-profile example of branded AR work is McDonald’s’ World Cup promotion; it transformed its fry boxes, making them into the entry point for a game on a soccer-themed app.)
“You realized it was so much less effective than just looking at a two-dimensional map and seeing everything in one place,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “It was a fun party trick for a week. Agency folks like me went and showed clients.”
AgencySpy
Should Agencies Edit Their Own Wikipedia Pages?
David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY: “This practice of editing your Wikipedia page makes a lot of sense to me. How else will potential clients know that your shop is a ‘hot’ ‘Innovations company’ with ‘many accolades’ embodying that ‘spirit of innovation and bravery’ if you don’t tell them on your Wikipedia page? Given how much the public trusts advertising agencies, this should only bolster such a firm’s credibility.”
Ad Age
Media Guy Mailbag: A Heartwarming May-December Agency Love Story
David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, emailed, “My biggest pet peeve about snake people is when I send some really important email requesting a response, and they just Yo me instead.” (Ha!)
I responded “Yo,” of course, to which David responded, “That’s it, I quit.” Which is great news, because I’m pretty sure some fresh-out-of-college snake person couldtotally do his job!
Content Standard
Meet the Innovators – Matt Britton and David Berkowitz of MRY
Featured interview on innovation, retaining talent, and innovation
David: Maybe more than anyone else at this agency, I’m exposed to this extraordinary level of talent and passion that people have. I get to work with people from every department, and I don’t care what job title someone has; I don’t care how many years out of school you are. Let’s see what you can do—that’s the attitude here, and that’s why we have a lot of people who’ve taken on some really impressive roles within this agency.
MailOnline
High Profile Creative Bosses Celebrate MailOnline’s Global Launch
David Berkowitz, Chief marketing officer at MRY, agreed saying: ‘It’s the stamp of quality, there are a few destinations that I will go to that I know have been researched well, edited well, people know how to string a story together and you don’t see that everywhere, you don’t see that hook that draws people in.’
NBC News
Google’s Nest Promises a Jetson’s Lifestyle (Eventually)
But before you fire that thermostat steward you hired to estimate the time of your arrival (via your Mercedes) and adjust the temperature of your home, consider the words of David Berkowitz , chief marketing officer of MRY, a corporate marketing firm: “The vast majority of first generation products are not very good.”
Case in point: “I bought the first iPhone and returned it one day later,” Berkowitz, who considers himself a tech-savvy early adopter, told NBC News. Only those with the most hardcore of hacker mentality are willing to spend big money on bug-infested technology, making them the perfect test market for the Internet of Things. It’s through their trial and error that products get easier to use, and often less expensive. As for laggards, Forrester market research found it’s still a few years away.
“None of this is ever going to be as easy as it looks, especially for the generation of people who never learned to fix the time on their VCR,” Berkowitz pointed out. “DVR updates time automatically now, so problem solved.”
That annoying issue took 24 years to fix, Berkowitz observed, though the pace of problem solving is accelerating and people are becoming more savvy. Even so, there’s another other hurdle holding up the Internet of Things: convincing most of us that a connected home is a solution to an actual problem.
For most people, dealing with an app to program a thermostat is far less appealing than just tweaking the temperature manually. And sure, an Internet-connected home might make for cool party tricks, such as adjusting the lights via a smartphone. But as someone who has observed this first hand, Berkowitz told NBC News, “by the fifth guest it got old.”
Same goes for integrating your Jawbone wristband with Nest, so your thermostat knows when you’re awake. “A lot of these connected devices seem pretty gimmicky,” Berkowitz said. But like smartphones, the connected home’s true value will emerge when 10 or more products can run on the same system, operating in the background without a lot of management.
Until then, Berkowitz advised, “Let the early adopters deal with the problems and the developers spend time on not just how well things work, but why we should even want it.”
The Marketing Cafe
21 Interesting Social Media Questions Answered by Top Social Media Experts
Question: When it comes to social media marketing, which is the most underrated social platform and why?
David Berkowitz’s: The most underrated social platform is Slideshare. It offers a way for anyone to establish instant credibility as a thought leader, and it has a very strong long tail effect, where presentations may continue to get views months or years after they’re posted.
CMO.com
4 Factors That Drive a CMO’s Success
David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY, a creative and technology agency, recommended a “frank conversation” among parties. “The incoming CMO or marketing leader can ask what the CEO’s expectations and KPIs [key performance indicators] are,” he told CMO.com.
How do you uncover that? One important way is to ask to meet with the CFO, CIO, and COO, and delve into their experiences and attitudes. For example, MRY’s Berkowitz said he uses a “surprise challenge,” of sorts, to find out how well other C-level managers relate to marketing.
“The [marketing] exec should find out what the marketing team has done to directly benefit the particular C-level exec in his or her role and what more the C-team wishes the marketing team could do,” he said. “Then it’s easier to flip the tables and ask the C-level execs what they, in turn, have done to support and collaborate with the marketing team.”
The takeaway about choosing between a big and small company is to make an informed choice. Berkowitz, for instance, has found his sweet spot: “I’m partial to smaller, fast-growing companies,” he said. “On paper, a CMO at a multibillion-dollar company can create massive value and affect a large number of people and clients. But at a smaller company, especially one that is growing aggressively, there’s the potential to put one’s indelible stamp on how it is run and impact every single employee, customer, and shareholder.”
“Usually, success does wind up being focused on sales,” Berkowitz said, sounding a familiar refrain. “If a new CMO comes in and then revenue, profit, and margins slide, it’s hard for the CMO to say, ‘Well, they’d have done so much worse without me.’”
Metrics, however, are about more than sales. “There are other metrics that can be important,” Berkowitz added. “First come brand metrics, such as ‘favorability.’ A lot of CMOs, meanwhile, are also focused on internal communications, so key metrics can include employee satisfaction and turnover rate. Would an employee recommend that a friend work at the company or that a potential customer buys the firm’s products?”
Digiday
What Facebook’s Targeting Changes Mean for Brands
“If Facebook can educate consumers more about advertising, consumers are going to be in a far better position to reward good advertising and object to bad advertising,” David Berkowitz, CMO of digital agency MRY, said.
NBC News
Does Uber Stand a Chance in a Global Market?
“In Hanoi, you can pay someone the equivalent of a dollar or two and jump on the back of their motorcycle and get to anywhere else in the city,” said David Berkowitz, chief Marketing officer of MRY, a corporate marketing firm.
In cities where such casual forms of transportation are common, it might be hard for Uber to get a foothold, Berkowitz told NBC News. But there is also opportunity. “As a reliable way to get people and goods from one local spot to another, having a brand behind a service can go a long way,” he said.
Adaption to the infrastructure is key, Berkowitz said. While many developing countries skipped the PC-revolution completely, largely depending on mobile phones for Internet interaction, most people don’t own smartphones, so texting takes precedence over apps.
International Business Times
Facebook Experiment Creates a Trust Gap
So, users may love Facebook a little less, but they still rely on it like any other utility. “Utilities typically aren’t loved — often, they are hated — but everyone has to keep their lights on,” said David Berkowitz, head of marketing at social ad agency MRY.
NBC News
Google, Like Apple, Seeks to Unify the Large and Small Screens
“The whole vision for connected devices is starting to play out,” David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of consulting agency MRY, said in a phone interview with NBC News. “As soon as they introduce a device, they have to show it linking with everything else out there.”
eMarketer
Mobile Messaging Apps (report)
David Berkowitz, CMO at agency MRY, advises marketers to be very respectful of how consumers use these apps. Compared with posts sent to large groups on traditional social media apps, Berkowitz contends, “Consumers are more protective over private messaging and [more particular about] where they’ll welcome brand experiences.”
Agency Spy
Cannes 2014: South by Southern France by MRY
The biggest surprise for my first year in Cannes was how much the festival resembled another that I’ve been going to for years – South by Southwest. Everywhere along the most populated areas of the Palais and the Croisette were banners for tech brands such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Pinterest, Spotify, and the Mobile Marketing Association. Yachts flew flags of companies such as Celtra, Vibrant Media, and True[x]. Even more traditional brands such as the Daily Mail and Clear Channel were heavily touting their digital offerings. On the main stage, celebrities followed suit, with Patrick Stewart taking a “dronie” (a selfie powered by a drone) for Twitter, and Kanye sharing the secrets behind his famous wedding photo on Instagram. Meanwhile, Volvo Trucks won in B2B for a YouTube campaign, while British Airways triumphed in out-of-home awards for a billboard powered by real-time flight data. 2014 is the year tech totally took over the Lions, and there’s no turning back.
Adweek
Publicis Groupe Joins NYC Media Lab
The team behind the Publicis membership initiative are chief technology officers Ray Velez at Razorfish and Paolo Yuvienco at DigitasLBi as well as chief marketing officer David Berkowitz at MRY and managing director Michael Wiley, VivaKi Ventures.
MRY’s Berkowitz described the potential for collaboration: “The students and faculty members participating in NYC Media Lab offer our agencies added insights, expertise, and ideas that can help us stay ahead of the constant shifts in how people use media and technology.”
MediaPost
Publicis Groupe Joins NYC Media Lab
“The students and faculty members participating in NYC Media Lab offer our agencies added insights, expertise, and ideas that can help us stay ahead of the constant shifts in how people use media and technology,” says David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer, Publicis’ MRY. “We are excited to connect with this talent while collaborating across our agencies to further our clients’ business goals.”
Impact Radius
Top 30 Mobile Adveritising Influencers
Ranked 5 among journalists, technologists, and others (additional coverage: Website Magazine)
Coca-Cola’s Journey blog
4 Reasons Why SXSWi Matters
I first attended South by Southwest Interactive in 2010 on a mission to understand the SXSW cultural experience. Over the years I’ve learned that SXSW Interactive’s 1 draw is no longer about being there for the launch of the next Twitter. Today’s SXSWi gets more attention than ever before and there are more conversations happening online than a person can handle. This creates a lot of noise and makes it harder to break away from the pack, especially for startups. As MRY’s CMO David Berkowitz told me: “It is now practically obligatory for tech startups to attend SXSW, which makes it almost impossible to stand out. Meanwhile, there hasn’t been a billion-dollar smash hit to break through at SXSW since Twitter, and that happened in 2007.” With so many startups, tech darlings and big brands trying to capture and make news during one of the noisiest weeks of the year, it takes a lot of creativity and money to shine.
MediaPost
MRY Opens SF Office to Make Room for David Berkowitz’s Awesomeness (Sort of)
Hmm. Maybe David Berkowitz really is that awesome. If you recall, his former shop, 360i, hired 15 people to replace him when he left to become CMO of MRY. Now there is so much David Berkowitz awesomeness at MRY that the agency had to open a San Francisco office to make room for all that awesomeness. Well, that and the fact that the agency won digital work for ticket broker StubHub. It’s said that the agency will be known as MRY West. And Berky? I’m sure they’ll welcome his awesomeness with open arms when he heads to San Francisco for a visit.
Adrants
6 Reasons Why SXSW Is Still Awesome
And then there was the CMO Club House, a five day event sponsored by theCMO Club at which Altimeter Group Analyst Rebecca Lieb led panels which included MRY CMO David Berkowitz, Brian Solis, Joshua Baer and others. Open all day at 209 6th Street, the CMO Clubhouse offered a hangout for CMOs and other marketing types where networking could be had over breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The Verge
Hucksters and Hustlers: Inside the Hidden Brand Orgy of SXSW
The closest I came to meeting The Man at SXSW this year is David Berkowitz, the chief marketing officer of digital agency MRY. Berkowitz is a longtime marketing executive who once worked at the firm responsible for the Super Bowl Oreo tweet. He started coming after Twitter blew up in 2007, and has returned every year since. Berkowitz agrees the festival is changing. “More and more it’s faded — not unlike how CES has faded — from being a show about product launches to being a show about meeting people and learning from others,” he says. But the brands can’t get enough: “Our clients are sending more and more people, and they’re getting out, they’re taking meetings.”
And Berkowitz likes the carnival aspect of it all. The sessions inside may not be what they once were, but there’s plenty of good that comes from introducing young startups to more established businesses. SXSW is a place where deals are forged. “It’s more about creating opportunities,” he says. “There’s a great symbiosis. You have the suits walking around with their checkbooks, and that’s appealing. It’s a marketplace — and the bazaar here keeps getting better and better.”
So sit back and enjoy the show. Get high on hashtags and enjoy your digital cronut. “The purists are pissed, I’m sure,” Berkowitz says. “But it’s not going back.”
MediaPost
Our Hero David Berkowitz Explains Why SXSW Still Matters
If you attended SXSW, liked it, and can’t stand why everyone so loves to trash it, you really should check out a couple of pro-SXSW pieces. The first comes from MRY CMO David Berkowitz. You know — the guy 360i hired 15 people to replace and MRY opened a San Francisco office to make room for his awesomeness? Berkowitz argues that SXSW is now about innovation in marketing, not technology. The second comes from Steve Hall of Adrants, who points out 6 reasons why SXSW is still awesome. It’s very easy to get on the hate SXSW bandwagon. It’s much harder to realize it still has a lot to offer.
BetaBeat
Gary Sharma’s Highlights from SXSW 2014
My selfie with George Takei is a highlight, as is MRY’s party
iMedia Connection
SXSW Hot Topic: 4 Trends Disrupting Marketing
Featured video interview
SXSW was full of thought leadership, engagement, and yes — even crystal ball predictions. What should you have your eye on for 2014? Where are you wasting your investment dollars? Are today’s cool technologies tomorrow’s obsolete gadgets? David Berkowitz, CMO for MRY, gives iMedia’s Bethany Simpson an astounding look into what he thinks are the fates of multiple marketing trends. Join us in this insightful interview.
LA Weekly
When Crowdsourcing is Expensive for the Crowd
Of course, ad agencies have not been rendered obsolete by sites like Tongal; marketers still throw millions of dollars at cinematic commercials. However, according to David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at top agency MRY, brands now demand a steady flow of new content to fill space online. It has become smart business to use young, viral-minded freelancers contracted through sites such as Tongal to produce snappy digital ads at 10 to 20 percent of what an agency would charge. (Seventy percent of Tongal’s winning ads air online only.)
NBC News
Why Facebook is Betting on Virtual Reality as the Next Big Thing
But David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital brand consulting agency MRY, said he “is not at all convinced we’ll see people walking down the road with headsets over their faces.”
“Anytime you put tech between you and your face, it’s going to create barriers,” Berkowitz told NBC News. “You can see the potential in some areas, but I’m skeptical that it is quite as big a deal as Facebook is making it out to be. Virtual reality still has a long, long way to go.”
Associated Press
Music a Big Focus in Super Bowl Ads
“Advertisers are following the lead of what really spreads culturally,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of Publicis’ digital ad agency MRY. “The conversation around the Grammys and the VMAs keeps getting bigger. If you look at the most followed celebrities on places like Twitter its people like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.”
Associated Press
Sign of the Times: Super Bowl Ads Safer and More Staid
“A lot of years, the ads reflect the national mood, and now we’re in this ambivalent state,” says David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital ad agency MRY. “There’s still a lot of that American pride and self-confidence, but we’re realizing that we aren’t in that dominant position. The whole ‘We’re No. 1’ attitude feels less assured than it has in the past. So I think that’s led to a lot of these safe choices.”
Huffington Post
The Must-See Commercials from Super Bowl XLVIII Wre Heavy on Awwwwwwdorable
“Advertisers are getting attention but they’re not trying to go over the top,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer for digital ad agency MRY, told The Associated Press. “A lot of brands were going with the safety from the start.”
The Wall Street Journal
Esurance Wins the Twitter Bowl
Some brands on social media are “drunk on the power” of being able to engage with audiences, they are “like teenagers with car keys and some of them are going to crash,” said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY, a digital ad firm owned by Publicis Groupe SA PUB.FR -0.31% . The bigger issue, Mr. Berkowitz, says is that social media today could just be “an echo chamber and it’s just something that marketers and those in the business are paying attention too.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Behind Facebook’s $19B Purchase of WhatsApp
“Facebook right now is preparing for a world in which people care less about Facebook,” saidDavid Berkowitz, an executive of the digital marketing firm MRY. “Facebook needs to take this long view. I don’t think anyone can afford to be so cocky to think Facebook will be around forever.”
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has steadfastly rejected using advertising on the app. Two years ago, Koum posted “the most damning post on advertising I’ve ever seen and this guy gets nearly a $20 billion payout from someone who figured out the ad game pretty well,” said David Berkowitz, MRY’s chief marketing officer and a longtime social media analyst.
Plus, Koum will join Facebook’s board of directors, “which is like Mike Huckabee joining Obama’s Cabinet,” Berkowitz said.
“It’s a whole clash of ideologies here,” he said. “But it also shows the extent to which Facebook is willing to do things totally differently.”
Entrepreneur
Look Out, Startups: 2014 is about Results, Not Buzz
David Berkowitz, CMO of marketing agency MRY and AdAge contributing writer, postulates in his article, “Why Brands Will Focus Less on Startups in 2014,” that lack of results, along with clutter and PR, is the reason why startups’ relationships with brands and agencies will fade like a tired high school fling this year. And I couldn’t agree more. In 2014, brands are looking for results, not hype.“Journalists are going to start craving more meat.” Berkowitz writes. “After the fifth brand-sponsored startup hackathon at South by Southwest … serious journalists will focus on what such partnerships accomplish.”
MediaPost
360i Hires 15 People to Replace David Berkowitz (sort of)
Wow. David Berkowitz must be a workhorse. Now that he’s left 360i, the agency is hiring 15 people to replace him! No, seriously. 360i is looking to fill 15 positions across its New York, Chicago and Atlanta offices. From Front End Developer to Account Supervisor to SEO Strategist, the agency is on a quest to fill Berky’s big shoes. OK, OK. SO they aren’t hiring specifically to replace Berky’s awesomeness — but they are, indeed, on a hiring spree. Interested? Check it all out here.
1000heads
Inspiration: Social Media Week New York Roundup
For the UnQuiz, a panel of social media experts answered a series of quick-fire questions using hard social data. One hot topic was whether fans “unlike” a page after they’ve entered a contest. David Berkowitz, the CMO of MRY said that people get distracted and usually forget to do so, but that brands should always expect a decrease in audience numbers after a contest campaign finishes. It’s a sobering reminder that ‘forcing’ likes on people doesn’t have much meaningful brand equity. To test your and your colleagues’ smarts when it comes to social data, ciick here to take the Unquiz yourself.
SocialFresh
The Top 43 Social Media Career Moves of 2013
David Berkowitz joins MRY makes the top 43
Ad Age
Marketing Mecca: Why Adland is Swamring CES
David Berkowitz, CMO of Publicis Groupe’s MRY, said he will be looking out for internet-enabled watches and headgear.
ClickZ
VIDEO: MRY’s Berkowitz Says “Marketers Drinking Their Own Kool-Aid” for Super Bowl
ClickZ spoke to David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer (CMO) at creative and tech agency MRY, to discuss the trend of wearable technology from a marketing perspective and find out how it will impact business.
While Berkowitz is very upbeat about the development for the industry, he is also very candid about his views on other topics, such as the Super Bowl, for which, he says “marketers are starting to drink their own Kool-Aid.”
Critical Mention
Game-Day Real-Time Marketing (David Berkowitz Video)
Two mega brands with logos closely associated with hats – Arby’s and Quaker – are the latest examples of consumer companies benefiting from a social media uplift during a nationally televised event – in this case, the Grammys.
But being nimble and creative are just two attributes of successful brands trying to borrow a page from the playbook used last year by Oreo when the lights went out at the Superdome.
In the final days before this year’s big game, David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of Publicis Groupe’s MRY, offered his advice for successful real-time social engagement while tens of millions are watching.
“For marketers, this day is like Christmas and New Year’s and Easter and July Fourth and Thanksgiving all rolled up into one,” said Berkowitz. “It’s the one day of the year that everyone cares about what advertisers do.”
MediaPost
Why Brands Will Focus Less on Startups in 2014
My friend David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, just wrote an opinion piece titled “Why Brands will Focus Less on Startups in 2014.” In the piece, he cites (1) clutter, (2) too much P.R, and (3) lack of results as the three reasons why “brand and agency love for startups is going to fizzle.”
The Beancast
Sharing and Cake
Guest on this episode of the podcast by Bob Knorpp
Digiday
What’s In, What’s Out for Mobile in 2014
“While it sounds pretty cool to take photos of your baby without taking out a phone or camera, most people aren’t going to pack Glass in their diaper bags and will find the iPhone works well enough,” said David Berkowitz, CMO at MRY.
“Expect some killer apps through professional use cases in fields such as healthcare, industrial design, engineering, insurance and government services,” Berkowitz said.
“It was a telling sign when the Viggle-GetGlue deal fell through because the former hot TV ‘revolutionary’ app couldn’t muster the cash to acquire the latter hot one,” MRY’s Berkowitz said. “A few third-party TV apps matter, but most of the second-screen activity is either happening on Facebook and Twitter or through experiences created by the TV networks.”
Binghamton University
Fall Commencement: One Student, One Alumnus to Speak
Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital marketing agency MRY, founded the Hinman Alumni Network, has chaired the Metro NY Alumni Network and is the youngest director ever elected to the Binghamton University Alumni Association Board of Directors.
An expert digital marketer and blogger, he is a sought-after speaker and is frequently quoted online and in print in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and other high-profile publications. He has been featured by Google as one of four “Mobile Champs” and he helped digital agency 360i win the iMedia Agency Award for Best Social Media Agency in 2012.
Berkowitz was recognized as Student of the Year at Binghamton in 2000, the year he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and spoke at the Hinman College graduation ceremony.
AgencySpy
Op-Ed: So What Does MRY Think about 2014?
David Berkowitz, CMO: Reaching Consumers Who Prioritize Privacy
“So much content shared today is private – so it often disappears and the users can’t be targeted – which means it can’t be monitored. While the amount of content shared publicly will continue to escalate, this ‘invisible’ social content will proliferate faster, leading marketers to explore new, creative ways of reaching consumers who prioritize privacy. Marketers are going to have to come to terms with disappearing, dark social media.”
Binghamton University’s Inside Binghamton
Alum: The Class of 2013 Will Thrive in the Maker Movement
The world is in demand for people who will make something of themselves and the Class of 2013 has the talents and qualifications to succeed in the “Maker Movement,” digital marketer David Berkowitz ’00 told graduates at the Fall Commencement ceremony.
“It needs people who know what it’s like to create something from nothing, to look at what there is and reinvent it, to imagine how the world should be and could be and will be, and to do something about it,” said Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital marketing agency MRY. “There have been many good times over the past millennia for inventors. But there’s never been such a propitious time for makers.”
ClickZ
Netflix’s Binge Viewing Behavior Poses Threat to Marketers
According to David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at MRY, the binge factor of Netflix in particular is currently a major threat to the largest chunk of media spending. The more consumers that watch Netflix, especially for extended chunks of time, the less those consumers will be exposed to ads.
“This should motivate TV networks and production companies to offer up even more of their programming on-demand through cable providers, because at least that way, ads can be slotted into on-demand viewing,” he says.
“In addition, this should push marketers to invest even more heavily in digital marketing. As consumers binge watch, they’re also watching multiple screens. Right at those moments when marketers can’t reach consumers through TV, online and mobile marketing will have a much better opportunity to grab viewers’ attention,” Berkowitz explains.
TheNextWeb
The Visual Revolution is Here
Perhaps this movement is best explained by David Berkowitz, the Chief Marketing Officer at MRY, a creative digital and technoloy agency that has done work for Coca-Cola, Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Sony, Puma, and Visa. In his self-penned manifesto, he wrote (albeit a bit humorously) that we’re in the third age of the visual revolution:
This is the Third Visual Revolution. The First Visual Revolution was when Magellan was able to waterproof his maps so they lasted an entire voyage. The Second Visual Revolution was when the Quaker Oats logo was designed, which incidentally also later inspired the Hipster Revolution, once a proto-hipster misheard someone say ‘Quaker hats’ as ‘trucker hats’.
Forbes
2014 Digital Trends and Predictions from Marketing Thought Leaders
David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer, MRY
Marketers are going to have to come to terms with disappearing social media. This is much bigger than Snapchat. So much content shared today is private, and it often disappears, so marketers aren’t readily able to track and target such consumers. Expect marketers to explore new, creative ways of reaching consumers who prioritize privacy.
Business Insider
Ad Exec Thinks Tech Startups are in a Bubble When it Comes to Working with Major Brands
In an op-ed published today by Ad Age, MRY president David Berkowitz says that brands won’t be working with startups in 2014 nearly as much as they did in 2013. In his mind, the market for such partnerships has reached saturation, and brands will need to try new things in order to get the attention and results they desire.
Noting that Ad Age wrote more stories about startups in 2012 than it did from 2005 through 2009, Berkowitz says that there are now so many startups looking to work with brands that there are independent shops springing up whose sole purpose is helping brands pick which hot, new, tech company to work with next.
Berkowitz says that as a result, the media will no longer be interested in writing a story every time a company becomes the first brand to do something on the next Vine or Snapchat, or integrates the technology of a startup like Google’s geolocation company, Waze.
Marketplace – Business
Veteran’s Day: Where’s the Line between Praise and Pandering
“This is actually something that people put lives on line typically, then earn the right to really celebrate,” says David Berkowitz, Chief Marketing Officer for the New York marketing firm MRY.
Berkowitz says the holiday does give the rest of us a chance to recognize the country’s 21.9 million veterans, but there are no hard rules for businesses that want to do it with discounts.
“It is going to be a bit of a moving target,” he explains. “It’s not like 10 percent off is enough, but 20 percent — that’s great. What is something that is a bit above and beyond what someone will find in a typical circular, or that veterans will be especially excited about. If it’s something really good they’ll want to spread the word about it, so another thing that’s also really important today is having that hook to make it easy to share.”
CIO.com
How Safe is Google Glass for Driving?
Google Glass poses too many risks to drivers to be safe, adds David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer for digital and technology agency MRY and a frequent speaker on wearable technology at events such as South by Southwest (SXSW). “Even if Google rolls out a driving mode that disables notifications, there’s no way to mandate that drivers will enable those safety features. Glass can trigger so many distractions that drivers need to keep the headgear off.”
Refresh Blog
Our Conversation with David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY Agency
Featured interview
David Berkowitz is the chief marketing officer of MRY Agency in New York, a 400-person digital media agency and frequent contributor to Ad Age. He is also someone who is a connector, and constantly networking with others; it’s not just what he does, but what he lives and breathes.
As part of our series of profiles of our power users, I spoke to David recently about his experiences with using Refresh. He had heard about Refresh from a TechCrunch article not long ago and downloaded it right away.
Huffington Post
Twitter Triumph: 100% of Fortune 500 Will Soon Tweet
“One of Twitter’s biggest achievements is its adoption by the media,” MRY CMO David Berkowitz mentioned to me the other day. “Every Fortune 500 invests in investor relations, so even if it’s just a place to conveniently link to their press updates, earnings reports and issue official statements, it makes sense. And better for them to have an official channel than not, if for no other reason than to play defense.”
Business Insider
Why Snapchat Would Face a User Revolt if it Tries to Sell Advertising
But if Snapchat’s plans include advertising, it might fundamentally betray those users, argues David Berkowitz, CMO of New York agency MRY, in an Ad Age op-ed.
“People using Snapchat have entirely different values from how most marketers would want to use it,” he wrote. “The crux of this is that Snapchat users value privacy, while marketers value publicity.”
CMO.com
What’s the Biggest Barrier to Entry for Real-Time Marketing?
David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, told CMO.com:
One huge barrier to entry for real-time marketing is getting the approval to engage. You either need preapproval so you can include RTM in your general plans, or shoot first and ask for forgiveness later. Another big challenge is looking at the bigger opportunities, beyond culture hijacking, to anything that has a digital touch point and minute-by-minute optimization. One other big hurdle is appreciating the long-term planningthat goes into it–getting the right people in the room and doing it in a strategic way. And, also, I think marketers need to realize that they don’t have to do real-time marketing for everything. Knowing when to hold back is going to be a big focus going forward.
Mashable
4 Best Practices for Social Advertising
If you think of the typical ad with the shot of the car driving on the mountain against the sunset, there’s nothing particularly social about it,” says David Berkowitz, CMO of the marketing agency MRY. “You have to consider if there’s anything social about it.”
Sometimes social ads don’t even need to be ads. Berkowitz points to the Audi Instagram feed as an instance of non-advertising advertising. “Almost every image has an Audi logo in it,” he says. “And there are thousands of interactions with each post.”
Vocus
2014 Marketing Trends: Real-Time Marketing
As a member of that team, David Berkowitz, now chief marketing officer atMRY, was at the forefront of real-time marketing.
“There are two versions of real-time marketing,” Berkowitz told Vocus.
“One version is popularized by instantaneous conversational marketing and culture-jacking, like Oreo at the Superbowl and other tentpole events. But in a broader sense, it is marketing optimized to take advantage of what’s going on at the moment.”
Content Strategist
Vine’s Crab Lady Shows Brands How to Get Weird
Brands can learn from popular Viners because, as David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, wrote in AdAge, every “really good Vine creator has his or her own fingerprint.” Stacey Nightmare, the crab person in question, is immediately identifiable. So is Nicholas Migalis’ shaggy hair and trademark food raps. Because Vine videos are limited to six seconds, you have to make a sudden impact. Here’s a quick lesson from Stacey Nightmare.
Ad Age
AT&T and Others are Browbeaten on Twitter Following 9/11-Related Posts
While the other 9/11-related tweets from brands didn’t provoke the same negative reaction as AT&T’s, they still walk a fine line in terms of relevance, according to David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY. While it would be fitting for a health care company that treats 9/11 first responders or a brand that actively runs scholarships for the children of the deceased to weigh in, trivialities like #NeverForget seem tone-deaf, he said.
“Unless you’re bringing something of value, the easy thing is just to keep your mouth shut,” he said.
Adweek
David Berkowitz is not the Son of Sam – He’s the CMO of MRY
Video interview: If you’re going to win at social media, growing up sharing the name of an infamous serial killer may encourage you to learn a whole different level of social skills. The charming David Berkowitz explains how he’s getting the message across for MRY.
New York Times
Accounts and People of Note in the Ad Industry
David Berkowitz joined MRY, New York, part of the Publicis Groupe, in a new post, chief marketing officer. He had been vice president for emerging media at 360i, New York, part of Dentsu.
DM News
CMOs on the Move
Why was he appointed: “David has a proven track record of seeing what’s just around the corner and creatively applying it for the world’s leading brands for more than a decade; in addition to being a riveting thought leader with a standout industry pedigree, there is no doubt that he will raise the bar for our team and our client partners,” said Matt Britton, CEO of MRY.
AdExchanger
Programmetic Twitter: Agencies and API Partners Discuss the Opportunity
“It’s one area where they seem to be following Facebook’s lead,” comments David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer for MRY agency. “Eventually, Twitter will be very eager to be part of those massive buys and make it really easy for advertisers to plug in there.”
But he adds, “One thing I don’t see Twitter doing at any point is devaluing their inventory. That’s what made them very unusual when it comes to most other publishers out there… they definitely don’t want to just compete for impressions at whatever cost.”
CMO.com
Real-Time Marketing Requires Plenty of Planning
According to David Berkowitz, CMO of MRY, that’s a challenge because so much of what’s culturally relevant is fleeting. If you don’t respond within the moment, then everyone’s already onto the next thing. Easier said than done. Although real time makes a brand appear as if it is great at thinking on the fly, a lot of prep actually goes into it.
“I’m not sure brands need a real time team, per se,” Berkowitz told CMO.com. “But they need to have enough people internally or with their agency to properly monitor what’s going on and respond.”
According to Berkowitz, leaders need to preselect which marketers will comprise the “real-time marketing team” who’s prepped and ready for special events. A team is not necessary for the day-to-day stuff. But for big events, you need someone from insights and analytics to identify what is catching on, and strategists looking for trends. Community managers also need to be involved, as do brand managers, since they’re the ones who are responsible for approving content.
Another key person, Berkowitz explained, is a lawyer who understands that whatever’s being produced needs to be approved quickly. Then there are the designers and other creatives who play an important role, especially since the majority of what’s getting the best response in social media is visual. That doesn’t necessarily mean video, nor does it mean you need a massive production budget. Images and GIFs are doing really well, too.
Part of the challenge with building out this ad hoc team is that these people have day-to-day jobs, and it’s not always easy taking them away from what they’re working on. A sit down is imperative, Berkowitz explained. All of the key people need to understand the importance of real-time marketing. They need to make a commitment to be nimble and flexible with their schedules.
When you have a tent pole of events that you know are going to happen, you need to prep in advance. MRY’s Berkowitz cited events like Fashion Week, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and March Madness, which occur each year. During the Oscars, for example, people will be talking about how what people are wearing. That follows a script, so marketers interested in engaging people should be coming up with messaging in advance about dress fails, best dressed, and maybe even be ready in case someone trips on the red carpet. Who showed the most skin? That type of thing.
Berkowitz also said that some marketers will prep for something like “Best Actor,” with a piece of content for all five Oscar nominees. When the winner is announced, they obviously go with the corresponding piece of content. That allows a marketer to have everything approved in advance. And that’s great, but you can’t always anticipate when something like Sharknado or the Super Bowl blackout takes over the Internet. Content that responds to these types of scenarios is so shareable. Otherwise, for any marketer that wanted to comment on Kate Middleton’s baby, they’ve had six months to prepare.
“Otherwise, I can’t really explain what the process should be,” MRY’s Berkowitz said. “Companies are all different and have different approval demands. Also, there are cases where a brand wants to add paid media to increase exposure, but this adds another layer of complexity. It could mean another third party needs to be involved, or someone internally from a different department. So brands also need to figure out, for each event, how much complexity they are planning around.”
Ad Age
360i’s David Berkowitz to Join MRY as CMO
David Berkowitz is set to join Publicis Groupe’s MRY as its new chief marketing officer, Ad Age has learned. The move comes on the heels of Publicis’s decision to merge MRY with LBi’s North American operations earlier this year.
Mr. Berkowitz was most recently VP of emerging media at Dentsu’s 360i, where he worked for over seven years and helped to diversify the shop’s capabilities beyond search.
Campaign Brief
360i’s David Berkowitz gets the 7 year itch and heads over to MRY to tak up the role of agency chief marketing officer
MRY, a creative and technology agency with social at its core, today announced the appointment of David Berkowitz to the position of chief marketing officer, effective immediately. The hiring further strengthens MRY’s senior leadership team. In the new position, Berkowitz will oversee marketing operations and strategy across the agency. He will report to CEO Matt Britton.
AgencySpy
MRY Appoints 360i Alum as First CMO
It looks like MRY is on a senior-level staffing streak of sorts. Less than three weeks after bringing on AKQA alum Ian Chee as chief strategy officer and simultaneously promoting Matt Rednor to chief innovation officer, the NYC-based shop formerly known as Mr. Youth has appointedDavid Berkowitz as its first-ever CMO. Berkowitz joins MRY after spending seven-and-a-half years at Dentsu-owned agency, 360i, where he last served as VP of emerging media and worked with brands including Kraft, H&R Block and Bravo.
Central Desktop Blog
Collaboration’s Impact on Real-Time Marketing
When Oreo placed its Dunk in the Dark ad in social media channels immediately following the power outage during the Super Bowl, real-time marketing was brought to the forefront of the marketing community. David Berkowitz, then-director of emerging media at Oreo agency 360i (and now CMO at MRY), stressed that care must be taken to properly collaborate with key decision makers in order for real-time marketing efforts such as Dunk in the Dark to be successful.
WebProNews
Is the Facebook Hashtag a Game Changer in Marketing?
As David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i says, “Marketers creating campaigns centered on hashtags need to be cautious. Hashtags can easily turn into flashing targets that scream, ‘Hijack this brand!’”
He specifically references the famous McDonald’s hashtag debacle. Last year, the company launched a campaign under the hashtag #McStories, which quickly became dominated by negative (and in some cases dirty) tweets about the brand.
“No matter how good your intentions are and how well you execute the campaign, hashtags can get hijacked in unexpected ways,” says Berkowitz. “Make sure any relevant brand managers, agency account executives, and other relevant parties are aware of what can happen, and share some real examples like those noted above. Also be clear that brands use hashtags in campaigns every day, and there are very few that generate any negative publicity.”
Google
Meet the Mobile Champs: David Berkowitz (video interview)
What’s the first screen? Traditionally, it’s TV, but that’s changing, says David Berkowitz, VP, Emerging Media at 360i and a leading expert in mobile. In this video, he points to an example where far more people interacted with a “second-screen” mobile game than with the original TV show. Hear his tips on what makes multi-screen campaigns successful, including clearly defining your goals and tracking the right metrics.
(also featured on Google’s Mobile Ads, Inside AdWords, and Agency blogs)
Forbes
Mobile Ads Hit 30% of Facebook’s Q1 Revenues – But at a Cost
One Facebook ad company saw little to worry about in the results. Facebook’s continued growth in usage shows that it’s “even more entrenched in people’s live than before,” says David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at the digital agency 360i. Brands are finding Facebook mobile ads useful for driving people to stores, he says, and its advertising exchange, known commonly as FBX, is also appealing to direct marketers. “Facebook is throwing out a lot of ad products that meet advertisers’ needs,” he says.
Adweek
Facebook Served 39 Percent More Ad Impressions in Q1
While some may scrutinize the one percentage point quarter-over-quarter uptick as indicative of Facebook’s daily user base beginning to stagnate, 360i’s vp of emerging media David Berkowitz said that any publisher that sees more than 50 percent of its monthly user base returning daily is “pretty phenomenal.”
“It’s hard to comprehend any publisher having the kind of loyalty Facebook does, especially a publisher at a scale like that,” Berkowitz said. He added, “Facebook keeps growing and nailed one of the most important metrics [for marketers] as far as its user base goes.”
Forbes
Fake Twitter Followers: A Dirty Marketing Secret
David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media at 360i, believes that purchasing followers is “a waste of a brand’s time and money. They wind up with a lot of dead weight, and there’s also a real risk in backlash stories when someone notices, for instance, that a brand’s followers spiked 20% in a day. This is an age where authenticity is especially valued” and Berkowitz believes that there is only more harm than can come to brand that uses such strategies. In his view, Twitter offers a better product, called Promoted Accounts, which allows brands and individuals to be featured in the”Who to Follow” section for Twitter users.
Adrants / Hubspot
5 Iconic Ad Campaigns Reimagined
one of a handful of exports cited in this white paper edited by Steve Hall of Adrants
pg. 19: On the other hand, David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media at 360i, suggested VW continue with the orginial “think small” approach. “Today, there would be a massive ‘Think Small’ digitally-driven movement to try to get people to appreciate the value of ‘small.’”
pg. 21: In an effort to get consumers to value the little things in life, Berkowitz suggested VW host a photo contest on Instagram using the hashtag #thinksmall. Photos would have to depict less being more for the photographers to be entered to win their own VW. “Of course, just a small number of prizes would be available,” Berkowitz said. On YouTube, ten-second videos could tease longer VW-branded films created by, in Berkowitz’s words, “one of the world’s smallest filmmakers, Martin Scorsese.” On the cause-related front, Berkowitz suggested VW partner with Indiegogo to “round up contributions of $0.01-$0.25 for an environmental cause to demonstrate the massive impact of thinking small en masse.”
CH 3: Keep America Beautiful
pg. 26: “You know what would happen if Chief Iron Eyes Cody was on the street and someone threw their trash at him? He’d take their photo and put it on Instagram, and then reweet that out to shame the culprits,” said Berkowitz.
CH 5: Wendy’s
pg. 42: In order to create top-of-mind awareness to get future burger eaters searching, though, “Wendy’s would need to beef up the web,” according to Berkowitz. “Online and on mobile devices, takeover rich media ads would be nothing but a massive image of a juicy Wendy’s beef patty and the question, ‘Where’s the beef?’ Nothing else, not even a logo.”
pg. 43: When users searched, they’d find an array of search-optimized and interactive content from wheresthebeef.com that creatively explains the campaign and why Wendy’s beef is superior than that of its competitors. One interactive experience on the microsite would be “the world’s easiest 8-bit game” according to Berkowitz. “But instead of displaying big-bunned, tiny-patty burgers, there would be a single, giant Wendy’s burger with an oversized beef patty, and game players would have to identify where the beef is.”
eMarketer
Report: Real-Time Marketing – Speeding up the Creative Process
When deciding when to pull the trigger on a real-time opportunity, Oreo’s digital agency, 360i, considers three factors, said David Berkowitz, VP Emerging Media:
* Is the moment that is happening brand friendly
* Are there influencers online and available to extend the message virally?
* Is there an opportunity to ‘surpise and delight’ the consumer?
“What’s going to define it well is not the Super Bowl. I’m much more curious about what happens on a typical Wednesday. Making social currency part of the brand identity – that is a bigger challenge and bigger opportunity.” …
“The biggest thing we can do to speed up the creative process is generate trust from our clients. Trust and real-time marketing are interwoven.”
Enterprise Irregulars
Planning to be Spontaneous: Oreo and Realtime Marketing
However, the real story behind Oreo’s timely tweet is perhaps not so startling after all. I moderate a weekly webinar for Social Media Today, and on one of our recent shows,David Berkowitz, vice-president of emerging media at 360i (who leads digital strategy for Oreo), reminded our listeners that the brand began building the culture and processes to support its real-time approach almost a year before, with the start of the Oreo Daily Twist campaign – 100 days of real-time content to celebrate the cookie’s 100th birthday.
By the time the Superbowl rolled around, both agency and client teams were operating like a finely tuned machine, and were about as close as you can get to experts at marketing in the moment. In Berkowitz’s words, they made content every day – Feb. 3, 2013 just happened to be a really, really good day.
Both client and agency need to be prepared and plan for failure – either by getting little or no attention, or lots of the wrong kind. As Berkowitz so aptly noted: confident, curious brands that are prepared to innovate, experiment and screw up will emerge as the true leaders in real-time marketing. There is no shortcut.
Mobile Marketer
Twitter Hones in on Better Targeting with Music App Launch
“The app is a great social discovery engine for music – it could potentially mean far more though, especially if Twitter uses the same recommendation format to expand into other forms of content such as television, movies and any kind of online video,” said David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i, New York.
“If Twitter markets music right then this will only garner even more interest to Twitter – just like how Vine is another way to get a different set of users more active on Twitter,” he said.
“These are brand extensions that can make Twitter an even more entrenched platform in people’s lives.
Geekazine
David Berkowitz of 360i and Henry Copeland of BlogAds at SXSW
We interview each other about SXSW and whatever we want
MediaPost
Oreo’s Real-Time Marketing Strategy Requires Entrepreneurial Spirit
“There’s no reason why this should just work with Oreo,” said David Berkowitz, 360i VP of emerging media. Companies need to push the boundaries. “It’s open to everyone and anyone if you’re willing to put in the work to get the same type of results.”
Adrants
Why All Brands Need to Be Real-Time Marketers
To the point that brands must be willing to engage, Berkowitz noted that if everyone involved with a brand marketing team isn’t on top of large live events that may present opportunities to engage, “odds are you aren’t doing your job.” It was also noted the the mentality of the campaign is still far too ingrained in the minds of marketers. There is no beginning, middle and end any longer. While planning will always play a role — Berkowitz shared that his team had several “dry runs” in advance of the Super Bowl — brands have to be nimble and ready to act on a moments notice when an opportunity presents itself.
Digiday
What Caught Marketers’ Eyes at SXSW
David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media, 360i
SXSW is an amazing place to experience memes. When Twitter, Foursquare broke through in years past, it was because they turned into memes as part of SXSW culture. This year, I slummed with Scumbag Steve and held Grumpy Cat. Memes literally came to life, screwing up any remaining boundaries between what’s physical and what’s digital.
Adweek
The Winners and Losers of SXSW
Cited in infographic: “In many ways, Eventbrite has become the killer app here.”
Adweek
Agency Execs’ Favorite SXSW Hot Spots
David Berkowitz, 360i’s vp of emerging media, based in New York:
Lamberts Downtown Barbecue: It’s a misnomer because this isn’t real barbecue, but it is great nouveau Texan cuisine, and the one spot I always return to every year. They make a mean cocktail, too. As an added bonus, it’s one of the only great downtown restaurants on OpenTable, which comes in handy when planning to meet clients in advance.
Ad Age
Is There Still a Reason for Digital Agencies at SXSW?
Other digital agencies see brand interest in SXSW as a net positive for the industry. According to David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at digital agency 360i, the proliferation of tech brands needs digital agencies more than ever. “There isn’t necessarily one big thing for brands to focus on but rather diving into what a hundred different people are working on,” he said. “That requires filtration and curation, and that’s precisely where great agencies shine; weeding out the noise and tuning their clients into what matters for them.”
MediaPost
Redefining the Meaning of Housewarming with Yext
Having David at your event is like getting a stamp of approval from the Internet.
Mashable
12 Brilliant Sketches Illustrate SXSW Keynotes
Patrick Ashamalla’s sketches include one of my session on Games: Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere
Crowdsourcing Week blog
David Berkowitz: Crowdsourcing Is and Isn’t for Everyone
(featured Q&A)
Crowdsourcing Week interviewed David Berkowitz, Vice President of Emerging Media with digital marketing agency 360i, where he develops social media and mobile marketing programs for Fortune 500 businesses and leading brands.
Associated Press
Live Action: Twitter Grabs Super Bowl Spotlight
David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i, which worked on the Oreo campaign, says Twitter has done a good job tying itself into major television events.
“If you look at (Twitter’s) trending topics any day especially during prime time or major events, they’re heavily fueled by television,” he says. “So TV is responsible for Twitter’s growth in general.”
He thinks Twitter has done a better job than other social media sites like Tumblr and Pinterest in proving it’s the place to be when it comes to talking about big events online.
“A large part of it right now is just showing this is where the conversation is happening and building their brand around that,” he says. “Even with other very successful social media sites, no one is better at conversation than Twitter.”
Associated Press
Oh The Drama! Super Bowl Ads Go Epic
“I could watch the Samsung ad over and over again,” said David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i. “It’s as good as any Seth Rogen movie.”
Social Media Week blog
5 Minutes with David Berkowitz
Recently we sat down with with David Berkowitz, Vice President of Emerging Media at 360i, and an Advisory Board Member for Social Media Week NYC. Here’s what he had to say…
The Verge
Why Pinterest Marketers are Going Rogue
“It is more commercial at its outset than pretty much any other social network or platform,” 360i’s David Berkowitz told The Verge. “It’s all about sharing things people love.”
“There’s a real need to work with these companies,” Berkowitz told us, “but you can’t plan on signing too long a contract with them, because you don’t know how long they’re going to be around.”
Ad Age
Vine Causes Excitement, Skepticism in the Ad World
“Some of our clients are getting really excited about it, and it’s amazing it’s taken off so fast,” said David Berkowitz, VP-emerging media at digital agency 360i. He noted that, on Friday, the agency was working with several clients on developing Vine videos that could be released by the end of the day.
Mr. Berkowitz posted a frenetic Vine video of his own this morning to exhibit the medium’s potential. Incorporating both still photos and video into concise six-second messages allows brands to tell new kinds of stories, he said.
Whether users stick around will be key to Vine’s viability as both a marketing channel and potential new revenue stream for Twitter.
“The initial hype is going to die down in a week,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “I think people are still going to use it for a little while. Six months from now, I don’t know. That’s the test.”
ClickZ
Marketers Search for Mobile Clarity at CES
Agencies, marketers and publishers all need to understand how these devices are being used, or when users are shifting from one to another, said David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i, a digital marketing agency.
Digiday
What Agencies Learned at CES
David Berkowitz, VP emerging media, 360i
The biggest trend for me: the geeky, techie trend of the Internet of things has transitioned into the more consumer-friendly “connected devices” and “connected home.” People don’t rationally want all their possessions to connect to the Internet, but they do want their devices to work well together. This CES finally paid as much attention to the consumer as it did to the electronics.
Adweek
Sizing up the CES Crapshoot
“From the marketer side, most of what’s on the show floor actually isn’t that interesting,” added David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at 360i.
“You just finished putting the previous year to bed and want to figure out what’s exciting in the year ahead,” Berkowitz said. “CES is a good place to do so and not just talk about things but experience a lot of it.”
Even though the event may not be the place for a trove of game-changing reveals, it remains a premier showcase for innovative uses of technology, among them connected devices, as Berkowitz pointed out. Since every home isn’t outfitted with Microsoft’s Xbox and since Apple has yet to corner the market, there’s still plenty of room for other players—Samsung, for one possibility—to show off their innovations.
Digiday
The CES Survival Guide for Agencies
Choose Your Footwear Wisely
Unlike other some events in the media calendar such as Cannes, fashion follows function at CES. Long days touring the exhibition floor, waiting for cars, and getting “lost” in casino lobbies mean sensible shoes are a must. “This is not a show where you want to be a slave to fashion,” says David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at 360i. “You can literally walk a mile inside a casino just to find a meeting room or spend more than an hour standing in a single cab line. Wear comfortable shoes!” Other feet-related tips include switching socks half way through the day to reenergize and stopping for a pit-stop massage at one of the strip’s hotel spas.
The Verge
Social Advertisers Spooked by Instagram Backlash
If users are worried about their photos being used in ads… that’s happening already. 360i’s David Berkowitz pointed us to this Ben & Jerry’s campaign as an industry model. In November, the ice cream company asked its 120,000 Instagram followers to use a special “Capture Euphoria” hashtag, and then repurposed those pictures for local ad campaigns. “It’s all in the parameters of their campaign,” Berkowitz said, “so it’s very clear that’s what they’re doing.” Instagram shows dozens of other examples on their own help page, repurposing user photos with a certain hashtag for an interactive map or for a real-time slideshow at a concert. The hashtag is key because brands want the social crediblity that comes with it, They don’t want the actual photos; they just like the act of giving them up. … As Berkowitz put it, “these are things that marketers really want. They always want better analytics. Any kind of data that they can get out of these services is a huge win for them.”
Digiday
What Agency Execs Say Won’t Happen in 2012
Storytelling will stop being used as a way to cover for ideas with no substance. Storytelling was one of the big buzzwords of 2012. Agency folks love it, as what could make us feel more creative than telling stories? But we can’t forget that we have jobs to do. One of those jobs is to tell the stories the brands already created and make those stories relevant for new consumers. Another is to achieve clients’ mutually agreed-upon objectives, and a story is only great if it makes progress toward those objectives. We will keep telling stories, as great stories spread, but we can’t get so gaga over storytelling that we forget about the work we need to do each day.
ExactTarget
Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013 (report download / infographic summary)
“By the end of 2013, marketers will need to engage in serious scenario planning to assess how 3D printing may impact their businesses.”
Heidi Cohen’s blog
2012’s Biggest Marketing Surprises
Nike. Its success with Fuelband, followed by further innovations such as its Xbox Kinect workout program, demonstrated just how ready that brand is to lead in a digitally-driven world. David Berkowitz – 360i, @DBerkowitz
Heidi Cohen’s blog
Top Marketing Fails of 2012
The U.S. Olympic Committee supplying Team USA’s athletes with Ralph Lauren uniforms made in China was particularly shortsighted. This happened during an election year where there was constant conversation about bringing back more manufacturing to America to lower unemployment. This should have been avoided, it was an unfortunate distraction from the inspiring American performances at the Games, and it’s a reminder that brands must think about every detail. David Berkowitz – 360i, @DBerkowitz
MediaPost
Social Leaves the Silo
Social data, says David Berkowitz, V.P. director of emerging media at Dentsu’s 360i, is “a way to monetize everything that’s happening on the Web.”
MediaPost
Foursquare Redesign Promotes Local Search
Having to sign up to get access to that local information, though, was something of a barrier. “Now, Foursquare has a lot of data and recommendations from its user base, especially in larger cities, so it can serve as a guide for others,” said David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital agency 360i. The challenge for Foursquare is that it lags rivals like Yelp and Google, especially in highlighting pithy recommendations and reviews.
Google acquired Zagat last year to upgrade its local search offering. “With Foursquare turning into a local search property, it runs the risk of being an also-ran in a crowded field,” said Berkowitz. At the same time, Yelp has pushed more into Foursquare’s territory, unveiling a more social-centric site in August with new features, including a newsfeed showing friends’ activities on the site like comments and check-ins.
Berkowitz says marketers will need to more closely evaluate Foursquare as a potentially growing destination for location-based search. Foursquare.com (desktop only) drew just 2.5 million unique visitors in September, compared to 33.4 million for Yelp.com, according to comScore data. Foursquare, however, boasts 25 million registered users overall.
Sprout Insights
6 Inspiring Social Media Marketers to Follow on Twitter
David Berkowitz, vice-president of emerging media with digital marketing agency 360i, may be one of the most conversational social media professionals on Twitter. Like Jennifer Kane, he is always quick to respond to a direct mention or to thank someone for a retweet. And with more than 18,000 followers, that ends up being a heavy volume of post
All those tweets show a marketing professional who is using Twitter wisely — both to reach out to new people and to cultivate existing relationships. It’s inspiring to see how well he can connect with other industry leaders on this platform and engage in serious conversations within the constraints of 140 characters.
Adweek
Agency Execs Team to Form Startup Council
That’s according to Darren Herman, founder and managing director at Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners’ investment arm kbs+p Ventures and chief digital media officer at The Media Kitchen. So Herman, Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer, 360i vp of emerging media David Berkowitz and Anthem Worldwide svp of emerging platforms Mark Silva have joined together to form the Technology, Advertising and Startup Council (TASC)…. Berkowitz said startups “tend to get either too much attention from brands and agencies or too little.”
MediaPost
The Berkowitz Guide to Creating Content That Matters
(from an overly kind post by Gord Hotchkiss reflecting on my writing)
I would urge you to take the time to read David’s column. I’ve been talking a lot lately about the importance of content creation. In the new information economy, content is currency. We all have to start thinking like publishers. And that means that many of us will have to create content. David’s lessons are valuable ones.
One of the thing’s I’ve most admired about David is his ability to write both from his heart and his head. He has a keen intellect, but he’s also a good and decent person, and both qualities shine through in his writing. Being genuine is an often-overlooked gift.
Ad Age
Muddled Marketing Saves ‘the Cloud’ from Backlash
“There’s all kinds of minefields here,” said Dave Berkowitz, VP at digital marketing agency 360i. “Security is a very real issue, and it’s often so technical that it’s hard to understand.”
Huffington Post
NY Tech Scene: Rising
Berkowitz told NY Biz Journal that startups working with agencies for the first are often unsure of the nuances within agency positions, making it difficult for them to target the right person to meet their needs. “A strategist or planner may mean very different things, even at agencies that seem similar on the surface,” Berkowitz said. “Sometimes all it takes for a startup to break through is having enough self-awareness to ask questions and try to learn more.”
ClickZ
Twitter API Changes Will Ease Brand-to-Consumer Connection
“Marketers benefit the most from Twitter’s changes. First, Twitter will soon own almost all of the Twitter-related ad inventory that matters so it can offer even more scale, along with quality control,” David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at digital agency 360i, wrote in response to questions. “Then, with Certified Products, marketers can choose from a handful of trusted vendors, rather than sending an RFP that could potentially involve dozens of companies. Marketers don’t need as many options. They want something that works. And if Twitter acquired what it considers the best of the certified products and offered those products itself, most marketers would like that even more.”
Prior to these changes, a large percentage of Twitter’s audience could use third-party applications without ever using a Twitter-branded service, Berkowitz noted. “No other social publishing service was like this. A lot of apps replaced the need to ever go to Twitter. Now Twitter has the users, and it has the data. And marketers can manage their programs with a handful of third parties that owe their entire existence to Twitter, so they have to play by Twitter’s rules and deliver a strong enough experience.”
“For marketers it should be a net positive as less fragmentation will make it easier to reach Twitter users through its advertising offerings,” Berkowitz added. “Twitter has already set some standards around measuring the performance of ads and tweets. These moves will help Twitter further establish standards and benchmarks…. The API changes and Certified Products are going to help the next generation of marketers get on board more easily and find a high enough baseline of quality when they get started.”
Valerie Brown’s Valeywood
Digital Leaders Profile – A Conversation with David Berkowitz
featured interview
Val: When it comes to brands that are most likely to innovate – How would you describe their DNA?
David: I wish I found the formula, but so much of it relies on the people working for those brands. More often than not, great people who like to learn, take chances, and pursue creative ideas wind up finding a way to break through. And if they can’t, they wind up somewhere else where they can do the great work that fulfills them.
L’Espresso
Bolla del Web: di chi è la colpa
Dall’altra, c’è che devono ancora assestare il proprio modello di business», dice David Berkowitz, uno dei massimi esperti di media digitali, con lezioni a Yale, New York University e Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Appunto: il problema non è solo finanziario, ma anche di sostanza.
«Zynga fa un business rischioso, largamente costruito sulle spalle di un altro business, quello di Facebook», aggiunge Berkowitz
Ci sta già tentando, puntando su pagamenti e-commerce e agendo anche come concessionaria pubblicitaria nei confronti di siti terzi. Ma ancora non va come vorrebbe», dice Berkowitz.
MediaPost
Cinemagram Draws Brands to Remixes
Digital agency 360i spotlighted Cinemagram in its latest Startup Outlook report, which offers advice on how brands can take advantage of emerging technologies and platforms. The study, which also highlighted other mobile startups like Kiip and Square, recommends Cinemagram as tool for driving content marketing programs. “It works especially well for brands on Tumblr, since the animated images embed perfectly,” it stated.
Forbes
Marketers Send Facebook Message in Q2: Show Us
It’s not that Facebook did badly on the sales front. It exceeded admittedly dampened expectations, not to mention hitting the Street’s profit target. Nor do the folks who write the checks to run ads on Facebook spend much time watching FB on the stock ticker. “Whether the stock is up or down is not a big concern,” says David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at Japanese ad giant Dentsu‘s digital agency 360i.
Agency leaders such as Berkowitz and Pidgeon like a lot of what they see Facebook doing with mobile ads and the Facebook Ad Exchange. The exchange, for instance, says Pidgeon, is a “concept that advertisers are confident with.”
But “there’s a lot more that marketers need from Facebook,” says Berkowitz. He points to the ad that appears when users log out of Facebook (rare as that may be), which is the closest thing to a traditional display ad that Facebook offers. But Berkowitz says that while no one thinks such ads will work on more prominent pages such as the home page, there should be more opportunities to use creative that agencies are accustomed to elsewhere on the Web. “They do need to listen to what marketers want,” he says.
While Facebook so far looks unlikely to budge on anything that looks like it might clutter up pages or interrupt what people are doing on the site, an even bigger issue is how to measure the results of the ads it does offer. “They have a lot of work to do to prove the value of their advertising,” says Berkowitz. Facebook is rapidly marshaling evidence from comScore, Nielsen, and a raft of case studies, but analytics tools are still not sufficient to satisfy marketers accustomed to metrics for established ads that can draw a straight line from ad to sales, he says.
Digiday
Brands Keep Trying at Web Series
According to David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at 360i, which worked with Dentyne on “Split2Fit,” marketers that launch Web video series are trying to generate long-term engagement. “When marketers dive in, they must be prepared to spend at least as much time planning and executing on the promotional strategy for the content as they do creating it,” he said.
Adweek
Facebook Decentralizes Mobile Team in Strategic Move
Marketers had been wanting to run ads within the News Feed, so “it’s not surprising that initial reports are showing that ads are performing so well,” said David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at 360i. And if clients see success with mobile ads on Facebook, it could spike their interest in mobile marketing in general “because Facebook is such a time-suck for people,” he said.
Q2 2012 is the first period during which Facebook generated revenue from mobile, and Berkowitz said he hopes to hear more about its performance during this afternoon’s earnings. “I’m very curious to see how much they dive into mobile in detail and what they’re going to break out, not just impressions but performance and how well those match up with other reports that have been out there. In general, marketers are looking for more justification for their ad spending,” he said.
Altimeter Group
The Converged Media Imperative (research report)
360i’s VP of Emerging Media, David Berkowitz identifies missed opportunities by lack of integration and planning: “You have paid media that’s not nimble enough to tap into what people are talking about and what the brand’s editorial calendar is focused on… A lot of it is having the plan looking ahead. A plan that allows for agility and creating a degree of structure for flexibility.”
San Francisco Chronicle
LinkedIn Password Breach Erodes Confidence
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing firm 360i, said LinkedIn’s brand identity should be able to weather the problem because it has so far built a reputation for being a “real model for privacy standards.”
“The worst thing companies do in these situations is fall silent,” Berkowitz said. “They’ve been able to get their side of the story out, and that’s proven very helpful.”
LA Times
Facebook Touts Study Showing Advertising On Its Site Is Effective
“Facebook is trying to do a better job of telling its story,” said David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital marketing agency 360i. “This is definitely going to be one of the more widely read studies to come out.”
Mashable
Why Sweden Was Right to Hand Over Its Twitter Account
Seeing the clash of sensibilities on Twitter may not be pretty, but it is transparent and bold. At the very least, you can’t deny that it has raised awareness via its cringe factor. “It’s so amazing to watch,” says David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital agency 360i. “I’m so happy it’s not my country.”
MediaPost
Apple’s Siri Expands Voice Search to Cars, iPad
On the mobile device, David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital agency 360i, believes voice search will generate fewer impressions, but much higher conversion rates. There is less opportunity to make a first impression in mobile search, compared with desktop, he says, noting that voice search will require marketers to have new skill sets for both paid search and search engine optimization.
MediaPost
Twitter Updates May Help Brands Monetize Content
But expanded Tweets also have the advantage for Twitter of keeping people on the site longer if they don’t click through to a linked site or landing page. “Some brands may be reluctant to take part and allow people to consume media entirely within Twitter rather than at their own sites, where such interactions can be better monetized,” noted David Berkowitz, VP, emerging media at digital agency 360i.
Digiday
Digital Media Hacks
Taming the Email Monster: David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media, 360i
One favorite service is Boomerang for Outlook. It allows me to get an email out of my main inbox and then return it at a later date. Often, I do this when I want to remind myself to follow up scheduling a meeting with someone, or I want to review something in greater detail once a deadline is completed. When used selectively, it then allows me to keep more time-sensitive messages in my inbox.
The Wall Street Journal
Reasons to Buy Facebook, After the Hype Fades
Facebook only began this year to allow ads directly in users’ “news feed,” and to permit advertisers to pay to make sure their ads are seen by those they wish to reach. And the social media giant has a Trojan horse in Facebook Connect, argues David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i. The tool, launched in 2008, allows more than 9 million other websites and mobile apps to let their users log in using Facebook. That enables them to use social information that Facebook has captured about the user to, for instance, show what their friends “like” on the site. Facebook could go a step further and also allow sites that use Connect to incorporate individual user data into their advertising systems.
Digiday
Agencies Play Startup Matchmakers
Subject of feature story
“This was already a big part of my job, but now what we’re trying to do is figure out how to package this information in a way that benefits our clients and hopefully the rest of the industry,” said 360i vp of emerging media David Berkowitz, who is leading the effort.
“Brands are starting to look for this type of thing,” said Berkowitz. “It’s an acknowledgement that new startups are growing at such as rate that brands are falling further behind and don’t have time to manage this stuff.”
“This is about focusing on what we do best and providing strategic guidance to our clients,” he said. “It’s not about creating a whole new business model.”
That said, Berkowitz acknowledged that 360i’s parent company, Dentsu, may well end up investing in some capacity in companies it helps unearth and evaluate, pointing to existing financial relationships the holding company has with vendors such as Expion.
“If it happens, that’s more likely to be the model,” he said. “There was a lot of conversation on what role we wanted to play, but that’s got to be a possibility based on what they’re already doing.”
NY Convergence
New Program from 360i Looks to Match Startups with Brands
David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media for 360i, told Digiday, “now what we’re trying to do is figure out how to package this information in a way that benefits our clients and hopefully the rest of the industry.” According to Digiday the report will evaluate “factors such as their value for marketers, prominence, applicability, and ingenuity.”
Direct Marketing News
Facebook IPO Goes Public, Company Faces New Challenges
“The IPO means Facebook will have to pay more attention to its marketers because that’s where the money is coming from,” said David Berkowitz,360i‘s VP of emerging media. “Historically, marketers have needed Facebook more than it has needed marketers, but now the tables have turned and marketers are going to demand more accountability.”
One of the challenges Facebook faces is that brands are still unclear what the true value of Facebook is, in particular the value of a fan. Earlier this week General Motors dropped its Facebook ads, stating the ads had low consumer impact. Berkowitz said Facebook can improve its offering through several ways, including improving its analytics, its search capabilities and potentially becoming an ad network similar to Google. Improving on mobile is also an option as Facebook has already stated in its SEC filing that mobile remains a weakness.
Facebook has around 150 million users in the US alone. Facebook also has more information about users than Google currently has, Berkowitz said. “Social advertising works and Facebook is in a position to show this better than any other company on the planet,” Berkowitz said. “It needs to focus more on what the value is and it needs to tie it to more ROI metrics.”
AdExchanger
Specific Media Plots (Yet Another) MySpace Comeback
Still, even if Specific Media and Myspace get their act together, that doesn’t automatically mean the benefits will materialize. “Cookie data is only valuable if there are active users,” noted David Berkowitz, VP emerging media at digital agency 360i, in an interview. “After 30 days, it’s not worth much, so that means you need an active audience. I could see some other user data possibly being useful, but data gets stale fast. If Myspace keeps going downhill, then Specific Media would have to pay too much to drive traffic there to make the cookie data worthwhile; it would be a cat chasing its tail.”
Second acts can happen, and many publishers and tech companies pivot all the time to stay relevant, 360i’s Berkowitz said, echoing comments from other ad shops.
“[Myspace] is hardly dead,” Berkowitz said. “One especially trying hurdle for MySpace is that it’s not just a destination – it’s meant to be a social property. That means that to thrive, its content needs to be shared. If a 22-year-old wants to tell all her friends about her favorite band’s new single, is she going to want to tell them to listen to it on Myspace, or Spotify, Rdio, or anywhere with some cultural cachet? Social media is all about projecting an image, and MySpace’s image looks weathered and rusty. It’s going to need more than a new coat of paint to restore its cachet.”
Sched.org
SXSW 2012 Report Card
Featured as most influential SXSW attendee
Huffington Post
Facebook’s Buying Instagram for $1 Billion: Twitter Reacts
Featured tweet
Fast Company’s Co.Create
The 9 Most Creative Uses of Pinterest
David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media for digital agency 360i, recalls introducing clients to Pinterest a year ago, noting how quickly the landscape has changed for brands on the platform. “It was clear that it was inspiring people in a way that few technologies or media properties ever had before,” he says. “Now it’s something that almost all brands want to discuss–or at least learn more about.”
Berkowitz warns, however, that not all brands are primed to pin.
“Pinterest is at the point where every marketer needs to at least decide whether it makes sense for them and how they might best leverage it,” he says. “Pinterest connects inspiration directly to purchase, so e-commerce brands on the site such as Whole Foods are well positioned to benefit from it.”
Says Berkowitz, “Scale is one of the least important factors marketers should consider when evaluating emerging platforms, because it’s a moving target. MySpace and Bebo crashed about as quickly as Pinterest and Instagram soared. Marketers should look at other factors, such as how relevant the platform is to their brand and how well their brands can provide value for that platform’s users.”
While a built-in referral model means Pinterest is well positioned to drive sales, brands shouldn’t expect to amass millions of followers as quickly as they might expect. “Marketers need to figure out how they’ll continually tap earned, owned, and potentially paid media channels to build up their follower base over the long term. Given Pinterest’s inevitable growth in making it easier for brands to communicate with their followers, marketers that decide to participate and figure out how to provide value will have a strong position in the near future.”
Allvoices
Marketers find success with Facebook and Twitter
Berkowitz said a combination of paid and earned media were the key to successful social campaigns. “The proliferation of content across social hotspots like Facebook and Twitter makes it tough for brands to stand out,” he said. Berkowitz said his clients had sponsored stories on television shows and tracked their reach using hashtags on Twitter.
He said planning, execution and measurement were the “pillars” of the integrated approach to Internet marketing.
MediaPost
Facebook, Instagram, and the IPO
In yesterday’s MediaPost “Social Media Insider,” David Berkowitz eloquently wrote of the recent purchase of Instagram by Facebook under the headline “Facebook Acquires Itself.”
I recommend reading the article as it neatly summarizes why the purchase is less about the innate properties and value of Instagram, than about the fact the purchase was basically a defensive move on the part of Facebook.
eMarketer
Report: Google+ – Influencing the Integration of Search and Social
Featured quote: “For marketers, the biggest thing it can provide is data. Google has so much of that, and Analytics is such a good product that there is a lot that it can offer. For users, it just needs to have that value proposition. Google’s trying to teach people so much about what they can do with Google+, and there is a learning curve. Learning the vocabulary of Circles and Hangouts and +1, it is a lot of work, even if it leads to a pretty good experience in the end. There are reasons why certain people have become totally hooked on it and wish they could give up other social sites if only their friends would use Google+.”
Digiday
Here Comes the iPad Magazine
But according to David Berkowitz, vp of emerging platforms at digital agency 360i, regardless of the creative possibilities the product might present, the iPad-centric approach is yet to be proven from an audience standpoint. “It’s not clear whether people really want to consume media this way. Media companies that have fared the best tend to be accessible across any device, and often in various forms of online and offline media,” he said, but added that he’s curious to see how the product evolves.
Digiday
Smart Stats: Agency Trading Desks Aren’t Transparent
David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i: “Brands generally have been quick studies when it comes to social media marketing. Five years ago, few marketers knew what social media was, and fewer still had any sense of how to use it to build relationships with their customers. Now, moms — a highly coveted consumer segment — are so appreciative of what marketers are doing that it turns out they wish brands communicated even more frequently. This is a major achievement for marketers, and it should inspire them to keep doing more to figure out what their target audiences want and how to use social media to directly involve them.”
Reuters
Startups Navigate the Clutter at SXSW Tech Show
Even for companies that capture the crowd’s imagination, there is no guarantee the buzz will last, emerging-media marketing specialist David Berkowitz wrote in a blog post titled “Why There Won’t Be Another Twitter at SXSW.”
He cited many SXSW successes that did not fully live up to their potential afterward, including group-messaging service Beluga and contact-service Hashable.
Digiday
5 Great Digital Media Exec Blogs
MarketersStudio.com featured
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Expected to Unveil Plan for Mobile Ads
“There has never been a media property, to my knowledge, with 400 million users and no revenue model,” said analyst David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media for digital-marketing agency 360i. “The only form of media that has come close is the Bible, but at least that gets you to church to pay dues. Facebook will undoubtedly pursue other revenue streams, but mobile advertising will need to be one of them.”
Berkowitz also expects Facebook to start running ads “that appear above or within the news feed. That will require extra caution with consumers, given that this is a change from how ads have run before, and it might explain why Facebook has taken so long to run mobile ads.”
Daily Mail (UK)
Facebook Tipped to Roll Out Advertising Programme for Mobile Apps
Analyst David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media for digital-marketing agency 360i told the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘There has never been a media property, to my knowledge, with 400 million users and no revenue model.
‘The only form of media that has come close is the Bible, but at least that gets you to church to pay dues. Facebook will undoubtedly pursue other revenue streams, but mobile advertising will need to be one of them.’
Associated Press
Super Bowl Advertisers Go After Second Screens
To create buzz, it’s no longer enough for marketers to simply get people talking at the water cooler the morning after the game. They also want to engage the people who like reacting to big events like the Super Bowl by posting on Twitter or Facebook or texting their friends, says David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i.
“People are glued to their digital devices, sometimes sharing far more that way than they are with others in the same room,” says Berkowitz, whose firm created Coke’s online Super Bowl campaign. “Being social means something very different now.”
Mashable
RIM Backtracks After Twitter Users Hijack Hashtags
David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital agency 360i, says brands with big vulnerabilities like RIM should avoid hashtag campaigns. “Hashtags are ripe for brandjacking, but some brands are more ripe for getting their hashtags jacked than others, Berkowitz says, adding that Apple and Virgin would be unlikely to suffer the same fate. “RIM is in a tailspin,” says Berkowitz. “It’s tough to do much with their marketing when their business is in transition, to put it mildly.”
The hashtag itself was another problem. Says Berkowitz: “If Delta does a campaign to win a free flight and uses #flydeltafree, it won’t be attacked in the same way as if it uses #whyilovedelta that invites sarcasm.”
Adweek
Facebook Search Found Fundamentally Lacking, Say Experts
David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at digital agency 360i, followed Met Life’s call to action but found the company’s Facebook page hard to find despite the brand “driving people to Facebook in perhaps the most visible ad it will ever run,” he says. Instead of Met Life’s page topping the search results, Berkowitz said the listings were littered with “nothing at all that looks remotely like [the] brand.”
“I’d say Facebook search is broken, but it was never working right to begin with,” said Berkowitz.
Of course brands can sidestep the issue by featuring their Facebook vanity URLs in the TV ads—e.g. Bud Light’s “Rescue Dog” spot which explicitly directed consumers to Facebook.com/budlight. But Berkowitz said the issue of Facebook’s search algorithm persists.
“I’m really surprised, given that Microsoft is one of [Facebook’s] earliest investors and most ingrained partners they’ve got, how search on Facebook is such an afterthought,” said Berkowitz. Does Microsoft’s search technology actually power Facebook’s search? A Facebook rep couldn’t say.
Facebook also declined to discuss specifics of its search algorithm, but a spokesperson said search results differ by user according to the that individual’s social relevance. That means, theoretically, one person searching for Doritos Facebook page could have more luck than someone else, based on their own social graph.
However, it’s important note that plenty of people are finding their way to Facebook’s brand pages with relative ease. That’s because, though Facebook’s search bar may not effectively deliver users to a brand’s page as it should, its impact has been negligible enough because consumers usually search for Facebook pages through Google instead of Facebook, said Berkowitz.
“This problem has been part of Facebook for so long that we don’t hear [complaints] a lot from our clients,” said Berkowitz. “If we were convinced millions of people were searching for our clients’ pages [through Facebook’s search bar], we would be raising hell. But it’s not going to be the most important way that people are finding brands’ pages,” he said.
Having said that, Berkowitz doesn’t think it’s an issue Facebook can tolerate for long because it’s a fundamental feature.“Presumably with all the capital they’ll be raising soon, they can dedicate some engineering time to this and make this at least adequate because that would be a step up,” he said.
Onward Search
Social Media Career Advice from Leading Marketers
“Use social media to establish your own voice and interact with professionals you find interesting. Follow, subscribe to, and respond to others. Executives active with social media will notice who interacts with them, especially if they have something interesting to say.”
L’Espresso by La Repubblica
Perché Pinterest Batte Facebook
“E’ una delle più grandi storie di successo di Internet e sta ispirando le passioni delle persone più di ogni altra cosa abbia mai visto sul Web”, riassume David Berkowitz, uno dei massimi esperti di media digitali, che insegna tra l’altro a Yale, New York University e al Mit (Massachussets Institute of Technology).
Translation (via Google Translate)
Why Pinterest Beats Facebook
“It’s one of the biggest success stories of the Internet and is inspiring the passions of the people more than anything else I have ever seen on the Web,” summarizes David Berkowitz, one of the leading experts in digital media, which teaches, among other things Yale University, New York University and at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Digiday
Can Reddit Turn Its Popularity into a Big Business?
“To even think the client should be on Reddit is not your standard media buy,” David Berkowitz, vp of emerging media at digital agency 360i, said. “You have to know the site inside and out; you have to search the site for anything said about the client’s products, anything remotely in that ballpark.”
One of the ways brands are getting involved in the site is through Reddit’s AMAs, or Ask Me Anythings. Instead of running ads on the site, USA Network did an AMA with Bruce Campbell star of the USA Network’s “Burn Notice.” After seeing demand for Campbell from the Reddit audience and weighing the pros and cons of opening Campbell – and by association, USA – to the audience, the network gave the green light. Then all through the segment as Campbell answered questions, USA was able to promote a special episode of “Burn Notice.” The network worked with Reddit to make sure there could be some plug but that it would be respectful to the audience.
“You have to do your homework,” said Berkowitz. “You should really spend time reviewing the ads on there and the idea that ads become part of the content and that they are discussed like any other content on the site.”
Social Media Week blog
Spotlight: Advisory Board Member David Berkowitz
(featured interview)
David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) is Vice President of Emerging Media for 360i, the digital marketing agency labeled one of the Best Places to Work by Advertising Age (2011) and Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Advertising Companies. David is partially responsible for these accolades. His weekly breakfast brainstorms, fondly referred to as “Bagels with Berky,” provide common ground for employees to collaborate and discuss the latest trends. David, like 360i, is committed to staying a step ahead of the digital era and helping leading brands gain competitive edge through social media and mobile marketing programs.
Mashable
Top 6 Social Media Marketing trends of 2011
The big new launch of 2011 may be Color, a company that got “$41 million in funding for nothing,” in the words of David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media with 360i, a digital marketing firm….
Groupon’s IPO eventually turned out to be successful, at least at first. But in the words of David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i, “Ultimately there was the realization that it’s more about couponing 2.0 and not the next coming of commerce.”
Forbes
Facebook’s Hackathon Culture
360i‘s Digital Veep of Emerging Media David Berkowitz (RT: 2:33) whose company hosted the event. His clients are “beyond why social matters,” and are asking “what’s the value for me.”
eMarketer
Driving CPG Sales Online (research report)
“Ecommerce will become tied to traditional media, like print and television, where people are at home consuming this media, and then see an ad for it. We’ll see a lot more experimentation with making it very easy for people to buy those products through traditional media. Things are not going to drastically change overnight, but now it’s totally possible to use something like Shazam to link a TV commercial with a retail store where someone can then go on their tablet or mobile phone and make a purchase. This can also be a real opportunity, even if it will be experimental for the next year or so.”
LifeHealthPro
5 Ways to Go Mobile With Your Message
Interactive TV. According to digital marketing expert David Berkowitz, “Almost all mobile Internet users access their mobile devices while watching TV, and most of that activity involves socializing.” Financial professionals should capitalize on this fact and interact with followers during financial TV shows. Facilitate an online chat session during a Suze Orman show or while Jim Cramer talks about his “Mad Money.”
Awareness
2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions
featured business & marketing leader; one of several mentions is below
“In 2012 marketers are going to focus more on the role mobile plays in social. Facebook will reach a milestone with more than half of its users accessing it from mobile deivces, and that will be a major driver of interest in mobile social media.”
Heidi Cohen’s blog
9 Experts Choose 2011’s Top Marketing Events & Campaigns
The most important digital marketing event of 2011 was the launch of Google+. This is true regardless of its user and usage metrics. There are two reasons for this. First, Google provided the first social media marketing platform that can directly impact marketing results in natural search, paid search, and display advertising. Nothing has come close before, and no one has the potential to do that as well as Google. Second, Google+ is integrated across just about all of Google’s offerings by now, so it’s a sign of how social media is so much bigger than a networking site. David Berkowitz – 360i
, @DBerkowitz
The Wall Street Journal
Google +1 Looks to Crash Facebook Gathering
Even as Facebook is expected to increase revenue 114%, to $4.3 billion, this year, according to research firm eMarketer, one avenue for future growth could be syndicating such ads to other sites, argues David Berkowitz, vice president of Emerging Media at online-ad firm 360i.
Mashable
Google Brand Pages are the “Wild West” for Now
David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i and one of the people behind what will eventually be Coca-Cola’s real Google+ brand page, says that he expects Google to clamp down on fake brand sites. “It’s the wild west right now,” he says. “They made it so open.”
Ad Age
Brands Start to Test Hangouts on Their Google+ Pages
David Berkowitz, VP-emerging media at 360i, observed that video is often difficult for brands and agencies to execute well, especially when the content is around a vertical like consumer packaged goods as opposed to entertainment. But he also noted that Hangouts open the door to new storytelling possibilities.
“If you sit down with community managers and see what they have to do to come up with something to say every single day across Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms, anything you can do that opens up possibilities is really, really welcome,” he said.
Heidi Cohen’s blog
What is Social Commerce?
“Social commerce can be defined very broadly or narrowly. In the broad sense, social commerce is how marketers leverage social media to influence consumers’ shopping behavior, spanning product consideration, purchase intent, the transaction itself, and post-transaction advocacy and retention. In a narrower definition, social commerce involves tapping social media with the goal of increasing transactions, whether through a marketer’s digital presence or other social media properties. Depending on the marketer’s goals and interests, discussions and strategies around social commerce can be broader or narrower, and it’s quite possible that social commerce will be used more to indicate the former and social shopping to indicate the latter.” David Berkowitz – 360i
Lead Digital (Germany)
New Yorker Digitalexperte: Google+ bietet Brands große Vorteile
Facebook fürs Private. Google + für Brands: So sieht David Berkowitz, VP Emerging Media bei der New Yorker Digitalagentur 360i, die künftige Rollenverteilung der Social Networks. „Google+ ist für mich eine bessere Alternative zu Twitter, um mich an öffentlichen Diskussionen zu beteiligen oder meine diversen Circles mit verschiedenen Inhalten zu versorgen“, sagt er im Chat mit Junction App, die zum Verlag Werben & Verkaufen gehört. Im Gegensatz zum privateren Facebook bieten die Circles daher gerade für Unternehmen eine gute Möglichkeit, sich mit seinen Zielgruppen zu vernetzen. Als gelungene Beispiele hebt er H&M, Amazon und Dallas Cowboys hervor.
Digiday
The QR Code Racket
Even agency execs — among whom the technology was once the talk of the town – are beginning to rethink their approaches to it, but they maintain there can be value behind the codes if implemented correctly. 360i is currently working on guidelines designed to educate its clients on good and bad uses, for example.
“They’re usually not well thought out, and that’s the biggest knock on them. If they were being run better, we wouldn’t need as much of a debate. … They’re being used in a slap-dash manner,” said the agency’s director of emerging platforms, David Berkowitz.
In spite of that, agencies maintain that the codes can prove successful for certain brands and marketers, provided they think through what value is being provided to the consumer. Product packaging, for example, provides the perfect opportunity to present consumers with product demos, recipes, and coupons.
“They’re just so easy to create, and that’s making the problem worse,” Berkowitz said, explaining why the codes are now pasted all over out-of-home and print ads. “Marketers need to invest more in the strategy behind them,” he added, highlighting the continued use of codes in mediums they simply aren’t suited to, such as TV spots, which he described as “mind-bogglingly awful.”
Wachs, meanwhile, argued that SMS-based response mechanisms do a better job of providing a similar functionality and also enable the capture of users’ cellphone numbers for remarketing and CRM purposes. But your average SMS campaign isn’t going to excite a creative dreaming of Cannes Lions. Berkowitz dubs fuddy-duddy SMS as “probably the most underutilized marketing channel there is,” but cited the costs of implementing such a campaign.
The biggest problem QR codes face is consumer indifference, even confusion. Most smartphones don’t carry code scanners preinstalled, and most users are disinclined to download one just to scan a code they’ve seen on an ad. Even those that do will probably only scan one or two codes before the novelty wears off, so stats from measurement companies such as ComScore suggesting millions of consumers are scanning away on a regular basis should be taken with a grain of salt.
And, yes, the numbers will inevitably increase particularly as carriers and OS developers move towards bundling the software with handsets. Yet Berkowitz and Wachs agreed that adoption could continue to lag in spite of that trend. In fact, it might never happen on a grand scale.
“It might get easier to scan these codes, but, really, what’s the benefit?” Wachs said, adding, “The gimmick factor is soon going to dissipate.” Berkowitz agreed, stating, “It has to get really, really easy for this to become more of a mainstream technology.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Follows Twitter, Adds Subscribe Button
“Facebook is undoubtedly subscribing to Twitter and Google+,” said David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media for digital-marketing agency 360i. “You can bet that LinkedIn will offer this next, as LinkedIn already offers it for companies, and it’s a logical extension to apply it to people.”
In an e-mail, Berkowitz noted that Foursquare has also introduced a function to “follow” celebrities as a way to get around the location service’s 1,000-friend limit. And even though Facebook now has 750 million active users worldwide, the average of 130 friends per member hasn’t changed.
“While people have become more discerning with defining who their friends are, they’re also growing more comfortable sharing content online and a lot of that content is posted publicly,” he said. “The subscribe feature is a good option and one that will prevent a lot of people from feeling forced into relationships that feel closer digitally than they are in the real world.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Automoates “Smart List” of Friends
“Google+ validated the idea of friend lists, Katango delivered on automatic friend organization and now Facebook is benefiting from both,” said David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media for digital marketing agency 360i.
“Facebook can make Katango irrelevant overnight with the new friend organization, and for me at least, it’s a welcome return to the friend lists that (Facebook) seemed to abandon before Google+ came around,” Berkowitz said.
Insurance & Technology
What Makes a Great iPad App?
More than any functionality, the iPad’s biggest selling point is simple: its large, responsive touch screen. Unlike a smartphone, whose apps reflect the fact that it’s a utilitarian device worked with your thumbs, consumers expect a better experience on a tablet, according to David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at New York-based agency 360i.
“The iPad’s really a two-hand device rather than a one-hand device,” he says. In addition, people use the iPad differently from how they use a mobile phone — it’s not being whipped out on a whim to answer a pressing need.
“It’s something people are using at home, in the office,” Berkowitz says. As a result, “Certain location-based features matter less on the iPad. Other factors like content matter more. Images and video really work well, and that is what people enjoy.”…
And though the iPhone itself was challenged quickly by Android and other phone operating systems, another important point to remember is that the iPad is miles ahead of other tablet computers in terms of market penetration, 360i’s Berkowitz asserts. This means that the return on investment for iPad apps is likelier to be realized before there’s a need to transition the apps for other platforms.
“When you’re dealing with phones now, you’re dealing with this two-horse race between Apple and Google. You see all this back and forth and you don’t know what to focus on,” Berkowitz says. “But for tablets it’s pretty easy. It’s a safe bet that for the next year Apple will have 90 percent market share. There hasn’t been a compelling reason to buy an Android tablet.”
DM News
CPG Brands Dive Headfirst Into Digital Sphere
“If I was a brand manager at a CPG company, I’d have been reluctant to embrace digital until recently,” says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i, which works with a
number of CPG clients and says decreasing costs of technology overall and increasing willingness of consumers to buy online has changed this. “There is a lot more that CPGs now are doing, and in general with e-commerce that’s making this whole area much more appealing,” he said….
360i’s Berkowitz expects to see social and mobile marketing become more central to shoppers’ experience in brick-and-mortar CPG stores. “What I really wonder is, will technology keep getting so good that you can actually scan a store aisle for the products that your friends like, with a product label that says, ‘Five of your friends recommend this’?” asks Berkowitz. “It’s a bit like Minority Report, but the technology is already
almost there.”
ClickZ
Facebook: We’re Commited to Check-In Deals
David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media for 360i, lauded Facebook for diversifying the way it allows users to declare their whereabouts.
“Consider how many updates you see from your friends saying where they are and what they’re doing,” Berkowitz said. “Relatively few of those posts used check-ins, but there are constant location-based posts. Each weekend, my feed is full of people saying where they are, often posting pictures to capture the moment, and if it’s easy to tag a location within those posts, a significant share of users will likely do it.”
MediaPost
Facebook Kills Places — Is Deals Next?
David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at digital agency 360i, said Places never proved to a core part of the Facebook experience, like events and gaming. “Interestingly, Facebook will start to resemble Twitter more, where location is often shared to add context to posts, but there’s no standardized check-in activity,” he observed.
…Deals has hardly blown away social buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial. “The big question for Deals now is whether Facebook will continue to support it well enough to make the national rollout work,” said Berkowitz. “So far, Deals is tangential to the Facebook experience, and Facebook is indicating that anything on the sidelines will have to flourish or perish.”
Ad Age
For Facebook, A Mobile App to Challenge SMS
David Berkowitz, 360i‘s senior director of emerging media and innovation, believes this release is part of Facebook’s strategy of keeping the users it has happy. “Facebook is getting to the point that in certain countries — like the U.S. — there’s not going to be much more growth,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “Most people who were going to be on Facebook are already on it, so making things easier for users who are already on it is a smart way to go.”
Ad Age
What if Your $120K Tweet Rubs Elbow with Hitler and Rape Jokes?
There remains a big question: How will Twitter differentiate the meaningfully obscene from the pointlessly offensive? “It’s a tough call,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i. “But there should be some moderation. You want the platform to remain in the hands of the people. There are people who use Twitter in great, great ways but there are also a lot of jerks out there.”
San Francisco Chronicle
New Google+ Social Network Starts off Strong
Analyst David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at the digital marketing agency 360i, has been reviewing Google+ and “every five minutes I go back and forth between loving it and tiring of it.”
“Right now if you’re trying to get people to do something they’re doing on Facebook, there’s no need to switch over today if their friends aren’t there,” he said. “There are certain things that work well on Google+, but if you really start spending time there, you’ll realize you’re going to miss most of your friends’ updates (on Facebook) or them posting their baby’s pictures.”
He said Google+ could be more of an immediate threat to Twitter Inc., the San Francisco microblogging service that has about 200 million users around the world. Like Twitter, Google+ users can “follow” the postings of celebrities without creating a reciprocal relationship.
Yahoo! Scene
Beer Diplomacy Live!
Coverage of this Internet Week event
Scribe Media
Interview with David Berkowitz at OMMA Video
Fittingly, a video interview
Internet Retailer
Netflix CEO Friends Facebook
“Facebook will, of course, stay free, but subscription services could be an added revenue driver,” says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at online advertising agency 360i. “Combine Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of social dynamics with Reed Hastings’ monetization skills and one can only image what will unfold.”
Facebook has been exploring ways to offer entertainment, Berkowitz notes. That includes a test announced in March in which movie studio Warner Bros. made two popular movies available on Facebook, where consumers could pay to watch them with Facebook Credits, the social network’s own currency. “Rumors are also amassing about Facebook launching a music service,” Berkowitz says. “Lady Gaga alone has 39 million fans, and it’s hardly a leap for the network.”
eMarketer
Agencies say more cilents are interested in Android devices and SMS advertising
“SMS often gets overlooked, but the vast majority of users of all ages are texting,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital marketing agency360i, at the 2011 Public Relations Society of America’s Digital Impact Conference in May.
ClickZ
Mobile Promise and Problems – Agency Execs Weigh In
One of three featured execs at the Mobile Upfront in this video Q&A
MediaPost
Ad-On: Twitter Will Build Out Tweetdeck
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, believes the acquisition is mostly about consolidating inventory. “It’s in Twitter’s best interest to hold court over the user experience as much as it can because that’s how they are going to control ad targeting within the platform,” he said.
Although Twitter has been somewhat slow to monetize its network, Berkowitz said, there will come a time when they will need to move forward with more opportunities for advertisers. “A critical component of the success of its ad program will be to ensure there is consistent content and experience for the lion’s share of its users,” he said.
Mashable
The impact of the Social Web on Media Agencies
One of three featured guests
Digiday
The downside of content remixing
ITBusinessEdge
NFC Based E-Wallets Are Big – In Potential and Challenges
The bottom line is that what could turn out to be an intense new business sector is emerging, but has not yet taken shape. “It is a very messy time right now,” said David Berkowitz, the director of emerging media and innovation for 360i, a digital marketing agency. “It is an early time for NFC. A number of different players are very bullish about it [but] for NFC to become mainstream for mobile payments, there are so many different pieces that have to come together.”
Google’s strategy is pretty clear and direct: Get NFC in the handsets and get it into the payment devices in the stores. “Google’s twist on it looks like a ‘Google check out,’” Berkowitz said. “It won’t be used so much overnight. There is a learning curve for everyone. But it can be [a long-term] boost for them and an added threat to some of the other players, like the credit card companies.”
Daniel Blumberg’s Blog
How NFC Will Change Mobile
If not for a great short talk by David Berkowitz at South By Southwest, I could not have written my most recent post on how NFC will revolutionize the business card. Berkowitz is the Director of Emerging Media at the interactive agency 360i.
Berkowitz focused on how NFC (near field communication) will turn our smartphones into “digital wallets.” Along the way he also mentioned some of the cool ways NFC is being used now, why it’s much more secure than RFID, and how it will prevent “mayor cheating” on FourSquare and the like.
CNN Money
Facebook’s Sponsored Stories Turns Your Posts into Adssd
“Facebook’s latest advertising offering, Sponsored Stories, is characteristic of the company: bold, clever and lacking empathy,” digital marketing consultant David Berkowitz wrote in an op-ed for Mashable about the offering.
Mashable
Should You Name Your Startup After a Meme?
The Marketing Expert
As we mentioned before, the application of a meme to a marketing campaign is nothing new. Still, we began to wonder how successful these campaigns really were. David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, tells us that it’s a fine line when it comes to the marriage between marketing and memes.
“A lot of marketers can get publicity, but it’s not always good publicity,” he says. “Then there’s the trick of capitalizing on it. Do people remember that Microsoft did the Double Rainbow spot, and then do they know what product Microsoft was promoting? (Answer: Windows Live, which I had to Google –- I didn’t even Bing it.)”
“For Hipster, I’m especially curious if the site is ultimately hip, ironic, snarky, Brooklyn-esque, or in any way remotely related to its name,” he adds. “Hipster will probably do well attracting signups, based on the buzz I’m seeing already. But without any context, who knows if any of these people signing up will actually care about the site once it launches.”
Ad Age
Why LinkedIn is the Social Network That Will Never Die
So how does the social network fit into an ecosystem increasingly owned by Facebook? “The arrival of Facebook has made LinkedIn ever more important,” said David Berkowitz, senior director at 360i, adding that Facebook can never replace LinkedIn because the two are diametrically opposed in terms of their raison d’être. “From early on, LinkedIn was very professional — had a polish that felt safe for business, and they kept social networking to a minimum,” he said. On LinkedIn, you can’t do lots of “social things” such as post photos or tag your friends.
Heidi Cohen
2010’s Top 12 Social Media Experts
David Berkowitz. With Harry Potter like magic, David is on top of all of the latest technologies. He teaches us how to use social media’s tools to achieve marketing ends. As Senior Director of Emerging Media for 360i, David’s a social media whiz as well as a really sweet guy who’s always happy to help. He blogs at Inside The Marketer’s Studio.
Path Interactive
2011 Social Media Predictions with Path TV
Featured video interview
New York Magazine (NYmag.com)
Why Did Mark Zuckerberg Pay $20 for Entrepreneuer Sam Lessin?
AdAge‘s David Berkowitz speculates that with Drop.io’s background and Facebook recently allowing users to share high-definition photos, that feature will probably revolve around storing multimedia. Like Gmail before it, Facebook could become Internet users’ de facto storage center.
JagTag
JagTag Interviews David Berkowitz on Mobile Marketing and 2D Barcodes
Featured Q&A: Recently JAGTAG had the opportunity to catch up with David Berkowitz, author of the marketing blog Inside the Marketer’s Studio, to discuss his views on mobile marketing and 2D barcodes.
Msearchgroove
Mobile Marketing Playbook Tells Marketers to Deliver Value and Ask Permission
Featured interview. Excerpt:
In his view, the mobile marketing value proposition must be clear and relevant. Location, personalization and links back to social media can help to some extent, but the best way to deliver people what they want and appreciate is to ask them first. Put another way, brands should ask before they deliver messages. And they have to live up to their part of the bargain. “You also want to make sure that they stay with you for the long haul, so there can’t be any bait-and-switch here given how personal the mobile [exchange] is.”
Zuberance
10 Definitions of a Brand Advocate
“A BA is someone who needs no incentive to tell others great things about you, and welcomes you making it easier for them to do so” –David Berkowitz, Senior Director at 360i, Author of Inside the Marketer’s Studio
Variety
Social Media Gains Virility
“You can get this echo-chamber effect,” says David Berkowitz, senior partner of emerging media and innovation for Dentsu-owned digital media agency 360i. “That people are just talking to themselves, and not getting out to other communities.”
“Movies have more interesting challenges than for any other kind of marketer,” says Berkowitz. “You have this short window to market films — and then it all goes away. It flies in the face of the social media’s best practices (to be around the long-term). You don’t want it to look like a campaign.”
BlogTalkRadio
Live from Blog World Expo
Radio interview
MediaPost
Qualcomm Releases Augmented Reality Tools for Android
In a recent interview with MediaPost, David Berkowitz, director of the emerging media and innovation practice at digital agency 360i, said he’s still waiting to see AR on a mobile device that provides a better experience than existing technologies. “If you’re trying to find a nearby restaurant, for instance, it’s so much easier with a 2D map or list of text links,” he said.
Digiday
5Qs with 360i’s David Berkowitz
A featured interview focusing on 360i’s Mobile Marketing Playbook
MediaPost
Q&A: 360i’s David Berkowitz on Mobile Marketing
A featured interview
BizReport
360i Releases Mobile Playbook
Featured interview
Mobile Marketer
Talent Crisis Looms in Mobile Advertising and Marketing
“Mobile is just as vast as online, and in some ways there are added complexities,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i, New York. “Mobile can be even broader and more complicated.
“If marketers are just trying to have one person who gets mobile, it will be hard to get a deep understanding of it all,” he said. “There are still a lot of questions we’ll see in terms of where mobile fits in organizationally.
“People don’t have a strong grasp yet of exactly where the talent will come from.”
360i is a digital agency that focuses on search engine marketing, social media and mobile marketing.
DM News
Twitter Redesign Means More Engagement with Consumers, Industry Execs Say
There will be a big upside for marketers that participate in Twitter’s advertising as long as more consumers use Twitter regularly, said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, a digital agency.
“It’s going to encourage them to do more with multimedia,” he said.
Images and videos uploaded to Twitter generally require consumers to move from the microblogging service to another site, Berkowitz explained
“Now, once it’s all on the screen where you are, it is going to encourage more people to interact with any photos and videos that get posted,” he said. “So, I think brands will [also] be more encouraged to do that — especially marketers that have a lot of great content.
Adweek
The Adweek 25: The Best Advertising Voices on Twitter
Several weeks running
Mashable
Cubicle Spy: At Work with David Berkowitz of 360i
A photo spread of my office, with a number of the gadgets in my Emerging Media Lab
Forbes
The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns
I was one of three judges for the top campaigns of all time (to date)
Ad Age
Are You Building a Useful Social Network or Social Stalking?
That depends on the network itself and what you use it for. Is it to connect with real friends and family, or is it part of a marketing strategy that makes real connections less real, but nonetheless increases the reach of your network? “Part of the problem is the sad desire to rack up body counts; the one upside is if you have become your own brand and use these networks accordingly, amassing connections may be a smart marketing move,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at digital agency 360i.
That can mean checking their Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter profiles and maybe a check of the corporate email directory to make sure you’re not rejecting a co-worker, maybe one in a satellite office or that friend of a friend you met at party or an event. “There have been times I’ve wanted to write and ask, ‘Why are you friending me?’ Or, ‘How did you even find me?’” Mr. Berkowitz said.
MediaPost
Why Nokia Might Have Bought US Mobile Analytics Firm Motally
Nokia executives realize the acquisition should give developers who build apps insight into consumer behavior. Tie consumer behavior into location and time of day, says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy, and the data becomes “very powerful” for advertisers as they build out campaigns.
DM News
Marketers See Potential in Facebook Places
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i, said that marketers will be able to promote their business locations similarly to how they have promoted their Facebook pages. Marketers who have bricks-and-mortar locations will want to experiment, particularly as Facebook has a low-barrier to entry, as far as cost and learning curve go.
“Once marketers are able to claim their places and promote them – the question for them will then be: how do they effectively use these pages – just to acquire new customers or build more loyalty from their existing fans?” he said.
Berkowitz added that the latest Facebook initiative may lead the social network further into mobile marketing. “What’s going to be really interesting to see is if this becomes the gateway for Facebook doing more with mobile marketing. It really hasn’t,” he said. “Facebook has over 150 million mobile users worldwide, [but] no real way to market to them. So, that’s a big thing that marketers are still waiting for.”
New York Post
Waiting for 2012: Facebook Sets New Timetable for Going Public
Indeed, Zuckerberg’s brewing battles loom as the social-networking business is still in its infancy, with execs at Facebook and other rivals trying to figure out how to make money, according to David Berkowitz, senior director at digital agency 360i, an online marketing firm.
“There’s a reason why they got to half a billion users, and growth keeps forging ahead at an incredible rate,” Berkowitz said. “But Facebook is still a young company, and they’re still experimenting.”
“Google hasn’t yet shown that it will be a Facebook killer,” Berkowitz said.
Mobile Marketer
To Develop or Integrate Apps – That is the Question – featured interview
“So there’s a lot of temptation to just build mobile apps right now but it takes such tremendous commitment in both time and budget,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, New York.
Mobile Marketer
Google Takes Serious Stab at Conquering Apple’s App-dom
“I don’t want to dismiss it as an obvious move to better compete with Apple,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, New York. “It is a very smart move since a lot of the Android brand is built on this mindset.
Mobile Marketer
SMS Opens a Two-Way Dialogue Between Marketer and Consumer: 360i – featured interview
“SMS is incredible in the sense that two-thirds of mobile users are using it,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, New York. “It is so simple in format but the things you can do with it are amazing.
ClickZ
Twitter Outages Leave Most Marketers Unfazed
“The vast majority of [Twitter] conversations that come up regarding brands are innocuous…so they don’t warrant immediate action,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i. “For most marketers most of the time, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
DM News
Retailers Looking to Drive Sales
According to David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i, “Mobile shopping in the sense of being able to compare prices on mobile phones or get more product information and engage in more research in the shopping process is becoming much more prominent.”
DM News
Exploring the iPad’s Potential
The iPad’s functionality is a hybrid of mobile and the traditional Internet. However, the best practices used in those channels don’t strictly apply to the iPad, said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i.
Marketers must also acknowledge that consumers interact with the iPad differently than they do with an iPhone or other smartphones. Whereas mobile devices lend themselves to in-store interactions, such as barcode scanning and product comparisons, iPad users are generally stationary.
Apple will also improve the viability of the iPad as a marketing channel through the release of its iAd advertising unit. “Mobile spending continues to lag behind mobile usage, but the iAd will spur marketers to catch up to what consumers are already doing,” Berkowitz said.
Search Engine Land
Live Blog: Google’s Dylan Casey on How Real-Time is Changing Search – coverage of my TWTRCON session
ClickZ
Foursquare Checks in with Marketers: Scalable Tools on the Way
“Foursquare has all of 25 people, and they’re in demand by just about every major brand remotely interested in exploring how to connect with their consumers via mobile and social channels,” he said. “It’s hardly surprising to see demand outstripping supply; this is often the case with much bigger companies in their space.”
ClickZ
Promoted Tweets Will Amplify Social Media Efforts, Agencies Say – extensive quotes, excerpt below:
“Promoted Tweets crosses the bridge between earned and paid media, and the brands that will get the most value out of Promoted Tweets are those that are already active on Twitter,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i. “Far more important than racking up some body count of followers is understanding what works for them. What content and links do people like to share? Do followers want to be the first to know about some exclusive, do they want a great deal, or do they only respond to solve customer service issues?” he added.
New York Post
Twitter’s Twist: Plan to Ban 3rd-Party Ads
“It’s more of a warning shot,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital ad agency 360i. “Twitter doesn’t even offer this right now.
DM News
Marketers Find Geotargeting Helps Customer Loyalty
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, a digital agency, said mobile coupons helped location- based efforts gain popularity during tough economic times.
“The technology keeps improving for couponing. It helped that a number of these trends took off during the recession and recovery,” he said. “Couponing in all forms has gone through the roof in the last few years, and mobile is making this much more efficient, removing the barriers of printing or remembering to bring something.”
Berkowitz says location-based marketing will not truly be mainstream for a few more years. He adds, however, that many marketers will also use text messaging in geotargeted efforts as well.
“The apps get a ton of attention, but most mobile users also engage in text messaging,” he said. “A lot of the experience in joining a marketer’s list is to get a coupon notification from the text code itself.
Twooting – The Podcast Where Twitter Means Business
Episode 93: Featured podcast interview
Focus on TWTRCON event where I spoke in June 2010
ClickZ
–Full Details on Twitter’s New Ad Model
Resonance Score Transparency: During the Q&A following Costolo’s presentation, 360i online marketing strategist David Berkowitz asked whether resonance scores will be available for all of a company’s twitter activity. Costolo answered, “Initially we’re only measuring resonance for companies using Promoted Tweets. It remains to be seen whether we roll it out more broadly and measure it for everything.”
Reached by phone afterward, Berkowitz said, “If resonance takes that central a role advertisers are going to need a lot more information about whether they’re resonant today or not.”
Yet despite his desire for more transparency in resonance scores, Twitter’s approach is more decipherable than Google’s quality score. And he added, “Not every tweet needs to have high resonance.” Examples include thanking a customer for a kind word, or asking Twitter followers for help.
Chief Marketer
-Following the Tracks
Marketers need to be aware of what categories are resonating with social users, and to figure out how best to integrate social objectives and metrics into the rest of the organization, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i.
Some are very keen on this, while others have very specific and siloed digital or social goals, he notes. And sometimes, those in charge of the digital plan don’t have enough exposure to the broader marketing plan.
“One huge challenge is that social media very often comes up too late in the planning cycle,” Berkowitz notes, adding that in the past year he’s seen a shift in how marketers are planning their social strategies. A year ago, marketers were very focused on shorter campaigns. But since the last quarter of 2009, they’ve been looking a year or sometimes several out when it comes to social. “That’s been a welcome change in the right direction.”
DM News
Twitter kicks off Promoted Tweets
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, said only brands that are well versed in Twitter will effectively know how to use the platform. That means search advertising spending won’t be affected in the short term.
“I don’t think this is going to hurt search because it really starts out as a social media program first,” said Berkowitz. “Marketers will have to be very good at using Twitter for Promoted Tweets to be effective, so they will work best for amplifying what marketers are already doing on Twitter.”
DM News
User-Generated Content Gains Steam from Mobile, Social
“Some of the recent use [reflects] that marketers are getting a better sense of doing programs like this,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i. “If you were doing this in 2006 or 2007, it was more about trying to do something cool, and now it’s more about using user-generated content to achieve an actual marketing objective — and it is getting more sophisticated.”
DM News
Augmented Reality a Boon for Print, Web
Although some brands are just using the technology because it is one of marketing’s hot trends, others are giving consumers useful information with augmented reality, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i.
“Augmented reality is one of the bright, shiny objects right now in marketing, and so there is a bandwagon mentality going on for some of its use,” he said. “Some marketers who are using it are able to find ways where it makes sense to layer digital information over the real world. It can be entertaining or it can be for utility.”
Other brands, such as Kia and General Electric, have lunched augmented reality-based campaigns in the past year. Verizon and Nokia collaborated on a 3-D trailer promoting the recent film Star Trek.
Berkowitz praised the US Postal Service’s Virtual Box Simulator, created last summer by AKQA. The tool allows consumers to determine whether items will fit inside USPS boxes by using a webcam.
MediaPost Would an Apple/Google Deal Mirror Microsoft/Yahoo
360i Senior Director of Emerging Media and Innovation David Berkowitz doesn’t know why Apple would need a search strategy. Calling the Cupertino, Calif. firm a great technology and design company, he wonders if Apple needs to be more. “They’ll likely be far better off partnering with an existing engine than entering a space that has had only one new entrant, such as Microsoft, gain substantial market share in the past five years,” he says.
Promo Magazine
Mobile Scans, Real-Life Manhunt Build “Repo” Excitement
Mobile scanning might have been a natural fit for the campaign. But when it came time for Universal and 360i to choose a mobile scanning platform to integrate with the creative, the choices were a lot more complex, says David Berkowitz, 360i director of emerging media and innovation.
“Most of the scan platforms out there are designed to tie into real products and work with a shopping experience,” he says. While brands can “buy” a barcode and link it to anything they want, if the entity represented by the code is not a real product but fictional, then most other code scanners will reject that entry in the database. The agency and the studio needed a scan platform willing to customize.
“Red Laser is one of the most widely utilized and downloaded barcode scanner applications and is consistently featured as one of the top applications in the iTunes store,” Berkowitz says. “Its widespread popularity and the fact that the company worked with us to integrate fictitious products from the movie made them a natural partner for this campaign.”
Ad Age
Facebook is about to Rake in Huge Ecommerce Dollars
The question is: Does the proprietor make any money off such sales? So far, the answer is no. “Once a number of marketers are doing commerce on their own, you have to wonder how Facebook is going to get a piece of it,” said David Berkowitz, 360i’s director of emerging media.
Mobile Marketer
Universal Pictures Repo Men Movie Sells Organs via Bar Code Scanning
“Red Laser met two important needs for the program: it’s one of the most popular mobile applications especially for tech-savvy early adopters, and they had the flexibility to incorporate real bar codes for fictitious products from the film,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and innovation for 360i, New York.
DM News
–Universal Barcode Campaign Promotes Repo Men
“There are a lot of different options when it comes to mobile barcodes, so it was nice to have a tie-in to the real product,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and innovation for 360i.
Adweek
-Whither Twitter?
“Relevance is going to be huge,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i. It’ll be about “where marketers [insert] themselves in conversations.”
Portfolio.com
–Buzz Kill – thoughts on Google Buzz
Ironically, Google’s greatest faux pas with Buzz was in marketing, an area that is usually a source of strength. “The biggest problem with Buzz was in selling it so hard and opening it up so fast. It’s in direct contrast to Gmail, which they kept exclusive for a while. When that first came out, you could find people selling Gmail invites on eBay,” said David Berkowitz, a director of digital marketing firm 360i in New York, in an interview.
What Google should have done, Berkowitz said, was stick to its normal modus operandi: Put the product in Labs, let people play with it, and let it become big all by itself. Why then did the firm that claims that “you can make money without doing evil” suddenly join ranks with all the other big U.S. conglomerate marketing suits?
“One of the striking things with Google Buzz is that it didn’t even learn from some of the basic things from other social-networking sites like Twitter,” said i360’s Berkowitz. “It’s a very funny paradox where Buzz is open to all Gmail users, but at the same time it’s so centrally attached to Gmail so it’s not as appealing to anyone else who doesn’t have an account.”
ClickZ
WebTrends Feeds Facebook Data Craving
“[Webtrends] are trying to make this a strong hook for using Webtrends in the first place,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i. “The case for measuring social media better keeps getting stronger and the needs get more pronounced,” he added. “I expect an analytics arms race.”
Facebook has become more attuned to the needs of marketers, but has been less than speedy when it comes to rolling out new measurement capabilities, said Berkowitz.
Quote later reappeared in follow up story, Facebook Analytics War Heats Up
DM News
Universal Barcode Campaign Promotes Repo Men
“There are a lot of different options when it comes to mobile barcodes, so it was nice to have a tie-in to the real product,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and innovation for 360i.
San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Directs More Online Users Than Google
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for the digital marketing firm 360i of New York, said the importance of search engines isn’t going away.
“But there’s always been one downside to search,” he said. “Consumers only spend about 5 percent of their time online searching and the other 95 percent of the time at the destination. Social media is quickly accounting for a large percentage of that 95 percent. Google’s biggest acquisitions, DoubleClick and YouTube, have been all about playing a big role in the rest of consumers’ Web usage.”
He noted that last week Google purchased San Francisco’s Aardvark, a social-media search engine for questions and answers, and then unveiled Google Buzz, which allows Gmail users to post updates, videos, photos and links, Facebook-style.
“Mobile will be another new source for search, and some of that will be incremental rather than cannibalistic,” he said.
“But social media’s just finding its feet and the business models are just starting to emerge. And they’re evolving quickly.”
Ad Age
To Regain Luster, Oscars Get a Social Media Makeover
David Berkowitz, senior director-emerging media and innovation at digital hotshop 360i, argued that the Academy and its agency partners could still be doing more to engage viewers on platforms other than its home page, such as creating an easily searchable Twitter account.
“Right now their site seems stuck in a time when the web was a lot less social, and one of the most prominent features is the message board,” he said of Oscar.com. “But then you look at their Livestream page on Facebook, and it’s this fantastic experience for sharing and embedding any video. They don’t have any of that on the Oscar site. It’ll be interesting to see if the Oscars tries to incorporate more of that closer to the awards show, given how much conversation there is around the Oscars right now.”
New York Post
Google Searches for Friend Requests vs Facebook
“There are some areas where Google had assets but didn’t do something fast enough, and now it needs to play catchup,” said David Berkowitz, director of digital media for marketing firm 360i….
Even though Facebook is rapidly expanding and has rolled out several homepage redesigns, there are areas of its site that could use improvement. “For Facebook there are a couple of areas where usability on the site have suffered from the beginning, and those two areas are e-mail and search,” said 360i’s Berkowitz.
Brandweek
Is Twitter The Next Second Life
Chevrolet is having more luck on Facebook, where its official site has more than 62,000 fans. David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for interactive shop 360i, says anemic Twitter accounts and robust presences on Facebook will be the norm. “For some brands, just maintaining their turf [on Twitter] with the occasional update might be enough,” he says. “A bigger danger is to go in and make it clear they’re going to get involved [in Twitter] and then ignore it.” Not too many brands are doing the former these days.
Huffington Post
Social Media Politiku – contributed a social media haiku on transparency
David Berkowitz Politiku:
always be open
would you say that to someone
wearing a trenchcoat?
Ad Age
In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less
“When you’re seeing so much noise, it’s very easy to dismiss a lot of it, and that’s a problem marketing messages have had for a while now,” said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media for 360i. “Facebook really exemplifies this with the live-feed and news-feed options,” he said. “If you use the live feed and have a few hundred friends, some kind of peer recommendation, whether it’s explicit or not, appears every couple of minutes and sometimes they come in a matter of seconds. If you’re seeing all of that come in, it can be overwhelming.”
Ad Age
Brands Try to Become Mayor of Foursquare, But Will They Pay For It?
“I think marketers will be interested in Foursquare, assuming the audience keeps growing,” said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media at digital agency 360i. “The lasting value will be from the smaller deals Foursquare will find ways to monetize.”
It’s a difficult balance: Foursquare’s ability to continue to grow depends on its users accepting at least a bit of marketing along with the badges, or honorifics, they earn, such as “mayor” (for most visits), “newbie,” “bender” (for consecutive nights out) and, yes, even “douchebag” (for checking in at places like Barneys).
Zero to 300,000 isn’t bad for an app that launched less than a year ago. It took more than three years for Twitter to reach its current fever pitch. But even as it grows, Foursquare will have to answer the same questions. Research firm Sysomos estimates that 5% of Twitter users generate 75% of activity.
Much will depend on whether it can maintain its cool. “The X-factor appeal of Foursquare is in its social currency,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “Giving Foursquare users these badges for completing explicit tasks adds an element of surprise, like a scavenger hunt. And you can’t ignore the bragging rights.”
Forbes
Apple’s Tablet: A Big Opportunity for Advertisers
Forms of advertising that have become stale, such as catalogs and circulars, may experience a comeback, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at interactive agency 360i, recently acquired by Japan’s Dentsu Holdings USA. Says he: “Everything has the potential to be more interactive and will be able to give a richer experience.”
Who’s Blogging What
Collective Wisdom: one of 40 experts included in their thoughts on social media for 2010
ClickZ
2010 Search Predictions: The Experts Weigh In – commented on a prediction about Twitter:
If Twitter launches its own version of AdWords, it could lead to an all out user rebellion depending on how it’s rolled out and communicated to users. If ads are attached to specific tweets, tweeters might demand compensation in exchange for the display of advertising. There would then be two camps – those who accept the cash and those who don’t, and those who don’t would be doing so mostly because of the moral high ground of not wanting to be outright shills. One of Twitter’s many challenges is to find a broad enough advertising model that doesn’t compromise the current organic conversation occurring to the benefit of all its users, including marketers.
Inc
How to Advertise on Facebook – my advice here was misquoted, as I wanted to indicate how cheap it could be to test but didn’t say one should only spend $20
Ad prices on Facebook are determined by auction, as they are on Google AdWords. You can pay based on either the number of times people see the ad or the number of times people actually click on it. The majority of Facebook advertisers choose the latter, says Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization. Still, it’s worth testing both payment types to see which is more cost effective, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for 360i, a digital marketing agency. He suggests spending about $20 or so for a small ad buy using both methods. “It’s incredibly cheap to run tests,” says Berkowitz.
DM News
Brands look to Facebook earlier in campaign development
“Facebook now has this hybrid model in which the most important updates are alongside live feeds, so users are getting everything at once,” explained David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i. “All of this puts marketers in the mindset beyond just getting fans. They’re thinking about how to get people to sustain engagement and take actions that will appear in other users’ live feeds.”
Brands can still implement myriad features into a fan page, like quizzes, polls and videos, but today they can also create various experiences based on whether the goal is acquisition or retention, Berkowitz added.
“Marketers can create branding when a visitor first gets to a fan page by adding promotions and links to create a rich experience,” he noted. “But once they’re hooked enough to become fans, the page will default to the wall itself to promote engagement between the brand and the consumer.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“In a lot of ways, it’s how consumers are flexing their power,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing firm 360i.
The Internet has always provided irate consumers with public venues to vent, such as bulletin boards, blogs and community forums. But Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook bring a “sense of immediacy,” Berkowitz said.
SmarterSocialMedia.com
Included in the 100 Smartest People in Social Media
The Wall Street Journal
Yahoo to Add Real-Time Search Results
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital marketing agency 360i, said he believes the value of real-time search data for businesses is greater than the appeal of data to advertisers. He predicts that one of the biggest uses of “real-time search engines” that produce results based on what’s popular on the Web right now, will be for queries related to breaking news. But reaching users searching for news is far less interesting to advertisers than reaching searchers who are looking to buy something, he said.
USA Today
Companies Race to Offer Instant Web Search, Including Twitter
The new services are confident that the market can support them. Search “is a huge driver of online traffic, shopping, content discovery,” says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital-marketing agency 360i.
Mediaweek
TV Nets Tap Google Video Box for Series Boost
Google also has been smart about pricing these new placements, said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media & innovation, at 360i, charging advertisers only when users view videos or click through to a brand’s site via these units, but not for both actions.
While expanded use of Video Plus Box seems likely, advertisers did warn Google against moving too fast—something the cautious company rarely does. “For a lot of these more involved forms of ads, there is a consumer learning curve,” said Berkowitz. “You see that a lot with other video tactics. It takes some getting used to.”
DM News
Social Search Will Change the Way Brands Use Search
“It is likely that if brands have had some kind of backlash, those updates from consumers are already starting to be indexed by the engine and some of them could have some staying power if a lot of people are talking about them,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media & innovation at digital agency 360i.
One of the big challenges with this new search model is including the latest news, versus the latest tweet and the authenticity of the source. The issue for the search engine is to determine which has more relevance, The New York Times or a commentator on a blog. “The biggest challenge is discovering the authority, and with real time results it is a much more open,” said Berkowitz. “During the Iran election, there were Iranians that not many people had heard of before tweeting about the situation and they resonated very quickly. They were relevant for examples about the Iran election, but they may not be as useful if they were tweeting on American sports.”
Ad Age
LinkedIn May Be Different from MySpace, But Not Its Ad Strategy
“A lot of the community on LinkedIn originally seemed to be focused on answers, but now the focus is entirely around groups,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital marketing agency 360i, citing an early and existing LinkedIn feature in which members ask questions of the LinkedIn community. “That’s a net plus for LinkedIn, since groups allow for much deeper levels of engagement rather than the quick hits from answers.”He referenced numbers LinkedIn cited today: 100,000 people join groups daily, while 1,000 people post questions and 3,000 people submit answers weekly.
In that way, it’s a lot more like MySpace than Facebook, said Mr. Berkowitz. “Facebook has the same principle, and philosophically it’s where most are converging, but in practice Linkedin is more like MySpace has been: You pay for the presence, which includes a media buy on the site to promote it,” he said. “Generally, marketers should plan earned and paid media together with social marketing, but not all are organized that way.”
Forbes
Killer Apps: Best Branded Mobile Applications – judge of mobile apps, and quoted in story
Apps must be self-serving for brands, says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at digital marketing shop 360i. To create an application that doesn’t lead back to a corporate site or give users information on where they can find the company’s products is useless.
San Francisco Chronicle
Retailers Seek Early Birds through Tweets
Chains such as Home Depot and Staples also have “leaked” Black Friday deals that used to be reserved for the day after Thanksgiving, said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media & innovation for digital marketing agency 360i.
“Facebook-only specials are starting to happen more often,” Berkowitz said. “At the bare minimum, they use Facebook and Twitter as the first place they’re releasing some of these specials.”
Smaller retailers such as Santa Clara’s Ibiss Boutique, Leaf & Petal of Palo Alto and Jean et Marie of San Francisco have also posted holiday promotions on Facebook.
“Social media, like digital media in general, is a great equalizer,” Berkowitz said. “You don’t always need big budgets to make an impact and reach your audience. Sprinkles Cupcakes routinely uses social media to get people into their stores.”
Berkowitz said he expects retailers to heat up a “dedicated holiday push” through social media in early to mid-December.
Brandweek
A Marketer’s New Worry: Are My Ads Retweetable?
Whether consumers will be up for retweeting ads is an open question. Though the market is clearly heading in that direction, the content of such ads will need to be tweaked. “You can imagine it would make sense,” said David Berkowitz, digital media and online marketing strategist for digital shop 360i. He added that he hadn’t seen anyone tag an ad with a retweet or Facebook button yet.
USA Today
Marketers Salivating over Smartphone Potential
These users tend to be more tech savvy and younger, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital-marketing agency 360i. He predicts that as all-you-can-eat data plans become more widespread and affordable, mobile Internet use will explode, especially for social networking.
MediaPost
Twitter Lists Turn Leader into Follower?
Tools that benefit consumers also benefit marketers. David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, pointed to the ease of following a group of people supporting the same brand. Marketers will benefit from organizing their own Twitter ecosystems. Dell, Comcast and Wal-Mart Stores have several customer service representatives and departments tweeting on Twitter, but giving consumers the ability to follow all on one list makes it easier, he says.
And, as with any move Twitter makes these days, people want to know whether it will generate revenue. Their model seems to hit on the strategy Facebook and Google had for many years, Berkowitz says. “Make the free tools easy to use, so people will get their hooks into it,” he says. “The big difference here is Twitter continues to keep us guessing. It’s unclear that this tool will impact revenue in any way.”
MediaPost
Madison Avenue Backs Google-AdMob Deal
But the fact that mobile advertising remains just a tiny fraction of overall spending may weigh in its favor when it comes to antitrust concerns. “One saving grace for any company is that it’s so early in terms of mobile that were just starting to have some idea how of how people are using the mobile Web and mobile devices,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital agency 360i. He expects the deal to be approved.
NY Post
“Pre-roll has always been that form of advertising more akin to traditional media, yet being able to skip over it is something fairly unusual online,” said David Berkowitz, a senior director at digital marketing agency 360i.
eMarketer
Mobile Social Networking Blurs Lines
Adam’s sentiment was echoed by my friend and former eMarketer colleague, David Berkowitz, now senior director of emerging media & innovation at digital agency 360i, and steward of the excellent Inside the Marketers Studio blog. Here’s a short excerpt from that interview:
eMarketer: What kinds of challenges do marketers face, both internally in their own companies as well as externally facing the market, in getting mobile social networking programs going?Mr. Berkowitz: Some of it, right off the bat, is just figuring out who owns mobile.
DM News
More Retailers Turn to Twitter for Marketing This Holiday
“This is definitely the first big holiday season for retailers on Twitter,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i. However, because most retailers are still relatively new to the social media tool, they will likely be limited to unpromoted tests, he added.
An exception is Best Buy, which recently launched a holiday marketing campaign focused on its Twitter-based customer service force called Twelpforce. In TV ads created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, customers ask questions in a stadium filled with Best Buy sales people, while viewers are directed to Best Buy’s Twitter address. There, they are invited to ask questions of Best Buy employees.
“Any retailer with a disproportionate percentage of sales during the holidays needs to pay attention to Twitter for customer service,” said Berkowitz, who praised Best Buy’s use of the platform for this purpose.
eMarketer
Making Mobile Social Work for Marketers – featured interview
David Berkowitz is senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing agency 360i, where he develops social media and mobile programs for marketers spanning the media and entertainment, retail, travel and CPG industries. Mr. Berkowitz spoke with eMarketer about the importance of creating programs that exploit the unique qualities of the mobile environment.
iMedia Connection
The Marketing Opportunity of Mobile Social Networking
Mobile social networking is a fast-emerging space, and yet another example of consumers moving much faster than marketers, meaning there are a lot more mobile users on social networks than there are marketers. With social networks and their business models still maturing, that’s not entirely surprising. But the takeaway is that there’s tremendous power in place. The trick is finding a way to tap into it and connect it with people and things.
Adweek
5 to Follow (on Twitter)
MediaPost
Will Twitter Stop Being an #AdvertisingFail?
David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, took the time to read Twitter’s ToS, lightheartedly comparing it to a “good Grisham novel.” Queries made through the services are subject to being targeted with an ad. “Updates from their terms of service in 2007 does not include advertising,” he says. “It’s an open question on whether they’ll add advertising as a premium service. Or, do they want to cash out and let someone else figure it out? That doesn’t seem as likely, now.”
MediaPost
Real-Time Search Ads Fall Flat
Paid search ads that tie to current events primarily appear on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, mainly because Twitter has yet to offer ads. But some real-time news that appears first on Twitter or Facebook through chatter is so sensitive that unless tied to a helpful resource it’s not appropriate, David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, told Online Media Daily.
Berkowitz, who moderated a panel of experts on real-time search at OMMA Global New York Tuesday, says in the case of Michael Jackson’s death, where much of the news celebrated his life, ads could have bought keywords and tied them to past news clips or videos as a tribute. That didn’t happen. The untimely death of the superstar took publishers by surprise, and they missed the first opportunity to pay tribute.
DM News
Facebook Debuts Direct Response Ad Units
“Marketers can actually get real products into people’s hands, so when you are trying to give someone a taste for what you are offering, it is much more powerful,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital marketing agency 360i.
DM News
“If you want to target people who are specifically talking about certain kinds of retailers or who show interest in certain kinds of topics, then there are definitely opportunities to segment users in those ways,” said David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at digital communications agency 360i.
Ad Age
Is Seth Godin Protecting Your Brand or Just Brandjacking It?
David Berkowitz, director-emerging media at 360i, said how high the Brand in Public pages appear in search results will determine whether brands decide to take part. Also, he said, the $400 fee is just a start. The bigger cost is the manpower involved in maintaining the pages, which is true of any social-media campaign. August 2009
Ad Age
Google Makes Grab for Hollywood Dollars
The film industry spends a lot to disseminate movie trailers on the web, both through video ad networks and on their own websites. Adding those videos to search could get users to watch a video without getting them to click through to a promotional site. “Given the primary goal, much of the time, is to get people to watch their videos, then just getting them to do that one step earlier,” said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media at 360i.
DM News
Google Gets a Caffeine Rush – repeatedly quoted on new search engine rollout
The new search engine will now include much more social media data and information, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media & client strategy at 360i. “The biggest thing they have to figure out really is what in all of the social media content right now matters,” he said.
For example, a search for Iran might bring about millions of Tweets and a New York Times story. “Google has to figure out what to put first, and this raises questions. Do they rank certain Twitterers? Do they rank by authority? And they have to do it faster and better than they do it today,” added Berkowitz.
NY1
Today’s Unemployed, Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs – video interview
“This economy is creating so many people who weren’t expecting to start their own business anytime soon but now have found it’s a great way to take control of that they are doing,” says David Berkowitz of 360i.
BusinessWeek
Facebook Finds a Friend in Google Rivalry
More effective search of current conversations and popular topics could lead to more profits for Facebook, which has taken criticism for focusing more on growth in the number of its users than in generating revenue. “Being able to get a taste of what consumers are doing on 50 different sites can be very powerful,” says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for digital marketing agency 360i, of FriendFeed’s search. By contrast, he says Facebook’s search tools have not been as effective for marketers.
Business News Network (Canadian business TV)
The Close: Facebook Buys FriendFeed
Featured guest in this 5-minute inteview
MediaPost
Kia Offers Up Hamsters in Facebook App
Since the application is Facebook-based, it might have made sense to also have an option that just ports in one’s Facebook picture, says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at New York-based 360i. “Webcams do exclude people, though they are increasingly built into new laptops and are more common for video chat,” Berkowitz says.
Ad Age
Tracking Makes Life Easier for Consumers
“If there is no information collected, it would be like a constant exchange with an amnesiac,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i.
Adweek
Microsoft Bing Issues Ad Manifesto
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, last week told Mediaweek during Bing’s launch announcement that he was impressed with what he’s seen of the product so far: “I’m still waiting for the full picture, but this is easily Microsoft’s best search experience to date.”
Still, Berkowitz is cautious to declare any firm competing against Google a winner too soon. “I’m wondering how much the average consumer is going to be able to tell this is something different,” Berkowitz said. “The ads need to communicate that. If you look at the growth of Google, people only keep relying on it more. If it really stunk, Google wouldn’t be in the position they’re in.”
MediaPost
BuzzLogic Unveils ‘Conversational’ Dashboard for Advertisers
“It’s a very intuitive dashboard for reviewing campaigns, from the results to the sites involved,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at digital agency 360i. “Also, while it’s designed for advertisers, the social graph of blogs in the campaign can be used to pinpoint influencers for digital word of mouth programs or other earned media efforts.”
DM News
Inside a Social Search Engine
For David Berkowitz, director of emerging media & client strategy for 360i, social search engines fill a void currently left wide open by Twitter, Facebook and even Google. And while valuable, it is Berkowitz’s expectation that these platforms play catch up. “Twitter could make its own engine more useful, or acquire one engine so that the others are basically killed off. That’s what happened when Twitter acquired Summize to improve its own search experience,” he said.
MinOnline
Bing: More Than a Blip?
“They made a very honest attempt to create something useful to consumers,” says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy, 360i, a marketing agency. “What is actually the most surprising thing about Bing is that it is a Microsoft product. Focusing on the consumer experience is not a strong suit for them,” he says.
Nevertheless, he says that the all-important search marketers Microsoft is hoping to attract from Google may not be impressed yet. “They are wait-and-see types,” he says. Microsoft has been seeing its search share fall in recent years even as Google moves past a 70% control of the market in most estimates. Marketers have complained in the past that Microsoft search just doesn’t drive enough traffic.
MediaPost
Google Incubating Performance-Based Search Ad Model
That can become both an obstacle and a benefit, according to David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i. The new model could have a higher commission rate, which will probably make advertisers question whether the CPA model can provide a high return on investment (ROI).
There are lots of benefits, Berkowitz says. “For retailers betting on a CPA model, this is a no brainer for testing,” he says. His argument is that Google doesn’t need to prove the quality of its search inventory, only how well the model will perform compared with other CPA offerings from companies like Microsoft’s Bing.
Ad Age
To Build Display, Yahoo Joins Self-Serve Fray
It also gives Yahoo a performance-ad product besides search. “Performance inventory is such a dominant force of online advertising right now,” said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media at 360i. “The recession is only enabling that further with the need for accountability.”
The New York Times
Losing Popularity Contest, MySpace Tries a Makeover
David Berkowitz, a director at the digital marketing agency 360i, said it might make sense for MySpace to double down on the under-34 audience. “A lot of sites do very well when they have that concentrated focus,” he said.
Ad Age
25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter
In the spirit of Twitter’s Follow Fridays, when users suggest other interesting people to follow, Ad Age’s MediaWorks offers a batch of media and marketing people you should follow on Twitter — along with recent, decent tweets to give you an idea what they’re up to.
David Berkowitz, emerging-media director at 360i
Follow: @dberkowitz
Tweet: “My Google Wave Limerick will ensure Google never lets me try it (apologies to Irish or poet followers) http://bit.ly/urdRd”
MediaPost
Microsoft ‘Kumo’ Hot On Paid, Multimedia, Semantic Search
“If it’s as good as it looks in the demo, this will be the most impressive search experience Microsoft has offered,” says David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at 360i. “The focus is on the right areas such as organic results, layout and advertising.”
Berkowitz, one of the chosen few outside of analysts and Microsoft employees to get a briefing, took extreme precautions to select every word in describing his experience. He couldn’t speak to the difference in the way that Microsoft will serve up relevant ads in paid search campaigns, but did reveal that it has been a focus for the team with the launch of the new engine. “Historically, one problem for Microsoft has been serving up relevant ads,” he says. “They haven’t been as relevant as they could be. But I’ve see firsthand they are trying to fix that.”
BNET Media
Lesson from “American Idol” Upset: Don’t Put Too Much Stock in Google, Twitter
All of which is to say, it’s a bit too easy to get enamored with Internet data, and social media, partly because we didn’t have such a visible, rich data mine before. As David Berkowitz, head of emerging media at 360i told me: “With any of this, there’s a degree of reading too much into this.” While I’m sure the people at NBC are watching the attempt to save “Earl” unfold on Twitter, they should keep that salt shaker handy — they may need several grains of the white stuff. As much as Google got the “American Idol” pick wrong, there is even less known about how to project what goes on on Twitter out to the broader marketplace; it could be a bunch of “Earl” fans talking amongst themselves. Sometimes, Berkowitz, says, “All the buzz in the world is only going to do so much.”
NY Post
Bing is the Thing
“Even if they really believed this was the Google killer, I think they know enough not to say so,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for 360i, a digital marketing agency. “That’s always the kiss of death for any new search engine.”
MediaPost
Microsoft Faces Bing Challenge
Video and image search has been the most impressive improvements. The ability to hover over an image or link to see the content on the connected page will prove valuable. “Microsoft is doing a lot to show improvements in multimedia,” says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i. “This is where you will see the most notable changes and clear-cut difference.” …
As for the advertising campaign promised to roll out with the new search engine, Berkowitz says, Microsoft will need to do a lot to get consumers excited. The company has seen a couple of hits and misses lately. The Jerry Seinfeld campaign had a lot of people scratching their heads. The price-conscious PC vs. Mac ads demonstrate more finesse.
Mediaweek
Microsoft Search Leads to Bing
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, is impressed with what he’s seen so far with Bing. “I’m still waiting for the full picture, but this is easily Microsoft’s best search experience to date,” he said. “This is a very serious upgrade.”
Still, Berkowitz injected some caution: “This is what most people have been waiting for from Microsoft for years. But now Google is only more entrenched. For Bing, the presentation is the most obvious change. I’m very curious to see how much more relevant its results are. Relevance is something that you notice only when its not there.”
Microsoft’s marketing plan for Bing — estimated at $100 million — may be just as crucial as the product itself, since most Web users don’t seem as dissatisfied with Google’s ability to deliver relevant results as Microsoft might think.
“I’m wondering how much the average consumer is going to be able to tell this is something different,” Berkowitz said. “The ads need to communicate that. If you look at the growth of Google, people only keep relying on it more. If it really stunk, Google wouldn’t be in the position they’re in.”
DM News
New Microsoft Engine Bing Vies for SEM Share
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for search agency 360i, agreed, saying the new engine’s design may keep consumers using it.
“Traditionally, the search experience has been getting consumers to the end result very quickly — that means hitting the ‘back’ button a lot and clicking around a lot,” he said.
iMedia Connection
Social Media: Whose Job Is It Anyway? – Featured in this panel of social media pros assembled by Adam Broitman:
I decided to create a form and sent it to the following thought leaders, who represent different types of agencies:
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media & client strategy at 360i.
NY Post
Web Social Studies: Marketers Go to Where People Meet – quoted
“Whenever you’re telling consumers to go someplace beyond your own site, you do lose some of that control,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, a digital marketing firm. “The same applies if you tell them to go to a Facebook page or check you out on Twitter. It’s very easy for the consumer to stumble into the wrong direction.”
So why would Skittles make such a radical move? Berkowitz said it makes more sense when you look at the Skittles corporate site, which draws fewer than 20,000 visitors a month, according to various traffic estimates. In comparison, Skittle’s Facebook page has more than 600,000 fans.
Entrepreneur.com (here on MSNBC.com)
Mobile Social Networking Unleashed – quoted
Many retailers still don’t get it, says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for online ad firm360i. Their marketing departments, he says, see advertising as online or not. But the advertising here is a hybrid. It starts online and directs consumers not to websites but to brick-and-mortar locales.
“The biggest challenges,” Berkowitz says, “are organizational–getting the people who are in charge of driving sales to their stores to adapt to mobile media. The whole value of location-based advertising is to have these real-world, offline interactions. It’s a wasted effort to get people to their websites.”
Even as the number of people who use their mobile devices to access news and information has doubled in the last year, the mobile social networking ad scene will experience “more gradual than explosive growth,” Berkowitz says.
Ad Age
Why This Digital Exec Thinks Twitter Should Buy Google – contribution to Digital Next blog (small excerpt below)
Let’s put the “will it or won’t it” debate on hold. If Google does acquire Twitter, what does this mean for all parties involved? We see it as the best possible scenario. Here’s why:
Search first, talk later: While only a certain percentage of marketers and consumers will use Twitter to communicate, every marketer and business small and large can take advantage of Twitter Search.
Part of your recommended digital diet: Monitoring live conversations through Twitter Search (or, perhaps, another service that replaces it down the road) has the potential to be one of those staples for businesses, along the lines of updating their directory listings (YellowPages.com, Google Local, etc) and making sure they have a decent domain name.
DM News
Rumored Google, Twitter Merge Could be Good for Marketers – quoted
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for 360i, said Twitter could offer Google better real-time search and other capabilities like increased brand and trend monitoring. On the flip side Google can offer Twitter two things it needs: “Twitter needs more reliable servers and it needs some sort of a business model,” he said, “Google has some flexibility to find a consumer-friendly way to monetize Twitter in a way that consumers and marketers can really get behind.”
He went on to say that a Google-owned Twitter partnership would entrench the idea of just how important a role Twitter Search can play for brands. “Google search optimization is at least a consideration for marketers,” Berkowitz said, “If an acquisition happens and Twitter’s growth rate continues, marketers will realize its importance as a tool and make it a larger part of their overall Web presence.”
Teams, Fans Really around Twitter – quoted
The real innovations in using Twitter to market sports teams and leagues while driving results are yet to come, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at New York-based 360i.
“If you’re able to bring people closer to the game, ideally they’re going to want to experience it live,” Berkowitz said. “Plus, all of a fan’s followers are being exposed to [the interaction with a team]. The real goal is to reach the influencers and get to their audiences.”
MediaPost
Google/Twitter Marriage Would be Joyous Occasion for Marketers – quoted
While it’s a great communications tool for the average person, the power for marketers lies in its real-time search capabilities, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at digital agency 360i.
“Twitter Search has the potential to become a crucial tool for marketers in both understanding what’s being said about their brands online, as well as for timely communication with their customers,” Berkowitz said. “A Google acquisition would likely only accelerate its importance to marketers because Google can give Twitter what it most desperately needs right now, which is the servers to power it, and a revenue model.”
bnetTV
Interview at ThinkMobile conference – video Q&A with Peggy Salz
From the press release:
David Berkowitz, Director of Media and Client Strategy for 360i, suggests that mobile search is evolving into its own content category as people are becoming social broadcasters. The result is that consumer preferences are influencing brand choices in real-time.
ClickZ
Marketers Mull Value of Twitter Search Ads – quoted
While MySpace is used primarily for finding and interacting with friends, David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at digital marketing agency 360i, suggested: “A lot of Twitter’s value is really as a search engine.” He said advertisers could facilitate the user experience when people are looking for up-to-date information on a specific issue or news event. For instance, media brands might link to their stories through Twitter search ads in the same way they do in Google search results or their own tweets.
“MySpace already had a lot of venues for advertisers, and right now this is really about figuring out the first way for advertisers to actually take part in [Twitter],” added Berkowitz. “There will be a lot of opportunities for advertisers to keep adapting to ways [Twitter usage evolves.]”
Berkowitz also sees potential for local search ads within Twitter, suggesting users seeking timely data on the crowd status at nearby restaurants or bars could benefit from advertisements from local establishments. In addition, he anticipates Twitter offering advertising in mobile platforms. “One of the very convenient aspects of Twitter is that there are 140 characters, and with text messages there’s room for 160, so you have some built-in ad room right there.”
“If Twitter does do a deal with a major search engine, then there are going to be a few instant advantages,” added Berkowitz, noting a partner like Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo could make Twitter ads “fairly easy to buy.”…
The greatest benefit of Twitter to marketers may already exist. Search advertising or other forms of ads in Twitter may never be of as much value to marketers as the platform’s current use as a buzz research tool. “I hope nothing supersedes that value; it’s only going to get more important,” Berkowitz said.
Conversation Agent
The Agency Side of Business: David Berkowitz, 360i – featured interview by Valeria Maltoni
David and I met in person when we both blogged BRITE at Columbia a couple of years ago. No matter how long you may know someone online, the best way to get to know them is face to face.
Since we’ve also spent a few days crossing paths at SxSWi recently, I wanted to invite him to participate to our conversation on the agency side of business.
BtoB Magazine
High-Tech Video Evolution – quoted
This time last year, b-to-b advertisers were using video, but what they were doing could be compared to Dorothy’s Kansas in “The Wizard of Oz”: boring and gray. Today, video advertising has evolved, said David Berkowitz, 360i’s director of emerging media and client strategy, because it’s had to change to continue to attract prospects and customers.
“As [high definition] becomes the default online, and end-user expectation goes up … b-to-b marketers are more willing to invest in the user experience,” he said.
Marketers can provide links to video assets via e-mail and place video on landing pages for search campaigns. Going forward, search and video integration will get a boost as searchable video becomes the norm, said 360i’s Berkowitz. “We’ve already seen Google and Yahoo experiment with it,” he said. “Marketers can start by optimizing titles and links.”
MediaPost
Facebook Users Give Redesign Thumbs Down – quoted
“With the new homepage design, Facebook is experimenting with different placements of advertising, although it’s too early on in the design changes to see how or if the design impacts overall interaction, exposures, and traffic for brands,” said David Berkowtiz, director of emerging media and client strategy at agency 360i. He added that changes to the design and features on brands’ own pages “show that Facebook is trying to provide more flexibility and opportunities for brands to interact with their customers on Facebook.”
Ad Age Digital Next Blog
How to Brace for the Facebook Page Redesign – bylined contribution
Facebook is planning to redesign its advertiser “Pages,” according to reports. And while the social network has yet to announce the changes publicly, many of the leaked changes will affect top page holders such as Barack Obama, Coca-Cola, Mr. Bean and any marketer with a Facebook page. Here are three of the biggest changes coming, along with tips for what marketers can do once the redesign is enacted.
DM News
Facebook Beats Google in Steering Niche Traffic – quoted expert
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy for 360i, said it’s important to remember that the mindset of a Google searcher is much different than someone who clicks on a link on their Facebook wall.
“If people are actively searching for con tent, they’re much more invested in the information,” he said. “If a person clicks on a link from Facebook, they may not remem ber where they saw the information.”
Berkowitz suggests marketing differently to those users who are driven to a site from social networks.
“For example, for those who appear to be first time visitors, you could have a ‘best-of-your-site’ to accompany the content that was linked to,” he explained, adding that in this way, brands can draw in new visitors who previously didn’t know the company. “Then, for those who spontaneously find your site, you can make a much deeper connection.”
BNET Media
Facebook Redesign Leads to Filter Fatigue – quoted in Cathy Taylor’s column
By contrast, one of my Facebook friends, David Berkowitzof interactive ad agency360i, admitted on the service today that he is “hiding friends on Facebook who monopolize the news feed.” When I got in touch with him later, he told me, “There are a handful of people who seem to show up all the time, and then I’ll check their Facebook profiles and find they are updating every 5-10 minutes. There are a few people, including my wife and Jon Stewart, who I’d welcome hearing from that often, but most others just aren’t that interesting.”
Whrrl Blog
10 Social Media People You Should Meet – one of the 10 people
I’ve been reading David’s work for many years. For instance, in “How does Facebook know I am Jewish?” http://www.marketersstudio.com/2008/07/how-does-facebo.html David discusses how a Facebook ad targeted him based on his religion. He then investigates how this happened and what targeting techniques were used. When we met, we discussed how “ad targeting” is a serious responsibility for advertising channels, advertisers and agencies. I told David he is the right person to explain why ad targeting is critical to the future of independent content. The industry needs David Berkowitz and if you’ll meet him, you’ll understand why.
Forrester Research
A Bad Economy is the Right Time to Catalyze Marketing Change – quoted in Forrester’s blog by Shar VanBoskirk
I tested the idea and some of my research to date with a few bloggers well known for their own thinking on marketing innovation: David Berkowitz and BL Ochman.
Overall, they agreed with the notion and made a few very interesting points that I am going to try to flesh out into the speech.
First, leveraging interactive tools can actually make marketing innovation *less* risky. Berkowitz mentioned – and I agree – that doing things like monitoring Twitter for what is being said about your brand or campaigns is actually an extremely *safe* thing to do. Although Twitter sounds all newfangled for a traditional brand, it provides a way to listen to how your audience is talking about your brand. Heeding this input can help marketers actually be better/more secure in crafting customer-centric marketing programs.
DM News
Twitter Talk May Come at a Cost – several quotes on Twitter best practices
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, has worked on several Twitter initiatives with companies such as H&R Block and the National Geographic Channel.
Berkowitz stressed the importance of these two-way conversations, but said that there needs to be a concrete strategy in place before brands dive into the Twitter pool.
“If a brand starts building a following and gets noticed in the community and gradually starts giving offers to those in the Twitter community, then the effect can be very viral,” he said.
“You can’t just expect to post coupons on Twitter and expect everyone to click and suddenly get this huge sales drive,” Berkowitz continued. “Twitter can really put brands on the front lines with their customers, maybe in a way that’s more personal than they’ve ever used before.”…
Because of the personal nature of Twitter feeds, consumers may feel like they’re talking to a person instead of a building, which, Berkowitz said, can build loyalty.
DM News
Search and Social Media: A Power Pair – featured contribution
“The largely untapped field of online measurement and reporting is bringing disparate sources together. Two sources of information about consumers that can complement each other well are search behavior and social media activity…”
MediaPost
Microsoft’s Streamlined Search Makes Targeting Critical – quoted expert
…David Berkowitz– director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, New York–said it has been a topic for discussions that has been floating through the industry for years.
“Streamlining search means there will be fewer ad impressions for every search session, so there are fewer opportunities to reach consumers during the search process, but it also means the ads must be more meaningful each time they engage with consumers,” Berkowitz said.
BuzzLogic’s Vino Diaries
Video Podcast on Social Media – feature interview
MediaPost
Ad Experts Talk-Up Google’s Obama Appointment
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, said Obama’s administration has shown an understanding of technology’s potential. “Stanton’s appointment is one way that Obama shows us he will connect with people and that his administration’s take on tech is much bigger than one form of technology,” he said. “It’s great to have one more person in the administration that gets how online advertising and major online publishers work.”
Berkowitz said the industry might not see immediate change, but the “big message” sent with the appointment relays that Obama gets that “online marketing is a two-way channel.”
DM News
Twitter Talk May Come at a Cost – several quotes on Twitter best practices
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, has worked on several Twitter initiatives with companies such as H&R Block and the National Geographic Channel.
Berkowitz stressed the importance of these two-way conversations, but said that there needs to be a concrete strategy in place before brands dive into the Twitter pool.
“If a brand starts building a following and gets noticed in the community and gradually starts giving offers to those in the Twitter community, then the effect can be very viral,” he said.
“You can’t just expect to post coupons on Twitter and expect everyone to click and suddenly get this huge sales drive,” Berkowitz continued. “Twitter can really put brands on the front lines with their customers, maybe in a way that’s more personal than they’ve ever used before.”…
Because of the personal nature of Twitter feeds, consumers may feel like they’re talking to a person instead of a building, which, Berkowitz said, can build loyalty.
DM News
Search and Social Media: A Power Pair – featured contribution
“The largely untapped field of online measurement and reporting is bringing disparate sources together. Two sources of information about consumers that can complement each other well are search behavior and social media activity…”
MediaPost
Microsoft’s Streamlined Search Makes Targeting Critical – quoted expert
…David Berkowitz– director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, New York–said it has been a topic for discussions that has been floating through the industry for years.
“Streamlining search means there will be fewer ad impressions for every search session, so there are fewer opportunities to reach consumers during the search process, but it also means the ads must be more meaningful each time they engage with consumers,” Berkowitz said.
BuzzLogic’s Vino Diaries
Video Podcast on Social Media – feature interview
MediaPost
Ad Experts Talk-Up Google’s Obama Appointment
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, said Obama’s administration has shown an understanding of technology’s potential. “Stanton’s appointment is one way that Obama shows us he will connect with people and that his administration’s take on tech is much bigger than one form of technology,” he said. “It’s great to have one more person in the administration that gets how online advertising and major online publishers work.”
Berkowitz said the industry might not see immediate change, but the “big message” sent with the appointment relays that Obama gets that “online marketing is a two-way channel.”
TheMarketingSpot
Podcast Interview: Starting a Social Media Program – a 24-minute featured interview with Jay Ehret
MediaPost
Search Insider: Hyperlinking Reality – a column by Gord Hotchkiss
Fellow Search Insider David Berkowitz… allowed his curiosity to wander down some fascinating potential directions search may evolve in a couple of recent columns, first looking at Ford’s plans for integrating GPS-enabled voice search in all its vehicles, and then speculating how one search could be launched in 17 different ways, both today and in the future. One of his speculations is what I wanted to explore further today:
Online Spin: How Not to be Creepy – Joe Marchese answers my concerns about respecting consumers
I was on a panel at OMMA Social titled “Personal CPM” that discussed the true value of an individual to a marketer…. I for one am in total agreement that marketers must consider the value of people as a source of media in the age of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but as David Berkowitz pointed out, it begins to sound a little “creepy” when we talk about monetizing people and targeting based on personal information. So how can marketers be effective — without being creepy — in a world where people control media distribution ?
Libertad Digital
2009, un ano importante para internet – coverage in Spanish of trends for 2009
El año de consolidación del monopolio de las búsquedas: En 2008, ningún buscador ha sabido o ha podido hacer competencia a Google. La fusión de Microsoft y Yahoo! ha quedado en nada y se ha perdido un tiempo muy valioso para hacer competencia al gigante de Mountain View. Por eso, el 2009 no presenta a la vista ningún competidor para Google, que seguirá innovando y sorprendiéndonos con nuevas propuestas, pero en solitario. Como simpáticamente dice David Berkowitz en Advertising Age, a empresas como Yahoo! sólo le queda sobrevivir ya que algunos le seguimos teniendo cariño y sabemos que su tiempo ha pasado.
CNN
Transcript of CNN Newsroom – December 4, 2008, 3pm EST – Rick Sanchez discusses my Twitter feedback on the air:
Now, I know what we do here is a little different than most newscasts, let’s face it, using Twitter and MySpace and Facebook. While we are trying to do a newscast at the same time, it is more of a conversation. And if when you first watch, you are left kind of scratching your head, you are not alone.
Just ask David Berkowitz, social media and marketing strategist. He gives lectures all over the country on this topic. And he was watching me on a plane recently and he was at the same time impressed and annoyed by all the business that was going on. So, on his blog — and we are checking the blogs — Marketers Studio — that is his blog — he writes — quote — “I still fear how it plays out on CNN. As a social media strategist, I am tickled by it. As a student of media, it intrigues me. As a marketing consultant, I am learning from it. But, as a consumer who is on a flight to Salt Lake City halfheartedly tuning into CNN as I get a few things done, I want it all to go away.”
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Mr. Berkowitz, we thank you for watching, first of all. I enjoyed your blog and I hope you will enjoy mine, CNN.com/ricksanchez, where you can see some shows and some interviews that you have obviously missed, sir, just so you can be maybe a little more tickled as you write.
CNN
Sanchez: Love Him, Hate Him, Twitter Him! – Rick Sanchez responds to my blog, in this write-up here which he also shared on the air:
I know what we do here is a little different: using Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook during a newscast. It’s more of a conversation, and if, when you first watch, you’re left scratching your head, you’re not alone.
Just ask David Berkowitz, a social media and marketing strategist.
He gives lectures all over the country on this topic, and he was watching me on a plane recently. He was at the same time impressed and annoyed by all the busy-ness going on… (there’s more on his blog)
Ad Age
Facebook, Google, and MySpace Represent the Future of Web Registrations – post on DigitalNext blog; excerpt:
We have the browser wars, the search engine wars and the social network wars — so where will the next digital battle take place? It’s among services that offer third-party logins for publishers, which sounds as unsexy as it gets, except the stakes are so high that everyone with a Web presence needs to take notice.
DM News
Integrating Search Across Channels – featured expert; excerpt:
As widgets are posted across the Web, each link from the widget generally connects with the site of the marketer sharing it. Therefore, wide distribution of search-optimized widgets or other digital assets can increase the quality and quantity of inbound links to a marketer’s site, which also improves the site’s rankings across the engines. This applies to more than just widgets, of course. Increasingly, photos, videos, news stories and other forms of content are being shared on high traffic sites and blogs across the Web.
MediaPost
Rough Patch In Economy Means Return To Basics – coverage of my Search Insider Summit panel
Consumers are beginning to look for local information on mobile devices, but David Berkowitz–director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, who led the discussion–asked panelists what’s next for local search tied to mobile applications that marketers can tap into.
ClickZ
The Ad Downturn: Why Isn’t Digital Immune? – a quote from a Twitter post
At the risk of posing a too-obvious question, is it safe to say that desperate demand for talent is a thing of the past?
Not quite.
“While it’s tough knowing people out of work right now, I’m getting lots of updates from people with new gigs in interactive — very uplifting,” David Berkowitz, emerging media director at 360i, wrote in a Twitter update Friday.
Ad Age
Burger King’s Whopper of a Virginal Search Slip-Up – post on DigitalNext blog; excerpt:
The Whopper Virgins experience begins with a TV commercial with a brief teaser that directs you to WhopperVirgins.com. The spot was compelling enough that I noticed the spot while watching the time-shifted “My Own Worst Enemy” through my DVR; it’s running heavily during weekend football games. Go to the site and you’re treated to a video of Burger King running a Whopper vs. Big Mac taste test with people in Romania, Thailand and Greenland who have never eaten a hamburger before. It’s poignant and amusing, if you can tolerate the implicit ethnocentrism.
What if you don’t remember the exact Web address and Google it? You still better remember the domain name. While WhopperVirgins.com ranks first in Google for “whopper virgins,” it’s invisible when you omit the plural.
Commentary sprung up globally: Как одна ошибка может загубить вирусную кампанию Burger King– excerpt (translated by Google, updated by me):
The campaign could be quite successful, the movie is good and with dry humor. But David Berkovits (David Berkowitz), director of the emerging media company 360i, indicates a significant «blunder». The domain WhopperVirgin.com, which certainly attracts a considerable proportion of consumers who barely saw the URL on the screen. As a result, according to Berkovits, who writes for AdAge, Burger King risks causing dissatisfaction of consumers who want to watch a video, but instead will land on an empty domain. And this is just an unforgivable mistake for such a big brand. And it dramatically reduces the effectiveness of the campaign.
MediaPost
Facebook Adding ‘Fan’ Pages to Public Search Listings – several quotes
“The way links on Facebook are structured right now, they don’t have the type of permanence that search engines are looking for,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at search engine marketing firm 360i.
He continued: “Facebook does evolve pretty quickly, but so far they’ve been a little behind the curve when it comes to SEO.”
He also said it’s not clear how Facebook will select which fan Pages are displayed in public search entries. Berkowitz noted, for instance, that the 10 Facebook friends shown on his profile through a Google search are not always the same. So Pages could likewise vary from one search to another.
Nevertheless, Berkowitz added that inclusion in search listings could encourage more marketers to create Pages, which Facebook offers for free. “If this does start fueling search engine rankings, then, given how pervasive SEO is, that will help marketers go about creating these pages and developing them,” he said.
When Facebook first opened up profiles to public search listings last year, a small proportion of users changed their privacy settings to block dissemination of their data, according to Inside Facebook’s Smith. But 360i’s Berkowitz suggested that members who “fan” a brand on Facebook have a limited expectation of privacy.
“When someone becomes a fan of a Page, it’s a pretty explicit action you’re taking, and it’s pretty clear it’s going to show up elsewhere on Facebook–so most users are going to welcome it, or at the very least not care,” he said.
MediaPost
Google Search Links (or Lack Thereof) Spur Suit
While suing is a drastic step, many small business owners complain that they feel thwarted when their companies don’t appear in the search result listings as high as they would like, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at search engine marketing firm 360i.
“It definitely can be frustrating,” he said, adding that sometimes companies temporarily fall out of the organic search listings for seemingly random reasons. “With search results, it’s normal for unexpected things to happen.”
For instance, he said, an algorithm tweak can cause a company to be dropped from the listings. “It’s a fairly normal occurrence. It doesn’t happen to most sites, but it definitely happens
Solutions Stars Video Conference
Hosted by Network Solutions, I’m one of about 30 featured speakers in this series. You can find my contributions in these videos:
0:48: Visibility Through Search
1:11: Start with Listening
4:25: Building Web Presence
DM News
Ad Club Panel Offers Perspectives on Search – coverage of my Advertising Club panel
However, Berkowitz noted, because Google is performance based, if an ad doesn’t garner enough clicks, the advertiser could be penalized. The ad’s cost per click could increase, or the ad could even be removed.
Oh, and for the record, the last quote attributed to Epstein is mine. Just had to get that out there.
MediaPost’s Just an Online Minute
360i Turns 10, Doesn’t Use Party Hats or Clowns
Last night was 360i’s tenth anniversary party… David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i, is a familiar face to me for a number of reasons: I found him on Flickr when I was trying to gather a pool of people who took photos at OMMA events, we started following each other on Twitter, he’s spoken at OMMA events that I haven’t been to, and then finally we met in person at the Buddy Media party a while back.
Interview with Blog Talk Radio from Blog World Expo
Ad Age
Chase Now Lead Ad Spender in Shrinking Sector – featured quote
“It’s a dangerous time to be too aggressive; you don’t want to be a vulture,” said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media and client strategy at 360i. “But there is definitely missed opportunity in terms of being a resource through search. Clearly you can’t use search the same way you’ve always used it. If you Google ‘WaMu’ now, probably free checking isn’t your No. 1 concern.”
IT Knowledge Exchange: Overheard in the Tech Blogosphere
Tag, You’re IT — Meet David Berkowitz! – a featured interview
Excerpt: Q: David, when did you first discover your love for technology?
A: One of my earliest memories of really embracing technology was when I wrote my first book report in first grade on Stuart Little. My family had our first PC (my brother already had an Apple IIe), and I learned how to use the thesaurus on Wordperfect. I never turned back. Typing had a great impact on me too, allowing me to get thoughts on paper much faster than I could write them, so even in the early 80s I seemed to be itching to be a blogger.
AdWeek’s Ad Freak blog
‘Hey Jew’ gives ad targeting creepy twist – coverage of the religious targeting on Facebook
Excerpt: Nowhere on David Berkowitz’s Facebook profile does it say he’s Jewish. So, he was a bit surprised to see a targeted travel ad with the headline “Hey Jew.” While Berkowitz, an interactive marketing specialist and blogger, is indeed Jewish, he wondered how the advertisement figured that out. Was it based on his hometown? His alma mater? His love of Seinfeld? Maybe, he joked, it was a sign of “top secret Jew-havioral targeting algorithms.”
Ad Age’s DigitalNext Blog
Cuil Needs a Chill Pill – my blog post on Ad Age covering the launch of Cuil.com
Excerpt: In this superhero-obsessed summer, it’s about time everyone found an underdog to root for. In a feat as inexplicable as Tony Stark fashioning scrap metal into an Iron Man suit in an AfghEdit Page | Post | Inside the Marketers Studio – David Berkowitz’s Marketing Blog | Your Weblogs | TypePadan prison, Cuil.com gained almost iPhone-like levels of publicity for its launch yesterday. Yet Cuil (pronounced “cool” — get ready for a new swath of Web 2.0 words that don’t sound anything like how they’re spelled) is due for a run-in with Mr. Freeze as its media mojo gets put on ice.
GoMo News
Coverage of SMX Expo – Mobile Advertising Tactics & Opportunities panel; I served as a panelist
The Mobile Search Advertising Panel started off with David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at 360i. He talked about the big benefit of reach with mobile subscribers as the number of users at over 3B eclipses PC users, which are only at 1B. There is a shift when it comes to customer reach away from on-deck (carrier portals) to off-deck (Yahoo Go!, Yelp iPhone app, etc) where standard paid search can take place. Two examples of ad networks with paid search that are off-deck, he mentioned are Medio and Jumptap… He also mentioned that with voice search with advertising, there is 100% penetration!
New York Post
Technology Teaser: New High-Speed iPhone Has Advertisers Drooling
“From the marketing side, more than the consumer side, there is the promise of location- based targeting,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media for 360i, a digital marketing firm. “Marketers get really excited about this.”
DM News
Google Trends Updated
Google Trends has always been useful, and these updates make it more useful than before, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media for search marketing firm 360i, in response to the news. That said, it’s still not perfect, in his opinion: “The one thing Google won’t give away here is the exact numbers,” he said. …
Before, Google provided graphs that gave users a sense of what some of the trends were — including trends across geographic regions, Berkowitz said. Now, however, people can actually quantify the comparisons, he said. “Taking this all together you can get a better picture of the marketplace.”
DM News
Search Guide: 2008 – feature article on Six Types of Mobile Search, p.44
MediaPost
Will Social Media Force Spending Up or Down – coverage of OMMA Social
Most experts on Monday agreed that effective social marketing goes way beyond banner ads on MySpace. “You can make social media a flat-out media buy by running a big banner ad campaign on MySpace, but that part of it really isn’t that special,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at digital agency 360i.
SEM Brasil
Sonhando com um Super Modelo – column syndicated to Brazil’s leading search engine marketing site
David Berkowitz, diretor de planejamento estratégico no 360i, escreve sobre uma questão crucial: afinal, sua empresa está gastando mais ou menos do que deveria em Search Engine Marketing?
DM News
Microsoft Starts Rebate Debate – several quotes on Microsoft Cashback:
David Berkowitz, director of emerging media & client strategy for SEM firm 360i, said the move was, “a new twist on comparison shopping.” … “It is unlikely that a lot of consumers are going to go to the cashback site on their own,” Berkowitz said.
Most likely, most of the traffic will be coming from consumers searching for good deals during a declining economy on product categories on MSN.com or Live.com, he continued.
CK’s Blog
Review of my Media Sponsorship Policy
Excerpt:
Why am I pleased? Because of:
How David is looking to add value to his blog (clever!) while bringing value to his readers.
How his new sponsorship is rooted in an authentic passion of his–seriously, that dude gets around a lot, and speaks at and attends conferences left, right and center.
How upfront and respectful his policy is of his blog’s audience.
MarketingSherpa
How to Get Featured on Inside the Marketers Studio – an exclusive for PR professionals on how to pitch this blog
Financial Express (India)
When It Gets Official – featured expert, along with Steve Rubel, on corporate blogging
One of my quotes: “There should be someone who monitors the blog daily, monitors other mentions of it in the blogosphere, and has full permission to respond to people on the fly, including commenting on others’ blogs and really playing a role in the community. That kind of approach will create a groundswell of respect for that company.”
The Performance Interviews
Featured interview – a Q&A on performance for ValueClick’s series featuring industry experts
Mobile Marketer
“How Will Microsoft’s Bid for Yahoo Affect Mobile?” – featured quote:
“The mobile channel is so much bigger than the online giants, but this is one area where Microsoft and Yahoo have strengths that could play-off each other,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at interactive agency 360i, New York.
Treehugger
Bloomberg Deems Threat of Global Warming as Serious as Terrorism – photo credit, also appearing Climate on Our Future and Frozen Toothpaste
Todd And Marketing and Media blog
Power Profile: Inside the Marketers Studio – extensive profile in conjunction with the Ad Age Power 150 Marketing Blogs
Ad Age Search Marketing Fact Pack
Search Marketing Fact Pack – Two-page featured interview on emerging search trends
iMedia Connection
Ten Tips by Ten Bloggers – I’m one of the ten in this great roundup by Joe Kutchera
Through his blog, the Marketer’s Studio, David Berkowitz has established credibility for his consulting client strategy work at 360i (where he is director of emerging media) and obtained numerous speaking engagements at the Consumer Electronics Show, the Magazine Publishers of America and MediaPost’s Search Insider Summits and OMMA events. In addition, it has also opened up a means of conversation with other bloggers.
Berkowitz says, “Recently, I offered another perspective on a post Forrester Research’s Jeremiah Owyang blogged about Twitter (on his personal Web Strategist blog), and the exchange led to MarketingProfs inviting us to debate the issue on a new podcast the company was launching.
“Ultimately, these conversations and connections, and at times enduring friendships, that I’ve established through blogging have provided the most value, and then everything from speaking engagements to deeper client relationships have been added perks on top of that.”
What are the benefits of spending time reading and commenting on other blogs?
Bloggers whose blogs you comment on notice you
Commenters on those blogs notice you
It brings you into those other blogs’ communities; you’ll often notice the same commenters over and over each day
Usually, you can link to your blog from the comment, which is great both for traffic and potentially for search engine optimization
You gain new ideas to write about; you might take a comment you left for someone and use that to build another blog post of your own that fleshes it out
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
The Great Twitter Debate podcast with Jeremiah Owyang, hosted by Paul Dunay
Fortune Small Business
Scott Jones’s Big Bet: Can Human-Powered Search Beat Google?: quoted analyst
“I think if you’re trying to change the search experience as a whole, it’s a much bigger challenge,” says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy with 360i (360i.com), a New York City search-marketing agency, “and that’s where ChaCha falls in.”
Certification Magazine
The Latest in Web Site Search Technology
“Thanks to the proliferation of social media, consumers are creating more and more content and updating it frequently, so the sheer mass and scale become issues,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, a search engine marketing firm.
“A growing volume of content is in some multimedia form — images, movies, podcasts — and those are harder to index than text,” he said. “Search queries are becoming more demanding, prompting the need for better search tools that understand the semantics both of queries and content.”
At the same time, all expect results to be highly relevant and rapidly delivered.
“There’s a constant cat-and-mouse game with search technology,” he said. “As the technology improves, consumers find new ways to use it, and they set their standards higher.”
“By some standards, it’s amazing what search technology accomplishes today,” Berkowitz said. “By other standards, it seems infantile compared to the potential for what it can deliver. It has become good enough that we can more easily envision how amazing it will get, and that’s a great sign for the industry, even if it causes some frustration over the short-term.”
Advertising Age
The Early Days of Video Search
“We’re still in the early stage in terms of marketing opportunities for video search,” agrees David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, which boasts video-heavy companies such as NBC Universal, Scripps Networks and MTV Networks as search clients. “It’s in natural search where more opportunity lies.” He says one of the problems with video search that doesn’t plague text search is there isn’t a universal standard for how videos get indexed into search engines.
Mr. Berkowitz points to an example of how his firm has optimized video so that it shows up higher in search results. When the “Saturday Night Live” hit “Lazy Sunday,” a hip-hop-music-video parody starring Andy Samberg, went viral on YouTube in December 2005, NBC was nowhere to be found in the first page of results for a Google search on “SNL videos.” After major video-search-optimization efforts, the SNL video page showed up first. Mr. Berkowitz also credits optimization efforts for ensuring NBC video sites show up in the top half of results for other phrases, such as “Friday Night Lights,” ahead of other popular sites such as IMDB, TV.com and Wikipedia.
DM News
360i’s Berkowitz and Hofstetter Promoted – official story on my promotion to Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy
David Berkowitz will continue to run 360i’s Emerging Media Lab, helping clients understand online marketing and emerging-media trends. He is chairman of the Search Insider summits and a well-known figure in the search industry.
Prior to 360i, he served as director of marketing for Viewpoint’s rich-media advertising group Unicast and search engine marketing firm iCrossing
Multichannel Merchant
Google’s New Search: Universal, and Far From Remote
David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search and performance firm 360i, says the rollout of this integrated search was foreseeable for a long time. “Marketers should have been going in this direction anyway, because there’ve been a lot of signs that this is part of the evolution of natural search,” he says. “Conveniently, Google has spelled out a lot of the rules here.”
Two of the most important lessons for marketers and Web optimizers, he says, are optimizing for the vertical and specialized search services on any of the major search engines, and digitizing and optimizing any asset that could conceivably be found in search. Whether it’s making sure that every image on your Website is tagged and findable by the search bots, getting a list of all your patents onto the Web, or making a page that contains all your TV commercials, get that content optimized and out there, Berkowitz says. “It might not be something that you’d actively promote, but having the content online and optimized is one more hook for the search engines, and one more way to expand your presence in search results.”
Search Engine Watch
What Does Universal Search Mean for SEM?
Many times, the changes in results Google returns will be subtle, but other searches will offer surprises that will serve to highlight the strength of Google’s vertical search properties, according to David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i.
“For instance, for a search on [iPod], categories appear up top that include the Web default along with patents, products, and news. Do that many searchers really care about patents? Probably not,” Berkowitz said. “More likely, Google uses opportunities like that to showcase just how robust its vertical search offerings are, which means that just as universal search replaces vertical search in some regards, it highlights the value of vertical search in other circumstances.”
Most all industry watchers agree that this will have an impact on search marketers, since searchers will now be presented with more than just Web page results.
“The moral for search marketers is they need to take a holistic view of search,” Berkowitz said. “For those who get it, this gives them an unprecedented chance to dominate entire search engine results pages and gain sizeable competitive advantages. Marketers need to consider every digital asset of theirs as an opportunity to gain more visibility in Google, whether it’s an image, video, press release, store listing, blog post, or anything else.”
Amy Cham’s Blog
Web 2.0 Expo: David Berkowitz on SEO and SEM trends
This was a great talk that introduced a lot of ideas and pointed out how things are changing. Search is more than having good keywords and site structure. The “inter” in internet is becoming a powerful force, and behaving in ways that we didn’t see just a few years ago. It’s an evolving, rich area of challenge and opportunity that warrants a little extra homework creative experimentation on the part of marketers and business owners.
Ad Age
How Functional Widgets are Shaking up the Web
“There’s a lot of promise, but we’re still in the early stages of marketers using them,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at search-focused agency 360i. His research recently found just 8% of the top network- and cable-TV programmers use emerging media such as widgets in their media-marketing efforts. Already widget aggregators such as Widgetbox and Clearspring have seen jumps in number of users and picked up substantial private-investment dollars.
Of course, all the activity and popularity is not to say widgets are a done phenomenon. Still, Mr. Berkowitz said, “these days things move so quickly from early adopter to ‘me too,’ so there is a limited window where you can get in there and make an impact.”
DM News
Deeper Targeting and More Competition on the Search Horizon
Things in the search arena are looking good with moderate growth in inventory, traffic and ad spend. The industry has grown 20 percent to 30 percent from the first quarter of 2006, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media at 360i, New York.
Mr. Berkowitz said the industry is becoming more transparent, and there is increased competition among the major engines.
“On the paid search front, Yahoo’s new ad platform Project Panama is requiring marketers to completely review their campaigns and adjust to the new system,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “Early indications show that marketers are paying a lower cost-per-click and getting a higher ROI from their ad spend there.
“Meanwhile, Google is offering much more transparency into its Quality Score so marketers have a better indication of how their ads rank,” he said.
Mediaweek
360i Report: TV Nets Digital Efforts Lack Consolidation
Such a vacuum can result in fans of these network’s show getting lost when shifting from various channels, whether they visit network’s Web sites, video sharing sites, social networks, or wherever TV fans congregate online. “Marketers typically run social media campaigns as separate entities, and often social networks, blogs, mobile marketing, and other channels are run by different people or groups,” said David Berkowitz, 360i’s Director of Emerging Media. “What’s clear from these results that marketers must learn to connect the channels so that the sum is greater than each of its parts. When all the channels are connected, it will be easier for consumers to navigate through the entire campaign and remain engaged with the brand.”
MediaPost
TV Brands Could Do More to Exploit Digital Efforts
The inability of networks to maximize investments online–according to 360i’s director of emerging media David Berkowitz–has more to do with integration than with adoption.
“Marketers typically run social media campaigns as separate entities, and often social networks, blogs, mobile marketing, and other channels are run by different people or groups,” said Berkowitz. “What’s clear from these results is that marketers must learn to connect the channels so that the sum is greater than each of its parts.”
Network marketers, for example, are more than likely today to create a MySpace page devoted exclusively to one television series. It is less likely, said Berkowitz, that these marketers will establish a connection between the MySpace page–and its visitors–and the show’s other digital platforms.
Added Berkowitz: “When all the channels are connected, it will be easier for consumers to navigate through the entire campaign and remain engaged with the brand.”
MediaPost
Microsoft Deal Gives It Shot at Thriving Health Search Vertical
Health is one of the most valuable verticals when it comes to search, said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media for 360i. “It’s one of those things that is so valuable to consumers and such a huge market, spending-wise–just look at the trillion plus dollar healthcare market,” he said. “If you get it right, then you have something really valuable to advertisers that are dying to find new ways to reach consumers.”
The acquisition is the second for Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group, which bought Azyxxi, a healthcare software product, in 2006. Medstory, a search engine, has “a lot of the tools to compete,” and has particularly good search refining tools, returning results on treatments, drugs, and prominent researchers, for terms entered, Berkowitz said.
MediaPost
Google Adds CPC Pricing to Site Targeting
The move is expected to make site targeting more useful to advertisers who have aim for both branding and direct response with their campaigns, said David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for 360i. “Even brand marketers often have direct marketing and traffic goals, and they’ll want to use CPC pricing for those campaigns,” he said.
Direct Magazine
Google Gets Personal – Should You Care? – Ruminating on personalized search
Dave Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search marketing firm 360i, is of pretty much the same opinion. For one thing, even those users with a registered Google account may still conduct many of their searches on the basic www.google.com start page, which requires no registration. He thinks the users most likely to be searching while logged in are those with a Gmail account. And while that Google service has a lot of momentum, he points out, the “tens of millions” of Gmail users Google claims are still running well behind the users of Yahoo! Mail or MSN’s Hotmail.
For another thing, optimizing for the possible variations in personalized search is close to mathematically impossible. “I had a friend at UC Berkeley calculate the possible permutations for a search that could have 25 links—a totally arbitrary number– show up in the ten slots on a Google results page,” Berkowitz says. “The total worked out to about 11.9 trillion possibilities.”
“If you go on doing [optimization] right, you’re going to capture most of the interested audience,” Berkowitz says. “If you’re not as visible to an occasional personal searcher here or there, you just have to hope it averages out in your favor.”
That jibes with what Matt Cutts, senior Google engineer, who was the keynote conversation at the London session of Search Engine Strategies two weeks ago. Where optimizing for a trophy keyword in general search produces a few big winners and lots of losers, he said, “Now you can target specific niches, and everyone can rank in some niche.” The important step, he said, will be figuring out those niches and targeting them properly.
Berkowitz agrees. Search marketers who have been aggressively pursuing the long tail of search with ten thousand keywords in their lists may be ahead of the curve should the search audience begin to fragment, he says. “In fact, it may work to search marketers’ advantage,” he says. “If they start getting less traffic from a key term [as a result of personalized search], that term may turn out to cost through the roof.” So personalization, combined with a long-tail approach and some careful monitoring, could actually help sharpen marketers’ targeting skills.
ClickZ
Google Posts Q4 Profit
“Their own destination remains the huge driver of the revenues. Everything else that came up, especially when it comes to mobile and Google Checkout, and those emerging models, are not yet a source of direct revenue,” said David Berkowitz, director of emerging media for 360i, a search marketing agency. “Google’s still a search engine. Their numbers speak to that a lot more than their executives do.”
MediaPost
MSN Tests Analytics Tool
David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for 360i, said the planned offering seems needed. “There’s a lot of room for thought leadership, and a lot of room to basically reach out and provide transparency for advertisers and agencies,” he said. “When the traffic comes in and as they provide better ways to target their users, then they can provide more value than just the raw numbers.”
DM News
Local Search Spreads Its Wings
A local search function can be cost effective. For example, an insurance company that operates only in 10 states would not want to serve its ads nationwide because that would waste most of its ad budget right from the start, said David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning at 360i, New York.
Some marketers may need even narrower geographies, like a hairstylist who attracts customers within 20 miles of her salon.
A national brand might want to reach out to different geographies in different ways.
“In March, a department store might still be selling winter coats in Montana while selling swimsuits in Florida,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “An airline might target East Coast searchers with flights to Europe and West Coast searchers with flights to Asia.
“A fast-food chain might stress the speed of delivery to rushed urban-area searchers while stressing the low price and great value to those in the Midwest,” he said. “All of this is with the goal of making ads more relevant, and the major search engines include ways to accomplish this.”
In June, eMarketer projected that U.S. local online advertising would be $1.3 billion this year and skyrocket to $2.8 billion by 2008. And a recent comScore Networks report found that 109 million people performed a local search in July, up 43 percent from July 2005.
The potential of this market encourages innovation.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of innovation, especially from the search engines,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “Mapping technology keeps getting more sophisticated. Google is constantly rolling out new features for Google Earth, where users can search the globe displayed with 3D satellite imagery.
“Microsoft is using its 3D aerial maps as a big component of Live Local,” he said. “Yahoo also has a new map program in beta that makes it easier to plot directions for multiple points on a given route and also makes it easy to browse local businesses on a map.”
Media Magazine
Ready, Aim, Segment: Adventures in Search Targeting
As keyword prices soar in some popular categories, targeting introduces necessary efficiencies. At 360i, day-parting reduces budgets and helps outflank competitors. “Targeting is a big focus for us,” says David Berkowitz, the firm’s director of strategic planning. “If rival advertisers blow their budgets by 3 p.m., then you can ramp up in the evening and get prime positioning, saving significant money and increasing click-through rates.”…
Still, as marketers drill down into location, demographics, and day-parting tactics, the targeting miracle everyone wants remains in the wings. “The future is behavioral,” says 360i’s Berkowitz. “If you only want to target someone who’s made a certain type of purchase, it could have a big impact on messaging.”
Advertising Age
Search Marketing Fact Pack
(A two-page spread interview with David Berkowitz on 12 search engine optimization strategies for 2007)
ABC News
Google Bombing Politicians
“Google could theoretically impact an election,” said David Berkowitz, at the search engine marketing firm 360i. “Presumably, Google could have a role in who controls Congress.”
The idea isn’t new, according to 360i’s Berkowitz. He said that during the 2004 election, a similar approach was used to link searches for simple phrases or words like “waffle” to Democratic Sen. John Kerry, and “miserable failure” to President Bush.
“But those results don’t have a lot of competition,” said Berkowitz, who believes the specifics of today’s Google bomb campaign make it much more difficult. “I’m very skeptical in terms of how all this will work. Maybe for a handful of politicians it will, but for the majority, I think it will be a long shot.”
DM News
DMers on Danny Sullivan/Incisive Media Agreement
“His presence at the show breeds familiarity. He adds a lot in terms of knowing the people, the companies, the stories, the trends, the success stories, and the inside dirt,” said David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning at 360i .
“It’s reassuring to hear the show will continue to benefit from his expertise,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “As search marketing budgets grow, and as top executives at the world’s leading companies grasp the importance of search, it’s all the more important that these flagship SES events provide the best possible educational and networking experience.”
iMedia
The Industry Weighs In (Google Acquiring YouTube)
David Berkowitz, Director of Strategic Planning, 360i
Google’s acquisition of YouTube will change some of the rules of engagement for agencies involved with media buying.
The old rules (the ones in place today) were that marketers would turn to search marketing agencies, or whatever agency they’ve been using that offered search marketing services, to buy media through Google, and this would be predominantly text-based and direct response. Video-related ads would run through the client’s interactive agency or rich media provider, and branding would be a primary goal.
Google has been blurring those lines for some time with image and video-in-banner ads, but as Google rolls out more formats specific to video, and to the viral user-generated content that has made YouTube its billion-dollar baby, those lines may disappear entirely.
Search marketing agencies will now be tasked with buying text and video ads and gaining more stewardship for achieving both direct response and branding goals, while agencies that have traditionally handled rich media and video will now work more closely with Google, giving them more leverage with the largest online advertising company.
Media Magazine
Built for Speed
And consumers now expect as much. “It’s an instantaneous marketing process,” says David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning, 360i. Marketers need to reel in in-market consumers who are predisposed to buying, and then fulfill their requests immediately. Search engines level the playing field, allowing small companies like regional airlines and boutique financial consultants to compete with bigger rivals. “It’s a great equalizer,” Berkowitz says.
MediaPost
Google Introduces Mobile AdWords
David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search engine marketing firm 360i, said Google’s entry could make the world of mobile advertising more accessible to smaller advertisers. “Right now, there’s only so much mobile search buying going on, but Google’s done a great job integrating this into their overall AdWords system,” he said. “There’s a lot of mobile advertising companies, it’s a really chaotic, confusing space, so for a lot of marketers, this could be a relief for them.”
MediaPost
360i: Search Marketers Overstate Organic Listings
“Marketers tend to look at the last click before conversions,” says David Berkowitz, the director of strategic planning for 360i. “There is a real process going on, and what this means if you’re only crediting the last click rather than just the assist–you may well not be giving proper credit to the clicks that are taking part in the consumer’s buying process.”
ClickZ
Study: Search Marketers Undervalue Assists
These multi-click conversions accounted for two-thirds of the total clicks measured in this study, according to David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning at 360i.
“Many marketers are looking at the last click before a conversion and crediting it entirely. Most ‘assists’ are being ignored,” Berkowitz told ClickZ. “Knowing the value of ‘assists’ gives marketers more power to budget their search campaigns, and make more efficient decisions.”…
“Paid listings are more likely to be uncredited by marketers looking only at the last click,” Berkowitz said.
The most common move was from non-branded to branded searches that led to clicks on natural results. Clicks on a natural result for a non-branded search led to clicks on a natural result of a branded search 32.5 percent of the time.
Next most common progression led from a click on a paid result of a non-branded search to a click on a natural result of a branded search, which took place 22.4 percent of the time. That path should be considered most valuable, Berkowitz said. “It indicates that the searcher was not sold on who they wanted to do business with.”
MediaPost
Google Upgrades AdWords with Daypart Scheduling
David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search engine marketing firm 360i, said that dayparting will likely prove useful for search marketers. “Dayparting can help marketers better align their campaigns with their overall marketing strategy,” he said. “For instance, if a marketer’s running a major TV campaign in prime time, and they want to make sure they don’t burn through their search budget first thing in the morning.”
MediaPost
Google Tests Cost Per Action Ads
If Google cost-per-action ads become more widely available, the search giant could attract a large group of new advertisers to whom the model appeals. “It will attract advertisers that might have been using CPA networks,” said David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search engine marketing firm 360i. “Given the success of CPA networks, I’d say a lot of advertisers are going to be asking questions about this.”
The move, Berkowitz said, is a play at the non-brand advertisers on the Web–a contrast to programs such as image ads and site selection, which were targeted largely at big brand budgets. “This is clearly not a branding play right here,” he said. “It’s a little refreshing to see–even if Google is expanding its options a little, it’s still sticking with its direct marketing roots.”
ClickZ
Google Tests Cost Per Action
“Advertisers concerned with click fraud will be some of the quickest to sign up, but it’s not going to be the main driver of the program,” predicted David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning at 360i. “Google’s biggest traction will come from advertisers that are already using CPA with other networks, and have a relationship with Google. Google has a trusted name with advertisers, publishers and consumers. I can’t see any reason an advertiser wouldn’t at least experiment with this.”
Ad Age
Microsoft Adds Search to Windows Live Email
“All the talk about default settings giving one company an advantage over another is completely overrated,” said David Berkowitz, director-strategic planning at search marketing firm 360i. “When Google became Google, it was no one’s default setting.”
DM News
Yahoo Overhauls Paid Search Program
“This is the most significant development on the platform side since MSN debuted with adCenter and demographic targeting built into it,” said David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning, search marketing firm 360i, New York.
MediaPost
Report: Last Clicks Get All the Credit
According to David Berkowitz–the author of the study and director of strategic planning at 360i–marketers should look more holistically at campaigns, and not necessarily assume that the final search term is the one that gets the sales. “One thing that marketers can and should be doing is manage the brand and non-brand terms together–holistically, they’re often seen as two separate entities,” he said. “There’s a reason to categorize them separately when running the campaign, but when running the analytics, and seeing what terms can explain the conversions–that’s when you need to bring them all together.”
DM News
Yahoo New Front Page Gets Personalized
“What’s different with the new homepage is that it stresses personalization and content. Yahoo sets the main top-center focal point on its leading stories and their related video clips,” David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search marketing firm 360i told DMNews.
While search is very prominent, so is content. Yahoo added more feature stories, entertainment and sports items, as well as more video and text news.
“The new site reinforces Yahoo’s role as a portal first and search engine second, so the design competes more with AOL and MSN than Google and Ask,” Mr. Berkowitz said.
MediaPost
AdSense Upgrade Could Speed Growth of Online Video Ads
David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search engine marketing firm 360i, said that the do-it-yourself, auction-based format could allow advertisers who have been blocked from buying video advertising to do so. “There’s such a low barrier to entry, and so anyone can participate,” he said. “For a local advertiser who might want to repurpose a local TV campaign, this could very well present their first foray into online video advertising.”
Berkowitz said that 360i had been receiving inquiries from its clients as early as Tuesday morning–hours after the announcement was made, about getting video into the content network. “It’s one of those things that we’ll definitely look at in terms of how it fits into the rest of their campaigns,” he said. “It’s definitely something that our clients will be asking about, and already first thing this morning, we’ve been educating them about it.”
ClickZ
Click Fraud Settlement Viewed as Win-Win by Some
Some search marketers, such as David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning at 360i, say click fraud has been over-hyped and is little more than a distraction for most sophisticated marketers. Much of the problem is in advertiser’s perception of the issue, and the way the search engines have handled it, he said.
“Search engines need to better educate marketers and provide greater transparency into their methods. If they say that a certain percentage of clicks are fraudulent or if they offer a refund to marketers on some clicks, the engines will best serve marketers and agencies by being more open about how they come to such conclusions,” Berkowitz said.
Multichannel Merchant
Taking Surer Aim on Contextual Ads
“This is great, especially for those who’ve done advertising in other media or even in other online channels,” says David Berkowitz, director of strategic planning for search marketing agency 360i. “Now advertisers can target specific demographics with contextual ads and ideally make those ads even more relevant to viewers.”
Adding the demographic filters to the media buys on Google AdSense therefore makes that channel a lot more like buying ad inventory in other online media such as banner ads, Berkowitz says, so in that sense it’s an evolutionary step rather than a great leap. “What was really new for AdSense was adding Google’s bidding model to that medium,” he says. “Adding demographic targeting on top of that just makes it make even more sense. It’s something that I’m sure advertisers were hoping for.”
In the different avenues that Google and MSN have taken to add demographics to their ad offerings, you might be able to read two companies trying to play to their very different strengths, Berkowitz adds. MSN has a very large registered base of users for its various products, from e-mail and instant messaging to social networking and its other Passport services, and it has built most of its profiling capabilities on that large data mound, with some additional input from third parties.
MediaPost
Study: Most Search Conversions Happen Offline
David Berkowitz, search marketing firm 360i’s director of strategic planning, took another view. He contended that many marketers were indeed aware of the ROI gleaned from offline conversions, but said the major challenge was figuring out how to measure the offline conversions stemming from search. “There’s still more room in terms of improving the measurement of offline channels for interactive campaigns,” he said. “That remains a significant challenge for marketers.”
BtoB Magazine
360i Names Director of Strategic Planning
New York—360i, a search marketing and interactive agency, has named David Berkowitz director of strategic planning. Berkowitz was previously director of marketing for Viewpoint Corp.’s rich media advertising group. In his new role, he will work with senior management to develop strategy for emerging media including video search, mobile search, RSS, podcasting and pay-per-call.
Also in ClickZ Execs & Accounts
MediaPost
Intel, AOL Partner for Web-to-TV
The result was an online display unlike much else on the Web. “It is in fact brand spanking new … combining takeover ads to multi-unit ad executions,” said David Berkowitz, an executive with the rich media company Unicast.
MediaPost
Google Wins Copyright Case
“Until now, the cache has just been a nifty little bonus in using Google when a page won’t load,” said search industry observer David Berkowitz, director of marketing for Viewpoint Corporation. “Down the road, cache presumably could play a much bigger role than it does now.”
Media Magazine
Agency of the Year: AKQA – guest judge
“RunLondon is [one of the] better examples of branded content that I’ve seen recently,” says David Berkowitz, director of marketing for Viewpoint Corp. The site used Google Maps to route the best course to NikeTown for runners to pick up their race pack. AKQA concluded the campaign by adding a layer that would truly link the runner with the race, not to mention the Nike brand: Runners were supplied with 3G mobile phones, enabling them to see themselves cross the finish line in the palm of their hands.
“The site does a great job at targeting both beginning and experienced runners,” Berkowitz adds. “The tag line is strong upfront — ‘I Will Run a Year’ — making the site extremely personal to runners, while the entire time you know that you’re on a Nike-branded site.”
DM News
Rich Media Gets Richer: Merchandising via Online Advertising – bylined article
Rich media offers many opportunities to engage consumers, with television-quality video and countless options for consumer control and interaction. Yet, even as the online experience for consumers becomes more immersive, consumers want control. In light of the continued push and pull between consumers and advertisers, advertising and content are increasingly intertwined.
Associated Press
Online Groceries Keep Expanding Quietly
“People who go in and feel fruit have no idea what they’re doing, but it’s still so important for them,” said eMarketer analyst David Berkowitz. “Online shopping changes that dramatically.”
CNN/Money
Wigs, Bandanas, and Sex for the Holidays?
“This year has been very strong for the e-commerce industry,” said David Berkowitz, spokesman for e-commerce research firm eMarketer. “Every indicator in this space, from online sales, broadband growth and domain registration is up. It’s not surprising that individuals, small businesses and even the bigger brick-and-mortar retailers who didn’t have an online presence before now have a Web site.”…
“The Internet is gradually becoming more of a standard way to shop,” said Berkowitz. “It’s convenient to use, especially as people are more confident now of using their credit cards online. Web vendors are giving customers what they want like free shipping or the option to order online and pick up the goods at the store.”
But despite all the sugary predictions, analysts point out that at the end of the day, the Internet accounts for less than 2 percent of the overall retail sales pie, which last year totaled over $3 trillion.
“So even if we have a very strong season for Internet sales, it doesn’t necessarily signal a strong holiday season,” Berkowitz said.
Orlando Sentinel
Quotes on e-commerce
“Price is an important factor for consumers online but is not the be
all, end all,” said David Berkowitz, a spokesman for eMarketer, an
Internet and e-business research firm. “It’s a matter of convenience —
people shop online or through catalogs because they don’t have time to
shop elsewhere.
“The passage of this legislation certainly would be a little setback to
the industry,” he continued, “But online retailers are only getting
better and more sophisticated. Brick-and-mortar retailers are going to
feel the heat regardless.”
Photo Credits
Village Voice – Mario Cuomo’s Mark Green Snub – August 2009 – featured photo of Cuomo
Village Voice – More Pastel Frosting to Befall the City – August 2009 – featured photo of Sprinkles Cupcakes
You’re also welcome to join his Serial Marketers community on Slack. Just visit serialmarketers.net and request access.
How Howard Gardner’s Philosophy of Multiple Intelligences (Visual, Kinesthetic and Auditory) have relevance for Marketing and agency teams
