Green Media: May 2008 Archives

The award-winning show was based on Common Vision's  DVD "Planting the Vision." The special episode of "Natural Heroes" aired on PBS across the nation. This award is a huge tribute to programs like Natural Heroes and the featured groups that are working for positive change. We hope many more people will see the show and be inspired to plant a tree in their community!

Watch a 6-minute trailer for the DVD "Planting the Vision" below.

> Watch the Natural Heroes Fruit Tree Tour Promo on the Natural Heroes site

AdReady is one of the new companies offering access to the display ad market on Internet websites.

AdReady promises to ease the headaches and guesswork and to lower the costs associated with buying display ads. A Ford dealership in California can pick from a pool of templates and customize an image of a revolving Ford car with the dealership logo and contact information. Then, the dealer can buy ad space through AdReady on major Web sites targeted to reach only Web surfers in California.

The AdReady system suggests tweaks, such as changing the ad background color, that have proven to draw more people to click on ads.

Advertisers can spend as little as $20, and AdReady is paid a cut of the ad buy.

AdReady and other services also give advertisers the ability to tie ad spending to response results that show how many people viewed a specific ad and how many people clicked on it. The car dealer could then decide it wants to turn off the ads that received the fewest clicks and run more of the ads that were more effective.

By drawing in new ad buyers, the self-service options also aim to address one of the nagging problems with the display-ad market: cheap prices.

As a flood of new Web sites compete for consumers' eyeballs, sites such as Facebook are having difficulty raising prices for ads. The cost for reaching a thousand Web visitors can be as little as a few cents on Facebook or MySpace.

Reaching the same number of viewers of a prime-time TV show can cost $30.

SOURCE: New York Times May, 2007

The Wall Street Journal updates us on how online advertising is becoming more of a Do-It-Yourself strategy. Is selling 250,000 impressions for $63 really sustainable for the advertising community?

THE CASE STUDY: ...the ad was seen more than 250,000 times. Quickly, Bonobos sold out of Clarks, at $120 a pop. Total cost for the ads: about $63.

Facebook is only one of a rising number of self-service ad options. There are new entrants such as AdReady Inc., AdBrite Inc. and AdItAll LLC. MySpace, like Facebook, is offering do-it-yourself ads that marketers can tailor to individual interests on the social-networking site. (MySpace, like [The Wall Street Journal], is owned by News Corp.)

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet unit and Google have new self-service ad options for the opposite side of the equation -- for Web publishers who want to attract advertising to their sites.

The rising number of self-service options underscores the expanding market for display ads, the graphic- and video-heavy ads in fixed spots on a Web page. The market for display ads reached $5 billion in 2007, according to market-research firm eMarketer Inc. That is far less than the estimated $8.6 billion in spending for text ads tied to online search. But in coming years, the mix is expected to tilt in favor of display ads, thanks to the rise of online video and the increasing push of brand marketers such as car companies into the display market.

But for the majority of mostly small- and medium-size businesses, it remains too difficult and expensive to buy display ads. To create an ad, businesses have to navigate the 15 standard sizes and half dozen standard formats and design something that will be eye-catching. They have to pick which Web sites or networks to buy ad space from, test multiple ads, track which ones draw the best consumer responses and adjust marketing campaigns accordingly. Doing this alone is daunting, and paying an ad agency to do it might cost thousands of dollars. Sites such as Yahoo Inc. often require advertisers to promise they will spend tens of thousands of dollars a month on advertising. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

As a publisher of original content and aggregated news, I cringe at some of the prices being paid for search ads...there comes a point at which publishers can no longer afford to create quality content that is supported by bargain basement advertising.  Hopefully, the ad networks will be cognizant of that fact and the plight of the traditional media who are now feeling the sting of cheaper online advertising will serve as a warning and guidepost for what can happen to online content development. 

We don't have to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs!

TIP ONE for marketers:  Look at tips for consumers, and reverse engineer the themes and messages that appeal to consumers...for your retail and community clients.  For instance:

Sustainable tourism covers a variety of criteria, from low environmental impact and energy use to respect for the culture and well-being of the local population.

There is more than one way to travel green. Eco-Friendly travel (ecotravel) is tourism that promotes a sustainable environment. By its nature, travel can be both an opportunity for people to experience the environment they visit and at the same time is a threat to it. Destination Villas offers the seven sustainable travel tips.

1. Travel less and stay longer. Air travel leaves the largest carbon footprint than any other form of travel. If you must fly, do it fewer times per year and stay longer, or travel closer to home. 
2. Don’t fly at night. Dr. Piers Forster from Leeds University has discovered that trails of condensation from aircraft - contrails - have a greater warming effect at night, trapping heat but without reflecting any of the sun's rays back into the atmosphere as they do during the day.
3. Leave no trace. Enjoy the beautiful places on the plant but be mindful that your very presence damage it. Do not pick flowers, take rocks or break coral. Don’t liter. Be familiar with cultural mores prior to arrival be respectful of cultural practices.
4. All transportation requires the combustion of fuel, so the greenest thing you can do is use public transporation. When possible, try taking the train or bus instead of flying. If you're driving, try to get as many people in the car as possible, instead of taking multiple vehicles. Always rent a hybrid vehicle.
5. Visit eco-friendly destinations that use renewable energy sources: visit Burlington, Vermont, Dry Tortugas National Park or Vail, Colorado.
   
6. Choose eco-friendly lodging. There is a wide variety of eco-friendly lodging these days. Start with the Green Hotel Association and EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com or DestinationVillas.com.
7. Shop local: Head to local markets, where you can purchase fresh food from local vendors. This benefits the community by increasing their economy, and you will get fresh fruits and veggies and maybe even some handmade souvenirs. Never buy products made from endangered species.
   

Source of Eco-travel tips:  Destination Villas

"Transition" in business models is nothing new to green companies.  Traditional methods don't work.  New technologies must be bought, paid for and learned on the fly. New marketing methods adopted that emphasize transparency, reporting, FTC regulations about environmental messages...plus all the struggles to find qualified people with some green and sustainable business knowledge...and maybe a bit of experience?

Transition is also being faced by print media, and maybe there are lessons we can learn from these highly public companies that are having to make significant changes in full light of their communities:

Print-Online Transition Is Possible
The New York Times

Among the big questions currently hovering over the media industry is can print media survive the transition to the Internet? The question has taken on new urgency, as the tanking economy places even more pressure on newspapers and magazines (whose customers and advertisers were already heading to the Internet in droves even before the recession).

The experience of International Data Group, a technology publisher, suggests that it can be done. The privately held company claims to have successfully migrated its publications to the Internet, where online ad revenue now surpasses that of print. However, the transition was not seamless: It took years of investment, upheaval and changes in its journalism practices.

"The excellent thing, and good news, for publishers is that there is life after print - in fact, a better life after print," said Patrick J. McGovern, the founder and chairman of I.D.G. InfoWorld, the company's flagship publication, completely moved its operations to the Web a year ago. In April 2007 it generated ad revenue of $1.5 million on a slight operating loss. Today, the Web site makes $1.6 million a month with an operating profit margin of 37%. Overall, 52% of the company's revenue is from online ads, while 48% comes from print.  SOURCE:  NYTimes.com

It can take months of waiting nervously to see if significant changes take root and survive infancy to flourish:

The biggest single step in I.D.G.’s online shift came in 2007, when the last print edition of InfoWorld appeared and it became a Web-only publication.  The technology publisher has not just stabilized its business, but is also  growing at about 10 percent a year.

One strategy that transitioned over time is adopting an “online first” business model. Three years ago, the editorial staff was divided into three people who worked on the Web site only and the rest only on print. Today, there are no print and Web barriers. The total staff size, at 23, is one fewer than in 2005, but now most of them spend 80 percent of their time on the Web, while a handful of writers spend 80 percent of their time on the long centerpiece articles in the print magazine.

That same strategy can work for traditional companies that are transitioning into the green space.  By building an inside team who work through the transition one step at a time, they build the infrastructure, the corporate intelligence, and prepare the new managers for the new world. 

Larger, traditional companies have the luxury of this kind of transition, notwithstanding a corresponding problem that arises out of a fast transition to climate change regulations that necessitate a speedy response.

Smaller companies that are "totally green" don't have that traditional revenue behind them...nor do they have the legacy staff, the legacy shareholder expectations, or the legacy management to convince every step along the way.

But what is clear in the board rooms around the world, is that the green transition is of as great, or greater seachange than the Internet.  The survival of entire cities and corporate land holdings are just one of the dangers that are driving this transition. 

"Engagement" is the touchstone for Web publishing in this Web 2.0 world.  How will your readers want to participate in your offerings, your community, your publishing content?

Penguin Classics set up a blog where anybody can post a review of one of their books. Well, not exactly anybody. The selection process is random because they have a limited number of books. But if you win their lottery, type away about how you feel about Virginia Woolf.

ABC.com hopes to generate as much ad revenue as it does from its on-air programming.  To keep viewers interested in ads ABC has found that ads should be created specifically for the Internet and not repurposed commercials from broadcast TV. ABC research that revealed better results for ads that promoted interactivity like casual gaming.

Slide.com layers social content applications on top of Facebook, Orkut, Friendster and more.  Slide enables you to make a slide show onliine, personalize your pics with stickers and graffiti, have a personal Guestbook, frame your YouTube videos with snazzy borders, upload your images, and get screensavers.  All designed for "engagement" so that you'll use their website and drive up their community engagement for advertisers who want comsumer eyeball time.

My question is...what do green consumers want?  Do they want to spend more time on their computers, just like their not-so-green siblings?  Do they want to belong to a virtual community with similar values?  What do YOU want from your green online media?

Seriously, I'd love to hear from you.  Send an email or call me.  I'm an approachable editor searching for common sense  ways to share green solutions around the digital campfire.  Carolyn Allen:  310-827-2510  or email at CAROLYN  (at)  CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

... or add your questions, suggestions, observations in our COMMENTS.  Let's talk!