In today’s Signal, John Battelle believes that we, as consumers, should be able to chose which sites we trust, and which ones we don’t; Facebook’s Q2 earnings are in and, while Mark Zuckerberg remains optimistic, investors are worried; the ads we love to hate are back; a little blank ad that could … and did; the changing attitude of the CMO, and more.
To the links…
Who’s On First? (A Modest Proposal To Solve The Problem with First- and Third-Party Marketing) (BattelleMedia) We live in uncertain times regarding online regulations, so, at some point soon, large and small independent publishers will need to figure out a way to allow consumers to opt out of third-party advertisements or data collection. If they don’t, they may be subject to regulation down the road. Besides, shouldn’t we, as consumers, be able to chose which sites we trust, and which we don’t?
Facebook Earnings: Good, But Not Good Enough (CNNMoney) Even though Facebook finished the quarter with more than $10 billion in cash, total expenses nearly quadrupled from a year ago, and some investors may be worried that Facebook is overspending. But FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg is confident. He’s set his sights on mobile, noting that Facebook generated $1M per day from its new sponsored stories from advertisers, half of which came from mobile ads.
Are ‘Welcome Ads’ the New Popups? (Digiday) They’re ba-a-a-ck. Like it or not, popup ads are taking center stage on home pages because the search and social media era has decimated the central role of that landing page. But publishers are promising all those who are wincing that it’ll be different this time around.
How Blank Display Ads Managed to Tot Up Some Impressive Numbers (AdAge) Clicks are not only used as our most important currency (i.e., cost-per-click), but they are also the principal signal in a control system that governs a giant machine. So, what do you think happened when a few curious people got together and created an ad that offered no message? Did a blank ad attract clicks that weren’t mistakes? The answer might surprise you.
My, How the CMO Has Changed (BattelleMedia) Battelle recently visited Joel Ewanick, CMO of GM, and Ewanick, like the other six Fortune 500 CMOs John visited in the past two weeks, now takes the idea of “conversing with customers at scale, leveraging technology” as a north star. It’s an extraordinary shift.
Trading Adland for the Startup Life (Digiday) Digiday’s Brian Morrissey talks to Jean-Philippe Maheu, former CEO of Publicis Modem and Razorfish, about his new position as the CEO of Bluefin Labs, a 50-person social analytics startup focused on the intersection of TV and social media.
Is Twitter a Media or Technology Company? (NYT) The Twitter metamorphosis means what, exactly? Here we go again.
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