Q&A: Michael Lazerow On The Growth Of Social Media, Social Commerce, And Attribution

Mike Lazerow, Buddy Media

As Chairman and CEO of Buddy Media, a preferred platform for Facebook management by eight of the ten top global advertisers, Michael Lazerow is a widely recognized thought leader on digital media and marketing trends. We caught up with him to discuss the growth of social media, social commerce, and social media attribution, as well as the role tag management plays in helping marketers better understand customer’s path to conversion.

Q: In a recent study your company did with Booz & Company, ”Campaigns to Capabilities: Social Media and Marketing 2011,” you guys revealed that while marketing dollars are increasingly shifting toward social media efforts there are still many marketers who don’t understand ROI. Why is that?

A: There are a couple of factors at play here. Many brands don’t know what they should be measuring or even what they are able to measure. If you don’t decide upon attainable objectives, then it is nearly impossible to gauge any sort of return on investment. Continue reading

2012 Predictions: The Year Of Tag Management, Data Scientists, Privacy, And Attribution

Last year, AdExchanger.com asked us for our 2011 predictions, and the topics of attribution and privacy were at the top of our list. Interestingly, prediction 4 came true with Terry Kawaja launching an AdTechnopoly board. Here in 2012, we see attribution and privacy appearing again but overall we predict the tag management space growing with usage in those areas becoming more of a priority for marketers.

Here’s a summary of our top five predictions for 2012 with the full explanation on Adotas: Continue reading

Q&A: Webtrends Alex Yoder on Analytics and Independent Tag Management, Part 1

Web trends, Alex YoderAs CEO of Webtrends, Alex Yoder is responsible for worldwide operations and the overall strategic vision of the company. Since joining Webtrends in 2000, he has focused on expanding the brand and delivering business value to global enterprises. Prior to Webtrends, Alex served as Vice President of Sales for Touch Clarity, a behavioral targeting company.

To say that he fully understands web analytics and where the industry is headed is an understatement. We recently caught up with him to discuss how his business is doing, how mobile analytics is growing, and the importance of an independent tag management system. Continue reading

The complexity of marketing attribution: how Logan Tod asks and answers big questions of attribution data

Analytics and optimisation consultancy Logan Tod has developed an approach that incorporates attribution modelling within its own optimisation framework so its clients can decide where to invest their ad spend.

The framework classifies individual marketing activity, from high-level channels down to low-level keywords, with specific recommendations associated with each. One visualization of Logan Tod’s process looks a little like this:

Continue reading

Tag management helps Glasses Direct take on a gloomy-looking 2012

Rob Silsbury, Marketing Director, Glasses DirectRob Silsbury, marketing director of online glasses retailer Glasses Direct is under no illusions as to the state of the retail environment in 2012.

Speaking at TagMan’s most recent client get together TagMeet 2, Silsbury said: “It’s going to be a pig of a year.” And none of the other retailers in the room looked ready to disagree.

So what does Glasses Direct plan to do about it? Given its focus is online, then drive its online channels hard. Efficiency is the overriding mission. But, that doesn’t mean the company isn’t prepared to invest to get as lean as possible. Silsbury has a couple of things in mind: Continue reading

Q&A: Sallie Stokes, TagMan’s new head of European account management services

Sallie Stokes new head of TagMan account management team

Sallie Stokes has joined TagMan from business social networking powerhouse LinkedIn. (See separate press release) Here she explains why.


Q: LinkedIn is an immensely successful company at a very exciting time. Why the switch?

A: I joined TagMan because of the huge opportunity to educate the market on how they can, not only save money, but also make money from tracking and understanding their ROI from their marketing budgets. In uncertain economic times, I am excited to take on the new challenge to help marketers make their budgets work smarter for them. Continue reading

The Value Of Search and Social Retargeting With Smart Tag Management

The landscape of advertising and targeting is changing rapidly. Targeting and personalization are becoming more and more critical to how we target audiences online.

Our VP of Product Marketing, Maggie Neuwald recently participated in a webinar “The Future of Data and Media in 2012″ with Chango, the leader in search retargeting, and m6d (Media6Degrees), a marketing technology company that Continue reading

Attribution, the difference between reporting and action

Google Premium, which has been presented to the industry over the last month is the latest system to profess to offer reporting on marketing attribution in some guise – some are better than others, but most all fall into the trap of being a tool for reporting rather than action.

Much of the gap between translating one into the other should obviously be filled by the client and their agencies, but that is only one part of the issue. Continue reading

Ad:tech London 2011: the full story of how TUI transformed its digital marketing strategy using path-to-conversion and attribution reporting

ad:tech 21st and 22nd SeptemberI will be speaking at ad:tech London on 21 September, presenting the full case study of how TUI Specialist Travel transformed its digital marketing strategy using full path-to-conversion reporting.

As discussion around marketing attribution begins to question its practical application and logistical viability, our seminar session aims to describe precisely how seeing the true and complete path that customers take to a sale is being acted upon by real clients. Continue reading

Q&A: Stéphane Hamel on Tag Management – Part 1

The word “guru” is an overused one, but when it comes to web analytics, Stéphane Hamel is undisguisedly worthy of the title. An all-round online analytics advocate, Stéphane is also director of strategic services at Cardinal Path, an educator and a prolific speaker.

We caught up with him to discuss tag management in the context of web analytics, organizational change, and implementation best practices. Continue reading