Posted by Steve Goldberg on Tue, Aug 24, 2010 @ 12:19 PM
Part I in a Series
No matter how much technology changes, the web evolves and advertising channels transform, those in media know they’re in the “people” business. This is especially true if you are in advertising sales, marketing, or other related digital fields where your interpersonal skills, perception and communication abilities help determine the trajectory of your career and the careers of those you hire.
If you are responsible for a web property’s advertising, its successful monetization begins when you’re interviewing prospective advertising salespeople. These interviews are the gateways for your future success. When you interview an ad salesperson for a job, it is incumbent upon them to show you that they can relate, converse, think on their feet, and respond well under pressure – all qualities important to a fast-paced digital work environment. I’ll leave topics about what to look for in resumes and how to best network for talent for other blog entries. For this article and those later in this series, I want to focus on the interview itself. Yes, you’ll have information about their past results and their track record. But, how do you best evaluate a future star during an interview? How does a digital seller rise above the rest in a highly competitive process?
1. Before the Interview: Study has become part of a successful digital media career, and will forever be a part of interview preparation. Did your candidate do their homework? Look to see if the candidate researched your company thoroughly - reviewing your products/ services, advertisers, press releases, etc.:
2. Connection: Let's assume several candidates are similarly qualified for a job in terms of their experience and results. What then will distinguish someone from the pack? The answer is right in front of you: his/her ability to connect with you and others in the interview process – over time (not just that first meeting). If they connect with you, it stands to reason they’ll connect with clients. Set up interviews and meetings with different people, key people multiple times. Look for consistency (and check on it through the reference checking process – you don’t want someone good at just interviewing).
3. Did the Salesperson Sell Themselves? This IS an interview for a salesperson, right? Were you sold? Some candidates say that "tooting their own horn" is hard for them – you can end those interviews early. In an interview, selling yourself is “must”! Candidates should be clear and enthusiast about how their experience makes them a fit for the job. If there is a gap between their past job experience and what is called for in certain parts of your job description, they should use this as a means to display their confidence. Did the candidate refer to something they’d done that was similar to bridge the experience gap? Or, did they over-sell you by overusing phrases like "I this" and "I that".
For the full list of “10 Most Important Criteria for Interviewing and Hiring Digital Media Salespeople”, click below.
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 10:30 AM
As a digital media sales recruitment firm, our future is obviously tied to the future of digital media advertising. Really, it's no different than that of any given media property. I've written about and linked to articles about iAd and advertising in apps as a challenge to search (Advertising: iAd Apps or Search). Eric Schmidt (CEO) of Google is looking at a future where "search" is not so much of a day to day activity, and what would that mean for Google.
As we evolved in Media Recruiting Group's focus from print ad sales and marketing recruiting to digital advertising sales and marketing recruitment, so shall we adapt to what the future holds.
The link to the full WSJ article is below. Here is an excerpt, which actually reminds me of an article tweeted two weeks ago (Steve Goldberg on Twitter) comparing future technology to that shown in the movie Minority Report (Minority Report-style advertising billboards to target consumers):
The day is coming when the Google search box-and the activity known as Googling-no longer will be at the center of our online lives. Then what? "We're trying to figure out what the future of search is," Mr. Schmidt acknowledges. "I mean that in a positive way. We're still happy to be in search, believe me. But one idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type."
"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions," he elaborates. "They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."
Let's say you're walking down the street. Because of the info Google has collected about you, "we know roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are." Google also knows, to within a foot, where you are. Mr. Schmidt leaves it to a listener to imagine the possibilities: If you need milk and there's a place nearby to get milk, Google will remind you to get milk. It will tell you a store ahead has a collection of horse-racing posters, that a 19th-century murder you've been reading about took place on the next block.
WSJ Article - Google and the Future of Publishing
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Wed, Aug 04, 2010 @ 04:55 PM
Time spent on social networking and casual gaming sites in June 2010 officially surpassed email according to an annual survey from Nielsen, with these top 3 activities accounting for 40% of all time spent online. Those in digital advertising sales and marketing take note.
Of the most heavily-used sectors, videos/movies was the only other to experience a significant growth, expanding by 12% from 3.5% to 3.9%. The number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark in June for the first time. The average American video viewer spent 3 hours 15 minutes streaming online video during the month.
See the chart below for details. Source: Nielsen
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Mon, Aug 02, 2010 @ 09:13 AM
This is a follow up to an earlier blog entry regarding how iAds will eclipse search in the long-run (iAd is a Game Changer). The future of Mobile Ad Sales is inextricably linked to the winner here.
Most remember that Apple’s Steve Jobs said in April that people aren’t searching on their phone, but instead, are using apps. He reasoned, apps on the iPhone “get you into every corner of the internet…This is a new phenomenon that is occurring on the iPhone for the first time in history.” In response, Google's Mike Steib said this month at the paidContent Mobile event that’s “B.S ! That’s what I say to that.”
If Google’s right, then it’s a market in which they are destroying the competition. One year ago, its share of the mobile search market was 95.58 percent. Today, it’s 98.29 percent, reports Pingdon, which quotes information from StatCounter.
Full article here: People Use Mobile Search
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Fri, Jul 30, 2010 @ 12:11 PM
The smartest of us in media sales know that we’re back in school. It is no longer enough to have that winning smile and great personality in advertising sales. To sell digital media and secure the most promising ad sale jobs, you have to know digital media and the concepts that envelop this exciting, evolving industry. Don’t get me wrong, you need to BE a salesperson as well in order to truly succeed in this field. But without a dedication to learning (and continuing to learn) the conceptual knowledge that surrounds digital media sales and marketing, you might as well find something else to sell.
“You have to immerse yourself in digital media – its terminology, concepts, ideas, trends and its major industry players,” says Brian McFarland, Eastern Sales Director for VideoEgg (the most innovative rich media advertising network in the country) when teaching the Media Recruiting Group sales course called “Strategic Selling for the Digital Age”.
So, in addition to becoming a “lifetime student”, what else does it take to be successful as an advertising salesperson in the digital media world? Digital agency and ideally client contacts are crucial in this market. But is this enough? Media companies and media recruiters are looking for candidates who are ambitious, proactive and have a successful selling track record. They also look for people with tenacity, problem-solving skills and the ability to listen and absorb information. Last, they want someone who is prepared, strategic, and will close business.
Below are 10 essentials for a successful career in digital media sales that will help propel you to greater heights and achievements in the online and mobile “Mediasphere”.
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 02:05 PM
Sales success is both an art and a science. While this article is written for the benefit Sales Managers in Digital Media, the reference questions listed can be applied to ANY sales position.
First to set the stage, you already know the people on the candidate’s reference list will likely say positive things about them. Hence, you have to dig a bit to get the information you need to complete this part of the hiring process. Also, time is in such short supply for people that your time on the phone will be limited. It will be up to you to make it count.
Some initial steps:
1. Provide a brief overview of the position the candidate is being considered for to help create the context for the conversation.
2. Prepare yourself by reviewing the list of questions you’ll be asking several times before the reference call. With voicemail being so prevalent, it is likely you’ll be receiving a call back at a later time. But fortunately, people take reference calls seriously and generally will get back to you quickly.
3. Target the most important references. Who should you speak with? Former managers and clients (as recent as possible). Co-worker references are of limited value.
4. What should you ask? Certainly, you should use the list below as a guide, and add some questions of your own. There are questions you ask salespeople that are unique to them, and I’ve included these on the list. But the answers to certain questions may take you down a different path – and if that happens, follow it. You can always return to the list.
Click below for the list of questions advertising sales managers and business owners should use for hiring advertising salespeople.
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Fri, Jun 25, 2010 @ 01:54 PM
On April 8
th, Apple introduced a unique challenge to search (did anyone say Google?). iAd mobile advertising, as CEO Steve Jobs explained, is "a new kind of mobile ad capable of delivering the emotional impact of TV advertising within applications."
The iAd combines the rich, emotional experience usually attributable to high-end TV advertising with the interactive nature of the Internet - right there within the application without requiring users to exit. If you don't have to leave the app for the ad experience, and that ad experience is entertaining and engaging, you have a closed system that will command the attention of advertisers.
Think of it. Users spend approximately 30 minutes per day using apps. A recent MediaPost article noted that Apple's CEO Jobs projected delivering 10 ads per day per device, adding up to Apple serving 1 billion a day by year-end. (More than 185,000 apps are available in the App Store and more than 4 billion have been downloaded to date.) By comparison, Quattro before its purchase by Apple was serving 4 billion impressions a month, while AdMob delivers more than 10 billion a month.
As media recruiters, we are positive about this new advertising platform. Advertising recruiters like my firm see candidates leaving jobs to sell for Apple, and we get to re-fill them our advertising sales candidates. Media recruiting for Apple would be another cause for celebration for digital media recruiters.
As for the first impressions among agency executives, they were more mixed, some recognizing a new paradigm while others treating Apple's venture into advertising as rudimentary and no match for the power of search.
But let's not look only to the next 6 - 18 months. Look beyond. The world is going mobile. It is much less expensive and more portable to have a smart phone rather than a laptop or PC. As the world's use of mobile increases, and there is no stopping this, and app developers become more and more creative, our digital experience will migrate more and more to our smart phone.
Will I need to use search engines as much? As said by Sean Cummings, "search becomes less and less relevant. Actually, it's not search that isn't relevant to mobile but rather search engines as destination brands, as specific platforms for finding everything."
Cummings goes on. "I'm not looking at ads on the walls of the train. I'm not looking at the billboards driving by. I'm not looking at the product placement everywhere around me. I'm looking at my iPhone. On the golf course, I use Golf GPS. I don't go to my computer to use Zipcar, I use my iPhone. I don't go to Google maps on my computer before I'm going somewhere, I just head out and grab my iPhone and get directions on the way, and I'm not even the ‘bleeding edge'."
Whatever their level of interest, if advertisers want in, they're going to have to pay considerably. Marketers are being charged a premium to maintain a presence on this new platform, according to the WSJ. initial rates are being set at 5-10 times higher than typical mobile ad rates and marketers who want to participate in the launch of the platform could pay up to $10 million. Whatever the cost, it does not include the price tag more savvy advertisers are willing to pay to fund developers in order to capitalize on popular apps and the audience they will engender.
Welcome to the future, yet again.
Further details can be found at these links:
How iAds will revolutionize advertising
Apple Unveils iAd, iPhone 4.0
Did you know?
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 @ 10:48 AM
With the economic recovery and the need for many businesses to rebound from the relative drought in advertising during 2009's recession, digital advertising sales have taken off. We actually saw this in our own business as early as December of 2009, and to date there are no signs of a slowdown. New York City, one of the key media hubs of the world, recently posted the best employment outlook in nearly a year.
But how will digital advertising fare with the more recent uncertainties facing the economy, stock market, and the world at large? "There is still some uncertainty for consumers," says Risa Goldberg, President of Media Recruiting Group. "It seems that when the stock market is on the rise, people feel good about spending and it helps the economy. When uncertainty returns to the financial markets, people tighten up pretty quickly. But advertisers seem intent on getting their message across in spite of these factors."
Some economists fear a double-dip recession in the second half of 2010. I tend to agree with a different group of economists who simply see a growth slowdown the second half. And absent a large, significant event, digital advertising will remain in its own little "sweet spot" of continued growth, and demand for digital advertising sales professionals will stay strong.
Let's look at some recent facts. According to MediaPost, most forecasters are predicting double-digit online ad gains in 2010. The IAB recently reported that online ad spending hit a higher-than-expected $5.9 billion in the first quarter, so research firms and Wall Street banks have revised their forecasts upward for the year.
This contrasted to US consumer magazine ad spending. Magazine companies will reap digital rewards from their online and mobile properties, but the print ad spending in US consumer magazines is set to decline again in 2010, 2011 and 2012 before finally rebounding in 2013 and 2014.
Among those who were adjusting their digital predictions upward was eMarketer, which increased its projection for the online ad market in 2010 from $23.6 billion to $25.1 billion, up 10.8% from 2009. But eMarketer does acknowledge fears that a double-dip recession sparked by the European Union debt crisis could end up dampening anticipated spending levels by both consumers and companies. "Much is still unknown, but it's clear that a larger portion of total media ad spending will migrate to the Internet, even if overall ad spending remains stagnant," states the report authored by analyst David Hallerman.
Social Media Marketing as a form of Advertising
EMarketer points out that money that once went to display is going to social media marketing, or "earned media," which doesn't show up in spending charts and is harder to trace. But with its surging audience, Facebook in the first quarter sold more display ad impressions than Yahoo for the first time. Its 176.3 billion impressions accounted for 16.2% of the U.S. total, followed by Yahoo's 131.5 billion (12.1%) and Microsoft's 60.2 billion (5.5%).
Some industry experts go as far as to say that "Social is the new search." One might look at this as wishful thinking, but consider that USA Today's Web site gets more referrals from social networks than search, as does CNN.com (source: Compete, April 2010). Huffington Post gets slightly more referrals from Facebook than from Google.
Brands want to be where the consumer lives. A Nielsen study shows that 75% Of U.S. Households Use Social Networking, and Internet users spent an average of more than 6 hours a month on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter during May. Did I hear "let's reallocate some ad dollars!"? Small-business owners are finding results with social media marketing as well. They report that their work-related online activities correlate with above- or below-average sales, according to a study by American City Business Journals.
The power and appeal of social media is strong, and brands better be listening. The most trusted sources for consumers are friends and family. If brands believe that trust is central to their message and their marketing, then social networks must be part of the advertising/marketing plan.
Did You Know That:
- More than 40% of consumers go online to check reviews and consumer feedback before purchasing consumer electronics.
- 60% of those going online have visited a social network, with half going back every day according to Facebook.
- 23% of social network users expect companies to listen and respond to what is said online
So what is the bottom line as this relates to your sales or marketing career?
Last night at a board meeting, one of the Directors surprisingly showed up. He is a bankruptcy attorney and had not been to a board meeting in a year. I said to him, "this IS a good sign for the economy!"
The power of digital media sales and social marketing may waver slightly with a strong economic downturn, but on its present track it will continue to be sturdy and thrive for some time to come.
So...
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If you are already in digital media...stay there and continue to grow and learn. A commitment to a digital career is a commitment to a life-long learning process.
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If you are not in digital media, get into it. Do side projects to gain the experience if you have to. Or, volunteer at a charitable organization to work on their digital media ad sales, website marketing, SEO, SEM, etc. Get in the game.
Sources:
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Tue, Jun 15, 2010 @ 12:43 PM
You've just spent a large chunk of your last paycheck on the outfit, you've memorized your ad sales or digital marketing results for the past 4 years, and you've studied all of the "do's and don'ts" about interviewing. But if you don't take a page out of George Clooney or Meryl Streep's book, it could all be for naught.
Those in the acting profession know the value of body language. It is essential to their success. They practice it, they use it to convince their audience, and they use it to have their character come to life.
While you will not be signing up for acting class anytime soon, understand that how you act during a job interview is every bit a part of how you market yourself and "build the brand of you", to quote a phrase from one of Media Recruiting Group's digital media training courses. Your success on the interview will depend on it.
"I think it is important to have body awareness before you go into an interview," says Jodie Bentley, owner and co-founder of The Savvy Actor. "There are many actions and habits that we should consider doing or avoid doing to tell the right story during the interview setting."
I get it. Job interviews can be a bit nerve-racking and you might have all you can handle in preparing for what you want to say. But as I am reminded every day in business, "it is not just what you say; it is how you say it." No matter what the job, Publisher, VP Sales, Chief Revenue Officer, Advertising Sales Account Executive, Marketing Manager...no matter whether you are in digital media or traditional media (or not in media at all for that matter), non-verbal cues are vital.
You can only make a first impression once
Below, you'll find a link to our list of the top 25 essential "do's and don'ts" about the use of body language during job interviews. But let's start at the beginning: come to the interview prepared. That alone gives you the foundational confidence you'll need to have your attention where it needs to be as the interview progresses. So, do your homework: pour over the company's website, read up on the recent company news, understand the job requirements and qualifications, speak with people who work at the company to get a sense of the corporate culture, etc. Be ready.
Like it or not, it could take anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds for the interviewer to size you up. Some experts say it's on the lower side of that range. "When you walk into a job interview, the first impression is made in three to seven seconds," says Mary Dawne Arden, an executive coach and president of Arden Associates in New York. "One study found that a first impression is based on 7% spoken words, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language."
Judgments are made on how you look, how you shake hands, your overall demeanor. Interviewers may not even be aware that they've made key judgments about you so early in the process, as some of the body language cues are perceived in the subconscious.
So, click below for the top 25 body language essentials for job interviews to insure success on your job interviews, and for general career prosperity.
Posted by Steve Goldberg on Tue, Jun 08, 2010 @ 08:04 PM
Did you know that there is a strong relationship between having employee well-being as a priority and staff productivity? If you are in digital ad sales or work for an ad agency, and you're at one of those companies where "working well" is a corporate concern, stay there. If not, you want to encourage your employer to shift gears. After all, it is for their own good, and can be the ultimate "win/win" scenario.
Dr. Deborah Schroeder-Saulnier, senior vice president for Right Management's Global Solutions Team performed a study of organizational effectiveness. She found that workplace health and well-being can have a major impact on the engagement, retention, creativity and productivity of employees + impact the financial performance of the organization as a whole.
Nearly 30,000 representative employees across 10 sectors in 15 countries worldwide were asked in this study to indicate the extent of their agreement or disagreement with 100 different statements addressing the major building blocks of organizational effectiveness. The analysis revealed that employees who responded favorably to the proposition that their organization actively promotes health and well-being were:
- 8 times more likely to indicate that they were engaged than employees who responded unfavorably
- 4 times less likely to indicate that they planned to leave within the next year than those who responded unfavorably
- 3.5 times more likely to identify their organization as encouraging innovation and creativity than those who responded unfavorably
- 3 times more likely to assess their organizations as being productive than those who responded unfavorably
For more, visit the full whitepaper here: http://su.pr/5UZeNy.