The CEO Game

The video content site continue to entertain millions of visitors from around the world – But Google are far less than pleased: The site simply isn’t making enough money.

YouTube only exists for 5 years, but it seems like it was part of our live since ever. It’s hard to recall what we did before YouTube , when we had the rush to hear some old song or entertain ourselves for few minutes.

Turned 5 years old

Not only , we the consumers, are having hard time to remember how was life before YouTube, the life of Cinema and Television corporations had also  changed. Only that they look back in sorrow. Since YouTube’s breakthrough they had lost most control on the habits of the consumers.

Since the site was first open for the public it had few ups and downs, the most important one was it being bought by Google in 2007 in a deal worth 1.65 milliard dollars. Although YouTube has a financial and marketing support of Google, It been marked as one of the worlds’ most popular sites, and the fact that every minute visitor are uploading 20 hours of video, YouTube is still hardly pays for itself. With costs of over 365 million dollars a year for bandwidth and advertising revenues hardly reaching the 500 million dollar mark. Google has beating itself for over two years about how to produce more revenues that will maximize YouTube’s potential.

YouTube’s main problem is the difficulty to  attach advertisements to 98% of videos it got. Google had made a major step in the last weeks when they added the automatic caption service which will aid in this subject.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Television advertisement prices during the Super Bowl, The National Football League championship game, are expected to drop for the second time ever due to the financial recession.

The price advertisers paid for the 30 seconds advertisement during the Super Bowl game, which will be held this Sunday and will be broadcast by CBS, is expected to range between 2.5 to 2.8 million dollars – which is less than the 3 million dollars price it cost in the last Super Bowl. Last year NBC had made 224 million dollars from broadcasting the Super Bowl. CBS had already sold all the advertising spots , a week faster than NBC last year. According to estimations 100 million people are expected to see the Super Bowl on TV this year.

Super Bowl Madness

Several advertiser who traditionally bought spots on the Super Bowl , will be missing this year due to the financial recession, among them are the  car manufactures General Motors and Ford, and PepsiCo which wont advertise its leading trademark , Pepsi, or any other trademark for the first time in 23 years, after spending not less than 254 million dollars for advertisements during Super Bowl games in the last two decades.

Among the companies that will appear this year  are Intel, Motorola, Electronic Arts, The online broker eTrade, Honda , Hyundai, VolksWagen and Chrysler.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Blow for Yahoo? Strike on Bing? Google Acquires Teracent for Targeted Display Ad Technology

Internet giant Google announced today on buying Teracent, an American startup company which specializes in display advertising. This is another step in Google’s waged war on the control of the advertising market, with the arch rival Yahoo and newly sworn enemy Bing by Microsoft. Unfortunately, the financial terms are undisclosed and haven’t been revealed yet. Google whose income comes mainly from textual advertising which is search related, intends to maneuver the purchase in order to base its status in the field of online graphical targeted advertising. This announcement underscores Google’s plans to double down in display advertisement.

A New Age For Interactive Ads?

This is no surprise, last year Google completed purchasing the online advertising company Double Click, which also deals with display advertising for 3.2$ billion. Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt claimed on September that Google plans to return to making purchases, after a minor pause, or setback if you wish, due to the global financial crisis. At the time, he also said that Google wishes to “buy a company a month” (on average). It seems Google is keen on fulfilling its chairman’s announcement: under-less than two weeks ago, Google bought AdMob, which provides solutions for cellular marketing for 750$ million in shares in a deal which is meant to sweep the cellular advertising market.

Teracent was founded by Vikas Jha, former vice president of Inktomi, a software company which was acquired by Yahoo. Teracent, the California based company runs software that lets private advertisers, agencies and ad networks to deliver multiple versions of ads to different users across the Web and on mobile phones. It is triggered by certain information that can be determined on the user from the web such as location, gender, income and interests. A fashion giant like Lacoste or Calvin Klein would be able to use Teracent’s technology to advertise a promo for its winter collection for Vancouver viewers, while users from Sunny San Diego might see new summer accessories.

This concept is nothing new, many competitors such as Tumri and Dapper have been behaviorally targeting viewers so they can promote customized ads. The only difference is that Google is going to use the software to automate display ads in the same manner it did with search ads, trying to make web display ads relevant more than ever for both advertisers and consumers. This move means that the entire search industry could be shifting to display ads. It’s also a slap in the face of Yahoo who previously partnered with Teracent for some business ventures. Up to now, Yahoo has surpassed Google in display ads.

In conclusion, the move comes as a blow to Yahoo, which may have to end the aforementioned partnership with Teracent, but it’s a big win for the marketers, which will be able to create interactive ads that will customize themselves just like search ads do, hitting the iron when it’s hot. Just so you know, last year, the popular Internet search engine had an income of 22$ billion, I suggest keeping an eye on the next year’s income.

More from The CEO Game on Google: Google’s investment in the EBM, and Google Planet.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Most of the time, when one encounters an act of unprofessionalism we tend to related it, in our mind, to small and unsuccessful businesses. The main reason we have this connection between unprofessionalism and small businesses is due to the fact that most small businesses don’t hire professional marketing companies to design their marketing message. The reason for this fairly simple: They don’t have enough money to pay for it. Well the fact that you lack the money to hire professional marketing company doesn’t mean that you are hopeless, here are few tips that will help you create a professional looking marketing campaign but under a tight budget.

Small Business Marketing

Internet Marketing:

Internet marketing does require a financial investment and basic technical knowledge, but there are ways that you can create a successful low cost marketing campaign. Internet presence is a must in today’s financial age and the easiest way to reach the masses.  There are many ways to create an online presence, some might be: Social networks, Targeted Ads or even Search engines. You should explore all those tools for better understanding of what each of them has to offer. Anyway the first step you should perform in your internet way is to create your own site because it gives a way to reach you (Using blogs, forums or even simple contact details).

Branding:

A small business has some advantages; two of them are agility and the ability to produce new product or services fast. When you talk about branding, being a small business is not a strong point. In order perform a successful branding plan your brand should project an image of a strong and a leading product and not a small fragile one. Those attribute are usually associated with large companies, therefore when you brand you must present yourself as if you are equal among the large companies. In today’s world projecting a strong image is a far easier task than it used to be. Using low-cost services such as: ready to go web site templates or even professional business cards is quite cheap and can add a lot to your business image.

In the CEO Game, you will start as small business owner. Knowing how to act among the larger fishes in pool will be a must if you want to eat and not be eaten. Using intelligent marketing tricks and hard work will be the keys for getting to the next level.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

SEO is not a Choice

Actually, it is a choice – the same choice everybody has for doing a bungee jump without the rope.

SEO choosing is not an option

Lets start with defining Search Engine Optimization.
The term SEO refers to the things you can do in order to increase the number of desirable visitors who come to you website, after entering relevant search keywords in the search engine of their choice. In some cases (most of the cases!), this includes changing the website itself, redesigning HTML and content text, adding meta tags and so on. It also includes communicating directly with the seach engine, or gaining traffic by inserting links from other sources (“back-links”), so the search engine increases your page rank.

Before I continue the good work, I must add few important remarks:

• SEO is not accurate science.
• No one really knows Google’s formula. There are a lot of ingredients, and page rank is one of them (an important one, but only one).
• (More about Page Rank in future articles.)
• Your website isn’t meant for everyone.
• The meaning of the phrase ‘desirable visitors’ means the people who wish to find you. Potential users and not, god forbid, spamers, hackers, scanners and other persona non-grata.

OK, Now that we are familiar with the subject, I wish you all the best….

… Of course I wouldn’t abandon you guys! After all we’ve been through.

So, How to Get Started?
There are many books, blogs, articles, dedicate websites, videos, SEO companies and god knows what. But first things first – you must set your business goals! Here are several questions you should ask yourself, in order to define your target:
What is my main business?
What are my business goals? My main goal?
What are my objectives for the next month, 6 months, 1 year?
What function does my website serve (in relation to the business goals)?
How does my website help me achieve my goals?
Who do I want to visit my site?
What do I want my visitors to do with my site?
Which page (on my site) is the top priority, that every visitor must see?

Next – determine your measuring factors!

Why measuring factors?

This isn’t really a question, but because so many fail at this stage, I’ll provide an explanation. Success factors as for number and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) put you in a place of visual, solid target, rather than fluid or feeling based factors. (what does the yellow part mean????)
Those factors give you the direction you’re heading (up or down), set you up with schedule, and let you respond accordingly.
Now – get to work!

Before I say goodbye, I’ll give a great tip for all the future players of The CEO game . These business goals and measuring factors are important and essential, and that SEO is also a part of the game. It is important to position your company well, and in the earliest stage that you can.

I’ll finish with the famous phrase:
“…an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.” (Shakespeare, ‘Much Ado about Nothing’)
Competition is the best when one wishes to improve, to get the most of it until you reach the top (Nim, ‘the CEO Game blog’)
That will do it for now. Next time we’ll get to a more practical level.

Nimrod Elias.

The CEO game.

The World is Google.

I’m sure I’m not the first one stating this claim.

To SEO or to SEO

Everything we wish to know is there. Professional documentaries, fun videos, official data, freely-posted and unreliable opinions – all just few search words away, and lots of it. If you wear the hat of the business man, you probably already know that you must be indexed by Google in order to be found.

In order to get to the first page – you need to be the conversation of the day.
In order to be the conversation of the day – you need to get to the first page.
So, what came first, the egg or the chicken? In our case it’s easy. You must get to the first page: it’s the to be or not to be of every modern ambitious business.

There is no magic. If you want people to find you, you must make an effort and let the search engine rank you, as high as they can.
Moreover, if you want the right people to find you (your potential customers), you must be very devoted to the business of SEO

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization.

Yeah, right, but what stands behind the words? That’s the one-million-dollar question.

I’ll dedicate my next articles to discussing this subject. What is SEO, what does it claim, some great success stories, and most of all, how to do it (there are even tools helping you reach the top, only if you know what you are doing, of course).

For now, just get this: in order to succeed in the modern world, you need to represent your production/service/goals as true passion (or at least make others believe that this is your main motive). Trying to be the best of what you’re doing is a key ingredient every search engine wishes to provide its users. Sometimes you need to take a step forward in showing those mighty search engines what you are really like.

The bottom line – SEO is not a choice.
It’s a win-win situation for you, Google, and your potential users.

Nimrod Elias.

The CEO Game.

Facebook. Leading the web 2.0 world

The Beginning of the Revolution

In 2004, Tim O`Reilly said that “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform”. In the past few years, more and more new platforms have risen to fill the endless need of the public to post its own content. From Wikipedia in 2001, Facebook in 2004, and Twitter and YouTube in 2006, the Internet as we know it has changed. As we witness the “Global warming” of web 2.0 we tend to forget that behind every web 2.0 platforms stands a business.

Converting Popularity to Revenue

The key issue that today’s Business 2.0 struggle with is converting the “Cool” widget and gadget to a profit-making business. There might be thousands of sites offering to keep us in touch with our friends, upload our home made films or post our exact location, but what we don’t have is new ideas of how to make money from it. The main income source for businesses today is advertising, from plain banners to target based ads. The problem with advertising is that it is limited, and we as users are tired of being interrupted while trying to watch a movie or talk to our friends. It’s time for these businesses to stop the evolution and start the revolution. Even today, great sites like MySpace or Flickr lose more revenue with each year, and if a change isn’t made soon, in a few years no one will remember they ever existed.

In my opinion, the solution to this downfall is offering services to the masses. These services need to be as unique as possible and related to the sites theme. These services could range from creating TV shows based on YouTube (each country and its own content) to professional event organization for groups based on social networks. Another solution might be using the wisdom of the crowds to foresee trends.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.