The New York Times reports this week that the cable TV provider Cablevision is introducing a new technology that allows for targeted marketing customized for individual households:
Beginning with 500,000 homes in Brooklyn, the Bronx and some New Jersey areas, Cablevision will use its targeting technology to route ads to specific households based on data about income, ethnicity, gender or whether the homeowner has children or pets.
The technology requires no hardware or installation in a subscriber’s home, so viewers may not realize they are seeing ads different from a neighbor’s. But during the same show, a 50-something male may see an ad for, say, high-end speakers from Best Buy, while his neighbors with children may see one for a Best Buy video game.
While at the moment this only applies for 500,000 Cablevision subscribers in the tri-state area, it seems likely that it will quickly spread. Cablevision intends to expand the service to all of its 3.1 million customers assuming the trial goes well. And initial results suggest that it will:
Cablevision tested the technology by promoting its own services with targeted and untargeted ads. In the eight-month test, the targeted ads brought in new subscriptions at a significantly higher rate than untargeted ads.
Companies, aware that their advertising dollars are threatened by the rise of DVRs, the hyper-saturation of today's media environment, and the drop in impulsive buys due to the recession, are looking for creative and effective ways to market their products more precisely. Those in the political sphere would be wise to take notice as well.
Targeted television marketing is not just limited to cable, either; streaming internet-based TV services, like the upcoming ZillionTV set-top box, allow for similar levels of precision targeting:
The pitch to advertisers is precise targeting: To get high ad prices to pay for all this, ZillionTV will watch your viewing habits, merge them with data about you it buys elsewhere, and use all that information to aim ads at certain groups of viewers. Users will also be asked to select categories of products they would like to see ads about. The ad-supported content will have half the number of commercials as broadcast television, which is still more than online services, like Hulu, have now. And you can’t skip past the commercials.
NDN and the New Politics Institute have long written about the benefits of cable and targeted marketing. Staying on top of television's evolution, as it becomes increasingly personalized and intertwined with Web video, will be critical for any candidate or organization that wants to advertise effectively in a 21st century media environment.
To learn more about how to target your TV advertising, see our papers "Buy Cable Smart" and "An Introduction to Microtargeting in Politics," and watch this excellent and incredibly enlightening video of Amy Gershkoff of Changing Targets Media from our recent NDN/NPI event, "New Tools for a New Era."
There's been a lot of buzz in the media over the last few days about the popular micro-blogging service Twitter. On Monday, Politico published a list of D.C.'s top 10 most influential Twitterers, a story which was promptly picked up by MSNBC. Then, on Tuesday, ABC News partnered with Twitter for their live coverage of President Obama's pseudo-State-of-the-Union, even as members of both parties tweeted their reactions to the speech on the floor as Obama spoke.
It's fast becoming clear that Twitter is not just a fad; it's here to stay, or at least as much as any net-based service can be (we should probably not be thinking about Facebook or MySpace as truly permanent institutions either, but their importance in our society now is unquestionable).
I'm a little ambivalent about the ascendance of Twitter. Don't get me wrong; Twitter has a lot of great potential for politics (see the Twitter Vote Project) and is a convenient way to keep up with your friends and their whereabouts. And of course, NDN's Twitter feed is totally great and you should start following us today.
Yet at the same time, I actually do wonder what effects a 140-character limit might have on us as a society. Dana Milbank of the Washington Postwrote about this yesterday, noting that:
...to view the hodgepodge of text messages sent from the House floor during the speech, it seemed as if Obama were presiding over a support group for adults with attention-deficit disorder.
Or, see this recent report from a top neuroscientist finding that social networking sites may harm children's brains:
Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned.
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred.
While I usually find stories and reports decrying the dangers of technology to be reactionary and sensationalist, playing to our collective resistance to societal change and fear of the unknown, I think Mr. Milbank may have a point. And it makes a certain amount of sense; the idea that everyone wants to know what you're doing all the time, the basic premise of Twitter, seems an inherently egocentric one. It's hard to say much of value in 140 characters (of course, my papers in college were always twice the maximum length so maybe I'm just not that into the whole brevity thing). Here are the first 140 characters of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech:
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Loses something, doesn't it?
For good or ill, Twitter has become part of the core technology set necessary for 21st century political communication. So, in conclusion, you should definitely use Twitter. But make sure to read a book once in a while, too, just in case.
UPDATE: Once again, Jon Stewart and I are on the same page:
On Tuesday, March 10, at 12 p.m., NDN and the New Politics Institute will be holding a special event here at the our offices in DC -- a luncheon conversation with Joe Rospars, the new media director of the Obama presidential campaign and founder of Blue State Digital, one of the nation's leading new media consulting firms.
There is little argument now that the way the 2008 Obama campaign used new media and the Internet has changed politics here, and around the world, forever. Joe was the director of this historic effort, and we are very pleased that he will be taking the time to reflect on their remarkable campaign, and offer some thoughts on what we might expect in this space in the years to come.
The conversation with Joe will take place at the NDN offices at 729 15th St., NW, between H Street and New York Avenue. Lunch will be served. Seating is limited and will be first come first serve -- please click here to RSVP.
For those not able to attend the event here in our offices, be sure to watch it live on our new high-end Web casting system. Just go to ndnblog.org/livecast -- the stream will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET.
Joe's full bio follows:
A Blue State Digital founding partner, Joe served as the New Media Director for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, where he oversaw all online aspects of the unprecedented fundraising, communications and grassroots mobilization effort.
Joe led a wide-ranging program that integrated design and branding, web and video content, mass email, text messaging, and online advertising, organizing and fundraising.
Prior to the Obama campaign, Joe led BSD's work with Gov. Howard Dean at the Democratic National Committee; during Dean's campaign for party chairman; and at Democracy for America. Joe was a writer and strategist in New Media for Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign.
He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the George Washington University.
It was another great week for NDN in the media. First off, our tech event last Tuesday, "New Tools for a New Era," was picked up by Jose Antonio Vargas in the Washington Post in a story about the GOP's effort to catch up technologically. From the Post piece:
And the GOP will be rebuilding itself at a time when the Democratic Party continues to make inroads in using technology to reach a diverse set of constituents with their message. Today, the New Politics Institute, an arm of the liberal think-tank New Democrat Network, will hold one of its many lunches for Democratic Hill staffers and advocacy folks. The title of the event: "New Tools for a New Era." Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, said the lunch is a part of his group's ongoing New Tools series, which tout the use of cell phones, social networks and micro-targeting, among others, in campaigning. NPI was created in 2005.
"Look, the Republican Party is at least two presidential cycles behind. They didn't get what Howard Dean was doing. They dismissed what Barack Obama was doing," Rosenberg said. "But one of the things they have going for them is, they can learn from years of trial and error and investment by us Democrats. Eventually, they're going to catch up. But they can't just combine new tools with old politics."
Simon's tech analysis was also featured in a big AFP story about the State Department's embrace of new tools. From the story:
Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a progressive think-tank based in Washington, said Clinton's embrace of the Internet is going to be imitated by others in the Obama administration.
"It's going to be all the cabinet officials, all the major agencies and departments," Rosenberg told AFP. "They're going to be under pressure to use these tools to bring themselves closer to the American people and the people of the world.
"It's going to become imbued throughout the entire government," he said. "If you want to give a shiny apple to your boss and your boss is Barack Obama one of the shiny apples you can give him is a great YouTube video that reaches millions of people about a subject that he cares about."
On a different note, Simon was featured in a great story by Ron Brownstein and David Wasserman in the National Journal about Democrats' huge gains in the nation's better-educated counties:
Republican leaders have strained their relations with voters across the Diploma Belt by appearing at times to allow their religious views to trump science (on issues such as embryonic-stem-cell research) and to prefer small-town perspectives to cosmopolitan views. "These are [voters] who use the Internet and modern telecommunications," says Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a Democratic group that studies electoral trends. "And Obama felt like he was living in the same world as they are. And the Republicans had drifted from them and been deeply disappointing in their actual governance."
Our immigration event last Thursday, "Making the Case for Passing Immigration Reform This Year," was picked up in several Spanish-language papers, including El Sendero de Peje and El Financiero.
NDN Fellows Morley Winograd and Mike Hais had their essay, "New Attitudes for a New Era," featured on the Huffington Post politics page.
Lastly, Simon made an appearance on Fox News this week to (allegedly) discuss the stimulus. Check it out below:
I am excited to be announce that on Tuesday March 10 we will be holding a special event here at NDN - a luncheon conversation with Joe Rospars, the new media director of the Obama Presidential Campaign and founder of Blue State Digital, one of the nation's leading new media consulting firms.
There is little argument now that the way the 2008 Obama campaign used new media and the internet has changed politics here, and around the world, forever. Joe was the director of this historic effort, and I am very pleased he will be taking the time to reflect on their remarkable campaign, and offer some thoughts on what we might expect in this space in the years to come.
We will be making a more formal announcement on this in a few days, but in the meantime mark your calendar for this midday discussion with Joe Rospars. For those not able to attend the event here in our offices be sure to watch it live on our new high-end webcasting system.
Lots going on in the New Tools world this week. Here's a quick recap of some some of the most important things happening in the tech sphere:
NDN and the New Politics Institute held an event on Tuesday entitled New Tools for a New Era. Hopefully some of you were able to join us in person, or via our new NDN Live Web cast. In case you couldn't make it, I'll be posting videos and a recap from the event tomorrow, so be sure to check back then - it was really good (and I say that as an objective, unbiased observer).
Several prominent articles this week explored how the blurring of the line between phones and computers is both creating new opportunities and posing new challenges. First, an article in Wired discusses the spread of "iClones," phones from other manufactures that closely mimic the iPhone's features and interface. Another piece in Wired looks at how others are copying Apple's innovative (and highly lucrative) App Store model.
A great article in the New York Times this week raises many of the same questions I asked in a previous post about location-aware mobile technology, one of the many advances enabled by the proliferation of smart phones and apps. It's well worth the read.
Two more articles in the Times look at how mobile phone processors are beginning to rival PCs in their functionality. The first looks at how phones are beginning to break into the education sector. From the article:
On Tuesday, Digital Millennial will release findings from its study of four North Carolina schools in low-income neighborhoods, where ninth- and 10th-grade math students were given high-end cellphones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software and special programs meant to help them with their algebra studies.
The students used the phones for a variety of tasks, including recording themselves solving problems and posting the videos to a private social networking site, where classmates could watch. The study found that students with the phones performed 25 percent better on the end-of-the-year algebra exam than did students without the devices in similar classes.
The other looks at how the ARM processors used in many smart phones are being adapted to create very inexpensive (~$200) "netbooks," stripped-down laptops with limited functionality. These ARM-based netbooks might even run on Google's Android platform, which currently powers Google's G1 smart phone.
These are certainly exciting prospects for those of us interested in the possibilities for using mobile technology and cheap laptops as instruments of social and political progress (see A Laptop in Every Backpack and Harnessing the Mobile Revolution to see just how much potential there is). But it's not all good news this week; because they will use broadcast TV's old frequency blocks, the delay of the DTV conversion will likely also delay the development of 4G networks and devices. However, the stimulus money should get the DTV conversion moving, and hopefully avoid any further delays (it's currently been pushed back until June).
Obama's new site for the stimulus bill, recovery.gov, was built using Drupal (just like this site!), which is a big deal for nerds like myself. Drupal, for those of you that don't know, is a free, open-source content management system. The Administration's embrace of Drupal is another signal to us that they "get it."
Finally, a word about search ads. As I wrote last week, search ads are a highly effective and cost-efficient way of reaching targeted audiences (the Obama campaign saw an ROI of around 15:1 on their search ads). This market has recently been dominated by Google, which now owns two thirds of the search ad market share. However, in an attempt to shake things up and gain back market share, Yahoo has just introduced new search ads with images and video (they are normally text-only). This is something search ad buyers should certainly consider, as it mixes some of the benefits of search and banner/display ads.
A couple weeks ago, I blogged about Recovery.gov, the site the Obama Administration has set up to be publicly accountable on the American Recovery and Reinvesment Act. Well, it's up now, fully equipped with video, information about the planned spending and tax cuts, and a snazzy, draggable timeline laying out the federal government's plans for implementing ARRA.
Here's President Obama's introductory video to the site:
UPDATE: Today, Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post points out that more and more politicians are finally waking up to the fact that using 21st-century coummunication technology is vital in today's political environment. From his excellent piece:
...the GOP will be rebuilding itself at a time when the Democratic Party continues to make inroads in using technology to reach a diverse set of constituents with their message. Today, the New Politics Institute, an arm of the liberal think-tank New Democrat Network, will hold one of its many lunches for Democratic Hill staffers and advocacy folks. The title of the event: "New Tools for a New Era." Simon Rosenberg, founder of NDN, said the lunch is a part of his group's ongoing New Tools series, which tout the use of cell phones, social networks and micro-targeting, among others, in campaigning.
We hope you will join NDN and its affiliate, the New Politics Institute (NPI), today at noon for our first post-election tech event of 2009, New Tools for a New Age -- a discussion of three exciting media and tech tools with tremendous potential for use in politics, advocacy and governing today. This event will showcase some impressive new advances in the fields of social networking, Web video and microtargeting of television advertising.
For those not able to attend, we are excited to announce that we will be providing a live Web cast of the event from our newly redesigned, high-tech NDN event space just a block from the White House. Visit ndnblog.org/livecast today to catch a high-quality stream of the forum. Feel free to tell others you think might be interested in attending or watching. For those watching on the Web, the live program will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET.
Joining NDN President Simon Rosenberg for this forum will be Jason Rosenthal, Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Ning, Inc.; Tim Chambers, Co-Founder of the Media 50 Group and Principal, Dewey Digital; and Amy Gershkoff, co-founder of Changing Targets Media. Jason will talk about how Ning -- a scalable social networking platform -- can be adapted to a huge variety of applications; Tim will show us the new Dewey Digital Radar, which provides accurate and detailed Web video metrics for more than 150 Web video platforms; and Amy will tell us how Precision Buy can make media buys more efficient, from targeting the right cable systems to buying the right television programs.
The forum will take place at NDN's offices from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served, and seating will be first-come, first-serve. Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible. For maps, speaker bios, and other information, please click here.
A recent post from Personal Democracy Forum reports that the Obama campaign found online search ads had
a "ridiculously" high Return On Investment as a list-builder. Joe Rospars talked significantly more at a second NOI-sponsored event last month, divulging that search and contextual ads (Google Ads) were the backbone of the campaign's online advertising outreach, and that a relatively straightforward strategy had been steadily and consistently effective...when compared with the cost of acquiring supporters via other channels, search advertising absolutely shone, with an ROI Rospars described as approaching 15:1.
The Obama campaign, recognizing the power of search ads, spent a much larger percentage of their budget on them than the McCain campaign did; the Obama campaign spent about $8 million on search ads in 2008, compared to the McCain campaign's $1.5 million. To put that $8 million in perspective, it is reported to account for nearly half of all political search ad money for the year.
Given the Obama campaign's solid grasp of new media tools, their emphasis on search ads is not surprising. Nor are the results - NDN and the New Politics Institute have been pushing the use of online search ads for years now precisely because they are so inexpensive relative to their impact. For tips on how to use online search ads effectively, check out our excellent papers, Use Search and Advertise Online, or watch the video below of Google's Peter Greenberger speaking at one of our NPI events. Of course, not everyone will get the kind of return that the Obama campaign did - few people have been searched more in the last two years than Barack Obama. But as people get more and more accustomed to using Google whenever they need information about anything, search ads become more and more effective.
Finally, to learn about other great ways to improve your advocacy or campaign, be sure to drop by our NDN / NPI event, "New Tools for a New Era," this coming Tuesday, where we'll look at new advances in social networking, microtargeting, and web video. Anyone interested in technology and politics is guaranteed to geek out, and we'll be debuting a few new toys of our own; stay tuned for more info.
Several factors combined to propel Barack Obama to the presidency in the historic 2008 election including America's rapidly changing demographics, a redrawn electoral map and the use of new tools and media that changed the way candidates communicated with voters.
Join NDN and NPI Tuesday, February 17, for our first post-election tech event of 2009 -- a discussion of three exciting new tools and media with tremendous potential for use in politics, advocacy and governing. This event will showcase some impressive new advances in the fields of social networking, Web video and television microtargeting.
NDN and its affiliate, the New Politics Institute (NPI), have long advocated and helped facilitate the use of new tools and media with our New Tools series. We are excited to bring you these new developments.
Joining us for this forum will be Jason Rosenthal, Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Ning, Inc.; Tim Chambers, Co-Founder of the Media 50 Group and Principal, Dewey Digital; and AmyGershkoff, co-founder of Changing Targets Media. Jason will talk about how Ning -- a scalable social networking platform -- can be adapted to a huge variety of applications; Tim will show us the new Dewey Digital Radar, which provides accurate and detailed Web video metrics for more than 150 Web video platforms; and Amy will tell us how Precision Buy can make media buys more efficient, from targeting the right cable systems to buying the right television programs.
The forum will take place at NDN's offices from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be served, and seating will be first-come, first-serve. Space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible. For maps, speaker bios, and other information, please click here.
Some Rights Reserved 2008 - Present, NDN. 
Targeted television marketing is not just limited to cable, either; streaming internet-based TV services, like the 
There is little argument now that the way the 2008 Obama campaign used new media and the Internet has changed politics here, and around the world, forever. Joe was the director of this historic effort, and we are very pleased that he will be taking the time to reflect on their remarkable campaign, and offer some thoughts on what we might expect in this space in the years to come.
For those not able to attend, we are excited to announce that we will be providing a live Web cast of the event from our newly redesigned, high-tech NDN event space just a block from the White House. Visit 
The Obama campaign, recognizing the power of search ads, spent a 
