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Attaching pixels to pages

For Networks and sales houses looking to join the user profiling phenomenon, placing pixels on publishers pages is beoming a very fustrating task.

These pixels are usually used to capture user behaviour as they travel around the wider world attaching surfing beahviour to the users cookie however, due to the amount of  publishers on a network and the growing lack of resources in the industry this task is more and more being put on the back shelf.

These are the free most common ways of attching pixels on publishers pagessome better then others.

Hard coded on the page:

Probably the most easiets and practial way of attaching pixels, however this method could put time and constraint on the publishers web savvy team. Usually involves attaching the pixels to the footer of the page, much like a google analytics tag. If the profiling technology is likely to use genric profiling tags, meaning they are not predefined tags,  there is usually just one tag to put on the site’s footer which hopefully will populate the tag across all areas where the footer is constant. If the profiling technology is using predefined tags, for example, one for the sports area, one for finance area, etc etc this task can get really complicated.

Through the Adserver:

Probably the most complex method of attaching pixels. Not because it’s time consuming, nor that a lot of inhouse resource is needed but because there is no standard. Each Adserver has a different method for delvering pixels. The end goal of this method is that when a user visits the site, aswell as a campaign being delivered to that user you also want the pixel to be delivered.
This method can get rather tricky as it is standard for an Adserver to have a priority list, if so what priority level is the pixel being deliverd on!  This increases the chances of many users behaviour not being captured.

Using container tags:

When set up and running this is the most efficent way of attaching pixels to pages for publisher, networks, advertisers and agencies

A container tag  is like a box which can be used to dump code on publishers pages without troubling the publisher. Once the container tags are set up the users can control and manage tags on pages without all the fuss.

Most of the common Adserves allow all users to implement container tags, however some of them are aimed towards the Adertiser/ agency. For example, Doublick click only allows users of it’s DFA system to implement their famous flood light tags which is an industry pain!!!! however, their are methods which can be used to get around this problem (using the rich media box and inserting the pixel, more to follow shortly)

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Frequency capping

Frequency capping is often seen as a way to avoid banner burnout, the point where visitors are being overexposed and response drops. This may be true for campaigns of a performance nature measured by click-throughs/ conversions but it might run counter to campaigns of a branding nature measured by non-click activity.

Cap campiagns!!!! The more intrusive and potentially annoying an ad is, the more important the frequency cap becomes. Page takeovers, interstitials, anything with auto-play audio, even pop-ups and -unders; all benefit from frequency caps. 5 per users per campaign is a good benchmark. Some frequency caps work on a per format basis. You want something that stretches across all the formats in your campaign.
Otherwise, if the Leaderboard version of the ad had a frequency cap, I could still be exposed to the same ad in a different format being the exact same ad, only in a different size.

For advetisers and agencies, it is extermely important to undertsand how your delvery mechanism caps their campaigns to get you both speaking the same language…………………… Is a frequency cap of 4 actually a frequnecy capp of 4??

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ITV player

ITV player

So ITV has decied to jump on the bandwagon. much to the success of the BBC iPlayer ITV has decieded to take exactly what the BBC has done, even the technoogy and rebrand it to the ITV payer.

Users are allowed to cath up on their favourite ITV programmes on a 30 day catch up service.

There is still some work to be done on the concept but with the amount of demnd for ITV programmes it should not be too long before this service really takes off.

check it out: http://www.itv.com/ITVPlayer

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Scalability

Today I would like to talk about scalability. In online scalability is a desirable property of a system, a network, or a process, which indicates its ability to either handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner, or to be readily enlarged.

Simply, scalability is a web server’s ability to maintain a site’s availability, reliability, and performance as the amount of simultaneous web traffic, or load, hitting the Web server increases.

Now im not one who usually criticises anything Apple does but on Monday the 7th July scalibility was obviously a big problem.

After receiving the text that the new iPhone could be ordered online i jumped at the chance to pre order as I sat down at work. However, there was a problem………. the rest of the world decided to jump at the chance also prompting O2’s website to send users round in circles. Round and round I went on the O2 merry go round.

After attempting to fill in the online form 10 times are finally decided to give up and get some work done, i was then alerted by a friend that he had been trying since 8:30 that morning.

This is a classic case of proper planning prevents piss ass performances. O2 obviously underestimated the demand for the iPhones and did not have the scalability in their back end to handle such huge demands.

Hey, maybe this was part of the plan, that 1 in 100 visitors will get through………………………………. the whole thing could of even been a massive PR stunt, nevetherless customer expectations still need to be managed.

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A message to Mac users

To all us Mac users who have enjoyed the success of the BBC iPlayer and various other on demand services I have some bad news for you.

After hearing the noise about the new Channel 4 on demand service and being a big Film 4 fan I decided to go and check it out myself. Using my ubra cool iPhone I surfed to their site and was alerted to the following message:

No way, it could not be!!! its 2008!

So I decided to use my laptop and try again!

…………….. The same message!!

The so called “on demand service” is not exactly on demand!

How much more market share does Mr jobs need!

Posted in Digital Media, Macs | 2 Comments »

Transfering files from computer to iPhone

Transfering files on the iPhone.

There are various way to transfer files from your computer to your iPhone but this post concentrates on using the AFP method which I find easiest.

You will need to download the Apple File Sharing demon from the source www.frenchiPhone.com.

Once this is done, using finder or the windows equivalent click “connect to server”. The server address is the physical address for the phone found in the settings option. User name is “root” and password is “alpine”. Please note if you are having problems connecting to your phone you may have to download the UIctl application. This will give you access to your phones demons and allows you to launch them upon request. Activate the apple file sharing demon.

You will need to connect to the Root File system. Once done you have access to your iPhone’s file system.

With access to your phones files system you have the option to install themes, wallpapers, modify your phones audio library (lock sounds, new text sounds) and add applications.

Please be aware when playing around with the iPhones file systems, these are the core files for your phone and even small changes could have major effects.

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