Going Big Online

You may assess your organization’s effectiveness online as the following: yes, we are online but my business is about relationships. I never really bought into the Internet hype of 2001.  Fast forward 8-9 years down the road and we now take donations online and add everything we produce to the Web.  Online revenue, however, is currently only about five percent of our total revenue.

Where online fundraising works well is by procuring new and younger donors and higher average gifts.  One particularly strong area is event fundraising online.  It allows your donors to maintain personal fundraising pages that have been a veritable rainmaker for a number of organizations in terms of acquisition and monetization.

The Internet is still in its infancy and should be recognized as such. Think of the recent ubiquity of broadband (high speed) access and high quality content.  By this standard the Internet is only about 1-3 years old.  So if you are just beginning to understand this Internet stuff, do not give up. The best is yet to come and the time is right for further investment.  The Internet is truly the lowest cost strategy out there and offers a highly interactive experience with your brand 24/7.  The online market hype is beginning to converge with reality; creating solutions and opportunities that are delighting constituents.

All strategies need a compelling sense of urgency to propel them from strategy to execution.  Perhaps the challenging economy will provide the impetus for a new look and focus toward online fundraising. It’s a new day. Make the most of it.

There are two areas in particular that should be explored by the corporate Internet strategist who seeks to monetize and dominate the Web with your brand message.

First, consider a partnership with a high quality online content provider like Hulu.  Develop an interactive advertising platform to facilitate audience engagement.  Hulu characterizes itself as “the web’s leading premium content library to effectively reach millions of consumers whenever they watch online. Serving hundreds of millions of streams per month, Hulu is a Top 10 online video property featuring an immense collection of premium entertainment across all genres and formats — television shows, feature films, clips and more, regardless of network or studio.”1

To help you visualize this concept, first imagine watching a sporting event.  As you watch the event, alongside is an interactive advertisement that allows complete customization of a running shoe right down to size, color and graphics.  A few clicks later and you check out with a purchase of your customized running shoes.  This model could easily extend to the automotive and social entrepreneurship arenas.  You can see how these advertisements would become an attraction to rival that of the program content itself.

A partnership with a high quality online content provider like Hulu produces a triple win.  Your prospect wins by having a highly interactive experience with your brand, your content provider wins with a lucrative business model for premium ads, and your nonprofit wins by mining previously untapped or underutilized sources of income.  Simply put, your nonprofit will attract a high income, online demographic to your file that I refer to as ‘Urban Barons.’

For the partnership itself, I recommend negotiating a cost per acquisition, revenue share pricing model until performance meets your expectations.  Know that you will receive significant brand exposure along the way in the premier frontier where the ‘Urban Baron’ resides.  Online content providers like Hulu may welcome the opportunity to help a few nonprofit partners reach the next level and reap the public relations benefit of working for the greater good in the midst of a down economy.

The second area for your strategist to explore is interactive video gaming.  Interactive entertainment is not a fad and is exploding in popularity across all segments, including young women.  Every major gaming platform now includes Internet access which is a new frontier for interactive experiences.  According to tracking firm NPD analyst Anita Frazier, the industry was poised to achieve record breaking revenues of over $22 billion in 2008.2

By launching interactive advertising campaigns and exploring embedded advertising, nonprofits are able to connect their brand messages to wholesome games and create the sort of interactive experience donors want with their brand.  This is an area that requires imagination and much more development, but as with many things those who start early make out better in the long run.

To glimpse what the future could be, enter “Project Natal” in your search engine.  “Introducing Project Natal, a revolutionary new way to play: no controller required.  See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it.  If you know how to move your hands, shake your hips or speak you and your friends can jump into the fun — the only experience needed is life experience.”3 According to Steven Spielberg, “This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games.” 4 Can you imagine your brand at the heart of this amazing interaction?  The possibilities are endless.

For those of you looking for the next big thing and to achieve the biggest pop on the Web, go for quality online.  Revenue follows quality.   While not perfected yet, interactive advertising platforms hold the promise of desirable demographics and higher gifts.  I do not recommend exploring the world of interactive advertising without a partnership in place.  It would prove to be cost prohibitive for most, if not all, nonprofits.  So get out there and share the value of social entrepreneurship with online content providers and the video gaming industry.

Beyond the Basics — What are some actionable takeaways to gain an advantage online now?

• Place an Internet strategist at the helm of your interactive and Web teams
• Make your messages interactive, engaging and entertaining as well as ensure your creative brief lists an interactive experience — think about the Web at the beginning, middle, and end of a creative project
• Partner with high quality Internet content providers and interactive gamers and go on a journey together — it’s measurable, and cost effective
• Make an investment in interactive content creation — there is no better platform to build relationships
• Go big online and gain first mover advantage by taking your brand to the high value online demographic;  it’s a differential competitive advantage; it’s your future, lead
• Leverage your social network communities to test run these experiences before you buy/launch.  These communities are vocal and active groups in which to assess usability and engagement.  Share with them early and often
• Start now, catch the wave and go bigger than you ever imagined

1 COM score and Hulu Website

2 Informationweek, July 18, 2008

3 Xbox website

4 Xbox website

News Corp. may charge for Web news

According to Reuters, News Corp. owner of various media including Wall Street Journal may start charging for web news.  In fact, it already charges consumers for news.  The advertising model is alive and well on the web.  If in doubt take a look at search engine revenues…  The opportunity is to take interactive advertising to the next level.  Static ads that interrupt your experience are not likely to move the on-line demographic in a positive direction.  Placing interactive advertising along side high quality content will please everyone.

Imagine a sports section update with an article on the latest Professional Wake Board Riders standings.   Along side this story an interactive ad(s) could show Wake Board boats, and in a few strokes be designing a customized boat.  On page two, a stoked pair of board shorts, with the ability to change colors and designs.   Best of all, click to conversion can all be tracked.

There’s an infinite number of business models that make sense when you can measure interaction and conversion.   The MBA’s and the attorneys can take it from here.   The weak link is the advertising platform.  My guidance is to partner with Adobe or other standard using Flash and Flex technologies to make the creation of these experiences easy enough that Madison avenue can have the time required to get ready, aim and fire….   There’s so much more to value added Interactive Advertising that will propel a massive shift on-line.  Consumers will never go back if you get this right….  After all, what do most consumers buy periodicals for, the content of the advertising…..   Let’s just say 50-50 for now.  However, that’s plenty enough justification to move this forward  at light speed.

Hulu, Now is your chance – Facebook provides platform for displaying live events

According to readwriteweb, Face book has launched the interactive real-time update  platform.   My comments  are  that high quality video provider Hulu and others can leverage the interactive and social networks and begin web casting content targeted at the online demographic immediately.  The interactive distribution network in now in place.  This should create much larger audiences.

Why Org Structure Matters to Online Success – Convio

 The most salient daily challenge is finding ways to be creative, strategic, and proactive and organizations that have adopted a centralized staffing model are defying gravity by doing just that. 

In Convio’s latest survey, we looked at how nonprofits can use staff size, skill mix and organizational structure to defy gravity with limited resources. Here’s what we learned:

• Staffing structure does matter. Centralized organizations enjoy higher success rates in increasing the size of their house file and revenue received online.
• Organizations that adopt a centralized model show better performance, accountability, decision-making, and internal communication – yet only 20% of nonprofits use this model.
• Centralized groups have the best planning record with 100% of the respondents having an Internet marketing plan, and reviewing it frequently.

Clearly, centralized organizations are leading the pack when it comes to succeeding online. Are you truly centralized for success? In our report, The Secret of Online Success: Why Structure Matters, we’ve put together answers to the most pressing questions about structuring for your online programs, based on the best practices of your peers.

The study

 

Charitable Donations Fell by Nearly 6% in 2008

According to Paul Wasley, of the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Donations to nearly every type of charity faltered in 2008, as contributions declined by 5.7 percent last year after adjustment for inflation, according to the new edition of Giving USA which was released Wednesday morning.

It was the steepest decline in the history of the survey, which has been conducted since 1956.  Americans contributed a total of $307.7-billion to charity last year, Giving USA reports — down from $314.1-billion in 2007. The only other decline nearly as large occurred in 1974, when donations dropped by 5.4 percent. 

It could take a long time until giving recovers. Researchers who compile Giving USA said that today’s recession most resembles the one in 1974, and it took three years after that downturn ended for philanthropy to return to the same levels of donations as before the economy soured.

The  rest of the story.

Hulu Streaming Live “Dave Matthews” Concert

According to Mike Shields, Mediaweek, Hulu, online high quality video distributor will stream the concert June 2, 2009 in prime time.  Mark this day as the beginning of the end of television.   The distribution of high quality video content on the Internet synchronously will create demand which is a new twist to a channel that has been used primarily as a second or tertiary, way to communicate.   The timing is right for this experiment to provide an ROI that is attractive for further investment.

One investment overdue is an advertising platform as rich or richer than the content provided by Hulu.   The opportunities to interact with products using  advertising  media built in Flash and Flex technologies coupled with the ability to customize and buy the product at the same time is a new frontier creating all types of  business models including revenue sharing.   So, Hulu while you are forming amazing alliances with content providers also look at ADOBE or other partner to take those ads to the next level.  You’ll be glad you did.

New Web-Address Endings Could Start Turf Wars

According to Charisee Jones of CIO magazine, the familiar .com, .net, .org and 18 other suffixes — officially “generic top-level domains” — could be joined by a seemingly endless stream of new ones next year under a landmark change approved last summer by ICANN. Many businesses see more problems than profits — opportunities for scammers to exploit brand names and mislead consumers.  Alternatively, it creates a whole new market opportunity for dot anything…… One thing is for certain the web is dynamic and constantly transforming providing flexibility and scalability.