Hate Flying for the Holidays? So does the TSA....

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Getting a pat-down at airport security may be uncomfortable for holiday travelers. But life for the blue-shirted officers of the Transportation Security Administration isn't much fun either.

"We just want the passengers to understand: Look, we're not perverts or anything like that; we just have to search everything," said Rick McCoy, the senior TSA officer at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. "We're not here to be abused. We're just here to help you get on your flight and go about your business."

McCoy has been a screener for the TSA for nearly nine years. That means he's been with the federal agency since its inception in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"The work life here is horrible," said McCoy, president of his local union representing officers. Turnover is like a "revolving door" and health benefits are "atrocious," he said. Morale is low and so is the pay, he added.

Officers typically start at $29,000, but that's only if they're working full-time. New officers often start as part-time workers, said McCoy, at about $14 per hour. He said that part-timers, who make up 37% of the screener workforce at O'Hare, typically have to work four-hour days for at least three years before they're considered for full-time.

"I can't sugar coat this to these guys," said McCoy, who described many of the new employees as young students. "I tell them, 'Whatever you do, don't leave school.'"

McCoy says he makes about $42,000 a year in base pay, which is near the top of the officer pay scale. He said he relies primarily on overtime to support his family, especially since he pays nearly $500 a month for the TSA's healthcare plan.

The relatively low pay, particularly with the new part-timers, might be contributing to problems with the professionalism of some of the officers, said Anne Banas, executive editor at www.smartertravel.com.

"They're not paid a very high wage and they're not necessarily trained in customer service," said Banas. She said that some of the officers she's encountered are "great and gracious," while others are "power-tripping and controlling," with a "not my problem" attitude.

The best way to deal with stressed-out screeners, said Banas, is to "be as polite as you can. Don't make demands. Try to keep a cool head if you get pulled aside for pat downs."

Things have gotten extra-tough for the officers lately, since the TSA initiated its controversial pat-down procedure ahead of the Thanksgiving travel season. This new method of screening passengers is meant to detect explosives hidden in clothing, like the underwear bomb carried by a suspected terrorist on a Christmas Day flight last year.

Pats downs are implemented when passengers choose not to go through the advanced-imaging body scanners, or when they set off the scanners or metal detectors.

The pat downs result in some embarrassing contact between officers and passengers who consider the procedure to be too intrusive. Airline security blogger Steven Frischling has been posting anonymous complaints from officers on his blog, www.flyingwithfish.com, including this one:

"It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man's private parts, their butt, their inner thigh."

Frischling said that screeners tell him they're "demeaned" by the pat-down procedure, which they describe as "ineffective."

But in a recent statement, TSA administrator John Pistole stood by the new procedure as an effective way of weeding out terrorists.

"We cannot forget that less than one year ago a suicide bomber with explosives in his underwear tried to bring down a plane over Detroit," said Pistole. "The terrorists allegedly behind the thwarted cargo attempt last month are out there bragging about how they will strike again."

0:00 /1:04Airlines hope for happy holidays

"We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren't necessary but that just isn't the case," he said.

The pat-down procedure resulted in about a half-dozen incidents at O'Hare where travelers hit or pushed officers, said McCoy. He said these events don't always result in arrest, which further undermines morale.

"We're reminding people that these agents didn't create the policy," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 600,000 federal workers. "Taking out your frustration on them is inappropriate."

Gage and McCoy said that 12,000 of the 50,000 officers are currently union members, but they don't have the power of collective bargaining. They said that conditions might eventually improve for TSA officers if a majority of them vote to unionize with collective bargaining in the coming months.

For now, despite the poor morale and work conditions, McCoy said the screeners realize their jobs are important and the stakes for failure are high.

"If something happened to a plane coming from any one of these TSA airports, there would be a lot of distraught people," he said

How Social Media Boutiques are Winning Deals Over Traditional Digital Agencies

Categories: Social Media Posted on December 21st, 2010 (WebStrategist.com)

Research Findings: While Traditional agencies clinch up to $162,000 per client from beginner, experimental and formalized companies, yet when corporations become advanced, boutiques earn an average of $238,000 per brand. Expect traditional agencies to glean new skills or start M&A, and expect boutiques who have vision to stand the test of time.

Social Media Boutiques are Emerging to Threaten Traditional Agencies
It’s been a long time coming since we’ve seen major disruptive in the agency space. 10-15 years ago we saw the rise of internet agencies, digital agencies, and web marketing boutiques, and then a fast consolidation during the downturn. Now, we’re seeing the rise of social media boutiques, and we have telling data that shows they are threatening the budgets of traditional digital agencies in a particular type of client. This is a massively growing space, at Altimeter we were tracking the many agencies on a wiki, but stopped updating it due to overflow of submissions.

Above: 2011 Budgets: Social Media Boutiques Overtake Traditional Agencies Among Advanced Buyers

Companies that are just getting started and are formalized naturally lean on their traditional agency partners
In the novice through mature level brands, the traditional agencies are the first go-to. Corporations rely on them, as they have existing relationships and have purchase orders set in place. Yet we know (see engagement DB and our Facebook marketing research) that most corporations are not even engaging with their customers –they are doing it wrong. They often rely on traditional agencies for education (often a loss leader) research and strategy and implementation.

After Traditional Agencies Have Laid Groundwork Boutiques Swoop In, clinching revenues
Once corporations realize that social business is not about short term campaigns, they give $ to boutique agencies. The data from the buyers indicates there’s a significant jump in spending on boutique social media firms when the buyer is advanced and sophicaiated in social business. They know their traditional agency lacks flexibility or doesn’t have a business model for social engagement and relies on them. This is a great opportunity for the boutique agencies, who let the traditional agency do education, set plans in place, experience a few failures letting boutiques swoop in.

In my LeWeb keynote, I stand by my convictions not to hire social media “Ninjas, Gurus, and Samurai” and received audience applause. Instead, I offered, corporations should hire business program managers, in other words, people that put business goals first –tools and technologies second. This also applies in selecting your boutique agency

Why Social Media Boutiques Differentiate Successfully from
Social Media Boutiques are taking the budgets away from Traditional Agencies as corporations become mature. Corporations know they need these specialists for the following reason

• Offer a specialized skillset in new media and social business that traditional agencies may not offer
• They can do deep change management within the corporations –traditional agencies have a reputation for layering social media on top of existing campaigns.
• Are not shot term ‘campaign’ focused, instead are more long term focused such as building a community with customers for the long term.
• Are ready to roll up sleeves to assist with deeper customer engagement –not just deploy traditional advertising (one of the top spends in social business)
• Are more agile within smaller teams and can quickly maneuver as the technology space changes over time.
• Fundamentally are geared to measure differently around engagement –not just top line and bottom line measurements

Yet social media boutiques are limited by their size –and must partner
Despite their strengths, Social Meida Boutiques have weakenesses. They are often unable to scale as engagement is difficult to roll out to all product units and around the globe, are quickly finding that traditional agencies are catching up by training staff (see how Edelman has an internal black belt education program) and often lack the ability to achieve an integrated marketing approach

Industry Analyst Perspective: What the Future Beholds

• Traditional agencies will adopt these skills, or be forced to content with options.
• Expect the traditional agencies to generate revenues outside of engagement in brand monitoring, education, measurement, and leading an integrated approach
• Traditional incumbants will acquire these young startups. Expect this data to be cascaded to the upper echelons of traditional corporations who know they need to quickly get a strategy on M&A activity (see today’s Dachis news)
• A handful of these agencies will grow into the next digital agency. Not wanting to sell and enjoy the fruits of their hardwork, many of these agencies will stay
• Brands will rely on traditional for education –boutiques often can’t afford to this unless it’s a loss leader for a sale.
• While specialization and competition is good, buyers will demand that their agencies work together. The previous HR block marketing team rallied 5 agencies together to work on a single social media effort, for a holistic customer experience
• We’re already seeing a few traditional agencies like Edelman (in the lead, in my opinion with Rubel, Armano, Carfi, Brito), Oglivy (Bell, Rohit) build strong internal teams on social business using blogs, thought leadership, and hire social media practitioners.

If you found this helpful, please forward on to your agency partners, and internal teams. Or if you’re an agency and want to share your perspective, I look forward to your comments below.

Twitter Tweets Big With $200 Million in Funding

Twitter is putting to rest any doubts it is taking a shot at being one of the Web’s next big platforms with a $200 million funding round that values the company at a staggering $3.7 billion.

AllThingsD.com reported details of the round, which will also bring former DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt and Flipboard CEO Mike McCue to its board of directors. (Twitter has confirmed the funding round and new board members.)

The funding round comes after Twitter reportedly spurned acquisition feelers from Google. It is a huge bet for investors, led by Kleiner Perkins, that Twitter can grow to become a tech platform alongside Google, Facebook, Apple and others. With its 175 million registered users posting short updates, Twitter could theoretically build “ the communications graph” to operate alongside Facebook’s social-connectivity graph.

Rosenblatt, who served as president of Google’s display ad business, will bring to Twitter his deep knowledge of the online ad business. He’s been a director at other companies, including GSI Commerce, where he joined the board last month.

The question is whether Twitter can build a big enough ad business to justify its high-flying valuation. To date, it’s run very few ads, choosing instead to create ad products in-line with how its service is used. Rather than display ads, Twitter is offering promoted tweets, trends and accounts.

Dick Costolo became CEO of the company in October with an eye to turning it into a formidable ad business. Its sales force, under Adam Bain, remains tiny; and Twitter does not yet have an office in New York.

Is it Time for Time (Inc., that is)?....

In his first big shakeup as Time Inc.’s new CEO Jack Griffin announced two major promotions he said were aimed at speeding decision-making and creating clearer lines of authority.

The big winner is Paul Caine, who adds the new title of evp, chief revenue officer to his current duties as president of the Style & Entertainment Group, which includes People, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly. In his new role, he’ll oversee corporate sales, with Leslie Picard and Kirk McDonald reporting to him.

Stephanie George, evp, who previously led corporate sales, was moved to a new position at the company of chief marketing officer, which could be read as a diminished position, because marketing services represents a relatively small part of Time Inc.'s overall business, although one where Griffin sees big growth potential. In her new role, she’ll oversee Time Inc. Content Solutions, corporate communications and Time Inc.’s partnership with American Express Publishing.

Both will report to Griffin, as they currently do.

One insider said Caine’s promotion is a recognition of his success running SEG, which is said to contribute at least 50 percent of Time Inc.’s revenue, and a way to reduce his overlap with corporate sales.

“It’s a lot cleaner and easier for him,” this person said. “If he’s negotiating with P&G, and there’s corporate sales and marketing also negotiating, it gets complicated.”

“This organization will drive faster, more coordinated decision-making and better align our resources against our goal of creating and delivering unmatched value in the marketplace,” Griffin said in an announcement.

What a Long, Slow U.S. Ad Trip it's been...

Forecast: Long, Slow U.S. Ad Recovery

ZenithOptimedia predicts 'disappointing' ad growth between 2010-13

Adweek: Dec 5, 2010

For the U.S. ad economy, it’s going to be a long, slow climb to full recovery, according to a new forecast that Publicis Groupe’s ZenithOptimedia will present at the UBS
Media conference in New York on Monday (Dec. 6).

Two other shops will also offer new global ad forecasts at the conference: Interpublic’s MagnaGlobal and WPP’s GroupM. Headlines from Magna: China will soon overtake Japan to become the second-largest ad market, while the Internet will surpass newspapers within two years to become the second-largest ad medium after TV. GroupM predicts that global ad spending will reach $500 billion for the first time next year, up 6 percent.

According to the ZO forecast, ad spending in the U.S. will grow just 2.5 percent next year to $155 billion, and a total of just under 9 percent between 2010 and 2013 to $164.8 billion, an increase that the agency termed “disappointing.” The Olympic-Election year of 2012 will see growth of just 3 percent to $159.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the global outlook is a little better, with projected spending for the same period up about 5 percent annually to $521 billion, per ZO.

“It’s a muted recovery,” said Steve King, ZO’s global CEO. “While the recovery is underway, it’s just not as dramatic”—or as rapid, compared to the recoveries that followed other recent recessions, he said. The severity of last year’s economic downturn partly explains the slow rebound, said King. It was also more widespread in terms of its geographic reach.

Of course, the sluggish growth projected for the next few years in the U.S. is better than the performance of the recent past. In 2009, spending dropped 7 percent. And 2010 growth is expected to total an anemic 1.5 percent to $151.5 billion, per ZO.

Factors stunting near-term growth in the U.S., ZO said, include corporate concerns about debt, unemployment and government spending.

That said, some growth is better than none, and GroupM chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni noted a “significant rebound in spending” in the U.S. during the second half of this year, compared with the depressed spending levels during 2009. Most of that growth was fueled by TV and Internet spending, he said.

ZO predicted that near-term worldwide spending growth will be driven by emerging markets. Brazil for example, is projected to grow 31 percent next year.

According to MagnaGlobal, China and India will show “standout” growth over the next several years. China will overtake Japan to become the world’s second-largest advertising market by 2013, Magna predicts, with ad revenues exceeding $54 billion. India’s ad economy should rise 21 percent next year to over $5 billion, with annual growth averaging more than 19 percent over five years.

“Until advertisers are fully confident that the economic recovery will be sustained, we expect growth to remain below its long-term trend rate of 6 percent,” said King of ZO.

Globally, ZO said that newspapers and magazines will continue to be the biggest media laggards, with spending in those sectors down another 2 percent between 2010 and 2013 as circulations continue to fall and readers migrate to the Internet. By contrast, Internet ad growth will spurt 48 percent during the same period. TV spending will be up 19 percent and radio will be up 10 percent.

According to Magna, Internet advertising will overtake newspapers as the second largest ad medium globally by 2013. It said that annual Internet ad revenue growth would top 7.5 percent over the next five years to $117 billion.

Everyone look out...here comes the FTC!

Federal Trade Commission Proposes 'Do Not Track' for Internet Advertising

Chairman Liebowitz Says Self-Regulation Efforts Well-Intentioned, but Not Enough

Published: December 01, 2010

The stakes for online privacy just got a little higher.

The Federal Trade Commission revealed its proposal for a universal "do not track" mechanism on Wednesday that would allow people to choose whether they want internet companies to collect information on their browsing habits. On Thursday, a House subcommittee is holding a separate hearing on the matter. Online publishers and advertisers have come to rely on such data, and any significant alteration of current practices would have deep implications for the internet industry.

The FTC's report stated that despite numerous attempts at self-regulation, the industry has not done enough to protect consumers' privacy online, and that they need to work faster and improve their efforts.

"We're sending a clear message that self-regulation of privacy has not worked accurately," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a call with reporters Wednesday. "The industry as a whole needs to do a far better job."

A coalition of advertising industry trade groups calling itself the Digital Advertising Alliance initiated a self-regulatory effort a few weeks ago that would allow consumers to choose to prohibit marketers from targeting them with advertising. The DAA, which is comprised of the 4As, the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), represent more than 5,000 corporations.

This initiative had been met with some praise from officials at the FTC when first launched, but it has not progressed quickly enough, according to Chairman Leibowitz.

"I think the people who are doing that are very well-intentioned," he said, "but it has been in pre-beta development for quite some time -- I think for more than two years. We'd like to see them move faster." Chairman Leibowitz did indicate, however, that the industry group appears to be taking proper steps and that its efforts could lead to a "more comprehensive" system.

Stuart P. Ingis, partner at Washington law firm Venable and counsel for the DAA, said that the online ad industry has delivered the kind of choice the Commission has asked for, and that the business community is in the best position to execute these plans. "We've built a very good framework," he said of their consumer opt-out program, which launched a few weeks ago. A significant component of the industry's program includes an icon that will appear on ads, which will lead consumers to an opt-out page. "In the next months, this will be ubiquitous," Mr. Ingis said.

Stopping collection, not just targeting
The Commission had expressed concern that the industry program does not allow people to keep online marketers from collecting data on their surfing habits, but only prevents marketers from serving, or targeting users with more relevant advertising. "We support the opt-out of collection not just targeting," Chairman Leibowitz clarified.

But according to Mr. Ingis, the industry program does stop marketers from collecting data once they choose to opt out, underscoring a larger question over what purposes the Commission defines beyond the scope of advertising. "We've had dialogue with them on this issue before, and we've met that goal," he said, "but if they want to extend the opt outs to include collecting data for purposes other than marketing, I don't know how that will work." He pointed out that third parties collect data for purposes other than advertising, such as email log-in authentication, as well as traffic data such as Google Analytics, which is widely employed across the web.

"That's why 'Do Not Track' is such a misnomer," he said.

The Commission's guidelines are preliminary, and it underscores the FTC's limited authority. A Do Not Track law could only be enacted by Congress, suggesting that this report is an appeal to whichever party -- industry or Congress -- will act more quickly. A subcommittee is holding a hearing called "Do-Not-Track Legislation: Is Now the Right Time?" on Thursday.

How it would work
A sticking point is how exactly a Do Not Track feature would work. The Commission's report spells out a specific example whereby a web browser, such as Firefox, would install a piece of software such as a cookie onto the user's browser that would signal to online marketers whether that consumer has chosen to make available his or her browsing habits in return for targeted advertising. But such a mechanism would only be specific to that browser and not to the specific person, as the Do Not Call legislation offers.

A browser-enabled Do Not Track feature would also have to differentiate between data collected for marketing purposes, or other reasons, whether for traffic data or log-in authentication, such as online banking.

But privacy advocates have largely approved of the Commission's report, and argue that a Do Not Track program is technically feasible. "The browser-based mechanism is simple and very generalize-able," said Peter Eckersley, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It could apply to mobile platforms without changing much. There is some flexibility on this proposal."

Chairman Leibowitz also said that despite the specific Do Not Track example outlined in the report, "it's not the only way, and that's why we're seeking comment. We're big believers in transparency and process, and if someone has a better idea, we want to hear it."

Cyber Monday is the new Black (Friday)?

Associated Press

Cyber Monday sales top $1 billion for first time

Associated Press, 12.01.10, 09:28 AM EST

NEW YORK -- Americans jumped on deals and promotions offered online on Cyber Monday, spending $1 billion and making it the busiest online shopping day ever, according to new data.

Research firm comScore Inc. says revenue rose 16 percent from a year ago to $1.03 billion on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Since the beginning of November, online sales are up 13 percent to $13.55 billion.

The improvement is welcome for retailers hoping that Americans start spending more freely. But shoppers are still holding out for bargains and spending cautiously as unemployment remains high.

According to ShopperTrak figures, revenue at brick-and-mortar stores was flat over the weekend following Thanksgiving, but traffic rose 2.8 percent.

A clearer picture of spending will come Thursday when the nation's retailers release revenue figures for November.

An Interview with our VP of Operations, Jeff Roach with B2B Online...

Are opt-in lists worth the extra money?

Jon VanZile

Story posted: April 26, 2010 - 6:01 am EDT

When it comes to “opt-in” email lists, things can get confusing pretty quick.

A true opt-in list is one created by your company with subjects who specifically invited emails from your company. But b2b list vendors frequently advertise “opt-in” lists that are targeted at your market category or product mix and are designed to yield better results. In some cases, these lists may contain records that were obtained by your competitors—or records that your competitors may have already targeted if they have access to the same list database.

This less-than-ideal scenario raises a good question: Do these more expensive opt-in lists really yield any benefit in the sometimes small world of b2b email marketing or are third-party opt-in lists little more than a marketing distinction used by list vendors?

“Opt-in lists are definitely more valuable than general lists,” said Christine Crandell, senior VP-marketing for Accept Software Corp. in Fremont, Calif. “Having said that, just because the list is opt-in doesn’t necessarily mean the list members will be interested in the product being offered.”

That sentiment was echoed by Peter Burke, CEO of Mavington Group in Wayne, Pa.

“I understand the premise of opt-in lists, but I don’t really see how they apply in executive contacts,” Burke said, adding that he rarely uses opt-in lists in his company’s marketing efforts.

So beyond their greater perceived value, if the feeling is that opt-in lists may not increase leads, what’s the point of using them?

This is where price comes in, said Jeffrey Roach, advertising operations director at eLink Media in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“I find there to be a mixed opinion from my clients on whether site- and product-specific lists are more effective than general opt-in lists,” Roach said. “Price is a huge factor, in that opinion.”

In Roach’s view, the ultimate value of a list isn’t whether it’s opt-in or not, but the return on investment the list yields during a campaign. Naturally, because opt-in lists are more expensive, they have to yield better business results.

“This game is about ROI, and if you’re priced out of your metrics, does it really matter where the list came from?” Roach said.

They key to extracting value from opt-in lists (or any lists), Crandell said, is to do your homework: Make sure the list matches the campaign, including its price.

“Marketing needs to carefully match list profiles, demographic and psychographic, with the desired target audience,” Crandell said. “A good match and a credible opt-in list are an essential foundation for productive marketing campaigns. As we implement our marketing plans, we may secure additional opt-in lists for campaigns that are targeted to a different audience, industry or geography than what is addressed by our marketing database.”

Opt-in lists have one additional benefit: Emails generated from an opt-in list are less likely to trigger spam filters and result in your email being blocked.