Web 2.0 applications have traditionally been designed and coded by engineers without the benefit of input from consumer marketing experts. As a result, most content sites end up ‘bolting on’ poor quality off-the-shelf ad systems (as demonstrated in oft-ignored banner ads, annoying pop ups and irrelevant ad links). This stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by Fuego Nation which was originally designed by consumer branding and marketing experts and is now being implemented by a core team of talented engineers. In a sense, our advertising system was built ‘by marketers for marketers.’ The result is a system that we believe will generate the highest ad rates in the industry and open up entirely new sources of revenue and profit unique to Fuego Nation. The Fuego Nation architectural design team was determined from the outset to shatter the existing record of poor quality, largely ineffectual advertising by building an interactive, highly addictive and functional product around the most discerning advertising requirements possible. The end result is a comprehensive advertising and direct marketing system we call FuegoFusion. FuegoFusion represents a revolutionary approach to web-based advertising. Perhaps the best way to understand the potential impact of FuegoFusion is to review the market problems and inefficiencies identified by our design experts and the solutions generated from their passionate commitment to solving these issues for the first time.
Problem: Online advertising is either ignored or annoying
Solution: The standard for advertising on social networking sites, and on the web generally, is Google text-based links, banner ads and pop ups. The problem this standard creates is that similar to newspaper advertising, these ads are largely ignored by users. Further, users on social networks are typically deeply involved in communicating and sharing with other users and are therefore not attentive to even highly targeted advertising. Rather than simply trying to ‘break through the clutter’ by using bigger/flashier ads that often detract from the overall user experience, we are building an integrated advertising experience that seamlessly integrates with the user experience. Take for example, our graphical display paradigm as seen in the rotating carousel. As ads rotate front and center, they cannot be ignored by users. Additionally, our ad serving engine leverages the information we know about our users to serve ads that are demographically, contextually and behaviorally relevant. This innovative solution to what has been to this point largely ineffectual advertising is unique to Fuego Nation and has never been deployed effectively on the web.
Problem: There’s no proven, online ad destination for high-end luxury brands
Solution: Most of the products on the web today, particularly those with roots in social networking, are static, utility-based products designed and built with an engineering mindset. This reality does not dovetail well with brands that are built less around utility and more around status, quality, experience and emotion (e.g. high end luxury brands). We created Fuego Nation to offer a unique product pairing for these high-end advertisers. To do this, the product had to be experiential in nature, of a high graphical acuity, enshrouded by a brand that signified high quality and paired with an emotional brand voice that was both aspirational and intense. We believe that this approach will help brands like Hugo Boss, Tag Heuer, W Hotels and Mercedes Benz find a home for their brands on the web, in many cases, for the first time.
Problem: Data about users is not credible
Solution: While advertising on social networks is expected to boom in the coming years, open networks are plagued by the problem of ‘dirty’ data. That is, users can pretend that they are anyone (especially when self-expression is the primary use case on those networks). Additionally, we intentionally limit the initial data inputs required of our members to only those bits of information relevant to either making a connection or indicating a purchasing pattern. Over time, our FuegoFusion ad serving technology will not only target users based on what they say (e.g. data inputs from their profile) but what they DO (e.g. based on actual behavior in the community). In the end we will deliver targeted data to advertisers that indicate ACTUAL consumer behavior patterns not SUGGESTIVE behavior patterns.
Problem: Users are not in the ideal demographic
Solution: There are several key reasons why companies most open networks generate such low ad rates (measured by CPM, or cost per thousand views). Outside of the ‘dirty’ data issue previously mentioned, the most significant problem is that users have not traditionally fallen in the ideal Gen X demographic. While most social network traffic remains dominated by teenagers (who do not have credit cards) and college students (who do not have jobs), Fuego Nation was designed for an older, more mature, higher income demographic from the outset.
Problem: Advertising isn’t integrated into the product experience
Solution: Truly integrated in-product advertising (e.g. in-game ads in videogames or product placement ads in movies) have proven effective in building brand recognition and affinity. Yet there exist few opportunities on the web to conduct this type of branding activity. Fuego Nation, in contrast, built a graphical display system that includes both photos and videos that allow the imbedding of products within the context of the ads themselves. Considering that many of the higher status members of our community would be expected to exert undo influence on others in the community and amongst guests to the site, having product placement ads within the context of their graphical profile will be very appealing to advertisers. So after rolling through a dozen passion trading card photos, for example, a Hugo Boss apparel ad may rotate through the carousel presented in a context of another visual display of a person (thus integrating nicely into the overall experience). In fact, we will also offer advertisers the option to ’sponsor’ elite community members who wear their apparel in their primary profile photo.
Problem: Advertising isn’t reinforced in multiple venues/facets
Solution: Most social networks offer a limited supply of banner ad inventory…and that’s it. From the outset we wanted to enable a multi-faceted approach that offered a menu-based selection process from which a campaign could be customized to the tastes and needs of the advertiser. On the menu would be flow-through ads in the carousel, contextual ads on the dashboard page, mobile phone sponsorships attached to text messages, content sponsorships (e.g. Leaderboards), offline promotions (e.g. signage at nightclub events); in-product promotions, etc. Great brands require triangular reinforcement to successfully penetrate the minds of consumers and take up permanent residence in their minds. The result of our problem solving endeavor has been a host of new advertising features and products yet to be deployed on a grand scale on the web including:
- HD-capable display technology
- Complete transaction processing within the framework of a single ad unit
- Data and behavioral tracking of user base
- In-product ad placements
- Ability for advertisers to test-market ad campaigns via our voting/reputation system
From the outset, shattering the current standards, protocols and effectiveness of online advertising stood as a cornerstone in the foundation of our company. Over time, we stand committed to offering both advertisers and members alike an integrated and experiential branding opportunity that works to benefit both constituencies from the outset.
Archive for the ‘Market Needs’ Category
We believe that the positive and encouraging message of the Fuego Nation brand will continue to bring relief to a disenfranchised population and compel our members to leverage the energy materialized by their combined passions to reset their respective places in the world. There are very few places online where this experience is a focal point. Fuego Nation is one of them. We believe this message will be embraced by our members and guests alike and at a rate propelled by the general economic malaise. In this way, for Fuego Nation, a bad economy is good for business.
Most Internet businesses are unique in that they don’t require huge capital investment and credit leverage to be successful. This reality will hold us in good stead as our capital and equity ratios should exceed most averages and debt will be avoided on our balance sheet through the duration of the current crisis. Indeed, we expect to be generating free cash flow in just over a year’s time.
Looking back on the last round of Internet winners, start ups like Plaxo, LinkedIn, YouTube and PayPal were all borne out of the challenging post-dot com collapse that ground the technology industry to a halt around the turn of the century. We believe firmly that out of the current economic ashes will rise the next stable of consumer Internet winners. Among those, Fuego Nation will take its rightful place.
From a fundamentals standpoint, while we believe our business will prosper in all economic conditions, a bad economy and pessimistic consumer sentiment will see us prospering even more. This is predominantly a result of two fundamental components of our business. The first is that our base service is ‘free’ to consumers. We are also the only destination on the Internet where consumers engage and connect around their innermost passions while not necessarily having to unload large premiums to do so. Secondly, our advertising and brand engagement model lends itself to the unprecedented leveraging of the most powerful form of advertising on earth—word-of-mouth.
As a result of our ability to both engage and connect users with lifestyle brands along with the creation of branded micro-communities, we see Fuego Nation as a way for lifestyle brands to leverage their marketing budgets. Fuego Nation’s brand engagement advertising allows, for the first time ever on the Internet, high end brands to create powerful creative messages along with the tracking systems and ROI generating tools necessary to monitor a campaign’s effectiveness. While typical banner ads historically have achieved the former only Google AdWords (text-based search ads) have secured the latter. And not even mighty Google has managed to achieve both end goals.
Fuego Nation, for the first time, engenders the best of both worlds and marketers around the globe are reacting with great enthusiasm and excitement to the Fuego Nation promise. We believe that this is the reason why our rate of new advertising agreements has accelerated at a 150% rate in just the past few months alone.
For many businesses, the likely recessionary environment is most definitely bad for business. For Fuego Nation, it marks yet another opportunity to propel us forward.
Fuego Nation Online is a hybrid Open-Closed Network and it is the first of its kind on the Internet. It’s closed in that not anyone can sign up and access member benefits as is the case with sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc. It’s open in that anyone CAN request an invite and apply to get in on their own merit. We believe this provides the benefit of scale by reducing the friction created by ‘invite only’ business models while generating the brand power inherent in exclusivity.
Most online clubs generate exclusivity by legacy, offline means. They rely on symbols of material success like income level and celebrity. Fuego Nation Online breaks this antiquated mold by creating exclusivity around the energy that drives the world- individual passions. To us, passion is the great equalizer, capable of connecting individuals regardless as to income level, caste system or common prejudice.
At Fuego Nation Online, talent literally rises to the top. In our world what makes someone elite is the passion with which they engage and participate in the community coupled with the energy and devotion they engage with their passions. In a sense, we are creating a global meritocracy based on passion and believe the combination of all that energy and desire will be combustible– a true social change agent.
Though we see the value in exclusivity as a marketing concept, as articulated above, our application of the concept is more experiential and practical and we believe, more potentially powerful. We use exclusivity to separate the truly passionate from the posers and then we use that knowledge to distinguish between the truly elite and the novices (e.g. in our Mountain Climbing and Fashion Passion Spheres). If one is not truly passionate, after all, then they won’t have the energy and desire to fill out a simple passion card and apply for membership.
We apply exclusivity to leveling of content as well with the purpose of making it easier for adults to assess the relative merit and value of community contributions. This leveling structure enables someone to review only content of members ‘at their level or above.’ In doing so, we intend to help solve the problem of indecipherable user generated content and increase the discoverability of high quality content by levels of magnitude.
We extend exclusivity into the offline world as well via Fuego Nation Events. To attend Fuego Nation VIP events at clubs, restaurants and museums a member must have achieved VIP status online first. Once at an event, those in attendance have valuable data about one another which decreases overall anonymity and provides a psychic tethering mechanism to foster connections via commonality.
In the end, our market approach and strategy leverages exclusivity in the traditional marketing sense while deploying its functional application to create a more engaging and efficient user experience.
There are a couple key reasons why these legacy social networking sites look and feel the way they do. The crux of the rationale is that sites, Facebook is a prime example, are designed by young engineers, themselves still kids, with designs largely defined by their own life experiences and needs. This, coupled with the nature of technology early adoption being a youthful endeavor, has led to a preponderance of these tools being geared toward youth and not toward the discerning tastes and unique needs of adults.
But the market for social networking has moved far beyond the confines of schoolyards and dorm rooms. The fastest growth area on Facebook is among 25-35 year old adults, a segment that has seen 181% growth in less than one year. Ultimately, it is interest from this segment that has exploded consumer awareness of social networking beyond the previous confines of the youth market and gained the interest of brand advertisers, large and small. Recent growth trends with MySpace follow similar demographic trending.
Having said that, we anticipate a flattening in both demand and usage among adults currently using utilities like Facebook as the novelty of social networking as a concept wears thin and the utility value on sites originally designed for youth proves vacuous. We also believe that the overwhelming number of, and juvenile nature of, Facebook’s application program will continue to chase away adults from the site. While recently added privacy controls do provide some salve to the psychic wounds suffered by adult users, they will prove out to be band-aids to an inherently flawed experience.
The reality is that the social needs of kids and adults are so widely disparate that no plausible, easily understood and intuited system can peaceably coexist. Adults have very specific needs that have not been addresses by the market. They have more disposable income, but less free time. They are more willing to pay for a better controlled experience that helps them gather the information they need quickly and efficiently. They want a well-lit place for interaction not a messy dorm room when visiting another user’s profile. And perhaps more than anything, they want an experience that offers a simple, intuitive interface as busy adults have little time or patience for learning new technologies. Adults have jobs to go do, kids to get ready for school and mortgages to pay. Time is of the essence and value must be derived from each minute expended.
Send an adult to MySpace for the first time and they will be instantly repelled. Why? Because the UI is so complex, confusing and non-intuitive that user friction becomes volcanic. If an adult first time user is actually able to create a simple profile (no small task indeed), they’ll probably have received a pornographic valentine before logging off. The product experience, itself, is just not acceptable to a discerning adult mentality.
In contrast to MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, Fuego Nation restricts its member base to those 21 years or older. From the outset we have remained steadfast that every feature, every design component and every value proposition should be targeted toward satisfying the digital socialization needs of busy, high-energy adults. We’ve done this because we believe the best market opportunity in social networking is that targeted at adults not kids and, secondly, an ‘adults only’ approach creates greater revenue monetization opportunities than do the frameworks of current, non-exclusive networks.
Report: U.S. mobile web growth triples
June 5, 2007According to a new study issued by mobile content platform developer Bango, U.S. mobile web usage grew threefold over the past year. Bango reports that the U.K. market leads all mobile web usage at 27 percent, followed by the U.S. at 21 percent, South Africa at 11 percent, India at nine percent and Indonesia at three percent.
“We see that wherever flat-rate data charges are pervasive in a country then there’s much more web browsing,” said Bango SVP of marketing Anil Malhotra in a prepared statement. “We expect to see more competitively priced flat-rate data plans in the U.S. which will stimulate further web browsing.”
Literally hundreds of mobile gaming companies have been financed over the past five years to build products that oftentimes confound us. Few VCs have actually made any money on their investments and few have visibility into any near term profits. From our experience in the market there are several reasons why this is the case:
Solving the issues and concerns outlined above prior to the commencement of any development process is intuitive to us. That is why Fuego Nation Wireless is being designed using the same interface as the web-based product (establishes known familiarity), relies on photos (which everyone enjoys looking at) and leverages text/MMS-based messaging which everyone already does. As marketers we believe that the key to changing consumer behavior is to evolve the usage pattern by extending it while never requiring an entirely new one. Doing so creates market friction and is a key contributor to poor performance to date.
One of the key criteria for us in building our next generation social community was to create an interface and product utility that was platform agnostic. This means that when it comes to making money we think ‘digitally’ not web or wireless. In other words, to us they represent two mechanisms to tailor deliver our branded community experience. This is why our mobile interface looks identical to that found on the web.
From the outset, we designed our online product to seamlessly dovetail into the wireless world. We did this for several reasons but most particularly because we believe that mobile data services represents the next great opportunity in the digital universe. And though we believe our online products have enormous potential we have always believed that our mobile product line stands to have an even bigger market impact.
There are several features of the online product that, when mobilized, extend the value of our product to users ‘on the go’ while others are unique to the mobile experience and create a distinct advantage over mobile products from the likes of MySpace, Facebook, etc.
Similar to the online version of the product, users will be able to do the following:
The wireless product offering also includes features that are uniquely tailored to the mobile experience including some that, as a result of our targeted, high end user base, can only be found in our product. A brief sampling of the proposed features follows below:
In the end, we are big believers in the potential of the mobile web and in the expected explosion of data service usage on mobile phones generally. This realization, coupled with our intent to build a product with true global appeal from the outset will allow us to market our digital products not only here in America but around the world in places that have few computers but massive cellular device penetration.
Good consumer businesses solve real-world consumer problems. Really good consumer businesses solve really big real-world consumer problems. We believe that Fuego Nation Online is an example of the latter. So while we might delineate between specific micro-problems inherent with the current generation of social networks, and how we’re going about solving them in a wholesale manner, let’s focus on the big picture for a moment.
In acknowledging the challenge inherent in the second point above, creating a Fuego Nation Events business was a key component of our business strategy from the outset. We wanted to enable a community where people could meet each other in the environment, virtual or otherwise, of their choosing. In doing so, we could solve the problems associated with ‘chemistry’ that plague the existing crop of online dating sites. If there is really no substitute for ‘face time’ then why not create a revenue-generating product line that solves this market need. Fuego Nation is in a unique position to do this because its members are pre-screened to be of a particular caliber.
Being Proud of Who You Are
As anyone knows who has participated in social networks to date it is rather easy to meet misidentified, undesirable people. The facts that open networks like MySpace are havens for predators of all sorts should not be surprising because the raw architecture of the site encourages this behavior (via self-expression). In other words, the temptation to pretend I’m someone else, in one facet or many, is almost too tempting to resist. When discussing this with a trusted friend he said, “Oh yeah, when I built my MySpace page I said that I was 99 years old.” In contrast, we wanted to create a community where talented folks (or the aspiring talented) could meet others with varying or similar passions in a safe, secure environment. The whole point of our community is to be proud of who you are (not who you are not). This is partly why your public facing Passion Cards indicate one’s user name while each Member profile features real names. And from an aspirational vantage point, if you’re not proud of who you are, then we will provide the atmosphere, tools and support to change your life for the better. In doing so we will win you over as a customer for life.
Our critics might point to the fact that one can easily game the system and get into the club by providing fake biographical/passion-based data and photos. While technically true, why would someone do this for the honor of paying a subscription rate when they could more easily game open networks like MySpace which have no such ‘cover charges’? Secondly, we will ‘lock’ the photo you use in your application so that it will always be available to those accessing your profile down the road. Furthermore, in order to move from a Basic membership to a VIP level membership one MUST recruit friends to the community to garner enough points to move up to the next level. Who is going to go invite their friends to their profile where they feature pictures of someone else? Finally, because there exist consequences in our community, if you are ever caught you will be expelled anyway…so what’s the point? In evaluating the current state of social networks we clearly identified a need for the post-collegiate crowd and custom designed an experience that is better tailored to the tectonic shifts that occur in one’s life once they finish school:
Fuego Nation was built for the ‘jobs and credit cards’ audience. This ‘older demographic’ while familiar with social networking technologies (like MySpace and Facebook) have dramatically changing needs (problems that need solving). After one graduates from college there are two fundamental changes in the way they look at life. The first is social. “Hmm, they say, maybe I’ll start a family some day.” That’s not a driving need of a typical college student. The second is professional. “Hmm, they say, I’ve got to get a job and support myself now.” Though they sound simple, these mark massive psychic shifts in the way people approach and interact with the world around them.
Many of us, particularly the ambitious amongst us, start our careers with an idealism that the harder we work and the better our results, the higher our career trajectory. We soon discover a unique reality in the maxim ‘It’s who you know, not what you know.’ As you start a family and become more successful in your life, available time for leisure diminishes but your keen awareness of the power of connections does not. This is why we’ve designed a product with a very high ’signal to noise’ ratio. This means that while it may take you dozens if not hundreds of contact points on other social networks to make a lasting connection our target goal at Fuego Nation is only a few. This results from the combination of our FuegoConnect Engine technology buttressed by the type of people attracted to the brand in the first place. At Fuego Nation we leave nothing to chance.
When we designed our system we dissected every current problem in social networking that would either detract from the experience of current users (young demographic) or prevent those outside the early adopter set (mature demographic) from feeling the psychic comfort of a community that protects their privacy while fostering ‘extremely high value’ connections. Below is a matrix we created that delineates the micro-problems Fuego Nation set out to solve in an effort to create the best online social/community experience anywhere on the globe. From the outset, our intent was to revolutionize social networking by solving monumental problems endemic to the current generation while providing a safer, secure and emotionally bonding experience with consumers.
Also, be creating a discreet branded top layer to the community, no one would know the reasons why you were using the site (e.g to get a job, to date, to climb a mountain, etc.). Knocking out the stigma associated with online dating, for example, was a key target benefit of our core user experience architecture.
was to revolutionize social networking by solving monumental problems endemic to the current generation while providing a safer, secure and emotionally bonding experience with consumers. Also, be creating a discreet branded top layer to the community, no one would know the reasons why you were using the site (e.g to get a job, to date, to climb a mountain, etc.). Knocking out the stigma associated with online dating, for example, was a key target benefit of our core user experience architecture.
In contrast, sites like Facebook and MySpace are open networks, essentially allowing anyone who wants to get in to the club in. This, not surprisingly, has the ultimate effect of diminishing any ’special feeling’ associated with membership, prevents the creation of an aspirational brand and tends to foster very low brand loyalty (which is why so many kids dump MySpace for Facebook the day they enroll in college). The benefit of open registration is that advertising page views are typically increased. However, because the data regarding individuals is not monitored, and therefore not particularly reliable, advertisers discount the value of the membership. If you don’t know who your members REALLY are, then how do you represent this base to advertising partners let alone provide a safe environment for new relationship formation between members? Our approach mitigates this problem plaguing many open networks right out of the gate.
The number one criticism we’ve received regarding the closed network/exclusive strategy is that it limits the total size of the community which current thinking suggests results in lower advertising revenue. This thinking is erroneous as higher targeted, cleaner data regarding customers always results in higher per user advertising revenue. So, while both MySpace and Facebook struggle to get effective CPM rates of $1, the targeted userbase at CBS Marketwatch, has effective CPMs nearly 50X that of Facebook and MySpace. As a result, our challenge is to maximize the targeting capability of our membership while ALSO maintaining size. In other words, we’re creating a system to generate the best of both worlds. Below is a list of common concerns/criticisms regarding our strategy and the reality behind our approach:
Criticism: If you have to be voted in then huge numbers of people won’t be able to get in.
Reality: While we don’t control the voting itself (voting is done by the public as it is on American Idol) we do control the underlying apparatus and math that stimulates membership. As a result, we can let in as many people as we want as long as we can maintain an ‘exclusive feel’.
Criticism: You’ll get bogged down by managing the added admission steps of applying to Fuego Nation.
Reality: This process is completely automated and showcases our ability to engage community members in monitoring their own Nation and taking pride in doing so creating further affiliation and attachment to our brand.
Other components of our approach enable the following:
Extrapolating on the last point above, the fact that Facebook required users to have a .edu address is widely considered to be the core reason for its initial popularity over open sites like MySpace. Once having established its core base of users, Facebook opened up to a wider audience. When Google first launched its email service, Gmail, members had to be invited by other members. And though this ‘exclusivity’ marketing was also widely attributed to its booming success, Google engineers had claimed that the reason for exclusivity was somewhat inadvertent, having done so only to mitigate against worries that their servers would be overwhelmed by an open sign up process. For many of the same reasons, we believe that Fuego Nation’s launch exclusivity has a potential to excell rather than repel audiences.
Web 2.0 applications have traditionally been designed and coded by engineers without the benefit of input from consumer marketing experts. As a result, most content sites end up ‘bolting on’ poor quality off-the-shelf ad systems (as demonstrated in oft-ignored banner ads, annoying pop ups and irrelevant ad links). This stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by Fuego Nation which was originally designed by consumer branding and marketing experts and is now being implemented by a core team of talented engineers. In a sense, our advertising system was built ‘by marketers for marketers.’ The result is a system that we believe will generate the highest ad rates in the industry and open up entirely new sources of revenue and profit unique to Fuego Nation. The Fuego Nation architectural design team was determined from the outset to shatter the existing record of poor quality, largely ineffectual advertising by building an interactive, highly addictive and functional product around the most discerning advertising requirements possible. The end result is a comprehensive advertising and direct marketing system we call FuegoFusion. FuegoFusion represents a revolutionary approach to web-based advertising. Perhaps the best way to understand the potential impact of FuegoFusion is to review the market problems and inefficiencies identified by our design experts and the solutions generated from their passionate commitment to solving these issues for the first time.
Problem: Online advertising is either ignored or annoying
Solution: The standard for advertising on social networking sites, and on the web generally, is Google text-based links, banner ads and pop ups. The problem this standard creates is that similar to newspaper advertising, these ads are largely ignored by users. Further, users on social networks are typically deeply involved in communicating and sharing with other users and are therefore not attentive to even highly targeted advertising. Rather than simply trying to ‘break through the clutter’ by using bigger/flashier ads that often detract from the overall user experience, we are building an integrated advertising experience that seamlessly integrates with the user experience. Take for example, our graphical display paradigm as seen in the rotating carousel. As ads rotate front and center, they cannot be ignored by users. Additionally, our ad serving engine leverages the information we know about our users to serve ads that are demographically, contextually and behaviorally relevant. This innovative solution to what has been to this point largely ineffectual advertising is unique to Fuego Nation and has never been deployed effectively on the web.
Problem: There’s no proven, online ad destination for high-end luxury brands
Solution: Most of the products on the web today, particularly those with roots in social networking, are static, utility-based products designed and built with an engineering mindset. This reality does not dovetail well with brands that are built less around utility and more around status, quality, experience and emotion (e.g. high end luxury brands). We created Fuego Nation to offer a unique product pairing for these high-end advertisers. To do this, the product had to be experiential in nature, of a high graphical acuity, enshrouded by a brand that signified high quality and paired with an emotional brand voice that was both aspirational and intense. We believe that this approach will help brands like Hugo Boss, Tag Heuer, W Hotels and Mercedes Benz find a home for their brands on the web, in many cases, for the first time.
Problem: Data about users is not credible
Solution: While advertising on social networks is expected to boom in the coming years, open networks are plagued by the problem of ‘dirty’ data. That is, users can pretend that they are anyone (especially when self-expression is the primary use case on those networks). Additionally, we intentionally limit the initial data inputs required of our members to only those bits of information relevant to either making a connection or indicating a purchasing pattern. Over time, our FuegoFusion ad serving technology will not only target users based on what they say (e.g. data inputs from their profile) but what they DO (e.g. based on actual behavior in the community). In the end we will deliver targeted data to advertisers that indicate ACTUAL consumer behavior patterns not SUGGESTIVE behavior patterns.
Problem: Users are not in the ideal demographic
Solution: There are several key reasons why companies most open networks generate such low ad rates (measured by CPM, or cost per thousand views). Outside of the ‘dirty’ data issue previously mentioned, the most significant problem is that users have not traditionally fallen in the ideal Gen X demographic. While most social network traffic remains dominated by teenagers (who do not have credit cards) and college students (who do not have jobs), Fuego Nation was designed for an older, more mature, higher income demographic from the outset.
Problem: Advertising isn’t integrated into the product experience
Solution: Truly integrated in-product advertising (e.g. in-game ads in videogames or product placement ads in movies) have proven effective in building brand recognition and affinity. Yet there exist few opportunities on the web to conduct this type of branding activity. Fuego Nation, in contrast, built a graphical display system that includes both photos and videos that allow the imbedding of products within the context of the ads themselves. Considering that many of the higher status members of our community would be expected to exert undo influence on others in the community and amongst guests to the site, having product placement ads within the context of their graphical profile will be very appealing to advertisers. So after rolling through a dozen passion trading card photos, for example, a Hugo Boss apparel ad may rotate through the carousel presented in a context of another visual display of a person (thus integrating nicely into the overall experience). In fact, we will also offer advertisers the option to ’sponsor’ elite community members who wear their apparel in their primary profile photo.
Problem: Advertising isn’t reinforced in multiple venues/facets
Solution: Most social networks offer a limited supply of banner ad inventory…and that’s it. From the outset we wanted to enable a multi-faceted approach that offered a menu-based selection process from which a campaign could be customized to the tastes and needs of the advertiser. On the menu would be flow-through ads in the carousel, contextual ads on the dashboard page, mobile phone sponsorships attached to text messages, content sponsorships (e.g. Leaderboards), offline promotions (e.g. signage at nightclub events); in-product promotions, etc. Great brands require triangular reinforcement to successfully penetrate the minds of consumers and take up permanent residence in their minds. The result of our problem solving endeavor has been a host of new advertising features and products yet to be deployed on a grand scale on the web including:
From the outset, shattering the current standards, protocols and effectiveness of online advertising stood as a cornerstone in the foundation of our company. Over time, we stand committed to offering both advertisers and members alike an integrated and experiential branding opportunity that works to benefit both constituencies from the outset.
Report: U.S. mobile web growth triples
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June 5, 2007 According to a new study issued by mobile content platform developer Bango, U.S. mobile web usage grew threefold over the past year. Bango reports that the U.K. market leads all mobile web usage at 27 percent, followed by the U.S. at 21 percent, South Africa at 11 percent, India at nine percent and Indonesia at three percent. “We see that wherever flat-rate data charges are pervasive in a country then there’s much more web browsing,” said Bango SVP of marketing Anil Malhotra in a prepared statement. “We expect to see more competitively priced flat-rate data plans in the U.S. which will stimulate further web browsing.”
Mobile is a powerful buzzword in the startup community. But while buzzwords might move the VC community, real consumer buying behavior moves us. Consumer buying behavior generates revenue which begets profits which boosts corporate valuations and that is the game we are playing for our shareholders. Furthermore, having most recently worked at building two entertainment-related mobile companies, we’re confident in our ability to discern fact from fiction in this soon-to-explode business environment. Literally hundreds of mobile gaming companies have been financed over the past five years to build products that oftentimes confound us. Few VCs have actually made any money on their investments and few have visibility into any near term profits. From our experience in the market there are several reasons why this is the case:
Solving the issues and concerns outlined above prior to the commencement of any development process is intuitive to us. That is why Fuego Nation Wireless is being designed using the same interface as the web-based product (establishes known familiarity), relies on photos (which everyone enjoys looking at) and leverages text/MMS-based messaging which everyone already does. As marketers we believe that the key to changing consumer behavior is to evolve the usage pattern by extending it while never requiring an entirely new one. Doing so creates market friction and is a key contributor to poor performance to date. One of the key criteria for us in building our next generation social community was to create an interface and product utility that was platform agnostic. This means that when it comes to making money we think ‘digitally’ not web or wireless. In other words, to us they represent two mechanisms to tailor deliver our branded community experience. This is why our mobile interface looks identical to that found on the web. From the outset, we designed our online product to seamlessly dovetail into the wireless world. We did this for several reasons but most particularly because we believe that mobile data services represent the next great opportunity in the digital universe. And though we believe our online products have enormous potential we have always believed that our mobile product line stands to have an even bigger market impact on a global basis.
There are several features of the online product that, when mobilized, extend the value of our product to users ‘on the go’ while others are unique to the mobile experience and create a distinct advantage over mobile products from the likes of our competitors. Similar to the online version of the product, users will be able to do the following:
The wireless product offering also includes features that are uniquely tailored to the mobile experience including some that, as a result of our targeted, high end user base, can only be found in our product. A brief sampling of the proposed features follows below:
In the end, we are big believers in the potential of the mobile web and in the expected explosion of data service usage on mobile phones generally. This realization, coupled with our intent to build a product with true global appeal from the outset will allow us to market our digital products not only here in America but around the world in places that have few computers but massive cellular device penetration.