The Speech President Obama Needs To Deliver

We as a nation are being unsustainably coddled by Washington politics. It’s a simple fact replayed day after day in Washington. Today’s politicians, like parents coddling their children, do not have the stomach to ask their constituents to sacrifice. For the first time in the history of the United States, we seem to have an entire political system that is afraid to ask us to sacrifice for the good of the country...[read more]

Digital marketers' next stop: the mobile home screen

There is a piece of real estate in the digital world that has been around since the advent of the LCD screen on cell phones that nobody has yet figured out. Let's call it the "M-Spot," as in the "most valuable piece of digital real estate on the planet" spot. Or the "momma of all ad impressions" spot or the "mobile gold mine" spot...[read more]

Online Ad Predictions for 2012: Thoughts on ROI, Privacy, and Yes, More Acquisitions

It’s hard to believe another year has gone by already. This past year, we’ve seen the online advertising landscape continue to evolve at a rapid pace, fueled no doubt by increasing accountability for online media, key acquisitions, and online marketers demanding more from their campaigns—and the technologies that power them. What’s on the docket for next year? Here are my thoughts...[read more]

Small Business Votes and Donations Up for Grabs in 2012

New data from business audience marketing firm Bizo found nearly 40 percent of business audiences and small business executives identified as independent/unaffiliated voter. Small business executives are also 27 percent more likely to donate to a political cause versus their big business counterparts...[read more]

Small-Business Votes Up for Grabs in 2012

Conventional wisdom has it that an overwhelming majority of small-business owners support the Republican party, both with their votes and their donations. But a new survey from Bizo and Vizu (both provide online marketing services to businesses) indicates that is no longer the case -- if it ever really was...[read more]

For Candidates, Small-Business Executives Are Up For Grabs

Nearly 40 percent of small-business executives characterize themselves as political independents or undecided, according to a new survey by Bizo, a firm that helps marketers target online business audiences, and Vizu, a brand advertising technology company. The two companies recently queried 890 business executives at small and large companies...[read more]

New Data from Bizo and Vizu Characterizes the Political Affiliation and Donation Intentions of Business Executives

As online political campaign ad spend is expected to reach an all-time high in the 2012 election year, it is imperative that campaigns use their spend effectively to get their message in front of the right audiences to meet fundraising objectives and influence votes. Against this backdrop, Bizo partnered with Vizu to conduct a joint campaign to characterize, in real-time, the party alignment and political donation plans of business executives...[read more]

Bizo / comScore Collaboration Gets Marketers One Step Closer to the Holy Grail

As marketers, we all know that there’s a Holy Grail to doing our jobs well and getting results: Putting the right message in front of the right audiences at the right time, as they progress through our respective marketing funnels. Given limited resources, budgets and time, this objective can often seem a pie-in-the-sky notion. But, there’s an increasing pool of available audience segmentation techniques, targeting data, and new and maturing channels...[read more]

In-Shoring: Simple Solution, Big Results

Are you struggling to hire the skilled employees you need? Even if qualified workers are in short supply in your area, the solution that entrepreneur Russell Glass found can work for you. In today’s guest post, Glass shares how his company is getting great results with “in-shoring”...[read more]

Bizo Ranks Among Top 5 on the San Francisco Business Times Fast 100 List

Bizo today announced that it has ranked fourth on the list of Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times after experiencing 1,721 percent growth over the last three-years...[read more]

Bizo Uncovers Hidden Markets

Russell Glass realized how far his company had come in three years when the daily sales summary sheet read $60,000 — that was a good month in the company’s early days. Glass started Bizo in 2008...[read more]

Bizo Reaches 100 Million Business Professional Milestone

Bizo today announced several key achievements that underscore its reputation as the business audience expert -- and make it the largest, most effective channel for reaching business audiences with precision and scale...[read more]

Online Tracking: FTC Chair Leibowitz Needs to Lead by Example

Yesterday at an event sponsored by a large group of privacy watchdogs called “Yes, They Really Know It’s You: The Digital Collection of Personal Information from Citizens,” Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Lebowitz gave a keynote in which he said: “One day you might print out a CDC fact sheet on alcoholism to help your son with a project for health class. Click. Or you order a box of your mother’s favorite candy...” [read more]

Bizo Completes BPA's iCompli System Certification

Global assurance auditor BPA Worldwide announced the successful system certification of Bizo's Business Audience Marketing Platform for recording/reporting the business demographics of website traffic, and targeting business audiences online. This marks the second straight year...[read more]

The Ad Exchange Revolution: Crucial Insights

We're arguably two to three years into the exchange buying revolution. I say arguably because buying online display ads via a real-time, auction-based model has been around in several forms for years. However, it was only as recently as 2009 that demand-side platform (DSP) became a household term in this industry...[read more]

Create Jobs With Innovation, In-Shoring, Education

Everyone – President Obama, Congress, Democrats, Republicans, laid off auto workers, recent college grads – is concerned with the weakness in the job market. Specifically, we all want to know what the U.S. is going to do about the structural changes that have pushed the unemployment rate above 9%. As CEO of Bizo, a fast growing company in the technology industry, I have a simple solution...[read more]

The Key to Unlocking the Value of Direct Response Programs: Branding

As marketers, we now have the ability to impact the direction of our respective businesses like never before. We’ve entered the age of the revenue marketer where we strive to tie every marketing dollar invested to revenue contribution — and we look to test, measure, and learn from everything we do. We also now have the systems to help accomplish this and really shine in our roles. But, we may have a blind spot...[read more]

CIOs Are More Than Just IT Buyers

Even if you believe in love at first sight, the likelihood of a marriage proposal on the first date is highly unlikely. Committing yourself to someone without getting to know him or her first is a ridiculous idea. Yet far too often companies are asking audiences to “commit” despite knowing little about each other at the first hint of an interaction...[read more]

Direct Response Marketers: Spend More Time Educating Your Audience

Are you addicted to leads? I'm a recovering direct-response program junkie, and I'll always be addicted to leads. Pitch me a program that can cost-effectively get my target audience to take an immediate action (white-paper download, webinar registration or free trial sign-up), and I ask: "Where do I send the signed IO"? As long as I can systematically track the program's ROI in terms of leads, CPL, pipeline contribution, and deal value, I'm at the top of my marketing game, right? Actually, as much as it pains me to admit, we may all be missing the mark...[read more]

A Jobs Solution: In-Shoring and Education

Everyone from President Obama to the corner grocer to the typical 20-something graduating from college has one topic weighing on their minds right now – jobs. Specifically, what is the United States going to do about the jobs crisis, and the structural changes discussed above that have pushed us to potentially permanent 9%+ unemployment rates? As the CEO of Bizo, a fast growing company in the technology industry, I have a simple solution...[read more]

Brands Betting on Social Media for the Holidays

More brands are electing the use of social media for an increase in name recognition this holiday season. In keeping with the Bizo survey, brands are aiming their marketing efforts toward social shopping into the fall season; and then without stopping, they are going all the way to the holiday season...[read more]

Brands Betting Big on Social, Email, Content Marketing

As marketers gear up for the fourth quarter, the busiest time on their marketing calendars, nearly two-thirds (63.4%) say they are planning to increase focus on social media over the next 12 months, while nearly one-half plan to increase focus on email (45.5%) and content marketing (45.3%), according to a new survey from Bizo...[read more]

Facebook, Twitter Users Exhibit 'Social Media Fatigue'

Facebook is unveiling sweeping new privacy changes, but many of its users may not even care. That’s because more people report that social media just isn’t as cool and exciting as it used to be. A new Gartner survey shows...[read more]

3 Social media tips for 2011 holiday season

A new survey from Bizo finds most executives understand social is performing, but they continue working to 'catch up' with social analysis. I had the chance to catch up with Bizo CEO Russel Glass to chat about the survey and current trends in the social space. Russell believes the back to school shopping rush will show that social outlets...[read more]

Marketers Prepare for Social Media Without Effective Measurement in Place

Marketers are gearing up for what they hope is a busy fall. According to a recent survey by Bizo, not only are marketers busy getting ready for a season full of planning, closing sales and executing campaigns, they are using social platforms to do so...[read more]

Marketing Decision Makers Reveal Strategic Priorities in New Survey from Bizo; Social Media Measurement Stands Out

Bizo, the leading solution for reaching and engaging business professionals online today unveiled the results of an online survey of leading in-house and agency marketers. The results from more than 520 strategic marketers reveal that they are getting ready for the busiest season of the year and while they are betting big on new initiatives in social, some are also doubling down on old favorites like display...[read more]

Bizo & comScore Prove the Value of Business Audiences

The pairing of bizographic data with comScore's acumen in the field of online consumer behavior allows Bizo to reveal its audience segments as "particularly desirable and effective consumer purchasing segments." This new, precise and validated information will give marketers ample and efficient access to their target consumers...[read more]

Bizo, ComScore Reveal Index to Showcase Consumer Analytics

Recently we talked about Nielsen’s new Online Campaign Ratings, slated to launch next week. Having secured exclusive access to Facebook’s user data, Nielsen’s news was bound to fire up the competition. As if on cue, Bizo and comScore have teamed to launch an index that aims to provide “unprecedented insight” into business audiences...[read more]

Bizo, comScore partner for business-based metrics

Bizo is known for engaging business audiences; the new partnership with comScore will offer Bizo users more insight into their audience base. For example, Bizo has connected technology professionals as nearly 600% more likely to buy consumer electronics and has learned that finance professionals are more likely to visit Online Travel Agents (149% more likely) while Marketing pros...[read more]

New comScore Bizo Index Proves Value of Business Audience as High-Value Consumers

In a new study that indexed Bizo's audience against its database which measures online consumer behavior in the U.S., comScore demonstrates the likelihood of key business audiences to purchase or seek information on specific goods and services online...[read more]

Sage debuts branding campaign

Sage North America, a provider of business management software, has launched a branding campaign created by Doremus San Francisco. The campaign's tagline is “A Sage business knows”...[read more]

The Case for Good Regulation

We have been conditioned to think that government regulation is wrong. However, there is such a thing as good regulation, even for the industries being regulated...the consumer privacy regulations being proposed by Congress largely fall into the "good regulations" category...[read more]

Data Industry Reaction: What Is The Biggest Challenge With The Demand-Side Platform Model?

With the demand-side platform (DSP) model continuing to propagate, data sellers and data management providers are seeing up-close how the DSP is applying data to the targeting of users in display, mobile and video ad inventory today. From their data-centric point-of-view, AdExchanger.com wanted to know...how is the DSP model doing?[read more]

A New Way to Understand Your Social Media Audience

Audience research is invaluable and well developed personas provide a broad array of insights into the lives and minds of your target audience, insights that form the basis for your social media plans. Then, you put your social media plan in place, including sharing great content from others and creating your own. And you hit a fundamental disconnect. Your planning is based on your target audience, but you are measuring activity from everyone...[read more]

Bizo Launches URL Shortner with Business Demographic Insight

Is your URL shortener failing to meet your business needs? Enter Bizo Switchboard. The folks at Bizo have introduced the open beta of their product, designed to provide third party-certified, anonymous business demographic data on more than 85 million business professionals...[read more]

Bizo Opens Public Beta on First Smart Link Shortener for Business

Bizo today announced at MarketingProfs B2B Forum, the open beta for Bizo Switchboard™, the first smart link shortener for business. Switchboard will provide the bizographic makeup of people that click on a shared link, a fully branded post-click experience and the opportunity to deliver offers and retarget display ads to key audiences that click on the links. No other link shortener can provide the level of business demographic insight or opportunity for engagement that Bizo Switchboard now delivers...[read more]

Publishers Need to Get Their Data House In Order

Publishers: if these “early days” of moving your businesses online have seemed uncomfortable, perhaps even a tad disorienting, you had better brace yourselves - the Audience Economy is coming. This new era of perfect audience clarity promises to thrust publishers into a position of renewed strength in the online ad ecosystem but it also foreshadows a dramatic shift, if not a complete upheaval in the way they do business...[read more]

Who Trumps What on Your Website

If you’re in the majority of business-to-business marketers, you are likely in the early stages of moving from outbound marketing to inbound marketing. And the reality is you may not know who your visitors are. And without knowing the whos, how can you know if you're reaching the right target audience...[read more]

Sorting Out the Clouds

One of the lessons that the history of technology tries to teach us – and that most of us resolutely refuse to learn – is that revolutionary new technologies never stay monolithic for long. Instead, they fracture into distinct niche businesses at lightning speed...[read more]

Online Ad Targeting: Who's Most Likely to Act?

Business professionals working in the legal, retail, and software industries are most likely to take action—such as download a whitepaper, start a free trial, or make a purchase—after clicking on an ad, according to a study by Bizo...[read more]

Online Ad Response: Bizo Reveals Top Action-Takers across Industries and Job Functions

Bizo, the leading solution for reaching and engaging business professionals online, today unveiled data that highlights who in the business world is most inclined to take action when presented with an online ad. Bizo found that those working in the Legal, Retail, and Software industries were most likely to do what an online ad asks...[read more]

The Case for Good Regulation

We have been conditioned to think that government regulaion is wrong. However, there is such a thing as good government regulation, even for industries being regulated. Look no further than HIPPA in the healthcare industry, and as recently as 2003 for CAN SPAM, a great example in the marketing industry. I believe that the consumer privacy regulations being proposed by Congress largely fall into the “good regulation” category. Here’s why...[read more]

With LinkedIn IPO, B2B Marketing Gets The Spotlight

Let’s face it: In the family of all-things-marketing, business-to-consumer (B2C) has long been the beautiful butterfly, showered with attention and accolades, with business-to-business (B2B) the boring bookworm relegated to reading heavy textbooks through thick glasses. The bookworm, however, is about to become a butterfly: LinkedIn, a B2B social network, is going public at what promises to be a huge valuation...[read more]

Online Tracking Business Bizo Backs ’Do Not Track Online’ Rules

Lawmakers are looking to impose rules that take online privacy concerns into account, with three “Do Not Track Online” bills making their way through Congress. So it would seem Bizo, a three-year-old online marketing firm that collects and sells data on 85 million business professionals to publishers, marketers, and advertising agencies would fight it, keeping in line with much of the industry that wants self- regulation instead of the government stepping in...[read more]

Bizo Takes Lead on Privacy Self-Regulation, Selects Evidon as Exclusive Provider of Compliance Services

Bizo, the leading solution for reaching and engaging business professionals online, today announced that it has selected Evidon as the exclusive provider of compliance services for management of the Digital Advertising Alliance's (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA). By using Evidon as the technology platform to deliver in-ad notification, Bizo is reinforcing its long-held commitment to user privacy, online transparency, and self-regulation...[read more]

Amazon Cloud Outage Proves Importance Of Failover Planning

In the aftermath of the Amazon cloud service outage last week, two San Francisco businesses that depend on Amazon's EC2, Bizo and Mashery, say it's possible to survive such a mishap without business disruption. But in both cases, they had taken steps to protect their businesses. Bizo resorted to a practice that many observers were left wondering why Amazon itself hadn't adopted...[read more]

Mitigating the Risk of Cloud Services Failure

One of CIOs' biggest concerns about the infrastructure-as-a-service model has been the loss of control over assets and management that enterprises might experience upon moving into a multi-tenant environment. While analysts and early adopters of infrastructure-as-a-service offerings have argued that such apprehension is rooted more in fear than fact, Amazon's recent public data center debacle has given...[read more]

Display, Mobile Top Priorities for Marketers

More than two-thirds of marketers (67.5%) say they plan to invest more dollars in display advertising over the next 18 months, and 59.0% plan to invest more in mobile over the same period, according to a new survey from Bizo...[read more]

Display Advertising Top Priority for Online Marketers

When it comes to online advertising, marketers have decisions to make between what platform to use, whom to target and the kind of media they’ll use to reach them. This week, Bizo unveiled the results of an online survey of leading marketers from both businesses and leading advertising agencies that aims to show the priorities topping their list...[read more]

Display, Mobile Top Marketers’ 2011 Priorities

When B2B targeting pro Bizo asked both B2B marketers and ad agencies for their top three online marketing priorities in 2011, display came in on top with 65% of the vote, followed by mobile with 60% and SEO with 56%. Ninety percent of respondents said display was as important or more important to their marketing mix as the previous year...[read more]