So the big news is that Apple is finally getting into the game and launching their own ad platform for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. This platform is called iAds, and will allow developers to come up with creative ads and put them onto apps. These developers will get a cut of the revenue from Apple (60%). All ads of course will need to be develop in HTML5 (Steve Job’s preference of choice, sorry Adobe).

It will be interesting to see how Apple’s play into mobile ad networks play out with the other established players out there like AdMob.

I want to address what I see as a major problem for Agencies (we’ll talking both traditional and pure digital groups). Agencies are coming up with some compelling digital creative ideas/strategies/initiatives for their Clients to sign aboard and green light.

There is one big problem. Creatives are not vetting with their tech teams or vendors soon enough.

This is a big problem.

But let me back up a bit, give some context from where I sit and what is going on in the industry.

A bit about me, I run Plus Factory, one of the leading pure digital production vendors in the country. We work mostly with agencies to execute and launch their digital initiatives, would it be online display banners to complex multi-lingual CMS websites. We basically can take on projects from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars. We work with large agencies, mid-size agencies and small boutique shops. So we get a handle on what is going on in the digital marketing landscape just by nature of hearing what our clients (agencies) are asked by their clients (Marketers/Brands).

The industry is a new burst of growth and innovation. While we went thru the phases of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, we are now in a new phase of instantly shared content, ubiqutious content generation by the masses, and a real fragmentation of media channels to advertise on (ie web, mobile, social network, twitter, OOH, mobile computers, etc.). We are at a age where Marketers are trying to find the winning formula of media placement and communication with their ever shifting customer base. With that Agencies are presured to come with new, compelling digital programs that will leverage the next great channel – say in this case Facebook.

So thats where we sit currently, in this eco-system. So what I happen to see is the following scenario:

Agency Creatives huddle together. Creatives think of a brillant strategy and idea. Creatives make comps, storyboards, wireframes. Creatives show their partners within the agency. Creatives are now ready to present to the Client. Sometimes they go ahead and show the Clients. Clients love it. Clients sign off on the program.

So the Creatives get to build their creative idea/campaign. They’re all excited. But now comes the hard part – they got build and deliver on this creative idea. So the next question comes up “Who is going to build this?”

Now they finally talk to their internal tech partners. Or better yet they look at their specialist vendors (like us) and ask what it would cost to build this “blank blank facebook blank twitter blank web program etc. etc.” And it needs to launch at this date (which is always tight and coming right up). “Well guess what” the internal tech guys or vendor says, “we can’t do this and that, but we can do this. Launch on this date? Hmmmm, how about a month afterwards?”

I see this way too often. I even talk to internal tech developers – people on staff – who say they don’t get to sign off on creative ideas until its too far down the pipe. When agencies call on us, the vendor, to bid on a project – sometimes we jump in, eager to get on a juicy program and sometimes we just have to be realistic and tell the Client “sorry but we can’t deliver this on your time-table”.

So why is this a bad thing? Well for a couple of reasons. Obviously it brings alot of pressure upon the Agency to deliver the creative ideas they sell in. And agencies already have hard time with promised deliveries. Thats why the outsource vendor market is so large, cause the Agency model today can’t carry staff that can handle all the fragmented technologies and builds that is needed in Creative/strategic plans. How many agencies will have front and back-end developers that can do online rich media banners, websites, complex website builds, Flash dev, Facebook apps, Facebook pages, mobiles sites, mobile apps, etc. Only a handful. The reality is that most agencies has to outsource out to specialists or bring in freelance talent.

The other reason is that it leaves the collaboration out of the technologists and specialists. Digital was always different from traditional creative team structure because it wasn’t just a Art Director and Copywriter coming up with a campaign (with help from a producer or trafficker). No you need to have your tech guys on board. Agencies seem to be shifting back to that model onto digital, which is a bad precedent and path. Some of the best programs, projects, and campaigns were launched when you had a great relationship between the groups.

So my suggestion? Bring in the builders and vet the ideas. Do it early in the process and be prepared to collaborate. Being the creative thinker is great, and obviously thinking up ideas are always fun, but ideas/concepts are only one part of the story – execution and delivery is the other. And you can’t get it successfully done with getting the ideas vetted for reality.

We offer free consultation on project scoping to our clients. I always offer this service to our Clients, even if they can’t promise the work. We are always open to give scope for any project, in terms of reality, cost, and timing. Other vendors would be as happy to do so as well I bet. So, what are you guys waiting for. Think of some great creative ideas and get them vetted…….early and often.

The Duane Reader is a circular brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Duane Reade drug store (originally started in NYC, on the cross streets of Duane and Reade…duh!). But this year they decided to go a bit high tech and launch a mobile version with the traditional print version.

How you get the Duane Reader on your mobile phone is pretty cool into itself. You would use a technology called JagTag. And you can actually do it right here and now. Smartphone owners with mobile web plans get a link to a WAP site to view the circular. Feature phone owners also get the specials, but via a slideshow message, instead of being sent to the mobile web.

To get started, take a picture of the symbol above and follow the instructions written below it. Then you will be sent to the mobile site. Its that easy. To learn more about JagTag and what they can do, go to http://www.jagtag.com.

If you want to see how effective and SEO your website is on the internet now, try these quick little tips:

1. Type in “site:yourdomainURL.com” search in any search engine. You want to make sure all your web pages are indexed by that search engine, so when you see the results, you should hopefully see all your current webpages show up.

2. Test a search on your brand terms to make sure you are being properly ranked (and if you don’t show up at all, there is reason to be very alarmed)

4. Check the Google cache to make sure the cached versions of your pages look the same as the live version.

So you hear about SEO all the time. SEO as in Search Engine Optimization. Well its one of those things that sounds mysterious, but in reality is very common sense stuff. You can be very SEO on your web property (ie website, blog, landing page, etc.) by simply having the foundations of it built to SEO standards.

So with that in mind, here is one of the most important tips for making your page SEO friendly – look at your Title tags. Usually what you put in-between your title tags, in the HTML, shows up on the top of the web browser. Look at this page, if you are viewing just the individual post, the top of the web browser should say:

Tip – SEO – Want Good SEO, Check Your Titles | Blog [+] Factory | The blog…

Search engines majority go by what you put up in the Title tags, so its important you put specifically the terms you want to be searchable for your company or product.

So example, if you are Acme Products and you have this super-duper new product called the “Super Widget” that you want to be searchable, you don’t want the title tags on the page to just say “Acme Products”. You want it to say “Super Widget”. Or better yet “Super Widget – description of what the widget is”. This will allow search engines like Yahoo and Google to properly index your page, so when some one types “Super Widget” in a search query, your page comes up.

Also note, put as much of the main keywords in the beginning of the Title. Google tends to put less emphasis after the first few words in a Title.

So Plus Factory’s core existence is to help our customers with the world of digital/interactive/mobile/etc. So in spirit of this core mission, we created a new category of posts for our readers – Tips. As in a “tip of the day”.

What we plan to do is offer thoughtful insights, focused on interactive/online/mobile fields – would it be something on SEO, or Social Media, or best practices on the web, etc. Things, facts, hints that we have learned over the years serving over hundreds of clients.

So with that said, our first “Tip” will be coming up right after this post…

We are proud to welcome to the Plus Factory fold, Fred. Fred and I go way back to the 90′s, where we worked on Coca-Cola at McCann (animated gifs at 30k, remember those things?). Fred was a Sr. Flash Developer in those days, when Flash was still owned by Macromedia.

After many years of working together and launching successful online campaigns for Coca-Cola, Fred decided to go another path in his career. That path took him to the world of 3D, After-Effects and post-production. Fred was a 3D animator for shows on Discovery and the History Channel. After spending most of the last decade mastering his skills in post-production, Fred now wants to combine his ninja skills in in post with Adobe Flash circa 2010.

So Fred has come abroad Plus Factory as our 3D/Motion Graphics/Flash guru. He is already fully engaged on numerous projects with our clients utilizing his skills. So if you need Papervision, 3D, motion graphics, green-screening video, etc, you know where to get it. At the Factory.