Winter 2008

TA Aragorn and those great characters

2008-04-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

After a bout of rhetorical analysis on advertisements, this blog is going to tackle a beloved figure of film and literature, Aragorn, and his speech before the Black Gates of Sauron. Here is the text: "Hold your ground! Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!!!"
It seems that the enthymeme of Aragorn is: What are the consequences of staying and fighting an insurmountable army on the future of Middle Earth? Aragorn would argue that staying and fighting an insurmountable army will preserve the future of Middle Earth, because making a stand before the Black Gate will ultimately result in the downfall of Sauron. His audience is a bunch of frightened men, who seem ready to retreat, thereby showing that they would disagree with his claim. Obviously they would agree with the implicit assumption that whatever results in the downfall of Sauron preserves the future of Middle Earth.
Aragorn begins his argument by appealing to ethos, his credibility not only as the king, but as a brother. The bulk of his argument rests on pathos. He appeals to the sense of honor inherent in he men of the west by painting a dismal picture and then refuting it. He tells them to stand because they believe in Middle Earth and what it stands for. His logos is definitely lacking, seeing how an army that outnumbers his about 100 to 1 stands before them.
An argument on the battlefield rarely resorts to statistics and research because that is now what the audience that is being addressed needs. I wouldn't care much if you told me that the odds of dying in battle were 34.7% if I saw a crazy guy with a sword running at me. Therefore, I believe that Aragorn's argument was sufficient, typical, accurate and relevant for his audience. After all, they did follow right behind him into the heat of battle. That would qualify as effective.

RA example of propaganda WWII

2008-04-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

Up next post will focus on the marvel of World War II Soviet propaganda. The Soviets were masters at warping the Russian people's perceptions of reality and using art, monuments and rhetoric to do so. This poster is typical Proletariat fare and features the caption: The People and Army are One! At the time of this poster, the government was striving to involve the people back in the USSR in helping to support the war effort. Since the army was fighting abroad, the audience includes the men and women not able to serve. The enthymeme is a typical war-time ideal: What are the consequences of "supporting the troops" (an interesting idea even today) on the success of the army? The manufacturing and agricultural efforts of the people back home will feed and clothe the army, as well as supply it with needed weaponry. The fact that the government felt a need to issue this poster indicates that ordinary citizens felt that they could not contribute to the war effort. The logos of the argument is that (apparent) unity breeds success. I think that most people would find that a logical conclusion. However, the appeal of this piece of propaganda is rooted in pathos. For Russians, red is a very important color. It symbolizes both power and beauty and would appeal to the Marxian idea of communism and the idea of "everyone in it together." The faces of the people radiate pride in their calling and satisfaction in their work, implying that anyone who unites with the army will have those very same feelings. The ethos is established through the hammer and sickle sign, representing the twin foundations of communism: industrial and agricultural workers. The success of Soviet propaganda is debated, but I believe that these posters were effective. The Russian people always wanted that unity, but the Soviet government is the one who made a bungle of it all.

FW Ben in Alaska

2008-04-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Basically my brother and his wife screwed themselves over, royally. My brother Ben is a pre medical student studding biology at BYU-I He and his wife took an internship in Alaska, where they called me from today, to wish me a happy birthday. I turned that phone call into I hope, a benificial conversation to motivate them do some thing that they have been dreading and putting off. Namely petition to switch tracts at school. BYU-I is so retarted in that they even have "tracks" it is a way of rationing the student body in such a way that every student has and only has 2 semesters a year that they can atttend school, I guess that this allows more students to attend. The unfortunate situation is that the medical internship in alaska is 8 months long, this means that Ben will miss his opportunity to attend school because of the internship and when he gets back he will be "off track" which means that he can not attend. Through the meny phone calls his wife has made to try to get things straightened out she spoke with a man who is on the committee who would make the decision about swithing tracts said that they could submit an online 300 word petition "but that they never even looked at them". So with out any feeling of success they have done nothing.......... I spoke with them briefly (only about2 hours.....) and helped them trough an argument analysis and I think that we came to the conclusion that they could build a strong argument via logos pathos and ethos. It is imposable for me to right down all of what we said but I truly enjoyed the power that Rhetorical analysis has allowed me to put good arguments together in a logical way that is targeted to my audience.

FW HIstory of creativity final project

2008-04-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

For History of creativity I had to paint a painting and I decided to write something for this free write that I could turn in with the painting to "explain" myself.

White Salmon City

First and for most. I am an engineering major and this is the first painting that I have painted in my life. This is a picture of the Columbia river gourge in Washington by my house in a little town called White Salmon. This painting took forever! And I am happy with the final product. My wife is so proud of me she wants to hang it up (so please write all of your comments and corrections on this page. thanks)
This painting exhibits renaissance characteristics through the application of several different kinds of perspectives. My favorite form of perspective exhibited in this painting is diminishing perspective and I incorporated it through the gradual fading and graying of the colors layer by layer as you approached the focal point of my one point perspective. My one point perspective is not as obvious as if I had drawn anything man made like a sign or a house or a sidewalk. But if you look closely I painted the entire gourge to a vanishing point the canyon walls on both sides and the river converge on this point. That is my 1 point perspective. I also incorporated overlapping perspective in the trees against trees, trees against the water and the road, and mountains over mountains and clouds over clouds, ect. Overall this project was difficult but a lot of fun, I really learned a lot!
This is to promote the awe inspiring natural beauty of white salmon and its location in the historic Columbia river gourge. There are lots of places to hike boat and sights to see. It is a great place you should come and visit some time 

FW Targeting and 1 to 1 behacioral targeting

2008-04-13T23:08:00.002-07:00

Targeting

Online marketers are awaiting the day when candidates decide to utilize the highly specialized targeting abilities of the web. Right now candidates have the ability to specialize their messages through geographic or behavioral targeting capabilities.

Through behavioral targeting, campaign websites can serve ads or display content on their site in a special order as a reaction to the clicks or digital footprints that a person takes on their site. For example, they can serve more information about immigration as a person clicks on sections of the site pertaining to immigration - even to the extent that they recognize that user again and prominently display their immigration stance on the front page when the user returns. They can also purchase ads on exterior sites and serve content in the ads specific to topics that a user has already researched.

Similarly, campaigns can change their content to serve the interests of specific georgraphical areas by targeting IP addresses. For example, a website might say "Welcome, Texans" when a Texan visits the site. This could be extended to serving campaign stance content relevant to certain areas more prominently.

While behavioral targeting and geographic targeting are not currently used (as far as we know), the potential impact of this could greatly help or hurt (if done in a deceitful manner) a politicians campaign (Batra para. 1-10).

RA add analysis of truck add

2008-04-13T23:08:00.001-07:00

The advertisement that I choose to analyze was actually on the side of a big home furnishing truck of a large local retailer. It took up the entire side of the semi. The picture had no text other than the company name. And it showed a an over head of a living room it had “the mom” laying on one half of the corner couch with “the daughter” sitting on the other side of the corner couch, with “the husband” getting a back scratch from the wife as he sits on the ground with “the son” sharing a huge bowl of popcorn. Laughing and giggling while all watching a huge big screen TV. So that is the ad.
The analysis of this ad tells me that this add is targeting women, and while the couch that the wife was using was as a product, was being sold as much as the TV as a product was being sold in the ad. But a deeper analysis shoes that the advertisement was not selling the furniture at all to the wife it was selling the family experience. It was selling that the husband would spend more quality time with the kids (if you bought the furniture), and the husband would be happier (if you bought the furniture) and you would be more comfortable, less stressed, more relaxed (if you bought the furniture). That is from my perspective what the advertisement was trying to sell.
For home theater in general women are harder to sell than men, which is why they are targeted in this add. If this add had been selling to men. It would have focused more on the equipment and hit up the high definition and how all of your buds are going to want to come over to YOUR house to watch the game ect. It was interesting to be able to analyze these aspects of the adds I see.

RA Citi Bank Ad Citi to City

2008-04-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

“From City to Citi”, andvertisement from citi bank found here. http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2007/04/citibankcity.html proclaims this Citi Bank advertisement, while an antique suitcase proudly displays decals and stickers from a few of the most reknown musical festivals in America. Unsurprisingly, this ad runs in Spin magazine, a magazine catering to the beatnik and the more-than-casual disciple of the music scene. In fact, there are few average people out there that would be able to even recognize all of the events displayed, let alone claim to have attended them all. Thus, the audience that this ad is targeting is those people of a younger age who get their kicks by city-hopping to various fields and desert locations in order to rock out with a few good, and many, many bad bands at festivals. There is certinaly a more suttle target audience here from citi to city meaning, is not so much targeted at the people who would use this bag as much as business men who also go from city to city and will need to count on the fact that thety will have access to thier money without ATM fees.

The advertisement, while simple, accurately and effectively speaks to its target audience: the slogan is short, but communicates much: “You are on the road constantly, driving all around the country chasing your favorite bands, and we know that this takes money.” “Why not bank with us, and we’ll worry about the funds. You just enjoy the show.”

Their ethos is secure in that the amount of shows that they are dropping names about exceeds the knowledge of the mere casual concert-goer. The logos is implied in the slogan that seems to suggest that if one travels from city to city, of course they’re going to need a bank. However, the inherent logic could be a bit stronger, as most festival-jumpers are likely going to be opportunistic youths who’s fiscal concerns amount to accumulating the change from the cushions of their couches to scrounge up enough cash to cover the tickets. It makes me wonder if citi bank is really targeting its prime audience.

Fortunately, this advertisement’s strength comes from its pathos. Look at that suitcase. It is the suitcase of choice for wanderers, hitchhikers, and students. The bag is retro and well used to say the least. It fits in with and is comfortable with the fluid nature of this target audience.

TA Style check: The Art Spirit

2008-04-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Art Spirit, a book of compiled teachings by renowned artist Robert Henri, works better as a compilation of thoughts and advices. The words were written honestly and without intent to write anything significant. It is merely a collection of sincere advice, honest correspondence, truthful reflection and critique, and pure intentions. At times, it seems like Henri struggles to accurately explain his feelings. Perhaps that is why the same core feelings and thoughts are expressed over and over throughout the entire book. You can definitely tell that he really thinks and feels the way he has written it, and yet it goes deeper than that. Personally, I take a more practical approach towards art and generally adhere to a more practical definition thereof, but it would be ignorant of me to deny the fact that there truly are philosophies at work in art, and that art is not so much a state of doing as it is a state of thinking. As Henri proposes, an artist must concentrate. An artist must use his brain. An artist must learn to see. These are all practical things, in addition to the many practical advices he offers, but his main point is that an artist must feel. He must feel what his subject is. He must feel a certain way about it. He must depict the way he feels in his work. He must constantly and always feel like an artist. If a student learns the business of drawing, he has learned to draw, but nothing else, just as an actor can learn to recite lines, but not truly act. It is something more to be an artist. Being an artist is a state of mind, and according to Henri, that state is relative to each artist. Each should be unique, sincere, and open to ideas, feelings, and concepts. A true student of art must already be an artist. Everything else will follow. This autor is able to use style to be very persuasive and convince us the readers of the irronious idea that "if you have it , you have it, if you dont, you dont". I would say that it is very effective.

TA Tone, Style application for Health Paper.

2008-04-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

For this up coming paper on Health care I am trying to --hone-- My Tone--, and slick my style, for this up coming paper. Here is an exurp that I habe been working on. The purpose of this segment of my paper is to target the basic econimic realities that most all educated people understand. The tone is a bit more formal and the apeal is to economic logic. How do I do? thanks

Currently the United States spends $2 trillion on health care. The fraction of gross domestic product spent on health services has increased over many years, totaling now one-seventh of gross domestic product. Health care spending has risen because, on the supply side, quality of care has increased and often higher quality is associated with higher prices. But demand for health care services has also increased because of improved quality of health services and longevity. People live longer and thus demand more health care to maintain a high quality of life. Further, technological advances have given people more options for highquality care. Treatment for ailments in the health care sector has a large discretionary component.
Some people opt to be treated for mild depression, decreased mobility, cosmetic concerns, etc., others do not. As the quality of life-improvement services increases, more people take advantage of these new options, as expected when quality of services rises faster than its price. This sum of circumstances can explain much of the increase in health care spending. At the same time, it would be interesting to know what would happen to demand if more patients were paying out of pocket. To spend more on medical services and less on food or housing is an individual’s choice, and from an economic perspective this is no problem if choices are not distorted, as for example through public subsidies. As we get richer as a nation, we may decide to devote more and more resources to health care, because our basic needs for food and housing are fulfilled, to further improve our quality of life.

RA Movie: I am Legand with Will Smith

2008-04-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Now that blue ray has finally won out over HD DVD, and the Home HD experience is upon us. I did it........ I purchased my first SD (standard Definition) DVD. Am I behind the times or what?

I must admit that I don’t watch much TV, if at all in a week, but Do love movies, And I am a frequent patron to the red boxes around Provo. This week I came to the realization that I once you add all of my late fees to the mix. I am paying almost as much as if I had just bought the DVD. So when My brother and sister were in town this past week and their suggested movie " I am Legend" was not a Red Box or Hollywood video, I went out and bought it. And I don’t regret it. If you have not seen it, stop here and go and see it, if you have please read the remainder of this post for my Rhetorical analysis of the movie.

I am going to analyze how effective the makers of this movie were able to persuade, or pull you into the movie's reality.

First the Plot: In New York a doctor comes up with a cure for cancer and it has cured 10006 of its 10006 test subjects, however as you learn through flashbacks there are dire consequences, you turn into a zombie like creature. Through their flash backs you learn that the disease became airborne, and also passed from infected to uninfected. The government sealed off NY Island by exploding the bridges. The disease killed 98% of its hosts and the rest are zombies, except will smith and his dog who he has protected from the disease.

All of the above information was given through flash backs as the present of th Movie, Will Smith is alone in Long Island, hunts from his mustang, the deer that run the streets. and Will Smith in his basement is trying to come up with a way to transfer his immunity to the infected.

What worked:
In the city shots when will smith was out and about, the city was supposed to look as if it has stayed still for 3 years, there are weeds growing up through the cracks in all of the streets, and all of the cars that were once jam packed trying to get out of the city are still in the streets. Everything had a dusty look to it. Some of the buildings had plastic wrapped around them with the Bio hazard symbols on it. I first though that the plastic was to keep the infection out, but when i thought more about it, it was to keep the infection from getting out of the building. All of these Computer effects were effective in pulling me into the movie because if the way they created a logical, landscape for the situation, they also used emotion through specific examples of families that were infected, to generate fear of the disease and to reinforce its reality.

Some things that did not work:
Despite the strong pull for logic in the NY Cityscape, during the movie, I realized that there were some significant flaws that detracted me from completely believing their reality and that was the city was in far to good of shape. There were no sighs of looting, damage, fire, bones, broken glass or anything that would indicate that there had been a massive disturbance of the city. AKA every one is running for or defending their lives. not to mention the fact that there are millions of zombies that come out at night and look for food..... and they are not very calm or peaceful creatures.

If the movie makers would have addressed these issues in their logical argument for the films reality they would have pulled more viewers into the movie. As it currently sits I would give the movie a 8 out of 10 for its effectiveness, to pull in the viewers.

TA Practice using style in my ending paragraph

2008-03-26T00:51:00.000-07:00

When talking with James Christensen the world renowned illustrator and motivational speaker, he said “…we teach art not make or recruit more artists, but to spark and fan creativity. We teach art to help our students to think outside the box and to avoid creating students who can only plug and chug”. Like Albert Einstein said “imagination is greater than knowledge” and by creating more time for the arts in our school systems Math, Sciences, and English scores will increase and we will maintain our edge on outside markets because we have taught our students the vital skill of how to be creative.

Any Sugestions??? Thanks

RA Nikon Camera AD analysis

2008-03-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

I went through some ad's and found one that stood out to me. Based on the magazine it was found in, ESPN the Magazine, the audience is primarily men who seek a little adventure and fun through sports and hobbies and being outdoors. It is aiming at an older audience; most young men don't have the money for an SLR digital camera. The picture being shown is of a child; indicating that the camera can be used to capture the sporting events of a child. A woman is holding the picture out towards us...it is a huge and clear printout of the child, indicating that you can capture a moment in clear detail and print it out at even a large size without sacrificing quality. The headline of the ad stresses that more of your pictures will be good; that before she had to delete 9 out of 10 pictures, but then she got the Nikon D40. It's basically saying that this camera is so good that it will do the rest; no substantial talent needed.

The ethos for the ad is that it is in a major publication and is from a well known company. Nikon is recognized as being a leader in the industry, along with Canon...It doesn't try to seek credibility in a study or statistic that proves it's the best camera on the market. Mainly because it's a entry level camera, and they want people to see it and think "if I want a cheaper alternative to taking great photos, then the Nikon D40 is the one for me." Another ethos aspect is that it invites you to log onto a website and see the sample photos taken by 200 amateurs who were given the camera for free; this backs up their claim that anybody can take a good photo, even you. The Logos is played on a little less; if you get this camera, you will take better photos. Each photo you take will be better, so you'll capture that special moment. The pathos of this ad is the woman holding the picture. She is smiling and is in bright yellow clothing; she stands out from the crowd, just like you will do if you have this camera. The picture features a happy, smiling child...Appealing to the emotions of anybody with a child who has ever taken a picture of their child or wished they had better photos of their child. It's a common and simple emotional appeal. I think it's effective for the target audience; they don't need to see data showing the megapixels and comparing the Nikon and Canon; they just want an affordable camera to take better photos. There's a large market for it and they don't care about technical features; this ad makes an appeal to logic because it has high credibility and has the right amount of emotion to connect with the audience.

RA Self Exteme Fund.Great example of ethos, RA of Movie

2008-03-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

I chose to analyze a commercial for Dove’s “Self-Esteem Fund.” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=u86OH9mTG2Y&mode=related&search=) which supports education programs that promote confidence, self-worth, and health body image in young people. It is part of Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty,” in which the company aims to redefine female beauty in a society saturated by unrealistic images of youth and perfection.

For more details on the Self-Esteem Fund, visit http://campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef/temp2.asp?id=4196

What is the main argument of this ad? This ad argues that the Dove Self-Esteem Fund can help teach girls with insecurities to love and accept themselves. Who is the intended audience for this ad?

This ad primarily targets a female audience, particularly younger girls and their mothers.
What are the Appeals of the Ad?

When looking at this commercial by Dove and their self-esteem fund, one can say it’s obvious how they are using todays doxa to reach out. Doxa is the beliefs, opinion, prejudice, etc. that exists within a society. A doxa also contains values. Some values are about beauty and by being beautiful also meaning to be accepted. Young girls of today don’t feel good about themselves because of the demands about outer apperance. Dove says in the commercial: “let’s change their minds”, “because every girl deserves to feel good about herself.” In a way, Dove is trying to change our doxa by asserting that being beautiful does not necessarily entail blonde hair with a size 2 waistline.

The commercial is also kairos because the issue of body image is a very prominent topic today. Dove is taking advantage of the public’s increasing awareness of how the standard of beauty in popular culture is a completely artificial construct. Today, we are very conscious of the dangers of low-self esteem, including depression and eating disorders. Also, this particular ad features girls of many different racial backgrounds, reflecting the current demand for political correctness.

To reach out with the message about the self-esteem fund Dove are using young girls with worries and disgust for their own apperance. This is called evidentia and can be explained as evidence. One can say that Dove is using these girls as evidence. So that we can see with our own eyes their worries and that Dove cares.

Showing us these girls and letting us know how they feel about themselves is a use of pathos. They want to make us feel for them, and even remind us of how we feel about ourselves. For young girls with the same lack of self-confidence, as the ones in the commercial, it’s a certain way to be reached. They can identify themselves with these girls. The aesthetics of the commercial further contribute to the commercial’s pathos appeal. First, the background music is sung by a choir of young girls; their angelic voices complement the images of cute, wide-eyed children. The juxtaposition of such lovable images with words like “hates her freckles” creates quite a heartbreaking scenario. Also, the girls are looking straight out of the screen, directly at the viewer. The camera also zooms in on most of their faces. This makes the person watching the commercial feel more of an emotional connection. In addition, Dove chose a white background for certain frames of the commercial, as well as a soft, warm light quality, reflecting hope for the future.

The commercial uses logos to put forth its main argument. It claims that if the self esteem fund reaches young girls with insecurities and self-esteem issues, then those girls will change their minds and learn to accept themselves. Dove thereby offers a solution to help girls “see how beautiful she really is.”

The commercial gives Dove a strong corporate ethos, because Dove is trying to portray itself as an ethical company that takes responsibility for the image it projects to impressionable young girls.

Is this ad culturally specific?
To fully appreciate the commercial, one would have to be aware of its cultural context. In other words, this ad strongly alludes to the perceptions of beauty in American popular culture: young, skinny, blonde, and perfect. But it is universal as well, because insecurity about body image is not a culturally confined phenomenon. The commercial also reflects a society that considers girls’ self-image and self-worth important. Furthermore, the background music for the commercial is a choral rendition of “True Colors,” a song by the 1980’s American singer Cyndi Lauper.

Is Dove convincing?
I think they have a good and strong ethos for their audience mostly because of their use of pathos. But I must also give Dove credit for using kairos in a cultural context with this campaign. Today, as an adult, I’m asking myself questions like: Well, I like the idea of the real-beauty campaign and making girls feel better about themselves, but do they really care or is this only a marketing strategy with a skilled use of rhetoric? I guess a little bit of both. But still, they have made a good effort to be convincing. Dove has it right that young girls’ self esteem needs to be nurtured, but how exactly is a “Self-Esteem Fund” going to accomplish that? Tthe commercial raises doubts about Dove’s motives. Dove might be taking advantage of the growing backlash against skinny models and surgically altered movie stars to boost its company, but they deserve credit for choosing such a timely campaign. In terms of pathos, I would say the commercial did well, but its logic is unclear. I believe that the ad was most successful in contributing to Dove’s corporate ethos.

FW Fun at Surplus sales.

2008-03-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was young I have loved to atted garage sales. Not so much for all of the dusty records or ugly coutches, but for electronics. And Now I am here at BYU I really enjoy going to BYU Surplus sales, where they have just that. Immagine a garage sale that had nothing but shelfs of Video Switchers, routing switchers, video monitors and beta cam SP decks and recorders. It is an absolute blast.

You dont sound convenced, well then let me explain a bitmore. Your surplus experence starts about 2 hours before the doors ever open, standing in line, to get in. I find my self making small talk with my line neighbors, asking them wht they are looking for and generaly they will say that they are looking for a laptop or some kind of projector. Then they will ask you what you are looking for and If you are like me you will say something vauge because the last thing that someone like you or I wants is someone who is going after the same kind of equipment as we are.

We are at these sales for 2 reasons and 2 reasons alone. Resason #1 The thrill of the hunt, and reason #2 the money. I mean Ever since I have come to BYU almost 3 years ago I have been able to pay for my room and board just by selling Used Equipment on ebay. It is great I reccomend that you come with me this thursday and Experence BYU Surplus sales.

TA Practice on not taking a side to soon

2008-03-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

The Bush Administration saw that students outside the US had test scores in math and science that surpassed US student’s scores. In an effort to make US students catch up in these subjects, the No Child Left Behind act was passed. This act called for increased accountability on teachers and schools, to help their students perform well on national standardized scantron tests. Due to monetary incentives for students to do well, extra time in class has been allocated and dedicated to these subjects that are an important part of a student’s education.
If teacher and administrator accountability in three core subjects math, science, and English increases teacher emphasis of these important subjects, then how could the NLCB ever be bad? That question brings up some of the unfortunate consequences of deriving accountability from a single, standardized, scantron test. This results in teachers who are just “teaching to the test”, this unfortunate practice destroys the balance of students education. If your accountability as an elementary to secondary education teacher was only in the subjects of math, English, and science, and these are the subjects that are “important”. There is no incentive to spend any time studying, dance, music, art, culture, public speaking, or a myriad of other important subjects, because “it will not be on the test.” Are these subjects not included on the tests because they are already too long? Or could it be that these other subjects are not important enough? The real reason that the arts are excluded from the test is because these subjects are not scantron testable. If it is not on the test, why spend precious time teaching it? Goes the prevailing mentality.

TA Omniture Sumitt 2008 Thursday 2:45-3:45 BreakOut Advanced Strategies for Pushing SiteCatalyst to the Limits

2008-03-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

Adam Greco Team Finance Lead
Omniture University on steroids

This class was the most technical of all of the classes that i took over the past 2 days this is the last session that I was able to get to. It was also the most hard for me to understand. The black diamond stuff was way tough. Basically this class exists because of Feedback from past Summit's that people were coming and leaving the summit and the did not know how to use all of the cool features in SC. Everything below is essentially a hack to make Site catalyst do alot of the things that discover and Data Warehouse is for. One of the tricks that I saw time and time again was to be passing A-typical thikgs into the S.Props as traffic variables. So that you would be able to do all kinds of teh sophisticated pathing reports. It is quite interesting.

-Save your company $$ by pro actively tracking KPI’s
-Impress boss by turning web analytics data into insights
- be a rock star by maximizing your Omniture Investment
-be a hero and answer hard questions

** don’t tell me next month that conversion was falling this month USE ALERTS if they go up or down more than a percentage!!

**USE Targets --Give me insights not data

**Accountability Matrix, where are we meeting out target objectives and where we are not (where are you making $ and not) XY axis with 2 evars More proactive by tracking KPI’s

** which links are producing success. –Advanced Click Maps, free
**Advanced classifications; how often are visitors are being shown more than 100 search results, USE SAINT in the admin console TYPES of people searched for USING SAINT TO ADD META DATA ON SITE

** how to do I show profit not revenue NUMERIC CLASSIFICATIONS
Cost of goods per unit add info in SAINT classification file.
You can also do it through ”data sources” imported to site catalyst

** Basic vs FULL Sub-Relations
Find a way to show me the breakdowns I need. Evars with full subrelations ( anything time that you have a classified subrelated item the classifications are sub relations
From to classification file.
Counter Evar: how many times do visitors try something before they succeed. (how many quotes before they buy)

*******(Learn about j lookup v basic)

** Capturing Multiple Conversions Values : How do I track impressions vs clicks om my site? Pass things into s.products that takes multiple

** Incremented events: How much $$ are we leaving on the table? Engagement event index.

**Advanced PATHING What things are visitors looking at within a visit? Products, product Category, Self-Service Transactions, Ticker Symbols Searched, Internal Search Terms, Pathing Capture in an S.Prop so that you can do a pathing report Very cool way to get out of discover

** Participation Which of my sire pages are the most money pages Attribute to each pages Weighted average “six degrees of separation”

** Advanced Participation which of my products are influencers? Product View participation per page view completion%

** Get and Persist Value Plug-in: what are the most popular pages for people coming from ta campaign
There exists a plugin that persists s.props onto each successive events. Get and persist

** Transaction ID: which marketing campaigns generate profitable customers, not clicks. Linking online to walk in purchases. Transaction id’s can match up online and offline data.

** Time to complete plug-in: How long does it take for visitors who take action x to action Y? It basicly

**previous Value Plug-in : what content are visitors are telling you they want to see on each page.
They Where the first homepage they passed in the a search terms. ------

** Advanced Segment Insight (ASI): Great! Now show me these same reports for the following segments……….
Converse segment: People who login vs non log in; first time vs 5 visits differences and similarities are interesting.

ADVANCED BLAXCK DIMOND SESSION Much of this stuff went over my head and we were already 20 minutes over time so he was blazing fast.
Advanced Campaign Analysis Which paid Display ads are converting immediately vs eventually:
Merchandising Evar Which section of my site are people using to get into this product.
Participation: Which pages get visitors to look at other pages?
Classification Hierarchies Use Saint
Advanced Correlations (sProps)
** Cross-Visit Participation (campaign Stacking): Which campaign codes work independently and which need help? Plugins

Thats all fokes I lookforward to reading all of your experences with the conference and the competition. thanks

Rob

FW Omniture Summit 2008 1:15-2:15 BreakOut | Customizing SiteCatalyst to Maximize ROI

2008-03-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

Doug Moore Omniture curriculum Director/ Omniture University Teacher that looks like Chris Farley
Ted McDonnald National Geographic

These guys screamed through so fast that every ** is essentially a whole new topic. It was in this presentation that I learned for the first time about plugins. I am not sure if they go into your web browser, or if they figuratively turned on inside Site catalyst or if they are something fancy that you do with java script at the bottom of the page. But it seams that some are paid and most are free. I mean they blew by most of these so fast all that they had time to say as “here is the * plug-in goo look a in the knowledge base , or the implementation guide for more information.

Fight Feature Confusion: What to use when, or when to use what?s.props Custom traffic -> fill traffic reports
1. Counts instances of a specific value
Which one of these is the “most popular” (deduplicated per visit per visitor)
2. Measures traffic for a specific segment
How many pages to they go to when SOMETHING
eVars Custom Conversion
Events = ACTION YOU WILL TAKE The “Wicket” (registration, order, registration, view)
Evars = who which or what DID IT (made it happen)

Classifications SAINT: Custom attribute or metadata =-based reports used to group and organize existing data
Classifying marketing channels, products, products, zip codes, Groups, sub groups
GO GRANULAR AND THEN CLASSIFY S>A>I>N>T Classification Data Upload and Download interface
Tab separated excel doc with the skus as the keys, and then the product name, manufacture, Product Group, Product Subgroup.
All retroactive because everything is tracked by the sku and the classifications can be fixed afterwards.

Data Sources Normalized data in site catalyst. Information is kept in tack so you can rull it all through and filled to a normalized tangable, Segmented, Supper customized reports

Data extract is pulling of site catalyst “normalized tables” Data Wharehouse on the other hand keeps session all correlated and all goes into one table instead of a normalized table.

ASI advanced segment information: this gives all site catalyst information for a specific segment (you need to have data warehouse). Build a whole new report suite with a segmented definition.
VISTA Real Time Data Charger Sneaches on the beaches-> star belly sneaches

Without VISTA when data is collected rules are run in real time: Vista is changes the data The Altered or added data flows into SiteCatalist just as if it were sent from the page.

Vista vs DBVISTA = db allows ftp info and search and replace table. Regular vista is static and it not changed
DATA SOURCES = import data sources call center search engine data – numbers This is a way to bring information into site catalyst
Genesis is the automated way to do site catalyst and the other third party venders.

WOW there are alot of acromims!!!

FW Omniture Summit 2008 11:00-12:00 BreakOut | Excell Publishing

2008-03-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

11:00 Excell Publishing Improving Data Accessibility
Tim Lott Product Manager, Omniture
Kevin Willeitner, Consultant, Omniture
Mike Fried, Director of Strategic Analysis, Backcountry

Excel knowledge Test (everyone stood up and then 12 excel topics were defined and you had to sit down if you did not know what it was. I made it to round 10 but got out on a visual basic macro question, I did not win the ipod nano but out of a room with 200 people I survived standing long enough to be in the top 10. I thought I was an excel nut/nerd nope there are FAR BETTER than I)
Excel client overview

Report customization Business specific reporting custom calculations, analysis tools Automation. And automation

Old Style: Build refresh, save, distribute, repeat
New Style: Build, upload, Publish to a schedule

Reporting best practices:
KPI Tied $ frequently
Keep it simple no 14 color stop light
Benchmark against yourself actual to the forcast, goal,
Make it taken care of in a timly fassion
Context/ history of the data
Flexibility ------- Now you can compare this wendsday to the last 5 wendsdays instead of just last.
Distributable
Good looking

Back county.com
500M page loads
600 full time Employees in the peak season
Seven sites Explorer 64, DogFunk, Back Country, BackCountryOutlet, WiskyMillita, SteepAndCheap, and some moose jaw I cant write fast enough.
75% of sales occur on line: Marketing merchandising, site optimization
25% sakes Offline and partner sites.

When all of the data was combined he had a 97% accuracy when compared to his back end purchasing software so that gave him lots of confidence in the data.

Combine offline and online
Online – site catalyst
Offline data – Omniture Discover
Brought it all together in the “rosetta” report
Unified VISTA RULE? To track organic search as a channel

1/3 of the annual sales right before Christmas. 50% of annual sales in 25%
Revenue = traffic conversion x aov (he did not say but I think that aov means Average Order Value) Because of his short sales cycle he needs to know about changes in sales and changes in the way that his company is doing business. And the Excell cliant is a way to keep tabs on the business. Every morning afternoon and evening he goes to the workbook and refreshes the data. He also uses alot of forcasting to see where defficets or surpluses over or under a goal will put him at the end of the year.

I also learned that there is a small store at the warehouse in SLC.

This is the end of the break out session notes-- But if you read to here and are still interested I will tell you what happened after. So I went up to Mike and thanked him for the presentation and introduced my self as a BYU Student... Thanked him for letting us use his DogFunk, and Back Country Outlet Data. (I think that he was happy to be thanked for that.) And then I shamelessly told him that my partner and I were able to make it to the finals of the competition this semester and we came up with an equation that modeled the effect of price changes on total expected Revenue. He said "So you are the guy that came up with that formula, I heard about you. I have not gotten your presentation from Omniture yet" (I tried my hardest to fight the swelling of my head), that’s us we have an integral with a decaying exponential that we have put well over 100 hours into that we would love to take 5 minutes to show you. He agreed that that would be great. He gave me his card, I did not have anything to give him in return..... But Agreed to email him to set up a time. I guess that when you type it all in it seems really dumb. But to me it was a big deal. I am a punk student with no real skills or experience so every opportunity that I get to rub shoulders of people who have MADE IT. Is a great experience for me. I hope that our future interactions are fruitful.

Rob

TA Style Omniture Summit Thursday 9:00-9:45 General Session | Seth Godin

2008-03-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

Seth Godin Thursday Morning
(Seth was certainly the best speaker thus far, my favorite part was when over the speakers there was some really loud pops Seth looked up stiff as a board and pretended to fall backwards. Like he had been shot. It was very funny, he is a great speaker, and I am more likely to buy his books)

Suction Cup Story: he was giving his kids a bath and there was a bath toy with a rattle on one end and a suction cup on the other he stuck it on the tub wall till they were board. He stuck it on his head (he is completely bald) and they laughed and then were board. He finished the kids bath and toweled them off and went walking out into the living room and his wife said what is that red circle on the top of your head? Suction cups break all of the capillaries in the skin and he had a red mark for months afterward. The point of the story was to say that to often marketers are afraid of doing things that would result in the mark so they do the same thing over and over.

He labeled his talk :What to tell your boss and coworkers

Brief history of marketing
1. Ideas that spread win
Marketers speaad ideas TV thinking I AM A MARKETER AND I HAVE THE POWER TO INTERUPT PEOPLE.

There is to much clutter I am not going to hear you.

He used a pyramid example of how most marketers put them selves at the top of the pyramid all of the finance, and management, and manufacturing is at the bottom. The bottom passes the product and the budget up to the top and says go and sell it. IF THIS HAPPENS IT IS THE MARKETERS RESPONSIBILITY TO SEND BOTH BACK DOWN. Advertising is not marketing , marketing is involved in the product conception/packaging/ ect. Marketing goes all the way down to the bottom of the pyramid.

He gave an example of his famous purple cow. An ordinary cow is just ordinary a purple one is remarkable or worth remarking about. Purple cow – remarkable worth making remarks about.

The internet does not put up with average.

You can not buy attention online—all home runs were earned not purchased.
“unless you are Wal-Mart you can not be the closest fastest solution” because someone will always be closer or cheaper”
There is a company who--Do you want to see my socks
Sell to people who are listening and make it easy to tell their friends

MAKE SOMETHING WORTH TALKING ABOUT
Anticipated, Personal, Relevant --- permission
1 Permission is revocable and nontransferable.
2. Permission doesn’t happen by accident
3. Permission must be nurtured
4. Permission is Selfish

"I don’t want email I want ME MAIL. ME ME ME, Relevent to ME"

Advertisers targeting is a hunting term. Instead work a grape vine
1 be remarkable
2 tell a story to your Loyal customers
3 Loyal customers spread the word
4 get permission (loops back to 1)

______________________________________________________________

There were some other speakers in this session who were to talk about Integrated Marketing which is basicly having all of your channels not only be saying the same thing, But be saying it in the way that is specificly molded and optimized for each chanell. Here is what they said but it was so boring and so much of self agrandising thier companies people were leaving and droping like flys. I stoped takeing notes and started looking as to which class I would take next. Anyways here is where I got to.
Shar Van Boskirk Senior analyst, Forester Research
Integrated marketing is easy to say but hard to do.
Coordinated marketing (sub par to Integrated Marketing)
• Consistent look and feel
• Consistent Message
• Multiple Touch Points
• Different Media: Pring, Video, Online, movilke
• Message and experience must evolve through contacts
• Customers don’t want to be bored with the same message

Integrated marketing weaves together channels
• Advertising Emotion
• CRM Relationship
• Promotion Experience

TA Tone Omniture Summit 2008 Wendsday 3:30-4:45 BreakOut | Accelerate Your Path to Success with Multivariate and A/B Testing

2008-03-06T22:21:00.000-08:00

The second Break out session
Josh Friedman DELL Case study
Lily Chiu Omniture Consultant

Today’s Online market -> paid search, email, display and costs are increasing. All traffic hits your site and all of your traffic gets the same experience even though they are acquired from many different sources.

The Test and Target funnel brings traffic and places them in relevant places on your site. We know a lot about visitors just because of the time location and geography of the visitor. Not to mention their behavior of your site.
Customizing landing pages is just the tip of the iceberg you can optimize your whole site.

“I have data now what?” You must be able to touch the site. In order to test and experiment with the results. If IT has you locked down you need to change it.
Segmentation is huge. It is like reaching up through the bottom of the funnel and pulling your customers through the funnel.

High frequency customers should have best conversion so don’t keep showing what they have already seen. Mix it up.
Tips
Start with something that simple both technically and politically. The hero banner is often a hot potato.
Know your goal and define the metrics and KPI’s
Define your question in mind (now I know that it is more effective to promote recreation than keynote speakers)
Test brand content vs hero image.
Test removing extra copy and navigation from the page
If you are paying for those trust symbols then move them above the fold and plaing them close to the call to action

Multivariate testing: Test Multiple elements simultaneously
Measure the influence and lift associated with each elements
From a/b to multivariate tests 2 elements 2 alternatives = 4
10 elements x 2 alternatives = 1024 permutations to test! Depending on
Smallest fractional factorials. Get speed and control change content with out IT
Think different when designing alternatives, What Am I trying to optimize. Define how each test will be defined as a winner.
Do not design sub optimal alternatives (to much alike)
You can learn from tests that fail.
Try removing Left navigation
Static vs dynamic content
Present vs non present
Standard vs conceptual merchandising

Filter test results by important segments and see if they differ one from another
Test important elements around key form
Test call to action in various forms fonts, colors and types of call s to action

Dell pilot summary
5 MVT over two weeks
Test Goals: Increase Revenue per Visitor (RPV) for visitors coming from high impact placement flash add on MSN homepage 81 combination and 9 recipies(through tuguchi) test ran on a single day.
Received a +28% Revenue per visit best recipy was most effective in the afternoon house: TRAFFIC SOURCES AFFECT BEHAVIOR
Test Objectives Increase RPV
Test Elements:
1. Banner Locaton, 2. Banner messaging, 3 call to action location,4. call to action nomenclature

What we have learned:
1. Stop Guessing
2. Relevance is key ( what page have they just seen, where are you going what do you know about
3. Frequency matters. You get more than just lift you get learning about your customers as well
4. Campaign optimization rules
5. Crawl, Walk, Run. Start an iterative process.

** You can have two id’s one for the visitor and 1 for the visit so that any visitor gets a consistent experience

FW Omniture Summit 2008 Wendsday 2-3 BreakOut | Evolving from manual to Automated Optimization

2008-03-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Break out Session Testing and targeting
Brent Hieggelke Omniture VP Strategic Marketing
Worked at touch Clarity before it was acquired by Omniture
Why Automated Optimization in mandatory
Off site resources Email Marketing, affiliate programs behavioral marketing Paid search, banner, seo, ofline marketing to web instore web promotion
Onsite resources are limited and represent a large investment gap.
Close to 10billion to convert less than 4%
We are dumping lots of traffic but we are not getting conversion, we need to optimize the customer experience? Web sites are monologs, Customers demand dialog, to be serviced how they want to be serviced.
Targeting enable dialog in several ways
Sample visitors dictate best content and layout
Deliver different content based on the customer
Deliver content based on behavior
Testing: Landing page optimization Creative optimization, flow and form optimization, optimized for general population, optimize for segments(search engine, brands vs category) AB testing has been done since 2000 but it was manual and rudimentary.
Targeting: Segmentation targeting, 1to1 predictive takes it to the individual customer, used for less clear segments and increases the relevancy of key pages. Leveraging data to drive content, Real time listening and response, Target vs control group.
When do you test and when do you target? Every site should do both. Merchandising display, layout, and presentation. Sales and service forks who listen to customers and learn about preferences and opinions
AB testing. Which creative works best. It works on pages and versions that work the best.
What does multivariate Testing (MTV) accomplish measured which combination of elements work best. Basically it is AB testing on steroids., move individual items around on the page.
Targeting example musiciansfriend.com You can segment based upon who goes to which tab at the top and then display banners on the home page on all future and following events.
Automated 1 to 1 predictive Targeting What is most likely and engaging for this visitor at this time. Info done in real time. Real time data mining, predictive modeling, continuous learning and it is reactive to market changes.
Case example in Bank of America detects activity and serves content
Site behavior variables, temporal variables, environmental variables,
Different types of Optimization: Testing and targeting
How Auto Snything.com uses automated optimization to increase revenues
Wrap up questions
Trevor Klein owner Auto Anything:
User experience will be the area that differentiates your site.
History of using tools, primarily to maximize margin dollars on promotions Chose offermatica for 1. Available ad DIY vs Managed Solution 2. Simplicity in setting campaigns, 3. Price
Implementation ius much lighter than thought, Prior of Omniture make things easier
Tested: Offers, colors, promotions, images, search function, category affinity
Offer testing Putting a minim on free shipping. BEFORE YOU DO A TEST HAVE YOUR METRICS AND KPI”S CLEARLY DEFINED. One my win by use one may win by revenue
-Every site can segment in one way or another.
We used offermatica to serve up two containers, goal was to serve up relevant content and decrease abandonment
Moving on to behavioral targeting solution Implamented via existing Omniture tags.
Serving the right offer to the right person at the right time
Took learning’s from test& target category affinity
These kind of predictive analysis
Tips
Be clear on exactly what you are testing
Always have a control in order to evaluate potential lift
Once the test has been statistically proven do not serve the control offer to a large percentage of users or the benefit will be minimized
Create tests/user experiences that are unique to achieve significant results.
To create tests/user experiences that are unique in order to achieve significant results
We preach that you should put 15% of your add spend for optimization. That will make that other 85% that much more effective.

Wow that is a whole lot of info. Please ask me if you have any questions with my translation.

FW Omniture Summit 2008 12:30-1:45 Birds of a feather Lunch

2008-03-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

I must admit that I did not have my trusty dell at the lunch table so all of these notes were in retrospect But how it works is that your vertical goes and has lunch all together in a seperate room from the rest of the other verticals. I sat next to the owner of Trevor Klein owner AutoAnything.com : A web site that sells custom and proformance auto parts. Who was also the presenter at the break out session that i went to. It was very cool to talk to him. He is doing some exciting things with behavoral targeting. I also spoke at length with the Serious satalie radio rep, and two of Sprint's reps and two BTC Reps, BTC is a small company that does Consulting for about 100 of Omnitures customers. It was quite pleasurable. The stake cut was great the salmon was, well as good as can be expected in Utah. :-) I true pleasure. The table was floored that i was taking a web analytics class they had never heard of such a thing.

Then I went to the first Break out Session.

TA Style, Tone Omniture Summit 2008 11:30-12:30 General Session | Keynotes

2008-03-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Peter Kim Forester Research
(Peter was probably the best preenter or at the very least had the very best presentation skills out of every one in the entire conference.)

We are starting to Navigate new rules for marketer’s
Trends in media and Advertising: The TV is the new tribal campfire as we fast forward TV is just another light. North America consumer’s time with TV and radio is moving to the internet.
Today media is an exotic buffet. There is more choice pod casts, social networks, people have hundreds of channels but people only watch but a few.
Customers love to hate advertising. First percentage 2002 2007
Adds are a good way to learn about new products 78% 52%
I buy products because of their adds 29% 13%
Companies generally tell the truth in ads 13% 6%

Interactive marketing channels are on the rise, online video, search, ect engaging content great at driving online business and online sales
today’s sites need to be more than one track mind Web 2.0 is about engagement (customer experience) foresters words “humanizing the digital experience”
Marketers want site optimization IT is to Marketing is like Cats to dogs.
For the customer experience technologies marketers are NOT going in house they are outsourcing
Marketing organization are proven: Marketing has become the make it pretty organization
Skill sets important to success: Strategic thinking, and business acumen, they need to think and not just Photoshop, Financial Management
Customer centricity is the key; that is done through the data
Marketers are set to increase interactive budgets because traditional tactics are less effective. This is where the puck will be. Good skaters state to where the puck will be and not chasing it from where it has been.
Opportunity for Omniture
Email sercice providers, web analytics , multiccvaret, bid management, behavioral targeting, web interaction optimization ect.
Brands must face reality in the new operating envoriment
Technology drives customer centric
You cant hate IT forever
Ted Cannis Marketing and technical Case Study FORD
Pholosopy major
It is about the process, design and numbers
Blank Slate Book
Freakonimics Book
The data the he had to be quantitisable. Using data to make smarter business decisions
Media Advertising examples
Cube
Romance
Widget
People make media decisions based upon decisions not data. Screw the guy in the corner office just making decisions for all Americas Have data make your decisions
Landing Page Optimization A/B Multivariate Testing Using Omniture Test And Target
Brocedure initial control with two others
Content to go – rich media, Edmunds, affiliates, portable content Put content on line and off the site. I don’t care how you engadge or what you engadge with. As long as you engadge

Marketers are set to increase interactive budgets because traditional tactics are less effective. This is where the puck will be. Good skaters state to where the puck will be and not chasing it from where it has been.
Opportunity for Omniture
Email service providers, web analytics, multivariate, bid management, behavioral targeting, web interaction optimization ect.
Brands must face reality in the new operating environment
Technology drives customer centric behavior
You cant hate IT forever but unless you get along with them you can not do your job

______________________________________________________________________________
Ted Cannis Marketing and technical Communication Case Study FORD
(This guy spent a lot of time establishing creditability with what he has done at ford. Likes to talk about how he is not a creative but he runs the communication department. HE was probably the worst dressed out of all of the presenters that I saw but he did have a pretty fair stage presence)

Philosophy major then went back to school for an MBA
It is about the process, design and numbers
He recommends two books :Blank Slate, and Freakonimics
The data the he had to be quantifiable. Using data to make smarter business decisions

People make media decisions based upon decisions not data. Screw the guy in the corner office just making decisions for all Americas Have data make your decisions
Landing Page Optimization A/B Multivariate Testing Using Omniture Test And Target
Procedure: initial control with two others
Content to go – rich media, Edmunds, affiliates, portable content Put content on line and off the site. I don’t care how you engage or what you engage with. As long as you engage

How do you take all of a the information across the campaign and patch that up with the offline campaigning? It’s the methodology. You don’t need to know the tools you just need to decide to apply the methodology and commit to use them.

That wraps up This session

RA Omniture Summit 2008 9-10:45 General Session

2008-03-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

CEO and cofounder Josh James opened the first session after it was delayed about 15 minutes. He used the mac powerpoint "keynote" and his presentation was quite flashy. The main points that he addressed in this session were to so off the keynote speakers so as to achieve max ROI and give a sort of state of the union address. Here were some other points.

-Stressed the importance of receiving feedback from the marketplace.
-had a cool graphic about how web analytics used to be a side note but now it is becoming the center of the online "experience" which set the tone and buzz word for the rest of the day.
- Omniture brings together Ideas people and technology
-Josh recommended two books Purple Cow and All Marketers Lie
-Feedback from previous years has shown the "verticalisation" or separating out of each of the different companies into verticals has been very effective for implementation and consulting and has realized success at the lunchins in the conference. And allows for best practices for your vertical and not just for Omniture as a whole.
-The Summit 2009 will have allot more executive tracts so bring your CFO's and CEO's next time
- 30% of the global add spending is in this room
Omniture tracks more than 2.2 TRILLION transactions per year
-Omniture has more than 1000 Employees
-Omniture covers over 66% of the most innovative companies
Of the top 2000 websites Omniture only has 3% penetration. Thus we see that the most innovative companies are the ones using Omniture. "You are the innovators"
-Omniture now has 14 international offices
-Josh taught that a 20K contract would does not warrant a full time staff member at Omniture for problem solving. And should become aware of the other options such as Omniture University and consulting groups. Larger contracts can demand better service. Overall Client care has been improved.
-New Technology Alliances: Baidu (they own the Chinese market)Bring Metric-Based Online Marketing to Largest Internet Economy. People buy a lot through COD
-Adobe Partner making sure that we are on the bleeding edge of the web technologies.

Then the time was turned over to jeffery Merrihue the Executive VP Products he has been with Omniture for over 10 years. He gave an intro of the new products

Jeffry Merrihue(President or some big wig at accenture)
Accenture relationship has titened up Words form Jeffry Merrihue: How we can work together, web 1.0 to 2.0, and global best practices. He took a look at the laege companies and most
Take a look at addias, apple for good navigation
Engadgement Rasons for people to come back again, Take a look at the ford virtual showroom.
Nike.com Nike plus Best website. Does wonders on web 1.0 and does wonders in web2.0
You can not give your customers a good experience if you do not have web analytics.
We are ending the era of 1 web site fits all, the future is customixing experiences based upon the viewer.

Accenture and Omniture are buds I bet Omniture wishes to BUY Accenture.
Back to Josh James

Web analytics used to be a side thought, now it has become the center it collects and then passes the information back to the affiliates to provide customized emails, ect based upon how and where they interacted with your site.
Site Catalist Discover and Genesis (over 150 partners) are reporting and analytics
Search Center is campaign Management (over 500 companies are using it) Search Center 3 has
Test &Target is Conversion side Conversion happens on interactive adds, youtuve affiliates and othes are al able to convert in places other than on your dot com.

Brett Error cto and EVP of Products
Release of SC 14
Advanced measurement capabilities for video and rich streaming media
Data Available via web sercices AP!
Enchanced Excell integration
Discover
Advanced segmentation and Analysis workbench
Multi-Dimensional Analysis
Omdemand and On Premise
Genesis (plug and play application)
Global network of more than 130 Partners including Baidu and Adobe
Most Expansive Offering of Marketing Applications, eCommerce Platforms
Search Center
Sophistication and optimization and portfolio optimization
Scenario Analysis
Integrated Natural and Paid Keywords Result
Test and Target
Swiss Army Knife for improving conversion
Combines Technology from touchClarity and Offermatics
Unified solution for testing and behavioral targeting.

Matt Balkin VP Omniture Consulting (the judge with the purple shirt in the middle in the OWAC finals. He was badgered by the Exec VP who on stage seemed to show a bit of friction between the two.....)
Omniture is Customer Driven
Demo of SC 14
Increased visibility of smart search at top
and Left hand bar increased resources
One Click Report mailing
New charts (e.g. bubble charts) – functional in quickly identifying problems
9 new video tracking reports (e.g. MTV case study and demo) – time spent on video
Helps understand where to put advertisement, optimize time of video, etc…
Easily see trending vs. moment slice
Discover – one click from Site Catalyst to same report
Easy to drill down in data
A business application could be how much are we paying to acquire visitors that we have already got? Return visitors using paid search (makes segmentation and cross-selling info easier, affinity-based marketing), there is a lot of talk about engagement measurement – helps understand all of the marketing touch points of where customers or non-customers have been.
Report distribution and publishing functionality with Discover – increases faster time-to-value and more automation.
Genesis – a merger of SC platform and different partners in marketing ecosystem
Able to see info from email marketing campaigns.
Increased ability to create custom segments (e.g. those who have come to site, not bought anything, and not come back in last 7 days) – now can remarket to any data set that you have.
Richness of reports that is all automated. Helps make faster decisions through closed-loop marketing.
Designed by marketers for marketers.
Web Services Reporting API
This allows you to get data (programmatically) via a real-time query.
` You can dynamically take data from SC and put it in widgets, etc…

Chris Knoch – Principle SEM consultant (Probably the most nerdy out of the whole bunch, also the youngest looking But he did a good presentation)

Able to see in one space the same things you would see in MSN, Google, Yahoo, etc.
Able to also customize columns – any info that you would want to edit or insert into the account. Even offline numbers of closed deals, instantly edit budget and immediately pushed info out to all of the engines in action.
Amounts to the most comprehensive, customizable, SEM engine in the market today.
Improved integration between SearchCenter and SiteCatalyst
More easily able to see conversion reports of all channels.
Able to see results of natural vs paid search keywords - and make adjustments
Not just info, but also immediately actionable from the same site (bid on words right there)
Officially launched a portfolio management system. – helps to predict forcast based on past data from the search engines. Able to project optimizations and take action.

Mike Chertudi – Demand Marketing, highlight A/B, multivariate, and Behavioral marketing. Which banner drove the most registration? (The Flight of the Conchords won 43% over Baseline)
Other examples – testing form placement, offers, creatives, monitor the performance, push the ones that are doing the best in real-time.

Thus were the main points of the Opening session,
Rob

FW White Salmon English

2008-02-25T12:36:00.001-08:00

TA English WATCO and Audience for Paper #1

2008-02-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

WATCO:
What are the effects of NEA (national education association) and AFT (American Federation of Teachers) on education reform?

Target audience:
Parents interested in primary and secondary education, and who are involved in PTA associations or vote.

Characteristics of target audience:
Upper middle class
Are probably not members of the above groups
Generally un educated about perhaps even the existence, roles, purposes, of the NEA and the AFT
Very Busy
Believe that a good education as being key to their children’s future
Not know a lot about NCLB funding issues
Have more than just one child
Like their child’s teachers
her or they would have changed it
Willing to have their voice made known

Enthymeme:
A to B
B to C
A = C
A = NEA and AFT B = Education Reform C = Better Education

The NEA (National Education Association) and AFT (American Federation of Teachers) inhibits primary and secondary educational reform because conflicts of interest within teachers’ unions prevent accountability and peer review.

RA Add analysis for English

2008-02-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

Blog Post Retorical analysis

The advertisement that I choose to analyze was actually on the side of a big home furnishing truck of a large local retailer. It took up the entire side of the semi. The picture had no text other than the company name. And it showed a an over head of a living room it had “the mom” laying on one half of the corner couch with “the daughter” sitting on the other side of the corner couch, with “the husband” getting a back scratch from the wife as he sits on the ground with “the son” sharing a huge bowl of popcorn. Laughing and giggling while all watching a huge big screen TV. So that is the ad.
The analysis of this ad tells me that this add is targeting women, and while the couch that the wife was using was as a product, was being sold as much as the TV as a product was being sold in the ad. But a deeper analysis shoes that the advertisement was not selling the furniture at all to the wife it was selling the family experience. It was selling that the husband would spend more quality time with the kids (if you bought the furniture), and the husband would be happier (if you bought the furniture) and you would be more comfortable, less stressed, more relaxed (if you bought the furniture). That is from my perspective what the advertisement was trying to sell.
For home theater in general women are harder to sell than men, which is why they are targeted in this add. If this add had been selling to men. It would have focused more on the equipment and hit up the high definition and how all of your buds are going to want to come over to YOUR house to watch the game ect. It was interesting to be able to analyze these aspects of the adds I see.

FW Romney is using SiteCatalyst Obama uses Google

2008-02-17T23:20:00.000-08:00

campaign websites are a big part of a campaign.
Here is some info that I learned about from https://webspace.utexas.edu/btt59/webcampaign/campaignwebsites.html

Some candidates are learning to watch the digital footprints of those who visit their site by keeping track of their web analytics. While most candidates are using the free analytics of Google or other providers, Mitt Romney has decided to pay more for Site Catalyst to provide detailed information on his sites visitors. Information available to all candidates includes the specific IP addresses that have accessed their site, where they came from, where the leave the site, how long they spend on each page, what their click path is, etc. This information can help them to optimize their site for the best user experience and in the end, hopefully more votes.

Of the Candidates in the race now, below are the services they are currently using for Site Analytics:

John McCain: No pagetagging WA
Rudy Guiliani: Google Analytics
Mitt Romney: SiteCatalyst
Hillary Clinton: Google Analytics
Barack Obama: Google Analytics
John Edwards: Google Analytics
Dennis Kucinich: No pagetagging WA
Joe Biden: No pagetagging WA

While the candidates need this information to optimize their sites, they must also be careful about whom they use to provide analytics as the company that provides the analytics will also have access to all the information about their website as well (Johnson para. 1-3).

Targeting

Online marketers are awaiting the day when candidates decide to utilize the highly specialized targeting abilities of the web. Right now candidates have the ability to specialize their messages through geographic or behavioral targeting capabilities.

Through behavioral targeting, campaign websites can serve ads or display content on their site in a special order as a reaction to the clicks or digital footprints that a person takes on their site. For example, they can serve more information about immigration as a person clicks on sections of the site pertaining to immigration - even to the extent that they recognize that user again and prominently display their immigration stance on the front page when the user returns. They can also purchase ads on exterior sites and serve content in the ads specific to topics that a user has already researched.

Similarly, campaigns can change their content to serve the interests of specific georgraphical areas by targeting IP addresses. For example, a website might say "Welcome, Texans" when a Texan visits the site. This could be extended to serving campaign stance content relevant to certain areas more prominently.

While behavioral targeting and geographic targeting are not currently used (as far as we know), the potential impact of this could greatly help or hurt (if done in a deceitful manner) a politicians campaign (Batra para. 1-10).

Fw Hydroniphrosis

2008-02-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been a giant roll-o-costar some days are up other days are down. I have been swimming in a world filled with Doctors appointments and trips to the pharmacy mean while staying caught up with the never ending pile of home work. My wife is now five and half months pregnant and has come down with Hydroniphosis which literally means water on the kidney. This means that the water that should be running through the kidney is damming up and causing her kidney to swell. Now I know this does not sound good but. After doing more research about it and talking to the Urologist we learned that 20% of pregnant women ended up with Hydroniphosis and 60% of them have the baby with no complications to the mother or the baby. In my wife cause we learned that the kidney problems could very well be pre-existing conditions that was complicated with the pregnancy and the Doctors will be able to fix the portion of the kidney that is being pinched after the baby is born. Until then the Doctors believe that the pain should stay at the same leave it is now

English RT

2008-01-31T19:26:00.000-08:00

For this blog I picked to write on Vincent Van go’s “Starry Starry Night.” I picked this because I felt that it applies to large audience. Some background on the painting and Van go the painting was the scene from Van go’s mental institution bedroom. Van go was thought to be bipolar and at the time he lived in they didn’t know much about the dieses. Therefore Van go was thought to be crazy. How this applies to us as the audience and our day and time?
Van go’s painting were very color based, in his paintings the colors blue and yellow mean faith and hope. The painting “Starry Starry Night” is covered in blue in yellow. The other interesting thing about this painting is that it is more sky than earth. This is often to be a sign that Van go was looking to the heavens for guidance’s. I believe that because Van go was truly in a time of despair and trial his emotions were very much on the surfaces and it was easy for him to apply those to his work. I believe that everyone at one point and time has had some trial that was more than they could take and as a result they looked to the heaven for guidance. I know that I when I look at Van go’s work that it brings back all of the times that I have recalled on my heavenly father for times of trials. It tells me that there is still faith and hope in times when we I may not feel that way myself. I feel that if Van go’s “Starry Starry Night” can make me fill this way then it can do the same to any of one else.

Tags vs Logs: The big fight -- Cant we all gat along Thoughts and perspective

2008-01-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed reading "Tags vs Logs: The big fight" that was brought in on our expert blog feed. It seemed to really answer my questions regarding the trade offs between cookie/tag based systems vs server logs. It make me think ;

Why is it that that the big companies who do hosted web analytics services seem to be either tags or logs. It seems that both seem to have their respective strengths and weaknesses. The above cited article had the tags vs logs fight 3.5 tags to 3 logs. not a clear winner. Why is it that the major web analytics companies don't use both the tag and log information to create a better picture of your site?

Some possible obstacles are:
1. This admits that there is value in server logs.
2. Comparing the two sources of information for the same metrics will never be the same. this will perhaps cloud the confidence of the data
3. You will still have the pain of implementing 2 solutions to answer the same question "what is going on on my site"

English TA Intros The Power of the SUn

2008-01-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

The Power of The sun
Sunlight is one of the most dependable, predictable, not to mention the most powerful sources of energy mankind has ever known. It has for millions of years sent its life giving energy down to us here on earth. The energy of the sun is what allows for weather, and makes photosynthesis possible, the lowest common denominator or lifeblood upon which all terrestrial ecosystems depend on. What if mankind could harness the same power source from which the sun derives its energy? What if there was a way to produce electricity the lifeblood of our lives and economy in a way that created little to no air or water pollution? What would be the effect on the health of American citizens if we understood the benefits of nuclear power?
//End
In this intro I tried to use the funnel method. Starting big and broad and then narrowing it down. I think that I did not effectively narrow down in a linear fashion. My funnel was to broad until it got down to my WATCO which is to narrow. I guess that I was not able to achieve the funnel At best I think that I was able to get sort of a plate shape with a hole in the middle. 

English FW Google Analytics Setup

2008-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

Today I am trying to get Google analytics set up on this blog. I am not quite sure how I am going to get it linked in I think that I may be able to just copy it into the bottom of the post. So for this blog entry I wanted to discuss how rediculous UVSC is my wife Kristi attends and will be graduating from them this semester and she is on the final stretch . She needs to take a class called senior seminar this class is a class required for all fine arts majors, and in it a teacher will help them setup and plan for and help mentor them in thier final show. Due to politics in the department Kristi is not able to take the class from the teacher that she wants. The powers at be do not like or approve of the qualified teacher that Kristi desires to take the class from. The Next best choice is Dr Perry the powers at be dont like him either but say that he will "do". The end result of this mess is that Kristi is signed up for the class under one teacher (SUE) who has given permission to Dr Perry to work with Kristi and then relay the grade that she earns back to Sue. Perry is really a good man and he is working around the politics and says that kristi can work with who she pleases and they will give the grade that she earns to him. The end result is that Kristi is working with a teacher so that that teacher will give the grade to another teacher who will forward that grade to yet a 3rd teacher who will then enter it into the computer so that she can graduate. Having mini devotionals is one thing but I am sure glad that i am attending BYU

English RA Honda Accord Wagon ad

2008-01-15T21:59:00.001-08:00

The add that i am analyzing is made by Honda. And it is on you tube. I recommend that you watch it before you read the rest so that it makes more sense. You can locate the TV spot at this link. I am not sure how to link a video off of you tube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc

Summery: (if you are un able to get the link to work) There is a long array of domino style cause and effect one stage barely having the momentum to lead to the next phase. So you are left rooting for each stage to "go all the way". Each of the dominoes if you will were made of car parts supposable y from a Honda Accord. the video ends with a button on the remote for a Honda accord wagon style car. And it closing the back hatch and rolling down for the climax of an accord sign showing. And the words at the end are "arnt you glad when things just work"

Target audience:
The upper middle class consumer who is in the market for a new 4 door sedan. From the video it shows the drivers seat on the right side and the voice is in English so I believe that it is in England or some English speaking country other than America. The target is someone who probably lives in a less rural more city environment because they tend to gravite more towards trucks and larger vehicles. It is catering to people who are probably younger because older people are more likely to go and get a Audi, BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes, something a little fancier for their retirement. It is interesting that they chose to show a wagon style vehicle because they are less common than a normal sedan. Wagons are almost like pre minivans so i believe that this add is targeting women ages18-3 kids. And they don't like to work on cars. ie they like to have thier cars "just work".

Logos: The appeal to logic is that if they have such small tolerances as to make this large multi step process just barely work then they know just what to do design precision and predictability. Which translates to a car who "only has to drive" will be more than capable of handling. doing something as simple as driving.

Pathos: This add plays on pathos or the emotions by providing a series of seemingly 50% 50% chances for the domino effect to fail. But Human nature is to root for the underdog and hope that it works so that we can see which step will be next. And in every situation the Honda engineers come through and it works perfectly. This creates an emotional bond with the viewer which at the end says we won this car really works and you are on my team

Ethos: I guess the creditability of the add comes down to the creativity in the dominoes pieces, the fact that there are actual car parts used. And I guess they made thier own parts, all of the parts look like that they are shiny and in good shape. The tolerances in each stage are very tight and precise. All of these things make the auto dealer seem creditable

Is the ad effective? I would say that it is for the most part. I am not in the target audince because I am a little more technical and can tell that this spot was not done in real life it was done on the computer, and that there are some rather simple Newtonian physics laws that are violated namely the conservation of energy. But for the target audience of women 18 to 3 kids I think that it is a very effective add because it makes me want to get a Honda for their reliability and their longevity. So I think that it is effective.

Test #2

2008-01-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

This is to test the english feed. Thanks Rob

Test Post #1

2008-01-10T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is the first test it has web

Used Car Search

2008-01-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

Used car buying is really something else. I have always enjoyed buying almost everything until yesterday, when I started looking for a used car. For most of the things that I have purchased up until now have been electronics/ books/ and a whole array of small items. And as always via the internet I am always able to find the best rock bottom price. And what you see as the price is really the true price. You don't have to go through a silly process or dance as i like to call it to arrive at a pre determined final sale price. One other benefit of buying items other than used cars is that once you have a SKU or part number and you know something is new you know what you have pretty clear expectations as to what you are going to get in the mail. With cars I am afraid that is not the case. There is a whole ranbow of range on the little word "used". Used as in it "works" if you like fighting to get it started and headed straight down the road. And "used" as in not new. Last night I went and looked ad a "used" car last night. It is a nice black 05 Toyota Camry with 32,000 miles it had been wrecked and restored. And looked to be in great shape it drove great but it had a clicking noise in the engine. I am not totally turned off to this vehicle I must say that I am still on the lookout.