Cperspective’s New Office

Ok so I’ve had some problems keeping this blog updated, but now I have decided to get things more structured and make the blogging more of a routine.

The most interesting piece of news at the moment is Cperspectives new office space in Stockholm, Sweden. We have been pretty busy getting everything in place, and at the same time trying to keep up our day to day activities. At the moment we have managed to get in a few desks, seats, a white board, a nice sofa and a plant. We are planning to get in some more stuff, we have asked Caty to design a few pictures that we can hang on the wall.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures from when we just had moved in:

Anwar and Caty doing something really productive.

This is where I usually sit, and you can also spot our nice plant!

Caty has drawn the Cperspective logo on our new whiteboard, and I’m documenting it on my phone.

Thats all for now!

Major Security Flaw in Facebook

Earlier today, TechChrunch published an article, revealing one of the worst security flaws in Facebook’s history. This little loop hole in security made it possible for anyone to read their friends chats, and supposedly also look at their messages. In other words, if you (for some strange reason) though that you had any privacy what so ever on Facebook, then think again.

Facebook seem to be on the case now however as their chat function is disabled, and the privacy settings seem to have been fixed as well. But if anyone has been treating you differently the last few days, or seems to know a bit “too much”, then this could be the reason why.

Below is a video from TechCrunch showing exactly how the loop hole could be exploited:

That’s all for now!

Soheil Amorpour
CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing

The Lack of Unity in Online Marketing

One of the major problems with Online Marketing today is the lack of Unity. Two of the best examples of this are:

1. The lack of consensus in what rates are appropriate in Banner Advertising.
2. The lack of non-biased scientific studies that provide a blue print for effective banner placement.

I am aware that many studies are carried out on banner advertising, but the area is still very young and there is no clear understanding yet of what constitutes an optimal banner placement or campaign.

Also, there is no unity in regards of what a fair price is for a marketing campaign; being CPM, CPC, CPA or any other price model that is being used today. CPM prices vary from a few cents to 30-50 Euros; surely the quality of traffic cannot differ that much? It’s hard to imagine that one impression is worth up to a thousand times more on one site than the other, if seen by the same person.

The problems that arise from this should be of highest interest to both publishers as well as advertisers. Publishers are oftentimes being paid less than they should, because of lack of knowledge, and advertisers are oftentimes paying too much of their budget for certain campaigns. It could perhaps be argued that the advertisers can even this out by mixing low and high CPM’s, but it’s hard to tell if this is true in the long run. Some advertisers are concerned with their brand and its association, hence, they cannot buy as many “low quality” impressions as other advertisers.

I personally think that the industry is in need of more unity, especially in the field of banner advertising. There’s also a need for a more fair type of pricing model, that actually makes sense for both publishers and advertisers. Once there is scientific backup for why placements look like they do, and why prices are at the level they are, then we can also see the real power of Online advertising, as it should be.

Soheil Amorpour
CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing

Would you do it?

Apart from being sick the last week and a half I’ve also managed to get quite a lot of work done (not that I don’t get work done otherwise but.. yeah). We’ve been really busy with the launch of MyRaceDriver. At the same time we have a lot of campaigns coming up for our clients, so we are having some really busy days at CPerspective.

A question that always pops up – and should pop up in everyones head – when planning campaigns, building landing pages or putting together banners and promotions is “Would I do that?”. This is something most marketers probably think, but I’d say very few manage to actually translate this into their work. Would you read all the copy on your website? Would you click that banner? Would you find your own promotion interesting, having in mind that there are so many others out there offering same services as you? If you hesitate to answer that question, then you’re having some real problems.

The standpoint all marketers need to take is “would I do that?”. Once you can answer yes to that question without hesitating, you can feel somewhat confident in your upcoming campaign.

Soheil Amorpour
CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing

Emotional Design and Donald Norman

Some of you might already have come across this brilliant man. Donald Norman has provided a lot of insight in how and why design works that can be used for a lot of purposes, and of course in marketing. The idea of Norman is pretty simple, really. He argues that good design make us feel better, and that is why we like the products. Good design also makes us happier, and a lot of studies have shown that we can solve problems better when we are happy. How is this relevant to products you might ask; well think about it. If a product is somewhat complicated and ugly, the users are less likely to understand how to work it. However if the product is complicated but has a nice design, then the users are more likely to try understand how the product works. By having a beautiful design, a product is more likely to ‘get away’ with flaws. People simply accept the flaws just because they become emotionally attached to the product. By now it is pretty obvious how this can be applied in marketing, on a wide range of different levels; from web design and branding to product design and advertising.

It’s very easy to get stuck on YouTube and go through all the Norman videos. Below you’ll find one of the shorter videos that gives a quick overview of Donald Normans ideas regarding emotional design.

That all for now folk’s!

Soft launching MyRaceDriver

Tonight we finalized most work on one of our latest projects, www.MyRaceDriver.com. I’m personally really excited about this project as it is an investment program where anyone can buy shares in Julien Gerbi’s career. Julien is a Formula 2 driver with some serious racing skills, and is now looking to get enough budget in order to be able to get into the highest categories of racing, such as Formula 1, NasCar etc.

CPerspective will be in charge of all marketing activities of this investment program, and hopefully we can get Julien to fulfill his dream to be a race car driver.

I will post more info on this program later on, once we start with all the marketing. For now you will find all info you need on www.MyRaceDriver.com. Check it out!