IanSchafer.com

Silicon Alley Insider Names its Top 100.

Today, Silicon Alley Insider unveils its top 100 "entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and technologists who made waves in the New York community this year."

It's an impressive list, and one that finally more adequately recognizes and represents the agency world (David Kenny, Peter Hershberg, Joshua Stylman, Laura Desmond).

The top ten includes folks I'm happy to cavort with on occasion, so special shout outs go to Nick Denton, Ken Lerer, and Scott (my former boss) Heiferman.

The top ten are:

1. Fred Wilson

2. Quincy Smith

3. Nick Denton

4. Barry Diller

5. Alan Patricof

6. Ken Lerer

7. Tim Armstrong

8. Bob Pittman

9. Randy Falco

10. Scott Heiferman

Check out the rest of the 100 here.

Special props go to my friends, Ben Lerer (41), Randall Rothenberg (51), Peter Hershberg & Joshua Stylman (54), Gary Vaynerchuk (60),Dina Kaplan (82), and Rufus Griscom (93). Congrats!

Personally, I'm proud to have made their "up-and-comers" list and to be included -- even tangentially -- in a list that features some of the brightest and most innovative people I've ever met.

BREAKING: Microsoft Acquires 2 Percent Stake in Facebook for $240 Million

Lots of stuff to analyze here, but in a rush...heading out to ClickZ's 10-Year Anniversary Dinner and Awards Ceremony.

Here are the details, from Facebook's release (interesting...no Zuckerberg quote):

Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance
Two companies expand advertising deal to cover international markets, Microsoft to take equity stake in Facebook

PALO ALTO, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 24, 2007 — Facebook and Microsoft Corp. today announced that the two companies would expand their advertising partnership and that Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook’s next round of financing at a $15 billion valuation. Under the expanded strategic alliance, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.

“We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level,” said Owen Van Natta, Chief Revenue Officer, Facebook. “We think this expanded relationship will allow Facebook to continue to innovate and grow as a technology leader and major player in social computing, as well as bring relevant advertising to nearly 50 million active users of Facebook.”

“Making this investment and expanding this partnership will position Microsoft and Facebook to better take advantage of advertising opportunities around the world, and is a great win for not only for our two companies, but also our collective users and advertisers,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. “We have partnered well over the past year and look forward to doing some exciting things together in the future. The opportunity to further collaborate as advertising partners is a big reason we have decided to take an equity stake, and is a strong statement of our confidence in the long-term economics of this partnership.”

Facebook continues to experience strong growth both in the U.S. and international markets; almost 60 percent of Facebook’s users are outside the U.S. With an average of 200,000 new users registering each day, Facebook continues to be one of the most-trafficked sites on the Internet.

On Aug. 22, 2006, the companies announced a U.S.-only strategic alliance that named Microsoft the exclusive provider of standard banner advertising on Facebook using Microsoft’s digital advertising solutions and the Microsoft® adCenter platform. In early 2007, the terms were extended to 2011.

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives and half of the users return daily. Facebook is a privately-held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

OMMA Awards Update

I just got back from the OMMA Awards, and I'm proud to announce that Deep Focus walked away with 2 wins:


Rich Media Campaign
Agency: Trailer Park
Client: Buena Vista Pictures Marketing/”Meet the Robinsons”
Agency: Avenue A/Razorfish
Client: Washington Mutual
Agency: Deep Focus
Client: HBO/Flight of the Conchords


Viral Campaign
Agency: The Coca-Cola Company
Client: The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments
Agency: Deep Focus
Client: Court TV/Parco P.I.
Agency: Eventful
Client: Energizer


Congrats to our clients at HBO and Court TV, and of course, the folks responsible for these campaigns at Deep Focus. You all are more dedicated, and work harder than anyone I've ever worked with...and I'm eternally grateful. I don't need an award to remind me of that.

What's special about these wins is that they are the results of clients trusting their agency to do things against the norm and against tradition. They listen. They are partners. They help us make "the big idea" happen by trusting our judgment, research, and instincts. They share the information that inform their great decisions, and allow us to not stop our thinking at digital interactive media. After all, all forms of media can be made interactive.

On that note, a special thanks to our friends at Amalgamated, GEM Group, and MediaStorm for their collaboration and support on the "That Girl Emily" campaign for Parco P.I..

One other thing to note. A weird thing, actually.

We were nominated for a category, Home Page Takeover/ Sponsorship, that was completely skipped over at tonight's show. Guess I'll have to tune into the website to find out the results...

What's up with that?

The Lion, The B*tch, and the Billboard

Deep Focus has won its first Lion at the prestigious Cannes Lion Awards! The 2007 Promo Lion for Best Integrated Promotional Campaign went to DF for Court TV's PARCO P.I..

Amalgamated, MediaStorm, Gem, and of course, Court TV all played big parts in this campaign, and we share the honor with them!

It was the only campaign from the US to be honored in the Promo Lions in 2007, and we're proud to be carrying the torch for our fine, fine country.

The Webby Awards Redux

So I went to the Webby Awards last night, as Deep Focus was a double-winner along with our client, Picturehouse. I certainly had fun at the event, which is often touted as "the Oscars of the Internet". I have some serious issues with that statement, but just as the Oscars have highlights and lowlights, so did The Webbys:

The Highlights
* Our client, Nevin Shalit, SVP New Media at New Line Cinema accepted the Webbys on both of our behalf. In a very touching 5-word acceptance speech (as the rules state they must be), Nevin stated:

Thank you Guillermo, Chad, Sabrina.

That's Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth's Director), Chad Ossman (Senior Developer, New Line), and Sabrina Caluori (Account Director, Deep Focus).

I was able to pry Nevin's backup speeches out of him as well -- speeches he almost went with:

All hail Guillermo del Toro

Ian, you make the speech

Guillermo, direct Master and Margarita

Personally, I was for the second one, but hey...what are you going to do.

* The Beastie Boys -- It's amazing how they always manage to stay relevant.

* David Bowie -- Even though he didn't come out as Ziggy Stardust, it was still really great to see him on a stage.

The Lowlights

* There was virtually no enthusiasm at this event during the awards ceremony, other than those that were cheering on their party's designated accept-er. This is a serious problem. We're trying to celebrate creativity here. Didn't feel like much celebrating -- or appreciating -- was going on. This event needs its personality back. Apparently Nick Denton @ Valleywag agrees:

I've vowed never to attend another Webby Award show for as long as I've been going to the show. After last night's 2007 gala, it's finally time to burn the bridges.

* The old-school internet heavyweights, like AOL, Yahoo and eBay, received extremely lukewarm receptions. I wonder if it was that people don't remember the contributions these companies had to the fact that this medium is now taken seriously, or that they remember that these companies are not necessarily inspiring creativity all that much. Lest we forget that eBay's taken chances on Skype and Stumbleupon, and Yahoo's stepped up with acquisitions like Flickr (who also had a lukewarm reception). Weird.

It was definitely a classy event. But I don't know...maybe it was too classy.

Deep Focus Earns a Key Art Award Nomination!

Congrats to Picturehouse and Deep Focus on scoring a Key Art Award Nomination for Pan's Labyrinth: Journals of Imagination! Congrats to the other nominees as well!

SPECIAL-RECOGNITION INTERNET Snakes on a Plane: Personalized Viral Campaign -- Varitalk, New Line Cinema Eragon: Community -- 65 Media, 20th Century Fox Pan's Labyrinth: Journals of Imagination -- Deep Focus, Picturehouse The Black Dahlia: Dark LA Viral Video -- Exopolis, Universal Pictures A Scanner Darkly: Banner Campaign -- the Aura Group, Warner Independent Films

SEOmoz Doles Out Web 2.0 Awards

Blog SEOmoz does an exhaustive take on the world of Web 2.0 by dishing out awards in virtually every category imaginable.

Except one.

Use of Web 2.0 for Advertising.

All the companies listed/awarded are there to make money, right? How about an awards show or list for the best applications of social media/Web 2.0 in the context of promoting a brand or product? Yeah, some "award shows" do it...but it's a very narrow category. There's a lot to be done, and frankly, as Rex Briggs over at Marketing Evolution puts it (and I paraphrase), the real value of social media marketing is not necessarily in the B2C aspect of it, but the C2C momentum it can create.

The Lost Art of Human-Powered Publicity.

Danny over at AdPulp writes about how PR is the secret weapon of admired ad agencies.

And I couldn't agree more. Publicity has been integral to Deep Focus' rise over the last 5 years, yielding recognition, awards, and notoriety for us in a highly competitive space.

But PR is also important in another way -- in how it can work for the campaigns themselves.

The publicity discipline is the missing link that most interactive agencies suffer from. Publicity ensures that the innovative campaigns that they may be developing are actually known about by consumers.

Not every advertising campaign, viral, or site has a robust media budget to support it. And with average clickthrough rates of less than 1%, the need for other ways to get audiences engaged with a property or brand becomes even more important.

The greatest way to minimize risk and maximize the chances of a campaign's success is to get the word out to the people that can get the word out. It's not 'message board seeding'. It's not 'chat room infiltration'. It's getting the most influential people -- journalists, bloggers (Amanda Congdon sez there's a difference between the two, and I kind of agree, as long as there is full disclosure, but that's a different post), moderators, and community leaders -- to have an enriched understanding of the information or experience that you are trying to deliver to consumers.

And the best way to reach influential people? Human contact. A phone call. A personalized email. A conversation over a drink.

Ask anyone that's worked at a movie studio or cable network, and they will tell you that the roles of publicity and/or media relations are amongst the most important in the organization. It's what shapes the perception of audiences before advertising hits. It's what makes people feel like they've discovered something. It's what initates the conversation (you hear that, Joseph Jaffe?), and sets the tone for how the advertising will be received.

Deep Focus' publicity department is every bit as integral to our organization's success as our media and creative services. It's what has allowed many of our campaigns to transcend the medium, and become conversations people have in elevators, taxis, and at the dinner table.

It blows my mind that publicity is not an integral part of other advertising organizations. What are you all waiting for?