Hasta La Creative!

I loathe acronyms. Except this one: HIPPO.

According to Ad Age, Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist deploys the acronym in in front of hundreds of HIPPOs gathered to hear him speak.

A HIPPO, or Highest Paid Person’s Opinion, can be an obstacle to success on the web, argues Kaushik. Despite mounds of data, Mr. Kaushik thinks HIPPOs are the “least closest to the customer.”

Naturally, Google Analytics can help. “We want to be the company that really lives the spirit of accountable advertising,” he says.

Microsoft will test a new way to measure the effectiveness of Internet advertising. The move follows its purchase of online marketing company aQuantive for $6 billion last year in an effort to capitalize on the fast-growing online ad market and better compete against Google.

Microsoft’s “Engagement Mapping” is due to begin in beta form on March 1 and departs from a standard that ties sales, leads and traffic to the last ad that a user clicked on online. Instead, it attempts to take into account all the Internet interactions that lead a consumer to buy a product.

The Engagement Mapping approach conveys how each ad exposure — whether display, rich media or search, seen multiple times on multiple sites and across many channels — influenced an eventual purchase.

[via The New York Times]