I’ve no idea if any brands are behind this guy, in fact I’d be willing to bet they aren’t, but you can imagine someone being stupid enough to pay players to run around doing something just like this.

Via: CrunchGear

clipped from www.clickz.com “Readers feel that the ads are much more interesting, and are much more eager to engage with them because they are interactive,” said Jeanniey Mullen, global VP and CMO of Zinio and a ClickZ columnist. Ten percent of the study’s respondents said they pay “much more attention” to ads in digital magazines, and 25 percent said they pay “somewhat more attention” to them. Fifty-one percent said the format made no difference. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they considered it a benefit to be able to click on ads in digital magazines and interact directly with the advertiser. However, only slightly more than a third (39 percent) thought that ads looked better in digital form than they do in print, and less than a third (31 percent), thought the ads were more relevant to them.

Of course what’s really interesting is the future potential.  The research alludes to peoples lack of interest and the lack of targeting but just think what highly targeted interactive advertising could do.  I have to admit, i’m much more likely to at least look at a digital magazine ad myself.

The problem with Google adwords are they all look exactly alike. One blue headline and a few lines of copy looks exactly like the next one. But those crazy German’s went back to the old school and figured out a clever way to get their ads to stand out ASCII graphics.

Surprise, surprise, the response rate went way up.

The best solutions are always so simple when they’ve been laid out in front of you.
SIXT: Ascii Text Ads on BannerBlog

It’s nice to catch up with some industry news every now and then, take todays announcment from Group M who after a hard look that the UK advertising market is forecasting internet advertising to be bring in more cash than that old stalwart TV by 2009.

The conclusion is based on a predicted rise of almost 31% in online ad spending in 2008, compared to 1% annual growth in TV ad spend.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau “Online Advertising Study” published in October 2006 came to very similar conclusions, estimating that Internet ad spending amounted to 10.5% of total media spend in the UK for the first half of 2006, against television’s 22.7% and 11.4% for national press.

Quite a nice piece of news to return to after that long Christmas break eh?

Source:
Online To Pass TV Ad Spend in UK - eMarketer

Ad age had a nice little comScore scoop yesterday reporting that CPG (FMCG for us on this side of the pond) site traffic has gone up at twice the rate of internet growth, achieving 10% growth this last year in the states.

That in itself is pretty exciting…but what’s more interesting is how that growth seems to be achieved…banner ads.  Dear lord what has the world come to!

Mars’ Uncle Ben’s site, for example, which cracked the industry’s top 10 last quarter, according to ComScore, did so primarily by using targeted banner ads on Oprah.com and FoodNetwork.com. They generated nearly 2 million of the 3.6 million visits the site received in the third quarter. UncleBens.com traffic surged more than 1,700% from a year ago.

Seems strange at first glance that in a year largely tipped to have been all about search CPG sites are making their inroads in display, but it starts making sense very quickly.  Search is great if you’ve got consumers researching, but lets be fair no one is researching or even searching for CPGs.

However we’re always banging on about creating sites with value and engagement, sites that have a reason to exist and more importantly have a reason for consumers to come back time and again.  Brands are starting to build those types of sites and display advertising really is proving an effective way of generating traffic to sites that have something of interest.

But as always there is significant room for growth in our market. We’re still struggling to get some of the biggest players to shift their spend.

Despite the increases, however, most package-goods marketers are far from catching up with the general market. P&Gs internet spending as a share of total measured spending was 2.1% in the first half, up from 1.4% a year ago but still well below the 7.6% average found by TNS Media Intelligence. Although Unilever spent 5% of its first-half media outlay online, it was below-average too.

Source:
Guess Whos Seeing Web Traffic Soar: Kraft and Co. - Advertising Age - Digital

So what is the difference between Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and all the other social networks out there?  Other than the way they look, many people probably wouldn’t notice too many differences, and that is of course a major headache for every social network, after all to make any real headway with users, you need to be doing something different.

On Tuesday Bebo announced Open Media in an attempt to differentiate themselves from all the other players.  From the users perspective Open media is effectively a series of free channels from broadcasters and other media owners.

For media players Open Media is a portal into their own media players…a portal that allows them to keep 100% of the profits from their traffic.  But as importantly it provides the owners another way to find interested parties.  In a world where 16-24 year olds are watching less and less TV, ring fencing your content is simply not an effective long term strategy.  Bebo provides another way for users to find content, and doesn’t charge anything for the privilege.

Richard Cohen, commercial director of Premium TV, lauded the distributed nature of Bebos entertainment offering. “The idea of trying to drive people to your own site is now defunct,” he said. “You have to recognize where people are and want to be and capture their attention there, not dictate where they should be. Plus, this gives us the ability to monetize — its a natural extension to syndication.”

For my money, it’s a savvy move on the part of Bebo.
Source:
Look Out, YouTube: Here Comes Bebo - Advertising Age - Digital

Having been involved with social media pretty much from the start, it seems like a nice comfy old hat to me in some ways. Of course in lots of other ways I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what they hell to do about it.  But it’s easy to forget to pay attention to the basics; and if you do drop the ball in the social media arena you’re quite likely to get creamed.  So, if you’re looking for a bit of advice, be sure to pay attention to the following.

Do your homework and view each social media platform separately – people behave and communicate differently in different types of social media. There is no one correct strategy that will work across, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, Twitter, Flickr etc.

An uncomfortable value exchange? – do some soul searching. The most commercially valuable thing that you have in your organisation is almost certainly the thing that people in social networks desire from you and the most powerful social lubricant that you have. Work out how and what you can share to connect with your audiences.

Get out of the way – provide content, context and rewards but be prepared to take a massive step back and let communities manage themselves. Messaging will almost certainly go a little awry in the process, but was that messaging right in the first place? Aren’t these your customers after all and the best people to provide feedback?

Most of that goes right to the heart of what makes clients a big twitchy when you mention social media.  Letting go is always hard, but oh so valuable.
Source:
Social Media: simple advice and future-gazing | Internet Marketing News and Blog | E-consultancy.com

Sure I’ve worked on some great brands in my day, and who can beat the perk of having an airline for a client, but there are some truly fabulous opportunities to be had working on pets.

Nestle’s Purina Petcare will begin sponsoring free daily text-message alerts for pet lovers, courtesy of ad-supported mobile entertainment company Limbo Lowdown.

When you have an audience that cares as much about anything, as people do their pets, the opportunities are limitless.  Let’s face it only pet lovers could not only handle, but look forward to receiving highly targetted daily SMS alerts.
Source:
Purina Sponsors Daily Pet Lover Texts - MarketingVOX

Gosh I love this idea.  The London Times Online has partnered with SpinVox to allow bloggers to call in their travel blogs.

Users can dial 44 151 266 5764 from anywhere in the world to voice their travel stories, tips and recommendations, which will then be converted to text and posted directly onto the website.

Such a simple idea, but it makes so much sense to me.  It’s a pain to sit down and write out a review or blog entry when you’re out in another country, far away from a computer.  However I do have one concern…will the content be readable.  See the thing about writing something down is the thought that goes into it.  Writing a paragraph takes serious consideration, not only about the content, but also the structure.  And writing for an online audience one often has to be concerned with brevity as well.

But speech is a whole other ballgame. Just try calling your own voicemail and leaving a short review of your lunch.  Was it structured?  Cohesive?  Concise?  Probably none of the above, and certainly not in your first try.

So yeah I like the idea, but will anyone be able to stomach sitting down and reading what’s been said?
Source:
Times launches phone blogging for travellers - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic

Technology does make strange bedfellows, although in this case they’re not just strange, but savvy.

If you haven’t heard the news Oprah’s production company and YouTube have just entered into an agreement whereby YouTube gets exclusive content and Oprah gets to try on some new high tech duds.

Really its a savy move for both parties. YouTube will be opening their doors to a massive audience most of who have had little if any exposure to it in the past. Oprah probably gets some cash, but as importantly gains another channel for her messages, one which allows consumers to experience even more deeply everything that is Oprah.  Opening up her content to two-way communication makes it that much more interesting and compelling..
Source:
MediaPost Publications - Oprah and YouTube: Made For Each Other - 11/05/2007