I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions but one thing I think people running contests should avoid this year is offering iPhones as prizes.
Sure, the iPhone is a hot property that gives contests a little extra sizzle but it’s just so 2008. As well, everyone’s doing it so the novelty factor has disappeared.
So, what could replace the iPhone as the go-to contest prize in 2009? And if you can refrain from suggesting a new iPod Touch, that would be great!
Technorati Tags: advertising, Apple...
There are more than 200 million people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that social networks as an advertising platform are a dud.
According to eMarketer, ad spending in the U.S. on social networks will be $1.17-billion this year, and only grow to $1.64-billion by 2013. That kind of growth is a long way from the bullish approach many people had about social networks last year when Facebook was all the rage, and Microsoft poured $200-million into Facebook for a teeny-tiny stake.
So, what’s happening? Why have social networks failed as advertising vehicles?
Maybe it has to do with the audience and how they’re using social networks. You’re mostly talking about a multi-tasking, fickle (aka no loyalty),...
Over the past year, Twitter has become a wildly-popular social network, allowing people to stay in touch not just with their friends but also with celebrities like MC Hammer and Shaquille O’Neal, who use the service to talk directly to their fans. For many companies, meanwhile, Twitter has effectively become a real-time market-survey tool. Comcast and Zappos, for example, have used it to track reactions to their products and have been able to respond to their customers much faster than they could in the past. Some companies, however, have found themselves at the center of a Twitter-storm — including Johnson & Johnson, which faced criticism from mothers both on the service and in the blogosphere at large, after an advertising campaign for the painkiller Motrin made what...
Savings can come to us in all sorts of ways. Sometimes we find them in a flyer. Sometimes we hear about them from a friend. Sometimes we even find them right here on SmartCanucks. But what about when it’s the other way around? How do you feel about when specific advertising deals finds you?
Targeted advertising has been around — especially online — for a long time now. It’s what drives the GoogleAds you see and the spam emails you recieve. So much of the advertising you see online is based on where you surf and what you search that it would make your head spin. I’d never really given it much thought before, and then I recieved this email;
Dear Amazon.ca Customer,
We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Happy Endings: The...
It seems kind of strange to see a feature story in the Wall St. Journal entitled “Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers”.
By strange, I mean that it’s not really a story for anyone who actively uses the Web. When was the last time you looked something up in the yellow or white pages? I would hazard to guess the answer is you can’t remember.
In my house, the Yellow Pages don’t even make it past the front porch. As soon as they’re delivered, they’re immediately thrown in the recycling bin. If I could figure out a way to stop them from being delivered, I’d gladly do it.
Of course, this new reality is terrible news for companies that publish the Yellow Pages given they’ve been high-margin entities for decades. For example, Yellow...
A few years ago, Stowe Boyd gained some notoriety - and enough money to buy a 30″ Apple monitor - by wearing a logo-ed T-shirt for $15/day.
It was a unique gimmick. That said, two new entries in the pay-me-to-wear-your-corporate-tshirt - iwearyourshirt and Girl in Your Shirt - are just dumb and unoriginal.
There, I said it, and feel much better.
Technorati Tags: Advertising...
Listening to Gawker Media overlord Nick Denton’s predictions for the coming online-media apocalypse, I’m reminded of the story about the boy who cried wolf. That said, however, it’s worth remembering one thing about that story: In the end, there actually was a wolf. And as he describes in a post on his personal blog, complete with scary charts and graphs about projected advertising demand, Nick is convinced more than ever that there is a wolf at the door — and a pretty damn big one at that. How does a 40-per-cent drop in online-advertising revenue sound?
Denton has written several times over the past year or so about online advertising falling off a cliff as a result of the weakening economy. Before the recent global financial meltdown, his warnings seemed sort of...
There’s much sturm und drang about online advertising, and whether it’s in a big hole or a *really* big hole. Judging by the graphic of a giant smoking crater he used for his post, Peter Kafka at All Things D apparently falls into the latter camp, and he also quotes Nick “The Dark Lord” Denton as saying that anyone who doesn’t expect ad rates to fall 40 per cent is an idiot (although, to his credit, Peter does note that Denton is always saying things like that). But one of the reports that everyone is using for fodder, which comes from the Rubicon Project, isn’t that bleak at all.
If anything, in fact, the Rubicon report indicates that online advertising is still growing relatively strongly despite the turmoil in credit markets and the slump in stock...
It’s one thing to turn a blind eye — as some networks do — to the uploading of pirated content that occurs daily on YouTube, MySpace and other social networks and services. To use one potential metaphor, it’s like the approach that some countries take to prostitution or marijuana: They know it’s out there, but as long as it doesn’t cause any trouble then they’re okay with it. It’s quite another thing, however, to do what MTV is proposing to do, which is to actually place ads alongside the content that is being infringed. That’s like legalizing prostitution or marijuana use and taxing it.
According to an announcement today, MTV has teamed up with MySpace and a company called Auditude to do exactly that (I mean sell ads next to...
From the magical blog known as Waxy.org, run by the ever-eclectic Andy Baio, comes a tale that seems beyond belief: Summer Allen-Gibson, who runs a foodie blog with her partner Alicia Carrier, spotted what looked to be tiny heads hidden in a picture of broccoli on the outside of a package of frozen vegetables. She wasn’t hallucinating — as the photos she posted on the blog show, there are in fact tiny little smiling people mixed in with the broccoli spears, coloured the exact same shade of green so they are difficult (but not impossible) to see. According to some of the comments, graphic artists apparently do this with headshots of friends and family as a gag. I wonder how often this kind of thing happens and no one notices....
As the markets see-saw between concern and outright panic over the fate of the U.S. financial bailout, the credit shock that’s rippling through not just North America but most of the Western hemisphere, and the potential for a severe economic downturn, anyone with a Web-based business that depends on advertising has to be asking: Is this the beginning of the end? If the U.S., Canada and to some extent even Europe are in the depths of a recession (or possibly even worse), what does that mean for online ad spending? The answer could mean life or death for some startups.
This debate has been going on for almost a year now. Google’s stock price came under fire around the end of last year and the beginning of this year because of concern that the search giant might see a downturn...
As a reader, and as someone who cares about online media in all kinds of other ways, I would like to second the opinions that David Churbuck expresses in a post on his blog about “The blight known as Vibrant Media.” In a nutshell: those double-underlined links that generate pop-up ads or affiliate links to a variety of craptacular sites, which companies like IntelliText specialize in, are an abomination. They make your site look like ass, and what’s worse, they try to trick readers. As David says:
“Want to know why Engadget and Gizmodo and TechCrunch and GigaOm are eating the lunch of the tech press? Because of crappy shenanigans like Vibrant’s. Or rather, lack of.
Geez PC Mag. Maintain your dignity. I have told our teams NOT to run these types of intrusive...
This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.
Ever think all of that talk about subliminal advertising was paranoid bunk? Think again.
An eagle-eyed viewer of Iron Chef America caught a McDonald’s image snuck into 1/30th of a second of the broadcast. Inside Edition picked up on this and followed up with both the network and McDonald’s. The network says it was an accident and McDonald’s says they don’t do subliminal ads.
Accident or evil? You......
Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired magazine’s Listening Post blog has the hilarious tale of an advertising email gone astray: the missive in question came from one Adam Kluger of The Kluger Agency (or, according to Mr. Kluger, from an over-eager minion of his), and it offered a company called Double Happiness Jeans the opportunity to have their product name appear in the lyrics of a popular song, sung by “one of the world’s most famous recording artists.” Two problems with that: Double Happiness Jeans is an art project involving the virtual world Second Life, and — last but not least — it is also part of something called The Anti-Advertising Agency, run by Jeff Crouse and Steve Lambert.
Not the most auspicious person to contact for something that even...
but the Bill (Gates) and Jerry (Seinfeld) show is apparently over.
After two memorable, quirky and definitely different television ads, Microsoft has decided to pull the plug on Gates and Seinfeld.
It’s a strange decision because you have to wonder how many layers within Microsoft had to approve the concept before it allowed to see the light of day?
I’ll give Microsoft credit for trying something new and, to be honest, the ad had potential. Seinfeld was Seinfeld but he was outshone by Gates, whose stole the show as his sidekick. If the series had been allowed to evolve, it would have been fascinating to see Gates perform some more.
So, I guess it’s back to the drawing board for Microsoft, which is spending $300-million on an advertising campaign to give itself a new...
Huh? via Mark Evans September 12th, 2008 at 18:08
I definitely get that Microsoft is looking to re-brand itself with a $300-million advertising campaign.
I kind of get that Microsoft hired Jerry Seinfeld to jump-start it.
I sort of get they’re paying him $10-million.
I do not get the videos featuring Seinfield and Bill Gates, particularly this one. That said, I do find them funny, especially Gates, who may have found a new post-Microsoft career.
I’d like to get it but I can’t. Am I missing something? TechCrunchh has questions as well.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Microsoft...
So, several months ago, when I was blogging (a lot) more, Ted Murphy of PayPerPost Izea fame asked me if I’d like to participate in his yearly IzeaFest, once known as “Posticon”. I’ve been pretty frank about my opinions about paid postings and at times they haven’t been … well, pretty.
So why am I here on Ted Murpy’s dime? A couple reasons. First of all, I think Ted has made some strides in trying to bring bloggers and advertisers together in a win-win fashion. Blogging is a tough business, no matter what language you speak, or where you find yourself in life. It needs more friends, and that’s the sense I get from where Ted is coming from.
With PPP, his intentions weren’t bad, but they may have been executed in a way that...
Can Jerry Seinfeld help Microsoft counter-attack against Apple’s hip, cool and successful marketing efforts?
Microsoft clearly thinks the well-known comedian has the chops given it will reportedly pay him a cool $10-million to appear in a new advertising campaign along with other celebrities.
According to the Wall St. Journal, Seinfeld will appear with Bill Gates in some of the ads. If anyone can make Gates comes across as funny, it’s Seinfeld.
The question is whether Seinfeld will be able to make Microsoft cooler. As Silicon Valley Insider notes, Seinfeld is not that cool. A decade ago, Seinfeld was the ultra-cool as “Seinfeld” was one of the most-viewed shows. Today, Seinfeld is probably best-known for doing voice-overs in movies, and he’s seen as funny but...
I’ve yet to get my hands on a Samsung Instinct (I’ll do so soon and provide a review), and it’s unlikely it will dislodge the iPhone as the cool smart phone but you have to admire the Instinct’s pluck and willingness to fight the good fight.
For example, I think this billboard is brilliant - smart, attention-grabbing and inspiring. It’s one of those few ads that makes you think “What’s this Samsung Instinct all about?”. As well, it’s done by Bell, which sadly ran with the “Frank and Gordon” beaver campaign way past its best-until date.
What do you think?
More: Here’s CNet’s coverage/review of the Instinct.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, iPhone, samsung instinct...
For blogs and bloggers, RSS is a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it’s a wonderful tool to expand your blog’s distribution and readership. On the other hand, RSS sucks people away from reading your blog given they can see all your posts within an RSS reader. While this is great for blog readers, it also means all those readers aren’t seeing any of your ads…or your comments, cool widgets, new and improved design, etc.
As much as TechCrunch is more than happy to have 907,000 people subscribing to its FeedBurner RSS feed, I’m also sure Mr. Arrington and his advertisers would be happier if they were visiting techcrunch.com.
For blogs trying to make money, the big problem is advertising (aka feed-vertising) within RSS feeds has been, to date, a dud....
A few months ago, I wrote a post suggesting that Twitter aggressively expand its features - an idea that didn’t resonate because many believe simplicity was the beauty of Twitter.
With that in mind, Twitter’s acquisition of Summize (editor’s note: has the acquisition of a tiny search engine ever got more coverage?) suggests that I was correct. In fact, I’ll argue that Twitter should keep on making acquisition if wants to build a stickier, more attraction, sustainable and viable business.
With $15-million of venture capital, Twitter not only needs to harden its infrastructure but snap up interesting services within the Twitter-sphere such as Twellow, Twistori and Twitter Karma. In other words, Twitter needs to build a multi-feature “portal” where the...
Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat is reporting that Glam Media — an advertising/content network focused on sites that appeal primarily to women — has turned down a $1.3-billion acquisition offer from an unnamed party. Like Caroline McCarthy at Webware, I assume that this offer likely came from an “old media” company such as CBS (which has been snapping up digital properties like Last.fm) or possibly a large advertising player. But seriously, $1.3-billion? And Duncan Riley says this isn’t even that great an offer when you consider that Glam has gotten four rounds of financing totaling about $115-million.
There’s no question that the Glam Media story is an appealing one: the company says that it has more than 65 million unique visitors across its network...
Fred Wilson sparked a nice conversation about how many bloggers get “paid” when people leaving comments, and how this payment system is breaking down as blog content and comments becomes splattered over the Web through services such as Friendster.
While the idea of “blogger” and “getting paid” are an oxymoron to the vast majority of bloggers, Fred does put the spotlight on how bloggers are compensated for pounding away day after day.
1. Advertising: If you’re lucky (like Fred) and get enough traffic, you’ll get to run advertising other than AdSense, and maybe generate enough revenue to treat yourself to a nice dinner every so often. For 99% of bloggers, AdSense is it so, for example, your blog gets 1,000 page views/day, you’re looking...
Louis Gray has an interesting post looking at Blogging 2.0 in which the content and conversation (C&C) are increasingly happening in places other than a blog.
He suggests this is “going to cause serious strain” on people who make a living from blogging given page views will likely decline. This will make blogs less attractive to advertisers and less lucrative in terms of AdSense and e-commerce opportunities.
While I agree with Louis that bloggers need to embrace the new landscape, the reality is if blogs continue to lose their role as the primary way people consume content then the days of the pro blogger running a lucrative blog franchise are going to be over soon.
Amid this environment, there seems to be few opportunities for people to create a viable blogging business....
Louis Gray — the social media blogger who seems to be everywhere lately — has gotten the weekend blogosphere “bitchmeme” started early, it seems, with his post on how the majority of bloggers “don’t deserve any ad revenue.” According to Louis, most bloggers simply echo the posts that appear on TechCrunch and Mashable and other top tech blogs, and therefore they aren’t really adding any value, and as a result they don’t really deserve to have any advertising. He also says:
“Urged on by the success of mega blog networks like TechCrunch and spurred forward by stories from ProBlogger, or corner cases like Dooce.com, Daily Kos and others, an inordinate amount of people are hoisting ads on their blogs… in the hope of turning...
In the wake of all the talk involving about Shyftr and its service that pulls content and the conversation from blogs, there was some discussion about monetization. For people interested in make money, Shyftr and its ilk are bad; for people more interested in building brand and distribution, Shyftr’s doing nothing wrong.
But let’s put aside Shyftr and the issue about whether blogs will slowly see their traffic erode as consumers read content in a variety of external places. Instead, let’s focus on the money. In particular, let’s focus on advertising dollars attracted by user-generated content makers (bloggers, podcasters, video-bloggers).
Before we do that, let’s look at some bullish sexy numbers from eMarketer (aka The New Forrester Research of Web 2.0)....
Update:
According to Microsoft, the first video is an inside joke — poking fun at such cringe-worthy corporate videos. Suuuuuuure it is. Whatever makes you guys feel better.
Original post:
The following video will likely make you cringe, even if you aren’t a Springsteen fan — and even if you aren’t a Windows fan (thanks to David Crow and MG Siegler for this one):
But is it as bad as the following one, or better? At least this guy can sing:
Share This...
In thinking some more about the enthusiastic discussion about Shyftr over the weekend (and I refuse to call it a “Bitchmeme”), a few major themes for bloggers emerged, especially those interested in making money even to cover monthly costs such as hosting. (Hat tip to Steve Hodson, who wote an excellent post yesterday, and Deep Jive Interests, who accurately described Shyftr’s activity as “scraping”, although Shyftr claims it’s going to change its scraping ways.)
1. As long as RSS receives little love, attention and money from advertisers, pageviews are still important. No pageviews, no advertising revenue - regardless of whether it’s CPM, CPC , AdSense, sponsorship, etc.
2. It’s your content so make sure you control it. If brand and...
Interesting news from Kara Swisher at the BoomTown blog, that former Yahoo executive Tim Cadogan is taking the top spot at OpenX — the open-source ad server company that used to be called OpenAds (and before that was phpads). As Kara notes, Cadogan was involved in the launch of Yahoo’s much-ballyhooed Panama ad search product, and before that he was at GoTo.com. His inaugural blog post is here.
OpenX is an interesting story. It is clearly going after medium-sized to large-scale Web publishers (including TheStreet.com and TechCrunch) that are looking for an alternative to the behemoth that is Google/Doubleclick, and the fact that OpenX is open source makes it appealing as well (the company also recently launched a private beta for a new hosted version). Google has its own...
If you think the online ad market is going soft, eMarketer has come to the rescue with some much-needed bullish projections - including the suggestion online advertising will account for 10% of the total U.S. market in 2009.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, eMarketer...