The Ultimate Online Ad: Own The Google Logo
Google today changed their logo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick:
I think this may be the first time that they’ve used the logo to honor another company or product. This must be the very pinnacle of both product placement and internet advertising, combined! Millions of people go to the Google homepage every day, so this gives Lego company a nice piece of exposure.
What would you need do if you’d like to get that sort of advertisement or endorsement? (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/28/2008
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Filed under: Advertising, Google, Monetization of Search Advertising, Google, Lego, LEGOs, Logos
More on ISPs & Behavioral Ad Targeting
ClickZ has another good article on ISPs and Behavioral Ad Targeting today. Not only do they mention NebuAd which I wrote about in December, but they also list a few other companies that use similar NOC hardware for the same sorts of behavioral targeting, including: Phorm, FrontPorch, and Project Rialto.
My private individual half doesn’t like this sort of targeting. I pay for internet access, and I don’t particularly want people using my data to pigeon-hole me into a demographic for specific types of ads — and I’m mistrustful of how private/secure/anonymous these companies will keep my individual usage data.
My more public, professional half has to readily admit that for advertisers, behavioural targeting may be very advantageous in terms of communicating to a desired audience of buyers, and could also be very cost-effective in reducing wasteful ad impressions. I suspect that behavioral ad targeting may convert at a higher rate than other media if executed in a sophisticated manner. The only downside is that it likely also restricts the size of the audience share available to be exposed to the ads.
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 01/03/2008
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Filed under: Advertising, Marketing, News behavioral targeting, internet ads, internet advertising, Nebu Ad, NebuAd, online ads, online-advertising
NebuAd – New Twist on Behavioral Targeting for Online Ads
News stories this week highlighted Silicon Valley startup NebuAd, which recently unveiled their behavioral targeting network at ad:tech.
Behavioral ad targeting is nothing new on the internet, and I easily recall it being offered in one form or another as far back as about 1999. In fact, 24/7 Real Media currently offers behavioral targeting through their ad network as just one case in point. So what’s new with this incarnation is the way in which NebuAd collects data to base the targeting upon. NebuAd’s innovative twist on behavior targeting is based upon monitoring individuals’ internet browsing habits through their ISP, essentially seeing all the sites and pages that a user visits. (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 12/11/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Paid Search, Research and Development, Security, technology behavioral targeting, internet ads, internet advertising, Nebu Ad, NebuAd, online ads, online-advertising
Barack Obama Ad on LinkedIn
I saw this clever ad for Barack Obama running in the right sidebar of my LinkedIn profile page today:
I think it’s an ad, because the clickthrough link is tracked through DoubleClick. When you click on that ad, though, it pops you over to LinkedIn’s Question & Answers section… (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 09/13/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Marketing, Social Media Optimization Barack-Obama, linkedin, Political-Advertising, SMO, Social Media Optimization
Examples of Roof Ads
I thought it might be interesting to do a survey of roof ads from around the country, so here are a number of examples that can be found in online mapping systems such as Google Maps.
Roof Ad in New York City
If you recall, over a year ago I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about how to optimize rooftop ads for best exposure in online maps, although some of the tips could actually be taken seriously if one did wish to market through advertising in this manner.
Roof Ads near Miami Airport (click to enlarge)
Now, most of the “roofvertisements” I could find were likely done with the intention of targeting promotional messages to airplane passengers, since most of the examples I can find are from buildings located near major airports. In happy serendipity for these companies, these ads are now also visible through the satellite images and aerial photos that have become table stakes for map search interfaces, so they’re getting dual use for them along with extra ad impressions. It’s pretty surprising to me that more companies haven’t painted promotional copy on their roofs, though, since I see tons of expansive, white roof “canvas” that would be ideal for this located near airports.
The Salvation Army in Seattle – (click to enlarge)
Click through for even more samples. (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 08/30/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Maps Advertisements, Advertising, Google-Maps, Guerilla-Advertising, Rooftop-Ads, Roofvertising, Satellite-Images
Should you buy search ads for your brand keywords?
I confess, as a search engine optimizer, I used to think that buying ads for one’s own brand name was a complete waste of money. After all, all companies should rank in top slots for their own brand name(s), if they’re doing their SEO right, and if you’re ranking tops then people will be able to find you if they’re looking for you. As such, I thought that buying ads for your own name was just paying for clicks that should rightly come to you anyway.
But over time, I’ve heard other experts stating that their research shows that having ad presence for brands along with natural search ranking appears to enhance overall click through rates in a synergistic manner. And, with greater experience, I’ve seen a number of cases when companies really should be buying their own brand name keywords for ads!
I see that George Michie over at the Rimm-Kaufman Group criticized a recent Microsoft study claiming that some advertisers are wasting money by buying their own brands in paid search ads — and I think George was right to criticize this. Read on and I’ll elaborate…
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 08/24/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, brand names, Monetization of Search, Paid Search Atlas-Study, brand names, brand-ppc, brand-search, Microsoft-Ads, Paid Search, paid-vs-natural, Pay-Per-Click, ppc
Pay-Per-Action Ads may open up Google to being a victim of fraud
I was just reading Barry Schwartz’s report that Google is opting-in some AdSense publishers into Pay Per Action (CPA) ads. He poses the question of why would Google push these ads on the publishers who haven’t asked for it? The immediate answer I come up with is that this could actually be a test to try to detect fraud, since CPA is thought to be less prone to exploit. After all, the publisher would only get paid for these ads if someone buys – not just clicks on the ads on their sites. Perhaps the publishers that are getting opted-in are ones for which Google has had some question about the quality of click-through in their regular PPC ads.
I’ve been thinking that an unpublished problem with Google’s pay-per-action product is that Google itself is likely to become more a victim of fraud with these types of ads. Read on and I’ll describe…
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 07/26/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Google, Paid Search, Tricks, Worst Practices click-fraud, Cost-Per-Action, CPA, Google-AdSense, Pay-Per-Action
Search Marketing Basics Tip: Include a URL on Your Products
This may seem like a no-brainer because, well, it is — but if you manufacture and sell products you should think of ways to include your contact information on those items so that people could find out where to get them – particularly you should include a URL. The typical person encounters and uses hundreds of objects every day, so leaving your company info off of your products can represent a lot of missed opportunities. Read on for details…
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 06/22/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Link Building, Marketing Marketing, Offline-Promotion, Product-Marketing, search-marketing
Cool Yellow Pages Billboard Ads from Israel
Ad agency Young & Rubicam’s Israeli office came up with this great billboard and tv campaign to promote the Golden Pages — Isreal’s primary yellow pages company. This is one of the more effective yellow pages billboard campaigns I’ve seen — they’re funny, engaging, and simple enough to read when driving:
Acupuncture – billboard for Israeli Yellow Pages, the Golden Pages
Here’s their funny pinnocchio-inspired video ad.
The Y&R Israel blog shows some of these in Hebrew – I’m assuming they mocked up the ads in English primarily for promotional release distribution in America — I bet these English versions of the ads are not actually being used on billboards anywhere, but I couldn’t get confirmation from Y&R before posting this.
Click through to see some more cool billboards from the sequence…
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 06/13/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Local Search, Yellow Pages Ads, Advertising, Billboards, Golden-Pages, iyp, Online-Yellow-Pages, Yellow Pages, Young-&-Rubicam, YP
Laser-Projected Graffiti Ads on Buildings
In yet another example of cyberpunk fiction turned to reality, the Graffiti Research Lab has assembled a mobile unit that can project messages (“graffiti”) onto the sides of any large structure using a computer, laser projector, and a bicycle-powered generator. They recently tooled around Barcelona doing this up until the police apparently ticketed them and confiscated the projection equipment. Looking past the mischievous fun of the idea, could this be a new trendy advertising medium, about to take Madison Avenue by storm? Guerilla marketing companies seem to think so – click through for more of my thoughts on the matter.
The Batsignal, by Graffiti Research Lab, Barcelona, 2007
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 06/11/2007
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Filed under: Advertising, Futurism, Marketing Ad-Campaigns, Ads, Advertising, cyberpunk, Futurism, Guerilla-Advertising, Guerilla-Marketing
