von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 24, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Culture, Digital Marketing, Digital News, Marketing, Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing
So who is surprised about this move, really? Wasn’t it obvious that at some point, Facebook will leverage their knowledge about their userbase? As it says in a Wall Street Journal article:
Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves. Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.
Sofar, targeting was only possible in terms of age, gender and location. In the future, targeting variables can include anything that users enter, e.g. personal information, planned events, music preferences, and much more, especially if information from widgets is included…
This sounds much like the well-feared transparent consumer. But apparently, Facebook will at least not disclose any information to advertisers:
Facebook would use its technology to point the ads to the selected groups of people without exposing their personal information to the advertisers.
The only thing that strikes me is the fact, that the ads will be within the news feed area. Of course, that’s an area with lots of attention, but I doubt users will like that! But, according to that article, Facebook needs these iprovements, because people spend a lot of time on the site, but don’t click on the ads…
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 21, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Digital News, Marketing, Online Advertising, SEO / SEA
Read/writeweb has an interesting observation. Apparently Amazon has started to place ads on their site that lead to products in shops on completely different sites. Some ads are contextual, others are not. And Alex asks, why on earth Amazon would do something like that, i.e. sending people out of their shop to go somewhere else?
Here are a few thoughts why it might make sense:
- People might remember that they found what they were looking for when visiting the amazon site. Sort of like Google whose tools are all more or less designed to send people away. AFTER they found what they were looking for.
- Amazon should know the parts of the site where they are loosing the most users anyway, simply because of natural drop out rates that always occur on sites. This way, they can at least earn some money with people who would never have purchased anything in the first place, too. Question is: would they also integrate the banners on pages with well-selling products?
- Learning about the click behaviour for products that amazon doesn’t list, is really clever (and paid for) market research into the gaps of their product offering.
- Who says, that margins of products sold are always better than advertising revenue. Most of the web 2.0 sites base their business model on advertising revenue rather than actual products. Amazon can probably offer a good, if not the best, targeting based on their recommendation engine. Does anyone know what they charge per click or per CPM? I bet it’s dearer than most sites you can put your ads on. (And it should well be worth the money!)
These are just four thoughts that immediately came into my mind, why it could possibly make sense for amazon to start placing ads on their site. Any other ideas, anyone?
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 13, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Marketing
Are kids easy to fool? Can a little branding make things much tastier for them? Of course it can! Well, at least this article says it can. Wrap anything in something branded by McDonalds and the kids seem to be liking it!
„You see a McDonald’s label and kids start salivating,“ said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.
So be careful about the bad effects advertising and branding might have on your kids.
But hey – only your kids? Shouldn’t you also watch out for yourself? Don’t you think it is rather easy to be fooled as an adult, too? Well, think again. Because this article mentions a study, that tested adults for perception of well branded vs not well branded wine.
Of course it’s not about an overarching (golden) brand symbol. But it’s about perception nevertheless. What is your opinion on wine from North Dakota? Don’t have any (opinion, that is)? How about wine from California? That bell makes you salivate?
In that study conducted by Cornell professors, a group of diners was served the same wine, either labeled as wine from california, or labeled as wine from North Dakota – both carrying the name of a non-existent winery. Guess which one the group preferred? Correct!
Branding can be sooo misleading! *g*
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 12, 2007 | Blog, Digital Culture, Digital Marketing, Digital News, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Social Media Marketing
This seems so obvious, yet it took some time to realize it. According to this Reuters article, Blue Note records (one of the most famous brands for Jazz Music) has dived into offering a digital experience:
The label is in the process of revamping the site to become a social network and digital music store for fans of jazz and blues — the staples of the Blue Note catalog — rather than a simple promotional Web site for its artists.
They are targetting the age group of the 35 to 55 year olds. It’s not the typical target group for downloading music and/or getting heavily involved in social networks, you might think.
But it is indeed a target group
- with more money available than the teens (and apparently more willing to spend it on music, too)
- looking for specialised music – think about the long tail effects of digital music!
There seems to be a trend, as Blue Note is not the first:
Blue Note’s pending Web site is just the latest. Universal Music Group opened a digital jazz and classical music service in the United Kingdom in January, and last December a social networking site aimed at the 35-and-up crowd called Urban Boomer (UBTunes) went live.
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 9, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Digital News, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing
von Roland Hachmann | Aug. 8, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Advertising
I agree with Martina. This site does display not much about the new Audi A5. The main site is about lines. Lines and piano music. It is beautiful, almost meditative. Take a look yourself, it is very easy:
But the connection to the car is very far fetched. You get some idea of how they came about the idea for this site when watching the clip in „about the Audi A5“. It is, as you probably imagined, all about the new design of the car:
Nicely done for a product launch campaign. But they will need some follow up later on to lead people to the product site and/or car configurator…
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