loudhail » advertising

Now that’s what I want in my ads!

loudhail — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:42:48 +0000

More KKK!

This morning Roxanne, one of my students at INSEEC in London, showed me this poster from a DDB Paris campaign for Live Poker. She said she had to laugh and think of me when she saw it. But why, but why?!?!

This may be one of the most hilarious ads I have seen in a very long time. 10 out of 10!

Social Media (business) basics

loudhail — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:19:31 +0000

This morning there was a wad of good introductory / explanatory articles in AdAge that I want to share with you (in case you are not reading AdAge – which, if you are a communicator, is inexcusable).

This wee little piece is about some common misconceptions about the various Social Media and will explain the different varieties – networks, blogs, microblogging, …

If you are unclear about what mobile marketing means, have a read here.

Look no further if you need to find out what OpenID is.

Not sure what SEO and SEM means, and what the difference between the two is? This article will shed some light on the issue.

Want to maximise your digital advertising impact? Read here for some tips how to achieve that goal.

This post is about the challenges marketers face when trying to utilize the power of Social Networks. Essential reading for communicators!

And finally: some thoughts on shared and private media experiences. I don’t think that our media experiences will be private only, but that we are still sharing them. However, they will be (and increasingly already are) on our own terms and schedules. The magic of word-of-mouth will still drive people with common interests to contents and media that connect them.

As usual, you can also find all these articles in my del.icio.us bookmarks.

Get your money back?

loudhail — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:50:38 +0000

So, the WGA has gone back to renegotiate their contracts with the producers yesterday. No word as of yet how that is going. In the meantime, advertisers are getting nervous. I only just mentioned this possibility to a colleague last week: If TV sellers can’t hold their end of the bargain (which is: deliver the target audience they promised, due to cancelled TV programmes), media buyers might actually ask for their money back! Yesterday I found this article in AdAge, talking about just that. Have a look at it for more details on what might happen as early as next quarter, if the strike doesn’t get resolved soon (and more shows have to stop production). I think that advertisers as well as networks are increasingly learning that as eyeballs are migrating to the web, the paradigm on how online content is monetized will have to change. The crisis in TV advertising is nothing new - TIVO has been wreaking havoc with it in the US for years. But the WGA strike, which makes people with access to broadband internet look online for their video-fix, is illustrating just how ripe the time for online video is. The writers know it, the audience knows it, the media moguls know it. Now they just have to start acting on it – and allow a paradigm shift on a large scale. And the new WGA contracts will have a lot to do with the size and speed of this shift.

Facebook advertising: the good, the bad.

loudhail — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:55:24 +0000

The jury is still out on whether or not Facebook advertising actually works well or not. From what I have seen so far it is as I suspected: it works for some (the ones who comprehend HOW to ENGAGE people) and not for others (the ones who are NOT ENGAGING).
This post on Technobabble has a couple of good examples on the above: Coke and Fox. Coke does an abysmal job of utilizing Facebook. Just have a look at their page and see for yourself: it is stale, stuffy, and worst of all: not engaging whatsoever. As one Ms Flaitz writes on Coke’s wall: “So, If coca-cola really wants to pretend that it’gets’ facebook….the lame company overview has to go”. Coke doesn’t give their fans any rich content. It’s not like they don’t have any videos, or competitions, or creative Marketing/Advertising people (at least this is what I assume, it being Coca-Cola and all), but they don’t seem to use them.
Also, they are not involving their fans: Facebook allows you for example to record and post videos INSIDE the platform. How about a user-generated video contest? Or a Facebook application?
Fox is doing a bit better. Have a look here.
I really liked this one though: jobsearch-website Seek‘s Facebook sponsored group. Not only does it give their fans a rich site with videos (their TV ads), it actually gets them involved with a survey, an application they can add to their profile which tells them about new jobs coming up, some advice ressources on how to put together a good CV, and more. This is reflected in the use of this group (e.g. active fans having discussions) and the number of members (3700+ members – over 2000 more than just a week ago).
All this is pointing to the underlying principle of utilizing Social Media as a Marketing/Communications tool: you need to ENGAGE (with) PEOPLE. That is the only thing that works. The rules of traditional advertising do not apply here. I will keep monitoring advertising on Facebook closely and keep you up-to-date.

P.S.: I am not a fan of any of the above companies (neither online nor offline)… but I am not averse to the idea of declaring myself a fan of an organization at all. Are you a fan of a sponsored group (company or individual) on Facebook?