Banner advertising has long been the bane of web surfers around the world.  Garrish, annoying and ineffective, it’s rare that a campaign actually expresses any level of creativity or effectiveness.

As social networks entered the scene - ripe with rich, detailed demographic data about each and every user - advertisers simply couldn’t resist. But, an odd thing happened on the way to targeting users in online communities. No one clicked on the ads.

It seems once inside the walled garden of Facebook or among friends on MySpace, users weren’t in any mood to search for new mortgage rates or purchase airline tickets and avoided the ads at all cost. In the latest attempt to earn more clicks through banner advertising on social networks, the social media advertising firm SocialMedia launched "social banners," which create banner ads that incorporate you or your friends into the ad. CNet writes:

For example, instead of a banner advertising The Incredible Hulk movie, a social banner would ask which of your close Facebook friends, among a short list, you’d like to invite to see the movie. Or a social banner might inform you that a friend Jim just ranked Iron Man with three stars, and it might ask to "click here to buy tickets at Fandango."

While the intent may be, "to make ads suck less in social networks," said Seth Goldstein, founder of San Francisco-based SocialMedia Networks, this move could bring a backlash similar to the Facebook Beacon uproar from last year. The privacy issues that arise are incredibly complex.

Continue reading "Social Banner Ads Continue to Frustrate"

One of my favorite tools for the online marketer is Google Website Optimizer. I’ve been planning on writing a post with some solid case studies regarding Google’s Website Optimizer; but in the meantime, I just wanted to let our readers know that Google is hosting a website workout contest.

What is a website workout? Here is the official explanation:

Our consultants will work with you to discover ways in which we can increase site performance. Using Website Optimizer, our free website testing and optimization tool, a team of experts will work with you to determine the page layout, headlines, images, and text that will drive the most business from your site.

The short of it: You can win a chance for Google’s team to optimize your website using Website Optimizer.

The deadline for entry is June 17th, so check it out here!

 

By Josh Chambers & Ryan Moede

It’s easy to spot the two schools of thought in marketing and advertising today.  You’re either a "new school" marketer (you think Twitter is going to save the world), or you’re an "old school" marketer (you still double-click on hyperlinks and think TV spots are the future). The two groups don’t seem to communicate—and, worse yet, they actually seem to dislike one another.

In a recent discussion with Lisa Throckmorton from Speakerbox, we were talking about that very thing—the polarization of old school and new school marketing. Long story short, we decided it might be a good idea to get a few DC marketing professionals together with a variety of backgrounds to toss around ideas on how to navigate the current marketing waters—marketers who value traditional marketing, as well as who "get" newer online marketing. The "middle school" as Lisa called it.

Yesterday morning was our first gathering—and, we have to say, it was a blast. It was encouraging to hear other marketers resonate with the discomfort surrounding this polarization and hear their insight on why that is, and how we can move past it.

Continue reading "Our First “Middle School” Marketing Gathering"

It’s easy to spot the advertising and marketing today done by companies who simply don’t care about delivering valuable marketing to their customers – companies too content with interrupting them with annoying, trivial messaging.
Some, however, are beginning to see the light.

There may be several names for it, but no matter what you call it, there is no doubt that brand marketing must deliver value. Some like to think of it as marketing with meaning. Others have dubbed it branded utility (something I’ve written about before.) Still others prefer marketing as service.

No matter which way you slice it, brands are beginning to realize that the best way to make their product and advertising stand out amid the unparalleled noise is to simply provide value through their marketing. In the past, it may have—at best—been possible to satisfy a customer with trivial marketing and advertising if at least the product delivered. But now, customers expect both the information selling the product and the quality of the product to live up to their promise.

FastCompany’s Bill Breen writes, "Overloaded by sales pitches, consumers are gravitating toward brands that they sense are true and genuine. Hunger for the authentic is all around us. You can see it in the way millions are drawn to mission-driven products like organic foods."

Continue reading "Market Like You Mean It"

A post on Copyblogger today inspired me.  It opens,

Whether you’re promoting a product, a program or just an idea, exuberance sells. One of the reason blogs can be so effective is that their writers tend to show more enthusiasm than polish. And that’s not a bad thing—if you have to pick one over the other, enthusiasm wins.

As Sonia Simone says, enthusiasm can’t be faked.  Likewise, I’ve always found it MUCH easier to write compelling copy for people who are excited about their products or services.  When I have to struggle to find new ways of selling something through words that aren’t founded on some degree of passion, I’ve already lost the battle. 

For example, several years ago, I was asked to write some copy.  When I questioned, "What am I trying to convey?," my source responded, "That we’re better."

As Christopher Walken says, "Wowwy Wow Wow wow!" I couldn’t wait to get started writing engaging copy for a service that has no unique goals! 

Seriously, it was among the greatest challenges I’ve faced from a writing perspective.  I felt forced throughout the exercise, and when I finally delivered the product (taking longer than originally expected, since I didn’t have the personal energy to drive a quick flow of ideas), I wasn’t proud of it.  Amazingly, the stakeholders thought it was great, and they found mild returns once they implemented it in their collateral. 

But I wonder how my writing would have changed—and how many more conversions we could have encouraged—had the initial sell been wrought with admirable enthusiasm to energize the team and its writer.