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Online Media Buys Defeats Offline Print Spend in 2010

Christina — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:37:05 +0000

Exciting news for online advertisers! Online advertising spend comes in at #1 in 2010, totaling $25.8 billion, closely followed by print publications at $25.7 billion. Many advertisers have shifted offline spend to new online campaigns, some even dabbling in social networking media buys. Advertisers are shifting offline dollars to campaigns that have more measureable results such as banner ads or email campaigns. Even more stunning forecasts are that online display spend will overtake search ads by 2014.

Improvements for Twitter

Nicky — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:27:53 +0000

Twitter recently announced some of their biggest news all year offering video and pictures for tweet posts. This new feature will show a sidebar on the twitter screen that will allow the user to post a picture or video relating to their tweet as opposed to a link or a separate website. Before this, users were limited to 140 characters to share their tweet without visuals.

The new Twitter is also expected to include better advertisements and a way to scroll to the bottom of the page without clicking on a “more” button. They believe these moves will help make them more “user friendly”.Twitter partnered with several media providers including YouTube and Google in order to make this move possible. With Facebook continuing to gather people all over world, Twitter may be thinking of ways to keep with their social media users. Will you be switching to Twitter to share pictures or videos or continue to post them on outlets such as Facebook?

Has Advertisement Retargeting Gone To Far?

Christina — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:23:12 +0000

Have you ever browsed in the world of online shopping then noticed you kept seeing that pair of pants you just couldn’t commit to buying appears on multiple sites thereafter? Many of us have and probably don’t even flinch at this type of advertising but more and more branded companies are getting involved with retargeting campaigns.

A retargeting campaign is simply when a website places a cookie on the users computer to track their buying or lack of buying habits so the advertiser can serve more relevant ads to the consumer.

In many instances this is a great way to “remind” the consumer of something they were recently interested in but possibly didn’t have the time to complete a transaction. In other cases ad retargeting can become an embarrassing nuisance, as it did for one consumer. Ms. Matlin was recently hounded by ads for dieting services she has previously used online, “ they are still following me around, and it makes me feel fat”.

Retargeting is not showing any signs of slowing down, but where do we draw the line when invading consumer’s privacy?

6 Steps to Acquiring Lifetime Customers via Email

Christina — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:39:34 +0000

Email marketing can be tricky and tedious, following the 6 steps below can help you build your lifetime customer base.

Delivered: Once upon a time a valid email address was a sign of success. Fast forward to reality and just having an email address means squat. There are many more variables such as knowing what the consumer likes, when they shop and what offers they respond to so you can target the right message at the right time of day.

Opened: Open rates used to be used to simply optimize subject lines, now advertisers are learning more from this statistic. The consumer trusted your brand to open the email, you reached them at a convenient time and your message was of interest. One must also keep in mind that consumers may just be opening your email to unsubscribe.

Credible: Measuring the read rate of your message is a more accurate indicator of user engagement. A message should remain open for longer then 5 seconds to indicate the user has read the message and not simply clicked your unsubscribe link.

Relevant: Advertisers must use all data such as purchase history, RFM metrics and clickstream reports to build a successful targeted email campaign.

Interactive: All advertisers want their customers to share their positive experiences. The more relevant your ads are to the consumer the more likely they are to blog, tweet or refer new customers to your products.

Engaged: An engaged user is one that continues to respond to your marketing efforts, it’s great to have a consumer purchase once but if a user is targeted correctly by the 5 steps above they will become a lifetime customer.

Do You Have A Favorite Jingle?

Natasha Aronov — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:55:24 +0000

Marketing comes in many different forms, one of the catchiest are the “stick in your head” jingles. According to Forbes.com these are the best advertising jingles as voted on by a group of CMO’s and advertising executives. To have a successful jingle, the consumer must listen to it, and not only like it – but want to sing it! Once people starting singing the jingle, they all essentially become advertisers for that brand. Were you ever caught singing any of these?

I’d like to buy the world a Coke ( Coca Cola )
Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener (Oscar Mayer)
Two all beef patties (McDonalds)
I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid (Toys ‘R Us)
You Deserve a Break Today (McDonald’s)
Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too? (Dr. Pepper)
Campbell’s Soup M’m M’m Good ( Campbell’s Soup)
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz oh what a relief it is…(Alka Seltzer)
Stuck on Me (Band-Aid)
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun (Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum)

What Was Your Favorite Super Bowl Ad?

Natasha Aronov — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:01:01 +0000

Those five words seem to be to most said that day after the Super Bowl. It seems as if people are more interested in watching the new television ads rather than the actual Superbowl (unless your team is playing or you have money riding on it, of course!). This year does not seem as if it is going to be any different. According to a Nielsen survey, 51 percent of viewers are more interested in watching the Super Bowl for its ads, rather than the actual game. The survey also shows that viewers are more likely to remember the ads that are shown in the first quarter rather then the second, third, and fourth (the fourth having the least recall, only at 25 percent). Most of the ads that show in the fourth quarter tend to have similar ratings to a regular television commercial.
So how much cash is being shelled out this year? For a thirty second spot, it will cost an advertiser three million dollars. When spending that type of money for such a short period of time, advertisers are trying harder than ever to make sure that their commercials are remembered. Companies such has Papa Johns got creative by taking this years Super Bowls roman numeral and turning it in to a new pizza offer. Super Bowl XLIV will now be a Papa Johns Xtra Large four(IV) topping pizza. Boost Mobile is giving consumers a sneak peak of their ad on YouTube, for hopes that it will create excitement and buzz before it is aired during the game. Brands are also trying to use social media more for their Super Bowl advertising. Marketers are realizing that social networks is a great way to have people buzz about a product and get the word around.
It is interesting how on a daily basis so many of us will skip through the commercials, but for the Super Bowl we sit down to watch them. Some of the big players that you will see this year will be Frito-Lay, Boost Mobile, Diamond Foods, and many more. It is very important that brands are taking the time to make sure that they are remembered and are coming up with new and creative way to advertise. LeadPile has also been working hard to create new successful offers, however unfortunately we will be sitting this one out with advertising during the Super Bowl. Wishful thinking uh?
Now the only real question is, are you going to be watching it for the game, or the commercials?

Increasing Your Sales During Thanksgiving

Mari Woods Holt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:43:02 +0000

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks and express gratitude. The LeadPile team would like to express our appreciation for your business! In combination of saying thank you, we thought we would share some helpful ideas on increasing your sales during this holiday season:

- Send Thanksgiving cards to your customers, everyone likes to hear thank you!
- Send out an email blast to your clients offering discounted services. This keeps your name in front of your customers and potentially brings them back for more services.
- Get involved with your community and do local sponsorships, to get your name in front of more people. Now is the time to share and people appreciate companies that help the community.
- Look at utilizing social networking as a source for advertising and building relationships, because families and friends stay well connected over the holidays.
- Emphasize family in your communications with your customers.

These are all ideas that might help you jump start your sales during this holiday season.

LeadPile wishes you a warm and happy holiday.

YouTube Testing Skippable Ads

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:08:51 +0000

In years past YouTube tried to roll out in-stream ads (in 1997), however the acceptance of it did not go to well with viewers. Time has past and there are other sites that have incorporates such ads, so YouTube is now looking at taking another stab at it. It makes sense because YouTube is utilized by so many people in so many ways, that incorporating some sort of ads had to become part the of “YouTube Revolution”. The good thing about what YouTube is doing, is that they are creating these ads that are actually able to be skipped. However, what they are finding is that if you have a short 15 second ad, more people are not “skipping” over the ad. This is great news for the advertiser trying to get their ads played. Maybe the future of high priced Super Bowl ads will continue on from our televisions to our computers?
Leadpile has incorporated YouTube into our marketing efforts to help get our name out there, and we can certainly see a potential with bringing in ads to these videos. YouTube has to learn to make money, so what other options do they have but to look at cashing in on all the eyes they have on their videos? I think it is a good marketing idea…..

Happy Birthday Display Ads!

Natasha Aronov — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:15:48 +0000

Fifteen years ago today the first banner advertisement was displayed on www.Hotwired.com. At the time there were only about two million internet uses in the United States and the only way of getting connected was through a slow dial up connection. When banners advertising was first introduced, many companies were very hesitant and weary about such advertisement. Some of the very first companies to sign on to this new way of advertising were MCI, Volvo, 1-800-Collect, and AT&T. The banner ads were a simple static image located at the top of a web page almost acting as the header. Some of the ads did not even have a call to action or show anywhere in the creative what the product being advertised was.
When it was discovered that an ad could be clicked on and have the consumer redirect to the page advertisers did not know what to think. Some loved it, and others not so much because they did not want to seem like they were being pushy. Volvo had their consumers who clicked on their ads be redirected to simple questionnaire about the Volvo they might be interested in.
Banner ads have come a great distance since 1994 when they first started to appear. No longer are they just static images with no call to action on the top of a web page. They now expand, float on the page, have movies/sound embedded, and even can have the user interact and play games within them. Whether the advertisers are just tracking impressions/CTR or are going the distance and tracking CPA/CPL, the ideas and possibilities seem endless for online advertising. I am sure that we are still at the tip of the iceburg with what we have seen so far. It will be very interesting to see what the next fifteen years will bring to online advertising. Leadpile will attempt to keep up with the innovative ideas of the online advertising world!

To Bing, or Not to Bing?

Natasha Aronov — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:02:47 +0000

Microsoft is gearing up to test a new format for ads appearing in the search ad format. Traditionally, this ad type appears as plain text with links either imbedded into the text or in adjacent to. According to MediaPostNEWS, the new ad type that will be live next month will introduce logos and favicons hoping to attract consumers attention as well as generate more search campaign dollars to Bing.
Bing which has continued to increase its market share of the search engine world, and currently sits at 10.7%, still has a long way to go to catch Google who is number 1 with 64.6% of the market share.
When searching, does the ad type on the page attract you to return to a specific search engine? Does ad type affect your choice, more than habit? I know that I have been making an attempt to utilize Bing, but 9 times out of 10 I am at the search results produced by Google before I even realize I made the decision. Flashier ads may attract additional buyers to the ad, but the consumers will have to be attracted to the search engine first!