Author Archive

It’s hot. So hot that my blog is about something completely unrelated to digital media. It’s about summer fashion. Enjoy.

I am a big “rule follower” when it comes to fashion. No white before Easter or after Labor Day. Suede is for Winter, formal parties starting after 6pm mean black tie. I get it. But, in Austin it doesn’t seem fair.

Our summer starts very early and lasts until mid-October. In late July and August it is simply too hot to really wear anything other than shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. (I know, shudder). This all really hit me this weekend when I looked in the closet at all the linen pants, shirts and seersucker, whit bucs and gingham that I have in my closet that it’s just too hot to wear right now. I hate it because Labor Day is fast approaching and I’ll have to put it all away.

Maybe I’ll issue a edict that until daily temps are consistently below 90 degrees, summer fashion is acceptable. I’ll confront dirty looks from the five people in Austin that even know what I’m violating a rule with righteous indignation.

This year’s iMedia Agency Summit at the Lost Pines Resort was another great event. We came away with a lot of good new ideas for our clients and learned about some new opportunities in the digital space.  I’m a big fan of separating the wheat from the chaff in digital media, so I loved the keynote “The Tyranny of Dead Internet Ideas” by Upstream Group’s Doug Weaver.

The summit brings the nation’s top digital agency media folks together in a setting that provides education and fellowship. It is a great place to connect and learn from each other. We always come away energized and more focused on delivering results for our clients.

I’ve been catching up on my reading this morning and found a few things to share. I’ve already Tweeted them, facebooked them and told everyone in the office so now I’m going to share them on the blog.

I embrace the Blackberry. So, I was glad to read this post on the top 10 Blackberry apps from Mashable.

The decline of Foursquare?  While social media location tools and apps are being hyped as the “next big thing” I like the honesty that asks if these services will survive long-term.  In the digital world we sometimes rush to embrace new technology and services without really evaluating their long-term efficacy or impact on our clients’ brands.

Adobe is biting back at Apple. I love competition. So, while I may think Apple is being a little harsh with their public criticism of Adobe, I also think Adobe needed a shakeup. I like watching the public catfight between these two companies that are not known for “openness” talk about being open.

Interactive advertising budgets continue to grow, even in a down economy. While media budgets overall may be stagnant, more and more marketers are moving budgets to the digital space. The digital advertising space provides measurable and affordable answers for marketers trying to improve ROI without budget increases.

We continue to see our budgets grow as our clients see direct results from the campaigns we run. Whether they are looking for engagement, leads or to close deals online the digital space is providing good value and results at affordable rates.

As digital budgets continue to grow, publishers have to maintain quality content and inventory to meet the growing demand. We’re talking to you, publishers that put five banners at the bottom of pages to try and meet our impression goals!

This isn’t the first time everyone has been all twitterpated on the privacy settings and failures for facebook. I have been an outspoken critic of the lack of privacy until I realized that we would not be subject to these invasions of privacy if we weren’t addicted to the narcissistic practice of self-publishing our every move and thought so maybe we all get what we deserve. Gawker thinks we’ll never quit.

What started for college kids to connect and hook up has turned into a national obsession. Marketers are insisting that brands cannot neglect an awesome facebook fan page and people are wasting hours of productivity updating their status when they should be working.

All the criticism aside, I love facebook.

Using facebook is a great way for me to connect to long lost friends and recapture the great memories we share. It’s also a great way for brands to connect with their consumers, if done the right way.  We advise brands to be engaged in social media and to have real live conversations and interactions with their constituents. When done correctly, facebook can connect a faceless corporation with people in deeply personal ways. This can elevate a brand and develop loyalty among consumers in a way that other mediums cannot.

Recently, I culled my friends list to people that live far away or family. When I see friends I say, “How are things going with you? I’m genuinely interested because I deleted you on facebook.” It gets a laugh and leads to a real live conversation where I’m engaged without using a social network to connect to people.

Chevy sponsored Glee’s Sue Sylvester re-creating the famous Madonna “Vogue” video. By tying themselves to this high quality content that combines icons and ties itself to a popular television show, Chevy is gaining a lot of free additional advertising.

Here’s the video

Since Chevy sponsored the video and isn’t paying by the impression (I’m assuming) they follow the video as it makes its way across thousands of facebook pages, blogs and emails. It also quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.

This is an innovative way of showcasing the evolution in television advertising. Chevy sponsored a three minute clip that promoted a television show. The synergy makes my head hurt. It also gets an end-run around the DVR generation since you have to view the Chevy sponsorship to see the video.

Consider me gushing.

We saw it coming with the release of the iPad—Apple is taking “dead aim at Google’s search advertising” with its iAd mobile advertising platform (MediaPost.com). The good news for agencies like ours is that it brings another competitor to the marketplace and expands the reach of our geotargeted, hyper-local mobile advertising.  Yes, it has taken some time for publishers to get on the mobile advertising bandwagon, particularly with the dramatic increase in and technological improvements to mobile devices (such as the iPhone, Android, and other “smart” phones) over the past few years.

Our agency has worked with some of the “early adapters” for some time now—Pandora, Yelp, AdMob and Google Mobile, among others—and with moderate success for our clients.

We don’t see mobile digital advertising as a replacement for traditional online display ads (did we actually just use the word “traditional” to describe online advertising?!?), but it certainly is another option to offer for campaigns with specific geo and demographic targets. For example, if we have a campaign that has a primary goal of reaching 18-34 year-old males in a specific state with a precise number of impressions in mind, and a secondary goal of a high click-through and conversion rate (say, signing up on a web site), mobile advertising is something we would absolutely consider including in that proposal—from Pandora music to text ads.

Read more about Apple’s iAd mobile platform here and, as always, contact us directly if you have a product or service you’re ready to take to the (digital) streets!

I’m having a great time at iMedia’s Breakthrough Summit this year. It never ceases to amaze me at the speed in which new technology presents us with so many new and exciting ways to reach our client’s audiences. First of all, it is a special honor for me to even be in the room with the attendees. VP’s of Ogilvy & Mather, Brand Managers for Kraft and Best Buy, and the media buyers for some of the world’s leading brands. I feel smarter just being here.

This year’s focus has been on “Mobile” and I have to admit, I’ve long been a naysayer when it comes to spending a lot of money on mobile. I still believe it isn’t right for every client, but I have to fess up that I’ve changed my mind about mobile on some levels.

In addition to Mobile, here are a few things on the list that I can’t wait to share with our clients (and prospective clients) that I believe will help them generate great results on their upcoming campaigns.

• Mobile “Location” Advertising–Both in GPS systems and on mobile devices, this technology serves relevant ads to a relevant audience when a user is nearby. Wow! Can  you imagine looking for an ATM and having a map pop up and tell you your bank has one nearby? Or how about for political candidates using it to advertise early voting locations? Those are examples for the types of clients we work with but the possibilities for retail, travel, entertainment clients are outstanding. I look forward to the opportunity to include this in an conversation with you.
• Mobile “Click to Call” Advertising–Just like it sounds, mobile ads can now include a “click to call” or “click to email” option within the banner itself. Talk about getting an immediate response from your media. I love this idea.
• Music Video Content Advertising–I especially like this for awareness campaigns trying to reach the young male audience. The fact that it can be targeted like nobody’s business also impresses me.
• In-Game Content Advertising–What if your food brand could be the ingredients in a game where you run your own bakery? Kooky, I know, but what if I told you Moms 25-40 were playing these games for 45 minutes on average. Still Kooky?
• Original Content Production–I enjoyed the vendors that talked about creating original content and distributing that content for your client. My first thought was, “That would cost a million dollars.” But, I was pleasantly surprised at the affordability.
• Reaching the Frequent Traveler–There are now ad platforms that reach travelers in airport by sponsoring wi-fi hotspots, wrapping display around wi-fi and OOH (Out Of Home) video displays inside airports. As a frequent business traveler I actually pay attention to these ads out of sheer boredom.
• Social Media Apps Advertising–I really liked this idea for the hard to reach male 18-34 demographic. What a great tool to use in-content advertising geo-targeted and reach an audience for an awareness campaign.

All in all, iMedia this year has given me great additions to the toolbox for our client solutions. I still believe my favorite quote is “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” I apply that logic to a lot of the latest technology and drill down targeting capabilities with online advertising, however, there are some exciting new ways we can reach your audience with affordable solutions that make sense.

I cannot wait to talk to you about them. What are you waiting for? Let’s schedule a meeting.

This time of year we spend a lot of time hearing about who bought advertising in the Super Bowl. We talk about the ads and whether or not they made us laugh. But, the question I pose to our clients every day when we talk about placing media doesn’t change just because it is the Super Bowl.

“Are you getting your money’s worth for

this media buy?”

A thirty or sixty second media buy in the Super Bowl can cost you up to $3 million dollars. In 2009, an estimated 93 million people watched the Super Bowl. Sure, millions more talked about and saw the ads. But, remember they were 30 second spots.

For $3 million dollars, Broad Street Interactive could put your ad on premium content sites across the country for a month and display your ad over 280 million times.

That’s the kind of math that makes sense to me.

So, enjoy the ads you see for thirty seconds on television and then next month come back and tell me who those advertisers were and what brand lift that is long lasting was the result.

A 280 million ad impression online digital campaign could run for several months providing long lasting residual brand lift and strong call to action opportunities that television simply cannot.

Not to mention that you cannot interact with a Super Bowl ad. You can’t click on it and be directed to a place where you could make an immediate purchase, send a letter to a congressman or learn about an issue or enroll in a class. Broadcast ads have their place, but the wild spending associated around one television event is a waste of marketing dollars and only the most vain CMOs are placing media around the event.

Reaching your customer has never been more exciting. Some would say fractured and difficult. We say it’s become more strategic and effective. Ask us how we can strategically reach your audience in ways that don’t cost you the entire annual marketing budget!

I hope you are having a prosperous, and profitable, New Year. Recently, I read an interesting post written by Jay Friedman on iMedia Connection and felt compelled to offer my two cents on the subject. In his post, Jay invites agencies and ad network providers to volunteer full disclosure to their advertising partners on the placement and performance of their ads. Well, d’uh. Full disclosure so you know what you are getting when you place a big media buy? Why is that so controversial? Well, it’s because ad networks have made it that way. They have created these ad exchanges with publishers to purchase remnant inventory and now that advertisers know they can purchase them and get placement on premium sites without buying it directly from the premium site, content publishers suddenly hate ad networks.

Ad networks make a great villain in the online advertising space. Some of it warranted. Ad networks created a way for advertisers to purchase ad impressions at a cheap rate with the blind faith that they were reaching their targeted audience on reputable sites. As the ad networks grew, the blind network became a risk the advertisers had to manage. In addition to getting lucky and getting your ads placed on premium sites; advertisers also discovered their ads were running on questionable sites. Reaching failblog.org audiences may be appropriate for some retail clients, but probably not where American Express should see their ads.

So, ad networks became the villain; the scary out of control “outlet mall” of advertising. As a group of former publishers we created ad channels for our clients with full disclosure from day one. We have never built a “blind ad network” for any of our clients. We negotiate pricing at a fair rate and we believe you get what you pay for.

If you only want impressions for your client, buy remnant and rock bottom ad impressions from any number of ad networks. If you want to know that your ads are reaching their intended audience, are on reputable premium content websites and are above the fold and not buried in unsold inventory, contact us for a full site list of where we will place online ads.

We whole-heartedly endorse the policy proposed by Mr. Friedman. In fact, most of what was suggested, is a part of the standard service we provide for all our clients.

At Broad Street Interactive you have a right to know on what sites and where on those sites your ads appear, you have a right to be protected from unfair or ineffective placement practices and only have your ads appear on an approved site list in premium placements.

Our policy of full disclosure and accountability is an integral part of how we ensure positive, long-term relationships and trust with our client partners. Being completely transparent is how we demonstrate the efficacy of our ad distribution channels and provide real ROI for what is the most measurable and effective form of advertising.

If you are working with an ad network that won’t provide you with a full site list and consult with you on where your ads should and will be running, then you should call us right away.