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.

The transparency of ad placements has always been a struggle between advertisers and blind ad networks. Not knowing where your advertising dollars are going can cost you valuable impressions and clicks towards a campaign. As advertisers have less certainty to where their ad budgets are being allocated, service providers that offer ad-verification placements are becoming more popular.

Why won’t it become standard for ad networks to show clients the site list where they are placing the media? It seems that if a client needs to hire a 3rd party ad-verifier because they do not trust the network they work with, then they shouldn’t be working with them in the first place.

These ad-verification providers, like DoubleVerify, AdSafe and AdXpose, are able to track client’s ads using tracking pixels embedded in the ad tags. They are then able to monitor where the ads are being placed and remove them from sites that are inappropriate to the client—not to mention a refund from the publisher’s network. These ad-verifiers do more than just ensure that your ad doesn’t appear on adult content sites, but also review any specified IO agreements like page placements and geo-targeted placements.

“The use of verification is growing exponentially,” said Kent Wakeford, chief revenue officer of AdSafe. “It’ll become standard in online media buying.”

Although this new ad-verification service is able to catch and report the problem of misplaced ads, it doesn’t necessarily solve it. Even if the ad is taken down from an inappropriate site, the inventory bought is still lost from the media buy. The client is now getting a reduced number of impressions and has nowhere to place the excess media.

Fees for such services are about 5 cents per thousand impressions and although that seems low, it is an unnecessary expense to a client for trying to place media fairly. Fully transparent networks are the only way to give clients the confidence of using an agency without having to hire ad-verifiers.

Here at Broad Street Interactive, our ad placements are fully transparent on our hyper-local CPM ad buys. There is no “blind ad network” so you don’t have to worry about not knowing exactly where you are spending your money. When you pay for a media buy with Broad Street Interactive you get a full site list and approval of each media plan before we place any ad.

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.