Results for articles with tag 'ads' (4 total)
11/02/2009 10:32:48 AM 
(1) 
(1) The reality that logos can be purchased for $5 and ads can be sourced from the crowd, should be sending a giant reality check through the halls of branding and communication agencies worldwide.
Of course, it's easy to sit in the ivory tower and talk about how the logos and ads we design and make are so much better than the ones created by the crowd and stock illustrators, but no one maybe listening.
The industry can no longer take it for granted that it's the only game in town and that there a legions of willing clients eager to pay top dollar for its services.
There are probably way more, but here are 4 implications for this to start the conversation rolling.
1. Competition is Everywhere- we need to get over this. We need to be able to communicate what makes us different and why we are better than everyone else. Proof, proof and more proof.
2. Effectiveness Awards Need to Be Visible- While everyone in the industry may be aware of The Effies, not all of corporate America is. More could be done here and the same for the design awards.
3. What's Your Value Add?- You make ads and your help companies with their identity, but what else do you do? Is there anything about how you get to ads or design that makes the results better and can you prove this?
4. What Do You Make?- Being typecast as the guys and girls who makes ads and logos is a very dangerous place to be, it places you right in the competitive firing line. The world is going to belong to make things, those who make powerful intellectual leaps and bring new ideas to the world. The communication industry needs to be here, creating powerful ideas that make meaning. Instead of ads and logos, think cultures, products, applications, ideas and intellectual property.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/28/2008 01:47:59 PM
Although we are supposedly in a Brand 2.0 world, most of the thinking still seems to come from the C20th industrial age, it doesn't treat consumers with any respect and has no desire to deliver or provide interaction or engagement.
It's basically Spam; a mutation of Viagra emails.
Here's a case.
Some of the most popular applications on Facebook are games.
Since Facebook now has in excess of 100 million users, that's a lot of eyeballs and and a lot of opportunity to make money.
Many of the games are very addictive, some even generate 60 page views per user/day.
These gamers need points, rewards, favors to make it through the game and to the top of the leader board. This is where the ads come in; in return for taking up an offer, getting a free quote or signing on for a trial subscription, you get "the crack" of those favor points.
In the heat of the game, most gamers are willing to do pretty much anything to get an advantage, even if it means getting a free insurance quote.
For the brands, they are are hardly qualified leads and have nothing to do with engagement.
Nothing to do with 2.0.
Here's the disconnect, despite all the talk of engagement, conversations, etc in this Brand 2.0 space, most of the efforts still work on the interruption model.
They either disturb consumers at a moment when they don't want to be disturbed, or they are open to abuse because they offer something of greater value to the user at the moment, than the products or services they provide.
Posted by Ed Cotton
02/10/2008 10:33:32 AM
I have often written about the privacy invasion problems of advertising on cellphones, but this Blyk is looking like a big success in advertising terms and in the build out of an installed base.
The advertising appears to be performing amazingly well, the network has achieved an average 29% response rate for the close to 500 campaigns it's run to date. The advertising success is due to the format, Blyk sends text and picture messages to its user base who see it as part of a conversation and don't have the hassle of browsing around mobile websites.
The company's installed base in the UK currently numbers 100K.
Advertisers seem to find the opportunities of brand conversation and interaction appealing with the likes of Adidas, Ford, L'Oreal, McDonald's all participating.
It appears Blyk is worth looking at for mobile operators and MVNOs in the US who are struggling to find ways of adding advertising revenue.
Blyk has looked at its whole model from the perspective of the user and provides the low-cost service that this demographic requires and thinks about advertising as an on-going information-rich conversation that the user interacts with, rather than simply media placement to grab eyeballs.
Posted by Ed Cotton
07/11/2007 07:23:47 AM