Mplans Blog

Google Exec on Future of Online Advertising

So Google, which grew up on well-placed and well-managed text ads, is looking for greater user experience ads in the future. Sean Ammirati quotes Google's Sheryl Sandberg on Next-Generation Advertising in a good post today on Read/WriteWeb. He points out the irony of talk of greater experience from the text-ad giant. He summarizes her talk at the SuperNova conference.

He was surprised as well with the suggestion that "Advertisements need to continue increasing personalization." And not surprised that she highlighted social networking and consumers creating content as other trends.

-- Tim Berry

Not Just Traffic, but Targeted Traffic

Bill Brelsford makes a good point today in Small Business Building Blocks: Do You Need More Traffic Or Conversions? It isn't necessarily as simple as just generating more traffic. You need targeted traffic because ultimately the objective is conversions, not just traffic.

The underlying importance of targeting is the point of my fishbowl post in Startups, Planning, and Stories a few days ago. I also remember when we learned why simple prize offerings to generate traffic at www.paloalto.com  did us no good; we wanted targeted traffic, not just any traffic.

Nice post Bill.

--Tim

iPhone Ads: Perfect advertising

Nice post and comments over at the Signal V Noise blog on the new iPhone ads. The simplicity of the ads is stunning and the fact that all Apple is doing is showing off the product is refreshing. As one commenter mentions, it would be a great parody to see an ad done in the same style but with a "regular" cell phone.

What the ad really points out, and what most companies still don't seem to quite get, is that at the end of the day it's about the quality of your product. The product has to speak for itself. It has to get people talking about it. It has to be "remarkable," in Seth Godin terminology.

--Noah

Thinking Outside the Bag

Good marketing works. Do funny ads work? Creative ads? Different ads that are, in Seth Godin's context, remarkable? Take a look at these visuals that the author calls Think Outside the Bag.

-- Tim

Would Online Tech Publications Give Advertisers Good Reviews?

When I was in Journalism grad school 30-some years ago no self-respecting publication wanted even the appearance of flavoring editorial with ad revenues. Of course lots did, black eye or not, because of all the obvious cynical reasons. And they still do today, according to this survey. At least in tech publications. Of 35 online computer-related publications, 23 (66 percent) refused editorial influence in exchange for advertising. Of remaining 12, seven publications agreed to editorial service in exchange for advertising or cash.

-- Tim Berry

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