May 24, 2004
More on simplicity
And another article on Maeda's Simplicity Workshop. Nice to see someone else with a simplicity soapbox.
Advertising Trends
Lots of interesting changes happening in advertising right now:
- Advertising is everywhere. Great points about how folks are moving beyond traditional media to naming, Internet, product placements, etc.
- Forecasters see strong growth in ad spend. A good overview of how much rebound there's been. 5% in 2003 and 7% in 2004
- Promotions growing rapidly. Promotion budgets are growing more rapidly brand advertising in traditional markets gets stale.
- "Advertisers are not where the consumers are":
- Kagan Says. A great researcher of media trends. Their reports cost a forturne, but they have one place where you can see their quotes and news releases.
May 23, 2004
Advertising Trends
Lots of interesting changes happening in advertising right now:
- Advertising is everywhere. Great points about how folks are moving beyond traditional media to naming, Internet, product placements, etc.
- Forecasters see strong growth in ad spend. A good overview of how much rebound there's been. 5% in 2003 and 7% in 2004
May 19, 2004
Creative has at least something to do with it
gapingvoid: the best advertising strategy is one that gives a damn
Here's super, super creative Hugh Macleod's take at his super, super cool blog Gaping Void. We've talked a lot about media issues etc. contributing to the decline of standard advertising. Maybe the the value proposition is just off? But clearly creative has something to do with it. Too much is just plain boring, repetitive, pandering, forced, vapid, cloned from someone else's efforts, or just bad.
If you never notice an ad, it's pretty hard to be effective no matter where it's placed.
May 18, 2004
Beyond "your logo here." Way beyond.
Boing Boing: I, T-shirt: wearable movie trailers at NextFest
Another really interesting forray into going beyond standard broadcast media for reaching grabbing people. Pretty darn cool, movies on T Shirts.
Talk about positioning. I've heard of people wearning thier hearts on thier sleeves, but now how about running your demo on your, ahem, chest.
What's next? Maybe instead of blogging or posting listing on the web, you'll create a cool flash movie promoing your stuff and post it to specific, targetted people's clothes.
May 17, 2004
Why Direct Response doesn't work all the time
GrabTheMic. Here's a great example. On this bloggers site are a bunch of comments about Iraq. The net result is that his Google Adsense bar is filled with things that are a little ridiculous when you consider what the Economist, Washington Post or other publication would carry next to a piece about the war there.
- Iraq Revenue Watch. Monitor reconstruction funds.
- Iraqi Reconstructions. Get the GSA contract data
- Leave Iraq? Get a $50 gift card from captainbargains.com
- Articles archived on Iraq from Keepmedia.com
- Need help on Middle East JV legal creation
So that's the different between DR and branding. The only data Adsense has is what's on the page, not about who is viewing the page.
Here's what the economist carries as banners as a result of a query on Iraq articles that lead you to the latest catastrophe
- Man Financial. Every future is personal
- Chicago Merchantile Exchnage free seminar on investing
- Smith Barney citigroup on getting a financial investor
- Tiffany & Co. introducing a new watch.
See the difference. Three brand ads and there is one direct response, but not for someone who wants a GSA contract contact for Iraq, but for trading hog futures.
Net, net, knowing who is reading vs. what they are reading is pretty important in the world of advertising and promotion.
What's the Value of Brand Advertising?
John Battelle's Searchblog: What's the Value of Brand Advertising?. A great question. Most of the stuff on the Internet is all about direct response, but that's not the way lots of purchases work.
It's not like you think I need Tide and then you click on it 90% of the time. More like, you see Tide a bunch of times (frequency) and lots of people see it (reach) and eventually when you buy a detergent, you see it and say, yup I like it.
That would be like car guys blitzing people just in the 1 month they want to buy a car. It is often way too late by then. That's what image is all about.
That's not to say direct response and brand don't live together. They just have different purposes.
Depending on the play you are running and the playfield of course :-)
May 14, 2004
Whither Click Rates
Click Rates to Head Downward Again · MarketingVOX. I remember when click throughs were 5%. Now, people cheer at a 10 basis point increase.
Interesting. Also someone told me that only 30% of people ever clickthrough on anything. What does that tell you?
The master of Point B
Monkeymagic:: thoughts on thinking :: Write like you speak archives
We've written alot about the ABCs and driving killer campaigns. But as Piers Young notes, Jerry Weissman is a master of teaching you how to tell your story compellingly. He is also the author of the concept PointB™ - the desired state you put out there to generate interest. Awesome guy. Awesome teacher. Author. Mentor. Friend. Here's what some other folks are saying too:
Brendon Wilson: "Best of all, I managed to attend ... a seminar/workshop on "Pitching to Win" - complete with Jerry Weissman, the legendary pitchman who has helped numerous CEOs tune their IPO roadshows, giving tips from his new book, "Presenting to Win". Cool!
Chris Anderson: "a book I recently read, and loved: Presenting to Win, by Jerry Weissman."
Dennis Kennedy: "I've just finished the highly-praised Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, by presentation guru Jerry Weissman. Add me to the list of fans."
And FastCompany - which had a good article on 5 Ways to Talk to Money