Emotional Investment

I interviewed a 53 year old woman for this blog. Her five top shows were: NCIS, Project Runway, Dancing with the stars, ER, and Criminal Minds. The interviewee felt some kind of emotional attachment with all of these shows, but on many different levels. NCIS is a favorite because it is intillectually simulating, is full of action, and the main character is handsome. Project Runway is appealing because it involves watching people be creative and has an intensity brought about by competition and developing favorite characters on the show. Dancing with stars was considered to be something very fun to watch because it was mindless entertainment and watching people develop their dancing abilities is fun. ER seemed to hold the most emotional attachment because the interviewee is a nurse and can relate to the show and understand exctly what is going on. Criminal minds is a favorite for similar reasonsto NCIS, but the level of intensity was emphasized more and was said to have the ability to "suck you in".
ER, NCIS, and criminal minds are all on the top twenty list. Proect Runway and Dancing with the stars maintain popularity in the reality T.V. market.
If I were to pick 6 shows to advertise on for women 35-54 I would pick Desperate Housewives, ER, Dancing with the Stars, CSI, extreme makeover home edition, the office. My rationale is that all of these programs integrate drama which pulls at emotions, character development and attachment, and tend to have a loyal following of fans. I think that shows that have an emotional appeal is a better choice for advertising then shows that are just highly rated. People who loyally watch shows tend not to flip during commercials as much, the main audience can be researched explicitly to gain the best information to make the best ads, and if people care about a show they care more about everything surrounding that show.

Jobs in Online Advertising

Before I list and explain some jobs in online advertising I would first like to acknowledge the skills that are preferred and usually required to work in the industry so that maybe we can all see what we need to work on before we hit the real world. I would like to emphasize that creativity, abiltiy to work under pressure, high energy levels, and good team work skills were mentioned in every job description I read. While having the technical skills is important, it seems that developing the above mentioned skills and creating your own style and good attitude about your job is what is going to put you above everyone else in the business. But moving on what are these technical skills online ad agencies are looking for? Knowledge of: Flash, powerpoint, word, HTML, scripting, and excel all hold levels of importance in developing the appropriate skills to work with online ads. Also, developing a background in web design will definitely put you ahead. Good writing skills, and a love of working with people as well as the ability to adapt to change quickly are also very important too. Soeme job openings that I discovered were for search engine optimizers which involves optimizing web pages, submitting websites to search engines, monitoring keyword performance and page rankings, and generally increasing traffic to the clients website. An online marketing speicalist is another position looking to be filled which will recquire you to design divisions to develop online marketing solutions for your client and will involve people skills since you will be talking with clients, making sales proposals and giving presentations. There are also opening for copywriters, account managers, who oversee entire projects, web developers, online media planner/buyer, free lance proof readers and much more. In all of my research what I discovered is that there is alot of oppportunity for employment in online advertising which to me is an implication of an opportunity for success.
INTOWEB had an excellent site for job opportunites that really shows what companies are looking for and are all about: http://www.etraffic.co.za/article_advertising_jobs.html

Ad 1 for bud select: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QivBS3EnYuI
Ad 2 for iPhone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_dJMIq_tOc
A3: for proactiv: http://www.proactiv.com/index.php?acnt=MSPd126c

Online Video Advertising: Give the people what they want when they want it.

As we all know the Apple iPhone is pretty much an amazing piece of technology that connects people to the world with a touch of the finger. And so the fact that such a cool and up to date piece of technology would have a direct access to youtube right on the options display says alot about the popularity of online video among people today. While I enjoy indulging in some youtube surfing I know other people who are completely obsessed and are always filling me in on the latest video they have found. I think the popularity of online video is pretty amazing and will only continue to grow hand in hand with online video advertising.
Besides the novelty and entertainment aspects of online videos causing this up and coming media to be all the rage, it is also the work of media giants and the news media that make online video almost impossible not to interact with. There are large numbers of people who get their news off the Internet everyday. Most large and or popular newspapers are now online and make subscription easy. A perk of having the paper online is that articles are now not only accompanied by images but now by videos. Also, there are many times that their is simply a short clip being showed on the screen with a headline and the video replaces the article all together. It is this use of online video that links many different types of users and people who may not even go on sites like youtube, but read the news everyday. Also, media giants owning film making corporations have also developed the online video industry by making films available to Internet users and not only films but T.V. shows as well. T.V. shows that are put online actually appeal more and have much higher ratings with younger audiences than if they were only put on television. It is because of the consistent use of online video that advertisers see an opening for an excellent business opportunity to develop online video ads and create a powerful new arena for online advertising. However, some people may question
such high regard for online video ads because alot of the content of online videos is user generated. This creates a problem because a company could advertise on someones unprofessional video and end up being associated with content they do not want people relating to their product. On the other hand, I think that having ads on videos that are not so commercial could make certain ads seem more personal and with the targeting abilities we have now in online advertising and the use of good research there is definitely a window for successful ads.
The large issue that is faced with online video ads is that people do not want to be bothered or interrupted while viewing their videos and may become annoyed and opposed to the video ads. Advertisers have been doing alot of research on how to fix this problem and have been developing some good strategies. One strategy is to get rid of the pre-roll that users are forced to watch before the video and have the ad come one at the end of the video. The pre-roll, instead of being terminated, could also simply be shortened which has been much more successful than full 30 second or even 15 second ads. There is also the option of using skins that surround the video but do not interfere with playing the video so that a consumer can choose whether they want to click on the ad before, during, or after their viewing. Bugs and news type tickers across the bottom of the screen have also shown some positive results. Bugs specifically are a graphic design that come across the bottom of the screen that can be clicked on or left alone without affecting the movie. Animated bugs have also been developed and have been making even more headway than before.
All in all I would have to say that online advertising is nice because there are alot of options and alot of ways to customize the ads to viewers. A very important point to be made which is huge in all types of advertising is that creativity and giving the consumer what they want is always the most important thing. Jason Glickman, the CEO of tremor media, makes some excellent points in his interview about online advertising ( http://video.about.com/onlineadvertising/Jason-Glickman.htm#t), that put emphasis on the importance of everything coming down to how creatively we can develop this media and innovate online ads.
About.com also interviewed alot more people about online ads and there are some really good interesting insights on: http://onlineadvertising.about.com/od/videointerview1/Video_Interviews_on_the_Use_of_Online_Advertising_Videos.htm

There are many things that can be done to an individuals website that will create depth and much more traffic. For example, including links to other websites, linking to other blogs, applying things like google analytics and adsense, using meta tags, allowing youtube videos to be viewed on your site, and much more. This week we signed up for google adsense, and my site was just accepted!! I have not made any money, but I think it is very cool that all I have to do is my homework and possibly make some cash while I am doing it. Also, we were told to use meta tags on our site and so I went about figuring out exactly how to do that. Meta tags are an html code that is hidden from viewers of the site, but is read by web spiders and search engines. These spiders read your meta tags and then use that information to guide people to your site. It is important to use meta tags if you want your site to show up in most search engines and even then the chances of that happening can be questionable because some search engines filter meta tags out. I know we were supposed to put in keyword tags, however, I have to say that keyword meta tags are not the most popular thing out there. It seems that keyword tags really do not raise the popularity of your site and actually are fading out. People would try using the same keyword over and over when creating the meta tag in order to increase popularity. However, spiders now filter out words used more than twice and they are disreguarded. I think discription meta tags are better than keyword tags because it gives more information about what your site is all about. I enjoy that meta tags allow you to track your site and see what kind of response your getting and if it is rising in popularity.

Some negative thoughts on meta keyword tags. http://www.searchnewz.com/topstory/news/sn-2-20060926KeywordMetaTagsPointless.html
Some good information to know about those little creepy crawling robot spiders.
http://www.webhostsonline.com/featuredarticles/webmarketing/robotsagentsandspiders.html

Web Analytics

Web Analytics are used to study the behaviors of web users. The purpose of such analytics is to find out what works and what does not when it comes to consumers and the buisness aspect of the site. For example, what banners get the most clicks, what landing page gets the most sells, and what sites get the most traffic from various target audiences. This information allows websites and advertising agencies to improve upon their campaigns to make them as effective as possible. Web Analytics are offered by many different service providers, which makes this form of research very easy to access and use. Web Analytics technology assigns a cookie to every visitor of a particular site. This cookie allows a visitor to be tracked and identified the next time they visit. The information gathered by the cookie is then used for web analytics. In other words, web analytics works to inform advertiser's of what people are doing, what they want, and where they want it. In my opinion, web analytics is a gift to the buisness world because it creates a specific consumer audience, which can be specifically targeted and making people easier to sell to and thus increase sales. cha -ching.
A good example of a web analytics server is http://www.google.com/analytics/ . Anyone can sign up for free and have their website be tracked by google analytics. The information gathered includes: visits, pageviews, pages/visit, bounce rates, Average time on site, % of new visits, visitors, a map of where visitors are from, traffic sources, etc. This information is invaluable because it allows the owner of the site to have a good idea of who is visiting which allows the site to be tailored to the viewing audience and also expanded to inlcude a larger audience. Gaining direct feedback about the popularity of a website nation or world wide encourages advertisers and website owners to improve upon what they have already created and make it the best. I think that being able to find out if the goal I set out to achieve is being reached is a priviledge and finding out ways to improve if I haven't achieved my goal is even better. If I were a professional blogger I would definitely use web analytics to my advantage, especially the map, % of new visitors, and average time spent. The map option would allow me to know what geographic regions have the most concentrated viewers and I can gear my blog more towards specific people's cultures, lifestyles, and interests. Also, knowing how many new visitiors I am reaching would help me to see what I am doing that is drawing in new people and to see if perhaps I can expand on those ideas. The Average time spent on site would also be of great importance to my knowledge of my website audience because I can then aim for presenting my information in a way that can be viewed in a specific amount of time and figure out ways to lengthen the average time with more interesting and attention grabbing material. Overall, being able to really kow who is visiting your website and viewing your ads is extremely beneficial and google analytics is definitely a good source for that information.
Unfortunately, there is a limit to how accurtate web analytics can be especially when it comes to paying the bills for advertising on specific sites. Often, the amount of money to be paid for an ad on a site is determined by the number of clicks which leads to innacurate costs being projected. The reason for this inaccuracy is click fraud. Click Fraud happens when a big company, such as google, places an ad on a smaller less active website that basically only holds advertisements. The owners of the smaller websites gain profit from the larger company for placing this ad. And so, the smaller website owners will hire a large amount of people to click on these ads even though they are not interested consumers or even from within the country a service or product is being offered. The end result of this false clicking activity is that the smaller website is making money from the big website, the big website is making money from the advertisers, and the advertisers are losing money as well as being falsely informed that they're consumer market is bigger than it really is. And so, in click fraud scenarios advertisers basically get screwed. There are measures to be taken to prevent click fraud from happening(look on this site for tips on avoiding click fraud:http://www.web1marketing.com/blog/index.php/archives/tips-for-preventing-click-fraud/ ). However, click fraud can be very hard to detect before it is too late. In my opinion, the amount of clicks should no longer be releveant and impressions should definitely always be the factor that deals with how much a ad company pays. On the other hand, would click fraud simply turn into impression fraud? The FBI is looking into the situation, and I am curious to see what kind of interent security develops within the next ten years. Click Fraud and any other kind of schemes run on the internet are very dangerous because as up and coming in technology as people are, there are many who are unaware of the dangers we make ourselve vulnerable to unknowingly. I think that eventually we will be able to get rid of click fraud all together, but then what is to come? With everything from stocks, banking, car buying, trip planning, all kinds of shopping, and so much more happening online, should we be more frightened of allowing our money and perosonal information to be completely scammed out of our hands?

Re: LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

apparently this is the way to get alot of people to "click"

The Mystery of Content

Content is a tricky thing. The thing that's tricky is content.(?) The point is "No" there is no straight up strategy that will answer all of our advertising questions about content and placing ads in relation to it. Unfortunately, for all of us advertisers out there even if we think we've done everything right any ad we place on line is still a roll of the dice and there is always a chance of losing. On a more positive note, why don't we try to up our chances of winning? We have the tools and the tools are getting better and better to help us in making the best decisions possible about where and when to place our ads. Let's take people who advertised on 2nd life because it was hot stuff at the time. These advertisements were at one point in a prime spot and then things fizzled for 2nd life and so did the ads. The thing that would help avoid someone's ads failing in this situation is definitely spreading the ads over a series of networks because it is stupid to bet it all in one place (2nd life? virtual people? c'mon guys!). Also, with all the information we are able to get on consumers and our specific target audience there is no reason to completely misplace your ad. In a world where a vast amount of knowledge is at our finger tips we need to make sure we know about important upcoming events that might effect where our audiences are going to be browsing. Examples of an event would be the MTV awards. Everyone knows Britney's comeback was not exactly what we expected to say the least, but either way the day after the awards advertisers should of had a little forethought into the fact that You Tube( http://www.youtube.com/) was going to be bombarded with people looking up clips from the awards, thus explaining the recent interest in the crazy person making a scene for brit in their video. I mean no one could have expected such an outburst, but when something is that ridiculous whether it's disgusting, unneccessary, out of line, etc people will be intrigued. And as advertising majors we should make note of this because knowing the behavior of people is beyond important to our future jobs. Look at Chanel's online campaign.( http://uma.chanel.com/home.php) The company knows it is time to join the online world because that's the world people are evolving into. Chanel is a very popular and well-known company and they would probably be fine without the online campaign, but they'll be alot better off with it. It's knowing or trying to foresee what people want and will be looking for that will keep a company and it's ads ahead of the game. I would tell clients to use all of the information that they have with all of the different targeting techniques out there. Find as much out about the targeting audience as you can and use that information to make the best educated decision you could make. I wouldn't be afraid to test out different sights. Find out what works best and then buy more impressions if something works out well on a particular sight. I think on-line ads are evolving and matching up context is getting easier. Just keep your eyes and ears open, stay on your toes, and know your audience.