Author Archives: adverblog

Face the Nation

As Amy Corr presents on MediaPost Jose Cuervo has launched a new online contest named “Face the Nation”. Check it out on Cuervo Nation, you have the chance to win trips to the Caribbean.

File under: jose cuervo, online contest

Food for summer thinking

It’s summer, it’s hot, let’s slow down for a while and let’s try to analyse how the online advertising industry is doing. This is the suggestion by Zachary Rodgers that on Channel Seven last week wrote The State of the Sector. He talks a little bit of ads quality and industry expectations, he refers to @d:Tech and he brings up a bunch of useful opinions but consultants and analysts. Definitely worth reading.

File under: ads quality, industry expectations, online advertising state of the art

Yahoo! Predicts Better Sales and Profit

Ching ching! Yahoo! coins it in! Many web sites are talking about Yahoo!’s profit posting. Personally, I liked Silicon.com’s article, not only for its nice title, but also because it reported interesting analysts opinions on the fact, especially for what concerns its partnership with Overture. However, if you want to know more about the financial aspect of the story it you should read the article on the Washington Post.

File under: online advertising revenue, overture partnership., sales and profit, Yahoo!

Targeting the X-ers

I’m a X-er. I didn’t know that until today when I read the The X Factor on AdWeek. I’m not sure the definition exactly applies to me to, given the fact that I’m European, anyhow, at first I enjoyed the idea of being part of a difficult group to target. Of course I meant this as a consumer, not as a marketer. But in Sarah Mahoney’s article I found that there are some points X-ers should be proud of such as: X-ers are more restless, mistrustful of corporate management and easily dissatisfied. We are a “problem” for agencies and employers. So, we are or we will become a problem for ourselves as well, as marketers and as managers. At the end I think it’s not just a question of advertising. It’s a question of life, and that’s even worser

File under: Generation X, targeting, X-ers

Charlie’s Angels advergames

It seems like Charlie’s Angels is the only movie out now… I really gotta see it… In the meantime, I will play on the Net with the branded advergames created by BlockDot for Sony Pictures. You can have a look at them on Kewlbox. Have fun!

File under: advergames, charlie's angels, online branded games

Looking for a memorable online campaign

Can you name an online campaign that really strucked your mind in the last six months? Well, let me think… yep, I remember “Pen” by General Electrics, but when I fist saw it I didn’t realize it was an ad… Maybe because I’m not familiar with GE logo or maybe because the campaign was not so memorable… On Revolution Emily Booth explains that online research from MSN, in association with the IAB, points towards a lack of memorable campaigns, despite some groundbreaking work. Is online creativity dead? I believe in some ways, online creativity isn’t even born yet. Anyway, you can get better opinions than mine on Revolution July issue that is still free but, unfortunately is formatted in a almost unreadable way

File under: creativity, memorable online campaigns, online advertising

Keep it interactive!

Joseph Jaffe is one of my favourite authors since he often focus on interactivity between brands and customers and on pull-based advertising. On Monday on iMediaConnection he wrote Inviting Interaction which I think is a very good collection of useful examples to look at. Online marketing is evolving and it’s moving towards consolidation by stressing the key aspect of Internet communication in comparison to other media: interactivity. Of course this doesn’t sound new to most of you but, again, I believe it’s good to go through best practices to keep it in mind.

File under: experience, interactivity, pull-based advertising

Disappointed (and discriminated) by Google AdSense

I’m very disappointed by Google AdSense. I might even say I’m angry with Google. A “perfect” machine that fails in a quite miserable way. So, here is the story…. As many others I was excited by the idea of earning some money to support this blog through Google AdSense Program. I’ve tried to apply for it twice, and both times I got the following answers:

Dear Martina Zavagno, Thank you very much for applying to Google AdSense. We are eager to let you to start serving AdWords ads on your website. Currently, however, we are only able to target ads to English content. As your web content is primarily or entirely in a non-English language, we are unable to accept your website at this time. We hope to be able to offer Google AdSense to non-English websites soon, so we have placed your application on hold. When we are able to target ads to your sites language, well contact you at the email address you provided us. We appreciate your patience. Sincerely, The Google Team

All right, I’m Italian, my English might not be perfect, but please, at least you guys, gimme a sign what I’m writing here on Adverblog at least resemble to English. I wrote emails to Google complaining about its reply, but I haven’t heard back from it in almost one week time. My only “fault” has been to insert my Italian address for payment… How can I solve this situation? How comes Google AdSense Commission don’t even look at web sites but just checks the owner’s nationality or postal address?? The perfect search engine is not so perfect anymore??? (and here, again, I refer to the fact that Google Toolbar is not available for Mac users)

File under: disappointment, google adsense

Volvo picks Flashtalking

Auto-makers like flashy internet advertising. Like drinks producers, they decide to promote their brands online by using emotional and engaging Web sites and ads. To read more about Volvo’s recent campaign, developed by Flashtalking, have a look at MediaDailyNews.

File under: emotional branding, flash based ads, volvo

Sometimes, they come back

Online advertising, with the help of traditional brick-and-mortar companies, is staging a comeback — emerging from the prolonged dry spell that followed the dot-com bust. Traditional advertisers are beginning to allocate more of their marketing budgets to the Web, helping the online ad industry take its first steps toward what analysts see as a sustainable recovery. The news is reported today by Reshma Kapadia on Reuters Web site.

File under: numbers, online advertising, traditiona advertisers