Tag archives: marketing

IM marketing: think about it

Nearly all teenagers in the US (90%) use IM. The number comes out from a recent AOL’s survey on instant messaging usage presented on eMarketer. It’s a very high percentage, and it suggests there are new emerging opportunities for marketers to get in touch with a very important and difficult to reach target audience.

File under: IM, marketing

Direct marketing with IM

Go where the prospect is… The marketers’ motto can be applied now also to IM softwares loved, in particular, by teenagers. Instant messaging provide great opportunities for brands that want to get in touch with people under 25, as an article on iMedia Connection explains, presenting numbers and few examples of IM used as a marketing tool. The article is pretty good, but it’s important that it has been written by a person who works for a technology provider directly engaged in the IM business.

File under: instant messaging, marketing

Marketing and videogames

The combination games + marketing is hot online with advergames, in the wireless world with wireless advergames, and offline, with videogames product placement. In the recent years product placement has invaded Hollywood, and now is ready to massively land on videogames. GameSpot published last week an article about marketing and games, talking to Ubisoft’s director of media and promotions, Jill Steinberg who said:

“Varied, layered marketing tactics-from the Internet to contests-are the goal for many consumer-brand companies. The true success of marketing tie-ins in the near future hinges on more than just featuring the product in the game.”

As in the movies, I believe the point is to build a campaign around a game and not a game concept around a product. Advertising money has a lot of power but not necessarily this power is able to help the industry growing from a quality point of view.

File under: advertising, marketing, videogames

What’s the advertising model for RSS

RSS is raising marketer’s expectations in finding a solution to the e-newsletter decline. I’ve already talked about ‘marketing and RSS’ a couple of months ago now, thanks to an article by Janis Mara on IAR, there’s the chance to further discuss the issue. It seems that in the US there’s a company, RSSAds, ready to launch a new online ad network. As the article’s author says tracking of content and ad viewing has always been one of RSS’s weak point, but RSSAds Ceo, Chad Williams claims that his company tracks ad views by means of a simple transparent image file. Whenever the RSS reader calls back to the server for the image, it counts as an ad impression. RSSAds are coming up with several ad serving pricing options: cost-per-click, cost-per-time-period, cost-per-insert and cost-per-thousand impressions models and pay-for-performance ads which is expected to become the most popular. It sounds interesting but also rather complicated. If it works, it’s probably a gold mine. If it doesn’t…

File under: marketing, rss, rss ad serving network

Rss and marketing… a new perspective

I�m writing an article about RSS and I�ve been reading quite a lot on the topic to get informed. There are a lot of articles and opinions out there about the marketing potentials of RSS. You can read some enthusiastic people saying that RSS is an unspammable medium, that it can deliver the advertising message using a �pull� model, that it�s cost effective, etc� On the other side the negative voices will tell you that it�s not measurable, that RSS is just for geeks, that is not (yet) integrated in email software, etc� I would like to take a different (and additional) perspective in the discussion, not considering RSS for what they really are in their substance. I believe the main issue about RSS� marketing potentials is connected to the information overload. There are tons of softwares installed on our computers: browsers, email readers, instant messengers, p2p, toolbars, desktop alerts etc� We get messages from everywhere, either in push or pull way (and I�m just considering computer mediated communication!). At work my Internet browser is always open. If I want to see if a Web site has been updated I just click on its link from my bookmarks. I don�t have to start another software and get the information downloaded on my computer. I do have a newsaggregator installed on my Mac, but I rarely use it. Maybe because I�m kind of lazy (I admit it), maybe because there are already too many windows open on my desktop, delivering me any kind of information just one click (and 5 seconds) away. I would tend to compare this point with the one associated to e-commerce web sites. The more clicks to buy a product, the less products get sold. The more clicks to get an headline, the less headlines� So I�m not saying RSS aren�t a fascinating medium. They are extremely attractive from a marketing perspective. I�m just saying there are already tons of information out there, but a day has only 24 hours, at least mine�

File under: e-mail marketing, marketing, rss

Marketer, remember my birthday

On New Media Age I’ve found an excellent article by Ross Sleight, on relationship building. He suggests that sending a birthday card or a promotional discount could be an excellent opportunity to build a closer relationship with clients. I agree with Ross: No matter what we are selling, a personal touch can make the difference. The point is to overcome customers’ expectations, not just fulfil them. And customers are first of all persons. Unfortunately marketers usually forget about this “detail”.

File under: birthday, marketing, personalisation

Chrysler’s Marketing Mistakes

It’s not exactly about online advertising, but it’s worth reading for anyone interested in marketing strategies and issues. Jerry Flint writes on Forbes about four big issues that are mining Chrysler’s marketing strategies and future. It’s not only about hiring Celine Dion. According to Jerry “Chrysler’s marketing mistakes are far more serious“.

File under: chrysler, marketing