“Mad Men” action figures; “Bing” it on up; a call for calls to action; St. Pat’s day beer bust, and more
Those “Mad Men” are such dolls AdAge reports, via the New York Times, that Mattel will introduce a line of “Mad Men” action figures—or perhaps “inaction figures” would be the more appropriate term. The line will include Don Draper, Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway. Some ad execs apparently don’t like the idea, or the show, all that much. Writes AdAge’s Ken Wheaton, “I guess I’d be ticked off if the work of my younger days was swiped or, worse, bashed in a TV show. And if I weren’t, in fact, a booze-soaked lout myself, I might be miffed that the show portrays the entire industry as drunken, oversexed womanizers.” C’mon, Ken. Lighten up, buddy. The three-martini lunch is on us next time.
Don’t forget the call to action in your SEM ads You’ve just written the most beautiful search marketing ad, ever. It’s poetry. It’s music. It’s Shakespeare. But did you forget the call to action? “Buy now and save?” “Don’t wait, operators are standing by?” Oops. Search Engine Watch’s Herndon Hasty explains.
Just what is behavioral targeting?
It’s one of the hottest things going right now—and it’s expected to grow from more than 26 percent this year over last year, according to ClickZ’s Amy Manus. But what it is it and, more importantly, what is it not?
Creative Spotlight: BBDO’s St. Pat’s Day responsible drinking PSA
It’s definitely St. Patrick’s Day. Just saw a man in a Kelly green “Utilikilt” saunter down the street. Fortunately for onlookers he had the gams for it. Anyway, BBDO, in what is both a celebration of the kiss-me-I’m-Irish holiday and a warning about the potential dangers of looking at the world through your beer goggles, has just come out with a PSA campaign that features cans of Guinness stout with blurry lettering. Tip o’ the Tam o’ Shanter to AdFreak’s Tim Nudd for his gift ‘o the gab on this one.
Segmenting segmentation; bad tech predictions; activity streams are the new black; consumers using online search for offline research, and more
What segmentation is right for you?
“There are three main types of segmentation,” says ClickZ’s Neil Mason. “Demographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation, and attitudinal segmentation. But which one is best? It really depends on what problem you’re trying to solve.”
The Internet’s doomed—and other bad tech predictions
Writing in Slate, Farhad Manjoo takes on the 1995 prediction that the Internet was doomed to fail, and discusses how you can avoid making bad predictions about technology in the future.
“Activity streams?”
It’s an idea for a new, free, more open Internet model, and it may just be the next big thing. And Yahoo! is right there, innovating. ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick explains what activitystreams are and what they may mean for the future.
Even if you’re brick and mortar, you still gotta be online
This comes by way of Greg Sterling over at Screenwerk. According to a recent poll, 94 percent of consumers did some research online prior to making a purchase. While e-commerce only makes up four percent of U.S. retail sales, people overwhelmingly (61 percent) use Internet search to research a purchase.
Creative Spotlight: Verizon’s “Big Red” We expect literature and film to be self-reflexive. Art refers to itself. L’art pour l’art, right? For example, in the Oscar-nominated Quentin Tarantino film, “Inglorious Basterds,” nearly every scene is an homage to another film. But advertising? Not usually. Advertising tends to be all about the next big thing with little regard to the advertising of the past. But Verizon has recently released an ad that riffs on the iconic “Big Red” chewing gum TV commercial. It’s pretty clever, though don’t watch it more than once because the jingle will take over your brain (which we guess means that it’s working).
Yaho0! and Twitter team up; advertising is good; ad groups 101; Yahoo’s head of search on the Microsoft alliance, and more
Yahoo! gets all Twitterpated Last night we announced a new partnership with Twitter that integrates Twitter’s real-time social experiences with Yahoo’s global network of more than 600 million users. Together with the recently announced Facebook integration, this relationship is a key part of advancing our social strategy, transforming Yahoo! into a highly customizable social experience that lets people unify their activity from their many social experiences across the Web. Good for users. Great for advertisers. For more details, head on over to Yodel Anecdotal.
Affiliates beware: Cali sales tax looming
Many search and display advertiser run affiliate networks, whereby they become the middle-men between consumers and suppliers. It’s a good business and one that provides an essential service. But the State of California is considering imposing a sales tax on affiliate sites that have suppliers in the state. While aimed at the big boys like Amazon.com and Overstock.com, the law could affect any affiliate site with relationships in the Golden State. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Carolyn Said explains.
Online ads help shoppers save
Advertising is often taken to the pillory for being self-serving. That’s just not fair. Good advertising serves an essential need in society. Without it, how would you know that there’s a better—or cheaper—mousetrap out there? eMarketer explains how online advertising is helping consumers save cash in tough times.
Once more, with feeling
In an intriguing piece in the libertarian journal Reason, Greg Beato cites the film “Art & Copy” and the cable TV hit “Mad Men,” to show that, contrary to popular opinion, advertising—like documentary film—can be a medium for truth-telling. Advertising, says Beato, works best when consumers feel that you are telling the truth about your product or service. We agree, truth be told.
ClickEquation’s ad groups 101
We’ve chatted about ad groups before. But don’t take it entirely from us. ClickEquation’s Craig Danuloff explores how ad groups work and how they can benefit your PPC campaigns. Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
AdAge’s digital marketing guide to social Media
AdAge’s David Berkowitz offers up 16 answers to questions that people are asking now about marketing via social media—16 really good answers.
Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance coverage
By now you’ve no doubt heard about the Yahoo! and Microsoft search alliance. It’s kind of a big deal. So big, in fact, that this blog saw a 100-percent increase in traffic, there were 246 pieces of original news coverage, 283 broadcast clips and some 5,000 tweets—all in the first two days after the announcement. Here’s a synopsis of some of the most interesting news and analysis.
A chat with Shashi Seth, our new SVP of Yahoo! Search Products
It’s been a busy month since Shashi Seth joined Yahoo! as our new Senior Vice President of Yahoo! Search Products. In this video, Seth talks about his first month at Yahoo! and clarifies what he sees as some of the most important aspects of the agreement with Microsoft. View the video below, or visit the Yahoo! Search blog for more detail.
Advertising beyond the Super Bowl; does social really sell?; Right Media’s future, and more
Advertising the Super Bowl, and beyond Mitch Spolan, our VP of North American field sales, has just posted a point-of-view commentary on MediaPost, on how digital advertisers are seeing gold in big-ticket events like the Super Bowl, which have traditionally been dominated by TV, radio and print. “Cultural events like the Super Bowl still matter,” says Mitch. “The good news for online marketers is that people are increasingly turning to the Internet for coverage of these events, and audience size and engagement is beginning to reach—and sometimes exceed—that of the original broadcast.” That goes whether you’re a search or display advertiser. To see how advertisers are making the shift online and get some tips for yourself, click over to MediaPost.
Social’s fine, but does it sell?
With all the hype around social media marketing and how it’s good for your brand and customer support, the question arises, “Fine, but does it sell?” AdWeek’s Brian Morrisey asks that question, and adds, “What’s a Facebook friend worth?” He answers with two telling case studies.
Retargeting 101
Search Marketing Standard’s Chris Stiner offer a quick, concise what-is-it? / how-do-you-do-it? on retargeting for both search and display. “Ad agencies and ad networks all offer some sort of retargeting,” he says, “and the common reason for doing this is clear.” It sure is.
Socialize your website with Yahoo! Apps Web advertisers are also web publishers. You kind of have to be if you want your customers to land somewhere after clicking on your ads. The Yahoo! Application Protocol, or YAP, lets your developers create apps to socialize your content on your users’ Yahoo! homepages. For a real-life example, see Chris Marlowe’s article on the Huffington Post’s new socializing “YAP app” over at the YPN blog.
Advertiser, regulate thyself
Regulation has been on the Fed’s docket since the financial meltdown. That’s not surprising. But here’s the deal, says MediaWeek’s Mike Shields: In digital advertising, over-regulation could damage innovation. Advertisers can either regulate themselves, or the government will likely step in. The Internet Advertising Bureau is lobbying for the former, but in order for that to work out, advertisers need to commit, become more transparent, and allow consumers more choice.
Right Media looking forward
It’s kind of Darwinian. Ad markets change and ad networks change with them. At the fore of that evolution is Right Media, Yahoo’s ad network exchange. “Right Media is actively addressing the needs of the differentiated ad networks, direct advertisers, and global agencies to enable brand safety in our premium marketplace,” say Right Media’s Brooke Wyard and Megan Pagliuca. To see how Right Media’s evolving, and how that evolution may affect exchange advertisers, click over to the Right Media blog.
New Yahoo! Mobile blog; making the Internet safer; digital marketing trends for 2010, and more
Yahoo! Mobile blog launches
If you read Paul Cushman’s excellent entry “Demystifying Mobile, Part I” on the Yahoo! Advertising blog yesterday, you’re probably interested in mobile marketing. Well now there’s a new Yahoo! blog just for you. The Yahoo! Mobile blog will cover all aspects of mobile marketing, including case studies, new Yahoo! mobile features and products, and industry trends. Check out the La Quinta case study and see how you, too can up your mobile marketing ROI.
Safer Internet day
Safety first, right? On February 9, people and organizations around the world—including Yahoo!—took a moment to recognize the importance of safety on the Web. Visit Yodel Anecdotal to learn more.
Creative spotlight: Super Bowl ads redux It’s not only the biggest sports day of the year, it’s also the biggest day for ad agency creatives, the day when advertisers spend up to $3 million for 30 seconds of air time. There have been some real classics in the past. This year? Maybe not so much. But there has been controversy—you know what we’re talking about—and that is always interesting. The kids over at the free TV/film site, hulu.com, have been kind enough to put together a special page where you can review all of the ads from Sunday’s big game. Want to see the ads that didn’t make the cut? Check out Spike’s rejected ads page. Who really won the battle of the brands on Super Sunday? You can score it by the tweets.
Selling the Super Bowl; digital ad budgets to increase; keeping it simple; promote your blog
Selling the Super Bowl This Sunday is arguably the biggest sporting event of the year, Super Bowl XLIV. Advertisers, according to AdWeek, have shelled out nearly $3 million each for 30-second spots during the big game. “The game is the only significant TV showcase for commercials left in today’s media-fractured environment, and advertisers are frantically putting the final touches on their plays for the day,” writes Eleftheria Parpi. How are they are building buzz around their creative? Hint: the initials are S.M., and we don’t mean the naughty kind.
We’ve got good news and bad news
Remember those old good news/bad news jokes? (Like, the good news: the captain aboard a Viking ship doubles rations for the guys on the oars. The bad news: he wants to go water skiing.) Well, the good news for digital marketers is that two-thirds of marketing execs in a recent CMO.com/Society of Digital Agencies survey say they’ll up their digital budgets in the face of current economic conditions. The bad news? Those conditions still suck.
Keeping it simple
Savvy marketers know that people are suspicious of complexity—and they know that the way to get people to engage is to keep the message simple and straightforward. The Boston Globe’s Drake Bennett shows how “cognitive fluency” can help you to get into people’s psyches because, in people’s minds, “easy = true.”
Quantifiable creative; blogging enhances SEO; search surges; kids more plugged in than ever; celebrating Guy Day, and more
Three simple steps to better creative Let’s face it, a lot of agency creatives like to blather on about “inspiration” and the “creative process.” But, says iMedia Connection blogger, Robert Boman, (who is also Javelin’s Interactive Creative Director), “Marketing is a profession, not an art show. Your work’s got to be far more than just eye candy. It needs to be smart. It needs to be trackable.” He offers a handy, three-step process for creating measurable marketing.
Survey says: Blogging enhances SEO Writing on TopRank’s Online Marketing blog, Lee Odden reveals the results of a TopRank survey that asked 326 marketing pros if they thought blogging had a positive effect on their SEO. Most did. In fact, more than 87 percent of respondents said blogging had “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives.” A common reason why some companies don’t blog or quit blogging? Resources.
Search usage jumps 50% in one year
According a new PC World report, Web search jumped a full 50% from 2008 to 2009. In fact, last year there were more than four billion searches each day. “We knew this was going to happen,” says Tribble Ad Agency blogger TheFounder, “and it’s going to get bigger and bigger for quite some time. Search has become the definition of marketing and advertising.” All true, but you heard it here first.
Kids: Plugged in or couch potatoes?
A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that kids aged 8 to 18 are more plugged in now than ever, spending 7 ½ hours a day, or nearly 53 hours per week, with electronic media. How does that daily usage break down by media and minutes?
TV: 270
Music: 151
Video games: 73
Mobile phone chat: 33
Texting: 90
Computing (non school): 89
Creative Spotlight: Bye, Guy Today’s Creative Spotlight is not about a piece of creative. It’s about a creative. Legendary ad man and Chiat/Day co-founder, Guy Day, who brought us such compelling creative as Apple’s infamous “1984″ Super Bowl spot, has died. He was nearly 80 years old. Hats off to one of advertising’s greats.
Here’s a clip of the original “1984″ ad. For those old enough to remember, it was just about the darndest ad anyone had ever seen on TV up to that point. Enjoy. And thanks, Guy.
(Logic-Creative image by RabiD Son, via Flickr, CC 2.0)
YSM CTRs way up, CPCs and CPAs down as compared to AdWords, according to Covario blog
The Actionable Insights blog, published by marketing analytics software maker Covario, is reporting that Yahoo! Search Marketing’s September change to the way pricing discounts are determined is having a significantly positive impact for advertisers. Blogger Craig Macdonald and team looked at Covario client data to determine whether the launch of the new discounting was working as intended, and found that the answer was clearly “Yes.”
Macdonald reports that (looking at a four-week period before and after the discounts were enhanced) click-through rates on Yahoo! Search Marketing ads were up 46%, while only up 5% on Google AdWords ads during same time period. Covario also found that cost-per-click on Yahoo! fell by 29% during this time, while being down only 10% on Google. Finally, Covario found that cost-per-acquisition on YSM is down a full 11% since the launch.
Altered ad ethics; tweeting for fun and profit; get your phone to yodel; marketing that breeds like bunnies, and more
Should altered photo ads carry warning labels?
“Truth in advertising” is mandated by the Federal Trade Commission. And we’re all for it. But what if an ad does not contain an explicit promise—such as “contains zero grams of fat”—but merely an implied one? What if the ad is just an image of a pretty girl or boy plus a brand name? New York Times columnist Randy Cohen (“The Ethicist”) thinks ads that use digital enhancements to make fashion models look so thin they seem in desperate need of a sandwich should carry the equivalent of a warning label.
Tweet all about it!
Unless you live in L.A. or have an expense account fat enough for your company to fly you there, you’re probably missing the 140 Character Conference (#140), yesterday and today. Well, never fear, Twitter is here. Follow the Tweets by conference-goers, including our own Jeff Sweat.
Dialing for yodels OK, most phones don’t actually “ring” anymore. They chirp, ping, buzz, vibrate, and sing “Crazy Train” or just about any other song. But now you can get your phone to actually yodel. Not only that, you can make it yodel in just about any style you want: hip-hop, a cappella, R&B, reggae, bluegrass, what-have-you. To get your own yodel and for info on other Yahoo! innovations this week, click over to Yodel Anecdotal.
Oh, the stories they could tell
Over at Search Engine Land, Ciarán Norris talks about the best (and worst) stories that brands have told via social media.
Viral marketing…with Bunnies! Here’s a quick case study on how to make your viral marketing breed like rabbits: At the recent premier of “Rabbit Fever,” a funny documentary about competitive bunny breeders, the producers gave out bunny ears to everyone in the theater, and took photos. Then they put the photos on Flickr, knowing that everyone in the audience on Facebook or Twitter or with a blog would post about it (like we are right now). Talk about cheap, effective viral marketing. (Full disclosure: The author of this post was in that audience. See if you can find him in his rabbit ears on Flickr.)
Beatin’ the Street; too much information (maybe); what social media’s good for; SEO’s bad rap
Yahoooooooooooo! Not to brag or anything, but we opened up a can of you-know-what on Wall Street yesterday, beating all expectations, says Kara Swisher.
Inundated by consumer data? Heck, who isn’t? But as this piece by John Nardone over at iMedia Connection explains, it’s possible to tame the data beast. It’s not a question of storage and computing power, says Nardone. Rather, “the challenge is identifying and leveraging what is relevant to your campaign from what is dross.” You might want to don your propeller beanie for this one.
Social media: What is it good for? Adam Singer, writing for TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog, cites ten ways to make social media work for your company. Among the less-than-obvious benefits: Building your “tribe;” SEO; listening to your stakeholders and attracting top talent to your company.
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Those “Mad Men” are such dolls
The Internet’s doomed—
Last night we announced a new partnership with Twitter that integrates Twitter’s real-time social experiences with Yahoo’s global network of more than 600 million users. Together with the recently announced Facebook integration, this relationship is a key part of advancing our social strategy, transforming Yahoo! into a highly customizable social experience that lets people unify their activity from their many social experiences across the Web. Good for users. Great for advertisers. For more details, 
Mitch Spolan, our VP of North American field sales, has just posted a point-of-view commentary on MediaPost, on how digital advertisers are seeing gold in big-ticket events like the Super Bowl, which have traditionally been dominated by TV, radio and print. “Cultural events like the Super Bowl still matter,” says Mitch. “The good news for online marketers is that people are increasingly turning to the Internet for coverage of these events, and audience size and engagement is beginning to reach—and sometimes exceed—that of the original broadcast.” That goes whether you’re a search or display advertiser. To see how advertisers are making the shift online and get some tips for yourself, 
Yahoo! Mobile blog launches
Selling the Super Bowl
Three simple steps to better creative
