Advertising Options Icon Puts Positive Spin on Behavioral Targeting
January 21, 2012
Behavioral targeting is a lifeline for advertisers who want to make sure their ads are seen by the right audiences and drive the highest return on investment. However, consumers aren’t on board with behavioral targeting. They see it as an invasion of privacy. The Digital Advertising Alliance is trying to change that negative consumer perception with a new campaign, website, and “Advertising Options” icon pictured to the left.
The series of ads show a banner ad trying to find the right customers who actually want to find him, too. You can see one of those ads below.
The new Advertising Options icon will appear in all partner ads where behavioral targeting is used. The icon is described on the new AdChoices.com website as follows:
“It’s a clear sign that companies are trying to make the Web ads you see better reflect your online interests. It’s there to keep you informed about how and why ads are being made more relevant for you.”
The new icon is being promoted as a way for consumers to control whether they see ads that use behavioral targeting or not. If a consumer sees the Advertising Options icon on an online ad, he can click on it to get information about the companies that provide “interest-based ads” on that website. If the consumer doesn’t want to see interest-based ads, he can click through to a special consumer choice page where he can opt out of interest-based ads from the companies that participate in the Advertising Options program. Consumers can also navigate directly to AboutAds.info/choices to review the status of their choices. Unfortunately, consumers won’t be able to opt out of behavioral targeting from advertisers that don’t participate in the Advertising Options icon program using the website or icon.
A clever series of YouTube videos further explains what the icon is, what interest-based advertising is, and how to use the icon. In the latter video, which you can watch below, an important message is hyped within the first 15 seconds — online advertising pays for all the free content and tools people get on the Internet. It’s another clever way to spin interest-based advertising as a positive thing for consumers.
Hundreds of advertisers are already participating in the program (you can see them all in the online directory here) and more are likely to join. The question is how effective the Digital Advertising Alliance’s attempt at spinning behavioral targeting into a benefit for consumers rather than a privacy violation will be. It’s a good idea but this is a battle that’s likely to continue for years to come. What do you think?
Cannes Recognizes Branded Content is Hot with New Award Category
January 19, 2012
Branded content is at the top of every brand manager’s to do list in 2012, and this year, branded content will get its own category for recognition at the week-long Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. For the first time, Branded Content & Entertainment Lions will be awarded at the festival as will Mobile Lions for mobile creative work.
The world of branded content has evolved significantly over the past few years, and the Branded Content & Entertainment Lions competition should include some great creative that can inspire other brands and will likely draw attention to specific trends guiding branded content in 2012.
For example, original branded web series programming has been gaining more attention over the past couple of years. Back in 2010, the 7-Eleven Road Trip Rally original web series, distributed by Blip.tv, followed two teams as they traveled across the United States. The teams had to purchase all items they needed during the trip from 7-Eleven stores and participate in challenges at 7-Eleven stores along the way.
In 2011, Denny’s scored celebrity help from Jason Bateman and David Koechner in its own web series, “Always Open,” where the actors conducted casual interviews while sitting in a booth and sharing a meal at a Denny’s restaurant. Last week, Yahoo! announced it’s partnering with Electus and CollegeHumor for its own original web series called Blindsided which will feature sports stars pulling pranks on teammates.
The growing interest in branded content from the creative world further establishes it as a marketing strategy that’s here to stay. By owning the content, brands can control messages in a much better way than traditional digital advertising or television product placement allow. Original web series programming gives brands the best of both worlds — reaching an audience looking for entertainment they can enjoy, share and talk about while controlling the brand experience. What’s not to love from a brand perspective?
What do you think about the growing trend toward original branded web programming and the focus on branded content as a creative art? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image: Flickr
Facebook CPC Ads Are Looking Better to Brands but YouTube is Stealing Visit Market Share
January 17, 2012
Facebook cost per click is going down in the U.K. while click-through rates are trending up. That’s according to the latest quarterly report from TBG Digital as reported by Brand Republic which showed Facebook cost per click ad prices dropped by 11% between the third and fourth quarters of 2011.
It’s important to point out that these results are for ads that led directly to another page on Facebook rather than offsite.
During the fourth quarter of 2011, the finance category accounted for the highest number of Facebook ad impressions but the food and drink category experienced the highest click-through rates.
For brands, the lowered cost per click for Facebook advertising mean lower investments and more testing. However, the story isn’t all positive. Facebook’s explosive growth hasn’t just slowed down in the U.K. According to Experian Hitwise, Facebook lost social networking visit opportunities to Google’s YouTube during December 2011 with its total share of social networking visits dropping from 58.5% in December 2010 to 51.5% in December 2011. However, Facebook’s overall number of visits in the U.K. remained stable during 2011 at 1.3 billion.
During the same time period, visits to YouTube grew by 45% from 417 million in December 2010 to 606 million in December 2011, and YouTube’s social networking market share grew from 23.6% to 25% during that time.
What do all these numbers mean for brands?
First, people are diversifying the way they consume content more than ever, and the idea that Facebook could be a one-stop shop for all content isn’t happening.
Second, the Facebook vs. Google battle is still in its early stages. With the launch of Google+ last year, this battle is likely to get far more heated in 2012.
Third, brands should diversify their social media marketing and advertising efforts to take advantage of lower Facebook advertising costs without placing too much focus on the social networking leader. Once you get executive buy-in to acquire a social media marketing budget, another challenge arises — convincing executives that there is more to the social web than Facebook. Diversification has always been the foundation for a successful marketing plan, and that should apply to your brand social media marketing efforts, too.
What do you think? What percentage of your brand’s marketing budget it allocated to Facebook in 2012? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image: Flickr
Top 10 Brands of 2011 Ranked by Positive Buzz Score
January 12, 2012
Each year, market research company YouGov surveys American consumers to analyze positive and negative perceptions of brands based on brand reputation. Using the data, YouGov assigns each brand a BrandIndex Buzz score. At the end of 2011, the 10 brands with the best reputations that consumers feel the most positive emotions toward aren’t that different from the leaders of 2009 and 2010.
According to the YouGov study, consumer sentiment toward Subway in 2011 was so consistently positive that the brand landed in the #1 spot in the Brand Buzz Rankings chart for the second year in a row. Apple came in at #10. You can see the top 10 brands based on consumer sentiment with each brand’s YouGov BrandIndex buzz score below:
- Subway = 41.0 buzz score
- Amazon = 37.5 buzz score
- History Channel = 36.7 buzz score
- Google = 35.7 buzz score
- Cheerios = 35.5 buzz score
- Lowe’s = 35.5 buzz score
- Ford = 35.4 buzz score
- Discovery Channel = 34.8 buzz score
- Target = 33.7 buzz score
- Apple = 33.0 buzz score
While Subway held on to the number one position, Amazon took the number two position in part thanks to the successful release of the Kindle Fire. Ranking at #5, Cheerios was the only other food brand to make it into the top 10, and Ford was the only automotive brand to appear in the top 10 coming in at #7 in 2011.
Google was able to climb one spot to rank #4 in 2011 with the launch of Google+ undoubtedly driving the brand’s positive buzz in the latter half of the year. Also, the increased sales of Android mobile devices helped to boost the Google brand in 2011. However, Google still has a long way to go to recoup the #1 spot, which it held back in 2009.
A key Google competitor, Apple, made it into the top 10 list for the first time since 2007. The hype around the release of the new iPad and the new iPhone models brought a great deal of positive buzz to the brand in 2011. At the same time, the death of Apple’s leader and brand champion, Steve Jobs, added to the nostalgic sentiment consumers felt for the Apple brand overall.
What do you think of the top 10 brands based on positive consumer sentiment and buzz in 2011? Do any of the brands that made it to the top of the list surprise you? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the top 10 brands by buzz score in 2011.
Image: Thomas Hawk
Marketing Your Brand with a Social App
January 10, 2012
Should your brand build a custom social app? That’s the question Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media, tries to answer in an article he wrote for Advertising Age. Michael summed up his opinion quite succinctly when he wrote, “Applications need to bring value to people and should be social by design.”
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of social apps, particularly when other brands experience great success with social apps that integrate directly into Facebook and puts the brand in front of a huge potential audience of over 800 million Facebook members. However, Michael warns us that the vast majority of social apps don’t work.
He reminds us that apps are not a social strategy. They’re a tool to help a brand connect with people. Your social strategy should be focused on offering those people something so you can interact with them and cultivate relationships with them. To support his view, he referred to a speech Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg delivered in 2011 and explained, “Facebook is not nearly as concerned with how many users they have, as much as how those users are interfacing with the platform and each other.”
With those tips in mind, Michael shared his suggestions for building a social app for a brand so it has a chance for success:
- Useful: Your social app needs to be useful and actually do something for users by making their lives easier or helping them in some way.
- Value-driven: Your social app needs to add value to the people’s lives who use it. Just as products need to benefit consumers, so must your social app or there is little reason to use it.
- Social: Your social app should have built-in social functionality, so a user’s friends see them using it with no additional effort (e.g., on their Facebook News Feeds) and are intrigued enough to try it themselves.
You can read Michael’s complete article with more details about his tips for social app success and social strategy development here. What do you think of his view of social apps for brands? Will you re-strategize your brand’s social app plans? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on branded social app strategies.
Image: Babyben
Get our updates
 |