New Design Sneak Peek #4: Activity Icons
This week’s sneak peek into the new design going up next month: activity icons. Our goal is to provide more “one click” functionality to the socket listings and give the user more control and information on their dashboard pages.
In most of the places where ad inventory is listed (such as the Active Sockets list on your dashboard), each socket will have status / activity icons.
These activity lights are small icons on the right of the socket listing that will brighten when certain actions are required or something important has happened. For example:
- When a question is asked
- An ad copy needs to be approved
- A private message is received
- A buyer requests renewal
New Design Sneak Peek #3: User Profiles
Continuing our sneak peeks at the new design / version being rolled out next month, here is what the new user profile page looks like. This is the page external people see when viewing your account.
We wanted to highlight your role, history, group and brand memberships, and of course the ad inventory you’re managing.
Click to enlarge. Comments welcome!
Ex-Googler David Scacco Joins isocket Board
Today we’re excited to announce and welcome an addition to the isocket team!
David Scacco is joining our Advisory Board as an ex-Googler (Xoogler in Valley speak) turned startup investor. We’re pumped to work with David to begin taking isocket and our team to the next level.
David was the first advertising exec hired by Google wayyy back in February, 2000. He was the head of the group that built Google’s ad sales business with agencies, etc.
From his LinkedIn bio:
Scacco joined Google in early 2000 (serving through 2007) and holds the distinction as the company’s first advertising sales executive. In his role as Director of the Vertical Markets Group Scacco was responsible for building and managing an all-star team, which provided marketers with industry specific expertise across 12 macro categories including Travel, Finance, Consumer Packaged Goods, B2B Technology, and Agencies. In this capacity Scacco and the Vertical team built successful advertising partnerships with many of the world’s best known brands and advertising agencies, as well as some of the fastest growing internet companies. Scacco received the prestigious Founders Award for his work at Google.
Prior to joining Google, Scacco was Director of Business Development at Ziff-Davis where he created integrated cross media marketing partnerships with leading Tech and Telecom marketers. Prior to that Scacco spent 7 years with a direct response computer reseller where he held the position of VP of Marketing. Scacco began his career in ad agency account management. Scacco holds a BS from Northern Illinois University.
New Design Sneak Peek: Newsfeed and Tabs
Big design changes coming over the next month! One of our goals is to make it easier to manage your accounts across different groups/brands/websites.
Here’s a sliver of the new account home page. The account home is still unique for each group you’re a member of. It brings the newsfeed up front and account management tabs behind it.
Let us know what you think (click to enlarge):
360 Degree Inventory And Moving Beyond Banners
As an ad seller, what can you do in times like these to increase your sales and attract new buyers? What can you offer to local or small businesses who might be shrinking their ad budgets?
You often have more types of inventory to sell than just web banners. By offering different inventory, whether it’s unique and wacky or phsyical and offline, you’re able to cast a wider net in your sales efforts. And as more local and small ad buyers are moving online, combining those banners with other opportunities puts you in a great spot.
One of our beta testers, IndyMojo, has built a full time business around selling ads to local small business owners. IndyMojo is a local community website based in Indianapolis, Indiana that has about 7,000 members and quite impressive numbers for a local community portal. What’s even more impressive is how they’ve handled their ad sales.
The guys at Mojo have done a great job building a sales process. They also understand that selling an ad is no different than selling a physical piece of inventory. As such, they’re working hard to make it easier for buyers to find and buy their inventory. You can see their internal sales page here and their isocket brand page here.
Because of the nature of the IndyMojo brand and audience, IndyMojo sells ad opportunities that expand beyond banners. It makes sense for their business because they offer more than just a website – they offer conversations, real world events and the ability to reach a very targeted group. For example, they have created VIP cards that give card holders discounts at participating local businesses. Other examples:
- Email newsletter sponsorships
- Directory listings
- Network forums with discussion
- Classified ads
- Calendar listings
isocket helps IndyMojo runs the sales for all these different ads through one place, rather than managing 5 different types of services for each option they offer. This makes it easier for both buyer and seller – less overhead, less email tag, less checks to write, etc.
As we said in our last post, “Truly creative advertising engages people…” Give your advertisers the opportunity to engage with your community in novel ways. Whether it be via online discussion or an offline meetup in your most popular city, allow buyers to get creative and it will pay off for you.
Creative Outdoor Ads (re-blog)
Today’s post is a re-blog of creative outdoor / captive advertisements from around the web. Not creative as in “gee, that was a funny pun”. Creative as in people stop in the middle of the street to stare for 2 minutes or pose for pictures. Truly creative advertising engages people – that’s the point, right?
Advertising budgets perform best when they are structured like stock portfolios. You should have 5%-10% of your budget in “experimental” ad forms. What’s experimental? If it takes multiple conversations with your CMO to get her approval, then it’s experimental.
Usually when you see a list of creative billboards, the good ones broke the fourth wall. But the best ones go a step further and consider the environment around the ad. Here’s a few of our favorites:
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About isocket
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really expensivecommission-free ad platform. We're aMidwestSilicon Valley startup working passionately to improve the advertising options available to you. -
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