What Will iPad Advertising Look Like? 5 Crazy Ideas That Might Actually Happen.

Although we’re spending most of our time building and making our product better (it’s really starting to look good, btw), we still like to keep an eye out for what other people are doing that’s creating a buzz in the tech space. Of course, when it comes to buzz, no one can get Silicon Valley (as well as the rest of the world) going crazy like Steve Jobs and the the rest of the Apple crew down the road in Cupertino. The most recent example of this is the launch of their new iPad, which Steve Jobs has said “will be the most important thing that he’s ever done”.

All of us here at isocket are crazy about gadgets (especially Zak), but what has really got us talking are all of potential ways that advertising will be implemented on something as versatile, mobile and innovative as the iPad. Here lately there’s been major mobile advertising deals inked by both Apple (who bought Quattro Wireless) and Google (who bought AdMob), which only further fuels our interest on how all of this iPad advertising business is going to shake out.

Today at lunch we all quickly brainstormed a bit about how this new iPad could potentially be leveraged for mobile advertising and as with most of our brainstorming sessions, a few crazy ideas made their way into the conversation. So, here are 5 iPad advertising options we felt that we might be seeing sometime here in the not-so-distant future:

Advergames: The idea of in-game advertising is nothing new, but it’s going to be taken to a whole new level with the iPad due to it’s amount of screen real estate and the fact that it’s a gamer’s dream (which has already been proven with the iPod Touch). I’m picturing going to a piece of content and being able to play a game right inside of an ad zone as opposed to downloading it, running it and being taken away from my current experience. If you like the game (that’s being brought to you by Best Buy), you can buy it from the iTunes store, or continue to browse away as you were before you started playing.
True Real-time/Location-based Ad Placements: I take the Caltrain from San Francisco to the office every day and I have to either pull out my laptop to hop online or somehow limp along with my Blackberry (yes, I actually have a Blackberry). If I had an iPad I would not only be able to easily work the web on the way to work like a pro, but I could also potentially be targeted with very relevant and very real-time ads. For instance, I could see browsing through the SF Chronicle to catch up on my SF news only to see an ad that lets me know that the Starbucks in Burlingame is doing a buy one get one free deal this morning only until 11am. It could do this due to the fact that my iPad is always on, always up-to-date and always location-aware. Kinda creepy, but kinda cool, too.
Advertising Outside of the Box: Like most other tech geeks out there, I enjoy using my laptop while watching TV. Sometimes it’s because I’ m looking up more information about what I’m watching, but most of the time I’m using it as a distraction from the commercials. Although taking this 2-screen approach is becoming more and more popular, the ease and innovation of the iPad is what’s going to make this type of behavior go mainstream. This will turn the current setup of a laptop for distraction to an iPad for collaboration. This also means that various apps and online experiences are going to be built specifically to be used on the iPad as a way to bust the boring content of TV into a more fun and interactive environment. To begin with, this will allow for an advertiser to extend the 30 second spot into something more meaningful (and trackable) on the iPad. In the future there could be specific brand-sponsored apps that you could interact with throughout a TV show that would be able to make the show commercial free (think behind the scenes content during American Idol).
Interactive Product Placements: Watching videos on an iPhone is OK, but by beefing up the screen size to nearly 10″ the iPad is going to make it a whole lot better. This will mean that all kinds of content (both professional and user-generated) are going to be watched a lot on this new platform, which will also bring about new ways for producers to monetize this content through advertising. One method, for example, would be if you could click on Jack Bauer’s watch, phone or bullet-proof vest as a way to find out more info about the products and to potentially purchase them directly through the iPad. Although you could probably do this now with a laptop, the fact that the touch screen is available on the iPad makes it a much more favorable medium for this type of interaction.
Tap To Remove Ads or Anchored Ads: These feel like they would be a little bit on the obnoxious side, but if it means that I can now read the New York Times for free on my iPad, then I would probably be all about it. I don’t foresee these types of ads being sold into a particular ‘ad slot’ like you see now, but instead would be directly anchored to various pieces of content that are being read, viewed, etc. on the iPad. For instance, there could be a different type of ad covering each article (except for the title and summary) in the New York Times based upon what the article is about, who is reading it and where they are reading it from. To read the article that is hidden beneath the ad, you would simple tap the screen and it would disappear to reveal the content that’s below (which would be very trackable and useful information). Also, another option that’s similar to these ‘tap to remove ads’ would be an anchored, floating ad that you would move around the page as you scrolled through content. This ad would change depending on what all of the same information as the tap ads, but would never fully leave the page. Like I said, these are fairly obnoxious, but I could see them being created in the bear future.

So, there you go. These are the 5 (not-so) crazy advertising ideas that we came up with for the new iPad, so feel free to let us know about any other ideas that you come up with, too. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with.

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Advertising

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What Is Online Ad Retargeting, How Does It Work And Is It Too Creepy?

One of the more recent hot topics that has the online advertising community buzzing about is the idea of ad retargeting. Whether you’ve ever noticed or not, you’ve most likely been on the ‘retargeting end’ of one of these behavioral based campaigns, but don’t feel bad, it’s nothing too personal (and it’s only becoming more and more popular).

To better help explain what ad retargeting (or ‘remarketring’) is, let me give you a real world example of what this type of ad technology can do for advertisers, publishers and retailers:

You go to Google and search for ‘new BMW convertible’, which leads you to land on this BMW page that tells you all about the new M6 convertible. Not a bad looking ride, eh?
You take a look at the page for a while, but just like 98% of most web-surfers you don’t take any action on the page (email a dealership, download vehicle info, search for local dealers, etc.) and you take off to another page that you also found on search.
Well, unknowingly to you (and most other online shoppers), BMW ‘dropped a cookie‘ on you, which basically means that they stored a little piece of data on your computer that says something like ‘this person is looking for a new BMW convertible’. This piece of data is small, but very powerful and can be used to follow your every move on the web for up to several days and even weeks.
As you surf around other websites you may or may not notice that there is an increasingly odd amount of BMW ads that seem to be popping up everywhere. If you do notice these ads following you around, you might think that it’s just a coincidence, but believe me — it isn’t.
The intended goal of these retargeted ads are to follow you around long enough to where you eventually make your way back to the original site that you visited so that you’ll make a purchase, download some information or any other action that they would like you, as a potential customer, to do.

Image credit: AdRoll.com

This is a fairly simple, yet accurate example of how a website could use retargeting as a way to increase their advertising ROI and as this idea continues to spread across the online advertising world (it’s still very under-utilized), you’re only going to be hearing more and more about it. Of course, like with most innovative targeting technologies, ad retargeting is getting it’s fair share of negative press and there are plenty of privacy issues that need to be figured out.

But, with major attention being given to it by major ad players such as Yahoo!, ad retargeting isn’t going away anytime soon. Is this good or bad for the overall online ad industry and the millions of people who will be served these retargeted ads? Only time will tell, but studies show that it seems to be working, so we had better get used to it for the time being.

More info about ad retargeting:

A great video demo from FetchBack about how ad retargeting works
Some potential pitfalls of buying ad retargeting from ClickZ
An ad retargeting piece on imedia that was written in 2006 (yeah, 2006)
A great explanation of how AdRoll does ad retargeting for their customers

If you have any other questions about ad retargeting, I’m sure that we can get you an answer. Just leave anything you have for us in the comments below.

December 11, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising

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What Happened to the Ad Network Apocalypse?

Usually when we find something worth sharing on the web, we send out a quick note on our twitter account @isocket. Past cool examples: Marketing Your Ad Space: How to Create Your Own Direct Advertising Sales Package (hey, we offer that!), Can Ad Networks and Premium Inventory Co-Exist?, and Google to Target Users by FICO Score.

I’ve been meaning to share this “Apocalypse” blog post with you for the last month. This past year has caused a lot of turmoil and self-analysis in the advertising and ad technology industries. But this is a good thing – we love the idea of creative destruction, and this year is no different!

Warren Lee wrote a blog post for AdAge called “What Happened to the Ad Network Apocalypse?“. Since the downturn, many predicted the mass consolidation / destruction of the 400 – 500 or so ad networks. A kind of “survival of the fittest”. But for the most part that hasn’t happened.

Many of the less differentiated, standard graphical networks have not shut down, because they are easy to run with very little expense these days. Most of the lesser-known ones (and even some of the bigger players) are essentially glorified brokers that acquire their inventory on the exchanges. They hire a trafficker, a salesperson or two, sign a 5-cent-CPM contract with an ad server and find someone who knows how to bid the exchanges to stay in business. They don’t need to invest significant resources in acquiring high-quality inventory or professionally managing relationships with publishers. These networks can generate a profit, enough to survive and to eke out a decent living.

Warren believes one of the reason they’ve survived is:

Most online publishers still find it difficult and lack the expertise to find, qualify, hire and manage ad-sales executives, which is a reason why many smaller and midsize online publishers turn to ad networks to help handle this activity.

We’re obviously biased, but we agree with him. Many of the ad networks are still around not necessarily because they should be, but because advertisers and publishers don’t see many alternatives.

There was an interesting comment left on Warren’s post by tddaly:

The main reason that Ad Networks are still succeeding is that Agencies haven’t replaced their services with their own in-house network exchanges yet. 2010 and 2011 will be tough upcoming years as Agencies pull their spend back and run it through their own systems. As Agencies shift spend, ad networks will feel the pain.

Very good point. Ad networks and exchanges were popular the last 5 years – but are they the future? Or is a small but fundamental change going to happen?

During the last post-bubble-wastelands (i.e. 2001-2003), the same thing happened. Web 1.0 advertising money dried up. It was during this time that people got creative and there was a crop of new companies and products – things like Google AdWords and Right Media. Many of the ad networks and exchanges that have become dominant today (or were acquired in ‘07-’08) were built during 2001-2003.

You can see in this chart that the upward momentum in the late 90’s fell flat. When this forced the industry to create and innovate, look what happened: (UPDATED with new Q209 numbers)

Full report from the IAB available here (PDF).

Here’s the point: don’t assume adding new bells and whistles to existing ad networks will be the “future of advertising”. What if something fundamentally changes – something like the blog comment by tddaly? What if advertisers want bring all their functions in house? What if people want to stop paying commissions?

Whatever happens, we’re very excited to see the innovative growth that takes place over the next 5 years!

October 1, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising

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Should I Try Direct Ad Sales On My Website?

This is part 4 of a 4 post series about direct sales and web display ads. Many website owners are benefiting from or considering selling ads on their sites directly. But direct sales can be confusing and it isn’t right for everyone. The posts:

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It’s Not For Everyone

Selling premium ads is not the best idea for every site on the web. Whether you want to conduct outbound direct sales or inbound self service, there are some basic factors that will impact how successful you are and if you should even make the investment to try.

So that I feel better about spending all that time and money on getting a Business Economics degree, allow me to present a very complex technical graph:

However, there are no hard rules – it’s more art than science and it’s a sliding scale. If you’re already conducting direct sales, either by hand or with a service similar to isocket, then it’s a no brainer. If you want to start selling premium ads here’s some criteria to consider:

You can invest the time and effort to make direct sales work.
You’ve had people email you saying “I’d love to buy an ad on your site!”
You have ideas for new / valuable advertising options.
You have the level of traffic and audience an advertiser would want to buy.

Can You Make The Investment?

Although isocket makes it a lot easier than it used to be, selling premium advertising on your website, whether it’s outbound direct sales or inbound self-service, is an investment of your time and energy. Even if you plan on using the self-service model exclusively, which is a “set it and forget it” type service for the publisher, it still takes more time and attention than using AdSense.

It takes time to get everything set up. You have to set up your ad zones, implement our ad tags on your website or in your ad server, create your inventory packages, fill out your profile, etc.

Then, once you start selling ads, you have to approve each order before it goes live on your site, answer any questions or bids you’ve received from potential buyers, update your traffic numbers, keep your content fresh, etc.

Most importantly, you need to actively promote and sell your inventory. After all, it’s called direct sales for a reason – you are selling your “product”, which involves making people aware it exists, making it easy for them to find (perhaps via an advertising page on your website), and contacting potential advertisers.

But You Still Need The Traffic

Think about it: if you run a blog that is read by 14 random people and your mother, would an advertiser make the effort to buy an ad directly? Your best option in that case is an ad network.

There is no hard limit on minimum traffic, and isocket doesn’t have a magic number we use to screen potential customers. However, we do believe that a rough rule of thumb is to have at least 50,000 page views per month.

We have run across publishers with less traffic than this that are successful with direct sales, but they usually offer something else that is valuable, such as a highly targeted audience. Or it could be a unique situation where you only get 10,000 unique visitors per month but they are a very engaged audience that generates 200,000 ad impressions, etc.

Does Size Really Matter?

When it comes to premium ad sales, yes. From an advertising buyer’s perspective, it has to be worth it for them to put the time and money into making a direct purchase. We discussed some of these reasons in the second post of this series.

Let me put it another way: you wouldn’t drive an hour to buy a McDonald’s hamburger that was $1 off. It may be a mighty tasty and efficiently priced burger, but the effort didn’t warrant the reward.

This is why premium advertising has been a privilege of the larger websites. If an advertiser is going to be making calls and sending checks anyway, they may as well buy from the biggest sites they can. In other words, an advertiser would rather make 5 phone calls to 5 websites to purchase ads that will reach 5 million people, as opposed to making 500 calls to 500 websites that will reach 5 million people.

The graph above represents the audience size of websites, ranging from the #1 site on the web to the last. The shaded blue areas show that the total audience size of the top 50 websites might be the same audience size as the last 500,000 websites combined. It’s a bell curve, and it’s the graph that spawned terms like “the long tail.”

The Floor Is Dropping

An important trend is emerging. The “minimum size” of a website that can successfully sell premium ad space is dropping. In other words, if a couple of years ago you needed to have at least 1 million page views to successfully sell a premium ad, today you might only need 100,000.

This change is happening for a couple reasons. First, the dramatic rise of small and middle sized ad buyers spending their ad dollars online has increased the demand for “middle class” advertising (as opposed to big budget advertising, like on CNN.com). The other reason is that tools like isocket are making it easier for more groups to try direct sales without the huge development or staffing costs.

Try Us Risk Free – Plug In Your Existing Ad Network

If you think you meet the criteria outlined in this post and still want to try premium ad sales, great! We wanted to help people try direct sales without risking the money they are already making. One of isocket’s features is the ability to daisy chain our service with your existing ad networks. If you’re already using a network like AdSense, you can put their ad code into isocket, so that while your premium ad is waiting to be purchased we will display your AdSense code.

May 20, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising, Beta, Features

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How isocket Powers Premium Ad Sales

This is part 3 of a 4 post series about direct sales and web display ads. Many website owners are benefiting from or considering selling ads on their sites directly. But direct sales can be confusing and it isn’t right for everyone. The posts:

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Selling Your Own Ads Is Tough

So selling your own premium advertising can be a great thing. But going at it alone can be very difficult – conducting direct sales as a publisher is a time consuming mess. It’s very manual – emails back and forth, invoices, etc.

On average, publishers who are trying direct sales spend up to half their time on the administrative overhead behind ad sales, or the “nuts and bolts”. One of our beta testers described his daily routine as “hand to hand combat.”

We’re one of the new tools that makes the processes easier and quicker. Plus we’re the only one that is commission free and built for flexibility and customization.

Outbound Direct Sales vs Inbound Self Service

There are two ways premium ads get bought and sold. One is outbound direct sales, where the seller is actively trying to push his inventory by pitching to potential buyers “you should buy ads on my website!” The other is inbound self service, where a buyer initiates the purchase by coming to the seller and saying “I’d like to advertise on your site!”

Let’s take a look at a typical inbound scenario:

Buyer is browsing a website and is interested in advertising on it.
Buyer goes to the “advertise page”, such as xyz.com/advertise.
The advertise page tells the buyer that they need to email advertise@xyz.com for more info.
There’s a back and forth of emails where the buyer is asking questions, trying to figure out what is available to buy, the price, etc.
Buyer and seller agree on a deal. Seller creates an invoice for the buyer and emails it to them. Buyer sends payment via check, PayPal, etc.
Buyer emails their banner ad to seller. Seller takes the file and puts it into their ad server, manually creating a campaign based on what the buyer wanted.
The ad runs. The buyer can’t see what’s happening or change their banner image, so they email the seller to see how much of their order has been filled.
The seller emails a report to the buyer once the campaign is done.

That doesn’t sound like much fun. It’s a very tedious, time consuming, manual processes simply to sell a banner ad. Lots of independent moving pieces and things that have to be kept track of. Think about it – an ad buyer has to jump through hoops to give you money that they wanted to spend on you!

isocket Makes It Easier

Rather than tell you what we’re doing, we thought it’d be better to show you! Here’s the first public look inside isocket (a 4:45 video screencast).

Here’s some of the key features highlighted in the screencast:

More options – isocket helps you sell any kind of ad inventory, including web display banners, email and RSS.

More control – Create your ad inventory the way you want to – you can set the price, duration, details, etc.

More money – Why are you still paying 30% commissions? isocket charges a low monthly fee. On average, publishers that switch to isocket are saving up to $1,000 per month!

More transparency – Because we’re commission free, we don’t try to hide who you’re selling to or buying from.

What Do You Think?

Our goal is to build you the best ad platform around! The best way to do that is by listening to you. Tell us what you think of the sneak peak into isocket or what features you would love to see! You can also connect with us on twitter.

May 4, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising, Beta, Features

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Why Direct Sales Is A Great Way To Sell Ads

This is part 2 of a 4 post series about direct sales and web display ads. Many website owners are benefiting from or considering selling ads on their sites directly. But direct sales can be confusing and it isn’t right for everyone. The posts:

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Have you ever seen a website with an “advertise here” page, typically something like photojojo.com/advertising/? Are you unhappy with your ad networks and think you could be making more money if you sold your ads yourself?

Bottom line: selling your own premium ad inventory can lead to a big boost in your business – and not enough websites are trying it or doing it well.

Remnant advertising via networks and exchanges is very popular, and they definitely serve a purpose / fill a need. We believe that remnant ads are a good thing but not the only or even best thing. Like most things in life and business it’s best to have a balance between remnant and premium, and finding the right mix can do wonders for your advertising.

The problem is ad sellers / web publishers started focusing on ad networks as their main source of ad revenue. After all, it was quick and easy! You put some JavaScript on your website and BAM!, Google starts magically sending you checks. As the industry focused on building ad networks and exchanges to meet this demand, relatively little progress was made with premium ads and tools that support them.

Premium Ads Make More Money

When you’re selling ads, you can usually figure out how much money you’re making from your ad inventory by measuring eCPM, or effective cost per thousand impressions. When you’re using ad networks you often earn an eCPM of less than $1.00.

Ads that you sell directly can be sold for higher prices – or in other words, you can sell them at a “premium” (get it?). The average difference in pricing for what is essentially the same ad space can be as high as 10X! That means you might be getting paid $1 per thousand impressions by a network when the same ad spot sold as a premium ad could have brought you $10.

Here’s a recent and controversial MediaPost blog that shows some of the direct sales vs remnant pricing math. Regardless of the math’s merits, it’s good people are debating the topic.

Why The Big Price Difference?

Because the buyer is getting things they can’t get when they buy remnant ads through a network or exchange. After all, ad buyers aren’t stupid or willing to throw money away – but they will pay more for a better product!

Some of the direct sales benefits to ad buyers:

Transparency – One of the problems with remnant advertising is the buyer doesn’t know where their ad is going to show up. It’s a kind of “spray and pray”. They trust Google to put the ad in the “right” places for the “right” price. When buying a premium ad directly, they know who they are buying from, what they’re buying, how much it costs, etc.

Control – Because of the transparency, buyers have more control over their premium ads. They can intentionally pick where the ad goes, what types of packages they want to buy, for how many days/weeks/impressions the ad will run, etc. They can more directly analyze the ad’s performance and optimize accordingly.

Relationships – Direct sales usually occur between people, not algorithms. Having a person you can talk to and build a relationship with is a great thing with tons of benefits. For example, some sellers have given the buyer feedback on their ad creative / banners by saying “we know our website visitors really well, and we think they would love it if your ad talked about XYZ feature.”

Simplicity – Depending on the type of advertiser, direct ad purchases can be easier. Think of a small or medium sized ad buyer who has been spending most of their money on radio and print ads – those are direct purchases and it’s what they are accustomed to. As more of these buyers spend money online, they don’t all want to learn or deal with the complexities of networks and exchanges. Sometimes it’s easier for them to email a website and say “I’d like to buy an ad on your site for a month. Here’s my money.”

Remember the brick and mortar store example from the first post in this series? There’s value for the buyer to see and touch the product, to talk directly with the shopkeeper about what’s right for them, etc. There’s a level of personal touch and customization. You can’t get that when you buy a billion impressions from a thousand websites via a network.

There Are More Benefits For Sellers, Too!

Premium ads and direct sales isn’t just about making more money. Many publishers use direct sales because it’s a better fit for their business and how they want to spend their time. Many of the benefits listed above for buyers are also mirrored as benefits for sellers:

Relationships – Sales is about relationships. You can drive a lot of repeat and profitable business when you maintain relationships with your advertisers.

Business Control – Rather than relying on a third party that might not have your best interests in mind, many website publishers want to have that control over all aspects of their business. There’s something empowering about being the sole determiner of your success with ad revenue.

Inventory Control – You have the flexibility to try different things, such as a unique new form of advertising. Some sellers like to bundle together different ad packages, such as an option to buy a daily homepage takeover or a mixed campaign of banners, text, RSS and email. Although we don’t always recommend it, unique inventory options can be a good way to offer unique value to your advertisers.

Advertisement Control – You can control the advertisements that show up on your site. You don’t have to worry about ads for competitors, porn, gambling, herbal supplements, etc. Web publishers spend a lot of time and effort to give their users a great experience through quality content and design – why clutter that up with irrelevant or inappropriate advertising?

Money Control – Sometimes an advertiser will contact the seller to make a direct purchase, but the seller has to send them to a third party service to fulfill the order. But if the buyer contacted you directly and it’s your inventory, why send it off to a broker who will take 40% of what you rightfully earned? Plus you can control how and when you are paid – no more waiting 3 months for a check in the mail!

So How Do I Do It?

In the next post of the series, we’ll walk through how direct sales typically works, what’s wrong with it, and how isocket helps make it easier for you!

Let us know in the comments which of these benefits you like most or if there any reasons we might have missed? Would love to hear what you all think of premium direct sales.

May 1, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising

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The Two Types of Web Display Ads: Premium vs Remnant

This is part 1 of a 4 post series about direct sales and web display ads. Many website owners are benefiting from or considering selling ads on their sites directly. But direct sales can be confusing and it isn’t right for everyone. The posts:

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There are two types of inventory when it comes to website display (i.e. banner) ads – premium and remnant. Understanding the difference and how it applies to you is crucial to making the most out of your advertising revenue and strategy.

From a technical view, there is no difference between a premium ad and a remnant ad. They are the same shape and size, the advertisement (called the “creative”) could look identical, they both count as an impression every time they are seen, and they both link to the advertiser’s website. Mike Nolet, formerly of Right Media, has an excellent series of posts with his opinion on this subject.

The basic difference between premium and remnant is how the ad was bought and sold. Premium ads are sold by a seller/publisher directly to a buyer/advertiser. Or in other words, an advertiser bought the exact ad they wanted from the exact website they wanted.

Pretend you own a brick and mortar store… you do some local marketing about your products, a customer walks in, you chat about what they are looking for, they pick the product they want, they pay you, and they leave. It’s a 1 to 1, face to face relationship. That’s direct sales and premium ad inventory.

Remnant ads are sold by someone else, where your ad inventory was pooled together with thousands or millions of other websites and sold to a buyer you’ve never met. Remnant ads are “leftovers”. Almost all ad networks put remnant ads on your website. The biggest network AdSense (created by our own Gokul Rajaram) is a perfect example.

Let’s say only 30% of a website’s available ad inventory has been purchased directly by an advertiser. The other 70% of inventory could a) show no ads at all or b) show ads from an ad network. The thinking is you may as well show remnant ads, because some money is better than no money, right?

The problem (as you’ll see in the next posts) is that even though remnant ads are easy to use and usually make up the numerical majority of a website’s ad impressions, they are usually not your only/best option.

April 30, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising

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ad:tech San Francisco Lifts Up During Down Days

Last summer we attended ad:tech Chicago, and it sucked (old post: adtech Chicago Underwhelms). This week was San Francisco’s turn. Ad:tech SF is usually a bigger show than Chicago, but we weren’t sure what to expect given everything that’s happening in the ad and tech industries.

I was pleasantly surprised as I spent two days meeting people, customers, partners and anyone with a booth. I wanted to highlight some of the things I saw:

Given all that’s happened in the last 6 months in the macro economy and the ad industry, I expected the conference to feel gloomy and the conversations to focus on “what’s wrong.” Not the case. People were energetic and still talking about innovation.

Unlike previous years, many of the bigger booths were manned by the company’s CEO. That’s the right thing to do in this climate. They are best suited to listen and feel the customers on the ground and adjust accordingly.

One of the good things about this downturn is that a lot of the me-too companies will go away. They were still out in full force this year, but you can tell they are struggling to justify their existence. Their departure will clear the way for the next wave of companies and solutions to rise.

The industry doesn’t need more lead gen companies or vertical networks targeted at tween female saxophone players. Booth after booth had the same message “we deliver the best ROI on your ad dollar!” – sorry but no, no you don’t.

At the recent IAB conference, one of the opinions you heard again and again from both buyers and sellers was “we don’t feel like we’re any better off than we were in 2001.” Everyone was talking about what the next big thing could be and what problems they want solved. There is still lots of room to innovate in advertising!

Zak will be attending the TRAFFIC domain conference next week, let us know if you’ll be there!

April 24, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising

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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.

January 15, 2009 | Filed Under Advertising, Community, Features

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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: