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The Ad Space Dilemma

Paul Martinez — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:43:23 +0000

Okay, so the baseball website needs to make money and I know that I am not the only one that has experienced this. It appears that over 50 potential advertisers have expressed interest in the all Arizona baseball site, AZ Hardball. Awesome! I am flattered but, I know that the visitors love the content. Although this poses an excellent opportunity to make some additional cash, I have some agreements locked in. I know… bad move. Adapt and adjust.

What my thought is that there is a fine line between proper ad placement and too many ads. If ads are not placed properly, they can take away from the experience. Several thousands of hours go into site usability studies that show that the same number of ads, if not placed properly can seem to be too many.

In conclusion, I am fine with the current layout and the length of visits to the site show that the users are too. That been said, I may have an upcoming action item to create a banner management system but, in the meantime, enjoy the site for what it is. There will be no additional ad real estate forthcoming, perhaps only the ability for us to rotate ads more frequently, not to take away from the user experience.

Marketing and ads are what I do, so this is kind of difficult for me to write about. Even more difficult will be the post on the decision for me leaving my prior place of employment (probably will come in another year). If you have any feedback, let me know. I would love to hear you take on my stance.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky Keeps Getting Better for BK

Paul Martinez — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:59:26 +0000

Burger King’s ad agency of record continues to do great things for the company as they continue with their outstanding viral marketing campaigns. Crispin Porter first deployed a successful campaign by delivering the Subservient Chicken to us in 2004. This campaign was followed by a less than successful circus type campaign. In 2007 the ad team came back with the Whopper Freakout which was based on the idea that the Burger King was a “Whopper Free Zone”. Placing cameras around BK and filming unsuspecting guests as they were notified that the Whopper was no longer on the menu fueled some pretty interesting reactions.

This year the agency has outdone themselves again. Whopper Virgins, has rivaled the online success of the prior year’s Whopper Freakout as covered by Ad Age. The concept is simple; go to places that have not experienced a Whopper and show how they eat it and how it fares in a taste test against a rival burger. The impact is phenomenal. I recommend taking 10 minutes out of your day to watch it in its entirety. The responses are both moving and compelling. One of the reasons why this campaign may actually do better than the poor campaign is that it evokes emotion.

I will admit, when I first saw the words Whopper Virgins, I was disinterested. After seeing what all the hype was about, I am glad I checked it out.

An additional ingenious viral marketing scheme by the BK is the Facebook Application Whopper Sacrifice which rewards users with a Whopper if they ditch 10 friends. With that, it is becoming more clear that organizations will be continuing to take less than traditional approaches to advertising and marketing.

Do Flash Memory Music Albums Have Legs?

Paul Martinez — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:31:33 +0000

The easy answer to that question is no but I am not speaking about bodily limbs here. As the music industry continues to evolve there have been many arguments about licensing digital music from the days of Napster to the current times of iTunes. While artists are diligently working to get the most return on the publishing of their talent, the digital music format has made it easier for piracy and copyright infringement. One would argue that it would be a massive undertaking for the community to monitor and police the legal use of digital media published by these artists. In perspective, it seems that the industry agrees and is taking steps towards alternative approaches to helping the artists to get the income they deserve.

I know that it may sound like a broken record. I also realize that a ton of us are tired of hearing this same old story but, anyone that has tried to make a song would agree that there is no easy way to create music. Being able to create sounds and beats that are pleasing to the ear and that move you involve a substantial amount of talent. In order to recuperate some of the lost opportunities for income, artists have tried things such as distribution of music on flash USB drives, as promotional items. Although the drives did not quite catch on, they have migrated to the use of SlotMusic.

SlotMusic is a concept that uses flash memory to contain an entire album on a micro SD (secure digital) card. The SD card can be used between devices such as your mobile phone, mp3 player and your personal computer. Some of the benefits that SlotMusic has to offer are the inclusion of the lyrics, album art and video, in addition to the ability to store your own content on this writable card. Because the content on the card is free of DRM (digital rights management) it appears that the strategy is to make some money for the licensing artists on economies of scale.

Whether or not this medium of delivering musical content will catch on is yet to be seen but, it is definitely an interesting concept. Some may argue that the days of delivering music on flash media have died but, I would argue that there are additional marketing and technology techniques that can make this an invaluable tool. After all if there is extra room on the card, there is an opportunity to put some fun stuff on there.

GM Claims No Super Bowl Ads

Paul Martinez — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:24:17 +0000

In an effort to reduce spending, the automotive giant claims that they do not plan on ad spending for this year’s Big Game. Struggling auto manufacturer General Motors makes advertising cuts that include television and some digital media. In a interesting figure shows that GM has actually increased its online ad spending over the last two marketing years.

Naturally, I have always been a big advocate of online marketing for obvious reasons. Being able to quantify marketing results is huge and many interactive marketing service providers are able to deliver these results to their client. In tough financial times for organizations and individuals, it remains important to get the most “bang for your buck” and interactive marketing certainly lends itself to quality in that regard.

You can read more about General Motors and their advertising cuts at the following location: Ad Age

Guinness Tornado Ad

Paul Martinez — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:21:33 +0000

One of my favorite advertisements that I thought I would share.