If your clients could buy out all of the display ad (banner) space on 971TheFan.com for an entire day (streaming pre-roll and web players not included), what do you believe a reasonable price would be for this sort of exclusivity?
Please use the poll below to choose one of the preset prices, or enter a price of your own...
Your participation will help as we create web sales strategy for the coming year. Watch for more of these quick and simple polls in the future.
Thanks for sharing your opinion!
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Friday, October 09, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Did You Know 4.0
This is another official update to the original "Shift Happens" video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com/ and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/.
Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE, http://www.xplane.com/.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Who's Yer GoDaddy?
Bob Parsons of GoDaddy.com is doing a great job of providing entertaining, yet informative, video content for his customers. What sort of content, advice, and expertise are you providing to YOUR clients?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
VBR for Video
Inside Radio shares these Nielsen stats in regard to increased interaction with online video:
Nielsen released May video viewing data that shows 134 million Americans watched online video content last month. That's up 13% from a year ago. The number of minutes a typical online video user watched jumped 49% to 189 minutes.
If you have a client that you know is using using tv spots now or in the past, a video pre-roll opportunity on the radio site can take advantage of video that has already been produced, but perhaps not fully utilized due to the higher cost of television airtime.
If the client has a product or service that would benefit from visual expores to our audience in addition to the audio spots already being aired, a landing page featuring product demonstration, client testimonials, or an amusing video that drives home an important point of their service can greatly increase the likelyhood of response by your audience.
Some great examples of video used to promote products:
1. http://www.insurance-mitchell.com/
Take a look about halfway down the page to see this creative use of a simple YouTube video embedding to brand his services and point out some perfect reasons why you need great insurance coverage.
2. http://www.savingsanity.com/
Simple 'talking head' video that promotes the advertiser's product while providing real informational content to the audience via the free tips presented in the video.
3. https://www.getsnuggie.com/
And the classic -- Snuggie. Sales not only increased exponentially once this landing page was created to enhance their already successful television spot, but a cult following developed by simple virtue of the new internet audience being reached. It wasn't long before people took the brand and product and started using it for their own creative ends:
Snuggie Remix (over 300,000 views)
Snuggie Pubcrawls (video from Chicago - WGN Radio, NYC, and San Diego - complete with media coverage)
Snuggie Parody (warning: strong - but hilarious - language) (4 MILLION views and climbing!)
Encourage your clients and prospects to use video.
Who knows where it might lead?
Nielsen released May video viewing data that shows 134 million Americans watched online video content last month. That's up 13% from a year ago. The number of minutes a typical online video user watched jumped 49% to 189 minutes.
If you have a client that you know is using using tv spots now or in the past, a video pre-roll opportunity on the radio site can take advantage of video that has already been produced, but perhaps not fully utilized due to the higher cost of television airtime.
If the client has a product or service that would benefit from visual expores to our audience in addition to the audio spots already being aired, a landing page featuring product demonstration, client testimonials, or an amusing video that drives home an important point of their service can greatly increase the likelyhood of response by your audience.
Some great examples of video used to promote products:
1. http://www.insurance-mitchell.com/
Take a look about halfway down the page to see this creative use of a simple YouTube video embedding to brand his services and point out some perfect reasons why you need great insurance coverage.
2. http://www.savingsanity.com/
Simple 'talking head' video that promotes the advertiser's product while providing real informational content to the audience via the free tips presented in the video.
3. https://www.getsnuggie.com/
And the classic -- Snuggie. Sales not only increased exponentially once this landing page was created to enhance their already successful television spot, but a cult following developed by simple virtue of the new internet audience being reached. It wasn't long before people took the brand and product and started using it for their own creative ends:
Snuggie Remix (over 300,000 views)
Snuggie Pubcrawls (video from Chicago - WGN Radio, NYC, and San Diego - complete with media coverage)
Snuggie Parody (warning: strong - but hilarious - language) (4 MILLION views and climbing!)
Encourage your clients and prospects to use video.
Who knows where it might lead?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Sell Smart - Not Hard
Very quick (but very good) interview with sales guru, Jeffrey Gitomer from SalesRepRadio.com.
"The salesperson, man or woman, who walks into the potential buyer's office and starts to puke all over them about how great they are and how wonderful their product is... they're going to lose, or they're going to fight the price because they haven't differentiated themselves in any way."
~Gitomer
Click the PLAY button below to hear the short audio interview:
Sell Smart - Not Hard
"The salesperson, man or woman, who walks into the potential buyer's office and starts to puke all over them about how great they are and how wonderful their product is... they're going to lose, or they're going to fight the price because they haven't differentiated themselves in any way."
~Gitomer
Click the PLAY button below to hear the short audio interview:
Sell Smart - Not Hard
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Meaningful Online Engagement
Heard of a new book today called "Dot Boom" about how to created meaningful online messages that engage the Boomer generation. I visited the book's website (http://www.dotboombook.com/) and watched a 45-minute presentation by co-author David Weigelt. Definitely worthwhile...
My favorite bit was a quote he used from Albert Einstein:
"Not all that can be counted counts and not all that counts can be counted."
~Albert Einstein
What a great seque line to use the next time someone wants to focus on CPM pricing instead of achieving results!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Powerful Questions
Sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer says: "Ask smart questions and they'll think you're smart. Ask dumb questions and they'll... well... you figure it out."
Dumb questions:
What will it take to get your business?
(If you don't know -- go away.)
Can you tell me a little about your company?
(There's a little something I like to call "research." Look into it. Start with Google.)
What's your budget?
(Jeez. Just point a gun at them and grab their wallet.)
My friend Scott Ginsberg created a great video that shares "44 Killer Questions Your Competitors Aren't Asking" and I've embedded it below. Before you wipe your brow and say "Whew!" these are "starter" questions, meaning that Scott gives you a great beginning to a question -- you're still going to have to put some thought into the subject of the question in order to really drive it home and make it personal to your customer.
Now, THAT'S smart.
Dumb questions:
What will it take to get your business?
(If you don't know -- go away.)
Can you tell me a little about your company?
(There's a little something I like to call "research." Look into it. Start with Google.)
What's your budget?
(Jeez. Just point a gun at them and grab their wallet.)
My friend Scott Ginsberg created a great video that shares "44 Killer Questions Your Competitors Aren't Asking" and I've embedded it below. Before you wipe your brow and say "Whew!" these are "starter" questions, meaning that Scott gives you a great beginning to a question -- you're still going to have to put some thought into the subject of the question in order to really drive it home and make it personal to your customer.
Now, THAT'S smart.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Nationwide Is All A Twitter
Meet Shawn Morton.
He's the Senior Consultant for Social Media at Nationwide Insurance.
Nationwide Insurance hired a full-time guy to oversee their social media. That's huuuuge. Shawn's job (according to his linkedin.com profile) is "establishing the enterprise social media strategy and advocating social media within the organization." (Watch your back Shawn. I want that job.)
Shawn recently held a Twitter 101 seminar for his Nationwide associates and was kind enough to post his slides on a (what else?) social website dedicated to sharing presentations.
Slide 12 should be of special interest to any of you with 'boring old insurance accounts who cut all their advertising budgets this year...' It's a screen filled with some logos of corporate entities who are using Twitter. Among them: State Farm Insurance, Allstate, and of course Nationwide.
For any of you who've wondered why I send links to companies and articles and examples of businesses who are embracing new media as an option to traditional advertising -- THIS is the reason. Because, although they've reduced their spending on traditional media advertising, they are embracing and investing time AND MONEY into developing their social media efforts.
Become an expert in social media and apply the concepts of effective marketing principles to this new way of communicating to your audience and YOU will be the expert to whom they turn when they decide to reallocate advertising dollars to social media dollars. YOU can be the social media expert who gets rewarded for helping these companies strike up a dialogue with the audience that already loves YOUR brand and communicates through YOUR traditional media and social media tools.
He's the Senior Consultant for Social Media at Nationwide Insurance.
Nationwide Insurance hired a full-time guy to oversee their social media. That's huuuuge. Shawn's job (according to his linkedin.com profile) is "establishing the enterprise social media strategy and advocating social media within the organization." (Watch your back Shawn. I want that job.)
Shawn recently held a Twitter 101 seminar for his Nationwide associates and was kind enough to post his slides on a (what else?) social website dedicated to sharing presentations.
Slide 12 should be of special interest to any of you with 'boring old insurance accounts who cut all their advertising budgets this year...' It's a screen filled with some logos of corporate entities who are using Twitter. Among them: State Farm Insurance, Allstate, and of course Nationwide.
For any of you who've wondered why I send links to companies and articles and examples of businesses who are embracing new media as an option to traditional advertising -- THIS is the reason. Because, although they've reduced their spending on traditional media advertising, they are embracing and investing time AND MONEY into developing their social media efforts.
Become an expert in social media and apply the concepts of effective marketing principles to this new way of communicating to your audience and YOU will be the expert to whom they turn when they decide to reallocate advertising dollars to social media dollars. YOU can be the social media expert who gets rewarded for helping these companies strike up a dialogue with the audience that already loves YOUR brand and communicates through YOUR traditional media and social media tools.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Do Ads Work?
A great post to kick-off the new year for anyone buying (or selling!) advertising. Forward this post to your favorite media salesperson or buyer.
Do ads work?
by Seth Godin
If the local bank were offering a sale on dollar bills, ninety cents each, how many would you buy?
Most rational people would say, "I'll take them all please." Especially if you had thirty days to pay for them.
So, why, precisely, do you have an ad budget?
If your ads work, if you can measure them and they return more profit than they cost, why not keep buying them until they stop working?
And if they don't work, why are you running them?
The time-tested response is that you're not sure, that ads are risky, that you can't tell. And for some sorts of products and some sorts of ads, you'll get no argument from me.
Digital ads are different (or they should be). You should know cost per click and revenue per click and be able to make a smart guess about lifetime value of a click. And if that's positive, buy, buy, buy.
And if you don't know those things, why are you buying digital ads?
When Amazon was at its key growth peak, the mantra there was $33. They would buy unlimited ads, of any kind, as long as they generated new customers for $33 or less each. There was a risk that $33 was too high a number for the business to sustain, but the ads were no risk at all. As long as they came in under that number, there was unlimited money to buy them.
How often do year the marketing person say, "that's a neat idea, but we don't have the budget this year"?
Shouldn't she say, "We have an unlimited budget for ads that work"...
Do ads work?
by Seth Godin
If the local bank were offering a sale on dollar bills, ninety cents each, how many would you buy?
Most rational people would say, "I'll take them all please." Especially if you had thirty days to pay for them.
So, why, precisely, do you have an ad budget?
If your ads work, if you can measure them and they return more profit than they cost, why not keep buying them until they stop working?
And if they don't work, why are you running them?
The time-tested response is that you're not sure, that ads are risky, that you can't tell. And for some sorts of products and some sorts of ads, you'll get no argument from me.
Digital ads are different (or they should be). You should know cost per click and revenue per click and be able to make a smart guess about lifetime value of a click. And if that's positive, buy, buy, buy.
And if you don't know those things, why are you buying digital ads?
When Amazon was at its key growth peak, the mantra there was $33. They would buy unlimited ads, of any kind, as long as they generated new customers for $33 or less each. There was a risk that $33 was too high a number for the business to sustain, but the ads were no risk at all. As long as they came in under that number, there was unlimited money to buy them.
How often do year the marketing person say, "that's a neat idea, but we don't have the budget this year"?
Shouldn't she say, "We have an unlimited budget for ads that work"...
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Godin Delivers the Goods
Video recording of a live seminar with Seth Godin.
Well worth the investment of an hour to view.
Pass this opportunity up at your own risk!
Well worth the investment of an hour to view.
Pass this opportunity up at your own risk!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
If You MUST Use Banners...
...at least try and use them more effectively.
In his article "The X Factor: Why banners fail" Sean X. Cummings shares some valid theories on why our sidebar 160x600 ads get better click-through rates than the 728x90 located at the top of the page.
From the article:
In his article "The X Factor: Why banners fail" Sean X. Cummings shares some valid theories on why our sidebar 160x600 ads get better click-through rates than the 728x90 located at the top of the page.
From the article:
One of the greatest failings of the banner format is that it is peripheral to the content and not interruptive.
We all evolved as predators. Why is that relevant? Predators evolved with peripheral vision that picks up movement better than what's right in front of you. Their peripheral vision picks up ticks in movement and changes in speed better than smooth, clean movement.
Ah, now you're starting to get it --
Have.
The.
Banner…….[pause]
React.
[pause]
[pause]
[pause] Move. [pounce] Like it's stalking prey.The consumer's eye will instinctively glance to see what it is. Don't be impressed with your smooth, animated banner approved in isolation of the consumer. It looks nicer but will not achieve your main objective: the attention of the consumer.
The technique won't work for every business or every campaign. Sean adds "It's a very effective strategy depending on your business model. An impression does not mean that the consumer ever saw the ad, it just means that the ad server delivered the 'opportunity' to see an ad. Aim for peripheral focus in your ad creation and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns."
He ends the article with line -- which is valuable advise no matter which media you're using. "Don't create ads that annoy us."
Friday, September 05, 2008
Brilliant Billboards Could Be Leaderboards
Here's a great example of an outdoor campaign that could easily be translated into an online campaign using our 728x90 Leaderboard banners.
Even more interesting than the campaign itself is the backstory of how it all came together and was actually executed. Click here for the full story.
Which of your clients might benefit from the creation of a compelling storyline...
Missed romance at a traffic light with that cute guy driving a TOYOTA?
A long-lost friend spotted in the aisles at KROGER?
What other variations can you create?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Got Opt-Ins? ..Now What??
So, your client ran a promotion with you that contained some sort of sign-up form which offered an "opt-in" -- a mechanism used to allow our audience to signal their interest in receiving additional information from the Advertiser. The individuals who choose to opt-in can then be used to develop permission-based marketing programs by our clients.
The very WORST thing an Advertiser can do is to let these most-qualified and most-interested leads (they responded to the Advertiser's message AND gave them permission to be contacted!) is to let them fade away unused. You wouldn't hang up the phone on someone who called your office and said they wanted to buy something, would you? The more time that passes between a person opting-in to a list and actually being contacted increases the likelyhood they will have forgotten theay actually signed up for the list in the first place and will either immediately opt-out of the first message they receive -- or worse yet -- report the message as SPAM, which can get the Advertiser immediately blacklisted by many email services (like gmail, yahoo, and aol.)
Here is some excellent advice from Kevin Sinclair at How-To B2B Articles on what your client can do to effectively build relationships with their new opt-in audience.
Tip of the Week
Want to cut word count and boost readership in one step? Showcase a Tip of the Week. You can easily brainstorm enough content for six months of weekly newsletters (you need to come up with 24 tips, which you will present weekly.)
Checklists
A good checklist is like a step-by-step how-to. Turn a lengthy advice column into one. Checklists can save a lot of time, and your readers will be delighted to get one.
Before-and-After
Who doesn't like makeovers? This is a great way to interact with clients. Invite them to send in details of whatever needs a makeover: an article, a website page, their wardrobe, then present brief solutions -- or ask for examples of their own in-house makeovers.
Source: How-To B2Barticles. Read the full article here.
The very WORST thing an Advertiser can do is to let these most-qualified and most-interested leads (they responded to the Advertiser's message AND gave them permission to be contacted!) is to let them fade away unused. You wouldn't hang up the phone on someone who called your office and said they wanted to buy something, would you? The more time that passes between a person opting-in to a list and actually being contacted increases the likelyhood they will have forgotten theay actually signed up for the list in the first place and will either immediately opt-out of the first message they receive -- or worse yet -- report the message as SPAM, which can get the Advertiser immediately blacklisted by many email services (like gmail, yahoo, and aol.)
Here is some excellent advice from Kevin Sinclair at How-To B2B Articles on what your client can do to effectively build relationships with their new opt-in audience.
Tip of the Week
Want to cut word count and boost readership in one step? Showcase a Tip of the Week. You can easily brainstorm enough content for six months of weekly newsletters (you need to come up with 24 tips, which you will present weekly.)
Checklists
A good checklist is like a step-by-step how-to. Turn a lengthy advice column into one. Checklists can save a lot of time, and your readers will be delighted to get one.
Before-and-After
Who doesn't like makeovers? This is a great way to interact with clients. Invite them to send in details of whatever needs a makeover: an article, a website page, their wardrobe, then present brief solutions -- or ask for examples of their own in-house makeovers.
Source: How-To B2Barticles. Read the full article here.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Landing Page Video Piracy
Interesting take on providing engaging content on an advertising landing page:
http://www.vidsense.com/touchofgray/index.html#evtv1-2121
"Touch Of Gray" took video accessible from a video sharing site of a scene from "A Few Good Men" and embedded the video player on a promotional page. Since the video was actually provided via a social site using their embedded video player, I think this effective skirts the issue of licensing rights -- the infringer is actually the site that provides the video -- not the owner of the landing page.
We use similar reasoning when posting music videos from YouTube on the Mix site and sports videos on The Fan -- this example took it a step further by using a single advertiser. This could be a concept to exploit for advertisers of our own.
A Veterinarian landing page that displays a funny animal video...
A Sports Bar that displays a funny beer commercials...
A Travel Agency that uses a clip from the movie National Lampoon's Vacation...
An Employment Agency that uses video from Office Space...
An Insurance Agency that uses videos of catastrophes...
Lots of possibilities.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Videos Worth Viewing
A couple great media videos -- the first mocking banner ads (one of my favorite past times!) and the second mocking how pharma markets to women.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
VBR: Staycations
With the already established MixFunGuide.com and TheFanGuide.com websites, the trend toward families cutting costs by reducing the travel and expense of their family vacation is a prime marketing challenge for our advertisers and real revenue opportunity for the creative account executive.
The latest buzzword for the trend mentioned above is "Staycation" and here is some information that can help you craft a compelling VBR that gains the attention of your prospects...
Let's start with Weber, the grill-maker, which released some survey results last month that say this is the summer of staycations and grilling. They surveyed over 1,000 people and received some interesting results:
Wal-Mart is making things interesting for consumers, with its subsite makeyourdollarstretch.com and a downloadable desktop Widget called 101 Days of Summer Staycations.
The Staycation trend may have been created the need to cut spending on the rising cost of gasoline (and everything else!) but it may also have been created to help the innovative marketing professionals earn additional profits this summer!
The latest buzzword for the trend mentioned above is "Staycation" and here is some information that can help you craft a compelling VBR that gains the attention of your prospects...
Let's start with Weber, the grill-maker, which released some survey results last month that say this is the summer of staycations and grilling. They surveyed over 1,000 people and received some interesting results:
- Among grill owners planning staycations, a whopping 80% plan to grill weekly
- 41% plan to grill at least several times each week
- Once having the term explained to them, 51% of the respondents said they plan to take one or more staycations this summer
- 24% who are changing their traditional summer vacations to include a staycation this year
- 40% say they plan to try new grilled foods or grilling recipes
- 13% plan to purchase a new outdoor grill this summer
- 7% plan to update or improve their current grill
- Others plan on buying grilling accessories (11%) or a grilling cookbook (8%)
- In Pennsylvania The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia is pushing its staycation not only as inexpensive and educational, but as a green-friendly trip.
- Connecticut created a web site that highlights staycation destinations in the Constitution State and offers discounts to many of those places.
- The Arlington (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau has a local and regional campaign designed to get the locals to go to Six Flags Over Arlington and spend the night with the family in a hotel.
Wal-Mart is making things interesting for consumers, with its subsite makeyourdollarstretch.com and a downloadable desktop Widget called 101 Days of Summer Staycations.
The Staycation trend may have been created the need to cut spending on the rising cost of gasoline (and everything else!) but it may also have been created to help the innovative marketing professionals earn additional profits this summer!
Monday, February 04, 2008
Sales Resources
90% of successful selling comes from continuing to educate yourself and staying self-motivated. Sales guru and best-selling author Jeffrey Gitomer calls it "kicking your own ass." Here's a list of some super sales resources that will help you improve in these all too important (and all too often overlooked) areas of sales success.
The Brand Called YOU
The Earth-shaking article that EVERY salesperson should read as they seek an identity in their industry.
SalesCaffeine eNewsletter
Weekly sales advice from Jeffrey Gitomer.
NametagTV.com
Scott Ginsberg is the master of approachability. Tune into his new web TV channels on Sales, Marketing, Service, and Entrepreneurship and be inspired by his fresh approach to business.
SalesRepRadio.com
Weekly online audio interviews with sales leaders.
JustSell.com
Daily inspirational quotes and lessons on how to be a better seller. Be sure to take a look at their archive of desktop wallpapers and free ebooks.
PromoXtra eNewsletter
Excellent daily e-blast with news on all things promotional. One of my favorite resources for ideas and sponsorship leads.
The Advertising Show
Weekly audio program on selling, marketing, and product development.
3-Minute AdAge
Daily video reports from AdAge.com
MarketingProfs "Get To The Point" eNewsletters
The MarketingProfs new "Get To The Point" series of newsletters are brilliant bite-size bits of marketing insight.
I have dozens of other favorite resources, but this is the short list. Use the comments section below to add YOUR favorites to this post.
The Brand Called YOU
The Earth-shaking article that EVERY salesperson should read as they seek an identity in their industry.
SalesCaffeine eNewsletter
Weekly sales advice from Jeffrey Gitomer.
NametagTV.com
Scott Ginsberg is the master of approachability. Tune into his new web TV channels on Sales, Marketing, Service, and Entrepreneurship and be inspired by his fresh approach to business.
SalesRepRadio.com
Weekly online audio interviews with sales leaders.
JustSell.com
Daily inspirational quotes and lessons on how to be a better seller. Be sure to take a look at their archive of desktop wallpapers and free ebooks.
PromoXtra eNewsletter
Excellent daily e-blast with news on all things promotional. One of my favorite resources for ideas and sponsorship leads.
The Advertising Show
Weekly audio program on selling, marketing, and product development.
3-Minute AdAge
Daily video reports from AdAge.com
MarketingProfs "Get To The Point" eNewsletters
The MarketingProfs new "Get To The Point" series of newsletters are brilliant bite-size bits of marketing insight.
I have dozens of other favorite resources, but this is the short list. Use the comments section below to add YOUR favorites to this post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)