Tag Archives: advertising

Blinks ad adlets

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“Miniature radio ads, spanning just a few seconds in length, are a hit in Hollywood, says market leader Clear Channel Communications Inc., which launched the spots known as blinks and adlets last year.

Homer Simpson’s unmistakable “D’oh!” or “Woohoo!” followed by the familiar tagline “Tonight on Fox!” for example, has been a popular two-second ad — known as a blink — for Fox Broadcasting.

Unlike longer ads, which run during minutes-long commercial breaks, the blinks and adlets are slipped in between songs.

Clear Channel declined to disclose pricing, but one ad executive said five-second adlets typically fetch as much as 20% of 60-second ads, which cost about $800 in major markets, and two-second blinks cost 10%.”  

— From latimes.com

Banner Blindness

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Jakob Nielsen shares results of new eyetracking studies which confirm –“for the umpteenth time”– that banner blindness is real:

“Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it’s actually an ad. On hundreds of pages, users didn’t fixate on ads. Scanning is more common than reading, but users will sometimes dig into an article if they really care about it.”

Buying blog love

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A co-worker dropped off a copy of a statement he received for some batteries he recently purchased (from Tenergy Corporation/All-Battery.com). At the bottom of the statement:

We pay $30 for your professional reviews and opinions.

Please review the products listed on all-battery.com

  • The review must be more than 400 words and shall be objective and must be posted on any well known forum or website
  • Constructive comments are always welcome
  • Must copy your review to "Product Reviews" section at http://forums.all-battery.com
  • Upon approving your review, we will send a $30 Gift certificat to you thru Email or PM

I’ve been reading about this kind of paid review but this is the first pitch I’ve seen. This raises so many interesting (to me) question:

  • Will they "approve" my review if I say something negative about their product or company?
  • What do they mean by "constructive comments?"
  • Will I get my gift certificate if I write nice things but disclose to my readers that I’m getting paid?
  • How many of their customers have blogs and websites? How many post to forums?

This just doesn’t smell right to me. If I discovered that a blogger was getting paid for reviews, I’d have trouble trusting anything else he/she wrote. If the company’s motives are pure, why not clearly state that the offer applies to any well-intentioned, objective review. And if someone has something critical to say, wouldn’t that be worth a $30 certificate?

There’s a way to do this, of course. If someone in the Casio (digital camera) marketing department noticed that I use/like/blog about their cameras, they could send me a new model and ask me to try it out and blog my impressions. Good or bad. They won’t have to give me the camera, because if it’s good, I’ll probably buy it. AND write nice things about the product.

Seth Godin: Different kinds of advertising

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“The first kind is the rational kind. Yellow Page ads, direct mail and Google AdWords fit into this category. This is advertising that works, if ‘works’ is defined as, “pay $3 and make $4.” With measurable direct advertising, you can count on profit-minded small organizations to give it a try (small buys) and if it obviously makes money, to buy some more.

The second kind of advertising is the glamorous kind, the kind that people think of when they think of the Super Bowl or Time magazine or of profitable ads that are worth selling. These ads don’t sell because they work. They sell because they are sold.

Let me be fair: they work if we define ‘working’ as: pleasing the client, pleasing the agency, increasing brand goodwill, and building, over time, a groundswell of awareness and brand respect that ultimately leads to profits.”

— Seth’s blog post on selling advertising.

Not for sale

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I received the following email today:

"I can pay you $35 for a text ad on your (website). The ad –for a free personals web site– would consist of a couple of lines of text with links to the web site. I can pay via PayPal, or send you a check. Would you be interested?"

The post on which he wanted to place an ad was about the anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only possible connection I could see was "lonely hearts" and "personals" but that’s a reach.

I thanked him for his interest but turned down the $35. But it got me thinking. Would I have taken $350? No. $3,500? I know it’s ridiculous, but I don’t think I would. This space just ain’t for sale.