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OpenX Launches New Ad Platform, Secures Groupon As Customer

Assuming it didn’t already, OpenX should definitely have Google’s attention now. The company launched an updated version of its OpenX Enterprise ad technology today, and in the process, announced that it’s secured Groupon and Orange (the telecommunications entity) as customers.

An OpenX spokesperson explained in an email to WebProNews, "OpenX’s new platform, the company’s Software as a Service ad serving product for large publishers, is already being adopted by leading companies including Orange-France Telecom Group in Europe, Groupon in the United States and Excite in Japan."

That’s quite significant, considering that Google recently tried to buy Groupon. Also, Orange used to have a deal with DoubleClick, a subsidiary of the search giant.

The OpenX spokesperson then continued, "The platform becomes available today and will allow publishers to maximize revenue more efficiently and effectively in the increasingly sophisticated ad landscape. By optimizing all ad revenue channels in real-time and in one place, we think this new platform represents breakthrough technology for the online advertising industry."

It should be interesting to see what happens next. All sorts of companies might be willing or eager to follow Groupon’s lead. If they don’t encounter any problems, a second wave of firms might give OpenX’s ad tech a shot, as well.

Again, it’s hard to imagine Google isn’t paying close attention to all of this.

February 8, 2011
Groupon Defends Its Super Bowl Ads

Groupon made a lot of noise with its Super Bowl commercials. Initially, before they ever aired, the simple fact that they were advertising before the Super Bowl was interesting news in itself. It would give a growing company mass exposure, and potentially make it a household name. As competition mounts in the daily deals space, extending that brand lead would seem crucial.

Then the commercials aired, and people got offended. The one that received the most attention featured actor Timothy Hutton saying, "The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!" He then went into the Groupon pitch.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took to the company’s blog to defend the advertisements.

"We take the causes we highlighted extremely seriously – that’s why we created this campaign in partnership with many hallmark community organizations, for whom we’re raising money at SaveTheMoney.org," he wrote. "Groupon’s roots are in social activism – we actually began as cause-based website called The Point, and we continue to use Groupon to support local causes with our G-Team initiative. In our two short years as a business, we’ve already raised millions of dollars for national charities like Donors Choose and Kiva."

"When we think about commercials that offend us, we think of those that glorify antisocial behavior – like the scores of Super Bowl ads that are built around the crass objectification of women," he added. "Unlike those ads, no one walks away from our commercials taking the causes we highlighted less seriously. Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact – and this is part of the reason we ran them – they have the opposite effect."

"We took this approach knowing that, if anything, they would bring more funding and support to the highlighted causes," he said. "That’s why organizations like Greenpeace, buildOn, The Tibet Fund, and the Rainforest Action Network all decided to throw their support behind the campaign."

Read the full post here.

Judging from the comments on Mason’s post, the explanation wasn’t enough for some people. Many of those that no see the reasoning, still seem to feel the whole campaign was ill-advised, and that the ads just didn’t work.

No matter how you felt about them, they’re still being talked about, and Groupon did manage to get its brand name widely discussed. The fact that Mason did take the time to explain will get plenty of media coverage itself, and that can go a long way for a brand’s reputation.

The ads were Groupon’s first attempts at television advertising.

February 8, 2011
Super Bowl XLV Social Media Marketing

Super Bowl XLV promised to be the ‘Social Bowl’ of advertising with commercials predicted to be more ingrained in social media than ever before. Starting with early nods to Pepsi Max and Doritos whose Crash the Super Bowl contest put six ads, all created and voted on by consumers, in the Sunday line-up. As well as Bud Light, who gave a sneak peek of its ads to fans including the ability to unlock an online ad living exclusively on their Facebook page.

According to Advertising Age, two-thirds of viewers ages 18-34 would be using a smartphone during the game, putting overall buzz and social sharing at an all-time high. And while that was most certainly true (just check out your News Feed) there was still something slightly disappointing about the execution in linking traditional and social marketing. Only a mere eight companies even promoted their social networks on their end-card and despite the rise in QR codes, they were absolutely non-existent. Having said that, there are a few examples to learn from in successfully tying together traditional and social marketing for an experience that goes beyond the 30-second television spot.

Audi Luxury Superbowl Commerical 2011

This year, Audi became the first to incorporate a hashtag in a Superbowl commercial (even if its placement felt like an afterthought) by including it in a hilarious ad about breaking out of ‘old luxury’ to promote the Audi Progressive Luxury Trade-up contest on Twitter. Over 700 #ProgressIs hashtags were submitted between the time the first commercial aired until the end of the Super Bowl.

Followers enter the contest by completing the phrase, #ProgressIs in 140 characters or less to become one of the top 10 finalists chosen by Audi. However, the most interesting social marketing strategy about this campaign is what happens AFTER the Superbowl as the 10 finalists compete to win the grand prize. Audi plans to keep the buzz going by testing each the finalists’ ability to promote their campaign. Audi will give each finalist an image of an old school luxury item, many which appeared in the commercial, along with a hashtag and reward points based on social sharing.

Points are earned by measuring the spread of the finalist-created social assets around the contest including blog posts, YouTube videos, Twitpic photos and retweets on Twitter. The grand prize winner will receive a $25,000 donation made to the charity of their choice along with a trip for two to an Audi Sportscar Experience in Sonoma, California to test drive the new Audi R8. While the execution of the commercial hashtag and the context around it could have been much better, it’s extremely creative to leverage these finalists to future promote Audi’s new branding of progressive luxury well after Super Bowl Sunday.

Ford Focus Commerical Super Bowl 2011

Opting out of the $3 million big game ads, Ford decided to sponsor the pre-game show to promote Focus Rally America, the ultimate interactive road rally. The television spots featured six pairs participating in the race with a strong call to action for viewers to join their team.

After teaming up, viewers can participate in challenges to help their team’s twosome solve clues and puzzles in real-time on their way to the $100,000 grand prize and a new 2010 Ford Focus. They can also vote for fun surprises along the way, like making a team member wear a chicken suit or awarding their team room service. So what’s in it for them? By assisting the teams, viewers can earn points for themselves and increase their chance of being asked to participate in a challenge with their team and even, to win their very own 2010 Ford Focus.

Mercedes Benz had a similar road rally promotion called Tweet Race involving a race to Dallas, where the Super Bowl was held, fueling the vehicles completely by tweets. Extremely innovative, the campaign helped grow Mercedes’ social networks tremendously. However, more momentum could have been created if the race was promoted during the Super Bowl and perhaps occurred after the week after.

Eminem Lipton Brisk Super Bowl Commercial

Lipton Brisk was probably the only commercial asking viewers to visit their Facebook channel to see more. Expanding on its Brisk Stories campaign, Brisk enrolled Eminem to tell us why he doesn’t do commercials, joining similar ads with stories by Ozzy Osborne and Danny Trejo. On their Facebook channel, you can view the Eminem ad, see past videos and share your own story according to their weekly theme to win an Xbox 360. All the stories show up in a comment thread on the customized tab and allow you to share your entry to Facebook and Twitter. Although slightly overshadowed by Eminem’s appearance in the Chrysler ‘Imported from Detroit’ ad, Brisk did the best job at pushing viewers to its social network.

Volkswagen – The Force Super Bowl Commercial

Volkswagen decided to leak their Darth Vader ad titled ‘The Force’ for the 2010 Passat earlier this week before it even officially aired for the Super Bowl. The idea paid off and the ad went viral, gaining about 12 million views by Sunday. By allowing momentum to build, the Volkswagen commercial became the most talked about ad on Twitter, beloved by fans and followers well before the kick-off.

Rio Hidden Code – Angry Birds

Rumored to release a secret code unlocking a level in the addictive and popular game, Angry Birds, the new animated film, Rio, did just that. Cleverly hidden in the movie preview, the code appears at the end of commercial and is said to also let users enter a sweepstakes for a trip to Rio de Janeiro on March 22 for the film’s premiere. Can you find it? (Hint: It’s right around the 00:27 second mark!) This is a great example of an exclusive for fans and how it can spread socially.

Overall, the Super Bowl generated great buzz and quite a few good commercials. Going into next year, I predict to see integration with QR codes, more ad leaks on social properties and integration into real-time campaigns. Perhaps Groupon will release an exclusive deal on game-day or Old Spice have Isaiah Mustafa do commercials reminiscent his video messages directed at the opposing teams. Maybe Chrysler will even inspire the Detroit’s revival. If a pop superstar can mess up the national anthem, anything is possible, right?

Originally published on IgniteSocialMedia.com

February 8, 2011
Super Bowl Ads: What Worked and What Didn’t

This is not a post about the funniest ads. Or the most popular. If you’re reading this post, you probably care about the marketing lessons you can take away from the Super Bowl. So, without further ado – here is a roundup of the best and worst of the Super Bowl marketing from last nights game.

Best Marketing Strategy: Volkswagen

From their choice to release their "The Force" ad before the Super Bowl and rack up more than 13 million views before the game even aired, to how they brilliantly managed to promote the 2012 VW Beetle without showing a single image of the car. Their advertising was focused, strategic, memorable and well distributed. They were even using their Twitter account live during the game to point people online to see the full :60 second version of The Force ad.

Worst Marketing Strategy: Groupon

Groupon is a brilliant site with an amazing team behind it. I have corresponded personally with their team and know for a fact that the organization is filled with dedicated and personable employees … which makes their Super Bowl effort even more disappointing. The strategy behind their campaign is explained well by founder Andrew Mason on the Groupon Blog … however without the context of the thinking behind the ad, their 30 second spot in isolation came off as offensive, amateurish and insensitive. These are not qualities which represent Groupon at all, yet the ad has gone virally wrong, which is a reminder that sometimes the same creative developed as part of an online campaign can’t simply be translated to another environment and retain its meaning. The Super Bowl needed a different creative execution, and it’s a lesson Groupon is learning the hard way.

Best Ongoing Marketing Strategy: Doritos

This year, Doritos continued their leadership in airing consumer generated ads with 3 being shown in the first half. They were funny, on brand and the fact that they all aired during the first half was a repetition that worked for the brand as they stood out in post game reports and go to the #2 spot in terms of positive sentiment in the "Brand Bowl" tracking of conversation in social media. They have officially established ownership over what was a hot trend a few years ago that multiple brands were flirting with, of getting consumers to create ads. Pepsi, smartly capitalizing on this, also aired several consumer generated ads for Pepsi Max as well.

Best Marketing No-Show: Pizza Hut

A few days before the game, Pizza Hut chose to pull out of the game after having agreed for the first time ever to run a Super Bowl ad. Despite their almost universally hated product integration with the sportscasters from Fox artificially getting excited about feeding their crew Pizza Hut pizza – they chose to run extremely boring, but price focused ads. In contrast to Domino’s great campaign promoting their substantial transformation, Pizza Hut seems to have abandoned their focus on product quality from last year and went back to gratuitous images of fat laden pepperoni coated breadsticks. You could almost see the actor’s spit bucket off stage to make sure they wouldn’t have to actually swallow any of that stuff during filming. Unfortunately for the obesity epidemic in America, that is probably exactly what people want … and ads during pregame likely helped to stimulate sales.

Most Significant Actual Announcement: Best Buy

For anyone who has sat in an advertising pitch meeting, it is easy to picture the discussion that led to the Best Buy spot featuring Justin Beiber alongside Ozzy Osbourne. This kind of "celebrity mashup" can only come from an ad agency brainstorm. The commercial was not bad, but the excessive focus on trying to do something cool creatively obscured the fact that Best Buy was one of the few Super Bowl advertisers with something significant to announce. Their BuyBack program where you can trade in outdated technology is a concept that many consumers will LOVE. In this case, with news this good – it would have been nice if they found a creative execution that let them focus a bit more on the actual announcement instead of all the theater around it. Now they can just hope that in between all the glitz, consumers actually remember that this is a very cool program worth visiting Best Buy to find out more about. Or they could run lots more advertising in the coming months to remind consumers about it.

Best Product Placement: Chevy

Chevy was all over the Super Bowl, and several of their ads were good and worth watching – however the best aspects of their sponsorship were the moments where they used deep product integration to promote their products. Unlike Pizza Hut, their product placements were relevant and memorable. From the beautiful shot of the Chevy Camaro that Aaron Rodgers won for being the Super Bowl MVP to the integrated ad with the cast of Glee (including dialogue from the cast as part of the ad) all worked. You knew Chevy was sponsoring, but it wasn’t offputting or intrusive. It worked. Combined with their additional engaging ad featuring voiceovers telling the story of a dream ad, and their partnership with external communities like BzzAgent to help promote their ads – the overall strategy supported Chevy creating big buzz from their huge investment in the games.

Best Smackdown Of A Competitor: Audi

Audi created a great spot following on a theme they have used before of defining their brand as "new luxury" in contrast to competitor brands like BMW and Mercedes which they define as "old luxury." During the Super Bowl, Audi first ran their ad called "Release The Hounds" directly targeted at Mercedes, and then in a piece of good luck, the Mercedes ad later in the game played perfectly into Audi’s hands by taking a more historical look at the evolution of the Mercedes brand. The end result was the Mercedes ended up proving the perception that Audi was trying to create that their brand was "old luxury." Great strategy from Audi, helped by a bit of luck, made this strategy stand out.

Most Poetic Ad: Motorola Xoom

While the reference to Apple’s groundbreaking 1984 ad may have been a bit too deep for Super Bowl Sunday, I loved the philosophical message behind this ad … making the point that Apple may be becoming everything they had promised to fight against back when 1984 first came out. The moment in the ad where the girl takes out her signature white ear buds to truly see the guy in front of her was perfectly filmed. Fan boys won’t get this ad – but for anyone who has felt they are walking against a sea of people wearing the same white hood and listening to the same white headphones, this ad will strike a strong emotional chord.

Most Compelling Story: Chrysler – Imported From Detroit

As a big believer in the potential of Detroit, it was a thrill to see the city featured in a long form ad for Chrysler. In this case, the longer ad helped to tell a story that many other brands simply couldn’t do – and the point was clear. Detroit is reawakening and the resurgence of the American automotive industry is a big sign of that. For anyone who has spent time in a city like Detroit – separated from the hubris of the east and west coasts, this story was a powerful reminder that when the economy does rebound, it is cities like Detroit which will be reinvented.

Biggest Waste Of Money: Papa Johns

Papa Johns was the "Official Pizza Of The Super Bowl" which presumably gave them rights to put up posters in the actual venue and some other marketing rights online – but unlike the Olympics where being the Official sponsor is protected and treated with reverence … the vast majority of people watching the game might have named Pizza Hut as the official sponsor instead of Papa Johns. There may be some hidden elements of the sponsorship that make it worth it, but on the surface this seems like a waste of money for Papa Johns that could have been better spent elsewhere.

Most Unintelligible Ads: Chatter.com

If the point of a SuperBowl ad is awareness, perhaps Chatter.com succeeded as I was curious about what it was. But the creative execution was incomprehensible, offered no details about what the site actually was or why anyone should care, and ultimately the only people who likely visited were the ones who were simply curious about what kind of site was worth spending millions to promote through two indecipherable Super Bowl spots.

Best Ad Remake: House Promo

While many younger viewers may have completely missed the reference, the promo ad for House remaking the iconic 1980 Coke ad featuring Mean Joe Greene was the best flashback to a previous ad.

Cheapskate Marketer Award: Geico, Citibank & TGI Fridays

The brands listed above were apparently so set on blowing their budget on a Super Bowl ad that they left no budget to actually develop an ad to air. Those brands chose to recycle old ads which people had seen before on the world’s biggest stage – which is a bit like wearing an old bridesmaid’s dress to your own wedding. It might be a nice dress, but when that many people are watching, save up and get something new.

Originally published on RohitBhargava.com

February 7, 2011
Some Super Bowl Commercials to Watch For

The NFL’s granddaddy of them all takes place this Sunday when the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers meet in Super Bowl XLV, and it promises to be one of the most-watched sporting events ever. Keeping with tradition, the commercials that will be shown during the game are receiving a fair amount of hype as well.

In fact, some say the only reason they even watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials. Whether that’s true or not, the sheer cost of these adverts — $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime — have helped spawn a culture of Super Bowl watchers who pay active attention to the products being hawked when the game takes one of its many commercial breaks.

Oh, and we weren’t just spouting hyperbole about Super Bowl XLV being one of the most-watched televised events, either. Last year’s record of 110 million viewers — an all-time high for TV program — is expected to be eclipsed.

Like Bloomberg points out, if you’re ads will be playing in front of record-sized audience, $3 million is something of a bargain.

As for the commercials themselves, the anticipation is apparently at an all-time high as well. What else would explain Audi developing three and four minute trailers for commercials that won’t run as long as the productions promoting them?

In the Washington Post, there’s a list of the ten most anticipated commercials, and although they concentrate more on the companies involved than on the ads themselves, it’s a good guide of what you can expect.

Currently, the buzz is around the following companies:

Audi
Anheuser-Busch
Best Buy
CareerBuilder.com
E-Trade
GoDaddy
Pepsi
Skechers
Snickers
Volkswagen

Naturally, your intrepid WebProNews crew wasn’t satisfied with text descriptions of what we can expect, so we jumped on YouTube and found video footage for most, if not all, of these anticipated commercials. Enjoy.

Audi — here a couple of the trailers mentioned above. Welcome back Kenny G:

A-B/Budweiser — unfortunately, there wasn’t much footage of Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl offering, so here’s a cute ad they’ve already released this year:

Best Buy — the electronics retail king is releasing a Justin Bieber/Ozzy Osbourne collaboration thing, and although it hasn’t leaked, there are some web reports about it:

CareerBuilder.com — it looks like the job site is continuing their tradition of offering underrated, amusing gems:

E-Trade — the talking baby is back, or never going away, depending on your perspective, and this is the uncensored version of what we’ll be seeing on Sunday:

GoDaddy — yay, more faux titillation from everybody’s favorite domain registration company. This year, Jillian Michaels joins the crew:

Pepsi — they cola company has an Eminem/Lipton Brisk claymation offering, of which there is absolutely no footage. They’re also showing their “Pepsi Max: Crash the Super Bowl” winner, which apparently came from this group (?):

Skechers — the trendy shoe company is — *gasp* — using a trendy spokesperson, Kim Kardashian, for their multi-million dollar investment. The enablers at E! are all over it:

Snickers — keeping with their Betty White/Abe Vigoda commercial, this year’s offering brings Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr back into our households. Is this reason to rejoice or turn it to Puppy Bowl VII? It depends on your tolerance level for people that talk with their hands and sassy “housewife” types:

Volkswagen — this is truly saving the best for last. By now, this commercial is pretty viral — over 5 million views on YouTube already — but it could very well go down as one of the best Super Bowl commercials ever; and no, that’s not just the Star Wars fan who drives a Jetta talking, either:

And then there are all the movie trailers that will be shown, of which, there are many, including Captain America and Super 8.

After the game, if you’d like to react to the commercials you’ve seen — Game? What game? — there are a multitude of channels you can do so, including AdBlitz’ YouTube channel where users can vote for their favorite. The winning commercial will be crowned accordingly.

What are some of your favorite Super Bowl commercials from previous years? Let us know in the comments.

February 4, 2011
Yahoo And Zillow Partner On Real Estate

Yahoo said today that all of its real estate listings will now be powered by Zillow.

Zillow will also sell local advertising on both sites, and the 4 million listings on Zillow will appear on Yahoo Real Estate.

Real estate agents will be able to advertise locally on Yahoo Real Estate, and home buyers will have more access to listings on the site along with more photos.

"This partnership brings together the scale of Yahoo’s audience with the depth of Zillow’s real estate listings," Greg Hintz, head of Yahoo Listings, said.

"No other real estate websites are better suited to bring such a vast offering to agents, brokers and advertisers.

The Yahoo and Zillow relationship began in 2006 when Yahoo Real Estate incorporated Zillow’s Zestimate home valuations.

February 3, 2011
Yahoo Debuts AdLabs for Fostering Innovation in Digital Ads

Yahoo has launched AdLabs, a group aimed at providing "scientific leadership" to the online advertising industry and accelerating innovation in digital ad products through Yahoo labs.

"The AdLabs team will mine Yahoo!’s vast data repository of campaigns and associated metrics to inform both thought leadership and product innovation," a representative for the company tells WebProNews. "The team will also work directly with key advertising and data partners in a prospective way to test of the insights uncovered."

"Yahoo! Labs has been instrumental in developing Yahoo!’s advertising products, laying a foundation of scientific research and innovative data analysis, supporting everything from the world’s most advanced display advertising marketplace to the world’s most effective ad targeting capabilities," said Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo’s chief scientist and head of Yahoo Labs. "AdLabs will build on this success and break new ground in combining scientific rigor with a deep understanding of the practical needs of marketers."

Yahoo also shared some results from a retail online ad study. These include:

– Hyperlocal targeting of a retail display campaign generated more than five times return-on-ad-spend, measured by sales lift at the retailer.

– 75% of the total return in this phase of the study was generated by in-store purchases.

– Customers who live within two miles of one of the retailer’s stores represented 10.6% of the audience seeing the ads, but generated 56% of the revenue.

– Return-on-ad-spend was four times the spend for customers living within five miles of a store, and 21 times the spend for customers living within two miles of a store.

"Successful campaigns change perceptions about brands and increase sales," said VP and head of Yahoo AdLabs, Ken Mallon. "Marketers need new, breakthrough, scientifically-tested methodologies to drive these important metrics. Yahoo! has the scale to measure the impact of many campaigns and the breadth of expertise to produce the new models and innovations that will move the digital advertising industry forward."

Read here for an interview we did with a Yahoo ad exec on how advertisers are using the Super Bowl for online advertising.

February 3, 2011
Google Offers on the Way, Should Groupon Have Sold?

Google has a new project in the works that appears to be a direct competitor to Groupon. It’s called Google Offers. According to an official fact sheet about the product, obtained by Mashable, Google Offers is "a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email."

Should Groupon have sold to Google when it had the chance? Share your thoughts.

This sounds exactly like Groupon, and based on the screenshot embedded in the document (view the whole thing here), it looks quite similar too.

"For businesses, it’s a smart and easy way to find new high -value customers and bring them right to you," the sheet says. "With our prepaid model, there are no out-of-pocket expenses to spread the word about your business to the millions of Google users and subscribers in your local area. You only pay when a customer buys your offer."

Benefits mentioned in the document include: getting in front of potential customers in your city, bringing in both new and valuable customers with great deals, exposure across Google ad networks at no additional cost, managing your offer with tools to track and measure ROI, and getting paid quickly with no out-of-pocket expenses.

It then proceeds to outline a five-step process for businesses to create an offer, market it, run the offer, collect the money, and serve customers.

Now, the product is not widely available yet, but the company has confirmed that it is in fact real. Google gave Search Engine Land the following statement:

Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.

So, the keyword there is "test", but it’s hard to imagine this not turning into a full-fledged offering, considering the company’s obvious thirst for jumping into this space. As you probably know, Google recently offered a reported $6 billion to acquire Groupon, the leader in the deals space, but Groupon turned it down, and is reportedly preparing for a $15 billion IPO.

The question is: was Groupon smart to turn down Google’s offer? All valuations are based on growth, and a lot can happen in a year – especially a year when Google is one of your main competitors. And Google already has a lot of relationships with businesses and users (through various products, search, business listings, advertising, etc.) that Groupon is still working on building.

During Google’s earnings call, in which the company discussed the new changes in management, co-founder Sergey Brin alluded to some new products that are coming, but would not get specific. We wonder if this is one he was referring to.

Google’s former VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, who recently shifted to Google’s products and services related to local markets and geolocation, pointed out recently that Google already has Groupon-like products.

"I think that when you look at our overall suite of services, especially around our advertising, we already have some things that are like this," Mayer said in an interview with Media Beat (embedded below). "We have things like coupons and offer extension ads that allow merchants to basically make offers to our users. So we’re looking at how we can take that technology and put it to use, especially in the location space."

Well, Google Offers would be a much more obvious product to compete in the space, and could only complement Google’s existing offerings, which span far and wide. According to Google’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2010, Google generated $8.44 billion in revenue. Obviously much of that is from advertising. You can see the exact breakdown as reported here.

Google’s advertising reach is far and wide, and the company is increasingly returning local search results over true organic web results in general searches. If Google Offers gets incorporated into this (and it’s hard to imagine that it won’t), it’s going to be incredibly powerful. It’s worth noting that Google Offers also utilizes Google Checkout from the looks of the screenshot, but that’s another story.

So, one has to wonder if Google made the right decision by rejecting Google’s offer. Should the company have accepted or does it have the power to remain a leader in the space?

Groupon is rapidly expanding into more countries (sometimes by acquisition of other Groupon clones), and it just raised nearly a billion dollars in a recent round of funding. Groupon says it intends to use this toward fueling global expansion, investing in technology, and providing liquidity for employees and early investors.

Groupon is also gearing up to advertise during the Super Bowl pre-game (the game itself was sold out). This should attract a lot of eyeballs, and could help spread the Groupon brand name to a lot more people who aren’t already using it.

It’s also worth noting, however, that last year, Google ran it’s first-ever TV spot during the Super Bowl. The leak of Google Offers comes at an interesting time (just before the AFC and NFC championship games, which will determine who goes to the Super Bowl, to be played next month). Could Google have something in store for the Big Game this year?

Before announcing his new role with the company, Eric Schmidt discussed the key points of Google’s strategy for 2011, and they are all about mobile. And where does local search work the best?

Perhaps it’s premature to say, but Google may become a force to be reckoned with in the deals space that Groupon is currently enjoying. Google hasn’t had the best of luck in all of it’s endeavors, but this has potentially huge ties to both of the things Google is best at – search and advertising. Plus, it’s not like acquiring more Groupon clones is out of the question.

Related: If You’re Not Local, How Can You Compete in an Increasingly Local Google?

Will Google dominate the deals space? Tell us what you think in the comments, or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

February 3, 2011
Super Bowl Advertising On the Web

As the Super Bowl approaches, so do the time-honored ads that will accompany it. Advertisers aren’t just turning to the game itself to capitalize, however. Many are turning to the web to get some mileage out of the event. The History Channel, for example, has turned to Yahoo, and will be running ads for a new Larry the Cable Guy show on Yahoo Sports to capitalize on the inevitable Super Bowl fan traffic.

We conducted a Q&A on the subject with Mitch Spolan, Yahoo VP of North American Field Sales. "The Super Bowl is such a unique situation," he tells WebProNews. "It’s the one time a year where consumers plan to watch the commercials as much as they watch the game. As consumers, we expect great advertising during the Super Bowl, and companies are rewarded and penalized based on their creativity."

"Online allows advertisers to compliment their broadcast investment with campaigns that continue to live on well beyond the 30 seconds," he adds. "While the Super Bowl is powerful for its tremendous audience reach, advertisers have the ability to reach the SAME super-sized audience every day online with marquee creative. There no longer is the need to wait for one day a year to have massive audience. Advertisers control when and how they interact with their Super Bowl audience everyday online."

Super Bowl commercials have something of a following on their own. I know people who don’t even care about the game, but like to see the new ads. How can a brand capture this kind of enthusiasm for advertising online?

"At Yahoo!, we’re constantly innovating new advertising formats that open up the creative canvas to our advertising partners’ imaginations," Spolan tells us. "For example, when you come to one of the Yahoo! Sports properties during the Super Bowl, you’re going to find an ad that captures your attention with a narrative that’s as or even more compelling and engaging than those on TV. Online advertising also opens up other possibilities such as interactive and social sharing capabilities that can extend the brand’s message even further than a TV spot. Brands that combine creativity with smart use of the Web’s inherent advantages are the ones that enhance their storytelling ability and build experiences that stay with the consumer."

If you’re wondering what your own starting point should be if you’re considering your own Super Bowl-related advertising, Spolan has some thoughts on that.

"First, anytime a brand is looking to capitalize on the excitement of big event like the Super Bowl, it should choose to work with a site that will be a destination for consumers well before and even after the event," he says. "The campaign that HISTORY channel is running for "Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy" on Yahoo! Sports is a good model for this. The network’s campaign begins to run on February 3, when excitement for all things Super Bowl will be at a fever pitch, and runs through February 11.

"The Super Bowl, like other culturally significant events on the calendar, is among Yahoo!’s biggest traffic drivers, and accordingly, consumers will be eager for post-game analysis from all angles," he says. "There’s great value to reaching the significant audience that will visit Yahoo! Sports, which is still the #1 sports destination online, for that coverage."

The example would appear to illustrate a useful tactic for capitalizing on physical world events by reaching those interested online in the places they are likely to go. It doesn’t have to be on the scale of the Super Bowl or have the reach of Yahoo Sports to be a potentially successful strategy.

February 2, 2011
Location-Based Marketing With More Power Than Facebook

There is a lot of hype around location-based services and the marketing opportunities that come with them, but check-in apps aren’t the only way to reach consumers on a location basis. Familiar with digital out-of-home advertising? It’s not exactly new and trendy, but there is a growing number of opportunities in this space as well.

Rob Gorrie is President and co-founder of Adcentricity, a digital out-of-home marketing firm that counts Disney, American Express, Verizon, Bank of America, Toyota, GM, Samsung, and Evian among its recent clients. He shared some thoughts with WebProNews about why he sees this kind of marketing as the next hot and upcoming medium in the ad space.

"Digital out-of-home advertising is a part of location based marketing. The digital out of home medium is all about the location and allows you to extend your marketing efforts and connect people, places, and brands," he says. "Digital out-of-home/location based is a space made up of LCD screens that have been placed in premium consumer viewing positions inside of venues consumers frequent most – from restaurants and bars, to taxi cabs and pharmacies. The screen is controlled by a software system that plays a closed-loop of content. The content on the screen is intended to provide information and/or entertainment that is relevant to the viewers inside the environment. As a medium used for advertising, the opportunity exists to have a highly effective, direct communication with consumers in a contextual manner. According to Neilsen, digital video in public venues reaches more Americans each month (70%) than video over the Internet (43%) or Facebook (41%)."

That’s pretty impressive.

"Consumer behavior has changed and our mobile patterns have changed, but locations have not," Gorrie tells WebProNews. "While we may get our news on a phone and constantly send Tweets and videos on the go, consumers still have to go to a physical grocery store, to the gas station, to the coffee shop, out to a bar with friends; what happens in these environments are opportunities for advertisers. The medium lets advertisers reach a consumer with a highly targeted message by geography, demography and intent."

"For example," he continues. "There are rare moments when distracted, multi-tasking, media-gargling young men and women slow down long enough to think and focus…like when they’re in bars, restaurants and entertainment venues wondering what beverage to order, discussing cool new gadgets, gear and games and destinations all the while a mash of smartphones laying in front of them. A major national beer brand recognized that last year, and booked a product launch campaign on location based video screens running in bars and fast casual restaurants across the United States. The result: 72 percent incremental sales lift on that beer in venues where the campaign ran."

Gorrie’s company describes the medium as the intersection of mobile, location, and social media.

"This is part of a brand new, on-demand experience that reaches consumers across multiple touch-points," he says. "Activities that might start on one medium get broadened by other mediums and then reach, using public screens, right into where people are gathering. Consider a beer product promotion targeting sports fans that starts with in-store promotion and broadcast, drives people online, encourages people to enter and interact through mobile and social, and then pulls all that promotion together on targeted screens in sports bars, where the engagement can be driven even further."

"The medium provides different strengths for different industries and campaign objectives," he adds. "That being said, the industry has seen a variety of household brands advertising in the space, like Samsung, Microsoft, Disney, Bloomingdales and even President Barack Obama. Advertisers can be assured that the ad will be played at specific times throughout a day, understands who is watching the screens, what they are doing inside the environment, have an understanding of what frame of mind they are in at the moment and how many times the ad will play, as well has having all the advantages of digital creativity. By discipline, the medium has a high impact for brand marketers with hypertargeting capabilities and contextual advertising. We did a campaign with Samsung that realized a 49% increase in unaided brand awareness."

Do consumers care about the medium? Well, an effective ad is an effective ad, so why should this be any different? "Consumers like the medium because it is highly targeted and relevant to them when they are inside of that location," says Gorrie. "They get interesting content served up to them as well as promotions."

"The medium is starting to and will have a huge impact within the retail environment," he tells us. "Using digital out-of-home screens in a retail environment has many features and benefits; mainly garnering the consumer’s attention and the point-of-purchase and eliminating the high cost of printing and distributing promotional materials. Whether it is intended to build a brand, influence customer purchase intent or influence brand decisions choices, the dynamic visual experience created by digital out-of-home screens in-store show a high correlation with sales increases. In pure marketing terms, it has always made infinitely more sense to advertise goods in the immediate vicinity of where goods are sold. Marketers get more excited by the notion of advertising when people are shopping, than they do pitching people when they’re comfortably lodged on a sofa. There is now plenty of evidence, from retailers as large as Walmart, showing screens in retail have a fully validated double-digit lift impact on promoted items."

Look for brands to start using augmented reality more and more as well. For example, Layar just opened up its platform to any iPhone app. Moves like this have the potential to be very powerful.

February 2, 2011
The Yellow Pages Launches Opt-Out Website

The Yellow Pages Association has introduced a new website that allows people to opt out of receiving phone directories.

The new website, Yellowpagesoptout.com, allows people to select which phone directories they receive, or stop deliveries entirely.

"Our industry is taking a giant leap forward today by launching a clearinghouse site for consumers to control the delivery of directories," said Neg Norton, president, YPA.

"The site, supported by directory publishers across the country, illustrates our ongoing commitment to not delivering a directory to someone who doesn’t want one."

Features of Yellowpagesoptout include:

*Images of directory front covers and information about deliveries, so people can decide which directories to include in an opt-out request.

*An email confirmation about the users’ selections.

February 1, 2011
Google Edges Bing For Visual Attention

The top three paid positions on Google attract more visual attention than the top three links on Bing, according to a new report from research firm User Centric.

Study outcomes showed a comparable number of participants viewing top sponsored links (~90 percent) across both search engines. However, these participants spent 22 percent more time looking at Google’s top sponsored links than Bing’s. For right sponsored links, Bing and Google didn’t significantly differ in the amount of attention.

Comparing sponsored links on top to those on the right in general, the study found the "eye hit rate" on the top to be at least three times higher and gaze time to be at least five times longer than on the sponsored links on the right.

Before making the first click, participants spent 27 percent more time looking at organic search results on Google than on Bing.

"While more gaze time is good for sponsored results, the opposite is true for organic results," said Aga Bojko, User Centric’s Chief Scientist.

"Taking longer to make a decision and scanning more results may suggest lower perceived search results relevancy on Google. According to past research, users tend to scan search results until they find the first suitable link to click, so more time spent on Google could mean it took longer to find a link worth clicking."

January 29, 2011
Now You Can Monetize Your Facebook Fans By Promoting Their Likes

Facebook has a new ad product that may be its most promising ad unit yet – the sponsored story. These ads are simply brand-related stories that users have already shared, but then paid for by the brand mentioned to appear in the ad space, as to attract more attention and engagement.

Will you be promoting your fans’ engagement with your brand? Let us know.

For example, if one of our Facebook fans likes an article that we posted or likes our Facebook page in general, we could pay Facebook to promote that, and that story from that fan would appear in the column to people who would have already seen it in the first place.

"So, my friend Joe goes, and he checks into Starbucks," explains Phil, a Facebook engineer. "That will appear on my news feed, and I may or may not see it, and what we’ve seen is that a lot of impressions do get lost because there’s so much content coming through. Starbucks can come in and say, ‘I want to promote check-ins to our locations’, so when I come to the site, I see a story that my friend checked into Starbucks. Now, I can click through. I can like the Starbucks page from that story, and when I like that page, it creates more organic content."

"When we make decisions about the products we want to buy or places we want to go, we’re basically looking for cues from our friends about what those things should be, and all us aren’t out there trying to market ourselves or try to influence people to go somewhere or do something, but the reality is when we make a decision, we’re looking for information, and we want that information to come from people we trust," says product manager Kent.

If you’re worried about how Facebook is using your content, the company says it will never show it to somebody who’s not your friend. The only people who will see it are the people who would’ve seen it in the first place via the newsfeed.

According to AdAge, there is no opting out of the feature (that could change if enough people complain about it). The publication also says, "The way that the product is today, a check-in post will show up in the ad feed exactly as the user wrote it. So if a user checks into Starbucks with a ‘I hate this place, but it’s the only coffee around’ then that’s exactly what the ‘ad’ turns out to be." Advertisers can limit their sponsored stories to likes though, if they want.

According to recent estimates, Facebook took in about $1.86 billion in ad revenue in 2010. I expect that will increase significantly this year.

These ads could prove to be extremely effective, as they’re not really ads at all. They’re real stories from friends – at least that’s how they start out. Like Phil says, "It’s your friend saying, ‘Look, I did this, and I want to tell you about it.’"

Ning, a Facebook engineer, says that in the pilot cases, sponsored stories increased brand lift and the likeliness to recommend the product to another friend.

If nothing else, it’s a clear cut way to monetize Facebook fans. More in this video from Facebook.

Add Sponsored Stories to Facebook’s already powerful ad platform, targeting users based on their profile information, and Facebook is becoming a more and more attractive place to spend online advertising dollars. I still haven’t ruled out the possibility that they’ll eventually launch an AdSense-like network that will send targeted Facebook ads out across the web, but they’ve still given no indication that they’re going that direction. It still seems like an obvious choice though.

Do you think Sponsored Stories will be a hit? Tell us what you think.

More discussion on our Facebook Page.

January 28, 2011
Facebook: Email Addresses Rolling Out More Rapidly

If you’ve been waiting for your chance at a Facebook email address, you may get it soon. Somebody asked about them on Quora, and Facebook chimed in with a response.

"The new Facebook messages is rolling out to more people more rapidly now. When you gain access you will be walked through a flow where you will be able to select an email address," says Facebook Director of Engineering Andrew "Boz" Bosworth.

Many have talked about the possibility of Facebook’s new messaging system being a threat to webmail services like Gmail, though this has been downplayed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Still, more people signing up for Facebook email addresses could mean less people signing up for Gmail addresses, and some existing Gmail users could switch. It might not kill Gmail, but it’s hard to say it poses no threat whatsoever, considering how many people are on Facebook.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking at the World Economic Forum this week downplayed Facebook as a competitor to Google. Fortune reports:

Schmidt also challenged the assertion that Google is locked in a competitive battle with Facebook. "We have a competitor called Microsoft (MSFT)," he said. "Microsoft has more cash, more engineers, more global reach. We see competition from Microsoft every day." Facebook, on the other hand, "has clearly stated they don’t want to get into the search business. Facebook users tend to use Google search. Facebook’s ads business does not displace our advertising. I’m somewhat perplexed by the obsession because I don’t think the facts support it. Things are going great for Google."

Well, Facebook uses Microsoft’s Bing for its web search feature, for one thing. Facebook is really just getting started when it comes to advertising, and then there’s that email thing. Speaking of which, Google is now testing display ads in Gmail. I wonder how those hold up compared to Facebook’s ads, which are becoming increasingly targeted.

And just because Facebook doesn’t want to do search now, doesn’t mean it won’t change its mind. The way it is capturing data all over the web makes it a pretty invaluable search tool, which is why Bing is tapping it.

January 28, 2011
eBay Aims To Improve Display Advertising

eBay said today it has hired Triad Retail Media to sell and manage all on-site display advertising on its network of websites.

Under the deal, Triad will provide display advertising management to offer more customized ads that will better highlight listings and improve the experience for buyers and sellers on the site.

Key features of the agreement include:

*Banner advertising will be more customized, with category-specific content embedded directly into the ad so customers can view content without clicking off the site.

*eBay and Triad will also integrate new experiences from popular brands and cross-category “content centers” – sponsored landing pages on eBay that will highlight seasonally relevant and interactive content.

“As eBay continues to focus on innovation and new ways for eBay shoppers and sellers to connect, we are driving even better experiences on eBay.com,” said Christopher Payne, vice president of eBay North America.

“Our new agreement with Triad puts our customers front and center as we deliver more relevant, customized advertising content to them.”

January 27, 2011
6 Verticals See Triple-Digit Growth in Mobile Advertising

Millennial Media has released its latest monthly SMART report, looking at the mobile advertising landscape. The report looks at the top verticals (six of which had triple digit growth YoY).

The report also looks at actions marketers are trying to get consumer to take when they see the ads. "Social media actions in particular had significant growth quarter-over-quarter, as marketers are trying to use advertising to drive actions such as ‘liking’ a FB page," a spokesperson for Millennial Media tells WebProNews.

Some takeaways from the report include:

– Telecommunications was the top vertical for mobile advertising. This was primarily driven by carriers and device manufacturers that doubled down their mobile buys doing the holiday season. Windows Phone 7 devices in particular relied heavily on mobile advertising.

– Six verticals had triple digit growth year-over-year. Automotive grew 623% and Retail & Restaurants grew 572%

– 49% of mobile campaigns were designed to drive consumers to a website. 16% of campaigns were designed to drive app downloads

– Leveraging the increasing consumer desire to use LBS as part of the mobile experience, 22% of campaigns used a "store locator" as the desired campaign action.

– 14% of campaigns had a "social media" post-click campaign action-where consumers can interact with FB or Twitter, or perhaps post pictures to a custom site

– 57% of campaigns used a general broad reach, while 43% targeted a specific audience. Of the targeted campaigns, targeting by demographic was the most popular method.

Millennial Media recently reported that Android surpassed iOS as the largest smartphone OS on its network in December. Find the new SMART report here.

January 27, 2011
Self-Served Twitter Promotions

The Twitter brain trust has decided to turn some of their exponentially-growing traffic into a monetary outlet with the upcoming launch of their self-serve ad platform.

Following the Facebook promotion method, Twitter’s ad service will, according to MediaPost.com, allow Twitter users to create two types of self-serving advertisements:

Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts.

The Promoted Tweet aspect encourages followers to interact with the message in question, in the form of re-tweeting and other methods. As for promoted accounts, this campaign will attempt to get more followers for the Twitter user doing the promotion — essentially, it’s a “hey, follow me” blast — whose appearance across the Twitter network depends on which user recommends it.

Image courtesy of MediaPost

The appearance of the Promoted Account in a tweet stream depends a great deal on what keywords the user targeted, as well as the Twitter users the account in question is following. Once a Promoted Account tweet is recommended, Twitter will display it to relevant users — again, based on keywords and followers.

The user will then be charged for any followers they pick up. As far as cost, MediaPost has more:

There are several ad payment options: Pay for engagement events (CPE), Pay for impressions (CPM) or Exclusive for daily Promoted Trends. CPE costs the advertiser a minimum of 10 cents each time someone clicks on the link in the tweet, as well as retweets, @replies or favorites for the Promoted Tweet.

As far as Promoted Tweets, users must select from a recently-tweeted message. Once promoted, these tweets will appear in Twitter streams of those following the account, and will be annotated as such. They will also appear to users who follow accounts similar to the one doing the promotion.

For instance, if you’re promoting a tweet from an SEO blog, chances are, your tweet will appear to users who follow the Danny Sullivans of the world. All promoted tweets and accounts will be labeled as such, “Promoted by _____,” which should eliminate any confusion.

January 26, 2011
Is Facebook’s New “Buy with Friends” a Hint at Bigger Things to Come?

Facebook is all about friends, so it stands to reason that friends be the main facilitators of marketing through the social network. This is a sentiment driven home by Facebook’s new Sponsored Stories, as well as another new product they’re testing called "Buy With Friends".

Buy With Friends, revealed by Facebook at the Social Apps Conference, is a way for Facebook users to let their friends know about virtual goods purchases they make, and a lot of the speculation regarding this product pertains to the possibility in expanding it into physical goods and services. In other words – a Groupon competitor.

With Buy With Friends, users can unlock deals and share them with friends – encouraging other users to take advantage of the same deals. It’s not hard to see where this could be attractive to businesses in a Groupon-like sense.

Facebook already has Facebook Deals, which users can use to check into businesses and get deals for doing so. It’s not inconceivable that these two products could merge somewhere down the line, especially when you consider how big this space is getting (Google Offers should be appearing in the near future).

Keep in mind that Facebook just acquired mobile advertising company Rel8tion and is now making Facebook Credits acceptance mandatory in all Facebook apps. As the mobile payments space also heats up this year (with offerings expected from both Google and Apple, to name a couple), it would also not be surprising to see Facebook Credits become an option for paying for physical goods and services out in the real world.

The company is already closest to owning the Internet user’s identity (a concept being pushed by even the government now), with Facebook log-in available all over the web, my guess is that we’ll see a lot more Facebook Credit purchases around the web even sooner.

Let’s also keep in mind that Facebook is already in the stickers-for-businesses game. Last year, they handed out stickers to businesses for getting "liked" on Facebook. Is it that big a stretch to see them offer "Pay with Facebook" stickers?

January 26, 2011
Facebook Buys Mobile Ad Company Rel8tion

Facebook has reportedly acquired Rel8tion, a mobile advertising company. While you’d be hard pressed to find much info about the company on its own site, it has been made clear that this is a talent acquisition, so look for interesting things in mobile ads to come to Facebook in the near term.

The Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD, which broke the story, shares the following statement from Facebook:

"We’re excited to confirm that we recently completed a talent acquisition of Rel8tion, a stealth-mode startup in Seattle. The engineering team will join our growing Seattle office, and we’re looking forward to having them on board."

Update: After reaching out to Rel8tion, our request for comment was forwarded to Facebook, who gave us the same statement.

According to the report, Rel8tion was started by Peter Wilson, who will now be an engineering director at Facebook.

This isn’t the only splash Facebook has just made in advertising. This morning, the company launched a new ad product called the Sponsored Story, which lets advertisers promote updates from fans who have mentioned them. More on that here.

A recent estimate from Emarketer has Facebook pulling in $1.86 billion in ad revenue in 2010.

Financial terms of the acquisition are unknown.

January 25, 2011
Google Launches Keep My Opt-Outs Chrome Extension

Google has launched a new extension for its Chrome browser, called Keep My Opt-Outs. It is essentially a Do Not Track mechanism that lets users opt out from receiving personalized advertisements as they browse the web.

"Recently, the Federal Trade Commission and others have expressed interest in a ‘Do Not Track’ mechanism that could offer users a simple way to opt out of personalized advertising," write Google product managers Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka on the company’s Public Policy blog. "Advertising companies that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) already let you opt out of tracking for the purposes of personalizing advertisements, and many online advertisers and trade associations have also joined a major self-regulatory effort to enforce a uniform privacy icon for ads, as well as opt-out guidelines."

50 companies including the top 15 ad networks offer opt outs in the U.S.

The timing of the announcement is interesting, considering Mozilla just announced a proposal for a Do Not Track mechanism for Firefox, with the intention of having it adopted as an industry standard throughout the tech and advertising industries.

"We’ve been working on addressing these issues for awhile," write Harvey and Moonka. "Nearly two years ago, we engineered a solution for Google’s ad system. We made available, for all major browsers, a downloadable browser plugin that enables you to permanently opt out of Google’s advertising cookie, even if you deleted all your browser’s cookies. We’ve also built granular cookie controls into Chrome directly, and integrated Adobe Flash Player storage management into these controls. We’ve also modified Chrome’s incognito mode to ensure that it applies to ‘Flash cookies’ in addition to regular cookies."

If you use Chrome, you can get the add-on here, but Google warns that using it will mean you are likely to get ads that are less relevant to you.

Google is open sourcing the extension, and is working to make it available for other browsers.

January 24, 2011
Twitter Ad Revenue Forecast To Triple This Year

Twitter’s efforts to generate ad revenue will kick into high gear this year and be quite successful, according to a new report. eMarketer estimates the company will earn $150 million in 2011, up more than 333 percent from the $45 million it may have earned in 2010.

Obviously, that would represent a huge increase. Then eMarketer thinks Twitter will achieve a repeat performance of sorts in 2012, upping its ad revenue by about $100 million again to $250 million.

To put that into perspective, eMarketer’s report tossed another couple social networking sites into the equation. "Twitter revenues will still be small compared to those of Facebook, but by next year eMarketer expects Twitter to pull in more ad dollars than Myspace," the report stated.

Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst, also reasoned, "If Twitter can grow its user base and convince marketers of its value as a go-to secondary player to Facebook, it will succeed in gaining revenue. In 2011 it must work overtime to give its early advertisers a positive experience."

So this next year or two could be a very exciting – and profitable – time for Twitter as long as things stay on track.

New-ish CEO Dick Costolo is almost sure to spend a lot of time courting advertisers to guarantee that’s the case.

January 24, 2011