December 20, 2010
Apple has released iAd Producer, a tool kit that allows designers and developers to create visually rich, interactive iAds for Apple mobile devices. iAd Producer does all the behind-the-scenes programming work (HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript) for you, it's packed with functionalities and provides a set of ready-to-use templates. At last digital agencies can create their own ads on Apple's iAd network for their clients. So far half of Ad Age's top U.S. advertisers by revenue have signed on for iAds. This also means more advertising revenue for app developers to keep them loyal to the Apple platform and away from the pesky Google's Android mobile OS. Learn more about Apple's iAd strategy , iAd Producer and to download the iAd Producer kit.
December 20, 2010
Based on a July, 2012 About.com "The Trust Factor" study, reviews played a bigger role in cultivating trust than friend "likes" and recommending brands. Other key trust promoting factors are: accuracy, expertise, transparency as well as useful mobile content, location-based services and video. Read full emarketing article.
If you think QR codes are everywhere these days, you are not mistaken. This infographic from queaar.com reveals some astouding facts. Fortune 500 companies such as P&G are now agressively implementing QR based sales and marketing strategies. Soon most smartphones will have an integrated QR code reader and their use will surely explode.
If you think QR codes are everywhere these days, you are not mistaken. This infographic from queaar.com reveals some astouding facts.
Desperados beer it's making an impact online with this seamlessly well executed YouTube takeover that pushes the limits of technology by allowing the viewer to interact with live action and sharing it realtime bringing friends and their photos into the picture via Facebook connect. Thanks Digitalbuzz for sharing the news and the video.
During the critical shopping months of the last holiday season J. C. Penney beat millions of websites to the top of the search results rankings on many competitive keywords such as "dresses", "furniture" or "home decor". J. C. even beat Samsonite on searches for "Samsonite carry on luggage". Not an easy thing to do, taking into consideration that Google's goal is to find the most relevant websites. Is it J. C. Penney a more relevant search result for Samsonite searches than Samsonite.com? So how this could have possible happened?
It turns out that J. C. Penney's Search Engine Optimization consulting firm used a "link scheme" a trick banned and highly penalized by Google, thousands of random websites with enormous amounts of keyword links to J. C. Penney's website landing pages which automatically made it the most relevant website for those keywords.
But the intriguing part of this story is that it took evidence collected by The New York Times for Google to take some action. Within hours Penney's rankings for many keywords went from number 1 to 70 and lower. Still why it took Google so long to detect such a blatant and widespread deception? it could be that the $2.46 million a month J. C. Penney spends on paid search ads made Google look the other way?
The European Union is already investigating possible antitrust abuses by Google. Money talks even for godly Google. Read the full story.
During the critical shopping months of the last holiday season J. C.
The Huffington Post got $315 million from AOL and Demand Media raised $151 million in its January public offering. One thing that have helped these two companies with such high valuations is their search engine optimization skills. However one serious drawback particularly for web publishers is their dependency on writing stories based on trending Google searches. After a while to maintain a high level of incoming traffic (and money), web publishers are finding it hard to beat the habit of writing articles for S.E.O. instead of for quality.
Google is refining its search algorithm to prevent low-quality content to be top ranked in its search results as publishers are moving from S.E.O. to S.M.O. (Social Media Optimization) the next battleground in the never ending search ranking and clicks war. Read the full "Web words that lure the readers" article.
When I turned The New York Times page and saw this Prius ad I loved it. It felt clever, clean and fresh for a car. It connected with me. So far so good. Then I took the time to download the "free" SnapTag Reader. The whole positive experience that I was enjoying from the print ad collapsed when I realized that the SnapTag Reader app only works if you give them your cell phone number. A complete turn off. They expect people to give them their phone numbers so they can see and ad? there something wrong with this picture.
Surely this App looks fun but what I like most is how well tackles the needs of users with a variety of engaging interactive games and tools (access to live streaming video from different locations), social sharing and a photo contest. The need of advertisers by allowing an integrated sponsorship with viral potential (Toshiba will show the photo contest winner face in its massive screen right next to the Times Square Ball) and finally how it fulfills the potential of Apps as a viable marketing medium generating revenue for ad agencies and developers. Download the Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App for Mac and Android. Enjoy it! Happy New Year!!
As I reported last week in my "When e-commerce turns ugly and Google makes it even worse" post, a New York Times article exposed a loophole in Google search that allowed unscrupulous online merchants to grow their businesses by improving their rankings in Google searches as a results of customers complains. The more complains the higher the rankings they got. Kudos to Google for their quick reaction to fix this problem. Read the full story.
As I reported last week in my "When e-commerce turns ugly and Google makes it even wo
Currently, according to Q3 2010 research, more than four in five US ad agencies buy online ads through networks, while fewer than half buy direct from publishers. Advertisers are increasingly using real-time ad bidding as it's helping them to buy targeted audiences rather than inventory. Read the full report from eMarketer.
Currently, according to Q3 2010 research, more than four in five US ad agencies buy online ads through networks, while fewer than half buy direct from publishers.
