Over the weekend, I visited NYTimes.com and was surprised to see AOL's "On AOL.com Now" campaign taking over the *entire* screen of my laptop. This screenshot is trimmed down to fit the blog, but it is taken of a fully expanded browser. The ad itself is attractive, dynamic and features fresh, timely content. My surprise is instead that the New York Times homepage is entirely covered by a different (but still competing?) news source:
Last week I wrote about two updates to Facebook Places: Deals (using Starbucks as an example) and Photo attachments. Those two somewhat combine when deals are redeemed. If you haven't seen an example yet: here is the feed post after the Starbucks deal is redeemed. It is an expanded check-in on the Facebook feed... which means two primary things: 1. the post is customizable by the deal provider. Here, Starbucks has four pieces: logo, deal title, detailed description and viral call to action. In effect, this is great branding within the newsfeed ... that branding happens to be enhances by the fact that a friend is advocating it.
2. All the viral components associated with the feed: comments, shares, likes, etc. This is important because it is a core / necessary element to the deal platform - in a way that isn't entirely integrated on other popular sites which require post-transaction publishing.
And here is Gap's promotion:
Today Facebook shook up the local deals space with their Facebook Places announcement: the local deal platform which now competes directly with Foursquare, Yelp, Groupon, etc. Facebook launched with twenty premier partners who represented different industries (Gap :: retail; Palms :: hotel; Starbucks : food; Golden State Warriors :: sports; etc). The platform will quickly expand to 20,000 local businesses and then a self-serve platform. Considering Facebook's size, mobile usage and collection of brands / business owners - this is a big deal.
... And Starbucks seems to recognize that. Immediately after the Facebook announcement, they began advertising with premium Facebook ads - specifically promoting their places offer: "Starbucks will donate $1 per Facebook Places check-in up to $75,000 to Conservation Intl. Help us protect 5,000 acres of forest land."
Facebook often runs their own advertisements as sponsored units on the main newsfeed. The ads typically promote new features, job openings, their ad platform, etc. So these below promotions for Facebook jobs and Facebook's Ad Platform are nothing out of the ordinary... but what is noteworthy is how Facebook has now begun using their 500m user milestone as a marketing message:
Advertise on Facebook Promote your business to 500m+ active and enaged users on Facebook. Develop your brand online by connecting with your audience.
Wanted: Ops Engineers! Want to keep Facebook running for over 500m active users? Apply today!
Interestingly, the marketing message isn't too dissimilar to that of the upcoming Facebook movie ("The Social Network"):
Yesterday was the launch of Madden NFL 11 (coverage here). Yesterday was also my first purchase through Twitter's Earlybird. Earlybird had a big offer on the new Madden NFL 11 video game - it normally retails for $59.99 but was sold through Buy.com (sans @Earlybird) for $39.99.
Considering the savings and the timing - it was a compelling offer... and it sold out after three offer releases over a two hour period.
Interestingly, the promotion did not lead to a significant increase in Twitter followers for Buy.com (@buy_com). Despite the offers buzz, Buy.com only gained ~300 Twitter followers. Ultimately, I imagine that they are valuing the promotion in part to increased social buzz / presence (as I imagine most purchasers were like me: in and out with only a discounted video game).
Last year I covered the Madden 10 advertising blitz that took over ESPN and YouTube's homepage with slick, expanding units that interacted with the pages' content. I have always been impressed by ad units that disrupt a page's live content - but ultimately the units are built individually for each site and thus don't scale.... so it's no wonder that the Madden 11 advertising blitz is different: Madden 10 YouTube Takeover
Unsurprisingly, the Madden 11 ad units are quite different. In addition to being contained within their pixel real estate... the big focus is Facebook and social sharing.
Here is the primary unit on ESPN.com's homepage. The unit itself contracts after several seconds of viewership. Most interestingly, is the order of the ad's three call to action buttons:
1. Like This (on Facebook) 2. Buy it Now 3. Get the Demo
By getting the demo, you are able to view HD video content within the ad unit:
Notice that the Madden 11 campaign extended beyond ESPN's homepage... or even their NFL section. Here is a more aggressive takeover of the MLB Scores section. There is more Madden content above the fold than actual content:
And lastly, when you visit the Madden Facebook page - the focus again is to drive "Likes". Drew Brees points towards the Like button and the 'Get Started' button begins with driving Facebook fans:
I have written before about Amazon's Kindle Ad Units - which are usually excellent. Here is the latest - and you will notice the similarity in prior units. Nevertheless, I love the tagline "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" because: 1. it sums up the Kindle's value proposition perfectly (they won't win on device, but portability is a big positive)
2. it leverages the success of other platforms - namely Apple (iPhone, iPad, Mac) and Android
3. it sums up so much of what consumers, publishers and developers alike are facing: the multi-platform conundrum (ie write once, read anyhwere)
I apologize for posting hurriedly and therefore without much context / commentary... nevertheless, the Altimeter group release this report, "The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing." As if often the case with guiding principles, they are generally intuitive, clear and achievable (of course practice proves to be more challenging!). Altimeter boiled it down to 8 guiding principles (see below) and I would go a step further and get it down to 4: - Authenticity: this extends from being on brand to revealing content (images, insights, etc) from the company and its people.
- Consistency: be consistent in voice and presence
- Regularity: find the right rhythm with which to interact and engage. Too little is a non-starter but too much is equally painful.
- Engagement: more often than not, posts should be interactive and actionable... therefore giving fans and users their own voice
The full report:
At Dogpatch Labs, we try to host at least one event a week - whether it be formal or informal, social or academic, large or small. Last week we hosted a session on search engine marketing best practices. It was led by David Rodnitzky of PPC Associates. The session was called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Search Engine Marketing" and David's slideshow is included below. When able and appropriate, we try to include presentations from Dogpatch Labs events and post them both on DogpatchLabs.com and on this blog (such as Facebook Connect Best Practices)