Media Bites January 2011

Adneedle.com Makes Digital Media Planning a Breeze

Chrissie Van Wormer

Michael J Massey

One of the biggest challenges for any business these days is to figure out what is the best method to advertise your goods or services and more importantly where. Certainly the newest and most exciting advertising avenue is digital media. As proponents of all things digital, we have not been surprised that digital placement has grown like wildfire and is currently on track, according to Forrester Research, to reach nearly $55 billion by 2014. This will represent 21% of all marketing money spent as marketers shift dollars away from traditional media toward search marketing, display advertising, email marketing, social media and mobile marketing. For business owners and entrepreneurs, we know from personal experience and from the experience of our buying clients that digital placement is by far the easiest form of media to create, to launch and most importantly to track with real time statistics.

During Forrester Research’s study on how technology can help interactive marketers better integrate search and display media (December 2010), one of the key findings was that respondents to the survey feel that if they could find an online ad management platform that would facilitate measurement and streamline ad campaign processes, the online experience would be less cumbersome and easier to quantify. Well, we’re excited to have one up on the marketers that Forrester’s surveyed. We know there is just such a product and even more exciting than that, it is locally developed and operated.

Adneedle.com is a start-up that, in our opinion as experienced media planners and buyers, is about to change the way online advertising is purchased and reported. Adneedle has been developed over the past year by two young and very talented programmers both of who areGoogle certified along with two very experienced and uniquely qualified marketers. We were thrilled to find out that this forward thinking team has figured out how to blend Facebook and Twitter with google analytics. The really great thing about this product is that the online advertiser is able to view the effectiveness of an entire blended campaign right in Adneedle’s dashboard rather than having to move from google to check a report, to yahoo to check a report, to bing to check a report, to facebook to check a report, and then over to twitter to check yet another report. The analytics from each one of these platforms shows right up in Adneedle in your campaign analysis report. With the capability to view the effectiveness of an entire blended campaign in one single place, the advertiser has the opportunity to make better decisions and ultimately increase response. The system is even designed to deliver media suggestions and offers keywords and strategies for better advertiser results. There is a cool digital meter on the report page that displays how effective your campaign might be as you make your media choices. Adneedle’s unique targeting technology delivers ads to potential customers using a combination of behavioral and geo-targeting. And yes, Adneedle does handle mobile media placement. Beyond everything else we’ve mentioned, it also handles placement across multiple channels which include search, banners, and video ads. You can check Adneedle out for yourself at www.adneedle.com. Sign up and register. There is no fee and there are contracts. An added plus is that since the product caters to small and medium sized businesses, there is technical support available 24 hours a day for anyone who may need additional help in setting up an online campaign. Or maybe you’re not ready to set up a campaign. That’s great, too. Just go in and check it out. Ask questions. Request a demo. And keep in mind that this is a local company who has done something that so far the big boys haven’t figured out.

We’re excited when we come across products like Adneedle and will continue to share these opportunities as we find them. Please check out Your Ad Here: De-Mystifying the Business of Media and Advertising for additional media resources.

Media Bites - January 18 2011

Tweets for a Cause

Michael J Massey

Chrissie Van Wormer

I’m a pop culture and TV fanatic. I’ve even been called the king of useless information. In any conversation about a television show or film I'll feed you an obscure fact about one of the actors, directors or producers that I know you will never have heard before. My standard reads are The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Ad Age. But my fascination with Hollywood and the entertainment business doesn’t mean I have any respect for it. I’ve never gotten Lady Gaga and no matter how many times I've watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians, I still haven't figured out exactly what it is they do with their lives.

Well, on December 1^st, 2010, that all changed when Lady Gaga, the Kardashians, Justin Timberlake, Katie Holmes and Usher launched Digital Life Sacrifice and blanked out their social media profiles vowing not to return until they raised one million dollars for AIDS charities. As part of the campaign, some celebrities were photographed in coffins simulating their own deaths in order to draw awareness and donations to the cause. Leigh Blake, president of Keep a Child Alive was ecstatic with the results. She notes in a recent interview, "We're sort of trying to make the statement that why should we care so much about the death of one celebrity when millions and millions are dying all around us.” “In fact,'” she continues “Lady Gaga has made an enormous contribution already, attracting seven million Twitter followers and twenty four million Facebook fans.” And fans equal charitable donations. The current total to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and India currently stands at $1,111,885.

According to the buylife.org, these funds will go a very long way. In Durban, South Africa, $20 buys one hot nutritious meal. In Uganda, $50 buys food for an entire month and in India, $250 buys educational supplies for 50 children for a month.

So let’s think about this. There is most definitely a way to monetize all those Facebook fans and Twitter followers. If we add the Twitter followers for Selena Gomez, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Demi Moore, Jimmy Fallon and Khloe Kardashian and ask each one to contribute just $1 dollar, there would be a fund totaling $21,606,150. Imagine how impactful and meaningful that would be.

Here's a challenge for you. Look to your own Twitter followers and Facebook fans. What if you asked each one of them to contribute $1 to the charity that is near and dear to your heart? Make it easy for them to do so by setting up a Twitpay account for donations.

As for me, the next time I find myself resenting The Kardashians or wondering what the heck Lady Gaga is trying to stand for, I'll look back on the Digital Life Sacrifice Campaign humbly and hand over some money to Autism Speaks.

Related articles:

Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, and Usher will quit Twitter for AIDS charity

About the Death of Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian