Here is an article I came across today. I played the game and it’s kind of fun, cool sound effects! I think this is a fun example of how an ordinary product can be interactive and easy to buy online.
Zippo launched an online game reminiscent of the game show “Concentration,” using lighter designs as pieces to remember. The game will be live through Dec. 16 and it’s hard to play just once. My best time was 57 seconds! Once the game is complete, players are prompted to either play again or shop for a lighter with the USMC emblem, the Rolling Stones tongue, a Playboy bunny or AC/DC logo, among others. The game is supported through banner ads and email blasts. Blattner Brunner created the campaign and handled the media buy.
As I returned to my humble abode from our Internerd meeting, I stumbled across this article in Adweek about interactive advertisments as connected to DVR.
NBC, TiVo in Stop/Watch Pact
November 27, 2007
By John Consoli
NEW YORK NBC Universal has entered into a multi-year partnership with TiVo. As part of the agreement, NBC’s owned-and-operated TV stations will subscribe to TiVo’s Stop/Watch second-by-second commercial ratings service and sell TiVo interactive Record Tags in combination with other NBC products.
The tags allow viewers to click on an icon when watching a commercial to obtain more information about that advertiser and then return to the exact place they exited. NBC will offer advertisers detailed reports on the results of information derived from viewers clicking on the tags. TiVo and NBCU will also work to develop additional ad products and will share revenue derived from those products.
NBCU will also begin using TiVo Record Tags in its on-air promotions, which will enable viewers to click to record the particular show that is being promoted.
“With proliferating media options and changing consumer behavior, our clients are asking for new ideas, better metrics and more accountability,” said Michael Pilot, president, NBCU sales and marketing. “Our partnership with TiVo is another example of NBCU’s continuing effort to improve the effectiveness of TV advertising for our clients, evolve the commercial form and expand the value of our advertising inventory.”
TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers called the agreement “a watershed moment for advertisers, broadcast and cable television and TiVo. Partnering with a TV powerhouse like NBCU to bring TiVo’s intuitive advertising solutions to a broad base of advertisers is a major step forward in the media industry’s efforts to make sure advertisers are able to adapt to the new world of DVR-based viewing.”
NBC is the first broadcast network to subscribe to TiVo’s Stop/Watch commercial ratings service.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Big Marketers Greatly Increase Cyber Monday Activities
Published: November 27, 2007
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| Videography: Steve Raddock |
| Nearly one-third of all U.S. adults shopped online on Cyber Monday this year. That’s a dramatic increase from the 17% who did the same last year.
<!– Videography: Hoag Levins –> |
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Even though the term was coined just three years ago, “Cyber Monday” has become a major concern for big marketers in the critical holiday gift-buying season. Last year, the websites of 43% of the country’s national retailers offered Cyber Monday discounts or incentive promotions. This year, 72% were making such offers in hopes of boosting holiday sales. In other news in this 3 Minute Ad Age, Unilever finds itself embroiled in controversy over its contradictory Dove and Axe ad campaigns, and Starbucks, a brand that once boasted it didn’t need to advertise, has launched its first-ever national TV ad campaign.
This is a video showing some new banners that Apple did:
Apple Banners Go Viral, Then Crash
November 21, 2007
By Brian Morrissey
Apple’s new viral sensation
NEW YORK The “Get a Mac” ads have become fixtures on YouTube, inspiring dozens of parodies of the spots starring the hipster “Mac Guy” and nerdy “PC Guy.” Now, an Apple effort touting its Leopard operating system has generated another viral hit with the most prosaic of ad forms: the banner.
Yesterday, Apple began running Flash-enabled video banners that show the Mac and PC guys in a placement on the right-hand side of the screen. While discussing the problems some users have with Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, the PC Guy tries to illuminate a “Don’t Give Up On Vista” sign in the banner at the top of the page. It malfunctions, leaving the sign constantly flashing, “Give Up On Vista.”
The placement, created by Omnicom Group’s TBWA\Media Arts Lab, quickly struck a chord in the tech community, setting off something perhaps unprecedented: blog posts and message-board discussions about the banners, and even a YouTube video showing the ad in action. The video, which Apple fan site MacRumors.com uploaded, has received over 70,000 views since it was uploaded on late Tuesday, making it the 9th most viewed clip of the day.
One small problem: the ad has caused some browsers to crash and others to have audio problems, which led Engadget to pull the placement today. In a post, Engadget editor Ryan Block apologized to visitors.
Apple ran the ad on several technology blogs and sites, including CNET’s News.com, Engadget and PCWorld.com. (Placements on the latter were replaced by different executions later in the day. An agency rep said she was unaware of problems with the ads, which are scheduled to run next week on WSJ.com and CNN.com.)
Despite the technical problems, the push certainly resonated with techies. At MacRumors, a short post on the ad attracted more than 130 comments. On TechCrunch, writer Duncan Riley praised the effort—and the post drew 50 comments. It also landed on the front page of TechMeme, a popular tech aggregation site. On Digg, the story attracted nearly 2,500 “digs,” making it the leading topic on the homepage.
While many praised the ad’s creativity, some bloggers said the work, which targeted PC areas of sites, showed an increasing arrogance on Apple’s part. (Others pointed out that Apple, not Microsoft, had caused browser crashes and systems problems.)
“Microsoft should run an ad about how Apple sits around claiming everything they make is perfect and flawless, but tends to come riddled with stupid little problems,” wrote the InsideMicrosoft blog.
Pffft. Apple? Screw up? Fooey on you!
Filed under: Uncategorized
- you could pay $1 or 2 more at the grocery checkout for a branded t-shirt bag that you could use over and over again?
- my fridge knew everything i put into it and would email me a list of what’s probably low, gone or rotten?
- there was a slideable arrow on the side of cracker (or CEREAL!) boxes that you could move so that you always knew how much was left in the box?
- email systems made it impossible to reply after three exchanges and immediately rang the person you were trying to have a long pointless email conversation with?
- starbucks gave me a reloadable keychain that I could use to buy stuff?
- McDonald’s took their “dollar menunaire” concept next level by sending 1,000,000 college kids $1 to buy stuff off their $1 menu?
- I could sign up online with D’Addario so they’d automatically send me a new pack of guitar strings each month?
- Planters Peanuts threw a big ol’ shindig on George Washington Carver’s birthday each year? Or better yet, sponsored a George Washington Carver’s entrepreneurial challenge/scholarship each year?
- My hotel would let me call one number at no charge, so I could call home for free to let everyone know I got there safely/read a book to my kid/tell my spouse I love him/her?
- Workplaces had 30 minute recess periods each day?
- “Take 5″ candy bars set up stations in busy public places where you could take a seat/get a massage/eat a candy bar?
FedEx Goes into Virtual Gift-Giving with ‘Launch a Package’
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FedEx has launched an online campaign called launchapackage.com, which allows people to send digital files to friends in a virtual FedEx box. Created by Atmosphere BBDO, the site is part of FedEx’s sponsorship of NASCAR car No. 11, driven by Denny Hamlin, according to DM News. The microsite evolved from an interactive banner ad FedEx crafted last year. It invited users to pull back a slingshot and launch a package out of the ad. This is a really great way to get people participating on their site. It shows how easy it is to use their site, as well as send a package with FedEx. Very creative. Check out the link! |
Top 10 US Social Network and Blog Site Rankings Issued for Oct.
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MySpace.com again crowns rankings of top US social networking sites, with more than 58.8 million unique visitors in October, according to custom lists of top US social networking sites and blogs compiled by Nielsen Online, reports MarketingCharts. Google’s Blogger remains atop blog site rankings, with 34.1 million visitors. Ranked second among social networking sites, Facebook increased its number of visitors to 19.5 million, up 125 percent vs. Oct. ‘06. MySpace visitors increased 19 percent year over year.
The top 2 social networks’ number of visitors increased from September, whereas those ranked 3rd through 4th decreased visitor numbers slightly from the previous month. (Compare with Sept. social network data.) Among blog sites, top-ranked Blogger increased visitors 58 percent from the year-earlier period, reaching 34.1 million visitors.
More impressively, however, WordPress moved up the rankings to No. 2, having grown a whopping 444 percent compared with the year-earlier period. It accounted for 11.4 million visitors, up from 2.1 million last year. Six Apart’s Type Pad, dropping to No. 3, also grew 20 percent to nearly 10.6 million visitors in October. (See this table to make month-to-month [Sept. '07 vs. Oct. '07] comparisons for blog sites.) |
Filed under: Interesting
Hands Off Virtual Goods — Theft is Punishable by Arrest
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The BBC reports the arrest of a Dutch teenager who was recently caught stealing virtual furniture from “bedrooms” from the Habbo Hotel, a virtual world. The teenager allegedly lifted 4,000 euros worth of virtual furniture, an act deemed fit for legal reprimand because “the furniture is paid for with real money,” according to a spokesman for Sulake, Habbo Hotel’s parent company. Other teens, potentially involved in the crime, were also questioned by authorities. The thieves allegedly “lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords,” according to the spokesman. The Habbo Hotel hosts six million users in over 30 countries every month. In August, similar thefts within Second Life had regulatory agencies buzzing over appropriate lines of defense. |
Tia sent me a link to this piece in AdWeek about how the University of California at Berkeley is now using YouTube to “air” segments, or entire semesters, of courses.
I love this quote so I’m pasting it up here verbatim:
“For YouTube, it further legitimizes their role in society because it is not just for idiots who want to put their latest party video online,” says Andy Bateman, CEO of Interbrand, New York. “It is about real substantial, useful interactive content. Berkeley is the first, so run the camera forward five years when every university is posting their curriculum and the students are spending even more time on YouTube. You have more eyeballs for more time being engaged in YouTube’s content, and that has to be good for business.”
There are a million reasons why this is a step in the right direction. Aside from the ability to dramatically increase enrollments for colleges/universities in addition to provide convenient, effecient and effective ways of providing an education for those who are interested, there’s also the possibility to advertise to a laser-specific audience here. Want to sell more external hard drives, organizers or Taco Bell? Who better than someone glued to a monitor at 10PM?
