For all those who love UGC (user generated content) there is good news for you and your friends...Microsoft is introducing another star as part of its new consumer ad campaign: you.
Microsoft: I'm a PC
In its newest iteration, Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' campaign has gone user-generated.
Microsoft's "I'm a PC" campaign -- part of Crispin Porter & Bogusky's $300 million marketing ploy to help the computer maker regain some positive buzz lost to competitor Apple -- has launched yet another iteration, this time, going user-generated.
Keeping it real
The latest spots are a compendium of consumer-generated content based on "I'm a PC," which began airing last month. The new ads, which began running yesterday, string together what Microsoft calls "real PC users" from around the world who uploaded a video to Windows.com. Additional spots will be created using user-generated content from the site, Microsoft said, meaning that anyone who visits Windows.com and uploads a video has the chance to star in a future ad.
Submitting a video entails recording five seconds of footage using a webcam; simply state "I'm a PC," followed by something (non-obscene, naturally) you love to do. Individuals are then asked to choose a PC name, which will be displayed with the video.
Imaginations run wild
The end result features folks making mundane, sarcastic or downright bizarre pronouncements, from "I'm a PC and I like the slimming effect of a purple striped shirt" to "I'm a PC and by that I don't mean politically correct."
One spot groups together a number of user-created videos themed around food: "I'm a PC and I cook dinner every night" and "I'm a PC and I eat pancakes."
According to a Microsoft spokeswoman, in the first few weeks following the launch of "I'm a PC," more than 17,000 photos and videos were uploaded by consumers hoping to become part of the campaign, and "I'm a PC" videos have been viewed on the site almost 1.5 million times.
Microsoft hasn't set a timeline for creating and airing the next round of user-generated ads but said it is "fully committed to putting more on the air." Additionally, some user videos will be shown on digital billboards in New York's Times Square.
So are the people uploading pictures and videos actually real PC users, or are they merely looking for 15 seconds of fame? For its part, Microsoft doesn't really care.
Mac users welcome
In the frequently asked questions section of the site, it says: "I have a Mac, can I participate?" Microsoft's answer: "Of course you can. A Mac can be a PC too, most notably when it runs Windows Vista."
That's a friendlier stance than Apple took in one of the latest ads last week in its long-running and popular "Mac vs. PC" campaign. In a spot dubbed "Bean Counter," again featuring Justin Long as Mac and John Hodgman as PC, Apple snubs Microsoft's new ad campaign -- criticizing the company for investing more money on ads instead of fixing glitches in its Vista operating systems.
Incidentally, according to Visible Measures, which aggregates data on online viral videos, the first seven days of the new Apple ads notched 70% of the reach the PC ads snared in their first seven days. But Apple had double the number of unique placements -- sites that posted the video -- than Microsoft had, perhaps indicating Apple ads have more viral potential.
[credit : http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132094]
Showing posts with label advertisements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertisements. Show all posts
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Printerstitial - The print cousin of Interstitial
So most of those who know about online advertising have at some point of time encountered an Interstital, which is nothing but a page that loads before an expected page. This page is often used by publishers to promote an advertisment etc. From my experience, i've seen very good CTR's on Interstital ads (right upto 14%). But now there is a cousin of Interstital, the "Printerstitial".
Enter the "PrinterStitial." A Denver based startup, Format Dynamics, has invented a whole new ad category by developing a service that inserts "Ads" into printouts of Web pages, combining the "advantages of online ads with the power of traditional print ads." They've used 18 months of actual "PrinterStitial" results from early publisher adopters, combined with data from market researcher MetaFacts, Format Dynamics estimates that U.S. consumers print approx. 61 billion Web pages annually...creating what the company's CEO Ethan Holien calls a previously "untapped market opportunity, with scale and legs".
72 newspapers of the MediaNews Group, including The Denver Post, as well as Rand McNally, The Houston Chronicle, CNET, Career Builder, and the Orange County Register are currently using Printerstitials.
When consumers take printouts of Web pages enabled with Format Dynamics' "CleanPrint," the technology dynamically reformats the page(s) to be more appealing to the user , while completely eliminating such Web-centric features as navigation bars etc. The PrinterStitials can either be print-friendly versions of ads or completely separate "print ads".
Depending on the online publisher, P'stitials are either sold by the sites themselves or by Format Dynamics, Holien said. The company is talking to vertical ad networks, as well as "advertisers and agencies when appropriate." Travel Ad Network is already on board. Ad revenues are shared between Format Dynamics and publishers.
In their media kit, the Orange County Register and ocregister.com stress how engaged users are with pages they print out. "When users print online content, it's because they intend to read again, hold onto or pass along the information on the page," the kit advises. "Now your ad can appear on those hard copies, giving you the opportunity to create a lasting brand association and an incentive to win their business." The paper's stated ad rate for PrinterStitials is $1,300 monthly.
While PrinterStitial sales are targeted towards the digital buying community, Holien noted that publishers already "versed with print," can sell existing print advertisers. The pitch - "This is print advertising, but you can target it three ways (behaviorally, contextually, geographical). You don't have to buy just a circulation number."
The company has developed a companion analytical tool, PrintTracker, which measures all printing of PrinterStitial ads directly from browsers, providing publishers and advertisers with relevant data and metrics. Previous printing data only measured the minority of pages printed from "printer-friendly" buttons, Holien said. "Most publishers right now don't understand how much printing is occurring," he added.
"It's new inventory that publishers can monetize, and an opportunity for advertisers to plug in ads, We know in general that people do online research and buy in local stores, and a majority of purchases have an online component," he said. Now, FormatDyamics' technology combines that empirical information "with the anecdotal info that people show up in stores with pages in hand." said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
Interestingly, Format Dynamics, has raised $4.4 million in first-round venture capital and in its demos states that both CleanPrint and Click4Print provide the opportunity for "truly integrated online/offline advertising."
I can forsee the loop between online and offline advertising closing very soon :).
(those who want to read the complete article can log on to Mediapost)
Enter the "PrinterStitial." A Denver based startup, Format Dynamics, has invented a whole new ad category by developing a service that inserts "Ads" into printouts of Web pages, combining the "advantages of online ads with the power of traditional print ads." They've used 18 months of actual "PrinterStitial" results from early publisher adopters, combined with data from market researcher MetaFacts, Format Dynamics estimates that U.S. consumers print approx. 61 billion Web pages annually...creating what the company's CEO Ethan Holien calls a previously "untapped market opportunity, with scale and legs".
72 newspapers of the MediaNews Group, including The Denver Post, as well as Rand McNally, The Houston Chronicle, CNET, Career Builder, and the Orange County Register are currently using Printerstitials.
When consumers take printouts of Web pages enabled with Format Dynamics' "CleanPrint," the technology dynamically reformats the page(s) to be more appealing to the user , while completely eliminating such Web-centric features as navigation bars etc. The PrinterStitials can either be print-friendly versions of ads or completely separate "print ads".
Depending on the online publisher, P'stitials are either sold by the sites themselves or by Format Dynamics, Holien said. The company is talking to vertical ad networks, as well as "advertisers and agencies when appropriate." Travel Ad Network is already on board. Ad revenues are shared between Format Dynamics and publishers.
In their media kit, the Orange County Register and ocregister.com stress how engaged users are with pages they print out. "When users print online content, it's because they intend to read again, hold onto or pass along the information on the page," the kit advises. "Now your ad can appear on those hard copies, giving you the opportunity to create a lasting brand association and an incentive to win their business." The paper's stated ad rate for PrinterStitials is $1,300 monthly.
While PrinterStitial sales are targeted towards the digital buying community, Holien noted that publishers already "versed with print," can sell existing print advertisers. The pitch - "This is print advertising, but you can target it three ways (behaviorally, contextually, geographical). You don't have to buy just a circulation number."
The company has developed a companion analytical tool, PrintTracker, which measures all printing of PrinterStitial ads directly from browsers, providing publishers and advertisers with relevant data and metrics. Previous printing data only measured the minority of pages printed from "printer-friendly" buttons, Holien said. "Most publishers right now don't understand how much printing is occurring," he added.
"It's new inventory that publishers can monetize, and an opportunity for advertisers to plug in ads, We know in general that people do online research and buy in local stores, and a majority of purchases have an online component," he said. Now, FormatDyamics' technology combines that empirical information "with the anecdotal info that people show up in stores with pages in hand." said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
Interestingly, Format Dynamics, has raised $4.4 million in first-round venture capital and in its demos states that both CleanPrint and Click4Print provide the opportunity for "truly integrated online/offline advertising."
I can forsee the loop between online and offline advertising closing very soon :).
(those who want to read the complete article can log on to Mediapost)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
