Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology

Calculate the True Cost of Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:32:34 PDT

Number of participants in a 20-people brainstorm x average hourly rate x meeting duration = the cost of a meeting. A simple and long overdue tool; should be an iPhone app, too.
- via dabitch

Create and Sell Your Own Board Games

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:35:21 PDT

Creating branded board games -- one other flavor of in-game advertising -- has become much easier. The GameCrafter is like Cafepress for your very own board games: upload the designs, add play money and pawns, and they will print and package everything for you and put it up for sale on their marketplace.
-- via Raph Coster

Earlier:
New Monopoly Edition Comes with Branded Tokens

Binge Meets Nudge

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:24:42 PDT

This presentation by a group of Johnson & Wales University ad students showcases some of the smartest thinking I've ever seen coming from persuasion pros of any age and caliber. It was presented at the AAF's student ad competition, whose topic this year was combating student binge drinking.

Their plan is based on a simple insight: just like you cannot scare smokers into quitting, you can't nag students into not drinking, which is the path much of the existing communication has taken. Instead, the group focuses on creating the right choice architecture that prevents unsafe drinking, the approach popularized by the recently published book Nudge: "There are subtle but effective ways to nudge the two critical elements that cause binge drinking -- how much and how fast students drink -- providing students with choices that result in safer behavior."

This presentation was the best in New England but didn't do as well in the national finals -- I am guessing because it's not exactly advertising. If for you "creative" means just this kind of thinking, then here are the names of the students on the team; many of them are still on the job market:

Juan Alvarado (who worked with us as a spring intern at the agency and who introduced me to the project and the book), Abigail Agress, Foluso Akinkuotu, Sierra Barter, Andrew Childers, Ginelle DeAntonis, Victoria Deetz, Evan Dunn, Yousef Khory, Audrey Kushner, Bruce Millard, Joseph Russomano, Jonathan Vega, Nicholas Verrochi (advisors: Oscar Chilabato, Tom Monahan, Christine Ure).

Update:
- A video of the JWU presentation can be viewed here. (Thanks, Tom)
- A competing book from University of Minnesota is here (Thanks, Erin)

DesignBay: White Label Crowdsourcing [ad]

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:49:44 PDT

"DesignBay is a marketplace for graphic design and creative services that uses a new innovative business model called crowdsourcing. We give creative people opportunities and help businesses get risk-free creativity.

Ad agencies, marketing firms and branding agencies can use DesignBay as a tool to expand their service offering to win new clients, to cut costs or to increase their capacity when they're busy. DesignBay offers a white-labeling service that lets ad agencies leverage our product as their own, behind the scenes.

An advertising agency that specializes in print and TV ad production could use DesignBay to help a client create a logo / identity for a new product it is launching. They could charge the client their typical fee, provide them with strategy and direction, present logo concepts as being developed in-house but outsource to DesignBay privately and make significant margin.

A web design firm may use DesignBay to get 20+ creative Photoshop (PSD) web design layouts while focusing on collecting requirements, functional design, coding and implementation.

A brand consultant may help create a strategy and positioning for a client and then use DesignBay to offer execution of that strategy to their client.

How we are better than other crowdsourcing sites:

Designers are better protected at Designbay.

We have a higher caliber of designers.

You do not need waste time assessing quotes.

Designers compete based on the merit of their ideas."

(This post is a paid announcement.)

Propaganda Through Infographics

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:02:06 PDT

A chart (pdf) creating by the House Republicans to show the complexity of the Obama healthcare plan.

Is this PowerPoint?

Future: Print Posters in 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:41:06 PDT

The best part about the FujiFilm's FinePix Real 3D System (in Time magazine this week, but announced last year) is the printing technology that will produce 3D images, "which are made with a clear plastic overlay that acts as a kind of 3-D lens," and which are viewable without special glasses. "Fujifilm plans to launch an online service that will make 3-D prints for consumers." Postcards, posters and billboards in 3D, coming soon.

TV Ads Most Helpful

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:49:56 PDT

"Over one-third of Americans (37%) say that television ads are most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17% say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14% say the same about Internet search engine ads. Radio ads (3%) and Internet banner ads (1%) are not considered helpful by many people. Over one-quarter of Americans (28%), however, say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase decision making process."

On the bright side, 9% say they don't ignore ads.

-- Harris Interactive, July 1, 2009 (pdf)

Travelocity Banner Knows Where I'm Going

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:22:27 PDT

A couple of years ago I was wowed by a smart banner from Orbitz that knew where I was flying. Just came across a very similar executioin from Travelocity. Do people respond better to this personalized targeting, do you know?

The Making of Dunkin' Run

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:04:14 PDT

For those of you who enjoy reading about how ideas evolve from a whiteboard mess to a finished product that sometimes gets people excited (definitely not a linear path), I've posted a small set of archive pictures from my experience on the team at Hill Holliday behind the Dunkin' Run application. In hindsight, I should've also graphed all the coffee and donuts that were consumed during testing.

As Heard On TV: Search Mentions with TV Trends

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:50:14 PDT

Very cool: search hours of recorded and indexed TV content for daily brand mentions and trending topics with SnapStream's new service TV Trends. An opportunity: overlay these data with rating numbers to get some sort of reach or influence index.

Should You Pitch a Branded iPhone App?

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:59:38 PDT

There are days when it feels like iPhone apps are the new microsites -- every campaign has to have one. And on the surface it seems the numbers stack up just right: a healthy range of demographics, 50K apps, one billion downloads, 40 million devices (source), all going strong. But before you pitch an app to the next client, consider these usage stats from Pinch Media's deck on Slideshare (February 2009) and Greystripe’s Q109 Consumer Insights Report (April 2009, pdf):

-- Minutes per use: 9.6 (Greystripe)
-- Uses per user: 19.9 (Greystripe)
-- Only 20% of users return to use the app after the first day (Pinch Media)
-- After a month, this number drops to 5% (Pinch Media)
-- "39% of iPhone users cited weather-related apps as one of the three kinds of applications they use most frequently (Compete via MediaPost, April 2009)

About Digg's New Ad Format

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:32:39 PDT

A few thoughts about the recently unveiled (and heavily commented) Digg's new ad format that makes ads "diggable" and puts them in the general news stream.

1. The "sponsored post" about Sims3 on the mock-up was an actual story that appeared on Digg in February. It got 606 diggs and 110 comments. I wonder whether the same post would show comparable numbers if it had been an ad, as mocked up. In case you are wondering, all other stories on this screenshot have been made up.

2. I really like how the format fits the primary user behavior on the site -- reading and commenting on news. Techmeme's "sponsored RSS feeds" format is similar. I wrote (and someone else has commented) about this before: "Content in different media is consumed in different ways. Ads are content. To work in a different medium, ad formats should reflect the medium's particularities."

3. Advertisers will have to become content producers. That means headlines, not slogans. Not every brand produces diggable content.

4. Finally, a legit (as opposed to otherwise) mechanism to pay your way to Digg's front page.

5. What happens if someone else -- someone with a large network of Digg friends -- submits the same news with a link to a different page?

6. As one Digg commenter puts it, "Most ads will probably get buried anyway. Much like this comment. Cue the [bury] brigade." Which means "the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system."

7. Back to #4: If before, underground networks of diggers like Subvert and Submit charged money to promote someone's story to the front page, now they will charge money to digg ads, if the math works for the advertisers.

8. Brands favorited by powerful well-connected diggers (say, Apple) will pay less then brands that are not liked as much (say, Microsoft).

9. For the reasons above, I think it would work better if Digg tacked its voting and commenting mechanism onto the more traditionally placed ads instead of sticking the ads into the content stream. I'd keep the rest of the social functionality, too, like letting my friends see if I dugg an ad.

10. On the mock-up, there's no username associated with the Sims3 ad. I'd actually let people placing ads create user-like accounts so that they could build their own social networks within the site and earn reputation points.

Targeting Zodiac Signs

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:15:07 PDT

Sure someone apart from horoscope sellers has thought of segmenting people according to their zodiac signs before, right? If they can match two people based on their signs, and since each sign has its own assigned objects (stones, amulets), and each self-respecting brand has "brand personality", why not match people to their lucky products then? It seems like a perfect product placement opportunity for enterprizing horoscope writers. Plus, if you know site users' birth dates, does it make sense to show custom sign-appropriate ad units?

In 2001, according to Gallup, 28% of people believed in astrology and 18% weren't sure.

Showtime Samples TV Content on Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:33:56 PDT

Showtime is offering a free Kindle download of the pilot script of the upcoming TV show Nurse Jackie. AdAge quotes: "The idea of using Kindle, a text-based electronic reader, to promote a TV show may seem odd, but it falls directly in line with Showtime's typical modus operandi when it comes to hyping a new series, said Stuart Zakim, VP-corporate public relations at Showtime."

If you don't own a Kindle but have an iPhone, you can download the script through the free Kindle app.

Advertising in PowerPoint Decks

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:22:52 PDT

Coffee Company in the Netherlands is giving away free coffee to students who sneak in a branded slide into their homework PowerPoint decks.
-- via Media Post

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:45:46 PDT

Grumpy Brit on how web start-ups misunderstand the ad biz:

"Advertising hasn’t proven the monetizing panacea it was assumed to be because the people who fund, develop and manage web-based businesses know the square root of buggery bollocks about advertising. Which is a bit like the people responsible for laying track being ignorant of anything to do with trains. Despite this modest shortcoming the geeks act like they invented it."

-- via Ad Contrarian (Related thoughts from Seth Godin and Brian Morrissey.)

And wtf is buggery bollocks?

Augmented Reality Microsites: First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:46:32 PDT

Since I got my webcam upgraded anyway, I thought I'd do a follow up on the Augmented Reality is The New Second Life post and spend a lunch break looking at a few recent implementations of augmented reality in promo microsites.

I looked at Eminem's Relapse UK microsite, GE's Plug Into The Smart Grid, Nissan's Good Decision, USPS's Virtual Box Simulator, and two Star Trek promos at Join Star Fleet Academy and Experience the Enterprise. All these require that you print out a piece of paper with an image (a trigger) and dangle it in front of your webcam for something to happen. I also tried Ray-Ban's Virtual Mirror (via Cory's earlier post; the AR thing is tucked into the un-deep-linkable Flash), which draws glasses straight over your face.

Here are the notes and pictures I took. If you are on RSS and don't see the slideshow, click over or see the pics on Flickr.

1. The good news: the wow factor is undeniable. I had colleagues standing over my shoulder commenting on how cool it was.

2. The bad news: it's jaw-dropping only the first time you see it. After that it quickly regresses from "neat" to "meh".

3. The usability of most implementations is pretty horrendous. You have to hold up a letter-size piece of paper in front of your web cam just so or the whole animation goes away, and then you have to peek around it to see what's happening on the screen. I suspect it works better with smaller objects (I want to try one of those Topps cards next), or with mobile devices.

4. Only Eminem's AR animation was interactive beyond simple rotation -- you have to spray graffiti over it with your mouse. Not very easy either.

5. The biggest question I had was why. For all the trouble they make you go through (download, print, and in case of Star Treck, install a plug-in), you'd expect a somehow more rewarding payoff. From the "useful, usable, desirable" list, most implementations check off only "desirable" for, like, the first two minutes.

7. The Ray-Ban's Virtual Mirror (img1, img2) was the best of the bunch. It does require installing a separate app on your machine (tech by Fitting Box), but you have a pretty clear reason, and while the app is not without its share of glitches, it's pretty entertaining, potentially useful and point at the true potential of the technology.

8. It probably makes sense to make AR experience more exclusive and tie it to purchase. According to WSJ, Papa John's will be putting an AR trigger on its pizza boxes to let users drive the company founder's Camaro. Again, baseball cards with players coming to life in AR make sense. I wish Eminem had included an AR trigger into the CD box (or maybe he did, I don't know).

It's pretty obvious that we are going to see more of this stuff, and we'll soon move beyond the disposable eye-candy toward something with a longer shelf life. I am hoping for a Rolling Stone AR cover with a band jamming in 3D.

Make Money ($3267.75) With Twitter!

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:34:51 PDT

Do you know Shelly Ryan? No? She's that woman who makes $3267.75 EVERY DAY on Twitter. GUARANTEED!

I really should've used an affiliate link on this one -- a 70% cut from the $67 price of whatever it is they are selling ("killer software for getting more traffic than Manhattan at rush hour, mostly at zero cost"). Between this and the Ad Agency in a Box, I would've made millions by now. Millions! Or at least $3267.75.

AdLab's tip: if you submit to the urge to buy the thing just to see what's inside, try closing the browser first, and the site will pop up a window offering a 25% discount.

Sunblock Ad Changes Color When Exposed to Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:36:52 PDT

Another example of the message being built into the medium -- a print ad for Sundown sunblock, one half of which changes color when exposed to the sun (see full creative here). If you know how they might have achieved the effect, could you please leave a comment?

Related: When Medium Becomes Part of the Message and Rethinking Print

Data: How Many People Own a Printer

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:12:13 PDT

Source (fragment): Penetration/Ownership of Household Electronics 2007, eMarketer ($-sub)

Never suspected so many people owned a printer -- 83.5% of the US households in 2007.

Where Can I Buy a Webcam?

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:43:35 PDT

After finishing the post on augmented reality today, I realized that my webcam could use an upgrade but didn't know where to get one in downtown Boston. You'd expect Google Maps to know such stuff (I did, and tried "where can i buy webcam"), because it knows about other things like sushi restaurants, but it really doesn't. The closest thing was an OfficeMax ad, but Google itself gave me a listing for a Sheraton for some reason.

Yet, Google already "knows":
- my default location (it's the only part it got right).
- that Best Buy, for example, is an electronics store with an address nearby.
- that Best Buy sells webcams.

Room for improvement, I guess.

As for the camera, I did get one. When I saw the OfficeMax ad, I remembered there was one just up the street (score one for AdSense, I thought). I went there, and it actually turned out to be a Staples.

Augmented Reality Is The New Second Life

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:05:45 PDT

People have been comparing Twitter to Second Life, but I think "augmented reality" is a more accurate analogy, with most advertisers getting lured by the futuristic wow-factor, riding the hype cycle, and pretty much misunderstanding the potential of the medium. The thing has officially entered the collective industry consciousness, too, now that WSJ picked it up.

It doesn't mean that there aren't any brilliant executions -- I love this Coraline display, for example. But just like marketers three or four years ago would build a pretty deserted Second Life island, congratulate themselves on a job well done and send out a press release, today for many augmented reality means having users print something out, wave it in front of their webcam, and produce some kind of interactive 3D attachment:

Eminem's 3D Art Competition promoting the Relapse album in the UK.

Fun for the first couple of times, but then the law of diminishing marginal utility kicks in. Compare to the much more exciting (and less laborious for the user) Coraline work:

A couple of related things:

-- There's a very prolific aggregator of augmented reality news on Twitter, @augmentedadvert.

-- And a useful number from the WSJ piece: "Although the number of Americans who own a Webcam is increasing rapidly because most new laptops come with the device, only about 18% of the nation's 68.5 million broadband households had one as of April, according to Parks Associates, a research firm.

Emerging Media in 1930s

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:53:57 PDT

Raided the Modern Mechanix site to see what advertising media were budding in the 1930s.

1931: Someone had a great idea to put ads in the middle of Newton color disks (like these). Notice the combination of "high school science classes" and "package of cigarettes".

1933: Sales robots! Some guy hid phonographs behind cut-out cardboard dummies. Guess nobody could tell the difference anyway.

1934: Wow, something like this passes for emerging media even today. Person standing in front of a mirror triggers light that illuminates an ad layer behind the mirror's surface.

1936: Advertising mirror, perfected. Now with a phonograph record triggered by a light sensor.

Twitter (Adver)games

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:30:51 PDT

The ongoing puzzle at @Resistance2018 (promoting the new Terminator movie) is probably the first -- and excellent -- attempt at advergaming on Twitter, but I'm anxious to see how people will explore the potential of this new medium further. While Resistance2018 is not really an ARG, it's easy to see how Twitter will become another tool for ARG gamemasters, like those behind the new rumored (but possibly unofficial) Lost game unfolding over at @Simeonhobbes.

@eamobile, a community manager for EA, experimented with a battleship game on his account.

I really like the idea of making Assassin-like games (@assn).

I found a couple of people who are trying to use Twitter as a Zork engine, for example: @zorker and @zorkgame. Once you get this technology going, you can use it for a bunch of other stuff, like, I don't know, new employee orientation (I always wanted to do an employee-based text adventure).

Some other people are trying to play a TwittRPG. And a @textadventure.

Also, there are a couple of related articles on Mashable and AdFreak's TweetFreak, too.

Transmedia, Electric Skin, Old Books and Soviet Food

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:13:39 PDT

-- Turn your skin into an interface with conductive ink (+ a really cool photo in Telegraph).

-- Jeff Gomez (founder of Starlight Runner) is the writer of "origin myths" behind some large brand narratives, including the Coke Hapinnes Factory.

-- Google TV Ads people are trying to predict what ads to show to what audience, and are sharing some numbers. "Coke is considering using the characters in comic books, video games, and a slew of new ads." (Business Week)

-- Some 50 old ad books that are still fresh today, scanned and freely available over at Duke Uni's digital archives. The snippet above is from Advertising Sermons.

-- For packaging and retro-ad lovers, lots of rather accurate posters of Soviet food.

-- I've got to post a link to this post just for its title: "3D Printing and Self Replicating Machines In Your Living Room - Seriously!"

-- Why ad agencies need "labs".