Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology

Advertising Lab Turns Five

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:43:20 PST

Not one.
Not two.
Not three.
Not four.

Today this blog turns five, with 2,529 posts, 19K+ RSS subscribers, 2.7M total pageviews, 1.64M total uniques. Which officially makes it my longest-running and the most public hobby.

Highlights of the past year:
- Google Wave and Advertising
- Interactive Signage in 1902
- Too Much Targeting, or That Hot Single Could be Your Wife
- Don't Kill the Microsite
- Targeting Zodiac Signs
- Advertising in PowerPoint Decks
- Augmented Reality Microsites: First Impressions
- Emerging Media in the 1930s
- Advertising on Swine Flu Masks
- Why Measure Engagement?
- TV in Contact Lenses
- If Shakespeare Had Tweeted
- 19 Tips for In-Game Advertising

And thank you for reading AdLab.

Just How Badly Does Murdoch Need Google's Traffic?

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:47:31 PST

The top story today was Rupert Murdoch sort of saying that News Corp might start using robots.txt on Google to prevent its stuff from being indexed. Or that's how it was interpreted on the internets anyway. Nevermind that he probably meant something different -- that News Corp will erect pay walls around its online content the way it now does with the Wall Street Journal: a headline and a paragraph of text for free, and everything else is paid. (Well, it's not how it actually works, but whatever, it's complicated. In the same interview, Murdoch says his problem is not with Google, who's been easy to deal with.)

I giggle like a schoolgirl every time people say something along the lines "The guy is stuck on stupid if you ask me. I think he may be still be living in “tangible newspaper land” also known as the year 1995" (a Techcrunch verbatim). When a "stuck on stupid" guy is worth four billion bucks he has made himself, you'd figure it is not too generous to assume that he might know a thing or two about the biz.

The general consensus seems to be that blocking off Google's spiders will result in a significant traffic drop to News Corp's online properties. I've seen a lot of web traffic reports with Google leading the referrer list, so this collective opinion made sense. Then Hitwise posted some stats showing WSJ.com gets 25% of its traffic from Google's regular and news searches, so that seemed settled.

But I was curious enough to login into Compete Pro and fish out a few numbers. What you see are the top three referrers to some of News Corp's online properties in the US along with their share of traffic among all referrers.

Top Referrer: Google

nypost.com: google.com (13.33%), yahoo.com (7.48%), drudgereport.com (4.43%)
foxnews.com: google.com (11.43%), facebook.com (8.34%), yahoo.com (7.59%)
fox.com: google.com (22.87%), facebook.com (9.03%), yahoo.com (8.01%)
askmen.com: google.com (32.99%), digg.com (14.73%), yahoo.com (6.31%)
americanidol.com: google.com (41.22%), facebook.com (8.53%), yahoo.com (8.51%)
ign.com: google.com (26.86%), yahoo.com (6.30%), facebook.com (5.89%)
rottentomatoes.com: google.com (21.19%), yahoo.com (8.11%), ign.com (6.40%)
harpercollins.com: google.com (26.51%), twitter.com (16.71%), yahoo.com (5.71%)
hulu.com: google.com (13.82%), facebook.com (13.36%), yahoo.com (6.74%)

Top Referrer: Other

wsj.com: msn.com (21.43%), yahoo.com (13.12%), google.com (11.24%)
barrons.com: wsj.com (28.91%), msn.com (18.04%), yahoo.com (17.32%)
dj.com: wsj.com (28.91%), msn.com (18.04%), yahoo.com (6.02%)
newscorp.com (corporate site): fox.com (23.44%), google.com (14.69%), yahoo.com (4.83%)
myspace.com: facebook.com (16.61% -- that's a headline in itself), yahoo.com (11.17%), google.com (8.78%)
beliefnet.com: yahoo.com (29%), google.com (7.74%), live.com (5.39%)
smartmoney.com: yahoo.com (14.92%), google.com (12.18%), financialadvisormatch.com (7.36%)
marketwatch.com: wsj.net (15.03%), yahoo.com (11.90%), google.com (7.83%)
foxbusiness.com: foxnews.com (27.18%), yahoo.com (11.45%), google.com (10.10%)

It appears that Google is the top referrer for most of the entertainment stuff but not so much for news. And Murdoch's Dow Jones empire seems to be much less dependent on Google compared to a few other top newspapers for every one of which Google is the top referrer:

Boston.com (Boston Globe): Google.com (12.61%)
BostonHerald.com: 15.21%
NYTimes.com: 19.02%
WashingtonPost.com: 13.38%
LATimes.com: 30.28%
ChicagoTribune.com: 15.74%

Gutenborg Book Robot Test Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:26:50 PST

It's not hard to imagine the day when you go into a Crate&Barrel, walk up to a clerk, give her a Google SketchUp URL of a tea set you really like, watch her punch in some numbers, and have a machine manufacture the exact tea set in front of your eyes.

The Gutenborg book printer already does something very similar. As soon as I learned about it, I knew I had to give it a try, and on Saturday I did. See my field notes with pictures over at Hill Holliday's blog.

Background Wrap Ad on Digg

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:02:13 PST

Oh, wow. So much for the subtlety of the new ad format -- just bumped into a background wrap on Digg promoting a video game.

Hole Punch Art

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:34:48 PST

A self-portrait created with holes of 10 different sizes. There's a camera prototype that does that, too.

Advertising in Violent Game Scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:17:53 PST

Having blasted my way through Carmageddon all the way to the streets of San Andreas and Pripyat, I'm no stranger to cartoony violence, but somehow slaughtering helpless civilian crowds wholesale just feels off. This leaked video is from the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 shooter that hits the stores on November 10th and has already broken Gamestop's pre-order records.

You know what would make the scene more realistic? In-game billboards, that's what.

But seriously, wouldn't it be a good spot for an armed services recruitment poster? Here you are, playing a generally good guy infiltrated into a terrorist group that is turning the airport into lasagna. If you are not completely corrupt, you sort of feel bad about the whole thing and maybe even indignant. Aren't you in the right state of mind for a few (sponsored) suggestions of real-life retribution?

On a side note, Activision has been chasing this video off the net since it first leaked last week. Pull out your stopwatches and time how long this one will last. If by the time you reach this post the video is down, it's all over the torrent sites by now, if you are really curious.

Bonus treck: this Russian YouTube clone (called RuTube) has an interesting implentation of in-player ads -- full-size ad frames appear when you pause the playback.

Advertising on Flies

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:33:58 PDT

Advertising on flies, courtesy of Adland. Somewhere, a channel planner is smiling. These guys haul mini-banners, but you can also paint your brand directly on them, or laser-etch your USP

Study: Human Avatars Are Better Salesmen

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:59:46 PDT

Furries need not apply

In what seems like ages ago, in June 2006, Harvard Business Review made a huge splash by running a piece on avatar-based marketing (there was even an in-world panel): "The avatar, though, arguably represents a distinctly different “shadow” consumer, one able to influence its creator’s purchase of real-world products and conceivably make its own real-world purchases in the virtual world. At the least, it may offer insights into its creator’s hidden tastes."

Just as I thought everyone's mostly forgotten about Second Life by now, I found this study by two Boston College researchers who recently published a paper on the effectiveness of avatar spokespeople. Their conclusion: "The participants perceive human-like spokes-avatars as more attractive, and players who interact with a human-like spokes-avatar perceive the iPhone advertisement as more informative than those who interact with a non-human spokes-avatar."

The entire Journal of Interactive Advertising is full of cool topics like this; too bad all their stuff is written in that kind of language that takes hours for us layfolk to decipher.

Video Advertising from Armpits

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:10:57 PDT

Just as you think there's nothing left to blog about, a friend sends you this. And this is a deodorant company sending out street teams with small TVs sewn into their armpits. The dream of Smell-o-Vision has finally come true.
- via CherryFlava

Update: R/GA: "I pray the Charmin people don't see this."

What We Know About Ad Skipping

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:58:49 PDT

I've posted a lot about ad skipping in the past here on AdLab, and now we've compiled a lot of different ad avoidance stats on Hill Holliday's blog, plus a bunch of old ads that promote products that help people skip ads (irony alert!). Above: an ad for Mazda that was designed for people who liked to record their shows on VCRs and fast-forwarded through the commercial breaks.

Billboards That Give

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:38:52 PDT

I really like the idea of billboards that let people take something with them, like this Kenzo billboard with poppies. It's a good way to make them bookmarkable, to extend their shelf life. Here are a few more billboards that give blankets, samples, and a life raft.

Business Card Display

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:09:59 PDT

This rotating display by a bank that showcases business cards of its small-business customers is something they need to install at the conferences, ideally with a dispenser. Maybe something like adpockets, or these displays, or maybe even a vending machine. Something.

AdLab attended many conferences and came back with suggestions on designing usable conferences, conference badges, and conference websites.

Advertising on School Exams

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:47:57 PDT

This beats those report cards sponsored by McD's. A calculus teacher whose school's budget cuts left him short on money for copying expenses started selling ad space on exams. In a few days, he got 75 requests. "His semester final is sold out." Price list: $10 for a quiz; $20 - chapter test. The final goes for $30. That company in the picture -- I think it's these guys.

-- USA Today (2008), via

Send SMS to Complete This Ad

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:22:34 PDT

This Axe ad from Uruguay is the best mobile "send SMS and get something" implementation I've seen. Send a text message after dark to a phone number listed on the ad, and you'll get the missing fragment of the picture. Good teaser, meaningful payback. Very smart.

Unlock Wall Street Journal Articles With Google

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:39:44 PDT

Among many other things I don't understand about the newspapers', and News Corp's in particular, handwringing over Google is this. Wall Street Journal's managing editor says that Google turns people into content sluts because they expect online stuff for free (no, I don't understand the slut-free connection either). Now, the simple antidote against your pages being indexed by search engines is a robots.txt file, but whatever. What I don't understand is why WSJ's articles that are otherwise behind a paywall are unlocked when you arrive to them through a link on Google.

Take a random article from today, say, this piece about BSkyB's financial results. You click on the link to the article on the Business section's homepage, and predictably hit the subscription jar.

You then copy the headline and paste it into Google's search field:

Click on the link that is likely to come up on the top, and -- magic! -- the entire article is yours to read.

The only difference between the two is that the free one has "?mod=googlenews_wsj" appended to its URL. Now, tacking it onto the URLs of other articles produces mixed results (wouldn't an unlocking bookmarklet be neat?), but searching with Google has worked for all other dozen random articles I tried. Someone else has reported that WSJ tries on occasions to obscure the text with an overlay, but I haven't seen that.

So yes, while I'm not complaining, I can't understand what WSJ is doing either.

VW To Launch New Model with iPhone Advergame

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:20:31 PDT

AdLab's intrepid editor driving against traffic towards advertising future.

AdAge today: "Volkswagen of America is launching the newest-generation GTI exclusively on an iPhone app." The entire launch budget for the new model is estimated $500K instead of the customary $60M, since the game is the only thing VW is doing. Fail or win, this is bound to end up in everyone's PowerPoint decks, so I went in to take a few pictures as a matter of public service.

(Read on)

This is the menu. To learn more about the car itself, go to the garage (that says "Showroom"). "Credits" only include the developers of the original Real Racing game that VW has licensed to build its version. "Winners Circle" goes to the leaderboard website (apparently, VW is giving away six cars to best players). "Get Full Game" takes you back to the app store so that you can buy the real Real Racing for $6.99. Don't know about VW, but definitely smart marketing for Firemint, the game developer. Real Racing is currently in the top 10 racing games in the app store.

You can choose from a bunch of models that looks sort of the same (or not; I don't know jack about cars).

And then you drive, and it's actually fairly pleasant. Because I suck at this stuff, all other cars passed me in a heartbeat and I was left to enjoy the scenery, which included an ample supply of billboards. In case you didn't get the memo about GTI 2010, there's a billboard for that, too.

This is what you get when you click "Showroom" on the menu. Plenty of glamor car shots here. "Find a Dealer" didn't; it said "can't locate dealers".

Overall, a pleasant racing game -- definitely better than that early Audi advergame for iPhone -- although hardly outstanding enough to make it the only thing in the ad mix. But then again, it's a free version of an already popular paid game, so maybe it will get traction fast. Besides, VW has sold 5,558 GTIs this year so far (AdAge says), so maybe the numbers bar isn't too high. Wonder if they considered adding sponsored models and tracks into the next update of the full version of Real Racing.

VW's game launched on Oct 13. The advergame that actually did launch today is Reebok's iSprint -- also racing title, but very different.

- via

Apple Files Patent for OS Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:00:01 PDT

Hi, I'm a Mac, and this is the message from my sponsor.

Steve Jobs is the inventor of OS advertising, according to the patent application #20090265214 "Advertisement in Operating System" submitted today: "Ad advertisement presentation may occupy the entire screen so as to prevent the user from engaging in any desktop activities. To verify user presence during the presentation of the advertisement, in some implementations, a message maybe populated, on a schedule or random basis, which may require user action or confirmation. As an example, a message may be populated which may require a user to click on the message within three seconds."

Love the UI mock-up.

--via via

Massive: "Gamers Like Ads"

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:34:15 PDT

GM of Microsoft's Massive: "Our research indicates that most gamers like advertising in the game because it adds to the realism. Imagine playing a Major League Baseball game with no ads behind home plate, next to the scoreboard or on the outfield wall - not very realistic. Now imagine the outfield with up-to-the-minute ads you just saw on television or read in a newspaper - the latest movie release, television show, or a new car model. That is much more realistic."

Funny. But the part about realism is tired. Games are not about realism, games are about immersion and suspense of disbelief, and that should be the benchmark -- whether the ads disrupt the immersive experience.

An interesting comment by a reader of a related ARS article: "In non-sports games, that's only true if you see both competitors ads. It'd be unrealistic to only see coke ads, and no pepsi ads. It'd be unrealistic to only see mcdonalds in a virtual new york and no burger king.

Yota Brands Russian Alphabet

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:41:09 PDT

Russian WiMAX provider Yota turned every single letter "й" (pronounced like "y" in yota) in this news article into a branded hyperlink to its site, kind of like what BMW did on Yahoo years ago.

Subliminal Pokemon: Leo Burnett Is the Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:21:15 PDT

This is the best explanation I could find for this very subliminal backwards message in a Pokemon episode that says "Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the devil". Amusingly, it was on my list of suggested videos on YouTube.

Storyboards For the Coke GTA Spot

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:26:27 PDT

Am I the last one to find these W+K's storyboards for the famous Coke's Video Game spot, better known as the Coke GTA commercial? They have been sitting there in a nice neat pdf since 2006, when the spot first ran in theaters. You'll see that the spot is missing the final scene from the storyboards, probably to the better.

Gmail Adds Widgets to Sponsored Mail

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:00:46 PDT

Gmail is already becoming Wave-y as it adds interactive widgets: "If you're subscribed to receive email from certain senders, the messages you receive from them will be enhanced with an interactive gadget that has up-to-date content from their website (you'll also see an icon in your inbox identifying these messages)." Netflix is one of these "certain senders" (mail received by toofishes.net), the other one is apparently Babycenter, so I subscribed and am waiting for my copy.

Photoshop for iPhone, and a Parody Video

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:19:37 PDT

File it under "life imitates a YouTube video". Two years before Adobe announced Photoshop for iPhone (which was today), it had created a parody video to introduce John Loiacono, SVP of Adobe Creative Solutions Business Unit.

Free In-Game Advertising Webinar Series

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:30:53 PDT

Re-posting the announcement I received from the organizers:

On Wednesday, the MarketKey In-game Advertising Webinar Series kicks off. The series consists of seven sessions throughout October and is free to attend.

Speaking companies include Microsoft Advertising, TNS, IGA Worldwide, Interpret and Linden Lab. The webinars will cover:

1. Demographics, facts and figures – an introduction to the gaming market and in-game advertising
2. Player engagement – they may be playing the game but are they seeing the ad?
3. In-game advertising case study - lead by Microsoft Advertising
4. In-game advertising case study - see how Puma has been integrated into Football Superstars
5. In World Advertising – the potential of virtual worlds for brands and advertisers
6. Advergames and casual games – the power of bespoke branded games
7. The Future of Game Advertising – where will we be in 2 years from now and how will brands develop their multimedia presence?

Register here.

Google Wave and Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Ilya Vedrashko) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:05:27 PDT

Google Wave is too pristine: a couple of mentions of advertising among largely unrelated public waves, hardly a single search result for "branding". But despair not, we've got you covered with plenty of illustrated ideas on how to bake ads into this hot new medium.

I really hope Wave takes off; we are way overdue for some innovation in email (that's how I see it, as the next generation of email). But I also see how it can easily remain a marginalized medium akin to newsreaders, or become a 5-9 tool like Outlook with its calendar, to-do lists and other features that only are rarely used after you've checked out for the day.