When You Can't Interrupt Them, Join Them

Nissan is looking at a new way to integrate their marketing message into entertainment, placing their products inside video games. Starting with the launch of the new Forza Motorsport 2 game for XBox, people who buy the game at Circuit City, Best Buy or Game Spot will be able to get a free set of add-ons that allow them to download a tricked out Nissan Sentra into the game.

These kinds of extras again show how advertisers are desperate to get the attention of an audience that may possibly become interested enough to buy their products. The inclusion of marketer-sponsored areas within video games is a logical extension of product placement, albeit one that has some built in measurements.

Placing your products inside someone else's entertainment can be risky. What happens if the car you download always loses, or the game becomes less fun because of your product. The question that has yet to be answered is whether this kind of marketing brings new customers into Nissan dealerships, or whether it's just another game to be played.

When you're looking to do something new with your advertising, bring AdSymetrix along for the ride. AdSymetrix has been developed to give you the information that lets you make better marketing decisions. Simply Tag Your Ad and let AdSymetrix track and monitor your responses. Know what works and what is just wasting your money.

Interesting Ideas that Sometimes Work

There's a weblog out there called 2wenty 4our that showcases interesting and creative advertising campaigns from around the world.

Leafing through the entries you see a lot of edgy stuff, but more generally you see ads that have been made to get attention. They may not always make sense, but the ideas shown in these ads are at least interesting.

The important thing to remember is that most of the very creative concepts shown here are made for very particular audiences and aren't shown to the public. When you have millions to spend on advertising, it's easier to experiment.

Some experiments work better than others. The model walking around with her skirt held up by balloons to showcase Braun's hair removal system increased traffic 25%, but the Cepacol ad just seems creepy.

When it's your business, you don't want to just throw noodles at the wall and wait for things to stick, you want to know that the messages and media you're using are working for you.

That's where AdSymetrix comes in. Simply Tag Your Ad and we'll track and monitor the responses - giving you the real information you'll need to make the best decisions for spending your advertising budget.

Because knowing is better than hoping.

Pushing Your Message Everywhere

In Real Estate, the mantra is "location location location". In marketing the same thing could be said for repetition.

Recognition is but one step towards a sale, but it's an important one. That's why you see multiple locations for individual advertisements from a single organization. The repetition of message increases your ability to recall their services the next time you need something that they can sell.

As the current advertising market continues to splinter in to smaller and smaller groups, advertisers are looking for new ways to bring their message to more people, more often. One way that you're going to see more of is Branded Entertainment.

The idea behind branded entertainment isn't new. In the 1950s, Milton Berle was the biggest thing on television, and his show was called Texaco Star Theater. The brand Texaco taking top billing. Now you're more likely to see actual products showcased inside an episode than merely just the name of the company in the title, but the concept is the same.

Whether this works is still up in the air. Apple's gotten a lot of play out of always supplying Mac's to the good guys in movies and television shows, but their growing market percentage has more to do with their regular ads and innovative products than branded entertainment.

Ultimately, everything comes down to responses. And the best way to know whether your business decisions are the best business decisions is to us AdSymetrix. But you knew that already.

Giveaways that Give Back

You've seen them before, silly tsochkes, corporate swag, seemingly useless client giveaways that somehow you never seem to throw away.

Giveaways can be a good way to continue your relationship with your customers during the time when they aren't thinking about your products or service.

Two new ideas popped up online recently that deserve a bit of attention, Reactee and QIGO.

Reactee is the more traditional of the two new ideas. Using the online interface, you can create a t-shirt that gives a text messaging address. Anyone who sees the shirt can then send a message to the texting address and make contact with your organization. The idea takes logo-wearing to a whole new level.

QIGO uses a different approach. Their idea is to build off of the Staples Easy Button and give your potential customers USB key chains that when plugged into a computer allows for one button access to any website anywhere.

They're nifty ideas, and a step further out than just slapping your logo on some gift bags.

Nicely, AdSymetrix can help you understand just how effective any of these methods are for bringing new business to your business. The contact information given through both Reactee and QIGO can be Tracked and Monitored through AdSymetrix. Simply Tag Your Ads - in this case, your t-shirts and key chains - and watch as the responses roll in.

Give AdSymetrix a try, sign up is free.

New Bar Codes Can Talk With Your Cellphone

Today's New York Times fronts with the interesting idea of using your customer's cellphones to bring your message to their pockets.

The idea is that Codes displayed in public places - on billboards, in magazines, on telephone poles - are photographed by cell phone users using their camera phones and are then translated by a program on the cell phone into some kind of advertising or informational message.

It's another one of those great technology ideas that seems a bit ahead of the curve. You want to make sure that your message is not only being presented to your audience, but also that the audience is able to react to it.

And reaction is what AdSymetrix is all about. Our simple to use dashboard brings you up to the moment response information for all your advertising in any media. Try it this weekend, signup is free

Forget Television - Think Smell-a-Vision

href=http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/8403354/index.htm?postversion=2007032606>Gas
Pumps that Smell Like Coffee
from business 2.0

Customer
service is as much a part of your sales process as advertising. In the
case of some companies, like href=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117495610529249749.html?mod=djemMM>ABT Electronics the care and concern given to your customers can become more of a differentiator than price. For others a victory is just keeping the stink of your product off their customer's clothes.

And
from that, we get this news about coffee scented gasoline. Perhaps
customers will care less about sky-high prices if the gallons they buy
smell better.

Or perhaps some customer service ideas are just wastes of money.

Not all new ideas are good, but in advertising, there's at least a way to value them. AdSymetrix. Signup
now and see how you can best spend your advertising budget to get new
customers. And hopefully not trick them into thinking your gasoline
comes from the mountains ofJamaica.

On Madison Avenue, A Wake Up Call

href=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117486500542148458.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace>On
Madison Avenue, A Digital Wake Up Call
from wall street journal
some assembly required

Nike's recently decided that their decades long advertising partnership with Weiden
+ Kennedy deserved a second look. It seems that with so many people
using various interactive means to examine, explore, discuss and learn
about new products, Nike wasn't sitting as far atop the heap online as
they do in more traditional advertising venues. This led towards the
surprising move of placing the partnership between the company and its
advertising agency.

New markets create new methods for
reaching new customers. Nike's looking for help getting the online only
crowd to think about their products. Their path takes them into new
creative that they hope will bring new sales of their shoes, shirts and
stuff.

When you're thinking about how you're going to approach
your new customers, you can keep this in mind: regardless of the new
market, the new method or the new medium, you still need to know how
your new customers are responding to your messages.

AdSymetrix
is here for just that reason. We've designed an online service that
allows you to accurately track all the responses from any advertising
message in any medium. Sign
up now and try our system with your next ad. It's easier than
finding a new agency.

Pay-Per-Action : Google's New Idea for AdSense

Google's focus on extending their advertising network is taking another step forward with the introduction of their Pay-Per-Action AdSense functionality.

Simply put, the new service allows advertisers to define how they'll pay for their advertisement based on the actions taken by people who are responding to the ads. If you're looking to get people to sign up for advertising tracking service, or a newsletter or purchase a particular product, the advertiser won't pay unless that action has been taken.

The Pay-Per-Action model is one familiar to anyone who's played in the world of Affiliate marketing. Where you pay another site or sales person a cut of the proceeds when a sale is made. Tying this to AdSense, however, brings the barrier for entry to affiliate sales much lower.

Pay-Per-Click most likely will not work for every business or campaign, but it does bring accountability to advertising. A concept that we at AdSymetrix have placed at the center of our service. The more you, as an advertiser, know about the value of your advertising, the better decisions you can make in placing your next campaign. And knowing is just one free signup away.

Overly Targeted Advertising

BMW Mini made some news a few weeks back with their ad campaign that
put
the name of Mini Cooper drivers on billboards as they passed the
ad. While discovering your name on a billboard while driving
home from work may be fun, what would you think if you saw personal
information about you spread across MySpace, mall kiosks and movie screens?

AdRants
points to a new campaign for Wilkes
University
that brings href="http://staging.160over90.com/wilkes/adcampaign/WilkesAdCampaignSummary.pdf">micro-targeting
your message to a whole new level. Using information from
accepted students, Wilkes University placed that
information in ads across their entire media buy. The idea
would be to get the students who are weighing their decision to go to
Wilkes to see the kinds of people they'll meet once they decide to go
there.

But this kind of micro targeting seems off somehow.
Sure, you show how today's college student has no privacy and that they
are relegated to little more than bullet points in the eyes of the
administration, but is that really the message you want to put out to
the rest of the potential incoming class?

New ideas are great.
Creative advertising is fantastic. But at some point you have to make
sure that your big idea and your brilliant creative are still pointing
your potential customer to your business.

AdSymetrix
is here to help. By knowing how your ads are generating responses, you
can focus your messages and
media buys in ways that connect with your customer. Tracking
and monitoring responses in ways that fuel your business. Or college.

Try AdSymetrix with your next campaign. Signup is free.

Google Buys Adscape

Google Buys Adscape
from san jose mercury news

Google just wants to give you the opportunity to touch everyone, anywhere. Their announced purchase of Adscape allows them to place advertisements inside video games. In a connected world, the ability to place ads based on both the game and the gamer.

Whether that type of ad works is, as always, up in the air. But that's why AdSymetrix is around.

AdSymetrix helps advertisers learn the value of their placements. And signup is free.

Mobile Advertising - A Good Idea, Soon

Everywhere you go, you're followed by everyone you know, thanks to the little telepone in your pocket. Until a few decades ago, you could go to the bank without having to answer a question about how the copier works back at the office. But now, while we can use cell phones to give us directions, check our email, listen to our music and still have conversations, the advertising industry is gearing up to place their messages in your pocket. And while there are some interesting ideas here, their effectiveness is unknown.

Take the latest news from News Corp, the parent company of Fox News, that they've partnered with Third Screen Media to provide advertisements throughout Fox properties to present to Fox viewers. As a publisher, the hope stands that by creating a new venue for advertisements, they'll make more money. But what about the advertiser?

MIT's Technology Review explains another way of using cell phones to market your company - "augmenting reality". This concept from Nokia says that you should be able to point your phone's camera at any location and get an advertisments explaining just why you should walk into that location and part with some of your hard earned money.

Again, these are good ideas from a publisher standpoint, and fascinating ideas from a technologists standpoint, but from the advertiser, there's a giant question mark. How do you know whether the new-new-thing is the ever-so-slightly-right-thing for your business?

One way is to measure and track the effectiveness of any advetisment you place. And that is why AdSymetrix was created. We think that your business is too important to be left to chance.

Give AdSymetrix a try.