By Adam Carroll, Senior Marketing Strategist

It was not long ago that display advertising, in the form of banner ads, was becoming the dinosaur of online marketing. Declining click through rates and poor brand engagement meant that marketers were allocating their budget to more effective online channels. However, in the last couple of years key developments in targeting technology and media buying platforms have significantly boosted the effectiveness of display advertising.

At the forefront of these advancements is the concept of ‘Audience Centric Buying’. To understand why this new approach is such an important development in online advertising it is important to understand the existing model for buying ad units online:

Typically the editorial environment was considered to be a critical piece of ad placement and targeting, so advertisers would attempt to reach their target audience by purchasing placements on contextually relevant sites. For example- a car tire manufacturer would place ads on automobile sites, hoping to find customers looking to purchase car tires. While this form of targeting certainly goes some of the way to reaching a responsive audience, it does not take into account the behavioral, demographic and financial characteristics of individuals that will influence the likelihood of them making a desired action. Furthermore, a targeting strategy focused on contextually relevant placements means that you are often vying for limited ad units with your competitors, forcing up media costs and cluttering the space with similar ads.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to identify browsers who we know are most likely to respond to a particular message and serve them an ad across any site, rather than simply casting a wide net by placing ads on what are believed to be relevant sites? ‘Audience centric’ targeting makes this concept a reality, providing a more scientific approach that ensures ads reach the most engaged and relevant audience.

So how does it work?

‘Audience targeting’ works by analyzing customers who have already completed a desired action on an advertisers site (such as making a purchase) and using this to identify and target other browsers with similar characteristics across virtually any site or network. Ultimately, this means you are buying and targeting a qualified audience, as opposed to simply buying pre-fixed ad placements across set sites.

Let’s take a slightly closer look at this process:

From Drop Box

1. Cookie based technology collects data on customers who have been to an advertiser’s site and/or completed a desired action eg: purchased goods; requested further information etc.
2. This data is used to build a profile of a browser most likely to complete a desired action. This profile includes multiple layers of behavioral, financial and demographic characteristics (eg: browsing history, age, gender, income etc)
3. Through ‘ad exchange’ buying platforms, advertisers are able to match the data they have collected with that of 3^rd party providers and effectively bid for individual ad units (impressions) across the web that are served to browsers whose cookie information is aligned with that of the ‘ideal’ customer profile.
4. A display ad is served, with copy and message that is targeted specifically for that browser, significantly increasing the likelihood of a desired outcome.

Essentially this process ensures that only the customers who are most likely to respond are served an ad no matter which sites they are browsing on.

Apart from the obvious advantages of reaching a more relevant audience, this form of targeting provides further benefits. Firstly, the advertiser knows the exact characteristics of their target audience and the online behavior they are able to segment this audience and deliver a more timely, customized message in the ad creative this compounds the level of engagement and value from the advertising spend. Additionally, being able to target an engaged audience in a non-contextual environment can help ads to stand out as they do not get lost in the clutter and ultra-competitive space of contextually aligned sites.

For advertisers this new technology really is a big step forward. Rather than simply landing on the target, advertisers can now have the data required to hit the bull’s-eye.

Whether the campaign objective is getting a direct response (lead, sale etc) or brand awareness the result is going to be a more responsive and engaged audience and less wastage on poorly targeted ad placements. I believe this is going to see display advertising once again become a vital component of the online marketing mix.

It is no secret in the industry that this is going to be a key trend in online advertising in 2010 but the biggest opportunity will be in the first half of the year where advertisers who adopt audience centric targeting will reap the full benefits of reach and cost advantages whilst the rest of the online advertising world catches up.

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By Becca Vittetoe, Media Director

Our Media and Customer Insights department is making a lot of noise about 3 unique new media vehicles that present opportunities for high performance:
1.    The CoolIris interface
2.    Aggregate Knowledge’s dynamic retargeting solution
3.    The StumbleUpon network

+    COOLIRIS
CoolIris (www.cooliris.com) is a unique interface that enables users to consume content on the web in a “cinematic” manner, via a 3D wall of pictures and videos.  CoolIris aggregates content from across the web including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Google, and public RSS feeds from top tier publishers.  Consumers can launch the interface while on a partnered site, or use the freestanding application to search for content, browse topics, and even save their favorite pictures and videos.  With over 500,000 new users every day and over 4.5 million users, this audience is very attractive to advertisers.

Advertisers can target by channel (sports, technology, entertainment, business, movies/TV, etc.) and can run traditional flash or static banners as well as video ads to enhance the consumer experience.  Ads are dispersed throughout the wall, and when selected, expand for easier viewing, in addition to loading ad copy in the selected window.  With selection rates between 3.5% and 5%, consumers have proven CoolIris to be an engaging media.  Click-thru-rates also fall right in line with the standard industry average, driving a healthy percentage of consumers to 3rd party sites.  CoolIris is ideal for advertisers seeking a social media play, without sacrificing performance. The interface is likewise a strong opportunity for clients associated with pictures and video.

+    AGGREGATE KNOWLEDGE
It is known throughout the industry that retargeting/remarketing increases click-thru-rates on display ads.   But more importantly, retargeting increases conversion rates, making better use of marketing dollars spent to drive traffic to a website.  Retargeting works on a pixel system, tracking individual web users and their on-site behaviors, and subsequently recognizing the user when they arrive on select sites within a partner network.  When the consumer arrives on site, a unique ad is served to the user, leveraging the detailed profile kept on the consumer.  By serving consumers highly relevant banner ads, click-thru and conversion rates increase dramatically.

It sounds simple enough to launch a retargeting program, but have you ever thought about how many unique combinations of ads you would need to truly serve the best set of creative images, offers, and calls to action to your consumers?  The inefficiency of paying thousands of dollars to generate every ad combination is a barrier to entry for many advertisers.  Fortunately, Aggregate Knowledge (http://www.aggregateknowledge.com/) has a solution: dynamic ad creation on the fly.

Ideal for e-commerce clients, Aggregate Knowledge places tags across a site to track specific product pages and images viewed by consumers.  A unique cookie is then applied to the consumer, according to their purchase behavior, which tracks precisely what product was of interest and what stage in the buying cycle the consumer subsequently dropped off.  For example, knowing that a consumer purchased a wallet, Aggregate Knowledge will dynamically serve the consumer an ad for a matching purse at a discounted rate later that day when they are recognized on a select ad network.   Furthermore, ad creation with Aggregate Knowledge is a breeze. Aggregate Knowledge pulls from images currently on the advertiser’s website, leveraging pre-defined templates that can be customized to suit clients’ needs. The advertiser establishes parameters for the ads, and the system then pulls from a bank of calls to action, product images, offers and discounts, all set to be served under a unique set of circumstances according to consumer behavior.   Try it out today!

+    STUMBLEUPON

With the dawn of Web 2.0, consumers no longer surf the web in a traditional manner.  Instead, they rely on friends, family, and peers with common interests to recommend websites.  StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/), a unique recommendation network, helps users discover and share websites with others who have similar interests.

StumbleUpon is run via a downloadable toolbar.  When users are interested in surfing for a website about a topic like photography, he/she selects the category of interest on the toolbar.  The engine then references a portion of the 6.5 Million StumbleUpon users who have similar interests and  rankings before serving a recommended webpage.   The engine buckets like-minded individuals according to personal data submitted, to ensure that consumers are taken to sites that are most likely to interest them, increasing the positive association with each website.

Red Bricks Media has tapped into the StumbleUpon recommendations network to successfully increase traffic to our clients’ websites at a low cost per click, only $0.05 per visitor.  Discovering the ideal combination of targeting parameters enables advertisers to receive high volumes of traffic at a rate well below other media vehicles.  Due to the targeting capabilities and the array of topics within the network, all advertisers are likely to see success across the network.  Increase your web traffic at a low CPC now.

The holidays are behind us and the New Year has come and gone; we have boxed up our holiday decorations, cashed in our gift certificates, and tossed the mistletoe. But don’t be upset, because you can still continue the holiday cheer by taking advantage of these exciting new media opportunities to reach your customers and increase ROI in 2009.

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