We’ve submitted a couple of pitches for consideration at the upcoming SXSW (South by Southwest) festival. If you like our ideas and want to hear more from Red Bricks, please vote for us!
You can vote at the following site (you’ll need to first create a login):
Once you log in, you can find us by searching for “Red Bricks Media” using the search functionality.
Thanks in advance for your support!
by Andy Leinicke, Media Director, PPC
According to Alexa, YouTube is generating more page views than facebook, myspace, and even Google itself. It holds an enormous inventory for advertisers that has remained largely untapped – until now.
Google recently invited me to one of its Advertiser Forums in Mountain View. There, I got to see all of Google’s new video advertising products firsthand, including exciting YouTube opportunities.
Getting Started
There are two questions you need to ask to get started with a Google video program. The first is which network to run in. Google has two: the Google Contextual Network, and YouTube (it’s important to note that YouTube now includes streaming premium partners).
The second question to consider is which format your ad will take. Google now has lots of exciting format options. I’ve listed formats and video networks below:
*InVideo ads are currently only available to advertisers with managed accounts.
Click to Play (CTP) ads have been around for a while. It’s possible to load these via AdWords and target across the Content Network in the same way as text or image ads.
YouTube Video Ads, on the other hand, run exclusively on YouTube and need to be arranged manually. They can be broadcasted for a mass audience on YouTube’s home page or targeted by category or by search terms. Here is an example of a video ad for Rolling Rock that plays on the YouTube homepage:
The ad directs to a cool, engaging microsite customized for this campaign:
Companion ads are 300X250 pixel units that appear next to your custom home page placement or beside videos on a YouTube Watch Page (the pages where you actually view videos are called Watch Pages). Here is Google’s mock up for a Companion Ad:
An InVideo ad is a dynamic flash overlay that appears on the bottom of a video while it’s playing. Google claims that this ad unit is much more welcome than other approaches such as pre-rolls or post-rolls. Users can expand or click on these ads and, unlike other YouTube tactics, the InVideo ad has direct response promise. In fact, Google claims that beta advertising programs have shown amazing click through and conversion rates using InVideo. Here is an example of a BMW Google InVideo ad at work:
The InVideo ad is completely controlled by the user. If the ad is good enough (Red Bricks Media can test for this), users will click through to an expansion and eventually a destination url:
YouTube’s social functionality gives users a brand new way to experience video. Another opportunity to advance your marketing efforts on YouTube is by utilizing their channel feature. Anyone can create a YouTube Channel for free. Channels are like an iTunes playlist and a MySpace page all in one. Here’s a Channel that some old friends of mine at Teton Gravity Research recently made:
TGR makes some of the best surfing and skiing movies out there. This YouTube Channel lets them build an online community that generates ticket and DVD sales.
But it’s possible to think even bigger with Channels. YouTube can create a custom Brand Channel with site-like functionality and special promotion features. Brand Channels have highly customizable interfaces, including a special logo area at the top. An example of this is the “Living Legends” Brand Channel:
This Brand Channel allows users to upload videos of themselves asking questions to legendary rock stars like Mick Jagger which Mr. Jagger responds with his own video post. Marketers can use similar technology to promote contests.
It’s easy to see that Google has introduced a vast array of ways to interact with audiences using video. Contact a Red Bricks Media rep to learn how Red Bricks Media can design a proposal that’s right for you.
Top marketers from around the country converged in
On June 4th, the air crackled with excitement as guests arrived at the trendy Guest House club in
We’re thrilled to announce that our CEO, Ed Kim, will be a speaker at the upcoming Building Blocks/Digital Hollywood 2008 conference in
“I’m honored to be selected to speak at Building Blocks 2008,” Ed commented. Elaborating on his panel topic, he explained, “social media and user-generated content offer new ways for marketers to connect with their audiences. The challenge that marketers face is how to understand and use it. Many want to get into the game but don’t know where to start. I hope that after attending this panel, audience members will come away with actionable items they can implement on their own campaigns.”
The Building Blocks 2008 conference brings together the top minds in consumer electronics, entertainment, and media, for a two-day extravaganza featuring a host of informative sessions, hundreds of speakers, and a convergence of industry luminaries. It is the “premier event for transforming the consumer electronics, entertainment, social media & web application technologies & the global communications network.” The conference focuses on seven key strategic tracks, including Television 2.0, The Advertising and Commerce Platform, Technology Innovation Redefining the Future, and the Broadband and Social Media platform.
This year, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) joined Digital Hollywood in the sponsorship and production of the conference. Digital
We may never be in the rock and roll hall of fame, but we’ll settle for the next best thing – the viral marketing hall of fame. Each year Marketing Sherpa honors the year’s top ten viral marketing campaigns, and Red Bricks Media’s campaign for client THQ joined the ranks of the top ten for 2008. Other winners this year include General Mills and Columbia Sportswear.
According to Marketing Sherpa’s article on the competition, “these top 10 campaigns leveraged peer-to-peer pass-along to achieve amazing results in a range of demographics and audiences – hip-hop music fans, hardcore gamers, breast cancer survivors and activists, philanthropists, Portuguese soccer fans and more. Some campaigns mixed big budgets, great strategy and wide exposure. Others created entertaining content and watched it sail.”
This competition, which is free to enter, awards winners with a write-up in Marketing Sherpa and the eyes of thousands of marketing professionals who read this publication on a weekly basis.
“The rise of social networking and user-generated content is feeding and enhancing viral marketing. Many marketers want to take advantage of these new trends but aren’t sure how,” said our CEO
by Beth Morgan, VP of Operations
During the Web 1.0 boom it was all about the eyeballs. Content was king, and publishers scrambled to fill the Web with information and amusement that would lure people in. Now that we’re seeing the second rise of the Web, content is still king. But it turns out that, as has been common all throughout history, people are less interested in what someone else tells them than in what they and their friends are thinking and doing. Giving people the power to produce their own content and customize their own experiences, essentially democratizing the Web, has brought over 100 million new users to the Internet in the U.S. alone.
Which brings us to the most uniquely people-powered advertising vehicle the world has ever seen: paid search.
Pay-per-click is different from every other mode of advertising out there because the publisher only makes money if someone finds the ad relevant and interesting and clicks on it. The amount that the advertiser bids for each click does figure in to how often an ad runs and where it is placed, but an even bigger factor is how tempting and clickable an ad is. The people are in control! If you as an advertiser fail to interest your target market, they will not click on your ad—and even if you’re willing to pay a small ransom on every click, the engines might choose to not run it all.
So what does this mean for advertisers? Essentially it means that you must re-adjust the way you strategically think about your paid search campaigns, because things you’ve learned about how marketing works might not be true for search. Some examples:
1) Your ad might not appear when you look for it. With traditional pay-per-eyeball advertising—TV, print, banner ads, etc—you agree to pay a set amount to advertise at pre-determined times and places for a set length of time. If you pick up a magazine or look at a website during that time frame, you will see your ad.
With paid search, though, the engines are unlikely to run your ad with every search, especially when you first launch a campaign. They are constantly running their mix of advertisers through a massive algorithm to determine, essentially, who earns them the most money. Proven advertisers are going to be given more credit than new ones.
They’ll mix your terms in slowly, and then more and more if your ads are successful.
2) You might not WANT your ad to show up every time you look for it. Think about it: are you running ads because you want people to see your neat-o copy, or because you want to sell stuff in a cost-efficient manner? Paid search gives you great real-time data about how your ads are performing, which allows you to get rid of keywords that just aren’t working for you. You may think a certain keyword is absolutely vital to your business, but if those Empowered People don’t agree and don’t click on your ad, the price that Google charges you to keep your keyword in a high position may be more than it’s worth.
3) Decide ahead of time what you’re willing to pay. Budgeting for traditional marketing is easy: you get X dollars to spend, you buy X dollars worth of placements, and then you look at the stats to see if it was cost-effective. Costs in paid search, though, are both variable and hard to estimate ahead of time. You could have $100,000 set aside for search, but if no one searches your terms or clicks your ads, you might end up spending only $2,000. Google can project approximate cost per clicks before you actually launch your campaign. Use this figure with your average conversion rate to project a cost per action (CPA). Does this number comply with your marginal profit and loss expectations? Realize throughout this process that projections in a market-based environment are imprecise.
4) Write the best ad for each of your market spaces. If people are clicking on your ad, you’re hitting the right market. Because pay-per-eyeball advertising is so expensive, it is vital to examine where and when ads are running to find the places and the times that yield the best results. Day-parting is a savvy way to make sure your ads are hitting your target when they are present and paying attention.
With paid search, though, people declare themselves as potential customers not by visiting a website or listening to a radio program, but by actively searching for a term relating to your product. If they’re really interested they’ll click on your ad and visit your site. This means that unless you have conversion data that shows visitors convert differently at different times of the day (which might very well be true), day parting isn’t a vital part of search strategy. You think your customers don’t wake up before 9am? Then they won’t be searching and clicking before 9am. Once again, the people decide when your ads run.
5) Rigorous and regular ad copy testing MUST be a part of your program. When I was traveling through Europe in college, my group would frequently be met at train stations by hordes of people from competing hostels, waving brochures and pictures to try to lure us back to their establishments. Paid search is pretty much just like that. At the very moment a searcher declares their interest in something, they are met with dozens of contenders clamoring to satisfy that need. Since Google and Yahoo both give better placement (and often a lower price) to ads that get more clicks, it behooves every advertiser to experiment to find out what will work best. Headline, call to action, benefits statement, even display URL—the smallest things can have a big effect. You also want to track results right through to conversion—ads that produce big clicks don’t always convert the best, and that’s the ultimate goal.
So as you can see, with paid search your potential customer is in a unique position to determine when and where your ad runs and even how much it costs. It’s a dynamic and powerful system, but also far less predictable than other forms of advertising. Figure out how to please your customer better than the competitors, and you will be rewarded with a brilliantly cost-effective marketing channel.
Like winning your first Oscar, winning your first Gold Addy award is an experience you’ll never forget. There’s nothing like a shiny trophy to boost anyone’s spirits, and we here at Red Bricks Media are celebrating our newly acquired Gold and Silver Addy Awards for our creative work with clients Wells Fargo and THQ.
Our Gold Addy winner, a Wells Fargo Advantage Funds creative piece, was a print media kit. This client commissioned us to design an identity theft kit for its financial advisors that would encourage consumers to “Unlock the Facts about Identity Theft.” It features an innovative lockbox envelope design, filled with pamphlets and brochures that warn consumers about the dangers of identity theft.
Our bold creative for the hub of THQ’s integrated buzz marketing campaign also won a Silver Addy. THQ wanted to spread brand awareness for its latest first-person shooter, Frontlines: Fuel of War. Red Bricks Media’s team dreamed up an interactive online game that immersed users in the world of Frontlines. Account Manager Ben Kou, Copywriter Peter Vaughan, and Interactive Designer BorFang Su led a team of designers, campaign managers, and strategists on the project.
After winning in our local Addy Awards division, our work went to the district level competition, where both campaigns won Silver Addys. We’ve sent these campaigns on to the national level and are keeping our fingers crossed for another RBM victory!
by Jacob Morgan, Search Strategist
First off, let me give credit where credit is due. I came across this information from reading one of Brian Solis’s post about “Discovering and Listening to Conversations on Twitter.” In the post, Brian refers to Jeff Nolan, who discusses Twitter analytics. Thanks to both of you!
First I’m going to briefly touch on the tools that Jeff addresses, and then show you how they work.
TweetVolume: Type in a few keywords or phrases and you will be shown a graph that compares their volume. As Jeff Nolan pointed out, this is great for monitoring a particular brand, trend, buzzword, etc.
TweetStats: This tool lets you analyze your own twitter traffic. Also great if you work for a known brand and are twittering for your company.
TweetScan: This is really an interesting tool that lets you see real time twitter search information. Think of it as a search engine. You type in your query and then are presented with all the Tweets that include your search.
Now let’s pick an industry and see how we can use these tools. I chose the automotive industry.
Let’s look at the twitter volume for Ford, Honda, GM, Nissan, and Toyota (note: you get slightly different results based on capitalization, but not much)
Start off with TweetVolume. Below we can see that Ford is clearly dominating the Twitter space, Nissan has virtually no Twitter presence. We have to be careful here because terms can have multiple meanings. For example, Ford can refer to the car or to Gerald Ford. (This is where hashtags can come in; see Brian’s post for info on this).
Now let’s take a look at the actual conversations that are taking place using TweetScan. I typed in Honda as a search query and these were a few of the results that I saw. You can also get a bit more specific with your searches and type in Honda Civic, etc.
Finally, we can take a look our Twitter usage using TweetStats. Jeff Nolan was kind enough to post his stats so that is what I am including here.
Finally, you can begin to draw correlations. For example, if I am Honda and I just announced that I am giving away 100 free Hondas (via twitter, etc.) I would expect more people to talk about “Honda” (if I’m doing a good job marketing the promotion on Twitter).
Do not get too caught up with analytics and statistics. Social media marketing is not as cut and dry as web analytics is. It is not that easy to attribute revenue or traffic to a particular tweet, etc. The quality of the conversations is more important than the quantity. However, this is a topic for another post.
Thanks again to Brian Solis and Jeff Nolan.
This article is cross-posted from Jacob’s blog.
by Scott Tieman, Marketing Strategist
Most paid search campaigns evolve with time, information, and experience. Don’t expect to get the campaign absolutely right from the start. You can’t! You don’t have enough information! Paid search campaigns need to embrace trial and error to blossom. You may have all the experience in the world running paid search campaigns, but that alone will only take you so far in this business.
Generally, you can think about this evolution in terms of three distinct phases: launch, optimize, and sustain. Each phase should have its own goals, expectations, and challenges. Below, I’ve given a taste of how each phase will play out. In my upcoming posts, I will dig deeper into some specifics of each phase.
Launch Phase:
Calling the initial phase the “launch” phase is partly a misnomer. It generally includes all of the activities required to get a campaign up and running including the initial planning before the launch, the launch itself, and the campaign stabilization after the launch. Expect to spend about 1-4 months in this phase.
Optimize Phase:
You’ve gotten the campaign out the door, but now must meticulously care for it. During the “optimize” phase, you will see the greatest efficiency gains. These gains will come at the expense of trial and error. Try not to worry too much about the media budget spent on these tests. It’s not wasted at all. It’s the best money you’ve spent in the campaign so far. Expect to spend about 6-12 months in this phase.
Sustain Phase:
Congratulations! You’ve wrung out the last drop of insight; the campaign is seemingly on cruise control. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done then GET BACK TO WORK. The “sustain” phase is all about maintenance. Although the pace of intervention has slowed, you still need to keep your campaign fresh to maintain your performance results in the long run. In general, expect to spend the rest of the life of the campaign in this phase.
On final thought. Given the rapid change in the search landscape, your hard fought insights may become less relevant with time. Your audience may become more sophisticated or a competitor may outmaneuver you for clicks. Maybe the product landscape will change as well. Google may introduce some revolutionary new products that allows you to advertise on digital billboards, blimps, or the moon. When this happens, you may need to revisit parts of this process again. Don’t be stubborn about it. Just jump right in like you always do.
Note: This post pertains t0 the vast majority of paid search campaigns run today. There are some exceptions, most notably “blast” campaigns. These short-lived campaigns typically revolve around products with quick expiration dates like events and media. Given the daunting time constraints facing the marketer, the campaign will likely spend the most time in the “launch” phase and very little time in the “optimize” and “sustain” phases.
This article is cross-posted from Scott’s blog.
Recently, the folks at Pandemic Labs asked me to write a guest article on social media. The article (with minor changes) can be found below.
On a call with Seth Godin, I asked him where he sees the future of social media growth and how we can stop spammers. He responded that social media will continue to segment, and that there is no way to stop the spammers.
As marketers and spammers (although they are not the same, their objectives are similar, and sometimes marketers inadvertently become spammers) continue to penetrate the social media marketing platforms, we are going to notice that social media platforms will begin to segment. In fact, the trend is already quite apparent.
Consider the following segmented platforms:
The reality is that eventually there will be a platform to cater to virtually every marketing niche. Another example is the recent launch of Google Health, a platform that allows users to create online health profiles, find doctors, and even download medical records.
With the “verticalization” of social media platforms (and eventually search), how is a marketer or spammer going to survive? Well, there are two sides of the coin.
1) With the sheer number of vertical platforms and their continued growth, there is just NO WAY that marketers and spammers are going to be able to keep up. There are tens of thousands of platforms, with many more appearing each day, and for every 100 platforms that are created, only 1 will survive. Sure, a marketer or a spammer can focus all of their efforts on the large sites such as Facebook or Myspace, but eventually when the “verticalization” kicks in, the amount of targeted advertising and marketing will be reduced drastically. So a marketer or a spammer is left with little choice but to target as many social platforms as they can, and they are becoming increasing efficient at doing so.
2) With the sheer number of platforms and their continued growth, it is becoming increasingly EASY for spammers and marketers to reach their desired audience. If I am a marketer or spammer, I can focus on specific social media platforms that are catered to my exact target market, piece of cake.
Essentially a marketer or a spammer has 2 choices: go after as many verticals as they can and hope that some of those verticals yield results, OR, focus on the target verticals and ignore the rest. The problem is that marketers and spammers pursue both avenues. There are those that try to target all the platforms, and there are those who try to target specific platforms. The point is that there is no way to prevent marketers or spammers from penetrating social media platforms. It doesn’t matter what side the coin lands on - it’s a trick coin and the marketers always win.
The coin was flipped and is in the air, call it…
This article is cross-posted from Jacob’s blog.