It is an extremely interesting and compelling presentation about Google’s fresh attempt to position itself as a one-stop shop for online display advertising. We know that they have been making inroads in all sorts of areas (Google Display Network, Google Ad Exchange, etc.) for some time, but this is the first time I have seen it packaged up so nicely and squarely targeted at advertisers, ad agencies, etc. Google does have the muscle to resolve a lot of the issues that plague our industry through integrating all of their solutions and makes a compelling case for using their platform.

What does this mean for all the rest of us? I think that remains to be seen, but it is clear that Google sees value in aggressively pursuing the dollars that are currently running through other ad networks. If they can do for display what they did for SEM by making it ultra-turnkey to flight display campaigns, it could change the way people are buying display advertising, even at the biggest shops.

That said, what Google has in technology, it lacks in customer service. We know this from the stories we hear from many of our clients. It is their ubiquity that makes it hard to provide a customer experience (not computer user experience) that many businesses and agencies need. Their hands are in almost every pot. Even some of their technologies acquisitions have been orphaned to focus on others (Doubleclick being the most relevant example here).

The other thing that Google doesn’t do is create brilliant advertising concepts. It’s one thing to own the network and develop tools to analyze success of online marketing campaigns from a metric perspective, but coming up with the idea that will affect consumers’ buying decisions is another. Admittedly that’s not Google’s business, but in the rapidly changing advertising marketplace, technological innovation is often confused with marketing insight. Good ad units, networks, and metrics do not a great marketing campaign make. They are simply the vehicles for the ideas that will turn heads and open pocketbooks.  What makes advertising work is the compelling, inspiring, revolutionary presentation of ideas that inform the way people see their own needs/wants/desires. This has nothing to do with technology. It has to do with creativity.

When they finally make their move as it seems they are now (look at the cover of Advertising Age), Google moves with such force that it seems like the entire playbook is being rewritten. We all know that it isn’t, but when a giant moves the ground definitely shakes. The best thing about giants for all of us little guys is that they can’t move or turn fast. That leaves lots of room for us to operate as the David to their Goliath (and we know who won that battle). We had best be ready to do what only we can do and do it better: serve our customers with excellence and help them cultivate the genius ideas that will help their businesses engage the marketplace. We can’t confuse what we do best with what the Googles of the world do best.

Then again, this could all just be a bunch of amazing advertising on Google’s part…

In the past five years, give or take, product placement has gone from carbonation to technology. We’ve had the Apple logo shoved down our throats so much so that every time I eat a granny smith, I think about how much I spent on my iMac – no regrets of course,  just high tech advertising at its best.

Before digital media, the sponsorship heavy hitters included Coca Cola, Budweiser and car dealerships. When Brad Pitt drinks it, we drink it. Now that search engines, subscription and social networking sites have become “products” in themselves, we are seeing more and more of their presence in commercials, feature films and on our favorite TV shows.  So, just how far away are we from hearing the words, “this broadcast is brought to you by Twitter?”

Living rooms across the country were astonished by this year’s Google ad during the Superbowl. Does Google.com really need a commercial to grow its profit margin? “How much did that air time cost?” an eager Saints fan asked me. I have a good guess, but I bet Ancestry.com could tell you, considering they’re running Sunday ads on NBC during “Who Do You Think You Are.”

And let’s take the recent blockbuster graphic novel turned movie, Kick Ass. If any film could’ve snuck in a subliminal Pepsi can, Doritos or pizza, targeted at teenagers, it was this one. On the contrary – in this day in age, it was comic books, iPhones and MySpace.com. MySpace you ask? Yes – that blast from the past networking site is the communication device used to call the title character into fighting crime. Okay, a little behind the times in my opinion but perfect if they are trying to drive traffic back to  their site, right?

Is this an example of product placement? Absolutely. Free advertising? That still remains a mystery. Corporate sponsorship deals are very hush, hush – especially in the film industry. So, whether consumers will be rushing to their computers to join MySpace.com (again) or buy a set of nun chucks after seeing Kick Ass – that remains to be seen.

Move aside Pepsi and Starbucks – I’ll be drinking the iPhone and Facebook from now on!

We custom build your site list into three separate blocks that are designed with a maximum of ten sites in each block. Your campaign is assigned its own campaign manager that has the ability to manually adjust sites per block after the campaign has started to fully optimize to achieve the best possible performance. After we developed Block by Block Reporting, we were able to track additional data very easily and split it out by blocks and verticals, making our reporting structure unique and valuable to our clients and to us.

Block by Block Reporting was designed to be transparent and make campaign reporting easy to access for our clients. It started out as an internal tool, but as we grew, it was realized that we could open it up for our clients to use directly, saving time and giving them more flexible reporting.

This feature is the third of many products we will introduce to the online market in 2009-2010. These products are what we have built our foundation on and moving forward you can look out for our network expansion in comScore.

SMS-based marketing is an emerging tool that is delivering strong results; our clients are already building an active mobile database that’s driving sales, increasing their brand awareness, and promoting customer loyalty. Clients can use mobile marketing for many purposes including coupons, sweepstakes, text-to-buy or text-to-give. In addition, our Bluetooth systems can target customers within close proximity to send full motion video, audio/ring tones, coupons and more directly to the phone in your target area.

“We are very excited to introduce mobile marketing to our clients as part of our overall strategy to offer clients an integrated, multi-media advertising campaign that reaches the consumer at the right time with the right medium,” said RM Media’s President Jon Flatt. “Our Mobile Marketing Solution’s targeting capabilities maximizes our clients’ marketing dollars by directing offers to the most valuable customers and our real-time reporting provides complete transparency and ensures results.”

We offer a 24/7 content management system with a client’s mobile campaign that gives easy access to the client’s database which makes it simple to change their offers to distribute to their subscribers. Clients also receive a user-friendly reporting dashboard that tabulates the opt-in and opt-out process and is presented in real-time with measureable results. Mobile advertising is a great lead generation tool because, like surveys, it captures consumers in the moment and allows them to quickly and easily request more information.

RM Media’s Mobile Marketing Solutions is part of a robust suite of products that provide clients new and improved ways to track, report and optimize search marketing, display advertising on its premium network, mobile and email marketing, and custom channel building.

Have more questions about our Mobile Marketing Solutions? Contact us for more information or call us at 512.380.4400.

Category: Display Advertising, CPC Expandable & IAB Standard Banners

Client Demographic for IAB Standard Banner: Adults that are Teachers

Client Demographic for CPC Expandable: Men & Women seeking
Educational Opportunities on the Non-Profit

Campaign Goals: To target one U.S. state and to increase traffic to their landing pages was a main goal for both campaigns. For the Standard Banners they wanted to drive teachers to their landing page to download supplemental materials on lesson planning and to order resource kits for their classes.

The CPC Expandable campaign wanted to drive traffic to their website for those seeking to find out more about an exhibit they were hosting, to show the exhibit locations and to help visitors find out more about what the non-profit does and how to help internationally.

Challenges: Getting the desired reach and conversions, as well as visitors to their landing pages with a limited budget.

Strategy: RMM and client decided together to run their campaigns through our network on a Run of Network. This would help them maximize their reach as well as work for their budget.

Results: The Standard Banners delivered over 1,211,800 impressions and had a CTR of 0.15 for their two and a half month campaign. A typical CTR for a standard banner campaign is 0.05 but for the CPC Expandable, in just one month they delivered approximately 800,000 impressions with a CTR of 0.75. Thus far, the CPC Expandable has proven for this client to provide five times what the CTR was for the standard banner campaign and the client is very happy with the results.

We are so confident in this product that we offering free banner creation and of course, you only pay for clicks and are never charged for impressions. These banners start at $0.40 CPC for Run of Network distribution or $0.80 and up CPC for RMM Custom Channel targeting with a minimum of $5,000 starting campaign budget. With a 3% pre-payment discount, daily campaign optimization, including impressions, clicks and post click activity upon request AND Geographic, demographic, and behavioral targeting …what’s not to love?

Our goal is for you to use expandable on a consistent basis to help generate performance brand awareness, leads, sales and any other desired post impression/click activity. RMM CPC Expandable Banners can help you collect consumer information used for mobile and email marketing campaigns as well. Rich Media advertising spend is set to increase approximately 31% between 2009-2013 according to eMarketer.

RMM CPC Expandable Launch is the first of many products we will be re-introducing to the online market in 2009. These products are what we’ve built our foundation here at RMM and moving forward you can look out for the new and improved ways of tracking, reporting and optimization for Search Marketing, Display Advertising on our Premium Network, Mobile and Email Marketing, and Custom Channel Building.

Have more questions about the RMM CPC Expandable? Check out our FAQs or contact us for more information at 512.380.4400.