Adtasm.com | Ads in Media

Obviously, the staff here at Adtasm can’t really work (or live) without Google, but Readwriteweb.com has the ground rules for a personal experiment you can try. How long can you go? I lasted all of5 minutes.

I wrote about this particular Internet phenomenon before, but I decided to highlight one successful campaign that used the power of the Internet to generate some viral buzz. This video was an illustration in the possibilities of viral marketing and one of the factors that put Youtube.com on the map in 2006.

Dove, in 2005, started a campaign that highlighted “real” woman, as opposed to the overly anorexic wisps of air that we see normally in commercials, print ads, and the like. Seth Stevenson, in a Slate.com article critiquing the campaign, noted overall the short term prognosis was excellent, but that on the whole that:

Sadly, this is not a winning play for the long haul. If Dove keeps running ads like this, women will get bored with the feel-good, politically correct message. Eventually (though perhaps only subconsciously), they’ll come to think of Dove as the brand for fat girls. Talk about “real beauty” all you want—once you’re the brand for fat girls, you’re toast.

A bit of a change in direction was expected to keep the message fresh, but the overall message was clear: beauty is often manufactured. Along those lines, a viral video was created by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, which had massive exposure in all avenues and media.

Synopsis: A plain woman steps into a studio for a photo shoot. The timing is increased, ever so frantically, showing the process in which the woman is made to look better for the billboard her photo will be placed on, from the make-up artists, to the photoshopping of the woman’s features.

Bonus: Here is a parody video, amongst many on Youtube.com, that kept the original video exposed and talked about for many months after.

They’re watching you… every click you make from bathrobes to adult sites Google is keeping track. Or at least for 18 - 24 months so says the latest Google blog addressing privacy issues. In attempts to calm the paranoid masses concerned with Google’s retention of user data geared to personalize searches Google has posted an official statement on The Official Google Blog site. They’ve also included a list of “reasons why we should collect your data and keep it”

We have a legitimate interest in retaining search server logs for a number of reasons:

• to improve our search algorithms for the benefit of users
• to defend our systems from malicious access and exploitation attempts
• to maintain the integrity of our systems by fighting click fraud and web spam
• to protect our users from threats like spam and phishing
• to respond to valid legal orders from law enforcement as they investigate and prosecute serious crimes like child exploitation; and
• to comply with data retention legal obligations.

Looks like they forgot “because we own the internet, and soon we’ll own you and there isn’t anything you can do about it, so quit complaining or we’ll email your mom a list of the sites you’ve been viewing.”

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Complain enough and someone’s bound to hear… and maybe even do something about it. That’s just what the fine folks at Google have done. To appease the woes of the common Adsense marketers Google has announced their upcoming launch of the brand spanking new Placement Performance report. Marketers can now get an in depth view of where their ads are being placed as well as site performance metrics to better gauge ad performance. Oh, Google you really are a marketer’s wet dream. You can get the full story at Clickz.com.

There is somewhat of a controversy regarding Apple’s new Iphone advertisement, with Breitbart.tv explaining:

As the buzz builds to the launch of Apple iPhone at the end of the month, promotional demonstrations on the Apple web-site seem to have a political theme. The section showing internet features of the phone highlights New York Times stories about the Democratic take-over in Congress. You can also see a neighboring story about a key resignation at the White House. Among the few stories visible on a related television ad linked on the Apple Web site shows a headline about scandal pressures on the GOP, and the main close-up story is about the burdens of housing costs as incomes stagnate.

There seems to be a large audience of people 1) Praising Apple for making a statement 2) Lambasting Apple for making a statement 3) Criticizing the people who believe there is anything meant to be politicsl about the Ad.

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From Blogstorm.co.uk

Blogstorm gives us a comprehensive list of pointers to better make use of the familiar analytics package by Google. Some of the topics include:

• Tracking exit clicks, banner clicks and RSS feed subscribers
• Tracking ecommerce revenue
• How to track Sales
• Tracking 404 errors

Fantastic! Looks like the internet just got one more way underage kids can “hook-up” and over-age pervs can get their fix all while satisfying their carbonated urges. Coca-Cola’s Sprite takes a stab at the social networking craze with its new “Sprite Yard,” a mobile-based social networking site aimed towards teens. ClickZ.com has the full story.

Yard acts as a mobile site for users to connect with peers, share photos, and discover content. Modules divide activities into six areas. Pix is an online photo gallery where users can share photos with friends and comment on friends’ photos. Scribbles acts as a message board or chat room where users can hold live conversations. Shouts is an SMS and e-mail-like messaging system with richness and texture. Planner allows users to post a two-week schedule to let friends know of their upcoming activities. Nuggets is a storehouse of digital mobile goodies like ringtones, mobisodes (mostly featuring lemon and lime characters) and other downloadables, which will be unlocked with PIN codes found on Sprint bottles.

Technorati Tags: social networking, mobile, Sprite

Via Businesswire.com

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
(PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached a new
record of $4.9 billion for the first quarter of 2007. The 2007 first
quarter revenues represent a 26 percent increase over Q1 2006 at $3.8
billion and a 2 percent increase over Q4 2006 at $4.8 billion.

This is an amazing piece of promotions for Criss Angel | Mindfreak, a new television show on A&E. It blends traditional and internet rich media in a neat way.

I don’t want to give away the surprise, just yet, so here is the site for now (try it on yourself). Spoiler is to be continued on the next page.

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From Speed Bump.