Tag Archives: advertising

Matt Mullenweg On Ads

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Ran across this quote today which I just had to blog from WordPress.com’s Matt Mullenweg since I found it funny:

“We decided to show ads only on certain pages, only to the people who were sort of random drive-by visitors…if you use Firefox, you’ll never see an ad, no matter what, mostly because I like Firefox.”

Also kinda interesting from a business perspective. There’s been some suggestion over time that Firefox users are prone to ignore ads. Partially because of extensions that block ads (though products to block ads on the OS level, and in IE exist too btw), but partially because they are said to be more technical.

I wonder if a practice like this actually provides a higher click through rate. Because they only show ads in certain places, it’s not about total impressions (they control that by picking where to show ads, and when). They control how many impressions they run in a given period. By targeting those more inclined to click on ads, theoretically your ratio should be higher.

I’ve heard of quite a few different ways to target ads over the years, but this is a new one.

Browser Wars On Google

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If you search for Firefox using Google you’ll see this ad towards the top:

Firefox Adwords Campaign

Look over to the right side and you’ll see this:
Microsoft Adwords Campaign

Here’s a larger complete screenshot for anyone interested.

Interesting eh? They aren’t threatened though. Here’s another tidbit. A search for “Safari” brings up a Microsoft ad as well. A search for “Opera” or “Opera Browser” does not. A search for “Browser” will. A search for “linux” will bring up a few Microsoft ads as well as a Firefox ad.

Windows Ad On A Mac

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I see these every once in a while. Advertisers occasionally think it’s clever to make their ad mimic the OS interface in hopes that novice users get confused and click on it. I’m sure this is (sadly) pretty successful despite being rather deceptive. It becomes comical when these ads show up on a Mac since it looks so out of place as shown in this image.

Stupid Windows Ad

You can’t really expect a Mac user to fall for this. It looks pretty strange. The best part is how for Operating System, it says “unknown”.

if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Win")!=-1){
    showAd();
} else {
   // Don’t even waste your time.
}

DoubleGoogleClick?

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So Google acquires DoubleClick for 3.1 billion dollars. There doesn’t seem to be any word on how this will integrate (or be kept separate) from AdWords/Adsense. I’m interested to know what their plans are.

Between Google Search, Google Analytics (on many websites), AdSense, and now DoubleClick, virtually all websites on the web have some link to Google. Skynet is upon us. Google recently updated their privacy policy. I’m pretty certain that was in preparation for this move, and to avoid some controversy.

Ad Free Opera

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According to download.com:

For one day only, you can get an ad-free version of Opera. Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT).

Now is a great time to fire off that email, it’s a great offer for a really good browser. There’s a rumor Mozilla will follow by providing a similar offer for an ad-free browser withing a given time period. It will be something you don’t want to miss.

Ok, Firefox is always ad free. But seriously, give it a go. Opera is a really good browser, especially for low end computers that don’t have much CPU. It’s fast and standards compliant.

Firefox TV Ad Campaign

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This show some real promise (hat tip Gerv). Eric Edwards designed a great Firefox Ad. I personally think it’s exceptionally good.

Perhaps the next SpreadFirefox campaign for 1.1 should be a TV ad? Run a 30 second spot during a decent timeframe. Just the publicity of the organization is significant press for Firefox, and will help generate some buzz for 1.1. The actual ad itself would be extra.

A CBS Monday night ad for example could prove rather effective. With Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond (last season ends pretty soon), CSI Miami are all very well watched shows. Even if were not at the peak (9:00 – 10:00), there’s still a decent viewership during the time period. That would be my #1 choice. It’s not the most watched period, so it won’t be as expensive, but still gets quite a solid fanbase.

Another great period to investigate would be Fox on Sunday. The Simpsons have a large cult following, you can bet that’s got quite a large geek following in there as well. That might be a great group to target. Teens, young adults, etc. That would be another sport to consider. Between 8:00 and 9:00 would work rather well.

Obviously putting all names in it isn’t possible, so a tag “this advertisement is paid for by Spreadfirefox.com members” could be put at the end. Perhaps even a “I’m Firefox, and I approve this message” voiceover could be added (just kidding).

Where’s Rob: I’ve been omitted

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Everyone loves those Where’s Waldo books. Well, if your good at them: I NEED YOUR HELP.

That’s right. Apparently I’m either missing, or out of place in the Ad. There are reports of a few names not in alphabetical order, as well as a few inverted (Lastname Firstname).

Your odds are about 1 in 10,000.

So: Who here can find me? The PDF is here. You can use anything at your disposal to perform this task, eyes, supercomputer, etc. provided it’s legal ;-) .

Go!

Rob Rants: Christmas Commercials

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And now to start one of the new categories here, a “Rob Rants”. We’ll start with Christmas Commercials.

Best Of

OfficeMaxRubber Band Man (OfficeMax) – This is a great example of how cool an advertisement can be. Retro, classy, catchy, fun. I can’t get enough of this one. It’s fun. And I don’t even like OfficeMax. I’ll miss this ad after the holidays. It’s one of the few tunes that doesn’t get on my nerves. Not to mention the animation is pretty cool. It’s also not overplayed. I see it maybe a few times a week, not bad. I can live with this one.

Chrismahanukwanzakah (Virgin Mobile) – This commercial isn’t bad. I don’t mind watching it, it’s catchy (it even sticks in your head), it’s not overdone, it’s funny. I’ve yet to find anyone who didn’t get a good laugh from it. This ad really did make this Chrismahanukwanzakah season the best one ever! Also not overplayed. I think this is one I’ll remember years from now, since it’s was creative. Hopefully they will bring it back next year. Kind of wish they did more with props though. I love how they combined all the holidays into 1 lump, but they didn’t really combine decorations and props. Would be interesting to see a MenorahTree :-D , I’m sure there are many other wacky things people can come up with… perhaps a Fark photoshop contest?

Worst Of

Old NavyOld Navy Caroler’s (Old Navy) – I’ll admit they all make great models I’m sure, and perhaps they even have vocal talent (who knows if there voices are real in the commercial or done Ashley Simpson style)… but this ad is by far the most annoying ad of the year, and just when one ends, they put on yet another one. They apparently decided doing it on TV wasn’t enough, so they decided to pollute Time Square with this one. Not to mention this article takes commercializing Christmas to a whole new low. Sorry, but this ad gets the award for most annoying commercial of Holiday Season 2004. Please Old Navy, if you love America, you’ll dump this campaign in the sea.

So what are your favorites/least favorites?

Disagree? Agree? Want more ads with Monkey’s in Santa costumes? Leave a comment.