Re: Advertising value on social networks

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Wed 08 Aug 2007 10:43:09 -0500

In addition to moderating this list, I run a social engagement
venture called MyCityRocks (http://www.MyCityRocks.com) which
specializes in figuring out how to covert online social network
activity into real world behavior. In addition to using our own
resources, we heavily use MySpace for marketing activities. I wish I
had enough data to provide some kind of a matrix, but I don't yet...
we need more campaigns! I do have a ton of what I'd call "empirical
wisdom" on this topic however.

Google is slowing getting smarter in figuring out what ads to serve
when people surf MySpace. Still, I'd expect click/response rates to
be pretty low on that site based on our experience. Still, if the ad
rates are low enough, and they can offer enough traffic to get you
enough clicks, then it really is doesn't matter.

For something like a spirit brand campaign that Steve mentioned, long
term results will be stronger in my (biased) opinion if you skip
dumping ads randomly on the social networks, and try working with
someone like us who would put together event-based marketing
sponsored by the brand, and then focus on pushing the events through
the social networks under your brand's sponsorship. That way you
couple online exposure with visibility at local venues, which in my
opinion is much stronger. Plus coupling the exposure with local
events provides far greater reason for folks to pay attention. We
did a campaign with Scion coupled with a movie premier in the past
that worked quite nicely, and we also done a fair bit of event ticket
sales over the social nets, coupling exposure for the advertiser with
extensive content and local events.

I'll be giving speeches on marketing/advertising via social networks
the week of August 20th... in Oslo and Haugesund, Norway... if any of
our members hail from that part of the world, please let me know.

--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman
Executive Director | Moderator
MyCityRocks | The Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.MyCityRocks.com | http://www.o-a.com
(281) 480-3770




Received on Wed Aug 08 2007 - 10:43:09 CDT