If you want to skip the ads, read your favorite news sites through RSS feeds. Maybe I should not write this, considering the fact I'm trying to sell advertising spaces here on Adverblog, but actually I'm just reporting one of the ideas that come out from this article on marketing and RSS on the New York Times.

I don't completely agree with the idea of regarding RSS as the Internet TiVo, however I believe this association isn't totally wrong. We need to consider that news publishers usually provide only an abstract of the article in the feed, so if people want to read the full story, they have to click and visit the site where they will be exposed to the advertising messages. However, if one uses RSS just to "browse" the content of a news site instead of visiting the homepage, in this case RSS helps to avoid the ads and just get an overview of the articles, so it might be considered as the Internet TiVo.

But don't worry, since rss marketing is becoming an hot topic, advertisers are managing to show up also on feeds.

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The Vespa blog we talked about a few weeks ago has been eventually launched in the United States. Customer blogs can prove extremely powerful in building communities among existing customers, and they can also help driving purchase intent among prospects. As Jackie Huba writes on Church of Customer, a Vespa is not an impulse purchase so the enthusiasm on the Vespa (community) blog should spread and influence also undecided prospective buyers.

Permalink | Category (s): Blogs & marketing // Comment (s): (0)

I've just updated my list of blogs dedicated to marketing and advertising issues.
Among the new blogs added, I'd like to mention Brutal Clarity by marketing expert Krishnan Menon who has been, among the others, consulting futurist, focusing on marketing innovation, for Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, and has worked on marketing the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the iMac and iPod.
For those of you who speak/understand Italian, Creative Classics by Marco Fossati is another must read.

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Bloggers and blogs' readers leaving comments on the entries are the ultimate focus group. Adweek (sub. req.) explains U.S. Cellular through G Whiz carried out a market research listening to what potential college-age consumers were saying on their blogs.

G WHIZ is a subsidiary of Grey Global Group specialized in targeting the youth segment.

The Wall Street Journal also has a (free!) article on this topic.

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A sweepstake to win the chance to ride around France and blog live from the Tour de France. In Race to the Tour awo bloggers will be selected to follow the last Armstrong's race and the performance of the Discovery Pro Cycling Team. The initiative is sponsored by Subaru, the site has been created by R/GA.

[News via Adrants]

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A recent report by Forrester Research ("US Online Marketing Forecast 2005 to 2010") found out that 57% of marketers are "somewhat" or "very" interested in RSS advertising (64% expressed the same opinion on blogs advertising). Despite the forecast, at the moment, advertisers still have a lot of doubts concerning this kind of solution. Trying to show the right way to RSS advertising, MarketingSherpa presents the case study of Citrix GoToMeeting which just tested RSS and podcasting ads.

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First I have to tell I'm not payed from Coca-Cola to post so much about them (I wish I was! ;-) then I go on telling you about their new initiative in Brazil...
Agenciaclick, one of the best interactive agencies in the world, is behind the Coca-Cola Vibezone online. The site is really cool, with excellent graphics and animations (but I misssss the music!), however the nicest thing about the initiative is that it includes a dedicated Vibezone blog and an online community on Orkut.

The blog idea is good but apparently it isn't proving very successful. The stats on the homepage indicate that only 2415 people have visited the site until now...
It's an old online marketing lesson:don't show the numbers! If they're high people won't trust you, if they're low visitors will think you're a low quality site.

Permalink | Category (s): Advertainment | Blogs & marketing // Comment (s): (0)

Boeing has opened a new blog, "The Flight Test Journal" dedicated to the new 777 plane, currently under construction. Since January Boeing has Randy Baseler, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, blogging about the company's perspective on commercial aviation.

[link via Random Culture]

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Have a look at this funny commercial Rexona for Men has launched in The Netherlands. The full version of the Tv spot is available only online on Rexona.nl. A part from the fact the video is really funny, the cool thing about Rexona's marketing initiative is that the spot is promoted with a series of ads on influential Dutch blogs (i.e. Retecool).

Again, the idea we need to follow is: go where your target audience is. And if your target audience reads blogs, then advertise there.

The only thing I miss on the site is a "send to a friend" button. Since the video is nice, why should Rexona miss the opportunity to generate a little bit of viral effect?

[News via Marketingfacts.nl]

Permalink | Category (s): Blogs & marketing | Viral marketing // Comment (s): (1)

MSN and Fox Sports are targeting sport fans with an opt-in service which allows users to receive scores and news alerts via RSS and MSN Messenger. DMNews explains this idea will allow MSN to offer advertisers with extremely targeted marketing opportunities.
The technology will be provided by MessageCast which has already reached extremely positive results delivering beauty ads to L'Oreal's subscribers in Britain and Germany.

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Steve Rubel announced this week on his blog that Vespa, probably the world's most famous scooter, has launched its own corporate blog. Vespa is an Italian brand which probably became famous in the US through Fellini's movies, and after a long difficult period on the market, decided to relauch in 2000.

As explained on Vespablogs.com "Piaggio USA feels blogs are an ideal way to connect with Vespa brand loyalists and encourage them to become online evangelists". What the FAQ point out perfectly summarizes the blogs' marketing potentials creating a link between brands and consumers as well as providing cost effective evangelization.

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Mediapost reports Carat Interactive will offer its clients with a blogging "starter kit", to introduce them with the blogosphera potentials. In the kit Carat will explain how to monitor blogs, to advertise on them and to run an own blog.

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Russell and TJ came up with a cool idea for bloggers: selling advertising space on eBay. Russell in a few days has collected 41$ to place a 120 x 90 banner on his blog.
If it works, it might be an excellent way for bloggers to make some money.

I think I might give it a try next week. So, if you're interested in placing ads on Adverblog, stay tuned, I'll keep you updated.

Permalink | Category (s): Blogs & marketing // Comment (s): (0)