Tag archives: google

The Ultimate Search For Bourne

Universal Pictures and Google have launched today The Ultimate Search For Bourne, an advergame to promote the third “Bourne” film, starring Matt Damon. In order to play the game, you need to have a Google account (and quite some patience) as it uses several Google tools which come into action within a time window of 15 days. I must say that at first sight everything looks complicate, and I get quite lazy if I don’t immediately understand what I have to do in order to play… Maybe I should register for the prizes, but I’m not interested in them neither… So why am I writing about this? Because I’m interested in the potentials of integrated actions using Google… They have great tools but, most of all, as I personally experienced in a series of meetings last week, they have the right attitude to think 360 when a client comes up with a need or a project.

File under: advergame, google

Google celebrates football with Nike

Two giants recently got married: Google and Nike have partnered to launch Joga an online community for football fans “by invitation only”. Since it applies the same concept of Gmail, I cannot exactly tell you what the site is about (I haven’t been invited in yet . But I can unveil (?!) the site will be available in 14 languages. The site is the next step in Nike’s Joga Bonito campaign on the way to Germany 2006. A series of short videos (by Wieden & Kennedy) is also part of the effort.

File under: google, joga bonito, nike

Overture advertises on Google

Something funny happened today on my Italian blog (see below). I know it isn’t really strange nor unusual, it’s just curious to point out.

File under: google, overture

How Google saved us from pop-ups

Since the introduction of text-based advertising from Google a few years ago, the usage of pop-ups has started to decline. As the IHT writes, thanks to Google, there are no more monkeys to punch.

“Without intending to do so, the company set multilateral disarmament in motion by telling its first advertisers in 2000: Text only, please. No banner ads, no images, no animation. Just simple words.”

Among the online marketing agencies, Avenue A/Razorfish, says that about 30 percent of the more than $400 million advertising budget from its clients will be spent this year in text ads on search pages.

File under: google, pop-ups, text-based ads

Google launches Onsite Advertiser Sign-up program

Reuters reports Google has launched a new feature which will allow advertisers to sign up for AdWords ads directly on the site the want to advertise on. The feature is called “Onsite Advertiser Sign-up” and will surely advertisers looking for niche audiences. As Gary Stein, analyst at Jupiter Research points out, Google’s move is a clear sign that the competition is getting fiercer in this sector, and the search engine wants to keep its existing powerful position through the AdSense program. Also, from the Onsite Advertiser Sign-up program we can also see that adverising on niche sites such as blogs, for example, is becoming more and more important in media plans. I still haven’t seen the feature in action, but I definitely look forward to see how it works.

File under: google, search engine advertising

The online advertising revenue battle

If someone wins, someone else has to loose: the consideration is rather obvious. This is what is happening in the online advertising industry, where Google and Yahoo are experiencing an extraordinary revenue growth “stealing” the adverting money from the potential revenue of traditional media companies. An article on Informationweek reports the two giants are “diverting advertising revenue established information companies.” This is basically the result of an evolution in the market: advertisers look for alternative ways of promotion and search engine and contextual advertising prove to be rather efficient and cost-effective. Unfortunately (as readers) we already know what is going to happen if information site won’t get enough money from advertising: they will start charging for the content (and the NYT is about to launch subscription based articles).

File under: advertising revenue diverted, google, traditional information, Yahoo!

Opinions on AdSense image ads

At the end of April Google’s AdSense program started serving graphic banners in addition to the sponsored links service. Furthermore, AdSense advertisers now have the possibility to select the sites where they want their contextual ads to be served. Le Journal du Net (in French) has interviewed some French marketers to find out what they think about the new services.

Read more…

File under: adsense, google, image ads, opinions

There is life beyond Google

According to Nielsen//Netratings Google is the leader among search engines, but users have started using other major engines also. A new research (opens .pdf) only a small number of users use only one search engines. Nielsen//Netrating explains that 58 percent of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search, showing that even though Google’s market share is dominant today, there is significant opportunity for its competitors to grow.

File under: google, msn search, search engines, Yahoo!

AdWords and clicks’ frauds

The issue is hot, even if players in the industry try to hide its relevance. Financial Times writes today that companies advertising on the Google keyword search engine are becoming increasingly concerned about the practice of “click fraud”. The problem isn’t new (see Adverblog, Sept. 29) and the pressure on Google (and Overture) is growing, since more and more companies are seeing their daily advertising budget vanishing in a few hours. Oscar Jenkins, chief executive of Dynmark, a company that sells bulk text messaging services says about PPC advertising:

“When it works, it works really well. But the whole system is based on underlying honesty. Once that is undermined, the whole thing falls apart like a house of cards.”

File under: google, ppc frauds, stolen clicks

Google’s plans for the future

On Editor & Publisher Carl Sullivan presents an interview with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Five questions and five answers to talk about online contextual advertising with a specific look at how the newspaper industry is taking advantage of this solution.

File under: adsense, contextual ads, google