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Ads of the Future: In-Game AdvertisingIn-game advertising is well on its way to becoming a mainstream ad unit. Over the past couple of years, gamers have seen an increase in virtual billboards and posters for actual advertisers appearing in popular video games. The image below is an example of an Adidas billboard in the FIFA International Soccer game.  Additionally, the emergence of Second Life has created an entire virtual world for advertisers. This type of video game experience is able to host persistent and ever-present advertisements, including not only static ads but also meaningful brand engagements such as virtual stores, dealerships, hotels, etc. Second Life created a sort of test market for advertisers and their products. Unfortunately though, the virtual world of life as an avatar has only so much penetration in the consumer world. While Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, report that there are 2,325,015 "residents" of second life. However, ccording to CNET, “The real number of active, individual users who log in on a recurring basis (users who sign up and return on an ongoing basis, though Linden Lab doesn't specify how often that is), is more likely in the 200,000 to 230,000 range, according to internal metrics used by Linden Lab, as well as calculations by others in the industry.” But there might be some hope for the world of avatars yet. With 14 million users, Xbox Live, the online service for Xbox 360, has released a new product- Xbox Experience. Xbox Experience is a new Xbox 360 platform in which gamers create a custom avatar, which they will use to interact with other players in the Xbox Live universe. Online Media Daily said that sponsorships of avatar clothing, accessories, shoes, etc. by advertisers such as Nike and Puma is something Xbox Experience is looking into providing in the near future, according to Mark Kroese, general manager for Microsoft's Advertising Business Group in the Entertainment Devices division. The opportunities for in-game advertising therefore become endless. “Microsoft will monitor how gamers use the Experience platform and build the next generation of advertising services based on those trends,” Kroese said. “The platform offers AT&T, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Nike, Sprint and other brands interaction with gamers by reaching into the home like television and measuring the impact similar to PC-based ads.” The brand interactions offered by ads within Xbox Experience is meant to be unparalleled by any other type of in-game, video, or television advertising that has ever been offered before. Additionally, Microsoft is adding in functionality to geo-target and day-part ads, thus helping advertisers to reach their target audience, just like television advertising. But unlike television advertising, ads within Xbox Experience can be clickable, connecting to landing pages that, according to Online Media Daily, historically average 3.5 page views. Microsoft is therefore using the Xbox Experience platform to create ads that are a tight integration of search, television, and in-game ads all-in-one. These ads have enormous potential and it will be interesting to see their results. Labels: In-Game Advertising, web 2.0 Ten Tips for Negotiating With Media VendorsAs media planners, we must represent our client -- the buyer. We must earn our keep by getting our clients the best deal possible. In reality, we are matchmakers, trying to create success for our clients and make a sale on behalf of the media properties we believe are the right choices. In this process, we want to secure the best deal possible on the right sites for our clients while making friends with the media reps and establishing a partnership. This partnership has a common goal of creating a successful campaign and lasting relationship with the client. Today, some tips for doing just that.
Labels: ClickZ, Online Media Overdrive Interactive Wins Award for Best Use of Search at the 2008 MITX Awards Boston, MA, November 21, 2008 — Overdrive Interactive has been selected as a winner in the “Best Use of Search” category at the 2008 MITX Awards for its work with Harley-Davidson. The annual MITX Awards is the largest awards competition in the country that recognizes achievements in the development and implementation of interactive technologies. Winners were announced in 33 categories, including five “Best of” awards, at a sold out ceremony attended by more than 1,000 industry professionals held on November 19 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.Overdrive Interactive, the online marketing agency behind highly successful search and social media campaigns for clients as diverse as The Princeton Review, EMC, The Boston Globe and media giant Dow Jones, was engaged by Harley-Davidson to launch a paid search campaign, as well as Harley-Davidson’s first social media platform. “We know that search engines have become the #1 resource that consumers use to find and research products and services,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “Search engines have the unique ability to access the critical moment when your target audience is seeking exactly what you are selling. The Harley-Davidson brand generates a great deal of passion and excitement among consumers, so we wanted to build on that momentum by delivering them to the right place at the right time. We are thrilled to have that work recognized by the MTX Awards.” Entries were judged by over 100 industry professionals representing various disciplines including creative directors, designers, technologists, online media representatives, investors and business professionals. “This year’s award winners represent some of the world’s most innovative marketing and creative experts. These companies and individuals help big-name brands connect with their audiences through innovative and non-traditional use of technology,” said Kiki Mills, executive director of MITX. “MITX is proud to be the foundation for New England’s vibrant digital community and to recognize and help keep our Internet business and marketing practitioners at the forefront of innovation.” The 2008 MITX Awards were sponsored by Atom Group, Blue Sky Factory, Business.com, Factory, DLA Piper, Google, IBM, Kelliher Samets Volk, DoubleClick, EyeWonder, Fidelity, myOptumHealth.com, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rocketship, Sportsgenic and Technology Review. Contributors include Kentico and Websitenarrators.com. For the complete list of winners and other information please visit the MITX Awards Web site. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. About MITX Established in 1996, The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the region's premier professional organization for the Internet business & marketing industry. Reaching more than 7,000 professionals in New England, MITX is the community for thought leadership, building business relationships and professional training and development. Members of the MITX community take advantage of events, sponsorships, speaking opportunities and networking to make business connections and exchange ideas. With more than 70 events annually, MITX provides its members with the opportunity to promote their companies to targeted audiences and provides a valuable forum for networking to source potential business leads, partnerships, ideas, funding and other likeminded peers in the industry. MITX is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For more information please go to mitx.org. The whole gang posing for their victory shot!   Bianca, Mel, Ra, Laura and Laura enjoying the event!  See you again next year! Labels: Awards, Campus Life, Overdrive News Google Unveils Flu TrendsOn Tuesday, Google unveiled its newest product, Flu Trends. Flu Trends is a part of Google.org- the non-profit arm of the search giant. This new tool is based on the finding by Google that there is a significant relationship between people’s searches on flu-related queries and people actually suffering from flu symptoms. Google states, “We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States." Google Flu Trends site displays shows areas of the country labeled with flu activity anywhere from "minimal" to "intense.” Additionally, the site features an overall analysis of the United States flu activity level, a flu shot locator, a CDC flu prevention message, and links to recent news articles about the disease. The bottom line behind the emergence of Google Flu Trends as the latest in Google’s array of offerings is that it is further proof that when someone has a need- they search for the solution on Google. When someone has the flu, they search their symptoms on Google. And now Google is responding to that need, before the need is even identified, by using its research and knowledge to show areas where the flu is most prominent, in just about as close to real-time as you can get. Here at Overdrive, we have always stood by our feeling that when people have an immediate need for information or solutions to problems, their first instinct is to turn to Google.com and search for what it is they need. And usually, from that search, they’ll find the answers they’re looking for. Therein lies the value of search marketing- sending a message out to users exactly when they’re looking for you. Kudos to Google on the latest new tool! Labels: Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Facebook Announces New Advertising MetricsAll marketers who advertise on Facebook breathed a sigh of relief today when the social networking giant announced it has upgraded its analytics and reporting of ads on the site. To ensure you better understand how your ads are performing, Facebook announced three new Insights reports: Responder Demographics, Responder Profiles, and Advertising Performance. All three reports can be exported from Facebook into an Excel document or as Comma Separated Values. The Responder Demographics report is a very valuable tool for marketers since it allows you to analyze exactly who is interacting with your ads. If a person clicks on your ad, you will be able to track their age, gender and geographic location. This knowledge could allow you to further target your ad to specific demographic groups that tend to be more interested in your product or service. The Responder Profiles report extends the demographic analysis further by allowing marketers to gather common interests, favorite TV shows, movies, books and music of the users who clicked on their ad. This is a powerful marketing tool that will allow companies to strategically align traditional marketing efforts with consumers’ psychographic wants and needs. In the past, this information could only be obtained through surveys and/or focus groups. Now, with a single click, you will be inside the minds of your most loyal customers, at a fraction of the cost. The Advertising Performance report is similar to the report that already exists in Facebook’s platform with a few additional upgrades. Previously, marketers were able to export and view common metrics such as impressions, clicks and click-through-rates for their ads, but now you will also be able to view performance data by unique user and performance data specific to your ads that contain social actions. Hopefully news tools like this added by networking sites will ease the hesitation of companies to integrate Web 2.0 into their existing marketing campaign. Even though many companies are seeing the results gained by powerful social media campaigns, 80% of marketing executives are still behind the learning curve. Labels: Advertising, Analytics, Facebook, Social Media Marketing Overdrive Interactive Hires New Director of Business DevelopmentWith over 28 years in the interactive marketing communications field, Ryan brings a wealth of experience ranging from Internet consulting to video production to project management to client services. Most recently, he was vice president of Account Services for Cramer, where he led educational and marketing projects for healthcare clients including Abbott, Medtronic, Merck, Novartis and Wyeth. "Mike is a great fit for Overdrive with his wealth of experience and ideas about how to grow our business with excellent service, creativity and an overwhelming passion for success" said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. "We are growing rapidly, and Mike will really help us accommodate the rising tide of business we are seeing as a result of companies migrating their marketing to the highly measurable and accountable programs we offer." Ryan has particular expertise in the field of Interactive Media for training and marketing purposes, beginning with the advent of touch screen monitors and interactive videodiscs. He founded and led a creative and production department at Spectrum Interactive, producing over 500 training applications and point-of-sale kiosks for clients such as American Airlines, FedEx, IBM, Sears, Merck, National Geographic, UAW-GM, and Xerox. Ryan was formerly vice president of Project Management at iXL, a global internet developer, where his clients included GE, Delta, Chase Bank and Putnam Investments. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations who are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. Labels: Overdrive News Twitter Tweets from the Google/TechTarget B2B RoadshowI got to attend an invitation-only Google/TechTarget event at Google's office in Cambridge, MA, and tweeted some of the more interesting tidbits of knowledge I picked up. (In all truthfulness, I added a couple to this column.) The event, "The Google/TechTarget Research Project: How IT Pros Search Online During the Purchase Process," was billed as "TechTarget and Google partnered to research the search behaviors and online interests of business technology buyers, including the relationship between brand and search activity." The research was compiled from a sample of 2,200 participants from North America, Europe, and Asia. Topics covered included search terms used at the various stages of the IT buying process, buyer attitudes toward lead-generation efforts, and more. There were some very interesting data offered, and the food was actually pretty darn good. However, I wish they gave more examples of practical applications for the data and findings they revealed. I guess it's up to us to figure out how to apply the data to what we do in the future. Read more...Labels: ClickZ, Events, Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) YouTube Dominates Video YouTube once again proves how it's almost synonymous with video. According to AdAge, President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech has been uploaded more than 500 times and viewed more than 7 million times on the web in the last 48 hours after election night. And where did those eyeballs come from? 98% came from YouTube. Imagine that, out of the hundreds of video-sharing sites online, YouTube captured 98% of the video views. We're already big fans of YouTube so this comes as no surprise. According to Mediapost, YouTube delivers over 10 times the number of video views of its nearest competitor. What does this say to us media planners? It says that when whether we're planning and buying for a viral video campaign, a social media campaign, or a regular online media campaign, we have to remember that MAJORITY of consumers immediately think of YouTube. Of course, we also have to remember that YouTube is not the end-all and be-all of all video; other sites (MySpace/Fox interactive, Microsoft sites, Yahoo!, Hulu, etc) all have their own strengths as well. But for now, YouTube is the video giant. Happy weekend everyone! Labels: Industry, Obama Campaign, Online Media, Social Media Marketing, YouTube Google; Where the Beer Flows Like WineUp until this month advertisers selling beer online or promoting the sale and/or consumption of beer on their website were banned from using paid search ads to promote their products. Google has recently decided to lift that ban, allowing purveyors of beer the same opportunities that wine and champagne distributors have enjoyed up to this point. While Google has not commented on this change, analysts at Search Engine Land believe that Google is trying to increase their ad revenues during tough financial times. Although beer ads have been given the go-ahead, hard alcohol and liqueurs remain Restricted Products and "cannot be promoted in ad text or be the purpose of your site" (occupying a significant portion of the site), according to the Google AdWords policy page. It is unknown whether Google will continue to update it's paid search policies, but if current economic trends continue, it appears very plausible that Google will loosen their policies in order to gain additional revenue. - Bill Holmes Labels: Google, Paid Search Overdrive Interactive CEO to Lead Social Media Marketing Webcast for the American Marketing AssociationDuring this one-hour event, sponsored by Aquent, the world’s leading design and marketing staffing agency, Gold will share real case studies that:
“A lot of marketers forget that Social Media Marketing is about socializing, not just advertising,” said Gold. “Companies must be willing to make lasting connections with consumers, join in their conversations, listen to what they have to say, and maintain those relationships. To be effective, a Social Media Marketing program must involve a genuine exchange between brand and consumer, as well as the methodology and technology to measure and interpret that exchange.” Labels: Events, Overdrive News, Social Media Marketing Overdrive Interactive to Attend Bentley University Marketing Career Night Event for StudentsBentley does a great job at providing opportunities like this for students where they are able to network with businesses in the Boston area. We will be able to provide insight to potential career paths in the Marketing field as well as what the Overdrive Interactive organization is all about and what positions are open to current students and graduating Seniors. If any Bentley students are reading this, stop on by to our table and feel free to ask us all kinds of industry questions - nothing is off limits! Labels: Events, Overdrive News Ty's Surprise Baby ShowerThis is Meryl setting up the Ty JR pictures that Katie crafted so creatively:  The finished product - Ty mobile, sweets and a diaper cake :) The surprised Dad-to-be taking it all in: Congrats Papa Ty! Thank goodness we had this on Friday because the Velde's welcomed their son Liam into the world today! I'm sure there will be more pics to follow so stay tuned... Labels: Campus Life |
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