Woot Places 'Cleverest Adsense Ad Ever'

blogads Founder Henry Copeland points to what he dubs the "cleverest Adsense ad ever." Without hesitation, we'd have to agree completely. Riffing on Google's stock market woes, Woot placed an ad that reads, "We saw what's over there. Figured you'd look away. So we put our ad here. woot.com." Is that not brilliant placement (and copy) or what?

Card From Business Trip Hottie Delivers Unexpected Shocker

Upon returning home from a business trip, it's sometimes nice to get a follow up email or card from that special new friend you met while engaged in activities entirely unrelated to business. The recipient in this commercial for Snapily is quite proud of himself when he receives a card from Tiffany, the girl he met on his last trip to New York. Quite proud indeed. That is until his co-worker points out something that could only be described as unexpected. Keta Keta created.

PomX Advertising, Levi's Plays Dirty, Rebuild the (Grand Old) Party, Saved by Zero Hate Poll

- You know you wanna browse through Barack Obama's flickr.

- Make the Logo Bigger taps his own top 25 influential bloggers to spit knowledge on Pepsi's blogger outreach effort.

- GOP taps social media to rekindle its fire.

- Levi's to agencies: want our business? We want your internal invoices.

- PomX break room sheep go "What the fu-uuuck?" for "maximum wakey-wakedness!" Via.

- CEOs in ads = company death rattle.

- Rate your hate for "Saved by Zero."

Headvertising 2.0: Air New Zealand Does 'Cranial Advertising'

Unearthing headvertising as if it were something new, Air New Zealand held a casting call to find 75 men and women who'd be willing to have their heads shaved and a temporary tattoo applied. They even invented a new name for the four year old human advertising tactic: Cranial Advertising. Ooo...sounds sooooo much more official than headvertising, doesn't it?

The promotion was developed to promote the airline's new check in system implemented at Aukland, Christchurch (interesting name for an airport) and Wellington.

Headlines (there's a pun in there somewhere) included "The End of the Domestic Check-in Queue is Coming" and "Need a Change? Head down to New Zealand. airnewzealand.com".

Garfield Dubs Palin An Ignoramus, All-Stars Awarded, ad:tech Revisited

- Meet the new Art Diector's Club president Doug Jaeger in a new Reel Split podcast.

- AdWeek's 23rd Annual Media All-Stars Awards issue is out. Initiative Chairman and CEO Richard Beaven was named Media Executive of the Year.

- Relive (or live for the first time) ad:tech New York by listening to this BeanCast podcast during with AquireWeb President Al Gadbut, The Martin Agency' David Vogeleer, host Bob Knorpp and myself discuss the show's highlights.

- Claiming iCrossing raided staff and clients, Agency.com had filed for damages of $19.5 million against the Omnicom shop.

- Bob Garfield stirs up a shit storm for calling Sarah Palin an ignoramus in his review of the McCain campaign.

The Revolution Will Be Widgetized! Among other Things

The Next Frontier: Advertising in Applications.

This panel struck me as one of the most relevant to marketers at ad:tech NY this year. Topics included widgets, in-game advertising and in-cloud applications (server-hosted productivity supplements to Word and Excel). A representative from Facebook also discussed what ad models work well for the social network.

Liza Hausman of Gigya introduced the talk on widgets. (See her discuss it, in part, in the video above. Try not to wince when Escourrou, bless his heart, says "marketeers.") She observed people used to spend time on destination sites; now they bring content wherever they go: a social network, a blog, a desktop, their start page.

As a result, widgets present a real opportunity for marketers. "Anything that can be done on a website can be done on a widget," she pointed out. "Most importantly, widgets have to be installed by a user to a page." That's the world's best validation of your value add - and obviously also a huge hurdle.

Half-ass a widget, and it'll never move past your subsite.

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It's the Skinny on Search and Synergy.

Search and Social Synergy.

At this jewel of an ad:tech session, each panelist lavished the audience with a drop of wisdom from their collective fountains. What follows are my scoopings.

Tips for managing a brand in the new media landscape, courtesy of MTVN's Julie Sun:

• You've heard the expression "knowledge is power." Well, sound social knowledge can protect a brand. Monitor user-created pages like Wikipedia; see what people say about you, and communicate your point of view. (Avoid the temptation to link-whore, though.)


• Do research to find out where your users are. (Don't play with Facebook, for example, if your users aren't there.) Given your objectives, ID which space works best for you.


• Support your online social initiatives year-round. (For chrissake, don't take down a subsite just because you stopped running TV ads for it. What makes the web cool is its ability to keep ads going long after the money stops. KEEP THE SITE UP. DON'T DELETE THOSE VIDEOS, EITHER.)

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Hey, Cool-Hunters. I've Got Your Millennials Right Here.

Obama, Apple and Ice Cream - Building Brand Passion Among Millennials.

This ad:tech panel consisted of six Millennials, which -- according to the official (coughs) definition -- represent those born between 1979 and 1994. Wanna know if they actually respond to your email blasts and big Flash banners? Watch the video above. And if you happen to be shilling for Urban Outfitters, pat yourself on the back.

Alloy's Samantha Skey served as moderator and cow prod. This company's entire raison d'etre is to know kids better than they know themselves, then package them in silver spoonfuls to ravenous marketers. Once in awhile, Skey made an irrefutable statement about their transparent whims, backed by video footage of some poor dope proving her right.

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ad:tech New York Closes: Despite Economy, Optimism Reigns

While it's said attendance was down slightly from past conferences, the New York ad:tech conference was, by all counts, alive and well despite 24/7 news reports reports of doom and gloom. It's true the economy is not doing too well right now nor is it expected to improve over the course of the next year. But, thankfully, the online and interactive market space is one of the few bright spots amongst the graying economic skyline.

In his keynote address Tuesday morning eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey said he expects to see a 14.5 percent growth rate in U.S. online ad spending in 2009, not bad for an economy that's supposed to be tanking. Many other sources have proclaimed such health as well for the space which bodes well for those of us making our living in online marketing.

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Chiquita Violates PETA Ban, Uses Gorilla in Guerilla Stunt.

Outrage! Outrage! Doesn't Chiquita care about actors working in hot guerilla suits for pean... bananas? THE SHAME. Righteous indignation over, check out Eat A Chiquita for more high-LARRY-ass clips. (Who doesn't love seeing a banana try and pick up hot chicks or spar with a gorilla.) The site also has a section where you can make a custom video to send to friends. As microsites go, it starts quick, offers some stuff to play with and keeps you engaged for a little bit. A banana win-win!