Google Slams PayPerPost, Vendors Reviewed, Victoria's Sneak Secret

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- Ha, ha, ha! Serves the company right. Google is penalizing paid editorial ad company PayPerPost by removing the PageRanks of blogger who use the system. Won't be long before bloggers bail on the system leaving PayPerPost with nothing but a lot of unsold inventory and a pool of red ink. Give it up guys. The ad model was dead from the moment it was conceived.

- If you're wondering if that vendor you are considering working with is any good, you might want to check out Agency Vendors, a site on which people in the ad industry who have worked with various vendors can post reviews for the rest of the industry to check out.

- If you ever wondered what happened to the Fatty Turkey from Fatty Turkey Brand Whole Frozen Turkeys, you can get the story here. Hey, it's advertising trivia. Great conversation starter fodder for that next cocktail party you go to.

- Here's a sneak peek at the 12th Annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show which occurred last night at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood but won'r air on TV until December 4.

by Steve Hall    Nov-19-07    
Topic: Online, Television, Tools



Taglines Analyzed, Ads Pumped, Songs Given

- If your looking to create that perfect tagline, you might want to check out Nick Padmore's analysis of 115 taglines dubbed the best by some ad wankers in 2000. He's come up with five key points which make a great tagline.

- MediaBuyerPlanner reports, "Internet advertising revenues exceeded $5.2 billion in the third quarter of 2007 - yet another historic high for a quarter and a $1.1 billion increase, or 25.3 percent, over Q3 2006."

- I'll have a GAP ad with that tank of Super Unleaded and a Coke ad with that bag of Doritos.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-14-07    
Topic: Promotions, Research, Tools, Video



Geeks Attack Facebook Ads

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Geeks need things to do to keep their skills up to date and marketers give them plenty of opportunity to fulfill their coding fixations. In this case, with the onslaught of ads on Facebook, the geek squad has developed several Firefox add ons which will remove ads from Facebook pages. These tools allow for the removal of Sponsored News Lisitngs, Feeds Ads or, if one is so inclined, everything. Ah, but what's a Facebook experience without a little commerce plunked right in the middle of your friends newly added pictures, recent pokes and iLike queries? Come on, geeks, we want to be part of the Facebook party too. Don't hate on us.

by Steve Hall    Nov-14-07    
Topic: Online, Tools



Flashcards Get Facelift, Come Back 'Thumbelievable'!

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Remember the "flash" or index cards you used to remember spelling words in grade school? Now they're pegged to a key ring and proffered by Thumb Cards for a future in promotions.

Well, it's not the worst idea we've ever heard (toilet paper rolls? Branded college-ruled looseleaf?).

by Angela Natividad    Nov-13-07    
Topic: Direct, Promotions, Strange, Tools



Get Down with the Homies with the ad:tech NY Ad-Jive Dictionary

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You can't call yourself a new media advertiser if you're not hip to the jive, and ad:tech is a great place to brush up on this crucial skill-set.

But it can be tough to keep up. With that, I give you the 2007 edition of the Official ad:tech New York Ad-Jive Dictionary. Use this knowledge well, and you're sure to be the life of the break room.

Better still, you'll confirm your CEO's conviction that burning $5K to send you to an ad conference was a very intelligent idea.

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'Dolby Volume' to Eliminate Overly Loud TV Commercials

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What with everyone using their TiVos and DVRs to skip ads, we really can't see why Dolby had to go out and actually spend time creating a technology that levels the volume of programming and commercials on TV putting a top to advertiser's trickery that makes their ads louder than the programming. Personally, the few times we haven't skipped ads, any change in volume is so insignificant it seems foolish a company would actually spend time and resources on a problem that really isn't a problem. But, this is about geeks in a technology company and they simply can't help themselves.

by Steve Hall    Nov- 2-07    
Topic: Commercials, Tools



Google Adds Big Boy MySpace to OpenSocial Adopters

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Once upon a time there was a social networking site called MySpace. Everyone was on it. Everyone loved it. It was the place to be. Then came the pedophiles. Then came the spam. Then came News Corp. Then came Facebook.

Oh, who are we kidding? It's still the largest social networking site in the world. It's just lost a bit of its shininess since Facebook took the spotlight. Well, MySpace isn't fooling around and has hooked up with Google as a premiere supporter of Google's recently announced OpenSocial development platform. OpenSocial hopes to bring some standards to social network development with its open API.

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by Steve Hall    Nov- 2-07    
Topic: Brands, Social, Tools



The Cookie May Crumble With 'Do Not Track' List

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Today, a group of privacy groups declared war on advertisers by asking the Federal Trade Commission to establish an online Do Not Track list similar to the offline Do Not Call list. The Consumer Federation of America and the World Privacy Forum, among others, want marketers to stop using cookies which enable behavioral targeting.

There has been much debate on the merit of cookies and their use to track online behavior. Marketers argue it makes the online experience better because ads are more closely targeted to the individual. Privacy advocates claim advertisers have no business collecting information about where on the internet someone has gone unless consent has been given.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-31-07    
Topic: Online, Opinion, Policy, Tools



Johnny Lighting Battle Wheels Break Office Monotony

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Get your eyes off that intern. Unhand that foosball table. Quit wasting time on Facebook. Stop reading Adrants, Get your ass out of your chair and go buy some Battle Wheels. Recently released by Johnny Lighting, these Transformer-ish things race, spin, crash, charge, crash and generally let you get your aggressions out without having to endure the senseless blood an gore of most online games. Plus, you won't get carpel tunnel syndrome.

SCC Grossman Public Relations was kind enough to send us a pair to fool around with and that we did; continuously until we depleted our supply of batteries. There's five "characters" which come with various body armor attachments and weapons. The goal is simply to knock all the loose parts off the other bot to win. It's simple and it's fun. And, no, they didn't pay us to say that. We just thought you'd have fun racing the things around the office, scaring the shit out of the accounting dweeb in the corner cubicle or mounting a wireless camera on it then parking it under the desk of the hot, new intern.

by Steve Hall    Oct-25-07    
Topic: Games, Tools



Video Advertising Distribution Gets Easier

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Life just got easier, it would seem, for those of you charged with distributing online video ads. Eyeblaster has just released Channel Connect, a tool that lets you deliver pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and overlay ads without having to deal with all the confusingly proprietary video technologies different publishers use.

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by Steve Hall    Oct-18-07    
Topic: Tools