Today Yahoo! came into the agency to talk about their new Rich Ads platform. It’s still in private beta, but you can see a few campaigns live now by searching for Pepsi, Victoria Secret Pink, or Esurance. By buying into the Rich Ads platform, you are guaranteed the top placement for a handful of your brand terms. Within that new Rich Ad placement you can add: a) click-to-play video or images, b) deep-link to multiple places on your campaign website, and c) offer custom search boxes or form submissions.
All of this might sound pretty good, right? so why is my first instinct to declare this a failed offering? (more…)
During my normal morning routine of coffee and email I noticed something unusual. This particular morning I was in the midst of adjusting my fantasy basketball lineup on Yahoo, when out of the corner of my eye I recognized a street name on an adjacent ad. It’s not very often that you see a postal address in a banner ad, much less one with a street name that you’re familiar with.
I didn’t see it coming and I certainly didn’t know it yet, but I had fallen victim to a geo-targeted campaign gone wrong. The 7-Eleven ad that grabbed my attention can be seen here on the left.
In case you were wondering where 2021 South MacArthur is, it’s in Oklahoma City, OK – approximately 1,500 miles from where I was sitting when the I saw the 7-Eleven ad. This targeting gone wrong isn’t as bad as you think and is probably not even 7-Eleven’s fault. I actually used to live in Oklahoma City and I’m sure Yahoo must have that information stored somewhere, although a quick search didn’t reveal where (not in my main profile, flickr or delicious).
This story goes from bad to worse when I went to click the ad. Click Click. Click. It’s not working. While I’m looking at the ad the following items painfully come to mind (in this order): (more…)
Recently I’ve been noticing remnant inventory being displayed on the Yahoo.com homepage. Maybe this doesn’t surprise some people, but Media Planners know that the Yahoo! Homepage was once the most heralded display placement on the web. It upwards of $1 Million to roadblock (own all of the inventory) for the day, and only major brands could play there. So when I noticed ads like “check your credit score” showing up on the homepage, I was noticeably caught off guard.
Ironically a similar thought was crossing Chris Brogan’s mind when he saw a similar ad on the homepage of NYTimes.com. A conversation broke out on his blog about the merits and demerits of major brands such as Yahoo! and NYTimes filling premiere brand spots with remnant inventory that must give them only a fraction of effective CPM. (more…)
I am a Senior Strategist at SS+K. I handle digital & social media strategy for a number of clients. I also keep a personal blog here. View Kevin Skobac's profile
Today Yahoo! came into the agency to talk about their new Rich Ads platform. It’s still in private beta, but you can see a few campaigns live now by searching for Pepsi, Victoria Secret Pink, or Esurance. By buying into the Rich Ads platform, you are guaranteed the top placement for a handful of your brand terms. Within that new Rich Ad placement you can add: a) click-to-play video or images, b) deep-link to multiple places on your campaign website, and c) offer custom search boxes or form submissions.
View Kevin Skobac's profile