August 12, 2010 In Tinsley Blog

Advertisers Happy With Results of Apple’s iAd Program

by Gio Gutierrez

Advertisers are pleased with iAd’s performance, noting the level of engagement for users and their willingness to revisit ads multiple times, aiding in brand awareness.

Rob Master, the North American media director for Unilever, which put out one of the first iAds for its Dove shower products — said his company would soon launch a second iAd for its Klondike dessert bar. The company’s Dove ad featured videos and trivia games about baseball players Albert Pujols and Andy Pettitte.

The Dove ad resulted in a “double-digit” percentage of users seeking further information about the product, with 20% of viewers returning to check the ad out again. (Repeat viewers are marketers’ favorite kind — it indicates a clear interest in their brand.) That’s a good start, Master said.

Master also notes that the company’s early entrance into the iAd platform and the experience its advertising team gained with the initial launch have reduced the time and expense required for future ads in the program.

The report notes that Campbell Soup, DirectTV, General Electric and Sears are all preparing to roll out their own iAds, just as Citibank has gone live with its new ad with video and geo-location content built in to tout the company’s credit cards and iPhone apps.

January 28, 2010 In Tinsley Blog

The Supreme Court And Media Cost

by Scott Sussman

In a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling last week, corporations will now be allowed to contribute unlimited funds to political campaigns. Corporations can also run their own political ads for the candidate they support. No matter what your personal belief is on this issue, it will have a direct impact on the cost to purchase television time. Admittedly, this may not be the first thing you think of when reading about this decision, unless you are a media buyer. During every election, candidates gobble up huge blocks of ad time. If possible and marketing conditions permitting, Tinsley Advertising tries to avoid these time periods. While it was not the intent of the high court to drive up the cost of television time, it will have that direct effect. This will especially affect Florida, Ohio and New York; states that usually have competitive elections. October and November will be interesting periods to watch from a media cost perspective.

June 9, 2009 In Tinsley Blog

“Social” Interactive Web Banners from Digg & Facebook

by Gio Gutierrez

Facebook has a new feature that lets advertisers create special ads for their Pages and Events. The ads will appear just like other Facebook ads, but the users will be able to “Become a Fan” (if the ad is for a Page) or “RSVP” (if the ad is for an Event) directly from the ad. Furthermore, these ads also contain friend actions, which means that users will be able to see which friends are fans of the Page or attending the Event in question.

Digg also announced plans to roll out — Digg Ads. The sponsored content will look and feel similar to regular Digg content, but will be clearly marked as sponsored. It may link to stories, video trailers, independent product reviews – many of the same types of content you see on Digg every day. Digg Ads will give you more control over which advertisements are displayed on Digg. The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system. The goal here is to give advertisers a way to present content related to their brands and get immediate input on whether it’s relevant or not.

From a user perspective, I like the direction these companies are taking advertising. Digg and Facebook are making innovating ads like content on the site which makes it more meaningful to users. Here’s to digging and rsvp’ing in a web banner.