The Net as an Advertising Resource

•It’s fast–Print ads: 4-6 weeks to create, 2-6 weeks to publication–Web ads: matter of days–Changes can be made quickly

•Inexpensive–Direct mail: $.50-$.75/piece vs. email: $.10/piece (no limit on length)

•Allows pictures and testimonials•Multifaceted

Nature of Communication: Two Methods

• Personal contact model (one-to-one)– Also called prospecting– Firm's employees individually search for, qualify, and

contact potential customers

• Mass media model (many-to-one)– Firm delivers message and broadcasts it through

billboards, newspaper, television, etc.– Addressable media is sometimes distinguished from

mass media– Addressable media is directed to known addresses

and includes direct mail, telephone calls, and e-mail

Multifaceted Advertising Approaches

• Usenet new groups• Free email services About.com• Games: BayBank, www.riddler.com• Interactive screen savers (freeloader) • Framing: http://totalnews.com (formerly)• Advertorial• Ad Robot (push technology)• “persistence:” ICQ

Advertising Considerations

• Mix traditional with net advertising– Place e-mail address and URL on advertising,

catalogs, letterhead, business cards (resumes)– Pick a memorable URL– Play media off one another-Victoria’s Secret

• Use promotions:– First on-line purchase – Coupons

Advertising Do’s• Direct mail participants of related discussion

groups• Post press releases to mailing lists

– Keep messages short, i.e., no longer than 45 lines of text

– Provide e-mail address for more details – Avoid hype

• Use signature file of e-mail• Make sure your URL is correct• Try to be appealing: fun/unique.

Some More Advertising Do’s• View the competition

– Get ideas for your site– Check out other’s HTML

• Spend time as a user• Stay abreast of trends• Include complementary links (“Welcome to my

site, please leave!”)• Check your links periodically• Relationship Marketing

Web Terms Used in Advertising

• Impression – each time a banner ad loads– If a visitor clicks the ad to open it, it is called a click or

click-through– Advertisers use market segmentation

• Divides the pool of potential customers into common demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, income level, etc. called segments

• Targets specific messages to these groups• Micromarketing – targeting very small market segments

Web Banner StatisticsWSJ 99 & TTB 07

• Web surfers clicked on 3% of banners in 97, 2% in 98, .5% in 99, and .58% for popups in March 2007

• Video ads do best

• Even with Popup blocking, popups do well

Customers blind to Banners

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

3.50%

4.00%

4.50%

5.00%

Pop-ups/Layer

Video Ads Button 2(120×60)

Skyscraper(120×600)

WideSkyscraper(160×600)

MediumRectangle(300×250)

Fullsize(468×60)

Leaderboard(728×90)

% of clickthru

Web Terms Used in Advertising• CPM is a dollar amount for each thousand

people in the estimated audience• A visit occurs when a visitor requests a page

from a web.– Further page loads counted as part of the visit for a

time period chosen by the site administrator– Trial visit –First time a visitor loads a web site; A

subsequent visit is a repeat visit– Page view

• Each time a visitor loads a page- if the page has an ad, this is called an ad view

What about Web Banners?

• Unique to Net• Usually limited text with hot link• Different sizes sell for different prices• Site may rotate banner (e.g., Yahoo and

C-Net)• Lots of competition• Hard to assess impact

Emotional vs. Rational Branding

• Emotional appeals work well in mass media because ad targets are passive– Do not work well on Web, however, because Web is

active medium

• Rational branding– Gives people valuable service in exchange for

viewing ads– Examples include free e-mail and secure shopping

services

Advertising Don’ts• Don’t lump all Net users together

– Identify target groups

• Don’t post a press release and walk away– Actively participate in discussion group– Observe for at least one week before posting

• Don’t dole out information stingily– Ye old 80/20 rule

• Don’t ignore Net culture• Be careful about borrowing …Don’t plagiarize!