"Sponsor Posts" : RSS Contextual Advertising.
The biggest story on TechMeme today is TechMeme ! Yay. But naagh, the blog/rss ad model is a smart one, esp for the Mountain View market, and once interactive ad agencies get their head around developing tailored advertorial messages using blogs and rss there is something there. (obviously the big ones won't deal with it till audience is bigger and ad/tech formats are standardised)
The strong response on this neat innovation has been so big probably because of the lack of ad offerings positioned between the display/sponsorship (TechCrunch) paradigm, and the (Adsense) cost per click text placements view. Nice RSS contextual ads Gabe, who linked to the potential of a wordpress plugin (for the functionality) which would be way kewl.
Efuddle.com : "A simple Wordpress or MT plugin would make it easy for bloggers to implement the "Sponsor Posts" concept I've introduced on Techmeme. Given the growing number of decent company blogs, I believe there's a place for this. And and even bigger place should there arise a great variety of compelling product feeds containing affiliate links that pay republishers."
The other missing link which MacDaddy Winer wants is the adsense imprint of a dynamic auction for the space (Jeff Jarvis says the price comes out at around a $5-$8 CPM), and timeflighting, so he can buy particular days.
Scripting.com : "Will the sponsors actually have anything to say? We'll find out. A month is a long time to fill. Also, I wish I had had a chance to bid on an ad, I wonder how Gabe decided who to offer it to, and how he set the price. Will the value of an ad on Techmeme go up or down next month or the month after?"
RSS Advertorial models such as this (that link to recent advertiser blog posts) are akin to "content integration" deals in Web 1.0; Each of the sponsors have linked to their blog, 2 of which use very (very) basic Circa 2004 blue and white Wordpress blogs with only one (Wink) tailoring a custom "Welcome TechMeme" readers. (yes probably not effective either.. ie there is no call to action. nothing interesting.. this is where fmcg marketers really are so far beyond web 2.0) The other (Socialtext) have linked to a recent blog entry - which is better designed, but not tailored to TechMeme : Kinda like a late night informercial - "Wikis are good. You know you want a wiki. You are feeling very sleepy. Now buy a fn wiki already !"
For this to be an effective medium, the key will then be in getting the advertisers blog environment right. My gut feel is they will probably need to link to custom blog posts that have targeted messages : How this will work in displaying the last 3 posts of it's sponsors, may mean that advertisers will need to setup custom blogs for these campaigns. (or else the latest bug fix is going to have a lead far right column position that the whole world of tech influencers is going to know about - yeah i know people like transparency, and that can translate into positive brand feelings, which drives sales etc, but the rule of contextual is to target and tailor, to engage and drive further. You've got the customer, now what are you going to do with them.)
This is going to be interesting to watch how the creatives work this and similar spaces. Once the startup guerillas retreat and more typical tech advertisers kick in, I guess we'll see some giveaways, product announcements, and some interesting tailored outside the box ideas. (when you've worked in advertising it's good to say "outside the box" if you're not sure what else to say)
If you look further one more step, one of the structural issues with blog platforms today is they're not great or tailored for a business. Gets back to that fundamental difference between a corporate website and a business blog. Anyway, I see blogs for business having many more functions that a business need built into it. In effect Gabe has built the real estate, but now the advertisers have to understand the medium and tailor the message. (yes that sounds like standard agency junk but if u debunk the generalisations, this type of advertising will require different creative and skillsets.... eg blog writing... not just creating a flash banner or writing a newspaper ad)
Could be as simple as downloading or choosing a new wordpress theme. Anyway, for this webbased rss contextual and blog advertising to work ala TechMeme model, blog software too will need to accomodate better the needs of interactive marketers. It's going in the right direction tho, fo sure. Build it, and they will come. hehe.
The strong response on this neat innovation has been so big probably because of the lack of ad offerings positioned between the display/sponsorship (TechCrunch) paradigm, and the (Adsense) cost per click text placements view. Nice RSS contextual ads Gabe, who linked to the potential of a wordpress plugin (for the functionality) which would be way kewl.
Efuddle.com : "A simple Wordpress or MT plugin would make it easy for bloggers to implement the "Sponsor Posts" concept I've introduced on Techmeme. Given the growing number of decent company blogs, I believe there's a place for this. And and even bigger place should there arise a great variety of compelling product feeds containing affiliate links that pay republishers."
The other missing link which MacDaddy Winer wants is the adsense imprint of a dynamic auction for the space (Jeff Jarvis says the price comes out at around a $5-$8 CPM), and timeflighting, so he can buy particular days.
Scripting.com : "Will the sponsors actually have anything to say? We'll find out. A month is a long time to fill. Also, I wish I had had a chance to bid on an ad, I wonder how Gabe decided who to offer it to, and how he set the price. Will the value of an ad on Techmeme go up or down next month or the month after?"
RSS Advertorial models such as this (that link to recent advertiser blog posts) are akin to "content integration" deals in Web 1.0; Each of the sponsors have linked to their blog, 2 of which use very (very) basic Circa 2004 blue and white Wordpress blogs with only one (Wink) tailoring a custom "Welcome TechMeme" readers. (yes probably not effective either.. ie there is no call to action. nothing interesting.. this is where fmcg marketers really are so far beyond web 2.0) The other (Socialtext) have linked to a recent blog entry - which is better designed, but not tailored to TechMeme : Kinda like a late night informercial - "Wikis are good. You know you want a wiki. You are feeling very sleepy. Now buy a fn wiki already !"
For this to be an effective medium, the key will then be in getting the advertisers blog environment right. My gut feel is they will probably need to link to custom blog posts that have targeted messages : How this will work in displaying the last 3 posts of it's sponsors, may mean that advertisers will need to setup custom blogs for these campaigns. (or else the latest bug fix is going to have a lead far right column position that the whole world of tech influencers is going to know about - yeah i know people like transparency, and that can translate into positive brand feelings, which drives sales etc, but the rule of contextual is to target and tailor, to engage and drive further. You've got the customer, now what are you going to do with them.)
This is going to be interesting to watch how the creatives work this and similar spaces. Once the startup guerillas retreat and more typical tech advertisers kick in, I guess we'll see some giveaways, product announcements, and some interesting tailored outside the box ideas. (when you've worked in advertising it's good to say "outside the box" if you're not sure what else to say)
If you look further one more step, one of the structural issues with blog platforms today is they're not great or tailored for a business. Gets back to that fundamental difference between a corporate website and a business blog. Anyway, I see blogs for business having many more functions that a business need built into it. In effect Gabe has built the real estate, but now the advertisers have to understand the medium and tailor the message. (yes that sounds like standard agency junk but if u debunk the generalisations, this type of advertising will require different creative and skillsets.... eg blog writing... not just creating a flash banner or writing a newspaper ad)
Could be as simple as downloading or choosing a new wordpress theme. Anyway, for this webbased rss contextual and blog advertising to work ala TechMeme model, blog software too will need to accomodate better the needs of interactive marketers. It's going in the right direction tho, fo sure. Build it, and they will come. hehe.
posted by redbarren at 10:02 AM
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