Infomagination

Get insights on websites with Google Ad Planner

New job + new flat = not much time to post recently, but here's a handy new tool I've been having a play with today:  Google Ad Planner.

Google Ad Planner is designed to help you make ad campaigns online, as the name suggests, but it's also useful for general research into audiences and brands. 

For instance, if I want to find out what aging, rich, British men look at online, I can just ask:

Or, if I want to know who visits Tesco.com, I can find that out too...

...not to mention what other sites they've visited and what keywords led them there.

It's a rich, versatile mine of information - and in typical Google style it's completely free.  So what are you waiting for?  Go play!

Could this wedding entrance change music videos Forever?

Jill and Kevin Heinz met when Kevin’s childhood friend, Jeff, married Jill’s college friend, Ann, in 2005. Jill couldn't resist Kevin’s wit and charm. Kevin couldn't resist Jill’s intellect, not to mention her remarkable dance moves.  This year, they got married and this video of their church entrance has clocked up over 30m views on Youtube, for one reason and one reason only:  because it is AWESOME.

So far, so heartwarming, but the story gets even more interesting when you realise that the video is actually something of a landmark in music video history.  That's because Chris Brown's record company decided to put that little overlay to buy a copy of the song at the start of it, rather than kicking up a fuss about the fact that their song had been used without permission.

The results have been astounding, with double average click through rates of other Click-to-Buys.  Interest in the song also seems to have rubbed off on the original music video, which saw its Click-to-Buy CTR increase by 2.5x at the end of July. Most importantly, however, the song has rocketed up the US music charts, reaching as high as #4 on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon's best selling MP3 list over a year after its release.

The result is a whole heap of lessons about branding today and here are just three:

1.  Throw away your dictionary:  old definitions of things like "music video" and "advertising" are being re-written fast.

2.  Context is king:   a little nudge at the right time can make a big difference - and our data rich, hyperlinked world is is full of opportunities to grab people with the right message at the right moment.

3.  Remember that the public has the last laugh: Chris Brown may have seen his chart position rise off the back of his record company's ad, but the decision of the happy couple to add their own overlay - for a charity that campaigns against domestic violence - is a healthy reminder of where the balance of power lies when it comes to reputation.

Connection targeting: how to monitor friends & influence people

Birds of a feather flock together, so they say - and that's why a bunch of hot new media startups in the states have begun using data generated by sites like Facebook and MySpace to deliver ads based not on demographics, but on what your friends are interested in (says the New York Times).

Two companies in particular, 33Across and Media6Degrees, are leading the way.  They're not interested in basic friend lists, but in interactions on the sites, taking note when a user visits a friend’s page, sends a video or exchanges an instant message. In turn, they can identify people who are friends with a company’s existing customers and then advertise to them.

The approach is based on research about social groups, mostly from earlier this decade.  One influential paper showed that people in contact with clients of a telecommunications firm were more likely to respond to the company’s offer. 

“Instead of understanding all these things about people, you could understand who was connected to who,” said Eric Wheeler, the chief executive of 33Across. “The reality is, those people are very similar not only in socioeconomic terms, but in terms of what they click and buy, so it’s very valuable.”

Margaret Clerkin of Mindshare, agrees that “the theory feels strong that in this very social environment where people are influenced more by their friends than they are by advertisers and brands.” 

Yes, there are privacy grumbles and yes, the technique will suit some sectors more than others, but overall I reckon that the runaway success of social networking, combined with the news that reaching your audience through these guys could be "five to ten times less expensive than buying through premium sites" makes connection targeting a very interesting prospect for the future.

So, hey, go tell your friends!