It is very rare to see Google advertising any of their products on TV. However, they have decided that this is a necessary tool when trying to promote their Google+ social network.

For Google+ Google is trying to push the motto: “Sharing, but like real life. That’s a plus.”

• Larry Pages Doesnt Even Use Google Plus – September 19, 2011
• Official Google Social Network: Google+: Facebook Competitor – June 29, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011
• Google’s AdMob Purchase May be Blocked – December 30, 2009
• The Internet Advertising Recession is Over – November 12, 2009

First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life originally appeared on: Crenk
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• First TV Ad for Samsung Galaxy S 2 – April 19, 2011
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Samsung Illusion 4G – November 18, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Amazing Launch Coloured Kindle Tablet: Fire – September 28, 2011

Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung originally appeared on: Crenk
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“We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft and AOL and bring to market what we believe will be a more efficient, effective and more effortless way to access true premium inventory and formats,” says Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo! EVP of the Americas. “There has a been a significant shift in how inventory is bought and sold, and we’re now 100% focused on controlling our own destiny, working directly with marketers and agencies and driving better returns for our advertising partners.”

via – Yahoo

• Journalistic Debacle, Get A Clue! – December 3, 2008
• Bing Replacing Google on iPhone 4? – June 1, 2010
• Microsoft Changes Look of Hotmail – Thoughts? – May 24, 2010
• Bedrock: Create Your Own Ad Slots, Advertisers Bid To Buy Them – December 19, 2009
• Internet Search Expanded, Online Information Drilldown – November 15, 2009

The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces originally appeared on: Crenk
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It seems like Delicious is going to start offering advertising opportunities to its users. Delicious was recently sold to AVOS (YouTube founders new company) and it now seems like they have also acquired a small social measurement tool called Tap11.

According to the press release, Tap11 works with over 500 major brands, media companies, and agencies.

From looking and testing out the product im sure that AVOS will use the platform within Delicious and possibly offer ways for these brands to advertise within Delicious and compare their results with Twitter and Facebook. This could provide a nice end to end solution.

AVOS stated:

“Our vision is to create the world’s best platform for users to save, share, and discover new content. With the acquisition of Tap11, we will be able to provide consumer and enterprise users with powerful tools to publish and analyze their links’ impact in real-time.”

• Delicious Has Been Acquired by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen from Yahoo – April 28, 2011
• Twitter with Ads, Worthwhile? – September 4, 2008
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• Social Media Marketing Strategy #1: Re-Submitting Linkbaits for Viral Success – November 20, 2011

Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? originally appeared on: Crenk
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It seems like Twitter are now experimenting with their own text ads. Text advertising has show up on Twitter just below the “trends” section of the site. Those text ads have been there for a long time, but previously they have only been promoting Twitter applications and other Twitter services, but now it has changed!

In this screenshot it was advertising the upcoming NFL draft, which included the website URL and there’s a related hashtag to help you see related tweets on Twitter search.

via Labnol

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Google Adsense Rich Media Twitter Advertising Has Started – March 25, 2011
• What Font Does Google Use in their Logo: Fonts of Leading Internet Brands – March 8, 2011
• Google is Offering $4 Billion Dollars to Buy Twitter? – November 20, 2010
• Google Attacks Definitely From China – February 23, 2010

Twitter Now Selling Text Ads originally appeared on: Crenk
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• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• Three UK Mobile Phone Roadmap Released for this Summer: Samsung Galaxy S II Mini, Galaxy Pro, Xperia Arc and More – March 22, 2011
• Samsung Announces The Samsung Galaxy S 2: Full Specs – February 15, 2011
• Samsung Galaxy S 2 Will Launch at Mobile World Congress: Teaser Video – February 2, 2011
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011

First TV Ad for Samsung Galaxy S 2 originally appeared on: Crenk
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Comscore have claimed that our of 4.3 billion video ads in the US in March, 1.2 billion of those were on Hulu. This seems to be an amazing amount of the market, but Google is yet to really venture into video streaming advertising (which Im sure will be coming on YouTube very soon).

Internet users spent a total of 1.9 billion minutes watching video ads last month, ComScore said. Out of those, Hulu was the top property, delivering 520 million minutes of video ad viewing. Overall, video ads accounted for 12.7 percent of all ads viewed online in March, while the average video ad ran for 24 seconds.

• Real Life Time Crisis with Andy Whitfield – September 12, 2011
• How to Download and Burn Hulu Movie to DVD – May 17, 2011
• How to Upload MP3 files to YouTube – October 24, 2010
• Looxcie Could Be the Future of Digital Cameras – September 20, 2010
• Download YouTube Audio with ListenToYouTube.com – July 27, 2010

Hulu Tops the World of Online Streaming Video Ads for March 2011 originally appeared on: Crenk
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• Twitter with Ads, Worthwhile? – September 4, 2008
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• The Reddit Invasion [Infographic] – October 5, 2011

Online Advertising Technology Defined originally appeared on: Crenk
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• BuySellAds Upgrading Their Directory, Bundles and more: Direct Advertising Sales Gets Even Easier – March 9, 2011
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? – May 9, 2011

BuySellAds Launches Sponsored Tweets: Now You Can Spam Even More People originally appeared on: Crenk
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Here is what is changing at BuySellAds:

• The New Directory: certain users may have seen the preview of this already, but it is now live for everyone. Please check this out if you haven’t already!
• Scheduled Reports: advertisers can download their ad data to CSV on the fly, and also schedule recurring reports to be emailed to them under Buy Ads > My Ads > Reports.
• Leaderboards: we have setup an initial set of leaderboards based on different performance criteria that can be found under Buy Ads > Leaderboards.
• Bundles: we have packaged together groups of sites into “bundles” that advertisers can use to make targeted ad buying even easier.
• Performance by Ad: advertisers can now see how each creative performs compared to others.
• Lists: advertisers are now able to create custom lists (as opposed to having to use the cart to plan your ad campaign) and manage their lists much better than before.
• Recommendations: advertisers will find both hand-picked and automatically-generated recommendations throughout the app based on purchasing history.
• Earnings: publishers are now able to pull up a dedicated daily earnings report. We expect the new earnings report section will evolve over time as well, as we add different views on publisher earnings data.

Im a big fan of the new user interface for Buying Ads. It seems like it is going to be a lot easier to find the best sites and find the demographic you are wanting to target as an advertiser.

• BuySellAds Launches Sponsored Tweets: Now You Can Spam Even More People – April 1, 2011
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• iPhone 5 Available to Buy on October 7 or 15 – September 12, 2011

BuySellAds Upgrading Their Directory, Bundles and more: Direct Advertising Sales Gets Even Easier originally appeared on: Crenk
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So where does terrestial radio stand these days? Radio stations still maintain an online presence, now offering their streaming content direct from the website. So while advertisers begin to shift with the transition, radio struggles to stay relevant these days as the primary source of information, entertainment and our favorite music.

It was years ago that I was introduced to a little application called Earthtuner. I think it was around 1997 when I came across this application that allowed me to find radio stations from around the world. I remember this clearly because I loved listening to stations directly streamed over the computer from other countries. In the days before iTunes, music apps, and stations with stream content there was Earthtuner, my virtual connector to anything I wanted from around the world.

More recently there is a similar application called Antenna that runs on the Adobe Air platform and offers up similar services to Earthtuner. The application allows users to search a database or interactive map of thousands of stations. User will be able to search by country, genre, or by clicking on any area on the map. Leave ratings for other users as you browse the most popular stations that others have recommended for you.

Do apps like this make terrestial radio interesting again?

Antenna allows you to stream stations from around the world.

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• 2 Tools to Turn YouTube into a Genre-Based Radio Station – October 3, 2011
• Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? – May 9, 2011

Online Radio Stations Still Relevant? originally appeared on: Crenk
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However, the FTC has been asked to review the case as there are grounds for concern in areas such as privacy and market domination. Obviously an acquisition from Google would greatly expand the company and it’s worried that market domination could crush the mobile marketing industry along with several other large companies who currently act as competitors to AdMob.

A decision is likely to be made shortly concerning this deal between AdMob and Google which has gone wrong – however with issues such as customer privacy at steak the consequences (such as restrictions imposed on Google) could be dire.

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011
• The Internet Advertising Recession is Over – November 12, 2009
• Comparing Ad Servers – Any Suggestions? – August 5, 2008
• Google Offers Available in Charlotte, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Antonio and Tampa – January 25, 2012

Google’s AdMob Purchase May be Blocked originally appeared on: Crenk
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It’s an intriguing idea, but one that depends on having a large number of advertisers on the roster to compete with one another – and Bedrock will have a tough time dragging those people away from the traditional services, abandoning the freedom to use their own ads in the process. On the other hand, it does put more power in the hands of the publishers to control the content of their own website, and push the ad content that earns them money on their own terms – after all, they know their user base best, and can adapt to serve their needs better. Another tool in the advertising arsenal can’t be bad. If you have any experience using Bedrock, please post a comment!

• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? – May 9, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011

Bedrock: Create Your Own Ad Slots, Advertisers Bid To Buy Them originally appeared on: Crenk
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Google reported the first rise in advertising revenue in over two quarters. The third quarter of 2009 stabilized the sector. However, as I mentioned above it was all due to the advertisements in the search results pages not so much the advertisements on websites.

While this is good news it’ll still be a while until the other advertisers such as AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft recover from the recession – these being the weakest of the search engines.

So it appears that the advertisements on web pages still aren’t doing as good as what they used to simply because there are less ‘big’ companies using them. As such, people don’t want to click on them. Crenk’s advice for bloggers and webmasters? Use Google AdSence to put advertisements on your website’s search page!

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011
• Google’s AdMob Purchase May be Blocked – December 30, 2009
• Comparing Ad Servers – Any Suggestions? – August 5, 2008
• Google Offers Available in Charlotte, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Antonio and Tampa – January 25, 2012

The Internet Advertising Recession is Over originally appeared on: Crenk
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Undoubtedly, the recession wasn’t really hitting the internet as hard as what it was other industries. Sure we has a bit of trouble over at Microsoft but that’s because they are also a trading company in the real world. What I mean to say is that the online world was fighting off the worst of it.

In fact, companies such as eBay and Amazon actually didn’t do so bad. People began to sell their stuff when they needed the cash and others bought them because they didn’t have too much cash to splash. It was all making perfect sense until the internet could take no more as real companies started to turn their back on it.

Advertising is plummeting. A new report states that advertising on a worldwide scale is down by five percent. In America, the figure is even bigger at 7% worth an estimated 0.4 Billion dollars. Companies who usually do quite well from advertising such as Monster reported that they lost 31% compared to last year.

Wouldn’t you know it; internet giant Google is the only ad publisher to report a growth, however even this is in single digits.

Now that advertising is failing the next sector to be hit will be entertainment. Big companies that have real world trading have more of a chance of survival but for online magazines and games where they often depend on advertising alone to keep the ship afloat – there may be trouble ahead indeed.

The IDC, who released the report did have some good news however.

“We think the industry will continue to see losses in the third and fourth quarters, but the growth rates–or the loss rates, if you will–will eventually begin to improve,” Karsten Weide, program director for digital media and entertainment at IDC, said in a statement. “However, we also believe the industry may have to wait until mid-2010 until it sees real growth again.”

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Crenk is Getting Greatly Improved! – October 18, 2011
• Crenk Still Being Punished by Google for NO REASON! – July 14, 2011

Crenk Recession Watch originally appeared on: Crenk
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OpenX Hosted version has been in beta testing since January 2008 and contains exactly the same software found in the original OpenX Ad Server. The new product allows publishers to use the software to operate all aspects of ad serving while OpenX provides all the hardware and back-end infrastructure, leaving publishers free to focus on their advertising revenues.

OpenX Hosted’s feature-set enables publishers to manage their advertising campaigns across multiple direct advertisers and ad networks, prioritize and optimize their campaigns, and use sophisticated targeting tools. Importantly, OpenX Hosted also enables publishers to maintain tight control over which advertisers are permitted to see their data and advertise to their users.

As you can see from the home page of the hosted version, there are some improvements. This home page aims to provide users with some very basic stats to make sure they aren’t going to go over the limit, as well as the community stats and news.

A few changes have also happened over at the Inventory page, in which seems to be a lot simplier in terms of design as well as some great graphics.

Overall

Overall the new OpenX hosted version is great for web publishers to control their own inventory. The limit of 25 million ad impressions per month is great for publishers, and allows OpenX to have a nice additional revenue stream. However, what I haven’t mentioned already is that OpenX are in Alpha of a new Ad Marketplace, in which I’m sure will be their main revenue stream in the near future.

• Comparing Ad Servers – Any Suggestions? – August 5, 2008
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? – May 9, 2011

OpenX Launch Their Own Hosted Advertising Server, Which Im Sure Is The Best! originally appeared on: Crenk
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Recently BlogRush has decided to close it’s “doors” and fade away. In an announcement by John Reese, BlogRush was suffering from lack of clicks, and users who no longer wanted to be advertised to. While that may come as a no brainer to the typical user, BlogRush prided itself on being unobtrusive and focusing on the needs and wants of the users.

Was this truly what BlogRush stood for? The site definitely had its fair share of critics. For example, Seopedia sticks out in my mind after they were so amazingly rejected by the site. You can read their entire ordeal here. Basically it appear that BlogRush depended on random people to be the judges of whether a site fit the criteria or not. The advertisement that was sent out by owner John Reese seems to focus less on quality judges, and more on mass quantity.

Mashable has a more scathing post from late 2007 where they say BlogRush was a throwback to the Web 1.0 era. They explain the process of earning credits by using their widget on your site, and sharing traffic with other sites increasing exposure and ranking within the network. He compares the concept to that of a pyramid scheme.

Despite the critics, John Reese stands by his product and claims that he is a risk taker. He admits that as an entrepreneur he has had some ideas succeed and some fail, but his success stems from not being afraid to try. He goes on to say that BlogRush was offered a “small fortune” but that he reluctantly turned it down to keep the purity of the idea. Not sure if I necessarily agree with the decision, but regardless, the site is down for the count.

It’s advised that users remove the BlogRush widgets from their pages because they are no inactive. So while click rates dropped, and BlogRush has come to an end, John Reese promises that he will continue to strive with new online ideas, and look to continue his innovative streak.

You can read the entire letter to users here.

• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Rdio Television Ad From Walmart and Samsung – November 24, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• How to Take Your Blog to the Next Level – July 16, 2011
• Windows Phone 7 Theme for Your WordPress Blog – May 31, 2011

BlogRush Goes Six Feet Under originally appeared on: Crenk
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Image via CrunchBase

Long gone are the commercials with our friends Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Mysteriously the advertising campaign stopped, changed directions, and Seinfeld was no more.

Was it the churros? Was it the conquistadors? Perhaps no one wanted to take them in after leaving their last family. Either way, Microsoft has taken a new direction, but some just can’t let a good joke die.

Apple has just released two commercials that are sure to get Microsoft’s feathers ruffled, but all’s fair in and love and war.

Check them out and share your thoughts. Whether you love them or hate them, you’ve got to admit that the marketing from both attacking the other does provide for some interesting conversation.

and here…

• First Microsoft Ad, Featuring Seinfeld – September 5, 2008
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Foxconn Parent Company Announces Soaring Revenues – March 17, 2011
• Microsoft Buying Adobe? – October 9, 2010
• Microsoft Discourages PC Users from Buying Macs – August 12, 2010

Apple’s New Ads Poke Fun of Microsoft originally appeared on: Crenk
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The media slammed against what seemed like a commercial about nothing, similar to the description of the show Seinfeld from 10 years ago. Personally I am a big fan of the show, but the humor does not translate 10 years later, and if they look to enter a new, younger, more media savvy market, digging 10 years back for jokes does them no good.

Well the second clip has been released, and the extended version has already been all over YouTube and other video posting sites. While this will not show on TV in its entirety due to it being over 4 minutes long, I can’t imagine the cut version being any better.

The TWiT podcast hosted by Leo Laporte even attempted to dissect the first commercial for the underlying message looking for symbolism in the commercial and even they fell short near the end. If the commercial looks to be that cerebral, they will more then likely lose people rather than gain.

I say thumbs down to this sitcom-ish style advertising, but you be the judge.

• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Hulu Tops the World of Online Streaming Video Ads for March 2011 – April 15, 2011
• Apple’s New Ads Poke Fun of Microsoft – October 20, 2008
• Comparing Ad Servers – Any Suggestions? – August 5, 2008
• Windows 8 Beta Late February 2012: Official Public Release of Windows 8 in January 2013 – December 8, 2011

Seinfeld and Gates at it Again originally appeared on: Crenk
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• Are AVOS Planning Advertising Solution for Delicious? – May 9, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011
• Online Advertising Technology Defined – April 13, 2011
• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Meme will Challage Twitter in a World War – August 20, 2009

Twitter with Ads, Worthwhile? originally appeared on: Crenk
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Free Ad Servers:

Open X – OpenX is an amazing piece of software that allows medium and large website to control their inventory. It is cost effective because the software is free, however you need to think about the implications advertising will have on your hosting servers, because huge amounts of ad serving can mean very large bandwidth costs. I also find OpenX a little hard to understand when you are first using the serving, plus I’m sure the larger your sites are the more complicated it becomes.

Google Ad Manager – Google Ad manager is a great product but it is built specifically for small publishers. It has a great design and easy to use. The first issue is that you can only use this ad server for small sites, because it is not compatible with any larger ad servers, and you have to put ad code straight into the header of your site. Additionally, I really don’t like the fact that when you deliver your first campaign you have to set it all up the day before it is allowed to be start. Small but bloody annoying.

Corporate Ad Servers:

Zedo – Zedo is very professional company with some great customer service. However, with them we got caught on the first hurdle, cause they were very expensive compared to all the other companies. Possibly, this is due to the great customer service and the results they can bring your sites. However, if you don’t have a great sales team to match what they can offer, there isnt too much point.

DoubleClick – This company just amazes me. Doubleclick seems to be a mish mash of several individual sections of software that has been mashed into one tool. Instead of Trafficking, reporting, billing and account details all in one sections, they seem to have segmented them, thus making it very untidy. However, they are the worlds best ad serving tool and the most used.

Atlas – Atlas, I tried to contact 5 times and they have never even responded to the messages I left. So I didn’t even get past the pricing stage let alone using their service. Typical Microsoft!

After all of these experiments it didn’t really bring me to finding the ad server solution that I was after. Im wanting a piece of software that is easy to understand and us, which doesn’t cost the earth, preferably free and web based. Does anyone know of a solution that I should try?

• OpenX Launch Their Own Hosted Advertising Server, Which Im Sure Is The Best! – October 31, 2008
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Twitter Now Selling Text Ads – May 3, 2011
• Google is Offering $4 Billion Dollars to Buy Twitter? – November 20, 2010

Comparing Ad Servers – Any Suggestions? originally appeared on: Crenk
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