My sweepstakes got picked up on the blogs. Is that bad? No it's good!

When a sweepstakes generates a million entries it is likely caused by the inclusion in many major online sweepstakes gaming sites. Sites of this variety have increased exponentially with the monetization of page views for online advertising purposes. An initial investigation of a recent sweepstakes turned up the following placements which is probably a small subset of the total number of sites where the sweepstakes appeared.

powersweepstaking.com; vacationstakes.com; freesamplesite.com; bigbigforum (blog).com.

Do we consider this good?

Yes, and it may be made better. Many of the entries came from borrowed interest from the prize offered. Although the initial interest was not in the product, is fair to conclude that each entry can be seen as an advertising impression for the product. The relative effectiveness of the impression is determined by brand messaging, logo and design elements on the registration page.

How do you take advantage of this?

To increase engagement from these large universes consider placing promotional advertising on these sites through display ads and paid search. These placements take advantage of the organic traffic the sites generate. Provide links to your home page instead of the promotion registration page or in some cases include home page navigation functions in addition to the sweepstakes registration information. This strengthens the brand messaging and also gives opportunity to add offers, product information etc.

Acknowledging this universe of “browsers” in structuring the promotion and the creative of the registration page can leverage this audience involvement and redirect it towards your brand messaging.

Let the (House) Party Begin!

I never like being one of the first guests at a house party. For one thing the hosts are usually still putting finishing touches to the décor and most importantly still chilling the beverages. I find the coldest beverages can be found about an hour into a party. After that the replenishment bottles mix in with, well you get the point. Here is maybe a way to get past the warm drinks.

http://corp.houseparty.com/

Today may not be the best day to mention viral in any sense with the Swine Flu concern and all but this does add some pieces to the whole viral marketing puzzle. Event marketing and sampling have always been about authenticity. Having someone you know as the party starter is arguably even better. Or is that; event better?

The latest "So-sational"Story features two things that should never go together.

Well the latest example of knuckle heads creating user generated stupidity has spread through social media. Truly a So-sational story! This story features bodily fluids and pizza; two things that were never intended to mix. Bad news swims with the social media current, flowing freely. The more disturbing or disgusting the faster the current flows.

http://tiny.cc/zJKum

So you think your brand is social? But how social?

This is a way cool tool for finding out the social index of your brand.

http://vitrue.com


For fun check out your own personal brand against colleagues & friends.

See your results instantly.

Rule # 1: Stay Clear of Disingenuous Posts & Tweets

Lack of measurable ROI in the near term is the main reason senior marketers remain unsure about the value of social media. To accelerate the idea of accountability many marketers are being tempted test the limits of what is genuine content and what is an outright solicitation. Recently the CEO of a major corporation twittered a link to a new TV spot. The feedback was less than friendly. So it seems that the more well known the brand the more difficult it is to slip in any sort of sell message.

Kids get away just fine with hand made signs selling lemonade; it is cute. It is not so cute when big brands hang out for sale signs on Twitter / Facebook etc. It's no surprise organizations are undecided in solving ths challenge.

More here: http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/digital/e3ie2a94edbc5b0a7c1150d6cbf4741dede?pn=1

Back to rule #1

Whew! Good News in Online Media & Promotions

Finally some numbers that don't make you wince. This report on media spend mirrors our experience over the last several weeks, that requests for quotes and the desire to build more integrated promotions is starting to drive conversations again.

http://chiefmarketer.com/advertising/0401-online-advertising-grows-2008/

Another benefit from the budget tightening is the increased emphasis on measurement and analysis. We are emerging smarter and tougher!