http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/blog.html (silly marketing blog is silly) iWeb 2.0.4 http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/blog_files/IMG_0193.jpg http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/blog.html http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/Entries/2008/9/23_%5Bmusic%5D_making_widgets_more_than_just_copy___paste.html 183e8676-c472-4a61-9435-4f666a7c1c4e Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:07:06 -0700 Disclaimer: I’ve no affiliations with this artist or record label. I just enjoy the music and appreciate the way this album is being promoted.<br/><br/>It’s been a long time since I thought about ad banners and online advertising, but I recently came across this campaign from one of my favorite artists which breaks the traditional mold of music industry lameness and demonstrates that some actually do use the internets well.<br/><br/>Clicking on “More Information” while hovering over the above widget opens up an interface where you can watch the artist’s music video, get album / live tour information, and choose a few ways to share this content with your friends. You can also listen to an “album digest” - little bits from every song on the album. <br/><br/>The payoff is also there - albeit in a crude “FREE DOWNLOAD” form that serves its purpose just fine. In addition to watching and listening to short clips of the material, users can access and download 2 full tracks as well as 1 full music video on the album minisite via the widget. <br/><br/>The quality of the free downloads also speaks to the no-strings-attached generosity of the campaign: the 160kbps MP3s are much higher quality than your typical Myspace-streamed music or Youtube video, not to mention iTunes Store tracks are 128kbps quality DRM files. The downloadable music video is also high quality, weighing in at nearly 200MB for 7-8 minutes of content (by contrast, a 21 minute TV show from iTunes is about 250MB).<br/><br/>What’s interesting is that while the album minisite with free downloads can be accessed from other places, the album digest is exclusive to this widget. Personally, that’s a good decision by the campaign managers and a good-enough reason to grab the source code. Also, to acknowledge the effort it takes to share this content, people who take advantage of the widget can enter a drawing to win a prize on the minisite as well. <br/><br/>All of these elements demonstrate one important goal that so much of the advertising industry has failed to achieve: relevance. In other words, making content worth people’s time. In terms of the online space, sometimes all that means is a click of the mouse - yet most of what’s out there isn’t even worth that much. http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/Entries/2008/9/5_%5Bvideo%5D_how_not_to_spend_10_million_dollars.html 1067fccf-11b7-4afa-8731-7f1f9895726f Fri, 5 Sep 2008 18:43:34 -0700 Microsoft’s long-awaited ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld surfaced yesterday, and it’s 90 seconds of my life I’ll never have back.<br/><br/>Both the message and the humor (?) were probably lost somewhere between the churros and uncomfortable banter, and the majority of YouTube commenters seem to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253Duz6amk3P-hY%2526eurl%253Dhttp://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/04/microsofts-first-seinfeld-ad-airs-shoe-circus/">agree</a>.<br/><br/>While I suppose the idea looked good to someone out there, I’m not sure Microsoft will get what they were looking for out of an ad like this. I might even go out on a limb and say both the Jerry Seinfeld brand and the Bill Gates brand take a hit each time someone views this video.<br/><br/>You don’t always get what you pay for. http://www.adpuppet.com/adpuppet/blog/Entries/2008/8/24_%5Bvideo%5D_why_fight_the_fast-forward_button.html ec353e70-2596-4d79-a662-734e960767c9 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:15:27 -0700 First things first: I do not own a DVR. As backward as that may sound for 2008, I enjoy the majority of my content ad-free and on-demand. <br/><br/>Which explains when I first encountered the above spot, my immediate reaction was to gag at the desperately distasteful top banner. It seemed that advertising had sunk to a new low, what with one portion of the ad distracting the viewer from another. For a moment it seemed the universe would collapse upon itself in twisted irony.<br/><br/>But then I realized the purpose - to persevere against the DVR-equipped audience. I’m all for marketers evolving with the times, but it’s rather futile to fight the fast-forward button. It should be very clear that when a viewer fast-forwards through commercials, s/he is declining to be interrupted from the desired programming. If this is the case, why try harder to shove your message in front of said viewer? Is there nothing else to consider other than serving that ad impression, however awful it may be?<br/><br/>Old-school thinking may learn some new tricks, but aggravation is hardly innovation.