Yahoo Advertising Category

myadmarket-comContextAds is a targeted advertising program designed for the Linden Lab Second Life virtual community. Selected ads of potential interest to individual end users are transmitted to computers, cellular telephones and other portable digital communications devices based on the content of user communications in the Second Life environment. In ContextAds, a group of subscribers called a “board” actively monitors the conversations of users, transmitting advertisements to individuals who input specific keywords. For example, if a user enters the phrase “audio system,” that user may subsequently see advertisements for amplifiers or speakers. The subscriber can then click on the ad and be transferred to a relevant Web site providing the opportunity to shop for items and purchase them if desired. Advertisers who join the ContextAds program bid on keywords but are charged only when one of their ads appears on a subscriber’s digital device. Read the rest of this entry »

What Is Advertising Agency

Definition
(1) creates new promotional ideas, (2) designs print, radio, television, and internet advertisements, (3) books advertisement space and time, (4) plans and conducts advertising campaigns, (5) commissions research and surveys, and (6) provides other such services that help a client in entering and succeeding in a chosen market. In general, advertising agencies are not deemed agents of the advertisers, because they act as principals for the services they buy on behalf of their clients.

An advertising agency or advert agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client’s products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients.

Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce television commercials and radio commercials as part of an advertising campaign.

Advertising agencies are outside companies that provide for the marketing and advertising needs of other businesses and organizations. Advertising agencies offer a full range of advertising services and advice based on market studies, popular culture and advanced sales techniques. Because they are independent from the client company, they can be objective about a client’s promotional needs.

Advertising agencies produce logos, creating effective and attractive color schemes to draw the consumer’s attention to their clients’ ads. They also prepare slogans and brochures, and write descriptive copy for sales materials. They may produce public service announcements for charitable organizations and social programs as well, and issue press releases for new programs, events, and products. Advertising agencies use assorted forms of media to promote their clients’ businesses or organizations, including magazine advertisements, newspaper ads, radio and TV commercials, websites, and even infomercials. Some also plan events, provide booths at conventions, and give away promotional items.

The way advertising agencies work is by getting to know their clients’ product or service well and determining which demographic provides the best audience for promotion. If a company sells designer handbags, an ad agency would likely try to position the company’s TV commercials during women’s programming or on a channel geared toward women. The look and tone of an ad campaign is also dependent upon demographics. If the company’s target audience is mature adults, design elements should be more traditional than if the target were a younger generation.

What are the major problems haunting agencies today?

The biggest challenge facing all agencies, whether traditional or digital, is to do work that matters to the CEO and the board of directors of their clients. There’s a reason CMO’s have such short life spans. They’re often not seen as contributing to the growth agenda of the company. There’s a lot of focus on branding, advertising, and promotion, but not enough focus on solving real business problems.

In the past, there wasn’t much an agency could do to contribute beyond those limited areas. But digital transformation now can and should be at the heart of business transformation. Agencies have a deep understanding of how digital media is changing the lives of consumers. We need to take that insight and teach our clients how digital can change the lives of their brands.

What are agencies doing right? What do they need to do more of?

There have been a lot of truly innovative ideas in new media, including social, mobile, gaming, and other emerging platforms. You see new great ideas all the time coming from both traditional and digital agencies.

What you don’t see enough of is big ideas that cross platforms, that drive the business forward, and that have legs – forming the cornerstone of a durable long-term strategy. Too many one-offs and that has to change or clients will start to think we’re all just goofing around trying out fun new things. It’s a prescription for quickly becoming irrelevant.