Would you stand up for a friend? No, seriously, if a friend called in the middle of the night and needed you to bail them out of a poker game gone wrong, would you rush over there with the ransom money to free your homey? Carlsberg drinkers would. Will Burns, CEO of Ideasicle loves the [...]
People Love What They Love, Privacy Be Damned
December 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Instagram’s move to “liberate” its users’ photos for advertising purposes was the act of a corporate buffoon. But it was all a big misunderstanding say the leaders of the company. Interestingly, there’s no misunderstanding that people still love Instagram regardless of the stand on privacy and painful awkwardness. In my piece on Instagram that appeared [...]
Facebook Fumbles and Yahoo! Recovers
December 18, 2012 By 1 Comment
Mark Zuckerberg knows how to strike a nerve. Which is odd, because striking a chord is how most men and women make a lot of money. Naturally, he stepped over the privacy line again. This time his prize purchase of 2012 — Instagram for just shy of one billion dollars — is at risk of [...]
Promoted Tweets To Increasingly Find Their Targets
August 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Brands have been promoting their Tweets for awhile now, but thanks to a new offering from Twitter, brands are now able to more accurately target these Tweets to readers receptive to such messaging. As part of its new targeting feature, Twitter will now allow advertisers to send paid ads, in the form of Tweets, to [...]
Provided He Could Advertise On Facebook, What Would Wanamaker Do?
August 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Just last week, we looked at Google’s elaborate courtship of advertisers. Now, it’s Facebook’s turn to woo. According to The Wall Street Journal, New York-based Carolyn Everson, 40, is Facebook’s “liaison” with Madison Avenue, and she’s busy providing big brands the kind of data they need to justify their ad buys on the social platform [...]
How Do Online Advertisers Know What You Want? They Mercilessly Track Your Every Move
June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Careful where you click. Advertisers are watching your every move. Unless you’re using Microsofts’s latest version of its Web browser, Internet Explorer 10. In a move that has angered the digital advertising industry, IE 10 comes with “do not track” as the default preference. According to The Wall Street Journal, Stu Ingis, general counsel of [...]
Microsoft Cares About Its Market Share; Ergo, It Cares About Securing Your Data (Or So Says This Ad)
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Microsoft is taking a page from Mitt Romney’s playbook and going on the attack. But in a very nice way. Here’s a print ad the company is running in The Wall Street Journal and other national newspapers of note. Let’s examine some copy from the ad: “To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting [...]
Ask Why, And Google Will Tell You
November 7, 2011 By 1 Comment
I’ll admit, I’m a bit creeped out by display ads that seem to be targeting me. Particularly the ones that “follow” me across multiple websites or reference something I’ve shopped for recently. Google is attempting, in part, to explain why you’re seeing certain ads. From The Seattle Times: “Our advertising system is designed to show [...]
Think Twice Before You Put That Vibrator On Your Visa Card
October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
If you believe your credit card purchases can’t be used for targeted ads towards you, think again. According to the Wall Street Journal, credit card companies are already pursuing it: The technology is still evolving. According to ad executives briefed on some of the ideas, a holy grail would be to show, for instance, a [...]
No Worries, You’re A Moving Target Who Can’t Be Tracked
September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Online marketers don’t know jack about Matthew Creamer, and they probably don’t know much about you. In his latest Ad Age piece, Creamer says he spent time closing observing the display ads being fed to him over a 48-hour period and concluded: If the internet advertising business understands me correctly, then I am a sugary-drink-swilling, [...]
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