Advertising

“Data Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Mitch Weinstein, Senior Vice President of Ad Operations at UM. In light of Mozilla’s announcement that it will block third-party cookies on an upcoming version of Firefox, the buzz [...]

Here's today's AdExchanger.com news round-up... Want it by email? Sign-up here. Fine, You Can Keep Your Cookie Mozilla is creating a Cookie Clearinghouse in collaboration with the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, according to Ad Age. The clearinghouse would make provisions for companies to issue cookies in special situations -- for example, Facebook’s content-delivery [...]

Connacht Gold is the largest supplier of fresh milk and cream products in the Connacht region and this new Havas Dublin commercial for its low fat butter is the first new venture into TV land for quite a few years. VIEW THE SPOT

Yale is already a long-established brand for home and office locks. The client wants a simple brand refresh campaign, to present the products' efficacy in. A good lock is a sure deterrent to break-ins. Grey Kuala Lumpur use humour to reinforce Yale locks as that secure and safe, that burglars find themselves with no way to get in.VIEW THE HOME ADVIEW THE OFFICE ADVIEW THE SHOP AD

In a meritocracy like Singapore's, juvenile delinquents are often stigmatised, seen as hopeless and having no future. To get more volunteers for its youth rehabilitation programmes, Beyond Social Services via Publicis Singapore wanted to show that a juvenile delinquent can become a useful member of society with everyone's support. To express this powerful idea, we used the exact same letters to rearrange a negative past into a positive future. Each "rearrangement of lives" is visualised with arresting typography to grab maximum attention. VIEW THE GANGSTER ADVIEW THE DOCTOR ADVIEW THE THIEF AD

XtraSpace self-storage is a small and relatively unknown business that provides extra storage space. With a very small budget, the idea needed to communicate their business to a large target audience in a clear and concise way.Y&R Johannesburg placed a single sticker in the lift of one of Johannesburg’s largest skyscrapers. This tactical execution makes use of the endless reflection made when you look into parallel mirrors, giving the feeling of infinite space the brand promise that XtraSpace offers. VIEW OUTDOOR

In late June, 40-year-old former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy can be seen sporting a cleavage-bearing black minidress in a new commercial for the Carl's Jr. Cranberry Walnut Grilled Chicken Salad. Of her participation in the ad, McCarthy, who appeared again in Playboy in June 2012, said, "I'm excited to be the new Carl's Jr. salad babe. I'm loving all the ingredients in their new salad. Each bite is scrumptious and a little nutty. Reminds me of a few exes I've dated." In a behind the scenes video of the ad shoot, McCarthy can be seen sensuously consuming the salad until the true Jenny lets loose and she grabs a handful of the salad and stuffs it in her mouth. In an equally Jenny-whacked explanation as to why she decided to do the commercial, McCarthy said, "What sealed the deal for me was having the different textures with my salad, crunch of the nut and the sugar of the fruit and the little juices of the apple that definitely spices it up." What she really means is they paid her a lot of money. Of McCarthy's antics during the shoot, 72andSunny Creative Director Mick Dimaria, said, "She looks like a beautiful girl but she eats like a dude." There will be a print component to the campaign as well.

To promote their fast internet services, Fastweb dit this incredible stunt in the Metro in Milan. The commuters were in for a big surprise when they boarded the metro in Milan and got off in Tokyo. Company: Fastweb Agency: M&C Saatchi, Milan Country: Italy

Do a quick Google search or scour the front pages of your favorite social media blogs and you’ll find a seemingly endless array of articles providing you with tips and advice on social media (this blog included). But if you read enough of them, which I do, eventually you’ll see those tips and bits of advice contradict each other. Don’t post on Facebook more than once a day, or your fans will un-Like you. Post more than once a day on Facebook to keep your People Talking About This score high. Photos are the most shareable content on Facebook. Videos are the most shareable content on Facebook. Post on weekends because other brands don’t and you’ll stand out. Don’t post on weekends, because nobody is listening then. It can become dizzying. It’s not that your favorite social media pundit is lying to you or flat-out wrong. Truthfully, not everyone can be right; but there are certainly areas of gray, and depending on your brand and audience, advice can differ.  But I have heard a few tips that are just flat-out wrong or at least shouldn’t be followed as if they were gospel. Here are five social media tips you may want to ignore, but you didn’t hear that from me. 1. Post content every single day Or don’t. The validity of this bit of advice is tied to the channel you’re talking about, your audience and the expectations you’ve set. At Post-Advertising we post once a week, but we’re active on Twitter every weekday. We have actually found that one longer, more insightful post a week was driving more traffic than a shorter post every day. So don’t worry if you aren’t blogging every day or even posting on your brand’s Facebook page every day. Simply set a publishing schedule and stick to it. 2. Ignore paid media… It’s dead Where’d you hear that? Here? Just ignore that “Advertising is dead” blog category over there on the right. It’s not that traditional advertising is dead; it’s that no amount of money will make your brand relevant to a consumer if it doesn’t create something of value. Buy the best billboard in Times Square. Buy a YouTube homepage takeover. None of it will encourage someone to buy your product. Paid media won’t build a brand; but it can certainly build awareness of something about a brand, which is why paid media on Facebook and Twitter can be so successful. 3. Automation is a social media sin You may have heard the saying “Automating social media is like sending a robot to a cocktail hour.” I get it, but to ensure quality and a commitment to an editorial calendar, being able to schedule content is important. This is a bit of a gray area, though, so watch out. “Worst practices” in social media automation include sending automatic direct messages (usually when someone follows you) and automatically tweeting every post on an RSS feed (what if one of them is something you don’t agree with?). Use the technologies available to you to maintain an approved publishing schedule so you can spend your time listening and actively responding to your audience. 4. Always include a call to action Head over to Facebook, click on your Pages Feed, and tell me what you see. Most of the posts will ask their audience to Like or Share or read or buy… You get the point. There’s nothing wrong with this in small doses, but remember that every other brand is asking for the same thing, and eventually audiences can become fatigued. Not every bit of content, whether it is a Facebook post, a tweet, an Instagram photo or a blog article, must ask your audience to take a specific action. Of course you hope they’ll share it with their audiences or even head to your online store and buy a product, but you don’t have to order them to do it.  5. Post at a specific time This is one of the most mind-boggling aspects of social media. I’m good friends with Dan Zarrella, the one and only Social Media Scientist at HubSpot, and I read almost all his content. He has provided audiences with mountains of data about when to post to get the most engagement, and it’s valu

The beauty of strategy decks, social media know-how, and living the dream through karaoke Editor's Note: Our ongoing "Meet a Media Planner" series brings you up close and personal with search and media planners. Here’s Juli LeDoux, an associate director of connections strategy for Digitas in Boston, Mass. At NYU, Juli studied music business and [...]