Gourmet Ads on Twitter
October 30, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Twitter has been named by some as the next huge thing on the internet and it could be. But if you haven’t heard of Twitter, that’s ok. As with most dot com start-ups these days the initial growth is fuelled by Silicon Valley geeks and Tech bloggers. However in past few months, Twitter has started to spread into other industries, with particular growth with food bloggers and advertising professionals.
So what is Twitter? Well Twitter is social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” to your friends or followers. Twitter is great for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Your friends simply choose to follow you, then they’ll get updates as you update Twitter.
One of the great features of Twitter is that you don’t have login via your web browser and add your update. You can login via your mobile phone, send an SMS to twitter and it updates. Your “Followers” can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application, such as Tweetfox which is add-on to my Firefox browser. We also automatically add our RSS feed directly into the Twitter account using Titterfeed.
It’s not just people that are joining Twitter, even companies are jumping on the bandwagon check out AdTorque, Adtech, DigitalMinistry, which are all active on Twitter in the advertising space.
So start following Gourmet Ads today on Twitter
Food Blog Advertising
October 25, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Food Blogs in the past have been very difficult monetize, with most opting for a combination of direct advertising, Google Adsense and affiliate programs to generate revenue. Recently we launched the Gourmet Ads network which provides food blog advertising to our network of food blogs and other publishers.
How it works? Gourmet Ads work with advertising agencies, online media buyers, food & wine companies and other networks to provide a range of food blog advertising solutions, so you can continue to create the content that you do. Once you been approved and added our tags to your food blog, our system starts serving relevant advertising generating you revenue on a CPM basis. We pay our publishers every 30 days via PayPal.
The Gourmet Ads network is made up of a range of quality publishers, and we’re always on the lookout for more great food blogs to join the network. So if you are a food blogger based in Australia or North America (including Canada) and wish to being monetizing your food blog with relevant advertising we’d like to hear from you.
To get started, apply to become a publisher with Gourmet Ads at;
www.gourmetads.com/publishers/signup-as-a-publisher
Holiday Season Advertising
October 24, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Here in Australia the holiday season doesn’t really start till nearer to Christmas Day, but for our American Advertisers, the Holiday Season kicks off in just a few weeks with Thanksgiving on the 27th November.
Major advertisers (particularly those who use advertising agencies) have already booked their holiday season advertising (including their Christmas Advertising), but for most small businesses and online retailers they haven’t so it’s important to make sure you book your advertising as soon as possible.
As holiday season advertising space starts to book up, CPM rates tend to increase closer to holiday dates, so its best to get in early. Plus this year we’re already seeing companies which use traditional mediums like TV, Radio and Outdoor beginning to shift their advertising to online for the first time.
There is no doubt that year after year, the holiday season is the busiest time for online retailers, so if your not advertising, you’re definitely missing out on sales. Apart from booking advertising campaigns, it’s essential to have key messages in your advertising creative which help consumers towards your online store. Make sure you use phrases like “Free Shipping”, “Flat Rate Shipping” and “Overnight Shipping” which are familiar with consumers.
Finally don’t forget about key dates after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day when consumers are looking for bargains. Add to these days like Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) are also days to intensify with your online advertising.
If you haven’t booked your holiday season advertising, then Contact Us for a customised proposal.
Conversion Rate Tools
October 22, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Many of Gourmet Ads advertisers are online stores who sell anything from gourmet foods through to kitchen cookware or even wine. Our advertising campaigns drive highly relevant traffic to their online stores where a percentage of the traffic convert and buy something. Understanding what contributes to an online sale is extremely important.
Recently the team over at Conversion Rate Experts, published an article about called 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website. The article provides a review on Conversion Rate Tools that can help you understand your visitors, where they come from, what pages they visit and where they leave your site. All important information. If you can increase the conversion rate on your shopping cart by just 1% it means you’ll be increasing you’re overall revenue. Once you know the numbers required, its just a matter of generating more relevant traffic.
So if you run an online store, then 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website is essential reading.
Wine Selectors Video Campaign
October 14, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
We don’t always blog about every online advertising campaign we run on Gourmet Ads, but because this is one of the first fully integrated video ads we’ve run I thought it might be interesting.
Gone are the days of basic banners, this campaign run by Wine Selectors is a Island size advertisement (300×250) which has an embedded video within it. Viewers can engage with the advertisement which launches a video in the space. The viewer can then watch a short video on how wines are selected. At the end of the video users are prompted to click to order a discovery dozen or the chance to win a luxury rail and wine adventure.
View the Wine Selectors Video Ad
Kellogg’s Increases Online Advertising
October 14, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
It’s not really the headline you’d expect to see in the middle of a global financial situation, but this week I read in the US that breakfast cereal company Kellogg’s has increased their advertising. Not in traditional advertising, but in online advertising.
Kellogg’s also announced that for the first time that its return on online investment surpassed its television advertising over the last year and a half.
See article here from Wired.
Kellogg’s as a company is very much aware of the fact that in tough times (they increased their advertising during the great depression) consumers look to save money everywhere from buying cheap cuts of meat to buying cheaper quality wines. This is the same for breakfast cereals. To prevent consumers shifting to cheaper brand breakfast cereals, Kellogg’s is increasing online advertising to ensure that their cereals are top of mind when in the supermarket aisle.
If you’ve got an FMCG product should you be thinking about increasing your online advertising budgets to prevent losing customers?
Online Advertising ROI
October 13, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
If you haven’t heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, he is the host of Wine Library TV out of New Jersey and sells wine online throughout the USA. Gary also has his own video blog at www.garyvaynerchuk.com and this weekend I stumbled over one of his latest videos called “You down with ROI” which is fitting considering the current global financial situation.
Gary’s video would have to be one of the best videos I’ve ever seen on why companies should ditch untrackable marketing activities such as newspapers, magazines radio and TV in favour for online marketing. Gary’s message is simple, don’t reduce your advertising spend; move it to online.
Gary mentions Google Adwords, but for companies in the food, wine or beer space, Gourmet Ads provides a much more specific avenue for reaching your target audience.
Here is the video…
Online Branding Campaigns
October 12, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Many online marketers believe that the only metric to measure the success of an online campaign is the click through rate. This can certainly be true for advertising campaigns which need to take viewers to their website or landing page to engage with them, i.e. download a coupon or register for updates. But click through rate isn’t the only metric for measuring the success of an online advertising campaign.
Branding Campaigns tell the audience about a product as well as how they can buy the product and are in many ways very similar to a traditional print, radio or TV campaign. The key concept in running an online branding campaign for your food, wine or beer brand is that if you put a positive message about your company in front of enough people for enough time, they will think about your company when they’re ready to buy.
Online Branding Campaigns especially suit products in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) space like beverages, groceries, tea/coffee, frozen products, spreads, cereals, pasta and kitchen cleaners to name just a few. In just a few frames of a flash advertisement you’ll need to get across the unique selling point of your product, which could be that it’s cholesterol free, organic or even easy to prepare. You’ll also need to mention where you can purchase the product.
So what’s the ultimate metric for a successful online branding campaign? That’s easy. Sales of your product.
You’ve got your targets to make, so why not undertake a wide reaching online branding campaign for your food, wine or beer brand. Contact us for a proposal.
Christmas Advertising
October 12, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Christmas is not only a great time for sales of gifts, but is also considered the peak season for sales of retail products such as beer, wine and food products in supermarkets and liquor stores. To ensure that your product stands out on the shelves it’s important to book a Christmas Advertising campaign which reaches consumers, engages with them and creates a relationship well before they reach the store. The campaign could even talk about the price or specials that you are running.
The ideal Christmas Advertising strategy is a two month campaign starting on the 1st of November and running till after New Years day. This will give maximum exposure of your product in the market place and if booked early enough will be cost effective as media often books up quickly or becomes expensive at this time of year.
Looking at Google trends from last years festive season, searches for Christmas related recipes absolutely peaked during this time driving increased traffic to recipe websites and food blogs. The same can be seen in the wine space
with grape varieties being highly searched.
Here is a search for turkey recipes which shows the intense amounts of search during this time.
There is a similar trend for “Champagne” searches around Christmas and New Years Eve.
These are consumers that are looking for products and haven’t made a decision on the brand yet. So it’s a great time to run an advertising campaign to capture, influence and engage this audience online.
If you are looking at having your products advertised to our Food Audience or Wine Audience, and haven’t yet booked your Christmas Advertising campaign yet, contact us for a proposal.
Wine Advertising Ideas
October 8, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads works with wineries in both Australia and North America marketing their brand online. So we thought we’d share 10 simple ideas on how wine companies can market themselves online.
Some of our Wine Advertising Ideas are obvious, others not so.
- Branding Advertising
Probably the most obvious and straight forward is brand marketing. This is where the message is simply the brand and is created to engage the user and provide brand awareness so your product stands out on the shelf. Some of the key messages when advertising wine brands include location of the winery, awards and varieties. - Online Wine Sales
Most wineries these days have online ecommerce solutions on their websites, but few actually heavily advertise and promote them. Campaigns can be targeted on selling the latest vintages or even last years vintage. A key to success is to either provide free shipping or flat rate delivery. - New Vintages campaign
Aimed at consumers that already buy your wine, a wine advertising campaign that introduced customers about your new vintage can be a way to kick off sales. Either centered on the entire range or just one wine, the campaign could mention awards or how long a variety could be cellared for. - Retailer & Branding campaign
Telling your consumers where they can buy your wines is very important, it’s the reason why you’ve probably got a long list of them on your website. But have you thought about a co-promotion with the retailer to drive sales in store. Your advertising could drive people to a landing page which told people of the offer or allowed them to print a coupon to get the discount. Copuld be buy a dozen wines and get a magnum of your sparkling. What ever the offer is, both you and the retailer benefit which is why you could share the advertising costs with them allowing you reach a great number of consumers. - Export Market
Say you’re an Australian winery and you export to four America states (such as California, New York, Nevada and Florida). Why not target your wine advertising campaign to only appear in the major cities in those states, i.e. Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Diego and San Francisco for California State. In fact Gourmet Ads can actually go right down to the post or zip codes of towns. This type of location targeting is called geo-targeting and allows you to maximise your advertising to the right location. - Cellar Door Visit
Driving consumers to your cellar door may sound unusual, but visitors to winery cellar doors spend money. Apart from buying wine and gifts for friends, many stay for lunch or afternoon tea in the winery restaurant. The strategy should be aimed at targeting the nearest major city towards the end when people are thinking about what to do on the weekend. - Wine Club subscriptions
Every winery knows that a large percentage of wine sales can be driven from newsletters sent to your wine club database. So it’s important that wineries continually invest in building their wine club databases to achieve growth. Subscription campaigns can be targeted at wines sites as well as food sites. - Competitions
Online competitions, if launched as part of an overall strategy can be very effective in raising brand awareness to a wine brand. The prize has to be for something significant like a years worth of wine or a weekend at the winery. It’s a great way to build brand and increase your database of potential consumers. - Wine Dinner Events
Many wineries undertake Wine Dinner Events throughout the year, but how often is the dinner not fully booked and you end up giving seats away for free? Together with the restaurant or hotel which is running the event an online advertising campaign can be launched to drive ticket sales. This can be promoted to people that have an interest in food and wine in the local area. - Winemaker events
Many wineries run events throughout the year each to connect with their consumers. A great example of this is the Australian winery Penfolds which runs re-corking clinics around Australia for owners of Penfolds Grange to have their wines inspected and re-corked. Why not run an online campaign to promote your winery event.
If you have any other ideas for Wine Advertising Campaign which we might have missed, then leave a comment below.
