We’re Not a Blind Media Buy
February 28, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Some advertising networks will unscrupulously sell their network blind to media buyers and media planners. “Blind” meaning that even the advertising sales team aren’t even exactly sure about where the advertising will end up. What generally happens is that after the campaign has been push lived that they discover their advertising is running on unsuitable sites.
Unlike these unscrupulous advertising networks, Gourmet Ads isn’t a blind media buy. We’re actually very proud of the premium websites and blog which we work with as most have dedicated audiences and produce great content all the time. Our close relationship with our publishers even allows us to even on occasions do more integrated advertising solutions for advertising clients.
Apart from disclosing all the website publishers and bloggers we work with, we actually allow advertisers and advertising agencies if requested to choose right down to the ad unit. So if they don’t want to run a particular ad unit, that’s fine. By providing a site list and allowing choice right down to the ad unit, it allows advertisers to undertake a really optimized media buy.
So if you are unsure where your existing advertising campaigns are running and don’t trust the network youre working with, then contact Gourmet Ads and choose where your ads are running.
Advertising Private Label Brands
February 27, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
As the economy crisis begins to worsen, supermarket home brands, often known as private label brands are rapidly growing in popularity with consumers. This is primarily due to private label brands being generally priced cheaper than the branded product lines. However a contributor to the growth is because private label brands are owned by the supermarket, they don’t have to pay listing fees and because of this they get great shelf locations right in front of shoppers.
In many cases the companies which manufacture the branded products also produce the private label branded products, however many shoppers consider private label brands as being cheap and nasty, and don’t buy them because of the quality. So although sales of private labels have increased, generally they haven’t penetrated the mid to higher end of the market at all.
Some private labels only advertise in store or in catalogs, but if private label brands what to see continued growth into new markets they really need to look at non house advertising channels which reach gourmet shoppers, such as Gourmet Ads. Private labels also need to communicate to target markets with different advertising messages. So to a low socioeconomic market the advertising message has to be about quality for the price. Whereas, to a higher socioeconomic segment that usually purchases the branded product, they need to position the private label brand in comparison to the quality product. Make the messaging in the advertising compare the quality of the branded to the private label.
If supermarkets and grocery stores want their private label brands to continue to grow, they need to advertise their private label brand like their own brand. It’s just as important.
So how does a supermarket with a private label brand market to a higher socioeconomic demographic or gourmet consumer? Easy, via the Gourmet Ads network. Because we reach the mid tail of the Internet, we reach a different consumer that you would find via print, TV or radio. Besides, before consumers head to the supermarket they often research possible recipes online. A media buy through Gourmet Ads is smart because we’re about getting your product brand on the shopping list making a sale in store guaranteed. Its all about reaching the main grocery buyer and creating a compelling reason for them to buy.
Contact us for more information or request a proposal from Gourmet Ads here.
Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions
February 26, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
While in New York recently I walked into Hudson News and was amazed to see all the major food and cooking magazines were half the size they were 12 – 18 months ago. All of them Gourmet, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit and Savuer were all smaller. This trend isn’t limited to just American cooking magazines, walk into any newsagent anywhere in the world and the chances are the size of the magazines are reduced.
The reason is simple, print advertising is dramatically down because of the economy and there isn’t the return on investment compared to online advertising. So the publishers of cooking magazines need to increase magazine subscriptions to survive. Sure cooking magazines can go back to past subscribers with offers to renew their favorite monthly cooking magazine, but that’s really only a smaller percentage of the total readership. The growth has to be to find new consumers to become subscribers and a great place is advertising on food blogs and recipes websites on the internet.
Gourmet Ads global advertising network allows Cooking Magazine publishers the ability to reach a new target market of possible subscribers, quickly and cost effectively. It’s all about performance and we have a variety of advertising models available to suit any budget. We can also run different campaigns concurrently to promote different cooking magazines and drive subscriptions. Add to this our advanced campaign targeting options allow you to reach new international markets quickly.
Its important to note that it isn’t just cooking magazines which would perform well in the Gourmet Ads vertical network, as the majority of our audience is female from 27 -55 any women’s magazine would also be ideal. Our audience is highly educated and does spend on kitchen appliances, cookbooks and premium wine.
Some campaign ideas on how to Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions include;
- Value Add campaigns, i.e. Subscribe to this and get this magazine free
- Targeted subscription campaigns aimed at international subscribers
- Reduced annual subscriptions prices
- 1 month trial subscriptions
So if you’re looking for a solution to Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions, request a proposal from the team at Gourmet Ads.
Wine Advertising Blogs
February 25, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Wineries and Wine companies all over the world are transitioning their advertising to online from older advertising mediums like outdoor, magazines, TV and radio. Advertising on wine blogs and wine review websites is certainly one of the best ways to reach a truly targeted audience and from a cost perspective one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your sales. When budgets are limited, wine advertising online is something that should really be considered.
Gourmet Ads wine advertising vertical targets both everyday wine consumers as well as wine connoisseurs in just one media buy. We represent both large wine review sites as well as niche wine blogs. With this in mind, we’ve collated a list of wine advertising blogs which will help you understand more about online and how you can execute successful online wine advertising campaigns.
So check out our list of Wine Advertising Blogs;
- Wine Advertising Ideas
- Advertising on Wine Blogs
- Wine Tourism Advertising
- Advertising Next to Wine Reviews
Ten ways to use Roadblock Advertising
February 24, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
When advertisers and advertising agencies are tasked with reaching mass audiences online, many undertake roadblock advertising because it’s an effective tactic for gaining user attention and engagement. Add to this when run across an advertising network such as Gourmet Ads, roadblock advertising provides a wide reaching media buy with similar metrics to those of TV media buy.
Here are ten ways to use roadblock advertising;
- Branding Campaign
No doubt the most commonly used reason for running a roadblock advertising campaign is for branding purposes. Undertaking roadblock advertising for branding purposes will definitely lift the profile of your product in the market place. The key here is pick your day and the time that you’ll run the ad. - Cookbook Launch
When launching a new cookbook onto the market it’s important to make an impact quickly to drive sales. Most publishers reserve advertising dollars to promote their well know authors and roadblock advertising can really create awareness driving sales online and offline in bookstores. - Shopping Sale
No matter if you are undertaking a shopping sale in store or online, running a roadblock advertising campaign will gain attention to your sale either driving consumer to your store or your online store. Its important in your advertising messaging to communicate the saving consumers can expect as well as when the sale finishes. - New Wine Release
No matter if it’s a new wine label or wine vintage, reaching millions of wine consumers online can have a massive effect on sales. Imagine if your new vintage wine release sold out within days of being released onto the market. By undertaking a roadblock advertising campaign around the new wine, why it’s different, how it tastes would definitely create brand awareness of the product. - Consumer Packaged Goods Launch
When launching a new product onto the market it’s important to undertake wide reaching media to capture the attention of consumers and most importantly your product evangelists. So if it’s a new dishwasher detergent, tomato sauce or cooking oil which you are launching roadblock advertising is a great way to get the message across. - TV show
In the hours leading up to its airing of a new TV show or a well know returning season, roadblock advertising online can be used to create awareness with possible viewers of the show. This is a great way to lift the initial TV ratings and capture new viewers. If your campaign is about a TV show, then make sure one of your ad units includes a trailer or teaser for user engagement and interaction. - Popular Shopping Days
Own the day (and the days before), make it yours. No matter if it’s Presidents Day, Black Friday or Cyber Monday having a roadblock advertising campaign on these popular shopping days will generate sales online and consumers into stores. - Gifts Sales Campaigns
Key gift giving days like mother’s day and valentines always generate sales of gifts online, so its important to ensure your target audience spends with your online store. By running a roadblock advertising campaign will drive traffic to your online store and sales. Consider giving them an incentive to buy with you on these key gift giving days. - Movie launch
Every movie that a studio releases is ideal for a roadblock advertising campaign. The launch of a movie these days is extremely important, as the first weekends takings are a clear indication of how successful the movie will be and how long it will stay in cinemas before being available on DVD. - Clearance Sale
If you’re having a clearance sales or need to move stock at towards the end of month, then running a roadblock advertising campaign will gain attention to your sale either driving consumer to your store or your online store. No matter if you are undertaking a shopping sale in store or online, it’s important that your clearance sale advertising communicates the products which are on sale and the discounts available.
When running a Roadblock Advertising campaign don’t forget to use some sort of campaign targeting options such as day-part targeting and geo targeting ensuring that you don’t waste any of your advertising budget.
If you’re interested in running a roadblock advertising campaign across the Gourmet Ads network or selected verticals, request a proposal.
Search Retargeting
February 23, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
For many companies their entire online advertising strategy relates to search. They purchase related keywords, phrases, branded text and competitor names in the search engines on a pay per click model or PPC. For some, the pay per click search advertising model works very effectively, but for others companies where the click of a consumer doesn’t convert it can be very expensive running lead generation or direct response campaigns on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft Advertising or any other pay per click network. For those that fit the later, Search Retargeting with display advertising is a strategy which will help reduce some of the churn and increase conversation rates.
Search retargeting is a behavioral targeting technique where a user who searches and clicks on your text ad is taken to your landing page. At this time, using a cookie we record the search term and any related information needed on the user’s machine, ie such as the campaign or category. Then when that user hits a site within the Gourmet Ads network we serve relevant display ads to a user based on the search query and behaviour made earlier on the landing page.
We can even go one step further. For those consumers that go deeper in the transaction and don’t complete it we can server a separate cookie indicating this. So if they save their shopping cart and don’t complete, we could for 30 days target them to return to the site and complete the transaction at a given discount. So for say the first 7 days we could offer 5% off through to 20 days offer 25% discount to encourage them to return. You might even want to run a campaign about a product they added to their cart. The ideas are endless. Think of search retargeting as the ability to continue to talk with your target market after they initially left your landing page or ecommerce site.
Because you’ve already established a relationship with the consumer and they are pre-qualified, the conversion rates are much higher than simply running a display advertising campaign. The key however to running a search retargeting campaign is going wide with as much inventory as you possibly can. By running a search retargeting campaign with Gourmet Ads we not only can provide our inventory, we can also back onto the inventory with our media and ad serving partner Adify to extend the reach of your campaign. This is an essential part of any search retargeting campaign.
Sure the CPM rate will be slightly higher compared to a regular display campaign, but because you already have a relationship with the consumer and they are pre-qualified the benefits of conversion out way the slight cost difference. Search retargeting can be a great strategy to undertake and for any company that solely relies on search marketing and is a risk free way to continue the conversation with your consumer or target market.
Search retargeting keeps consumers engaged with more personalized, relevant advertising experiences, leading to higher click-through rates and conversions. To learn more about search retargeting, contact us or request a proposal for a campaign.
Our Most Popular Blogs
February 22, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Instead of writing my normal style of blogs, I thought today that it might be interesting to republish the links to the most popular blogs on the Gourmet Ads website. So from when we started the blog till now these are the most popular blogs and its interesting to note that there inst any real trend between them. Some have had thousands of views and I hope that we at Gourmet Ads are helping you navigate your brand online.
So here are the 10 Most Popular Blogs so far this year;
- Advertising Trends for 2009
- Wine Advertising Ideas
- Geo Targeting Advertising
- Advertising on Foods Blogs
- Your Advertising Budget for 2009
- Advertising Groceries Online
- Wine Tourism Advertising
- Advertising Next to Wine Reviews
- Vertical Advertising Increases ROI
- Christmas Advertising
If there is a topic which you’d like my thoughts or opinion on, feel free to us the Contact Us form.
BBQ Blogs Wanted
February 21, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Many of the digital advertising agencies that we work with are interested in us developing a vertical focusing specifically on BBQ and Grilling. Originally we were planning on launching the BBQ and Grilling vertical later in the year, but have decided to start looking for sites to join the network now.
So we are currently looking for sites that have great BBQ and grilling content. Ideally your site will be about what you do on your BBQ. It could be a blog about grilling, a site about smoking or your adventures with your homemade BBQ sauce. It could even be a site that reviews BBQs, as long as it’s about barbequing and grilling then, we’d like you to apply to join our network.
So who are the likely advertisers in the BBQ vertical?
- BBQ Manufacturers
- Grilling Accessories
- BBQ Sauce companies
- Steak & Seafood retailers
- Spicy & BBQ Sauce Companies
- BBQ Events and Cook offs
- Smoking Chips
- Alcoholic Beverage companies
Click here to join Gourmet Ads as a publisher
Gourmet Ads, going global one plate at a time
February 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
I had a recent chat with Benjamin Christie, the founder and managing director of Gourmet Ads, an advertising network specializing in the food, wine and beer verticals. Powered by Adify, the company incorporated in June 2008.
How did you decide this was the right market?
With my experience at de Groots Media as well as being a food blogger for a number of years as well as being in the media I knew how online advertising worked. Having a background in the food industry, it was natural that I started an advertising network in the food space. Wine was the perfect pairing to go with the food vertical. Food is something that will continue to ride through the economic cloud. Sure there might be a downturn with some gourmet product ranges, but generally people still need to eat and companies still need to drive sales.
Who is your target audience?
For our food and wine verticals it’s very much a female demographic from 27 – 55 who cook at home, drink wine 2 -3 times a week and buy quality ingredients and cookware for home. For some of our other verticals such as beer and barbeque the skew is certainly male.
You launched this in Australia and are now spreading globally. You said your network’s competitors can also be its partners. What did you mean by that?
I regard our direct competitors as all the websites competing for the advertising dollar in our vertical. These could be small sites or blogs, through to national publishers. By publishers joining the Gourmet Ads network and outsourcing their advertising sales to us, this gives is the opportunity to act as a co-operative, providing agencies a compelling media buy, while providing steady revenue stream for our publishers.
I like to say that everyone thinks they are involved in the Manhattan Project. You seem to think you just find a niche and just want to be the best at it. Why is that your attitude and what perspective do you have about this niche that others maybe don’t?
We have a saying back in Australia “Jack of all trades master of none”, so I can believe that you can own and dominate a niche opposed to doing everything. I think this is why some of the horizontal networks are struggling in the market place because they have no identity and are trying to be everything to everyone. It’s impossible. Gourmet Ads is about food and wine. Our advertisers know that and this is why they advertise with us. In the years to come we may look at other verticals, but they will always be closely related to food and wine.
I think one of our advantages is being the boy from out of town. We take a global perspective, whereas a lot of American companies tend to think just about America. This has been evident in conversations with publishers that are shocked to learn they actually have a non-American audience and that we can monetize it.
Are you making a profit and do you expect to seek funding?
Although still very much in the start-up phase we are profitable. This is very much due to the lean organisational structure of the company at present and the outsourcing that we do. Gourmet Ads will most probably seek funding mid 2010 with the capital being put towards three areas of the business.
These being;
- Gaining the advertising rights to the premium publishers around the world.
- Acquiring and operating successful publishers within the network.
- Expanding into growth regions such as South East Asia.
By Edward Barrera, Editor of ADOTAS.
Source : http://www.adotas.com/2009/02/gourmet-ads-going-global-one-plate-at-a-time/
DayPart Targeting
February 19, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
When we work with advertisers and adverting agencies we always ensure they advertise on relevant sites and implement some sort of geo targeting. However depending on your advertising campaign at hand, targeting by the day and time might be an important targeting option to consider.
Daypart targeting is when the advertising campaign runs only on the days and times as defined on the insert order. By only delivering the campaign at relevant times of the day the campaign has maximum impact at the time and days that matter. Often we receive campaigns that are capped at say 5 impressions per day, but because we allow advertisers to purchase specific times during the day, advertisers max out the impressions knowing their target audience is on the site at the time.
DayPart Targeting can be used for both branding campaigns and direct response campaigns.
Some advertising campaigns ideal for DayPart Targeting;
- Breakfast Cereals – running in the mornings from 6am – 10am
- TV Shows – running the ads a few hours before the show is broadcast
- Weekend Sales – all day Friday when people are planning the weekend
- BBQ’s and Accessories – All day Friday, Saturday and Sunday
- Restaurant Coupons – afternoons encouraging dining out in the evening
- Wines – running in the afternoon between 4pm – 8pm each day
- Travel – on Fridays after people have had a tough week at work
To learn more about DayPart Targeting or any other of our campaign targeting options for your next advertising campaign, contact Gourmet Ads.
