Brand Safe Environment
March 5, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads works with well-known brands right around the world and one of the important things we strive to deliver each and every day is a brand safe environment for our advertisers and their ad agencies.
So what does a brand safe environment mean? A brand safe environment is one where advertisers can be rest assured that their advertising will run on approved premium websites. There has been unscrupulous ad networks in the past who’ve been trafficking premium brand advertising across brand-damaging objectionable content, causing major PR issues for all of those involved.
The Gourmet Ads Brand Safe Environment
We believe that technology sometimes has its flaws, so we prefer to use a manual process, coupled with technology to ensure our brand safe environment. As such Gourmet Ads ensures a brand safe environment for advertisers in three separate ways;
- Transparency to Advertisers
Prior to any advertising campaign going live, we provide advertisers a full list of sites that are part of Gourmet Ads. We do of course add sites all the time, but overall we do offer total transparency for our Brand Safe Environment. - Hand Selected Editorially Selected Recipes Sites
Websites can’t just join Gourmet Ads and start serving ads straight away. First off every site must meet our selection criteria (detailed here) and then they are manually reviewed. Each of URL is then screened by our publishing team for both theme and content. Because we know the food and recipe space, we know very quickly if we want them part of Gourmet Ads. Some ad networks have the reputation of taking any publisher that comes through the door, and unfortunately many do. We’re proud of our high rejection rate! - Tagging of Approved Sites
Apart from simply adding sites to Gourmet Ads – each site is tagged with keywords for additional trafficking. i.e sample tags include for “Above the Fold” and “Privacy Policy”. So if a advertiser only wanted to run with sites that have a Privacy Policy we can easily traffic this. - URL Restrictions
Apart from the manual process detailed above, our final check is via technology, ensuring that ads are only served on approved URLs and that our ad tags are not trafficked across other sites.
For more about the Gourmet Ads network, Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
March Advertising Packages
February 25, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
For advertising agencies and companies who’ve had incremental budgets become available for March, the last month of Q1, check out Gourmet Ads March advertising packages.
Our March advertising packages feature extremely competitive CPM rates and once again we’ve included high visibility ad units including Intersitial Advertising and Floating Ads which are ideal for any food company or CPG advertiser who wants to reach the main household grocery buyer. Priced this month at US$15k and US$35k all packages feature high profile placements together with regular display units. As always we’d be happy to further customize each of the packages depending on your campaign targets and desired reach.
Additionally we are happy to extend these campaigns for 30 days from the start date opposed to just 30 days. So if you book your campaign to start on the 12th of March, it will go through to the 12th April.
If you’d like to check out our March Advertising Packages, simply go to the Contact Us page and mention “March Advertising Packages” in the message field and we’ll email them together with our Media Kit. Providing you have advertising creative ready to go. The team at Gourmet Ads can turn around a campaign in less than 24 hours.
2011 Media Planning
February 23, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Believe it or not a great deal of digital advertising agencies are already undertaking their 2011 Media Planning for their clients. The RFPs from agencies coming in right now are mostly for companies planning media from July 2010 through to June 2011 activity. This is very different from media planning which we experienced last year with most planning taking place either a couple of days from going live or at a maximum of 8 weeks in advance.
Interestingly most companies have increased their budgets for 2011 Media Planning by approximately 2 to 2 and half times from that in 2009/2010. Many of the companies we deal directly with in the food, wine, tourism and kitchen appliance industries are all looking at online as a cost effective channel to achieve growth in sales.
Already apparent across 2011 media planning that we’ve seen is the shift from the performance based metric of just click through rate (CTR) over to the broader brand based metric of engagement rate. The move to engagement rates suggests that a heavy emphasis will be placed on creative development in 2011, using high visibility units such as video. This is very different from the past where most campaigns booked consisted of only regular display units such as 728×90, 300×250 and 160×600. Its seems that agencies are planning to use creative such as pre roll video, widgets, long term integration, dynamic ads, expandable units, interstitials, background skins and social networking elements all which can be executed through Gourmet Ads.
For companies in the Food and Wine space, Gourmet Ads is a natural fit, but some of the media planning we’ve seen in 2011 is for companies outside of this space. Advertising agencies have recognised the value of our female grocery buying audience which has led to RFPs in the tourism, financial, automotive spaces indicating that many brand advertisers are seeking quality inventory out of their “safe” advertising places that they used in 2009 and Q1 2010.
Gourmet Ads can help you or your advertising agency develop your 12 month plan to target your audience online throughout the year. By booking media in advance (either 6 month or 12 months) allows us to offer significant discounts on CPM rates and bonus impressions increasing your return on investment.
To have Gourmet Ads help with your 2011 media planning, please Request for Proposal from us or to learn more about Gourmet Ads, download a copy of our media kit.
Wine & Grocery Buyers
February 17, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads works with a variety of wine companies, but you’d be suprised to know that the majority of the campaigns being run are targeted to the grocery buyer and not the wine coonisueeer. Apart from working with major wine companies and smaller boutique wineries, Gourmet Ads runs a lot of wine campaigns for wine retailers and liqour chains.
There is no doubt that expensive high end wines (here at Gourmet Ads we call them collectors) skews to more of a male demographic however the majority of wine campaigns we run are for wines are under $20 and targeted to the female grocery buyer. Our clients prefer to target the audience which is going to make a wine purchase while doing the groceries. With this mind it’s important to influence the wine buying decision before they go to the grocery store. With Gourmet Ads our advertising positions are next to or close by recipes, allow you to reach the grocery buyer while they are doing their grocery list. Instead of having your target market put down wine on their shopping list, wouldn’t it be better for them to write your wine brand down? That way their looking for your brand instead of just a white or red wine.
Some wine brands are national, others are available in select markets. Using our platform’s industry standard geo targeting capabilities, we can pinpoint your target market only displaying your ads if they live in your target market’s location.
So if youre a wine retailer or winery, what kind if campaigns could you run with Gourmet Ads? Well a while ago we wrote a list of ideas – check our Wine Advertising Ideas.
So of you’re charged with lifting wine sales and increasing brand awareness, then Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team. We’ll help you reach the grocery buyer online and influence their buying descions.
Merry Christmas
December 24, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
After another successful year at Gourmet Ads, we’d like to extend our thanks to our clients, publishers and suppliers that made it happen.
A special thanks to the platform, account management, marketing and media teams at Adify in San Bruno, New York, London, Sydney and cant forget Kevin in Singapore. Without them we wouldn’t have a great product.
Looking forward into 2010, we’ve already got a lot of campaigns booked for Q1 and with the expansion into London in January we are expecting big things next year.
Finally, I’d like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
London Agency Roadshow
November 30, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads continues to expand it’s highly successful food network around the globe and as such we’ll be in London for 1 week, from the 25th of January 2010 through to 30th, conducting an Advertising Agency Road Show. If you’re a media agency with clients in the food and drink sector, then we’d like to meet with you while we are in London.
Gourmet Ads already reaches millions of grocery buyers throughout the United Kingdom. We do this by running advertising on niche, hand selected sites, including recipe websites and food blogs, targeted to UK audiences.
To organise a meeting with our advertising sales team, please contact us or ring Jonny Byrne on +44 (0)20 3159 4113 to schedule an appointment.
For more information visit www.gourmetads.co.uk
Super Bowl Advertising
October 27, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
When you think of Super Bowl Advertising, you’ll probably immediately think of the advertising during the game, you know the ones that cost millions of dollars per 30 seconds. But the kind of super bowl advertising we’re talking about is the advertising to driver consumers to buy your food and beverage products prior the end of season game.
Each January the Super Bowl draws an enormous audience of viewers from right around the country, most at super bowl parties. So in order trigger Super Bowl party planning ideas with consumers undertaking a targeted Super Bowl Advertising campaign can provide great results. Because the Gourmet Ads network features an audience of grocery buyers and household decision makers it’s essential to ensure that we are part of your Super Bowl Advertising media mix.
So what companies can benefit from Super Bowl Advertising online? Well any companies that are associated with their products being served at Super Bowl Parties. With mostly a range finger food styled dishes being served at Super Bowl parties any ingredient or pre-made products which make dips, guacamole, chili, bbq ribs, nachos, spicy hot wings, sliders, hamburgers, hot dogs and quesadillas. Don’t forget chips, crisps, pop corn, crackers, cheese as well as beverages such as sodas, wines and beer which traditionally buy the million dollar TV advertising.
With the super bowl being played on the first Sunday in February, ideally your Super Bowl Advertising should commence in the last week of January which means you’ll have a two week campaign flight to drive consumer intent and engagement. Campaign ideas include using regular display advertising, expandable creative, interstitials, video and rich media. Campaign ideas which perform well include competitions and the ability to download Super Bowl coupons for product purchases.
It’s never too early to book your Super Bowl Advertising as this period tends to book up quickly as you can imagine. To book your two week Super Bowl Advertising campaign with Gourmet Ads, download our media kit or contact us with your campaign requirements.
Wine Sales on a Monday
October 19, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
We’re often asked by advertisers and advertising agencies to offer practical ideas on how they can use time and day targeting to maximise the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. Well today we discovered a great example using real data.
Corkscrew is a website that allows you to track wines and check the pricing of them on the web, mobile web, iPhone, email and SMS. In a recent blog from team at Corkscrew called Sober on Mondays, the team looked at the data of when their users were using the site and as indicated below and commented “Only 5% of wine consumption happens on a Monday, while the weekends account for 56%. As suspected, Saturday is the big drinking day, with 22% of drinks.”
So taking this example, how can you tailor your advertising campaign to only reach wine consumers when it matters. By planning media towards the end of the week and after lunch will definitely contribute to a more effective media buy.
Why advertise with Gourmet Ads?
August 26, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Last week I was doing an agency presentation and one of the media buyers asked me “What are the ten reasons of why they should buy from Gourmet Ads”. I answered them by providing I think 6 or 7 off the top of my head, but I promised them that I would do a blog which answered their question together with a longer response on each point.
I figured that many media buyers and media planners would also be interested in such a blog, so here we go my ten reasons of why media buyers and planners should include Gourmet Ads as part of their media plan.
1. Editorially Selected Sites
Each and every site that is included in the Gourmet Ads network is editorially selected by myself (Benjamin Christie). The majority of sites we include are hand selected and a small percentage is included from those that apply through out website. We look for food and wine sites that have unique and interesting content, look great but most importantly have a least two ads above the fold. As a rule we do reject a great deal and previously we’ve worked out that of those that apply we reject about 65%, only including sites that adhere to our selection criteria for sites.
2. Total Transparency
Unlike some advertising networks which are a blind buy, Gourmet Ads is 100% transparent to advertisers. Not only do we provide advertisers with a complete network list, but we allow advertisers to cherry pick sites they don’t want to run advertising on. We’re proud of the sites we represent, so it doesn’t make sense for us to hide them from you or your client. Additionally, we understand that a handful of advertisers don’t want to see their ads appear on blogs, so we can make it easy to remove blogs from the media buy if that’s your preference.
3. Multiple Sites
We know that popular websites are critical to your media plan, but one of the greatest advantages of running a campaign with Gourmet Ads is that we can run your campaign across multiple sites providing a wide reaching media buy. By eliminating buying on a site-by-site basis we can provide you and your client an aggregated buy on literally hundreds of sites as easily as if you were buying off just a single site. Also because our sites are editorially selected you can buy with complete confidence.
4. Reach the Main Household Grocery Buyer
Because of the unique content of our network, Gourmet Ads reaches the Main Household Grocery Buyer. Why? Because audience profiling provides data that our audience visits recipes websites to determine what they are cooking for dinner. This offers our advertisers the ability to target consumers prior to their journey to the grocery store or supermarket allowing them to influence their buying decisions before the checkout.
5. Exclusive Inventory
Because we hand pick sites into the Gourmet Ads network, our network is very much considered premium inventory and isn’t available in the wider marketplace. This is due to exclusive sales relationships with our network of publishers. We believe that there is minimal crossover into other networks, and as such our inventory can’t be purchased elsewhere offering advertisers exclusive inventory.
6. Engaged Users
Unlike social networks with limited engagement with advertising, the audience of Gourmet Ads not only engages with advertising, but we know due to post impression tracking that they take notice of advertising they see within or network. Which means that when running an advertising campaign with Gourmet Ads that our audience will interact with advertising, so relevant advertising performs extremely well.
7. Rich Media Capabilities
Unlike other networks, because we run on the Adify Platform we have expanded Rich Media Capabilities that other networks don’t have. The standard across the Adify platform is simple, as long as the size of the files being run for the advertising campaign are under 100k in size, there is no additional media serving costs. So instead of paying for hosting, you can now include a rich media creative for your campaigns providing users with a high level of engagement.
8. Campaign Targeting
Another advantage of using the Adify platform to power the Gourmet Ads network is their suite of targeting capabilities. Not only can we run geo targeted advertising, but we can run targeting for the following varioles; by Vertical, Time and day targeting, Bandwidth, Browser & Operating Systems, Language and Frequency capping.
9. Behavioral Targeting
Targeting possible consumers or retargeting them during an advertising campaign can help increase the success of your campaign. A consumer that has already been introduced to your product is more likely going to purchase when re advertised to. Once again using Adify’s Behavioral Targeting capabilities we have a wide range of variables that we can apply to each campaign. These targeting capabilities are vast, but most are for those that have previously clicked on an ad or have simply just seen the ad.
10. Campaign Reporting
Apart from post campaign reporting, Gourmet Ads provides advertisers their own dashboard which shows impressions, clicks, post impression tracking, conversions and more.
Q4 Advertising
August 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Q4 is just around the corner and for Gourmet Ads, Q4 is considered the business end of the year for us. Generally speaking, companies such as food, wine and grocery and their advertising agencies reserve the majority of the annual advertising budgets for Q4. There are a number of reasons why this is the case which we’ll address a bit later, but lets first look at why traffic increases during Q4.
Year on year, publishers during Q4 tend to see an increase of approximately 20-25% compared to throughout the year. There’s the obvious environmental reasons such as cold weather outside encourages people to stay in and go online. But add to this, the volume of consumers who are searching for recipes increases greatly during this period. Take for example the search “Turkey Recipe” which is illustrated in the graph below and shows the intense amounts of search during this time for that search throughout the tail end of Q4.
So because the traffic across the Gourmet Ads network grows during this period, we also increase our overall reach of the network. Which means that advertising at this time of the year allows you to capture, influence and engage audiences online, increasing sales and revenue.
So what else contributes to an increased spend in Q4 advertising? There are a number of events and general consumer habits that trigger the increase in advertising budgets. We’ve highlighted a few including;
- Thanksgiving ( see Thanksgiving Advertising )
- Black Friday Shopping
- Christmas Shopping
- Christmas ( see Christmas Advertising )
- End of year travel
So it makes sense that if you’re tasked with marketing a product during Q4, then you need to start media planing and media buying right now. We’ve heard horror stories from advertisers who didn’t book premium inventory in advance and were left advertising on lesser networks and websites which didn’t perform, and thus revenue was reduced. Also the earlier you start media planning the better CPM rates that can be negotiated. Media Planing a few days before Thanksgiving and you’re going to pay a high CPM for your campaign.
If you’d like to receive a proposal from Gourmet Ads to run a Q4 advertising campaign, then Request a Proposal from us right now. Be sure to highlight the dates you’d like the campaign to run as well as key audiences that you’d like to reach.
