Your New Year’s Resolution
January 3, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
If you’re a marketer, advertiser or media buyer at an agency, then your new year’s resolution for 2009 needs to be about spending your advertising budget where you can measure the return on investment and advertise cost effectively. So what does this mean?
Well unlike all other advertising mediums, online advertising is the only medium which can provide clear metrics on the performance of your campaign. This means that you can quickly and accurately measure the return on investment, and increase or decrease the advertising budget as required to ensure performance.
For TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazine Outdoor Advertisers
If you don’t advertise online, then now is the time to start dipping your toe into some sort of online advertising. Online not only allows you to measure the return on investment, but compared to other mediums is not only cheaper, but much more cost effective to run your campaigns.
Online also allows you to target your user in ways that other mediums just can’t do. For example Gourmet Ads can target by Vertical, Geography (Geo Targeting), Time and day targeting, Bandwidth, Browser & Operating Systems, Language or even Frequency capping; allowing you to reach your target audience and completely control the conversation with your consumers.
New Year’s Resolution – Dip your toes into online advertising instead of spending it on advertising you can’t measure.
For Online Advertisers
If you are advertising online, where are you buying your advertising? Are you buying advertising in a vertical network which is related to your products or services? I.e. if you are selling gourmet foods or premium wines are you advertising on quality food sites or wine review sites? Or are you advertising on large portals which don’t really allow you target your audience?
New Year’s Resolution – begin advertising in vertical advertising networks online instead of large portals
So, no matter if you’re an existing online advertiser or new to online advertising, Gourmet Ads can help deliver your message online and on budget. Contact us for a digital media kit and we work with you to deliver your New Year’s Resolution in 2009.
No Budget! Just ROI
December 16, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Recently a prospective client said they had no budget for online advertising. I immediately thought he was trying to be misleading as this company’s advertisements appear on a number of sites on the internet. So I said to this to the company’s marketing manager that I’d seen there ads on sites on the internet and they said, we have no budget, just ROI. At the time their strategy wasn’t clear to me, but after learning and seeing it action, I now understand it backwards. Since that first conversation, I’ve heard this a number of times after talking with prospective clients and thought its worth sharing with you.
Most professionally run online stores know their conversion rates when a particular audience visits their store, ie a 5% conversion rate means that for every 100 people that visit the site, 5 actually make a purchase. Apart from conversion rates, most ecommerce managers know how many times consumers visit the online store before they purchase, how many pages they’ll look at, where they are located and how much they usually spend. Most of this intelligence can be sourced from various web analytic tools like Google Analytics or Web Trends as well as custom reports and metrics.
So after they know the kind of customer that spends, the challenge is how to find these consumers online, and then drive them to the store. Savvy advertisers will generally run a short trial campaign for say 2 – 4 weeks with a budget of say $5000 to see what kind of audience an advertiser like Gourmet Ads delivers and if they are actually buyers. Some channels drive traffic, but they don’t buy.
Once these savvy advertisers know the conversion rate, they can work out the return on investment (ROI) on the advertising costs. Once they’ve got a return on investment in mind, they’ll book ongoing advertising over multiple months, monitoring the return on investment and not the budget. As long as the sales continue these savvy advertisers purely monitor the sales and renew the advertising. The key here isn’t to get complacent; it’s essential to continually change the advertising message, branding and look and feel of the advertising as well as the deal to ensure that audiences continue to be engaged with the advertising.
Because the quality of the click in vertical advertising networks is much more qualified than horizontal networks, we can continue to drive the same levels of return on investment for advertisers over time. See a recent post titled Vertical Advertising Increases ROI.
If you’d like to learn more about the Gourmet Ads vertical advertising network, request a media kit.
Thanksgiving Advertising
November 5, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Many food companies know that a large percentage of their annual profits are made during the Holiday Season. That is why your Thanksgiving advertising campaign is one of your most important campaigns of the year, especially if you are selling foods that are typically high sellers for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, cream of mushroom soup and pumpkin pie amongst others.
Taking advantage of targeted advertising next to online recipes for holiday favorites is a great way to get your brand at the top of every shopper’s grocery list this year. When a consumer goes online to look up recipes on how to roast their Thanksgiving turkey, will they be thinking Butterball, Norbest or Honeysuckle White? That all depends on whose ad is cleverly placed right beside the roast turkey recipe.
More and more consumers are turning to the internet for their recipe needs; especially their holiday recipe needs and smart advertisers are taking advantage of this trend with their Thanksgiving advertising in order to create brand awareness during the critical holiday sales rush. Ideally, companies should get their products placed four weeks before the big holiday as many shoppers have already begun to stock their pantries in preparation for the big event.
While these relatively new Thanksgiving advertising opportunities are great for the popular holiday food items featured in online recipes, they aren’t the only products that can benefit from these highly targeted ad campaigns. There are many other activities that correspond with holiday celebrations such as watching the “big game” on TV, beer companies can capitalize on this and even less glamorous, but necessary events such as washing the dishes. Your dishwashing liquid, scrubbing sponges or dishwasher detergent can make a play for the millions of dishes that need to be washed after each holiday meal.
And, of course, Thanksgiving advertising is also important in gearing shoppers up for their Christmas purchases as well. Foods and other items that will sell for Christmas meals will need to be well placed by Thanksgiving, but other products, such as holiday gifts or sale events can also make a strong impression when placed next to food ads over the holiday season.
So if you’re selling a product in the lead up to Thanksgiving, it’s essential to run your Thanksgiving advertising online, contact Gourmet Ads for a customised media plan which targets consumers.
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
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.
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…
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.
