Background Skins
August 3, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Apart from regular display campaigns, the team at Gourmet Ads are looking at ways we can provide advertisers and advertising agencies high visibility placements. As such we’ve developed Background Skins Advertising to our suite of Beyond the Banner creative options.
Because we actually serve the background skin like a typical 3rd Party Tag via our ad server, we can synchronize the background skin with regular display units for maximum impact and engagement. Add to this we can measure click throughs, impressions and provide targeting options just like any campaign such as time / day part and frequency capping. Background Skins play a significant role for Gourmet Ads Roadblock Advertising Packages.
Apart from simple static backgrounds, we can develop Background Skins which feature Flash elements including video. Great for running promotions like Movie Trailers, TV Shows (cooking shows) or new product launches. The ideas for campaigns are endless.
From a technical perspective, no matter the screen size of the user, our system will display the most ideal sized background for that screen size. It will also determine if the user has Adobe Flash installed or not and as such delivering the best Background Skin creative. Background skins are typically 1280 wide and they are delivered either via a 1×1 pixel or embedded into an existing advertising tag.
Finally we’ve all seen the impact that branded background skins have had on social sites like Twitter, so if you’re interested in learning more about how you can incorporate a Background Skin in to your next campaign, please Contact our Team or Download our Media Kit.
Recipes Recipes Recipes
July 2, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
For brands looking to influence grocery buyers online, there are two real options.
The first is the spray and pray method, derived from a military term for not aiming, but firing in the general direction. The best illustration of this is where brands book say the home page of a portal for a day. Apart from reaching just the household grocery buyer, you reach the father, son, daughter, grand father, social gamer, automotive enthusiast and technophile. Not really the best form of efficiently if you’re trying to reach the grocery buyer.
The second method is to work with a media company, such as Gourmet Ads who not only understands how to reach the grocery buyer online, but specializes in reaching the grocery buyer online. When you start targeting a niche like the grocery buyer, sure the reach isn’t anywhere near as huge, but the upside is the spend is less and the media is much more efficient than reaching everyone on the internet.
Why do we know how to reach the grocery buyer online? Easy. Over the past few years we’ve developed a vast community of recipe sites, and we’ve worked hard to ensure that our ads run close or nearby recipes online. This is where meal decisions are made and grocery shopping lists are developed.
Because reaching grocery buyers online is all we do their isn’t any deviation from the focus. Sure we have a strong female demographic, but we don’t have lifestyle sites, beauty sites or gossip, we only do food and more specially recipes online. This is great if you’re marketing food products with the aim of increasing sales.
So if you’re responsible for booking campaigns aimed at reaching the grocery buyer online, then Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
Mother’s Day Advertising
April 9, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
In the United States, Mothers Day is the second Sunday in May and is a day where mom is pampered by the family. Everyone loves giving gifts to their mom, however some need a gentle reminder which is where running a Mother’s Day Advertising campaign can drive sales before the big day.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumer spend over $15 billion on Mother’s Day each year with an average spend of around $140 on their mother’s day gift. Most consumers will buy a single gift opposed to buying a few gifts.
Your Mother’s Day Advertising, shouldn’t just remind consumers that Mother’s Day is on Sunday, but rather provide real gift solutions, pricing and how it can be purchased in store or ordered online. You could even offer a coupon based campaign to drive sales through to Mother’s Day. Whatever the messaging you decide to go with, it really needs to make an emotional connection with the consumer, encouraging them to purchase a gift of value for their mom.
So what companies can benefit from running a Mother’s Day Advertising Campaign?
- Major Retailers
- Jewelry stores
- Florists
- Gift Card Companies
- Online Retailers
- Spa / Beauty Stores
- Gift Baskets / Hampers
- Gift Vouchers / Gift Certificate Companies
If you’re looking at running a Mother’s Day Advertising Campaign to reaching potential consumers then Gourmet Ads reaches specific demographic of females aged 25-55. Our audience is made of a high proportion of household decision makers, who in turn purchase gifts for others.
For more information on Gourmet Ads for your Mother’s Day Advertising Campaign, Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
Adtech San Francisco 2010
April 1, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads Founder, Benjamin Christie will be attending Adtech in San Francisco from April 18-21, 2010.
For those that don’t know, Adtech is an interactive marketing conference and exhibition that delivers an up-close and informative look at the world of digital media and advertising. Adtech San Francisco will be held at the Moscone Center West. If you’re attending Adtech San Francisco and would like to organise a time to meet with Benjamin, then contact us to set a meeting time. Alternatively if you’re a San Francisco based company or digital advertising agency and would like to schedule a short presentation on Gourmet Ads and how we can help you reach grocery buyers online, then also contact us to schedule a time.
For those on Twitter, Follow Gourmet Ads for updates throughout Adtech San Francisco. To follow everything thats happening at Adtech use #adtechsf
Q2 Advertising Packages
March 31, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Q2 is literally days away and you’ve probably already started your digital media planning for the second quarter. As the weather starts to warm up towards summer there’s lots going on, especially for grocery, supermarket and grilling companies. Key days in Q2 include Easter Weekend and Memorial Day at the end of May.
Our Q2 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 at US$15k and US$35k all the Q2 Advertising 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.
If you’d like to check out our Q2 Advertising Packages, simply go to the Contact Us page and mention “Q2 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.
Diet After Easter
March 30, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Easter is about food, especially chocolate and hot cross buns. So it isn’t unusual that a great deal of diet and health food companies kick their advertising campaigns of on Easter Monday. Maybe bound by guild of eating a stack of chocolate after Easter a lot of people use this as trigger to kick off their diet. So for advertisers in this space it’s about being in the right place at the right time.
So who do most diet companies wish to target? The household grocery buyer, who is mostly female and aged between 25-55 year old. This person in the home influences the family eating habits and make the choices about whats going on the dinner plate today. So gaining the attention of this person in the household is key to any campaign success. Recent
Already booked this Easter is a number of well-known retail diet advertisers who are seeking to take advantage of the post Easter diet phase. These diet advertisers are running a range of creative from standard IAB sizes through to expandable creative to really gain attention of readers.
Generally speaking (as every campaign is different) diet advertising which works on Gourmet Ads includes advertising of diet books, diet programs, diet products you buy in the supermarket (i.e low carb, low fat), diet meal replacements (shakes) and of course meals which you have delivered to your home each week. Also advertising campaigns which focus on Gym memberships also provide good results. Gyms that focus on female only membership have performed very well in the past.
Some Comscore Index’s in relation to Dieting on the Gourmet Ads Network include;
- Index 267 for having searched for Diet Program information online in the last 6 months
- Index 146 for having spent under $25 for Diet meal replacements (e.g. Slim Fast) in the last 30 days
- Index 319 for having spent between $25-$49 for Diet meal replacements (e.g. Slim Fast) in the last 30 days
- Index of 251 for going to a gym or healthclub within the last 6 months
- Index of 135 for having a weight problem (25 lbs or more overweight )
Gourmet Ads has strict controls when it comes to the diet advertising. We can’t accept advertising that we call “fat ads” (the ones where is a thin stomach and a fat stomach on the ad) and any ads which make false and misleading claims. We prefer the advertiser to develop creative around food or simply use great messages reinforced with a strong call to action.
If you’re interested in running your next diet campaign with Gourmet Ads, then please download our media kit or request a proposal from our team.
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.
Easter Advertising
March 3, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
This year Easter is the first week of April (dates below) and even if you don’t sell chocolate Easter eggs there are significant opportunities over the holiday period for all types of industries. Once regarded simply for the kids, Easter has become one of the most profitable holiday seasons of the year.
With spring in the air and many consumers possessing tax return money makes it an ideal time for you to kick-start your marketing campaign. As such we thought we’d put together a few Easter advertising ideas separated by various sectors.
Retailers
Given that Easter is of course a holiday period, many retailers run Easter Sales and to drive interest in the lead up is important. So running at least 10 days prior to the sale starting is essential, then upping the visibility over the Easter weekend to drive consumers in store. Ideally you’ll be running discounts off big ticket items and winter apparel.
Grocery & Supermarkets
With many people spending time with the family over Easter it’s important to gain market share in the lead up to the Easter Weekend. Ideally your Easter Advertising will feature creative with messaging to drive consumers in store like discounts off key staples items or loss leader activity encourage them to do their Easter “big shop” while in store.
Travel Companies
With most people spending time with their families over the Easter weekend, there are two opportunities here for travel companies. Firstly, with many people head home there is a significant benefit for companies such as airlines to go heavy up 3-4 weeks prior to Easter, then slow it down closer to the weekend. The 2nd opportunity is for people not heading home, but rather going away for the weekend. So vacation specials should be advertised 10-14 days from Easter weekend. See Grocery Buyers make Travel Decisions.
Ecommerce Sites
Many of the major ecommerce retailers run Easter weekend specials, from free shipping to coupon discounts so why let them have all the business? In the lead up to Easter why not run a campaign targeted at consumers with creative indicating your Easter specials. So no matter if you sell food, clothing or kitchen gadgets, Easter is a great time to boost sales.
Movie Releases
Many over the Easter weekend will be looking for things to do to fill out the weekend. So for the movie studios, running movie trailer campaigns for new release in the days prior and over the Easter weekend will help boost a movies weekend revenues.
Automotive Companies & Dealerships
Consumers in the market for a new auto will dedicate the weekend heading to dealerships and doing test drives. So running a campaign in the 5-7 days prior to Easter, then heavy up over the Easter weekend will no doubt result in leads being generated. Learn about our audience of automotive buying Grocery Buyers.
So as we head in Q2 and with only a few weeks to go till Easter now is the time to book your Easter Advertising Campaign. For more information, Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
2010 Easter Dates
Good Friday is 2nd April 2010
Holy Saturday 3rd April 2010
Easter Sunday 4th April 2010
Easter Monday 5th April 2010
London Food Blogs
March 1, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Gourmet Ads is currently seeking London based Food Bloggers to join our UK network.
So what are we looking for?
Ideally you’ll be producing your own recipe and food content on a regular basis and have a great base of traffic, but most importantly you’ll be based in the UK. This is important as some advertisers only want to advertise on UK based sites. Join the Gourmet Ads network now.
We’ll totally manage your advertising inventory and provide monthly revenue. Other key features and benefits of Gourmet Ads for publishers include;
- Non-exclusive relationship
- Majority of advertisers are companies in the food, wine, beer, travel and lifestyle space.
- CPM based advertising campaigns
- Sponsorship advertising campaigns
- Advertising Reporting Portal
- Ability to run your own house ads
- Flexibility and scalability – we can manage some or all of your inventory
- Strong focus on advertising campaigns in UK, USA and Canada
- Monetize your content globally – sales teams in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Sydney
You may have your own internal sales teams or be part of another ad network. That’s fine with us, because we offer a non-exclusive relationship which means you can use the Gourmet Ads network as back fill. We ask that if you do work with another ad network that you offer all networks an equal allocation.
Finally, for all publishers we offer a free program to help increase your traffic, called the Gourmet Ads Traffic Booster Program.
So if you have a recipe site or food blog that you’d like to monetize, Join the Gourmet Ads network now.
Advertising Free Shipping
February 26, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
The other day I was reading an old article in the New York Times about how offering Free Shipping on your ecommerce site can significantly increase sales. The article discusses and shares insight into the strategies of the some of the most popular online stores and how they price their shipping and how it can greatly impact sales. Read the article here – Nothing Says ‘Buy’ Like ‘Free Shipping’ .
The Free Shipping Article had me thinking about how a company which was going to offer free shipping for a period of time and how they would promote the offer. Naturally I think most only stores undertaking a free shipping promotion would do two things. First they would put some sort of promotional messaging on their sites advising prospective customers that they might qualify for free shipping on their first order. Secondly, an ecommerce store offering free shipping would reach out to their existing customer with an EDM of sorts advising that for their next order the shipping is free. Another idea is advertising free shipping, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.
What I think most online stores forget is that free shipping could be a great lead generation strategy to build sales. A few years ago I was involved in an online store start up as a consultant. Well before the successful bricks and mortar company started building their new start up website, they undertook a market research study to identify customer ideals, which they assumed were very different from their existing bring and mortar customers.
The number one thing that came from the market research was that customers online were more likely to make a purchase on their new site if the shipping was free, opposed to paying a premium for the delivery. So the company went into the new ecommerce site with the marketing tactic that customers would never pay for shipping. They simply built the shipping into the price point. The result; sales exploded for them and they’ve never looked back. The site has turned out to be a multimillion dollar online business and I believe that it’s because of their foundation that customers will never pay for shipping.
Ok, so you’ve decided to run a free shipping promotion. So apart from reaching out to customers on your site or your existing customer base, you should consider running an advertising campaign to market your free shipping campaign. By advertising free shipping you’re removing one of the hurdles that many online stores face and reaching out to gaining new customers. It could be the best lead generation campaign you’ve ever run.
Apart from simply running your free shipping advertising across our entire network of grocery buyers, we can help develop your advertising creative. It’s important for the creative to indicate that you’re offering free shipping. Don’t put the key message in a small font, make it stand out in bold and gain attention.
For more information about running your free shipping advertising with Gourmet Ads, Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
