Yearlong Campaign
January 27, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
I want to share a strategy which we developed for a client who advertised every other month on Gourmet Ads last year. This client wanted Gourmet Ads to develop ideas for a yearlong campaign in 2010 which would be booked in addition to the other booked branding campaigns throughout the year. Most important to her was that whatever we did it had to be targeted to reach possible consumers of her product.
What we developed was rather simple and just a few weeks into the campaign is already proving fruitful and driving sales and subscriptions. Although this client is in the food industry, the same strategy we developed could easily be applied to any industry.
So what was the all year campaign that we developed? Well it’s basically a retargeting campaign, which uses a variety of creative to drive people back to her site depending on pre determined trigger points. In fact we plan to change the creative every couple of weeks.
The client added JavaScript to their site late last year, which meant they starting dropping cookies in the lead up to Christmas when their site had increased traffic. Now any people that visited our client’s site and didn’t make a purchase or signup to their newsletter is targeted for the year long campaign. Effectively we’re bringing back people that have already visited their website, who in theory are more likely to convert than first time visitors.
To even refine the targeting further we’re also time day parting the campaign as purchasers are more likely to purchase on weekdays from 10am through to 10pm at night. So the ads will only be displayed during these times. Once again we’re drilling down the targeting for ROI purposes.
This is an ideal strategy for any sort of company whose goal is customer acquisition or online sales. We would of course suggest that you also run far reaching branding campaigns to drive additional traffic. These could be short run campaigns or around key dates in the year.
For more information, download our media kit or request a proposal from our team.
From Magazine to Online
December 5, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Earlier this year, I visited Gary Vaynerchuk host of Wine Library TV in New Jersey and we recorded a video about Australian Wines – see our video here. Since then I regularly watch his videos and today at www.garyvaynerchuk.com (his other video site) I stumbled upon a video where Gary is discussing the recent demise of Gourmet Magazine.
Gary asks the question why companies are advertising on magazines when the audience has not transitioned to online. He asks where they are going to advertise now ? This video by Gary is extremely relevant to our audience which why I felt it was important to share with you.
Here at Gourmet Ads we can not only provide reach into food blogs and online food communities but most importantly on recipe websites where the household grocery buyer spends time online.
If you previously had budget for magazine spending but don’t know where to put it, contact us and we’ll develop a media plan which will give you a far better return on investment than print.
Removing Websites
March 18, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
With campaign performance and return on investment high on our focus for advertisers, we’ve today removed two publishers (a blog and a website) that just haven’t been performing for our advertisers. It might sound peculiar for an advertising network to remove sites, but we felt it was in the best interest for all our advertisers.
It isn’t unusual for Gourmet Ads to remove sites from a campaign because they are not performing. In fact that’s the way we optimize campaigns by removing either an ad unit from a campaign or a publisher from a campaign. However this is the first time we’ve decided to systematically remove publishers from the Gourmet Ads network.
In the current economic climate, many advertisers are now looking for a combination of both branding and performance campaigns. With this in mind, it’s not only important for us to provide a relevant vertical in the food or wine space, but a platform that is geared for return on investment.
If you’d like to explore some of our advertising options, download the Gourmet Ads Media Kit or Request a Proposal from us.
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.
Supermarket Co-Op Advertising
February 10, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Nearly every supermarket and grocery buying group does some sort of Co-Op Advertising. For those that don’t know, Co-Op Advertising is when a number of related companies contribute to an advertising campaign by pooling all of their budgets. Usually co-ordinated by the supermarket or grocery retailer, each supplier agrees to pay an agreed amount to be included in the advertising campaign. The concept is that as a Co-Op they will have far greater reach and response, then if they had to advertise themselves.
Co-Op Advertising creates a win-win scenario for all parties. All the supplying businesses win because and professional advertising campaign and the supplier or manufacturer gets additional branding. Particularly in the USA, Co-Op Advertising is already being used to fund online advertising campaigns. Even the largest supermarket chains are using online to not only promote their store but well known brands they carry. We’ve seen this on the wine and beer side as well as advertising for grocery lines in the consumer packages goods space.
Vertical advertising through Gourmet Ads is a great way to maximize the potential of co-op advertising because it offers such a great return on investment opposed to other mediums. With the current state of the economy businesses needs to take advantage of any co-op advertising that is available to them and then use those advertising dollars in the most cost-effective way that will get as many consumers through their doors as possible.
If you are incontrol of Co-Op Advertising campaign, then contact Gourmet Ads for proposal.
Times Square Advertising
February 1, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Today while in New York I walked through Times Square on the way to a meeting with an advertising agency. While right in the middle of Time Square I took a moment looking at all the advertising and you cant help but wonder;
- What it costs to advertise in Times Square (ie the CPM rate)?
- How effective the advertising spend is? (ie the ROI)?
- Will this sort of advertising be the first to be removed off budgets in 2009?
So when I got back to my hotel room tonight, I did a little research and found that it costs anywhere from $125,000 to $300,000 a month to advertise on a regular billboard. If it’s electronic with TV screens can cost anywhere from $3 million to $5 million
dollars.
So I figured, unless the advertising is promoting a Broadway musical around the corner, I think Times Square Advertising is a waste of your advertising budget.
Sure the advertising would reach a great deal of people over time, but how targeted is it? I cant think how they measure Times Square Advertising… thoughts?
Advertising Growers Associations
January 6, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Growers associations provide a great way for growers of produce like nuts, corn, grapes or sugar to come together and pool resources to attract new consumers for their products. There’s growers associations for nearly everything that’s grown, for example; corn growers, apple growers, sugar growers, wheat growers, strawberry growers, potato growers, blueberry growers and cranberry growers associations to name just a few.
Unfortunately, even with an association, money is a limited resource and must be spent wisely. Advertising online is ideal for growers associations because it allows the advertiser to reach a highly targeted audience with their message which means their advertising dollar goes further.
Television ads are expensive and may not necessarily reach the desired audience, but online advertising can be tailored to reach the consumers most likely to purchase your product. Advertising for your growers association online with Gourmet Ads allow you to target foodies and those looking for recipes online. These are the consumers who really love food and are always looking for new experiences and tastes when it comes to food. Foodies enjoy researching and preparing new recipes that they find online and your advertising can be placed conveniently next to these recipes to entice them with your offerings.
A growers association’s budget is always a little tight, but in these tough economic times it can be squeezed even tighter. Advertising is a necessity to keep your product in the forefront of the consumers mind when they reach the grocery store, but you don’t want to spend more than is necessary to accomplish this goal. It could be the difference between consumers buying frozen products or fresh produce.
Online advertising with Gourmet Ads is probably the most cost effective way to advertise for growers associations. Online advertising directly to your target audience with recipe ads allows you to reach as many consumers as is possible at a far more reasonable cost than most other forms of advertising. As your growers association searches for ways to spend less while reaching more consumers with your advertising message, you will definitely want to consider advertising with Gourmet Ads.
Request a copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit.
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.
Reaching the Main Grocery Buyer
December 29, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 3 Comments
If you are selling grocery products you are probably well aware that successfully, reaching the household’s Main Grocery Buyer (MGB) or otherwise referred to as the primary grocery buyer has the greatest impact on sales of CPG (consumer packaged goods) or FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) products. Sometimes, however, this task can seem easier said than done. Where can you find the main grocery buyer and how can you influence their purchase decisions?
The latest research shows that the Main Grocery Buyer spends a lot of time online and can often be found researching new dishes and recipes online. Gourmet Ads allows you to target, influence and engage with the Main Grocery Buyer while they are research dishes and recipes online by placing your ad right next to these online recipes. Recipe ads are extremely effective because the Main Grocery Buyer tends to look for recipes while determining their shopping list right before heading to the grocery store. That puts your product at the top of their list and makes it likely to be one of the first items in their shopping cart when they reach the grocery store.
The recipe ads facilitated by Gourmet Ads are highly targeted and highly effective. There is no easier or more cost effective way to put your ads right in front of the people who are directly responsible for making the purchase decisions—the Main Grocery Buyer. Having your product in the forefront of the Main Grocery Buyer’s mind right at the moment they are making the purchase decision is the surest way to get your product into their grocery cart. Getting the best ROI means getting your ads to reach your target audience and getting as many of them to purchase your product as possible. Putting your advertisements right next to the recipes that contain your product for the Main Grocery Buyer to see right before heading to the grocery store is about as highly targeted and cost effective as you can get.
Advertising Grocery Coupons
December 28, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Times are tough these days and most people are looking for ways to save money wherever possible. This includes using more coupons for grocery purchases. Particularly in America, discount coupon use is at an all time high and is only likely to rise as the economy is predicted to get even worse.
This is great news for food companies that want to sell more product. No matter how bad the economy is, people will continue to buy food, in fact we’ve seen a recent increase in grocery sales as restaurant sales decrease. Consumers will continue to seek out new recipes online and there is a great opportunity to promote grocery discount coupons along side the recipes. As a food marketer, you couldn’t ask for a more targeted opportunity than to advertise your product coupon right next to these recipes. You can’t get more targeted than that.
When you place a coupon in your ad, you are virtually guaranteeing increased product sales. Manufacturer’s coupons that are distributed in newspapers usually result in a 1% redemption rate. Why so low? These coupons are not targeted. Senior citizens receive coupons for baby formula and young mothers receive coupons for Motor Oil.
Studies have shown that people who view online recipes usually actually use them and often view them right before heading to the grocery store. Not only are you getting a targeted market, you are getting them while they’re ripe!
Finally, the greatest benefit about advertising your Grocery Coupons with Gourmet Ads is the tracking and statistics. It’s so easy to track your results of the campaign and you can truly see how successful your marketing campaign has been in a very short period of time.
To give your coupon campaign a boost, contact Gourmet Ads and request a Digital Media Plan.
