Cyber Monday Advertising
October 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Cyber Monday is the Monday following Black Friday (see Black Friday Advertising), the day which kicks off holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Traditionally Black Friday was associated with regular bricks and mortar stores, while Cyber Monday was associated with online stores as the name suggests. The idea was that consumers would go online on the Monday and order the products they were after, but couldn’t find at the weekend Black Friday sales. Nowadays both Black Friday and Cyber Mondays are huge for both online and offline sales.
Given the huge numbers of consumers at their computer with credit card in hand, any online retailer or ecommerce store can benefit from Cyber Monday Advertising. The most successful Cyber Monday Advertising campaigns are those that reach target consumers, engage with them and create a relationship well before they make a purchase. Often it is price driven or discount offered based advertising, so if that’s the case then your creative needs to include these in the messaging.
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 Cyber Monday Advertising media mix. Some of the ways to make your Cyber Monday Advertising stand out from competitors on the Gourmet Ads network include;
- Roadblock Advertising – every impression for Cyber Monday will be yours across the network. We can offer you 100% of the network for 2 days.
- Interstitial Advertising – Undertake an interstitial campaign capped at 1/24 on Cyber Monday. Interstitials offer a high engagement rate and can include video and rich media.
- Beyond the Banner – create a free standing rich media ad which grabs consumer’s attention and encourages click through.
- Display campaign – Key to success is to include a variety of creative including expandable units on rollover to increase the engagement rate.
If you haven’t already booked your Cyber Monday Advertising, then don’t delay as the Gourmet Ads network often books out during the entire Thanksgiving period. Download your copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit which includes information on other key event days throughout the year that you should be booking.
Black Friday Advertising
October 17, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Black Friday is one of the most popular days on the shopping calendar as Black Friday flags the start to the Christmas shopping season. As such it’s important to make an impact with your Black Friday Advertising. For those that don’t know, Black Friday is the term used for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States and it’s typically one of the largest revenue days for retailers.
In past years Black Friday coupons have played a role in driving consumers to buy in store, but it’s important to remember that many consumers will prefer to click on advertising driving them to buy online. So it’s essential to not only do offline media, but ensure you invest in online Black Friday Advertising to drive sales online. Even if you only do in store sales, its important to run a campaign which reaches consumers, engages with them and creates a relationship well before they reach the store.
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 Black Friday Advertising media mix. Some of the ways to make your Black Friday Advertising stand out from competitors on the Gourmet Ads network include;
- Roadblock Advertising – every impression for Thanksgiving and Black Friday will be yours across the network. We can offer you 100% of the network for 2 days.
- Interstitial Advertising – Undertake an interstitial campaign capped at 1/24 on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Offers a high engagement rate and can include video and rich media.
- Beyond the Banner – create a free standing rich media ad which grabs consumer’s attention and encourages click through.
- Display campaign – Key to success is to include a variety of creative including expandable units on rollover to increase the engagement rate. This campaign could be run a week before Black Friday or launch on the morning of Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t already booked your Black Friday Advertising, then don’t delay as the Gourmet Ads network often books out during the Thanksgiving period. Download your copy of the Gourmet Ads Media Kit which includes information on other key event days throughout the year that you should be booking.
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.
Fall Media Planning
June 16, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
It’s mid June and we’re already having companies lock away their fall campaigns with Gourmet Ads. It’s typical to see this sort of six month forward planning with campaigns booked already pretty much focus on holiday periods such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just like snow falling, media planner and media buyers need to take a blanket approach with high share of voice to ensure their products gain the attention they desire online. With this in mind, it’s key to lock it in as soon as possible.
Fall is so important to many food and wine companies. Not only are the holiday periods key, but we find that traffic generally increases to our sites during the fall. There are a variety of reasons for why we see this trend of increased traffic (I believe the main reason is that cold weather contributes with more people generally staying in) during the fall period. Take a look at the graph below from Google Trends for the keyword search “recipes”. Towards the end of each year take a look at the common annual trends for people searching “recipes”. Given that the majority of sites in the Gourmet Ads network feature recipes we also see this trend rather consistently.
Media planners and media buyers should look at starting campaigns in early September and October, then mid November vamping it up to high share of voice. Focusing on key dates around Thanksgiving, then Black Friday, the last few days of online Christmas spending and then Christmas spending.
We’ve previously write blogs on Thanksgiving Advertising and Christmas Advertising which both focus on each of these topics. Both blogs give you ideas on timing and what can be done in the lead up to both thanksgiving and Christmas.
So although we’ve just started the US summer, planning your advertising campaigns at the end of the year is something that should be happening now. Our team would be happy to develop a Digital Media Plan for your consideration, to do this, simply visit Request a Proposal. Or if you’re simply looking at all the opportunities in the market, then start by downloading our 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.
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.
