Tales From the Digital Side

This is great news! Google’s content/ad network that allows advertisers to run banners across many publishers has been a very consistent sources of resume submissions in many media campaigns. Up until now though, we were not able to track impressions level data and could only tracking resume submissions that were made after someone clicked on an ad. We’ll now be able to track those that see the ad, but don’t click , or post-impressions resume submissions (post-impressions resume submissions on average account for 60-70% of all resume submissions).

Yup, you heard me right. I’m getting sick of vendors and industry experts presenting search engine marketing (SEM) as a very complicated tool that recruiting professionals couldn’t possibly understand or manage thenselves. The truth is you could handle it yourself (if you only had time). However, although you probably need a vendor to help manage it from a time and adminstrative perspective, SEM is a rather simple tool. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long, long time since I had the time to blog. My poor neglected blog has been the casualty of a very busy fall planning season. However, I’m on a trip, sitting in a hotel, waiting for room service to bring me a bite to eat and have a bit of time to write down some thoughts.

I’ve been working with a lot of account teams and clients over the past several months to take advantage of the millions of digital advertising oppotunties out there. I’ve come across a lot of hype around behavioral targeting and wanted to do my share to educate recruitment advertisers on how this should and should not fit into their strategies. Read the rest of this entry »

Google has launched Google Gadget Ads. You can now serve ads within gadget s(also referred to as widgets). Advertisers can now create these branded mini-apps using Flash or HTML and incorporate data feeds, video, images, and more. Essentially, you can create a mini-website within the ads (similar in function to many of the rich media formats available). This has many uses for recruitment. Think jobs database integration, recruiting events, chat, games, etc.

Click Here for the full article.

There is a new term being used to describe the email you receive that is not SPAM, but is also not something you have time to pay attention to. It is being referred to as “BACN” (for more info go here). BACN is all the email newsletters, announcement lists, social network alerts, etc that make it to your inbox. It’s not that you don’t want them, it’s that you don’t have time for them. Read the rest of this entry »

This news made my week. According to this WSJ article, Facebook is working on a system that expands their already pretty nifty Flyer program. The Flyer program is a texted based ad that can be targeted by college, location or some limited demographics (age & gender). If they expand to include occupation, industry, interests, ethnicity, and employer - this will be huge for recruitment advertisers. Even some of these targeting options could get it to a “must include” status for recruitment media plans. If the program ends up being self-serve, as the flyer program is now, it will be even better, as there will not be barriers due to minimum buys for companies with smaller budgets.

Clearly it doesn’t take much to get me excited - but this could be an excellent source for recruitment marketing.

I think this is the coolest rich media ad that I’ve ever seen. This campaign is showing a live streaming video feed of an event in Times Square. Accelerade has paid a guy to run on a treadmill for 24 hours and you can see him if you happen to be passing through Times Square or if you happen to be browsing Yahoo. The banner was developed by PointRoll. The banner drives people to the site at: http://www.accelerade.com. Read the rest of this entry »

I just noticed this press release. Now, if I were Yahoo! Hotjobs, I would turn this into an awesome college recruiting resource. Whether or not they do anything interesting with it - it is a good site to reach college students, alumni and fans of specific universities.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/070621/1480111.html?.v=1

Although many employers are just barely beginning to experiment with the standard gif banner ad (the ones that just animates - no audio, video, expansion, etc), the rest of the interactive industry has been using a lot of rich media. A rich media ad is a banner ad that incorporates video, audio, expansion, data capture, games, polls, etc. These ads are more engaging for users and can offer a stronger branding experience than a standard gif. Read the rest of this entry »

For most of my career, I’ve been challenged and/or heckled by someone asking/stating “Come on, those banners don’t work?!” or “Well, I never click on banners”. And I have steadfastedly stood by my graphic ad friends, because they do add value.

I’m not alone anymore! According to research published in the Journal of Consumer Research and more understandably discussed in an article by Science Daily, banner ads have an effect, even if you don’t notice them. Even when people cannot recall the ad, the repeated exposure to the ad leads to familiarity and that leads to positive feelings. The relationship between exposure and positive feelings is a direct one, with positive feelings increasing as exposure increased. This supports the value of using banner ads as part of your digitial branding strategy. Read the rest of this entry »