Posts Tagged ‘Location Based Services’
Local Online Ad Spending
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, Local Search, SMBs, Search Marketing, Small Businesses, marketing, web 2.0
Local is good, and it is a significant part of the entire advertising market. Some estimates say that up to 54% of all adverterising is local, or locally based. In our increasingly localized and connected world, the power of local search, local content, and locally based interaction are unquestionably becoming key components of the advertising arena. Agencies and Local SMB’s are both very increasingly using local based targeting, or local search as an element of their campaigns. According to a new eMarketer Report, In 2008 Internet Yellow Page advertising is expected to reach $1.2 Billion in ad spending. Measurable to say the least.
Local content is largely becoming focused on user generated content; topix.com, outside.in, and others are focusing on creating a platform for people to share their reactions and feelings on locally relevant issues. The number of review sites (the likes of Yelp, BooRah, etc) seem to be doubling by the minute. While it is no question that people are extremely interestedin sharing their content locally, again how are these companies going to monetize this revenue?
Today, I saved $800 on a minor bumper repair to my car because I was researching some competition, checked out Topix, and found a video ad for a bumper repair place promising to save me hundreds. Well they did, and I had a long conversation with the owner of the business. He has totally abondoned anything in print, he created the video himself, and is advertising locally online to spread the word. Only purchasing a few text ads pointing to his website, he has designed his own viral campaign. Here’s the video:
This is how local advertising is going to be monetized. Simply, I was looking for something local, I found it and completely unintentionally I found something that I needed. Video can become a power tool in one’s local arsenal, and is quickly becoming sought after. I am now endeared to topix (they do have a ton of comments from nearly any city you visit), and I literally saved over 800 bucks to fix my rediculously expensive bumper. Local at its finest.
So listen up advertisers, agencies, publishers: here is the lesson - keep it local, keep it relevant and make the relationship meaningful. While there is no question in my mind (and many others’) that print YP’s and newspapers are no longer a useful advertising outlet and that online local search is the place to be, if you can make the ad meaningful, important, relevant - you can make money. This is nothing new, it seems rather simple, but to truly monetize a local site you can’t rely on CPM’s from exchanges or Honda, Verizon and others (a recent Borrell report estimates the relative CPMs for IYP is $3.65 vs. $9.29 for print YP) . It’s gotta be local, because that way I (the user) can convert that page view into a handshake. And isn’t that what local is really all about?
I think so, and I can’t imagine why any business out there will over look the power of a handshake and a friendly smile.
Weekend Tidbits and Discovery
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Local Search, Mobile, Mobile Web, Syndication, advertising
I came across a few new interesting things this weekend. Here’s a quick overview as I’ve got a busy day and I’m stealing time right now…
Outside.in (http://outside.in/) Outside.in is an interesting example of aggregating local news and information. I discovered some new things happening in Providence, that I wasn’t aware of. It does a pretty good job of collecting different stories from different perspectives and on a variety topics, all focused around local. It does not, however, do a particularly good job facilitating an experience in Providence beyond the discussions being had on their page. Again, their revenue model seems to be based on supplying relevant content and serving your standard skyscraper ads from national brands (that don’t seem to be well targeted).
They claim to have discussions on 11,860 towns and neighborhoods on their site, but most of them seem to be large towns/cities in the Northeast / West Coast. (nothing new there). Anyway, an interesting take on local and I’m intrigued to see where they take it or what I can learn from it.
NY Times Mobile Real Estate: I noticed this ad on the back page of the Business section this morning as I was reading with my coffee. It basically allows you to text the number of a listing in the NYT to their number and it sends you back more details and a link to that listing’s mobile site. I tried it out, but the first listing I sent returned “We’re sorry but that listing is not available in NYT Mobile,” I tried it again and voila! it sent me the name of the property, the location of the property, the price, the listing agent and a link to the mobile site for that listing. The link took me a mobile site about the listing, and had every little detail I could want about the property (photos, taxes, schools, etc).
I think its a somewhat cool implementation of mobile for the NYT, however its not very out of the box. I am still tied to looking up these listing numbers either in print or on their website. A better and perhaps more useful application would be to incorporate location based services into this app and have it feed you back listings in your area. I walk to Chelsea and say, “I want to live here” and the NYT (or anyone else) tells me what is available literally in this area.
Those are my thoughts for the morning, what do you think?…
