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September 30, 2008

Media Buyer Calls Forbes.com Guarantee Low Risk

Wouldn't it be nice if Henry Paulson, Congress, and the rest of 'em would offer the American people a guarantee that – if a bank bailout bill ever passes – we'll get a positive return on our investment?

Ha.

While it'd be tough to trust in a guarantee given by the government anyway, online ad buyers may have better luck. Expanding on its "Brand Increase Guarantee" program, Forbes.com just launched the "Total Guarantee." The promise: advertisers spending a minimum of $1 million over 90 days are guaranteed to hit specified reach and frequency targets. "With the Total Guarantee, marketers can specify how many individuals within their target audience they want to reach and the average frequency with which they reach them at the outset of the campaign," stated a Forbes.com press release.

"They never seemingly lost any money on this," David Smith, CEO of integrated media agency mediasmith told me yesterday. He calls expanding the guarantee program smart marketing, and wondered why he hasn't seen other brand name publishers offer this sort of thing.

Getting an advertiser to move $1 million in a few months time could amount to "a nice piece of business" by the time the year's over, added Smith.

Plus, argued Smith, Forbes.com "knows the level at which [online advertising] will move the needle, so it's a fairly safe move."

"This will be most attractive to new advertisers against this target audience or advertisers who have not advertised on Forbes.com before," he continued. "Those are the easiest to show a short-term increase via research" because they haven't communicated via that venue in the past.

Posted by Kate Kaye at September 30, 2008 4:49 PM

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