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Worst Practices

June 2, 2008

Bad Trend: Press Releases for Press Releases

Post written by Doug Quenqua

Note to PR professionals: Let your press release do the talking.

That is what it's for, no? Your client or company has news to share, so you write up a press release and e-mail it to the relevant reporters. This is a good system.

But a troubling trend has taken hold. It seems lately that every press release we receive is prefaced by three to four introductory paragraphs in which the otherwise level-headed PR professional sending the e-mail describes -- often in terms identical to those of the release itself -- what the news is, why we would find it interesting, and how we can follow up to find more information.

Then comes the press release, which tells us what the news is, why we might find it interesting, and how we can follow up to find more information.

This never used to happen. Back in the days of faxed press releases, which some of us are just old enough to remember (we assume prior to that they were physically mailed, but we would have to rent some old journalism movies to be sure), nobody prefaced their news releases with a handwritten page explaining what to expect on the next page. So why now?

I have my theories. Perhaps PR people feel too much pressure to develop a one-on-one relationship with reporters, and press releases seem so impersonal in the age of digital over-sharing (just think of all the things Facebook has taught you about your "professional" contacts). Perhaps they are trying to make their release feel more like a privately shared tip, which is how most reporters prefer to get their information. There is also the fact that e-mail makes it easier than ever to pound out 500 word missives about any old thing.

But we all have less time than ever these days. So let's do us both a favor. You keep the pre-release chit chat to a minimum—"Hey Doug, hope you find the following useful. Would love to hook you up with an interview if you have time. Thanks!"—and we'll not use our Facebook status updates or Twitter feeds to bitch about you. At least not as much.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 22, 2008

Countrywide CEO's E-mail Faux Pas

Disgusting.

That one single word made Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo look like an ogre this week.

It all started when Daniel Bailey Jr. used language from a form letter to ask the lender to revise the terms of his adjustable-rate mortgage so he wouldn't lose his home. Bailey's note went out to about 20 Countrywide addresses, including Mozilo's, according to the latimes.com.

Mozilo took to the keyboard:

"This is unbelievable…Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting," wrote Mozilo, who apparently hit the "reply" button instead of "forward."

Bailey posted Mozilo's note on Loan Safe, bringing widespread attention to the "disgusting" reply.

Countrywide issued a statement to the latimes.com saying the company and Mozilo "regret any misunderstanding caused by his inadvertent response to an e-mail by Mr. Bailey. Countrywide is actively working to help borrowers like Mr. Bailey keep their homes."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 30, 2008

When Failure Is the ROI Goal

Shouldn't marketing be more than just going through the motions?

Over coffee the other day, one of the top e-mail consultants in the country told me about a surprise revelation from a client, one of the major broadband providers in the country.

She's charged with an e-mail retention program aimed at the telco's broadband subscribers. So naturally you'd think that the more subscribers who re-upped their annual contracts, the better the program was performing, right?

Not so fast.

In a recent meeting, the client let drop that subscribers who don't renew their DSL contracts are charged higher monthly fees, and that the majority of lapsed subscribers simply don't notice the rise in costs. "So," my friend incredulously asked her client, "you're telling me that the more this program doesn't work, the more money you make?"

"Well...yes," came the reply.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 28, 2008

Spamming, the Google Docs Way

Hey, why build a Web site to hawk your penile enlargement kits or questionable pharmaceuticals? Get with the program - there's a new way to spam. The Google Docs way!

Talk about optimizing landing pages.

We just received a "suggesation for purchaseing Cheap Drugs Online" (sic) in our spam folder. The call-to-action caught our eye - an invitation to click on an unembedded URL clearly leading to a Google Docs page. It's not like we would've ever thought of it ourselves, but spammers wear a special breed of thinking cap.

On the one hand, the spammer behind this scam probably isn't getting great analytics. But spammers aren't interested in crazy notions such as purchase funnels. Only results count. And if this kind of scam results in a much more circuitous route to a whois lookup, so much the better for the spammer.

What will they think of next?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 10, 2008

Live By the Crowd, Die By the Crowd

The SXSW conference has been all about bottom-up media; individuals and crowds creating, selecting and elevating content above and beyond whats doled out to them by traditional media outlets and corporations.

Sure, Business Week journalist Sarah Lacy's keynote interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg yesterday was a trainwreck, an abortion, went down in flames and every other metaphor for disaster. Why? Because Sarah was all about Sarah, all the time (except when she was dissing her audience). The media took her to task for it. So did the blogosphere and the Twittersphere (to which her "screw all you guys" response bears special mention).

In real time.

Her self-justification in this YouTube interview only makes something bad something much worse indeed.

Ironically, Sarah has, in unifying thousands of conference attendees against her (and providing the burning topic for conversation at last night's parties) become the most valuable object lesson in what's so endlessly discussed here in Austin. The word made flesh.

If you doubt the pundits, experts, panelists and pontificators, the Story of Sarah proves them right. In a highly weird way, it's almost the best thing that could have happened here. Except, of course, for Sarah herself.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 7, 2008

Greener Marketing: It's a Brand Thing, Too

Marketers need to start thinking harder about schwag for the sake of the environment, as well as their brands.

The sheer amount of conference bag stuff always boggles the mind, particularly at evens as massive as SXSW. Of course, the sponsor fees behind stuffing all this stuff into those totes goes a long way toward making these events possible.

SXSW sent out a pre-event e-mail to participants with pointers on making the event greener, pointing out opportunities for recycling and other efforts conference-goers could take toward reducing - somewhat - the event's carbon footprint.

But boy, is my bag full. And it's full of stuff that doesn't need to be there. I'll single out Microsoft as an example (because they're big enough to take it, but are hardly the only offender).

Microsoft's extremely cool Silverlight plug-in is a topline SXSW sponsor. That doesn't excuse including a Silverlight CD, encased in a hefty plastic box, in each of tens of thousands of bags. Not when this slim little plug-in is readily available as a fast, free download from the Web.

It's not just a matter of waste (calling to mind AOL's well-publicized earlier excesses), it's also become a matter of branding (particularly in an environment and a city as socially conscious as SXSW and Austin). Microsoft paid a pretty penny to manufacture all those CDs, and more still to get them slipped into bags -- so they could be slipped into the trash. An alternative might have been a simple sheet with information about the product and how to get it for free.

Result? Negative buzz. That's bad for the brand, not just the environment.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 4, 2008

Subverting Digg for Fun and Profit

The Web has its share of do-wrongers, but every now and then a company comes along and lowers the bar so much that one can only conclude Mephistopheles himself must be on the advisory board. Such is the case with Subvert and Profit, which runs a social media marketing system that works by... well, I'll just let the firm speak for itself:

Subvert and Profit runs an ever-expanding black market for votes on social media sites. We are simultaneously the easiest way to make money online and the cheapest form of advertising in the web 2.0 sphere. We are the crowdhackers, and we are very good at what we do.

Now I know I'm late on this. Several tech bloggers commented on this one back in April, at which time the service was geared exclusively toward Digg. But it's interesting and disturbing to note that S&P is still going strong (It claims 1 million servants on Digg. ) and has now expanded its social media gaming scheme to StumbleUpon, where it boasts 4.1 million flying monkeys ready to popularize crappy marketing content. Additionally, as of November it's added an overseas operation in Poland, "with crowdsourcing across the time zones to stoke your site traffic!"

I'd call it black marketing, but executives have already embraced that title.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 3, 2008

Phishers Phind Phacebook

It was bound to happen. The scourge of phishing, which has long plagued rival MySpace, has evidently come to Facebook. Mike Arrington, who blogged an example this morning, oddly wonders "what the bad guys want with a bunch of Facebook user account credentials." The answer of course, as with MySpace, is they want to spam your friends.

On the upside, the value spammers can generate by phishing Facebook log-in credentials will likely be considerably less than MySpace, since MySpace enables drive by visits to its users' profile pages and Facebook does not. When you spam someone's Facebook network, all you get is their network.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 10, 2007

NY Transit Authority's Webinar Falls Flat

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority's “Public Engagement Webinar� turned out to be the road to nowhere.

The MTA's proposed fare hikes have been strongly opposed by riders. Following several months of public hearings, the body decided to at least not to commuters by offering them an opportunity to weigh in on the fare hikes, and to ask questions of officials.

According to reports, their efforts fell flat -- together with the technology. Participants failed to get their questions answered, or to see questions posted by others as promised.

The MTA has apologized for the disconnect and is promising to answer questions on its site.

It's doubtful New York's bus and subway riders are feeling any more empowered -- obviously the point of the Webinar -- nor any happier about looming fare hikes. Blog posts and comments on MTA-related news stories are dominated by enraged riders venting their collective spleen.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2007

MTV.com to Mess with a Good Thing

I love the background images on MTV.com, all of which are originally commissioned artworks. Go to the site and hit refresh a bunch of times or click around a bit and you'll see what I mean. The frequently rotated graphics spill out to the right and left of the central pane, so if you're seeing the site on a large screen it's pretty powerful.

I learned recently MTV's about to start plugging ads into that space, beginning with a sprawling placement for upcoming Robert Zemeckis flick Beowulf. Now I'm usually in favor of such experiments but this move strikes me as a mistake for two reasons. First, you're replacing something very cool (indie drawings: non-commercial and an MTV tradition) with something uncool by comparison (pitch for a special effects blockbuster). But media companies do that sort of thing all the time (see: Campbell-sponsored recipes on AOL Food). The bigger error is that from what I've heard the Beowulf ad in its current form makes heavy use of the wider aspect ratio on the site, so they're building the full experience for 10 percent or less of the audience -- the ones with monitors over 21 inches.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 26, 2007

Direct Revenue and Best Offers Bite the Dust

Alleged spyware purveyor Direct Revenue is kaput. Notices on the firm's sites, direct-revenue.com and bestoffersnetworks.com, state, "Best Offers and Direct Revenue have ceased operations."

All that remains are instructions on how to uninstall the company's software.
Direct Revenue has come under legal fire in federal court for deceptive practices, and been investigated and fined by the Federal Trade Commission, and sued by New York and in federal court.

New York's investigation of the company exposed advertisers fined for using the service, including Priceline.com, Travelocity.com and Cingular Wireless.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 5, 2007

SEC Touts Its Fight Against Stock Manipulation Spam

Three companies, accused of being susceptible to delivering spam that could manipulate stock prices, were forced on Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend trading securities for 10 business days.

The SEC, in a statement, said the three companies failed to provide adequate and accurate information about themselves to investors, and as a result, could be susceptible to engaging in stock-touting spam. The SEC didn't state whether these companies, which all trade over-the-counter securities, delivered such spam.

The SEC said its actions are part of an initiative, launched in March, to fight spam-driven stock market manipulation. Since that time, the SEC reported suspended trading in the securities of 39 companies. It also said it brought several spam-related enforcement actions.

In the latest round of trading suspensions, Alliance Transcription Services (ATSS), Prime Petroleum Group (PPGU), and T.W. Christian (TWCI) are temporarily barred from trading its securities. The ban is lifted after Oct. 17.

Executives from the three companies could not be reached to respond to the SEC's actions.

The SEC said its anti-spam efforts are paying off, citing an Internet security threat report published last month by Symantec. Spam related to financial services accounted for 21 percent of all spam during the first six months of 2007, down from 30 percent during the last half of 2006, according to Symantec. The security software vendor singled out the SEC's actions for the decline.

Financial spam, once No. 1, has been surpassed by spam promoting commercial goods and services, including counterfeit designer purses and watches, according to Symantec.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 28, 2007

You Know It's Time to Modify Your AdWords & AdSense Campaigns When...

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2007

Yucky Spam From Our Competitor

Ewww. Gross.

A direct ClickZ competitor is behind a new wave of soft core spam. No less than three copies of the top example arrived in rapid succession last week at the unique e-mail address I use to subscribe to their list only. Not only is there zero indication of how the sender obtained the e-mail address in the message, but the content is in no way, shape or form appropriate to a B2B online marketing publication. One that runs e-mail marketing events, no less.

Difficult as is was, I resisted the temptation to blog Episodes 1-3. Then today, another example landed in my inbox -- promising recipients they can meet the "American Curves Featured Model" and avail themselves of an open Champagne bar for "the ladies":

OK, so it's inappropriate content. And renting lists to third-parties (particularly with zero disclosure) is a nasty idea. I decided to check our competitor's privacy policy. Nowhere does it disclose e-mail addresses will be shared or tented to third parties, or so it appears from this very vague, semi-grammatical excerpt:

"We use this individual company information to deliver member only newsletters, and other service-related purposes only your company contact information is made available to other members in the member directory."

It's always a delicate situation to slam a competitor in print. I'm not naming names, but I would caution marketers to be very, very selective when selecting a source for e-mail marketing advice.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 25, 2007

Double Opt-Out

I was a bit surprised this morning to get a newsletter I unsubscribed from recently. Then I scrolled to the end to view the unsubscribe information and read: "To unsubscribe please send an e-mail to xxx_unsub@news.xxx.com. If you have tried to unsubscribe and are still receiving the email, please reply to this message with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line." Is this standard for the publication, or was there a problem? I guess I have to wait and see if attempt number two to unsubscribe will be successful.

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Landing Page Slip-Up

The name and identity of the site have been protected: I clicked through the sponsored link to a social networking site and landed on a page with the above message. To add insult to injury, the redirect to the homepage just refreshes the same error page. What's your search guy up to these days?

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 6, 2007

Can't Miss Concept! Eliminate Click Fraud - By Eliminating PPC Advertising

In an unsavory atmosphere of fear, uncertainty and doubt (F.U.D.), combined with click fraud alarmism over a core of domain leasing, a new company that officially launched today called LeaseThis.com promises to eliminate click fraud -- basically, by eliminating PPC advertising.

Yeah, and you can eliminate drunk driving by banning alcohol and cars, too. Hope all you V.C.s out there are pricking up your ears.

"New Online Advertising Model Eliminating Industry Problem of Click Fraud" screams the overwrought press release that landed in our inboxes today.

This is completely whack.

In its own words, LeaseThis.com "...bypasses search engines and directly connects the advertiser with the domain owner...For the first time, advertisers can lease a domain name for a specified time period, with the option to purchase it after the lease has expired."

Well, they got that first part right. If you don't advertise on search engines, you're not going to be a victim of click fraud. No siree. What you are going to do as an advertising client of LeaseThis.com is not lease a domain, but sublease one from it's "owner." As we all know, domains aren't really owned, they're leased themselves.

The company is betting consumers increasingly bypass search in favor of direct navigation. My hunch is the tactic works with brand or corporate names (Sony, Apple, Starbucks, Bloomingdales), but not with domain names like "BestBar.com" or "Pizza90210.com."

And that's to say nothing of what happens to a domain when the sublet clause expires. Whatever moves in next could have an effect on the first advertiser equal to, if not much more devastating than, the effects of click fraud.

Is the domain leasing concept fully without merit? No.

But LeaseThis.com's marketing strategy unequivocally is.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 7, 2007

Edelman Says Bolt and Others Get Traffic via Spyware

The spyware hunter is back, and this time he's after sites that buy spyware traffic to force users to visit their domains. In his latest report, Ben Edelman argues publishers are buying traffic originating through spyware in order to falsely boost site traffic numbers, which can help raise ad rates.

According to Edelman:

Harm may accrue to advertisers -- by overcharging them as well as by placing their ads in spyware they seek to avoid. Harm may accrue to investors, by causing them to overpay for sites whose true popularity is less than traffic statistics indicate. In any event, harm accrues to consumers and to the public at large, through funding of spyware that sneaks onto users' PCs with negative effects on privacy, reliability, and performance.

Away.com, Bolt.com, Broadcaster.com, GrindTV.com, RooTV and Diet.com are all implicated in his report, which notes, "Video sites are strikingly prevalent in the preceding examples and in other forced-visit traffic I have observed."

Edelman suggests advertisers wanting to keep their distance from sites driving traffic through forced methods could look for traffic spikes on sites or look at visit length, but notes neither is really foolproof. "The only robust way to detect spyware-originating forced visits is through testing of actual spyware-infected PCs -- by watching their behavior and seeing what sites they show."

Another interesting note: Edelman has built a patent-pending automated system for tracking spyware-derived traffic and other functions. He typically monitors this sort of thing manually.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 3, 2007

Who Sees the Light in Silverlight?

The blogosphere is abuzz over Silverlight, a just-introduced browser plug-in from Microsoft that promises it can "deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces."

It also promises full cross-platform integration and "seamless, fast installation for users." CBS will adopt it, so will rich media ad vendors Brightcove and Eyeblaster, and brands including Major League Baseball and Netflix.

Small wonder our curiosity is piqued -- what will the advertising implications be?

Small stumbling block involving end-user implications. I downloaded and installed the plug-in. Several times. It refuses to run on Firefox, Safari or IE on my Mac (or our news editor's Mac).

OK, so we can't experience the wonders of Silverlight on the Web. Let's just download the movie and see what this baby can do.

Would you believe it? (Sadly, yes. It's all just too plausible.) The .wmv movie won't even play in Microsoft's own Window Media Player. Something about the wrong codecs. Handy-dandy open-source VLC to the rescue -- as always.

While Microsoft promises Silverlight is good-to-go for us Mac users, we see things a bit differently.

We're going to follow up on what advertisers think Silverlight can do for them. But it's hard to believe it's going to be widely adopted until it can deliver on its claims, promises and value propositions.

Update: A new version of the plug-in did install and work on my PowerBook. Playback of Microsoft's demo video was less than smooth, but at least a functional release is out.
It's still very hard to understand why utterly non-functional releases go public, though.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 6, 2007

PC Makers Treat Your New Machine Like Their Ad Medium

The Journal's Walt Mossberg buys his first ever PC loaded with Windows Vista, and finds the experience less than pleasing. Not because of Vista, but because of all the ads, special offers and other unnecessary crap the manufacturer -- Sony in this case, though he says many hardware makers are guilty -- has pre-loaded onto it.

On my new Sony, there were two dozen trial programs and free offers. The desktop alone contained four icons representing come-ons for various America Online services, and two for Microsoft. The start menu and program menu had more items that I neither chose nor wanted. Napster, a music service I don't use, was lodged at the lower right of the screen.

The worst was a desktop icon called "Watch Hit Movies Now!" This turned out to be four full-length films from Sony's movie studios, which the company had preloaded onto my computer at the cost of more than four gigabytes of precious hard-disk space. But they aren't a gift. If you want to play them, you have to pay Sony.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 20, 2007

Surprise: Microsoft Report Blames Google

Microsoft has a big report out, covered yesterday in the NY Times, that analyzes the sources of what it calls Web spam. The "Spam Double-Funnel: Connecting Web Spammers with Advertisers" report describes in excruciating detail how users end up getting duped into clicking search results that appear to link to one domain, but end up redirecting to a site loaded with more links to advertisers.

Surprise, Surprise: Google's to Blame
The report conveniently finds that Google's free blog hosting service blogspot (an optional hosting service for Blogger-powered blogs) "was responsible for about one in every four spam appearances (22% and 29% in the two benchmarks respectively, to be exact)" in instances involving "doorway domains." Regarding these types of domains, the report notes, "Typically, spammers create spam blogs, such as http://PhentermineNoPrescriptionn.blogspot.com, and use these doorway URLs to spam the comment area of other forums."

It also calls out Google's AdSense network as a facilitator in the process:

"In the case of AdSense-based spammers, the single domain googlesyndication.com plays the role of the middle three layers, responsible for serving ads, receiving click-through traffic, and redirecting to advertisers. Specifically, browsers fetch AdSense ads from the redirection domain googlesyndication.com and display them on the doorway pages; ads click-through traffic goes into the aggregator domain googlesyndication.com before reaching advertisers’ websites."

It comes as no surprise that these "spammers," primarily affiliate marketing sites (the report makes no mention of the term affiliate marketing, by the way), create free-hosted sites and load them up with Google AdSense ads which provide them with revenue each time a user clicks them.

Adult, Drugs and Ringtone Searches Drive Spam? Say It Ain't So!
The report lists the top ten most prominent "spam" categories, ones anyone could probably guess. In order from 1 to 10: Drugs, Adult, Gambling, Ringtone, Money (car insurance, debt, etc.), accessories (Gucci handbag, rolex replica, etc.), travel, cars, music and furniture (OK, furniture surprises me, actually).

Is It Really Spam?
Though the report uses the term, "spam," it does so loosely, considering even if people end up on pages filled with advertiser links, they are actually keyword driven, meaning if they searched for "ringtones" and clicked on a so-called "spam" site, they most likely end up with a page filled with links to ringtone providers. It may not be an efficient or clean search experience, but applying the word "spam" to it might not be entirely appropriate.

Consider this: A Google search on "Ringtones" brings up more than one result on the first results page that finalizes at this page, which lists several links, many of which go through several redirects before they end up on sites that, indeed, offer free ringtones or ringtone services. Sure, this type of stuff is cluttering the Web and may be annoying, but the end result is relevant ringtone-related sites, right? I'm no fan of this stuff, just making a point.

Will the Real Advertisers Please Stand Up?
Who are the top advertisers according to the report? Microsoft researchers list shopping search sites, ringtone and drug-related sites like tunes4tones.com, couponmountain.com, bizrate.com and shopping.com. Still, those sites are fueled by the real advertisers: the retail sites and brand advertisers promoting their goods through the shopping sites.

The report suggests, "By exposing the end-to-end search spamming activities, we hope to educate users not to click spam links and spam ads, and to encourage advertisers to scrutinize those syndicators and traffic affiliates who are profiting from spam traffic at the expense of the long-term health of the web."

Ya know, if these guys wanted to educate users, they might have thought about writing a report that could be comprehended by them, or the press for that matter. When the tech guys write the report, it may as well be in another language.

A New Layer from Google's Pay-per-action Model?
Another interesting wrinkle here is that Google just unveiled a pay-per-action pricing model for its AdSense network, meaning advertisers pay based on an action taken by the user such as a sale or newsletter registration. So, in this scenario, AdSense site owners (lots of 'em belong to big affiliate marketing networks like Commission Junction), won't get paid for click-through only. As Rob Kniaz, product manager for Google's ad products told ClickZ, "It does shift the burden of conversion to the publisher, but it's a higher value ad unit."

By requiring that extra action occurs, one could argue Google will force affiliate marketing sites to feature truly valuable content for users, as opposed to the junk many of them provide now. Still, the promise of higher payouts for affiliates from Google, a primary driver of their revenue now, could attract more people to the affiliate marketing world, and possibly inspire the black hatters to conjure up more ways to clutter the Web with muck.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

Press Release or Spam?

Scanning my e-mail includes the compulsory activity of deleting spam on first sight. It's second nature. Which is why when I was scanning the wires a press release with the title "1,600 Per Cent Increase in Revenues Could be Yours" made me go for the delete button. Maybe you've got a service to sell, but the first step the marketing guys at this company should have done was to make the differentiation between the pitch and the multitude of spam. How is this different from the pure junk titled, "Play and make big money.," "Develop your business using our company MHII.OB now" or simply "reputable" I'm about to trash from my e-mail?

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 2, 2007

Two Years After Launching Brand Blogs, Vespa Forgets Them

Nearly two years ago, Vespa parent Piaggo USA and its PR firm CooperKatz began recruiting writers for two blogs singing the praises of its scooters. One was conceived as an "urban lifestyle" blog, the other was about "life's journey."

Today, both sites have been abandoned. The last of their remaining writers, Crystal Waters of Vespaway, walked away from the project in November. Her final post offers a simple apology to the community, along with an explanation that the company failed to respond to several of her queries about the site's future.

The amazing thing here is Waters' clear concern for her audience, a concern Vespa, which initiated the project, apparently doesn't share. Meanwhile, the company is still promoting the blogs on its site. Yikes.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 23, 2006

When AdSense Acts Like Gator

Dunno who called and woke me up this morning, because the phone battery died the minute I picked up the handset.

That meant it was time to go online and shop for Panasonic cordless phone batteries. The first result I click (a paid search advertiser), had obviously drunk the Google Kool-Aid, given AdSense ads occupied the bulk of his site's real estate. And what are those ads touting? Why, batteries, of course -- the only product this particular merchant sells.

Lots has been written about contextual ad bloopers, but considerably less about merchants who should perhaps think twice (or three times) about filtering the ads they allow on their sites. AdSense was, after all, created for publishers. You merchants already have ways to monetize your site.

This calls to mind those endless lawsuits against Gator (the ones that forced the copany to change its business model and become Claria). Only in this case, the poor schmuck whose prospective clients are being cordially invited to shop elsewhere are being invited to so so by the merchant himself, not by a scummy adware product.

Or could it be that it's more lucrative to be paid for clicks to batteries than for the batteries themselves?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 13, 2006

Sony Flogs Itself

Another day, another fake blog. This one's from Sony, for the PSP, and it's god-awful. Zipatoni is reportedly the agency behind the putrescent site, which calls itself "All I want for xmas is a PSP." After taking a persistent reaming in the comments the blog's creators posted a mea culpa of sorts, and an oddly flippant one at that:

Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn't a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP. - Sony Computer Entertainment America

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gnashing Teeth Over Pop-Ups

Shortly after reading Seth's little rant about non user-initiated audio ads on Rhapsody.com this morning, I found myself in the dentist's chair. Hanging over that chair is the now ubiquitous flat-screen monitor displaying the day's appointments, dental records, x-rays, and all that other important dentist stuff.

Only today, the screen was displaying something I'd never seen before: a pop-up ad for a Rhapsody MP3 player. I didn't even know those things were connected to the Web, but apparently they are. The ad pretty much obliterated my appointment and records.

Seth, you're not the only one who's peeved. So's Dr. Cho, her technician, and yours truly.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2006

Utah Leaks Minors' E-Mail Addresses

Just how is it that any combination of the state of Utah and Internet regulation leads to such moronic ineptitude? For years, the state has passed one bad law after another to protect its citizenry against the scouge of the Web.

Last year, the state's clueless lawmakers instituted the Child Protection Registry under the auspices of the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. The registry consists of the e-mail addresses of minors. Adult-oriented Web sites and e-mailers are supposed to screen their databases against the registry before mailing.

It should come as no surprise that the Consumer Protection bureau has divulged the e-mail addresses of several minors in the registry. It wasonly a matter of time. Perhaps the gaffe will induce Michigan, the other state with a similar registry, to reconsider the wisdom of maintaining a database that's a virtual goldmine for spammers and pedophiles.

And to think a do-not-e-mail registry was lose to becoming part of the CAN-SPAM Act. I can still recall Sen. Chuck Schumer banging his fist on the lectern at the FTC hearings in D.C., intoning "military style encryption!"

Do-not-e-mail databases are not safe, they're accidents waiting to happen. Except, of course, in Utah, where the accident already happened.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 3, 2006

WSJ's Utterly Oxymoronic Take On Pre-Roll Ads

In a none-too-enlightening piece examining the pre-roll conundrum in video advertising, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) makes a statement today that sums up just how much ignorance there is out there regarding online advertising.

"What makes pre-rolls attractive to advertisers -- but off-putting to viewers -- is that they don't allow fast-forwarding," says the Journal.

Excuse me, but if pre-rolls are off-putting to their intended audience, what the heck is the benefit to advertisers, the very people trying to reach that audience?

At least our own Dorian Sweet gets it (but then, he always does). "They don't have a channel flipper or a mute button, but they do have the ability to just completely ignore it and go to someplace else," Dorian told the WSJ.

It's not just the length of the pre-roll (often longer than the video segment a user is trying to get at). Frequency caps on all those pre-rolls would help, too, an angle the Journal story completely (and bafflingly) overlooks.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 19, 2006

The Verified Sender Breakdown

Im trying to send an e-mail the head of corporate communications at one of the top-4 ISPs this morning -- to no avail.

I know he has my contact info, but probably not the new-ish e-mail address that came about when ClickZ was sold. His mailbox, meanwhile, will only shoot over an autoresponder asking me to click the link and prove I'm real.

But when I click, here's what's on the landing page:

!-- Addme
Missing required parameter: id
--

It's another variation on the infinite loop of non-communication such authenticaton methods can engender (the more common variation is the invisible and eternal conversation your autoresponder might have with my autoresonder, were we both to use that method of authenticaton).

In this case, however, I can't e-mail the head of communications. At an ISP! That's pretty bad.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2006

Optimize for E-Mail First, Mobile Later

If you're not a journalist, you've probably never seen the e-mails of press releases PR Newswire sends to the media. But you're welcome to share our pain. Just click to enlarge the image.

Reproduced is the HTML dispatch. Text doesn't fare much better. Headlines aren't bolded. Worse, they run into the end of the preceding item without so much as a paragraph break. Just about the only thing that really pops for harried, headline-scanning editors and reporters is the useless "get" link which, if you click it, theoretically e-mails you the full text of the press release.

None of this has changed since...well, forever. It's not like we don't forward inquiries and complaints into the black hole that is PR Newswire's media inquiry service.

Oh, and unlike their major competitor, PR Newswire's RSS feeds aren't even customizable.

Yet the company keeps crowing about its digital updates. Yesterday, the announcement was news feeds for mobile devices optimized for both search and formatting.

"People using their mobile devices to search the web should be able to access news releases that are formatted for the small screen. We're committed to solving that problem,� said COO Dave Armon.

Dave, the media has a problem. We can't make heads or tails of your e-mails -- the ones you send multiple times per day. We delete them because we literally can't read them.

Do your clients know we can't decode the press releases they pay you to get in front of our eyes?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 12, 2006

If I Were A Trademark...

I was mucking around the Web doing some research for my column this week when stumbled on a company that's been buying my name as a keyword on Google's AdWords.

No, I didn't find it via a vanity search, but rather on B.L. Ochman's blog.

This is jarring on a number of levels. First, it's my name. I may be relatively well know in this space, but sheesh. It's not like I'm Madonna or anything. So yeah, I feel violated.

The other thing that bothers me is that the company that bought this ad is AdWords Qualified by Google. Let's put aside for a moment whether or not buying private individuals' names is a good search marketing practice or not. In this case, the headline and body copy have nothing whatsoever to do with the landing page: the SEM company's homepage.

Otherwise put, not only is the ad not relevant, it certainly doesn't qualify as AdWords Qualified.

My gut is that the keywords (i.e. my name) were rock bottom cheap, clicks were zero, and the ad disappeared in short order. The bad taste in my mouth will linger, however. And given I'm an individual, not a trademark, even if I wanted to take action, it wouldn't be easy given Google's procedures and the fact the company in question is offshore.

So, I guess I'll vent by blogging it.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 23, 2006

Yahoo, Hydroderm -- Lay Off the Ad Already!

For weeks now, if not months, Yahoo's been serving this same hideous Hydroderm ad every single time I visit my mail account.

Enough! Cease! Basta! Uncle!

I'm not gonna buy it and I never, ever want to see this ad again. Understand?

Haven't you guys ever heard of frequency caps?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 14, 2006

Somebody didn't get the memo...

Google's lawyers have once again begun firing off letters to media organizations to stop using its name as a verb. Ostensibly, it's only doing it to protect its trademark, an issue that it has struggled with since "to google" someone or something entered the lexicon.

The execution, however, seems especially ham-handed, given the company's aversion to doing evil. Not to mention the fact that "google" as a verb is finding its way into dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. While I can't be sure, I'm guessing Larry and Sergei were pretty excited when they got that news.

This is the second example of intra-company communication skills lacking at big Web marketing companies. The first, and by far much worse, saw AOL's research team looking to do something nice for academics, and ending up with a PR nightmare.

Perhaps both AOL and Google need to hold a "family meeting" to make sure everyone's on the same page, especially when it comes to events like this where the actions of one group are so clearly at odds with those of another.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 2, 2006

Heck, Let's Leave It On the Homepage For Two Weeks

Q: How do you know when to fire your VP of Marketing and PR?

A: When you catch them sending pitches like the one ClickZ received last night:

Hi,

We’d like to offer the att. Guest Edit to ClickZ with a right of first refusal. It’s a draft we will finalize tomorrow.

Yours is a key medium for us and we’d be delighted if you run it, with visibility on your home page for at least a week.

We’d appreciate knowing, one way or the other, by Thurs. 8/3 noon.

Thanks!
Frank

[full name and company name redacted]
VP/Director of Marketing & Public Relations

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2006

Click-Fraud Bot Network Shut Down

A network of 50,000 remote-controlled zombie computers, which were programmed to automatically click ads, has been shut down, brag Panda Software and RSA Security. Panda says the central server sending instructions to the zombies, which were infected with the Clickbot.A virus, has been taken offline as a result of the two companies' work.

The companies' story reflects an example of what's going on in a lot of dark little corners of the Web. Fraudsters set up a number of Web sites, sign up to be affilates of legit contextual ad networks (Panda didn't name names), and then set the bots to work clicking away while they pocket the revenue-share proceeds.

Luis Corrons, head of PandaLabs, says: "Botnets are part of the cyber-crime business model, as they are normally hired or sold to third parties to carry out malicious actions such as sending spam, stealing confidential data or installing other types of malware. This particular case represents a variant of that model, as it seems that bot authors are obtaining financial benefits directly, swindling companies that pay for each click. The fact that companies pay a certain amount of money for each click on their ads, combined with the number of bots involved in the swindle, gives an idea of the huge proportions of this fraud."

Posted by Pamela Parker at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ben Edelman Calls Out "Banner Farms," Pins Hula Direct to the Mat

Ben Edelman's latest report is yet another valuable analysis of how spyware applications defraud both Internet users and advertisers. This time he pins Hula Direct to the mat. Hula operates a load of crappy Web sites whose traffic comes primarily from spyware apps. These sites consist of almost nothing but ads, ads that are served through low quality – and, one must assume, blind -- ad networks. Not only that, but the ads automatically reload, racking up fees but not value for the advertiser.

The list of blue-chip advertisers who should be embarrassed to appear in Hula's network includes Vonage, Verizon Wireless, Universal Studios, the Weather Channel and Circuit City.

I could explain further, but it's best if you just go and read it.

Remember, as much as we'd like to eviscerate companies like Hula Direct and the spyware players that feed them traffic, this is all about advertiser laziness and indifference.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 31, 2006

"Believe" Brand Suicide in Scotland?

I'm just back from Scotland on vacation and can't help but note a brand story that came up again and again during my visit. Mars' Mars Bar -- popular enough in Scotland to have spawned the renowned deep fried Mars Bar -- has rebranded as "Believe" in the UK for the 2006 World Cup season. Mostly, the change is aimed at fueling hopes for England's bid for the championship, in a year in which they're thought to have a chance. (See Web site here.) But the "Believe" bars are being marketed in Scotland, too, where the favorite pastime is rooting for England's opponent. (Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup.) Again and again, I heard people express outrage at the slight. Most said they'd stopped buying the candy in protest. One shopkeeper said he'd been trying to stock bars without the "Believe" branding. T-shirts with a send-up of the controversy, reading "Believe? Ma Arse" are reportedly selling like crazy.

Yes, England is a much bigger market, but why rebrand in such a way as to alienate Scotland (and Wales and Northern Ireland)? And knowing the Scots, they're certain to hold a grudge well beyond when the candy changes back to its previous name.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 17, 2006

Search?Navigation Term of the Day: Wow

After scouring my bank's Web site for information about purchasing foreign currency, I gave up and called.

The lady at the branch couldn't have been nicer. After providing the information I requested, she suggested I could have found it on the site. I explained I couldn't -- that's why I'd called.

"You mean you didn't visit the 'Wow Answer Guide?'" she replied.

Well, no. Because even after she told me about it, it took some effort to find the lone, undifferentiated text link among many on the bank's home page. I've been a client for years. Never knew it was there. You don't see the question mark graphic until you've landed on the page -- which turns out to be plain, old fashioned site search.

You're supposed to grok all that from "Wow! Answer Guide?"

My search term was "foreign currency." I would have settled for "search this site," "other services" or something omnibus. But Wow! Answer Guide? That stretches all notions of usability, keyword navigation, interface and design.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 12, 2006

Behold! A Press Release

Can we borrow a carbon dating kit from someone out there? We want to verify this "press release" -- that was mailed to ClickZ HQ -- really does date from the 21st century.

At least they're getting a mention.

That's the point, right?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 4, 2006

Why I've Never Been To A Class Reunion

I've never been to a class reunion. From the looks of things, I'm never going to go to one, either.

A former classmate e-mailed to asking if I'm attending our reunion in June. I had no clue there was one, but I'm considering it. Today, I clicked over to the college's extensive Web site to register.

But I can't.

The instructions:

"Please sign in using your current last name and your ID number, as printed on your registration materials' mailing label. (Your 9-digit ID number will start with either A00 or 999.)"

Sorry, guys. If I got something in the mail, I ignored it (you mail way to much). When my friend told me about this, she provided no user ID. When I called the alumni office for help, I landed in voice mail. No support's offered on the site (even though I'm a registered user and logged in to the site).

You want me to pay to attend the reunion (though I can't learn what the cost is before getting over that registration barrier). No doubt you want me to write a check to the college, too.

So why make registration insurmountable?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

NBC Demonstrates Passion for IE

So NBC has just announced Passions Vendetta, a narrative unfolding over 24 clickable 2-minute online videos that will appear over 12 weeks. Maybelline and Garnier are sponsors.

The whole thing was created by Avant Interactive to promote the soap "Passions."

Let us know if it's any good, wouldja? Cause we've had-it-up-to-here with promotional sites that do nothing but demand we run IE 5.5 on Windows. Because we're not going to. You can't make us.

A straw poll of the ClickZ ed team, however, was unanimous: anyone watching daytime dramas is probably still using Explorer. So it's probably a demographic thing.

Still, why's NBC (not to mention its advertisers) taking that risk?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 24, 2006

Ad/Content Compatibility

Clicked on a link in a BusinessWeek.com e-mail newsletter this morning, and landed in the publication's video center. Was pleased to see a message telling me the content was free, and brought to me by the sponsor. A pre-roll ad for Microsoft ran. So far, so good.

But then, right when I was getting all geared up for my content, I got a blue screen that said "The story you've selected is unavailable in this format. Please use Internet Explorer on Windows to view the clip." Now, I know Microsoft was the sponsor, but this is ridiculous. Publishers, if you've got technical limitations like this, tell the user up front. Don't wait until after the advertising to disappoint. There's always the risk of it reflecting badly on your sponsor.

UPDATE: Later in my experience on the site, I clicked to go to a story and started reading. Then, suddenly, the page refreshed and I was watching an interstitial ad (for FedEx). Needless to say, I took advantage of the "skip this ad" link. It's one thing to be served an ad before you start reading the content, but to be interrupted? That's just not cool.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 9, 2006

Jersey Lawmaker: Let's Squelch What Makes Web Debate Great

First, they play favorites with the smoking ban, now this. My home-state's lawmakers can be an entertaining bunch, till I remember I pay their salaries. So, the latest stupid bill to be proposed in Jersey comes to us from Assemblyman Peter Biondi, a Republican from Somerset.

According to a Star Ledger story on NJ.com, "Biondi's bill would require Internet service providers and interactive services such as NJ.com to publish, or at least solicit, the legal names and addresses of persons who post 'written messages on a public forum Web site.' Services failing to disclose identities of anyone 'who posts false or defamatory information' could be sued for damages and legal costs."

Hmmm…and all this time I thought Republicans were the only ones guarding against our freedom from excessive government intervention; at least, that's what all those FIRST NAME or PHONY NAME only callers on conservative talk