Advertising companies have long cashed in on the voracious appetites of online gamers. Of course the ads are usually FOR the games that they are trying to sell, rather than ads for other products, but targeted to gamers.

Yahoo Games recently announced that they will expand their online gaming to include into ad-supported online game options by the end of the year.

Basically, Yahoo Games is expecting to offer ad-supported downloadable games by partnering with other online gaming partners such as Double Fusion and NeoEdge Networks. The partnership with these gaming communities will result in ads sold to display before and after the games, and occassionaly during. (During the game is not going to be all that popular, and probably result in a backlash from gamers.)

The problem that comes with this is gamers, the target audience, will be viewing a lot of these ads as interruptions and intrusions into their gaming activity. Resentment is NOT the kind of feeling that an advertiser should want to instill into customers.

Another way of looking into this (basically same) advertising ploy is to use ads as virtual gamer money. In essence, let the gamers pay for the game with their time. Ultramercial, LLC allows a gamer to pay for their game by watching an ad. Their attention to a 30 second spot pays their way to the game that they want.

This advertisement style will gain appreciation, not resentment, from the target group that the advertiser is focusing on.

Incidentally, Ultramercial, LLC is claiming a click-through rate of over 4% for sponsors’ ads. Appreciation goes a long way.

With all of the local online advertising techniques available to businesses, we expect those businesses to choose the strategy that works best for their model, their product, and their business culture.

In a frenzy of advertising budgets and end-of the-quarter-profit-margin-reports, some ad execs go off the deep end and choose the most obnoxious and hated strategies that end up costing, not making, their company money.

When it works, advertising is an integral part of a internet consumer’s web experience: As users surf their daily news, sports, entertainment and business associated sites, they encounter ads. Entire business sectors are invested in understanding how much traffic was driven to the sites advertised. They measure the traffic flow; analytics, metrics on click through rates and anonymous profiling are a part of business.

To the detriment of the advertising industry, for years studies ignored or just didn’t look for how ads affected users and therefore the traffic. How many sites lost viewers because of rude advertising techniques?

Here are some of the most rude, crude, obnoxious and customer alienating techniques used.

1. Pop-Ups
2. Pop-Unders
3. An ‘X’ close box that doesn’t close, it just sends you right to the site
4. Ads that move with your curser, forcing you to read it
5. Ads that occupy the entire page
6. Ads that blink
7. Ads that take too long to load and stall the entire page

It is entirely possible, and most likely probable, that you have alienated your customers if you have used techniques such as those above. Customers surveyed have said that they avoid sites with guerrilla advertising and view it as highly intrusive.

If your intention is to gain customers and sell a product or a service, don’t go the way of the rude, it will back fire on you.

Tony Dietrich posted an interesting blog about local advertising and infrastructure today called Advertising Pays for a Lot of Things… What Happens When the Ad Budget Dries Up in a Recession?

I loved the promise of the first paragraph of the article and how it set up questions, issues, solutions and possible market targets for me to think about.

Doing some research on the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, I started wondering what happened to advertising during that period.
Although I haven’t turned up any detailed studies, I took a look at the various archives of advertising that allow Internet access to their exhibits, and noted the general move to less expensive, more localized advertising, and fewer adverts for more expensive goods.

Now obviously everyone in the marketing business is feeling the results of the American Recession, heck, just about every business sector is feeling the pinch now. I thought it was great that Tony took the time to try and dig up some information about advertising during the Great Depression to try and forecast what kind of trends we are all going to be facing in the near future.

It’s a feature of the 1930s depression that countries and individuals became more and more localized in their habits and mentalities, concentrating on survival rather than expanding their horizons.

The article itself was more about what (might) happen to the infrastructure demand if a depression were to hit full on, but the sideline of local advertising is, to me, the juicy part.

As businesses begin to scale back on their advertising budgets as a whole, focusing on their local market will be wise choice. To do that though, they’re going to need the tools to do the analytics carefully enough to target the RIGHT market, at the RIGHT locations.

The ultimate prize for any local internet advertiser is a site with thousands of thousands of hit’s a day, with 90% of the incoming traffic voluntarily entering their zip code upon entry to the site. No scrapping for ISPs that can be highly unreliable to pinpoint a user’s exact location. No begging the user for a hint as to where they are located…just precise, immediate and voluntary giving of their zip code.

Internet Advertising gold, people, and it isn’t just a platinum-lined cloud in an ad-exec’s dream world, it’s real. What site is it? What is the URL of this ad-utopia?

Lean closer. We’ll whisper it.

The Weather Channel at www.weather.com. Heck, you’ve probably already gone there this morning to check the beach forecast. And did we mention that they have a healthy mobile traffic, too?

The weather channel has been overlooked by some advertising companies who mistakenly believe that only ‘weather nerds’ go there. That’s a mistake. Business people, housewives, sports fans…. The weather channel is a great common denominator across the advertising board. Everyone wants to know the weather, and the URL is the easiest thing in the world to remember. The catch is, to know your weather, you have to type in your zip code when you get there. Something that we all dutifully do.

At that point there are numerous ads from local businesses targeted to exactly that area, exactly that zip code.

Clickz.com reported on NBC’s buyout of the (previously) privately owned Weather Channel, which encompasses its TV, Online, ad Mobile businesses.

NBC Universal’s joint acquisition of The Weather Channel properties in conjunction with Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group will result in a stronger local online business for NBC. In addition to the dominant cable television network, The Weather Channel’s properties include its well-trafficked weather.com site and mobile offerings.

This is bold and intelligent move for NBC’s Local Advertising business and I expect to see it grow exponentially.

The government is choosing a watch-and-see approach to online advertising, deciding to stall the inevitable hands-on, for now. At Thursday’s U.S. House Small Business Committee hearing on online advertising, Google was one of the main topics of conversation, though they did not officially participate.
One of the main topics of discussion from the committee members was their concern over the recent Google/Yahoo deal, and the possibility for governmental regulation on online advertising. It is probably that the merging of such online Search Engine giants was the impetus for discussions on regulation. When any sector grows so big so fast, the need for regulation to serve as consumer and business protector is always discussed. Unchecked growth in a market with few competitors can lead to price and practice gouging, but for now the House is not instilling regulatory measures.
CickZ has quotes from many of the participants in the house discussion.

“Do we allow market forces to play out?” Gonzales wondered. “I’m a strong believer in that…up until the point that we feel that there is a disadvantage…and the consumer or the businessperson is no longer on a level playing field or treated fairly.” He also briefly expressed an interest in user tracking as it relates to ad targeting.

Now if this was about any other sector in the business world, the merging of the two dominating corporations in the field would almost assuredly bring about regulation, so why is the government still choosing to watch and see how the market will play out in all of this? Probably because the online advertising business is still considered new territory and there isn’t enough understanding of the practices to instill regulation, yet.

Mike Blumenthal created a very insightful post regarding the Local IYP market share values. In the article he poses his ultimate question almost immediately:

Does the IYP/online business directory market share matter or has the battle already been decided? Has this category been relegated to just another niche search area where money can be made but market dominance is not possible?

Mike drills down on his comparison and discussion of the dominance of the Local Search stakeholders with some impressive number crunching that is worth taking a look.

So this brings us back to the crux of the problem, and the decision that businesses must make when considering their local advertising strategy. There are so many markets available for Local, but if the top 2 stakeholders control 70% percent of it, is it worth it to concentrate all of your advertising budget on a piece of the remaining 30% share? This is especially important if your strategy is focused so narrowly that it ignores the components needed to be at the top if its game in the larger local markets, such as Google and Yahoo.

While companies ranking the top Local markets seem to make impressive lists, it doesn’t really matter if your Local Market choice comes in third if that third piece of the pie is only a crumb.

While a growing niche market is turning to sites like Yelp! For Local reviews and recommendations, simply promoting your business on sites like this will not push you to the top of the common Google or Yahoo searches.

Again the wisest choice for your Local Advertising strategy is to look into your specific market and make the choices that are going to serve you best. While it may seem focused to drive your advertising budget towards one or two specific Local advertising markets, loosing sight of the ‘Big Guys’ will not be to your advantage.

The fashion industry has had a love/hate affair with the internet for some time now.

The first factor is that fashion was traditionally a print business. Consumers poured through magazines to get photos of the latest fashion trends. What the models were wearing, what the celebrities were wearing, all it was visual and all of it was in print. The fashion industry was firmly in bed with the print industry. But times change.

Along came the internet, and with it, easy and almost instantaneous access to photos of what celebrities and models were wearing. The fashion print industry took a nose-dive, but the fashion industry itself, stores, outlets, etc., took off.

The story went a little like this:

1. Consumer saw a brilliant new gown on Celeb. A.
2. Consumer searched internet for designer
3. Consumer purchased the gown (or a knock-off) off the internet

But the story didn’t end there:

4. Consumer received gown and it either didn’t fit, or just wasn’t right for them once it was actually on
5. Consumer returned it

Fast forward a few years, and perceptive consumers are putting the fashion industry on the Local Search Marketing Map. How?

Like this:

1. Consumer sees a fabulous outfit on Celeb. A.
2. Consumer searches internet for designer
3. Consumer locates the nearest merchant selling the outfit using a local search
4. Consumer goes to the merchant to try on the outfit, and purchases it or buys another

The bottom line is this: Service providers aren’t the only ones reaping benefits from Local Online Advertising. The fashion industry is cozying up to Local Online Advertising because they provide the photos and the information, but local merchants provide the goods. Can the consumer purchase the clothing off the internet? Of course, but real fashionistas want to try the clothes on first.

As we discussed before, businesses are turning away from advertising and marketing using traditional media such as newspapers, television, and radio. Business owners are seeing their competition getting the edge by reaching a larger market share with online campaign using the same budget or less, and it just can’t be ignored any longer. It’s move on, or move out.

The current economic downturn is forcing consumers to research the best possible price for the best service, and the more consumers research businesses and services online, the more they are weeding out companies without an internet presence.

Robert Jaques at vnunet added his voice to the discussion on the internet’s increasingly large piece of the marketing and advertising pie.

Experts predict that internet advertising in the US will continue to “grow fast” in the face of an economic downturn that will force a reduction in overall ad spending.
IDC forecasts that current economic conditions will accelerate the transfer of marketing budgets from traditional to new media.
Internet advertising will grow about eight times as fast as advertising at large between 2008 and 2012, according to the analyst firm, while revenue will double to $51.1bn.
This growth means that the internet will go from the number five to the number two medium in just five years, making it bigger than newspapers, cable TV and broadcast TV and second only to direct marketing.

Robert also apparantly agrees with us that the online Video marketing boom will be one of the biggest factors in the general increase of online marketing.

Local brick & mortar business are always looking at ways to drive more foot traffic to their business but if they have ignored online traffic than they could be missing out on a great deal of business.  ProStores has made it easy for all local businesses to get up and running with an online web store.  This one stop shop has provided all the necessary tools for any local business to take advantage of the internet in selling their products. ProStores offers everything from starter packages to advanced enterprise packages making it easy an affordable for all business shapes and sizes. This program is designed to fit all experience levels. Are you an EBay seller?

If you are than this product could dramatically help you with you online selling. ProStores offers promotion and even hosting to make things as convenient as possible. ProStores can also help you search engine optimization for your web store so that it ranks even quicker with all the top search engines such as Google, yahoo and MSN. For any local business launching a web store could be a scary process.

So many choices and decision to make and with what vendor? Come and read client testimonials and gain the confidence that ProStores has what it takes. Many others have reached that same crossroad and ProStores came through the help.

For more information please visit www.ProStores.com and take a look at how this organization can help yours.

The advances and advantages of local mobile markets and GPS capability are moving
forward again. The past few years have seen advances that helped your customer
find you, literally, with mobile GPS. New appliations are coming now that turn
a 180 and help you find your customer and bring your physical business to them.

Digital Solid discusses:

The retailer (say, Starbuck’s) could aggregate cell phone data about your movements,
as well as everyone else’s who want the same services as you, and …
Anticipate through statistical means where to locate itself to fulfill those needs,
and …
Alert you via your cell phone where they are in real time (e.g., “We’re two blocks
away — care for your favorite beverage?”)
I didn’t expect this to happen overnight. In fact, two years was a pretty aggressive
time line in my estimation.

Therefore, I’m a little giddy to see the first part of the process being mapped
out and monetized. Check out the new Sense Networks product offering, for a peek
into the future of retailing that factors in predictive modeling of where customers
will be next.

Harvesting the low-hanging fruit, Sense Networks is focusing on helping find city
nightlife hot-spots. Its site explains how this product, Citysense, works:

Citysense is an innovative mobile application for local nightlife discovery and
social navigation, answering the question, “Where is everybody?”

Citysense shows the overall activity level of the city, top activity hotspots, and
places with unexpectedly high activity, all in real-time. Then it links to Yelp
and Google to show what venues are operating at those locations. Citysense is a
free demonstration of the Macrosense platform that everyone can enjoy.

I see this as the beginning of a location-free bank branch or coffee shop. Exciting
stuff!

The viability of marketing profits from live television has been in question for years. As time moves and technology improves, viewers, once chained to the chair and forced to sit through commercials, are now captains of their domain; using TiVo and DVR to skip advertisements and renting entire series on DVD, avoiding the promotions all together.

This makes companies, who traditionally advertised their local business on TV, very twitchy.

The situation grew even more dire for local advertising on live television when the 2008 statistics began to show that many viewers are embracing TV on the web, essentially downloading or streaming their favorite show on their computer…with nary an add in site.

emarketer.com has in interesting blog up on the online television trends.

“Unfortunately, while online users are viewing more content,” says Ms. von Abrams, “producers, broadcasters and advertisers are seeing little return on their online TV ventures.”
The proven formulas for making money from television content are under threat.
“Historically, broadcasters’ profits have depended on restricted access to their material—viewers had to tune in to a broadcaster-owned channel and watch advertising that covered the costs of program production, promotion and distribution,” says Ms. von Abrams. “Advertisers paid a lot to be seen in prime TV slots on these channels, and (until video recording arrived) viewers could not avoid seeing ads.”

Companies will be forced to add an online television advertising strategy to their previously successful local TV ad campaigns in order to compete. Those companies that build a strategy to embrace a new online local TV marketing campaign will be ahead of the game.

When consumers are searching for a new product or service, they are increasing turning to online to research the products and services before buying. In the case of very large products or labor-intensive services, however, the research inevitably comes down purchasing locally.

The question always remains the same… “Where can I purchase this from?”

If a consumer in Massachusetts is looking for a pool heater, for instance, they might research pool heaters and prices to have a solid knowledge base of what they are looking for and what the common costs will be, however they will still want to purchase the pool heater locally and have it installed. A search on pool heaters will bring up companies from all over the country. Companies from Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and many national businesses will be competing for top spots on the search engines, but that will not help the consumer connect with what they really want; a local company. Your company.

The fact is that most small, local businesses are not getting the top hits on search engines, and so perceptive consumers are turning more towards local internet searches for the closest business that is selling the product they want.
Finding a service company in Florida will not help a potential customer in Massachusettes. Customers are online, searching for your business, so give them a break and help them find you.

This is where Local Online Marketing becomes your businesses’ newest power advertising and marketing tool. When you place your business in local online listing sites with optimized content regarding your services, you are ensuring that your customers can find your business when they need it the most.

For many local businesses, getting their name out there both online and offline can be a struggle. The competition seemingly increases each year and opportunities diminish for many. The best way for any local business to stay in front of their potential customer’s eyes is through online local listings. These days most consumers look to the internet when searching for the best place to provide them with exactly what they need. This is where Local Search Engine Marketing comes into play. By placing your business in these local listing sites with optimized content regarding your services, you are effectively allowing your site to be found multiple times within the search engines. For just 49.95 a month, Brick Marketing will submit your business profile along with your website, address, phone number and hours of operation to local search engines – Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, MSN Local, YellowPages.com and several more. The good thing about this service is that the business does not even need a website in order to be listed. Providing your business simply has an address and phone number, it can be listed along with every other business in your area. This is a submission service and does not guarantee a particular ranking on any search engine but does mean your business will exist on the web if it doesn’t already. At any time, you may change your information and there is no commitment period. You may cancel at any time for any reason.

With Brick Marketing offering this form of Local Online Marketing, you can be sure you are in good hands as they are members of the Better Business Bureau and are known widely for their impeccable service and reputation. Sign up now for Brick Marketing Local and enhance your local business today!

Here’s another reason to use Facebook. But there is more to online advertising than merely filling out a Facebook profile. One of the things that makes Facebook such a great place to network and advertise your local business is its local networks that you can join. Through those you can meet other local people to do business with.

But services like Yell adding applications for Facebook make it even better. Here’s what I like about this app:

Yell advertisers will get more in-depth exposure in the app than non-advertisers, but all the activity happens within Facebook.

But I like Greg Sterling’s recommendations as well:

The application only works for Yell coverage areas. In my opinion, the company would do well to either duplicate this for its Yellowbook subsidiary or combine the applications so that it offers US-UK coverage.

A mobile component (send to mobile) would be welcome as well.

Even without these applications, if you do business in a Yell coverage area then you’ll have a leg up on your competition by advertising with the service through its Facebook application. Not that Citysearch and Superpages also have Facebook networking tools that allow you to reach out to new customers and they’re available in the U.S. If you really want to make the most of apps like these, advertise within them and do your own outside-app networking and advertising as a “doubling up” effort.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report, display advertising online is increasing. In fact, online advertising in general is improving despite recessionary concerns.

Display advertising is up 34% according to the report. Classified advertising is up 16%. All other statistics don’t look too bad either.

This is a good sign for all of us. It means that online advertising is growing, which means online business must be growing. And I think rising oil prices might have something to do with this. People are driving less. That means they are spending more time online and that means more online business in general. This could very well continue for a good many years down the road. What small business owners - locally as well as global - need to think about doing at this juncture, is learning how to make the most of their online advertising opportunities.