Audit Bureau for Newspapers Now Includes Online Readers

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  Originally uploaded by eschipul

The Audit Bureau of Circulations
now is going to include online numbers in newspaper "read" figures.
File this under "if the math doesn’t add up change the operators."

Audit
Bureau Makes It Official: Newspaper Circulation Statistics Group Will
Roll Online Readership into Circ Figures to Help Slumping Industry

The Audit Bureau of Circulations said this week that it would begin tallying online readership as well as print-edition circulation in a boost to an industry where advertising sales have suffered from a migration of readers to the Web.
The organization said it would release newspapers’ print, online and
combined readership figures. The numbers are a key factor in
negotiations on newspaper advertising rates between newspapers and
marketers, Reuters reports. (more on newspaper audit figures)

Emphasis
added. Note the focus on "newspaper advertising sales" as the driver.
If this is done realistically then it is a good thing. But
unfortunately with newspaper ad salespeople this is unlikely. As
Disraeli said "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Specifically when it comes to advertising I have always found the
"readership as a big multiple of subscriptions" to be an insult to a
business man’s intelligence. You have 10 subscribers, and hey, they
leave it on the coffee table so 7 other people read it, so we charge an
advertiser as if that 1 subscription equated to 8 readers. Oh really?

(more…)

Ethics of Clicking Adverts on Blogs of Friends

From the post on the ethics of clicking ads a la Robin Hood:

I was surprised to read a comment promoting click fraud on AlexKing’s blog.  I wanted to comment on how misinformed the person is and have written an …

Trunk Monkey Television Ads for Suburban Auto Group

Gotta love the Trunk Monkey TV ads for Suburban Auto Group. Well done!

Friending is Not the New Ad, It is the New Advertising-Denial

I think this post on friending being the new advertisement misses the point. Friending is the new advertising-intrusion-followed-by-rejection-with-a-few-accepts. Think Telemarketing. When a brand says "You don’t know me but I want to be your friend", and they have not contributed in any meaningful way to my network, that is an intrusion.

Ahhhhh, the attack approach and get rejected method. Isn’t that what banner ads tried to do before we all installed pop-up blockers? Just asking..

SMS Text Shortcode Howto Roundup for Advertisers

Twitter is doing a great job of blasting down barriers between web and SMS texting. While at SXSW when the SMS stopped, I popped over to a web browser on the blackberry and kept going. But SMS was more convenient.

So if a you want their own short code, how do you get one? Well luckily this shortcode post on GigaOM answers that question.

10 Things to Know About Short Codes

Do you need one? If you want to market or promote something to mobile users, manage mobile communications to members of a group or organization, or get cell phone users to access your mobile application or service — then, maybe. How much are you willing to spend and what kind do you need? Here’s 10 things to know about short codes, how to get them and what to avoid:

1). There are two kinds of short codes, shared and dedicated. (finish the shortcode article here)

Update: Note the comments regarding qtags – a Houston based Short Code Service! Thanks for the comments Allison!

Sex Sells, But Only If….

Quote of the day:

‘In advertising, sex sells. But only if you’re selling sex.’

    – Jef I. Richards (1995), advertising professor, The University of Texas at Austin

This link from long station made me think of that.