Posts Tagged ‘advertising’

TechFlash:

Looks like nothing is safe from becoming an advertisement these days. A newly surfaced Microsoft patent application proposes to create ads out of human interactive proofs, also known as CAPTCHAs, those lines of fuzzy or distorted text or images used by websites to confirm that submissions are coming from real human beings, not automated online bots.

Microsoft’s idea, as depicted in the accompanying diagram, is to present users with a product image, slogan, or some other form of advertisement — then require them to type in the name of the product or related text to complete the human proof.

Microsoft says in its patent filing that the approach creates “an effective way for advertisers to deliver their message to a captive audience. Unlike so much web-based advertising that accompanies popular web portals such as search and news sites that users can easily ignore, here the user must actively engage in reading and understanding the content in the advertisement in the HIP (human interactive proof) challenge in order to identify the solution to the challenge.”

Photo by USPTO.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: Matt Callow

Bill Wyman:

The problem of the daily press in the U.S. is exclusively this: the collapse of its business model. That model used to be, plainly put, making money—a lot of money, oceans of money—delivering advertising on newsprint into peoples’ homes. Subscribers didn’t pay for news. Advertisers did.

Remember “shoppers,” the poorly designed throwaway publications filled with tacky little ads? Daily newspapers are high-end shoppers. They spent a lot of money on original content to class up the operation and give people a reason to ask for the ads to be delivered. Long before the web displayed the power and leverage of critical mass, newspapers benefited from it; once you got the franchise in your particular locale, you tried not to stir up trouble, because it just distracted you from time better spent cashing checks.

Some people liked the news, sure; most thought they were paying for it. And some papers spent more money on news than they had to. But the papers weren’t selling the news. They were selling ads and charging a lot of money for them because of one thing only: They held an informal monopoly on a societal convention whereby they deposited those ads—around which they wrapped some reporting, some of it serious, some of it fluff—on subscribers’ driveways.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Springwise:

Summertime is filled with opportunities for brands to show they care, whether by helping consumers find a place to change at the beach or by giving them a little cooling refreshment during a heat wave.

Targeting the latter option is Soak Media, a UK firm that gives out free bottled water to London commuters courtesy of on-bottle advertising.

Focusing only on the months of July and August, Soak sells advertising space on 330 ml. plastic bottles filled with Buxton water and then hands them out for free to overheated London commuters, who would normally pay GBP 1 or more for such refreshment. Soak’s own staff hands out the bottles from an ice-filled cart, after which time it estimates the bottles spend about 50 minutes in the average consumer’s hands.

The company also does specials including leaflet tip-ons, specially shaped bottles and sampling. Perhaps best of all, however, is that it donates all its profits to charitable causes.

Given the ongoing controversy over plastic water bottles, it’s not entirely clear that such vessels will be the right medium to focus on going forward.

Nevertheless, the last two heat waves saw a 20 percent increase in bottled water consumption, Soak says, so there’s no doubt consumers can use a little extra help staying hydrated.

Photo by Soak Media.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.