Google Launches Interesting Ad Changes

Yesterday Google announced a beta program launching “interest-based” advertising. The new program will use additional information based on the type of sites users visit and the pages they view to display more relevant ads based on categories of interest. This is consistent with the movement of advertising networks to offer additional services through enhanced advertising features to remain competitive in this challenging market. Yahoo recently added enhanced features offering publishers more control over targeted ads.

Of course this type of advertising sparks debate and concern regarding privacy policies as additional user information is required to provide this type of display control. In an effort to head off negative perception Google has been up front about their changes and is attempting to present features aimed at offering users options. Although this program will adopt an opt-out approach rather than opt-in, meaning users are automatically participating unless they take specific action to have themselves removed from the feature altogether.

Google describes three features that will provide, as they describe, transparency, choice and control. They are providing a new tool called Ads Preferences Manager that will enable users to select additional interests or delete categories based on their own preferences. This may go a long way with the generation that expresses interest in actually receiving ads tailored to their specific needs. They will also display more details about the information being used to serve a specific ad, which will be available by clicking ad labels. In addition, they have created a browser plug-in that will permanently maintain the opt-out selection even if cookies are cleared.

While behavioral targeted advertising has been around for quite some time, it remains a controversial topic. Serving relevant content will always be a challenge. If the new interest based ad serving feature proves well with consumers, it will only contribute to Google’s domination of search.

Skittles Makes Brave Move with Twitter

There has been much talk over the past week as Skittles.com makes continued changes to their homepage. It started with a display of Twitter search results, then moved on to their Facebook fan page, and currently they have a Wiki page displaying. As the brave move with Twitter gained attention and much speculation as to how this would translate to selling more candy, the media attention grew. I’ve been watching the numerous tweets about the topic all week, which I have to say has been quite entertaining.

Let’s take a look at what this campaign really means. First, it may not be original, but it was well timed. Twitter has now become mainstream, 6 months ago this may not have been as impactful. It was an interesting observation in human behavior as people tried various tactics to get their name on the Skittles homepage. It may have brought out a few radicals here. The one great thing about social is the uncensored nature of seeing the raw comments. However, for a corporate site this may not always be what one is looking for. Rather than repeat the tweets I will let you search for yourself if it interests you.

When they moved on to a Facebook fan page speculation moved to it being easier to control or filter posts, triggering rumors that the tweets were too offensive. This may not have been the case at all, as it seems they planned to test a variety of treatments all along. For the most part the fan page was well received based on the comments, although again the translation to increasing sales has most in marketing scratching their heads.



It was the move to a Wiki that had me a bit bewildered as I had predicted they would have moved on to a MySpace next to gain a comparison of the three. Whatever they try next the knowledge gained from this campaign will be most valuable. They not only successfully generated buzz about Skittles and Twitter, but they now have acquired valuable information that can be used to shape future campaigns.