I've recently learned of the "Pottermore Affiliate" scheme. You may have already started seeing banners around the web directing you to visit Pottermore - the official Harry Potter shop - where you can buy eBooks and audiobooks. Click on one of the banners and the site owner will get a 4% commission on anything you buy. That works out to be £1.55 if you buy the complete collection of ebooks for £39. What's interesting is the way they are reaching out to Harry Potter fan sites. For years t…
Continue reading →
Can you spot anything interesting on this poster? Yes, there in the corner - living in blissful harmony are a QR code and an NFC tag. There's an excellent call-to-action which even works for people without either a QR reader or NFC scanner. The destination is this mobile friendly landing page. Of course, you should still boycott Nestle due to their contributing to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world by aggressively marketing baby foods in breach of…
Continue reading →
Facebook has been getting a lot of criticism for its lack of mobile revenue. A fact it tried to hide from its IPO. Much ink has been spilled, but is it really necessary for Facebook to worry? Here's a quick case study. Facebook has, in its infinite wisdom, decided that I would be interested in adverts for cancer. Or, perhaps, AXA have decided that 30 something males are a prime market. The creator of the advert was Equator's Fiona Dow who, judging from her bitly profile just loves…
Continue reading →
I did something decidedly analogue yesterday; I withdrew cash from a machine. I know, I know, I should have used my NFC enabled smartphone - or my chip & pin card. But it turns out most cab drivers prefer cash. On the screen was one of those ghastly animated adverts. Rather than selling me a mortgage or loan, it was advertising a fast food chain. The ad concluded by telling me to download the app - available on Android, iPhone, Symbian, and BlackBerry. I was about to snap a photo of the…
Continue reading →
Regular readers may know that I'm not a big fan of Valkee - the magic light you shine in your ears to improve your mood. Back in September, I complained to the ASA about the Valkee website. I felt that it was making unfounded claims, was confusing testimonial with science, and was generally misleading. In December, the ASA referred it to their counterparts in Finland for investigation. Today, I received this back from them. As you know, we previously referred your complaint about Valkee…
Continue reading →
No, I'm not talking about Masabi's innovative technology, but of this rather odd bit of advertising found on the back of a train ticket. There's no specific call to action - but there's not much space to play with. Let's give it a scan... sigh A non-mobile site. With an Adobe Flash plugin in the top right which won't work on any iPhones. Why on Earth do marketing companies insist on pointing phones to non-mobile sites. It really bemuses me. Stations rarely have good signal (too many people …
Continue reading →
No. (N.B. I work for a mobile advertiser - but this is my personal blog. This post isn't written on their behalf. Naturally I'm biased.) (N.B. I'm in India and jetlagged to hell - this may not make any sense!) Wild headlines abound - but very few people seem to have read the original Microsoft sponsored paper. The 75% claim is based on... one app, running on the very first Android hardware (Magic & Passion), not disclosed whether the phones were running Android 1.5 (what they…
Continue reading →
How Popular Are QR Codes? One common complaint I hear is that QR codes are just too obscure. I don't think that's true. Aside from continual use in newspapers and magazines, they're all over the city. Here are a few examples that I snapped while walking around London. …
Continue reading →
It looks like the next big thing in Kindle-land is - depressingly - advertising subsidisation. the world's first ad-supported Kindle, going on sale within Target and Best Buy locations for $114. That represents a gentle $25 savings compared to the price of today's cheapest Kindle, but those 2500 pennies don't come free -- you'll be asked to endure "advertisements on the bottom of the device's home page and on its screen savers." Engadget Can It Work? On the strength of the current evidence…
Continue reading →
Seen in the latest issue of Sport Magazine - this rather interesting QR advert for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. This is a really well executed campaign which should serve as a template to other advertisers. There are, of course, one or two issues that I have with it. Let's start by zooming in to the QR Code. Explanatory Text It's great to have a little note to explain to people what to do with a QR code. A couple of interesting points. It recommends get.beettagg.com - this is…
Continue reading →
Congratulations to rawedge for this QR campaign for Sky Atlantic. A simple QR code, pointing to a URL (with source=qr for analytics), a mobile website, and a 3gp video. Almost perfect. Why Almost? I'm a nit-picker - but here are a few suggestions to make the campaign better. Make the code bigger. When dealing with newsprint and its fuzzy images, it's always better to make the QR as large as possible - or as large as your advertising team will allows. Larger images are easier to scan. …
Continue reading →
I'll preface this by saying that Wonga's lawyers are far better than mine. Wonga, the payday loan company, has found itself in a bit of hot water recently. They've had an Advertising Standards Authority adjudication against one of their adverts and they have raised the ire of Stella Creasy MP over their sponsorship of the Tube on New Years. Even London's mayor has said people should be aware of the extortionate rates of interest that they can charge and people should not enter into…
Continue reading →
