October 20th, 2010 by Jen Lawrence
 The Nielsen Company has announced a new tool that will give online advertisers audience or viewer data that is comparable to its television ratings. The new system combines traditional Nielsen TV and online panel data with aggregated, anonymous demographic information from participating online data contributors. It will provide reach frequency and Gross Rating Point (GRP) measures for online advertising campaigns with reporting available within days. This system is expected to be commercially available in 2011.
As a traditional and online media buyer, having data available that is consistent for all mediums will allow for apples-to-apples evaluation of each initiative and better comprehensive reporting. However, it will be interesting to see how well received this new measurement tool will be since Nielsen TV measurement tools have been under scrutiny at times over the years.
Learn more about how the process works!
Tags: Advertising, Nielsen, Online, Online Advertising
Posted in Advertising, Research |
October 7th, 2010 by Jill Bruckart
 Facebook has launched a new page on the social networking site specifically for colleges and universities that is geared to help students engage with various communities and organizations on their given campus. From sharing tips on how to best utilize Facebook on-campus, to creating events, publicizing your club or group or connecting with fellow dorm-mates, this page is ideal for anyone who is involved with a college or university campus. This new page not only assists students; companies that offer products or services for college students can leverage their brands on the site by offering discounts for purchasing goods on the page.
This is a valuable tool for individuals or groups looking to get more involved and integrated with their college campus. Those concerned with promoting their products to college-aged kids are also seeing a new avenue for marketing these items.
Gone are the days when you needed to walk to the student center to review the message board for upcoming events or to find out more information about a particular organization, club or party. All of this information can now be consumed at your fingertips.
Check out Facebook’s social networking site specifically for colleges and universities here.
Tags: education, Facebook, schools, universities
Posted in Announcements, Social Network Marketing |
October 5th, 2010 by Steve Schobelock
 Recently I needed to figure out how to use the chimney starter for the weber grill at our company BBQ. With no directions in the box, I resorted to my favorite solution – You Tube videos. Within 5 minutes I watched a video that showed me in a clear and entertaining manner how to use the starter and not torch myself and burn down the house in the process. Nice.
Its funny how fast things change in today’s world and how quick we as humans make adjustments. I remember not too long ago using a cell phone that resembled the size of a brick. That same year I thought I was “all that and a bag of chips” when I pulled my 12 pound video camera out of a bag the size of a suitcase to tape my son’s soccer game. That was then and this is now. Technology went into fast forward and most consumers hitched a ride along.
In marketing we try to see what the consumer’s needs are and what they are using and where the trends are. Clearly, one answer is video based on a new milestone in consumer behavior and technology that happened recently. Data from comScore shows that 183 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month of May. To reveal how powerful the format is, YouTube.com achieved record levels of viewing activity with an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed and surpassing the threshold of 100 videos per viewer for the first time. Looks like I’m not the only one that can’t stand reading directions.
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Tags: online marketing, Research, videos, YouTube
Posted in Advertising, Announcements, Internet Marketing, Research, Technology |
August 9th, 2010 by Brad Dierking
TARGUSinfo Lead Verification
Castle Advertising has selected TARGUSinfo as its strategic partner for real-time lead verification. TARGUS improves lead quality and conversion rates by verifying leads the instant they are submitted. On-Demand Lead Verification services not only validates that the individual pieces of a prospective consumer’s contact information are accurate, but also confirms that they belong together and relate to that consumer.
TARGUSinfo Integration
Integration with LeadGenisys facilitates the seamless passing of leads through TARGUS for a final quality check before accepting them from a vendor and delivering them to the client. LeadGenisys allows us to enable or disable TARGUS in real-time for a client based on lead source, program of interest, location or prerequisite. We are able to customize for each client whether a lead is accepted or rejected based on each of the 20+ possible TARGUS decisions returned. For clients using TARGUS, LeadGenisys includes a detailed summary of leads accepted and rejected based on TARGUS decisions in the daily lead reports.
About TARGUSinfo
TARGUSinfo, the leading provider of On-Demand InsightSM, provides unique identification, verification, scoring and location solutions that enable communication service providers, retailers, call-center operators, Web-based marketers and others to dramatically increase the quality of their services and the effectiveness of their marketing.
Posted in Lead Generation, Technology |
July 26th, 2010 by Nancy Kerner
Imagine you have just spent a day shopping at the mall. You come home with your haul of goodies, start up your web-cam and begin a show-and-tell of every item you have purchased. You describe in detail each feature of your new ever so totally cute purchases! You have just made a haul video! Yes, this actually exists and it is a growing Internet phenomenon. There are over 150,000 “haul” videos posted on YouTube and counting! Haul videos blend shopping and technology, two of teenagers favorite things! They consist mainly of giddy teenage girls showing off their purchases, usually telling where the purchase was made, how much it cost and giving a sort of mini-product review. Their hauls don’t just include clothing, there is everything from accessories, make-up, shoes, and even bargain bin finds found at local drugstores.
Many of the videos have had hundreds of thousands of hits, and some of these “vloggers” or video bloggers, have become big time Internet stars! The vloggers can really cash in too. Some receive compensation and merchandise from retailers. Many of them are in the YouTube Partner Program, this allows them to get paid for making videos, and to get a portion of the ad revenue. Two of the most popular haul vloggers are sisters, Blair Fowler, 16, and Elle Fowler, 21, from Tennessee. Collectively, the Blair sister’s videos have been viewed over 75 million times! Blair and Elle’s 7-year-old sister is also posting her own videos. Her very first video post was seen over one million times! These videos can also be very good for retail sales, in one Fowler sister’s video posting when the sisters gushed over a watch purchase, that watch sold out within 24 hours on the company’s web-site, and the company’s web-site crashed from the heavy volume of traffic!
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Tags: haul videos, YouTube
Posted in Internet Marketing, Online Creative |
July 12th, 2010 by Leann Freeman
 The rising cost of college education forces too many students to take on high loan debt burdens and many have to work long hours that interfere with their academic study. In this difficult economy, when competition for jobs has increased and at the same time student’s ability to pay for college has decreased, it is important for the federal government to make smart investments in our students. It is believed that these investments will make our young society and our economy more competitive in the global marketplace.
This summer, the Education and Labor Committee and Congress have done a lot of work over the last few years in making higher education more affordable and accessible to students than ever before. For example, starting on July 1st, 2010, students will see lower interest rates on their student loans, down to 4.5% from 5.6%. The maximum annual Pell Grant scholarship has been raised to $5,550 and will continue to increase over the years. In 2008, about 6 million students received the Pell Grant scholarship. During this summer, all new federal student lending will be converted to a Direct Loan program; meaning that instead of providing banks with taxpayer subsidies, students will receive loans directly from the government, saving taxpayers $61 billion. There will be an estimated 30 million new student loan borrowers between 2014 and 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: higher education, student loans
Posted in Announcements, News |
June 30th, 2010 by Caroline Tall
 Originally begun in 2003 as an open source blogging tool, WordPress is quickly gaining notoriety not only as a top blogging system– but as a powerful and versatile content management system (CMS) that runs entire websites as well. Here are two big reasons why WordPress as a CMS makes so much sense:
1. User-friendly/WYSIWYG Editor
With WordPress, what you see really is what you get. The WYSIWYG editor for WordPress is clean, easy-to-navigate and intuitive to use. Webpages can be added with the simple click of a button, while all pages can be edited using familiar formatting toolbars similar to Microsoft Office. Adding images, featuring videos, inserting links and uploading documents are all basic processes that can be performed in under five steps. Make a mistake? All WordPress pages come with a restore feature in which all revisions made to each page are logged and saved so that webpages can be restored to a previous version if need be. And with the “Preview” option, users can view their entered changes exactly as they will appear without having to publish a page live first.
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Tags: Blog, CMS, WordPress
Posted in Technology, Website Development |
June 16th, 2010 by Kirsten Winter
As a company, we believe strongly in giving back to the community and assisting those that are in greater need than ourselves. In the past we have participated in 5k and 10k walks fighting hunger, improving the health of newborn babies, granting “wishes” and fighting breast cancer. Recently a few of us spent an entire Saturday taking part in building a home through Habitat for Humanity. During the holidays, it is our agency tradition to sponsor families in need by providing warm meals, holiday presents and decorations to help spread the cheer. As an agency, we have also donated our services to help numerous local, non-profit organizations with their print design, collateral assistance, website and landing page development and event promotion.
A few of us have taken volunteering to another level and have participated in the 3-day breast cancer walk in multiple cities. In September, in Seattle, we’ll walk 60 miles over the course of 3 days with thousands of other men and women. The net proceeds will support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment through Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.
Posted in Events, News |
June 16th, 2010 by Brad Dierking
It’s no secret that Microsoft dominates the productivity suite market. Free alternatives exist that many people are still unaware of. In these recessionary times, the appeal of “free” software is stronger than ever. Today I am going to focus on my two favorites – OpenOffice.org and Google Docs. Both products can read and write the native Microsoft Office formats, making migration easier than ever.
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Posted in Technology |
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