Rob Manuel » baby http://www.robmanuel.com Not b3ta.com, not sickipedia.org but my personal blog Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:01:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Google Video Ads http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/08/22/google-video-ads/ http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/08/22/google-video-ads/#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:16:38 +0000 robmanuel http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/08/22/google-video-ads/ Google sent me an email the other day asking whether I’d take part in a month long trial by placing video adverts on BabyVsBaby.

I figure I’ll learn more by saying yes than no and so I’ve said yes.

googleads.jpg

My thoughts so far:

  • The ads are quite large. Surely there must be a clever ajaxy way of making a small preview that grows when the user clicks?
  • Before you click the ad, the view is rather uncompelling. (See screen grab above.)
  • Like all internet advertising, success depends on relevance. Currently the box is playing two adverts, one for a kids TV show (fair enough), and another for a bit of computer hardware (probably less interesting to fans of baby photos.)
  • I really have no idea whether this is a blind alley or the next big thing, but my gut feeling is that video adverts are probably going to best placed on video websites like YouTube.

Anyway, hopefully I haven’t breached any confidentiality agreements by posting this, and don’t ask me about the money side of this because A. I can get booted out of Adsense for discussing such things and B) I won’t know how much money it earns until people click them.

So, if you fancy a look at the possibly future of web advertising then go to babyvsbaby.com now.

UPDATE! I’ve just watched the kids TV ad properly and it’s a thing of weird perverted genius. Wonder Pets. By day they are classroom pets, and by night they are superheroes who save poorly dolphins and elephants. Who says focus groups can’t create mind-boggling art?

UPDATE 2! The campaign is now over, and Google sent me a lava lamp to say thanks. Which was nice, but I don’t really need a lava lamp and so I’ve given it to my newsletter co-writer Dave. Hopefully this is now rocking his world.

UPDATE3! Dave has given the lava lamp to his girlfriend as a birthday present. Shush! She doesn’t know that he didn’t pay for it.

]]> http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/08/22/google-video-ads/feed/ 1 Baby Vs Baby UPDATE http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/04/27/baby-vs-baby-update/ http://www.robmanuel.com/2006/04/27/baby-vs-baby-update/#comments Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:30:12 +0000 robmanuel http://www.robertmanuel.com/2006/05/02/baby-vs-baby-update/ A few weeks ago me and the wife launched BabyVsBaby, a site where you can upload your childs photo and the world can rate exactly how cute it is.

We’ve had over 500 bouncing B3ta babies submitted so far, and about half a million battles fought.

I’ve noticed a few things and I thought I’d share.

How to win:

  • Girls are cuter than boys
  • Big eyes help
  • Smiling is a bonus
  • Funny hats are always a winner

    • How to lose:

  • Mucky faces = bad. Looks like they’ve been eating shit
  • Newborns. No one likes them except their mums
  • You’re all racists. Black and Asian babies aren’t doing so well. Although this might be just due to some crappy photos

    • Other facts:

  • Some people have been uploading photos of themselves as kids, which is fine by us. And actually is kind of interesting. “Were you cute as a baby? Find out…”
  • Some people upload their photos all excited and then get very upset when they don’t find it in the top 10 and accuse us of fixing the results
  • But not as upset as the handful of people whose child reached the ‘losingest babies’ list. Sorry!

    • If you haven’t played already, then you’ll want to click BabyVsBaby.

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