Jerry Brown Buys TV Airtime

2 Sep

Jerry Brown’s campaign has booked more than $1 million in airtime on television stations around the state next week, according to numerous campaign media buyers.

Brown’s campaign booked the time Wednesday morning, but Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said the campaign may not hit the airwaves until later. Clifford said the campaign still had time to cancel its purchase, estimated at about $1.2 million statewide.

Brown’s campaign has not spent any money on campaign ads, even as Meg Whitman’s campaign spending has topped $100 million.

Independent expenditure groups have spent more than $7 million on Brown’s behalf this summer to try to limit Whitman’s advantage. The booking of airtime comes as union backers of Jerry Brown announced they were scaling back their television advertising after this week.

“This is a charade,” said Whitman spokeswoman Andrea Jones Rivera. “The government unions announce they are taking their ads down while Jerry Brown simultaneously announces that he is launching his first set of ads. It’s rock-solid proof that there is seamless coordination between what is essentially the same political organization.”

To find out more about our TV Advertising services go to Latitude Park

‘Radio Commercials’ Standard Poor’

2 Sep

One of the world’s most celebrated marketing communications experts, Tony Hertz, has said the standard of radio advertising in most countries is very poor.

Hertz, made the observation at a recent workshop on “7 Secrets of Creative Radio Advertising,” held in Lagos.

In the workshop, Hertz, revealed the seven secrets of creative radio advertising, guided participants on how to use them to create successful radio commercials.

Hertz, who has conducted the workshop in 29 countries, Nigeria being the 30th and the second in Africa after South Africa, said, “the standard of radio advertising in most countries that I have visited is usually not very good, so Nigeria is not alone.”

The participants were split into various teams and received advertising briefs from which they developed radio scripts based on their learning at the workshop.

Speaking on the workshop, Chukudozie Ikwuegbu of PrimaGarnet Ogilvy, said “The workshop delivered key insights to writing a good commercial, tips on presentation and relationship between pictures and radio are highted.”

Marcia Anagor of 141 Worldwide said the “workshop was expository”.

Sola Mosuro of Noah’s Ark called it “radio advertising demystified”.

For Evelyn Ezomo of Zain Nigeria, the workshop provided “explicit tips on what it takes to write a good and effective radio ad.”

The workshop gave more insights into developing and presenting radio concepts. The participants had the opportunity to produce their own scripts, direct live professional voice over artists and studio engineers and learnt how to get the best out of them.

Managing Director of Chini Productions, organizers of the workshop and Cannes Lions representatives in Nigeria, Nnamdi Ndu, said, “radio is a very important medium for advertising in Nigeria because of our peculiar challenges with power outages and traffic jam and also because of the socio-economic distribution of consumers.”

He said since research has shown that creative ads deliver better marketing results, it is in the interest of advertisers to make their radio ads work harder for them by making them more creative.

To find out more about our Radio Advertising services go to Latitude Park

Online Ads Come Under New Regulation

2 Sep

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to be given the power to regulate online advertising from 2011.

The move will bring online ads under stricter regulation, making them subject to the same rules as TV and radio advertising.

Advertisers are being warned that their online efforts will now come under increased scrutiny. Amongst other things, the ASA will now be able to ban pay-per-click adverts on channels like Facebook if it finds them to be misleading.

This mirrors the position in TV and radio, where adverts are banned with relative frequency. Just last week the ASA prevented BT broadcasting an advert for its broadband services, which the Authority said was misleading.

The new rules come into force on 1 March 2011, and will apply to any statement made online with the intention of selling a product or service. Editorial and journalistic content will be exempt, provided that it relates to a cause or idea, rather than a product or service.

The move marks a major change in the online advertising landscape, and could cause compliance issues in the short term.

An ASA spokesperson said: “This is a massive step. Consumers don’t differentiate between adverts on TV or online and this ensures that claims online will be subject to the same strict scrutiny of those in traditional media.

To find out more about our Radio Advertising services go to Latitude Park

7 Deadly Sins of Website Design

2 Sep

Steering clear of these mistakes will help your website stand out from the rest

By William J. Lynott

Deciding your practice would benefit by having its own website is the easy part. The tough part is avoiding the nasty pitfalls that make many websites money losers, instead of money makers.

The first commercial websites were designed by early computer experts. These hardy pioneers were comfortable in the arcane world of computers, but woefully lacked in communication and marketing skills. The result was a flood of “clever” websites that accomplished little except making their sponsors look silly.

During the past few years, Web design has evolved into a sophisticated combination of art and science. Today’s best sites are powerful marketing and communications tools.

Unfortunately, plenty of the old clunkers are still around, and more are going up every day.

Damaging design

Here’s how you can make sure your site — whether it’s in the planning stage or already a reality — isn’t marred by one or more of the most damaging errors of website design:

1. Failing to formulate a clear purpose for your site. That may sound obvious for a chiropractic website, but failing to define and execute a clear purpose is one of the more common website design errors — and one of the most costly.

Do you want a website solely to establish an Internet presence, with a single page providing basic information, such as your address, phone number, and general description of your practice?

Or do you want a complete e-commerce site with multiple pages, photos of your office and staff, a description of your specialized expertise, hospital affiliation, board certification, and other data?

Why are you going to the trouble and expense of creating a website? What do you want it to accomplish? If you can’t state your purpose clearly in a sentence or two, you’re probably not ready to dip a toe in Internet waters.

2. Failing to communicate your purpose clearly to your site designer. If you hire a professional to create your site, you’ll pay additional charges if you keep exercising your right to change your mind. Changes in basic design after the project is underway can result in wasted creative hours. Unless your designer has agreed to a flat rate, you’ll be stuck with a larger bill than you expected.

You can avoid this common error by taking time to discuss your ideas with your designer. Sketching out layouts and text with paper and pencil can save hours of costly design time.

Don’t allow yourself to become an obstacle in the completion of the work by over-managing, and don’t sit back and assume you shouldn’t be involved at all in the creative process.

3. Failing to understand the most important element of any website is content. Web surfers are looking for information about your practice, the nature of your expertise or specialty, and credentials such as board certification and hospital affiliations.

Details, such as design elements and colors, should always be transparent to the viewer. Too much “design” in a website can be compared with too much makeup on a woman. If it calls attention to itself, it has defeated its purpose.

Perhaps you’ve seen sites alive with dancing bears, cartoons, pulsating banners, and other irrelevant devices. If you’re like most Web surfers, you have little patience with that sort of nonsense. Such schemes may have a proper place, but it is not on your business site. A site cluttered with annoying gimmicks will be a turn-off for most viewers.

Make sure your designer understands how you feel about unnecessary distractions. Graphics primarily decorative in purpose should be kept to a minimum. In website design, less is more.

4. Failing to provide a simple navigation system

Web surfers are notoriously impatient. Viewers who log on to your site want to see at a glance the nature of your expertise, what services you offer, and what they must do to find other key information. If your home page and navigation system don’t provide quick answers, many viewers will move on.  Every page on your site must provide an easy and intuitive way to reach every page. Internet viewers simply will not invest the time and effort needed to plow their way through a confusing maze of menus.

The most popular navigation systems consist of bars laid out vertically on the left side or horizontally across the top of each page. Whatever system you choose, it must be consistent. Every page on your site should contain a “return to home page” link.

Remember, if you allow your viewer to get confused, you’ve probably lost a potential patient. Your navigation system must provide visitors with enough information to make easy and effective choices.          

5. Failing to provide an easy way for interested viewers to contact you. Prospective patients may have questions you haven’t anticipated, or there may be problems with the site such as broken links. In either case, a quick and easy e-mail link will allow the viewer to reach you with the click of a mouse.

Once you set up a feedback link, especially if it allows for scheduling an appointment online, it is essential you have your e-mail checked several times a day, and that you respond promptly to every message.

Many people regard unanswered e-mail messages as a personal affront — that’s not a good way to build your professional image.

6. Failing to test loading time on an average computer. The short attention spans of most people today will cause them to move on if your site takes more than a few seconds to appear on their screens.

Excessive use of large graphics, animations, and other devices that increase the file size of the pages on your site will increase the time it takes for the page to appear.

If you own a high-powered computer with a lightning speed processor and a ton of memory or have high-speed Internet access, don’t use your own system to test your site’s loading time. Find a friend with an average setup.

Then, if your site takes more than eight seconds to load, you and your designer need to decide what needs to change.

7. Failing at search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines allow Web surfers to type in keywords such as “chiropractor,” “pain management,” a company name, etc., and then, in the blink of an eye, it scans millions of websites and lists those with meta-tags identical to the search term.

Meta-tags are words and phrases that describe the contents of your website and the nature of your practice, making it easier for everyone to find you.

Meta-tags aren’t a magic key to site effectiveness; however, they can increase the chances your site will be included in the list when a Web surfer types in one of those words or phrases.

The use of meta-tags is a technical subject and you should discuss the matter with your Web designer to make certain he or she includes a full measure of appropriate tags in your home page.

Steering clear of these seven deadly sins cannot guarantee a blue ribbon for design and effectiveness, but sticking with these guidelines will unleash the full power of your website, lifting it well above the majority of your competitors.

To find out more about our Web Design services go to Latitude Park

SEO Friendly Website Design

2 Sep

September 1, 2010 1:50 pm – Bradford, UK, (September, 1, 2010). There is no point designing a website, when the visitors are not coming in. the major source of traffic for websites are the search engines like Google, yahoo, msn etc. thus through designing a search engine friendly website one can easily score high rank on the search engine results and gain more visitors. The search engine crawlers or robots are used to index the websites to be listed on the search engines. The crawlers follow links to the page; read the content, record it in their database and pulling up the listing so that people search for it. One should avoid using frames on the website, if you want to get your site indexed with ease. Frames confuse the search engine robots which would abandon the site also. Frames make it difficult to bookmark the specific pages on the site, without using complicated and difficult scripts.

The search engine robots prefer the text in the source code, using flash movies and images will affect the rank dramatically. Use Meta tags according to each and every page of your site so that the search engine robots know at first sight what a particular page is about, whether or not.
Vibe graphics take care of all these elements to design the websites, which are SEO friendly and user friendly. We discussed all these elements with our clients in the seminar we organized in Bradford, UK and the assurance we provided to them was genuine. Our clients can look for the results we provide with our web design and their high ranks on the search engines. We use CSS (cascading style sheets) in our designs, it makes the pages lighter, faster to load. They are the most effective and efficient way of designing a website.

To find out more about our Web Design services go to Latitude Park

Role of Search Engine Optimization In Internet Marketing

1 Sep

Indeed there is a very big role of SEO in internet marketing today. That is why company provides the best search engine optimization services to its most valuable customers worldwide cheaply.

New York, NY — (SBWIRE) — 09/01/2010 — This is the world of business and competition. Everyone wants to earn quick money. But earning fast money is not an easy task for the entrepreneurs and traders at all.

The fact of the matter is that competition among the businesses has been increased nowadays. From internet marketers to affiliate marketers, from stock marketers to real estate agents, and from online banks to travel agents, all other types of businesses are fighting hard in the race of survival to the fittest. How is it possible for the modern contemporary businesses, traders, vendors, entrepreneurs, investors, stock marketers, and corporate owners to grab huge returns on a permanent basis? What is the best way to generate quick returns?

Well all you have to do is to immediately put into action search engine optimization if you really want to snatch huge returns lastingly. This is one of the most fabulous web marketing techniques that lends a hand to the corporate owners and industries how to boost up their website traffic naturally and gain long term returns competitively. In SEO services, there are basically two types of worthy packages: On Page Optimization and Off Page Optimization. Talking about the first package – On Page Optimization, it mainly involves a wide range of sizzling methods which are generally known as image optimization, Meta tags, content optimization, site navigation, site maps, keyword placement, keyword density, and title optimization.

On the other hand, you can surely make full use of Off Page Optimization technique stylishly. More importantly, it involves a wide range of unique factors and elements which are typically known as directory submission, article marketing, blogs posting, blogs commenting, forums submission, social media submission, authority links, back links, and press release submission. One thing has to be said about both On Page Optimization as well as Off Page Optimization that they are undoubtedly amongst the best packages of search engine optimization services in the worldwide market today. Moreover content plays a mandatory role in your higher search engine rankings and organic traffic. Great news is that company provides the best SEO solutions to its valued customers worldwide.

There is a very big role of search engine optimization in professional internet marketing for the reason that SEO is nowadays providing a lot of benefits to the corporate owners and internet marketers worldwide for example cost effective internet marketing, generation of quality of organic traffic, increased website visibility, rapid business identity development, ongoing sales volume, lasting returns, and competitive edge over the other competitors in the global market. Therefore if you need any assistance regarding the search engine optimization, please do not hesitate to get connected with SEO Company online at all. We shall provide you the best SEO services worldwide cost effectively. SEO is the best tool for internet marketing and to produce business more.

To find out more about our Search Engine Optimization services go to Latitude Park

SEO for Dentists-The top Way to Market Your Dental Practice!

1 Sep

 

Online dentist advertising is fast turning the technique of alternative for dentists who wish to boost their innovative patients and augment the number of customers who approach them for best services.

The main issue that many dentists have is to make certain that they have a stable flow of the new patients coming through their door for using their dental services. The most gainful services that many dentists offer have to do with the cosmetic enhancements. If it is easy dentures or high-end implants, this is where your livelihood is. Print advertising is costly and does not work extremely well. TV and radio advertising works however it is very pricey. SEO or Search Engine Optimization for dentists is quickly becoming the most efficient way to magnetize new customers.

Prior to undergoing a process as well as spending the funds to disburse for it, clients are utilizing the power of the internet to investigate not just the alternatives they have in local suppliers but about the pricing and procedures as well. While nobody will be performing the process on themselves after investigating online, they will spend a bit of time studying dental procedures prior to making a choice.

With Search Engine Optimization you can make certain that you can be a dentist that constantly shows up in their searches setting your power on the dental process that they are searching into and they would deluge your office with the calls for appointments. Just some extra customers per week might be what you are searching for to actually get in front. Online dental practice advertising is the best way to augment your customer load for the dental practice.

There are three necessary and most important aspects to Search Engine Optimization for your dental practice.

• Make certain that onsite optimization is arranged for good keywords.

• Ensure that you are listed in applicable search engines.

• Publish the articles weekly or more frequently on the topics that your customers will find helpful.

These 3 steps are extremely fundamental and essential however more than a lot of your competitors are doing and would yield results with constant effort. The other alternative is to employ an advertising professional to do it for you. This would be quicker and might be less costly than doing it for yourself in view of the fact that you would be capable to spend that time providing customers the services rather than managing the online advertising for your practice. A designed dental website would show clients that you are not merely an expert dental practitioner; however it is also the practice that signifies its patients.

Apart from dental web design, companies offer a lot of more services, comprising hosting of the dental websites, registering domain, and teaching the staff through e-mail communications. These attributes assist to market your website and promote your practice. Dentists’ web solutions provide the tools to get the consumer attention plus get new patients to use the services.

To find out more about our Web Design services go to Latitude Park

Bertelsmann Posts Record Operating Profit

31 Aug

German media giant Bertelsmann is back in the black thanks to a buoyant TV advertising market.

The owner of the RTL television group and publishers Random House and Gruner + Jahr posted a first-half net profit of 246 million euros ($312 million), compared with a loss of over 330 million euros during the same time last year.

Bertelsmann says RTL, which owns or has shares in 31 radio channels and 43 TV channels across Europe, benefited from a rebound in advertising.

The company generates around one quarter of its turnover with advertising revenues. The advertising market suffered dramatically in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Advertising revenues recover

“The economy and especially the advertising markets are friendlier,” said Hartmut Ostrowski, chairman and chief executive.

Growth was also driven by the company’s publishing divisions Gruner + Jahr and Random House where “business and digital activities have shown particularly positive development.”

At Random House, US sales of e-books went up by 300 percent over the last six months. German and UK markets have shown a similar surge in sales.

As a result, Bertelsmann, which celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, raised its outlook for the full year. It now expects to turn a profit of over 500 million euros.

In a restructuring effort in 2009, the company saved one billion euros, cutting 4,000 jobs. Currently, Bertelsmann has around 100,000 people employed worldwide, 2,500 less than only six months ago. 

To find out more about our TV Advertising services go to Latitude Park

Robust TV Ad Market Expected Through 2010

31 Aug

NEW YORK (Mediaweek) – Despite economic indicators that suggest the recovery might be losing momentum, media buyers and network executives are confident that the TV advertising marketplace will remain robust through year’s end.

After that, it’s anyone’s guess.

In the waning hours of an “upfront” advertising market that saw clients commit to about $18 million in national broadcast and cable inventory for the upcoming TV season during the spring, buyers had intimated that spot rates (a.k.a. “scatter”) would begin to dry up during the third and fourth quarters. This has not been the case, however, as pricing continues to come in at about 20% above upfront levels.

On the broadcast side of the ledger, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW are facing another arduous autumn battle as cable continues to make raids on primetime, and coveted younger viewers are lured from the tube by the digital pied piper. Last season, only Fox managed to grow its share of adults 18-49; in the aggregate, cable now enjoys a 2-to-1 lead in share.

Sports and politics alone should keep the networks humming through December, said Joel Hollander, founder of 264 Echo Place Partners. “Football is the closest thing there is to bulletproof,” said Hollander, former chairman and CEO of CBS Network Radio and GM of New York sports-radio leader WFAN-AM. “There’s going to be a ton of political money starting now, and it’ll all just pile up as November approaches.”

How robust is the football marketplace? With a little less than two weeks to go before kicking off its 51st season of NFL coverage, CBS’ Sunday broadcasts are about 90% sold through the playoffs. At the same time, the network is close to selling off the last piece of its SEC college schedule.

“At this time last year, we were going into the season with a lot of inventory on our hands,” CBS Sports executive vp sales and marketing John Bogusz said. “This year, the market has moved earlier, and volume is way up.”Automotive dollars had a big hand in the rush on NFL avails. “Last year, we knew Chrysler wasn’t coming in; Toyota wasn’t on CBS; and we weren’t sure where we stood with GM, although they eventually did come in for a fair amount,” Bogusz said. “All three are already back this season, as is Ford, which has always been a consistent spender.”

Telecom also has been active at CBS, Fox and ESPN as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon have ramped up respective commitments to pro and college football. The insurance category has secured a good deal of airtime, and other endemics including beer, quick-service restaurants and movies also are spending freely.

All told, Bogusz said CBS is on track to sell a record amount of advertising for its NFL games, a projection shared by other pro football outlets.

After putting up record deliveries last season, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” is just about sold out. The sports network’s college football games also are selling well, according to Ed Erhardt, president of ESPN customer marketing and sales. “Yes, the auto market returning has been a big deal, but there’s also the fact that live events have become more crucial in the minds of the advertising community,” he said.

ESPN’s first preseason “MNF” telecast August 16 drew 5.6 million viewers, 3.1 million of whom were in the adults 18-49 demographic. To put that in perspective, the exhibition game between the Giants and Jets outdelivered every regular-season baseball telecast this season on broadcast and cable.

Looking at the bigger picture, though clients might begin retreating if the economy takes another dive, the near term looks promising for TV.

“It’s still the most cost-effective buy to support a brand, and brands are increasingly important as we go through these economic cycles,” said Howard Bass, a senior partner at Ernst & Young. “The marketplace is relatively strong, and a big part of that is thanks to the sophistication and innovation of the agencies putting together the buys.”

To find out more about our TV Advertising services go to Latitude Park

MyLife.com Traffic Soars 49% Since Launch of TV Ad Campaign

31 Aug

Web’s Most Comprehensive People Search Site Welcomes 13.75 Million Unique Visitors in July 2010 based on comScore; Surpasses Classmates.com in Total Reach

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ — MyLife.com, Inc., the web’s single best source for people search, today announced that its family of search sites have received a 49 percent increase in total traffic since the kick-off of its first ever TV advertising campaign in May 2010.   MyLife.com’s specialized people-search verticals, which include the relaunched Reunion.com and dating-specific QuickMatch Singles, welcomed over 13.75 million unique visitors in July 2010, even surpassing Classmates.com and outpacing growth versus other competitors in total reach.

MyLife.com is currently the most comprehensive database on unique individuals, with more than 205 million U.S. profiles, 1.2 billion total worldwide records, more than 37 million registered members and nearly 1 million paid subscribers.  It is the only website that provides users with up-to-date information on who searches for them and other important activity related to their own profile.  MyLife.com will utilize this valuable information to create future search offerings in additional verticals, giving unparalleled value to those looking to connect for a variety of reasons.      

We’re very pleased with the growth of MyLife.com in 2010, and extremely excited about the success of our first-ever national TV ad campaign.  To have grown by 49 percent while other people search sites are either flat or declining is a testament to our approach to specialized people search verticals  – starting with the re-launch of Reunion.com for classmates, and more recently into the dating vertical with QuickMatch Singles,” said Jeffrey Tinsley, CEO of MyLife.com.  ”We’ve got our eye on additional search categories; and we’ll continue to expand our offerings.  With over 300+ million people searches per month, our users continue to find that MyLife.com has the best aggregated information.”    

MyLife.com has created the Internet’s most complete directory of dynamic personal profiles in the U.S. from thousands of public sources, both online and offline. New search verticals include QuickMatch Singles for dating and Reunion.com for classmates.  MyLife plans to introduce vertical search encompassing service providers like doctors and plumbers similar to Angie’s List and Service Magic, ancestors similar to Ancestry.com, as well as colleagues and professional connections as LinkedIn.

To find out more about our TV Advertising services go to Latitude Park