ad agency austin

In the digital media space, every strategist and media buyer will work tell you exciting tales of location based ad units, in-app advertising, and QR codes that will revolutionize the way we reach your target audience. Well, that all may be true…years from now. And, today it’s true if your market is early adopters, techies and people living in urban centers like Austin.

But, as we often do here at Broad Street Interactive, let’s look at the facts. People bought over 60 million smartphones in the second quarter of 2010. That’s a huge number, right? Well, not when you consider that during the same period people bought over 260 million “dumphones.” It is true that smartphone sales are increasing by double-digit rates, but the limits of 3G coverage worldwide will continue to hinder their market share growth for some time.

Smartphones won’t be as popular as regular phones in the U.S. until Q4 2011 or Q1 2012, according to Nielsen.

Even when people have smartphones, they don’t lose SMS. We run SMS campaigns that reach target audiences for our clients and get great results. While an SMS campaign may not be as new and exciting as location based advertising through things like Foursquare, we are still using SMS to generate ROI for our clients.

There are more than 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world, and there is at least half a decade or more until dumbphones stop being relevant. That means billions of dollars are on the table for innovators in the feature phone space.

We believe in using mobile display and in-app mobile advertising where appropriate. We recently completed a campaign reaching pregnant women with an awareness campaign about breastfeeding and had great results (which you can read about in our white paper) using mobile display.

We also use SMS to reach certain areas and demographics we cannot reach using mobile display. For example, we’ve found that Power Moms are mobile enthusiasts who are 35% more likely to use text messaging/SMS on the go.

Thank you to all the members of the Austin advertising community that voted for us in the Annual Big Wig Awards. It is an honor to be recognized by your peers for good work and we hope to continue to meet and exceed your expectations.

The event at Mercury Hall gave us a chance to meet a lot of people in the industry we did not already know and share a laugh with our good friends and clients.

The Big Wig awards are a wonderful way to recognize companies and individuals that do some great work in advertising and help put the city on the map as a center for creativity and advertising expertise.

So, again, thank you and we’ll be wearing an awfully big wig today around the office.

Online advertising news sites are buzzing about “tapping into the hyperlocal market – like in Fast Company’s recent article, “Can Anyone Tap Into the $100 Billion Potential of Hyperlocal News?” Broad Street Interactive has been doing it since 2007, and here’s how and why:

As this article in Media Transparent states, “National advertisers ignore the hyperlocal markets because they are too sales labor intensive in their focus on mom & pop SMEs.” Exactly. Agencies like ours, while we include national sites, CPC, and other types of engagement in our campaigns, began with a hyperlocal focus. Our network of sites for CPM campaigns was built on hyperlocal engagement.

We believe in relationships with hyperlocal publishers and web sites, have built those relationships over the past few years, and manage them intensively. We have a network of publishers exceeding 2,700 on the hyperlocal level. These publishers are the players in their local communities and are trusted sources of local information. It’s these relationships that allow  us to buy premium inventory on these web sites and obtain high visibility and good results – without having to resort to buying “remnant” or large “ad network” inventory to fulfill our clients’ campaign goals.

Because local online advertising has grown on average 45% a year in the last five years, big media companies are finally catching on and setting up “local” shops and hoping to win advertising dollars, according to iMedia Connection. We certainly don’t overlook “local” sites owned by large online publishers, but we find we get better results by going directly to trusted media outlets in local markets to get exactly what out client is looking for and what we’ve spent the past few years building: Local engagement.

Broad Street Interactive has run successful campaigns on the hyperlocal level not just based on small DMAs in the marketplace, but also based on congressional district, zip codes outside of large cities, and small community newspapers and networks. Because we have strong publisher relationships and a large network of more than 2,700 hyperlocal sites to choose from, we’re also able to optimize campaigns and be nimble when managing online campaigns.

Want more information on how you can maximize your online spending through hyperlocal advertising? Contact us here!

I’m having a great time at iMedia’s Breakthrough Summit this year. It never ceases to amaze me at the speed in which new technology presents us with so many new and exciting ways to reach our client’s audiences. First of all, it is a special honor for me to even be in the room with the attendees. VP’s of Ogilvy & Mather, Brand Managers for Kraft and Best Buy, and the media buyers for some of the world’s leading brands. I feel smarter just being here.

This year’s focus has been on “Mobile” and I have to admit, I’ve long been a naysayer when it comes to spending a lot of money on mobile. I still believe it isn’t right for every client, but I have to fess up that I’ve changed my mind about mobile on some levels.

In addition to Mobile, here are a few things on the list that I can’t wait to share with our clients (and prospective clients) that I believe will help them generate great results on their upcoming campaigns.

• Mobile “Location” Advertising–Both in GPS systems and on mobile devices, this technology serves relevant ads to a relevant audience when a user is nearby. Wow! Can  you imagine looking for an ATM and having a map pop up and tell you your bank has one nearby? Or how about for political candidates using it to advertise early voting locations? Those are examples for the types of clients we work with but the possibilities for retail, travel, entertainment clients are outstanding. I look forward to the opportunity to include this in an conversation with you.
• Mobile “Click to Call” Advertising–Just like it sounds, mobile ads can now include a “click to call” or “click to email” option within the banner itself. Talk about getting an immediate response from your media. I love this idea.
• Music Video Content Advertising–I especially like this for awareness campaigns trying to reach the young male audience. The fact that it can be targeted like nobody’s business also impresses me.
• In-Game Content Advertising–What if your food brand could be the ingredients in a game where you run your own bakery? Kooky, I know, but what if I told you Moms 25-40 were playing these games for 45 minutes on average. Still Kooky?
• Original Content Production–I enjoyed the vendors that talked about creating original content and distributing that content for your client. My first thought was, “That would cost a million dollars.” But, I was pleasantly surprised at the affordability.
• Reaching the Frequent Traveler–There are now ad platforms that reach travelers in airport by sponsoring wi-fi hotspots, wrapping display around wi-fi and OOH (Out Of Home) video displays inside airports. As a frequent business traveler I actually pay attention to these ads out of sheer boredom.
• Social Media Apps Advertising–I really liked this idea for the hard to reach male 18-34 demographic. What a great tool to use in-content advertising geo-targeted and reach an audience for an awareness campaign.

All in all, iMedia this year has given me great additions to the toolbox for our client solutions. I still believe my favorite quote is “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” I apply that logic to a lot of the latest technology and drill down targeting capabilities with online advertising, however, there are some exciting new ways we can reach your audience with affordable solutions that make sense.

I cannot wait to talk to you about them. What are you waiting for? Let’s schedule a meeting.

Spending on digital media for local advertising will grow about 19 percent through 2014 and will be 25 percent of total local advertising, while money spent on traditional ads will continue to decline, according to new research from BIA/Kelsey. This “steady shift toward digital media” will see online/interactive media expenditure, at about $15 billion last year, reach nearly $37 billion four years from now, the study said.

What this means for our traditional media outlets dependent on print advertising revenue: Those who already have an online presence should ensure their sites are (a) advertising/code friendly, (b) inventory ready, and (c) maintaining or increasing user traffic/impressions. Traditional media outlets can make up for a loss in print advertising revenues with online revenue, but they must be able to accept ad codes and have the inventory and traffic (and an online media kit). It’s a new world out there and with an increasing number of people getting their news and information online, advertisers are heading straight for the web.

At Broad Street Interactive, we are strong advocates for local online publishers. We represent a network of over 2,000 local news content publishers and bring them together with advertisers trying to reach the important local audience. We are certainly “bullish” on the growth of online advertising budgets in the local space. If your brand is trying to reach the local audience, nationwide contact us for a proposal. We will show you how local can work for your brand.