Advertising with Content

I wanted to point you to two quick reads in the area of Internet Marketing – specifically how businesses are using content to drive traffic to their site.

In TheirSpace.com, Allison Fass reviews how Fortune 500 companies such as Carnival and Coke have created online “hubs” for their users.  MyCoke.com has 8 million registered users and 9,000 visitors a day, but shuts down between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. to lock out users “not appropriate to their brand.”  I believe these “community” sites need to provide real value to the users, like online support groups for those trying to lose weight offered by Kellogg’s and Jenny Craig.  Read the whole Forbes article here.

I also enjoyed “Rise of the Lowly Search Ad” by Jon Fine in the latest Business Week (April 24 issue, not online yet).  He reminds us that search ads rank “slightly above poorly Xeroxed Herbalife flyers stapled to a telephone pole.”  Then he goes on to show how Honda is using low-cost keywords creatively to support the Element campaign.  Using keyword terms like “platypus” which link to custom landing pages, this is a cost effective way to build your brand in the new digital world order.  Read the whole Business Week article here (soon).