Monday, April 12, 2010

Negative Keywords People

OK, come on. This Internet thing, it's not new. Advertising online, it's not new. So why (oh why) are people not taking advantage of negative keywords when purchasing display space on news sites? It's really not a difficult thing. Honest.

Just tonight (I am talking in the last hour) 2 different people have tweeted unfortunately placed display, both of which were banks.

There is this one which was posted by Clarke Gayford. Awesome, 2 banks advertising across a story about a guard being attacked while filing an ATM. What I like about this the most is the 'easy money' statement on the BNZ ad. Classic. At least neither ad was ANZ (the bank which ATM was being filled...)
As a bit of an aside, Stuff - what on earth are you doing allowing 2 banks to run display next to each other. I would not be a happy camper if I was running either one of those campaigns...

Then there is this little gem which was on the Herald site, but was brought to my attention via mikiszikszai. I'm going to admit, I can understand how this one happened a little easier than the above, but oh my goodness, what an unfortunate coincidence!It's one of those times, where you kinda have to think about worst case scenario, you know? Just like airlines and travel centres have to put negative keywords up for plane crashes, people should be thinking about the content of their ad and all possible ramifications.

I mean, come on people, they same way that you target with keywords - you can make sure these sorts of things don't happen with NEGATIVE keywords. Do it!

Other than that though, how freaking awesome is it that there are no pigs in the BNZ ads anymore? YAY! You have no idea how happy I am to see this shift. Freaking awesome.

4 comments:

Alysha - PHDIQ said...

It's not as simple as you write. Negative keyword matching involves a price premium - which affects the cost efficiency of the campaign.

In this particular instance it would be difficult to have pre-determined the negative keywords for this particular story. The only two I can think of would be robbers and/or offenders (which then removes access to most ROS news stories about crime)

We use negative keywords for BNZ as a matter of course. However it's impossible to pick them all in advance of stories running!

We have to weigh up the ability to deliver our objectives - be they reach/response with the available inventory in market.

Stuff have anti-collision as a matter of course so we were surprised to see the ads in proximity.

I'll pass on your pig feedback to the creative team ;)

iChild said...

Thanks for the comment Alysha. Love people that comment - really appreciate it!
I understand that it requires a price premium, sorry - probably should have stated that myself - however I do think (and this is just me) that there is too much emphasis on 'cost efficiency' for online as a medium. That is a whole other kettle of fish that I will think about properly before I write it. But I guess where I am coming from, is that I think that when it comes to protecting a brand in an unpredictable environment like online, a premium can be easily justified.
I totally agree that there is no way foresee the future and what stories may come up, but 'bank + robbery' seems like a possible combination. (I'm not going to lie - it's been quite a while since I ran a display campaign on a news site and had to deal with these sorts of things - I'm hoping that they allow you to connect words for negative keywords, but I haven't had to ask the question. I'm sure they can, can't you do anything online these days?)
End of the day, it was just really unfortunate the wording in the ad, sitting alongside this story in particular. You see these sorts of things quite often, it was simply a matter of 2 being pointed out by other twitterers in such close proximity - I had to jump on it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting piece and something that is never discussed with my agency but I will seek their input on it.

I do scan spot lists for our TVCs to ensure they're not running during aprograms where there would be a clash.

I need to extend that thinking online.

iChild said...

Hey Anon -
Don't suppose you want to share with the kids what kind of industry you're in?

You're absolutley right to scan spotlists and you'll probably find that if a current affairs show is running something that conflicts with your brand your agency will (well, should - depends on their relationship with the networks) advise to pull your advertising in this instance as well.

Re. online - it is possible that your agency is already doing this kind of thing for you. Probably should be discussed with you, but no doubt for your best interest anyway.