Buzzfeed to Offer Native Advertising Training to Agencies

Buzzfeed has launched a Social Storytelling Creator Program which aims to train agencies on the art of creating native advertising. Agencies that participate will receive official accreditation from Buzzfeed along with a badge they can place on their website and the ability to post stories to Buzzfeed. The program will be free to agencies that agree to spend a set minimum with Buzzfeed.

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13 Reasons Why the Blog Post Is the New Ad Unit

Writing on the HubSpot blog, I take a look at why the blog post is displacing typical online advertising. With recent interest in content creation, the rise of inbound marketing, and the latest trend, native advertising, the lowly blog post has, once again, risen to prominence in the eyes of marketers who now see it as a powerful method to connect with prospects and customers by delivering valuable, educational, and useful information.

And that is why the blog post is the new online ad unit. While clickthrough rates (CTR) are not the only metric by which you can measure a banner ad's performance, typical online banner ad units achieve a CTR of 0.10% according to MediaMind's Global Benchmarks Report, and that figure is on a downward spiral due to banner blindness, among other things. Couple that with "blind" network ad buys that prevent a marketer from knowing exactly where their ads appear and limited ad real estate on which to place messaging, and you've got an online advertising system that is very, very broken. But all is not lost! Here's why the blog post is so beneficial to marketers -- and why the typical ad unit just won't cut it any longer.

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Million Dollar Homepage Wannabes Still Alive And Well

Like a moderns day Million Dollar Homepage, a Tumblr blog called Blogrtising has launched. As described on the site, the concept is simple, "Blogrtising is a viral concept where advertisers pay $100 to become permanent contributors on this blog. Once payment is made, they can post what they want (advertising links/videos/photos/...), when they want and as often as they want."

Likely, this will go nowhere but it's amusing to see there are still people out there who can milk an original idea to death.

Food Bloggers Bitch About Getting Free Food

Oh it's been a while since the "blogosphere" - to coin a humorous and long-dead term - got their panties in a twist over some stunt a brand pulled. But these "kerfuffles" - to coin yet another humorous term - are always great fodder for a good 'ol internet bitch-fest.

So what's all the hubbub about? In August, ConAgra Foods, parent to the Marie Callender's brand of frozen foods, invited food bloggers to a New York restaurant they were told was owned by TLC Ultimate Cake Off Host George Duran and where they would receive a special, four course meal.

But instead of a meal cooked by George Duran, the bloggers were served frozen lasagna from Marie Callender's. Hidden cameras were in place to record diner's reactions. As it turned out, about 62 percent of the food bloggers actually liked the dish. But they were miffed and claimed they had been misled.

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VideoEgg Acquires Six Apart to Form Say Media

Video ad network VideoEgg, tomorrow, will announce it has acquired blogging platform Six Apart. The new entity will be known as Say Media and will combine "VideoEgg's engagement technologies with Six Apart's social publishing platform to power advertising campaigns that are more conversational and interactive."

Say Media claims it will have reach to a global audience of 345 million. A platitude filled video on the site (currently password-protected) explains the offering which, in a nutshell, delivers the scale advertisers need from the individual voices of independent publishers.

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Splice Misrepresents, Sony Attacks, VanHoven Out, Fashion Fails

- The ad campaign for the Sarah Polley Adrien Brody movie, Splice misled viewers into thinking it would be a horror click when, in reality, it was something else.

- Sony opens marketing spigot to combat iPhone.

- On June 23 during Cannes, Massive Music will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a party on the beach.

- Matt VanHoven is leaving AgencySpy where he was Editor for a position as communications director for New York agency Skinny.

- In fashion advertising, when out of ideas, shoot ass.

- W+K Portland's Jimm Lasser, Greg Rutter and Joe Staples give us a behind the scenes look at the making of the Dodge Challenger "Freedom" spot.

Graduating Ad Student Turns Job Search Into Reality Show

For a graduating college student the impending job search is a daunting. It's a painful process laden with ridiculous requirements. Twenty-two year old Russian student Stepan Mitaki knows this and will be documenting his attempt at landing a job in advertising with a reality show.

On a regular basis, Mitaki will share videos, blog posts and tweets with the world. You can check out his video introduction here, his blog here and his tweets here.

New York Times Awards Gothamist's Hatred With Massive Ad Buy

Apparently, Gothamist editor Jake Dobkin has no love for the New York Times and he made that very clear with scathing post on his Facebook page last month. That didn't seem to dissuade the Times from tossing a bunch of money Gothamist's way for a site-swallowing wallpaper ad. Nor did Dobkin's hatred of the Times stop his organization from accepting the Time's money.

You see? There really is a separation of church and state. That or, as Gawker posits, "Bitch, we OWN you."

Ad Blogs Beware. There's a New Blog in Town

Work in advertising? Want to blog about it? Then The Denver Egoist's new program is for you. They've launched a city-based blogging platform similar to that other "ist" blogging network. The organization is looking for creative types to report on local creativity and advertising-relating news around the world.

We have no idea how anyone's going to make money or if that's even a concern but it sure sounds like fun. Or is it? Perhaps not for us. Now we'll have to read all these new ad blogs to make sure we're not missing anything. That sounds like work. We don't like work. That's why we blog instead.

Interested? Check out the opportunity here.

Faces Clopped, D&AD Calls, ADC Calls, Gen Y Speaks

- If for no other reason than to stave off boredom, check out Monoclops and turn yourself into a morphlicious monoclop.

- The deadline for entering the D&AD Awards in Wednesday, January 2010. If you're inclined, you can view the call for entry ads here.

- For the second time in the history of the broadcast, Super Bowl ad pricing has dropped. Last year, spots went for $ 3 million. This year, they are going for $2.5 - $2.8 million.

- Mullen-supported The Next Great Generation is a GenY-focused blog which covers crowdsourcing, explores the GenY demo and aims to educate brands and marketers about the segment's thinking and lifestyle.

- The Art Director's Club is looking for entries for its 89th Annual Awards. get them in by January 22.

- How were Legos...uh LEGO bricks...invented? by some strange looking dude with a mustache after he realized people can't fly. And it's all about community. And there's a video. And there's a Twitter profile to follow. And there's an iPhone app!

- Hmm. Branding people with AIDS? Or just making them aware of it?

- When making a billboard buy for alcoholism, it's best not to place the board near a board that promotes an alcoholic beverage.