According to a recent article written by Brandweek’s Robert Klara, municipalities across the United States are selling ad space on everything they own.

A school located near Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport is considering plans to sell ad space on its roof, parking lot and stadium. Even the bottom of the school’s swimming pool is a potential money-making spot.

To some this may sound absurd, but advertising initiatives are rampant.

Chicago is taking RFPs to allow companies to name stations on the transit line.

New York has already wrapped an entire subway train (inside and out) in ads, and also sells ad space on station floors.

Brooklyn officials have proposed selling ad space on city trashcans and construction scaffolding.

And several cities are already allowing advertising on the sides of school buses, also known as “busvertising.”

Many applaud the new techniques and see only a win-win situation. Brands get to advertise in highly affective and innovative ways, while cities get revenue without raising taxes.

On the other hand, opponents argue that taxpayer-supported civic properties are inappropriate locations for ad space.

How do you feel about these new ad spots?

eMarketer just released their recent research on US Search Engine Marketing Spending.

“The recession is driving marketers to concentrate on gaining new business, even more than on customer retention objectives,” says Donald Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Search Marketing Trends: Back to Basics. “Search is the ultimate online acquisition tool, and therefore is positioned to do relatively well in this economy.”

The four main search options are paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion and search engine optimization (SEO). According to eMarketer’s predictions, U.S. spending on all four types will nearly double from $12.2 bilion in 2008 to $23.4 billion in 2013.

Although all options will see increased spending within the next five years, SEO spending will grow more dramatically than the others.

Paid search has traditionally gotten most of the money and attention, because its effects are immediate. Unfortunately, marketers have to constantly pay for their ads to appear in those search queries.

SEO, however, is more about the investment of time—not money. Marketers must constantly maintain their websites for best results.

“Customers are going to search engines because they are looking for better deals,” says Mr. Hallerman. “And marketers are going to search engines because that’s where the customers are.”

For more information, visit eMarketer.com.

As companies struggle with funds and advertising budgets are cut, more corporations are gravitating towards the strong pull of Social Media.

I recently came across an article called, “Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media.” The following is a list and brief description of the top five.

1. Will it Blend?
Blendtec created a YouTube series called “Will It Blend,” where Tom Dickson, Blendtec CEO attempts to blend different objects in their blender. The successful series led to a five-fold increase in sales.

2. How much is a Whopper worth to you?
Burger King launched a Facebook application that awarded users a free Whopper for every ten Facebook friends they sacrificed. Over 233,906 friends were sacrificed in less than a week.

3. “My Starbucks Idea”
Starbucks created a site that allows users to post suggestions and vote for their favorite ideas. The most popular suggestions are submitted and reviewed. There’s even a blog—“Ideas in Action”—that gives updates on the status of suggested changes.

4. The CEO Blog.
Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, kept a blog on the company’s website. The site received an average of 400,000 hits per month its first year. The site’s main appeal was its openness; Positive, negative, and ridiculous comments were all approved and posted.

5. IBM’s Blog Network.
Instead of creating a single blog, IBM created an entire network of blogs, allowing their employees to write about their experiences. Readers were offered business and technology expertise and an uncensored look behind the scenes.

Click Here to Read Them All!

Oscar Mayer recently ran this full-page ad in Newsweek.

It seems to be working.

Many bloggers are asking why the company would run an ad aimed at Generation X in Newsweek, a magazine read by the older crowd.

Think about it. It wasn’t aimed at Generation X at all. Words like “blogworthy,” are thrown around like crazy in publications made for younger readers, who rarely raise a brow. The ad probably came as a surprise to the Newsweek readers, who are more familiar with ads for phone companies, health care, and higher education. (And who doesn’t love surprises?)

But, more importantly, it also may have caused a chuckle…perhaps even a momentary feeling of hip-ness. This ad leads me to the painful memories of my father proudly learning the chorus to “Who Let the Dogs Out,” and singing it whenever my friends came over. The Newsweek readers are proud of themselves for getting the joke, and they’re blogging to prove their coolness.

Nonetheless, I do find it surprising that Oscar Mayer didn’t take this as an opportunity to mention their own blog: The Hotdogger Blog, where many delight in following the Wienermobile’s journey across America. The classic company has filled the company with new media like Twitter, Flickr, and Google maps. I even found a beautiful collection of desktop backgrounds!

Who would have thought Oscar Mayer would be such a leader in the new media revolution?

Hmm…Perhaps I’ll teach my dad how to download an MP3 next time I see him. I haven’t heard the Oscar Mayer song in forever.

Andrew Shaffer, who runs The Order of St. Nick greeting card company, is using the currently rough economic time period as a theme for this year’s Valentine’s Day collection, reports Adweek. One card says, “I made you a Valentine…But I had to burn it in a trashcan to stay warm.”

Like The Order of St. Nick, many companies are successfully using The Great Depression of the 1930s as a marketing tactic during the times.

Karen Bard, eBay’s resident pop-culture expert, says sales are on the rise for anything related to the Great Depression. The site’s “Depression Era” category has had a 15 percent increase in sales traffic.

In December 2008, Amazon’s sales of Depression-related titles (including The Great Crash, The Forgotten Man, and Ben Bernake’s Essays on the Great Depression) were up by 750 percent.

The Great Crash 1929 reached the sales rank of #87 on BarnesandNoble.com, up about 20,000 spots from a year ago.

And between September and October, Netflix saw a 10 percent increase in The Grapes of Wrath.

The History Factory, a research firm that writes histories for corporations, is also banking on the Depression Era theme, reports BusinessWeek. Bruce Weindruch, the firm’s CEO, says a typical request would be, “Give me an overview of any products we developed during the Depression.” The answer to this request might be used as proof of the company’s vigor to reassure employees and customers.

It will be interesting to see how long this approach of using the Great Depression as a theme works. If things in the present get too grim, these advertisers may find themselves with a campaign that doesn’t work.

But as Andrew Shaffer puts it, “Every other decade of the 20th century has been plundered. The Great Depression is actually something that’s fresh.”

In 2009, online marketing is just about the only area of budget growth for most marketers. But how much of that money will be wasted? Scott LoSasso, President of Chicago interactive agency LoSasso Advertising, discusses why some marketers misstep as they venture further into this brave new world of interactive marketing.

Someone alert the Snuggie Fans!

Cash4Gold just bought a 30-second ad, slotted for the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIII, making the company the first direct-response advertiser to have a commercial during the big game.

The fact that Cash4Gold is advertising during the most-watched broadcasting time slot of the year sheds light on the hugely underestimated success and power of direct-response marketers.

Direct response advertisers often pay less for ad time, because they agree to allow the networks to run the commercials during less-watched time periods. But as networks find selling ad space at the regular rates increasingly difficult during these rough economic times, direct response advertisers are rising to the occasion.

Cash4Gold is experiencing an upswing, according to AdvertisingAge’s recent interview with Howard Mofshin, president of Cash4Gold. Since Cash4Gold was founded in 2007, Mofshin says, the company has grown from two people to 350, and executives intend to hire another 150 people in 2009.

The highly-anticipated ad will feature Ed McMahon and MC Hammer, who are known for both their fame and ongoing financial woes. McMahon said in a statement, “I’ve used Cash4Gold before, and that’s why I am happy to spread the word by appearing in their ad.”

Mofshin told the press that the commercial shows McMahon and MC Hammer trying to out-do each other by sending in things that get more and more outrageous in each shot.

Here’s hoping we’ll see gold Hammer pants. But let it be known that I’m keeping mine.

Everyone knows the Internet has given power to the people. We rarely find the need to muster together the needed energy to call customer hot lines, attend town hall meetings, or send complaint letters. Within seconds, our important opinions that everyone is dying to know can be made available for the world via the World Wide Web. They call us “user-generated content (UGC) creators.”

And we’re taking over.

eMarketer estimates the number of UGC creators will grow from 83 million in 2008 to 115 million in 2013.

Furthermore, the number of US Internet users seeing some form of UGC will grow from 116 million to 155 million within the next five years.

So the more user-generated content on a page, the more attractive ad space will be to advertisers, right? ….Well, not exactly.

“Unfortunately, if things stay as they are, this frenzy of content generation and attention is not likely to produce commensurate rewards for marketers or site publishers,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.

Most advertisers seem to be shying away from nonprofessional content, and sticking with more reliable material. The unpredictability is too risky, and the ad effectiveness is too difficult to measure. “Finding lucrative niches will require patience, risk-taking, creativity and a long-term commitment,” says Verna.

Nevertheless, UGC sites seem to be pulling a fair amount of attention (and revenue) away from traditional media.

For more information, check out eMarketer’s recent article, “Can User-Generated Content Change Your World?” by Stephen Stills.

You know it’s time to get on the social media bandwagon when even the Vatican has its own YouTube channel.

The channel features video and audio footage of Pope Benedict XVI’s speeches and news available in four different languages.

The 81-year-old Pope wisely said, “You must find ways to spread—in a new manner—voices and pictures of hope, through the internet, which wraps all of our planet in an increasingly close-knitted way.”

Amen to that!

Respective channels have been made for President Obama, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, Queen Elizabeth, the UK Parliament, and Queen Rania of Jordan.

President Obama’s use of YouTube videos to address the nation seems to be the 21st century’s version of FDR’S “Fireside Chats.” After a successful campaign, with over 1,800 YouTube videos propelling him to victory, Obama has decided to deliver a four-minute message over the popular web service every week.

I wonder if he’ll ever allow comments.

According to a survey from ChoiceStream, the biggest retail spenders and most frequent shoppers are more interested in – and much more likely to click on – ads that are personalized for them vs. non-personalized ads.

Results from the 2008 Personalization Survey (pdf) show that 39% of consumers overall are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized, while that number rises to 58% among those who shop online at least several times a month, Marketing Charts writes.

The survey also finds that the bigger the spender, the greater the interest in personalized ads. Half (50%) of those spending more than $250 online over the past six months indicate that they are more willing to click on ads that are personalized. This compares with only 32% of the smallest spenders.

The study also investigates how consumers are influenced by ads and just how much savvy online shoppers really know about new media marketing techniques.
Click here for the full article.