Marketing Communications

496 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATION

Pepsi bottles. Each code was worth 100 points and could be redeemed for prizes such as DVDs

and digital rewards (music downloads, credits at Yahoo! auctions, etc.). More than 50% of

redeemed prizes were digital, saving Pepsi lots of money. Pepsi also saved $10 million by not

having to print prize catalogues, and the anchor deal with Yahoo! resulted in 2.9 million people

providing their name, e-mail address, zip code and date of birth, a valuable database for

organising polls, launching new products such as Pepsi Blue (the Pepsi-with-berries fusion

launched in Spring 2003) and promoting the music celebrity endorsement with Britney

Spears and Shakira.

Targeting online advertising

Online advertising is most eff ective when it is well-targeted. Marketers can target broadly

using content targeting or specifi cally using several criteria:

z Context/content targeting. Web page content and context can be used to target online ads.

For exampfle, ftargefted peopfle finfteresfted fin cookfing and flfiffesftyfle (predomfinanftfly

women aged between 20 and 49) for its brands Hertog, Knorr, Maggi and Blue Band by

using advertorials and content sponsoring on the website of Life & Cooking , a TV cookery

programme in the Netherlands.^32

z Web server/browser. A web server or ad server can deliver ads based on the profi le of the

user connected to the site, including IP (Internet Protocol) address, browser, operating

system and the date and time of the server request. A marketer can display targeted ads

based on these simple characteristics, for instance IP addresses reveal the geographic

location of the user.

z Registration/customer data. A website or ad network can show targeted ads based on user

registration data (obtained from memberships, participating in contests, purchases, etc.).

z Clickstream/behavioural data. As visitors click through a site or diff erent sites, ad networks

and sites can show ads that are related to the kind of content the Internet user is viewing. A

study from the Network Advertising Initiative found that the conversion rate for behavioural

targeted ads was 6.8% while non-targeted ads performed comparatively poorly with 2.8%.^33

z Collaborative fi ltering. Online ads can be shown to a particular user based on matching his

or her profi le with other users that share common interests.^34

Online events and web(sem)inars

Even face-to-face communications tactics such as exhibitions, trade shows and events have

been translated to an online environment. Victoria’s Secret, the American undergarment

brand, introduced one of the fi rst commercial online events in 1999 when it held its Web-

based fashion show. It was announced in ads in the New York Times , TV commercials during

the Super Bowl football game and other traditional advertising media. Th e online event drew

1.2 million visitors, an 82% increase in web traffi c. In subsequent years the online fashion

shows were continued. Web(sem)inars, with experts that fi rst give an exposition and aft er-

wards participate in chat sessions, are also becoming more common in business-to-business

markets and professional segments, as discussed previously on exhibitions and trade fairs and on

online trade fairs. An interesting Web 2.0. online service is SlideShare, the world’s largest com-

munity for sharing presentations. It has 58 million monthly visitors and 16 million registered

users. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.

Launched in October 2006, SlideShare was voted among the world’s top 10 tools for education

and e-learning in 2010.^35

Advergames and online games

Advergames are a rich media type of brand-related online entertainment used as a tool for brand

interaction and experience. In other words, advergames use interactive game technology to

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