Out With A Bang

Keen observers of this particular blog – and we use the plural cautiously – may have noted a subtle change of late.

We now boast a banner ad. Gone are the five Addiply text boxes that used to adorn the top of this page; never one to practice what he preaches, I’d been a bit tardy on the sales front…

Now, however, we have a nice, new shiny banner sitting in their stead; one that promotes next week’s Journalism.co.uk gig at City; ie a ‘message’ that – in theory – should be perfectly targetted for OutWithABang’s decidedly niche audience.

And it is gratis to John, Laura, Judith and Co. I’m not yet making a penny from the richer media advertising that now adorns OutWithABang.

For now, I just needed a sample banner with which to prove a small point; their pre-supplied artwork was, therefore, gratefully received.

The point being…? Well, that Addiply is now getting a bit Flash; it can now offer publishers big and small alike the chance to run banners, buttons, skys, MPUs, etc… through its DIY, self-serve system.

Still offering the 90% revenue return, the transparency, the accountability, the accuracy, etc, etc…. all that text ad jazz; just now with added richer media alternatives.

We’re not quite there, yet.

The snow has managed to keep head developer and website engineers – Ian and Toby, respectively – apart; a few more final tweaks and twiddles await next week before a select few are offered the chance to break our first beta trial of the new, enhanced Addiply service.

But we’re not that far away. It is, if nothing else, out of the box; open to be observed.

And, for me, this is a significant step forward.

Because – ideally – it now allows us the opportunity to walk some walks that previously we’d only talked… above all, the opportunity for Addiply to deliver perfectly-targetted central and regional Government messaging into highly appropriate and highly applicable communities.

And in so doing, save COI, local councils, NHS Trusts, etc etc £000s and £000s in wasted ad spend as they pay-and-spray their message across the web – praying as they do, that some of it will hit home…

What none of the above will do, however, is to take the time and the trouble to fill in an individual text ad box for an individual community website.

And that’s fine. We always knew that.

What, however, they should be able to do is to drill a pre-built banner ad campaign down into a network of relevant advertising opportunities… particularly now that they have the mined data to match.

Ashington is the example that I reach for most readily…

http://ashington.journallive.co.uk/

Part of TrinityMirror’s YourPlace proposition out of the Journal, it is a former colliery town. And as such will have a set of health issues unique to such communities… as, presumeably, can now be readily-mined out of the local regional health observatory…

http://rickwaghorn.co.uk/2009/07/01/how-do-we-join-the-dots-in-a-digital-britain-how-do-we-find-a-little-pot-of-hyper-local-revenue-gold-from-that-data-mine-that-is-the-doctors-surgery/

I haven’t gone a digging, but you can be reasonably sure that a higher proportion than average of 60-plus males in the community of Ashington will display health characteristics consistent with the town’s heavy industrial past.

… and you can be equally sure that be it at regional NHS Trust level or, indeed, Central Government/COI level beyond, their will be a banner, sky, button or MPU that ‘fits’ that community’s health profile.

In a way that would be highly inappropriate for the neighbouring town of Ponteland for whom history has been rather more kind.

So marry the two…

The other example that I would turn to would be Josh Halliday’s http://sr2blog.com

I don’t know Sunderland inside out; I’ve been to the Stadium Of Light on a handful of occasions wearing my http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com ‘hat’. I’ve never been out on a night; never walked the streets of SR2.

But, I’m guessing like all inner-city areas it will have its issues.

That both Josh will know about – and that Sunderland City Council will recognise; that in certain wards, refuse is a problem; in others, it might be anti-social behaviour.

Fine.

So let’s say in SR2, it’s anti-social behaviour.

The City Council has a strong policy on anti-social behaviour; it has a ‘Vision for 2025′ to make Sunderland the most ‘liveable city in the UK’.

Therefore, the ‘messages’ contained within this page…

http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/Public/Editable/Themes/Housing/Housing-in-Sunderland/asb-councilrole-homepage.asp

… ought to have a banner ad in it. Here’s the hot-line number to help us crackdown on anti-social behavior, etc…

… and it also ought to be worth £10 a month of any council’s money to deliver that ‘message’ into the precise communities that need it most, in this case the good people on the banks of the Wear that are starting to warm to Josh’s SR2blog.com

£10 a month is never going to drive Josh a full-time living; it might, however, start to make SR2blog.com a ‘not-for-loss’ proposition; one that might – just – be able to sustain itself going forward as communities and councils interact with one another via this much-maligned medium of web advertising.

Is Addiply the answer to everyone’s prayers? No. Can it be one, small part of an answer to one community’s digital needs. Possibly.

Plus, it will always come down to the likes of Josh Halliday and Sunderland City Council agreeing to join the dots between them; Addiply is no more than a connecting tool. It won’t spark any conversation by itself.

What it will do, however, is allow those conversations to be had; for Josh to go to the council with his ever-growing audience of SR2 residents in one hand, a new banner ad spot in the other.

Just as Phil and Ross at http://thelichfieldblog.co.uk/ to go to Lichfield District Council, the local NHS Trust, etc, etc… with more revenue-generating advertising avenues for them to explore…

‘Blood transfusion video ad? Course. And it’s in Lichfield, when…?

And that, for me, is a start.