• It’s so expensive to buy time and produce a Super Bowl ad, and you have so much competition and so many distractions, that you must hit an absolute home run to be able to get return on investment.
• Quell Group senior vice president Jim Cain • Regarding the evolution of the Super Bowl ad. In recent years, many companies have balked at the $2.5-$2.75 million price tag per 30-second slot, the latest being Pepsico. Despite this, ads have been selling for as high as $3.2 million and are still in high demand. But with the added diversity in the advertising sphere – the Web is a pretty formidable option nowadays – along with the recession, many big brands are staying out of it altogether. Which used to be unheard of. source

• 50% more ad clicks from Google searches source

NOTE: This little tip comes from Chikita, a site we use and recommend for ads. We’ll say that for sake of disclosure or something. There’s something to be said about blogger transparency.

• They applied for a patent to do just that. Yikes. Word on the street is that Apple applied for a scary-sounding patent which would allow them to place advertisements within a reduced-cost version of their operating system. The ads would be audiovisual in nature and would limit system functionality when playing. May we just say to Steve Jobs and company: Are you out of your )#&(!)(# mind? source

• Unfollowed @statesman. Best of luck w/ the Twitter ads, but if I can avoid them, I will.
• Twitter user @LukeMorris • On his decision to stop following the Austin American-Statesman’s Twitter feed because the feed runs occasional ads. The Statesman is taking the lead with Tweet-based advertising, something which is a sore subject with users. Although, really, should it be? Twitter’s already the most useful marketing tool ever. You’re getting advertised to more than you think on the service. It might be a perception thing. • source

• Customers are still coming to us, and the net of this is Cablevision doesn’t get the benefit of our revenue.
• Verizon Senior Vice President Eric Rabe • Discussing Cablevision’s policy of turning away Verizon’s FiOS ads in Newsday, despite the fact that they had been a high-paying advertiser in the paper for years. Cablevision bought Newsday last year and has made a lot of questionable decisions like this, according to Gawker. • source

• Google and Facebook, among others, could feel the burn. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has brought with him a rep as a reformer, having fought hard against spyware. The latest thing he wants to reform is something that drives the financial engine of the web: Behavioral-targeted advertising. Google uses it. Facebook uses it (sometimes very poorly). Lots of other people do too. And sometimes consumers don’t know when they’re getting targeted. That’s something Leibowitz is working on. Expect heads to roll. source

• -5% decline in online ads in 1Q 2009; time to rethink? source

• It’s nice to be able to tell your brand manager or the chief marketing officer which audience is interacting with the unit, what time of day, what day of the week, and what the response is on certain types of offers. Before, nobody could really tell you that.
• Darren Herman • President of Varick Media Management, on what his company does – looks at statistics on how people are reacting to web advertising, rejiggers some things, and reacts accordingly. The large selection of statistics online make this much easier than it used to be and allow you to track response much better than you could with say, a billboard. As a result of the new data-heavy approach, it’s starting to make sense for laid off workers in the financial industry to move over from Wall St. to Madison Ave. • source