WordSmith › Advertising Age Ranks Top Brands of 2010
Words of the Day
“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.” – Warren Buffet
Ford, Droid and Bass Pro, Oh My!
Advertising Age recently released a special report on the top brands of 2010. Over the next few weeks, WordSmith will be taking a look at the best and brightest brands as we swing into the holidays and cruise towards 2011 – from marketers that relied on clever old-school marketing with big campaigns to the upstarts that have broken through with a combination of ingenuity, luck and word of mouth, these brands helped put the sizzle in 2010.
Ford
Ford Motor Co. was Ad Age’s 2010 Marketer of the Year, so it was an easy call for Ad Age to name Ford one of America’s Hottest Brands. But Ford’s turnaround is a complex story of doing many things right: an appealing product; high quality, innovative marketing; gutsy financial moves; and a focus on the company’s core brand.
Droid
Since Verizon Wireless launched its line of Droid phones, Google’s entire Android smartphone platform has seen explosive growth.
Bass Pro Shops
Few retail stores can say they also serve as theme parks, summer camps and community centers in their regions, but Bass Pro Shops has made itself an exception.
Stay tuned for additional stellar brands as ranked by Ad Age from WordSmith in coming posts! Check-out the full Ad Age report.
Facebook Dominates Online Ads in Q3
Facebook Inc. is attracting more advertising, but marketers are still trying to figure out the value of those ads. The social media site racked-up nearly a quarter of the 1.3 trillion online ads in the third quarter, according to ComScore data. But marketers are trying to figure out how to value the ads on Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
New data from comScore Inc. show that in September, 24 percent of all online display ads in the U.S. appeared on Facebook—more than twice as many as any other publisher. Yet Facebook is far from capturing a quarter of the wallets of major marketers. The company accounts for only about 10 percent f the spending on display ads nationwide, according to research firm eMarketer Inc.
The difference underscores Facebook’s growing status in the fight for digital ad dollars—as well as the hurdles it still faces. The Palo Alto, Calif., company has come a long way in ramping up what was a fledgling ad business just a few years ago.
Ad rates on Facebook tend to be cheaper than those of other sites. Several agencies put the average price of an ad on Facebook in the U.S. in the $2 to $8 range for a thousand views, depending on targeting options and where it appears on the site. The price is lower than the average $15 that other premium media sites can charge.
Figuring out the ROI for an ad that nets a new follower on Facebook, rather than a purchase, is a challenge experts contend.
In an interview with the WSJ, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said growth in the company’s ad business is “steep” and “really healthy.” The company doesn’t disclose ad revenue but eMarketer puts it at $1.28 billion.
“Where our ads show additional impact is that they can let people engage with them and share them with their friends,” Ms. Sandberg said. “This is word-of-mouth-marketing at scale pretty much for the first time.”
The site is proving to be a hot spot for advertisers seeking to drive direct response, like for deal-of-the-day sites. Marketers including PepsiCo, American Express, and Radio Shack are using the site for ads that point consumers to interactive brand pages on FB, encouraging consumers to say they “like” the brands, potentially starting a two-way conversation on the site.
Golden Mic
Each week, Wordsmith will bestow a Golden Mic Award to the person, group or company in the court of public opinion that best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, marketing and advertising – and those who don’t. Stay tuned … and step-up to the mic!
The WordSmith News Bureau is based at Deane Smith Media Innovations, a full-service PR, marketing and advertising agency. Got PR? Need marketing strategy? Ad consulting? Message Wordsmithing? Creative & online initiatives? Reach the WordSmith at wordsmith@deanesmithmedia.com.