I saw this display ad this morning for the PPTA and it bothered me a little. Using black and white imagery and caps creates a loud bleak tone that carves negative sentiments before I’ve even read the copy (which is also a cynical pun).

Why do the PPTA do this? I know numerous teachers and they don’t speak like this. In fact, they’re the polar opposite.

Ever since I worked on TeachNZ (a good 10 years ago now) I’ve wondered whether our teachers’ unions have done more to drive potential teachers away from their profession due to their consistently negative communication practices.

It’s got to the point now where I think their messages simply fall on deaf ears.

Stuff’s straight up support to Breast Cancer Awareness Month illustrates the versatility of online advertising and brand strengths.

By just running pink across their header (with a tiny pink ribbon) Stuff are communicating support to BCAM and generating the subtle campaign awareness that’s difficult to quantify. This predisposition may just be the difference when we see BCAM collectors in the street on Friday.

When I worked on Raceforlife.org.uk I got my first taste of the passion and energy people in the charity sector put into events like BCAM and the skill it takes. The budgets are non-existent so they rely on brand support from celebrities, big business and popular media to gain exposure.

Paid for or not, it’s nice to see Stuff taking a lead in doing something different that doesn’t corrupt the content with page takeovers or eyeblasters.

Watching New Zealand’s Got Talent last night (hey two kids under three leads to an exciting Monday evening at my place!) I noticed they’re using social media to create a web presence for the show rather than building a fully fledged website.

Using social platforms for a short run show that’s largely watched by younger viewers feels smart. This audience would love the connectivity and familiarity of these environments and will quickly use word of mouth to share their association.

So why on earth have Prime chosen MySpace as their platform in New Zealand? Surely Bebo has this market cornered here.

It feels like there’s been a bit too much influence from Prime’s Australian owners where MySpace is the dominant social networking site.

This isn’t the first time New Zealand’s online marketplace and infrastructure has been ignored by international publishers – to their own disadvantage.

Trade me proved years ago the advantages of tailoring your site to a NZ market and have subsequently locked eBay out.

And in March 2007 when Yahooxtra joined the NZ market they used irregular ad sizes and refused to join Nielsen’s Market Intelligence.

By ignoring our online advertising standards they missed out on a lot of advertising revenue. Fortunately they observed this mistake and have since joined MI and are amending their ad formats.

This morning I heard on the radio Usain “Lightning” Bolt had won the Olympic 200m final in World record time. Wow, that’d be cool to see, I thought (forgetting about it almost instantly as I buttered my toast).

When I got to work though, I flicked onto the NZ Herald to read about NZ’s gold medal accomplishments and got reminded about Bolt’s successful run by this pearler billboard ad for TVNZ.

The race result was only 6 hours old and they’d already sorted out this ad copy, loaded it up, and got it out to people.

Timely, relevant, simple.

Three core rules for effective online advertising.

Ok, you may remember a few months ago I raved about the marketing of a San Francisco start up called Xobni. Their marketing drive through the blogosphere was a real tempter and something I held in high regard.

Today, after an overlong delay, I got an email to trial their beta product. So I did.

I should have been more wary when their step-by-step download guide looked a little rushed, but I continued anyway. The result of my gung-ho-ness was Outlook crashing. And then crashing again…bugger.

Xobni did a great job of drawing me in. They used my space to talk up their product. Their product didn’t deliver.

Lesson learnt – meritocracy still rules the web. If your product doesn’t work, you can’t pretend.

A couple of weeks ago I met with Bernard Hickey from Interest.co.nz to discuss his recent creation – a daily video blog on the financial marketplace.

His “90 seconds at 9am” and “Daily briefing” are ingenious ways of communicating to anyone looking for up-to-the-minute information from the guys who hold the data. (The way they’re being produced is rather clever too.)

For quite a few years now interest.co.nz has maintained an underground presence that’s been largely restricted to the financial services sector. Now, with Bernard’s articulate interpretation of what’s happening with the data he’s providing middle New Zealand with an understanding of what it all means.

Already the comments from their blogposts and videos are getting mentioned regularly in the NZ Herald which is great for their brand positioning – even if the NZ Herald refuses to provide links back to the source!

Last night I was kept awake by an incessant drip from the cistern in our bathroom. Now this drip has been happening for quite some time but over the last week or two it’s getting particularly bad.

It’s something we should have repaired ages ago but I know nothing about plumbing and I’m loath to roll up my sleeves and dig into the back-end of our toilet. But more to the point I can’t really justify calling a plumber either. The job is just so small that it feels kind of pointless getting someone to come all the way over to fix it.

All this got me thinking about the little things in online advertising and the importance of paying attention to them.

Do you use “home loan” calculator or “mortgage” calculator as the link? Do you underline the links? Does having “Click here” in the ad make difference to the results? What parts of the ads should you track?

Fortunately with online advertising the answers to all these questions are found with measurement – you just have to have the right attitude to testing and improving your ideas over time.

This week we’ve got a flight running for Sorted.org.nz on Trade me that has a range of ads in which we’re testing a range of subtle variations in ad design. At the end of the flight we’ll break down the results and build on the learnings for next time.

If only solutions to my plumbing were so simple!

This afternoon I got a pointer to a new email search tool called Xobni. I had a look at their demo and I’ve got to say it looks like a perfect Web 2.0 product. This application on top of my Outlook desktop would be enormously useful.

The other thing that’s got me interested in this product is their clever online marketing strategy. To actually get Xobni on my system I’ve got to be invited in. I can do this by emailing their URL to at least two friends. However the more friends I email, the quicker I’ll get the service.

Added to that, if I include their button on my blog, my chances of getting the service even faster improves. So, I’m adding the button below, and I’ve emailed a few friends. Let’s see what happens.

This week Trade me and the NZ Herald are running ads for Monteiths Brewery. I noticed the Trade me ad earlier as I did my usual Monday morning screen refresh and checked out all the ads running (BTW tidy creative from Real Groovy appearing this week). After that I checked out the NZ Herald and noticed Monteiths appearing there too (with an expandable billboard banner that doesn’t have a fully mapped click through)!

Anyway, I was surprised to see alcohol being promoted through online display ads. A few years ago Tiger beer ran some ads on Trade me but I thought Trade me had dispensed of peddling such products on their run of site inventory. It appears not.

On TV you can only advertise alcohol related products late at night. What’s the deal with advertising alcohol online in New Zealand? This is perhaps something for the Interactive Advertising Bureau to consider as they establish industry representation and standards here.