Ben Gruber Blog: Devaluation of Online Advertising

Hello All,
In the blog "Devaluation of Online Advertising" written by Dorian Sweet, he address the issue of why is online advertising so hot and what will keep it going. I thought this article was extremely interesting because these are two of the questions that I constantly think about when it comes to online advertising. I think that, it is the fad now, but will it continue or phase out? In the blog Dorian Sweet answers this question by claiming that media consumption is no longer an option for people. He claims that is a necessity and that we need it, like an addiction. I do agree with this opinion and see the evidence of this in my every day life when my roommates come directly in door and straight to their computer to get their fix.

I also thought it was interesting when he talks about what marketers have to do to continue the effectiveness of online advertising. Dorian Sweet mentions 4 main points to consider when advertising online. They are to keep a close eye on what your customer is doing online, make sure to track your ads, to trust and use the information you get from tracking the ads, and to remain creative. Although I believe that these are all extremely important things to do when advertising online, I feel that being creative will be the key to the success of ads in the future. Once people have seen all the ads and are saturated with them, creativity will once again rain supreme when it comes to success.

For more insights and interesting thoughts make sure to check out my blog daily!

Ben Gruber Blog Wikipedia Edit #2

Hello Everyone (Especially Newtonites),
I have made an edit to the Newton, MA wikipedia site. The change was in clarifying exactly where the MBTA "T" stop is near Boston College. "The Green Line "B" Branch ends close to Boston College on Commonwealth Avenue." I added the "on Commonwealth Avenue" part. Stay tuned for new updates week by week.

Ben Gruber Blogg on Intellectual Property

Hello Everyone,
I read the article from the Onion called "Viacom Demands YouTube Pull 400,000 Ex-TV Viewers From Its Site" and I thought that it was a pretty good satire of how two big companies are battling over intellectual property over the Internet. The real issue is that Viacom wants YouTube a video sharing website to pull all of the licensed material that Viacom owns after failed contract agreements on revenue rights led to tension between the companies. YouTube has trouble policing its site which Viacom is pursuing this flaw legally. The joke of the article states that Viacom is saying that they want Youtube to give back their 400,000 viewers. "Viacom demanded that YouTube immediately pull 400,000 ex-TV viewers from its industry-leading video-sharing site."

I enjoyed the satire because it is so hard to police and set up laws when it comes to the Internet which I believe is going to be a huge problem in the future as more and more businesses move online and greater revenues are gained through the Internet and taken away from traditional media. Who is going to set these guidelines? Who is going to make sure they are followed? And how is that going to work over country boarders as the Internet is worldwide? These are all questions that I can not answer but are looking forward to see how they play out in the future.

Cluetrain Manifesto

In class we sometimes talk about the Cluetrain Manifesto. It is a book that in a way predicted and outlined the future of the web which is higher levels of communication and information transparency. I have read this book and find it pretty amazing that the authors very nearly did predict the social networking phenomenon. I also agree completely with the fact that the more transparency and open levels of communication can help both consumers and businesses. Consumers will not have to be believe exactly what the company says about their products which helps them make a more informed decision about buying. While this may seem like it hurts companies, it actually can help them. Companies can now not only reach a wider audience but can also have more direct contact with their potential customers, which opens up the doors for new marketing and advertising concepts.

As far as marketing goes for me, it is very exciting. I like to come up with new creative ways to reach customers. I do not always like conventional ways of advertising. Since this is a relatively new medium of connecting with customers, I feel like the possibilities are still pretty endless.

Social Networking is definitly the future

After reading the blog Facebook's Astounding Stats by Shel Holtz, I found that my previous thoughts on social networking have been absolutely correct. I worked for a start-up social networking company this summer called Metrowize which is based out of San Francisco and involves the nightlife there. At this internship, I learned the marketing and advertising power that web sites where users must sign in have. The data these sites collect allow them to put together a media kit that offers perspective advertisers targeted ads that only are viewed by people who they want to see them. This is great two fold because then users do not receive ads that are not relevant and advertisers are not wasting money on ads that do not reach their target market. Anyways this article brings to light the growth that these sites are experiencing (which you can see at facebook's blog) which leads me to my next revelation, which is that I either need to figure out a new niche social networking site or come up with a good company that can utilize the effectiveness of this kind of advertising.

Until next time....Stay tuned for more helpful insight that will make your head swell!

Hello All,
I have made an update and edit to the Newton North High School page of the wikipedia.com site. The url is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_North_High_School#Physical_plan. The change that I made was actually an addition. In wikipedia's description of the physical plan they failed to mention the extra gym that is located on the fourth floor of the building. The gym is called the SOA which stand for "Simulated Outdoor Area."

Stay Tuned for further updates. My username for wikipedia.com is bennygubear if you would like to observe my edits on the site.

Until the next time...

2nd Blogg

Hello Everyone,
I am writing this blog to make sure that everyone is well informed what is going on in my Class as well as what I think is interesting. It should be interesting to you cause it is interesting to me. This will also be a great learning experience for me because I will learn to blogg like the best of them...Look for more exciting blogs in the future