Offer extensions allow advertisers to extend their Google search ads with redeemable offers including coupons, discounts, rebates and more. This ad extension engages customers by delivering valuable offers that are relevant to what consumers are searching for.

We’re excited to announce that The Philadelphia Business Journal has named us as a Social Media Star for 2012. While recognizing our work with the Black & Decker brand, this award is representative of our proven integrated approach.

The power of Social Media is ubiquitous. Our full service capabilities and business focus have enabled us to effectively integrate social across our programs, extending value, engagement and driving measurable results.

As seen in these programs, we often harness a number of tools and tactics including Facebook Apps and Advertising, Gaming Design and Development, Email, Display Media, Blogger Outreach, and Community Management to engage consumers in meaningful ways. The work being recognized as part of this award is also published as case studies in our portfolio:

These programs are a real-world example of the level of engagement and results that can be achieved with set objectives, smart planning, creative solutions and a focus on customers.

Thank you to the Philadelphia Business Journal for selecting us and Black & Decker, and congratulations to the other winners!

The Netplus Black & Decker Team

From Left to Right:

Dan Bell, Sr. Digital & Game Designer

Todd Carpenter, Digital Designer

Jim DelPizzo, Director of Technology

John Bell, Sr. Digital & Game Designer

Sean Flanagan, Sr. Art Director

John Shanley, Creative Director

Liz Kantner, Social Media Associate

Joe Edelman, Director of Project Management

Jesse Rice, Programmer

Roman Zubarev, Social Media Manager

Denise Zimmerman, Chief Strategy Officer

Meridith Oram, Sr. Client Service Manager (not pictured)

When it comes to planning, building and running display campaigns, we have done great things for our clients. Things such as doubling site traffic and driving additional revenue by triple digit percentages are not unheard of and what we strive for. But how do we do this? Well I wish I could say ‘easy street…like this’ but it isn’t. We aggressively test and optimize for the highest converting, most efficient creative, ad size, frequency cap, network and numerous other levers and stay up to date on the latest trends in the industry…we push our campaigns to the limit, squeezing every dollar and percent of efficiency out of them.

But we realize that display doesn’t work for everyone and decide during the planning process if it makes sense. But how do we know? How do you know? What is the best way to know? Well you need to identify at the very heart of your business if running a display program will not only benefit you but even just make sense. Below I lay out some questions to ask yourself to help you identify if display is right for you.

Who is it for? – Instead of thinking about what type of business you run (retailer, finance, etc) consider if you have a website. Mostly any business will benefit from display when building an online presence. So if your business needs the online presence, then display will surely help you to expand your reach of customers.

What do you want to accomplish? – Display media makes sense for you if you want to build your brand’s awareness, drive more visitors to your site, increase sales and/or boost your overall marketing campaigns (display has been shown to benefit other digital efforts, such as paid search). With a goal in mind you can determine if display would be an integral part of your overall digital strategy.

Where are your customers? – While it might be entertaining to know that your customer hangs out with a polar bear club, I am referring to whether or not they spend time surfing the internet and are involved in any type of digital communities (think Facebook, blogs, forums). If so, display if a perfect way to not only bring them to your website but also reengage them with retargeting (retargeting is a display program in which ads are shown to customers who visited your site but may not have converted for whatever reason…this type of program is very effective).

When do you need results? – While traditional media no doubt produces results, you generally need a large budget and have to wait longer than desired to get results back and optimize. Display advertising can be measured and optimized in almost real time all while seeing results immediately. This gives great flexibility in knowing where to push your budget.

So to sum up, if you are looking for increased digital presence, to build your business’ exposure and want measurable and immediate results display can be a huge benefit to your marketing plan. Of course there are many other parts to planning your strategy and what course of action to take but asking these four questions can help you decide if you should begin the conversation.

Facebook filed for a $5 billion IPO and many financial institutions and investors are wondering how Facebook plans to justify that price. Luckily Facebook has answered the question already with ad targeting by in app behavior. This new feature was announced last year at F8 and has been quietly integrating itself into Facebook over the past few months through the open graph API as the Action Spec feature in the new Ad API. This  ad system will allow advertisers to target users based on their application specific actions, such as listening, reading, watching or playing, depending on what each application allows.

The ad system is still in beta, and advertisers with apps that take advantage of the new open graph api still need to wait for their app actions to be approved. Since the launch of the original 3 Facebook actions “read”, “listened”, and “watched” Facebook has added over 60 official sites and applications with custom actions. In the coming months, it’s expected Facebook will approve an exponential amount of new apps to use official actions for ad targeting.

This will undoubtedly increase the ROI of Facebook ads and allow Facebook to increase its cost per click and bring in more revenue to justify its initial IPO price. Facebook is looking to become as big as Google with its ad system, and definitely has the ability to do so with all of the personal data it collects from every user. Its a win-win-win situation: Facebook generates more revenue, advertisers can reach their target audience more effectively, and users will have more relevant ads related to their interests.

What it does

Social extensions make it possible to link your Google+ Page to your AdWords campaigns, so that all your +1s – from your page, your website, ads and search – will get tallied together.

Why You’d Use It

Consumers will be able to see all the recommendations your business has received, whether they are looking at an ad, a search result or your Google+ Page, meaning your +1’s will reach not only the 40 million users of Google+, but all the people who come to Google every day.

What It Looks Like

Where You’ll Find It

Our updated Pantone® collection has arrived. Now we can make sure that we are consistently matching Netplus blue #7461! Despite being a digital agency, we don’t always just push pixels. We can do it all.

There is tremendous controversy surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) otherwise known as H.R. 3261 introduced in October of 2011 and this past weekend the President’s office finally responded to the online petitions and mounting pressure to find another, less destructive way to fight international trampling of copyright and other intellectual property rights. 

Techcrunch reported the White House response:

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.

Prominent digerati have been outspoken about their fears that this misguided attempt to use the DNS system we all rely on would have far reaching and negative consequences.  This bill, among other impacts, would have put the onus on ad networks and other internet service providers to refuse business from certain sites and would bar search engines from displaying links to those sites.  Huh?  Since when is it all our jobs to police and enforce?

If broadly interpreted, many believe this bill and its sister bill in the Senate (PIPA) violate the First Amendment and may restrict the use of proxy servers to disseminate critical information, for instance during populace uprisings. 

It looks like, for the moment at least, the power of the web may have saved the power of the web. It pays for all of us to be vigilant and active participants in the laws governing this space as they hold tremendous power to protect or disrupt our fundamental rights as well as our ability to conduct business.

It will be interesting to watch this development in search as Siri expands to present another credible resource for quick hit answers that bypass Google – at least for the growing population of iphone users. But for those of you with the iphone 4S Siri is proving to be as much a source of entertainment as it is for information.

If you have a few spare minutes to kill during your holidays try presenting Siri with existential or odd questions to answer. It’s become a sort of parlor game to stump Siri. It’s revealing to see what your friends and family ask and some of the programmed answers are hysterical.

For example:
Q: What is the meaning of life?
Siri: No one is sure but all signs point to chocolate.

Q: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Siri: It depends on whether you are talking about African or European woodchucks.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Siri: I am not perspicacious about the peregrinations of poultry.

Comment below and let us know about your own Siri queries and answers. And in case you missed it – this Siri horror spoof is a hoot!