Ad.ly Hops the Channel!

The last week of October, we made quite a splash in the UK and Australia, where advertisers and celebrities alike are eager to join Ad.ly and help us bring the business abroad.

It all started with the Sunday Times of London doing a feature story on the concept of celebrity tweets. The story, “Tweet Talking Stars Cash In” is behind a firewall, but you can see the follow-on stories it inspired below.

The momentum built from there to include a recorded interview for BBC Radio as well as stories in the The Sun, TNT Magazine, News.com.au, The Sydney Morning Herald and more.

We also had a great interview with the The Mail Online, Sunday Edition, so we will add that link here once the story appears.

We are focused on building out our business in the US right now, but we have done a few campaigns in the UK — most notably for KIA (the auto manufacturer). 

We look forward to working with the always creative and often edgy UK Advertising creatives soon.

Ad.ly Welcomes Dana Drazin!

We’re thrilled to welcome Dana Drazin to the Ad.ly team as our Director of Sales for New York. 

Here’s the story: Ad.ly Advances on Manhattan With New Head of Sales | The New York Observer http://bit.ly/aWvM1N

And you can see the press release below or on PR Web.

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

AD.LY ADDS DANA DRAZIN AS DIRECTOR OF SALES

FOR NEW YORK

Brings Celebrity Micro-Endorsements to Madison Avenue

 to Serve Burgeoning Demand

Beverly Hills, Calif. and New York, NY – November 2, 2010 – Ad.ly, the celebrity micro-endorsement platform for digital media, today announced the addition of Dana Drazin as its Director of Sales in New York.

Found at http://ad.ly, Ad.ly connects top-tier brands with consumers via today’s most popular celebrities, athletes and experts, producing premium endorsements across the web and mobile. Based in Beverly Hills, the year-old start-up reaches hundreds of millions of consumers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and more.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dana, who will connect our 5,000+ celebrity influencers with the leading brands in New York’s digital media marketplace,” said Derek Rey, Ad.ly’s Vice President of Media and Sales. “Dana will be instrumental in creating premium media experiences for our advertising partners by tapping the power of the most influential people in digital media, celebrities.”

Drazin joins Ad.ly from SV Network, where she brought in new clients Coca-Cola and ABC Family. In previous roles, she brought major brands to RealNetworks, co-opened the NYC office of Gorilla Nation Media, and helped Specific Media bring behavioral retargeting to Ford Motor Company and more. Drazin began her career with Sony Online Entertainment.

“I’m extremely pleased to have joined Ad.ly, the company that pioneered celebrity endorsements in digital media,” said Drazin. “I’m excited to offer brands a new opportunity to leverage the most influential people within the most influential platforms.” 

Ad.ly’s mission is to help brands connect with consumers via the most influential celebrities on today’s most popular platforms. Celebrities on the Ad.ly platform include everyone from Snoop Dogg, Kim Kardashian, Chris Brown and Lauren Conrad to pro athletes Derek Fisher, Paul Pierce, Shaun Phillips and Nick Swisher. Among its more than 150 advertisers are Microsoft, Sony, Toyota, American Airlines, NBC, LionsGate, AT&T, BestBuy and more.

About Ad.ly

Ad.ly is the celebrity micro-endorsement platform for digital media, reaching hundreds of millions of consumers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and more. Ad.ly connects top-tier brands with consumers via today’s most popular celebrities, athletes and experts, producing premium endorsements across the web and mobile. Based in Beverly Hills, CA, the company has backing from GRP Partners, Greycroft Partners and Matt Coffin, founder of LowerMyBills.com. To learn more, visit http://ad.ly. 

Ad.ly Goes to OnHollywood: The Entertainment Venture Summit

Our CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh will be speaking on a panel at the 5th Annual OnHollywood Entertainment Venture summit — tomorrow Sept. 29 at 3:30 p.m.

If you plan to attend, be sure to stop by and say hi.

LA: The New Capitol of Venture Capital?
From the hills of Caltech to the shores of Santa Monica, LA is buzzing with digital media and entertainment, mobile, social media, video game, software, and consumer internet entrepreneurs. And, more venture capital than ever is chasing these deals. Why has LA become so hot, and what’s the outlook for the next three to five years? 

•  Moderator: Jim Jonassen, CEO, Jim Jonassen & Associates  
•  William Woodward, Partner, Anthem Venture Partners 
•  Paul Bricault, Executive Vice President, William Morris Consulting, William Morris Talent Agency; Adjunct Faculty, USC School of Cinematic Arts 
• John Gentry, CEO, Spot Runner
• Arnie Gullov-Singh, CEO, Ad.ly

Here is the full agenda.  Hope to see you there!

About Ad.ly for Facebook Pages

As you may know, we have extended our Ad.ly Influencer Network beyond Twitter and MySpace to include Facebook Pages. 

We now offer Influencers endorsement opportunities which – with their approval – are placed into the central stream of their Facebook “Like” Page (a.k.a. “Fan Page”).

HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED: 

1. Sign-in to your Ad.ly  account now, and click on the Facebook icon (on the left-hand side of the page).  
2. Follow the prompts to connect to your Facebook account, and then Ad.ly will find the Facebook “Like” Page(s) for which you are an “admin,” and connect them to your Ad.ly account.   
3. If / when you have 5.000 fans, we can send you advertising opportunities from our partners.   
   

Please see the details and frequently asked questions (FAQ) below, and feel free to reach out to Help@Ad.ly if you have further questions.

Thanks,
- The Ad.ly team

HOW IT WORKS:

As with Twitter and MySpace, we will work with you to help you automatically place approved endorsements into your Facebook “Like” Page.

The promotions you approve (via email or your Ad.ly account) will appear in the central “wall” of your “Like” Page where you currently share thoughts, pictures, links and more.

TIPS FOR BUILDING OUT YOUR FACEBOOK “LIKE” PAGE

1.     Update your Facebook “Like” Page more often by using a Social Media “reader” app that lets you update multiple social accounts with one click. These apps can be found on oneforty.com. 

2.     Make your Facebook “Like” Page more compelling by sharing images, videos, links to songs and other rich media. Learn more. Get top 15 helpful tips.

3.     Make your Facebook “Like” Page more rewarding by using Ad.ly to offer promotions, sweepstakes and give-aways to your fans.

OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: What’s the pricing formula?
A: The pricing formula is similar to the formula we use on Twitter and MySpace. It’s a function of three factors: reach (number of fans on Facebook); activity (frequency of updates); and engagement-per-post (volume of comments, “likes,” and shares).

Q: Does Ad.ly have to disclose endorsements on Facebook as it does on Twitter – i.e. by having “(Ad)” at the end of the copy?
A: Yes, this is a cross-platform requirement from the FTC. All ads must be disclosed.
 
Q: What types of brands are advertising on Facebook?
A: All kinds!  We already have interest from our core advertising partners, and expect to engage with many more as our Facebook Pages offering evolves.

Q: Will Ad.ly Influencers be asked to post messages to multiple social networks simultaneously?
A: There will still be some smaller, stand-alone campaigns.  But there will also be new opportunities toparticipate in “integrated” social media campaigns that reach across your Twitter stream, Facebook Page and MySpace profile.
 
Q: Will there be more frequent Ad.ly opportunities with Facebook vs. Twitter and MySpace?
A: We believe so.  Based on the popularity of Facebook (with 500 million members), and advertisers’ familiarity with Facebook’s existing advertising opportunities, we do expect to see an increase in both reach and frequency demand.

Q: Will I still get an Ad.ly email notification – as with Twitter and MySpace?
A:Yes, all offers will be emailed to you as well as presented inside your Ad.ly account.
 
Q: What will Ad.ly ads look like in Facebook “Like” Pages?
A: They will be similar to the advertising endorsements you are used to sharing on Twitter, but they will automatically include any images, video or other rich media that corresponds to the embedded link.
 
Q: Since it’s Facebook, will there be more flexibility with the Ad copy? 
A: It depends on the advertiser and the nature of the campaign.  We’ll work with you on a case-by-case basis.
 
Q: What if my Facebook “Like” page was created by someone else, and is not under my control?
A: If you and/or your management are not in control of your Facebook “Like” or Fan Page, then we suggest that you review the Facebook “Pages for Businesses” section of the Facebook Help Center.
 
If you don’t have an official Facebook “Like” Page, you can create one here.
 
Q: What is Facebook’s advertising policy?
A: All information regarding Facebook’s Advertising policy can be found here.
 
— end —

In-Stream Advertising Heats Up!

Just in time for advertising week in NYC, the Wall Street Journal and Read Write Web have both covered the emerging in-stream advertising sector.

They touched specifically on Twitter’s new $100K minimum for Promoted Tweets, and their plans to extend their advertisements to Twitter app developers later this year.

It bears noting that advertisers can run campaigns with our Ad.ly Influencers on the Twitter platform starting at $25K, and - for our self-service network - there is no minimum spend.

In addition, Twitter app developers who want to start generating revenue now can work with Ad.ly for Apps & Sites.

It’s an easy-to-use API that enables apps to display contextually-targeted in-stream ads to their users.

Folks can learn more here: http://www.ad.ly/developer

Thanks for an amazing year!

We can hardly believe it, but yesterday was our one-year anniversary! 

Ad.ly is a year old, and growing at an incredible pace:

• Influencers — 70,000 celebrities, athletes and popular personalities.
• Consumers — we now reach 100 million unique consumers on the Web and mobile.
• Advertisers — 10,000 campaigns with folks like Microsoft, Toyota, Sony and more.
• Employees — 21 rock-star engineers, sales and marketing folks.
• Apps & Sites Partners — 10 and growing rapidly (launched in late July).

Were overwhelmed by all the birthday wishes and love we got from our advertisers and influencer (like the Kardashians, Nicky Hilton, and Chris Brown among others).

Expanding our reach into Facebook Pages

The top two requests we hear from our Marketer partners are:

1.) More social reach! (the ability to connect with more people on social networks), and…

2.) Rich media! (the ability to do cool campaigns that involve video, images, music and more).

So we are taking the logical next step in Ad.ly’s evolution: Facebook.

We are extending our reach beyond Twitter, Twitter apps and MySpace the into Facebook “Like” Pages (aka what most of us still call “Fan Pages”) of today’s top stars, athletes and popular personalities.

Working with our 70,000 Influencers, we will place brand promotions and micro-endorsements into Facebook “Like” Pages in the central “wall” stream.

This will help advertisers to reach into the core fan base of celebrities — where they make status updates, post links to videos and share their latest pix.

It will also provide advertisers with far greater reach — expanding into the 500 million Facebook users around the world — as well as the ability to integrate video, images, music and all sorts of rich media experiences directly into their campaigns.

Best of all, in testing, we have found that promotions in the Facebook stream generate both substantial engagement from fans & friends, and meaningful click-through for advertisers.

In related good news, you may have seen that Twitter is adding rich media capabilities so that people can share videos, images and more in their Twitter streams.

This is great news for Ad.ly advertisers as well, and we look forward to working with them to produce killer new creative campaigns that put Twitter rich media to work. 

Sound interesting?  If you are an advertiser interested in reaching folks on social networks, or a influencer with more than 5,000 fans that “like” your Facebook page, let us know at Partners@Ad.ly

Read more about it on TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/15/in-stream-ad-network-ad-ly-extends-reach-to-facebook-pages/