Ad.ly Blog

Ad.ly Hops the Channel!

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:39:00 -0400

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!

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:55:00 -0400

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.

Real time data is one of the hottest new areas in the online ad...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:34:00 -0400

Real time data is one of the hottest new areas in the online ad business – brands and marketers want to know how to harness real-time information and interactions with consumers to make decisions on the fly.

We met with pal Daisy Whitney to talk about how we at Ad.ly are achieving results by pairing brands like Toyota, Kia, American Airlines, Microsoft and others with online celebs.

Check out Daisy’s take in her New Media Minute video above, and don’t forget to visit DaisyWhitney.com.

Ad.ly Goes to OnHollywood: The Entertainment Venture Summit

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:05:46 -0400

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

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:58:00 -0400

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:

Sign-in to your Ad.ly account now, and click on the Facebook icon (on the left-hand side of the page).
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.
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!

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:59:05 -0400

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

The Ad.ly team celebrates the company’s 1st birthday.

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:20:54 -0400

The Ad.ly team celebrates the company’s 1st birthday.

Thanks for an amazing year!

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:21:00 -0400

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).

Next stop Facebook! Ad.ly advances into Facebook pages with...

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:35:43 -0400

Next stop Facebook! Ad.ly advances into Facebook pages with today’s top stars, athletes and popular personalities.

Expanding our reach into Facebook Pages

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:31:00 -0400

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

Ad.ly hosts 'The Stream' panel & API workshop @ AppNation

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:03:00 -0400

Hope to see you at AppNation in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday (9/13-14)!

Not registered yet? Click here to learn more.

Email me at Krista@Ad.ly if you would like to attend, as I do have a limited amount of 1/2-off passes for Ad.ly partners.

DETAILS:

1.) Our CEO Arnie Gullov-Singh will be moderating The Stream panel on Tuesday, September 14th at 12:25 p.m., with panelists:

Bastien Vidal, Seesmic
Jeremy Crane of oneforty.com
Phil Buehler of OgilvyOne

2.) At 1 p.m., we will follow the panel with the Ad.ly Foo’d Camp! … a developer workshop with free brown-bag lunch.

Our head of Engineering Chris Testa will offer an overview of the Ad.ly API and walk attendees through how to integrate it into apps and sites to monetize the stream and support your operations.

Hope to see you there!

Learning as we grow

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:49:00 -0400

We at Ad.ly set out to create an in-stream advertising network that would help advertisers reach their goals while rewarding Influencers for the quality content they produce and the following they have attracted.

And for the most part, that is exactly what happened. Our Influencer Network business has very quickly evolved into a scalable micro-endorsement platform.

But like everyone in the rapidly growing “Stream” economy, we are learning in real time what works, and what does not.

That’s why – as we approach Ad.ly’s one-year anniversary – we are making some important changes that will help us provide a better service for everyone.

(“Everyone” includes advertisers, influencers, and our newest constituents – the developers who build Twitter applications and publisher websites – plus Ad.ly.)

WHAT’S CHANGING:

1. The Ad.ly Referral Program is now closed.

We want to thank everyone who helped spread the word about Ad.ly in the early days, which helped us grow our network of top Influencers. But going forward, we are discontinuing our referral program.

Of course, we will honor our existing commitments to referrers of active Ad.ly Influencers as of the close of business today. But thereafter, no new referral fees will be paid.

2. The Ad.ly Influencer Network requires that you have at least 5,000 followers on Twitter or 5,000 friends on MySpace.

As of today, you must have at least 5,000 followers on Twitter or 5,000 friends on MySpace in order to have an active Ad.ly Influencer Network account (meaning you are “in-market” and available for advertising opportunities).

These minimums are designed to set realistic expectations for Ad.ly Influencers, some of whom have expressed frustration with waiting for an advertising opportunity to come into their Ad.ly account.

They are based on the rapidly evolving dynamics of the micro-endorsement market. Advertisers are opting to reach out via a small number of influencers with large followings, as opposed to using a large number of influencers with smaller followings.

1. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with 5,000 followers or friends, or more, nothing will change for you as a result of this new policy.

2. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with fewer than 5,000 followers or friends, and you have a balance due from us, here’s what to expect:

We will keep your account active (in-market) until you reach our $50.00 minimum pay-point. At that time, we will issue you a W-9 to initiate payment via check or PayPal (your choice).
We will then take your account out-of-market until such time as you reach the 5,000 follower of friend count.
Once you hit one of those minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account back in-market.

3. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with fewer than 5,000 followers or friends, and no balance due, your account will be taken out-of-market effective at the close of business today. Once you hit one of these minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account back in-market.

4. If you would like to be an Ad.ly Influencer, but do not yet have 5,000 followers or friends, you can still create an account with Ad.ly at any time. As soon as you hit one of our minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account in-market.

We apologize for the inconvenience some of you may have experienced while waiting for an ad to come in.

Once you hit one of our new minimums, we hope you will give Ad.ly another try – to get rewarded for the quality content you create and the following you attract. Here are some ideas on how to increase your engagement and grow your following on Twitter.

As always, please feel free to email us with questions at Help@Ad.ly

MySpace Partners with Ad.ly

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:31:00 -0400

Today we announced a partnership with MySpace to help their most influential users monetize their audiences on MySpace. As of today, MySpace’s top users can participate in Ad.ly’s Influencer Network, where they can make money for promoting the brands they love to their friends. To get started with Ad.ly, sign up or login here and add your MySpace account.

We’re excited about this launch because it extends the reach of our Influencer Network beyond the 45M users we currently reach on Twitter into the 70M users MySpace reaches. This makes Ad.ly even more compelling for advertisers looking to participate at scale in the broader stream ecosystem.
Ad.ly for MySpace provides a great avenue for MySpace to keep their most influential users invested in using MySpace as a platform for connecting with their friends and fans.

Advertisers are now able to choose to have their ads sent through Twitter accounts into the Twitter stream, through MySpace accounts into the MySpace stream or through both accounts into the broader stream, depending on their campaign goals. If you are an advertiser and would like more details on this new program please contact our sales team at sales@ad.ly.

Business As Usual

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:17:00 -0400

Thank you to all our publishers, advertisers, and friends who have reached out to us expressing their love and support the last 24 hours.

As you probably heard, Twitter announced some revisions to their TOS yesterday with regards to advertising in the stream. We just want to take a moment to clarify how this affects Ad.ly’s business.

Ad.ly supports Twitter’s movement to create standards around in-stream advertising. Twitter’s changes are aimed at discouraging members of the ecosystem who do not maintain the proper balance of user experience and monetization and who are not invested in building long term value on the platform.

Since inception, Ad.ly has, and still is operating under Twitter’s approved guidelines and terms of service for advertising on its platform, so it’s business as usual for us. We look forward to continuing to create long term value for our advertisers and publishers, both of whom are key constituents in the stream ecosystem.

Arnie Gullov-Singh
CEO, Ad.ly

Introducing Ad.ly Analytics

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:42:00 -0500

After months of hard work, with the help of the PeopleBrowsr team, we’re proud to announce the launch of Ad.ly Analytics.

Ad.ly Analytics allows you to better understand your followers and content on Twitter. You can learn things like:

How many engaged followers you have (real people, not bots, that are actually viewing your tweets)
Audience gender
Audience location
The times you tweets and the times you get mentioned or retweeted.

Our goal with Ad.ly Analytics is to provide publishers with the tools they need to become better content creators and advertisers with a deeper understanding of a publisher’s audience.

Video: Ad.ly Launch Party September 22nd, 2009. Special guest...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:25:05 -0400

Video: Ad.ly Launch Party September 22nd, 2009. Special guest appearance by Pee Wee Herman who honored us by sending his first Tweet from our party. Also in attendance was Tony Hawk, LeVar Burton, Chamillionaire, Dr Drew, Guy Kawasaki, and many many other wonderful guests and friends.

We’re very thankful, humbled, and literally blown away by the support that so many of you have given us. Thank you!

Hello World, We've Hatched...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:08:00 -0400

Hello world! We’re excited to finally hatch Ad.ly out of its shell. It’s been an amazing ride so far. We’re humbled. We’re happy. We’re exhausted (it’s launch night). If there’s typos in this post you’ll know why.

For all of you who aren’t in Southern California, we wish you could join us at the Skirball Cultural Center tomorrow night for our official launch party. This is our one night to celebrate the many hours, days, weeks and months spent laboring in obscurity. We realize a massive sacrifice was made not only by ourselves but also by our families and friends. We never, ever could have done this without you. Please consider the empty pizza boxes, late nights and missed cell phone calls acts of love.

Ad.ly has been a labor of love for the entire team for, what feels like, forever. First, we first want to thank our wonderful charter publishers. It’s the publishers that invariably make Ad.ly possible. Greg Grunberg, Jeremy Schoemaker, Brooke Burke, the Kardashian family, all of you have been instrumental in helping us evolve Ad.ly from an idea to a company. We remember many of the phone calls, meetings and emails that shaped the vision you see today. Thank you.

It’s also been a tremendous privilege to build this company with the guidance and feedback of our world class advertising partners. Special thanks to OMD (TBWA Chiat Day), Ignited, Universal McCann, Initiative and Sony. All of you have taught us more than we could have imagined. Thank you.

Lastly, we consider it an honor to have the opportunity to build on the Twitter platform. Without open APIs and a fundamentally transparent approach to communication Ad.ly would not exist. Certainly, there will be many ups and downs but tomorrow, Tuesday September 22, will start the next leg of this maginificent journey.