Paid consumer engagement, emotionally powerful advertising, and Ethiopian food

Editor's Note: Media planners … who are they, and what do they think about? That’s what our "Meet a Media Planner" series aims to find out through chats with media and search planners at agencies across the country. Let us introduce Kandace Barker, a media planner for Digitas in Chicago. Kandace’s career path was set during a recruiting event on her college campus when Draftfcb snapped her up for an internship. She fell in love with media immediately and went on to plan for accounts including Qwest, Taco Bell, and Porsche. With three years under her belt, Kandace is now happily settled into an exclusive media relationship with Team Sprint.

Yahoo! Ad Blog: As a media planner, you always have to stay up on the latest trends and technologies. What has your attention right now?

Kandace Barker: Recently I’ve been really interested in understanding the value exchange model, which involves paying consumers or giving them some type of value for engaging with our content. For instance, mobile games are really emerging; everyone loves apps. So we might show an interstitial ad after someone reaches a new level of a game and say, “Congratulations on making it to the next level! Watch this video and enjoy 5 points to buy yourself some fuel for the next round!” Then they could use the points to buy another game or to upgrade.

I’m interested in learning more about the value exchange and how it impacts our media buys in such a cluttered environment.

Bing Ads Accredited Professional program can help you get the most out of the Yahoo! Bing Network

The great ones in any field never stop learning and training. If you want to sharpen your SEM skills and take your campaigns to a new level, our newly refreshed Bing Ads Accredited Professional program is perfect for you.

Writing effective ads. Estimating bids and traffic. Targeting search consumers on the Bing Ads platform. These are just some of the 29 topics you can review online or print to view later. You can even compete with your colleagues (or just show off) with the new social media bar that allows you to share your training via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Once you’re done polishing your SEM skills, put them to the test by taking the Bing Ads Accredited Professional exam. There’s no charge, no promo codes, and you can access the exam through our new, easier-to-navigate platform.

Nearly 30% of tweets sent during the Super Bowl were about the ads---who got the most social bang for their buck?

While the players slugged it out on the field, advertisers battled for the attention of 110 million Super Bowl viewers---half of whom say they tune in to see the ads, not football. With brands investing a record $4 million for a 30-second spot, today’s infographic by digital agency WhisprGroup looks at how that ad spend translated into social ROI for brands---and who got the biggest social bang for its buck.

Here are some highlights from their research:

• For every seven tweets about the game, there were two tweets about the ads
• Highest positive sentiment scores: Tide (86%); Audi and Taco Bell (80%); Doritos (77%)
• GoDaddy’s ad (model makes out with nerd) garnered 290,000 tweets (126,000 more than runner-up Budweiser), but only 14% were positive
• Taco Bell scored more than 10,000 followers during the Big Game; GoDaddy added 1,100

It didn’t go so well for GoDaddy, but there was a clear winner of the Super Bowl 2013 Tweet Championship, based on highest scores in categories including tweet volume, positive sentiment, new followers, and ROI. To find out which brand took the title, leap on over to the full infographic.

Who needs a club? Users can create their own soundtracks and lightshows while learning all about Nissan’s totally revamped 2013 Sentra

The Nissan Sentra has gone through a total makeover for 2013 and now boasts a redesigned interior and exterior, all-new navigation and electronics systems, and even LED-accented headlights and taillights. To introduce the Sentra in style, Nissan and Yahoo! created a disco interactive ad on the Yahoo! homepage that lets users control a digital LED light show and thumping soundtrack that can keep them engaged and amused (and learning all about the Sentra) for hours.

Both the 970x55 north banner and the 300x250 right-side unit invite the user to “click for a light show.”

You don’t have to be a player to buy advertising in Sunday’s Big Game

Think there’s pressure on the football players in Sunday’s Super Bowl? How about the advertisers? It’s their big game too. A 30-second spot now costs a record $ 4 million. Half the 110 million people who will watch the game say they tune in to see the ads. Like the athletes, advertisers can win big or fail spectacularly in this big-stakes game.

Instead of going all in, this week’s Ad Land offers some safer, less expensive ways to get your brand seen at the Super Bowl. Our David T. Jones has dreamed up options starting at just $20; for $250K you can go with a tactic that has real legs---or close to them. (You can also hear David’s views on Super Bowl advertising this Saturday on The BeanCast, a popular marketing podcast.)

Now go long and catch the whole cartoon after the jump!

Receives 2012 Highest Rated Media Brand Recognition for Customer Service among digital portals and social networking companies

There are zillions of industry award programs out there, but the most meaningful recognition comes from the people that you work with every day. That’s why we feel so honored and grateful to the marketers and ad agencies who led to our being recognized as the 2012 Highest Rated Media Brand for customer service in the digital portal and social category (which we also received in 2010), sponsored by Advertiser Perceptions, a leading media insights firm. The HRMB award is based on what advertisers think, which means a lot to us.

“We’d like to congratulate Yahoo! on being recognized as one of this year’s Highest Rated Media Brand recipients,” says Ken Pearl, Chief Executive Officer of Advertiser Perceptions. “The honor represents excellence in the minds of advertisers and is a great reflection of Yahoo! efforts in ensuring the highest levels of advertiser customer service.”

Advertiser Perceptions bases its HRMB recognition on twice-yearly surveys of thousands of leading marketers and ad agencies across the country. We think the award really recognizes the performance of our Yahoo! sales teams, who are dedicated to partnering with and meeting (make that exceeding) the needs of our digital advertising clients.

Once as closely guarded as nuclear launch codes, Super Bowl spots are now shared online before, during and after the Big Game to give advertisers more bang for their buck

The Super Bowl is practically a national holiday and one of the most-watched annual television events, giving brands a major opportunity to make an impact with consumers. For decades, advertisers have worked to perfect the art of the Super Bowl spot, and viewers have anxiously awaited the funny, racy, and just plain crazy ads that air during timeouts and between quarters.

While the viewership gender gap has narrowed over the years (nearly half of Super Bowl viewers are now women), a couple of recent studies (one from Lab42 and one from Hanon McKendry) suggest that women tune in for the commercials even more than men do. But the biggest change to hit the Super Bowl ad scene has undoubtedly been the rise of digital, and how brands are using the Web and social sharing to give their spots legs that run far beyond that one big televised pop. (In a recent Ad Blog post, industry execs shared their opinions on Super Bowl marketing trends.)

Video-sharing platforms play a new role
While consumers used to watch the Super Bowl and all the commercials that go along with it just once, they can now view the ads multiple times. Within the last two years, it’s become increasingly common to pre-release a long-form version of a spot in advance of the game to get consumers buzzing. The spot that actually airs on game day can be the 30-second cut, but since many viewers have already caught the longer piece online, the shorter spot still resonates while saving the advertiser money (nearly $4 million for a 30-second spot this year---yowza!)

Boost campaign attendance with expert advice on timing, keywords, and copy for education search ads

The online education industry is growing fast, and with popular keyword bids ranging from $55 to $100, the competition is fierce. If you’re an education advertiser on the Yahoo! Bing Network, we know you are constantly shifting strategies to stay in step with trends in the industry, but ultimately, lead generation is the goal. In addition to trying out Yahoo!’s new Cost Per Lead ad format, you can really shoot to the head of the class by following these tips:

1. Be ready when the bell rings

The temperatures outside are dropping, but the number shows that things are really heating up right now for education-related searches. Searches on Yahoo! for the keyword “education” remain fairly consistent throughout the year, with a slight spike in early August and HUGE spike in January, coinciding with the beginning of the fall and spring semesters (see chart below). Campaign strategies should be designed to capitalize on the first and third quarter of each fiscal year, ensuring your audience has the right mindset and drive for searching topics in higher education.

2. Take roll and know your audience

Searchers from the 13-17 age groups dominate 22% of the overall education search volume, and they’re very savvy---they tend to greatly prefer ads for educational institutions that prominently state their accredited or certified status.