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The leading Northern Irish blog Slugger O’Toole carries MessageSpace adverts. In the run-up to the Northern Irish Assembly elections it has been full to capacity with advertising. One of which was from the leading bookmaker Eastwoods offering bets on the election outcome. From the Irish Times:
…the company has taken out an advertisement on the Slugger O’ Toole website. Those of you who are computer literate can Google Slugger O’Toole and you’ll find the site. And there, on the top right hand corner, you have a picture of Stormont – with shots of Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, Reg Empey and Mark Durkan, and an enticing invitation to: “Bet the Election”.
Slugger O’Toole is run by blogger Mick Fealty who, as a former Irish Times news editor used to say, is one of those band of “Northern political fetishists” who are still excited by affairs of the Northern Ireland state. Slugger, by the way, was a sailor on the ill-fated Irish Rover. Remember the Pogues and Ronnie singing: “There was Slugger O’Toole, who was drunk as a rule . . .”. It’s a lively site. You get a good mix of analysis, commentary, and observation, and also bytimes venom and insult from its multitude of subscribers, some of it occasionally directed at Irish Times and other journalists whose views are considered ill-informed, or just plain annoying.
Eastwood also approves of Slugger and figure that it provides a captive, target audience of political mugs who will help in swelling even further the coffers of Barney and his family. Now the Eastwoods, like every bookie’s, are a shrewd outfit and try to shape the odds in the company’s rather than the punter’s favour.
Shaun Lynch of Eastwoods reported a surge in business the first day the advert went up.
‘Rather than a mass customer base, advertising on these blogs gives lobbyists unbridled access to an extremely valuable audience: Britain’s political elite’
So writes David Crow in The Business. The article goes on to say -
This new generation of websites will require strong marketing skills and an indepth knowledge of the audience. That information can then be sold to advertisers. More importantly, mechanisms are needed to make such advertising as easy as dealing with big-hitting sites.
In Britain, political blogs from all parts of the ideological spectrum, including ConservativeHome.com, Guido Fawkes, and Lib Dem Blogs, have teamed up with a new company, MessageSpace, to pursue this strategy. Started by Alex Hilton (who also launched Labour Home), the company sells advertising space across seven political blogs and uses the specialised appeal of its content as a unique selling point.
Rather than offering a mass customer base, advertising on these blogs gives lobbyists and others unbridled access to an extremely streamlined and valuable audience: Britain’s political elite and those working in the “Westminster village”.
MessageSpace claims to offer a banner advertisement in every political office in Britain. According to Hilton, MessageSpace sold out of banner space on Conservative sites well before the start of this year’s conference season. …
For British media firms the opportunity to think big by going small and investing in small, targeted websites is still there. The advent of high-speed internet is best harnessed by focusing on small communities bound by common interests. Generic and universal solutions that ignore consumer individuality will, like their TV counterparts, be left behind.
Full article here.
“Blogs, or weblogs, are a more trusted source of information than television advertising and email marketing.”
We were absolutely delighted to find this story in the Scotsman, today. The Reuters report referred to in the story is available here.
Briefly, “52% [of respondents] said they had been persuaded to buy after a positive review on a blog.”
“Ipsos MORI found a direct link between blogs, or user-generated content, and people’s intentions to buy goods or services.”
The report essentially sums the MessageSpace model up:
“Any company that fails to come up to standard should beware. The blog is replacing word of mouth for endorsing or condemning a product or service.”
So call us on 020 7107 2280 to get the word out today!
Dan Sabbagh writing in The Times about blogging and MessageSpace focuses on the possibilities presented by targeted advertising:
Six political blogger sites (the three on the right, plus Labour and Liberal Democrat sites) have done a deal with MessageSpace, the advertising network for bloggers. Theirs is the perfect audience for lobbyists, for example, as MessageSpace can target advertising depending on where the reader comes from — a lobbyist’s ad can, for example, be viewed only by those who come from the Downing Street servers. The bloggers are hoping to make a few thousand each a month, enough for the bills at least.
The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade analyses the readership of MessageSpace’s publishing partners.
He writes of Guido Fawkes’ blog that:
What counts is the fact that his regular audience is drawn almost entirely from a small, but influential, elite.
Now, having won that readership, he is aiming to win advertisers too. From next week, Fawkes and six allied websites – including that of Iain Dale, the Conservative politician who founded Politico’s publishers and its bookshop – expect to benefit from advertising obtained through a new site entitled MessageSpace. This will enable advertisers to target the specific audiences these sites regularly attract and though it may not lure ads away from newspaper websites, it could well eat into the current political advertising monopoly now enjoyed by ePolitix.com, the rather staid web offshoot of the House Magazine and the Parliamentary Monitor.
Full story here.
Political blogs unite for advertising venture
Mark Sweney
Tuesday August 29, 2006
http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/
Britain’s leading political blogs have joined forces to sell their advertising space, in an attempt to cash in on the growing commercial potential of the blogosphere.The seven websites – including the country’s top three political blogs Guido Fawkes, ConservativeHome.com and former Tory candidate Iain Dale – have launched an advertising sales service called MessageSpace. Its aim is to make it easier for advertisers to run campaigns on blogs, across one or more of the seven sites. “Between us there is definitely a market. Political blogs are very popular and influential,” said Alex Hilton, the editor of Labourhome.org and author of Recess Monkey. But Mr Hilton, who runs ad sales company EOS Online Media, said the service would shy away from signing up mainstream advertisers.
“We will look at the public affairs and campaigning industry – on topics such as child poverty, tax liberation and climate change. It is a way for them to get to politicians, a way to add value to political campaigns and support the lobbying process.”
MessageSpace is designed to offer a “surgical strike” facility, by which ads are targeted at specific organisations such as parliament, the government, political parties and other groups.
The cartel of blogs covers a broad political spectrum including Labourhome.com, LibDem Blogs.co.uk, Political Betting.com and Recess Monkey, with a claimed combined readership of 1.5 million a month.
In June, influential US political blog the Huffington Post signed a deal with Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp to sell the website’s online ad space.
This US-centric article in the National Journal does have some interesting things to say about the power of online political advertising.
Apparently according to Media Guardian our publishers are becoming celebrities…
“While the mainstream media can be an important catalyst for growth, links from other blogs, email and social networking sites can also drive growth.
“This reflects the community around blogging and a maturing of the medium that now can create its own celebrities.”
Political sites fared well, with four in the top 10 individual blog category – the most popular being Guido Fawkes’ blog, which is ranked third (a 12.12% share of visits).
While Labour websites fail to make the top 10, the Conservatives did better with Conservativehome.com coming fourth (11.42%) and former Tory candidate Iain Dale’s site at fifth (9.89%).
The Times reports on the top ten websites in Britain. After the BBC and The Guardian comes Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale and ConservativeHome. All three of whom are MessageSpace partners. According to the data, all combined our partner’s blogs get more traffic than the BBC’s blogs. Thankfully from our point of view the BBC does not take advertising. Story here.