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Archive for October, 2011

Jobs in Durham, NC: Blogads is hiring!

by Nick Faber
Monday, October 31st, 2011

We’re currently looking for more passionate people to work in our new Downtown Durham office. All of these postions are set to start ASAP and will require you to work in Durham, NC.

Don’t apply if you want structure and monotony
Don’t apply if you dislike music or dogs
Don’t apply if you dislike traveling and meeting new people

Do apply if you want to work with a collaborative, friendly team in downtown Durham
Do apply if you have an interest in advertising and media
Do send us your resume in PDF format and tell us why you want to work for us. Please send to analyst@blogads.com

Open positions:

Account Manager

Blogads, a digital advertising firm, has been a media innovator since 1998. We represent 3500+ blogs including market leaders like PerezHilton, DailyKos, Dlisted, and TrailerAddict. We work closely with advertisers in industries including entertainment, consumer packaged goods, retail, and technology.

We are seeking a Sales Strategist to join our Advertising Sales team. Someone who, like us, is passionate about digital media and building relationships.

General Responsibilities:

  • Manage advertiser relationships with clients from New York to Los Angeles
  • Generate leads through outreach via phone, email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
  • Cultivate relationships with major advertising agencies
  • Work with team members to create innovative proposals
  • Network at conferences and promotional events
  • Help develop ideas for new products and services

We need you to:

  • Be experienced in media sales, promotions, or public relations
  • Have a 4 year college degree
  • Motivated by the fulfillment  of closing a deal
  • Be committed to providing awesome service to clients
  • Have high energy for a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
  • Enjoy in-person meetings and building relationships
  • Have excellent written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail

Assistant Account Manager

Blogads, a digital advertising firm, has been a media innovator since 1998. We represent 3500+ blogs including market leaders like PerezHilton, DailyKos, Dlisted, and TrailerAddict. We work closely with advertisers in industries including entertainment, consumer packaged goods, retail, and technology.

We are seeking an Assistant Sales Strategist to join the team that sells advertising on PerezHilton.com. Someone who, like us, is passionate about pop culture and digital media.

General Responsibilities:

  • Inform, assist, and negotiate with incoming potential advertisers
  • Manage relationships with smaller advertising agencies and clients
  • Assist sales staff with building proposals and presentations
  • Help brainstorm integrated advertising ideas for clients, help develop and formalize new products, and create and improve sales materials

You need:

  • at least one year of job experience, preferably in sales, marketing, or advertising
  • a 4 year college degree
  • desire to grow into a senior sales role with opportunities to travel and to work with Fortune 100 companies
  • to be a people person who enjoys building relationships
  • commitment to providing exceptional service to clients
  • high energy for a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
  • to enjoy creative brainstorming and being part of a team
  • curiosity to learn how things work and dedication to solve problems
  • to have excellent written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail

Project Manager(s)

The Blogads innovation team builds tools that monetize, analyze and promote social networking.

Based in the heart of Durham, we believe that innovation results from intimate, long-term conversations between clients, colleagues and peers. Preferably over coffee.

We hire people who listen and speak clearly, relentlessly define problems and test solutions, and, most of all, collaborate passionately.

We’re seeking ambitious project managers who love to play with technology, social tools and creative colleagues. You’ll perform an integral roll in defining, designing, launching and iterating new products. You’ll dig your fingers into the guts of Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, Foursquare, Dopplr, Findings… anything with an API.

You’ll fit well in this job if you tend to:

  • Grab a whiteboard whenever ideas start to flow.
  • Enjoy bridging multiple areas of expertise.
  • Know how to break giant projects down into bite-size tasks.
  • Realize that every error has at least 5 causes and know how to tease them out.
  • Know how to be concise yet descriptive.
  • Know what to own and what to delegate.
  • Know the difference between important and urgent.
  • Enjoy puzzles.
  • Not say “I don’t know” without following up with “let’s find out.”
  • Connect the dots until the lights go out.
  • Love a clean desk.
  • Know that one button is better than three.

You should be a college graduate with prior experience managing web projects.  Please mention prior PM experience, interacting with customers about their software needs, designing UIs or defining software functionality.

Does any brand love Halloween more than Kraft?

by Nick Faber
Friday, October 28th, 2011


Kraft is wants you to associate its brands with Halloween. Which is funny because they don’t make a whole lot that you can toss into a kid’s pillowcase. “Ew, cheese!”

Nabisco may have its orange-cream Oreos, but nobody puts snacks in Halloween costumes better than Kraft. (more…)

Featured Bloggers: Ana Grilo and Thea James of The Book Smugglers

by Paige Wilcox
Friday, October 28th, 2011

Ana Grilo and Thea James, the partners in crime running The Book Smugglers, share reviews and recommendations for fictional and Young Adult novels. Their passion for reading is proven by the sheer volume of books they’re able to read and write about. Stay up to date with their latest reviews by checking out their blog, Facebook and Twitter pages!

Q: When and why did you start blogging?

Ana: I discovered the world of blogging toward the end of 2007 when I started to look for reviews online and fell in love with the idea of writing reviews as a means to keep tabs on what I was reading. That was really the impetus behind setting up the blog. At that time, I was a member of an online forum for “Fans of Lost” (the TV show), and that’s where I met Thea whom I used to talk about books with. In one of our chats, I brought up the idea of starting a book blog and invited her to join me and she said yes – the rest, as they say, is history.

Thea: Yup. Ana and I are huge nerds when it comes to pop culture and books, so when Ana propositioned me with the opportunity to start a book blog with her I was thrilled. Of course, I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that an innocuous little book reading hobby could turn into something that is now such a huge part of my life!

Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst other book blogs?

A & T: This is a really tough question to answer because there are so many outstanding book blogs out there! If there is one thing we do pride ourselves on, though, it would have to be our brutally honest and in-depth reviews.

Q: What does your family think of your blogging?

A: Well, my family is from Brazil and they don’t speak a lot of English, nor do they like to read (shocking!) so they don’t actually read the blog per se. However, I do tell them about it and about all of the cool stuff that has happened since Thea and I have started blogging and they are very proud of our accomplishments.

T: My significant other is also a non-reader, so he was actually quite peeved when The Book Smugglers began to take off – not because he was angry at the success of the blog (he’s very supportive in that regard!), but because the sheer volume of books increased exponentially and in direct proportion to the more followers we gained! As for the rest of my family, my youngest sister (a tween) absolutely loves the blog and often gets recommendations – and hand-me-down books – from it, which is pretty awesome. (more…)

Blogads’ pets in Halloween costumes

by Nick Faber
Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Pets in costumes are all the rage this year. Just ask Wendy Williams. A completely unbiased survey conducted by DogTime Media suggests that half of all pets will wear costumes this Halloween.

Those results are pretty close to our own findings here at Blogads, where about half of us have subjected — er — dressed our pets in Halloween costumes.

Gunner: Batdog

(more…)

The idiot wisdom of contextual advertising

by Nick Faber
Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Sometimes contextual advertising produces humorous juxtapositions. And sometimes the juxtapositions offer up a Delphic hint of wisdom, as is the case in this Netflix ad paired with an article by Henry Blodget about Netflix’s stock roller coaster. The Expendables image in the ad makes the perfect emblem for Netflix’s journey from confident competence to arrogant overreach to public humiliation.

Will Congress kill YouTube and Twitter?

by Nick Faber
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

A post over at Daily Kos alerted us to the Internet Blacklist Bill, which the House introduced today. The bill could hold sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook responsible for user-generated content uploaded to their servers. Post author and Rhode Island state congressman David Segal warns that if the the bill passes as-is, it would:

1) Give the government and private corporations new powers to block access to sites accused of copyright infringement;

2) Criminalize the streaming of copyrighted content;

3) Restrict cloud-based storage services, music lockers, and the like;

4) Create the aforementioned new liabilities for sites that encourage the posting of user-generated content.

“Nobody will want to take that risk,” says Segal, “So these sites and others could be forced to shut down if it manages to pass as it stands.
(more…)

Advertising with zombies: 19 campaigns featuring the undead

by Nick Faber
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
If you’re too slow to outrun a zombie, our app can help!

Is 2011 the year that zombies went commercial or what? Zombies are so prevalent in pop culture that you could say they’ve jumped the shark at this point. But not before eating the shark’s brains.

Here are 18 ads from this year starring the undead. As you can see, zombies are the new sex, in terms of advertising strange things.

1. Yoga Outreach

(via)

(more…)

Creepy Facebook Connect film is not a sinister marketing ploy — or is it?

by Nick Faber
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

The creep stalks Team Blogads.

The director of Take This Lollipop is just having a little fun, folks. Just in time for Halloween, TV director Jason Zada has created a very creeptastic interactive film about a Facebook stalker — and YOU. (more…)

Featured Blogger: Sheril Kirshenbaum of Culture of Science

by Paige Wilcox
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Blogger Sheril Kirshenbaum provides unique insights in the overlap of science with other parts of our lives.  Her blog, Culture of Science, connects wide-reaching science issues to seemingly unrelated topics for her readers. Join her in connecting the dots on Twitter and Facebook!

 

Culture of Science Blogger Sheril Kirshenbaum

Q: When and why did you start blogging?

A: November 7, 2006. When I left graduate school the previous year, students I had been working with wanted to continue our seminar on the way science and policy interact. I didn’t know much about blogging at the time, but finally agreed to begin *if* the Democrats took back the House and Senate. I didn’t think this was likely at the time and they remembered the following year. I launched a private blogspot shortly after the election. 

Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst other science and environment-conscious blogs?

A: One thing that stands out about Culture of Science is that many capitol staffers read it regularly, so I often cover timely policy topics. I have a very unique background with graduate degrees in marine biology and policy followed by working in the Senate on energy, ocean, and environment. From there I joined Duke University’s science-policy institute and now I’m at UT-Austin’s Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy. 

My goal is to improve public understanding of science because it’s central to our lives and so I aim to move the discussion past advocacy and lip-service, to get to the heart of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. On the blog highlight practical solutions that involve politics, economics, and most importantly, people. Culture of Science is a forum to explore all sorts of topics, but the primary focus is the interdisciplinary nature of understanding our world. (more…)

Eyewear innovation: Warby Parker’s fashionable approach to spectacles marketing

by Nick Faber
Monday, October 17th, 2011

Ever wondered what you’d look like in a monocle? The innovative eyewear boutique Warby Parker let’s you find out from the comfort of your home, office, or anywhere else you have a webcam.

For those of us who are too busy for free both-way shipping, Warby Parker developed the Virtual Try-On tool. Find a frame you like, pose for a webcam shot (or upload a pic), et voila!

Warby Parker isn’t the only online glasses shop offering virtual try-ons, but we think they’re doing it best. The glasses match the angle of your mug shot just right, and even adds a faux glare to the lenses.

Oh, and it’s also a great marketing tool. Users can easily share their stylish new looks to Facebook and ask their friends for feedback. And hey, those are some pretty damn stylish frames they’ve got, so who wouldn’t want to share them? And who wouldn’t want to turn around and try a pair themselves?

As for the monocle? No one really wants to wear a monocle, do they? But everyone wants to know what they’d look like in one. Brilliant.

For more innovative marketing goodness, check out our coverage of the award-winning virtual poverty game, SPENT.


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