Businesses wanting to spread the buzz on new products and deals quickly are relying on real-time media to communicate. Joel Kramer, CEO of The Minneapolis Post, paints this picture: “Imagine a restaurant that can post its daily lunch special in the morning and then its dinner special in the afternoon. A sports team that can keep you up-to-date on its games and other team news. A store that could offer a coupon good only for today.” The Minneapolis Post is launching web content to host social media feeds from small businesses on its website.

Many local advertisers may not wish to pay for a large ad that will become quickly outdated. They may, however, jump on the idea of being able to post feeds on their community newspaper’s site which locals depend on for information. Here are some real-time communication ideas from The Minneapolis Post and AdBuilder.com:

Ad/Promotion Ideas:
• Seek out businesses that don’t advertise currently, have scaled back or could use the ability to update their ad anytime.
• Create a separate landing page on your publication’s website dedicated to real-time feeds.
• Encourage local businesses to re-post feeds from social media networks they already use, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Charge each business a low, weekly rate to post in real-time as often as they like. To prevent flooding, show only the latest post for each business.
• If your newspaper receives high traffic volume, create a mobile app allowing subscribers to view the latest RSS feeds from their companies.
• Use AdBuilder.com content to sell ad space on the page and assist small businesses in their campaigns without having to increase staff.

Share your experiences!
Have you tried real-time feeds on your website? Was it successful? Do you have any other ideas? Post them as a comment and let’s increase ad sales together.

Are your advertisers scaling back their budgets as a cost-cutting measure? When advertisers focus too much on the bottom line, they can lose momentum in the marketplace. According to an article in The New Yorker by James Surowiecki, scaling back to cut costs may in fact cost more in the long run.

Need help convincing your advertisers that maintaining or boosting ad budgets can be in their best interest? Consider the following historical studies:
• According to The New Yorker, during the Great Depression era, Kellogg doubled its ad budget and began to heavily push new product innovations through all media outlets. Post scaled back and cut costs. In the end, Kellogg’s profits increased nearly 30 percent and became the dominant brand despite holding nearly even market share with Post before their efforts.
• MarketSense found that during the 1989-91 recession, Pizza Hut aggressively boosted its ad campaign, delivering value to consumers. Sales rose 61% thanks to strong advertising support. McDonald’s chose to slash their ad budget during this time—sales fell by 28%.
• During the 1990s, most beer manufacturers cut ad budgets but Coors Light and Bud Light increased theirs and saw sales jump 15% and 16% respectively. Other brands were hurt by the loss of so much market share, reports Folio magazine.
• In 2001, amidst market crashes and wartime efforts, Apple introduced the iPod. A risky yet successful endeavor, 125,000 units were sold in the first month of release. Slashing ad budgets was never considered by CEO Steve Jobs.
• In 1975, as recession and gas price woes set in, Chevrolet boosted its ad budget on economy cars, while Ford slashed advertising by 14 percent. Though Ford did what it intended, Chevrolet gained 2 percent market share in an incredibly cutthroat industry.

History is full of failures, but in the business world, real success cannot be reached without accepting risk.

Share your experiences!
Have you convinced any advertisers not to scale back their ad budgets during the recession? Post any ideas as a comment and let’s increase ad sales together.