“MySpace has launched an advertising platform which will allow advertisers to build, maintain and customize brand profiles.”
New York — After a few months opening its platform to outside application developers, MySpace on Monday said it started testing a technology that provides advertisers a window through which they can evaluate their ad campaigns and make changes on the fly without waiting for help from MySpace’s staff.
“MySpace already permitted marketers to promote their brands via profiles; though it has handled the creation and updating of these profiles.”
This is a gigantic change from the strongly controlled, often painstaking process brands previously had to endure to have a presence on the social network. It is also a response, MySpace said, to advertisers’ wish to use the community more as a standing customer-relationship tool rather than a three-months-and-split campaign tool.
The shift “is an essential move in the way we view this business,” said Bryce Emo, senior VP-head of sales at MySpace. “We want advertisers and clients to have control so they can have a more active relationship with clients.”
According to Emo, the new platform “enables marketers to fulfill long-term communication strategies with consumers who engage in and friend their communities. It is an opportunity to connect with users faster and easier than ever before.”
The technology, called “Community Builder,” MySpace’s recently announced advertising platform, is currently in private beta.
“Community Builder” allow marketers to analyze the impact of their online ad effort and respond to ad campaigns by updating multi-media content or things like updating blogs, studying finely tuned traffic data, changing videos, shifting ads, or testing messages.
MySpace, in addition provides analytical tools, something which will finally help marketers justify their social marketing activity.
Emo added, “Community Builder is the next evolution of the MySpace brand profile -– a more flexible solution that puts creative freedom and control into the hands of advertisers to ensure that a community stays dynamic and interesting in between major campaigns and projects.”
Social networks attracted $920 million in ad expenditure in the United States in 2007, according to eMarketer, and that is expected to grow to $1.6 billion in 2008. The research firm expects worldwide ad spending on social networks to increase 75 percent from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $2.1 billion in 2008.
Community Builder is available in two versions. The self service version is targeted at marketers who are able to handle relatively advanced web coding. The full service version is targeted at marketers less well versed in web coding.
Both versions offer advertisers 24/7 access to update community elements (blogs, bulletins) as well as increased analytics (via Hitbox) and profile functionality.