How amazing is this IMDB/Mad Men "featured content site takeover" advertisement? Would you like to see these on Mahalo?

Very interesting. IMDB has done site skinning right. While other sites (like college humor) skin a site based on product, IMDB has skinned a site based on engagement.

IMDB's extra attention to detail by incorporating unique and interesting Mad Men content takes a site skin beyond passive into interaction. Here are some ideas for Mahalo's take on this. Take them for what they're worth - just ideas :) 1) Upsell the option to keep a modified version of the skin on x number of SERP's for perpetuity.Ad buyers like things that extend beyond the start and end dates of campaigns and they'll pay for it.

2) Increase the tip of product related questions. Eg: If someone asks a Harry Potter question, increase the value of the question by M$2 automatically. A big part of the power of Mahalo lies in the questions found on Mahalo Answers.

3) In the site skin package, include a redesign of the main page footer. None of the mockups that are shown display the main page. If you're not including it in the skin package (and I don't know that I would), offer a footer redesign.

4) Timing and community engagement. Large media buyers and PR folks in general are very good at timing. They know when the marketing wheels are turning and have a good idea of when to push the right ads.

Any type of site takeover (sponsored insertion, result highlighting, skinning, etc) is more effective if the administrators engage the userbase before the ad runs. For example, a couple of months before the Harry Potter skin, whisper a few questions about the upcoming movie or relay a few carefully chosen celebrity gossip items. Almost like a video pre-roll, this pre-engagement will extend the advertising tail longer and deeply engage the community.

5) Before this gets too long, I'll cut myself short by referring to A/B testing. Site skinning is risky business.It can change the productivity of the advertising of an entire site. Creating and testing a handful of skins may be the easiest way to determine what and how other sources of revenue will be impacted.

Testing based on geo, time, pv count, etc isn't tricky and can not only help the advertiser but the site as a whole.

I think @robbrown's Points #2 and #4 are pretty astute, and those methods of getting our users involved is what I find intriguing about integrating sponsored content on Mahalo.com. In essence, we have a cool site that gets a lot of traffic, so it's appealing to advertisers. But what's WAY MORE appealing to advertisers is the active community that's here, that will engage with their product or service.In Jason's Harry Potter example, I think this is obvious.

Members of the Mahalo community (myself included) love the Potter movies. We already have questions about them, knowledge about them we can share, stories and memories associated with Potter, pages on Potter characters or books that we can build and claim... So this is an opportunity for us to keep just doing what we're doing, essentially. The marketing just becomes another cool feature of Mahalo (though, granted, a feature that helps us make the site even bigger and better.

) Plus, the conversations and pages that we built linger even after the actual campaign is over. That's a much more powerful experience than scanning past an ad on your way to contact, or watching a trailer. And, to me, that's what makes this such a valuable opportunity.

Holy crap. That's a fantastic idea! The advertiser would love it, there would be so much buzz/publicity around the product.

Plus the Mahalo users will really have an incentive to contribute. I say go for it.

Jason, I think this is a great idea. Is there some way we can promote the one of these events on our own websites to give it more google juice? If your staff could provide link code for us to use it might help.

Give me one without any javascript in it and I'll be even happier. Mahalo is part of my total online strategy to get better known and I am happy to let people know where I am at online if they want to find me. If I can get some of my own followers to participate due to their interest in Harry Potter (or the like) I think that has a better, more far-reaching effect than isolating it on Mahalo.(PS - I want the Severus Snape page :).

I think it would be appealing to advertisers so it is definitely worth looking into. I think the community would support it and help out with barn raising activities. The only thing I'm not to keen on is the frame/banner takeover.

I think that is getting too commercial and it draws away from Mahalo's individuality. It's ok to have ads, just don't make the site look like a full-time commercial.

I really like the idea, and am looking forward to see it happening. Just make sure it is about something that internationally appealing, as more than half of your Mahalo community is non US based. For instance, I wouldn't care at all about the NFL final, baseball (even though The Netherlands is one of the top playing nations), or Bud Beer (which I know some would applaud).

Harry Potter is a great example, as he is universally known and loved, and many people know a lot about it. Plus, it had a worldwide release-date. So that would really be a good choice.

I'd love to see this in action, and will very likely actively participate. Wait.. I see the 'How to dress up like Harry Potter' page is still free? :) Edit: I just realized that Harry Potter is actually a very BAD example.J.K.Rowling has shown to be not very fond of user-created content using her characters, locations or books.So, I don't see her sponsoring a site- takeover allowing zillions of articles and questions posted using HP material (it is hard to write a page on hogwarts without showing a picture of it!

).

This one (for the Honda Insight on Vimeo) is way more involved: *Make sure you click through to the video on Vimeo's site to see the takeover* vimeo.com/4281939 Just be careful to avoid seeming like you are selling out.

I'm slobbering just by thinking about this! Sounds awesome. We could start by implementing new advertisers.

We could ad video advertising. Meaning the viewer would have to watch a small ad first. Google ads are great but I have been noticing that they barely show ads based on the page content.

Some advertising agencies are starting to focus alot of attention to the glamour of the ads shown. Perhaps, this first featured content advertising should be done as a group. Like, if we get tasks more than one person can help with one page.

Last thing, what content will we do this with? Harry Potter? Don't you guys think this trend has passed with the movie or is it still active?

I like the new movie by Tim Burton - 9.

Horrible idea. How could you think of such crap!

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.