Without a doubt, Apple is extremely well-known for its TV ads, but Google seems to be putting in the effort, and money, to make an impact on those who haven’t tried out its social services yet.

The advertisement tells the story about a man named Tom who uses Google+ to share his life story. I won’t ruin it for you, but it’s extremely heartwarming and definitely shows off the strong points of Google’s social layer rather well. Big plus for using the soundtrack from the Tom Hanks movie “Cast Away”, too.

We’re a Googling nation and along with getting our wonderful search results, we’re shown a bunch of context-relevant ads. It’s how Google makes its money and it’s not going to change anytime soon.

In a post entitled “Making our ads better for everyone“, Google discusses the process that advertisers must go through to make sure that the ads displayed on the search engine results and other Google properties are legit and not spammy or harmful.

The company says that all ads go through a diligent technological review as well as a manual one to remove ads that have malware and spam-like functionality. In fact, Google says that it has pumped “millions of dollars” into making this system the best-of-class.

Here are some improvements that Google has made to its ad system recently:

- Improved “query watch” for counterfeit ads: While anyone can report counterfeit ads, we’ve widened our proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods which allows us to catch more counterfeit ads before they ever appear on Google
- New “risk model” to detect violations: Our computer scanning depends on detailed risk models to determine whether a particular ad may violate our policies, and we recently upgraded our engineering system with a new “risk model” that is even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate our policies
- Faster manual review process: Some ads need to be reviewed manually. To increase our response time in preventing ads from policy-violating advertisers, we sped up our internal processes and systems for manual reviews, enabling our specialists to be more precise and fast
- Twenty-four hour response time: We aim to respond within 24 hours upon receiving a reliable complaint about an ad to ensure that we’re reviewing ads in a timely fashion

The fact that Google says its safe to click on ads should be taken with a grain of salt. Of course it wants to make sure they’re safe and that you’re not worried, the company makes money every single time you click on one.

Google also says that “bad ads” on its system had declined over 50% in 2011 from 2010, disabling over 130 million nasties. The company also shared the handy video below to explain its ad system to consumers and why it’s OK to click away:

Creating a sticky game that keeps players coming back for more is trick in and of itself. Once you’ve made the app and released it into the wild, finding a way to make money with it is even trickier. That’s where Kiip saw a need and came to the rescue with its genius real-world rewards platform.

The premise is simple, developers can create unlockable achievements in their games, and Kiip will reward those players with physical items from its advertising partners. With about 100 games using Kiip’s platform, its CEO Brian Wong told me on the phone today that is has opened up over 500 million new inventory spots for advertisers.

There is no shortage of advertisers looking to spend money, only shortage of spots to insert advertising. By building a relationship with top-tier advertisers like Disney, Pepsi, Popchips, and Sears, Kiip provides a way for game developers to make their players happy and rewarded with really cool stuff that they can even pass on to their friends.

Today, Kiip has announced that its platform is open for all developers to use, lifting its selective beta-like gates. The company has been selective in choosing developers to use its platform so that it could control growth and properly scale the product for this public launch. The time is here and now any developer can start including Kiip rewards with just a single line of code.

It’s a win, win, win situation

Kiip has found itself a fantastic niche for providing advertisers with new real estate, developers with a way to make money from their games, and take a cut of the action for itself. Wong told me that out of its 100 games using Kiip, 10 of them are in the top 100 games on Apple’s App Store. That means that the games themselves are sticky and Kiip is rewarding those gamers for coming back. In fact, Kiip currently displays 4 rewards every second in the apps where it is included.

To make it easy for developers to get started with Kiip, Wong says that the company worked really hard to create an onboarding experience that “walks the talk” when it comes to easy:

You can literally type in your app name or game and we’ll automatically pull in all of the details about your app and prepopulate everything.

Here’s a taste of what developers can expect when they sign up for Kiip:

The walkthrough takes developers through every step of the process including setting up their achievements and spitting out the necessary code for their app.

Rewarding the developers

While Kiip is building a huge niche for itself with its rewards platform, the company wants to give back even more to developers and reward them for using its offerings. In that vein, the company is also announcing a new $100,000 developers fund called “Build”, which will provide $5k to 20 app developers that the company will announce on April 20th. Developers can register for the Build program now in hopes of being one of the lucky $5k recipients.

Wong tells me that this fund is for developers who don’t have the capital to keep a game going after seeing success when it launches:

Some developers are really good at generating a lot of downloads on the first day of launch, but what about the days after? All of these developers have incredible passion for what they do and the indies are finally getting their chance.

Games that use Kiip are happy to use the platform, as Mega Jump developer Derek Van Vliet shares:

Kiip has helped us add a consistent incremental five-figure revenue stream to Mega Jump that was extremely easy to integrate without affecting our existing user experience and our game design canvas, while providing a genuine opportunity to thank our players.

By providing advertising opportunities that gamers see as welcomed rewards, Kiip has cracked open a new opportunity for brands to build relationships with consumers in a way that they haven’t been able to before. Now that the platform is open to all developers, expect more and more popular games to incorporate rewards like a free bag of chips for beating a boss at the end of a level.

➤ Kiip registration for developers

If you watched The Grammys last night, you might have seen a new commercial for Google+ called “New Dad”. I was doing dishes at the time and wasn’t watching the TV, but listened. The commercial starts out with a male voice describing how he took a bazillion pictures of his new baby and how when he lost his phone he thought all of those pictures were gone.

My immediate thought was “Is this a commercial for Apple’s iCloud?”. Nope, it’s a Google+ commercial touting the auto-upload feature of its app, which as this commercial describes, could be an absolute lifesaver.

Google’s television ads are getting better and better, taking a page out of Apple’s book when it comes to making the human element more important than the actual technology behind its features. According to Google’s Bradley Horowitz, the story is true:

Instant Upload has already saved my own precious photos numerous times..

This commercial is really moving. Especially since it’s based on a true story from one of our team mates.

Here’s the new commercial:

While I’m not saying that Google is ripping off anyone, even the fact that these commercials get their own names is reminiscent of Apple. Two new Siri ads just hit television screens, both offering up how Siri makes our lives better. With Facebook yet to make a consumer splash over the airwaves, Google seems to be taking the opportunity to let people know why Google+ could be a service for them.

Could the “That’s a plus.” marketing campaign make a big difference for Google’s budding social network? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Early last month, Twitter revealed its new focus on simplicity and it caught some of Twitter’s hardcore users off guard. The site has become more streamlined to better serve new users who are just learning about the micro-messaging platform, and that’s a good thing.

During its redesign announcement, Twitter introduced us to something new for advertisers called “brand pages“. These pages feature a customizable header and the ability to make on tweet stick to the top of the timeline, as a way to introduce prospective followers to the brand.

At the time, a mix of 21 brands launched their brand pages, but not much was known about why or how they were added to the launch group. According to an AdAge report, we might know now.

According to the report, Twitter has sent emails out to its top advertisers and announced that it will be adding more brand pages starting February 1st. The only ask? That you already have $25k in Twitter’s ad ecosystem, be it for sponsored tweets or trending topics, just to be qualified. Of course Twitter have blessed some charities with brand pages for free, so it doesn’t appear that non-profits will have to buy their way in.

Not much is known about how effective these brand pages are, like the one above from Nike. However, it appears that Twitter is dangling the feature out there as an added incentive to get advertising dollars from new blood. By offering this incentive in the way that it has, Twitter comes off looking pretty desperate to make $25k. On Facebook, companies don’t have to pay any money at all to have a business presence on the platform.

This latest brand page thing sounds to me like the new verified account, as it’s something the company can toggle on and off in hopes of making a company feel special on its platform. In my opinion, it’s going to take a lot more than that.

Earlier today, we reported on the launch of Google’s new consumer outreach program around guarding your privacy online, called “Good to Know“.

The program is both web-based and will reach out to people in every major corner of the country in newspapers, magazines, as well as New York and Washington DC subway stations. According to USAToday, one of the publications the ads are running in, the campaign is costing Google a pretty penny.

How much? When asked, Google would only share the dollar amount as “tens of millions”. With some calling this nothing more than a PR maneuver to make good with the FTC, Google disagrees. When asked about how genuine the Good to Know campaign is, Google’s director of privacy Alma Whitten had this to say:

We all have family and friends that ask us for advice on privacy and security all the time. Those recurring questions made Google realize it should do something to give everyone a better grasp on the fundamentals of online privacy.

If any company knows the pitfalls of poor communication about privacy, it’s Google. During 2010 the company had back-to-back missteps with privacy issues over its Buzz and Street View products.

Executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, Jeff Chester, isn’t buying the “kindness” Google is putting out there with its ad dollars though:

This campaign should be nominated for some kind of award for fiction. If grades were given out for privacy protection, Google would get a D plus.

Maybe after consumers see the ads in the wild and visit the Good to Know site, that grade can be upped to a solid C. Social networking giant Facebook seems to discuss privacy in a more cost effective way, on its blog.

Today, Google announced a new initiative from its ad team called “Why these ads”. The reason behind the feature, the company says, is to bring transparency to ad targeting. The feature is available now for ads shown within search results, and will be rolling out for ads in Gmail soon.

Advertising is at a crossroads online. With content flowing, companies are trying to find new ways to make ads relevant and attractive to consumers. Google wants to show you a little bit of what’s in its secret sauce.

Here’s what Google had to say about consumers interacting with Google ads:

Our advertising system is designed to show the right ad to the right person at the right time. Because ads should be just as useful as any other information on the web, we try to make them as relevant as possible for you. Over the coming weeks, we’re making improvements to provide greater transparency and choice regarding the ads you see on Google search and Gmail. Soon, you’ll be able to learn more about these ads by clicking the “Why these ads” link next to ads on Google search results and Gmail.

Here’s a video about the two new transparency features from Google:

Along with “Why these ads”, Google now offers an Ads preference manager.

Why these ads

If you wonder why you’re targeted with certain ads, Google will now do its best to tell you why. Of course it has to do with what you search and click on, but showing the “why” is a smart move by Google. If consumers trust the ads, they will be more apt to click and act upon them.

This is what Google had to say specifically about “Why these ads”

“Why these ads” gives you transparency
The perfect search ad answers your query and gets you what you’re looking for quickly. When you click the “Why these ads” link, you’ll find information about why you’re seeing a particular ad and how it’s personalized for you. If you’re searching for a local restaurant while you’re on vacation in Hawaii, you would see ads for restaurants that are nearby, rather than restaurants in your hometown. Or if you’re researching flat-panel televisions, and performing a series of similar searches in quick succession, you could see ads based on the query that you just entered, or based on a few recent and related queries within a single browser session. By considering the language you’re using, your geographic location and various other indications, we’re able to show you the best ads possible. We’ve been showing ads in this way for years as a way to help you quickly find what you’re looking for.

Ads preference manager

Along with showing you why you’re seeing certain ads, you will now have access to an “Ads preferences manager“. The preferences manager lets you decide which ad providers are blocked, and gives you the opportunity to opt-out of personalized advertising altogether. Clearly that’s not something that Google wants, but surfacing it as an option certainly is putting it in the hands of its users.

This type of interaction with advertisements that you see online is the only way that big companies like Google and Facebook can get you interested in them again. Of course Google lets you “+1″ an ad that you find interesting, but it’s unlikely that ads alone are worth sharing. The reasoning behind why you saw a specific ad? Now that’s something to talk about.

For one of Sony’s latest advertisements, the company aimed to create an ad that emphasised a pure sound experience and highlighted their passion for sound . Ad agency Fallon were assigned the task, and the result involved transforming the Icelandic town of Seydisfjordur, with a population of 800 people and almost no traffic, into one giant soundspeaker system.

In a short film, titled Soundville, the companies document three days in the life of the town after the transformation. No actors were used in the film, so the viewer gets to see how the townspeople reacted to sounds and echoes generated through the pervasive sound system. The results are pretty remarkable to say the least.

Oh and if you’re wondering how they came up with the idea, Fallon’s Juan Cabral, who also masterminded Sony Bravia’s color-filled Balls idea, said:

“I was buying milk while listening to Stockhausen on my headphones. I felt everyone should be listening too.”

Genius.

via PSFK via Creativity Online