SimSCity.co.uk

Understanding ad servers

Whenever I try to explain to people what it is I do for a living I always get asked the question “what is an ad server” so I thought I would give a brief explanation for everybody to understand.

An ad server is a piece of technology that stores adverts used in online marketing and delivers them to website visitors.

Ad serving describes the piece of kit and service that places adverts on sites. Ad serving companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different advertising campaigns.

In addition, the ad server also performs various other tasks like counting the number of impressions/clicks for an ad campaign and report generation.

Ad servers come in two types: local ad servers and third-party. Local ad servers are run by a single publisher and serve ads to that publisher’s sites. Third-party ad servers can serve ads across domains owned by multiple publishers. They deliver the ads from one central source so that advertisers and publishers can track the distribution of their online ads, and have one location for controlling the rotation and distribution of their advertisements across the web.

The typical functionality of ad servers includes:

* Uploading adverts
* Trafficking ads according to differing business rules.
* Targeting ads to different users, or content.
* Optimization based on results.
* Reporting impressions, clicks, post-click & post-impression

More to follow……..

Posted in Digital Media, Operations | 4 Comments »

NMA Effectiveness Awards 2008

The NMA 2008 Effectiveness Awards.

It’s that time again!

“The NMA Effectiveness Awards is the most salient awards ceremony in the digital media calendar bringing together the leading industry figures, celebrating the greatest achievements in digital media. The NMA awards also provides a perfect platform for building brand awareness, market profile and generating and maturing relations.

Hosted at the Grosvenor House hotel, Park Lane on Thursday 26th June.

www.nmaawards.co.uk

First half of the night was great, can’t remember the second half!

Posted in Digital Media | 3 Comments »

Commodore 64

In this weeks look back into histology we find ourselves going way back into my childhood.

The first computer to hit my bedroom and probably the first in my memory ………..

The Commodore 64 was produced in 1982 and packed a whopping 64 kb of RAM!

The best part of the Commodore 64 was the ability to allows users to play demos games before purchasing which was a feature well ahead of it’s time.

Posted in General | No Comments »

iPhones running away!

Not only have the iPhone’s dropped down in price, Apple have now cut supplies to retailers! All this fuels consumer predictions of a 3rd generation model. With the ever iPhone 2.0 software soon to hit iPhone lovers in June who’s to say Mr Jobs won’t take us to ecstasy with a 3rd generation- 2.0 version.

Posted in iPhone | No Comments »

Mr site’s take away website

I started to use this tool when I was first getting into setting up my own website.

Mr Site’s is a Takeaway Website offering individuals and small businesses most of the tools they need to get a professional-looking website online.

The concept itself is brilliant, for £35 I could have my own dot com set up in 30 mins.

Its main features include :

Secure Paypal Shopping Cart
Hosting & Bandwidth
you@yourdomain.com
Music Player
Diary / Blog
And many more…

However, with all these great features available to the user there is only so far you can go. There are some advanced features which need to added to the platform, for example, tag integration and more user control over look an feel. Not to mention the tool has more bugs then my back garden!

If its just a quick easy website you want to set up I would suggest checking out Mr site, if not you might want to go for one of the more advanced platforms.

Posted in Fun, General | No Comments »

Wii Fit

I wasn’t one of the first to have the Wii Fit, my local woolies wouldn’t allow me to reserve one, but thanks to my persistence I managed to find one in Argos!

Well what can I say for me excersise usually consists of the walk to the train station on my way to work in the morning but now thanks to the Wii Fit I play without realising that I’m actually excerising.

My first try it conducts a body test which measures your BMI center of gravity and gives you a Wii Fit age, I found out I lean to much to the right, I have an ideal BMI but I am actually 48! Exactly that’s like 23 years older than I really am!!!

So in order to change that I played many of the games, in true Nintendo style it has many of the games locked so the more you work out the more games you get to unlock, the competition between family and friends actually drives me to do more although I can see that it could have the opposite affect. For me the hula hoop game gets me back to my youth and the skiing is also fun, however the jogging on the spot can get slightly tedious but after all this a week later my Wii fit age is down to 21… I done it, I actually made myself younger!

Pro’s
Competition between the family may bring you together the games don’t make you feel like you have done an hour in the gym but you do feel it after a while

Con’s
The Wii fit age can jump dramatically and it sometimes asks inappropriate questions but just remember it is only a computer you don’t have to take it personally

If you don’t use it, it will just be a piece of genius merchinary that you have spent £70 that sits under you television

RRP £69

Personally I recommend you use it but sometimes it is difficult to find time to have a go but it is enjoyable when you do!

Posted in Fun | 2 Comments »