Meta: Advertising

All the talk of Yahoo bringing ads to Tumblr set me thinking. Here’s what I’ve come up with as a best case. Please let me know if this exists already.

1. As part of the dashboard, I can view google analytics style stats. (Visitors, location, etc.) If I agree to host ads, potential advertisers can see these too, so that they can come and find me.
2. I can see a page of potential advertisers, who have sample ads that match the Tumblr post types of Photo, Video etc. In particular, the Photo ones have no words over the photo (so they’re not billboard ads) but they may have text captions. They might be logos if nicely designed. Yahoo uses some clever Flickr technology to cut out crap at source. (In fact, maybe there’s a way to to promote advertisers to me based on photo-similarity?) A photo could also be a nice headshot of an author who has a relevant book out, or of the book jacket, or a picture within. Text ads could be used for announcements or job ads. I can choose which post types may appear (only photo or text here, for example).
3. I can choose which advertisers to include, and their sponsored posts will appear in the blog stream. A sponsored post might appear below the post on a single-post page.
4. For example, I’d imagine choosing a developer of mid-rise mixed-use buildings, whose sponsored posts would be a rendering of their project, with explanatory text and a link below. Although unbuilt, it would otherwise fit pretty well into the flow.
5. I can also email potential advertisers (i.e. brands I like, possibly small local ones) from within the Advertising Dashboard to suggest they sign up and get customers through me. Somehow the system tracks this and adds them to my approved list if they do. Maybe I even get a signing bonus from Yahoo, or perhaps when another tumblog agrees to host their ads. I would totally use Tumblr as a platform for this if they made it easy. I believe the only current way is to use a third party.
6. Unchosen advertisers can request to appear, and maybe a slightly evil Yahoo might force some in if I chose none. That probably wouldn’t do anyone any good though. (I imagine they’d get a Dashboard to help find relevant audiences.) The AdDashboard would also suggest to me similar advertisers, in the same sector, or with the same keywords, as existing ones.
7. Click-through revenue is all handled by Yahoo and is shared between us.

The point of course is to ensure relevant ads for the audience that don’t disturb the feel and flow of the tumblog. I’m sure advertisers don’t want their brand tainted by appearing incongruously in unwanted places. Tumblr’s theme skinning should make this easier.

I understand Yahoo might have to force ads on all tumblogs eventually, but I wouldn’t go forcing ads on tumblogs without this kind of potential customization. If the tools to implement this easily already exist, please let me know. If you know Marissa or Dave, please feel free to pass this on!

Surrey Dreaming

I haven’t been able to get that last photo of the Plaça Reial out of my head so I’ve tried to purge it with a bit of fantasy sprawl repair.

Here’s the Plaça Reial, Barcelona superimposed over the intersection of King George and 96th Avenue in Surrey, BC.

Lets say you were able to get your hands on all four corner lots at once. This might not be too outlandish if they’re all auto-oriented: two drive-throughs and two gas stations might all fail at once some time in the next decade or two. Here’s an idea for an alternative intersection.

T5 refers to a built form (massing etc.) similar to that around Barcelona’s square; T4 is smaller, more like traditional ‘Main Street USA’. (More on T-zones here.) Beyond this intersection are cul-de-sacs of single-family dwellings, which are a kind of bastardized T3, so the idea is to step down to that. I imagine the T5 having a ground floor set back to allow a covered arcade, as in Barcelona. Both have ground floor commercial, with residential apartments (some large and luxurious, some single-bedroom and studio) above.

I’ve split the arterial to go around the new square. The traffic lights ensure cars yield to approaching BRT. They might serve only that purpose - perhaps with a railway-style barrier lever - leaving the car lanes to merge civilly at other times.

I have Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) running along the central two lanes of the six-lane arterials, which is something that has been proposed for King George. It could be a tram if you like. I don’t think this crossing the square every five minutes would be an issue: like the ParadePlatz tram in Zurich, for example.

The BRT stations could be in sheltered arcades, and the T5 buildings surrounding the square could also have fully covered arcades providing more pedestrian connection out.

I’ve left some parking on the edge as a sop to the panicky, but of course my hope is that most residents will use on-street-stored carshare when the BRT connection doesn’t serve.

I got a bit of criticism last time I compared Metro Vancouver land use choices to a European city, so I look forward to the fertile debate this time too.

“I like to call it ‘the national automobile slum.’ You can call it suburban sprawl. I think it’s appropriate to call it the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. You can call it a technosis externality clusterfuck.”

- James Kunstler

Plaça Reial in Barcelona. Restaurants on the ground floor, apartments above. Photograph by (and I believe of) @bcrobyn.

I particularly love this photo as a counter to two fallacies I hear around Metro Vancouver: that the City of Vancouver can’t have nice architecture because it rains; and that the rest of Metro Vancouver can’t have nice places, because it’s not blessed with City of Vancouver’s beaches and views.

No matter where your city is, and whatever its weather, consider trees on a square surrounded by attractive arcaded mid-rise mixed-use. Check that your zoning and street design regulations don’t make this illegal. Developers: go for it.

Wuping, China

Macau, China

Basel, Switzerland

Bilbao, Spain

Liverpool, UK

Riga, Latvia

Dublin, Ireland

Fukuoka, Japan

Bilbao, Spain

Vancouver, BC, Canada

Segovia, Spain

Deluth, MN, USA