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The most sophisticated ad unit I’ve seen in a long time

The ad is absolutely NSFW (Not Safe for Work / Wife) but I recently stumbled on it while looking at some web logs and was immediately impressed.

This is the most impressive ad unit I’ve seen in a long time, for a number of reasons. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that the adult industry is pioneering this, as they also helped invent affiliate marketing and pay per click.

Don’t click if your boss is peering over your shoulder

Basically this is what they do:

  • Take a pic of a semi-naked girl holding a sign
  • Look up the browser’s IP address
  • Map the IP to the city where the user belongs
  • Write the city name into the picture
  • Incorporate it within context, in my case "Palo Alto rules!"

All of this done on a dedicated landing page versus a banner ad.

I’ve often seen geo-targeted ads that are transparent about the targeting in Adult Friend Finder’s case, where they show girls’ profiles and the name of your city underneath the profile. (As if they are available to you, when in fact they are fake pictures of girls)

Hopefully this was a fun break from your work :)

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Written by Andrew Chen
May 6th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
  • Adam

    Where were you exactly when you saw this ad? Nevermind, don’t answer that one.

    I’ve also seen these ads used for Real Estate, with similar graphical treatment…e.g. “Great rates in San Carlos” written on a sign. For some reason though, they’re always about two cities off when I see them.

    But the idea is very cool, agreed.

  • http://www.rahimfazal.com Rahim

    rrrrrrr! it’s like she was
    placed there just for me :)
    What a GREAT example of a cheap personalized display unit.

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