HopStop Offers Small Businesses A Free Advertising Opportunity

Small businesses around the U.S. will soon have an opportunity to test-drive an advertising opportunity that's targeted directly to commuters in their respective cities. HopStop, the online service that provides door-to-door subway and bus directions for major cities in the U.S. and abroad, has kicked off "HopStop AdLocal," a new program that offers businesses up to 12,500 free advertising impressions over a 30-day period, a value of $250, the company says.

Here's how it works: Business owners can sign up for HopStop AdLocal online and build their own ad -- including business name, address and advertising message. After choosing a start-date for the 30-day trial period, their geo-targeted ad will appear within the directions results provided to HopStop's online users, tailored to the specific neighborhoods they are traveling to. HopStop plans to expand the program to users of its mobile apps by mid-2012.

The idea, according to HopStop CEO Joe Meyer, is that consumers will be likely to make purchases on their travels between destinations, specifically when walking to and from transit station stops. "If a HopStop user is headed to the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, for example, and there's a cupcake store there, we'll give that store owner the opportunity to advertise directly to our user who's headed to that neighborhood," he says. "As a result of our core service of providing point-to-point directions, we have knowledge of people's whereabouts -- their current location and the location of their destination. … It seemed like a no-brainer to start working with local merchants."

Meyer says HopStop AdLocal was created after several months of fielding requests from small businesses about how they can advertise on the site. Until now, HopStop's stable of advertisers has included larger-market companies including Starbucks, Bank of America and CVS.

After the 30-day period expires, business owners will have the choice of dropping out of the program or signing up for one of the program's three paid options: one day for $250, one week for $500 and one month for $1,000. "We didn't want to treat local merchants as though they are big-budget advertisers," Meyer says. "We realize that every dollar is very meaningful for them."

There is no purchase required to qualify for the free trial, HopStop says. However, the company does require that participating businesses post a free HopStop direction link on either their main Website or mobile Website. "It's really another free service," Meyer says. "Say you go to a site's 'contact us' page or directions page, where it shows their address and gives directions, if that business is part of our program HopStop will power that directions link for free."

HopStop isn't alone. Last month, Facebook said it was offering free ads to small businesses.

So far, HopStop AdLocal is only available to business owners in New York City. HopStop plans to roll the program into other northeast cities in the coming months and nationwide after that. HopStop says it gets about 55 million users annually.

This post originally appeared on Entrepreneur.

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Twitter Is About To Get Very Serious About Advertising

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Twitter needs to start pulling in serious revenue.

John Battelle believes they are close.

The Federated Media founder says that promoted tweets are going to start being a much bigger part of the business model.

Advertisers will be able to target people based on their interests targeting, their location, and their demographic.

Advertisers should be able to purchase ads on a cost-per-engagement model and a "real-time second-price bidded auction."

Long story short: more metrics=more advertisers=more revenue. Everyone wins.

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Advertising And The Future Of Apple

After Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple last week, speculation about the company's future began immediately.The consensus seemed to be that Jobs built a strong culture, hired smart people, and taught a way of thinking that will serve Apple well in the future. The story line went like this-- while Jobs will be missed, he is no longer essential to the future of the company and it will go on brilliantly without him.I don't buy this for a second. Genius is non-transferable.Jobs hasn't just created better computers, he has created a world that nobody else could envision. He brought an artist's sensibility to a field previously populated by capable but tone-deaf engineers. He didn't just make beautiful looking hardware, he took what was a dead screen full of little green letters on a blue background and turned it into an astounding, enchanting world of graphics, music, and video that has become a central feature of contemporary life. He has made work more fun, knowledge more available, and entertainment more rewarding.Anyone who has had the pleasure of buying an Apple product knows the great aesthetic delight of turning it on for the first time and seeing the beauty that ensues. Even going to an Apple store is a completely unique and strangely arresting experience.On Friday, Apple became the world's largest company, surpassing ExxonMobil in market value. It will not simply evaporate. The most likely scenario is that Apple will continue to shine for a few years while the initiatives that Jobs started are still in the pipeline, and then slowly the company's radiance will start to dim. They will be successful and will continue to produce excellent products for a long time -- but the startling brilliance will slowly fade.Many successful creative enterprises turn out to be the extended shadow of one individual. My best guess is that Apple is such an enterprise.Interestingly, one of the first indications of whether Apple is capable of continuing its explosion of creative energy without Jobs at the helm may be found in its advertising. The product pipeline will take years to screw up. But the ad pipeline can be screwed up in no time.About a year from now, with Jobs in the background, the knuckleheads at Apple (there are knuckleheads everywhere) will have a chance to get their sweaty hands on the advertising.Jobs is a brilliant technology visionary. But let's not forget that he is also the best ad man of his generation. He is what you might call a "classicist." Apple advertising is simple. It is almost always product-focused (the product usually sits smack dab in the middle of a white page.) The TV spots for the iPad and iPhone are usually nothing more than simple but compelling product demonstrations.Here are some clues to look for in Apple's advertising that will indicate that dull hands are grabbing at the wheel:

1. Creeping Brandism: The Apple brand was built bottom-up. That is, the products defined the brand. Virtually every Apple ad was about a product, not  the brand (okay, there was "Think Different" but that didn't last.) Keep an eye out for the erosion of this discipline.

2. Agency change: Vapid marketing people relegated to the background all these years by Jobs' dominance may suddenly start flexing. They wouldn't dare contradict Jobs' legacy, but they could accomplish the same thing by undermining the agency.

3. The Tortured Logic of Account Planning: Look for ads about you the consumer instead of Apple products. Look for moronic online "engagement" gimmicks. Or look for social media pandering.

4. Complications: Part of the brilliance of Apple advertising has been its simplicity.  Keep an eye out for complicated ideas or ads with more than one product.

5. Media: Apple has used online media sparingly. The preponderance of its advertising has been conducted in traditional media -- TV, print, and outdoor. Watch to see if Apple suddenly starts going all trendy and new age in its media choices.

If you start seeing any of these signs coming out of Cupertino, sell your shares. Advertising will be an early indicator of whether people without vision and taste are moving in at Apple. It will be interesting to watch.

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