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 :)