Creating a new brand for classifieds
October 23, 2008 by tom.corbett
Joachim Vranken, CEO of Kalaydo.de, talks about the relationship between brand and performance marketing of the classified advertising site.
Kalaydo.de is a regionally focussed classified website in Northrhine-Westphalia and Rheinland-Pfalz. It was established as a new brand independent from any newspaper that created the site like Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger, Rheinische Post, Westdeutsche Zeitung and Aachener Zeitung.
Mr. Vranken spoke at the INMA/IFRA Classified Advertising Seminar, organized in Prague on October 22-23, 2008.
Joachim Vranken agreed with Sharon Knitter of US-based Cars.com that the user experience is KEY! ”The money will follow the users and not the other way around”, he said.
Kalaydo.de wants to deliver at any time the best quality in three dimensions to its users:
- user experience/usability,
- product quality/processes,
- comunication.
Joachim told the audience: “When you ensure the best user experience through best content quality, and the best user experience through best user friendliness, you will be a winner in traffic and as such: a winner in effect to advertisers and in ad volume and ad quality!”
Mr. Vranken disagreed with Gerald Coniel of South African Junk Mail Publishing that ”Search Engine Optimisation is the most important factor in getting traffic to your site.”
Kalaydo.de launched with a huge campaign in newspapers, cinema, on TV, etc… They had 3 million euro budget for marketing in the first year and in 2008 the marketing budget is around 1 million euro. They even sold the original Davis Cup on Kalaydo.de!
”As a result we achieved a top position on the classified market right from the beginning,” Joachim told the audience.
CEO of Kalaydo.de gave eight recommendations to other classified media executives:
- Learn everything about Google.
- Learn even more about Google.
- Then ask people who know more about Google than you.
- Talk to the Google people.
- Implement a good tracking system from day one.
- Define your Key Performance Indicators.
- Spend money, test and target.
- Start at point No. 1 again!
Tagged: advertising, classified advertising, IFRA, INMA, internet, seminar
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“The money will follow the users and the other way around”, he said.”
Has this been quoted correctly? Wondering if he actually said: “The money will follow the users and NOT the other way around.”
I’m interested in this because I am locked in a battle with people who want to build a classifieds service that almost ignores the user experience. They want to trade on traditional newspaper readers’ online ignorance.
My argument is that to have a chance of competing over the longer term with the countless numbers of new classified services available, we have to put the user first every time.
@confiteor: You’re right: the money will follow the users and NOT the other way around.
Re: user experience in classifieds. This case may also be interesting for you.
Last year, at the INMA Classified Advertising seminar in Warsaw, Pawel Wujec, Director of Vertical Portals at Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and Tan Chan, COO at US-based Gabriels Technology Solutions, were speaking about designing user experience for Gazeta’s real estate vertical.
Main points:
- the user’s journey to buy a property starts not with ads, but with information about neighbourhood (crime, transport, schools etc.), prices in this area and information about construction companies;
- the ads: user gets detailed listings with photos of the building facilities, area, apartament plans etc.;
- additional services: financial options, mortgage offers etc.;
- they advised not to leave users after the transaction: message boards and stories about construction companies, customers’ reviews etc. provide helpful information for old and new customers;
- content on interior design, editorially and user generated: they created a community-driven database of users’ photos and stories with ideas and advice about interior design.
You can have a look at their website: http://gazetadom.pl (in Polish). Hope it is helpful.
Interested peoples only.
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