Jason Calacanis, who still hasn’t added his bulldog Toro to Dogster, had an interesting post yesterday about how advertising on social networks is not that effective. He writes that when users go to social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook or Friendster they have two choices: flirt and socialize or click advertisements. They are in the ‘hook up’ mindset so clicking on ads that are not of that mindset are not very effective. He then compares that to a vertical content site like Autoblog where users are in the ‘consume auto info’ mindset. The vertical content site is much more interesting for advertisers because it is not conflicting with the users’ mindset. An automobile advertisement on an auto site is almost as interesting and relevant as the actual content if one is in the ‘consume auto info’ mindset.

I see what he means for the above examples, but on Dogster and Catster, I think it is a bit different. Our sites involve both social networking and vertical content and our advertising campaigns have proven to be very successful. Our users’ mindset is “show and share my love of dogs and/or cats”. We proactively bring our advertiser’s message into this mindset. We call this an integrated brand campaign approach. It layers in the advertiser’s message at many different layers within the vast Dogster and Catster framework. In addition, we encourage our advertisers to provide a community benefit along with their message. Many advertisers have ‘got this’ and have had very successful campaigns. My favorite is the Disney campaign we are currently running. Disney’s Lady and the Tramp characters are members of Dogster and Catster. Members can become their friends, email them and Disney can message them back. The members love it and so does Disney. An approach like this allows us to bring in advertisers that aren’t necessarily selling pet products. As long as the message is integrated into the fun and trustworthiness of the Dogster/Catster communities and matches the user’s mindset, it will be a success. Our follow up research on similar campaigns has shown these campaigns to be 25-50 times more effective than banner ads giving our advertisers and sponsors (Dad’s, Target, Animal Planet, Nintendo, ASPCA, Petsmart Charities, etc.) a nice ROI on their campaign.