Have you ever found yourself saying, "We know Christmas (or the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards, or back to school) are going to happen every year. Why do we always end up developing our content at the last minute?"

We've been there and we know there are many annual events for which brands need to develop addictive experiences. Next time you find yourself up against a wall, call us. We may already have an idea for a seasonal program just waiting for your brand to sponsor. At the very least we'll be able to generate many ideas for you quickly.

In the early days of both radio and television, when there was a dearth of good programming to sponsor, advertisers took matters into their own hands by creating shows they knew would be popular with their audiences. Many people don't know it but Procter and Gamble invented the Soap Opera.

For all its popularity, the Web doesn't contain enough good programming to satisfy the advertising needs of all the brands out there. It's deja vu all over. Instead of plastering the Web with banner ads that people hate, advertisers will do themselves, their customers, and the Web, a huge service by creating content that people value.

Need some examples? If you design fashions for teens, why run boring banners when you can create a Back To School Fashion Show where teens are able to buy your product? Are you a financial services brand? Creating "How To" videos such as "How To Refinance Your Mortgage" or "How To Set Up An Online Bank Account" will get your audience practicing the same behaviors as your existing customers.

If you depend upon the same old reach and frequency type of approach, your customers will avoid you like the plague. Immerse them in a helpful, or enjoyable, or highly interesting experience, and they'll return to you habitually in time of need.

Retail mogul John Wanamaker once said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half."

He probably never advertised on AOL, Yahoo, MSN, or any of the other portals. If he had, he'd have known that more than half his money was wasted.

Don't get us wrong. Portals are GREAT places to advertise. But the vast majority of advertisers don't take advantage of all the amazing tools and content that portals offer. And because portals separate ad sales from content development, the people selling you space often don't even know that the tools and content exist. Unless you're paying people at your agency to do nothing but hit every page of every portal every day and try out all of the tools that portals offer, you'll find it tough to make the most out of your portal spend.

We can help. We spent the last two years helping to redesign AOL so that it would be much more advertiser friendly. Part of our job was to know our competition. Today we have teams that are completely dedicated to learning and knowing all there is to know about the major portals. We can tell you which content your brand should be sponsoring and which tools can boost your response rates dramatically.

If you'd like a comprehensive analysis of your portal strategy and a recommendation on ways to improve the effectiveness of your portal campaigns, you can Contact Us .