xing offline advertising targets tube passengers

Anyone read Metro yesterday?

http://www.xing.com/ the professional networking site had a fairly big ad in there yesterday morning. Anyone who's ever looked into advertising in Metro will know these ads ain't cheap. Also noticed poster advertising at one of the tube stations I was at. This sort of campaign isn't uncharted territory for xing - a couple of clicks from google will show there are comments on tube station advertising in Vienna and a Flickr pic of an xing ad in Barcelona's Metro - see above. Clearly xing are getting a return on this type of approach.

While this advertising is small change to Jobsite's £15million campaign , it is another sign of both just how quickly the market is maturing and also that any new entrants into the market are going to need some pretty deep pockets.

While they're not 100% like for like in terms of features, I don't think xing would be offended if I were to say they were going head to head with LinkedIn. In fact, their ad seems to take a bit of delight in this - the strap line is "Start Networking, Not Just Linkin'" I wonder how much their marekting guys would have loved to added "ed" to "Linkin." The rest of the text makes a pretty clear play on the benefits of getting onto xing - Digital identity, advance your career, effective contact management, business opportunities etc. I'm a little surprised that there was no mention of "managing your reputation online" or "building your personal/ professional online brand." I'll post a pic of the ad later....

One thing I would suggest xing consider is looking at the actual graphic. Might have been nice if there had been people in the xing network in the UK as opposed to Continental Europe! Maybe I'm being pernickety but you don't need to look to far from a Google search on xing to see comments about it having much more of a region specific feel/ reputation. I don't think that's the case but I do think they could have got a little more from their ad with a very small change!

This business networking market is becoming more and more crowded, I shudder to think of how many variants are currently in development - I can think of quite a few, and I would suspect you probably can too. Those looking to enter the market are going to need more than a great site - deep pockets also required! I'd love to hear how much it is costing someone like xing to acquire a new user. Some of the figures I've heard from other sites are shockingly high... In fact, if the guys at xing are feeling friendly, I'd love to see the cost per acquisition before and after the latest ad campaign.