The Rise of Online Adspend

“The boom in online video, social and ‘performance’ marketing contributed to the 10% increase in online advertising spend during the first half of 2010, which saw UK marketers invest £1,968.6 million, lifting the medium to a record market share of 24.3%.
The return to double-digit growth for the internet mirrors the general recovery of the entire advertising industry, with total UK expenditure increasing 6.3% to £8.1 billion between January and June 2010.”

Read more here

New research from Aegis Media & Microsoft Advertising

“The global recession has affected the way consumers are shopping. More than ever they are looking for value and as a consequence, they are making further decisions and spending extra time shopping – with Asians leading the way. This was among the key findings in the Global Retail Index, a new study commissioned by Microsoft Advertising and Aegis Media, and undertaken independently by London-based Essential Research.
The study, arguably the most comprehensive retail research of its kind since the global recession, zeroed in on four key retail sectors – groceries, apparel, home electronics, and fast food. It polled 19,000 shoppers across 17 countries in the USA, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Additionally, ethnographic studies were conducted in six markets representing these regions.

Most of the respondents (94 – 96%) across all four regions admitted that they were impacted by the recession. The study showed that this has consequently given rise to ‘value seeking’ shopping behavior, with consumers going to great lengths to find better value buys. Rather than taking a traditional approach when purchasing, post-recession value seekers are now looking for additional information from a variety of sources before they buy. And the main source for their research is the Internet.”

Read more here

Twitter Launches Redesign

Twitter has always been about getting a lot in a little. The constraint of 140 characters drives conciseness and lets you quickly discover and share what's happening. Yet, they've learned something since starting Twitter—life doesn't always fit into 140 characters or less.

Today, they are introducing a new, re-engineered Twitter.com that provides an easier, faster, and richer experience.

On the site, you’ll see the familiar timeline, yet underneath each Tweet is a handful of information, deeper context and even embedded media. Simply click on an individual Tweet and a details pane slides out on the right and reveals this content.

You can find out more about the enhancements on this information page. Here are some highlights:

•New design. The site has a cleaner timeline and a rich details pane that instantly adds more impact to individual Tweets while still maintaining the simplicity of the timeline. And, experience infinite scroll -- you no longer have to click “more” to view additional Tweets.

•Media. Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with Flickr, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, and YouTube.

•Related content. When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: replies, other Tweets by that user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more.

•Mini profiles. Click a username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.

These changes will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks starting with a very small percentage of registered accounts tonight. During the preview, you'll be able to switch back and forth so you have time to grow accustomed to the way things work. Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com.

Read more here

The Smartphone Invasion

“Last quarter it was reported on some pretty stellar growth numbers for Android in the global smartphone marketplace. Back then, Google's OS had a 9.6 percent slice of the pie, but today that's ballooned to a robust 17.2 percent, meaning that in terms of end-user sales over the last three months, Android has nearly matched RIM's BlackBerry sales. That's quite the feat when you consider that a year ago the latter was shifting ten times more units than the former. This extraordinary growth rate has narrowed down Symbian's lead at the top, in spite of Nokia's favorite OS actually shipping on more phones this year, while the big loser of the quarter has to be Windows Mobile, which contracted both in terms of market share and actual shipments.”

Read more here

TVNZ Heartland Exceeds Expectations

"TVNZ Heartland, New Zealand’s newest TV channel and first with 100% Kiwi content, has exceeded expectations with 21 percent of New Zealanders tuning into the channel since launch.

TVNZ launched TVNZ Heartland on the SKY pay TV platform on 1 June and in the past four weeks 834,400 New Zealanders have watched the channel.

Eric Kearley, TVNZ’s Head of Digital Channels and Digital Media, is delighted with the success of TVNZ’s first venture into pay TV.

“TVNZ Heartland is only 10 weeks old and is already drawing in one in five New Zealanders. That’s a fantastic result. It just highlights the fact that New Zealanders love local shows.”

Kearley believes that TVNZ Heartland is a reservoir of New Zealand television gold and something we can all be proud of.

“We’re delighted that we can celebrate the fantastic work of the New Zealand production industry by bringing New Zealanders the TV shows that they’ve grown up with, as well as more recent dramas and factual programming.

“The channel wouldn’t be possible without the support of our sponsors – Toyota, Mitre 10, The National Bank, Foodstuffs and our most recent addition Fonterra. It’s a channel that they can be proud to associate their iconic brands with.”
TVNZ Heartland is TVNZ’s fifth channel and demonstrates the evolution of TVNZ’s strategy of Inspiring New Zealanders on Every Screen.

“Launching a pay TV channel is a key step in our strategy to be New Zealand’s leading multi-platform media company, delivering excellent environments and audiences for advertisers, and quality content for New Zealand viewers.”

The launch of TVNZ Heartland is one of the strongest channel launches in the past five years.

TVNZ Heartland is found on SKY channel 017."

CARAT NEW ZEALAND HAS PARTNERED WITH JB HI-FI

Auckland, 22 July 2010: Carat New Zealand has partnered with audio/visual giant JB Hi-Fi without a formal pitch. Billings for the account are $1.5million.

Carat will handle the offline media buying, with digital being added to Carat’s responsibility at a future date.

Ryf Quail, General Manager of Carat New Zealand said, “We are excited to be working with a high growth client such as JB Hi-Fi. Carat’s focus of driving commercial advantage in media provided a great platform for us to improve their approach to buying media in this market and significantly improve JB Hi-Fi’s return on investment.”

Strong vs Weak Ties

"Recently a presentation from the research lead for Google’s social team, Paul Adams, has been spreading around the web. The presentation provides deeper insight into Google’s existing concept of “social” and could help us further understand what the company believes is weaknesses in Facebook’s armor as they prepared to launch a “Facebook killer“. There were a number of themes that were consistent throughout the presentation, all of which we’ve included below.

The overall theme of the presentation was consistent: we have multiple groups and within those groups there are individuals who we have strong ties with and many more who we have weak ties with. There are also even temporary ties, like the person at the restaurant who served you food last night. While getting the system right on this is extremely difficult, the strong vs. weak ties is something that Facebook has yet to enable users to control.

Instead, the strength of relationships on Facebook is determined algorithmically: the more we interact (and/or view) a person on the site, the more likely they’ll show up in our news feed. So far the only way Facebook has been able to empower users to control access to information is through friends lists, a feature that even Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged is for “advanced” users of the site."

Read more here

The World Cup breaks Internet traffic level records

“World Cup fever pushed the Internet to a new record on Friday, according to measurements from Akamai.

Traffic to news sites globally started a steady climb about 6 a.m. Eastern time and peaked six hours later at noon, reaching nearly 12.1 million visitors per minute.

The traffic dipped going into the afternoon but stayed well above normal. The figures suggest that the Internet was most active during the Mexico-South Africa game and stayed heavy through the France-Uruguay game.

The day's traffic far exceeded the previous record of 8.5 million visitors per minute, which was set when Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election in 2008.”

The article from CNET avaliable at this link

And go the All Whites!!

Introducing Promoted Tweets

“Since April, Twitter users have grown accustomed to Twitter’s first ad revenue play: Promoted Tweets. Today, the second phase of that strategy is starting to be tested: Promoted Trending Topics. The first such topic? Toy Story 3, promoted by Disney/Pixar.As you can see in the right hand toolbar of Twitter.com, at the bottom of the Trending Topics area there is now an 11th topic, “Toy Story 3.” Next to it is a big yellow box letting you know that it’s a promoted Trending Topic. Just as with Promoted Tweets, the functionality for these Promoted Trending Topics is the same as the regular Trending Topics — clicking on it takes you to a search results page to see what people are saying about Toy Story 3.

“As we have always said, we plan to test different advertising and promotional models in these early stages of our monetization efforts for both user and brand value. As part of this effort, we are testing trends clearly marked as “promoted” for an undefined period of time,” a Twitter representative tells us.”

See the original article here

What’s a fan worth?

“Social media is becoming widely adopted by businesses of all sizes, yet one of the biggest struggles has been calculating the ROI of these campaigns.  In response to this struggle, Syncapse, a global leader in digital consulting and measurement with a focus on social media, has released a report that dives deep into the data.

As part of their study, Syncapse surveyed 4,000 fans of twenty of the top brands on Facebook.  The brands included Nokia, BlackBerry, Victoria’s Secret, Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Xbox, Axe, Playstation and McDonald’s.  The focus group was asked why they were fans of those brands and about their past and future purchasing behavior.  Syncapse then used these responses to estimate the monetary value of each fan over time. Below are the key findings of the report:

• The average value of a Facebook Fan is $136.38.

• Facebook Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using a specific brand.

• 68% of Facebook Fans indicate that they are highly likely to recommend a product they are a fan of to their friends.

• 81% of Facebook Fans report feelings a connection/empathy with the brand

It is important to note that the results also showed how the value of a fan can vary widely based on the fan’s participation.”

See here for the original article and for a copy of the full report click here

BP buys search terms

As BP continues to try to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the energy giant is also dealing with a public relations nightmare.

That's why the company is snapping up search phrases like "oil spill" and "oil spill claims" on Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500). The strategy, says a company spokeswoman, aims to "assist those who are most impacted and help them find the right forms and the right people quickly and effectively."

For instance, when a user searches "oil spill" on Google or Yahoo, there are millions of results -- but the first link on both search engines is a sponsored ad that leads to BP's "Gulf of Mexico response" page that provides resources and information about the spill.”

For more info see here

Apple shows off redesigned iPhone

“The revamped gadget has a stainless steel case, two cameras, improved display and is 24% thinner than the most recent version.

Apple boss Steve Jobs said the redesign was the "biggest leap" it had taken since the launch of the first iPhone.

But analysts said the phone's popularity could be dented by Apple's strict control over what owners can do with their gadget.

The gadget was revealed during the keynote speech at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.”

See more here

adidas runbase opens in Tokyo

JAP – "Sportswear giant Adidas is meeting the demand for high-technology running equipment and consumer interaction by opening a completely new concept store. Runners can drop into the ‘base’ before work, rent one of the 248 lockers provided, borrow cutting edge Adidas equipment shoes and clothing, and then hit the streets. Adidas Runbase also features 16 shower cubicles, so Tokyoites can freshen up after their run before heading to work".

For more info, click here

13% of American internet users bought virtual goods last year

“According to the study, 13% of the overall population surveyed reported that they had bought virtual goods in the last 12 months, with the mean of digital good purchase up 14% from $87 in 2009 to $99 in 2010. The median of digital goods purchase is $50 in 2010, a 67% improvement from $30 in 2009. In terms of the heaviest concentration of digital goods buyers, iPhone owners took over the #1 spot, moving from 28% of iPhone owners in 2009 to 43% in 2010. Virtual worlds came in second place with 41% of regular visitors having bought a digital good. Of weekly handheld and mobile gamers, 33% and 32%, respectively, bought digital goods. Overall, more than one-fifth (21%) of those who bought digital goods said they plan to spend more in the next 12 months. Among ways to purchase digital goods, 16% of digital goods buyers say they have used Facebook Credits.”

To find out more click here

The World Cup could be the most watched event in TV history

“You wouldn’t have thought many people would have watched Togo vs South Korea at the World Cup of 2006. These were unglamorous teams, meeting in the first round. Nonetheless, the game’s average live global TV audience was 109m viewers. That was more than saw last year’s Super Bowl of American football, or Champions League final, or probably any non-sporting TV programme. And the 109m doesn’t include hordes who watched outside their homes, in bars or on big screens.

Next month’s tournament could be the most watched media event in history, competing only with the Beijing Olympics, says Kevin Alavy, director at Initiative, futures sport + entertainment, a research agency.

Mr Alavy gave me some insight into some of the data he has gathered on world cups. The agency has collected reliable TV data from 55 countries, as opposed to the inflated figures trumpeted by the sports events themselves. Initiative’s numbers capture something of the World Cup’s uniqueness.”

To find out more click here

nzherald.co.nz and Nokia – a dynamic new partnership

 


nzherald.co.nz has launched an exciting new section in partnership with Nokia – nzherald.co.nz/play.

The section draws in existing nzherald.co.nz content and displays it in a new dynamic way. The content changes every day, and encourages interaction by enlarging images on mouse-over. Nokia's branding follows the reader through their Play experience.

 

Advertising Director, Donna O’Keeffe says, “Nokia were looking for an environment that was all about people's passion; things they love to do when they aren't stuck in the office. So we created Play. From mountain biking to fine wines, to music, there is something for everyone. It was a new step for us, sorting our content by psychographics rather than sections.”

nzherald.co.nz has worked closely with Nokia’s agency, Carat NZ, to deliver a powerful new platform through which Nokia can engage with their target market, and highlight how Nokia can enhance their already playful lives.

Ryf Quail, General Manager, Carat says, “Our focus for Nokia was to do something beyond what our competitors were thinking. Something out of the box that gave them a commercial edge and, if you are marketing smart phones, that had to be online.”

A mix of standard and bespoke ads are currently running as well as a co-branded marketing campaign to promote the new section. O’Keeffe adds, “There is still a lot to come with this partnership. The foundation is there though, and our readers love it.”

Facebook changes the privacy controls

“The number one thing we've heard is that there just needs to be a simpler way to control your information. We've always offered a lot of controls, but if you find them too hard to use then you won't feel like you have control. Unless you feel in control, then you won't be comfortable sharing and our service will be less useful for you. We agree we need to improve this.

Today we're starting to roll out some changes that will make all of these controls a lot simpler. We've focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications.”

To find out more visit here

Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' Video - Spot The Product Placement

"The video for Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s new track 'Telephone' is full of crazy fashion, action, murder, and … product placement. And just as Gaga kills again in the video, it seems that she is a repeat offender with slipping brands into her videos too. We counted nine separate products - no wonder the video's so long, it had to be, to cram in all those plugs. We've listed them all below. Have we missed any?

• Heartbeats earphones
• Virgin Mobile
• Diet Coke
• HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Editon’ laptop from Monster
• Plenty Of Fish dating site
• Chevrolet
• Polaroid
• Wonderbread
• Miracle Whip
  
  Read more here"

Time Spent 'Socialising' Up 82%

“According to The Nielsen Company, global [U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy] consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over three hours on social networking sites. In addition, the overall traffic to social networking sites has grown over the last three years.Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent in December, followed by online games and instant messaging. With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site.”

Read more here