http://www.everyscape.com
Friday, November 2, 2007
Everyscape takes scape mapping indoors
Everyscape takes street level scapes indoors in Boston, New York, Miami, and Aspen and allowing the public to contribute to the building of scapes. Nice to see someone who is finally keeping Google on their toes (though the site itself if a bit clunky and ugly still).
http://www.everyscape.com
http://www.everyscape.com
Orange let's the good times roll
A new website from Orange in the UK which smacks a bit of Sony Bravia, but is still a well integrated campaign complete with the new marketing 'obligatory' facebook component.
http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go
http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go
Target Fashion Show uses Holograms instead of hot Models
Posted on Thu, 1 Nov 2007 07:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr
Major retailer Target will present the first completely model-less fashion show on November 6 in Grand Central Terminal, New York City.
The live, 3D-virtual fashion show will be created with high-definition holograms, allowing the clothes and accessories to walk, dance and interact.
The model-less fashion show is powered by Musion Systems Limited. These are the guys who also did the fantastic Gorillaz Live appearance at the MTV Awards in Lisbon 2005.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will employ an illusionary technique that uses Eyeliner foil to give two dimensional images the illusion of depth. The installations are recorded, played back and projected in true High Definition giving the holograms unprecedented quality and clarity.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will feature men’s, women’s, bridal and maternity collections from Bowie by Keanan Duffty for Target, Erin Fetherston™ for Target, Isaac Mizrahi for Target, Liz Lange for Target and Mossimo for Target as well as jewelry, handbags and shoes from Dominique Cohen for Target and HOLLYWOULD for Target.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will take place on Tuesday, November 6, and Wednesday, November 7, in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal on E. 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.
I love technology, but hey I prefer seeing real fashion models like Gisele Bündchen and not some hologram.
See also the Musion site.
Major retailer Target will present the first completely model-less fashion show on November 6 in Grand Central Terminal, New York City.
The live, 3D-virtual fashion show will be created with high-definition holograms, allowing the clothes and accessories to walk, dance and interact.
The model-less fashion show is powered by Musion Systems Limited. These are the guys who also did the fantastic Gorillaz Live appearance at the MTV Awards in Lisbon 2005.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will employ an illusionary technique that uses Eyeliner foil to give two dimensional images the illusion of depth. The installations are recorded, played back and projected in true High Definition giving the holograms unprecedented quality and clarity.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will feature men’s, women’s, bridal and maternity collections from Bowie by Keanan Duffty for Target, Erin Fetherston™ for Target, Isaac Mizrahi for Target, Liz Lange for Target and Mossimo for Target as well as jewelry, handbags and shoes from Dominique Cohen for Target and HOLLYWOULD for Target.
The Target Model-less Fashion Show will take place on Tuesday, November 6, and Wednesday, November 7, in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal on E. 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.
I love technology, but hey I prefer seeing real fashion models like Gisele Bündchen and not some hologram.
See also the Musion site.
Get Cash and Grooming Advice
Nivea Uses Gender-specific Ads on U.K. ATMs to Launch Men's ProductPublished: November 01, 2007
Brand: Nivea
Brand Owner: Beiersdorf
Category: Toiletries/cosmetics
Region: U.K.
Date: April 2006 to March 2007
Media Agency: Carat Hyperspace
Media Owner: ATM:ad
Media Channels: Out of home
Nivea was about to extend its male-grooming range with the launch of aftershave soothing balm. As part of the launch campaign, it put its message on cash machines so consumers getting money out would have a suggestion on how to spend it.
The innovative part of the strategy: For the first time in the U.K., male cashpoint users would get a different message than female cashpoint users.
More than 600 cash machines on high streets, in shopping malls and at supermarkets determined customers' genders from their cards and displayed the appropriate five-second ad.
Men using the machines were shown images of the new product, while females were told: "For best results, cunningly place next to his shaving kit."
Consumers who asked for receipts were given further brand messages highlighting the benefits of the new Nivea for Men product.
More than 1 million U.K. consumers used the cashpoints running the ads.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Targeting Offline Behavior Online
by Phil Leggiere, Wednesday, October 31, 2007
ONLINE MARKETERS TEND TO BE fond of the conceit that advanced thinking about targeting emerged "ex nihilo" with new media, leaving behind the dark ages of advertising in the BI (Before Interactive) era. In reality, as Acxiom chief marketing and strategy officer Rich Howe explains below, "old school" direct mail marketing has much to add to the online behavioral targeting mix.
BI: Acxiom of late has been generating a lot of buzz for online marketing services. A few months ago, for instance, your acquisition of behavioral targeting firm Echo Target was featured in Behavioral Insider. Could you give a little more back-story about the firm's roots offline?
Howe: We've been involved in using data to enhance targeting for nearly 30 years, long before there was an online. So our newest work grows out of a long tradition in the world of direct marketing. We've had customers of ours who were interested in doing better with their online direct marketing campaigns. They understand that banner advertising still has a great deal of unrealized potential to be far better targeted than it is. What we learned is that experience we've had for many years in direct mail could be very effectively leveraged in the online world. Specifically relevant was our approach to adding segmentation based on life stages to conventional demographic clustering information.
BI: What have direct marketers known that online targeters are just catching up with?
Howe: Traditional direct marketers have known for many years that the right way to improve response rates was to break down their general mailing list names into smaller, more granular groupings based on deeper segmentation. The insight was that if you begin to look at the Zip code, the starting point for demographic clustering, it's useful for some things but doesn't go deep enough. There are just so much more relevant criteria. If you look at my street, for instance, everyone on it belongs of course, to the same Zip code. But the minute you look around, you see the differences from house to house are more powerful than the similarities. In one house you have a couple with very young children, while across the street the children are in high school thinking about applying to college. And down the street there's a household with grown-up children, and the people living there are thinking about retirement. So you have the same Zip code but radically different life stages, and with them, different consumer behavior patterns and priorities.
BI: How is the data generated and deployed online?
Howe: The data to develop this kind of segmentation online is similar to that offline. We have data we've aggregated from 133 million households, public data that we've clustered into 70 segments and 21 life stages. So the question was how to leverage that online and derive scale. Or how do you target online banners as effectively as we already know how to do with direct mail?
What we've done is run registration-based data compiled online against our offline data base, and then created cookies to anonymously track audiences based on that. The way it works is, we've built out partnership sites with publishers and ad networks where consumers provide personal data on an opt-in basis. It may be entering a contest or doing a survey, or it may be the form someone fills out when they make a product purchase online. When that happens the registration data is run automatically against our 133-million-household offline database to identify that consumer within the national segmentation and clustering system. An anonymous cookie is then generated which codes that segmentation information. So whenever the person goes to a partner site in the future, banner ads can be served based on their life-stage cluster profile.
BI: What is the behavioral component of the clusters?
Howe: Life-stage clusters essentially place every one of America's households into, first, a life-stage segment -- of which there are 21. We identify those segments -- including age, income, location, occupation and key life events, marriage, children, home purchase, job promotions, retirement. Then within those segments are a large number of clusters, currently 70 in all, which further break down households according to consumer preferences, values, opinions, brand affinities, media consumption habits and market behavior patterns.
For instance, we have two clusters within the lifestage segment called 'Gen X Parents.' Both have relatively low net worth and have a mean household age under 40. One we call 'Cartoons and Carpools, the other, 'Kids and Rent.' The first are married and extremely family-oriented, focusing their spending behavior on their children, their homes, and trying to invest for the future. The other are a mix of singles and married. They rent rather than own and spend money primarily on necessities or personal entertainment, with little or no thought to saving or longer-term investments. So though both fall under the GEN X demographic umbrella, and are even technically in the same life-stage with young children, their attitudinal, consumer behavioral and lifestyle profiles are very different.
BI: How are publishing partners taking to this approach?
Howe: For publishers deeper segmentation increases the value of their inventory. The way publishers are currently used to selling their inventory is either contextually or because someone being "tracked" by browsing patterns has visited their site from another which has tagged them as a customer prospect. But if you're able to analyze particular content areas and go beyond that, you can see, 'Oh yes, there are 4 clusters who frequent these pages in the greatest numbers.' This opens up a whole new level of insight about relevant ad placement possibilities.
BI: Do you see interest among brands as well as your traditional direct response sweet spot?
Howe: Because of our experience in direct marketing the base of users might be described still as direct response in orientation. But the lines between brands and marketers are shifting. As brands are evolving their strategies and thinking more in terms of finding a 1:1 conversational relationship with consumers, the need to personalize segmentation becomes much stronger all the time.
ONLINE MARKETERS TEND TO BE fond of the conceit that advanced thinking about targeting emerged "ex nihilo" with new media, leaving behind the dark ages of advertising in the BI (Before Interactive) era. In reality, as Acxiom chief marketing and strategy officer Rich Howe explains below, "old school" direct mail marketing has much to add to the online behavioral targeting mix.
BI: Acxiom of late has been generating a lot of buzz for online marketing services. A few months ago, for instance, your acquisition of behavioral targeting firm Echo Target was featured in Behavioral Insider. Could you give a little more back-story about the firm's roots offline?
Howe: We've been involved in using data to enhance targeting for nearly 30 years, long before there was an online. So our newest work grows out of a long tradition in the world of direct marketing. We've had customers of ours who were interested in doing better with their online direct marketing campaigns. They understand that banner advertising still has a great deal of unrealized potential to be far better targeted than it is. What we learned is that experience we've had for many years in direct mail could be very effectively leveraged in the online world. Specifically relevant was our approach to adding segmentation based on life stages to conventional demographic clustering information.
BI: What have direct marketers known that online targeters are just catching up with?
Howe: Traditional direct marketers have known for many years that the right way to improve response rates was to break down their general mailing list names into smaller, more granular groupings based on deeper segmentation. The insight was that if you begin to look at the Zip code, the starting point for demographic clustering, it's useful for some things but doesn't go deep enough. There are just so much more relevant criteria. If you look at my street, for instance, everyone on it belongs of course, to the same Zip code. But the minute you look around, you see the differences from house to house are more powerful than the similarities. In one house you have a couple with very young children, while across the street the children are in high school thinking about applying to college. And down the street there's a household with grown-up children, and the people living there are thinking about retirement. So you have the same Zip code but radically different life stages, and with them, different consumer behavior patterns and priorities.
BI: How is the data generated and deployed online?
Howe: The data to develop this kind of segmentation online is similar to that offline. We have data we've aggregated from 133 million households, public data that we've clustered into 70 segments and 21 life stages. So the question was how to leverage that online and derive scale. Or how do you target online banners as effectively as we already know how to do with direct mail?
What we've done is run registration-based data compiled online against our offline data base, and then created cookies to anonymously track audiences based on that. The way it works is, we've built out partnership sites with publishers and ad networks where consumers provide personal data on an opt-in basis. It may be entering a contest or doing a survey, or it may be the form someone fills out when they make a product purchase online. When that happens the registration data is run automatically against our 133-million-household offline database to identify that consumer within the national segmentation and clustering system. An anonymous cookie is then generated which codes that segmentation information. So whenever the person goes to a partner site in the future, banner ads can be served based on their life-stage cluster profile.
BI: What is the behavioral component of the clusters?
Howe: Life-stage clusters essentially place every one of America's households into, first, a life-stage segment -- of which there are 21. We identify those segments -- including age, income, location, occupation and key life events, marriage, children, home purchase, job promotions, retirement. Then within those segments are a large number of clusters, currently 70 in all, which further break down households according to consumer preferences, values, opinions, brand affinities, media consumption habits and market behavior patterns.
For instance, we have two clusters within the lifestage segment called 'Gen X Parents.' Both have relatively low net worth and have a mean household age under 40. One we call 'Cartoons and Carpools, the other, 'Kids and Rent.' The first are married and extremely family-oriented, focusing their spending behavior on their children, their homes, and trying to invest for the future. The other are a mix of singles and married. They rent rather than own and spend money primarily on necessities or personal entertainment, with little or no thought to saving or longer-term investments. So though both fall under the GEN X demographic umbrella, and are even technically in the same life-stage with young children, their attitudinal, consumer behavioral and lifestyle profiles are very different.
BI: How are publishing partners taking to this approach?
Howe: For publishers deeper segmentation increases the value of their inventory. The way publishers are currently used to selling their inventory is either contextually or because someone being "tracked" by browsing patterns has visited their site from another which has tagged them as a customer prospect. But if you're able to analyze particular content areas and go beyond that, you can see, 'Oh yes, there are 4 clusters who frequent these pages in the greatest numbers.' This opens up a whole new level of insight about relevant ad placement possibilities.
BI: Do you see interest among brands as well as your traditional direct response sweet spot?
Howe: Because of our experience in direct marketing the base of users might be described still as direct response in orientation. But the lines between brands and marketers are shifting. As brands are evolving their strategies and thinking more in terms of finding a 1:1 conversational relationship with consumers, the need to personalize segmentation becomes much stronger all the time.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Publicis/Digitas On All-Digital Advertising, Outsourcing, and Competing with Google Yahoo Microsoft
Kudos to Publicis Groupe and Digitas for imagining an all-digital advertising future, for planning to solve the deep structural problems of advertising 2.0, and for not sitting still while Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft take over the advertising industry.
The most provocative idea to emerge from the New York Times profile of Publicis/Digitas’ digital advertising strategy is a plan for overcoming the massive human resource barrier to realizing the vision of fully personalized and customized advertising — by going offshore:
“There’s a chance to invest right now in China, India, Russia and Brazil, which will pay off big over the next five years,” Mr. Kenny said. “These economies are going to boom, and ads there are going to go directly to mobile and directly to the Internet.”
Beyond the growth potential, Publicis executives see these economies as important sources of low-cost labor for a Digitas subsidiary called Prodigious, a digital production unit that works with all agencies in the Publicis Groupe. Prodigious already uses workers in Costa Rica and Ukraine to produce copious footage for companies like G.M.
Greater production capacity is needed, Mr. Kenny says, to make enough clips to be able to move away from mass advertising to personalized ads. He estimates that in the United States, some companies are already running about 4,000 versions of an ad for a single brand, whereas 10 years ago they might have run three to five versions. And he predicts that the number of iterations will grow as technology improves.
It’s amazing that it’s taken this long for a major advertising player to take this step — and notable that it wasn’t one of the big Internet/tech players. This isn’t strictly an issue of cost savings, as with most offshoring — current ad agency human resources simply aren’t structured to scale to the level necessary to generate the enormous amount of ad creative necessary to deliver the kind of highly customized, ultra-targeted advertising that technology has made possible.
Publicis has already put its money where its mouth is by acquiring Communication Central Group, a digital agency in China.
While most media/advertising players are still trying to prop up the traditional media advertising economy, or like Google, trying to squeeze dollars out of it, Digitas is already planning for the inevitable all-digital advertising future. And David Kenny, the CEO of Digitas, is right that it’s consumer data that will drive all advertising into digital formats, as it becomes more and more difficult to rationalize the inefficiency of non-digital advertising.
You can see what consumer data enables in these variations on a GMC ad — but as with all such targeting, there’s a “creepiness factor” that needs to be overcome. Nonetheless, it’s very likley that the future lies with this type of customization, as relevancy trumps privacy in the long run. Yahoo with its SmartAds platform and AOL with its acquisition of behavioral targeting pioneer TACODA are clearly aiming at that future.
Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the Publicis Groupe, fires a shot across the bow of the big tech players who are positioning themselves to take over the entire ad industry as it goes digital:
How do we see Google, Yahoo and Microsoft? It’s important to see that our industry is changing and the borders are blurring, so it’s clear the three of those companies will have a huge share of revenues which will come from advertising,” said Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the Publicis Groupe.
“But they will have to make a choice between being a medium or being an ad agency, and I believe that their interest will be to be a medium,” he added. “We will partner with them as we do partner with CBS, ABC, Time Warner or any other media group.”
While Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, with their recent advertising platform acquisitions, see are betting they can create vertically integrated media and advertising companies, Publicis is betting — as it must — that advertisers will be wary of the fox selling the hen house. For self-serve search advertising, that horse is already out of the barn (to mix fram metaphors), but the drama is still yet to play out for the big video advertising dollars.
My heart goes out to the CMOs and VPs of Advertising at big brand advertisers who are watching the media and advertising landscape transform right under their feet and are casting about form firm ground to stand on.
Pull up a bowl of popcorn — the transformation of media and advertising is only getting more interesting.
The most provocative idea to emerge from the New York Times profile of Publicis/Digitas’ digital advertising strategy is a plan for overcoming the massive human resource barrier to realizing the vision of fully personalized and customized advertising — by going offshore:
“There’s a chance to invest right now in China, India, Russia and Brazil, which will pay off big over the next five years,” Mr. Kenny said. “These economies are going to boom, and ads there are going to go directly to mobile and directly to the Internet.”
Beyond the growth potential, Publicis executives see these economies as important sources of low-cost labor for a Digitas subsidiary called Prodigious, a digital production unit that works with all agencies in the Publicis Groupe. Prodigious already uses workers in Costa Rica and Ukraine to produce copious footage for companies like G.M.
Greater production capacity is needed, Mr. Kenny says, to make enough clips to be able to move away from mass advertising to personalized ads. He estimates that in the United States, some companies are already running about 4,000 versions of an ad for a single brand, whereas 10 years ago they might have run three to five versions. And he predicts that the number of iterations will grow as technology improves.
It’s amazing that it’s taken this long for a major advertising player to take this step — and notable that it wasn’t one of the big Internet/tech players. This isn’t strictly an issue of cost savings, as with most offshoring — current ad agency human resources simply aren’t structured to scale to the level necessary to generate the enormous amount of ad creative necessary to deliver the kind of highly customized, ultra-targeted advertising that technology has made possible.
Publicis has already put its money where its mouth is by acquiring Communication Central Group, a digital agency in China.
While most media/advertising players are still trying to prop up the traditional media advertising economy, or like Google, trying to squeeze dollars out of it, Digitas is already planning for the inevitable all-digital advertising future. And David Kenny, the CEO of Digitas, is right that it’s consumer data that will drive all advertising into digital formats, as it becomes more and more difficult to rationalize the inefficiency of non-digital advertising.
You can see what consumer data enables in these variations on a GMC ad — but as with all such targeting, there’s a “creepiness factor” that needs to be overcome. Nonetheless, it’s very likley that the future lies with this type of customization, as relevancy trumps privacy in the long run. Yahoo with its SmartAds platform and AOL with its acquisition of behavioral targeting pioneer TACODA are clearly aiming at that future.
Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the Publicis Groupe, fires a shot across the bow of the big tech players who are positioning themselves to take over the entire ad industry as it goes digital:
How do we see Google, Yahoo and Microsoft? It’s important to see that our industry is changing and the borders are blurring, so it’s clear the three of those companies will have a huge share of revenues which will come from advertising,” said Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of the Publicis Groupe.
“But they will have to make a choice between being a medium or being an ad agency, and I believe that their interest will be to be a medium,” he added. “We will partner with them as we do partner with CBS, ABC, Time Warner or any other media group.”
While Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, with their recent advertising platform acquisitions, see are betting they can create vertically integrated media and advertising companies, Publicis is betting — as it must — that advertisers will be wary of the fox selling the hen house. For self-serve search advertising, that horse is already out of the barn (to mix fram metaphors), but the drama is still yet to play out for the big video advertising dollars.
My heart goes out to the CMOs and VPs of Advertising at big brand advertisers who are watching the media and advertising landscape transform right under their feet and are casting about form firm ground to stand on.
Pull up a bowl of popcorn — the transformation of media and advertising is only getting more interesting.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Nico Market - Anti Smoking campaign from the EU
In our increasingly desensitised society, here's a campaign that shuns the traditional fear mongering approach to smokers.
Created by created by Ligaris for the EU, the campaign puts a different spin on quitting smoking by dramatising the negative benefits.
http://www.nicomarket.com/en/presentation.php
Pensioners social site + No tracking in social media
DWP targets silver surfers with social networking site
by Staff Brand Republic 29-Oct-07, 10:30
LONDON - The Department for Work and Pensions has unveiled a social networking website to encourage direct communication with the government and debate among older people about the issues that matter to them.
The pilot scheme at generationxperience.wordpress.com has been developed in conjunction with the Hansard Society as part of DWP's Generation Xperience campaign, which earlier this month staged the first UK Older People's Day.
Representatives from DWP will regularly update the website, start new discussions and contribute to existing ones as well as moderating the site. The site will also link to other well-known social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
The initiative follows recent research for DWP's Generation Xperience campaign, which revealed the popularity of the internet among older people. More than half of all over-50s have access to the internet, rising to three quarters (76%) of 50- to 64-year-olds.
Nearly one in six of those in the 50-64 age bracket have conquered instant messaging, social networking sites and internet chatrooms (15%), while emailing is becoming the norm (37%). More than half (56%) of respondents say they have set themselves the goal of ‘learning computer skills’ as they approach later life.
Mike O'Brien, Pensions Minister, said: "There are 20m people over the age of 50 in the UK who have helped build a prosperous economy, a strong society and a better country. It is crucial their views must be taken into consideration.
"With this pilot scheme, we’re using a method of communication that is becoming increasingly commonplace for this age group. As many of the popular social networking sites are oriented towards young internet users, this is an effective way of talking to and listening to older people in the UK and has great potential to reduce isolation and promote digital inclusion."
The Generation Xperience UK Older People's Day initiative is supported by the DWP and the Department of Health in conjunction with a range of other government departments and agencies.
Other partners include the Financial Services Authority, Help the Aged, Age Concern, LinkAge Plus Pilots, Better Government for Older People, The International Longevity Centre, B&Q, CSV RSVP and the Beth Johnson Foundation.
Warning over social networking advertising
by Andrew McCormick Media Week 29-Oct-07, 15:40
LONDON - Brands are channelling ad spend into social networks without any means of measuring return on investment, according to a major new report published today.
The report, JupiterResearch’s Social Marketing in Europe: Creating and Measuring User Engagement, found that a third of online advertisers in Europe plan to use profiles on social networks to engage customers. However, its revealed that less than a quarter of those using such tactics plan to measure their effectiveness.
he rise of social networks including Bebo, Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace has offered brands a new way to reach online audiences, and for the audience to engage with them.
The survey found that more than 50% of online advertisers in Europe have run advertising campaigns that encourage user interaction and two thirds will do so in the next 12 months.
Viral marketing campaigns are the most common form of engaging an online audience but profiles on social networking sites and interactive websites are growing fastest, according to the report.
by Staff Brand Republic 29-Oct-07, 10:30
LONDON - The Department for Work and Pensions has unveiled a social networking website to encourage direct communication with the government and debate among older people about the issues that matter to them.
The pilot scheme at generationxperience.wordpress.com has been developed in conjunction with the Hansard Society as part of DWP's Generation Xperience campaign, which earlier this month staged the first UK Older People's Day.
Representatives from DWP will regularly update the website, start new discussions and contribute to existing ones as well as moderating the site. The site will also link to other well-known social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
The initiative follows recent research for DWP's Generation Xperience campaign, which revealed the popularity of the internet among older people. More than half of all over-50s have access to the internet, rising to three quarters (76%) of 50- to 64-year-olds.
Nearly one in six of those in the 50-64 age bracket have conquered instant messaging, social networking sites and internet chatrooms (15%), while emailing is becoming the norm (37%). More than half (56%) of respondents say they have set themselves the goal of ‘learning computer skills’ as they approach later life.
Mike O'Brien, Pensions Minister, said: "There are 20m people over the age of 50 in the UK who have helped build a prosperous economy, a strong society and a better country. It is crucial their views must be taken into consideration.
"With this pilot scheme, we’re using a method of communication that is becoming increasingly commonplace for this age group. As many of the popular social networking sites are oriented towards young internet users, this is an effective way of talking to and listening to older people in the UK and has great potential to reduce isolation and promote digital inclusion."
The Generation Xperience UK Older People's Day initiative is supported by the DWP and the Department of Health in conjunction with a range of other government departments and agencies.
Other partners include the Financial Services Authority, Help the Aged, Age Concern, LinkAge Plus Pilots, Better Government for Older People, The International Longevity Centre, B&Q, CSV RSVP and the Beth Johnson Foundation.
Warning over social networking advertising
by Andrew McCormick Media Week 29-Oct-07, 15:40
LONDON - Brands are channelling ad spend into social networks without any means of measuring return on investment, according to a major new report published today.
The report, JupiterResearch’s Social Marketing in Europe: Creating and Measuring User Engagement, found that a third of online advertisers in Europe plan to use profiles on social networks to engage customers. However, its revealed that less than a quarter of those using such tactics plan to measure their effectiveness.
he rise of social networks including Bebo, Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace has offered brands a new way to reach online audiences, and for the audience to engage with them.
The survey found that more than 50% of online advertisers in Europe have run advertising campaigns that encourage user interaction and two thirds will do so in the next 12 months.
Viral marketing campaigns are the most common form of engaging an online audience but profiles on social networking sites and interactive websites are growing fastest, according to the report.
Happy World Internet Day
Monday, October 29, 2007
By Seana Mulcahy
Well, I must say I had no idea today was named World Internet Day. While we don't have the day off work, I thought it would be fun to pay homage to our way of life. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
The Internet is named after the Internet Protocol, the standard communications protocol used by every computer on the Internet.
Who created the Internet? Well, according to Net History, the popular belief has sprung up that the Internet was invented by the Pentagon in 1969. The theory goes on to suggest that the Internet network invented in the Pentagon was designed to survive a nuclear attack.
The only thing historians seem to agree on is that it was not 1969, or the Pentagon, (or for that matter Al Gore). From there on, there is a wide divergence of views on when, where, and by whom the Internet may have been invented.
Whoever created it, we've come a long way. Now most of us can't imagine a world without the Internet. Do you know when the term "Internet" became commonplace? Believe it or not, it was in 1996.
As defined by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet, the Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching, using standard Internet Protocol (IP).
It is also defined as a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services such as: electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
The words Internet and World Wide Web have been misused for years. To further clarify, the Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks -- whereas the World Wide Web is a collection of interconnected documents, images, and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.
Today, as you know, we have many sources for measuring the online audience at large. Internet World Statistics reports that as of September 30, 2007, 1.244 billion people were using the Internet.
Nielsen//NetRatings reports the August Digital Media Universe Estimate to be 516,991,633.
I'd thought I'd share some of my favorite online resource sites with you (in no particular order):
The Living Internet http://www.livinginternet.com/ is a free, in-depth site that provides all the stats, facts, figures, etc. you'd ever need.
Refdesk is one of my favorite sites. Check out the link to many online resources at http://www.refdesk.com/netsnap.html.
BUBL http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/i/internetusagedata.htm is a robust catalog of Internet resources.
The Internet Society http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/ provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organizational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Architecture Board.
Alexa http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 allows you to view the top sites in the Web by country, language, and subject.
NetFactual http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/i/internetusagedata.htm is a guide to finding facts about the Internet.
Yahoo's got a great site rich with Internet stats, demographics and definitions:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Statistics_and_Demographics/
The Pew Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work.aspx?category=50 studies what people do online - as they look for information, communicate with others, make transactions and entertain themselves. Data about online activities are gathered through public opinion polling, online surveys and other research methods. Also check out the PEW Internet and American Life Web site -- http://www.pewinternet.org/.
So happy Internet Day, dear readers. I can't imagine life without it. Share a favorite link or two with us.
By Seana Mulcahy
Well, I must say I had no idea today was named World Internet Day. While we don't have the day off work, I thought it would be fun to pay homage to our way of life. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
The Internet is named after the Internet Protocol, the standard communications protocol used by every computer on the Internet.
Who created the Internet? Well, according to Net History, the popular belief has sprung up that the Internet was invented by the Pentagon in 1969. The theory goes on to suggest that the Internet network invented in the Pentagon was designed to survive a nuclear attack.
The only thing historians seem to agree on is that it was not 1969, or the Pentagon, (or for that matter Al Gore). From there on, there is a wide divergence of views on when, where, and by whom the Internet may have been invented.
Whoever created it, we've come a long way. Now most of us can't imagine a world without the Internet. Do you know when the term "Internet" became commonplace? Believe it or not, it was in 1996.
As defined by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet, the Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching, using standard Internet Protocol (IP).
It is also defined as a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services such as: electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and interlinked Web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.
The words Internet and World Wide Web have been misused for years. To further clarify, the Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks -- whereas the World Wide Web is a collection of interconnected documents, images, and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.
Today, as you know, we have many sources for measuring the online audience at large. Internet World Statistics reports that as of September 30, 2007, 1.244 billion people were using the Internet.
Nielsen//NetRatings reports the August Digital Media Universe Estimate to be 516,991,633.
I'd thought I'd share some of my favorite online resource sites with you (in no particular order):
The Living Internet http://www.livinginternet.com/ is a free, in-depth site that provides all the stats, facts, figures, etc. you'd ever need.
Refdesk is one of my favorite sites. Check out the link to many online resources at http://www.refdesk.com/netsnap.html.
BUBL http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/i/internetusagedata.htm is a robust catalog of Internet resources.
The Internet Society http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/ provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organizational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Architecture Board.
Alexa http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 allows you to view the top sites in the Web by country, language, and subject.
NetFactual http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/i/internetusagedata.htm is a guide to finding facts about the Internet.
Yahoo's got a great site rich with Internet stats, demographics and definitions:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Statistics_and_Demographics/
The Pew Internet & American Life Project http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work.aspx?category=50 studies what people do online - as they look for information, communicate with others, make transactions and entertain themselves. Data about online activities are gathered through public opinion polling, online surveys and other research methods. Also check out the PEW Internet and American Life Web site -- http://www.pewinternet.org/.
So happy Internet Day, dear readers. I can't imagine life without it. Share a favorite link or two with us.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Droga5, Smuggler and Publicis - pointing the way for agencies to create their own channels?
Still very early days, so had to say whether it’ll work, but what’s really exciting here is that it’s agencies creating the channel then taking it to advertisers, which not only shifts the creative power balance, it also turns the current set of media relationships on it’s head. Well worth following its progress
26/10/2007 – contagious
October 24th saw the launch, in beta, of the eagerly awaited Honeyshed shopping and entertainment hub masterminded by Droga5 and Smuggler with funding from Publicis. It’s promising to take a positive step away from the traditional e-commerce website by being completely brand driven, yet presented in a familiar and funky fashion.
www.honeyshed.com
The result is a group of young, sexy (if somewhat unhinged) presenters who chat and test their way through an assortment of products. For example, at one stage, two presenters exchange a ‘more than professional’ kiss, in order to test some new L’oreal lip-gloss. Imagine contestants in the Big Brother House promoting disposable ladies underwear and you’re starting to get close.
Apparently, the idea was to produce a platform for multiple brands and marketers, instead of being forced to hide any branded content within YouTube clips or mysterious virals. David Droga describes his vision:
‘Most of the time the strategy has been to create entertaining content and then seed it, put it on YouTube, or elsewhere. So content is king but the king didn't really have throne. Our idea was wouldn't it be brilliant to have a site where you could be overt about the brand. The site gets at the entertainment value and the sociability of shopping.’
Initially there will be thirty ‘shows’ of three to four minutes, offering different products such as denim, footwear, cosmetics and even pet accessories. A further seventy shows are in the proverbial pipeline which suggests a strong response already from prospective advertiser partners. In addition to this, multiple marketers have also signed up for exclusive content blocks.
So how does one shop on Honeyshed? After seeing a product that you fancy, you can add it to your ‘stash’ (checkout to you and me) and then continue shopping or chat to other users about what you plan to buy…If you are particularly pleased with your purchase, you can even send the video for that particular show to friends and family, or display it on a social networking site. Indeed, the initial phase of Honeyshed will be supported by a partnership with Facebook, which in itself suggests a strong belief in the potential for the new shopping site.
The ultimate test however, will be whether or not the site has enough of an impact to attract consumers on a regular basis. If not, then format-flexibility seems to be the key with format changes likely, and brand-specific shows planned for the future. Smuggler co-founder/EP Patrick Milling Smith states:
"Our business model is engagement. Brands get to see who's looking at a video for the first time, who's a return viewer, what other brands people are navigating from and to—and the live chat. For better or worse it's like real time focus groups."
We’ll be honest – not all of it’s our cup of tea, but we’re far from ready to dismiss it as there are plenty of people for whom watching hot girls and gangster rappers engaged in the exchange of trivialities is a more than comfortable way of life. Fixing the Vice and MTV demographic firmly in its sights, honeyshed may yet catch on.
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