Marketing Execs: Agency Use Unaffected by Economic Climate - for Now

77 percent of marketing executives say the slowing economy has moderately or greatly affected business in the past six months, but most say agency use has not changed. Not yet, anyway, warns a Reardon Smith Whittaker study (via AdWeek), writes MarketingCharts. The study, "2008 Client's Perspective on Economic Conditions," found that most marketers don't seem ready to […]

Posted: Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Google Beats Coca-Cola, GE, Microsoft for Top Brand Honors

Google again topped the annual BrandZ Ranking, issued by Millward Brown's Optimor. The firm identified (pdf) the world's most powerful brands as measured by their dollar value. Google's brand is valued at $86.1 billion, up 30 percent from last year, MarketingCharts writes. Google is followed by General Electric at $71.4 billion and Microsoft at $70.8 billion: The […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Enterprise Web 2.0 Market to Hit $4.6B in 2013

Enterprise spend on "Web 2.0" technology will surge in the next five years, reaching $764 million in 2008 and at a 43 percent compound annual growth rate. Spend shall approach $4.6 billion globally in 2013, despite a future marked by commoditization, according to Forrester Research, MarketingCharts reports. "Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market Forecast: 2007 To 2013" […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Invested with Strength from Trade Pubs, BBN Chases Tech Advertisers

Four leading trade magazine publishers have banded to form yet another ad network. "BBN network" is comprised of Cygnus Business Media, Nielsen Business Media, McGraw-Hill and Reed Elsevier. Combined, the publishers reach 10 million users a month, including six million small business owners. BBN shall operate independently from its parent firms, using tools from 24/7 […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

AP Launches Mobile News Network, a Boon to Papers

AP has launched a Mobile News Network, which helps disseminate stories across Apple's iPhone and other "smart" handhelds. The service was positioned as a cost-reducing tool for participating newspapers. This is the first offering to be released by the Digital Cooperative, an AP service developed to avail new digital outlets to news and information providers. The non-profit […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

How To: Deploying and Managing Effective Online Lead-Gen Campaigns

Marketers are under significant pressure to generate trackable ROI on online ad campaigns. This isn't easy when most online media charge for impressions or clicks, which may never convert to leads. Cost-per-lead (CPL) campaigns enable marketers to pay solely for leads. And while online lead-gen is stigmatized – mostly for lack of transparency among […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Marketers' Role More Strategic Than in Years Past, a Ways to Go Yet

Marketing's role has become more strategic over the past three years as marketers help drive innovation and new business development at their organizations, according to a joint study by the Association of National Advertisers and BtoB, writes MarketingCharts. The study was based on an online survey of 383 marketers, conducted in February and March by […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Resellers Give Vendors Poor Marks on Leads, Marketing Campaign Effectiveness

Despite billions of dollars spent on lead-generation programs and branding campaigns, a significant portion of these expenditures are not driving channel performance or product sell-through, the CMO Council reports, citing its Channel Performance Outlook Study, writes MarketingCharts. In some cases, marketing and sales activities may well be alienating the channel, reducing trust, confusing the customer […]

Posted: Monday, April 7th, 2008

Media, Information Industries M&A Value Up 5% in Q1

Mergers and acquisitions across the media and information industries continued at a strong pace in Q1 despite a turbulent economic environment: 202 transactions totaled $13.4 billion across the 11 sectors tracked by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), MarketingCharts reports. In total, deal value was up 5 percent from the first quarter of 2007 - […]

Posted: Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

How To: Understanding - and Leveraging - Your Tech Team

With different backgrounds, approaches to business and equally porky superiority complexes, it may seem impossible to get exactly what you want from a team of web developers and designers. But with web 2.0 technologies a growing priority among businesses, interactive marketers must find a way to work well with tech — and more importantly, coax them […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

TNS: US Ad Expenditures Up Just 0.2% in 2007

The US advertising market continued to sputter at the end of 2007, finishing the year with measured spending of $148.99 billion, up 0.2 percent from 2006, according to TNS media intelligence, MarketingCharts writes. Fourth-quarter expenditures fell 0.1 percent from a year earlier, TNS said. "As a whole, the ad market remains stalled and is being […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Web 2.0 Funding Jumps 88% in '07, Facebook Accounts for 22%

The Web 2.0 investment boom may be peaking. Venture capitalists pumped a record $1.34 billion into 178 Web 2.0 deals in the US in 2007, up 88 percent over amounts invested in 2006, according to new data from Dow Jones VentureSource, MarketingCharts reports. One company — Facebook, which raised at least $300 million — accounted for […]

Posted: Monday, March 24th, 2008

Amazon Fulfillment Service Gets Easier to Use

Amazon is opening an API for its Amazon Fulfillment Web Service, which lets online merchants outsource shipping to fulfillment centers. Before, Fulfillment was a lengthy process full of manual steps, like pre-labeling each box before sending to Amazon, and having to manage inventory through software. With the back-end now open, merchant computers can talk directly to Amazon […]

Posted: Friday, March 21st, 2008

Modernista Dismantles Site, Trusts the 'Net to Share Its Ethos

Boston agency Modernista took the phrase "less is more" to heart when updating its website. The agency's new online destination is "siteless" and dependent entirely on public resources, navigable by a menu bar in the top right corner of the screen. When users "Google" the agency and click on Modernista, they are brought to the same […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

SEM Spend to Grow as Marketers Shift Budgets amid Economic Concerns

Search engine marketing (SEM) spending is taking budget share from other marketing efforts — not only offline but also online — according to preliminary findings from the 2007 State of the Market survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), reports MarketingCharts. Essentially, SEM is following consumers as they increasingly rely on search engines to […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Google Launches Portal for Nonprofits

Following YouTube's non-profit program, which launched last September, Google has opened a dedicated portal of services for non-profits. Google for Non-Profits is promoted as "a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way." The site includes ideas and tips on how Google's free suite of tools — including Google Docs, […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

E.Factor: A Social Network for Entrepreneurs

The latest niche social network to launch is E.Factor, a social site for entrepreneurs. E.Factor's goal is to assist self-starters with advice, assistance, experience, and funding, according to PSFK. It has four main areas include: The Lounge, a meeting place; The Finance Corner, which gives advice on getting funding and provides a space to meet investors; The […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

CMOs: Personalized Communications Not Measured, Underutilized, Under-Tested

Inadequate customer data is the key obstacle facing top marketing executives in their adoption of personalized communication techniques, according to findings from "The Power of Personalization" global survey, issued by the CMO Council, MarketingCharts writes. About half of the chief marketing officers surveyed report having only "fair" to "poor" knowledge of their customers, complicating campaign design […]

Posted: Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Despite Q4 DM Growth, Q1 Expectations Reflect Economic Concerns

While concerns linger about the economy, direct marketers expect growth in Q1 of 2008, having experienced 18 consecutive quarters of positive growth, according to the Direct Marketing Association Quarterly Business Review (QBR) for Q4 of 2007, writes MarketingCharts. The report details the experiences and projections of the greater direct marketing community — direct marketers, agencies, and […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Microsoft Avails Online Enterprise Software to Small Biz; Strings Attached

To win ground lost against hosted, ad-supported competitors in the enterprise market, Microsoft is giving companies access to its online Exchange email program and SharePoint collaboration software. Access was previously limited to firms with over 5,000 employees. The services were first offered last year. Since then, companies like Google and Zoho have lured small and mid-sized businesses […]

Posted: Monday, March 3rd, 2008