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December 2003
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Teens Buying More, Some Interested in Pre-paid CardsWhile e-Commerce Times's redux of teen marketing online suffers from the same ailment that most others do - namely, using the faddish language and high-expectations associated with teens instead of solidly-backed conclusions based on data - it does bring... continue reading »TV Tries Long-form Ads, Equivalent of Old 'Rich Media'UbiSoft, a game publisher, is betting that longer TV ads will capture the short attention span of teens. The two-minute, long-form ad aims to make viewers uncertain whether they are watching an ad or a different show. Online advertisers have... continue reading »Search Marketers Often Pay for 'Free' TrafficNetPlusMarketing's Michael Comins points out that a great deal of search marketing winds up attracting the people who would have wound up on the marketer's site in the first place. That, plus affiliate issues and search marketing (SEM) firms that... continue reading »Agency Launches Viral Postal Promo, Used Same to Sell CampaignBoth in The Netherlands and in Spain, the the postal services go online to promote services on the web. We talked to Redurban, the Dutch agency that developed the viral buzz online for TPG Post. Redurban even used the postal... continue reading »Retirees', Boomers' Web Patterns ExaminedJoseph Jaffe continues his excellent series of reviewing the different web demographics, explaining this time the behaviors and motivations behind "Bob the Boomer," a retiree who's a bit more geeked out than one might have supposed. iMedia reports.... continue reading »Site Registration Best PracticesSteve Outing outlined different approaches to implementing site registration on newspaper sites, providing guidance as to the type and how much content should be free versus paid, and how much personal information the site should require for registration. Editor and... continue reading »Google Joins Overture in Online Pharmacy ControlsWell, looks like you'll have to wait for the next spam to arrive in your mailbox, if you are looking to buy discount drugs from an online vendor. Google has joined Overture in implementing a validation and third party screening... continue reading »Apple Victim of Viral Anti-MarketingApple Computer learned that viral marketing works both ways. After many iPod MP3 player owners were treated shabbily when their rechargeable batteries died, two brothers created a video and site about their own experience. Initially refused a battery replacement, they... continue reading »Har Mar Superstar Shakes Booty in Vladivar CampaignMinnesota doofus and entertainer Sean Tillman, a.k.a. Har Mar Superstar, is featured in a new set of ads for Scottish Vladivar vodka. Steve Hall comments.... continue reading »Texas Picks Fight with Alleged Phone SpammersIt's not the first suit brought by a state against spammers, and it's not a prosecution of the new federal law, yet this recent Texas legal action against 15 alleged spammers - the first since its state law came into... continue reading »'Bloodvertising' Joins the Expanding List of Innovative Advertising StrategiesAcclaim is advertising its new carnage-laden video game with outdoor advertising that seeps fake blood. Aligning the campaign to the company's marketing strategy, Acclaim Communications Manager Shaun White said, "The concept of 'Bloodvertising' ties in with our marketing strategy and... continue reading »Post Thanksgiving Sales Up 36 PercentcomScore reports online spending for the day after Thanksgiving rose 36 percent from $145 million in 2002 to $200 million in 2003. For the entire Thanksgiving week, sales were $1.2 billion, up 31 percent over last year's $895 million, roughly... continue reading »As TV Loses Men, Women, Gains KidsWhile some valuable groups of men and women seem to be leaking from the television audience, children between the ages of two and eleven are drooling in front of the tube in droves, according to a study by Magna Global... continue reading »Europeans Use More Online Media, Sponsors Do NotOnline media consumption in Europe is growing (now greater than magazines), but online media spend is still a disproportionately small fraction of total ad spend. European marketers need to adjust their media budgets and increase the online part, if they... continue reading »More Google Dance Woes: ScroogleIn Danny Sullivan's latest article on the "Florida update" of Google's algorithm, he highlights a tool - Scroogle - (the results of which are not perfect) that highlights the impact of the new search algorithm on specific searches. If you... continue reading »2004 to Be Big Year for Internet Election InfoA new study shows that even more voters will use the Internet for candidate decisions in 2004. About half did in the last elections, strangely split by gender, where only about two in five women used the Internet for political... continue reading »Tacoda's Morgan ProfiledAd Age profiled Dave Morgan, co-founder of RealMedia and current boss of Tacoda, an online audience targeting and management system firm. The story goes into some depth as to Tacoda's offerings and how they differ from the customer relationship management... continue reading »Study: Online Buyers Still Worry About SecurityTRUSTe, a company that sells certification to commerce sites worried that people are concerned about online sales security, released a report indicating that online buyers are still very concerned about online sales security. Interestingly, of the three main reasons users... continue reading »Email List Rental Requires Strict ScrutinyClickZ's Paul Soltoff isn't quite writing off renting email lists, but he has a pretty strict set of criteria that lists must meet in order for him to consider buying in. With scams, misrepresentations and a widespread culture of say-whatever-it-takes,... continue reading »Usability Useful, but Not the Final GoalSean Carton writes that site managers should not give the final word to the usability ayatollahs. He argues that online browsing is more than a mere utilitarian experience, and should reconcile usability with design. Usability by itself is not a... continue reading »Philips Launches Circus to Promote ProductsWith a three ring circus including a ringmaster taming wild animals on a TV screen and a knife thrower hurling knives at a woman on a TV screen, Philips has launched the twenty first century's version of HBO's Carnivale. Ad... continue reading »Busta Rhymes Gets Caught With Pants Down For Virgin MobileBusta Rhymes is caught with his pants down in this soon to be launched commercial for Virgin Mobile, pre-released online. Steve Hall comments.... continue reading »Nielsen Announces Product Placement Tracking ServiceNielsen announced the development of a new service that will measure television product placement. While Nielsen is quiet on the details, it was made known that the service will detect product placement within shows, determine foreground or background placement, use... continue reading »ABC and MindShare Mix BusinessABC has entered an agreement with media agency MindShare to develop and produce television shows. ABC will distribute and MindShare clients will support the show. The two will share development costs. With product placement ramping up, this deal will further... continue reading »European Portals Join to Create Online Ad NetworkWanadoo, Web.de and Libero.it have joined forces to launch a new ad network across six European countries. The objective is to help advertisers planning online campaigns. Martina Zavagno posts.... continue reading »Error Messages Important, IgnoredMarketingProfs published a piece on the importance of error messages on sites. Proper messages, providing some help and a warm, human voice can keep people on the site. Mechanical messages that are unhelpful, technical or excitist could not only dislodge... continue reading »Skewered Gator, anyone?In round one, the company formerly known as Gator forced PC Pitstop to cease referring to Gator's software as "spyware." Time has yet to heal PC Pitstop's wounds. It relaunched its Gator Information Center with claims that you're unlikely to... continue reading »Gen Y Promos Should Use Celebrities SelectivelyBrands need to understand how young adults respond to celebrities before engaging famous people for product and event endorsements. For celebrity endorsements to work effectively, brands need to look at what young adults want from their celebrity experience. How Gen... continue reading »New AOL Version to Block SpywareCNET reports that a new, slimmed-down version of AOL, code-named Tahiti, will allow users to prevent spyware programs from installing. The story takes pains to distinguish between the reviled spyware other types of tracking software that users sometimes allow on... continue reading »Online Travel Sites Continue Blistering CompetitioneCommerce Times handicaps the current and future winners and losers in the online travel business. It predicts some key factors will be comprehensiveness of listings, new search and itinerary creation software and the degree to which they can attract corporate... continue reading »Email Address Books Increasingly Important TargetWith AOL and MSN using subscribers' address books as a major indicator of whether or not an incoming email is spam, marketers are having to adjust their strategies in order to avoid filters. On a technical level, they are increasingly... continue reading »AOL Addresses Agency Relations ConcernsIn his OnlineSpin column, Tom Hespos offers some insight into the industry's reaction to AOL's decision to eliminate its director of agency relations position. MediaPost reports. Steve Hall posts.... continue reading »Small Biz Gets Fat at the EdgesWith the proper, and not necessarily expensive, use of search and other online marketing tools, techniques and channels, almost any business, from tiny mom & pop stores on the corner of Main Street, to small and medium sized manufacturers, distributors... continue reading »Flash Interaction Measurement Hits PrimetimeIt seems everyone is now offering a tool that can measure user interaction with rich media and the impact that has on brand perception. This article examines the importance of the metric and the industry's perception of that metric with... continue reading »Etailers Ambivalent on Coupon SharingEmail coupons are one way to get online customers to return. But shoppers are forwarding these email savings on to their friends and family. Some etailers like the viral impact, but others don't want to turn coupons into an "Internet... continue reading »Jacko, Martha Show Importance of Web PRSince PR is an integral part of effective marketing, marketers need to take note of the issues broached in this article. Too often company websites are just brochure-ware with a few press releases attached. Marketers should make better use of... continue reading »Some Drug Ad Regs May RelaxAsked for advice by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission told it that it should relax drug advertising restrictions. Currently, print advertising regulations require lengthy and tedious disclosures, where only a brief summary is required in television... continue reading »Land's End Tops List of Customer-Focused Online RetailersA recent Future Now study, the 2003 Study for Customer Focused Excellence, used a panel of "mystery shoppers" to determine Land's End to be tops in meeting customers' needs. The study measured web retailers on 42 data points, from product... continue reading »Verizon Partners With FindWhat for InfrastructureThe current version of Superpages advertising barely allows for advertising changes and reporting is non-existent. But it looks like Verizon woke up and has inked a deal with FindWhat - similar to the one they did with Lycos, which licensed... continue reading »Redetzke: Online Optimism is BackiMedia interviewed Mark Redetzke, vice president for online media for Zentropy Partners. He said that the biggest recent change in the online media space has been a renewed sense of optimism about what people are doing with the Internet (helped,... continue reading »Shoppers Favor Online, but Mostly for Supplemental BuysA new study shows that a bare majority enjoys shopping online more than shopping offline, but that most buyers consider their online purchases to be merely supplemental to their offline shopping. They report - The PULSE survey, published by WSL... continue reading »PA Man gets 1 1/2 Years for Ecommerce AttackA Pennsylvania man received an 18-month sentence for sabotaging his former employer's ecommerce site. Kenneth Patterson, 38, posted passwords to American Eagle's internal servers on the Internet and launched a coordinated denial of service attack in an attempt to bring... continue reading »'Click the Vote' Launches to Spread Vague Political PhilosophiesFile swappers are reaching for some political clout, feeling left out in the face of successful music industry lobbying for favorable laws. John Parres, a moderator for an online music discussion group, launched "Click the Vote," a net-based center for... continue reading »PR on Abercrombie & Fitch Racy Xmas Catalog a Mixed BagThe summer I worked at Abercrombie & Fitch HQ, a million years ago, the place was old and dull as an Upper East Side matron. In those days, Abercrombie was all about service for rich old people and teenagers were... continue reading »DVD Sales Catch Network Execs' AttentionWhile Nielsen struggles to substantiate its dying business model, Joe Jaffe calls to our attention how DVD sales and the Internet can be a powerful metric of success. iMedia reports. Steve Hall comments.... continue reading »It's Trademark Time for SEMGoogle is being proactive and asking a court in San Jose to rule on what protections are afforded trademark holders. Apparently, there is one highly zealous trademark holder, American Blind & Wallpaper Factory, who wanted Google to apply fairly broad... continue reading »Bluejacking - The Next Buzz ThingBluejacking is the process of sending random messages to any Bluetooth enabled phones within 10m meters of your location, the application of which can be both amusing and scary. In this piece Mike Butcher does a good job of demonstrating... continue reading »Email Delivery Rates Up in Q3Doubleclick's Q3 quarterly report on email trends states email delivery rates have increased 1.7 percent to 88.2 percent, and open rates stayed level at 37.1 percent. Clickthrough rates rose from 8.2 percent to 9.2 percent. Doubleclick claims the increase is... continue reading »How to Choose a Web Hosting FirmE-commerce Times published a review and guide for how to find reliable web hosting firm that won't cause ecommerce embarrassments later. The needs vary immensely from small firms - often looking for web design help - to the larger companies... continue reading » |