Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
January 28th, 2009 | Published in Marketing News Round-up
Click Fraud Rates Hit Two-Year High
The industry click fraud rate climbed to 17.1% in the last quarter of 2008 versus 16.6% a year earlier, according to stats released by Click Forensics today. The increase represents the highest level recorded since the company began tracking rates in 2006.
Google Leads In Traffic, AOL Visitors Linger
Google attracted the greatest number of unique visitors among the top 10 Web brands for the month of December, while AOL was best at keeping its users glued to its site, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Online.
During December, 133.9 million unique visitors went to a Google site, while Microsoft followed with 125.8 million visitors. Yahoo was third with 117.8 million visitors, and AOL was a distant fourth at 86 million.
But while AOL held the No. 4 spot in visitors, it took top billing in getting those folks to linger at its sites, averaging 3.4 hours during the month. Yahoo followed closely with 3.
Advertisers Change Game Plans for Super Bowl
YES, Virginia, and the other 49 states, there is a Super Bowl on Sunday, despite the awful economy. And it appears that NBC will be able to sell all 33.5 minutes of commercial time the network intends to run in the game, even at a record price estimated to average $3 million for each 30-second spot.
Still, the uncertainties of this challenging year are manifesting themselves in the days before Super Bowl XLIII as advertisers think, rethink—and rethink again—what they intend to do.
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For instance, Hyundai Motor America decided months ago to buy two 30-second commercials in the game, both for the 2010 Hyundai Genesis coupe. But as the financial crisis unfolded, the company began to reconsider that, to perhaps add a spot that would directly address the economy. Such a spot would promote an insurance policy called Hyundai Assurance, which offers car buyers the chance to undo their deals if they lose their jobs.
One of Gmail’s most requested features—offline support—is now available in testing. In other words, you can now use Gmail without an Internet connection, just like you can with desktop mail clients like Outlook.
The offline support is made possible by Google Gears, which you’ll need to download in order to utilize the feature. Here’s how it works, according to Google’s Andy Palay: “When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online.”
