Monday’s Interactive News

Posted by on Oct 1, 2012 in Blog, Interactive News | No Comments

Today’s edition of quick hits that won’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to you:

And your geek link of the day:

Thursday’s Interactive News

Posted by on Mar 22, 2012 in Blog, Interactive News | No Comments

Today’s edition of quick hits that won’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to you:

Your geek link:

Tuesday’s Interactive News

Posted by on Feb 21, 2012 in Blog, Interactive News | No Comments

Today’s edition of quick hits that won’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to you:

Your geek link:

Your lifehack/DIY (do it yourself) link:

Infographic: State Of B2B Social Media

Posted by on Dec 11, 2010 in Blog, Infographic, Social Media | No Comments

IDG Enterprise via Mashable has some very telling numbers about the current state and the future of social media for buisness-to-business firms.

One report found that only 32% of B2B companies engage with their customers on a daily basis via social media. Another discovered that 46% of B2B marketers thought social media was irrelevant. And another found that 60% of B2B firms have no staff dedicated to social media and just 10% of B2B firms use outside agencies or consultants. While the vast majority (86%) of B2B companies use social media for marketing, it’s clear there’s considerable room for improvement.

Increased online investment is one sign of change. Forrester Research is betting that interactive spending will double from 2009 to 2014 to total $54 million. While it’s not clear how much of that money will go into social media, the report was bullish on the new tools provided they’re used correctly.

Wow, only 10% use an outside agency or consultants and 60% have no staff dedicated to social media. Looks like I need to be doing a little more business development in this area.

Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up

Posted by on Aug 28, 2009 in Blog, Marketing News Round-up | No Comments

FCC Launches Full-Scale Probe Of Wireless Industry

After months of controversy surrounding wireless companies, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to launch a wide-ranging probe of the wireless industry.

“We are transitioning from a voice-centric world to a world of ubiquitous, mobile Internet access,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “This transition promises to increase the pace of innovation and investment, but only if we have an open and competitive marketplace that gives every great idea a chance to make its way to consumers so that the best products or services win.”

The investigation, which could pave the way for new regulations, will encompass a variety of matters, including spectrum availability, wireless networks, devices, applications, and business practices. In addition, the FCC said it’s seeking comments about “how the public has used wireless services and technology to solve real-world problems in areas such as health care, energy, education, and public safety.”

Google Opens Content Network To Ad Networks

Google has opened its Content Network to other ad networks, allowing them to serve up ads. The Mountain View, Calif. company made the move after receiving requests for new ways to generate revenue in AdSense, and gain more control over the ads that appear on sites.

The service will roll out in the coming months as choice networks get certified. The goal of this launch is to increase AdSense publisher revenue by expanding the pool of quality display advertisers, according to a Google spokesperson. Ad networks did not previously participate in the auction. But with this change, Google certified ad networks will compete just as AdWords advertisers do today.

Bing, Bang, …

According to Heather Dougherty, Director, Research at Hitwise, Bing Shopping, in the 8 weeks since launch, grew its market share of comparison shopping 169% among key providers in the category.

The report shows that Bing Shopping entered a custom category of 12 Comparison Shopping Tools with an 8th place ranking and 4% of the visits within the category, jumping to 4th place and capturing nearly 11% of visits in the 8th week. As a result, there was a decline in visits to many of the comparison shopping tools.

The Whole World Is Watching (Online Video)

A whopping 158 million U.S. Internet users — or 80% of the nation’s online population — watched online video in July, according to new data from comScore Video Metrix. A total of 21.4 billion videos were viewed during the month.

The duration of the average online video was 3.7 minutes, while the average online video viewer watched about 500 minutes of video, or 8.3 hours, according to the research company.

In July, Google Sites continued to rank as the top U.S. video property with a record 8.9 billion videos viewed, making up 42% of all videos viewed online. YouTube.com accounted for more than 99% of all videos viewed at the property.

Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up

Posted by on Aug 21, 2009 in Blog, Marketing News Round-up | No Comments

Online Video Consumption Viewing Upends Primetime Rules

According to a study conducted by Interpret, online video viewing patterns are more spread out during the day than traditional TV patterns, viewed during work and school time.

Jason Kramer, chief strategy officer of Interpret LLC, says that “…. unlike television consumption, which mostly happens during hours of 8 pm to 11 pm, people across all demographics are watching online videos consistently throughout the day and night, with the exception of dinnertime… this fundamental shift in consumer behavior opens up opportunities …. [to] leverage online video to reach target audiences more often than just once a week.”

Small Ads More Effective Than “Framing” Ads

Smaller online ads may just be more effective than their larger counterparts, a new study by Dynamic Logic found. The study shows that ad shape and placement may be more important than size. Half banners, at 234 x 60, and 180 x 150 rectangles were shown to be more effective than ads that frame the page, like high-profile leaderboards and skyscrapers. It is possible that users no longer see such framing ads because they have developed “banner blindness.”

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The study also found that ads which used video had the best results in terms of branding goals such as brand favorability and purchase intent. Video campaigns worked best compared to campaigns using simple Flash (which worked the least well) and rich media without video. This is an issue which needs to be addressed at the agency level, Mallon says, as Flash campaigns are still the most popular with agencies and advertisers.

Online Media Ad/Promo Use Eclipses Traditional Among SMBs

For the first time, the small and mid-sized businesses using online media for advertising/promotion has eclipsed the percentage using traditional media, reports The Kelsey Group and ConStat. The ongoing Local Commerce Monitor study examines SMBs and how they spend ad and promotional budgets.

Twittering May Have Impact at Box Office

Although word of mouth could always make or break a movie, it usually took days to affect the box office. But the rise of social networking tools such as Twitter might be narrowing that time frame to hours. And that has Hollywood on edge.

This summer, movies such as “Brüno” and “G.I. Joe” have had unexpected tumbles at the box office—just within their opening weekends—while “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” survived blistering critical reaction to become a blockbuster.

Box-office watchers say the dramatic swings might be caused by Twitter and other social networking sites that can blast instant raves—or pans—to hundreds of people just minutes after the credits roll.

Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up

Posted by on Aug 20, 2009 in Blog, Marketing News Round-up | No Comments

Gmail Become #3 Email Service Provider

New comScore figures report Gmail, the web mail service provided by Google, is now the third-largest in the US. In July, it eclipsed AOL Email with 37 million unique visitors to the latter’s 36.4 million. The second-most popular, Windows Live Hotmail, had 47 million visitors the same month.

No. 1 web mail player Yahoo Mail remains safely out of reach of Gmail’s long arm, having served 106 million unique visitors. Unique visitors to Gmail increased 25% so far in 2009; in contrast, unique visit

Conversion Rates Don’t Vary Much With Ad Position

Advertisers often ask us how conversion rates vary with position. Everyone is aware that higher positions tend to get more clicks and therefore more conversions in total. The question of interest is how does the conversion rate (conversions/clicks) vary with position?

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We have used a statistical model to account for these effects and found that, on average, there is very little variation in conversion rates by position for the same ad. For example, for pages where 11 ads are shown the conversion rate varies by less than 5% across positions. In other words, an ad that had a 1.0% conversion rate in the best position, would have about a 0.95% conversion rate in the worst position, on average. Ads above the search results have a conversion rate within ±2% of right-hand side positions.

The bottom line: conversion rates don’t vary much by position.

Marketers Budget Cutting Slows Down, New Projects Speed Up

A year ago and six months ago the Association of National Advertisers polled its members to determine how marketing and advertising budgets were being impacted by the tough economic conditions. ANA repeated the survey again in late July/early August 2009 and found that marketers are still pressured to reduce costs and spending. Today, 87% of the respondents indicate they are identifying cost savings and reductions, the same as one year ago, and only slightly improved from 93% six months ago.