blog

Google vs Facebook - the gloves are off!

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:19:18 +0000

The roll-out on Google search to reference data from Google +, to personalise a users search results, appears to be driven by a desire to 'out Facebook, Facebook' by Google. Its not looking like such a smart move at the moment, but time and user reaction will tell. See David Moth's, Econsultancy, wrap up of the algorithm updates and his view of the implications.

QR code uptake feedback

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:29:46 +0000

Some useful benchmarks for QR code consumer uptake from Econsultancy - one to monitor and test, where it makes sense on a target audience/lifestyle fix.

Growth of TV viewing online, now slowing

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:54:47 +0000

BARB are reporting that the growth in online TV viewing i.e. via a PC, laptop or tablet, has slowed, from 15% during a period this November compared to the same period last year. The word to note, of course, is 'growth' as 14% growth is still a significant lifestyle change, that media planners needs to take into account. From my point of view, I need to factor in, the consideration that circa 15% of my TV audience are most probably going to surf the web whilst the ad breaks are on, as the ability to do email, facebook and general web browsing is going to be higher when you are watching from this kind of device. Also, I need to carefully consider the call to action and the expectation for an online destination from he TV ad. There is always another dimension to consider, just when you think you have a handle on how technology is being used in real life!

Click to call for mobile search....

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:59:35 +0000

....will now be automatically enabled for all phone numbers that appear within Google Adwords copy, closing the 'free call' loophole that has existed over the past year for advertisers that have included their number within ad copy, rather than using the Call Extension feature. Just be aware, that if customers have been trained to call your company, from their mobiles, this will now result in a regular click cost from Google, for any calls generated, and your MI and daily caps, may be altered going forwards.

Social Media & Engagement Explained by UnMarketing

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:50:04 +0000

A great presentation by Scott Stratten on the use of technology and how companies should think about their brand.

http://youtu.be/zD8GQ67ZqVg

Raises some really interesting points that are worth considering byany company looking to grow awareness on(and off) line.

Foursquare beacon

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:55:09 +0000

Given Google's love of all things social at the moment, I can't help thinking that adding the new 'Save to Foursquare' button to your site, will do no harm in search ranking terms, and could generate some useful metrics for online to offline, real world behaviours, influcenced digitally.

Ripples of conversation....

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:57:59 +0000

I , along with a few million others around the world, hadn't entered the fray, unitl today, that is Google's +1 social proposition - accounts with a corporate administrator have only recently been able to get inside this tool. In the 100 days since Google +1 went live, rather a lot of data has been collected, and anyone can now get at this via Google + Ripples. This SEOmoz post gave me a head start, and the insight is really quite staggering. Have a play around, get +1 active, and lets work out how brands can use this transparency, to really get inside social media.

Trial, Error and the God Complex

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:48:06 +0000

A little while ago I watched a great talk from TED Global 2011 where Tim Harford discusses making use of trial and error in the production cycle and questions our fear of getting things wrong.

It is quite refreshing to see that companies are capable of embracing a more organic way of developing products and internal processed, based more on slowly developing and evolving a solution that works perfectly to solve a particular problem, rather than just spending an age planning and attempting to predict all the variables that will be present before any work has even started.

I can't help but draw parallels between these ideas and agile development. The idea of small iterations that are slowly developed and evolved to meet continually shifting requirements seems to fit in better with a lot of modern business requirements far more than a lengthy initial planning phase, that by completion no longer provides a solution to the current problem.

Check out the talk at the TED website

Cookie watch

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:55:18 +0000

Now that all site owners need to be fully aware of how their site is deploying cookies, to be sure to comply with the revised EU privacy regs, this is a useful tool, for the less techy amongst us, providing a quick snapshot of cookies in play on a particular page. This HttpWatch free tool, will provide a list of cookies that you can assess at your leisure, and is also rather useful for spotting third party tags - publishers and analytics companies - on competitor sites.

NB: works for IE and Firefox only

Facebook Timelines

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:56:55 +0000

Your personal and company Facebook profiles will be getting a make over in the next 2 - 4 weeks, as the established profile pages take on a new look, and significant additional functionality. The creation of a 'Timeline' will enable you to scrap book your entire life, filling gaps as you see fit - then as you download the apps, your viewing and listening will also be passively shared, according to your privacy settings. The benefits for 9 - 19 year olds, who are spending an average of 55 minutes per day on facebook, lie within the ability to prioritise and showcase their favourite photos, music, film choices and to be able to get a peek at what their friends are viewing, REAL TIME, all within Facebook. App partners in The Guardian, Spotify, Daily Motion and Cinemur have already been announced. What does this mean for advertisers and corporate pages? Basically Facebook have lifted the lid on all that behavioural data they have been sitting on, facilitating better realisation of these preferences for targeting. However, the downside is that even if you are currently doing business within Facebook, your marketing strategy will need to be adjsuted to account for the fact that more users will be staying in their own 'walled gardens', self sufficient on their app menu, and less likely to be roaming.

You can download the Timeline functionality via the developer interface now, to get ahead on this one - make sure you are logged into Facebook first.

Twitter to roll out promoted Tweets

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:49:12 +0000

This week, Twitter will start to display promoted tweets to users who are not necessarily followers of that company, but in their opinion, might be find the Tweet 'interesting & relevant'. This will take Twitter into the 'push', rather than 'pull' zone for consumers, who although they can opt out, will no longer be totally in control of what ends up in their inbox, once more. Although this is clearly just the next monetisation step for Twitter, it does undermine their original launch stance, possibly just removing the differentiation between Facebook, Linked In and Google. Apparently major advertisers such as AMEX, Disney, HP and Yahoo are already rolling out their Tweets on this basis, so lets hope that the communications reflect this subtle, but significant, change.

Social Radio ?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:20:47 +0000

The platform options for radio listening have expanded again with this week's launch of a UK Radioplayer Facebook App, which will allow listeners to share their station preferences with their Facebook chums through that interface, as an extension of their social behaviour. No longer will you be able to hide a weakness for Planet Rock, or claim to be a Jazz FM fan, from your Facebook Friends. Advertising, currently played out on Radioplayer at a station level, will also be visible with listening via the Facebook App. Radioplayer are already committed to TV distribution in 2012, and there are plans to include mobile and tablet devices very soon. Radio's reach is set to rival almost any other broadcast channel, with over 5m users for Radioplayer alone during a four week period in May this year.

How long to make eye contact?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:04:32 +0000

Findings from a Specific Media trial would suggest that for banner advertising this can be as long as 8.5 seconds. An interesting statistic, and certainly another measurement of advertising effectiveness to compliment clicks and conversions, perhaps best suited to creative testing, but certainly another metric I would be happy to use to validate channel and placement strategy.

Don't forget, LTV is what really matters

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:45:34 +0000

It is all too easy to be dogmatic about a single goal CPA figure when building and reviewing a digital acquistion campaign, and arguably easy with CPC/CPM rates falling, to achieve this bottom line. However, pause for thought and consider the value of those new customers vs the channel mix and a) optimise for customer LTV over a specified time and b) serve channel creatives that fit the customer profile that the channel typically delivers - Jake Bailey provides some food for thought here.

Is your business model rooted in the analogue past?

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:19:52 +0000

81% of media businesses agreed, according to recent work from KPMG. Young men, 18 - 34, according to the AskMen.com survey, seem to be leading the shift in media consumption from analogue to digital eg 71% now claim to use digital sources for their news consumption, with non-digital TV, print and radio being dropped out of their mix. Not only do we need to plan and create ideas almost exclusively in digital for these audience segments, but we need to help clients accept that yields from these digital customers will be lower than for analogue, and that business models need to be re-drawn.

What about the product?

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:15:31 +0000

I like this definition - 'Marketing activity is about the future generation of cashflow', originally credited to Tim Ambler, and revived by Tom Albrighton writing for Econsultancy today. Don't lose sight of the fundamental link back to selling product, whilst considering the latest mobile this, or social that. Ask yourself this question before sign off - 'Do I understand how running this activity will contribute towards the generation of future cashflow?'

Might '3' be the magic number...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:03:07 +0000

....of channels to deploy to deliver hard business related metrics? According to a detailed analysis of case histories between 2004 and 2010, an IPA sponsored project has added proof to a number of daily media planning dilemas - how many channels, what weighting, will produce results, hard and soft? I know what our clients are asking for at the moment: hard results, fast. But from a multi-channel platform, the transition to delivery of more strategic objectives is a less risky transition - bases covered?

TV + Digital = success

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:06:20 +0000

...because if this is thought through at the outset, the customer UX can be seamless and provide satisfaction & measurement any way you choose. This piece from Econsultancy provides a thought provoking check list for campaign planning, 2011 style.

Myspace - new direction

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:11:32 +0000

On the back of the facebook plateau, the sale of Murdoch's Myspace and its new leadership and direction will provide a re-freshing social media property story to follow, don't you think? We run ads for clients on Myspace, via the Google Display Network, so it will be intersting to see if there are any spikes in reach now that Myspace is back in the headlines.

Poster campaign - but not as you knew it?

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:20:24 +0000

Colegate want to keep Britain smiling (and sell some toothpaste). They are running an outdoor campaign, using digital sites, with smiling pics from facebook fans. Blatently leveraging social media, with current fans on their page at over 49,000, and a rather neat methodology for calculating your level of engagement in 'smile' currency.