Archive for the ‘Media Trends’ Category
Friday, March 14th, 2008 |
by Sarah Mahoney | Source: Online Marketing Daily
JUST AS MARKETERS HAVE BECOME used to building paid-search into their media plans, a new study from a leading search agency finds that it’s time for the next wave: Making bigger investments in “natural” searches.
“In most cases, natural and paid search campaigns perform better together than they do separately,” reports Oneupweb, an integrated online marketing company based in Traverse City, Mich. “Greater awareness of a Web site created by a paid ad can lead to more natural traffic. In similar fashion, people are logically more likely to click on a paid promotional ad of marketers they recognize, such as those they’ve encountered during a natural search.”
A key reason that search strategies are evolving, says Tim Kauffold, Oneupweb’s director of business development, is (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 |
[Big Idea] If you intend to use pay-per-click advertising (those Google “Sponsored Results”) you need to read up on the recent economy’s effects on PPC ads, to minimize your losses. It’s really easy to lose a ton of money on PPC ads that make you no sales. ##
by Tameka Kee | Source: Online Media Daily
FRESH OFF A WEEK OF doubts about the resilience of Google’s paid and natural search value proposition, one of the giant’s top engineering brass aimed to still the hearts of financial types feeling antsy over declining ad clicks and a slumping economy.
“If an advertiser knows that they’ll make five dollars by spending one dollar, the chance is high that they’ll spend it,” said Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering & research at Google. “We’ve stressed measurability and providing a clear return on investment since we started our advertising business–and the growth of paid search shows that advertisers have bought into that. That’s what will help us in times like these.” (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 |
[Big Idea] … so don’t bust your back trying to be all over them. Not only do people spend less time there, but it’s been documented time & again that social media traffic has a much lower conversion rate (they buy less!) than traffic from other sources. ##
by Mark Walsh | Source: Online Media Daily
ADDING A NEW CATEGORY TO its index of Internet activity, the Online Publishers Association found that community sites–including social networks such as Facebook and MySpace–account for only 7.5% of time spent online.
That puts community sites ahead of search (5%), but well below content (42.7%), communications (28.7%), and commerce sites (16.1%) in time spent. The OPA defines the community category as Web sites and applications that combine user-generated content with communications to foster relationships among their members.
“The addition of Community reflects the increasing popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook that don’t clearly fit into a single existing (Internet Activity Index) category, said OPA President Pam Horan. Even so, adding social networking sites to the mix hardly displaced content as king when it comes to monopolizing users’ time online.
Separately, Web measurement firm HitWise estimates that social networking sites and other online forums, such as Craigslist, accounted for 9.3% of U.S. Internet traffic in February. Social networks alone made up almost 6% of traffic.
While still small, advertising on social sites is growing rapidly. In its recently released 2008 Digital Outlook Report, Avenue A|Razorfish identified entertainment and community sites as the two fastest-growing ad categories last year, with the latter growing more than 50% to $55 million.
Posted in Business Success, Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Statistics | No Comments »
Monday, February 25th, 2008 |
[Our Thoughts] Be careful… remember, whatever you put on Facebook, is saved forever, and cannot be removed. Heaven only knows what similar type issues will arise with other sites you don’t 100% control. (And the ONLY website you 100% control is your own!) ##
by Tameka Kee | Source: Online Media Daily
EMPLOYERS SEE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES as one of the most promising channels for finding new hires, and 61% anticipate spending more of their recruitment budgets on sites like Facebook this year, according to a new report from Classified Intelligence, LLC.
Business networking sites like LinkedIn and employee referral programs followed closely behind, with 55% of employers saying they will allocate more dollars to them in 2008–while roughly the same amount said that they plan to spend less on print. (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Internet, Media Trends | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 |
[Big Idea] If your target marker is younger adults (ages 18-34), consider advertising on your local newspapers’ websites. ##
by Erik Sass | Source: Media Daily News
NEWSPAPER WEB SITES ARE REACHING elusive younger readers, a new analysis by Scarborough Research indicates–giving a much-needed boost to the ailing newspaper business. The growth in online audiences is offsetting losses in print readership, at least somewhat.
The Scarborough survey tracked 88 newspapers in the top 50 local markets from August 2004 to March 2007. It found that local newspaper audience weekly “coverage” or penetration grew 14%, from 6.4% of the total adult population in the year ending September 2005 to 7.3% in the year ending March 2007. (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 |
By Jeremy Mullman | Source: Advertising Age
Shrinking newspapers forced to make cuts are increasingly regarding their stand-alone business sections as expendable.
The Denver Post — which folded its business section into other sections on every day but Sunday — this month became at least the eighth daily to cut its stand-alone daily business section since early 2007. The Orange County Register made a similar move just a week earlier.
While the cuts are a source of much consternation among business journalists — and also to public-relations executives at small local firms and agencies that may have trouble securing news coverage without them — analysts, advertisers and publishers say that the stand-alone sections were relatively poor sources of ad revenue that tended to be overmatched by national and online competition on anything beyond the most hyperlocal stories.
Said veteran newspaper-industry analyst Ed Atorino, of Benchmark Capital: “You do get a story once in awhile about a local storeowner or a closing or something, which you might miss, but most of what’s in those sections is rip and read [wireservice copy],” he said. “With all the business news on TV and the internet, the consumer is getting it someplace else.”
Read the full story at Advertising Age >>
Posted in Bookkeeping, Internet, Media Trends | No Comments »
Friday, February 15th, 2008 |
[Karin's Take] “Web 2.0″ and “Social Networking” have become huge catch-phrases and in-crowd type marketing over the past 18 months. Yet, is it such a great idea? has been slow to play out. There have been plenty of adopters to Facebook (at least as evidenced by frequent referrals to the service on news broadcasts) but now we are finally seeing the Dark Side of Facebook… do you really want to subject yourself to this kind of headache? Will it be a headache for you? Think carefully before jumping in. Your short-term marketing gain today could be a long-term black mark tomorrow. ##
by George Simpson | Source: Online Media Daily
MULTIBILLIONAIRE BILL GATES, WHOSE COMPANY invested $240 million in Facebook just last year, has already abandoned his Facebook account. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Gates hasn’t deleted it, but that he has stopped using it because he was inundated with friend requests. More likely, he tried to delete it and found out it is nearly impossible to do so. Even if you deactivate your account, according to The New York Times, Facebook still keeps a copy of all the information you ever posted. And, it’s still possible to contact people through deleted Facebook pages.
Not to pile on, but according to MSNBC, Facebook-types are turned off by too much advertising on social-networking sites–one reason the amount of time the average person spends on a social-networking site has dropped 14% over the last four months, according to comScore.
Did we just hear the death-knell of Web 2.0? Probably not, but I think we are seeing a divide between those who have a life and those who invent a life online. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Legal, Lessons in Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 |
by Nina M. Lentini | Source: 02/12/08 Marketing Daily
- 41% report that their online spending has increased during this period
- 63% are spending time online looking for special discounts, coupons and offers from their favorite brands and products
- 74.2% would sign up for one-off coupons and discounts for their preferred brands and products (more…)
Posted in Internet, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 |
by Erik Sass | Source: Media Daily News
PRINT IS THRIVING–ONLINE.
The top 320 magazine Web sites received on average 67.5 million unique visitors per month during the fourth quarter of 2007–an 8.1% jump from the same period in 2006, according to Web data collected by Nielsen Online and compiled by the Magazine Publishers of America. That’s a faster rate of growth than the Internet overall, where the total U.S. online population rose 2.4% year-over-year.
These figures mean that magazine Web sites reached almost 42% of the total U.S. online population of about 160 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 7.1% over last year’s reach. (more…)
Posted in Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 |
by Erik Sass | Source: Online Media Daily
PHISHING AND SPAM INCREASED 100% in 2007 compared to 2006, according to Des Cahill, the CEO of Habeas, speaking on the second day of the Email Evolution conference hosted by the Direct Marketing Association in San Diego. Understandably, this means consumers are also becoming more vigilant.
For example, a survey of a representative group of 2,300 U.S. Internet users found that 61% don’t open mail if they aren’t sure that it’s actually from the purported sender. They’re also signing up for multiple email accounts, shunting all non-personal emails to catch-all accounts. “So now it’s not just a question of deliverability,” Cahill said. “It’s: ‘Are you getting to the right inbox, the trusted inbox?’” On the positive side, 73% use email seven days a week, and most think they cannot get along without it, even with the crime.
In this context, Cahill warned that “really good content is no longer enough” to ensure delivery of emails. He urged email marketers to adopt the standard best practices, including conferring regularly with ISPs, frequently cleaning email lists of non-responders, and (of course) hiring email deliverability companies like his own.
But wary marketers are going further. Sal Tripi, the director of operations and compliance for Publishers’ Clearing House, said the company guards its reputation as an email sender so closely that it now monitors all the advertisers who appear in its electronic marketing messages.
In cases where advertisers have bad email reputations, or even just questionable practices, “we’ll walk away from the business,” Tripi said. PCH has already broken off some profitable relationships because “the person who gets our email won’t remember the advertiser as the problem; they’re going to remember PCH.” Tripi applies similar standards to companies PCH employs to drive traffic to its site.
Alison Shaffer, group manager of database marketing and analytics for WebEx Communications, an online conference company, said her company employs third-party vendors for tasks like list suppression, to protect the privacy of consumer email addresses. Email deliverability is key to WebEx’s business because customers use a software link in the text of an email to patch into conferences; they can also invite other people to join their conferences via email–provided WebEx email gets delivered.
Finally, Cliff Seltzer, the CEO and co-founder of Puresend, said marketers should steer clear of “piggybacking” strategies–for example, getting “prospecting” emails delivered by sending them from an IP address previously used only for cleaner transaction emails. This strategy is likely to backfire before long, he said. In fact, he advised marketers who send prospecting emails to set up a separate IP for each different class of mail to avoid damaging the reputation of their “good” address.
Posted in Business Success, Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
It is no surprise that a print/direct media agency found that their own media choice ranks over others, with consumers. Naturally there is some bias to be expected in this “study.” However, that doesn’t mean the report is wisely disregarded in its entirety. Veritas has identified valid reasons for why consumers do refer to circulars. And clearly, circulars do work, otherwise businesses would not continue to use them.
The question is, what can you take away from this study and apply to your small business? ##
Source: Progressive Grocer
BALTIMORE – Almost half of all consumers think inserts and circulars are the advertising methods that best capture their attention, according to research released yesterday by Vertis Communications here, a provider of print advertising, direct marketing solutions, and related value-added services to retail and consumer services companies.
Vertis said in its “Vertis Customer Focus 2008: Retail Study,” that 47 percent of Americans cited inserts and circulars as the most effective, a 9 percent increase since 2003. Also according to the report, inserts and circulars have surpassed TV advertising as the medium most able to draw consumer attention.
93 percent of consumers who read the pieces use them for more than just price comparisons. Specifically, the study found that over 50 percent of those who read them do so for at least three reasons: clipping coupons, assisting in making shopping lists for future store trips, and browsing for new products or styles.
Read the full story at Progressive Grocer >>
Posted in Marketing, Media Trends, Statistics | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
Source: Center for Media Research
According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits, more than 85% of the world’s online population has used the internet to make a purchase, increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years.
Bruce Paul, VP, Customized Research, Nielsen US, said “When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10% of the world’s population (627 million) had shopped online. Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40% to 875 million.”
Globally, more than half of internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.
Among internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is in South Korea, where 99% of those with internet access have used it to shop, and 79% of these internet users have shopped in the past month. Other prolific shoppers are in the last month are:
(more…)
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Monday, July 23rd, 2007 |
Source: BBC News
Credit information group Equifax said members of sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook may be putting too many details about themselves online.
It said fraudsters could use these details to steal someone’s identity and apply for credit and benefits.
About 80,000 people in the UK were victims of identity theft last year, at a cost to the economy of £1.5bn.
Passwords
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said: “Fraudsters are taking advantage of the new craze for social networking.
“The problem is that people don’t realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it.
“More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day and chances are they’ll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status.
“Fraudsters can use this information to steal an individual’s identity and open accounts in their name.”
The group advised people to limit the personal information they make available about themselves online.
It said people should avoid putting their full date of birth on one of the sites, as well as the names of children or pets as these are often used as passwords.
Mr Munroe said: “We don’t want to stop people using these sites, but we do advise them to limit the amount of information they make available to stop people stealing their identity.”
Posted in Internet, Legal, Media Trends | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 |
by Nina M. Lentini | Source: MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
IF YOU HAVE A HEADACHE, you take a pain reliever. If the headache persists, you can either keep taking aspirin or start doing something about your long-term health.
That’s the kind of trade-off described in a new report out from Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) that focuses on decisions made by consumer products companies as they consider short- and long-term marketing strategies. Sunil “Sunny” Garga, global services president at IRI, used the health care analogy in discussing with Marketing Daily the results of the newly released IRI report, “Long-Term Drivers Consortium Study.” (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Product, Statistics | No Comments »
Friday, July 6th, 2007 |
Source: PROMO Magazine
Despite the popular of social networking sites and other online communities, they have little effect on influencing online retail sales, a new report has found.
Such sites are only driving about 12% of online shoppers to buy more than planned, the study by JupiterResearch found.
The effectiveness of these sites, like MySpace, in driving retail sales is still emerging.
Some 53% of people making online purchases go directly to the retailer’s site versus 3% using blogs. (more…)
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Friday, July 6th, 2007 |
by Chad White | Source: MediaPost’s Email Insider
WHICH DAY OF THE WEEK you send your emails can have a major impact on your open and click-through rates. And the choice of that day is influenced by how many emails you send in a particular week and what your competitors are doing with their campaigns. While in some cases your competitors are creating competition for attention in your subscribers’ inboxes, in other cases their collective wisdom may give you a signal on which days you may want to choose for your own launches. Whether you want to avoid them or go with the pack, it’s definitely helpful to know what your competitors are up to.
With that in mind, I’ve mined data collected on 104 major online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot during a 26-week period (Dec. 30, 2006, through June 29, 2007) to determine the most popular days of the week to send emails.
But before I get into that, I wanted to report the preliminary results of the Email Experience Council survey I mentioned in my column last week on button vs. link calls-to-actions. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that buttons perform better as primary calls-to-action, while only 25% said that links perform better. If you’re currently using links, this is some community wisdom worth considering.
So back to choosing the best day of the week. (more…)
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Friday, July 6th, 2007 |
by Ari Rosenberg | Source: Online Publishing Insider
IF CREATIVE SELLING IS DRIVING your business of online publishing, the wheels are made of math. Not the return on investment kind of math that comes to mind first when talking about online advertising metrics — but rather, a more natural-fitting math connecting your own revenue goals and how close or far you reside from them.
This distance between should be steering your publishing organization’s behavior, down to daily decisions. This trickles down to every salesperson who owns a piece of quota. How they spend their time any given day should stand up to the question of “How will this get you closer to your numbers?”
This doesn’t mean members of your team coming up short should start hocking inventory on every street corner — not at all. But where you stand versus your quarterly quota should affect the balance kept between effort allocations against short-term opportunities versus mid- to long-term ones. (more…)
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Friday, July 6th, 2007 |
by Gavin O’Malley | Source: Online Media Daily
CONSUMERS MIGHT ASSUME THAT CNN.COM’S latest Web 2.0 iteration — including a cleaner layout, blog-like interface, and spotlight on video — was all meant for them.
Not so, said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager of the site: “Literally, the first stop we made when redesigning the site was to agencies like Avenue A and Digitas to get a sense of what they wanted, and the trends they thought were most important to consider.”
The redesign, which launched earlier this week, was planned first and foremost to please advertisers, Payne insisted, and less cluttered and cleaner experiences were at the top of agencies’ wish lists. (more…)
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Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 |
by Erik Sass | Source: MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
RADIO ADS HAVE THE SAME emotional impact as TV ads, according to a new study of physiological indicators commissioned by the Radio Ad Lab and performed by Gallup & Robinson. “Engagement, Emotions, and the Power of Radio” contradicts the conventional wisdom about the two media, which states that advertising with visuals and motion has a more visceral impact than ads using sound alone. (more…)
Posted in Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 |
See article at BBC News
New research from the University of California-Berkeley shows there’s a pronounced class divide between those who frequent the popular social networks Facebook and MySpace. According to the report, Facebook users are more likely to be white, come from wealthier homes and attend college, while MySpace users tend to get jobs after finishing high school instead of continuing their education.
Facebook got its start as a social network for high school and college students. Last fall, founder Michael Zuckerberg and co. open up its 9 million-strong user base to anyone, which means it’s likely to see its exclusivity numbers drop.
Report author Dana Boyd, a UC-Berkeley PhD student, said “class” in the U.S. is something directly tied to one’s social life — rather than income. “Social networks are strongly connected to geography, race, and religion; these are also huge factors in lifestyle divisions and thus ‘class’,” Boyd wrote in the report. “They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities,” said the report, whereas “MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school.” The report makes no judgments, but advertisers might find the data useful.
See article at BBC News
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 |
by Erik Sass | Source: Online Media Daily
PEOPLE WHO BANK ONLINE ARE far more likely to engage in e-commerce activity, according to a study from Moda Solutions, a company that links the two by bringing online banking to the virtual checkout.
The cause and effect behind the phenomenon isn’t clear–i.e., which affinity drives the other one. But the strong correlation suggests that an increase in online banking could see a concurrent lift for e-commerce. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Statistics | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 |
By Alana Semuels | Source: LA Times
The volume of standard mail sent to U.S. residences increased from 87 billion pieces in 2002 to 102 billion in 2006. Sending ads to consumers’ mailboxes is effective even as more advertising migrates to the Internet, said Stephanie Hendricks, spokeswoman for the Direct Marketing Assn.
Direct mail often motivates consumers to check out an advertiser’s website. Amazon.com, for example, has started using direct mail to reach potential customers.
But many advertisers are getting squeezed by rising postal rates. … “If your advertisements are sitting on someone’s doorknob, it’s more likely that people will see them,” Lynch said.
Read the full article at LA Times >>
Posted in Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 |
Source: Around the Net in Online Marketing
So-called “widgets” (no, not the economics term for “product”) could become major drivers of advertising on social media sites, says The Wall Street Journal. In the Web 2.0 world, “widgets” refer to interactive photo, video and music tools that allow everyday users to post content–movie trailers, photo slide shows, music playlists–to their site or social networking profile. New research from comScore shows that consumers are increasingly interacting with this type of broadband content: in April, nearly 178 million people Web-wide viewed content made with these so-called widgets. The comScore report is one of the first to measure the reach of widget-producers like Slide, Inc. RockYou Inc., and PictureTrail, Inc.
Advertisers, no doubt, must now sit up and take notice. Those are some big numbers from a relatively new phenomenon, and the sky’s the limit: a widget could also be anything from an interactive video ad to a branded advergame. For a video provider like YouTube, a “widget” is another piece of content to sell advertising against.
Part of the reason that widgets have caught fire is their ease of use. Slide, the category’s top provider with 117.1 million users in April, makes producing a video slide show on your MySpace page as easy as clicking a few buttons or copying and pasting a piece of code. As the Journal report says, widgets are rapidly becoming the de facto form of self-expression through broadband content. However, the problem for widget makers is that they largely depend on MySpace and Facebook, which have a history of blocking third-party content makers, for distribution.
Full article at Wall Street Journal (subscription required) >>
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 |
by Les Luchter | Source: Online Media Daily
COMPANIES USING WEB ANALYTICS ARE placing too much faith in technology and people, and not putting enough effort into education and training, according to former JupiterResearch analyst Eric T. Peterson, whose new consulting firm Web Analytics Demystified has just released the results of its initial research. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Statistics | No Comments »
Friday, June 8th, 2007 |
by Sarah Mahoney | Source: MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
AFTER ANNOUNCING SOME OF THE industry’s best May sales numbers, Saks Fifth Avenue will relaunch its “Want it!” campaign this fall, featuring 18 fashion “must haves.”
Beginning in September, the campaign will highlight nine items for women, including the cape, textured cardigan, opaque legs and high-heeled shoe booty. For men, it will spotlight tuxedos, turtlenecks, puffy vests, novel ties and – wait for it – “the gentleman’s bag.”
No snickering, please: Saks also reports that same-store sales skyrocketed 37.5% over year-earlier figures. (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Product, Statistics | No Comments »
Friday, June 8th, 2007 |
Source: MediaPost’s Online Media Daily
GOODMAIL SYSTEMS HAS ADDED COMCAST, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner and Verizon to the list of ISPs supporting its CertifiedEmail trusted class email. Certified Email messages are marked with a blue ribbon envelope icon to let consumers know they come from a legitimately vetted source. The program is already in place at AOL and Yahoo. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Monday, June 4th, 2007 |
By Erika Morphy | Source: Tech News World
Blogs are increasingly being used to shine a spotlight on companies that provide poor service or otherwise annoy — sometimes enrage — consumers. For consumer advocates, they are a true equalizer: Bloggers have been able to shame companies into fixing mistakes or changing policies, especially when they cause a mainstream media reporter to come calling.
What should companies do — and what should they refrain from doing — when reacting to blog postings about their products or services? Robert Cox, president of the New York-based Media Bloggers Association and a consultant to consumer packaged goods companies, has very specific ideas on the subject.
What they shouldn’t do: Ignore the situation, or worse, try to intimidate bloggers into shutting up — unless, of course, they are writing defamatory statements. More on that below. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 |
by Nina M. Lentini | Source: MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
OF THE 100 LARGEST COMPANIES rated in the U.S. by the general public, Kraft Foods earned the highest Reputation Pulse of 81.07, as computed by the Reputation Institute.
The score indicates that consumers have very high trust, respect, and good feeling for the company, says the institute.
Anthony Johndrow, managing director of the institute’s U.S. office, says of Kraft: “People have to trust them in order to buy their products–it’s food you give to your family that’s made by that company. There is definitely a relationship there that’s a potential trend.” (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Product, Statistics | No Comments »
Saturday, May 26th, 2007 |
by Laurie Petersen | Source: Online Media Daily
THE ONLINE HEALTH INFORMATION CATEGORY reached an average of 55.3 million monthly U.S. visitors in the first quarter of 2007, which represents a 12% year-over-year increase for the period, comScore reported yesterday.
Health-related search continues to be a key traffic driver. “Pregnancy” was the top health-related search phrase for the first quarter, with more than 17 million entries. “Cancer,” “flu” and “fitness” each generated at least 15 million searches. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007 |
Source: Center for Media Research
According to Netpop I Play, a new report from Media-Screen, broadband users spend an hour and 40 minutes (48% of their spare time) online in a typical weekday, and more than half of that is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication.
Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen, says “Many broadband consumers go online for entertainment, and to talk about entertainment with other fans. Marketers need to leverage that interest…” (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] If you do any e-mail newsletters through your website, this is a must-read. /ss
by Chad White | Source: MediaPost’s Email Insider
WITH KMART REINCARNATING THE BLUE Light Special as a helpful spokesperson/”retail superhero” named Mr. Bluelight, I thought it was an auspicious time to talk about deal-a-day emails. Just like the Blue Light Special, these promotional emails promise a good deal for a limited time.
… During the past holiday season, several retailers including Petco, Home Depot and the Sears brands (Sears, Kmart and Lands’ End), which sent emails collectively as part of their ReadySetHoliday.com Web site, launched special deal-a-day email programs that were separate from their core email marketing programs and required separate opt-ins. Home Depot highlighted one product per email, while the Sears brands highlighted three. Those programs were temporary, however, wrapping up in December and January after the holiday selling season. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] Is your shop, agency or business on Facebook AND Friendster??? Why not? It’s free. Grab every bit of networking power you can. /ssÂ
by Gavin O’Malley | Source: Online Media Daily
MOVE OVER, CRAIG. FACEBOOK ON Friday said it would add free classified ad-listings to its popular social networking site. The new service, dubbed Marketplace, poses a potential threat to a number of companies–from Craigslist and newspapers to Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Also on Friday, Friendster announced that it had added classifieds through a partnership with Olx.com.
Marketplace will allow Facebook’s some 22 million active users to create classified listings in four categories: housing, jobs, for sale, and “other.” Users will be able to limit the exposure of their classifieds to individual networks such as immediate friends and coworkers. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Marketing, Media Trends | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] A prime example of how to sell your product’s benefits to buyers — not features. Features mean nothing. But benefits are how your product will make their lives better, in real living color. That’s what Tempur-Pedic is doing… how are you connecting with buyers in your ads??? /ssÂ
By Theresa Howard | Source: USA TODAY
A high-end mattress company wants to become the Whole Foods of the bedding business.
Tempur-Pedic, which prefers to call its products “sleep systems,” will launch advertising on Tuesday based on promoting health and wellness.
“Wellness is a huge hot spot for consumers,” says Dan Setlak, vice president of marketing for the maker of Tempur foam products. “We’re in a consumer environment where wellness and sleep concerns are at an all-time high.” (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Marketing, Media Trends, Product | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
By MICHAEL BARBARO | Source: New York Times
Maybe Americans don’t need dressing rooms after all.
For the first time since online retailing was born a decade ago, the sales of clothing have overtaken those of computer hardware and software, suggesting that consumers have reached a new level of comfort buying merchandise on the Web.
In 2006, revenue from skirts, suits and shoes reached $18.3 billion, surpassing that from PCs, printers and word-processing programs, which totaled $17.2 billion, according to a report to be released today by a major trade group.
The surging popularity of clothing on the Web defies predictions that fashion — which is hard enough to buy in stores, with the aid of sales clerks and fitting rooms — would be difficult, if not impossible, to translate onto the Internet. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] If you’re not doing this in some way with your business’s website, you’re being left behind. The lesson here is simple: get it in gear, NOW. /ss
by Karl Greenberg | Source: MediaPost’s Marketing Daily
USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC) HAS GONE mainstream, according to a new report from Internet market consultancy JupiterResearch. Per the firm, in the past month, half of all online users have either created UGC or read items posted by others. In a study titled “User-Generated Content: Strategies for Media Sites,” JupiterResearch reports that UGC is now a mainstream activity for millions of consumers. According to the study, users under the age of 25 are especially active UCGers. Three-quarters of users 18 to 25 are reading or writing UGC, and few of them are passive participants. A third of those over age 55 are participating in UGC as well. Additionally, active users of UGC haven ‘t abandoned off-line media for online, but they are learning to balance the two.
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Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] *feigned look of shock* You mean they finally realized anybody with a whit of ethics looks at them like they are the sleazebags that… they act like? Funny how when I asked pointed questions of industry ethics — in an advertising copywriters’ forum (so in their own sandbox, per se) — not even the industry’s most “successful” or esteemed copywriters would touch the issue with a 10-foot pole. Sort of odd, isn’t it? *wink* I can’t help but wonder if this will actually translate into any difference though… honestly, I expect not. /ssÂ
By Leo Cendrowicz/The Hollywood Reporter | Source: Ad Week
 BRUSSELS – The global advertising industry on Monday committed to improving its image and regulating itself as it battles growing anti-brand and anti-corporate sentiments.
The World Federation of Advertisers said it wants to give consumers more of a stake in advertising by boosting the complaints process and generating more feedback.
The pledge comes after a recent Gallup survey in the U.S. found only 10 percent of those polled rated the ethics of advertisers as “very high” or “high.” The advertiser beat the “ever-ridiculed used car salesman” by a single point. (more…)
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Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] This is a technique that independent operators can use, too. Find sites in your niche, and send free samples. Ask them to write about your product if they like it. If they don’t like it, no harm, no foul. It could be some of the most affordable and effective advertising you’ve done in a while!! #
They Lavish Freebies Upon Eager Web Scribes
By BROOKS BARNES | Source: Wall Street JournalÂ
TV critics have called “The New Adventures of Old Christine” one of the decade’s funniest comedies. But when CBS recently wanted to create buzz for the show, critics weren’t the targets of the publicity campaign.
Neither were newspaper feature writers, whom a publicist for the show’s star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, declared weren’t “worth her time.”
The so-called “mommy bloggers” were another matter. Warner Bros., the studio that produces the show for CBS, identified 12 blogs about motherhood, a key theme in “Old Christine,” and invited the writers to spend the day on the set. The bloggers got free DVDs, watched a rehearsal and made videos with Ms. Louis-Dreyfus and other cast members to post on their sites. “It was totally rad,” says Yvonne Marie, the publisher of a Web log called Joy Unexpected.
Who says you can’t buy love? Trying to tap into the burgeoning power of blogs as promotional tools and fed up with the jaded attitudes of professional critics and TV feature writers, studios and networks are flooding bloggers with free stuff in hopes the flattered recipients will reward them with positive coverage. Flowing into the trough is everything from fancy gym bags and toasters to video iPods and free trips. Some networks — in the spotlight this week as they unveil their fall schedules to advertisers — have even borrowed a term from the technology industry to describe the strategy: blogola. (more…)
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Friday, May 11th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] If you send e-mail — of any type, to anybody — this article applies to you.
by Laurie Petersen | Source: Online Media Daily
 IN A WORLD OF PHISHERS, spammers and tension with ISPs over deliverability, the state of the email marketing industry is mixed. But marketers need look no further than their own practices to begin to change that.
“Just be relevant” was the message delivered from multiple perspectives during kickoff presentations yesterday at the Email Insider Summit in Bonita Springs, FL. (more…)
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Friday, May 11th, 2007 |
Research Brief | Source: Center for Media Research
Internet Retailer reports that even though pay-per-click advertising and social networking are gaining status in retail marketing circles, E-mail remains one of the best one-on-one marketing tools retailers can use to attract and retain customers.
The Internet Retailer latest monthly survey finds that merchants are expanding both the size and scope of their e-mail programs. The April survey of all subscribers of IRNewsLink, analyzed by Vovici Corp. finds that, of the 302 merchants taking part in the survey, 94.5% are building bigger opt-in lists and 64.7% are conducting more e-mail campaigns than a year ago. (more…)
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Friday, May 11th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] Put your business everywhere you can… here’s another free way to connect with people.
By BRAD STONE | Source: New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 — Facebook, the social networking Web site, is adding free classified ad listings, putting it into competition with dozens of established companies like Craigslist and many newspapers.
Facebook, which has 22 million active users, more than half of them in high school or college, hopes that the new feature will offer yet another reason for users to return to its site regularly, instead of going elsewhere to conduct their Internet business.
“We don’t try to lock people up or take more of their time, but we try to provide them with easier ways to do the things they want to do on the Internet,†said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, who noted that more than 60 percent of the site’s active users log in each day. “If we can provide people with efficient tools, they will use the site more.†(more…)
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