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Google Enters the Comparison Market
2008-06-04 18:56:00
The finance comparison market has been a very lucrative and successful one over the past 5 years and it seems that Google has finally decided that it wants a piece of the pie!  The screenshot below is taken from a Google UK search for secured loan (interestingly it only worked in IE and not in Firefox) and shows the Google Merchant Search function appearing above all PPC listings with drop down functionality allowing the user to select their desired loan amount before they even leave the SERP.  Once an option is selected the user is taken to the Google Merchant page with their options shown based on the original selection, much like with all the other comparison sites in the market. At the moment it appears this is just in Beta on the secured loan keyword but surely if successful this will be rolled out onto all other financial products.  I couldn’t see where Google was getting these results from, and so I am not even sure if the providers know they are being compared (although...
More About: Market , Comparison

Becks Searching for Fulltime Blogger
2008-06-04 18:51:00
In a bold move into the world of social media and UGC Becks has announced that it is searching for a fulltime blogger to become PAYE and work just for them.  This is an interesting move by the beer brand and they have obviously given it some thought, at least I hope they have.  Id be interested to see what they think somebody is going to blog about all day long in the beer/alcohol industry,  The content produced will obviously benefit their site and hopefully keep people coming back but is this just a case of another company deciding they need to “do” social media, without fully considering what that means to them?  Who knows.  Im not sure I will be applying but it will be interesting to see the outcome of the project and whether it has any significant benefit to them as a company. http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Articles/7 b004cd4e19e4330adeab76402946f2d/Beer-bran d-Beck’s-hunts-for-full-time-blogge r.html
More About: Blogger , Searching

Google Announces the Acceptance of 3rd Party Tags
2008-06-04 18:40:00
Google has announced that it will now be accepting 3rd party ad serving tags for its placement targeting network in the US and has plans to roll this out in the UK in the near future.  This is a big step for them and no doubt is linked to the double click acquisition in some way.  The Google Image ads network has long been a no go area for media planners due in no small part to the fact they didn’t accept 3rd party tags.  This announcement could mean a big growth spurt for the network as it should attract more advertisers which in turn should attract more publishers and also publishers of a higher quality.  I would argue that Google needs to clean up their network a little in order to improve quality but you cant dispute the fact they have a large number of sites on board in a large number of verticals which could be tempting for the niche advertisers trying to build an effective media plan.  There’s no doubt the ability to select individual sites, the flexible pricing and ...
More About: Google , Party , Tags , Acceptance

Love hate relationships
2008-05-22 09:59:00
I was reading Marketing’s fourth annual survey into the top loved and hated brands and noticed the fickle nature of the public in their views on brands, and undoubtedly linked, their advertising campaigns.  What struck me from the survey, more than the strange appearance of AOL at number 2 in the top 50 hated brands even though their UK profile doesn’t warrant such a high profile spot, was the number of brands named highly in both the most hated, and most loved lists.  In the main list you actually only have two brands appearing in the top 20 of both, these are The Sun and Nokia (via ngage in the most hated), but if you get down into the different tables for the individual markets it is much more apparent.  I suppose you could just argue that the more you drill down by market, the less brands their are and so the more chance of a brand appearing in both lists but if you take such a broad market as “fashion” you would imagine there are enough brands out the...
More About: Relationships , Love , Hate

Microsoft Enters the World of Cashback
2008-05-21 13:03:00
Microsoft have announced today that they will be launching a cash back system for purchases made using its Live search engine.  Utilising partnerships with ebay, paypal and jellyfish they will offer remuneration to users who find a product using live search and then make a purchase.  This is an amazing step from Microsoft into a market traditionally held by the affiliate world and heralded by the networks as the big growth area for affiliate marketing.  My own experiences of cash back sites are limited due to the way it opens the advertiser up for fraudulent enquiries/sales by incentivising the individual.  that doesn’t mean to say it cant work in the right situation and the entrance of Microsoft into this world not only says they have identified it as a growth area but also could have major implications for the cashback industry as a whole.  On the one hand it could bring the service to the mass market and mean the user base for such size grows exponentially over the nex...
More About: Microsoft , World , The World , Cashback

Strongbow utilises mobile marketing
2008-05-16 20:45:00
Strongbow are launching a mobile marketing campaign involving promoting a shortcode for users to text in to in order to receive a promotional text entitling them to a free pint in their local.  The offer will be promoting “Bowtime” which will run from 5pm-7pm on Tuesdays for a four week period.  This is imaginative use of mobile and I applaud strongbow for this.  Too many companies discount mobile as not fitting their industry or product but in coming up with this plan Strongbow have found a way of overcoming this.  They are obviously also attempting to try and generate a social/viral element by coming up with Bowtime in the hope people adopt this moving forward.  Also the chances of one pint becoming two, three, four are pretty high (I know from experience!) so they will still make their money on the resulting session.  The Strongbow statement claimed they were “seeking to engage with Strongbow customers in a relevant and long term way”.  I doubt this...
More About: Marketing , Mobile , Mobile Marketing

Trademark removal - the aftermath
2008-05-07 22:24:00
So after all the hoopla about Google removing the trademark protection from its Adwords system (of which I only got chance to write about once as I was too busy doing something about it at work!) what was the outcome?  The removal happened on Monday (bank holiday, coincidence? I think not) while most of us were enjoying the good weather or a badly played round of golf in my case.  You can be damn sure there were no affiliates out on the golf course as they were all in-doors getting on as many brand terms as possible to make the most of the changes. The net affect from what I have seen is the obvious rise in brand ownerships CPCs (about 30-60p increase on average) which is a big deal if you are somebody who relies no their brand sales to bring down the overall cost of the medium.   Affiliates and clued up competitors are having a field day at the moment with not many people following Tesco’s moral stance of not bidding on competitors terms.  I personally think it will all b...
More About: Trademark

Microsoft saving Face(book)
2008-05-07 21:58:00
Is microsoft about to revive the rumours and constant wondering about Face book buyouts?  After every billionaire tycoon and his dog were linked with buying the social media phenomenon it has all been quiet for a while.  Now apparently it has come out that Microsoft has put the feelers out about a purchase of the social network.  Full article from search engine watch below: About Face(book): Microsoft Feels Out Social Network Acquisition Though Bill Gates was out there telling people Microsoft is not interested in making non-Yahoo acquisitions right now (at least in the search/social world), word comes that Microsoft bankers have sent “feelers” to Facebook about a full acquisition. Here’s why this is a solid move: 1. Microsoft already owns 1.6% stake in Facebook, worth $240 million 2. Microsoft formed a data portability partnership with Facebook and 4 other networks 3. At least two Google execs have jumped ship to Facebook in recent months While Facebook has yet ...
More About: Book , Saving

Yahoo! acquires Indextools - the death of a gem?
2008-04-23 21:51:00
Slightly old news as it was announced 14 days ago but Ive been a little busy so am finally getting round to posting about it. Yahoo ! has purchased web analytics software solution Indextools for an undisclosed fee.  The tool which one commentator described as”one of the best kept secrets in the industry” has been bought as a direct response to Google Analytics, this is easily shown by the fact that the first thing Yahoo! have done, is make it free! (remind you of any other analytics package?).  Yahoo! has had its own tracking solution for a while but lets face it, it was pretty rubbish.  So this purchase and the immediate action of making it free of charge puts Yahoo! firmly in competition with Google in the combined search, analytics market it in my eyes, gives them an advantage.  I have used Indextools for a number of years and can honestly say it is 100x the package that Google analytics is.  This is a full on, analytics, campaign management, usability, all singin...
More About: Death

If you can’t beat them, join them
2008-04-18 09:47:00
It seems like Yahoo! may have finally given up trying to beat Google with the announcement that they are running a two week trial displaying Google AdSense listings alongside their search results in the US (more detail).  The initial trial will include the results displaying on no more than 3% of search queries submitted and will only be seen by Yahoo! US users.  Yahoo! claim the move is is part of an “exploration of strategic alternatives to maximise stockholder value”, i.e. make them more money.  Microsoft have already expressed their own concerns that should a future deal be struck this would take Google past the 90% market share mark and raise further competition concerns. It concerns me what a future deal could mean for the search market as the it effectively means a consolidation of the market as opposed to the fragmentation we had seen coming over the past 2 years.  This simplifies the process and doesn’t necessarily bode too well for search marketing ag...
More About: Join , Beat

Trademark mayhem in the name of ad dollars
2008-04-10 17:38:00
So Google have finally done it.  Sacrificed their morals on trademark protection in the name of more revenue by opening up all brand terms, whether registered trademarks or not, to anybody who chooses to bid on them.  This has been their system in the US and Canada for a while now and their arguement is that it provides a better user experience by offering the searcher companies which provide the same product or service as the one whose trademark they have searched for.  The changes will come into play on May 5th and from this point any advertiser will be free to bid for any brand terms they choose.  Fittingly this is a bank holiday in the UK and so the mayhem which will undoubtedly unfold will do so when the majority of industry representatives are away from work!  If you remember what happened when Google made changes to their minimum bid system (and it all went t*ts up!) it makes you wonder whether this date has been set intentionally by the big G. So cue brands bidding on ...
More About: Dollars , Trademark , Mayhem

American Express advise against using SEO agencies
2008-04-07 12:33:00
In a recent report into “Online Solutions” aimed at imparting advice on how to develop an effective web presence American Express have advised companies not to “waste money” on search engin optimisation specialists.  Apparently suggetsing that this is a sure fire way to get your site banned from the listings.  This is a very strong statement and one which Im sure please their incumbent SEO agency, Greenlight!  Imagine being the agency for a company who makes a statement like that! Cant fill you with much confidence for your next contract renewal.  I wonder whether the phrase “expensive” and the warning about being penalised refer directly to Greenlight’s work or whether this is jus a coincidence!?! The full article is here and I have copied the offending paragraph below: —  optimize your search engines Search engines, like Yahoo! and Google, are usually the first place people will look for you. Make it easier for them to find you. Y...
More About: Agencies

A Search Within a Search
2008-03-20 13:29:00
I spotted something on Google today which I hadn’t seen before and is a new development in universal search.  On a search for “times” I was presented with the standard search results you get for a brand term but then in addition to this there was a search box contained with the results! On entering a search phrase into this box I was presented with the site search results but still with the Google SERP.  This functionality is well known and nothing new but the inclusion of the search box in the results is not something I have seen before.  It is obviously just another element of Universal Search in action but is alos a good tool for Google to make their results as accurate as possible and keep people within their pages.  By allowing them to search within Google for keywords contained within a site you are not only enhancing the user experience but promoting loyalty and boosting query numbers at the same time, win all round.  On top of this they are also able to pr...

Google Launches Ad Manager
2008-03-20 13:20:00
Google this week announced the launch of a free adserving solution which is to be known as Google Ad Manager .  According to the release notes this will be a free service allowing the serving of ads across the Google network but also on third party sites.   This is an interesting development from Google and Im sure the fact the announcement was made a couple of days after the Double Click purchase was approved is no coincidence as the platform will undoubtedly harness some of the Double Click technology and.  But what does this mean to other adserving providers in the market?  Are they about to see customers leaving in their hoards to move towards this free platform? I doubt it.  If we take Google Analytics as a case in point then we can see what is more likely to be the result.   Google Analytics provides a stripped down version of many of the bigger tracking solutions which is great for smaller advertisers/website owners who want to know what an idea for what results are co...
More About: Google

Clicks arent a good measure of response? No sh*t sherlock!
2008-03-12 11:00:00
I read an article in last weeks revolution which made me laugh out loud.  I have known for a while that some of the more traditional media types are way behind in the digital channel and many of the larger media buyers get by on their buying power and ability to schmooze a client about the brand exposure of their digital activity.  This article however took the biscuit with its naivety about measures of performance in the digital channel.  The basis of what the author was saying was that clicks aren’t an accurate measure of online activities performance.  YOU DONT SAY! Isn’t the biggest benefit of digital communications is measurability and accountability?  The ability to track PAST the point of impression, and all the way through to conversion (whatever the desired outcome may be).  With this is mind it shocks me that people would still be using the click as a measure of performance.  Obviously in certain instances the objective is to promote awareness and so the...
More About: Sherlock , Good , Clicks , Response

Breaking News - Google completes doubleclick deal
2008-03-12 10:14:00
Brekaing news from nma.co.uk!  Google has completed its acquisition of ad-serving company DoubleClick, following the green light from the EU.At a reported £1.6bn ($3.1bn), the cash deal is Google’s biggest acquisition to date. Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman and CEO, said today in a statement that the company was ‘thrilled’. He added, “Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media.”
More About: News , Breaking News , Deal , Breaking

Is digital killing direct mail?
2008-03-07 16:05:00
An article in this weeks edition in Marketing Week questioned the future of direct mail in the face or increased pressure from digital direct response channels.  With direct mail volume dropping 7.4% from 2006-2007 and showing a continual decline in since 2004 has the measurability and accountability of digital mediums put pay to the direct mail industry? For a two page, center piece article  I have to say that this seemed to me like a massive over reaction to the success of digital in the past few years.  The article eventually comes to some sensible conclusions about the evolution rather than death of direct mail and EHS Brann CEO Matt Atkinson makes the most valid point “consumers are not saying they don’t want direct mail, they are saying they don’t want junk mail!”.  it is not about cutting direct mail from you marketing mix but rather becoming more intelligent and targeted in your activity.  This is likely to mean volumes will drop but not necess...
More About: Mail , Direct , Digital , Killing

BBC iPlayer leads the way in on demand online
2008-03-06 16:15:00
BBC’s iPlayer service is wiping the floor with its rivals in the on demand TV market recording up to 500,000 programme downloads a day. 11m TV shows were streamed or downloaded through iPlayer in January in comparison to 2.7m for channel 4’s system 4od and 2m for ITV. The massive amounts of advertising dollars spent promoting the service have no doubt prompted its dominance but will also have given the on demand market as a whole a boost as people become more aware that you can watch your favourite shows from your laptop at any time of the day and night. The opportunity and issue now facing BBC iPlayer is how to monetise this growing service without annoying its users. Advertising in online video files has been debated far and wide and yet the most appropriate format is yet to be decided upon. Pre-roll, post-roll and overlay are the main considerations with the option of mid roll placements as well but all interfere with the user experience in some way. The key is t...
More About: Leads , Online , Demand , On Demand

Is Facebook no longer cool?
2008-02-28 10:11:00
Neilsen/Netrankings has released some figures which show a monthly decline in Facebook users for the first time since its launch, before it has even managed to fully leverage its traffic volumes into advertising sales.  Its unique audience dropped 5% from December to January prompting many people predicting the demise and claiming Facebook is a fad which will go away as quickly as it arrived.  Have people really already become Facebored?  Or is it simply inevitable that sooner or later there would be a dip in audience as the users who created an account “just to see what all the fuss is about” disappear back to their own world grumbling that it was a load of rubbish anyway? Mark Ritson, in his article for Marketing, blames the decline on Facebook’s open door policy.  Since September 2006 Facebook has allowed anybody with a valid email address access to their network which was previously exclusive to US students (and before that just Harvard students).  This is...
More About: Cool

UK earthquake - who’s on the ball?
2008-02-27 10:18:00
As the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm, and after last nights earthquake in lincolnshire the most search for keywords today are bound to be related to this event.  So I thought I’d have a look to see if anybody was on the ball and had already added the keywords to their PPC account.  A few searches later and it would appear most of the advertisers in the UK were still asleep or in shock from the quake as not many of them had woken up to the opportunity in front of them.  From all the searches I completed across various engines only one adveriser had specifically chosen to advertise based on the quake and they are a bean bag company! Brownie points for them or their agency but I cant really see how they are going to get any business out of it.  The people who should be on these terms are the news networks and papers, although you could argue their natural rankings should support them, the cost of clicks on these terms would be negligable, 1p-5p depending on the...
More About: Earthquake , Ball

Yahoo! Buzz - more social integration from Yahoo!
2008-02-26 12:15:00
I have just come across the Yahoo ! Buzz application which is currently in beta testing.  From what I can see this is very much like Digg and Sphinn in that users provide articles of interest which are then voted on by the users to push them up the listings.  Stories are given a “buzz score” which is ”derived from search term popularity, the number of times a story is emailed from Buzz, and the number of votes a story receives.”  Which could add a slight element of mystery if it is more than simply a case of adding the sum of all these parts together.  If it is going to work much like the quality score system in PPC then it may change the game a little and avoid all the spamming which takes place in Digg.  There will apparently be a manual editorial team in place to prevent spamming from taking place but how many and how effective they will be remains to be seen. The other major twist in the tale is the statement from the site “stories with the high...
More About: Social , Integration , Yahoo!

Planet-iphones and the opportunity in niche sectors
2008-02-23 12:05:00
I came across a site today which I found interesting.  Firstly if you are an i-phone user it is very interesting, offering all new plug ins and applications for you i-phone from wallpapers, games, icons and general accessories for the latest must have gadget from Apple.  The site offers a whole heap of options for the i-phone user and makes the customisation of your i-phone simple and easy to do as the sites includes instructions of how to install the applications and plug-ins it provides. But secondly it got me thinking about how the development of technologies such as these create new opportunities for sharp entrepreneurs in a niche market.  For those quick enough to set themselves up as the “go to” provider for the latest gadget or gizmo there can be a very lucrative path ahead.  What this requires however is to be one step ahead of the rest of the marketplace and get a foothold before the competition.  Take the site in question planet-iphones.com, 12 months ago they wou...
More About: Planet , Opportunity , Niche , Sectors

Microsoft won’t take no for an answer!
2008-02-22 18:13:00
It looks like Microsoft might be refusing to take no for an answer in their bid to buy out Yahoo! in a bid worth $40Bn.  After having their bid rejecting because the Yahoo! board believed it significantly undervalued their brand and investment in technology Microsoft are rumoured to be responding by attempting to ignite a proxy fight to take over the company.  Such a proxy fight would see Microsoft nominate a group of directors sympathetic to a deal for shareholders to vote on at Yahoo’s annual meeting.   According to Morningstar this is Microsoft using the carrot and the stick approach, just both at the same time! The carrot of the share price, 62% above trading price, and the stick which comes in the form of the threat of a proxy battle.  The drama continues and maybe Microsoft will get their way after all!
More About: Answer

What is driving mobile porn?
2008-02-22 16:06:00
In a discussion a few days ago regarding mobile search marketing the stats were presented to me again about the top search phrases in mobile Internet I have mentioned in a previous post (when will mobile Internet take off?).  This obviously wasn’t news to me and I have documented my thoughts on it in the past but it did get me thinking, what is driving such a surge in people searching for porn on the mobile Internet?  What is motivating these people to search out explicit content on their 2”x3” mobile screen and are they liking what they find? Is it simply that the mobile allows an element of privacy not necessarily afforded by the home PC? Are people using their mobiles to bypass any firewalls or tracking software which could uncover their dirty little secrets? I can’t imagine (and obviously wouldn’t know!) that the mobile device, no matter how advanced, is the best for digesting this content.  Is it just people experimenting to see whether the co...
More About: Mobile , Driving

Myspace Application for Facebook
2008-02-22 12:06:00
An application has been developed which allows you to view your Myspace page through Facebook .  The application, developed by Fuser, allows you to check your messages, bulletins and comments without ever leaving the Facebook site.  for the social hardcore this could be a god send and could also be a big dent to Myspace as it will enable users of both to monitor them through one single website, hence less visitors going to the Myspace site.  If users are beginning to migrate from Myspace to Facebook then this could be the final act which prompts a complete switch as they will be able to keep an eye on their lesser used Myspace page without having to visit it. Additional information
More About: Application

Universal Search goes Mobile
2008-02-21 22:45:00
Yahoo! are taking Universal Search mobile through their beta application Yahoo! One Search.  The mobile search application which must be downloaded to a compatible handset “practically reads your mind!” according to the pages on the Yahoo! mobile site.  Providing results from all Yahoo! properties including, answers, Yahoo Finance, Flickr along with Wikipedia and various news sources the application brings Universal Search to your mobile for the first time.  The categories are grouped and presented in a manageable format to make them easy to use.  I cant help but think that maybe they should concentrate on getting Universal Search right on the mainstream Internet before attempting it with mobile but I suppose maybe the simpler platform makes it easier to pull off and also the less sophisticated search terms being used means that the technology deciding what should be displayed also needs to be less intelligent.  in its present form with the need for download its usa...
More About: Mobile

Mars’ Social Experiment
2008-02-21 22:30:00
Mars this week launched a Facebook application which allows users to send their friends the gift of a real life Mars bar.  The “gift” will be in the form of a message which, once opened, asks the recipient to enter their mobile number and from this they will be send an SMS voucher which can be redeemed in a participating store.  Twix, Galaxy, Malteser’s and Mars will all be able to be sent with the sender paying via a Paypal account.  This is a bold venture by the guys at Mars but I cant help but think it is a desperate attempt to get involved in social media by a brand which doesn’t necessarily fit.  I am seeing all to often recently companies who know of the buzz around social networking and decide that “we need to be part of that!”  No thought given to whether their brand or product fits or whether the audience they are trying to engage with is part of the social environment they are considering. To me, social media, social marketing, soc...
More About: Social , Mars , Experiment

Yahaol? the saga continues
2008-02-19 23:08:00
The saga of who will buy/merge with Yahoo continues with the announcement they are in talks with AOL about a potential merger to take on the digital world.  It is difficult to see how two very similar operations could effectively pull together to take on the market as is pointed out by Mashable.  They are both a web portal offering search functionality, display advertising and personal email so what a merger would achieve is slightly confusing unless the both of them are willing to merge their systems for the greater good of taking on Google and Microsoft in their respective strong holds.  The only benefit I could see is if by merging their two media selling/buying operations they could aim to offer the advertiser greater reach through one point of call but this is a tenuous link at best.  Maybe they have something else up their sleeve whcih could surpries us all but for me there is little benefit in such a merger.
More About: Saga

Mobile search developments
2008-02-13 10:25:00
There were a couple of developments yesterday in the world of mobile marketing which could be seen as pretty significant. Firstly came the use that T-mobile had awarded its mobile search contract to Yahoo! following their heavy investment in mobile technology. This further adds to Yahoo!s weight in the mobile sector as they already power the search for 3 and have mobile advertising available through the Vodafone live network. Yahoo! have obviously bought in heavily to mobile marketing and are pushing hard to make it work. They possibly see it as one area where they can get one up on Google away from the search arena. 2008 could be a big year for mobile and as always, the early bird will catch the worm and if Yahoo! can become the front runner in this field they could reap the rewards. On the same day it was announced that five of the big mobile operators are joining forces to create a measurement system for mobile advertising. Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile , Orange and 3 have formed a...
More About: Search , Mobile Search

Yahoo! rejects Microsoft bid
2008-02-12 19:01:00
Yahoo!’s board have unanimously voted to reject Microsoft ’s astronomical bid of $44.6bn (£22.4bn) claiming the offer significantly underalued the company! Rich considering the offer was 61% up on their closing share price from the previous day.  Yahoo!’s explanation is that the bid undervalued the strength of the Yahoo! brand, user base and recenty investment in advertising technology.  My take is that they arent too keen on becoming a Microsoft company and having a consolidated position in the market as they already have a larger share of the lucrative search marketplace and a comparitive stance in other areas of online as well.  I wonder whether this will open the door for a bid from Google as had been rumoured last week or whether Yahoo! would rather continue the fight on their own against the big G.  This probably wont be the last we hear about alliances and a consolidating market but Im not sure any future deals will be on the same scale. NMA article here
More About: Yahoo , Yahoo!