Cloud Computing’s Partly Cloudy Future?
October 26, 2009
Americans overwhelmingly have a lack of interest in cloud-based services, according to a new survey
“Asked what they felt about personal data being stored on third-parties’ remote computers, 64% say they don’t want their data kept by a third party, according to the latest installment of ‘Unisys Security Index: United States.””
I wonder how much of this comes down to semantics. The vast majority of people I know have no problems storing their email in the cloud. And that’s probably the biggest cache of personal data most average users have.
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The Age of Social Search Dawns
October 26, 2009
During the first fifteen of years of the Internet's gestation, we searched the web unassisted. In the second era, we'll do so with the curated assistance of our social networks – and be able to spot trends from friends. As we wrote in our search white paper earlier this year…
"However, on the whole, social networks are becoming a key way for people to find content that's meaningful to them. In response, all of the major networks are building out search tools that could, conceivably, threaten Google."
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Pew: More internet users are reading status updates (and marketing messages)
October 22, 2009
The study found that online status udpating is on the rise. Twitter and other status services are most popular among those
18-24 polled by Pew. But usage is rapidly growing amongst differing age groups. Twitter usage nearly doubled from 19% in December
2008 to 37%. Those 25-35 are up
20 points to 31%, while usage among those 35-44 jumped 10 points to 19%.
Meanwhile, the median age of a Twitter user is now 31, and the media age for Facebook is now 33, up from 26 in May of last year.
Predictably, web surfers with a wireless mobile device are more likely to twitter. And those who own multiple mobile devices are even more likely to twitter.
But even more important than consumers’ updating frequency is their tolerance to listen to other people’s messages. Accordng to Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew
Internet & American Life Project and co-author of the report:
“It’s a pretty interesting finding, if someone is building an
audience online, to know that there are people who maybe never
respond but are lurking and learning by subscribing to the
feed.”
Marketers are finding social media to be an increasingly fertile ground to spread their brand messaging, and increasing usage of real-time updates is a good thing for brands. Twitter’s founders are clear on this issue.
Twitter is planning to launch paid accounts to businesses by the end of the year, and marketing is going to be a big part of how Twitter plans to make money down the line. CEO Evan Williams said Tuesday at the Web 2.0 conference:
“The reason we like the prospects of Twitter is there’s a lot of commercial activity on Twitter today, there’s a lot of brand marketers on Twitter, and it works. A lot of that is theoretically monetizable.”
If Twitter usage continues on a steady incline, it will be good for both the microblogging service and marketers. Says Williams:
“If we’re driving that value for businesses, we’re not that worried about extracting value for ourselves.
Image: Pew Internet
Online ad effectiveness depends on good creative. But measurement and targeting still matter.
October 22, 2009
Dynamic Logic’s study compared the top 10% and bottom 10% performers from its database of over 170,000 online ads and found that creative factors — rather than targeted or high-profile
ad placements — led to better ad recall, brand awareness and purchase intent.
After analyzing the highest and lowest performers from its database, Dynamic Logic found that simple messages with sustained brand messaging and persistent logos had the most impact for brands. They also found that “reveal” ads don’t work.
According to Ken Mallon, Dynamic Logic’s senior
VP-custom solutions:
“Media people spend most time trying to optimize and measure campaigns,
because the creative quality is outside of their control. If they got
good ads to begin with, that would help.”
Well, duh. Good advertising depends on good creative. But that doesn’t meant that measurement and targeting stop mattering. The online environment allows for intense levels of measurement that old school ads aren’t equipped with. And often, those measurements aren’t helping brands bring in sales.
But simply improving creative won’t magically fix the problem of online advertising. A bigger issue t online, is the difficulty in scaling ad campaigns. Traditional advertising placements may be harder to measure, but they’re easier to deploy. Television and print ads have standard shapes and sizes that are easier to work around. The complexity of online channels contributes to the low quality of creative. Video, search and display ads online come in all shapes and sizes.
Mallon tells AdAge:
“It’s magazine-quality. If people think of the internet as a
well-targeted magazine and do their planning and creative development
around that, they tend to have very successful campaigns.”
Well, how do you treat the internet as a well-targeted magazine unless you focus on targeting and placement? Dynamic Logic’s initial findings show that all of that matters for brands.
AdAge says that brands should “stop obsessing over targeting and placements,” but there’s nothing in the nubers released so far proving those factors aren’t important. The question is how to deploy creative, and Dynamic Logic’s advice to use people, logos and persistent calls to action are not going to be a silver bullet for conversions.
Rei Inamoto, chief creative officer at digital agency AKQA tells AdAge the real problem:
“Agencies have to create so many of the
same thing. Thus the creative becomes somewhat generic, and standards
are all over the place.”
Conde Nast hunts for new revenue with GQ iPhone app
October 22, 2009
If Apple approves the app, Conde will eventually start selling other titles through the iTunes store. Condé says the GQ digital issue will replicate the print version (including ads). But it will also include related
videos and links to sites for products
featured in the issue.
It’s unclear if the viewing experience will be an effective replication of magazine reading (many online efforts to replicate print content online have been clunky and annoying to read), but wth the advances that digital readers have made over the past year, it shouldn’t be expecting too much to assume Conde can figure out the details. Or improve upon them as it goes.
But as far as revenue streams go, this could be very useful for the publisher. Readers who have let their magazine subscriptions lapse due to paper fatigue aren’t likely to read an entire magazine online, but they could easily do so on a smartphone. (Or e-reader, or other device. Getting content onto the iPhone will pay the way for a more device agnostic marketplace later.)
Meanwhile, Conde can count iPhone subscriptions as part of its total subscriber base. And it can add more ad inventory for brands. Already, the company says that its print advertisers can add digital
links to the iPhone version for a premium. And Grey
Goose and Gillette are signed on as “premium sponsors” of the digital GQ issue.
Apple still controls the billing situation on the iPhone (and will ilkely take a 30% cut of all sales), but this could be a great way to get people — especially commuters — back in the magazine habit. For magazines that already stream all their content online, it might be a tough sell to start charging for that content in mobile. But if they add enough digital features, and make the viewing experience slick enough, it shouldn’t be too hard to win brand loyalists to the new platform. Getting new readers may be a different story, but an iPhone app can’t be expected to fix all publishing woes, can it?
Online spending growth hits record low
October 22, 2009
Online spending growth hit a record low in September as etailers were hit by heavy discounting on the high street and postal strikes.
Families £11 a week better off than a year ago
October 22, 2009
The average family is £11 a week better off last month compared to the same period last year, according to the Asda Income Tracker.
Kingfisher writes to landlords to secure better terms
October 20, 2009
B&Q owner Kingfisher has written to landlords demanding similar concessions to those offered to its rival Focus as a result of its Company Voluntary Agreement.
Luxe chocolate shop Cocomaya to expand with bakery
October 20, 2009
London luxury chocolate shop Cocomaya is expanding at the end of the month to open an adjoining bakery.
Debenhams sets up online stores with Amazon and eBay
October 20, 2009
Debenhams has become the first department store to open dedicated online stores on both Amazon and eBay’s UK sites.