Back to Main

Marketing

June 5, 2008

Ford and Microsoft Sync Up for Viral Roadtripping

Microsoft has teamed with Ford for a highly experiential, super soft-sell microsite around Microsoft SYNC.

SYNC is a voice-actived gizmo for your car that's kind of like an iPod crossed with a Blackberry: it does music, text, and telephone. Cool, but it's a sell with a high educational curve.

Sync My Music, which lives on MSN, features a game, tons of content and a number of video webisodes about Kim and Seana, two music-obsessed girls, who road-trip across America in a SYNC equipped Ford in their respective quests to become a singer/songwriter (Kim DiVine is the real thing, actually), or to hook up with hot male indie band members.

The game unlocks additional content such as wallpaper and MP3s; the Explore section of the site is a region-by-region guide to the myriad cities the girls visit in their travels. It contains info on local clubs and bands and planning your own road trip. Which may prove difficult, as most of the links are crosswired. Select NYC's hippest bands, for example, and you land on Atlanta's arenas, clubs and cafes.

Oh, well. Given current gas prices, you probably weren't really going to do the roadtrip thing this summer, anyway.

Microsoft wants users to digg, blog and forward the site to a friend. Given the chicks meet popular local indie bands from time to time, the viral has got some real potential. Not just from the fans, but from the bands, who are promoting the heck out of the site on MySpace already.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 28, 2008

Will Microsoft Acquire a Directories Giant?

[UPDATED: Some disagreement in the comments over my use of a Compete chart below, so I've added data from ComScore].

Shares of U.K.-based Yell Group are up on rumors Microsoft has approached the directories publisher about a possible sale. The acquisition, if it came to fruition, would be Microsoft's first merger in the local business and residential look-up arena, and could be interpreted as a play for search share. For instance, Yell's online properties -- including Yell.com in the U.K., YellowBook.com in the U.S., and PaginasAmarillas.es in Spain -- could carry Microsoft Maps and local listings, along with geo-targeted advertising. And Yell's sales force could upsell local marketers on Microsoft's other channels.

Even so, YellowBook.com is hardly the leader in the space, particularly in the U.S.

According to ComScore, YellowBook.com's April traffic pales next to category leaders YellowPages.com (AT&T) and SuperPages.com (Idearc). SuperPages.com is the dominant online yellow pages player with over 30 million unique. However YellowBook.com boasts the highest growth rate, having bean-stalked 156 percent since April 2007 to over 14 million U.S. uniques.

And here's Compete's traffic comparison, which mainly goes to show how utterly hopeless an endeavor independent traffic verification still is.

What a sale to Microsoft would mean for Yell's working environment may be a point of some nervousness for the company's staff. The firm was just awarded a ninth place ranking on the Financial Times' list of the U.K.'s best workplaces.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

May 6, 2008

E-Mail Marketers Haven't Forgotten Mom

With Mother's Day coming up, a search for "mother" in my personal e-mail inbox turned up these marketing pitches. Some come from the usual suspects, while others aren't so ususal.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 28, 2008

The WB Will Not Be Televised

"The next great network will not be televised."

With this, and other grandiose pronouncements, Warner Bros. Television Group unveiled two major new broadband sites, a couple of virtual worlds, and named some of the advertisers that will support the launch.

The WB.com, which comes out of beta in August, will be an online video-on-demand network featuring both library content and original Web productions. "We're in the digital storytelling business," noted Warner Bros. TV Group President Bruce Rosenblum, "and making a significant investment in our digital initiatives."

The company was more tight-lipped about advertising opportunities, but did reveal initial sponsors include Mattell, McDonald's and Johnson & Johnson.

In addition to distrubution partners including Comcast, AOL, Fancast.com, and some mobile carriers, WB created an application on Facebook. All content on the WB site will be available for viewing from within Facebook, and vice-versa: users can peruse Facebook from inside The WB.com.

KidsWB.com is the juvenile version of WB content on the Web. Integrated within the platform are two virtual worlds: Warner Zone, featuring characters from WBs extensive cartoon library, and DC Hero Zone, where Batman and his ilk can be encountered. It goes live sometime next month.

It's interesting to note that "mix, mash, share" is a motto. Give Tweetybird a mohawk, turn the Tasmanian Devil into a tutu-wearing avatar - WB doesn't care. That's massive, considering the proprietary attitude entertainment conglomerates have traditionally taken toward the sanctity of their characters. On the adult site, users will be encourage to re-mix episodes of, say, "Friends," and share them with their own friends.

Are you listening, Mouse?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 23, 2008

What Time Is It in the Cloud?

These days, my head is in the cloud.

More and more companies are rolling out cloud computing solutions and applications. On the consumer level, it's getting easier and easier for documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, calendars, presentations, you name it, to live in the ether somewhere above the hard drive, always on and always accessible.

Way cool, and an emerging opportunity for advertisers and marketers to push relevant, contextual messages to cloud computing users.

But what time is it in the cloud? I'm wondering this as I shuttle between the East and West coasts, wielding a battery of BlackBerry, mobile phone, and the laptop I'm using to access the book I'm writing entirely on Google Docs (not a word of the manuscript is on my hard drive).

Some of these devices are set to the time zone I'm actually in, others are set to the one I live in. So how's an advertiser to know what's relevant messaging? Should an ad be pushed for a business or service in Sonoma (where I'm speaking today), or New York (where I live?). Does the cloud know if I'm working at lunchtime or at dinnertime?

Geo- and daypart targeting has long been used in traditional as well as interactive marketing. When life literally shifts to online -- as users move into the cloud -- how will this element of targeting be achieved?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 22, 2008

Demo Tools

There's no question consumers like the ease of e-commerce. But the Internet still can't replace the demo nature of brick and mortar. A salesperson can sell by demonstration. This is true especially when it comes to categories such as hardware and power tools. Both on its on site, and on its e-commerce partner sites, DeWalt has built demos for its power tool products through a technology partner Easy2 Technolgies.

Users click on the demo to get a pop-up window, and click on highlighted areas of the product to read about the features and view closer images or video. They can also see images of the tools in action, and get product specs, depending on what DeWalt provides. The demo also provides a 360-degree rotation and zooming view of each product.

Easy2's platform is called "Make Your Own" and is as easy and user-friendly as using Microsoft Word. Other clients working with Easy2 include Circuit City, Cub Cadet, Buy.com, Samsung, Lowe's, InSinkErator, and Moen.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2008

Marketing to the Media...Continued

The flurry leading up to ad:tech prompted a bit of a rant last week about best practices for marketing to the media.

That discussion will continue in a much broader context next week at the New Comm Forum in Sonoma, CA. SEO PR expert Sally Falkow and I will be discussing the opportunities -- and the threats -- that online media, search, and the social Web are presenting to the media and other communications professionals.

If you make it to the conference, please be sure to say hello.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 15, 2008

Lead Gen Firm Q Interactive Expands into U.K.

U.S. based lead-gen network Q Interactive has announced that it is extending its operations to the U.K., and has engaged a London-based staff. The firm's TrueLeads service gathers consumer contact information from partner sites (by consent), and passes this on to marketers for sales and CRM purposes.

The move will seek to continue the company's U.S. success in a "rapidly expanding U.K. market," according to Q Interactive President and CEO Matt Wise.

The network currently includes publisher sites Weather.com and About.com, and advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo.

Gayle Guzzardo, SVP of product management at Q Interactive, currently chairs the Interactive Advertising Bureau Lead Generation Committee, which seeks to generate and maintain standards and best practices in an area subject to scrutiny from regulatory bodies and consumer organizations.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 14, 2008

Take That, Victoria's Secret!

While downmarket Victoria's Secret fusses its advertising might be "too sexy," the much tonier lingerie purveyor Agent Provocateur "wears its carnal appeal like a badge of honor."

In tandem with Story Worldwide, the brand just added an "online party" to its Web site that will be updated as different stages of the 2008 collection are rolled out.

In addition to more or less of safe-for-work videos (depends on where you work, I suppose), visitors can drag garments that catch their eye off the models and into an individual cloakroom (read: shopping list). Some visitors will doubtless be disappointed that this action does not, in fact, actually remove the garments from the models. They remain fully lingerie'd.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 27, 2008

dotMobi Hearts Mobile Web

The non-profit dotMobi Advisory Group (MAG) is taking over the ilovemobileweb campaign launched last year by Bango, thereby bringing together over 125 companies to support and foster the initiative.

The stated campaign aims are to:

· Raise awareness of the mobile Web with consumers around the world
· Encourage open access to the mobile Web for every user
· Provide consumers with choice of content and services
· Provide easy pathways for fixed Internet publishers to move to mobile
· More standardization of devices and development platforms

Interested organizations are invited to join the initiative -- gratis -- via the e-mail link on the ilovemobileweb Web site.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 7, 2008

Greener Marketing: It's a Brand Thing, Too

Marketers need to start thinking harder about schwag for the sake of the environment, as well as their brands.

The sheer amount of conference bag stuff always boggles the mind, particularly at evens as massive as SXSW. Of course, the sponsor fees behind stuffing all this stuff into those totes goes a long way toward making these events possible.

SXSW sent out a pre-event e-mail to participants with pointers on making the event greener, pointing out opportunities for recycling and other efforts conference-goers could take toward reducing - somewhat - the event's carbon footprint.

But boy, is my bag full. And it's full of stuff that doesn't need to be there. I'll single out Microsoft as an example (because they're big enough to take it, but are hardly the only offender).

Microsoft's extremely cool Silverlight plug-in is a topline SXSW sponsor. That doesn't excuse including a Silverlight CD, encased in a hefty plastic box, in each of tens of thousands of bags. Not when this slim little plug-in is readily available as a fast, free download from the Web.

It's not just a matter of waste (calling to mind AOL's well-publicized earlier excesses), it's also become a matter of branding (particularly in an environment and a city as socially conscious as SXSW and Austin). Microsoft paid a pretty penny to manufacture all those CDs, and more still to get them slipped into bags -- so they could be slipped into the trash. An alternative might have been a simple sheet with information about the product and how to get it for free.

Result? Negative buzz. That's bad for the brand, not just the environment.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 14, 2008

WPP Acquires U.K. Web Design Agency HeathWallace

WPP is continuing its string of recent digital acquisitions by buying a majority stake in U.K.-based Web design and development agency HeathWallace.

The company has strong links with the banking sector, with clients including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Dutch bank ABN Amro. It currently employs 60 staff, working out of offices in Reading, U.K. and Hong Kong.

The buy represents the third digital acquisition by WPP over the past week, although there's still no word on the rumored Spot Runner purchase.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2008

Virgin Atlantic Launches "Love From Above"

Virgin Atlantic Airways' just-launched American campaign, Love From Above continues the real-speak whimsy that is a hallmark of the Virgin brand. It poses questions to travelers such as, "Shouldn’t a seat recharge more than your laptop?”

Developed by agency-of-record McKinney, the campaign is notable for a substantial mobile component. Virgin's first WAP site, http://LoveFromAbove.mobi, aimed at fliers in and out of New York and Chicago, passes along info on complimentary taxi rides in wrapped London cabs, British pub events, and free movie passes. A Valentine’s Day surprise is promised to top off the launch.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 25, 2008

Thompson's Web Guy Talks Strategy Post-Battle

So, the techno-politico sphere of the Web seems pretty interested today in a lengthy post on TechPresident from Mike Turk, the guy behind Fred Thompson's online campaign (now ended), and former e-campaign director for the Bush/Cheney '04 presidential campaign.

He writes about online campaign strategy, dealing with tight deadlines, flying by the seat of his elephant-embroidered pants, that sorta thing. Unfortunately, no mention of the paid ad side of the campaign's Web efforts (though from what I saw there wasn't a whole lot). Still, there's lots of food for thought.

If anything, what the post and subsequent comments evince is the fact that the relatively small group of people involved in developing digital campaigns and implementing interactive technology for them can be pretty open when it comes to sharing ideas and insights, even if it might help out the other side (within limits, of course).

A few highlights I think ClickZ's audience would be interested in:

"On Hannity and Colmes, Fred announced his website url and the flood came in…. We attracted over 100,000 unique visitors, raised over a quarter million dollars, and added nearly 30,000 names to our list in the first 24 hours."

Taking into consideration the web site team had about 10 days to build the site and make sure it could handle a mass visitor influx, that's pretty impressive.

Turk also talked of how he aimed to improve on the netroots component of the Bush-Cheney campaign:

The idea, from my perspective, was to harness the power of the Net to build a robust community that would become an integral part of the ground game. The Bush-Cheney campaign had begun the process of enabling volunteer action online…. The Bush campaign was innovative in allowing people to participate in the mechanics of the campaign, but it never developed the community that could interact, inspire, and spur each other into action…. The Thompson web operation would be different. With Jon Henke, Howard Mortman and William Beutler constantly opening new channels through local, state and national blogs, and the campaign site providing a vehicle for those attracted to participate in the campaign, we could reach the tipping point where engaged people are empowered to contribute in ways never attempted by the GOP.

…. As an example of the strength of Thompson's online effort, look at the Thompson campaign blog and you'll see something remarkable for GOP candidates - comments. And not just a few comments, but hundreds and even thousands of comments.… Almost nobody on the GOP side sees this as a way for their supporters to network, to share ideas, or to brainstorm ways to help the campaign.

Turk also acknowledges campaigns on both sides "need to trust and engage the people. Since the people are online, they need to engage people online. There are just as many Democtrats [sic] who need to learn this lesson (cough, cough, Hillary, cough, cough)."

As for Web ads, the former Tennessee Senator's campaign ran about 650,000 display ads solely on FoxNews.com in October (as per Nielsen Online AdRelevance), questioning the pro-life stance of fellow GOP candidate Mitt Romney and taking aim at Rudy Giuliani's pro-choice position. Ads culminated with Thompson's stern visage placed beside the phrase, "Support the real conservative." The campaign employed the same anti-Romney/Giuliani tactic in ads on right-wing blogs launched in October.

Also, I'm quite sure I came across paid search ads from the campaign leading up to the primaries.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 22, 2008

Knowing Better Than Butter

Unilever brand I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! has launched a trivia game show entitled Now You Know Better $1,000,000 Game Show to promote the benefits of fake butter. The "show," developed in partnership with MSN and featured in the portal's game section, is hosted by "celebrity" John O'Hurley.

Sign into the site as a contestant and you can answer trivia questions about topics such as board games and movies stars, and compete for actual prizes. A "lobby chat" window features a not-very-convincing discussion about the merits of real butter vs. ICBINB. The Web site is one aspect of the Now You Know Better campaign, which kicked off with :30 TV spots on January 14th.

Unilever will continue the interactive portion of the promotion with celebrities including Gary Coleman, Jose Canseco, and Dustin Diamond appearing in spots highlighting moments in their careers they should have known better about (e.g. taking steroids). In mid-February, consumers will be able to play the online trivia game and chat live with these wised-up celebs.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2008

In E-Commerce, When Cool Won't Do

Prospects for online retail look promising in coming years though one threat exists.

And it's not the recession, says a retail analyst. Rather, sites miss the boat on basics and it's a oversight that has implications in how marketers approach their jobs and e-commerce .

Rather than worry about widgets, wikis, and blogs, Forrester Research Sucharita Mulpuru today told National Retail Federation conference attendees that some e-commerce shortcomings must be addressed if online commerce is going to continue to grow. Among them:

*Online shopping isn' always easy; often key information is missing from retail sites. When looking for shoes to buy her daughter, Mulpuru measured the toddler's foot and then looked for the site's size chart. None existed. She wrote to the retailer asking them for a size chart, but was directed to go to a nearby store. "Not only did they not address my question, they directed me to the channel I tried to avoid shopping in the first place," she said.

*Sites encounter downtime. Of the top 25 online retailers, one was not available 10 percent of the time in December 2006, Mulpuru said, citing statistics from Gomez, a consultancy. "That means one in 10 persons who came to the site had some problem completing the transaction," she said.

And what about widgets, wikis, and blogs? "While there are extraordinary and amazing technology developments, they still may be ahead of their time ... about five to 10 years ahead of their time," she said.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 9, 2008

Amazon Taxes 'The Office'

With tax season approaching, Amazon.com's got a fun way to promote its less than exciting tax software. The site's Tax Central shop is repped by staff from NBC's "The Office." Five characters from the show are matched with their taxpayer personalities: E-Z breezy filer, fancy filer, procrastinator, extender, and the typical taxpayer. This is a good tie-in for the show and lots of opportunities for Amazon.com to link to the show's DVD sets.

Of course, using these characters could just create more issues for the WGA strike, as well as the impending actor's strike. B.J. Novak, who plays Ryan Howard on the show, has writing credits on several episodes, and he and other actors from "The Office" have been very vocal during the strike about the use of their work on the Internet, and subsequent advertising revenues.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 3, 2007

Big Web Ad Spender Dell Partners with WPP

Working with hundreds of different agencies spelled trouble ahead, trouble behind for Dell’'s Global Marketing VP Casey Jones. (Sorry, I couldn'’t resist.) The head of the computer maker's’ marketing operation started “"Project Da Vinci" aiming to establish an agency partner dedicated to combining art and science, and dedicated solely to Dell.

The result of the partnership will be an integrated marketing and communications agency. In its press release, Dell stressed the importance of “the "right analytics"” for its interactive efforts, and “"the ability to build campaigns in days, rather than months."”

My understanding is Dell will continue working with current agencies for the next few months. Then, it will be all WPP all the time.

It’'s a safe assumption the new agency will be doing a good deal of interactive stuff for Dell. In August, the company spent $6.2 million promoting its Inspiron product and $2.5 million pushing its XPS computer using online ads, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 27, 2007

Debate Over Cyber Monday

The holiday season is a time of elevated sales both offline and online, no question. And while Black Friday is commonly known as the day when consumers converge on malls and big box stores, but it's not the busiest shopping day of the season. "Although most of the news is about how big of a deal the offline sales are; typically the biggest retail day during the season is actually the week before Christmas," said Youn-Bean Song, VP of analytics at Atlas Institute when discussing a recent holiday study.

So true is the misconception about Black Friday (which experienced a nice increase in online sales last week), it also exists for Cyber Monday. The same Atlas study forecasts online shopping's peak will take place closer to shipping cut-off dates in mid-December. The debate over the busiest online shopping day of the year actually makes the day a moving target, depending on the length of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's commonly placed at the Monday after Thanksgiving. The Atlas study states December 11 as the big day due to a peak in online sales. This week press releases stated, "It's not Cyber Monday, it's Cyber Week." Wikipedia defines Cyber Monday as "the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas." Is the designation still up for debate? Is it relevant at all? There's no question yesterday was significant online. Akamai registered 4.6 million visitors per minute at the day's peak around 2:00 p.m. EST, and said online visits to Akamai sites surpassed 2006's visits by 10:00 a.m. EST. If this isn't the highest-earning online shopping day of the season, what will the remaining days look like? Especially when early reports speak of more modest growth this year.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

Coke gets Bubbly over Joost

If you really want to tell friends what you think about an online television show, Coca-Cola is making it possible to share your comments… as long as they come from pouring out of a soda bottle. Internet television system Joost has its first advertising widget in the form of Coke Bubbles, which allows users to attach comments to scenes from televised shows and then send them to friends. When recipients open the e-mail and visit the Joost site to see the show, the comments will appear in a bubble over the screen. Which seems similar to VH1's Pop-Up Video to me.

Coca-Cola has been a sponsor of Joost since it launched earlier this year, and the company’s European team came up with the widget. The two companies have also formed a partnership to help widget developers create and launch more widgets for the site, and are planning a contest to be announced at today's Joost Developer Days event in London.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 15, 2007

Autobytel to Fuel Web Campaign with MyRide.com Comments

This post was written by Jack Marshall.

Autobytel today embarked on a multi-million dollar campaign designed to generate traffic to and raise awareness of its auto consumer site launched last week - MyRide.com. Utilizing e-mail, banner, and search marketing, the campaign’s aim is to reach consumers through sports, entertainment, technology and finance sites.

The campaign ads will be generated from content on the MyRide site itself, including questions and statements "that reflect MyRide.com’s unique offerings," according to a press release.

“By leveraging MyRide.com’s large and growing bank of updated automotive content across our multi-level digital campaign, we can attract consumers in a way that is far more targeted and, we believe, more efficient, than traditional brand advertising,” stated Autobytel’s president and CEO Jim Riesenbach in the release.

The campaign has been developed in collaboration with Young & Rubicam Brands which is developing creative content, and KSL, which is taking care of planning and buying. The e-mail campaign will target Autobytel’s current database of a reported 9 million users.

Search will cap it off, specifically targeting directional purchase behavior.

MyRide.com aims to target consumers throughout the auto purchase and interest cycle. The site categorizes user behavior into five categories: Find, See, Buy, Learn and Belong. Autobytel believes many of these are currently ignored by traditional automotive sites, which tend to be singularly focused on buying funnel activities.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 11, 2007

eBay Joins Social Network Caravan

What do coffee lovers have in common with jewelry shoppers?

They were among the most active eBay members participating in the online commerce site's neighborhoods, a feature rolled out this week that takes a chapter from Facebook and other social networks.

eBay members must join a neighborhood before they are permitted to start a discussion or blog, post comments or photos, and invite a friend to participate.

eBay established several hundred online neighborhoods, according to an announcement posted this week by Nathan Sacco, eBay's senior manager, buyer engagement. The neighborhoods, he wrote, are based on popular items and searches.

Neighborhoods encompass broad categories such as Italian fashion and specific brand names like Versace or Manolo Blahnik.

In discussions, members tend to exchange information or debate a product's merits. On the blog posts, many entries appear to promote eBay members' stores and product offerings.

Close to 200 eBay members joined the jewelry neighborhood, which included advice to someone who asked for information on the best places to find jewelry to resell on eBay.

In contrast, the coffee lover neighborhood reported over 400 members, many of whom are passionate and/or addicted to roasted beans.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2007

Omniture and Salesforce.com Join Forces on B2B Closed Loop Sales Information

Intending to provide business to business marketers with a clearer idea of what portions of their campaigns are creating the best business leads, business optimization software company Omniture and on-demand business services firm salesforce.com have joined forces to offer Omniture Closed-Loop Marketing on salesforce.com’s AppExchange.

The system operates by applying specific codes to campaign elements, including keyword search campaigns, banner ads, e-mail campaigns, newsletters, blogs, or even traditional offline linked mail campaign and events, according to Gail Ennis, senior vice president world wide marketing at Omniture.

"You're assigning IDs to all those different campaigns and then you can track what your budget is and what the results have been and compare them to see which is performing best," she said.

Omniture's been busy this week, as it also acquired Offermatica, in a separate deal.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2007

iPhone Price Drops, Does Jobs Rise to the Occasion?

The fallout over yesterday's announced iPhone price drop was immediate -- and angry. Apple's stock tanked as blogs filled to the brim with step-by-stop instructions on how to return your old iPhone and buy a new one -- at $200 off.

Steve Jobs to the rescue? In an open letter to iPhone customers in which he (improbably) claims to have read each and every angry e-mail sent to Apple over this issue, he's making an offer to every iPhone owner who doesn't return their unit, then exchange it for a new model at $200 off what they paid for it in the first place.

The offer? $100 credit towards their next Apple purchase.

Now, math isn't my forte, but I do know the difference between $200 in my pocket and $100 with Apple's name on it.

Still, Jobs gets credit for reacting swiftly, decisively and publicly. The question is, will iPhone owners swallow it? Time -- and the blogosphere -- will soon tell.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 28, 2007

Online Consumer Education Gets Metrics

Online consumer education firm Powered added the Data & Insight PowerPack, a data and insight package that allows clients a deeper look into their course enrollees. In addition to creating and supporting courses for clients like Atkins and Epson, the PowerPack includes annual or bi-annual user surveys; in-content opinion polls; enrollment surveys; and an executive reporting mechanism to measure key performance indicators (KPI) based on marketing objectives.

The data informs the client how well the courses are reaching the registered audience, but also looks into the behaviors beyond the consumer education efforts. "Through user surveys, one large consumer electronics retailer discovered that more than 90 percent of course attendees qualified as their most valuable customer segment and that participation in online courses drives loyalty at a brand, not a product, level," Powered CEO Dave Ellett said in a company statement.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 20, 2007

Green Marketing Online: The Publisher Perspective

In a feature ClickZ published last week on the greening of digital marketing, I discuss how big marketers have turned up the volume on their marketing around sustainability initiatives -- which are in some cases authentic and in others pure greenwash.

One area I only touch on, but which is undergoing a lot of change, has to do with how large Web properties are acquiring or launching properties focused on the green market. Those big publishers are now figuring out how to package and sell inventory adjacent to that content, and it's not always easy.

I want to clarify one point relating to that aspect of the story. In discussing Yahoo Green, I wrote, sustainability is "not a large enough category for Yahoo to justify a dedicated salesperson.” While that's technically true, it misrepresents the nature of Yahoo's sales group. I've since heard from the company that it doesn't have any vertical sales positions. No salespeople are focused on selling ads on Yahoo Cars, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News, or the homepage. Learn something new every day.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 3, 2007

Shutterbug Training

Epson wants to help consumers take better pictures, and then know what to do with the pictures once they're uploaded to a computer. To promote better picture-taking, and subsequent purchases of Epson's printers, scanners, photo displays, photo paper, scrapbooks and scrapbooking software, Epson launched Epson Creative LearningZone with online classes built by Powered.

The first four courses available are: geneology in a wired world; set up a home print shop for flyers, newsletters and more; getting started with digital scrapbooking, and digital photography 101. Each month Epson plans to add additional courses, some of the planned lessons include: achieving work-life balance; introduction to digital entertainment; how to build your first Web page; designing and equipping your home office.

Powered builds out online lessons with its clients. Participants in the class get certificates of completion at the end of the course, and receive encouragement to continue once more subjects are provided. Powered has worked with several companies to create online classes, and had reported success with an ongoing program it created with Atkins.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 1, 2007

Trade Free Time for a Free Home

Even free costs you. San Francisco-based fabMODERN is offering a deal called freeHOUSE where it is giving away a kit for users to build their own green home, free. The catch is participants must contract to provide a certain number of hours of service each day, and accept certain marketing obligations from a sponsor pool, to live in their sponsored home.

Once the home is completed, new prefab owners must participate in showcase events for the first two weeks. Homeowners must then complete "various tasks when they can undertake and complete on their own for a committed number of hours per day," said a company statement. Homeowners get a free, computer to connect to the Internet in their home office to have the "flexibility to work from home" and "respond to sponsor requests, e-mailed to them daily." Companies participating in the sponsor pool include government agencies, major corporations such as appliance companies, consumer electronics companies, media companies, finishes suppliers and community organizations. No mention of how long homeowners are required to participate, or if the responsibility rolls over to new owners if the house is sold, but will the company be around as long as a 30+ year bank loan?

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 30, 2007

Print Shops Could Use Kinko's Competition to Advantage

FedEx hopes to push its Kinko's brand through a recent relationship with Adobe, makers of Acrobat software. But a deal to feature a prominent link to Kinko's in some Adobe software has smaller printer outfits fuming.

According to a Wall Street Journal story, smaller printers are concerned they'll lose business to Kinkos since the embedded link allows people to send printing orders automatically to Kinko's without going to the site.

"Adobe says it is reviewing the matter and expects to officially respond to the printing industry's concerns on Wednesday," wrote the Journal.

I don't doubt this could have some impact, but don't companies work with smaller printers for other reasons besides the ability to save a couple steps when submitting orders -- like superior customer service, personal attention, loyalty, etc.?

Call me crazy, but isn't this a reason for smaller operations to promote why they're better than the cold, impersonal printing behemoth?

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2007

Jostens Supplies Super Bowl Rings for Madden ‘08

The highly-coveted Super Bowl ring worn by NFL players is now available to players of EA’s Madden NFL 08. Those who reach a certain level of accomplishment can order design a ring through the game’s interface, then order it from Jostens. The “Ring of a Champion” can be custom-designed by the player, and not only signifies a player’s reaching a certain stature in the game’s rankings, but can also reflect extraordinary achievements pulled of in those winning games.

Like your old class ring, players can choose from non-precious metals, 10K white and yellow gold, and simulated gemstones. Prices range from $149 for a non-precious ring to $495 for 10K gold designs. If a virtual champion wants the full bling of genuine diamonds, instead of cubic zirconium stones, Jostins will do it for a few dollars more. Madden NFL 08 with the ability to play for and create your championship ring comes out on August 14.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 10, 2007

You're a Baseball Fan. Create Content Like One.

I'm a baseball fan (OK, addict), but evidently I'm just not going about it the right way. If I were a true fan, I'd act like one, which according to Major League Baseball means I should be posting baseball video to the Web. Hmmm…and all this time I thought watching, listening to and going to the games was enough….

The league's new post-season push features the tagline, "You're a fan. Act Like One."

To push post-season play (which they gotta do since lots of people don't watch after their hometown teams drop out of the race), MLB is launching a campaign. In addition to expanding its media partnerships with Turner Broadcasting, Fox Sports and MLB.com to promote the "There's Only One October" effort, MLB is launching actober.com, so, "fans can start to generate their own favorite October moments," according to the MLB.com story.

Basically, MLB will provide access to its archive of past post-season footage. "Fans can utilize the vintage footage of those great feats to create their own 'actober' moments with the goal of winning tickets to the 2007 World Series." Of course, unless you're posting your own photos or film from a game -- or you're Reggie Jackson or some other post-season hero -- you won't be generating your own content, you'll be mashing clips provided by MLB. The league will use the user productions to determine "what moments should be represented in the advertising campaign."

The marketing push is extra-early this year considering we're only midway through the regular season, the Mets only have half the team on the D.L., Bonds hasn't even broken Hank's record yet, and Zambrano's only maimed one teammate so far.

Oh, and if the Geico cavemen aren't annoying enough to watch every commercial break, get ready for comedian Dane Cook. He'll be featured in the TV spots.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Shop.com Giving Away Final Harry Potter Tome

Shop.com just announced it's giving away free copies of the seventh and final book in the blockbuster Harry Potter series.

Spend $100 on the site in July and a copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is yours. Keep it, have the company send it to anyone you chose, or donate it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The most loyal Muggles will, of course, require a copy in hand when the title ships on June 21.

Still, Shop.com should get uptake on this promotion.

But what's their retention strategy?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2007

Nancy Drew Sleuths Marketing Opportunities

With just over two weeks away from the movie release of "Nancy Drew," a modern telling of the classic teen mystery series, yet another marketing campaign surfaces at the mall. Earlier this month two separate campaigns deployed the Web and mobile phones to peak viewers' interests. Now there's "Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper" making its appearance in malls in 15 markets around the country.

The Cotton Caper draws from a partnership between Warner Bros. Pictures, Cotton Incorporated, General Growth Management (the owner of malls across the country), and Her Interactive (the publisher of the Nancy Drew video game series). Activities originate in a "cotton-themed interactive mall experience" where consumers receive an activity book of clues and instructions to find answers hidden in a mall display. Looking for more sleuthing after a trip to the mall? Consumers can go to Cotton Incorporated's thefabricofourlives.com and subsequently the microsite for Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper where consumers can find more clues, locate a participating mall, learn about the title character's cotton-laden wardrobe. There's also a link to longtime "Nancy Drew" video game publisher Her Interactive and a snowball fight mini-game made for the upcoming title "Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek," which retails on June 12.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2007

Digital Marketing Remainders for May 23, 2007

Joost has yet another content deal, with CAA, but it's a little cryptic. The talent agency will support Joost's "efforts to secure" new content." I take it CAA expects to be sort of a social lubricant to getting these deals made. “CAA will provide Joost greater access to programming through our relationships with networks, studios, record labels, artists and independently-controlled content libraries," said the agency's bizdev head.

Who's Posing as Delta on Twitter? We've all had an earful of "the user is in control," but this sort of makes the cliché fresh again. Some twit has taken the Twitter user name Delta Air Lines and is micro-blogging in the voice of the company. They're doing a pretty good job too, from what we hear.

Once a darling of online advertisers, PlanetOut seems to be in want of cash, according to separate reports in The San Francisco Chronicle and Barron's. Really? What's a body to think when a big site with an affluent demo can't monetize its audience? To be fair, the reports outline several contributing factors, such as a decline in personal ads and the migration of profile data to MySpace. Anyway, looks like the company may seek a buyer.

CBS buys financial info site and video blog Wallstrip from Howard Lindzon. The site's less than a year old, and the rumored price is $5 million. As big media competes harder for ever-younger Web content plays, is this the future of content acquisitions?

Apparently noticing this ad serving stuff's sorta hot right now, Sapient will offer its own ad management tech as a standalone. Called BridgeTrack, the product offers reporting and optimization in multiple media channels, including e-mail, search and display.

Google adds Hotness to staid Trends report. You can now see a list of the 100 fastest-rising U.S. search queries. The Zeitgeist just got a little geistier. The resuts are just what you'd expect: everything to do with American Idol and the misbehavior of celebrity offspring.

Mobile game ad network Greystripe has imbibed an $8.9 million round led by Steamboat Ventures. Watch for other established mobile ad networks to make serious moves toward this space soon, which will drive up the cost of winning and keeping contracts with mobile game publishers.

Virgin Mobile USA will carry mobile search results and sponsored listings from JumpTap. The search capabilities will come in the form of a WAP-based search app, and enables local queries via a zip code or city and state.

Technorati redesigns to be less about blogs, more about multimedia and conversations. Peter Hirschberg spoke about the changes a bit at ClickZ's Advertising in Social Media event this week. They're now live on the site.

JenSense and Search Engine Watch note Google's recent purge of made-for-AdSense sites. Like Google's recent ban on ads from essay-writing services, it's another brave move from Google to take short term losses to keep a clean nose and elevate conversions and ad quality.

Gawker launches a new site for women, and it's hitting big numbers out of the gate. Jezebel is focused on celebrity gossip, but early posts include some snarky health-related news, two descriptors only Gawker could combine.

Also in site launches targeted to women, Somagirls.tv is seeking to serve "12- 24-year-old women," an age spread most marketers would consider to span two demographics. The site offers video channels on topics like health, beauty, travel, fashion, modeling, celebrity news and entertainment.

ICONIX, which offers an e-mail plug-in to visually authenticate incoming messages, is now compatible with Outlook 2003. That gives the company 60 percent reach in desktop e-mail and 80 percent reach in Webmail.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 1, 2007

Reuters, Hyundai Smart-Thinking Campaign Could Be Smarter

Reuters and Hyundai rolled out their "smart thinking" campaign, which links ads for the carmaker to stories pegged as featuring "innovation, forward thinking and intelligence."

If today's story choices are an indicator, the methods used to pick the so-called smart stories may need some fine tuning.

One Reuters story with the carmaker's ads, "Telefonica deal to challenge Slim on own turf," dissects the Mexican billionaire's failure to enter the European phone market, which seems to imply an example of not-so-smart thinking.

Another piece with the Hyundai ads, "British motorists face spy in sky monitoring," outlines plans in the UK to charge drivers to use roads. Some 1.8 million people in the UK have signed petitions against the scheme, aimed at cutting traffic in congested areas. The "smart" thinking in this story is elusive for a car company that presumably wants people to drive more, not less.

News stories about the ad campaign stressed the "separation of church and state" between ad sales and editors at the news service. That's a good thing journalistically, though Reuters and Hyundai may well benefit from having a wise editor or two to review the "smart" story choices.

Posted by Bill McGuire at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 23, 2007

DoubleClick Seller Acquires Data/Marketing Firm

Equity firm Hellman and Friedman just made a killing unloading DoubleClick for 3.1 billion, far more than the1.1 billion it paid for the firm. I found it interesting to read about H&F's latest buy, as reported in The Wall Street Journal. Last week, the investors snapped up Catalina Marketing Corp. for 1.56 billion. The company puts data to use for marketers. Sound familiar?

Well, there is a real difference between DoubleClick and Catalina. DoubleClick employs client-owned data to manage and target Web ads. Catalina compiles millions of transactions each week from over 21,000 grocery stores, warehousing purchase histories of over 100 million household IDs. The company has three divisions serving manufacturers, healthcare firms and retailers.

Catalina does offer interactive services under its "Catalina Interactive" name. Here's a bit more about that:

Targeted in-store communications provide your consumers with a custom micro website link and unique promotional code to take part in an integrated brand experience….Whether you want to enhance existing loyalty/points programs, or create new online instant win/sweepstakes programs, Catalina Interactive is the efficient and effective solution.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2007

Vonage to Weed out High Cost Acquisition Efforts

The CEO of big online ad spender Vonage, Michael Snyder, has resigned. I listened in on this morning's investor call, during which recent legal wranglings and financials were discussed. The company was pretty vague about future marketing and advertising plans, but I jotted down a few interesting things along those lines.

"Our marketing spend is highly variable," said Jeffrey Citron, Vonage chairman and interim CEO.

Essentially, the company plans to analyze its current efforts and weed out the stuff that's resulting in exorbitant costs per acquisition. "In the short run," said Citron, the company will isolate programs from all channels bringing in "marginal customers…meaning customers coming in at a very expensive rate." Those programs, it's assumed, will be on the chopping block.

"[Vonage] is looking at revamping its marketing campaign. I think the initial work the company has done over the last three or four months has shown positive improvement in the cost to acquire customers," he continued. "That number's come down almost ten percent." Incidentally, Vonage's online ad spending has dwindled in recent months. Check out ClickZ's recent coverage of how Vonage's legal woes could affect its online ad plans, and the networks it buys through.

Vonage expects to appeal if the court doesn't grant it a stay allowing it to continue marketing the services Verizon alleges infringe on its patents. The impression I got is no drastic changes will be made to Vonage's marketing plans right away; but changes are to be expected down the road.

UPDATE: According to a company press release, "Vonage announced plans to reduce its marketing expense by approximately $110 million. As a result, the Company expects marketing expenditures of roughly $310 million for 2007."

Will that mean less TV ad yodeling? Less online ad network buys? It's unclear at this point.

Another data point from Computer Business Review Online: "Vonage's marketing spend has been closely watched. It was a whopping 47% of revenue in the first quarter this year, the company revealed yesterday, down from 53% in the fourth quarter."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 2, 2007

Digital Marketing Remainders

XLNT Ads Launches: Another entry in the growing field of players aiming to help agencies outsource their ad creation to the masses. (