March 2007
Monthly Archive
Internet advertising to continue to grow rapidly in 2007
MattE 31 Mar 2007 | : Marketing, Web
A report just released by emtech/Roy Morgan shows that major advertisers are set to continue their love affair with online advertising.
Ninety-eight percent of advertising agencies surveyed had placed advertising online during the past 12 months. This was a 15% increase from the 83% reported in January 2006 and a 4% increase from July 2006.
MyStickies - A good idea, I think…
Following on from today’s earlier post on what to include in a web makeover, I came across MyStickies, Sticky Notes for the Web.
Now I think these are a good idea…but this site suffers from the main bugbears of these internet tools sites - not enough information to tell people what it is for and what the real benefit is.
I think the problem is that sites like these are created by coding nuts, not marketers. There seems to be a large oversight of the fact that most people will not sign up to a service just to try to find out what is does.
10 must do’s for website maker
If you are looking at a website make over and customer conversions are important to you, I suggest the 10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox is well worth a read.
The topics covered include:
1. Email Newsletters
2. Informative Product Pages
3. High-Quality Photography
4. Product Differentiation and Comparisons
5. Support for Reordering
6. Simplified Text
7. Catering to Seniors
8. Gift-Giving Support
9. Search
10. User Testing
These are in the order that Nielsen says are most important. While newsletters are at the top of the list (despite spam limiting the value of email these days) I am surprised that RSS does not get a mention.
Innovative marketing - beyond product placement
MattE 23 Mar 2007 | : Marketing
As the discussions about how traditional product advertising continue, it seems that product placement is now becoming more the norm than ever. Indeed integration of brands into the very core of TV shows could be the next big thing in advertising.
What brand of drink do the judges on Idol and similar shows have in front of them? What brand of watch does James Bond wear? Business Week reported that the product placement of Red Stripe, a Jamaican-brewed beer, in the movie “The Firm.” saw a 50% increase in sales.
Product placement in movies has been around a long while. It is not quite as common in TV, but advertisers are now getting the message that viewers don’t want to sit through ads. In fact the rapid rise in popularity of the TiVo digital recorder has meant ad agencies in The USA have been put on alert - the 30 second ad slot may be dead!
SMS Marketing - still under utilised
MattE 22 Mar 2007 | : Marketing, SMS
The use of SMS marketing is still being under utilised in most markets but there is still room for growth in the medium.
Of course it has to be permission based - push marketing is fine, but can backfire badly if the recipient is not expecting it. As the Big Picture blog succinctly puts it…
Like any marketing these days, permission based SMS has to be relevant and either useful or entertaining ( or even both). And brands have to find a way of reminding consumers that they did request the messaging.
Effective SMS Marketing by a gym In Ireland
MattE 21 Mar 2007 | : Marketing, SMS
Here is a great example of SMS being used in marketing. The only caveat for businesses in Australia and some other countries in the Spam Act - you can only send to people who have agreed to receive text messages from you - the grey area is if they agreed while members, does this imply agreement now they are non-members…
The original and full blog entry can be found here
On Friday I received the following SMS message from Crunch Fitness Gym in Clonsilla, Dublin that I used to be a member of. It said “ST PATRICKS SPECIAL. Rejoin Crunch fitness before 7pm Mon 19th and receive a free Nike Rockstar course and no membership joining fee. Ltd spaces avail. 01 8025906″
Innovative Marketing - fast food
MattE 15 Mar 2007 | : Marketing, SMS, consumer engagement
Given its size, it is no wonder that this innovative marketing idea come from one of the fast food industry giants - McDonalds.
In a bit to further boost their breakfast menu sales MediaPost reports that”
consumers will be invited to create videos about their own morning challenges–like maybe how hard it is to get up and get moving. Visitors will join McDonalds’ Society for Morning Impaired, a group committed to returning breakfast to harried consumers.
Now this is a nifty way to get people interacting with the brand - maybe not appealing to everyone to video themselves tumbling naked from bed, but perhaps more appealing to the voyeurs of breakfast fantasies….
3G to change mobile phone landscape in Aust.
MattE 09 Mar 2007 | : Media, consumer engagement
The way we view our mobile phones is set to change - at last. The following report from ATMA indicates the time is almost upon us with the closure of the CDMA network forcing a shift of 1.5 million phone users onto the 3G platform.
With the the main benefit of 3G technology being that it allows mobile phones to download content at high speeds, thus allowing 3G mobile phone users to easily grab music, video clips, live television, maps, movie times, sports updates, news and more in seconds rather than minutes.
Innovative marketing idea - music industry
MattE 06 Mar 2007 | : Marketing, consumer engagement
I am having a bit of a push on innovative marketing ideas recently. It inspires me to see when crazy (and sometimes seemingly so damned logical) ideas that people come up with.
One idea I came across recently involves the music industry and the battle for control of copyright etc. Seems a hard topic, until you read stuff like this from http://schoonerhelm.vox.com
I’d love to hear your innovative marketing ideas …on any marketing issue via comments.
Clean Up Australia Day a success
March 4 is the annual Clean Up Australia Day and this year one million Australians donned boot, hats and gloves and well…cleaned up.
In its 18th year, the clean up includes park, roadsides, creeks and rivers, beaches everything from drink bottles to car wrecks are collected each year.
In a first, 110 of the 371 businesses taking part in Business Clean Up Day across the country last Wednesday registered their workplaces as clean up sites with thousands of staff collecting electronic or e-waste in a bid to recycle and re-use mobiles phones, old computers and printing equipment such as toner cartridges.
A schools cleanup day on Friday saw 500,000 students participating.
