Ads Need to Engage Effectively, Says Study

"Consumers are spending a growing amount of time on the web, but this doesn't mean they are always accepting of ads. Carefully considering the best times to try to engage internet users with ads may help businesses improve their digital marketing initiatives, according to a new study from Yahoo," says a post from RICG.

Ford's Digital Program Takes a Musical Direction

"Ford, Internet radio leader Pandora and artists Jewel and John Legend are matching up to launch an integrated digital marketing campaign that enhances the Pandora user experience and benefits charities. The fourth-quarter campaign marks a transition in Ford's digital advertising strategy, focusing on working with digital content creators upstream to integrate Ford products and services into their medium rather than pushing out company-generated ads that interrupt content." That last sentence is common in the business world. What does it mean? Rather than running an ad between songs on the radio, Ford is attempting to create ads or product placements that are a "part" of the musician's presentations.

GM Putting Billions Online

"General Motors is leading the auto industry in shifting their traditional advertising campaigns to online marketing. The third-largest advertiser will spend half of their $3 billion advertising budget online. They give it 3 years to get there. Last year GM spent $197 million online," reports an entry on MarketingPilgrim. The story also reports on how much the  auto industry in general is spending for online marketing. Good source for the long report if you want to write about the use of Internet marketing by GM or the American automobile industry. One small drawback: The site posted the story two years ago.

Local Advertisers Going Digital

MarketingPilgrim is reporting that local advertisers, such as retail operations, are turning increasingly to digital marketing to drum up business.

Facebook's Thumbs Up Mean What?

"Facebook has been collecting thumbs up on everything from Levi's black denim leggings to Sarah Palin videos since April. But where do all those clicks of approval go? And when are brands going to benefit?" asks AdAge.

Advertising on Twitter an Experiment

The WSJonline reports that advertisers have mixed reactions to their ad campaigns on Twitter. They had expected to take advantage of Twitter's popularity,  as did Twitter. The social network had signed on "30 big-name brands, including Coca-Cola Co., Virgin America and Starbucks Corp., to test [advertising on Twitter]. Some marketers say that early results are promising but that advertising on Twitter remains an experiment." (You will need a subscription to the WSJ to read the rest or you can access the publication through the school's data base.)

comScore Ranks Top 50 US Websites

comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.) August 2010 Total U.S. – Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)
Total Internet Audience (000): 212616
1	Yahoo! Sites	179002	26	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	35289
2	Google Sites	178782	27	Gannett Sites	34923
3	Microsoft Sites	165271	28	Technorati Media	34818
4	Facebook	148048	29	Federated Media Publishing	34562
5	AOL, Inc.	107165	30	WeatherBug Property	33424
6	Glam Media	97948	31	Disney Online	31046
7	Ask Network	88281	32	Break Media Network	30965
8	Turner Network	84541	33	Verizon Communications	30665
9	Viacom Digital	81456	34	AT&T Interactive Network	30028
10	Fox Interactive Media	80210	35	Superpages.com Network	29019
11	Amazon Sites	79188	36	Expedia Inc	28334
12	CBS Interactive	79062	37	Target Corporation	27856
13	Wikimedia Foundation Sites	73685	38	Tribune Interactive	27811
14	eBay	69500	39	YellowBook Network	27217
15	Apple Inc.	69383	40	Photobucket.com LLC	26437
16	New York Times Digital	68901	41	YellowBook Network	27940
17	Demand Media	58798	42	The Washington Post	27711
18	craigslist, inc.	53400	43	Photobucket.com LLC	27396
19	VEVO	49386	44	ESPN	27197
20	Comcast Corporation	44106	45	Warner Music	27151
21	Answers.com Sites	41254	46	Everyday Health	26645
22	NetShelter Technology Media	40584	47	WorldNow Sites	25630
23	Weather Channel, The	39074	48	NBC Universal	25357
24	Wal-Mart	36683	49	Bank of America	24986
25	Adobe Sites	35345	50	Twitter	24798

Marketing a Brand on the Web

eMarketer has released a new study, "Brand Marketing Online: Paid, Owned, Earned," about the use of online advertising to promote a brand (sometimes called branding): "At this phase in brand marketing’s shift to the digital space, it is difficult to judge one media’s value by dollars alone. That said, marketers tend to spend more for paid media than owned or earned. And the trend toward more online brand-focused ad spending is clear: Between 2010 and 2014 it will rise from a 35.7% share to nearly 42%. The heraldeded Old Spice Man campaign from Procter & Gamble for example, started off with TV commercials (paid), migrated to a brand microsite and Facebook fan page (owned), and is still boosted by consumer interaction and word-of-mouth on social sites and beyond (earned)—while continuing to be fed by more online advertising to drive traffic."

Digital Media Throws Down the Gaunlet to Traditional Media: Yahoo Vs. TV

AdWeek reports that "Yahoo's competition is television. That's what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference. 'The real competitor is TV,' she said, promising that online advertising will not only get more rich, interactive and accountable, but also simpler to purchase." She also discussed the future of online advertising.

Meanwhile another post in AdWeek shows a weakness in online advertising. Solbright Digital Media Index shows that the cost per thousand (CPM) page views (one of the ways Websites are paid by advertisers for display ads) "climbed 9 percent during the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2009. [The second quarter] ...was particularly strong, as CPMs jumped 17 percent over last year. Even so, CPMs over time have consistently declined as the Web has become saturated with inventory, according to Solbright. Data presented to Mediaweek showed that while CPMs have spiked with regularity during each fourth quarter over the past four years, overall display CPMs have slipped from a $16 average in 2006 to a $10 average this year."

Politicians Not Politicking on Web

AdWeek reports that "Following the recent digital-savvy campaigns led by Obama and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, many expected a slew of imitators to emerge during the 2010 midterms, leading to a surge in online spending. But political ad insiders say that with the exception of a handful of digital-focused campaigns, few candidates are dumping dollars onto the Web, outside of social media and search. And with six weeks or so to go before Election Day, not many watchers are expecting a sudden surge."

Top 50 Brands in the World

As mentioned in readings and during lectures, brand recognition is the core element of any good marketing campaign. A company called Interbrand ranks them. Here are the results as published by AdWeek: "Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft again scored win, place and show honors in this year’s Interbrand ranking of the 100 Best Global Brands. Among other highlights, BP fell off the list and Hewlett-Packard jumped into the top 10 for the first time." For the complete list, click here.

Display Ads Larger for AOL

Earlier this week I referred to the increased emphasis on display advertising (compared to search ads). This ClickZ story supports that notion.

AOL will launch a super-sized ad format across its properties next week. The company will design it to minimize ad clutter and maximize advertiser impact. Recently the Online Publishers Association (OPA), conducted tests with similar sizing with online publishers such as Hearst and the New York Times. The story added that "according to AOL, both the effectiveness of advertising and the accessibility of content on the Internet are being diminished by ad clutter. Its solution is to bundle the ad real estate on its pages into one large-scale ad unit, enabling brands to occupy a much larger portion of the page and limiting clutter from banners, brand logos, and text ads."

OPA recently released “A Sense of Place: Why Environments Matter.” The research ferreted out how 2910 adult Americans "perceive content in different online environments, an whether these perceptions impact advertising receptivity and consumer response." The study assessed perceptions and responses in the following online environments:  "1) media properties (e.g., ESPN.com, iVillage, NYTimes.com, Wall Street Journal Digital Network; 2) portal channels (e.g., AOL News, MSN Money, Yahoo Sports) and 3) social networks (Facebook, MySpace)."
 
Top findings include the following:

• Sites with relevant content correlate strongly with audiences being loyal to these sites (a correlation score of .445).
• Sites with trusted content correlates strongly with the sites’ advertisers being perceived as reputable (a correlation score of .388).
• Brands perceived as relevant are more likely to have a response to their online ads (a correlation score of .353).

Blogging Still Major Social Networking Factor

eMarketer reports that "social networks and microblogs have in recent years nudged blogging off the social media pedestal. For some consumers, who have more communication tools at their fingertips than they did a few years ago, Facebook and Twitter have supplanted blogging as life-streaming outlets. But blogs continue to be important. eMarketer estimates that this year more than half of internet users will read blogs at least monthly. By 2014, readership will rise to more than 150 million Americans, or 60% of the internet population in the US. One reason for the rise in readership is that blogs have become an accepted part of the online media landscape."

JH Funds Website Receives Award

John Hancock Funds received a prestigious award from the Web Marketing Association (WMA) in its 2010 WebAwards competition.  John Hancock Funds' financial professional web site was recognized as the "Best of Industry" in the Mutual Funds category for 2010. The award marks the fourth year in a row that John Hancock Funds has taken top honors in the Mutual Funds category.

Marketing Chart's Top Ten for August

"The top 10 picks for August, with links to view on YouTube:
1. Gillette – Amazing Roger Federer Trickshot, agency: N/A
2. Heal the Bay – The Majestic Plastic Bag, agency: DDB
3. SNCF – Bienvenue, Au Revoir, agency: Rhett & Link / Platinum Rye / PainePR
4. Carlton Draught – Slo Mo, agency: Clemenger BBDO
5. Cadbury – I Gotta Be Me, agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
6. Puma – After Hours Athlete, agency: Droga5
7. Google – Google New Baby, agency: Google Creative Lab
8. V Energy – Pomparkour Ladder Sport, agency: Colenso BBDO
9. Drench – Cubehead, agency: CHI & Partners
10. Orbit – The Dancer, agency: Electus / DumbDumb / Energy BBDO," according to MarketingCharts.

And here is its Top Ten Sports Sites for August:

Google Uses Display Ad to Market Itself

"Google, the online search ad giant that rarely advertises, has decided it needs to advertise the fact that it is in the online display advertising business," according to article poste on NYTimes.

"Screen grabs from a video explaining Google’s campaign about its display advertising. Through a new 35-foot-wide, 13-foot-tall billboard in Times Square, Google makes the case that it will improve a stagnant sector of the advertising business. And if that is not enough advertising about advertising, it has picked one of the most crowded advertising venues to get the message out — Times Square.

For all of Google’s success, its business has been built on search ads, the simple four-line text ads that appear with search results. Google does not get as much attention for its display ads, which include images, video and audio, even though those ads appear on YouTube and the million Web sites using Google’s display ad network."

Just When You Thought Everyone Was Upfront

Advertisers approach bloggers and individuals on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and ask for plug--frequently in exchange from something, according to MarketingCharts.

Most Americans Spend More Time in Front of Screens than Working/Sleeping

An Ipsos OTX study of 7,000 online consumers found that people spend half their waking days interacting with media on televisions, computer screens, or cellphones. In the past two years, American's "media consumption" has increased an hour per day, and Americans, between 13 and 74, have increased their media consumption an hour per day over the past two years.

Mobile Ads Effective--Maybe Not

Remember what I said about mobile ads replacing apps? Here's the next question: If apps are not effective marketing tools, why should ads on mobile devices be any more effective? Good question. Possible answer: "Following the launch of its iAd advertising network this summer, Apple promptly announced the availability of an ad format designed specifically for application developers. According to some developers, however, trials of the ads so far have been unsuccessful, and resulted in far less return on investment than solutions offered by some rival networks," says a post on ClickZ.

It's so confusing, but then again cutting edge developments have always left business people frazzled. 

Yahoo Flexs Its Billion Dollar Muscle

WhatIstheTrend reported that Yahoo unveiled a three-year plan "to boost its sales by overhauling it Internet marketing services, and to reclaim its supremacy over Google." Yahoo also will develop new apps, such as an app for Yahoo Mail that will tie the email service in better with social networking sites.

Meanwhile WebProNews noted that "it looks like Yahoo is on Google's tail in terms of instant search and might trip up its rival with a legal objection.  Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President of Yahoo Search Products, has indicated that Google Instant infringes on perhaps five patents Yahoo holds." Google announced its new instant search a short while ago. 

This news comes shortly after Neilsen Co. announced that while Google remained the number one search engine in the U.S., Bing (Microsoft's reinvention of its search engine) overtook Yahoo, putting Bing in second place, Yahoo third.

Common Writing Mistakes

During the past decade I have discovered that students make common errors when writing, so much so that I created a list of those common mistakes and provided a solution to them. Some will see these exact phrases on your email reports. I anticipate that you will eliminate these problems from your writing by the end of the semester. You will discover that I will offer fewer explanations of what is wrong as the semester wears on. I expect you to learn from your mistakes; I do not expect you to constantly repeat them.

Common Writing Errors

Ability (yellow/red): You wrote about ability but you are describing actuality.

Contractions (red): You could have run spell/grammar check. Do not use contractions.

Defining (yellow): You are telling the reader what to think is true. You must explain to the reader why it is true.

Due to: Use “due to” only when you have a to-be verb. Use “because of.”

Double spaced: Because of the length long reports are double spaced.

1st/2^nd Person (blue): Do not use first or second person unless the reader recognizes you as an expert. And you would have discovered this if you used Word's spelling/grammar as suggested.

Font: Always use Times New Roman, 12 points unless otherwise instructed.

Future tense: Do not use “going to” for future tense. Use will.

Internet (orange) is a proper noun: Internet.

Introduction: Not reason to introduce the report/article in this fashion, especially when you have a citation.

Logic: One idea does not lead to another. You need a transition.

MLA Style: You are not following it. Go to this site and learn: <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/11/>.

 

Now: Nowadays is vernacular. Use today or now.

Passive Voice: (Yellow and Gray): Ask who/what is doing the action. Then rewrite with that as the subject..

Punctuation and Quotation Marks: Punctuation always appears inside quotation marks.

Quotations: Quotation marks within quotation marks become single quotation marks (').

Run-on Sentence/Comma Splice: Run on sentence. Create two sentences. Grammar check would have caught this.

Singular (Company): When you mention a company, it is a singular noun, requiring singular pronouns such as it, its (and not they, their, and theirs).

Singular When Referring to an Individual: When you mention an individual, do not use the pronoun “their.” Use he/she if you do not know the gender of the individual. After the first reference, use the masculine form if you are male; use the feminine form if you are female.

Stacking Quotations: Do not stack quotations. You need a transition from one idea to the next.

Titles: Upper and Lower Case for Titles

List of Words You MUST Avoid

To be verbs/yellow (when used without verbs end in "ing" or verbs that appear to be in past tense): 

is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been.

First/second person/blue: I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours.

Dumb words/Do not use again/red: important, interest, really, very, lot, able, going, contractions (such as don't, doesn't, won't, he's, she's, it's, he'll, she'll, it'll). 

Internet/orange: A proper noun spelled with an upper case (capital) I as in Internet.

Apps Make Not Work

"New figures from the Pew Internet Project provide some insight as to why app-based ads might not deliver the returns companies expect: a sizable number of users download apps but never get around to using them," according to a post by MediaBuyerPlanner. See full story here.

Shifting Turf of the Search Engine Market

MediaBuyerPlanner reports, "Search engines from Bing to Google to AOL to now Yahoo have been debuting redesigned search pages. The changes have ranged from cosmetic, to, in the case of Google Instant, a fundamental shift in how search is delivered. No matter where on the spectrum the changes are, though, marketers can find both opportunities and possible challenges."

As you read the article, ask how this information balances with what you have learned. If different, why and how? How does it affect your thinking about the search engines' impact on Internet marketing?

Video and Twitter--Appearing Soon on Your Nearest Screen

"With comScore reporting that 84.9 percent of the total internet population watches online video, businesses have been increasingly incorporating the platform in their digital marketing campaigns. Now, marketers are looking to target Twitter users, as the social network's recent redesign enables them to show videos without forcing users to navigate away from the site." That's the beginning of a story on RICG.

Could this open opportunities for marketing? Yes. Could this intensify competition among webpages as more publishers (website owners) post video? Could Google dominance of the advertising market be threatened as video grabs a larger share of the Internet advertising market? Contentment with yes/no answers will not serve you well. Details.

A "New" Bing--In the Hopes of Drawing More Visitors

"Bing has unveiled a preview of a beta for its new Internet Explorer 9 search page that has been enhanced with HTML5 functionality. These features include video as background on the homepage, search that is dynamically displayed and hardware acceleration support," according to a story from MarketingVox.

Advertisers Name Their Own Price

AdAge reports that "Brand.net is releasing a new buying platform...that would allow advertisers to purchase page views at specific prices ahead of time, a specialized form of hedging. The tool forecasts what prices for online ads will be at a future date within a particular category, such as entertainment or automobiles." 

FYI: Advertisers usually buy advertising space on webpages based on a demographic or product category, such as entertainment. They could purchase space for their ad on webpages based on demographics, such as women between the ages of 18 and 25. In the past, they made these purchases based on the posted price by the webpage, which could fluctuate (think of purchasing airline tickets). This program allows them the less expensive price. This is the result of competition among websites.

Bing Overtakes Yahoo--Both Long Way from Google

Source: NYTimes

Bing and other Microsoft searches are now No.2, overtaking Yahoo, which held the No. 2 position for the past eight years, according to a report released today by Nielsen Company. MS/Bing has 13.9 percent of the U.S. search market, Yahoo 13.1, and Google 65, leaving eight percent to be shared among the many other search engines. Learn more by going to the NYTimes.

More Ads on Mobile Devices--Shifting from Apps

The ad network Greystripe converts ads from Flash to HTML 5 for display in native apps in its network, which feeds Apple devices. Advertisers loved the service because it enabled them to use ads with animation, touch interactivity and click-through actions on Apple's Flash-free devices.

Now non-Apple systems, such as Android, BlackBerry, and possibly a mobile Windows 7, are nudging Apple aside, and therefore "advertisers are increasingly interested in mobile websites as opposed to native [Apple] apps, Greystripe says....Greystripe is expanding its ad network and its Flash-to-HTML 5 conversions to include display ads meant for mobile websites." That's the word from the NYTimes.

Does it indicate another wave of change in the use of media, including advertising and marketing, in this country and around the world? You don't care about Apple's loss of dominance [in this discussion], but you should focus on the number of "new" mobile devices--giving advertisers "personalized" media on which to advertise to everyone around the world. [Except me because I am too cheap to buy a smart phone or is it because I am afraid the phone will be smarter than I? My wife says the later.]

Band Promotes Successfully with YouTube

"Weezer wants to be to YouTube...[what] Buddy Holly was to ...[Fifties] radio. Ooh wee ooh, indeed. And if the Los Angeles-based pop band's campaigns on the video site last year didn't get the attention of entertainment marketers, the one it launched yesterday likely will. To promote the release of its new album, 'Hurley,' Weezer reached out to 75 so-called YouTube celebrities (or 'YouTubers') and invited them to include the band in one of their videos," reports ClickZ.

In-Games Advertising Affects Sales

Remember those ads you see in video games. If not, how about the product placements. They make a difference. Electronic Arts, which produces video games, notes that those ads for Gatorade increased spending by 24 percent. You can click here for a brief analysis of the study that produced these results. Want to know more about in-game adveretising? Click here.

Company Rolls Out New Interactive Marketeing Hub

The IndyStar reports that "phone-based text messages and social media Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are changing how companies interact with consumers.This was evident Tuesday at ExactTarget's tech conference, where executives rolled out the company's new "Interactive Marketing Hub," software that powers all forms of interactive marketing in real time across e-mail, mobile and social sites."

You can out more about ExactTarget here.

Android Users Best Clickers

"Android users are more likely to click on ads within apps than people using other mobile operating systems, according to a new report on mobile applications by the Nielsen Company. One-third of Android users have clicked on an in-app ad compared to 29% for those with Windows Mobile, Apple's iOS, 26%, Palm, 22%, BlackBerry, 15%, and other types of operating systems, 24%." That's the story posted on MediaPost.

Yahoo Creates Election Site: Gathers Info on People

Yahoo News recently posted the website Ask America, an interactive and social website dedicated to the November elections. On the site people can give opinions about election issues in 2010. Besides getting information about election issues, Yahoo gathers information about individuals.

YouTube Experiment Could Mean Live Streaming

YouTube has conducted "a limited test of a live video streaming platform," reports InformationWeek. It ends today. During the test, YouTube and its partners started evaluating their ability to handle video streamed directly to YouTube from a camera. In other words: Live video.

Profile of Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook

The story from the NewYorker has little information regarding Internet marketing, but he reveals Zuckerberg.

Almost a Billion Spent for Info on People Like You

"U.S. marketers will have invested as much as $840 million by 2012 on information about digital audiences, transactions and "clickstream" behaviors, according to a new white paper released by Winterberry Group. U.S. marketers invested a total of $7.8 billion in marketing data in 2009 - including spending on both original information and complementary services such as hosting, hygiene and analytics. That total is expected to increase slightly over the next two years - to $8.0 billion in 2012," according to a story posted on MarketingVox.

Another Homework Assignment Tip

You must paraphrase the two article, Search Engines and Internet Marketing. Does that mean you do not need a thesis? Heck no.

You do not write a thesis for you. You write it for the reader. You are telling the reader what you are planning to do. This way the reader will decide if she/he wants to bother reading it. Simple.

Within the first 75 words of the email you must have a thesis that creates an umbrella theme for all that you will discuss in the email.

Some students find the following method easy, which is a variation of the method that I posted on 9 September 2010 on this blog.

Step one: Write down the important ideas that you "remember" from the two readings.

Step two: What idea, theme, image--whatever--will tie the various ideas together? You have discovered your thesis.

Who Clicks Online Ads More--Men or Women?

MarketingVox reports, "Women deliver a 23% higher click-through rate than men, but after clicking, men following through with an action - such as downloading a whitepaper, starting a free trial, making a purchase - at a rate that is 53% higher than women, according to a survey [pdf] by Bizo."

Games Most Popular Apps

MediaBuyerPlanner reports that "games are the most downloaded mobile app among both smartphone and feature phone users, according to new data from The Nielsen Company. The gaming category is the most popular category by far, with 61% of smartphone owners and 52% of feature phone owners reporting downloading a games app in the past 30 days. Weather apps are the next most popular category, downloaded by 55% of smartphone users and 39% of feature phone users." The site also listed these links.

View charts:
Most popular categories of apps
Most popular apps by operating system/device

Who should care? Think. A company has a new (or old) product/service. It wants as many people as possible to know about it. Does the company create an advertising program or does it create a game app? Each new electronic device with text and/or screen becomes another opportunity for a marketer to pass its message to its primary buyers.

Flea Killer Takes a Bite Out of Slow Sales with Interactive Marketing

"Merial, the maker of Frontline flea medication for pets, generated a record level of exposure for itself and its cause through a hybrid campaign that borrowed from social media, online contests and social gaming." The story appears on MarketingVox.

Interactive Marketing Changing Fashion

"There are signs...[that] designers ...[are reaching] out to customers via Facebook and Twitter to incorporate their feedback into their products.
Athletic wear retailer Lululemon's first-quarter operating profits more than tripled since the same period last year in part due to its use of social media," writes MarketingVox.

Higher Search Ad Prices?

According to MediaBuyerPlanner, "Google’s new instant search feature could shave between 2 and 5 seconds from the average 25-second search, the search giant says - but it could also boost search prices for advertisers."

Tips for Monday's Assignments

Step one: Read the assignments about email formats and setting word. (The word link on the syllabus is broken. The correct URL is <http://www1bpt.bridgeport.edu/~jconlin/SettingUpWord.pdf>.) Follow the instructions for both. Once you complete step one, go to step two.

Step two: At this point, if you have been paying attention to the syllabus, you should have read the assignments on Search Engines and Internet Marketing twice. Presuming you have done this, write down the points that you remember from Search Engines and Internet Marketing. As I mentioned in class yesterday, this information has significance to you--unless of course you are remembering only the fundamentals because you have yet to read the articles twice. 

 (All four readings are available on BlackBoard.)

Step three: Read Search Engines and Internet Marketing again. Take notes. Try to understand the significance of the points that you remember. Shape these points into a single idea that you want to show by paraphrasing the key points of the essays.

Step four: Break down the essay you will read into a beginning (first 75 words [10%]) and background (75 words [10%]only if necessary to the reader).

Now figure out the middle section, the longest and usually most difficult for any writer (500-550 words or 70%): first idea (what is the first point that needs to be true for your beginning to be valid), second point (now that the first point is true, what next is true), and so on.

Finally your conclusion (10% or 75 words in this case), which takes the reader beyond the point you are making.

Step five: Write.

Step six: Revise.

Step seven: Copy and paste the work into an email (not attachment). Make sure it appears in the format discussed. Make sure you have a subject line that makes sense to the reader.

Step eight: Send by 11:59 on Monday evening.

Done.

Lines Blurring Among the Different Types of Online Marketing

MediaRunSearch notes that companies must "learn to cope with the blurring boundaries between social, display and search marketing, an expert has predicted. Andy Betts, digital marketing strategist, has told Econsultancy that professionals specialising in website marketing are facing a number of new challenges as a result of this transition. He said the growth of social media optimization, which blends search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques with social media platforms, shows this weakening barrier between disciplines and suggested that ongoing developments continue to have this effect.

Google Search Faster

"Google has unveiled a new search engine which it describes as 'search-before-you-type.' In a blog post, the company announced details on Google Instant, which will interest search marketers. The new engine analyses what people have already typed and predicts what they are likely to write, streaming real-time results in the process. This speeds up the process and produces a smarter and faster search that is interactive, predictive and powerful. Describing the potential implications of its Instant feature, Google revealed that it could revolutionise the way people use search engines and save them time." That's the word from EquiMedia.

PepsiCo Hooks Up with Wizards of Tech

MarketWatch reports that "PepsiCo today announced the 10 start-up companies, which will make up the inaugural PepsiCo10, an innovative incubator program that matches technology, media and communications entrepreneurs with PepsiCo brands to activate pilot programs in digital media and social marketing. For more information, including a highlight reel of the PepsiCo10, visit http://pepsico.presslift.com/pepsico10partners."

Viewers Determine TV Show

You become screenwriter and director in a new web tv series from ControlTV: "A new web TV program uses crowdsourcing to make decisions about a man’s life via a real-time audience vote, and Ford and Sprint Nextel are partners.
The 20-something star of the series will drive a Ford Fiesta and use a Nextel phone in the series from comic actor Seth Green and Digital Broadcasting Group, " according to MediaPost.

Video Viewing Takes Off, Says Study

"Over the past year, the amount of time American audiences spent watching video for the major live video publishers has grown 648% to more than 1.4 billion minutes, according to comScore." That's the word from MediaPost. 

Keep this in mind when you read Nick Bilton's New York Times blog. Here's a piece of his blog:

Facebook’s half a billion users were uploading "20 million videos each month, many of which are shared through mobile phones." These same users were consuming more than 30 billion videos online each month.

As Josh Wiseman, an engineering manager at Facebook, explained when I discussed these staggering numbers with him, these videos are primarily user-generated, illustrated by the fact that they are uploaded from a mobile phone. In other words, they are the “amateur hour” Mr. Jobs said customers don’t want.

If we look beyond Facebook, research from ComScore found that 135 million Web surfers are consuming 13 billion videos on YouTube each month. Although the report didn’t break down the amateur-vs.-professional split of those videos, vast numbers of YouTube’s videos are not from professional sources.

The rating/research company Nielsen uncovered this information: "Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase)...Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging." That does not include time spent surfing websites, watching tv, or playing video games. 

Viral Video Hits the Top 100 on Billboard

"In one of the stranger twists in recent pop-music history, a musical remake of a local news clip transcended YouTube fame and reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August," according to an article in the New York Times.

Your Generation Hooked on Social Media

 

If you attempted to get to the webpage with this story from the RSS feed on the left, you probably received an error message. Here's the correct link.

Xerox Launches Customer Oriented Interactive Website (RealBusiness.com)

"As part of its Ready for Real Business global marketing campaign that debuts today, Xerox Corporation  launched RealBusiness.com, an online interactive and immersive multimedia experience where visitors see Xerox's offerings come to life through its customers," according to MarketWatch. On one webpage, the viewer can discover how Xerox offers document services for Mr. Clean, Mr. Met, and even the Target dog.

China Has Different Digital Marketing Rules

AdAge is running a story about how digital marketing differs in China.

Online Campaign Generates Revenue

Tourism departments must generate revenue. Their marketing efforts fill hotels, restaurants, and amusements, which collect taxes. "The Nevada Commission on Tourism recently concluded that its year-long [online] advertising campaign directly generated $110 million in tax revenue," according to MarketingVox.

Top 10 Viral Videos

The reporters and editors at AdAge  were wondering what were the top 10 viral marketing videos. "We [AdAge] put the question to our friends at Visible Measures, and the answer surprised us. It turned out the No. 1 viral campaign of all time is a consistent sleeper hit, not often among the weekly top 10 on Ad Age's Viral Chart, and not connected to a big, well-heeled brand or fancy creative agency. Rather, it's a cool gimmick that consistently delivers laughs along with cringe-inducing voyeuristic destruction."

Honesty and Ethics for Online Marketers

According to an article appearing in today's NYTimes, many marketers today "prefer to build their own sites or mobile applications or to promote their brands using social media...While some of this activity remains unregulated,...the loopholes that allow this double standard are slowly closing. Last week, the Advertising Standards Authority of Britain, which monitors the content of most forms of advertising in that country,...provided details of a plan to extend its oversight to social media, company Web sites and other nontraditional digital marketing activities."

Ol' Flks Txtng

"Adults aren't as avid text messagers as teens are, but a growing number are letting their fingers do the talking via cell phone. The proportion of U.S. adults who send and receive text messages has grown from 65% to 72% from September 2009 to May 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center study on mobile use," according to a story on MediaPost. The oldies have nothing on teeenagers when it comes to texting. Teenagers send and receive a median of five times more texts per day than adult texters, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That's the report MarketingCharts.

In case you have not thought about it: Can your providers tract what subscribers are texting about? Yes. Can they gather that information into a marketing demographic study--such as women, 18-20, living in zip code 068299, in September, from what type of locations at what hours. Yes. They don't record what these women are texting. They hunt for keywords that could indicate their interests, information for which marketers will pay. 

Display Advertising on the Net to Take Off

MarketingVox reports: "Online advertising will grow at a faster pace in 2011 than overall advertising, according to estimates from Borrell Associates: namely online ad spending will grow almost 14%, from $45.6 billion in 2010, to $51.9 billion in 2011. Driving this growth will be the display format, a once quiet, even moribund subspace in the online ad industry. Now, Borrell says, the format is a big driver of such fast-growing segments as the targeted local sector and social media. Display is expected to grow almost 60% in 2011, reaching $10.9 billion for national and local combined."

The Loss of Privacy--Are People Willing to Pay the Price?

One group in New York City says no, according to MarketingVox. "Consumer Watchdog, a privacy advocacy group, has developed a 15-second spot that is running on a 540-square foot digital billboard in Times Square, twice an hour, for the next 45 days. The spot promotes a longer video the group produced. Both videos are controversial - and designed to push the cause the group is currently promoting, namely Do Not Track legislation. 'We're satirizing Schmidt in the most highly trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights,' said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. 'America needs a 'Do Not Track Me' list and Google is Exhibit A in the case for it.'"

The notion of privacy versus access to information has troubled many. In fact, Facebook has modified many of its practices to ward off trouble from the Federal government.

Too many "connected" individuals forget life's most primal rule: Nothing is for free. You cannot receive free email, free social networking, free phone calls without paying. The Romans of antiquity called it, Quid pro quo--This for that.

Consumers Love Discounts--Especially on Facebook

MarketingCharts reports "the prospect of receiving discounts is the number one driver for consumers to “like” a brand on Facebook, according to a new study from ExactTarget and CoTweet." See the Gap Viral Marketing campaign posted on 29 Aug. 2010 for a company that took advantage of this point.

Online Advertising Spending Up

"Borrell Associates analysis indicates total online ad spending (including mobile) will grow almost 14%, from $45.6 billion in 2010, to $51.9 billion in 2011," according to MarketingCharts.