Investigate the Dark Knight

"A viral campaign orchestrated by Warner Bros. and DC Comics [for the recently released movie Dark Knight Rises] rewarded loyal Batman fans with a preview of a preview — if they were able to put the pieces together," reports Direct Marketing News. "In mimicry of a real investigation, visitors to the Dark Knight Rises site were given a series of clues in the form of fake police reports, wanted posters for an 'anonymous vigilante' known as 'The Batman' and other 'official' documents from the fictional Gotham City Police Department, including one mentioning that Batman-related graffiti had been spotted in cities across the globe. 'Citizens' who found and photographed the graffiti, and either uploaded the images to Twitter with the hashtag #tdkr07202012 or emailed them to tdkr07202012@gothampolicedepartment.com could help unlock the movie trailer frame-by-frame in advance of its theatrical release." Read more.

Nissan Goes Mobile To Show Off Park Assist

"To promote the park assist technology in its new Qashqai compact SUV, Nissan España tapped creative agency Plan Comunicación and media agency OMD to create multiscreen mobile ads that demonstrate the ease with which one can parallel park the Qashqai, even on narrow city streets." That's the start of a Direct Marketing News post. Read more.

Taco Bell and Doritos Team Up

"Taco Bell teamed up with Doritos to create “Doritos Locos Tacos,” a new product featuring Doritos-flavored shells," according to Direct Marketing News. "To promote the orange-encased tacos, Taco Bell called on Draftfcb Orange County, the brand's AOR, to spearhead a multichannel effort that included a midnight launch of the product at 5,600 Taco Bell drive-up windows nationwide on March 8. Consumers who scanned QR codes printed on drink cups and other packaging were prompted to download a branded augmented reality app that allows users to watch Locos Tacos-related tweets appear in real time. Some of the tweets were also broadcast live on digital billboards set up in New York's Time Square and on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles." Read more.

General Mills Takes New Avenues

"General Mills has taken to new avenues of social media to promote its Fiber One Chewy Bars," reports Direct Marketing News. "In addition to more traditional means of promotion, such as newspaper  coupons and television commercials, General Mills is using Pinterest for its latest campaign." Read more.

FTC Looks to Protect Privacy of Children Online

"The moves come at a time when major corporations, app developers and data miners appear to be collecting information about the online activities of millions of young Internet users without their parents’ awareness, children’s advocates say. Some sites and apps have also collected details like children’s photographs or locations of mobile devices; the concern is that the information could be used to identify or locate individual children," reports the New York Times. "These data-gathering practices are legal. But the development has so alarmed officials at the Federal Trade Commission that the agency is moving to overhaul rules that many experts say have not kept pace with the explosive growth of the Web and innovations like mobile apps. New rules are expected within weeks...The proposed changes could greatly increase the need for children’s sites to obtain parental permission for some practices that are now popular — like using cookies to track users’ activities around the Web over time. Marketers argue that the rule should not be changed so extensively, lest it cause companies to reduce their offerings for children." Read more.

B2B Marketers Changing the Way They Use Video

"Online video is not only changing the way B2B [busienss to business] marketers optimize content for better search results, but it's changing the way businesses engage with customers, interact with key decision makers, and better understand the impact of their marketing efforts," goes the Direct Marketing News post. Read more.

Gimmicks Can Fail

"Engagement is a good thing, of course. The preference to be not bored is pretty universal. But with time constraints and information overload, getting and maintaining people's already short attention spans is harder than ever. So, marketers and content specialists are turning to gamification as the latest Holy Grail," according to Direct Marketing News. "Too bad they don't know what they're doing." Read more.

Promotoing Honda with Other People's Videos

J Barbush of the marketing agency RPA, in Santa Monica, CA, spoke with ClickZ "after he was heads down in a Honda campaign that involved local band Monsters Calling Home getting a special musical guest spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live last Wednesday. The idea for the campaign really came out of nowhere. Someone within the agency discovered that the band recently shot a music video inside their Honda vehicles and the message eventually found its way to Barbush. 'It would have been easy for us to click, like, or repost it,' he said. 'We thought this was a really great opportunity.'

"A Honda-branded video that tells the story of the band and its road to the late night talk show has been viewed nearly 1.3 million times. The story also follows Barbush's passion for finding authentic, regular people that can become a spokespeople of sorts for the brand. 'It really is about promoting this regular person with a lot of passion… When people see it, their passion comes through,' he said." Read more.

Social Media Drives Customers to Websites

"A report from Forrester Research relayed by Marketing Land suggests that social media marketing's value for businesses lies in engaging new prospects and driving them to a website. Even though few consumers make purchases directly after reading social content, including links and making a presence more engaging has helped businesses improve their overall web presence," reports Brafton News. "The study found organic search and direct site visits are most likely to result in more conversions on the web, accounting for 20 and 16 percent of sales, respectively. Still, a social presence helps cultivate stronger positions in organic search and aids brand awareness. It's difficult for companies with even the best products to make sales if. A multi-channel web marketing strategy will help companies appeal to larger audiences." Read more.

Content Marketing Playing Big Role in Internet Marketing

"Ken Barhoover, marketing manager for Park Place Technologies, uses content marketing to make his company stand out on the web. His company publishes news articles, white papers and other forms of written content that drive search standing and help attract relevant site traffic. To stay on top of web audiences' growing demand for visual content, Barhoover recently opted to add infographics to his content marketing strategy, and the company has seen a variety of benefits." That's part of the story from Brafton News. Read more.

Organizations Not Prepared for Criticism on Social Media

"A report from Ethical Corp. suggests that companies and other organizations using social media marketing experience criticism on the channel. However, just 28 percent of organizations included in the poll are prepared to deal with it. The study illustrates that brands must be ready to engage negative feedback as it's a social reality they can't ignore," according to Brafton News. "Ethical Corp. found 20 percent of respondents are "completely unprepared" to deal with criticism on social media, and another 18 percent are also unprepared. Roughly one-third fall somewhere in the middle when it comes to fielding negative brand mentions." Read more.

More Individuals Turning to Pinterest and Tumblr

"According to Compete.com, both Pinterest and Tumblr's users bases are growing, and visitors spend more time on these sites than ever before," reports Brafton News. "The data that Pinterest.com has seen steady growth in 2012, topping off at more than 21 million unique visitors in July, while Tumblr reached nearly 23 million in the month. For companies looking to diversify their social media marketing presences, these sites offer a new visual dimension for their strategies, especially those hoping to reach younger adult audiences." Read more.

Pepsi's "Uncle Drew" Goes Viral

"It's been an exciting two weeks on social platforms for Pepsi. The beverage maker announced a yearlong music-focused partnership with Twitter earlier this week and a new candid-camera-esque video for Pepsi Max dubbed "Uncle Drew" exploded on YouTube over the past week," notes Advertising Age. "That five-minute video from Davie Brown Entertainment debuts this week on the Viral Video Chart at No. 3 with 5.4 million views. It features NBA Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving disguised as a sweatshirt-wearing, pot-belly-sporting elderly man named "Uncle Drew" who's attending an outdoors basketball game where his nephew is playing. When one of the players goes down with an injury, Uncle Drew takes the court and stuns everyone with a flurry of crossover dribbles, dunks, and three-point baskets, taunting his opponents all the while." Read more.

Unilever's Marketing Plan: Safe Drinking Water to 500 Million

"When Unilever launched its Sustainable Living Plan in late 2010, perhaps the most ambitious goal was to provide safe drinking water by 2020 to 500 million people -- more than currently live in South America. Now the consumer packaged-goods giant is tapping Facebook's 900 million global users for help," according to Advertising Age. "Unilever Global Marketing and Communications Officer Keith Weed was expected to announce the not-for-profit WaterWorks partnership with Facebook and Population Services International during a presentation at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes on Friday morning." Read more.

Internet Marketers to Spend $37 Billion + This Year

"eMarketer estimates that marketers will spend $37.31 billion on digital advertising in 2012. Digital ad spending will rise 16.6% this year, and will experience double-digit growth through 2014," says eMarketer. "Based on the Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers data for the first two quarters of 2012, and because the digital ad spending market is approaching maturity faster than expected, eMarketer has lowered the projected rate of increase for US digital ad spending slightly from its earlier forecast of 17.7% in 2012. However, eMarketer’s outlook remains optimistic—despite slower percentage gains, big dollar growth will continue." Read more.

It's a First. Google Dominates Display Advertising Market. Meanwhile Facebook Goes Mobile with Marketing

"Google will earn more US display advertising revenues [money paid by companies to place an image/video ad on a website] than any other company this year, topping the market with a 15.4% share, according to new estimates by eMarketer. The milestone means Google now holds more share than any other company in each of the US search, display and mobile advertising markets," according to eMarketer. "Google is expected to take home $2.31 billion in US display ad revenues this year, up 38.5% from $1.67 billion in 2011, eMarketer estimates. Facebook, by comparison, will earn $2.16 billion in US display ad revenues this year, up 24.4% from $1.73 billion last year. Yahoo!—the longtime leader before Facebook topped it last year—will see its share fall further." Read more.

Background: Google got its start in search ads, those ads that appear with search results on the right hand side of the screen. The company's revenue grew quickly. Then people got bored with the text ads. Meanwhile Yahoo dominated the marketplace for placing display ads, ads with pictures/video. Yahoo dominated the field until 2011 when Facebook took the lead. This year, Google will speed past Facebook and earn about eight percent of all money spent on Internet display advertising. As has been mentioned in class, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and many other sites have divisions or separate companies, called ad networks, that use their respective companies' demographic data to help would-be advertisers to place advertisers on the best possible websites, at the right time, and going to only the best potential customers.

Meanwhile, Brafton News reports that "companies...[that use] Facebook for social media marketing can now launch Sponsored Posts campaigns from smartphones....[In other words,] Marketers can select the content, control the maximum daily views they'll pay for and even access analytics information related to their campaigns. While the mobile measurement tools and capability aren't as robust as they are from desktop or laptop computers, this level of access helps social strategies keep pace with fans' social consumption and activity." Read more.

VW Starts New Campaign and Media Platform

"Volkswagen of America launched a new brand campaign and social media platform. The Why VW campaign will feature user-generated content on both a website and Facebook, along with brand content in a new voice," notes ClickZ. "The campaign began today with a new commercial called "Smiles," produced by Deutsch LA, that shows diverse people laughing out loud. The tagline: "It's not the miles. It's how you live them. Discover more at WhyVW.com." Volkswagen is airing the commercial during the presidential debates, Comedy Central's Indecision, and the season premieres of a variety of network sitcoms." Read more.

Are Viewers Turning from Search Engines to Social Media?

Marketing Pilgrim reports that "every marketer would like to see their brand land in the top spot on a search engine, but is top worth what it used to be? Experian Hitwise UK just released some interesting numbers concerning search in the land of Lords. What it shows is a slow decline in the number of people using search engines across the board. They say overall visits are down by 40 million since August of 2011. That means this past August was the first time this year that search didn’t show a year-over-year gain." Read more.

Grey Poupon Goes Retro with Social Media Campaign

"The scene is imbedded in TV commercial history. In the English countryside, one Rolls Royce pulls up next to another, in which a middle-aged patrician is dining on a roast. A jar of Grey Poupon perches prominently on his backseat dining tray. The gentleman in the first car asks the diner, in a high-toned British accent, 'Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?'  'Of course,' replies the diner, and motions to his chauffeur to drive away," reports Direct Marketing News. "Since that spot last ran in the1980s, several upscale competitors have joined Kraft Foods' aspirational mustard in the condiment aisles of American supermarkets, yet consumers still recall Grey Poupon's aristocratic heritage. Indeed, its awareness level is 97%, according to the brand's stewards. ...This week Kraft reprises the theme for a new generation with the launch of a Grey Poupon Facebook page that investigates a visitor's pedigree before allowing him or her to become a fan. " Read more.

Say It Ain't So, Jimmy Double O

"Heineken is flirting with the wrath of James Bond die-hards with a new $74m global ad campaign starring actor Daniel Craig," reports B&T. "The Dutch beer giant is heavily teasing the new 60 second TVC and “interactive experience” ahead of the global release of the new campaign on Thursday. But, a paid placement of Bond drinking from a Heineken bottle rather than his traditional “shaken not stirred” Martini has already incurred social media backlash. Facebook groups including “Boycott Heineken because they make James Bond drink their piss” and “Boo James Bond's Heineken Scene” have already sprung up." Read more.

L'Oreal Succeeds with Digital Marketing

"After spending as much on digital in 2011 as it did the prior two years combined, L'Oreal is devoting more than 10% of its marketing to digital in the U.S." So starts the Advertising Age post. "Now L'Oreal USA CMO Marc Speichert, who has made developing the company's digital-marketing capability a centerpiece of his work since joining from Colgate-Palmolive Co. in 2010, is taking some time to evaluate how that effort has paid off. The verdict: He's pretty happy." Read more.

Toyota Uses Mobile Sites for Lexus

"Toyota Corp.’s Lexus is drawing eyes to its new model through mobile banner advertisements on The New York Times mobile site," according to Luxury Marketing. "Likely in an attempt to engage with the New York Times’ affluent smartphone and tablet audience, Lexus chose a banner ad on the homepage of the news publication’s site. Lexus’ placement on the site follows on banner ads that the automaker has placed on other mobile sites." Read more.

Securities Trading Company Improve Social Standing

"As a company that focuses on assisting clients with commodity futures trading management, Daniels Trading realized social marketing has potential to demonstrate expertise and engage new audiences. Still, the brand was new to the social spaces, and felt it was in its best interest to enlist Brafton for help with establishing a stronger online presence," reports Brafton News. "At the beginning of Daniels Trading's relationship with Brafton, the focus was creating a robust website marketing industry-focused custom news content. Consistently updated, timely news articles related to the ever-changing trading market showed an increase in web traffic for Daniels Trading. As the company won more social traffic and started seeing brand mentions around shared headlines, Adam Nicholson, Daniels Trading's vice president of marketing, realized that it was time to bring his company’s expertise to social media to distribute the content more effectively." Read more.

B2B Marketers Prefer Content Marketing

"A report from Optify found that successful B2B [business to business--meaning companies marketing products/services to other companies] marketers are heavily focused on the creation of website content to improve visibility and niche authority [meaning defining the company as a leader in a small but important segment of a market] for their companies. Actively developing articles, white papers and other kinds of content to attract prospects or keep existing customers and clients engaged [blogs are simply but common examples] helps businesses consistently add to their sales pipeline and drive conversions," goes  Brafton News. "According to the study, 30 percent of marketers said content marketing creation and management occupied the most time, 17 percent pointed to various lead generation tasks and 16 percent named managing their websites as their most time-consuming activity. Each of these tasks are part of a strong inbound marketing strategy that focuses on developing a robust web presence, with content at the crux. Relevant site content pushes a brand's authority, while focusing on generating leads helps engage prospects and convert them effectively. Moreover, managing a website well helps ensure site pages are in line with SEO standards." Read more.

After GM Drops Facebook, Ford and Chrysler Stick Around

"General Motors famously pulled ad dollars from Facebook earlier this year, but the other two big Detroit automakers have stuck with the social site,:" according to  ClickZ. "Today, Chrysler is running an ad for its Town & Country minivan on Facebook's logout page, the largest paid ad unit on the site. The car company last week launched a campaign for the vehicle, one that includes a video-centric website touting the van's suitability for real family use." Read more.

Volvo Takes a Spin on Pinterest

"When most consumers think Volvo, they think safety.: That's the start of the Direct Marketing News post. "But Volvo Cars of North America also wants them to think design and aesthetics. Consequently, the automaker has revved up its social marketing, inviting Pinterest users to plan and share their ideal "joyride" by re-pinning their favorite images of the Volvo S60 T5, along with comments on where they'd like to go on a road trip, where they'd stop along the way, what they'd wear during their trip, and what music would enliven their travels." Read more.

Facebook Releases Its Marketing Exchange

"Three months to the day after it announced a beta round, Facebook has announced general release of its Facebook Exchange (FBX) real-time bidding (RTB) option," reports Marketing Vox. "FBX enables advertisers and agencies to use cookie-based targeting through Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) to reach their audiences on Facebook, with what Facebook promises are 'more timely and relevant messages.' For brands and agencies, it is a way to drive direct response goals on Facebook." Read more.

FYI: An exchange works similarly to the stock marketing (also called an exchange). Advertisers and/or advertising agencies bid for advertising space geared to individuals with specific demographics. In this case, it is based on the cookies that viewers' computers have collected, which frequently would reflect the type of products, movies, and even readings individuals view.

Social Image Goes with Images

"Images are one of the biggest trends of social media for 2012. While we often talk about the sites that are trending and the “next big thing” of social media, we seem to forget about the broader trends that have implications to our current and future strategies," according to ClickZ. "Images are the hottest thing is social media right now. Visual content is the consistent thread across the sites and tools that are growing." Read more.

How Adobe Uses Search Data

"Adobe SEO manager David Lloyd discussed how the company uses search data and content optimization to inform print collateral, advertising, social media and web design," writes ClickZ. Read more.

Yahoo Search Continues to Trail Thriving Competitors

"As part of its August search rankings analyzing American web queries, market research firm comScore found that Yahoo has seen a considerable drop in the last year. According to the report, Yahoo fielded 16.3 percent of all search queries in August to 2011, however, it's share fell to 12.8 percent of searches last month," according to Brafton. "In fact, Yahoo was the lone engine of the five measured by comScore that lost market share this year. As Brafton reported, Bing reached an all-time high in August 2012, and Microsoft has added 1.2 percentage points to its market share in the last 12 months. Google, Ask.com and AOL also made improvements in their shares of the market." Read more.

Social Media Finding New Ways of Presenting Ads

Brafton reports that "paid social content has changed substantially in 2012, with Facebook, Twitter and others finding new ways to present ads to users without disrupting their experiences on the site. Twitter rolled out Promoted Tweets, which insert ads into activity streams much like normal Tweets, differentiated only by text indicating they’re ads. As a result of this move, Twitter has seen a massive increase in ad revenue, which eMarketer said will reach $288.3 million by the end of the year, compared to the $139.5 million last year." Read more.

Letter Assignment Tips

After yesterday's class, a student requested a critique of the letter she had begun writing for the assignment due Monday at 11:59 pm. I do not critique assignments before a student submits them.  I want the student to discover his/her own thoughts and how to express them without my influence. However, I will respond to specific questions about an assignment. The student's draft of the letter surprised me. On Monday I noted that reports and letters to strangers must not use first or second person--unless you are talking about your own experiences relevant to the topic and the reader. The student started the letter with "I."

Use of First/Second Person: A student reading this post may ask, "Then why did you use I in this post." In this environment, meaning the classes in Dana 238 on Monday's and Wednesday's between 1:30 and 4:15, students have recognized an expert in writing. When a group of individuals (readers, listeners) recognize an individual as an expert, then the individual has earned the right to use first (I, we, me, my, mine, our, ours) or second (you, your, yours) person in his/her presentation. When writing about Internet marketing, no one in Dana 238--including the teacher--has earned that right because no group recognizes any individual in that classroom as an expert in Internet marketing.

Focus on the How, Not the What: English 202 concentrates on the fundamental skills of writing (and thinking) effectively so that another individual will acknowledge the writer's credibility. The class is not teaching students about Internet marketing--at least not in the same manner as a marketing professor would present the material.

A few students have expressed concern about what they should write. After more than a dozen years in most education systems, students have learned--effectively--to repeat what they have heard or read. That method of "learning" will not work in English 202. What a student writes about Internet marketing will have little impact on his/her grade. How a student writes about Internet marketing will dramatically affect the student's grade.

Grades: Finally, a few students are concentrating on getting an A. The approach will not help. The fastest way to learn any subject comes from wanting to learn, from a willingness to endure the frustration that comes with learning a new task, from a desire to improve. Taking that tack, a student will achieve the grade he/she deserves, and more importantly, will leave the class in December with the skills that will help him/her achieve her goals in business.

By concentrating on a grade, a student sets himself up for failure. Should a student earn a B+, an excellent grade, but he wants an A, then he has failed--a silly notion. Should a student focus on learning, then in all likelihood, he will earn the A, at least on the undergraduate level.

Students also should remember that they can revise their assignments. They will receive the higher of the two grades for the assignment. In other words, should a student get a D on the first submission and earns an A on the revision, then the student will receive an A for the assignment. Should a student get a B on the first version but a C+ on the revision, then the student will receive a B.

Facebook "Button" Gets People to Vote

"A Facebook message, distributed during the 2010 United States congressional elections, influenced the voting behavior of millions of recipients and their friends," says NPR radio. "New research in the journal Nature highlights the potential of online social networks for shaping real-world behavior on a massive scale. Melissa Block talks to Shankar Vedantam." Listen to the story.

The story also appeared in the New York Times: "A study of millions of Facebook users on Election Day 2010 has found that online social networks can have a measurable if limited effect on voter turnout. The study, published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, suggests that a special 'get out the vote' message, showing each user pictures of friends who said they had already voted, generated 340,000 additional votes nationwide — whether for Democrats or Republicans, the researchers could not determine." Read more.

Bing--The Next Collegiate Search Engine?

ClickZ reports: "Dorm decor, fall school fashion, and search engines? Microsoft wanted to show young women that its Bing search engine is worth checking out, so when it threw down the gauntlet last week, encouraging people to test its search engine against Google's, it worked with HerCampus.com to get the word out to influential collegiate women." Read more.

Timing Hype the Cycle of Social Media

"In 1995, Gartner introduced its renowned hype cycle to show different stages of introduction of new technologies. Gartner's hype cycle provides a research-backed antidote to what is often a searing level of hype surrounding many new technology and media products. The value for marketers is even clearer: The hype cycles serve as an objective guidebook for measuring the success (and inevitable downfall) of new-product launches," notes Advertising Age. "One market that has yet to receive the hype cycle treatment is social media. What might that hype cycle look like if it examined one of the fastest growing marketing sectors in history? It's time to examine what I call the "Social Media Hype Cycle." Doing so will help brands and marketers better understand the seesaw pattern of how social networks and platforms rise and fall in popularity and usage and how that affects companies' advertising spend and online engagement strategies." Read more.

Google Fiber Offering Gigabytes of Broadband Service

"The impending arrival of Google’s new Internet service highlighted a racial divide, spurring a push to expand Web access in poorer, mostly black neighborhoods." That's the post from the New York Times. Read more.

Different Groups Use Social Media Differently

"A report from the Association of Magazine Media found that varying demographics behave differently on the social web, which can help marketers inform their efforts more effectively. Much like other web strategies, social content's value for a business is heavily predicated on reaching the right audiences," according to Brafton. "The AMM studied the use of a series of social networks and broke down their user bases. According to the study, Facebook use is common among both American men and women across different age groups, while men are more likely to use Twitter than women. Moreover, younger adults are more active on Twitter than older generations." Read more.

LinkedIn, the Business Person's Facebook, Drawing Marketerers

"LinkedIn announced this week that it has rolled new Company Pages for businesses using the site for social media marketing. The adjustments place greater emphasis on articles and other content companies share on the website, as activities from the brand take up a majority of real estate on the new Pages. Moreover, the site borrows an idea or two from Facebook, with a cover photo for brands and a spot for the logo," notes Brafton. "In recent years, LinkedIn's user base among marketers has blossomed, and people turn to the site for more than just job postings. The additions of LinkedIn Answers and new marketing tools have made the site an ideal method for organizations to improve their position of authority within their industry by discussing trends, developments and other topics with colleagues or prospects." Read more.

Pinterest Referring More Websites than Bing and Yahoo Search

"A report from Shareaholic, analyzing traffic sources for its clients, found that Pinterest generated more website visits than both Bing and Yahoo in August. According to the data, Pinterest accounted for 1.84 percent of all visits last month, compared to 1.37 percent of traffic referred by Yahoo and 1.03 percent from Bing," reports Brafton. "Pinterest has seen a surge in traffic in recent months, consistently seeing improvements from May through August after a tough stretch to start the year. At its lowest point in 2012, Pinterest drove 0.74 percent of website visits for Shareaholic's clients. In the summer of 2011, Pinterest took off, as its user base swelled rapidly. The site's focus on visual content, helping marketers attract prospects with images provided an interesting alternative to Facebook, Twitter and other social media marketing mainstays." Read more.

Apple's Version of Pandora Affects Advertising

"The New York Times yesterday reported that Apple is negotiating with record labelsfor a Pandora-like service, and calls it a move that 'could shake up the growing field of internet radio.' The service would customize music to users' tastes - like Pandora does," reports Marketing Vox. "Just like Pandora, Apple's offering would carry advertising, but through Apple’s iAd platform. Terms of the deal are unclear (e.g., if Apple would share ad revenue with labels or pay them through a licensing fee). Also unclear, whether or not the service will be ad supported and free, or with an ad-free subscription offering (which Pandora offers for $36)." Read more: Apple Plans Pandora Rival (And Why That's Bad For Advertising)

'via Blog this'

What Is Becoming of Social Networking Strategy?

"Both Facebook and Twitter recently announced plans for enhancing their marketing capabilities in an effort to allow for more user-specific targeting.
Facebook’s plan involves allowing companies to match Facebook users’ email addresses, phone numbers, and game or app user IDs to their own customer lists," reports ClickZ. "Twitter, meanwhile, will be allowing marketers to target users based on what they are tweeting about and whom they are following. While keyword targeting was previously available, Twitter plans to increase search specificity, which will allow businesses to hone in and reach a more targeted audience. So what does this mean for strategic marketing plans?" Read more.

Imagine WWW.KNICKS.BBALL. Might Happen

"Earlier this year more than 1,900 applications were filed for generic top-level domain extensions. Think .food, .auto, .beauty and so on. Now brands are scrambling to figure out what do with all these domains when ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) begins releasing more than 1,400 new extensions in the second half of 2013 and early 2014," writes ClickZ. "One of Wolfe Domain's clients, Scripps Networks Interactive, filed for 13 gTLDs including .food, .diy and .HGTV. Like most brands that filed for gTLDs, Scripps's strategy will evolve over time and only after top-level domains reach their potential audiences. The media company plans to use the new domains to enhance brand equity and develop digital channels to better represent its core brands online." Read more.

U.S. Will Top All Countries on Mobile Internet Adveretising

"Spending on mobile Internet advertising in the US will top all other countries in the world for the first time this year, helping drive mobile ad spending worldwide above $6.43 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer’s first-ever forecast for worldwide mobile advertising spending." That's the post on eMarketers website. "Until this year, Japan was the world’s largest market for mobile advertising, with spending reaching nearly $1.37 billion in 2011, up from $1.01 billion in 2010." Read more.

Hackers Access a Million ID Numbers for Apple Devices/Apple Prevents Marketers from Tracking App Use

The New York Times blog Bits reports that "hackers released a file that they said contained a million identification numbers for Apple mobile devices, claiming that they had obtained it by hacking into the computer of an F.B.I. agent. The F.B.I. said it had no evidence that this was true....Apple’s unique device identifiers — known as U.D.I.D.’s — are 40-character strings of letters and numbers assigned to Apple devices...Apple stopped letting app developers take advantage of device identifiers last year, to make it harder for marketers to track its customers as they moved from app to app." Read more.

Coke's Facebook Site Tops 50 Million Fans

Coca-Cola recently topped 50 million fans on Facebook. The company celebrated by releasing the following statement, as noted by Marketing Pilgrim: “Throughout its history Coca-Cola has always had a role in bringing simple moments of happiness to people around the world every day,” said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial leadership officer, The Coca-Cola Company. “Today we have an engaged global community more than 50 million strong connected through Facebook. This provides an opportunity to engage our most supportive and enthusiastic fans in a quest to find ways to make the world a happier place.” Read more.

My Data = $$$

"There is a fundamental shift in attitudes towards privacy. Consumers know they are surrendering their data, and are willing to surrender privacy. But they treat it like cash: They want something in return," reports Marketing Vox. "So argues Dimitri Maex, Managing Director of OgilvyOne New York, the digital direct arm of Ogilvy & Mather, in his just-released book Sexy Little Numbers. As OgilvyOne describes Sexy Little Numbers, it 'shows how to grow your business using the data you already have.'" Read more.

Republicans Tweeting from Convention

"On Thursday when Mitt Romney is planned to give his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination here at the Party's convention, the Romney digital team will be aiming for big Twitter buzz. To facilitate that, the Romney camp will enter Twitter ad domain that is usually reserved for big Hollywood flicks or CPG brands: the Promoted Trend," goes the post on ClickZ. "Promoted Trends appear above Twitter's left-hand side list of organic trends, keywords that are getting lots of juice on Twitter at any given moment. Promoted Trends link to a list of tweets using the trend keyword - usually in hashtag form - topped by a Promoted Tweet by the same advertiser." Read more.

Twitter and Facebook Make Marketing Easier

"On August 30 Twitter announced the debut of “interest targeting” to Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, in which brands can send tailored messages to Twitter users based on their interests." That's the word from Direct Marketeing News. "That same day, a rumor dropped that Facebook would enable businesses to target Facebook users based on email, user ID, or phone number—provided that the information had already been given to the business by the Facebook user." Read more.

Lead Generation and Brand Awareness Top Goals

"A report from WebMarketing123 found that 54 percent of B2B marketers consider lead generation the No. 1 digital marketing goal. Brand awareness came in at No. 2, cited by 28 percent. Developing a stronger presence on the web and building reputation among prospects has become more important for these companies in the last year, with more businesses actively marketing on the web," as found on the website Brafton. "According to the study, twice as many respondents named building awareness as a goal in this year's poll compared to last year. Internet marketing priorities are shifting, as just 10 percent of respondents said they consider increased sales their top goal." Read more.

You will notice that, as of yesterday, I have stopped using APA and restored to the more common use of links. If you click the name of the website quoted or the phrase "Read more," you will find the full article. For your reports in the class, you don't quote the blog. You quote the source, the article from which the blog quotation comes from.

Most-Liked Advertisers on Facebook

"When General Motors announced it was no longer buying ads on Facebook back in May 2012, it didn’t pull out of Facebook entirely. It still maintains a number of pages for its various brands with hundreds of thousands of “likes” each: its GM page: 403,000 likes; Chevrolet: 1.3 million likes; GMC Trucks: 703,000 likes; Corvette: 969,000 likes; and the Chevy Volt with 188,000 likes. Meanwhile, Facebook has GM back at the negotiating table, promising to give it and all its advertisers more data on how their ads turn into revenue," according to Say Daily. "The Ford Motor Company, meanwhile, has continued advertising on Facebook despite GM’s departure. How has that affected its likability? The Ford Motor Co Facebook page has 1.6 million likes (300,000 more than Chevy’s); Ford Trucks 651,000 likes (52,000 fewer than GMC); Ford Mustang 4.2 million likes (3.3 million more than Corvette); Ford Fusion Hybrid: 175,000 likes (13,000 fewer than the Volt).So, do ad dollars translate into likes? The answer is 'sometimes.'" Read more.

XBox Live Turns to Advertising

"Microsoft Corp has announced the general release of its NUads on Xbox LIVE," according to Media Buyer Planner. "Among the first buyers are Toyota, Unilever and Samsung Mobile USA, which are developing NUads campaigns to stream on Xbox LIVE this fall. NUads advertisements transform standard 30-second TV spots into actionable experiences using the power of voice and gesture controls of Kinect for Xbox 360." Read more.