Tea Party Goes Digital

"Who says Barack Obama and the Democrats have a leg up in the online organizing department? Tea Party group FreedomWorks this afternoon unveiled its own plans for using digital tools like mobile GPS and online ads to "Fire Obama.'" That's the report from ClickZ. Read more.

BP Still Cleaning Up Image after Oil Spill in Gulf

"BP is pushing a new YouTube video series, 'My Gulf,' while purchasing display ads (pictured) on the video site to promote the effort. Eight videos roughly two-and-a-half minutes long have been rolled out since late August, portraying Gulf Coast lifestyles." That's the start of a post on ClickZ. Read more.

Zyrtec Uses YouTube to Promote Allergy Medicine

"Google's YouTube took a hands-on role crafting a custom interactive game for allergy medicine Zyrtec that is running on the brand's YouTube channel. "Park Unleashed" is a branded online scavenger hunt in which players can win Samsung Galaxy tablets and share their progress on social media," reports ClickZ. "The YouTube team worked with Zyrtec's ad agency JWT, New York, to adapt the video platform to handle a full-on game that is based on skill instead of chance. It is the first time such a scavenger hunt has appeared on YouTube." Read more.

Online Ad Revenue Rises

"Online ad revenues continue to rise, growing at near pre-recession levels, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The organization reported Internet ad revenues hit $14.9 billion for the first half of this year," says ClickZ. "That near-$15 billion represents an increase of more than 23 percent over revenues in the first six months of 2010, which reached $12.1 billion. The growth rate in the first half of 2011 doubled compared to the previous first half, too; in 2010 it was 11.3 percent." Read more.

Women Use Social Media More Than Men, Says Study

"Women are more likely to use social media to communicate with friends, family and coworkers than men, a new study from Rebtel suggests," according to a Brafton post. "Rebtel, a mobile VOIP provider, analyzed online communications habits of more 2,300 American adults. Sixty-eighty percent of women who communicate over the web to stay in touch with friends do so on social media, while only 54 percent of men turn to Facebook, Twitter or other social channels." Read more.

When reading this report, you should remember that the primary decision maker about home products and the controller of a family's discretionary spending is a woman.

Google+ Gets an Early Resurgence in Users

'Bring me your tired, your huddled masses, your social media early adopters looking to get away from Facebook. Maybe that’s the tag line Google should have used when it became the refuge for those tired of being a part of the Facebook nation," reports MarketingPilgrim. "In its invitation only period the service was able to attract around 25-30 million users. Last week with its new “you don’t have to be some tech connected person to use us” approach, Google+ saw its number shot up to about 40 million users after just one day! The chart below from Experian’s Hitwise shows the dramatic rise in market share (although admittedly this chart was made this way to look dramatic but hey its numbers and they bend to the presenter’s whims every time)." Read more.

Interesting Article for Your Short Reports

"Everyone is talking about "big data" changing the media business. However, the industry will need to align money and power to make this happen. Many large companies are still buying media by email or fax, and planning seven, eight and nine-figure media spends with Excel spreadsheets. It will take serious horsepower from multiple marketers, working together in applying pressure, to change the industry. Technology standards, including APIs for pricing, buying, and performance metrics, will need to be standardized across multiple media channels and enforced without exception. This will force marketers to walk away from many publishers and sponsorships that don't comply. It will change the business, accountability, and the sales model for the entire industry. Not an easy task but Richard doesn't take no for an answer. If you can build a spaceship – this looks easy," says AdvertisingAge. Read more.

Facebook Gets Stomped

"A recent report shows just how one 'unsexy' player, LinkedIn, stomps Facebook in its level of importance in the purchasing research process for B2B companies. Take a look from the data from TriComB2B and the University of Dayton’s School of Business Administration as reported by eMarketer." That's the word from MarketingPilgrim. Read more.

One More for the Virgin

"Virgin America, long known for its social media prowess, somehow manages to raise the bar with its latest campaign. For the next three months, the airline will give away a prize to every person who uses geo-social app Loopt to check in at its T2 terminal at the San Francisco International airport," reports ClickZ. "Loopt didn't disclose how many daily check-ins have been averaged at T2, Virgin's social-media-minded terminal that opened last spring after a major renovation. But it said that the terminal averages 9,500 outbound travelers per day." Read more. You can also find out more at DMN.

Online US Advertising Growing

"Online ad spending in the US will grow by over 20% this year, passing the $30 billion mark. By 2013, it will exceed $40 billion. See how these spending trends affect marketers and their budget planning for the next several years." That's the word from eMarketer. Read more.

Forget New Wave of Social Media for B2B Marketing

"Google and Facebook have announced a series of changes over the last week ranging from making Google+ open to everyone to an entirely new look and set of communication tools for Facebook," according to a MarketingVox post. "One underlying theme to these changes is a greater emphasis on social retail - and its integration with online ad targeting. However these innovations are likely to remain in the B2C world. Previous experiments with similar B2B [business-to-business] social-generated advertising - namely at Linked In - proved to be a wash, even worse, it provoked a member backlash." Read more.

Class Moved to Dana 22

For the remainder of the semester, our class will meet in Dana 22, which is in the basement of the building. The stairway is most easily accessed from the Dana entrance adjacent to the parking lot.

General Mills Revives 1970s "Heroes" for Marketing Campaign

"We may not see the Pillsbury Doughboy doing wake-and-bakes any time soon, but General Mills - the food giant behind wholesome brands like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and Cheerios - is letting its Fiber One brand hang out with Cheech and Chong," according to ClickZ. "This week Fiber One has been pushing a new flick from the lovable burnouts on Facebook and Twitter, but around two minutes into the trailer viewers learn that the "Magic Brownie Adventure Movie" is actually an elaborate ad for Fiber One brownies." Read more.

Facebook Makes Changes. But Is the Internet Invading People's Lives?

"Facebook, the Web’s biggest social network, is where you go to see what your friends are up to. Now it wants to be a force that shapes what you watch, hear, read and buy," according to a NYTimes post. "The company announced new features here on Thursday that could unleash a torrent of updates about what you and your Facebook friends are doing online: Frank is watching 'The Hangover,' Jane is listening to Jay-Z, Mark is running a race wearing Nike sneakers, and so forth. That in turn, Facebook and its dozens of partner companies hope, will influence what Frank and Jane and Mark’s friends consume.Facebook, in short, aims not to be a Web site you spend a lot of time on, but something that defines your online — and increasingly offline — life." Read more.

The changes on Facebook though are creating new enemies. They simply do not want Facebook, or Google for that matter, to define their lives. Why? When others start defining an individual's life, he/she feels as if he is losing his control of his life. People want to define themselves, therefore. When that ability seems threatened, they become angry--as noted in a Gary Stein post on ClickZ.

My friend Tracy came this close to giving up on Facebook. A social person by nature, she had gathered a good number of friends on the service. She also connected with the people she worked with and others whom were just passing acquaintances. She hooked back up with people she knew in college and high school and even someone from third grade. Along the way, she also became a fan of (and later "liked") a series of brands that she had some connection to or affinity for. Facebook became just what the founders wanted it to be: the central hub of her social life.

But, then, slowly, it moved from a nice, orderly hub to a chaotic mess. Not a mess in the way that MySpace became a mess, with blinking backgrounds and odd color combinations. No, it became an information mess. People Tracy hadn't spoken to in years were now informing her of what they were having for lunch. Long lost and little cared about connections were giving updates on workouts they just finished, movies they were watching, and virtual fish that needed virtual feeding. Facebook was beginning to bend under the weight of its core value proposition and she was ready to just turn it off. Facebook would have been one of those things that she did for a while, a couple years back. Read more.

 "Honestly, it’s a bit annoying. Facebook users are starting to sound very much like Google haters," writes Frank Reed for MarketingPilgrim. "They recognize the importance of the platform and services as they relate to what they do in their lives but seem to want to see the mighty fall in process. I often wonder what would happen if so many Facebook haters got their wish and the service just got up and went away. That would be an interesting day because I suspect not too many of them would be genuinely happy." Read more.

Reed is describing the increasing common love/hate relationship individuals have with the major Internet service providers: People like the services but they do not like what these companies are doing with the information that they collect as people use the services. What does these mean for marketers--after all the only point of this class? Will this dislike grow or do the recent complaints amount to a tempest in a teapot? Should the hatred for these companies grow, will individuals use them? If they do not, what becomes of the marketers' social media marketing campaigns? More important, does a marketer want to have his/her product "associated" with a company whom others dislike?

Facebook an Entertainment Hub? Maybe

"This week, according to numerous media and technology executives, Facebook will unveil a media platform that will allow people to easily share their favorite music, television shows and movies, effectively making the basic profile page a primary entertainment hub," according to a NYTimes post. Read more.

Orabrush Goes Viral to Get Walmart's Attention

"Orabrush can thank a $28 Facebook ad buy for helping get its $5 tongue brushers into 3,500 Walmart stores. The retail partnership, announced today by Salt Lake City-based Orabrush, seemed in peril just a few months ago as the brand's marketers felt the big box retailer was icing them," says ClickZ. "'We were talking with Walmart, but then they kind of blacked out on us,' Jeffrey Harmon, Orabrush's CMO, told ClickZ News. 'They stopped returning our emails. For weeks and weeks, they weren't responding. And we didn't want the thing to go cold.'  That's when Harmon bought ads on Facebook's self-service platform targeting college graduates in Bentonville, AR, where Walmart is headquartered. The ad copy stated that Walmart employees had bad breath. Within 48 hours, a Walmart VP and one of its chief wholesale products buyers saw the ad and reached out to Orabrush." Read more.

Google Adds +1 Button to Display Ads

"Beginning in October, the search and ads giant will affix +1 buttons to ads in its behemoth Google Display Network," reports ClickZ. "Mobile and desktop ad units across the network will carry the +1 badge, which is the Google equivalent of Facebook's 'Like' button. Importantly, small footnotes at the bottom of each ad will show how many others have '+1'd' it. In cases where an individual's Google+ friend has +1'd an ad, the ad will reflect that and possibly show the friend's Google profile image." Read more. In theory, this will 'send' every ad for which someone has clicked the +1 button into the social networking world--bypassing giant Facebook.

Mobile Coupons Growing Role

"Mobile coupons represent a small portion of digital promotions, but usage is growing at a fast pace. The popularity of mobile coupons extends the trend of searching for online coupons, which emerged as a widespread, money-saving activity during the recession," says an eMarketer report. "But even as the sputtering economy attempts its recovery, the popularity of couponing has continued, spurred in part by the burgeoning daily deals space. In fact, mobile coupons will play a central role in broadening the appeal and acceptance of digital coupons among shoppers. Led by smartphone owners, the number of US mobile coupon users will increase by 80% between 2011 and 2013, eMarketer predicts, climbing from 19.8 million to 35.6 million." Read more.

Search Engine Standings in August

"Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in August with 64.8 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 16.3 percent (up 0.2 percentage points) and Microsoft Sites with 14.7 percent (up 0.3 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches (up 0.1 percentage points), followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.3 percent," according to comScore. Read more. Remember Microsoft's Bing does the searches for Yahoo!.

Impact of Google's Purchase of Zagat, the Restaurant Review Site

"Before anyone else, Zagat saw an opportunity in compiling and publishing reviews for restaurants. They were really a pioneer in user-generated content," writes Seth Nickerson of DMNews. "Recently, however, Zagat was left behind as other digital start-ups like Yelp and Urbanspoon were able to provide and promote reviews to consumers very effectively. A few months ago, I asked whether Google was planning on taking on Yelp when Google removed all third-party reviews from its Places page. Google's acquisition of Zagat provided the answer. The acquisition will affect search marketing in a number of ways, such as fueling Google with more content to distribute to people performing local and mobile searches. Here are potential impacts of the deal:" Read more.

The Future of Ad Networks

"There's no end to predictions of the demise of ad networks. The basic story is the same: Ad networks used to differentiate themselves based on inventory, data and relationships -- but now everyone has the same access to inventory and data through exchanges, and relationships come and go. While there's some truth to this narrative, the part no one talks about is the blooming of whole new categories of ad networks based on differentiated inventory, proprietary data, and industry-specific relationships. Let me explain," starts an AdAge post. "Over the past month I've had conversations with three entrepreneurs leading successful startups outside of advertising, all of whom were contemplating an entry into the display ad space. The businesses were different, but the rationale was the same: 'We've got great relationships with media companies in our space, we've got better data on customers in our market than anyone else, and we already service the advertisers looking to reach these customers.' Voila! An ad network is born!" Read more.

Capital One Marketing on Online Games

"Capital One will begin appearing tomorrow in Zynga games CityVille, FarmVille, and The Pioneer Trail. According to a prepared statement from the companies, it's the first time a brand has advertised in all three Facebook-based games at once," according to ClickZ. "CityVille players can add a Capitol One bank location to their cities, while Farmville and Pioneer Trail players can interact with a depiction of the goat from the brand's TV spots. In each case, the in-game promotions reward players with points while directing them to Capitol One's Facebook page, where it has nearly 1.6 million likes. The initiative runs for one week." Read more.

Google Wallet Almost Here

"M.G. Siegler reports that Google might be launching its somewhat delayed Google Wallet service sometime today. From the looks of it, it might actually be out in the wild. Our own Ian Kennedy snapped this photo at a Peet’s Coffee shop near our offices in downtown San Francisco.  Google has updated the Google Wallet website as well. More details to follow," says a post on BraftonNews. That's all that is available at this time. What does it mean? Google Wallet would enable individuals to make purchases using their cell phones. In turn, Google will collect even more information about individual's habits, creating richer profiles.

Democratic National Committee Promotes Prez's Jobs Plan Online

"The Democratic National Committee is pushing Barack Obama's jobs plan with eye-catching online video ads, as the Obama campaign targets marriage equality voters on Facebook," says ClickZ. "Both efforts display the reelection campaign's use of issue-themed ads online to build their supporter lists." Read more.

Airlines Using Social Media Campaigns

"Technology news source Mashable recently conducted a study of social media campaigns of major American and international airlines. The results demonstrated that these companies view Facebook, Twitter and other platforms as an easy way to interact with customers and launch social media marketing programs," according to a BraftonNews post. Read more.

Universal Music Wins Internet Marketing Award

"ExactTarget awarded Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, the Cross-Channel Marketing Campaign of the Year today for its integrated email and social media efforts for recording artist Lil' Wayne," says a post on the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. "The top honor in ExactTarget's annual Subscribers Rule Awards, Universal Music Group's award-winning campaign was selected from entries around the globe for its integrated Facebook and email campaign that added more than 6,000 Facebook fans and more than 400 email subscribers in less than three weeks." Read more.

Brands Must Meet the Real-Time Demands of Customers

"The future of marketing will come from brands' evolving to meet the real-time demands of hyper-connected consumers, according to executives from the world's largest technology companies," reports a post on the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. "Discussed before a sold-out crowd of more than 3,000 marketers attending ExactTarget's Connections conference, executives from Yahoo, Facebook, Adobe, Twitter, Klout and Foursquare underscored the ongoing transformation of marketing and the new real-time imperative for business....'Social media has completely changed what marketers do and how they do it,' said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager, Omniture Business Unit, Adobe, during his remarks to conference attendees.'Interactive marketing is delivering on the dream that Madison Avenue has had for years - delivering messages with speed, context and relevance in real time to drive results.'" Read more.

Carhartt Starts Marketing Campaign on Facebook

"Clothing brand Carhartt will launch a Facebook sweepstakes on Oct. 17 as part of its “Everyday Icon” campaign. Carhartt is working with its advertising AOR Team Detroit on the effort," according to DigitalMarketingNews. "To enter the sweepstakes, consumers must “like” Carhartt's Facebook page, disclose their names and email addresses, and submit stories and photos of people they know who use Carhartt products in their jobs." Read more.

Marketers Screw Up Social Media Marketing Campaigns

An AdAge blog notes that "there is a strong and compelling business case for Facebook and plenty of evidence that the site can be used to drive traffic and sales. But CMOs and other execs are falling prey to a handful of blunders that have prevented them from capitalizing on the site's potential. Let's take a look at the biggest four." Read more.

Another AdAge blog reported this problem: "A service called EdgeRank Checker revealed data this week that showed how using a third-party application -- like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck -- to update your Facebook Page decreases your engagement per fan (on average) by about 70%." Read more.

Google+ Trips after Strong Start

BraftonNews reports "despite a strong start, Google+ has struggled to maintain it strength, as 89n found that posts on the social media service have fallen 41 percent in the last two months. Google’s social media website launched on June 28, 2011, as an invite-only network, while the company worked to optimize the service. As the company works to perfect the platform, 89n’s data suggests users may be losing interest, which could impact Google+’s otherwise strong marketing potential." Read more.

Mobile Devices Changing the Nature of Search

"Technology news source Mashable recently interviewed SRI Ventures vice president Norman Winarsky and reported tablets and smartphones are greatly changing the way people use search engines," according to a post on BraftonNews. "Rather than simply typing a word or phrase into a search bar, Winarsky believes people will soon be able to search based on photos and sounds more effectively than they can currently as a result of a rapidly evolving industry.There are smartphone applications in use that enable people to search based on pictures and sounds, but they’re not performing as highly as text-based search." Read more.

Bing Lacks Behind Google but Catching Up with Facebook Via Twitter

"Yahoo, which hasn’t had a strong presence in the online marketing dialogue of late, found itself at the center of attention when it was announced that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had been fired. Bartz oversaw the agreement that enabled Microsoft’s Bing to fuel searches on Yahoo sites – and many say this led to her dismissal. Indeed, the latest Hitwise report reveals that Bing now fuels 28.99 percent of the search market – less than half of Google’s share, but still demonstrating annual gains – and the inclusion of queries on Yahoo.com sites have fueled much of Bing’s growth," according to BraftonNews. "Some speculate that Yahoo’s next CEO will not look on the Bing deal so favorably. Though the Microsoft/Yahoo agreement is reported to extend for 10 years, it remains to be seen whether Bartz’s dismissal will lead to renegotiation of the deal. Potential Yahoo drama aside, this was a good week for Bing in terms of industry partnerships. As Brafton reported, the company (very) publicly renewed its deal with Twitter. As the companies forge onward in their partnership, marketers should be on the lookout for Twitter data in Bing search results (perhaps similar to the company’s inclusion of Facebook data for logged in searchers) that will make their Twitter marketing campaigns more valuable in a search sense." Read more.

Americans Spend 22.5 of Their Time Online Using Social Media

"According to Nielsen’s 'State of the Media: The Social Media Report,' social media accounts for 22.5 percent of the time that Americans spend online, compared with 9.8 percent for online games and 7.6 percent for email. That makes social media the No. 1 specific category and the No. 2 category overall, behind the other ways in which Americans pass their time online—which includes (unsurprisingly) browsing adult content, online shopping, and reading about topics like sports or health," according to a post on AdWeek. "The report found that Facebook is the top social media brand that Americans choose to spend (or waste) their time with. During May, when Nielsen compiled its report, Americans spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook’s site from computers at home and work—up 6 percent from a mere 50.6 billion minutes in May 2010. After Facebook was Google’s Blogger, at 723.8 million minutes; Tumblr, at 623.5 million minutes; Twitter, at 565.2 million minutes; and finally, LinkedIn, at 325.7 million minutes." Read more.

Twitter Ads Beat Facebook Ads

"Facebook ads. Facebook brand pages. Facebook e-commerce. The forces are working hard to make the Face the place for marketers, but according to a new study by Kantar Media Compete, Twitter has them beat," according to MarketingPilgrim post. "The numbers come from the quarterly 'Online Shopper Intelligence Study' which looks at cross-channel shopping behavior. The survey was given to 2,574 online purchasers who shopped between July 14 and August 8, 2011 and here’s what they found out." Read more.

Companies Rely More of Social Networks for Marketing

"Student lender Sallie Mae needed to attract college students' attention over the summer and maintain their interest into the fall semester. It launched a sweepstakes this summer where students are throughout the entire year: Facebook," says DirectMarketingNews. "Not only did the company take advantage of Facebook's platform by requiring consumers to 'like' Sallie Mae's page before entering the 'Smart Summer Sweepstakes,' but it even incentivized consumers to share their participation with others." Read more.

Bing Gains More Marketing Share on Google

"Bing has gained more than 4% market share in the U.S. since it launched about a year ago, according to new figures from Experian Hitwise — growth that came at Google’s expense. According to Hitwise, Bing-powered search accounted for 28.99% of all searches in August, up from 28.05% the previous month," reports MarketingVox. "Hitwise also noted in its report that longer search queries — five to eight words or more — increased by 3% month over month, a stat that prompted WebProNews to wonder if the increase in longer search queries is a testament to people getting better at searching or the search engines not delivering as well on the shorter ones." Read more.

Social Media Plays Growing Role in Business

"Speakers at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce '11 in San Francisco last week shared stats that continue to reinforce the idea that people are far ahead of companies in their adoption of the social web in their personal and business lives," reports ClickZ. "In their business lives, 84 percent of B2B [business to business] buyers begin their research for information on the social web, roughly the same as B2C buyers. They are looking for product and service specs and information, performance stats, pricing, and delivery/implementation info in an easy research and purchase experience, same as B2C. And they are actively seeking out objective information (e.g., testimonials/references) from others like them who use the product or service; user-generated content (UGC), same as B2C. There are both similarities and differences between B2B and B2C. B2B marketers can benefit from the B2C learnings on the social web, and cut the time in half to realize tangible, measurable benefit." Read more.

Toyota Goes with Yahoo's Fantasy Football

"While Yahoo's recent struggles have been well-documented, it's sports content efforts remain a bright spot for the company and its brand advertisers. Sunnyvale, CA-based Yahoo says it has seen a 15 percent lift in new fantasy football participants for the 2011 NFL season compared to last year. Dedicated fantasy sponsors Toyota, Pizza Hut, and Miller Lite are the beneficiaries," notes a ClickZ post. "A Yahoo spokesperson told ClickZ News that the company "saw 26 days of six-figure sign-ups heading into the [NFL] season," which kicked off last night. ComScore's July numbers also indicate Yahoo Sports is performing strongly, reporting that the brand beat rival ESPN.com for unique visitors, 48 million to 36 million." Read more.

Great Explanation of a Popular Form of Advertising--Pay Per Click

"Following the popularization of paid search by a company called GoTo in 1998, many dabblers in PPC liked the idea of coming in at the "minimum" bid just to see if they could show up on the "list" of advertisers. At the time, this was one cent. It's also worth recalling: every advertiser's bid was posted next to its listing. The practice of paying for top billing near (at the time, "in") search results wasn't yet widely accepted, so there was a look of respectability (albeit cheapness) to the lower-bidding advertisers. And maybe just a hint of desperation plainly evident in the two or three advertisers engaged in grotesque bidding wars for placement on popular terms," explains a ClickZ post. "This ambivalent attitude toward placement lasted about as long as it took the broader business community to figure out that low bids meant next-to-no-clicks, and no new business. As businesses became addicted to PPC by way of the cheap clicks, they learned that higher bids led to rapid business growth in many cases. You'd think that would have led to more rational thinking about bids. Eventually, it did." Read more.

The Greater the Content, the Less Its Value

"Ousted Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Carol Bartz faced a plight all too familiar to many of her peers: Making money off digital content isn't easy and it's getting harder. As Web traffic explodes, Internet companies are struggling to profit off ads shown next to the articles, videos and other content offered to viewers," according to a WSJ.com post. "It's a simple rule of any market. The more information that is created, the more the value is reduced. And despite attempts to woo spending with bigger, bolder and more targeted ads, services that help consumers navigate that content, namely search, remain the big money makers online." Read more.

Yahoo's Problems Reflect a Changing Web World

"That became painfully clear Tuesday when Yahoo’s board abruptly fired its chief executive, Carol A. Bartz." That's part of a post from the New York Times. "She focused on bolstering Yahoo’s online media and original reporting, but neglected to develop the new social networking tools, video services or mobile apps that people now prefer to use. In that way, the tale of Yahoo’s misfortunes is not just one of management woes, but a vivid illustration of the transition from Web sites that publish professional content to a new digital world dominated by mobile phones and sites where the users are the content creators." Read more.

The post adds the following about trends in Internet advertising: "Advertisers are chasing what they say is more profitable prey — users of smartphones, video sites and social networks, and the companies that cater to them. Yahoo has always led in one of the most important corners of the advertising marketing: display ads, those that show images and video. But Facebook and Google are closing in on Yahoo, in large part because they can offer advertisers more personal information about users."

Marketing Idea Blows Up

Chef George Duran supposedly invited a score or more bloggers to his restaurant for a special dinner, but a surprised awaited the bloggers, according to the New York Times:

The surprise: rather than being prepared by the chef, the lasagna they were served was Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna by Marie Callender’s, a frozen line from ConAgra Foods. ...“Our intention was to really have a special evening in a special location with Chef George Duran,” said Stephanie Moritz, senior director of public relations and social media at ConAgra. “The twist at the end was not dissimilar with what brands like Pizza Hut and Domino’s have done in the recent past with success,” she said, referring to hidden-camera advertising campaigns. ConAgra expected to use the footage for promotional videos on YouTube and its Web site, and for bloggers to generate buzz when they wrote about being pleasantly surprised.But it was the marketers, not the diners, who were in for the biggest surprise. Read more.

Bill to Protect Personal Info on Web

"Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, introduced a new bill Thursday that aims to protect citizens’ personal information from online data breaches," reports the New York Times. "The bill would also punish companies that are careless with customers’ information." Read more.

Advertising on Mobile Apps Could Become Easier

"The IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence aims to bring some logic to the wild and wooly world of advertising within mobile applications." So goes ClickZ. "On Wednesday, it released Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions (MRAID) for public comment. This proposed standard would let agencies run the same creative [advertising] across applications from different publishers -- as long as the publisher complies with the specification." Read more. The IAB (International Advertising Bureau) represents the interests of advertisers and advertising agencies.

Walgreens Donates Flu Shots after a Visit to Its Foursquare or Facebook

"For nearly a month, every time someone checks in at a Walgreens on Foursquare or Facebook Places the retailer will donate a flu shot to an uninsured, underinsured, or financially in-need person," according to a post on ClickZ. "The initiative will run nationwide and in Puerto Rico from Sunday through Oct. 8, Adam Kmiec, the brand's social media director, told ClickZ News." Read more.

Google Uses Geo-Targeted Ads

"Emerald City dwellers had their first taste of Google Offers on Wednesday, and visitors to the Google.com home page saw ... geo-targeted ad copy underneath the search box. Google Offers is now also live in Austin, TX; Boston; Washington, DC; and Denver. And according to a Google spokesperson, viewers in those cities also saw a municipality-specific pitch to sign up for the Offers email list." That's from a ClickZ post. "Leveraging Google's home page - which according to comScore received 127 million unique U.S. visitors in July - seems to be the search giant's most telling signal so far that it's serious about taking on daily deals leaders Groupon and LivingSocial. On Aug. 31, New Yorkers were greeted by even more specific Offers copy on their Google.com home page..." Read more.

Ford Use Virtual Ads to Get In-Person Sales

"Virtual ads can lead to in-person sales. Or at least, that’s what Tremor Video and PointRoll are hoping happens with its new partnership, announced today," says Ad Week. "The video ad company and the marketing services company have joined creative and technological forces to deliver locally targeted ads for Ford vehicles." Read more.

Ad Spending on Net Increasing Worldwide

"eMarketer predicts advertisers around the world will spend nearly $500 billion in 2011—a growth rate of 4.5%. Online ad expenditures of $80.2 billion are growing at a rate of 17.2% and fueling total media ad spending growth," says an eMarketer post. Read more.

Social Media Increasingly Drawing Marketers--With Limitations?

"Facebook media shops are springing up like zits on the face of a Facebook-addled teen," reports ClickZ. "With more than 750 million users around the world, Facebook offers marketers an immense and granular audience. According to recent comScore data, Facebook accounted for 346 billion ad impressions in Q1 2011, putting it at the top of all online display ad publishers with 31.2 percent share of all impressions served in the U.S. But does Facebook even belong in the category of 'display ad publishers'? Many observe that Facebook has built a 'closed' web - its treasure trove of user demographic and psychographic information in a walled-off garden - where advertisers can sow seeds but grow their business largely in Facebook's garden." Read more.

Location-Based Apps Growing Popular

"A Pew Internet Project report released today represents at least a modest victory for Foursquare and similar services, finding that 12 percent of smartphone users are checking in via location-based apps," according to a post on ClickZ. "The research firm polled 688 smartphone users in May to arrive at the statistic, which, according to Pew, was up from the 7 percent of online users who said during the same month last year that they used location-based services. In its report, Pew notes that it used the term "geo-social" for the first time in its questioning. And according to the study, check-in services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt are most popular with adults below the age of 50, minorities, and people making less than $75,000." Read more.

Twitterers Don't Mind Promo Tweets

ClickZ reports that "only 11 percent of Twitter users get annoyed by Promoted Tweets, according to a new study by market research firm Lab42. And 25 percent of the study participants said they had seen Promoted Tweets from brands that were relevant to them. Chicago-based Lab42 surveyed 500 Twitter users in August to arrive at the data. Twenty-two percent of them said they have discovered a discount offer via a Promoted Tweet, while 14 percent said they had retweeted a Promoted Tweet. Four percent didn't know what a Promoted Tweet was." Read more.

Search Results Improving

"To borrow a few wise words from Leo Burnett, "regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable." Since Google's 2011 Panda update, black hatters [companies using dishonest methods to generate search engine results] are suffering the repercussions of years of questionable practices, and ethical marketers are seeing their sites moving into the places they deserve." Read more.

Consumers Want More Personalized Messages

With Internet advertising, marketing companies can target messages to specific customers. Customers like it, and want more of it. "Brands of all stripes are working toward delivering personalized messages to their target audiences. Despite their best efforts, however, consumers say certain industries are not meeting their needs. Service providers, such as cable and utility companies, and regulated companies, such as insurance and finance brands, appear to be behind the curve in terms of delivering personalized digital experiences." Read more.

Companies with Excellent Internet Marketing Campaigns Honored

"An impressive list of marketers and agencies have been honored today, receiving nominations for their groundbreaking work in online advertising, as finalists for the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) seventh annual international MIXX Awards. With new platforms gaining momentum in the interactive advertising space, this year the IAB international MIXX Awards includes two new single execution categories, Tablet Marketing and Location-Based Advertising." Read more. You could use this link as a source of companies about which you could write your long report.

Users of Social Media and Marketers

eMarketer reports that "as Twitter evolves its advertising platform, with the latest development being Promoted Tweets to followers, there is concern as to how consumers will react to seeing ads from brands in their Twitter feeds. Market research firm Lab42 surveyed US Twitter users in August 2011, asking about their habits related to brand engagement. Only 11.1% of US Twitter users said that following brands was the leading reason why they use the site. The top reasons include following friends (17.4%), to get a good laugh (15.6%), to get the news (15.1%) and to share the news (13.9%)." Read more. See previous post.

What's Google Got that Facebook Don't--a Marketing Purpose

A website may capture the imagination, but that does not make it a great marketing opportunity.

"Let's begin with Tumblr, a niche social-media site with a rabidly loyal and rapidly growing user base, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, is seeking a whopping $800 million dollar valuation, despite having absolutely no revenue model or brand offering. The most successful use of the platform by marketers thus far has been via 'reblog contests,' yet another gimmicky abuse of social media by brands essentially bribing users to promote their content," writes David Teicher of AdAgeDigital. "Which brings us to Facebook. What's so upsetting to the social-media marketer in me, is that despite the sheer number of consumers and businesses on the platform, many of whom want to engage with each other, the resulting engagement predominantly comes in one of two, equally ineffective forms." Read more.

How RadioShack and Unilever Use Twitter-Based Advertising

"In this month’s Top Picks, for example, we showcase a report, “Twitter Advertising: Four Marketers Test the New Ad Platform,” in which case studies from the likes of RadioShack and Unilever illustrate how Twitter-based advertising techniques and best practices are developing." according to a post from eMarketer. Read more.