The World of Google has become the 900-pound gorilla for supplying the best technical information. When we survey our engineering audience, they start by googling for some product information. While we would like them to first go to our own Web sites, the reality of the situation is that Google is their default home page.
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CommentThursday, October 28
Free WSJ.com
From News.com:
The Wall Street Journal Online, a bastion of subscription-only news on the Web, has begun giving away some content.
In recent months, the business news outfit has been sending nightly e-mail to bloggers, or online diarists, to offer up several daily stories free so that they can point to or link to them from their Web pages. And on Nov. 8, the company plans to remove its paid wall altogether for five days, for the first time in 7 years, according to the company. . . .
Media analysts say WSJ.com may want to test out being an ad-supported site.
Wednesday, October 27
Madison Avenue Ponders the Potential of Web Logs
From The New York Times (via Tom Sullivan on TechWatch):
The biggest fear is an uncontrolled message slipping out, said Steve Rubel, vice president for client services at CooperKatz & Company in New York, a public relations agency with clients including the Association of National Advertisers, J. P. Morgan Chase and Wendy's. "Do they allow comments or do they not? Is there an implication if it is a publicly traded firm? Who is the one who should blog for us? How might that choice be received in the company?"
"Ultimately this will all work out," said Mr. Rubel, who writes a blog called Micro Persuasion (www.SteveRubel.typepad.com), focusing on the effects of blogs and other embodiments of "participatory journalism" on public relations. He also consults with the Association of National Advertisers on matters including its two blogs (www.ana.net/blog).
The Internet Bullshit Generator
Here are a few samples from this classic jargon site:
- engage efficient e-markets
- facilitate cross-media infomediaries
- brand turn-key models
- engage efficient e-markets
- facilitate cross-media infomediaries
- brand turn-key models
Wednesday, October 20
Traditional ad agencies moving into search marketing
From ClickZ:
While a recent JupiterResearch study found the majority of search marketing, approximately two-thirds, is done in-house, the researchers also found demand for agency involvement is increasing. It's this involvement the search media players want to encourage.
"So many of these mainstream online agencies -- typical online agencies -- just haven't really gotten into search yet," said Nate Elliott, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "The little SEM shops have had a free hand, and some of them have gotten pretty big off of that."
More recently, search engines say they have begun seeing more interest from interactive and traditional agencies.
Thursday, September 23
Online ad revenue up over 42% from 2003
From IAB:
Internet advertising revenues (U.S.) for the first six months of 2004 were approximately $4.6 billion - a 39.7% increase over the first half of 2003. Internet advertising revenue totaled approximately $2.37 billion for the second quarter of 2004, representing a 42.7% increase over same period 2003. Q2 2004 revenues represent a 6% increase over Q1 2004. This report replaces the previously announced Q1 2004 estimate of $2.27 billion with the actual of $2.23 billion.
2004 Q2 2003 Q2
Search $947M (40%) $481M (29%)
Display Ads $474M (20%) $382M (23%)
Classifieds $403M (17%) $282M (17%)
Sponsorships $213M (9%) $199M (12%)
Rich Media* $189M (8%) $149M (9%)
$47M (2%) $66M (4%)
Referrals $47M (2%) $17M (1%)
Slotting Fees $47M (2%) $83M (5%)
Clever use of RSS by Japantoday.com
This site has a red "JS" chicklet next to their "RSS" chicklet. When
you click on this button, a window opens and displays a list of options
for customizing a feed. You can select the topic, the display design,
and the number of stories to include. When you've finished customizing
your feed, the page then provides the HTML code you need to display
that feed on your site. The user can then copy and paste that HTML code
on their blog or whatever, and the user will now have headlines
appearing on his or her site dynamically from Japantoday.com.
Friday, September 17
Top 10 B2B Lead Gen mistakes
PDF Download from MarketingSherpa that outlines 10 most common mistakes in B-to-B lead generation programs.
Tuesday, September 14
Website users prefer targeted ads
Poneman Institute survey on attitudes to advertising. Download file:
We see a high level of consumer
frustration over ad clutter: many respondents perceive banner ads as
annoying, intrusive, and irrelevant.
- Most Respondents felt strongly that
banner ads are intrusive and interfere with browsing. Almost as many
respondents indicate that banner ads were generally not tailored to
their interests or tastes.
- Despite frustration with Internet ads, respondents are not willing to spend money in order to reduce ad clutter.
- Despite frustration over ad clutter, banner ads appear to be effective at getting people to browse and buy.
- Respondents prefer targeted banner ads over non-targeted ads
as they found them to be less annoying, more relevant and more likely
to induce an interaction than non-targeted banner ads.
- Respondents are more comfortable getting targeted ads that don’t rely upon PII.
Monday, August 30
IDG's CMO launches
From MediaDailyNews:
The first issue will focus on the many challenges this often beleaguered group faces. A story titled "What's Wrong With Marketing: a Manifesto," authored by Mohanbir Sawhney, the director of the center for research in technology and innovation at the Kellogg School of Management, is featured in the first issue.
Other articles cover such topics as: "Pain-Free CRM," and "How to Make it Through Your First 100 Days" (CMOs' average tenure is in the neighborhood of two years).
Video/webcasts making inroads with B-to-B advertisers
From BtoBOnline:
The advantages of using online video to reach business customers include the creation of a more involving experience, the ability to repurpose existing video assets, the opportunity to take advantage of broadband connections in the workplace and the potential to do extensive tracking of a viewer's interactions.
...A research study conducted after the campaign showed that the AT&T ads increased purchase intent by 55% and association of the company with its core message by 41%, both results being significantly better than those for campaigns not using online video. In addition, a relatively low 24% of users said they found the ad annoying.
Thursday, August 26
"Behavioral targeting will reach $934 million and will account for 8.3% of all online advertising spending"
From eMarketer:
Behavioral targeting has been around, in various forms, since the late 1990s. Previous attempts failed due to problems with privacy and technology, but this generation of software
appears more robust, and marketers seem more accepting. Today’s behavioral targeting can be done on individual Web sites, on networks and via adware applications.
While behavioral targeting will certainly be a part of a smart marketer’s online arsenal, issues of privacy, data sharing and implementation will keep it from becoming a dominant form of
advertising in the way paid search has become. However, behavioral targeting offers a compelling benefit to marketers: the ability to deliver relevant branding messages to a highly targeted audience.
Download the Free White Paper
The eMarketer Outlook 2
Implications for Your Business 2
A. What is Behavioral Targeting? 3
B. Types of Behavioral Targeting 6
C. Behavioral vs. Search: Similarities, Differences 11
D. Challenges of Behavioral Targeting 12
E. Keys to Successful Behavioral Targeting 16
Friday, August 20
Yahoo Smart Sort tool
Brand advertising to make a comeback online
From BusinessWeek:
Experts predict the brand-ad rebound is more sustainable than the boom that buoyed dot-coms in 1999 and 2000, in part because it's being led by the offline world's big brand builders -- including Coca-Cola (KO ), Nike (NKE ), and Visa. While paid search advertising, where companies buy placement in search results from sites such as Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo, was all the rage in 2003, online branding is gaining steam this year and may become the strongest growth story of Net advertising in 2005.
Wednesday, August 11
Defining "Contextual" versus "Behavioral" marketing
From ClickZ:
More often than not, when people in our industry mention the word "behavioral," "contextual" is almost certain to follow.
Often people use these two terms interchangeably, as if they meant the same thing. One minute, a vendor tells you her company is a behavioral marketing company. Next moment, she's into contextual marketing. Just as I wouldn't dare say my Nissan Sentra is the same as a BMW 7 Series, I'd hope people wouldn't lump together behavioral and contextual marketing.
So what's the difference between behavioral and contextual marketing anyway?
Thursday, August 5
Dan Gillmor's We the Media looks at online media from a new perspective
From Slashdot:
Tech columnist (for the San Jose Mercury News) Dan Gillmor is a journalist who gets it. You may not always agree with every detail of his reporting, but he clearly has a deep understanding of what is important and what is not in the technology world. And, because he is a trained writer, he knows how to explain it well. Of course, he'll probably end up most famous for what he doesn't know, as in his self-proclaimed mantra: "the readers know more than I do." In large part, his new book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, is about what happens to journalism when technology reveals the truth of Gillmor's mantra.
Wednesday, August 4
Forbes.com inspires fury among online journalists
From Public Radio Marketplace:
"But what if the ad is between article paragraphs?"
If you ever want to get an argument started, get a bunch of journalists together and suggest that their editorial content should have some advertising in it. Then run as fast as you can - because to many in that group you will have just committed heresy. A tenet of journalism is to maintain a bright line between news and ads - never should sponsors influence what's reported. Now Forbes.com is testing how bright that line really is.
Reporter: Hillary Wicai
Tuesday, August 3
Marketwatch's subscription revenue grows
Q2 Earnings:
Subscription revenues in the second quarter 2004, which mainly consisted of fees collected for the Company's newsletters, increased 33% over the same period last year to $476,000 due to the continued introduction of new subscription products.
Tuesday, July 27