Articles Selected by Tim Hawthorne
Online Advertising is Dying as we know it...
Summary: What has changed about the online advertising industry?Here are some interesting thoughts.
Study: Email Follow-Up Brings Abandoned Shopping Carts To Life (But Special Offers Don't)
Summary: Email marketing firms are often hired to develop systems and tactics that are looking to serve as what another industry may refer to as "a closer." Shoppers graze online retail sites and place items into a shopping cart, but then abandon the process.
Charter Launches VOD Reminder Service, Claims Record Usage of its VOD Platform
Summary: Cable MSO, Charter Communications, has launched an "on-demand reminder service" that sends customers text or email reminders, alerting them to new movie releases, events and premieres available on its VOD platform. Customers can register to receive the reminders, which are based on both title and category searches, at http://www.charter.net/reminders.
20 practical predictions for the next 10 years in television
Summary: The next decade will see the continuing transformation of television, with video becoming more personal and democratic as new networks subvert and transcend the broadcast model. Dr William Cooper of the convergent communications consultancy informitv offers 20 practical predictions for the next 10 years.
Net connected TV could approach half a billion homes
Summary: Sales of internet video devices are forecast to increase by nearly 80% this year, with the most significant uptake in the form of network connected televisions and Blu-ray disc players. Lower prices, the addition of network connections and the prospect of 3D video will help make Blu-ray a more compelling consumer proposition, with forecast shipments of 28 million connected players next year. In five years there could to be almost half a billion households able to view internet video on television.
Why The Future Of Game-Related Advertising Looks Like EA’s Dr. Pepper Deal
Summary:
By many accounts, 2009 was the first year that interactive advertising budgets actually shrank. Stats for display were dismal, and even search struggled to show the kind of growth the industry has become accustomed to. Then there’s in-game advertising. Judging from the layoffs at Microsoft’s Massive and the pending sale of IGA Worldwide, you’d think that the whole industry died last year.
5 Trends In Digital Marketing
Summary:
In 2009, digital marketing experienced major shifts in opportunities, budgets and attitude. Twenty ten will see the hype calming around Facebook apps, Twitter campaigns and ROI models for social media. The following five trends point up what marketers can expect as the new decade opens.
Instant Price Changes In Banner Ads Reflect Movement To Real-Time Web
Summary:
Imagine changing prices in your content management system, and have the ads on the Internet reflect the changes immediately. In a move toward the real-time Web, Liquidus is working on a feature in its BannerLink ad that allows advertisers to alter prices from their content management system, and have the changes reflect online as soon as they occur.
Ad Network? Video Ad Network? Why Not Both?
Summary: Ever wonder why a separate class of so-called video ad networks emerged over the last decade? Or, why more display ad networks don't serve pre-roll video ads? The reason is simple: a lack of standards for video ad serving required specialized technology to translate between a network's ad server and the growing hodgepodge of different publisher video player implementations.
One-Fifth of US Households Use Only Wireless Phones
Summary: More than one of every five US homes (22.7%) had no landline and only wireless phone service during the first half of 2009, an increase of 2.5 percentage points since the second half of 2008, according to preliminary results from the January - June 2009 National Health Interview Survey by the US Centers for Disease Control (via MarketingCharts).
OnStar Mobile App Example of Next Gen Auto Apps
Summary: The plug-in, all-electric Chevy Volt was a highlight of CES - along with an iPhone app that allows smartphone owners to interact with the car. OnStar Mobile app is the latest in a series of next gen auto apps that give users control over their cars from their mobile devices.
Crowd Control
Summary: Crowdsourcing creative -- which includes user-generated contests, and receiving input on briefs and designs -- is an increasingly popular option for marketers that want to add a consumer-engagement punch to their campaigns. It's also controversial.
Groupon Raises $30 Million For Local, Social Shopping Deals
Summary: Each day, athe Groupon site spotlights a coupon from a different local business—be it a restaurant, massage studio, or a theater—but a minimum number of people need to sign up for the discount to take effect. So Groupon makes it easy for people to quickly notify their friends about the deals through Twitter, Facebook and email.
Comcast, G.E. Announce Deal on NBCU
Summary: With the formal announcement Dec. 3 that Comcast has taken a controlling 51% stake in NBC Universal in a new joint venture with General Electric, the regional cable systems operator emerged as a media powerhouse with an enviable range of assets in distribution and content, not just in the U.S. but around the globe.
But wait... there's more to DRTV spots
Summary:
"We love our model now more than ever," says Greg Renker, co-CEO of Guthy-Renker Products, the longtime marketer of mostly health and wellness products through DRTV. "The ability to use data to your advantage competitively is more powerful than ever."
But this success, Renker adds, has contributed to an uptick of competition in the channel.
Comcast-NBCU: The Winners, Losers and Unknowns
Summary:
With Comcast's acquisition of NBCU (technically, it's not an acquisition, but rather the creation of a JV in which Comcast holds 51% and GE 49%, until GE inevitably begins unwinding its position), it's time to assess the winners, losers and unknowns from the deal, the biggest the media industry has seen in a long while.
Report: Video games possibly coming to Redbox
Summary:
Redbox has made some major strides in the movie-rental business, offering consumers the opportunity to pick up newly released films from a kiosk around town for just $1 per day. It has even forced Blockbuster to try a similar strategy.
But according to a report, Redbox isn't content to stick with movies.
New TV Apps Borrow a Page From iPhone
Summary: A longtime quest to bring the Internet to the living room has entered a new phase, borrowing a page from Apple Inc. and its iPhone.
Companies are now racing to build marketplaces for TV programs that act much like iPhone apps, able to interact with social-networking services, play games, call up movies and other Web content—all using a remote control, rather than a computer equipped with browsers.
Mobile Advertising and Marketing:
Summary: As with online advertising, dollars flowing to mobile will continue to lag behind consumer usage of the channel. And compared with online ad spending, mobile looks minuscule: eMarketer estimates that mobile ad spending, including messaging-based formats, will reach $416 million in 2009, compared with the nearly $24 billion that will be spent overall for online advertising.
How Mobile Search And Display Ads Could Become Goldmine For Local Businesses
Summary: Google has been testing the inclusion of click-to-call phone numbers in search ads on high-end mobile phones, a spokesperson confirmed. It's a feature that fits in nicely with Nexus One, Google's mobile phone.
