Springwise: Zero cents per minute: 100,000 takers so far

Blyk targets 16- to 24-year-olds with its free mobile phone service, which includes 217 texts and 43 minutes every month. In exchange, of course, they get advertising—up to 6 messages sent to their phones each day. Britain's youth don't seem to mind, though—Blyk reached that 100,000-member target six months ahead of schedule. Response rates to the ads in question have also achieved a whopping average of 29 percent—far surpassing the norm, which tends to hover in the single digits.

Springwise: Zero cents per minute: 100,000 takers so far

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MediaPost Publications - Alloy: 62% Of College Students Watch TV/Video Online - 06/26/2008

Almost two-thirds of college students are streaming video and TV shows online, via services like Veoh, Hulu and Joost, as well as buying downloads from iTunes, according to Alloy Media and Marketing, which just completed the 2008 annual College Explorer survey.

Conversely, rates of TV ownership fell slightly, compared to last year's survey, from 82% to 79%--suggesting the increasing role of computers as personal entertainment centers.

At the same time, laptops are displacing desktops as the computer of choice: from 2007-2008, laptop ownership rose from 63% to 70%, while desktop ownership fell from 59% to 53%.

MediaPost Publications - Alloy: 62% Of College Students Watch TV/Video Online - 06/26/2008

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Shops Strive for a New Formula

Without interactive experts to bring ideas to life, he adds, the big ideas are like "a fart in the wind."

Shops Strive for a New Formula

Now that's the quote of the decade!

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Vint Cerf: Video streaming to give way to downloading | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com

Honestly, this isn't immediately comprehensible to me. I need to read more. So, join me will you?

Cerf expects that video will be downloaded rather than streamed over time. With gigabit for second speed, users could download an hour of video in 16 seconds. "It's like the iPod--you can download music faster than you can listen to it," he said. Cerf also said that broadcasting, rather than downloading a separate copy to every user, is a good delivery model, and that users will have more control over which ads to watch.

Vint Cerf: Video streaming to give way to downloading | Outside the Lines - CNET News.com

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Study: C-Level Execs Shift to Internet over Newspapers for Business Info

E&P reports on a study that shows C-level execs are reaching a tipping point in how they consumer news.

Study: C-Level Execs Shift to Internet over Newspapers for Business Info

A Forbes.com and Gartner Study has discovered a 37% increase in C-Level and senior management executives who choose the Internet over newspapers as their No. 1 source of business information.

Consumption of newspapers as the No. 1 source among this segment is down 36%.

Among the study’s findings:

The Internet continues to be the most influential and important source of business information for C-Level executives around the world, at 67%. This number has increased 37% since 2004.

Before starting the work day, C-Level executives prefer to access the Web rather than read the newspaper. The number of C-Level executives who prefer the Internet first thing in the morning has increased 22% since 2004, while those who prefer to read the newspaper first thing in the morning has declined 11% over the same time period.

C-Level executives consume media on the Web more than any other medium (TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers), at 41%.

“This study further underscores our belief that the highly desirable C-Level executive audience will continue to increase its use of the Internet as a primary source of business information, while newspaper consumption for business purposes will continue to decline,” Jim Spanfeller, CEO and President of Forbes.com, said in a statement.

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Google Tests Using Your Search Data to Tailor Ads to You - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Google acknowledges that it is now testing ways to use some of the data it has been gathering to better aim search ads at Web surfers, although it won’t say how.

This small change in Google’s behavior was first discovered by Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who earlier this year started a series of tests looking at which ads were displayed in a series of queries on Google’s search engine. He found that the ads you see on one search may be influenced by what you searched for a few minutes ago. Search for “Baltimore dining,” then something else, and then “T-shirt” and sometimes you will get ads for T-shirts from Baltimore restaurants.

This is important because it marks the first time Google is using the store of data it collects about people to target its advertising.Google is upfront that it places a cookie on the browser of all of its users. And it records the number of the cookie, along with what the user searches for and some other information.

Google Tests Using Your Search Data to Tailor Ads to You - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

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Wordle - Miguel Gonzalez Word Cloud

Wordle - Miguel Gonzalez Word Cloud

Scott Johnson sent a link to Wordle. So I made my own Word Cloud from my professional bio. Looks like I talk about myself a tad too much.

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Traditional Media Not Dead Yet for Marketing, Study Says - TV Decoder - Media & Television - New York Times Blog

A study to be released on Wednesday finds that advertisements appearing in traditional media like television are still “much more likely” to have made a positive impression with consumers than ads running in digital media.

The study, called “When Advertising Works,” was conducted by Yankelovich in association with Sequent Partners. The Center for Media Design at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., provided assistance.

The study covered 16 types of media. Besides TV, the traditional kinds included billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio and movie theater commercials. The digital kinds included e-mail messages, Internet banner ads, social networking Web sites, video games and video-sharing Web sites like YouTube.

When asked what kind of an impression the ad made, 56 percent of survey respondents said traditional media ads made a positive impression, in contrast to 31 percent who said that about digital media ads. Thirteen percent reported a negative impression of traditional media ads versus 21 percent for digital media ads. Thirty-two percent said they had neither a positive nor a negative impression of traditional media ads, in contrast to 48 percent who said they had neither a good or bad impression of digital media ads.

Traditional Media Not Dead Yet for Marketing, Study Says - TV Decoder - Media & Television - New York Times Blog

On the other hand, advertising is NOT dead. It is NOT the end of advertising as we know it. Discuss.

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MegaPhone is an excellent example of emerging platforms applications that are both (a) amazing and (b) very accessible -- both for consumers to use and marketers to deploy.

Brought to You by . . . Anyone? - washingtonpost.com

"While spending on Internet marketing has been growing dramatically over the past decade, the top 50 or 60 brand marketers are very much underrepresented," said Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group. So far, the online industry has been "growing by grabbing the low-hanging fruit."

As with television, radio and other media, advertising dollars will shape what is and what isn't available on the Internet.

There are, to be sure, billions to be garnered from online advertising -- about $21 billion last year in the United States, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. And analysts expect that figure to double or more in the next decade.

Yet for all the growth in online advertising, there are some doubts that the advertising revenue available is enough to pay for the kind of content -- articles, videos, etc. -- that Internet visionaries have predicted.

Brought to You by . . . Anyone? - washingtonpost.com

Can the Web build brands? Matt Freeman has been saying "Yes" for as long as I've known him (which predates his fame and renown -- depending on what pack you run with). Honestly, most of my day-to-day colleagues and day-to-day clients remain skeptical. I can't say I blame them. But the pace of change is a daily source of frustration ... for me and practically everyone I know in the agency business.

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MediaPost Publications - Nielsen To Debut Out-Of-Home Viewing Data - 06/19/2008

Nielsen's long-awaited service to track out-of-home viewing, a co-venture, will begin yielding data later this summer. The system offers the tantalizing prospect of measuring viewing in bars, hotels and workout gyms--something networks have argued they don't receive credit for from advertisers.

What will be called the Nielsen Out-of-Home Report--a joint venture with Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI)--was announced in April 2007 with an expected launch that September. Then the debut was postponed until this past April, and now again until this summer. It will be the first time that Nielsen provides any out-of-home viewing data.

The data that covers viewing of national broadcast and cable networks will be culled from a panel of 4,700. Panelists will carry cell phones from AT&T that run the software that allows tracking of the exposure to programs (participants receive $50 a month).

In addition to the national service, Nielsen will begin offering out-of-home data in six local markets by the end of the third quarter, according to a presentation by Nielsen Senior Vice President Kevin Svenningsen at the Promax industry event Wednesday.

The six local markets--with 500 panelists each--to be tracked are New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Denver.

MediaPost Publications - Nielsen To Debut Out-Of-Home Viewing Data - 06/19/2008

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Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage (But Not the USA)

By the first quarter of 2006, notes the report, thirty countries had already exceeded 100% per capita cell phone usage. In that same year, there were about 241 million mobile phone users in the US (roughly 80% per capita mobile phone penetration). The U.S. market is not expected to top 100% per capita penetration until the year 2013.

Included by the author is the Simmons New Media Study released in April 2008 comparing the usage of different mobile functions among consumers in the U.S. While 59% of people who have used a cell phone in the past 30 days have text messaged, and 49% have taken photos, less than 2% have shopped by mobile and less than 5% have used mobile GPS.

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage

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Internet Advertising Revenues Up 18.2% YOY, $5.8 Billion for Q1 ’08, Second Highest Quarter Ever

“We continue to experience significant growth and vitality in interactive marketing, media and advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “We expect growth to continue, as consumers spend more and more time online, and marketers find more – and more innovative – ways to reach them through digital media.”

Internet Advertising Revenues Up 18.2% YOY, $5.8 Billion for Q1 ’08, Second Highest Quarter Ever



Quietly. Slowly. This enormous industry has grown into a beast. This is an exciting time in the media space. However, it is volatile. Hang tight.

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Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

Next time you're in Times Square, put on your game face. You may be able to challenge the weirdos around you to a videogame on MTV's big-screen billboard. The controller? Your cell phone.

It's the latest project from MegaPhone, a mobile gaming company founded by Jury Hahn (above). Looking to connect strangers in public places, Hahn dreamed up the idea of multiplayer cell phone games where people can interact with rivals they're battling onscreen. Here's how it works: When players dial a special phone number shown on a public screen like MTV's jumbotron, avatars representing the callers pop up on the display, identified by the last four digits of the participant's cell number. They're controlled using the phone's keypad or, more often, by speaking (or shouting) into the handset. Scream "shoot" in one game, for example, and your basketball player shoots. Who are you schooling? Look for the other goofballs yelling at their phones.

Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

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Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

"Advertising is the art of persuasion," says Wenda Harris Millard, the newly named co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and former Yahoo! ad sales head. "Technology is a great facilitator, but that's all it is. Technology isn't what advertising is."

Will Cannes Make the Leap?

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Cannes Fringe

CannesFringe reports from the Advertising Festival

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Pew Calls for Broadband Census

Chris Miller, former head of Chemistri/iLeo; now head of Element 79's interactive practice, takes notes on Pew Internet & American Life Project initiative to take a comprehensive American Broadband Census at BroadbandCensus.com.

In case you haven't been paying attention (and why would you), US broadband speeds are a joke compared to other Net-enabled nations around the world. We now rank 20th in the world ... just behind Lichtenstein ... and dropping.

A deep dive into digital marketing » Blog Archive » Broadband speed survey

ThinkGeek :: Stainless Steel 8GB Video Watch

High pixel count and frames per second make viewing a joy. Plus this watch has a built-in voice recorder, multiple OSD languages to choose from, a built-in high quality speaker as well as a earphone jack, the ability to view JPEG pictures and listen to music at the same time, and so much more. What more could you ask of such a beautiful looking watch? Be the envy of all your friends and blow them away with your shiny new toy.

ThinkGeek :: Stainless Steel 8GB Video Watch

Calling Dick Tracy ... calling Dick Tracy ... Fortunately, this uber nerdi gadget (pronounced JA-JAY) only runs on Windows. I will not be embarrassing myself anytime soon.

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Tracking Video: How Audience Behavior Measurement Works

How It Works
Our patent-pending data collection approach captures every video interaction in every video from every viewer, from play to pause to rewind to forward-to-a-friend and more. When you're planning online video marketing and advertising strategies, Visible Measures VisibleSuite provides precise performance measurements including how audiences find, view, interact with, and share each online video.

Tracking Video: How Audience Behavior Measurement Works

I may have blogged this before. The URL is cached in my Flock browser. So ... pardon the redundancy. But this company has new news. And they're the only one I've seen that promise (at least) to track the impact of online video beyond counting views.

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Advertising - Shows Created by Brands Walk Tightrope With Viewers - NYTimes.com

Dos Equis beer will present a reality series on the Mojo HD cable network that will chronicle the search for an assistant to a character who is featured in the brand’s advertising campaign, a person of wealth and taste known as the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Advertising - Shows Created by Brands Walk Tightrope With Viewers - NYTimes.com

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