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November '07 | |
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Market Data - Marketing Facts and FiguresFox Interactive Media Q1 Revenue Grows 80%In the 3 months to 30 Sept 07, Fox Interactive Media (the News Corp division that includes MySpace), generated revenues of US$200m, up 80%. News Corp bought MySpace for US$580m earlier this year. (News Corp results conference call 8/11/07) Google has 43% Share of UK Online Advertising SpendIn the UK, the latest Internet Advertising Bureau figures show Google commands a 43 per cent share of the £2bn marketers spent on online advertising in 2006, up from 35 per cent in 2005. This represents 11.4 per cent of all UK advertising revenues, up from 7.8 per cent in 2005.(Financial Times 12/06/07) Google had a 56.5 per cent share of searches in the US in August, up 1.3 percentage points on the previous month, according to comScore. Yahoo’s share was 23.3 per cent and Microsoft’s was 11.3 per cent, followed by Time Warner, including AOL, and Interactive Corporation’s Ask network, which both took 4.5 per cent. (FT 280907) Apple iPod Sales SoarApple has announced that cumulative sales of the Apple iPod reached 120 million at the end of September 2007. For comparison: Sony sold approximately 650 million Sony Walkman cassette players during the life of that product. Mobile Phone Wars - Smartphone StatisticsApple announced it had sold more than 1.4 million iPhones as at 30th September, in just a few weeks since its launch. The company has just launched the iPhone in the UK and Germany, and is launching in France later in November and with Asia Pacific to follow in 2008. Time Magazine has named the iPhone the "Invention of the Year", and Apple is predicting sales of 10 million iPhones during 2008. While the product is a success, it remains to be seen quite how market changing it will be: there are currently over 2.5 billion mobile phones in use world-wide. Mobile phone sales for 2007 are estimated to be about 1.1 billion handsets. About 145m of the 1.1bn mobile phones sold around the world will be smartphones. Of these smartphones, just over half run the Symbian operating system used by Nokia. About 10% - or 14 million phones - run Windows Mobile (Microsoft predict they will ship 20 million Windows Mobile licences in the 12 months to June 2008). 26% run Qualcomm’s Brew software. Linux-based smartphones (like the ones Google recently announced software for) make up only 5% or about of the market - or about 7 million phones. It costs around US$5 a handset for a phone manufacturer to use the Symbian or Microsoft operating systems. Substituting Linux or Google's Android phone software for Symbian or Microsoft does not, therefore, produce a major cost saving to smartphone manufacturers (smartphones retail for between about $300 to over a thousand dollars). (Estimates by Nomura, referenced in Financial Times 061107) Text Messaging in the UKUK mobile phone users are currently sending about 1.2 billion text messages a week. (BBC 051107) Blogging - Blog Facts and FiguresThere are now over 110 million blogs on the Internet. Technorati, the leading company who indexes blogs, currently tracks 111.6 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. There are over 1.6 million new blog posts every day (over 18 a second) and 175,000 new blogs are created every day. 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs. Among adults in the USA, 12 million (6%) currently maintain a blog and 57 million read blogs. Of the 12 million, 1.7 million (14%) list "making money" as one of the reasons they blog. 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006. 51% of blog readers shop online. Blog readers average 23 hours online each week. Do Not Call RegistersSince its launch in May 2007, 2 million Australians have signed on to Australia's new telemarketing "do not call" register (just under 10% of the population). In the USA there are 145 million people on the national do not call register, just over 45% of the population). (Sydney Morning Herald 8/11/07) Jobs Online23% of job adverts in Australia are now advertised on the internet, up from 11% in 2004. (9/11/07 Australian Financial Review) |
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In Online Advertising We (Don’t) Trust …Are there problems on the digital horizon for the online advertising economy? Word of Mouth is the top-ranking source of trusted information with 78% of people saying they trust - either completely or somewhat - the recommendations of other consumers. On the other hand, 66% of people say they do NOT trust - either not much or not at all - search engine advertisements. Bad news for search engine marketing companies Google and Yahoo! The figures are even worse for the online brand advertising industry: online banner adverts are not trusted by 74% of people around the word. The figures come from the October 2007 Nielsen Trust in Advertising survey (a twice-yearly global survey of 26,486 internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East). While there are regional differences across the survey, the “take out” does not change much. The news is not all bad for digital marketing enthusiasts: after newspapers - which are trusted by 63% of people - the third most trusted medium is consumer opinions posted online (blogs, customer reviews, podcasts etc): 61% of people report trusting online consumer opinions. This is almost equalled by branded websites at 60%. Opinion is divided about traditional media such as magazines, TV and Radio. These are trusted by 56%, 56%, and 54% of people - or, looking at the “glass half-full” - about half of consumers do not trust them. So what does this tell us? IF the results are reliable, we suggest the following:
Second Life - Who's in the Market?If you work for a corporation thinking of investing $400,000 or-so in a Second Life presence, then you'd better have a good idea of what sort of market the "inhabitants" of Second Life represent. You might get some idea by looking at photos of real Second Life users taken at the Second Life Community Convention held recently in Chicago. Hope you're sitting down! http://news.com.com/2300-1026_3-6204587-1.html |
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Our New Words Social RetailingTime magazine has named SocialRetailing(SM) as one of the best inventions of 2007. SocialRetailing was conceived by full-service digital agency IconNicholson who claim that Social Retailing represents the first integration of Web 2.0 activities with real-world channels. First trialed in Bloomingdale’s Manhattan store, IconNicholson's idea was to set up an in-store booth where an interactive mirror transmits high-bandwidth video to friends who comment back via instant message (IM) and who send their own suggestions from an online catalogue. In fact, given that peer-group approval rates very highly in clothes purchases for many young women, this is a clever idea. The girls can get their "friends" approval to wear something before they've blown the cash on actually buying it! Also useful, if you trust your friends more than the shop assistant, to answer the critical question, "does my bum looks big in this?". User IntentA new buzz-word in Search Engines which emphasises just how sophisticated the search algorithm geeks think they are. It refers to the search engine trying to guess what you are looking for before you have completed typing in a query. From the user's perspective, sites like Yahoo! and Google now have drop-down boxes which automatically display suggested topics which might be relevant to what you are looking for while you are typing in the query. Other phrases and ways of describing the same thing would be "auto-complete" - or even, "suggestions" (duh!). ------ Jokes If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0. A polar bear walks into a bar and says to the bartender, "I'll have a Gin.................and tonic." The bartender says, "Hey, what's with the big pause?" The polar bear looks at his hands and says, "I don't know, my Dad had 'em, too." --- The car comes screeching into the driveway and the woman gets out and runs into the house. Shouting to her husband 'I just won the lottery. Start packing!' Her husband says 'Great news! Should I pack for the beach or the mountains?' She says 'It doesn't matter. Just get out!' --- How many dyslexics does it bulb to take a change-light... |
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| Back to top | Trust destroyed: "Made in China" becomes a warning labelChinese manufacturers have created a major problem for themselves by not ensuring the products they make for export are safe. The latest worldwide recall of Aqua Dots bead toys which produce the illegal drug GHB when swallowed by children, is accelerating the transformation of the Made in China brand mark into a warning label for consumers. China will export around US$1,200 billion of goods by the end of 2007. It is not an over-statement to say that Chinese factories are the main source of products on the shelves of many retailers in western countries. For some years there has been controversy about exploitation of workers in Chinese clothing factories used by Wal-Mart, footwear and many fashion companies. The recent scandals are different. Fair-trade concerns are being dwarfed by very basic consumer safety issues. Arguably products such as shirts and shoes can do little harm to the customer. If a lower grade of fibre is used in a pair of trousers than is promised to western retail buyers and consumers, the fraud is not likely to be life threatening. But so far this year, parents who buy toys and children's clothes, dog and cat owners who feed their pets premium brands of food, diners who use disposable chopsticks, and computer laptop users with Chinese-made batteries all have cause to be concerned that products Made in China may cause harm. In other words, many people in western countries are coming to think of "Made in China" as a warning label. Time and again, western consumers have been getting the impression that Chinese factory owners simply don't care what they put into their products - as long as it sells and profits grow. It is a big, very real problem for many companies whose own reputation is at risk. For example, much of Wal-mart's stock comes from Chinese factories. 80% of the toys sold in the USA are Made in China. Many iPods and Apple computers are Made in China. Higher-margin goods accounted for some of China’s fastest export growth last year – aircraft parts and ships, for example, were both up about 70 per cent year-on-year. The developing situation with Made in China illustrates that brand, reputation management and customer franchise are topics that should concern all parts of a company. In the case of importers from China, marketing departments and corporate communications teams should have to be in crisis management mode because the business' supply chain is flawed. Likewise, Chinese manufacturers should understand that western consumers will stop buying their products unless they invest in adequate quality control and follow western safety assurance standards. A list of products which have been recalled in the USA because of safety standards is maintained by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and is published on the CPSC website: http://cpsc.gov . |
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They Wouldn't Do That... Would They? PR Companies that Cloud the InternetFor a while now, every PR company worth its salt has had an interactive media team. Or a new media department. Or a social communications group. Or something else wonderfully Web 2.0 sounding. Many firms now have more than a couple of twenty two year olds with 18 months non-student life experience (but 8 years "internet expertise") behind them. The value proposition is that PR clients need the web explaining to them, and these PR companies are in tune with how Generation Y (or whoever) are using the digital media. You know ... blogs, instant messaging, podcasts, video blogs, social networks like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and Twitter, entertainment sites like YouTube and Second Life (that's what SL is, really), and photo-sharing sites like Flickr and snapfish. The idea is for the PR companies - or preferably the clients (guided by the PR companies) - to participate, shape, frame, and/or initiate the discussions going on in these various new media. The trick is to do this without either getting "busted", looking ridiculous, irritating the online communities, or having your campaign high-jacked by anti-corporate types (or just kids having fun) in the online communities. In other words, there's probably more down-side than upside to PR-driven online campaigns these days. So just how many successful internet consumer campaigns have there been? A survey was taken among the editorial staff of the Financial Times recently. It concluded that just four web-based consumer-lead campaigns were known to have had a real impact:
Particularly in youth markets there might be some other examples (YouTube video of mintos and diet coke fountains don't count here!), but we doubt there are really that many where PR companies can claim it was all due to them. We also don't count the half-million dollar publicity stunts otherwise called setting up branded islands on Second Life (see this newsletter's item on interesting new links). The one clear, high value, application of a PR firm's new media expertise is in crisis management. The best crisis management PR teams know how to keep watch across the internet for problems arising, and will advise and quickly organise action to minimise any reputational damage by establishing pro-active dialogues in the appropriate online communities. The key is speed of involvement, getting in before a camp fire becomes a forest fire. If you have an excellent PR agency they will maintain the online equivalent of "back channels" which don't really push their client's message day-to-day, but keep open lines of online communication which can be used with greater credibility should a crisis occur. (Sounds pretty similar to what happens in the "real" world). While this is good PR practice, it is essentially re-active. For most PR companies at the moment, their new media operations seem to be a source of fees which generate more heat than light for their clients. |
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