It's Tweeting Huge!

Wanted to share an article over on Tech Crunch about the growth of Twitter.

Showing just how fast the Internet moves if innovations are adopted by the masses Twitter has grown from 10million monthly unique visitors back in February to 32million unique visitors... that makes it bigger than sites like Linkedin and Digg!

Stop H*Commerce

A great example of a company bringing value to it's users has emerged this week from McAfee, the computer security company.

They are running a series of web documentaries to educate people in the perils of identity theft online titled "H*Commerce. The Business of Hacking You".

The reason I feel that this is a great campaign is that rather than using traditional advertising methods to push their products they have identified the emotional reasons for consumers to choose them, fear of having their 'life' stolen.

By educating viewers online about hacking and security issues they are, by proxy, passing on the message that they are an authority in the area and their products can be trusted for prevention.

The site itself offers plenty of video content, a resource centre on the subject, and even space for users to share their stories of Identity Theft.

To drive traffic it is being backed up with a pretty extensive ad campaign to increase awareness including display and social media and out of home poster campaigns in the US. They even have a mobile element linking the offline and online space through direct linking from posters to content.

A full article is here on Media Post News and you can visit the site at http://www.stophcommerce.com/

Targeting Mobile

Yahoo are partnering with 3rd parties to offer targetted mobile display advertising.

They plan on marrying the vast array of data they have about users of their services with ad serving technologies to bring relevant ad's to consumers at the right time.

In the online space this has been happening for a while, as developments in behavioural targeting become more widespread, but it's interesting to see that it is being applied to mobile.

The initial results seem positive too, apparently offering double the ROI of traditional banners with click through rates up to 3 times higher.

Read the full article on Marketing Vox

Social Space, Not Influencing Purchase?

Knowledge Networks have just released their latest piece of research on Social Networks.

It has some interesting findings, showing that only a small percentage of the US based sample turn to the social space for advice on what to buy (less than 5% of them on average!)

Well worth a read, and builds the case that brands MUST look to develop conversation with users rather than directly advertising to them if they want to succeed in the social space.

Thanks to Kate Sirkin for Yamm'ing it!

Let's Go Raving!

We are always talking about WOM marketing...
Digital, after all, is becoming more and more about participation and there is a plethora of evidence (and logic) to suggest that we are influenced more by what friends and other 'average people' like us say more than that shiny commercial or advertising campaign.

So increasingly, when looking to make a purchase, we are turning to the web for advice and reviews.

The problem though is often the time and effort required to trawl through multiple sites all over cyberspace just to get and form an opinion. So, what if all the reviews were in one place?

Raveable.com have just launched their new site which collates more than 35million reviews for 55,000 US hotels from travel sites, bespoke hotel sites and even blogs. It then organises them for you based on quality of site, reputation of the authors and a number of other factors to present them back in a single place... it even offers a summary of the positive and negative comments so you can make a decision faster.

There are plenty of price comparison sites out there, so I suppose you could view this as an evolution to review comparison, but I view it as much more. What if other industries, like FMCG, could create a hub that brings together all that is being said about them on the web and allow consumers access in a single place?

Yes there is the inherent danger that some comments may be negative but honesty is, after all, the best policy and it could help them to develop products and further conversation with the audience.

Rich Online

e-Marketer have just released this article which has some interesting insights into how the more affluent are turning online in the economic downturn to make their purchases.

Further justification for marketing budgets to tip further in favour of digital?

Ya-WOO

Yahoo are launching their new search strategy, called 'WOO' or Web Of Objects. They summise that "people don't really want to search, they want to get things done".

In the above video Head of Yahoo Search Strategy Prabhakar Raghavan explains the web and mobile strategy to us while being questioned by Kara Swisher from Boomtown. She asks some good questions but I have to admit i'm still a little unclear as to exactly what it's going to look like.

It seems to be that the engine will interpret the query into relevant information that the user "really wants" and deliver results based on that.

To use the stated example, if someone searches for 'Star Trek' how does it interpret whether they are looking for cinema times or in depth information?... Well, it seems the results will return a blend of interpretations of the query. (er... doesn't the universal search page on Google do that already?)

I'm going to reserve judgement until it's up and running, but the big question is will the consumer be willing to switch and will it increase their market share?

Napster, Woken Up From Their Slumber?

In the US Napster have just announced that they are re-launching their music service (again).

They shot to fame all those years ago for their P2P offering which allowed the public to share music files, and which went a long way to beginning the online piracy issues that all the lawyers and technology in Christendom still can't seem to get their heads around.

In 2007 they decided to re-launch, this time legally, offering music subscriptions for streaming and download of the library. One of the problems though was the fact that you really only rented the music and if you cancelled the subscription it was goodbye tunes.

Now, in 2009, they are going to offer a $5 model which allows unlimited streaming and 5 downloads per month which are DRM free... Opinion seems divided in the Blogoshpere.

My feeling it it's an interesting idea, but I can't see it working... you can buy 5 tracks on iTunes for the same money, without a requirement to subscribe, and i'm pretty sure you can stream as much music as you like for free on the likes of Spotify and Last.fm...

I'm not one to shoot it down before they try, but it seems they are going to need to offer consumers a lot more to capture their attention... although i'm sure there's some who will think it's a good deal.

The full press release and a positive take can be found on EndGadget

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... And Wash Their Hair!

Here's a good example of Hair experts Sunsilk engaging their audience.

They have created a community in India and the Philippines for girls to spend time, covering all manner of girly things from Hair Care (obviously) to Beauty and Fashion Tips, Expert Advice, Celebrity Blogs, Forums and Video Content.

Admittedly i'm probably not in their target audience but I have to say the site is engaging, well put together and a good example of facilitating conversation amongst their audience and allowing them to generate social currency among their peers...

Google Killer? (Again)

The last couple of days I have seen lots and lots of buzz around Wolfram Alpha. It's been in the Times and Metro here in the UK to name just two and I have seen it all over the web.

It is a new search engine that is meant to "make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone", spanning all education levels from doctors to laymen and make searching for information "completely free-form".

The science behind it IS very impressive and it sounds like a fantastic idea, answering your question on the screen and not with a list of results.

If you ask a very straightforward question then it does work. I asked it how many people are in the world and it gave me an answer straight away of 6.53 billion.

If i asked it a more freeform question though, something that I randomly thought would be interesting to know, it began to struggle.

For example I asked it:
"How old is the Queen?"
"How many legs does a spider have?"
"How many iPhones has Apple sold?"
"What is the average rainfall in London?"

All of which met with "Wolfram Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input".

OK, so it's the Alpha version and i'm hardly expecting it to be perfect, but I thought the questions were pretty straight forward and I like to think I gave them more structure than the average person might do when they are asking questions. It just simply wasn't up to the challenge...

We do need more ways to get answers than a list of links and it's good to see alternatives emerging, I just can't help thinking that innovations in visual search (Searchme) are going to come into popularity faster with the masses...

I am guessing Wolfram will get better, as I said it is a great idea and they have certainly put in the man hours (20 years?!)... for now though I am going to stick with Google...

No 5 Is Alive

The new Chanel No. 5 website is a great example of extending TV campaigns into the online space.

Feeling a bit like a film site it captures the essence of the brand and the cinematic way that Chanel portrays itself in it's campaigns.

The experience is slick and there's a whole host of video content to go through, all in multiple languages.

While it may not be groundbreaking on the technical front, and doesn't include all the widgets and sharing functions available to humanity, it does provide an immersive experience for the user and I am sure all the information their target audience needs...

You can visit the site by clicking here or on the above screen grab.

Refined Search From Google

Google are always coming up with new ideas and ways to improve their search engine dominance.

Here they have done it again, showing us how to refine results with their new search options... I'm a particular fan of their Wonderwheel graphical representations. Being able to refine your results by related topics and tracking down exactly what you want... genius I tell you...

click the above to watch the video...

Online Retailers Turn To Social Media

It seems it's not just bricks and mortar retailers that are struggling with the economic downturn. While they're worried about people turning to online retailers for their purchases online retailers are re-evaluating their marketing efforts and turning to social media.

New research from Forrester in the US indicates that e-tailers are cutting back, and this means finding new ways of marketing to consumers.

Social media could be the new channel they are looking for, if they can engage the audience in a relevant manner.

Brands have been clambering to enter the social space for some time now, in order to deepen their relationships with the consumer, so it seems only logical that those already living in the online space make the move...

The immediate concern, as far as I see it, is they are going to have to carefully consider how they do this. The Social space is just that, social, and it has to be questioned what value an online store can bring to my network beyond the standard 'sell! sell! sell!' message.

See the full article here

Honda Page Domination

This is a fantastic example of a page takeover on Video site Vimeo by Honda. Similar in concept to Samsungs LED Sheep it goes one step further, immersing the user through domination of the whole page.

Best appreciated in it's original setting...

Facebook Just Keeps Growing

The folks over at O'Reilly Radar have pulled together some very useful figures on Active Facebook users by country.

Handy if you keep getting asked just how important it is in different markets!

Find the full article and handy SlideShare presentation here...

Consoles To Become A Thing Of The Past?

OK, so it's not likely that consoles are going to be relegated to the pages of history any time soon, but for the gaming inclined amongst you there is a new service on the horizon that has the potential to make waves.

In their words "OnLive is a revolutionary, on demand video game platform delivering the latest and most advanced games instantly, on any TV via a sleek, inexpensive MicroConsole, or on almost any PC or Mac."

It launches later this year and will feature games from the likes of Ubisoft and EA, as well as offering multiplayer and social elements like co-op play and sharing.

Interactive Outdoor?

Check out this video on Youtube to see how McDonalds are using their digital hoarding in Piccadilly Circus to encourage consumers to interact, and have their photo taken with the brand.

Not sure how many locals you would get to act like an idiot for the sake of a branded picture...
Then again there's always the trip home after that post office pint...

Have You Done it?

Ever thought to yourself "I wish everyone knew where I have been and what I have done"... No?...

What about having that conversation down the pub about all the things you absolutely must do before you turn 30, or 40, or 50, or 60, or die...

I have just found Diddit, a social network of sorts where you can tick off and comment on the things you have done from endless lists from travel to food to... well, just about anything really... and if you don't want to be a sheep you can create your own lists of things to do for others.

It's quite engaging and within moments I found myself looking places up to make sure I did everything I should while I was there. Thanks to Facebook Connect I didn't even have to register either (the web is getting smaller I tell you!)

It will be interesting to see how this develops. If brands can begin to utilise the lists, or create their own list of experiences for consumers, it could prove to be an engaging way of enhancing the, er, experiences their consumers have...

Thanks to Fiona Cloke for tipping me off.

Conversion Heaven

I've been using this site for a while now, but when a colleague came to me earlier today asking how on earth to convert from one file type to another I thought it was about time to share...

Zamzar is a great free tool (although you may want to subscribe to speed things up) which allows you to convert pretty much anything to anything... unless you are trying to turn a word document into an MP3 that is...

Just upload the source file, select the end file type and hey presto, a short time later, you get an e-mail with a link to the finished article... Very handy for those moments of incompatability!

Display Driving Search

New research from i-Prospect shows that Display advertising is driving just as many searches as clicks.

Interesting in times when as a rule CTR's are decreasing for most display formats.

"The key message from this study is that online display advertising is far from dead" says Robert Murray, iProspect CEO, and I couldn't agree more. Far too often display advertising is overlooked as a branding tool which can drive search, and more consideration needs to be taken before discounting it in favour of more "engaging" online marketing.

Check out the full article on Marketing Vox

Location Based Value

It's great to see brands starting to get in on the whole iPhone location based opportunity.

7-Eleven in Sweden have created this app that allows iPhone users to receive a coupon for free coffee and ice-cream... A good example of not just showing where your store is, but getting people through the door!

The full article can be found over at Springwise