Digital Marketing made simple!

are non-clicked PPc ads creating branding value?

2008-11-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's latest tool Engagement Mapping will help advertisers ascertain whether paid search links that aren't clicked are helping in purchase decisions. How does the technology works?

brand engagement - IAB UK

2008-10-24T03:41:00.001-07:00

Highlights:
 Online brings 39% brand engagement for car manufacturer brands
 Online allow to play on key metrics of engagement: e.g. in the car manufacturer, surveyed users reveal they look for style and fun, which was then delivered (to start) online
 Online represent an unparalleled opportunity to engage with customers, however
 Consumer are empowered and totally in control so it is the highest barrier is to drive the target audience to the brand/company website in the first place

Google adds click-to-buy ads on YouTube

2008-10-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

as an attempt to find functioning monetisation models for YouTube, Google has added this function which drives users/viewrs of related-video directly to buy the featured subject, starting from music (on iTunes, or Amazon, and any other featured advertisers).
Read more on NMA

social media and new consumers

2008-10-08T09:29:00.001-07:00

Social Media

From: wah17, 2 years ago

Social Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: networking network)

A Literature Review on Social Media. A compilation of social media thoughts from the experts point of view. Produced by Alex Wong from Charles ... less Sturt Uni, Australia. Can be contacted via email wah17@yahoo.com

SlideShare Link

digital marketing made simple

2008-10-08T09:20:00.001-07:00

Branding 2.0 & Social Media

From: sampad.s, 9 months ago

Branding 2.0 & Social Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: marketing media)

Branding in the new era has shifted to more engagement orientated due to the advent of Web 2.0 and Social Media.The presentation aims at how, where and when aspects of it...

SlideShare Link

Let's talk about (online) engagement

2008-10-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

The most frequently cited benefits for organisations implementing customer engagement
initiatives over the last 12 months are ‘improved customer loyalty’ and ‘increased
revenue’ (CScape survey 2008 on customer engagement, 2008;)
So, what is engament? how do you engage visitors online? How and when do you know that you were successfully engaging? are there any KPIs to measure and benchmark achievement?
For many companies, customer engagement is still more about getting the basics right than adopting Web 2.0 tools and technologies:'efficient and accessible customer services’ are seen as even more important strategies.
On a tactical level, the most commonly used methods of engagement are blogging sites, video-sharing sites and social networking. Widgets are very much on the radar, with more than a third of organisations planning to use both webbased and desktop-based widgets and applications. Expectations are already building around the role of the mobile channel as a tool for engaging customers in the near future.
When is about measurement, different respondents to the survey identified “Recommends product, service or brand”, “Converts more readily” and “Purchases regularly” as their most trustworthy guideposts to engagement.
The webanalytics community agrees to define/recognise "an engaged customer as one who participates and provides feedback". Quick conversion, repeat purchases and
recommendations are indicators of customer loyalty, and they are all desirable outcomes of engagement. Engagement measurement can and should involve taking into account prospective customers as well as those who have already purchased.
'Improved customer loyalty’ and ‘increased revenue’ are the most widely reaped benefits: signalling how customer engagement is intrinsically linked with tangible business objectives for most companies, i.e. improved customer acquisition and retention with a view to increased income and profit. Improved customer loyalty means reduced loss of business through churn and increased word-of-mouth marketing. The focus on loyalty also highlights that the traditional, almost exclusive focus on short-term revenue increases is beginning to be displaced by other priorities and a less blinkered approach.
‘Improved business predictability’ was the least reported benefit of customer engagement: there is not yet a significant realisation that companies can take important steps towards guaranteeing their future performance (i.e. improving business predictability) by achieving certain levels of customer engagement and loyalty.
Customer engagement is more likely to be seen as an opportunity to connect with customers, rather than as a damage-limitation tactic (having to adjust to the increased power of the customer).
Describing an 'engaged customers' (in priority order):
- Recommends product, service or brand: 59.44%
- Converts more readily: 44.51%
- Purchases regularly: 36.34%
- Participates in online communities or support groups: 32.39%
- Provides feedback regularly: 26.76%
- Is less focused on price: 23.38%
- Participates in innovation and design: 11.27%
- Is more tolerant of mistakes: 6.76%
- Other: 6.48%

Cited 'must' Engagement Strategies are:
- ‘Efficient and accessible customer services’ are seen as essential by 45%;
- ‘consistent online and offline customer experience’ (39%);
- ‘building a sense of community around product / services / brand’ &
- ‘compelling and persuasive copy’ (35%)

The majority of respondents believe that ‘soliciting user-generated content’ and ‘participation on social networking sites’ are only a ‘nice-to-have’ or ‘not important’: it is something of a paradox that advocacy is the most widely perceived behavioural trait of an engaged customer, and yet the majority of companies have not prioritised the solicitation of UGC.

Companies are still adjusting to the idea that a web presence is not just about having a destination website, but also a presence on third party websites, for
example social networks: this despite evidence that customer engagement cannot be controlled within their own websites and that they should look to improve their customer interactions outside of their own web properties. This involves an understanding/identification of different touch points where customer interaction takes place .

Methods of increasing engagement

Web 2.0-type tactics and technologies increasingly being used by organisations to increase online customer engagement are:
- blogging and video-sharing sites (21%)
- web-based widgets (in line with the development of pulled-in information / eg. igoogle home page)

Achieving engagement through the mobile channel

Around two-thirds of company respondents (64%) believe that the mobile channel will be ‘essential’ or ‘important’ for customer engagement in the next three years.
Companies looking to the mobile space as a tool for marketing and customer connection
must walk a fine line between engagement and (perceived) exploitation or invasion of
privacy to a degree never seen in the past.
Successful players will find ways to offer value-added services that build their brands, make their customers’ lives better, and don’t look anything like advertising.
Google’s suite of mobile applications meets these ends extraordinarily well.

‘Ease of use’ is seen as the most important factor to obtain customer engagement through the mobile (74%), followed by ‘website optimisation for mobile’ (58%) and ‘speed of downloads’ (51%).

Measurement and Research

Web analytics is regarded as the most essential method for gathering intelligence to improve customer engagement. Feedback from customer-facing staff and usability testing are the next most essential types of intelligence for better customer engagement.

The most enlightened organisations are combining quantitative and qualitative data from different channels in order to build their understanding of the customer experience.

A list of most collected data:
- customer complaints;
- customer praise;
- purchase history;
- customer satisfaction;
- customer feedback on competitors products and services;
- customer-generated ideas on products/services;
- lifestyle data;
- data on customers' personal value and beliefs

"I read this with a great deal of sadness because it shows that companies and marketers are only thinking of what to get out of me, the customer. Then they execute, and fail. How about we flip the model: What do I, the customer, get out of your engaging experience? Only by building on this assumption will you be successful. Engagement is not about you, it is about me" (Avinash Kaushik).

Mapping customer experience

Only few companies are starting identifying touch points to improve customer engagement.

Here is a list of most prestigious sources around the web

1) Kaushik on engagement;
2) CScape survey on customer engagement, 2008;
3) Forrester's definition on engagement, and lots of related friendly links;

Targeting affluent UK adults online

2008-09-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Mosaic Lifestyle modelling and Hitwise's approach are very useful for understanding the general behaviour of "50+, AB1, 50K+" and identify/sketch the group's offline and online media consumption pattern.

What the research proves is that this is the most affluent audience in UK, over-represented online compared to the overall population (over 11%), and it is using the Internet extensively for everyday shopping, for personal banking and keeping updates with financial news, for researching larger purchases, be this equipment for their hobbies, furnishings for home and garden, as well as booking leisure travel.
There is a strong correlation between offline habits and online behaviour, so the group is more likely to visit a website for a high-street retailer or brands it is familiar with, rather then following latest trends (including latest web-trends!).

The study was published by Hitwise end of 2007 - for the nature of this target audience, I doubt that many things have changed, especially in terms of online behaviour, with the only exception that, in line with the overall web trends, the group is entering and establishing a stronger presence also within the social media sphere (eg. let's think about the growth of business specific social network such as Linked-in), and definitely using blogs as a source of information, along with traditional news sites.

Ultimately, when deciding about how/where/when reaching this target for marketing purposes, the final choice should be primarily dictated by the 'communication goals' - acquisition/leads generation? branding/education? Retention? - with digital media chosen and balanced accordingly (search vs branded display ads vs email vs social strategy and/or sponsorship).

Download "Targeting Affluent Adults Online" - including a brief description of the group (labelled as 'Symbol of Success') based on Mosaic Lifestyle segmentation, and also some specific 'top' websites which score particularly high with the group, divided per sector, and based on Hitwise research.

test 2

2008-09-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Waitrose Wine Direct - a brief analysis

Reaching the ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘adventurous’ online wine purchaser effectively and efficiently

2008-09-30T07:27:00.001-07:00

A few considerations

The following list of digital media opportunities is based on an understanding of the general company's objectives – which are, driving traffic to the site ("acquisition") and increase online sales ("conversion") at the same time as 'establishing a online branding proposition' distinct from the high street retailer ("branding", Online Value Proposition OVP) – and some insights on the identified primary target audience – wine lovers, more 'knowledgeable' and 'adventurous', who already buy wine by the case, online or by phone.

Specifically, to drive traffic to the site, I have reviewed opportunities with acquisition-specific digital activities and channels such as search, affiliates, aggregators.

For branding/communicating an OVP we can look at both display advertising/sponsorship.

For increasing sales online (through conversion but also repeat purchase/retention), I have looked at email marketing.

Driving traffic:

Search activity

Search clearly is the first and perhaps most important acquisition-specific media to reach and drive any online wine buyers/ prospect to the website.

While reaching the general audience showing a generic interest in buying 'wine online' (the 'secondary' target audience) can turn very expensive, search budget can be optimised and ROI maximised by prioritising and/or focusing on more specific search queries (eg. specific wine names, specific countries of origin) which denote already a 'higher' degree of sophistication of the buyer and/or a different stage in the purchase funnel. For example, we can assume that a searcher looking for a 'red wine' has already expressed some preferences and made some decisions and he/she is now in the stage of 'narrowing' the preference set by looking for different red wines/retailers offering red wines; equally, a searcher looking for a "French Chardonnay from Burgundy" is probably closer to purchasing/converting than any other searcher looking for 'online wine' and therefore more valuable to drive to a relevant webpage than a generic searcher.

The same applies to SEO/natural search – with the website ideally optimised for more specific keywords which are more effective (decreasing CPA by reducing wastage) and efficient (increasing conversion rates and accelerating conversion) attracting more valuable/likely to convert searchers/shoppers/prospects.

Affiliate programs

Affiliate schemes can contribute enormously to drive traffic to the website efficiently, boosting the reach of the target audience at very competitive prices. In a way, running affiliate schemes is relatively risk-free (as the company only pays for valid leads/purchase), when backed by a sound 'brand policy', which among other things prevents affiliates from bidding on brand terms, hence avoiding jeopardising the company's own SEM/SEO budget and efforts. Eg. Oddbins runs an affiliate scheme through AFFILIATE WINDOWS offering 5% commission on sales to advertisers/publishers, protected by a brand policy.

There is a wide list of different established affiliate operators which offer highly flexible and customisable schemes to meet advertisers' needs and objectives: eg. TradeDoubler offers a "pay-per-call" pricing scheme where advertisers only pay for sales or lead generated through call to the customer service, suitably tracked through specific software.

In many cases 'affiliates' are formed by niche' sites which also add special 'editorial' and coverage to standard text links and display ads, as a way to maximise responses for the best advertisers (thus increasing their own revenue streaming).

WWD can benefit hugely from a sound affiliate scheme not only by reducing its customers acquisition costs but also because affiliates represent the most viable way to reach the 'long tail': the thousands of niche blogs, forums and communities where our identified target audience (more 'knowledgeable' and 'adventurous') is most likely to be found, reading and exchanging independent wine reviews.

Price comparisons sites – aggregators

WWD has already a presence on mass-market price comparison sites and aggregators (eg. Pricerunner, Kelkoo), thus guaranteeing that the brand is there wherever/whenever there is an opportunity for users' to search for a related product/service.

However, the focus on 'best price/offer in the market' typically characterising these aggregators and similar platforms is probably not very suitable for the decision/buying process pertaining the more 'knowledgeable' wine buyers, whose decisions are driven more by 'quality' than pricing, hence ideally resources to be allocated to these platforms should be relatively smaller than other vehicles.

Third-party list email campaign

Finally, email can be used to increase the database using third party emails list (including, membership of specific highly targeted sites such as Epicourous, TopTable, etc). Opportunities vary from 'solos' features, to cosponsoring some specific promotion/content, to simple advertising into the newsletter. The more relevant and trusted the source, the higher the chance that customers open the email and visit the featured site/sponsor.

Branding – OVP:

Display advertising and sponsorship

For branding/communicating the brand value, clearly display ads and/or sponsorships are the best vehicles and the latest rich media ads format which are highly interactive can also be deployed to generate users' response/leads and/or even expand the reach through built-in viral mechanism – thus maximising media spaces (branding and acquisition all-in-one).

Key to success is the ad content (which must be relevant to the offer/brand and target audience), the media placement/environment, and other important factors eg. targeting, running time, frequency.

For instance, rich media ads with dynamic content featuring 'latest wine line' and/or link direct to the sign-up process or to the 'wine list/brochure' can be created and placed into highly relevant premium content sites, either supporting some specifically created editorial (sponsorship) or alternatively served based on users' browsing selections (behavioural targeting), or matching content (contextual), or on search queries (eg. a user on a recipe-specific website looking for 'accompanying wines' through the on-site search tool). Response rates/impact of display can be maximised by running the campaign in correspondence with any other offline/online advertising activity or PR events (wine featured in TV programs – eg. BBC "Saturday Kitchen", exhibition and fairs, in-store activities/ads etc.).

Most appropriate online environment for both sponsorships and display advertising are envisaged in 'inspiring' and highly branded sites in the food/gourmet/cooking publishing sector – eg. www.epicurious.com, www.toptable.co.uk

Display ads through ad network

Although display ads run through ad-networks are not very efficient for acquisition or for branding purposes, bulk ad network buy could be particularly useful and cost-effective to reach/target and increase level of awareness among the 'secondary' target audience (eg. customers who know the brand but are not aware of the direct wine service).

Converting/increasing sales:

Email
campaign using internal data

Email is the most suitable, effective and efficient digital tool to use to convert shoppers into buyers, first, and occasional buyers into loyal customers. To be effective, email communication must be perceived by the recipients as valuable add-on services which facilitate the decision-buying process (eg. acting as reminder, offering relevant editorial, etc) rather than being intrusive. Nowadays, customers expect digital communication and email especially to be highly customised (based on one individual preferences), timely (delivered at the right moment), relevant (the message/offer), useful (eg. a reminder, a market update), all of which can be achieved only through proper eCRM program which collect, segment and manage customer data to deliver and help establish personal engaging dialogue between the company and the customers.

Hence, it is necessary to persuade visitors/buyers to 'sign-up' and every opportunity for collecting email data/growing the database must be maximised, eg. through affiliate ads and/or display ads. Clearly the most important touch point is given by the website and this should be optimised to increase the number of sign-ups, first.

Maximising acquisition through visitors' subscription

Currently, although WWD offers a sign-up service, there is not clear 'call-to-action'/'email value proposition' – basically, the reason and the advantages for subscribing. Also, the fact that the sign-up form is placed at the bottom of the page minimises its visibility and 'significance' compared to other functions offered in the website. Research shows that the volume of subscribers can be dramatically increased by moving the sign-up form at the top of the page, where is more likely to catch user attention, along with defining and communicating a OVP/advantages for subscribing:

Even after a visitor decides to register, there is no clear follow-up communication which pushes the visitors to take more action/'engage' in any manner with the website/the company (eg. 'view our newest wines', read our 'latest blog', offers, etc) – both in the 'thank you' page and especially in the welcome page:

Figure 1 Thank you page - hardly distinguishable from home page

The welcome email could be exploited especially to either drive the customer to the website, but also as a way to collect more data from customers after first registering (eg. allowing customers to express their preferences for future communication):

Figure 2 welcome email

An example of optimisation of online visitors' acquisitions/conversion and retention: the BBR website

Berry Bros & Rudd use the website not merely for transactional purpose but as a relationship-building tool. The site is content-rich, highly customisable, and opportunities for engaging with customers/visitors/wine lovers alike are maximised by not only the relevant content but also by the website layout/architecture:

Figure 3 - Emphasis is on the sign up/account log in and on establishing a 'dialogue' with visitors through relevant content

Conversion and retention is then increased through the offer of highly customisable personal account services, which include feature such as 'wish list', 'recommendations' etc which facilitate the buying process (for the customer) and eventually the selling process (for the company):

Summary

To summarise, driving traffic to the website can be achieved though different digital tools/activities; however to meet the objective of increasing sales and reducing CPA it is highly recommendable to use extensively yet appropriately email communications, backed by sound eCRM strategy, and maximise the opportunities to 'engage' with visitors/buyers online through relevant content, including User generated content (forums, ratings, feedbacks, wish list, blogs).

Symbol of Success

2008-09-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

"Symbols of Success" is the most affluent lifestyle group in the UK (Mosaic Lifestyle Group), and the forth largest, accounting for 10.50% of the overall UK population and 11.52% of the UK online population.

This group is concentrated in city areas such as London and Edinburgh, usually employed in the 'knowledge' industries (eg. lawyers, surgeons, university professors, consultants or senior civil servants).

They live in fashionable inner city neighbourhoods or in prestigious outer suburbs.

They are most likely to be aged 45-64, married and in good health, with a couple of children, studying away from home or already employed.

There are 7 Mosaic types - subgroups for the Symbol of Success, which are (in percentage of UK online population):
- semi-rural seclusion (2.38%): highly paid long distance commuters;
- high technologists (2.37%): corporate high-fliers living in detached houses;
- provincial privilege (1.76%): well-educated older professional in senior/public sector positions in the centre of large provincial cities or established suburbs;
- corporate chieftains (1.41%): very wealthy people, senior business managers, living in large detached houses in outer metropolitan suburbs;
- golden empty nesters (1.38%): families in later life stages, retired following success careers, living in large detached house often in choice residential location in semi-rural settings;
- global connections (1.19%): very affluent, cosmopolitan sophisticates from abroad, found in extremely expensive housing;
- Cultural leadership (1.03%): well-educated professionals, working in liberal professions, government or the arts, live in very expensive middle-ring London suburbs.

The Symbol of Success online profile

The fourth largest online group (1 in 8 online visitor), it is highly represented in the areas of finance, travel and online news; the group also spends time researching home improvements, purchasing home and garden furnishing and high-end consumers goods. Specifically, they use the Internet for banking and tracking their investment (25% of websites visited fall in the financial sector, excluding news sites). In their spare time, they engage in hobbies such as theatre, golf, ski holiday and yachting; and they also enjoy classical music, the arts and buying wine.

They use search as a way to navigate to a specific website when shopping.

This group is more likely to visit the website of an airline directly when booking flights, rather than using a price comparison website.

Ocado.com is the number one grocery website across all of the Symbols of Success sub-types.

what is Mosaic Lifestyle?

2008-09-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

Mosaic UK™ is a geo-demographics segmentation of the UK population that has been developed by Experian to describe and group the population on the basis of the proven principle that individuals with similar interests, lifestyles, profiles and behaviour cluster closely together.
Mosaic UK™ classifies all 24 million UK households into 11 groups, 61 types and 243 segments, and is updated each year.
The classification specifies both a Mosaic Group and Type for each of the 1.7 million postcodes in the UK. The type assigned is the one that most closely describes the characteristics of the households and individuals living there.
The 11 groups are:
SYMBOL OF SUCCESS
HAPPY FAMILIES
SUBURBAN COMFORT
TIES OF COMMUNITIES
URBAN INTELLIGENCE
WELFARE BORDERLINE
MUNICIPAL DEPENDENCY
BLUE COLLAR ENTERPRISES
TWILIGHT SUBSISTENCE
GREY PERSPECTIVE
RURAL ISOLATION

Baby Boomers online

2008-09-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

A selection of a few articles:
"Boomers Network Online and Stream Video, Ripe for Web Entertainment"
"Nearly 70% of Online Adults Use Social Media"

0.10% the latest industry avg. CTR for rich-media unit

2008-09-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Double-Click has published a latest report on rich-media performance according to which rich media ads unit produce a .10% click-through rate.
More here

Ecommerce benchmark for UK, July 2008

2008-09-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

Out of all traffic landing to the site,
- 21.97% visit one page only/immediately depart the site (bounce rate)
- 78% visit multiple pages
- 58% view at least one ‘product page’
- 9.60% place at least one item in their shopping cart
- 4.70% place an order (conversion rate)
In terms of visitors’ experience/session;
- 12 PPV/page views per session
- 2.53 page product view per session
- 7 mins avg. dwelling time
Transaction summary:
- Avg. 3.59 items purchased per order
- £50 average order value
- 49.57% shopping cart conversion rate (order completed)
- 50.43% shopping cart abandonment
- 3.04% new visitors completed their order!!
Onsite search summary:
- 34% visitors out of all sessions/traffic use the onsite search
- 7.58% then complete an order
- £41.22 average order value for order completed involving an onsite search
Source of Traffic:
- 49.77% of total traffic is direct
a. 58% of total sales come from direct traffic
b.5.96% conversion rate for direct traffic
- 18.48% of traffic come from natural search
a.10.34% sales come from natural search
b.2.72% natural search conversion rate
- 6.84% of traffic come from referral
a. 5.18% of total sales come from referral
b. 3.26% referral conversion rate

More on GrokDotCom
Get the UK update from CoreMetrics

Social network aggregator - Spokeo

2008-09-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

Spokeo is a social network aggregator which presents each user with an updated view of all of their friends' activities on sites such as MySpace, Digg, Flickr and YouTube. It has support for over 20 of the most popular social networks, as well any site that provides an RSS feed.
See more on Spokeo

Uploading video to YouTube

2008-09-22T02:16:00.000-07:00

Video uploaded on YouTube are transcoded (decoded to raw video, then re-encoded) into Flash Video (FLV) format. The video frame size is scaled to no larger than 320x240. The frame rate appears to be between 25 and 30 frames per second, and the video data rate appears to be somewhere around 200 Kilobits (kbps) per second. Audio is reduced to mono and transcoded to a lower bit rate. This transcoding is what's going on in between the time you complete your upload to YouTube, and the time that the video is finally available for viewing.
More tips on Making Movies

A free online guide to map silver surfers online

2008-09-18T02:41:00.002-07:00

researching about silvers surfers, I came across this website which apparently lists many site mostly visited by over 50, or 'silver surfers'.
I haven't checked it yet but worth watching
Silversurfers.net

I'll write more on the content in the next date - keep in touch for more findings

Status of Internet diffusion, UK 2008

2008-09-18T02:41:00.001-07:00

The Office for National Statistics reported that, in 2008:
- almost 16.5 million households in Great Britain (65%) had Internet access.
- The highest level of access was the South East with 74%.
- The lowest access level was the North East with 54%.
- 56% of all UK households had a broadband connection, up from 51% in 2007
- 93% of adults under 70 years of age who had a degree or equivalent qualification were most likely to have access to the Internet.
- 70% of total people over 65 said they had never used the Internet

source: The Office for National Statistics

Social networking better than porn

2008-09-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

An article published by reuters shows that the percentage of Internet users searching for 'porn' is decreasing and being replaced by search for and use of social networking sites - it is not clear though whether this is due to a general increase in the active Internet population, with entry also of over 60 networking variously, or else if it is a real signal of cultural and societal shift...
Perhaps, whereas porn sites were paid-for, web 2.0 have franchised this domain along with many other restricted sector so that users don't need to pay-for these service when they can get them from free through the likes of hundreds of online communities.

source: Reuters

on widget marketing and distribution

2008-09-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Widgets can also run as a "socially enabled" rich media ad in any online media buy.
Some providers:
Gigya
Best practices

Google Chrome? So far so good!

2008-09-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

I downloaded Google Chrome first thing this morning, letting our Big Good Brother (aka BGB) to get even into this other personal space and learning a bit more than BGB already knows about me. I have welcomed at least four main things:
First, the incognito feature, which allows surfing webpages without leaving traces behind. The great thing is that you don't need to clear data and cookies, hence necessarily deleting hundreds of other saved log ins details. You simply open a new window in the 'incognito' mode. This came as absolutely timely and spot on for me: concerned about phishing and privacy issues, I was shifting to another 'user' access to execute important actions such as online banking.
Second, the user-centred home tab: what a great welcome to see clickable snapshots of all my favourite and most visited websites, in its uniquely clear Google style! And the recent bookmarks, search history and even the recently closed tabs! If I remember how many times I struggled to recover the websites I was navigating after closing accidentally the tab!
Connected, the independence of each tab in terms of processes and CPU - another great relief and peace of mind especially when I am doing some research as crushes here and there again won't compromise my whole online session
And last but not least, the embedded search tools, the 'one box for all': that's super cool BGB! Seemingly integrated with the address bar, I don't even need to use the plug-ins I recently got addicted to for quick searching. Of course, this all-in-one address bar and search tool will most likely boost the navigational search volume higher than already is and I suspect originated exactly from this common users’ habit, but again personally I can only benefit from it, it's faster, it's great, it makes me feel once more in control of the web, no matters how much Google revenues will levitate!

In short, Google Chrome has simply enhanced once more my personal online experience, showing again Google best feature, which is, its philanthropic character: the user is always top-of-mind, no matter if our Big Good Brother uses our expectations and deliver satisfaction as a 'means to an end' (namely, more profit and control)...I can’t recall many other moguls displaying the same approach for winning over competition.

Display or not Display?

2008-09-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Display or not display? Of course, many talk about the decline in the average CTR. How not to agree? I was still young during the first dot.com era so I can't compare however my experience in the last few years is that on average, a very satisfactory CTR is 0.50%, for rich media ads into highly branded environments, which goes down to 0.20% for premium ad buys through ad networks, to end to a meagre 0.05% for cheap blind buys!
I would personally cut down the expenditure for simple display advertising, especially where I can't have control of the inventory where my ads or clients' ads will be running.

A media agency featured in ClickZ suggest to complement/enrich display advertisement (standard and non standard ads) with a few tools – I omit paid search as this, for me, it is part of the online media but it is a ‘pull’ method hence does not make too much sense to put them all together especially when talking about effectiveness and response rates.

Complimentary tools are, then:
- text links - best and most conveniently bought and operated through Google content networks. My experience is positive when it is about extending the reach for my clients at relatively cheaper rates, especially if bought on a CPC base; also, they increase the impact of the overall display when accompanied by the same advertisers' display creative (see example)
- in text ads - a different, more advanced and "original" form of contextual advertising, consisting in sponsoring certain keywords which are linked to pop-up windows which contains from simple text to rich media ads to video. No experience with this but worth a try especially as these can be bought on a CPC base. Vibrant media and Kontera are leaders in the market.
- Advertorials - this is part of a social/pr strategy. Create advertorial filled with links driving to the advertisers webpage. Many bloggers in the blogosphere must be struggling to keep their site fresh and html rich for selling to advertisers - content can then be sold or given for free to either minor related bloggers or else one can ask premium bloggers to publish our content in exchange for a fee. The benefit is reciprocal, worth a try. I will investigate further on this. Anyone can help?

Leave aside Facebook social ads - it's a personal feeling I have not used this strategy and I don't think I will in the future, but I believe this is a waste of time and resources. Audience in facebook is not in the shopping mood and these ads are hardly noticed, clicked-through, and, in the worst cases, they can be simply untargeted and disruptive.

Newsletter advertising? Again, this is good if comes as an add-ons service, but I would not buy text links and/or various forms of display advertising in newsletter alone. Let's face it the general open rate is low and the CTR for the advertiser link is ridiculous. Unless you guarantee a coverage of at least 30% of the newsletter, which is the chance of being noticed?

Widget advertising could be interesting but only if the widget is original, relevant to the brands/users and useful. There is a feeling of warn-out in the sectors, and even the chance for the widget to get noticed again is very meagre. I would cross-out completely advertising within widget and/or any other applications (eg. Messenger), while give a go to cost effective white-label solutions.

Then, various video advertising (pre, post but also text links and fixed ads while the video is rolling). Again, a winning and engaging video will overshadow any surrounding advertisement, unless this is even more engaging and compelling than the video.

I am very sceptical with splash pages however my experience as a 'user' is favourable to interstitial (eg. during a page loading), especially for branding purposes.

Web accessibility in compliance with Disability Discrimination Regulation

2008-08-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

First the USA introduced Section 508 by giving the possibility to take criminal action against inaccessible websites. In March 2002, the European Parliament, stating the importance of the accessibility of websites for the participation and emancipation of disabled people in general, accepted a resolution 'asking' the European institutes and the member states to make all their websites accessible before 2003.
In UK, web accessibility is a legal requirement, regulated by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The act ensures, among the rest, that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users, however, in practice, the law is unclear on how this should be implemented.
The code of practice contains specific reference to websites. The relevant quotes are:

2.2 (p7): “The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public.”
4.7 (p39): “From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services.”
2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): “What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the act.”
5.23 (p71): “For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.”
5.26 (p68): “For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.”

Section III of the DDA, which refers to accessible websites, came into force on 1st October 1999 and the Code of Practice for this section of the DDA was published on 27th May 2002. This means that the majority of websites have been in breach of the law for over five years.

Companies in breach of the law can be sued: The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) has approached two large companies with regard to their websites. The DRC (Disability Rights Commission) launched a formal investigation into 1000 websites, of which over 80% were next to impossible for disabled people to use.
Most likely, the W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium) accessibility guidelines will be used to assess a website's accessibility.
The W3C offers three different levels of compliance. Priority 1 guidelines, (which must be satisfied according to the W3C) will almost certainly have to be adhered to. Priority 2 guidelines (which should be satisfied and are the EU recommended level of compliance), or some part of, will probably need to be adhered to too.

Main source: Webcredible

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

2008-08-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 is a set of UK regulations to protect consumers from unfair, misleading or aggressive marketing practices. It implements an EU wide law - the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive – to harmonise consumer protection law across Europe. There is also the Business Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 which is specific to B2B practices.
The new law is technology neutral.
Misleading ‘word of mouth’ or ‘buzz’ marketing becomes an offence, as well as fake blogs or ‘astroturfing’. Among the specific 31 banned practices are the following:

Spam: Making persistent and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, email or other remote media except in circumstances or to enforce a contractual obligation.
Unclear Advertorials: Using editorial in the media to promote a product where a marketer has paid for the promotion without making it clear to the consumer.
Targeting children: Including in an advert a direct exhortation to children to buy advertised products or persuade their parents or other adults (‘pester power’) to buy advertised products for them.
Use of the word ‘free’: Describing a product as ‘free’ or ‘without charge’ if the consumer has to pay anything other than the unavoidable cost of responding to the commercial practice and collecting or paying for deliverly of the item [This does not capture ‘Buy One Get One Free Offers’ but would capture ‘bundling’ situations when part of the bundle is described as free when in practice there is an expense in acquiring the larger bundle (eg in communications services)]

Source IABUK

Privacy and Consumer Data

2008-08-27T04:19:00.000-07:00

"The Future of Consumer Web Data: A European/US Perspective" considers the subject of clickstream data from aEuropean/US perspective, taking into account the Data ProtectionFramework (Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC; Directive onPrivacy and Electronic Communications 2002/58/EC) and the USlegal framework and in particular, the Wiretap Act U.S.C. 2701(2004) and related statutes. It examines the extent to whichclickstream data is considered "personal data" within the DataProtection Directive and the implications to consumers and businesses.