Writing Press Releases

I've come acrosss an interesting video courtesy of New School Network Marketing on how and why to Press Release.

Here's the video

'Media planners want to invest more in digital '

Reports Brand Republic's Revolution Magazine.

'Almost 80 per cent of 873 media planners surveyed across 14 European countries including the UK said that they want to invest more budget in digital marketing this year.'

Find the full piece here.

Augmented Reality showcased at Wimbledon 2009

Augmented Reality, a tool to enhance what we see with helpful information developed by IBM has debuted at Wimbledon this year.

A video through YouTube shows off its capabilities at the All England Club and its potential for future use. The likes of Nike and WWF China are experimenting with AR for marketing purposes. Can the masses be persuaded? Can it really be rolled out in complex, data rich environments? Ponder yourself.. here's the video:

Google to include microblogs?

Recent reports have suggested that Google's admiration for Twitter extends further than just industry recognition. Could Google index microblog posts from services such as Twitter?

It is expected that Google may look to provide their own search feature of microblogs such as Twitter. Google could also be looking into some sort of partnership with Twitter, helping the social service place advertisement content next to search results. A move that could cement the rising importance of Twitter to a firms marketing campaign.

If Google was to look into a special Twitter search offering, many users would probably take advantage due to the problem laden Twitter offering.

Positive market reaction to Bing in US

Early research from America suggests that Mircosoft's renewed attempts to break the Search Engine domination are proving a hit. Its share of search results has increased from 9.1% (ahead of launch) to 12% reports comShare. This does give us a good indication of the initial impact the Search Engine is having on web users, but only specific to America as Microsoft's marketing campaign activities have concentrated on the US. It would be wrong at this stage to look at the take up in Europe, this would have to be studied once Microsoft turns its marketing efforts this way later in the year.

Cost per click is on the up

A recent IPA study based on 12 agencies and 47 brands shows a decline in click through rate and increase in cost per click through Google in paid search advertising.

With the importance of maximising ROI at the moment to marketers, the results provide some interesting insight into the current situation. Is paid searching becomming less effective?

The data was taken from the period of January 2008 to March 2009 and click through rates have declined from 40% to 20% whereas the cost per click has risen from 6p to 29p.

Rob Taylor, Search Director at BLM Quantum, gives some possible reasons for this cost increase,

“What we are seeing is a four-fold increase in Brand CPCs in just over 12 months. This may be a reflection of the fact that brand terms are becoming more competitive in line with a decline in the economy. As search is so measurable, clients are beginning to realise that competitive bidding generates positive ROI, even though the quality score is against them and CPCs are high. It is important to remind clients to defend brand terms, but also to consider their competitive position as rivals may also be pitching to their customers at the same time.”

The Adwords offering from Google saw some significant changes in the period in question, notably the ability to bid on trademarked terms. Google maintains the move was to 'improve the consumer experience' however there have been calls that it was a tactic to boost profits by increasing cost of search.

The results are graphically represented below courtesy of IPA,


We await natural search statistics for a clearer market picture.

Channel 4 to make 10,000 programs available online

Channel 4 is soon to become the first broadcaster in the UK to archive online TV shows for viewing, free of charge. No longer will you have to purchase that expensive DVD boxed set as it will appear in its entirety, online. The move will not include some foreign programs such as Friends or Channel 4 News items due to rights and legal issues.

From July the broadcaster will put up around 10,000 programs in their catch up service for the user to enjoy. Unlike ITV and the BBC, Channel 4 does not actually commission it's own programs, this could be a move then to remind us what the broadcaster has given us over the years.

Online TV popularity has increased in recent years as users want to watch the shows they want, when they want. Channel 4's archive move will add to the choice viewer has today.

This could though present an interesting dilemma for the BBC. The successful iPlayer provides content from certain popular programmes, however, there is no 'back catalogue' or large archive of shows and content gets removed after a certain period. A potential stumbling block for the BBC could be the issue of license fees. It was announced recently that some BBC bosses have called for a charge issued to the online viewer who is effectively getting a license service for free. This could make a BBC venture into the archived online TV market tricky, at least for now.

Twitter account verification in the future

It has been announced, via the company blog, that Twitter is looking to introduce some sort of account verification process for Twitterers. A beta, due out be out soon, will only be for public officials, agencies and celebrities. However, brands may not have to verify accounts initially, and Twitter have said that they are confident that the majority of accounts are genuine.

This comes as stories are appearing more and more in the press recently about fake celebrity Tweeters. Take the American baseball team manager Tony La Russa who is suing Twitter for their allowance of a fake account under his name. Twitter insists their terms and conditions are 'fair' and will not settle out of court.

Omniture to provide analysis for Bing

Omniture's analysis tools SearchCenter, SiteCatalyst and Discover OnPremise will provide data from Bing for marketers.

Brett Error at Omniture said,

“The Bing reporting capabilities in the Omniture Online Marketing Suite will help marketers measure the value of search campaigns from Bing and their impact on search marketing efforts to make more informed and profitable decisions.”

With the ability to manage campaigns alongside that of Google this could prove an important development allowing for the optimisation analysis across the most popular search engines out there through a single tool.

www.omniture.com

Microsoft bringing Twitter and Facebook to Xbox

Here's an interesting development in the gaming world. It has been announced that Microsoft is looking at ways to integrate social services such as Facebook and Twitter into their 360 games console. With Twitter feeds automatically updated on screen, the ability to upload games screenshots, view full screen photos and update status from Facebook it would seem Microsoft is attempting sticking techniques. It is the intention that the addition of these social media tools will keep gamers on their Xbox's and increase user numbers.

Can this move make developers stand up and integrate social media into games?

It is widely expected that Facebook will strike similar deals with Sony and Nintendo so as to roll the service out to as many potential users as possible.

It seems like Microsoft is really serious about the 360 and its broad appeal. With a deal recently struck with BSkyB to offer premium content, the death of the games console could be closer giving rise to the 'media centre'.

More as this develops.