February 2012
14 posts
7 tags
ASA announces it will not investigate 'Bigger.... →
The ASA has revealed that it will not be investigating Channel 4’s ‘Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier’ ad created in-house by 4Creative.
In a statement, the advertising standards body said: “We have received 316 complaints about the Channel Four ad campaign for the new series of Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
“The general nature of the complaints were that the ads were offensive because they...
10 tags
Are you the left brain or the right - I'm... →
“I am the left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.” And for the right brain: … “I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free...
9 tags
How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant... →
So Target started sending coupons for baby items to customers according to their pregnancy scores. Duhigg shares an anecdote — so good that it sounds made up — that conveys how eerily accurate the targeting is. An angry man went into a Target outside of Minneapolis, demanding to talk to a manager:
Target knows before it shows.
“My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still...
14 tags
Apple briefs bloggers, blanks New York Times (via... →
Apple has a track record of playing favourites with publications, so that a handful of journalists get treated like royalty while the plebs consider themselves lucky if they can extract a “no comment”. Of course, these very select American publications retain their editorial independence, but there’s always a hidden threat: they know that if they don’t provide the...
9 tags
UK Pinterest users buck US trend (via... →
A recent study has shown that Pinterest is more popular with men than women in the UK. This is, at first glance, quite surprising seeing as 83 per cent of Pinterest’s US users are women. However, a closer look at the data reveals that many UK users are in fact professionals working in the media industry. This perhaps explains why the gender split is more even in the UK (44 per cent female,...
5 tags
"Regret doesn’t remind us that we did badly — it... →
Kathryn Schulz on the Psychology of Regret and How to Live with It | Brain Pickings
If we have goals and dreams and we want to do our best, and if we love people and we don’t want to hurt them or lose them, we should feel pain when things go wrong. The point isn’t to live without any regrets, the point is to not hate ourselves for having them… We need to learn to love the flawed,...
7 tags
#LoveIt. >If cats were fonts (via @cox_tom... →
More at: http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/02/16/if-cats-were-fonts/
9 tags
15% increase in revenue with Facebook app (via...
As the number of Facebook commerce apps grows, choosing the right one to partner with is now an important decision to get right. One of the leading app developers is Ecwid. To illustrate how their platform can deliver real-world revenue gains, the company analysed 2,000 of its user accounts and found that an increase of 15% was enjoyed when using the app. Ecwid itself now has over 10...
7 tags
Interactive 3D Stream of Love on Twitter... →
V.nice!
13 tags
No Longer An Awkward Teenager? Gamification Grows... →
Over the last year, you may have noticed that a once-niche trend not only crept into the mainstream, but is starting to really make a big splash. Gamification has become one of the hottest buzz words in the industry and is probably in the process of taking over a website or user experience near you.
For the uninitiated, gamification, said simply, is the use of game design techniques and...
12 tags
Social media engagement is 'the top priority for... →
New research about digital marketing trends published today shows that social media engagement is rated as both the top priority and most exciting opportunity for companies this year.
But while the fourth Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing, published by Econsultancy in association with Adobe, shows a huge appetite for social media programmes, there is a worrying lack of commitment...
7 tags
Brands struggling to follow consumer journey... →
Over half of brands still struggle with following and understanding the journey of a potential consumer online, known as attribution modelling, according to new research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
The IAB surveyed 123 marketers and digital marketers from top 200 advertisers in the UK, between October and December last year for its Search Barometer Survey.
According...
9 tags
Lady Gaga to launch own social networking site... →
Pop sensation Lady Gaga is launching her own social networking website exclusively for her fans.
Gaga, 25, has used online forums to boost her worldwide appeal and has become the first celebrity to register 18 million followers on Twitter, Daily Star reported. Now the `Poker Face` hitmaker is putting her technology skills to use by founding her very own networking site for her devotees,...
7 tags
Clever bit of Valentine's Day direct marketing... →
like sentiment but not execution - was no surprise as wife saw it 1st (unless that was Interflora ploy)
January 2012
37 posts
10 tags
P&G To Lay Off 1,600 After Discovering It's Free... →
Reality appears to have finally arrived at Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest marketer, whose $10 billion annual ad budget has hurt the company’s margins.
P&G said it would lay off 1,600 staffers, including marketers, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. More interestingly, CEO Robert McDonald finally seems to have woken up to the fact that he cannot keep increasing...
12 tags
iPhone app uses a QR code to check you in on... →
in Share1
QR codes are one of the most often asked about topics, but up to now I’ve pretty much avoided the subject. That’s mainly because it’s been three years since foursquare launched, but there’s still no good way to check in using a QR code that works across all the major platforms.
I recently checked out foursQR on the iPhone and it’s a pretty good solution for iPhone users. No, ...
9 tags
Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers... →
More at: http://mashable.com/2012/01/29/pinterest-retail-infographic/
20 tags
Watchdog To Investigate Celeb Snickers Tweets... →
Tweets sent by Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price promoting Snickers are to be formally investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Following complaints, the ASA will look into whether the tweets were in breach of advertising rules by failing to adequately inform the public they were part of a marketing campaign.
Ferdinand and Price, along with Ian Botham, Amir Khan and X Factor’s...
17 tags
Facebook urges clearer understanding of social... →
Facebook is investing further in its outreach programme to retailers to bring clarity to the term “social commerce” and promote social integration on their websites.
Gavin Sathianathan, Facebook’s strategic partner manager, is leading the social network’s bid to promote social commerce in the UK and said that agreed definitions are a key building block in its evolution. “It’s really...
11 tags
Starbucks To Sell Wine (Via @stylistmagazine) →
The ever-present coffee chain is expanding its dominant position on the market by offering a range of beer and wine to its customers, alongside a wider choice of savoury nibbles such as flatbreads and cheese plates.
The move is intended to draw in a larger proportion of evening customers looking to relax after work.
Starbucks is currently testing the initiative at a series of select stores...
13 tags
Man City asks supporters to spot themselves and... →
24 January 2012 - 5:30pm | by Staff Writer | 0 comments
Man City asks supporters to spot themselves and Mario Balotelli in its 360 degree ‘Fan Cam’
Manchester City Football Club is asking fans who were present at Sunday’s blockbuster clash with Spurs to tag themselves in its new 360 degree ‘Fan Cam’ from the game.
The The five billion pixel photograph...
4 tags
Shakespearean Insult Generator (via... →
More at: http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/shakespearean-insult-generator/
17 tags
#McDStories, McDonald's Twitter Hashtag Promotion,... →
@McDonalds McDonald’s
Meet some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day #McDStories http://t.co/BoNIwRJS
January 18, 2012 8:30 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite
From there, the #McDStories hashtag was born, but probably not in the way McDonald’s was hoping. Negative tweets about the fast food giant began to...
14 tags
#Curious > Lynx Uses F-Commerce for New... →
To herald in this new era for the Lynx brand in the UK, it’s giving its Facebook Fans the chance to buy one of the first 100 cans directly from Facebook from 4pm today.
We’re seeing more and more brands turning to Facebook to sell items directly to consumers, as we reported last year when UK-based clothing retailer ASOS launched one of Europe’s first fully integrated Facebook stores.
...
12 tags
Rumors About Facebook Mobile (via @socialmedia2day... →
There are a lot of articles circulating about the benefits of mobile advertising. In fact, many companies and brands are embracing mobile advertising and seeing impressive results. However, the mobile advertising market hasn’t been cornered by one particular vendor and some are wondering if Facebook is going to join the mobile scene.
Facebook is recognized as one of the top social media...
9 tags
Ladies get some to > Girls get the 'Lynx effect'... →
Lynx, the Unilever-owned male grooming brand, is launching a women’s body spray in the UK today (23 January), for the first time in the brand’s history.
Lynx: rolls out women’s fragrance
The body spray is part of the new Attract range, which is mainly aimed at men and is being backed by a £7.2m marketing push.
Attract For Her is being marketed as a limited edition...
2 tags
7 tags
Gridpak – The Responsive Grid Generator →
From Erskine design.
Visit: http://gridpak.com/
12 tags
Nice idea > Topgear to blow up a caravan at 10m...
helloyoucreatives:
Top Gear are getting ready to blow something up http://www.facebook.com/topgear
10 tags
Popping, #sneakycommutershots & IG-ers – a look at... →
One of the social media success stories of 2011 was easily the photo-sharing app Instagram. Despite only running on Apple ‘iDevices’, Instagram boss Kevin Systrom reckoned he had 16+ million users at Christmas.
Post Christmas sign-ups combined with Apple naming Instagram app of the year means that total is probably not far off 20 million by now. And the company estimates that the...
13 tags
Google+ lets you start a conversation directly... →
Yesterday, Google rolled out yet another new feature for Google+ that lets you start a conversation directly from search results - and contribute to a topical Google+ stream.
In a post on Google+ (of course), associate product manager Alex Unger said that if you search for a keyword of phrase like basketball from within Google+, you can then create a post directly from the results shown.
...
7 tags
YES! > Foursquare adds menu details to restaurant... →
Foursquare has added another new feature to its desktop service – restaurant menus.
The update, which uses technology from start-up SinglePlatform, adds 13m food items from 250,000 restaurants in major US cities.
At the moment the menus are available on the desktop and mobile sites, but the company says it will launch them soon on Foursquare’s apps.
This is the latest move by...
9 tags
Tablet shoppers spend 21% more than other... →
Tablet visitors to e-commerce sites spend 20% more than desktop shoppers, and twice as much as those using smartphones, according to a new report.
Adobe’s Digital Marketing Insights report takes its data from 16.5bn visits to more than 150 retailers last year, and shows that AOVs from tablets are higher than from other devices.
It also suggests that retailers should consider...
9 tags
EA gets together with Katy Perry to boost The Sims... →
Gaming firm Electronic Arts (EA) has partnered with pop singer Katy Perry to develop and promote multiple games within its ‘The Sims’ franchise, featuring Perry-themed in-game content and virtual goods.
Katy Perry: stars in latest marketing activity for The Sims franchise
The partnership will feature Perry in all-new marketing activity for the brand, which will begin with...
8 tags
How long does a Facebook Post Live? (via... →
“The average Post Lifetime for a Facebook Brand Page Update is 3 hours and 7 minutes”
This nugget is baed on considering that each individual Post has a “lifetime”. A Post is considered dead when the growth in engagement is less than 10% of the largest growth of engagement between hourly snapshots.
This data was sampled for EdgeRankChecker customers for the month of December, 2011...
9 tags
#SOPA explained - #Infographic →
11 tags
How to make your shopping cart suck less - (via... →
Old but still totally valid.
Find the rest at: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/shopping_cart
11 tags
Scary>Everything you need to know about Facebook’s... →
More at: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/11/facebook-ipo-infographic/?obref=obinsite
13 tags
Google creating its own social game using Google... →
Watch out, Facebook. Google is making its own game for Google+ … and it involves maps.
Yesterday, the company released a video of the new game, which takes advantage of its Google Maps product. The video shows a cube with a map overlay. A small blue ball travels through the map based on the spinning and tilting of the cube. Judging by the video, it seems players will have to move through...
10 tags
Cadbury UK Uses Google for Product Launch (via... →
In what may be a first, Cadbury UK has used Google+ to introduce a new product.
“Remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+,” the brand wrote on its Google+ Page Wednesday afternoon. “The delicious new Dairy Milk Bubbly, available with milk or white bubbles [pictured], will be the first of many we hope!”
About 2,200 people have the brand in their...
7 tags
Social Commerce - new trends, integration &... →
Social Commerce - new trends, integration and changing consumer behavior
View more presentations from Social2B
6 tags
Google Passes Link Juice Through iFrames (via... →
Michael Martinez posted a thread at High Rankings Forums basically confirming earlier reports that Google will see and pass value of a link within an iframe.
…
He is extremely confident about his test that Google can crawl iFramed pages and follow the links within them.
More at: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-iframe-link-14558.html
8 tags
Home Depot launches PayPal in-store test - Related... →
Five Home Depot stores are testing in-store payment systems from PayPal that let shoppers check out without cash or a credit card. Customers using the system pay by typing their phone numbers and a personal ID number into a terminal that connects with their PayPal account.
More from:...
8 tags
Shazam Integrates Television and Mobile Ecommerce →
Mobile discovery company Shazam announced Tuesday (11/8) that USA Network’s hit show Covert Affairs will now feature Shazam for TV. Covert Affairs joins several other “Shazamable” shows, which means it will include call-outs during the show for viewers to use the Shazam app to tag music in the show and gain access to special photos and video. This feature will be available beginning with the...
7 tags
Novel, but do not want > Fast food chain offers... →
More at: http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/01/05/fast-food-chain-offers-black-darth-vader-burger-celebrate-star-wars-3d
10 tags
“LoveFilm partners with the UK’s ITV & BBC Worldwide to boost streaming...”
–
UK movie-streaming and rental service LoveFilm has partnered with ITV and BBC Worldwide to give its members instant access to TV titles from the UK’s largest broadcasters.
The news follows hot on the heels of the announcement that its US rival Netflix – soon to be launching in the UK – had...
8 tags
Why HMV shouldn't make users register before... →
Making customers register before they checkout is a barrier to purchase, yet many online retailers have yet to learn this lesson.
The arguments against this barrier are compelling. For example, ASOS halved its abandonment rate at the registration page simply by removing any mention of creating an account.
In a more famous example from Jared Spool, one retailer added $300m to its annual...
9 tags
Clever use of Facebook timeline for an anti-drugs... →
3 tags
Google caught violating its own rules - Marketing... →
Related Links
Online brands help UK consumers simplify their lives
Apple strives to catch up with Google
Expect Google’s answer to Siri this year?
Google has been accused of promoting its own product by paying bloggers to praise its own web browser, Google Chrome, in an act which breaches its own anti-spam laws.
“Chromegate,” termed so by site Talking Points Memo, caught the...
9 tags
Brand advocacy and purchase intent remain elevated... →
As social media marketers become more and more accountable for the return on investment of their programs, some are also starting to see the long-term results of campaigns that work.
Beginning in summer 2010, BzzAgent, the social media marketing arm of dunnhumby, began studying the immediate and lingering results of several social media marketing campaigns involving consumer packaged...