This is the first major market where online has overtaken television to become the biggest single medium.
- Guy Phillipson, head of the British the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
In Kate Holden, "UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time," Reuters, September 30, 2009
The recession in the UK has caused a general advertising slump, and that has affected the growth of internet advertising there. Nevertheless, advertisers have continued to built their presence on the internet at a faster pace than in other media. "Spending on Internet advertising in Britain grew 4.6 percent in the first half of 2009, outperforming the wider ad sector, which slumped 17 percent, and making it the country's biggest ad medium ahead of TV." One consequence is that the internet has pulled ahead of television as the medium drawing the most advertising pounds.
According to the report from the UK's IAB, "ad spending on the Internet grew to 1.75 billion pounds, with the medium accounting for 23.5 percent of all spend, ahead of television for the first time." One commentator suggested that the shift to online reflects a belief that search advertising and other "clickable" ads show better than with traditional media how successful the ad spending has been. It will be important to see whether this trend continues when the recession ends.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Google Fast Flip Rethinks the Magazine
There's no grand plan here, nothing more to this other than learning.
-Martin Nisenholtz, Senior VP of Operations, New York Times
In Staci D. Kramer, "Google Fast Flip Goes Live," PaidContent.Org, September 15, 2009
Google Labs released an experimental program it calls Fast Flip, the purpose of which is to allow users to quickly move ("flip") through the first pages of various articles in newspapers and magazines that Google's software has arranged by topic. What makes this different from Google News or from simply using Google to search for a topic is that Fast Flip allows readers to actually read the first page of an article before having to wait for it to load. If the reader likes it, he or she can continue by clicking so that the whole thing comes onto the screen. If the reader doesn't want to read that one but wants to stay with the theme, the reader can move to the next article which also has the first page visible for easy reading.
Google secured the permission of many web publishers so that it could use their pages and logos directly on the Fast Flip main page instead of having text links to them. Google also agreed to share any future advertising revenue with the publishers if they place Google-brokered ads on the pages that show up on Fast Flip. As the Times' Nisenholtz notes, though, at this point the venture is experimental, not moneymaking.
Just as Google News encourages people to rethink the meaning of a newspaper and its potential for personalization, so Google Fast Flip promises to challenge the meaning of a magazine by unmooring articles from their original locations, displaying them in a page-flip manner with articles on a similar topic, and even allowing people to personalize this process and share it with others. Traditional magazine firms will watch this development nervously. Depending on how big they are and how they react, it may eventually help or hurt their bottom line.
-Martin Nisenholtz, Senior VP of Operations, New York Times
In Staci D. Kramer, "Google Fast Flip Goes Live," PaidContent.Org, September 15, 2009
Google Labs released an experimental program it calls Fast Flip, the purpose of which is to allow users to quickly move ("flip") through the first pages of various articles in newspapers and magazines that Google's software has arranged by topic. What makes this different from Google News or from simply using Google to search for a topic is that Fast Flip allows readers to actually read the first page of an article before having to wait for it to load. If the reader likes it, he or she can continue by clicking so that the whole thing comes onto the screen. If the reader doesn't want to read that one but wants to stay with the theme, the reader can move to the next article which also has the first page visible for easy reading.
Google secured the permission of many web publishers so that it could use their pages and logos directly on the Fast Flip main page instead of having text links to them. Google also agreed to share any future advertising revenue with the publishers if they place Google-brokered ads on the pages that show up on Fast Flip. As the Times' Nisenholtz notes, though, at this point the venture is experimental, not moneymaking.
Just as Google News encourages people to rethink the meaning of a newspaper and its potential for personalization, so Google Fast Flip promises to challenge the meaning of a magazine by unmooring articles from their original locations, displaying them in a page-flip manner with articles on a similar topic, and even allowing people to personalize this process and share it with others. Traditional magazine firms will watch this development nervously. Depending on how big they are and how they react, it may eventually help or hurt their bottom line.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Blurring the Boundaries of Advertising and PR
This is business Darwinism now.
- Sissy DeMaria, president of Coral Gables public relations firm Kreps DeMaria
In Clifford M. Marks, "PR and Advertising Are at a Crossroads," Miami Herald, August 10, 2009
For decades, most people working in advertising public relations saw clear differences between the two businesses. "Madison Avenue types took care of the 30-second spots, the billboards and the full-page ad in Sunday's paper. Their cousins in public relations drafted press releases, networked with reporters to land favorable coverage and helped handle crises that drew negative media attention." Now, MySpace and other sites are blurring the question of what kinds of marketing messages are PR and what are advertising. Moreover, they realize that in the new world to reach consumers they have to use a wide variety of strategies to reach their target audiences--even if the strategies don't fit traditional definitions of advertising or PR.
``Public relations and advertising are blending much more than they did in the past,'' says Jeff Steinhour, director of content management at Coconut Grove-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. ``They used to be separate worlds -- like church and state. Now you're seeing them at the same meetings at the same time.''
- Sissy DeMaria, president of Coral Gables public relations firm Kreps DeMaria
In Clifford M. Marks, "PR and Advertising Are at a Crossroads," Miami Herald, August 10, 2009
For decades, most people working in advertising public relations saw clear differences between the two businesses. "Madison Avenue types took care of the 30-second spots, the billboards and the full-page ad in Sunday's paper. Their cousins in public relations drafted press releases, networked with reporters to land favorable coverage and helped handle crises that drew negative media attention." Now, MySpace and other sites are blurring the question of what kinds of marketing messages are PR and what are advertising. Moreover, they realize that in the new world to reach consumers they have to use a wide variety of strategies to reach their target audiences--even if the strategies don't fit traditional definitions of advertising or PR.
``Public relations and advertising are blending much more than they did in the past,'' says Jeff Steinhour, director of content management at Coconut Grove-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. ``They used to be separate worlds -- like church and state. Now you're seeing them at the same meetings at the same time.''
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Netflix Contest Points to Statistical Future
A lot of these techniques will propagate across the internet.
- Lester Mackey, Ph.D. Candidate at the Statistical Artificial Intelligence Lab at UC Berkeley
- Lester Mackey, Ph.D. Candidate at the Statistical Artificial Intelligence Lab at UC Berkeley
In Steve Lohr, "Netflix Competitors Learn the Power of Teamwork," New York Times, July 27, 2009.
Netflex has since 2006 offered $1 million to the person or group that can improve its recommendation engine by at least 10%. A recommendation engine is a computing medel that predicts "what a person might enjoy based on statistical scoring of that person's stated preferences, past consumption patterns, and similar choices made by others." Netflix and other firms make these predictions based on what their customers do; Google offers search results and ads based on analyses of billions of clicks on its results. The contest is notable for encouraging the creation of teams of contestants with different types of statistical skills. The team with the best chance to win, for example, has members with a variety of skills who live in US, Canada, Austria and Israel.
Statistical evaluations of media audiences are on the upswing, and they will affect how companies and media firms think about us, and what they send us. The collection of such data often may also infringe on some people's notions of privacy.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Fixations on Facebook
If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity?
- Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus Research, an internet technology research firm
In Sharon Gaudin, "Facebook Use Cuts Productivity at Work," Computerworld, July 22, 2009
In a survey of 237 employees of companies that don't restrict Facebook in the workplace, Nucleus found that 77% do in fact use it during work hours. 87% of those said they had no clear business reason for using the site. Separately, an Ohio State University found that "college students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grades than students who don't use the popular social networking site."
You would think that these findings along with Nielsen’s assertion that “people spend more time on Facebook than any on other Web site” would make Facebook by far the wealthiest place on the web (maybe on the planet) from advertising money. That spot still belongs to Google, for interesting reasons. One of them is that advertisers worry that people are blind to ads when using social media. In that connection, an advertising executive at a conference asked rhetorically why anyone would want to see an ad when she was composing a note breaking up with her boyfriend.
- Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus Research, an internet technology research firm
In Sharon Gaudin, "Facebook Use Cuts Productivity at Work," Computerworld, July 22, 2009
In a survey of 237 employees of companies that don't restrict Facebook in the workplace, Nucleus found that 77% do in fact use it during work hours. 87% of those said they had no clear business reason for using the site. Separately, an Ohio State University found that "college students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grades than students who don't use the popular social networking site."
You would think that these findings along with Nielsen’s assertion that “people spend more time on Facebook than any on other Web site” would make Facebook by far the wealthiest place on the web (maybe on the planet) from advertising money. That spot still belongs to Google, for interesting reasons. One of them is that advertisers worry that people are blind to ads when using social media. In that connection, an advertising executive at a conference asked rhetorically why anyone would want to see an ad when she was composing a note breaking up with her boyfriend.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Are Ringtones a Public Performance?
A finding that consumers infringe the public performance right each time their phones ring in public threatens to stigmatize millions of consumers as lawbreakers.
- Digital rights organizations Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge
In Wendy Davis, "ASCAP Strikes Sour Chord With Consumer Advocates," Online Media Daily, July 6, 2009
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge have together filed papers asking a Federal district court in New York City to rule against the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP was founded in 1914 to collect money--"licensing fees"--for its members whose copyrighted musical compositions are performed in public, including on radio and in theaters. In recent years, ASCAP has taken the initiative to collect licensing fees in digital media such as the internet. Now the organization is arguing that it is entitled to licensing fees for ringtones because, it says, the playing of ringtones is a "public performance." It wants AT&T to pay the fee for the ringtones it sells to its customers.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge reject ASCAP's argument about the public nature of a mobile phone's ring, comparing it to a person playing a CD in a car with the window down. The group notes too, that if the court forces AT&T to pay, the charges will be extended to consumers.
- Digital rights organizations Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge
In Wendy Davis, "ASCAP Strikes Sour Chord With Consumer Advocates," Online Media Daily, July 6, 2009
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge have together filed papers asking a Federal district court in New York City to rule against the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP was founded in 1914 to collect money--"licensing fees"--for its members whose copyrighted musical compositions are performed in public, including on radio and in theaters. In recent years, ASCAP has taken the initiative to collect licensing fees in digital media such as the internet. Now the organization is arguing that it is entitled to licensing fees for ringtones because, it says, the playing of ringtones is a "public performance." It wants AT&T to pay the fee for the ringtones it sells to its customers.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge reject ASCAP's argument about the public nature of a mobile phone's ring, comparing it to a person playing a CD in a car with the window down. The group notes too, that if the court forces AT&T to pay, the charges will be extended to consumers.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Fall of the Large Retail Music Store
Unfortunately the large retail music store is a dinosaur. It does matter because it was also a social gathering space, and that's one thing that buying music online lacks.
- Tony Beliech, a former Virgin Megastore employee
In Ben Sisario, "Retailing Era Closes With Music Megastore," New York Times, June 15, 2009
The real estate firms that own the last of the large record stores in New York City have determined that the land is worth far more than the store sales are worth. They are consequently shutting the store and leasing the location to a fashion chain. Mundane as this reason for closing is, it does reflect the larger trend away from CDs and other physical music recordings. "From the industry's peak in 2000 -- when some 785 million albums were sold -- until the end of 2008, album sales fell 45 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Even with the rise of iTunes and other online outlets, however, CDs have remained consumers' format of choice, though that advantage is slipping. As recently as 2006, CDs accounted for more than 90 percent of album sales. Last year that proportion dropped to 84 percent, and so far in 2009 it is 77 percent."
There are also still many small music stores in New York City, some even still selling vinyl records. Most album sales today are made at chains such as Walmart and Best Buy; FYE is also a factor. ''The Titanic that is physical media started slowly sinking in 2000,'' said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm, when asked about Virgin. ''Certainly this is a traumatic event for those who worked there, but it's an expected product of the digital transition.''
- Tony Beliech, a former Virgin Megastore employee
In Ben Sisario, "Retailing Era Closes With Music Megastore," New York Times, June 15, 2009
The real estate firms that own the last of the large record stores in New York City have determined that the land is worth far more than the store sales are worth. They are consequently shutting the store and leasing the location to a fashion chain. Mundane as this reason for closing is, it does reflect the larger trend away from CDs and other physical music recordings. "From the industry's peak in 2000 -- when some 785 million albums were sold -- until the end of 2008, album sales fell 45 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Even with the rise of iTunes and other online outlets, however, CDs have remained consumers' format of choice, though that advantage is slipping. As recently as 2006, CDs accounted for more than 90 percent of album sales. Last year that proportion dropped to 84 percent, and so far in 2009 it is 77 percent."
There are also still many small music stores in New York City, some even still selling vinyl records. Most album sales today are made at chains such as Walmart and Best Buy; FYE is also a factor. ''The Titanic that is physical media started slowly sinking in 2000,'' said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm, when asked about Virgin. ''Certainly this is a traumatic event for those who worked there, but it's an expected product of the digital transition.''
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