Digital Marketing Blog

TV leads to web as rebate hunters flock to search

Search engines saw an explosion in the number of Britons searching for Council Tax last week after a documentary showed how thousands may be elligible for a rebate.

Martyn Lewis of Moneysavingexpert.com appeared on TV to report how hundreds of users of his site's forum had claimed up to £1,000 because their homes were incorrectly banded.

That prompted an avalanche of search traffic form rate-payers Googling for more information, according to data from Hitwise.

by Robert Andrews 02 February 2007 17:12pm 0 comments

BBC on demand service gets the go ahead

The BBC is set to move into the web TV market, after the BBC Trust gave its backing to the corporation’s on demand plans, despite opposition from Ofcom.

Viewers will be able to watch programmes online or download them to a home computer up to a week after they are broadcast, through the BBC’s iPlayer application.

by Graham Charlton 02 February 2007 17:10pm 0 comments

AKQA sells majority stake to private equity firm

Congratulations to digital marketing agency AKQA, which has sold a majority stake to US private equity firm General Atlantic for an estimated $250 million.

AKQA, which has clients including Nike, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, had hired Morgan Stanley last year to advise on a possible sale. Other interested parties reportedly included the WPP Group.

by Graham Charlton 02 February 2007 13:32pm 0 comments

Emap buys mobile UGC firm Yospace for £8.7m

Emap's consumer media department has acquired YoSpace, a technology firm which specialises in user-generated content.

The deal is worth £8.7m, with a further £5.7m payable based on performance targets. YoSpace's clients include O2, Vodafone, Orange and 3.

by Graham Charlton 02 February 2007 13:29pm 0 comments

'Silver surfers' prefer internet to DIY and gardening

A survey carried out by AXA has found that retired people are browsing the internet rather then the traditional pastimes of gardening and DIY.

The AXA report, which looked at the online habits of retired people in 11 countries, calls these internet users 'silver surfers'. In the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, silver surfers are using the internet more than six hours a week.

by Graham Charlton 02 February 2007 12:14pm 3 comments

10 online networks launch UK ad exchange

Ten leading online ad networks have this week launched a UK ad exchange in partnership with US company AdECN, with high hopes of revolutionising the buying and selling of inventory.

by Linus Gregoriadis 02 February 2007 11:28am 0 comments

WTF is this new Technorati feature?

Normally an acronym for something else entirely, WTF ('Where's the Fire' in this case) is a new social media feature which has been added to Technorati.

Where's the Fire? borrows a little from Digg, (it's a Digg clone, according to Steve Rubel) and allows users to write an explanation of why a particular search topic or subject is important. Other users can then vote that explanation up or down.

by Graham Charlton 01 February 2007 17:15pm 0 comments

Funding round puts poll marketing centre-stage

Web polling firm Vizu has received a $2.9m investment that aims to do for market researchers what AdSense does for advertising.

The investment, led by $1.5m from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will go toward the just-launched Vizu Answers.The service allows marketers to create multiple-choice polls that appear on partner sites around the world.

by Robert Andrews 01 February 2007 17:11pm 0 comments

Click fraud up in Q4 - ClickForensics

According to figures from US-based firm ClickForensics, click fraud is continuing to rise, reaching 14.2% in the last quarter of 2006, the highest level all year.

Q4 numbers from the Click Fraud Index suggest that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.2%, compared with 13.8% for the third quarter, 14.1% for the second and 13.7% for the first.

by Graham Charlton 01 February 2007 13:16pm 0 comments