Omo follows customers home with GPS-enabled products

Privacy advocates may not be happy with brands tracking consumers online, but a Brazilian detergent brand is set to begin tracking customers in the real world. Starting next week, Omo is embedding 50 detergent boxes with GPS devices as part of a new video camera giveaway.

The campaign is sure to get Omo lots of attention, but the amount of privacy concessions necessary to make it all happen could prohibit GPS-enabled products from becoming a widely used marketing strategy.

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Posted 30 July 2010 19:45pm by Meghan Keane with 0 comments

Marketers are downloading data on 100 million Facebook users

Facebook's privacy woes continue. This week a man harvested and published the profile details of 100 million Facebook users. If that weren't bad enough, he then made the file available for free download. You'd think that a lot of companies would be interested in acquiring such data. And you'd be right.

But this is less a case of nefarious marketing tricks than a factor of Facebook's privacy settings. And things are only going to get worse as Facebook grows.

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Posted 30 July 2010 18:25pm by Meghan Keane with 2 comments

MP demonstrates zero understanding of search engines

In a surprising move, an MP revealed today that he doesn't understand the internet that well. 

According to the BBC: "Four government departments spent almost £6m ensuring their websites appeared on search engine results pages in the last two financial years, according to newly released figures."

So far, so meh. Organisations spend money on online marketing. Shock horror.

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Posted 30 July 2010 14:25pm by malcolm coles with 12 comments

Top five criteria affiliates analyze in affiliate programs

Whether you're an affiliate (aka publisher) or a merchant (aka advertiser), understanding how other affiliates prioritize various factors related to affiliate programs is important. In this post I'll share findings of a poll I ran for three months on my blog.

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Posted 30 July 2010 13:20pm by Geno Prussakov with 2 comments

Ten steps to great CRM

CRMOne of the main goals of multichannel is to provide great customer service at all levels. Correctly implemented CRM will enhance your business and reputation, but in order to implement effective new ways of interacting with your customers across multiple channels you may be looking at a complete organisational shift, in effect moving from provider to service.

A strategic business change at this level isn’t always easy, but there are ways to minimize the stress and align your company philosophy so that you can really deliver for your customer.

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Posted 30 July 2010 12:45pm by Matt Owen with 1 comment

Is Google planning to kill SEO?

dead-linksOne of the best ways to drive traffic to your site is by link-building. All over the world experts spend hours rifling through analytics for likely linking targets, while writers take extra care to add in as many blue words as possible in the hope of a little linklove reciprocation.

It’s often a major aspect of the job for anyone who works online, and can be something of a labour of love.

Of course, there’s no solid, standard way of linking out. If only there was a dedicated expert body who could help out.

Someone like Google maybe?

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Posted 30 July 2010 12:04pm by Matt Owen with 19 comments

Five ways to ruin your website

bad-web-designGo and look at your Facebook page. Go on, right now. And don’t pretend you haven’t got one, we’ve been watching you and we know you spend six hours a day playing Mafia Wars.

OK, so what do you notice about it?

How about cleanliness? Facebook takes a lot of flak, but one thing it does well is design.

Recently we’ve started to see the introduction of customer landers, backgrounds and headers, but even these are worked into the basic layout.

You can have a hundred boxes on Facebook and it will remain a clean, clear masterclass in whitespace management.

One of the main reasons it managed to crush the crazed glittery-zwinky world of MySpace is that it doesn’t ever make your eyeballs catch fire. Anyone can use it easily.

Now let’s have a look at your website...

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Posted 30 July 2010 11:32am by Matt Owen with 10 comments

Behavioural advertising can be a win-win for consumers and advertisers

Behavioural targeting has always been a hot topic as marketers constantly strive to understand exactly who’s interested in their product and exactly when they’re ready to buy.

Innovations in technology and onsite analytics allow marketers to tailor their online ads based on consumers’ behaviour. However, critics of behavioral advertising believe it is invasive and unethical and can become quite worrying for consumers who believe advertisers have their personal data.

However, if privacy issues can be addressed correctly, targeting provides benefits for consumers, advertisers, and publishers.

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Posted 30 July 2010 11:06am by Andy Betts with 2 comments

Google: the search party ain't over

Are Google's best days behind it? The company may be one of the most recognized brands on the internet, and one of the most important technology companies in the world, but Google isn't quite growing like a weed anymore.

That gives analysts and pundits plenty of ammunition to ask whether Google's future is less bright than its past. Fortune is the latest publication to promote the notion that "the search party is over" for the Mountain View search giant.

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Posted 30 July 2010 10:18am by Patricio Robles with 1 comment

Online advertising stands to gain if Congress lifts online gambling restrictions in the U.S.

The digital advertising rebound may soon have an ace up its sleeve. Congress is on track to retract its ban on internet gambling. The taxes from such a move could send the government as much as $42 billion over the next 10 years. Digital publishers stand to gain a lot from those winnings as well.

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Posted 29 July 2010 23:58pm by Meghan Keane with 1 comment