Bazaarvoice brings reviews to mobile
Bazaarvoice, best known for its product review engine, also offers online retailers a suite of other social media marketing and analytics tool. It's just added one more to its arsenal of offering: mobile reviews.
Dubbed MobileVoice , the product delivers mobile optimized reviews to shoppers in bricks and mortar stores as well as to those shopping major brands. Participating retailers get a dedicated URL, m.NameOfStore.com. Shoppers can browse product categories, search by keyword, or find reviews by SKU number. Product pages are displayed for every category, along with product and review pages.
Era of branded video entertainment dawns
If 2008 was the year when everything was coming up ad networks, 2009 may well be the year of branded video entertainment.
Interactive channels are rapidly closing the purchase influence gap between TV and Web-based forms of advertising and marketing, while meanwhile the small screen is assuming more or less equal precendence with the boob tube. (Just consider the number of people who wached the inauguration of Barack Obama online this week.)
Postal rate increase strikes another blow at magazines, catalogues
As if things weren't bad enough already for print publishers, the United States Postal Service is raising rates in May by around 4%.
The rate hike, which will apply to first class, standard and periodical mailings, is one more stake in the heart of the already troubled print media industry. In times such as these, it's hard to imagine an ad rate hike that could realistically cover higher distribution costs.
Online ads rank third in influence
TV influences consumer buying decisions the most because it costs the most.
That was the finding in a Deloitte survey (as reported by eMarketer) of 5 major global markets, conducted between last September and October
Will inauguration be a "Wireless Woodstock?"
Tomorrow's inauguration activities will stretch Washington's mobile networks, very possibly to the breaking point, according to The New York Times.
Crowds in D.C. are expected to number two million (or more) for Barack Obama's big day. It's a pretty safe assumption that the number of mobile devices on will number only slighty less.
In-store phone users more inclined to buy
Those distracted-looking shoppers who are calling and texting in bricks and mortar establishments aren't just killing time or catching up on messages. 6% of them are more likely to buy, according to a ForeSee Results study.
In “Mobile Apps: The Next Big Thing," the study found shoppers using a mobile device in-store are 6 percent more likely to buy.
Inauguration streams in on iPhone
How do you spur adoption of an iPhone app? Make it a must-have by Tuesday. Even if it hasn't yet been released.
Hard to concoct a better marketing strategy than live video streaming site Ustream has to spur buzz around a new product launch. You certainly can't fault the timing. Install their iPhone app now (if you can get it, which you probably can't), and you can watch Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States anywhere, so long as there's a mobile signal. No computer or TV set required.
Online retailers start getting more social
59% of the 100 leading retailers currently have a fan page on Facebook, according to a study by interactive marketing agency Rosetta.
Originally conducted last April and updated in September, the study found 29 of the retailers surveyed added Facebook pages during that four month interim. And we're talking top brands in this consort: Best Buy, Toys "R" Us, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart being just a few examples.
Personalized search helps online grocery shoppers
Online grocer FreshDirect offers its customers many options to make shopping from a large selection of inventory simple, ranging from search functionality, breadcrumb navigation (literal and figurative - they do sell breadcrumbs!), and shopping from previous grocery lists. Grocery buying is, after all, largely predicated on repeat purchasing of favorite or staple products.
FreshDirect recently made browsing and buying even easier for returning registered customers by personalizing its site search functionality.
LL Bean tops in customer service
The NRF Foundation/American Express Survey just announced the winners of its Customers’ Choice survey, with L.L. Bean coming out on top.
The survey, conducted by BIGresearch which polled 8,167 consumers, named Bean the hand-down winner in online, as well as offline, customer service channels.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
