Digital Marketing Blog

Travelocity bets ad budget on brand search

Brand names function better as search marketing keywords than non-branded terms, according to a study conducted by online travel agency Travelocity.

The company found that only 4% of its bookings came from ads bought on un-branded search terms, suggesting Travelocity's own brand name is responsible for 96% of its business.

by Robert Andrews 19 March 2007 09:42am 0 comments

Google sets up in-game ad battle with Microsoft

Google has confirmed its purchase of San Francisco-based Adscape Media in a push into in-game advertising.

The long-anticipated deal – believed to be worth around $23m – will see the search giant entering a market that's expected to grow massively over the next few years.

by Richard Maven 19 March 2007 09:24am 0 comments

DIY: How to marry your marketing and tech teams

How can you get the marketing team back in control of the business done on the website? And do marketing teams and tech teams have to act like its the battle of the sexes? Not if both sides can share the DIY...

by Deri Jones 19 March 2007 08:25am 0 comments

Site redesign tips from Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen's latest article looks at site redesign tips which will lead to increased sales and improved customer loyalty.

Nielsen has 10 redesign recommendations that are the most likely to increase return on investment for your website, most of which should be relatively simple to implement.

by Graham Charlton 16 March 2007 14:16pm 0 comments

Lovefilm launches 'download to burn' service

Lovefilm.com, the online DVD rental company, has announced the launch of the UK's first legal movie download service, which will allow customers to burn downloaded movies onto blank DVDs.

The move is prompted by Lovefilm's research into its customer's preferences, which found that 57% wanted the opportunity to create their own discs from their downloads.

by Graham Charlton 16 March 2007 13:11pm 0 comments

A lesson from America

In last week's post, I misquoted Terry Duddy when he predicted (and this is the corrected version) that online retail sales wouldn't be much more than 10-15% of total UK retail sales by 2015 – my apologies Terry.

With my fingers somewhat burnt, I thought I’d play it safe this week and take a quick look at what’s being said in the US about online sales, now and in the future, to see if this helps inform the debate in the UK.

by Steve Borges 16 March 2007 11:43am 0 comments

German keeps Euro Gmails close to his chest

A German businessman who owns the 'G-mail' trademark so desired by Google says he would refuse to sell the name, even for millions of dollars.

Hamburg-based Daniel Giersch registered the name for his postal service in 2000 and launched an e-mail adjunct in 2003, before Google launched its web-based mail client a year later.

by Robert Andrews 16 March 2007 11:26am 0 comments

Ask.com admits to secret anti-Google campaign

Ask.com has launched a guerrilla-style marketing campaign designed to encourage British internet users to broaden their choice of search engine.

In the last couple of weeks, posters featuring a megaphone, a link to information-revolution.org and the slogan "stop the information monopoly" began appearing on tube trains, lamp posts and elsewhere. They warn libertarians about Google's 75% UK market share, although the name of the organisation behind the campaign was not disclosed.

by Robert Andrews 16 March 2007 09:28am 1 comment

Returning online purchases is too much hassle - survey

A survey by shopping comparison site PriceRunner has shown that while customers love the convenience of shopping online, etailers' return processes leave much to be desired.

PriceRunner surveyed 400 online shoppers, all of whom have been shopping online for up to five years. Almost 40% were unhappy with the processes for returning goods bought online.

by Graham Charlton 15 March 2007 14:18pm 1 comment

10 reasons why mobile advertising is doomed

Isn’t it funny how we’ve been hearing that ‘This Is The Year For Mobile’ every year since, oh, about 1863?

This seems to have been driven by hugely bullish forecasts from various analysts over the past decade, and the desire among investors to get this message out to market in order to Make Things Happen. Yet mobile marketing has never been the big story, for any number of reasons.

by Chris Lake 15 March 2007 14:07pm 12 comments