David Moth

Mobile site review: Majestic Wine

Majestic Wine has launched a new mobile site to allow its customers to browse and buy wines on the go.

It has been developed by Usablenet, which also designed mobile sites for House of Fraser, Tesco and M&S.

A wine merchant isn’t necessarily the type of business you would expect to have a mobile site, and it doesn’t seem to be a common feature among its competitors.

So how does it measure up in terms of usability?

by David Moth 15 May 2012 10:37am 2 comments

Q&A: Last.fm's Chris Wistow on brands and monetisation

Streaming music online is a competitive business.

Spotify is probably the most recognisable provider, but the likes of Deezer and Grooveshark are also posting strong user numbers.

In order to keep attracting new users, one of the key challenges for streaming services is differentiating themselves from the competition.

Last.fm seeks to do this by tracking user listening behaviour and recommending artists based on their musical tastes. Since launching in 2002 the London-based company has collected 65bn pieces of track data from its users, which is obviously a powerful tool for advertisers.

To find out how Last.fm makes use of its data and sell its service to marketers, I spoke to commercial director Chris Wistow...

by David Moth 14 May 2012 13:23pm 1 comment

Facebook now most popular customer acquisition tool for SMEs

More than a third of UK businesses (36%) now use Facebook to attract new customers, according to data from Basekit.

This makes it more popular as an advertising tool than local business directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson, which are used by 27% of the 500 small businesses surveyed.

The use of online advertising is now almost as common as print advertising (20% vs. 21%), and Twitter is also quickly gaining popularity (17%).

by David Moth 14 May 2012 12:19pm 3 comments

Start Me Up! A profile of Present.me

Launched at the beginning of this month, Present.me enables individuals and businesses to combine online presentations with video, viewable on demand.

I've been asking co-founder & CEO Spencer Lambert about the challenges of launching Present.me, its business model and plans for the future.

by David Moth 14 May 2012 10:11am 1 comment

Top 250 internet retailers on social media: infographic

It should come as no surprise that 97% of the top 250 internet retailers have a Facebook presence.

However, did you realise that 61% of them have a Pinterest account? Or that just 67% are on Google+?

Social analytics firm Campalyst has pulled together this infographic to reveal how the top internet retailers use social media.

It uses data for the top 250 e-tailers from Internet Retailer's top 500 from 2011.

by David Moth 11 May 2012 12:49pm 4 comments

App review: National Rail Enquiries journey planner

National Rail Enquiries unveiled its new journey planner app this month and quickly clocked up more than 100,000 downloads.

The iOS and Android app is free to download, though there is an a-free version for £4.99.

It offers live travel information and the ability to plan journeys ahead of time.

by David Moth 11 May 2012 12:18pm 2 comments

Seven awesome augmented reality campaigns

Augmented reality ads are slowly making their way into the mainstream, with more and more brands using the technology to engage consumers with hidden digital content.

We’ve reported on several major brands using AR for marketing campaigns, including Waitrose, Nestle, and Tesco.

However, while marketers are all too keen to trumpet their AR trials, stats around consumer engagement are like hens' teeth.

But following on from our post highlighting six successful uses of QR codes, we have found one or two examples of successful AR campaigns.

by David Moth 11 May 2012 09:44am 1 comment

69% of tablet owners make a purchase on their device every month

Almost 70% of tablet owners make a purchase on their device every month, according to a new study by InMobi and Mobext.

Around one in ten of these consumers were also happy to use their tablet for ‘big ticket’ purchases and over 20% of tablet users claim to shop less in bricks and mortar stores since purchasing their device.

‘The Role of Tablets in the Consumer Sales Journey’ report also shows that tablets are no longer niche – 3.9m people in the UK own one, equating to around 13% of households.

by David Moth 10 May 2012 14:51pm 3 comments

CTRs on Facebook ads increase 50% in the past 12 months

Click-through rates on Facebook ads have increased 50% over the past 12 months, according to data from Marin Software.

It also found that the cost-per-click of social ads increased by 26%, while the CPC of marketplace ads decreased by 26%.

Marin said the improvement in CTRs is thanks to Facebook’s new social ads, such as Sponsored Stories.

These ad formats are targeted based on brands that you and your friends have ‘liked’, which Facebook says makes them more relevant.

by David Moth 09 May 2012 14:17pm 4 comments

Visa confirms mobile payments trial with Galaxy S3 at London Olympics

Visa has confirmed that it will showcase mobile NFC payments at the London Olympics using Samsung’s new Galaxy S3.

Samsung even plans to create a limited edition handset for the occasion, but the bad news is that only athletes are being invited to take part in the trial.

The NFC payments are enabled using Visa payWave, an app that allows consumers to use their smartphone to pay for goods at the point of sale simply by touching it on a card reader.

by David Moth 09 May 2012 13:05pm 2 comments