Digital Marketing Blog

Thresher virus 2.0 unleashed

Web marketing innovator Hugh MacLeod's latest voucher virus has again become contagious amongst British wine lovers.

Last December, a voucher giving 40% off all Thresher wines for 10 days appeared on the web, driving £15m sales for the off-licence after being reproduced by bloggers and website owners and passed around in emails 800,000 times.

by Robert Andrews 23 March 2007 09:43am 1 comment

Advertising.com is biggest UK ad network

Advertising.com now reaches 26.9m unique users - almost 90% of the UK's internet population - according to figures from comScore Media Metrix.

Its nearest rival is MediaBrokers, which reaches 22m uniques, 73.5% of the UK market. ValueClick reaches 68.4% of the UK's internet users.

by Graham Charlton 22 March 2007 15:45pm 2 comments

VCs pile into Web 2.0 space

Levels of VC investment in 'Web 2.0' companies doubled last year, according to figures released by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne at this week's Web Ventures Conference in California.

The firms say $844m (£431m) was invested in Web 2.0 startups in 2006, compared to $406m (£206m) in 2005.

by Graham Charlton 22 March 2007 12:23pm 1 comment

Lonelygirl15 strikes tasty ad deal

She's one of the hottest attractions in online video drama - now Lonelygirl15 is busy striking product placement deals with advertisers.

Started on YouTube in 2006 as a supposedly authentic bedroom video diary from 16-year-old Bree, the series now pulls in massive audiences on Revver and is aiming to cash in.

by Robert Andrews 22 March 2007 09:23am 0 comments

Yahoo! finds 15% of ad clicks are fake

Between 12% and 15% of clicks through Yahoo! search marketing ads are identified as erroneous and discarded from advertiser bills, the company has said.

Announcing a stepping up of its fight against click fraud, Yahoo! announced the appointment of veteran company lawyer Reggie Davis to a new vice-president of marketplace quality position.

by Robert Andrews 22 March 2007 09:12am 0 comments

Budget disappoints online betting firms

Hopes that yesterday’s budget would help out the online gambling sector appear to have been dashed, after the Treasury set its new tax on remote betting in line with offline bookmakers at 15%.

The move is being seen as a setback for the industry, which had hoped for a lower rate that would encourage investment back to the UK from abroad.

by Richard Maven 22 March 2007 09:05am 0 comments

Yahoo! nears Google ad revenue after deductions

Yahoo! has closed the gap on Google's 2006 revenue from online advertising because it keeps a greater proportion of advertising spend, according to soon-to-be-published data.

Revealing contents of an imminent report into portal site economics, Jupiter Research analyst David Card said market share at the big four broke down as follows in 2006:-

by Robert Andrews 21 March 2007 13:40pm 1 comment

Google opens PPA beta test

Google has invited advertisers to become beta testers for its new pay-per-action online ad system - a move that looks very much like an entrance into the realm of affiliate marketing.

Participants in the PPA system are able to add lists of intended actions to regular ads, with ad impressions only paid for once a user completes on those activities. An advertiser pays Google only if an individual subscribes to its newsletter after clicking through to its site, for example.

by Robert Andrews 21 March 2007 12:44pm 3 comments

Charges against Sportingbet chairman dropped

Online gambling firm Sportingbet has announced that the charges against its former chairman Peter Dicks, who was detained last September by US authorities , have been dropped.

In a statement, the company said that it 'has reached an amicable resolution with the St. Landry district attorney in the state of Louisiana' and that all warrants related to the case have been withdrawn.

by Graham Charlton 21 March 2007 12:37pm 0 comments

Reasons why customers don't book travel online

Despite the amount of deals on offer, and the convenience of booking holidays online, many US internet users still prefer to book their travel over the phone, with perceived security problems the main reason cited.

Forrester Research polled over 5,000 US consumers in the last quarter of 2006 to find out the reasons for their reluctance to use the web for holiday reservations.

by Graham Charlton 21 March 2007 11:49am 4 comments