David Moth

Q&A: VC Bill Earner on how startups should pitch for funding

London’s Tech City is home to hundreds of startups brimming with ideas for products and software that they believe will make millions.

But in order to make that idea become a reality these budding entrepreneurs need funding.

That is where Bill Earner comes in.

Earner and his business partner Pietro Bezza have just closed on €16m to invest in startups through venture capital fund Connect Ventures.

by David Moth 03 May 2012 12:01pm 2 comments

Six QR code campaigns that actually worked

QR codes are now a common feature in marketing campaigns, though many people are often sceptical about their value.

This scepticism is often justified as, though we have seen some creative examples, QR codes are often used very badly.

Also, while it is easy to find creative examples, brands and marketers aren't always forthcoming about revealing the stats around campaigns.

So here are six examples where we have some stats, and where QR codes have been used effectively...

by David Moth 03 May 2012 10:34am 7 comments

The road to email rendering: infographic

Ever wondered why your lovingly designed email looks badly formatted and plain ugly when it arrives in your customer’s inbox?

There’s a number of factors that cause emails to break, and its not always down to the email client.

Litmus has put together this infographic to explain the journey emails take before they reach your inbox, so next time you’ll know why your marketing doesn’t look quite right in Hotmail even though it renders perfectly in Gmail.

by David Moth 02 May 2012 15:27pm 0 comments

Q&A: RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal on the EU Cookie Law and social media

Entrepreneurs dream of building at least one successful, multi-million dollar company in their lifetime.

Gurbaksh Chahal has already built three, and he’s still only 28.

He sold his first online advertising startup, ClickAgents, for $40m to ValueClick, followed by his second company, BlueLithium, for $300m to Yahoo.

His third venture, RadiumOne, has achieved huge success by using social data to target adverts across the web.

I've been asking Chahal for his views on how the EU Cookie Law will affect online advertising, and also how he sees social media evolving over the next few years.

by David Moth 02 May 2012 13:35pm 0 comments

Prometheus ad campaign reaches 15m Twitter users, but was it worth it?

20th Century Fox tried to tap into the viral power of Twitter on Sunday night to promote the impending release of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi movie Prometheus.

In what was heralded as a world first, a new three-minute trailer for the film was screened simultaneously online, on Channel 4 and on social TV app Zeebox.

Viewers were then encouraged to tweet about the film using the hashtag #areyouseeingthis.

During the next ad break, Channel 4 screened a 40 second spot which included viewer’s tweets.

by David Moth 02 May 2012 12:08pm 6 comments

Consumers now pay more attention to online reviews than word-of-mouth

Online recommendations are now considered to be more important than traditional word-of-mouth, according to a survey by Eccomplished.

Almost a third (31%) of respondents said they had read an online review before making a purchase, compared to 23% who asked for advice from friends and family.

by David Moth 02 May 2012 10:24am 10 comments

Is Google abusing its position with credit card comparison?

Google has announced that it is launching a price comparison service offering information on credit cards and bank accounts ahead of the natural search listings.

While Google’s price comparison service comes below the paid links, it includes images that make it more eye-catching than normal PPC ads.

This puts it in direct competition with high-spending advertisers such as moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com.

This is not the first time Google has gone up against its advertisers. In December it began promoting its own hotel finder above paid links.

by David Moth 01 May 2012 14:48pm 4 comments

Only 7% of British adults have used a connected TV to go online

Fewer than 10% of British adults have used a connected TV to go online, according to new data from Kantar Media.

The futurePROOF study found that just 17% of British adults own an internet ready TV set and more than a third (36%) of respondents said they did not see the point in going online through a TV set.

In fact the main motivations for buying a smart TV were traditional drivers, such as screen size and picture quality, rather than connectivity.

by David Moth 01 May 2012 12:24pm 5 comments

With all that social data, why are Twitter's mobile ads so hit and miss?

It has been a few months now since Twitter rolled out its mobile ads, offering companies the chance to target its 55m mobile users.

The social network says Promoted Tweets allow brands to target their followers as well as users “that share similar interests with their existing followers”.

This sounds like a good product for marketers: ads based on location and the user’s interests, and you only pay if the user engages with the ad by clicking or retweeting.

by David Moth 01 May 2012 11:18am 3 comments

ASOS is king of natural search among fashion retailers

In the battle for fashion shoppers in natural search, research by I Spy Marketing shows that ASOS is trouncing the competition.

The e-tailer appeared in the top ten for 66 out of 72 generic fashion search terms in Google – Amazon was the second best performing retailer followed by Debenhams.

The Fashion Sector Report found that fashion brands and luxury clothes sites, with the exception of Net-a-Porter, were absent from the results.

by David Moth 30 April 2012 14:31pm 5 comments