David Moth

Afilias study suggests 44% of brands will apply for 'dot brand' domains

Almost half of the brands that responded to a survey by internet registry service Afilias said that they plan to apply for a 'dot brand' domain name.

This will see companies bid for ownership of an own-brand extension such as .pepsi, .apple or .dell.

The study shows high awareness of the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) programme from The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - which will choose which of the 500 applications get accepted.

But a lack of detailed knowledge around the application process means that companies may miss the opportunity to own their own name - something that may not arise for up to another decade.

by David Moth 16 March 2012 14:00pm 1 comment

Pinterest competitor increases traffic to retailers by 730% with incentives

Social shopping platform Nuji has reported a 730% growth in click throughs to retail sites, and a 167% increase in sales attributed to those clicks since it began offering discounts as an incentive for sharing content.

The London-based start-up bills itself as a competitor to Pinterest, and allows users to follow others with a similar fashion sense to help discover items from around the web.

But instead of ‘pinning’ images, Nuji’s users ‘tag’ products they like.

by David Moth 16 March 2012 12:29pm 2 comments

TV still most effective ad channel for driving web traffic, says Deloitte

Television is still the most effective advertising channel in driving traffic to websites, according to a new survey by Deloitte.

The sixth annual ‘State of the Media Democracy’ report, based on responses from 2,276 UK consumers aged between 14 and 75 years old, found that 64% of respondents had visited a website after seeing an advert on TV.

61% said they visited a website after seeing a magazine ad, 59% said a newspaper ad drove them online, while only 12% of respondents said a mobile app advert had prompted them to visit a brand's site.

by David Moth 19 March 2012 11:00am 0 comments

Citroen uses digital watermarks to provide localised info on dealers

Citroen has integrated interactive ‘digital watermarking’ into its latest direct marketing initiative to connect customers with local dealers through their smartphones.

A brochure created to celebrate the launch of the brand's DS5 model includes 576 individual watermarks within 192 different versions, with each linking back to a different showroom.

The watermarks are hidden within the images of the cars, so have no affect on the design or layout of each page.

by David Moth 16 March 2012 11:00am 1 comment

UK search traffic up 9% in February: infographic

UK internet users made 2.2bn visits to search engines in February 2012, an increase of 174m visits year-on-year.

The data, compiled by Experian Hitwise, also shows that Google’s dominance has slightly increased - while Microsoft and Yahoo saw both monthly and year-on-year declines in traffic.

Google accounted for a massive 91.57% of search traffic in February, up 0.93% from January 2012 and an increase of 0.89% year-on-year.

by David Moth 16 March 2012 10:00am 2 comments

82% of Facebook brand pages updated less than five times per month

New research by Recommend.ly has found that 82% of Facebook brand pages issue less than five updates per month.

Local businesses were found to be the least active, participating in just 6% of the conversations on their pages.

On average 91% of conversation pages are left unattended.

Recommend.ly’s findings, which are based on analysis of 1.7m Facebook pages, indicate that companies are still struggling to understand how they should be using Facebook to promote their brands and engage with users.

by David Moth 14 March 2012 14:19pm 2 comments

Twitter acquires Posterous: the experts' view

Twitter this week announced the acquisition of blogging platform Posterous.

As with other similar deals, such as the Facebook takeover of Gowalla, the exact details have been kept secret, though Posterous’s team said they "couldn't be happier" with the move.

So what is the exact motivation behind the buyout and what does Twitter want with Posterous’ team and tech?

by David Moth 14 March 2012 13:24pm 4 comments

EMI's NOW app downloaded 10,000 times in first week

EMI has revealed that 10,000 people have downloaded its new music app, ‘NOW That’s What I Call an App’, in the first week since its launch.

As the name suggests, the iPhone app creates a library of all the music included on EMI’s 'NOW' music archive.

by David Moth 14 March 2012 11:34am 1 comment

MIG identifies m-commerce and mobile marketing as top trends for 2012

Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) has released the results of a study into trends and expectations of the mobile industry for 2012.

Nearly a quarter of the brands, agencies and technology providers surveyed (23%) identified m-commerce and mobile marketing as the most important areas of growth for the next year.

MIG spoke to more than 500 clients across multiple sectors including automotive, retail, FMCG, handset manufacturers and mobile network operators.

by David Moth 14 March 2012 10:15am 1 comment

US paid search and display ad spend drops 6.2% in Q4

Paid search budgets among US advertisers were 6.4% lower in Q4 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, according to a new report from Kantar Media.