Digital Vision grant winners announced

At the end of 2011, we launched Digital Vision, a new grant program to allow aspiring thought leaders to conduct new research in the areas of advertising and marketing.

Today we announce the five award winners selected from the scores of applications we received. These winning ideas will receive grants of up to $10,000 USD in addition to research support and publicity from us.

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Posted 09 February 2012 21:54pm by Heather Taylor with 0 comments

Q&A: XYDO CEO Eric Roach on email automation

XYDO launched its new curated content email platform this week after testing its service on a range of companies from professional basketball teams to FX brokers.

Last month, it sent out over 12 million emails tailored from a pool of content based on what three million people have been sharing on social networks that day. Marketers continue to discuss how to keep a personal touch in marketing automation. Though XYDO send out automated emails, they have seen a five percent increase in open rates across the board.

We spoke to Eric Roach, CEO and co-founder XYDO, to find out more about their approach and success so far.

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Posted 09 February 2012 18:12pm by Heather Taylor with 0 comments

Start Me Up! A profile of Shoply

Launched last year, Shoply is a social shopping site which provides a marketplace for small brands and local business looking to sell online. 

I've been asking CEO Liad Shababo about Shoply...

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Posted 09 February 2012 13:28pm by Graham Charlton with 0 comments

New Cillit Bang product launched exclusively on Facebook

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has announced plans to sell a new Cillit Bang cleaning product exclusively through its Facebook page.

It is likely to be the first of a number of e-commerce trials by RB, as it has said that it plans to invest an extra £100m in brand building across Europe.

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Posted 09 February 2012 12:13pm by David Moth with 0 comments

O2 continues to surprise and delight with Valentine's campaign

O2 is continuing to roll out plans to ‘surprise and delight’ customers with another personalised social media campaign for Valentine’s Day.

The mobile operator has created a “digital Love Nest in the Clouds” to deliver Twitter users’ messages via YouTube videos, personally recorded by non-identical twin “O2 Cupids”.

This builds on the success of its #O2Santa stunt over Christmas, in which the company tracked mentions of the hashtag and similarly had a Santa character record people’s requested messages.

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Posted 09 February 2012 10:36am by Vikki Chowney with 0 comments

YouTube adds cars and travel to its channel line-up

YouTube has launched two new motor channels to add to its ever increasing range of original content.

The Motor Trend channel is described as a “never-ending car expo” and will broadcast programming from brands such as Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, Lowrider and FourWheeler.

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Posted 09 February 2012 10:23am by David Moth with 0 comments

Walgreens launches new Foursquare and Twitter campaign

Walgreens recently started a new social media campaign with New York-based startup, LocalResponse.

When someone checks into Foursquare and tweets about it, Walgreens tweets some of them back with an offer from Halls that can be redeemed in store if they like them on Facebook.

But is this automated campaign the right approach?

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Posted 08 February 2012 23:50pm by Heather Taylor with 1 comment

Marketer versus machine discussions dominate OMS 2012

If there was a theme to Econsultancy's session at the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, it may have been marketer versus machine. 

We looked at recent research studies that explore some of the major trends in marketing and technology and often, success has more to do with people and priorities than the technologies they use. 

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Posted 08 February 2012 19:38pm by Stefan Tornquist with 0 comments

Users see 15% increase in revenue when using Ecwid Facebook app

Platform-neutral e-commerce widget Ecwid has revealed that its users see an increase of 15% in revenue when implementing its Facebook application.

The company analysed 2,000 user accounts and found that in the month following the implementation of an Ecwid Facebook store, an additional 15% of sales was generated from the application.

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Posted 08 February 2012 13:59pm by Vikki Chowney with 0 comments

Sky's sound social media advice hijacked by brand police

Last night the Guardian released details of an email sent to Sky News employees that outlined new social media guidelines.

Of course, the most sensational part of this - that staff now seem to be banned from retweeting rival "journalists or people on Twitter" - has been highlighted by many amid cries of ‘they just don’t get it’.

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Posted 08 February 2012 10:59am by Vikki Chowney with 5 comments