Digital Marketing Blog

GPS comes to promotion marketing

Orange has unveiled a viral web game that uses a GPS tracking device attached to a bull in a field somewhere near Somerset.

Spot The Bull exploits the mobile network's sponsorship of the Glastonbury festival, offering prizes to players if they can correctly predict the location of the creature.

by Robert Andrews 22 May 2007 09:46am 0 comments

Online ad spend booms, could rival TV

Internet advertising could overtake that on TV by 2011, according to one industry spokesperson.

Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), made the prediction after the Advertising Association (AA) today released figures (pdf) showing online ad spend in the UK last year grew by almost a half.

by Robert Andrews 21 May 2007 15:30pm 0 comments

Emap launches Heat magazine website

Emap has finally launched Heatworld, aka 'Heat magazine's website', just one week after CEO Tom Moloney was ousted having failed to devise / execute a successful digital strategy.

Heatworld started off with a slight disappointment – I’d originally registered my interest via the holding page in receiving an email 'the minute Heatworld is launched', in order to be one of the first to see it. That didn’t materialise. Ho hum, no biggie.

This morning I visited the website and it is a good-looking effort with some interesting features. Several years too late, certainly, but it should allow Emap to reap some of the benefits of adopting a multichannel strategy with regards to its Heat brand.

by Chris Lake 21 May 2007 14:26pm 1 comment

Banner ads build subliminal familiarity

An academic study in to the psychology of online advertising has found new evidence that internet banner ads work exceedingly well.

The paper, produced jointly by several US universities, found that, although many web users do not necessarily click or focus on a banner advert, many subconsciously register the product advertised - and make positive conclusions.

by Robert Andrews 21 May 2007 11:56am 1 comment

Five reasons to embrace email marketing

Email marketing can help you achieve a range of online marketing objectives, ranging from tangible revenue increases through new and repeat sales, to other benefits such as improved branding.

We estimate that UK businesses spent £178m on email marketing during 2006 – a 20% increase on the previous year.

by Graham Charlton 21 May 2007 11:54am 0 comments

Web influences every stage of the shopping process

The internet is a big influence on every stage of the purchase process, and influences buying decisions both online and offline, according to a survey by DoubleClick.

The DoubleClick study, which surveyed more than 3,000 online consumers in the UK, France, and Germany, looks at the role of the internet in purchase decisions.

by Graham Charlton 21 May 2007 11:53am 0 comments

Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6bn

Microsoft has bought online advertising firm aQuantive for about $6bn (£3bn), giving it ownership of ad technology provider Atlas; interactive agency AvenueA/Razorfish; and Drive PM, which provides targeting tools for internet advertisers and publishers.

The announcement of the deal follows a wave of consolidation seen in the online ad market recently -Google's DoubleClick deal, AOL's acquisition of AdTech and WPP's purchase of 24/7 Real Media.

by Graham Charlton 18 May 2007 14:53pm 0 comments

UK online sales to reach the £100bn mark this month

UK shoppers will soon have spent more than £100bn since internet shopping began, according to figures from the IMRG.

The etail group says that the first online transaction in the UK took place in April 1995 - the purchase of a book from WH Smith via CompuServe.

by Graham Charlton 18 May 2007 14:38pm 0 comments

Young women spending more time online

New stats from Nielsen//NetRatings show that young women are spending more time online, with the 18-34 age group accounting for 18% of the UK internet population.

According to these stats, the 18-34 age group is the largest online, accounting for 34% of UK internet users.

by Graham Charlton 18 May 2007 14:34pm 1 comment

Web project management guidelines released

We’ve just published a new report on E-consultancy dedicated to Web Project Management, which turns out to be less of a fine art and more of a social science.

This new research is based on feedback from more than 600 project managers, who we surveyed and interviewed to find out some of the common factors found in successful web projects.

After the jump there's a glimpse of some of the key findings…

by Chris Lake 18 May 2007 12:18pm 2 comments