Digital Marketing Blog

Warner calls on moblog for movie promo

British user-generated content network moblogUK will provide the backend to a promotional website for the forthcoming Warner Pictures movie, The Science of Sleep.

The Michel Gondry film will ask people to people to capture their dreams in video, audio or still image, and post them to a moblog (mobile phone photo weblog) used to support the release. DreamBlog.co.uk is linked to from the movie's official website.

by Robert Andrews 07 February 2007 16:25pm 0 comments

'Not guilty', says Apple on music DRM

Amid growing consumer demand for platform-neutral digital music without cumbersome copy protection, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has fired the digital rights management (DRM) ball firmly into the record labels' court.

In a surprise open letter, titled "Thoughts on Music" and published on apple.com last night, Jobs wrote:-

"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players.

by Robert Andrews 07 February 2007 15:19pm 0 comments

Vodafone to offer MySpace on its mobiles

Vodafone has cut a deal with News Corporation's MySpace to allow users of its mobile network to access the social network via their mobiles.

The service will launch first in the UK, followed by other major European markets, believed to be France, Italy and Germany.

by Graham Charlton 07 February 2007 15:16pm 0 comments

Google redefines ROI, misleads marketers

Lots and lots of people use Google AdWords, and have more recently layered Google Analytics over the top. But the search giant has confused these users by re-defining a well-defined business metric: 'ROI'.

This has led to confusion within companies - and at worst, caused Google AdWords users to think their campaigns are more profitable than they are, and thus pump more money into Google while decreasing their own business' profitability.

So has Google 'done evil' this time?

by Deri Jones 07 February 2007 13:36pm 1 comment

Last.fm signs deal with Warner Music

Last.fm has teamed up with Warner Music Group in its first deal with a major music company.

The agreement will see Warner's music catalogue made available to the Last.fm's listeners. It will initially roll out in the US, with Europe to follow shortly after.

by Graham Charlton 07 February 2007 13:06pm 0 comments

Google makes its email service available to all

Google has announced that its free, web-based email service Googlemail will now be universally available, rather than invitation only, as it has been since 2004.

From today, any UK will be able to sign up for an account. Google is also launching a new, downloadable version of Googlemail for use with mobiles.

by Graham Charlton 07 February 2007 12:46pm 0 comments

Q&A: AKQA's Ajaz Ahmed on internet marketing

Ajaz Ahmed co-founded the agency AKQA some 12 years ago. Last week AKQA revealed that private equity group General Atlantic had bought a majority stake, for a rumoured $250m.

We caught up with Ajaz to ask him about the investor situation and also to chew the fat on a range of internet marketing issues and trends.

Read on for the full interview...

by Chris Lake 06 February 2007 13:38pm 0 comments

Vinny Lingham's incuBeta bags funding, eyes USA

Congratulations to Vinny Lingham and the team at incuBeta, the Cape Town-based internet marketing group, which has secured a £1.75m investment from HBD Venture Capital.

by Chris Lake 06 February 2007 13:32pm 0 comments

Bebo embraces European Safer Internet Day

Bebo has announced that it is conducting a series of workshops to raise understanding among teachers and schools staff about social networks and the internet.

These 'Knowledge Transfer Workshops' are part of the campaign to highlight the risks of internet use, and coincide with today's European Safer Internet Day.

by Graham Charlton 06 February 2007 12:53pm 0 comments

Yahoo! launches Panama in quest for relevance

Yahoo late last night flipped the switch on a new search marketing system it hopes will help it close the gap on sector leader Google.

Codenamed "Panama", the new model gives sponsored ads higher billing based on keyword matches to page content. In the old approach, ads were ordered only by which marketers bid most.

A new user interface and dashboard was already being tested by customers before Yahoo! yesterday launched what senior engineer Awa Awadallah called the "quality-ordering marketplace".

by Robert Andrews 06 February 2007 11:37am 0 comments