Swine Flu news spikes frenzied online blog and twitter activity
As reports of the swine flu outbreak reached beyond Mexican borders and into the U.S. late last week, the Internet has been buzzing furiously about risks, symptoms, and other updates for information. The volume of conversations about the epidemic is already nearly ten times those surrounding the salmonella and peanut butter scares from earlier this winter… or, to put it in another cultural perspective, the chatter about swine flu even dwarfs that of recent viral media star Susan Boyle.
The increased conversations around swine flu on Twitter, where swine flu found its way into nearly 2% of all tweets, are indicative of the spike in conversations around the Web.
Controlling the disease, and the message
As updates emerge hourly (the swine flu Wikipedia page was updated 60 times between 10am and 11am) response to the spread of the virus, the Centers For Disease control acted quickly, updating their homepage and creating a special section solely for updates and information on swine flu that includes key facts, related items and the ability to share/post the page to social bookmarking and social networking sites. Buzz activity about the CDC mirrors closely the buzz surrounding both health scares.
www.nielsen-online.com
Australia a good place for entrepreneurs
Australia remains one of the easiest nations for entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, despite slipping one place to ninth on an annual index of 122 countries.
Los Angeles-based independent economic think tank the Milken Institute named Canada, with its stable equity market and a sound economic policy framework, the number one nation.
Hong Kong had been number one the past two years but it slipped to second place mainly due to lower international reserves and higher currency volatility.
The US came sixth, a big improvement from last year's 11th ranking, and New Zealand was 19th, down one place.
Australia finished equal second in ''institutional environment'', which measures the extent to which a country has the institutions needed to support and enhance business financing activities.
smallbusiness.theage.com.au
Google fires up viral campaign to create interest in Chrome
Why would Google take on Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla in the web-browser war and not try to win it? That question has been asked since Google ambled into the Safari-Explorer-Firefox derby last fall with its own entry called Chrome, but took a remarkably low-key approach to marketing it.
Well, Google is about to turn up the heat, a little. The search giant is releasing 11 short films on YouTube today that extol Chrome's various virtues, in hopes it can turn them into the kind of viral hits YouTube is famous for. (It doesn't hurt that Google owns YouTube.)
The videos take pains not to mention or to directly attack the competition; rather, their goal is to get people to start thinking about what they want out of an appliance most thinks works just fine.
AdAge.com
Seven C’s of success
1. Clarity - Success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in what you want and where you can get it.
2. Competence – You need to be very good at what you do
3. Constraints – Recognise the real limitations as to what is constraining in you or your firm and deal with it.
4. Concentration - The ability to focus on one thing and see it through
5. Creativity - Creativity is the extra value added ingredient. It needs to be acquired and exercised.
6. Courage - Courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right and will work
7. Continuous improvement – stop and you will fall behind
Yahoo! reports sagging profit, job cuts
Yahoo! has reported that its net profit slumped nearly 80% in the first three months of the year and that it will trim its workforce by 5% to cut costs.
Yahoo! said its net income for the first quarter was $US117.6 million ($168.58 million), or eight cents per share, compared to $US536.8 million ($769.5 million), or 37 cents per share, during the same period last year.
McDonald's first-quarter profit rises almost 4%
McDonald's says its first-quarter profit climbed nearly four per cent as more customers came to the Golden Arches for a cheap meal.
McDonald's Corp said profit rose to $US979.5 million ($1.38 billion), or 87 US cents per share, from $US946.1 million ($1.33 billion), or 81 US cents per share, last year.
McDonalds sales rise as more consumers shop for a deal.
Burger King revises ad after complaints from Mexicans
() -- Controversy bubbling up from Burger King's Whopper advertising has finally gotten a little too hot for the marketer.
The fast feeder has agreed to revise a campaign created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky and airing in Europe for the Texican Whopper, after a Mexican diplomat called it offensive to Mexicans and damaging to the country's image.
The 30-second spot and print ads feature an American cowboy alongside a small wrestler donning a cape that resembles the Mexican flag.
The work is part of a European push for Burger King's Texican Whopper -- a twist on the chain's classic Whopper sandwich that's only available abroad. (In case you were wondering what it is: a flame-grilled patty topped with chili con carne, spicy jalapenos, onion, crispy lettuce and Cajun mayonnaise, all on a sesame-seed bun. A double Whopper with two patties is also available, as are Texican onion rings, which are like the standard ones but served with a spicy Mexican salsa.)
According to media reports in Mexico, Ambassador Jorge Zermeno penned a letter to Burger King's Spanish operations stating the "advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico's national flag." He noted that Mexico has strict laws barring the defamation of the flag.
AdAge.com
Omnicom posts 21% drop in income
Marketing services parent company Omnicom, owner of the DDB, TBWA and BBDO networks, has seen net income drop by 21.2% to $164.5m (£112.2m) for the first quarter of 2009 year-on-year.
The income fall is the second consecutive quarterly drop reported by the group and it has attributed the fall to the decline in advertising spend brought on by the global economic downturn.
ZenithOptimedia
Great marketing ideas
Dogs can be conversation starters that help break the ice with people their owners meet. Taking the notion a step further, a new collar tag from Boston-based SNIF Labs lets pet owners forge new connections with fellow dog-walkers, both online and off.
Available in a range of colours and patterns, the SNIF Tag is a small RFID device that attaches to a dog's collar and records his or her daily movements and social encounters. On the social side, each SNIF Tag emits a unique signal that is sensed by the SNIF Tags worn by other dogs. When Fido meets such tag-bearing playmates during a jaunt to the park, his collar stores that information and later uploads it automatically into the accompanying base station, which stays plugged into the owner's PC at home. The dog's owner can then log in to view the profiles of the owners of those other dogs and decide if they want to connect online as well. In addition to monitoring social interactions, the SNIF Tag also uses an accelerometer and motion-analysis software to record a pet's activity. Owners can monitor the dog's movements in real time while he's home but they're at work, for example; alternatively, when Fido is out with the walker, information on his activities will be automatically uploaded when he returns. Activity levels can be reviewed by the hour, day or month, and owners can compare them with those of the other SNIF Tag-wearing dogs in the neighbourhood..
www.sniftag.com
springwise.com/weekly
Personalised in-flight mags
Idiomag, is a personalised digital magazine about music, and soon travellers at London's Heathrow Airport will be able to create something similar, but in hardcover format—for use in-flight.
Starting early next month, global banking giant HSBC is offering passengers at Heathrow's Terminal 1 a chance to select magazine articles on topics they're interested in and have them bound into a hardback form they can take on their flight, according to Marketing Week. Through a kiosk located beyond security at Terminal 1, travellers will be greeted with an HSBC-branded hardback magazine cover. They'll then browse the diverse selection of loose-leaf articles arranged on backlit shelving, UTalkMarketing.com reported. Available articles will be sourced from coverage around the globe focusing on four general topic areas: home and abroad, commerce and politics, health and sport, and media and culture. Consumers will also be able to choose from among five writers, including celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, tennis legend Björn Borg and Harrod’s trend forecaster on the future of shopping. Once they've made their selections, travellers will simply take their articles to HSBC's binding bar to be neatly bound inside the hard cover. The two-week pilot effort, which is part of a campaign to promote the HSBC Premier Card, was developed by Cunning with JC Decaux Airport, Kinetic's Aviator division and MindShare.
www.hsbc.com
springwise.com/weekly
Nine Network loses online copyright case
An online start-up company with 15 staff has triumphed over the Nine Network in a three-year legal battle that made it all the way to Australia's High Court
In 2006 Nine alleged that IceTV - an online electronic program guide for digital free-to-air television - was infringing copyright by publishing the scheduling details of its programs.
But the Sydney-based IceTV was today told it had succeeded in its High Court appeal over a previous ruling by the Federal Court in favour of the Nine Network.
IceTV produces a subscription-based third party digital TV electronic program guide that allows users to watch or skip programs at a time they choose. Viewers can also skip ads. IceTV has been awarded costs.
Digital publishers join behavioural targeting bandwagon
Digital publishers are set to sell the behaviour of their online audiences as the next frontier in advertising, according to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Ninemsn, Fairfax Digital, News Digital Media and Google will begin pushing into the controversial area of behavioural targeting.
Behavioural targeting aims ads at internet users based on pages they view, the search terms they use and personal details handed over when registering for web services.
A major part of the monitoring user page viewing is tracking ‘cookies’, which are picked up and stored by a user’s browser, allowing publishers to group internet users together by interest and then sell them on to advertisers.
Although the user’s identity is not revealed, there are fears of privacy invasion.
There is currently a controversy unfolding in the UK surrounding the use of behavioural tracking by internet service providers.
A company called Phorm has come under fire for a secret trial it conducted with BT, one of the UK’s largest internet service providers, in which it monitored every action of thousands of customers online to enable it to send targeted ads to their computers.
The industry estimates that ads for behavioural targeting might take as much as 15% of the $500 million-plus display advertising market.
Ninemsn has been targeting users of its Hotmail and Messenger services by age and sex. The company indicates that by the end of the financial year it will be able to follow those people as they move around the Ninemsn network.
“We'll know when a male aged 16 to 34 pops up, say in the Wide World Of Sports, and if we have an advertiser interested in getting to them then we can serve up an ad instantaneously,” Ninemsn’s advertising operations director Dominic Finnegan told SMH.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau is following the lead of its British counterpart and is developing guidelines for advertisers involved in behavioural targeting – among them the condition that users must be told clearly what it is and gaining their consent for its use.
Google Australia unveils small business stimulus
Google Australia recently announced a business stimulus offer, to help Australia's 1.88 million SMEs speed up in the economic slowdown.
Google is offering them a complimentary $75 search marketing campaign, to help them to reach new customers and drive sales in tough times.
In the current economic climate, Australians are increasingly heading online to research products and services, with search engines central to online navigation, research and comparison shopping.
The announcement will help put Australia's small businesses in front of potential customers at the precise moment that they're looking for information.
SEM has become increasingly popular in Australia over the past 12 months, with thousands of businesses embracing the benefits of measurable, cost-effective and targeted advertising programs such as Google AdWords. SMEs who are new to Google AdWords can access the Google $75 stimulus offer before 30 June 2009 at google.com.au/stimulus.
Both online and 'bricks-and-mortar' businesses will benefit from the stimulus offer. Research shows that many Australians are doing their research online and then heading in-store to buy. Monash's Australian Centre for Retail Studies has found that 50% of Australian shoppers research their retail purchases online before they get to the store to buy.
The same trend is evident for Australians researching holidays, and even businesses buying corporate supplies.
Yahoo! and Google fight for small businesses
Online search giant, Yahoo! Search Marketing, will invest up to $24 million in Australia’s small to medium businesses by offering free online search advertising campaigns for three months, going head to head with a similar Google offer.
The initiative, Big Bang, comes less than a week after rival search company Google launched a free $75 search marketing stimulus package to small to medium businesses to drive online advertising take-up. The Yahoo! initiative trumps the Google offering by handing out $150 to a possible 160,000 businesses and offering a support service to those businesses yet to dabble in online advertising via a team of Yahoo! specialist consultants. The service aims to take the complexity out of search marketing campaigns by helping businesses with key word choices and auctions, cost, and even developing a website for those without an online presence through partnering with News Digital Media’s classifieds website True Local.
While there are approximately 1.93 million small businesses in Australia, only about 40,000 have tried search advertising or are actively using it at present.
Big Bang aims to drive a paradigm shift with this unprecedented initiative in the online advertising industry. According to Yahoo!, 1.1 billion searches are made through its network each month, offering small businesses the opportunity to increase exposure through a medium that is “targeted, accountable and measureable.”
Online businesses boom
Online businesses are getting a boost in these tough times as consumers look to save money.
Online electrical goods retailer Big Brown Box said consumers were increasingly turning to online retailers for savings.
The BigBrownBox.com.au website, which part of RR Australia Ltd, launched six months ago and offers laptops, LCD televisions, cordless phones, iPod accessories and traditional whitegoods.
The site has also received a positive response from shoppers in regional Australia, with more than 40 per cent of customers coming from outside metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, property website realestate.com.au has also smashed all previous records, announcing record traffic to its website.
According to its latest data, visitation to the site peaked at 4.8 million unique browsers during the month of March, a 10.9 per cent increase from the same time last year.
AAP
Outdoor media in 2009 down
The Outdoor Media Association has announced that first quarter net revenue results for outdoor media in 2009 were down 9.2%, on the same period in 2008.
From the start of 2009, outdoor media results have been recorded against the following categories:
* Roadside – billboards < and > 25 square metres: includes posters, billboards and supersites.
* Roadside – other: includes bus and tram shelters, kiosks, free standing panels, phone booths and bus and tram externals.
* Transport: includes railway stations, bus terminals and airport internals/precincts.
* Retail: includes shopping centres and universities.
The category breakdown for first quarter 2009:
* Roadside – billboards $35.2m
* Roadside – other $35.8m
* Transport $15.1m
* Retail $11.9m
Chinese slump
During the past year, a great deal of talk regarding the prospect of recession has been punctuated with references to China's ability to not only withstand the slowdown, but contribute to the inevitable recovery.
However, with forecasters continually revising the prospects of China's performance in 2009 lower and lower, the ability of China to drive the global recovery appears to be waning. Some industries are actually expected to experience a sharp drop in growth due to flagging demand, while some others are losing a great deal of their export earnings, and are relying on natural growth from domestic consumers.
One industry in particularly set to experience some challenges in 2009 is the Bottled and Canned Water manufacturing industry, which is set to see revenue drop by about 7.2%. A sharp drop in tourism after record highs in 2008, due to the Olympics, is set to lead to an equally sharp fall in demand for bottled water – tourists are more likely to avoid local tap water. This comes as demand from the US and Europe plummets due to crashing personal income and wealth.
Elsewhere, the steep slump in steel prices and falling domestic demand has hurt steel rollers , as well as international iron ore miners. A drop of 16.7% is expected as a great many infrastructure projects are postponed in favour of road and highway building, rather than residential and commercial construction.
Other traditional Chinese industries are facing challenges also. TV, DVD and video equipment manufacturers, are in for a shock. After years of providing the world with the equipment to watch movies and listen to music, the 'Made in China' logo may be losing its sheen. American consumers are running from buying tangible media formats, as downloads – legal or otherwise – are far cheaper, leading to manufacturers in China facing a drop in revenue of 0.1% in 2009
While China's preeminence as the growth economy remains unchallenged, the global crisis has affected the country's prospects more than originally thought, and some industries that were considered untouchable now face challenges in the short term. However, let there be no doubt that China is almost certain to reclaim its status as the world's centre of economic growth in the near future.
Expert agrees with MAANZ - Shock alcohol ads don't work -
As MANZ has repeatedly said, scare campaigns designed to tackle social problems such as alcohol abuse (speeding etc) do not work, according to a a director of DrinkWise Australia.
Mr Turnbull is a former political press secretary and PR man who has worked on social marketing campaigns for various governments.
He warns against approaches that "generate widespread community hostility and seek to control the bulk of moderate consumers of alcohol as if they were people with significant alcohol problems".
He points to the ridicule heaped on draft guidelines the National Health and Medical Research Council issued last year, which said that more than four standard drinks a day constituted a binge.
Mr Turnbull believes using social marketing to change behaviour will work.
"We're not going to solve social problems purely and simply by regulating them out of existence," he said. "We have to actually build social capital.
"It's no good telling people this is the wrong thing to do. Long-term solutions are about building social capital and people's own capacity to change."
Mr Turnbull says governments run "tough and confronting advertising" so they can appear "tough and decisive".
He cites research into a Howard government campaign on youth drinking that showed young people vomiting and falling about. "A significant response was 'that's like the sort of, like, party, like I'd like to go to',".
He points to photographs of drunken parties young people post on Facebook.
The Australian
How to increase customer retention in a recession
While marketing budgets are decreasing as a result of the recession, it is more important than ever to use those budgets wisely, according to Andy Wood, managing director for GI Insight, who suggests that one of the best ways for marketers to spend their reduced budgets is on customer retention and development.
The key, Woods argues, is to focus mainly on marketing to key customers (i.e. the top 10% that typically provide some 50% of turnover), and the discount end of High Street retail is where this strategy is most likely to pay off. With more and more people turning to value retailers, marketers will need to think about...
Fullstory: http://www.thewisemarketer.com/news/read.asp?lc=o3410ix2845zk
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