(* Source: Pete Cashmore *) 

WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million

CBS will announce today the acquisition of Last.fm for $280 million, according to an unverified source. The aim is to attract young people to the CBS brand.

MySpace Announces $250M Photobucket Acquisition, But Losing the War

This one was already a dead certainty, but MySpace is finally announcing the acquisition on Wednesday of Photobucket, for a price of $250 million. 

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(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Search and display continue to lead.

US Internet ad revenues totaled $16.9 billion in 2006, up 35% from 2005, according to the "Internet Advertising Revenue Report" from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Search, display, classifieds and lead generation all grew, as performance-based and CPM pricing both increased.

Consumer advertisers continue to represent the largest category of Internet advertising spending.

"The results for 2006 show the Internet continues to offer marketers the widest spectrum of advertising formats, from search-based text ads to dynamic rich-media and broadband video ads," said Peter Petrusky of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Online publishers may continue to experience growth as marketing budget allocations to all interactive forms continue to increase."

The numbers topped eMarketer's revised estimates for 2006 by half a billion dollars. The estimates were based on IAB and PWC data, for which the last full year measured had been 2005.

"One key market shift can be seen in how display ad spending grew at a higher rate than even paid search advertising," says eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman. "Brand-oriented marketers are just starting to ramp up spending, and we'll see greater growth in that area over the next few years."

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

(* Source: eMarketer *)

In 2007, eMarketer estimates that companies will spend $900 million in the US — and $330 million outside the US — on social network advertising. Although the lead players, MySpace and Facebook, will continue their strong performance, hundreds of new social networking sites will give them competition.

The Social Network Marketing report analyzes the trends that are driving new competitors into one of the hottest advertising spaces on the Internet.

Since eMarketer published its first report on social network marketing, companies have latched with almost religious fervor onto the notion that consumers want to be socially connected online – whether on mass-appeal sites such as MySpace, on targeted niche sites and video sites or on mobile phones – almost everywhere.

However, is there enough interest among consumers in social networking to support so many ventures?

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(* Source: eMarketer *)

The broad picture of a niche medium.

It would be a mistake to think that the average podcast user is a 23-year-old male with a college education and a really big comic book collection. Podcast users are not a homogeneous group, and downloads range from music to religious broadcasts to museum tours.

That said, overall podcasting user demographics give a broad perspective on the medium.

iTunes accounts for 75% of all podcast downloads, according to Podtrac, so comScore's October 2006 study of iTunes podcast downloaders captured most users.

On the whole, podcast downloaders tended to be male, young and educated. Notably, people between the ages of 35 and 54 represented about half of the podcasting audience.

Nick Tabbal of comScore said, "While the conventional wisdom says that only young, tech-savvy consumers are downloading and listening to podcasts, there is also a sizable market among 35-to-54-year-olds, indicating that the audience is broader than previously thought.

"Since many of the top podcasts are in the educational and business genres, it's not surprising that podcasts today appeal to the more educated and higher-income consumer segments."

Time online is also a determining factor in podcast usage, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study conducted from February to April 2006. Internet users who had been online for six or more years were twice as likely to have downloaded a podcast as someone online for three years or less (13% vs. 6%, respectively).

It is important for potential podcast sponsors and other marketers to avoid thinking of podcast users as a single composite entity.

eMarketer Senior Analyst James Belcher says, "One of the medium's strengths is that regular followers are hugely interested in the topic of a given podcast, be it comics or cash management, allowing for a deeper host-listener (and therefore brand) relationship than is possible with a general audience — or a composite picture of one."

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(* Source: Duncan Riley via Laurent Verrier *) 

Thanks for the post Laurent.

Duncan says, 

Depending on who you listen to, virtual worlds are the new black. Second Life needs no introduction and yesterday rumors surfaced that Sony was in talks to acquire Club Penguin for $500+ million.

To date there are two leading online spaces. World of Warcraft has been an unrivaled success, bringing Dungeon and Dragons style fantasy role playing to an audience in excess of 8 million. At the opposing end is Second Life with its embrace of capitalism and intellectual property rights.

What happened if you combined both?

Enter Entropia Universe.

Set in a Sci-Fi future players assume the roles of colonists who must develop the untamed planet of Calypso. Game play is open across a number of different fields. Players who prefer a World of Warcraft style experience can undertake quests and join in groups to hunt and fight monsters. Mining is an option for those who don’t like swinging a sword. Moving towards a more Second Life experience, players are able to own and run shops, manufacture goods, own land and build on that land, as well as being able to trade, buy, sell and create goods and services.

The addition that makes Entropia Universe a direct competitor to Second Life though is money. Like Second Life, the in-world currency in Entropia Universe can be converted to US dollars. Unlike the Linden dollar that continues to decline in value, the Entropia Universe PED can be traded at a fixed exchange rate of 10 PED to $1 USD.

Players are able to buy PED’s to use in-world or can transfer PED’s made in-world, out.

But there’s more to Entropia Universe than just the ability to transfer cash in and out. A MasterCard branded ATM Cash Card is available to players which allow direct withdrawal of funds earned in-world. Banking is also taken seriously, unlike the unregulated wild west of Second Life with it’s various in-world ponzi schemes. Entropia Universe recently sold 5 banking licenses for the amazing sum of $404,000 USD.

More here 

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(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Getting YouTube viewers to start searching.

Nearly half of search marketers placed content on social networking Web sites in February 2007, according to the "iProspect Search Marketer Social Networking Survey" sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch.

Respondents said they had "proactively placed content" on MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.

Marketers said they placed content on these sites to drive traffic, create brand awareness, sell directly and influence purchasing. Site placements were chosen to match marketing goals. For instance, MySpace and del.icio.us were used to drive traffic, while Amazon was used to sell goods directly.

Search marketers may be seeding content on social networks, but does that content generate product searches?

The common belief not so long ago was that social networking users would prefer to conduct searches from within social networking sites, rather than going to external search engines. That feeling was in part what spurred Google to commit to its $900 million deal with Fox Interactive Media last year.

Thus far, MySpace is meeting or exceeding all of the guarantees it made to Google, a MySpace spokesman told eMarketer in an interview for the Social Network Marketing: Where to Next? report. But some surveys are sending a somewhat less bullish message about the value of search advertising on social networks.

A January 2007 Jupiter/iProspect study asked whether people had used the search function on the sites: 77% of MySpace users and 78% of Facebook users had. The most common reason was to search for other people: Nearly half of Facebook users and 35% of MySpace users had done so. Entertainment was the second-most-common search topic among the choices offered, particularly for MySpace users. The percentages of respondents who used the sites to research or purchase a product or service were in the single digits.

The authors of the Jupiter/iProspect study noted, "Internet users who visit social networking sites do so for a variety of reasons (or intents) including: for entertainment, to connect or network with others, to research a product or service, to purchase a product or service, and 'other.' The vast majority does not go to these sites with the intent to research or purchase products/services."

"Social networking sites and search marketers need to understand the way people use search on social networks and make sure their expectations for ROI are in sync," says eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

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(*Source: eMarketer *)

Would you pay to watch YouTube clips on your TV?

Over a quarter of males ages 13 to 34 watch video on devices other than TVs, according to E-Poll's "Multi-Platform Viewing of Video Content" report.

The study of viewing habits in 2007 found three-quarters of consumers ages 13 and older viewed video content on PCs.

Over half of those who watched video content online said they were interested in transferring it to their television sets. Only 13% of television viewers said they had already made such a transfer. Half didn't know it was possible.

The idea lost its charm when prices were mentioned.

About half of TV viewers said they would like to be able to transfer online video to their TVs, but only 17% would pay $100 or more for a device.

On the other hand, nearly a third said they would still be interested, even if it required a complicated installation.

One reason more people are moving their TV viewing to other devices is availability. More people have video-capable devices, making it convenient to watch video even if the viewer is not at home.

Young teens are especially gadget-rich. Over half of boys and girls ages 12 to 14 owned and used a computer, TV, VCR, DVD player and mobile phone on a regular basis, according to a Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg survey conducted in June-July 2006.

Watching TV on different devices and sending video to TVs has gained appeal in the last year. Credit goes in part to online video services like Amazon Unbox and AppleTV.

Respondents to the 2007 E-Poll survey were more interested in such activities than those surveyed by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg.

Many respondents in that study said they would not want to watch a TV program on a device other than a TV, and the feeling was especially strong among young males. Nearly half of boys ages 12 to 14 were not interested, although girls in that same age group were more open to the idea.

"Things are changing quickly, and it's likely that the teens surveyed by E-Poll this year are much more familiar with the various ways they can watch video," says eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson. "In fact, I believe that young people will expect to be able to watch TV anywhere, anytime. It will be a part of their everyday life, just as mobile phones are today."

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(* Source: Beth Snyder Bulik via Mishal Varma *)

Once the Domain of Cellar-Dwelling Teenage Boys, Video Games Hook Fans From All Walks of Life
 

An NPD study released last week, "Online Gaming 2007: The Virtual Landscape," profiled online gamers in an attempt to understand just that, along with where and what they're playing. We used those new stats to craft these demographic profiles. With some $200 million being spent in advertising on gaming, you'd better know your player. Prepare for a few surprises.

40%
VIRTUAL SHOPPERS
Real-world purchasing is still the most common way to buy content, but in this case, it's the potential for digital shopping that is compelling. More than 40% of online gamers indicated they were likely to download content onto next-generation consoles, while 25% said they were likely to do the same on their computers.

44%
CASUAL GAMERS
While massively multiplayer online games get the most attention, the games that really draw crowds are card, puzzle and arcade games. The casual genre is the favorite of 44% of players, followed by family-entertainment at 25% and multiplayer online at 19%.

17%
GAMBLERS
Fans of Texas Hold 'Em constitute a strong audience. More than 17% of gamers said gambling and casino games were their favorites, ranking the genre behind massively multiplayer games and ahead of shooter games in overall popularity.

1%
PENNY PINCHERS
Online gamers are used to playing for free. "There are a lot of free games out there to play online, particularly on the PC," said Anita Frazier, who headed up the NPD study, adding that she herself plays free web sudoku. "The challenge for the industry is to keep coming up with innovative ways to convert these folks into paying customers." Historically, conversion rates have hovered at 1% to 2% for the traditional free-trial-to-paid-premium strategy. Advertising is increasingly being implemented as a more lucrative and creative revenue model.

20%
LITTLE KIDS
The fact that lots of young kids play video games online isn't exactly shocking to any parent who has lost control of her laptop for a Nick Jr. marathon playfest. What is surprising though, is that the elementary-school set makes up the biggest group of players. That's right, kids ages 6 to 12 account for 20% of all online gamers, more than any other demographic. Remember when marketers were alarmed by the revelation several years ago that young males spent more time with video games than TV? With stats like this, can the playground set be far behind?

54%
CONSOLE OWNERS
Xbox 360 owners are more likely to play online than any other console owners -- 54% -- and, at 7.1 hours a week, they also spend more time doing it. While it's a relatively new platform, the Xbox 360's online domination is not a total surprise, especially considering Microsoft's aggressive push of the Xbox Live service. Wii owners come in last in time spent online, but they're actually more inclined to do it. More than three-fourths of Wii owners have tried online games

41%
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Portable-game-system sales have soared in the past two years with the debut of next-generation-systems Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. And with those devices came built-in WiFi for online play. Some 41% of portable players are age 13 to 17. They do play online games, but spend fewer hours per week online than console or PC gamers. But as hand-held sales skyrocket, expect wider opportunites for online marketing to on-the-go gamers.

42%
WOMEN
More than 42% of the total online gaming audience today is female. However, women differ from men in that they play games mostly on PCs. Still, any mass audience of females -- the ones who influence almost all household purchase decisions -- shouldn't be ignored.

80%
THE MIDDLE CLASS
Online gaming is actually the opiate of the middle class, with average household income hovering between $35,000 and $75,000. Makes sense. Once a consumer owns a PC, the jump to online gaming involves minimal extra cost and tech know-how.

 

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(* Source: Random Culture *) 

The homepage of YouTube just featured a great video that integrates online video and text messaging. The video, entitled "Text-Your-Own Adventures of Spiderman", allows viewers to vote via text message to decide what the fate of Spiderman will be in the next video installment. You can watch it below:

The video was created by a sketch comedy group called The Late Night Players, from Boston, Mass. It won't be long until we see an advertiser doing something similar. Mark my words!

I'd love to see a website for the effort, where we could see where the vote tally stands, and maybe even toss out some ideas for what Spidey turning evil would look like.

Update: When you text in your vote, you'll receive an email back that prompts you to register or login to Mozes.com, where you can see the alternate ending you voted for. If you haven't heard of Mozes, you should check it out. Great way that brands and others can utilize text messaging.

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(* Source: Stan Schroeder *) 

A big thank you to Stan for putting this list together...

Meebo & Meebo Rooms

Meebo is a very popular web based IM client, and with its latest release, Meebo Rooms, it’s destined to become even bigger. It’s a completely web based chat space with embedded video and plenty of options, including bold and italic fonts and different typefaces. Most importantly, just like Meebo, it works solid and doesn’t get too many slowdowns and freezes which is a common illness for this type of programs.

http://www.meebo.com

Pibb

Compared to most of the competition, and depending on your attitude towards it, Pibb can either be called lightweight or featureless. Options are scarce, and besides creating your chat rooms and maintaining a list of friends there isn’t much you can do. It archives all the conversations, and uses OpenID, though, and that’s a definite plus.

http://pibb.com/

Tangler

Tangler is actually an online forum, and it’s currently in beta. But, a forum with real time conversation is directly comparable with most web based chats, at least those that have archived conversations. Tangler’s look and feel is definitely more like a forum than a chat room, and many users will appreciate this. It also has more text editing options than most web based chat clients.

https://www.tangler.com/

Lingr

Honestly, we don’t think that Lingr is going to go far, but it earns some points on simplicity. Choose a chat room from a tag cloud, and you’re chatting within seconds. Just have in mind that most of its rooms and conversations are Japanese.

http://www.lingr.com

Kool IM

Similar to Meebo, KoolIM aggregates multiple messengers on one page - AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ and Jabber. Unlike Meebo, though, it insists on conversation in a popup window, which might not appeal to everyone. Oh yeah, and for some reason we love their mascot. And, just like Meebo (since recently), it has ads.

http://www.koolim.com/

Campfire

Although nominally based for business users, Campfire is chat just like any other. Its upsides are integration with Basecamp, archive of all conversations, easy file sharing and live image previews.

http://campfirenow.com/

Yahoo! Messenger for the web

Noticing the trend of online chat moving to the web, Yahoo! recently introduced a web-based version of their chat client. It works in any browser, and it has full history, as well as a wide range of emoticons.

http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/

MessengerFX

Just like Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger also has a web-based version, however, this one is not official and the authors aren’t affiliated with Microsoft. It has its occasional glitches but works quite fast. It also has quite a lot of ads scattered all over the place.

http://www10.messengerfx.com/

Iminent

Iminent combines real time conversation with video; a feat that might have seem strange back when we first saw it, but now it’s commonplace, since Meebo Rooms has it and YouTube is experimenting on a similar feature. But, Iminent works differently: it’s an addon for IM clients (MSN only at the moment) that lets you add videos to your chat. It also scores some points on combining emoticons with videos into EMOvids (don’t think skinny guys dressed in black with funny haircuts; think short videos that help you express your feelings).

http://www.iminent.com/

eBuddy

One of the (supposedly) bigger fishes in this pond, eBuddy combines AIM, MSN messenger and Yahoo accounts in an Ajax interface. It has a number of weaknesses: it’s not supporting all standards, especially Jabber (Google Talk is based on Jabber), it opens a popup window for conversation, and it can be rather slow.

http://www.ebuddy.com/

3bubbles

Unlike most other services in this list, which are standalone web based chat platforms, 3bubbles is meant to be used as a widget on blogs. As such, it has its usefulness, but the fact that it’s always dislocated over a number of sites doesn’t make it a direct competitor to other services in this roundup.

http://www.3bubbles.com/

Tworl

With most of IM clients or chats, the punchline is usually “connect with your friends” or something similar. With Tworl, it’s exactly the opposite, as Tworl connects you with a completely random IM user. The idea is cool, but I can’t see myself using my main IM accounts for conversations with total strangers and exposing them to spam; of course, creating a new IM account just for the purpose of Tworling will do the trick.

http://www.tworl.com/

Mabber

Mabber has the advantage of working both on the web and on your mobile phone. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. In a recent relaunch, they also added a widget which you can use to put up a chatbox on your blog. Finally, you can use it to get news through its RSS-based Mabber alert.

http://www.mabber.com/

Geesee

Geesee is a competitor to 3bubbles and Itzle: it doesn’t offer a centralized chat space, but it lets you have a chat box on your blog. Works with a number of platforms, including Typepad, Wordpress, and even Netvibes.

http://www.geesee.com/

Plugoo

Plugoo is a cross breed of sorts. It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ and Jabber accounts, and lets you chat with the visitors of your blog directly from any IM program you normally use. If you really want to keep up a conversation with the visitors of your site, this is much better than having your visitors type stuff into a chat box which always says you’re offline.

http://www.plugoo.com

RadiusIM

This Manhattan-based IM service combines web-based chat with Google Maps, allowing you to chat with people in your area. What’s more, you can aggregate multiple IM names - from Yahoo Messenger, AIM, MSN Messenger and Google Talk. These logins are saved by Radius IM, which saves having to enter all your passwords. The service announced angel funding of $500,000 last week.

http://www.radiusim.com

Itzle

Slightly different from other IM services: Itzle allows you to chat with friends about web pages while your avatar character walks around on them. There’s no download required: instead, you hit a bookmarklet in your browser to make the miniature characters appear. we think it has novelty value, but it can’t really be considered useful.

http://www.itzle.com

Gabbly

Gabbly is an ajaxy chatbox for bloggers and websites. It actually runs on Gabbly’s site, with your site running in a iFrame underneath.At the time of writing, there are almost 1000 people chatting - not bad for a little startup.

http://www.gabbly.com

ZohoChat

Part of the Zoho suite of office productivity tools, Zoho Chat lets you chat with buddies on the site or embed the shoutbox elsewhere. The embed uses iFrames, so it won’t work everywhere, and it also lacks the ability to aggregate you IM names from different services. That said, it’s a super-simple way to set up a chat, especially if you already use Zoho tools.

http://www.zohochat.com

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(* Source: Lauren Moores *) 

A few weeks ago, my kids and I were talking about Webkinz, one of the latest kid crazes that take collecting beanie babies up a level, and it sparked my curiousity about how they are performing online. Webkinz are brought to us by Ganz, a privately held company started in 1950. Like beanie babies before them, Webkinz are limited, hard to find and quickly becoming the toy to give and receive for the 6-12 age cohort. With Webkinz, you also collect ‘plush pets’ BUT purchase of these pets gives you access to your own secret code, which unlocks membership to the web-based Webkinz world.

At webkinz.com, your plush pet comes to life with its needs for food, activity and of course, merchandise. Online, you earn kinzcash to buy food, clothing and toys for your pet and your pet’s customized room. The two top activities for Webkinz users are kinzpost, where you can send notes with stickers to others in the webkinz world, and games in which you win the kinzcash that gives you purchasing power.

The first Webkinz came out in 2005, but Ganz only recently experienced the tipping point with their Webkinz plush pets. The Webkinz site broke into the top 1000 sites in January 2007 and just this month, reached neopets.com volume. Neopets.com has been a top domain in user traffic for the last 6 years, and like webkinz.com, it allows you to care for ‘pets’ in the Neopia world. Unlike Webkinz, neopets is free and revenues are based on advertising, not merchandise sales. clubpenguin.com, another free virtual pet world (albeit penguin-only), also vies for attention from the pre-teen set.

While Webkinz has succeed in matching Neopets volume, it still has a ways to go to reach the same attention levels.

Taking advantage of low supplies and pet-up demand, Russ Berrie & Co recently entered the virtual pet world space with its launch of Shining Stars, another plush pet purchase that gives access to a web world. Although with Shining Stars it seems as if the web part was an afterthought, as the site is really still in the beta stage as compared to the others.

If you go to the shiningstars.com, good luck finding any parental information. As for my kids, I doubt shiningstar.com will be as regular a visit as Webkinz, which continues to add more functionality and better access (new servers in late 2006) to keep the kids coming back… But you know how web-trends are…they change!

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(* Source: Neil Perkin *) 

How people construct their online identity is an increasingly complex concept for us to understand. So what about the most obvious representation of this - Avatars? When people create their own avatars, are their real lives echoed in their digital alter egos? If you were to create your own virtual character would it be just like you, or would it be a fantasy creation of how you'd like to be? What is the relationship between a virtual identity and a real one?

 
The virtual images that people create vary hugely, but most avatars have an echo of the person that created them, if not in their physical appearance then often by reflecting aspects of their creator's personality. The more control people have over how the avatar looks, the more likely it is to have some reflection of the real person.

It seems to me that the impetus and inspirations behind avatar creation are not only complex, but dependent on a whole range of motives including your real life personality, how comfortable you are in your own shoes, the need to experiment with different aspects of your identity, or escape mundane reality.

More here 

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(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Broadband users spend almost half their spare time in a typical weekday online, according to Media-Screen's "Netpop|Play" report.

A copy of the study provided to eMarketer stated that the average broadband user spent an hour and 40 minutes of her typical weekday spare time online. Over half of that time online was devoted to entertainment and communication.

The study also noted a range of users' spare time activities, and found that e-mail and personal Web surfing trumped TV viewing.

Josh Crandall of Media-Screen said that the point of the results was not that broadband users spend more time online, but that online marketing is still underused in proportion to that time.

"Currently, the proportion of advertising resources devoted to the Internet (about 7%, according to ZenithOptimedia) is nominal relative to the value it generates in interest and engagement among fans," said Mr. Crandall. "As more of the population goes online and there are more marketing channels, it will be imperative for the entertainment industry to know how to effectively allocate marketing and advertising dollars."

eMarketer's own estimates for US online ad spending as a percentage of the overall market are based on Internet Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers data, and are similar to the Zenith numbers. One in 10 ad dollars will go online in 2010, up from 6.6% this year.

Broadband users have been spending more time online for years. The "broadband effect" has been credited with increasing time spent online and the range of online activities conducted.

As the 2005 Forrester Research/HeadlightVision "It's a Broadband Life" report noted, "The essence of the Broadband Effect is that when what consumers can do changes, what they will do changes dramatically."

"A variety of data shows that the Web is an equally important entertainment platform for broadband users as it is a communication platform," says eMarketer Senior Analyst Ben Macklin. "This is a broadband phenomenon, and not only are broadband users watching, listening and interacting with online entertainment content, they are actively creating it."

Posted by brian tiong at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kerry Miller *) 

Kerry says...

To believers, social networking sites like MySpace are powerful tools for building awareness, strengthening customer loyalty, and driving sales. Skeptics scoff that with free advertising, you get what you pay for. What both sides sometimes miss is that online social networking—like networking in the real world—is all about giving, not taking

1. Forget the hard sell.
The most successful businesses are ones that know how to give, whether it's a downloadable screensaver, a chef's exclusive recipes, or a roundup of upcoming local events. "This isn't a direct marketing tool, this is human communication," says Rob Key, chief executive officer of social marketing firm Converseon.

2. Do your homework.
Online communities like MySpace have their own cultures, rules, and social mores that business people disrespect at their peril. Key recommends spending a few weeks experiencing a social networking site as a user before charging in with your business 

3. Focus on quality over quantity.
Focus on the quality of what you're providing. "If you're giving useful information to the community, you will get friends

4. Listen before you speak.
Networking is a two-way conversation, so be prepared to interact. 

5. Authenticity counts.
Being reported as a spammer on MySpace can get you kicked off for good. And whether online or in-person, being uncovered as a fraud can trigger a damaging backlash.

6. Be engaging.
Use your MySpace page to show off the persona of your business, and be sure to refresh your content regularly.

7. Always follow up.
Successful online social networking requires offline connections, too. Integration is key, says Linda Zimmer, president and CEO of social media consultancy MarCom:Interactive. For maximum impact, your MySpace address should be visible on your other printed materials, your Web site, and in your physical storefront, in order to "close the loop."

8. Think long term.
"You need to give something to the community before you start looking for an ROI [return on investment]," says Key of Converseon. Although many businesses see a MySpace profile as a free virtual billboard, Rex Briggs, CEO of Marketing Evolution, a marketing ROI measurement firm, says that community outreach programs make for a better analogy. Giving back to the community has long-term value, even if it doesn't show up on today's balance sheet.

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *)

Thanks Dan for a super round up of Internet TV today.

Dan says...

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *)

Now that Pandora has hit a wall with the new Internet laws... check out this new online music player, Spool.fm.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Max Freiert *) 

With the introduction of news feeds, non-college registrations, and a mobile service, Facebook has been through significant changes over the past 6 months. Though some initially enraged the site’s core audience of college students, these changes have ultimately widened Facebook’s appeal. A 23% traffic increase in April highlights the peak in a period of rapid growth since September. But who is actually driving this growth?

The chart below illustrates the number of Facebook visits by state, for the month of April where a dot in the map represents 2500 visits.

• The North East loves Facebook! Users in MA, NY, RI, and CT, NJ are the heaviest users of the site.
• Facebook believes in manifest destiny: usage becomes much less dense farther from the east coast (and water in general).
• While much of this usage is a function of population density, states with an abundance of post-secondary schools typically have above average Facebook usage, indicating that, despite an open registration system, Facebook users are still mostly college students.

How does Facebook’s growth fit into the overall social networking scene? The chart below shows the top 20 social networks, ranked by attention* , for the month of April. Looking at this measure of how much time users spend on a site, compared to the number of total people who use the site, gives a clear indication of successful engagement.

• Surprise! MySpace still dominates the pure social networking genre. However, its growth has been slowing dramatically for several months, with a meager 1% M-0-M change in attention in April.
• While classmates.com yields over two-thirds the visitors of Facebook.com, it captures less than 5% of the attention of Facebook.
• The top 20 pure social networking sites have grown a slight 3% in attention April.

With the ability to comment, create profiles, and communicate with other members becoming a staple of any new web property, the big players in the social networking category need to evolve or lose audience. While it may occasionally stumble along the way, Facebook’s offering is doing just that; and they have the attention to prove it.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Scott Goldberg *)

Friendster isn’t only alive, it’s thriving, doing so far from the spotlight of American technorati and teens. Friendster is the world’s 25th most trafficked site today.  That puts it six spots behind Facebook and twenty behind MySpace.

Friendster receives less than 6% of its overall traffic in the US, making it the 78th most popular site here.  Not bad, but compared to MySpace (the 3rd most popular US site) and Facebook (7th), the death knell calls become more understandable.  So where does Friendster get its eyes?  According to Alexa, its traffic percentages by country are:

• Malaysia: 23.6%
• Philippines: 22.1%
• Singapore: 17.9%
• Indonesia: 14.3%
• U.S.: 5.8%

So Friendster has succeeded in attracting traffic from Southeast Asia, but how popular is it within those countries?  Huge, apparently.  It’s the second most popular site in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore.  Who does it trail in all four?  Yahoo.  Who falls just behind it?  Google, YouTube, and MSN, to name a few.

More here 

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(* Source:  

A recent study by ad agency BBDO Worldwide offers marketers insight into the everyday routines of people across the globe

Human beings are creatures of habit—the morning coffee with two sugars, the post-lunch brush and floss, the bedtime yoga routine with lights dimmed. Advertisers, on the other hand, often try to break those habits by wedging new products and services into various parts of the day.

Now comes ad giant BBDO Worldwide with its latest weapon to help clients get an edge: An extensive global study of daily rituals. Unlike habits or routines, which may be ingrained but carry no emotional meaning, a ritual is described in the study as "a defined series of actions that helps us transform from one emotional state to another."

More here 

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(* Source: The Second Life Herald *) 

The inevitable is finally about to happen: Playboy Magazine is entering the virtual world of Second Life. Need we say more? More here

Posted by brian tiong at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Organic *)

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(* Source: Jeff Squires *)

Jeff writes

After indroducing dozens of artists' to mainstream audiences,  Electronic Arts finally decided it was high time to start monetizing their ingame music and developed their very own record label - EA Trax.  The new platform is enabling users to purchase the songs they hear in games and download them through itunes or as ringtones directly onto their phone.  They even have a media player on their site where users can check out a continuous stream of popular tracks from various artists.  Muscians are also encouraged to send in demos for consideration. 

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(* Source: David Felt *)

It is always refreshing to see old attempting to understand the new and not be afraid of the change but to embrace it with such gusto and recognise it's potential.  Long live! The new media king has spoken.

Rupert Murdoch says 

Traditional companies are feeling threatened. I say, bring on the changes.

Everyone knows that networking--once a face-to-face affair, sometimes captured in a Rolodex--is now worldwide, instant, and impervious to constraints of distance, time or cost.

Those of us in so-called old media have also learned the hard way what this new meaning of networking spells for our businesses. Media companies don't control the conversation anymore, at least not to the extent that we once did. The big hits of the past were often, if not exactly flukes, then at least the beneficiaries of limited options. Of course a film is going to be a success if it's the only movie available on a Saturday night. Similarly, when three networks divided up a nation of 200 million, life was a lot easier for television executives. And not so very long ago most of the daily newspapers that survived the age of consolidation could count themselves blessed with monopolies in their home cities.

All that has changed. Options abound. Fans of small niches can now find new content they could never before. Going elsewhere for news and entertainment is easier and cheaper than ever. And people's expectations of media have undergone a revolution. They are no longer content to be a passive audience; they insist on being participants, on creating their own material and finding others who will want to read, listen and watch.

Consequently the old media are threatened by the erosion of our traditional profit centers. Certainly we can't count on things like print classified advertising being around forever. Similarly, DVRs undermine the mainstay of broadcast television's business model: the commercial.

Nonetheless, it would be wrong to conclude from this that the age of content is over. On the contrary, people want content more than ever, and there is a role for companies that can provide good stuff--"good" being the operative word. Quality is more important than ever, because the marketplace is more ruthlessly competitive. Options are not merely one click of the remote away; devices undreamed of a few short decades ago are at least as tempting as a change of the channel.

Old media can survive--and thrive--in this new environment, but they must adapt. We must learn how younger generations of consumers prefer to receive their news and entertainment, and we must meet those expectations.

The good news is that we are learning--and fast. Take the type of media I know best--news. News is in more demand than ever, but the vast network of Internet-savvy news junkies want their news with several fresh twists: constantly updated, relevant to their daily lives, complete with commentary and analysis, and presented in a way that allows them to interact not just with the news but with each other about the news. They won't wait until six o'clock to watch the news on television or until the next morning to read it in isolation. This plainly provides a challenge for news providers but also an opportunity to be far more engaged with the audience.

Companies that take advantage of this new meaning of network and adapt to the expectations of the networked consumer can look forward to a new golden age of media. Far be it from me to suggest that either I or my company have all the answers. No one does. But the future of media is a future of relentless experimentation and innovation, accelerating change, and--for those who embrace the new ways in which consumers are connecting with each other--enormous potential.

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(* Source: James Chadwick *)

James says...

Last month Slideshare ran a competition to find the world’s best presentation. They got over 400 enteries and they just announced the winner and runners-up here. 

The winner was Shift Happens, an overwhelming collection of powerful statistics about the shifting power dynamics in the world today. More proof that stats and facts, not soft rhetoric, are the most powerful form of persuasion and communication.

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(* Source: eMarketer *)

Video game market revenues in China increased 68% last year, according to Niko Partners' "2007 Chinese Video Game Market Annual Review & Forecast Report."

Internet cafes are integral to the industry in Asia since a lot of people do not have PCs at home. The report accounted for 20 million PCs in China's 225,000 Internet cafes.

The online segment brought $995 million in revenues, as players spent more money on virtual items and services.

Legitimate sales of PC offline software titles increased 29% in 2006, to 904,000.

Revenues from video game software and services are estimated to have a 19% compound annual growth rate through 2011.

Lisa Cosmas Hanson of Niko Partners said that "China added 3.4 million total gamers in 2006 and now boasts 37.5 million gamers, 90% of whom play online games. By 2011 this number is expected to swell to 71.9 million."

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Jasper and the team from Branded are doing another (the 1st was a super success) Music Matters event in Hong Kong this month on the 29-31 May.

Looking at the list of speakers and attendees, it will be a meeting of the music industry and every other brand and agency that wants to be associated with it.  Everybody will be there and it will be a perfect opportunity to network and catch everyone who is anyone in youth marketing in Asia there.

Music does actually matter and I'm going for sure.  Anyone that wants to come along, drop me a line and I'll have a word with Jas for a b-side ticket discount.

Here is a list of their confirmed speaker list. 

• Nile Rodgers - Chairman, Sumthing Else Music Works, We Are Family Foundation 
• Sam Duann – President, Rock Records Co. Ltd.
• Harry Hui – CMO, PepsiCo Int. China Ltd.
• Steve Schnur - Worldwide Executive of Music, Electronic Arts, Grammy Foundation 
• Seymour Stein – Founder & Chairman, Sire Records
• Haji Taniguchi - Executive Director, International Strategy & IP Strategy, Avex Group
• Sean Moriarty - President & CEO, Ticketmaster 
• Rob Lewis - CEO, Omnifone Ltd
• Max Hole - President of Asia-Pacific Region, Universal Music Group International 
• John Kennedy - Chairman & CEO, IFPI 
• Tony Yapp - Regional Director, Publishing, Universal Music Publishing 
• Anthony Tse - President, China Entertainment Television 
• Guy Fletcher OBE, FRSA - Creative Director, MCS & Director, PRS-MCPS 
• Bey Logan - Asia Vice-President, Asian Acquisitions & Co-Production, The Weinstein Company 
• Michael Tatelman – Corporate VP, President, Asia Pacific Mobile Devices, Motorola Inc. 
• Kelvin Wadsworth – President –Asian Region, SONY BMG Music Entertainment (Asia) Inc. 
• Michael Hosking – Group Managing Director, Midas Promotions 
• Jacob Mense - CEO, Aiya Media (HK) Ltd
• Kenny Bloom – CEO, Asia Vision
• John Jay - Global Head, Creative, Wieden + Kennedy 
• Peter Poon – General Manager, Fortune Star Entertainment (HK) Ltd.
• Ian Chapman-Banks - VP, Marketing, Asia Pacific Mobile Devices, Motorola, Inc. 
• Stephen Murray - Co-Founder, President of Entertainment, CCO, BurnLounge Inc
• Tommi Mustonen - Director, Nokia Nseries Hear new, Multimedia, Nokia 
• Jon Niermann - President, Asia Publishing, Electronic Arts
• Ken Ohtake – Managing Director, Sony Music Publishing (Japan) Inc. 
• Lachie Rutherford – President, Warner Music Asia Pacific, Warner Music Japan & Chairman, IFPI Asia-Pacific
• Ian Stewart - VP Research & Planning, MTV Networks Asia 
• Gary Chen - CEO, Orca Digital Inc. 
• Ross Crowley – Executive VP, Content, STAR Group Ltd.
• Ilyas Khan - Group Managing Director, Crosby Capital Partners 
• Marcel Fenez - Asia-Pacific Leader, Entertainment & Media Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers 
• Paul Robinson - President & COO, EMI Music South East Asia 
• Martin Ott - COO, Jamba 
• Michael Chugg – Chugg Entertainment
• Ruuben van den Heuvel - Senior Vice President, SONY BMG Music Entertainment Asia
• Tony Seeto - Director of Business Development, Hong Kong CSL Ltd
• Ed Averdieck – Managing Director, Nokia Music Services
• Sandy Montiero – Head of Digital, Universal Music Asia
• Simon Wheeler – Head of Digital, Beggars Banquet
• Yen Ong – General Manager, Soundbuzz
• Robb McDaniels – Chairman & CEO, INgrooves / ONE Digital
• William Bao Bean – Partner, SoftBank China & India Holdings
• Monique Woo – Associate, Hong Kong, Lovells
• Stefan Rust – Head of Marketing & Development, Sun Microsystems
• Michael Fagan – PCCW Limited
• Craig Harvey – Director – Media Research, Asia Pacific, Synovate
• Gabriela Kennedy – Partner, Head of TMT, Lovells
• Janice Lee – Executive VP – TV Marketing & Content Development, PCCW Limited
• John McLellan – Partner, Haldanes
 

and everything else about the conference here 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Gurbaksh Chahal *)

When MySpace emerged victorious from the social network battle royale, marketers saw a new channel to reach an astoundingly large online audience. But while the massive reach of MySpace has proven a boon for dating sites and wireless carriers, brand marketers are still coming to grips with how best to leverage the power of social networks.

Quantity v. quality
2007 is seeing the rise of the niche network. As noted by LeeAnn Prescott, director of research at Hitwise, in her recent report, "The social networking category will continue to grow as new sites emerge with unique offerings." Niche networks such as Kongregate, MingleNow, deviantART, and Bebo, among many others, serve a different need for consumers by focusing on hobbies, nightlife, cultures, health and other topics that a general purpose site such as MySpace can't adequately address.

Niche sites can inspire passion and loyalty among users. People don't join niche networks just because their friends are there, as often happens with MySpace or Facebook. They join them out of a genuine interest in the subject matter. Entrepreneurs start niche sites because they can't find what they want at MySpace. This should be a clue to marketers that there are other people like them who you also won't be able to reach on MySpace.

Niche networks also break through the stimulus-overload that plagues today's modern, tech-savvy consumers. With myriad different media channels and technologies from which to choose, a social network whose content adds real value to their lives is going to be chosen over simply watching TV or listening to an iPod, or even browsing on the larger traditional social networks.

And the winner is…
As a marketer, you can have an impact with your most avid users with a niche network. If the niche has a tight synergy with what you make or sell, they may even encourage you to integrate seamlessly into the content, creating a best of all worlds situation. As an integrated partner, you can do more than just branding. You can use a niche social network:

• For detailed user surveying-better than focus group research and often cheaper
• For product marketing and product ideation
• To test new ad campaigns before you run them across the web
• To build grassroots demand and "buzz" for new products or features

More here 

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(* Source: Matt Heinz *)

Some great views on the state of agencies today in the media world... spot on, Matt.

Consumers are the new medium, and few agencies have figured out how to harness that power.

Ad agencies are in big trouble and may very well become just a memory five to 10 years from now. That's a bold prediction, for sure, but the marketing world is offering far more support for that suggestion than proof against it.

The best, most brilliant, most effective marketing ideas of the past of couple years have not
come from big ad agencies. They've come from small shops, and more often from individual consumers.

New brands such as Zillow and Twitter are ignoring traditional ad channels, yet they are immensely popular with consumers. And at the same time, we're increasingly disappointed with work done by traditional agencies.

Part of the problem lies in what big ad agencies have traditionally done well, vs. what works in marketing today. Even 10 years ago, traditional media was king. Great creative, placed correctly in the right media channels, could build mindshare and drive consumers to action.

Now fast forward to today. Traditional ads are either ignored or assumed to be puffery. Our shorter attention spans and faster lives give us less time to consume messages in traditional media, anyway.

What's more, the best, most credible marketing messages today come directly from consumers. We believe each other now, not the companies who want to sell us something. We assume that our neighbor down the street, or fellow parent on the soccer field sidelines, is going to be far more authentic and credible than the talking head on TV.

Consumers are the medium now, and few (if any) agencies have figured out how to harness the massive power consumers now have. Some agencies (mostly on the PR side) do employ brilliant thought leaders who clearly understand the role consumers now play in building brand influence and mindshare, but those same agencies have little expertise at the tactical and execution level for their clients.

What consumers are telling each other today are stories about their experiences with brands. They're sharing stories about how well a product works, or the great service they recently experienced from a service provider.

The emergence of consumers as the new "king of media" is placing the spotlight not on marketing messages, not on effective ad campaigns, but on the core of our brands -- the very products and services we provide.

The future of media and marketing has nothing to do with ads and promotions and interruptive media.  It has everything to do with how effective our products and services delight our customers.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Julie Shumaker *) 

Game content offers marketers a way to connect with consumers on a deeper, more meaningful level.

We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the worlds of media and advertising. Everyone recognizes that audiences are fragmented and consumer mindshare is limited given interaction with multiple forms of media at the same time. The use of DVRs, clicks and remote controls to avoid advertising altogether is a known. We're witnessing the most complicated broadcast upfront in history as networks and agencies try to figure out the implications of time shifting and ad avoidance, and how digital fits into this picture.

At the same time, the mass medium of games is tracking to reach $42 billion by the end of the decade. Often referenced as the most immersive form of media ever invented, the influence of video games inescapable and steals countless hours from millions of gamers across the globe. Analysts are predicting a growth curve for in-game advertising that outpaces the growth of online and follows suit with what has already happened: gamer hours surpassing time spent on the internet.

So what makes gaming such an attractive opportunity?

Audience
Targeted and efficient reach into the teen and young adult male buying demographic, an audience that has shifted billions of hours of media attention out of television and into video games. Let's face it, if they are still watching the show, you can bet they are also texting, talking and hitting the remote more often than viewing a 30-second spot.

Engagement
Video games by their very nature are the only medium that can command the audience's attention with limited to no multi-tasking. There are no remote controls, no TiVo or ad-skipping, and to win a race in "Midnight Club," you can bet the phone or IM are not engaged. The audience is completely immersed in the program containing the advertisement and brand message.

Relevance
Build relationships with game consumers in their world versus interrupting them in yours. The key is to move beyond a skyscraper or 30 seconds between shows and introduce your brand into the entertainment, taking a lead role in the action. Game content is varied and broad in the entertainment space and offers marketers a way to engage beyond impressions to connect with consumers on a deeper, more meaningful level.

Accountability
If a brand invests in a 30-second placement, it is guaranteed the ad will be seen on screen for that period of time, a commitment no other medium provides its customers. More than just the queue of an ad server while you move to the next page, or a full page you never turned, game impressions are counted only when a gamer is actually there in view playing the game, or in essence, playing your ad.

Mindshare
Look at the numbers: 67.8 million gamers have yet to be reached by an in-game ad. Research to date indicates that the combination of storyline engagement and brand signage offers the greatest lifts in awareness and brand affinity. Media spending against games is not in line with the number of hours games represent in media consumption. What this translates to is an untapped market with the most highly involved consumers on the planet. This is your opportunity to get in, innovate and establish a leadership position with a dominant share of voice before your competition.

So that is enough on the why, let's get to the how. Here are seven in-game executions that rock:

Adidas in Power Football
Pontiac in College Hoops 2K7
Power Bar Triple Threat and College Hoops 2K7
Visa in CSI 3
Chrysler in Splinter Cell Double Agent
Gatorade in NBA 2K7

Conclusion
The best advice I can give you is to think in terms of the overall program, your relationship with the game content and unique-to-medium opportunities. Be a part of the storyline and use that program to educate consumers and provide them with a meaningful connection to your brand. Go beyond the banner, beyond the 30-second spot, while using signage as a relevant tool to drive reach and add a call-to-action in driving your gaming ROI.

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(* Source: Reuters *) 

Virtual reality world Second Life was born in the United States, but 61 percent of its active residents are Europeans, a study by research firm comScore said on Friday.

The number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the United States, although growth rates in the U.S. are the highest worldwide, said comScore, which specializes in measuring various kinds of Internet usage.

Created by Linden Lab in San Francisco, Second Life is a virtual world where users create characters known as avatars, buy property and interact with other players. The world also has its own virtual currency, which can be exchanged for U.S. dollars.

More than 6 million user accounts have been created in Second Life, up from about 1 million at the end of 2006, but the number of active users is far lower.

The comScore study said users totaled 1.3 million in March, up 46 percent from January. More than 60 percent of users were male.

Germany had 209,000 active residents in Second Life, or 16 percent, compared with 207,000 from the United States, 104,000 from France and 72,000 from Britain.

The study, based on a research panel of more than 2 million computer users, excluded public computers such as those in Internet cafes.

Linden Lab's own March statistics showed 26.8 percent of active residents were from the United States, 13.5 percent from Germany, 8.2 percent from France and 6.7 percent from Britain.

"It is little wonder that bricks and mortar businesses are seeing Second Life as a virtual-world way of accessing a global, real-world customer base," comScore's Europe head, Bob Ivins, said in a statement.

Many global corporations including carmaker Toyota, music label Sony BMG, news and information group Reuters Plc, computer maker Sun Microsystems and technology news company Cnet are some of the companies with a presence in Second Life.

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(* Source: Josh Catone via three billion *) 

Yahoo! is set to announce that it will close its online photosharing website Yahoo! Photos in favor of Flickr, the web 2.0 darling that it purchased two years ago. According to web metrics firm Hitwise, Yahoo! Photos is currently the number 2 photo website on the web, behind Photobucket, which has seized 40% of the market on the back of strong usage among MySpace visitors. Over 50% of Photobucket's traffic comes from MySpace, compared to around 3% for Yahoo! Photos.

Flickr, meanwhile, has gained on Yahoo!'s main photo property, jumping from the #6 photo website last year, to the #3 position today. According to Charlene Li of Forrester Research, the move is a no-brainer.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Michael Estrin *) 

Sony spent up to $500 million on "Spider-Man 3." Here's a glimpse at the multimillion-dollar web.

In Sony Studios' latest -- and priciest to date -- effort to transform a classic comic book hero into a mainstream box office hit, Spider-Man has never before been so embedded with digital media assets, using a broad range of social media perks to bolster the marketing of the studio's third installment of the arachnid superhero's latest adventure ahead of its May 4 U.S. release.

In keeping with the vastness of the "Spider-Man 3" franchise, Sony worked with Google Earth to bring the superhero's Manhattan world to fans around the globe with a "Spider-Man 3" layer for the popular mapping application.

The "Spider-Man 3" layer takes users on a virtual tour of the city, complete with detailed imagery, popup windows for the movie's more recognizable locations and still photos from the film.

In addition to the Google Earth project, Sony reached out to its legions of online fans through its official site, which entices visitors to join the "Spider-Man 3" movie network. The free membership provides updates on the film's news, access to the official fan community, and an invitation to participate in beta testing for upcoming "Spider-Man 3" internet games.

Hoping to arm fans with an arsenal of promotion tools, Sony took fans inside the marketing machine, releasing still photos from the film for use on "Spider-Man 3" blogs. The fan community also allows users to spread their artistic wings by accepting fan challenges such as submitting artwork for fan art assignments or creating original videos for members only content. 

While "Spider-Man 3" is a clear jewel in Sony's movie crown, the film also will play a more strategic roll for the parent company, which is looking to unify a diverse set of brand offerings that include electronics, music, games and financial services.

"Spider-Man 3" is not just another comic book movie, says Forrester's customer experience researcher Ross Popoff-Walker. The often-conflicted superhero is a prime example of Sony Electronics CMO Michael Fasulo's burgeoning customer-centric universe, Popoff-Walker wrote in his blog.

According to Popoff-Walker, Fasulo demonstrated how the popular franchise allows Sony to tie its diverse sub-brands together, explaining that Sony used "Spider-Man" to cross-promote its CyberShot digital camera with a Web advergame.

Fasulo told Forrester that the truly successful brands in the twenty-first century will be those that can fully develop and execute a customer-centric model.

Proving that no superhero story would be complete without villains, "Spider-Man 3" squared off with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. over a widget-driven ad campaign created by Photobucket that allowed users to create their on Spidey slideshows.

MySpace quickly dropped the campaign from its pages, saying that users who created and posted the sponsored slideshows did so in violation of the social networking site's terms of service policy, which forbids commercial activity not authorized or endorsed by Fox Interactive.

"Following discussions with MySpace, we're pleased to announce that all Photobucket videos and remixes are enabled once more on MySpace with immediate effect," Photobucket CEO Alex Welch wrote on his blog. "Both our companies are committed to putting our users first." 

Although MySpace's move against "Spider-Man 3" was part of a general backlash against widget campaigns on its network (Cingular had a similar feud with the social networking site), Greg Verdino of Digitas, which handles Cingular, said such fights must ultimately be settled because closed systems are contrary to the principals of social networking.

As for "Spider-Man 3," Welch says promotions such as the slide show Photobucket created offer real value for brands such as Sony in terms of consumer satisfaction and interactivity.

"These brand sponsorships offer our users another outlet for self expression while engaging with their favorite movies and characters," Welch said. "The real potential for brands comes from being willing to mix their brands up with user generated content, which is then shared among millions of trend setting consumers." 

Posted by brian tiong at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Neil Perkin *) 

The 1% participantion rule is again echoed with this blog comment by Neil Perkin. Love the ladder/ pipe diagram.

 Neil Says...

The largely unwritten rule of Web 2.0 (let’s call it the 1,9,90 rule) helps us to explain what has been called ‘Participation Inequality’ - the different degrees of user interaction and engagement common to any 2.0 site based around networking or UGC. The reality is that the vast majority of unique users (often around 90%) are ‘lurkers’. They read and view but they don’t contribute. Another 9% of users interact but on a semi-regular basis. Perhaps they have a network profile but they don’t update it as often as they should. 1% of your user base however, will often be your most active. Really active. They will be your champions, your advocates, the ones that generate the majority of the content and interaction.

 

Now of-course these numbers and ratios are not definitive. Each site, and each community, differs. Networks which are formed around highly specialised areas of interest for example, will have higher levels of user interaction. But the broad principles are true of any 2.0 site. A small proportion of the user-base will account for a high proportion of the overall levels of interaction and content generation. According to Hitwise, only 0.2% of You Tube visits are to upload a video and only 0.16% of Flickr visits to upload photos. Wikipedia has millions of users but only 75,000 active contributors. Amazon's book reviews are similarly driven by a relatively small number of reviewers who contribute high volumes of reviews.

 

The challenge for brands in this space is how they can change and capitalise on these metrics to encourage higher levels of participation and involvement. Perhaps a good starting point for this is understanding how we are expecting our prospects to interact with us, and precisely what we are asking of them. New research from Forrester defines what they call 'Social Technographics', a study which uses consumer data to look at how consumers approach social technologies (as opposed to individual technologies) and defines six distinct levels of participation from 'Inactives' to 'Creators'.

More

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(* Source: eMarketer *) 

You've played the game. Now eat the food.

Nearly half of consumer goods companies plan to increase their interactive marketing budgets by 25% or more over the next two years, according to Coogan & Partners and SoftCoin's "Interactive Marketing Landscape Survey."

CPG firms have been increasing their online ads in particular, and eMarketer estimates that almost half of CPG category spending on Internet advertising in 2007 will come from food and beverage companies.

Internet advertising was the only medium to see a significant increase in food and beverage ad spending last year, according to eMarketer calculations of TNS data (and TNS does not include search in its calculations).

eMarketer senior analyst Lisa E. Phillips says that the Coogan/Softcoin study points to the scale of the CPG industry's interactive marketing.

"Like advertisers in other industries," said Ms. Phillips, "CPG companies spend far more on interactive marketing campaigns, such as microsites, advergames and downloadable music, than on Internet advertising such as display ads, search and e-mail. This year, CPG companies will spend $600 million to advertise online, just 3.1% of the total $19.5 billion expected."

As for interactive campaigns, food and beverage marketers have been actively using advergames to establish their brands.

eMarketer expects US spending on advergaming will hit $344 million in 2011.

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s advergaming site is one sign of a CPG marketer's success with this type of campaign.

The firm's candystand.com draws between 4 million and 5 million unique visitors per month to play Wrigley-branded games such as Orbit Video Poker. Earlier this year, the company launched a microsite, wii.candystand.com, which can be accessed through Nintendo's Wii Internet channel, even though it is not licensed or authorized by Nintendo.

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(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Tiny steps toward more public communication.

The buzz around collaborative Web 2.0 technologies keeps going, and it is easy to think that every firm now has a blog, a wiki and an RSS feed.

In fact, a global survey of internal and corporate communications professionals found that more than half use blogs, online video and RSS, or plan to do so in the next 12 months.

The Melcrum study of communications at large firms also found more than 40% are using podcasts and social networks, or say they are planning to do so.

Other data suggest that while a lot of firms say they plan to start blogging, that remains a matter of intent, not reality. Moreover, few companies have public blogs. Those that do appear to blog mainly for internal communications.

Socialtext tracks public blogging by Fortune 500 firms and Global 1000 firms. The ongoing study, headed by Chris Anderson of Wired, currently credits 8% of the Fortune 500 with public blogs, and just 4% of the Global 1000.

Public blogging by Fortune 500 firms has actually doubled since April 2006.

However, "doubling" does not indicate an explosion of public blogging.

The word "public" is key here. Although firms may use Web 2.0 for internal communications, putting company details in plain view for second-guessing by armchair CEOs still lacks appeal. Responses in the Melcrum study confirmed this.

Almost half of respondents agreed that employees discussing their organization online posed a significant risk to the corporation's reputation. Another 70% said that they had no guidelines or policies relating to blogging or other social-media tools, indicating that they were unprepared for public-facing communications.

Social media are well-suited to internal communications, with communications professionals believing they help with employee engagment and internal collaboration.

Firms looking to open two-way dialogue with senior executives, however, need to decide who they are willing to have on the other side of the conversation.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington via three billion *) 

The timing couldn’t be much better for InterActiveCorp to launch Zwinktopia, a new virtual world for young teens. Other virtual worlds, such as Gaia, Habbo Hotel, Cyworld, Neopets, Club Penguin, Webkinz and others, are exploding in terms of unique monthly visitors and total time spent at the sites.

Until today, IAC’s Zwinky was a site to make customized avatars, choosing from 10,000 different outfits, accesories and other items, and embed them onto other websites such as MySpace. Users could also become friends with other users and enage in basic social networking activities. See Stardoll as well in this space.

Most of the functionality at Zwinky is accessed via a non-mandatory browser toolbar that users install. Zwinky says that they have 20 million active toolbars that were used in March 2007. Part of Zwinky’s business model is to collect search advertising revenues from toolbar usage.

Today Zwinky will add a virtual world to the site called Zwinktopia - users can use their avatars to roam around the world, chat with other users and engage in activities to earn Zbucks, the virtual currency of Zwinktopia. Zbucks can be used to buy virtual clothing and other goods.

Zwinky is part of the Fun Webs group at IAC, which includes Smiley Central, Cursor Mania and other sites and generates over $100 million in annual revenues. The Fun Webs group is part of the Consumer Applications and Portals group (iWon and Excite are within this group) and is led by Scott Garell.

Zwinky alone has 4.7 million worldwide unique visitors in March (Comscore), far more than Second Life and the other competitors listed in the first paragraph above. If a reasonable number of them can be converted into exploring Zwinktopia, it will become the largest immersive world outside of the gaming sites like World of Warcraft. See Comscore comparision data below (U.S. only).

See GigaOm’s recent article on Gaia, which is probably closest to Zwinktopia in functionality.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)