New Media Age articles from December 2008

New Media Age archives from December 2008

Nintendo's gag on Bebo users may come back to haunt it.
December 4, 2008... Arrogance, stupidity or well-placed confidence? That's the question sparked by Nintendo's decision to block interaction tools on social network Bebo for its latest campaign. On the surface, this appears a strange move. In fact, the...

BREAKING NEWS: BBC launches rich media site for 'Survivors'.(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... The BBC has launched a rich media site with an adventure game to support its drama series Survivors. Created by digital creative agency Perfect Fools, the site showcases a game confronting visitors with choices based on key themes from the...

BREAKING NEWS: Tiffany in Xmas tie-up with Urban Junkies.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Tiffany & Co has partnered with publisher Urban Junkies to launch an online festive advent calendar. The calendar will sit on the Urban Junkies site where a new calendar window will be opened every other day, showing gifts from the jeweller...

Spirit brands given nod to run Google search campaigns.
December 4, 2008... Search engine giant seeks to drive slowing growth in AdWords click rates by lifting restrictions on spirit brands from next year Google is to allow spirit brands to run search campaigns for the first time as the search engine company looks...

Yahoo to cultivate more traffic with customised home page content.
December 4, 2008... Social media platforms and bespoke home page widgets will spearhead Yahoo's efforts at luring more traffic to its sites Yahoo is to relaunch its home page in Q1 to incorporate social media and behavioural targeting in a bid to drive more...

Virgin Mobile aims to woo customers on rival networks.
December 4, 2008... Brand drops subscriber-only content policy by making Virgin Media mobile content available across rival mobile networks Virgin Mobile is to target millions of subscribers from rival networks with Virgin Media mobile content following a...

Tesco to use Clubcard data to tailor third-party advertising.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Tesco is to integrate its Clubcard data with third-party advertising across Tesco.com for the first time in a bid to significantly drive online revenues when it launches next year. The retail giant is working with Dunnhumby, the...

Three-quarters of families to buy Christmas gifts online.
December 4, 2008... Some 40% of families are planning to make more purchases online for gifts than they did a year ago, according to research by media network MPG. The research into the Christmas shopping habits of over 100 families found 75% are planning to...

ROI is the true divide between sectors.(Return on investment)
December 4, 2008... Occasionally I have the enormous pleasure of judging nma's Interactive Marketing and Advertising Awards. And a very splendid awards scheme it is too, with this year's kings of the digital castle crowned in some style at the end of October. I...

UKTV appoints Hilary O'Hare to be first web-oriented video producer.(UKTV Interactive Ltd. appoints Hilary O'Hare and Caroline Halliday)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... UKTV has appointed its first video producer to work across its portfolio of sites as part of a restructure of the channel's new media team. UKTV plans to develop more exclusive short-form content across its sites, as video becomes more...

Fashion duo complement each other with online video ads.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Lingerie website Figleaves.com has partnered with etailer My- wardrobe.com to create an online video promoting their products. The tie-up sees Figleaves.com's marketing director, Louise English, showcase four different looks from each of...

Global charity pushes web ads in drive on child poverty.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Charity World Vision has launched an online campaign in support of its Child Sponsorship drive. The online ads feature a video of a baby in a womb questioning whether it will be born into a life of poverty. Three separate executions...

Pulse Films uses social media site to research new activist movie.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Cross-platform production company Pulse Films has launched a major social media play to research a forthcoming activist documentary starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Resistnetwork.com is a social media site that invites members of the public to...

ITN Source looks for ad sales partner for viral video service.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Video archive service ITN Source is hunting for an ad sales partner for Diagonal View, its direct-to-consumer viral video service. Diagonal View, which launched in March 2008, is planning to monetise its content distributed via partners...

Credit card companies could still better serve customers online.
December 4, 2008... It's a busy time of year for credit card providers as consumers seek help managing their finances over the festive period. To find out if credit card companies are offering customers what they're looking for online, we asked 1,000 customers...

MySpace expands mobile offer with full video content.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... MySpace is continuing the expansion of its mobile service with plans to add video functionality to the site in a bid to reach 3m daily unique users by 2009. The social network aims to make its entire MySpace Video content, which...

Cineworld puts digital at centre of new strategy.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Cineworld has overhauled its website as it looks to become the UK's leading cinema and film brand. The cinema chain, which has over 800 screens at 71 locations across the UK, has relaunched its website and increased its focus on local...

Kickers plans 40% more spend online.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Footwear brand Kickers is to increase its online spend by 40% next year as it seeks to build brand awareness among its core youth audience. Kickers has appointed digital creative agency Holler to handle its digital marketing after a...

Card brand drives personalised books via web.(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Popular greeting card brand Me to You is to use online as a platform to push personalised children's books. The brand, sold in the high street chain Clintons, launched a site earlier this year enabling users to create and buy gift cards,...

Drambuie uses UK site to reach younger target market.(Drambuie Group)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Scotch whisky brand Drambuie has launched a UK site as it looks to target a younger audience. The brand, which said it has traditionally targeted over 55s, has spent a year overhauling its strategy. The new site focuses on interactive...

LETTER: Who's really under threat from on-demand?(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2008... Tom Weiss, CEO, TV Genius Those predicting the death of broadcast are missing the fact that on- demand has been around for years in the form of DVDs and time-shifted viewing on video. People who want to watch on demand are already doing...

LETTER: Boots and Tesco raise the online bar for all.(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2008... Gareth Lambe, MD, Pigsback.com It's great to see the bigger, more established offline brands starting to embrace technology in a way that will enhance user experience (nma 30 October). Traditionally, they've been slow and nervous in...

LETTER: Ecommerce on track to ride the economic dip.(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2008... Fadi Shuman, founder, Pod1 In response to your recent feature on budgets (nma 20 November), ecommerce is providing one of the clearest roadmaps for future digital spend. Our clients are seeing 80% annual growth in online revenues from...

LETTER: Comment from nma.co.uk.(Letter to the editor)
December 4, 2008... Re: Time for print media to reclaim innovation in engaging readers I think the next stage is for what might be termed 'impact editors' - people who effectively compere sites. These will be informers who'll present home-page impacts that...

Branded games can be perfect engagers, if they are done properly.
December 4, 2008... There's no question that with the credit crunch biting, marketers are starting to tighten their belts just like the rest of us. But they still need to get their message out there to their target audience and a branded game is one of the most...

AD WATCH: Volvo uses the medium to its full advantage.(Volvo Car Corp.)
December 4, 2008... Over the last few years, many in the digital marketing industry have been fortunate to experience a period of sustained business growth. However, while volume has increased, the quality of the ideas has declined. Recently we did an agency...

PROFILE: DAVID MACKENZIE - Shopping around.
December 4, 2008... Shopping.com's newly appointed UK country manager David Mackenzie discusses his plans for staying ahead of price comparison rivals A suite of smart faux-Georgian buildings in Richmond, South-West London, is the unlikely new home for the...

LEAD GENERATION: Lead generation`.
December 4, 2008... There are various sources for leads on customers who have expressed an interest in your product, but how can you be sure they're worth what it costs to get them? With budgets continuing to tighten and brands feeling even greater pressure...

NMA MOBILE: Downturn is just the time for some innovation.
December 4, 2008... Like the rest of us, mobile operators are starting to feel the pinch. But amid all the doom and gloom of the financial crisis, there has been some fairly cheery news for mobile data. Ofcom's annual communications report showed steady growth...

Daily Mirror gives mobile users same respect as website readers.
December 4, 2008... Daily Mirror http://mirror.coluk 'mirror' to 67800 Agency Bluestar Mobile Platform Mobile IQ's Fabric The Daily Mirror mobile site is the first relaunch in a strategy to provide multi-platform access to all Trinity Mirror...

NMA MOBILE: Android's dream.
December 4, 2008... Google's ambitions in the mobile space go beyond most other internet companies, and last month's arrival of its Android mobile operating platform on a commercially available device further underlines this. The HTC G1 phone, running...

MOVES: Golley Slater Group.(appointment of Aidan Nicholson and Nicola Hirst)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Golley Slater Group has appointed Aidan Nicholson as FMCG account director and Nicola Hirst as senior account manager in its Leeds office. Nicholson joins from Poulters where he was also FMCG director while Hirst joins from The Small Agency...

MOVES: MySpace.(appointment of Courtney Holt )(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... MySpace has appointed Courtney Holt as president of MySpace Music. He joins from MTV Networks Music and Logo Group where he was executive VP of digital music. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

MOVES: Meteorite.(appointment of Louise Hillard)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Integrated marketing agency Meteorite has appointed Louise Hillard as digital project manager. She joins from Haygarth where she held the same position. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

MOVES: Eyeconomy.(appointment of Mehdy Mamode and Greg Day as senior sales executives and Sean Rutherford as sales executive)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Digital advertising agency Eyeconomy, part of Media Corporation, has hired Mehdy Mamode and Greg Day as senior sales executives and Sean Rutherford as sales executive. Mamode joins from BigMouthMedia, where he held the position of online media...

MOVES: Gamesys Group.(appointment of Lee Fenton)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Online gaming company Gamesys Group has appointed Lee Fenton as chief operating officer. Fenton joins Gamesys after leaving Fox where he was both COO and CEO of Fox Mobile. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

MOVES: Five by Five.(appointment of Kirsty Weston and Laura Colin )(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Digital marketing agency Five by Five has appointed Kirsty Weston as business director (London) and Laura Colin as account director. Weston joins from LBi UK, where she was a client partner and Colin joins from digital agency Skive, where...

MOVES: Everybody's.(appointment of Emma Parry and Kate Prince)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Creative media group Everybody's has bolstered its senior executive team with the appointments of Emma Parry as director of operations and Kate Prince as director of legal and business affairs. Parry joins from White Ribbon Alliance where...

SITE INSPECTION: BHF's Yoobot.(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Yoobot.co.uk Owner British Heart Foundation Agency Grey London & Bloc Media Content 23/25 Usability 23/25 Branding 20/25 Monetisation 20/25 Total 86/100 Yoobots are the...

SITE INSPECTION: Give Me Football.(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Givemefootball.com Owner PFA Agency We Are VI Content 15/25 Usability 18/25 Branding 16/25 Monetisation 15/25 Total 64/100 It's a hard job to become a key football portal...

SITE INSPECTION: Children's Workforce Development Charity.(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Cwdcouncil.org.uk Owner Children's Workforce Development Council Agency TicToc Content 18/25 Usability 16/25 Branding 22/25 Monetisation 10/25 Total 56/100 Whether it's Baby...

FULFILMENT: argos.co.uk.(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 4, 2008... Selection Everything from home electricals, TVs, PCs, video games, toys, jewellery, furniture, kitchen, laundry, garden - you name it, Argos has it. Navigation Despite having thousands of products the site is straightforward and...

Digital media must work to woo the mass market.
December 11, 2008... The online industry is demanding a trading currency for internet advertising. It realises this is crucial to create a credible online ad industry. And it promises to work jolly hard. It's a shame, then, that this demand was made in the pages...

BREAKING NEWS: Which? launches instant download service.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Consumer organisation Which? has launched an instant download service for its consumer reports. Whichdigitalstore.co.uk will be integrated into the Which? compare site, with the individual in-depth consumer reports available for each product...

BREAKING NEWS: HMV rolls out Christmas campaign on Platform-A.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... HMV has rolled out a Christmas ad campaign using Platform-A's wide range of services. The four-week campaign, booked via media agency OMD, focuses around a campaign site developed by Platform-A, with targeted ads running across its...

Microsoft in major restructuring of ad publisher division.
December 11, 2008... Microsoft Advertising overhauls its Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group under recently appointed Ashley Highfield Microsoft Advertising has conducted a major restructuring of its advertiser and publisher sales division in an attempt...

Ford positions Fiesta portal as leading style and cultural destination.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Automotive brand enlists Blinkbox and Last.fm to provide content for second phase of Fiesta's This Is Now campaign Ford has signed content deals with Blinkbox and Last.fm to provide film and music content to its Fiesta portal, which it's...

Modified Project Kangaroo should go ahead next year.
December 11, 2008... Industry remains divided by the Competition Commission's decision to halt progress of the joint video-on-demand offer Project Kangaroo is expected to go ahead next year in a modified form, despite the Competition Commission's ruling last...

Industry behind replacement for JICIMS.(Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Unilever has stated it will continue to measure online activity through its own methods, in the week the long awaited Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems (JICIMS) collapsed. Babs Rangaiah, global director of...

ITV catch-up service sees 600% increase in viewership since last year.
December 11, 2008... Video views on ITV.com reached 15.7m in November, up 1m on the previous month and a 598% increase year on year, according to the latest figures from the broadcaster. Visitors to ITV.com have viewed 69m videos since its relaunch in August...

TV industry in danger of devaluing its currency.
December 11, 2008... It's very odd that the media industry appears to be in the process of debasing its own currency at the moment. The TV industry's main currency is measurement and it appears to be under attack from within by the very companies that depend on...

The Sun drops ads for premium-rate adult services.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Adult ads putting off other advertisers, it fears, while sector moves to eliminate dodgy premium rate service providers The Sun has dropped all adult mobile content ads ahead of a move by the industry's largest aggregators to wipe out...

Auto Trader in deal with Top Gear site to extend reach.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... The BBC's recently relaunched Top Gear website has signed a deal with Auto Trader to list its stock. TopGear.com will host listings of more than 400,000 new and used cars in a deal that aims to extend Auto Trader's reach online. It...

IAB to work with lead-generation firms on devising sector standards.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... The IAB is meeting lead-generation specialists to discuss the potential of industry standards to maintain the sector's growth in 2009. Companies including lead-management specialist Goallover, lead- generation specialist Diamomi and...

Utarget.Fox rolls out Coull video ad technology across network.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Utarget.Fox has signed a deal with interactive video specialist Coull to offer advertisers greater video ad opportunities. Coull's technology, enabling users to click on products in a video ad to get information about them, will be...

Nine museums combine web experiences into social site.
December 11, 2008... The National Museums Online Learning Project (NMOLP) is to launch a social networking project in a bid to bring together the online experiences of nine major museums. Creative Spaces will pull together the online assets of the Victoria...

Media Corp in bid to acquire Adrevenue to increase its ad network assets.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Media Corp, the owner of ad network Eyeconomy, is in talks to acquire independent ad network Adrevenue. It already owns ad network Not Another Sales House (NASH), which it bought in November 2007 for #224,700, as well as Gambling.com. ...

Mobile web used by all ages but infrequently for specific content.
December 11, 2008... We recently surveyed 1,000 UK consumers to understand how they use the internet on their mobile phone. With the mobile web becoming increasingly available through ever-advanced handsets, we wanted to know who advertisers can reach with mobile...

Moneysupermarket drives etail channel.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Moneysupermarket.com is to launch a major online Christmas display campaign to boost brand awareness of its new shopping channel. The price comparison site, which launched its shopping channel in September, aims to raise its profile against...

Ad-funded teen girl virtual world to launch in UK.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... An ad-funded virtual world for teen girls, which already has 6m members across Europe, is to launch in the UK. GoSupermodel has members across eight European countries and hopes to take on top teen virtual sites Stardoll and Habbo when it...

VisitBritain seeks first search agency.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... National tourism agency VisitBritain is seeking an agency to handle its #1.3m search business. Eight undisclosed search agencies have been shortlisted from the 45 that tendered for the business, which was previously managed in-house. ...

Comet plans to overhaul site with UGC focus.(user- generated content)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Comet is to overhaul its site next year placing a greater emphasis on user-generated content. The retailer said it was in the planning stages for a site that would take advantage of its position as a specialist electronics retailer. ...

National Rail Enquiries looks to revamp site.(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... National Rail Enquiries (NRE) has approached digital agencies with a brief to overhaul its site. The train timetable and booking site is planning its biggest revamp since its launch in 2003. Marty Cleveland, director of business...

LETTER: Greedy media owners could ruin TV voting.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2008... John Wood, MD, C3 New statistics show a fall in TV advertising in October and at least two sources predict that ITV's ad revenues will fall by 7-9% in 2009. Fortunately for the broadcasters, participation TV has made a successful...

LETTER: Sorting out ownership of online inventory.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2008... Matt Jerwood, director of business development, WAYN I completely buy into the brand selling the ad space that surrounds its own content, so long as it's the best option in that relationship. For the operator to sell everything on...

LETTER: Bebo disappoints over Nintendo decision.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2008... Rob Marcus, director, Chat Moderators It's interesting how Nintendo obviously views social media as just another eyeball opportunity, in complete contradiction to the spirit of the Cluetrain Manifesto (nma 4 December). It's being...

LETTER: Comment from nma.co.uk.(Letter to the editor)
December 11, 2008... Re: Nintendo blocks user chat on Bebo This is one to watch. My money is on a spectacular backfire against Nintendo. Its not just a missed opportunity, Nintendo just gave its customers the bird. Mark Riley I don't think it's...

Search and social media are key to cultivating publicity online.
December 11, 2008... The website has been the currency of online communication since the internet began. Online marketing might have changed, but in large part it remains about driving consumers to a company's website. This is changing, though. Developments in...

PROFILE: Jonathan Williams.(Apax Partners Worldwide L.L.P.)
December 11, 2008... Jonathan Williams, director of emarketing at Trader Media Group, has overseen the accelerated rise of the Auto Trader brand. And there's plenty of drive left in him yet Thirty might seem young to be an industry veteran, yet that's just...

DIGITAL GROUPS: Helping hands.
December 11, 2008... The digital industry has an enormous array of networking events, from purely social outings to education, advice and business mentoring Business social network LinkedIn recently reported its UK membership had grown to 1.8m, attributed by...

RESEARCH: CASE STUDY - ATLAS'S ENGAGEMENT ROI.(return on investment)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Engagement ROI attempts to allocate a value to every touchpoint a consumer encounters online. The tool includes a visualiser from which advertisers can plot, from left to right, the contribution that various online ad elements should make to a...

RESEARCH: Finding a third way.
December 11, 2008... Following last week's collapse of JICIMS, new media age spoke to industry experts to get their view of what should happen next Calls for a measurement system that can compare the reach and frequency of online audiences with other...

RESEARCH: Hanging up.
December 11, 2008... Online market research has been seen as having several disadvantages compared to the telephone. But that's becoming less and less true With its huge reach and low cost to market, the internet has been having a huge impact on market...

RESEARCH: CASE STUDY - MESH PLANNING PUSHES MOBILE BOUNDARIES.
December 11, 2008... Researchers see mobile as a great opportunity, but generally for the future. However, some are already attracted by the immediacy of mobile. As Fiona Blades, MD at Mesh Planning argues, big brands want to know how they're thought of in real...

MOVES: Safig Cabestan.(European email marketing company has appointed Safig Cabestan, Warren Queenan and Steven Lunniss )
December 11, 2008... European email marketing company Safig Cabestan has appointed Warren Queenan as dedicated marketing manager and Steven Lunniss as project manager. Queenan joins from FindaProperty.com where he was business development manager, while Lunniss...

MOVES: BT.(BT Enterprises has promoted Tony Chanmugam as group finance director)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... BT has promoted Tony Chanmugam as group finance director for BT Group. He was previously chief financial officer of BT Retail and MD of BT Enterprises. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

MOVES: Ionoco.(Ionoco has appointed Will Arrowsmith and Rachel Charlton)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Broadcast technology company Ionoco has appointed Will Arrowsmith as developer and Rachel Charlton as finance manager. Arrowsmith was previously senior developer at Torex Pharmacy Solutions while Charlton was finance manager at Egglestones...

MOVES: Sony Pictures Television International.(Sony Pictures Television International has hired Damian Newton )(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Sony Pictures Television International has hired Damian Newton as senior VP of digital initiatives in its European distribution division. He was previously EMEA VP of sales for digital media at Disney ABC International Television. ...

MOVES: Masher.(Masher has appointed John Armah )(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Video mash-up site Masher has appointed John Armah as commercial director. He was previously head of corporate development at The Financial Times. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

MOVES: M&C Saatchi.(M&C Saatchi has promoted Tom Dery and Moray MacLennan)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Worldwide ad agency M&C Saatchi has promoted Tom Dery to chairman and Moray MacLennan to CEO. Dery was formerly executive chairman of Asia Pacific while MacLennan was European chairman. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors...

SITE INSPECTION: MTV Staying Alive.(Staying-alive.org/en )(Website overview)
December 11, 2008... Staying-alive.org/en Owner MTV Agency Publicreative Content 22/25 Usability 21/25 Branding 23/25 Monetisation 13/25 Total 79/100 When I was learning about sex education it...

SITE INSPECTION: Cows 'n' Things.(Cowsnthings.org.uk)(Website overview)
December 11, 2008... Cowsnthings.org.uk Owner Help The Aged Agency TDA Content 11/25 Usability 19/25 Branding 18/25 Monetisation 17/25 Total 65/100 In the run-up to Christmas many of the larger...

SITE INSPECTION: Gossard.(Gossard.com)(Website overview)
December 11, 2008... Gossard.com Owner Gossard Agency TwentySix Content 16/25 Usability 20/25 Branding 12/25 Monetisation 10/25 Total 58/100 Think Gossard and you think Wonderbra. Even though...

FULFILMENT: jonesbootmaker.com.(Website overview)(Brief article)
December 11, 2008... Selection Footwear from the London boot company, which opened its first shop in 1857. The online service also offers repairs. Navigation You can search by category or brand, breaking out into style subcategories. Returns...