Revolution articles from August 2005

Revolution archives from August 2005

Letter from the editor.(Internet advertising)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2005... The list of sectors coming to terms with digital is approaching completion, but it still takes a brand or two to lead the way. In radio, one of those brands is Virgin and it's necessity, as well as courage, that has pushed it to achieve...

Coca-Cola invites new bands to compete to play Centrestage.
August 1, 2005... Coca-Cola is backing the launch of its Centrestage music event with a two-pronged online push. The drinks brand is recruiting unsigned music acts through an invite on its web site. The push, targeting 18 to 24-year-olds in Scotland, is...

BBC's online hero could hit TV screens.(British Broadcasting Corp)(CBeebies)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... CBeebies, the BBC's pre-school brand, is tackling illiteracy in boys through a web site animation that could turn into a TV cartoon series. New superhero Tommy Zoom features in animated stories on bbc.co.uk/cbeebies, with sidekicks Daniel...

Post Office debuts its ants on the web.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The Post Office has unveiled a swathe of rich-media ads to push its travel insurance. For the six-week drive, the company has used its animated ant characters for a series of executions placed on travel sites. The first execution shows...

Deals: MyVillage signs exclusive ad deal.
August 1, 2005... MyVillage, the online local lifestyle and entertainment guide for UK cities, has signed an exclusive online advertising deal with drinks company Diageo. AdLINK secured the year-long partnership between the two organisations as part of an...

Deals: Overture and ValueClick signs search agreement.(Overture Europe)(ValueClick Europe)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Overture and ValueClick Europe have signed a multi-year, sponsored search agreement. Overture has agreed to provide sponsored search and content match listings to ValueClick's Search 123 division. Overture's sponsored search listings will be...

Deals: PhotoBox launches interactive TV service.(Broadband Plus)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Online photography service PhotoBox has launched an interactive TV service, which is available through ntl's Broadband Plus service. It enables users to view their online photos on their TV screen and share them with other ntl subscribers.

Deals: UCI and Odeon offer film-related content.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... UCI and Odeon Cinemas are offering film-related content to mobile phone users, following a deal between UCI and mobile entertainment and technology company Urban Mobile. Film buffs will receive a mobile entertainment pack at the UCI cinema...

Deals: Moneysupermarket.com signs deal with Wanadoo.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Price-comparison site Moneysupermarket.com has signed a one-year deal with Wanadoo to provide insurance-comparison services. The web site has seen consumer demand for insurance products increase by 80 per cent over the last year, it said....

Deals: EMI Music teams up with Samsung Fun Club.(EMI Music UK)(Samsung Fun Club UK)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... EMI Music UK and Samsung Fun Club UK have teamed to launch exclusive Turin Brakes web site content. Created by EMI's video content team, the bespoke content for the Samsung Fun Club site (www.samsungmobile.co.uk) includes private gig footage...

Deals: All England Lawn Tennis Club teams with BT.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The All England Lawn Tennis Club teamed with BT for the second-year running to bring video coverage from Wimbledon to broadband users. BT was the official broadband partner of the championships. Both BT Broadband and BT Yahoo! Broadband...

Bradford & Bingley overhauls strategy.(Bradford & Bingley PLC)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Building society Bradford & Bingley is seeking agencies as it revamps its digital strategy. The firm is inviting agencies to pitch for work that will include a site redesign, online advertising, media planning and buying, and email...

Zopa appoints Harvest Digital for campaigns.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Online borrowing exchange Zopa has hired agency Harvest Digital to develop a digital marketing strategy amid plans to launch its first campaign on the internet - to raise awareness of the web site - in July. The push will focus on search...

Good month/bad month.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Good for Lastminute.com as shareholders voted in favour of its takeover by Travelocity for pounds 1.65 a share, valuing the company at pounds 577m. The cash offer was given the thumbs up by the required majority at an EGM last month. The deal...

Martha Lane Fox returns with karaoke venture and web site.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Digital darling and entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox is supporting her new business venture, Lucky Voice Private Karaoke, online. The new club, which boasts private karaoke booths for small groups of people, has launched in London's West End....

Just breaking: Top 10 breaking banners by impressions - (1-31 May 2005).(Illustration)
August 1, 2005... 1 Phatplay.com Win an iPod mini 2 Travel Magnet Attracting the best deals on the net 3 Ultralase Win laser eye treatment worth up to pounds 3,000 4 The National Play Lotto online now Lottery 5 Expedia.co.uk ...

Mirror Group plans overhaul of national newspaper domains.(Trinity Mirror Newspapers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Trinity Mirror is to relaunch the web sites of The Sunday Mirror and The People, as well as its Scottish titles The Daily Record and Sunday Mail. All four web sites will be relaunched before the autumn, in line with the overhaul of The...

Arla puts Cafe Foods online in brand first.
August 1, 2005... Arla Foods, owner of coffee brand Cafe Met, is committing fully to online marketing for the first time. The company has launched a rich-media campaign for the brand, alongside a banner push for Discover Cheese. The Cafe Met brand is...

Sony backs 'God of War' with web push.
August 1, 2005... Sony is supporting the July launch of its PlayStation2 God of War game though an extensive online campaign. The push aims to generate awareness before and after the launch of the action adventure game, and push more traffic to...

IHT six-figure promo makes use of video.(International Herald Tribune)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The International Herald Tribune has launched a six-figure online-only campaign to promote the newspaper, its various sections and a new subscription offer for business readers in the UK, France and Germany. The push, worth pounds 330,000,...

Owen on digital media: See, Cannes does offer more than just a booze-up.(John Owen)(Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival)
August 1, 2005... It's all too tempting to dismiss the annual international advertising festival in Cannes as a jolly where feckless agency folk do more drinking than thinking. However, the creative work that is entered, and the entries that win, tell us a...

Account wins.(email marketing)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Charity Christian Aid has chosen Agency.com to develop and create a new strategy for its online business. Starting in July, the work will begin with user research through focus groups. The agency will use its findings to shape an online...

Onken echoes 'feel good' factor online.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Yoghurt brand Onken has hired agency Dare to redesign its web site following a five-way pitch in May against Albion, Meme Digital, Grand Union and Liquorice. The site relaunch coincides with a pounds 1.3 million investment in TV and radio...

Unilever asks users to be more pro.activ.(Unilever Group. Food and Beverages Div)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Unilever has unveiled a new site as part of a six-week integrated campaign that invites consumers to take the Lulu Flora pro.activ Challenge. The site features the diary of singer Lulu, who took part in a three-week challenge to lower her...

Tracker.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Traffic to UK sites: 74.9% Average session duration: 5 mins 51 secs The Make Poverty History web site gained momentum in the run-up to the G8 Summit. Hitwise data revealed the charity's official web site...

Kelkoo offers mobile comparison service.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Yahoo! UK and Ireland has unveiled the first price comparison service on WAP in Europe. The new mobile service will enable customers to check product prices on the move from their handset. All of the price and product information is...

Abbey reviews pounds 8m digital media brief.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Abbey has put its digital media account, worth up to pounds 8m, up for review. MindShare, Abbey's current agency, has been informed of the decision and has been invited to repitch for the business, although it would not reveal who else...

Forum to host digital buyers and suppliers.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The next Revolution Forum will take place on 21 to 23 November at the Cambridge Belfry hotel, Cambridge. The event is the seventh Revolution Forum and will offer high-level delegates the chance to meet supplier companies in a series of...

Griffiths on mobile: Opportunity knocks for SMS to grab its place in the sun.
August 1, 2005... With the summer festival season in full swing and many of the mobile operators using these events to push new content services, it's easy to overlook the fact that text is mobile's most successful data service today. We're not just talking...

BT Yahoo! embarks on web push for dial-up packages.
August 1, 2005... BT Yahoo! has launched a new online marketing drive to push its dial-up services. A direct response campaign will push its dial-up packages, which include BT Yahoo! Anytime's 150-hour service, plus a range of pay-as-you-go deals. A...

BIMA seeks volunteers to join the judging panel for Awards.(British Interactive Media Association )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is inviting applications for places on its awards judging panel for the first time as it celebrates its 21st year. It is seeking 'exclusively senior practitioners' in the interactive...

BP uses video viral to launch Ultimate fuel.(British Petroleum Company PLC)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Petrol giant BP has launched a video viral email to promote its Ultimate fuel range. Developed by agency 20:20 London, the push to Nectar cardholders evolves Ultimate's 'What's your baby?' strapline. An email link takes users to a...

Time thief: Suzanne Moorey-Denham, MD of Dynamic Logic Europe, outlines her day.
August 1, 2005... 40% Key client work and new business development. Best bit - what we're here for. 10% Plate spinning - Internal meetings... with HR, operations, techies, product development. Lots of briefings. 8% Planning & prioritising From...

Cricinfo signs deals to expand its scope.
August 1, 2005... Global cricket site Cricinfo.com has signed a range of sponsorships, is launching a travel service and is investigating paid-for search listings for the first time in the build-up to its busiest period, the summer's Ashes. Cricinfo has...

Performance index.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The Revolution Keynote Performance Index measures the performance of 20 representative sites from across the digital economy in terms of speed of loading and site availability. The top 10 are featured each week, and the worst performing web...

Gaffney on America: Reflect taught us to remember where our customers are.(www.reflect.com)(Column)
August 1, 2005... I had this great idea for a column. It was going to be about Reflect.com. There it was, eight years into web warfare with everything done right: financial and operational backing from Procter & Gamble and a business proposition that worked...

Moving on up: Appointment at blueyonder.co.uk.(Adrian Watkins appointed)(Brief Article)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... Adrian Watkins joins Telewest Broadband's blueyonder.co.uk team as e-commerce and partner manager. He will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategy to strike new sponsorships and e-commerce deals, reporting to Richard Garner,...

Moving on up: Appointment at MTV Networks UK.(Angel Gambino appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... MTV Networks UK has recruited Angel Gambino as vice-president, commercial strategy and digital media at MTV Networks UK. Starting on 1 September in her newly created role, Gambino will drive new business growth, and create and implement...

Moving on up: Appointment at All Response Media.(Alice Mallick appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... All Response Media has hired Alice Mallick as senior digital planner/buyer. She will manage the strategic direction of the Onetel and Oxfam accounts.

Moving on up: Appointment at Bulldog Communications.(Andrew Morley appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Andrew Morley has been made chief commercial officer at Bulldog Communications, a provider of broadband services and local loop-unbundling services. He will lead the sales, marketing and customer operations teams. Prior to joining the company,...

Moving on up: Appointment at Greenlight.(John Hefferman APPOINTED)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Greenlight, the search engine marketing agency, has appointed John Hefferman to the newly created role of head of business development. He joins the company from search marketing agency Latitude, where he was business development manager, and...

Moving on up: Appointment at Tamar.(Gemela Nagi and Jessica Evershed appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Agency Tamar has recruited two new designers: Gemela Nagi and Jessica Evershed will work for Tamar's financial and retail clients, which include Endsleigh and Dreams.

Moving on up: Appointment at EHS Brann.(Chris Oliver and Chris Ridd appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... EHS Brann has appointed Chris Oliver as account director for Onetel and Chris Ridd as account planner for British Gas at the company's London agency. Oliver joins from Tequila London where he was account director and worked with clients such as...

Moving on up: Appointment at Bd-ntwk.(Mike Pearson appointed)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Bd-ntwk has hired Mike Pearson as digital project director. Previously, he held the position of head of production at Ogilvy Interactive and Razorfish London. Past clients have included Ford, American Express, Samsung, NatWest, Nestle and BT.

Moving on up: Appointment at MIVA.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... MIVA has appointed Larry Weber to its board of directors. Weber founder his own PR company, The Weber Group, in 1987, which was bought by the Interpublic Group of companies in 1996. He became chairman and chief executive officer of...

Moving on up: Appointment at Media Initiatives Group.(Media Initiatives Group)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Media Initiatives Group (MIG), an independent media saleshouse, has added four sales staff to online divisions eType and Accelerator-Media. Russell Pegrum and Gareth Logue join eType, whose clients include Friends Reunited, Multimap and Visit...

Moving on up: Appointment at Accelerator-Media.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Nicole Prosser and Malcolm Clark have joined Accelerator-Media, the group's channel-based network that aggregates smaller web sites into targeted channels.

Magnum backs 'five senses' on the web.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Unilever-owned ice cream brand Wall's is backing its pounds 6.5 million Magnum 'five senses' campaign with an online push. Visitors to the new web site (www.magnum5senses.co.uk) are asked to enter the barcode found on Magnum 5 Senses...

VisitScotland drives tourism via games.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... VisitScotland, the official site of the Scottish Tourist Board, is carrying a series of online games to promote the country. Agency bd-ntwk developed three games to promote key sports, including mountain biking, surfing, white-water rafting...

Lacoste uses web for new fragrances.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Lacoste has launched a web site and online advertising campaign encouraging users to sample its new range of limited-edition fragrances. Lacostepop.com takes a pop-art theme, using 3D pixels to reflect the design of the four fragrances,...

Pankhurst on dotcom life: It's five years on, but it feels like we have been around longer.
August 1, 2005... It's not often that I sit back and reminisce about the early days of Friends Reunited. In a fast-moving business there's not much time for reflection, but this month we're making an exception as we celebrate our fifth birthday. Most people...

Digital direct: MIVA's rebranding taught me some valuable lessons.(Espotting)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Tick tock. It's 4.59pm on Sunday, 12 June and in one minute, Espotting will become MIVA In six countries, simultaneously. A year of work comes down to one minute. Then it's 5pm and MIVA is open for business. Flashback to May 2004. My boss,...

Hilton embarks on first UK viral push.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Hilton has unveiled its first online viral campaign in the UK, launching a series of animated clips with which their recipients can interact. Emails sent to users are titled 'How impressed are you?' and allow the sender to invite anyone on...

Direct Stats.(delivery rate of email)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... This month DoubleClick's new EMEA Email Trend Report says delivery rates reached an all-time high of 91 per cent in Q1 2005, reports Philip Buxton. However, open rates for emails in the EMEA region continued to show a gradual decline and...

Hi-Tec raises digital spend to 15 per cent.(www.hi-tec.com)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Sports shoe company Hi-Tec is putting digital at the heart of its new brand repositioning with the launch of a global site. The brand said online spend could match its above-the-line ad budget in the next few years. This year, it upped...

Yell.com unveils an ad for every season.
August 1, 2005... Yell.com has launched a series of seasonal interactive ad campaigns, which change according to regional weather conditions. Expandable Skyscraper ads will show maps of the UK, displaying the weather for different regions. Real-time feeds...

Vital statistics: This month - More teenagers in Europe are abandoning other media in favour of online.
August 1, 2005... Europe's youth is switching an average of six hours' of TV viewing time to the internet each week. That applies to almost half of all 15 to 24-year-olds (46 per cent) across the region. The European Interactive Advertising Association's...

Analysis: Search engines set sights offline.
August 1, 2005... The battle for search supremacy has moved to new ground as the big four engines prepare to fight over mobile. Google has already unveiled a new version of its mobile search service, based on XTML - the code supported by most mobile phones...

Analysis: Pigsback.com joins rewards battle.( Pigsback.com)
August 1, 2005... Rewards portal Pigsback.com, which claims to be the sixth-largest consumer site in Ireland, has made its UK debut with a pounds 6 million launch budget (Revolution, June, p5). It operates via a 'piggy-back' reward points system alongside...

Analysis: Kelkoo, five, launches on mobile.(Information Industry)
August 1, 2005... Yahoo! UK and Ireland has launched a shopping comparison service for mobile phones, powered by Kelkoo, which lets customers check prices through the portal's WAP services. 'Mobile price comparison is a major step towards aligning the on-...

Vox pop: How will a shortage of talent affect the cost of digital?
August 1, 2005... Rising digital salaries will push up costs, but who should pay? Digital media faces a shortage of talented staff to meet the rising demand for interactive campaigns, which is forcing wage demands above the rate of inflation. These are...

Editorial: Time for P&G to walk the talk.
August 1, 2005... Jim Stengel, global marketing chief at Procter & Gamble, told a national newspaper this month: 'I don't have a strategy to move out of TV. I don't have a strategy to move to the internet. We have a strategy to be with the consumer and how she's...

Comment: Rely on your agency, as long as it knows digital.
August 1, 2005... The best way to gauge how far digital has come in the last five years is to look at how clients describe the role of their agencies. During the dotcom boom the areas of responsibility were fairly well defined. In the words of an...

Shopping: Review - Love is ... finding a really cool fridge.(Column)
August 1, 2005... I love my new kitchen. In fact I'm in a very good place domestically. I think it's the mid-30s. Suddenly clothes and hair take second place to zinc finishes and slate tiles. Four weeks ago, I stood staring at a gaping hole in my kitchen....

Shopping: Shopping stats - Price tops customer satisfaction survey.
August 1, 2005... Online shoppers are hunting competitive prices when they visit retail web sites. High-street brands could do more to offer a positive customer experience online, according to a survey by internet performance company Keynote Systems....

Sector checker: You Are What You Eat site only whets my online appetite.
August 1, 2005... ValueClick Europe's Carl White takes a look at TV sites and finds You Are What You Eat's online offer lacks the bite of the popular health show. Web www.youarewhatyoueat.tv Developer Celador Web sites for TV programmes can be the...

Virgin Radio: Virgin reaches out with digital.(virginradio.co.uk)
August 1, 2005... Online success is crucial for radio stations. Virgin's James Cridland tells Philip Buxton how it leads the way. Virgin Radio DJ Russ Williams is on air and obviously wondering who the unknown faces staring through his studio window are....

Online classifieds: Classifieds sellers focus on the web.
August 1, 2005... The web has shaken up classifieds, but publishers are learning to adapt. Adam Woods reports. Small ads are big business on the internet. As people flock to check out the latest jobs, used cars, plumbers and flatshares, print revenues are...

Tourists respond to online invitation.
August 1, 2005... One of the fastest growing markets on the web is tourism. Emma Rigby finds out how the industry can cash in. Tourism in the UK is big business. The domestic market was worth pounds 26.4 billion in 2003, while visitors from overseas spent...

Broadband: High-speed shift.
August 1, 2005... The rise of broadband could bring huge changes to online ad campaigns. Trevor Clawson reports. After much talk and hype about the potential of high-speed access, British consumers are finally turning their backs on dial-up services. ...

Why online needs to break its rules.
August 1, 2005... The case for online advertising to be taken seriously has been proven with the IAB claiming it has a 3.9 per cent share of overall ad market spend - higher than radio. But this is not the time for us to rest on our laurels. We need to pick...

Targeting: Target online.(marketing)
August 1, 2005... With new techniques enabling clients to target their customers better, there's even more reason to invest in digital, Lucy Aitken discovers. Thanks to endless debate about clickthrough rates and the death of the banner ad, online used to...

The Revolution Masterclass on domain names.
August 1, 2005... A new European domain suffix will bring into focus the challenges faced by those companies with an online presence, says Emma Rigby. It's about to get hot again in the domain name arena. A domain name is the address for a web site - it's an...

Interactive TV: Adapt to the iTV culture switch.(interactive tv plc)
August 1, 2005... Clients and agencies need to embrace the possibilities offered by iTV or risk being sidelined, discovers Suzy Bashford. If you ask ITV's head of interactive sales, Peter Birch, where the interactive TV (iTV) advertising market is today and...

Campaigns work nine 'til five.
August 1, 2005... Marketers could be targeting consumers at work with specific campaigns. Robert Gray finds out how. More people than ever are accessing the web during work time, often for job-related tasks but also for their personal needs - to catch up on...

Trailblazer: Game Play.
August 1, 2005... Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive, says ads in online games are a win-win for everyone, writes Emma Rigby. Such is the seductive power of video gaming that players may neglect to eat and sleep to complete a level. This mainly male audience, aged...

Creative review: Leo Pang head of creative, Profero China.
August 1, 2005... Pang has worked in creative in Hong Kong for eight years, specialising in interactive media and animation design. He believes every client has an interesting story and that his duty as a designer is to help them tell it through good and...

Campaign of the month.
August 1, 2005... Campaign: Forza Motorsport Client: Xbox Agency: AKQA Background: Since Xbox was launched four years ago, it has worked with agency AKQA to develop global, EMEA and UK projects. This included digital activity for key launches for games...

Terminator 1: Sex and the net: the only time it's fine to mention the S word.
August 1, 2005... The most dangerous thing a man can do is discuss women, especially where shopping is involved. I'd sooner gargle with wasps than bring up the subject at home. But, from an online design agency's point of view, you can't ignore it. Men and women...

Terminator 2: Animal antics to bring out the beast in you.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Everyone hates that Crazy Frog. It pains Terminator to even write about it, but if you hate it just as much, you can have the satisfaction of playing a game that annihilates the pant-free amphibian (http://hatethatfrog.desktopcreatures.com)....

Terminator 2: See how your garden grows ... with your ego.(gardenofzopa.com)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Wildlife and digital may seem unlikely bedfellows, but Zopa, the recently launched online lending and borrowing service, has thrown them together in creating an interactive community at gardenofzopa.com. At first glance it seems a soothing...

Terminator 2: Send a virtual friend to school to end poverty.(Global Make Poverty History campaign)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Young people across nearly 100 countries can add their voice to the global Make Poverty History campaign by sending a virtual friend to school. Comic Relief is working with agency Attic Media, which developed the digital project. Visitors...