Revolution articles from March 2006

Revolution archives from March 2006

Editorial: Letter from the editor.(pay per click advertising)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
March 6, 2006... In human life-stage terms, this month's issue points the way for digital now that it has graduated and completed its first years in a proper job. After all, everyone's got used to it wearing a suit and many are tipping it for the top. 'Now,' it...

Channel 4 pushes Factual arm with new 'expandable overlays'.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Channel 4 is to use a new online ad format to promote its documentary arm, 4 Factual. The broadcaster has created what it calls an 'expandable full-page, shutter overlay', which lets users interact with a twin-Skyscraper to show a...

IAB runs web seminars plus Engage 2006.(Interactive Advertising Bureau UK Ltd.)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is to run a series of on-line seminars in addition to its 2006 Engage Conference. It aims to replicate the success of last year's conference, which saw industry giants like Bill Gates and Sir Martin...

Conde Nast makes 'Brides' interactive.
March 6, 2006... Brides, Conde Nast's glossy monthly is to launch on the web and mobile. The interactive site (www. bridesmagazine.co.uk) will expand on the magazine content and provide bespoke editorial. All the web content will be available on mobile...

Deals: SimplySwitch.com teams up.(with News International )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... SimplySwitch.com, the price comparison and switching firm, has teamed with News International to offer comparison services to readers. The two-year partnership will include dual-branded reader offers in all News International publications,...

Deals: Orange and Vodafone deal.
March 6, 2006... Orange and Vodafone have struck a deal to make their mobile instant-messaging systems interoperable. Their customers will be able to send and receive texts with the sender paying the cost.

Deals: Visual Radio launch.(mobiel radio service and contracts with O2 Ltd. )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... HP, O2 and Virgin Radio are launching Visual Radio this month. The new service allows listeners to tune in to their local FM station on their mobile phones, and receive interactive information and graphics that are synchronised with the...

Deals: FLW partners up.(FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide partnering with Channel 4.com and Mobile Interactive Group )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide (FLW), a division of FremantleMedia, has partnered Channel 4 and Mobile Interactive Group to provide exclusive content for mobile and online platforms for The IT Crowd. Users will be able to watch full-length...

Deals: MIVA deal.
March 6, 2006... MIVA has struck a deal to create custom-branded toolbars for Conde Nast, publisher of titles such as Vogue, Tatler, GQ and Vanity Fair. The search marketing provider will initially create a toolbar for Glamour magazine, with further titles to...

Deals: Thisislondon.co.uk deal.
March 6, 2006... Thisislondon.co.uk, Associated New Media's site for the capital, has signed a five-figure deal with Handbag.com, the Barclay Brothers'-owned women's lifestyle site. Running until April, the partnership will drive users to Handbag.com via links...

Deals: Chemistry acquires PDG.
March 6, 2006... Chemistry Communications, the CRM consultancy, has acquired digital agency PDG Graphics to meet growing demand for interactive marketing. PDG has more than 25 staff and offers site build, sales tools and content management. Chemistry's clients...

Deals: Rhythm NewMedia funding.
March 6, 2006... Rhythm NewMedia, a US-based mobile video advertising firm, has secured funding from venture-capitalist backers, including Lightspeed, Morgenthaler and Rembrandt, to launch in the UK and Europe. Stephen Upstone, former business development...

Deals: TXT4 raises funds.
March 6, 2006... Mobile response specialist TXT4, whose technology is used by clients from Oxfam to the Metropolitan Police, has raised pounds 250,000 from The Capital Fund; a pounds 50 million venture-capital fund that invests in fast-growing companies in...

American Express launches Red card.
March 6, 2006... American Express is using the internet to launch a new type of credit card, designed to raise funds for charity. The brand has been joined by Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani to back Product Red, an initiative launched by rock star Bono...

Xerox promo inspired by space game.
March 6, 2006... Xerox has played on the 1980s cult Space Invaders game to develop creative for the first of two pan-European campaigns, which will comprise the brand's biggest online push. Its 'Product' promo will push its printer range and solid-ink...

Birds Eye takes on Digital TMW as it revamps range for sell-off.
March 6, 2006... Birds Eye has moved its digital account from incumbent agency MRM Worldwide to Digital TMW. The frozen food brand, which is in the process of being sold, appointed the agency to handle its web site and online marketing brief following a...

Good month/bad month.(for Zed Media, NTL Inc. and Endemol Entertainment UK)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... A GOOD MONTH for Zed Media, the below-the-line and digital arm of media-buying agency ZenithOptimedia. The brand is to be rolled out across Europe to offer a single face to continental markets after winning a number of pan-European digital...

Heinz & Farley thinks digital for book push.(marketing through websites targeting women)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Heinz & Farley has launched web-only ads to push its Little Feeding Guide handbook. Ads targeting expectant and new mothers will run on a range of sites aimed at women. Users can click to register for the book about feeding babies on the...

Panasonic launches range via rich media.
March 6, 2006... Panasonic will pour most of its marketing budget into a pan-European campaign to launch its range of digital, still cameras. It will push its Lumix range with two integrated advertising bursts in the spring and autumn. Most of the remaining...

Just Breaking: Top 10 breaking banners by impressions - (1-31 January 2006).(Brief Article)(Illustration)
March 6, 2006... 1 National Savings & Investments Premium Bonds 2 Classmates I graduated in: 3 Eurotunnel Speed Ease Value 4 BSkyB Sky TV from pounds 7.50 a month 5 ...

Louis Vuitton opens new store on web.
March 6, 2006... Luxury brand Louis Vuitton has launched its first online marketing campaign on to support the opening of its online store in February. The initial ad campaign raises awareness of the online store. It ran an expandable banner with two...

Account wins.
March 6, 2006... MORE THAN has moved its creative account from glue London to Fallon. THE ROYAL SunAlliance brand has raised its online budget to pounds 7m; up 15 per cent on last year. LONDON ARTS complex The Barbican has hired digital agency...

Owen on Digital Media: Online ads can offer so much more than a TV commercial.
March 6, 2006... I read a review of an online ad the other day. The reviewer was enthusiastic, but, as far as I could tell, the main source of his enthusiasm was not the simplicity of the idea nor the strength of the execution, but the fact that it resembled a...

More Than partners Sky for web space.(British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Sky News)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... More Than has signed a partnership with Sky News to create a permanent presence on its site. The eight-month deal, worth pounds 250,000, will showcase all of the Royal Sun Alliance-owned insurer's products. Called 'Living', it will...

Ghd site showcases controversial virals.
March 6, 2006... Haircare brand ghd unveiled a web site to coincide with its sponsorship of the Brit Awards and support viral advertising that was unsuitable for TV. Created by Propaganda, the site has been designed like an online magazine. It will...

Google and MSN at Revolution's event.
March 6, 2006... Google and MSN are confirmed to present at Revolution's inaugural Lucrative Search Marketing Conference this month. David Graham, search business manager at MSN UK, and James Cashmore, vertical markets manager at Google, will be among a top...

Haven plans mobile and web strategy.(Haven Holidays)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Haven Holidays is planning to develop its first mobile strategy and launch a series of micro-sites to target specific customer groups. The Bourne Leisure-owned travel firm, which includes Butlins and Warner, aims to use SMS to promote extra...

Brylcreem aims site at young UK males.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Brylcreem has launched a site that reflects a product packaging redesign. Agency MEME was given the brief to develop an innovative site that engages young British males, after a four-way pitch. The new site (www.brylcreem.com) aims to...

New guide to accessibility out in March.(by British Standards Institute)(The Publicly Available Specification 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Web Sites)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... New guidance on accessible design will be published on 8 March, compiled by the British Standards Institute on behalf of The Disability Rights Commission (DRC). PAS 78 (The Publicly Available Specification 78: Guide to Good Practice in...

Griffiths on Mobile: Shared experience of digital is perfect for bands and fans.
March 6, 2006... As a teenager, I used to spend hours in my local record store, browsing through boxes of LPs, picking out the most obscure to listen to proudly with my fellow music lovers over bottles of cider. Today, technology has so revolutionised the way...

Time Thief: Elaine Reeves, head of market intelligence and business development, Avon.(Brief Article)(Diary entry)
March 6, 2006... 20% Travelling - After getting two children ready for school, I have a long commute from Birmingham to Northampton along the M6 and M1, usually sitting in traffic. So, I run up the bill on my hands-free mobile. 20% Team updates - The...

Intel pushes new branding with major online splash.
March 6, 2006... Intel is planning to shift more ad spend online and overhaul its site to reflect a new brand identity unveiled in January. The company is in talks with its global digital agency, MRM Partners, about redesigning its main web site to give it...

Christian Aid hires Agency.com to overhaul corporate identity.
March 6, 2006... Christian Aid has appointed Agency.com to overhaul its corporate site following a three-way pitch. The charity revealed that it was finalising a shortlist of agencies for the project at the end of last year in an effort to boost the brand...

Communities attract half of UK users.(community websites)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Community-based sites such as Friends Reunited and MySpace attract over 1.8 billion page views a month - 57 million a day - reports Nielsen//NetRatings. These sites now attract more than half of the UK internet population. Friends...

Betfair entices girls to play online poker.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Betfair has unleashed a huge marketing drive to get women into online poker. The gambling brand has departed from its blue branding to introduce a pink microsite (www. betfairpoker.com/ladies night) on the Betfair site. With the aim...

Performance index.(websites and their performance)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... 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: I love Jeff Bezos, but he's wrong that it's early days for online.(Column)
March 6, 2006... Jeff Bezos says it's 'day one on the internet' and who am I to argue? After all, this is the guy who practically invented e-commerce; the man who survived the internet bubble; an executive who has stood up to the Wall Street bullies time...

Moving on up: Time Out.
March 6, 2006... Garry Durston has joined Time Out as commercial marketing director and will report to managing director David Pepper. He was previously online marketing manager at Enjoy England where he overhauled the web site, leading to a rise in visitors of...

Moving on up: MIVA.(promotes Chrys Philalithes )(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Chrys Philalithes has been promoted at MIVA to the newly created role of VP, global marketing and communications. Reporting to chief marketing officer Seb Bishop, Philalithes will lead a global team of 20, and manage marketing and...

Moving on up: BT.
March 6, 2006... Antony Carbonari is to join BT as director of interactive and commercial media, with responsibility for ad and sponsorship revenue, and interactive channels. He will manage a team of sales, product management and business development...

Moving on up: Wheel.
March 6, 2006... Emmanuel Nana has joined Wheel as technical manager to work with clients like Mothercare, Blue Square, Disney and easyCar. He leaves TMP Worldwide where he was interactive campaign manager, working on brands including Royal Bank of Scotland,...

Moving on up: ITV.
March 6, 2006... Justin Sampson has left his position as director of CRM at ITV, which he joined in 2004. He has been responsible for helping to develop the company's advertiser relationships. Patrick Ugeux has joined as director of marketing strategy. Ugeux...

Moving on up: Celador International.
March 6, 2006... Selma Turajlic has been promoted at Celador International to head of interactive media from her position as head of commercial affairs. She will report directly to Celador international MD Adrian Woolfe. Turajlic joined Celador in January 2004...

Moving on up: 24/7 Real Media.
March 6, 2006... 24/7 Real Media has hired Rob Wilson as MD and Chris Gawor as commercial director for UK operations. Wilson joins from Overture, where he was director of editorial and customer operations for Europe. Gawor leaves Associated New Media, where he...

Moving on up: Discovery Networks Europe.
March 6, 2006... Simon Brown has been hired as VP of research at Discovery Networks Europe, the European division of Discovery Communications. He will join in April and report to MD Robin Paxton.

Moving on up: Mobestar.
March 6, 2006... Jerry Lan-Dring has been made technical programme manager at Mobestar, which provides mobile video community applications and content.

Moving on up: Thedoghouse.co.uk.
March 6, 2006... Angus Cormie has joined online gift retailer Thedoghouse.co.uk as managing director. He leaves his role as head of portals and e-business at O2.

Moving on up: InterContinental Hotels Group.
March 6, 2006... Tom Conophy has joined InterContinental Hotels Group in the newly-created position of chief information officer. He will take a seat on the group executive committee and joins from Starwood Hotels & Resorts International, where he was executive...

Moving on up: Match.com.
March 6, 2006... Charlotte Harper has been made UK managing director at Match.com. She leaves online travel agent Travelocity.co.uk, where she was marketing director, responsible for UK brand development, customer strategy and nine retained agencies. She was...

Moving on up: Goodtechnology.
March 6, 2006... Tim Seddon has been hired by Goodtechnology as production director and a member of the board. He previously held the same role at Wheel and Presco.

Moving on up: dgm UK.
March 6, 2006... James Hawkins is the new head of search at dgm UK, with responsibility for dgmSearchLab, which includes SEO and PPC.

Moving on up: Media Contacts.
March 6, 2006... Dave Katz, former head of UK network at Advertising.com, has been appointed as the first head of trading at Media Contacts in 2006, while Ralph du Plessis joins as head of search.

Moving on up: Bango.
March 6, 2006... Nandi Gurprasad is the new VP of global alliances at mobile content services firm Bango. He will be responsible for expanding relationships with mobile carriers in North America, Europe and the Far East, based in Cambridge and New York.

Lexus promotes GS luxury saloon online.
March 6, 2006... Lexus is to push its new luxury performance saloon with an extensive online promotion. The campaign for the Lexus GS aims to push brochure requests and test-drives. Its theme is that the car is effortless to drive because it was designed...

DatingDirect signs up TBG on retainer.
March 6, 2006... DatingDirect.com has signed an ongoing retainer deal with digital marketing agency TBG, worth pounds 1 million a year, without a pitch. The dating site has launched a Valentine's Day push, called 'Get hit by lust!', which is based on the...

Prince's Trust rolls mobile into strategy.(contracts with Mobile Interactive Group for mobile marketing)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... The Prince's Trust is to include mobile in a long-term strategy parallel to its offline advertising. The youth charity, celebrating its 30th year, has hired Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) to consult on the development of mobile marketing...

Murphy on Dotcom Life: Well, now we know that TV advertising really does work.
March 6, 2006... We've had a taste for it and we're loving it. In January, Friends Reunited made its TV advertising debut with the sponsorship of ITV's Soapstar Superstar. This constituted five- and 10-second ads during the TV breaks, directing people to...

Digital direct: Boon for iTV as red button functionality dawns for mobiles.
March 6, 2006... In the early days of interactive TV advertising, the main focus was on response and data capture, and the prevalence of simple impulse-response activity. Then, over the last couple of years, there has been a move from customer acquisition to...

Volvo puts iTV at the centre of C70 push.
March 6, 2006... Volvo is to place interactive TV at the heart of its European acquisition drive to back the launch of its new C70 model. The campaign, launching on 13 March, will incorporate TV, online, cinema and print. Interactive ads will encourage...

Direct Stats.(email open rates)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... This month Measurement of email open rates is becoming less reliable, says Silverpop's 2005 broken link study. Emma Rigby reports. Silverpop found that, while open rates declined by up to 50 per cent last year, other metrics like...

ITN aims to raise ad revenue with Blinkx.(Independent Television News Ltd. contracts with Blinkx)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... ITN is aiming to generate new advertising revenue on the web after hiring search engine Blinkx to develop and power the broadcaster's online video player. The deal, in the pipeline since November, will see Blinkx provide the platform to...

Bentley quadruples budget for digital.
March 6, 2006... Bentley Motors has hired Global Beach as its first international digital-marketing agency. The appointment comes as the car marque has committed to spend four times as much on its global digital marketing this year as in 2005. It currently...

Vital Statistics: This month.
March 6, 2006... A new survey by Equi-Media found the web is the preferred channel for 50 per cent of UK users searching for financial and travel items. The E-commerce Media Monitor Analysis (EMMA) is a new survey of consumer preferences for researching and...

Analysis: BMW ban sparks SEO clampdown.(search engine optimisation)(Google Inc. temporarliy bans websites of BMW AG and RICOH Deutschland GmbH)
March 6, 2006... Google's decision to temporarily ban BMW and Ricoh's German web sites from its search index sends a clear warning that it will not tolerate companies that ignore its guidelines, no matter how big they are. News of the ban broke on a blog...

Analysis: Digital agencies reap profit gains.
March 6, 2006... The financial health of the digital sector has never been better. So says Fintellect's 2006 New Media Agencies Financial Intelligence Report, an annual survey of the UK's top 35 digital agencies, based on 2004 figures. The report is...

Vox pop: Does convergence spell the end of the red button?
March 6, 2006... As Channel 4 focuses on mobile and online, has iTV had its time? A proliferation of TV services have been launched online, such as Sky's broadband and Google Video. With the convergence of media comes speculation on how advertisers will...

Editorial: Too many voices risk being ignored.(Editorial)
March 6, 2006... We have commented on the problems of trade bodies in the digital sector before in these pages, but it seems things might be coming to a head. An over-hyped row between the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Institute of Practitioners in...

Comment: If you don't try, you won't succeed with mobile.
March 6, 2006... While businesses are becoming more interested in mobile marketing, dependence on costly third-party services is constraining the platform's development. At pounds 25,000-plus a campaign, who can afford to trial one? But, equally, companies...

Shopping: Review - Top for little tots going places.(Littletrekkers.co.uk services)(Column)
March 6, 2006... Boarding - usually the pastime of people with more hair than me, and perhaps smaller waistlines. They call it ridin'. Nevertheless, still in my early 30s, I'm allowed some youthful indulgences and I'm looking forward to my annual snowboarding...

Shopping stats: Cross-channel shoppers spend more.
March 6, 2006... Consumers who use a mixture of channels to shop for products prove more active. Shoppers who shop across various channels are more likely to spend than those who buy from one, according to research from retail marketing agency Zendor. The...

Sector checker: Diet Coke hits the spot with an online homage to TV star Tort.
March 6, 2006... Giles Colborne of cxpartners finds Diet Coke's site offers a fun divergence from work, but he'd like to play with the tortoise a little bit more. Web: www.dietcokelovelife.co.uk Developer: VCCP Digital A few years ago, a friend...

Camelot plans to beat the odds.
March 6, 2006... Feat standfirst. Style for the standfirst for features. Names to be picked out, as character styles in 100% Black or Red 100m 100y as per the usual Revolution edit convensions. Given its business, it's interesting that lottery operator...

Intel takes the leap into digital.(David Mitchell speaking about the company's marketing activities)
March 6, 2006... Intel's first head of interactive marketing, David Mitchell, tells Susie Harwood about his plans for the brand's shift online. 'Intel Inside' was named the most memorable advertising jingle by UK consumers last year, even beating Jamster's...

Forum Preview.
March 6, 2006... Rory Sutherland, creative director at agency OgilvyOne, will open Revolution's eighth forum with a keynote speech tackling the issues facing marketers as audiences turn to digital. 'There is a shift in people's approach to media. Hence, it...

The Revolution Web Hosting Report sponsored by Hostway: It's easy to forget about hosting.(Column)
March 6, 2006... One thing's for sure, last year saw a marked change in the way in which web hosting is perceived. That is set to continue, particularly in the marketing sector, during 2006. Hosting has always been seen as a bit of a commodity. It has often...

The Revolution Web Hosting Report, sponsored by Hostway: Hosts meet new demands.
March 6, 2006... With web savvy users expecting a richer online experience, hosting companies are having to offer more sophisticated services, discovers Mark Mayne. Consumer appetite for the latest online media technologies, from RSS feeds and blogging to...

The Revolution Web Hosting Report, sponsored by Hostway: How The Guardian remains unlimited.
March 6, 2006... Guardian Unlimited is one of the UK's most used newspaper web sites. Adam Woods discovers how it copes with its popularity. It is a news web site's misfortune that its finest moments tend to come when the rest of the world is reeling from...

Masterclass: The Revolution Masterclass on interpreting web data.(web analytics)(Column)
March 6, 2006... Web analytics can reveal detailed information on site visitors, but it is vital that marketers ask the right questions, says Stuart Derrick. In business, it's hard to improve something if you can't measure it. Nowhere is that more true than...

Trailblazer: Media plan.(Agenda21's Pete Robins and Rhys Williams talk abouth the management)
March 6, 2006... Pete Robins and Rhys Williams tell Emma Rigby their plans to take the market by storm with Agenda21. You'd think the three founders of digital planning agency Agenda21 would tear each other's hair out if they had to spend a weekend...

Campaign of the month: Polo.
March 6, 2006... Campaign: Polo Client: Volkswagen Agency: Tribal DDB BACKGROUND: Tribal DDB has worked with Volkswagen for six years, producing the 'Singing in the Rain' execution online and an iTV push for the relaunched GTi Golf. It created a site...

Terminator 1: I've bought a PSP, but I was sleep shopping. Honest.(playstation)(Column)
March 6, 2006... Browsing... remember? We used to do it in supermarkets and stores across the land. Oh, the endless joy/agony (delete as applicable) of picking up stuff we didn't really want and clearly didn't need, carrying it for a while and then disposing of...

Terminator 2: Will wows all the not-so-young girls at AOL gig.(America Online Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Will Young gave fans everything they could possibly want, and more, when he recorded content for streaming on AOL Sessions. Pop Idol's Mr Nice Guy turned up in a cardie to perform with his band in front of a small audience of about 50...

Terminator 2: Agency hopes video will beat radio's star.
March 6, 2006... When Agency.com big cheese David Eastman got home from a late-night client do, he found it rather hard to get to sleep. He'd been somewhere fab, schmoozing with BA, but made the fatal mistake of forgetting to order a decaf coffee after...

Terminator 2: The fans can't stop dancing online and off.(Gatecrasher (Sheffield, England)'s Neverstandstill.com is the site of the year)(Brief Article)
March 6, 2006... Who would have thought it? By night they are trendy revellers, pulsing to dance music; by day, computer geeks. It turns out the site of the year, voted for by the public, was clubbing brand Gatecrasher's web site, Neverstandstill.com. ...