Revolution articles from May 2004

Revolution archives from May 2004

Letter from the editor.
May 18, 2004... As the UK looks to try and meet Tony Blair's 2005 deadline for getting public services online, there are some interesting projects to capture the imagination. For example, there's the digital initiatives being examined by the NHS that...

Crown Paint pours six-figure sum into new digital drive.
May 18, 2004... Crown Paint is spending a six-figure sum on new online promotions and a major revamp of its site, following the brand's relaunch earlier this year. The site goes live in conjunction with a pounds 3.2 million TV ad campaign featuring its...

First Direct offers all-in-one banking.
May 18, 2004... Telebanking brand First Direct is entering the account aggregation market with a free service called Internet Banking plus. Users access it on Firstdirect.com, where they can view their finances, from current accounts to mortgages, even if...

Virgin prepares for games site launch.
May 18, 2004... Virgin is to launch an interactive gaming portal this summer with a range of games and services. Oscar Nieboer, managing director of Virgin Games, said: 'We believe there is a lack of big-brand authority from entertainment brands in this...

Deals: ukbetting.com announces acquisition of GoldBet.com.
May 18, 2004... Sports content and online gaming business ukbetting.com has announced its acquisition of European online sports-betting company GoldBet.com for a maximum consideration of 4.5 million euros (almost pounds 3m), which will depend on the...

Deals: THUS launches marketing deal.
May 18, 2004... THUS, the communication services provider that owns Demon, has launched a marketing deal to promote Demon Broadband and Dial-Up Internet services to members of The Scout Association. The group has 500,000 members and for every customer who...

Deals: Warner Bros. Online and Vodafone sign distribution deal.
May 18, 2004... Warner Bros. Online and Vodafone have signed a distribution deal that will bring the entertainment giant's iconic brands to Vodafone live!, its consumer offering. Initially, Warner Bros. Online will provide Vodafone with games, screensavers,...

Deals: assertahome.com signs deal with Yahoo! UK and Ireland.
May 18, 2004... Property search portal assertahome.com has signed a deal with Yahoo! UK and Ireland to supply property search capability on an exclusive basis. Users searching the property channel on Yahoo! will be able to view listings of property in the UK...

Deals: ITV signs exclusive agreement with Two Way TV.
May 18, 2004... ITV has signed an exclusive agreement for at least a year with Two Way TV, which offers broadcasters and programme-makers interactive TV products, services and software. Two Way TV will provide mobile content to ITV viewers through an...

Deals: Flybe.com partners Brilliant Weekends.
May 18, 2004... Low-cost carrier Flybe.com is partnering Brilliant Weekends, the stag-and-hen weekend travel package specialist for a three-year deal. Flybe.com, which offers flights to such popular party destinations as Dublin and Edinburgh, will now be able...

Deals: Phillip Ludgate joins Wheel:Group.
May 18, 2004... Last issue (Revolution, April 2004, p12), we wrongly mentioned that Phillip Ludgate, who has joined Wheel:Group as media director, was previously managing director of Brinc. He was, in fact, media director at Brinc.

Alliance & Leicester invests pounds 10m online.
May 18, 2004... Alliance & Leicester is to invest some pounds 10 million in advertising, search, partnership and affiliate marketing online this year. According to the bank, investment will include banners and buttons, text links and search, including...

Ask Jeeves UK in integrated ad campaign.
May 18, 2004... Search engine Ask Jeeves UK is impressing on users that it delivers fast, intelligent search in an integrated ad campaign. An online, outdoor and radio push aims to associate the site (www.ask.co.uk) with providing a smarter way to find...

Good month/bad month.
May 18, 2004... It has been a good month for Broadband Britain as nearly a quarter of the UK population is connected to broadband - almost double the number in the same period of last year. According to government figures, by February this year, 24.3 per cent...

Loot offers mobile users new bargain-finder alerts by SMS.
May 18, 2004... Loot, the free classified ads buying-and-selling paper, has launched SMS bargain alerts. The service, through its partner, mobile services provider Opera Telecom, will notify users as new ads are placed with Loot, direct to their handset....

Just breaking: Top 10 breaking banners by impressions. (1-31 March 2004).
May 18, 2004... 1 Sainsbury's Bank Rates from 6.2 per cent 2 TELE2 Why Pay More? 3 Lombard Direct Typical APR only 5.9 per cent Fixed 4 Britannia Love Actually only pounds 5 5 Prudential Prudential...

Twinings rolls out free sample promo online with email push.
May 18, 2004... Tea brand Twinings is running an online sampling drive and backing it for the first time with an email campaign. The drive is targeting health-conscious women with Twining's 22 infusion flavours, which include Camomile, Lemon & Ginger and...

Artemis hires hhm for rich media ads.
May 18, 2004... Financial services firm Artemis Fund Managers is targeting IFAs and consumer-clients with rich-media advertising online. Artemis (www.artemisonline.co.uk) has hired integrated marketing agency hhm... to integrate its offline campaign into...

UK TV Style banks on property game.
May 18, 2004... UK TV Style is tapping into the Brits' preoccupation with making money from property development with an online game in which participants test their renovation skills. Visitors to the site (www.uk tvstyle.co.uk) receive a budget of pounds...

Capital FM engages in biggest web drive.
May 18, 2004... Capital FM is embarking on its biggest web drive as it pushes Johnny Vaughan as its new Breakfast Show personality, following Chris Tarrant's departure. Capital aims to attract new listeners and its site (www.capitalfm.com/breakfast) will...

Account wins.
May 18, 2004... Paid-for-placement search provider Overture has hired digital communications agency Profero to handle its full-service digital advertising. Profero will handle strategy, creative, planning and buying across all digital platforms, and...

Owen on digital media: All publicity may not be good publicity if it's not a brand fit.
May 18, 2004... No-one said that viral marketing was easy. The controversy surrounding the apparent decapitation of a cat in a film featuring the Ford Sportka underlines the key dilemma faced by big brands using viral techniques: how can they create something...

Google offers ads regional targeting.
May 18, 2004... Google has launched its regional location advertising targeting service in the UK. Advertisers will be able to target ads at city or regional level using an address-based radius feature or by specifying latitude and longitude. It uses...

Green Flag unveils touring car fan site.
May 18, 2004... Green Flag Motoring Assistance has unveiled a fan site to lever its sponsorship of the British Touring Car Championship and gather data for marketing. The site (www.greenflagbtcc.com) was launched with a web chat with leading drivers James...

Tracker: Shopping search engines, March 2004.
May 18, 2004... Traffic to UK sites 75.6% Average session duration 3 mins 44 secs With Yahoo!'s purchase of Kelkoo, Shopping.com announcing an IPO and Google pushing Froogle, the spotlight was on shopping in March. This sector has...

Alldays runs online push with Figleaves.
May 18, 2004... Alldays, Procter & Gamble's pantyliner brand, has joined forces with online lingerie firm Figleaves.com for a risque online ad campaign that aims to give the product a sexier image. Creative features a woman in suspenders and the strapline...

Nectar offers outlet search via Multimap.
May 18, 2004... Nectar has signed a deal with web-mapping service Multimap that will enable members of the rewards programme to find their nearest suppliers. Members will be able to locate businesses participating in the scheme by clicking on the 'Find...

Celebs give it up for Save the Children.
May 18, 2004... Celebrities such as Jamie Oliver and Rachel Stevens are backing Save the Children's recent fund-raising campaign being promoted by email and on the web. Stars are sacrificing shoes, massages and luxuries in aid of 'Skip a Treat Week',...

Griffiths on mobile: Push to Talk is a winner, but will it succeed over here?
May 18, 2004... The US, the laggard of the mobile phone industry, is the unlikely home of the latest big buzz to enter the mobile phone market: Push to Talk. And the industry is beginning to take note, with a handful of European platform owners and handset...

Time thief: Jeff Kelisky, chief executive officer of Multimap tells us his day.
May 18, 2004... 25% Building relationships Liaising with partners, suppliers and customers to ensure our services satisfy them. I also devote time to developing new relationships to see where genuine new business development may come from. 20%...

Sharp Electronics targets web users in the office.
May 18, 2004... Sharp Electronics is launching an online promo targeting professionals during office hours, which aims to boost sales of its electronic business equipment. Moonfish, the digital communications agency, has booked 'vacant' web site space in...

Lastminute.com launches new credit card with Virgin Money.
May 18, 2004... Lastminute.com is looking to extend its retail and travel brand through a co-branded credit card with Virgin Money. It will be marketed to more than 2.8 million UK subscribers to the late deals travel site. The credit card, which comes...

Click and buy service from mobile shop.
May 18, 2004... The Carphone Warehouse has launched a mobile shop for customers who can browse for content from their handset, such as polytones, textones and games. Created by Ringtones.co.uk, The Carphone Warehouse mobile shop has payment options...

Wimpy pushes its competitions online.
May 18, 2004... British fast-food chain Wimpy has teamed up with computer games specialist THQ to take its competitions on to the web. For the first time, instead of filling out forms to enter a prize draw, Wimpy customers are directed to its web site...

Performance index.
May 18, 2004... 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...

Sterne on web ROI: Conversions count when it comes to key measurement.
May 18, 2004... As a consultant, I'm often asked to name the three most important things to measure on a site. A rhyme comes to mind: clickthroughs, page views and revenues. Knowing these gives you the feeling that you know what's going on. Unfortunately,...

Moving on up: Appointment at BBCi.
May 18, 2004... Rahul Chakkara has been hired as the new controller of BBCi's 24/7 services on digital TV. Chakkara will be responsible for strategy, planning and budgeting, content commissioning and the overall branding of BBCi's iTV services. A former...

Moving on up: Appointment at BBC.
May 18, 2004... Anne Eastgate is to be project director of the BBC digital curriculum and will report to Frank Flynn, controller of children's education. She joins BBC Learning at the start of May from Granada Learning Group, where she is development director....

Moving on up: Appointment at Napster UK.
May 18, 2004... Jeff Smith is the new programming director of Napster UK. He was formerly head of music and programming strategy at Capital FM Network and head of music policy at BBC Radio One, where he sat on the management board. While at the BBC, he started...

Moving on up: Appointment at Penguin.co.uk.
May 18, 2004... Anna Rafferty is the new head of Penguin.co.uk, with responsibility for the site and devising online publicity. She was web projects manager of the Online Museum at the V&A, which developed online publicity for the Vivienne Westwood exhibition,...

Moving on up: Appointment at TBG.
May 18, 2004... Alex Faust and Jonathan Allen join new-media ad agency TBG, whose clients include Tiscali and Britannia. Faust takes on the role of account manager, moving from Posterscope, the outdoor marketing specialist. Allen joins from web-design agency...

Moving on up: Appointment at Nielsen//NetRatings.
May 18, 2004... Nielsen//NetRatings has promoted David Day to managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will manage the commercial and operational business. Day has a background in research and statistics, and was formerly director of...

Moving on up: Appointment at Flextech Television.
May 18, 2004... Edward Humphrey has been appointed executive producer, interactive programming, at Flextech Television. He leaves ITV where he was interactive commissioning producer for the network. In his new position, Humphrey will report to Simon Gunning,...

Moving on up: Appointment at YooMedia.
May 18, 2004... Jonathan Apps has been appointed finance director to the board of interactive TV and mobile entertainment firm YooMedia. He joins YooMedia from an independent consultancy role, where he worked with a number of early stage technology companies....

Moving on up: Appointment at Digital Interactive Television Group.
May 18, 2004... Independent UK interactive TV company Digital Interactive Television Group (DITG) has taken on international industry specialist Justin Hewelt as senior business development manager. His role will be to expand DIGT's customer base overseas....

Moving on up: Appointment at Orange Group.
May 18, 2004... Alan Welsman has been appointed head of entertainment at Orange Group, leading its new global entertainment content-delivery team. Welsman was formerly marketing director at Sony PlayStation, where he launched the PlayStation and PS2. Prior to...

Medictra to offer medical info online.
May 18, 2004... Start-up venture Medictra.com aims to bridge the gap between pharmaceutical firms, doctors and patients by sharing medical information. Interactive Prospect Targeting, the digital direct-marketing firm, created the site and will use the...

Orange World adds gallery of the stars.
May 18, 2004... Orange has launched Celebrity Zone, a star-focused channel on its Orange World mobile portal. Orange Celebrity Zone features picture galleries for users to browse and download from, discussion boards and news stories. The Zone can be...

Emap elan appoints new media chief.
May 18, 2004... Emap elan has hired Catherine Hanly as managing editor of its interactive department. It is restructuring, so individual sites have a consistent look and feel. Hanly will take up the position this week, having spent four years as editor of...

Pankhurst on dotcom life: Email hosting may be one answer to the spam problem.
May 18, 2004... You might be forgiven for overlooking it, but the success of Friends Reunited was built on email. Getting in touch with old mates through our web site was made possible by email; it is a quick, easy and direct way for people to get - and stay -...

Digital direct: With digital proving itself, brands have reason to join in.
May 18, 2004... One of the obvious perils of talking about digital is the ease with which you can talk about what might happen and lapse into the Blue Sky thinking loved by management speakers and conference chairmen. Guessing the future is tempting, but...

BSM launches first digital campaigns.
May 18, 2004... BSM, the driving school owned by the RAC, is launching its first-ever SMS and email campaign to attract learner drivers. The company is using digital media to promote the various products and offers available during the learning cycle, says...

Direct Stats.
May 18, 2004... This month DoubleClick notes a healthy European email marketing environment in its latest European Email Trend Report. Philip Smith writes. The global advertising technology specialist claimed European open and clickthrough rates for Q4...

Motoring giant adds services to web site.
May 18, 2004... The AA has redesigned its site to give members a free online car buyer's guide, new route planner and revamped homepage. TheAA.com, which claims to get 30 million visits a year, has been redesigned to take into account user behaviour....

Vital statistics.
May 18, 2004... This month The UK has moved up the rankings in Europe in terms of digital performance. Emma Rigby has the figures. In Europe, the UK is the fourth most advanced digital economy, according to Jupiter Research's Digital Living Index. The...

Spielberg DVD gets Times Online push.
May 18, 2004... Times Online has developed the official web site to promote the launch of Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning Schindler's List on DVD to mark the 10th anniversary of the movie about the survivors of the Holocaust. The film is launched on DVD...

Analysis: Brands can stretch further online.
May 18, 2004... In the dotcom boom, plenty of brands thought they could move into new markets relatively easily. However, new services can evolve before a market is ready and, more importantly, they can be developed before a brand is ready. And, of course, it...

Analysis: Brands explain digital's message.
May 18, 2004... With just a few years before analogue TV signals are to be switched off, research by Sony reveals that 51 per cent of UK households don't even know the difference between analogue and digital. That should make gloomy reading for marketers. ...

Analysis: Parties make political gain online.
May 18, 2004... The success of web campaigns for US politicians in the last 12 months has spurred their UK counterparts to go digital. Parties are aping aspiring Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's tactics in using the web as an organising tool....

Vox pop: What does the future hold for price comparison on the web?
May 18, 2004... How important will shopping-comparison services be online? Shopping-comparison sites are big business - last year more than 21 million customers visited them, according to Nielsen//Net-Ratings. Yahoo! is acquiring Kelkoo in a pounds 318...

Editorial: Potential rewards for bold brands.
May 18, 2004... William Shatner might not agree, but increasingly it feels like digital is the one area where brands are boldly going where no brand has gone before. Other disciplines, such as direct marketing, are feeling the effect of or adapting to the rise...

Comment: Accessibility need not lessen the user experience.
May 18, 2004... Everyone has a duty to make web sites accessible to all. Not only is there a compelling moral case, but there's also a wider business one. The Disability Rights Commission recently found that 81 per cent of sites fail to meet standards for...

Quotes of the month.
May 18, 2004... 'Technorati tracked 1.9 million weblogs and there's only one theme common to all: they're all about ego; wanting to be heard' Simon Garfield, The Observer, 4 April 'I have something to show you. It's pink and small and the only one in...

Shopping: Review - A quirky hive of rare releases.
May 18, 2004... It has been said before and I'm going to say it again. The reasons for Amazon's success as an e-tailer are obvious. It stands for slick, efficient sale and delivery of a wide range of products, while placing value on good customer service. ...

Shopping: Shopping stats - Shopping sites slip up on search tools.
May 18, 2004... One survey shows web sites are not making the search process easy for shoppers. Like so many things online, shopping starts with search. But, even when you've found a web site that sells the item you want, you may still have to do some...

Sector checker: Assertahome.com is good, but is it good enough?
May 18, 2004... Following a six-month property hunt, Virgin Group's Richard Halstead is in a good position to rate such sites, but he isn't won over by Asserta Home Web: www.assertahome.com Developer: Usability by Design I've been hunting a new...

Making London move online.
May 18, 2004... TfL aims to deliver a world-class transport system to Londoners, and digital technology is playing a pivotal role, Chris Townsend informs Emily Booth If you've ever stood at the Tube turnstiles fumbling for your Travelcard, watching as...

Revolution Awards 2004: Digital success in the spotlight.
May 18, 2004... A night of digital success, excess and Stephen Fry. It's awards time again. Emma Rigby reports. Stephen Fry dished out just as many double-entendres as he did accolades at this year's Revolution Awards, in association with Yahoo! UK and...

The arts: The arts discover digital audiences.
May 18, 2004... Art lovers may soon be able to view Monet on their mobile. Emma Rigby looks at how the museums and galleries are promoting their events and collections The marketing requirements for the arts industry are as wide and capricious as the...

The opinion formers.
May 18, 2004... Online research is confounding its detractors with high levels of accuracy and its sheer speed. Suzy Bashford reports Online market research has long come under fire from traditionalists, who cast doubt on its validity. But Barry Gunter,...

The Email Marketing Report: Business should use email wisely.
May 18, 2004... Digital is an inspiring industry to be part of, but it is hard to find a sector at such an exciting and crucial stage in its development as email marketing. We all know that the channel is not only growing in size but also in popularity in...

The Email Marketing Report: Email innovation - Marketing inspires email innovation.
May 18, 2004... Email as a marketing medium has evolved and adapted as marketers fine-tune their targeting. Rob Gray reports Corporate buyers of BMWs are an eclectic bunch. There are fleet managers keen to learn all they can about diesel models that allow...

The Email Marketing Report: Spam - Marketers count the cost of spam.
May 18, 2004... ISPs have responded to the rising tide of spam with tighter controls and filters. But, Colin Grimshaw finds out if they've gone too far Research by Brightmail has found that spam has grown from seven to 60 per cent of all global email in...

ISPs: Full speed ahead.
May 18, 2004... In choosing an ISP, consumers and firms have many options. Broadband is just one service on offer. Philip Smith reports Consolidation may well be the watchword for most digital sectors, such as search, but for internet service providers,...

The Revolution Masterclass on Brand building.
May 18, 2004... Digital offers much more than simple clickthrough. It can be very effective in building consumer perceptions of brands online, says Stuart Derrick Digital media's accountability has seen it positioned within the direct response area. But,...

Trailblazer: Internet chat.
May 18, 2004... Kazaa co-founder Niklas Zennstrom tells Emma Rigby he's planning to shake up the telecoms world by offering unlimited free calls on the web. Niklas Zennstrom, the 38-year-old who founded web music-swapping service Kazaa with Janus Friis...

Creative review: Andrew Brown creative director, swamp.
May 18, 2004... Brown's role at swamp - a digital-marketing agency whose clients include Heinz, Umbro, OAG and Tiscali - is to ensure work is in line with strategy and highly creative. He was previously creative director at Brand New Media. 'Attitudes are...

Campaign of the month.
May 18, 2004... Campaign: UEFA Champions League Competition Client: Sony PlayStation 2 Agency: Good Technology (GT) Network Background: Good Technology (GT) Network worked with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), via subsidiary GT Incline, to...

Terminator 1: Spammers show the way for bona fide marketers.
May 18, 2004... Every online trend brings new ways for spammers to defame the good name (ahem) of marketers, so, given the popularity of blogging, it's hardly surprising that the odious 'comment spam' is increasing. Comments like 'I agree you should visit...

Terminator 2: Rackspace wins by a nose in the April Fool stakes.
May 18, 2004... If ever a single day in our annual calendar was made for Terminator, it's 1 April with its pranks and all-round mischief, especially in a sector keen to put the laugh, er, laughter, into digital. Terminator's favourite release this year...

Terminator 2: Pow! It's F5, the helpdesk's new caped crusader.
May 18, 2004... Humour can appear in the most unlikely place. The Helpdesk and IT Support Show 2004 at the end of April is an unusual venue to find mirth, but its organisers have issued a list of 'The World's Funniest Helpdesk Enquiries'. There's the...

Terminator 2: Spin the gerbil - a new sport or a tall tail?
May 18, 2004... Some ideas are just so bizarre they have to be taken seriously Long-term readers (those who have been with us a month) will know Terminator likes gerbils. And it is clear that digital firms are fans of these rodents (see Revolution, p110,...