Revolution articles from May 2007

Revolution archives from May 2007

Letter from the editor.(growth of Guardian News and Media magazine)(Editorial)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... This issue deals almost entirely with growing pains. Throughout the digital sector, practitioners are attempting to come to terms with the growth of online at a very basic level. Finding staff, managing bigger budgets, planning and delivering...

Sky News Online offers an eye on newsroom hustle and bustle.(sky.com/news)(British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Sky News)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Sky News Online has opened its studio doors to users online. It is introducing a live feed to its web site, which will broadcast behind-the-scenes footage from the Sky news centre. A camera in the newsroom's upper gallery will record...

Ford unveils viral in Flexifuel promotion.
May 1, 2007... Ford has unveiled a viral ahead of a pan-European, through-the-line push promoting its bio-ethanol powered vehicles. The creative,by Ogilvy and featured on YouTube, promotes Ford Flexifuel - with the strapline 'For the next generation'. It...

Virgin opens soccer broadband to ads.
May 1, 2007... Virgin Media is opening up its FA premier league broadband service to advertisers. The media company recently bought full broadband rights to the FA premier league, the first time such a rights package has been made available on broadband....

Deals: Google agrees a deal to by DoubleClick.
May 1, 2007... Google has agreed a dollars 3.1 billion deal to buy DoubleClick, provider of display advertising management services to advertising and media agencies and online publishers, including its main product, Dart Google beat bids from Microsoft and...

Deals: Deal inked with Rhythm NewMedia.
May 1, 2007... ITN On has inked a deal with Rhythm NewMedia, the mobile advertising solutions provider and mobile operator 3. ITN On is launching a range of free content services on 3's recently announced ad-funded mobile video service

Deals: Viagogo launches partnership with lastminute.com.
May 1, 2007... Viagogo, the secondary ticketing service, has launched a partnership with lastminute.com, the European online travel and leisure group.The deal for co-branded tickets makes viagogo lastminute.com's official and exclusive secondary ticketing...

Deals: First partnership agreement for Viacom.
May 1, 2007... Yahoo! has signed a multi-year marketing deal with Viacom, which will see sponsored searches and contextual ads across 33 of its broadband web sites. The global partnership agreement is a first for media conglomerate Viacom

Deals: MSN exclusive online partner for Live Earth.
May 1, 2007... MSN was announced as the exclusive online media partner of the 24-hour, seven-continent Live Earth concerts taking place on 7July. The concerts will be streamed live on MSN's Live Earth web site and will connect an online viewing audience of...

Deals: Siren working for MTV Networks UK & Ireland once again.
May 1, 2007... Digital agency Siren will once again be working for MTV Networks UK & Ireland in a multi-year deal that will see the agency supplying SMS games and chat services to MTV's UK channels. The services will run on Siren's Initiate SMS TV games...

Deals: Radiocentre signs deal with PPL.
May 1, 2007... Radiocentre has signed a deal with music-licensing company PPL which allows 30-second song clips to be included in downloads of their radio programmes. A trial period under the collective licence agreement will last 12 months

Deals: Carlson Marketing announced a partnership with Endpocket.
May 1, 2007... Carlson Marketing announced a partnership with Endpocket to introduce mobile solutions across its three global lines of business Using Endpocket's technology and services, Carlson Marketing will provide mobile initiatives to improve loyalty...

Deals: Reuters signs deal with SAVVIS.
May 1, 2007... Reuters has signed a five-year deal with IT infrastructure services company, SAVVIS, to improve the reliability and scalability of Reuters.com. The multimedia news organisation's flagship web site will use SAVVIS's technology to aid scalability...

Deals: Ricall stricks deal with Song BMG.
May 1, 2007... Online music-licensing marketplace Ricall has struck a deal with Sony BMG allowing commercial music buyers to license recordings commission-free from the marketplace. A separate branded section of ricall.com will let Sony BMG promote tracks...

IAB set to launch its first online campaign.
May 1, 2007... The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is to launch its first online advertising campaign in an effort to attract brand advertisers to the web. The body, which announced last month that brand advertising was increasingly finding a place...

Skype investors join forces in 'kyte' venture.
May 1, 2007... The original investors in Skype - Joost, Google, Hotmail and Draper Richards - have joined forces to launch a new venture, kyte. Kyte brings together user-generated content, mobile and TV. It allows people to create their own interactive TV...

BBC plans 'music discovery' service in new online push.
May 1, 2007... BBC Music Interactive is to unveil a 'music discovery' service as part of the BBC's plans to boost its online presence for the 'web 2.0' age. This will apply to supporting sites for its entire musical and programming output. The first...

Good month/bad month.(briefs)
May 1, 2007... Online music stores cheered at EMI's decision to sell their music free of digital rights management (DRM) software. The move will help stores cash in on digital music sales. A welcome back is in order for Labour peer Lord Puttnam who was...

Just breaking: Top 10 breaking banners by impressions (17 April 2007).(Table)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... 1 Norwich Union See if we can make you happy 2 Orange Only pounds 35 a month with Dolphin 3 O2 We've packed a lot into our new SIM 4 Virgin Media Ooh get you with your very impressive...

ITV gives David Gest's show an online campaign boost.
May 1, 2007... ITV is pushing David Gest's new reality show with an online campaign in the lead-up to its broadband service launch. The creative strategy was to let Gest create his own advertising campaign while reflecting the show's style of humour. ...

Holiday firm targets high spenders.(Portland Explore)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Portland Explore, a division of Thompson Holidays, is using digital to target its highest spending customer base. Portland wanted to create a richer service for its higher budget customers. This came on the back of research commissioned to...

Wireless testing to begin on the Tube.(London Underground test wireless communication system)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Groundbreaking wireless testing on the London Underground (LU) could open up a new audience of mobile internet users. Mobile phone and wireless internet testing is due to begin on the LU later this year at Bank and Waterloo stations. If...

New design aids push for fashion newsletter.(new site launched by Fashion Confidential)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Fashion Confidential, a weekly e-newsletter launched in March, has rebranded with a new site design by Tonic. The strategy is to create a more exclusive online brand, while developing content and architecture for a more engaging consumer...

Account wins.
May 1, 2007... VCCP Digital & VCCP Search, together with PR agency Resonate, have been appointed to manage an integrated brand advocacy campaign for Pilsner Urquell, the flagship brand of brewer SABMiller. Integrated communications agency Shop has won the...

Owen on digital media: New formats must change the way we think about ads.(market research of marketing industry)
May 1, 2007... It's amazing how digital is changing the marketing industry fundamentally. Where, even a year ago, people still thought of digital as banners, buttons and web sites - that is, executional formats that live within a specific marketing channel -...

Film industry takes movies into schools.
May 1, 2007... Film Club is engaging school children with film via an online cinema club resource. In association with the UK Film Council, LOVEFiLM and The Guardian, Film Club is working with teachers and pupils to set up after-school clubs where...

Turnover for digital publishers rockets.
May 1, 2007... UK digital publishers have seen huge levels of growth in 2006, according to the AOP's latest census. Its members see broadband, mobile (and wireless) and online communities as the biggest opportunities for 2007. Publishers have...

Tracker.
May 1, 2007... Analysis Facebook's recent facelift has coincided with the social networking site becoming the 20th most-visited website in the UK based on share of UK internet visits for the week ending 7April. Facebook's share of UK Internet visits...

Promoter revamps key event sites.
May 1, 2007... Events promoter DF Concerts is revamping its key event sites and stepping up its web strategy in the run-up to the summer festival season. The T in the Park site has been redesigned and a new interactive strategy implemented. Previously...

Google's hold on market 'damaging'.
May 1, 2007... Google's dominance of the UK search-engine market is unhealthy, according to research by internet marketing strategy firm, E-consultancy.com. Fifty-four per cent of all UK companies who responded to the three-week online survey in March...

Revolution to host online video seminar.(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Revolution is producing its first online video seminar - giving viewers a detailed examination of the future of the search market - later this month. The event, being held in association with search marketing agency Latitude, will take...

Griffiths on mobile: Location-based services - has their time finally come?
May 1, 2007... I have always been an advocate of the adage (which I believe is a quote from Arthur C Clarke) that 'we overestimate the impact of technology in the short term, but we underestimate the impact in the long term'. There is also a Bill Gates...

Teens are targets as Piczo expands to global markets.
May 1, 2007... Piczo is to expand globally, creating the world's largest teen audience. The move will boost its current user base of 25million teens and offer pan-European, then global, marketing reach. Rollout begins in France, Germany and Spain,...

Handbag editor snapped up by growth hungry Wallpaper.
May 1, 2007... Wallpaper has headhunted the editor of handbag.com, Kay McMahon, to the newly-created role of digital director as it ramps up its site. McMahon was part of handbag.com's senior launch team seven years ago She recently launched handbag's...

Huge potential revealed in social spaces.
May 1, 2007... New Jupiter research reveals that 50 per cent of marketers will use social networks to reach consumers this year. It follows the IAB's increased online ad spend findings, and suggests the trend for online networking is slowing traditional...

Time thief: Rowan Link, head of digital sales, Virgin Radio.
May 1, 2007... 5% Getting ready: The first challenge of the day is waking up as brightly as my twin daughters. 10% Commute: I commute from Bromley South to Golden Square and normally use the time to read the paper and tune into the Christian O'Connell...

Site relaunch part of pounds 6m marketing push.(Cravendale )(million)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Cravendale milk has revamped its web presence as part of a pounds 6million brand relaunch. The integrated campaign includes new TV and print advertising, simplified packaging and instore support. Developed by Carlson Marketing,...

Gaffney on America: Advertising leverage is the key to moving online successfully.
May 1, 2007... The consumer magazine business has had a bit of a bloodletting over here lately. And it says as much about internet marketing as it does about print publishing. Among the magazines that have been sent to online-only exile are ELLEGirl,...

Performance index.(The Revolution Keynote Performance Index )(website rankings)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Revolution Keynote Performance Index measures the performance of 20 representative sites from across the digital economy in terms of speed of loading and availability. The top 10 sites are featured each month and the worst performer is...

Moving on up: Appointment at MGt.
May 1, 2007... Former ITV chief Richard Eyre has joined broadcast and new media services provider MGt as a non-executive director. Eyre has more than 30 years' experience in the media and broadcast industry. He has previously been chief executive at Capital...

Moving on up: Appointment at Agency.com.
May 1, 2007... Matt Curtis, creative director at Agency.com, has been promoted to joint head of creative with Olly Robinson. Curtis has been with the agency for nine years and his promotion underlines a continued emphasis on interactivity

Moving on up: Appointment at ELLEuk.com.
May 1, 2007... Melissa Dick has been appointed editor of ELLEuk.com, the recently launched digital platform from the ELLE brand. This is the first online editor appointment made by Hachette Filipacchi UK following the creation of its digital publishing...

Moving on up: Appointment at lastminute.cmo/Travelocity Europe.(Simon Thompson apointed as chief marketing officer)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Online travel group lastminute.com/Travelocity Europe has appointed Simon Thompson as chief marketing officer to replace Niall McKinney Thompson will head the group's pan-European marketing function, with responsibility for all brands under the...

Moving on up: Appointment at Geronimo.(Duarte and Martin Lee appointed)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Integrated marketing agency Geronimo is expanding its digital team Fleur Hicks-Duarte has been recruited as senior digital manager and Martin Lee as senior interactive designer. Hicks-Duarte will oversee online projects and work on integrating...

Moving on up: Appointment at BiBC.
May 1, 2007... Paul Coster, formerly general manager of strategic sales for Universal Music Group UK, has joined BiBC as acquisitions director. He has 15 years' experience in the music industry. Coster's main responsibility will be new content with the aim of...

Moving on up: Appointment at IPC ignite.
May 1, 2007... IPC ignite, the division of IPC Media responsible for Nuts, Loaded and NME, has appointed Phil Wallis as senior producer, digital. Wallis joined IPC ignite in 2001 as NME's multimedia editor before becoming online men's lifestyle editor for...

Moving on up: Appointment at etv.
May 1, 2007... Digital TV company etv (formerly enteraction tv) has appointed Udi Regev to the role of creative director. Regev, who joins from Red Bee Media, will report directly to etv's director of television, Adrian Swift. Regev was formerly producer of...

Moving on up: Appointment at CBS Outdoor.
May 1, 2007... CBS Outdoor has appointed Lisa Rokny to the new position of creative communications director. Rokny will work within Alive, CBS Outdoor's dedicated digital division, which pioneers digital advertising on London Underground and other UK...

Moving on up: Appointment at Match.com.
May 1, 2007... Match.com, the online dating site, has appointed Jason Stockwood as MD of its UK business. Stockwood will be responsible for the commercial development of the company's two UK internet dating and relationship businesses, Match.com and Udate.com...

Moving on up: Appointment at Orange UK.(Matthew Kirk appointed as director of portals at Orange PLC)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Matthew Kirk has been appointed as the new director of portals for Orange UK. Kirk has been with Orange for nearly five years, most recently as director of devices. He will now lead a team of more than 120 in the strategic development,...

3 offers unlimited internet access.
May 1, 2007... Mobile operator 3 has become the first to offer unlimited mobile internet access to all its customers. This new package follows the 'success' of 3's X-Series, launched with the Nokia N73 last December. The pounds 5 flat-rate, unlimited...

Viral at centre of Five's new campaign.
May 1, 2007... Five is supporting its latest US import, Shark, with an online viral campaign by VCCP. The Shark viral, with the strap-line 'Jaws of Justice', hunts recruits to join lead character Sebastian 'the Shark' Stark in preparing a case against a...

Puma launches first outdoor digital push.(PUMA AG)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Sports brand Puma is using outdoor digital media for brand-building activity for the first time. Puma is running the outdoor campaign on CBS Outdoor's digital escalator panels, to complement a nationwide outdoor and TV campaign planned by...

Murphy on dotcom life: Now we can flirt our way through our free time.
May 1, 2007... I suspect it is no surprise to you to learn that I'm not exactly an expert on the work of Jane Austen. Unless she's got something to say to Alan Curbishley about his back four, I'm pretty much in the dark. But even I know that Pride and...

Digital direct: You have to make your content useful, entertaining, or both.(usage of internet services)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The internet is revolutionising the concept of 'direct' communications by reversing the traditional consumer/brand paradigm. Rather than brands going direct to consumers, there is an increasing backflow of customers going direct to brands;...

Emap takes golfing fantasy league online.(EMAP PLC)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Emap has boosted its digital presence with an online Today's Golfer fantasy league, on the back of the magazine's newly launched site. The activity is being supported by a viral flash game, rich-media advertising and an eCRM programme. The...

Direct Stats.
May 1, 2007... This month UK firms are letdown by poor opt-in marketing but excell at multi-channel contact. Silverpop's Retail Email Marketing Study found that 35 per cent of UK companies failed to place opt-in requests on the home pages of their web...

BMW site sets out to woo urban young.
May 1, 2007... BMW is partnering Emap and Google Maps to create a lifestyle site to promote its new 1 Series model. The site, targeting a young, urban audience, offers celebrity and user-generated reviews of UK city venues. The site, www.1degff.com, is...

iVillage sets up new women's social site.(iVillage Connect platform)
May 1, 2007... Online community iVillage has unveiled the first UK women's social network. The iVillage Connect platform will offer enhanced tools to its community of 3.5 million women. The existing service features more than 250 message boards. Users of...

Vital statistics.
May 1, 2007... This month Online advertisingspend rises whiletraditional media budgets decline. The IAB/PwC UK online adspend figures for 2006 reveal that the internet advertising market is now worth more than pounds 2billion. In total, pounds...

Analysis: Interruptive ads lose their appeal.
May 1, 2007... The latest census survey from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) reveals that interruptive advertising formats, such as rich-media overlays and pop-ups, contribute very little to overall advertising income. Banners and buttons are...

Analysis: Ad-funding looms for mobile realm.
May 1, 2007... At last, the UK mobile network market has taken its first fully-fledged steps towards the ad-funded model. Blyk, a pan-European network, will offer 16 to 24-year-olds free mobile phone calls and texts in return for accepting advertising on...

Vox pop: Is social recommendation the new advertising currency?
May 1, 2007... Are social networks the best place to push your brand message? New social networking research commissioned by Microsoft has revealed that 35 per cent of people recommend a brand socially and 25 per cent post a comment about a brand. With...

Quotes of the month.
May 1, 2007... 'We have so much innovation and so much creativity and talent, yet we haven't done a very good job at making ourselves cool' Steve Berkowitz, senior VP of Microsoft's Online Services Group, admits Microsoft could do with an image overhaul ...

Editorial: It's time to look beyond for talent.(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... It's intriguing that not everyone in the digital sector agrees that taking staff from outside digital is the best way to fill the continuing talent gap. Indeed, it is an attitude that has led, as Paul Angeli of MediaCentrix puts it, not to a...

Comment: Why ad technology just got interesting to brands.
May 1, 2007... I'm sometimes informed by industry journalists that brands don't care about advertising technology, just its benefits. I don't disagree with them. Technology for technology's sake is rarely inspirational - it's functional. And 'functional' can...

Shopping: Review - Wedded to watching the cricket.
May 1, 2007... I realised it was time to start looking for a new television when my old one started mysteriously turning itself off mid-programme. This was further confirmed when it produced sound only once you gave it a tap. Being a keen cricket fan, I was...

Shopping: Shopping stats - Broadband fuelling online shopping boom.
May 1, 2007... UK shoppers are increasingly buying online, with holidays,music and films topping purchase choices. Online shopping is set to account for nearly 40 per cent of all UK retail sales by 2020, according to new uSwitch research. The study...

Sector checker: Charlotte gives her fan site that winning personal touch.
May 1, 2007... Circus Street's Jeremy Hill is charmed by Charlotte Church's down-to-earth fan site - behind-the-scenes pics from her mobile add a personal touch. Web www.charlottechurch.com Developer Poke Aldous Huxley once wrote: 'I'm afraid of...

The Guardian's chief of change.
May 1, 2007... Alicia Buller meets TimBrooks, the man charged with taking theGuardian's online activities to even greater heights He doesn't look like your average managing director of a grassroots-Liberals media group. Tim Brooks is strangely...

Awards: The winning ways of the digital industry.(Revolution Awards ceremony)
May 1, 2007... Hundreds flock to this year's glittering event - the 10th Revolution Awards. Last year it was St Patrick's Day that clashed with the Revolution Awards ceremony. In 2007, Comic Relief was competing for attention, but, once again, the...

Agencies: Specialisation or integration?(client demand digital solutions)
May 1, 2007... Full-service agencies and the network giants all vie for a piece of the digital pie. How does a client choose to get genuinely integrated work? asks Adam Woods. Iris is one of the names that comes up when people are talking about bright,...

Recruitment: Quest for new talent.(lack of digital skills in marketing)
May 1, 2007... Suzy Bashford asks what strategies recruiters are pursuing to fill the digital skills gap in marketing. The shortage of digital skills in the digital sector has been well publicised; stories abound of agencies falling over each other to...

Round table: Make the most of your affiliates.(discussion marketing management)(Discussion)
May 1, 2007... Revolution, in association with Affiliate Window, discusses the most pertinent issues in affiliate marketing. While industry snobs have often derided affiliate marketing as 'grubby', this growing industry could yet be set to have the last...

The Revolution Online Advertising Report, sponsored by Adrevenue: Look forward to greater freedom.
May 1, 2007... The three key components that drove the original viability of the web as a credible advertising medium were cost-efficiency, speed and measurability. More than 10 years later, they are still the cornerstones of the online advertising process....

Campaign delivery: Collective clout.
May 1, 2007... How can the digital industry work together to improve the delivery of online campaigns? Victoria Furness reports. Digital might be evolving rapidly into an established marketing channel - commanding more ad spend than outdoor, consumer...

Case study: The Revolution Online Advertising Report, sponsored by Adrevenue - Escapist ploy.
May 1, 2007... The second series ofPrison Break offered the chance for a highly interactive online campaign. The first series of US show Prison Break went live for Five last year, attracting around 1.8 million viewers on average. With the second season...

Masterclass: The Revolution Masterclass on web site accessibility.
May 1, 2007... Ask for a definition of accessibility and you may be met with some confusion, or at best a range of responses, finds Hayley Pinkerfield. The most basic and comprehensive definition of site accessibility is that it's about ensuring that all...

Trailblazer: Travel guide.
May 1, 2007... Harrison Brown tellsHayley Pinkerfield how new hotel video reviews site hotels.tv helps travellers make the right choice. Who hasn't arrived at their hotel to discover it wasn't quite what it seemed in the brochure? In a move to help...

Creative review: Matthew Maxwell, creative director, twentysix London.
May 1, 2007... BIMA member since 2001 Maxwell joined twentysix London this year on a client roster including Volvo, bmi airlines, Waitrose, RBS, National Express and Universal Music. He arrived at the internet by way of careers as an artist and art...

Campaign study.(Diet Coke campaign analysis)
May 1, 2007... Campaign: Ultimate Diet Coke Breaks Client: Diet Coke Agency: Iris Background: The latest Diet Coke campaign set out to refresh the original 'hunk' campaign from several years ago. But, Coke wanted 'Diet Coke Breaks' to shift the...

Terminator 1: Solving the skills shortage without returning to Kansas.
May 1, 2007... There is much to be said of the media jargon batted around the industry and I often find myself in situations where someone comes up with a real goodie, usually without knowing it. I've heard it all, everything from 'we have a pile of sh**...

Terminator 2: Sing out loud and change the world.(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... All this American Idol and X Factor coverage has a dangerous side - it gets members of the general public thinking that they too have the vocal abilities to catch a record deal. There had to be a digital marketing angle in all this....

Terminator 2: All eyes are on Naomi.
May 1, 2007... High-achieving Naomi Lay, a 26-year-old sales manager at Advertising.com, has launched herself into Alan Sugar's firing line in the latest series of sycophantic cringe-fest The Apprentice. Lay has worked her way up the ad career ladder from...