DigiTales & Other Stories

New figures from the IAB show yet again that the online advertising model is no flash in the pan….

Banners, skyscrapers and rich media saw a staggering 45% growth last year, showing agencies and advertisers are obviously seeing the benefit from a branding and, in some cases, a direct response effect. 

The old stalwart “paid search” is apparently “maturing” but still growing, keeping its number-one-slot at 58% share or £1.6B - a colossal 39% growth.

Apologies for all the hyperbole, but as my US colleagues would say I’m super-invigorated by this news.

I don’t see mobile figures in the report, but that’s going to be big this year given the uptake of the iPhone, and the announcement last week that Microsoft will be updating its mobile browser so users can view fullscreen web pages and multi-media more easily.

The future’s bright……but is it mobile?

Nice piece yesterday in the Sunday Times showing how the internet is no longer just the place for spotty male geeks to gather. Not that that stereotype is necessarily warranted, but check out how Libby  Purves referred to my blog a few months back!!!

The Pew Internet Project in the US recently found 35% of girls compared with 20% of boys have their own blogs, and 70% of girls aged 15-17 have embraced social networking and built their own page on Bebo or MySpace compared with 57% of boys.

Hitwise backed this up in in January, reporting that 55% of UK social networkers are women too.

The upshot of Kate Spicer and Abul Taher’s piece is summed up nicely by their main subject, a 12-year-old girl from Surrey who spends much of her time one her PC doing homework but also gossiping with friends on Bebo or Facebook.

When asked if she’d want a career in software development in order to create such experiences in the future she replied:

“Girls are creative, they are more into history, English and art – it’s the boys who are more into the techie things!”

The Interactive Media in Retail Group have said that UK stores saw a massive jump in online sales shopping this January compared to last year…

Highlights:

• 75.5% rise in online shopping
• £4.5B spent online last month
• 62% average growth in online shopping over the last 10 months
• 63% over the last 3 months is double the 25% it was this time last year

Could be as a result of sales search terms being up 249% in January!!!

Check out the benefits of joining the IMRG and get you hands on these fabulous reports here: IMRG Sign Up

No suprise really, but as the UK’s leading search engine, Google has come top in some research published by Nielson NetRatings.

With almost 25m visitors a month, they beat MSN/Windows Live Messenger (14.7m) and eBay (14.5m) as the most popular online property.

Facebook grew its audience 781% from 1.1m to 8.9m but was NOT the fastest growing site.

That crown went to Beat That Quote who welcomed a whopping 1,165% more users than in December 2006!

Download the report here: Winners On The UK Web

Robin Goad from Hitwise and Tony Mooney from Experian Integrated Marketing have penned a great report which they’ve kindly let me let you download from here:

 “The Impact of Social Networking in the UK.”

The promotional blurb says:

“This White Paper looks in detail at the key social networking learnings from 2007, the trends that are most likely to play out in 2008, and the critical areas that brands need to consider when developing their social media marketing strategies.”

The report is in two sections. The first sets the scene outlining the landscape, and then follows up with some recommended strategies for 2008.

Interesting points to note:

Online email services were overtaken by social networking activity in the last quarter of 2007.

Social networking is not all about the KIDZ!

There’s also an interesting case study for brands about the British Legion which demonstrates how social apps can increase and enhance brand awareness.

So what does 2008 hold:

“Social networks will become the dominant channel for viral marketing campaigns.”

“Social networks will become the primary arena for highly targeted marketing and advertising campaigns.”

“Consumer power will manifest itself through social networks.”

All pretty bold statements that come with plenty of caveats, but food for thought nevertheless…

Having posted the Microsoft Context Matters Funeral, Dance and Art videos on my blog over the last few days, they’ve now been viewed through MSN Video by over 1500 marketers around the world so far.

Some people loved them, some people didn’t! Some people were confused as to the message they were giving out, and some people even thought they were a little inappropriate.

Most though, were willing to wait to see them put into context before making a judgement.

As any marketer knows an advert needs some context in order to draw an audience in, and none more so than online.

So our research guys here at Microsoft have collaborated with MEC Interaction in order to delve much deeper into how users connect with internet advertising.

What they found was that time, place, mood and motivation play a significant role in how impactful your advertising message can be.

Key objectives were:

•      To delve beyond the “time spent” measure
•      To identify and describe key online “occasions” and their contexts
•      To examine advertising fit across these occasions
•      To help our partners optimise their online media planning

Identifying the “online occasions” as being entertainment, creation, communication, transaction, information and general surfing, the research shows the different ways in which we are willing to accept “pull” mechanisms, or advertising where we may be asked to interact with it, or “push” messaging , where we’re too busy to connect but are susceptible to the branding effect.

There’s a load of info in the report about what percentage of time people are multi-tasking, home versus work, week versus weekend, and some specific quotes and case studies.

There are even stats on what mood people are more likely to be in at various times of the day, and how focused they are likely to be while performing certain actions during these occasions!

Now the concept of “context” in planning your marketing strategy is not a new one, however no one has done as an indepth study of how consumers behave online across the ever-expanding, multi-channel opportunity that we have through the internet.

So whether you’re a search marketer, a display planner/buyer, you’re into email marketing or are just plain curious, you can check out the Context Matters page on our advertising site and download the 11 page report from there as it’s well worth a peek:

Context  Matters – Microsoft Internet Marketing Research Report

And now let’s hear it for those videos now I’ve put them in context

One thing I love about working here is the amount of research we invest in.

Last month is was all about small business marketing and how some 62% of SMBs are not investing in promoting their websites through online strategies because “it’s too complicated!”

This month Bill Gates has written an article for the BBC based on research that shows “IT knowledge” placed 7th on the list of must have key-skills by the leaders of 500 companies in the UK.

He hinted that computer skills were undervalued as “a solid working knowledge of productivity software has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career.”

So from the below, where would you put IT? Doesn’t a good knowledge of computers enhance most of the other skills? Should it be on the list at all?

TOP BUSINESS SKILLS

1. Team working and interpersonal skills

2. Initiative

3. Analysing and problem solving

4. Verbal communication

5. Personal planning and organising

6. Flexibility

7. IT skills