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POPSOnline dating boosted by recession? A most intriguing piece by The Economist states that dating sites seem to be doing rather well with the recession. The correlation between the Dow Jones falling by more than 100 points and the increase in the traffic of one of the dating sites was arguably the most astonishing of all facts presented in this article.
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POPSShould the Treasury's intervention be more targeted? Here's an interesting take on the Geithner plan for shoring up the banks' financial situation. The article makes a compelling argument as to why the plan is not really a great deal for would-be investors and definitely a loosing proposition for taxpayers. With my training in business management and finance I can see the validity of the issue raised here. In fact, I'd be in greater agreement with Nouriel Roubini's recent position that the banking system should be nationalized; with the understanding of course that only the payments and credit system for businesses and individuals would come under the government's fold. All this makes me realize how wise the Belgian legislation is when it mandates that each company's and citizen's debt be centralized and monitored so as to remain within reasonable limits with respect to that entity's revenues.
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POPSSocial media bigger than previously thought A very interesting conclusion of recent study by Pew shows that social media is on track for faster adoption than previously believed. And this means that the media landscape is on the brink of yet another radical change in the way owners of content relate to their audience and communities. Exciting stuff.
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POPSRising click fraud Interesting and worrying figures from a recent study on click fraud showing deterioration of the situation.
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POPSWPP's digital push A BusinessWeek article with some fairly interesting info about the goals and obstacles faced by WPP as it tries to transform itself into a next generation marketing agency. Interestingly its CEO is pushing employees and Board Directors alike to adopt new practices from video, to Facebook, to Twitter and other social tools. And that's the right way to go.
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POPSTighter legislation of online and interactive marketing In yet another sign of a maturing market for new generation marketing and communications services, stricter legislations and rules are being enforced in Europe. The clipmark is about the UK market where legislation has been tightened considerably over the past few years. For example, the legislators have taken steps to make it impossible to target children with dedicated web sites and online activities. Now techniques of influence marketing are being regulated in a stricter manner to limit if not eliminate manipulation of consumers. The interesting question of course is whether legislators will apply the same kind of logic to politicians and their spin doctors...
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POPSBlog Ad Network by Six Apart helps monetization of smaller blogs Six Apart is one of the few companies of the so called web 2.0 wave whose focus on sustainable business models is a major strength. Using their position as a blogging platform to structure and manage an ad network is really a no-brainer from a business standpoint, while it is also in keeping with Six Apart's consistent policy of offering easy-to-use solutions to its customers. They are uniquely positioned to generate substantial business value from this initiative. I am very curious about their pricing mechanism and about the degree of visibility they will allow into their profit margins from this activity. And perhaps even more than those aspects of the scheme, I will be interested to understand their targeting philosophy (serving the relevant ads to each micro-audience) because that's one of the big battles of tomorrow's advertising.
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POPSFret no more about Google
The decrease in paid clicks on Google's online advertising network has been one of the worrying news of the first quarter for modern day advertisers. The Economist has done a good little piece of analysis showing why the decrease may only be the result of Google's own aspiration for more relevance and better performance of ads. And I think it shows pretty well why Google is here to stay and very far from being already "over the hill" as some put it. It is perhaps the most telling testimony of the company's ambition to build a sustainable position in the elusive field of online advertising and beyond that narrow perspective an indication of the stringent demands the company has on itself. So emails may be flying around showing how great a working environment Google is, but nobody should infer it's a corporate version of Club Med. And judging from their ambitious cooperation with SalesForce, these guys are going for a cut of every significant business transaction they facilitate.
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POPSPeople wary of advertisers' "interest" With the increased ability to track and monitor people we are coming dangerously close to the advertisers' nirvana, which is to know everything there is to know about your behavior as a buyer. Technology is not yet able to reach and interpret the deeper recesses of your mind, but that will come too... Perhaps a good reason for people to be increasingly concerned about the "interest" shown by advertisers for them...
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POPSPatterns of blogging success An interesting article of the NY times with a couple of interesting figures on blogging as a business and with some advice for novice bloggers.
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POPSWorrying jurisprudence in France A French court issues decision making online publications and web sites responsible for content produced by a third party (i.e. not the owner of the site or online resource). This is likely to lead to the emergence of considerable legal risks for collaborative endeavors in France as well as for innovative marketing campaigns.
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POPSWhere's the agency? Quite an interesting trend in the space of advertising as online media, especially those that have a participative audience, are now reinventing the value chain of marketing communications. This does look like a validation for those of us who feel the role and mission of agency is to undergo dramatic changes in the months and years to come. Watch this space!
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POPSA Voice in influence marketing Quite an interesting initiative showing that influence marketing is increasingly recognized as a separate discipline requiring dedicated attention and assets.
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POPSMomentous changes in advertising early 2007 This article is a great summary of all the momentous changes that happened over the past two years in the advertising business: the advent of digital / interactive media, the first time ever that marketing services generate more turnover than advertising...
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POPSTraditional media companies invest heavily online Huge commitments of resources by traditional media to remain relevant in the age of information. With the considerable momentum that their ownership of premium content allows they are well positioned and should be taken into account by anyone playing in the field of online media, whether as a content owner or as an advertising network or agency.
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POPSThe rise of mobile search? Ideas for all sorts of services to mobile users abound and have been around for the past couple of years. Nothing significant has happened thus far as the mass adoption of multimedia mobiles has yet to take place especially because users climb the learning curve very slowly and tend to use their devices mainly for telephony. Here are a few factors that will likely change that: 1. devices with pre-installed IP telephony client software are hitting the market 2. the iPhone's impact will be felt both in terms of consumer adoption and in terms of strong influence on the design of devices by other manufacturers, thus setting new standards of usability 3. new forms of wide area IP connectivity will make it more affordable for people to be always on while on the move
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POPSOnline advertising poised to grow through recession A couple of very interesting figures regarding the resistance expected of the online advertising business in the forthcoming recession. I tend to believe the recession will actually amplify the shift of budgets from traditional forms to new forms of of marketing.
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POPSOnline less and less beyond reach of governments Quite a few analysts have described the situation of online as being essentially out of reach of governments and laws written before the information age. That time is over and this has enormous implications for many businesses that are currently thriving in the online space.
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POPSGoing green to grow the business Seeing opportunity where there is a challenge is a rare gift and one that can do more to change a difficult situation than most government led initiatives.
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POPSIs mobile advertising really a good idea? For the past few years we've been hearing a lot about mobile advertising and how it would be so great to be able to deliver "context-specific" ads to people on the move. Arguably, the mobile phone is one of the very few media & communications devices that has not been colonized by advertising (yet). Will that happen? Is mobile advertising ever going to be a good business? How strong is the public's resentment at the violation of one of the few remaining areas of relative privacy? And if the mobile phone can be used for ads, then why not your fridge or youf kitchen table? Probably the next frontier, but until then, pondering on mobile advertising is relevant for anyone in the business of marketing services as well as for brand marketing managers. The way I see it, mobile devices are probably the very best way to bridge the gap between offline and online campaigns and I have a few specific ideas that I will keep for my customers :-)
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POPSFree music pickign-up steam At long last music is going to be freed from the straight-jacket of clumsy protection systems that end up bothering legitimate users without preventing fraud.
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POPSMicrosoft's woes? The hits seem to keep coming for Microsoft who has hard time imposing Vista on the market, faces issues with Excel, a flagship product, and lost an important legal battle with the EU Commission over its competitive behavior. While Microsoft's tactics justifiably cause customers to be concerned, I believe the weapon of market dominance ends up being a boomerang for a company because its erodes its relational capital with customers and local communities, drives intense reactions from competitors and regulators and probably leads to some form of complacency and arrogance of its personnel, who may end up believing that whatever they release will end up being bought by a market taken hostage by their employer.
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POPSLuxembourg-based company registering 3-letter domain names Why does a Luxembourg-based company called Quinv invest so much money registering systematically all 3-letter domain names? Apparently there seems to be a business case behind that, which is rumored to be a form of asset backed bond. The revenues that can be generated through these domains will be used to issue one or more asset backed securities, thus allowing the company to make money by generating more profit than required to service the obligations stemming from the existence of the asset backed securities. Perhaps there is more... Don't forget that Skype was initiated in Luxembourg :-)
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POPSOECD study on spending in education Interesting figures about overall spending in education in OECD countries. The article (in Greek) focuses on the situation in Greece, which looks pretty dire, but I wonder if the study takes into account the amounts spent by families on extra classe and private lessons.
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POPSTrends in future f The trends in FDI over 2007-2011 are quite intriguing as among the top 10 recipient areas 8 are developed OECD countries, while China, Russia and Brazil together are expected to capture 12.9% of world total FDI, i.e. less than the US alone.
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