News Round-up: 20th November
- Added:
- Nov 19, 2009
This week’s movers and shakers in the digital industry: Bebo | Twitter comedy show | IAB | IPC restructure | 3rd Space | Matmi | Blue Barracuda | Webtrends |O2 Joggler | Magiq | Twentysix | Channel 4 News | Affilinet | Shazam | Broadband Choices | Tug | CouponCodes4U | LoveLive | Pierhouse | PayPoint | Epiphany Solutions | ooVoo | Collective | Inbox DMG | CMW | Clash-Media | Linkshare | Fizzy.com
Bebo adopts CEOP report button to help tackle cyber-bullying
On Tuesday 17 November 2009, the ‘CEOP Report’ button, which gives Bebo users a powerful tool to report online abuse and illicit activity, was added across the Bebo website to enhance its existing ‘Report Abuse’ functionality. By clicking on the CEOP report button – which will appear on every profile as an automatic setting – young people, parents and carers will be able to access the latest advice and help around issues such as viruses and hacking. Users will also find details of their local police and will be able to directly contact specially trained CEOP officers via an online reporting mechanism.
Any user of the service will not only be able to access advice and support from CEOP, but also have direct links to a total of ten different sources of help ranging from Childline to Beatbullying, building on Bebo’s existing support partners, housed within the BeWell platform. Around 10,000 people a month are already pressing the CEOP button across other online services, and the CEOP Centre receives more than 5,000 report this way each year.
Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre said: “What today means is that every member of the Bebo community has one-click access to a powerful tool that gives them safety help and advice as well as that ultimate reassurance, the ability to find their local police or to speak to us direct via an online reporting mechanism.”
Comedy Twitter feed gets TV deal
A Twitter feed called "Shit My Dad Says" featuring pearls of wisdom from a 73-year-old father could become a family comedy on US TV. Justin Halpern, 29, has become an internet star with more than 700,000 followers since he began posting his father's often profane words of wisdom. The comments include: "The baby will talk when he talks, relax. It ain't like he knows the cure for cancer and he just ain't spitting it out." CBS has tapped Halpern to co-write the multi-camera family comedy with Patrick Schumacker, the Hollywood Reporter says. CBS also recruited David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the team behind "Will & Grace," to executive produce; and of course, the title will be cleaned up to remove the S-word.
Follow the Twitter account here: shitmydadsays
New boss at IAB social media council
Tony Effik, Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Modem, has been elected as new chair of Internet Advertising Bureau UK’s social media council. Addressing knowledge gaps within the wider industry, he will be responsible for leading the group throughout 2010 and shifting its focus to work directly with UK brands and help grow the discipline. Building on the successes of the last year – which include a social media handbook, numerous events and industry research - Effik plans to channel the council’s efforts into training the marketing community and talking to clients in a ‘common language’.
Effik will spend the year facilitating meetings, engaging with industry leaders and driving council initiatives, and acting on a proposed ‘6 Point Plan’ for the group:
1. Empowering ambassadors of specialist topics within the diverse membership of the social media council, thus giving every member a voice.
2. Sharing the council’s knowledge and practical guidance with the wider industry via editorial and video content each month.
3. Promoting the council as a ‘shop window’ for social talent and agencies.
4. To create standards, tools, templates, and systems to help grow the social media business in the UK.
5. To liaise directly with industry influencers on a regular basis with focused presentations and case studies.
6. To lobby and promote social media and the council to the major holding companies and industry bodies to ensure all relevant groups are talking in the same language.
IPC Media ‘restructures around audience’
Evelyn Webster, CEO of IPC Media, announces a new company structure, effective 4 January 2010, organised around three audience groups of men, mass-market women and up-market women.
· IPC Inspire will be the men’s division, comprising leisure pursuits, men’s lifestyle and music brands, headed by managing director Paul Williams.
· IPC Connect will be the mass-market women’s division, comprising women’s weeklies, the goodtoknow network and the TV entertainment brands, headed by managing director Fiona Dent.
· IPC Southbank, the up-market women’s division, will continue to comprise the fashion, beauty and home interest brands, headed by managing director Jackie Newcombe.
The divisional names IPC TX and IPC Ignite will disappear.
Evelyn Webster said: “Through our iconic print and online brands, IPC delivers huge, powerful audiences to our clients and business partners. However, while our current structure has served us well over many years, it now no longer fully reflects our clients’ business needs. Reach, as well as the delivery of tightly targeted audiences, has never been more important. By organising IPC by consumer audience, rather than by magazine frequency or subject area, we will create a more market-facing structure, which will also bring greater coherence to our operations.”
As a result of the restructure, IPC Ignite MD Eric Fuller will be leaving IPC at the end of December. Says Evelyn Webster: “In his nine years with IPC Media, of which three were on the board, Eric has made a huge contribution to the business and we all wish him well.”
As a result of this new structure, there will be a reduction in a number of roles and IPC will begin a period of consultation with affected employees from 20 November.
Ad funded mobile service gets 300,000 downloads in India
A new ad-funded video marketing campaign for Sony Bravia TV targeted at Reliance GSM WAP customers in India, resulted in 301,000 downloads in the first 10 days. The free mobile video service was launched last month by 3rd Space - a global provider of mobile entertainment and marketing services for brand advertisers – with Reliance Communications, India's leading integrated telecommunications company with over 92 million subscribers.
Reliance Communications launched the mobile marketing campaign with Sony during the October Diwali celebrations in India, sending 700,000 SMS text messages to a cross-section of its mobile subscriber-base over ten days. The result was an unprecedented 43% conversion rate with some 30,000 recipients per day following the embedded text link to browse the Reliance mobile internet site and download an average of two free videos. The videos, between 2 and 3.5 minutes long and featuring international fashion shows along with Bollywood concerts and film clips, were all pre-rolled by a 15 second advertisement for Sony BraviaTV.
“I’m A Celebrity…” gets viral game
“I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!” fans can get closer to their favourite jungle action than ever before with a new free-to-play, ad-supported online game by Matmi. In-game advertising features between Bushtucker Trials and on completing the game, fans can log their score on the leaderboard, or share and tweet scores via Facebook and Twitter.
http://celebrity.itv.com/2009/Game .
Blue Barracuda retains the paid search account for Zoopla
Digital agency, Blue Barracuda has won a three-way pitch for the search engine marketing account for Zoopla.co.uk. Zoopla.co.uk, the UK's fastest growing property portal, called the review following its latest acquisition of PropertyFinder Group. Within a short period of time, Zoopla.co.uk has already integrated its range of property websites onto a single, technology platform to combine the best features of each website and deliver an enhanced experience for the group's estate agent members and the millions of home owners and movers that use the sites. Blue Barracuda, which has managed the paid search for Zoopla.co.uk since March 2008, is appointed to increase targeted traffic for the new portal with a view to driving more leads to their estate agency clients.
Webtrends launches iPhone application
Webtrends, an enterprise customer intelligence company, today announced a new release to Webtrends Analytics 9. The release boasts a long list of new capabilities including up-to-the-minute analytics. This allows for real-time data assessment and comparison from the previous 24-hour period alongside current day and 365-day comparisons. It also includes automated alerts on key metrics. These real-time alerts can be received in many ways, including via email, RSS feed, SMS, and Twitter Direct Messages. Webtrends is also pre-announcing availability to all Analytics customers an iPhone application with access to alerts and real-time data.
The Webtrends Analytics iPhone app delivers key metrics and trends. The design follows many of the same cues as the Insight web app but delivers an experience tailored specifically for iPhone users. The Webtrends iPhone application soon will be available for download within iTunes.
Analytics 9 Autumn 2009 product pages.
O2 revamps Joggler
O2 is revamping the Joggler by adding free internet radio, reducing the price and launching an application store. Customers can now buy the product at a reduced price of £99.99 and can access over 100 radio stations through radio maker, PURE. PURE has adapted its radio and media portal, The Lounge, to provide a selection of popular radio services for the Joggler. The network claims that the decision to add a new type of service to the family aimed touch-screen device, is part of a strategy to add a wide range of features. The Joggler is also receiving a software update that will enable developers to create applications for the device through an application store specifically developed for it. It will be launched by the end of the year.
http://yourfamily.o2.co.uk/o2familyjoggler
Magiq lets marketing teams personalise website content
Magiq has launched to the global corporate marketing sector, a suite of easy-to-use, pay-as-you-go, online services. Magiq allows marketing teams to personalize website content and optimize their digital marketing communications to the individual customer, based on real-time behavioural & activity data and historic profiles of the visitors and customers. Magiq allows marketers to subscribe to on-demand marketing services which provide increased content relevance to customers, and automated CRM solutions which help online businesses have more meaningful and timely dialogue with their audience.
Twentysix appointed to create new website for Yarwood Leather
Digital agency twentysix has been brought in to develop a website and e-commerce platform for Yarwood Leather. The projects entails the creation of a new website that will demonstrate the exceptional quality of British leather upholstery in a market facing stiff competition from Far Eastern suppliers. In the long term, it is intended to become an online hub for businesses and consumers alike.
Channel 4 News uses crowdsourcing to reveal UK power connections
Channel 4 is launching a website that aims to draw up a picture of who is connected to whom in British society, partly relying on crowdsourced information. Who Knows Who aims to reveal the connections between politicians, business leaders and other well-known figures, in a bid to show where the real power lies in the UK — and possibly generate some scoops for 'Channel 4 News' in the process from gossipy toffs wanting to spill the beans on their rivals.
The site will be expanded by the team at 'Channel 4 News', as well as drawing on information from third-party sites including mysociety.co.uk. The primary means of building it, however, will be by developing a community of users who can suggest relationships to investigate. The open source site was created by TUI Interactive Media.
Hillarys appoints affilinet as affiliate marketing partner
affilinet, Adlink Group’s specialist affiliate marketing company, today announces its appointment by made to measure blind company, Hillarys. The exclusive two year deal will see affilinet work with Hillarys to diversify the way the company generates leads and sales from affiliate marketing by implementing different publisher models, including email and content. Hillarys selected affilinet as a result of the flexible strategy offered and the dedicated time and expertise provided by key account managers and the team.
The move will also allow Hillarys to expand its existing affiliate presence to capture customers throughout the purchasing lifecycle, targeting consumers visiting content sites at the beginning of the purchase process as well as those looking on reward sites for the best deals from their favourite brands. As part of the agreement, affilinet will work with Hillarys’ media agency, MediaCom, to help meet the company’s media strategy.
Shazam Encore debuts on App Store
Shazam has launched its new Shazam Encore app on the App Store. The app is faster and has a number of new fearues that build on its existing app, including recommendations, ‘what’s hot’, search and ‘Drive and Tag’ tool that automatically enters into car mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio even when driving.
Broadbandchoices debuts broadband bundles calculator
Broadbandchoices.co.uk has launched a broadband bundles calculator (broadband with home phone, digital TV and/or mobile phone). Consumers can compare the first year cost of a broadband bundle whilst also taking into account the line rental and call plan charges.
Michael Phillips, product director, Broadbandchoices.co.uk commented: “Our recent comparison calculator testing highlighted that users often weren’t taking into account additional cost elements such as line rental and call charges. These can considerably bump up the total monthly cost of bundled services and users told us they wanted a way to include these in their decision making process. Our newly launched bundles calculator allows consumers to see all the key costs they will have to pay in an intuitive and transparent way, giving them everything they need to make an informed decision.”
The Dungeons appoints Tug for international SEM campaign
Attraction operator Merlin Entertainments Group has appointed digital media agency Tug to manage its online campaign for The Dungeons. Merlin Entertainments Group, the World’s second largest visitor attraction operator, with brands such as LEGOLAND, Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo, and Madame Tussauds among its portfolio, will be working with Tug to increase revenue across its Dungeons venues in UK cities (London, Edinburgh and York) as well as The Dungeons in Hamburg and Amsterdam.
Tug will initially be optimising the Dungeon’s new websites in the first steps to improve natural traffic volumes. The new sites are scheduled to go live in December 09. Tug will then roll out an SEO and PPC campaign across the five venue sites. The campaign will focus on driving sales through its online channel on lower attendance days while reducing promotional activity for busier days. Prime audiences will be people who live within a 2 hour drive of the Dungeons venues.
UK site CouponCodes4U launches in the US
Discount site www.CouponCodes4u.com officially launched this week following in the footsteps of UK-based sister website MyVoucherCodes.co.uk. During the current recession, MyVoucherCodes claimed it was responsible for nearly £1/2bn worth of sales in the UK, the equivalent of $787m. Throughout this period, Brits saved the equivalent of $87m USD, and the company hopes to repeat this sort of success across the Atlantic.
CouponCodes4U features thousands of discounts and offers with current deals including $75 off at Dell, 55% off at Amazon, $50 off at Sears, and 35% off at Macy’s. In pre-launch beta testing, the site managed to amass a following of over 300,000 unique users a month, with no formal marketing in place. Over 15,000 retailers are listed on the site, all of which provide discount coupons, which are redeemable at online checkout.
LoveLive Partners With Rockfeedback
LoveLive, a new live music content producer and aggregator specialising in digital engagement and distribution has signed a partnership agreement with Rockfeedback, the UK’s best source of cutting edge music editorial and production, to create programming and solutions for TV, internet and mobile platforms.
Rockfeedback.com predominantly focuses on the finest in modern music and provides quality and discerning editorial formed from a wish to promote and nurture up and coming artists. Content on the website spans recorded music and live reviews, in-depth features, special guest columns, videos, and competitions, all compiled by a global team of writers and photographers. Rockfeedback.com was recently re-launched to incorporate leading engagement video solution Kyte, enabling the breadth, depth and unique voice and creative of Rockfeedback’s audio-visual archive to be showcased for the first time online.
Mothercare expands international presence online
As Mothercare looks to further develop the international side of its business, the company has made it easier for its overseas franchisees to create and print marketing material locally by adopting the web-based net.tickIT sign and ticketing solution from Pierhouse, the software specialist that helps retailers market their products to customers instore.
A multi-lingual version of net.tickIT has been developed to accommodate any number of translations, which can then be incorporated automatically into Mothercare’s marketing templates to ensure brand compliance. A set of reporting tools is also included so that Mothercare in the UK has full visibility, and control, of what is being produced. All 51 countries in which Mothercare is represented, including Pakistan, Kuwait, India, Taiwan, Jordan, Slovakia, Estonia and Spain, have access to net.tickIT and many are already benefiting from the advantages of the system.
Youth fashion firm allows everyone to buy online with cash
Urban Industry, the street wear and urban clothing store, has become the first clothing retailer to offer its customers the PayCash option to pay in cash at any of PayPoint’s 22,000 outlets nationally for goods bought on Urban Industry’s website. Urban Industry is the UK’s first clothing retailer to introduce PayCash. This exciting development for the fast growing store expands Urban Industry’s online audience to include the important youth market and those who are reluctant or cannot transact online.
PayCash removes the final barrier to all consumers successfully transacting online. To purchase online using PayCash, customers simply select the PayCash option at online checkout and print out their receipt, which will include a bar code. They then take the receipt to one of 22,000 local PayPoint community stores, where the merchant will scan the bar code and collect cash payment for the items from the customer.
Outsourcing Company Ventura in online marketing push
Outsourcing experts Ventura, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Next plc, has awarded an online marketing contract to Epiphany Solutions which includes both SEO and pay per click campaigns as well as website development.Ventura, which provides outsourced services including contact centres, customer services management and external business processing, employs more than 7,000 people at five UK sites – three in Leeds, where is it based, plus two in Dearne Valley – and one in India. The company also operates contact centres in Cardiff and Milton Keynes.
Last year the organisation rebranded to reflect its growing dominance and range of services in the outsourcing market – with over £160m in annual revenue in 2008 it is the UK’s second largest outsourcing business. Epiphany has been appointed to further develop the company’s online presence, starting with a new Ventura.co.uk website, while dedicated SEO and PPC campaigns aim to maximise returns from digital spend.
ooVoo debuts brings real time multi-point online video communication in UK
US firm ooVoo is launching its multi-point audio and video communication tool in the UK. The service enables up to 12 participants – six on video and six on phone – to experience a multi-point video and audio connection over the Internet in a way that no other communication medium permits. There is no special equipment needed so if they are working on the road, telecommuting or from remote offices they can still have ooVoo conference calls right from their laptop.
Collective delivers website for MUGEN car
Digital creative agency Collective has launched a site for the precision-engineered and custom-built Civic Type R MUGEN, only 20 of which will be built for the UK market. The media-rich and social media friendly site (www.typermugen.co.uk) offers car enthusiasts the rare opportunity to see the Civic Type R MUGEN in action as well as sharing all the key information on their social networks.
Honda has teamed up with its fine-tuning ‘sister’ company MUGEN to develop the Civic Type R MUGEN especially for UK roads. With a 240ps 2.0 engine, a higher power to weight ratio and a 10 per cent increase in torque, the Honda Civic Type R has been transformed. It is the first MUGEN-tuned engine ever to be available in the UK. The 20 versions of the Civic Type R MUGEN will be delivered in Championship White – the colour of Honda’s first ever Formula One car.
LV= debuts home insurance branding viral drive with InboxDMG
Insurance, investment and pensions group LV= is launching LV= Shape Trace, a viral game designed by InboxDMG, to promote its home insurance product. The game aims to drive traffic to the LV= website (www.lv.com) and create brand awareness, as well as capturing prospect data. The way the game works is that a household object appears on screen briefly, and the player’s challenge is to trace its outline as soon as it disappears from view. If they score 60% or over, they go onto the next level. Play becomes increasingly harder with each level that is mastered.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer awards CMW integrated brief for flagship campaign
CMW has been appointed by Breakthrough Breast Cancer to develop its 2010 Fashion Targets Breast Cancer (FTBC) campaign. Over the past 13 years, FTBC has raised over £10.5 million for the charity, which is dedicated to the prevention, treatment and ultimate eradication of the disease. The high profile 2010 campaign will break at the end of March and will feature a heavy-weight outdoor element, online and social media campaign and PR activity.
The campaign will play on the heritage of the iconic and much loved brand - putting the target logo centre stage to generate real cut through and maximise awareness. The creative campaign is expected to feature a range of celebrities who will be shot by a world renowned photographer. CMW will also produce a microsite to support the campaign, displaying the full range of fashion items in the exclusive collection and collecting data for use in an ongoing CRM programme.
New UK Sales Director at Clash-Media
Lead generation firm Clash-Media has appointed a new UK Sales Director to drive growth across the UK and consolidate Clash-Media's international position. Derek Anderson will head-up the UK Sales Team and put in place a new, target-driven sales strategy that will allow the company to further penetrate its target markets – leveraging both direct and agency relationships. Clash-Media has experienced significant UK and international development since its launch in 2006 and is preparing for additional growth in 2010.
www.clash-media.com
LinkShare wins fashion clients
Affiliate network LinkShare is seeing strong online retail success announcing a series of high-profile customer wins achieved in the past few months. Some of the companies launching new affiliate campaigns with LinkShare include high street shoes and accessories retailer, Faith; designer fashion stores, Jigsaw & Fenn Wright Manson; luxury fashion boutique, Matches; watch and accessories retailer, Fossil and handbag & accessories designer Radley.
Fizzy.com launched Flash games developer network
3RD Sense, which operates the play platform Fizzy.com, and develops games and online apps for consumers and innovative brands worldwide, has launched the new Fizzy Game Developers Network(GDN), which provides Flash game developers with a free and easily accessible platform to showcase, distribute and earn revenue from their games.
Fizzy.com provides Flash games developers with access to an engaged and passionate game play audience of millions. Its main game play website, Fizzy.com, attracts over one million unique visitors every month and this site is growing rapidly. Fizzy.com also distributes games across a partner network of websites and developers who use the GDN can take advantage of this by having their games distributed across these Fizzy networks.
Developers can either upload their games on the GDN as a Free-to-Play game or a Pay-to-Play game. Developers that upload Free-to-Play games on Fizzy will earn revenue based on the number of plays of their game. If developers want to earn more they can upload their game as a Pay-to-Play game, which will earn 50 per cent sales revenue for every one of their games sold on Fizzy as well as revenue based on the number of plays of the game.
http://www.fizzy.com/about_gdn/
