News round-up: 30th November 2009
- Added:
- Nov 30, 2009
This week’s movers and shakers in the digital industry: Godfather of spam jailed | C4 Iraq inquiry blog | Google offensive image row | Mobile donations for Children in Need | World of Warcraft 5th birthday | Crayon | eBusiness UK | InboxDMG | Autoquake | Fring | NORAS | ‘Media Zoo’ | BBC personality quiz | Clickstream | Shazam | 24/7 Real Media | BBC @North | Adconion | Blismobile | Bango | Code Computerlove | Maxymyser | TBG
'Godfather of spam' jailed for four years
An internet fraudster who dubbed himself the "Godfather of spam" has been jailed for more than four years over a conspiracy that involved sending billions of illegal email advertisements a day. Alan Ralsky, 64, admitted committing mail and wire fraud as well as violating the CAN-SPAM Act, a US law introduced in 2003 which makes it a criminal offence to send large, commercial email messages using an unauthorised computer or while trying to hide the email's source.
Prosecutors in Detroit said that Ralsky and three partners in the scam, including a Hong Kong businessman, sent billions of emails to inflate the price of Chinese penny shares between January 2004 and September 2005. Using a so-called "botnet" network of infected computers to send the emails, the ruse was designed to cause a brief spike in the shares' price from which the conspirators reaped a profit. Ralsky has been one of the world's most prolific spammers, or senders of junk email, since 1997. Before the Bush administration passed the CAN-SPAM law to tackle growing internet fraud, he was reportedly sending 70 million messages a day under false names.
Channel 4 News launches Iraq inquiry blog
Channel 4 News has launched the Iraq Inquiry Blog, an up to date account of the investigation into how the UK became involved in the Iraq conflict, how the war was fought and what befell the people of Iraq afterwards. The blog will be written anonymously by a Channel 4 News reporter with a deep interest and thorough knowledge of intelligence and security matters. It can be found at. The Channel 4 News blogger will also be uploading a commentary of proceedings using twitter at http://twitter.com/IraqInquiryBlog to bring followers directly into the courtroom to see the events as they unfold.
Google in hot water over ‘racist' Michelle Obama image
Google has refused to remove an image that depicts Michelle Obama with monkey features, but has purchased online ads apologising and explaining how its search results work. The image, which appears as the top search result when "Michelle Obama" is entered into Google Images, has led to protests that it is offensive and racist and should be removed. Google has decided not to remove the image but has instead opted to take out an ad, which sits above the offensive picture on the relevant Google Images web page, to explain its decision. Aware of the potential criticism over the stance, Google explained in its ad that as a search engine it was not responsible for questionable online content ranking highly on its website.
The ad runs with the headline "An explanation of our search results".
Mobile donations raise £1.75m for Children in need
BBC Children in Need launched SMS donations on Monday 26th October 2009 and has raised an incredible £1.75m via mobile through £5 donations, marking a first for the charity. The public have donated knowing that every penny has gone directly to BBC Children in Need thanks to mobile network operators waiving their usual fees and the Treasury confirming no VAT charges. Gift Aid has also been available meaning an additional £1.40 for every eligible £5 donation – Meaning a potential extra income of over £500k.
Mobile Interactive Technology (MIT) powered all SMS donations via MIDAS with digital agency Jigsaw designing, building and hosting the BBC Children in Need Gift Aid website , and mobile internet publishing business Kilrush designing, building and hosting the mobile internet site enabling supporters to add Gift Aid to their donation. In the four weeks running up to the main BBC Children in Need appeal, viewers of The One Show were invited to text a keyword (based on the presenter's name) to support the presenter they wanted to participate in the latest challenge. Each interaction donated £5 with donations capped at seven maximum per day.
The Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall concert was broadcast on Thursday 19th November from 8pm to 10pm, where Take That performed amongst other artists, and invited supporters to text keyword 'DONATE' to shortcode 70077 to donate £5. These services were supported by MIT's Client services and Operations team, being located both at their offices throughout the campaign and on the appeal night at BT Tower, central London. Figures calculated on Monday 23rd November. Final figures will be calculated at close of campaign - Monday 30th November 2009.
'World of Warcraft' marks fifth birthday
'World of Warcraft', the massively multiplayer online game played by more than 12 million people, turned five years old this week. The virtual universe, in which players take on the role of elves, orcs and wizards, has proved phenomenally successful, with more than 12 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard, the game's developer, said it would be marking World of Warcraft's fifth anniversary with some special in-game features, including new enemies for players to battle against, and the Onyxia Brood Whelping Pet.
Crayon runs pan-European campaign for Honda
Digital agency Crayon is launching a new campaign for Honda to promote its highly-anticipated latest bike, the VFR1200F. The pan-European digital campaign to launch Honda’s ultimate road sports motorcycle can be seen at www.feelvfr.com and will be supported by email activity, affiliate marketing and social media. The site has been designed to support the launch in 13 different countries . A pre-launch multi-language microsite with countdown timer combined with an email and CRM campaign was used in the run up to the launch of the main site and included a free prize draw data capture mechanism. Within its first week the pre-launch site was 27% ahead of target for lead generation helping to creating hype and interest around the launch.
Online vouchers boost restaurant sales by net £90k
The Northcote Group has seen sales increase by £90,000 thanks to an online ‘Gift Voucher’ package. The vouchers are purchased online through the website, which automatically creates a personalised gift pack for customers to pass on to their friends and loved ones. Two types of vouchers are available; Northcote Vouchers and The Ribble Valley Inns dining experience which can be used at The Three Fishes, Highwayman Inn, The Clog and Billycock and most recently, Yorkshire’s The Bull at Broughton. The project is the result of a collaboration between Northcote and web design company eBusiness UK.
LV= debuts Christmas Viral Game designed by InboxDMG
Insurance, investment and pensions group LV= is launching a Christmas-themed viral game 'Santa’s Skittles' (www.santaskittles.lv.com) through InboxDMG. The game is aimed at increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to the LV= website and capturing customer data. The game will be seeded by Viralnet (www.viralnet.com), the viral seeding division of Digital Marketing Group plc. Earlier this month, LV= launched viral game Shape Trace (http://shapetrace.lv.com) through InboxDMG, aimed at promoting its home insurance products.
Former Expedia boss to lead online car retailer Autoquake
Autoquake.comm, an online used car retailer, announced that former president of Expedia Europe (S&P 500; EXPE) Dermot Halpin has joined Autoquake.com as its CEO. Whilst at Expedia, Dermot had overall responsibility for Expedia Europe, which included the Expedia, Hotels.com and Expedia Private Label businesses. Expedia Europe grew to around £2.5 billion of sales in 2008.
Autoquake.com is on track to increase the number of cars it has sold by 60% in 2009 with revenue increasing by 180% in 2009. The company has contracts with 10 of the UK's top 20 leasing companies to remarket their cars.Autoquake.com's previous CEO Garry Hobson is leaving the company. The team at Autoquake.com would like to thank Garry for his contributions to the company.
fring offers free video calls on mobiles
Fring, a mobile messaging app that aggregates your Skype, Gtalk, AIM and MSN contacts, is now adding free video calls on your mobile to its repertoire. The video feature is embedded in the fring app, allowing free video (as well as voice) calls to all your fring contacts, as well as friends on regular phone lines via Skype-Out and similar programs. fring recently became available for Android phones, but the new fring version with video call support is currently only available to Nokia users with X6, N97 Mini, N97, 5800, N95 8G, N95 and N82 devices. Versions for other handsets and operating systems will be launched soon.
New website for online recruitment research project
The annual National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) is the largest online recruitment research project in the UK and to mark the start of the 2010 research across 70 of the UK’s leading job boards, an upgraded and updated website has been unveiled. Currently in its eighth year, NORAS is the UK industry benchmark for independent online recruitment research and provides audience data on the demographic profile, working status and job seeking habits of online job seekers. The findings can help employers choose the right job board for their recruitment needs and enable participating job boards to deliver a more targeted and accurate sales message to their clients and candidates.
The updated website features information for employers, job boards and agencies about how the NORAS research can specifically help them. An entirely new section called NORAS Labs has also been added, giving visitors an insight into upcoming research projects from Enhance Media, the company behind NORAS.
‘Media Zoo’ opens at the University of Leicester
The Graduate School Media Zoo is something rather different; it is the new home of ‘technological wildlife’ at the University. The Media Zoo will enable post-graduate students at the University to get to grips with digital technologies that look set to play a pivotal role in future research culture. At the launch, zookeepers will showcase ‘technological wildlife’ including e-readers, podcasting equipment and Second Life.
The interactive research space transforms the Graduate School Reading Room in the award-winning David Wilson Library. It provides the opportunity for young researchers to experiment with new technologies for academic networking and collaboration, research presentation and dissemination.
BBC Child Of Our Time online project finds out how much personality shapes our lives
BBC One's series, Child Of Our Time, is inviting the British public to take part in an online scientific study that aims to discover how important our personalities are in shaping the direction of our lives. Do our personalities shape our lives? Launching on the BBC's Lab UK website, The Big Personality Test aims to be the largest experiment of its kind and will reveal a unique personality profile of the nation. The results will be announced in a Child Of Our Time programme in Spring 2010. Presenters Professor Robert Winston and Sophie Raworth are inviting people to take part at bbc.co.uk/childofourtime.
The Big Personality Test, designed by Lab UK in collaboration with Professor Michael Lamb and Jonathan Rentfrow of Cambridge University, will gather vital scientific research data. This data will help scientists understand how influential personality is in shaping our lives, compared to other factors, like education, where we live and our own personal experiences. The five traits examined in the Big Personality Test are: extroversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
New European sales boss at Clickstream
Clickstream Technologies, the web transformation company, has appointed Ian Brook as Managing Director of its international sales effort. Reporting to Clickstream’s board of directors and managing its international sales and marketing team, Brook will be responsible for growth of Clickstream’s products for enterprises, SMEs and ISPs in the UK and EMEA and initial charge into the US. Ian Brook brings twenty-five years of management expertise following previous roles in company’s including Oracle, Siebel and ICL.
Clickstream is an independent company enabling automated ‘on the fly’ insertion and modification of any third party web content, such as website application tags and internet marketing tools and without any need to change the base code. UK clients include shared hosting providers, retail websites and major internet service providers.
Shazam app supports AIDS charity
Shazam, the world’s leading mobile music discovery provider, today announced the availability of its (PRODUCT)REDTM Special Edition App on the App Store. New iPhone and iPod touch users who download the (SHAZAM)RED App, or existing users who upgrade, will have access to the same fantastic music discovery features as the recently launched Shazam Encore along with updated content related to (RED)™. For each app purchased 20% of the price is contributed to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. (RED) funds are directed to HIV and AIDS programs in Africa.
Skyscanner Selects 24/7 Real Media’s Open AdStream
Gglobal digital marketing company 24/7 Real Media has struck an exclusive agreement to serve advertisements across the international Web properties of eading travel search site Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net). 24/7 Real Media’s award-winning ad management platform, Open AdStream, will enable Skyscanner to accelerate its international expansion by delivering highly targeted messages to a global audience in 20 different languages. Open AdStream will deliver ads on all Skyscanner Web sites, including its recently launched domains across Asia and Europe.
BBC marks move up North with Children’s media initiative
Screen Yorkshire and the BBC announce new plans to work together to develop content for children’s media as part of a new BBC initiative called ‘@North’. Launched by Peter Salmon, Director BBC North, at the Manchester Media Festival, @North aims to link up the digital community across the North in a bid to ensure the benefits of the BBC’s move to Salford in 2011 extend across the whole of the North.
In it’s first pilot year @North will focus on working with the BBC Childrens department to encourage and support the development and delivery of interactive content for children, with up to four projects with a total budget of £500,000 available for commissions by CBBC and CBeebies. The project, which represents a new model of engagement with independent companies and digital agencies across the North, will rely on close collaboration with Screen Yorkshire, the regional body which supports the digital industries in the region, alongside other regional screen agencies, North West Vision and Media and Northern Film and Media.
Adconion extends reach in Europe
Adconion Media Group has entered into an exclusive partnership with Goldbach Media Group, the leading marketer for private electronic, interactive and mobile media in Switzerland and Austria to extend its footprint across Europe. Through this partnership, Adconion will increase its reach by more than 25 percent to nearly 400 million unique users, taking it up to 20 billion impressions per month in 10 new markets. With this added exposure, Adconion’s advertisers and agency partners will be able to run increasingly valuable campaigns across Central and Eastern Europe, from Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Austria to Poland and Russia.
Blismobile Media reveals results for Doctor Parnassus movie campaign
The UK’s first fully integrated mobile out-of-the-home campaign rings up over 20 million exposures and 205,000 movie trailer downloads in three weeks. The national campaign ran across Blismobile’s mobile media network giving exposure to over 20 million commuters, offering the chance to download the film trailer via SMS, Bluetooth or mobile internet. In just three weeks, the campaign was exposed to over 20 million commuters and delivered over 205,000 successful interactions, which amounts to 1% of successful engagements, in comparison to a typical online engagement response of 0.2%. Because of Blismobile’s ‘zero wastage’ campaign structure, client Mediaedge: cia was charged only for each successful download with the mobile internet build, SMS and Bluetooth elements all provided at no cost. In addition, MEC also received display exposure via various outdoor touch points.
Bango provides mobile web billing services to Fox
Mobile web payments and analytics company Bango has entered into a multi-territory agreement to provide Fox Mobile Group (FMG) with its mobile web billing platform services worldwide. The move is a result of the rapid growth of internet usage from mobile devices, which is driving publishers and content owners to focus on content delivery through mobile web sites.
Dance brand Global Undergound revamps site
Gritty underground dance music brand Global Underground is updating its website with the help of Manchester digital marketing agency Code Computerlove. Code was awarded the brief following a competitive four-way pitch. The agency will now develop its winning concept that will be built and maintained by Global Underground's in house team. The new site is due to go live January 2010. Earlier this year Code re-designed the Hed Kandi website, also part of the Ministry of Sound Hed Kandi (MSHK) group; on top of this the agency has more than eight years of experience working with HMV.
Asda cuts down on bounce rates with Maxymiser
ASDA has partnered with Maxymiser to decrease its onsite bounce rates (exits from this page) and determine which web content is most effective at converting visitors based on live customer data. Using Maxymiser’s conversion management solutions, ASDA is now able to make informed decisions about its website strategy, using real customer behaviour to drive ongoing, iterative web improvements which continually hone its customers’ online experience.
TBG signs raft of clients including Moneysupermarket
Performance-based digital ad agency TBG has announced the launch of ONE Media Manager, an online display advertising campaign management system developed to simplify and speed the process of advertising on social media. TBG has already signed customers such as Moneysupermarket.com and Virgin Media. One Media Manager is currently providing full management of Facebook’s social media ads and additional social networks and media owners will be added soon.
ONE Media Manager allows advertisers to serve ads that match products to the most relevant target audiences at a time when they are most likely to buy. ONE Media Manager is aimed specifically at enhancing the campaign manager’s experience of Facebook. Multiple campaigns can be viewed and managed from one screen and all campaign statistics can be quickly and securely accessed in seconds using ONE’s intuitive navigation.
www.tbglondon.com
