News round-up: 11th May 2010
- Added:
- May 11, 2010
This week’s movers and shakers in the digital sector: Hunger petition | Spectator | Cineworld | a4uexpo | Linkshare | TBG Digital | Leadpoint | WhipCar | Audience Science | Story Worldwide | Zeus | Start Creative | Eye Blaster | GSI Commerce | OleOle | Econsultancy | Clearleft | Drinksin and Dealmap | Underwired | Wispa | Webloyalty | Holiday Autos | Crab Creative | bmi baby | Epiphany | Get Updated | Agency Brazil | Design UK Collective | ITSPA | Betfair | Make it Rain
UN food agency debuts ‘1billionhungry’ online petition
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is launching a global petition drive enlisting people around the world to pressure governments into doing more to end hunger. The strongly worded petition gives voice to the indignation felt by ordinary people around the world at the fact that the number now living in chronic hunger is close to 1 billion, and that international hunger reduction goals appear unlikely to be met. It calls on politicians to make it their priority to solve the hunger problem. The petition will be presented to world leaders later this year at United Nations headquarters in New York.
Spectator launches iPad app
The Spectator today announced that its weekly magazine will be available on the iPad as a 'freemium' app, bringing its weekly print wit, wisdom and insight to new iPad users. The app was developed by Exact Editions, the London-based digital publishing company, who work with magazine, newspaper and book publishers to market and sell online and app versions of their titles. The app can be downloaded for free with some sample open access content and the opportunity to upgrade to the full version for a 30-day subscription at £2.39 through in-app purchasing. This gives subscribers full access to the latest issue of The Spectator and the previous four years of back issues.
Cineworld debuts API portal and Facebook app
Cineworld has launched the Cineworld Cinemas API, an innovative portal allowing developers access to use cinema, film information and performance schedules from Cineworld.co.uk on their websites. Further strengthening its online presence, Cineworld is also the only cinema chain to have a dedicated Facebook Share on Cineworld.co.uk, allowing users to easily share cinema and film content with their online network of friends.
Cineworld recognises the importance of continuously reaching new customers and engaging existing ones in today’s hectic digital world. The API (https://www.cineworld.co.uk/developer) will allow information about Cineworld to be moved onto third party websites and into online communities in a format that can then be easily shared. Cineworld Cinemas API aims to foster innovation and experimentation amongst the developer community, recognising the importance of getting content on to the Web and via social networks and blogging communities. The Cineworld Facebook Share (http://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/3317) will promote more participation and interaction with users and will allow Cineworld to gain access to significant social media communities, reaching millions more than might otherwise be possible. Cineworld has also introduced a unique Facebook Application (http://apps.facebook.com/cineworld/) aimed at encouraging return visits and increasing engagement with users. The dedicated Facebook Application will make it easy for fans to arrange cinema trips with friends and access unique Cineworld information, including performance times and upcoming releases, whilst still on their Facebook profile.
http://www.cineworld.co.uk/developer
Affiliate network giants go head-to-head at conference
The heads of all of the largest and most influential Affiliate Networks across Europe are taking the stage together for the very first time on the continent at this year’s a4uexpo Europe event next month. In what could be an impressive ‘clash of the titans’, the leaders of affilinet, Zanox, TradeDoubler and Linkshare plus US affiliate marketing giant Clickbank will be debating the future of the Performance Marketing sector and giving their individual views on where they see future growth potential.
Matthew Wood, founder of the a4uexpo events, says: “This is most definitely an industry first and should ensure some heated debate onstage plus some probing questioning from delegates. It will also be the first time that the industry has collective access to the new TradeDoubler CEO Urban Gillstrom and new Zanox CEO Philipp Justus, so it will be interesting to hear what the new heads have to say, especially with both of their impressive careers and experience within the market to date.”
For more information on the Conference agenda, or to find out about registration for this year’s event, log on at www.a4uexpo.com/europe.
LinkShare debuts deep linking technology for retailers
Affiliate marketer LinkShare has launched a Deep Linking technology to help boost conversion rates of retailers. The tools allow retailers to create deep links to specific product pages, while suppressing others. For high-end retailers that have previously been unable to allow deep linking due to manufacturer or licensee compliance requirements, the new controls enable them to monetise LinkShare’s network of affiliates while ensuring they are in line with their partner’s restrictions.
When a retailer employs Deep Linking Controls, they are able to create a “blacklist” of internal product pages to which deep links cannot be created. When a specific product page has been blacklisted, the online consumer will simply be directed from the affiliate’s site to the retailer’s home page. The tool allows retailers and affiliates to work together to ensure brand compliance while also improving conversion rates.
TBG Changes Name to TBG Digital
Digital advertising and performance agency TBG (also known as TBG London) will change its name to TBG Digital. The name change reflects the significant growth and expansion that the company is experiencing and takes into account the increasingly global nature of its business.
Simon Mansell, CEO of TBG Digital commented, “We believe that the name TBG Digital reflects the focus of our business as a major player in the digital industry. Our relationship with our clients is one of the things that distinguishes us from other agencies. In the next few years we aim to open TBG offices in a number of locations to meet the growing demands for our services and products.”
www.tbgdigital.com
LeadPoint launches new interface
LeadPoint has announced the launch of an interface designed to help maximise returns from lead generation. From this week, all new and existing LeadPoint customers will have access to the interface when they log into their online lead buying account. Users will be greeted with a new home page giving a snapshot of their current lead generation campaigns, including a chart showing lead volumes and spend over the last seven days, an overview of current live orders, account balance information, feedback summary and a daily leads update. LeadPoint said users would also be able to track the performance of every order via charts and tables showing conversion rates to average cost per interested customer.
WhipCar works with Tangent One for peer-to-peer car rentals
Full service digital agency, Tangent One (www.tangentone.com), has partnered with WhipCar, the world’s first neighbour-to-neighbour car rental service which launched this week, to help deliver their e-commerce website. WhipCar’s car rental service is coming to the streets of London. For the first time, private car owners can rent out their cars for money to safe, eligible drivers looking for a close, convenient and affordable way to rent them. They will now be able to do so all through an easy-to-use simple online booking facility. Tangent One worked with WhipCar to develop a platform utilising web, mobile and email
to make it simple for car owners to manage the marketing and rental of their vehicles, easily fitting it into their day-to-day lives. The platform automatically identifies and vets both cars for hire and potential drivers using integration with the DVLA databases to ensure a secure and dependable service for both owners and drivers.
Japanese ad giant to Adopt AudienceScience’s Platform
Cyber Communications (CCI), owned by Dentsu, Japan’s number one advertising agency, has hired AudienceScience to implement The Audience Gateway, its market leading Audience Targeting Platform. The platform will enable cci to collect, collate and manage huge volumes of data from multiple sources to build precisely defined audiences for targeting. By integrating The Audience Gateway into its current technologies, cci will develop innovative solutions to support the increasingly sophisticated targeting needs of its clients.
Story Worldwide secures place on Janssen-Cilag’s digital marketing roster
StoryWorldwide, the global content marketing agency, has won a place onpharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag’s digital marketing roster. Story will receive invites to pitch on a number of digital briefs alongside two other agencies. Since becoming a preferred supplier, Story has quickly won four briefs, including a media website, the company’s intranet, an internal training programme and a social media awareness campaign.
PKR.com raise their game with Zeus
Online poker site PKR.com has picked Zeus to manage and prioritize its web traffic. The deal will ensure that the management of PKR.com’s steady growth does not impact the user experience, and that customers continue to receive an outstanding service during peak periods. PKR.com has implemented Zeus Traffic Manager to help ensure its online gaming community remains continually online and does not suffer unexpected outages. This will create a stable online environment for the community to download and research product developments and interact with the site's forum areas. The technology will also ensure that customers have a streamlined experience when making deposits or withdrawals on account areas of the site.
Start appointed by Columbus Travel Media to refresh brand and digital offering
Brand and digital agency Start Creative has been appointed by Columbus Travel Media to support the travel leader’s brand strategy and enhance the digital proposition of its flagship, World Travel Guide. Start has been appointed by Columbus Travel Media to help revitalise the 20-year-old travel brand, regarded by many as the bible of destination content. Start’s task is to re-lift brand identity, to make it more relevant, and better reflect the Columbus Travel Media market position of providing unsurpassed travel guides and destination content. In keeping with the new brand guidelines, Start will also focus on the World Travel Guide website; in the initial phase of works, Start will redesign both the site’s look and feel, and development onto a new CMS to make it easier for users to access the extensive range of content, and for the Columbus Travel Media team to publish that content. The second phase will include the introduction of a host of new features including social applications across four markets – UK, France, Germany and Spain.
www.worldtravelguide.net
www.startcreative.com
MEC Selects Eyeblaster’s MediaMind for Pan-Regional Campaign Delivery
Media agency MEC has turned to Eyeblaster, a provider of integrated digital advertising solutions, to develop new ways to serve and manage global or pan-regional campaigns for major entertainment, gaming and technology brands. Improved capabilities of global deployment address advertisers’ need for efficiencies of scale, worldwide analytics and concurrent time to market. MediaMind’s open architecture provides an open workflow that easily integrates with MEC’s integrated solutions approach. Other unique capabilities include cross channel analytics, unified path to conversion analysis and ubiquitous service and publisher acceptance.
ACHICA selects GSI Commerce as partner for operational fulfilment
E-commerce and multichannel solutions provider GSI Commerce has struck a new partnership with ACHICA, the newly launched UK online private members store that offers luxury, lifestyle brands at exclusive prices. GSI has been commissioned to manage and operate ACHICA’s storage, packaging and shipment operations. Under the agreement, GSI is providing a pick, pack and dispatch solution to ACHICA for its UK and European customers, integrating its systems with the company’s design and hosting agency.
As soon as an ACHICA promotion is concluded, orders are confirmed to suppliers and products are shipped directly to GSI Commerce’s UK warehouse in Manchester. Once the items are received and confirmed on GSI’s systems, customer orders are released and items are packed and dispatched. Due to the fragile nature of some of the products, such as glasses or mirrors, GSI Commerce also repackages items to ensure that they are fit for dispatch.
OleOle launches exact match SEO campaign in World Cup ticket drive
OleOle, a social media platform for football fans, has announced details of a new SEO campaign to drive sales of its ticket and travel packages for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It has selected digital communications specialist Halpern Cowan to organise its search strategy to target customers and increase the level of new enquiries via exact match search, managing very specific keywords and unique phrases pertinent to OleOle’s customers. OleOle was recently appointed by FIFA as a participating tour operator to distribute ticket packages for this year’s World Cup through MATCH Event Services. More information on its tours and packages can be found at World Cup Tickets.
Econsultancy and Hult International Business School launch MA in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing training group Econsultancy has joined forces with leading international business school Hult to develop a new Master in Digital Marketing programme, starting in September 2010. Econsultancy will draw from their extensive experience in training marketers for the world’s finest companies (including Google, Dell, Time Warner and Microsoft) to develop a syllabus that delivers practical digital skills and insight with a strong commercial focus, and prepares students for continued learning after graduation. http://econsultancy.com
Organic vegetable box provider Riverford revamps website
Organic vegetable box provider, Riverford has re-launched its online store with the aim of improving interaction, user experience and personalisation following customer analysis. The retailer reviewed its online presence as part of an extensive overhaul of its business, which turns over £32m a year, and has rebuilt its site from the ground up to better reflect the brand and improve its relationship with its customers. The new site has been created by user experience design agency Clearleft in line with research undertaken with current and prospective customers. The result is an e-commerce platform with improved functionality.
New features include improved usability like a shopping basket that shows customers their basket on logging in, more images to demonstrate the products and an easier route for new customers through to sign up. The improvements to the system have been designed to help make significant savings for Riverford in customer support and increase customer acquisition and retention.
Drinksin and The Dealmap put pub deals on the map
Drinksin and The Dealmap, two leading local websites have partnered up in the UK to bring people even closer to the best pub and bar deals in their neighbourhood and beyond. Drinksin, the location-based pub and bar community, connects people to pubs and bars they’ll love via their mobile. Publicly launched today, The Dealmap is the most comprehensive source for consumers to find and share local deals on the Web. In conjunction with the launch of its service, The Dealmap has created publicly available APIs that Drinksin will use to add unique local deal content to its sites.
Drinksin is focused around technology, in particular the latest in mobile location based services and personalised customisation. Drinksin’s tools learn what you like and provide personalised recommendations for pubs, bars and events to visit based on location. Using Drinksin, people can explore new places, grab money saving deals and discover the hottest events happening right now just round the corner from where you’re stood. Owning over 120 domains and with a number of new technology services being made available this year, Drinksin will connect people to drinking establishments of interest wherever they are located in the world via the Internet or mobile device.
Laithwaites Wine appoints Underwired for eCRM
Laithwaites Wine, the UK’s largest independent wine merchant, with an
annual turnover of c.£250m and over 800,000 customers, has hired
specialist digital relationship marketing and eCRM strategy specialists
Underwired Amaze. Underwired Amaze is the leading eCRM strategy agency, creating eCRM programmes delivered through email, web, mobile, CRM hubs and social media. Underwired Amaze’s eCRM campaign for McCain Foods increased revenues within the core segment by 38% in six months. The agency is part of Amaze.
JetBlue Airways Appoints TBG Digital for Facebook Promotions
TBG Digital, (formerly TBG London), the online advertising and digital performance agency, has announced that JetBlue Airways has joined its US client roster. JetBlue Airways, a low-cost airline owned by JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU), is using ONE Media Manager to promote its sales and normal fares on Facebook, as well as drive traffic to its fan site. TBG Digital was chosen because of the power of the ONE technology and its reputation as a pioneer in developing the Facebook channel. In 2009, JetBlue Airways ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Low-Cost Carriers in North America" by J.D. Power and Associates for the fifth year in a row. The airline is known for its award-winning service and free TV as much as its low fares. JetBlue Airways is based in Queens, New York City, with its main base at JFK International Airport.
Wispa to launch iPhone app, adds games to site
CMW has created an addition to the Wispa website www.wispa.co.uk. The new Take 5 section invites visitors to the site to take a short break from their daily routine to enjoy two retro arcade video games. Wispa Bar Wars is a tennis sports game and Wispa Bash allows players to destroy a brick wall by aiming a ball at it. Wispa Bar Wars will also be launched as an iPhone app. Wispa Bash will go live on the Wispa website w/c 10th May and Bar Wars and the app several weeks later. CMW has led design and strategy of the Take 5 project while digital agency Clusta acted as technical build partner.
Webloyalty grows German operations with Wizz Air partnership
Webloyalty, a provider of incremental revenue for online businesses, today announced further expansion in to the German market, winning business to partner with Wizz Air, the largest low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Webloyalty provides solutions for online retail and travel businesses in the US, UK, France and now Germany, to leverage their existing online sales models to generate additional revenue through programmes such as Shopper Discounts & Rewards. In Germany, the programme launched last month under the name ‘Shoppen und Sparen’.
www.ShoppenundSparen.de
www.webloyalty.de
www.webloyalty.co.uk
Holiday Autos debuts first UK brand campaign in three years
Holiday Autos, the world’s largest leisure car hire broker, is launching its first UK brand campaign in over three years which will celebrate their unique position in the marketplace. The London focused ambient, outdoor and digital campaign will include a series of 250 taxi supersides and tip seats, underground Transvision panels in 9 major stations, DEPs in 8 major stations and online advertising.
The creative revolves around Holiday Autos’ position as a smart and reliable choice for the customer as well as a champion for car hire. It uses existing brand character Wheelz and features the strapline ‘we go further’. New brand agency Digger created the ads and MG OMD is Holiday Autos’ retained media buyer. Holiday Autos is unique in the car hire market, committed to transparent pricing and offering car hire in more than 5,000 locations across the globe. It also boasts a 24 hour helpline and price match guarantee service. The campaign has been designed to cut through the crowded car hire market by highlighting the distinct differences between Holiday Autos and its competition.
http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/offers/#guides
Crab Climbs a Mountain with Berghaus and the Asgard Project
Armchair adventurers can now make like climbing legends Leo Holding and Carlos Suarez and climb a mile-high vertical wall of granite situated deep in the Arctic circle – without even the slightest risk of wind chill. A new viral computer game, developed by Crab Creative for Berghaus (mountaineering and outdoor pursuits clothing specialists), brings to life the stunning scenery, the dizzying heights, the incredible cold and the amazing adrenalin rush of the ultimate extreme-sports adventure, The Asgard Project.
Crab Creative has developed an astonishing online microsite game for Berghaus, sponsors of The Asgard Project, that interactively recreates the climb and tests players’ skill as they move up the rock face, dodging rock falls and maintaining their balance over ice and obstacles. If a player takes too long they become exhausted by the chilling Arctic winds. If they go too quickly they tire and run out of energy. The game is intercut with video filmed on Leo and Carlos’ actual ascent of the awe-inspiring Mount Asgard to add to the tension.
http://www.climbmountasgard.com/
bmibaby picks maxymiser to boost conversions
Low cost airline, bmibaby, part of the bmi group, has partnered with online conversion management expert, Maxymiser, to drive web sales and boost its online presence. Using Maxymiser’s conversion management solutions, bmibaby is trialling different web page layouts, sequences and content across its website, in order to identify which of the 250+ variants that it has devised with Maxymiser are most effective at increasing advanced seat assignment.
Through a series of carefully planned tests bmibaby will be able to test each stage of its purchase funnel to drive conversions and increase customer engagement. Elements that will be tested include the layout and design of the pages, the call to action phrasing and positioning of key text on the site. As a result of the initial tests bmibaby has already seen an 18% uplift in advanced seat assignment conversions and an increase in individual booking value - improving bmibaby’s revenue per passenger from online bookings significantly. www.maxymiser.co.uk
Epiphany Solutions boosts search team
Search marketing specialist Epiphany Solutions has welcomed an additional five members of staff to its rapidly growing team as the business continues to grow at pace. Epiphany Solutions, which is the UK’s fastest growing search specialist, has increased personnel across all divisions of the company in recognition of the growth is has witnessed over the past three months. Joining the Google-Accredited company are Lu Jackson (Account Manager), Christian Milburn, (Client Services Manager), Paul Martin (SEO Analyst), Tom Bagnall (Business Development Manager) and Dave Sellars (Web Developer).
Getupdated selected internet marketing partner to fashion retailer Republic
Getupdated’s UK subsidiary Just Search has been chosen as strategic internet marketing partner by fashion retailer Republic for PPC management. The full scope of the cooperation is not predefined, but a successfully completed test campaign is now followed by a full scale campaign during the coming half year. Republic is a well known, UK high street clothing retailer , selling a variety of brands such as Diesel, G-Star, Miss Sixty and Bench. They also market their own clothing brands such as Soul Cal, Miso and Crafted. Alongside physical shops, Republic also has a full E-commerce service. Just Search UK was selected strategic internet marketing partner to improve revenue and cost efficiency of the companies paid search campaign. The objective is to increase the overall quality of the traffic to produce more revenue for less cost. A six months PPC-campaign is launched, set to increase monthly PPC-visitors by 37 per cent. Further plans for growth within the paid search channel are also being developed.
Social media helps kgdeals storm the Box Office
New challenger deals site kgbdeals (www.kgbdeals.co.uk) has marked its arrival in the UK by selling 50,000 cinema tickets in just 24 hours. At 1700 GMT on Tuesday it went live with the offer of a cinema ticket for 700 screens in 70 cinemas across the UK for just £1 - a typical discount of some 90%. Twenty four hours later every ticket had gone. The success of the deal owes a huge amount to the power of social media and word of mouth. Deals forums, Facebook and Twitter were buzzing, and word spread rapidly, with the site handling 10,000 sales in an hour at its peak. The social media programme was carried out by retained PR agency, Brazil, and the in-house team. Ambient activity also played a part – with the 118 Boys hooking up with kgb ‘Agents’ to promote the deal in high traffic commuter spots and at the premiere of ‘Back Up Plan’ in Leicester Square on Wednesday evening. The ambient campaign was led by Brooklyn Brothers London.
Rail Europe launches website with Design UK to improve SEO
Rail Europe, a UK specialist for European rail travel, has launched a new website designed by digital agency Design UK. The aim of the new site is to attract traffic through improved search engine optimisation (SEO), to improve visitor experience once at the site and ultimately increase conversion rates. Following a year-long project which included analysis of the old Rail Europe site, reworking of the site’s Information Architecture (IA) and subsequent redesign by Design UK, the site now offers a wealth of new features aimed at making European rail travel easier.
Features of the new site include a faster checkout system, interactive maps and a four-tab pane navigation pane to simplify the customer journey from browse to buy. The site’s content also helps people choose destinations and journeys with travel guide sections – ‘Featured destinations’, ‘Ways to travel’ and ‘Featured trains’. There is also a news section which includes up-to-date travel news which could affect journeys. Another key development is the improved booking process.
Collective expands creative team with nine new hires
Digital creative agency Collective has strengthened its London team with nine new appointments to match its growing demands. Award winning Art Director, Owen Roberts, joins Collective from marketing and technology agency LBi as Senior Art Director. Also new to the design team is award-winning Murray Allen, who joins Collective as Senior Designer. Murray was previously at LBi and has worked with leading brands including BT, BBC, Sony, Unilever and Adidas. Nick Dunn also joins as Senior Developer, following two years at independent agency Airlock, and prior to that Agency.com.
Collective also welcomes Alessandra Cabra as Account Director. Alessandra started her creative career in Milan and then moved to London where she was Account director at Publicis Modem. The agency, based in Clerkenwell, has also appointed PJ Jones as Project Manager. PJ joins from Reading Room where he worked on campaigns around the NHS, the Beijing and London Olympics and Cancer UK. These five are joined by Frances Jenkins, Account Executive who previously worked at Leonard Cheshire Disability – the UK’s largest pan disability charity; Matthew Kempton, Designer, who joins from creative digital agency We Are Vi; Joe Fry, Research Analyst and Gareth Bench-Capon, new business executive.
ITSPA Launches VoIP Directory
To assist with the increased adoption of VoIP, ITSPA has launched a database for UK and EU VoIP providers to list their products and services in one place. The ITSPA Directory will simplify searches and enable VoIP users to quickly find the product that suits their needs. It will also be a valuable tool for the industry who are looking for specific services. The database was launched at the ITSPA HD Voice Workshop on the 27th April and will include sections on residential and business VoIP services as well as specific trade resources. Businesses providing VoIP services in the UK and EU can register their services here: http://directory.itspa.org.uk.
www.itspa.org.uk
Betfair launches iPhone betting app on the App Store
Betfair, home to the world’s largest betting community, today announces the availability of its betting exchange iPhone App within the App Store. This makes Betfair the first established betting company to release a sports betting App on the platform. Initially available in the UK and Ireland to Betfair customers, the App brings the Betfair betting experience to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, in an engaging and exciting way – making full use of the handset’s functionality.
Applications provide greater speed and performance than browser-based products. In building the App, the focus was on the user experience, making the App not only intuitive but easy to use. The App enables customers to study the market and put their bets on as simply as possible. Betfair continues to put responsible gaming at the heart of all its products and the new App represents an industry first: using GPS to locate and verify a customer’s location before they are permitted to bet.
Superyacht brand Burgess appoints Make It Rain as search agency
Burgess has appointed Make It Rain as its sole search agency to provide all PPC and SEO services. Burgess is the superyacht industry leader with 9 global offices including Monaco, Miami and New York, uniquely specializing in yachts of over 40 metres. Burgess guides it clients through every aspect of the yachting experience including sale and purchase, new construction, management and charter.
With a noticeable shift from traditional industry channels, Burgess are placing increased emphasis on search engine optimization and pay per click in 2010 following a recently refreshed website. Lucy Thornton of Burgess said “We had great chemistry with the team at Make It Rain and were impressed by their understanding and integrated approach to search marketing.”
