Author Archives: Martina

China Online Advertising Spending is growing

China’s spending on online advertising grew to 360 million yuan ($1=CNY8.28) in the first half of 2003, putting it on track to beat forecasts for the full year, Shanghai iResearch Co. said. Advertisers are now allocating more money to Internet-based advertising. The news is reported on Yahoo! News.

You’ll love that contextual ad

Selling ads that appear alongside Web search results is becoming a serious business, even for small Web sites owners. A good review of Google AdSense and Content Match by Overture is online today on the New York Times (free reg.). It explains the strategies and points of view of the two search engines offering a good overview of the “contextual advertising” market and industry.

Summer blogging

As you might have noticed, my blogging activity last week as been rather… weak Sorry guys, I’m back in Italy, and I’m back to work, and last but not least, there are about 35 degrees outside. It’s too hot to blog! Anyway I don’t quit, no way, I just post less giving more space in my life to more refreshing activities, like reading, swimming and my new passion… kayaking!

Paid Search Is ‘Hot’

Paid search, a form of online advertising, will increase almost 50 percent this year to $1.6 billion, powering a modest recovery in web advertising. Jupiter Research expects online display ad sales to turn around next year, growing by 15 percent. In 2005 and 2006, the growth rate is projected to be 20 percent. More on TechWeb.

All eyes on Samsung

Samsung is one of the fastest growing brands in the consumer electronic market. “Samsung is far more innovative and willing to put a toe in the water much earlier than Sony”

This what Gartner Dataquest senior analyst Paul O’Donovan says as quoted on Technology Marketing. The linked article provides a full overview of Samsung positioning and marketing strategy and a reference to its efforts in online promotion with a 3-D interactive campaign.

Interactivity, comprehension, and persuasion

For those of you interested in some academic studies on online communication, I’ve found a very interesting paper, by Wendy Macias on the Journal of Interactive Advertising. The paper’s title is: “A Preliminary Structural Equation Model of Comprehension and Persuasion of Interactive Advertising Brand Web Sites” and has the main goal of building a preliminary structural equation model to better understand the relationships between interactivity, comprehension, and persuasion.

New viral game: Operation Slaps

Through Brand Republic I’ve found a new online game that wants to become a viral game… Operation Slaps. The idea is nice, but if you want to have fun you need to play against a friend, otherwise, if you play against the computer, the game becomes soon boring. The game has been created by NowWashYourHands, a UK company that has plenty of nice ideas.

BBC Radio wants listeners to interact online

BBC Radio Five Live has just relaunched its Web site to target new listeners and increase brand loyalty. The news is reported by Revolution Magazine which says that the new Web site should be easier to navigate and stimulate a greater interactive participation from listeners. To see how it looks like, here is the URL: www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive.

McDonald’s targeting McMoms online

As reported on Yahoo! News, McDonald’s Appeals to Mothers With Web Promotion. It’s basically an e-mail marketing campaign run through a newsletter that aims to draw more mothers into the restaurants with coupons, parenting advice, and health and nutritional information. Well, personally I would rather focus on targeting teens directly. As a mother I would never suggest my children to eat at McD, they will just go there with friends because a “cool” teen experience. Anyway, a suggestion… eat pasta, it’s much healthier!

Teens, Internet better than TV

New findings about media consumption by teens and young adults are reported today by MediaPost. According to a research by Yahoo! and Carat North America, teens and young adults consume many different types of media, but the Internet surpasses them all in the amount of time spent, which in an average week is as follows: (1) 16.7 hours online (excluding email), (2) 13.6 hours watching TV, (3) 12 hours listening to the radio, (4) 7.7 hours talking on the phone, (5) Six hours reading books and magazines (personal, not scholastic). In the article you can also find further interesting figures presented by Yahoo! at the “Born to be Wired” conference for marketers.