Archive for November, 2009
Banks lagging in the innovative tech race risk losing custom
Nov 30th
How can banks win back custom after users turned tail and fled in the face of the recession?
The answer, according to self-service provider NCR Corporation is to be more flexible in their services by embracing technological developments.
A bank provider that enables customers to manage their finances easily via online, mobile and kiosk self-services was favoured by 80 per cent of 8,400 adults polled around the world.
Speed and ease of access to financial services such as payment deposits are key priorities for consumers, according to NCR’s research with 31 per cent of respondents surveyed demanding online, ATM or mobile bill payment services.
Services that banks are introducing include text alerts to notify customers when they are nearing their overdraft limit and the ability to pay bills at ATMs.
Obviously new smart phones are making it easier to introduce downloadable applications that enable customers to switch funds between higher interest and current accounts, and pay bills.
Mobile money transfers are to help generate transactions worth over (£300bn) $600bn globally by 2013, according to Juniper Research’s Mobile Payments Study.
Banks are facing increasing pressures, not just as a result of lost consumer confidence, but also from potential new entrants to the market.
According to NCR’s Managing Director for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, Elton Birden, consumers are comfortable using a range of digital technologies to manage their lives and expect to be able to manage their finances in a similar way.
“Banks must respond to these demands or risk losing business. The banks that are succeeding are those that are now investing in technologies that offer customers instant access to an increased number of services and facilities, and greater autonomy over their finances,” he added.
In a bid to reduce operational costs, many retailers, leisure groups and international providers are using self-service to expand their offerings and move into the banking arena.
Self-Scheduler solutions now enable customers to schedule appointments with bank staff at a convenient time and location, via the Internet or touch screens in the branch.
The appointment is confirmed immediately by text message, e-mail or text-to-speech and reminders sent out.
From initial contact, the customer’s purchase process is monitored in detail, with their requirements for advice and information captured.
This enables bank to monitor the speeds at which customers are served and their needs met from a branch, regional and national perspective.
Already, consumers use over 40,000 NCR ATMs in the UK to get quick and easy access to their cash, make deposits and manage their bank accounts.
Similarly to eBay’s reasons for launching it’s latest ‘Deals’ programme, it’s about banks providing customers with services for what they want, when they want and where they want.
Miss that point and they’ll be missing out on next generation banking.
There’s still life in Twitter yet for marketers
Nov 30th
Social networks may have users in decline, but they’re still top of the radar for some brands and marketers.
Remember how last week I said that Twitter users were declining? Well, it isn’t all bad for the micro-blogging site – or any social networking site for that matter as marketers and agencies are definatley still interested. Why?
Well, Twitter is set to become the most popular word in the English language for 2009, according to the Global Language Monitor.
It has also come in second in Bing’s 10 most searched topics of 2009 list.
But just how important is the social network?
An agency in Australia called Community Engine is aiming to cash in on the phenomena of social networking by building internal networks that will integrate sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace for clients and brands.
Piers Hogarth-Scott, managing director of Community Engine, told The Australian newspaper, “While global social platforms such as Facebook are radically changing human communication, most organisations have little or no idea that they can build their own social networks to connect with their own communities.
“All organisations need to form direct relationships with their audiences, and social networking — when used properly — is one of the most powerful and effective ways of forming those relationships in the online era.”
By adapting internal social networks to work in tandem with popular public ones, businesses will be able to communicate with employees and customers, associations with members, politicians with constituents and charities with donors.
Obviously the Australian market is a little behind that of Europe and the US on the social networking front, but it’s still a good idea. Many marketers have said in various polls that while they would like to increase their spend on social media they are not quite sure how to do so.
The concept of being able to link internal social network systems with external ones is also attracting some big advertisers including Australia’s flagship airline Qantas.
The newspaper said that Community Engine is hoping to take its social networking applications global next year in a bid to capitalise on the $1.5 billion Web 2.0 application market.
Google Voice Search journey goes public…in Times Square
Nov 27th
Here’s a clear picture on how billboard advertising is moving on from being just a poster advert on the side of a highway to the one of the most exciting ways to involve consumers in your ads:
Google, Verizon, Reuters, and R/GA have teamed up to take over the largest displays on Times Square that will allow for a giant Google Search by voice experiment/Droid advertisement.
On Black Friday, anyone who calls 888-376-4336 and does a Google Search by voice, will see their results displayed on either the Reuters sign or the NASDAQ sign in Times Square, as reported by TechCrunch.
If ask about a new CD, for example, the display will come up with a giant Google Map of where you can find it.
The activity is part of a big promotion for Droid, the new Android phone built by Verizon and being heavily pushed by Google.
This year has been a great one for billboard advertising. Remember when MasterCard took over the Old Street roundabout billboard in February with a special Valentine’s message?
But what makes Google’s idea so cool is that it is actually getting people to interact, and that is what is key in the new world of advertising.
Before you pay to use Twitter, ask yourself if it’s worth it
Nov 27th
A new report say that the majority of companies are planning to increase their spend on social media activities next year, but will it be worth it?
The Social Media and Online PR Report from Consultancy reveals that fewer than a quarter of companies are able to see a ‘tangible’ return on their investments, while just under two thirds had gained ‘more benefit’ from their spend ‘but nothing concrete’.
However, companies that have concentrated spend on social media have seen a return on investment with more than half of all firms that had made a significant effort saying that they had seen return.
Some 90 per cent of respondents said that social media is taking up more time than it did a year ago, while 86 per cent are planning to increase their budgets next year.
But you can’t ignore the recent comScore figures about users declining. Recent figures have shown that the number of users on Twitter has actually declined in the past three months, with growth down by 8.1 per cent.
Are users simply over the hype of Twitter?
Twitter launched in March 2006, two years after the social network that started them all, Facebook, which launched in March 2004. It’s taken almost three years, but the site now has more than 92 million users worldwide.
To put that in perspective, radio took 38 years to reach just half the amount of current Twitter users – 50 million. TV took 13 years and the internet, four.
Social networking isn’t just a fad, it is fundamentally changing the way we communicate, as we discovered at our Social Media roundtable earlier this year.
A number of major advertisers and brands have used Twitter as a way of communicating directly with their customers, but not only are new users down, Nielsen data reveals that traffic to Twitter was down 27 per cent during September and October. That means less eyeballs seeing your tweets! And yet, co-founder Biz Stone announced this week that the site will be launching paid accounts next year.
The site is also considering signing further deals with companies to licence its content and live streams, just as it did recently with Yahoo, Google and Microsoft’s Bing, that will see your tweets in search results. But it also means that your tweets will have to spot on, full of key words and be engaging. Is this too hard to achieve for brands in just 140 characters?
As it is, only 10 per cent of Twitter users accounted for 90 per cent of all tweets as of May 2009. A study from Harvard Business School confirms that the typical Twitter user tweets “very rarely”, while the average number of tweets per user over a lifetime is just one. People are losing interest and brands and advertisers are failing to ‘tweet’ about anything compelling.
A report last week said that users on were tech-savvy and usually work in the media and marketing industry.
And surprise surprise, the brands they are talking about the most include Google, Apple and Amazon followed by a mix of tech companies and other strong global brands like Starbucks, Disney and HP.
But one of the biggest complaints made by Twitter users about brands on the site was that tweets need to be “more human”.
Using Twitter to promote brands just got harder. And while tweet may direct users to your website or attract them to deals or even just engage with your consumer, one must wonder if there is any real future in this micro-blogging site. Has the hype ended? Or has it just begun?
Twitter seems hell-bent on making next year it’s revenue year. But despite all the media attention, many are wondering what the future holds for Twitter and marketers will soon wonder if Twitter is worth the investment, especially when it competes alongside so many other social media sites that are yet to lose users or suffer declines.
Why you need to create ‘made for mobile’ websites
Nov 26th
Having a website isn’t enough for brands. You need to go mobile!
Mobile web browser Opera Mini has said that usage around the world has jumped 11% in just a month, highlighting the importance of brands having a presence of the web.
Data transfers have gained 16% as around 40 million people used Opera Mini in October. That’s an 11.3% increase from September 2009 and more than 155% compared to October 2008.
As mobile web use is clearly growing rapidly, it is important that your site has not only a good, usable mobile presence, but it is also essential that it be visible in mobile search.
These days, as a marketer, you can’t ignore mobile users. The rate at which consumers are accessing the web via mobile devices is growing rapidly, largely thanks to the increasing popularity and production of smartphones. This opens up a whole new platform from which to reach people with ads and it is certainly not enough to just get by with banners, search and display as they’d appear on the ‘normal’ web.
Many companies and brands have spent the last couple of years or so redesigning their web pages to fit the mobile screen. The introduction of apps has meant these brands and companies can have a completely new product available for the web and it’s made to size.
Just having a mobile site isn’t even enough anymore. Users have to be able to find it and just because you have a good ranking in Google does not mean that your mobile site has a good ranking in Google’s mobile search engine, or is even indexed at all.
Google recently shared a few important tips for making sure your mobile site is being indexed in Google’s Mobile Search:
1. Create a mobile sitemap and submit it to Google so Google knows it exists. This can be done using Google Webmaster Tools, just like with a regular sitemap.
2. To make sure Googlebot-Mobile can access your site, allow any User-agent to access it (you should also be aware that Google may change its User-agent information at any time without notice, so it is not recommended that you check if the User-agent exactly matches ‘Googlebot-Mobile’).
3. Check that your mobile-friendly URLs’ DTD (Doc Type Definition) declaration is in an appropriate mobile format such as XHTML Mobile or Compact HTML.
Also, keep in mind that if you run both a regular site and a mobile version of it, there is a possibility that the wrong version will show up in the wrong search results.
Another way you can make sure a user is pointed to the right version of your site is simply to provide a link. That’s what Google does (if you access the mobile version of Google, you will find a link to the desktop version).
Google improves search ads – they’re going visual!
Nov 25th
The search engine giant has invested in innovative new marketing technologies for its search advertising platform. But will it mean a higher return for advertisers?
Google has certainly been busy this week. First they announce they are about to bring back display advertising from the brink. Today, its bolstering its search ad capabilites.
Google has blended videos, images, maps and more into the search results on its search engine to provide a better “search experience”, and a visual one at that.
The search engine giant has been developing and testing a variety of new ad formats. These formats are focused on giving users ads that are “relevant and useful”.
According to Google’s blog, the company is “committed to giving you the information you want — regardless of the form in which it might appear”. But what does it mean for marketers?
The new formats will allow advertisers to provide richer types of information in the ads.
“Text is often useful, but sometimes videos and pictures are a more effective way to receive information,” it notes on its blog. And if you need an example: “if you want to learn a magic trick, a video showing you how to perform the trick is likely the best result.”
Users might also see an ad with more links so they can quickly find a specific page in an advertiser’s website.
Another example: If you’re trying to find a holiday bouquet to bring to your dinner party hostess, you might see an ad that shows your local florist’s location on a map and provides driving directions.
Starting today, you might spot ads that include images and prices for specific products on Google. But while it experiment with new formats (and new revenue streams and price points, I’m assuming), the company will remain “loyal” to its core principle of “getting the right ad to the right person at the right time”.
Google even touts yet more innovative improvements to its advertising business in the future.
Search advertising is about to change forever. And I can’t help but wonder if all this has been spurred on by the incoming threat of Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Google certainly has been busy lately, what’s next and do all these new improvements mean higher prices for advertisers? Furthermore, is it more work for marketers? Looking forward to seeing some ROI figures from advertisers on the back of these “improvements”.
Do you think the changes will make a vast difference?
Display advertising makes a comeback with new Google backing
Nov 24th
Google is investing in new technology that will tailor make display ads for individual users
Google’s rivals have struggled to compete against the search king when it comes to the search advertising marketing.
The giant has relentlessly implemented new technologies to ensure the effectiveness of its search advertising over the years to ensure its position as market leader – and it still commands a massive 65% share.
It has added weight to this with a stream of improvements each quarter designed to boost the monetisation of search results, increasing the click-through rate and ROI for advertisers, as well as Google’s own profits.
It is now on the war path of display advertising, as today’s news that it has bought Teracent, a private company whose technology is used to customise and target display ads, suggests.
Google’s acquisition is a warning to search rival Yahoo that the pace of innovation in the digital advertising market is picking up – post GFC.
Internet advertising is now worth £1.75 billion a year in the UK, which display advertising accounting for 18.1% (or £316.5m).
Most ad targeting on the internet tries to select the best advert to send to a particular user after making an estimate of things like his or her tastes, age and location. Teracent aims to go one better and has developed technology that designs what it thinks will be the best version of an ad to send to each individual user.
Advertisers who use the service basically hand over a collection of advertising elements to Teracent, which then combines and recombines them to reach what it believes will be the optimum result.
Its algorithms rely on machine learning: the more versions of an advert that are shown, the better it understands which will work best in each set of circumstances.
Targeted advertising is again rearing its head. It’s been touted by marketers as the next generation in marketing for years. The mobile advertising platform has given the idea further weight, but as far as we can see, no one has quite mastered individually ‘targeted’ advertising yet.
Will this new Google acquisition be the beginning of a beautiful relationship between consumers and ads?
It certainly sounds like it could change the way we see display advertising, but response rates are low (0.25% ) and that most consumers simply ignore display ads or are immune to them.
Could display advertising make a comeback if it has the backing of such a giant as Google?
We’d love to know what you think…
How to create and tailor your next ad simply by listening in…
Nov 23rd
A number of big brand advertisers and marketers and experiment with developing ad campaigns based on what consumers are talking about on the web.
Monitoring what internet users say in their instant messages, social networks and blogs isn’t anything new, of course. There has been many a study telling us what the most popular brands discussed on the internet is (Apple’s iPhone, Vegemite, Starbucks and Microsoft just to name a few).
But now, marketers are using new technologies to scan the web for key words to find out what consumers are—and aren’t—saying about their brands, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Marketers can then incorporate those findings into their more-conventional research to create specific text and photos for their ads given what consumers seem to want – or, what they say they want, at least.
Furthermore, once the campaigns are up and running, advertisers are using the same web-scanning technologies to gauge consumer reaction to their messages, and to fine-tune them.
Marketers have long drawn on information from the web to help them design their web sites and online marketing campaigns.
Now, more of them have begun to use it to guide their marketing across a range of media, including print and TV, and in choosing the overall strategy for those campaigns.
Digital marketing and advances in the technologies available to marketers and advertisers don’t just mean more channels to advertise – they mean more channel to listen, too.
Jason Falls, a social media consultant and blogger on socialmediaexplorer.com, said that it is “imperative” that companies and brands can gauge public opinion about them by listening in to online conversations.
He added that companies could also then interject in these discussions and that while marketers may not have control over the conversations, they should at least have a participatory role in them.
Services such as Google Alerts and searches on Twitter, Google Blogs and Bing can allow companies to keep track of conversations about their company.
According to recent research from Harris Interactive and Tealeaf, more adults are turning to social media to talk about problems they have had with brands and companies.
Here are some sites to help you:
and the old favourite, Google Alerts
Google Search makes us feel all fuzzy inside
Nov 19th
Google’s search team has released these new virals to talk about its latest innovations (like music in search results).
The search engine giant said that the stories were inspired by its users. How cute.
Google said on its blog, “Because while we’re proud of the innovations we’re making in search, we’re proudest of the things people use search to accomplish. In other words, the best search results don’t show up on a webpage — they show up in somebody’s life.”
Again, how cute.
Quote from Craig Nevill-Manning, engineering director Google New York, “The Google homepage doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to the millions of people who use it.”
Will email be defunct in 10 years?
Nov 19th
The jury is out on the future of email, according to new research from TalkTalk, in collaboration with the University of Kent.
The research found that email could become obsolete in 10 years, replaced by instant messaging and social network sites.
These sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and MySapce, are seen as more fashionable and faster and easier to use, plus they can be accessed from anywhere with mobile phone technology.
Although 15 to 24-year-olds do use email, they use instant messaging and social networking sites more often, according to the research, and on the flip side, older generations are more reliant on email and don’t find it as easy to shift to using the latest communication technology.
OneNewsPage.com asked its users to respond to the following question:
‘Will email be defunct in 10 years?’
The respondents were evenly divided. Fifty per cent agreed it would be defunct, the other half disagreed.
The survey was conducted by OneNewsPage.com over two days. The question was displayed on www.onenewspage.com 57, 604 times, and 240 people answered the poll.
But despite the results, I have to say that I do not think that email will ever be ‘defunct’. How would businesses run without email? Haven’t the advent of smartphones proved how much we rely on email - always having it with us?
Email will never die. Dan Grabham from TechRadar magazine agrees. He told Sky News, “Email won’t completely die off - it’ll probably still be used for some important purposes such as sending crucial files to someone particular.
“But it’s clear that for quick, direct communication Twitter and other social systems are easier to use and can garner a far quicker response - not least because inboxes continue to fill up with unstoppable junk.”
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