Archive for January, 2010
The iPad hype isn’t over yet, just wait until version 2
Jan 29th
Many reports are being very negative about the iPad, they say Apple has got it wrong. But this is all part of a greater marketing plan – the iPad revolution ain’t over yet, the best is yet to come and we’ll be just as sucked into that as we were this one.
I know that by now most will be feeling a little inundated with iPad information and are probably growing a little tired of hearing about Apple’s latest and greatest invention. However, I am surprised by the number of negative reports about yesterday’s launch (a great moment in history people!)
I don’t want to come across as too much of an Apple advocate, most will know I was happy with Dell for years before crossing over to the greener side of the Apple last year. But the iPad, without any doubt at all, is revolutionary.
Some reports say that the iPad is a “disappointment” and that it didn’t live up to the hype. Many reports have also gone and listed everything that the iPad doesn’t do – including such things as include a camera and Flash for example.
But to them I say this, you have missed the point of the iPad and completely forgotten Apple’s tremendous history of success.
The iPad isn’t meant to be a smartphone or a laptop. There are smartphones and laptops that do those jobs incredibly well and doh, the last thing that Apple would want to do is to make two of their best selling products redundant by cheaper alternatives.
The iPad is meant to act as a replacement, or an easier alternative to reading a book, a newspaper, or watching TV on the run.
While the iPad may not be perfect right now, I bet the next version will be pretty close. Remember the first iPhone wasn’t perfect…then came the 3G version one year later. The first iPod’s weren’t great either, they were big and bulky and didn’t have much memory. Now the likes of the Nano have an inbuilt video camera and the iPod Touch supports web browsing.
Give the iPad time people and don’t under estimate the magnificence of Steve Jobs and the incredible marketing genius that is Apple.
Why we loved Apple’s iPad before we even knew it existed
Jan 28th
Following the launch of the iPad, Apple is being hailed as a marketing genius. But what has ensured this company’s phenomenal success and consumer love?
The internet has been buzzing today following the launch of Apple’s new “magical” product, the iPad.
Rumoured for the past couple of months, news sources across the globe raced to put the official word online and the rest of the world watched.
I am still amazed, hours later, by the amount of hype one company with one new product launch could generate.
Today’s big reveal didn’t actually give watchful Apple enthusiasts anything that wasn’t already rumoured. We’d heard about the partnership deals with publishers, we’d heard about the size, we’d seen mock-ups and we were sure about what applications would be included. So why was this still the event of the year in tech land?
Even as the media and technology worlds have anticipated this announcement for months, Apple has said not word one about the iPad prior to its unveiling, apart from Steve Jobs earlier this week confirming that a revolutionary product would indeed be launched. Furthermore, instead of prototypes, Apple makes patents – and that’s what really kicked this whole thing off.
Apple is just one of those company’s where everything it does is hailed as ‘revolutionary’ and its ads and promo videos certainly do well to tell consumers the company is about to change communication and technology as we know it forever. It uses such phrases in its launches as “this is what the future looks like” and makes its viewers feel like they are part of history. One day soon we’ll be saying, “do you remember where you were when the iPad was launched?”
Apple is also the coolest brand in the world, according to last year’s CoolBrands list, from the SuperBrands survey. Furthermore, visitors to Brandchannel.com claim Apple is the brand they cannot live without. It is the marque they most want to sit next to at a dinner party and with which they most identify.
In tech land, Jobs is “the ultimate showman who keeps the audience excited the whole way leading up to the reveal,” said the New York Times last week.
And more often than not, Apple has delivered on Jobs’s showmanship. People remember the debut of the iPhone three years ago, and Apple’s promise that it would change everything. It promptly did and even before we knew Apple was launching a new product, we pondered about what the company would do next. It’s one of the few companies that keeps us guessing and where the rumour mill is aptly fed. Check out such sites as Apple Insider and 9 to 5 Mac – not a day goes by without something new to say about Apple.
A recent report in The Mac Observer, also says that Jobs is quite the marketer – everything he does is with a higher purpose. There was a suggestion at the beginning of the month that Apple actually quietly engages with the media in a way that does not leave fingerprints. The way Jobs pulls this off is to release only pieces of specific information to journalists that are friends with Apple employees. The information is handed over in what would seem like a normal conversation and banking on the nature of journalists and their need to be first with the news, that information is usually ‘leaked’ out in news reports or at least does the rounds in the blogs. This is all controlled that way and the journalist walks away thinking they have something, they just have no idea how big or small that information is in the bigger picture.
But why is Apple one of the only companies that can create such buzz around a product that starts off as a rumour? The answer is innovation and the company’s promise that it’s about to change everything. In the case of the iPad, not only is it saying it will save the publishing industry from near extinction, but will also be a catalyst for new marketing channels and in turn more revenue in the suffering advertising industry.
But Apple products are pretty expensive, so how does the company convince consumers to pay a premium for a product that isn’t an absolutely necessity?
Apple products look cool, feel cool and, most of all, everyone wants one.
Apple isn’t just a brand, it’s an experience. Something proved by its some 170-odd worldwide Mac stores. A young, hip, and technically knowledgeable staff is friendly without being hard-sell. They won’t boot you out for using the Macs and free Wi-Fi. Apple has managed to turn a computer into a day at a digital park – and it’s all free. Its image is undeniably cool and in a stroke of genius they’ve made technology available to even the most hopeless technophobes out there by launching products that are so effortlessly easy to use. The iPad is no different.
The reason for all the hype around the iPad? Simple, brand loyalty. Apple products rarely let people down, but they do leave them wanting more. Apple is one of the most talked about and buzzed brands on the internet, why? People are constantly surprised and impressed a company that never seems to rest on its laurels but instead seeks to continuously innovate and shake up the market. Apple is out to change the world by changing the way we do the things that we do everyday.
It’s marketing is always focused on the product, what it does, what it looks like and what it can bring to a users life. You’ll never see an Apple ad and wonder what the hell the campaign is taking about. It keeps it simple and as demonstrated by Apple’s record results this week, shows us that Apple truly is a brand we can’t and shouldn’t live without.
The Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – the tablet I mean
Jan 27th
While everyone eagerly awaits Apple’s new product launch tonight, we cast your mind back to the very first tablet device – the Newton
In my excitement in waiting for Apple’s announcement of its new “exciting product” tonight (27/01), I was doing some digging on the internet trying to learn all I could about this proposed tablet (by the way, I prefer the name iPad, it goes well with iPod, iPhone – see, all P’s). But one thing that I had forgotten about was Apple’s Newton – a tablet like device the tech giant produced in 1989.
I barely remember 1989, and I certainly wasn’t tech savvy back then. If I really think about it, I didn’t have a phone, an MP3 (or a walkman I suppose), a personal computer or even a Gameboy. I don’t actually remember anyone back then needing as much technology as we carry around with us today.
So, this is precisely why the Newton failed. There was no need for it.
For those of you who don’t remember or were perhaps too young (yes, I fall into the latter category) I’ll give you a quick rundown of the Newton.
The Newton platform was an early personal digital assistant hardware/software platform developed by Apple that included that fun colourful Apple logo.
Most Newton devices were based on the ARM 610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting recognition software – back then, this was cool. The Newton project was a PDA platform. Newton was intended to be a complete reinvention of personal computing. For most of its design lifecycle Newton had a large-format screen, more internal memory, and an object-oriented graphics kernel.
The project, however, missed its original goals to reinvent personal computing and then to rewrite contemporary application programming. Apple was also scared that the device would interfere with Macintosh sales and the Newton was scrapped.
It has now been hailed as the “grandfather” of the iPhone – a device that was clearly before its time.
Fast forward 20 years and we are eagerly awaiting a bigger and better Newton. Steve Jobs himself did say that the company had been working on this new product for the past 10 years, but that he had always had it in his mind.
So what will make a tablet like device a success today?
1. Our incessant need for technology
2. Advertisers
Yahoo! is coming back to life with display ads up 26%
Jan 27th
Yahoo!, the search engine that we all thought would pack it in just one year ago, has emerged from 2009 victorious with revenues up 10%. How did it come back from the brink?
Yahoo! has reported its fifth straight quarter of falling revenue, but the world’s third most popular search engine did see profits rise as the online advertising market began to show signs of life.
Revenue from display ads such as banners, which are core to Yahoo’s business, climbed 26% over the previous quarter. Online search ads, ticked up 4% – the first increase since the third quarter of 2008.
The results were far from Google’s 17% jump in revenue and a more than 400 percent surge in profits last week. However, Yahoo!’s income is up totaling £93 million, up from a £187 million loss in 2008.
Fourth-quarter revenue was £1 billion, down 4% from a year ago, but up 10% from the previous quarter.
Carol Bartz, the ambitious CEO of Yahoo who took the reins exactly one year ago implemented a wide-ranging company restructure, said that she was now confident about the state of the online ad business.
She said, “Overall, things seem to be returning to a more normal state in the online ad business. These results are not just the result of an improving economic climate. These are the direct result of hard work that culminated in Q4 and will continue into 2010.”
But Yahoo!’s problems predate the economic downturn and online advertising rut. The company has been bleeding traffic to Google and social networking sites such as Facebook and continues to do so.
In December, Yahoo held 17.3% of the search market in the US, down 0.2% from the previous month, according to comScore’s latest figures. Google and Microsoft’s Bing search tool both continue to gain share, controlling 65.7% and 10.7%, respectively.
Bartz has received praise in light of the latest earnings figures, with some observers hailing her $100 million branding campaign that launched last year a massive success. She has also been accredited with the successful deal to outsource Yahoo’s core search engine technology to Microsoft.
Bartz added, “The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo!. Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010.”
Also over the past quarter, Yahoo! launched Ad Interest Manager, which aims to take transparency in online advertising to a new level by providing significantly greater control over users’ interactions with interest-based advertising to improve personal relevance and build trust.
Why web filters could be bad news for internet marketers
Jan 25th
We always hear of talk that web filters are hindering some businesses. SEO key words aren’t always so simple, or so innocent as one magazine in Canada has just found out.
The news that Google was to pull out of China over mounting frustrations over censorship laws last week shocked the search industry.
Just one week earlier, Yahoo and Bing had announced it was to succumb to internet censorship pleas from the Indian government, banning searches for terms such as ‘sex’.
Such searches would return this message: “Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content. To learn more about SafeSearch requirements in your country or region, see How Bing delivers search results.”
While we may have been confused (because sometimes ‘sex’ is within context…for example ‘sex discrimination’) by the actions of the Chinese and Indian governments, now we can be a little worried about the impact these censorship rules given that the internet is more global than ever.
Canadian magazine ‘The Beaver’ has recently had to rename the almost 40 year-old title as it has been deemed as ‘vulgar’ in internet search terms.
An alternative meaning to ‘The Beaver’ is something crass that has no relation to the Canadian semi-aquatic rodent, actually.
And that alternative meaning causes web filters at schools and junk mail filters in e-mail programs to block access to material containing the magazine’s name.
Needless to say, has internet filters become more common place not just in certain countries and governments but also in the workplace, the past two years have posed a problem for the magazine.
A few years before Internet use became common, the magazine, which now has a circulation of about 44,000, sought its readers’ opinions and decided to stick with the name.
The last issue as The Beaver, which announces the name change to Canada’s History, was mailed to subscribers last week.
Filtering ISP’s is bad news for some businesses, and makes the marketer’s job a little tricky when it comes to key words and what classification their brands and websites might come under.
Some of possible repercussions of this censorship are:
1. This will result in significantly lower connection speeds (in the order of 80%).
2. As the filters will rely on a ‘black list’ provided by a government body, it opens the door to potential misuse or political interference.
3. Perhaps a veiled attempt to ‘Control the Conversation’ emanating from a growing and more vocal constituency via blogs and social media.
Do you think internet censorship will eventually affect you?
Android vs the iPhone - who wins?
Jan 25th
Google’s Android is proving more popular than Apple’s iPhone. Here’s why.
Android is winning in the popularity stakes over its rival iPhone, according to a new report from mobile entertainment site Myxer.
According to the report, Android has pulled far ahead of the iPhone in terms of traffic. Visits from users on the Android operating system grew almost 350% from December 2008 to December 2009, compared to iPhone visits which grew 170%.
But which phone will win customers over in the end?
Both the iPhone and the Android platform are designed for easy internet browsing but the Android wins out here. According to new data from Nielsen and compiled by eMarketer, owners of Android phones are the most likely to use their device’s internet functionality. Ninety-two percent of Android users say they take utilize their phone’s web connection, compared to 88% of iPhone owners.
If Android owners are slightly more web-enabled, iPhone fans are slightly more social. As recent comScore data demonstrates, iPhone users come out on top when it comes to most advanced social-oriented phone activities - everything from sharing photos to spending time on social networks and blogs.
And to the most important point for marketers, apps. You’d expect to see iPhone owners using and downloading apps more often than Android users given the 100,000 options at their fingertips. But Android owners come out just ahead in the relative realm of application usage: 76% of them say they utilize apps, according to Nielsen, while 74% of iPhone owners say they make use of their mobile programs.
The two smartphone platforms are neck-in-neck when it comes to using most of the so-called “advanced functions” - and practically every other mobile phone system is struggling to keep up.
e-Readers will save the media industry and lead the ad market to recovery. Or will they?
Jan 22nd
e-Readers, Tablets and Kindles are going to save the media industry! Have you seen those headlines?
There is widespread excitement among the newspaper industry at the moment with all this hype over Apple’s upcoming ‘Tablet’ (or iSlate…or whatever). The reason is that just a few months ago people were saying that the newspaper industry was poised for failure.
It couldn’t attract advertisers due to falling circulation numbers. London’s evening free press was pretty badly hit too, those papers (London Lite and thelondonpaper) actually no longer exist. But, with the launch of these tablets and the like, the rebirth of the newspaper industry is being touted.
Suddenly, apparently, advertisers will be attracted once more to the newspaper mastheads and brands.
This seems like the silver bullet to save the industry doesn’t it? It’ll reignite good journalism and revolutionize how we consume news media. But I have my reservations.
Firstly, one report in the US said the ‘Tablet’ will cost around $999. I don’t know too many people that can afford that…they might stick to paying 20p for a copy of the Sun each morning with a side of breasts on Page 3.
Secondly, how will the ads differ from web ads?
Are they going to be interactive?
There is no doubt that January 27 will be an exciting day. But I think it’s too soon to be predicting the rebirth of the newspaper masthead.
There’s going to be pay walls next year around News Corp publications and I predict several other publishers will follow suit. So even after you do pay this $999 for a ‘Tablet’, you then also have to pay for a copy of your newspaper of choice.
It all sounds very expensive. And people have enjoyed getting the news for free for so long will they be willing to pay and to view it on a fancy reader? The reader (I’ve seen leaked pics) looks as big as a laptop…will consumers really want to lug it around all day? I for one can’t afford a bigger handbag, nor can my back.
Apple’s device is widely expected to be geared toward the publishing industry, a hub for newspaper, magazine, and book reading in addition to accessing music, games, and video. And with its App Store already a huge success, Apple will enter the market with a major advantage.
And is worth noting the success so far of Amazon’s Kindle in the US so far – it was the most popular Christmas gift last year.
When iTunes started selling music on the internet I know that the industry had its reservations about that too: “We download music for free, why would we all of a sudden pay for it?”
Perhaps I’m echoing those calls with this ‘Tablet’ business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as excited about this gadget as most. I do however think it is a bit early to be suggesting it’s the industries savior.
Furthermore, look how long it took advertisers to get on board with social media. Will they jump aboard these e-Readers instantly? Publishers are going to have to make some interesting deals with advertisers to make them worthwhile for both the newspapers and the consumers.
Google determined to make money from videos, but will advertisers climb aboard?
Jan 21st
Last year it was revealed that YouTube clocks up more than one billion views a day. Wow, but how can you make money on people viewing your site for free?
It’s a dilemma Google has faced since purchasing the video-sharing site for $1.65 billion in 2006. But over the years, the site has signed several deals with broadcasters and movie studios which have generated some revenue. It has even added advertising around some of the most popular videos. But none of these attempts have seen the site on the right side of the black bottom line. So, will the sites furore into the rental market finally be the site’s solution for profit?
Consumers will pay for the movies through Google’s payment service, Google Checkout. Google and the content supplier will split the revenue, with the partner getting the majority, a YouTube spokesman said.
There are a few issues that need to be assessed here. Firstly, how big is the rental market given that movies are now readily available to download illegally and for free, and secondly, as an advertiser, would you pay to put your advertising around a rented film on YouTube?
So, back to the rental market. Blockbuster said last week that its fourth quarter and fiscal 2009 earnings would be sharply lower than expected due to weak holiday and international sales. The once-mighty movie rental chain said it now anticipates a net loss of $193 million.
Apple brought in TV programme and movie rentals at the beginning of 2008. Although, since then Steve Jobs has admitted that sales have not yet reached his expectations.
DVDs are so cheap these days that sometimes it’s cheaper to buy then rent. Just go down to HMV around sales time, some movies go for as little as £3.
But media companies could be enticed by the more flexible business model YouTube is offering. Unlike Apple’s iTunes Store, which has set tiers of pricing for rentals of movies, Google is allowing partners to set the price that it will charge consumers and how long they want the rental to last.
But what about convincing the consumer? Last year, a study into the state of Video-on-Demand (VOD) in the UK, from the perspective of the viewer, revealed that fragmented delivery technologies, confusing rights restrictions and expensive download charges risk driving viewers away from legitimate VOD services. Many viewers are keeping their use of VOD to a minimum, while others are turning to illegal download sites.
However, as our home computers become bigger (the new Apple for example is 27 inches), consumers are starting to merge functions of the internet with their viewing habits meaning that this could work out in YouTube’s favour. Moreover, Yahoo is bringing the internet to TV screens with its new widget which it announced at the Consumer Electronics Show two weeks ago.
So, it is possible that this could pay off for YouTube. It will enjoy some revenue incoming from the broadcasters and movie studios, but how much will these players pay to have their film distributed on such a platform when the price is up to them? My guess is not a hell of a lot, not when the likes of Amazon and Apple are already out there doing it while still trying to make it a success. The real money for the media distributors lies in the ability to pedal an extremely exclusive and expensive deal complete with the advertising to go with it.
But YouTube maybe able to multiply rental profits with the use of advertising. It has long been discussed at the YouTube offices the possibility of offering free content in exchange for advertising. Could this work down the track?
My concerns over YouTube’s bid to get onto the rental market are mainly to do with all those internet users out there pedaling content for free. Sharing content also, and let’s face it, that’s what YouTube is all about.
I think that YouTube can only really pull this off successfully if it were to make exclusive deals with content providers as more and more studios are uploading their own content form their own sites (catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer). Also, snippets of shows are often uploaded to YouTube by users. Perhaps the content rules need to change again that govern what can and can’t be uploaded to the site by its users. However, that would see the most popular videos miss out on the ad revenues they are afforded once their video reaches a certain amount of views (YouTube sells ads against popular content).
As now well known by YouTube, it’s all a game of trial and error. Do you think it’ll pay off?
Tablets bring new revenue stream for media industry
Jan 20th
Deloitte has predicted that the tablet computer market will boom this year with tens of millions of people deciding the notepad-sized devices are “just right” for their needs, but what does the new technology mean for marketers.
“This Goldilocks of devices - not too big, not too small - is expected to offer an appealing balance of form and function going forward,” the market analysis firm said.
Tablet computers “may turn out to be ‘just right’ for many users in 2010,” Deloitte said, allowing them to buy and consume more media than ever and on the go. The tablets have certainly restored confidence in the media industry which is hoping to restore ad revenues this year given fallen circulation numbers last year.
The forecast bodes well for iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer maker Apple, which is hosting a January 27 event here to unveil its “latest creation,” which is hotly rumored to be a tablet computer resembling an oversized iPod Touch.
According to various reports, Apple is poised to launch a colour multimedia device that allows users to browse the web, listen to music, watch movies or TV and also serve as an electronic book and newspaper reader.
Publishing powerhouse HarperCollins is reported to be in talks with Apple regarding providing digital literature for reading on a tablet device.
Apple’s tablet is expected to have a 10- to 11-inch (25.4cm to 27.9cm) screen, slightly larger than typical devices on the market. There are also rumours about consumers receiving free content in exchange for watching advertising.
“With a new form factor and significant processing capacity, connected portable devices will likely be purchased by tens of millions of people in 2010,” Deloitte predicted.
Improvements in graphics, processing power, and wireless broadband internet availability are making tablets more attractive, according to analysts.
“2010 is likely to see a proliferation of netTabs,” Deloitte said, which noted that the devices will likely be a threat to tablets limited to single functions such as reading digital books.
Email marketing - what we’ve learned
Jan 19th
While 2010 promises even more changes in the email industry, Return Path has identified the top trends in email over the past year.
“Return Path is dedicated to ensuring that consumers receive the emails they want to receive and offering ISPs the tools and knowledge to identify legitimate, permissioned email,” said George Bilbrey, President, Return Path.
“With our extensive knowledge of the email industry, we feel it’s important and valuable to learn from the past to foresee where the industry is headed in 2010. By understanding the industry trends in 2009, marketers can work to improve their email programs in 2010.”
The Top 10 Emails Trends in 2009, include:
1. Spam growth continues - Reports in early 2009 estimated daily spam volumes are more than 117 billion emails every day. In addition, image spam increased in 2009, a problem for enterprises and ISPs using outdated email security software.
2. False positives increase - “False positives” are when a legitimate, requested, and wanted email is mistakenly blocked outright or delivered to a bulk folder by a spam filter. Receivers increased their use of trusted whitelists in an effort to identify legitimate email.
3. Phishing impacts everyone - Criminal enterprises increased their phishing in 2009 - sending forged emails from banks, social networks, and brand marketers to gain account access. Return Path believes that a coordinated effort, including government (policy and enforcement), educational, infrastructure operators, financial institutions, and more must participate in coordinated efforts toward a solution.
4. Rise of the Social Inbox - Communications from social networks are becoming entwined with traditional email. A beta version of Outlook 2010 integrates social networking, and MySpace announced an integration of email with the MySpace social network experience.
5. Complaint Rate Feedback Loops Gain Greater Prominence - Complaint rates, when an email is marked as spam, continued to be a key reputation metric for email senders in 2009. Via feedback loops, commercial senders can monitor, in real time, when users report their emails as spam.
6. More transparency at ISPs - Most ISPs are providing “postmaster pages” to improve transparency and provide key information about email delivery into their network. In 2009, new postmaster pages were released by AOL, Cox Communications (North America), and T-online (Germany).
7. Mergers & Acquisitions - In 2009, many ISPs in North America and Europe were acquired or merged with other ISPs. These mergers are important to marketers as new ISPs have their own metrics and tools for determining legitimate email from spam.
8. Gmail Continues Its Growth - In 2009, Gmail surpassed AOL and became the third most popular Web-based email application behind Yahoo! and Microsoft.
9. Outbound Abuse On the Rise - In Return Path’s discussions with ISPs in 2009, the ISPs reported challenges with abusive email sent from their own networks via compromised accounts, reputation hijacking, and botnet infections.
10. Email did not Die! - Despite the many headlines in both the mainstream media and blogosphere, email’s demise was greatly exaggerated. Email marketing continues to have the highest ROI of all direct marketing channels, including search. And, a recent survey found that college students aged 18 to 24 would give up watching TV, social networking, and talking on the phone before giving up email.
Recent Comments