Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous...

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 17, 2007:

Summary:
AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they're worth. They also divert design resources and prove (once again) that what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable.

... dangerous for your profits, that is. If you focus on over-hyped technology developments, you risk diverting resources from the high-ROI design issues that really matter to your users — and to your profits.

This is the start of an interesting post from Jacob Nielsen, a leading expert in usability. He provides some sound advice on the use of Web 2.0 features in web sites and some warnings on overuse and losing sight of the purpose of the web site.

Q1. How can social networking contribute to the "bottom line" of profitability?
Q2. Why is Facebook the "Iron Chef" of internet?
Q3. What is wrong with an "advertising funded model for business"?

The Kids Have IT!

Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007:
The Australian Media and Communications Authority released a major report of an in-depth study of children’s use of electronic media and the way parents mediate that use.

"The Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 report surveyed a representative sample of 751 family households with children aged between 8 and 17 to gauge media use in the home, how young people divide their leisure time and how parents view their children’s use of media and communications technologies. The report also includes a review of academic research about the influences of media and communications activities on children."

"The report found that in relation to the families surveyed:

• Most families with children aged 8 to 17 have three or more televisions in their home and three or more mobile phones. Almost every family home has a computer (98 per cent) and DVD player (97 per cent).
• Nine-in-ten family homes with children have the internet, and 76 per cent of these homes have broadband compared to just seven per cent in 1995. More than three-quarters of family homes have a games console.
• Almost all parents with children aged 8 to 17 see the internet as beneficial for their children, mainly as providing learning or educational opportunities. Similarly, four-fifths of these parents see benefits in their child’s use of a mobile phone, particularly for safety and security.
• Families say electronic media and communications activities take up around half of young people's total discretionary time – a proportion that has not changed since 1995. Children themselves demonstrate a balanced attitude to the use of electronic media and communications. When given a preference, young people often prefer to do non-media activities and socialise with other people."

ACMA media release 148/2007

Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007

ACMA Presentation

Similar survey from USA
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

Q1. Have we reached saturation point?
Q2. How does this affect consumer behaviour?
Q3. What are possible ethical issues?

The Machine is Us/ing Us

This video was made over a year ago. This and the other videos are from Kansas State University, Digital Ethnography course. (Check out other videos and the web site as well)
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/

Does it still make sense? Did it ever make sense? What is the message here?

Enterprise 2.0?? Corporate Virtual Worlds??

Taking residence in virtual worlds

Mahesh Sharma | December 04, 2007 The Australian

BUSINESSES are discovering real-world things to do with Web 2.0 interactive technology, such as the virtual world, Second Life.

"...Westpac is assessing whether to use Second Life technology across its operations. About a month ago the bank finished testing Second Life for training induction....'We saw it as a way of getting information out without the flying, driving and time-consuming travel to a central location.'"

"... most of Deloitte's work in Web 2.0 involves Facebook, which it has been using for the past 18 months...Facebook took off through individuals and social networking at a rate we've never seen before because of digital media...Organisations can't stop it from happening, so it's more how to participate in this rather than how to control it...the value in social networking is using it to increase engagement with the 13,000 Deloitte employees that are members of Facebook globally."

"...wine producer DeBortoli ... is employing collaborative and web-based technology without specifically labelling these as web 2.0....We use hosted Google applications, online spreadsheets, online documents and email."

1. What are the benefits?

2. What is the link to marketing?

3. Is this just more hype?

Just another bubble video

Music 2.0??

Reading music in the digital realm

"The futures of the record industry and music education lie in the technologies, communities and value systems of the internet, writes Paul Draper | The Australian November 28, 2007

FROM MySpace to YouTube, Flickr and Last.FM, an online participatory culture is transforming value systems and creating new pathways for autonomous innovation. In this so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon, social networks continue to define the information society and redefine music career opportunities.

The idea of the record industry once conjured a picture of a Fordist production chain of artists, promoters, record company managers and sound engineers operating complex equipment in impressive recording studios.

In the 21st century, however, such workflow is increasingly devolved to independent musicians with portable digital systems, home recording studios and online networks. This includes composing, recording, filming, direct merchandising, concert tour promotions, engaging with fan bases and other communities of practice via resources such as blogs, podcasts, and digital music download stores.

Music 2.0 is the new digital musicianship and technological imagination for the 21st century."

1. Is 'cyberspace' the new toilet wall?

2. How is 'the romanticised '70s style, star-driven model of the record company' changing?

3. Why did 'Radiohead release their new album online with a donation value to be decided by their audiences'?

www29.griffith.edu.au/radioimersd

http://www.iorpheus.com/

Oh My God!!!!

She's gotta have it

The Age November 15, 2007

Katie Cincotta looks at why girl power is driving the gadget revolution.

Please read the full article by following the link in the title. Some excerpts:

"THERE'S a reason handbags are big enough to fit two kids, a dog and the kitchen sink. And it's not because Nicole Richie and her tanorexic cohorts prance about Hollywood with their expensive uber bags."

"International fashion labels Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci are only too happy to embrace the trend with the release of fashionista mobiles. Dolce & Gabbana hooked up with Motorola, Giorgio Armani with Samsung, Julien MacDonald with Sony Ericsson and Prada recently jumped into bed with LG to conceive the sophisticated new KE850 mobile."

"So it seems that the fairer sex is indeed going gaga for gadgets, happy to skip the season's cult shoes - Yves Saint Laurent's tortuous 15cm "Tribute" heels - in favour of gadgets that fit snugly in the palm.

Then again, if you're a true she-geek, you could buy the $730 killer heels (which should probably come with a free trip to the podiatrist), use your mobile to film yourself strutting in them to your iTunes, then post it on YouTube for the world to ogle.

Narcissism, after all, is the new black."

1. What is the change in consumer behaviour discussed here?

2. What is the relationship between product and content?

3. Is there really a difference between and male and female consumer behaviour in this domain?

Marketing segmentation through social media

From Paul Gillin's blog - Social Media and the Open Enterprise

Please go to Paul's blog to read the full post.

Then go to the Umbria web site.

"For an apparel maker, Umbria analyzed postings to blogs and social networks to identify the following segments:

Fit Finders (39% of the population), Self Expressives (19%), Bargain Seekers (17%), Label Whores (11%) , Style Gurus (8%) and Dissenters (6%).

Here’s an example of segment characteristics: Fit Finders are Generation Xers looking for appropriate jeans for their changing physiques. . Low-waisted jeans aren't working for them any more, but “old person jeans” aren't appealing either. Plus-sized Fit Finders are looking for fashion-forward styles rather than shapeless designs.

Self Expressives want control. They want to distress their own jeans, design clothing reconstructed from jeans and add personal style to jeans through patches and embroiders.

Style Gurus are looking to be unique. They're looking for authenticity and real inspiration. "Some men are actually starting to become interested in wearing women's jeans because they view them as more stylish," he said. These insights emerged from online conversations."

1. How accurate or useful do you think this segmentation is?
2. Can the results be skewed or manipulated?
3. What are the ethical and privacy issues?

Where The Bloody Hell Are You?

'Bloody hell' campaign nets $2.1b: Tourism Aust

ABC News 7 Sep. 2007

The figures also show New South Wales remains the most popular state to visit [File photo]. (Getty Images: Todd Warshaw)

Tourism Australia says its controversial international advertising campaign has paid off, pulling in $2.1 billion more to Australia in the last financial year.

Its figures have shown the 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign has made the biggest impact with Korean visitors, who are now bringing $976 million into the country every year.

Visitor numbers from China and the United Kingdom have also increased.

http://www.tourism.australia.com/home.asp

How email really works!!!

From the Google Operating System Blog

What is the marketing message?

Second Take on Second Life

Life isn't what it is hyped to be in Second Life. In Wired magazine Frank Rose wrote an interesting article:
How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
Frank Rose 24.07.07
Wired

Some excerpts:

"Then there's the question of what people do when they get there. Once you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second Life, there isn't much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden's in-world traffic tally, which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex. On a random day in June, the most popular location was Money Island (where Linden dollars, the official currency, are given away gratis), with a score of 136,000. Sexy Beach, one of several regions that offer virtual sex shops, dancing, and no-strings hookups, came in at 133,000. The Sears store on IBM's Innovation Island had a traffic score of 281; Coke's Virtual Thirst pavilion, a mere 27."

"You need to know how to buy up keywords to maximize search returns, how to make the most of recommendation engines, how to use the viral potential of Web video, how to monitor what's being said in blogs and message boards, how not to blow it by trying to be deceptive. Building a corporate pavilion in Second Life doesn't require any of these things. It's simple and it's obvious."

1. What is the attraction of Second Life?
2. What are the marketers trying to do in Second Life?
3. How are they getting it wrong?
4. What marketing strategies could be better suited to Second Life?

Viral Advertising

Here are some examples of attempts at viral advertising by large enterprises:

reversa - side effects
http://www.seemoresideeffects.ca/

McDonald's NameIt Burger
http://www.nameitburger.com.au

1. In what way are they 'viral'?
2. Who is the target audience?
3. How effective is this?
4. What are the global issues for each?
5. What other promotional strategies do they use?

MySpace Politicians

MySpace makes Impact with pollies
http://impact.myspace.com/
Check out this video: Prime Minister

Prime Minister's climate change announcement

Add to My Profile | More Videos
The Age Asher Moses
July 12, 2007 - 1:47PM
Page 2 of 2
MySpace hopes its new Impact channel will spark political debate and engage younger voters. MySpace today launched its Impact channel for politicians and non-profit organisations, but don't expect to add the Prime Minister, John Howard, to your friends list.

Labor politicians outnumber Liberals two-to-one on the new channel, which MySpace general manager Rebekah Horne describes as an interactive tool that they can use to engage directly with voters, particularly younger ones who may feel alienated from the political process.

"The great thing about social networking is that it's an opportunity for them not just to be a prime minister, opposition leader or a treasurer ... but actually a real person," she said.

MySpace has over 3.6 million Australian users, which Horne said would be called on to answer political opinion polls. She said the number of MySpace "friends" a politician had would give an instant snapshot of their popularity. It is understood Mr Howard refused an offer to create his own MySpace profile because he did not want to lend his identity to a commercial organisation. Instead, a "Howard Government" link with Mr Howard's photo directs surfers to a general Liberal Party page.

In total 20 individual federal politicians now have MySpace pages, which contain biographies, family photos, campaign snaps, video clips and blog posts outlining policies. Some list their favourite music, books and movies; visitors to Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey's page are greeted with the Baha Men track, Who Let The Dogs Out.

They include 11 Labor, five Liberal, two Greens, one Family First and one Democrat. Horne said this was only a starting point and she hoped more politicians would sign up as the federal election looms closer.

But Horne stressed Impact was "not only about politics" - indigenous voice Deadly Impact, World Vision and Planet Ark also have a presence.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, who on his MySpace profile lists Simon and Garfunkel, Vivaldi and John Williamson among his favourite musical acts, said MySpace and the internet was an "enormously transformational technology" and "a good shot in the arm for Australian democracy". He described MySpace as the "public meeting space of the 21st century", and said the Impact channel provided "an extraordinary new public space for people to participate in the democratic process".

Greens leader Bob Brown also attended this morning's launch event and compared Impact to the "old town hall meeting", as it provided the "opportunity to get a heck of a lot of feedback". But Brown said it "remains to be seen just how much it will help people overcome their shyness" when it came to voicing their concerns. "It's a good feeling to be connected through cyberspace with people," he said.

Brad Walsh of Deadly Impact said the new MySpace channel would help "facilitate generational change in our leadership", as it would allow the group to "influence other young Aborigines that are coming up". He said many in remote indigenous communities had access to MySpace.

1. What is happening here?
2. Why MySpace?
3. Who is being connected with?

Behavioral Targeting

We know what you clicked last night
The Age June 20, 2007 - 2:55PM Reuters

"Personal identity has taken on a new meaning in the digital age, where basic facts like your name, address or age are far less important to some people than the collected records of what you were looking at online.

Technologies for monitoring and interpreting internet habits as a predictor of future behavior cropped up at the start of this century, but only now are gaining momentum as the newest gold mine for websites and their advertisers. Known as behavioral targeting, the premise is to follow the sites you visit and build a picture of what products may interest you, then deliver related advertising in time for you to choose your purchase."

This article explores new methods for targeting consumers based on their internet habits. With many people having a public internet presence with blogs, websites, myspace, facebook and other social networking web sites, a great deal of personal data is exposed. While this gives marketers some interesting opportunities, there are ethical and privacy issues.

Latest article:
Every click you make, they'll be watching you

1. How effective do you think this web tracking technology is?

2. From a marketing perspective, what are the ethical issues?

3. From a consumer's perspective, what would be their concerns?

Death of Newspapers

Paul Gillin has written an essay and started a blog on the death of newspapers:

"I've started a new blog, Newspaper Death Watch, to monitor and comment upon the disintegration of the American metropolitan daily newspaper industry. If you keep an eye on this blog, you know that I have strong opinions about this topic. I believe that the collapse of this American institution will be stunningly swift and broad, with perhaps no more than a dozen major metros surviving until 2030. There's more detail in this essay."


1. Why are newspapers popular?
2. How can newspapers deal with the threat of the internet?
3. What are the implications for 'freedom of speech'?

Blog About Blogging

To all bloggers!

All students of the course are welcome to continue to be members of this blog. You are free to create posts on any topic of your choice and not restricted to strictly marketing or course related matters. I will act as moderator to help keep things flowing.

A few suggestions and help:

Blog Glossary
This is a link to a site that has a glossary of blog terms:
What Is

Labels and Tags
Use labels/tags when posting. In the bottom of the Compose window is an entry for labels for th post (screen shot above). You can select current ones and add your own. A post can have multiple labels. These are used to provide an 'index' of sorts so that you can find all the posts for a particular category. This index is in the left sidebar - check it out.

RMIT First University in Second Life

RMIT University is the first Victorian university to take part in virtual online world, Second Life. 13 students from the School of Architecture and Design have created an RMIT island, with digital sculptures, buildings and art. The island has cost the university almost $1k with its value already increasing. With six million users across the world, Second Life allows people to interact in virtual cities, towns and landscapes. Users are able to buy virtual property, businesses, clothes, and islands. (Source: Herald Sun)

Learn by clubbing in a virtual world

• Milanda Rout, June 20, 2007: The Australian
  

"RMIT University, new among campuses worldwide joining the weird, wired world of Second Life, has invested in a virtual island and is encouraging its students to visit virtual nightclubs and cafes.

Dozens of educational institutions across the US, Europe and now Australia are creating campuses in Second Life, a virtual world created, owned and run by online users.

Universities including Harvard are conducting lectures in the 3-D virtual world where more than seven million users create identities for themselves (avatars) and teleport to virtual cities, islands and even classrooms."

1. What is the potential for virtual worlds in education?
2. Would you attend a lecture or a tutorial in a virtual world?
3. What is the marketing implication for education in this situation?

The Mobile Web Is Here!!!!

Access to the internet has traditionally been through some sort of cable. Access via satellite is possible if you carry around a satellite dish! Wireless LANS now provide a wireless access within a short range to an internet modem or other wireless receiver that then connects via a cable. If you were clever enough you could connect a laptop to a mobile phone via a modem and use the mobile phone network for a slow and costly wireless internet access.

Recently true wireless, mobile internet access has become available via the mobile phone network that support high speed broadband. The major telecos provide a wireless adaptor that can plug into a laptop USB port and connect you at relatively high speed to the internet (at a higher cost than fixed line connection). One provider is :Telstra Bigpond

But wait there is more! The mobile phone can now connect directly to the internet and provide web browsing, email and most other internet services. This provided via the new 3G network.

A simple problem is that a mobile phone does not have the screen size or keyboard of laptop computer. This is a real marketing challenge!

Meg Tsiamis in her blog Dipping Into The Blogpond has provided a listing of web sites that are designed for mobile phone web browsing. Check out these two from her listing (remember that they are designed to appear in a mobile phone screen) :

http://mobile.tradingpost.com.au/
http://carsguide.mobi

1. How does the iPhone and similar devices attempt to overcome the design limitations?
2. What is the issue for SMEs to provide mobile internet access to their web sites?
3. What are the issues and impact on marketing using mobile internet?

Smile you are on googles candid camera

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/smile-youre-on-googles-candid-camera/2007/06/04/1180809390551.html


Hmmmm!!

Interesting

Tourism Australia In Global Online Push

Tourism Australia in global online push
James Livesley
Tourism Australia has relaunched its Australia.com website to spearhead a new marketing strategy that puts digital at the heart of its global push.
The site, which took more than a year to develop, will become a central gateway where tourists will be able to access visitor information from all of the individual state tourism sites.This is the first time a site has been developed as a joint initiative between Tourism Australia and the eight state and territory tourism organisations.At its launch this week, Tourism Australia managing director Geoff Buckley described the site as "the primary call to action for all of Tourism Australia's global marketing activities".However, B&T understands that the original intention for Australia.com was that it would be developed as an end-to-end website for all visitors and they would be serviced completely without leaving the site. Instead, the end result has seen the site become a gateway to the individual states and territories.For more on this story see the latest edition of B&T (1 June).
1 June 2007

Source: http://www.bandt.com.au/news/22/0C04D222.asp

Word of mouth and internet favoured by youth

Hi Class,

We have been talking about this subject in class, so thought id add this article published in B & T 22/5/07

Word of mouth and internet favoured by youth

New research has underlined the power of word of mouth and the internet among 16 to 24 year-olds when discovering new brands, while TV and newspaper consumption continues its downward spiral.
In a study commissioned by AdShel and carried out by research firm The Seed into the behavioural patterns of this age group, it was found young people usually only listen to the radio in the morning or while driving; they have reduced TV watching to favourite "core shows", borrow DVDs to watch at their convenience and skip ads, or download shows from the internet; and don't even think about picking up a newspaper. This is backed by figures from the Roy Morgan Single Source for July 2005 to June 2006, which show 16-24 year-olds are 35% more likely to engage in heavy "out-of-home" activity, 16% are likely to engage heavily in magazines, 4% in extensive radio and 2% in heavy internet use.Respondents also revealed that they discovered their current favourite brand through a combination of word of mouth, advertising and the internet. Technology brands such as Apple, Nokia, LG, iriver and Motorola are popular with both sexes. However, specifically among boys, brands such as Red Bull, Oroton, Rip Curl, Billabong, Nike, DKNY and Asics are the picks.The favourites among girls are brands such as Sportsgirl, Converse, Covergirl, Maybelline, Chanel, Bonds, Hugo Boss and Adidas, according to the survey.In terms of advertising, a level of intrigue or creative that is a little confronting, were deemed to be the most effective.

MySpace to Share Data With States on Offenders

By BRAD STONE

Published: May 22, 2007 New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, May 21 — MySpace and the 50 state attorneys general appear to have made peace.

In a statement released Monday, MySpace, the popular social networking site, said it had agreed to hand over to the states the names, addresses and online profiles of thousands of known convicted sex offenders who have opened up accounts on the service.

The company also said it had deleted the online profiles of 7,000 convicted sexual predators, whose names were flagged through the cross-matching of its membership rolls with a database of registered sex offenders maintained by Sentinel Tech Holding.

MySpace to turn over sex-offender data after all

The Complying Game

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco → More by this author

Published Monday 21st May 2007 19:56 GMT - The Register

The use of MySpace by registered sex offenders is only one of a litany of abuses critics have heaped on the social networking site. Other complaints include MySpace's liberal rules for the use of javascript, which in the past has allowed users to infect visitors' machines with malware. Also an issue is the growing prevalence of spam in MySpace Groups, much of which redirects users to scatological porn sites so shocking and vile they aren't fit for adult viewing let alone viewing by children.

The state AGs have been calling on MySpace to do more to protect children from such threats. Among other things, they have urged MySpace to raise the age requirement for members from 14 years old to 16 and to verify both the age and identify of its users. ®

Discussion Questions:
1. Is there a privacy issue here?
2. Can this be extended to other categories of users to be reported on?
3. What obligation has MySpace for the protection of underage users?
4. What ethical issues does this raise for marketing on the internet?

You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well

from the Wall Street Journal On-Line
By KEVIN J. DELANEY
May 8, 2007; Page A1

"In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves -- or their offspring -- to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites' member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that's becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type "John Smith" into Google's search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

For people prone to vanity searching -- punching their own names into search engines -- absence from the first pages of search results can bring disappointment. On top of that, some of the "un-Googleables" say being crowded out of search results actually carries a professional and financial price."

1. What is changing in consumer behaviour when people publicise themselves freely and openly in MySpace, Youtube, Blogs, FaceBook, LinkedIn?
2. What implications does this have for privacy concerns?
3. Has the "15 minutes of fame" claim by Andy Warhol come true?
"The expression is a paraphrase of Andy Warhol's statement in 1968 that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.""

Do Not Call Register

3 May 2007

Do Not Call Register launched

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, launched the national Do Not Call Register today.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is responsible for establishing and overseeing the Do Not Call Register, determining the fees telemarketers will be charged for accessing the register and for investigating breaches of the Do Not Call Register legislation. ACMA is also responsible for developing a national standard for minimum levels of conduct by telemarketers and research callers.

The Do Not Call Register enables individuals with Australian fixed line and mobile numbers to list their fixed and mobile telephone numbers on the register and opt out of receiving a wide range of telemarketing calls.

Registration of a telephone number is easy, quick and free.

From today, individuals are able to register their telephone numbers, if they are used primarily for private or domestic purposes, through the Do Not Call website, at www.donotcall.gov.au or by post.

Individuals will be able to register by telephone from 22 May 2007. It may take up to 30 days for a registration to become effective.

Under the legislated scheme, it will generally be unlawful to make telemarketing calls to numbers placed on the register from 31 May 2007.

http://internet.aca.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD//pc=PC_100642

1. How effective do you think this is? Will this kill the telemarketing industry?
2. What about telemarketing calls from other countries?
3. Can a consumer agree to some category of calls but not to others?

Contextual Marketing

contextual marketing

From TechTarget 27-04-07

Contextual marketing is an online marketing model in which people are served with targeted advertising based on terms they search for or their recent browsing behavior. By tying the ads users see to their demonstrated interests, advertisers hope to decrease user annoyance with online marketing and, simultaneously, increase clickthrough and conversion rates. Google's AdSense program, for example, is a straightforward version of contextual marketing, in which ads are displayed based on the terms that the user searches for.

In a more sophisticated application, contextual marketing uses an approach called behavioral targeting to serve relevant advertising. Here's an example: The user searches for mid-size car reviews, reads one or two reviews and then reads an article about fuel-efficient models. Next, the user might visit a general news site and see, to his surprise, ads for hybrid vehicles and biofuels.

To the unsuspecting user, the appearance of ads relevant to his interests -- on seemingly unrelated sites -- may seem like pure coincidence, or even synchronicity. In fact, however, each time the user performs a search, reads an article or clicks on an ad, a cookie stored on the computer tracks the activity, which is used to create a behavioral profile of the consumer for marketing purposes.

Behavioral targeting is usually conducted throughout so-called "ad networks" of affiliated Web sites. TACODA, Inc., for example, is an Internet marketing company that oversees an ad network of 4,500 sites. According to the company's chairman, David Morgan, TACODA sees 80 percent of the U.S. online population 50 times a month, through sites including Cars.com, CBS Sports and the Wall Street Journal.

MORE INFO:
> ContextualMarketing.com provides an article called 'Everything You Need To Know About Contextual Marketing.'
> SearchCRM.com offers a chapter download, 'Market-Driven Thinking: Achieving Contextual Intelligence.'
> Ask.com is launching new sponsored contextual advertising listings and will go live the week of May 21st.
> A Harvard Business School journal article, Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet, explains more about the practice.

Engagement Marketing

This is a presentation from Cord Silverstein, a marketing blogger (Marketing Hipster). This was presented to the American Marketing Association.

There is also a link to a podcast (mp3 file) by David Weinberger at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council's Social Media Cluster this afternoon (24-004-07) titled "Taking Back the Internet: How Social Media will Transform Media and Institutions". It was followed by an 80 minute discussion period that involved questions and comments from many of the 35 or so attendees and lots more from David.

Discussion:
1. Do you think this is an important issue for web marketing?
2. How does this view differ from the conventional marketing approach?

Google and Privacy

Google has recently acquired DoubleClick, a leading on-line based advertising company. Concerns have been expressed about the dangers of one organisation having access to a vast amount of personal information.

Google to Buy DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion

Google in Privacy Hot Seat
"Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world."

How Paranoid Should I Be about Google?

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:06 PM PT Posted by Edward N. Albro

What I search for: Google's cookie lasts for decades and could be keeping a record of every search query I submit.

What Web sites I've visited since 1996: DoubleClick's been around longer than Google and has probably had its own tracking cookie on every computer I've used virtually since I started browsing the Net.

What I write and read in email: I have two Gmail accounts with a total of 26,389 messages, all of which have been scanned by Google so they can place contextual ads within them.

What I'm doing when: Google Calendar doesn't have all of my activities, but it's got a lot.

What's on my hard drive: Google Desktop indexes the contents of my hard drive and mixes search results from that index in with my Web search results.

Where I go: I've got Google's great Maps app on my Treo and use it frequently to get directions to new places.

What I'm producing: So far, I've only dabbled with Google's Docs & Spreadsheets applications,

1. How is DoubleClick different from Google?
2. What can Google gain from this acquisition?
3. What can be done to protect privacy in this situation?

Google Privacy Statement Highlights
DoubleClick Privacy Statement

FUTURE FOCUS - NEW CYBERSPACE WORLDS

SBS
08:30 pm
FUTURE FOCUS - NEW CYBERSPACE WORLDS
A booming business has sprung up at the crossroads where virtual worlds and the real world meet. In auctions inside these realms, imaginary real estate and virtual islands are selling for hundreds of thousands of real dollars. Weapons and characters are also being exchanged every day for a few dozen gold coins. Millions of ‘gamers' worldwide spend on average 30 hours a week playing in these boundless realms, creating their own new personalities as players in the game (known as ‘avatars'). (From France, in English, French and Mandarin) CC WS SMS Alert Code: 0115

http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=17:04:2007
The show will appear on SBS on Tues, 17th April.
We thought this could be a great program to watch re: virtual worlds-
Posted by Vicky and Josie yes, on a Saturday night study binge! How sad :(

New Business Model for the Music Industry?

From Marketing Hipster Blog:

1. Each record company open up their entire library to be able to buy online whether that is through iTunes or their own web site.
2. Offer a higher sound quality through our online stores. If the CD is recorded in 192 kbps, double it online. The best sound quality possible is one click away through our online store.
3. Offer outtakes, videos, etc. when buying online, something they cannot get in the stores and cannot get by stealing. The reason why they cannot get it through stealing is we integrate these extras with our web site. A user will have to register and that person only will be able to get these add-ons. Very similar to how iTunes works.
4. Integrate the music with other offerings as well. For instance, buying directly from the publisher gives a buyer VIP access to the artists blog. They can chat live with the artists, get information before anyone else, etc. etc.
5. Partner up with social sites like MySpace where we can offer online concerts, live web chats, etc. Get our fans involved on their terms not ours!

http://www.marketinghipster.com/2007/03/27/what-would-you-change-riaa/

From Recording Industry Association of America
Music Theft at 23 Campuses Targeted in Second Wave of New Deterrence Program
Music and Movie Industries Applaud Release of New Study Documenting High Cost of Piracy on Los Angeles Economy

Breaking News: iTunes and EMI do a deal!

"Cyber Suicide"

I read this article recently in the Herald Sun on Britain's first recorded 'Cyber Suicide'! This makes me wonder: How could this have gone so far? Do people really take 'chat rooms' seriously? Or take more risks?


http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21440941-11869,00.html

Politics & Web 2.0

PART 1
Below is a post from a blog for On-line Marketing and Customer Experience on a recent event.
1. What is a citizen ad?
2. Will this be a factor in the next Australian federal election?
3. Will the Obama campaign make effective use of Web 2.0?

Power in the Hands of Voters and Customers

from Seven87.com - Online Marketing and Customer Experience by Charlie

You may have heard of the anonymous video of Apple's old "1984″ ad that was edited into an anti-Clinton and pro-Obama clip . The creator has come out and is speaking about the powershift in politics to ordinary people that can create and share media.

Political analysts alternatively hailed or criticized it as a turning point in the development of the unregulated world of guerrilla political marketing after it recorded nearly 1.5 million views.

"There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it ― by people of all political persuasions ― will follow. This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens," de Vellis wrote, adding: "This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed."

The same "decentralization" of media is true with business… product review sites, ratings, blogs, podcasts and videos, all built by customers can be a huge positive or negative impact on your brand and sales. Hundreds of thousands of customers and prospects can see negative or positive messages about your service, product quality and support. For most, (like Clinton) this shift is going to be painful before it's positive.

I think it deserves a renewed focus on your customer experience. Are you ready for a user-generated video about your product or service?

PART 2

From Paul Gillin's blog (Social Media and the Open Enterprise):

Author Jackie Huba on Citizen Marketers

Barak Obama web site: http://www.barackobama.com/

PART 3 "Why I made vote different ad"

Imagini - A way to communicate using images

I discovered an interesting site, initially shared via email by a friend where you can find out what your 'Visual DNA' is, somewhat like a visual personality test. Although, Imagini is a database where you can profile yourself, your friends etc. and is ultimately a social network that finds what people have in common, and a gift finder.

From a marketing perspective , this is another great example how the social networking enables marketers profile target audience and match a product/ service to there target audience.

Have a go at the profiling your Visual DNA

http://dna.imagini.net/friends/

To check out website

http://imagini.net/

Jingles for Pringles

Latest loony(?) viral marketing campaign as reported in the Marketing Hipster Blog:

Posted by Cord Silverstein in : Marketers, Viral, Community , trackback

I saw a video on Sean’s blog, Craphammer that took me to a real interesting campaign P&G is doing called Jingles for Pringles. They launched a contest where users create their own custom video promoting Pringles of course and upload it to their custom site. Very much like YouTube, users can comment and rate the videos to see what the community likes the best. Along with this online video campaign, P&G has also chosen some malls where they will be having street teams videoing people right there and uploading those videos to the web site as well. The winners get some sort of prizes.

http://www.marketinghipster.com/2007/03/21/jingles-for-pringles-feedback-needed/

http://www.jinglesforpringles.com/home/index.html

What is the objective of this campaign?
Is this effective?
What consumer behaviour is this campaign connecting with?

Four Corners - this Monday, the 19th March

Titled "You Only Live Twice", this Monday night's episode of Four Corners looks at virtual worlds, their possibilities & their limits. Should be interesting.

The reporter is answering questions after the episode from an ABC Island within Second Life.

Here's the link to the Four Corners website that explains a bit more about it

http://abc.net.au/4corners/

Mark's Contribution:

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

"here's nothing real about Anshe Chung's real estate portfolio, but that hasn't stopped the virtual property magnate amassing a small fortune which she intends to turn into a much larger one.

In just 32 months, Chinese language teacher Ailin Graef has transformed an outlay of $US9.95 into virtual assets worth at least $US1 million in real money.

Graef has achieved this in a virtual world called Second Life where she is better known as Anshe Chung, the community's foremost property magnate.

Anshe's Second Life portfolio includes virtual property assets equivalent to 36 sq km in size. But there's nothing real about this real estate. It's actually a 3D simulation housed on 550 networked computers.

And, believe it or not, there are people willing to pay sums ranging from $US100 to $US1000-plus to own a plot of land in Second Life."

Last edited January 15, 2007 - Note created January 3, 2007

Virtual property queen says thanks a million - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

From TechNewsWorld

The Quest for Big Business in Second Life

By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo
Pioneer Press
03/24/07 4:00 AM PT
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/56491.html

Internet Security

New Woman [newsletter@newwoman.com.au]
The computer stole my privacy!So much for technology making our lives easier, studies have shown we're actually spending more time at work and now our privacy is in danger, with reports of cyber stalking and identity theft at an all time high. This new form of 21st Century crime even prompted George Bush to sign a Cyber-stalking bill recently, making it a crime to be online 'with the intent to annoy'. Not that it's restricted to the virtual world. One poor New Woman staffer was shocked to discover while out on a romantic dinner, that a strange woman at a nearby table was trying to send messages to her boyfriend via the bluetooth on her mobile. Even more disturbing is the case of murdered Adelaide teen, Carly Ryan. Her body was found floating in shallow water at Port Elliot, and police quickly tracked her killers through her MySpace site. It appears the father and son pair had befriended Miss Ryan through the website and arranged a meeting before she dissappeared. Consider yourselves warned, ladies.

Hope this post works...VK

YouTube sued for $1bn

Hi Guys,

Thought this article might be of interest:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21379338-663,00.html

Interactive Marketing

Shadowing Interactive Ninjas: Exploring the Makings, Mindset and Marketing Moves of 42entertainment

Written on October 17th 2006

Author by Kenneth Musante

42entertainment
This is an article from a marketing company, ADOTAS, discussing the interactive marketing technique used by 42entertainment (another marketing company).

1. How effective do you think this marketing technique is?
2. What are the ethical or legal issues involved?
3. What are the features of the internet that support this technique well?

"ADOTAS is the premier interactive advertising publication on the web, reaching over 100,000 advertising professionals weekly. Our emphasis is on providing the best information on media buying and media planning to the interactive community, delivered by the foremost experts in the field."

Bloggers spell death of diary

I find this strange.
As a teenager I would not want to share my most inner private thoughts - saying that I wouldn't like it now!!!

From a marketing perspective though this is great to find out that most teenagers (well 47% of the 1000 surveyed) are more than happy to share private thoughts - to share how they think and also give the reason as to why they think that way.
Amazing
Cheap market research!!! A marketer couldn't ask for more - really.

(and yes I am just showing off posting all these blogs!!)

http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/bloggers-write-off-diarists/2007/03/05/1172943312299.html

Blogger jailed for insulting Islam (Posted by Sorelle)

I came across this news article that I thought was relevant to our class and also interesting too!!

I find it incredible to be believe that freedom of speech is no longer - not that I endorse racial vilification however, who and what is to dictate what we can say and can't.

Is a blog not someone's thoughts and ideas - depending on how those ideas are expressed quite often they are just that - thoughts and ideas not preaching, teaching or enforcing those thoughts and beliefs onto others - people choose to read a blog - they are not forced.

let me know what you think as this is such a touchy topic and I could go on and on about it - there are so many different reasons and sides to this story - I can talk about good and bad things with restricting freedom of speech and what said etc.. pro's and con's to it all!!


http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/blogger-jailed-for-insulting-islam/2007/02/22/1171733954334.html

Crowdsourcing? Social Networking???

Web 2.0 - The Participatory Web

Communication is two way. If it is only one way it is very limited. To be able to respond, to reply to modify and interact is very powerful communication. In marketing, knowing your target market is critical. Being able to interact with your target market opens up all sorts of possibilities. The ultimate marketing ideal is to have consumers design their own products and define the services that they want. To be able to deliver a marketing strategy that connects so closely with the consumer is a challenge!

Please read the following article:

Harnessing the wisdom the crowd - The Age Feb. 20 2007

http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/harnessing-the-wisdom-the-crowd/2007/02/19/1171733683966.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2


1. Is 'crowdsourcing' exploitation or a brilliant use of the interne
2. Digg, Technorati and del.icio.us are examples of social networking. What do they have in common?
3. What marketing potential or value does social networking have?
4. What are some other well known examples of social networking web sites?

Social Retailing??

What is all this about?

Have a look and we will discuss in class

Quote from IconNicholson web site:

"IconNicholson is the leading full-service digital agency to Global 1000 companies. Since 1987, the firm has pioneered the use of innovative, digital solutions to help clients engage, delight and interact more profitably with customers.

IconNicholson mashes up social computing and near-field communication technologies with youth shopping habits – to target young adult shoppers. See why online never looked so good with Social Retailing™.

IconNicholson's Social Retailing™ concept, first unveiled at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) BIG show at the Javits Center in New York City in January 2007, answers the question that retailers are pondering for the future of their business: How do you engage the digi-savvy youth audience in a cool and unique way while expanding your retail sales and reach?"

http://www.iconnicholson.com/
http://news.com.com/2300-1017_3-6151080-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg