Blog
Increase in Online Ads
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Increase in Online Advertising despite Tougher times
Online advertising is continuing to expand with analysts expecting that the worsening economic conditions will accelerate the share of ads being placed online at the expanse of traditional media.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Online Advertising Expenditure Report is projecting that online advertising market will pass the $2 billion mark in the next year. The latest report, which was put together by PricewaterhouseCoopers, indicated that last year’s online revenues was around $1.7 billion, which was a healthy increase of around 27 per cent compared with 2007. Search and directories advertising made up nearly half of the sales.
Communications, cars, finance and computers products comprise about 50 per cent of the advertising content. IAB Australia chief executive, Paul Fisher, said that he expected that the online sector would continue to benefit from the shift in expenditure and that total revenues would exceed $2 billion soon.
Labels: economic crisis, google advertising, online advertising
Online Ads Keep Growing
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Despite the challenging economic environment that businesses face throughout Australia and worldwide, online advertising continues to be a top priority for businesses tight budgets.
Read more from The Australian Article Below:
Online ads rise to defy crisis
Lara Sinclair | February 09, 2009
Article from: The Australian
ONLINE advertising has defied expectations that the financial crisis would also crimp its growth, with annual spending to December up 27 per cent from a year ago to $1.7 billion.
And while advertising in traditional media fell off a cliff in the December quarter it remained strong online, growing 22 per cent to $462 million over the same quarter last year.
That performance, recorded in the audited industry figures released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau today, came despite most analysts predicting growth would halve.
Overall, the growth in online ad spend was slightly lower than the 34 per cent recorded in 2007. But internet advertising was not totally immune from the malaise infecting traditional media, Interactive Advertising Bureau chief executive Paul Fisher said.
"This quarter we've just reported is very good. I was optimistically anticipating 20 per cent growth (for the last quarter) but I thought it could have been mid to high teens. It's been a very poor January and a very flat February but they're optimistic about March, according to some of the major publishers and networks that I've heard from."
Mr Fisher predicted total growth would slow this year to 17-18 per cent, which would still push it above $2 billion for the first time. "I think this quarter will grow in the high teens, increasing to about 20 per cent in the June quarter."
Classified advertising was the only sector in which spending slowed notably in the quarter, reflecting the slowdown in employment advertising, but for the year it still rose 23 per cent to $439 million.
For the three months to December, classifieds grew 10 per cent year on year to $108 million, but that was $6 million (5 per cent) less than advertisers spent in the three months to September.
Search remains by far the largest online ad market with almost one in two dollars being directed to search marketing and online directories.
It continued to outpace the total market as it was up 30 per cent to $807 million for the year as advertisers continued to demonstrate faith in accountable media. However, that was almost half the rate of growth in 2007, when search grew 56 per cent.
Search giant Google refused to say if search advertising had suffered the same slowdown seen this year in other media.
"We're continuing to see growth in our medium and we feel there is strong potential for growth in the Australian market," general manager for Australia and New Zealand Karim Temsamani said.
"We're continuing to grow at a very good rate."
Online display advertising was surprisingly resilient, growing 24 per cent in the quarter compared with 2007 and up 27 per cent from a year ago to $465 million.
Publishers are reporting new advertisers in categories such as retail, packaged goods and alcoholic beverages -- traditionally small sectors for the industry -- are beginning to use the medium.
Strong growth in performance advertising, which is generally paid for when a user performs an action rather than on the size of the total audience, is believed to be driving growth in the general advertising sector.
Liam Walsh, managing director of the Drive performance network, estimated the sector accounted for one in four general display advertising dollars spent online, but expected that to grow.
"Our financials clearly indicate this segment is growing significantly faster than the general category," he said.
"Drive recorded a 35 per cent uplift from the September quarter versus an overall general display growth figure of 4 per cent. In short, performance advertising enjoyed a very good year. It will have another good year as the economy tanks and performance advertising moves from commodity to high valued asset."
He said the IAB report should break out the share of major publishers compared with the so-called "long tail" of low-cost advertising booked on niche sites, most of which is placed by advertising networks.
Mr Fisher said the IAB was in the process of reviewing how it would break out the figures in future, with online video and lead-generation (such as email) advertising on the agenda, as well as performance.
Meanwhile, News Digital Media chief executive Richard Freudenstein said he was "still very optimistic" that internet advertising would continue to grow strongly this year.
"It's very measurable. Twenty-two per cent would be a good result. You've got to expect that given the economic climate, growth will slow down."
Despite the global financial crisis, financial advertisers increased online advertising levels, boosting their share of spending from 18.2 per cent of the market in the December 2007 quarter to 21.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Automotive advertising decreased notably from 14.7 per cent to 13.6 per cent, but the biggest slowdown came from computer and technology advertisers, whose share fell from 17.8 per cent to 14 per cent.
LINK: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25025679-7582,00.html
Seven Words to Remember
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Website design is about more than layout, markup language, and technical wizardry. Website design is about communication, it's about turning advertising into content, and content into an experience that viewers will remember.
People are already searching Google for products and service that you offer. Bringing them to your website is extremely important, but what do they see once they get there!?
Seven Words To Remember
1. Communication
People are always asking us what's wrong with their websites, and the answer in the vast majority of cases can be summed-up in a quote from the movie, "Cool Hand Luke" (1967): "what we have here is a failure to communicate." Communication is the key to success, and that doesn't just apply to your website, it applies to almost everything you do both inside and outside your business-life.
If your website isn't communicating on both a rational and emotional level, if it doesn't provide the psychological and emotional context of your marketing message, then exactly what is it doing?
2. Audience
I can't think of too many people who actually like being sold. In fact, sometimes customers get so irritated by sales tactics that they end up not buying the thing they came specifically to your website to purchase.
Solving the problem is merely a question of altering your perspective; the average buyer is predisposed to dismiss and ignore high-pressure tactics, and meaningless sales pitches. So instead of treating customers like customers, try treating them like an audience. Audiences want to be engaged, enlightened, and entertained. And that is the most effective way to make a sales impact.
3. Focus
All too often websites inundate their Web audiences with facts, figures, statistics, and an endless líst of features, benefits, options, and whatever else the sales department can think of throwing in. All that stuff just confuses people.
Focus your message on the most important elements of what you have to say. If your website can embed that singular idea in an audience's mind, then it has done its job.
4. Language
The words used, and how they are put together provides meaning; they inform personality; they provide mental sound bites; and they make whatever you are saying, worth remembering.
Language is one of the critical elements of 'voice', the ability to convey personality; and writing without a 'voice' is instantly forgettable.
5. Performance
Even the most articulate prose can be lost in a befuddled delivery. Communication is more than words; it's a combination of language, style, personality, and performance.
Things are rarely what they seem. Even our memories are a stylized version of what we've actually experienced. Creating a memorable impression is about managing the viewer experience, and providing the right verbal and non-verbal cues that make what is being said memorable.
6. Personality
Every business has a personality. The first problem is, few medium-sized companies ever attempt to manage that persona, and as a consequence, the buying public forms its own opinion. And that opinion is often not the way you want to be regarded.
The second problem is companies either don't have a firm grasp of who they really are, or they know, and they are afraid to promote it. If your company's identity isn't worth promoting, it is time to think why that is, and change it. The bottom line is, a company without a personality is a company without an image, and that makes you instantly forgettable.
7. Psychology
The most important feature you can provide your audience is psychological fulfillment, not deep discounts, fast service, or more bells and whistles.
The real reason people buy stuff is that it makes them feel something. Cosmetics make women feel attractive or sexy, while cars make men feel they've achieved some level of status. Even services make people feel important, as in "I've got a guy, who does that for me." Finding the psychological hot spot in your marketing, and promoting the hell out of it consistently and continually should be your primary marketing goal. All those features and benefits are merely the excuse for a purchase, not the reason.
The Web Is Fast Becoming A Video Environment
Websites are not just marketing collateral; they are not just digital brochures. They are a new presentation medium that requires specialized communication skills, and knowledge of how best to use the medium.
You may be a great salesperson, and nobody knows your business like you do. You may even be skilled at delivering speeches at conventions and seminars, but performing effectively in front of a camera is a whole different ball game, and for most people, it's way out of their comfort zone, let alone their skill level.
The same old methods that used to work won't work any more. You're no longer competing with just the company down the street; you're competing with the entire world.
Web-businesses may not ever actually meet their customers face-to-face, or even talk to them on the phone, so it is imperative that they use marketing presentation methods that deliver an experience worth remembering.
About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit MRPwebmedia.com, 136Words.com and SonicPersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.
Google Earth Underwater
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Google isn't just able to drive sales for your business, or give you the answers you are looking for. Google products are actually fun to use!
I remember being blown away when I first saw Google Earth a few years back. It was simply astounding to be able to explore the surface of the earth in 3D, with the flick of a mouse! These days though we take it for granted. I use Google Maps (which is based on the satellite imagery of Google Earth) on a day by day bases with the GPS in my iPhone 3G.
New Underwater Ocean view in Google Earth
Google has launched what is touted as being one of the most comprehensive 3D maps of the ocean floor in a major upgrade to its free Google Earth program rolled out earlier today.
Using bathymetric data obtained from some of the world's leading marine and oceanographic research institutes, Google has been able to build a realistic terrain map of that part of the Earth's surface covered by its oceans and seas.
Called Ocean in Google Earth, the feature complements the existing 3D maps of the Earth and the heavens housed in Google Earth, a program which allows users to zoom in and out of specific locations on a tapestry of panoramic images that have been woven together.
The core data for this new feature typically comes from sonar soundings which are then rendered into contoured visualisations of what lies beneath.
This will include continental shelves, undersea mountains, volcanoes, trenches, ridges and other hitherto hidden geographical features.
Much of what will come up on the new feature is a fuzzy expanse of featureless terrain this will be augmented with some 20 content layers of much higher resolution imagery, video and general data.
Google says the material will include detailed content about such places as the Great Barrier Reef as well as of dive and surf sites around Australia.
Read more of this article found in the SMH. Google Earth Ocean View
What can we help you with?
Recent Blog Posts
- Mobile Search to Overtake Desktop Searches
