Digital Marketing - Rusty’s Blog

After suspending this blog during the financial crisis, I’m picking up the story again.

So, what has changed in the landscape?

• Apple now has a higher market capitalisation (is more valuable on stockmarket) than Google
•  Google has launched its own smart phone (sold direct to customers)
• Microsoft launched a good operating system (Windows 7) but still cannot buy Yahoo!
• Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, broadening its Open Systems credentials, getting into HW
• Newspapers continue to struggle

iPhone users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for their Apple iPhones in just 30 days, using the new App Store section of Apple’s iTunes online store. App Store was launched at the same time as the iPhone 3G on July 11th. Its applications run on the wireless-enabled iPod touch devices as well as iPhone. While most of those applications were free, Apple sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales over the month. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobsonline casinoмебели бургасrent a car bulgariaedfa said he expects to see App Store sales hit $500m before too long.

With App Store, Apple is leveraging customer familiarity with it’s popular iTunes music store in a way that emphasises Apple’s superb marketing skills.  Apple’s halo-strategy playbook seems to be working just fine at the moment!

If reports in Bloombergкомпютримебели and the FT are true, it looks like Microsoft and Yahoo! are talking for the third time.

As with all things Microsoft, they only get it right the third time around - so this one might make it.

I’ve said for some time that Microsoft really needs Yahoo!’s help for the next phase of Microsoft’s evolution.

Maybe a partnership based on a large investment, a technology exchange, and marketing collaboration would work this time?

The CBS bid for CNET is a very interesting move, which seems strangely “outside the box” given the massive focus on consumer generated media in today’s online advertising world.

CBS claims that the acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.

The wisdom of paying $1.8Bn for CNet aside, what CBS will end up with is a quite unique set of advertising properties including:

• CBS Television Network - America’s most popular free to air national TV network
• CBS Radio
• Showtime - the original programme production and pay-TV network
• CSTV Networks - America’s leading college sports digital & cable TV network
• Numerous CBS TV, Radio and other online properties, including:
  CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, and MobLogic
• The extensive roster of CNET properties, including:
  CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic.

It has become almost the norm for laptops to be in use when watching TV, particularly among younger audiences.

I’m sure there will be many cross-fertilization opportunities for CBS and advertisers alike.

Is this a near-perfect combination of mass-media and online properties?

Does advertising on social networks make sense?  C|Net reports that forecasts of ad spend on Social Network sites are being revised downwards.

While growth is still expected over 2007, Fox Interactive Media (who own MySpace) has reduced its forecast for advertising revenue by 10% (to $900m), and market observer eMarketer has reduced its 2008 ad revenue forecast for Facebook down 13% to $265m.

As eMarketer notes “Tapping into consumers’ conversations and spreading brand awareness virally has proven more challenging than companies originally thought.”

No kidding! As someone who has tried running campaigns with a strong call to action on MySpace and YouTube, I’ve formed the view that the last thing most people want to do is to engage with an advertiser.

No surprises in what seems to work best: adverts which appeal to people who are feeling sociable or searching for ways to entertain themselves, and which offer an immediate experience that continues this mood when they click-thorough the ad.

What do you find works best on Social Networks?

At last Aussies, South Africans and eight other countries know which network they’ll be using when they sign-up for Apple iPhone  later this year: Vodafone.  (Vodafone has just announced an Apple iPhone deal, covering  Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.)

Vodafone (a UK company) has strong presence around the former British, mainly-English speaking colonies, and so the deal makes sense from Apple’s viewpoint.   Also interesting is the match to free mp3 nokia ringtones download free mosquito ringtones free ringtones tracfone free ringtones for t mobile phone get free ringtones for my cell phone free mobile phone ringtones t sony ericsson ringtones free phone ringtones sprint hotlink caller ringtones metro pcs phone ringtones cricket phone ringtones nextel ringtones software make your own mp3 ringtones motorola razr ringtones blackberry free ringtones free ringtones sprint free arabic ringtones motorola ringtones composer music real ringtones free make own ringtones Australia’s migrant population: there are very large New Zealand, Italian, Sounth African, and Greek communities in Australia.  In fact, more people of Greek decent live in Melbourne (Australia’s second largest city) than live in Athens!

It will be interesting to see if Apple and Vodafone add any more global-community / international features to the iPhone when it is introduced in these countries.

Presumably the services will use the 3G version of the Apple iPhone - it would be madness to introduce the GSM product into many of these markets (particularly Australia & New Zealand) where almost all new phone sales are 3G handsets.