In the first three quarters of 2003 online advertising in The Netherlands grew by 20%, reaching a total value of 27.1 millions euros. The datas are provided by the IAB Nederland, and reported on Emerce (in Dutch), where Igor Beuker, IAB's director commented:

How strong is the relationship between music and mobile phones? How real are the business opportunities offered by the combination of the two elements? Industry experts tried to answer these questions at the MIDEM, the first mobile music forum, which took place a couple of days ago. Mike Greenville of 160 characters provides an excellent review of the event.

Blockbuster will provide MSN Messenger users with movie specials. The initiative has been presented this week in Italy, and is aimed to increase Blockbuster brand awareness and to improve MSN's services. As explained in the press release of IconMediaLab, the agency which developed the creative, there will be an icon on MSN with Blockbuster's logo, by clicking on it, users will reach a Messenger zone to access movies' information. Here is a screenshot of how the thing looks like.

It's the first example of Messenger's advertising I happen to find. It's an interesting initiative, however looking at the way it's presented, I'm not so sure users will easily understand that's a Blockbuster logo (with Blockbuster's related infos).

Mobile advertising can prove to be five times more effective than traditional direct marketing. According to a new research by Carat, mobile advertising will grow by 70%. The news is reported on Marketing Directo (in Spanish).

Volkswagen Golf 30th birthday will be celebrated online, with an advertising campaign and a competition on a micro-site developed by Tribal DDB. The marketing initiative is explained and detailed on Revolution Magazine. There will be ads displayed on mayor UK websites, as well as a targeted email communication to spread the word of mouth about the competition (http://www.winanewgolf.co.uk).

Gillette, "The Best a Man Can Get" is going online with a consumer contest with football legend Steve Young and Sports Illustrated magazine. As explained on Advertising UK, men who submit a photo of their "Best Game Face" either on-line at www.mach3turbo.com or in-person at one of three "Game Face Stations" on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31 in Houston are eligible to appear in Sports Illustrated and win prizes worth more than $20,000.

How could MSN live without its own toolbar? It can't, that's why, following its rivals Google and Yahoo!, MSN has developed a solution to allow users a complete browser-search engine integration. Silicon Valley talks about it, but I suggest you having a look at MarketingWonk as well where Kevin Lee collected all the sources talking about the issue.

I like comics, and Dilbert is one of my favourites. Funmail is now offering Dilbert strips delivered daily to mobile phones. This is a kind of wireless data service I'd like to subscribe to. It's a pity they offer it in the US only.
Find out more about it in the press release.

The shortlist for the 2004 GSM Association Awards has been announced last week. Winners will be announced on 24 February 2004 at 3GSM World Congress. For the Best Marketing, Brand or PR Campaign the following have been shortilisted:

- Mobilkom austria AG & Co KG for the �A1 MMS Standard� campaign which delivered a photo-free newspaper with the images available for MMS download

- T-Mobile International for the rebranding of VoiceStream to T-Mobile in the US

- Virgin Mobile for the UK �The Devil Makes work for Idle Thumbs� campaign designed to increase SMS use

- Vodafone Group plc for the global �Vodafone live!� campaign to drive take-up and penetration of Vodafone live! handsets and services

A couple of weeks ago I've already talked about the Make Money Be Happy initiative launched by Yahoo!. Revolution Magazine reports that fortune cookies, branded with Yahoo! Personal Finance will be given away to people visiting Benjys' shops. Customers going to Yahoo! website will have again the chance to win an healthy weekend in a Spa. The will also be a banner campaign supporting the initiative

On W2Forum they've posted a news about worldwide mobile data subscribers (the original news is on Unstrung).

It's always interesting to read about these kind of stats, but I believe it would be even nicer to find out the cultural issues that influence markets' differentiation.
I don't think technology is the only factor affecting the diversity between Europe, Asia and the US. We should also look at different media relevance in every country/continent (do people watch a lot of tv? do they read newspapers?), at the way people like to interact with each other (do they prefer written or oral communication? do they meet in public spaces?) and, for example, at how sex in regarded by the public opinion (is it strictly condamned by the religion? is there a liberal attitudine towards the issue?).
Stats would be much more relevant, providing the cultural and social contest in which they have been collected. Does anyone know of such a study?

BBC NEWS reports Toshiba is developing a technology that will replace dressrooms with a 3D system that will create a virtual customer. Video cameras snap the shopper, then clothes and accessories are selected and displayed immediately.

But what about the thrill (or the disappointment) of trying on real clothes? Shopping is an experience, are we sure we want to make it virtual?

Pop-ups, an eternal controversy. The Guardian gets back to the issue providing different points of view and a brief history of pop-ups. will pop-ups ever be stopped? Excellent question with (almost) no answer. The author of the article, Claire Murphy says:

An IPA Bellwether report says online marketing spend in the U.K. registered significant growth for Q4 2003. On IAB Uk web site, Danny Meadows-Klue, Chief Executive of the IAB, commented on the new figures:

Ogilvy Interactive has developed a new I-Mode website for American Express Italy. According to Pubblicit?alia Italian users, belonging to the Wind network, can now access a lot of information about the credit card, using their cell phone.

Once again, there's a big question mark connected to this news: how many i-Mode users are there in Italy? And how many i-Mode users are interested in accessing American Express information using their mobile phone?
I don't want to be too much controversial, let's just say it's a first move action, clients will come...

UK fitness chain Holmes Place has launched its first mobile marketing campaign to help potential customers locating the nearest gym by texting in the postcode. Actually this is a press, poster and DM campaign which takes advantage of the wireless media to create a relationship with prospects. If you text, you get a location service map by Multi-map and, of course, you receive something for free: two hours with a personal trainer. To read more about the campaign, go on 160 characters.

Cisco is running an online advertising campaign as part of an integrated marketing strategy to emphasizes the company's advanced technologies. As reported on Adweek banners with the tag line "This is the power of the network. Now." are running on The Wall Street Journal Online, BusinessWeek Online, Network World, InfoWorld and Forbes.com. You can see an example of Cisco's banners, in the Adverblog's "Watch" section.

The (Italian) European Internet giant Tiscali has presented its new look. As W&V; reports, with the tagline 'Internet with a passion', the company has refreshed the layout of its portals all around Europe.

Celebrity Emma B stars in a new viral video created by Digital Media Communications to promote MG Rover. The news is reported on Brand Republic while the video can be seen here. It's funny.

eMarketer's analyst have come together to present 11 trends that will influence business and society in 2004. In particular, I found interesting what they're saying about gaming, online advertising and online content. Have a look.

The risk of too much fragmentation is emerging on the UK rich media market. In an article on New Media Age Chris Dillabough says that increasing competition among suppliers of rich-media technology to online media owners and agencies could lead to a price war over the coming months.

Actually, what we hope is that competition and so called "rich media wars" will bring a formats' standardization rather then a further proliferation of ads.

Tom Hespos wrote yesterday about advergame, maybe not exactly about advergames but, more in general, about the potentials of videogames for advertisers. He comes up with a new perspective on the matter, which I believe is rather interesting. He takes the issue a step further, not considering only advergames and product placement (remember Intel and the Sims?), but suggests brands to think about full game sponsorships. In his excellent analysis, Tom says:

News.com.au reports Internet advertising in Australia is regaining credibility. According to a survey released by Roy Morgan and online internet group Emitch, advertisers expect to spend 6 per cent of their total advertising budget online in 2004, up from 4 per cent last year.

Adding online advertising to a TV campaign boosts brand awareness, but the inclusion does little to impact purchasing decisions, according to new findings from Dynamic Logic. As reported on Yahoo! News, the Web is a particularly effective medium for reinforcing a brand's sponsorship of an event, cause or other entity.

Unicast, the online advertising solutions provider, has announced in press release the birth of a new online ad format that enables advertisers to deliver their message with full-screen, broadcast quality video. Unicast's Video Commercial is built on the Microsoft� Windows Media� 9 Series platform and is delivered to consumers via Unicast's patented pre-cached technology. AT&T;, Honda, McDonald's, Pepsi, Vonage, and Warner Brothers are currently participating in a six-week, pre-paid beta launch of the Video Commercial.

The idea of video advertising is interesting, but I don't understand if people need to install Unicast's software on their machines. If this is true, I won't expect a lot of users to agree, at least at time being. There's too much spam and spyware around. First you need to build trust and educate people about this kind of advertising. I mean, users can't skip ads, the Internet can't exist without advertising, so it's just better to build a relationship with users, telling them about existing formats and asking them the one they prefer. See the example of WeatherBug I talked about a couple of days ago.

On the topic, you can also read the eCommerceTimes, where Jay Lyman interviews Michael Kelleher an analyst at Yankee Group. He says that the video ads are the next generation of online advertising, particularly with the growth of broadband Internet connections. However, the analyst added, the ads might not win the favor of users if they interfere with their online routines.

According to a recent survey, about two-thirds of top-level marketing executives surveyed said online marketing has a high strategic importance to their companies. The news is reported on DMNews.com, where Brian Morrissey also quotes Kathy Gogan, vice president of marketing at Responsys, who says:

Mobile couponing it's the hot topic of then moment. Today even the International Herald Tribune talks about it, saying that they give retailers a more targeted approach than many other types of direct marketing.
Daren Siddall, an analyst in London for Gartner says:

Online competitions are becoming a fashion. Everybody wants to have one, no matter if it doesn't make sense for the brand or if the game (and the prize) has no connection at all with the business you're in.
The initiative of train operator First Great Western in cooperation with Hamleys (my favourite teddy bear shop) is, in my opinion, a clear example of a no brain "me too" strategy. Customers can enter a competition to win prizes from Hamleys, such as, for example, a Ferrari replica for kids.
Tim Hayne, E-Commerce and Channel Marketing Manager for First Great Western says:

iMediaconnection features the transcript of the session of Delta Airlines case study presented at the summit last month. It should be an excellent example of winning integrated marketing strategy, developed by Starcom/IP and Modem Media. Actually the case is pretty long and exhausting. Probably the transcript takes less time to its author, but requires more time (and patience) from the reader, so I gave up reading it...
Sorry, but today is Sunday, I'm taking it easy...

In December, Mattel has launched an online version of its Pictionary. Developed my the agency Flare, the advergame allowed people to make a drawing and then invite three friends to guess what it is. There was also a competition connected to the game, but I believe it's too late to enter. The micro-site featuring Pictionary should be still running, even if I didn't manage to successfully register.
I believe the idea is excellent and could be applied to a different kind of product as well, having a superlative viral potential.

NeoMedia Technologies has signed two important agreements to consolidate its position in the wireless marketing industry. With iCoupon, NeoMedia has expressed the intent to enter a collaborative agreement in Europe, in order to create and implement a state-of-the-art electronic couponing program. On the other side, NeoMedia said they have contracted for 12snap to engineer the European launch of PaperClick for Camera Cell Phones (details in the press release).

Today a lot of news site focus on Yahoo!'s earnings and they almost skip the fact, reported on eWeek (via Yahoo! News), that Microsoft has launched a campaign to target Linux users. The campaign, running both on and offline, is designed to give customers information about the advantages of using Windows over its open-source competitor.

It's interesting they are doing it, but I'm not sure about the results they can reach. Open-source lovers are difficult to seduce, most of all it the "gigolo" is named Microsoft.

The Adverblog "Watch" section is now active.
Come and see my banners' collection ;-)

NMA reports of a study by Bunnyfoot Universality on banners. Despite the funny name of the research company, the results are quite interesting, although they don't say anything new: online banners build brand awareness, even if people don't click on them.

Advergames, defined by Gartner as games that incorporate marketing content, is an emerging advertising option. On MediaPost Larry Dobrow quotes Denise Garcia, Gartner�s principal analyst, media and advertising:

There's a Gartner report coming out soon, and I really look forward to read it. It would be interestin to see if there's any data proving advergames effectiveness in brand awareness and loyalty building.

Thanks to Steve, I've found out an excellent article on iMediaConnection about targeted advertising. It's an interview with Andy Jedynak, senior vice president and general manager at WeatherBug, who explains how the website is helping advertisers with a precise and effective targeting. Through users' registration and wit WeatherBug has developed a rich database which has been the base for building a frank relationship with consumers.
What we understand from this interview is that in the online world the "ask-listen-talk-listen" is a crucial circle to build a site's success, generating traffic and providing advertisers with satisfying results.

A new campaign aiming to demonstrate the benefits of Yell.com has been launched in the UK. As Brand Republic the creative has been developed by AKQA and features skyscrapers, standard banners and buttons which will appear on MSN, Ticketmaster and other high-traffic sites.

Poste Italiane, the National Italian Postal Service is launching a wireless advergame (with a video clip) to promote its new pre-paid credit card, which is the "son" of an online game featured on Poste.it. The game can be downloaded from an advergames portal as well.
The idea of a wireless advergame sounds great also because it's getting a lot of attention from the media with a positive echo for the branding effect.

eMarketer reports the results of a Reveries study conducted among over 400 marketers. 22.7% of marketers think mobile marketing is currently just fairly viable, only 13% rate it as fair five years from now.

On the topic, there's also an article on iMediaConnection, while the full research's results are available here.

Let's talk about brands, branding and slogans.
Al Ries on Adage writes an article about "Wasting money on bad advertising slogans", explaining how a brand could invest $40 million dollars in advertising without leaving an idea in the prospect's mind. He quotes the case of food producer Tyson, but also provides a bunch of positive examples leading the route of successful advertising with powerful slogans.

If you're interested in branding and brand mistakes, have a look at a new blog, "Brand Autopsy", it's excellent.

Denise Garcia analyst at Gartner G2 plays the oracle on iMediaConnection, making predictions on the ad spending winners and losers in 2004. The article is based on her latest research, 2004 Advertising Trends Report and provides a bunch of insights about online advertising and financial services, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail and travel industries.

IC Group has created an advergame to help Hormel Foods increase consumer demand Stagg Chili. The Chili Chuckwagon Challenge will be online until April 30, and allows players to win $100,000 cash or a variety of secondary prizes including Plasma TV's, entertainment centers, Dual brand electronics, and mountain bikes. Entrants are also automatically entered in a Sweepstakes for the chance to win a 2004 Mazda RX8. Consumers access the game by obtaining a UPC code from any STAGG� Chili product.

Larry Raskin, Senior Product Manager for Hormel Foods Corporation said:

Personally I don't like this kind of online competitions. I don't believe giving away money it's a good incentive to increase product awareness, even if you have to buy to product in order to enter the game. I see it as a "buy play once and forget" process in consumers' mind.

A new research by Dynamic Logic MarketNorms confirms that interactive ads increase brand awareness to a greater extent than non-interactive ones. As explained on Revolution Magazine, consumers exposed to interactive ads felt more favourably towards the brand than when exposed to a non-interactive ad, and intent to purchase was 2.9% higher.

Enpocket and cdp-travissully have produced a text-to-win campaign for the Netherlands Board of Tourism through 135 Caffe Nero outlets capitalise on the interest around the 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' which stars Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. More than 300,000 postcards have been distributed through the caf�s and broadsheets, offering an instant 'text to win' for tickets to the film and entry in a draw for a 3-night break to The Hague to see the real 'Girl with a Pearl Earring''.
Jeremy Wright, co-founder of Enpocket, said:

According to ZdNet big players in the search market, like Microsoft, Yahoo and EarthLink are all considering to further develop their business developing a search "taskbar" to be displayed to the side or at the bottom of a PC screen. The business appears to be huge, but also in it's infancy and the article is good as an introduction to the topic.

According to the Mobile Data Association (MDA), in November more than 947m Wap pages were hit in the UK. As BBC NEWS reports, many people users went online to download polyphonic ringtone versions of music hits.

Word of mouth on the Web is a powerful business tool for automakers. In an excellent interview with Mitch Lowe CEO of Jumpstart Digital Marketing, David Berkowitz presents on eMarketer a comprehensive picture of how strategic online communication is becoming for any offline business. In particular, it allows automotive companies to develop campaigns with a more specific and precise targeting than the ones diffused through TV advertising.

Radio Deejay, one of the most popular radio stations in Italy, features on its web site "Snow Game", an advergame sponsored by the region Trentino, which allows players to win a "white" week. Users, who need to register to play, can access the game until February 15. all participants enter a draw with the chance to go skiing for free for one week.

UK based software house M-bar-go has created a mobile couponing service that allows consumer to receive unique barcodes on their cellular phones. Coupons with the special offers can then been redeemed at the retailer by scanning the barcode.

Excellent idea which opens interesting possibilities to mobile marketers.

During the Christmas season, apparel manufacturer Jockey has sponsored the advergame "Make-a-flake", an interactive snowflake maker developed by Lookandfeel (have a look at their web site, the menu presentation is simply fantastic!). As Tessa Wegert writes on ClickZ, the advergame complemented an offline direct mailing campaign, driving visitors to a microsite. Thanks to the viral effect generated by the advergame Jockey's microsite generated more than 1 million total visits.

The campaign's success can be explained in the branding effect generated by Make-a-flake through the positive and entertaining gaming experience an its association with Jockey's name.

According to a new report by Alexander Resources, mobile infotainment is expected to generate worldwide revenues of $7.2 billion by 2008. However, there are still significant hurdles to overcome to consolidate the market, such as pricing, improved security and privacy measures and, most of all users' willingness and ability to pay for mobile content.

I believe the latest will be the most difficult to pass over since it will require consistent investments in marketing in order to tell people about the wireless positive infotainment experience and make them perceive the value of information delivered through mobile phones.

London based interactive agency Poke has created an advergame (MakeMoneyBe Happy) and a digital advertising campaign to promote Yahoo! UK personal finance web site. The campaign also featured an offline push with ads on British newspapers and a guerrilla marketing initiative in the City.

Travelzoo, one of the largest sellers of travel advertising on the Internet, sees higher demand for online advertising in the year 2004. The company bases its view on the number and volume of insertion orders for advertising in 2004 that it received by the first week of the new year. The note has been expressed in a press release in which, Elizabeth Rose, Senior Vice President of Strategy at Travelzoo, commented:

In my opinion, it's a little bit too early to express such a statement, anyway I appreciate such a bravery to come up with a positive and stimulating (for the advertising industry) note.

In the US 38 percent of all home Internet users now connect to the Internet via broadband. And, as a consequence, advertisers are increasing the use of rich media in their online campaigns. The data are provided by Nielsen/Netratings, in an article on Network World, which explains that in November 2003, 17% of all online advertising impressions were rich media ads, compared to only 7% in November 2002. Marc Ryan, director of analysis, Nielsen//NetRatings said:

General Motors has started a $50 millions campaign to promote its brands in the US with the "Hot Button" program. The first step has been sending out a direct mail piece to 6 million consumers nationwide and will include television, print, Internet and public relations.
As explained by DMNews.com on a special web address US consumers have the chance to win one of the 1,000 that GM is giving away until February 29.

"Where is my gnome?" asks in its latest campaign the veteran travel site Travelocity. As explained on IAR the $80 million campaign, launched this week, is the largest in Travelocity's history and is aimed to regain market share and "fight" the competition of Expedia.

On eMarketer there's an analysis of the travel industry contribution to online advertising in 2003. In the US in the first half of 2003, the industry accounted for nearly 24% of online advertising spending among top 200 brands in the US with total spending surpassing $71 million.

The new MSN looks new and improved to advertisers eyes as well. As announced in a press release, MSN now offers advertisers new advertising options, including TV-like ads, via a new, free, streaming-video service, an expandable ad space on the homepage and Universal Ad Package (UAP) standardized ads.
Joanne Bradford, vice president and chief media revenue officer of MSN said:

The video ads offer looks particularly interesting, if this kind of ads will be able to create the same emotional impact of television.

On ClickZ, Jeremy Lockhorn has compiled his wishlist for Christmas 2004. He complains about the lack of standards for rich media ads and wishes the industry will soon come up with guidelines. Basically he says that agencies and marketers are learning to build engaging interactive experiences using rich media ads but...

I agree with Jeremy, there's too much chaos in the rich media world and this might prove negative both for consumers and for the online industry itself. In the UK the IAB has formed a Rich Media Standards Task Force (RMSTF), it should soon come up with standards which will provide guidelines for file weights, browser compatibility and frequency capping.

In a new campaign entitled "Project: Real People" Yahoo! Personals will feature singles who are currently using the service to connect and communicate with prospective dates. According to a market research performed by the Company on a focus group: "nearly 70 percent of singles felt most advertisement models were unreal, impersonal and unattainable." In the press release, Katie Mitic, vice president and general manager for Yahoo! Personal said:

MediaPost has published today an article with the best interactive agencies of 2003. The winner is mOne, that works for Ameritrade, Ibm and Cisco, while the silver medal goes to OMD Digital, who has accounts like Dell Home Systems, Dannon, Neutrogena, and United Airlines. The third place is for Avenue A, followed by Starcom IP.
The article is nice because it doesn't simply provide standings but also provides opinions and comments about agencys' recent jobs.

Midland Expressway has decided to use an online banner campaign on Multimap to support its advertising push promoting the new M6 Toll Road. As explained on Brand Republic, the ads appear on Multimap whenever users view maps or routes of the area around the M6.

Online advertising is really for everything!

On Adrants, Steve Hall talks about the best viral clips of 2003. Mastercard, with the "Priceless" campaign has been the most rated clip.

A new research (.pdf) by Nielsen/NetRatings reports that three out of four home and work Web users go online through non-browser-based Internet applications, such as media players, instant messengers and file-sharing tools.

This is a very interesting and valuable indication for advertisers who should learn to differentiate their investments in online promotions.
In the online world, the "multi-channel" concept can be developed in a broader sense, referring not only to web sites advertising but also, for example, to branded skins for messengers and media players, as well as banners placed in file-sharing applications.

In Evian's Detox campaign 2004, tens of thousands of bottles of water have been delivered free to households in the UK, to help the nation starting the new year with a detox after a festive season of excess. Evian's campaign has been running online as well, with a one day special and a week of advertorial content on Msn UK. More about the online campaign on Revolution.

Starting today, Adverblog has a new layout. My brother did it. Thanks Marco!
I hope you like it and that everything is working properly.
If there's any way I can improve it, please let me know: [email protected].

In the next days I'll be adding a few more sections to the site:
- Watch: where I'll post online ads examples.
- Read: where I'll post my interviews to online advertising/marketing people.
- Play: where I'll post special links to web and wireless games and competitions.

I will also start a weekly newsletter... If you're interested, keep tuned!

Orange and Enpocket were awarded for their two-way SMS campaign to drive subscriptions to Orange�s Open Access mobile Internet service in the �Email / Mobile� category at the annual DMA Awards 2003. As explained in the press release, the campaign, which was aimed to drive customer awareness and understanding of Orange�s new services, had a 14% response rate.

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives