Richard van Hooijdonk

Don't stop innovating!

Society is changing, consumers and businesses are changing. This means the commercial strategy must constantly evolve as well: standing still means falling behind. The basic principle of marketing is fulfilling the needs of our target audiences in order to reach optimal commercial results. When those needs change, the company needs to change as well to increase marketing strength and uniqueness. Facilitating this constant change requires investing in innovation. Innovation has to become a key element to the organisational processes.

We pay our bills, lease our cars, hire new staff and invest in new computer equipment. Oddly enough, innovation often falls by the wayside. It's something we'll add if, after paying all the other bills, we still have some time, money and tools left over. But if we want to take commercial progress seriously, we must give innovation a place of its own in our business, and invest a certain percentage of our returns or profits into commercial development. Of course, when doing so we'll use succesful business cases. In times of economic recession, innovation offers the opportunity to become cheaper, smarter, better. It's of utmost importance to keep an anticyclical mind and to use bad times to invest in profitable innovation.

Google mobile phone no; Google mobile software yes

Google is looking to partner up with a manufacturer of mobile phone hardware. The popular search engine is looking to expand its business by offering several Google applications for mobile phones. Google is one of many companies expecting massive growth in mobile internet. But while Google develops the software itself, it's leaving the hardware development to a more experienced partner.

 

Google's mobile software, running on a Linux based operating system, is already equipped with popular applications such as Gmail and Google Maps. However, Google's mobile software platform isn't restricted to just Google applications. External companies such as Motorola, Samsung and Deutsche Telekom are free to develop their own applications for Google's mobile operating system.

 

Although rumor has it Google would also develop the hardware by itself, for now the company is sticking to software. To compete with Apple's iPhone Google needs to have a lot of expertise and right now the company simply doesn't have it.

Confidence in conversational marketing growing

According to research agency TWI Surveys Inc., marketing expenses in social media and conversational marketing will be growing over the next five years. Conversational marketing is a young trend where marketers try to personify their marketing efforts, making their advertising look as natural and 'human' as possible.

 

The study had been requested for by the American Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and Joseph Jaffe, author of the book Join the Conversation. Jaffe's book, released last year, was written with the study's results in mind. Some 260 marketing and PR professionals were interviewed and the interesting conclusion is that most of them expect to spend more of their budget on conversational marketing in upcoming years. Right now, most marketers spend less than 2.5% of their budget on conversational marketing but over 80% expects to spend twice as much on conversational marketing within five years. 65% of the respondents indicated to be allocating more budget towards that goal this year already.

 

The biggest barriers keeping professionals from undertaking conversational marketing are lack of manpower (51%), lack of control (46%) and the inability to measure results with this type of marketing (45%). Another issue that's often mentioned is the company organization's inability to cooperate on spending more on conversational marketing.

MSN Video research unveils interesting statistics

For a lot of people, internet starts at MSN (Microsoft Network). As Internet Explorer's default homepage, it's the first website people visit on their computers. And with MSN's ties to Hotmail, MSN Video and Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger), it's no wonder surfers stick around. Recently, Microsoft researched the video hosting on MSN by interviewing almost 1500 respondents, 51% male and 49% female.

 

Some interesting results were unveiled. For instance, half the respondents watch online videos several times a week. 25% even watches online videos on a daily basis. Most of the time videos are found through search machines (37%), favorites (18%) or links sent by friends (18%). Music videos (28%) and comedic videos (27%) are particularly popular, followed by news and sports videos (15%).

 

Most videos are watched in the afternoon or in the evening. Almost half the respondents (49%) prefer videos that are two to five minutes in length: only one in five interviewed surfers is willing to watch videos that are longer than five minutes. Although surfers value sound and image quality, the most important feature is that the content is free to watch: 81% would rather sit through advertisements than to pay for online video.

 

MSN Video enjoys high brand recognition: 77% of the respondents is familiar with MSN Video. Many of them consider the video archive to be of good to very good quality.

Accurate and careful planning leads to effective online campaigns

Smoothly spreading the advertising efforts of a particular marketing campaign can be very succesful for offline advertising. However, this isn't necessarily the case for online campaigns. Research agency MeMo2 and banner technology developer Hottraffic studied the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and found that online advertising requires a different approach.

 

In traditional advertising, campaign efforts are spread equally over the course of the campaign: advertising intensity remains at the same level. But when advertising online, MeMo2 and Hottraffic suggest the advertising intensity should not be so level throughout the campaign's lifespan. Instead, starting at a high intensity and letting that slow down over time appears much more effective. If need be, the campaign's intensity can be raised again at a later time.

 

Another important factor in campaign effectiveness is careful planning. MeMo2 found that when publishers are running behind schedule, advertisements are placed late, delaying and weakening the desired impact.

Spending a digital night at Habbo Hotel

If you're in online marketing (and even if you're not), chances are you're no stranger to Hyves, SecondLife or YouTube and what they mean to businesses. But perhaps you're not yet familiar with the new kid on the block, Habbo Hotel. Create an online account for the digital hotel, check in and get ready for the twist: to play along with the game, you have to purchase 'credits'.

 

Credits are bought by phone, after which they can be spent on all sorts of things that facilitate your stay at Habbo Hotel. Decorate your hotel room, enter digital activity rooms, dress up your character and make new friends at the hotel. Habbo's hyped little world has especially caught on among young visitors.

 

Early August 2007, Postbank launched a special room in the hotel: a Bizznizz Lounge. This comes as an addition to their already existing Bizznizz Trade Fair. Users compete with trade fair stalls to win furniture for their hotel rooms. The new Bizznizz Lounge is meant as a more private place, either for meetings or just general lounging – business or pleasure.

 

With the Bizznizz Lounge, Postbank is targeting the younger demographic. Habbo's young visitors are potential clients and through the hotel, Postbank is preparing these visitors for financial business. Kids can earn credits from Postbank by doing digital chores, such as watching over pets or starting their own little businesses. Postbank tries to actively support parents in teaching kids how to deal with money.

 

According to Postbank, the integrated rooms of Habbo are a big success. While SecondLife's all but forgotten, perhaps Habbo could prove a more interesting digital world.

'Camel method' most effective for online advertising

Regulating the stream of content that flows from an advertising campaign is an important part of an advertiser's job. Managers need to have certain insight in the effects of a campaign and need to know when to intensify campaigns or when to let off a bit. Research agency MeMo2 and banner technology developer Hottraffic conducted an investigation to find out how to best spread online advertising campaigns.

 

The two concluded that the so-called 'Camel' method is the most effective method. Following the Camel method, a campaign peaks upon introduction and at the end of its lifespan. A less intensive period seperates the two peaks. Beside the Camel method, four others are described: the 'Burst and Drip', 'Drip and Burst', 'Equal' and 'Dromedary' methods of spreading campaign intensity.

 

The Burst and Drip method simply peaks upon introduction and then slows down towards the end. The Drip and Burst method is the exact opposite, building up intensity slowly before ending on a highpoint. The Equal method keeps campaign intensity level throughout the campaign's lifespan. Lastly, the Dromedary method starts calmly, then peaks, then settles down again before ending.

 

The Camel method, peaking twice with a less intensive period in between, proved the most effective one. MeMo2 and Hottraffic measured brand recognition and brand awareness as affected by contact frequency. The researchers used a new technique that measures individual pixels to register the effects of time, sequence and spreading of intensity in online advertising campaigns.