January's Creative Showcase

Another month, another Creative Showcase. January's winners are (cue drum roll)...

AKQA's Supersonic for Nike took the top prize, with AIS' Staff Blaster coming in second and Profero's Class A for FRANK taking third.

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An overview of the agency landscape in 2007

Campaign has a great overview of what 2007 looked like for above the line, media, digital and direct agencies. It is a must read...

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The Superbrands survey is meaningless

Mike Butcher, Editor of Techcrunch UK, isn't mincing his words:

The entire media industry knows that Superbrands compiles its list then goes to the companies named and asks them if they want to pay to be in the list. If the firm says no, they don’t make the list. So given that a firm with a perfectly good brand might have been left out because they weren’t bothered about paying, the list is therefore meaningless.

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The end of the line

Michael Weston makes a valid point:

Let's not obsess about that line any more. Let's think instead about the line between acquisition and retention. I think this is a much more meaningful line, and the crossover point is the moment of 'conversion'

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Adam Curtis on the internet, bloggers and the current malaise...

It's worth reading this interview with Adam Curtis, the auteur behind The Century of the Self, The Power Of Nightmares and The Trap. He has a lot of thought provoking things to say...

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The year of the Gorilla

A year ago, Cadbury's UK chocolate business was reeling from a salmonella-related product recall that had wiped £30m off sales, provoked a £1m fine and damaged the group's reputation. And then came Fallon's Gorilla which:

boosted sales of Dairy Milk by 9% from when it first aired in September, and helped Cadbury's UK market share in chocolate to enjoy a strong bounce back.

You should read the Guardian's whole article.

Scamp also has some thoughts about the Cadbury's cheif exec's comments that a worth a peruse.

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Sony Ericsson shifts adspend into digital

Sony Ericsson is to increase the proportion it invests in website development and online advertising from 15% to 25% of its £50m marketing budget during 2008.

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7 things Second Life can teach us about marketing

As you may know, I'm not a big fan of Second Life, but Giles Rhys Jones has a good post on 7 things Second Life can teach us about marketing.

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Internet drives luxury goods sales

Latest research in from the IAB:

Of the premium luxury consumers, 72 per cent purchased goods as a result of seeing an internet advert, followed closely by magazines (70 per cent) and television (62 per cent), emphasising the need for further integration in luxury goods campaigns.

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Umair Haque on the future of brands

You have to watch this. Scared?

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Is online display advertising dead?

As a direct reposnse medium, perhaps. A recent study shows that:

Heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. Heavy clickers are not representative of the general public.

This is backed up by...

...other research from last year:

Ninety-nine percent of Web users do not click on ads on a monthly basis. Of the 1% that do, most only click once a month. Less than two tenths of one percent click more often. That tiny percentage makes up the vast majority of banner ad clicks.

So who are people clicking? Well, the most recent study says:

Heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.

And the one from last year:

Who are these “heavy clickers”? They are predominantly female, indexing at a rate almost double the male population. They are older. What kinds of content do they like to view when they are on the Web? Not surprisingly, they look at sweepstakes far more than any other kind of content. Yes, these are the same people that tend to open direct mail and love to talk to telemarketers.

It seems pretty conclusive to me (although bare in mind that this is US data). Combine this with banner blindness, and things don't look pretty for online dispay advertising, which is probably why it's getting cheaper and cheaper.

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Why your brand is more at risk than ever before

Andrew Walmsley:

In the past, companies had an inherent edge. With resources and funding superior to that available to campaigners, they could co-ordinate media coverage more effectively. One effect of web 2.0 is that this advantage may now have been lost.

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Altogether on digital outdoor

Altogether have put together a lovely presentation on the potential of digital outdoor, interactive advertising and some other cool stuff - go have a look.

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Why authenticity matters

NixonMcInnes reports on the amusing tale of the Guardian's new travel blog, concluding:

You can’t out-smart your readers. If you aren’t being authentic, you will be found out by the crowd.

Update: ShinyRed has more.

Update 2: Our perspective shifts - Hate mail hell of a gap-year blogger.

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What happens when Google punishes you

Patrick Altoft has the story on what happened GoCompare.com when Google penalised them for seemingly questionable SEO practises and bumped them down the rankings. You really don't want that to happen to you...

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