The future of successful marketing is relevance.

We now live in an age where consumers have developed selective hearing as a defense mechanism against being inundated by thousands of marketing messages every day. Your potential customers are time-shifting, downloading and channel surfing. Most of them research purchases online and many of them rely on the recommendations of those they respect in their social networks.

Interruption marketing is under threat. Customers are in control. You best give them what they’re looking for.

This warning extends to online marketers too.

Ranking highly in search (either organic or paid) isn’t good enough if you had to “game” the system to get there. Link-baiting and link farming often results in disappointment for the consumer who has wasted time visiting a site that doesn’t really address their needs, or lured them there under false pretenses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

Posted by Matthew Creamer at Adage.com

Internet Now Commands 24% of Ad Spending to TV’s 22%

In what’s believed to be a first for a major ad market, internet advertising has overtaken TV ad spending in the U.K.

Web advertising now accounts for almost 24% of ad spending in the U.K., compared to TV, which has a 22% share. These figures come from a biannual report from Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K. and were first reported by Reuters.

But before you get too excited, consider that the U.K. TV market is a highly restricted one with a massive player that doesn’t take ads (BBC) and one that’s been particularly battered during the recession. On top of that, online spending in the U.K. has been anything but immune to the recession, with its torrid rates of growth seen as recently as early 2008 falling off dramatically.

The new order is helped by the abundance of cheap computing technology and high broadband penetration in the U.K. And it doesn’t particularly come as a surprise when you consider that the TV market is so beat up that advertisers are increasingly hanging their hopes on a relaxation of rules barring product placement in programming.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

From Lara Sinclair of The Australian

RECLUSIVE radio owner Bill Caralis’s Tweed Radio & Broadcasting Co was found to have underpaid journalist Brooke Whitney, and has been ordered to make a $10,000 backpayment.

The ruling was handed down this month in the NSW Chief Industrial Magistrates Court after Whitney approached the Fair Work Ombudsman for help to ensure she was paid correctly.

The ombudsman, whose office is hailing the ruling as a victory in the fight to ensure journalists are paid correctly, helped Whitney, 25, launch a small claims application.

But Whitney says she is no longer working at the radio network after her hours were reduced shortly after she first approached the ombudsman.

“I was being paid less than a cadet,” Whitney says. “I was being paid $13 an hour.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2%

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending September 26

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

It is no surprise that last week all eyes were on the Rugby League semi’s and AFL finals. The AFL grand final helped SC TEN into the Top Ten Watched Programs for the week, however, not enough to give them higher ratings for the week. Our televisions were generally on NBN News and Football.

Read on for the results…

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3%

The National Ratings
Week ending September 26
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

The ABC easily beat Channel Ten last night, which should not happen on an Australian Idol night. Such is the power of the English provincial police that the ABC almost beat Channel Nine. These were the prime time audience shares: Seven 27.0 per cent, Nine 21.2, ABC1 21.1, Ten 18.3, SBS1 4.9, GO 3.2, ONE 2.5, ABC2 1.5, SBS2 0.4.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

NLYZR - How effective is your website?

Since launching NLYZR this year we have been able to generate free reports on over 1000 websites, mostly from Australia. It has given us a fascinating insight into the state of Australian web design industry.

Here are some of the statistics that have emerged after testing 1000 websites:

• Average NLYZR score = 39 /100

• Highest score = 100/100 (well-known US-based site. Several Australian sites have scored high 90′s)

• Lowest score = 2/100 (this site had been outsourced to India by an Australian web designer)

• Only 25% of sites tested have GOOD search engine optimisation. Not great SEO, just acceptable SEO.

• Approximately 42% of sites tested achieved GOOD social media scores. This may be skewed by the large number of our Twitter-savvy followers who have submitted sites to NLYZR. 42% seems a little high to us.

• 19% of sites tested received a GOOD Traffic Conversion score. It amazes us that so many businesses have sites with little or no conversion strategies in place. This appears to be a major issue in Australian websites and web design.

NLYZR has only been running a few months, so we’ll continue to report on the state of Australian websites as the year progresses.

Popularity: 1%

Popularity: 1%

The Newcastle TV Ratings, week ending September 19

Note: These ratings results are compiled using the combined resources of SC TEN, NBN & Prime’s weekly AGB Nielsen Media Research reports.

Newcastle seems to go through trends. When something is on that we like, we go all out and watch it, just it! We are interested right now in what’s on in the News (NBN being that), every day of the week and Footy Finals (once again NBN). We like to watch renovations and also day dream of getaways (once again all NBN).

We do occasionally like watching animals being saved and funny disfunctional families (Prime), but that seems to be it. No one else seems to want to cross over into other programs or featured sports on TV just at this stage. We like a routine and it seems so does the ratings, with NBN once again taking out the winning spot with an average of 37.1% viewing audience. This week though Prime managed to defeat ABC.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%

The National Ratings
 Week ending September 19
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

These were the prime time audience shares for the week: Nine and GO 28.9 per cent, Seven 27.5 per cent, Ten and ONE 20.7, ABC1&2 17.7, SBS1&2 5.2. This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “Melbourne designer Anthony Capon defeated William Lazootin and Lauren Vieyra in the finale of the designer competition, Project Runway Australia: Finale. The Wednesday night broadcast on Arena achieved a season high 191,000 viewers for the second series of the program. America’s Next Top Model on FOX8 was watched by 157,000 people, NCIS on TV1 was seen by 143,000 subscribers, The Simpsons on Fox 8 133,000 and the Disney Channel premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie was watched by 119,000 people. Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel had a year-to-date biggest audience of 118,000 people, Property Ladder on Lifestyle was viewed by 101,000 people and Summer Heights High on Comedy Channel was seen by 60,000 people.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

So its a year since the big crash of 2008. For many businesses its been a year of pain, staff cut-backs, revised budgets and knife-edge survival.

Last year, as it became apparent that the economy was about to go down the toilet, I opined that we were experiencing a turning point in media and marketing history. Old media models were under threat, new media was on the rise. Media consumption habits were changing rapidly and savvy marketers were aware of this. I suggested that the looming economic crisis would only hasten these changes.

Now, as the world lurches out of the worst of the downturn it appears significant change has taken place and the ones who are struggling to cope are those sticking to their old methods.

Many businesses have already charted a new course in the new economy, but for those just beginning to think about their marketing plans here are 7 new marketing rules for the recovery economy:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1%