Archive for April, 2007
Experian buys wisely - Hitwisely
April 19th, 2007
Experian, described as: ‘the global information solutions company’ (what a strapline!) has today announced the acquisition of Hitwise in a £120 million deal.
Hitwise collects and aggregates information from ISPs on how over 25 million consumers use and search the internet. It reports on almost 1m websites each day in the US, UK, Australia and Asia Pacific. The company has increased its customer base by more than 40% in the last two years to 1,200 clients, including the likes of HSBC, AXA, Google, eBay, CBS News, Ask.com, Ikea, MTV and Qantas.
Experian chief executive Don Robert said the acquisition will boost the group’s knowledge of how consumers behave online, helping it capitalise on the continued switch away from traditional media to online advertising.
Does this mean Experian is the latest traditional organisation in a long line, well not that long really, to wake up and smell the online roses? Have they seen the opportunity that the web presents, and thought: ‘I’ll have a bit of that!’
Let’s hope the change in management doesn’t mean a reduction in the insightful data that Hitwise has been churning out, e.g. Heather Hopkins’ blog, which has kept us up to date with topical digital marketing data since it’s launch.
MediaGuardian has the full story.
Online video leads global news agenda
April 19th, 2007
Online video has become such a prolific news source that it’s hard to remember how we coped without it.
The reality hit me on Monday when news broke of the Virginia Tech shooting, and I my watched myself instinctively go to YouTube to find out more. It’s astonishing how quickly habits form, particularly when it comes to social media. Had you told me a couple of years ago that I would be turning to a viral video network for news before a news organisation, I would have been shocked.
Jon Snow in his daily newsletter Snowmail sums it up very nicely:
“Another busy old day, dominated by a product of our technological age - the ghastly tape of the Virginia Tech killer recorded in the period between the first and second spate of killings. The 23-year-old killer sent the material to NBC in New York - but got the postcode wrong so it took an extra day to arrive.
“Of course, there is enormous controversy over whether it should be shown by the American TV networks. But in truth, if they didn’t show it in this day and age, it would be on YouTube soon enough.”
Extracts of the killer’s video are available here.
Web measurement tools need overhaul
April 18th, 2007
In the age of page views, click-throughs and CPAs (cost-per-acquisition), two reports from comScore and Nielsen/Netratings have today raised a big question mark over the way in which the industry currently measures web audiences.
As the BBC reports, measurements based on page-views and cookies could be affected by changing user behaviour, the studies warn.
Net measurement firm comScore found cookies used to track user behaviour could be being over-counted, while the Nielsen/Netratings study argues that page-view measurements are outdated due to an explosion in audio and video content.
While we tend to not plug clients on our blog, it is worth mentioning in this instance that Foviance’s web analytics division has recently discovered in client research that cookie figures can be inflated by as much as 300 per cent.
This has enormous impact on estimates of conversion rates - if we are repeatedly over-counting, then conversions might not be as bad as experts suggest.
Web analytics is often dismissed as the realm of techies, but if we can trust the findings of these reports, it is likely to become a far greater concern for marketers in the future. If online advertising costs are explained by CPA etc, its important that the figures are adding up correctly.
Google-DoubleClick, the aftermath
April 16th, 2007
Google’s planned acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion has understandably stirred up the competition. Since Friday’s news the antitrust calls have started rolling in from Microsoft, backed up by AT&T. We await input from Time Warner and Yahoo, the other major bidders in the DoubleClick deal.
Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would combine the two largest online advertising distributors and thus “substantially reduce competition in the advertising market on the Web.”
He has a point, but would the situation really be any better if Microsoft acquired DoubleClick? Who else would/could buy DoubleClick, maintain a competitive market and still evolve the online advertising industry? Yahoo?
I’m not saying he is wrong, but I am saying what’s the alternative?
On the other hand, Jarvis Coffin, chief executive of Burst Media, a DoubleClick competitor, thinks the move is a positive one: “Google is building a very efficient apparatus for buying and selling ads online, and that’s fundamentally a great thing for the Internet economy. It’s starting to look like the advertising agency of the future.”
Today’s New York Times has the full story and details of AT&T joining in.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Google - good or bad, may I draw your attention to Sam Sethi’s ‘Google, Google, going…gone’ post on Vecosys today, which has some less than favourable feedback on Google’s integration, or lack of it. Go Sam!
April 13th, 2007
Google has launched its payment service, Google Checkout, in the UK today. It will compete directly with both mainstream card processing services and eBay’s Paypal service.
It’s another shrewd move by the search giant, as not only does the scheme offer long-term incentives to advertisers with a Google Checkout option, but it will also enable Google to begin collecting data on consumer online shopping habits.
If early signs are any indicator of merchant interest - I’ve received three emails today from well-known internet retailers, announcing their uptake of Google Checkout.
With general apathy in the market towards Verified by Visa (of which the usability is awful in my opinion), there is definitely room in the market for a competitor to Paypal. The strength of the Google brand will undoubtedly help consumers to perceive Checkout as a trustworthy payment service.
I’m intrigued to test out the user experience of Checkout - any excuse to shop!