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Mark Mulligan | August 27, 2008, 09:05 PM
Buy Beans Get Music
Is this for real? Nectar (the shopping rewards card) has launched a DRM free music store that allows customers to redeem points from their weekly Sainsbury shop for MP3 downloads. I feel like I should be saying what an innovative approach this is, but I can’t bring myself to do...( more )

IanFogg | August 27, 2008, 02:59 PM
Swisscom Markets a Naked DSL Fixed-Mobile Bundle
Another example of an innovative European incumbent: Swisscom has been bundling home broadband with mobile, without requiring a home phone. I suspect Cablecom's home phone + broadband + TV bundles drove Swisscom to innovate. This has created enough of a stir with their rivals to prompt a referral to the...( more )

Zia Daniell Wigder | August 26, 2008, 12:19 PM
Olympics site as bellwether of global online population
Yesterday comScore published visitation figures for the official Olympics site Beijing2008.cn during the first 10 days of the event. Much was made of the international nature of the traffic, and indeed, the list of top visitors largely reflects the global distribution of today’s online users (with the obvious exception of...( more )

Doug Williams | August 26, 2008, 12:08 PM
Ads on Facebook: Targeted, Lucky, or a Bit of Both?
Facebook served me an ad this morning that caught my eye, but not because it was flashy or particularly interesting. It was the name in the ad that got my attention: Bill Janovitz. Now a realtor, Janovits is also the leader of Boston-based band Buffalo Tom. Yes, I’m a fan...( more )

Thomas Husson | August 26, 2008, 04:48 AM
GPS Phones
. Here is a pic of the new Nokia N85 just announced by Nokia as "The definitive entertainment package". Indeed, there are quite a few cool features such as: - 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics (when the N81 it is replacing only had 2MP) with a nice 2.6"...( more )

David Card | August 22, 2008, 08:56 PM
What Needs to be Covered at the Olympics
D@mn, how did I miss this? I am now a fan of Icelandic handball, regardless of whether handball should be an Olympic sport or not. First, we have sharks and Brennivin: The seafood-related alcohol beverage. "When we eat the shark we drink this Brennivin," Sigfus Sigurdsson said, referring to the...( more )

Emily Riley | August 22, 2008, 01:58 PM

I was recently briefed by Facebook where they showed me a sneak peak at their new Engagement Ad platform. My colleague Jeremiah Owyang wrote it up here. I was also briefed this week by Omar Tawakol, the CEO of the new behavioral targeting startup, BlueKai. The company takes an innovative...( more )

Ed Kountz | August 22, 2008, 07:29 AM
More mobile...FDC's GoTag study and a Visa U.S. Update
First Data believes that contactless stickers—its so-called-GO-Tags—will be a game-changer in the race to mobile proximity payments. Go-Tags are flexible RF antennae, linked to a prepaid account, designed to be affixed to consumers’ cellphones. If successful, the tags will help to jump-start mobile proximity payments, and FDC has just rolled...( more )

Pfreemanevans | August 21, 2008, 10:12 PM
Online Sales and the Economic Environment: Q2 Update
News regarding the economic situation continues to be relatively gloomy and has been reflected in the Q2 results that offline retailers have been reporting. For example JC Penny reported Q2 comp store sales declined 4.3% versus last year, Abercrombie and...( more )

Diane Clarkson | August 12, 2008, 12:31 PM
Kayak arms travelers with information to avoid pain points
Kayak has launched information tools to provide travelers with details on some of the greatest pain points in travel: Airline fees are extensive, vary between carriers, and change frequently. In response, Kayak has posted a Fees Chart which is particularly handy when comparison shopping includes checked bags fees. The quality...( more )

John Lovett | August 06, 2008, 04:59 PM
Measuring the Olympics
As the world prepares to watch the games of the XXIX Olympiad, NBC is preparing to watch the world. The research team at NBC Universal is well aware that TV’s, laptops and cell phones across the globe will be tuned into Olympics news and coverage and their intention is to...( more )

Julie Ask | August 04, 2008, 04:34 PM
SinglePoint's Ad Insertion Technology
SinglePoint announced today their availability of dynamic ad insertion technology. Kudos to them for getting this done. Ads a layer of targeting to SMS that has been limited to content to date. Granted, there isn't much space in an SMS for much advertising, but it's a big step in the...( more )

Nate Elliott | August 01, 2008, 02:06 PM
Thoughts on the Brand Value of Paid Search
I've always been curious about how marketers use search for branding. Search is such an obviously direct response medium, but whenever we survey online advertising executives, they tell us creating brand impact is one of their top search marketing goals. I've actually spoken to marketers who admit they bid themselves...( more )

David Schatsky | July 31, 2008, 07:25 AM
Forrester Buys Jupiter
It was announced today that Forrester Research has bought JupiterResearch from MCG Capital for $23 million in cash. Forrester plans to integrate Jupiter's staff into its Marketing & Strategy division. The goal is to create a dominant marketing & strategy research organization that will become the indisputable leader in our...( more )

Bobby Tulsiani | July 22, 2008, 08:10 PM
Competing with Hulu?
We recently published our report “Competing with YouTube”, where we explored strategies to compete with the video giant. Hulu, who has carved out a niche strategy around full length TV shows and premium content, has been one of the early success stories of 2008 in the competitive video space. Hulu’s...( more )

Barry Parr | July 10, 2008, 08:48 PM
Not disruptive, but definitely big
Although I'm not buying Yahoo's claim that it's "disruptive", their new BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) API has the potential to greatly improve the Web, create businesses, and increase Yahoo's profile. By removing the barriers to entry of massive crawling, indexing, and linking of billions of Web pages, BOSS...( more )

Ina Sebastian | May 07, 2008, 01:45 PM
Deal for a National WiMAX Network Announced
Sprint, Clearwire, and additional investors (Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks) have reached an agreement regarding a national WiMAX build out through a new company named Clearwire. My colleague Julie Ask wrote a very insightful blog on the motivations of the investors yesterday. As she implied, success of...( more )

Zachary McGeary | February 25, 2008, 12:08 PM
The IVR Revolution Will NOT Be Televised: We Predicted it First
A recent BusinessWeek story highlights the dwindling popularity of the pro-consumer crusade established by GetHuman.com. Page views on the site have dwindled from about 40,000 a day in the spring of 2006 to some 4,000. The discussion board, while still active, has quieted down since 2006, when thousands of comments...( more )

David Daniels | December 18, 2007, 11:49 AM
Not Always for Geezers
My colleague David Card makes a good point about the merit of emusic’s unprotected MP3’s and their _gradual_ foray into the “mainstream.” Now this is the point that I evoke the Proton Pack wearing words of Harold Ramis – “whatever you do, don’t cross the beams, Ray.” Crossing my beams...( more )

Sapna Satagopan | August 27, 2007, 04:21 PM
Talking Multimedia at SES
I moderated a panel on ‘Optimizing for video search’, a topic that we wrote on last year here. What has changed since last year? Increasing advertiser interest and agency enthusiasm, for one. According to our survey, 15 percent of search marketers performed multimedia search optimization in 2006, and 36% plan...( more )

Peter Sargent | August 09, 2007, 11:10 AM
Findings from the Online Video Custom Research Report
One of the points within the report I discussed in my last blog will surely get the attention of advertisers and publishers alike. In the consumer survey, we presented respondents with a scenario in which online video content was free...( more )

Marcia Loewenstein | April 10, 2007, 12:51 PM
Accessibility and Dunkin' Donuts?
Recently, I have seen some great examples of ‘accessible technology’ and the more broad application ‘universal design’ rising in importance – a couple of examples that I will point to… · Apple’s Leopard release and ‘Universal Access’ highlighted as one...( more )

Marcia Loewenstein | May 17, 2005, 01:39 PM
Is Technology Accessible? (How Do You Increase the Font?)
My Mom just got an iMac. Most of it was up and running before I stopped by (except AOL). I wanted to show her some AAA rates on a hotel site, so while I was there she installed AOL - didn't need any help there. .....but, as soon as she...( more )