LA.

ExecutiveSummary.com: New York vs. Los Angeles

Okay, admittedly this has little to do with online marketing, but the original source of this was the Old Timers List, an exclusive email discussion list of e-marketing/media industry insiders, where a thread has raged the last few days on this perennial debate about which is the capital city of U.S. culture. I've excerpted (with permission) a few choice quotes on my ExecutiveSummary.com site. My own position on the matter can be summed up by publicist Peter Shankman's comment:

Only difference between NY and LA... In LA they say "have a nice day," and they mean "f- you." in NY they say "f- you," and they mean "have a nice day."

[marketingfix]

[Scripting News]

Matt Croydon writes: "I know that the Creative Commons licenses have all kinds of other implications, I just can't think of them right now." Here's one that seems pertinent as Creative Commons launches and people begin applying its licenses to their work: what suffices to establish a Creative Commons license that both parties (creator and user) can be reasonably comfortable will govern their activities?* Dave Winer gives the example of his picture of Shawn Fanning, and also now has deployed an RSS Module intended to convey information about applicable CC licensing in the XML version of a Web page. This begs the question: is it enough to have information about the license in the HTML, RSS/XML or metadata? (I.e., otherwise "invisible" when one is reading a Web page or other otherwise directly accessing a digital work?)

Nope, I don't think so, and I don't think CC thinks so either. On the site, users are told that Web pages should incorporate specific HTML and RDF to "tag" the work as subject to a particular license. That code is designed to link the user back to the relevant CC Commons Deed and the actual license (the legalese) that the Commons Deed represents (click on the line "Legal Code (the full license)" in any Commons Deed to access). Apropos of Dave's Shawn Fanning photo example, users also are told that once a license has been chosen, "You should then include a Creative Commons 'Some Rights Reserved' button on your site, near your work. Help and tips on doing this are covered here. This button will link back to the Commons Deed, so that the world can be notified of the license terms. If you find that your license is being violated, you may have grounds to sue under copyright infringement." (Emphasis added.)

This is all pretty apparently intended to strengthen the enforceability of the CC licenses. As stated in CC's FAQ, "We and our lawyers have worked hard to craft the licenses to be enforceable in as many jurisdictions as possible. That said, we can not account for every last nuance in the world's various copyright laws, at least not given our current resources." License information that is visibly and textually displayed on the site helps eliminate confusion and disagreement more effectively than something that lives exclusively in HTML or metadata. This point is bolstered by CC's explanation about why it offers a metadata component at all:

If you run a search engine, you might use license metadata to highlight public domain and generously-licensed works. If you write a public file sharing server, you might offer to search the user's hard drive for works that allow distribution. If you write a magazine, you might use a CC-enabled search engine to find pictures of candy bars that you can legally include. ... Of course, this metadata only provides a first approximation of the license, for information use. Users are encouraged to read the full license to make sure it meets their expectations. [Why We Have Creative Commons Metadata]

In other words, the metadata is informational. It helps with the location and dissemination of licensed works. It's several layers removed from the actual license. At some point, courts may be inclined to enforce a license that exists purely in machine readable form, or that is largely or completely invisible to a casual observer. We're probably a long way off from that day however, and it seems to me Creative Commons takes this into account by implementing a plan designed to include obvious visual and text cues in proximity to licensed works.

*Here's another that Matt's page highlights: notwithstanding the intent of Creative Commons (at least for the time being) not to have its licenses apply to software (see Larry Lessig and the CC FAQ), this is happening anyway. I don't see a "no software" disclaimer in the licenses themselves -- a "work" is defined as "copyrightable work of authorship" -- and thus don't see why these could not form an enforceable software license (??). It would have to be free software, as the CC licenses aren't designed to help collect fees or royalties from use.) [Bag and Baggage]

Thanks to Dave I found this very interesting bit of research about weblog metrics.  Given that blogging still isn't all that well understood, it is really nice to see some actual research.  And even a pretty graph!

In particular, I wanted to know if there were correlations between things I control (frequency and length of posts and outbound links), and things I don't control (inbound links and other influences). So here's what I found (and this is hardly scientifically conclusive given that it's a one-off): [_Go_]

His point that "Frequency of posts is overwhelmed by celebrity, but may be important for non-celebs" is definitely on track, imho.  I've always thought that my near religious addiction to either posting something daily or at least stating that I wasn't posting that day helped my readership a lot.  And that's always by advice to people who want to get more traffic to their blogs -- post regularly.  Readership, like anything else, is a habit.  And you need to train readers to have that habit.

[The FuzzyBlog!]

MarketingProfs.com: Monitoring Buzz: Do You Know What Your Customers Are Saying?

Nothing particularly ground breaking here, but still a very good review of how and why your organisation should be using the net to monitor reactions to different aspects of your company's activities.

One thing that the article doesn't state, which I think is important, is keep everything in perspective. Whilst it is health to illicit consumer feedback, don't get obsessed about internet buzz, good or bad. Make sure you give it a proper context and weight. As the saying goes - it is only the internet.

[marketingfix]

Clickz: 2002: Industry Progress

Jeffrey Graham describes what he thinks "were the most important issues that emerged in 2002."

The winners are: Cross-Media Planning, Convergence, Reach/Frequency, and Brand Marketers.

Taking a critical look at this, I'd suggest that his top trends are more inline with what people are talking about, that what's actually happening on the ground. Whilst I agree that there has been some movement in those areas, I think that the major changes happened elsewhere.

So what were the main trend of 2002? I'm sure we'll answer that question in full before the year is out, but one thing that I will say now is that no list can be complete without a mention of pay per click advertising scene, and/or the the overall revolution that taken place in search engine marketing/optimisation over the last 12 months. Google's arrival in the PPC game has changed everything.

[marketingfix]

Ipsos-Reid: Internet Use Continues To Climb In Most Markets

The United States continues to have the highest level of Internet use among the 12 countries surveyed. Some 72% of American adults reported having gone online at least once in the previous 30 days. (See chart below.) Moreover, the U.S. experienced notable growth in Internet usage this year, especially compared to the modest expansion rate of the Internet in this country in the past. A large contingent of the general adult population came online in 2002.

“The Internet is in advanced stages of growth in the U.S. and is becoming a necessity to many of the few adult Americans who had resisted going online before,” said Brian Cruikshank, an author of the study and leader of the company’s technology practice. “Because it’s all around us, being used in so many ways—from communications to transactions to entertainment—it’s become a central way that we navigate our lives.”

[marketingfix]

Dave Winer posts a lot of insightful ideas about the future of conferences. My instincts are that a hybrid of approaches are what is required - a combination of common experiences (keynotes), structured communications (sessions), and adhocracy.

The closest I have seen come to this was the ApacheCon, which had a parallel hackathon running during most of the sessions. What the hackathon had was 802.11, power strips, tables, chairs, and a few whiteboards. In my experience, power strips are the most overlooked accessory by conference organizers.

I know many West Coasters that are just hitting their stride at midnight, so if you want to truly even the playing field, make the keynotes all happen at 7 a.m..  Las Vegas is also a great location in that nobody lives there, and everybody can get there easily. 

I'm not a fan of speakers during eating.  Eating is a wonderful opportunity to talk to the person next to you.  Rooms with PC's or Mac's are so last century, these days most people bring their own internet access devices.

[Sam Ruby]

Consumer Web Watch: How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility?

A study conducted by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab along with Consumer WebWatch, found that "look and feel" is more important then content. For example, nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.

Interestingly:

People in this study used advertising on a site as a criterion for judging the site's credibility. In 13.8% of the comments, people talked about advertising, usually negatively. But at times, study participants talked about the judicious use of advertising in a positive way. Pop-up ads were widely disliked and seemed always to reduce perceptions of site credibility.

The study surmises:

Not surprisingly, advertisements are especially harmful to a site's credibility if they lead a user to believe that the site's content is swayed or controlled by the advertisement or that the site is connected to the advertisement, and is itself trying to sell the user something. The latter is a case of not providing a clear line between advertising and the site itself, which has been shown to harm credibility in previous studies (Fogg et al., 2001; Fogg et al., 2002; Princeton, 2002), and is intimately related to a site's connection with its sponsors. The comments make clear that some users are fully aware of potential sponsor influence. They expect a clear line between the content and advertisements so that sponsors do not compromise the site's information.

Something to be aware of as we explore online advertising methodologies that blur the line between advertising and editorial.

[marketingfix]

[Scripting News]

Research may indicate that spam has little effect on work productivity, but that could change as inboxes fill to capacity with unwanted e-mail. [CyberAtlas]

Google: What exactly is Froogle?
Search Engine Watch: Online Shopping with Google's Froogle

Froogle is a new service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. By focusing entirely on product search, Froogle applies the power of Google's search technology to a very specific task: locating stores that sell the item you want to find and pointing you directly to the place where you can make a purchase.

This is just great. It has even got pictures :-) And you can search by price..and loads of other great stuff. I'm just so so excited. Go and have a play, you'll see what I mean.

Sorry, back on topic. The implications of this are just huge. And I mean HUGE, HUGE, HUGE.

If Froogle receives anything like the take up of Google (and at first glance it looks like it could), it will revolutionise the way products are located online, and therefore how companies need to market them. This may lead to a whole new search engine optimisation sector springing up, specifically geared at optimising for Froogle. Notably Froogle includes adword select sponsored listing..is Overture diving for cover?

Just too many questions, too much to take in, and no commentary/analysis to link to as this news has only just broken. Be assured - the MarketingFix team will keep you posted.

Update: We've got a bit of a discussion going in the comments section - please feel free to join in. Olivier, who is a bit of an expert in this field, has gone on the offensive, highlighting the limitations of Froogle.

[marketingfix]

Media Guardian: Spam levels 'out of control'

According to figures released today (from Brightmail), four in 10 emails received by computer users are junk mail. [..] This time last year just 8% of all emails were unwanted junk.

[marketingfix]

Emerging Interests: Search Engine Marketing Tool Roundup

Now this is what I call an article. Not only does it give a great overview of the scene, it also provides an excellent resource breakdown by sections:

SEM Planning Tools and Resources

SEM Terms and Definitions

Third Party Bid Management Tools for Paid Placement

Paid Inclusion

Per-URL Paid Inclusion

SEM Tool Review

[marketingfix]

Press Release: IAB Ad Sizes Committee Recommends New Larger Unit and Creates 'Universal Ad Package'
MediaPost: Newly Proposed IAB Format Standards Snub Banners
Silicon.com: Online Advertisers Get a New Uniform
MSNBC: Bigger Web Ads Endorsed by Industry

Well, I guess this is a good thing. We'll see how the rest of the industry reacts. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has just announced the "Universal Ad Package," which is a collection of four standard ad unit shapes and sizes that the association hopes will become the dominant display ad formats, in an effort to help bring a greater degree of standards to the industry and make online ads easier to buy.

You can see the new ad sizes here (and then you have to click a pop-up window on that page). Three of the formats are among those the IAB has already previously endorsed: 160x600 pixels (aka "skyscraper), 300x250 (aka "big box") and 180x150 (aka "small box"). Notably missing from the line-up is the ubiquitous 468x60 shape (aka the classic "banner"), replaced by a new and improved, bigger, wider banner: 728x90, which has the potential to drop down in rich media format to take up more of the screen.

[marketingfix]

Newsday: Web Softening Ad Woes
Media Post: New York Times: More Than Just Newspapers Now

Top executives of The New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Co., Tribune Co. and others yesterday credited the improved performance of their Internet operations with helping to cushion the blows delivered by the worst advertising drought since World War II. They predicted the Web would produce more revenue next year even as ad spending in papers picks up.

Some interesting insight on the fact that online and offline can co-exist. One is not necessarily a replacement for the other.

[marketingfix]

Media Guardian: Initiative predicts 50% hike in online ad spend

Initiative Media, the media buying giant whose clients include Unilever and Vauxhall, has predicted a 48% increase in internet advertising in 2003 following this year's crippling 16% drop. [..]

"Recovery is expected in 2003 with the medium still in a healthy state. Advertisers are keen on seeing a return on their investment, especially during times of recession, and online's accountability helps ensure this," Initiative continued.

By anyone’s standards this prediction is bulllish, however I wouldn't completely disregard the possibility that it might also be spot on. It is worth noting that pay per click advertising has only just begun to find its feet as a main stream ad vehicle, and that rich media advertising is still in its early days of growth. It is quite conceivable that 2003 could see both these areas hitting a parallel boom patch. If that were to happen, this prediction might suddenly look prudent.

[marketingfix]

Clickz: Surfing the Subviral Wave

This is a very good article for a number of reasons, not least of which being that it uses my site, Drunk Guerilla, as one of its sources ;-)

Sean Carton kicks off by discussing the fall out from a Guardian article on subviral marketing that falsely implied that certain "spoof" videos were actually authorised by the brands that they mocked. Specifically it suggested that a "wank yourself" video that spoofed the Levis "rub Yourself" campaign was actually a "real" subviral ad. As I said on Drunk Guerilla that ad certainly wasn't real or authorised - I can confidently inform you that it was actually done by a German student/semi-professional filmmaker, and completely for his own amusement/self promotion/portfolio building.

Sean goes on to discuss why it is becoming harder to execute successful viral marketing campaigns. He makes a number of good points including:

"Cool" is tough. Nothing is worse than an ad trying to be cool but isn't. What is cool? It's hard to say, and that's the problem. Trying to be cool usually leads to stuff that sounds like those "Hey, kids!" spots of yore. Unless you're really, really, really in touch with pop culture, don't even try... unless, of course, you're so out of touch you become cool because you're so not cool. You see the problem."

[marketingfix]

IAR: AOL Wins Legal Round Against Spammers

The ISP said a U.S. District Court in Virginia has awarded it close to $7 million in statutory damages in connection with its ongoing complaint against CN Productions, formerly of Rockford, Illinois. The company has been fighting for at least four years to get CN Productions to stop spamming its members. [...]

AOL called the ruling important because it was the first case in which statutory damages have been awarded under the amended Virginia anti-spam statute. The law (Va. Code Ann. ss. 18.2-152.1 et seq.) calls for spammers to be assessed fines upwards of $25,000 for each day they send unwanted spam.

[marketingfix]

DM News: Web Buyers Use Catalogs Differently, Forrester Says

Though the Web isn’t replacing catalogs, online shoppers increasingly use print books more as desk references than as points of purchase, and merchants should evolve their catalogs accordingly, said a recent report by Forrester Research. [...]

[C]atalogers should identify online-heavy and catalog-heavy consumers in their databases and design catalogs aimed at them accordingly, Forrester suggests. Online-heavy consumers should get catalogs that have less content and more references to online features.

Consumers naturally use different media based on their respective strengths. It's still harder to browse through a wide selection of products on the web than on a catalog. On the other hand, search is obviously where online shines. New form factors such as Tablet PCs might take the Internet where it didn't go before (e.g. the couch,) but it's very revealing that the publisher of an online directory strongly increased its viewership when it converted its online database into a downloadable pdf (no doubt for printing purposes.)

[marketingfix]

Internet usage has shifted from routine to essential, according to findings that demonstrate an increasing reliance on the medium worldwide. [CyberAtlas]

Press Release: IAB Email Committee Issues Guidelines for Obtaining and Using Email Lists

Launching its first initiative since forming barely six weeks ago, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Email Committee has announced an Ethical eMail Guarantee, a set of suggested guidelines to be applied to the manner of obtaining and use of eMail lists by IAB member companies.

[marketingfix]

Nielsen//NetRatings analyzes who is going where on the Web, and for how long. [CyberAtlas]

FantomNews: Google's "SEO" Information - More Of the Usual Boo-Boo

Earlier this month we reported that Google had released some general advice on how best to choose a search engine optimisation company.

In certain areas of the community this went down well. However the editors at FantomNews, a leading hardcore SEO publication, are far from impressed.

To top it all, Google even makes bold to assume an authoritative stance on SEO industry business practices by actually advising its readers: "For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee." Ah yes, and no matter the costs of site development on clients' behalf, the hours spent on in-depth keyword research, the resources devoted to advising clients on how to style and layout their pages, to name but a few standard services offered by present day SEOs?

[marketingfix]

IAR: Are Pop-Ups Doomed?

With the rollout of the latest version of its browser, Netscape joined a band of Internet service providers and Web publishers catering to users' dislike of pop-up ads.

This would be much more significant news if it was Microsoft making the announcement about Explorer. One can only hope.

[marketingfix]

Online shopping figures show consumers are consistently spending more this season. [CyberAtlas]

comscore: Consumers Again Break Online Spending Record, Reaching $2.2 Billion, Reports comScore

Up from the $2 billion reported last week.

comScore Networks, the standard in Internet behavioral measurement, today reported late-breaking e-commerce results for the holiday shopping week ending Dec. 13, 2002. Online consumer sales totaled $2.2 billion, an all-time weekly spending record, reflecting 37 percent growth versus the second shopping week following Thanksgiving last year (week ending Dec. 7, 2001). Spending on non-travel goods and services increased 36 percent versus year-ago to $1.7 billion, while travel spending increased 41 percent to $507 million. Consistent with comScore expectations, Thursday, Dec. 12 was the peak non-travel sales day for the holiday season to date, at $288 million.

[marketingfix]

BlogTalk - A European Weblog Conference: Web-based publishing, communication and collaboration tools for professional and private use.

Two days, academic, May 2003, Vienna, Austria. English and/or deutsch. Established bloggers of renown, thomas n. burg of randgänge fame and Max Scheugl of Freies Usability-Wissen, are putting it together. Sponsored by Danube University. Call for Participation in English and auf deutsch. Good list of topics. Metablogger heaven.

With luck, we'll see the last of the Schneegloeckchen in bloom, take a walk through the Wienerwald (are they still standing?), and see if tafelspitz makes for better blogging. I've never been east of Zürich or Milano, so this should be a treat. 

[Phil Wolff: Blue Sky Radio]

ClickZ: Paid Inclusion Listings May Get Boosted at AltaVista, Part 2

Perhaps part of the process would be to begin classifying this content. You have great news articles and want them included? OK, that might be considered for the editorial database. Have a product database of 100,000 items? Clearly, that's commercial content, and we'll dump it into our commercial index. But don't worry -- we always provide both listings as part of our results and, in fact, list commercial listings above our editorial results, so there's a benefit to the paid inclusion program.

For now Google - and its new offshoot Froogle - don't propose paid inclusion at all. This dogma probably won't resist two quarters of slower growth at Google, in case they fail to meet their financials goals. And paid inclusion of commercial sites, if done fairly and at a decent price point, might in fact benefit merchants who'd rather pay to have all their site indexed in a timely manner, than living with the fear of arbitrarily disappearing from Google (it happens.)

In related news, our Froogle report is well underway to be ready for publication by early next year.

[marketingfix]

Media Guardian: Marketers turn backs on traditional advertising
ElectoronicNews: Internet marketing predicted to rise

Marketers will increasingly move away from traditional media advertising in favour of cheaper alternatives such as direct mail and the internet, according to a major new business survey (London Business School Survey of 700 chief marketers in the US, Japan, UK, France and Germany).

Marketers expect to spend just 44.4% of their budgets on media advertising next year, down from 45.4% in 2001. But interactive marketing (e-mail marketing, website design, internet advertising and mobile/SMS/MMS ads) including the internet - will see its share increase to 7% from 6.1% last year.

[marketingfix]

eMarketer: Online Health Users Around the World

In a round up of studies focusing on the usage of the Internet for health related information, eMarketer found the following:

53% of US adults go online for health info.

The Internet is the number one source of health info in Australia.

Health sites offering info on desease, prevention, and cures rank highest over other health related sites. (Canada)

Japan has the highest percentage of Internet users that have visited health information sites. (90%)

[marketingfix]

Text Management and Radio Weblogging [klogs]

NYT: A New Voice at Pepsi
Media Guardian: Britney bounced out by Beyonce

Britney, the pop star who has been a PepsiCo celebrity endorser for nearly two years, has been supplanted as the most prominent voice of the Pepsi generation by Beyoncé Knowles of the vocal group Destiny's Child.

Ms. Knowles, who at 21 is the same age as Ms. Spears, has agreed to appear in two television commercials as well as in radio and Internet ads and in-store promotional materials, the company said yesterday.

Pepsi is a global brand. The internet is global. Britney is global. It was a perfect relationship. A quick glance at Google Zeitgeist demonstrates why this break up will be so damaging - Britney is no.2 globally, no.1 in the UK and France and no.3 in Germany, in respective categories. She is also the no.1 image search. Her dominance is confirmed over at Lycos top 50 where she is no.4 in the "web's most wanted 2002." She was also the no.3 most asked about artist on Ask.com. Beyonce is nowhere to be seen.

If that's not enough proof then look at what happens when Britney takes on Beyonce in a Google Fight - She knocks her out in under 1 seconds - 6,110,000 results to 129,000.

For anyone who saw the success of the Britney Pepsi SuperBowl ads last year, and more specifically the huge buzz that they created online, will undoubtably be stunned by this move. This stinks of an overpaid Gen Y "guru" sticking his internet ignorant nose in where it can do the most damage. Forget street vibes, the net doesn't lie. Britney still rules.

[marketingfix]

Clients of the e-mail marketing services provider can now enjoy Habeas' white-listing benefits, so long as they adopt a double opt-in approach. [internetnews.com: Top News]

Introducing: Gawker

Blogtrepreneur Nick Denton has launched Gawker (live as of a few minutes ago), a New York society "thin media" web site (it calls itself a "Manhattan weblog magazine") that aims to turn a profit through advertising.

Denton describes the site as "a live review of city news, and by news we mean, among other things, urban dating rituals, no-ropes social climbing, Condé Nastiness, downwardly-mobile i-bankers, real estate porn -- the serious stuff."

[marketingfix]

ClickZ: Email Optimization Tips for 2003

7 email management tips:

Hygiene

Spam "scans"

Response-based modeling

Sophisticated segmentation/analytics

Integration with all media

Advanced testing

Distributed campaign management

[marketingfix]

A trio of studies forecast good prospects for the interactive marketing industry next year. [internetnews.com: Top News]

Thanks to everyone who commented, most of them were incorporated into the spec. At this point you may use the module in RSS feeds, and thanks to the magic of namespaces, as an extra bonus, you may also include them in other XML formats that are not RSS 2.0. [Scripting News]

I just committed code which validates the new creativeCommons rss module.  What this entails is the following:

• Ensuring that the value of the license element is a fully qualified (i.e., non-relative) rfc2396 URI.
• Warning if the creativeCommons prefix is used to indicate any namespace other than http://backend.userland.com/creativeCommonsRssModule.
• Warning if both the creativeCommons:license and cc:license elements are used.

This continues the effort to codify RSS Best Practices.  The first bullet above is the same concern as the one expressed on <a> and <img> tags previously.  The second is to avoid confusion.  The third is because while the following are both valid RSS 2.0, there is no precidence rule used to arbitrate between them should they differ:

<cc:license rdf:resource = "http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0" />

<creativeCommons:license> http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0 </creativeCommons>

[Sam Ruby]

Creative Commons Unveils Machine-Readable Copyright Licenses

Monday, December 16, 2002

San Francisco, CA – Creative Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the creative reuse of intellectual works, launched its first product today: its machine-readable copyright licenses, available free of charge from creativecommons.org. The licenses allow copyright holders to easily inform others that their works are free for copying and other uses under specific conditions. These self-help tools offer new ways to distribute creative works on generous terms – from copyright to the public domain – and are available free of charge. (more)

The third-quarter numbers culled by PwC give the industry group cautious optimism that a rebound is underway. [internetnews.com: Top News]

EmailSherpa: Top Seven Email Marketing Tests You Should Conduct in 2003

These ideas are suggested by Karen Iannone, Smarter Living's email marketer who is responsible for sending out more than 10 million emails per month:

Text vs. HTML

Track Responses Based on Name Source Offer

Frequency of Mailings

Short vs Long Copy

Forms Inside Email

Improving Double Opt-In Conversions

Newsletter Layout

[marketingfix]