Internet overtakes television to become biggest advertising sector in the UK

Guardian reports: Record £1.75bn online spend makes UK first major economy to spend more on web ads than TV, says IAB

The UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75bn online spend in the first six months of the year.

The milestone marks a watershed for the embattled TV industry, the leading ad medium in the UK for almost half a century. It has taken the internet little more than a decade to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK.

UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the six months to the end of June, a 4.6% year-on-year increase, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. To put this in perspective, in 1998, when the IAB first measured internet advertising, just £19.4m was spent online.

The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets

The IAB originally predicted that internet ad spend would overtake TV at the end of 2009; however, the crippling advertising recession accelerated this by six months. TV advertising fell about 17% year on year in the first half, to about £1.6bn, according to the report.

"Hackers" eclipse Texas campaign's online event

Houston Chronicle reports: Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been trying to use social media and the Web to talk to voters, but his video conference Tuesday was allegedly sabotaged when fake users flooded servers and prevented people from logging on. Opponents claim the governor just had a technical glitch, but Perry's campaign vows to "identify those responsible for this illegal activity."

Apple Blocks Health Care Advocacy App

Apple has taken heat recently for blocking seemingly benign and, in some case very helpful, iPhone apps submissions--most notably Google's Voice app. Matthew Burton reports that an independent developer is claiming that his app, iSinglePayer, has been blocked by Apple for being "politically charged."

Business + Politics: The Role Of Public Affairs

Had a great time this evening speaking about politics + business at USC's Marshall School of Business - here is the slidedeck.

Business + Politics: The Role Of Public Affairs

View more presentations from Marc Ross.

Social media prompts shift in ad world

Social Media Today repors: The advertising world will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 50, concludes an IBM global survey of consumers and ad experts. Social media is expected to be a driving force behind these changes, as ads become more interactive, creative and audience-specific. "Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising," Michael Gass notes.

Americans Following Politics News Unusually Closely

Chris Cillizza of The Fix reports: Thirty-six. That's the percentage of Americans who say they are following national political news "very closely," the highest off-year number since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.

Back in 2007 that number stood at 30 percent and in 2005 -- the last off-year election without a national presidential contest year in the offing -- just more than one in four Americans (28 percent) said they were following national political news closely.

The increase in attentiveness is largely the result of Republicans and, to a lesser extent, Independents, ratcheting up their interest in political news.

Back in 2005, just 26 percent of Republicans said they were closely following political news while 41 percent said the same in the most recent Gallup survey. The percentage of Independents paying close attention to the news jumped from 30 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2009. Democrats during that same time frame had more modest gains -- from 26 percent to 30 percent -- in terms of those within the party paying close attention

Economist: Did You Know? V4.0

Social Media Workshop - New Economy

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Social Media Workshop - New Economy

View more presentations from Daniel Priestley.

Kings hire their top blogger

Kevin Roderick of LA Observed reports: Sports teams everywhere are trying to figure out a way around the declining volume and quality of the free media they have long enjoyed. The Los Angeles Kings are adapting by hiring Rich Hammond, the beat guy for the Daily News, to work for the team writing game stories and other items. He will have a level of editorial independence — and his blog Inside the Kings is moving to the team's site. It has been one of of the best traffic generators at the Daily News, apparently. Hammond will also travel to road games, something the Daily News hasn't done regularly for years.

Hammond explains his new role.

What costs more? Katie Couric or NPR's news?

From CJR's Michael Massing: Katie Couric's annual salary is more than the entire annual budgets of NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered combined. Couric's salary comes to an estimated $15 million a year; NPR spends $6 million a year on its morning show and $5 million on its afternoon one. NPR has seventeen foreign bureaus (which costs it another $9.4 million a year); CBS has twelve. Few figures, I think, better capture the absurd financial structure of the network news.

Google Sidewiki could turn Web into one massive network

WebProNews (Lexington, Ky.) reports: Google is set to introduce a program that allows users to comment on any Web site and then displays comments from other users in a side bar as you peruse the Internet. Rather than personal connections, the comments displayed will be based on a number of rankings, including the users' reputation. "Google is becoming one giant social network of sorts," Chris Crum writes.

Twitter Gets an Unofficial App Store [INVITES]

Twitter Gets an Unofficial App Store [INVITES]

Posted using ShareThis

Valuable Customer Insights Via Search Engine Tools

Valuable Customer Insights Via Search Engine Tools

Posted using ShareThis

Sorrell says Google is becoming friendlier 'frenemy'

Staff of Brand Republic reports: Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP Group, has said that Google has become a much friendlier "frenemy" than it has previously been.

Company Drops Case Against Twitter For Hosting Fake Account

Wendy Davis of MediaPost reports: The Oklahoma energy company Oneok filed a lawsuit this week against Twitter for allegedly allowing an impostor to create an account on the service. But the lawsuit, filed in the northern district of Oklahoma on Tuesday, has already been dismissed. Oneok alleged in its court papers that someone who wasn't affiliated with the company created a Twitter account under the Oneok name and then posted at least two tweets. The tweets also allegedly displayed Oneok's diamond-shaped logo, which is also trademarked. ... Read the whole story > >

New Book Recalls the Image-Making of Obama's Campaign

Designing Obama from mas / menos on Vimeo.

WaPo 44: The Obama Presidency Blog: After the passionate criticisms of late summer, the fervor for Barack Obama that resulted in an icon-creating artistic outpouring on his behalf in 2008 can seem like a distant political memory. Now the former design director for new media for Obama's campaign is looking to bring some those memories back into circulation by publishing a book that collects the posters, graphics and art of the campaign to elect Obama.

"Designing Obama: The Book" is the brainchild of Scott Thomas, today an independent design consultant with no connection to the White House. (When I spoke with him Friday morning, he was on his way to give a presentation to a New York Times Web team.) But in 2008, he ran the design department for the Obama for America campaign, where he was responsible for the look of the Web site, the creation of those blue "Change You Can Believe In" posters and the overall consistent look of the Obama brand.

The project started then, though informally, as Thomas began collecting images, and after he organized a poster campaign where outside artists contributed art in support of Obama's bid for office. "The response we got was really terrific," he says. "It was a fun thing to do -- artists have typically been against politicians."

More than 100 artists have signed on to have their work featured in the 360-page volume, which Thomas will be self-publishing after raising money through KickStarter.com, a small-dollar fundraising site for creative projects. He needs $65,000, he says -- the minimum for a print run for such a glossy, full-color book -- and is hoping to raise it in $50-$150 increments using this "Obama-like fundraising model."

Publishers were interested in the volume, but he didn't want to follow their visions, he says, and he decided to self-publish as a way of maintaining his original concept for the book.
Donors also become pre-orderers of the book. Since launching the project on Wednesday, "we're already over 10 percent of the way" to the fundraising goal, Thomas says.

Social tech could make travel easier

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports; Using social-media tools to provide travelers with vital information could provide a competitive advantage, speakers at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce meeting said. Presenters argued that the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport could use social media to provide information about security lines, parking availability and other travel tips.

Check out what TSA is doing with social media - http://twitter.com/TSABlogTeam

Burberry to launch own social network

Financial Times reports: Upscale fashion brand Burberry plans to roll out a social network next month, meant to win fans in the face of a sluggish U.S. market and weaker wholesale numbers. Artofthetrench.com will invite users to send in photos of themselves in the brand's signature trench coats. Burberry already has quite a social-media presence, boasting 660,000 Facebook fans.

How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results

The McKinsey Quarterly reports: Companies that use social media applications say they've seen clear benefits from the technology, according to a McKinsey survey of 1,700 executives. About 69% of those surveyed said their use of social networks had increased innovation, improved their marketing plans and given them access to new information. The survey found that companies that made the most use of social technologies tended to see the largest benefits.

Reporter tweets off-the-record Obama comment

The Politico (Washington) reports: In a rush to break news, an ABC White House reporter tweeted that President Barack Obama called rapper Kanye West a "jackass" for his behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards -- without realizing that the comment was off the record. Though the message was quickly removed and ABC apologized, the tweet can still be found through Twitter search.

Not only can the tweet still be found, but the whole world knows about it. I have seen Obama's comment posted on various news sites and socnets that I frequent.

Simply put - very interesting.

What will ABC do?
What is Terry Moran's responsibility?
Will Terry Moran be shunned by Team Obama?
Will Terry Moran's luggage make the next hotel bag drop?

50 cent on CNBC

Facebook challenges LinkedIn for recruiters

CNNMoney.com/Fortune/Brainstorm Tech Daily Brainstorm blog reports: While LinkedIn still draws recruiters from 40% of Fortune 100 companies, firms are also using Facebook for recruiting more often, writes Jessica Shambora. Some companies say they want to attract younger workers, making Facebook a more natural fit. It's a trend users are becoming more comfortable with, Shambora notes, as they grow used to sharing their personal lives online, blurring the lines between the personal and professional.

Studios use apps to promote films

PBS/Media Shift blog reports: Film studios are using social apps to generate buzz for upcoming films, in reaction to the increasing influence of reviews on social sites such as Twitter. Sony Pictures promoted "Zombieland" by offering a game that updated users' Facebook status, spreading the word to all their friends. "All Sony Pictures apps will have a social-networking component by February 2010," said Kara Bilkiss, a Sony vice president.

The Secret To Successful Internet Marketing: A Blog

SAI reports: Internet marketing firm HubSpot's bloggers report that blogging is a great form of internet marketing.

Obviously, one should be wary of the messenger here, and the methodology isn't exactly scientific. But the results are overwhelming.

HubSpot looked at 1,531 of their small and medium sized clients' sites, roughly half of which had blogs. Clients running blogs had 55% more visitors than those who didn't, fueled by 97% more inbound links and a whopping 434% more indexed pages.

Seth Godin's reading list

Find it here: http://www.squidoo.com/book-roundup

Microsoft Testing Bing & Ping

Media Post reports: Microsoft has begun inviting Facebook fans to sign up and test a program it calls Bing & Ping, which will let them share what they search for on Bing with friends through Facebook, Twitter, email, and possibly other social sites that are soon to be announced.

Fans will have the opportunity to share restaurant recommendations and local movie times, post a flight status with Facebook friends, and more. Microsoft plans to share more information in the "coming days."

Bing's Nicholas Kerr provides examples related to football in a blog post on how someone might use the new tool. "Say you use Bing's Instant Answers feature to check the score of the game, and you notice that your buddy's favorite team has just been beaten pretty handily," he writes. "Say you want to 'delicately' remind him of their less-than-stellar moves with the ball." Bing & Ping lets you share the NFL instant answer through social networks, reminding friends that their team has no defense.

Many of Bing's 67,676 Facebook fans, such as Imran Hussain, Suzy Tonini and Justin Scarborough, have already posted comments asking Microsoft to sign them up. "can i be in bing and ping please???" Scarborough writes on Bing's Facebook page wall.

Scarborough, senior search manager at Razorfish, says: "I was hoping to get in, but I haven't received an invite yet." He wants to use the service for research purposes for the agency.
Those who want to take the feature for a test drive need to become a fan of Bing's Facebook page. If invited, fans must submit their Windows Live ID to receive additional details of the feature and examples of how to use Bing & Ping.

Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer, says people who are planning a trip might want to share the information with friends they plan to take a trip with, but sharing the information broadly across all your Facebook friends really doesn't make sense. "It seems you would only want to share the information with specific people," she says.

The idea of social networks becoming a continually changing database of what consumers are interested in and what they might want to purchase at any given time is a theme carried through Williamson's latest report, titled "Marketing on Social Networks: Branding, Buying and Beyond."

Social networks are not just a superficial way for people to share quotes from music lyrics or photos of their kids or play games. Yes, "staying in touch with friends" remains the most common reason consumers continue to come back. But the true value resides much deeper.

"The information on Facebook should be turned into a clickable link," Williamson says. "If the link links to Bing, a search may come up automatically. Of course, this is all speculation until they make the announcement. It could be a tighter integration between Bing and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It might get more people who would have searched on Google searching on Bing."

Got no friends? Now you can buy them on Facebook

revolutionmagazine.com reports: Not very popular but got some dough? Then the new service from Australian company uSocial could be for you. From today, Facebook users will be able to buy friends from as little as six pence a time.

Should you want them, uSocial claims it can get you 10,000 followers for a little over £700. In fact there is no upper limit on the number you can go for, as long as you buy in batches of thousands, according to Leon Hill the founder and chief executive of uSocial.

"Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool, as anyone with a large number of targeted friends or fans can attest to," said Hill. "The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a following; which is where we come in.

The method employed by uSocial involves scouring Facebook for people interested in topics related to the brand or person employing the company and simply asks them to befriend them.
Hill denies that the service is comparable to spam and boldly claims that uSocial is "the world's premiere advertising service". But he does risk incurring the wrath of Facebook as the social network stipulates that profiles cannot be used for commercial gain.

Justices to Revisit Campaign Finance

WSJ reports: The Supreme Court next week will hear arguments on whether corporations and unions have a right to spend their money on campaign advertisements, in a case that tests not only a central pillar of federal campaign-finance law but the court's own respect for precedent.

The Supreme Court has been chipping away at the 2002 federal law that limits political spending by corporations and unions, finding that the regulations infringe on their free-speech rights. But it has left standing a key 1990 decision that served as a foundation for the bill -- formally known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and better known as McCain-Feingold, for its Senate sponsors, Arizona Republican John McCain and Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold.

In that 1990 decision, the high court by a 6-3 vote upheld a Michigan campaign-finance law requiring corporations to channel their political fund-raising and spending through political action committees. Congress relied on that decision when it crafted McCain-Feingold and, in 2003, the court reaffirmed the 1990 case in a 5-4 vote upholding the new law.

Since then, however, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who voted in the 2003 majority, retired, and her successor, Justice Samuel Alito, has been far more skeptical of campaign-finance regulations. In March, the court heard a relatively narrow challenge to McCain-Feingold, and was expected to decide the case by June. Instead, the court declined to rule, opting to interrupt its summer vacation for a special reargument on the broader question of whether to overrule the 1990 decision in the Michigan campaign case.
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Next Wednesday's session will be extraordinary on several counts. It will be the formal debut of newly confirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first high-court argument by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and three of the country's best-known litigators are expected to appear -- former Solicitors General Theodore Olson and Seth Waxman, and First Amendment specialist Floyd Abrams.

Chief Justice John Roberts, like other conservative members of the court, has been critical of campaign-finance restrictions and has voted to pare back McCain-Feingold since joining the court in 2005. But the chief justice also has cited the benefits of stability in the law and respect for the court as a nonpolitical institution as reasons to refrain from changing positions simply because the court's membership changes.
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The case before the court, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, originated over whether a 2008 feature-length movie critical of then-presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton could be classified as an "electioneering communication" subject to regulation.

Friends, not editors, shape internet habits

Charles Miller has had his media diet reshaped by social networks.

Just a year ago, the customer service executive for DirecTV in Los Angeles began his day by looking at the home page of the Yahoo website, surfing links to the big news stories selected by the site’s editors. But today Mr Miller begins his day on Twitter and Facebook – primarily social networking sites – where he reads stories and watches videos suggested by his friends and connections.

Mr Miller’s changing habits are representative of a broad shift occurring among internet users.
With social media on the rise, traditional internet portals such as Yahoo and AOL, once the front doors to the online world, are being spurned in favour of social sites, where users are discovering a new, more personal filter to the infinite world of the internet.

“The people you know are going to pick things that are more interesting to you,” says Mr Miller.

End of Auto Shows?

Social media is already impacting the runway fashion show - will auto shows be next?

WSJ reports that with the expense and members of the audience filming, photographing and tweeting from their seats, the current runway format feels about as modern as Brylcreem. “Instant Web has really put a lot of pressure on the system,” says Jennifer Uner, who as a fashion publicist has maintained Los Angeles’ fashion calendar for years.

Why won't the same happen to auto shows - what is so necessary about waiting to see the next auto products according to a dated promotional model that is expensive, timely and bureaucratic?

Chinese bloggers hail Green Dam ‘victory’

FT reports: A garden party in east Beijing billed as a protest against a government plan to fit all computers with Green Dam, a controversial web filtering software, turned into a celebration on Wednesday after the programme was postponed.

“The government has learned a valuable lesson that you cannot treat your citizens like that,” said Ai Weiwei, an outspoken artist who had invited internet users to spend the day in a garden restaurant and off the web to mark the day, originally the government’s deadline for the program’s introduction.

About 200 bloggers, artists, journalists and students frolicked on the lawn and sipped ice-cold beer, many wearing T-Shirts mocking Green Dam.

Mr Ai, holding court on the terrace in a pink T-Shirt, declared the government’s last-minute climbdown a victory for public opinion.

Indeed, the announcement by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday night that the deadline for the blanket introduction of Green Dam would be delayed followed a barrage of ridicule and scorn on the internet, China’s freest public space and one closely watched by the political leadership.

How 20 popular websites looked when they launched

Telegraph reports: From Google to youtube, from craigslist to flickr - how some of today's biggest sites looked back in the early days of their existence.

To view click here.

More Viewers Watching TV and Web Simultaneously, Study Says

SAI reports: Is the Web eating into the amount of time people spend on TV? Or is TV still the primary tool of entertainment? Neither...or both...

People are spending more time on both TV and the Web simlutaneously, says Reuters, citing a Neilsen study:

Nielsen said in a report that 57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers.

The Nielsen study found the average TV viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28 percent of the time they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television.

So forget old versus new; we think these numbers present a marketing opportunity for companies to use one medium to promote the other, rather than viewing both mediums as competing with each other.

Lack of social media talent will stunt investment growth, say experts

revolutionmagazine.com reports: Growth in online marketing investment will be "hampered" by the lack of social media talent coming out of the UK, according to specialist recruitment firm Major Players - emphasising the need for companies to smarten up and get training.

Investment in the social media market is set to see the fastest growth of all online marketing for the next five years, at an annual rate of 34 per cent, according to research by Forrester.
However, results just released by Major Players indicate the growth may be stunted by a sheer lack of social media knowledge in the talent pool

Mark Begley, Major Players' head of digital and creative, said despite a 390% growth in the number of candidates with social media experience in the last two years, these candidates only make up approximately only 2 per cent of the total talent pool.

Begley said: "Forrester's research relating to growth is emphasised by what we are currently seeing in the market place. An increasing number of companies have expressed their need to find highly skilled people to help build their social media capabilities and provide effective return on investment."

Two per cent is still a rather large group of talented individuals, Begley argued, but to combat a potential shortfall due to an increase in demand, companies should invest in the short term in social media training.

Begley said: "Companies looking to develop in this area should also look to recent graduates, because they're more comfortable with social media and generally more tech savvy.

"Despite the industry's reluctance to recruit graduates in the current economic climate, the compromise between finding the right skill sets and alleviating future skills shortages may prove an effective long range strategy for companies looking to gain a competitive edge."

My Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Here is a list of my upcoming speaking engagements:

September 14-17 - Conference Chair @ The Advanced Learning Institute’s 11th National Conference on Social Media for Government – Chicago, USA - http://bit.ly/bc86v

September 17 - Guest Lecturer @ UNC Kenan-Flagler EMBA Marketing Class - Chapel Hill, USA

September 19 @ Leadership Institute’s Future Candidate School - Springfield, USA - http://bit.ly/z0U6q

October 14 @ Ohio Economic Development Association (OEDA) Annual Summit – Columbus, USA

December 6-9 @ Harnessing the Power of Social Media Marketing Conference – Dubai, UAE

I am accepting additional opportunities to present, speak and conduct workshops on grassroots, social media and campaigning. Please contact me to make the necessary arrangements.

Pittsburgh Paper to Launch 'Members-Only' Web Site

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has launched "PG+," a "members-only Web site with interactive features and exclusive content" available to subscribers for $36 a year. "It will allow subscribers access to a new stream of exclusive blogs, videos, live chats, and behind-the-scenes insights."

What does it mean to be a VIP in Pittsburgh? Will this work? Will anyone care?

Buy and sell words on Twitter (kayak, jerk and pants all less than $2)

Gareth Jones of revolutionmagazine.com reports: Pretweeting is a new Twitter app that allows users to maker a virtual profit by buying and selling words on the microblogging service.

The app encourages Twitter users to predict the terms that will be popular in tweets and buy them up before their prices increases. They can then trade them on the 'Pretweeting' stock exchange to generate virtual profits.

Words are priced based on how often they're mentioned on Twitter. A word that costs $10 has been mentioned in one percent of all recent tweets.

The most popular words on the site are ‘the', ‘you', ‘is' and ‘on'. However, users can also be the proud owner of 'bitch' (2.69), 'internet' ($3.85) and 'hahahaha' ($2.31), as well as dozens of others.

Once signed up to play, users are required to follow @pretweeting via Twitter for updates and instructions. Participants get $10,000.00 to start buying words, and are able to purchase up to 1,000.

Pretweeting is the latest in a long line of Twitter apps to launch over recent weeks including RichTweets, which lets users enhance their tweets by adding a range of colours, images, videos and even widgets.

Google makes bid for Hollywood ad dollars

Dan Leahul of revolutionmagazine.com reports: Google is attempting to woo entertainment industry ad dollars by allowing brands to display prominent videos in its paid search results, as it continues to move away from its core plain text ads towards more interactive opportunities for marketers.

What First Year Harvard Econ Students are Reading

Reading list for upcoming seminar organized by Greg Mankiw for exceptional economic students:

The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner
Spin-Free Economics, by Nariman Behravesh
Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman
Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff, by Arthur Okun
Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
The Return of Depression Economics, by Paul Krugman
Animal Spirits, by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller
The Myth of the Rational Voter, by Bryan Caplan
Economic Gangsters, by Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel
The Price of Everything, by Russell Roberts

After you order these - check out his blog and get educated: Greg Mankiw's Blog