It was announced on brand republic last week that Google and Publicis have been working closely together for the past year and plan to step up their alliance with a proposed staff swapping system which could see “possibly hundreds of Google employees” taking placements with the huge media giant.  This strikes me as being slightly wrong, seen as Publicis owns Digitas, ZenithOptimedia, Zed and Starcom, all of whom work with the Google system for their clients, trying to get the best from paid and natural search results.

Surely there is something wrong with such an alliance which could potentially mean Google staff giving favourable treatment and inside information to agencies who operate in the search sphere, therefore giving them an advantage on the competition.  And if they did, it surely gives the Publicis owned agencies an unfair advantage in their market place.  Im sure the parties invovled are going to claim it is just to learn from each others strategies, processes procedures etc etc but theres has got to be more too it than that.  Am I the only one who is worried by this?

 Full article here

The adwords blog has announced the launch of a demographic bidding beta test and is offering the chance for advertisers in the UK and the US to sign up for the trial.  Reading into the release the targeting is only going to be available on the content network placement network and is dependent on the publisher site having the capability to provide the information on the users.  If the site has this information, more often than not through a sign in system, then it will be shared anonymously to Google and the appropriate ads.

From the detail in this article the benefits of this system over MSN’s own demographic targeting system is that the system will allow you to up weight your bids by a higher percentage (MSN’s limit is 150%) and that you will also be able to choose not to show your ads to certain audiences.  This is certainly an advance on MSN but the impact of it will be limited by the reliance on the publisher site and the fact that the targeting wont apply to the main Google search results, where it could have most benefit.  This is obviously due to the fact that you dont need to be signed in to Google to use it although they could have implemented it for those people who have a Google account and perform searches whilst signed in.  Maybe that will be in the next release, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

As part of its record breaking 2008 marketing budget Cadbury are planning a follow up to their much loved drumming gorilla advert. According to the latest edition of Marketing the new ad will also feature an animal playing an instrument. The original advert was a major viral success achieving numerous blog postings, massive word of mouth and many a parody on Youtube (you can see some of them here). So the follow up has a hard task following in its footsteps, as do he agency charged with creating the ad. The original one worked well due to the human like actions of a gorilla but I cant see many other animals having the same impact without looking too comical. Answers on a postcard what you think the new animal and instrument will be and heres the original again just for fun!

EA have announced that they are going to release a free web only version of its Battlefield title (marketing, 22nd Jan). The version, to be known as Battlefield Heroes will only be available online and will not be sold in stores and will be supported online by advertising within the game and its interface. This is the first major launch in the western market of such a model and the title will spearhead EA’s “play 4 free” model as it moves away from the traditional retail environment.

This could be the first in a long line of initiatives by the big gaming manufacturers to produce ad supported gaming environments and reduce the cost of video games. In game advertising is already heavily behind the rise in online gaming through the games consoles markets but this is the first attempt to launch a web based system. It is going to be interesting how they include the ads into the environment as it will be difficult to keep them in the context of the game, as this is key to its success. But the fact that it is a web interface gives it an advantage over the console based online games. Firstly I would imagine there is a page display which uses a border for elements of the game controls, this provides some space, outside of the game environment which they can sell to advertisers without spoiling the experience too much. Also, there will be log in screens and menu’s they can use for advertising partners.

It will be interesting to see how this works and from a marketers perspective, what response is generating from the ads and whether users pay them any attention at all.

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Search engine land reported today the release of some new functional by ask which allows a user to upload their own personal background image for the search engine.  The functionality to add a skin to the background has been available since last year but this was only for predetermined images and wasn’t customisable.  I like the idea of customising the results page and this is a much simpler solution than Google’s which involves xml information rather than a simple image upload.  It is also much more flexible and interesting than msn and yahoo’s offerings which only allow the selection of different colour palletes for the page.

This functionality is just another stage in the battle for search engine supremacy but also for loyalty within internet users through added value.  Yahoo had this a long time ago through positioning itself as an information portal and one stop shop for your internet needs (email, news, sport, search…) a similar position taken by MSN.  Then Google smashed this with its simplicity and accuracy of results.  But even the big G has recognised the need to give people more and through iGoogle struck a balance between information on the page and usability by allowing the user to choose which information feeds they received.  The issue at the bottom of all of this is keeping people using your page/engine, setting it as their homepage, and a base for all their online activities.  If they can use your site for everything they need online whey would they go elsewhere?  The longer a user in on your site, the more searches they do, the more ads they view, the more ads they click, the more money you make! Simple.  Expect a lot more releases like in this in the next 12 months as the battle continues.

It’ll take a lot more functionality for Yahoo, Ask or MSN to catch Google but I do know people who now use the Yahoo homepage as they prefer it to Google so there is some movement going on.   You can check out the Ask function on the US site here, it is not yet available in the UK.

There have been a couple of posts recently on the social networking weblog about adult social networking sites and the potential for virtual adultery, questioning whether it constituted being unfaithful. I thought I’d delve into this a little more and give it further consideration.

This first article, virtual adultery, briefly discussed the use of social networking sites such as second life and ever quest for building relationship, some innocent, some not so innocent! It then went on to ask whether these relationships constituted adultery. The author and some quoted users didn’t seem to think it did, so long as it didn’t impacted the “real world”. The second article discussed red light center which is a virtual world created purely for engaging with like minded adults and engaging in “adult activities”. This is one step on from the second life example as this platform was set up primarily to engage in “sexual” (I use this term loosely!) activities in a virtual environment.

I have to say personally I don’t agree that it is all ok so long as there is no impact on real life but thought Id do some slightly more “scientific” investigation to get to the bottom of it.

Dictionary.com defines adultery as “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse”. So assuming that one or both of the participating parties is married I guess the next thing to do is quantify “sexual intercourse” which is defined by the same site as “genital contact, esp. the insertion of the penis into the vagina followed by orgasm.” Now I could obviously go on and on with this and begin defining each different points but I don’t think I would get much closer to a conclusion simply because all definitions of this nature are going to refer to one or more human elements, associated with the real world. I would therefore come to the conclusion that it qualifies as adultery if the individuals involved consider their virtual characters an extension of themselves, a bit woolly I know but that’s as close as I can get to a conclusion.

It doesn’t stop there though as there is another factor to consider, betrayal, “to disappoint the hopes or expectations of; be disloyal to”. By engaging in “sexual” activities in a virtual environment whilst in a relationship I would suggest you are betraying your partner, that is assuming they are not aware of what you are doing! The author does make this point in her closing comments from the first article.

“My advice if you want to engage in online relationships is talk to your real life partner about it and see how they feel. Reassure them that’s it’s just a game and a way to have fun, relieve some tension. If they really object then you have two options. Either don’t do it, or be really careful.”

I would echo these sentiments and in my eyes, virtual adultery would constitute betrayal if the partner of one or both parties involved was not aware of what was going on. So if you are looking to make the most of what the virtual world has to offer my advice would be, be honest, be open, or be prepared to sacrifice your real life relationships.

Some of the virtual sex sites across the web include:

Somasex - virtual sex super site
3d-sexgames.com
3dslut.com
Hentai Park

I read in article recently in marketing week entitled “Looking for new ways to make money in the age of free media” which discussed the rise of social media and its increasing strength and importance in shaping a brand and a products success.  The article began intelligently enough discussing the rise of user generated channels and their importance in online PR and reputation management.  This is all well and good and I completely agree with the importance of monitoring and managing a company or brands online profile to aid in its success.  But the closing question posed by the article was “how do they (agencies) get paid?” which I thought was pretty damn obvious.

There are two precious commodities involved in any successful online campaign which are rarely held by a client, expertise and time.  The majority of client side marketers (on or offline) would not know where to begin when looking at their online profile and certainly would not now the best way to leverage the channel to their advantage.  This is where a good agency steps in with the knowledge and the contacts to deal with things in the appropriate manner.  Then there is the time element which is one of the major reasons for any company taking on an agency for any activity.  Only the largest companies have a marketing team which can take on board all work in house and produce work of the desired standard, the majority are best served acting as project manager and the owner of the final decision and leaving their roster to get on with the real work, especially when it comes to something as time consuming as online reputation management.  When you combine these two factors you have a highly valuable, highly marketable product, and with consultants in many channels charging u to £5,000 per day I am surprised the writer asks such a naive question.  After all SEO is technically “free” yet there are countless companies out there charging for their expertise and time in this area, social media and online PR fall under the same category.

I had my first look at the Wikia Search alpha today and I have to say the results are absolute pants!  To be fair to them the people at Wikia do say the results won’t be great at the moment as the basis of their engine is that of user reviews and not so much algorithmic search, hence results will improve rapidly over time as listings begin to get scored by users.  I have to admit that I like the idea of a user ranked search engine, after all, how many websites do you come across which have absolutely no relevance to your search phrase? (my blog ranks rather highly for “search pornsex” for example!) But not only that, a user can make more judgements on things like usability and site layout than a search engine spider which should further help the best websites rise to the top.  The process appears relatively simple, hover over a result and a five star scale will appear allowing you to score the result, this will then be used along with the algorithmic properties to determine a websites position.  This will be wholly reliant obviously on users picking up on and participating in this ranking process so I will be watching with a lot of interest how the results improve over the coming weeks.Aside from the standard results there is also going to be a section at the top of results reserved for “mini articles” on each subject.  According to Wikia “These will vary in purpose according to the circumstance, but the primary uses will be:

• Short definitions
• Disambiguations
• Photos
• See also “

Generated by the users these will obviously take the same form of the Wikipedia pages and will undoubtedly include some Wikipedia content for sections yet to be populated by the new system.  Wikia Search undoubtedly has the potential to become the most relevant search engine but the worry, as has been the problem with tagging sites such as digg in recent times, is that people begin to play the system, creating alias accounts to boost their own contents ratings and therefore rank, totally devaluing the whole platform.  If Wikia Search really does become the next number one contender to the big G then the temptation to find a “quick win” within its system will grow stronger in line with its visitor stats.  At present I believe Wikia plans to get around the duplicate account problem by basing its user on IP address but that doesn’t sound like to much of a robust system to me and I cant imaging it will be long before the spammers have an easy way of beating it.

I may have sounded negative in this post but I honestly hope Wikia Search succeeds, I hate the dominance Google has on the search market.  I also love the thought of users producing the search results rather than a piece of software.  On this initial offering I think there is a long way to go with the next big pretender.

Two contrasting articles have been released today regarding the issues online gamers have been experiencing with th Xbox live platform over the Christmas period.

On the bbc dot life blog the article Xbox live goes limp the focus is very much on the apparent failings of microsoft to produce a good platform for online gaming and on the way they have let down their user base. The writer seems to have an issue with Microsoft and describes this incident as following a pattern set by Microsoft and Xbox for making a mistake and then trying to make amends, in this case by offering a free game download for Xbox live users.

Yahoo News’ article reports the same story but backed up by some more statistics which paints a slightly different picture of the situation when viewed in line with the article from the BBC. In this article the writer explains that Xbox live has at present 8 million registered users and it was purely the size of the take up and usage over the holiday period which caused the outages. The success of the games Halo 3 and Mass Effect had simply pushed the Xbox Live system to its limits and slowed the system down.

These two scenarios present the situation in a completely different light from a microsoft point of view. On the one hand the first article was suggesting that maybe the Xbox live system was not all it was made out to be and that Microsoft were not as advanced as they may claim. While the second few articles show the future as being very bright for the microsoft boys and that it is simply a case of things taking off quicker than expected.

As a digital marketer I was looking at these articles and considering what they meant to in game advertising on the platform. The first one made me think, maybe it is too soon to be getting into? is the platform stable enough yet? and then after reading the next two I was in awe at the scale of the opportunity and the reachable user base. Yes, Microsoft will need to sure up their system but they should have no problems in doing that, and once they do, they can sit back and watch the user base grow and grow based on the current take up figures.

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