Digital Media World

An investigation has been launched by the IAB and the IASH into the misplacement of display ads within the ad exchange community.  The investigation comes after the Yahoo! owned exchange Right Media was implicated for ad misplacement and NMA spotted ads for brands such as T-Mobile and easyCar on the explosivefightvideos.com and also large blue-chip companies such as ING direct and Orange advertising alongside pornographic content.

Right Media have responded by saying, “When content is inadvertently miscategorised by a member of the exchange, we help our members communicate to correct the situation. We have rigorous standards and guidelines for our members.”  But critics are calling for all display advertising exchanges to become IASH compliant to ensure ad misplacement does not occur.

This instance and the examples listed clearly show the dangers of using ad exchanges and blind networks as part of your media plan.  Although the promise of cheap impressions and large volumes can be tempting, the reality can often be misplaced adverts and ads appearing in inappropriate locations.  If you are going to use these channels, then make sure they are controlled and regulated and don’t be tempted by the cheapest, run of site options, at least make it channel specific so you can have some idea of where you are going to be appearing.

I have previously blogged about the increasing use of social media impacting the number of users accessing webmail accounts and now it appears the same is happening with instant messaging services. The number of minutes spent on instant messaging services has dropped by 1 billion minutes in the past year! A billion! bringing the total time spent to 2.9 billion, that over a 25% drop in usage.

The drop is being blamed on the emergence of social networks as communication tools. With Facebook now offering instant messaging and also the multitude of ways you can use to keep in touch through social network, messaging services are apparently becoming unnecessary. As with anything else it is unlikely to be “the end” for these services but it has certainly had an impact. I use messenger for work purposes and Facebook is obviously never going to take the place of that, and you could argue that Facebook is only a rival to messaging to the people who are constantly online, and wont apply to people who only check their account once a week. Either way, 1 billion minutes is a lot to lose.

Was it a plant? Wasn’t it a plant? The guy who posted the video on Youtube and Nintendo claim that there is no link between them and this is not an attempt at social/viral media which has gone wrong. In reality the arguement is unimportant as Nintendo will have benefited massively from the exposure Wii fit has gained through this story so whether it originated from them or not doesn’t actually matter, it is still a huge success. Im not sure whether the viewers on Youtube are marvelling at the technology behind Wii fit but they are showing an interest in something!

Some of the articles relating to this story:

Wii Fit Underwear Girl a Marketing Hoax
Wii Fit YouTube clip gets two million admirers
Wii Fit turns YouTube sensation

And here is the link to the video, I would have embedded it but for some reason it is messing up the page layout!

Wii Fit YouTube Video

The finance comparison market has been a very lucrative and successful one over the past 5 years and it seems that Google has finally decided that it wants a piece of the pie! The screenshot below is taken from a Google UK search for secured loan (interestingly it only worked in IE and not in Firefox) and shows the Google Merchant Search function appearing above all PPC listings with drop down functionality allowing the user to select their desired loan amount before they even leave the SERP. Once an option is selected the user is taken to the Google Merchant page with their options shown based on the original selection, much like with all the other comparison sites in the market.

At the moment it appears this is just in Beta on the secured loan keyword but surely if successful this will be rolled out onto all other financial products. I couldn’t see where Google was getting these results from, and so I am not even sure if the providers know they are being compared (although I assume they are aware) and there is not indication of how a company would get its products listed, although this could just be a closed beta for now.

This could have massive implications for the comparison market, above and beyond the fact that there is another competitor in the market. In the first instance they have knocked moneysupermarket off the top PPC listing which will impact their volume, I am assuming they are not paying themselves a premium CPC for this position! They are also allowing themselves much more prominence on the page than a standard listing. 49 characters for a title and drop down functionality make it stand out on the page. Users could also see this as an easier option than clicking through a link and going through the whole process on a separate engine.

On top of this, if the beta is successful, what is to stop them adding in a variable to quality score which penalises other comparison sites? In one fell swoop generating themselves both more revenue from the sites willing to pay more and reducing the prominence of these sites and so driving more volume through their own tool. I may be a cynic but I can see it happening. Moneysupermarket spend a lot of money with Google but if they see a bigger opportunity in doing it themselves then they will surely pursue this avenue instead.

Is this the end of independent comparison sites? No, I doubt it, but if/when the beta is expanded it could be a big dent in their revenues and they will have to think of other ways to differentiate themselves. Some insurers (direct line to name one) are already boycotting the comparison sites and if Google is to offer this service for free, which they may well do in the name of stickiness and keeping people within the Google realm, more could follow suit.

In a bold move into the world of social media and UGC Becks has announced that it is searching for a fulltime blogger to become PAYE and work just for them. This is an interesting move by the beer brand and they have obviously given it some thought, at least I hope they have. Id be interested to see what they think somebody is going to blog about all day long in the beer/alcohol industry, The content produced will obviously benefit their site and hopefully keep people coming back but is this just a case of another company deciding they need to “do” social media, without fully considering what that means to them? Who knows. Im not sure I will be applying but it will be interesting to see the outcome of the project and whether it has any significant benefit to them as a company.

http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Articles/7b004cd4e19e4330adeab76402946f2d/Beer-brand-Beck’s-hunts-for-full-time-blogger.html