“Cool” Explanation of Social Media

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Via Brand Autopsy.

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Slower Economy Will Accelerate Shift To Advertising On The Web

A new five-year forecast by IDC predicts even though overall advertising will stagnate during the next five years, Internet advertising in the U.S. will grow eight times faster than the average. IDC says Internet advertising will double in the next five years and become the second biggest advertising medium eclipsed only by direct marketing. That forecast would place Internet advertising ahead of newspaper and television in total ad revenues.

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URLs in Magazine Ads Dramatically Increase Website Traffic

I would have thought by now that every company puts their URL in their magazine ads. Apparently not. A study sponsored by the Magazine Publishers of America demonstrates that including a URL in ads can boost traffic to a company’s website by up to 186% over ads that don’t feature the company’s web address.

Including a URL just seems like a no-brainer. I picked up a number of magazines around the house and started checking for URLs in the ads. Whoa...I was surprised to find many ads that didn’t have a URL displayed. And most of the companies that were advertising in these publications (without the URLs) would have definitely benefited by building more brand engagement through additional website traffic.

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Short But Sweet At Google I/O

If you’re like me and missed your opportunity to attend Google’s premier developer gathering this week--Google I/O, you where likely following your favorite Google blogs rather obsessively on Wednesday and Thursday, trolling for early insights before the inevitable mainstream analysis. Google did not disappoint with two days of nearly 100 sessions on AJAX & JavaScript, APIs & Tools, Social, Maps & Geo, and Mobile. An opening keynote by Vic Gundotra (VP, Engineering), kicked off discussion with three key themes: the Cloud, Connectivity, and the Client.

Vic’s keynote also answered a common question regarding Google motives...What is Google doing hosting a developer conference if Web is the platform?

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Mobile Banking Moving into the Fast Lane

Consumers, start your cell phones! Mobile banking services in the U.S. appear to be poised to triple by 2009 (Aite report), or to double by 2010 (Sybase report). Despite research finding differences, one thing is clear: U.S. banks are ramping up efforts to make consumers aware of mobile banking, consumer clearly want the service, and that means bank marketers are ready to put technology and marketing dollars behind it to get you the consumer to adopt it.

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