LinkedIn Looks For Fresh Revenue in Research

LinkedIn, the global social network with 30 million professionals across 150 industries, has unveiled plans to open up its global network to test market research as a potential new revenue model.

The announcement demonstrates attempts by key social networks to generate revenue within social media outside of simple advertising or sponsorship. One thing is for sure, the surveys should be highly targetable due to the transparency and trustworthy nature of the site, as well as its ability to select groups according to specialised sectors, including experience, seniority and geography.

Trials have been taking place for six months and already have a participation rate of up to 20%, suggesting LinkedIn could take a strong hold in the market against its competitors.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=132003

- Sam

Every Vote Counts for Obama

And now something for a Friday afternoon...a neat campaign from the Obama camp with the strong message that every vote makes a difference. We've seen this type of initiative before, notably used by the TV series "Dexter," but it's a powerful message from the Democrats.

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=vp8MGu3NcbWWw81d8Ch.7jM1MTQxMTI-&referred_by=11111580-ZCW4Ulx

Please note:
For all of you fooled, this is fictitious. I am English and unfortunately do not have the right to vote in the election. Also I am referred to throughout the video as a man but can assure you I am not!

Have a great weekend.

- Sam

Major Brands Spot the Advertising Potential of Virtual Sports Worlds

Football Superstars, the first “massively multi-player online game,” which recreates a 3D virtual football world allowing thousands of players to compete simultaneously, has recently launched under the watchful gaze of major brands aiming to capitalise on in-game advertising. IGA Worldwide, the leading in-game advertising provider, has already signed up Reebok, Nokia and Puma as partners, with the latter recreating its Carnaby Street store inside the game.

Football Superstars allows players to re-create themselves online as a footballer and then roam freely within the interactive virtual world. Away from the pitch players can socialise in restaurants, bars and clubs, shop for the latest equipment and designer clothes, train in the gym, tease the paparazzi and even pick themselves up a WAG.

As part of the deal Reebok will be using the platform to launch its Ambassador Programme, in which it will be hunting for the best amateur players across the globe. Successful applicants will win prizes in and outside of the game, from in-game currency and both real and virtual sports equipment, to a real life opportunity to interview Thierry Henry.

Another sports virtual world has entered the fray, this time golf. Coining itself the ‘world’s most authentic online golf experience,’ World Golf Tour (WGT)’s aim is to make golf the most accessible and affordable sport for all.

There is a strong social aspect to the game, with players given the option to personalise their profile page and avatar, share pictures and videos, collect friends and share game tips. Players can also read and comment on the latest golf news on the blog and forum. With HD graphics and no need to download software, players can compete simultaneously with friends and families, conversing via in-game chat, sharing scores and testing new equipment.

Check out http://www.wgt.com/. It will be interesting to watch how long it takes for major brands to come on board.

- Sam

Yahoo! Launches New Look User Profile for Yahoo! Open Strategy.

As it inches more towards its evolution into one big social network, Yahoo! has launched its new look user profile; the first proper product release for the social part of YOS (Yahoo! Open Strategy).

It’s been a long haul for the company, which first talked about the new strategy almost a year ago. More details, and a few conceptual screenshots, were announced at CES in January. A newcomer to Yahoo, VP Communities Jim Stoneham, is leading the team that’s creating new social features.

So here’s exactly what Yahoo is launching: a new look for the user profile, and the ability to create “connections,” which are mutual friendships. That’s it for the front end. Yahoo has also created what they’re calling a “vitality system to share updates” on the back end, which is an engine to run activity stream-like content for future releases.

Over the next few months, they say, Yahoo properties will begin to integrate with the new profile. So if you answer a question at Yahoo Answers, for example, the activity will show up in your feed update. Eventually the front page of Yahoo Mail will show what your friends are up to as well. Emails from your connections will also be highlighted, so you can read them first.
If you have a Yahoo account, you can see your profile at profiles.yahoo.com/[username] . The other half of Yahoo’s YOS strategy centres on an open strategy, particularly around search - see TechCrunch’s update from April where some of those features were discussed and released.

Time will tell if this ends up having an impact on targeting, Yahoo’s performance as a media choice, and user stickiness on the site. For the full article, click here.

- Rick

Nokia Unveils Multi-Platform “Voyeuristic” Ad Campaign

Nokia has unveiled a cross-platform new advertising campaign for its new Supernova 7610, aiming to engage and interact with a younger audience via its own ‘web 2.0 drama.’ The integrated campaign, which utilises multiple channels including TV, print, outdoor, radio and digital, kicks off with a TV ad centred around the lives of three characters, with the drama unfolding after they listen to each others’ voicemail.

Upon visiting www.somebodyelsesphone.com, fans can learn everything about the characters through their text messages, photos, videos and calls. They will also be able to add an image of each character’s Nokia Supernova 7610 phone as a widget to their existing social networking profiles. The campaign will run in 10 different languages through a constant content feed over six weeks. When the six weeks are up, the characters’ story lines will hit crucial decision making points, at which stage fans will be able to interact via the website and mobile to decide the characters’ fates, while being in with a chance to meet the characters.

All in all it’s a nice example of an ad campaign which is dependent on user interaction while neatly showcasing the particular product’s key features.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1600158116/bctid1858953112

-Sam

Google Launches In-game Advertising

Along the lines of Microsoft’s Massive and IGA, Google has stepped into the market of in-game advertising. The in-game ads will be sold via Google’s AdSense team and will initially target web games only, reports Brand Republic.

AdSense for Games, which is currently in beta and open only to publishers with 80% or more traffic from the UK or the US, will allow video, image or text ads to be displayed at any point in online games.

The news come on the back of the release of Comscore research which shows that more than 25% of internet users play online games per week, amounting to over 200m users worldwide.

Google's AdWords team will sell ad placements to top brand advertisers and games manufacturers will be able to see contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information. The first big name brands said to be taking part in AdSense for Games include eSurance, Sprint and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/852103/Google-enters-in-game-ad-market/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-Bulletin

- Sam

JanRain helping the extension of OpenID (TechCrunch)

Anyone who has heard my trends presentation knows that I am keen on the topic of OpenID and OpenSocial. Below is a great development of the technology that will allow more sites to begin offering it to their users.

JanRain, creator of some of the most popular OpenID software libraries and a forum-like communications tool called Pibb, has released a new SaaS offering for websites that want to become relying parties for OpenID.

We’re told that the service, simply called RPX, makes it possible to start accepting users with OpenID accounts within one day. This is actually the second SaaS solution provided by JanRain, the first being the similarly named OPX, which lets websites do the opposite: provide OpenID accounts to users, who can then sign into any other websites that accept them. JanRain also provides OpenID accounts to users directly through its myOpenID service.

Helping websites become relying partners is more important (at least at this point in the game) than helping them become providing partners. That’s because few popular sites accept OpenID and, consequently, consumers see little reason to set up OpenID accounts for themselves. This is an even bigger problem than the user experience issues that have plagued the movement over the last few years.

RPX is being marketed toward medium sites that want to increase their registration conversation rates, import user information from elsewhere, and build out connections to other social services via oAuth. It’s not meant as much for big internet sites like Blogger, Plaxo and AOL, who have become relying parties using their in-house technical resources.

The question stands as to whether OpenID will gain momentum through the long tail or adoption by a critical mass of the big players. It will probably take a few very popular services, such as MySpace and Facebook (through their respective Data Availability and Connect services), to popularize the protocol. But once they do, services like RPX should help the long tail take advantage of it.

RPX comes in two flavors: “plus” for smaller sites and “pro” for bigger ones. Pricing starts at a flat fee and then increases based on how many people sign into your site using OpenID during the span of one year.

News Corp Buys Out Jamster

Jamba, or Jamster, the mobile company which creates content including wallpapers, ringtones, mobile games and short made-for-mobile episodes of TV shows, has been bought out by News Corporation.

Jamster, perhaps best known for its Crazy Frog character, was bought out by the global media company for a cool $200m, showing an interest in mobile content that is going nowhere.

- Sam

50% of Social Media Campaigns Fail

I think that we can all relate to the fact that there is a Facebook craze going on with our clients right now. The link below refers to new research from Gartner coming out next week that highlights the failure rate for social media campaigns by Fortune 1000 companies.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10058509-36.html

If you haven't seen the main goals of social media campaigns which Ali Little has been presenting within the Wave 3 decks, please ask him for them. The article touches on the need for a 'mutual purpose' where the community is benefitting from the marketing activity as well as the client. This is part of the overall list which we have been presenting and a simple requirement that is often overlooked.

Please check with Gartner to get this research when it is released and use it as fodder for properly guiding your clients' budgets.

Online Ad Spend Continues to Grow in the UK

Latest research from the Internet Advertising Bureau states that internet advertising spend grew 21% year on year in the first half of 2008 in the UK. Online ad expenditure increased by £348.2m to a massive £1.7bn, as the overall advertising market fell by 0.7%.

Out of all online ad spend, paid search continues to dominate the growth, as it swelled by 28% to £981m year on year in the first half of this year

Guy Phillipson, chief executive officer of the IAB UK, said: "Online is not immune from the economic downturn, but while other sectors see falls in expenditure the internet is still experiencing an incredible increase and is propping up the entire advertising market. The growth in internet advertising spend is beating all expectations as advertisers look to maximise their budgets, and take advantage of new display advertising formats such as video."

The research was carried out in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC).

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/851330/Online-adspend-21-total-ad-market-falls-07/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-Bulletin

- Sam

Good example of offline and online integration: Nissan

From Amy Corr's Media Creativity Newsletter yesterday:

What news and pictures would you like to see on the front page of your Sunday morning newspaper?

That question was posed to subscribers of O Estado De S. Paulo (The State of Sao Paulo), a daily newspaper published in Brazil, over the course of two Sundays.

Sunday subscribers received a blank front page one week, featuring vacant boxes where headlines, pictures and copy normally appear.

Subscribers were given a task: generate the news and pictures that they themselves would like to see in the paper.

Below the fold was an ad for Nissan, the brand behind this initiative. "Escape the pattern. You, yourself should write the news," began the ad.

Inside the ad, created by Lew´Lara/TBWA, were instructions for readers to create their own front page, which consisted of going online, clicking on a Nissan banner ad, writing headlines, uploading pictures and proofing the finished product before submitting the work.

Imagine the surprise of subscribers the following Sunday when each person that submitted a customized front page received their news and pictures printed on the cover of O Estado De S. Paulo. More than 1,000 personalized front pages were created and distributed; a Nissan ad at the bottom of the front page exclaimed, "we proved that deciding what should be the news is out of the pattern."

A full-page Nissan ad on the next page read, "Now that you've read the news, you have a whole day to buy a new car." Subtle, it's not, but it is a great way to connect readers who are used to getting their news from traditional media with digital options to "escape the pattern."

The sheer volume of customization needed to undertake such a project is also impressive, and not seen often in newspaper campaigns.

Report on Social Network Marketing

Check out this interesting report by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) which provides a detailed analysis on social network marketing on Facebook and MySpace in the UK.
It specifically looks at engagement marketing techniques used by brands and suggests brands need to work much harder to engage their public than just looking for users to become a 'fan' of the brand.

The report is free after inputting your details.

http://www.socialnetworkmarketinguk.com/

- Sam