FRANKthoughts

In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics Opening Night tonight, Hitwise showed us an interesting Weekly Market share of visits by country.  Australia and New Zealand has picked up considerable interest in the last two week leading to the Olympics.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

No doubt each of the UK and US market will have their own local Olympics news sites from major media networks such as NBC, ESPN, etc.  The style, local heroes focus, and tonality will still drive a majority of local visitors to local sites.  In reflection of Yahoo7’s brand flat or little growth in audience numbers, they will be relying on the Olympics and current brand campaign to deliver the audience numbers.

Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends?q=olympics&ctab=0&geo=all&date=mtd&sort=0) also shows Australia and New Zealand is also interestingly driving the top 1 and 2 spot in searching the keyword “Olympics” in the last 30 days.

It’s time for Australia to get excited!

Hot on the heels since the launch of Cuil, there is a new search engine in the market called Viewzi.

When different users search for certain keywords, they may be after the same information for different reasons.  They could be images, news, history, videos, etc.

Viewzi aggregates different search engine (google, yahoo, youtube, etc) and visually displays it based on what you’re after.  Eg. a timeline of news events, celebrity images, site screenshots, down to your simple text results.

Will this be a Google beater?  I doubt so… it’s more complex and Google is still the best in giving me what I want - FAST.  But I don’t really care who is better… it’s just another great tool to help improve my searching experience online.  I can already see how this will benefit me when I need greater depth in my search where Google does not offer.

See what this guy has to say:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is talking about the future of advertising with the Washington post.

(You’ll need to wait until the ad is over and click on the third video named: future of advertising).

What do you think will happen?

Via MediaFuturist

In 2008, we’ve been expecting the long tail of social networks beginning to appear. To give you an idea, check out this link to see the companies that are offering whitelabel social sites. 40+ social sites plus linkedin, facebook, bebo, myspace, etc… There are social networks and community sites beyond MySpace/FB for Youth, even for Mums, Dads, GrandPas, GrandMas, and freakily the Departed..

Youth
I’m primarily seeking communties that are under 18, beyond just MySpace.

Club Penguin, Disney
8-12, Virtual World

Stardolls
Young Girls 10-17, Social Network, virtual dolls

Barbie Girls
6-16, Virtual World

WeeWorld
Youth, Avatar based Social network

Zookazoo
6-10 year olds, Virtual World

Club Penguin, Disney
8-12, Social network, virtual dolls

Gaia
Teens, Virtual World

Habbo Hotel
European Youth, Virtual World

Cyworld
South Korean youth, (and now global), virtual/social network

Neopets
Youth, Virtual Pets

Pixie Hollow, Disney
Young Girls, Virtual Pet

Teen Second Life
Teen, Virtual World

Webkinz
Youth, Virtual World

Piczo
Teens, Social Network

Shining Stars, by Russ
Youth, ‘name a star’

Puzzle Pirates
Youth, Gaming, Virtual World

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50+
Now of course, boomers and retired are also going to be on lifestyle social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, but I’m seeking examples that are focused in on reaching these folks.

Eons
50+, Social NetworkBOOMj
50+, Social Network

Tee Bee Dee
Boomers, Social Network

There’s a larger list of Boomer sites, many I’ve not heard from.

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Departed
Someone suggests this in the comments in Friendfeed, makes sense.
Legacy
Respectance
Tributes.com
SweetMemoriesSite
ChristianMemorials
PreciousMemoriesAndMore*Thanks to Jeremy for putting this list together.

The incremental increase niche social sites are a natural progression of the marketing environment… carving your own market.

So currently who owns your network? Who essential owns your friends? I wouldn’t be surprised that part of the T&Cs while registering into MySpace/Facebook forfeits your ownership (thou I haven’t actually read it… who does?!).

This brings rise to Data Portability of your social network. One point where all sites like Facebook and Footbo.com can pull my social network from. All my friends stored in a single point so I can fluidly move across different social networks based on my interests. This is an iniative Google has taken on with OpenSocial. Now Google owns my email, my searches, my maps, my computer, my addresses, and my friends.

Is this the time we start evolving our ways in measuring acquisition accountability? Since 2007 we already understood the halo effect of various digital media placements have in effect before a customer visits the landing page. Although we knew this, we’re still attributing sales to “Last Click” ad. For example a customer’s path to buying insurance could be:

1st May - Saw an ad on NineMSN Entertainment

3rd May - Saw an ad on Yahoo Mail

3rd May - Saw an ad on Adconion network

4th May - Google Search and clicked on a paid link to visit the site

8th May - Saw an ad on DGM network

9th May - Google Search and clicked on a paid link

9th May - Bought insurance on the site

From the 1st of May to the 9th of May, who do you account the sales to? A research has accounted “Last Click” sources from display are 63%, Search 25%, and Affiliates 12%. Startling figures but we still rely heavily on SEM. Don’t get me wrong, SEM does send qualified leads to your site (a low hanging fruit option) but when partnered with other media (ie display banners), Search can get more credit than it really deserves. Is “Last Click Only” a dying acquisition metric? Do affiliates need to evolve to offer more? For agencies, we also need our ad serving partners to also provide advancements in “path to action” from number of ads displayed before a response is created to optimise frequency AND to monitor campaigns holisticly across various channels… display, affiliates, sem, etc.

I’m thinking a sharing based model where networks share $$$ from an acquisition rate. The closer to the funnel the more they’ll get. Eg. Last Click = 30%, Last viewed 20%, Second last viewed 10%, and so on. Realisticly… I don’t think that will ever happen.

Now… what happens if someone saw an outdoor billboard amongst all those digital ads… if only we could ever track that!

More porridge anyone?