Monthly Archives: February 2008
are we soooooo out of touch
This video was shown to us at the recent msn digital conference about how out of touch the advertisers are with their customers.
Hopefully it does not reflect what you do in your company…
[ MSN symposium] Windows Live Services
I guess, eventually the selling / bragging had to start. Brian Kealy, MSN consumer marketing and PR manager shared some of the latest features and numbers of MSN services.
Interesting for me was:
- 300 million MSN messenger accounts globally
- 8,2 billion daily chats
- 14 million daily video chats
- 1 million unique browsers on msn.co.za per month
- 300 thousand SA messenger accounts
- 1 million Hotmail accounts in SA
[MSN symposium ] New Horizons in Digital Media: Ebru Capa
In this presentation, Ebru shared stats and overall growth in online and new media in general.
This included worldwide internet usage stats from InternetWorldStats, Emarketer, quotes from agency and media moguls and some video clips ( Bravia, and the Dove video again!)
She also shared thoughts about new marketing, the new agency, and the role of the digital agency. All really very interesting and serving as confirmation of what we already know and believe.
Unfortunately nothing new here.
MSN digital symposium 2008
What a great day in Noordhoek, Cape Town. Sunny skies, no wind and and a view right down to the blue sea and white sands of the Noordhoek beach from the Monkey Valley resort.
After having started with a great buffet lunch, Adrian Hewlett welcomed everyone and introduced the first speaker, Joost Nienhuis, MSN head of CEMEA, sharing the latest on the digital landscape with us.
He shared the growth in media over the last 50 years, trends in broadband, mobile and internet usage.
He mentioned the now well known principle of same information across the three screens ( TV, PC, cell ), the shortened adoption period of new technology and the multiple forms of access and multi-tasking that online can provide.
The rules of engagement online with the consumer:
- I don’t want to think about technology
- I want it to do everything
- I want it for free
The price for “free” however is advertising. The way to address the consumer:
- Don’t interrupt me.
- Engage me
- Dialogue not monologue
Joost went on to show us video clips of the latest MSN technologies; Massiv in-game advertising, Control Room, Microsoft surface, Photosynt (a new photo album programme) and XBOX as a media platform.
An so the Steve vs Jerry battle continues
Jerry Yang, Yahoo!’s CEO, has issued a statement saying that his board believes that the Microsoft offer for Yahoo! is substantially undervaluing the company. At $ 29.08 a share, the offer is valued at $41.8bn, quite a tidy sum.
47 898 million shares were traded yesterday, the 12 month high was $ 33.63 and the low $ 19.05.
Yahoo! seems to believe that its brand, worldwide audience, recent investments and future plans make it worth much more than a mere $41bn!
Yang was however recently asked to come back and run the company he founded after a string of CEO’s failed to really get the company growing at a rate even close to that of Google.
So, it seems that the shareholders may believe this is a good offer though Yang and his board may not.
Microsoft has already had talks with some of Yahoo!’s large shareholders to get their view and even support for what may very well turn out to be the hostile take-over of the year.
The Loeries Annual
“Loeries MD Andrew Human says The Annual is the ultimate reference guide of the year’s best work that is indexed by brand, agency and production company, as well as by individual credits.” (Bizcommunity.com – Tuesday)
For only R550 excluding VAT you can purchase your own copy of the The Loeries Annual
Paris in April
Last year April I was in Paris and what a great time of the year to be there.
If you have the time and money, go this April, do all the tours and see the attractions and then attend ad:tech Paris.
According to their latest newsletter:
Looking to expand into the European or French market – or already there? Consider ad:tech Paris. Leading digital companies (i.e. Yahoo, Google, ad’link, Netvibes, PriceMinister, Seesmic, Ozone) come together with the most influential international advertisers (i.e. Coca Cola, La Poste, Danone) and their agencies (i.e. Avenue A Razorfish, Nextedia, DDB) to share concepts and visions; to exchange results and experiences.
I really enjoyed the topics of discussion, the level of presenters and the networking, interaction and new opportunities at ad:tech New York in November last year and can only imagine that Paris will be of the same high standard.
How Google Could Keep Yahoo From Microsoft
So, could Google come to Yahoo!’s rescue to keep the Microsoft hounds at bay? It seems that such a plan could be a reality.
According to NYTimes, here is a way it can work:
Here is a back-of-the-envelope way to look at how much is involved. Google agreed to pay a reported $3.5 billion to sell advertising for IAC/InterActiveCorp’s Ask.com unit. In December, according to comScore, Ask handled 1.1 percent of all search queries worldwide, while Yahoo had a 12.8 percent share. That means Yahoo has 11.6 times the volume of Ask. If you multiply the $3.5 billion figure by 11.6, you get a theoretical $40 billion over 5 years. That may be a bit high, as Yahoo had a total of $6 billion in ad revenue in 2007, split between search ads and graphic display advertising.
Regardless of the exact numbers, there are tens of billions of dollars in play that could be used to enable all sorts of financial engineering meant to keep Yahoo out of Steve Ballmer’s hands.
