Cell phone college class opens in Japan

By Yuri Kageyama AP Business Writer / November 28, 2007

TOKYO—Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they can take a university course.

Cyber University, the nation's only university to offer all classes only on the Internet, began offering a class on mobile phones Wednesday on the mysteries of the pyramids.

For classes for personal computers, the lecture downloads play on the monitor as text and images in the middle, and a smaller video of the lecturer shows in the corner, complete with sound.

The cell phone version, which pops up as streaming video on the handset's tiny screen, plays just the Power Point images.

In a demonstration Wednesday at a Tokyo hotel, an image of the pyramids popped up on the screen and changed to a text image as a professor's voice played from the handset speakers.

Cyber University, which opened in April with government approval to give bachelor's degrees, has 1,850 students.

The virtual campus is 71 percent owned by Softbank Corp., a major Japanese mobile carrier, which also has broadband operations and offers online gaming, shopping and electronic stock trading services.

The cell phone lectures may be expanded to other courses but for now will be for the pyramids course, according to Cyber University, which offers about 100 courses, including ancient Chinese culture, online journalism and English literature.

Unlike the other classes, the one on cell phones will be available to the public for free, although viewers must pay phone fees.

The catch is the lectures can only be seen on some Softbank phones. The service may be expanded to other carriers, officials said.

Sakuji Yoshimura, who heads Cyber University and gives the pyramids course, said the university provides educational opportunities for people who find it hard to attend real-life universities, including those with jobs and those who are sick or have disabilities.

"Our duty as educators is to respond to the needs of people who want to learn," Yoshimura said.

He scoffed at those who question the value of Internet and cell-phone classes, noting attendance is relatively high at 86 percent. Whether students play the lecture downloads to the end can be monitored by the university digitally, officials said.

Although real-time exchange with professors and other students isn't possible in Net classes, social networking and other cyber-discussions are flourishing, said Hiroshi Kawahara, professor in the Faculty of Information Technology and Business.

Social networks, online games are a match

Jo Ann Hicks doesn't identify with gamers, but she spends hours online every day playing Kaneva.

The 41-year-old homemaker likes the shopping-and-partying game — where she operates a virtual nightclub and hosts parties — because it helps her interact with people, not provide escape from them as traditional games often do.

Social and gaming networks, once considered polar opposites, are cross-pollenating as online interactions replace prime-time TV and other, more traditional media experiences. Games like Kaneva are attracting players that games like Super Mario Brothers never did.

"I run around and act like a 40-year-old person. I have my little clan we hang with. What people will say is more interesting to me," Hicks said of her preferred game. "As opposed to Mario, who's only going to jump."

Game developers say there's money for both sides in this convergence.

Social networks that incorporate more features of "massively multi-player online games" could enhance their already-substantial earning power. And gaming sites would benefit from increased membership and broader acceptance.

David Dague, a 34-year-old executive in Chicago who runs a website called tiedtheleader.com, said games have changed fundamentally since the early days of Space Invaders.

"I've seen gaming go from a solitary thing to where there really is a cinematic experience going on in front of you that you can share in a social capacity," said Dague, whose site coordinates matches in Xbox Live games like Halo 3 and hosts forums about gaming.

"Video games have become the ultimate party line," he said. "The question is, who are you sharing it with?"

Played in virtual worlds with advertising and goods for sale, games like KartRider and Kaneva now go beyond the scope even of early interactive games. They're less about skill levels and escapism and more about joining friends and strangers in virtual spaces where chatting, comparing fashions, going dancing — and, yes, slaying monsters — are all options.

For their part, networking sites are encompassing more interactive features that consume increasing amounts of users' time — long considered a defining feature of computer games.

MySpace and Facebook are massively multiplayer games in disguise, says Gabe Zichermann, who is developing "rmbr," which he says will make a video game out of tagging and sharing digital photos.

"The reason why Facebook is a really compelling MMO is because it's fun and you get something out of it," he said.

There are interactive titles like Scrabulous for Facebook, and MySpace is rolling out a games channel early next year.

"They're going to be able to monetize their users at the same level (as the games do)," Jessica Tams, managing director of the Casual Games Association, said of the social network sites. "That's a lot of money."

If each of Facebook's 33 million and MySpace's 72 million October users — according to figures from comScore Inc. — paid a dollar each visit for a new outfit for his or her avatar in a game, that would have produced a lot more revenue than the fractions of a penny the sites got for each click on an ad.

Nexon, which has offered free, socially rich video games for years in South Korea, introduced its English-language version of KartRider for use in North America in September.

In October, the year-old North American version of Nexon's Kaneva had 84,000 members, according to comScore. Once players download the game, they see advertising and can buy all sorts of virtual clothing and upgrades for a few dollars apiece.

It's a substantially different business model from online fantasy games like World of Warcraft, which tend to require subscriptions, at $15 or so per month, and usually don't allow users to buy things for real money, online or off.

"Think of World of Warcraft as kind of closing the book on this generation of games," says Christopher Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management. "Those folks who are developing the next generation of massively multiplayer games really need to raise the bar anew."

Venture capital, technology and media firms invested more than $1 billion dollars in 35 virtual worlds companies between October 2006 and this October, according to a study by Austin-based Virtual Worlds Management, a company that organizes conferences to discuss emerging online trends.

Second Life— where users can buy their own plots of land to build stores, castles or anything else they can imagine — is creating a game within a game with CBS, called The Virtual CSI: New York, that melds networking and gaming. Avatars will be able to go to crime scenes and figure out what happened.

The lure of interactive online games is so strong it can cut into users' sleep and boost the time they spend playing, according to a month-long study by Syracuse University psychology professor Joshua Smyth.

Smyth found that MMORPG players spent on average 14.4 hours a week playing — twice as long as video game players who don't interact online.

Stephen Prentice, a senior analyst for the Gartner Group in the United Kingdom, believes the time is right for such online social video game services to take off. The big question is who will succeed first.

"The huge opportunity is for a lightweight, three-dimensional environment, a virtual world equivalent of Facebook," Prentice says. "Trying to predict who that is going to be is difficult. Anything could happen here."

Facebook Demographics
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Marketers Enlist Mobile Phones as Utility Vehicles

By Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK Beginning next month, the cold-and-flu wary will have a new weapon in their prevention arsenal: weather alerts sent to their cell phones courtesy of Vicks.

The messages are part of an effort by parent company Procter & Gamble to develop mobile applications, rather than use the cell phone as just another venue for media buys.

Other big-name marketers, like Coca-Cola and AT&T, have launched similar efforts. In some cases that means application development takes priority over mobile media buys, with brands using their vast distribution and marketing channels to promote the utilities.

"Consumers are used to ads on the Internet, on TV and in magazines," said Carol Kruse, vp of global interactive marketing at Coke. "The mobile phone didn't start out with ads."

That's leading Coke, P&G and others to test the increasingly popular concept of branded utility: tools advertisers can supply to help consumers perform tasks, rather than messages that interrupt. Think Nike+, the running-and-music system that enables runners to track and compare their training progress with others.

"At the end of the day, if they tap into why you own the phone, brands can figure out how they can help you deal with your life," said John Hadl, CEO of Brand in Hand, a mobile marketing consultancy, which advises P&G on mobile strategy. "What can brands do for us that also ties in to the brand benefit?"

The move to create applications comes as surveys show consumers express wariness that their cell phones will turn into another source of ad overload. A Harris Interactive survey in the spring found various forms of mobile ad messages, from search result placements to banner ads, were rated "unacceptable" by more than 70 percent of respondents. Seeing a video clip from a nearby store was found "acceptable" by only 16 percent.

"Placing ads on mobile sites is just a media placement compared to finding the applications consumers want [in order] to interact with the brand on the go," said Doug Levy, CEO of imc2, an independent digital agency.

Coke is making few mobile ad buys with providers like Third Screen Media, AdMob and other mobile ad networks. Instead, it is placing a big bet that it can provide utilities to consumers. Its first test case is The Yard, a Sprite-themed mobile social network it launched in June here and in China. It is in the process of rolling out the platform in Europe and other regions.

"The industry is still trying to figure out how to do that in a way that's acceptable to consumers," Kruse said. "We're really focusing on providing fun and engaging experiences for consumers."

The challenge for such applications is getting them to actually add value consumers can't get elsewhere, according to Hadl. Just mimicking an existing utility won't cut it. For makeup brand CoverGirl, for instance, P&G created a "ColorMatch" application that recommends shades based on complexion and clothing and accessories colors. Women would not have their computer with them at the store, making the mobile phone an ideal choice, he said.

In a more recent campaign, AT&T tapped the phone as a handy tracking tool for fans at last month's Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii. A mobile campaign gave spectators the chance to receive text message alerts when athletes passed one of 11 checkpoints. For a race that takes competitors anywhere from eight to 20 hours to finish, the service was a perfect fit, said Robert Tas, CEO of Active Athlete Media, which developed the program for AT&T. The athlete tracker attracted more than 15,000 sign-ups and 100,000 brand impressions. "It added value," said Tas. "It wasn't crap. It really made the experience better."

The move to provide branded utilities on mobile devices and elsewhere is unlikely to eliminate media budgets. After all, consumers need to know about the tools before they can use them. MediaVest is buying mobile ads through Third Screen Media. Former AT&T agency GSD&M Idea City promoted the Ironman athlete tracker via Active Athlete's network of endurance athletics sites. Sprite is leaning on the millions of bottles it sells per year (and its Facebook fan page) to raise awareness for The Yard.

Brands need to think of what they're getting out of applications, said Scott Symonds, executive media director at AKQA, an independent digital agency. Unless an application lines up with a brand promise, it won't do much good, he warned. AKQA used this litmus test earlier in the fall with a mobile campaign that suggested wine-and-cheese pairings to supermarket shoppers on behalf of Visa Signature. The campaign was designed to appeal to the Signature brand's target consumer: the well-to-do who enjoy travel, dining and leisure activities. "Ideally we can do some twist or implementation that gives the utility a flavor or voice unique to our client brand," Symonds said.

Another big challenge for mobile campaigns at this point, according to execs, is how to measure success. Comparing the value placed on interaction rates online to mobile is "apples to oranges," Hadl said. "They're both fruit, but one you bite into and the other you peel." P&G agency MediaVest, part of Publicis Groupe, has hired Dynamic Logic, a campaign effectiveness research firm, to conduct a study of the effectiveness of the Vicks effort in driving purchase intent.

The mobile medium is still maturing and doesn't provide many rich experiences, said Benjamin Palmer, CEO of The Barbarian Group, an independent digital shop. "There just isn't too much of a mobile marketing medium right now other than alerts," he said, something he expects will evolve with the popularity of the iPhone and as other handset makers come out with units that mimic its features.

"Right now mobile is in a utility-focused place," said Symonds. "If we can provide brand utility and it's still keeping with what the client's theme is, we'll trade a little messaging for utility."

Facebook Stats - Age, Gender, Education Level, Political Views, and Relationship Status

Inspired by a post on Techcrunch, below are some statistics found using Facebook’s advertising audience selector. Data is for the U.S. and all percentages (Group/Total U.S. Facebook Users)*100. So in short, they are out of the entire U.S. Facebook population, not the group. Hopefully that makes sense.

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far

By MICHAEL FITZGERALD

ON the surface, the mobile Web is a happening place. There’s the iPhone in all its glory. More than 30 companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance from Google, which aims to bring the wide-open development environment of the Internet to mobile devices. Nokia, which owns nearly 40 percent of the world market for cellphones, is snapping up Web technology companies and has made an eye-popping $8.1 billion bid for Navteq, a digital mapping service. There are also the requisite start-ups chasing the market.

It all looks good, but the wireless communications business smacks of a soap opera, with disaster lurking like your next dropped call.

In 2000, the wireless application protocol was supposed to bring the Internet to the cellphone. Our hero turned out to be a flash in the pan. That was attributed to a lack of high-speed cellular data networks, so a frenzied and costly effort to build third-generation, or 3G, networks ensued. But at a recent conference, 3G was called “a failure” by Caroline Gabriel, an analyst at Rethink Research. She said data would make up only 12 percent of average revenue per user in 2007, far below the expected 50 percent. (The 12 percent figure does not include text messaging, but you don’t need a 3G network to send a text message.)

Similarly, surveys by Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, show that only 13 percent of cellphone users in North America use their phones to surf the Web more than once a month, while 70 percent of computer users view Web sites every day.

“The user experience has been a disaster,” says Tony Davis, managing partner of Brightspark, a Toronto venture capital firm that has invested in two mobile Web companies.

While many phones have some form of Web access, most are hard to use — just finding a place to type in a Web address can be a challenge. And once you find it, most Web content doesn’t look very good on cellphone screens.

Even the iPhone’s browser can disappoint. It has a version of the Apple Safari browser that doesn’t support Flash, a programming language widely used on Web sites, so users are limited in what they can see on the Web. And, you pay a lot to experience the pain of surfing the mobile Web. Lewis Ward, an analyst at the International Data Corporation, compares the mobile Web today to AOL before it went with flat-rate pricing in the early 1990s. Most people surf on a pay-per-kilobyte model, which encourages them to surf as fast as they can, he says.

The carriers, however, seem to be having a change of heart about the mobile Web. AT&T has allowed Apple unusual control over the network in the iPhone, and Sprint and T-Mobile have signed on to the Android development platform of the Open Handset Alliance.

Industry watchers think that having started, the mobile Web will inexorably open over the next five years, solving many current problems.

For instance, there’s the challenge of finding things on the Web from a mobile phone. John SanGiovanni, founder and vice president for products and services at Zumobi (formerly ZenZui), which was spun out of Microsoft Research, says his company hopes to make it easier for phone users to find phone-ready versions of sites they want. On Dec. 14, it plans to introduce the beta, or test, version of its slick-looking software. It will include colorful “tiles” that phone users can “zoom” into and out of quickly as they move from site to site. (The tiles resemble the iPhone’s widgets, or icons on a desktop computer.)

Zumobi hopes that cellphone users will adopt tiles as their entry point to the Web; the company offers a scrolling interface of 16 such tiles that provide information with mass appeal, but users can set their own preferences. Software developers will be able to build a tile — in fact, Amazon.com has 12 ready to go — and put it on Zumobi’s platform. Tiles can carry ads as well, creating revenue potential for carriers and developers.

THE chairman of Zumobi’s board is Tom Huseby, a longtime entrepreneur and investor in the mobile business and now managing partner at SeaPoint Ventures. Mr. Huseby says the mobile Web is going through a predictable cycle involving the development of handsets, networks and markets. Now it is in the last phase of innovation: figuring out how customers want to see the Web from their phones. He says the answer will be to give people what they want, when they want it.

“You got to have open systems, to allow the vast creativity of people to take place,” he says. Zumobi, Android and other developments, he says, will help create such openness.

Other approaches to solving this problem include Yahoo Go, a mobile Internet product certified to display Web pages correctly on more than 300 handsets, and another from InfoGIN, an Israeli company whose product automatically adapts Web pages to work on cellphones.

The plot has plenty of time to twist yet again. Nathan Eagle an M.I.T. researcher, is working on mobile phone programming in Kenya, where he’s teaching computer science students how to build mobile Web applications that don’t use a browser. Instead, they rely on voice commands and speech-to-text translation to surf the Web

“People talk about the mobile Web, and it’s just assumed that it’ll be a replica of the desktop experience,” Mr. Eagle said. “But they’re fundamentally different devices.” He says he thinks that the basic Web experience for most of the world’s three billion cellphones will never involve trying to thumb-type Web addresses or squint at e-mail messages. Instead, he says, it will be voice-driven. “People want to use their phone as a phone,” he says.

For now, widespread use of the mobile Web remains both far off and inevitable.

Michael Fitzgerald writes about business, technology and culture. E-mail: mfitz@nytimes.com.

Top 50 Site Rankings for October Issued, Retail Surges

As various retail categories gained in the run-up to the holidays, the top 10 web properties in October remain unchanged from September.

Yahoo Sites again topped the rankings with 137 million visitors, according to the comScore Media Metrix monthly analysis of activity at top US online properties, reports MarketingCharts.

Google Sites, Time Warner Network and Microsoft Sites — all with more than 100 million unique visitors — rounded out the top 4 web properties.

The October data released by comScore:

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/11/26/top-50-website-rankings-for-october-issued-retail-sites-surge/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

Can Clear Channel Help Mobile Marketing Take Off?

Giant's Outdoor Updates, Push to Inhibit Cellphone Spam May Spark Category

By Andrew Hampp

Published: November 26, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Next year could finally be the year when mobile marketing takes off.

Sure, you heard the same venture-capital-driven rallying cry about 2006 and 2007, but Clear Channel Outdoor is betting that 2008 really is the year. It's updated 1,000 of its venues to take advantage of what Michael Hudes, global director of digital media, calls "Outdoor 2.0," a vision of the cellphone as a remote control for consumer interaction.

Outdoor campaigns using text messages and Bluetooth technology have been popular and widely deployed by companies such as Clear Channel, JCDecaux and Kinetic in the U.K. and Asia but have taken longer than expected to catch on stateside. That's probably due to slower uptake of cellphone technologies over here but also, some experts believe, because consumers are concerned that once they make themselves "deliverable" in a Bluetooth or wireless ad network, their phones might start receiving mobile "spam."

Clear Channel has plans to tackle the spam issue. It's partnered with mobile-content company Qwikker to ensure interactivity remains in the consumer's hands by including a call-to-action element in each campaign. At Cemusa bus shelters in New York City this year, for example, consumers had to choose to download video clips from Discovery shows such as "Planet Earth" and "Last Man Standing." For Pepsi, ads in airports asked consumers to subscribe to downloads from this year's Pepsi Smash concert series.

'Last thing you want'
Once a phone is in a network, it will be made "discoverable" by vibrating or ringing, giving the user the option to respond. If there is no response after several times, the phone will stop sending alerts. "The last thing you want for four weeks is your phone jingling in your pocket every time you enter into the proximity of a network," Mr. Hudes said.

Saul Kato, founder and chief technical officer of Qwikker, said the company tracks about 800,000 mobile-phone interactions per day, a number he expects to double by the end of the first quarter as the technology is adopted more widely.

There's no doubt marketers have been angling to get into the space for a long time. Michael Collins, CEO of Kinetic Worldwide's mobile division, said he receives multiple requests each day from clients who want to get into more Bluetooth and text-based campaigns. What will take mobile marketing to the next level will be a widespread view of the mobile phone as more than just a phone, he said, pointing to "American Idol" text-message voting and the iPhone as prime examples.

"It's not even a consumer issue [anymore]," he said. "It more pertains to the mobile ecosystem, getting the carriers to figure out what their roles are going to be and how to play them."

More clients
Expanding the client base beyond the traditional entertainment marketers and wireless carriers also will help increase spending in the space. EMarketer predicts it will be a $16 billion industry by 2011.

Mr. Collins cited a recent mobile campaign with an "old-school brand" in which the client used ads essentially to ask consumers to buy its product over the phone. Even though the client paid $100 per phone call, he said, all it needed was a .01% response to justify the entire media spend for the campaign, which "is right now doing better than that," Mr. Collins said.

With Bluetooth adoption pegged at more than 65% for 2008 and Google's much-anticipated Android service rolling out soon, projections are already high for the first phase of Clear Channel's Outdoor 2.0., with 300 venues expected to be up and running by this time next year.

"It's no longer a question of when. The channel has arrived," Mr. Collins said. "Now it's up to the marketers to come up with creative campaigns and be able to execute them."

E-Mail and Text Us, Consumers Say

NOVEMBER 16, 2007

Just send something.

When US consumers say they are interested in a company, more than one-half of them are open to getting an interactive follow-up such as a personalized or generic e-mail, or text message, according to Vertis' "2007 Customer Focus Tech Savvy" study.

Vertis found that 40% of men 65 and older said that an interactive follow-up was acceptable, compared with 23% of female consumers that age.

"Adding an Internet component to direct mail campaigns targeting the older population may greatly increase the overall effectiveness of marketers’ spending," said Jim Litwin, vice president of market insights for Vertis, in a statement.

For many US retailers, the problem is that even when they have an e-mail sign-up program, many do not follow up with consumers. Two-thirds of personal care companies surveyed sent neither a welcoming e-mail nor a sales offer, according to the October 2006 E-Mail Data Source's “2006 Retail White Paper” report.

Even in the hardware industry, where only 16.67% of respondents sent no e-mail, that is 16.67% too much.

Such behavior might be seen as similar to unsolicited commercial e-mails, the “better” quality of spam. In both cases, the consumer gets confused and frustrated, and the whole e-mail marketing environment is degraded.

Even those respondents who sent only a welcome message in the first month—such as about 18% of apparel retailers and 14% of department stores—might be considered tardy if they fail to send the e-mail within a few days.

"Just as the CAN-SPAM Act makes it illegal for marketers to take longer than 10 business days to unsubscribe someone from their e-mail program, perhaps it is unwise (if not illegal) to take longer than 10 days to respond to a customer who has subscribed on a company site," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.

News, events and advice on agency compensation matters ...
The following is excerpted from a letter from an AAAA member agency to a major client, in response to a new-business RFP, October 2007:

"ABC Agency received your RFP dated today. The terms of the RFP are not acceptable to ABC and therefore we will not be responding to this RFP. The following terms of the RFP would not conform to our standards or our industry's standards:

• You have asked for speculative creative work without offering any compensation.
  
• You have stated that you would own any work that was submitted, even though you would not pay consideration for the work product.
  
• The outcome of the process may be to not choose an agency or to retain as many agencies as you wish -- making it difficult for us to evaluate the level of investment we would be willing to attribute to this review.
  
• You have not provided an anticipated budget that you would ask an agency to work within.
  
• The timing of the RFP is not reasonable -- speculative work for a major brand in eight days.
  

We would not agree to work on a cost-plus basis for the majority of our work product. We believe that our marketing strategies in the category are significantly more valuable than those used in your example.

If you choose to reevaluate your RFP process to one that is more in keeping with the protocols of both the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers, we would be pleased to revisit our participation in your review. Thank you for considering ABC to be among a group of qualified marketing partners that you would consider."

For more information, AAAA members are encouraged to utilize the resources available in the New Business Tool Kit, available on the AAAAgencySearch.com Web site.

Cheat Sheet: How to Get Your Email Address Into More Address Books - Tips & Rules for Top 10 Receivers + BlackBerry Users

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SUMMARY: Want to get into more address books of your email subscribers and BlackBerry users, too? More than a third of consumers say they aren't asked to do this, which means your email may be getting blocked for really dumb reasons.

We put together a cheat sheet that will help you improve your deliverability and image-rendering. Includes a bevy of how-to tips and rules on creating an address book landing page for your Web site.

It’s pretty clear that marketers don't do enough to get their brands whitelisted or added to their subscribers’ address books. Studies have shown that more than a third of consumers check their junk bins regularly for email from trusted senders because that’s where so many legitimate messages end up these days.

And when you think about the transaction emails to confirm purchases or the other possible kinds of important financial statements being sent, it’s unnerving that these messages get misrouted or lost for good.

What’s more, 38% of consumers said commercial messages rarely or never prompt them to add senders to their address books, according to the April 2007 ‘Email Spam Consumer Attitudes and Behaviors’ study by Epsilon And 57% said they weren’t encouraged (i.e., nudged, directed or incentivized) to add them to their address books either.

Delivery rates, image rendering and response rates would improve if more marketers show customers how to add them to their address books.

Landing Page Tips
Tip #1. If you aren’t already doing this, always remind new subscribers in your Welcome message to add your email address to their address book. Surprisingly, not all eretailers do this.

Tip #2. In each campaign, provide a link to a landing page with information about how they can add you to their address books, including instructions for every major email brand (more landing page how-to below). Most importantly, don’t hide the link. Place it prominently at the top of the message.

Tip #3. Test your email with the objective of getting into people’s address books. For instance, segment your list according to the recipients’ receivers and send them copy instructing them only on how to add to their type of account.

Use a targeted subject line, such as “Only for Hotmail Subscribers,” for each brand segment. In this case, you won’t even need a landing page for the instructions.

Tip #4. Talk to your email service provider about tracking options. While they will definitely be able to track how many people click on the landing page link, it’s pretty unlikely they will be able to keep tabs on the number of recipients putting your brand into their address books, but they may be able to help resolve this issue.

Building the Landing Page
There are many ways to build the landing page. Here are three rules to live by:

Rule #1. Make sure the instructions for as many email receivers as possible can be seen *above* the fold.

Rule #2. Use your normal header with its product categories, search box and whatnot. The consistency and normalcy should make your readers feel more comfortable about adding you to their address books.

Rule #3. Use a clean white background for the instructions copy so it’s easy to read. This also encourages consumers to print out the page or copy and paste the instructions into another document.

Where to Put the Landing Page Link
You want to get consumers to the actual landing page. We recommend that you put an “Ensure Delivery” or “Address Book Help” link at the top of your emails where they can easily see it, whether it’s the Welcome message or a campaign offer.

Instructions for BlackBerrys, AOL, Yahoo!, Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail and Other Email Systems
Here, we have simple yet detailed instructions on how your recipients can add your address to their address books. Just insert the right “From” or header language into where you see [newsletter] and plug your brand into wherever you find [YourCompany], and you should be ready to copy and paste it onto a landing page. Also, we recommend personalizing the landing page language with the “you,” “we” and “our” that’s appropriate for your brand.

BlackBerrys
1. Scroll up to the message header.
2. Get to the field where their name is listed, click the Berry button and then click Show Address.
3. Select and copy that address to the clipboard.
4. Go into Address Book and find the user.
5. Select Save.
6. Click to edit it, and then click the Berry button to add another email address.
7. Paste it in and click Save.

AOL (for version 9.0)
New subscribers need to add the “From” address, “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com,” to their address book:
1. Click the Mail menu and select Address Book.
2. Wait for the Address Book window to pop up, then click the Add button.
3. Wait for the Address Card for New Contact window to load.
4. Once loaded, cut and paste “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” into the “Other E-Mail” field.
5. Make our From address the Primary E-Mail address by checking the associated check box.
6. Click the Save button.
7. For existing subscribers that are seeing messages in the spam folder, open the newsletter and click the This Is Not Spam button.
8. Add “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” onto your Address Book as outlined in the New Subscribers information above.

Comcast
1. Sign into Webmail.
2. On the left navigation menu, click Address Book.
3. Click Add Contact.
4. Under the General tab, in the box under the Email Address, enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com”.
5. Click the Add button.
6. If you have enabled “Restrict Incoming Email,” also do the following:
Sign into Webmail.
7. Select Preferences.
8. Select Restrict Incoming Email. Note: If Enable Email Controls is set to Yes, then you are restricting incoming emails.
9. Select Allow email from addresses listed below.
10. Enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com”.
11. Click the Add button.

Earthlink
1. Click the Address Book button to open your address book in the browser.
2. Click the Add Contact button (if you use EarthLink 5.0 or higher, click the Add button).
3. Type in “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” into the email address slot and then click OK.

Gmail
1. Click on Contacts in the left column.
2. Click on Add Contact on the upper right-hand-side of the Contacts screen.
3. Enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” in the Primary Email field.
4. Click on Save.

Hotmail
1. Click on the Contacts tab at the top of your account.
2. In the left hand menu, click on Safe List.
3. Enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” into the blank field.
4. Click the Add button to the right of the field.

Mozilla Thunderbird
1. Click the Address Book button.
2. Make sure the Personal Address Book is highlighted.
3. Click the New Card button. This will launch a New Card window that has 3 tabs: Contact, Address and Other.
4. Under the Contact tab, copy and paste the “From” address, “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” into the email dialogue box.
5. Click OK.

Outlook 2003
1. Go to your Contacts page.
2. Click on New in the upper-left-hand corner.
3. Enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” into the email address field.
4. Click Save in the upper left of your window.

SBC Global
1. Go to the SBC Global Mail page and click the Options link.
2. In the Management section, click the Filters link.
3. Click the Add button.
4. In the “From header” rule, in the field to the right of contains, enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com”.
5. From the Move the message to pull-down list, choose inbox.
6. Click the Add Filter button to save the filter.

Yahoo!
1. Click on the Addresses tab in the upper-left part of your account screen.
2. Click on Add contact just under the Addresses tab.
3. Enter “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com” in the email field – the rest can be left blank, if desired.
4. Click on Save at the bottom of the page. You should see a confirmation screen.
5. Click Done in the upper left.

Verizon.net
1. Go to your account and click on the Address Book link in the left column. 2. Select Create Contact.
3. The Add Address Book Entry screen appears. In the Email field, type “[newsletter]@[YourCompany].com”.
4. In the Nickname field, type [YourCompany].
5. Select Save.

Is Social Media Killing the Campaign Microsite?

Brian Morrissey

NOVEMBER 12, 2007 -

Digital advocates often proclaim the imminent death of the 30-second spot, but the interactive industry might now be witnessing the demise of its own version of the commercial: the campaign microsite.

The growth of social media is causing marketers to realize they cannot expect consumers to always seek them out. Web widgets and video-sharing tools make it easy for any user to take content that formerly might have lived only on a brand site with them wherever they go. And social media sites help them share that content with friends.

“We really believe in fishing where the fish are,” said Carol Kruse, vp of global interactive marketing at Coca-Cola. “The old model is to build your own site, then spend media dollars to bring them there.”

Coca-Cola brand Sprite last week introduced its newest destination to interact with consumers on the Web. But rather than roll out a dedicated site, the soft drink debuted a customizable animated character called Sprite Sips on Facebook’s newly launched brand pages. At the Sprite Sips page, users can watch videos, listen to music and start discussions. Unlike a standalone site, the Sprite Sips page is linked into the social network, broadcasting to users’ friends their affinity for the brand. It ties into the Sprite Yard, the brand’s foray into mobile social networking.

Dove, Chase and Verizon also have developed pages, which are free to advertisers. Development costs are also lower. Coke bypassed its agencies for Sprite Sips, working with Facebook and a five-person team of freelance application developers.

To be sure, campaign microsites may be a staple of the “old model,” but they are by most accounts not facing extinction—although their role will probably be diminished from star to player in a cast of channels that also includes MySpace, YouTube and widgets. The idea is to spread content far and wide to find audiences wherever they are.

“It’s now fighting with social media and online advertising,” said Mat Zucker, executive creative director of Agency.com, an Omnicom digital shop. “It’s hard to know where to spend your money.”

The shift of younger audiences to social networking is causing some brands to rethink the need for a microsite altogether. After all, MySpace has 100 million users and Facebook another 50 million. MySpace has been the official home of several youth-oriented movies since 20th Century Fox created a page for last year’s John Tucker Must Die. Recent movies Sydney White and Mr. Woodcock relied on MySpace pages rather than standalone sites. With a MySpace profile instead of a microsite, Fox agency Deep Focus was able to turn the John Tucker presence into more than a place for fans to see trailers and download wallpaper. Instead, it was the home for the movie’s titular character and interacted with MySpace profiles for other characters in the film and even fans who “friended” him.

“We had interplay going on that matched up to the plot,” said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus. “Because it was an ever-changing thing, people kept coming back.”

Deep Focus extended that approach to promote HBO’s Flight of the Conchords. After deciding to offer fans a chance to watch a preview episode, Deep Focus recommended against centering the campaign on a microsite. Instead, the episode first debuted on MySpace, followed by release through a dozen other video sites. HBO.com acted as the official destination, but most views came from affiliate sites or personal Web pages that had embedded MySpace video players, Schafer said.

Even one of the most famous microsites, Burger King’s Subservient Chicken, probably would not go that route today, according to Rick Webb, chief operating office of The Barbarian Group, the independent Boston digital shop that created it in 2004. Instead, he said he’d suggest something through Instant Messenger, a social network or video game to reach young males.

The rise of the microsite as the catchall was due in part to marketers looking at the Web as simply an add-on to its traditional media campaigns, Webb said. But for brands looking to reach a young demographic, the Web has now evolved to the point where it is easier to find them in places like MySpace. “We know where they are on the Web now,” Webb said.

As a result, Barbarian Group, which has built its reputation crafting microsites, has moved away from them. Instead, the “Beer Canon” campaign for client Milwaukee’s Best relied on viral videos that lived on YouTube. “It was really hard for us because [microsites] were our bread and butter,” Webb said. “But we know it’s often not right for the clients.”

What’s more, in a world where content is often found through Google, microsites with short shelf lives tied to campaigns have the disadvantage of getting low ranks in search results, said Adam Lavelle, chief strategy officer at iCrossing, a digital agency in New York. “I don’t understand how, long term, [a microsite] builds brand equity, and with search I don’t see that having long-term visibility,” he said.

However, the microsite is still top of mind in many campaigns because of the conditioning of agencies to “create objects,” said Colleen DeCourcy, chief digital officer at TBWA Worldwide. “If you’re going to throw up a microsite, it better have reason to be,” she said. “There are all kinds of forms for things to take.”

Not everyone is convinced the microsite is ready for retirement. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, an Omnicom shop, says efforts by brands to go beyond messaging will not lead them away from microsites. “I actually see the opposite happening,” he said. “Clients are asking for rich and immersive experiences in which to showcase their brands.”

For Kruse, the new options come at a time when companies like Coke are thinking more strategically about their digital initiatives, rather than looking at them as add-ons to traditional media. “We’re building a network of experiences,” she said.

Mobile Location-Based Search Hot, If Free

Mobile-using parents want to track their kids by phone.

New revenue streams may be headed to mobile operators, according to the TruePosition-sponsored "Opportunities for Location Based Services in Consumer and Enterprise Markets” study, conducted by IDC.

IDC found that one-half of US adults surveyed preferred ad-supported location-based mobile search, instead of paying fees for such services.

“Consumers are grasping the concept of location-based services, and they have very specific ideas about how they should work," said Robert Morrison, senior vice president of TruePosition, in a statement.

The combination of GPS or other locator services with local search holds promise for marketers, but even early adopters will have high expectations.

Besides getting advertisers to pay for location-based mobile search, respondents in the IDC study said they wanted the services to work anywhere in the country, including dense metropolitan areas.

Respondents were also concerned about security. IDC said consumers overall wanted to restrict such services to authorized users, and a process to keep out strangers.

With those requirements met, more than one-third of respondents said they were likely or very likely to subscribe to child-locator services in the next 12 months.

In a good sign for location-based services, most US mobile Internet users are interested in task-oriented content, according to an iCrossing study. Users picked maps, weather, local information and news above entertainment and sports as the content categories they searched.

Online Travel Up, Customers Down

NOVEMBER 9, 2007

Traditional agencies still booking business.

The number of North American consumers who take leisure trips is falling even as online travel revenue continues to climb, according to Forrester Research data cited in The New York Times. Forrester found that 9% fewer people will book travel online in 2007 compared to 2005.

eMarketer senior analyst Jeffrey Grau said that the drop in online travel customers could prompt change in the industry.

"Online travel distributors' booking tools were made for mass consumption of uniform goods," Mr. Grau said. "They have yet to switch to to an era of individual consumption of unique goods."

The Times also cited PhoCusWright, which found that online travel booking by Internet-using travelers had fallen to 62% in 2006 from 68% in 2005. Bookings among those who usually arranged travel offline increased to 31% in 2006 from 25% in 2005.

“Customers are tired of spending two or three hours trying to find the airline or hotel or vacation package that meets their needs," said Henry Harteveldt, Forrester analyst, in the Times.

Online travel revenues are still strong because average booking amounts have risen, according to Forrester.

eMarketer predicts continued growth in US online travel through 2010, when revenue will reach $145.8 billion.

Mr. Grau said that personalized service from traditional travel agencies was still very much in demand, presenting a challenge for online travel distributors.

"[They] must become more flexible by allowing travelers to put together travel packages that fit their unique needs," he said.

Web 2.0 Greater in Theory Than Budget

NOVEMBER 2, 2007

Ads still dominate online marketing spend.

More than three-quarters of US marketing professionals surveyed think that social media marketing—also known as Web 2.0—can give them a competitive edge, according to Coremetrics' "Face of the New Marketer" study.

The same respondents said that only 7.75% of their online marketing spending went to such tactics. "Marketers are aware of the impact that social media marketing can have on their overall program but view it as uncharted territory, not worthy of their budget," said John Squire, senior vice president of product strategy at Coremetrics, in a statement.

This may be true for many marketers. But it misses another reason why Web 2.0 is an also-ran in spending to online ads, search engine optimization and other tactics.

Although respondents were enthusiastic about social media marketing, they did not say that the need for competitive advantage should necessarily determine budget. Not every Web 2.0 tactic is appropriate for targeting every Internet user, so marketers could be prioritizing other media in their budgets.

As for what Web 2.0 tactics marketers were using, user-generated content was by far the most popular, followed by blogs, RSS feeds and social networks.