Posted by Marco Corsaro @ December 25th, 2008 in 77News, Cool Stuff, Social Marketing, Video Advertising, Video of the Week

Long time since I wrote my last post…time goes by too quickly but Carlo correctly told me that it would have been nice if I found the time to wish all the people that follow our blog a fantastic XMAS and holiday period.

Well here I am, on the 25th, waiting for RAI 1 to broadcast “NEMO“…finding the time to mention a great initiative that involved some of the 77 offices…the XMAS Video competition…

About 2 months ago, Melissa, our Affiliate Champion suggested that the 77 offices started a challenge that involved the production of a music video. The result of it made me so proud of 77 and I want to share it with all of you:

77Kiev

77Milan Full Version

77Milan eXtras: The BVDU trailer

77Riga

I have also added a video produced by my little brother about 77 corporate culture

Need to run…I am 5 minutes into NEMO…

Ciao

Marco

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ December 16th, 2008 in Media News

As reported by the BBC, current users of all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer browser are currently vulnerable to getting hijacked due to a serious security flaw that has yet to be fixed.

It’s been reported that at least seven versions of the browser have been affected by this flaw and as many as 10,000 websites have been compromised.

Tricking the victims into visiting ‘contaminated’ websites is the main objective. Once in the site, user’s computers get infected with a malicious programming code which then allows hackers to take control of the user’s entire PC: personal information, documents, passwords, etc.

“Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer,” the firm declared in a security advisory alert about the flaw.

Apparently, the unforbidden sites are Chinese and their purpose is to steal passwords that can be sold later on the black market.

Microsoft has announced the flaw is only affecting 0.02% of internet site, however we should bear in mind IE is the default browser for most of the world’s computers; vulnerability is everywhere.

The advice to users, switch browsers!- although Microsoft is seriously battling against this particular action. Instead, they are keeping these news rather quiet while attempting to comfort users by letting them know such threat will be soon resolved.

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ December 15th, 2008 in Mobile Marketing

We can say social media has been the biggest buzz topic this year, mainly due to its practicality and the fact that users find it convenient being on-the-move while at the same time communicating with friends, relatives and work colleagues through these networks. On the one hand, we’ve got the world globalizing, on the other, social media is lowering the barrier.

An impressive amount of content is created using mobile devices such as cellphones, camcorders, etc. Just to give you an insane figure, every minute 13 hours of video content are uploaded on YouTube, which currently attracts a total 240 million unique users. It’s quite different creating and ‘consuming’ content from your personal PC, that’s just sitting on a table, than doing it while on the move through a more capable device.

Today, people are using mobile devices not only for sms, mms, checking messages, but also to upload photos and communicate through social network applications. Advanced mobile devices are being launched in the market continuously carrying the latest technologies and unlimited features that make it convenient all the more.

Killer applications such as YouTube and MySpace enjoy and benefit from content created by mobile devices which is causing mobile social network users to become more and more active.

A recent study from ABI Research shows us social networking and consumer generated media have moved beyond the PC, which means that ‘over time, a growing number of consumers will share photos and use social network messaging and email which will translate to longer and more frequent usage of social networks on mobile’, explains ABI research director Michael Wolf.

The tendency is that more and more consumers are adopting social networking through their mobiles. Its main advantage is that of targeting specific niches in the most efficient manner.  So, Facebook and MySpace, be prepared- you have enormous amounts of advertising inventory so make the best out of it!

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ December 12th, 2008 in Marketing Analysis

This guest post was written by: Manuela Tangredi 

The recent financial crisis is rapidly expanding to real economy causing a decline in consumption and production growth and thus a cut-down in advertising budgets is to be expected.

On the contrary this week, eMarketer, a market research firm, predicted that in America online advertising will continue to expand even during the recession. Similarly, online advertising spending is estimated to increase by 8,9% in 2009, less than what was forecasted before August, but still encouraging. Search advertising will probably lead with the highest spending growth (14,9%), rich-media ads will grow by 7,5%, and display ads by 6,6%.

Online advertising should suffer less than other channels and that’s probably because it is more interactive and trackable than any other ad format, thus making it less speculative, as The Economist put it (November 29th issue). Moreover, web marketing is able to reach different objectives at the same time: generating brand awareness and recall–stimulating consumer’s preferences and loyalty.

We have a reason to believe that in Europe there is even more room for expansion for new media marketing especially considering that online channels are far from exploiting their potential and they still represent a relatively cheap marketing strategy.

Excitement in the sector is driven by the huge opportunities represented by video advertising and social networks. Still these new forms have been difficult to exploit so far: Video Ads easily reach consumers when placed next to user-generated contents (YouTube-style), however I believe some kind of monitoring should take place in order to decide which kinds of videos display your ads. Alternatively, ads may be displayed next to professionally produced videos (ie: Hulu video site, available only in the United States).

Equally so, social networks like MySpace or Facebook generate interest by making preferences circulate among friends who most likely are to trust one another and also have similar tastes. It’s also true that users participate in these network in different ways for more than just looking for things to buy.

There is no doubt marketers are experimenting these channels at a fast pace and it mostly due to the fact that difficulties in exploiting them are making them quite affordable so far.

Posted by Manuela Barreto @ December 11th, 2008 in e-Commerce

We can all agree that in time of adversity great ideas can come about and the online industry, as history shows us, can become quite innovative.

Advertising Age’s White Paper presents us with a complete study on recession-time case studies along with some of the most iconic online marketing campaigns that have succeeded during downturns from all industry sectors. Why am I saying this? Just so we can keep our chin up a bit and realize that there’s also a good side to the story.

Yes, it is indeed a dull period, however, we can say the Internet has been a soothing instrument for us and companies themselves in times of economic suppression especially in the midst of the Holiday Season. As Mike Sachoff from WebProNews puts it, holiday shopping has become a bright spot in the woeful economy.

According to comScore, through the first days of this year’s holiday shopping season up to Dec. 7th, online spending has reached up to $15.63 billion dollars. Just between December 1st and December 7th sales summed up to $4.45 billion- 7% more than last year.

“The online holiday shopping season has picked up noticeably since Thanksgiving as consumers have given in to the holiday spirit - and very attractive retailer discounts,” said ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, in a statement. “While this growth is certainly a positive development in this tough retail season, it also needs to be put into perspective.

This sudden awakening in spending is definitely good news and it’s bringing us all a little bit of hope regardless of the current situation. Not only that, but websites are becoming more interactive and user-friendly since Internet usage has increased.

Multiple testing of online stores has become critical for retailers. Today, most online stores have added rich-media content like videos, photos and made their sites more interactive and less complicated for users to enjoy hassle-free online purchases.

To read more about comScore’s Holiday shopping research visit www.comscore.com.