Marketing

World Cup spending, a strong performance in Asia Pacific and growth in emerging consumer regions helped the ad industry globally to come out of recession in 2010 and post an impressive 10.6pc year-on-year increase to US$503bn, according to The Nielsen Company. “2010 was the year of recovery for the advertising industry,” said Randall Beard, global head of advertiser solutions for The Nielsen Company. “All global regions and every traditional medium (television, radio, newspapers and magazines) recorded a positive turnaround with highest percentage ad spend increases coming from Middle East/Africa and Latin America, which rose 26.7pc and 21.2pc respectively. Overall 23 out of 37 global markets posted double-digit ad growth last…

Regular posts, trustworthy brand news, new product information, contests and special offers are the five basic expectations fans have of brands on social media, according to new research from Millward Brown and Dynamic Logic, in co-operation with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). While these are the five health checks identified in the Value of a Fan report, five characteristics that can help pages stand out and drive a stronger brand response but may not all be appropriate to all brands, are a sense of fun, variety, innovation, interactivity and community. Value of a Fan suggests that successful pages deepen both brand equity and engagement. The research also notes that the pages generating the…

Jameson is running a global St Patrick’s Day party for online and real-world fans over 48 hours across four continents and seven time zones. The Jameson Global Party will take place in 18 different venues across the world, including Dublin, Sofia, Johannesburg, London, Montreal, Berlin and Astana. Using a range of digital initiatives, the Jameson Global Party will link the events at varying levels of connection, from photostreams and video greetings right through to a full three and a half hour TV-style broadcast live from the Mansion House in Dublin, Taboo in Johannesburg and The Military Club in Sofia. The broadcast will be headlined by Groove Armada and supported by Irish acts Codes…

US adult internet users who follow a celebrity on a social networking site are four times more likely to follow a brand than the average American internet user, according to research from The Nielsen Company. Apparently, 64pc of adult internet users who follow a celebrity on the likes of Facebook or Twitter also follow a brand. Nielsen also reveals that such fans are also more likely to offer advice and opinion to fellow online consumers. This is particularly the case when it comes to entertainment topics where 32pc of celebrity fans online provide advice on movies (making them 44pc more likely than the average online user to do so), and 28pc provide…

UK retailers’ websites are failing to meet consumer expectations for engaging e-commerce experiences, according to a new study from EPiServer. The ‘Developing your e-commerce strategy: how to deliver what customers really want’ study is based on a survey 2,000 consumers and explores the online shopping features they look for regarding overall web experience, browsing, buying and after-sales. The report also benchmarks how 25 top UK retailers measure up to these consumer demands. The research finds that while retailers are ticking the boxes regarding the fundamentals of e-commerce, such as providing clear product images and active search, they are not providing the engaging online shopping experience that consumers are demanding. It…

Ireland’s over 50s are generally tech-savvy and affluent, consider good health to be important, and are unlikely to have much brand loyalty for anything other than staples, according to new research from Amárach. The first National 50+ Consumer Survey, released to coincide with the Business of Ageing conference in Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Wednesday 9 March, reveals that while 71pc of people over 50 report a significant decrease in their income over the last 12 months, 67pc claim the recession has not had a strong impact on their lives. In addition, six in 10 over 50s currently have a pension and 65pc have not made any drastic changes to…

Cadbury is spending £6.5m on its latest Spots v Stripes activity – Race Season – which launches today in the UK and Ireland. As part of the Race Season event, the company launched a new chocolate wafer bar, the Big Race bar, yesterday. Spots v Stripes Race Season presents nine challenges that are designed to inspire people to play more games. According to Cadbury, these problems aim to see if people can be genuinely speedy at tasks they do every day, giving every person in the UK and Ireland a chance of breaking a world record. The nine challenges are split into four online races and five offline races. The…

Newspaper publishers in Europe have spoken out against Apple’s plans to introduce new conditions whereby iPhone and iPad digital newspaper subscriptions would be processed through the iTunes, thus making them subject to commission. According to journalism.co.uk , Apple has informed newspaper groups that tablet newspaper apps must offer readers the option to subscribe through the iTunes payment mechanism. It’s understood that Apple would then take a 30pc commission on all payments. In a statement, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) said: “Apple’s iPad and other tablet devices offer fantastic potential for the development of newspapers in the digital environment. Publishers today want to provide readers with a range of attractive options,…

Pop star Katy Perry is expected to be named GHD’s brand ambassador over the coming weeks. Marketing magazine reports that the hair care products manufacturer is will launch an ad campaign promoting its latest hair straighteners next month and is currently in final negotiations with the California singer to star in the ads, which have been created by RYKCR/Y&R. GHD is also reportedly discussing the possibility of becoming a second tier sponsor of Perry’s UK tour, which begins next month.

Irish broadband provider, Magnet Networks, has launched a free web-based live TV service with Twitter and Facebook integration. The service offers live streaming of five Irish channels for free, regardless of provider. According to Magnet Networks, anyone with a 1MB broadband connection can log on to magnetwebtv.ie and register to watch RTE1, Network 2, TV3, TG4 and 3e live from any web browser.   The service involves no TV licence fees, no cable subscription, no contract, no monthly subscription fee and no software downloads. From the same web page, users also have the option of running their Twitter and Facebook feeds to comment, tweet and watch updates alongside their TV stream.  Similar…