Content Replaces Communications As Primary Web Use

According to the Online Publishers Association, Internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content, a 37% increase in share of time from four years ago. The Internet Activity Index, conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings, shows that communications accounted for 46% of consumers' time online in 2003. A dramatic shift has taken place since then, with consumers now spending 47% of their time with content and only 33% with communication. Full Story>>

Thoughts// A not so surprising report this morning from the Online Publishers Association that includes brands such as CNN, ESPN, NY Times. As broadband becomes ubiquitous and as content providers allow users to seamless integrate content into social networks (e.g. NYTimes lets you post favorite articles and share on Facebook), content has reclaimed its place as King. The study reports several factors that have led to this shift:

1. A more accessible, and much faster, Internet is driving increased overall time spent online.
2. The increased popularity of video is leading to more time being spent with online content. (Thanks You Tube)
3. Improvement in search allows consumers to more easily and quickly find the exact content.
4. The Web simply offers far more content than it did even four years ago, increasing content's share of time.
5. The rise of instant messaging (IM) as a key communications tool has been a factor in communication's reduction in share of time. IM is a more efficient communications vehicle than email.

New Orleans CVB Launches 24NOLA.com

With the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina next week and tourism a vital resource needed for New Orleans' recovery, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau launched an online component to its "Forever New Orleans" international branding campaign.

24NOLA.com, an itinerary-planning tool for visitors who want to see New Orleans as local residents do. Visitors can scroll through hotels, restaurants and activities for each of the 24 hours of the day and customize their own itinerary. There's also a section where residents and frequent visitors to the city can post their favorite activities. >> 24nola.com

Thoughts// A fresh look and clever take on the itinerary building concept make 24nola.com an interesting and pleasing site to visit. The site's stripped down navigation takes a couple clicks to get use to, but after that it is pretty straight forward...select the time, select an activity, add it to your itinerary and then print. The content and images are informative and expressive of New Orleans and little touches such as the 'Spice Level' rating tie into an overall theme. Unfortunately, the site does not offer users the chance to submit true user-generated content (it appears to be a submit and review system) or receive customized recommendations based upon interests...more than likely a conscious decision. But the simplicity of the site and ease of use make this an interesting case study.

Travel Trends - YouTube, Statistics

YouTube Ad Plan Shuns Pre-Rolls - YouTube, via Google, announced today that it has decided not to use pre-roll advertising on YouTube for part of it's ad model. The plan was due in part to the terrible response during testing, with a 15 second pre-roll spot having an abandonment rate of 75 percent. YouTube will now work on perfecting 'overlay' ads with a few content providers. The article also mentions that YouTube does not plan on placing advertising on user-generated videos. An interesting side note to the story, if Google and YouTube are not backing the pre-roll ads, is this the beginning of the end for the pre-roll ad? Would you serve up an ad that 75% of people click to get away from?
http://www.adweek.com

The Numbers Game - A good article from Fortune sums up the current debate about online measurement...a set of standards is needed. Consider, as the article points out, Yahoo!'s stats for the month of June. ComScore measures it at 133 million, while Nielsen//NetRatings claims it was 108 million. Too many sources reporting too many different statistics.
http://money.cnn.com

Second Life: Boom or Bust?

Current issues of Newsweek and Wired offer two opposite views of the Second Life virtual world.

Newsweek's article, "Alternate Universe," is overwhelmingly positive, claiming that "Second Life is emerging as a powerful new medium for social interactions of all sorts, from romance to making money. It may be the Internet's next big thing."

Wired's article, "How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life," is decidedly negative, stating that the environment is largely empty, hindered by nonscalable technology and boring. >> Full Story

Thoughts// A great post from Computerworld Magazine on the current debate over Second Life. Many organizations, including major media outlets (such as Newsweek) and even the WTM, are praising Second Life as a major marketing breakthrough while new questions and statistics are showing a different story. Personally, I tend to agree a bit more with the Wired article that casts doubt on how powerful a marketing vehicle Second Life really is. While Second Life is certainly a very popular and cutting-edge offering for the general public, the question is, can Second Life be an effective marketing tool to spend considerable time and money on. For most marketers, the answer would be no.

If you are interested in the Second Life phenomenon and how avatars, gambling and cyber-space 'shootings' are all part of the game, I would highly recommend reading both the Newsweek and Wired articles as well as this article from TIME. They offer differing views, but all three provide a good look into this virtual world.

Who Needs a Travel Agent?

When it comes to travel, perhaps more so than any other industry, word-of-mouth is king. Travelers make decisions on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do based on recommendations from friends.

No surprise, then, that many of today’s niche social networking sites are built around travel: WAYN, TravelPod, TripAdvisor, IGoUGo, SideStep (thanks to the recent acquisition of TripUp), FlyerTalk — the list is tremendous. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A basic article from OMMA discussing the impact of social networking on the travel industry in a very high-level tone. Most of the article covers topics that are a bit old (Travelocity's MySpace page) or currently being debated (the value of Second Life)...all of which have been covered by this blog. While the article does offer a good overview, it makes too many general statements without a true objective look at the current state of social networking on the travel industry.

Brands Move Down the Long Tail to Niche Nets

When Levi Strauss launches a new online campaign next week, its ads will be found in the usual portals such as MSN and Yahoo. But the ads will also find their way to some new environments with names not well-known outside fashionista circles, sites like Kaboodle, SheFinds and Zafu.

Levi's is relying on a niche ad network distributed by Glam Media for a campaign running on about 200 small fashion sites. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A good article from Adweek that talks about how companies are using the 'Long Tail' of the web (niche web sites) in their online marketing strategy. As the article explains, these long tail networks only make up a small portion of the overall marketing plan, however they offer the ability to reach out and communicate with the strongest (potential) brand audience. For example, a typical online marketing strategy may target users who are interested in traveling to Florida, but these same users could also be interested in traveling to California, Hawaii or Arizona. By placing a marketing message on these long tail sites, brands can speak directly to the people most passionate about the product...in theory creating trust and a grassroots feel to the campaign. And hopefully, creating a group of brand advocates who will express their passion for the product to friends and family.

What People Are Doing Online

Thoughts// A very interesting chart from Business Week based upon recent Forrester Research. The data breaks down the internet audience into six groups (Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives) and then compares each group by age. Not surprisingly, Critics and Collectors span a wide age range, while Joiners are much more focused on the younger end of the specturm. (Click the image for a detailed view)

Word of the Week - Spider(s)

A Spider (also known as a web crawler or web (ro)bot) is an automated software tool used by search engines to travel throughout the internet collecting information which it then returns to the search engine’s indices. This process is called Web crawling or spidering. Many sites, in particular search engines, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data.

It’s an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World

It is only a matter of time until nearly all advertisements around the world are digital. Or so says David W. Kenny, the chairman and chief executive of Digitas, the advertising agency in Boston that was acquired by the Publicis Groupe for $1.3 billion six months ago.

Now Mr. Kenny is reshaping the digital advertising strategy...the plan is to build a global digital ad network that uses offshore labor to create thousands of versions of ads. Then, using data about consumers and computer algorithms, the network will decide which advertising message to show at which moment to every person who turns on a computer, cellphone or — eventually — a television. >>Full Story

Thoughts// An interesting article in today's Times about ad giant Publicis' ambitious strategy to build a "behavioral network" in hopes of delivering personalized messages to consumers, across multiple platforms. While the concept is brilliant, the proverbial "devil" might be in the details; i.e. how do you build and manage an integrated, multi-platform (TV, computer, mobile) behavioral network that profiles users' watching and surfing habits and track their response to specific ads. 1984, here we come!

Travel Trends - In-Flight Entertainment Upgrade

Virgin America's In-flight Entertainment - A great review from Artur Bergman at O'Reilly on the launch of Virgin America, specifically detailing their new in-flight entertainment device (IFE) called RED. RED will offer live satellite tv, movies, mp3s, games and plane-wide chatting. So, passengers could 'instant message' each other while in-flight (use your own imagination for what to talk about) or chat with other passengers who are watching the same program on the satellite TV. In addition, RED takes customization to a new level...passengers can build a custom playlist from the 3,000 songs on RED, then the system can save the profile and load it again when you take your next flight. If that was not enough, you can also order food and drinks from RED. Virgin America took to the skies on August 8th.
http://www.radar.oreilly.com | Learn more about Virgin America

American Airlines To Add Wi-Fi - American Airlines has announced that it will be the first domestic airline to begin testing in-flight Wi-Fi service via AirCell. One of the last places in the U.S. where you cannot, or are not allowed, to access the internet, the airline industry is quickly adopting the Wi-Fi idea, partially to satisfy consumer demand. If the test flights are successful, look for more domestic airlines to begin offering the same service.
http://www.denverpost.com