The event was largely to promote the suite of new ad products that Facebook announced at the end of last month in the US, including larger ad formats in premium spots on the website, such as user log off page, and mobile.
In a break-off session, accompanied by Martijn van der Zee, senior VP of ecommerce at KLM, and Karl-Heinz Land, chief evangelist and senior VP social icommerce at data company Microstrategy, Hernandez talked about the way social data can be used to create services out of marketing, because it can make it personalised and useful.
Van der Zee gave the example of KLM’s Meet and Seat service, in which people can log in with their social media profiles before boarding a plane and select who they want to sit next to, therefore meeting new and interesting people.
Microstrategy’s Land, said, “If we do well [with data] then marketing will be received as a service, and not only that but a paid service. It’s a new way that marketers need to think.”
Land said that in order for this to happen, consumers needed to start realising that privacy and service come hand in hand. “We need to get used to the idea that privacy and service are two sides of the same coin.” he said. “For example, in a restaurant, if you don’t tell the waiter what you want, you won’t get served. If you are in a situation of trust with your customers then you shouldn’t have an issues [with data and privacy].”
Source: NMA
Get in touch with BlueFever, we are able to provide detailed insights across Facebook-Integrated Websites.
Meanwhile, online retail giant eBay released statistics revealing that sales of tablet devices, including Android tablets and e-readers, on its UK site increased 443% last year with over 61,000 such devices shipping in December alone.
EBay further predicted that the clamour for iPad 3 devices will result in an increase in the number of people selling their older iPad devices with a significant price-drop in the cost of such devices.
The company issued a statement saying: “Immediately after the launch of the iPad 2 between February and March 2011, tablet sales on eBay UK spiked with almost 5,000 more devices sold in March than the previous month.” A similar pattern emerged in October and November after the launch of the Amazon Kindle and the retailer expects theiPad 3 launch to yield similar results.
Angus McCarey, UK rPetail director for eBay, said, “Millions of people use the eBay iPad app, and we find the busiest time for shopping via the iPad to be between 5 and 11pm. Our research shows that shoppers tend to spend almost twice as long shopping via their iPad compared to a typical browsing session on your smartphone.”
BlueFever has been developing native and web apps for mobile devices for iPhone, iPad and Android. More than ever, this will be an opportunity to take your business to mobile and reach a 360º strategy across all platforms.
Source: NewMediaAge
Jed Williams, an analyst at BIA/Kelsey and program director of the firm's Social Local Media service, said “ZIP code-targeting, from a geo-targeting perspective, is as granular a unit as you can use.”
He added that the targeting method will benefit small- and medium-sized businesses as well as national chains and franchises for whom city-level targeting may be too broad to be effective. Political campaigns will also find the targeting valuable in advance of next year's elections, he said.
“It goes back to the basic laws of campaign marketing, how to reach particular districts and particular constituent segments within those districts,” said Williams. “Creating this sort of granular targeting would allow political candidates and campaigns to take advantage of segmenting their base or reaching particular voting blocs at a very granular, targeted level.”
National political campaigns have already begun to develop their targeting strategies. Last month, the Obama for America 2012 campaign published a job post for predictive modeling and data mining scientists and analysts. The position would use data to “determine which voters to target for turnout and persuasion efforts, where to buy advertising, and how to best approach digital media,” according to the job post.
Advertisers can also target their ads according to interest keywords, which Facebook refers to as “topic targeting.” Previously advertisers had to specify each individual interest. That capability went live on August 10, said a Facebook spokesperson.
“For example, targeting the #Lady Gaga topic allows advertisers to reach users connected to interests such as ‘Lady Gaga,' ‘Lady Gaga Music,' ‘Lady Gaga Poker Face,' ‘I love Lady Gaga,' etc., without having to select all of the interests individually,” Facebook said in a company blog post.
Source: Direct Marketing News
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The latter “must upgrade their online marketing” if they’re to remain competitive with their mid-market and economy rivals, it said.
Novotel, Best Western and Holiday Inn Express are the three best performing hotel brands online, while Le Meridian, Ramada and Radisson were at the bottom of the rankings, falling well below the average standard. The hotel sites were assessed on ten areas including how easy it is to find information, obtain pricing and book without unnecessary repetition or confusion. Hilton’s site scraped just above average.
Louis Halpern, CEO of Halpern Cowan, said, “With one in three Britons booking their holidays online, consumers have grown increasingly demanding about finding the deal they want as easily as possible.” He said consumers have grown “wary” of potential online scams, adding, “Trust is much more easily lost than it is earned online.”
“Hotel brands need to ensure their sites not only reflect their brand values clearly but that there’s no opportunity for confusion, and that information can be found and bookings made in as few, simple stages as possible,” Cowan said. The report found one of the key failings of top-end hotel sites is the lack of easy-to-find information, clarity of pricing and a confusing booking process.
The consumer survey was carried out online and had 1,095 respondents.
Source: new media age
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Main advantages are:
1. Content update: Include prices, pictures and product descriptions.
2. Facilities to introduce changes or new features: E.g. banners with promotions or news posts.
3. Simplicity to categorize content: You can add filters to classify product categories and subcategories.
4. Dynamism to incorporate multimedia content: Creating image galleries or inserting Youtube videos just with copy and paste.
5. Facility to add plugins: There are thousands of add-ons to extend the functionality of the site.
Which do I choose ?
At BlueFever, we use and recommend different types of software such as Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and Expression Engine, among others. In some cases we suggest to develop a customized CMS.
Broadly speaking, it’s easier to use Wordpress for simple sites, enabling you to create pages, upload , edit or remove content easily. If the client requires a more complex division of access, Joomla is a recommended option. On the other hand, Drupal is more flexible, allowing many options and configurations that are better suited to users with more requirements.
When choosing one of them it is necessary to evaluate the following factors:
1. What will it be used for? A website used for information is not the same as one whose purpose is to sell (e-commerce project) (Folksgottaeat’s blog). Sometimes, the priority is to present products or services or to generate interaction (as the development we performed for Bubbly).
2. Who’s going to handle it? You can generate more simple or complex backends, depending on the capacities and needs of the administrator.
3. What kind of information is going to be loaded? Text, multimedia content (images, videos), surveys, downloaded files (like product cards in pdf.), etc.
4. How is the site structured? Sections or content types, categories, etc.
Some interesting plugins:
1. All-in-One SEO Pack for Wordpress: Generates metatags, optimizes the URL title automatically, avoids duplicated content.
2. Download Monitor: Plugin for Wordpress that allows you to upload and to administer downloads and also shows how many times a file has been downloaded.
There are many CMS options to choose from, but given that each client has different needs, the key is in learning and adapting existing tools according to project requirements. If you want to have control over your site, we can advise you. Write to hello@bluefevermedia.com
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The essential criteria for game developers is the main idea. For companies this represents a business opportunity.
It is important to define a couple of items before starting any development. Who is the target and what is the purpose? Are there similar games in that same category? How do members relate? Can they viralize our game? Instead of thinking about individual users, the key is to think about communities.
Once these points and the basics of the game are clarified, we can move forward to the second step which is to evaluate the profitability of the development. As in real economy, Internet investments need to be analysed of the risks and benefits. Measure the volume of users and the benefits we seek.
Development
Social games are versatile because they´re based on frameworks*. This has two huge benefits:
Basics as a development company is to offer user analysis solutions, game planning and development. Once a reality (or virtuality, in this case) you can also add analytics tools to obtain reports of user behaviour.
What do you win with social gaming?
BlueFever takes the social gaming to the highest level since we understand that entertainment and virality, generate satisfaction and success for both users and companies.
The main key to achieve all this is by applying the following: research, elaborate new ideas, analyze the metrics results and change the game according to the user and the applications. We must consider a user who is not playing alone and wants to share his experience throughout the game with the other users.
* Frameworks are schemes for development and/or implementation of an application.
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During 2010 the use of simple interfaces is expected to increase.
Choosing to have more space and less loading content, has a purpose: to sustain the attention of those who browse the Internet.
To generate impact, we’ll use high quality images with high resolution digital cameras.
Less for more:
This year will also bring about the tendency to compose the elements on the screen that focus all important information in one shot. Global users spend more than 23 hours per month on the Internet, therefore, they have no interest in accessing multiple pages to find what they want.
At BlueFever, we develop digital campaigns through landing pages, as a simple and effective promotional resource for the visitor to focus his attention on what he’s really looking for. One of the best options is to present information in short blocks and give the user the possibility to expand through light boxes (less interactive applications than pop-ups). Besides using different tools, we can measure the outcome of the campaign, obtaining a detailed ROI allowing adjustments in the programming and so increase the results.
Handmade digitally:
A trend that will have strong impact in 2010, is to add artwork to the interface. Drawings, similar to the facts at hand, are useful in differentiating the brand, inserting more human elements to digitally created interfaces.
Probably, between 2009 and 2010, there will be continuity: Social networking icons, visual aids to guide the user (avatars, buttons, etc).
Let's wait for 2010 with news!
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Why is it necessary to break the rules?
Due to the increase of the variety of products, it is increasingly difficult to create proposals that differ from the rest. Lateral thinking is a fundamental tool which helps us to pave the way through such a scenario full of similar products.
At Bluefever we are curious and restless. We love to see what others do not see and change the viewpoint. We work taking into account the values, needs and desires of the consumer and customer together, which we think is the most effective strategy to reach your target audience. Wondering about purchasing habits and consumption, their personality and the attributes they value, helps us to draw a map to guide our strategy.
Breaking the rules means:
1. Find a niche
2. Create a category
3. Innovate and be creative
Three places to break the rules:
1. Needs: Target, wish, place, occasion of purchase and consumption
2. Product: Attributes, use, service
3. Marketing: Channel, communication and trends
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It's not new that countries export goods, however, not so long ago, services also started to be exported.
Basically any kind of activity can be outsourced including marketing, branding and creativity. During the 90s, the growth of Internet domains and the evolution of communication technologies increased the need for central countries to outsource these type of services. Nowadays, Argentina is positioned as one of the best and most chosen providers for such services.
Advantages of Outsourcing
In comparison to other activities, information technology and communication services are easy to outsource due to their instant transmission over the net.
For the company demanding services, there are several advantages that outsourcing provides. On one hand it insures its competitiveness with reduced costs, human resources and technology; on the other hand it improves the efficiency of the employees and productivity of the company.
For the providing country the principal advantage in this business is that it doesn't need to make huge investments in technological equipment nor transportation and it's not affected by any cycle of productivity or seasons. It also avoids expenses on insurances, shipping, intermediaries and importation fees.
Made in Argentina
Buenos Aires was chosen by UNESCO in 2005 as the first "City of Design" due to its increasing offer of design, creativity, investigation, research and innovative professionals. It's the top offshore destination in Argentina.
Compared to other countries, Argentina presents several differential advantages. In the first instance the country offers highly qualified resources and handles a diverse variety of languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German and Hebrew). Other characteristics that define the country as a favorite are that it’s similar in culture to the United States and at the same time has a great heritage from European culture. Also, the time difference is almost the same in both Europe and North America.
Some Statistics
1. 67% of companies delegate part of their work to 3rd party organizations.
2. Within European companies, those in Great Britain are the ones who benefit more from this trend, followed by those in Germany.
3. Most of them are from the Banking and Insurance market, followed by online marketing companies.
4. The top reason to outsource (in 85% of cases) is due to budget optimization, therefore, money savings.
5. Exportation of services of information technology and creativity increased 65% during the last year in Argentina. This means a total of US $190 million.
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Faced with this generalized noise, it becomes necessary to plan a positioning in the market that, when integrating the different strategies, takes care of and maximizes the effectiveness of the message, that way avoiding the weakening of both its production and its reception.
An agency with 360º services centralizes each one of the stages within the same communicational planning as with the creation of the brand (branding) and advertising pieces; the distribution of newsletters, web design, web applications (user registration, news, blogs), as well as digital presentations for events, product and press releases, marketing and public relations.
Everyday more and more companies choose 360º agencies for their communication. The reasons? To avoid the loss of time and budget in hiring an agency for each process. 360º agencies, on the other hand, by centralizing all the operations, optimize resources and enhance the strength of the messages.
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2. The favorable economic conditions of the last years has made it possible for Argentine agencies to incorporate the best technologies and operational capacities. And most importantly, their professionals possess the “know how” of how to use them, thanks to their high level of education.
3. Economic wages in comparison to the U.S.A. and Europe
The Argentine currency, Peso, has a relation to the American dollar of 3.95.-1; with the Euro at 5.5-1; and with the Pound at 6-1. The means that hourly rates are attractive and comparatively economical for countries such as the United States and those pertaining to the European Union.
4. Valuable and qualified human resources
5. Argentine professionals, who are highly qualified, permanently update their knowledge with emphasis placed on satisfying client needs. The majority are fluent in English and in many cases, thanks to the Argentine cultural diversity, they also speak Italian, French, Portuguese, German and Hebrew. Education has a differential value in relation to other countries in Latin America.
6. Minimum time difference
7. Depending on the season, Argentina has a time difference of between -1 and -2 hours with the East Coast of the U.S.A. and between -4 and -5 with the West Coast. The difference with the European Union is between +3 and +6 hours, a number that varies according to each country and season of the year.
8. Cultural Proximity
9. Since the 19th Century, Argentina is a country made up from diverse immigration currents, with its majority being of European decent. Many customs, codes and ways of thinking are similar to those of Europeans and North Americans.
10. Ample consumer market
11. Argentina had a positive variation in its GIP of 9.1 % in the last trimester of 2007 in relation to the same period from the previous year. Along with Brazil, Uruguay and other South American countries, Argentina is a part of MERCOSUR, a commercial block with more than 240 million inhabitants and potential consumers.
12. Capacity to overcome difficulties
13. Argentineans have experienced several crisis throughout their young history. Far from folding under the adversity, they have learned how to face it and capitalize on the learning opportunity to apply it to new challenges.
14. Passion put into each detail
15. With family, friends, work... Argentines feel passion in what they do day to day.
16. For all these reasons, Argentina it is the ideal place to develop your projects. Quality, low operational costs, professional excellence and passion put to the service of your needs. We have this and much more to offer you.
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