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Verizon’s iPhone Plan: Now Unlimited-ish

posted on February 4, 2011

Yesterday, Verizon had their most successful first day opening in their history when they opened the virtual doors to iPhone pre-sales. But while they were taking in money with one hand, they were changing the rules with the other. That “unlimited monthly data plan,” they’ve been advertising is about to become . . . well. . . limited-ish.

As Verizon puts it, the iPhone network is “a shared resource among tens of millions of customers.” That means that they have to balance the needs of the many by reducing service to a few.

A spokesperson was quoted in the LA Times as saying:

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Social Media Monitoring Gaining Ground But Has Plenty of Room for Growth

posted on February 4, 2011

As I prepare this morning to make a presentation on social media monitoring to a group of non-profit executives at the VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads, Hampton Roads Institute for Nonprofit Leadership Conference in Norfolk, VA, eMarketer is sharing an InformationWeek Analytics report about, you guessed it, social media monitoring.

The report shows that there is plenty of room for growth. Of course, we know Andy Beal already gets it (insert blatant Trackur social media monitoring tool plug here) but now it’s up to companies to get it more as well.

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Zuckerberg Gets Letter From Congress About Data Privacy Concerns

posted on February 4, 2011

If you are a company that depends on your users’ information to make a good portion of your revenue like Facebook does for advertising you likely don’t want letters from politicians about your tactics. It’s like getting a letter from the Principal in school. You know you did something wrong but you are hoping it doesn’t go on your permanent record. Then the letter arrives at the house. Ouch.

Well, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg got one of those little notices. It came from U.S. Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), Co-Chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus and it was dated February 2. The concerns come from the plan that Facebook launched in January then pulled off the table to be tweaked for re-release that gave developers access to mobile phone numbers and addresses of Facebook accounts. Representative Markey’s website tells some more.

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Nearly 50% of People Surveyed Watch Online Videos Daily

posted on February 3, 2011

We know online video is hot, but just how hot? According to a new survey commissioned by video ad company YuMe, 49% of people are watching videos daily for an average total of seven hours per week per person.

Seven hours is a lot when you realize that 70% of what people are watching are short form videos under five minutes long. For long form, TV still reigns but the tide is shifting. The majority of the people surveyed said they appreciated the ability to watch web videos whenever they wanted. They also like the option of being able to catch up on shows they missed on TV.

What’s more telling is that viewers felt the quality of video on the web vs the TV was about the same, but that there was a much larger amount of exclusive content on the web.

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Triangle AMA Hosts Andy Beal on February 17th

posted on February 3, 2011

If you’re in the Triangle area of North Carolina, come and hear me talk about practical–and easy to implement–reputation management tactics at the next meeting of the Triangle American Marketing Association.

The event is on February 17th at 11:30am and here’s a teaser of what you can expect.

See you there!

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Campbell’s Says iAds are Mmm Mmm Good

posted on February 3, 2011

It’s kind of ironic that an old fashioned brand like Campbell’s is coming out as the spokesperson for the effectiveness of iAds. When the product took off in the early 1900′s, I’m sure they never imagined that one day people would be using hand-held wireless devices to find the best recipe that includes Golden Mushroom soup. But that’s exactly what’s happening and Campbell’s couldn’t be more pleased.

According to a five-week study conducted by Nielsen on behalf of Campbell’s and Apple, iAds were more effective than TV ads on a variety of levels.

As compared to viewing a Campbell’s TV ad, the viewers of iAds were:

– More than twice as likely to recall the ad.

– Three times more likely to remember the messaging.

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Online Spend From US Agency Clients Still Has Significant Hurdles To Overcome

posted on February 3, 2011

The Internet side of the marketing world has always felt that ad agencies as a whole, and in particular the largest, have been behind the curve for a long time. The gap has closed considerably in recent years but those who claim digital marketing superiority still thumb their noses at the larger agencies that have built their business on traditional media.

Why has digital been slower to be adopted by these agencies and their clients? A study from STRATA (via eMarketer) may give some insight.

According to these findings a total of nearly 50% of the agencies polled are citing lack of channel effectiveness or lack of client demand as the reason for not increasing online ad spend. Roughly 25% of the respondents say there are no obstacles.