Demise of iLevel
iLevel, the largest independent digital agency in the UK fell into administration on Wednesday and was liquidated by Friday with a loss of over 90 jobs.
The company experienced cash flow problems having lost the Central Office of Information account in February last year. That account alone contributed 40% of the agency’s total turnover.
iLevel’s largest clients have been temporarily placed with other agencies and Jam, its standalone social media unit, was acquired by Engine.
Google Updates Search Results Page
Last week Google updated the look and feel of the search results page with contextually relevant filters and search tool on the left hand side.
The tools include
- Universal search (blogs, videos, news, etc)
- Search options (filter by location or by date)
- Google Squared – a Google Labs tool which returns search results in interactive spreadsheet format and lets you compare results easily. The screenshot below shows results for “UK elections”:
Social media and the elections
The general feeling is that social media failed to energise the nation and television seems to have played a more important role. The majority of “election moments” were first covered on TV, from the debates, to egg attack on David Cameron and the “bigoted woman” incident.
Social media coverage was restricted to reruns of TV clips, parodies on you tube and poster spoofing.
One of the Labour candidates, however, felt the power of social media when he was sacked for calling elderly voters “bloody coffin dodgers” on Twitter.
Recently a few ‘esteemed’ I Spy gents were invited to Bourdon House, the Home of Alfred Dunhill, to see what it is to be a ‘dunhill man’. A must when working on the brands natural search and social media.
Formerly the home of The Duke of Westminster, Bourdon House is the only free standing building in Mayfair.
Spread over three levels you’ve got all the luxury clothes and accessories you could desire, along with a spa, barber, high-tech cinema, bar and a walk in humidor. It’s also a fantastic place for something to eat with the menu designed by Mark Hix.
A real sanctuary to escape a busy city.
[Images: Dunhill.com]
Google down…according to Google!
Google was down for a little while on the 29th of April. If you use Google’s Twitter search and type ‘Google down’ there is suddenly a huge number of people searching for this as well as a lot of people tweeting about it.
Some examples of things people Tweeted at the time are:
“Google goes down and my first thought is…China just declared war on us!”
“Google is down! - It’s probably the apocalypse!”
Which shows just how powerful Google is! Try your own Twitter search for it!
Google launches ‘pages similar too’ feature
Google is pushing out a new ‘Pages similar too’ feature that shows website results which are similar to what you have searched for. Google said this about the feature:
“We launched a search feature that helps you easily find new websites that are similar to the ones with which you’re already familiar. We hope this feature helps you discover many useful websites that you didn’t know about before and get a better understanding of all the choices the web has to offer.”
Twitter Mishaps
One politician took the use of Twitter a little too far. The mirror reported on Labour politician Kerry McCarthy - who may be facing police charges after disclosing voting figures on Twitter before they were released. She admitted to this little mishap and has now deleted the tweet. She said “I was over excited. I thought it was just a random sample”. Woopsie!
Microsoft kills ‘i-pad’ rival – Courier Tablet
Microsoft’s Courier Tablet, which was set to be the ipad’s biggest rival – despite never publically acknowledging this - is no longer going ahead. Microsofts VP of communications said that the product “will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time“.
This has disappointed many users as this product was dubbed to be a more flexible platform for work and entertainment purposes then the ipad. Pictures and some specifications of the product were leaked by techy blog Gizmodo. No one is quite sure why Microsoft has decided not to go ahead with this idea.
10 year paid search anniversary
It’s 10 years this summer since paid search marketing launched in the UK. Personally I can’t believe that 10 years have passed this quickly. How well I remember the summer of 2000 when Espotting and GoTo were going head to head for European supremacy in a market worth, I guess, £6m a year. How times have changed!
The UK paid search market is now worth well in excess of £2 billion with Google dominating with a c90% market share and Yahoo! and Bing both languishing in Google’s wake.
If you go back to the summer of 2000 no-one except the geekiest of geeks would have heard of Google and Bing would have brought up associations of Bing Crosby, not an all singing and dancing newish search engine. Espotting and GoTo are of course no more. Astonishing how time flies and how things change.
Google and Yahoo! quarterly results
Both Google and Yahoo! announced their quarterly results in the past week and the releases both contain huge revenue numbers, certainly, compared to the year 2000.
Google reported revenues of $6.77 billion for the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 23% compared to the first quarter of 2009. The UK Revenues alone totalled $842 million, representing 13% of revenue.
Google makes more money from overseas countries (I refuse to use the term International!) than it does in the US and over time I am sure that the trend will exacerbate over time.
In contrast Yahoo! saw a pretty meagre 1% rise from 2009 with revenues a fraction under $1.6 billion. However, this was the first time in recent results where Yahoo! have shown a revenue rise and for the first time in a long time you sense that Yahoo! might be getting a bit of fight back. Just a bit. Think handbags at 10 paces rather than Millwall versus West Ham scale aggression.
But hidden after the numbers is a note that Google are hiring 800 people to further fuel their already staggering growth rate. Frankly I’m pretty scared by the thought of 800 more Googlers plotting world tech-geek domination. I am sure that there are no such recruiting plans emanating out of Yahoo! right now.
Google Places
As well as the numerical releases there were also product innovations – Google (re)launched Google Places within which was a service allowing SMEs to upload photos of their businesses on to Google Maps and Google.com for a monthly service fee of $25.
I love it. Just about every mid sized business that I have ever worked with would buy this service – and there are 100,000 active businesses on Google in the UK alone.
When you scale that across the globe its pretty clear why Google’s revenue is growing at 23% YoY and why they are winning the search engine war!
Also in the same week Yahoo! shut their self serve publisher programme – a move that strikes me as very sad – AdSense looks like it has a virtual open playing field with very little competition.
Chris Speed, director of ad control and partnerships
The use of bid management software to manage paid search campaigns has long been an area for debate for clients and agencies alike, with the launch of new tools greeted with equal measures of excitement and scepticism. Ever since the early days of Bid Buddy, the promise of software that fully automates the often time-consuming campaign management process, ensure performance targets are hit, and make you a great cup of tea while they’re at it (not really!) has been too attractive to be missed.
However, in too many cases, they just haven’t lived up to the hype. Performance data has too often been inconsistent, bid rules untrustworthy and inefficient and promised technical road maps left undelivered as software providers have been acquired, and their development budgets cut. As a result, with ever-increasing scrutiny on digital marketing budgets, their value has come into question, particularly with the array of insight that can be extracted from the myriad of free tools currently in the marketplace.
So the question is – ‘Are bid management tools really needed?’
The answer, in my opinion, is a resounding ‘Yes!’.
Trying to manage a large, keyword-heavy campaign to tight KPIs, armed only with a trusty Excel spreadsheet and last week’s performance data is nigh-on impossible; attempting to identify keywords that are having a positive and negative effect on the performance is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, and a campaign managed in this way will never reach its full potential.
However, those expecting a piece of software to be a panacea that immediately transforms the performance of their campaign will be very disappointed. It won’t happen. The success or failure of any paid search campaign is down to the knowledge, skill and pro-activity of the person or people managing it, regardless of whether they have the latest algorithmic-based, portfolio management tool with built-in cross-media attribution and real-time conversion tracking, or not. The correct use of a search management tool that is relevant to the goals of your campaign will potentially make the team managing the account significantly more efficient, and should provide extra levels of insight that, when fed into the optimisation process, will result in performance uplifts that far outweigh their cost.
From an advertiser or agency’s perspective, it is imperative that a provider is selected on how well they match up to the specific needs and goals of the campaigns that they will be used on, not on the basis of who has the coolest stand at Ad Tech. At the same time, the onus is very much on the software company to ensure that their tool does what it says on the tin, is constantly improved in line with market developments, and that we as their clients are fully supported throughout.
The recent anticipated change of ‘fan’ language on Facebook fan pages was actioned yesterday. Now instead of ‘becoming a fan’ you ‘like’ a business in order to connect with it. The word fan has been completely eradicated. Many speculated that although the button language would change, all other fan language would remain and be gradually phased out – but it’s gone for good it seems!
Apparently, changing the language used from ‘become a fan’ to ‘like’ will encourage users’ engagement with businesses. The like feature is already being used on Facebook where users can ‘like’ posts and status updates with a quick click, and figures show that users use the ‘like’ feature twice as much as opting to become a fan.
What are the implications of this? On one hand if Facebook is correct, people connecting with brand fan pages will increase. However, as people become more aware that the ‘liking’ action means something new-will they be as keen to hit the button? Psychologically speaking clicking ‘like’ does seem easier than clicking ‘become a fan’ as it seems a less strong statement, at least in my mind. The word ‘like’ although quite weak a word, does seem to be more realistic and familiar to apply to the millions of different types of brands, businesses and services using Facebook. Could they have taken this one step further and asked people to ‘love’ a business? They obviously wouldn’t have been able to use words like ‘follow’, ‘connect’ and ‘subscribe’. I suppose Facebook had limited choices for a new word that could apply to all.
Nothing has changed with how fan pages operate except the language. Three areas have changed: the joining button, the wording around the fan box and the wording on the wall.
It seems a little bizarre that the word ‘others’ has crept in on the wall to refer to fan posts not by the page owner. ‘Others’ seems a very impersonal name for people who have opted to be part of your page. Another problem is how will we refer to fans now? ‘Likes’ just doesn’t sound right, ‘others’ certainly isn’t appropriate. Although the language on the pages has changed, it’s going to take everyone else a while to catch up!
Nick Jones, I Spy managing director
Does this move mean Twitter will become a more accountable marketing channel, and therefore more trusted?
It will certainly be far easier to track results from Twitter activity making it a far more accountable channel for marketers. The move will also mean that Twitter also has a revenue stream which can only be positive. No brand wants to spend valuable time creating social media channels only for that site to close down. Twitter needs to pay their bills.
Will it encourage brands previously wary of the platform to embrace it?
Twitter has grown to become an extremely popular social networking site. If the ads are targeted well, it could be an extremely attractive proposition for brands looking to engage in conversations with users. They need to follow Facebook and Digg’s lead in having inoffensive advertising that doesn’t turn users off. Signs from within Twitter are very encouraging in that they recognise this and aren’t looking to make quick buck but to develop a long term solution that works for them, their users and their advertisers based on extensive testing.
How will this affect Twitter user’s opinion of brands when a message/conversation becomes an advert? Does the move go against the spirit of Twitter and the brand/customer interaction?
Twitter has to ensure that any ads are clearly identified as such for users. Advertisers need to bear in mind the conversational nature of Twitter and use ads intelligently rather than just to push messages. It is definitely possible for the site to stick to its principles and have advertising. Consumers need to decide whether they want advertising or wish to pay for membership. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Whats your general reaction to the development?
Whilst there has been a surge in tweets relating to the new, generally, there hasn’t been a surge on Twitter that talk of the ads negatively. Some people are commenting on how they’d never click on an ad but generally the feedback is mixed. The key for Twitter will be to ensure ads are of good quality and not overly intrusive, much like Apple are doing with their iAd offering. Our clients are very keen to find out more and to understand the opportunity.
On Friday a gang of I Spy peeps hit Monto in Kings Cross to see one of our own play to a packed crowd. While a whizz at paid search by day Olga comes alive as a rock chick by night heading up the four piece band Olka Dot. The atmosphere inside was electric, as was the singing, even though I couldn’t understand a word of it as it was in Russian!
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Tweets are the first official move into paid advertising by Twitter. They are paid-for Tweets that are shown when a users runs a search on Twitter, and will work both on twitter.com and 3rd party apps such as TweetDeck or HootSuite.
Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as ‘promoted’ when an advertiser is paying, but aside from that they can be considered regular Tweets, and will be shown as normal to followers a brand. They will have all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, re-tweeting, and favourites.
Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page – try entering Starbucks into the search to see one in action.
Once this model has bedded in, the service will be upgraded to be something similar to Google Ad Sense, named “Resonance”. This will display Tweets relevant to various criteria, such as re-use of hashtags, clicks on shortened links, re-tweets, favourites, the influence of the retweeters, etc.
This is a good indication of the path Twitter want to go down, and it’ll be closely watched by competitors and the industry in general.
Twitter Places
This is also known as Points of Interest. This new feature allows developers to attach location-based metadata to Tweets, and so use it to enhance their products. So for example: Say you tweet from a restaurant. Twitter will recognize your location and then allow you to access relevant metadata, including the ability to see other tweets from that location and who those tweets are coming from.
This is being touted as different to location-based blogging services such as Foursquare, which boasts features such as check-ins, badges, and reward points, but there is little doubt that it will steal market share from those services, especially from the more casual user.
On a similar vein, Twitter are also launching Annotations in the next quarter. This allows developers to attach little pieces of metadata to tweets, which could be anything from location to tags to notes. They’re hoping that developers of 3rd party apps will latch on to these new features and build exciting functionality based on them.
Google Rolls Out Twitter Replay Feature
Google is continuing its move into social media with its new Twitter Replay Feature. This allows you to zoom to any point in time and ‘replay’ what people were saying publicly about a topic on Twitter. The first page will show you the familiar timeline updates, but in addition to that there’s a new chart at the top.
In that chart, you can select the year, month or day, or click any point to view the tweets from that specific time period. This is interesting because it shows that Google recognise the value of micro-blogging not just for its real-time benefit, but also as a valuable information store.
On a similar vein, the US Library of Congress has announced it is going to archive every Tweet made.
So watch what you say: your philosophical meanderings are about to be preserved for ever!
Google Financial results for Q1 2010
Google have announced their financial results for Q1 2010. They experienced a 23% increase in gross revenue to $6.77 billion compared to Q1 2009. Net income was also up, this time by 37% to $1.96 billion, and paid search revenue was up 15% year on year, with CPC rising by 7%.
Interestingly, Google announced it also owns $26.5 billion in cash reserves. They will undoubtedly use some of this to fund further large acquisitions. It’s anybody’s guess where these will fall, but top contenders have to be mobile technology, anything that will help rich-media advertising, and social media networks. Growth through acquisitions is especially important because Google’s search market share has stopped growing, so they need other revenue streams to continue their expansion.
Google also announced an increase in headcount over the last 3 months, to 20,621 people. So it looks like I Spy may finally have a rival in the recruitment game.
Norweigan premier running government from an iPad
And finally… Due to the giant ash cloud from the infamous Icelandic volcano, thousands of European air travellers were stranded last week, including people in the US. Among them was Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was in New York for President Obama’s nuclear summit.
However, the people of Norway can take heart from the announcement by the president’s press secretary, who reported that his boss was “running the Norwegian government from the United States via his new iPad”.
At the opposite end of the scale, Israel has taken a dimmer view of the device, and has banned all imports of it. However in reality this isn’t going to make much of a difference, as sales in the US have been much stronger than Apple anticipated, so they’ve kept all of the iPads for themselves and postponed the international launch by a month.
Those of a more cynical disposition might speculate that this delay is just a publicity stunt by Apple, but perhaps we should give Steve Jobs the benefit of the doubt and assume his Macbook crashed before he had a chance to save his latest sales projections.
Get expert advice from the President himself tomorrow at 3.30pm.
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