Opinions, letters and case studies

You may be surprised at what makes customers shop online. And what makes them choose you as an online retailer. It’s not all about advertising and fancy website features. Find out what makes your customers tick. 

Report after report shows the increase of online spending with online Christmas shopping alone set to reach £20 billion in 2007. With this in mind, your website has never been so important.

Rumblings of change from Google again commanded column inches in March.  And deservedly so.  The launch of Google’s (beta) Pay-Per Action (PPA) service, a new and advanced version of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is set to dramatically shake up the Search Marketing industry.

News last week of NBC Universal and News Corp planning a rival to YouTube provided further evidence of the rapid emergence of online video advertising.  The planned site is set to rely upon social media networks, such as MySpace, for distribution of hit shows such as 24 and House of Heroes.  This will rely on users taking video content from the NBC Universal and News Corp site and sharing with family and friends. And how will it be monetised?  Well, much like on traditional TV, with relevant advertising being slotted neatly around video content.  Step in pre-roll online video advertising. 

As advertising spend on traditional media declines, online spend continues to accelerate. But it is only playing catch-up with the time consumers now spend online. This time increasingly involves activities such as content creation, sharing, and community-based interaction which were never intended for infiltration by commercial interests. We know that advertising in the user-generated world is perceived by users, unsurprisingly, as encroachment and carries great risks for brands.