The Chinese Internet has surpassed the US in terms of overall users. According to BDA China (reported in USAToday) there are more than 220 million Chinese Internet users (17 percent of the population) compared with 216 in the US (71 percent). This is simply a function of the huge scale of the Chinese market, with much more growth to come.

The article goes on to state that Google eclipsed the 50% mark on achieving 51% of revenue from outside the United States. This number will most likely not go down for some years to come.

Looking at the amount of users soon to be online in China it brings into question the way in which the Internet as we know it today will look in 5 years.

Consumption habits will certainly continue to evolve, but beyond that there may be language and usability changes that we are not anticipating right now.

It all started with a first blog post called Joining the conversation on March 3rd 2006 and we havnt looked back since. (first post here)

Our initial message is still true today and hopefully we have fulfilled our promise to cover the latest and greatest in marketing and advertising.

As the curtain in front of Marketing.fm is pulled away you will see a different approach that allows novices and experts alike to participate in the conversation and learn together. One of the biggest problems I have seen to date for a “late adopters” (i.e. most large agencies) is that there is no starting point for vocabluary, knowledge, or comprehending new and innovative ideas. This blog will cover learning about new media, learning about emerging media, and explain all aspects of interactive marketing for beginners.

Many of you (our readers) joined us along the way and most likely missed the posts from the beginning and may have missed some others too. Below is a brief collection of posts that stood out above the rest and a few of my favorites. You can checkout more in our interactive archive.

How to make a brand evangelist for life
Apple gives 1 billionth song downloader a ton of cool apple products.

The end of the big advertising agency
The big advertising agency days are numbered…

Which agency size is best?
Our first interactive reader poll.

The future of advertising My interpretation of where advertising is heading.

Advertise Different
(First AD post: Johny Walker ad)
After seeing campaigns, ads, and other interesting marketing around the web and in real life we wanted a way to share with others and give some thoughts and opinions around them. This category features some interesting commercials, advertisements, and marketing memes that were around in 2006 or before. Some of them were very popular – others were simply campaigns that caught my eye.
Advertising Different: ING Direct
Advertise Different: ABC Network
Advertise Different: RFID Advertising
Advertise Different: Audi – Streets of Tomorrow
Advertise Different: US Open 2006

Although we criticize often – we also give praise where it is due. These great articles outline some initiatives and strides that were worth noting.
Wake up call to traditional Ad Agencies
Ad Agencies thinking differently
Saatchi & Saatchi Reacts to New Media

Oh and we do have a sense of humor too!
iPod parody video from Microsoft
Lego & Eggo Team Up! (what could be better?)
Web 3.0
Marketing Cliche’s
EggVertising (possibly coined here first?)
The Apple halo affect

Dont forget about SEMSEO:
Enterprise Search
Search articles on marketing.fm

One meme we continue to cover and probably contribute to speculation on: Internet TV & Google TV
The Future of TV Sponsored by Google AdSense and Search
Coming Soon: Google Television
Google gets into video advertising

Upfront Coverage:
Some advertisers opt out of the Upfront (Coke + Johnson & Johnson)

iPhone Coverage back in May 2006
The iPhone and Apple Marketing

We also try to introduce new technologies and insight into how to use them to our readers. Understanding that everyone is at a different level articles like What is RSS went over well with the newbie and expert crowds.
What is RSS? What is Really Simple Syndication?

Sometime back in June 2006 we began running our Marketing Links section which featured a roundup of links from blogs and the internet. These articles have small digestible links with only the info you need.
Marketing links 1
Marketing Links 2
Marketing Links 3

One of our biggest accomplishments has been the successful introduction of our Marketing and Advertising Blog Network which was highlighted first here in the marketing network launch post. We have been lucky to have such amazing members and have even grown into a major force combining our efforts into the Marketing and Advertising Network on Feedburner.

We even have a new contributor Adam Perlis who wrote a great article called State of the TV Industry: Part I look out for part II coming soon. Welcome Adam!

Marketing Podcast

On September 3rd 2006 we began our Marketing Podcast, had our first episode and never looked back! We have had an amazing 5 shows and interviewed some amazing people.
Marketing Podcast 2
Marketing Podcast 3
Marketing Podcast 4
Marketing Podcast 5

We have many interviews, topics, and shows schedule and invite anyone interested in coming on the program to contact us or send in some feedback.

Some recent amazing milestones:
We were invited to cover the Youth Marketing Conference and THE Conference on Marketing.

We were invited to join the 9Rules blog network on 12/18/06. We are a part of the round 5 9rules members and could not be happier with being included! I have met some amazing people and even connected with some great service providers helping us improve the site.

Blogging has taught me some amazing things in 2006 and 2007 and I have met some amazing people through marketing.fm. Sometimes it is hard to keep blogging with a full time job and everything else that comes with life, but looking back I am glad I did. We have kept up a momentum that has truly paid off.

I would like to give a special thanks to my blogging partner and co-editor Lee Jones. Lee has written some amazing articles over the past year and is directly responsible for keeping me motivated and working on this blog. It is always great to have a good partner in business as you can push one another to achieve greatness. I think we have both accomplished quite a lot over the past 365 days of blogging and we have even more planned for year 2.

If you have made it this far….thanks! We have some exciting news for 2007, and although I cant give everything away now – stay tuned for some MAJOR site improvements, contributors, amazing interviews.

I cannot complete this post without thanking the most important part of our blog – the audience. I want to personally thank each and every person who takes the time to put marketing.fm into your feed reader, browse here daily, or subscribed via email. Without our readers we would not have a blog. As of today – 03/03/07 we have an amazing 414 loyal readers. To me this is quite an accomplishment.

Looking forward I hope to meet the following goals over the next year:

1. Reach 1000 feed subscribers!
2. Post our 50th Podcast episode!
3. Grow our consulting practice
4. Grow the Marketing and Advertising network to 150,000 readers (currently at 100,000)
5. Cross over to a traditional marketing and advertising medium with our work

Last but not least is a special thanks to some of the people who have influenced this blog and kept me motivated:
Seth Godin
Guy Kawasaki
Fred Wilson
Lee Odden
SearchViews
and many more…

Like I said in the first post ever made on this domain – “Welcome to the Future:)”

[tags] anniversary, apple, upfront, itunes, iphone, johnson & johnson, coke, coca-cola, marketing.fm, marketing, advertising, polls, blog birthday, joining the conversation, 9rules, RSS, what is rss, marketing links, advertise different, eggvertising, feedburner, marketing network, advertising network, marketing podcast, marketing.fm podcast, podcast, marketing bloggers, seth godin, guy kawasaki, fred wilson, lee odden, searchviews [/tags]

A recent announcement in the NYTimes about the content deals that Google put together got me thinking about their ad network inventory.

What if Google used this inventory to start displaying unique and exclusive video content?

Similar to how they are experimenting now with Google video ads, they could start having advertising blocks that simply allow a viewer to “tune-in” to the Google Channel that would represent the days, weeks, or months, worth of content. At any given time Google could effectively broadcast out a show that could decimate the highest rated shows out there right now – and track viewers.

This might be the single most important play that Google will pull off. If you think about the reach that Google has right now with webmasters who have already implemented the Google code on their site (which is the hardest part of any ad network distribution) it is insurmountable.

Google could effectively flip a switch turning themselves into a video network larger than the current networks combined. Now would they do this? probably not, given the content deals, ad deals, and revenue this would leave on the table from the networks right now.

But why not cut deals for show distribution?

They could effectively target and run on an entire channel of sites a single prime-time show (with advertising somewhere mixed in) and get a viewer ship higher than the biggest night of ratings to date.

The best part about this play would be the ability to track and measure who watched. These metrics coupled with user data from Google user accounts could effectively give the best demographic and geographic data available back to the Network than even the detailed Nielson reports.

This information may be worth showing the videoshowmovie without any commercials at all!

I am not saying this will happen tomorrow, but you have to wonder with everything going on, people they are hiring, something big will happen.

Agree? Disagree? Lets start a discussion…leave a comment!

[tags] Google TV, google television, google video, google, television, marketing, advertising, marketing.fm [/tags]

Over the past few years I have read countless articles about the demise of the :30 second spot, the fading traditional Ad Shop, and the apparent ruin of TV as we know it; and quite frankly, I am sick of it. Contrary to the Buggles belief that “Video Killed the Radio Star” I believe that it made more people interested in music and therefore brought a larger audience to the radio. After all, TV is not going away it is just changing and evolving. In the next few years we will see a drastic change in the way media is consumed. As Bill Gates said in his keynote address at the 2007 International CES Conference,

“We’ve talked about this as the decade of digital lifestyle, the decade of digital work style. It’s not just one application that makes it happen. It’s the fact that as you adopt these things, they really go together.”

We are approaching a virtually integrated life, where every part of our day can be connected. We are seeing it with the iPhone, Windows Vista, and iTV, a convergence of technologies built into one place and our everyday lives. On a high level, this what this article aims to talk about, however, for my purposes I would like to speak about the evolving cable television industry and it’s soon to be integration with the internet and digital space.

With this in mind I am going to make a few predictions about where I think Advertising, TV, and the Internet will be in roughly the next 3 years. I will start in 2009 and work my way backwards to give you a better idea of where we will be and how we got there:

The Future: So its 2009, and TV still exists! Ads are continuing to support the framework of television. But TV has changed quite a bit since 2007, the new form of TV integrates the Internet, Live TV, and Recorded/On Demand TV and it’s all at your fingertips. You can choose to view a show at any time recorded or not. Let’s say you missed last night’s episode of 24, well you can pull it from the database and watch it even if you didn’t record it. Live TV still exist, and so do traditional TV spots, but now they are much shorter because there is so much Ad content out there that longer spots create too much clutter. Finally, the internet has been fully integrated into your digital media space. You can access your desktop right from your big screen, pull up multiple windows showing TV, internet content, and media content simultaneously. The possibilities with these three integrated technologies are endless, we are talking pre-show ads, post-shows ads, in-show non-intrusive ads, show selection screen Ads and they will all be relevant to YOU! Though these ideas are dreamt up, it will remain to be seen what kind of creative ways advertisers will use this platform. Keep in mind that theses are very real possibilities and the technology is there.

The Bridge to the Future: It’s 2008, awareness has been generated, the technology is ready, it’s affordable and relevant to the consumer, and advertisers are starting to put money into it. But we need people to adopt it, make it part of their everyday lives. The success of the platform will be largely dependent on getting consumer to make it part of the norm.

Present Time: Today is January 16^th, 2007 and the technology is ready to be presented to the world. But only the techies have caught on. It will be up to a few brave companies to break the mold, put money into R&D, and find the new medium that could change the way advertising is done. Whether it will be Microsoft, Apple, Google, Viacom, one of the major networks, or one of major cable providers, there is a serious opportunity for one group to rise above the rest. Only time will tell.

I am curious to see what everyone out there is thinking about this topic as well so please feel free to write down your thoughts. To be continued…

Editors Note: Adam is guest blogging at Marketing.fm and will be posting a Part II to this article and hopefully many more soon.

[tags] television, upfront, media 2007, predictions, marketing, advertising, future video, video, commercials [/tags]

If you have ever seen the movie Minority Report then you have seen the future of customized advertising. In the movie the stars are seen running through crowded shopping and mall areas in which their retina’s are scanned identifying them then displaying completely customized ads including their names and tastes. Although a futuristic pipe dream, this level of advertising is being developed right now.

In Tokyo in the shopping area of Ginza 10,000 RFID tags are being deployed. The hope is that people carrying the prototype readers of the tags will be able to find out relevant location and shopping information.

Snip:

The system works by matching a unique code sent out by each beacon with data stored on a server on the Internet. The data is obtained automatically by the terminal, which communicates back to the server via a wireless LAN connection and requests the data relevant to the beacon that is being picked up.

This translates to a live system that can provide updated information to users. This will hopefully be a system in which people can find relevant data that will be accompanied by ads that will hopefully drive shoppers to a nearby store.

To think that one day soon a shopping center will be able to not only tailor their messaging to you, but also track your movements and time spent at each location is a bit scary. The one downside that I continue to see, which does not seem to get covered is the idea that these RFID tags do not stop broadcasting the signal once you leave a location with a tag. Imagine that you pickup items that include RFID chips from your local store and someone can drive by your home and identify the products you purchased. (Yes, this would require breaking the encryption currently on most chips – but this seems to be only a matter of time)

How much value would an advertiser put on zip code information that included the usage patterns of a certain product?

Marketers pay millions for mailing lists, demographic data, neighborhood info – and I believe they would pay more for specific shopping habit information.

All this technology may make the initial shopping experience more relevant – but at what point of loss of privacy or abuse of these systems do we draw the line?

Checkout other stories in our Advertise Different category.
[tags] RFID, customized shopping, shopping, marketing, tracking, marketing.fm [/tags]

Welcome back to the Marketing.fm Marketing Links Roundup – Enjoy some links from around the blogosphere below.

“AdLand’s Test-Tube” – Last week Marketing.fm discussed Google’s plan to use AdSense technology to replace traditional television commercials in Britatin. We wondered why this announcement went under the radar in the mainstream media (because I think it’s significant and at the very least, an omen of what may come). The Economist discusses this further and suggests that Britain is the ideal trial ground for online advertising innovation (log-in require unfortunately). The U.K. has been a leader in the interactive adspace partly because there is so little TV advertising there.

“CMO’s Look Beyond Traditional Agencies Marketing Innovation” – Not a huge surprise if you ask me. Agencies are having a very tough time reinventing themselves to accomodate technology and the 21st century consumer. The holding companies have a very tough job when it comes to adapting – especially because 90% of their assests are in human capital. My prediction: holding companies will compensate through more acquisitions of smaller, hip shops while downsizing and trimming the fat at traditional ad agencies.

Outsourcing your homegrown operation around the world? Checkout TimeToMeet which can help you schedule, book, and manage meeting times in different time zones. Very helpful when trying to pull together a group from the next time zone over or around the globe.

Start a search marketing campaign even without a homepage – Google heating up the hosting business. Original coverage at Marketing.fm.

Dark Clouds over Madison Ave article predicts the downward and flat trends of print advertising.
All while Internet advertising…

could account for 7.1% of all ad spending during 2006. He expects that ratio to expand to 10.4% in 2009.

Advertising on a mini-budget in 2007? Checkout TurnHere for a $300.00 produced video option. Company will produce then direct SEM traffic to your video for $50.00 a month. Great CNET coverage here.

Cyber Monday continues to deliver says EMarketer – up 26% over last year.

If you havnt been there before checkout our mobile friendly websites that should work on your cell phone, pda, blackberry, or other mobile device. One new edition: Mobile Delta

And finally a shameless plug for my own content – The future of advertising is real time information.

Got a link for the next Marketing Links Roundup? Send it in!.

[tags] marketing.fm, advertising, agencies, marketing blogs, marketing, cmo’s, google, adsense, links, emarketer, madison ave, outsourcing[/tags]

Out of all the media conglomorates, News Corp. seems to employ the best futurists:

1) In the Fall of 2005, News Corp. purchased MySpace

2) In June 2006, News Corp. announced a partnership with China Mobile.

3) Last week News Corp. purchased Jamba, a mobile content provider.

4) Today, GigaOM reported that MySpace executives are in high level discussions with China Mobile regarding a shared future with China Mobile’s 250 Million subscribers.

At a lecture regarding the future of media, a senior manager at my former advertising agency said, “if you want to see the future, look to Asia.” Mobile consumption in Asia is way ahead of the United States: in 2005, Japanese mobile internet usage surpassed web browsing via PC. (this article blew my mind)

Will mobile prove to be the new medium?

[tags] news corp, myspace, china mobile, rupert murdoch, japan, china, marketing.fm, marketing blogs [/tags]

The digital revolution is about much more than a new medium. It is about the beginning of the end of advertising and media as we have known it. Why? Because that’s what consumers and marketers want.
- Dave Morgan, CEO of Tacoda, AdAge 7/10/06

AdAge is among the most popular Advertising, Media and Marketing Publications so the above statement should be a wake-up-call for anyone in the business. Large holding companies like WPP, InterPublic Group, Omnicom, etc. will be forced to adapt the business model of their lucrative yet increasingly irrelevent media and advertising agencies. Morgan, like Jeff Jarvis and Richard Edelman, criticizes Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO of WPP) for his seemingly relaxed approach to future of the business.

In Sorrell’s defense, one can see why the CEO of a global holding company must be very diplomatic and cautious on this subject. However, other agencies have been aggressively embracing new media and change. For example, IPG’s partnership with Facebook.com, Publicis’ new agency Denuo, etc. One might also argue that in some cases, executive egos may hinder the necessary and natural evolution of a company, and in this case, an industry.

This AdAge article is significant. For the sake of mid-level agency folk, I hope you read the trades – it is available in a print form too.

Related Articles: The End of The Big Advertising Agency

Life After The :30 Spot

Advertising Agencies Thinking Differently

[tags] Dave Morgan, Tacoda, AdAge, WPP, InterPublic Group, Denuo, marketing.fm, advertising, media, digital revolution [/tags]

Or so says ESPN. (adage link – sub required)

John Skipper, who handles ESPN’s mega marketing machine, thinks that this has been a big opportunity for marketers. What has been staged as the “super bowl for the world” the world cup is a chance for multi-national campaigns to break through the normal “clutter” and perhaps make their mark on potential consumers.

In my opinion I have been made aware of many brands that I previously never knew about, bringing about the idea that in some ways this is overbranding. For example, now that I know about a watch brand, or beer company simply because of an expensive product integration – does this mean it worked?

What is the ultimate metric for global dominating advertising?

Checkout what MSN has offered advertisers – putting brands “in the middle of the action”.

…or this whitepaper material by Shoxygen boasting:

With no other sport is the World Wide Web a more effective advertising medium than with Soccer. The worldwide appeal of this sport, the passion of its fans, and its money-making prowess are undeniable.

Time will tell whether the World Cup of 2006 proves to be the advertising “holy grail” that the marketers are pitching – I for one think it will prove otherwise. I believe that it remains a strong medium for continued advertising throughout a team, or stadiums season, following intelligently into the time leading up to the world cup. It should not be used as a one size fits all marketing campaign that comes around every 4 years and drains your budget because of potential global “eyeballs” and reach.

Although I have a somewhat negative view of all this advertising – not everyone shares my cynicism: Thomas Hawk

Disagree? leave a comment…

[tags] World Cup, soccer, global advertising [/tags]

Here is some disturbing news…snip:

Blogs have a long way to go before becoming widely accepted corporate marketing tools. According to the survey even though 12% of senior executives say their companies have taken legal or other action in response to a blog, only 20% report having a formal process in place for monitoring blogs written about their own company.

Even having somone tracking every time your company name gets used in the blogosphere or on the Internet is an integral part of company PR. Many marketers I have spoken with assume that this job lies within the promotions, PR, or lower level employees. This mentality is what keeps them from seeing their product through the eyes of their customers.

Here are my top 5 tips to watching your company in the blogosphere:

1. Track your company name and all informal spellings and even mispellings
2. Track your company products – no matter how small
3. Find and hopefully respond to complaints logged in the BBB and on personal or commercial blogs
4. Allow and recognize customers that evangelize your product or service online (or off for that matter)
5. If you have not already: JOIN THE CONVERSATION.
4

[tags] top 5, marketing.fm, company blogs, blogosphere, emarketer, fortune 1000 [/tags]