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Yahoo has followed in the footsteps of Google and released a new tool that gives users the ability to control what targeted ads they receive. The beta launch of the new tool, named Ad Interest Manager, was rolled out on Monday in response to lawmakers and privacy groups putting increased pressure on online advertising networks to hand users more control on the personal data that is collected.

Ad Interest Manager can be found on the same page that used to allow Yahoo users to opt out of all behavioural tracking on its network. However, users now have greater flexibility which will allow them to control what targeted ads they receive. Users will now be able to select from interest categories from which to receive ads from as well as the option to use Yahoo’s “educated guesses” system to choose the types of ads they want to receive.

Yahoo’s search engine rival, Google, announced a similar service in November that gives users more control on the data that is collected and the categories of Ads that are delivered to them. However, Yahoo’s Ad Interest Manager offers even more information and greater control. Along with Yahoo and Google, there has been a greater trend amongst the other companies in the online ad industry that have responded to concerned users wanting choice when it comes to online advertising.

Would you like a 20% discount on item groceries? How about with a collection of coupons, that could cut your monthly grocery bill from $500 to $300? In light of the Global Financial Crisis, recent Nielsen Homescan data in the US, has reported that:

“ …the recession is driving heavier coupon usage among all types of consumers as many lighter users have become heavier users. After three quarters of declines in 2008, coupon redemption spiked 10 percent in Q4 2008, per Inmar. This was followed by a 17 percent increase in Q1 2009 and a 33 percent surge in Q2. This tally includes Food Sales Indexes, on-pack offers and Internet coupons but excludes retailer coupons. ”

This suggests that coupon usage is helping consumers stretch their budgets but also helping retailers and manufacturers provide sales offline.

What about online electronic coupons?

According to the Age, electronic coupons are also on the rise with many shoppers, especially younger consumers who in the past have rejected coupons printed in newspapers and direct mail books. The use of electronic discounts and coupons has more than doubled in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year along with the overall rise in coupon usage. Although electronic coupons still represent a small part of the total coupons used, accounting for more than 3 per cent of all coupons used, they have strong potential in growing quickly and providing new ways for shoppers to deal with their increasingly tight budgets. Electronic coupons are a great way of driving consumer traffic, building loyalty, increasing sales and attracting new customers.

The flip side is preventing counterfeiting and hacking because most coupons are not properly syncing with checkout systems. For example, when a notorious KFC in the US faced traffic jams and demand at several restaurants with had to offer rain checks because of the expected demand for free grilled chicken meals offered in a coupon posted on Oprah Winfrey’s website.

But by combining both electronic and traditional print formats, experts believe that they are likely to grow although maybe not to the level of that seen in 1992 of 7.9 billion.

Although there have been a large number of benefits of the internet revolution, one of the downsides has been the invasion of privacy. Take a second to think about the personal information you have put online, whether that be on secure sites or online forums. If someone was able to harness all that information, there would be an excellent portfolio on your preferences. Advertising agencies are trying to accomplish that, and see it as the future of internet advertising.

Every time you visit a website, your computer records the visit on a “cookie”. This cookie contains small pieces of information, so if you decide to come back to the site, it will load faster. The information in these cookies is being harvested to give the advertisers a clearer picture on your browsing history, so they can serve up the advertisement they think you will want.

A perfect example would be for advertisements of technology. If your cookies suggested that you were after the latest and greatest technology, and had a large budget, then you would see an ad for the latest TV released. If your cookies suggested that you had been shopping around for the cheapest price, and all the other products you looked at (not always electronic products also) were cut price, then the ad would display the best deal/latest sale. Two separate people would see different ads tailored to them.

The type of information they could get from the cookies include age bracket, income bracket, location (affluent city or rural outpost?) and even if there are children in the house. This information would take research firms hours to gather, but could be discovered quite easily by examining the cookies.

Before you decide to don your luddite cap and take a shotgun to your computer, there is an easier solution: delete the cookies from your system. The issue is that it is a minority of people who do this, so consumer advocacy groups are worried that the Orwellian Overlords (slight exaggeration… perhaps) are still collecting more data than is safe to have out there. When was the last time your backed up your information? Sure, we all know we need to do it, but nobody does. It’s the same with cookies: people may want to keep the information secret, but very few people take the time to do it.

Realistically, I don’t believe that this information is going to be harmful to the individuals. If there is a connection between the online and the offline world, where they can track where you live, who you associate with, and what you buy, then it gets tricky. Where is the line drawn for too much information? Should we be advised to a greater degree by the websites on what information they are collecting? As with any emerging technology, there are always new ethical issues raised.

Moonfruit bigger than Jacko!

Recently Moonfruit, a free website builder became the most twittered about company on this planet, and Cornwallseo.com proved, bigger than Michael Jackson. Moonfruit cleverly showed how a Twitter marketing campaign should be done!

Moonfruit to celebrate its 10th birthday are giving away 10 new release Macbook Pro’s over 10 days and all you need to do is Twitter a Moonfruit Tweet or come up with a funny or creative tweet yourself. This example shows that companies, who know how to use Twitter, and put it to good use, reap the rewards. This idea is simple and affordable, but, and this is a big but, generates millions of viewers coming to their website and more publicity than Michael Jackson. This catchy idea and ploy of Twitter shows how buzz, excitement and publicity can be spread in just a few days. It’s a real credit to the company and their employees who can capture the consciousness of millions of people and for only a few thousands of dollars.

Online media enables companies to gain professional and admirable publicity, and the companies who have the ability to understand and use the latest technology can take advantage of it and grow their business to new heights.

There are still 4 winners left to be chosen! So if you want a chance to win a Macbook Pro and to support the great use of Twitter and use of social media then Tweet something about Moonfruit!

When watching TV, how often do you flick through the ad’s - just waiting for your favourite TV program to come back.
Well I hardly think I’m alone in doing this, because lets face it, it’s just plain annoying.

The time has now come for these types of ad’s to infiltrate the online world - and David Payne is leading the way, hoping to alter not only the way online ad’s look but also how they are sold.

I’m sure you have come across pop-ad’s during your online surfing time, so whats so different about this type of online ad?

This time, the advertisments will be full screen and deliberately intrusive. They will last for approximatetly 15-30 seconds and will load in-between web pages as you browse through your favourite websites.

So why is this method being touted as the next big thing in online advertising?
Well according to David Payne:

The reason we need change is that brands are not treating in-page display ads as brand vehicles. Payne believes that its time to adopt a bigger, bolder creative and less sensitive approach to the user experience when it comes to online advertising.

So how will you feel about short video adverts rolling whilst you are on the web?
According to some experts in the industry

Companies have tried things like this before with mixed results, but we may be reaching a stage in the growth of our industry that tolerance for this type of video advertising is higher.

For this web user, I must disagree as I feel the primary reason people turn to the web is because they are time poor. Will it make sense for brands to forcefully expose web users to this type of advertisment? What’s your opinion on the matter and with all online ideas - watch this space!

More than ever before, journalists, potential clients, bloggers and industry influential’s use search engines to find subject matter experts, media alerts, past media coverage, media opportunities and media statistics and trends. A recent survey featured journalists and their search usage patterns conveying that 91% of those journalists, reporters and editors surveyed use search engines to do their jobs.

In the past search engine optimisation efforts have mostly been employed by corporate marketing departments. However with all the prospects to create significance and value in the form of increase online brand visibility, online media coverage and reputation management, public relation companies should be entitled and deserving of a seat at the corporate SEO table.

SEO expert Lee Odden believes that

“within the realm of Public Relations there are many types of content that get created and often promoted. Content that can be searched on cab be optimised, and that spells opportunity for extending the reach of PR and media relation efforts”.

Journalists and consumers alike are searching, why not make sure the content published to the web as part of PR efforts is easy to find via search?

Examples of PR content that can be optimised:
-Press releases
-Letters to the editor
-Online newsrooms
-Media kits
-Corporate b logs
-White paper
-Webinars/demos
-Newsletters
-Real world interviews published digitally
-Industry news and updates
-Archive section-pass reports and press releases
-Media alerts
-Invitations

Optimising PR content involves the creation and maintenance of keyword glossaries for which to pick the best phrases for optimisation as well to continually write and upload fresh unique articles incorporating keyword rich and phrases rich content.

The foundations for PR professionals that want to take advantage of SEO tactics is according to Lee Odden

“to extend the reach and visibility of content via search is to take inventory of the content being published digitally, in all formats”.

Further incorporate keyword optimisation within content development and publishing. Content creation and the promotion process should become essential aspects of the PR company. Make it an essential aspect of your business and a 10 min daily task to ensure your online PR activities are affected positively by SEO.

I asked my grandmother what she believed search engine marketing to be, she replied “a type of system that lets us promote business via the internet”. For a lady of nearly 80, she is very informed about current affairs and the technological world today. I then asked my older 23 year old brother what he thought search engine marketing was all about, he replied “ahh, umm not too sure”???

Maybe I should not be mentioning right now that my brother is a 6th year medical student at UNSW. Hopefully we won’t come across him any time soon when we aren’t feeling too well. No, I am joking, he will be a brilliant Doctor, but I guess the point I am trying to make is that he is a smart fellow yet didn’t have a clue about what SEO really is yet our grandmother had a much more informed idea.

A time ago, people would say online advertising campaigns were wasted on the youth however is this really the case today? According to Pew Research Centre the average age of an online searcher is between the age of 39-48 or older. Online internet users are of a diverse age, proving that online advertising is an effective form of targeting an audience of varied ages or any specific aged market.

Larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past and they are doing more searching online. The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 can be seen in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 65% of that age group is currently online in 2009 (Pew Research Centre, Generations online in 2009). Larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past. One can say this is the reason why the demographic is well informed about online marketing and industry updates. I believe we can expect to see these statistics become more level to other ages as time goes on. It’s great to see an end to the days where people were afraid to turn on the family computer and search. It’s great to see this is a notion of the past. I am very proud of my grandmother and other alike her giving the internet a go. Online advertising is definitely not wasted on the youth!

Great news for the Australian online advertising industry. According to latest report from IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure, they have forcasted that in the next 12 months, the online advertising expenditure will hit the $2 Billion mark.
From the December 2008 IAB report, they found there was a strong growth in the online advertising expenditure especially in the Search and Directories segment which increased by 27% from 2007.

 Search & Directories Advertising Expenditure

This clearly shows that marketers and businesses are accepting online advertising. This is great evidence that the confidence in the online sectore has massively grown.

“The figures clearly show that online is now seen by a growing number of marketers and agencies as a ‘core’ advertising medium, and they are continuing to shift their investment where they can more cost effectively reach and engage their consumers with their brand and direct response messages,” IAB Australia chief executive Paul Fisher says.