The Futures Bright...

...the futures Orange.

With £73 million media budget allocated for forthcoming campaigns, Orange must be doing something right. Or perhaps it's just it's European customers who are footing the bill.
In the UK I can subscribe to Orange broadband for £6 a month for up to 2meg broadband, where as a 1 meg line here in France is 24 euros a month. We are in a rural location so accept a lower bandwidth but the cost is no way near what we are used to paying!

Orange spend in excess of £13 million a year on digital marketing according to Nielsen, so is a big spender in this competitive market. The increase in funds is to compete in this growing market, and the cost will allow them to lead in innovation.

Movie Deals Makes Money For Lego...

With a growing interest in the toy retail industry I couldn't help see one brand bucking the market trends.

Apparently Lego has enjoyed a 166% increase in the first half pre tax profits mainly thanks to Star Wars & Indiana Jones branded products. Its no surprise that stagnation is hitting the global toy market, resulting in no YOY growth meaning lego have hit double digit growth rate in sales.

The Indiana Jones & The temple escape has been a bestseller at Tesco for months, long after the release of the film.

Top Tip...

I have been talking to a number of smaller retailers recently who are looking to increase traffic and sales. When i kick off any relationship I usually have a checklist for clients one item is "Your Domain Name should be registered with a registrar completely separate to your hosting". So why is this so important. Hosting companies encounter problems and you may have to face at some point you need to change the hosting company. If your domain is tied to the account then you can encouter countless issues with delays, costs to transfer. If you host your domain with a different company you can simply switch the DNS to the new host and therefore reduce the impact on your site.

Cuil Not So Cool

Cuil shouted loud about taking on the big Giant G, but is it not so cool after all.

Personally i find the site cluttered. Google has stamped out the way in which users are used to seeing search results so when i see this 3 x 3 approach it doesn't really deliver in my book - my eye is drawn all over the place.

The more the exact match keyword the better the results but then again this is what one expects from a search engine.

Take a look for yourself, I don't think Google need to worry just yet!

Skinkers Are Still Around...

Skinkers are a company I met with some years back when I was doing work for Buena Vista International.

It seems they are still around and currently overhauling Flybes digital communications. Europe’s largest regional airlines digital strategy is to reach customers in real-time through its new Departure Board communication channel. The Skinker download will offer flybe customers latest offers promotions, last minute deals and flight information, straight to customers’ desktop bypassing email channels.

This is very much a form of push marketing, and more innovative than the likes of email. Skinkers are a fantastic way to take advantage of the growing number of customers/users who are happy to have.

Check them out here.