Charity Campaigns In The Headlines

As I enter the world of charity and not for profit based marketing through my new venture, I took a look at what other charity based campaigns are going live...

The Churches’ Advertising Network (CAN) announced their annual christmas marketing campaign last week. It will feature a picture of Jesus on a beer glass and utilise social networking site myspace. The campaign is picking up on the public and media obsession with finding the image of Jesus in everyday objects.

With Sunday being World Heart Day, the British Heart Foundation are launching an ad campaign to expose the hidden salt, fat & sugar in crisps.

Actress and fashion designer Sadie Frost has stripped off to star in the latest anti-fur advertising campaign for animal rights group PETA.

Watch this space for an update on my new charity project! Launching on 1st November 2006.

Recession on the way?

There are many indications of a recession on the way not at least of which is an "inversion of the yield curve" in the states, a situation that almost guarantees a recession on the other side of the pond. Don't forget that when the states sneezes the UK and EU catch colds.

Consumer spending is slowing, Woolworths recently posted £66million in losses for the first half of the year, nearly double that of the previous years quarterly reports. Most retailers have acknowledged difficult trading conditions.

Signs of an internet slowdown are starting to creap out. Yahoo! has sounded a warning about the strength of the online advertising marketing. They are claiming the weakness in the automotive & financial sectors who are 2 of the biggest online ad spenders.

US Favourite Destinations

'Stickiness' was the big buzz term back in the dotcom boom days, so with an ever growing internet real estate what makes a site sticky for the current i-generation?

comScore Media Metrix recently launched some interesting stats on the 'sticky' factor.

Portals are top banana for repeat users, attracting an average usage per visitor of 28.7 out of 31 days each month. Next came Entertainment sites attracting 15.2 days during the month. According to neilson netratings youtube.com remains one of the fastest growing entertainment mediums and penetrates 8% active reach in the US. Community sites are close at 14.3days and then news and information at 14days.

Top sites remain Yahoo! AOL, MSN, Myspace, Google, Weatherchannel & facebook.com

Internet Poisoning The 21st Century Child

The internet is just one new element that now exists in a modern childhood. Experts are warning that childhood is being lost to a dangerous combination of junk food, marketing and video games.

A group of 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts have written to the Daily Telegraph urging the Government to act, warning children are being poisoned by the modern world. The undertone is to children need to go back to real food (as opposed to processed "junk"), real play (as opposed to sedentary, screen based entertainment), first hand experience of the world they live in and regular interaction with the real-life significant adults in their lives.

The group have called for a public debate on child-rearing in the 21st century. The debate would touch on the internet and games industry heavily as stats show this is the growing medium for interaction amongst the under 16's.

Marketeers have embraced the opportunity to target young children through the internet, but if changes are a foot then marketeers could find themselves back to basics, relying more on ambient media and perhaps back to more traditional mediums such as print and press.

Get 2 Gamers Through A New Ad Deal

Advertising oppotunities in games are now starting to pick up momentum. Electronic Arts (EA) and marketing company Massive are now working on the inclusion of “dynamic” advertising in computer games. Massive is part owned by Microsoft.

The new technology will allow ads to be changed and updated within games to mirror different stages of a campaign.

This is great news for marketeers as all evidence shows that gamers are more receptive to ads within the gaming environment.