Play It as It Overlays
Google earned kudos in September 2006 for enticing video-sharing site YouTube away from its rivals and into the Googleplex. But almost immediately the...
Searching for Hillary
Universal search combines all the categorical directory findings and media into a unified search engine results page. Through a new set of algorithms, Google offers results that may include videos, maps, images, blog sites and press releases that it positions by newly defined relevance and popularity....
Partnering for Progress
It might surprise some direct marketers to find out that affiliates can deliver a more desirable demographic than the average online shopper. According to a recent study from DoubleClick Performics, affiliate channel shoppers spend more — the typical order size via affiliate sites is higher. An affiliate shopper, the report also notes, tends to be slightly wealthier compared with the average Web counterpart....
Trick Shot
A Web site redesign helped PoolDawg.com increase online conversions by 27% and improve its search engine rankings....
LEASHING SOCIAL MEDIA
Nonprofits that want to mark their territory online next year need to learn to let go of the leash, says Jo Sullivan, senior vice president for development...
THE CONVERSATION MATURES
High-tech marketing is all grown up. From a marketing perspective, this means companies like Cisco have to be everywhere for their customers....
LABELING GROWTH
If you want to put a label on DYMO's marketing goals for 2008, try personalization. And understanding shopping patterns....
WORKER'S PARADISE
Tony Hsieh, CEO of online shoe merchant Zappos.com, asks each employee to write a 100- to 500-word description of the company's culture every year for...
Watch This
Your watch tells you the time. It may even tell you the date. But does it inspire you? Clinical psychologist Brenda Ellner advised patients to write down...
Beauty Pageant
Fred Segal Beauty's latest online promotion urged consumers to go beyond skin deep. In conjunction with marketing platform Brickfish, the spa and cosmetics marketer held a “beauty lottery,” offering participants the chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree on FredSegalBeauty.com....
Tailoring the Landing to the Search
From search and display ads to e-mail campaigns, print ads, direct-response TV and even direct mail, direct marketers are driving prospects to the Web in increasing numbers. But who’s building all the landing pages those prospects are pulling up to?...
B-to-B Seller Opens Up to Customers
How does a business-to-business enterprise retool to increase its appeal to consumers? When Brandon Whildin joined Dekalb, Ill.-based Diamond Tour Golf as director of marketing about three years ago, the company had almost no Web presence. ...
With Sales at Stake, Steak Seller Opts for Search
You might not think of a beef retailer as a hotbed of advanced technological thought. But Nebraska-based Omaha Steaks can lay claim to being at the forefront of a number of trends in both marketing and technology. ...
Virtual Open House
Bah. Who wants to spend a Sunday afternoon going around to open houses? Wouldn't it be great if there was a Second Life, where prospective home buyers...
Hire Standards
If you have online marketing experience, get your resume in shape. The headhunters may be comin' a callin'. A recent report by The Creative Group shows...
Sleep on It
Perhaps you have children leaving for college for the first time this month. Have you given a lot of thought to the sheets they'll be sleeping on? Peggy Allen and Ronda Pierson have....
It's Mysterious
What's in a name? Intrigue, if you ask the folks at Stormship. The Medford, MA-based agency which has a number of clients in the high-tech and education...
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Is investment in online marketing growing the way it once did? Probably not, judging from Direct's 2007 online marketing survey. Fewer DMers are planning large spending increases this time around, and more seem to be embracing a wait-and-see attitude....
Buy.com's 2.0 Makeover
Last October Buy.com launched an extensively remodeled Web site. The avowed mission? To at least keep pace with — and perhaps catch up to — Web tycoon Amazon.com, the largest pure-play Internet retailer....
Getting In
If you have any doubts about how thoroughly geeky I can be and believe me, I can provide testimonials from family and friends please consider the nerd...
Web Site Markets Beauty Products for Pets
Renee Ryan, an executive in the beauty industry and a dog lover, saw a need she felt others had missed. ...
CafePress Ties Blog Tags to Ads
Imagine for a moment that you want to market 25 million different products online. Now imagine that many of those products are timely items strongly linked to events in the news. Finally, imagine that you have to add almost a million new products a week to your line—not to mention taking 1 million out. How do you get all those things up on the Web in the most efficient manner? ...
The Web Analytics behind an E-card
The Internet has done a lot to change both Americans’ buying habits and the way we relate to each other: e-mail rather than letters or phone calls, sending gifts online rather than using the mails, and so on. American Greetings Interactive, the online subsidiary of Cleveland-based card maker American Greetings, has built its business on the prospect that those two trends will intersect. The company counts on the fact that the right mix of personalized message and Flash animation will get us to use our desktop PCs to send our heartfelt sentiments out into cyberspace. ...
Search Helps Golfers Hit the Links
Want to know how to stumble upon a new ctegory ripe for vertical search? Just find something lots of people are always looking for, identify some group of advertisers who want to reach them, and build a platform that bring the two together. Done and done....
Mandinez.com Offers Mandala-Inspired Clothing
Actress, model and designer J. Callendar has an abiding passion for mandala meditation and artwork. After a short stint selling products inspired by the technique, last January she created Mandinez.com to sell her wares....
