End Of Year News Round-Up: New Media
January
January was a good month for AOL Time Warner, which struck what could be the biggest global cross-media marketing deal in history with the world’s largest advertiser Unilever (see AOL And Unilever Strike Global Cross-Media Deal). Meanwhile, the Interactive Advertising Bureau made a New Year’s resolution to make internet advertising more accountable. Elsewhere, Yahoo! UK & Ireland launched four new advertising formats designed to give internet ads greater visual appeal than conventional banners. Freeserve kicked off the New Year with a TV ad campaign in its “Freedom Of The Internet” promotion to raise the profile of its online and offline brand (see Freeserve Unveils New TV Ad Campaign). Further cheer was provided by an Ofcom report which claimed UK internet access was on the rise, with 45% of British homes connected to the internet, an increase of 10% on the same period in 2001.
February
February brought bad news for Freeserve, which cut 18 positions from its editorial and advertising sales team following a five-month review of its portal business. However, the group reported record subscriber growth later in the month. The IAB published more internet ad standard guides, as part of its continuing effort to draw together the many standards already in existence, to make them more accessible and understandable. Elsewhere, a survey from NetValue found that ITV’s Pop Idol website failed to match up to the online version of Channel 4’s Big Brother. In people news, AOL UK‘s vice president of advertising, Ian Maude, stepped down after six years with the company, to pursue an MBA (see AOL Advertising Chief Resigns).
March
March saw the beginning of the broadband battles, which were seen dominating the new media world in 2002. Telewest claimed to have experienced 1,135% customer growth of its Blueyonder broadband internet service over the last year. Whilst rival NTL launched a new broadband internet service for residential users which it claimed was the UK’s “fastest ever.” It was also a busy moth for mergers and acquisitions, with BTOpenworld acquiring United Business Media’s music portal, Dotmusic, for less than £1m as part of a move to increase its broadband entertainment offering. Digital marketing company, ValueClick, announced plans to merge its business with interactive ad-technology firm, Be Free (see ValueClick Merges With Be Free) and digital marketing agency, Outrider, merged with digital media shop, The Digital Edge. Research unveiled in March also brought a new slant to the digital divide, with a report from online bank, Egg, claiming twice as many Londoners as Welsh people access the internet on a regular basis (see Research Reveals “Gaping Gulf” In Internet Uptake).
April
The big news in the spring was provided by FT.com, the online presence of the Financial Times, which announced it was to begin charging subscription fees for access to certain services (see FT.com To Charge For Access From Next Month). Meanwhile, pay-per-click search engine Espotting launched its first ever radio advertising campaign targeting small and medium businesses (see Espotting To Launch First Ever Radio Campaign). Elsewhere, AOL Europe signed an advertising agreement with Proctor and Gamble to promote the pharmaceutical company’s baby care brands promoted across its portfolio of websites.
May
May began with good news for the Radio Advertising Bureau and MediaTel, which were the most popular and highly regarded of all media websites, according to a poll conducted by media intelligence and technology company Media-i. The survey, which asked UK media planners and buyers to list their top media sites, placed the RAB’s online operation in first position, closely followed by MediaTel in second place and Media Guardian and the World Advertising Research Centre in third and fourth (see RAB And MediaTel Top Industry Web Poll). On a less positive note, Yahoo closed its European auction services and instead promoted those of rival company eBay. Accountability was high on the agenda once more as Outrider became the first digital marketing agency to independently audit its email advertising campaigns in an attempt to offer clients an increasing level of transparency (see Outrider To Audit Email Ad Campaigns).
June
The summer kicked off with good news from MSN, which claimed that nearly three quarters of online media buyers expect their marketing spend to increase over the next two years, with two thirds predicting an increase of up to 30%. (see Online Media Buyers Set To Increase Marketing Spend). Elsewhere, Parliament went online with over 200 people registering to take part in the first ever online discussion about draft legislation, debating the forthcoming Communications Bill (see Communications Bill Debated Online). New technology was also on the agenda with digital marketing group, Messagizer, predicting that Videomail will be the next generation of email advertising, after publishing the results of its first videomail ad campaign. Telewest launched its new 1 mega-bite Blueyonder internet service for residential users (see Telewest Unveils New Blueyonder Internet Service) and digital media agency, i-level, launched a new specialist division called i-level Generator to help advertisers get the most out of digital marketing.
July
AOL sent ripples through the industry in July with the resignation of chief operating officer, Robert Pittman, as head of AOL’s internet arm, a position he only took up in April see COO Quits AOL Time Warner). Oftel bared its teeth, ordering BT to cut the wholesale price of the unmetered internet access package that it sells to telecoms operators. Elsewhere NetRatings announced plans to acquire rival internet research group, NetValue, for around £11.5m, as part of a move to create a global standard in internet audience measurement (see NetRatings Moves To Acquire NetValue).
August
Microsoft appointed Nick Barley as its director of marketing with responsibility for all marketing and communications in the UK (see Microsoft Appoints New UK Marketing Director). On the corporate news-front, Freeserve awarded its entire online advertising account to interactive agency, itraffic. Meanwhile, research from Nielsen/NetRatings confirmed the online success of Channel 4’s Big Brother, claiming that online and broadcast platforms complimented each other in building up audience figures (see Big Brother’s Cross-Media Platforms Deliver Audience).
September
September began with a joint effort from Lycos and MSN to promote online advertising to media owners and agencies. The ISPs visited a range of media owners, as well as leading media planning and buying agencies to promote the internet through case studies and research. Elsewhere, accountability was high on the agenda again as Enpocket became the first mobile media company to independently audit an SMS marketing campaign. Search targeted marketing company, BTLookSmart, expanded its global management team with the appointment of Paul Eisentein-Levett to the newly created position of vice president of product development.
October
October began with good news from online ad agency, DoubleClick, which secured a global partnership with Carat that will see it become the preferred ad-serving provider for the group’s operations. Meanwhile, a report from communications regulator Oftel claimed that more than one million UK households now have a high-speed broadband internet connection( see Broadband Connections Break The One Million Mark). A ray of light was provided for the somewhat depleted online content market with a report from the Newspaper Society claiming brands believe they must continue to pour money into online publishing in order to maximise their return on investment (see Online Publishers Believe They Must Up Investment).
November
As 2002 neared its close, The Internet Advertising Bureau promised that online advertising would be bigger and better in 2003 and unveiled a wide-ranging plan which aims to double the size of the online ad market in two years (see IAB Plans To Double Internet Ad Spend In Two Years). November also saw the broadband price wars hot up as Freeserve announced plans to cut the cost of its high-speed internet package by 7% (see Freeserve Ups Stakes With Broadband Price Cut). Meanwhile, Nielsen Media Research announced that online advertising accounted for 1.6% of the UK’s total media expenditure during the first half of 2002.
December
December was all about spam, as a host of research suggested that spam email levels were spiralling out of control. According to email security company, MessageLabs on average one in 14 emails contained spam in 2002. In a final push for online advertising in 2002 the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s ad size committee introduced a range of new larger sized formats as part of its initiative to simplify the planning and buying process.
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