Political parties’ efforts to use the internet as an effective campaigning tool are failing, according to a new survey.

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) found discrepancies between what voters want and what they get from the parties.

Of those questioned, 79 per cent had no recollection of any adverts, e-mails or websites which had been prepared for the internet by the main parties.

This is despite four out of ten of those questioned saying that they wanted more chance to interact with parties online. The proportion wanting greater engagement rose to 60 per cent among the 18-24 year-old age group.

Meanwhile, a quarter of all those taking part were unimpressed with the way political parties use the internet.

“Although it’s being talked of as a ‘digital election’, political parties are falling short in delivering what voters want online,” Jonathan Kestenbaum, Nesta chief executive, told the BBC.

“Currently, they are using tactical measures such as buying Google AdWords to raise brand awareness – but the internet provides the means to have a much more dynamic dialogue with voters,” he added.

Nesta recommended that parties should exploit the ability to talk to people directly via the internet to find out their thoughts on key issues.

Given the main parties’ investment in using the internet to rally activists, Nesta said it should be straightforward to employ web tools to get a better sense of what voters are concerned about.

“So far we’ve seen a triumph of superficial tactics over genuine engagement and voters aren’t falling for it,” said Mr Kestenbaum.

 Not only do voters want more dialogue online, found the survey of 2,550 people, but many want to be able to vote online too. At the last election 44 per cent of those entitled to vote who didn’t said they would cast a vote if they could do it online.

Businesses which advertise their wares on television have always boasted that it has brought them a great degree of success than any other medium.

But recent reports suggest that the added presence of online marketing can help to boost television advertising campaigns.

Millions of us have bought a product or service over the years after seeing it advertised on the television, which proves just how effective television marketing can be for companies which want to raise awareness of their services or products and increase sales and profits.

Even today, with so much other technology available, television is a main source of advertising and marketing for companies.

However, recent research has indicated that the effects of television advertising and marketing could be greatly boosted by additional online marketing.

This research suggests that companies would not have to spend more money on marketing both on television and on the internet, but instead could benefit by carefully dividing that same budget between the two channels.

The research showed that there are many people in the UK and elsewhere who are surfing the internet via their broadband connection at the same time as watching television.

According to website Broadband Expert, this could help to get companies get their messages across more effectively, and ultimately help to boost business for many companies that may currently rely solely on television advertising.

 Case studies were carried out among a range of companies in different industry sectors, and the results showed that shifting between 10 and 15 per cent of advertising from television to the internet helped many of the companies benefit in terms of their business, with many incurring no additional costs.

Digital display advertising is expected to earn UK publishers significantly increased revenues in 2010, with video-led content leading the way, according to a new report.

Findings from the annual census of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) highlight that many of the country’s biggest online players have started the year with a renewed sense of confidence.

The main areas for growth are expected to be in display advertising, with video particularly expected to show significant growth this year, while a range of other revenue streams will increasingly contribute to turnover.

Half of all AOP members forecast growth of more than 10 per cent in 2010, according to the report.

Nearly half of all companies questioned identified advertising sales as a key area in which they were looking for growth. This compared to 33 per cent who saw editorial skills as a top-three priority, and 25 per cent who were concentrating on database and data analysis skills.

More than 1,500 online publications were represented in the survey, completed by all 37 of the AOP’s core members.

Of the respondents, three-quarters were planning to increase overall investment in their digital businesses, and more than half said they expected to increase staff levels.

The snapshot of the digital landscape echoes industry forecasts, with WPP’s GroupM forecasting that online advertising spending will grow by 7.3 per cent this year.

Tim Faircliff, general manager of consumer media at Thomson Reuters, and chairman of the AOP, called the findings “broadly consistent” with his own forecasts for Thomson Reuters and the industry.

He added: “A return to growth will provide all our businesses with a renewed energy and focus on people skills, revenue generation and business models, plus the opportunity for exciting innovation around mobile and video. The challenge will be how fast we can gear up to drive these initiatives forward.”

The findings also point to an increasing interest in attempts to diversify revenue streams and the potential of introducing paywalls.

The amount of money being spent on online advertising in the UK overtook the total spent on television for the first time in the first half of 2009, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Its bi-annual online marketing expenditure study, produced alongside PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre, showed that in the six months January-June 2009, internet advertising rose by 4.6 per cent, taking the total to £1.75billion, and giving online channels a market share of 23.5 per cent.

The UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online and, says the IAB, the results signal a significant restructuring of marketing budgets, as advertisers follow their audiences online, and look to the internet for even more measureable and accountable methods.

Paid search continued to grow, and showed a 6.8 per cent increase in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier. As the purest form of direct response advertising, search is proving recession-friendly with marketers investing £1.05billion during the first six months of 2009, which equates to 59.8 per cent of all online advertising expenditure.

Despite the property market crash and stalled automotive and recruitment sectors, online classified advertising grew by 10.6 per cent to £385million – or 22% of all online ad spend – reaping the benefits of the continued migration of advertising from print to online formats.

Online display advertising was down 5.2 per cent year-on-year to £316.5million, giving it an 18.1 per cent share of all online advertising revenues. These figures show that the sector outperformed all other mainstream media in a tough year, as channels saw a double digit decline.

Technology, telecoms and finance companies are leading the migration to online display advertising, with technology the biggest spender, accounting for 19.1 per cent of the market, followed by Telecoms (13.3 per cent rising from 9.7 per cent the previous year) and Finance (13.2 per cent up from 11.9 per cent). Entertainment and Media was fourth with 11.8 per cent. Consumer goods saw significant growth, from 6.2 per cent in the first half of 2008 to 8.1 per cent in 2009, as FMCG marketers steadily increased digital budgets.

Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, said: “Internet advertising has beaten all expectations to achieve growth in the most challenging market conditions. Online display has performed notably well against its peers in TV, print and radio despite more than £1.5 billion being wiped off the advertising industry.

And he predicted: "We have a rollercoaster of a year ahead but even in tough economic conditions marketers still recognise the value, accountability and measurability of online advertising."

Eva Berg-Winters, online advertising expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said: "Perhaps surprisingly, a slowing economy has accelerated the migration to digital technology and hence the continuing shift from more traditional forms of advertising to online, which promises return on investment and measurability in a period of instability.

"The only certainty is that this transgression demands fundamental structural change of business models across all industries."

The study lists five main factors as contributing to the success of online advertising:

l Growth of advertising networks: these are believed to account for 31 per cent of online display advertising budgets, while almost half of advertisers say they are working with more ad networks than a year ago

l Improved online planning and insight tools: With advertisers more easily able to target and measure their advertising and its results, this has helped online advertising prove its value at a time of tight marketing budgets

l New display formats: The proliferation of video has made online a far more engaging medium. Pre- and post-roll online video advertising has shot ahead by 195 per cent in the past year

l The boom in e-commerce: People’s growing willingness to search online for the best deals make this the best place to go in search of value-conscious customers. Online retail continues to grow, and withstand the challenge of the economic downturn, the report says

l The spread of faster, cheaper broadband: Speeds of over 2Mb are now available to 92 per cent of people, and 56 per cent use wireless broadband, meaning that consumers can view richer, branded content (BMRB Internet Monitor May 2009)

Commercial television operators, however, still believe that their medium remains the most effective ‘pound-for-pound’ medium.

Thinkbox, the marketing body for the main commercial television broadcasters in the UK, also believes some of the figures are misleading.

“Online marketing is made up of many different things including e-mail, classified ads, display ads and, overwhelmingly, search marketing,” said Lindsey Clay, its marketing director.

But she added: “The internet is home to many different marketing activities that do different things. As such, it is interesting but meaningless to sweep all the money spent on every aspect of online marketing into one big figure and celebrate it.

“To set (television and online) in competition is a mistake and misses their complimentary relationship.”

Two weeks ago Crain’s Manchester Business compiled a list of digital media agencies in Greater Manchester. 25 agencies included in the list are ranked by digital fee income in 2008. Lakestar Media, with the offering of Search Engine Optimisation, Online Media Planning, and Pay per Click, Affiliate and Social Media Marketing, and digital activity of 100%, is at the position 16 in the list.

In the words of Neil McKay, CEO of Lakestar Media, “clients are looking for agencies to become a lot more efficient with their spend. Budgets are becoming tighter and clients don’t want to see any leakage with their money.

“They are putting more pressure on agencies to deliver results and what digital has over traditional is that you can see results instantly and you can see if a campaign is working”.

Kirstie Buchanan of Reading Room has also confirmed that in the past five years companies have clearly identified digital marketing spend as a priority over traditional forms of advertising. Undoubtedly with this in mind, McCann Erickson has recently opened its new digital operation office at Basil Chambers in Northern Quarter in Manchester.

Full article – Richard Morris, Big Boys Have to Play Catch Up in the Digital Arena (Crain’s Manchester Business, March 9, 2009).

Below you can see Crain’s list of Digital Media Agencies in geographical dimension.

View Crain’s List of Digital Marketing Agencies in a larger map

Online fashion retailers have seen an overall 31% increase in traffic over the past 12 months, which has highlighted a massive gap with just a 1% increase for traditional catalogue companies. This last statistics comes from the released ‘Engaging Online with the Empowered Customer’ report by Experian.

It also found that many retailers were still failing to capitalise on the increased take-up of online shopping by not encouraging repeat purchasing. Just 30% of customers created almost 70% of revenues. The report also highlights that 45% of customers were single purchasers.

Google has seen impressions across its Content Network grow by over 300% year on year as advertisers continue to divert money from Yahoo and Microsoft comparable programs. Its UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 found impressions on Google’s Content Network, which includes search-based Ad Sense ads on sites such as

• MySpace
• Telegraph.co.uk
• Last FM

Surged 308% year on year to account for 6.4% of all UK search impressions. This latest growth delivers yet another blow to its main rivals Yahoo and Microsoft. Yahoo Search alone saw search spend fall to 8.4% in Q4 from 13.9% the previous year.

The improved of the content service by Google has paid dividends after a large investment  no its Content Network in 2008, this including the addition of new ad formats and, in October, third-party ad serving using Double Click technology.

The report also showed in Q4 2008 the UK search market:

• Grew 14% quarter on quarter
• 11% year on year
• Google now receiving 88.2% of all spend
• Up from 82.6% in Q4 2007

Lynx has created a new website in support of its latest TV campaign. Unleash the Man Leather the site continues on the TV based adverts theme of the pre-historic caveman, which was released this week.

The website has been designed to encourage visitors to ‘roar’ loudly into their computer using a microphone to destroy falling rocks and move a huge boulder back up a slope in its viral game. It can be played solo or in the more fun mode of a ‘roar off’ against friends.

Website: http://www.unleashthemanleather.com/

A new survey on online shopping has potentially revealed consumers’ spending plans for 2009 as the UK economy still suffers from the credit crunch. The survey completed by Light speed Research, has revealed that shoppers are very cost-conscious as expected. With the superior and cheaper offers available online say they intend to shop more on the web this year, dealing a further blow to the already suffering high street retailers.

The survey of around 2000 people found

> 36% plan to do more shopping online and less on the high street this year.
> This figure rose to 45% of 18-24-year-olds and 44% of the big-spending 25-34-year-old market.
> 34% plan to use price-comparison sites more.
> 22% will increase their use of value supermarket and auction sites.
The majority of respondents to the survey (89%) believe better prices can be found online, while 68% said shopping online is cheaper than visiting the high street due to the rising costs of parking, petrol and transport. The online consumer also believes the

> internet offers a wider range of products (81%)
> Lower prices (89%)
> Ease of finding items (84%)
> Ease of comparing prices (95%).

The survey also highlighted areas where online could improve:

> High street preferred for customer service (70%)
> Lack of waiting time to receive a product (74%).

The survey comes too late for well-known high street stores such as Adams, MFI, Whittards of Chelsea, Woolworths and Zavvi who all fell into administration in the past months.

It's Play.com Time

Play.com has increased sales by 24% year-on-year over the Christmas period, according to the latest report released.  As an avid user of the site myself I can understand the success where others have struggled with its easy too use shopping cart, free delivery and on many products including larger electrical ones the best price.

The Play.com’s peak trading time was recorded as the 8 December, with over a 1,000 orders per minute being processed, up from 700 the previous year.

Quote from Simon Perree, CEO at Play.com, “Despite concerns this year about the credit crunch and holding back on gift spending, Play.com has had a hugely successful Christmas with strong sales across all product categories.”