IC Industry Rebounds in Q2 to Double Digit Growth

According to IC Insights, "after the worst two quarters in the history of the IC industry," Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, Q2 sales rebounded more than 16% and "signaled that the healing process is under way." IC Insights noted that in the past 25 years, only the 18% quarterly IC market increases in Q2 1984 and Q2 2006, and the 17% surge in Q4 1999 topped Q2's results.

Read the whole article:  Q2 revenue grew 16% or more, researchers say - 7/13/2009 - Electronic News

Did You Appease the Google Gods Today? A Call for Regulation and Transparency in SEM and SEO.

Imagine, if you will, that the entire Internet is contained within a single continent. That continent is filled with countries, states and cities. Each jurisdiction is autonomous, relying on visitors to cross on to their turf to engage in commerce. Now, imagine if the only way to get into this continent involved just two methods: SEO and SEM. Let’s further imagine that the borders to this continent were controlled by a single company. Let’s also hold that the rules for search engine optimization listings and search engine marketing were not only defined but were completely controlled at the whim of this single company. Of course, we all realize that word-of-mouth marketing and viral marketing also contribute to traffic to individual websites. That said, the primary methodology for all users to reach any individual website destination is still search, of either paid or organic listings.

Or suppose the paradigm is the streets of Los Angeles. Let’s imagine that in order to enter the city you had to pass through a single gate. And once you entered that gate, the streets you were or were not allowed to go down — and thus the businesses you were or were not allowed to visit — could be randomly blocked from your access. Blocked to a point where you might not even know they exist; whatever streets were available for you to traverse were in essence the only streets you knew where business could be transacted.

Whatever the scenario, it’s unsettlingly close to the situation that prevails today in search. It’s now conventional wisdom that search engine optimization, representing the organic result sets on any search query, is more voodoo than science. Through an uncontrolled set of factors search engines determine which listings appear at the top and bottom of any individual query.

Read more:  The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO

A Spark of Social Presence Grows in the EE Community

Call it the engineering paradox: The same engineers who helped invent the Internet are trailing adopters of its technologies.

Whether it was in the mid-1990s when engineers were unable or forbidden to go online at work or today when their involvement in social media platforms seems muted, EEs don’t have the presence online that software engineers (their Internet co-inventors) and consumers do.

“In software, there’s a culture of social media acceptance because they made the tools, and they’re involved with them,” said Jeff Hardison, a director with Portland-based high-tech public relations and advertising firm

Read the full article: EEs, vendors search for their voice, and answers, in social media - 7/7/2009 - Electronic Business

Online marketing to hit $55B by 2014

The latest forecast from Forrester Research predicts that interactive marketing in the US will hit nearly $55 billion by 2014 and will grow - at a compound annual growth rate of 17% - from 12% of overall ad spend in 2009 to 21% over the next five years.

According to Forrester’s  Five-Year Interactive Marketing Forecast Report,  search marketing - which now composes more than half of 2009’s overall interactive spend, will continue to make up the biggest portion of interactive dollars, rising from $5.4 B in 2009 to $31.6B in 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 15%.

Social media marketing and mobile marketing, however, will experience the highest growth rates among the digital tactics, the report stated. Social media, which represents only $716M today, is expected to balloon to $3.1B by 2014, and grow at the highest compound annual growth rate, 34%. Forrester  noted that owned social media assets (such as internal blogs, community sites) are currently the only emerging media getting traction in today’s economic climate.
Similarly, mobile marketing, which accounts for $391M in 2009, will grow to $1.3B in 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 27%.

Read the full post: MarketingCharts

Jameco Joins SupplyFrame Media as New Advertising Customer

We are pleased to announce that Jameco has become SupplyFrame Media's newest advertising customer.  Jameco is an electronic components distributor specializing in semiconductors, passives, interconnects, electromechanical, power supplies, LEDs and more.  Jameco supplies over 100,000 components. 

Welcome Jameco!

SupplyFrame Media Record Broken. New Reach is 1.9M Unique Electronics Pro's Per Month!

SupplyFrame Media's Reach Continues to Break Records for Online Reach to Electronics Engineers and Buyers

In addition to 1.9M unique users, we delivered 8.2M page views per in June. SupplyFrame Media traffic is third-party measured by Quantcast. SupplyFrame.com is one member of the growing SupplyFrame Media partnership of sites.

Google Announces New OS for Netbooks - Google Chrome Operating System

From the Google Chrome Blog: It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Read full post.

7 Principles of Self-Regulated Behavioral Advertising Published

In yet another hard-pressed effort to keep federal regulation at bay, a coalition of major media and marketing trade associations have issued self-regulatory principles for behavioral advertising (pdf).

The principles, drafted by American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Direct Marketing Association, Interactive Advertising Bureau and Council of Better Business Bureaus, prioritize privacy and demand that marketers clearly inform users about their data-collection methods, then give them control over how they want their information used.

There are also guidelines on providing clear disclosure about data collection for the purpose of advertising, expanding the ability of users to either permit or block information collection, providing limits on how much time personal data can be held, as well as a special section regarding data collection of children.

The program itself goes into implementation at the start of 2010.

A Burst Media survey found three in five users think sites track their behavior already. And SEMPO found that behavioral targeting tops the list of "exciting" search trends.

Original Post:  Ad Coalition Preps Behavioral Ad Guidelines for '10 - MarketingVOX

E-mail Marketing Open and Click-Through Rates Published for 2H 2008

According to the “Email Marketing Metrics Report” by MailerMailer, 12.5% of unique marketing e-mails were opened in the second half of 2008.  The figure is down from the first half of 2008, when 13.2% of messages were opened.

How often e-mails were opened and clicked varied with the industry of the sender—and the size of the list.

Messages delivered to small and medium lists had higher open and click-through rates than messages delivered to lists of 1,000 or more subscribers.

IP Addresses are Not Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Finds Seattle Judge

In a ruling that could fuel debate about online privacy, a federal judge in Seattle has held that IP addresses are not personal information.

"In order for 'personally identifiable information' to be personally identifiable, it must identify a person. But an IP address identifies a computer," U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones said in a written decision.

Jones issued the ruling in the context of a class-action lawsuit brought by consumers against Microsoft stemming from an update that automatically installed new anti-piracy software. In that case, which dates back to 2006, consumers alleged that Microsoft violated its user agreement by collecting IP addresses in the course of the updates. The consumers argued that Microsoft's user agreement only allowed the company to collect information that does not personally identify users. Microsoft argued that IP addresses do not identify users because the addresses don't include people's names or addresses. The company also said that it did not combine IP addresses with other information that could link them to individuals.

Last month, Jones sided with Microsoft and dismissed the case before trial. 

Read the full post:  MediaPost Publications Court: IP Addresses Are Not 'Personally Identifiable' Information 07/07/2009

Marketers Failing to Measure Impact of Online User Engagement

...marketers have yet to take a good look at the critical experience of user engagement. "Marketers monitor the front end and the back end so they see click-streams and commerce," Mendenhall says in the report. "The difficult part is the qualitative part in between, which is the level of engagement.

"The focus on direct response causes many marketers to only look at search, and according to Atlas Institute, if marketers only look at search -- which is often the "last ad clicked" -- they are missing 94% of their engagement touchpoints.

A recent study by iProspect and Forrester Consulting showed that when Web users were exposed to a promotional ad, less than one-third -- 31% -- of them clicked on the ad itself. A plurality, however, did take some other form of action. People went on to search for the product, brand or company using a search engine; typed the Web address directly into their browser and navigated to the advertiser's site; or investigated the product, brand or company through social media.

This phenomenon, according to eMarketer, has been referred to as a "view-through conversion" rather than a click-through conversion. 

Read the full post: MediaPost Publications Report: You Know What The Problem With Online Brand Advertising Is? 07/07/2009

184 Magazines Folded in Q2 2009

A total of 187 new American and Canadian magazines have launched so far this year, but a much larger number - 279 titles - have shuttered operations, a trend which has accelerated in Q209, according to MediaFinder.com.

Regional Interest magazines, which traditionally comprise a large percentage of new and closing magazines, took a big nosedive in the first half of 2009, with 27 titles folding, including Denver Living and Florida Inside Out. Other magazine categories that declined in the first half of 2009 include construction, with 18 ceased titles; lifestyle with 14 ceased titles and business with 10 ceased titles. 

Read the full article: Magazine Closings Accelerate in Q2 2009

Marketers Vote for Transparency, Accountability and Flexibility - Online Ad Spending Rises at Double Digit Rates vs Other Media.

Despite the global economic recession's drag on advertising budgets, the growth in online ad spending appears to be defying expectations, and is expanding at double-digit rates, according to the latest quarterly forecast from Publicis' ZenithOptimedia Group. The agency estimates that Internet ad spending will expand 10.1% in 2009, an increase of more than 1.5 percentage points over its last forecast in April.

"Its familiar virtues of transparency, accountability and flexibility have proved even more attractive in a recession than ever," the Publicis shop writes in the new report, released early Monday morning.

Read the full post: MediaPost Publications Online Ad Spending Rises At Double-Digit Rates, Gains Share Vs. All Other Media 07/06/2009

Thomas Global Shuts Down.

Thomas Global is closing its virtual doors in 2010 according to the latest news to come out of the supplier directory world. According to a source close to Thomas that I traded notes with this earlier this afternoon, “the site will be up until 2010 to honor advertising contracts, but most of the staff is gone.” In addition, Thomas closed IEN, a magazine it published since the Great Depression era, this spring. In the words, of my source: “another sign of the times.”

What led Thomas Global to close its doors? The above-linked article cites “the unprecedented global economic downturn and the decline in marketing investment worldwide” as reasons for the shutdown. But I suspect there is more to it than that. Ironically, a couple weeks ago, I had a series of briefings with the Thomas team. But when I challenged their PR firm on a separate call that I had heard revenue had been declining over the years, they responded, “there was no way I could know that because Thomas was a private organization” and regardless, such rumors were "not true". So much for not knowing, I suppose.

Read the entire post: SpendMatters: Thomas Global Shuts Down, Closing its Virtual Doors

Marie Curie tops poll for most notable female scientist of all time.

Everything isn't about marketing! 

Marie Curie has topped a poll to name the most notable female scientist of all time, beating Brit biophysicist Rosalind Franklin into second spot.  Polish-born Curie, later a French citizen, is celebrated for her part in the discovery of polonium and radium, as well as pioneering work in the treatment of cancers using radioactive isotopes.

Curie was the first female Nobel laureate (Physics, 1903), and picked up the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She attracted 25.1 per cent of the New Scientist poll of 800 scientists and members of the public, conducted on behalf of cosmetics company L'Oreal.  

Read full article: Marie Curie voted top female boffin • The Register

SEO drives 75% of search traffic, SEM less than 25%. But getting SEO budget is hard. Here's help.

Getting an SEO project underway is hard to do, especially if you are selling against PPC advertising projects.   But considering that SEO drives 75% of search traffic and SEM drives less than 25%, it's a problem worth solving.

Choosing the right SEO goals and getting buy-in are two important pieces of selling your SEO project. Another aspect, whether you're a consultant or work in-house, is selling your project when competing for budget with PPC campaigns.

The Easy Part of Selling PPC

A few factors make pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising projects attractive to budget managers. The biggest overall factor is that the model is familiar to them. It feels very similar to traditional ad spend, and even has some advantages:

1. There's a fixed connection between money spent and return. In other words, you spend some money, you measure the orders you get, and you do a ROI calculation. Any budget manager can get excited about direct response models that show a clear profit.
2. There's very little delay in PPC. Set up your campaign in the morning and start getting visitors to your site from it (and orders) tonight. From the point of view of an advertising budget, that's hard to beat.
3. It's easy to set up and implement tests and tweak your results. You can test and tune your campaigns very easily because of the responsiveness and measurability of the medium.

In short, not only is it similar in concept to traditional advertising, it's better. That's a hard thing to sell against.

The Hard Part of Selling SEO

Now let's look at what makes SEO a difficult sell:

1. You usually don't know when you will get initial results. One month? Six months?
2. You can't state with precision the size of the impact your SEO campaign. Ten percent traffic increase at six months? Thirty percent? Fifty percent? You just don't know.
3. Will there be an impact on conversion rate? Will the new traffic convert better or worse than the traffic you were getting before?

Worse still, the search engine algorithms could change in the same timeframe and obscure the impact of your campaigns. It should be noted that highly experienced SEOs can scope some of these factors out and give some shape to the campaign's potential return, but it's much harder than in the PPC world, and the accuracy will be lower.

Selling Your SEO Project

There are many reasons why SEO is a better investment than PPC, but the most compelling one is this...
Read the full article:  Selling SEO Projects Against PPC Campaigns - Search Engine Watch (SEW)

Executives say internet = information. Online is top source for C-level business information.

New research shows executives prefer online to get their business information.  Online now out-delivers trade pubs, conferences and magazines for business info.

Excerpt from Execs Go Online for Business Intelligence - eMarketer

Getting the most up-to-date business information has always been important for business executives. In the past, they scoured newspapers and the trades for information and insights on trends and developments. But now, to find information fast, they turn to the Internet.

According to the “Rise of the Digital C-Suite” study from Forbes Insights and Google, the Internet has become the most valuable information resource for US executives.

Online ranked ahead of at-home and at-work contacts, personal networks, trade publications and outside consultants as an information resource. Newspapers and magazines trailed behind.

The Art of Keyword War

For companies struggling with SEM or with limited budget, take note.  Your online competitors may not the same as the companies you traditionally battle in the field of sales.   Enter a few of your most desired keywords into Google or Bing and see who is running ads and SEO tactics on those words.  You'll likely be surprised to see companies you didn't expect.   These are the companies that are stealing your online traffic.   This article offers some insight on tools to assess your online competitors and take steps against them.

Excerpts from the The Small Business PPC Art of War:

"It’s no big secret: PPC is competitive. And any advantage you can get is always an edge. The hardest part is finding the edge you can leverage effectively, efficiently, and strike a resonating blow. It sounds like war because it is. Pay-Per-Click generals need to find and exploit the weaknesses of competition.

Small businesses face a number of challenges in the PPC battleground, chief among them being that they have small-ish/smaller budgets than their larger counterparts. Meaning, for highly competitive and general keywords within your vertical, it’s difficult to compete. As such, brute force click-bids are impossible leverage because your competition will effectively price you out. Therefore, small businesses must leverage the one strength that a majority of them possess: small guerrilla marketing."

Search Engine Marketers dissatisfied: Most throwing good money after bad.

X+1 released a study that measured the pain felt by many buying keywords from Google and the other engines. Satisfaction with the performance of their companies' SEM campaigns was suprisingly poor: on a scale of 1 to 7,

• only 12% of respondents gave SEM a top-ranked 7,
• 57% ranking SEM a 1 or a 2.

Performance satisfaction with fairly simple search campaigns (30 to 100 keywords pointing to customized landing pages) was also poor: a full 42% reported being either "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied."

Despite the poor SEM performance, respondents were still willing to lay out more money in the months ahead.

• 65% of survey respondents reported that they were planning either to spend the same amount of money in 2009 that they spent last year, 
• 13% planning to spend 20% more.

Is this "throwing good money after bad"?  Marketers need to take steps to improve their results. 

"If there's one sure cure for avoiding disappointment, it's to manage your expectations correctly. Paid search is an  difficult marketing medium to master, despite the perception (promoted by the search engines) that it's a self-serve, plug-and-play road to profits. Here, failure isn't just an option: it's practically guaranteed for the unwary and the unequipped. Buyers must always be wary, whether they're buying keywords, staffing in-house teams, or shopping for SEM agencies. The good news is that if you approach this medium with fear, respect, caution, and a first-rate, executable plan, you just might wind up being happy with your results." said Steve Baldwin.

Read the original article: MediaPost Publications Unhappy With SEM? You're Not Alone 06/29/2009

Don't ignore the online purchase funnel. Last-click assumptions don't tell the whole story.

The purchase funnel may be clogged

You know the saying about assumptions -- they make an ... This is especially true in online advertising, where marketers and publishers have relied on the idea that the final ad a consumer sees before clicking the buy button is the most important marketing message of all.

But giving credit for a sale to the last ad, at the expense of the life cycle of the campaign, is a marketing mistake Microsoft's Atlas Institute wants to eradicate. Because the interest, intent to buy and final purchase occurs as part of a digital purchase funnel, says Esco Strong, senior group manager for the Atlas Institute, part of Microsoft's Atlas Solutions division, which provides digital media technologies and tools for agencies, publishers and advertisers.

The purchase funnel is a familiar concept to most marketers - those who know they need to build awareness and expose consumers to their messages over time. But most advertising metrics ignore the issue, or where and when the exposure occurred, and instead measure the conversion based solely on the last ad clicked on, Atlas said in its research report "The Long Road to Conversion: The Digital Purchase Funnel." The report measured more than 17 million conversions in campaigns run by 250 advertisers in the summer of 2008.

"Most information has been about the moment right before a purchase," Strong says. "This has been the gold standard for measuring ads, but it's wrong. You have much less accountability with offline media, newspaper and print, but the difference with online is you have accountability and measurability and we need to evolve this. So if I see 10 ads and half come from Yahoo, maybe Yahoo should get half the credit for the sale. The point is we can't learn a lot about our media if we only learn about the last ad. We know a lot of people spend a lot of time online and see a lot of ads. And you have to move someone through the purchase funnel and build awareness, consideration and purchase intent to close it."

Similarly, marketers should assign value for a sale to the Web sites and the ads that occur early on, midway through, and at the end of the purchase funnel.

Here's why: In its research, Atlas has found that in the final two days prior to a purchase a consumer is usually exposed to 5.5 ads. But, those final 48 hours before a buy only account for less than one-third of total media impressions, Atlas determined.

If advertisers back up the purchase funnel a bit, they'll see consumers were exposed to 8.5 ads in the week before a purchase, 11 ads in the two weeks before a purchase and 14 ads in the month prior to a purchase.

Strong suggest advertisers evaluate how a conversion was earned based on impressions, not just clicks. Measuring in this way also reflects the reality of media buying because buyers purchase ads on portals and news sites to get started on a campaign, then drill down to targeted sites for the next layer, and then close the deal with a search engine ad or ad network buy.

Measurement should reflect the reality, Strong says.

MediaPost Publications Behind the Numbers: Making Last-Click Assumptions 06/29/2009