Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The way that companies market their products and services will need to change radically if they are to remain relevant in the digital era, according to recent research published by Gartner. In an online world, says Gartner, traditional ways of selling to customers, based on demographic information, will become irrelevant.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Last month, we covered research from Pew Internet & American Life Project showing how video sharing sites were becoming more and more popular. Well, the significant growth of online video usage — particularly in the youth market — has been confirmed by yet more research, this time from Leichtman Research.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Three useful podcasts for you to listen to — as supplied by the Internet Advertising Bureau. The first focuses on the future of internet marketing and includes views from such luminaries as Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
One of the key qualities of a web 2.0 marketing campaign is enabling consumers to participate by providing content of their own — letting them, in effect, become co-creators. This engages them, builds relationships and trust.
A significant 48% of American adults have visited video sharing sites, according to research published in January by Pew Internet & American Life Project. What's more, the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day at the end of 2007 was nearly double what it had been at the end of 2006. Basically, online video is booming.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Alongside m-banking, another area of opportunity during 2008 is online video advertising. The mass penetration of broadband internet, which is getting quicker and more stable all the time, has made sure of that. In fact, with some companies, high definition online video advertising is already the channel of choice.
It's all happened rather quickly. In less than two years, it seems, there's been a sea change in the way card services are structured. These days, more and more cards are issued that can be tailored by consumers, co-created in a way that suits and benefits them financially. It's no exaggeration to say there has been a seismic shift towards consumer empowerment, towards financial flexibility, although for some reason you don't really read about it all that much.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
These days, I use Skype to communicate with two or three clients almost exclusively. I do this for two reasons. Firstly, talking through Skype is better quality than my landline. Secondly, there are huge cost savings, as Skype to Skype doesn't cost me a penny (whereas if I was calling New York and Chicago, London or Dublin on a landline every day, it would cost me an arm and a leg).
Sunday, January 20, 2008
So, what will be the single most important challenge (and opportunity) for card marketers in 2008? Well, the conclusion of most is that issuers, in the shadow of the iPhone and what it represents, will need to work on sending their services mobile.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
In early January, Capital One started allowing its US cardholders to customize their cards with images of their own — check it out yourself at Image Card. The growing demand by consumers to express themselves and create content online means it's likely to go down well. Many other issuers globally are already offering this service and it's proving a real success — in Belgium, for example, around 1.2% of the population opted for a customized card when KBC went live with the service in late 2006.

In case you're new to this blog, please note that Serverside, the company that sponsors it, is the company that first introduced card customization to the market — for transparency reasons, you need to know.

All content is © Copyright 2008, Serverside Group Ltd. This blog is powered by Serverside Group Ltd.