There was once a time when a blog was, simply put, an online diary for ordinary people to express their thoughts, feelings and events in their daily lives. Today, blogs are widely read and can greatly impact the success or demise of a company. In 2005, only six percent of Americans read blogs, that number jumped to 40% in 2006. And in 2007, at least one blog was created every second of the day. Obviously, blogs are important, and they are taking the Internet by storm. It is even said that having your company mentioned in a blog is far more impactful then being mentioned in a high-profile feature story in a large circulation publication.

So who writes these blogs? There are several types of bloggers: those that simply blog to journal their daily life experiences; CEOs and corporate executives who blog to discuss their industry and to position themselves as experts in their fields; and those who report the news on their blogs - whether it be breaking news, feature stories or gossip news.

Why are blogs important? People value other people's opinions and outlooks – hence the success of tripadvisor.com and epinions.com. Bloggers are revered as experts in their fields which is why we encourage all of our clients to establish blogs of their own. Authoring a blog allows you to not only promote your expertise in a certain field but to promote your company as well. More and more, national morning shows and large circulation publications are calling upon popular bloggers to serve as experts in their features. In addition to writing your own blog, it is also imperative to initiate an interactive public relations program. Interactive public relations professionals can draft social media news releases and distribute them to a database of bloggers to encourage these bloggers to include information about your company in upcoming blog features.

Blogging is definitely the wave of the future – and a very important part of the marketing mix. Bloggers are part of what Joseph Jaffe calls "Prosumers"- the new merchants of conversation. As marketers, we can't ignore their importance any longer and brands must respect their power and influence.

As expected, U.S. newspapers' online audiences grew about 6 percent last year. This is a rare bit of good news for an industry struggling to adapt as readers and advertising dollars continue to migrate online.

Some interesting statistics released by Nielson include: web sites run by newspapers had an average of 60 million unique U.S. visitors per month in 2007, up from 56.4 million the year before Due to the growth in the total online audience, however, the online reach of newspapers grew somewhat less, with 38 percent of all active online users visiting newspaper Web sites last year, up from 36 percent in 2006.

Newspapers are struggling to find a revenue model that works. Rupert Murdoch, the WSJ's new owner announced today that it will continue to require online subscriptions to access certain information. Last year, The New York Times scrapped a two-year effort to charge online visitors for access to certain parts of its Web site, hoping that the additional traffic would result in higher online advertising revenues.

Revenues from online advertising have been growing at newspapers, but not yet fast enough to replace the declines in their traditional print advertising business.

Total newspaper advertising revenue fell 7.4 percent in the third quarter of 2007, the latest period for which the NAA has reported figures. Within that total, print ad revenues declined 9 percent to $10.1 billion, while online revenues rose 21 percent to $773 million, according to the NAA.

Expect continued consolidation in this industry as new media companies that understand how to monetize web site traffic continue to acquire the assets managed by the old guard who just don't get it.

According to study released Monday, February 4 by Solutions Research, primetime TV viewing on the Web has gained considerably in the past year. The survey said 80 million Americans watched a TV show online last year. This number accounts for 43% of the online population, up from 25% who said they watched a TV show on the Web last year. So what does this mean to ad agencies and advertisers alike? Well, to me it means that this audience can't be ignored. The local affiliates need to ramp up their ability to deliver geo-specific ad content to the commercial lineup within programming even if the programming is being viewed over the network's primary site (not the affiliate's site). We are moving ever closer to the day when we will no longer be valuing (and buying) broadcast media based on the value of the total audience but on the specific number of times the message is viewed.

Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo at a 62% premium on Friday caused quite a stir in the media world, but is it too little too late? As of August 2007. Nielson ranked the top search engines with Google holding a 53% market share, followed by Yahoo with 19.9% and Microsoft with 12.9%. Since it initially launched its search engine, Google had consistently gained market share in each and every measuring period while Yahoo has seen its share atrophy steadily over that same time. Google is now seen as the leader in not only search, but innovation. Google is also very bold. Its acquisition of YouTube last year is testament to that fact.

Feeling the heat from getting caught with their pants down in search, the ever-conservative leadership at Microsoft sees this bid as a bold move – but is it? Had Microsoft made a play for Yahoo in 2002, maybe it would be seen as bold. But, until Google revolutionized the monetization of search, nobody thought that a search engine was worth much and instead, Microsoft focused on their browser and that was a big mistake. Who knows how this will play out. One thing is clear and that is Competition is good for all industries and a bigger, better funded competitor for Google will be good for consumers as these giants duke it out.

The number of text (SMS) messages sent within the U.S on a monthly basis has grown by over 200% each year for the past 3 years (over 24 billion text messages will be sent in December of 2007 in the U.S), and the median age of a text message "user" is 38, so it is a preferred method of communication for the masses, not just young teenagers. Over 75% of the U.S population owns a mobile phone and over 98% of all mobile phones are SMS-enabled. Promotions based on acquiring the customer's phone number by giving them something of value have proven to be very effective in building databases for long-term customer relationship management. SMS is here and we all need to be taking advantage of it.

Last year dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.) was appointed by ICANN as the official global registry for the .mobi top level domain. dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network device manufacturers and Internet content providers. Their investors include Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

The core mission of dotMobi is two-fold, to become the most ubiquitous domain name for the mobile web (i.e. get the consumer to think .mobi rather than .com when using the Internet from their handset) and to become the critical link between mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers / brands and users to make phones the tool of choice for the mobile web.

A mobile device requires an entirely different user experience than that of a traditional PC or laptop. Just because a traditional website is now viewable on many phones, that does not equate to a tangible, fulfilling user experience. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many companies provide today. Obviously, the device is smaller, the screen space is limited, and the traditional QWERTY keyboard input method is not ideal. Further, the web is probably being accessed on a mobile phone while the end-user is driving, on the move, or otherwise engaged by some other activity or media device. If you currently have a transactional web site, then I strongly urge you to get a dotMobi version as well. If you don't, you will be losing business.

Is mobile marketing the next big thing? Can it be as big as the Internet was in the early 2000's? Well, consider this, worldwide, there are more digital mobile phones than televisions and PCs combined. According to A.T. Kearney/University of Cambridge, more than half of mobile handsets are less than a year old and most of them have full Internet capabilities. Further, smartphone sales (Blackberry's, Palm's, iPhone's) have grown 165% this year alone in the U.S, which means that the mobile platform and the traditional wireless consumer is becoming more sophisticated and has access to better technology and a quality signal to surf the mobile web from their handset. 30 million people in the U.S will access the web from their mobile devices this year, already representing 1/5th of those consumers that access the web from their PC. The opportunities to market to this audience using SMS, dotMobi designed websites and special promotions are endless. Stay tuned as we continue to explore ways to utilize this exciting new platform.

Here at Brandon we subscribe to a very interesting service called Iconoculture which spots world-wide trends and assists us in brand planning for our clients. A recent trend identified by Iconoculture was very interesting...

Insight - Regional travelers can be fiercely loyal to -- and defensive of -- the places they love. Part of the appeal of regional resorts is the authentic, local experiences they offer. National travel brands can succeed in regional resort areas, but the better known your brand, the more you will need to respect the unique character of the regional resort area you're entering.

This insight could apply for "Myrtle". She could defend (without sounding defensive) MB.

Fact - According to the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, half of all long-distance trips (50 miles or more) were leisure travel. 62% of long-distance trips were to destinations within the travelers' home states. And 9 out of 10 of all long-distance trips were taken by personal vehicles.

We have all heard the statistic that the average American is bombarded with over 3,000 advertising messages each day. With so many ads delivered over so many platforms, why is advertising effectiveness decreasing? Are we becoming de-sensitized to it all? Certainly that is the case with traditional internet banner ads, where research has proven that frequent web users eye's nearly always fall below the top banner. So what does work?

The fact of the matter is that no one reads ads (they never have). People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad. Somewhere along the way, the art of creating ads that are interesting has gone by the wayside. Interest can be created through visual graphics, great headlines or with a story. Even more importantly, no one can create interest among everyone. Great advertising should interest those that you wish to stimulate. So many times marketers want to throw in the kitchen sink so as not to alienate anyone and in the process, the ad becomes so watered down that it interests no one. With limited budgets and more pressure on advertising to deliver results, the problem will compound.

In spite of this pressure, we should all remember that in order for advertising to work, we have to first be interesting to our target audience. If we stand by that belief and continue to remind ourselves and our clients of that each day, we will create great ads that work.

I was reading a recent report by Harris Interactive stating that 80% of all Internet traffic begins at a search engine. Perhaps even more interesting was a number from Double Click reporting that 41% of web users use search for simple web navigation by typing a query directly into a search engine versus typing the URL directly into their browser. Those are astounding numbers that clearly magnify the importance of search marketing.

As marketers, we would like to think that our target audiences are going about the trouble of typing in our dedicated URLs and that we are able to effectively track the results of everything we do. However, it is clear that consumers are choosing to behave differently. So what does it mean to marketers and clients alike? Well, you better have an excellent brand strategy and that strategy needs to focus of awareness as much as it does on perception, because, if you are not occupying some space in the minds of your target audience, it is not very likely that you will be successful.

Today, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. made a $5 billion takeover offer for Dow Jones & Co., parent company of The Wall Street Journal. The bid comes at a critical time in the newspaper industry, when defections of readers and advertisers to the Internet has sharply eroded newspaper profits and raised doubts about the industry's long term future. In the past year two newspaper empires, Knight Ridder Inc. and Tribune Co., have put themselves on the market after pressure from restive shareholders. Knight Ridder ended up being bought by McClatchy Co. while Tribune decided to go private in an $8.2 billion transaction backed by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

The mere possibility that News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch could get control of The Wall Street Journal is almost certain to spark a firestorm of controversy. Critics are likely to see his potential acquisition of one of the nation's most influential newspapers as an unacceptable extension of his already formidable media sway. Almost certain is that Murdoch has an aggressive strategy to expand his Internet kingdom. He already owns Myspace and The Wall Street Journal, reported 30% growth in online ad revenue in the first quarter, up from 26% a year earlier. Surely Mr. Murdoch would not pay a 67% premium over the current trading price without knowing exactly where he is going.

The newest buzzword to hit the marketing world is "Web 2.0". With the explosion in popularity of FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube, marketers are scratching their heads at how to effectively and efficiently utilize this phenomenon for their clients.

The fact is that user generated content (UGC) makes it possible for consumers to own your brand. For many businesses, this is a scary proposition. Many of our own clients are afraid to hand their customers the keys to the car. While this is understandable, it is the brands that are adopted, blogged about or parodied the most that will win because they are the ones most involved in the pop culture.

To be successful, brands must learn how to embrace the idea of user generated content, not shut it out. Many popular brands are figuring this out. In fact, one of our most recent clients WorldGolf.com is a perfect example of a brand that understands the power of UGC and has utilized blogs, reader reviews, user generated videos and photographs to build the most viewed network of golf related websites in the world. You can check out their primary site at www.worldgolf.com

I was reading an article in MediaWeek today by Larry Rowan and Dave Warren of RowenWarren, a New York based creative boutique about the challenges the large traditional agencies are having in dealing with the convergence of computers and TV (See MediaWeek October 16, 2006 pg. 10). The article deals with the fact that the larger agencies have traditionally been focused on either the branding (emotional connection) side of the business or the direct response (content and call to action) side of the business. Now that the convergence of TV and the Internet affords brand marketers the opportunity to intertwine direct response mechanisms into most every television campaign, the big agencies are struggling with how to best go about this process.

With media delivery convergence now taking hold, agencies must actively begin taking hold of message convergence. At no other time in history have agencies had the opportunity to combine great branding with great direct response. This will require a different approach and successful agencies will be those who require the brand managers (account planners) to sit with the direct marketing expert in order to come up with programs and campaigns that strike an emotional connection while at the same time delivering the desired response. Appealing to both the left and right sides of the brain is the only way to be successful in this new era of marketing.

So, who is winning the race? It looks like the smaller, more nimble shops are at the forefront of this media convergence and are aggressively looking to do both branding and direct marketing in one unified effort. It is easier for smaller agencies to adapt and communicate internally. How the rest of the industry will respond is still undecided. What is for certain is that there will be some big winners and some big losers.