Smartphones with face recognition

A California firm has released software that lets Android-powered smartphones recognise people's faces.

Viewdle's free SocialCamera application was billed as the first of its kind for US smartphone users.

'Viewdle SocialCamera is the first mobile camera app to encourage socialising and communication,' said Viewdle co-founder and chief executive Laurent Gil.

'Consumers can now instantly share their photos based on who appears in them.'

SocialCamera uses computer algorithms to create 'faceprints' that people can tag with names and store in smartphones. The software then matches faceprints to subjects in subsequent photos.

Android smartphones can instantly connect names to those in photos and share the images with those involved using Facebook, Flickr or by email or instant messages.

SocialCamera was billed as the first in a line of facial-recognition software applications aimed at the consumer market.

High-powered players in September pumped $US10 million ($A9 million) into the Palo Alto, California startup devoted to crafting ways to let smartphones 'see' things the same way people do and identify faces.

The influx of cash came from Qualcomm, BlackBerry Partners Fund, US electronics retail chain Best Buy and Anthem Venture Partners, an investment firm that has backed Viewdle from the outset.

'We are giving smartphones human eyes,' Gil told AFP in an interview when the funding was announced.

'Letting them see the world the way people do ... it is artificial intelligence. It is happening.'

Viewdle bills itself as the leading independent facial recognition company for consumer gadgets. Its technology is developed by the company's research team in Ukraine.

Viewdle is the result of 15 years of research, based on work done at The Cybernetics Institute in Kiev, and got its first infusion of investor money - $US2.5 million - in June 2008.

Online Moms Use Facebook, Email

Facebook and email are the two dominant forms of online communication used by US moms, according to data collected in January 2011 by Lucid Marketing.

Results of “How US Moms Share and Spread Information” indicate slightly more than nine in 10 moms use Facebook (93%) and email (91%) to communicate.

 

1 in 3 Moms Tweet, Blog

 

A little more than one in three moms use Twitter (36%) and personal blogs (34%). The only other online communication technology used by more than 20% of moms is social network MySpace.

Almost All Moms Check Email Daily

A near-universal 98% of moms with email accounts check them at least once a day. Other online communication technologies with high daily usage rates by moms include Facebook (84%) and news websites (60%). Interestingly, the good old-fashioned telephone has a 60% daily usage rate among moms, as well.

Moms Learn from Email

A high percentage of moms often use email as an educational tool. Eighty-three percent of moms said they often learn new things through email, the highest response rate for any means of communication covered by the survey. Facebook ranked second (76%), while non-technological face-to-face meetings came in a close third (73%).

Other popular educational tools among moms include blogs (66%) and TV (65%).

Moms Share Learnings via Face-to-Face, Email

When it comes to sharing things they have learned, the largest percentages of moms either often eschew technology and do it face-to-face (84%), or employ email (also 84%). Close to 80% use the phone.

Facebook is the only other medium often used by more than half of moms to share learnings, with 69% using “share” and 67% using “like.”

Significant Others Get Most Info

Who receives all this information that moms are sharing? Unsurprisingly for anyone in a relationship with a mom, 94% share information with their significant other. Ninety percent share with their best friend(s), and slightly more share with close family (such as a mother or sister).
The other two groups of people in a mom’s life most likely to get information from them are girlfriends (86%) and other parents (78%).

BabyCenter: Moms Love Smartphones

American moms are more likely than overall women own a smartphone, according to previously released data from BabyCenter. The “21st Century Mobile Mom Report” indicates 53% of moms say they purchased a smartphone as a direct result of becoming a mom. This makes moms 18% more likely than overall women to have a smartphone, and smartphone adoption by moms has grown 64% in the last two years.

Facebook Most Satisfies SMBs

 

Facebook is the social network with the highest rates of satisfying small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs), according to a Q1 2011 survey conducted by Borrell Associates. Data from “SMB Survey – Wave 3″ indicates that a total of 76.5% of SMBs are somewhat or very satisfied with their Facebook pages.

MySpace Least Satisfies SMBs

In contrast, only about 6.6% of SMBs are very or somewhat satisfied with their MySpace pages, and 78% do not use MySpace. Facebook’s non-usage rate is only about 2%.

Twitter follows Facebook with about 38% of SMBs very or somewhat satisfied with their Twitter page, and another 37% not using Twitter.

2/3 of SMBs Use SocNets for One-to-One

About two-thirds (67%) of SMBs use social networks to communicate one-on-one. Twenty-eight percent do not perform one-to-one communication via social networks, and 6% don’t know.

1/3 of SMBs Contacted for Mobile Ads

A little more than one-third (36%) of SMBs have been contacted by an advertiser to conduct mobile-based advertising/marketing campaigns in the past 12 months. Fifty percent have not, and 13% don’t know (total equals less than 100% due to rounding).

Majority of SMBs Haven’t Gone Mobile

A solid 85% majority of SMBs say they have not conducted any mobile advertising/marketing campaigns in the past year. About 12% say they have and 3% don’t know.

More Than Half of SMBs Not Likely to Go Mobile

Looking forward, a smaller 54% majority of SMBs are either not very likely (30%) or not at all likely (24%) to incorporate mobile into their advertising and marketing efforts this year. Another 22% are somewhat likely, with only 12% saying they are very likely to use mobile advertising/marketing, the same percentage who don’t know.

Janrain: Facebook Eclipses Google for SSI

Facebook has eclipsed previous social sign-in favorite Google as the leading social sign-in (SSI) site among users of the Janrain Engage social connection service. During Q1 2011, Janrain recorded a preference for Facebook SSI among 35% of Engage users, compared to 31% who preferred Google.

SSI allows users to sign into a restricted access site using existing sign-in data, rather than having to create a new account.

Nokia losing ground in smartphone race

Nokia is fighting to regain share of the smartphone market.

The firm is still the world's largest mobile phone maker, but has been slipping badly in the smartphone market, where it now has a 26% share - down from 42% a year ago.

Its profits in the three months to March were AU$464m, down only slightly from AU$472m in the same period last year.

In February, Nokia said it was joining forces with Windows to fight back against rivals including Apple, by getting rid of its dated Symbian operating system and replacing it with Windows 7.

It has now said it expects the change will take up to two years, in which time analysts believe it will slip further behind Apple.

Nokia added the move will save it 1bn euros a year - part of which will come from job cuts being announced next week.

It said the current quarter would be more "challenging" as it deals with disruptions to the supply chain following the devastation of the tsunami in Japan.

By contrast, Apple reported a profit figure of AU$5.6bn for its second quarter - boosted by the record sale of 18.6 million iPhones in the period.

But iPad sales were 4.69 million, below analysts' expectations, which Apple puts down to customers waiting for the newly-released iPad2.

Geolocation Users See Social Benefit

Users of smartphone-based geolocation apps are most likely to see connecting to other people as their primary benefit, according to a new study from digital marketing agency White Horse.

Results of “Lost in Geolocation” indicate 41% of smartphone owners cite connection to other people they know or could meet as the most important benefit geolocation apps provide.

Finding Places Lags behind Social Connection

 

Finding a place liked by people they trust came in a distant second, cited by only about half as many geolocation users (21%). The only other benefit cited by a double-digit percentage of users was insight about travel/movement patterns (17%).

4 in 10 Smartphone Operators Use Location-based Apps

Survey results indicate about four in 10 (39%) smartphone operators use one or more location-based apps, with 61% not using any. Awareness levels are higher than usage levels, as 56% of smartphone operators report knowing about location-based apps.

Facebook Places Top Geolocation App

About four in 10 (42%) smartphone users consider Facebook Places their primary geolocation app, while roughly a quarter of the sample each choose Google Latitude and Foursquare, respectively. Twitter Places, Gowalla, and Whrrl collectively account for only 6%.

White Horse analysis suggests that Facebook Places has such strong adoption numbers because of the incidental lift provided by the success of the Facebook mobile app, which White Horse says was the most downloaded app on the planet at the time the report was released. If even a quarter of that number were in the US, user experimentation alone would make Facebook the leader in terms of gross market penetration.

Privacy Leading Adoption Barrier

Among smartphone owners who are aware of location-based apps but choose not to use them, about one-third cite privacy concerns as the chief barrier to their usage. More than 25% say they have no need, interest or benefit related to location-based apps, and close to 20% say location-based apps are redundant to how they already connect to their smartphones.

ExactTarget: Smartphone Users More Tuned into Facebook

Another possible reason for the dominance of Facebook Places is the fact Facebook usage is considerably higher amongst smartphone users, according to recent data from ExactTarget which finds 23% of smartphone users check Facebook constantly throughout the day. This figure is about double the 12% of non-smartphone users who do so. Furthermore, 32% of smartphone users check Facebook at least once per day, 14% higher than the 28% of non-smartphone users who are daily Facebook checkers.

Janrain: Facebook Has Eclipsed Google As Most Popular Sign-In Choice

Janrain, a user management platform that enables third party sign-in with 18 different providers, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter; is releasing its Q1 2011 report today. Janrain’s report analyzes data from networks for social login and social sharing across the 350,000 websites worldwide that use Janrain sign-in product, Engage. For the first time in a year, Facebook has surpassed Google as the consumer preference for signing into Internet sites using Janrain.

 

During Q1 of 2011 (January 1 through March 31), 35% of online users chose to sign-in to sites with a Facebook account compared to 27% in Q4 of 2010. And 31% of users chose their Google log-in in Q1, followed by Yahoo with 13% and Twitter with 7%.

 

 

Janrain actually analyzed sign-in data by type of site as well.

For example, Facebook is the most popular sign-in choice on news media sites for the second consecutive quarter, with 34% share, up from 32% in the previous quarter. Yahoo commanded a 28% share of all social logins in the news sector. Of course, Facebook’s share could increase more with the introduction of Facebook’s new commenting system.

 

 

Facebook has also picked up momentum in the retail space, says Janrain, with a quarterly growth rate of about 5% over the past three quarters.

The startup says that this increase is at the expense of Yahoo, as opposed to Google, whose share has held steady over the past four quarters. Facebook’s login share on retail sites is up 10% over the past year, and Yahoo’s login share is down 11% year-over-year.

 

On mobile devices, Facebook and Google lead the pack by a considerable margin. Twitter’s share (11%) is greater on mobile devices than desktop platforms.

The data above examines logins in the U.S., says Janrain, and the data internationally presents different trends. For example, Windows Live is twice as popular in Europe as a sign-in choice when compared with the U.S. Hyves commands as much as 60% share of all social logins on websites in the Netherlands, and regional portals such Web.de and GMX are popular in Germany. In Southeast Asia, Yahoo is the popular social login choice, and Google performs well in Brazil due to the popularity of Google’s social network Orkut.

Story source: techcrunch.com

Smartphone hacker threat

Most people know the importance of having up-to-date security on their computers, but many are not as vigilant when it comes to smartphones.

The phones allow similar access to the web and store all your personal information, making users an easy target for hackers.

Experts say the best way to protect your personal information is by keeping your software up-to-date, as hackers are typically three generations behind the newest technology.

Google keeps tweaking search formula

Software engineers reverently refine Google's search algorithm so consistently that it often ends a day a tad different from when it started.

Scott Huffman's team tested 'many more than' 6,000 changes to its search engine in 2010, with 500 of them passing the grade to become permanent.

'We have changed engines on a flying plane so many times it has become second nature to us,' Google fellow Amit Singhal said, referring to how internet firms modify services while they are live online.

'Alongside changing the engines, the plane has become quieter, the ride got more comfortable, and we even changed your seat while you were sleeping,' he continued.

'We just do it in small steps that go unnoticed.'

Singhal said Google's search is tweaked, on average, twice in a working day.

'On the one hand, we want to be moving quickly and we want to make great changes,' Huffman told AFP.

'On the other hand, we don't want people to come to Google and say they don't recognise it.'

Google in February took the unusual step of spotlighting an improvement to its secret search formula in the United States.

The move was part of an ongoing duel between the search titan and low-quality websites that feature only content copied from elsewhere on the internet or use techniques to trick their way to scoring high in results.

'The feedback has been tremendously positive from users,' Singhal told AFP at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

'Overwhelmingly, the change raised ranks of high-quality sites and dropped ranks of low-quality sites.'

Huffman's team is responsible for ensuring that ideas for improving Google search results do just that.

'People are not just expecting a search engine to return every document that has most of the words typed in a query box,' Huffman said.

'They want the context understood; there are a lot of nuances hidden within that.'

For example, someone searching with the word 'Japan' is likely interested in real-time news about the tsunami tragedy there as well as other information about the nation.

One of Huffman's favourite 'broken queries' from a couple of years ago was the term 'Thai restaurant.'

General web searches kept giving top rank to a Thai restaurant in the upstate New York city of Schenectady.

'I used to go complain to the ranking people,' Huffman recalled with a laugh.

'I'm in Mountain View. It might be a great Thai restaurant but I'm not going to Schenectady to get Pad Thai.'

Google began letting users set locations so the search engine could factor proximity into results when appropriate.

Proposed changes to Google's formula are first tested on a separate set of computers that imitate real-world search.

Those deemed worthy are next sent to evaluators around the world who act as online searchers and rate the relevance of results in various languages and regions.

Google then does live testing, with promising algorithm enhancements carefully blended into results served up by the main search engine.

'At any given time, some percentage of our users is actually seeing experiments,' Huffman said.

'It is interesting because users don't know what is happening,' he continued.

'Of course, we don't put things out there that are terrible; we have filters to know when something is bad.'

Plenty of improvements are ahead, particularly regarding the ability to understand and derive inferences from the world's many languages, according to Huffman.

He bristles at any suggestion by Google critics that results are tampered with to favour advertisers or achieve other business goals.

'If you think of the scale of what we are talking about, it is almost absurd to say we could rig results,' Huffman said, noting that Google handles more than a billion searches daily.

For five and a half years he has run weekly meetings at which changes to Google's search algorithm are decided.

Revenue implications of changes have never been brought up at those meetings, according to Huffman.

'Not only do we not make decisions that way, we don't even look at those numbers,' Huffman said.

Google believes that delivering the most relevant search results to people as fast as possible is best for the California company's bottom line and, by extension, steers away from useless 'spam' websites and 'content farms.'

'If we care about our users - don't care about money - everything else just falls in line,' Singhal said.

'A healthy Web and happy users are key to our future.'

Singhal pictured a day when search engines understand users so well that they predict what people wanted to know and cue them with messages on smartphones.

'That is the ultimate dream,' Singhal said.

'We are nowhere close to that yet.'

Subscribers Eager to Open Daily Deal Emails

Most read deal emails and newsletters every day

The hype around daily deal websites and mailings, and the rush of established online companies like Google and Facebook to get into the space, has some industry watchers wondering whether consumers will quickly tire of the offers. Research from Yahoo! Mail and Ipsos OTX MediaCT suggests that’s not happening yet.

The February 2011 survey found that US adult internet users subscribe to an average of almost three daily or weekly shopping emails or newsletters, and 56% of internet users subscribe to at least two of the emails.

Subscribers also say they regularly read the emails. Among those who subscribe to at least two, 61% said they read all of the messages. And most access the emails at least once a day.

Most recipients of daily deal emails also pass along the messages to friends and family, though with less frequency. Less than a quarter passed messages along every day, and 45% did so at least weekly.

More than six in 10 respondents reported subscribing to more of these emails now than last year, and nearly half were still excited enough about them that they said they “can’t wait” to see the latest deals in the messages.

The survey also found that for most consumers, daily deal emails are appearing in their main inbox. Just 27% of internet users said they had a separate email account for such offers, further reinforcing the perception among subscribers that these emails are desirable and relevant.

7 in 10 Social Marketers Plan Increased SEO

Seven in 10 (71%) marketers who use social media plan to increase their use of search engine optimization (SEO) in the near future, according to the “2011 Social Media Marketing Report” from SocialMedia Examiner. Furthermore, only 1% plan to decrease their use of SEO and 8% have no plans to utilize it, with 20% intending to keep their SEO usage the same.

 

2 in 3 Social Marketers Will Increase Email

Nearly two in three social marketers (64%) plan on increasing their email marketing efforts in the near future. While the percentage planning to decrease email usage (3%) is slightly higher than that who plan to decrease SEO usage, fewer have no plans for email (5%) and more plan to keep email usage the same (27%).

6 in 10 Social Marketers Will Increase Event Marketing

A significant 60% of social marketers plan on increasing their event marketing and speaking engagements. Another 26% will keep the level of these activities the same, with 13% having no plans to utilize them and 2% planning a decrease.

In addition, SocialMedia Examiner analysis shows B2B marketers are significantly more likely (67%) to increase event marketing than B2C marketers (53%), and the self-employed (70%) and small business owners (65%) are significantly more likely to use event marketing than large corporations (43% to 38% range, depending on number of employees).

27% of Social Marketers Won’t Use Online Ads

Slightly less than half (46%) of social marketers plan on increasing their online advertising efforts, with 27% having no plans to utilize online advertising. Twenty-four percent will keep online advertising levels the same and 3% will decrease them.

Other SocialMedia Examiner data shows large businesses (1,000 or more employees) were most likely to
increase online advertising (53%), and B2C companies were more likely (50%) than B2B companies (42%) to increase their use of online ads.

4 in 10 Social Marketers Won’t Use Webinars

Four in 10 (42%) of social marketers have no plans to use webinars or teleseminars, with another 42% planning on increasing their use of these tools and 15% keeping their usage the same. SocialMedia Examiner says when this is contrasted with the large percentage that employ physical event marketing, it would seem that many businesses are not yet sold on the idea of virtual events.

Furthermore, survey data indicates small businesses were much more likely to increase their use of this marketing tactic. For example, 49% of the self-employed are planning an increase, compared to just 27% of businesses with 500 to 1,000 employees.

B2B companies were significantly more likely (52%) than B2C companies (33%) to use webinars or teleseminars.

Press Releases Only Traditional Media with High Planned Usage

Looking at several forms of traditional media used in marketing, the survey finds that only press releases have a high rate of planned usage, with a combined 80% of social marketers planning on increasing their press release usage or keeping it the same. This contrasts with combined increased/sustained usage rates for media including sponsorships (58%), direct mail (47%), print ads (45%), radio ads (27%), and TV ads (21%).

8 in 10 Social Marketers Use Email

The study also asked social media marketers what other types of marketing they were participating in. The top three included email marketing (81%), search engine optimization (68%) and event marketing (64%).

SocialMedia Examiner analysis indicates B2B marketers were significantly more likely to employ search engine optimization (71% B2B compared to 65% B2C) and event marketing (70% B2B compared to 58% B2C). Organizations with 1,000 or more employees were more likely to participate in event marketing (73%).

In addition, social media marketers with three or more years of experience were more likely to participate in search engine optimization (80%) and event marketing (79%) than the overall respondent group.

9 in 10 Marketers Use Facebook

Nine in 10 marketers (92%) use the Facebook social network as a marketing tool, according to a new survey from SocialMedia Examiner. Data from “2011 Social Media Marketing Report” indicates Facebook is the most popular social network among marketers by a wide margin.

Twitter, LinkedIn Also Popular

The second-most-popular social network among marketers, Twitter, has an 84% adoption rate, meaning Facebook is almost 10% more popular than its closest competitor as a marketing tool. The professional networking site LinkedIn comes in third with 71% marketer adoption. Rather than a specific network, blogs follow with 68% usage, and YouTube/other video sites are used by 56% of marketers.

There is a substantial dropoff of more than 50% between the marketer adoption rates of YouTube/other video sites and their closest competitor, social bookmarking/news sites, used by only 26% of marketers. MySpace comes in last with only 6% adoption as a marketing tool.

7 in 10 Marketers Want to Learn More about Facebook

In addition to being the social network used most frequently by marketers, Facebook is also the social network the highest percentage of marketers (70%) want to learn more about. There are some discrepancies between this list and the list of most popular social networks, as blogs closely follow with 69% of marketers wanting to learn more.

Social bookmarking/news sites and Twitter tie for third with 59% of marketers wanting to learn more, and 55% want to learn more about both LinkedIn and YouTube/other video sites. About 67% more marketers want to learn more about MySpace (10%) than are currently using it.

9 in 10 Marketers Use Social Media

Ninety-three percent of marketers use social media to market their businesses, according to other survey findings. Data from “2011 Social Media Marketing Report” also indicates a significant 90% of marketers said that social media is important to their businesses.

Most Marketers Keep Social Media In-house

Roughly seven in 10 (72%) marketers who engage in social media marketing efforts do not outsource those efforts, according to the “2011 Social Media Marketing Report” from SocialMedia Examiner. However, SocialMedia Examiner notes the number of those who are outsourcing social media efforts has doubled since 2010, from 14% to 28%.

Design/Development Most Often Outsourced

Among marketers who do outsource social media marketing efforts, the most commonly outsourced task is design/development, which 17% say they outsource. MarketingCharts observes that the other most commonly outsourced tasks, such as content creation (10%) and analytics (10%), can also be considered “behind the scenes” functions. “Real time” functions such as community management (4%) and live tweeting (3%) are less likely to be outsourced.

8 in 10 Social Marketers Use Email

The study asked social media marketers what other types of marketing they were participating in. The top three included email marketing (81%), search engine optimization (68%) and event marketing (64%).

SocialMedia Examiner analysis indicates B2B marketers were significantly more likely to employ search engine optimization (71% B2B compared to 65% B2C) and event marketing (70% B2B compared to 58% B2C). Organizations with 1,000 or more employees were more likely to participate in event marketing (73%).

In addition, social media marketers with three or more years of experience were more likely to participate in search engine optimization (80%) and event marketing (79%) than the overall respondent group.

9 in 10 Marketers Use Facebook

Nine in 10 marketers (92%) use the Facebook social network as a marketing tool, according to other study results. Data indicates Facebook is the most popular social network among marketers by a wide margin. The second-most-popular social network among marketers, Twitter, has an 84% adoption rate, meaning Facebook is almost 10% more popular than its closest competitor as a marketing tool.

The professional networking site LinkedIn comes in third with 71% marketer adoption. Rather than a specific network, blogs follow with 68% usage, and YouTube/other video sites are used by 56% of marketers.

There is a substantial dropoff of more than 50% between the marketer adoption rates of YouTube/other video sites and their closest competitor, social bookmarking/news sites, used by only 26% of marketers. MySpace comes in last with only 6% adoption as a marketing tool.

Internet access life changing

A federal parliamentary committee has been told that internet access can be life changing for some people living in regional communities.

John Lindsay, from internet service provider Internode, told the inquiry his company was a strong supporter of the national broadband network (NBN).

But he said the cost of the service to consumers would be a big factor in its success in opening up regional communities to high-speed internet access.

Mr Lindsay said Internode had taken numerous testimonials from customers as the company had rolled out its own high-speed connections.

They had allowed many business people and other professionals, who were facing the prospect of having to move into bigger cities, to continue to live and work in regional communities.

'Their professional lives meant they needed that level of connectivity,' Mr Lindsay told the House of Representatives Standing Committee into the role and potential of the NBN.

'So it really has been life changing for these people.'

In the debate over the merits of fixed line fibre connections and competing wireless services, Mr Lindsay said Internode considered them complementary technologies.

He said long-term contracts that accompanied fixed line services often did not appeal to young internet users or lower income earners who preferred pre-paid wireless connections.

But he said those same people might be lured into using the NBN if the price of connection was kept low.

In its submissions to the inquiry the South Australian government said the commonwealth's commitment to providing high-speed, affordable broadband was to be applauded.

It said the government commitment was also important in that it recognised the need for priority in regional areas.

'Achieving equity, affordability and priority will also enable considerable benefit to all communities,' the government said.

Story source www.bigpond.com.au

Are Digital Marketers Ignoring Baby Boomers?

Boomers spend more time and money online than any other demographic

 

Boomers’ lives are going in many different directions, as empty-nesters, step-parents, grandparents and caregivers. For all of these roles, the internet and digital media are absolutely essential.

eMarketer estimates 78.2% of this cohort is online, nearly 60 million adults. Even as their numbers decline, that penetration rate will remain high through 2015. And they control more than $2 trillion in annual spending.

“The baby boomers grew up being chased by marketers and advertisers that tailored products and brands to appeal to them,” said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Digital Lives of Boomers: Reaching Them Online.” “Now the median age of this cohort is 55, and many boomers feel as if they have dropped off many marketers’ radar.”

Boomers spend more time and money online than any other demographic. Younger boomers (ages 47 to 55) spent an average of 39.3 hours online per month in 2010, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Older boomers (ages 56 to 65) averaged only slightly less, at 36.5 hours. A lot of that time was spent shopping—and buying. Forrester Research reported that boomers spent an average of about $650 online over a three-month period in 2010, compared with $581 by Generation X internet users (ages 35 to 46) and $429 by millennials (ages 18 to 34).

Boomers also stay connected on the go. eMarketer estimates 86.9% will have a mobile phone this year, and 16.9 million boomers will access the internet from a mobile browser or installed app. In 2015, that number will reach 25.4 million, or nearly 40% of boomer mobile users. This is a market that content providers, game publishers and brand marketers should not pass by.

Marketers who widen their messages to include boomers would be wise to make their efforts ageless, rather than targeted at an older set.

“Boomers are immediately turned off by association with old age, infirmity and decline,” said Phillips. “Most brands do not want to ‘age’ their products with blatant appeals to older consumers. The win-win is to create an overarching brand message that gives a nod to boomers, but also includes younger adults and even grandchildren.”

This often means turning a negative—fears about failing health, for example—into a positive, such as showing the benefits of products that contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

NBN Co suspends tender over value

The builder of the national broadband network has suspended its construction tender following concerns about value for money.

NBN Co head of corporate services Kevin Brown said the company would not build the network 'at any price'.

'We have thoroughly benchmarked our project against similar engineering and civil works projects in Australia and overseas and we will not proceed on the basis of prices we are currently being offered,' Mr Brown said in a statement on Friday.

'NBN Co is confident it can secure better value for money by going a different route.'

Mr Brown said NBN Co had open the option of continuing negotiations at a later stage.

The government proposes to build a $36 billion optic fibre broadband network to 93 per cent of Australian homes, businesses and schools.

Mr Brown said NBN Co would change tack in arranging a builder for the broadband network.

'Today we are commencing discussions with an alternative different party about how to get the job done,' he told ABC.

Mr Brown said the prices on offer from a final list of five bidders was dearer than the NBN Co was prepared to pay.

'It was double digit above what we were expecting,' he said.

'It is our view that having done extensive benchmarking about what a fair price is, we believe there is another way to get there.'

Opposition broadband spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said NBN Co had no option but to suspend the tender process because putting optic fibre into every house in Australia was enormously expensive.

'I imagine they had no choice because the cost of this exercise appears to be well above even their high-end cost estimates,' Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio.

That explanation was more likely than bidders trying to rip off the NBN Co, he said.

'It's easy to say price gouging, but what does that mean?

'It's a competitive market (and) there's a number of contractors that have been contacted.

'Normally competition gets you the best price.'

Mr Turnbull said it wasn't necessary to run fibre into every home to ensure fast broadband access.

Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

Mobile vs. Social: The Status of Marketing Integration

Email has best integration with mobile and social tactics

 

Integration has been a buzzword for social media marketers for a while now. As efforts—and budgets—in social media evolve from experimentation toward more serious campaigns, questions of how well social is fitting into the marketing mix abound, and true integration can seem distant.

According to research from marketing software solutions company Unica, marketing integration is very much a work in progress, and for more than just social media. Adopting cross-channel campaigns is a challenge, and many barriers remain to integrating online and offline data. And for social media and mobile, tactical integration with the rest of the marketing department is often a ways off.

The Q4 2010 survey of marketers in Europe and North America found that social sharing links in emails and web offers were the best-integrated social media marketing tactic, with 62% of respondents saying the sharing links were run as part of integrated campaigns. A majority of respondents were also integrating applications and widgets, social media advertising and location-based games into the rest of their efforts.

For mobile marketing tactics, the picture was similar. Again, email was best-integrated: 64% of respondents said mobile versions of email messages were part of integrated marketing campaigns. Mobile messaging, location-based targeting and mobile websites were also integrated by a majority of marketers.

Mobile applications, which marketers are often warned to avoid if they don’t have a clear connection to the rest of a company’s marketing, were most likely to be discrete from other campaigns.