Webremix Articles

The Web is Dead: What This Means to ICANN, New gTLD Program and the Domain Industry

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:48:00 GMT

While we are spending years figuring out how to create the perfect generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) launch and guidebook, the Internet is moving along at an extraordinary pace without any care about ICANN policy-making. The fact of the matter is ICANN is a ghost to the ordinary person or Internet company. You can not imagine how many times I had to explain what ICANN is, what ICANN does and why ICANN is important.

While the Internet is moving along with exciting innovations and new platforms of communication, ICANN is still working at dinosaur pace, still playing catch up and still not aligning the realities of the Internet to policy-making. Interest groups, corporate monopolies, politics and conflicts of interest still rule supreme.

Chris Anderson, the editor of Wire Magazine, in a recent front-page Wired article called "The Web is Dead" proclaims that the world wide web is dead and we are experiencing the beginning of the next generation of the Internet. Anderson explains:

"Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services—think apps—are less about the searching and more about the getting. You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad—that's one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times—three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix's streaming service. You've spent the day on the Internet—but not on the Web. And you are not alone."

The reality of the matter is that the web is not quite dead yet. It is evolving. Devices are becoming more and more important than ever before. Mobile devices have paved way for the app revolution. These apps do not reside on the web but on the Internet for the purpose of creating a better user experience for the consumer as well as creating "closed" and "controlled" economies bound by distribution gatekeepers. This might be the beginning of the death of the "open" web as we see it. The move away from Flash programming in mobile devices in favor of non-web-based applications illustrates the gradual move away from a web-centric Internet, but the reality of the matter is that the Web will continue to exist given the human need for open-access to information and connecting with like-minded communities or social networks.

One point is certain. ICANN is wasting precious time trying to create a perfect solution in regards to new gTLDs. Can ICANN predict the future? No-one thinks so, but ICANN's propensity to solve any possible problem that might arise is clouding the process itself. ICANN is well-equipped and capable of dealing with any secluded abuse that might arise and react to any potential future issue. ICANN is losing its prime focus and is distancing itself from real task at hand which is no other than to introduce innovation and competition in the domain space and expand the Web.

The odds against new entrants are high. However, ICANN still insists on archaic concepts such as not allowing new registries to engage in free-trade, be able to sell direct as well as be flexible to introduce their own innovations. The self-proclaimed ICANN Business Constituency that should be all about free-trade claims that free trade is a terrible idea for new registry entrants and keeping the monopolistic, restrictive and anti-business regime at bay with the status quo is the best option for businesses. The ICANN Business Constituency that alleges to represent small-business interest and open, free markets is what your typical economist will call an oxymoron that is inconsistent with the modern economic framework of business practices. Does it have credibility? None whatsoever. I can only imagine what happens behind closed doors for a Business Constituency to oppose free trade for new entrants.

While the Internet moves towards a new direction, ICANN stands and ponders on issues that delay innovation, competition and the expansion of the Web. Big brand holders are still complaining about implementing more trademark mechanisms or further improving the existing ones that were created to please them. Why is ICANN wasting more time with that? Is there a method to retrieve your trademarked domain if someone else is abusing it? Yes. ICANN has gone beyond what is necessary. Will new gTLDs introduce more harm or benefits to the Internet society? If ICANN is all about open-access, free trade, competition, fairness and represent the Internet community, it has to align itself with what is happening in the Internet space today and not be stuck in the '90s.

The Web is not perfect. The big brands and corporations that ICANN seeks to protect who are delaying everything are not perfect. For example, the Web has been used by companies such as Google and Internet Service Providers to piggyback on intellectual property issues. What ICANN is dealing with in regards to implementing additional trademark mechanisms is tiny in regards to the harm that has been inflicted by many corporations that are regarded as the "backbone" of the Web. Google and major ISPs have been piggypacking intellectual property owners for their own profit and not much has been done about it. Both Google and the ISPs have been profiting from the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted works. Google makes money and generates traffic so they do not care about intellectual property. The ISPs get paid higher fees from consumers wanting higher bandwidth to download illegally at faster rates. Rampant piracy translates to billions of dollars of profits. 95% of music on iPods is illegal. Apple knows that but their marketing is clear: fit tens of thousands of songs on your iPod (irrespective if its illegally downloaded or not).

The Internet is dominated by many corporations who really have no respect for intellectual capital. If ICANN wants to make a difference that matters in Intellectual Property, then perhaps they need to be involved with other more significant issues that affect the Internet. If they are responsible for implementing trademark mechanisms for TLDs, then why not actually make a difference where it counts and where copyright holders are suffering from piracy, which has cost many their jobs? The trademark issues that will arise from new TLDs are insignificant if compared with the harm inflicted by piracy to copyright holders. My point is that ICANN has done enough to appease the trademark community. They are offered the trademark mechanisms to solve cybersquatting, even though the potential harms are expected to be tiny in comparison (if any). Copyright holders do not enjoy such benefit because of the very nature of the Web and its chaotic openness. I thought Rod Beckstrom understood this concept. I did after-all I read his book. Action is needed now, not just mere words.

With the Internet moving away from the Web, the repercussions to the domain industry will be felt. Domain name parking will become obsolete and the astronomical prices that premium, one-word .COM domains sell for will fall significantly and industry will experience less million-dollar domain name sales. There is no better time to sell your domain portfolio than right now unless you are developing it or unless you believe that apps and mobile devices with proprietary, closed ecosystems is not a reality.

ICANN needs to finally get the new TLD program launched without any further delays. The delays are unwarranted given the very few issues that are left such as Vertical Integration, pricing on bulk same-translated strings and establishing a better and fairer point system for community applicants that will also prevent abuse.

Unless ICANN shares Chris Anderson's viewpoint that the Web is dead, ICANN has to finally acknowledge the financial harm and opportunity costs that all the delays have inflicted to all applicants that have been clinging to ICANN timing promises to launch their respective TLD. The Web depends on it since it is shrinking. Time to join forces with the new Internet economy and space. It is time to expand the Web and introduce new complementors to the Internet: new TLDs.

Written by Constantine Roussos, CEO & Founder of .Music & Music.us

How Large Advertisers are Accelerating their SEO with Social Media

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:00:00 GMT

This is a live blog post by guest blogger, Imelda Khoo. Imelda is the E-Marketing Manager at Tektronix, responsible for global SEO, PPC and social media. Imelda blogs at SEM Booty and is also on Twitter @imeldak

Hi, everyone. My name is Imelda and over the next few days, I'm going to be live blogging from SES San Francisco for my friends here at Search Engine Watch. If you see a short, young(ish), Asian-looking chick, that speaks with a British accent, scoping out power outlets and typing away furiously -- that's me. Come say hi.

It's going to be an action-packed first day here at SES, with a bunch of suped-up sessions going on.

This first session is moderated by Covario's Arnel Leyna, with Jeff MacGurn, also from Covario, and Doug Loots representing "Large Advertisers", Wells Fargo. They're going to look at whether big brands worry about SEO and Social Media (of course they do!).

I'm a big Covario fan - these guys are super smart, so this should be good.

Let's get started.

Arnel explains that SEO and social media are the new "earned media". Earned media is most effective at the top of the funnel (for awareness, opinion and consideration), which supports and drives PPC media further down the funnel.

Differences in media:

Owned media: Where the advertiser owns it (EG: your website, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts). Benefits: brand controlled, cost effective, longevity

Paid media: Where the advertiser pays a third party to use the channel (EG: PPC, display). Benefits: Immediacy, scale, controlled

Earned media: (EG: SEO, Twitter, Facebook). Benefit: Most credible, but least controllable

How does social impact SEO?

Doug: Search engines now allow searchers to filter by recency. So advertisers must constantly reinvent their content. Especially since content that's been out there for three or four years really is considered dated now.

Jeff: Search and social do have an impact on each other. More social results are finding their way into the engines, and into the algorithm. There is a correlation between the two.

What are the algorithms looking for?

Jeff: Mentions in social media platforms is a good indicator.

Doug: A good (or even negative) social media campaign can also drive query volume towards your page.

Is social media a new thing?

Doug: Social is about two different things: the social aspect and the technology that drives it. The social part has been around for years (EG: you can use the Better Business Bureau to provide feedback for vendors), but now the technology allows messages to spread much more quickly.

Jeff: People giving their opinion isn't anything new.

Every day users don't really use filters. So why should we invest in social and SEO?

Jeff: Social bookmarking is an indicator of popular online content. It's not just about time stamps, but also relevancy. Jeff sees a lot of correlation between the two. An example was a rank 1 showing for "Apple's Death Grip" page just after all the bad stuff kicked off. There is definitely a correlation, so there must be some social aspects that have an impact on rankings.

How do you know it wasn't someone at Google who forced it to the top?

Jeff: Can't say that there isn't someone at Google who does that. But most rankings are algorithmic as opposed to someone statically ranking pages. The algorithm can train itself to understand and sophisticated enough to understand those things [I'm thinking iRobot, right now]

Doug: Can't believe that anyone would be sitting at Google HQ ranking things manually. It's not very scalable.

How do you determine your budget for social media vs. SEO?

Doug: Online marketers can easily measure, so allocating dollars should be based upon what returns. Over time, you get more educated on where to place it. SEO and PPC are often the first steps. Social media is still emerging, so you tend to put less in to it.

Jeff: Big brands understand their share of the market, so spend should be increased in line with market share. Start up companies I should start out with what is measurable. Start out on PPC, and then move next to SEO. The better you can measure, the better off you will be in the end. Concentrate your assets in the areas that work.

Arnel: Encourages clients to develop social media assets by taking a small percentage of your budget (maybe leftovers from PPC) and allocate it to social. For example: put it towards developing your blog.

Doug: It doesn't take a lot of money to develop your SEO. It is a hard choice to allocate out, and will depend upon the organization.

Where is the true value in the long run? Is it in organic or is it in paid?

Jeff: Paid is instant gratification and easy to track. SEO can be tracked, though there is a lag. Social media is not just about Tweeting or Facebooking. You need to promote your own content and work hard to drive people there. Once Jeff's clients start executing on social and start tying results to it, they see the cost per acquisition is a lot lower, and then more budget gets assigned. Sometimes you just have to hold your breath a little longer for the results to come.

Doug: People often want instant gratification and will just throw their money at PPC. You are constantly chasing your next click. If you build SEO and social, it will sustain a lot longer. There is more investment up front in time and effort, but it will return a lot more in the long run. That's why it's called earned.

When something goes viral, is it natural or planned?

Jeff: A lot more is planned than we'd think is planned. Think Old Spice [Bites lip... Strike 1]. And these are planned by the agency down to a tee. You can get quite a good idea as to what will be popular and what will work. Prepare for developing interesting content based upon hot topics of the moment (EG: World Cup).

Doug: It is both. It's important for companies to be more natural though, especially when it comes to responding to a viral campaign. Companies need to be listening more and ready to handle a response, especially if it is negative.

How do you optimize the content?

Jeff: A lot of it is about relationship building and getting people to link to the content and get the word out. The way you do it is critical. Infographics tend to be very popular viral content, as opposed to a 30 page document. Top 10 lists are also popular.

Doug: It's about creating content that is valuable to your customer, not to you. Does it help your customer learn something? When you do it that way, the profits will follow.

Jeff: Understand what people are searching for and build the content around the keywords. Similarly, with social, build the content around what interests your customer.

Doug: It's not about shoving the content down your customer's throat(push marketing). It's about providing relevant content to your customer when they need it (pull marketing). For businesses to be successful in social media and search, you need to understand the fundamental difference between push and pull.

[BTW, There are lots of skeptics in this audience about the tenuous link between search and social].

Do you see value in hashtags?

Jeff: Hasn't seen hashtags been that valuable (yet) when it comes to search engine rankings.

How do you integrate multilingual global content in SEO?

Jeff: The sites that are popular in America, are not necessarily popular everywhere. But from a SEO perspective, SEO best practices still apply. It helps to have local resources. There are even differences between what people in England call a toilet [a bog] and a cell phone [a mobile]

[I've got more examples!]

How often should you post on social networks and how do you cut through all the noise?

Jeff: "Please retweet" is the most tweeted phrase on Twitter. It must be effective, but it creates a lot of noise. You don't want to mess with your relationships by spamming people with a lot of stuff that isn't relevant.

Doug: Is your next tweet providing as much value as the previous one? Is your next blog post providing as much value as the previous one? If you can't answer "yes" to that, then maybe you're doing it too much.

Jeff rounds up by picking on the non-believers in the audience.

New big brands arrive on the iPhone (Appolicious)

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:45:00 GMT

Appolicious - Reading your favorite magazines, buying gear from labels you trust, chewing gum from brands that have been around since your grandmother first started chewing gum -- these things can all be great fun. But what’s even more thrilling is when you can access your favorite brands, companies, stores and magazines to your handheld device. Below are some hot new iPhone apps from the trademarks we’ve known and loved for a long time. And coincidentally, they all happen to be free, so even better!

Advertising: Vice, a Media Company, Shows Big Brands How to Reach the Hip Crowd

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:30:24 GMT

In 2009, companies spent more than $47 billion on custom marketing — from magazines to Web sites — to attract specific audiences.

Tiered Treasures: David Yurman Flagship, New York City by Gabellini Sheppard Associates

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:03:56 GMT

Whether you are a Yurman acolyte who has carried the company's namesake designer pieces from the beginning, or one of the growing number of jewelers who is shying away from big brands, there's no denying that Yurman has left an indelible mark on the industry, as distinctive as the classic cable bracelet that has roped in innumerable fans.

Google Maps adds "Places" and other top Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:27:00 GMT

Appolicious - It was a pretty good week for the Android Market, with several big brands unveiling their shiny new Android apps. Even Google got in on the fun, updating its Maps app with a dedicated “Places” icon.

Brand Marketing Firm Involver Launches ‘AMP’ Social Media Dashboard

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:45 GMT

Involver , a company that helps both brands and smaller businesses manage their presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other online portals, has launched a new dashboard they’re calling AMP. The dashboard allows brands to aggregate all of their inbound tweets, Facebook comments, and other messages on a single site, and it isn't just for monitoring incoming content — you can also respond to messages directly from the page. Involver was founded in 2007 and boasts some big brands as clients, including Warner Brothers, American Apparel, Facebook, and Alicia Keys. They’re also touting some big stats: in terms of clients, they have 80,000 brands/agencies and 200 million ‘Like’ relationships on Facebook (at least, their clients do). That includes plenty of dupes (people who have Liked more than one brand that uses Involver), and some of these brands are probably only using an app or two, but it’s definitely impressive. Involver has spent the last year and a half building out its suite of applications, like Signup Forms and a music player for Facebook, and the AMP dashboard is being offered in addition to those.

World Cup: Pakistan football makers have a ball

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:10:47 GMT

South Africa News.Net Wednesday 30th June, 2010 The replica of the ball of the World Cup in South Africa and most of the 40 million footballs that the big brands sell every year are from the Pakistani industrial city of Sialkot where thousands of workers struggle to make them.

Pakistan football makers have a ball

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:44:16 GMT

By Igor G. Barbero, Sialkot (Pakistan), June 30 : The replica of the ball of the World Cup in South Africa and most of the 40 million footballs that the big brands sell every year are from the Pakista...

Pakistan football makers have a ball

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:30:04 GMT

The replica of the ball of the World Cup in South Africa and most of the 40 million footballs that the big brands sell every year are from the Pakistani industrial city of Sialkot where thousands of workers struggle to make them.

Pakistan football makers have a ball

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:30:04 GMT

Glam Swings For The Fences With Glam Adapt, An Ad-Serving Platform Built For Brands

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:09:37 GMT

As big brands move more of their ad budgets online, what they want most is not just to capture clicks, but to capture the attention and mindshare of consumers. The buzzword in the online advertising industry for this attention capturing quality is "engagement." Every ad platform out there is promising to deliver more consumer engagement. Today, Glam Media, which itself is both a publisher of women's sites and an ad network, announced an entirely new ad-serving technology platform called Glam Adapt it's built over the past 18 months to help brands find and target the most engaged consumers. GlamAdapt works with existing ad-serving technologies and networks such as DoubleClick, Atalas, and Eyeblaster, but Glam CEO Samir Arora has bigger ambitions for it. "It also can be used as a complete replacement for Doubleclick," he says. GlamAdapt came out of his own frustrations as a publisher and ad network. "We were running into a wall in terms of having technology that do what the brands are asking," says Arora: "targeted properly, engaging, detailed analytics and reporting, the aha of television. I decided to build a third generation ad-serving stack that can work with existing technologies."

I’m Not Sure This Augments Your Reality, But Brightkite Gets Better AR Ads

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:53:04 GMT

Back in December, the location-based service Brightkite rolled out a new layer to its Augmented Reality (AR) view: ads. At the time, these were Google ads that showed up in a "relatively unobtrusive" way, as ReadWriteWeb put it . Now, those ads are getting more obtrusive because some big brands are on board. Brightkite has been working with both Starbucks and McDonalds to bring more effective AR ads to reality (pun intended). Rather than showing a Google ad at the bottom of the Brightkite view screen when you see a circle in AR view, there are now giant logos for the brands in the AR view itself. For example, see the Starbucks VIA logo in the image in this post. As you can see, when you're near a retailer than carries VIA, the logo will appear on the screen. Clicking on the logo will give you more info below that including links and videos that you can play inline.

TechCrunch Partners with .CO Internet to Host Website for Disrupt 2010

Wed, 26 May 2010 19:50:00 GMT

.CO Internet S.A.S. announced today that TechCrunch will be using a .CO web address to host the "Startup Battlefield" for the TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 conference.

TechCrunch Disrupt brings together both the innovators of disrupting technology and media and the companies that are successfully turning disruption into opportunity. The Disrupt.co website will showcase all of the ideas, products and services from emerging companies that were chosen from hundreds of applications to battle it out as the top startup of 2010.

"We are excited to be one of the first companies to use a .CO domain as a way to further our engagement with our online readers, partners and event attendees," said Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor, TechCrunch. "Like the other companies featured at TechCrunch Disrupt, the .CO domain is set to disrupt the status quo that exists in the world of web addresses—and will offer startups and established businesses new opportunities in online branding."

As an early adopter participating in the .CO Founders Program, TechCrunch is one of the "first movers" to proactively develop and maintain a .CO website prior to the public launch of the domain extension in July.

"It is very exciting to see the TechCrunch Disrupt website built on a .CO web address," said Juan Diego Calle, chief executive officer of .CO Internet. "We are thrilled to showcase some of the best emerging companies of 2010 on Disrupt.co and look forward to an ongoing relationship with TechCrunch as one of our earliest .CO Founders."

Like the companies featured in the Startup Battlefield, .CO is an example of a disruptive industry force that creates new possibilities for today's businesses. In an ever-changing technology and media landscape, consumers are demanding more options in branding their online presence. .CO Internet plans to fill this demand with the launch of the .CO domain.

In addition to TechCrunch, other innovative .CO Founders like Politico, Transitions Optical, and Venture Hacks, have recently embraced this emerging opportunity by launching new web properties built on .CO domain names. The .CO Founders Program is open to all qualified applicants from individual bloggers to small businesses, agencies and big brands, as a way to encourage early development of the .CO namespace.

Facebook Ads Attracting Big Brands

Tue, 25 May 2010 04:53:50 GMT

Nature Valley increased its Facebook presence by 70,000 on May 21. To achieve that result, the granola bar maker ran an ad on the social media site that stated it would donate $1 to the National Park Conservation Association for every person who became a fan.

The New York Times finally arrives on Android (Appolicious)

Mon, 17 May 2010 03:01:00 GMT

Appolicious - With The New York Times being among the first to adopt mobile devices for news delivery, Apple products and Amazon's Kindle took precedence. Now that the Android platform has proven its desire to stick around for a while, big brands are starting to take notice.

Android apps that should come to life (Appolicious)

Fri, 14 May 2010 15:43:00 GMT

Appolicious - Despite Android’s big boom this past year, there is still plenty of room for its marketplace to grow. As the iPhone’s sleek design and iTunes App Store got a jump start on all other mobile platforms, Android’s Market is slower to gain apps in certain areas, particularly gaming and big brands.

The .CO Founders Program

Thu, 13 May 2010 18:46:00 GMT

Opportunity is exactly what the .CO Founders Program is all about. The .CO Founders Program is an initiative designed to help qualified "first movers" to proactively develop and maintain domain names with the .CO extension prior to our public launch in July. It's open to all interested applicants from bloggers to businesses to big brands and beyond. (That was a lot of alliteration!)

We developed this program to showcase great examples of the types of content that will live in the .CO namespace and to inspire future development of the space. Here's how it works. You submit a proposal describing how you will proactively develop and launch the .CO domain name of your choice before June 15th, 2010. If your proposal is approved, you'll become one of a small (and exclusive) group of .CO Founders that will help to give shape to the entire .CO name space.

In addition to securing a meaningful, memorable .CO domain name—you'll also get a jump on the competition by developing your domain name before the general public even has access to the .CO extension. Finally, you'll get the benefit of our global marketing efforts as we showcase the genius of our various .CO Founders on our website, in our advertising campaigns and in other public outreach efforts.

Convinced? Download the Application Here.

The .CO Founders Program is an initiative designed to engage early adopters, also known as .CO Founders, to proactively develop and maintain domains with the .CO extension prior to the public launch in July 2010.

The Fine Print: It's important to note that the .CO Founders Program is not for everyone. It is a limited time opportunity, and is only available to people and companies with a demonstrated capacity to build successful online businesses or brands—and who can commit to having a well-developed, well-funded .CO website launched by July 20th. As you will see in the terms and conditions that govern the .CO Founders Program, .CO Founder sites must be built using unique content, continuously used, and promoted aggressively with a defined marketing budget.

Android apps that should come to life (Appolicious)

Thu, 13 May 2010 13:16:00 GMT

The .CO Domain Registry Announces Global Sunrise and Public Outreach Initiatives at Web 2.0 Expo

Thu, 06 May 2010 05:28:00 GMT

.CO Internet S.A.S. has announced the launch of its Global Sunrise Process at the Web 2.0 Expo. The structured Sunrise Process is using best practices to provide trademark and IP protection for registered trademark holders worldwide to successfully secure their eligible .CO domain.

To be eligible, trademarks of national effect from any country in the world must have been registered on or before July 30, 2008. The Sunrise Process will close on June 10, 2010 to make way for the next stage in the multi-phase launch plan, Landrush. During Landrush, registrants can secure high priority .CO domain names at a premium price prior to the public launch on July 20th.

"Throughout the launch of the Global Sunrise Process, we are implementing a number of important rights protection mechanisms to ensure for the fair and orderly distribution of domain names," said Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet. "Our policies have been designed in consideration of the guidance set forth by ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency, along with consultations with a variety of global domain registries."

.CO Internet Global Sunrise Process

In order to prevent some of the challenges that have occurred during select previous TLD launches, .CO Internet has set up a strict validation process, being administered by Deloitte, to ensure that all trademark owners' rights are respected and verified. Through Deloitte, .CO Internet has also set up an IP Clearinghouse to ensure applications are thorough and complete before being submitted to the .CO Registry.

Applications will not be granted on a first-come, first-serve basis during the Sunrise Process. Instead, applications will be collected through June 10th. Single validated applications will be awarded at the end of the Sunrise period. In the event that there is more than one entity applying for the same domain name, with each of them having corresponding trademarks, the name will go to auction through Pool.com to determine the owner of the domain name.

Be a Part of the .COmmunity

.CO Internet has several other opportunities for entrepreneurs and brand owners to engage with the .CO domain. Early adopters are able to take advantage of the .CO Founders Program, an initiative designed to help qualified "first movers" to proactively develop and maintain domains with the .CO extension prior to the public launch in July. The .CO Founders Program is open to all interested applicants from individuals to businesses and big brands.

Additionally, .CO Internet is launching its "Create Your Opportunity” contest at Pitch.co for aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas for a business, website or blog and compete for a $50,000 prize and the corresponding .CO domain name to build it on. The online community will be able to vote for their favorite pitch at Pitch.co. The top 30 vote-getters will advance to the finals where they will join a maximum of 7 pitches selected by the judges. Voting ends on June 14, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be announced on June 20, 2010.

Android apps brought to you by big brands (Appolicious)

Wed, 05 May 2010 12:30:00 GMT

Appolicious - Big brands have recognized the power of social media marketing, and that’s extended to the mobile realm as well. iPhone apps for some of the most recognized brands such as Starbucks (Starbucks Card Mobile, myStarbucks) and MasterCard (Priceless Picks) have created a direct channel for communication between the company and its customers.

Digital Hollywood: Progress in Monetizing Content for the Web

Wed, 05 May 2010 05:52:14 GMT

By Sharon Waxman

Are we making progress in figuring out how to monetize content in the age of the Internet?

At a Digital Hollywood panel that I moderated today, the answer was – Yes. And not just because I’m an optimist. Some of the progress is coming from branded entertainment, with big brands taking a growing role in creating content. But some of us are still struggling with finding a way to draw enough of an audience to justify the cost of production. Personally, I’m still...

Facebook scores huge branding coup with 'Like'

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:10:10 GMT

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

The most successful brands share several attributes in common. One of the most important: Ownership of a single word that defines the brand. Last week, Facebook made the word "like" its own, in one of the biggest branding coups in decades.

"Like" is seemingly everywhere this week and associated with Facebook. The social network didn't just extend the mechanism beyond its territorial borders, but claimed ownership over the word, too. Backed by the social network's reach and popularity -- approaching 500 million subscribers -- and Open Graph protocol, the "Like" thumbs-up icon already appears on hundreds of thousands of Web pages outside Facebook. Perhaps then, Facebook's branding coup is double -- not just 'like' but the thumbs-up symbol, too. I use Tumblr for my Odd Together blog, where the service's subscribers can like something by clicking a heart. The point: Facebook wasn't the only social service using a "like" mechanism. By the way, Tumblr rivals Posterous and TypePad have built-in easy support for Facebook Like. Hehe, they like Like.

Big brands do big business by claiming ownership over a single word. For Volvo it's "safety." For, Nike it's "performance." For Apple, it's increasingly "magic." Barack Obama claimed "change" during his presidential campaign.

In 2002, Rajendra Srivastava, Emory University Goizueta Business School professor, explained the importance of word ownership. "A brand really lies between the two ears of the consumer. The company owns the physical brand, of course, but the value of the brand really is what it means to the consumer." What could be more meaningful than like? The word is loaded with positive and personal connotations. "I like you" or "I like this," with the important emphasis on "I," which is me (or is that you). Good branding also is about generating good feelings. What could be more good feeling than like, other than perhaps love?

From a broader branding perspective, word ownership is most potent when it is a verb, meaning there is action behind it. For some brands, like Google or Xerox, the word is the company name replacing a verb. People "Google" instead of "search" or they "Xerox" instead of "copy." Facebook is never going to be a successful verb, but like already is one.

Facebook's Like branding is atypical from a larger marketing perspective. Generally, companies take ownership over a word because they want people to buy something. Facebook wants people to vote for something by Liking it. Around those Likes -- and the associated subscriber identities -- Facebook is looking to profit from advertising and marketing intelligence services. As good as cookies and other tracking mechanisms are, an identity is much better. Facebook can build demographic profiles around those Likes, which are marketing gold.

Perhaps the closest atypical word branding campaign to Facebook is Barack Obama's run for the presidency. How strange, he sought people's votes, too -- wanted more Americans to like him than rival John McCain. The Obama political campaign ran one of the most effective marketing campaigns in US history. Advertising Age named Barack Obama marketer of the year in 2008. In Nov. 5, 2008, AdAge story "What Marketers Can Learn From Obama's Campaign," Al Ries explains how Obama came to own "change". He writes:

Mr. Obama's objective was not to communicate the fact that he was an agent of change. In today's environment, every politician running for the country's highest office was presenting him or herself as an agent of change. What Mr. Obama actually did was to repeat the 'change' message over and over again, so that potential voters identified Mr. Obama with the concept. In other words, he owns the 'change' idea in voters' minds.

"Change" didn't come easy. The Obama campaign effectively used social media tools to engage and marshall supporters. In Janaury 2009, PR agency Edelman released report "The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama's Social Media Toolkit." The report explains, and to my reading surprisingly effectively, how the Obama campaign converted "everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, e-mail advocacy, text messaging and online video." Change was Barack Obama's message, but social media tools were the means for marshaling volunteers and voters.

Social media is the other connection to Facebook. An April 1, 2009 FastCompany story explains "How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign." Hughes created the social networking tools vital to the campaign's eventual success. Hughes' now defunct blog offers insight into how volunteers used My.BarackObama.com to establish "35,000 local organizing groups" in all 50 states. Hughes also is one of Facebook's cofounders.

Facebook and Barack Obama share somewhat intertwined fates. A Facebook founder created the social networking infrastructure that helped a presidential campaign own the word "change," and to pull off one of the most successful branding campaigns in American political history. Now Facebook is claiming ownership over "like," using social networking tools to drive the brand ownership/association. Did Facebook marketers learn something from Hugh's work on the Obama campaign, or is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg just lucky? He would be the first geek to demonstrate accidental branding brilliance.

Regardless, Facebook has taken ownership over the word like. Brand marketers around the world wish they could have done something similar. They'll cash in by association. Facebook Like is going to big marketing.

Big brands seek ?cool? staff for sales connect

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:16:38 GMT

The aim is to get youngsters, who are interested in rock music, fashion, adventure sports and are part of their target group, to promote and sell their products.

Big brands seek ?cool? staff for sales connect

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:16:38 GMT

The aim is to get youngsters, who are interested in rock music, fashion, adventure sports and are part of their target group, to promote and sell their products.

Ads galore, but just one film in Sharman's kitty

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:25:38 GMT

New Delhi, April 6 : After the success of "3 Idiots", actor Sharman Joshi has started endorsing big brands like Nokia and Airtel, but he has just one movie - "Allah Ke Banday" - to look forward to in the near future.

India Gate: India's single largest ice-cream selling point

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:15:00 GMT

All big brands agree that the monument designed by Sir Edward Lutyens is the largest ice-cream selling point in the country followed by Chennai's Marina Beach.

Miso Gets Big Brand Love. Check-In To The Hot Tub Time Machine

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:29:26 GMT

For the past few years, being the "Twitter for FILL-IN-THE-BLANK" has been a popular trend among startups. Now, we're starting to see a shift. Several new startups are launching as the "Foursquare for FILL-IN-THE-BLANK." And big brands are actually starting to take notice. Miso is an iPhone app that incorporates the "check-in" idea with watching movies and television shows. So, for example, if you're watching that NCAA Tournament this weekend, you can check-in to let your friends what you're doing. You can then send these check-ins to Twitter, Facebook, or yes, Foursquare, checking you in there in the process (assuming you've also attached an actual location to your movie/TV show check-in).

CauseWorld’s New App Melds The Check-In With The Check-Out

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:30:58 GMT

Last night, we wrote about a CauseWorld teaming up with TechCrunch to provide double karma points during the SXSW festival starting today in Austin, Texas. These points, obtained through checking-in at various locations, can be used to donate to charities through big brands that support the app. It's a great feature, and we hope you'll use it in Austin. What we didn't talk too much about is the app itself that enables it, CauseWorld , which just released a new version of its iPhone app in the App Store. We first covered the app back in December , but now it has been significantly upgraded. One of the core ideas behind the app has always been the intersection of the mobile and physical world (something I've thought a lot about as well ). A new feature bridges the gap a bit more as you can now scan barcodes on individual items with your iPhone to earn extra karma points. Proctor & Gamble are the ones sponsoring these points on different products they make. It's a good idea, because even if you choose not to buy the item, it forces you to pick it up and look at it a bit.

Check-In For Charity During SXSW With CauseWorld And TechCrunch

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:07:58 GMT

There are no shortage of location-based services launching this week at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Many of them allow you to "check-in" places to let others know you are there. So how do you differentiate between then and decide which to use? Well, here's one good way. CauseWorld , is a free iPhone and Android app that lets you check-in places, but it has an added real-world bonus: big brands give money to charity when you do so . And this week at SXSW, CauseWorld is teaming up with TechCrunch to offer double point (which they aptly call "karma") when you check in to one of over 50 venues around Austin (I'll paste the full list at the bottom of the post), including the Austin Convention Center (where SXSW is held).

CauseWorld’s Checkin For Charity Gets More Citi Money

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:58:48 GMT

CauseWorld , a mobile app that lets users check in to retail shops for credits that can be donated to charity, is clearly on a roll. The app first launched in December as “the first mobile application that let’s you do good deeds simply for walking into a store.” CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes. The company has now donated about half of the original $500,000 donated by Kraft and Citi for the test period. And these brands seem to be happy. CauseWorld has been downloaded more than 300,000 times, probably putting it on par with location based check in networks like FourSquare. Last week Proctor and Gamble said it will give users karma points for scanning the bar codes of 27 products, like toothpaste or face cream. And now Citi will announce that it is expanding it's support of CauseWorld. It's total contribution is now at $700,000.

Big Brands Struggle to Diffuse Recall Crises

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:08:25 GMT

It's harder than ever for brands to diffuse that bad publicity surrounding recalls because news of recalls spread so quickly through Twitter and blogs.

Twitter - Social Networking - Online Communities - United States - Personality

Fascinating Fact

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:18:45 GMT

Disgraced golfer TIGER WOODS has reportedly declined a $75 million (£46.88 million) offer to endorse Irish gambling company PaddyPower.com. The married sportsman has been dropped as the spokesmodel of several big brands, including energy drinks firm Gatorade, since news of his numerous affairs hit the headlines last year (09).

Big brands urged to help cut litter

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

COMPANIES behind some of the best-known brands are being urged to do more to prevent littering following a survey of rubbish picked up across Britain.

Micro Express KHL9070

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Laptop buyers may not be as familiar with boutique vendors like Micro Express as they are with big brands like Dell or HP, but smaller vendors can sometimes be more agile in getting hot new products to market. Case in point: The Micro Express KHL9070 is the first portable to hit our labs carrying Intel's latest Core i7 620M chip paired with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics. It isn't the most powerful desktop replacement laptop we've seen, but it isn't the most expensive one, either--in this model, Micro Express brings you the latest Intel CPU line and DirectX 11 graphics for $1299 (as of February 2, 2010).

Big brands are back at college fests

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:16:39 GMT

The whistles and shouts are back on the campuses of the country’s premier technological institutes, the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Big Brands Shooting Themselves In The Foot?

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:30:00 GMT

One of the topics that keeps coming up in ICANN policy discussions and as part of the new TLD application process is "transparency".

ICANN, and the internet community in general, has had plenty of issues in the past with "bad actors" who have caused a lot of issues for everyone (think of many of the registrars who have lost accreditation in the last couple of years for example).

On more than one conference call or policy discussion the issue of a company or a person's track record has come up.

Now while I personally think that anyone who has been knowingly involved in criminal activity OR who has knowingly been involved with a serious breach of ICANN policy (or any of the contracts) should be barred from any further involvement with the DNS, a blanket ban is not without its own set of issues.

The larger the company the more likely it will have been involved with litigation or criminal law suits at some point or other in the past.

And who is pushing for all these "checks and balances" within the ICANN processes? In many cases it's the big brand owners, who live in fear of "squatters" and other "evil doers".

So why do I raise this?

Well George Kirikos has, yet again, managed to dig up some quite revealing data about some of the companies that likely to be involved in new TLDs in the future and who have been very vocal in the ICANN "space" over the last few years.

You can read the full text of what George uncovered here, but suffice to say that a lot of the big brands and companies aren't as "clean" as they'd like us all to be (and no that wasn't a typo).

Unilever, Disney, Coca-Cola, Time Warner, Yahoo! and Telstra are all named and, if you'll excuse the cliche, shamed…

Written by Michele Neylon, MD of Blacknight Solutions

Duffy's Diet Coke ad was 'abysmal', says Blur manager

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:09:51 GMT

Blur's manager warns pop and rock stars to think carefully before appearing in TV adverts for big brands.

CauseWorld Lets Users Give To Haiti Via Their iPhone

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:00:46 GMT

CauseWorld (iTunes link ), an iPhone app from Shopkick , is off to a strong start. They first launched in December, and they quickly got the coveted featured spot on the iTunes app store. Yesterday, they started letting users donate to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief. The application gives users karma points for checking in to certain retail stores. Those karma points can then be converted into donations to various charities and other good causes (water in Sudan, food for the poor, trees in the Amazon, etc.). Big brands supply the cash for donations (and get lots of advertising exposure). Users decide how that money gets spent. see our original launch post for more details.

Terry Tumbles, Big Names For Big Brands, And More…

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:50:51 GMT

Ubiquitous lensman (and thumbs-up popularizer) Terry Richardson has a Tumblr, Terry's Diary. Was he inspired by friend and fellow nudity appreciator Olivier Zahm's Purple Diary? Either way: Mothers, lock up your bloggers. The rumors swirling around Louis Vuitton tend to concentrate on who's repping the brand in front of the camera ...

Big Brands Gravitate Toward Twitter

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:33:16 GMT

Major companies are taking to the microblogging service in record numbers for marketing, branding, customer support -- you name it. And at CES, a panel of experts explored their achievements.

France's big brands reel under online spoof assault

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:30:20 GMT

The rise of video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion is proving to be a headache for some of France's biggest companies as their image comes under fire from satirical online videos.

Flurry Teams Up With comScore Weeks After Merging With Pinch Media

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:03:57 GMT

Flurry Analytics has been real busy this holiday season. They recently merged with Pinch Media to create the biggest (in terms of user base) mobile analytics platform on the market. Today, Flurry is announcing a partnership with comScore, Inc. to provide mobile analytics for comScore clientele. This will provide Flurry with a fresh new revenue stream and comScore with the ability to stay relevant with their analytics offerings to existing clientele. Essentially, comScore, inc. has a large sales force and existing relationships with big brands that pay comScore to provide them with analytics. These analytics come primarily through panel data, in which comScore uses a sampling of users as a way to determine web traffic and usage data. By selling Flurry's SDK to clients, comScore can remain relevant by providing mobile analytics on top of their existing web analytics package.

CauseWorld Launches: Do Good Deeds Simply By Walking Into A Store

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:00:55 GMT

Six months ago I wrote about a startup called Shopkick (it was then called MOBshop). The company won't disclose much of what their eventual product will be, but they've attracted some of the most high profile investors in Silicon Valley: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman . Here's what CEO Cyriac Roeding will say about Shopkick which is scheduled to launch in 2010: they aim to bridge the gap between the mobile phone and the physical shopping worlds. In the meantime they are launching CauseWorld , "the first mobile application that let's you do good deeds simply for walking into a store." The application should be available on the iPhone appstore later today. Android is coming soon, along with more mobile platforms. CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes.

Bridging the Gaps: MAAWG, IETF, and BITS Establish Formal Relationships

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:54:00 GMT

As announced this morning, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) has established formal relationships with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the BITS/Financial Services Roundtable.

MAAWG is comprised of ISPs, technology vendors, ESPs, and a small but growing number of big brands, all interested in talking about email spam and other abuses of messaging systems. Some of their published documents include the periodic Email Metrics Reports, one of the very few non-vendor-specific sources of data on email spam, and the Common Best Practices for Mitigating Large Scale Bot Infections in Residential Networks.

The IETF, as most CircleID readers know, is the organization responsible for nearly all of the technical standards that make the internet work, from network routing to email to things most people have never heard of; I wrote about the lasting importance of their work last October. And BITS is the group within which many banks gather to discuss technology and technical interoperability.

The relationship between MAAWG and the IETF probably seems obvious; MAAWG does more at the policy level, while the IETF is focused almost entirely on technology, but there's a lot of overlap. For example, the industry-standard Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) for single-message spam complaint feedback started as a discussion within MAAWG, became a draft standard within the IETF, and will be proceeding through the IETF process.

Adding BITS to the mix is a sensible move when you consider the ongoing phishing problem. Financial institutions have always been one of the main targets of phishers, and that's unlikely to change. MAAWG, along with the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is working on ways to reduce phishing—including promoting the use of authentication by anyone who cares about their brand.

It's often said that there are too many different organizations working on the overlapping areas of abuse, trust, and related issues. I believe the collaborative approach MAAWG has chosen will bridge these gaps. Working together as equals, each organization's individual strength and influence is combined and increased, leading to the best possible results.

Written by J.D. Falk, Director of Product Strategy at Return Path

iPhone Beauty Apps

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:08:16 GMT

Check out an interesting article about the rise of iPhone beauty apps in the New York Times today.

A Mobclix founder says;

Seven to 10 million iPhone or iTouch users have already downloaded a beauty-related app or indicated they are very interested in doing so. And we’re just starting to see big brands get involved, which will be huge...

See Download the Face of Your Dreams

iPhone Beauty Apps

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:08:16 GMT

Check out an interesting article about the rise of iPhone beauty apps in the New York Times today.

A Mobclix founder says;

See Download the Face of Your Dreams

Littlewoods Europe – bringing big brands to your homes in Spain (sponsored contribution)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Fashions to fit, in reassuringly familiar UK sizes, are just a click away. Britain's best-loved home shopping brand, Littlewoods, has now launched in Spain, Germany, France and Portugal.