Leads for Less with Social Media - eMarketer

Leads for Less with Social Media - eMarketer

Want to spend less on lead generation? Use social media! Not only is it fun to use, but it's highly effective in generating leads and developing engagement with your customers. Check out the article to learn more...

YouTube to kill IE6 support on March 13

By Emil Protalinski | Last updated February 23, 2010 10:39 AM

Over six months ago, Google announced it would start phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 on Orkut and YouTube, and started pushing its users to modern browsers. The search giant has now given a specific kill date for old browser support on the video website via a page on Google.com titled Solve a Problem: Upgrading your browser:

Support stops on March 13th. Stopped support essentially means that some future features on YouTube will be rolled out that won't work in older browsers.

As you can see in the screenshot above, YouTube will have an interstitial appear when users on older browser try to watch a video on YouTube. Google says the interstitial will show up indefinitely every two weeks until the user upgrades to the most recent version of their browser. Google deems anything below IE7, Firefox 3.0, Chrome 4.0, and Safari 3.0 as an "older browser." Users on these browsers will still be able to watch YouTube videos, but additional features that Google plans to roll out may not be supported in these older browsers.

Late last month, Google announced it will end old browser support for Google Docs and Google Sites on March 1, 2010 and earlier this month, the company announced it would start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar by year end. Google is pushing both enterprise and consumer users towards newer browsers on all its Web properties.

Google's stance on IE6 varies from Microsoft's because the search giant does not need to support Windows XP, the operating system with which IE6 first shipped, as long as Redmond (which will support XP and IE6 until April 8, 2014). Microsoft, on the other hand, which has stated time and time again that it wants to see IE6 disappear as much as anyone else, refuses to force anyone to upgrade (though it's worth noting that the software giant's Office Web Apps won't support IE6 either, just like Google Docs) and says the decision is ultimately up to the user.

Microsoft is trying to push users to upgrade by touting IE8's many features over IE6, particularly in the area of security. So far, this has worked relatively well, as IE8 is the most popular browser, although IE6 is still used by about 20 percent of surfers worldwide, according to NetApplications.

Google Seeks To Make High-Speed Internet Much Speedier

By Frank James

The high-speed connections most Americans use to connect to the Internet aren't nearly fast enough as far as Google is concerned.

So it plans to use it dominant position as the world's largest Internet company to launch tests of much faster Internet connections, with speeds of as much as an astonishing 1 gigabit per second, about 100 times faster than what's now widely available to customers. Google's slogan for the project: Think big with a gig, building on IBM's "Think" and Apple's "Think Different."

As Google explains in its blog:

Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible. We've urged the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan -- and today we're announcing an experiment of our own.

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

-- Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.

-- New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.

Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

The Wall Street Journal had an interview with Minne Ingersoll, a Google product manager, who provided more information on Google's plans. An excerpt:

In an interview, Google product manager Minnie Ingersoll said consumers will be able to buy service directly from Google or from other providers, whom Google will allow to resell the service. She said Google will manage the deployment of the network but probably partner with contractors to help build it.

Google said it would offer service at a speed of 1 gigabit per second--or 100 times faster than what many U.S. consumers are used to--and would offer the service at "a competitive price."

Ms. Ingersoll declined to say how much Google planned to invest in the project, saying it would vary based on which cities participated. She said Google plans to "foot the bill" for the deployments itself, without government subsidies.

Google doesn't plan to roll the service out as a national network, Ms. Ingersoll said. Instead, Google's goal is to help demonstrate how faster access can lead to more innovative Internet services. In a blog post, Google described watching live 3D video lectures and streaming medical imagery as examples.

"We have been advocating that the FCC set up an experimental testbed and this is our way of putting our money where our mouth is," she said.

www.npr.com

The Internet Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The Internet Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

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Pepsi Invites the Public to Do Good

By STUART ELLIOTT

Published: January 31, 2010

DECADES ago, consumers were invited to “be sociable, have a Pepsi.” Now the brand wants to invite consumers to help Pepsi support social causes — and will use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help spread a message.

On Monday, PepsiCo will begin a campaign called the Pepsi Refresh Project, in which consumers will be asked to vote for causes they like.

Pepsi-Cola is formally introducing on Monday an ambitious campaign named the Pepsi Refresh Project, aimed at doing well by doing good. The brand is dedicating at least $20 million through the end of the year for donations to local organizations and causes proposed by the public in realms like health, arts and culture, the environment and education.

Ideas for Pepsi Refresh grants can be submitted each month to a Web site (refresheverything.com), where computer users can subsequently vote on the ideas suggested during the previous month. More details are to be disclosed on Monday as a media blitz begins with an appearance by Kevin Bacon and Demi Moore on the “Today” show on NBC, where they will seek votes for their pet causes. Mr. Bacon will promote SixDegrees.org, and Ms. Moore Girls Educational & Mentoring Services.

There will also be paid pitches for the project on “Today” and its Web site as part of an agreement with a marketing unit of NBC Universal named Women@NBCU, which also includes properties like Bravo, Oxygen and USA Network.

The goal is to reach female high school and college students, said Lauren Zalaznick, president at the women’s lifestyle and entertainment networks at NBC Universal in New York, along with women ages 18 to 54, among them the mothers “we call ‘P.T.A. trend-setters’ ” who influence their peers.

The other big media partners for the project are AOL, Facebook, Hulu, MTV Networks and Parade. There will also be ads on two other broadcast networks, ABC and CBS; on 30 cable channels; in 10 print publications; and on Web sites like Yahoo.

The project is meant to tap into a booming trend for what is called cause-related marketing or pro-social marketing, by which corporations seek to back up their talk about benefiting society.

“Our idea was that this year we’d try to shift the marketing and communications to something that’s truly walking the walk,” said Lee Clow, chief creative officer and global director for media arts at the Pepsi-Cola agency, TBWA Worldwide in Los Angeles, part of the Omnicom Group.

The project is an extension of a campaign his agency introduced last year for Pepsi, which carried the theme “Every generation refreshes the world. Now it’s your turn.” The goal is “to develop a mechanism for young people to create ideas to make things better,” he added, that “will ultimately become part of the global behavior of the brand.”

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Pepsi initially discussed the project in December when it announced that for the first time in 23 years it would forgo buying commercial time during a Super Bowl.

“This is a fundamentally different program that required us to engage with our consumers in a different way,” said Seth Kaufman, director for media strategy at the PepsiCo North American Beverages unit of PepsiCo in Purchase, N.Y.

So although there will be commercials to promote the project, a considerable amount of the advertising will be digital as well as customized content created by the media partners.

For instance, Pepsi will sponsor a reality show, “If I Can Dream,” on hulu.com, which Hulu describes as its first original long-form series. There will be at least 26 weekly episodes, and perhaps 52.

“It amplifies an advertising campaign,” said Jean-Paul Colaco, senior vice president for advertising at Hulu in Los Angeles, “by making it something people talk about, more of a social conversation.”

Among the efforts at MTV Networks, part of Viacom, will be promoting the Pepsi project at awards shows presented by cable channels like Comedy Central, Spike and VH1.

Viewers of those channels will welcome such branded entertainment, said Judy McGrath, chairwoman and chief executive at MTV Networks in New York, because they “love fun and love doing good, and don’t see those as incongruous in any way.”

The other agencies working on the project are Edelman; Huge, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies; Mr. Youth; Undercurrent; and Weber Shandwick, also an Interpublic unit.

The emphasis the campaign places on social media demonstrates how “a big brand is letting what used to be called the audience take part in what can become a movement,” said Gene Liebel, partner for user experience at Huge in Brooklyn, which is handling tasks like the development and design of the refresheverything.com site.

Huge has also worked on the presence the project will have on Facebook, which will include buying the lead ad position on facebook.com on Super Bowl Sunday.

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The principal Pepsi-Cola rival, Coca-Cola, which returned to the Super Bowl in 2007, plans to run two commercials during the game. Coke announced last week a social media component to its Super Bowl campaign to be centered on Facebook. Coca-Cola will donate a dollar to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America each time a visitor to the Coca-Cola fan page on Facebook (facebook.com/livepositively) shares a virtual Coke gift.

Even when it comes to philanthropy, the giant cola warriors cannot resist poking each other. (And not in the fun, Facebook way.) PepsiCo executives pointed out that Coke is capping its donations at $500,000, compared with the budget for the Pepsi Refresh Project of more than 40 times that.

Katie Bayne, chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola North America in Atlanta, responded that the “single-month contribution” represents only “a portion of the almost $60 million in cash and in-kind donations” that the company has made to the clubs “in just the last 14 years.”

Although PepsiCo North American Beverages declined to discuss the ad budget for the project, there are plans to spend more on ads for Pepsi-Cola this year than last — and to spend more on TV commercials, too, despite the absence from Super Bowl XLIV.

According to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP that tracks ad spending, PepsiCo spent $41.6 million to advertise Pepsi in the United States during the first nine months of 2009, down 41 percent from the $70.5 million spent in the same period of 2008. Ad spending for all of 2008 totaled $74.6 million, Kantar Media reported, down 13.4 percent from $86.2 million in 2007.

Source: www.nytimes.com