Search results matching tag 'Digital Britain'

Education, education, education (part three...and final)

2175094 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I’ve banged the drum in previous weeks about the importance of consumer education about behavioural advertising, and the IAB's recent research has highlighted the need for this.

Today the IAB has published a guide on behavioural advertising specifically for industry, our first step in helping educate the market about this practice (although you’ll be glad to know that this will be my last blog – for now - talking about education). The guide explains how behavioural advertising works, how it differs to other types of targeted advertising on the internet, its benefits to web publishers and advertisers, consumer attitudes as well as online privacy and industry good practice.

The guide – sponsored by technology company Audience Science – hasn’t been written exclusively by the IAB but by the experts themselves, with contributions from the likes of AOL, Guardian, Profero, Post Office, Yahoo!, ValueClick Media and, of course, Audience Science.

It may not make the Amazon bestsellers list (its free after all) but for anyone who wants to know a little more about behavioural advertising, this one’s for you. Enjoy!

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Micropayments open up new sources of online revenue

2598534 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:45:00 GMT

Demand for micropayments is increasing fast as social networking and dating sites wake up to the benefits of taking small subscriptions via secure SMS or voice billing services. Adding to this and as part of the Digital Britain report, the Government's body for business innovation in technology, the Technology Strategy Board, has announced a £10M investment to work, at least in part, with industry partners to create and trial new models, including micropayments for online content and video on demand.

But with the organisations receiving only 66 pence in every £1 for micropayments due to network charges, compared with 96 pence for credit card transactions, there is a very real danger that the market for micropayments for a range of online goods and services could be severely constrained.

Given the lack of credit card penetration in many countries, including China, and within the younger demographic that still dominates the online customer base, the need for robust and commercially viable micropayments is pressing.

With the arrival of proven technology that can be delivered globally and rapidly integrated into core systems, online vendors now have seamless access to a whole new revenue stream - but just how many organisations will be deterred by the excessive network charges.

Payment Flexibility

Whilst providers of online goods and services continue to buck the economic downturn, it is clear that a significant proportion of potential online revenue is being lost due to the near reliance on credit cards for payment. Whilst a number of micropayment solutions have been introduced in recent years, a lack of global integration and the complexity of attempting to manage different mechanisms across different countries and networks have deterred the vast majority of organisations from supporting any payment option other than credit cards.

But as a growing number of organisations are now discovering, the arrival of viable, global micropayments technology is opening up a whole new revenue stream. The micropayments model works perfectly for sites operating a model of small, regular subscription, such as dating or social networking sites, especially in areas such as China, where credit card penetration is very low.

But the potential for micropayments is not limited simply to subscription services. A global micropayment service using SMS or voice billing as available across each continent provides organisations with a fantastic opportunity to achieve new revenue streams, and not just with products aimed at the younger demographic unlikely to hold a credit card. Whilst music downloads and gaming sites will obviously benefit from a flexible, robust and convenient payment method, there are very real opportunities to also offer micropayment facilities for additional services such as in hotels - reducing the need for late night reception staff to process payments, for example.

Grossing Up

Evidence is growing that the adoption of micropayments opens up a massive untapped market - with no upfront investment. However, one of the key concerns for many organisations assessing the pros and cons of micropayments is the network tariff. And for good reason: whilst organisations receive 96% of credit card based transactions, high network charges mean only 66% of the payment is received from a micropayment.

For any organisation with a low margin product or service offering, this approach could theoretically make micropayments unfeasible. Indeed, low levels of micropayment adoption to date, point to the fact that organisations are concerned about margin erosion created by these high network charges despite the proven access to new customers.

Early adopters of this payment method have demonstrated that consumers are actually happy to pay more to leverage the flexibility and ease of use of micropayments for the time being.

By offering the customer the option of making a micropayment but charging a little more (grossing up), the organisation can maintain its margin without cannibalising the existing customer base. With the right integration into the core product/service software, it is a simple process to offer two prices - one for credit card transactions and one for micropayments - enabling the customer to make the choice.

Secure, Simple

Key to user adoption of micropayments is the delivery of a completely seamless, flexible service irrespective of country or network. Micropayments must also be easy to use, secure and support a wide range of payment values - from the €1 ringtone download upwards.

Delivering this consistent service globally is a major challenge for many providers of micropayment solutions. The payment market is highly regulated - for obvious reasons. Organisations must comply not only with local, state and national regulations but also meet the demands of each network supplier in each country.

Furthermore, payment technologies need to be integrated with back-end customer service and web content management systems to deliver a complete, auditable solution.

To achieve this successfully and rapidly requires significant expertise and experience of different global markets. It demands strong integration skills and the ability to rapidly respond to organisational requirements to roll out into new markets to address customer opportunities. With the right technology, infrastructure and experience, micropayments technology can actually be deployed within days, with little or no upfront investment, allowing organisations to trial the technology in specific markets to assess its potential.

Global Opportunity

Indeed, those organisations that have opted to trial micropayments have all opted to extend the service across new geographies as a result of a significant increase in revenue. Customer feedback reveals that the process is simple to understand and extremely transparent; whilst there is strong anecdotal evidence that organisations are achieving higher conversion rates via micropayments than credit card payments.

As a result, growing numbers of social networking sites are now offering micropayments although, to date, this has been limited to sites in the UK, US and Australia. With the arrival of proven global solutions, organisations are looking to leverage the new market opportunities in China, Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

Furthermore, given the strong consumer response, the networks are showing increasing interest in introducing new micropayment tariffs to enable organisations to move beyond existing services towards a true mcommerce model. Indeed, as consumer awareness of the additional costs associated with micropayments grows, there will be growing pressure on networks to offer far more competitive rates.

A major shift is on the way: micropayments not only offer unprecedented ease of use for the consumer, overcoming the resistance to buy online via credit card, but also provide the opportunity to leverage the billions of mobile owning individuals globally to add revenue consistently and easily for a range of online goods and services.

By agreeing to operate on smaller margins, it is likely that the networks could precipitate a massive adoption of micropayments that would generate significant additional revenue. Without that change in policy, the real micropayment opportunity could remain untapped.

Education, education, education (part two)

2175094 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:45:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of informing and educating consumers about the internet. This followed a revamp of the IAB’s website – www.youronlinechoices.co.uk – aimed at helping internet users understand online behavioural advertising, how it works and how to switch it off if they want to. Today the IAB, in partnership with business law firm Olswang, has published new research confirming that consumers need (and want) more information and education about online privacy and the practice of behavioural advertising.

The research confirms that consumers today are far more trusting of the internet as a medium, compared with more than five years ago. People – particularly young people – are more comfortable with sharing their personal information with shopping websites, banks and social networking sites. But there’s no room for complacency: consumers may be more acclimatised to the internet and the role it now plays in our everyday lives but they also want to have it on their owns terms and wish to know more about new digital marketing techniques, such as behavioural advertising.

72% of internet users are – unsurprisingly – unaware about behavioural advertising, how it works and what information is collected and used. However, the research results are particularly enlightening when consumers are provided with the relevant information. For example:

• 81% of internet users do not know the level of control they actually have over behavioural advertising, such as their right to switch it off.
• 74% of internet users are actually more comfortable with behavioural advertising when they are provided with information about what data is collected and used and how it can be controlled.

Behavioural advertising remains a relatively new online practice. As the Government’s Digital Britain report acknowledged it is an important business model to help web publishers convert “creativity into value”. Industry needs to find a balance between making advertising more measurable and effective whilst protecting consumer privacy. It’s a balance that the IAB, its members and the rest of the advertising industry is working to get right and education – as this research very clearly shows – needs to be at the heart of it.

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Rio Ferdinand, media futurologist

1716484 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:09:00 GMT

In a surreal moment, the respected media analyst and futurologist Rio Ferdinand has linked the fact that the England-Ukraine match is going to be online pay-per-view to the recent claim that internet advertising has ‘overtaken’ TV advertising:

"I read that online advertising has taken over from TV”, he apparently said, “so that tells you something about where it's going in terms of the digital world…So I’m sure it'll be the way forward and in the future it'll probably be the reality. I think it's a good way to gauge how many people are interested."

If ever the IAB’s claims needed a dose of credibility, surely this is it.

But Rio is not alone, unlike how he sometimes finds himself in the box. Among others, Marketing took a deep breath and declared ‘England game heralds future of sport on web’.

On the flipside is this from Janine Gibson, Guardian.co.uk editor, who disagrees it is a prophetic moment and explained why The Guardian declined the offer to screen the match:

“You had to sign up to an enormous amount of editorial endorsement and promotion for something that we weren’t convinced was of particular value to our users and would feel like a fake endorsement of a one-off match. This isn’t heralding the beginning of a new dawn; it’ll never happen again and it feels slightly opportunistic.”

She obviously needs to have a chat with Rio.

But over and above all this is the fact that the match being delivered by the internet might be interesting and contentious now, but once TV sets are fully broadband enabled it won’t really matter. Viewers won’t care how it is getting to their screens. It is all TV and they will hopefully have the experience they want.

It is unsurprising that England football fans are in uproar over the fact that the match is being screened via an online TV service and not on broadcast TV. They can still see it if they want to, but not the way they’d like to.

Amid all the fuss, we should remember that the game was originally contracted to appear on broadcast TV (with Setanta) and, if it had been an important game with something at stake, it probably still would be. I can’t see a match England actually need to win or a World Cup Final going online only pay-per-view – although maybe a new series of Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups would be ok. It is a fairly unique set of circumstances that have lead us here.

The fan forums I’ve looked at are less concerned with the idea of paying to watch it, though, than they are with a delivery system that means they can’t watch it in the pub or on the big screen in the living room and have to crowd round their laptops or watch it individually instead.

They demand the shared experience that only TV can give them. But having failed to agree rights with a broadcast TV company, it is understandable (or maybe greedy) that the agency responsible for this match – Kentaro – looked for an alternative buyer. The end result might not be as good as broadcast TV but it is better than nothing. Still, that is scant consolation for fans.

The fact that newspapers are so keen to become broadcasters – with the Times and Sun being among those who will show the match – is really interesting but not new. They already have various bits of video content on their websites, but this football match is one of the few pieces of roughly ‘must-have’ TV content they can get access to. TV broadcasters show appointment to view programming all day every day and newspapers clearly would like a piece of the action.

I suppose the main concern for fans that do choose to pay to watch the match is how well the UK’s internet pipes will handle demand. The fact that the number of viewers has been capped at one million worryingly shows how unprepared the UK broadband infrastructure is for major transmission of big events. It needs upgrading, as Digital Britain pointed out, and TV companies are as anxious as anybody to get an additional digital network to digital broadcasting. How is it going to cope when the majority of people are watching TV in HD, or with the other resource-hungry innovations like 3D coming along?

Why some awards aren't a waste of time and money.

1319935 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:51:00 GMT

The biggest criticism laid at the door of the big awards events is that they are a money spinner for events companies and celebrate only the most selfish or the most sophisticated self promoters. Sir John Hegarty and Steve Henry tell us that more than 90% of the work out there is rubbish. Obviously all of you are trying to do something about that. On the awards front, this year's BIMA awards have had a rethink, for the better.

I declare an interest here, as I'm on the committee. And we've made a few changes that are relevant and useful to entrants. We've made it a criteria for judging to give feedback to every single entry. No other creative award does this. We've also made the cost of entry accessible. Not just to entering work, but also to attending the event, which will be a big party bash rather than an expensive sit down do. We've gathered a list of luminaries that might be worth putting work in front of. Best of all, we've made the judging criteria simple - equally weighted across strategy, creativity, interactivity and effectiveness. And awards will be made for craft skills as well where the work is particularly cleverly executed.

Need proof? Here are some of the judges. Paul Hammersley (The Red Brick Road), Robert Campbell (Campbell Lace Beta), Will King (King of Shaves), Gareth Jones (Revolution), Kelly Wright (Warner Bros.), Jody Smith (Channel 4), Adam Powers (BBC), Alex Smith (Microsoft). Need to enter? Click here.

See you in November.

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Vote for best blog in BIMA awards. (Not necessarily this one).

1319935 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:20:00 GMT

Enter now people. This year the Best Blog awards will be decided via a public vote in two rounds. In the first round BIMA will take nominations for your favourite blogs and in the second BIMA will shortlist the nominations and publish a poll to allow the community to vote for their favourites. Entry is open to any blog as long as the content is not offensive in any way. Industry bloggers, are of course a jolly polite bunch, and will no doubt vote for others rather than for themselves!

go here to have a go http://www.bimaawards.com/categories/best_blog/

PS you don't have to vote for me. I'm on the awards committee already :)

PPS Embed the link below in your blog if you'd like people to vote for you.

Why is digital like an octopus?

2545128 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:29:00 GMT

You have a lot in common with the octopus. You may not know this, but you see things the same. I don’t mean from a personal perspective (although the octopus may like strictly come dancing as much as the next human), but from a physiological perspective. Let me explain: the human and octopus eyes bear more than a passing resemblance. Both have a lens, a variable aperture, and a fovea. This is a textbook example of convergent evolution. Both animals have evolved to the same design because this is the best structure to solve the animals need to see its surroundings.

I came across another example of convergent evolution recently whilst attending the IPA’s Digital Innovation day. Roughly speaking, the day consisted of speed dating event, with some healthy debate and presentations thrown in for good measure. The purpose was to showcase some of the good work going on in the UK’s academic institutes and start a dialogue between media agencies with the desired outcome being some sort of synergy and joint project work.

What I found absolutely stunning, was how virtually the same technologies were being developed within the universities and digital media. With often the biggest difference being the name. One such example is behavioural targeting and computational persuasive technologies. Both consist of delivering personalised messaging to encourage a particular behaviour – whether it be stop smoking, or to choose a particular provider for your car insurance renewal.

The UK is purported to have the world’s most advanced digital economy, and there are reasons for and against that argument. Broadband penetration and bandwidth is a big part of the drive to keep that top spot, but technology and innovation should be given equal emphasis.

Coming up with ideas is one thing, but what is more important is that the great ideas get turned into commercial products. Judging from what I saw, media agencies can perform pivotal a role in facilitating this.

Well done to the IPA for having the foresight to set up such an event!

Aiming for digital excellence not just digital basics

2294184 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:16:00 GMT

I absolutely agree with Spencer’s points raised in the previous post on The MCCA blog. Digital Britain didn’t go far enough. Whilst it is clearly important to have a good level of digital coverage across the country, there is also a case to be made for the government to consider the other end of the spectrum – those working on the future of the internet.

Why wasn’t there input from the people at the cutting edge of digital? If we really want to call Britain a creative and digital hub surely we need to be examining the issues in more depth. How should we being using the net and what can the government do to support those working to create the future technology and online advances?

There is a fundamental question to be asked a centre all this – What role does and will digital play in the UK? When we take a look around yes we may have better coverage than many countries but are we really making the most of the technology available? Korea is a prime example of a country that is embracing digital – those creating online games become top celebrities and people are increasingly accessing online only videos and content. But it remains to be seen whether English culture will ever become this digital focused.

Whatever form it takes, it’s undeniable that digital businesses are an important and growing part of the UK economy. So I want to see a Digital Britain report that looks at the people creating digital excellence; the pioneers and drivers in this area. The individuals who are showing businesses, brands, communities and government how to really make the most of digital and push us towards the web 3.0 world.

Mud, sweat and beers

2182355 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:47:00 GMT

In response to the Digital Britain report, BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons - the man charged with ensuring the BBC provides ‘good value for all UK citizens' - was forthright in his defence of Auntie hanging on to its cash in the face of diverting licence fee money to commercial organisations to help pay for regional news services.

At the time, one could have been left feeling quietly confident that our dues were safe in the hands of a well-regulated body. After all, umpty billion quid to save the banking system aside, why should tax-payers bail out commercial organisations just because profits have hit the buffers?

The release of the BBC's top executives' salaries and expenses has cast a rather large shadow over the idea our money is indeed in safe hands, however. A shadow made larger still by reports over this weekend's excessive spend on coverage of Glastonbury.

407 BBC staff managed to make it along to the festival, said the Sunday Times, including a clutch of senior executives, at a cost to the licence fee payer of an estimated £1.5m.

Sir Michael also attended Glastonbury, at our expense naturally, though I'm certain he was to busy checking we were getting value for money to enjoy himself too much.

The BBC has argued the case for its staffing levels, but excesses in coverage were plain to see. There was no need for Gaby Logan's Sunday morning Five Live show to be broadcast from the event, for one. Her Dizzee Rascal interview proving just why she should be kept as far away from music and its nefarious propagators as is humanly possible.

Meanwhile, the person(s) employed to protect the BBC's output by vetoing what artists The Guardian could and couldn't film from its Lounge stage would have been better employed keeping an eye on how much booze the presenters appeared to be imbibing between broadcasts.

I happen to think coverage of Glastonbury is important, and given its niche attraction is best served by the Beeb. Why shouldn't we celebrate something uniquely British and world renowned?

As for the expenses 'scandal', while one could be forgiven for wondering why internal meetings warranted quite so much in the way of refreshments, I don't begrudge top executives the odd business lunch or Brucey his Champagne.

But if it wishes to hang on to any shred of credibility in the argument against top-slicing, and maintain its largely agreeable relationship with the fee-paying public, decisions regarding what in the current climate constitutes excess, with regard to coverage and general expenditure, are going to need much closer scrutiny.

And if Sir Michael and senior BBC execs, very well-paid from the public purse, want to be seen as whiter than white, they would be well-advised to steer clear of muddy fields.

Spencer Gallagher on why Digital Britain didn't do enough to impress

2294184 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Spencer Gallagher, MCCA Board member and Managing Director of Bluhalo:
Digital Britain was touted as ‘a comprehensive look at the country’s media and communication landscape’, but my impression is that it lacks ambition, and is simply a case of too little, too late.

One key focus is to provide universal broadband access with a 2Mb connection speed by 2012. However, if 50% of Japan's population already has access to fibre optic broadband, giving connections of up to 100Mb, surely we should be expecting something a lot faster than 2Mb three full years from now?? We are currently rated seventh in the world in terms of internet access, however if the UK is to even start to compete with other nations, we need to be thinking bigger and setting bolder targets for ourselves.

I also have concerns that the report has not done enough to address the important area of digital education. With the continued demand for digital talent across all types of businesses, I just didn't feel there was enough substance and conviction given to tackling the current and growing skills shortage in the digital industry. I would like to see more collaboration between the Department for Education and digital agencies themselves to develop relevant and commercially applicable courses for both students and individuals that wish to retrain.