Marketing news

A new survey has revealed that CRM, search and web analytics are the key elements needed in a successful web content management system (CMS). The survey, conducted by Sitecore, has revealed that developers, marketers, interactive agencies and IT professionals cite the three as the most important, with web analytics ...

Kraft have launched a rehashed version of the original ‘Name Me’ TVC from the campaign that gave us iSnack 2.0. Name me has entered a renaming phase using the premise that “It’s Vegemite – but different”. The spot uses the original creative from July 2009, but replaces the Name Me bottle with a Cheesybite bottle. The ...

General Pants has teamed up with Peer Group Media to open its own record label: Major Label. The retailer will use its 700 staff as talent scouts, street teams and publicists for the label’s artists. The staff will upload Australian acts to Major Label’s blog and each month three singles will be chosen and made ...

An Australia versus Pakistan cricket match in WA will be the first to be protected from unauthorised aerial advertising, says the state’s sports minister, Terry Waldron. The WA Government introduced legislation in early 2010 that provides protection for event organisers and sponsors from ‘sky-writing or the use ...

PepsiCo has announced that Kim McConnie has been promoted to marketing director for PepsiCo Australia and New Zealand. McConnie took the place of Amanda Thomson, who after 10 years on the job is moving back to the UK to take up a lead marketing position for company’s operations there. The move comes as PepsiCo ...

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has urged the Federal Government to reconsider its plans to widen the eligibility requirements of the ‘Do Not Call’ register bill. The association has voiced its concern that the current proposal, which advocates a range of extensions to the register including ...

Apple has announced its much debated but long-awaited tablet device: iPad. The iPad set the blogosphere alight in late 2009 after rumours were shored up by a report from The Wall Street Journal. Apple is lauding the devices physical statistics – weighing 0.68kg and only 13.4mm thick – as lighter and thinner than ...

Apple has announced its much debated but long-awaited tablet device: iPad. The iPad set the blogosphere alight in late 2009 after rumours were shored up by a report from The Wall Street Journal. Apple is lauding the devices physical statistics – weighing 0.68kg and only 13.4mm thick – as lighter and thinner than ...

During December 2009 eight million Australians visited an etailer, according to comScore. A comScore study found three out of five Australians had visited an online retail site – the highest traffic for the year. This represents a 3% increase year-on-year. Apple.com led the category with more than three million ...

Australia’s biggest internet publishers are under the pump to have their websites audited after a report found evidence of inflated online audience measures. A study released by the Audit Bureaux of Australia (ABA) found auto-refreshing of web pages could “double page impressions and more than quadruple session ...

Erich Schmidt, Google’s CEO, confirmed the company was still complying to China’s search censoring laws but said those days were numbered. While not providing any greater depth, Schmidt said: “Our business in China is today unchanged... We continue to follow their laws, we continue to offer censored results. But ...

According to a Gartner research report consumers will spend over USD$6.2 billion on mobile apps during 2010. The report predicts downloads will crack 4.5 billion in 2010 – Apple served its three billionth download during 2009. Gartner predicts this to rise to 21.6 billion by 2013. Free downloads will make up 82% ...

Evidence has surfaced that Apple and Google’s formerly close relationship is disintegrating. One-time allies, the two companies have come to blows over their respective product offerings. Google announced the launch of its Nexus smartphone this month in direct competition to the iPhone which, along with the search ...

For those who have always had a craving for new car smell, German car-maker BMW has a direct marketing campaign for you. The Canadian arm of the company has launched a handout card that emits the smell of its new cars, similar to perfume cards. With the slogan, “Joy is an exciting new fragrance from BMW”, the ...

Despite a general dip in economic freedoms during the GFC, Hong Kong has held onto pole position in The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal’s 16th annual 'Index of Economic Freedom'. The average score for the 2010 Index was 59.4 (100 represents ideal economic freedom). To be classified as a ‘free economy’ ...

US-based men’s magazine GQ has celebrated the success of its December issue ‘Men of the Year’ iPhone app, announcing that it has sold over 6,600. The Conde Nast publication released its $2.99 app in 2009 and has seen its popularity grow – its January issue app sales grew to 12,000, netting the magazine an extra ...

The Indian Premier League (IPL) have partnered with YouTube to offer live online cricket. This will be the first major sporting event streamed live on YouTube, beginning March 12. The live cast will also be available on-demand for all 60 matches of the tournament. As part of the deal, Google has exclusive rights ...

Quite a different sort of protest will take place this Australia day as dissent grows around the Government’s internet filter. As part of The Great Australian Internet Blackout (TGAIB) more than 150 website owners will modify their sites to raise awareness. Website owners will run a script, provided on TGAIB website, ...

An online branding report has found that not only is Twitter increasing in popularity, but that tech brands are benefiting most when it comes to being mentioned on the platform. The report also found that mid-week is the most popular time for Australians to mention tech brands through social media, with Twitter ...

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has appointed Community Engine to redevelop the Your Rights At Work website The site will be redeveloped to encourage an online community among unionists. The platform functions will be shared among the ACTU’s 46 affiliated unions. According to the ACTU the site will ...

Jimmy Winkelmann’s brand parody has paid off his college fees and angered outdoor brand The North Face. Winkelmann founded a satirical company named The South Butt, reportedly in response to the ubiquity of The North Face’s fleece jackets at his private prep school. The North Face served Winkelmann with cease ...

Confectionery giant Cadbury has finally succumbed to repeated bids for its holdings, with its board announcing that it has approved a takeover bid by food megalith Kraft Foods. The merger will create a food and confectionery company with an estimated $1 billion worth of sales. Cadbury chairman Roger Carr said that ...

Sony is set to launch its new marketing push in Australia entitled ‘make.believe’. Chief executive Sir Howard Stringer is apparently behind the re-energising of the company as it faces strong competition from companies such as Samsung, LG and Panasonic for sales in key product areas such as flatscreen televisions. Sony’s ...

Search giant Google has revealed that it is in the process of auditing its internal security, following the revelation that it not only had its systems hacked by external sources, likely to originate from China, but they may been aided from within. The attacks and suspected corporate espionage have forced Google ...

The German government has warned against use of Internet Explorer. The warning follows admissions by Microsoft that Internet Explorer was the weak link in the much reported hack attack by a Chinese source on Google’s systems. Coming from the Federal Office of Information Security and applies to version 6, 7 and ...

Dell has revitalised its Australia New Zealand Small to Medium Business (SMB) and channeldivisions. Cath Hodgson-Croker has taken over as SMB marketing director after 13 years with Symantec where she was vice president of channel sales, Asia Pacific. Taking the newly created position of a dedicated SMB channel ...

Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) has recruited marketers to speak on the benefits of radio advertising. According to CRA CEO Joan Warner, the campaign aims to highlight how marketers with divergent goals use radio. The campaign comes after a Deloitte report found advertising revenues slipped for CRA, but audience ...

Degradable plastic bags, exotic fruit drinks and meat-flavoured vodka are just a few of the trends that have been revealed in a survey aimed at product marketers. Datamonitor’s 'Product Launch Analytics', which tracks new product launches in food and drinks around the world, has uncovered a number of new trends ...

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released its communications report, revealing that wireless broadband services usage has skyrocketed during the past year to reach more than two million subscribers. According to the ACMA report, services jumped 162% in 2008-09, likely due to the popularity ...

Freeview has announced that free-to-air television viewing in Australia surged in the latter part of 2009 as a result of new digital channels launched on its platform. It took a swipe at the pay TV sector, indicated that it posted a fall in viewing levels in the final months of last year. In weeks 36 to 52 of 2009, ...

The Australian is moving to its own corporate division. Standing alone will mean the paper has greater scope to grow both in print, online and digitally in preparation for ereaders. News Ltd CEO and chairman John Hartigan expressly stated the brief is to grow the brand across media, not purely digital. "By creating ...

With the approaching analog TV switch off, unused broadcasting spectrums will be auctioned off. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued a discussion paper canvassing stakeholder and public views on getting the most from the 2.5GHz and 700MHz spectrums. Currently employed by free-to-air ...


MySpace Music has become Australia’s most popular music site. Research conducted by Nielsen revealed the site attracted 2.38 million unique hits in December. Juxtaposed with its nearest competitor in the category, it attracts over eight times the average daily unique browsers. “The immediate impact of MySpace ...

Retailers have announced better than expected post-Christmas sales figures that may have offset the slow spending lead up to the Christmas holidays. The big retailers, such as Myer, David Jones and Big W have all forecasted growth figures, with David Jones Ltd forecasting its profit will rise between zero and 5%, ...

Michelle and Barack Obama have had their images fraudulently used in US advertising. The White House has contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (aka PETA) about their use of Michelle Obama in an OOH advertisement ‘Fur Free and Fabulous!’ The advertisement features the First Lady, Tyra Banks, Oprah ...

An application for the iPhone is being developed that will allow users to live stream cricket matches, giving advertisers a potential opportunity to reach them. Mobile marketing technology company 2ergo has been commissioned by Vodafone Hutchison Australia to develop the Cricket LIVE iPhone application, which will ...

KFC has landed itself in trouble with one of its TVCs for its ‘Cricket Survival Guide’ campaign being labelled racist in the US. It depicts ‘Mick’ the Australian surrounded by dancing, rowdy West Indies fans, with whom he shares a bucket of fried chicken to bring them under control. Media in the US accuse the ...

Experian CheetahMail has released a report that indicates email marketing is not getting to the correct segments, with open and click rates for campaigns declining worldwide as email recipients struggle to consume the increasing volume of emails they receive, many of which are irrelevant. The report entitled 'Five ...

Ford Motor Co. has plans for new wireless dashboard technology to include Twitter feeds. Ford announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the app will be part of its Sync platform. Drivers will use voice commands to hear tweet read aloud and controls on the steering wheel will allow skipping forward ...

Sir Rupert Murdoch has blocked his first news aggregator, NewsNow.co.uk. The aggregator has been blocked from content available through News International’s Times Online. NewsNow managing director and chairman, Struan Bartlett, said it will soon be denied access to content from newsoftheworld.co.uk and thesun.co.uk. ...

Despite growth in the final month, 2009 saw a drop on the final balance for commercial radio. Figures show annual advertising revenue dropped 2.7% for metropolitan radio stations. All markets fell with the exception of Melbourne: Sydney dropped by 6.18% or $194.5 million
 risbane by 2.27% or $100.5 million
 Adelaide ...

Uluru (or Ayers Rock) will remain open to climbers despite calls for prohibition. However, environment minister Peter Garrett has set conditions for the closure of the major tourist attraction and national identifier: The number of people climbing drops below 20% of visitors (currently 38% climb) The climb falls ...