MySpace Recharge takes off!

In partnership with ANZ and Visa, MySpace has just released their pre-paid recharge card which is a very promising step forward for the brand.

The reloadable prepaid Visa card allows MySpace users (you have to have a profile to sign up for one) to create an account with up to $1000 (transfered via BPAY) and then use that credit to purchase online and at over 500,000 Visa prepaid merchant locations Australia wide and many more overseas. The smartest element of this innovation is the main reason why MySpace developed it in the first place - To allow users to purchase their phone credit via MySpace. Purcahse loyalty will then be rewarded with giveaways and MySpace exclusive offerings.

So users will now be able to log in to MySpace, chat with their friends via chat, send a message to their friends' inboxes, check out the latest music and then purchase their phone credit all in one session. Very convenient. I like the way MySpace is not just about social networking but focused on providing an experience for their users.

The card is a great initiative for MySpace which is still to launch the much hyped MySpace Music. No doubt the recharge card will also be a great hit when MySpace users are allowed to purchase their concert tickets and merchandise etc.

The recharge initiative is great for the MySpace brand as it is not only providing a good reason to join the site but it also provides more value for being a part of the site and MySpace community. It actually makes Facebook look completely one dimensional if you ask me. In addition to that it provides a potentially very solid extra venue stream for MySpace.

Kudos to Nick Love and the team on this one, long time coming but I'm sure it will be wiorth the wait.

Nielsen not good enough

For as long as I have known, I have used Nielsen as a tool to measure a website's traffic. Now with today's revelation that Nielsen's sample size numbers have increased from 3,500 to 7,000 it seems more clear than ever just how inaccurate the tracking of Australian uniques has been.

With the increase in the size of the panel all of a sudden Google's unique audience has grown by 16% to 12.4 million and Ninemsn has grown by 27% to 9.7 million visitors per month. Imagine the increase in traffic numbers if, god forbid, the sample size of Australian internet market was 20 million people?

All throughout the industry the data from Nielsen is taken with a grain of salt but we have no other way of measurement? Now I am no back end specialist, but surely being the greatest search engine in the world Google can provide a greater insight on unique visitors? This is the same company that has provided Google Maps, Google Docs and SEM!

Have we not reached a stage in the industry where we can demand greater accuracy of data?

best practices for blog advertising

I often get asked what is important for a marketer to remember when it comes to advertising through blogs. With blog marketing becoming such a hot topic in marketing circles I thought I'd put together a list of lessons I've learned along the way...

They need to be part of the conversation. In other words, their campaign needs to engage the blogging community, not talk at them. “Try our new Nokia phone” will not work. “Create a new tagline for our new Nokia phone” will. Your objective is to create buzz so you need to give bloggers and their audiences a reason to talk about you.

Don’t be afraid to let your hair down and have fun with bloggers and their readers. Blogging for the most part is light-hearted so a brand needs to get down on the same level as its audience and join the party! You wouldn’t drink Pepsi at a pub would you? So don’t be too straight and rigid when marketing to a blogging community or you will be ostracized.


Be prepared to give back to the community. In all blog advertising endeavors, a brand should look to give blog communities the opportunity to trial their products. You create chatter about your brand this way and therefore more buzz throughout the blogosphere.

There you have it! Blog 101...

Young Advertising Minds

Big thanks to Julian Cole for including the rants of young man from South Yarra on his international list of top Young Advertising Minds under the age of 27.

Appreciate the support over the last year Jules and once I have the time to work out how to slither my way up to the higher places on that list I most certainly will!

Brilliant move Gold Coast football club

Not a rant based on social media but one on marketing. This event is one of the greatest and most innovative sports marketing moves I have ever seen.

It has just been annouced in the Herald Sun that the new Gold Coast franchise have signed Rugby League player, Karmichael Hunt to the football club for 3 years. Hunt has played AFL football for a club in his youth and the Gold Coast believe he will add a dimension to their midfield.

What a coup. What a marketing move..

Gold Coast need a drawcard. They need someone with some credibility in the Queensland market to bring numbers to the Gold Coast games. He may not turn out to be the best player in the league but imagine the dollars he will bring through the gate with curious, non-AFL loving Queenslanders coming to check him out. This will ultimaetly (hopefully) get Queenslanders hooked on the game and build the market up there.

I think this is a very impresssive move by the Gold Coast...

Just who's blogging in Australia?

The blogosphere in Australia has been growing exponentially for the last 5 - 10 years. But only now is a clearer picture of the demographics of those who blog being documented and expressed to the mainstream market. And therefore it is only now that advertisers are being presented with metrics that they can sell in to clients and finally take advantage of this lucrative market.

In Australia according to the Nuffnang database (the only guage of Australian blogs), bloggers are 78% female. This is great news for advertisers especially considering that 70% of the biggest bloggers (ie those who drive the majority of the traffic) are over the age of 25. In other words those who are the most prolifferic bloggers in this country are grocery buyers.

Throw into the mix that these guys are influential and you have a great equation for advertising effectiveness. BlogHer Survey and Compass Partners, 2008 published that over 40% of women consider blogs to be reliable sources of advice and information and 50% say blogs have influenced their purchasing decisions.

As this database grows demographics are certain to change. And of course there are many big bloggers out there that we haven't managed to reach. But for now at least the puzzle is starting to form a bit of a picture.

Reviving Myspace

According to Hitwise General Manager Bill Tancer, in 2006, MySpace used to provide over 35% of worldwide traffic to websites in the Entertainment-Multimedia category. Ultimately, its contribution to music and band websites specifically was over 10% in 2007, a reflection of its strength at the time.

New figures now show that MySpace has slipped down some pretty slippery slopes. In just three years that 35% contribution has slipped to just 9.4% (Thanks Mashable). Sure just a % figure and doesn't reflect true traffic numbers (ie the pool of websites available has grown), but the diminshing of this figure together with declinging uniques (down to 1.7 million in Australia this month) still shows that the brand is losing its grip on it's value in the entertainment world.

That said, MySpace has a very exciting launch in September of this year which I think will provide some much needed, and much deserved (hey they were the first) street cred. MySpace Music will provide users with a one-stop shop for streaming music, purchasing concert tickets and merchandise, checking out band information and tour dates and more! This will hopefully reposition MS as the cool brand that for many doesn't exist anymore. It should also help drive more traffic to bands' websites and thus help it climb back to the top of the online entertainment world once again, where it belongs.