Corporate News

Sky is set to launch a digital music store, in a bid to take on the likes of iTunes, HMV and Tesco.

Sky has partnered with major Universal Music to enable visitors to download thousands of songs from its artists including U2, Girls Aloud and Kanye West.

The service will be available for a single monthly subscription charge and users will able to both stream songs on-demand and download tracks. Customers will be able to listen to tracks through a range of devices such as iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones.

Sky, which plans to partner with other major and independent record labels, for the joint venture service, said it will roll out the digital store later this year.

Mike Darcey, COO at BSkyB, said the service is being set up to meet consumer demand for online music.

"Companies like Sky and Universal Music are well placed to work together to meet consumers' needs. We aim to offer an easy and affordable service for all UK music fans, while ensuring that artists are properly rewarded for their creativity."

Lucian Grainge, chairman and chief executive, Universal Music Group International, said, "The new Sky service will provide a compelling digital music experience, built for the ever growing digital appetite of music fans. In a world where a majority of UK homes have high speed broadband access, consumers will welcome a safe, state-of-the-art service and legal alternative to those services which exploit musicians without compensation."

Your SEM program is terrible. But that's all right because your boss doesn't understand a single thing you do -- he's just concerned that you are doing it and that your numbers look great.

So what are you doing wrong? First of all, stop patting yourself on the back with how great your SEM program is. You're really not that good. Seriously. Now let's move on.

A rock with arms can make SEM look good. Why? Because it's the last stop a consumer makes. By the time they type in a keyword on Google -- and it really is all about Google -- they've already decided what they're looking for. Television, radio, print, banners, events and billboards have all sucked their brains so dry that by the time they come to SEM, they are mindless lemmings.

"I must have product X. Must type in keyword to find product X. Must consume. More, more, more. It will make me happy."

What gets the credit for that last stop? SEM, of course. The consumer sees a television commercial, a print ad, an outdoor billboard and then goes online and types something into Google to find it. Voila!

Did SEM cause that sale or visit? Of course not. It is merely the conduit to it. It's like having an extra door to your store to let more people in. I always marvel at myopic managers who cut their other ad budgets and slowly see their SEM traffic drop and can't figure out why. The trickle may be slow at first, but the curve does become apparent over time. If you want to look like the hero in advertising on the brand side, go into SEM. It's just a shame the creative format requires the writing ability of five-year-old. But it's not about the creative, it's all in the strategy.

In SEM, if you are not maximizing the long tail you might as well be a rock with arms. Why? Google has become the de facto internet navigation engine. Forget portals. If someone wants to go somewhere online, they start at Google. A much smaller entity can compete in the niches of the bigger player's mass reach. It is precisely that "phenomena of choice" that makes the whole AdWords universe work. Unlike in product manufacturing, the price advantages of the long tail are huge in SEM. The fractured niche universe works here, because it's not about someone knowing your brand; it's about them knowing what they want. Going after the long tail in search is different than in product development, chasing after those consumers. As I wrote last week, the costs there can often be quite high, and your business model greatly dictates whether that is advisable.

So how and, more importantly, when do you go after that long tail? Make Google work first
The biggest problem I see with most marketers is diversifying too early. They go on MSN, Yahoo, Google and Ask simultaneously, constantly tweaking each individual program, keyword list and copy. All of that work requires duplicative efforts and drains the time on reporting requirements for your staff. They constantly question why this is working here and not there. It's not strategy, but comparative paralysis.

The Google universe is huge. It is also the biggest market opportunity. Get your entire program to work there first. Build the keyword lists, tweak the copy, expand, optimize and concentrate on making it work on Google. Keep on going down that long tail of keywords. Track performance over months. Expand to the Google Search Network; make the program work there first. Then, once you are hitting the point of diminishing returns, expand the entire program to MSN, Yahoo and Ask. This way it is a strategic approach that is efficient. You just port your program.

Now, are there going to be different performance dynamics across the other engines? Of course there will be. But getting Google to work first is essential. You will end up being able to expand faster than if you work on all platforms simultaneously.

"No time," is what I hear everyone in our industry scream. "Then be more efficient," I scream back. If you can't get your program to work on Google, it's not going to work anywhere else.

Shoot the copywriter, befriend the lawyers
Okay, this is hard for me. I am a copywriter, but seriously, using copywriters for SEM copy is like using a fly fishing pole to catch tuna. It's an efficiency nightmare. A net is coarse, bulky and blunt, but it is a lot more efficient. If you are going after the long tail, where the volume of keywords you will be using can approach the hundreds of thousands, eliminate the process of using a copywriter. A copywriter will grind your process to a halt.

But the copywriter isn't the only drag on efficiency. Remove the approval processes for all copy internally. Your director doesn't need to see it, and neither does your VP. Any approval process on copy just wastes time, a lot of time. And a lot of money, too. It is not about the individual keyword and the copy. It is about the corpus of words. You can A/B test copy within Google all day and keep tweaking it for best performers. A copywriter will never be able to provide copy that is so much better and more responsive that it overcomes the time suck from going after the long tail. The long tail value will far outweigh that. Step back and see the big picture.

In fact, the ones you really want to eliminate from the process are the lawyers. "But legal always has to see the copy!" No one is going to sue you over SEM copy because the search engines will shut you down long before that happens. They are the gatekeepers.

So what should you do with that legal department that is causing you nightmares? Well, befriend them. Sit down with them. Explain the issues, the cost to the company, the time drain on them, the speed to market issues and ask them to draft copy guidelines that you must adhere to. Can't use the word "Guarantee?" Then eliminate it from your copy and post those guidelines in the SEM department. You will save an enormous amount of money, time and frustration.

Look, a legal department once told me that we had to have a disclaimer in our SEM copy. The disclaimer was 120 characters. Ha! Show them the process, the copy and how it works. Set up a meeting with them to walk them through a single keyword posting, copy, the Google Console and then explain that you have 20,000 keywords. They'll get it.

Automate
Utilize ad optimization companies like DidIt or Efficient Frontier. You can try and go after the long tail yourself, but the only way you can effectively manage the portfolio as your keyword list expands into the thousands is to bring in some firepower. It's not about getting a click on your SEM ad, it's about getting the conversion on the back end. Remember that the click is irrelevant. What the consumer does when they get to your site is everything. Agencies like Efficient Frontier and DidIt not only have the tools to help you, their optimization technologies can adjust bid pricing for the most efficient conversion. The money you spend with them will never be more than the amount you save by using them. But it does take time for those systems to gain all of the intelligence they need to properly optimize.

I have heard stories of brands saying they tried optimization software but it didn't work. The only cases where I've seen optimization fail have been when companies did not give it enough time, were short-sighted or when companies approached SEM from a test program they did internally that showed better results. The problem with internal test programs is that anyone in SEM can make a small list of keywords extremely efficient. But when it's time to expand that list, the problem becomes unmanageable.

There are only two companies I know who took SEM in-house and ran it more efficiently. Both had unique business models and both designed their own optimization technologies for their business models. Essentially they have their own SEM agency internally. But Bob, Mary and that intern have no hope of making it scale efficiently internally unless they are given the resources to do so, and the one thing they will need most is time. If you are a small shop, agency or brand, you can do it yourself. It will just take a lot more time to scale, that's all.

Okay, so maybe your SEM program isn't awful, and maybe you're not a rock with arms. SEM is all about efficiency. It may not be the ad venue that's glamorous, and you're not going to be able to point to the television or billboard and brag as you tell your friends you did that. But if you start strategically and approach the process diligently, you will see better results with less of a headache.

Sean X Cummings

Marketers have spent the last year or so carefully teetering on whether or not to wholeheartedly embrace a social media strategy. On one hand, the allure of crafting a "CEO Blog" brings with it an interesting set of challenges, and on the other hand, maintaining a MySpace page may seem like a fruitless drain on resources. Getting started doesn't have to be an either/or scenario. Instead, there's an easier, more controlled first step: Start with your own site.

When developing a social media strategy, many companies look to external tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to increase opportunities for engagement by developing a brand presence across various channels. However, in the pursuit of maximizing visibility, companies often approach their efforts much like archers shooting at targets -- a course of action as antiquated as the sport itself (no offense to any archers out there).

By forgetting to cross-promote social media activities, especially on a company website, companies miss out on the true potential of an integrated social media strategy.

For maximum impact, social media optimization (SMO) should include publicizing efforts across additional online and offline promotional programs, from the most complex (a Second Life presence) to the simple (the CEO of Zappos promotes his Twitter account on his business card).

Find us online
The easiest way to encourage visitors to check out your social media profiles is to include all the appropriate links on your "Contact" page. If you have a blog, make sure to promote your media presence (Flickr, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog) through your sidebar.

Social media hub
For companies who are thoroughly engaged in an aggressive content strategy, take your cue from the Social Media Newsroom template, provided by SHIFT Communications, and create a Social Media Hub, organizing your social media content into clearly marked areas.

If you are heavy into video, consider a multimedia gallery with all your videos available to embed and share. In addition, make a higher-quality version available for download. Include a link to your YouTube or Vimeo channel as well.

Find your social media tone
Social media efforts have weight and longevity when they provide content that is, to use social shopping site ThisNext's product review rating criteria, "smart, useful or funny." The social media community feeds off irreverence in tone and a modern approach to design. On each page, consider if the user incorporates elements of the smart, the useful and the funny.

You may want to develop specific landing pages optimized in both content and design specifically for visitors who arrive at your site from your social media channels. And please, respect your visitors' quest for content; dial back the sales speak, the banner ads and used car pitches. Visitors will see through your approach and likely rake you over the social media coals as a result.

Everyone loves to share
Copying and pasting a link in an email is so 2007. These days, visitors want to be able to share content instantly. Make all your content, podcasts, videos and articles easy to share across social voting sites and blog platforms, in as close to a one-click-shot as you possibly can. A CAPTCHA code or registration might be useful for you, but that extra step will deter some users from engaging or sharing content from your site.

Make it quick to read
In the world of internet ADD, website copy should be easy to skim and read. Call-outs, bullet points and impactful use of color all allow the eye to glean information and deduce quickly if it is worth bookmarking, sharing or giving the old Ctrl+W.

Conclusion
Companies who focus exclusively on the external uses of SMO not only deplete what time marketers may have available, but also miss important opportunities to leverage such efforts across additional channels. In particular, making a company website social media friendly should be a key component of any strategic SMO plan to help reduce the time spent on keeping so many social media balls in the air and provide an easier --although still not easy -- first step into the all-important web of influence.

Reid Carr is president, Red Door Interactive.

Search and media agencies are on alert as the end of Google's Best Practice Funding (BPF) programme creates a potential landgrab for major search accounts.

They have been spurred by the imminent end of Google's agency commission scheme, which rewards agencies for buying Google ads.

The ending of the scheme from next year means agencies that had previously used BPF to attract businesses by passing their commission on to clients will now have to renegotiate the terms of their client deals.

Search specialists have revealed to NMA that they're on alert as key brands within specific verticals put their accounts out to tender.

Paul Mead, MD of VCCP Search, confirmed talks were beginning to take place within the sector. "Best Practice Funding is the key factor. Anyone that's a significant spender in travel, finance and retail will be thinking about this," he said.

Gavin Ailes, deputy MD of The Search Works, said, "There will be a larger number of pitches; it's only natural in the circumstances."

The landgrab comes as search specialists grow concerned over speculation that Google will use the money saved from agency commission to incentivise brands to bypass agencies and work with it directly.

The concerns have spread widely within the sector and were put to the search giant's UK directors Matt Brittin and Mark Howe at a recent meeting with the IPA Search Group, which was attended by represen_tatives from search specialists including iCrossing, Golley Slater Digital and Isobar.

Mark Howe, Google UK country sales director, denied the rumour. "Google sees agencies as our partners. We have no desire to distort our search auction model by offering any kind of discounts to any kind of partner," he said.

Scott Gallacher, Sky's online and partner marketing director, said Best Practice Funding shouldn't be a major concern for either brands or advertisers if they have their houses in order.

"If people are worried about Google blindsiding them, there's almost certainly a problem either with that relationship or between agency and client," he said.

Google's tiered Best Practice Funding scheme was introduced in 2005 to drive growth and innovation within the search space.

Initial incentives included a 'kick-back' paid to the top 10% of qua_lifying agencies whose relative quarterly growth rate topped 5%.

VFI Overseas Property has spent the last number of months identifying new markets for existing and future client base. We have identified Tunisia for a number of reasons.

· Unrivalled Capital growth

· Cosmopolitan society – French, English, Russian, Italians, Spanish

· Low entry level for investors

· Properties from as little as €24,999

· Frontline Beach Developments

· Low price per sq meter

· High Rental Yields

· Many golf courses – 18 hole/35 hole

· Outstanding quality of build

· International Cuisine

· 2/3 hrs flight time from Europe & Russia

· Building Bonds in place

· Tourism increased by 45% in 2006

· 6 international airports and more being built

· Billons of euro being invested by government and private institutions.

· Demographic society

· Mediterranean climate

· At present demand is out stripping supply in the property market.

In Tunisia people are still waking up to warm, sunny mornings. The lifestyle is calm, peaceful and most importantly, affordable! The cost of living is low. Utility bills are low. The prices of food and petrol are low. All this means "more of your money" and "more for your money!" More money to spend on the pleasurable things in life, such as eating out under the starry skies or sipping a mint tea at a pavement cafe and watching the world go by.

Some typical examples of the price of food in Tunisia could include a cup of tea or coffee at a cafe ranging from 20p to 50p, a kilogram of tomatoes 30p, a kilogram of pears 50p, a French Stick 10p, a liter of milk 25p or a kilogram of beef or lamb £3-£4. Supermarkets are stocked with every day needs, but the local market is the place to be to pick up items of amazing value.

Living in Tunisia, will bring you that healthy lifestyle. Fresh, fruit and vegetables in abundance and fish straight from the sea and onto your plate in minutes! There are also more than enough hot, sunny days to fit in all of the outdoor sporting activities that you can muster! As with most Mediterranean countries, the crime rate is low. You can enjoy your evenings out, bringing along the children as they are always welcome, without any rowdy behavior to spoil your fun. Old fashioned values still reign supreme and parents, teachers and the elderly are treated with the utmost respect. You will rarely find language difficulties. The main spoken languages are Tunisian Arabic and French, but since English was introduced to the National Curriculum for all school children aged 10 and upwards, it is fast gaining importance amongst the Tunisian nation.

Development – Le Voilier Resort

Le Voilier Resort is a modern beach front/marina style development with a mixture of 1 bed 1 bath, 2bed 2 bath, & 3 bed 3 baths apartments all built to a superior specification.

Designed by one of the most important and cutting edge architectural firms in this area VFI OVERSEAS PROPERTY is happy to be able to offer not only a fantastic investment but an investment which you will be able to enjoy for many years to come.

‘The airport of the straits’, as it is known because of the fabulous view across the strait to Sicily, has recently undergone a major renovation and expansion, and handles most domestic flights, offering services to: Rome, Milan, Venice, Bari, Bologna, Turin, Verona and Milan, as well as an international service to Malta.

FERRIES

Sicily is just seven miles away from Reggio di Calabria across the Straits of Messina and there are a large number of hydrofoil-type fast ferries, and more traditional boats providing very regular services in both directions. From Sicily it also very straight forward to sail across to Tunisia, or you can stay closer to home and visit a number of the delightful Aeolian islands such as Lipari, Salina and Vulcana, all of which are on ferry routes out of Reggio.

RAIL

Reggio di Calabria is the most southerly part of mainland Italy to have a train link, and there are daily services from the lovely 1930’s station northwards to Naples and Rome. A very relaxing way to see the countryside.

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