The last week has been a busy one for news, so we’ve tried to pick out the stories that have got us talking over here at Hotcow Headquarters.
First up is the news that Microsoft have given Yahoo just three more weeks to accept their $44.6 billion buyout offer – this potential deal is significant in so many ways and has so many ramifications that we’ve actually devoted a whole other article to it elsewhere…so we won’t go on about it any more here!
However, sticking with the internet, we’re more than a little interested by the news that Google is set to spark a bidding war for paid-search terms having unveiled a new policy allowing competitors to bid on rival trademarked names in the UK.
What this means is that brands such as Barclays (as an example…we’re not, of course, suggesting that this is happening) can now bid against the likes of Lloyds TSB or HSBC for trademarked terms meaning that its sponsored listing could come up when consumers search for a rival company.
This policy, which is already in force in the USA, comes into play in the UK after 2 months of weak paid search clicks.
The potential for mischief and mayhem seems to be high, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on goings on.
Elsewhere O2 is spending £5 million on a brand refresh and advertising push. The “It’s Your O2” brand positioning is being scrapped in favour of “We’re Better, Connected”. The company says that the new strapline better reflects its activities in “an increasingly fragmented” society. The campaign is set to kick off on April 10th.
Another story that caught our collective eye this week is the news that Renault is to become the first car marquee to trial a new video advertising format that will allow users to interact with the ad as it is shown.
The ad has been adapted so that boxes appear around the car and can be clicked on to display more product information whilst the ad is showing. The format will be trialled on the Lycos European network.
We doubt this is the last we’ll hear of interactive adverts – indeed, it may very well be the first step in a new form of advertising so we’ll be keeping close tabs on events.
Also in the news this week (and once again on the subject of the internet) is the story of a US man who purchased the domain name “pizza.com” back in 1994 and, after maintaining the site for $20 per year, has just sold it to an unnamed bidder for a cool $2.6 million.
To be honest, we were fairly sure that the time of absurd prices for .com names was over, but clearly we were wrong…actually, since this sale comes on the back of the sale of vodka.com for $3 million last year we were actually very wrong. So, if you happen to have an old .com domain name knocking about it may be time to see if you can sell it!
And, if any more proof was needed that the internet has become the world’s greatest market place an independent study this week has shown that iTunes has now surpassed Wal-mart as the single largest seller of music in the USA.
Finally we thought we’d mention the latest disaster at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5. If the pr and passenger horrorshow last week was not enough now the unseasonably late snow has caused more than 100 flights to be cancelled.
This has proven to be the last straw for passengers, with scuffles breaking out and chaos reigning. All in all a rather unpleasant time for all concerned.
And that’s the news!