Online advertising accelerating

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The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has done some research that reveals - drum roll - internet advertising has grown yet again.  It remains the fastest growing advertising media, propping up an industry that is declining in every other quarter.  Indeed online advertising is now bigger as a sector than direct mail, no doubt reflecting the fundamental difference - and therefore success - in how each medium targets its customers.  Direct mail picks out its targets who have no choice in whether they receive it whereas the recipient has already chosen where they are online so the ad should at least (if it’s done properly) be of some relevance. 

It’s also interesting to note that social networking websites, while not supporting much advertising in themselves, are cited as a key driver for this growth, as their growing popularity is generating demand for fast broadband, increasing time spent online and boosting confidence in the online experience that includes advertising.

I know I’d rather click to close a window than have to put yet more paper in the recycling bin.

Technorati Tags: Advertising , social networking , online advertising , direct mail

Losing interest in Facebook

I’ve been persevering with Facebook for a couple of months now.  It was a slow start as I couldn’t find anybody I knew but then there was a flurry of activity and I thought maybe I had a chance of revolutionising my social life like the millions on there seem to be doing so well.

I’m up to 23 friends and have been going on daily like a good addict should but frankly, although these people are lovely and I’m proud to be associated with them in whatever way I am, they are not really my very best friends and the novelty is wearing off.

This isn’t just me trying to sound as if I’m more popular than I am.  I really do have more friends (honest) and I’ve tried to encourage them to join facebook by sending them invites and even sitting with them to search for their friends and get them to join.  But of course they can’t find most of the people they know either so they decline politely.

Yes I am old (40 - don’t mind admitting it.  Like my inability to recognise that I have no mates I can also fool myself that I look and act younger) and I’ve read other people blogging about how it’s mainly a younger phenomenon.  But some of the people who have found me or me them via facebook are nearly as old as me, in fact I think a couple may be older!  So it can’t just be that.

The people who I’d describe as my best friends are reasonably well-educated, technology-literate people.  They are sociable and funny. There is absolutely no chance they will be reading this but if they are they should be very flattered by my description of them and join facebook straight away to make it more interesting for me…

Mixing with the stars

Yesterday Stuart and I met with the ‘mystery third director’.  He claims to have been rubbing shoulders with Bono and George Clooney at the weekend in Monte Carlo.  This very glamorous impression should throw anyone off the scent of his real identity!  Meanwhile here on our building site in Horsforth I get to hob nob with Sebastian and Beth today.  Talking of which the new office is actually pretty flash and we may be moving in this month!

I’m still struggling to know what to blog about.  There’s so much going on setting up Wolfstar, looking after clients, pitching for new business and recruiting new staff to service them once they’re on-board, that if I emptied my head here - which is tempting - it would go on and on and on. 

Or I could moan what’s going on more personally like my embarrassing incident with an opening toilet door on a Virgin train last week or the fact that Sainsburys Energy have been stealing from our household to the tune of nearly £550!  Will blogging about my issues with these companies preclude us from ever working with them?  I’m not very worried at the minute - I’ve got enough to do!

A bit more light on our name

I’ve been away for a few days - almost incommunicado as the northern Scottish Highlands appear to be on my level of technological sophistication - and have come back to find that the rest of the Wolfstar pack have been posting furiously and making me look if not foolish (my original blogging fear), then pretty damned lazy.

So I plan to catch up fast and will start by trying to shed a bit more light on Beth’s theories about how we came by such a strange name.  Anyone who has started a new company will know how difficult and time-consuming naming the thing can be.  We lived with a few weird and wonderful names for a few days at a time - including Marabar, Uproar and another so unmemorable I’ve forgotten it -something like Blood?!

Nothing was working (tell me if we were wrong?!) so I started playing around with an intergalactic theme - not Star Wars, more www and beyond!  I had an idea that we would like to be seen as amongst the brightest stars so looked for lists of bright stars.  The Wolf Star appeared - somewhat vaguely as a group of stars - on one of these lists.  We liked the name, for the reasons Beth gave, tested it with friends, colleagues and clients, and registered it.  Only later did we discover that it is in fact a white dwarf!

But really, it’s just a name.  It doesn’t matter what it is or what it means because as our ‘brand’ it will come to just mean us to those who know us. 

Hello from Susie Lawrence

So, a blog then. This is actually my second attempt as the first one mysteriously disappeared into some black hole in our system. This just about sums up me and anything to do with technology.

I’m finally jumping on the blogging bandwagon, although very grumpily because I thought I’d finished, and less than enthusiastically so maybe it’s not quite the bandwagon, more the trailer that’s being towed behind it. See, I digress already, just one of the many fears I harbour about blogging. Others include:

· Waffling at length about things that nobody is interested in – so looking a fool

· Talking nonsense about something I am supposed to know about – so looking a fool

· Wasting valuable client time trying to look witty and clever – so looking a fool (while losing said client’s account)

· The chip that is clearly hidden somewhere in me that reacts with anything to do with technology preventing me being able to post anything – at least this could stop me looking a fool!

Stuart tells me this paranoia is completely normal for a novice and that it’s unlikely anybody important will read what I write anyway. Which is reassuring, kind of. But he also says this is a vital tool for letting people know who we are and what we do. So here I am, doing my bit and actually secretly getting a bit excited about moving even outside my comfort zone.

I was trying to reproduce what I wrote the first time but I’ve forgotten the rest. It was too long anyway.

First (well, second but nobody saw the first) blog post complete – and another fear thereby conquered. I’ve cheered up now.

You can read all about me here (and even watch a YouTube video).

RSVP…

It’s party time!

Everyone’s invited to the biggest event of the century.  Will you send a polite note and a gift or will you be there as the life and soul?

‘Social media’, ‘social networking, ‘web 2.0’, ‘word of mouth’, ‘consumer-generated content’ – whatever you want to call it, it’s the phenomenon that’s revolutionising the way people, organisations and businesses interact.  Ignoring it is perilous as it’s already an integral and crucial element of the ‘media mix’ with the potential to make or break a man or a multi-national.   

But it can be a scary world wide web out there.  What should you wear?

Public relations – as the facilitator of the relationship between companies and their publics – has for a long time been heavily reliant on a one-sided, hence sometimes unbalanced, flow of information routed through traditional media.  Messages have been wrapped in shiny angles and distributed through press, radio, and TV, or if necessary they’ve been discreetly hidden away. It’s been very rewarding for those who’ve packaged and positioned well but the times of providing the presents and waiting for the grateful response are over. 

The only way to get respect today is to come along to the bash and shake your stuff - or at the very least observe closely from the side of the dance-floor ready to impress with your moves later in the proceedings!

The party’s just beginning.  But the invitation has been sent to everybody now and anybody who’s anybody is joining in the fun.  It’s really not fashionable to be late.

You can stay on the outside looking in, worrying about who’s talking about you and what they’re saying.  Or you can be seen and heard in all the right places – and we’re not excluding traditional media here as there’s a time and a place for everything and the dialogue is happening between different media too. We believe the future is increasingly diverse and interactive, and therefore difficult to navigate with style and confidence.  Wolfstar has your ticket, maps and directions – and some hints about the dress code.