A cell phone revolution?

Top technology executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday said mobile Internet will eventually let advertisers tailor messages based on a user's location.

Here are some quotations from the panel discussion they held:

"In theory location-based advertising will be a very good business and useful to the end user," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt (picture).

Moderator David Kirkpatrick noted the number of people with cell phones far outnumbers those with personal computers.

"It will not be long before we are all carrying video (transmitting) cell phones. What we now call the cell phone is becoming the de facto Internet device. The technology industry is rapidly becoming the mobile technology industry," said Kirkpatrick, who is the senior editor for Internet and technology at Fortune Magazine.

Wang Jianzhou, whose company is the largest mobile provider in China, noted China boasts a half billion mobile users and is adding to the number at a rate of 6 million per month. The future, he said, was with "location advertising" enabled by the devices' global positioning system.
SONY CEO Howard Stringer was more skeptical, saying young users of mobile phones don't like advertising.

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Top 5 Viral-Video Ads of 2007 Ranked

According to the MarketingCharts report, Cadbury’s gorilla drummer ad, with more than 5 million views for the original video on YouTube, was the top viral-video ad, followed by Smirnoff’s Green Tea Partay, with 3.4mm views, according to agency GoViral, reports the Financial Times.

The top 5 viral-video ads:

1. Cadbury - Gorilla Drummer, launched online in August; agency: Fallon.
2. Smirnoff - Green Tea Partay, launched online in August; agency: JWT, New York.
3. Ray-Ban - Catch Sunglasses, launched online in May; agency, Cutwater.
4. Blendtec - Will it Blend? launched online in July.
5. Lynx/Axe – Bom chicka wah wah, launched online in May; agency BBH, Copenhagen.

Additional info available in the FT report.

Ten Key Online Predictions for 2008

eMarketer has issued predictions for 2008 in key online areas, including those related advertising, videos, social networks, e-commerce and entertainment, saying online advertising will ride out potential economic storms in the US - and YouTube will decide political elections.

The 10 predictions for 2008 according to eMarketer:

1. Online ads remain resilient.
2. Video surge slows.
3. Social-network advertising hits $1.6 billion.
4. Networking goes beyond MySpace and Facebook.
5. YouTube decides the election.
6. Beijing Olympics pumps up ad spending.
7. Buy online, pick up in-store becomes expected feature.
8. Movie downloading hits the mainstream.
9. Music marketers roll out new business models.
10. Dynamic ads heighten gaming revenue potential.

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Three cornerstones of an effective site

Regardless of what your website is designed to do, there are a few primary objectives you should keep in mind before you start building: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/oct/5.html

They actually are: Focus, Depth and Stickyness of your site. These are to think about all the time. Short but very helpful article.

Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007

An impressive list with more than 250 entries with short descriptions - a compilation by Tamar Weinberg (techipedia) ... this should keep you busy for many weeks to come.

Tremendous work. Thanks you so much, Tamar!