1. Statistics and figures

What's Clicking trend indicator: April 2001

Higher, faster, farther - mobility was the predominant topic at this year's Cebit fair in Hanover, Germany. Bluetooth, UMTS and m-commerce are the new industry hopefuls. In the coming years, they are supposed to bring the IT indus try, which was heavily shaken by recent crises, back on a profitable track. By 2004 at the latest, at least according to the experts from Meyers Reports, we will surf the net via cellular phone an annual 11.4 hours. By 2010, the number is expected to rise to 75 wireless hours. The people at Forrester Research predict that $5.3 billion (6 billion Euro) will be spent on online advertising in Europe in 2005. The success of online campaigns will be determined by how much new interactive devices, i.e. cell phones with Web access and settop boxes for TV sets, will allow for their integration into media planning. Just like everything else, online advertising, too, is supposed to become more colorful and nicer. Instead of beeping ad messages on mobile phones, Banner & Co. will smoothly glide across the displays of our multifunction cell phones. Well, that's the future. Today, it's still more like a bumpy ride for the banners...

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Study: Germany's DSL net is leader in Europe

April 20th, 2001 (What's Clicking newsletter)
Germany has the most developed DSL net of all European countries. At the end of 2000, already more than 400,000 customers used a DSL access in Germany. Market researchers expect the number to rise to five million subscribers by 2003. These are the results of a recent Europe-wide study by Van Dusseldorp & Partners.

According to the prognosis, in France, the Netherlands and in Great Britain, only one million people will use DSL in each country by 2003. In these countries, the number of people using modems to access the Internet is much higher. However, this will change with the large-scale introduction of DSL by national pro-viders. Whereas, according to the study, the number of registered DSL subscribers in December 2000 was only 60,000 for France and about 30,000 for Great Britain, the number of DSL users will rise to an overall 13.3 million by 2003.

For more information go to:
http://www.tvmeetstheweb.com/aboutus/bbreport.php

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Banner advertising: customers like seriousness

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
Customers want to have matter-of-fact information. They ask "what does this product do for me?" If banners give this kind of information to the customer, they are successful. Customers click on this kind of banner more often, they recall them more often and link them to a brand name. Serious messages increase the success of a banner and are seen as a proof of competence of a company. Those are the most important results of a study by Plan.net on the effectiveness of online advertising ("OnlineWerbeWirkungsstudie 2001"). 6,800 customers were surveyed in this study.

People notice banners
Almost one out of two people surveyed remembered having seen a banner ad after up to seven days. 25% of the people surveyed recalled the brand after just one banner contact.

"Click" increases banner recall rate
If online and offline campaigns were coordinated with each other, banners achieved higher recall rates. One out of two people who click on banner is able to recall the brand.

Banner advertising has to arouse interest
It is mainly curiosity and content-related aspects that determine the motivation of an Internet surfer to click on a banner. If customers' willingness to buy is high, this usually implies a high banner evaluation of 1.9 points. People surveyed who did not show willingness to buy at all evaluated banners much worse.

Customers prefer response banners
Banners that include provocative messages or graphic tricks, so-called click banners, were usually perceived as rather aggressive by the people surveyed. It may be people click on these banners more often. However, they do not recall them nearly as well as they recall response banners. Customers prefer response banners that include a concrete promise as to how the product is going to benefit them. According to Plan.net, these response banners help to create a brand.

Serious banner ads improve a company's image
Serious banners help to increase a company's competence in the eyes of the customer. Product-related promises as to how the product is going to benefit the customer have the strongest influence on the image. However, mere industry-related information or the presentation of a company are not suited to improve image.

For more information go to:
http://www.plannet.de

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2. Online marketing trends

Scout for online campaigns

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
Now, who would not like to know what the competition is up to, and what banners they show on which sites? NetCrawling, a French provider, has come up with so-called "bannertracking" technology that is aimed at simplifying the search for banners. The service is called LemonAD and searches in more than 2,500 European web sites for new online advertising campaigns each day. The data is gathered in the LemonAd database where it is analyzed statistically. NetCrawling is a start-up that was founded in Paris in 1999.

Here is an example of the statistics for February 2001:

Market size in February 2001

number of advertising customers

1727

number of campaigns

number of banners

Source: www.lemonad.com

89% of the advertising customers are spread across ten industries. Most customers are related to editorial web sites, e-commerce and computer science. One out of four advertising customers put their banners on an editorial web site.

advertising customers sorted by type of web site

editorial web sites

35 %

sales, e-commerce

15 %

computer science

7 %

finance

6%

transport and tourism

5%

services

5%

internet providers, search engines

5%

erotic

4%

public institutions, organizations

3%

spare time and entertainment

3%

Source: www.lemonad.com

For more information go to:
http://www.lemonad.com/Public/DE/Barometre.asp

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3. DoubleClick inside

- Diameter makes campaigns transparent
- DoubleClick brings movement into banners
- DoubleClick Select: pure entertainment

Diameter makes campaigns transparent

April 20th, 2001 (what’s clicking newsletter)
DoubleClick has created its own research unit called Diameter. This new unit offers services in the areas of reporting, targeting and ad management. The people at Diameter offer their customers tools which they can use, for example, to measure the effectiveness of online campaigns or to analyze user groups and their purchasing behavior. Diameter is using @plan's measurement technology for its analyses.

For more information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.com

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DoubleClick brings movement into banners

April 20th, 2001 (what´s clicking newsletter)
DoubleClick's banners now offer a totally new form of animation which is based on Java streaming. In cooperation with the US joint venture VideoBanner.com, DoubleClick will be the exclusive provider of this new banner technology on the German market. The advantage of Java streaming is that video clips or TV commercials within the banners combine both the benefits of traditionally successful TV commercials and the advantages of new interactive online advertising types. And this it how Java streaming works: An ultra-small Java video player, which is directly integrated into the ad banner, enables the user to play video clips or TV commercials without having to use any other tools. The user does not need anything apart from a Java-capable browser which is installed on almost all platforms and operating systems.

The new technology works with all types of advertising, i.e., banners, pop-ups and superstitials. Companies like Universal and British Airways, which are customers of DoubleClick's US unit, have already used video banners. Higher user response rates and higher click-through rates were the results. And here is another advantage: users do not need to worry about extra time spent for downloading, which could cause them to avoid clicking on a banner.

If you would like to see an example of VideoBanner™, go to:
http://www.whatsclicking.de/streaming
http://doubleclick.videobanner.com

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DoubleClick Select: pure entertainment

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
DoubleClick Entertainment, the affinity group, makes sure users get pure entertainment whenever they want. Sites like GQ-magazin.de, Glamour.de and MTV-home.de offer their users precisely the kind of information they want, whether they are related to sports, technology, erotic, business or music. At the same time, these sites allow for a very finely tuned target group approach.

For more information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.net/de/advertisers/net_sites/network/entertainment.htm

or call +49 40 - 8 53 57-0

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4. Online Marketing

Rich media: a very promising format

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
Rich media means multimedia plus interactivity. It may sound quite simple but it does have a complex technological background. Plug-ins or server expansions have to be installed in order to allow for video, audio, 3-dimensional worlds or similar effects. This also means that the development and growth of rich media is closely linked to further development of media technologies on the Internet and to the available bandwidth for data transmission.

These are the advantages of rich media:

- The time a customer spends with a rich media banner is longer than with other banner types

- Rich media increase brand awareness and level of attention of Internet users

- Complex ad contents can be presented on the screen in an appropriate manner

- Ad recall rates and click-through rates are higher than with "traditional" banners


Here are the most important rich media technologies:

1.Vector graphics
Images and effects are created through mathematical formulas (vectors). In the process, a list of instructions comes up that specifies how to create an image. A special kind of software interprets this list and draws the picture on the screen in real time. This technology requires users to have a plug-in. The most-widely known program of this kind is Flash from Macromedia.
If you would like to see an example, go to: http://www.macromedia.com

2.DHTML
Dynamic HTML allows for ads that strongly draw users' attention. The technology makes it possible to change a page in the browser even after it has been downloaded. DHTML includes a technology called Document Object Model (DOM) which allows for flexible positioning of elements within the browser. Languages like Java Script or VB Script implement the changes.
If you would like to see an example, go to: http://www.htmlguru.de

3.Cursors
Cursors can be displayed as interactive design elements on a web site. Whenever users whish to do so, their cursors are replaced by animated figures, logos or other forms of the advertisers.
If you would like to see an example, go to: http://www.cometsystems.com

4.Streaming video
Videos are converted from an analog into a digital format (encoding) and subsequently compressed in order to be transmitted. Once the video arrives on the surfer's screen, it has to be decoded again. The user needs a plug-in or a player in order to play the video.
If you would like to see an example, go to: http://www.streamingmediaworld.com

For more information go to:
http://www.Plannet.de
http://www.channelseven.com

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5. Elevator talk

- Marketing mishap: an invitation ...to go to jail?
- Intelligent shopping list helps you find your way in the supermarket
-"Bowie-Radio" on the Internet

Marketing mishap: an invitation ...to go to jail?

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
This invitation was anything but nice: "We know everything. Do as we tell you or you'll be really sorry! No cops, no tricks!" - those were the words Cologne, Germany-based Inform AG, a software company, used to invite their customers to the Cebit computer fair. Some customers did not take this fake blackmail letter as a joke at all and went straight to the police, reporting an offense. Now, Cologne's district attorney's office is investigating possible charges of attempted coercion or feigning a criminal offense. In both cases, the potential sentences range from a fine to several years in prison. In the meantime, the Inform AG has apologized to all customers in writing.

Source: http://www.emar.de

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Intelligent shopping list helps you find your way in the supermarket

April 20th, 2001 (what's clicking newsletter)
Very soon, an electronic shopping list will guide you straight to the shelf in the supermarket where you can find the product you want to buy. This "e-shop" device from the Rostock, Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute, presented this year at the Cebit computer fair, is the size of a pocket calculator. The customer can also choose to read additional information on the display, for example, the best-before date and a product's ingredients. The device receives the information from transponders, i.e., digital product labels on the shelves. The transponders receive and answer customers' radio signals via servers installed in the supermarket. The system is also aimed at making price comparison simpler.

Source: Cebit Hannover

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"Bowie-Radio" on the Internet

April 20th, 2001 (what´s clicking newsletter)
Finally, he's on air - British pop star David Bowie will soon start his own Internet radio."Bowie-Radio" will be broadcast via the existing web site of the singer. According to information in the "Spin" journal, the radio will also broadcast live and studio recordings that cannot be heard often. Programs from cooperating radio stations will probably also be included. However, the audience will only be able to listen to the songs, i.e., Bowie is trying to include technology that makes copying or downloading the songs impossible.

For more information go to: http://www.davidbowie.com

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For inquiries, suggestions and criticism, please send an e-mail to:
newsletter@whatsclicking.de

For further information about this newsletter contact Bjorn Koetz

(c) 2001 DoubleClick