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Europe’s online ad industry predicted to overtake US

By Andrew Redfern @ 5th November 2010 10:25 am 2010 Predictions

European online ad spend has shown double digit growth according to an Interactive Advertising Bureau report.

Spain’s ad spend increased by 20% followed by Poland with 18%, Italy 15%, Hungary 11%, UK, France and Bulgaria 10%, Romania 8%.

It is predicted if European ad spend continues to increase at the same rate, its online ad industry market value could overtake the US by summer 2011.

New companies are planning online ad campaigns every day for the first time. Greater reach, return on investment and customer interaction has motivated this move.

According to the CEO of the IAB, Alain Heureux, the growth is partly due to the fact that companies that are already advertising online are allocating a greater portion of their budget to the medium.

Performance based techniques are being used for branding and more targeted marketing to give better results, also cross media campaigns making use of various media including TV, Radio and Outdoor.

Hit Search Director Andrew Redfern commented “Double digit growth in advertising spend in not a surprise in the UK digital space, as it is a more mature market compared to Poland, Spain and Italy.

Given the return on investment nature of the digital area these figures underpin the huge part the digital industry is having in the UK economy.”

Adapted from Business and Leadership’s article “Double-digit growth for online ad spend”

Hit Search calls for help for digital push for SME’s

By Andrew Redfern @ 28th October 2010 12:43 pm 2010 Predictions

According to the ‘Connected Kingdom’ report commissioned by Google, the UK internet is now worth more than £100 billion. A significant finding of the report was that the internet in the UK is growing at a rate of 10% every year, in 2008 it made up 7.2% of the UK economy and is predicted to generate up to 10% of the UK’s economy by 2015.

“As the report highlights the UK is the leading nation for e-commerce and the Internet is one of the key drivers for steady growth in the economy in 2010.” said Andy Redfern, Director of Hit Search Limited, online marketing specialists.

The UK has the largest per capita online market and the second largest e-commerce market in the world according to the report. Redfern add “At a time when the government is spending vast amount of time on austerity measures – a greater focus on getting the majority of SME’s digitally enabled from a sales point of view would no doubt help increase the country’s GDP.”

The report also found that the growing online industry accounts for approximately 250,000 UK jobs and will play a vital part for the UKs economic recovery during the next few years. Within the UK, the online industry is already larger than the construction, transport and utility sectors. Redfern commented “I am proud that our industry directly employees over 250,000 staff and growth of SME’s that use internet marketing outstrips those offline by a ratio of four to one. “

Redfern concludes “The Digital Inclusion task force focus was on the general public, this report highlights that greater investment is needed to push our business community online.”

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16% Rise in Online Christmas Shopping

By Andrew Redfern @ 19th October 2010 11:22 am 2010 Predictions

It has been predicted that in the run up to Christmas 2010, online sales will be up by 16% to £6.4bn on the same period of 2009. This will bring the total online sales for the year 2010 to £57.8bn compared to £49.8bn in 2009, supporting the trend towards the increase in online shopping which will certainly create a challenge to the dominance of the high street.

The prediction follows reports in June 2010 that online shopping had increased by 22% over the past year compared to 2008/2009. In September, online shopping sales had increased by 24% year on year as consumers started their Christmas and winter clothes shopping early. Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini noted an interesting observation that consumers are starting to spread the cost of Christmas over several pay checks and we may start to see an early peak in Christmas shopping spends.

Director of Hit Search Andy Donaldson commented on the topic “ We have a variety of huge retail brands and despite the economic downturn over the past 2 – 3 years they have prospered right throughout the year. Proof that by getting the online marketing mix right, can not only buck seasonal trends, but also stabilise businesses above and beyond their bricks and mortar sales – especially during this key period for retail.”

Hit Search provides a range of search engine optimisation and pay per click solutions helping you to increase your online presence for a share in this growing trend. Call 0845 643 9289 to hear about what we can do for you.

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Positive Thoughts! Online Business Owners Think Hung Parliament Will Have Positive Impact

By Andrew Redfern @ 13th May 2010 6:16 pm 2010 Predictions

Looks like business owners are thinking the new chap at Number 10 will have a positive impact on businesses! Positive thoughts everybody!

Many executives believe that the new hung parliament will have a positive impact on their business, according to a recent study.

The survey by employment law firm Citation found that 63.2% per cent of business owners, who completed the questionnaire, think that their company will perform better under the new coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The General Election held last Thursday resulted in no one party claiming the 326 seats needed to form a majority government. Of the three major political parties, the Conservatives won the most seats, with 305 to Labour’s 258. However, it was the 57 seats of the Liberal Democrats which held the balance of power.

A weekend of political confusion followed until, on Monday evening, Labour leader Gordon Brown announced his resignation as Prime Minister, and was replaced at No. 10 by David Cameron, who had struck a deal with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg to form a coalition government between the two parties.

The complex nature of a hung parliament led to a number of business commentators speaking out about the need for stability within the new government for the sake of the British economy.

Lindsay Hill, CEO of Citation said “We wanted to understand what our clients were feeling about the change in Government and were happy to find that a large percentage of them are optimistic about the performance of their company under the new coalition Government. Its still early days and we hope the new structure in Parliament will support the UK economy on its road to recovery.”

Source – http://www.citation.co.uk/Hung-Parliament-Business-Impact.asp

Lets see what the future brings!

Hit Search Online Marketing: Digital Marketing Budgets to Increase by 17 Per Cent

By Andrew Redfern @ 8th February 2010 2:19 pm 2010 Predictions

A number of businesses are set to increase their digital marketing budgets by around 17 per cent this year.

That’s the findings of a recent survey carried out amongst firms in both Britain and the US.

Online marketing network site Econsultancy found that digital marketing would account for almost a quarter of total marketing budgets in 2010.

Of all the firms that participated in the study, 46 per cent said they were planning to increase their overall marketing budget for 2010, while over 50 per cent of companies are planning to increase their mobile marketing budgets.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are set to come into their own in 2010, with 70 per cent of businesses looking to increase their spending on these areas of marketing in the next 12 months.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at Econsultancy, said: “Digital evangelists have long been trying to get the big brands to spend more on online marketing (especially display advertising), and social media is now helping to give impetus to a second wave of marketers who are moving budgets online.

“Why? Because they see digital as crucial to brand reputation, and they’re right.”

Meanwhile, another survey released this week claimed that online spending on business to business marketing will grow by 8 per cent during the coming year, followed by a 14 per cent rise in 2012.

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43 Internet Marketing predictions for 2010

By Andrew Redfern @ 30th December 2009 4:17 pm 2010 Predictions

As 2009 draws to a close, marketing companies across the country will be looking into their crystal balls, and making some bold predictions about what’s in store for the industry in the next 12 months.

It’s no different here at Hit Search. We have come up with our own predictions for the world of Search and Online marketing in 2010; why not give them a read and tell us what you think. Whether you agree with our predictions, or you have any suggestions of your own; your feedback is, as always, appreciated.

SEO predictions for 2010

1) Overall the British economy will see a slow and steady growth, which will be totally outpaced by all businesses with a digital agenda.

2) Measurement and tracking will be key to all things digital this year; search quantification will move into mainstream offline factors – telephones, footfall, and also fluffier aspects such as the building of the brand.

3) RIO on will still be king in 2010 for all forms of Search Marketing – and so it should be!

4) Online advertising spend will grow by more than 9 per cent in 2010, while Search Marketing itself will double its digital growth – with SEO being the dominant driver.

5) Microsoft’s Bing search engine will continue its steady rise, and will obtain some of the market share (albeit small) from both Google and Yahoo. Bing will also continue to produce yet more exciting developments with its mapping services for example, and it will look into greater integration into its main search listing results.

6) Yahoo will look into branching out into developing nations with fast growing Internet populations, in order to try and claw back some of its worldwide market share. There will be greater exposure in South America and Asia in particular. Developing income quickly from these new areas will be crucial for Yahoo.

7) Facebook and Twitter will have better search-based technologies, but neither will become a serious challenger to Google.

8) Flickr and Yahoo Answers will continue to be the big winners in the Yahoo portfolio.

9) A large Chinese company will purchase a well known tech-based company – signalling a rise in China’s influence within the industry in 2010.

10) More businesses will launch claiming to clean your online identity

11) More and more companies will look to the Internet for storing their data and running applications, rather than via the traditional desktop.

Social Media predictions for 2010

12) Sales of e-readers will boom over the next 12 months, fuelled by the likes of the Apple table and the Wistron E-reader. This will cause many large newspaper empires to keep a watchful eye on this market for brand new advertising opportunities.

13) Google Chrome is set to be the most talked-about web browser in 2010; it will gain double-digital marketshare growth – speed and greater extensions to fuel rise to the masses.

14) The biggest social networking loser of 2010 will be the once-great Myspace; it will lose even more of its market share to the more popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

15) Twitter will buy the URL-shortening website bit.ly, or release its own version, meaning more click data can be stored. This analytics tool will be rolled out in mid-2010.

16) Twitter will also create its own advertising business model by opening up its advertising centre and as a result and it gets bought.

17) As the influence of Social Networks continues to grow, the average Internet user’s reliance on email and MSN will undoubtedly dwindle. MSN user numbers will begin to level out, with many companies blocking it altogether, meaning online users will have to turn to social networks for their communication needs. Investment in MSN Networks will continue, but it will fail to find that “killer” application.

18) Facebook will promote its own Search Engine, although it will not be as successful (or useful) as they expect it to be.

19) Twitter users with a large number of followers will start to get too big for their boots, and will be brought back down to Earth by the mainstream media.

20) Larger corporations will continue to struggle with Social Media in 2010, and make some spectacular errors in this field.

21) The price of Display Adverts will come down once again, and combined with more accurate targeting and advanced segmentation, this will become a more viable advertising medium.

22) Social network Foursquare will make a massive impact in the London area, before being rolled out to more cities in the UK by the end of 2010. As a direct result of this, iconic track “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey will be re-released. The Daily Mail will run a negative story regarding this around May – aligning Foursquare with illegal naughtiness.

23) Amazon will make a bold move into the video marketplace with the purchase of large video content provider Blinkx / Hulu.

24) LinkedIn will strengthen its position as the UK’s premier business network – a new iPhone application has recently been rolled out, and communication and content distribution within the site will become much easier.

25) Online music website Spotify will stream over 5 billion music tracks in 2010, and its own music chart will be pushed into the media, meaning greater growth from the brand. iTunes will become very twitchy by Spotify’s launch into emerging markets in 2010.

26) There will be a massive rise in the keyword searches for buzzwords such as “cloud computing”, “Tablet computers” and “Augmented reality” throughout the coming year.

27) Journalists will make increasing use of video technology, resulting in the emergence of the “superstar journalist”.

PPC predictions for 2010

28) Paid search cost-per-click prices will rise on all engines and more focus on on-page quality from the big three.

29) Other players will enter the PPC marketplace (Twitter, Reddit, NYT) but wont be suitable for all campaiagns or locations

30) Google are becoming partically choosey by whom it classes as “Partners” expect the Adwords and Analytics qualification standrads to rise and potential Google disassociating companies that are carrying out bad pratice.

31) First / Last click wins will be including in many digital marketing meeting as clients try to understand the evermore complex relationship between customer and the journey that undertake for a sale

32) The Yahoo/Microsoft advertising deal will finally become a reality, but it may take some time to make a noticeable impact on marketing budgets.

33) More money will flow to the content network and quality will improve – click fraud will still raise it head again

Mobile Search predictions for 2010

34) Mobile Internet search will reach 7 per cent of all Internet searches by the end of 2010. There are now over five times more mobile users than PC/desktop users in the world, and so 2010 WILL be seen as the tipping point for mobile searches.

35) Google’s push into the mobile phone industry will see them take a small market share from the iPhone, however, Google does not yet have the traction or application base make a major dent in the market.

36) iPhone applications downloads will increase by over 70 per cent next year. There was a 1,000 per cent rise in downloads on Christmas Day alone!

Video Search predictions for 2010

37) Video search will becoming a realistic form of advertising, and will produce decent returns. YouTube will still be the dominant force, but smaller players like Blinkx will raise their profile with yet more impressive partnerships. Pocket HD camcorders, and mobile phones with video recording capabilities, will help to fuel the increase in video content next year.

38) Video Search will gain a massive boost in UK with the June General Election. Politicians will be under intense scrutiny from the general public during election time; we will find that our local representatives are not ready for this form of pressure. Live debates and video responses will help boost the General Election voting turnout to over 65 per cent.

39) Politicians from all parties will make massive online gaffes in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

40) Google Wave will be embraced by tech types, but does hit the mass market in 2010.

41) The BBC’s iPlayer service will see a considerable surge in viewers, causing great concern for other media bodies.

42) A major television show on a terrestrial TV channel will move a section of its live show to “digital only” – this move will boost its worldwide appeal and attract a wealth of new audience and advertising opportunities. The Hit Search tip for this show is ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.

43) An Internet-only broadcaster will make a bid for the rights to screen live football games in 2010.

Would you like to know more about these subjects and more? Contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world, make sure you become visible.

Video Search predictions for 2010

By Andrew Redfern @ 30th December 2009 4:10 pm 2010 Predictions

It’s no different here at Hit Search. We have come up with our own predictions for the world of Video Search in 2010; why not give them a read and tell us what you think.

Video Search predictions for 2010

Video search will becoming a realistic form of advertising, and will produce decent returns. YouTube will still be the dominant force, but smaller players like Blinkx will raise their profile with yet more impressive partnerships. Pocket HD camcorders, and mobile phones with video recording capabilities, will help to fuel the increase in video content next year.

Video Search will gain a massive boost in UK with the June General Election. Politicians will be under intense scrutiny from the general public during election time; we will find that our local representatives are not ready for this form of pressure. Live debates and video responses will help boost the General Election voting turnout to over 65 per cent.

Politicians from all parties will make massive online gaffes in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Google Wave will be embraced by tech types, but does hit the mass market in 2010.

The BBC’s iPlayer service will see a considerable surge in viewers, causing great concern for other media bodies.

A major television show on a terrestrial TV channel will move a section of its live show to “digital only” – this move will boost its worldwide appeal and attract a wealth of new audience and advertising opportunities. The Hit Search tip for this show is ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.

An Internet-only broadcaster will make a bid for the rights to screen live football games in 2010.

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