Compiled by Vicky Nolan
Betting on Bookmakers
New online bookmakers are aiming to attract a wider audience than traditionally betting with bricks-and-mortar bookies. According to Forrester Research, new bookmakers have broken past the typical male audience to reach more women. Online bookmakers have attracted new audiences with a user-friendly approach and different betting options. So far, the efforts have paid off. Among UK Internet users, five percent have investigated online betting while two percent had bet online during the previous three months. Calling new person-to-person betting sites like Flutter, BetFair and Firststake the "eBay of gambling," Forrester commends these sites for their ability to also attract infrequent and non-gamblers. These sites use the latest marketing tools along with easy-to-use features to attract customers placing an impulse bet, whether it is on a sports tournament or some other non-sporting event.
www.forrestor.com
Tidbits on Successful Advertising
Name Recognition:
Including your company's ad in a game increases name recognition, according to Jackpot.com. A survey of 138 respondents found that awareness of company ads, as distinguished from click-throughs, placed in games increased among players from 44 percent to 314 percent. In the study, consumers who had not
played Jackpot.com games were asked to name several businesses selling products, or write "none" if they were unable to recall any. The customers then played for six weeks the standard Jackpot.com slot machine-style game, which replaced the typical cherries, bells and sevens with company ads. After they had played the games, the consumers were then re-tested for their brand awareness, which showed a steep increase in the consumers' awareness of the companies.
"Not only do players root for advertisers to appear during the course of the game -- pulling to match three ads in a row -- but the survey suggests that they also recognize and remember them when not playing," said Keith Cohn, Jackpot.com president.
www.jackpot.com
Conversion Rates:
Converting online ads is a matter of time, according to AdKnowledge. In its Q2 Online Advertising Report, the company says that 60 percent of customers who convert on a site after clicking on an ad do so within the first half-hour after clicking. According to the report:
- Most initial conversions occur shortly after a click:
While 60 percent of customers convert within 30 minutes after the initial click, another 30 percent convert within seven days. For the AdKnowledge report, individual advertisers defined what the conversion event, which usually meant an action like a sale or registration on the advertiser's site.
- Click rate performance is directly affected by location of placement types:
Portal keyword placements generated higher click rates than other ad placement types. Conversely, "run of network" and "run of site" placements yielded higher click rates on ad networks and content sites than
portals.
www.adknowledge.com
More Statistics Enumerate Internet Usage Around the World
Canada:
The number of Canadians surfing the Internet is on the rise, reports Angus Reid Group and Columbus Group. Seventy percent of Canadians go online, and analysts expect that number to plateau at around 80 percent. "It is clear that the Internet has had a profound effect on the life of the typical Canadian," said Columbus president Scott Brownlee. "So much of what you hear about the Internet is based on the commerce point of view. I think a lot of people have forgotten the educational impact that the Internet has
made on the typical end user, and this research reminds us of how the online user experience enables education and knowledge transfer."
www.angusreid.com
Cuba:
According to a report by ABC News, the Cuban government is hard put to control its citizens' access to information thanks to the Internet. Already, there's one computer for every 100 people in Cuba and 40,000 Cubans (not including students and tourists) can access the Web. So far, there are
18,000 Cuban-based web pages, which receive 15 million hits weekly.
Asia-Pacific:
In Lehman Brothers' newest Internet usage report, researchers predict that Internet penetration in the Asia-Pacific area should triple over the next year, reaching 233 million users. Plus, Lehman researchers suggest that online advertising revenues will top $US5.4 billion by 2005 compared to $344 million now. In turn, Asian consumers are likely to spend $57 billion online in 2003.
www.lehman.com
Taiwan:
Meanwhile, iamasia reports that there are 6.4 million Internet users in Taiwan, representing about 31 percent of the island's total population. The Internet users usually are younger and wealthier than non-users, while women account for 45 percent of the Internet population. Taiwanese users head online mainly at home, about 71 percent, while 40 percent hit the Web at school. Another 28 percent go online at work and 7 percent use a cybercafe to access the Internet.
www.iasma.com
Mapping the Internet: It's Bigger Than Estimated
BrightPlanet has checked out the Internet and found that it's bigger than search engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista or Google ever indicated. The company says only 1 billion documents are indexed through search engines; that means the engines are missing most of the estimated 550 billion documents available. Internet users, however, remain satisfied with search engine results. A recent survey of 33,000 Internet users by NPD New Media Services found that 81 percent found what they were looking for using a search engine.
www.brightplanet.com