Global Marketing News – 13th October 2015
Pinterest just got interesting for international marketers
The image-based website Pinterest has updated its search algorithm to help users find more local content.
When users in certain countries search for a word, they will now be shown pins that are written in their language and contain links to websites in their language.
The website has also introduced search suggestions and a spell-checking feature.
So far the update is affecting users in Germany, France, Portugal, Brazil and Japan, but it is expected that it will eventually be rolled out worldwide.
Pinterest has reported that the update has had a significant positive impact, with users in the affected countries now discovering and pinning twice as many local pins as before.
Pinterest is one of the most popular image-sharing websites in the world, with around 100 million users, 85% of whom are female.
British professionals prefer email for marketing
British professionals prefer to be contacted via email more than any other method, according to research by Adobe.
A staggering 63% said that email was their preferred medium for brands to get in contact with them, with physical mail coming in a distant second place with just 20%.
Social media, app and text message came third, fourth and fifth respectively, with just 5% of British professionals saying they favoured these contact methods.
The British love affair with email is well-documented. Research by Movable Ink revealed earlier this year that reading emails was the most common activity for UK internet users.
Almost 80% said they’d checked their emails in the previous 3 months, with visiting websites for personal interests coming in second place with around 70%.
Programmatic ads given a boost in New Zealand
The launch of the Kiwi Premium Advertising Exchange (or KPEX for short) has been hailed as a “transformative” move for programmatic advertising in New Zealand.
Programmatic ads are those that are automatically bought and placed by software rather than by humans.
KPEX will allow advertisers to engage in programmatic advertising, with their ads being placed on quality local publishers such as MediaWorks, Fairfax Media, TVNZ and NZME.
KPEX’s CEO commented on the launch, saying: “It’s an exciting initiative and the first time NZ media companies have pooled their inventory to provide the necessary scale for a private marketplace. Advertisers want the efficiency of real-time bidding and the certainty that their ads will appear in brand-safe environments next to quality New Zealand content.”
Iranians now able to buy from foreign ecommerce sites
People in Iran can now buy from the international ecommerce giants eBay and Amazon.
Previously, Iranians had not been able to buy from international retailers because there were no delivery channels set up to import ecommerce goods from abroad.
Now, the Iran Post Company has signed a deal with the logistics firms DHL and TNT Express to deliver items bought from foreign eBay and Amazon sites into the country.
It is also thought that the deal will allow Iranian businesses to send items abroad, opening up the country to the rest of the world.
The move seems to be change in direction from the country’s usual mistrust of foreign websites. Earlier this year, Reporters Without Borders criticised the Iranian government for its increasingly strict censorship of websites and mobile apps in the country.
Research reveals internet landscape in Romania
And finally, research by ANCOM has revealed the internet landscape in Romania.
Around three-quarters of Romanian households have a smartphone, around half have a laptop and around a third have a tablet.
Looking at people who have a smartphone, over three-quarters go online using their device every day or almost every day.
The research also revealed the most popular activities for mobile internet users in Romania, with browsing, social media and email coming out on top. Instant messaging was also very popular.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
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Cal O'Connell
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