Global Marketing News – 12th July 2016
The New York Times declares war on ad blockers
The New York Times has announced that it will ban ad blockers for unsubscribed users of its site.
In March this year, the site performed a test that meant that users were greeted with a message telling them that “the best things in life aren’t free”, and that “advertising helps us fund our journalism”, before giving the user an option to subscribe or disable any ad blocking software.
Despite a negative reaction from users, the newspaper has now committed to the system, which has since been followed by dozens of other online global media sites.
With an estimated 620 million ad blockers installed on devices around the world, Sean Blanchfield, chief executive of PageFair, said that news outlets needed to take care when using ad blocker circumvention technology as it could alienate users and drive them towards platforms such as Facebook.
Baidu offers 100% ad revenue to Indian users
Baidu has moved to make a big step into the Indian online market, where it hopes to achieve the same success as it has seen in its home market of China.
The aggressive step will see the company temporarily offering 100% revenue to any users who sign up to its DU Ad platform; a package that allows Android developers to monetise their traffic.
Baidu has said that it has a great understanding of India’s emerging market due its past experience in China.
As well as pushing for its platform to be taken seriously in India with this move, it is also looking to take a highly localised approach, with its Baidu Mobo Market already available in multiple local languages including Hindi, Bangla and Urdu.
Confectionary company Mars partners with Alibaba
Confectionary company Mars has started a partnership with the ecommerce giant Alibaba.
In what has been called a “strategic collaboration”, the move will make brands such as Dove, Snickers and Wrigley available on all of Alibaba’s platforms.
Its partnership with Alibaba will expand its efficiency and reach, using the Chinese company’s established network.
The move comes just after Mars’ competitor Mondelez expanded its relationship with Facebook.
As both companies move to reap the benefits of the global expansion in ecommerce, Mondelez spokesperson Valerie Moens said that it would be focusing on mobile, with 65% of its budgets aimed at the top Chinese apps WeChat and Weibo.
Mars also said that it hoped to attract younger audiences through mobile, who it said “rely more on ecommerce”.
Images are key to online success in France
Just under 50% of French internet users are first drawn to photographic images when they first visit a brand’s web page.
According to the new study from Opinion Way Research, the same survey revealed that an extra 17% of respondents first noticed drawings or graphics, meaning a total 59% of users felt that still images were the initial element to which they paid attention.
Whilst proving that the majority of users notice images before anything else, the study also showed that 80% of them found the images to be of top quality, with 70% of those questioned finding that photos gave a good image of the brand.
However, it was also shown that there is a near 50/50 split between users who felt that these high-quality photos increased their interest in a brand, and those who did not.
Nissan sells car on Twitter
And finally, a Spanish Twitter user has helped Nissan achieve a continental first: selling a car solely through Twitter.
Raul Escolano used the Spanish hashtag #compraruncocheportwitter – which translates into ‘Buy a car on Twitter’ – in order to encourage car manufacturers across the country to sell him a car over social media.
Following a guided personal video walk-through and a poll asking his followers to rate the cars he was offered, Mr. Escolano decided on the Nissan X-Trial.
With the deal made online, he was able to avoid any direct contact with the dealership until he picked up the car from Nissan’s Spanish headquarters.
The whole deal took just 6 days, and Nissan says it helped it “become the first automotive brand in Europe to sell a vehicle exclusively through the use of a social network”.
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Gemma Houghton
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