13/01/2012

dot-gruppe looks back on a very successful year 2011

In 2011 dot-gruppe enjoyed further growth. As a leading company in the field of social media and viral marketing dot-gruppe has developed new business continuously and acquired numerous new clients from the focus areas like IT, automotive, fashion, charity, tourism and entertainment.

The constant growth of the social media channels especially Facebook and YouTube combined with a strong clients` demand for effective and holistic campaign concepts for the social web form the basis for the business success in 2011 and makes the outlook into the new year very optimistic.

Social media marketing is a strong focus of the planning departments. Marketers with budget responsibility within the companies rely on full service suppliers with many years experiences like dot-gruppe to position themselves successfully and sustainably in the channels.

Bernhard Longin, CEO of dot-gruppe: "We are very happy with the development of the last year. dot-gruppe is strategically well positioned and delivers impact through its creative campaigns. New business is developing very well, we hopefully expect further growth with double figures in 2012."

The whole team of dot-gruppe wants to thank all clients and partners for the good and successful cooperation in 2011 and looks forward to exciting campaigns and further growth in 2012.

11/01/2012

Facebook Plans First Foray Into Mobile Ads (adage.com)

Facebook plans its first push into mobile advertising by the end of March, giving the company a fresh source of revenue ahead of a possible initial public offering, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
An idea being considered is putting Facebook's Sponsored Stories ads, which feature friends' interactions with brands, within the mobile News Feed, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the plans aren't public. The News Feed lets users view status updates, photos and other content. Facebook, the world's most popular social-networking service, would be playing catch-up in mobile advertising to Google, Apple and Millennial Media Facebook's potential advantage is that by gathering so much information about a person's interests and associates, it can help advertisers target potential customers more directly than mobile web browsers or applications.
Facebook, which has more than 800 million users, is increasing its focus on mobile technology with the aim of taking advantage of the shift to smartphones and tablets. The company expects its next 1 billion users to come mainly from mobile devices rather than desktop computers. More than 350 million users already access Facebook through mobile devices, according to the site.
The company had originally expected to roll out the advertising service on mobile devices earlier this year, and the plan could be delayed again, one of the people said.
Brandon McCormick, a spokesman for Facebook, declined to comment. Facebook announced a mobile service last year that lets companies reach out to potential customers with discounts based on location.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is considering raising about $10 billion in an initial public offering that would value it at more than $100 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month. Facebook may file for the IPO before the end of the year, according to the source. Facebook's revenue is expected to rise to as much as $6.9 billion in 2012, from $4.27 billion this year, according to eMarketer. The research firm said almost 90% of Facebook revenue comes from advertising revenue. It also makes money from its Credits business, which earns a commission on transactions in certain applications, such as games.

Bernhard Longin, CEO dot-group, says: "The figures show that Facebook has been developing with a giant leap towards advertising and sales and will unfold its enormous potential entering the mobile ad market even further. Marketers have to take this development into consideration - there will be no way to accomplish marketing success this year without planning campaigns for Facebook Ads and Facebook Mobile Ads."

(Source: adage.com)

12/07/2011

Can Social Shopping Finally Take Off? (adweek.com)

Analog shopping is inherently social. There's the flea market stroll, the girls' outing, and the time-honored encounter with a mall Santa. But e-commerce, a category that's expected to reach $200 billion this year, has yet to reap full benefits of the social networking revolution. The two seem as compatible as reindeer and sleighs, yet the universe is littered with proof of awkward pratfalls. (...) That explains why Facebook killed Beacon, a function that automatically published a user's e-commerce interactions to news feeds. (...) Shopping on Facebook remains a challenge.

F-commerce-online storefronts within the Facebook framework-hasn't quite caught on. Large brands like Pampers and ASOS have opened successful stores on the platform, but integration with existing inventory operations is too costly for the average-sized retailer. What's more, it's not clear how willing shoppers are to open their wallets on a social network. "People don't go to Facebook to shop. They never have," says Harish Abbott, co-founder of Sneakpeeq, a social shopping platform. Using "Facebook norms", like game mechanics, to drive discovery, is more effective, he says.

Rather than drop dollars into F-commerce, retailers are getting more socially creative with their own e-commerce sites. And they should-revenue per click from shoppers arriving via social media links is $5.24, versus the $3.18 per click spent by email shoppers, according to analytics company ClearSaleing. Share and "like" buttons help drive traffic since click-through rates for news feed links are vastly higher than for Facebook ads. The Levis.com "Friends Store," for example, uses Facebook Connect so its shoppers can see comments, shares, and likes from their Facebook friends within the Levi's site. It's social, without that awkward automatic sharing part.
(...)
Bernhard Longin, CEO dot-group, comments: "Facebook is truly a big challenge for marketers to serve as sales channel, but is also very efficient. Firstly, social media sales need a broad fan base to kick-off a sustainable and interactive dialogue with the brand. Then you can take efforts to make fans become happy customers. When you want people to buy on a Facebook platform you should deliver an attractive fan page providing special tabs, advanced apps, competition apps, YouTube integration etc. and, last but not least, regular sales specials which contribute in hard sales. From our experience with famous international brands social media sales work very well when the parameters perfectly fit together and match the communication needs users expect on these channels."

(Source: adweek.com)