No other social networking site tracked by Hitwise has come close to commanding such a lion’s share in the past 18 months.

It’s easy to forget just how quickly Facebook has risen through the social networking rankings since bursting onto the British scene (as a measureable force) in the summer of 2006.

Even this time last year, it only commanded 15 per cent of the market, placing it third in the Hitwise rankings, with less than half the share of Bebo (33 per cent) and a long way behind MySpace (29 per cent).

Within the space of three months, Facebook leapfrogged first MySpace then Bebo to take the top spot by the start of September 2007. Since then it has never looked back.

Ongoing site developments over the past 365 days have helped secure its top dog status, including dozens of different language versions, ranging from all Western European languages to simplified and traditional Chinese language versions, Russian and Japanese.

Elsewhere, there has also been changes made to its privacy controls, an entire spectrum of new applications introduced, aided by the arrival of a new open developer platform, and let’s not forget November’s introduction of Facebook Ads.

The resulting 188 per cent rise year-on-year compares very favourably with Bebo’s 25 per cent growth hike and MySpace’s 15 per cent.

The data highlights a heady time for the young start-up, but any growing pains will have been eased by its swelling user figures and continued buzz surrounding the brand; not to mention the small matter of $240 million courtesy of Microsoft in October.

But Coors UK thinks there is a gap in the market to be exploited so out comes Blue Moon, described as an unfiltered Belgian-style wheat beer spiced with coriander and orange peel that will be steered towards women.

Now, I know women drink lager and beer but I’ll make a sweeping generalisation and suggest most of them are, how shall we say, not very discriminatory about which lager or beer. I’ll wager the female membership of Camra is small. And if you watch beer or lager ads they are very much targeting men with examples of male camaraderie (Carling) or surreal wackiness of a male bent (Grolsch, Becks and Coors).

How will Blue Moon be marketed? It’ll be interesting to see if the marketing veers towards gender neutral so as not to alienate any blokes who do want to try the brand. In the US the beer is not aimed at any one demographic and even advertised in Men’s Fitness magazine.

However, in the US they do stick a slice of orange on the glass though and maybe the idea is to convince women they will be drinking a fruity cocktail of some kind.

To read a related news story click here

Associated’s Metro, sibling to Daily Mail, has run two consecutive stories on the dog’s apparent use of the word ‘f*ck’ immediately after it’s catch-phrse ‘Oh yes’ while ‘Here I Go Again’ by Whitesnake plays in the background.

A Churchill spokesman has denied there is any swearing in the ad, and maintains that all TV scripts are vetted at a high level.

However, he could not explain what the word was supposed to be.
What do you think?

The apparent reason for dropping “Baked” from Heinz Baked Beanz” is to reposition the products as a healthy snack and overhaul a dated image.

This is the kind of tampering and fiddling that does nothing to enhance a brand but merely blands it out, taking away its USP and heritage. New cans will have pictures of the beans for the first time – as if you couldn’t tell what was in the tin from the frickin name!

The healthy aspect sounds like bandwagon jumping. I’m sure that baked beans are healthier than some other options but if I like ‘em I’ll eat ‘em, whatever extra spin is put on the product. I wouldn’t compare Heinz Beanz to Pot Noodle but the attempt to put some kind of healthy overlay on that brand really was a kiss of death.

To read the related news story click here

It seems too many agencies shy away from targeting over 65s – certainly there is a lot less room for acquisition as this age group is more likely to be thinking about saving rather than spending, will have less disposable income and is less likely to be online.  Consumers that are pre-retirement, however, 50 – 65 years have a large disposable income, own property, are online savvy and more often than not are enjoying a new found freedom with children flying the nest.  Make no mistake – these are desirable customers to have as they are extremely brand loyal.  The emphasis needs to be on customer journey - brands in general, when targeting all demographics, need to keep this in mind. 

Instead, agencies and brands shy away from the over 50s market because of the ‘over 50s’ stigma, and the idea that they don’t use the internet.  It is absolutely ridiculous to think that all over 50s will respond in the same way to marketing.  No agency worth their salt would dream of targeting a 20 yr old student the same way as 40 yr old family man!  With this in mind it’s no wonder they get low responses, and then decide to stick with going for the easy, younger market.  Yes, dealing with ages makes targeting easier, but the over 50s market needs to be broken down further if marketing is going to be successful. 

Marketing needs to be clear and easy to interpret - over 50s will prefer to interact with a brand on their terms, not yours.  Agencies need to make sure that the over 50s market is actually relevant to their brand - if it is, they need to quantify the market, research behaviour and optimum methods of communication.    One of the main issues with targeting over 50s is that brands and agencies don’t have any empathy with the market - this is why research and strategy is paramount. 

The single most important thing when targeting over 50s?  Don’t treat them like over 50s!  It’s unnecessary and condescending.  I think Greg Dyke, former Head of the BBC summed it up pretty well when he said “I find it amazing now that I’ve turned 55 I have overnight turned from a prime marketing target to being grouped with my mother as a has-been”.

It’s a blatant Big Brother concept with the ad telling viewers that they can vote out one of the six revel flavours for a limited time and how it will be disposed. This will be replaced by a mystery flavour. To vote on the revels site click here.

But it’s clever stuff from Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO. The British go gaga for chocolate and chocolate-related interactivity, witness for Wispa campaign on Facebook and other recent initiatives such as the return of Marathon as a brand name.

But back to the Revels. It’s a shame that peanut has already gone as I suspect that would be the first one out of the pack to be ejected. The task is a little more difficult now. A quick office poll reveals that Orange and Raisin could be for the chop.

But what will that new flavour be? Turkish Delight anyone?

When will someone cut through the layers of obfustication (you can substitute a ruder word) and say that yes, 500 ml super strength lagers are for people with a drinking problem who can be found outside off licences at 9 am. It is so reminiscent of the king size cigarette rolling paper argument – the manufacturers say that they are for lorry drivers. Sure, if they are driving to the far reaches of inner and outer consciousness maaan.

But no-one will admit why super strength lagers containing 4.5 units exist and which demographic imbibes them, least of all the Portman Group. The drink industry’s self-appointed regulatory body has rapped Wells & Young for marketing that “could encourage responsible drinking”. Fine, it recognises this. The next step might be a recommendation to the government that such super strength lagers be scrapped?

Nope, I think Portman Group may argue freedom of choice on that one - but what about my choice not to see the NHS waste valuable resources on treating people suffering the terrible affects of alcoholism when its products like this that contribute to the problem?

Portman Group states that the 500 ml cans should not be cut down in size because of “inconsistencies””. The group quibbles that the Government’s sensible drinking advice of three to four units a day “raises questions over the rationality of treating four units as a strict threshold”. I can feel my rationality imploding. What do you think?

To read the related news story visit mad.co.uk

It’s a good publicity stunt, granted, to have the big launch which occurred today and Mayor Boris is obviously assured of coverage in the London press.

But he’s trying to obtain ideas and designs for free. There is a grand cash prize for the winner but is this really the way to generate proper, workable, transport ideas? Smacks of the usual sound and fury signifying nothing to me. The competition is asking for blueprints from professional designers, surely they want to be paid professionally and not roped in to some PR initiative?

The mayor is looking for a “new generation 21st century Routemaster bus” but I’m glad one feature of the old Routemaster will remain, it must be red. That must be galling to True Blue Boris.

To read the related news story click here

The group has just announced 11 sub-editing roles will go across its national newspaper division to make way for a ‘central production unit’ sitting behind the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People.

The move comes as the Mirror Group scrabbles to cut costs as investors lose confidence in its ability to make money; its share price slumped almost 30 per cent at the start of the week after forecasting lower than expected profits for 2008.

Trinity has said it hopes to remain “as competitive as possible” during “a challenging media environment and difficult economic climate”.

Today’s announcement follows a trend of making cuts at the cost of the subs team. Last year, David Montgomery, chief executive of European newspaper giant Mecom, said the birth of digital mobile reporting would “free” journalists from the “humdrum roles” of sub-editing.

He accused subs of living in a “twilight world”, checking things that didn’t need to be checked. Something which UK regional publisher Archant is also banking on, after letting go of eight subs at the start of summer.
I suspect these unsung heroes of quality production will be missed.

To read a related news story click here

The media director for The Sun went up against Dominic Carter of Times Media for the top sales job at the new company being formed by head honcho James Murdoch but is now leaving.

News Int has now confirmed Carter’s appointment to the top post and the decision is an interesting one – it seems to go against the grain of bringing in blood across all commercial roles from a broader media background.

The well-respected Carter has ink running through his veins. He worked at Mirror Group Newspapers for five years after a 10-year stint at News International and he rejoined Murdoch’s outfit in 2006.

Chippendale is a media polymath with stints as sales director at Sky and vice president of media sales at Yahoo! He joined News Group in 2006 and set about rearranging sales teams into multi-platform hubs.

We know Murdoch and his captains are looking to take much-loved brands, such as The Sun and The Times, to other media platforms as newspaper sales decline and Chippendale’s appointment seemed to follow this thinking.
 
But the print man has won through so salud to Carter. Knowing your product inside out still seems to count for something.

To read the related news story visit mad.co.uk