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The two companies — Specific Media and Golden Gate Capital — are named as potential buyers of MySpace in an acquisition deal that News Corp. hopes to complete by Thursday, its fiscal year end, reports All Things Digital. The price is in the $20 million to $30 million range.
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FinancialForce.com launched a new solution, FinancialForce for Media, to enable media companies to integrate Salesforce CRM, ad servers and FinancialForce Billing, bringing together the processes of selling, tracking and billing for online advertising campaigns. The solution works between Salesforce CRM, ad servers like Google's DoubleClick for Publishers and FinancialForce Billing.
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Consumer Watchdog has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission charging that the virtual currency system "Facebook Credits" used to play games on Facebook's social network violates antitrust law. New Facebook Credits terms are scheduled to take effect on Friday, July 1, 2011. Under the new contract, game developers using the Facebook platform must exclusively use Facebook Credits in the operation of their games; must agree not to charge lower prices to consumers outside of Facebook; and must pay a 30% service fee for all Facebook Credits purchases. The complaint, released today, asks the FTC to issue an injunction that would stop the anticompetitive behavior. It also asks the FTC to investigate a deal between Facebook and Zynga Inc., the largest game developer in the United States, as a possible "unreasonable restraint on trade."
Chart: Top Marketing Priorities, 2011 v. 2012
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About this chart: Source: Forbes, "Bringing 20/20 Foresight to Marketing," June 2011.The report is based on a survey of 321 executives and some one-on-one interviews conducted by Forbes Insights in March and April 2011.Forbes insights, in association with the Coremetrics, an IBM company. Respondents are involved in marketing or corporate management at large businesses in the U.S. and the U.K. -- all worked for companies in industries that are typically major online marketers, including retail, travel/hospitality, financial services, and technology/media/telecom. More than three quarters of the companies (77%) had annual revenues of $1 billion or greater, and the remaining 23% had revenues of at least $250 million. More than a quarter of respondents held C-level titles, including CEO (15%) or CMO (11%), and the rest had senior titles including senior vice president, vice president, director of marketing, and marketing manager.
Chart: Shifts in Marketing Spending in 2012 Budegt
Report: 52% of Marketers Say Customer Retention is Top Priority
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Marketers’ priorities are customer-centric, according to a report from Forbes Insights, "Bringing 20/20 Foresight to Marketing." More than half, 52% of a group of 231 marketing or corporate managers, cited customer retention as their top current priority, followed by customer acquisition (38%), and customer profitability (29%), and these remain top priorities for 2012, as well. Their budgets are reflecting these priorities as well, with four in ten executives (39%) dedicating the largest chunk of their funds to customer retention. Customer acquisition runs a close second (36%). The survey asked about budgeting in 2012 as well. Over the next year, 56% of respondents said that they will increase their online marketing spend, 54% will increase their social media spend, and 50% will increase their mobile marketing spend.
Kenshoo Releases Platform for Social Network Campaigns | PriceGrabber App Gives Store Inventory
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After securing more than 24 billion targeted advertising impressions on Facebook during its beta period, Kenshoo, a digital marketing software company, announced the public release of Kenshoo Social. The product is an enterprise technology that aims to drive brand engagement through social network advertising campaigns in a more efficient and effective manner. Kenshoo Social has evolved based on customer feedback with dedicated research and development around the areas of audience targeting, bid management, attribution and social metrics optimization.
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PriceGrabber, a part of Experian, has made upgrades to is PriceGrabber Android mobile shopping application. This application offers consumers shopping deal information, discount badges, and brick-and-mortar product. The upgrade allows consumers to share their favorite products with friends and family via email, Twitter and Facebook. They also can view enlarged product images; review detailed product specifications; and evaluate product offers of new, used or refurbished items. Another feature ties in local brick-and-mortar details, giving the prices and inventories of products available in their local retail location from the app, the GPS component can supplies driving directions to the store, the company reports.
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Salesforce.com and Toyota Motor have formed a strategic alliance to build Toyota Friend, a private social network for Toyota customers and their cars. Toyota Friend will be powered by Salesforce Chatter, a private social network used by businesses, and will be rolled out first in Japan in 2012. Toyota Friend will be a private social network that connects Toyota customers with their cars, their dealership, and with Toyota, according to a company statement. Part of the service would be, for example, to notify a driver by a text message to re-charge a low battery. In addition, while Toyota Friend will be a private social network, customers can choose to extend their communication to family, friends, and others through public social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The service will also be accessible through smart phones, tablet PCs, and other advanced mobile devices.
Report: 7 Steps to Jump-Start Email Campaigns
Fine Tune CRM Strategy, Five Tips | Social Media Guidance from Awareness
- How well can a CRM program meet the needs of an individual consumer? Target Marketing has five tips and examples, in “5 Methods to Find Your Best CRM Channels.” The article covers the basics, starting with direct and email, streamed to reach consumers according to their response to the channels, and ending with a reminder to test and review. But it is what’s in the middle in terms of personalization – an “exclusive” offer for auto maintenance that includes the owner’s VIN – that illustrates how far the relationship can go.
Chart: Agency Revenue Growth, 2001-2010
Chart: 2010 Agency Revenue by Discipline
Salesforce.com Acquires Radian6 | +1 is the Google Like | 7 Tips for Location-based Marketing
- Customer relationship manager Salesforce.com is acquiring social media “buzz” monitor Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock. About $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash will be issued to founders over the next two years, subject to certain “vesting conditions.” The acquisition comes after months of investment activity by Salesforce, writes paidcontent.org. In February, Salesforce participated in a $4 million round by Twitter and Facebook client Seesmic. Last month, Salesforce was part of a $32 million fourth round of funding for HubSpot, which sells all-in-one software used by businesses to get online leads. Read the whole story here.