DaxThink: Digital life

Ad agency Dewynters has selected Bluestreak to provide the email marketing platform for the new London musical, Wicked.

Digital marketing firm Bluestreak will deliver the ‘Ozmopolitan’ email newsletter and competition emails to fans of Wicked.

The emails include a referral scheme aimed at increasing the database, games, offers and news for subscribers.Based at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, Wicked tells the untold story of the witches in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ explaining why one came to be called ‘good’ and the other ‘wicked’.

Dewynters manages all the marketing for Wicked including the branding, creative, media planning and buying and direct marketing.

The email marketing was planned by the agency to engage with Wicked’s fans and increase the subscriber base in order to promote ticket sales.

Recipients can click through to link at www.wickedthemusical.co.uk to participate in the online games and offers.

Michael McCabe, the show’s producer, said: “Wicked is already one of London’s top grossing musical, with record-breaking attendance figures and ticket sales. The show has really captured the imagination of many dedicated fans and email is a way to establish regular communication with them and develop deeper engagement.”

By nma.co.uk
http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/Home/Articles/299b01213a5c4d9b971bedcabc37a7ef/Bluestreak-follows-DoubleClick-with-plan-for-mobile-ad-serving.html

Marketing technology specialist Bluestreak has revealed that it will provide an ad-serving platform that integrates mobile and traditional online channels before the end of the year.
The news comes a week after rival DoubleClick said its leading DART ad-serving technology would be developed to integrate a mobile offering, thereby creating a one-stop shop for potential clients.

"We're very interested in mobile and are likely to be doing something similar in the year, although we'll face the same challenges as DoubleClick," said Dax Hamman, international operations manager at Bluestreak. "The main thing is that we're waiting for the customer, and the agencies we're working with aren't pushing as hard into the mobile space as DoubleClick would like to think."

Ari Paparo, VP of rich media for DoubleClick worldwide, said that mobile is now a viable opportunity for advertisers, even though there are obstacles to overcome. such as mobile browser quality.

"It's true that advertising on mobile is lacking in some respects, but it's moving in the right direction very rapidly," said Paparo. "Getting in the game is very important both for us and our clients."

By nma.co.uk
http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/Home/Articles/592070de06f24e189f21b44c092d8201/Bluestreak-wins-deal-for-Wicked-email-promotion.html

Entertainment agency Dewynters has appointed Bluestreak to provide an email marketing platform for West End musical, Wicked. The marketing technology company will deliver a series of 'Ozmopolitan' emails, based on the hit London musical and its Wizard of Oz-inspired characters. The emails will include games, news and special offers, plus a referral system to win new subscribers. Dewynters represents a range of arts and leisure clients and promotes musicals including Chicago, Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables.

By Dax Hamman

Most of the UK is blanketed in snow this morning, and I dont know if we are all more suprised that it's sticking, or that the forecasters actually called this one right a week ago!

I digress.

Despite the snow many of you will make it in to work today, many of you won't. Personally, I am writing this on the train to Paddington waiting for the inevitable calls from those colleagues who's trains are cancelled and that they will be working from home.

And there it is, that simple phrase that we so easily take for granted, 'working from home'; this is the reminder to all of us what the Internet has always been about.

It is a communications tool, a device for connecting remote individuals, for sharing information and for allowing interactivity. The soul of the Internet is to be the enabler.

Let me explain...

I have already been able to retrieve my emails and so know that I have 2 team members stuck at home, and I have had a text message from a third to tell me they will be running late.

The key is that it's ok, there is no need for concern.

Using our VPN (virtual private network) they will be able to access Exchange and hence their email, they will be able to talk to our offices in New York, Rhode Island, Fresno (California) and London using messenger, and they can continue to run the technology we provide to our customers because they are ASP models and hence accessed through a standard browser. They will also divert their office phones to their mobile phones and retrieve their voicemails by dialling in.

And if none of us make it in today then I will just log on to our telephone service centre on the web and divert all our phone numbers to our US support line.

Will our client's know any difference?

Well, we are British and so the temptation to share the 'hardship' we are enduring to continue to provide a good service will be too much to bear for some (and we do love a good chat about the weather!!). But they don't have to know. We could pack up the office today, move 1,000 miles away and still be reachable on the same numbers and email accounts.

In the modern corporate world we take things like Blackberries, VPN's, IM, SMS, ASP applications etc for granted, but just for one day, today, stop for a moment and wonder in its complex simplicity.

...

Whether First Great Western will be able to make a train work this evening to get me home tonight is another matter.

Enjoy the snow.

(Photo credits: Sky News - http://news.sky.com)

By Dax Hamman

Watch The truth about online Ad Sales and Marketing revealed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fclYmVaORbM

And, not wanting to be left out, the truth revealed about Advertising:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Go_VtqtxCHY

These give us a great excuse to continue the YouTube debate.

With the news this morning that YouTube is to remove 100,000+ videos at the request of Viacom (whose stable includes MTV) due to breach of copyright, where will it end? Deals are being struck with the TV stations and music production houses to share the revenue generated from video posts, but will it be enough to stem the flow of complaints?

I think so.

With their new owners fully settled in to their latest .com, the Google machinery has announced a similar revenue sharing model to its AdSense program. Although the details are yet unclear, the principle of user generated content allowing anyone to generate advertising revenues is at its core.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13565030,00.html

With the Google name behind it, YouTube becomes more accountable for its content, but it also becomes more 'legitimate' and it has a ready-made audience of millions to bargain with. There is a way to go but the opportunity is too large for the necessary deals not to be done.

Finally, YouTube could be creating a new industry from its revenue sharing model. Could the viral video maker become the financial star of the web? The 2 examples above are logged as having received 100,000's of visitors each (there are multiple copies of each video uploaded by different users). These are not small numbers, and with the right targeted advertising alongside, not only can the viral itself offer an indirect return through brand awareness, but for the first time it has the potential to offer a more direct and measurable return through contextual advertising.

Whilst we are on the topic, there is one viral that to me remains top of the pile. "Obey the Suit" was created for Lutwyche Bespoke Tailors and has acheived a difficult balance of cheeky content (to make it viral - sex sells!) without crossing over into something distasteful.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DxCGpDrCzKU