The German association of data protection authorities have ruled that tracking using IP addresses breaches German law. The ruling and the implications for marketers are covered on the Marketing Law website, which highlights that:

IP-addresses are considered personal data.
The storage of IP-addresses will be found non-compliant with German data protection.
The use of web analytics tools based on IP-addresses will be found illegal and can be sanctioned with a fine up to €50.000.

Tags: Germany, Misc Marketing, UK

The Marketing Law website does a great job of highlighting the issues of running international marketing campaigns based on parody. Although parody is protected in countries such as France, Germany, Australia and the USA, the UK Government has chosen not to exempt it from copyright law in the UK. The site warns that “marketeers need to take care when using parody, caricature or pastiche in advertising, packaging or branding in the UK”. We are not amused!

Tags: Advertising, France, Germany, Misc Marketing, UK, USA

An interesting case study that will be of interest for the many companies marketing their eco-credentials: the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints about adverts that claimed flying with Finnair is “eco-smart”. Of particular concern is that the ASA said that companies should not make an absolute claim – choosing Finnair is “eco-smart” – when flying does have a detrimental effect on the environment. I can see companies in our industry running into similar problems if they are not careful – e.g. “the green power supply for data centres”.

Osbourne Clark’s Marketing Law website has an excellent in-depth discussion of the Finnair case (registration required).

Tags: Advertising, Misc Marketing, UK

Every year I put together a review of what happened in the European electronics media, including some of the highlights from my postings to Napier News. Despite the economic challenges, we saw some positive moves from publishers in our industry, hopefully laying the groundwork for greater success in the future. The Napier News Review of 2009 is available now, simply click here to get your PDF copy.

Tags: Electronics, Europe, Misc Marketing, News About Napier

Many agencies are experimenting with social media: at Napier we’re very active using a range of online tools to improve our communication and that of our clients. I’ve recently received a copy of an extremely interesting dissertation about the use of social media by PR agencies written by Sophie Plastow that is based upon new rese4arch. I’d thoroughly recommend that anyone working in or managing an agency reads it: if you want a copy you can request one from Sophie.

Tags: CIE, Clients, Email, ESE, google, Misc Marketing, Online

A couple of recent announcements demonstrate that large publishers – particularly in the US – are working to create better digital magazines. Hearst has teamed up with Skiff to create a “magazine e-reader”, whilst several publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc.have joined forces to define a “storefront" – i.e. a consistent portal for accessing digital magazines.

The fact that publishers are putting resources into ensuring the technology for reading electronic magazines develops rapidly is great news. I’m also much less worried about the impending battle between publishers and digital media companies such as Apple and Amazon, provided that there is a way to distribute controlled circulation titles. In fact digital distribution may not only provide the valuable information about who has read a magazine, but would also allow other readers to get copies even if they fall outside the terms of control (assuming that publishers do continue to manage their terms of control!). Advertisers and publishers can then argue about whether the additional readers justify a higher rate, although hopefully everyone understands that controlled circulation is worth A LOT more than uncontrolled circulation.

One thing, however, does worry me. Although it’s not surprising the main focus of activity is in the USA, I really don’t want publishers using delivery platforms, whether “storefronts” or e-readers to compete. I’d like the publications with the best content to win, rather than those from the publishing houses with the financial resources to invest in delivery technology. This has to be a particular concern in Europe, as many publishers – particularly in the electronics media – are relatively small companies. Having said this, I can’t see that any publisher is going to win by fragmenting the delivery systems: there is no way anyone would accept having to own multiple e-readers to allow them to read titles from different publishers that have chosen different hardware platforms. As long as the publishers strive to create the best content and make it available on all platforms, the hardware manufacturers work on producing the best e-readers, and the readers are allowed an unrestricted choice of publication and platform, then we could see a dramatic recovery in the financial fortunes of magazine publishers.

Tags: Digital Magazines, Misc Marketing, Online

Napier is aiming to break the 1000mph barrier and set a new land speed record. OK, we’re not actually going to do any of the record breaking, but our name will be on the tail fin of the BLOODHOUND SSC as it challenges for a World Land Speed Record of 1,000mph.

Richard Noble and the Bloodhound team are offering anyone the chance to have their name on the tail fin, for a bargain £10.00 donation. Visit the Bloodhound SSC website to find out more.

Tags: Misc Marketing

Most readers of Napier News will have heard of the recent FTC guidelines concerning disclosure of paid-for product promotions online. Here’s a great article explaining the FTC guidelines (free registration required).

Tags: Misc Marketing, Online, UK, USA

The people behind Bedrock must have heard publishers complaining that they could write better adverts, and have given them the choice. Although initially targeted at major brands, this service that allows advertisers to bid on advertising phrases from publishers is something that I’m sure would be attractive to the electronics media. It might only be a matter of time before publishers and editors stop worrying about SEO and start wondering how many advertising phrases they can include on a page!

Tags: Advertising, Editors, Electronics, Misc Marketing, Online

Unbelievably this is the 1000th post I’ve made to Napier News. As it will soon be Christmas (my children are already bursting with excitement, even though there are nearly three weeks to go) I thought it might make sense to write out my European electronics media wish list to Santa.

Dear Santa

I’ve been very good boy this year and have worked very hard. Please could I have some presents this Christmas?

Firstly I’d like engineers to keep their knowledge up to date. When I finished my degree I knew very little and had to read lots of magazines to learn how to be a good engineer. I needed to read, as I simply couldn’t ask the right questions, so why do engineers now think that they can learn all they know by typing a few words into Google?

Please can you tell publishers to continue investing in editorial content. I know that editors cost money, but surely cutting editorial quality is going to eventually mean that no one wants to read the magazine? Surely great editorial will help get more readers, online traffic and advertising revenue?

I don’t understand why websites in the electronics industry are so slow to adopt new media. It seems that whilst publishers are happy to make a couple of quick edits to press release texts to create an online story, they won’t put any video on the website unless its recorded and produced by a team of professional producers. What about recording interviews using Skype? Some of the editors record interviews, so why don’t they just post the audio on the website. Please can you tell them that new media doesn’t need to be difficult!

Whilst I’m talking about online, why can’t publishers create more analysis that would really add value to engineers? Jeff Jarvis has been talking about topic pages for a long time, and this idea would be perfect for the electronics industry. Yet the topic pages that have been generated seem to be written and then forgotten.

Finally please can you help publishers and editors to make better use of social media? I know a lot of engineers don’t use social media, but do we really have to believe that the pinnacle of social media in our industry was EE Times revealing Dr. Nicely’s discovery of the famous Pentium FDIV bug to the world after a forum post.

Thank you Santa. I promise I’ll leave a carrot out for Rudolph.

Love from

Mike

p,s. If you have time, please could I also have an end to the recession, world peace, new killer applications and a chance to drive the Bloodhound SSC.

Tags: Misc Marketing

Huson International Media, who impressively claim to be “the World’s largest independent representative of technology medea” has opened an office in Munich, Germany. The company already has offices in the UK as well as on the East and West Coast of the USA.

The new German office will be headed by industry heavyweight Christian Hoelscher, who previously was CMP-WEKA Director of International Sales,

Tags: CMP, EPE, ESE, Germany, Misc Marketing, UK, USA, Weka

Inware is promoting a new way to create an immediate electronic link between readers of print titles and advertisers. The publisher is encouraging advertisers to include an electronic tag that can be snapped by a camera on a smart phone and used to jump immediately to relevant online content.

This is a great move, and with the increasing use of internet enabled phones from blackberries to iPhones, is likely to be something that will grow and grow. Our research has shown that when reading magazines engineers are often not close to a PC, and don’t like to type in long URLs into their phones to get information. This approach bridges the gap, and unlike other Microsoft technologies is available for smart phones running a wide range of different OSs.

I’d bet on adoption of this technology growing pretty quickly across all markets, although in industries such as ours, where the delivery of detailed technical information is important, the technology looks particularly applicable. Kudos to Inware for being an early adopter!

Tags: EiN, ESE, Inware, Italy, Misc Marketing, Online, Print Publications, Research