Dear DMIC members,

We are in the final testing phase of our new social media site for digital marketers. I would welcome you, this community to come and take a look at this SNS and offer us some suggestions and feedback on this new site.

The purpose for this new socially orientated community is to provide a place for us in digital marketing to develop more meaningful connections with others and develop a culture of sharing best practices and even some war stories.

I thank you for spending a few minutes to drop in and take a look. Again, this site is in Beta and your time to take a look is appreciated.

You can visit: http://www.dmic.asia

Thanks
Matt McDougall
DMIC Group Moderator

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Australians help NZ tourism hit annual record
July 21 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s tourist numbers reached 2.5 million for the first time in a 12-month period in June as Australians kept coming across the ditch for a cheap holiday, though economists warn the golden weather may have passed.

Read more on Scoop.co.nz

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Museums-East Bay Through July 25
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND The Oakland Public Library’s museum is designed to discover, preserve, interpret and share the cultural and historical experiences of African Americans in California and the West. In addition, a three-panel mural is on permanent display.

Read more on The Berkeley Daily Planet

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It was interesting to read about the Google display advertising agreement with Omnicom Media Group (OMG) this week. Basically Google will assist OMG in building a “trading desk” to facilitate ad buying through the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

This is not really different to what  OMG was doing for its clients anyway… just now OMD will funnel millions of dollars through Google over the next two years using their ‘trading desk’ rather than the OMD Ad Exchange. Also I expect there will be some additional benefits to OMD I expect through access to Search and Analytics expertise.

But in this deal, who is the winner? The Client? OMD or Google?

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From May 1st to October 31st, the Universal Exposition (“World’s Fair”) held in Shanghai will be the largest ever.

A hundred million people are expected on the site’s 5.28 sq. km which extends over both shores of Huangpu River. The visitors will explore the pavilions built around the theme “Better City, Better Life” by the 192 countries that are taking part in the expo. The public, which is estimated to consist almost entirely of Chinese visitors, will probably beat all preceding records.

However, even more numerous are those who will not be able to visit the expo in person, mainly for practical or financial reasons. To enable as many people as possible to take advantage of this exceptional event, the organizers have set up an internet site in several languages.

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The was bound to be a major shake up in the online travel sector… Only a few weeks ago, Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, a Cambridge airlines and online travel agency and now here in China the Chinese airlines announced that they were slashing commissions to travel agents.

The result of that last announcement drove the share price of Ctrip.com down by 14%% investors started to realize this was not a good position to be in. The commissions paid by carriers such as Air China and China Southern to travel agents like Ctrip.com could drop by as much as 50% and for Ctrip.com that represents as much as 40% of its planned 2010 revenue. Ouch!

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It is being widely reported that the China’s growth in online advertising continues at a quick pace. AC Neisen has come out and said that this spending reached 4.06 billion RMB in the first quarter of 2010—a 52.7% increase over the same period in 2009. This trend is expected to continue for the remainder of the year. The Fashion industry was the top spender, with almost 18% market share. Half of the top 10 industries lost market share in the first quarter.

In 2010, China’s ad investment growth is projected to reach 11 percent, making China the fourth-biggest advertising market after the U.S., Japan and German

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In what seems obvious to most of us working in the digital marketing space have noticed that this year’s revenue is good.. actually very good. So news out today suggesting that global ad spending will increase by 3.5% this year to $451 billion and 4.5% in 2011 to $471 billion is not that surprising. This is the forcasts from GroupM (remembering only 6 months ago they were predicted only 1% growth for this year).

The GroupM forecast supports the upgraded ZenithOptimedia global advertising spending predictions for the next three years. ZenithOptimedia is predicting total increases of 2.2%, 4.1% and 5.3%, respectively. It also predicted Internet ad spending will take a greater portion of ad expenditures in the next three years. So after reading these forcasts I am smiling and I rubbing my hands together expecting a growing SinoTech Group over the next years.

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Twitter hits $1 billion valuation within 3 years. Facebook reached equal valuation with 2 years. Groupon, however, broke the record, it only takes a year and a half. On April 19th of this year, a consortium, led by DST (a Russian investment company), invested $135 million on Groupon, making the valuation of Groupon shoot up to $1.35 billion. As New York Times said, Groupon was the craziest the Internet company in history.

The business model in Groupon is that it only sales one product or service per day, and via daily updating and bulk-discount price, Groupon is able to attract mass purchasers and then, collect 50% of the transaction commission in return. Groupon creates a new Internet business model consists of e-commerce, social marketing and online ads.

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With Google gone, is Baidu set to completely dominate the Chinese search engine market or are there other challengers waiting in the wings?

This is a great topic and one that Leonard has done a great job in exploring this on his blog (The China Sourcing Blog). He makes some interesting conclusions and outlines the core issues facing Baidu and the smaller Chinese search engines. You can read his post below.

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Seems yet another company is being established to exploit the growing Chinese e-commerce sector. Today, I was interested to note a new joint venture established by Baidu and the Japanese e-commerce operator Rakuten (called "Le Ku Tian").

These are both Internet powerhouses in their own right and this combination may be the start of an interesting period in e-commerce or given the size of these companies and their respective aspirations may turn out to be more buzz than real sucsess. But an interesting combination neathertheless and certainly as digital marketers, we will have much to see from a Branding, positioning and execution (marketing) perspective.

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