Digital Intelligence

Google lets users send money via Gmail

2013-05-17T14:02:37Z

Google has introduced a new dollar-sign icon for Gmail attachments, letting users transfer money via its Google Wallet service.

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By clicking the icon users can transfer money via Google Wallet. Credit and debit cards can be used for a fee of 2.9% per transaction.

Google maintains the transactions are encrypted and stored on secure servers. Transactions are also monitored to stop any fraudulent activity.

Introduced in 2011, Google Wallet has still yet to go mainstream. This is due to consumer resistance to mobile-based transactions, but also because of a lack of awareness and retail deployment.

To send money in Gmail, users hover over the attachment paperclip, click the $ icon to attach money to the message, enter the amount they wish to send, and press send.

While sending money in Gmail is currently only available on desktop, users can send money from Google Wallet at wallet.google.com from phones or laptops.

Users will need to have set up Google Wallet to send and receive money, and Google Wallet Purchase Protection ‘covers 100% against eligible unauthorized payments’.

The feature will be rolled out over the coming months to all US Gmail users over 18 years old.

Watch the Gmail money transaction in action below:

http://www.google.com/wallet/send-money/

Smartphone wars: Android has shipped 4 times more than Apple in 2013 (so far)

2013-05-17T14:00:12Z

Android continued its dominance of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2013, accounting for 3 out of 4 smartphones sold, according to new data.

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The study, from the IDC, found that Android shipped 162.1 million handsets in the quarter, giving the platform a 75% share of total worldwide shipments, compared to Apple’s 37.4 million devices giving it a 17.3% share.

Apple actually saw its strongest first quarter ever in terms of shipment volumes, but its iOS platform still couldn't keep up the pace of growth seen by Google's Android, which is available on a multitude of devices from numerous manufacturers.

Shipments of devices running Android surged from a 59.1 percent market share in the first quarter of 2012 to 75 percent in the same period this year.

Google itself announced at its annual I/O developers conference on Wednesday that activations of Android devices recently surpassed the 900 million mark. Just a year ago, there had been 400 million activations, while the 100 million milestone was achieved in 2011, demonstrating the platform's accelerating growth.

Two horse race?

With Apple and Google seeing their platforms combine to take more than 92 percent of the smartphone market, remaining competitors were left to take the scraps.

BlackBerry and Microsoft have each stepped up their games with their respective BB10 and WP8 OS's of late. Microsoft managed to take third place, with a 3.2% share over BlackBerry's 2.9%.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone, driven primarily by its partner Nokia (79% of all its shipments), grew the most of all platforms, with a rise of 133.3%- the largest growth of all platforms.

IDC also notes that over the last year, shares of the biggest platforms have fluctuated, although Android’s current 75% is the highest in a year.

The last time that Android approached 75%, in Q3 2012, Apple’s share was only 14.5% as people held out for a new iPhone model.

This indicates that Apple’s growth this quarter was at the expense of declines for other smaller platforms.

Source: www.idc.com

Top 20 sites in Russia by visitors and time spent

2013-05-17T13:11:45Z

Mail.ru is the largest free email service in Russia and leads in terms of visits and average time spent on the site. Vk.com is a popular social network in Russia and has the second highest average time spent on the site (343.2). Vk.com reported higher vists and time spent than popular social network Facebook, whose 13,114,000 Russian users spent less than 30 minutes on average on the site during February 2013.

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UK digital publishing ad revenues rise 16%- video fuels growth

2013-05-17T12:59:09Z

UK digital publisher advertising revenues were up 16.2% in Q1 2013, versus the same period of the previous year, according to new research.

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The study, from The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte, also recorded publisher sentiment for the coming twelve months, showing that 100% of AOP board member respondents are expecting growth in digital advertising spend this quarter (Q2 2013).

The Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index study tracks actual digital revenue breakdown. This is the tenth quarterly report published by AOP/Deloitte and only the second time that growth figures have been released to the wider publishing industry.

Strong Start to 2013 for UK Digital Publishers

A total of 66% of respondents reported positive total advertising growth in the first quarter of 2013, the highest figure since Q3 2011.

Online video continues to be the fastest growing advertising format for digital publishers, up 56.4% year on year.

Display and sponsorship continue to perform well, up 13.7% and 12.3% respectively. Recruitment advertising was up 11.0%, with other forms of classified advertising growing 3.1% during the same period.

Year-on-year B2C growth increased to 20.0 % in Q1 2013, compared to 8.7% in Q1 2012. In comparison, B2B growth stood at 2.1% this quarter, down from 6.0% in the same quarter last year. This difference was driven by a slowdown in growth for display advertising for the B2B group.

“Despite taking a fairly cautious view of growth earlier in the year, Q1 results actually indicate a strong upside for publishers,” said Tim Cain, head of research & insight for the Association of Online Publishers. “This has fuelled a more positive expectation for the coming twelve months. Both display formats and recruitment advertising have contributed to a strong Q1 performance”
“Year-on-year growth for Q1 2013 is double what we saw for the same quarter last year,” said Howard Davies, Deloitte media partner. “We’re starting to see greater optimism across the market and the digital advertising industry continues to grow strongly as new formats and concepts become embedded. The differences between B2B and B2C sectors are perhaps starker than some would expect but probably reflect the shift in the B2B sector towards more data driven revenues.”

Sentiment Index

The AOP Digital Publishers Revenue Index Report (DPRI), carried out by Deloitte, is complemented by the AOP Sentiment Index Report, which questions AOP board members on how they anticipate the market to perform over the coming twelve months.

Notably, 100% of AOP board members who responded expect growth in digital advertising spend this quarter (Q2 2013). The majority (92.3%) selected ‘Advertising revenue growth’ as a high priority for their business over the next twelve months, up from 78.9% in Q1 2012. Expectations for growth also appear to be shifting back towards the traditionally high performing advertising sectors, with AOP board members expecting to see highest increases in the FMCG, Retail, Telecoms, and Automotive advertising sectors over the coming twelve months.

Positive Industry Outlook

Confidence amongst digital publishers is significantly higher than the average found throughout wider industry. The Deloitte CFO Quarterly Survey questions over 300 CFOs, mainly from FTSE 350 companies across a broad range of industry sectors, in order to gauge optimism and financial attitudes of major corporate users of capital. Those taking part in the AOP Sentiment Index were found to rank 27% points higher than the wider industry average when asked if they felt more optimistic about their company’s finances now that they did three months ago.

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Source: http://www.ukaop.org.uk/.

Is Google doing 'evil' over UK tax? (video)

2013-05-17T12:54:59Z

Google has been accused of ignoring its own mantra and doing "evil in using smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax" by UK MPs this week.

Watch a video from Channel 4 showing Google Vice President Matt Brittin being questioned by the committee here:

]]> Google’s tax affairs are currently being examined by the public accounts committee, claiming that it conducts no sales activity in the UK.

Committee chairman Labour MP Margaret Hodge described as a "stream of whistleblowers" that employees in the UK had been paid commission for sales activity here in the UK.

"It was quite clear from all that documentation that the entire trading process and sales process took place in the UK," Hodge said.

Google says that as the billing for advertising sales are paid in Ireland, their UK workforce is not involved in sales.

At the committee, Google Vice President Matt Brittin said the evidence related to the period before he joined the company six and half years ago and that suggestions that Google was trying to "disguise" the way it operated were "just not true".

However Mrs Hodge described the payslips shown by a whistleblowing former senior salesman which showed the payment of a "modest" salary and three or four times that amount in commission for making sales and "closing deals".

Hodge added: "I simply suggest to you again that you think about what you actually said on November 12 which was that 'anyone who buys advertising from us in Europe buys from Google in Ireland, from our expert teams'. That is not what the whistleblower told us and that is not what the documentation demonstrated. I think you should think really carefully about what you said to us and whether or not that holds true."

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office and Comptroller & Auditor General, told Mr Brittin the issue was not "going away" because people remained sceptical: "There are a tonne of people who are listening and saying we think they are selling in the UK."

Hodge drew the Google evidence to a close by remarking "you're a company that says you do no evil, and I think you do 'do evil' in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax."

The probe follows a wider international effort to get companies to pay more tax as governments cut spending programs to curb deficits. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will be the subject of a May 21 Senate hearing on US companies’ offshore tax practices, two people familiar with the inquiry said this week. Apple uses a similar strategy to the one used by Google to cut its income taxes.

The Guardian reported this week that the UK arm of Amazon paid £3.2m in corporate income taxes in 2012. In its annual report in the US, Amazon reported UK sales that year of almost $6.5bn.

Warm weather boosts April ecommerce sales 16% as shoppers flock to travel sites

2013-05-17T12:54:19Z

Latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, reveal the impact the short spell of warm weather had on shoppers’ purse strings in April, recording a 16% rise on the same time last year. The Travel sector in particular saw a solid performance, increasing 16% year-on-year.

]]> This is the first time the sector has seen growth between March and April (up 2%) since the Index first recorded online travel sales in 2009.

Beer, wine and spirits was another well performing sector, which saw a 19% increase on online sales compared to April last year, and a monthly growth of 18%. This follows a poor performance in Q1 with growth of just 3%.

Electricals took a hit for the first time since July 2011, down 3% year-on-year, with the average basket value at £167. This disappointing performance comes off the back of a very strong April 2012, which saw the launch of the iPad 3, the sale of which created a ‘Halo’ effect on the wider sector, spurring shoppers to splash out on other electrical goods. The same period this year, has not experienced the release of any highly anticipated consumer electronics.

The figures reveal a continuing trend between online-only retailers and those who have both an online and physical presence on the high-street. Online retailers saw growth of 20% year-on-year in April, while multichannel recorded 14%. Similar to what happened in 2012, the performance of online and multichannel retailers converged during the Christmas period, but have since diverged with online outperforming their multichannel counterparts. This suggests that shoppers are becoming more confident in the internet as a transaction medium, and a result of the increased adoption of new technologies and services (mobile devices, social media etc.) introduced by online only retailers.

The M-Commerce Index revealed that growth in sales via mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) is slowing, from 243% year-on-year in March to 131% (excluding travel) in April. However, a slowdown in growth is natural as the use of m-retail and mobile technology becomes more widespread.

Tina Spooner, Chief Information Officer at IMRG: “Now that the green shoots of economic recovery have arrived with a (now distant) spell of sunshine, the momentum of online shopping in Q2 is even more evident. The solid Index performance in April is ahead of our 12% e-retail growth forecast for 2013, resulting in average growth of 15% year-to-date. We expect UK.com to continue to dominate the retail picture as the recovery gathers greater momentum.”

Chris Webster, VP, Head of Retail Consulting and Technology at Capgemini: “April’s results revealed the influence the shift in temperature and school holidays can have one the retail sector. With the holiday period falling at the start of April and warm weather following in the second half, we have seen uplifts in holidays, home & garden, alcohol and apparel driving the Index. Perhaps, we should have some faith that families do come together at holiday times to discuss their future holiday plans."

“Although sales via mobile devices are slowing, the sector continues to grow as retailers invest in the technology to personalise the shopping experience. A rise in conversion rates suggests that consumers are using mobile devices to research and purchase goods online while on the move.”

Industry View:

Oliver Ripley, Mobile Product Manager, eCommera comments: “The growth of m-commerce continues unabated with a 131% year on year growth recorded on non-travel related services and a 172% growth when travel related services are included. From this, it is easy to see therefore that travel mobile commerce is currently growing at 41% year on year.

Travel remains one of the key growth areas for mobile commerce as, by definition, travellers are away from home when abroad yet still want to have access to services that not only allow them to plan trips but also to help them enjoy their destinations. Frequently the mobile device is their sole access to the internet during a trip and is therefore crucial in delivering services that help them enjoy their time abroad. Travel related retailers should now think about what travel mobile services they can deliver to take advantage of the growth in travel m-commerce.”

Source: http://www.imrg.org/

Google woos local advertisers with Map ad icons

2013-05-16T16:00:04Z

Google has overhauled its popular Maps web service with more personalisation features and icons highlighting businesses running ads and promotions.

Watch a Google video explaining how the service works below:

]]> The move marks Google’s latest attempt to make its maps more attractive to advertisers who have tended to focus on Google's main search page.

The update was announced at Google's I/O developers conference in San Francisco.

Previously, firms advertising on Google's Maps were identified by a blue pin, rather than the red marker used for other businesses, but this was not always obvious what the pins referred to.

Under the new system, the names of businesses are shown on the map itself and the first few words of their ads appear in a box superimposed over their location.

In addition if they are running a special offer, a blue shopping-tag icon appears next to their name.

Google has spent huge sums developing its maps service, licensing third-party content and gathering its own data via sensor-equipped vehicles. But until now it has had little beyond brand loyalty to point to as a return on that investment.

While the move could help change that, it stressed that the redesign was "experimental" while it monitored feedback.

"While we test these ad formats in the new Google Maps, there won't be any charges for clicks on ads," a spokeswoman added. "We'll keep users posted in the AdWords blog and help-centre once this changes."

The new icons will not feature on the firm's smartphone apps for the time being.

Deeper personalisation

The revamp will also see Google prioritise the names of locations a user has frequently searched for in the past using any Google service

It will also highlight restaurants and other businesses a user's friends have posted positive reviews about on its Google+ social network, and landmarks related to previous searches (eg. If a user searches for a zoo, the map will highlight other family attractions nearby).

The firm has also simplified its user interface by replacing its left-hand column with "cards" specific to a single location.

I addition, Google Earth functionality has been built into the service so users can see the planet from space with near-live cloud data superimposed on top, or simulate a fly-by of landmarks.
According to consultants Opus Research, Google already has more than a 90% share of location-based searches in the US.

The Sun ‘£2 a week’ paywall coming in August?

2013-05-16T14:59:20Z

The Sun is to become the latest national newspaper to charge for online content, with plans to charge readers £2 a week to read content online with access to Premier League football highlights, according to a news report.

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According to the Media Guardian, the charge will come into effect in August after a £30m deal was struck for the rights to all 380 Premier League matches a season.

The tabloid newspaper, a property of News International, will make the change that ensures all three of company’s UK newspapers are pay-exclusive to online readers, with The Sun joining The Times and The Sunday Times in the subscription structure.

For The Sun, this structure will be based on the price of £2 per week for new online brand ‘Sun+’, which alongside its regular news content will contain full access to their exclusive ‘internet and mobile’ highlight rights to football from the English Premier League as of the next season (2013-14), a deal being shared with the rest of their News International stable.

It is currently unclear, though, how the new Sun+ system will affect the status of the £4.99-per-month iPad edition of the newspaper, although the use of different formats will most likely keep the two platforms separate.

Media Guardian reports that News International’s chief executive Mike Darcey is a key figure behind the change, having made previous claims that providing free online content is ‘untenable’ for a long-term business proposition, and that their Premier League highlights deal will be a big enough draw to bring in a sizable number of customers and assuring the success of the venture.

Google rivals WhatsApp with ‘Hangouts’ cross platform chat app

2013-05-16T14:58:35Z

Google has launched a cross-platform messaging app, letting users to have video chats, send text messages and swap pictures between Android and iOS devices as well its Chrome web browser.

Watch the app in action below:

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The service replaces Google Talk, and puts the internet giant in direct competition with WhatsApp, Skype, BBM, Tango and Facebook’s own Chat Heads service.

The Google Hagouts app will store past conversations on Google's servers. It also offers a search box where a user can type a name, email, phone number or name of a circle to see more contacts.

Google has also introduced 850 new hand-drawn emoticons and the service notifies the user of the other person typing a message. Users can customise how theyreceive Hangout notifications, who can send requests, or directly initiate hangouts and block people they don't want to talk to.

Notifications are synced across devices which means that a conversation started on the web can continue with it on a phone, but the web interaction will also get updated.

Rise of chat apps

Chat apps have grown in popularity in recent years, offering a free wi-fi based alternative to text messages- helping people avoid mobile operator charges.

Last month. The Financial Times reported that there were more instant messages being sent daily by the end of last year than there were text messages.

In terms of figures it asserts that 41 billion app, based messages will be sent each day this year - that's double the number of text messages.

The data, collected for the Financial Times by telecoms and media consultancy Informa, highlighted the rapid rise of a technology that did not exist five years ago but is seen by some as a potential challenger to Facebook’s dominance in social networking.

According to the data, 19 billion messages were sent each day in 2012 via chat apps compared to 17.6 billion from SMS. This highlights the huge growth chat apps have experienced in recent months as users look to avoid SMS fees, and those numbers are only projected to grow.

Informa believes chat apps will receive 50 billion messages each day by 2014 compared to 21 billion texts. The increase is in part due to the proliferation of smartphones.

Google takes on Spotify with $10 music streaming service

2013-05-16T13:58:00Z

Google has launched a streaming music subscription service, taking on the likes of Spotify and Pandora.

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Announced at the firm's I/O developers conference in San Francisco, ‘Google Play Music All Access’ lets users listen to millions of tracks in addition to the ones they already own.

However, unlike many of its rivals, there is no free-to-use option beyond an initial 30-day trial period.

Instead users face a $9.99 (£5.60) monthly charge to access a library containing millions of songs via an Android device or web browser. Early adopters are being offered a discounted rate of $7.99-a-month.

Music All Access lets users manually add songs to a playlist or use a feature called Explore to offer them recommendations. Playlists can also include songs which the user owns which would otherwise not be available.

Pricing and availability outside of the US have not yet been announced.

Investors appeared to welcome the move sending Google's shares above $900 for the first time.

Facebook extends ‘structured updates’ to mobiles to boost targeting

2013-05-16T13:55:33Z

Facebook is expanding its ‘structured status updates’ to its mobile service, letting people add emotions and actions to their posts while on the move.

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Initially launched back in January this year, the emotive status updates encourage users to throw in additional context to what they’re doing.

Facebook recently allowed users on mobile web (not the native Facebook application) to post these more visual status updates.

Now when a user goes to post a status from the Facebook mobile website, a smiley face is seen on the status update prompt, similar to the one seen on desktop.

When a user taps the smiley, they are given the full menu of emoticon-enhanced status updates, showing that they’re feeling, eating, or watching something.

The move is crucial to Facebook’s attempt to boost its mobile ad revenues through better targeting. By encouraging users to add more details about their life, Facebook is able to better gauge their immediate interests that can’t be figured out by simple “Likes.”

In fact, Mark Zuckerberg during the Q4 earnings call, mentioned in passing a key detail about Facebook’s strategy moving forward.

Facebook in 2013 is making an effort with scraping the content that you’re publishing on its platform. For instance, based on an example Zuckerberg provided, he said that if you haven’t identified your location, but shared it in an update, Facebook will be able to figure out where you are.

This same strategy applies to this personalised status update that Facebook is experimenting with. If you’re sharing immediate interests via emotive status updates, Facebook would be able to better target its ads accordingly.

Read Facebook's blog post here

Video viral of the week: Evian's dancing babies return to get 45m YouTube views

2013-05-16T12:56:20Z

Evian has refreshed its hugely successful ‘Evian babies’ campaign, with a new viral video that matches dancing adults to their toddler counterparts. Supported by baby face-changing app, the ad has notched up over 45 million views on YouTube. See why it’s our video viral of the week below…

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The ad follows the 2009′s ‘Roller Babies’ ad, which featured a diaper-clad dance crew getting down to the beat of American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” The Guinness World Record holder for most-viewed online ad, ‘Roller Babies’ has been seen more than 65 million times.

The new ‘Baby & Me’ ad campaign from agency BETC was shot by We Are From LA through production company Iconoclast.

This latest video sees Evian’s babies repeat the formula of previous babies videos to represent “your gleeful inner child,” but this time they want to dance with you.

Keeping to m Evian’s ‘Live Young strap line’ the ad features a group of adults who feel compelled to dance around (to the sound of an Evian-commissioned remix of Ini Kamoze dance floor bomb Here Come The Hotstepper) in front of a reflective shop window after discovering their reflections are, in fact, baby versions of themselves.

The video has garnered over 45 million views in the three weeks it’s been available on YouTube.

According to Visible Measures: ”Baby & Me took top billing on the Viral Chart [in the last week of April], garnering a True Reach of more than 35.8 million views. The campaign also has more than 80 related clips, 740,000 Facebook shares, and 11,000 comments. Since it’s debut on April 19, the campaign has raked in a True Reach of more than 42.3 million views.”

The campaign includes an app that allows users to generate baby versions of themselves using facial recognition software, and outdoor events that will bring the "dancing with my baby-me” concept to life on digital posters.

BETC Digital teamed up with B-Reel and created a special app that will be available on iPhone, Android or Facebook from mid-May. Thanks to a partnership with Photomaton, the experience will also be available in “Baby booths” during the launch.

The brand's connection with infants goes back to 1935 when it was recommended as the ideal water for babies because of "its pH-neutral mineral composition."

France mulls ‘culture tax’ on Google and Apple

2013-05-16T12:53:40Z

France is preparing to impose taxes on Apple and Google to finance the production of art, films and music in the country.

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The move would see the French government tax the sales of smartphones and tablets in the country, including Apple's iPhone and Google’s Android products, to help fund culture ‘because consumers were spending more money on hardware than on content’.

"Companies that make these tablets must, in a minor way, be made to contribute part of the revenue from their sales to help creators," Culture Minister Aurelie Filipetti told journalists.

French President Francois Hollande is believed to want a decision on this made by the summer before the French parliament goes into recess at the end of July.

Filipetti added that the "culture tax", which she said would be "minimal and widely distributed", was likely to be included in a budget law to be submitted to parliament in November.
The president has asked businessman Pierre Lescure to find ways of funding the arts, as the economy continues to struggle.

It has long been a concern of the French that their culture is being eroded by the steady march of anglo-saxon artistic output. Thus there is a tradition that French cultural projects should be shielded from market forces.

A recent bid from Yahoo to buy the French video site Dailymotion was blocked on such grounds, despite the French owners of Dailymotion being keen on the deal.

Another recent move saw French news publishers accuse Google of stealing content, when they added snippets of a story to Google News. Google ended up paying $60 million into a Digital Publishers Innovation Fund.

These moves are likely to heighten tensions between Silicon Valley and France.

France slipped back into recession in the first quarter of this year and the European Commission expects the economy to contract 0.1% in 2013.

UK marketers survey: 95% to increase digital spend in 2013 (infographic)

2013-05-16T12:51:33Z

95% of UK marketers will increase digital marketing spend in 2013, with 71% using digital for building brand awareness, according to new research.

]]> The study, from Martini Media run in conjunction with iMedia UK, surveyed 226 marketing professionals, including both brand advertisers (43%) and agencies (57%).

The survey aimed to determine where brands are prioritizing marketing efforts in 2013 and beyond -- particularly those marketers targeting affluent consumers.

Key findings include:

• 95% will increase their digital marketing spend in 2013
• 84% agree they can research consumers by aggregating niche sites to target their ideal audience
• 75% of marketers believe high impact ads can breakthrough as much as TV and print
• 71% use digital for building brand awareness
• 63% will increase social media efforts
• 48% of total budget will go to digital

View the infographic below

View larger image here

Nearly half the marketers surveyed represented a product or service geared to high net-worth audiences.

Of these marketers, 69% were focused on targeting general consumers, 43% on high-income consumers, another 43% business decision makers and 32% were targeting CEOs or other executives.

Those brands that identified themselves as targeting high-income consumers anticipate spending more than twice as much on video and nearly twice as much on rich media, compared to mass-market brands.

"Our UK study revealed results that are right in line with what we're seeing at Martini -- luxury brands need a big, beautiful canvas to showcase their products and they're turning to digital as the medium for delivering these highly engaging ads," said Skip Brand, Martini Media's CEO. "As digital investments increase, it's clear that standard display just isn't cutting it. We can expect to see standard display spending continue to decrease as brands turn to rich media, social, video and mobile to effectively connect with their audience."

According to recent research from Forrester, Britons will lead innovation in brand marketing, particularly since many marketers have display advertising in excess of EUR 1 million. UK marketers are also more concerned about brand awareness than other marketers in Europe, and as a result "favor opportunities for reach and interactivity."

This is consistent with findings in Martini Media's study. While traditional DR objectives like customer acquisition remain a top priority for nearly three-quarters of the marketers surveyed, branding efforts are close behind. Building positive brand association (71%) and building awareness of specific products/services (60%) are key goals trying to be achieved through digital marketing initiatives.

"Brands across the board see the value of digital, not just as a direct response mechanism but as a brand building tool," said James Drake-Brockman, Head of EMEA - Digital Marketing, DMG. "The fact that 71% of respondents use it for this purpose shows the continuing shift in attitudes of advertisers and agencies, which ties in with the increase in platforms and opportunities available for them to target consumers. It's clear the market is continuing to grow in strength and importance with nearly all respondents expecting to increase their digital marketing spend in 2013."

Thomson challenges internet users to take a ‘One-Minute Holiday’

2013-05-16T12:50:58Z

Travel retailer Thomson has launched a new campaign encouraging Britain’s weary workforce to take an exotic break without leaving their desks.

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The One-Minute Holiday site, created in partnership with online agency Caliber, offers the chance to 'get away', virtually speaking, for 60 seconds.

After selecting a destination, users are challenged to relax for at least one minute during their busy day, as beautiful idyllic cinemagraphs (full-screen animated gifs that appear to be a static image, but include subtle animation to create an immersive experience) animate on-screen, accompanied by natural sounds.

The One-Minute Holidaymaker can then send a social media postcard of their ‘holiday’ to friends and family, accompanied by a choice of funny and inspirational messages.

The launch of One-Minute Holiday follows the announcement that Thomson is now offering holidays to the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius for summer 2014.

Adriano Comegna, SEO Manager at Thomson, said: “It’s been a long winter and people are desperate to escape to sunnier climates. A quick One-Minute Holiday is a great way to capture that holiday feeling, no matter where you are.

“The evocative images and sounds really do transport you round the world and away from everyday life. We’re encouraging people to take one minute out of their day, get that fantastic holiday feeling and share it with friends and family.”

View the campaign here:

http://holidaysjustgotbetter.thomson.co.uk/one-minute-holiday/