Online Business Blog

online bingo

Recent research by one of the internets leading bingo directories has found that online bingo sites are spending millions on TV advertising.

The focus of the report was the amount of money spent on advertising by the major bingo operators and the size of the online bingo industry.

The report showed that Foxy Bingo was by far the biggest spender. Their totals spend accounted to nearly a third of the total spending by the industry by spending $3.27 million. Its nearest rival in the spending charts was online bingo newcomer Tombola who spent over $2.5 million.

The report also showed that there are now over 230 online sites in Britain. There combined spending on TV accounted for more than $10 million.

The likes of Think Bingo, Party Bingo and Crown Bingo were also responsible for a considerable amount on advertising spending, with $1.09 million, $993,000 and $622,000 spent respectively.

During the research of the report it was noted that despite the current economic down turn bingo sites are still holding with plenty of people playing bingo online on strong and it’s likely they will continue to spend big on TV advertising in 2009. So far this year we have already seen big advertising campaigns from Foxy Bingo and Tomola.

Interestingly the report shows that the two biggest players in bingo, Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo, where not among 2008’s big spenders. Both companies felt that it was not necessary to advertise heavily during 2008 after years of successful TV advertising has bought huge volumes of customers to its sites. It will remain to be seen if they change there stance in 2009.

Unfortunately there are still a large amount of company owners who believe that advertising their brand or product is a “Waste of money” and “Doesn’t bring results.” This maybe true, perhaps in the past they have worked with an agency who doesn’t know what they are doing, producing adverts and campaigns that weren’t properly thought out.

Alot of marketing/advertising budget is spent on adverts that attract the consumer but not necessarily to act or make a purchase. This is called “Image advertising” designed specifically to stay in your mind next time you want a drink, chocolate bar etc. The only problem with this is unless you have the cash flow of a marketing giant like Coke, Mars or Walmart you just won’t be able to compete.

The solution? Direct Response Advertising. This type of advertising is made exclusively to attract or generate a specific action or response. There are many different ways of getting your advert across be it TV, newspaper, radio or magazine. Direct response advertising is designed to generate leads, to make the consumer think a bit more about the brand or product. This means that you will have their details and can contact them with future campaigns, sales or offers. The question is how would the ideal UK Advertising Agencies go about doing this?

Step one - Create a quality/resourceful piece of content that will become an authority in that sector. This can be done through trial products, newsletters, tips, reports etc. Once you have decided what to write about and what format you are going to put it on. (email, mail, website, blog) Leave it alone and wait for people to request, download your content.

Step two - Once the requests and interest rolls in send, send send! Why does this form of advertising work well? It means not having to cold call or force the consumer into a place they don’t want to be. The discussion can be had on their terms even if they are only interested in spending a small amount of money. People don’t generally like being sold too, if you can show that your service or product offers good return on investment and have read your reports then a bond of trust has already begun.

It’s an obvious but very effective way of marketing. Think about it, if the person is calling up for your free information or after reading it then they are obviously already interested in what you have to offer. Now all you have to do is push the sale through. This also means that you can measure the popularity (or not) of your advertising campaign. Lack of interest? Change the campaign and try again!

The other benefit of direct response advertising is that you now have information on people who have previously shown interest in your product. Invite them to events, send them monthly newsletters. Invest your money in something that works!

A recent poll has shown that the more traditional forms of advertising are favoured by professionals who advertise for business to business clients. The research that was collated by the Direct Marketers Association also shows that direct response advertising uses over 40% of marketing budgets.

In second place after direct response adverts is brand advertising which has a 16% market spend. Third was trade show marketing which owns 13% of the total market spend.

So what makes up the yearly spend in the direct response advertising sector? Over a quarter of the budget goes on direct mail (27%) closely followed by online advertising work on 18%. Other parts like catalogues and trade shows are responsible for 15% and telemarketing advertising counts for 12% spend. Surprisingly only 1% is spent using newer forms of media like content making, blogs and RSS feeds. It seems that Web 2.0 will have to wait its time a bit as far as direct response advertising is concerned!

Unfortunately this looks like it could be a major mistake within the business to business sector. Another recent survey shows that a large proportion of business professionals (87%) throughout the UK use the internet to find out more information on a product before they go through with a purchase or transaction.  If this sort of data was used with a business to business campaign I feel that advertisers could attract consumers not only easier but quicker too.

A recent survey shows that youthful online/internet users want to be entertained with funny videos and content whereas the older users are looking for particular queries that are both useful and relevant.

The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) also known as the trade body for online advertising in the UK has collated the data and found the different kind of adverts that attract particular consumers on the internet. It is fairly obvious what makes up an effective advert, grab the viewers attention with relevancy and usefulness before offering an exciting incentive that will save the consumer money. Interestingly the results show that there are many key differences between the age groups.

The results showed that more youthful internet users aged between 18-35 are more intrigued by special sales or offers, entertaining and or exclusive information is also seen as important. Online users aged between 45-54 seem to be attracted by advertising that actually shows a benefit to its purchase. One thing that the age groups have in common is their want for a deal and during these times of economic depression that is not a massive surprise!

People who took the survey also believe that they have more access to and are more likely to click through on the “traditional” online advertising like banners, emails and sponsored links.  Every demographic that took part in this survey found that the most popular forms of direct response advertising are through adverts within a page and sponsored listings.

The data also showed that the popularity of new forms of digital advertising is gaining on their more traditional options. These new ads include using video, sound, games, widgets and free gifts, some of which have become very effective. The popularity and importance of social media in the present and the future can not be overstated. These forms of advertising will become more and more vital as the internet increases in users.

While researching the state of financial recruitment and accountant jobs in the Netherlands we came across some interesting information on the views of the Dutch public when it came to the recent recession / financial crisis that we are having.

Due to a recent poll, the majority of people in the Netherlands think that the current financial crisis we are facing will come to an end in one to two years time.

The people in the Netherlands are confident that things will be sorted out sooner rather than later. Nearly half of the people who were asked thought that the current crisis will last between one to two years. A small, fifteen percent of the poll thought the crisis will be over within a year and a fifth are of the opinion that things will stay bad for two to three years.

These results were taken from a poll conducted by the central bank in the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank. The poll was part of the bank’s quarterly report that also announces that 39 billion euros were lost last year by Dutch banks thanks to the current financial problems.

While the opinions of the Dutch people may seem optimistic, they do correspond to predictions from the economic policy unit that were recently released. These predictions from the CPB show that the economy in the Netherlands is expected to fall by 3.5% in 2009 and by 0.25% in 2010, then recovery is expected to start. Consumption levels are expected to stay the same during this period despite problems.

According to the bank’s poll, the Dutch public are planning to cut back on their spending. Half of the people interviewed said that they will reduce their spending as the think their purchasing power to diminish. This statistic is strange as it is generally expected that purchasing power will increase due to wage increases and improved unemployment benefits.

An average of 80 euros is the figure that people will be expecting to cut back on per month and around half of consumers are said to not be making large purchase until things get better.

When it comes to employment and jobs, half of respondents feel safe in their current jobs despite warning of a strong rise in employment. The main group of people who are worried about being laid off are from the low income groups which is understandable. Out of currently employed people around 40% think it will be difficult to find a new job.

Many people have been left wondering what to do after being made redundant, do they look for a similar job, try something different or is there another business opportunity that people are not considering. Being made redundant could be the push you need to start your own business you have always been dreaming of. But this can seem a bit risky in the current financial climate, so could buying into a franchise be the solution?

There are many benefits to buying into a franchise rather than starting your own business. Taking up a franchise agreement traditionally leads to more successful businesses during the first couple of years compared to ones that have been started from scratch. Franchises are tried and tested models that work in the targeted market. The risks are reduced as you are given the help and knowledge needed to make your business a success.

So how do you know what franchise opportunity to take up, is that business right for you? Before you start making any decisions, you need think about whether the business is something you believe in and will want to put time and effort into running. It is always best to buy into a company that you feel strongly about. You should then narrow down the available franchises in your area of business into the amount of investment they require. It seems an obvious piece of advice but before you agree to anything, you need to understand the financial situation completely. You need to know how much you will have to pay for the initial investment and if there are any other out going costs like marketing fees of percentages of profits being taken out. It is advisable to see financial records for the parent company. Are they in a strong financial position themselves? Are they going to go bust in the near future?

Once you have decided on a franchise to invest in, you should visit other franchises that have taken up the same deal as you are looking at. Meeting up with other people in the franchise network will let you find out a lot more about the day to day running of the business rather than the sales patter you will have heard already. It is good to find out if the other franchisees are happy, what type of training and support they received, what type of problems they encounter and if they have any advice for you. It is always good to ask if the figures for things like return on investment match what the franchisor has been telling you.

The reasons people make mistakes and end up losing money is when they are not prepared and do not do the right amount of research. So if you are thinking about buying a franchise, especially during this recession make sure you go in prepared.

When looking at Jobs sites and recruitment portals you may have seen information on senior management recruitment and wondered what the job entails. Well senior management is a term that generally is a group or team of individuals who are at the top level of management hierarchies within a business or corporation. These individuals are usually only ranked higher by boards of directors or shareholders. They deal with the managing senior management rather than the day to day running of the business. These roles are sometimes referred to as upper management, higher management or top management.

If senior management is at the top of the tree, who is below it? Well our break down of management levels should help clear that up a bit.

Senior Management

As mentioned before, these people are at the top,  just behind owners and directors.  Senior management jobs require a large and extensive knowledge of management roles, skills and techniques. The decisions they take will need to factor in long term goals of the business and take in external factors such as markets. They will come to decisions using analytic, directive, conceptual and sometimes behavioural processes.

Senior management will be responsible for strategic decisions for the company and come up with plans and make sure they are effective for the future.

Middle Management

Middle management will have specialised skills in certain areas and have understandings of certain managerial tasks. They will take orders from top level/senior management and will have to implement them within the teams and areas they are responsible for.

Low Level Management

Low level or lower management are the people who will ensure the decisions and plans from middle management and senior management get carried out. The choices and decisions that lower management make will be usually short term and not of high importance.

Foreman

Foreman or lead hand are the people that are in charge or directly supervising the work force in either offices, factories or sales environments.

Rank and File

These people are even lower management that the foremen, they are responsible for smaller and more specific groups of people.