Diginews - Bing and Ping - Economist replaces Newstand with cell phone - Print ads that sell
Ramakrishnan Laxman
Microsoft Testing Bing & Ping
Microsoft has begun inviting Facebook fans to sign up and test a program it calls Bing & Ping, which will let them share what they search for on Bing with friends through Facebook, Twitter, email, and possibly other social sites that are soon to be announced.
Fans
will have the opportunity to share restaurant recommendations and local
movie times, post a flight status with Facebook friends, and more.
Microsoft plans to share more information in the "coming days." more
'Economist' Replaces Local Newsstand With Cellphone
Advertising Age
The Economist is
introducing a trial program today that lets New Yorkers use their
cellphones to order overnight home delivery of the new issue of the
magazine at the regular newsstand price. This is how it works: New
Yorkers who have signed up for weekly texts announcing each issue's
topics will also receive a URL for a web page they can visit to order
the issue. Those who order by 9 p.m. are guaranteed a hand-delivered
copy by 6 a.m. the next morning -- in time to beat the commute.
In England, where The Economist first
tried the approach two months ago, people who have preregistered can
just reply to the text messages to get their overnight copies. The Economist hopes
to have that simpler system in place by the time it widens the New York
trial to cover the entire U.S. Overnighted copies of the magazine cost
$6.99, the same price as the newsstand copies. The Economist says the
resulting circulation revenue is just as profitable because the
delivered copies don't require giving cuts to retailers or wholesalers.
Circulation generated through the cellphone program is likely to remain
very small, however. In England, the number of buyers via text has
numbered hundreds a week. - Read the whole story...
Print ads that sell
The strategic goal behind every print advertisement is probably a bit
different. Some ads are designed to build an image, some are written to
drive readers to a website and some announce limited-time offers. But
most marketers hope the time, money and creativity that goes into
developing their advertising campaigns moves the needle in terms of
sales.
MRI Starch Communications set out to learn exactly what makes a print ad sell. more