Is your business ignoring the Silver Surfers?

MOST social networks are generally thought of as the preserve of the Facebook Generation – young, web-savvy consumers who were born in the 1980s. And although a third of all Facebook’s users are aged between 35 and 54 – with 41% of MySpace’s audience falling in the same bracket – few websites are aimed at consumers over that.

But by ignoring older web users, many companies are missing a trick. In Britain, 50% of the over-50s have access to the internet, with one in five of these “silver surfers” saying they regularly use email, instant messaging and social networks to keep in touch with friends and family. The lack of interest in this demographic is not unique to the net; although the over-50s spend £205bn ($429bn, E292bn) a year, less than 5% of the total British marketing spend targets them.

Saga, the British company that specialises in financial services and holidays for the over-50s, is one company keen to exploit the gap online. Last week it officially launched SagaZone, a social network for its core customer base. It believes it can build on the success of Saga Magazine – with over 700,000 subscriptions, Britain’s largest subscription-based consumer monthly– and capture a new audience online.

The number of over-50s using the internet is set to rise, and existing brands like Saga can generate new revenue by moving online. But as long as the online advertising industry lazily rests on its laurels and considers itself too hip to talk to the over-50s, the golden opportunity to launch profitable websites aimed at a wealthy audience will remain unrealised.

To view the full article click here

Source - The Business www.thebusiness.co.uk

The Work Experience Blog

This Wednesday we were lucky to have the help of a student (Vicky Swyer) from the local, 'Oakmead College of Technology'. We were really happy to provide the opportunity when approached by Vicky's college and hope she enjoyed it as much as we did!

Here is what she had to say on her day's work experience.

"I spent a day at Refreshed Media for work experience. As I am looking towards studying Public Relations at Bournemouth Uni next year, so a day’s work experience at Refreshed Media was great in giving me an insight in the world of marketing.

I was set the tasks on looking at online marketing services, Talking to the web designers, Writing an news article on ‘The digital switch over’, learning what pay per click was and writing scripts for virtual tours.

So overall I had a great day working for Refreshed Media as my knowledge and skills were put to test in the big wide world compared to working on a project at school. "

Viral game for RM

Refreshed are proud to say that we were recently chosen as the prefered online agency for the UK's leading supplier of ICT to schools, RM.

The Task: To create a viral game to generate interest and awareness of RM's new, ultra tough laptop, the RM Mobile One.

The Result: Laptop Drop! In the game a laptop falls out of a window where a child is waiting to hit it with a cricket bat. The player controls the timing of the hit with the game measuring how far the laptop then travels. The user is then able to record their high score and share this with friends.

Here in the Refreshed office though, we have found a unique use for Laptop Drop...It is a great way of choosing who has to go and make the brews! It's even been nicknamed 'The Abrewdicator' (adjudicator, geddit!) and the person with the lowest score has to make the teas.

Ok maybe we should get out more...but we think that Laptop Drop will be a great success for RM.

Click here, if you want to know more about viral games, or contact us to discuss developing a campaign or game tailored to your business.

Refreshingly Carbon Neutral

Refreshed Media is proud to continue to be "carbon neutral", using the carbon balancing fund provided by the World Land Trust, whose patron is David Attenborough.

We've always liked to do our bit...sometimes it's just raising cash, such as for the British Heart Foundation on the London to Brighton cycle ride, sponsoring events such as the "Bournemouth Live" community event, or The Chamber of Commerce's "Better Together" programme. Other times our corporate responsiblity policy looks at green issues, and we recycle all paper, plastic and carboard waste, minimise power usage wherever possible (such as all using lower output monitors) and what we can't save, we offset with the World Land Trust which goes into their fantastic work to save forests in locations such as Ecuador or Belize, which helps to lower CO2 emmissions, which affects us all through reducing global warming. Maybe this is what helped us be a runner up in the environmental excellence award at the Dorset Chamber of Commerce awards last year?

If you'd like to read more on the World Land Trust's great work, you'll find it at http://www.carbonbalanced.org/ - the more people that get involved, the more it helps everyone.

Google shows ITV that the future is in online marketing

For the first time in history, online advertising has generated more revenue than television. This occurred in the 3rd quarter of 2007, between July and September with Google earning an estimated £10 million more than ITV.

Anyone who has not heard of Google must have been living with their eyes shut and a pair of earmuffs stuck to their head. It has grown massively since it's inception in 1998 and now has a hefty 75% share of the online search market.

ITV on the other hand, was established when 'the net' was something used to fish with and 'the web' was the domain of spiders. It's competition for ad revenue began with the launch of Channel 4 (overtaken by Google last year) in the 1980's. The age of the satellite dish diluted television as an advertising channel even further and ITV now finds itself struggling in a saturated market, with revenues expected to fall by around 7% in 2008.

What does this mean for the online marketing industry?

The increased expansion in the online advertising market can only create more opportunities for businesses to grow their online presence. Well here at Refreshed we love using Google on behalf of our clients. We currently manage many different Pay Per Click accounts using the Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines. This provides a measurable ROI and with our weekly reports, you will be able to see just what an impact our campaigns are having on your Google listing.

Give us a call or email us to discuss how we can help push you up the Google sponsored listings.