Welcome to January's Click-thru, your indispensable round-up of the latest online industry news, brought direct to your inbox from the Internet Advertising Bureau.

The first Click-thru of 2006 has a number of stories discussing how much money we all spent online in the build up to Christmas; great news for the online advertising industry, not so good for our bank balances!

On Christmas Day iTunes recorded a 50% increase in the number of songs purchased and downloaded, as people flocked to fill their brand new MP3 players. Also the demand for festive food and drink on the internet was so great that many stores had to stop taking orders.

Further details on these stories and many more are included below.

Kind regards



Guy Phillipson
IAB, CEO

The online audience

Spoken poems to be hosted online, and no not all of them rhyme Poet laureate, Andrew Motion has launched an initiative that puts the art of spoken poetry online to be celebrated and saved for prosperity. Developed by Goodtechnology, the Poetry Archive hosts recordings dating back as early as 1889. Brand Republic, November 30 Click-thru for more Online grocers struggle to meet Christmas demand The demand for online food and drink leading up to Christmas was such that many of the stores had to stop taking orders to ensure existing orders could be delivered on time. Ocado has said that they had to turn down more than 10, 000 potential orders in just one week in December. The delivery situation prompted the Interactive Media in Retail Group to say that more investment was required in the internet grocery sector. Ft, December Click-thru for more Wikipedia is as reliable as Brittanica, and that's a fact! It's official, entries on online encyclopaedia Wikipedia are as reliable as those in Brittanica, a recent Nature study has revealed. Selected entries from both encyclopaedias were analysed and four mistakes were found with each source. BBC, December 15 Click-thru for more Your sex sells Bounty, the marketing company aimed at a mother and baby audience has listened to the results of recent research from the University of Glamorgan Business School and hired a team of female designers to ensure their website is successfully reaching its target audience. Earlier this year the Business school reported that websites are more successful if the designer of the site is the same gender as its target audience. Brand Republic, December 20 Click-thru for more World internet usage For a regular update of where the UK's internet usage sits in the global scheme of things Click-thru for more 2005's news reporting brought power to the people 2005 will long be remembered as the year of the citizen journalist. With more gadgets able to capture, record and store information at people's fingertips than ever before, 2005 was the year that that general public were able to challenge and aid traditional news channels. BBC, January 2 Click-thru for more

Entertainment

Music

We MP3 Kings... iTunes recorded a 50% increase in the number of visits to its website on Christmas Day as people flocked to use the new MP3 players found in their stockings that morning. It was also predicted in the same Hitwise report that weekly downloads boosted by the Christmas market would reach 1m for the first time. Ft, December 28 Click-thru for more Forget Eurovision, the UK finally comes first in Europe at something musical The UK are 'nil point' no longer as we have topped the European download chart! The average British consumer spends 75p a month on digital music a figure three times higher than the French, Italians and Germans. The Motorola survey into musical habits also revealed that a quarter of Britons owned a digital music player, with one fifth of over-50s surveyed saying they had embraced new musical technology. Guardian, December 13 Click-thru for more Shayne festive number 1 thanks to Download-factor X-Factor winner Shayne Ward has joined the esteemed company of Mr Blobby and Bob the Builder by holding the number 1 singles chart position at Christmas. This year represented the first year the top spot was determined by downloads, with Shayne's 'That's My Goal' scoring record sales aided by the 70% share of digitally purchased chart singles. 24m tracks were downloaded up until December in 2005, compared to 4.7m in 2004. Ft, December 16 Click-thru for more Locked, stocked and your music library online A new service called Oboe has been set up to offer music fans an area to store their music online than can be accessed anywhere. Set up by founder of MP3.com, Michael Robertson and offered via MP3tunes.com the service charges $39.99 a year and works by scanning a computer for all music files and then adding them to a secure online locker. Staff Brand Republic 1 Dec 2005 Click-thru for more

Movies

Lovefilm? Get movie downloads The online DVD rental service Lovefilm has branched out into the growing movie download market. As many as 500 titles will be made available for download early this year including Warner Bros. titles Alexander and Poltergeist. The movies will only be available for seven days after download and will cost £2.99. Reuters, December 23 Click-thru for more

Online newspapers

Sorrell hits out at "bizarre" online newspapers WPP chief and IAB Engage 2005 keynote speaker, Sir Martin Sorrell believes that newspapers need to start charging for content they make available online. Sorrell told a New York conference that he believed, "people would pay for content they value and trust" and described it as "bizarre" that so much quality content was freely available online. Media Guardian, December 5 Click-thru for more

TV on the internet

BT's 'world first' internet TV to launch in Autumn BT has signed content deals with the BBC, Paramount and Warner Music Group ahead of the launch of the telecoms giant's TV over broadband launch in the autumn. The service which is being touted as a world first will offer BT customers music, television and on demand television without having to pay monthly subscription fees. Brand Republic, December 8 Click-thru for more Online soap from the BBC looks to clean up this Autumn The lives of young aspiring musicians, actors and film makers is the concept behind the BBC's web-based teenage-targeted soap opera, 'Wannabes'. The Brighton set soap, in development by Illumina Digital, is due to begin its seven-week run in the Autumn with two online episodes a week. Brand Republic, December 19 Click-thru for more

Books online

HarperCollins, the perfect hosts for digitalised books In an effort to keep control of the work of its authors, traditional publisher HarperCollins has announced plans to create digitalised versions of its books. HarperCollins will allow search engines to index the books, but wishes to retain control over the sales of the literature by hosting the material on its own servers. Times online, December 13 Click-thru for more

Broadband

National WiFi initiative a cloudy prospect for mobile phone operators. The first part of a nationwide WiFi network will be put in place from March as residents in nine cities across the UK will be able to wirelessly access the internet outdoors on their laptops. The initiative from WiFi firm, The Cloud, is expected to impact upon the revenues of the country's mobile phone operators, as users will be able to bypass their networks and make calls over the internet. Times online, January Click-thru for more

Blogging

Bloggers part of the press pack for Nokia launch For the launch of its new N90 mobile handset Nokia incorporated a team of 50 bloggers to review the phone. For the launch, Nokia treated bloggers much like they would any member of the press, even offering a separate press room at the launch geared towards bloggers. Brand Republic, Dec 5 Click-thru for more

Online Creative

Viral

Explosive 'unofficial' VW ad, the most downloaded of 2005 The VW Polo suicide bomber viral advert that caused such controversy last year was the most downloaded viral campaign of 2005. Despite it being created without the permission of Volkswagen, the Lee and Dan created campaign was downloaded over 2.3m times. Ironically, DDB London's Singin' in the Rain campaign topped the list for legitimate ads downloaded, advertising the new Golf from Volkswagen. Brand Republic, December 19 Click-thru for more Get your hands on a 40 year old virgin's chest rug Universal Pictures is backing the release of the comedy DVD '40 Year Old Virgin' with a viral campaign that enables viewers to write messages in the lead character's chest hair. Based on a rather excruciating waxing scene from the film, the hairy messages can be forwarded to friends. Revolution, December 15 Click-thru for more

Online campaigns

Student close to million dollar target. A good friend to have on those pound-a-pint nights at the union Alex Tew, the creator of the milliondollarhomepage, where one million pixels of advertising space with links to advertisers own websites have been up for sale since the summer, was close to his $1m target at the turn of the year. Alex has made $999,000 so far towards his degree costs and is selling the final $1000 worth to the highest bidder on ebay. Bidding for the final 1000 pixels was over $140, 000 dollars at the time of writing. BBC, January Click-thru for more "Zoom Zoom" for a closer look at Mazda Mazda is putting online at the heart of its European advertising strategy this year. All marketing activity will be integrated with a central website as part of the "Zoom Zoom experiences" campaign. An online magazine and video of test drives will be among some of the featured content on the site. Revolution, December 1 Click-thru for more Is your email marketing legal? A new study from data and direct marketing services company, CDMS has revealed that a third of the top 200 UK companies are still not complying with the 2003 email marketing legislation. CDMS urged companies to re-evaluate their marketing practices before the start of enforcement test cases. Brand Republic 20 Dec 2005 Click-thru for more

Online awards, events and polls

Lean Mean Fighting Machine has won December's Creative Showcase with their cleverly-conceived self-promotion campaign. The campaign uses banners, viral and rich media formats and presents its audience with a vision of the agency in 2054, with its creative directors, played by aging actors, looking back on their past successes.

Ecommerce

Christmas Amazon orders flow Amazon in the US reported their busiest pre-Christmas yet. December 12 represented their busiest day of the festive season with as many as 41 products ordered every second. In the US between November 1 and December 21 a total of $17bn was spent online according to ComScore Networks figures. ComScore, December 27 Click-thru for more 51% of the European online population now shop online 73 million Europeans shopped online during the second quarter of 2005, Forrester Research has reported, a figure 19.7% higher than the same period in 2004. These latest figures are significant because for the first time over half of the European online population is shopping online. With 71% of the UK population purchasing products online, the UK has the highest percentage of internet shoppers and the UK also ties with Germany on 22million for the gross number of internet shoppers. IAB Europe, December Click-thru for more Buying CDs online, £8, getting a bargain on eBay, £4, having PIN protection for your online purchases... Priceless.... Mastercard has introduced a PIN card system to offer online shoppers extra security with their purchases. So far 15,000 retailers have signed up to the scheme, but ecommerce big hitters Amazon and Expedia have yet to join. Telegraph, December 8 Click thru for more

Global snapshot

Online in the USA Research into the behaviour of the US online audience has revealed that men tend to be more frequent internet users, looking at sports and news; listening to music sites; purchasing digital content and viewing webcams. Women prefer seeking religious guidance and information on health matters. Reuters, December 29 Click-thru for more Online music downloads soar in states 332.7m tracks were downloaded in America in 2005, representing a substantial 148% growth compared to 2004, according to figures from Nielsen Soundscan. The growth in the digital music market can be juxtaposed with a 7% drop in CD album sales in the US, despite 95% of all music still being sold in the CD format. BBC, December 29 Click-through for more Full steam ahead for US search engines A recent study into the online behaviour of the US internet audience by Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that "Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users." 60million Americans use search engine services on an average day. Emarketer, December 7 Click-thru for more