This short film illustrates the power of words to radically change your message and your effect upon the world. At Purplefeather we provide powerful, optimised web content to get you noticed online. Homage to Historia de un letrero, The Story of a Sign by Alonso Alvarez Barreda Music by: Giles Lamb www.gileslamb.com Filmed by www.redsnappa.com [...]

Continue reading " The Power of Words "

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Early discounts may have taken some of the shine off Cyber Monday but the key online holiday shopping day is still expected to attract bargain hunters who may not have had their fill over the weekend. Cyber Monday — a term coined five years ago for the day many people return to work after Thanksgiving and make online gift purchases on their computers — remains a prime shopping day online. But its novelty has now been partially eclipsed by e-commerce promotions earlier in the season, including on Thanksgiving itself. Retailers from BestBuy.com to Walmart.com and Staples.com have even opted to offer Cyber Monday deals one day early, on newly coined “Cyber Sunday.” The key is versatility, online experts say, as well as making sure shoppers heading to the Web always find something to inspire them to click on a sale. John Thompson, senior vice president and general manager of BestBuy.com, said Cyber Monday remains a “really viable marketing concept,” but smart retailers must offer choice. “There’s demand out there, but you have consumers spending their time differently,” he said. “If you don’t have one group that shops early, you’ll have those who say ‘I’ll enjoy my Thanksgiving and those same deals or as-good deals will be there Cyber Monday.’” Marketing firms say tactics have changed in luring consumers to buy online. Whereas in prior years a full email inbox of online deals awaited those back at work on Monday, the offers now increasingly come on Black Friday if not before. Disneystore.com, for one, had a “record sales day” on Thanksgiving, according to Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores. U.S. online sales were up 33 percent on Thanksgiving this year, according to web analytics firm IBM Coremetrics. Just as many promotions are sent via email on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as on Cyber Monday, according to Responsys. And half of retailers planned to send email on Cyber Sunday as well as on Thanksgiving, the interactive marketing firm found. PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay, said its first holiday spike in payment volume came on November 15. On Black Friday, total payment volume, or the total value of goods sold, rose 27 percent versus last year. Online deals will continue throughout the holiday season. Amazon.com, the largest online retailer, said its Black Friday deals would last all week, while Target.com and eBay have set up daily deals through December. BEST DEAL? Despite the e-commerce selling season that now extends before and after Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving is still a prime focus of retailers. Nine out of ten retailers planned to offer a promotion for Cyber Monday, Shop.org and BIGresearch found in a survey. That was more than the nearly three-quarters of respondents in 2007. “Retailers have built it into the consumers mind: ‘Here’s the day you’ll get the best deal,’” said IBM Coremetrics’ Chief Strategy Officer John Squire. Although some experts say the top online sales comes later in the season — analytics firm Comscore, for one, found 2009′s heaviest spending day fell on Dec 13 — Squire said Cyber Monday was the best-performing day, with a 30 percent jump in U.S. online sales. “You will see a similar type of gain on Cyber Monday (this year),” said Squire. “The big treat is what happens on Cyber Sunday for those retailers who give those deals.” Bullishness in advance of Monday was evident as Amazon shares closed at an all-time high last Wednesday leading into the Thanksgiving weekend, accompanied by options trading at over twice the average daily level. On Tuesday, comScore raised its forecast for U.S. online holiday spending for the second time, saying it now expects an 11 percent rise over the 2009 holiday. The new spending outlook should bring total holiday e-commerce spending to $32.4 billion, comScore said. Online sales, while still growing, make up a mere 7 percent of the overall U.S. retail pie, according to comScore. (Reporting by Alexandria Sage; editing by Todd Eastham) Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Continue reading " Online bargain-hunting spreads beyond Cyber Monday (Reuters) "

McDonald’s product is pictured in a restaurant in Washington, July 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Molly Riley By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 8, 2010 4:24pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fast-food restaurants are stepping up efforts to market themselves and unhealthy food products to children and toddlers with television ads, websites and even their own menus, researchers said on Monday. They said efforts by the industry to regulate itself have failed and urged government officials at all levels to declare children a protected group and stop marketing efforts that are fueling child obesity, a serious U.S. health problem. “What we found in the marketing data is a staggering amount of fast-food advertising that starts when children are as young as 2 years old,” Jennifer Harris, of the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity in Connecticut, told a telephone briefing. Harris and colleagues spent a year studying 12 big fast-food chains, analyzed the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in menu items and kids’ meal combinations, and studied what children and teens ordered. The report, available at www.fastfoodmarketing.org , finds the industry spent more than $4.2 billion in 2009 on marketing and advertising on television, the Internet, social media sites and mobile applications. “Despite pledges to improve their marketing practices, fast food companies seem to be stepping up their efforts to target kids,” Harris said. “Today, preschoolers see 21 percent more fast food ads on TV than they saw in 2003, and somewhat older children see 34 percent more.” McDonald’s Corp has 13 websites, attracting 365,000 unique child visitors under 12 every month. One, ronald.com, specifically targets preschoolers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two-thirds of American adults and 15 percent of children are overweight or obese. In some states, the childhood obesity rate is above 30 percent. HEALTHIER CHOICES U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, spearheading an administration initiative on child obesity, has urged food manufacturers to re-package food so that it is healthier for kids. In 2007, McDonald’s and other large U.S. food and drink companies pledged to adopt stricter controls on advertising to children under 12. “Most restaurants will say that they have added healthier choices to their menus in recent years,” Yale’s Marlene Schwartz, who worked on the study, told the briefing. “In most cases you have to work very hard to get a healthy side or drink in a fast-food restaurant,” Schwartz said. “You have to know it exists and you have to ask for it.” Burger King in a statement said it “has strengthened its commitment in this area since 2007 by enhancing its nutrition criteria for advertised Kids Meals,” including lowered sodium. 1 2 Next

Continue reading " Fast-food restaurants target U.S. kids, study shows "