I am NOT Maverick Marketing Sydney

THERE are just six female chief executives among the country’s top 200 companies and only five chairwomen, as businesses continue to allow talented women to go to waste.

According to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency census of women in leadership, published today,

• Women hold just 8.4 percent of board positions among ASX 200 companies.
• 8 percent of key executive positions among ASX 200 companies are held by women.
• 4.1 per cent of executive “line roles” – considered the pipeline to becoming a chief executive – are held by women.
• 54 per cent of companies have no female board directors compared with 51 per cent in 2008.

In Australia, 55 per cent of university graduates are women.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors has challenged the EOWA figures, saying the data is out of date. According to their research, women now represent 10.1 per cent of board members in the ASX 200 after 40 women directors were appointed so far this year compared with just 10 for the whole of last year.

It notes that 27 per cent of directors appointed this year were women compared with 5 per cent last year and 8 per cent in 2008.

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Back in March 2010, Hitwise reported that Facebook had surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website. Sure, it was a week’s worth of data but the writing has been on the wall ever since.

Then in May we learned that in the UK, people are visiting social networks more than they’re visiting search engines. Facebook dominates the current crop of social networks, accounting for the majority (55%) of all social site visits. When compared to the wider web, Google got around 9.3% of all web traffic, while Facebook captured just over 7%.

But when UK stats for all search engines were stacked up with data from all social sites, social networks attracted .55% more traffic than search engines.

The writing on the wall started to get a whole lot larger.

According to Alexa, Google.com is ranked Number 1 globally and Facebook is ranked Number 2.

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Positive language about learning new things and serving the self-interest of readers is the most common characteristic of blog post titles that get shared the most on Twitter, according to new analysis posted on the blog Smart Data Collective.

Essentially the analysis sought to identify which words or phrases have a positive versus negative bearing on what is likely to get your content tweeted.

The author, Greek data mining consultant Themos Kalafatis, found that the words increase, socialize, automate and manage appear most in posts that prove popular.

Terms including write, talk and trust appear to have a negative weight on the likelihood of a post being retweeted.

With this information, an analyst may then identify why such words tend to commonly exist in popular Social Media posts.

Here are some insights :
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Mainstream media have served up to the American public a mixed view of how information technology influences society, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Over the past year, messages about the promise of technology making life easier and awe about new gadgets have competed in the news with worries about privacy, child predators, shrinking attention spans and danger behind the wheel.

The most prevalent message about the influence of technology is positive – the idea that is makes life easier and more productive.

Chomping close at its heels, though, is the sense that the convenience has risk, to privacy and children, themes that gobbled up almost a fifth of media coverage.

These themes form part of the findings of the study that examined 437 tech-related stories that appeared across 52 different news outlets.
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Looks as though Aussies love affair with Vegemite might be on the wane, according to a study conducted last month by Y&R Advertising Group’s, Brand Asset Consulting (BAC).

Our much-loved iconic spread has been replaced by tech brands such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Nokia.

The study, in which 2000 Australians participated, found that Vegemite and Toyota had taken brand hits potentially as a consequence of major problems both companies faced the year before.

Vegemite lost six places, from 4 to 10, after the launch of its iSnack product disaster. Toyota, the top auto brand since 1997, slid to 6th place following the recall of cars due to a stuck accelerator problem (and the ensuing negative publicity).

It seems Aussies are much less forgiving than overseas counterparts, stripping 18% from trust levels in the brands compared to a 6% average globally.

The biggest losers included nappy brand Huggies, Venus razors, slimming brand Ultra Slim and Dare milk. BP has also suffered in the wake of the environmental issues it has been battling in the US.
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For those of us that ever attended Sunday School (and I was a paticularly lousy pupil), we were taught that good ol’ Moses parted the Red Sea.

Because of this jaw-dropping, gob-smacking power, held firmly in his possession, Moses and some fellow Israelites were thus able to escape from the gawd-awful clutches of the Pharoah’s Army which was intent on driving them from Egypt.

So famous was Moses that movie moguls even made a Hollywood blockbuster movie about him.

Well, latest science shows that it was indeed possible that the waters parted to allow Moses and his mates to escape.

That’s the good news.
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Spending by advertisers increased by more than expected in the first half of calendar 2010, a survey of advertising executives finds.

Advertising expenditure rose 6.8 per cent in the first six months of 2010, Starcom MediaVest Group’s half-year update to its annual Media Futures survey found.

The result was better than the 5.3 per cent increase tipped at the start of the year.

The survey, conducted by Roy Morgan, also found that 45 per cent of national advertisers experienced a year-on-year increase in expenditure during the first half of calendar 2010, compared with the prior corresponding period.

The respondents said they expected advertising expenditure would rise 6.4 per cent in the second half of calendar 2010.

More at the Sydney Morning Herald.

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A new study has been released that assesses the impact of social media on eleven different industries: apparel, appliances, automotive, CPG, electronics, entertainment, financial services, healthcare/pharma, home furnishings, telecommunications and travel.

The study benchmarks how buyers use social networking sites to get advice on what to purchase, give advice on companies/products and post content specific to various industries.

According to those surveyed, the most highly discussed verticals on social networks include automotive (61 percent), travel (60 percent) and entertainment (57 percent).

When it comes to social networkers seeking or sharing recommendations on local retailers, home furnishing led all verticals, including automotive.

Highlights include:

• 56 percent of respondents are fans of appliance brands/retailers on Facebook
• 49 percent of respondents discuss apparel on social networking sites to compare prices
• 49 percent of respondents follow automotive brands/retailers on Twitter
• 23 percent of respondents follow at least one travel company on either Facebook or Twitter
• 59 percent of respondents are at least somewhat interested in receiving new product announcements from financial services companies/brands on social networking sites.

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Companies worldwide will spend nearly half a trillion dollars on advertising this year.

But spending that money wisely is more of a challenge now than ever before because of the changes brought about by the growing importance of digital media.

According to its latest Global Media Intelligence Report, eMarketer found that there will be a 12 per cent growth this year alone, with investment in video advertising boosting the amount which is spent on online marketing.

“The global advertising and media industry has been going through massive changes in recent years, between the inexorable shift from traditional to digital channels and a recession that damaged markets around the world” says eMarketer.

The “Global Media Intelligence Report” provides insight into many trends, large and small, and raises questions that may prove important for marketers in coming years.
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AUSTRALIA’S advertising industry has enjoyed a welcome boost, with half-yearly figures released this week showing the industry’s revenue up 9.6 per cent across the board, compared with the same period last year.

The figures, released yesterday by the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA), showed total spending on advertising of $6.718 billion for the six months to the end of June.

The biggest winners were metropolitan television, up by 20.2 per cent, and online, up by 19.3 per cent.

The federal election, in which Labor spent just over $15 million and the Liberals’ $13.7 million on media advertising, was a partial driver of the strong figures.

But analysts said the figures were more a reflection of the advertising industry still being in ”catch-up mode” after the recession in the industry.

More at the Sydney Morning Herald.

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