Brandbowl started as an online Superbowl party to encorage the advertising industry to get on Twitter. A group of ad people from Mullen, Radian6 and a couple of independants launched what was then called Trash Talk from the Twitter Section. They not only aggregated comments on Super Bowl ads but helped and encouraged people to sign up for Twitter. It's hard to remember Twitter was still a fad for most in 2009. A lot can happen in three years.

Now celebrating it's forth anniversary, Brandbowl is supported by Radian6 who provide all of the sentiment data and analytics of the Super bowl ads. For the first time this year, they are showing the strength of their real time data as users compare brands head to head in a statistical showdown.

We had a chance to talk to Edward Bouches, Chief Innovation Officer at Mullen, to find out more about Brandbowl 2012.

Your original Facebook post from 2009 refers to Brandbowl as a way for old media (Super Bowl ads) to meet new media (Twitter) and to get more people using Twitter. Now that Twitter and TV interaction is common place, what is the importance of continuing Brandbowl? Will you start branching out to conversations beyond Twitter?

Brandbowl started as a way to entice the advertising industry to get into Twitter. Three years ago very few ad people were using the platform. It was a huge success.  But now Brandbowl has become an annual event.  It gets bigger every year. More people want to participate. Past participants want to return. Also, for two years, now, we have been hosted by Boston.com, on its website.  This year Billboard is doing a half-time show on the site, tweeting about music and Madonna.  And we've added more and more analytics and user engagement. Plus mobile.  So it's not just about tweeting while watching. It's about engagement.  And finally, the true value of Brandbowl is that we get all the data on viewer preference.  It's the data that matters more than anything. We know what people think, like and dislike before anyone else.  As far as moving beyond Twitter, not yet. It is still the de facto platform for real time commentary.

This year is the first you will show geolocation results. Where are you expecting the most conversation?

The reason for geo (and perhaps, also, gender) is that the platforms and mobile give us the opportunity to look at things that way. We make no real predictions. Obviously the big locations will be Boston, NY, LA, SF, Austin, Chicago. Where there is population and social users and interest in advertising.

What has surprised you most about the Brandbowl experience?

What surprised us most was that a small experiment could grow into a highly anticipated annual event. And that we were able to be so instrumental in getting the industry excited about the platform. And yes, in the first couple of years, Brandbowl helped position the agency as authorities in social media and creatively using the space.  We won a number of clients' social business, or at least got conversations, as a result. It's never the only reason why, but it always helps.

Come Sunday which platform do you think will show the most accurate results? Will you be engaging with Brandbowl over on Twitter or will you be firmly glued to Facebook's Ad Meter. Is Bouches right that Twitter is the best place for real time commentary or will Facebook give it a run for its money?

We'll compare the results on Monday.

E-commerce in figures 

Figures from comScore show that British mums were 82% more likely to visit an online toy shop in October 2011 than the average internet user, and 64% more likely to shop for cosmetics and fragrances online.

In the same month, the UK outranked all other European countries in terms of hours spent online per person, at 37.5 hours, almost 10 hours more than the European average, and 13 hours higher than the global norm.

Clearly there is an appetite for web content among British consumers, and marked trends relating to who shops where online. 

SEO for your local market

The internet is truly global, but that doesn't rule out geography as an important factor in securing a sale.

Some shoppers want to know their goods will be delivered quickly, or are concerned about racking up too many carbon-hungry delivery miles, particularly in B2B sales.

Knowing the size of your local market is an important step towards tweaking your SEO efforts.

For instance, in 2011, English Google users searched for queries including the word 'London':

• Four times as often as 'Manchester'.
• Five times as often as 'Liverpool'.
• Six times as often as 'Birmingham'.
• tTen times as often as 'Sheffield'.

(source: Google Trends)

So, unsurprisingly, the capital has a much greater potential search audience, but also much greater competition.

How do you get around this, and target your website at both your local customers and the wider market?

Long-tail localised keywords

Long-tail keywords are the answer to a number of SEO issues. They are naturally less competitive, but much more specific, meaning your landing pages should appear much more relevant when they appear on search engine results pages.

This helps your conversion rate to rise, and can achieve greater profits in spite of the smaller number of queries conducted by would-be buyers.

In terms of local SEO, you can make almost any short-tail key phrase into a long-tail one simply by adding 'in [your location]' to the end. This should have no detrimental effect on your ranking for the shorter phrase, but can help your landing pages to rank highly if people search for a provider of a particular product or service in your area.

It is a flexible and dual-layered approach to SEO that can give your site an added edge over your local rivals.

Top tips on website optimisation

Website optimisation goes beyond search engine optimisation; it is not just about making your pages appear more often, or higher up, in search results.

It is also about ensuring your website is easily navigable, that your product descriptions are compelling, and that your checkout process is reliable and secure enough that you do not lose customers at the last minute.

Put yourself in the customer's shoes. Is it clear, on every product or service page of your site, exactly what they are buying and for how much?

Remember, arriving via a search engine means your would-be buyers might not have seen your homepage or other pages of product information. Optimise for both search and shoppers, and you have the rest of 2012 to watch your conversion rates rise.

When researching the product 78% of respondents used a PC, while 54% used a mobile.

Moving onto the transaction stage, 80% opted to make the purchase on a PC while 34% used a mobile.

The proportion of shoppers making a purchase a mobile device is high, and previous research has shown that tablets are leading the way in terms of conversion rate at 3.8% compared to 1.9% on desktop.

The IAB’s study also shows that tablets are proving to be a strong revenue stream for retailers, with respondents who own a tablet spending 4.4 hours per week browsing retail sites and also making a purchase every week.

Our recent Conversion Rate Optimization Report found that just 16% of companies are conducting any kind of usability testing on tablets, but these stats show that retailers (and fashion brands especially) need to take notice of the iPad. 

GfK research director Ryan Garner said that the more connected devices consumers own, the more their behaviours change and the more complex purchasing habits become. 

Those brands and retailers that can best accommodate this changing dynamic will be best placed to generate new sales and capitalise on consumers’ desire to use their smartphone for research and purchase more in the future.”

Mobile payments are predicted to finally gain a foothold with consumers in 2012, so gaining the presidential seal of approval is a massive endorsement for Square - which was created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

More than 1m merchants have signed up to use the tool and its hardware has been used on smaller election campaigns, but never something on the scale of a presidential re-election.

But as well as providing a handy PR boost Square could stand to earn a huge amount of commission.

The Federal Election Commission records that Obama’s 2008 election campaign earned $335,139,233 from donations of $200 or less.

Assuming these are the sorts of donations that are likely to be put through in person on mobile devices, Square’s 2.75% cut of each transaction should be a good earner.

So far in 2012 the mobile payment market has been largely dominated by developments in NFC technology, but Square’s mobile credit card readers are another convenient method of processing mobile transactions.

It has already established itself with small businesses in the US as it bypasses the need to buy a card reader and sign an expensive contract with a credit card company.

In 2011 the company predicted that it would process $2bn of payments, but in comparison technology analysis firm Yankee Group predicts the value of NFC transactions will grow from $27m in 2010 to $40bn in 2014.

It should be noted that Square offers different functionality to NFC technology – its average payment is $75 while NFC allows a maximum transaction of around £20, but that’s not to say that NFC technology won’t develop to allow larger payments.

Plus Square is taking on some major players in the NFC market - Google, PayPal and Visa have all leant their support to the technology.

All things considered though, it seems likely that the two technologies will exist side-by-side with NFC taking hold among major retailers while startups and small businesses use Square’s cheaper technology.

We wanted to take a moment to take a look at a common email question: it’s a touch-and-go economy, are my competitors still investing in email marketing? The answer is a resounding yes. Find out why ...