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Optimizing page load times and site performance is an ongoing and well-documented challenge for online marketers.   The proliferation of widgets and tags used to track online behavior and add features is a two-edged sword – adding functionality, generating insightful metrics vs. increased page load times.   As an interactive marketer focused on achieving higher conversion rates, I am acutely aware of the detrimental effect that slow load time has on conversions.   An item from Media Post about Subaru’s efforts to cut page load times with a tag aggregation service called Tag/Man illustrates how a major brand is tackling this problem.

Read more at Media Post

Sony and Major League Baseball have announced a partnership that will bring out-of-market games to Sony PlayStation consoles, extending MLB’s reach to video gamers and augmenting PlayStation’s position as a digital entertainment hub.   Last month I blogged about the road back for Sony, this is another step for the Japanese consumer electronics giant.

Read more from the New York Times

Google now includes site speed as a ranking factor in its algorithm, as reported on Friday by Searchengineland.    Successful Interactive Marketers is determined to a major extent on striking the right balance among creative, strategic and technical considerations.   Achieving optimal site performance and page load time depends on these factors as well.   While this has always been a factor, it just got a little more important.

It is not uncommon for key stakeholders to be unaware of the impact that site performance has on their online presence, particularly for online marketing efforts for which global performance is key to success.   Last month I wrote about the Alertsite performance monitoring system, and how one company has used it to improve user experience and in turn generate a greater number of leads from Asia and Europe.   With Friday’s announcement of the inclusion of site speed in the Google ranking algorithm, the stakes have been raised.   If you haven’t considered utilization of Akamai or one of its competitors in the site acceleration / content distribution space, perhaps now is a good time to revisit.   To validate what you are seeing from the Google Labs site performance toolset, try a free 30-day trial of the Alertsite service to gain knowledge and insight as to how your site measures up.

This morning my commute from Boston to the South Shore which is typically a total grind was quite enjoyable, thanks to 98.5 The Sports Hub.   Check out this mp3 of Tedy Bruschi channeling Geddy Lee.    What’s the bottom line for Interactive Marketers?  It’s Friday and we all deserve a laugh!

Click here to listen to Teddy Bruschi channeling Geddy Lee on 98.5 The Sports Hub

Interesting news about an innovative cross-channel marketing initiative this morning from @AmericanExpress and @DunkinDonuts.   As reported on Boston.com and the Hartford Courant, Amex has partnered with Dunkin’ Donuts via its Blue Savings customer loyalty program. When Blue Cardmembers shop four times in a calendar month at Dunkin’ with their American Express Card, they will get a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts Card.

The initiative is being promoted across multiple channels, including print via member’s monthly card statements, Amex broadcast emails,  Twitter and Facebook.   Interesting that the program is not being promoted by TV and radio.

Last weekend’s iPad launch created a demand for iPad-centric advertising platforms.   Google has already tweaked Adwords to give marketers some iPad options, Yahoo will soon follow suit.

As reported by MediaBuyerPlanner.com, Adwords marketers can choose to have their ads displayed to iPad users by selecting “all mobile devices” in their campaign settings. Advertising users can also select “target only selected mobile devices” to choose specific devices or to choose the iPad only.

Yahoo’s strategy gives advertisers support for interactive product placement through Wi-Fi connections, as well as 3G cellular service offered by telecom carrier AT&T. The iPad also has local memory and can cache information. The possibilities for product placement range from animation to video clips to mini games.

The HTML 5 content driven to the device from servers makes the advertising possibilities endless. Since the iPad supports Wi-Fi, and a later version will include cellular service, clicking on a can of Coke, for example,  could take the consumer to a Web site, downloadable gifts, coupons, etc.

The bottom line?  Before investing dollars in ads targeted to this platform, Interactive Marketers need to see some metrics  – specifically we need to look at audience share data, demographics, and overall useage patterns.   The platform shows much promise as both robust a challenging growth environment, as shown by the strong sales numbers on Saturday.    At a minimum, mobile advertising has been redefined, and just alot more attractive and valuable .

On April, 1, J.D. Power and Associates a released study which shows that among consumers who use smartphones, touch screen phones achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction than QWERTY devices.

According to Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power, “It’s all about getting what you need to get done quickly.”

Apple has the highest customer satisfaction rating among smartphone owners, with a score of 810 (on a scale of 1,000), performing well in categories such as ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. RIM’s BlackBerry trailed in second with a score of 741.

LG had the highest customer satisfaction among traditional handsets, scoring well in all five areas, particularly design, features and operation.

The question is – will high levels of consumer satisfaction among mobile users translate into success for other touchscreen devices, such as the iPad, or a possible Android-powered Google tablet?

Source: JD Power and Associates

Chatroulette presents a unique challenge to online marketers – how to make an impression, or achieve a conversion  – before getting “nexted”?    Travelocity has come up with a novel approach, using their iconic ‘Gnome’ character.  According to Media Post, the “Roaming Gnome” is appearing on the video chat site holding a sign that urges users to take a vacation in one of a number of destinations.   Travelocity’s ad agency, McKinney, also has a staffer appearing on the chat site.   If the user doesn’t like the gnome, they can just “next” it.   This is an innovative approach and one worth watching to see if other advertisers adopt a similar strategy.

Location-based social networking broke out at SXSW Interactive in 2009 when Foursquare and Gowalla made their debuts.   The rivalry that was established has heated up significantly and reached a new peak at SXSW 2010.   Since then the battle for supremacy over this white-hot  social networking channel has continued at a fever pitch.

I had not joined either of these sites until a couple weeks ago when I was in Austin for SXSW Interactive, my first trip to SXSW.    The buzz about Foursquare and Gowalla was loud, almost deafening.    After discussing them over lunch with @rmmdc, and watching him check into both on his iPhone, I decided to try them out side by side, then blog about it.  What makes my comparison interesting is that I don’t have an iPhone, a Blackberry, or an Android phone, so experience on both has been via their respective mobile sites (http://m.gowalla.com and http://foursquare.com/mobile) on my Nokia e71 smartphone running Symbian.   (yes go ahead and laugh – I think I was the only person at SXSW who didn’t have an iPhone or a ‘Berry)

The Foursquare Symbian experience:  has been good.    Foursquare gets major props for clearly stating that users can either download their apps for iPhone or Blackberry – if you dont have either then use their mobile site.  The e71 remembers my login credentials, 4sq’s mobile UI is easily navigable and responds quickly.   Overall it has been really positive, almost flawless.

The Gowalla Symbian experience : has been bad.   Gowalla told me up front that the service is currently available only for iPhone, Android, and Palm, however they then go on to offer up a link to their mobile site as an alternative (just like Foursquare does), which is somewhat confusing/misleading because it seems to indicate that the mobile site replicates the function of the apps, but its not even close.   When i try to log onto their mobile site from my e71, browser, nothing happens.   Failure to load is the best way to describe it.

The bottom line?   Gowalla is missing a major opportunity to gain audience share by failing so miserably with their mobile site.   According to most stats I have seen recently, they are running behind Foursquare by anywhere between from 400 – 600k users.  It’s not as if they couldn’t afford to test on the e71 and other Symbian platofrms – FastCompany details the advantage they had early on in investment dollars.

This analysis by Gartner explains the value and cost of developing mobile business architectures on alternative platforms – and its quite clear that with such a large share of the mobile audience, investing in Symbian development is well worth it.

I really want to like Gowalla.  Maybe they will read this and make a better effort to extend their user experience to Symbian devices.  Until then, I will be using Foursquare.

My recent post about the Kendall Square Starbucks Clover Coffee Machine generated alot of interest, particularly from outside the Boston area.  (Currently Clovers are only operating at Starbucks locations in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco).  Well today I got word from the manager at the Kendall Square Starbucks that baristas from New York City and Chicago have been at her store the past few days training on the Clover in preparation for the rollout of Clover in those cities sometime in April.

http://starbucks.com/clover