Who is leading? Internet speeds and costs for broadband around the word

A recent report revealed the Internet broadband speeds and costs of access around the world. Why is that important? Because you need to consider how fast your website visitors can access the content you put on your website.

If you are marketing to people in Turkey, you may want to think twice about heavy usage of video and other download intensive content whereas in Japan, videos aren't a problem in the slightest. Broadband penetration in Turkey is around 33% with an average broadband speed of 2 mbps.

Japan - on the other hand- is the world leader with an average broadband speed of 61 mbps and a penetration of around 75%. Interestingly Iceland is leading the broadband penetration along with Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. Broadband penetration in these countries are above 80%, yet the actual speed varies as does the cost of access.

Cost of access - Japan cheap, Poland very expensive
Obviously there is likely to be some sort of correlation between penetration, average speed and the price. Japan is the cost leader offering broadband at a price of USD 0,27 pr. 1 mbps pr. month and Poland clearly the most expensive place to get broadband access charging on average a whopping USD 13,00 pr. 1 mbps pr. month.

Click on the infographic to view a larger vision.

Michael Leander speaking about social media in Poland

In April 2010 I will be speaking as one of four plenary session speakers at the combined customer loyalty and customer insights conference in Cracow, Poland.

The most important marketing conference in CEE, I am looking forward to spend time with a bunch of really smart speakers and - most likely - even smarter delegates. If you will attend the conference, please do look me up to say hello.

You can read more right here.

Human creativity never ever ceases to amaze me - watch this and be amazed

The human capacity for creativity and innovation is truly remarkable. At least I think so. When you watch the video below, you will see something quite extraordinary.  This is a masterpiece, world class - simply fantastic.




In this video, Ukrainian Xenia Simonova Xenia shows how she manages with simple effects to entertain and affect an audience with her excellent creative talent.

In the event you do not catch the story right away, allow me to mention that she is drawing in sand. The pictures tells a story, which obviously still affects many (former) Soviet Citizens deeply. It is about WWII.

I saw this by pure coincidence and was deeply impressed by Xenia's abilities. Not "just" her drawing ability, but especially her amazing ability to weave together so many different images and messages to a story which seems to me very complex. Beautiful and quite touching.

Should I ever find myself involved in a marketing event  in need of that extra touch, I would not hesitate to facilitate the invitation of Xenia. Wow would she put things into perspective.

98% will recommend The Digital Marketing Seminar with Michael Leander

At The Internet Marketing Seminar recently held at the Fairmont Towers Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, Michael Leander provided insights to a wide range of topics relating to digital/online marketing. This successful event will be repeated in Cairo in February 2010 (learn more)

Nearly 80 marketing professionals from respected companies such as Elsewedy Cables, Cadbury, Google, Vodafone, Egyptian Banking Institute, Credit Agricole, Smart Management, Glextel Egypt and Noun Travel attended 2 day internet marketing event in Cairo. The event featured opening addresses by assistant minister of Investment Dr. Ashmawy, country manager for Citibank Mr. Ahmed Aftab and a surprise visit from mobile marketing expert Mr. Con O’Donnell, Managing Director of Sarmady Egypt.

After the opening addresses, internet marketing expert Michael Leander presented 1,5 day of internet marketing topics including

- 7 things you need to know to become a successful online marketer
- How to build or revamp your website
- How to drive traffic to your website
- How to get started with email marketing
- Leveraging social media and social networks for your business

45 out of 46 surveyed recommend The Digital Marketing Seminar
Based on the delegate feedback, the seminar was a success. When asked 98% of the attendees said they would recommend the seminar to others. Or to be more precise: 45 out of 46 delegates – who submitted the evaluation form – said they would recommend the internet marketing seminar.

Go on - read more about this story now

Michael Leander appeared to have been a hit at Drayton Bird's EADIM in London

From EADIM London 2009

"You appear to have been a hit" - that's what Kate Jones of Drayton Bird Associates wrote to me today. She referred to my presentation at the intro week of EADIM - The European Academy of Direct & Interactive Marketing - which took place in London in October 2009.

If you have been following my for a while, you will know that I frequently publish audience ratings of my presentations, courses and seminars. And I finally got around to do just that for EADIM 2009.

At EADIM delegates rated speakers on a scale from bad to excellent. 15 delegates were kind enough to pass their judgment upon poor little ol me. 8 said excellent, 6 said very good, and 1 said good. I translate that to a rating of 4,47.

Delegates rated me "very good to excellent", here is my evaluation of the delegates
I recently began rating my audiences. Why? Because it takes two to Tango. Especially in an exclusive program such as EADIM. So here is my evaluation of the delegates at EADIM:

Willingness to interact: 4,5
Ability to pay attention: 4,7 (only one person had trouble staying awake, a new record for me:-)

One of the best audiences I've had in 2009, and I am quite happy that I have been able to meet up with a few of them since EADIM.

Drayton Bird claims testimonials are important - I believe him
Some delegates were kind enough to write a few words about me & my presentation (thanks).A few below - and even more on my Linkedin profile.

"Very well presented; kept the audience involved the whole time. The information
was all very relevant."
Sheetal Vithlani

"Love it! "
Tim Piadea

"I was amazed by the simplicity of the complicated online world."
Raul Man

"Fabulous - humour/energy. Usefulness."
Anonymous

"Useful tips; Entertaining speaker. "
Mark Ellis

What in the world is EADIM?
In case you haven't heard about EADIM - you can read more about this wonderful initiative by Drayton Bird - by many regarded as one of the most knowledgeable marketers in the world. He is also the author of Commonsense Direct Marketing, which currently ranks #5 on Amazon's list of all time best selling books about direct marketing. Quite an accomplishment - especially considering that the first edition was published in 1982.

Best students - best teachers

From EADIM London 2009

It was my pleasure to present at the first EADIM in Brussels in 2008. And I sincerely believe that the "students" who choose to join EADIM are the best students I have met in Central and Northern Europe.

Not only because they are highly interesting individuals. But also because they are serious, bright and very talented . Not to mention - very smart.
But also because the teachers (that's what the speakers are called at EADIM), are amongst the best money can buy (myself excluded, of course).
You won't find any pretenders amongst the teachers. Every single one of them have "been there, done that" and are quite willing to share their profound knowledge.

I think EADIM will start a new group of students in 2010. Not sure when, how, €$£ and the program - but check the website and register for their newsletter and I am sure they will get in touch with you.

Michael Leander to come back to Cairo for Digital Marketing Seminar in May

In what must be sort of unusual, Michael Leander is coming back to present the Digital Marketing Seminar in Cairo for the third time in six months.

Organizer Global Consultants have decided to once again bring the popular Digital Marketing Seminar to Cairo, Egypt. A three day seminar to once again be held at Conrad Cairo Hotel, Michael Leander will be presenting the 2 day Digital Marketing Seminar and the 1 day Email Marketing Masterclass.

Interesting mobile marketing case study from Egypt

Vodafone owned Sarmady in Cairo, Egypt, were part of the marketing mix to sell the Internet Marketing Seminar with Michael Leander in Cairo. Yesterday Sarmady published the case study. And while I do understand the mechanisms and advantages of mobile marketing, I was quite surprised by their numbers.

Here is a quick overview of the case study.

Campaign Goals
* Create awareness about the event targeted at business profiles
* Generate traffic and online reservations through WEB and WAP sites
Tactics
* Mobile Channel:
WAP site development
Targeted SMS campaign (corp. tariff & owners of BlackBerry, HTC, iPhone and Nokia E series)
WAP banner on Vodafone Live English portal

* WEB Channel:
Banners targeting Egypt on Aljazeera.net, Mubasher.info, Elyoum7.com, FilGoal.com, kooora.com, ContactCars.com, swalif.net

Results
* 4,200 visits to the event’s WAP site
* 6,300 visits to the event’s website

For marketers, I think that is definitely something to think about. Now the ROMI - Return on Marketing Investment - has not yet been calculated at time of writing this, however to me this looks very much like an efficient media channel.

Obviously the challenge of mobile marketing in most countries is the permission part. Most companies do not have a sufficiently large amount of mobile marketing permissions and in many countries third party communication to cell phones is not allowed. But if you have obtained critical mass in your mobile marketing subscriber-base, you definitely should consider this channel - even for B2B marketing.

If you want to learn more about Sarmady in Egypt, contact them here.