Standard Class

Congratulations Cameron and Gday world

2007-03-01T09:26:00.000Z

Congratulations to Cameron Riley on the 200th show of Gday world. Cameron started the podcastnetwork around the jewel of Gday world. Gday word is a must to check if you are new to podcasting or even if you are a veteran but there are also loads of other great shows on the podcastnetwork. My personal favourites after gday world are the Edinburgh fringe podcast and the Productivity show when they are podcast! Well done Cameron, keep the independent, irreverent and intellectual insight coming

Content creation hubs

2006-07-18T16:39:00.000Z

The world of work is changing, the rise in individuals working as freelance professionals is growing fast however the support structures which have been lagging behind are beginning to catch up. Trendwatching.com points to The village quill and Two rooms as two examples in New York of an office away from home. These physical locations are growing quickly in major cities around the world as individuals demand more than perching in an armchair in Starbucks. What is really needed however is a co-operative style outsourcing operation, a network of resources for independent operators, which would provide services such as tax, invoices, receptionists, mailboxes, legal support, it, server space, email, software, travel booking etc in time even a global network of physical locations. The buying power of such a group would be huge and if benefits were passed on to members the incentives to join would grow. It might be the difference between being able to jump the corporate ship to go it alone and being tied to the grindstone.

NO Flickr!

2006-07-18T16:31:00.000Z

I am not sure why, but I was surprised to find Flickr blocked when I tried to access it from Dubai. Everything about the country is trying to move forward at pace. I am sure that the nature of some of the images are "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates" and it is their responsibility to do what they feel is right for their citizens but is it really worth the opportunity cost of preventing what could be a breakthrough tool and others like it, on the back of which some of their citizens could be creating interesting, innovative and profitable companies which could be the future of the UAE?

Reaching Niches

2006-07-18T16:30:00.000Z

Twenty-five years ago it was estimated that just five TV advertising spots would reach 80% of the audience, while today more than 300 such spots would be needed for a similar reach.

Content owners take 70% of the revenue from Google Video , even in these fast changing times content is still king.

SPIT on SKYPE

2006-06-22T16:05:00.000Z

Listening to Cameron Reilly's GDAY world I was disappointed to hear that another of his listeners (that must make 28) has been receiving Spam over Internet Telephony on his skype phone. I suppose i should not be surprised, it is a great early adopter target audience however the conversion rate must be dismal!

Art or vandalism

2006-06-22T08:51:00.000Z

Bristol council have taken the enlightened view of asking residents what they think of renowned artist Banksy's latest piece on the side of a sexual health clinic. He did not have permission so it is technically graffiti but it looks like it will be allowed to stay. Is this the thin end of the wedge? Who will try to push the limits next? I think that it is witty and should be allowed to stay.

Jack Klues Publicis IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T13:00:00.000Z

Jack has been sitting at the table with clients for a number of years but only on an ad hoc basis . He feels that the time has come when he needs to become more connected .
He feels that the time has come for buyers to re-enter the limelight. Buyer need to do better and more detailed deals in order to create new media spaces within branded content.
Media sales had to separate from ad agencies to integrate more closely with clients . He feels that media sales need to do 5 things.

need to abandon the assembly line nature of Advert Programming
need to stop arguing over who owns the planning process
Bespoke for all screens-not just spun off the 30 second spot
Move beyond mainstream media- need to buy and sell experiences
Strategic client connections the clients want to get closer

In conclusion we need to understand where the consumer is.

Jack is the third speaker at the IAA conference to recommend Thomas Friedman's book " the world is flat" I have not purchased it myself yet but it is either a great book or Thomas is paying great commission.

Should the Ipod be over for Apple?

2006-03-22T08:39:00.000Z

What do the Queen, President Bush, Tony Blair and the Pope have in common? Yes they are all influential leaders but they also all own Ipods. Is this an indicator that the ipod should be over? At first only the hippest early adopter had an ipod, then it tipped and all young hip and trendy people had one. The fact that the pope now sports one probably means that Apple should destroy the ipod and make way for the next new thing. Unless they destroy their own success and push themselves to innovate a competitor will steal their crown.

The Audience

2006-03-22T08:37:00.000Z

Many companies in the past have realised that once you have a relationship with a customer it is much easier to make them happy. Once you have won their trust you can start to produce products not only to keep them happy but to make them ecstatic. With customers becoming more demanding and competition mushrooming companies that can do this are thriving. The role of the trusted aggregator will allow value to be added whoever is creating content. If you can sell customers a 12 part series based on giving the first episode for free you can create the remaining 11 episodes to fit your customer base. The better you know them the closer they become tied to you and the better your product can become for them.
Is there a niche interest group out there that numbers perhaps 100,000 that would pay £10 for a film or TV series that was tailored to their interests? With £1,000,000 you could certainly produce or partner with existing programming to create exactly what they want.

The role of the newspaper

2006-03-22T08:36:00.000Z

Already newspapers have ceased to be a source of the truth and, if they are any good and wish to survive, are becoming our trusted editors.
The important function that remains is editing, they create brands based on what is not in rather than what is in a newspaper. They create a world view and tone of voice that becomes a familiar way to receive news.
This personal voice creates a loyal audience, over the last century this audience has been leveraged in print advertising and more recently in broadcast news with television advertising. In the future similar brands will be willing to pay for the attention of this audience, the basics have not changed just the execution.

Partnership

2006-03-22T08:35:00.000Z

The traditional marketing agency model is flawed in today's fast moving and changing environment.
Agencies need to believe in their ideas and invest in them, clients need to reward this risk but also get better at partnering with agencies and sharing the risk. Both agency and client need to get closer to consumers not only to know them better but to work with them. Without using consumers as marketers the task has become too huge, there is no longer a "mass" to target with mass media, instead there are hubs of niche interest groups who all need to be engaged and informed.

Survival of the nimble

2006-03-22T08:34:00.000Z

"Change is hard. Change is hardest on those caught by surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too. But change is natural; change is not new; change is important." David Schlesinger, Reuters America

Consumers can't hear you scream

2006-03-22T08:33:00.000Z

Advertisers used to work on the theory that he who shouts the loudest for the longest period of time gets the attention of the crowd. There are two flaws to this idea in the modern market place. The first is that there are very few crowds any more, without this crowd there is no mass for the mass media to target. Marketing has to become much more nimble and work much harder to earn the attention of those who have traditionally been found in front of a box paying attention to your advertising. The key words here are paying and earning. Marketers need to earn the attention of their audience, without this attention it is like shouting at a crowd with ear plugs. If you have been on the tube in London recently you will notice that this is literally true, everybody is plugged into headsets in their own little worlds.
Marketers need to get consumers to want to remove their headphones and listen, to engage in dialogue and to market with rather than at consumers.

Allen Rosenshine BBDO IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:31:00.000Z

There are three things that are key to the future of the ad industry according to Allen:

Owning client branding
Connecting with the consumer - consumers will decide which technologies they will adopt and how much they will pay.
Capture consumer attention with the most compelling content

Steve Forbes IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:28:00.000Z

Steve has 5 principles of economic growth, if you have these your country wins, without them you get left behind.

Rule of law - to make it a stable investment opportunity
Ease of setting up a legal business
Taxes - lower them and increase prosperity
Stable and sound monetary system
Low barriers to trade both internally and externally

Dr Jihad Azoour IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:25:00.000Z

The Lebanese minister of finance was very open about the branding opportunity his country is facing. Post the Cedar revolution they have reached a cross roads, one route leads to the world seeing the Lebanon as a "Bastion of freedom, peace and economic prosperity." The other route does not bear thinking about for the Lebanese people. Their future will rest in the branding of their country .They must grab this opportunity with both hands. The work they are doing at www.rediscoverlebanon.com is a good start.

Sergio Zyman IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:17:00.000Z

Sergio Zyman self confessed marketing visionary had some interesting points to make, he sees the goal of marketers as:

To sell more stuff , to more people more often for more money more efficiently.

Hi is a pragmatist and believes that marketing needs to create top and bottom line growth, every $ needs to be accounted for. Marketing needs to engage in the growth agenda of the client company.
He was quick to note that the bud 'wassup` campaign was award winning and got most of the western world saying wassup, but sales of bud declined.

Having been the first CMO of Coke he had some interesting insight on the soft drinks industry which is applicable across sectors- Soft drinks are purchased with disposable income , they are not competing with other soft drinks but with all minor purchases.

He sees the primary role of marketing as the creator of organic growth .Marketing is the last tool to leverage for corporate growth. Nobody ever made any money by making things, you have to sell then to do that.

Having worked on political campaigns he explained that the marketing of politics is an interesting bench mark , do you set yourself a target of 51% market share? Do you have a date by when this target must be achieved? If you fail do you have to wait four years to try again? This is what politicians do and it certainly focuses the mind.

The number of touch points are being reduced so the quality of these touches needs to increase.

Sahar Hashemi Coffee Republic IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:15:00.000Z

Sahar is a serial entrepreneur, she researched her coffee shop idea by stopping at every station on London's circle line and checking out the coffee offering. Her presentation was engaging and amusing with some great nuggets:
"Comfort zones are a fallacy"
" leap and a net will appear"
"entrepreneurs do not listen to the voice of reason ,they have to switch it off"
"you need to be clueless to compete with the established companies, if you are not clueless your vision is clouded by past success and failure."
"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly ,you will get it right eventually"
Most entrepreneurs need funding, Sahar chose to go down the bank route and with her ethos of never giving up "I like to fail 99 times and succeed in the end, if I succeed first time round I am very suspicious" she soon realised that every bank manager had digression over approving a loan she pitched to bank managers until she got what she wanted.

Tateo Mataki CEO Dentsu - IAA Dubai

2006-03-22T08:14:00.000Z

"Be creative, be strategic, deliver value"

Malcom Gladwell

2006-03-21T22:25:00.000Z

Emergency room statistics state that more people are admitted every year for non-dog bites than dog-bites—which is to say that when you see a Pit Bull, you should worry more about being bitten by the person holding the leash than the dog on the other end.

John Pallant Saatchi and Saatchi - IAA Dubai

2006-03-21T15:29:00.000Z

John Pallant of Saatchi and Saatchi injected some life into proceedings and used the three huge screens to wake up the whole room. He has been concentrating on creating "Ad's that don't look like ads" and showed some interesting work they had done in Poland for amnesty, still using traditional media of print/web/radio/poster but in an innovative way.
He is also interested in communications ideas that do not look like communications ideas
He noted that there are now lots of good ideas out there with high production values so you now need great ideas to stand out from the crowd.
The more global work he takes on the more levels of sign off he sees which leads to massive watering down of ideas to please the lowest common denominator.
He made a great point that audiences are as accessible as ever but are no longer captive, they are more demanding and you should not presume that because they are looking at your campaign that they are paying attention.
He is a fan of Kevin Roberts concept that he outlines in his book SISOMO, in which he theorises that audiences pay attention to sight sound and motion
He realised that creatives do their best work when;
They have a new creative director to impress
They form a new copy writer/ art director team
They have just joined a new agency
When they are out of the office
When they are running out of time

He created Saatchi TRIBE, to put creatives onto the edge where they perform best.
They created teams of three from employees all around the world on an ad hoc basis dependant on the client needs, they work under a new creative director and are subjected to 2 days of high pressure work. They brainstorm for short periods, between 20 minutes and an hour. These elements all encourage cross fertilisation and lateral jumps of ideas.
Clients are encouraged to brief teams personally and there is always a planner present to keep the creatives on track and to the brief, or to amend the brief if necessary. The client returns at various points to allow them to take ownership early on and become an internal champion.
The main power driver of the tribe is the diversity of the group in an environment of ego free co-operation.
The clients are willing to pay more for this service and get real business results whilst having a bit of fun.

Norman Pearlstine - IAA Dubai

2006-03-21T15:00:00.000Z

Norman is senior adviser of Time Warner, Norman is very unusual as he is not young and he is American. Against all the odds however Norman gets it.

He said some interesting things:

The one to many model lost sight of the customer
Individuals voices are rising along with collaborative sites and vastly improved search
Newspapers offer - Timely information, maintainers of record, transactions (small ads) the internet does all these things much better.
There is still an ageing population who will be consuming newspapers for a while to come
There have been a dilution of quality in TV, more news, less resources to get stories.
Magazines have been slower to move as they do not need to be timely, maintainers of record or carry small ads.
News websites are lagging behind the consumer, they are just brand extensions not collaborative or networked.
News organisations need to renew their commitment to credibility
News organisations need to ask much more searching questions of the government's actions.

International Advertising Association in Dubai

2006-03-21T11:06:00.000Z

The good and the great from the advertising Industry are meeting in Dubai over the next three days I will let you known how it goes.

Aggregation is the future

2006-03-13T20:39:00.000Z

With the tyranny of too much rearing it's head at every step I believe that aggregation is the future. I do not want to spend hours researching what car is best for me, I want to take the advise of somebody like me. I do not want to check out all the video on demand downloads, I want somebody like me to set up Charlie TV so I can try what they believe I would like. I can see that companies which create niche personalised aggregation portals with feedback mechanisms will run our lives in 5 to 10 year's time. I would be happy to outsource my purchasing power to an organisation like this. Instead of advertising I would tell my outsource service I would like to download a new tv series/ try a new band etc and trust them to do it for me. Buying a new car would take seconds, I tell them my budget and they tell me what I should have based on an existing profile and including a pre-negotiated price. This is the paradox of choice, we would get the most suitable product for the best price and have more time to enjoy it safe in that knowledge.

Trusting news brands

2006-03-08T21:12:00.000Z

It is extremely interesting to see Der Spiegel using a link up with technorati on it's online news offering.
At the bottom of any article you can click on the : Blogs discussing this story link and it will take you to blogs doing just that.
Some news brands see blogs as a threat, the fact that Der Spiegel embraces them clearly marks them out as a news brand that will survive. People need to trust the brand in news delivery, this trend was started by the BBC who link to related sites alongside their articles, hats off to Der Spiegel for going a giant leap further.

Cheap flights my way

2006-03-08T21:03:00.000Z

Internet commerce was invented for industries such as travel and sites like lastminute.com and expedia have thrived on aggregating flights and balancing demand. Their services pales into comparison however when you visit Kayak . I used to be a real deckchair fan but this site is a whole leap into the future. I find the timings search in the toolbar particularly easy to use.

Corporate (in)security

2006-03-08T20:58:00.000Z

What's more dangerous? My competition knowing my plan or my 10,000 employees not knowing my plan?

SWEETBAY SUPERMARKET PRES/COO SHELLEY BROADER, ON WHY SHE'S OPEN ABOUT COMPANY INFO, TAMPA BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL 1.10.06

"What's your reason?"

2006-03-08T20:56:00.000Z

Seth Godin got me thinking when he asked "What's your reason?". He was explaining why many people do certain things, invariably because they always have done it that way. He reminded me of the importance of re-invention, keep asking why until you find the real reason. Keep innovating, failing fast and reinventing what you. Keep the reason for doing what you are doing so fresh in your mind that you never have to ask yourself the question "What's your reason?".

The quick and the dead

2006-03-08T20:50:00.000Z

There are two types of businesses, those who have fallen into the trap of doing one thing well and those who are flexible. If you can only do one thing well you will keep investing in it until the market disappears. The nimble businesses will continue to innovate and use their core skills to create the future of the industry whatever that industry might be.

HD TV High skills

2006-03-08T20:24:00.000Z

There has been a lot written about the effects of HDTV on stars. Philip Swann of TVPredictions.com singles out Demi Moore whose skin appears "coarse and leathery" and Donald Trump who looks "puffed up and covered with an odd mixture of orange and white" amongst others. Whilst HDTV will shorten some star's careers it will also bring to the forefront the skill of lighting. Badly filmed HD material will be much more obvious than the equivalent filmed on dv cam. Consumer generated HD material once it starts to arrive will be positively scary!

toptensources

2006-02-14T18:10:00.000Z

Topten sources is an interesting site in a world of overload a site where humans aggregate interesting content.

Skill less labour

2006-02-14T18:02:00.000Z

How little skill does your job need for your employer not to care who turns up to do your job? Mc Donalds are offering a very interesting scheme in the UK where close family can share one job. If you can't be bothered to get out of bed to flip burgers then perhaps you can convince your sister to do it for you? Would this work in more skilled jobs?

The value of this asset may fall as well as rise

2006-02-14T17:50:00.000Z

It is amazing to see this graph from alexa.org Google have managed to outstrip Yahoo in terms of traffic in only Two years. Yahoo is spending lots of money on content whilst Google are into a more collaborative approach. Value can be destroyed as quickly as it is created, Google beware!

Italian in New York

2006-02-13T18:20:00.000Z

I got taken to a great neighborhood Italian restaurant in New York. Parma Restaurant is owned by John Piscina and is on third avenue at 80th street. It is a great place filled with locals, excellent food, excellent service.

The power to present

2006-01-18T14:38:00.000Z

Guy Kawasaki has an interesting 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. He claims that a poweroint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting. He does give some leeway on point size" If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s you’re optimal font size." He is certainly on the right track , far too many people use power point as a the presentation planning tool it is not. I suggest using a tool such as Mind manager if you want to plan on your computer or a simple flip chart. Remember, you are far too intelligent and your ideas are for too good to let power point take charge.

Paying for online news

2006-01-18T14:36:00.000Z

Martin Sorrell has called it "very strange" and "bizarre" that online newspapers offer their content for free. I agree with him, I am willing to pay for quality content that I value and trust. However this only represents perhaps 10 percent of the news that I consume. There is nothing more annoying then having to subscribe to a newspaper, even if the subscription is free, when you are just following a link from a blog. I visit hundreds of articles a month from an eclectic and unusual variety of publications that I have never head of before and will probably never visit again. I would be happy to pay an annual fee to an aggregator service that gave me access to articles from every newspaper in the world on one passport type ID - Get to work Google !

Detroit...Briefly

2006-01-10T18:51:00.000Z

Had a good meat at the Rattlesnake Club, lots of large chunks of meat. Breakfast at Einstein Bagels and then back home.

Kill your television

2006-01-10T18:40:00.000Z

Google has announced that it will launch an online video service "Google Video Store". This comes as a wave of alliances are made between internet firms and content producers. The sports, entertainment and news programmes will be available as pay per download. There will be shows from CBS, Music videos from Sony and news from ITN. Google are positioning it as the first “open digital content marketplace”. Fox have also announced that they will be partnering with DirecTV to make programming from it's FX cable network available two days before broadcast.
Everybody has arrived at the party with in weeks of each other, my money is on Google to be the first to take advantage of the long tail and offer consumer generated media on a pay per download basis. The niche advertising that this will generate will be a consumer and marketers dream.

He said she said

2006-01-10T18:37:00.000Z

Markets are driven by attention, marketers need to earn attention. On the web individuals pay attention, not only to the choices other people make but to the people who are making these choices. People pay attention to people that have earned their attention whether through reputation, online trust or real world relationships. I want to see what my friends are recommending, they want me to recommend things to them. This is what OPML will do for RSS. I will be able to see who my friends are listening to, automatically take their recommendations on new sources to pay attention to and old sources to ignore.

Squidoo

2006-01-06T10:04:00.000Z

If you don't have a lens you need to go to Squidoo and get one, or lots. Lenses are the brainchild of the all round Guru Seth Godin. Lenses allow you to share your expertise. Everybody is an expert on something even if it is just themselves. The lenses are like online mood boards, you pin links to sources of information on the topic of the lens. So start with yourself, build a lens and share your knowledge, you might even earn some money on the way.

Water water everywhere

2006-01-06T10:02:00.000Z

Consumers today have a vast amount of choices. To entice them into and keep them coming to your retail outlet, especially if they are under 20, you need to offer a reason to visit. The visit to the shop needs to be more exciting and fulfilling than the product itself. Why would you purchase something from a shop that you could get from the lowest priced vendor on the web? Every retailer needs to be asking themselves this question and ensuring that they are offering an experience and added value that the web shop cannot offer otherwise they will just become a commodity.

Urge to launch

2006-01-06T09:59:00.000Z

MTV are launching a community style music download service which is called Urge. It is being supported by Microsoft and will be bundled in future media players. MTV has retained their unique cool factor for many years and are perfectly placed to be the arbiter of taste and launch new artistes and genres. With the combination of consumer generated video this could be a great product and a very attractive channel for marketers

China leading the way

2006-01-06T09:57:00.000Z

The OECD have reported that China has leapfrogged Europe, the USA and Japan in the last three years to become the leading exporter of information technology goods. Last year the Chinese exported $180 BN dollars worth of information and communication technology goods leaving the United States is second place exporting $149 BN dollars worth. Even the Americans cannot deny that China is steaming ahead. There are growing opportunities to turn these sometimes commodity products into global desirable brands.

Are you perfect?

2006-01-06T09:56:00.000Z

With the good sales of HD televisions over Christmas and the Football World Cup being televised on HD it is interesting to see some feedback from producers who have been using HD. There have been some problems with the huge amount of detail that the camera reveals. It may be that Mr Beckham et al look a little less glamorous when you can see every pore. Halftime makeup touch up anybody?

Warning - Things in your rearview mirror may appear scarier than they actually are

2006-01-06T09:55:00.000Z

"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center." -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

The MySpace generation

2006-01-06T09:53:00.000Z

87% of 12- to 17-year-olds use the Internet, vs. two-thirds of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In October 2005 20.6 million people clicked on MySpace. The world is changing, and changing very fast, people in their teens and early twenties use many different forms of communication and entertainment. They hardly pay attention to the television let alone the adverts. They are chatting on IM, posting their own blogs or commenting on others. They are sharing weblinks and comparing views, sometimes they even talk on the phone, but it is probably skype or a mobile. They can sniff out a marketer at 100 paces, you need to be relevant and interesting to earn the precious attention of these valuable consumers. If you can prove your usefulness to them however, they will reward you by telling their extended virtual network of contacts about you but beware, they are fickle and can turn on you as fast as they promoted you.

My content my way

2006-01-06T09:40:00.000Z

How will broadcasters deal with the unbundling of media? Consumers are becoming less keen on paying for content that they do not like or want. The old model of bundled subscription based content is being broken. Consumers are willing to pay more for advertising free content that they would like to watch but we are yet to see how much consumers are willing to pay per year for individual content on demand. I do not think it is a sustainable model to get individuals to pay for each programme at current levels of TV consumption. Either consumers will become more selective about the amount and quality of programming they consume or the models will need to change. I believe that consumers will pay more for less but higher quality material and diversify their entertainment media and channels. More time will be spent online, on hobbies and on other leisure pursuits. The tighter the niche the more relevant the content. The consumer of tomorrow will be downloading relevant podcasts and vidcasts about their hobby whilst sharing their progress, tips and problems with a wide virtual community online. Broadcasters need to recognise that these consumer are about, in small numbers, today and their number is growing rapidly.

Giant steps

2005-12-20T11:44:00.000Z

Sky are realising the future today with their new Skybybroadband service which allows subscribers to their service to download programming content to their PC. They have not taken the next step to make it easily transferable to mobile devices as it is rights protected. They are starting with movies and sport but will surely expand this offer. This sort of progress makes a pc media centre make a lot more sense.

Google and AOL

2005-12-20T11:19:00.000Z

Google have paid over 1 Billion USD for a 5% stake in AOL, on the surface of it this is to protect the 10% of Google revenue that is provided by AOL. However if you dig a little deeper then you will see that Google also get access to Time Warner's film and video catalogue. This puts increasing pressure on Microsoft who were trying to tie AOL down with an MSN deal.

Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts

2005-12-20T11:18:00.001Z

Quote; "If you want to understand how a lion hunts, don't go to the zoo. Go to the jungle."

Quality content on demand over the web

2005-12-20T11:18:00.000Z

AOL have announced that they will be launching In2TV is early 2006. They will launch with six genres; comedy, drama, animation, action, classic and superhero/villain . The content will initially come from Warner Bros and specifically created content. Although the programming will be funded by advertising this will bring tomorrow to our desktop today. These innovations were recently predicted to be likely in years, this will happen in months. AOL reach 112 million unique monthly visitors all of whom will be able to short circuit broadcast media and advertising.
What with Apple being is bed with Disney this is no longer a dream but a battle that is heating up fast.

Tin foil helmets off everybody

2005-12-20T11:17:00.000Z

This is what expensive scientific equipment is really for. MIT have proven that contrary to popular belief tinfoil helmets actually amplify government radio waves rather than protecting you from them. They are out there

Prediction for 2006

2005-12-20T11:16:00.001Z

2006 will be the year when non-interruptive marketing really takes off. From advertiser funded programming and a rise in "editorial'' placed pieces on television whether it is broadcast or delivered over the web ,to the creation of word of mouth marketing agencies. There will be a waiting crowd of new players in the market taking marketing budget from conventional advertisers.

Scoopt

2005-12-20T11:16:00.000Z

Scoopt is cashing in on two converging phenomena, citizen journalism and camera phones. Scoopt will be your agent for any pictures and video and for half the revenue represent you to the national press and broadcast television. With more and more news events taking footage from amateurs this can only be a growing trend that will go from strength to strength. If scoopt are strong middlemen and represent their clients well whilst offering broadcasters and print journalists what they need this will take off fast.

Flexible Thais

2005-12-20T11:15:00.000Z

Shopping in Thailand is an experience of flexilble pricing at every shop. Hardly anything has a price tag on it and even if it does that price is never final. Could your business benefit from charging customers based on their percieved value of your product?

Murdoch's space

2005-12-20T11:14:00.000Z

It took a while, but Rupert Murdoch has started to try and future proof his business. Rupert may not be liked by every/any body but he is a shrewd business man and is often well placed when investing which is why his acquisition of myspace has put even more dollar focus on the sector. I think this will become his main business driver in the future rather than the sideline that it is now. I will watch with interest as his business strategy evolves.

Neutral news sources

2005-12-20T11:13:00.001Z

Are any news sources neutral any more? Is neutral news important? Al Jazeera try to be. I am getting more and more news from sources with similar world views to myself whether that be consumer generated or mainstream. It is always refreshing to step back and consider another view once in a while.

PocketCaster

2005-12-20T11:13:00.000Z

PocketCaster from Com vu is the world's first live video broadcasting solution for mobile devices. At the push of a button on a cameraphone, anyone can broadcast live events to the the world. The key here is 'live', this is streaming video, this will turn any cameraphone into an instant broadcasting tool. More and more broadcasters such as Sky in the UK are interviewing individuals "involved" in the news over mobile phone accompanied by a still. It will be less than six months until we see some protester or other broadcasting live over pocketcaster with Sky broadcasting the feed live.

Wal-mart

2005-12-20T11:05:00.000Z

It is interesting that Wal-Mart is attracting to its website some of the affluent customers it can't get to shop in its stores. Users of the

Tory Leadership Campaign

2005-12-06T15:12:00.000Z

Well the Tory party may stand a chance yet, David Cameron winning the leadership contest and Carol Thatcher winning I'm a celebrity they are on a roll.
David Davis 64,398
David Cameron 134,446

Turner winner shed boat shed

2005-12-06T15:06:00.000Z

No suprises on Simon Starling winning the Turner prize with his interesting piece shed, boat, shed when asked what he intended to do with his prize money, he replied that he "wanted to throw a replica Henry Moore sculpture into Lake Ontario" what a fantastic answer.

We know where you are surfing!

2005-11-17T09:16:00.000Z

Google seem to have surpassed themselves with "analytics" it looks really easy to implement with great features like geotargeting, visitor segmentation, trend reporting and a cool site overlay feature what's more it's free! They have challenged all their competitors by giving customers the tools to see if (or prove that) Google is the best advertising solution for them. It also gives them all the data they need to create products that really work for customers before customers realise that the current products need improving.

iPitch

2005-11-17T09:13:00.000Z

I am glad to see that Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures a New York based VC firm is using podcasting to find the best elevator pitches for new concepts. His blog actually publishes people's ideas as MP3's. His view is that the pitches are not proprietary information, it is what the VC makes of it that counts. He listens to these pitches on his bike ride into work, what better time to take in the complexities of an entrepreneur's pitch.

Bill gates and Steve Jobs present

2005-11-17T09:11:00.000Z

I read a fascinating piece on presentation Zen comparing the presentation techniques of Gates and Jobs.
Although Bill gets a bit of a bashing in the article, it is not really comparing apples with apples (so to speak). Steve's presentation does look streets ahead of Bill's but it is always easier to make "Big picture" presentations more interesting. Having said that, Bill does need to hire a decent graphic designer. Perhaps it is all about relevance to the audience being addressed? Whatever the excuse, there is no need to use clip art!

When in Portuagal

2005-11-17T09:10:00.000Z

I you are ever in Lisbon make sure you go to the Alcantara Cafe, Rua Maria Luisa Holstein 17. It is tucked down an uninviting side street but once you are inside the food is great and the reclaimed warehouse space makes for an interesting evening, there is even a large pool table and nightclub next door. Make sure you check out the gents for some very interesting urinals.

Lift in sales

2005-11-17T09:07:00.000Z

Only in the Philippines would you see such amazing entrepreneurism combined with high service levels. PSKF blogged about black marketeers in the Philippines who take your order in the lift on your way to work and deliver your goods to your office in the afternoon. Whether it is dvd's of some electrical goods they can get their hands on them for you.
What a fantastic business model unknowingly copied from professional services organisations. No business premises costs, go and do meetings in the client's offices. Keep stock levels low, purchase on demand. Deliver a personal tailored service with reliable delivery. What a great leveraged business model.

Cap Gemini Interesting figures

2005-11-17T09:06:00.000Z

An estimated 236,000 Chinese became ($) millionaires by the end of 2004, while in India, 61,000 now individuals have assets exceeding USD 1 million. Anybody who thought that these emerging markets were all about selling volume to massive markets was right. We should also remember that there is a massive high net worth individual class as well as a booming middle class to sell premium products and services to. I do not have the figures for Brazil and Russia but I am sure they would mirror these. figures from Cap Gemini

Yale marketing

2005-11-04T07:59:00.000Z

What great word of mouth marketing by Yale. Last year they earned $ 3b from their investments, but they still have a campaign to raise donations of $3,000 from alumni. It does not make any sense on the face of it for such a rich institution to be collecting such small amounts until you look a little closer. Ben Franklin said "he that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than whom you yourself have obliged". Yale is using this small donation, by their income standards, to bring Alumni closer to the Yale brand. Once they have made a donation they will feel more compelled to support the school in more important ways such as by recommending it to potential students. They have created their own very successful word of mouth campaign in the most unusual way.

Heineken reaches consumers that other brands cannot reach

2005-10-31T16:45:00.000Z

I read with great interest that Heineken UK have diverted their 6.5 million Ad spend away from the thirty second spot. I was slightly disappointed to see that they are concentrating on sport sponsorship and point of sale rather than doing something more radical.
I hope that they realise in time that there one even more efficient ways to reach the 18 to 26 year old audience.
Having said that, they need a huge slap on the back for making such a brave move. Even bigger congratulations to the senior management team that let them go through with it.

Great Jargon

2005-10-31T16:43:00.000Z

Astroturfing: The act of creating a fake grass roots community to support your cause or blog that has generally only been started for marketing purposes.

Apparently Senator Lloyd Bentsen coined this great piece of jargon

I pod U pod

2005-10-31T16:42:00.000Z

Podcasting, If you have not tried it get out there and start downloading now. I have been listening to Cameron Riley for what must be a year now, his Podcast network now has lots of different shows but his original one "G'Day World" remains a firm favourite. Podcasting is not just sound files on the web, nor is it radio on demand, it is much better than that. It is niche focussed conversations available when and where you want it. Radio interviews are never long enough to be interesting, podcasts allow people like Cameron to delve deep into a subject. I am lucky that I have very similar interests and attitudes to Cameron, you may not, find a show that fits you and start getting into it. Despite the name there is no need to even have an Ipod, I have an Archos AV400 and it works brilliantly on that. It also plays video files, so Cameron when is the first podcast network vidcast?

MTV gets with the programme

2005-10-31T16:41:00.000Z

MTV have decided to roll out it's consumer generated channel MTVU Uber as a broadband channel. The channel was piloted on student campuses and has proved successful enough for MTV to try a broader launch.
How many steps are we away from this content being used by MTV as content for their broadcast channels? Or have they gone a step further and realised that the broadcast model is dead?

Either way it is an interesting strategy to get other people to do the expensive and arduous job of producing programming for you. Particularly in MTV's case where they could not employ sufficient numbers of cool hunters and trend spotters to create content this "street"

Thanks to PSFK for pointing this item out

a handy rule for startups

2005-10-31T16:39:00.000Z

Paul Graham makes an interesting point "Competitors are rarely as dangerous as they seem. Most will self-destruct before you can destroy them. And it certainly doesn't matter how many of them there are, any more than it matters to the winner of a marathon how many runners are behind him. " He is talking in terms of start ups but I think it is true of most organisations, stop looking in the rear view mirror and concentrate on the road ahead.
you will rarely steal a march on the competition by copying what they do.

Notting Hill in Istanbul

2005-10-27T05:50:00.000Z

Thank you Lucy Charlesworth for introducing me to Matt Denyer who introduced me to
The Leyla bar in the Cihangir area of Istanbul, if you are in the area it is a must for a stop off. Very cool and although I did not have time for anything to eat, Matt reliably informs me that the food is excellent.
Update, another great place to go is Ulus 29, great views and Turkish food but in a modern upbeat setting.

Audi

2005-10-26T15:47:00.000Z

Ofcom seem to have buckled and allowed Audi to start their own channel, I will be fascinated to see who will follow. I think that James Cherkoff has missed the point, but probably so have Audi looking at the budget, I can think of a few clients of mine who might be interested but if Audi are just going to use it to show their cars they are missing a huge trick. What they should be doing is providing excellent entertainment that will bring people to the channel, perhaps focused around the 19:00 to 23:00 slot and then do the car stuff the rest of the time with a couple of infomercial in between. The infomercial need to be entertaining and not seem like advertising. If people want to come to your channel Audi will have won a battle and fixed the advertising problem in one solution, they will need a bigger budget to make it work though!

new Labour old hat

2005-10-20T18:38:00.000Z

So it looks like David Cameron is going to win control of the Conservatives. This is a good move for them as any other choice would have lead to the imminent and ultimate demise of the party. If David has won it may survive for a little longer. I think that everybody no matter what their political persuasion will be happy to see a return to two party politics with an opposition worth the name. The real excitement will build once Tony steps down with a hospital pass to Gordon.
A fair fight is always more interesting, nowhere more so than in politics.

Who pays the piper?

2005-10-19T18:51:00.000Z

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1785690_1,00.html

I bet Darryl Collis, the managing director of Seesaw Media, a specialist product placement company is kicking himself after spilling the beans to the Times undercover reporter. Audiences however are going to have to realise the economic realities of free to air television. Corporations are paying for your attention in some shape or form, as advertising becomes less effective product placement and advertiser funded programming start funding content. If you don't like it don't watch , corporations will follow your feet Art the Content provider.

Come on BBC you have the power to be great into the next decade

2005-10-19T18:47:00.000Z

The BBC seems to be pulling itself in so many directions at the moment. One hand is cutting cost by moving everybody to editing on final cut pro and using digi beta cameras whilst trying to get rid of huge swathes of staff.
The other half is staying in the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky for The News Xchange 2005 and blowing 40 k.
In reality fat cats will be fat cats and this is just a red herring, the BBC needs to radically innovate to survive.
Once the license fee has been renewed perhaps they will calm down a little, I hope not ,they are in a position to lead the world. The reality of moving to lower quality footage means that they will be perfectly placed to take advantage of a global network of consumers generating content.
They need to excel at being a filter and interpreter of this content tobecome THE global destination for impartial excellent news content .

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005470766,,00.html

http://www.broadcastfreelancer.com/broadcast/content/ViewEditorialContentStory.do?contentId=1043

Smart marketing goes bad

2005-10-10T14:11:00.000Z

You would have thought that;

"Hi Tom, Always remember one thing. Life is very, very short and nothing is worth limiting yourself from seeing the ones you love. I hadn't seen my father in 15 years until 2 years ago. I was apprehensive but I kept telling myself that no matter how estranged we'd become there was no river to wide to cross. Drop me a line if I can be of any more help. Cheers, Barry"

Was a genuine heartfelt comment on a blog, not so, it was a shill marketing ploy by Cillit Bang , how have marketers got it so wrong? Honesty will always thrive in the end.

I am not sure how any marketer really thought that this sort of approach would increase sales! So i see the comment on the site, trackback to the cillit bang site go "wow what great products I must buy some" very unlikely.

thanks to Tom Coates at plasticbag for pointing this out

Holiday in Chianti

2005-10-10T14:05:00.000Z

I have just been away on holiday near Radda in Chianti in Tuscany, lovely area but a lack of good pizza and no delivery service which is surprising since there is no shortage of youths driving mopeds very dangerously. However Pizza Pie in Radda made up for all that, cheap friendly services, huge pizzas to share with loads of tasty toppings, fantastic (unlike the weather)

Dinner in Madrid

2005-09-29T14:56:00.000Z

Thanks to Lucy C for some great tips for dinner in Madrid, I only had a couple of hours so she sent me to a great Tapas bar, Vinotech in Plaza Santa Ana and we then had supper in a nearby restaurant El Lacon. Well worth a visit if you get a moment.

BE 24 MB broadband

2005-09-27T15:33:00.000Z

If you want to be in control of your media consumption, you need this service from BE. Enough capacity to stream 2 HDTV channels, who needs broadcast? Who needs a landline? give me the content I want when I want it!

American Express

2005-09-27T15:25:00.000Z

American express seem to be moving fast, historically dinosaurs who have made themselves irrelevant in the UK with high charges seem to be listening to customers, love them and they will come back, thanks influxinsights for this

Mobile TV

2005-09-27T15:19:00.000Z

Remember consumers consume the media, where, when and how they want it, not when broadcasters want to send it. Direct to mobile TV is just the start of the trail, it is not great at the moment but given another few months and we will see much more of this.

2005-09-26T20:37:00.000Z

Thanks james for pointing me to an interesting piece in the Guardian by Jeff Jarvis, his quote;
"There is the real revolution in media: The one-way pipe that was broadcasting is giving way to an open pool that everyone owns, where anyone can play. The end of the network era isn't just about losing audience or revenue or profits. It's really about losing control."

is spot on, the winners will be those,that own the means of production and gather open source opinion, how can any news gatherer compete with that, however large the budget.

The debate continues

2005-09-23T08:52:00.000Z

Peter Bazalgette of Endemol made an interesting comment in the telegraph commenting that advertisers must be allowed to migrate out of the commercial breaks towards the programmes. At least programme makers are understanding what is only just dawning on advertisers, the PVRs of the fast forward generation are here to stay, messages need to be integrated into entertainment or broadcast television will die. Wait for the advent of narrowcast niche programming, advertising free paid on subscription delivered when and where audience want it.

BBC meeting themselves coming the other way

2005-09-21T08:17:00.000Z

The BBC are still trying to wrestle with an impossible problem, how do they continue to produce a growing quantity of extremely high quality programming on a huge variety of channels with shrinking budgets? The official line is business as usual, the reality is producers are doing everything they can to keep the machine moving and if that involves using props provided for free so be it. This however is only the tip of the iceberg, the BBC is certainly not alone in an increasing use of third party produced material paid for by interests or corporations rather than broadcasters. This is a matter of necessity rater than desire and it only the start of a conversation about what is acceptable.

Some sense from the world of IT - surely not!

2005-09-16T17:24:00.000Z

It always amazes me how many companies hold on to their email servers like small children with soft toys, unless your business is of a certain size (huge) what is the point of hosting your own email? Tom Peter's pointed me in the direction of this piece, it seems that at long last some companies are seeing sense. If you are not the best in the world at a particular task outsource it and concentrate on what you are good at.

Google everywhere

2005-09-15T17:53:00.000Z

Google has become even more omnipresent with the launch of Google Blogsearch, it got me thinking what is the most useful function on Google at the moment? For me it has to be the alerts but maps, answers, news and image search are all good, come on guys launch the browser and be done with it!