Just what we've been waiting for. Aggregation site for global maps. Now you can look at one world through the eyes of Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Maps, NASA, Ask and Yahoo.
I wander if one of them is planning on putting in a Santa tracker for Dec 24th?
Small but apt comment to make considering this time next week we'll be sat around a table having a battle of wills across a Monopoly board. The introduction of downloads into the singles charts is having a largely positive effect, with any song out there eligible to re-enter the charts without so much as a CD press being turned on. So, inspite of the inevitability of the X Factor winner who dare not speak his name taking top spot next week, a cursory glance around the rest of the charts sees some genuinely festive favourites returning. I never thought I'd welcome Mariah Carey back into the top 10, but god bless her she's in at number 4 with "All I Want For Christmas", whilst the Pogues featuring Kirsty Maccoll are in at number 9 with the ever brilliant "Fairytale of New York" (ok, it's not technically a christmas song, but then Die Hard isnt technically a Christmas film).
Take a look at positions outside of the Top 10 and things get even more interesting with Slade, Wizzard, Wham, Shakey and Band Aid all coming back for a sing song. Lummee, I've seen Chris Rea and John & Yoko peeking in the edges of the Top 40.
This is all good. We're starting to get a chart driven by demand and not by smart distribution and poor retail sales. All we need now is something like Scrobble to publish most played tracks from users computers and we have a truly representative picture of what the world is rocking and a boppin' to.
This blog was started following a conversation about how marketing was getting everywhere, and I wanted to know if anyone had started selling media space on toilet roll (they had). This is kind of an anniversary post, I guess, as I've come across a post on Consumerist about the trend in "premiumization" of everything and Renova's launch of a new upmarket toilet paper.
I already put premium unleaded in my car, and I'm sure at some point I'll be able to inflate my tyres with air from a plethora of mountain ranges (Himalayan breeze / Alpine pump). I reiterate a favourite quote from a long lost friend I grew up with (he's not dead, he went to Australia and got very rich fixing posh peoples cars). "Hurry up man, all you're going to do is wipe your arse on it. Pick the cheapest and we can go."
A leading manufacturers of drill bits hired a new CEO. During his introduction to the company, top managers from across the company presented how well their specific drill bit divisions were doing. After hearing all the presentations, the CEO gathered the top managers together and dropped a bomb-shell. “There is no market for drill bits,” he said. “The only market is for holes and as soon as somebody invents a better way to create a hole, we’re out of business.”
I'll go through this later on, but in summary it's about ROI from companies R&D budgets requiring not only close alignment with overarching corporate strategy, but a good dialogue (a conversation even!) with it's customers to find out what it is they actually need.
Nice piece about the role Facebook plays in certifying reationships. How official is it when you post your relationship status to your Facebook profile, and is it set to become the pre-amble to an engagement (or the beginning of the end).
Sure it will come in use at some point (for work purposes, naturally).
I knew there was a reason why I liked driving up and down the motorway at stupid o'clock twice a week. It was down to sterling programming from the BBC wireless service, such as this. An hour long look at online communities and how they compare to real friends and loved ones (remember them?). Don't know why it was being broadcast via Radio 3, but it was a good 80 miles worth of discussion and study as to the impact of the internet in building new types of human experiences.
Details of the program can be found here
The series has been inspired by the learned work of Zygmunt Bauman "Liquid Life" which you can buy from here.
Just saw this. Nice spin on personalising credit cards from CapitalOne, presumably bringing together a number of disparate card offers / types and presenting them as a flexible choice for the discerning debt lover.
Microsite here.
Neat stuff going on with the launch of the new Batman film. Lots of hidden site, join the dots and contributions from fans (who knew a call to action could include "dress up!").
Read all about it here
See all the headlines here
Both Lost and 24 have done this kind of thing well throughout the run of their respective series, but it's interesting to see it being done for a film launch.
"A.I Artificial Intelligence" had a similar thing going on involving online, mobile and fax(!!) way back, and the new JJ Abrams film is using a similar route to promote the wonders of hi upcoming untitled work (see this and this).
I used to work "understairs" as they say, so spent my early burglary years running around sorting stuff out for people. Saw this on the Hyperhappen blog. It's a personal assistant service for people that can't afford a full time PA but need a helping hand every now and then to collect their sushi or drop their poodle off at the pamper palace. Paid by the task. Available online. Called Sunday.
Now all we need is therapy from your mobile and we're almost there!
Interesting post by 1000 Heads showing how brands can monitor consumers tagging of their content. Cloudalicious tracks tag clouds over time (no - I don't know what they're on about either) and generates trends showing how visitors to your site are tagging you via del.icio.us
Drop in your website of choice and stick the chart into a powerpoint slide for your next client meeting.
News from Microsoft here about their revamped Zune offering. Not sure the whole "customise your Zune player" is any great leap however, given people are doing that already by purchasing customized cases, getting their players engraved already in many weird and wonderful ways (knitted nano cover anyone?).
More interesting is the software component and the creation of their own social music network. Can't see it yet as it's down for maintenance, but to me that gives them something unique over iTunes and could offer a tangible alternative to music lovers like me.
Talking about loving music, have just moved up north and was driving back to London to the sounds of Steve Lamacq's brilliant show. Why are they only giving him an hour on an evening monday slot I'll never know, but it's fab and you can listen to it again from here.
Failing that, head over to NYUB for an equally brilliant podcast of new music. Around an hour of sonic joy and goodness, released around once a month.
Facebooks of this world 'are the future for fundraising' - so says Simon Collings, chief executive of the Resource Alliance, speaking at the recent International Fundraising Conference.
Article here.
Ajaxtastic new web community thing here. Don't know what it does yet, but it has a member called Dragon Girl who lives in Dragon City! What's not to love?
Quick post this, but important all the same. Just had a play around on Joost and think it's the way forward for tv and the internet. Great choice of channels from beta, easy to set up and use. When you turn it on, it actually works, and the quality is great. Can only get better.
Take note BBC. The iPlayer is looking very poor in comparison. I still havent been able to get a program to download on it. Distressing as well, considering I paid for it (as did we all).
This will change how we consume and interact with TV, no doubt, and can only get better with time.
Nice bit of Sony Bravia action going on here. Nothing beats some great tv advertising wrapped up in a lovely flash pastry with directors comments on top, and a side order of UGC.
All available here.
Missed this, but hey. I've been busy trying to get my house sold, move up north, and learn the joys of working on the hoof. 3 have just launched a wireless solution that I've noticed peeking out of the side of many a harried commuters laptop, and I think I may have to invest.
Anyways, the point of this post is the evolution, from print to talk to twit. Useful if a client asks you where online communication is going, and a nice primer to get your own head around the changes in how we can not only talk to each other online, but make sense of all the needless chatter. Article is here, questions on a postcard.
Virgin Trains asked people for ideas on ways to improve their service, and Richard Branson is picking the best (and most voted?) idea to take forward and develop.
Nice idea, nice microsite, not bad all round.
Nice bit of co-branded CSR interactive gubbins over here. I'll write something once I've had a play around.
Lots of talk amongst people over how social networks can be incorporated into the marketing mix. Two decent clips coming up.
The Hub - Comment on the dynamics of online social communities , and the most appropriate way to approach a brief that declares "I want something web 2.0". Kind of a guide to etiquette (and this is the trick) than a set of instructions.
Reveries - This is mentioned in the article above and refers to an idea for referral marketing using your Facebook profile. It's something Google have been doing for a while now, offering bloggers and the like the opportunity to profit from traffic to their site (see Squidoo as well), but this gives Facebook participants a revenue, and brands some insight.
Who knows. I met a guy once who told me that if he stood on the corner of Camden High Street and asked every woman who walked past if they would go out for a drink with him, the odds were that eventually one of them would. He's now a very rich man. The lesson? Saying something to someone (friend or stranger) is one thing. Being tenacious with it is another thing altogether.
Have heard of this sort of thing being tried before, albeit with barcode readers being distributed to the masses so they could scan a code in their favourite magazine and have their web browser go straight to the appropriate site on the internet. This is much cleaner and simpler, and has apparantly worked well in Japan. Point your mobile phone at a poster and get access to more content. Lovely.
Now, where's my jetpack?
Smart video piece from Seth Godin looking at marketing appropriacy, and how existing ATL "broadcast" models of advertising (basically, it's a numbers game) have been challenged by the need for clever and insightful ways of not only communicating with potential customers, but getting them to want to tell their friends about you. Makes some simple points about the value of marketing being aware of the context in which its used. Throwing paint over a building to show how much you get the importance of colour when buying a TV is one thing on a commercial, and probably get you a fair few "oohs" and "aahs" into the bargain. Trying to do it all over someones online social space will probably get you a thick ear (if you're lucky).
From the man who bought you Squidoo, comes the online answer to Who's Who.
Squid Who is an online compendium of anyone, who's anyone, for whatever reason, and created by whoever can be bothered. Dr Who? Well, he's not on there. However, the site automatically builds you a page all about him and gives you the chance to take ownership of it and manage it forever and ever.
Simple idea, fun, and very useful (if you do a lot of pub quizzes or are trying to secure a wealthy benefactor).
The new smart fortwo is in the midst of being launched, and Claydon Heeley (who I work for) have created a wonderful site to help get it into the hearts and minds of the masses. The timing of this couldn't be better, given right now half of you are no doubt stuck on the M4 returning from your numerous countryside domiciles in the drama that is the bank holiday weekend derby.
www.smartenlightenment.com features life coach and driving guru Dr. Tridion, who guides you through the moral maze that is UK driving and shows you the true road to enlightenment is as much in the head as it is behind the wheel. It's a brilliant piece of work, with a great performance from comedy maestro Matt Berry (Garth Marenghi, The Mighty Boosh, Saxondale, The IT Crowd).
Good article showing how companies are using online tools (social networks, blogs, social search and online video) as a marketing channel and invaluable customer service channel. It's refreshing to see that companies have utilised these new conversations as a way to take their presence out of the boardroom and into the hearts and minds of the people that matter most, their customers.
Customers will stay with a reprobate business as long as that business goes over and above to rectify any grievances, or behaves in a way that demonstrates they really understand their role in their customers lives. Web 2.0 gives brands the tools to enable that to happen.
This is great! Take the afternoon off work and spend it setting up spectacular stunts using VW's finest in tribute to the new Bourne film. Look out!
There's an ongoing debate about the true value of user generated as part of the marketing mix (see Fosters Laidback Legends and Land Rover's Go Beyond campaign for recent examples of UGC in search of real value - and send me some positive stats if you have them!). The thing is, UGC has been alive and kicking for well over a decade in the gaming world, from early MUD's through to the latest multi-million pound blockbuster games (see Half Life and its various iterations for a case in point). The point is, if people like it and they find it easy to use, then they'll interact with it and contribute to it.
This campaign site give you a simple 3D environment in which you can create your own stunts and save them to a gallery section. The more you interact with it, the better it gets as you come to grips with the physics driven environment and the tools on offer.
It's a neat idea, well executed, and has resulted in a lot of online news coverage as well as much chatter amongst the bloggers and bookmarkers.
Recently came across a new addendum to those old favourites SEO and SEM. SMO (or SNO) is a means by which you can begin to utilise social networks, blogs, UGC as a marketing channel, without pissing off those you're trying to connect with.
Imagine if you were sat at home one night and someone knocked on the door and asked you if you wanted to buy a dog? You'd probably keep a cold bucket of water to hand (or maybe a baseball bat). Then, imagine if you had a load of friends round your house and one of them mentioned, over truffles, that they knew of a dog in need of a good owner, and how they knew you loved animals and would be the perfect match. You'd thank them, invite fido round for a meet and greet, and take holidays in the UK for the next 10 years. Well, it's the same principle with marketing to large communities online, with advocacy, insight and discussion the building blocks of a good social network marketing strategy.
Anyway, there's been some good discussion on the topic across a number of blogs:
- O'Reilly offers a good overview here
- A good article from Entrepreneur.com relating SMO to being part of an overarching PR channel mix
- Some older (six months is a long time in this business) comscore stats on the demographics across social networks, particularly with reference to age. Don't be fooled into thinking social networks are a young persons playground.
Always useful to see how the chavs are measuring up to the toffs when it comes to the internet. The OxIS has been going for a few years now and provides a useful breakdown of internet access across socio / demographic and attitudinal lines. You can get it here.
On a related matter, stumbled across this site, which is perfect for when you're arguing with a client about how big their website should be and what browsers it should work across. This is the sort of information we all know instinctively (hmm, I feel a 1024 x 768 coming on), but it's nice to know someone has taken the trouble to document this stuff proper and make it available to all of us.
Nielsen Net Ratings have announced their adoption of dwell time as their new lead metric, replacing the long standing page view measurement. For sometime now, pageviews have been a bit bogus, and it's conversion (eg click through and eventual sale) that has been of most interest to brands and agencies alike. After all, what use is 5million page impressions if only 500 click through and bother to take a look at what you're selling / showing.
Dwell time takes into account the abundance of richer user interfaces. With the likes of AJAX allowing for more seamless, non-linear actions online, page refresh becomes a bit meaningless if the use is able to do everything within one space far more effeciently.
Rich media agencies have used this metric for some time now, with total time of interaction being a fair reflection of total brand engagement within a piece of online advertising. This takes these principles into the service areas, online stores, news portals, and gives companies a lear steer on where their customer services could be improved and optimised. Or summat.
Good article from the NY Times about the increasing importance of customer service within online retail. It throws up the ongoing debate between clients and their respective agency as to how much they should be investing in their online channel, and how greater investment can reap greater contribution to the bottom line.
Some brands have "got" this for some time now, noticeably John Lewis, whose website is now their largest store, with the necessary level of ongoing investment to reflect this.
If MySpace is Tesco, and Facebook is Sainsbury, does that make Bebo Morrisons?
Solid article about latest Nielsen Net Ratings figures for social networks here.
One thing that's struck me about the social networks is the brand loyalty and "switching" taking place as people find not only a social site that they like using, but that hooks them up with their friends and people they'd like to be associated with. There was some talk recently about the social divide of social sites, with MySpace being the more popular in terms of number but seemingly more down market and for the hoi poloi.
Have no comment to make as yet. Work to be done.
Nice ad placement on the Aint It Cool Website, advertising Coca Cola's music service. Simple rich media MPU in the far right (below the fold though, so I'd ask for some money back) with their top ten chart, "as voted for by you the listener". What's nice is that you can click on any of the tracks and it'll launch a neat little flash media player and play the full version of the track, then go on to play the rest of the chart.
You can add tracks to a favourites list, vote for tracks and help them climb up the chart, or change channels and listen to something else entirely (including brand endorsed podcasts).
Tracks are categorised by territory (nice brand echo there) and you can download a desktop version of the media player. Simple "send to a friend" mechanic spreads the love to your close ones.
Ooh, ooh, you can get the html for the player and embed it in your own website / myspace profile. The only thing missing is a link through to the coke website, which may be because its been cleverly hidden, is unneccesary, or is an oversight on an otherwise over enthusiastic creative team.
You can see the full web experience here (although I had trouble loading it in Firefox).
Good stuff.
Fact...mum's are neglecting their kids in favour of the internet. Dad's have been doing this for years, so I'm surprised its taken mothers so long to cotton on. If you can't beat them, join them, or something. Now, all we need is a Huggies campaign to put this research to good use.
EIAA report here
Credit to the Stream for bringing it to my attention.
Record labels have cottoned on to the fact that the way we acquire and enjoy music has changed dramatically. In the days of the gramophone, music was very much a collective experience, exclusively for gatherings or family occassions, and rarely done in solitude (akin, so I hear, to whipping out a copy of Razzle on the Northern Line).
Whilst technology has offered vast improvements in terms of playback, both in quality and convenience, the combination of the MP3 player and the internet has taken the enjoyment of music into the personal realm, but the discussion and discovery of music into the wider online community. Look at the raft of community sites, and the recent acquisition of LastFM by entertainment stalwart CBS radio, and you'll quickly grasp that not buying music doesnt mean the revenue has dried up, it's just coming from a different source.
Anyway, some nice sites worthy of your attention.
MOG - US site, one year old, and a nice mix of proper community features, blogging, sharing of music (including full length tracks), and media. And it has a "magic button" (no, I'm still getting to grips with what it actually does). What's really nice is the way it populates your profile automatically, by whizzing through your music folder on your computer and posting it to your page.
Live Plasma - Interesting search engine, giving a visual map of bands / artists based on your search and helping you discover related music, music in films, etc etc. Works for films, actors and directors as well, all linking out to Amazon so you can buy the object of your desire.
Seeqpod - A search engine for music! Really simple. Does one thing very well. Search for a track or artist and it will search the web for tracks or video that match your search. Sign up and you can save your playlists and send recommendations or full lists to friends. Each search result includes a link out to related news, blog postings etc. Very nice. Very simple. Most of all, very useful and usable.
Happy listening!
Been looking at the future of the music industry recently after a colleague of mine recommended to a major high street retailer that they should ditch selling records and turn their high profile stores into something akin to Nike town. The retailer in question, whilst offering a great way to lose £40 in a lunch break, have indeed taken a long time to "get with this web thing". For ages they refused to lower their prices, charging £14 or more for a chart album when their online rivals (no, not the good ship CDWOW) were selling the same UK product for £7 to £9. DVD's were no different (£24 versus £12) and only back catalog re-issues offering any kind of value (have you seen how many Tina Marie albums you can get for £40?).
The truth of the matter is that currently, digital sales account for approx 3% of total revenue compared to 87% of CD sales, so nobody's going for an early bath just yet. However, the nature of how we all discover and acquire (not always buy) music is evolving rapidly and within a few years the landscape will be considerably different.
There's a good article about the future of retail here from the BBC (who have been great at documenting this drama as it unfulrs (see next post).
Kids tell companies what they want and companies are now listening.
Great piece to listen to here
I feel a Midwich Cuckoos moment coming on...
Good solid article of fear and warning from the FT here.
It's the death of the NME classifieds as we know it...
While we're at it, here's some more things to look at over the course of a poorly received monday. I hear the sequel, tuesday, is in planning stages as we speak. Hope they sort out the plot line cos I can't make head or tail of todays storyline.
The Hype Machine
Quick one this, given the lateness of the hour and the volume of the work, but just want to drop a note to self about the new FT.com online campaign. Nice to see a tightly integrated concept worked out across B2C and B2B. Go to their media site for some nice reasons as to why you should advertise on FT.co. The main consumer facing campaign site is here and is very simple but very effective way to demonstrate what seperates FT from the rabble.
The microsite is equally good, with a simple cityscape used as a means to demonstrate their global news coverage. Live feeds into the site keep it all relevant and dynamic.
My one, and only, Ajax development was for a B2B client looking to replace their aging and user unfriendly customer systems with something far more easier to install and maintain. Our solution was cheaper, easier to maintain (despite the initial learning curve) and most importantly, offered the chance for a far better user experience. This is key, as it encourages use and therefore cuts down on users having to resort to phone, mail, veiled threats to get a relatively simple task done.
Here's a link to the latest "Click" on the Beeb. It's all about business adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, which to be honest has been very swift. I'll watch it and write some more later.
1Off is a new "guide" site offering both professional and user submitted reviews of the best of the nations urban districts. Want to know where to get the best kebab on a friday night (sw6, New Kings Road in case you were wandering), or who serves the finest Bloody Mary in Norwich (no, I don't know either).
All well and good, but it's also a site dedicated to the fineries of BMW's spanking new 1 Series, which brings me to my main point. I've sat in many a brainstorm where this very thing has been discussed as a means to bring about interaction with consumers outside of the usual banner - microsite - call to action. "We want something Web 2.0" is bandied about, and the natural assumption is to look for user generated content as a means to engagment. But does it work, and is it more effective than sponsorship / community advertising?
Landrover tried the same thing with their "Go Beyond" website, offering a platform for the adventurers amongst us to share our stories of derring do. The problem, however, is that it relies on people to be bothered to engage in these things in the first place, when they may already be talking about them elsewhere, either via their own blog, or on their numerous community pages (myspace / facebook / linked in).
Back to 1off, and it's not bad. These things always rely on critical mass, eg more real people contributing that paid for contributions, and there's certainly many more entries on the site than there was last week. Writers have the opportunity to become "ambassadors", which is a nice idea, but a horrible marketing term let loose in the consumer space. (If I hear one more reference to "brand ambassadors" I think I'll reach for my escape pod pronto).
I'll add to this post later, once I've done a bit more researching into how to successfully tackle integrating community sites into the marketing mix. In the meantime - discuss.
I'll write this up properly later, but in short it's a call for a set of guidelines for bloggers to abide by. A response to an ongoing bout of flame wars and online bullying that may be hard to enforce but seems to be sorely needed.
Article here
Not had time to go through this properly yet, but slashdot have highlighted a great article from Datamotion on the top ten open source innovators. If, like me, you have a penchant to drive up and down the M1/M6 every other weekend, you may have heard a brilliant program on Radio 4 as part of their excellent "In Business" series, looking at how open source was opening up new business models, where the application was just the beginning of the customer relationship, and not the be all and end all.
Hyperhappen have referred to Social Meter in their latest posting. Nice little site that tells you now well your site is performing on a social scale via links. The higher the score, the greater your popularity.
I should know about these things, but to be honest I've got my days full right now. Hamleys on a wet monday, half term holidays, two kids asking if you'll shell out on things they want but don't really need. Brrrr.....
Quick post this, but important nonetheless. One pager offering a list of standard metrics for online media, so you can not only impress your friends, but also work out if your campaign has any way by which it can be measured like for like. Now, before you all scream out "isnt this obvious?", I should add that I've recently started working for an offline agency. Just the other day someone asked me to decipher a web log and explain the difference between a "visit" and a "unique visit".
Just found an even more comprehensive link here, so now there's no excuses...
The rule of thumb - if your mum don't know, then you should assume most people don't.
Heard a great program on the ever venerable Radio 4 the other night that should be required listening for anyone working in marketing. "In Business" makes the fortnightly drive back from the north on a sunday night very bearable. The other week they had a program about the rise of "not for profit" organisations, and how lessons learnt from the business world were being adopted as a means to bring real social change not only overseas but in the poorer, disenfranchised areas of the UK. Download the program from the bbc website here or, better still, subscribe to the podcast and make it a part of your listening pleasure.
On a related matter, take a look at this round up of how .org's are adopting online as a means to enable them to better serve their goals. The number one choice, Kiva.org, uses microfinance as a means to gather donors together to sponsor business development in the developing world. Simple idea, very focussed, and by all means very effective.
See, it's not all about selling people things they don't really need! Back to the pet food then...
Great post and link from both Seth Gecko on a post from Chris Salic about an old back issue of Internet World (i'm tired now) with a round up of the best of the internet from 1994 and predictions for 1995.
The US was always a good five or so years ahead of the game with the internet and looking at the commercial possibilities from the get go. Free local calls made dial up access available to everyone, with most people paying a flat subscription fee every month for unlimited access, developing the channel to something akin to radio or tv. The success of early startups such as Craig's Lists also found a way to utilise the channel in a meaningful way to everyone (house hunting, dating, online gaming, news / content aggregation and spam / scams).
One prediction that jumped out at me was this one "There will be a concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to regulate content on the Internet." This never really transpired, but it pertinent now given recent rumblings from US government that they may impose tax legislation onto virtual currency, doing away with the "commerce without borders" ethos of the web as we've come to love and know it.
Nice ad placement on the Aint It Cool Website, advertising Coca Cola's music service. Simple rich media MPU in the far right (below the fold though, so I'd ask for some money back) with their top ten chart, "as voted for by you the listener". What's nice is that you can click on any of the tracks and it'll launch a neat little flash media player and play the full version of the track, then go on to play the rest of the chart. 
