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Battle of Big Thinking

Gordon Macmillan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:36:00 GMT

Great line-up for next week's fourth APG Battle of Big Thinking with more than 20 of the biggest thinkers the business.

One of the nice things about it is that it has a speedy format that progresses through out the day: three speakers per round, each given 15 minutes, with the audience voting at the end of each round. The winner of each round goes into an eliminator to find the supreme champion at the end of the day.

There are still a few tickets left (celia.miranda@haymarket.com). We'll be tweeting details of the conference throughout the day and you can follow the event via the hashtag #BoBT.

I'd also recommend following some of these people (if you're not already) who are all speaking at the event.

First up is Matt Willifer @matt93 who is chairman of the Account Planning Group and head of planning at M&C Saatchi.

In the Big Global Thinking session is former BBH staffer Guy Murphy @guymurphy who for these last two years has been worldwide planning director at JWT.

For Big Thinking and Innovation John Willshire @willsh from PHD will take to the stage who is head of innovation and will be looking at "the creation and cultivation of ideas through the study of social, cultural and technological trends".

In what is likely to be one of the hottest sessions of the day head of strategy and innovation at VCCP Amelia Torode @Amelia_Torode will share what she has learnt from campaigns including comparethemarket/meerkat.com, in Big Thinking in Social Media.

Also in this slot is We Are Social's Sandrine Plasseraud @MeToo will take to the stage. She is a former Renault marketer who was responsible who helped kicked start the firm's social media strategy.

Kicking off Big Mobile Thinking will be Scott Seaborn @ScottSeaborn –head of mobile at Ogilvy Group UK and the co-chairman of the UK Mobile Marketing Association.

Joining Scott will be Todd Tran @toddtran managing director of WPP mobile marketing agency for Joule. In another life he was a strategy management consultant with Bain & Company.

Personally I’m looking forward to hearing Patrick O'Luanaigh @patrickol in Big Thinking in Free Spaces. The former Unilever marketer who worked with BBH on the much talked about repositioning of Lynx. He now leads Plum Baby, the private equity backed premium organic baby-food brand.

It's near the end of the day, but Big Thinking in Marketing will be another goodie with Justin Basini @justinbasini the former vice-president for marketing at Capital One and Deutsche Bank who is now working on a new venture, which will be launching in 2010.

Other include some of the industry's up and coming talent who will take to microphone in the Open Mic Session. Speakers here include Katy Lindemann @katylindemann a senior strategist Naked Communications.

One of these speakers is going to win the day.

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So, farewell then...

Felix Velarde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:24:00 GMT

So, the time has come. Or rather, the untimely end has come. Revolution is taken off the stands, its feature article spiked.

It is, in my opinion, a huge shame. I've been involved in the magazine in one way or another – reader, writer, interviewee, critic, blogger – for a dozen years. I've seen it change and grow and mature since its earliest raison d'etre of providing a more client-friendly window on our industry than NMA's then-trade newsletter view.

We, that is my friends and colleagues in the industry, even put up with the doldrum years of that one awful front-cover photoshop template and remained loyal. It's a crying shame that ad revenues couldn't support the title... but it's also testament to the power of the digital revolution itself, which Revolution has so diligently reflected, that has led to the incorporation of marketing into the online. The digital universe, once so revolutionary, took over.

That the print edition is going is not so sad, except that it ends a vital period of reporting and advocacy that has now, quite inevitably and probably quite rightly, moved online. As with all changes like this though it leaves the hugely talented and engaging people behind it adrift. I hope that this talent doesn't go wasted or diluted. Gareth Jones, Andy McCormick and the rest of the team deserve congratulations, as do their predecessors, for providing an important and valued perspective on our industry, one that has been accessible, informative and fun.

So, farewell then. Revolution is dead. Long live the revolution.

Eprivacy Directive: van Rompuy should reconsider.

Rob Taylor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:35:00 GMT

Although his direct powers are limited, and the ink still wet on his papers, the new EU president Herman van Rompuy should consider using his influence to create a consensus for reviewing the recent passing of the EU’s eprivacy directive.

Part of the directive, which is about to be fully adopted, covers cookies and user’s rights. The individual member states are responsible for interpreting and enforcing the directive, but should the UK fully follow the bells and whistles route we could see virtually all digital activity requiring the user’s opt-in before being able to drop cookies. This will have a disastrous effect on the digital economy, and effectively catapult us back to the Stone Age. The success of digital Britain is due in part to advertising money underpinning all the rich content we see on the internet today. The advertising money is there because it’s possible to track the effectiveness of every penny spent - thanks to the use of cookies. Remove this visibility and advertisers will be less willing to spend, which means less money for the content editors. An impoverished experience for all will be the outcome.

Pile driver to crack a walnut? I think so. I’m making some really rough calculations here, but I estimate there to have been around 1x1015 cookies dropped on people’s machines in the past 10 years of the internet. I’ve tried to find a case of someone’s privacy being breached through cookie use, but I couldn’t. There probably are cases, but there’s likely only to be a handful. Not a bad ratio, and not surprising really when you consider that a cookie is just a random collection of digits with no personally identifiable information.

A big weight on the mind of the policy makers is the dreaded spectre of unforeseen consequences. In my mind, the consequences are stark. The internet is the future and the UK is at the forefront of developments in this medium. This directive will seriously hinder the UK’s competitiveness in the global arena with dire consequences for the future.

Who need’s Phil Collins when you can have Zingolo?

Chris Reed — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:22:00 GMT

The new Cadbury's Dairy Milk partnership with Ghanaian entertainment culture is wonderfully positive and full of life as well as a glass and half full of milk! Zingolo is the first single released from “Glass and Half Full” records, Cadbury’s own record label. This is launched to celebrate Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Fairtrade certification. Ghana is the heart of the Fairtrade chocolate made by Cadbury and this track as well as the overall Ghana connection celebrates everything Ghanaian. Cadbury’s have really gone to town with the positive Ghana associations recruiting dancers, artists, wood carvers as well as musicians. Rather than do this heart-heartedly they have even really invested in marketing the new music and putting it on iTunes to buy as well as promoting all the other Ghanaian cultural connections. It’s a risk as it’s so far removed from the award winning gorilla/Phil Collins, plane/queen big productions. It also assumes that people know that Ghanaian chocolate is the best. However the positive association with vibrancy, colours and a lust for life through the links with Ghanaian entertainers will communicate very positive product and brand values and that Cadbury’s give you a boost and makes you feel better. The only additional other angles worth persuing would be brand partnerships with high street retailers like HMV or fashion brands selling Ghanaian clothes should such exist or travel agents promoting Cadbury through all different associated angles. Overall a wonderfully vibrant brand partnership.

Call Britannia, an interesting new initiative

Neville Upton — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:53:00 GMT

I was interested to read that SimplySwitch founder Karen Darby has launched ‘Call Britannia,’ a call centre business aiming to create 10,000 jobs for the unemployed. It is hard to escape the media coverage surrounding the rise of unemployment amongst young people and the fact that an increasing number of graduates are turning to call centres for employment as a result of the recession.

Call Britannia is an interesting initiative and Karen Darby’s intentions are, in many ways, similar to the vision we have here at The Listening Company. Our emphasis is focused on providing young people with life and communication skills in order for them to have a successful long term career in either contact centres or elsewhere. In today’s commercial environment businesses place a premium on quality customer service and as a result, there are excellent opportunities available for people looking to pursue a career in the contact centre industry.

We have been creating employment and careers for young people for over a decade and have made substantial investments in training and people development including the launch of an Academy as a dedicated training and development arm to The Listening Company. The Academy enables each member of staff to build skills for life and gain an accredited qualification they can take with them into the future.

With a total of six sites across the UK including Newcastle and Glasgow, which are both areas with growing unemployment, we are continuing to create jobs for people from a variety of different backgrounds and have the skills to make excellent customer service agents.

Best resources in Social Media? A personal plotted history...

Richard Monk — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:06:00 GMT

Television and newspaper reports make ‘Social Media‘ and ‘Social Networking‘ buzz words sound like something that’s arrived on the scene in the past couple of years – but at least the basics pre-date the existence of the internet itself. Early BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) existed before anyone had even heard the term ‘internet’, and in concept will probably exist when its moved on from its current form.

My first experiences of the Internet involved struggling to make an Acorn RISC PC (post-Archimedes era RISCOS system) connect to Demon Internet – something I very shortly lost interest with and then attempted again a year or two later using Compuserve as an ISP. At the time this involved a sign-up fee, monthly subscription costs and national rate BT call charges. Compuserve had a built in message board structure as well as IRC (Internet Relay Chat), then later First Class (combining the two, plus rich media) which was adopted by the Open University quite early on – something I got involved in quite heavily as a means of exploring the diverse social aspect of the net. But all of this was heavily limited by both the inherent costs of being online for any significant period of time and the critically slow connection speed of a 56.6kbps modem.

If you’ve been using the internet since as early as 1996 (or even earlier) then your experiences of connecting to other users for social reasons may be very similar, and like me, you’re probably keen to embrace new forms of social networking, especially if they can offer something new.

Instant messenger clients like MSN, AIM and ICQ proceeded Internet Relay Chat use and existed way before any of the current social networking sites came into play. They’re still very popular, although the media still seem to be stuck in the mindset that IM’s are still ‘chat rooms‘ and lead to children being duped into strangers’ cars.

MySpace seemed to be the first Social Networking site to get mainstream news coverage and therefore mass popularisation, but its novelty seemed to be centred around having the highest friend count out there. It suffered from grotesquely heavy amounts of spam, and now seems to be almost entirely left for dead by its user base. Has anyone asked you “are you on MySpace?” in the last year and a half? Despite its flaws however, MySpace does seem to still be the default option for Bands on a self-promotion tip. To an extent it’s probably still one of the best options as the site is still very well trusted, and it’s big advantage is how heavily it can be customised – ideal for bands and labels who want their artwork to be fully integrated online. Somehow it does seem ironic though that the default MySpace music player re-encodes mp3’s to a noticeably poor bitrate. I’d say MySpace’s days are probably numbered and without re-inventing themselves or taking better advantage of their music profiling niche, then at some point in the next 5 years it may well find itself at the online graveyard with Geocities....

[Full article available at 1985... Click to read]

eModeration's Social Media Round-up #14

Tia Fisher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:19:00 GMT

Welcome to eModeration's weekly round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams (@emodkate). This week: President Obama's thumbs; Twillionaires; and 'intextication'.

Next week, eModeration is sending me on a social-skills course (day one: eating with implements) - so the next round-up will be on Friday the 4th December. See you then.

THE HEADLINES ...

President Obama has revealed that his absence from Twitter is due to a lack of dexterity in the thumb department. He was asked by a group of Shanghai students if they should be able to use Twitter freely – and the thumb quip launched a careful response about freedom of speech: “I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”

Stephen Fry this week claimed that Twitter celebs like himself can now opt out of the ‘pact with the devil’ which required them to open up their private lives to journalists, in return for press coverage of their work. Now, he says, Twillionaires like he and Britney can “reach their circulation just by typing into my keyboard.” Grave news indeed for Sleb magazines, which are already clinging on for dear life to the sinking ship of print.

Facebook came in for widespread and heavy criticism this week, for failing to follow Bebo’s lead in including a ‘Report’ button developed by the Child Exploitation and On-line Protection Centre. CEOP’s boss Jim Gamble urged the social networks to adopt the feature, which allows young users to log bullying, hate speech and sexually explicit content, and to contact trained advisers: “there is a responsibility, a duty of care, to the young and the vulnerable”, he said.

The scam offers scandal could spiral still further: a team of Sacramento lawyers is investigating complaints that unauthorized charges were made without users’ knowledge – and are considering class actions against Facebook, MySpace, Zynga, and Offerpal amongst others.

Yes, it’s that time of the decade already: as we inch painfully towards 2010, the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences bestowed Webby Awards on the top 10 internet moments of the last 10 years. Amongst the chosen: Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone, along with the birth of Wikipedia and the Iranian elections.

Channel 4’s landmark deal with YouTube went live this week, unleashing around 5000 videos – 80% of which are full lengths shows – upon a grateful nation. Peep Show and Gordon Ramsay's F Word are among the goodies, which Channel 4 is hoping will lure in fresh advertisers.

The Digital Economy Bill was amongst those trailed in The Queen’s Speech yesterday. The bill proposes that those caught in the illegal-download act would first be sent warning letters – but would lose their connections if they continued to break the law. No mention, though, of the hotly-disputed Broadband Tax, which now looks likely to be slotted into the Finance Bill, due in 2010.

THE LOWDOWN ...

Every now and again comes a piece of news to which the only response is a brief contemplation of the expression “it takes all sorts to make a world”, and here is just such a one: a French company has developed a set of bathroom scales which will tweet your weight to your followers.

Teens are risking their own lives, as well as others’, by texting while driving- and worse, the figures seem to show that they’re learning from their parents. A new report claims that people are well aware of the dangers of texting on the road – but their desire to stay connected to their networks is stronger than their desire to stay connected to the tarmac.

Which leads us neatly to the American Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year shortlist, which, in an example of terrifying cultural serendipity, this year contains the word ‘intexticated’: the condition of being distracted by texting while driving. Sadly it was pipped at the post by ‘unfriend’ - possibly more useful but not quite as clever.

UK Twitterers are confirmed lefties - the Citizen Smiths of the Interweb. The news comes from a joint poll by Prospect Magazine and YouGov, which found that the average Twitter user is under-35 and London-based – and somewhat to the left of the Labour Party.

Trying to sell your house? Facing a wall of indifference, despite your original features and your central location? Could be that potential vendors are put off by your slow broadband connection. ISPreview.co.uk's survey reveals that 75% of people won’t buy a house – even an adorable one - if the best broadband ISP speed it could achieve was just 1Mbps.

IN OTHER NEWS ...

Yelps of excitement here, as Bing is launched in the UK – with enhanced visual search, Twitter integration and an “instant answers” service for real-time news on football scores and suchlike. But should Google be perspiring slightly and watching its back – or has it nothing to fear from the young pretender? iCrossing reveals the Five Things You Need To Know about Bing.

Bebo, whose web TV slate includes KateModern, Sofia's Diary, and The Gap Year, has nixed all new commissions, following parent company AOL’s announcement that it would slash 100 jobs globally.

Despite Rupert Murdoch’s admission last week that his paywall plans were likely to be delayed, it’s been announced that Times Online will start charging for content in the spring. James Harding, editor of The Times, said the site would offer 24-hour passes, as well as subscriptions.

The European Interactive Advertising Association – which includes stalwarts like AOL, the BBC, and Condé Nast amongst its members – predicts that online advertising will laugh in the face of the recession next year, with a projected 7.6% year-on-year rise in Europe, and a further 15% increase predicted for 2011.

And if further proof were needed that it is customers who are now directing the brand message, 360i reports that 77% of social media search results are generated by individuals with no affiliation to the brand.

ON FACEBOOK ...

It’s good news for Facebook this week: it towers above the nearest competition in the British social network league, netting half of all visits in UK last month. Twitter languishes a distant fourth, with a contextually-microscopic 1.9% of UK visitors.

But wait! Whispers of coming gloom can be heard, as research by WPP Group’s Mindshare suggests that the crucial older teen and twentysomething demographic might be drumming its fingers and looking round for something new.

Sony is catching up with rivals Microsoft, which recently hooked Facebook and Twitter to their Xbox 360. New software for the PlayStation means that gamers can now link their PS3s to their Facebook accounts to share game-play updates with friends.

ON TWITTER ...

Despite the recent slowdown in Twitter’s growth, it can still produce stats that make us gasp: according to Pingdom the average number of Tweets per hour is 1.1 million; the daily figure is 27.3 million; and at this rate, we’re looking at 10 billion tweets a year.

The typical Twitter user is male, and in his late twenties/early thirties – and wants brands to listen and respond to his questions, finds new research from InSites. News which sits uneasily against this other study, which finds, amongst other interesting tidbits, that 76% of brands on Twitter are infrequent users - and only 9% use it as a customer-service channel.

BRANDS GET SOCIAL ...

Marmite has formed a secret society – the Marmarati – to develop an extra-strong version of the loveit/hateit yeast-based spread. Members were chosen because they expressed their love for the Unilever-owned brand on social networking sites, and fans will be able to win a sneak-pretaste of the new spread by uploading marmite-centric content.

Mydeco.com, which sells homewares and furniture, has inked a deal with Sony's PlayStation Home to sell iconic pieces of virtual furniture – for example, the famous Marilyn ‘Lips’ sofa – on the community-based network.

Maclaren, who produce children’s buggies, recently offered a voluntary product-recall on one million of its pushchairs, amid reports that children had lost fingers in their folding mechanisms. But it found itself at the wrong end of a sharp social-media stick when UK customers discovered that only US customers were included – and this week it was force to roll out the offer worldwide.

For this year's Los Angeles Design Challenge, Audi has tapped its Facebook community of famously partisan fans to help design a fantasy Youthmobile for release in the year 2030 – you can see some of the designs here. http://www.facebook.com/audi

ON GOOGLE ...

The tech world was agog this week, as rumours swirled that Google’s eagerly-awaited new Chrome operating system might be available for download as soon as next week, with Search Engine Journal suggesting that the traction being gained by Windows 7 might be motivating a hasty launch.

Eek. Californian developer Frank McCabe created a programming language in 2004, and named it Go. He published a research paper about it in 2004. And a book in 2007. All the more surprising, then, that Google has just called IT”s new language by the same name. McCabe says he doesn’t have a trademark and can’t afford a lawsuit, but is determined not to let the search giant steamroller his prior claim.

Meanwhile, the Swiss data protection organization says its complaints to Google about breaches of privacy in Street View have fallen on deaf ears. It alleges that the company has refused to fix insufficiently blurred faces and numberplates, which could lead to individuals being identified in ‘sensitive’ locations - outside hospitals, prisons and schools.

Google means business with its latest policy on scam and malware advertisers who use Adwords – it’s imposing a blanket policy of ‘guilty till proven innocent’ on all suspect ads, and a lifetime ban on confirmed scammers.

Social Search, Google’s snazzy new feature which allows users to combine search with social data, has gone down – and according to a baffled Mashable, will remain down till early next week. What, Mashable wonders, could have happened to Social Search that could possibly take that long to fix?

ON YOUTUBE ...

YouTube has launched a dedicated channel called YouTube Direct, specifically for citizen journalists to bring their work to a larger audience. The tool allows media companies to connect directly with user-reporters, and request and rebroadcast news clips.

The video-sharing site is also testing a new approach to making online ads relevant – allowing users to skip the ones that bore them – with the idea that they will then engage more deeply with the ones that they do in fact watch.

ON MOBILE ...

T-Mobile faces consumer wrath again this week after it emerged that one of their workers had been selling customers’ details to a rival company - a major breach of data protection regulation.

In the first mobile-Twitter deal, Orange have snagged an agreement with Twitter to let users upload photos by text, via Snapshot - a custom picture platform developed by Orange.

73% of marketing execs think mobile is the UK’s ‘most likely to expand’ medium, says the IAB, whose survey canvassed the opinions of 100 senior agency reps.

VIRTUAL AND GAMES ...

Hi-yah! Kung Fu Panda World – in development for the last 2 years and targeted at kids of 8-12 – is to be launched in early 2010. The world will feature high levels of parental control, and will offer both long-term and one-day subscriptions.

Despite a spot of bother with its in-game ads – which some have suggested are rather dastardly - social games company Zynga’s investors are clearly chomping at the bit. The upwardly-mobile games enterprise, whose biggest success is the Facebook mega-game Farmville - has just received a massive injection of cash: $15.1 million to be precise, bringing its total haul to over $54 million.

Quick work: Gravity Bear, who declared as a social games developer less than four weeks ago, has already unveiled Battle Punks, a Facebook app which it bills as a ‘3D social game. It’s due to launch in open beta before 2010.

Subscription revenues for Disney’s Club Penguin were up a cozy 4% last quarter, contributing to a overall increase in revenue for the company - despite an icy economy.

That's all folks!

We’re dreaming of a green Christmas

Greg Taylor — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:12:00 GMT

For all the traditional merriment they embody, Christmas trees are a) awkward to transport and b) terribly depressing when they're discarded in January.

No longer if L.A. landscape architect, Scott Martin, has his way.

Scott founded The Living Christmas Company, which gives L.A. residents the chance to rent a living Christmas tree and have it delivered right to their door.

Unlike regular Christmas trees, around 20 million of which are felled each year in the US, living trees are transplanted, roots and all, into pots for the festive period.

After the holidays, Scott and his team pick up the trees, replant them and nurture them until next year. 

Customers can order a tree from the company's website, and sizes range from 3–8 feet and prices—including delivery and collection by bio-diesel truck—are comparable to those of felled trees.

While the company isn't the first to offer tree rentals for Christmas, it is the first we've seen that lets customers adopt a pine, allowing them to share Christmas with the same tree year after year, watching it grow along with their family.

Adopted trees are tracked by barcode.

The concept will certainly appeal to eco-conscious Angelenos, who may not get a white Christmas, but can now choose a greener one.

Ref. http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/livingchristmas/

Murdoch: online news to be smaller and less important

Gordon Macmillan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:52:00 GMT

In case you were in some doubt regarding the future for online news James Murdoch is telling it straight. He says that online news will in the future have a smaller audience, be less important (than broadcast) and come with a premium price tag.

James Murdoch, who is chief executive of News Corporation Europe, gives the impression that online and printed news is going to be sidelined almost by a future which the company -- he is set to lead -- is ushering in. And that is the wider reality: news outlets are being sidelined and shuttered as there is no longer any revenue to support them -- the world it seems is shrinking. We saw that this week with the closure of Media Week.

According to James Murdoch there is a role for online and print journalism, but it is not as big as that of entertainment: "In the business of ideas, which is the business that we are in, we do think journalism plays a role, and we do think there are business models there that will make a lot of sense, albeit perhaps not at the scale of some of our broadcasting businesses and other entertainment businesses.

"Is it going to be as big a role? No," he said. "Structurally, television is vastly more profitable and a big opportunity,"

Murdoch, who was speaking who was speaking at the Morgan Stanley annual Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona, also spoke about developing what he called a wholesale market for its digital news, which is part of its plans to erect a pay wall around its content with The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK being the first to implement this. Earlier this week Times editor James Harding said that his paper would launch a subscription service for online access early next year.

"Our digital activities -- we are going to push them harder but we are actually going to be charging a premium price for them. We will have a smaller audience than giving it away for free, but I think it is the crucial step in starting to develop a wholesale market for digital journalism," James Murdoch said.

Murdoch told Reuters that his top priorities were building on News Corp's positions in pay TV in Europe and India (where it has Star TV) as well as "rebuilding the profitability of newspapers".

"We invest quite a lot in our journalism, we're very proud of it, we think it has great quality and great value, and we think that we should be charging a fair price for it, both to customers but also to other firms who might want to take it to customers in whatever way.

"We think that there's a very exciting market place, potentially a wholesale market place for digital journalism that we'll be developing," he added.

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Ludicrous media hysteria follows 'Le hand of Frog'

Ed Kemp — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:40:00 GMT

What happened to Ireland on Wednesday was hard to watch. But the reaction by the players, fans and media has gone too far.

Henry Winter calling for Thierry Henry to be banned for the finals is a ludicrous over-reaction that you would expect from an irate fan after a couple of beers, not from a respected football journalist. Remember that horrible little winker Ronaldo getting Rooney sent off in 2006? It was pretty awful and Ronaldo got booed not banned.

The Times has also reacted hysterically. 'Sleight of hand couuld cost Henry a fortune as luctractive sponsorship deals slip from his grasp' it claims. Two reporters it would seem worked on this utterly pointless story, which also claims the handball could hamper a proposed move to New York Red Bulls (whoever they are) next year. Again, total rubbish.

Calls for a replay are equally ridiculous. If you had a replay for every time a player cheated to win a game we would probably still be contesting the 1993/94 Premier League season.

Ireland did not fail to qualify for the 2010 World Cup because of Thierry Henry. They failed because they did not secure automatic qualification from their group - when that happens you enter a bit of a lottery (albeit a lottery that FIFA had skewed in the favour of the bigger nations).

Thierry Henry cheated - as most professional players do every single week - but it was FIFA that inexplicably changed the qualification system at the last minute.

If the Irish really want to pursue this issue, they should go after FIFA on those grounds rather than poor officiating or a cheating Frenchman.

Putting things in boxes

A Different Hat — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:40:00 GMT

A few years ago, in a moment of visionary genius, I realised that, over time, more and more products were going to be sold over the internet. Amazon’s business was growing at an extraordinary rate.

At the time, Amazon had made its name as the website of choice for books. Now, of course, Amazon sells virtually everything. But I remember thinking that books were a great place to start because, especially if you bought one at a time, they fitted conveniently through your average domestic letter-box.

Generally speaking, though, if you bought more than one book, or anything larger than the size of your letter-box, you had to be at home or a little card was popped through your door telling you that the Post Office had tried delivering a package but that, in order to retrieve it, and most annoyingly, you would have to pick it up yourself - back at the Post Office.

Well, I didn’t know much about the Post Office other than posting letters in nice, warm-red pillar boxes and receiving them through my letter-box. But I did know that sometime, somehow, somewhere, a box containing my online order arrived at the Post Office, was loaded into a nice red van and driven to my house. Then, if I was out, the driver would drive my box back to the Post Office it came from – with my order still undelivered.

In this new-age world, with more and more people buying more and more products online, this all seemed a rather inefficient, and decidedly non-eco-friendly, delivery system.

Now, please put all of the above in a little box in your head because while I realised this was happening, I became aware of another market trend.

More and more, at a rate similar to the growth in online purchasing, I read that Post Offices were being closed all over the country. In fact, the deeper into the country you lived, the more likely would it be that your Post Office would be closed. This meant that if you jumped onto the bandwagon of buying products online, but were not at home for them to be delivered, the wagon with your box in it would drive even further to find you were out and even further back to where it had come from.

Surely, if there was a system where you asked for your products to be delivered to your Post Office and that the card saying it had arrived was delivered by lunchtime with the rest of your morning mail, then you could go and collect your order at your convenience?

And surely this would save time and petrol and carbon for the Post Office as well as provide an exciting new reason for your local branch to survive?

Online retailers would offer their customers two options:

1. Would you like your order delivered to your home?

2. Would you like your order delivered to your local Post Office for you to “collect at your convenience (you will be notified when it arrives)”?

By saving all the inefficiencies outlined above, Option 2 might even be cheaper, creating a win-win-win situation. No need to close Post Offices (and perhaps the opportunity to open bigger and better branches); online retailers offering a choice of delivery options (and possibly cost savings); consumers in more control of their purchasing decisions (and supporting the survival of their local Post Office, especially in rural areas).

Perhaps, even, the Post Office could develop an expansion strategy? Maybe they have a wider product offering than they think? Maybe, because they have to store all these undelivered boxes, they Post Office has become a STORAGE, as well as a DELIVERY, service?

Why not invest in those storage places that have sprung up all over the place (especially those revolting, ugly, intrusive, big yellow ones which you can paint in your nice, warm, royal, pillar-box red)? There’s lots of boxes in those and they make lots of money. And yes, PO, you can charge money for storage. Even if only pennies a day, there'll be lots of them.

So come on PO – please don’t GO, we want you to GROW!

What a great idea. I dreamt of my destiny as a dotcom millionaire and, on 2 November 2005, I wrote to the Post Office. I told them what their problem was (but I didn’t tell them my solution).

What happened? Well I know my letter arrived, because a person describing himself as ‘Managing Director’ of a branch of the Post Office called me. He asked me to tell him my idea over the phone. I replied that if I did that, the Post Office could nick my idea (and my millions). He told me the Post Office had loads of new ideas and if I wouldn’t tell him mine over the phone, then he wasn’t interested. He put me back in my box.

Much more recently, Adam Crozier has been on the box. On the Andrew Marr Show (BBC Sun 27 Oct 09) he said: "Our market in the letters side is shrinking all the time whilst, at the same time, we are growing massively in terms of packets and parcels".

There you go. Even the Post Office agrees with what I told them would happen four years ago. So now we have more and more products being sold online, more and more boxes being driven around in more and more vans to more and more empty houses and more and more Post Offices being closed - apparently, since 1997, the number of post office branches has fallen from 19,000 to 11,000.

Can this be right?

And where did I go wrong?

Oh no. Tonight is Children In Need

Jeremy Lee — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:24:00 GMT

I love television - at its best it brings us all together and acts as social glue.

But at its worst, it's creepy, smug, self-satisfied and sanctimonious. And tonight's the night when that becomes most apparent.

While I don't have any massive problem with the charity concerned (although I'm not yet convinced that it is the BBC's remit to extricate funds from viewers when it won't even tell them how much it pays its 'talent'), I do with this show.

Tonight's highlights include the hosts of The One Show doing a skit from Fame, musical contributions from those tremendous actors from The Bill and Hollyoaks, and Sir Terry Wogan appearing in a special edition of Lark Rise to Candleford.

Wogan says that he will continue presenting the event until 'hell freezes over'; I never thought that I'd look forward to that happening.

Goodbye Media Week, it was a comic anyway

Arif Durrani — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:48:00 GMT

Some media owners and agency leaders would be forgiven for greeting news of Media Week’s closure with initial relief on Tuesday.

It’s never easy being watched, let alone reported on and critiqued as well. And in the current climate, where every major launch or account win is offset by a deluge of loses and people moves, it must’ve at times been plain annoying.

Yet, once the dust settles and the world keeps turning, I suspect Media Week’s attentive gaze will be missed. Working in “meedja” is never going to hold the attention of the nationals for long, and no other business mag is devoted to it.

The commercial media business has had a committed advocate in Steve Barrett, who genuinely cares about the business and the people in it. I could only admire as he repeatedly pushed media launches and wins to the front of an issue, while relegating redundancies to online or a few pars at the back. The focus was always on the positive, while acknowledging the challenges facing the market.

Media Week’s focus on bite-sized exclusive news stories (in addition to great, industry-led features) and its bitchy back page, made it a weekly 20 minute romping read, a comic to its harshest critics perhaps, but it was the media industry’s own comic nonetheless.

(Naval gazing warning ahead)

But let’s be blunt: the writing’s been on the wall for Media Week for some time. The heady circulation days of 20,000 had long past, and once the worst advertising recession in living memory took hold, drastic action was required.

The phasing out of the controlled circ model for the subscription-only one introduced this summer was initially intended for media owners (because they’re loaded right now of course) but was soon extended to encompass agencies as well.

Many questioned the move, especially when the magazine’s content was still available for free online. But these were desperate times.

The good news is that most companies did indeed see a value in the magazine and initial orders, although low, were placed. I’m reliably informed these continued to rise right up until its demise.

But it all proved too little, too late for Haymarket management, and, while I haven’t been privy to the P&L sheets, I know enough to admit they couldn’t have been pretty.

Yet Media Week becoming an online-only proposition had been muted long-before any downturn. The magazine’s own founder Tim Brooks, now steering Guardian News & Media through the choppy waters, predicted the magazine, along with most other B2B titles, would close its print offering by 2010, and that was five years ago.

His reasoning, while surprisingly candid – especially made as it was in an interview with Media Week – reflected the growing groundswell of opinion. As the possibilities of the internet began to unfold in a post dotcom-bust world, B2B publishers were well aware of the need to reposition themselves.

I remember reporting on David Hill, president and chief executive of IDG, one of the largest B2B powerhouses in the world, when he announced “we’re not magazine publishers any more” in 2002. At the time it was near-revolutionary. He preferred instead the idea of being a media content provider, regardless of vehicle.

This sentiment of diversification soon became the newly-labelled B2B media’s mantra, and to be fair Media Week embraced it with open arms. With its website, two news bulletins a day, podcast and Media Week TV, in addition to its annual Media360 conference and those coveted awards, it has set the pace for Haymarket's Brand Media's portfolio. It will be interesting to see if these brand extensions continue to prosper without the magazine.

But there has always been an elephant in the room, whose presence now looms larger than ever: online ad revenues alone do not generate enough to sustain the costs of running a substantial news desk.

I learned this lesson first hand as I watched my colleagues ebb away at Centaur’s Mad.co.uk. That had been an exciting, dynamic news wire environment that broke its fair share of exclusives – not least Bauer’s decision to buy Emap (a move which in itself seemed to symbolise the seismic shifts taking place).

But falls in recruitment ads started to take its toll. It's interesting to note that during this time Brand Republic’s own dedicated news desk was also at its strongest (& biggest), and proved a daily nuisance to all of Haymarket’s magazine brands. But that elephant just wasn’t going away, and so in the last couple of years the power at both companies has shifted back towards their stable of print brands.

This week’s announcement at Haymarket signals another step-change, and for me it makes the most sense to-date. Keep a hub of news reporters feeding into both online and magazine brands, with the emphasis in print more firmly placed on features, comments and analysis.

I’ve no doubt it’ll be messy at first, but certainly more efficient – and who knows, it might just satisfy that elephant.

There are alternative, interesting business models emerging in the sector of course, not least PaidContent and Utalkmarketing. Both are fleet of foot and relatively inexpensive, but they also rely on other peoples good old fashioned, expensive journalism upon which to draw. The Guardian is also set to unveil a new regional blogging initiative too, an innovative move that just might go some way in redressing the balance of news coverage at a local level.

But for now, spare a thought for the one that didn’t make it, just three months before turning 25. I know in the grand scheme of closures in 2009 Media Week's demise is small fry, just last week GNM announced it was scrapping its Business & Media supplement after more than 30 years and making more than 100 redundancies to boot, but its passing is indicative and will leave a void all the same.

Now Mystic Tim, if you’ll just email me next week’s lottery numbers, and I’ll get my coat.

Education, education, education (part three...and final)

Nick Stringer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I’ve banged the drum in previous weeks about the importance of consumer education about behavioural advertising, and the IAB's recent research has highlighted the need for this.

Today the IAB has published a guide on behavioural advertising specifically for industry, our first step in helping educate the market about this practice (although you’ll be glad to know that this will be my last blog – for now - talking about education). The guide explains how behavioural advertising works, how it differs to other types of targeted advertising on the internet, its benefits to web publishers and advertisers, consumer attitudes as well as online privacy and industry good practice.

The guide – sponsored by technology company Audience Science – hasn’t been written exclusively by the IAB but by the experts themselves, with contributions from the likes of AOL, Guardian, Profero, Post Office, Yahoo!, ValueClick Media and, of course, Audience Science.

It may not make the Amazon bestsellers list (its free after all) but for anyone who wants to know a little more about behavioural advertising, this one’s for you. Enjoy!

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And then there were three…

BOB WILLOTT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:26:00 GMT

Media Square, the AIM listed owner of agencies that include CMW, Gate, and Lloyd Northover, must be well positioned for a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the smallest board of directors for a public company.

Yesterday’s resignation of non-executive Nigel Bacon, whose association goes back to the early days of the company, leaves just three directors in post. They are chairman Roger Parry (doubling as chief executive), chief operating officer Bruce Winfield (doubling as chief financial officer) and non-executive Michael George whose former employer Electra Partners once managed a fund that had a chunky shareholding in the group. At least the reduced size of the board will keep central overheads down.

Between them the three remaining directors also have to chair an audit committee, a nomination committee and a remuneration committee, although it’s hard to envisage any of these committees having fewer than three members and thereby not engaging every director in every meeting.

Of course, as Parry pointed out yesterday, this is purely a temporary situation. His fellow McKinsey alumnus Peter Reid will be taking on the role of chief executive in January when Parry steps back to become a purely non-executive chairman. Bruce Winfield will become simply the CFO and two more suitably experienced non-executives will be found to keep Michael George company.

About face: beyond endorsements

Giles Fitzgerald — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:48:00 GMT

A couple of interesting research studies into celebrity endorsements have surfaced of late, prompting us to look again at the role of endorsements in music. A new Adweek Media/Harris Poll, investigating the persuasiveness of celebrity endorsements, offered an insight into the most effective routes to market. Business leaders – of the Steve Jobs variety - came out on top as the ‘most persuasive’, followed by athletes, TV/movie stars, then musicians, with former political figures trailing along in fifth place. However, when the question was flipped as to which were the ‘least persuasive’ athletes, business leaders, politicians and movie stars were deemed less viable than musicians.

Celebrity endorsements can be exceptionally powerful, raising awareness, increasing a product’s appeal and influencing the buying decisions of fans wanting to emulate the lifestyles of their favourite stars. Music, arguably, has more resonance than high profile endorsements from athletes due to the fact that unlike sport the endorsee comes complete with their own soundtrack. This gives a brand leverage every time their music is heard in numerous different possible locations, whereas sport can often be confined to a very limited – and literal -playing field.

A quick scan across the barrage of media channels available today highlights a seemingly never ending string of pop stars and musicians extolling the virtues of a plethora of branded products. Another recent study, The Celebrity Endorsement Sensor, of 24,000 consumers across 25 countries, by the media agency Mediaedge:cia (MEC) highlighted how 35% of its respondents believed celebrity endorsements managed to improve a brand’s overall awareness. However, this awareness is subject to a major perception flaw. A sizable 53% said they had problems remembering which celebrity was attached to which brand. So a brand netting a lucrative music endorsement may actually indirectly be playing into the hands of a rival company. This is a problem that is exacerbated if the musical endorser in question is somewhat fickle in their choice of alignments over a given period.

The Mediaedge study also stated that male adults within the 18-34 age bracket are the most likely to engage with celebrities via digital activities, and it is in this digitally enhanced realm where music celebrities can make a memorable impact. The relationship between artist and brand has evolved from a simple ‘cool-by-association’ proposition to a deeper, more rounded, collaborative partnership. In order to achieve ‘cool-by-integration’ brands need to become actively and creatively involved with their endorsees in broader more consumer rewarding campaigns.

A nationally representative survey in the UK – which features in the FRUKT Music and Brands manifesto 2010 - recently asked: “Which music marketing campaigns make the biggest difference to your brand perception?” Artist endorsements came in at a lowly 23% of all the possible categories. Ticket/download giveaways, the ability to share music with others, receive exclusive content, and get closer to the acts they love were amongst the highest brand and music touch points for consumers.

Endorsement partnerships are like relationships. They need chemistry. It’s ultimately a social science, a love triangle between three separate components – brand, band and fan. As with a chemistry set it’s a delicate balance between creating the perfect mix and it all blowing up in your face. However, get the ingredients right – a dash of star power, a hint of genuine creativity and a healthy scoop of believability – and an endorsement deal rooted in music will give your brand not only a figurehead but a whole new voice.

Here are some key pointers to consider when embarking on a music-based endorsement deal:

1. Understand your market

The reason that some celebrity endorsements fail to provide a ROI for the brand is because celebrities have often been identified in an emotional and sometimes un-researched manner, with the campaign concept tweaked to fit the celebrity into the creative.

2. Forge creative partnerships

The key thing to remember is that placing a celebrity in an ad is not an idea in itself. The off the shelf mentality has gone, campaigns, and even the songs within them can be built from the ground up. Embrace and harness the creativity of those you have decided to work with.

3. Start a conversation

Give them a story. Casting a multi-million dollar film star in your movie means nothing if the script is terrible. The same goes for a music artist. They may be the most popular face on the planet, but if the story they are cast in is bad no one is going to want to listen. Build your spokesperson into a narrative, an ongoing conversation where the music fan plays an active part in the musical journey.

This piece is adapted from the article ‘Sound Investment – From Endorsements to Creative Partnerships’ from The Brands and Music Manifesto 2010. Download a sampler here

F-Mobile

Mark Roy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:11:00 GMT

A pox on T-Mobile for allegedly selling the personal details of thousands of customers to rival companies, in my opinion. Henceforth they should be known as F-Mobile, I reckon. ‘F’ as in fail - both the standards and responsibilities required under the Data Protection Act and its otherwise innocent, unsuspecting customers.

I hope Christopher Graham and his staff at the ICO act swiftly and diligently in preparing a prosecution. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly on this blog, the shoddy data practices of T-Mobile and their ilk really need to be stopped once and for all.

Now onto other, nicer, news…

Forgive me, but I’d like to indulge in a spot of company self-promotion. Don’t forget to visit www.rememberingyouthischristmas.com* to send a message to the stars in remembrance of someone you love. Messages will be beamed into outer space at precisely 1.00am (GMT) on Christmas Day by Deep Space Communications Network based in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Bereavement Register® can’t promise you’ll receive a reply, but if anyone does return your deep space call, we’ll let you know. More importantly, our hope is that the simple act of remembering and sharing our feelings might just make this Christmas a little happier for everyone this year.

* All messages must be received by 12 midnight on 20^th December to give us time to prepare for transmission into space on Christmas Day.

IPC Media to restructure and cut jobs

Gordon Macmillan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:07:00 GMT

NME, Loaded, Nuts to Ideal Home and Marie Claire publisher IPC Media has said this afternoon that it plans to restructure and cut jobs.

Evelyn Webster, CEO of IPC Media said the Time Warner-owned firm would reorganise around three audience groups of men, mass-market women and up-market women as of January 4.

As a result of this new structure, there will be a reduction in a number of roles and IPC said it will begin a period of consultation with staff from November 20. It follows cuts elsewhere in the Time Warner-owned UK publisher with more jobs lost at AOL.

One of the first casualties is IPC Ignite MD Eric Fuller who will leave IPC at the end of December. The divisional names IPC TX and IPC Ignite will disappear altogether.

The three new divisions are

IPC Inspire will be the men’s division, comprising leisure pursuits, men’s lifestyle and music brands, headed by managing director Paul Williams.
IPC Connect will be the mass-market women’s division, comprising women’s weeklies, the goodtoknow network and the TV entertainment brands, headed by managing director Fiona Dent.
IPC Southbank, the up-market women’s division, will continue to comprise the fashion, beauty and home interest brands, headed by managing director Jackie Newcombe.

CEO Evelyn Webster, said: “While our current structure has served us well over many years, it now no longer fully reflects our clients’ business needs. Reach, as well as the delivery of tightly targeted audiences, has never been more important. By organising IPC by consumer audience, rather than by magazine frequency or subject area, we will create a more market-facing structure, which will also bring greater coherence to our operations.”

As well as the changes to the publishing divisions, Charlie Meredith, previously MD of IPC TX, has been appointed to a newly created board role of MD, Central Operations, responsible for the majority of central operations including IPC Direct, the direct marketing division; IPC Plus, the syndication and licensing division; Production; and Property/Facilities. Charlie will also be responsible for ensuring that IPC meets its environmental obligations.

The cuts at IPC follow a restructure announced earlier this week by Brand Republic publisher Haymarket, which has resulted in the closure of Media Week and Revolution magazines.

Rival B2B publisher Centaur Media reported a 28% slide in revenues. Mike Lally, the Centaur group finance director, told MediaGuardian that Haymarket's decision to close Media Week and reduce Revolution to a quarterly insert would benefit its own titles such as New Media Age and Marketing Week.

"We are already market leaders against a number of Haymarket titles but there may be a marginal benefit to us [in Haymarket's restructure] of titles such as Revolution," he said.

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No shop ‘til you drop

Greg Taylor — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:57:00 GMT

International No Shop Day back in 1997 was marked by the 'grand opening' of No Shop – the shop that promised everything but sold nothing.

The No Shop, an installation by designers Thomas/Matthews in collaboration with Friends of the Earth's Art and Nature Programme and the Royal College of Art, displayed all of the tempting window design and special offers used to lure in shoppers, while the space inside simply contained images of empty shelves and a single 'No Sales Assistant' behind an image of a cash register.

Visitors received a special paper shopping bag with a 'receipt' containing information on International No Shop Day and thanking the 'shopper' for ‘not shopping at No Shop’. (Thanks to JW for this one.)

The event is focused on the need to reduce material consumption and pollution to within defined ecological limits, and questions whether increasing consumerism can deliver a better quality of life.

An excuse for dropping litter

Greg Taylor — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:12:00 GMT

Frito-Lay is putting out Sun Chips bags that contain plant-based materials. It’s one more example of the way companies are rethinking how they package their products for the good of the environment.

Frito-Lay announced its plant-based bag last month, and is planning to have a chip bag on the shelves by Earth Day 2010 that’s made of 100% renewable materials and completely compostable.

Where the compostable Sun Chips bag will differ from most other bioplastics is that it can be composted in home composting systems, not just industrial systems that few consumers have access to. Tony Knoerzer, Frito-Lay's VP of packaging research and development, said he put samples of the 100% compostable bag in his home compost bin, and it was gone in eight weeks.

When questioned why Frito-Lay is slowly adding renewable materials to the bag, starting at 33% instead of jumping straight to the 100% content bag, he explained the barrier is getting the right amount of scale.

“Even if the bags don't get composted at the end of their lives”, he said, “They have additional benefits: they were made from a renewable, non-petroleum resource and lead to fewer greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ref. http://www.GreenerDesign.com/blog/2009/05/20/greener-design-reducing-remaking-and-eliminating-packaging

To Bing....? The Big Question!

Mel Carson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:11:00 GMT

One of the best bits of feedback I’ve ever had as a Microsoft employee was an email from a US super-affiliate – and I mean SUPER-affiliate – after adCenter and Microsoft in general were being discussed in unfavourable and fruity language on his blog.

I’d added a comment saying I thought we could perhaps do a bit better and soliciting some actionable data with regards to his readers’ concerns so I could send them to our product teams.

His email said, “The thing about you Microsoft guys is, whenever you screw up or something isn’t well received, you don’t get all down about it but come straight back asking questions! That’s how to run a business!”

Although I’d rather not screw up, it does pay to ask the right kind of questions, listen intently and collaborate with your customers to act on the path to constant improvement.

The recent launch of Bing out of beta in the UK last week is a good example of how we’ve listened... a lot!

I must have spoken at over 100 conferences to thousands of people about Microsoft adCenter and search engine marketing, and not a day has gone past in the last 4 ½ years when I’ve been asked, “When can we get more traffic? The conversions are great but we need more volume. This market needs more competition. We can’t have such a one-sided industry. We want variety!”

Now my role has always been to evangelise adCenter, but unofficially I’ve had to keep my fingers in the Dutch flood barrier – so to speak – keeping track of any piece of feedback received from the industry and feeding them to the engineers, forcing them out of their lab to exchange face-to-face with our users.

That unofficial job is now really redundant.

With the launch last week, the guys in our Search Technology Centre in London have done their bit and will continue to do their bit to push the boundaries of innovation. They’ve asked all the right questions and worked tirelessly to create a search engine that I am proud of and very happy to use. Bing is a search engine that not only delivers in the worldwide #1 search market, but also meets the needs of local consumers and advertisers.

Although my better half is American, the other half is still very keen on its conker battles, Yorkshire puddings and warm beer. So the in-depth localisation efforts on the user experience and algorithm results keep reminding me I'm in Britain and not in a Vegas hotel.

Here’s the rallying cry!

So we can gauge what you think, please use Bing.com as your default search engine for a week and comment below on what you think after 7 days. Have it as your homepage and discover some new facts about different parts of the world from the daily changing photo that teachers all over the world are now starting their pupils’ day at school with. Use it to check football scores and do your Christmas shopping while you’re at it!

The industry wanted a game-changer, and while we start working on the consumer marketing, where better to start talking about and using it than within the industry itself.

If you’ve enjoyed any of my previous 323 posts over the last 2 ½ years just indulge me this once... you might be pleasantly surprised!

http://www.Bing.com

Aegis announces very little

BOB WILLOTT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:23:00 GMT

This morning Aegis Group produced another trading statement that is the nearest thing to gobbledegook that a shareholder could ask for. The company summarised several paragraphs of random data with the words: “The results after nine months’ trading allow us to reconfirm the guidance given at the half year”. The guidance given at the half year was simply to expect “a full year profit outturn in line with current market expectations” (see Aegis’ resilient performance? A loss so far). So that makes things much clearer, doesn’t it?

Given such bland guidance, let’s make some guesses. First, the group will report a loss for the full year (as it did for the first half). Secondly, in arriving at that loss, restructuring costs will have cost at least £32 million. Thirdly, gross income for the year (revenues less bought in direct costs) will fail to match the modest 3.5% growth achieved in the first six months. Fourthly, recent currency movements will have eroded some of the benefits gained in the first half. And fifthly, net debt will have crept up a little by the year end when compared with last year.

Of course these guesses may all prove to be completely wrong as “market expectations” reflected in the company’s share price seem to have been climbing since its interim results were announced at the end of August. But that may just be a reflection of a general improvement in stock market sentiment rather than anything to do with Aegis.

This morning Aegis shares shed nearly 4% of their value in early trading so, whatever market expectations may have been, they appear to have cooled a little following the trading update. Indeed, by the end of the day the shares had lost nearly 7% of their opening value.

Chairman and chief executive John Napier (who also finds time to chair Royal SunAlliance Group) had this to say this morning: “Our strategy to perform resiliently in a downturn has continued to deliver and we are pleased to confirm further progress in a difficult and challenging market environment.” Interpreting that is fairly challenging too.

It was inevitable that Aegis would suffer from the adverse economic climate and, after all the restructuring activity this year, there’s every chance that 2010 will be a better one. Hopefully Aegis will have learned to communicate better by then too.

Newsweek scores sexist own goal with Sarah Palin cover

Gordon Macmillan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:40:00 GMT

Newsweek clearly wanted to make Sarah Palin look at bit of an idiot with its cover that some are calling sexist, but it looks to have had the reverse affect and is whipping up support for the Republican from Alaska who shoots stuff and is looking to run for president in 2012.

Newsweek apparently wants to get this unelectable photogenic woman elected and, oh yeah, help promote her new book 'Going Rogue' along the way. The book was the reason for the cover in the first place, which Newsweek is covering in the shape of two essays including one by Christopher Hitchens (who has already warned the liberal left that it might not be "entirely wise to patronize her"). The book is certainly going to be a best seller as Palin "sets the record straight".

The funny thing it is a legitimate cover shot…just it was part of a photo shoot that Palin did for Runners World (yes this woman loves to run). Newsweek used it without that magazine's permission (naughty). But the funniest thing is listening to the paper thin explanation by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. This is genius. I want to meet the man who talks like this. He should do stand-up.

"We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do. We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

Did he say that with a straight face? Awesome. I mean come on. The most interesting image available? The Theme? Was the theme show some leg and show the most inappropriate image available to demonstrate that this woman can't possible be fit for office? You've got them rolling in the aisles Jon.

There are plenty of people arguing that the shot is not sexist including Tina Brown and others who point out that we have previously seen Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama looking toned and shirtless. But to argue this is the same is churlish. Showing powerful men looking athletic is one thing. Yes they have sex appeal, but it does not detract from their ability to run the country. Quite the opposite. The Palin cover shoot is another matter entirely and is part of a long tradition of demeaning women by using revealing shots to undermine them.

Palin might not be fit for office, but she has a lot of support and it is growing with this latest publicity blitz and her appearance on Oprah. On Facebook she has a million plus fans where she writes: "The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, gender, or colour of skin."

There is the question why she was doing revealing shots like this in the first place (even for Runners World), but this question has fallen by the wayside as the blowback from this story does her more good than the harm than the "liberal" media mag intended.

Interestingly, I think there are certain parallels with Gordon Brown in the UK last week. Where the rightwing douche bags at the Sun bullied and belittled Brown. Only to have it blowback in their faces.

Newsweek is engaged in similar tactics, but as Taylor Marsh writes on the Huffington Post the difference is that Palin's people don’t care.

"Oh, and by the way, for all you fact checking fanatics, the people behind Sarah don't care, aren't listening, don't trust the criticism. Norah O'Donnell was in Michigan, another battleground state on Sarah Palin's Going Rogue tour, to see first hand the evidence. Here's a very rough transcript of part of what she said today on MSNBC: 'This is a line that stretches all the way back... another 1,000 people to see Sarah... It's 9:00 o'clock in the morning and she's not here until 6:00 pm tonight.... [...] You know what it is? It's a connection. ... Palin says she's treated unfairly, treated unfairly by the media, by Newsweek magazine ...and the people in middle America feel treated.. unfairly'."

Taylor adds that this is dangerous stuff. People will get outraged and almost inevitably that outrage will go somewhere.

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The future's bright the future's 3D

Jed Murphy - Carlson Marketing — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:56:00 GMT

This week is 3D Week on Channel 4. They are running a series of programmes, including a Derren Brown Special and Friday the 13th) in glorious 3-Dimensions.

Coupled with the fact that there is not a single kid's movie released at the moment that doesn't have a 3D version (Pixar's recent 'Up', Disney's new version of "A Christmas Carol", "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Coraline" etc) 3D is making a comeback and will dominate technology talk in 2010.

Things have changed since the old lo-fi red/blue lenses. Modern 3D cinema uses new polarised 'clear' lenses for a greater sense of realism and depth (plus they are infinitely easier on the eyes). A real test of the power of 3D will be this Christmas with the launch of James Cameron's new film 'Avatar'. This is Cameron's first movie since 'Titanic' and promises to take 3D to a new level. Reports from early previews suggest that this pre-billing may not simply be hype and that the audience actually feels transported into the set.

But 3D is not going to be confined to the big screen. Recent 3D movies are also getting their release on Blu-Ray and DVD and next year Sky launches Europe's first 3D service via it's High Definition platform and showed some demonstrations at this year's Edinburgh Festival. The effect is, apparently, very effective - and initial content will cover movies, entertainment and sport.

So what's next for marketeers? The advent of 3D TV clearly suggests 3D advertising - not simply 3D versions of existing ads, but rather creating bespoke, engaging experiences that drive consumer cut through and maximise awareness. Such executions could live both on broadcast TV, but also more interactively on the web in glorious 3D.

But 3D took off in both the 1950s and 1980s, in both cases, being only a short term fads. Are things different now?

Certainly the technology is much improved both in terms of the 3D effect itself and the comfort levels of the glasses users need to wear. Home entertainment manufacturers, such as Samsung and Sony, are also pushing forward even more sophisticated technology for LED/LCD televisions that limit the amount of blur seens in 3D movies. These more modern TVs use 'active shutter glasses' that essentially synchronize with the picture from TV and allow the left hand and right hand images from the screen to be alternately received into the users left/right eye respectively thus giving the impression of depth.

However, 3D will only truly become mainstream when users no longer require any form of glasses (what is often referred to as 'autostereoscopic' or 'glassless' 3D). This technology is available today for digital signage and advertising but requires 50 times the number of pixels than current high-def TVs.

With the advent of ultra high-definition TVs around 2015 this may well be possible, however until then 3D is still some way off from being the standard viewing experience in the home.

Are you a faux marketer?

Alan Mitchell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:26:00 GMT

The quest for brand or customer ‘loyalty’ is one of a number of examples of what we could call faux marketing.

Faux marketing adopts all the trappings of real marketing, so it looks like the real thing. But underneath the surface it’s doing something entirely different. It uses the terminology, concepts, tools, metrics and methods of real marketing, but for non-marketing purposes.

How to distinguish between the two? Simply, apply the core marketing mantra of ‘identify and meet customer needs and wants’ to the marketing strategy or theory itself.

Real marketing is about identifying what customers want and need and finding a way of profitably providing it. Its essence, therefore, is about designing, constructing and sustaining win-wins with customers.

Faux marketing pretends to be doing this while doing something else entirely – pushing the organisation’s agenda regardless of what its customers want. It’s the practical manifestation of marketing schizophrenia.

Loyalty is one example of faux marketing. (Do customers say in research that right now, their priority is to be loyal to a brand? No.) The quest for differentiation is faux marketing. (Customers don’t want things to be ‘different’, they want things to be ‘better’ as Paddy Barwise pointed out years ago in his brilliant book Simply Better.)

The quest for ‘brand premium’ is another case of faux marketing. (Not many customers tell us they want to pay more for stuff – if a brand premium exists, it doesn’t arise from marketing strategies designed to build such a premium). Most of the current market metrics/accountability debate is also faux marketing. (It doesn’t even ask what the customer’s metrics are.)

Marketing's persuasion paradigm is yet another example of faux marketing. (Customers want to make better decisions according to their own lights, not to be persuaded into making the decision a brand manager wants them to make.)

So, actually, quite a lot of the marketing we see around us is faux marketing of one form or another. That’s why so little of it is effective.

Is anything left once we strip away the many layers of faux marketing that have grown up? Yes. A huge amount of rich, value adding stuff. That's what Reinventing Marketing is about - sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Alan Mitchell www.ctrl-shift.co.uk Newsletter