Engage or die

Nothing new here, but when the likes of 3i are saying it, you know it must be true as there's so much money riding on it. They've released a series of articles on what the rise of Social Networking & User-Generated Content means for Traditional Media Giants and their Advertisers:

In a world where content is king and attention is scarce, no media company - and no advertiser - can afford to ignore the millions who are embracing social media by avidly consuming text, pictures and films created not by media professionals but by 'people like me'.

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The world has changed, PR agencies haven’t

Will McInnes has put together a long, thorough (and accurate) critique of the current state of the PR industry as digital and social media changes the world around them.

the PR community is in denial, is losing it's seat at the big table and it needs to wake up and revitalise its structures, services and products to reflect the step-change that's happened. Yes, you're always evolving, and yes, you will eventually, but what about now. You're out of date.

Antony Mayfield has also picked up on this and had added some thoughts of his own. Read them both, even if you don't work in PR.

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October's Creative Showcase

OK, even I, the ultimate digital (ego) booster, am bored now. If you can be bothered, the winners of October's Creative Showcase are here. Glue won. With their really amusing and very good Virgin Trains ads (watch all of them). Surprise surprise. Yawn...

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How to do digital

Our very own James Cooper, currently creative director at Dare (but not for long) has written a guest post on Scamp about how traditional creatives should approach digital briefs, which I recommend in its entirety, but also includes this little gem:

The good news being that you don’t have to have spent years buried in software manuals. The bad news being that the person who has done that now earns more money than you do and can f**k up your project at the flick of a switch. You will have to learn to deal with seeing someone everyday who is more important than you and has better trainers.

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The Forrester Consumer Forum 2007

Last month Forrester held their Consumer Forum 2007 (subtitled 'Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies') in Chicago. I didn't make it, and I bet you didn't either - but, thanks to the wonders of the interweb, you can either see the keynote presentations or watch some bite size interviews with the key players. Highly recommended.

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Is social media killing the campaign microsite?

It will, it will. Adweek reports:

Digital advocates often proclaim the imminent death of the 30-second spot, but the interactive industry might now be witnessing the demise of its own version of the commercial: the campaign microsite. The growth of social media is causing marketers to realize they cannot expect consumers to always seek them out.

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Saga launches social network for over-50s

Saga have launched Saga Zone, a social network for the over 50's:

The site, which has been running in trial mode for four months, has more than 13,000 users so far. "Older people aren't shy of using the internet - they have a verve for life that applies online as well as offline," said Paul Green, a Saga spokesman, "the feedback so far has knocked our socks off."

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Broadcasters woo 'lost generation' in deal with social networking site Bebo

Some important news I missed last week:

The UK's biggest social networking site announced partnerships with a string of broadcasters, including the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, ITN and CBS, in a move hailed as one of the most significant yet in marrying old and new media.

Traditional broadcasters hope that distributing and marketing their programmes to Bebo's 40 million users will help them reconnect with the so-called "lost TV generation" of 13 to 24-year-olds who make up the social networking site's core audience.

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I don't want you to be my friend on Facebook

I don't agree with most of what he writes here, but none the less it's worth reading Richard Huntington's provocative thesis - I don't want you to be my friend on Facebook. However, make sure you scroll down and read my response and the ensuing debate in the comments...

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DDB to refocus on influence and community?

Yep, you read that right - if AdAge is to be believed, DDB is to refocus on influence and community:

Advertisers, according to Mr. Brymer [CEO of DDB Worldwide], must change the way they do their jobs to create influence in the marketplace. "We need to change the traditional models of the way we work, and be much more proactive in the ways we're influencing communities"

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London Underground goes digital

More on digital outdoor from Revolution, including this little titbit:

So what we're likely to see is some content that is reminiscent of TV or cinema and a lot creative that draws inspiration from multimedia online ads where sound is generally thought of as intrusive. "At the moment much of the creative work comes from online agencies," says [Nicky Cheshire, director of CBS Outdoor Alive].

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Direct vs. Digital

Louise Schirmer (head of digital @ Coca Cola), Allison Wieser (planning director @ Syzygy), Matthew Maxwell (creative director @ twentysix London), Matt Gorzkowski (MD @ Play), Magnus Wood (director of digital strategy @ Wunderman) and Ross Taylor (MD @ digitalTMW) debate how far DM agencies can go in the digital space.

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Digg this, for Google's sake

A great article on Forbes about the impact that Digg and other social media can have on natural search rankings:

Every headline that reaches Digg's home page receives an average of 129 links, according to search marketer Neil Patel, and each of those links can push an online business' traffic closer to the coveted top spots in Google or Yahoo!'s results.

Also see The Lasting Digg Effect.

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Online advertising – is it good enough?

The IAB's head of marketing, Kieron Matthews:

“Is it good enough?” is clearly a question that is not being asked enough.

Too much average work is being produced which has catastrophic effect on results, consumer outtake and overall perception of the industry. I’m not talking about home-made ads either; I’m referring to proper grown up brands where advertisers have invested money. With display enjoying the second largest share of all online advertising expenditure there really shouldn’t be any excuses for the lack of creative consistency.

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Dell learns to listen

Jeff Jarvis closes the circle on the Dell Hell saga with a great article originally written for business week, which I urge you to read (and his accompanying blog post). It's also worth checking out Geoff Livingston's interivew with Lionel Menchaca, chief blogger at Direct2Dell.

If this has just piqued your interest, there's more here.

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