Search results matching tags 'digital' and 'Media'

Is Purefold pure gold for brands or pure confusion?

2292853 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:14:00 GMT

Coming soon from Free Scott, the new entertainment venture of Ridley Scott and his brother Tony, is a trippy new sci-fi entertainment project called Purefold that plans to let brand’s sponsor the content, and let the audience drive the plot line using social networking platforms.

Produced by Ag8, the concept will see participating brands “…take an alternative route to brand integration than traditional product placement and embrace invention within a narrative framework.” The project explores transmedia entertainment and will launch off of cross-platform channels. What? Purefold just might represent pure gold for brands looking to reach audiences in an extremely interactive format, but as of now, it has a lot of people baffled as to how it will work, what it will be, and if branded content is a good idea or not.

Discussions about Purefold on Friend Feed, the main resource planned to “harvest” story ideas, are already brewing about the question of what it means to be human, the driving theme behind the story that will be loosely based on Blade Runner. Ag8 is getting people to explore the idea of what “transhumanism” is in the Purefold discussion group on Friend Feed, but the project is often met with confusion, with participants trying to understand what is happening, and what role they will play. For insight as to what people think of Purefold, I’ve been asking around.

A few entertainment insiders were willing to go on the record to share what they think of the project and here is what they had to say: Jenifer Hanen, a blogger from Los Angeles, was wary of the idea of brand’s sponsoring content based on projects she has seen fail, but likes the DIY media side of the project and the idea to have the plot line driven by the audience. Listen to a conversation I had with Jen about Purefold here.

Film Production Designer Tema L. Staig, who is based in Los Angeles, first reacted to the idea of Purefold saying “The project sounds almost like virtual mad libs for content and advertising.” She also had this to say: "Universally, people have always needed to create visual and/or verbal stories and have a cathartic experience through those stories, either through the telling or the viewing. This is what makes us human. This is what connects us across the globe. Historically, unrelated cultures share similar myths and stories, suggesting that we all have a desire to explain the natural, unnatural, and supernatural. It’s our most primal of needs.

It will be interesting to see how Ag8 takes story telling to humanity’s next level. The idea of us, the greater audience being involved directly in the story is compelling in that it creates (in theory) even more empathy for the characters – those characters are a part of us. It’s our baby, even if just a little bit. How will it effect society? Will it bring us together around a global campfire? What new brainstorms might it spark? The possibilities are endless."

Here in London, I asked Mervyn Lyn, who is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for Sony Music and often gets involved with branded content for the entertainment company, what he thinks of Purefold. At first reaction, he said it reminds him of MTV’s Dubplate Drama that turned to the audience to drive the story line, a show he enjoyed because it made the viewers feel part of the show. As for letting brand’s sponsor the content, he was cautionary about the idea because so often people are suspicious when a company attempts to sell them something through a new medium. “It depends how it is done and if it is trying to lean on branded content then they will have to strike a balance between the brand and the content so that each side doesn’t feel they are losing out,” he said.

They need to be very careful in making it driven by advertising because people see this as being railroaded and people will be cynically asking ‘what are they trying to sell me?’” The approach Purefold is using will be ground breaking in entertainment, according to producers, and it will be distributed according to the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license, giving both audiences, brands and platforms equal use rights through their participation.

According to Ag8’s Tom Himpe, Purefold will be broadcast across a variety of media platforms and spread virally across the Internet. “Most brands are aware of the fact that social media has changed the dynamics of the conversation, and they can't just spell out their message in the same way as with one-way advertising methods,” he said. “We are giving brands the opportunity to create stories over an extended period of time, in collaboration with their audiences and relying on top industry talent in both writing and directing. That's quite a unique package, especially in view of the fact that they can use the audiovisual assets freely across all their platforms and channels, from retail to mobile, from cinema to television.”

For now Ag8 is not revealing who the brand sponsors will be, but based on Friend Feed discussions the writers are already compiling what the story line will be, all set in the near future. The question many have is how brands will fit into the discussion, and for that, Himpe had this to say:

“There are two ways in which we are "guiding" the conversation. First of all, the brand is setting up the framework of the conversation, by defining one or multiple brand propositions they want to explore and picking a story line through which they want to explore that proposition. This sets up the framework within which we harvest online conversations.

So we're not just harvesting random conversations across the entire web, we set out specific parameters with the participating brands. Secondly, while we're listening to what the audience wants to see within the episodes, the ultimate creative control still resides with our editorial team and the Free Scott Directors, who are making creative sense of the audience's input. So there is another level of control there. However, it's very important for brands to understand that Purefold is about creating top quality entertainment, and not about extended the length of their tv commercials.

There's a different balance here, and sure, that's something they might have to get used to.”

Still confused, but ready to watch Purefold unfold,

-Lisa

Collaborative Individualism Emerges At Reboot Britain

2292853 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:32:00 GMT

This week's NESTA sponsored Reboot Britain conference brought together a mix of government, business, banks, technology, media people from the UK, and visitors from the USA that saw left leaning Labour/Liberal Democrat political views engage and collaborate with conservative Tory representatives. The crowd's reaction saw the many of those who are normally distrustful of government, financial institutions and conservative politics try to mingle more with what they historically view as the "other side" of the spectrum.

Opening remarks from conservative Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, had him lovingly embrace the Internet, new technology and the governments increasing integration of it into public services. He praised the transformative nature of new technology's impact in delivering high quality factual content to the world from ordinary citizens, with Wikipedia, and talked about a new effort to publish and provide archives of government documents online for access to all. Hunt said that politics has been stuck in a rut toward progress, with its stance to first fight online, then ignore it, and only now begin to embrace it. People have flipped politics on its head by rushing online to express views and grassroots organizse around issues in powerful ways that have not beeen witnessed before, making for the emergence of a new movement composed of "collaborative individualism."

"Huge change is possible with the Internet and the Internet also makes possible some very unpleasant things," he said. "The Internet is a powerful way to connect voters and as a politician I have to engage more intelligently with my constituents."

Hunt's speech received mixed reaction and a bix of cheeky tweet banter from a crowd of professionals who live on the bleeding edge of the technological world, think liberally and radically, and often wonder why the conservatives, and the government, with its recent release of the Digital Britain report, have taken so long to embrace new technology that the left and leaders like Al Gore have been pushing the agenda toward for years. Now, it seems, the people have collectively forced politics to adapt or be left behind.

Visiting Reboot Britain was a digital celebrity group of Americans called the Travelling Geeks, who mingled with the guests and presented panel sessions throughout the day, including Craig Newmark, the nerd who many people feel changed the world with Craigslist.org.

"The Internet makes public service people feel they can come out of the darkness, and feel liberated and my hidden agenda is helping people in government affect change, and talk, and accelerate collaboration across the Atlantic," he said. On the good side, most people want to be a positive influence, and on the evil side, noisy, idiotic spammers and trolls with extremist views pollute the channels of communication and need moderation to combat this ugly side.

To combat the ugly side of the Internet, people need a friendly "nudge" to do good, and regulations toward social media use among public service employees needs to be relaxed so that they can feel safe freely expressing views and using the tools to improve things, citing the example of Newmark's favourite project FixMyStreet.

I caught up with Newmark after his talk, and you can listen to his commentary here on this Audioboo.

Pock marking the day was an insulting and demeaning panel presentation asking "Is the Web Female?" that attracted a majority of female attendants, only to sucker-punch them with horrible commentary from two of the American panelists who behaved like the scary, exclusionary popular girls in a Beverly Hills 90210 high school class. While lifestreamer Megan Asha and technology journalist Sarah Lacy may be respected digital influencers in US circles they did themselves, nor the women in the audience, any favours by describing how women behave online as being "catty, gossipy" and wanting to shop a lot. The comments provoked anger among the audience:

"Disappointed is the web female session seemingly stymied by pointless focus on imaginary gender characteristics. A waste." tweeted @josiefraser

"A few minutes of listening to 'is the web female' debate and you lose the will to live." tweeted @hollandshurst.

"Finally giving up on 'Is the Web Female', which is relying on a narrow, depressing & slightly weird definition of "female" tweeted @justinpickard

Panelist Joanne Jacobs balanced out the nasty catty female debate by smashing stereotype demographics and openly confessing that she often gender-switches online to allow herself more freedom with masculine-style expression. MT Rainey brought home the concept that the web is neither male or female but simply a place where humanity gathers.

The day's closing address saw Howard Reingold outline ways to improve digital inclusion with digital literacy, and more activism.

"Boring blogs and Twitter accounts show that participating just isn't good enough, being an active citizen is a start but from passive consumption you have to move toward participation," he said. Reingold called for the end of crap content, miss-information, spam, porn spam and helping more people develop their own "crap detectors."

Master of ceremonies for the day was Policy Unplugged's Steve Moore who remarked at closing that he was thrilled to watch #rebootbritain trending above the dominant topic King of Pop Michael Jackson's death on Twitter.

Feeling gossipy, catty and like shopping so guess I should get online and surf the Web today,

-Lisa

Geo IP Advertising System

2575552 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:45:51 GMT

Can anybody please recommend a Geo IP advertising system that I can look at.

Thanks.

#worldview - the pace of change

2544553 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:36:00 GMT

The advertising and marketing world is finally starting to get its head around Web 2.0. Apart from a small number of agencies and clients, who embraced change swiftly, and nimbly re-formulated their organisational structures and internal processes, the industry in general has been incredibly slow to adapt.

For an industry that prides itself on innovative thinking, and utilising creativity effectively to drive corporate objectives, the last few years have not been our finest hour. Now, thanks in large part to the recession, clients and agencies are finally being forced to look much harder at their budgets, their processes, and their creative product.

The problem is, things are changing faster than the industry can keep up. No sooner has the agency world got its head around Web 2.0, than the semantic web (aka Web 3.0), powered by linked data, rears its sizeable head.

We are now entering the era of the intelligent internet, where consumers intuitively interweave their daily online and offline lives through smart devices that are powered by advanced operating systems (OS) and GPS-functionality.

This new breed of smart device enables: enhanced, multi-dimensional social networking functionality; enhanced connectivity to friends, family, colleagues and brands; and enhanced opportunities for highly targeted, location-based advertising and marketing.

This phase of the internet is now here, and it is only a short matter of time before it becomes truly mainstream.

This post looks at the future shape of a converged, vertically integrated Web 3.0 economy; and the fundamental impact it will have on brands, advertising and marketing.

The fact is that consumers are far, far ahead of the advertising and marketing industry at the moment. Clients are aware of this and are trying to adapt their organisational models to reflect the fast-changing behavioural shifts in developed societies. Agencies are likewise trying to understand how they can completely change their monetization models without totally decimating their revenue streams.

The problem with all of this, for the advertising and marketing world, is that the nature of technological change within today’s society is driving increased convergence across highly differentiated industries. The lines that have been drawn between the worlds of entertainment, computing, hardware, operating systems, and telecommunications are blurring rapidly.

And the pace of change is accelerating as a consequence of two primary factors.

Firstly, consumers are adopting new technologies faster than ever before, as a result of: widespread, ultra-fast wireless broadband; increased choice of platforms and providers; and a vastly increased level of trust in technology generally (versus the hesitant adoption of new technologies just a few years ago).

Secondly, the recession is proving to be a catalyst for powerful organisations to look beyond their narrow field of vision for incremental future growth opportunities. This is a sound defensive strategy at a time when rock-bottom share prices weaken companies’ abilities to ward off aggressors, but is also a progressive offensive strategy at a time when vertical integration appears to be the organisational model for the market leaders of the future.

This vertically integrated model is the reason why the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple, Cisco, and Oracle have all recently taken up very aggressive positions versus their competitors, in fields that have not previously been their natural domain.

Oracle, for example, has just bought Sun Microsystems. This is big news, in so much as Oracle are predominantly a database and business software company. By buying Sun, for $7.4bn, Oracle have effectively acquired a hardware firm that delivers tightly integrated ‘systems’ of hardware and software to corporate clients.

Additionally, Oracle’s purchase of Sun gives it both Java (a programming language that powers both business applications and software that runs on mobile phones) and Solaris (an operating system used as the platform for Oracle’s databases).

The point about this purchase is that it clearly demonstrates Oracle’s strategic objective to have vertically-integrated ownership of sophisticated operating systems, the technology that powers them, the platforms on which they run, and the hardware in which they will be consumed.

By integrating these elements, from previously differentiated industries, Oracle is creating a powerful position from which it can mass customise highly tailored solutions to clients, whilst at the same time enjoying economies of scale and increased margins. It’s a strategy that seems to be prudent in a long-tail economic environment where margins are being squeezed.

Oracle, as we know, exists in the corporate space. But this example is important from a consumer perspective for two key reasons.

Firstly, because it is directly relevant to the advertising world in terms of the increasing power that the operating systems and hardware owners will have in a Web 3.0 environment. This will be a world where content, data and information live in the ‘cloud’, and where brands need to intuitively understand the intersection at which they can add tangible value to consumers.

Secondly, the move towards vertical integration and diversification is happening at lightning speed in the consumer space as well. Again, from a marketing perspective, the ability for brands to create technologies and/or content that is relevant and has true utility within a closed, but community-based open-source, environment is the key to future success.

Vertically integrated brands that deliver synchronised solutions to consumers are already here, but it is my opinion that we are just at the start of the convergence phase in the lifecycle of this economic era. And this state of flux could have serious implications for some of the biggest brands in existence today, as well as for the advertising world.

Apple, for example, has had huge success recently by diversifying its hardware offering into the smart mobile device space (with the iPhone and iPod range), and by creating a proprietary and category-changing operating system that intertwines its software products (such as iTunes and the App Store) with the hardware. But what is Apple’s next step to cement its place at the top table in a converged environment?

Google has diversified from being a pure search engine to developing the Android operating system for smart mobile devices, and is taking on Microsoft in it’s own back yard with the development of the Chrome browser for Windows, and Wave (a highly advanced, sophisticated mix of realtime email and social connectivity that will redefine internet communications). But again, where does it go from here?

Microsoft, in turn, has unveiled Bing, a search engine designed to challenge Google’s dominance. It has also had great success by diversifying from its phenomenally successful PC-based Windows operating system with the Windows Mobile Platform, and hardware products such as the Xbox, which is more of a connected home entertainment system than a pure games console. It has just been announced that Facebook & Twitter will be available on Xbox Live soon. Where next for Microsoft, I hear you say?

It is my personal opinion that these behemoths of the modern world are just beginning a new cycle of convergence and consolidation, where they are looking to acquire other organisations that can add incremental value to their existing integrated offerings.

By acquiring the elements of the ‘vertical mix’ that they are missing (for example, Microsoft or Google buying a mobile hardware manufacturer) they will strengthen their competitive advantage further, and increase their ability to deliver seamless, intuitive, synchronised, and highly tailored mass customised solutions to consumers through a variety of ‘owned’ platforms (even if those platforms are built on open-source technology).

If we look at entertainment, YouTube has already gone under the hammer, and the behemoths are fighting ugly in the war for control of brands such as Facebook & Twitter, as they try to acquire the content that people want to interact with. The television networks, and the newspaper industry, both currently on their knees, are ripe for plucking.

The question is, after entertainment and content, what is the next step in the pursuit of global domination?

It is purely conjecture, and a personal opinion, but the answers I keep coming back to are mobile hardware and telecommunications networks, media owners of outdoor digital signage, and both in-home and out-of-home entertainment companies. If I am right, it will mean the brandscape we now exist in will alter dramatically, and the communications industry will change at a most fundamental level.

It may be that the likes of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Vodafone, Telefonica and Deutsche Telecom can evolve their models to become key players in the new, cloud-based Web 3.0 world, and I truly hope that they do, because a couple of them are brands that I have a personal affinity for.

Nokia, for example, have just launched Ovi, an operating system that connects all of your maps, music, content and friends, and is designed to compete with the Google’s and Microsoft’s of this world. It is Nokia's stated strategic objective to become an internet company, rather than a hardware manufacturer. But is it too little too late?

What can a telecoms giant, such as Vodafone, for example, do to ensure that it remains competitive in a world where software and OS are the differentiators? How will the telecom networks become more than just pipes in which other peoples content is streamed? And if that is their future, what defence do they have if Google and Microsoft come knocking with a big bag of cash?

Equally, OOH billboards will be dynamic and digitised, and both in-home and out-of-home entertainment will become extensions of the synchronised online/offline community-based architectures that people cocoon themselves within. These industries fit the bill perfectly from a vertical integration perspective.

Obviously, predicting the future is a fool's game, and I could easily be totally wrong. As I’ve said, this is pure conjecture.

But from a purely strategic perspective, it seems to me that these are the types of industries highly likely to be in the cross hairs of Google and Microsoft very soon, hunted aggressively and without mercy in the next phase of the race for full vertical integration.

And the implications of this revolution on the advertising and marketing world are huge. The model for targeting consumers will be hugely data-driven, and the SEO algorithms that have propelled Google to such heights will be reworked to include GPS and linked, social data into the equations. Owning the platforms through which consumption, participation and interaction take place is a natural next step.

This formula will become the standard mode through which branded utility, content, and information will be processed. Advertising agencies and marketers of all shapes and sizes need to be thinking now about how they will provide relevant solutions in a world where consumers are protected within the strictly guarded walls of vertically integrated, data-led eco-systems, and where highly tailored, mass customisation is the norm.

#worldview - value exchange

2544553 — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:57:00 GMT

Continuing on the theme of the evolving value exchange between consumers and brands, I spoke to Marco Rimini, Head of Business Planning at Mindshare Worldwide, to understand more completely how media agencies are adapting to the Web 2.0 world.

He explained to me that they have taken the core definition of value exchange from the digital world, blown it out to include all forms of communication, and re-structured their entire organisation around it: “The three big trends for the future are data, digital and content, and we have created three operational silos focused on these areas: the Business Planning unit (data), the Invention unit (content) and the Exchange unit (digital).”

“The Exchange function of Mindshare really highlights the way that we believe the world is changing from a traditional model of buying media space, to a new era where media is a place in which brands can exchange ideas, products, services, emotions, information, functionality or indeed anything with consumers, in exchange for advocacy, opinions, recommendations, ratings, contact details and, of course, money.”

“One of the things that brands will be able to exchange with consumers is content,” Rimini continued, “and that content will be both entertaining and/or functional, depending on the type of brand. For example: with a clients of ours like HSBC, the content will necessarily be more informational and functional than for another client, such as Playstation, where consumers will expect to be entertained in some way.”

“Mindshare’s Invention unit works exclusively to develop innovative and engaging solutions to content creation, one example of which is a project for Unilever, where we’ve bought the rights to take Ugly Betty to China.”

“We will co-create a new version of the soap with Unilever for the Chinese audience, and will then leverage the Ugly Betty property as a platform to deliver content for Unilever across multiple channels. This model gives consumers the chance to engage with Unilever brands through relevant content, participatory media, and both digital and experiential activation.”

“And all of the content created will be driven by data, from the Business Planning unit, which is how the three spokes of our business model intertwine and add value to each other to deliver effective, relevant media solutions to clients in a fast changing consumer environment.”

This evolved media agency model is a very convincing response to the doom-sayers who have recently been decrying the death of the media agency. Indeed, in the new world of total transparency and increasing channel fragmentation, it could be argued that media’s role has never been so important.

The discussion continues with Rimini explaining that a more effective process for developing creativity in a Web 2.0 world is data-driven and quant-led, rather than the intuitive, qualitative approach currently favoured by creative agencies.

And this shift in emphasis means that media agencies are increasingly going to be brought into the creative development process much earlier, working with clients to formulate the briefs and develop a channel planning architecture to maximise the value exchange opportunities, and understand the type of content that needs to be created, before creative agencies are even briefed.

“It’s not about developing a big idea and then wondering how to go to market anymore,” Rimini continues, “you need to analyze who you want to talk to, how you want to approach them, and where and when you want to make a value exchange, and only then should you be thinking about what it is you want to exchange, and the creativity that will enable you to make that exchange.”

“Just look at Martin Sorrell’s latest big acquisition into the WPP fold: TNS. He is beefing up the Kantar Group, which is already the world’s biggest market research and data company, because he knows that the future of the industry is in data-driven creativity.”

Understanding the complexities of value exchange within a Web 2.0 (and Web 3.0) world, and the role that data will play in fuelling the creative development process, is fundamental in determining how successful creative agencies will be in the future.

The traditional advertising agency model simply isn’t designed to deliver solutions in this new world, and it will be fascinating to see how agencies evolve to ensure their future relevance to clients.

…And access for all

2460092 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

As you may have read in a previous post, our house is currently a building site and we’re living in temporary accommodation. Although the flat is nice enough, the family and I are all starting to miss our creature comforts: my wife and I the garden and the Sky Plus HD box, the kids their trampoline. But we’re united in yearning for broadband which we’re all struggling to cope without.

My youngest daughter is a fan of the Bratz website (about dolls and accessories, for those of you without young girls), my son his Xbox live gaming & my eldest a constant stream of YouTube - let alone all their homework requirements which seem to demand internet access these days.

As well as for work, broadband access is vital for my late night binges on iTunes & paying the builders. We’ve experimented with 3G cards, but can’t seem to get a good enough reception out in the sticks, so the whole experience becomes frustrating.

We know that around 90 per cent of people who’ve just moved home would chose broadband over a microwave if they could only have one installed in the first month. How consumer behaviour has changed in the last few years. And I hope there are no doctors reading, but I read that 40 per cent of us would rather give up fresh fruit and veg than our broadband connection!

Whatever the industry’s thoughts on Digital Britain, we can applaud the decision to give as many people as possible access to broadband. Not only will it feed my families’ needs & obsessions but it’s great news for the UK’s agencies and advertisers as it expands the vibrant marketplace that the internet creates, as well as delivering consumers all the public service information they need.

It’s great up in the digital North

2460092 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:56:00 GMT

I’ve recently come back from a couple of days in the north, where I had breakfast, lunch and dinner with most of our agency partners in that part of the world.

As ever, leaving the London smog and arriving in Manchester, I get a real buzz from the sense of community you get when talking to media agencies in the creative hubs of Leeds and Manchester - it offers something you don’t get in the capital. The industry really seems to pull together to present the north as a region of fantastic creativity and world-leading service in digital, while still retaining their competitive spirit. Perhaps it’s not fashionable to segment regions these days as the Internet has few geographical boundaries, but it’s something I’ve definitely observed.

Because of the heritage of direct response advertising, the North has adapted to the science of search marketing very well. Agencies there have taken ideas of best practice and shared goals and are often ahead of the game when it comes to their southern counterparts – a bit like their football team (and that’s coming from a Chelsea supporter). For example, many agencies in the north, such as Brilliant Media, Latitude and Mediavest, have set up teams to monitor user click paths and site usability, an area we see as integral to the success of search.

The challenge for the northern agencies, as I see it, is to take the great reputation they’ve built through search and apply that experience to the fast developing online video and interest based display market, keeping the London agencies on their toes. I’m looking forward to being invited back to the Manchester office this summer for a swift round of golf and to learn of more progress in this vibrant digital region so I can take the learnings back with me to London and spread the word.

Can digital ad revenues continue to grow?

2460092 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:03:00 GMT

Albeit we’re in a major media recession it was interesting to see this week’s IAB numbers showing continued growth for digital. Online ad spend in 2008 rose 17.1% to £3.3bn, and online spend now makes up over 19% of the overall market in the UK. The UK is still leading the world in terms of digital advertising, but my question is how do we maintain this position?

Firstly, consumer insight. Consumer behaviour is changing rapidly as the web becomes more and more important to people’s lives. Advertisers can ensure they keep up with these consumers by being found where they are looking for information about their products or services – be it on social networks, blogs, video sites or on search engines.

Secondly, as regular readers will probably guess, data. Search advertising deals in cold, hard numbers. Advertisers can make the most of the wealth of insight afforded by the web, especially in an advanced market like the UK, where people spend 33 hours of their leisure time every month on the web.

Thirdly, integrating their media. Online advertising can make offline media more efficient and can turbocharge offline media campaigns. What is a consumer’s next step after seeing your press or TV ad? They’ll probably make a trip to the online high street to find out more – and it they can’t find you there, then you can be sure they’ll find a competitor.

Finally, conversions. As an industry, online stores are increasingly getting better at setting themselves up for converting clicks into business. But sites can always do more and continuing to test the user journey extensively and in real time is the only way we’re going to crack this nut.

A downturn may well be a time when people expect more for less, but it’s not right to do so if accuracy and effectiveness is compromised. We mustn’t allow advertiser procurement departments to drive out creativity, insight and brand strategy from the digital industry, just as it’s crept in to other media sectors. The UK has led the way in digital by following consumers online and letting the numbers speak for themselves.

We all have to encourage marketing and planning departments to better use the rich vein of information and results driven by digital media and the value of ensuring this is integrated with preexisting media thinking to continue to demonstrate real time value.

This will keep digital media ahead of the curve and help us all through the recession.

Re: The future of advertising is ONLINE !

2514784 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:18:41 GMT

The internet is a magnificent medium. It is the perfect place to review, select and purchase products and services. However, as a solus medium it will only work with certain products. Take for example a new product launch by of a washing up liquid, the obvious strategy is to target main shopper on mass, the ultimate way to illustrate the products strengths against its competitors and show off its bright shiny packaging is to use TV. Although you could advertise the product online, if you need to brand a product to the mass market TV is king. Online is the fastest growing and most accountable of media. It delivers results by direct response (which everybody loves) but there is still jobs that the web cannot do to the standards of other media..

Adman

http://www.adman-mediachatandadvice.blogspot.com/

Customer service and brand reputation. Ah-haa!

2460092 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Apologies for not blogging over the last couple of weeks, but we’ve got builders tearing my house apart - and finding a temporary home for the family has been taking up a lot of time (outside of work of course)!

I’m writing this from my 'Travel Tavern,' where we’re currently living Alan Partridge-style until the builders complete their business - or we find another house - wondering what all these other sad people are doing in a Surbiton hotel without access to Champions League football on a Wednesday night. My kids are screeching and screaming - rather than sleeping - next door, which leads me to believe that perhaps they too are becoming increasingly irritated by the broken air-conditioner noisily blasting chilly air around the place. I’ve complained several times about this to the manager, but to no avail. Of course, each time he has quoted from the customer services handbook, assuring me that they’re "looking into it," that it'll be fixed "as soon as possible," but it's been four days now... Yes, he can placate me this way in the knowledge that I’m probably not going to go through the hassle of moving the whole family to another hotel mid-week, but it doesn’t really solve my problem.

Which of course got me thinking... brand reputation and customer service are even more important now that the world is digital. Opinions, views, reviews, comments – both positive and negative – can spread like wildfire across blogs, networks and websites (see Mel Carson’s post about Ryan Air for a topical example of this). As most of the web is open, this kind of information is no longer locked inside 'walled gardens'; these points-of-view can be searched for, linked to, and replicated very easily.

Taking that concept a step further, even if experiences happen offline, they are quickly written about online. In other words, even offline brands have nowhere to hide from a modern consumer. If the air-con issue isn’t sorted tonight, perhaps I’ll add my name to the list of disgruntled bloggers seeking redress for bad customer service... and if anyone has a couple of spare rooms they want to rent out, do give me a shout.