Posts in the category: Digital

Friends Reunited…but for how long?

What a difference 12 years makes in the digital world. After surviving the boom & bust frenzy of the dot-com era, Friends Reunited, one of the darlings of the fledgling social network scene, is re-launching this week as a “digital scrapbook”.

So the ‘original social network’, having lost significant market share and market value after being overtaken at great pace by a host of other networks, has issued a ‘nostalgia’ rally cry. As explained by the network, the new focus is the collecting & sharing of images with friends and family of those “remember when” moments. And rather than simply sharing with a personal network, users will be invited to share their personal and national memories to a national (or global) audience.

Currently free to use, the likelihood is that its new owner, Brightsolid Online Innovation, will look for revenue generating opportunities to cash in on the growing trend for digital asset-sharing. One only has to look at the phenomenal growth of Pinterest, Path, and Draw Something (which in just seven weeks generated £113 million to its owner, NYC-based Omgpop) to see the logic in the realignment of the business model.
 

The Press Association and photographic archive company, the Francis Frith Collection, have been quick to sign up, collectively contributing some 350,000 photos into the service. Altogether, the site will offer users 10 million “memories” in the form of 6 million photos, 2 million events and 2 million places to tag, alongside their own personal content.

Looking for a competitive answer to the omnipresence of Facebook, niche social media players seem to be gaining momentum. And taking into account the nostalgia focus, the site may provide a lucrative marketing vehicle to target those who grew up with Friends Reunited, along with the silver surfer generation. How the site will perform in its new format, and the extent to which the nation are prepared to share their past exploits and lives, only time will tell. Just watch out for those old school photo’s you’d forgotten about……..
 

Google [Squared]

Last week was quite an exciting week for me and whilst most people were buzzing about the Brits on Wednesday, I was buzzing about Squared. Squared is a Google led initiative in partnership with Hyper Island and the IPA helping “turn the graduates of today into the brilliant digital leaders of tomorrow”.

It is a 3 month intensive curriculum led by Google, with representatives from all over the industry raring to teach 100 of the top graduates all they know about the weird and wonderful world of digital. It will be packed full of seminars, workshops and projects all aimed at educating us about the digital landscape, including Search, Display, Social, Video and Mobile.

Whilst I am going to miss seeing the beautiful people of Maxus every day, I am absolutely thrilled to have been offered this amazing opportunity and cannot wait to grab it with both hands. Having only joined the digital realm 2 months ago, this is the next big step for me on my way to becoming a fully-fledged ‘digi kid’. See you on the other side…
 

Super Cyber Monday

So today is cyber Monday (the busiest online shopping day of the year), also known as Black-Friday-for-those-who-don’t-want-to-get-cold, and I for one have partaken. In one lunch hour I’ve taken care of 50% of all two presents I have to buy this year* (thank you Yogamats.com). 

Watch This Space

Method Acting has had a mixed history. The technique used by actors to immerse themselves in the lives of their characters has produced as many absurd stories as great performances. For every Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, there’s Daniel Day-Lewis getting pneumonia while filming Gangs of New York but refusing medical assistance because “they wouldn’t have had treatment in the 19th Century”. For every Robert de Niro in Raging Bull there’s Dustin Hoffman staying awake for three whole days during the filming of Marathon Man to try and make his character look tired (his co-star, Laurence Olivier, suggested he “try acting” instead).

It now looks like Justin Timberlake has trumped them all. Shortly after immersing himself into the character of an internet mogul who takes The Facebook to the next level (it was his suggestion to “drop the ‘The’”), he’s taking method acting to the next level by taking a stake in MySpace along with Specific Media.

Since the announcement to a skeptical industry in June it’s been pretty quiet, but things are starting to happen after launch events in LA and this week in London. The first reason to think that JT might be on to something is the fact that 70 million people still use the service: surprising when most people in media assumed it had died a death. Beyond that, the new owners are convinced that MySpace can fill a vacuum in popular culture, music and content, which has never been filled, despite the popularity of Facebook and YouTube.

It’s a bold move and the odds are against them, but Hollywood loves a good underdog-comeback story. Whatever happens, it will be fun to watch.

All Killer No Filler…

At the end of last week the Kaiser Chiefs launched their innovative take on releasing an album in this digital and user-generated age. Fans are able to create their own 10-track DIY album whereby they can choose their favourite Kaiser Chiefs songs from a list of 20 on the band’s website.

Not only this, but users can then create their own microsite and sell their album for a £1 personal profit. This seems awfully generous of the band considering all the hard work they probably put into it!

I think that this is an ingenious way of keeping up with the way their fans are now buying music as well as offering a unique way of engaging them. I’m not sure every band will go down this route of offering their entrepreneurial fans financial remuneration for bothering to choose 10 of their favourite tracks however I think that innovative ways of releasing albums such as this will keep the money going back to the artists and not lost somewhere in cyberspace.

The Expendables YouTube Takeover... and other brand examples

This week to promote the launch of the new The Expendables movie a video with a difference has blasted onto YouTube, showing what a brand can do when pushing the site to its limits.  The video shows an interview with Sly himself, before all hell breaks loose resulting in Mr. Stallone destroying the page with his trusty bazooka.

There have been a few examples over the years of brands pushing YouTube to its limits (URL's of which I've included below), but I really like the way this incorporates a response mechanism in this example by means of Twitter, Facebook, and email, but also allows you to buy tickets for the movie by entering a Zip Code (US only).  You can view the full The Expendables Youtube video here:  http://www.youtube.com/expendables

Other Examples:

Cadbury  - http://www.youtube.com/user/cadburyaurollpack

Nintendo 'Wario Land' - http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008

Internet Wars

In February Microsoft overtook Google for total unique visitors in the 15 – 34 female age bracket.* Microsoft have been in second place to Google for the last few years so this is quite an achievement and probably in no small part due to Microsoft’s recent advertising campaign for Bing, their new search engine. Has anyone been swayed by Microsoft’s Bing? Personally I’ve not found Bing as user friendly or as fluid as Google who specialise in search engine activity.

The stats however extend to more than just the respective search engines, they include the whole network of properties owned by Microsoft and Google. Are Microsoft about to challenge Google for internet supremacy or have Google just had a blip at reaching 15 – 34 women (Google held their position as No.1 in other demographics)? Watch this space…

*Source: Comscore.

For The Love of Pod

The hype of podcasts has risen and slightly floundered now that video has such a strangle hold on the web but recently I have started to become an avid fan of a number of great podcasts which I have came across.

For sport, football and general blokey nonsense and banter it doesn't come any better than Danny Baker's Radio Five show from Saturday mornings and the legendary Football Ramble which has to be one of the best and most consistently entertaining pieces of entertainment ever. Coffee Break Spanish has been great at providing bite size commuter chunks of Spanish to help me try and get some basic Spanish under my belt, which the Veteran Gamers podcast provides an insight and mature observation on gaming that doesn't concern itself with any of the fan boy idocy.

Despite having these though I want more and besides trial and error it is hit and miss at finding the gems amongst the rough so I put it to you, people of the internet, to recommend some further podcast joy to get me through the weekly commutes.

Twit Tawoo!

The impending end of the world is coming. How do we know this? Newcastle about to be relegated out of the Premiership, Swine flu is going to ravage the planet and twitter can't keep ahold of it's users.

Yep Twitter the latest shining light in the digital sphere is may be not going to save the world as users are abandoning the site after a month. Seems users get enticed after hearing about it but the novelty soon wears off and they don't return.

It raises the question about how many social networks can one person feasibly be involved with, plus does anyone really want to know what I am up to on a micro by micro moment? Bloody doubt it, I don't even want to know what I'm doing having the time.

Are we starting to reach digital saturation where the landscapes starts to settle slightly?

Blog - Finally a postive use of Google Steet View!!!

Since Google Street View launched last month it seems to have done nothing but cause trouble and controversy.  Depsite being a very cool piece of technology it has apparently, aided burgalars, caused divorces and, riots in small villages.

However, despite all this negative press a client has just proved that Street View can actually be a very useful media tool as he used it to brief me on a couple of specific outdoor sites that he was interested in! What clearer way then navigating that little orange man to the exact location and showing me pictures of the sites in question?!

Could this be a media first? Or indeed the beginning of the end of all of this Street View negativity?! Watch this space in Media Week!!?

Twitterganda!

It seams as if I can't go a few hours without someone mentioning the Twitter revolution and predictably all of the trade press have devoted multiple page spreads to extolling the "next big thing" in social property. I'm calling it Twitterganda!

For those of you who have, somewhat miraculously and / or fortunately, not come across Twitter thus far, here's a quick debrief;

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows users to send small (140 characters) text based updates (otherwise known as "tweets"- aaah how cute!) to their own profile page where they can then be viewed or delivered to any user who has opted-in to receive your various pearls of wisdom, location updates, or even more intriguingly, what you might have had for breakfast.

Probably, the most accurate way of viewing Twitter is a condensed Facebook "status updates" service, which is my point entirely. What does Twitter offer users on and above Facebook from a functionality standpoint. The short answer is............nothing!! Conversely, (my attempt to offer a balanced argument) Twitter does give users access to "Tweets" from the various celebs and zed listers eager to jump on its short lived (fingers crossed) band wagon. Whilst donning my media hat, Twitter does offer scope for celeb / influencer brand or product advocacy and should be used by all brands as a source of chatter review - there I've said something positive!!

Honestly guys, have I missed something here?! Is there something genius to Twitter that I've somehow overlooked which is going to secure it's place in Comscore rankings for more than 2 years tops? I know they reached the golden 1 mill user mark but surely this is a short term reaction of the public based on pure curiosity alone?!

Soap 2.0

Hey Guys, wanted to take a minute and bring to your attention the launch of a newly designed TV advert that played live yesterday evening. 

The advertiser is Nokia 7610, and the aim is to get people from watching the TV Ad to, switch to watching the complete drama online, Web 2.0. The Ad is set to run in 10 different languages, with a constant feed of content.  

The TV spot introduces three characters Anna, Jade and Luca, starting with intrigue about one of them having listened to another's voicemail and sets the scene for how their lives might unfold.  Fans will be able to learn everything about the characters through their text messages, photos, videos and calls on somebodyelsesphone.com, as well as signing up to their Facebook pages to have a more personal conversation.

The micro-site is supported by mobile content, interactive partnerships, widgets, Facebook pages, banner ads and a number of events in association with partners including Parisian boutique Colette.

This to me has always been what TV adverts should have been doing, using all platforms available to them, engaging their viewers with an initial taster of what is yet to come and grabbing viewers initial interest. Running a story across platforms, all areas of the mediums, and making sure that the rest of the story is available in full form online, building the buzz and most powerful ‘word of mouth’ on the street or maybe in the office. That then spurs unified action. To watch, engage and then hopefully react. With the end result, creating a loyal fan base, mini episodes of watchable content, that everyone is talking about?

Take the old Nescafe, BT couple, Daz  (that really is giving true meaning to the word Soap Opera) … building up traffic across all platforms, and showing TV is still a very powerful medium, in getting user numbers online, and then once there using a consortium of viral tools to engage the user more.

Anyways let’s see how successful this advert format is with the public… To be continued....

Google Chrome

As a committed Mozilla Firefox user, I was dubious about whether Google would be able to convert me to their beta-version of their open-source Browser, Chrome.

Launched on the 2nd September 2008, Google claims that Chrome "Gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go" with improved speed, security and responsiveness.

Personally, I'm also quite a Google fan (They keep Ben and Jerries in almost every room, a policy I thoroughly endorse) but there are a lot more people who are equally as interested.

According to Information Week, Chrome reached nearly 2 million downloads in the US in its first week alone.

However, are people likely to stick with Chrome or revert back to one of the other popular browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which dominates with more than two-thirds market share?

The 50MB size of Chrome means on my laptop over 100MB is now taken up with browsers (And my prefered use of memory is for the ridiculous amount of music I have stored on my ITunes)

I'm sticking with Firefox for the moment, but I'm pretty sure I'll be a convert soon...

Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run Run Run

Amazing what you can do with plenty of time on your hands, a good computer and an idea for trying to show off your creative talents. One such chap is Kobayashi a young animation director living in London who decided to have some fun with Sony. Quite how they feel about this 'unofficial' video is anyone's guess, but if nothing else it's impressive what has been done on probably a budget of nothing more than blood, sweat and tears.

click on the link to take a look

http://www.koba-yashi.co.uk/

For the love of Pod....

Podcasts have been becoming more and more talked about over the past few years, largely due to Ricky Gervais producing some podcasts in a hiatus between the office and Extras. In fact, podcasts have been around for longer than some may think, and on Easter Monday BBC Radio Five Live had a 1 hour show discussing anything and everything about podcasts, and surprise surprise it's available as a podcast now!

It is an interesting listen starting off with the basics for the uninitiated, then moves into some of the areas of how podcasts will develop and probably most importantly, how do you make them a commercially viable form of media which works from a platform where people expect content free.

The thing is in the vast majority of cases you can't. Ricky Gervais had to give his podcasts away to build an audience before charging, and the BBC who have had success with podcasts for years can't charge. The crux of the matter is having enough content that people can't get anywhere else and are willing to pay for.

Or there is the adfunded model, but advertisers will need to be demonstrated that a significant number of downloads are taking place to warrant costs of up to circ £5k per podcast. Not the cheapest eh?

Interestingly in the show Channel 4 offer their views as part of 4 Radio, as do the Guardian, who drop the interesting nugget that they will be offering advertisers the chance to do spot advertising in some of their podcasts at the end of the year

If you want to learn more about pod's and all their glory click on the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/pods/ and download For the Love of Pod from 24th March

PS My favourite podcasts at the moment are Fighting Talk (top notch sports banter from the BBC) & the now sadly defunct Baker & Kelly podcast (more comedy ramblings about football) which you will have to search high and low for on the internet but it's well worth it.

Why the long Face(book)?

According to figures cited by Nielsen Online the social networking site, Facebook, had its first drop in UK users in January. It fell by 5% to 8.5 million from a previous 8.9 million. This has sparked a debate that social networking is in decline, but others argue that one month of falling audiences doesn’t mean the decline of Facebook nor of social networking.

The decrease may have reflected a lower level of fascination with the site but, with 8.5million unique users still active and a growth of 712% from January 2007, Facebook remains the most popular social networking website in the UK.

Myspace also recorded a 5% decrease in January and Bebo suffered a 2% decrease. This may show that the leading social networks are less popular in the UK than they were a year ago, but I would like to see the profile of the people who have left the sites before passing judgement. Nielsen Online measures website traffic based on a panel of UK users at home and work. It does not cover the usage in schools, universities and internet cafes, so the younger internet users are very much under-reported.

And just last week Hitwise cited that Facebook’s market share of UK Internet visits went back to its Christmas peak during the Easter week. Obviously the Easter holidays may have played a role, so we’ll just have to see how the figures change over the next few months, but I think Facebook is here to stay for a while yet!

Organic LED Technology – the next big thing in display advertising?

For those of you saving up to buy a swanky new Plasma of LCD screen you might want to hold off for a while……

Have been looking into OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology recently and save for a few development issues, its potential application is very impressive. So much so that Sony have already stuck $203MM into its progression.

This video gives a good intro into what it’s all about;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoxaMAA1jjM

Now for the techie bit - it works by sandwiching self-luminating diodes made from natural chemicals in-between flexible plastic – very cool!!! Your current TV is a little on the fat side because it needs a backlight but stuff only needs a fraction of power to work (2-6 volts – Greenpeace will be onboard) and can be as size zero as just a few millimetres – think wallpapering your house with this stuff!

Like any display it can be interactive (Minority Report was spot on) and play audio-visual media. There have been a few prototypes mobiles where you actually rollout the touch screen display; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDuP8PtDJbE.

The only thing holding OLED screens back from your local Dixons is its 3-4 yr lifetime but I’m sure with a few extra mill that’ll get resolved!

TV prototypes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rMFZ4O_oLs

Welcome to the ignorance of the crowd

You may have read, or certainly heard about James Surowiecki's book 'the wisdom of crowds - why the many are smarter than the few….' There is a beguiling appeal to the simple, and almost intuitive notion that more people giving more information/opinion will lead to a more accurate out come. Wikipedia is built on such a notion. In fact, as JS himself points out there are a vast number of situations where this is not the case. Indeed three of the 5 main situations could almost be used to define a crowd - where the group is too homogenous, imitative and emotional.

This is not the place to debate the finer points of information theory, but James’ book, together with the rapid rise of virtual crowd building via social networks, should give us involved in marketing and communication pause for thought.

The digital landscape might offer consumers the near perfect information that would lead to optimum decision making, but I fear that we are asking too much. Human behaviour certainly in the instance of brand consumption is not to analyse minutely, but to buy on the basis of consistency, reflective of one's values and to make them feel good. Hmmmm isn't that 'homogenous, imitative and emotional' behaviour?

So does this mean the aims of brands and crowd wisdom are technically at odds but in reality aligned? Perhaps, but it unquestionably makes the job of brands harder. To me, the mantra for brands must be 'Honesty, transparency, and people'. Honesty - Align your marketing to what you really do or you will get found out. Transparency - let people see what you are doing - if you don't they will jump to conclusions. People - technology is actually making the importance of a brand's people far more important they need to be good and they need to care, whether that's in ideas for the brand, the salesman or the service centre handler.

Because the reality is it's easier than ever for the slightest negative perception of the brand to incur the wrath of the crowd - just ask Northern Rock or the McCann's...

My website of the moment

Prior to coming over to London from America to start work as BJK&E's new intern, I knew that British television was bad. There's something in every American's internal wiring that makes us wary of UK programming.Beside such universally adored icons as Monty Python or Ricky Gervais, I had not really ever been exposed to British television. I had developed a stereotype of British TV. I would picture either some variation of Benny Hill, where every scene would end with some rapscallion involved in a hyper-speed chase, or I would imagine an absolutely drab melodrama of some aristocrats with ‘holier than thou' attitudes. So when I finally landed across the pond, I decided not to watch any British television,

Instead of no TV at all, I decided to go where everyone goes to solve their problems: the internet. Google finally proved useful and found a website called TV Links. Within five second of visiting the homepage, I had realized I found a gold mine Perusing through the site, I found their tagline to be a bit modest: "Better than a remote control".

They have 6 categories of content including Shows, Cartoons, Documentaries, Anime, Movies and Music Videos. The selection of TV shows is quite impressive. I immediately went for Kung Fu, the classic, aptly titled series featuring David Carradine (he played Bill in Kill Bill). There are a large amount of British shows on there too, since the web address is actually www.tv-links.co.uk. I tried a couple out, such as Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul, but I guess I'll never quite appreciate the subtleties of television over here.

Movies have quite the selection, including freshly bootlegged versions of films still in theatres. A classic one which I am quite partial to is called Reefer Madness. It was made in 1936 as a cautionary tale featuring a fictionalized and highly exaggerated take on the use of marijuana, following a trio of drug dealers who lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to "reefer" cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music. Those swingers and floozies have always been trouble.

The Music Video section provided a great selection of videos, concerts, and interviews of artists. As for all you English-folk out there, I know you're dying to know if they have Phil Collins on there. Yes, sadly, they do.

As for the rest of the site, I'll let you navigate with your own discretion. And next time you think you're stuck watching Neighbours, think again.