The challenge for print: co-creation

Renetta McCann, CEO of Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group, warned some of the world's most senior print publishing industry executives yesterday that their future depends on adapting content for delivery via the screen.
The most talked about speech of the opening day of the FIPP conference was that by Renetta McCann, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group.
Electronic delivery
Speaking at the International Federation of Periodical and Press (FIPP) World Magazine Congress at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, Ms. McCann offered a vision of tomorrow for magazines, calling on the industry to create content for delivery by a variety of the electronic devices; to be able to digitally deliver titles that can be adapted and reconfigured by consumers; and to be able to predict, based on previously read stories, interest in upcoming specials and promote them through text-messaging or e-mail.

 This is the new digital economics in the age of engagement 

via AdAge

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: Comments Off
Please wait
Posted in: Convergence, Darwin, Engagement Marketing, Events, Marketing, Media, Newspapers, Participation, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, Web/Tech

Quote to remember

…we?re living in a world where customers will only become more and more independent and self-reliant. And ? even more importantly ? that they can often supply themselves. What they supply may be facts about your company and your products. Or it may be new products that render optional (though not unappealing, which is the saving grace) the whole commercial supply side, as we see happening with free software and open source development.

- Doc Searl IT Garage, Relating to Customers

Thanks to the Big Blog Company – I am off to read some more Doc Searls

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: None. Add yours. »
Please wait
Posted in: Trends

The future of television

The future of television by Conan O'Brian

To begin, the trend toward larger and larger televisions will continue as screens double in size every 18 months. Televisions will eventually grow so large that families will be forced to watch TV from outside their homes, peering in through the window. Random wolf attacks will make viewing more dangerous. And, just as televisions grow larger and more complicated, so will remote controls. In fact, changing channels will soon require people to literally jump from button to button. Trying to change the channel while simultaneously lowering the volume will require two people and will frequently lead to kinky sex.

But also I loved the reference to Tivo

TiVo, the digital recorder with a brain, will continue to evolve with alarming speed. Super-TiVos will arrange marriages between like-minded viewers and will persuade mismatched couples to throw in the towel and start seeing other people. Tough-talking TiVos will even confront viewers, saying, "You've watched 40 straight hours of 'Sponge- Bob' get off the weed!"

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: Comments Off
Please wait
Posted in: Convergence, Humour, Trends, Web/Tech

whose media is it?

Adriana Cronin Lucas at the Big Blog Company posts about mobile operator 3's new moblogging service

3, the UK's first video mobile network, announced the first mobile blogging service

Its another halting step from mass media to social media . Where, how we use and share the content we create , and how we utilise other peoples content is changing.
Adriana also mentions the Nokia Lifeblog – which they (Nokia) should do more with!! and compares Lifeblogs relatively cost free useage, with 3's every click costs you cash.
Well, it is a mobile phone service – however – Adriana makes a good point – its a bit like Skype and fixed line or mobile phones. with a little bit of tech savvy you can dramtaically reduce the costs of your calls to zero.
Naturally customers will discover this, are discovering this, so don't worry Adriana, folks will find their own way, it just takes a little bit of time.
The question is will 3 be able to sell this new service in a way which people believe is useful to their lives? Otherwise why would you bother?
Here is a hint 3 For example why not sponsor the Brighton Festival which for several years has been using moblogging as part of the event? Show people what you can really do with this. Or can you do something similar to Orange Wednesdays?

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: Comments Off
Please wait
Posted in: 7th Mass Media, Convergence, Generation C, Marketing, Messaging, Participation, Social Networks, Web/Tech

Connectivity, Culture, Community and Commerce. Why it’s all happening on the web

Peter Preston writing in yesterday's Observer made a comment which chimes perfectly with our book.
He said

There are times, times of profound upheaval, when one change seems to fit with another – then, suddenly, to change everything. This may be just such a time…

Preston fires off some stats about the difficulties that newspapers are suffering, including: the Baltimore Sun down 11.5% year on year, the Los Angeles Times -6.4%, The Chicago Tribune -6.6%, The Washington Post -2.6% and the San Fransisco Chronicle -7%.
And its not only newspapers that are suffering – the FT Monday 23 devotes a half a page to the increasing travails of the UK's ITV as viewer numbers fall and growth is snatched by rivals. 

As Emiko Terazono writes in the FT article

Some media buyers and analysts are more concerned about the structural and behavioural changes that wiill affect the company long term. Teenagers are spending less time in front of the television, playing more games on their consuls or on their mobile phones and MP3 players

This is substantiated by the Morgan Stanley report The Age of Engagement which charts the meteoric explosion of digital content on all platforms as the power base of traditional media erodes.
Back to newspapers, the migration Preston says is not to other print rivals, but to the net. Naturally Murdoch gets a look in with his recent comments on being a digital immigrant vs. being a digital native.
Preston charts the paradigm shift thus

So there's the chain of change, one damned thing after another piling in as the British press settles down to digest the gains and losses of yet another election. There is perceptible movement from print news to digital news. There is a new world of electronic searching and sourcing out there that can't be denied. And if readers head in a fresh direction, advertisers are bound to follow.
One authoritative source – Forrester Research – sees US online advertising rising to $14.7 billion this year, 23 per cent up on 2004. Nearly every ad agency surveyed planned to cut print and direct mail spending to make room for the net. It's a cliff with a jumping platform in place.

However, Preston then goes to use the Guardian as a fine example that has embraced the digital age with great success. And argues that a walled garden approach to historical content is a mistake and some serious headscratching needs to be done to ensure that a digital strategy sits at the very heart of what traditional newspapers do.
Even the BBC is opening up parts of its vast audio-visual archive for private use . Its a great move.
By engaging, allowing two way-flows of information, the Observer will often invite comment on a particular article online in its newsprint edition. It shows a smart, well informed strategy about how to survive in times of change. The guardian Unlimited has a blog too.
And remember Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems said in an interview with Robert Scoble + Shel Israel

The perception of Sun as a faithful and authentic tech company is now very strong. What blogs have done has authenticated the Sun brand more than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done. I care more about the ink you get from developer community than any other coverage. Sun has experienced a sea change in their perception of us and that has come from blogs. Everyone blogging at Sun is verifying that we possess a culture of tenacity and authenticity.

Its one example of many case histories out there that demonstrate growth can be achieved, but one must be prepared to embrace the world of business and marketing in a different way. We describe it as the 4C's – Connectivity, Commerce, Culture and Community. It is about aligning these that gives clues to the future opportunities vs. threats.
One comment is that bloggers do not only get their news from the printed page it can happen the other way around – and this post is a combination of blog sources, online sources and newspapers.
Briefly the 4C's can be described thus, Connectivity provides companies for the very first time the opportunity to generate two-way flows of information, feedback and engagement.
Connectivity, enables us – via the internet and the mobile phone – to identify who are prolific connectors and social networks that could be key distribution points to viral contagion and sharing word of mouth messages. But connectivity alone is not enough, there must be good content (culture) and a population of interest (community). If this can be combined with a genuine business enterprise (Commerce). One is looking at a powerful business and marketing model.

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: Comments Off
Please wait
Posted in: Convergence, Culture, Darwin, Distribution, Economics, Engagement Marketing, Generation C, Marketing, Philosophy, Strategy, Trends

Connectivity, Culture, Community and Commerce. why it’s all happening on the web

Peter Preston writing in yesterday’s Observer made a comment which chimes perfectly with our book.

He said

There are times, times of profound upheaval, when one change seems to fit with another – then, suddenly, to change everything. This may be just such a time…

Preston fires off some stats about the difficulties that newspapers are suffering, including: the Baltimore Sun down 11.5% year on year, the Los Angeles Times -6.4%, The Chicago Tribune -6.6%, The Washington Post -2.6% and the San Fransisco Chronicle -7%.

And its not only newspapers that are suffering – the FT Monday 23 devotes a half a page to the increasing travails of the UK’s ITV as viewer numbers fall and growth is snatched by rivals.

As Emiko Terazono writes in the FT article

Some media buyers and analysts are more concerned about the structural and behavioural changes that wiill affect the company long term. Teenagers are spending less time in front of the television, playing more games on their consuls or on their mobile phones and MP3 players

This is substantiated by the Morgan Stanley report The Age of Engagement which charts the meteoric explosion of digital content on all platforms as the power base of traditional media erodes.

Back to newspapers, the migration Preston says is not to other print rivals, but to the net. Naturally Murdoch gets a look in wiith his recent comments on being a digital immigrant vs. being a digital native

Preston charts the paradigm shift thus

So there’s the chain of change, one damned thing after another piling in as the British press settles down to digest the gains and losses of yet another election. There is perceptible movement from print news to digital news. There is a new world of electronic searching and sourcing out there that can’t be denied. And if readers head in a fresh direction, advertisers are bound to follow.

One authoritative source – Forrester Research – sees US online advertising rising to $14.7 billion this year, 23 per cent up on 2004. Nearly every ad agency surveyed planned to cut print and direct mail spending to make room for the net. It’s a cliff with a jumping platform in place.

However, Preston then goes to use the Guardian as a fine example that has embraced the digital age with great success. And argues that a walled garden approach to historical content is a mistake and some serious headscratching needs to be done to ensure that a digital strategy sits at the very heart of what traditional newspapers do.

Even the BBC is opening up parts of its vast audio-visual archive for private use. Its a great move.

By engaging, allowing two way-flows of information, the Observer will often invite comment on a particular article online in its newsprint edition. It shows a smart, well informed strategy about how to survive in times of change. The guardian Unlimited has a blog too.

And remember Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems said in an interview with Robert Scoble + Shel Israel

The perception of Sun as a faithful and authentic tech company is now very strong. What blogs have done has authenticated the Sun brand more than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done. I care more about the ink you get from developer community than any other coverage. Sun has experienced a sea change in their perception of us and that has come from blogs. Everyone blogging at Sun is verifying that we possess a culture of tenacity and authenticity.

Its one example of many case histories out there that demonstrate growth can be achieved, but one must be prepared to embrace the world of business and marketing in a different way. We describe it as the 4C’s – Connectivity, Commerce, Culture and Community. It is about aligning these that gives clues to the future opportunities vs. threats.

One comment is that bloggers do not only get their news from the printed page it can happen the other way around – and this post is a combination of blog sources, online sources and newspapers.

Briefly the 4C’s can be described thus, Connectivity provides companies for the very first time the opportunity to generate two-way flows of information, feedback and engagement.

Connectivity, enables us – via the internet and the mobile phone – to identify who are prolific connectors and social networks that could be key distribution points to viral contagion and sharing word of mouth messages. But connectivity alone is not enough, there must be good content (culture) and a population of interest (community). If this can be combined with a genuine business enterprise (Commerce). One is looking at a powerful business and marketing model.

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: None. Add yours. »
Please wait
Posted in: Trends

Connectivity, Culture, Community and Commerce. why it’s all happening on the web

Peter Preston writing in yesterday’s Observer made a comment which chimes perfectly with our book.

He said

There are times, times of profound upheaval, when one change seems to fit with another – then, suddenly, to change everything. This may be just such a time…

Preston fires off some stats about the difficulties that newspapers are suffering, including: the Baltimore Sun down 11.5% year on year, the Los Angeles Times -6.4%, The Chicago Tribune -6.6%, The Washington Post -2.6% and the San Fransisco Chronicle -7%.

And its not only newspapers that are suffering – the FT Monday 23 devotes a half a page to the increasing travails of the UK’s ITV as viewer numbers fall and growth is snatched by rivals.

As Emiko Terazono writes in the FT article

Some media buyers and analysts are more concerned about the structural and behavioural changes that wiill affect the company long term. Teenagers are spending less time in front of the television, playing more games on their consuls or on their mobile phones and MP3 players

This is substantiated by the Morgan Stanley report The Age of Engagement which charts the meteoric explosion of digital content on all platforms as the power base of traditional media erodes.

Back to newspapers, the migration Preston says is not to other print rivals, but to the net. Naturally Murdoch gets a look in wiith his recent comments on being a digital immigrant vs. being a digital native

Preston charts the paradigm shift thus

So there’s the chain of change, one damned thing after another piling in as the British press settles down to digest the gains and losses of yet another election. There is perceptible movement from print news to digital news. There is a new world of electronic searching and sourcing out there that can’t be denied. And if readers head in a fresh direction, advertisers are bound to follow.

One authoritative source – Forrester Research – sees US online advertising rising to $14.7 billion this year, 23 per cent up on 2004. Nearly every ad agency surveyed planned to cut print and direct mail spending to make room for the net. It’s a cliff with a jumping platform in place.

However, Preston then goes to use the Guardian as a fine example that has embraced the digital age with great success. And argues that a walled garden approach to historical content is a mistake and some serious headscratching needs to be done to ensure that a digital strategy sits at the very heart of what traditional newspapers do.

Even the BBC is opening up parts of its vast audio-visual archive for private use. Its a great move.

By engaging, allowing two way-flows of information, the Observer will often invite comment on a particular article online in its newsprint edition. It shows a smart, well informed strategy about how to survive in times of change. The guardian Unlimited has a blog too.

And remember Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems said in an interview with Robert Scoble + Shel Israel

The perception of Sun as a faithful and authentic tech company is now very strong. What blogs have done has authenticated the Sun brand more than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done. I care more about the ink you get from developer community than any other coverage. Sun has experienced a sea change in their perception of us and that has come from blogs. Everyone blogging at Sun is verifying that we possess a culture of tenacity and authenticity.

Its one example of many case histories out there that demonstrate growth can be achieved, but one must be prepared to embrace the world of business and marketing in a different way. We describe it as the 4C’s – Connectivity, Commerce, Culture and Community. It is about aligning these that gives clues to the future opportunities vs. threats.

One comment is that bloggers do not only get their news from the printed page it can happen the other way around – and this post is a combination of blog sources, online sources and newspapers.

Briefly the 4C’s can be described thus, Connectivity provides companies for the very first time the opportunity to generate two-way flows of information, feedback and engagement.

Connectivity, enables us – via the internet and the mobile phone – to identify who are prolific connectors and social networks that could be key distribution points to viral contagion and sharing word of mouth messages. But connectivity alone is not enough, there must be good content (culture) and a population of interest (community). If this can be combined with a genuine business enterprise (Commerce). One is looking at a powerful business and marketing model.

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: None. Add yours. »
Please wait
Posted in: Trends

Connectivity, Culture, Community and Commerce. why it’s all happening on the web

Peter Preston writing in yesterday’s Observer made a comment which chimes perfectly with our book.

He said

There are times, times of profound upheaval, when one change seems to fit with another – then, suddenly, to change everything. This may be just such a time…

Preston fires off some stats about the difficulties that newspapers are suffering, including: the Baltimore Sun down 11.5% year on year, the Los Angeles Times -6.4%, The Chicago Tribune -6.6%, The Washington Post -2.6% and the San Fransisco Chronicle -7%.

And its not only newspapers that are suffering – the FT Monday 23 devotes a half a page to the increasing travails of the UK’s ITV as viewer numbers fall and growth is snatched by rivals.

As Emiko Terazono writes in the FT article

Some media buyers and analysts are more concerned about the structural and behavioural changes that wiill affect the company long term. Teenagers are spending less time in front of the television, playing more games on their consuls or on their mobile phones and MP3 players

This is substantiated by the Morgan Stanley report The Age of Engagement which charts the meteoric explosion of digital content on all platforms as the power base of traditional media erodes.

Back to newspapers, the migration Preston says is not to other print rivals, but to the net. Naturally Murdoch gets a look in wiith his recent comments on being a digital immigrant vs. being a digital native

Preston charts the paradigm shift thus

So there’s the chain of change, one damned thing after another piling in as the British press settles down to digest the gains and losses of yet another election. There is perceptible movement from print news to digital news. There is a new world of electronic searching and sourcing out there that can’t be denied. And if readers head in a fresh direction, advertisers are bound to follow.

One authoritative source – Forrester Research – sees US online advertising rising to $14.7 billion this year, 23 per cent up on 2004. Nearly every ad agency surveyed planned to cut print and direct mail spending to make room for the net. It’s a cliff with a jumping platform in place.

However, Preston then goes to use the Guardian as a fine example that has embraced the digital age with great success. And argues that a walled garden approach to historical content is a mistake and some serious headscratching needs to be done to ensure that a digital strategy sits at the very heart of what traditional newspapers do.

Even the BBC is opening up parts of its vast audio-visual archive for private use. Its a great move.

By engaging, allowing two way-flows of information, the Observer will often invite comment on a particular article online in its newsprint edition. It shows a smart, well informed strategy about how to survive in times of change. The guardian Unlimited has a blog too.

And remember Jonathan Schwartz COO of Sun Microsystems said in an interview with Robert Scoble + Shel Israel

The perception of Sun as a faithful and authentic tech company is now very strong. What blogs have done has authenticated the Sun brand more than a billion dollar ad campaign could have done. I care more about the ink you get from developer community than any other coverage. Sun has experienced a sea change in their perception of us and that has come from blogs. Everyone blogging at Sun is verifying that we possess a culture of tenacity and authenticity.

Its one example of many case histories out there that demonstrate growth can be achieved, but one must be prepared to embrace the world of business and marketing in a different way. We describe it as the 4C’s – Connectivity, Commerce, Culture and Community. It is about aligning these that gives clues to the future opportunities vs. threats.

One comment is that bloggers do not only get their news from the printed page it can happen the other way around – and this post is a combination of blog sources, online sources and newspapers.

Briefly the 4C’s can be described thus, Connectivity provides companies for the very first time the opportunity to generate two-way flows of information, feedback and engagement.

Connectivity, enables us – via the internet and the mobile phone – to identify who are prolific connectors and social networks that could be key distribution points to viral contagion and sharing word of mouth messages. But connectivity alone is not enough, there must be good content (culture) and a population of interest (community). If this can be combined with a genuine business enterprise (Commerce). One is looking at a powerful business and marketing model.

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: None. Add yours. »
Please wait
Posted in: Trends

Communities Dominate Brands Review

We got a review of our book at the mobile weblog on 19th May.
Here is the conclusion:

I don't think I've ever read a book that has such a contemporary feel to it. Even the case studies feel current and relevant in an environment where even a few months can seem like years.
I do have one other major disappointment with the book, being quite honest. That is that the people who need to read it (big company Marketing Directors, Ad agency CEO's, big media CEO's) probably won't and will stay cocooned in their own little worlds. This is going to be very bad news for their companies. So if you know one of these people, you'll be doing them a favour by buying them a copy – even if they might not thank you for it right now

You can buy the book at Futuretext

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: Comments Off
Please wait
Posted in: Books, Trends

Is traditional retail nearing its endgame for some?

I met a freind of mine today in Cambridge who runs a well respected retail design company. We had been talking off and on over the past months, and was a opportune moment to catch up, even though he got a parking ticket as a consequence…

We swopped stories about business and focussed on retail in particular. Its been tough. In the FT this week “companies diary” reported that Boots are still struggling. I mentioned this and he wondered if this was cyclical or more systemic. We discussed and I quickly gave my overview that I thought it more systemic, when when factors in the mobile phone, the internet, the wholesale unbundling of the media and societal change. Jeez I need a drink.

My friend replied that he thought we were moving towards something that was more service orientated and that why would you go to somewhere like Dixons, to get bad retail layout, bad service and an experience that feels more adversarial than going to the internet and doing it online.

We also discussed communities and how they form around issues very quickly , how they can become powerhouses for change or protest. I mentioned Kryptonite and the class action against Verizon in the US as examples. He mentioned the anti-hunting lobby.

This got me thinking over a late lunch – and I went to buy some papers and magazines – In New Media Age (19.05.05) it seems the world has gone digital and mobile. As above the line spend slides into other media

Coke prepares iCoke for global youth markting drive, FT debuts video and audio news in expansion of mobile services, mobile operator 3 and Flytext link to run video ad for cult film, Volvo to sponsor 4 web site, endomol pushes mobile video beyond TV programme content, Vodafone to stream “Big Brother’ to mobiles non-stop, Uk retailers miss out by failing to push multi-channel services, 2.3 million people say they are likely to buy a media hub in the next 12 months, Johnston Press gets readers interacting via IVR and SMS, Interqctive media should adopt the consumer’s view

Were a list of headlines

I mentioned before Microsoft going mobile , and in the Guardian today was a big article about the gaming and Hollywood deciding that it makes more sense to deliver a more integrated and seemless product.

My friend and I discussed the “customers are from Mars and Companies are from Venus” scenario and the Adgage article , we discussed Epic and I thought of First Direct delivering banking to my 22 year old son via text messaging . I thought about Tomi’s key note speech and panel with young mobile users and my own experience with my children.

I thought about Boots and the struggling legacy retailers and I thought about the recent Morgan Stanley report entitled the Age of engagement . I reflected on our book Communities Dominate Brands as all signposts that describe and map out our immediate future.

I thought about my friend who, as a global marketing director says that peoples needs and desires never really change and that is true. But what I see is so much tht changes around them. Howard Rheingold talks about the mobile phone to amplify human talants of co-operation. Combine this with the internet and you get something exponential.

I thought about channels and the long list of mobile + digital activities being initiated more channels more silos? – maybe. And I thought about Chan Kim and Renn?e Mauborgone from INSEAD that talk and describe business innovation driven through what they describe as creating Market space .

We commissioned a white paper called the LONG GOOD BYE which you can find on the SMLXL blog by author Alan Mitchell. which does describe these issues as systemic. Or am I dreaming. And we have not even started on blogs yet.

So it was quite a conversation. I am sorry that my friend got a parking ticket. But even in flat Cambridge the debate rages on how companies today can find more intelligent and relevant ways to enage their customers and their audience.

For some recidivists, this is not the dotcom boom and bust – it is more profound. And as Gary Hamel said, it will be the creative leaps of the human imgaination that will forge the success of companies of tomorrow. And just have a read of Rupert Murdoch when he gave a speech to the American Society of Newspaper editors .

I don’t think it is about one channel superseding another, from a marketers perspective, but about the holistic alignment of various channels to deliver something exciting and compelling to the customer. Its not about sales or brand or CRM or advertising, or experiential, but about multiple combinations of things. Why? Beacuse you can.

Just go and look at the Apple store. Where does that budget come from> Their advertising budget. So what does their advertising budget come from – a loyalty programme. You go figure that out for your selves.

Bookmarks:

Ratings:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Comments: 1. Add yours. »
Please wait
Posted in: Trends