tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45556693796058994732024-02-07T17:28:49.745-08:00Inside StraightStuff that interests me about media, strategy, marketing, brands, tech, poker, space and stuff.
Joshua Spanier, Husband, Dad, Director of Com Strategy at GS&P / My views, my badUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-586948147063397282011-09-28T20:57:00.000-07:002011-09-28T20:57:05.435-07:00Wrong for 65 million yearsLast weekend I visited the fun, new <a href="http://lawrencehallofscience.org/visit/exhibits/featured/dinosaurs">dinosaur exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science</a> in Berkeley. What I was not prepared for was the realization that just about everything I knew about dinosaurs is wrong. Over the last ten years the dino world has been turned on its head. For example:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathieus/how-t-rex-really-looked-like-8q4">T-rex? Born with feathers which it kept till adult hood!</a> <br />
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<a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/371/is-it-true-the-brontosaurus-never-really-existed">Brontosaurs</a>? Never even existed!?!<br />
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Most dinos not in fact lizards, rather they were mammals!<br />
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How weird, it must be, for those dino-experts who retired in the late 90s. They might have been paleontologists for 40 years, at the top of their game, and yet their career knowledge just 10 years later is as extinct as their former objects of study.<br />
<br />
And honestly, for a moment I freaked out. It did not take much to contrast those ex-paleontologists with myself. After-all, most of what I learned (back in the 90s) as the start of my career really is irrelevant today. Am I a dinosaur?<br />
<br />
Luckily, the freak out moment passed. (Mainly because my daughter, aged 4, started lecturing me on everything she knew about dinos). As I got my lesson in the finer points of the Jurassic age as only a kindergartner could, I mentally re-affirmed a few thoughts.<br />
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1) If you stop learning, adapting and trying new things, you will end extinct and fast. Paid media, traditional audiences and conventional marketing is going <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo">the way of the Dodo</a>.<br />
<br />
2) Anyone who says they have the answers is lying. Too much is too new for experts to be gurus. Who know's where media will be in 5 years, so don't bet what your doing now will get you there.<br />
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3) Dinosaurs are way cool, even with feathers,<br />
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cheers,<br />
Josh.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-89541929768691512072011-09-12T21:01:00.001-07:002011-09-12T21:01:38.886-07:00Gone Google<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMZ8CzZIBd7a6qJ4YaGVINP8A_I8M2L30O8e3xVo3lI6ep74wuGh1rpNGMAeuk35EAqOz8HI5s01CVhnSLChyphenhyphendKZ5J79pdFYmsfONIhxT5UIRL-Z17AtOzBEvcoQhH5u7X6VxQ3zlevYA/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-09-12+at+8.58.14+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="23" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMZ8CzZIBd7a6qJ4YaGVINP8A_I8M2L30O8e3xVo3lI6ep74wuGh1rpNGMAeuk35EAqOz8HI5s01CVhnSLChyphenhyphendKZ5J79pdFYmsfONIhxT5UIRL-Z17AtOzBEvcoQhH5u7X6VxQ3zlevYA/s320/Screen+shot+2011-09-12+at+8.58.14+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
My big news of the year is I am leaving my current job at Goodby Silverstein and heading down Peninsula to join Google. I will be Google's Director of Media.<br />
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After 8 years at GS&P, and nearly my whole career on the agency side, flipping to a client role feels like a big step. It is a big step. I am equal part excited and scared. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I will write a more detailed post about my experience and thoughts on leaving GSP, but the reality is I am moving for Google. It was simply impossible to resit the lure of the biggest and smartest tech company in the world.</div>
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More to come. </div>
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Josh<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-70388298194079596032011-08-02T16:49:00.000-07:002011-08-02T16:50:18.304-07:00Ad Week is annoying (this week)I’m puzzled (and to be honest, really irritated) about the strangely reconstituted <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/media-plan-year-133621?page=1">Media Plan of the Year issue that appeared in last week's Adweek</a>.<br />
<br />
While I congratulate all the winners (a man can have just so many sour grapes, after all) I have to question why Adweek made the change at all.<br />
<br />
This is how the editors explained it: “Adweek this year selected 30 leading media agencies and asked them to submit their best TV, print, and integrated planning work across four dollar thresholds". <br />
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The result is that the contest went from an open, democratic, egalitarian system to a closed plan that instead asks a predetermined list of 30 companies to submit their work. The editors never bothered to declare what criteria they used in picking the 30.<br />
<br />
(Incidentally, even without being included in the 30, we made the issue, as the creative partners for Starcom for the work on Chevrolet /Glee .)<br />
<br />
The sad part is that the open call was fair and unrestricted, a clear hunt for the very best media thinking open to anyone, from anywhere. Personally, I also loved and respected the purity of the winners, with zero devalued gold, silvers, bronzes dished out across seeming unending, ridiculously niche categories.<br />
<br />
Indeed, to win a Plan of the Year award meant something with just a solo winner for each of the 10 categories and that was it. Despite the fact that the publication has been folded into Adweek, the Media Plan of the Year franchise still carries credibility and enormous value.<br />
<br />
Without being too obviously self-promoting, (okay, it’s my blog, so I will be somewhat self-promoting) the fine Communication Strategists within GS&P are on a tear, having just this year alone, picked up an EFFIE for Media Innovation, a Cannes Media Lion, the Grand Prix Award at the Digital Out-of-Home awards, two MIXX awards and no fewer than 5 short-listed entries at the global Festival of Media Awards.<br />
<br />
In fact, over the last 6 years GS&P has been honored to win 5 of Mediaweek’s Media Plan of the Year awards! All of this is meant to make the point that we believe we have earned the right to participate in a discussion of what makes for the best media strategy and thinking today. That we were not asked to submit is frustrating.<br />
<br />
Looking at the larger picture, this celebration of the best of the best also did something special for the media industry. It elevated the media side of the house. It created an award that clients, and even creatives recognized as important. And truth be told we needed that. The legacy of media within the marketing industry has been as a lesser discipline - the last 5 minutes of the presentation. This viewpoint was never fair, and in today’s environment, where architecting conversations with consumers is more critical than any single ad, even more utterly wrong. However, biases take a long time to overcome, and as I mentioned, I fear this new, closed approach to the Plan of the Year award is a step backward. <br />
<br />
Let’s hope it’s re-reinvented to be more democratic next year. Because this way, such a limited call for entires would leave most readers with the suspicion that the award of Media Plan of the Year no longer truly is.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-67706781894850804082011-07-14T21:54:00.001-07:002011-07-14T21:57:19.566-07:00Introducing the V-bom!<link href="file://localhost/Users/joshua_spanier/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <link href="file://localhost/Users/joshua_spanier/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_themedata.xml" rel="themeData"></link> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We recently did some pretty cool work with <a href="http://www.dataxu.com/blog/">DataXu</a>. The team at DataXu asked us to write a guest blog entry. This is what we wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Have you noticed there seems to be a lot of data flying around nowadays? It seems like we’re drowning in data. The challenge, of course, is being able to make sense of the gigabytes we gather, to transform it into something valuable, over just raw, unending numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In our experience, the most important thing is not the data, but rather the questions we ask that provide the lens and focus we need to create hypotheses. Only then do we delve into the data to find answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">A few months ago we asked a question about the relative value of online sales. We had an issue. We were optimizing campaigns to sales, but were working under the flawed assumption that all sales were made equal. Many of our clients sell all manner of different products, from low single price items, to high-cost packages of multiple products. So we wondered if by optimizing to drive as many sales as possible, we were actually leaving $ on the table.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Our real-time optimization methods at that time relied on a pixel firing when a user made a purchase. But arduous, manual calculations were needed to take sales revenue and ROI into account. By the time those insights could be shared with our partners, they may have already optimized to higher sales driving placements resulting in an overall lower revenue and ROI. We were looking for a partner that would help us automate and optimize our media to real value, versus a simple conversion, in real time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So what did we do? We dropped the V-bom! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">V-bom was the internal nickname, (blame us, not DataXu) we gave to Value-Based Optimization. How did it work? Simply put, online shopping cart value is shared via real-time pixels. By passing through actual online order values to the DataXu platform, we successfully optimized our campaign to meet true consumer values, for a much improved ROI. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This new approach that the DataXu team worked out for us resulted in CPAs that were 64% more efficient than optimizing on ordinary conversions, 60% more actions overall, and ROI that was 4x more than the control group which was optimizing on a simple conversion pixel fire. In other words, just optimizing to sales volume did in fact leave $ on the table. By using this new value-based approach, we were able to ensure we were driving the highest return with our media dollars". </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Akzidenz Grotesk BE Regular'; font-size: 15pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-44315181818567274912011-06-27T21:42:00.000-07:002011-06-27T21:46:08.802-07:00The future is not advertising<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every year, just as Cannes finishes I go through the same set of thoughts. The best work in the world changes your viewpoint on what our industry can do. In a good (if sometimes intimidating) way.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is very clear, this year, is that the future is not advertising. It is not more ads. Scripts, pages, billboards –– these finite, closed loops of message space are no longer what our peers and clients judge as the pinnacle of communication.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My 6 favorite Grand Prix winners this year barely used ads, they won for creating something different. Each was an idea that communicated, not advertising.</span><title></title><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are inspiring and well worth reading through. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I know, it is easy to nit-pick, (exactly how many people really used Bing within the Jay-Z/Decode project?), but sometimes nit-picking is just not worth it. Instead, I am asking what can we learn? How can we make better ideas ourselves? How do we persuade our clients to take bigger risks to reap bigger rewards?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Advertising is not the future, but still the future is so bright, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UMUSxBZhjA&feature=related">I gotta wear shades</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cannes 2011 Grand Prix Winners:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Design - <a href="http://www.canneslions.com/work/design/">interactive lobby</a> at the new Cosmo Hotel </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Titanium - <a href="http://www.canneslions.com/work/titanium/">Decode with Jay-z/Bing</a> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.canneslions.com/work/cyber/">Cyber</a> - Wilderness Downtown, Old Spice, Pay with a Tweet</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Media - <a href="http://www.canneslions.com/work/media/">Virtual Store</a> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-52482155641651047182011-06-24T13:48:00.000-07:002011-06-24T13:50:58.586-07:00Are media agencies failing? Or is Cannes Media just f**ked up?Some interesting things I noticed about this years 2011 Cannes Media competition. <br />
<br />
1) Of the 13 Gold Media Lions awarded, the split between Media vs Integrated agencies winning was 7:6; stand-alone media shops won 53% of the top awards. (The <a href="http://www.canneslions.com/work/media/">brilliant Grand Prix</a> went to a Korean creative agency).<br />
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2) For the Silver gongs, the split was even more extreme, Media 10 : 21 Integrated<br />
<br />
3) Of the 24 member jury, just 3 work at integrated shops. The vast majority were from media only shops.<br />
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What does this all imply?<br />
<br />
A) That integrated shops are producing more, stronger work, overal than media only shops?<br />
<br />
B) Integrated shops are perhaps just better at producing award entries?<br />
<br />
C) The lure of any Cannes Lions has motivated Integrated (Creative) agencies to take Cannes Media seriously?<br />
<br />
D) That Media execs hate their own? Or just that they are impartial enough to award the best work from wherever?<br />
<br />
E) That the Cannes organizers need to bring in a broader range of judges, beyond media only shops, to reflect the changing momentum of where good work is coming from?<br />
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There is no single answer to all of these hypotheses. I do truly believe the <a href="http://insidestraight.blogspot.com/2011/06/walking-into-jeff-goodbys-office.html">integration of media</a> and creative (and design, UX, coding etc) can happen faster and smarter within integrated shops. It is no surprise for me that integrated shops are winning so much.<br />
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Where does this leave media agencies? This is an important question. I think <a href="http://insidestraight.blogspot.com/2011/06/death-of-creativity-getting-there.html">my prior post</a> on the promise of data is central to the relevance of media shops.<br />
<br />
I wonder how far and hard the pendulum might swing towards integrated solutions first though?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-31707884536541908272011-06-20T16:28:00.001-07:002011-06-24T13:52:18.719-07:00The death of creativity? Getting there.<title></title> <style type="text/css">
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<div class="p1">"<i>Google represents between 50%-90% of display volume (QPS) being purchased by DSPs, ad networks and agency trading desks on a RTB basis. Incremental QPS volume comes from the SSPs (Admeld, Pubmatic, Rubicon), Microsoft (new to the game via Appnexus), Contextweb, OpenX and a few others.</i>"</div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">If your <a href="http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/real-reason-google-paying-big-admeld/228151/">read the above</a> and are thinking WTF?, you are not alone. You need to know though, 'cause change is coming to marketing in a big way. This change is being driven by data, analytics and performance captured by companies such as <a href="http://annalect.com/">Annalect</a>, <a href="http://www.marketshare.com/">MarketShare</a>, Google and others. </div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Remember the old advertising quip, "50% of my advertising works, I just don't know which 50%"? Today there is, for the first time, a very real prospect that marketeers will know what 99% of their tactics are delivering, minutiltely and precisely. We are entering a new era of accountability which has profound implications for creativity, instinct, and imagination.</div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">So what is going on? Three factors are converging:</div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">1) <b>Comprehensive Data Across Media</b></div><div class="p3">Already the sheer tonnage of data being generated via the digital, social and mobile channels provides marketeers a window into consumers interests and behaviors. Traditional media is also joining the digital data party, with tablet editions of magazines, wired TV set top-boxes, electronic outdoor billboards, digital radio and more all enriching the picture. Throw in actual retail sales, both on and offline, and the host of other data points clients are collecting, and a new end game is in sight - comprehensive, fused and organizable data spanning every waking moment of consumers lives.</div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">2) <b>Audience Tracking </b></div><div class="p3">As these streams of data are flowing in, more and more they are matched up to actual people. Yes, that sounds creepy, but for marketeers it is useful. Again, the end game of these improvements in matching media metrics with individuals is the better targeting and relevance of communications - think Tom Cruise in Minority Report.</div><div class="p3"><br />
</div><div class="p3">3) <b>Speed Speed, Speed</b></div><div class="p3">RTB, as quoted above, is for 'Real Time Bidding'. Today, Exchanges are completing the 7 or 8 steps necessary to serve a customized ad in under a quarter of a second! Why bother with what happened in post-campaign reports weeks or months after the fact, find out what is happening now! This is the promise of live advertising.</div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3"><b>What does all this mean?</b></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p3">Medium term a huge amount of guess work is being removed from the advertising conversation. As an industry, agencies have benefited from the unknowns. We have been inefficient simply because it could never be proved what was working or what was not. In the debate between art and science, art could hold its own as the science was flawed. I see a day soon where the science has the proof needed to refute the intuition of art. </div><div class="p2"><br />
<b>The Death of Creativity?</b></div><div class="p3"><br />
No, it is not the death of creativity. Models, statistics and past-performance can not predict for the game-changing ideas. However, it is getting closer. The sad truth is the majority of our work is not game-changing. It is incremental and more-of-the-same. In this new era coming, the brute processing power of data is going to offer a better solution than real people most of the time.<br />
<br />
<b>Winners and Losers</b><br />
<br />
This sort of depends on how you view things. Media shops are going to lose a lot of media planners and buyers - a lot! In their place will be a smaller number of data-jocks and analytics gurus. So, smarter organizations, but I think much smaller in terms of actual people.<br />
<br />
Creative agencies are going to lose more influence and control. A lot of creative is going to become modular, constituent parts that algorithms can meld together instantaneously. There will be less great work overall.<br />
<br />
Clients are going to have more productive work. That will be a win for them. They may not have as much fun getting there, but the CFO will not care about that.<br />
<br />
Advertising as an industry will win. It will be more credible, more scientific and better received in board rooms. It will probably also be a lot less fun though as well.<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-68846777176873125942011-06-09T14:47:00.000-07:002011-06-09T14:47:15.847-07:00The web is less free - good!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in 2009 Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, published "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_757785270">Free:</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Free-Smartest-Businesses-Something-Nothing/dp/B0043RT912/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307652142&sr=1-2">How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing</a>". His general thesis was that the web and digitization was radically changing the dynamic of pricing, and that consumers were being so conditioned by free, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that there was no choice but to embrace free as a starting point. (Malcolm Gladwell wrote a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/090706crbo_books_gladwell">pretty savage critique</a> back in the day which was kind of delicious in its nasty-ness). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I met recently with people from the NYT which got me thinking about Mr Anderson's book. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The digital world, I believe, is not becoming more free. The NYT in erecting its pay-wall joins the WSJ, FT and Times of London, in becoming non-free. If these experiments continue to be positive, expect more and more journalism brands to follow these leaders. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking broadly across the web, you can see brands with significant digital footprints such as Netflix, Ning and Apple, all making a ton of money by charging upfront for it. Netflix is 100% paid, Ning flipped to a paid model a year ago (and has more than doubled its customers), and Apple charges top dollar for everything. Even Google, a bastion of free, has been experimenting with charging for content, such as movies on YouTube.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What really seems to matter then? Well, another old maxim applies perhaps: content is king! For all the billions of videos on YouTube, how many do people really want to watch? HBO, Pixar, Random House, the WSJ, these brands provide content worth paying for and they are reaping the rewards. How you migrate customers from free to paid is tough, but clearly not implausible or impossible.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brands will continue to experiment with pricing, offering free samples and the like, but as the web/digital has become pervasive, perhaps business as normal might become more normal. The world has changed, but we humans are still who we are. A new normal would be nice. In this view, good cotent offering good value will sell. In fact, brands will have even more ways to sell their output than ever before.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Josh</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">p.s. Is it ironic that the digital version of the book Free costs $9.99?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-80813485670938430652011-06-05T09:37:00.000-07:002011-06-05T09:37:11.266-07:00Walking into Jeff Goodby's office - proximity matters<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">[This post was inspired by this quote from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/technology/05ping.html?_r=1&ref=technology"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">S. Shyam Sundar, a director of the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #004276;"><u>Media Effects Research Lab</u></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> at Pennsylvania State University. “Physical proximity plays a big role in terms of building relationships.”</span></a> ]</div><div><br />
</div><br />
Here a<a href="http://www.goodbysilverstein.com/">t GS&P</a>, we believe in the integration of everyone around ideas. This particularly applies to my discipline of media. Ten years ago, media revolved around 5 media - TV, Print, Outdoor, Radio and Other (such as direct mail, or stunts). Your media decision was basically a modeling exercise, how much investment into each one of the standard and finite choices was the correct one? Hence, media was only ever needed during the last 5 mins of a presentation. (Yes, this is overly simplified, but honestly, not by much).<br />
<br />
Today, media choices are almost infinite. Certainly, no one has enough money to solely buy awareness and engagement. Clients need brilliant analysis and consideration of how their brand communication ideas can live across touch-points, how people will discover it, engage it and share it. Most of the time, thanks to social media, you cannot even assume that a consumers first interaction with your brand idea will be via a kick-off TV spot or print ad. More likely they will stumble across it via a friends reactive tweet or status up-date; marketing is no longer linear.<br />
<br />
This is where proximity matters. For Creatives, parsing through hundreds of rough ideas, having access to smart Communication Strategy thinkers, (what we call the evolution of Media Planners at GS&P), is a massive advantage. Communication Strategists at GS&P, (and other integrated agencies I assume), will work with teams directly, in their offices, in the corridors and elevators of our building, to explore together the potential of ideas. How can we orchestrate that idea so that it takes on a life of its own inspiring action far beyond the borders of paid media.<br />
<br />
Physically, I can walk into Jeff's office at any moment, or he into mine, and we can work through stuff. Right then, right there, not in an official meeting, or conference call spanning time-zones. This proximity and iteration actually speeds things up. We get through and to good ideas faster. It saves clients money.<br />
<br />
As an agency we have tried all sorts of methods for breaking down proximity, both internally and with partners. When it all boils down through, it is impossible to escape our nature as social creatures. We all work better when we are in the same room.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-35264639598218500512011-06-03T17:46:00.000-07:002011-06-03T17:46:41.368-07:00Time, or lack of it, and how that is not much of an excuseIt has been over a year since my last post. How feeble of me. I am generally busy with kids, work and life. However I know plenty of <a href="http://malbonnington.com/">people</a> <a href="http://garethkay.typepad.com/">who</a> <a href="http://darmano.typepad.com/">are</a> equally busy and still generate stunningly smart content all the time. I do not think time, and the lack of it is a good enough excuse.<br />
<br />
Commitment to thinking and making time to write seems to be the critical factor. It takes energy to produce actual content versus just reacting and posting in under 140 characters.<br />
<br />
Clearly I need to work on that commitment. We shall see. No promises, but I have read that public declarations are more powerful in changing behavior than mental promises kept secret. I am going to try again to publish more regularly.<br />
<br />
JoshUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-76956106390991920152010-05-24T14:12:00.000-07:002010-05-24T14:12:30.431-07:00KFC mumbo-jumboI will confess, I have a major soft spot for KFC. No, I have not tried the Double Down, (I do value my cholesterol level), but when someone says fried chicken to me, I think KFC.<br />
<br />
Saw this recent sub-section on an <a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=144035">Ad Age piece about yet another re-launch</a> announcing yet another new tag-line for KFC, "So Good".<br />
<br />
" Mr. Benito said the tagline is the result of the combined efforts of Ogilvy, Sydney; Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London; and DraftFCB, Chicago. The tagline emerged in focus groups, when lapsed customers tasted the product and said, "It's so good." But in addition to tapping nostalgia, it also provides an umbrella that works for promoting grilled chicken, crispy fried strips or a value meal.<br />
<br />
The chain is, moreover, shifting its focus from a "demographic to a psychographic," Mr. Benito said. Eating a bucket of chicken has always been a group activity, he said, so now KFC is reaching out to "socially connected people who are trans-generational." That means a teen on Facebook or her mother who reads blogs." "<br />
<br />
I don't know where to begin on unpacking this. Work born out of committee perhaps? The social aspect of a bucket of chicken? Trans-generational? Oy-vey! <br />
<br />
You know what, pushing a chain as big as KFC can't always be easy. I hope this 5th new direction for KFC in 5 years works out, but reading this article, I am not hopeful.<br />
<br />
I'm off to try and find a <a href="http://www.kfc.co.uk/our-menu/burgers-and-box-meals/zinger-tower-burger/">Tower Zinger Burger</a>, still the greatest fast food invention ever.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-33088639205104562542010-03-26T21:04:00.000-07:002010-03-26T21:03:19.414-07:00Oct_09_Cousins_halloween.3GPSent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-54790202120899932862010-03-21T20:55:00.000-07:002010-03-21T20:55:46.739-07:00WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 28px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">One output of the global economic crisis has been the willingness of desperate media owners to approve previously unthinkable media buys. Case in point: A few weeks back the Los Angeles Times allowed the movie Alice in Wonderland to take over the entire front page of the newspaper. Not a cover wrap—the actual news content of the paper for that day was obscured by Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. This buy makes it pretty clear that if you’ve got the cash, anything goes.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAZCp3zBTHrzoW3BXWB9e_0SibMyDTqSLBZAT9T0M3em74_zb7bw9rJDSMWwgyw85-Fnr6LVt19WHYgOeY-Of5oilTIt0XIEIGj8ufg4fxFca062a3fhnBpuIAO10ytsc_R6hSQVrHuM/s1600-h/LA_Times_Depp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAZCp3zBTHrzoW3BXWB9e_0SibMyDTqSLBZAT9T0M3em74_zb7bw9rJDSMWwgyw85-Fnr6LVt19WHYgOeY-Of5oilTIt0XIEIGj8ufg4fxFca062a3fhnBpuIAO10ytsc_R6hSQVrHuM/s320/LA_Times_Depp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">Last year another movie, Star Trek, persuaded ABC to let the Starship Enterprise make a flyby through the opening credits of the TV show Lost. From a traditional buying perspective, sneaking into the opening credits of a show is unheard of. (J.J. Abrams has clout for sure).</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAVCCb8sFhZUSv60melVBk5zr6eDauwRW0cZA5YajFMb3lJaK-UFaUlKCOh34I-Pev1gxQNoEqS1AJ2BeqvNsJ0HaByyx2KE1fKz0mpC6m-mIgze2rVhh9ZlgTbqXig97HfcRxf003hw/s1600-h/LostS_Start_Trek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAVCCb8sFhZUSv60melVBk5zr6eDauwRW0cZA5YajFMb3lJaK-UFaUlKCOh34I-Pev1gxQNoEqS1AJ2BeqvNsJ0HaByyx2KE1fKz0mpC6m-mIgze2rVhh9ZlgTbqXig97HfcRxf003hw/s320/LostS_Start_Trek.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">GLASS HALF FULL?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">So, is this new openness by media owners a good thing? Unfortunately, more often than not it is probably bad for our business. </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">At a macro level the encroachment of advertising everywhere has a detrimental effect on people’s liking and trust of advertising. The more surfaces we slap ads on, the more consumers seek to filter out all marketing.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">Perhaps more corrosive, though, is the long-term impact on media brands themselves. Harper’s Bazaar magazine recently ran a lavish 40-page story featuring the same four celebrities who were also fronting a major new Estée Lauder campaign. The “story” was indistinguishable from regular Lauder advertising. (Lauder ran ads featuring the same models in the issue as well.) What does it say about the Harper’s brand and its credibility when its content is so clearly for sale? As the walls between ads and content get ever more porous, the negative sentiment for advertising is dragging down the quality content that attracted advertisers in the first place.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><b>NOT GETTING BETTER</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px;">Unfortunately, the push for ever more places to insert ads is not going to let up anytime soon. The media-buying side of the house tends to equate buying a new space with being creative and innovative. The moment a new technology appears, media teams seek to exploit it as an ad medium. (We’ve already had ads on the Kindle, and we would bet a lot of money that a bunch of agencies are now working on how they can insert advertising into the iPad).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">Within the Communication Strategy group at GSP, we don’t believe that finding new ways to irritatingly interrupt people’s days is good innovation. Poor disruption only increases negative consumer reaction. If The Los Angeles Times keeps selling its front page as they did last week, the newspaper will lose subscribers.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><b>THE BIG ISSUE</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">The critical question we need to ask when considering out-of-the-box placements is not can we buy something, but should we? </span></span></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">We always want to enable positive brand interactions, something that engages and preferably enhances the consumer experience. We also know that consumers are not stupid. If the strategic link, the reason why the brand in question does what it does, is crystal clear and enhances the experience, consumers will welcome it. As ever, we all have to remember that the only opinions that really matter are consumers’.</span></span></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><b>GOOD INNOVATION</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;">An example of a good disruption/innovation? From the GSP portfolio, for the launch of Wario Land: Shake It! (a Wii game), we achieved a world-first by having the action within our YouTube video spill over into the rest of the YouTube page. Never been done before, surprising and categorically tied to the concept of the game. Consumers loved it. ( <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008">http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008</a> )</span></span></span></span></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px;">So, for Alice in Wonderland, what might have been a smarter solution? What if all the front-page stories had, instead of being obscured by Johnny Depp, actually been rewritten by his character of the Mad Hatter? Might that have been entertaining and witty, offering something of value to the reader that they might even share with others?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>FINAL WORD</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;">As we generate incredible media ideas, as much as we always want to say “yes we can” to pull them off, we also need to check that consumers will respond with a “glad you did.”</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-65931971589369423352010-02-01T09:45:00.000-08:002010-02-01T09:45:56.514-08:00Brad Pitt trims his beard! (Wow).A while back US Weekly started sending me a daily e-mail update. I think my local rep signed me up for it. Honesty, I an not a big US Weekly guy. Anyway, today I finally made the effort to unsubscribe. I was literally shocked that they thought Brad Pitt trimming his beard was news. I am even more shocked to think that even the most slavish celebrity hound would care either. So, I guess the lesson is either never underestimate people's passions, not matter how dumb they may seem. Or, as a media owner don't devalue your brand with BS. If you've got nothing to say, don't. <br />
<br />
There is a chance the headline is a joke. If it is, it is a poor one.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOXDmgLmMg2Vis8z17JcFBDZdABZm-seXcDn5bi4hfSHNBSqd6ow3H_10v4eflpQJcaVrEZQaYriYEW2IGUr_xPc9dMWHBKcuuArX1kuglrCtoN73wql7QkfgM_RSO44IlkXWWdX5xnvk/s1600-h/Picture+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOXDmgLmMg2Vis8z17JcFBDZdABZm-seXcDn5bi4hfSHNBSqd6ow3H_10v4eflpQJcaVrEZQaYriYEW2IGUr_xPc9dMWHBKcuuArX1kuglrCtoN73wql7QkfgM_RSO44IlkXWWdX5xnvk/s320/Picture+2.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-3252376274846123532010-01-21T16:48:00.001-08:002010-01-21T16:48:07.318-08:00Email to blogThis is a test of a blog post sent from my phone. Ain't tech grand? (When it works).
<br>Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-36282743688363184402010-01-21T16:17:00.000-08:002010-01-21T16:17:02.347-08:00Hyper IslandI am doing a 3-day training course run by Hyper Island. Hit and miss so far, but a few great sessions. Liked Mark Comerford on the anthropological effects of the digital revolution. You can follow Mark on Twitter as well: http://twitter.com/markmediaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-7709001418933493922009-01-25T21:43:00.000-08:002009-01-25T21:51:24.205-08:00Proud American - dumb brandsFlicking through the latest Portfolio, (one of the few magazines I take the time to read), I came across this hysterical nugget: <br /><br />"Out of 175 films in wide release this year (2008), Proud American, a tribute to everyday Americans, came in dead last. The movie, financed by Wal-mart, Coca-cola and others grossed just $131,357 on 750 screens and wasn't released overseas".<br /><br />I would love to be been in the room when the geniuses who green-lit this project at Wal-mart and Coke had to report back on its (lack of) success.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-73912270565988800992009-01-21T12:19:00.000-08:002009-01-21T12:20:41.425-08:00Digital Shake-outA couple of years ago Google started a program where they tried to sell ads in print media replicating their online search model offline. Today, they killed it. There is a larger story here that I think is worth sharing. <br /><br />For years now we have all heard about digital killing traditional media, and I am really not going to argue against the momentum Google has over NBC and the NYT. However, something that has not really been focussed on is that, still, most of the online world does not make money. YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace - all are desperately trying to monetize themselves and have thus far failed. In fact, the single biggest revenue generator for MySpace was selling exclusive search rights to Google. That was a $900M windfall for MySpace, but subsequently Google announced they are losing money on the deal in a big way. MySpace are not going to get that windfall again, and selling 30K banners is simply not cutting it for them.<br /><br />So here is where it gets interesting. If you are the CFO of Google how long do you keep funding the loss making YouTube? YouTube is uploading something like 10 hours of new content a minute. They have to pay for that storage space, running costs and everything else to keep the site up. Google affords it by subsidizing from its search business. In the current recession, if that search golden egg slows down, what do you do with YouTube? It is even tougher for NewCorp who own MySpace. The massive majority of NewsCorp revenue comes from traditional media properties, the Fox network, WSJ, Direct TV etc, all of which are suffering horribly. So unlike Google, NewsCorp does not have a wildly profitable golden egg property to help subsidize the losses at MySpace. At least not without a lot of pain.<br /><br />Now multiply this problem across the web. While there is still an incredible potential in many digital properties, there is little money, and if YouTube and Facebook with their huge audiences are struggling, how do you think smaller sites are coping? Oh, and another by-product of the credit crunch, venture capital funds have dropped off a cliff. So riding out the storm by tapping your VC may not be an option either.<br /><br />Of course, there is no way Google are going to let YouTube die, but I think we are heading for a significant shake-out not just in traditional media, but also digital. A lot of VCs, and corporate parents are going to have to make some really tough choices about their still nascent digital vehicles, and as we all know, cutting is easier than investing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-53384714646854391742009-01-06T10:18:00.000-08:002009-01-06T10:25:10.328-08:002009: change the websiteHappy New Year! <div><br /></div><div>I checked out two new marketing sites this morning, one for <a href="http://refresheverything.com/">Pepsi's optimism</a> campaign, and one for Burger King, <a href="http://www.angry-gram.com/index.php">Angry Whopper</a>. The Pepsi site is kind of lame, the Burger King one is done better. Both are boring though. This is becoming an old theme already, but I am over the web! Or at least, I am over the same old web. Upload a picture, send an angry/happy/love-gram, confess something. I am not seeing anything really new or different, and I know it is out there. So her is hoping that in 2009 we start to see some new, original and smarter uses of digital technology.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-29021102791904188402008-12-14T22:05:00.000-08:002008-12-14T22:22:55.614-08:00Hulu and YouTubeSome amazing stats came out last week. During October, YouTube, in the US alone, reached just over 100M uniques. So as much as 50% of the US online population watched a YouTube video. That is some serious big reach. <div><br /></div><div>Perhaps more amazing is how little money Google is not making at the same time. Compare that with the incredible growth of Hulu. It achieved 24M uniques in October from a site less than a year old. And Hulu is making money, built off the quality content it controls. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is no surprise that the high quality product on Hulu attracts blue-chip clients. It does raise the interesting question if Hulu could ever break a show? I know Hulu has carried some season premieres, but always prior to a network transmission. Could the next NBC hit come from Hulu? I think it could happen. People trust the content on Hulu, so if the site made a push for a new, exclusive show, why wouldn't people check it out?</div><div><br /></div><div>The worry for networks has always been how will people discover new content at its start in the face of declining ratings? This could be one solution.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-12779642426879458042008-11-30T14:51:00.000-08:002008-11-30T15:10:30.100-08:00Brand Suicide<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_8ORotQYjKP3NVund62r2Ks8BKThlPL2XE_dvw0zJHY51p-9j8TpMEdQfXzwmyCls5naqU_xumgg1Rd9bDbD9PpAZbK4H5xN1oZocvT5VsW1XqL6uKcb1F_fOfgB4NxPnPN6uYQfKno/s1600-h/speicalK.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_8ORotQYjKP3NVund62r2Ks8BKThlPL2XE_dvw0zJHY51p-9j8TpMEdQfXzwmyCls5naqU_xumgg1Rd9bDbD9PpAZbK4H5xN1oZocvT5VsW1XqL6uKcb1F_fOfgB4NxPnPN6uYQfKno/s320/speicalK.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274591788926266066" /></a><br />I came across this brand extension from Special K, a version of the low calorie, weight control breakfast now with added.....chocolate? I find this so bizarre. How can Special K, a brand thats entire purpose for being is to help consumers control their calories, pretend that adding chocolate is not a perversion of the entire brand? <div><br /></div><div>This screams to me of a company looking to boost SKUs and short term volume by adding ever more extensions, yet not thinking about their brand whatsoever. When brands do this, they are committing suicide. You can not expect consumers to believe in brand when it contradicts itself so fundamentally.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-44177932554000437992008-11-19T09:48:00.000-08:002008-11-19T09:56:27.701-08:00Nuggets 25 Years OldMcDonalds is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the nugget. There is a new fan site, <a href="http://nuggnuts.com/">here</a>, that is suitably tongue in cheek about the nugget. (The Nugget pledge anyone?)<div><br /></div><div>What I like about this is simply that McDonalds are creating interest out of nothing. Or put another way, the birthday of the nugget means nada to anyone really, but McDonalds are using the opportunity to create some interest in the product - to make it relevant. This is not rocket science at all, but I am often amazed how companies do not make more of the assets they are sitting on. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-10385657640758320382008-11-17T11:40:00.000-08:002008-11-17T11:46:52.700-08:00Sticher, IncSticher is a great little program, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline;">available</span><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/teaser.php"> online</a> or as an i-phone app. In a nutshell, it acts like an aggregator for radio content, similar to Google news format. The smart part is it then can recommend other radio content based on a Pandora/Amazon recommendations system.<div><br /></div><div>So if you like the BBC news, it will serve up NPR Market Watch or other relevant radio content. The ease of use is great, but more importantly the service reminds you how powerful radio can be as a medium. Radio has, somewhat deservedly in the US, got a bad rap. Certainly, the medium made so much cash for so long it got lazy. Sticher is a smart move to make the medium relevant and enjoyable again. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-63202306643743885292008-11-13T17:23:00.000-08:002008-11-13T17:28:24.758-08:00You TubeI met with You Tube today. They were showcasing their new sponsored video results function on You Tube. (For the record, it is a smart thing for them to do, and will make some decent money for them). <div><br /></div><div>More interesting, and just as a wow-fact, You Tube fields more searches in the US than Yahoo. This stat kind of blew my mind. You Tube has more people searching its videos than use Yahoo gets for everything search wise. Amazing! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4555669379605899473.post-58967575092640663362008-11-11T15:04:00.001-08:002008-11-11T15:11:07.169-08:00Burger King Studio<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXPM4uAkcwqwFd2GqkcrXSGV7BWdRY6LD_V5ttaViODIGCc6VQIfSSKHIWGoPrSy3h0-hzMiKxP77dLgerUCH8BfNi9wRHO_6Wsg4ftscI0H27ShCxyL6Jlh2jT2qesHoxeF1y4mhjoY/s1600-h/Picture+13.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXPM4uAkcwqwFd2GqkcrXSGV7BWdRY6LD_V5ttaViODIGCc6VQIfSSKHIWGoPrSy3h0-hzMiKxP77dLgerUCH8BfNi9wRHO_6Wsg4ftscI0H27ShCxyL6Jlh2jT2qesHoxeF1y4mhjoY/s320/Picture+13.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267541259174279794" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFSfMJqeLFI0d75z8gcTiNoDZG_Lnj0m88LXWpQcSlq8Gu-0LwQKHO3e94_uAjCPs6oqawDtkKTmDZpAv_PNtteTKy5SVtU476eBXxN0uFIgSIegxx1-UsWbonNmyvw2NJm2nvqd-PBDI/s1600-h/Picture+12.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFSfMJqeLFI0d75z8gcTiNoDZG_Lnj0m88LXWpQcSlq8Gu-0LwQKHO3e94_uAjCPs6oqawDtkKTmDZpAv_PNtteTKy5SVtU476eBXxN0uFIgSIegxx1-UsWbonNmyvw2NJm2nvqd-PBDI/s320/Picture+12.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267541166948741730" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw23oYJdEOzLVB8KhpvKtqImaL8soSvDRoaLNUjvE1M0CGNx_ORRuPsNQB9KuytLDlTrAOZ4Ig0YtdfsiuyesbturPRL9Wr5xO9oQi3pGppYhLGvkhbFo7w10WC9XAlM79yj0eggxH2g/s1600-h/Picture+11.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw23oYJdEOzLVB8KhpvKtqImaL8soSvDRoaLNUjvE1M0CGNx_ORRuPsNQB9KuytLDlTrAOZ4Ig0YtdfsiuyesbturPRL9Wr5xO9oQi3pGppYhLGvkhbFo7w10WC9XAlM79yj0eggxH2g/s320/Picture+11.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267540932792827634" /></a><br />T-shirts are clearly all the rage. Burger King have set up <a href="http://www.burgerkingstudio.com/">this new site</a> that sells rather cool clothing branded with smart, fun BK elements. Clearly a fun way to connect with young, cool guys and girls. These people will be free adverts and cool ambassadors for the brand. BK will also make money selling this stuff - ads that pay for themselves, nice. Oh, and you can create your own custom looks as well. All very smart and engaging. <div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0