Big Picture Advertising

Google Social Search - big news

GIven the interest in all things social I'm surprised the Google Social Search announcement hasn't got more coverage. Giving Google access to your social networks will enable the search results to show relevant information posted by your friends - across Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Yelp etc (although no mention of Facebook so we'll assume that's a no)

The local aspect is very interesting when we think about mobile - another example of mobile and social coming together.

Thoughts? Will you give Google access to your social graph?

More Seth Godin genius - Quiet your Lizard Brain

Stop what you are doing and take 20 minutes to watch this video from Seth Godin.

As ever Seth nails it. Which is why we now live our lives based on WWSD - what would Seth do.

Its All About Mobile, baby

Over the years I have probably nicked more charts from Morgan Stanleys Mary Meeker than anyone else. Why? She is always right on the money and she supports her views with really good data.

In her presentation at Web 2.0 yesterday she nails it again - it's all about mobile.

The staggering Apple results, the momentum building around Android and the way people are embracing mobile as the remote control for their lives, tells us that mobile is the only game in town.

Enough people have smartphones ( and everyone else wants one) , the distribution through the burgeoning app stores now makes getting content and services out there easy and the built in business model offers great opportunity.

Now all that is needed is talent who can develop addictive content and services for this platform. Talent who can connect the mobile world with facebook and socialise this content and services. And talent who can find the right way for business to take advantage of this new opportunity; reducing costs, minimising churn, maximising profit and building a rich dialogue with their most valuable customers.

That's what we are focused on right now.

Product Placement going legit?

With all the speculation around product placement triggered by Ben Bradshaws speech to the RTS I thought it worth digging up some of my old posts on the topic.

My main thought though is that it won't be ITV or the other broadcasters who gain the most benefit - it will be the programme producers. They make the programmes and are closest to the opportunities for brand integration - they also increasingly recognise the value of their IP.

I can't see the smart people at Endemol, RDF or Kudos meekly handing over either the control needed to make this work - or the revenue.

Product Placement - part of the solution or part of the problem?

As Ofcom hints that product placement may become more acceptable in the UK we're seeing some talk in the US of tighter regulations. Product placement is well established there - with shows like American Idol including over 400 commercial messages! - and a large proportion of advertisers using it as a marketing tactic.

In a recent speech by one of the heads of the Federal Communications Commission there is a call for more explicit disclosure of product placement

"There is nothing inherently wrong with product placement – so long as it is disclosed as required by law.
Disclosures should also be meaningful. A disclosure that appears on screen for a split second
during the credits in small type that no one could possibly read without pausing their DVR-- and
pulling out a magnifying glass—could not possibly qualify"

Remember the old saying - if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem? We think consumers have issues with gratuitous use of product placement and it contributes to the general disillusionment with advertising.

I ran a very early product placement for Kenco Coffee in the early 90s - as an example of what could be done we had the new packaging featured in Coronation Street - Alf Roberts held the jar clearly as he chatted in the corner shop for around 50 seconds. It was very impressive but we couldn't see any real commercial value. At around the same time we proposed the use to Nintendo in a pitch - we'd pay for placement of the latest console in the episodes of Neighbours that would be shown in the run up to Christmas here in the UK. (Product placement is legal in Australia). We didn't win the pitch, so it never happened.

Ten years on we think there is a place for product placement but there are now smarter ways to engage with customers on TV; smart use of iTV will do a lot more for a brand as would exploration of ad funded programming. A conference in the US this week talked about some of the opportunities but makes the point that branded entertainment must resonate with consumers to be effective.

Original post (from June 2005) with working links here

Product Placement - ready for prime time?

Product placement got lots of coverage in the press this weekend.The Sunday Times told their readers what we all knew - that spending with the right middleman can get your product just about anywhere on the BBC (and the rest of UK TV as well). Suitably outraged, the BBC have announced an enquiry!

Peter Bazalgette the head of Big Brother production company Endemol wrote just a few days ago that product placement is the only way to save TV - pointing out that PVRs will erode the traditional ad spend. And John Pluthero, the former boss of Freeserve stirred up the RTS conference this week;

TV is under threat like never before, as viewer behaviour changes, he said. 'Accept it, [remould] your business to suit, or die on your arse

Citing the impact of technology, Pluthoro suggests TV companies should embrace product placement and work with advertisers to create content.

As we've noted before product placement isn't new and it isn't that clever. But we have seen some interesting new evidence that shows just how well it can work - take a look at this chart looking at the Coke involvement in American Idol - from a presentation at MIP by Simon Spalding of Fremantle. Coke recognition was significantly higher within the show -  where Coke had extensive product placement - than in other shows.

Given this sort of evidence - and the threat of PVRs we expect product placement to continue to grow. But with guidance from OFCOM due - and with calls for clearer labeling growing - we expect it to work on a rather more strategic level than the examples the Sunday Times discovered.

Original post (from September 2005) with working links here

As Ofcom hints that product placement may become more acceptable in the UK we're seeing some talk in the US of tighter regulations. Product placement is well established there - with shows like American Idol including over 400 commercial messages! - and a large proportion of advertisers using it as a marketing tactic.

In a recent speech by one of the heads of the Federal Communications Commission there is a call for more explicit disclosure of product placement

"There is nothing inherently wrong with product placement – so long as it is disclosed as required by law.
Disclosures should also be meaningful. A disclosure that appears on screen for a split second
during the credits in small type that no one could possibly read without pausing their DVR-- and
pulling out a magnifying glass—could not possibly qualify"

Remember the old saying - if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem? We think consumers have issues with gratuitous use of product placement and it contributes to the general disillusionment with advertising.

I ran a very early product placement for Kenco Coffee in the early 90s - as an example of what could be done we had the new packaging featured in Coronation Street - Alf Roberts held the jar clearly as he chatted in the corner shop for around 50 seconds. It was very impressive but we couldn't see any real commercial value. At around the same time we proposed the use to Nintendo in a pitch - we'd pay for placement of the latest console in the episodes of Neighbours that would be shown in the run up to Christmas here in the UK. (Product placement is legal in Australia). We didn't win the pitch, so it never happened.

Ten years on we think there is a place for product placement but there are now smarter ways to engage with customers on TV; smart use of iTV will do a lot more for a brand as would exploration of ad funded programming. A conference in the US this week talked about some of the opportunities but makes the point that branded entertainment must resonate with consumers to be effective.

Product placement got lots of coverage in the press this weekend.The Sunday Times told their readers what we all knew - that spending with the right middleman can get your product just about anywhere on the BBC (and the rest of UK TV as well). Suitably outraged, the BBC have announced an enquiry!

Peter Bazalgette the head of Big Brother production company Endemol wrote just a few days ago that product placement is the only way to save TV - pointing out that PVRs will erode the traditional ad spend. And John Pluthero, the former boss of Freeserve stirred up the RTS conference this week;

TV is under threat like never before, as viewer behaviour changes, he said. 'Accept it, [remould] your business to suit, or die on your arse

Citing the impact of technology, Pluthoro suggests TV companies should embrace product placement and work with advertisers to create content.

As we've noted before product placement isn't new and it isn't that clever. But we have seen some interesting new evidence that shows just how well it can work - take a look at this chart looking at the Coke involvement in American Idol - from a presentation at MIP by Simon Spalding of Fremantle. Coke recognition was significantly higher within the show -  where Coke had extensive product placement - than in other shows.

Given this sort of evidence - and the threat of PVRs we expect product placement to continue to grow. But with guidance from OFCOM due - and with calls for clearer labeling growing - we expect it to work on a rather more strategic level than the examples the Sunday Times discovered.

The mobile disconnect between consumers and business

 In yesterdays Sunday Times the Vodafone CEO talked about tourists he had watched in Rome;

Technology, he noted, was changing their habits. “Some of them were with the guide who was holding the little umbrella but following a map on their phone as well,” he said. The smartphones that Vodafone had been selling for five years or more to business customers had finally permeated into the mainstream.

The facts are now pretty clear - consumers are using smartphones as the remote control for their life - accessing mobile services and content as they need to solve problems - which way is the Museum?, what's the football score?, i need to order some groceries, i have 5 minutes to kill etc.

Yet there is a real disconnect here - business seems a little slow to get with this programme. Research suggests few Fortune 1000 companies have a mobile strategy - and we believe that even amongst those that have, mobile is being viewed as an acquisition channel. Classic Big M Marketing - focused on promotion.

But what about the opportunities for what we call small m marketing - reducing the cost of servicing customers through enhanced self service, lowering transaction costs, increasing barriers to churn, facilitating advocacy etc. This type of service issue is perfectly suited to mobile yet few mobile marketers seem to focus here.

Why? Well the panel I ran at the Mobile Marketing Forum in Berlin suggested that clients think Agencies don't get mobile. Speakers from Coke, P&G, BMW and Lufthansa talked about their success stories and it was clear that the client is taking the lead.

Resolving this disconnect between consumers and business is a huge opportunity. We believe that the answer is addictive services and content that solve consumers problems - branded utility made real by mobile.

There are few brands that can't benefit from this approach - we note that Vodafone have a churn problem too

Some 18% of its better value contract customers quit in the past year. They cost £350 each to recruit.

They need some addictive services and content too.

New Ofcom report - Mostly Mobile

Those clever people at Ofcom (the ones David Cameron wants to fire) have published a very interesting report called Mostly Mobile.

Its a 195 pages so I have a bit more to read, but found this very interesting;

Mobile data services on handsets. A growing proportion of mobile users within the UK use smartphones (22), which enable access to more advanced data features.(23) Research suggests smartphone owners are more likely to use mobile data services than owners of other handsets.(24)

22A category of advanced mobile handsets; they run complete operating systems and have relatively large screens and powerful ‘PC like’ processors.

23 23 per cent of all UK handset sales in 2008 were smartphones, compared to only 13 per cent in 2007.

24 Comscore, March 2009, http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2759 For example, 77 per cent of smartphone owners use email, 40 per cent use the GPS functionality, and 38 per cent use instant

Well worth a read.

New Home

I'm now lodging with the nice people at Agenda 21 - the award winning digital media business. Having worked with Pete Robins back in the day at Modem I figured he will be less shocked by my bad habits than some of the other friends who also generously offered space - Que Pasa, Amberlight, C4, Dare, Spike, Grand Union, Unruly Media, Great Guns, Contentment....

As well as all this generosity I'm seeing a real appetite for new thinking amongst people and a genuinely entrepreneurial spirit - most people seem to be with Rahm Emanuel when he said its a shame to waste a good crisis.

The upside of the credit crunch is that talented people are available, its never been cheaper to develop new ideas and smart businesses are looking for ways to improve the consumer experience as a way of increasing loyalty and reducing the churn that plague so many industries.

Its a good time to be launching a new venture

This is the future

Apps - this changes everything

Those nice people at Contagious have allowed me to share the article on Apps I wrote for their latest issue.Download Apps - Contagious march 09
As with anything moving as fast as apps it's already a little outdated - the founder of Dodgeball ( which I mention) has now launched foursquare and a number of the gaps I discuss have been filled.
But I remain convinced that apps ( be they on Facebook, iPhone or anywhere else )are a major opportunity for brands and will be a significant factor for some time yet.

Nokia app store to launch Mobile Immersive Experiences

With the Apple appstore rumoured to be close to 1 million downloads since its launch last July, the other mobile players are getting in on the act - RIM have just launched the Blackberry app store, Nokia launches their version - called Ovi - next month and Microsoft have announced some of the apps they will feature when they launch towards the end of the year.

Most of the apps that have done well are either functional (Krafts iFood recipe tool, North Face ski weather guide and LiveStrongs calorie counter) or games (including the addictive Drop7 from the smart people at AreaCode). The games sector is really interesting as we are seeing evidence that the iphone (and the similarly functioning ipod touch) are emerging as a serious gaming platforms.

But much as we love branded utility, few apps are what you might call creative - whilst we like the ipint we have yet to see this new tool used for really innovative thinking.

It looks like Nokia are excited about the opportunity to create addictive content that builds loyalty to their products. Having made a big push with music they have now partnered with Heroes creator Tim Kring to launch TEVA - something he describes as a Mobile Immersive Experience - through their app store Ovi. The concept seems vague - variously described as a cross between user generated content and a ARG, and a multiplatform interactive storytelling project.

"It's a very real-world idea," said Kring. "We are trying to invent a new genre here."

The beta version allowed people to bring up info when their phone camera was pointed at say a movie poster - maybe the trailer or directions to the nearest cinema. This combination of mobile with the real world will be a major theme  in mobile marketing - and validates the decision to buy a Nokia proprietary

"That's why we spent $8 billion on Navteq," said Anssi Vanjaki, executive VP of markets, at a roundtable discussion. "It wasn't just to provide maps or directions. Imagine 1 billion mobile phones contributing their location, and then what types of databases and services can be derived from that."

We're long on mobile - and remain convinced it will be a major marketing medium. And with the distribution inherent in the app stores making it relatively easy to get content and applications onto smart phones, we think the key mobile marketing elements will be app related. But as TEVA suggests, this doesn't has to be just about branded utility - the topic of conversation can also be about entertainment.

As brands recognise that interruption is much less effective than involvement, we believe smart marketers will look at mobile apps as a fantastic way of building a dialogue with people. And the really clever ones will use that dialogue to make their brand more important to these people – and make the people more important to their brand.