3 Out of 4 Visitors to the Met Never Make It to the Front Door
Despite the title, much of Carol Vogel's article is about how museums are making money from the internet, not just generating incremental traffic. It is a timely piece and speaks to the value of subscriptions, targeted online commerce, and using consumer-generated media to generate incremental revenue from the internet.
At a minimum, museums have two of the fundemental building blocks for owning real estate online and creating value as a result: High quality, original and exclusive content and a passionate audience. Some have even understood the value of tapping into that passion and giving those voices a platform. It is great to see that a few of them get it.
In their Off Center blog, Walker art Center's Paul Schmeizer provides some excellent insight into museums and blogging. Or, as he puts it: The museoblogosphere. He also points to a series on The State of Museum Blogs and conference notes from last week's Museums & the Web.
Quotes from the full NYT article: Some days the first thing visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art see is the soaring neo-Classical Great Hall punctuated by Corinthian columns, niches brimming with flowers and the spacious information desk. Other days, they may glimpse the interior of the famous Temple of Dendur, with its ancient ruins and sloping glass wall looking onto Central Park.
Fifteen million people a year come upon these scenes without ever setting foot in the Met building. Instead, they visit the Web site, www.metmuseum.org, which provides a different view of the inside of the museum every day. These Internet surfers, from all over the globe, number more than three times the 4.5 million visitors who go to Fifth Avenue to the Met every year.
In less than a decade, Web sites for other museums, like the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, have become almost as important as the museums themselves. The sites offer a way to gain a new audience and even invite challenges to curatorial authority, while reinforcing the museum's identity. They are also becoming a robust source of revenue.
Every year, the Met puts about $1 million into improving its Web site. Last year it earned $6.5 million in total revenue, a figure that includes its memberships, shop and fund-raising efforts.
"If you want to keep capturing today's audience you have to up the ante," said Nik Honeysett, manager of Web services for the J. Paul Getty Trust, which this year redesigned its site, www.getty.edu. The site attracts about a million 10.5 million visitors a year, compared with 1.2 million who visit in person. And it is growing: this month the site had a million visitors for the first time.
"We had to learn to relinquish our curatorial authority, to get noninstitutional voices," said Kathy Halbreich, the director of the Walker. "The blog gives us a multiplicity of voices."
Increasingly, the Web has become a resource for institutions to learn more about their audiences.
"There are all kinds of approaches," Ms. Halbreich said. "I want to make this a rich resource, a very fluid representation of a very fluid organization."
Friday, March 31, 2006 0 comments
From the hustle of the capital to the hills of Rajasthan: Photos from Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Sariska and the Pushkar Festival.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 0 comments
I've been a fan (and subscriber) of Heavy.com for years. Great stuff. I even used to get their Heavy CDs - one of the few things I looked forward to receiving via snail mail. It's a cool well-produced site merits its more than 10 million unique monthly viewers.
They closed a $10 million round of financing round led by Polaris Venture Partners in January "to accelerate the roll-out of original programming created expressly for online and mobile consumption."
Saul Hansel over on the New York Times profiled Heavy.com in today's paper. As I wrote, however, the game has changed and content (including ads) will increasingly be distributed and shown directly on individual web sites.
Let's hope Heavy's Simon Assaad and David Carson have anticipated this. I'd hate to see Heavy on a diet. ;)
Monday, March 27, 2006 0 comments
We had 8-tracks, vinyl and CDs. Now we have MP3s. Most stockbrokers and travel agents are dinosaurs. Rocketboom now has 300K daily viewers and there are 1.2 million blog posts every day. The recent sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchyhe should worry the entire publishing industry, if they weren't already concerned about the state of their declining business. It has been a horrible year for the newspaper business, in particular, but should that come as a surprise to anyone? Even Rupert Murdoch seems to know better these days.
~ Declining circulation (-3%) ~ Declining revenue (circ. revenue -7% at the Tribune) ~ Profit margins down 1.5%, to just below 20% ~ Classified ad revenue is drying up ~ Worsening mix of circulation to advertising revenue ~ Falling stock prices (-20% on Wall Street) ~ Mature industry ~ Job losses ~ No archival value of product ~ And you still get ink all over your hands when you read 'em
The sad thing for many publishers and other dinosaurs, is that this story is only news to them.
Quoted from Knowledge@Wharton: Wharton marketing professor Peter S. Fader holds out little hope that people will continue to buy physical newspapers in large numbers in years to come. He likens the Internet's assault on newspapers to the impact that digital downloading of music has had on compact discs: CD's still have appeal but they are no longer the sole, dominant medium they once were. "I still believe that there's a vital role for non-digital content in music," Fader suggests. "There's a lot to be said for owning a CD and putting it on the shelf and holding it in your hand. Some people say that same thing about newspapers. I'm not sure I agree with that. It may be true, but newspapers are transient. They have no archive value. I'm not going to add a newspaper to my collection. They are a nuisance to deal with, especially since we don't wrap fish anymore. When the Chicken Littles say, 'The sky is falling,' I think they're right."
How, then, is the industry really doing? The difficulty in making a simple, terse assessment is expressed in The State of the News Media 2006: An Annual Report on American Journalism, released on March 13 by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an organization that works to raise the standards of American journalism.
"For the newspaper industry, 2005 turned out to be a year of unpleasant surprises," the report states. "Every indicator, including the number of news staff members that the nation's best metro papers field every day, was on a steep downward path. Yet the picture heading into 2006 is ambiguous."
Wharton professor Kevin Werbach asks Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist.com), Julie Herendeen (VP of Network Products at Yahoo) and William Flitter (CEO of Pheedo).
John Paczkowski over on GMSV writes: Now that Google's doing chatandfinancial advice, can horoscopes be far behind? Over all, Google Finance seems a nice take on the financial services portal, but it's nothing game-changing. And as Forrester analyst Charlene Li suggests, that could be its biggest challenge. The site doesn't really offer anything that would compel one to abandon the service they use currently.
Since then, however, I've become convinced that Last.fm is a much better product. It is a far-superior service with add-ons and features that Pandora simply cannot match. It is the power of a service using technology to enable social recommendation versus a smart algorithm.
To me, the former still has the edge. For now, I prefer the NYTimes to Google News. Like most people, I prefer the value of recommendations and word-of-mouth from people to auto-generated links. Combine the two (as Last.fm does) and you create a very powerful offer.
You've got to wonder if there isn't something here that should worry Google just a bit.
Blog Maverick quotes Craig Moffet of Bernstein Research: In a series of recent research reports that I entitled "The Dumb pipe Paradox– which I believe provided the original impetus for the Committee’s invitation to testify today – I tried to address the expectation that the telcos are rapidly rushing in to meet this need and to provide competition for cable incumbents. In fact, by their own best estimates, they’ll be able to reach no more than 40% or so of American households with fiber over the next seven years.
And most of that will be in the form of hybrid fiber/legacy copper networks, such as that being constructed by AT&T under the banner of ”Project Lightspeed.” These hybrid networks are expected to deliver 20Mbs average downstream bandwidth. After accounting for significant standard deviation around that average, that will mean many enabled subscribers will actually recieve far less. I and many others on Wall Street harbor real doubts as whether these hybrid networks will provide technologically sufficient to meet future demands
More importantly, in 60% of the country, there are simply no new networks on the horizon, and the existing infrastructure from the telcos – DSL running at speeds of just 1.5Mbs or so – simply won’t be adequate to be considered “broadband” in five years or so. That includes wireless networks, by the way. Current and planned wireless networks – including the over-hyped Wi-Max technology – offer the promise of satisfying today’s definition of broadband, but simply can’t feasibly support the kind of bandwidth required for the kind of dedicated point-to-point video connections that will be required to be considered broadband tomorrow.”
Craig is right. The last mile into our homes wont have enough bandwidth to support all that we will want to do via our internet connections at home.
The net result is that TV is going to be TV, delivered like TV for a long time to come. (I consider IPTV to be regular TV). There wont be enough bandwidth for it to be any other way.
Monday, March 20, 2006 1 comments
Mash-up in the online gossip market
Gawker's Stalker Map is the latest in a series of new sites/features launched targeting the online gossip marketplace. At iWon.com, it was one of the most popular areas of the portal, and I'm not surprised to see it (finally) gaining momentum.
Quoted from Scotsman.com: Popular gossip site Gawker.com's "stalker map" uses the Google map service to plot the location of the famous face as soon as possible after the tip comes in. Article: Gawker 'stalker map' tracks celebs
Another new player is WeSmirch which "distills the lastest buzz from popular gossip blogs and news sites every five minutes.
All articles are selected via computer algorithm, vividly demonstrating that computers have a very long way to go before actually accomplishing truly intelligent work."
Finally, Vallywag shows no signs of slowing down. Targeted at the tech crowd (specifically in Silicon Valley), "Valleywag is a tech gossip rag. You people in Silicon Valley are far too busy changing the world to care about sex, greed and hypocrisy. But if you ever need a break, come visit us at Valleywag."
Thursday, March 16, 2006 0 comments
Spotted by Micropersuasion: Adrants reports that Chevy has teamed with The Apprentice to launch a consumer-generated advertising contest for the 2007 Chevy Tahoe. It was heavily featured in the show. Chevy set up a site where consumers can click and drag commercial components together to create an ad.
Quoted from Chevy: The all new 2007 Chevy Tahoe is more capable, more responsible, and more refined. Now, you’re the director and it’s your job to communicate this message by creating the best Tahoe online commercial for your chance to win.
Thursday, March 16, 2006 0 comments
The game has changed as much as Jordan changed the game
Where did I hear about this great ad from Wieden + Kennedy? On a blog, that's where. And where are you watching this great ad? On a blog, that's where. Case closed.
Jordan curse is still sometimes a blessing Quoted on adfreak: Yes, Nike still clings to Michael Jordan like flies on a rib roast. But that’s OK, particularly when we get a great commercial like Wieden + Kennedy’s “2nd Generation”out of it. T
We Are The Media is high on Rocketboom and their new ads for TRM. MIT Advertising Lab's blogs about it, too. And why shouldn't they be? A small chapter of internet history is being written by Rocketboom, and who knows where all of this will go.
Over on Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel is excited about a new study from Forrester Research. Forrester's report also seems to lend support to some interesting research done by Steve's new firm in their Edelman trust barometer. Worht a look, I think.
Either way, his lead image (above) is a keeper. A larger version is here.
Quoted: In a breakthrough new report Forrester Research is declaring institutional power on its way out thanks to the adoption of social media technologies. The report surmises: “Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.”
18-22 Years Old? Want your own TV Show? Think You Can Do Better Than The Pros? Channel 4 are looking for a group of lively, opinionated young people who will be given the opportunity of a lifetime ... the chance to write, produce and star in their very own TV Show! No experience is necessary - just the guts, personality and determination to see your ideas come to life. If you’ve got a reputation for being loud, funny, entertaining or ballsy then get yourself down to one of our open auditions.
Their (heated) discussion is like a trip down memory lane. FWIW, I always thought that SAR was the sizzle and @NY was the steak. They were both required reading if you wanted to be part of Silicon Alley - a term which I always kinda liked. Sorry, Fred.
Calacanis can't resist the opportunity to grab headlines and attention. It is in his blood. It makes him who he is and is why he does what he does. The rise and fall of the SAR are both perfect examples of his ego at work. The sale of Weblogs Inc. shows that even an (semi) egomaniac can learn from past experiences.
What has always surprised me is why Tom and Jason never got the band back together again and started blogging. If @NY was their prelude, the @NY blog could have been a symphony. Did Meckler pay them so much that they decided to walk away? I've never figured it out.
All we need now is a party invite from Courney or Bernardo (or i-boy) and a goodie bag and it would be like 19th Street all over again. ;)
Fred and Joanne Wilson have joined in as well, for those of you scoring it at home.
I got them to work agian. I finally got them to work again! Six months of template hell, and comments are working again on i-boy. Well, here's to small geeky miracles. In the end, it wasn't such a big problem. I just wasn't looking in the right place.
As an added bonus, the permalink URLs on i-boy are much cleaner than they were before. The meaningless post ID numbers are gone and have been replaced with 'real English' URLs.
So, what do you think? ;)
That said, I'm still considering migrating from Blogger to MT or WordPress. After 5 years, i-boy is due for a serious update, and I'm not sure if Blogger can handle the functionality I want to add.
Monday, March 13, 2006 1 comments
My Take: This looks like a useful tool. It won't replace standard stats packages, but the visual representation of the clickstreams (what they call "heat overlay") is helpful.
I'll use it for presentations with people who can't be bothered with numbers as I think it will grab their attention. Some say that Urchin (now Google analytics) has had the site overlay function for years. Not sure about that, so I may have to check it out. I've used Urchin but don't remember the overlay. Maybe it is a premium feature.
Usability experts will love this, too, since it shines some light on the value they bring to the table as well. Jacob should buy stock in these guys.
Quoted from TechCrunch: Standard web statistic packages compete based on who can offer the most statistics, the most colorful graphs and trying to wrap usability around all that information. The guys at Crazy Egg have taken a different approach where you can measure and actually see what your users are doing when they visit your site, and from these results you can immediately optimize your site based on your visitors usage patterns. The result is that you can learn a lot more about your visitors from a lot less information that is found in analytics packages.
Alexaholic blends Alexa traffic charts with a lightweight ajax-enhanced interface to satisfy hard-core Alexa traffic junkies - aka Alexaholics.
Monday, March 13, 2006 0 comments
Follow-up on this week's Postcard
Rocketboom may be the poster child for original online video programming, but there are other great examples and Sail.tv is one of the latest. (70,000 viewers in its first month.) The NYTimes interviews Andy Steward, Lauren Zalaznick (president of Bravo and Trio, two cable channels owned by NBC Universal) and others.
Quoted: Andy Steward, a successful London computer consultant and sailboat racer, became exasperated when trying to watch his favorite sport on television. There were a few half-hour recaps of some major sailing races, but they were always shown late at night.
Mr. Steward looked into creating a sailing channel on the Sky satellite service in Britain, but his idea was soon dead in the water. He would have had to pay £85,000 (nearly $150,000) to start the channel and £40,000 a month (nearly $70,000), as well as the production costs. That was a lot of money for an untested concept.
But in January, he did introduce a sailing channel, one that is rapidly filling with sailing talk shows, product reviews, programs on sailing techniques and, most important, intense coverage of the sort of smaller races that don't make it onto traditional television.
His new channel, however, will not be available over the air. And it won't be found on cable or even on satellite, at least not yet. The channel, called Sail.tv, is broadcast only on the Internet, which enables video to reach a much larger worldwide audience at a much lower initial cost than a satellite channel. Because "we didn't have any idea how big the audience would be," Mr. Steward said, he wanted to keep his expenses as low as possible. "Internet television is an investment we can grow into," he said.
Video tops the list of this week's wrap-up of things making waves in the blogosphere.
That's one small step for NBC ... And one giant leap into the Blogosphere fror SNL. Over on A VC, Fred Wilson talks about how NBC is offering its SNL videos for free on its own web site. What NBC has done is a step in the right direction, but they've got a long way to go.
You've got to walk before you can run, however, and making these popular videos available is a nice first step. As Fred and others point out, however, they've got to improve the service if they really hope to acheive any kind of viral traction.
Fred writes, "You can't put the video on your own page, like you can with YouTube. That is key, and I mean key. People want to turn their MySpace pages, their blogs, and whatever else into their own TV station. And that's critical to viral distribution. NBC needs to offer that functionality."
The player isn't that great, either. Including ads in the videos might not be a bad idea either, especially if they're planning to make money with their new idea. A mainstream media company that makes money from online video? Now, there's an idea. ;)
Don't take my word for it. Here's the Natalie Portman video on NBC. If you're looking for it on YouTube, you'll find it here. It isn't available on Google Video, from what I can tell. Go make up your own mind.
SkypeMe Your eBay Bids Om Makik writes: When eBay bought Skype last year for a whopping $4.1 billion ($2.6 billion in stock/cash and rest as an earn out) my theory is that the first step in integration of the two companies would be adding a Skype Me feature for all sellers on the eBay system. Well, time to say, told you so. Wikipedia Publishes Millionth Article The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the 1,000,000th article in the English language edition of Wikipedia. The article is about the Jordanhill railway station in Scotland, and it was started by Wikipedia contributor Ewan Macdonald. Wikipedia is a free, multilingual, online encyclopedia with 3.3 million articles under development in more than 125 languages.
Mystery Training i-boy is not a political blog. Too many other bloggers do it much better than I ever could. If you have the time and want the inside scoop on American politics, there is a mainstream source with all the buzz and flavour of the best political blogs out there: Mark Halprin's The Note. This week, his crew provides the text of a speech that pretty much all candidates headed to this weekend's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis can give. "We have included stage directions too, but, alas, we can't help you deliver it. For that, you are on your own."
ps: PJ, if you're reading this, I just wanted to maks sure that you know that most of the time you don't have to pay to subscribe to an RSS feed. I know you old-school media guys equate "subscribe" with "pay" ... but times are changin' my man! That said, feel free to PayPal me some cash anytime you feel like it.
Saturday, March 11, 2006 0 comments
1. YouTube was constructed with a community in mind. Its interface tools, such as tagging, a rating system, comments, friends, favorites, friends' favorites, etc. go far beyond what Google Video provides for letting the community of users connect.
2. YouTube's user interface is vastly better. It's easy to use and more attractive while ironically retaining a Google-like simplicity. Google Video's UI is so spartan as to be unattractive.
3. YouTube's viral functions -- "Share this video" and "tell a friend" -- are ridiculously easy. The functions are automatically added at the end of each video, making each video simple to share. The brilliant seed of YouTube's model includes code for each user to play YouTube's videos directly from their own blog or website. Google's viral functions are found in the user panel under somewhat obtuse links called "put on site" and "send link."
4. YouTube videos always load and play faster than Google videos. At least that's been my experience on two different computers in multiple locations.
5. YouTube displays the number of times each video has been played. That's a data point of pride for uploaders. Google Video most likely compiles that data but does not display it. Data transparency is helpful for both content creators and viewers.
6. YouTube's user account system is more robust. It's also easier to use and filled with more data than Google's.
7. YouTube's search functionality is vastly better than Google's. That's a surprising outcome from the world's search leader. YouTube can sort search returns by date added, title, view count and rating. Google Video's search sort is by date and title.
8. YouTube displays three random images from each video for search returns. That makes it considerably easier for users to find specific video files from large batches of results. Google Video just displays the first frame of each video file.
9. YouTube displays trackbacks to each video. Google Video does not. YouTube's functionality there makes it easier to discover who the more influential virus-spreaders are.
10. YouTube helps users find the obvious: related videos. It's a great tool for users trying to build video evidence related to a subject. For instance, go to the comments of this video to see the "related video" functionality
A fairly mundane review of the goings on in Wien at the moment. The article mentions all the standards, so a first-time tourist won't miss a monument. There is a lot more to Vienna than Meinl, the Musikverein and Skybar.
They're nice places. Don't get me wrong.
To me, Vienna is an old-school jewel of a city with an abundance of charm and distinction. As the Times shows, the top layer of the city is soon discovered, but much of Vienna’s beauty hides in the unseen corners of one-way streets and alleyways. You could say the same about the people.
Betfair, the betting exchange operator, is to sell a stake of up to 23 per cent to SoftBank Corporation, of Japan, in a deal valuing the group at just over £1.5 billion.
Friday, March 03, 2006 0 comments
A Party in the Blogosphere
Here is Friday's Blogosphere newsletter, for those of you who missed it.
Not on the list? Subscribe by sending a message to blogosphere(at)i-boy.com Party Gaming made some buzz this week when they released their preliminary results for 2005. Those and other interesting numbers are floating around out there this week in the blogosphere.
Party Gaming: Preliminary Results 2005 Here is a link to the PDF of their IR presentation. In-depth interviews (video, audio, text) with departing CEO Richard Segal and Martin Weigold, Group FD are available free on Cantos.com.
Highlights:
·Revenues up 63% to almost $1bn
·$70m increase year-on-year in casino revenues
·EBITDA up 49% to $584m (now 60% from 65%, due to marketing and distribution costs)
·Q4 launch of Blackjack increased casino revenues 5X and made them #1 online casino in the world
·34% of their users play both poker and blackjack, with 15% cannibalization
·International growth: in December, 37% of poker sign-ups were non-US
·Yield per active player day was down by 8% year-on-year to 17.5%
·Successful launch on integrated PartyGaming brand
Web 2.0 well-defined in Jupiter Research podcast Quoted from the Social Software Weblog, The question of how to define Web 2.0 is a common one, and this weekend I was able to listen to a conversation that covered all the based quite well. Titled "Web 2.0: What Does it Mean for Business?" I found this to be one of the most easy to understand and thorough discussions on the topic available. It's 30 minutes long and well worth a listen. The discussion covers the history of the technologies involved, the role of user generated content and much more.
Review: The Future of Marketing summit A few interesting panels, some obvious fear of the unknown, a bit of agency drivel, and a few dinosaurs were spotted Thursday at the Future of Marketing Summit at the TUC in London. Live blogging on i-boy.com: 1, 2, 3, 4
Vista has a voice New voice recognition technology is being built into the Vista OS, and by early accounts seems to be a pretty sharp implementation. Chris Henley at Technet has a demo video. Rocketboom goes HD I agree with theblog50: Rocketboom is the best videoblog on the web, and it just got better. Starting with today’s episode, Rocketboom is now filmed in 16×9 high-definition format, which makes host Amanda Congdon look even hotter than usual. We didn’t think that it was possible, but it is, and the world rejoices along with us.
The Acid Test >> How prepared really are we? A round of quickfire Q&A on the most pressing issues and ‘what ifs’ that surround the sector moderated by Martin Bowley of Kendall Tarrant Worldwide
My Take: A panel of dinosaurs. I was shocked. SHOCKED!
Neil Jones, MD at Carat talked about how brands should pick the media channel for their communications first, and then do the creative that fits it best. Creative takes the back seat to the channel. Hmmm.
When asked if this was some kind of extension of The Media is the Message, he was clueless. As channels are so important to him, you'd think they would be first in line to take advantage of new ones. Given the conference title, you might even think media companies on the panel would be enthusiastic. Not so.
When asked if Carat (or any of the other panelists) had thought of buying space on Rocketboom, or any other video or audio podcast, the audience was treated to long blank stares. Sheryl Norman said she needed agencies to help Coke figure out new media since there is no one at the company in charge of it. Her title? Head of Integrated Marketing Services. Hmmm.
She spoke at length about the power of TV advertising and how great Coke's TV spots are. Quick: What was the last great Coke ad you saw on TV? Exactly.
Bjarne Thelin - Chief Executive BARB (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board - the UK's version of Nielsen) said that he is happy to measure whatever channels that pay up to be measured. When repeatedly asked if they're doign R&D on how to capture and report on data from smaller fringe channels, he had nothing to say.
Theresa Wise, Partner, Media & Entertainment at Accenture wins my dinoprize, however. For as much as I thought that Neil Jones' smug and oblivious answers' were ignorant and short-sighted, Theresa was downright pathetic. Allow me to paraphrase a bit of the Q&A from the panel:
Question: One blog is created every second. What do you think of the long tail of the internet? Is there value there? Things like MySpace, do they have value?
Theresa: No. The Arctic Monkeys are the exception to the rule. I don't think you can reach a wide enough audience on places like that. There are all these people out there writing whatever it is they do. And bands. But, who says they'll be successful. I don't see it happening.
Question: What is the most future-looking thing you've seen recently?
Teresa: Memory sticks that hold movies. In the future, you'll be able to take the memory stick with a movie on it and put it in your phone. You'll be able to use that same memory stick to watch that movie in your hotel room.
Question: When speaking of consumer advertising and the adoption and use of new media, don't you think it is a bit naive to call it a dotcom crash? After all, consumers have done nothing but use it more.
Theresa: Well (laughs) Boo.com is a great site, isn't it? The panel: Bjarne Thelin – Chief Executive BARB Neil Jones – Managing Director Carat UK Theresa Wise – Partner, Media & Entertainment Accenture Sheryl Norman – Head of Integrated Marketing Services Coca Cola Friday, March 03, 2006 0 comments
Some agencies are winning big new accounts on their perceived ability to embrace the new rules, and some agencies are winning great accolades for their innovative approach, this panel investigates the fundamental issues and asks client what solutions they expect their agencies to be providing them with.
My take: I thought this was about the future of marketing? Where did the future part go? The guy from P&G says that one of the best things to have are case studies to help sell things in. How can you do case studies on products/ideas that are new & innovative, ie: future-oriented. Most of the content from this panel, with the notable exception of Philip Dowgeird from Greenroom, could be recycled from 20 years ago and you would never know the difference.
I sense a lot of fear among all the panellists from the ensemble of sessions. What is it? Are they nervous? Do the not have any new ideas? Where is the innovation and forward thinking?
This whole thing is much to safe to be of much value.
The panel: Sheryl Norman – Head of Integrated Marketing Services Coca Cola Tom Barker – Global Partnerships Manager Xbox Mark Boyd – Director of Content BBH Andrew Wilkie – Managing Director Gum Philip Dowgeird – Head of Strategy Greenroom Digital David Weaver – Strategy – Procter & Gamble Moderated by Scott Goodson http://www.strawberryfrog.com
You have a great idea. How do you pitch it, internally or externally?
SN: Internally, at Coca-Cola GB, we focusVisualization enough to bring the product to life, especially if it is different or innovative. Sell-in job is important.
MB: Pitching is about the relationship. Person needs to buy into you as much as they are buying into your concept. People need to have developed key language. Focus on particular words. Trust factors. Simplistically, it must answer these three questions: 1) What is it. 2) What does it cost? 3) How many people does it reach? Ned to know who you are pitching. Are they senior enough? Do they have the authority? Faith and belief in ideas.
AW: We’re new kids on the block – only 6 months old. Very difficult to sell something to someone who doesn’t know that’s what they want. One thing we did when we set up the company was to ensure a knowledge structure and a robust framework/backend behind it. We created a network of 500 people (artists, mucicians, etc.) to get feedback on the concepts that we were thinking about.
PD: Several of us came from traditional agencies. We try to do new things, but there is always a risk of new/innovative ideas being seen as tangential to the main work being done. It is down to the relationship. Knowing the motivation of the client is of equal important. Putting together a business case is the next step. What will this thing do for the company?
DW: On a daily basis, our retained agencies are always pitching us ideas. What makes them successful? The consumer focus is pivotal. Successful pitches integrate the consumer: This is how your consumer is thinking. This is how your consumer will be receptive to this idea.The best ones also happen when there is an advocate within the company. Foster the passion within the organization.
TB: MS is a product company, not really a marketing company. The best pitches are those which understand the business need and the consumer. You won’t get through the door if you can’t demonstrate that you understand the business model. Once you’re in, you need to find an advocate inside the organization. We do media plans before we do the creative.
How do you show/demonstrate it?
AW: Every project is different. What we’ve done is add process.
TB: Richer deeper more meaningful experiences are more difficult to measure.
DW: Case studies are powerful. Track things. P&G gets nervous with dramatic shifts into new directions. Better to start with tests and get bigger from there.
What have you done to keep an idea alive?
MB: Sometimes it is very hard. You can’t do something now, and when it comes time to be able to do it, people say, “Well that’s really old.” What do you do in situations like this.
PD: It is our job to keep the enthusiasm on the table. If business objectives change, that’s one thing.
AW: If the idea is right, then there needs to be an equivalent about of passion.
TB: If an ad is created in one location, it is sent around to other markets to see what people think. MS also tries to develop work in different locations to spread the creative feel to other locations.
Panel Session: Challenges & Opportunities in the Future Marketing Space
“A visionary session involving some of the best future thinkers in brand communication.”
Ray Kelvin – Chief Executive Ted Baker Richard Monturo – Head of Strategy Strawberryfrog Jerry Judge – Consultant (former mainstream agency head/chairman) Greg Rowland – specialist in semiotic analysis and leading brand consultant Sean Pillot de Chenecy – consultant Daljit Singh – Creative Director/Founder Digit Moderated by John Carver, Founding Partner & Creative Director of Cunning.
RK: For 18 years, Ted Baker has not done traditional advertising. We were doing something. Over the years, it seems that people have called it viral or guerrilla or what have you. The quid pro quo model of magazine advertising was fundamentally unappealing. They didn’t help us when we were starting. They didn’t help us when we wanted to grow. So, why should we spend money with them now for a bit of free PR? So, we just started creating things. Strange storefronts. Quirky window displays. A bag of water with sliced carrots. Someone carried the bag around. When asked, the person would say that this guy gave it to me … and he makes pretty cool shirts, too. We do what we do. They join us.
JC: Stresses the importance of building individual relationships. 45B is moving away from ATL. (Carat) 60% of ad spend will be non-traditional. (Sorrel)
JJ: Assuming that they are big and stupid is totally false. It is harder for them to change and execute, however. There is a tremendous amount of fear is present in the marketplace. Growth. Stock price. Fear. In smaller companies, there is less fear, more confidence. Large companies have the advantage of having very large sums of money, so if they are clever they can invest and change. If the big agencies decided to all go viral, we’d be viraled to death. We couldn’t brush our teeth in the morning without seeing a viral of some kind. So, be careful what you wish for. It is wrong to assume that they don’t know what is going on. It is a question of how they deal with their fear.
DS: The digital agencies that have managed to survive have a solid understanding of the digital media and, increasingly, a better understanding of the consumers. Must be entertaining. Must understand client values.
RM: Balance and mix. Let’s face it: It will continue to be a mix of digital and offline. It will be a mix of monologue and dialogue. There is a difficulty in measurement that hinders IN that sequence if communications, how much awareness are we getting from one media vs another? The only way you get to do ideas like this is to do the homework necessary to sell these ideas through.
SPC: After a completely random diatribe about what he was planning to speak about, he talks about Coke sampling in Brighton.
GR: Connection to product creates a dialogue. Emotional impact of one-way communication should not be underestimated. Beware the “illusions of interactive” … Often, the consumer is not part of the creative process. Do not confuse the technological ability to create with creativity.
Random quotes from panel’s Q&A:
Question about developing markets:
RM: It is patently absurd that just because people are living below the poverty line, they have no sense of humour or ability to appreciate creativity. It is not economics. It is access.
GR: It is about being useful in context in developing countries. Just showing a lifestyle is not enough. It is also about education.
JJ: In this great big cultural soup, if it is interesting things tend to get absorbed.
Isn’t it about harnessing the power of all of this to sell more?
RK: It is about sticking to your guns and carrying on. Today, I think you need very deep pockets. I was always worried about doing the wrong thing. I was nervous about exposing the brand. I thought as some point, I’d mess it all up with advertising. Book: Let My People Surf, a reluctant businessman who has managed to captivate an audience without trying.
JJ: Convergence of entertainment and advertising in the USA. Often, it is not transparent. Look at Coke and American Idol. We know why they drink it. It is because Coke paid for it. Isn’t this just vulgar? Why do this? Do something original.
Welcome to the Future of Brand Communication Scott Goodson, Summit & European Awards. Chairman. The Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Strawberryfrog talks about the future role of agencies, the opportunities for brands and agencies in the new environment, and what it takes to drive change and win business in the new marketplace.
My take: This is the second time I’ve seen Strawberry Frog present at a conference, and while I like the hip and cool attitude that they want to bring to the discussion, I don’t see it enough in their execution.
Scott pontificates about the future of marketing and advertising at the start of his presentation, and then he shows some ads for Heineken and Asics …
Personally, I don’t get it. What makes this so special? Why is this supposed to be “the future of marketing?” These are just TV spots. Edgy? Sure. But what is different here?
Scott closes with a feel piece basically serving as an advertisement for Strawberry Frog. I saw this in Hamburg, and it is pretty cool. That said, I don’t know what people attending a conference think about looking at a show reel …
My main problem is that they show the clips, billboards, and lots of other standard traditional advertisements, but they don’t
They talk the talk, but do they really walk the walk?
Presentation notes:
Is about marketing and not about advertising.
Opportunity
Creativity
Anything’s Possible
Jibjab: 3rd $multimillion campaign, due to some quirky viral work done out of their garage during the
You can have a monster agency, or you can have 3 guys in a garage. Take your pick. You’ve got issues. Perpetually dissatisfied clients will look to these new outlets and agencies as viable options.
We need to see advertising as a grassroots movement that marketers must take advantage of to communicate with their consumers in a
How do we get people to do something? A movement.
Total engagement.
- A better sequence for planning communications
- Align with a powerful idea on the rise to define culture
- Create actions to draw people to that idea
- Use mass communications to amplify to a wider audience
- Articultate PR
- Generate WOM
Random quotes from Scott’s Q&A:
It is very different to change the televisual industrial complex in terms of big brands’ media spending habits.
Media intervals are getting shorter. People’s media behaviour is shifting. Multitasking on TV, web, chat, email and mobile devices is now commonplace with youth culture.
CEOs get it more than line managers.
Senior management is important to establish buy-in.
A movement has to start as an idea.
Mentions the maverick characteristics of the Mistubishi CEO who personally made the decision to assign $250 million campaign to Strawberry Frog.
Involvement of the client in the creative process is critical.
Future of marketing could be simply the joining of agencies and marketing departments.
Welcome to my live blogging of the The Future of Marketing Summit. As our host says, this is about a cultural shift, not the technological means of acheiving it.
Welcome to the Living Room of the Future Jean-Paul Edwards, Future Specialist at Manning Gottlieb OMD presents an enlightening brand directed insight into the communication and entertainment hub that is today’s (and tomorrow’s) living room. www.mgomd.com
My take: JP gives a fairly benign intro the summit. If you read Arrington or Tech Memorandum, there isn't much news here. A nice recap or perhaps an intro for the uninitiated, but not much more.
Presentation notes: 1990 – 2006: 1990 was the starting shot of the digital era. The 4 key elements of the Living Room
1. Blurred boundries: convergennce 50% of MS R&D budget is dedicated to Living Room, not the office. Think about it. 2. Consumer generated content Personal publishing is on the rise. Blogging, CGM, photos, etc. RocketBoom : 40k "deemed to high a price" ... Given the viral buzz and WOM that has been generated by Rocketboom (eBay banner sale, HD format, event the t-shirt thing. Mentions Tremor & Sling.
3. Push to Pull It is about choice. Distributed editors. "Google is not very good at answering human needs like 'entertain me' or at answering quetions like 'I'm bored.' Mentions stumbleupon.com as a good example of distributed editorial choice: Collaborative filtering. 4. Immersive Entertainment New worlds. Gaming. VR/World of warcraft. Opportunities to create new content. For brands, this is an opportunity to reach out in new ways. New consumer touchpoints. Look at how brands interact in new ways in new spaces.
In search on the new Ask.com, it came up with a result I had nos seen before when searching for my name. (No better way to test than by using plain old vanity, right?)
I agree with theblog50: Rocketboom is the best videolog on the web, and it just got better. Starting with today’s episode, Rocketboom is now filmed in 16×9 high-definition format, which makes host Amanda Congdon look even hotter than usual. We didn’t think that it was possible, but it is, and the world rejoices along with us.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 0 comments
Looks very cool. Simple. Easy. Integrated. Gonna make the office pretty noisy, though. My posts will get longer, too. ;)
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 0 comments
Back from the mountains. City life restarts.
If you're looking for me, I'll be here tomorrow. If there is a WLAN, I'll be blogging it as well. Thanks to Green Room Digital for the invite.
London Summit date. 2ND MARCH 2006 venue. TUC Congress Centre, 28 Great Russell Street, WC1 3LS
Event Outline. Structured and presented ‘in the round’ through a series of challenging panel-based presentations and discussions, this event has been crafted in collaboration with leading agency figures to provide the answers you are looking for, and to challenge many of the preconceptions already out there. This is not a day for platitudes or lecturing, this is a day that has been put together to help you prepare your business, your staff, your pitches and your client relationships for the future.
Programme. 08:30 >> Registration
09:00 >>Welcome to the Living Room of the Future Jean-Paul Edwards, Future Specialist at Manning Gottlieb OMD presents an enlightening brand directed insight into the communication and entertainment hub that is today’s (and tomorrow’s) living room. www.mgomd.com
09:30 >>Welcome to the Future of Brand Communication - Scott Goodson, Summit & European Awards Chairman. The Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Strawberryfrog talks about the future role of agencies, the opportunities for brands and agencies in the new environment, and what it takes to drive change and win business in the new marketplace.
10:15 Panel Session >>Challenges & Opportunities in the Future Marketing Space A visionary session involving some of the best future thinkers in brand communication. Moderated by John Carver, Founding Partner & Creative Director of Cunning. www.cunningwork.com Raymond Kelvin – Chief Executive (‘Closest man to Ted’) Ted Bakerwww.tedbaker.com Richard Monturo – Head of Strategy Strawberryfrog www.strawberryfrog.com Jerry Judge - Consultant Greg Rowland – specialist in semiotic analysis and leading brand consultant www.semiotics.co.uk Sean Pillot de Chenecy – future brand visionary and consultant www.captaincrikey.com Daljit Singh – Creative Director/Founder Digit www.digitlondon.com
11:30 >> Break and Networking Opportunity
11:45 Panel Session >>The Shape and Role of the Brand Communication Agency of the Future 5 insights, Q&A, and panel discussion on the how the agency of the future will look, how it will work, and what it will do. Moderated by Simon Andrews founding partner of Big Picture www.bigpictureblog.com Craig Davis – Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide JWT www.jwt.com Jerry Judge – Consultant Stephen Butler – Creative Director Mother www.motherlondon.com Howard Beale – Founding Partner thefishcansing www.thefishcansing.com Charles Trevail – Founder Promise Corporation www.promisecorp.com Marc Cave – Partner Drugstore www.drugstore-tm.com Neil Christie – Managing Director Wieden + Kennedy www.wk.com
13:15>> Lunch and Networking Opportunity
14:00 Panel Session >>Pitching Future Marketing Concepts Some agencies are winning big new accounts on their perceived ability to embrace the new rules, and some agencies are winning great accolades for their innovative approach, this panel investigates the fundamental issues and asks client what solutions they expect their agencies to be providing them with. Moderated by Scott Goodsonwww.strawberryfrog.com Sheryl Norman – Head of Integrated Marketing Services Coca Colawww.coke.com Tom Barker – Global Partnerships Manager Xboxwww.xbox.com Mark Boyd – Director of Content BBH www.bbh.co.uk Andrew Wilkie – Managing Director Gum www.saatchi.co.uk Philip Dowgeird – Head of Strategy Greenroom Digital www.greenroom-digital.com 15:30 >> Break and Networking Opportunity
15:45 The Acid Test >> How prepared really are we? A round of quickfire Q&A on the most pressing issues and ‘what ifs’ that surround the sector moderated by Martin Bowley of Kendall Tarrant Worldwide www.kendalltarrant.com Bjarne Thelin – Chief Executive BARB www.barb.co.uk Neil Jones – Managing Director Carat UK www.carat.com Theresa Wise – Partner, Media & Entertainment www.accenture.com Sheryl Norman – Head of Integrated Marketing Services Coca Cola www.coke.com
16:45 >>Chairman’s Closing Statement - Scott Goodson
17:00 >> Summit Closes
20:00– 24:00 >>The futuremarketingawards Reception for 300 people at the Avenue Restaurant and Bar in SW1. A Champagne and Cocktail Reception to see the very best work, award the people behind it, network, celebrate, network with summit speakers and Awards judges and maybe even collect a gong! Delegates qualify for a reduced rate.
0 comments
