Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Evil Plans & Global Microbrands

Hugh 'Gapingvoid' MacLeod was kind enough to send me an advance of his latest book – 'Evil Plans - Having Fun On The Road To World Domination'. It’s a great read. As a long time reader of Hugh's blog I was familiar with many of the ideas in the book, but there are some very juicy nuggets that are well worth revisiting. One of them, that I have always found really helpful, is the Global Microbrand. To me, this means that today’s world of networked media gives individuals and small companies a voice in the world.  And that’s a really significant opportunity.  It’s an idea I’ve used to help shape Collaborate Marketing.  In spite of being a one-man consultancy, the company has a disproportionately extensive online footprint.  One that brings lots of advantages which have made it possible for me to operate successfully and, crucially, build a positive reputation around the world.  This is probably best illustrated when an American media corporation called me up and asked me to come in and discuss an engagement.  They had found Collaborate Marketing online and only had one stipulation – ‘Please don’t bring a massive team of people to the first meeting, we really find that a turn-off.’  I explained that this was unlikely as Collaborate was, in fact, just me.  This seemed to go down well, maybe just by being different from the approach of traditional Mega-Consultants, and I was very happy to be engaged on an exciting strategy project.  However, creating a Global Microbrand is easier said than done which is where Hugh’s latest book comes in giving lots of ideas and encouragement.  However, it’s also what it doesn’t do that I think makes it genuinely helpful.  There aren’t any checklists or planning tools.  It really just poses the challenge to find out what your personal aims and strengths are and challenges you to bring those to life using the myriad of online services available to anyone in 2011.  All very refreshing.

'They Do What?!'

The recent rise of Quora, the social net based around (mainly) cerebral Q&A, created the customary reactions, including one that I always find interesting. It’s a common outburst from many people upon being introduced to any type of new web service that goes something along the lines of: ‘They do what?! What on earth!?’, ‘What’s the matter with them?’ and at some point quite possibly, ‘Where do they find the time?’ and, if you are lucky, ‘Don’t they have jobs?!’. Sometimes with some spluttering and eye-rolling thrown in for good measure.  I went through almost exactly this train of thought the first time I saw Twitter.  I remember someone showing me a Tweet from one of their pals saying they were waiting in for the plumber because their boiler had broken and they had no hot water.  ‘They do what!?’, I spluttered, ‘Why would anyone be interested in this?!’.  However, I then caught myself and realised I was about to say everything that people had been saying to me about blogging for the previous few years.  (For some reason the blogging version of this outrage often involved people’s pyjamas evidently implying something about the plight of the lonely.  As in,‘blogging is just about people in their pyjamas writing about...

Networked Media Doesn't Do 'Channels'

Do you know what the most annoying thing about builders is?  It’s when they refuse to talk to each other. You’ve probably been there. ‘Guys, why is there water leaking in through the ceiling?’.  ‘Don’t ask me guv, the plasterer probably knocked the pipes upstairs'.  ‘Can you take a look at it?’.  Cue sound of obligatory-sucking-in-of-air-through-teeth.  'Not today mate, ring Mick and ask him if he’s got some waff-wizard’.  ‘Huh? What’s waff-wizard. Actually, never mind, could you ring him?’.  ‘I haven’t got his number mate'.  ‘I can give it to you'.  ‘Bye, make sure to ask about the waff wizard'.  ‘Hi there, John said I should ask you about waff wizard because there’s a leak in the kitchen.  ‘Waff-what?’. ‘Waff-wizard, oh forget it, look there’s a leak in the kitchen'.  ‘Yes I saw that, looks nasty, talk to Gary - tell him he needs to use a pobble-pibble'.  And so it goes on.  What feels like an infinite number of specialists all of whom have their own languages and tools, but who see any other professionals as being inferior or incompetent, feel obliged to contradict any advice they offer and refuse to talk to each other directly.  Whilst flicking through last week’s Campaign Magazine, I had a strange feeling that the marketing industry was showing some similar traits.  There were experts from each part of the business talking about the way they saw the year ahead panning out.  Each was extolling the virtues of newspapers, digital, TV, outdoor, production, direct, sponsorship and many other areas.  All of them made sound, interesting points about their own fields, including lots of technical terms and diagnoses.  However, there was very little, if any, reference to how well they all work together.  These first-class professionals were all deeply dug into their own particular siloes.  Now, this is hardly new.  We’ve all worked in agency networks where...

Marketing's 'Big Bang' Is On The Way

There are some huge technological changes coming down the line that haven’t quite hit the marketing and media industry as yet. However, like massive waves a long way out at sea - they are on the way. Think about the effects of the ‘cloud’, or in other words, the limitless amounts of storage space that the web provides and the speed at which people are filling it up with personal information, creating scrapbooks about every tiny aspect of their lives for clever folk to analyse and decipher. Or the rise of the mobile web driven by new types of groovyware that mean we can log onto digital grapevines wherever we are and snack on a mixture of tips, opinions, offers and suggestions, all personalised to our own specific interests and passions. Or the reality of products being linked to the web and providing information about themselves. All huge waves that are about to crash onto the doorsteps of brands and global businesses seeking to maintain the mainstream audiences that drive their revenues, balance sheets and state-sized market valuations. When trying to understand this kind of epic-style change, I’ve been wondering about other industries that have dealt with similar levels of disruption. The one I keep returning to is the global financial services industry that underwent its so-called ‘Big Bang’ in the middle of the 1980s, with its epicentre in the City of London’s Square Mile. The specific date of the ‘Big Bang’ was the 27th October 1986, an event driven by the Tory government overhauling the way the London Stock Exchange was regulated. The primary changes consisted of...

Web 3.0 Is Virtual Dog Food Says Pincus

When you talk to people about the mega-growth in the sale of online virtual goods, the reaction tends to be similar to the first time they hear about Twitter.  ‘They do what!?’ – followed by rolling of eyeballs and looks around the room for mutual support about this latest round of web craziness.  It’s an entirely understandable response.  Why would anyone spend real money on, for instance, virtual dog food for their virtual pet?   Or more confusing still, why would anyone wish to pay $335,000 in hard cash for a virtual leisure club in Entropia, an online science-fiction world?  One way to move beyond the perplexing notion of people spending their shekels on such apparent lunacy is to stop viewing it as people buying ‘goods’ and start seeing it as people paying for ‘content’.  Albeit of a novel interactive variety.  After all, gazillions each year are spent on media content including cable TV channels, music, books and magazines.   And we don’t hear about the madness of people buying virtual goods from Hollywood.  But, just a minute I hear you cry, people don’t pay for content online do they?  Free is now the default, right?  It's the bugbear of Content Kings everywhere, including the Old Digger Murdoch who has thrown up the paywalls around his valuable content, even though he knows he'll lose most of his online readers.  It’s the reason that Hollywood has blocked Google TV accessing its AAA-productions in case Messrs Brin & Page repeat the havoc they unleashed on the newspaper industry by giving their treasures away for free to a global audience.  So what's going on?  On the one hand we have people paying good money for virtual dog food.  On the other a refusal to pay for the insights of cerebral journalists and the world's finest movies.   With these apparently contradictory trends in mind, I was interested to hear Marc Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, the social gaming empire, describe in this frenetic talk his theory that, ‘the third business plan of the internet will be users paying for things; often digital only, virtual and high-margin; and services that are found as apps.  I believe every major franchise on the Internet is up-for-grabs, just like it was at the beginning of Web 2.0’ (52 mins).  Well he would say that wouldn’t he?  Pincus’ company, Zynga, has made a king’s ransom and...

UK Media - Enjoy This 'Indian Summer' While You Can

I went along to an event this week entitled, ‘Making Money In the On Demand Media Age,’ hosted by consultancy boutique Oliver & Ohlbaum.   The session had the feel of an investment bankers’ world view and, as a result, there were plenty of Grand Fromages in attendance including Lord Hollick, ex-media baron turned VC; the much-admired broadcasting player David Elstein; Patrick Barwise the formidable LBS Professor and Government advisor and new kids on the block such as Richard Halton, CEO of the nascent UK web TV service YouView.  The initial presentation was a Meeker-esque onslaught of macro trends, backed up with some proprietary research that the room lapped up with a verve suggesting sober, grown-up analysis of the new broadcasting world is thin-on-the ground.   My overall impression of the hundred or so people in the room was something akin to a Monaco casino packed with high-rollers working out where to lay their next chips.  You could almost hear the neuro-based balance sheets ticking over as the analysis developed.  Among the many nuggets thrown out for the pack to chew on was that the recent speedier-then-expected recovery in the UK’s media markets might be something of a mirage.  One effect of the corporate axe being wielded in recent years is that profits have bounced back and there is a natural inclination for many big brands to invest straight back into what they know.  However, Oliver & Ohlbaum see this as being an, ‘Indian Summer’ before the realities of, ‘long-term structural change’ take grip in a couple of years and a, ‘new industry structure’ emerges.  What will this new world order look like?  In short, no one knows and in the follow-on session...

Digital Grapevines

It can be very difficult sometimes to understand what new technology actually means when it comes to changing the way people lead their lives.  Partly, this is because technology is created by techies.  By which I mean that the clever folk who create new widgets are, naturally, more interested in the gubbins inside the box than what consumers (aka people) are going to actually do with it. This leads to the classic marketing error that the technology industry makes on a continual basis – talking about Features Not Uses.  Nowhere is this viewpoint more prevalent than in the world of smartphones, tablets, mobile and wireless web development. The mobile space has a lot of the standard desktop web jargon but with its own additional lexicon bolted on for good measure.  For instance, Geo-Location, Augmented Reality, BBM, Accelerometer, Bluetooth, QR codes, RFID, or the cryptic, ‘Web of Things’.  And let’s not even get into the world of wireless OS upgrades : Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyon and now Gingerbread.  It's enough to make your Google Goggles glaze over. However, now that smartphones have finally become a part of the mainstream, ten years after the UK’s 3G licence auction, it’s helpful to think what they mean in terms of people's lives beyond Steve Jobs’ bank account and the VC-driven, jargon-heavy dreams of Silicon Valley.  One aspect that’s of interest is that people now are increasingly connected to their friends and family - all the time.  This may sound obvious but it’s a fairly new phenomenon with far-reaching consequences.  People from small villages...

Get In When It's Messy

As Gordon Moore’s Law continues to drive cycles of technological development, it can be tempting for marketing folk to wait until the resulting merry-go-round has stopped before trying to get on. However, in reality, if you choose to wait you may well find Silicon Valley’s carousel just keeps on spinning.   My own shorthand for this is that, when it comes to understanding developments in networked media, it’s best to get in when it’s messy.   When the web service or innovation is in the early days and the rules are being written.   That way you get to understand the reality of a new development and the ideas behind it, rather than waiting for someone else to write up the best practice manual.   For example, when blogging began to makes its presence felt within media and marketing circles, it was largely dismissed as a pastime for the lonely and the confused.   What possible benefit could come from letting readers actually give you their opinions? ‘My readers are like the cast from the bar in Star Wars,’ a journalist once told me, ‘why would I want to speak to them?’, he exclaimed.  This type of viewpoint led to people who wrote blogs being categorised, initially, by the marketing industry as a group suffering from rage issues and bad breath - regardless of what they were blogging about.   For some, the ‘blogosphere’ became shorthand for a modern version of the ‘great unwashed’.  That has obviously all now changed, and even the most erudite commentators employ blogs as their personal platforms where they can interact with enthusiastic and well-informed readers.   In short, those who got into blogging when it was messy benefited from their early experience.   Twitter was a similar example where it was best to hold your nose and jump in when it was messy, learning from experience, rather than ranting about the evils of people talking to each other in a 140-character format.   Just a few hours on Twitter in its early days revealed it to be a promising, accessible tool for creating communities of people who were organising themselves around their passions.   Today, of course, no marketing exec worth their latte would suggest Twitter is a waste of time.   And the platform has gone onto to become a love-in for celebs and media players around the world.  Then there was Facebook, that initially appeared to be a WASP-driven club for American frats sharing holiday stories about the Hamptons and their latest drinking escapades.   However, just investing a little attention...

Google TV Goes Through The Looking Glass

The intriguing battle between Silicon Valley and Hollywood shows no signs of abating. This year Google offered the US TV Networks an olive branch with its 'Smart TV' only to be brutally rejected in recent days like just-another-starlet. However, at some point the proceedings reached a strange Alice-like point. While Google has built its own Web-On-The-TV without any TV content in the shape of Google TV, the US TV networks have built their own TV-On The-Web without any web content in the shape of Hulu. Confused? Don't worry - you aren't alone.  In fact it only makes sense when you realise that many of the ongoing developments, as the world reorganises itself from broadcast to networked media, are best viewed through Alice's Looking-Glass - where the standard rules don't apply. Just think back a few years to when the music industry was offered an apparent refuge by Steve ‘Brighter, Whiter & Lighter’ Jobs, away from those horrible ‘pirates’ (aka customers who just will not stop enjoying your products) on his lovely new, shiny and oh so secure iTunes store.  Only to discover that they had accidentally relinquished control of their industry to Apple. Oops. Now in the normal world handing over your business to a competitor who uses your generosity to unbundle your product, slash your profit margins, and in doing so transform themselves into a world-beating powerhouse, could seem like a strategically bad-hair day. However, in the topsy-turvy world of networked media, this was actually an improvement on what had gone before.  Previously, the newspaper industry gave over its house keys to Google without even noticing. All that was required was to look the other way and pretend the digital revolution wasn’t *actually* happening, allowing Messrs Page & Brin to open a global news agent to which they, and only they, had the keys.   So, while the music industry suffered badly at the hands of Silicon Valley, they did slightly better than their publishing bretheren.  And, in turn, the TV execs have done slightly better than...

Shiny Shiny Syndrome

Why do brands that spend gazillions and employ teams of econometricians to ascertain the specific nuances of demographic reach and frequency in traditional media throw all of that out of the window when it comes to digital?  I’m sure you’ve been there.  The brand manager who pours over TGI, BARB and planning schedules to wring an extra juicy rating or nudge up an index by a few points throws all caution to the wind when it comes to online channels.  ‘Just make it go viral,’ or ‘we’ll need an app for that,’ is as far as the analysis sometimes goes.  This can lead to the unbecoming site of a stampede of brands running from one web service to another, driven purely by trend and fashion.  A world view I refer to as ‘Shiny Shiny Syndrome' (SSS).  For example, a few years ago, when Second Life was in its ascendency, there was a trend for big brands to open shops in the metaverse.  The fact that Second Life was created by a bunch of people who were trying to get away from the restrictions of what they saw as an overtly commercial First Life was ignored.  Also, the reality that the avatar-driven, bizarre world of cyber-geeks and punks was only accessible to a tiny group of people with super-fast machines and chunky bandwidth was lost in the rush to be first.  More recently a similar view seems to have held sway when it comes to the iPhone or anything that comes from the Whiter, Brighter and Lighter Church where Steve Jobs reigns supreme.  Companies and brands who in the morning were waterboarding their above-the-line media agencies in a vat of latte to drive their TV spots harder, spent the afternoon launching an application into the AppStore, ignoring the fact that none of their customers own, or maybe have even heard of, an iPhone.  Of course, this isn’t true of all marketers.   Many obsess about the latest SEO techniques and the ROI from their Paid Search campaigns. However, SSS is still not an uncommon mindset.   I think the reason for this is an excessive focus on technology.  We’re all prone to losing our sense when High Priest Jobs gets on stage and starts waving his latest creation around.  However, only when you get back to first principles, focusing on your customers and how they are using technology in their lives to find brands they can trust and services that offer good value can you create helpful market insights.