Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Doc Says It's Open And Closed

Doc Searls can be a difficult read for non-geeks but as author of the phrase, 'markets are conversations', senior editor of Linux Journal and a speaker about open source culture, he's very influential.  I saw him speak at Reboot this year where he gave a presentation that was intriguing but too much to take in at the time.  I've finally found it here.  It's interesting because it suggests a framework in which open strategies can support closed strategies - pretty meaty stuff but very relevant for today's world.  It also makes the simpler point...

Thanks

Many thanks to Professor John Maeda's for his reaction to my presentation at MIT MediaLab : "Cherkoff's unique passion for melding the worlds of computer software with the world of marketing is entirely relevant to this new “long-tail” era."  When I wrote the What is Open Source Marketing? manifesto last year I never thought it would lead me to MIT or that I'd be sandwiched  between Tom Peters and Chris "Long-Tail" Anderson in the changethis download list.  Thanks to everyone who voted for it.  I am currently working with Johnnie on the follow-up: Co-Creation Rules.

Web Sucks Up Ad Spend

Ex-Guardian Editor, Peter Preston writing in yesterday's Observer notes that, "Advertising revenue is under great pressure, with national papers (down 2.2 per cent year on year), television (down 4.8 per cent), regional papers (down 9 per cent) and cinema ads (down 21 per cent) taking hits while total advertising spend rises by 4 per cent and internet spending by a walloping 53.6 per cent."  He doesn't say where the figures are from but it gives a picture of the speed at which the web is currently sucking up marketing dollars.

Broadcasting To The Edge

Henry Jenkins dissects the SoaP buzz with aplomb.  "We are at a transitional moment: web communities are capable of generating strong support for niche products but they still can't compete with the mass market success generated from broadcast media. We need to learn to be more adept at thinking about the relations between the two."  This is so right.  It's time for mainstream media to realise that the way to ensure its future is reaching out to the edge.  And the edge should realise that it's time to reach back.

Quarter of UK Blog Content Reliable

Ed at Tribeless drew my attention to this survey, comparing how people in the UK feel about the trustworthiness of different media.  I normally ignore surveys in the press but I found myself re-reading this one.  It's designed to make mainstream media feel a bit better saying that the, "study scotches any idea that the British media is no longer valued by the populace" . However, to me the surprising figure is that while people say two-thirds of information on national television can be trusted,  a quarter of what they read on blogs is equally reliable. Considering the iconic nature of the Beeb...

People Data

Data has always been an intrinsic part of the marketing industry.  However, when techies start talking about 'their' kind of data, marketeers' eyes tend to roll back.  But this is a mistake because the worlds of demographics and people data are colliding.  As AOL recently discovered when it published a sea of anonymous user search data, only to discover that the impersonal bits and bytes were actually detailed information about their customers.  Unfortunately it took a blogger to point that out.  It's an area that can get very complicated, very quickly.  But the main point is that as people use increasingly powerful online tools they are handing over loads of valuable data about themselves.  And if the - often unwritten - terms of usage around that data are not configured sensitively then it can get sticky.  Think 'give us your contact details, we promise not to spam you' - multipled by 100.  Two presentations I've seen recently...

P&G's Social Network Machine

CMO has a very good article about the growth and succcess of the P&G Tremor network, a massive system designed to identify lead-users and mavens - connectors in P&G speak - and reward them with free stuff so that the brand benefits from the individuals' social networks and their peer credibility.  It's a tricky balancing act which needs to treat individuals with respect and sensitivity, or risk losing their trust.  To date Tremor has been focused on teens but the network knowledge is now being applied to mums.  The article refers to all of this as Word of Mouth (WOM) which is a misnoma...

US Leads, UK Follows (Again)

It's such an unsuprising trend, but when visiting the US we have found that marketeers' attitudes are very different from the UK.  They accept that the online environment is now the dominant consumer marketing space and it's just a question of working it all out.  But the UK is on the way judging from two recent reports.  Research house Compete in the US reports that 2 out of three people online in the US visited an online networking site in June... 

We Sell Or Else

Adliterate has a great starter-for-seven and thread going about the problems that occur when marketeers are primarily focused on internal processes and measurement techniques that reflect upon his or her CV-in-progress.  This is a view that is sometimes linked with wooly ideas about brand-building rather than commercial impact.  Modern marketeers know that the world isn't like that anymore.  An eager audience is now willing, ready and able to let a company know...

Object Centered Sociality

I was talking to Simon at Big Picture yesterday about Object Centered Sociality which is a horrible term but a great concept.  I first came across the idea at last year's Reboot in a fantastic presentation made by Jyri Zengestrom.  The basic idea is that lots of people in a room, or online, need something to talk about, otherwise they just mingle around, get bored and shoot off.  But once some simple guidelines have been made people are good at picking up the reins.  Unforgettably, Jyri made the point by blowing up a beach ball and throwing it into the quiet audience and, of course, we all started popping it between ourselves...