Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

"Apple Has Destroyed The Music Business"

In an interview intended to launch new social video site Hulu NBC Universal Chief Jeff Zucker said that, "Apple destroyed the music business in terms of pricing and threatens to do the same to video".  I might just stop there and leave you all to decide what type of reality-enhancing medication Mr Zucker is on.  But hold on - there's more!  “We don’t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side."  Oh you don't?!  This is actually a very interesting case of a media giant realising that the world is actually changing and that there's a real possibility they've missed the bus.  It's also undoubtedly part of negotiations with Apple about the cost of video downloads. However, as I've mentioned before, it's staggering how the entertainment industry handed over control of a large part of its distribution system to Steve Jobs, who used it to build a massively profitable business that now underpins his company's huge share price.  All the more staggering that they are now moaning about him doing so! 

Do Not Disturb

Two things caught my eye this morning.  Claire Beale's column in the Independent is always worth reading.  She is the Editor of Campaign magazine but (despite that) writes well about the changing landscape.  This morning she offers some thoughts on the direct mail business: "Does the DM industry deserve its wasteful reputation? Well, the bald facts suggest that it does. Of all the unsolicited mail that drops on to our doormats, only about 10 per cent of it ever generates any response; so that's 90 per cent that gets discarded, often without even being opened. In an age when paper reduction and recycling is becoming a social imperative, that's a deeply disturbing – and industry-theatening – figure."  However, Read/Write's excellent analysis of Doc Searl's latest  project - VRM - warns that the coming clash between personalisation and privacy will create similarly unwanted intrusions into our lives.  "People just got fed up with intrusive marketing.  Traditional direct mail will seem merely annoying compared to the intrusiveness of pitches that will seem to know precisely who I am, what I did yesterday and so on."

Google TV Works

Google's experiment with EchoStar is working and is about to incorporate a partnership with US TV metrics giant Nielsen.  This creates a platform that advertisers can trust because its built on the biggest computing network of all time and has the knowledge base of a company which has been in the TV business for 50 years or more.  So Google can now take the next big step and reach out for super-sized TV budgets.  Loved this quote from a media planning grand fromage: “For 40 years, we’ve been placing advertising believing that commercials are getting the same reach that programs are getting. We now know that’s not true.”  So, you were just following orders right?!  IMHO, this is a much bigger development than Microsoft plucking a fragment of FB.

Metrics-22

There is a wonderful irony in the current debate about marketing metrics.  For a long time the marketing and media world has used measurement techniques which are far from precise.  However, the industry knew they weren't definitive and established workarounds, whilst calling for greater accuracy.  Now networked media has arrived in full effect and we can measure everything to the nth degree.  But no one can agree on anything - because there is too much detailed data!  And thus the commercial growth of networked media is restricted because people are sticking to the traditional media metrics which aren't as confusing because everyone knows they are inaccurate!  Solving the problem may take a shift in the way we view the market because impressions and page views make less and less sense.  Google changed the game when they moved to CPCs because everyone agrees that paying for the right type of traffic, ie people who have demonstrated an intention, is a good idea.  And now Microsoft and Yahoo are trying to change the rules again to behavioural targeting where by people's clickstreams are constantly analysed to understand what they might be in the market for.  But for now, the old system doesn't work and the new one is too good!

Google Dominated World OK?

The ever-thoughtful Brad left this comment on my Microsoft write-up: "Sometimes dominance isn't such a bad thing. Google has yet to prove it's dominance has any serious negative consequences. After all, they created the ad space from scratch while we all stood knee deep in paid-search-results doo doo, otherwise known as the 'death of search'.  Similarly, people get upset by the "dominance" of iTunes, which is really only a problem for gigantic multi-national corporations, ie. Apple has taken power from *them* - which seems a good thing to me. Nonetheless, people are afraid of dominance.  Given the situation, having Microsoft offer competition is a far scarier prospect than Google domination. Better to live in a Google-dominated world than a Microsoft one."  So, for one man at least, Google Isn't Evil.

More TV Morphing

It always surprises me how little attention the advertising industry gives to the changing nature of the business model on British TV.  Any debate is normally restricted to a defensive, nostalgic view about audience size and share, rather than embracing innovation and the possibilities for a medium that many people still engage with.  Subsequently, when possible solutions to the funding gap created by a shifting landscape appear (eg audience participation) they are overlooked and managed very poorly.  Yesterday's Observer dug a little deeper into TV's latest crisis and offered several insights into its roots: "As broadcasters look to diversify revenues, they are starting to get into consumer businesses.  They are not making profits by selling advertising time to a handful of agencies any more; they are taking money from customers in the same way Tesco or Amazon does."  The Great TV Morph continues.

Are You Watching Me?

Many thanks to Research Magazine who gave me a mention in their '50 To Watch' feature.  "Using a blend of research, marketing and branding nous, Cherkoff offers the corporate world a thorough grounding in how to capitalise on blogs and online communities. He brings an energetic, and often evangelistic, fervour to this task".  Very kind - thanks guys!

Ballmer's 25% Plan

He's big, he's bad and he's seriously focused on the advertising business.  It doesn't matter whether you think Steve Ballmer's plan to turn one quarter of Microsoft into an ad business with $15bn revenues is going to work, because even if it doesn't, the effort (and cash) behind it will create huge waves.  Here's how he thinks he'll do it: "Four things: Do search well, get better on community (FB partnership), strong ad platform (all payload on all media with all business models), sell ads on behalf of other people (syndication)."  From his conversation with John Battelle at Web 2.0.

ITV Enters The Microsoft Jungle

Microsoft and ITV have done a deal which looks very much like the future of media.  The software giant, which has recently set its sights on advertising revenues, is going to be the online distribution network for ITV's hugely popular I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here show.  The deal is simple.  ITV has content.  Microsoft has online audience.  Share the revenues and bingo.  However, this looks like dangerous territory for ITV who have historically been the owners of the content and the platform.  If you take Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer's view of the world - that all marketing will be digital and digital will be marketing - then this path ends with Microsoft owning ITV's audience and the ensuing revenues that the broadcaster apparently still believes it has a divine right to own.  But why stop there?  What's to stop Microsoft going straight to the source and doing deal with film makers and content creators direct?  Unlikely you say?  Have you spoken to any music executives recently...?

How Unilever Attracted An Alpha-Advocate

The supersonic Danah Boyd describes the moment when she realised that she had become part of the Dove Evolution campaign.  Very interesting to see the reaction of  such a hyper-savvy web brain and there's an interesting chat going on in the comments.  To my mind, this is the comment that communication strategists everywhere should peruse : "Collectively, this ad was viewed as important and because of this, various folks got involved in spreading it."