tradingplaces

I Pad - everyone's playing catch up

2010-09-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

I read an FT article on a research note put out by a Tech analyst at UBS over the weekend. It predicts Apple will shift 28 million I Pads globally in 2011 - having already seen 3 million fly of the shelves since launch in April.

I myself have seen how Apple's rolling release approach gets markets literally frothing with desire. IPad hits Poland later this month - and tech nuts are getting quite over excited

Seeing these "conservatives' figures from UBS will probably have Apple pretty chipper too - whilst the competition will be playing a long, painful game of catch up. This infographic (courtesy of http://analyticsarbitrage.blogspot.com) really demestrates Apples enviable position in this market.

Social Shopping - the ZO Moxie monthly trends video

2010-09-02T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was Social Gaming

Today Social Shopping

Here's a quick run down of some key global trends in the new wave of e-commerce.

Social Gaming - a growing opportunity for brands

2010-09-01T03:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not a gamer - I flirted with games on the various computing devices I've owned since the age of 10 - but they have never dominated my life in the way that serious 'gamers' tend to allow.

Its also very possible that your 30-something blue-chip client - either a brand manager or media specialist - isn't a gamer either. Far too busy to waste hours on some driving or combat game.

Perhaps a reason why the true power of games has yet to be realised by brands. The lack of client empathy held internet investment back for years in my opinion. Clearly there are great examples of brands using gaming as part of the communications mix. Notably Burger King's 'King Game' series - sold at their restaurants. Plus examples of brands involved in MMO like Puma and Football Superstars (a ZO client and newcast deal).

My attention was drawn again to the subject today when I saw a story on Mashable about the hugely successful Madden NFL franchise begin translated into a Social Game. It grabbed my attention because as an NFL nut, this is one gaming franchise I have sunk some cash into over the years. Most recently buying the highly addictive IPad app for Madden 11.

Then I started to do some reading, and the numbers are really quite startling:

Around half of Facebook's now 500 million users play social games

56 million Amercians play social games

Facebook's hit games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars have made their developer - Zynga - a $4bill (valued) company

This was a trend that very few people saw coming. The fact is that Social sites, well lets just say Facebook shall we, has lowered the barriers of access to gaming (console, game cost) much like You Tube has done for video. People are playing, often relatively low quality, but free games on a regular basis in huge numbers.

"Now playing games is literally a click away, and you don't have to look for them because your friend will tell you where they are. That's been a key driver" said Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder of Playfish: a social-gaming company, one of the big successes on Facebook and bought by Electronic Arts for nearly $300m at the turn of the year. Playfish indeed developed the Madden NHL social game for EA.

So millions of consumers are welcoming and enjoying these "15 minute" gaming experiences. what amazes me is how few brands are really utilising this massive opportunity. A chance to build 'old fashioned' media metrics like reach (just look at the hours spent on social and gaming by obvious audience like teens but also less likely ones - Housewives with kids). Plus building unique brand experiences - that are sharable, competitive, fun.

Chocolate manufacturer, Cadbury, have seized on this opportunity with the launch of their hugely innovation London 2012 campaign - Spots Vs Stripes. Reading the background to the thinking, it was all very analogue - the simple pleasure we get as humans from competing on any level - a race up the stars, thumb wars in the pub. So Cadbury have created a massive social gaming platform http://www.spotsvstripes.com/homepage.aspx

With many client companies still at the early stages of their social media development - indeed maybe we'll always be at the beginning of the learning curve, as the curve tends to accelerate at pace - more should consider the potential in developing social games as part of the on-going strategy. I know plenty of non-game playing brand managers who'd love to have key consumers spending 15 minutes with their brands.

Pre roll ads - when ads and content need caution applied

2010-08-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

I just read the news of a gastly accident during the "California 200" an off-road truck race event that occured this Saturday night.

A racing truck, travelling through at dusk through the Mojave desert flipped when taking on a 'rock pile' and crashed into a group of spectators. The resulting carnage left 8 dead and many more badly injured.

Naturally in the digital age, people were filming the event on phones and cameras - some of this footage found its way very quickly to the traditional news outlets and then to You Tube.

Unfortunately, it seems no one at Google/You Tube pre-checked the pre-roll ad that CBS had running in the lead into this horrific news item. The result - an ad (at least when I viewed twice) for All-State insurance featuring a car getting rear-ended.

Clearly this is a hugely unfortunate error - probably due to lack of proper tagging, but also due perhaps to a lack of supervision by the agency/CBS/You Tube/and maybe even the client Allstate. Either way, lessons need to be learnt form this as more and more digital display money goes into pre-roll ads and more viewers use You Tube as a primary source of news footage.

Sky and the HBO content coup

2010-07-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

Today came news that BSkyB (owner of pay-TV platform Sky TV in the UK) had signed a whopping content deal with HBO - the hugely successful cable TV operator and producer.

The deal will give Sky access to HBO's first class library of productions - including The Wire, The Sopranos, True Blood and Martin Scorsese's eagerly-awaited crime drama Boardwalk Empire. It is believed to be worth around £150m over five years.

I think this illustrates a couple of interesting developments at Sky.

Clearly as Sky have recently been forced to relinquish their monopoly on Sky Sports channels, by allowing BT Vision to carry live Premiership games for example, Sky are looking to diversify their consumer offer. Whilst Sky claim that only 5% of their viewing is football related, it doesn't take a genius to understand that a far higher proportion of their subscriber revenue is directly football related. If this revenue comes under any kind of threat (not sure how much impact the BT deal will have in the short term), then clearly Sky must find other reasons to encourage subscribers to choose Sky, stay with Sky and ideally become a high value customer through taking Sky + and HD options too - which seems to be going very well right now.

So there is diversification going on to shore up subscribers, but also I feel this is part of a confident Sky move to strike for audience growth also as rivals ITV and Channel 4 go through a period of upheaval and re-gearing - with new management teams and profit short-falls.

Sky is reported to have a content development/acquisition pot of 1.7 bn GBP - versus BBC 2 (who originally screened The Wire to great acclaim) having c. 500 mill GBP. It is certain that Channel 4's programming budget will be under increased public scrutiny - indeed this HBO deal really feels like the sort of deal Channel 4 would have been 1st in line for 4-5 years ago. And ITV seem to struggle for consistency in either produced or bought in formats.

That said, Sky also have had their own troubles with self-made programming. Davina McCall's big budget Got to Dance failed to pull in big audiences earlier this year.

It also means that The Wire will soon be on the broadcast sponsorship market - who will be first in the queue? The Baltimore Tourist Authority perhaps?

Famecount - keeping tabs on social media efforts

2010-06-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

As we enter the end of the group stage of the World Cup finals in South Afirca. It's not just teams like England. Germany and Portugal who nervously await their fate, the lack of progress into the knockout stages will have serious financial and status implications. The financial gold-mine that is the World Cup is also a vital time for many of the world's biggest brands. Will there huge investments to become FIFA partners pay off? Brands such as McDonald's and Hyundai have spent 100s of millions of US$ to be part of the world's biggest sporting event over the last 10-12 years.

Another brand looking nervously at its investment is Adidas. As official sportswear partner of the World Cup finals, Adidas gets a huge boost at every finals - from player and team endorsement through to pitch-side perimeter boards and sponsored TV coverage in certain territories. However there is a dark spectre making Adidas very nervous, and that is its old rival Nike. Nike have continued their policy of become official partner of the FIFA event, but they stick to their 'ambush marketing' strategy plus massive sums paid to individual players and football federations to supply kits.

Nike have already claimed to be the winner in this mammoth head to head of the sports giants. This seems a little premature but Nike feel they are winning the battle of the buzz. According to Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Nike have achieved a 30.2% of the brand buzz around South Africa 2010, while Adidas trail with 14%. Time will tell but it does throw up interesting questions about how brands track and quantify their social media efforts.

One interesting tool that came to are attention a little while ago is Famecount http://http//www.famecount.com/all-platforms/Worldwide/all/Brand a free service which creates a % Famecount or index for brands by aggregating their performance across Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. Topping the Famecount brand charts right now is Starbucks, mostly due to its 8 million Facebook friends and near 1 million Twitter followers. Starbucks embraced social media some time ago, so they have been adding friends and followers in a gradual organic manner, hence their Famecount of 68.8%. In second place sits uber-brand Coca-Cola with 52% and Pepsi nowhere to be seen. Coke's closest category rival in the social space appears to be Red Bull, thanks in part to more You Tube channel subscribers. Clearly a reflection of the original content Red Bull as a brand prides itself on and which indeed its brand DNA is built on.

What is interesting is that few of the top 20 brands in the survey are doing particularly well with their You Tube strategy. While Famecount assigns the lowest value to You Tube (25% vs 45% for Facebook and 30% for Twitter), a well executed You Tube channel can be incredibly powerful for brands. Hence the virtually unknown outside of social media, Blendtec, achieving a position of 39th, just behind Pizza Hut and ahead of Blackberry. All on a spend in the region of a few $100,000 versus $100,000,000. The Blendtec channel, "Will it Blend" is a cult success, with brand owner Tom Dickson blending everything from golf balls to an I Pad. As of mid June 2010, the brand has received over 117 million views on You Tube.

Famecount certainly does illustrate how smaller brands can and are outwitting their bigger spending rivals with smart social media strategies. Both Jet Blue and South West Airlines are 2 smaller US airlines with Famecounts in the top 20. In part this is due to their long-held customer service principles but also their novel use of the this newer media space. Southwest have games imbedded into their Fan-page that encourage the user to share with their Facebook friends. Easy, simple tactics that more brands should try to emulate.

And so back to Adidas and Nike. Well according to this slice of social media life, it is Adidas who are trumping their Amercian rival. Adidas Orginals has a score of 37.8% driven by its 3 million Facebook friends. As a follower of this myself, I know its good rich and engaging content, not just ads. This week for instance, we had the chance for a live chat with Adidas-star Snopp Dogg. I'm sure he'd love to know his famecount before he re-negotiates his next contract, well now he can use this great tool to find out.

Zoogle Day Poland 2010

2010-05-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

Chewy Trewhella Google UK speaking at Zoogle Poland

A few months in the planning, 4 hours of content, 3 excellent Google speakers, 163 happy delegates.

Zoogle Day Poland has launched, here's to next year.

Steve Paler, Tango Zebra/You Tube @ Zoogle Poland

Artur Waliszewski Google PL @ Zoogle Poland

Jakub Potrzebowski ZO PL CEO @ Zoogle Poland

Puma - saving the world, one showbox at a time...

2010-05-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Media in Mourning

2010-04-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

Tragic, unprecented events in Poland this weekend have led to an unprecented response from Polish media owners. As the nation tries to come to terms with an unimaginable level of loss, a period of national mourning has been declared for 7 days (starting last Sunday and leading up to the funerals on Saturday). During this time, there will be very little commerical media activity in Poland. Indeed most clients have pulled all campaigns and will start again in May.

All networks clearly completed cleared their programming schedules to allow for 24hrs news. All commercials have been stripped from TV, radio, press and main internet portals until Wednesday at the earliest. All newspapers (paper and online) have changed their mastheads - such as market leading Gazeta Wyborcza below - as a mark of respect.

Same goes for TV station idents - they have all added the black ribbon of mourning.

On radio there has been a more subtle change. Perhaps I expected classic funeral march music on all stations. Actually the response has been more thoughful - music stations are still playing music, just more understated tunes, more reflective music. This is acutally much more emotive and a very appropriate response.

I guess this reflects the mood and actions of the nation. Everyone is in shock and very sad. But the overwelming belief in this country that has suffered more than its fair share of tradegy is one of 'it won't kill us, we will emerge stronger'.

Very strange and challenging times indeed....

Social Network monopoly - the death of Bebo

2010-04-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

It appears that the 'winner takes all' predictions about the social networking market are becoming truer by the day.

Yesterday the news that AOL would sell or close the social site, Bebo, effectively signaled the end of another once-successful social network which simply cannot compete with Facebook.

A couple of years ago Bebo was the only website that mattered in the playgrounds of the UK and Ireland when it hit the peak of coolness in 2007. Among 13- to 16-year-olds, Bebo was the place to be seen online, where members could blog, email each other, upload videos and design quizzes – while many adults just didn't quite get it.

AOL saw the potential in the site launched from a San Francisco living room by a husband and wife team and gobbled it up for an eye-watering $850m. Which even then analysts saw as a triumph of ego over due-dilgence.

It was the sites positioning and content that orginally set it apart from other sites and drove traffic to a peak of 40 million unique users in early 2008. An example of such content was the online drama serial Kate Modern.

However, it looks like AOL uninvested and misunderstood the brand Bebo. Compared to Facebooks 2,000 engineers; Bebo employed 40 - leading to technical issues which todays social networker has little patience for.

AOL aim to broaden appeal failed also. Moving away from a small but loyal audience was clearly an error. Figures from comScore show the dramatic shift – Bebo's monthly users in the UK fell by 60% from February 2009 to February 2010 to 3.8 million, while Facebook's grew 24% over the same period to 28.1 million.

So the still privately owned Facebook can count the passing of another social rival backed by big-spending corporates. ITV recently sold Friends Reunited for a mere $42m (just 14% of the purchase price). NewsCorps' My Space, a $580mill Murdoch punt, is struggling to re-position and losing share. And now Bebo goes.

Which all goes to show, people want to hang out where there friends are. So is there any hope for a non-monopolistic market in social networking?

Viral Video - why getting it right as a client rarely means zero media spend.

2010-03-17T03:04:00.000-07:00

I was in a pitch meeting recently with a local Polish creative agency. As part of their impressive creds, they showed a viral campaign they had developed about a year ago. It was a subversive and quirky idea in a category untouched by usual viral work - pharma.

Clearly the client was impressed with the idea and, rather predictably, was even more impressed when the agency proudly annouced that there had been zero media spend behind it - it just happened.

This irritated me slightly as it showed a lack of ambition and knowledge on how to really use the media - beyond the most important aspect - having a great idea.

Yes of course viral often means 'free'. There are 1000s of now globally famous virals that have just 'happened', they caught the public imagination, were shared and spread before they are consigned to the library of 'remember that one with the fat kid / kid cute / sexy girl / exploding coke bottle / guy falling off the tread mill ....'

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However the vast majority of these are classic UGC that did not have the brief to sell / build awareness / create Excitment in a brand. They were simply a fun way to spend 10 secs to 3 mins.
When you are a brand in this space, it seems to me you have to follow a few rules. Here are some rules from some guys who do know what they are talking about in the viral space -- The Viral Factory. I found their words of wisdom in the BA Business Life magazine March 2010 edition and thought they were worth sharing, I have paraphrased a little bit so forgive me:

Rule 1: Respect the audience

If traditional advertising has been occasionally guilty of treating people like idiots - avoid this tendency line. People can and will talk back to you and about you - through blogs, comments etc.
And while the size of potential Internet audience has us delirious with excitement, bare in mind that if you get it wrong - it can go really really wrong.

So...

Rule 2: Audience 1st, Marketing 2nd

When you buy a 30 sec TV spot - you want to Squeeze every last penny of value from the investment. And why not, its yours and you control it in an environment of apparent focused attention (the commercial break - however we've been talking about Ad Advoiders for 15 years)

With viral you have to earn the audience attention by giving them something they want to watch. So start with that and then figure out how to get key marketing messages across without ruining the idea you thought was so good in the first place.

What do people like? Well Hollywood has a pretty good grasp on this: people like to laugh, they like romance, they like watching people in jeopardy, they like sex, heros, cute things, and they like things that make you go WOW!

Rule 3: Get rid of barriers

If you want people to share what you've created, then make it easy and fun for them to do so. Use content-sharing tools and platforms like You Tube, Flickr, Facebook, Blogger. These are freely available and people are comfortable using them. Of course you can make you're own but that is an additional expense, when money spent (beyond creating the idea) should be focused on....

Rule 4: Promoting your viral

This should be done shamelessly and relentlessly especially in the 1st 2 weeks after realease. By getting into the 'top 100' of viral, work does disproportionately better as more people see and share.

You can focus on getting influencial people - journalists, commentators, well-followed bloggers etc - to spread your message.

However, a greater chance of success sits with having a viral promotional plan and budget in place. We use people like Go Viral to seed brand content- via social networks, content placements, SEO with behavourial targeting. There are 2 main approaches; "pull" seeding - one to many, or "push" content placement in high volume/traffic spaces.

Both are essentially charged on a pay per view model which adds some accoutability to this area and shows that great viral marketing campaigns don't just happen and they like any great marketing campaign, they need focus and investment.

The difference being, if you get it right in viral the idea will fly and your ROI is almost unimaginable - a was in the case of Evian's Rollerskating babies - which was 'planned' to get 2millions view and is currently on 58 million.

TEDx Warsaw - session 2

2010-03-05T03:35:00.000-08:00

The second session of the inagrual TEDx Warsaw event. I was 'live blogging' so expect a few typos and the odd loss of thread.....

Kicking off session 2 - Jonathan Ornstein

Jewish life in Krakow

How HRH Prince Charles helped to build a Jewish Community centre in Krakow -but now the need to attract Jews back to Krakow given there are only 150 Jews in Krakow.

Interesting view on how most Jewish people come to Krakow on hertiage tours - and go from ghetto, to concentration camp, to another camp to a cemetary. He compared this with a 2nd generation Japanese going back to Japan - only to visit Hirosima and Nagasaki.

2nd speaker - Noam Kostucki

How selfishness is the best reason to cooperate

3rd - Marek Minakowski - chief scientist at One.pl - a leading local portal

He's going to have a stab at predicting the future - excellent

Bascially nothing will change as human brain will not change. Its still going to be a case of Pull and Push - as we pull from Google now and Push to Facebook

Pull might become the 'crystal ball' to which you can pose any question. And push will become some kind of 'perfect secretary' who protects you from the over-burden of infomation.

Hmmm interesting guy but not sure I caught all he said.

4th Speaker -Sandra Bichl

2+2 is less than 4....how we are not predisposed to teamwork (apparently in German TEAM stands for "great, someone else to do the work")

Moving on to our hidden talents as individuals - either you've found them and its working for you, or you have yet to discover them (thats nice to hear!)

5th - Sebastian Straube

At current rate of development - we need 3 more Earth's to keep us sustained. That could be a problem

Sustainovation is the answer he tells us.

Bottom of the Pyramid innovation - focusing on the worlds 4 billion who have less than $2/day

Cradle to Cradle innovation - closed cycles for zero footprint

Catalytic innovation - disruptive innovation for social change - such as giving up your time for free

Next - Alek Tarkowski - given I have about 20 mins of battery left, might not get thru the session.

How do you protect culture in the digital age.

It seems that building culture actually means building another building - cultural institutions could use the internet to supplement whats missing.

If instituations move online, they need:

Openess - making stuff available so someone, somewhere can help and find an answer

Sharing -

Sustainability - find ways to support creators over a long time

Durability - what would a 100 year Wikipedia look like?

Indeed the battery did cut out half way thru this talk - shame as it was one of the best (in my view) so far. He went on to talk about cultural curation and how this will become more and more important yet easier - even creating a playlist is an act of curation.

Session closed with an amazing recital by a cellist and acordian player - playing a modern composition by a young Polish musician. Excellent - there is more music to come later. Probably better to see that on http://tedxwarsaw.com/

TEDx Warsaw session 1 - live from Warsaw Uni Old Library

2010-03-05T00:58:00.000-08:00

The lecture theater of the Uni Old Library building in Warsaw is pretty much packed - that makes 376 keen souls pushed through the morning snow to be at the inaugral TEDx Warsaw.

Its 10am - And as promised we're off with a video from the founder of the TED TEDx why it was set up

Now its the organisier Ralph Talmont-brief housekeeping

1st speaker for precisely 18 mins-Ian Hernandez. "Ever been to the circus?" Trapeze Acrobats and flying

Its all about collaboration. 3 stages
1) Competition: In a positive sense, going the extra mile, self-imporvement

2) Co-operation: its all about agreement

3) Collaboration: its all about creation

Summing up - lifes lessons come from very unusual places, and that achieve remarkable things you need the same trust and committment as an acrobat.

2nd Speaker - Lori Kent - importance of the arts in human culture

30.000 yrs of art in 18 mins - here we go - Cavemen, The Greeks, Dark Ages, Renaissance artists = as superstars, Modernism, right up to the post-post modernism now.

7 things to love about artists: they ...

1 - see well ... have vision - imagination
2 - aritists find a problem
3 - are self-aware
4 - are experts at play - like finger painting as a child
5 - embrace difficulty - Michalango imagine looking at a block of white marble
6 - oopps missed that one
7 - reflect and critique. well before 'crowd sourcing'

By the way - its great seeing an artist present using her own pictures rather than ppt.

Asks us to make our own day more artful, and put it at center of what we do

3rd up - Sergei Sawin - how to build an innovative organistion

1 Have courage to explore - from rubber to nokia phones
2 Know where you want to be in 10 years - if you can not predict the future invent it
3 See the world through your clients eyes - get out of the office
4 Focus on the job people are Tyringe to get done not on the product itself --
5 Discover your non-customers - eg use of the Wii by over 60s - bowling on you tube
6 Find out your lead users --
7 Foster collaborative creativity - Dutch ministry of transpostation has an amazing creavtivty facilty
8 Be open to new ideas
9 Prototype - helps turn ideas into a reality - try and fail a few times - this helps
10 Prepare for tough resistence - innovators are like Rambo - limited resources and no support.

"When the wind of change is blowing you can either build a shelter ... or a windmill" syas the chinese proverb.

4th speaker - Hodge Hodgson

Building carbon-neutral economies. A project at Berlin University - building a building that produces more engery than the inhabitants consume

A solar decathlon architecture in Madrid in June 2010

Oh quick one - all done in 4 mins

Number 5 - Jacek Olechowski

Networks and Trust - can we trust the networks that bring us together?

Toyota, Anderson, Madoff - lose trust, lose everything

Efficient ways of building trust? Because lack of trust is the biggest barrier
Thats why networks can be efficient and builder of trust - eg simply being TEDx event at a level of trust develops between strangers

Effective networks

Peers vs. Hierarchy - everyone feels at the same level
Long term goal v deal driven - not common vision quick deal
homogeneous v too diverse - a few set of rules and values that people can agree on

The social networking sites that are winning are fulfilling certain needs

6th Speaker - Stephen Kines - we're flying through them - do not think everyones getting close to their 18 mins, certainly no buzzer used yet.

Man walks on stage with a cucumber and a condom - this is getting random now - whats the metaphor - oh he's a lawyer and its about protection.

How rules can kill and constrict the entrepreneur - hence a new biz model for his law firms without Billable hours - is that one going to catch on?!

And last up this session - Michal Malinowski

A story teller dressed in traditional Papua New Guinea outfit- setting up a digital repository for stories from all over the world. Quite a trippy end to the session.

when suffering writers block....Wordle

2010-03-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Superbowl 44 ads - winners and losers

2010-02-08T04:07:00.000-08:00

I wrote last week about Pepsi and Coke taking different appraoches to their use of social media and specifically about using the Super Bowl as a kick-off point for their respective campaigns.

So although us UK viewers were provided with excellent coverage by the BBC - it was obviously an ad-free environment. So today i had a review of the ads which wounds last night, ads costing c. $ 2 million for a 30 second spot.

With the Oscars, the Superbowl half time ad break is the U.S. creative industry's chance to really shine to an enormous audience live and recorded. And with eye-watering media costs - you'd expect some really great work.

But as ever, there were (in my opinion) winners and losers, saints and sinners. I reviewed the ads here at mashable.com

My clear favorite was from Homeaway.com - renting a home service which seeks to encourage holidayers away from hotels and into peoples rented home.

For me they got it spot on. Great creative idea, good use of celebs, and 30 sec media buy which leads you (and you really do want to see more) that are online to see a short film which Heralds the return of the most infamous family holidaying, the Griswalds of National Lampoon fame . I'm not going to provide a narrative -- just have a look here t0 watch / play more

Google Trends updates has not quite yet for last nights activity, but I'm sure Homeaway.com will see a surge in traffic, plus a boost in awareness and consideration after this campaign kick off.

I also liked Vizio for its interactive enabled ads - they no doubt understood the longer-tail effect and ensured their You Tube version was interactive, creating a deeper experience with this Internet over TV brand

Doritos ran numerous 'crash the superbowl' ads again. Good to see a big idea from 3 years ago (UGC for Superbowl) still going stong.

The losers - well its hard to say this objectively, its more the ads that I found to stand-out because of their poor execution rather than outstanding work around them.

Dr.Pepper Cherry with Kiss...plus a bunch of midgets. Just lame.

Sketchers...new 'MBT' like show - pretty much looking like a hastily arranged powerpoint create ad for 120 million people to see

And what of Pepsi and Coke? Well Pepsi had the year off to focus on social media, and Coke, well Coke threw money at the problem and invited the Simpsons to create some happiness. Nice enough but somehow left me disappointed.

The Cola Wars - this time it's social

2010-02-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

They will be a massive break with tradition this coming Super Bowl Sunday. Yes as usual Americans will be glued to their screens (mostly TV screens) for 4 hours or so. There'll be 2 teams trying to outwit and out-muscle each other on the pitch and yes there'll still be a Mamouth spectacular half-time shows, led by the Who.

But there will be a difference during the now legendary half-time TV commercial breaks. For the 1st time in a quarter of a century one of the 2 soft-drink giants will not be there to compete. PepsiCo - home of Pepsi, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and various salty snacks - this year will not be paying in the region of $ 3 million for a 30 second spot. This year, PepsiCo is putting everything into a $ 20mill social media led campaign called The Pepsi Refesh Project.

As part of this CSR scheme, the Purchase-based firm will give donations, ranging in value from $5,000 (€3,592; £3,140) to $250,000, to good causes in the US, with a budget of $20 million in all. Web users will be able to vote for the individuals, groups and organisations which they consider worthy of receiving this funding, with up to 32 grants being awarded every month.

AOL, MTV, NBCU Universal and Yahoo are among the media partners for this communications drive, while Pepsi will also sponsor a reality series, If I Can Dream, on Hulu, the video-on-demand platform.Facebook and Twitter will be among the other services Pepsi will employ in spreading its message.

What is interesting here are two things.

Firstly that Coke is also using social media to promote a huge CSR programme this year. But it is buying into the Superbowl airtime in order to promote its own scheme. Visitors to a dedicated page on Facebook will be able to view a sneak preview of one of these ads if they send a branded "virtual gift" is one of their friends on the service before the Super Bowl. Each time such a "gift" is delivered over duration of the month-long scheme, the beverage maker will award $ 1 to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, with a total budget of $ 500,000.

So these two behemoths of FMCG marketing are attempting to play the same game but with different tools. Will Pepsi's purely social punt (delberate pun) see them victorious by creating a larger 'reward' pot and letting the power of the idea generate the traffic required. Or will Coke's 'shock and awe' tactic of using the immense Superbowl audience (ranging from 80-130 million individuals), who tend to deliberately view the half time ads (and indeed PVR them to play again and again), see Coke generate big numbers to this site.

Either way, heres the second interesting point. Both companies are now talking about a new post-digital age where 'experimentation is over'. A recognition of the value to them of digital media that allows and encourages a two-way dialogue.

Clearly it will be interesting to track the evolution of these 2 similar campaigns, sowing the seeds of interest in different ways. It will also be interesitng to see how may of the Superbowl ads (generally always especially created for the event) will have a social media elememt or at the very least a Facebook URL. And look out for more of the same at the next global event of this scale - FIFA 2010 in South Africa.

You Tube set to rival TV networks in sports coverage

2010-01-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

Hot on the footsteps of You Tube's UK content deal with Channel 4 (blogged here last year) it now appears Google's video channel has signed its most significant brioadcast rights deal to date, Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket.

You Tube will show around 60 matches in the tournament, which starts in March, to a global audience. In India alone there is a potential online audience of 60-70 million (depending on source). IPL is currently broadcast by mainly pay-TV operations such as Sky TV in the UK. So its very likely this deal will open up the IPL brand to a huge audience.

Despite losing $470m per year, You Tube must see massive commercial opportunity to take on this deal. Thay will be looking to recoup investment by signing a global sponsor, plus local sponsors in key cricket markets (UK, Australia, Pakistan etc).

It appears that You Tube's live stream of U2 from the rose Bowl was the key testing ground for this move - 10 million viewer worldwide watched the concert. And it's clear that if IPL is a commercial and audience success, there will be more deals to follow.

All very interesting at a time when regulators in the UK are seeking to make live TV sports more accessible to audience by enforcing pricing regulations.

It also seems to me that this deal by You Tube is exactly what Channel4 (now a You Tube content provider) should have been looking to do after losing its grip on live sport after the 2005 Ashes. Channel 4 recently signaled its intentions to reclaim a position in sport by beating the BBC in buying the rights to London 2012 Paralympics coverage

Some happiness for the most depressing day of the year.

2010-01-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

Today is 'Blue Monday' and has been since a PR agency coined it so in 2005. It involved some 'questionable' maths, a bit of logical thinking and a neat press release is depressed encourage Brits to book a summer holiday.

While, according to the Guardian article on it The maths has as much scientific rigour as a game of 'rock, papper, scissors'. Blue Monday is now an integral part of the January news agenda, especially when there is no longer any snow to talk about. Showing, I guess, the potential strength of news content - create a day that did not exist before, sit back and wiat for it to grow. A bit like Mother's Day I suppose.

Anyway, as we're all meant to be an absolute low-ebb, I thought it appropriate to share this viral Coke on how to cheer up the Punters at this time of year. Put a dude in Coke machine, place in college Refectory and give away free stuff. Genius

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2010 media predictions

2010-01-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little late getting to the predictions party. Blame the endless new year revelry, blame the long trip back to Poland - but better later than never. It also gives me the benefit of 4 days in 2010 to see how things are panning out. In the topsy-turvy economy we live in now - things can change pretty quickly.

Making predictions is a great way of starting the year for sure - especially when one of your resolutions is to blog more. Its also a great way to end up with egg on your face when none of your carefully crafted predictions comes true.

Clearly much depends on how well the global economy recovers (or continues to recover depending where you are). Sir Martin Sorrell has used most of the alphabet to describe the shapes of recovery. In the BRICS its a 'V' shape, while in the UK we're looking at the 'L'. Lets just hope its not the dreaded double dip 'W'.

Ok to the predictions:

1) Lets start with an easy one. Facebook will surpass 1/2 billion users well before the end of 2010. There is some science to this one - FB was growing at 500,000 new members a day at certain points in late 2009. Might be hard to keep that number but I don't see it slowing down, especially when you consider the potential for growth in large yet relatively untapped markets like Poland.

As a result, more later adopters will be touched by more social media. Potentially making social media a channel to market as well as marketing channel.

2) The UK election (one thing I can confidently predict before June 2010) will attempt to ape the 2008 US election in many ways. Presidential style debates have already been signed up to by the 3 major parties and with an election date looming, the Tories and Labour will employ every social media technique known to man - and hopefully a few we haven't really experienced yet.

3) The FIFA World Cup in South Africa in June/July will truly see the establishment of internet TV as a mainstream channel. Given the number of afternoon kick offs and South Africa's timezone compared to Europe - WC2010 will see millions of football fans viewing matches from their work desktops, their laptops and increasingly from their i-phones. Commercial broadcasters, all under pressure need to ensure they monetise this channel to make decent returns on the huge rights purchase that a FIFA world cup represents.

4) 2010 will be the year that Rupert Murdoch's much discussed 'online newspaper pay-walls' will get properly road tested. Murdoch's boffins have been stratching their collective heads for some time but apparently they are ready to go in 2010. Whether it be micro-charging or subscriptions - time will tell where the public are willing to pay or whether 'free' is what we now expect. And its not just the News Int titles that are desperate to realise cash based on their editorial investments. The Guardian, whilst being one of the best read online newspapers globally, is losing money hand over fist in the UK and simply must get its model right.

5) Perhaps as I'm not a massive user - I still feel that Twitter has much more to do to go from media phenomana to media powerhouse (in Facebook terms). Twitter appaears to be a long way from realising serious revenues (from advertising) and some of its audience may be under threat if the benefit it has felt from big celebrity names tweet less and less (Stephen Fry's self-imposed exile from all things 'social' and Asthon Kucher's threat to move off Twitter in the USA). Some media rules are true no matter what the medium - celebrities interest people, they sell magazines/newspapers, raise TV ratings and bolster Twitter numbers.

6)In the UK we see 'legalised' commercial TV product placement from the summer. Will the 'new' format realise the 140 million pound boost to broadcasters fortunes that the Culture Secreatry Ben Bradshaw has predicted? While the debate continues as to whether product placement should indeed come in (ISBA have just released a suprise U turn and are now against the idea) it will take the belief of advertisers, patience of consumers and willingness of producers for even a small proportion of this ambitious target to be reached.

7) Apple will release another piece of technology that will become quickly adopted and will have the marketing community pondering how best to use the new 'tablet' for communication purposes. It looks like late Jan might be the date Steve Jobs takes the stage and reveals all. Suffice to say, it will look great and we'll all want one.

So that's it - I know 7 is an odd number but 5 seemed lightweight and frankly I couldn't think of 10.

Maybe I'll come back in December and see how these got on.

56 newspapers in 45 countries: 1 front page story

2009-12-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

As representatives of the worlds 192 countries get down to the serious business of halting climate change in Copenhagan today; for the first time ever a large group of diverse newspapers spoke with the same voice on this single subject.

In an extraordinary feat of co-ordiation, diplomacy and sheer bloody-mindedness. The Guardian in the UK has managed to pull off an outstanding coup at the start of this vital series of meetings.

Since September its 'Greenlight' editorial team, led by Ian Katz, have been hard at work convincing, cojoling, drafting and re-drafting a single story designed to run on the front page of as many papers who would carry it.

It starts like this

"Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted."

From reading Ian Katz' story behind the story you can begin to see what an undertaking this was. I met Ian about 18 months ago in London as our agency wanted to understand more about the climate change debate post 'An Inconvenient Truth'. He talked very authoriatively then and clearly continues to lead the vangguard on the subject.

We talk an awful lot about media firsts in out business - certainly one of our more over-used cliches. But this is a media first of genuine innovation. When the pressure is on for newspapers globally, I think its a very heathly sign that work like this can be produced.

Clearly there are many different points of view on climate change - not least since the stories of email leaks from the University of East Anglia came to light - so I am full of admiration for getting a single script agreed for so many papers, in so many countries, with so many differing positions on climate change. The only disappointment? Probably the reaction of the American media - with only the Miami Hearld (Katz says we should buy 2 of this brave paper whenever in Florida) printing the story. Indeed the Guardian received this little missive from one climate chnage denier in the States "This is an outrageous attempt to orchestrate media pressure. Go to hell."

The Curse of the Gillette 3 and and the joys of photoshop...

2009-12-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

You can not escape the seeming untamed joy of sports and brand commentators with this story. Its everywhere.

First Henry re-enacts the Hand of God and puts those puckly Irish out World Cup (leading to farcical debate about the '33rd team'), then Mr Reliable, Tiger Woods is caught up in a car-crash-cum-domestic which has seen debate and innuendo grow as he kept his silence. Its now not a question of whether he had an affair but how many.

So 2 out of the Gillette 3 have brought a certain amount of, how to put this, somewhat negative publicity their way and as a result heaped unwanted focus on to the Gilette brand which they are paid handsomely to represent.

Federer appears to have avoided the full curse so far - I do not think that failing to win the ATP Finals really puts him in 'curse' territory. He is simply not having a great season by his high standards.

There are big questions over what Gillettes response will be. Well I would imagine they currently have a team of lawyers pouring over the various contracts but I would be surprised if Gillette seek to pull the plug on these high profile, long-term deals. However, there is some evidence of a level of embarrassment on Gillettes part. I've just seen this post on Huffington Post - evidence of a bit of diplomatic editing.

It looks like Gillette have altered the French version of the current work to remove all conitations of Henry being a handball-ist. Note the dofference between the old Spanish version of this opening frame and the new French version

Old Spanish version of Gillette ad

New French version of same ad. Not lack of football in Henry's palm.

Question is: will they removed the car keys from Wood's pocket next?

Orange / Twitter deal - coming to Poland soon...

2009-11-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

This appears to be a good and clever deal for both parties. Social network sites/applications are loved by both handset makers and mobile networks alike, the microblogging service is seen a potential driver in selling more expensive handsets and those potentially lucrative data plans. both handset makers and mobile networks alike, the microblogging service is seen a potential driver in selling more expensive handsets and those potentially lucrative data plans.

Starting today, Orange UK customer can send and receive tweets by SMS to and from their followers, and in a world first, also share photos on Twitter via the carrier’s Multmedia Messaging Service (MMS) as part of its newly launched ‘Snapshot‘ service - sort of like an Orange-branded TwitPic or similar sites. This additional Twitter functionality is to be included in customers’ existing plans and won’t cost any more aside from standard charges for sending an SMS or MMS outside of any included bundle.

What is really interesting for Twitter development in Poland is the launch of Twitter services via Orange IPTV later in 2009. Users will be able to Tweet on-screen directly when watching certain entertainment and sports programming. When you consider the level of mirco-blogging created on social networks by fans of 'reality TV' programming (currently my Facebook news feed is dominated by the UK's X Factor with viewing figures of 12-14 million per episode) - you can see that this might be very appealing for viewers, although a US experiment with Twitter on Fox was a technical failure.

However if Orange get this right technically, it could act as a real stimulus to user growth for Twitter (remember Twitter has grown to a be a global phenomena without using traditional paid-for advertising, so partnerships like this are critical to grow its user base). Currently Twitter is at the early stages of development in Poland, with 300,000 users, tiny when compared to Gadu Gadu and its 7,000,000 instant messenger users.

Interview - hatalska.com

2009-11-09T07:36:00.001-08:00

I met Natalia, the author of Hatalska.com, a few weeks ago. We had a great chat about various communications issues and questions. Her focus tends to be on digital and non-standard solutions (many fantastic global examples on her site) so we got on famously.

Links to my interview here. It is naturally transcribed in Polish but Google have a neat translation tool...

http://www.hatalska.com/2009/11/09/trzeba-myslec-social/

http://www.hatalska.com/category/wywiady/

http://www.hatalska.com/

Channel 4 You Tube deal

2009-10-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

There were strong rumors last week and these have been confirmed by MediaGuardian today. A landmark deal between the UK commercial broadcaster, Channel 4 and You Tube - For You Tube to host C4 programs shortly after broadcast.

The deal, that was 6 months in the making with both parties sharing the revenues generated You Tube via an 'agreed formula', see C4 will make its existing online video 4oD catch-up service available via YouTube shortly after shows have aired on TV.

Both parties have signed up for an initial 3 year period and C4 content will become available on the Google-owed site early in 2010 (in the UK it only appears to protect foreign rights revenues C4). Regular and new series such as Skins, Peep Show and Hollyoaks will be joined by 3000 hours of archive programming including shows such as Brass Eye, Derren Brown and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

So why the deal, and why now?

Well, Channel 4 have been in a tight spot revenue wise (like all UK commercial broadcasters) for some time as advertiser demand falls while audience remain static. So while the debate about C4 taking a share of the BBC license fee rumbles on, they are forced to look for other revenue sources. Given that You Tube has 20 million UK users, even with a relatively low cost-per-view - this should bring in much needed funds for C4. It'll be very interesting to see what concessions are made to the sponsors of existing C4 shows. Channel 4 have an excellent track record in monetising their programs from a sponsorship point of view. Will this deal be covered in existing and future C4 sponsorship deals as they are on Channel 4's online catch-up site, 4 On Demand.

Channel 4's out-going chief executive Andy Duncan said of the deal "it demonstrates our ability to strike dynamic commercial partnerships to help underpin our future as a commercially funded, not-for-profit multi-platform public service network." So yes, some much needed immediate cash.

But there are sceptics industry stating that C4 have mortagaed the longer-term value of their content for short-term rewards.

"No broadcaster in the world has done a long-form deal with them [YouTube] for a good reason," said a senior executive in the digital broadcasting industry. "They already control 65% of the UK video market. With that kind of market power, long-term they will screw you. Channel 4 has taken short-term profit and Sacrificed long-term value. It is not a smart deal.

For You Tube, well I see this as a win win situation for them. They get some exceptionally high-quality content that viewers will seek out and spend considerable time with. No doubt boosting overall revenues and not just those linked to the C4 content.

There appears to be an interesting kicker to this deal. I have no idea Whether the new C4 series 'Rude Tube' is tied to this deal, but it seems too close not to be.

Zane Lowe presents a weekly wraps up of the best You Tube action (in the tradition of You've Been Framed but for the 'yoof'). Classic You Tubes are replayed and the story behind them told.

Long-term its hard to tell what the result will be, but in the short-term it appears to be a good deal for Channel 4, You Tube and consumers.

UPDATE 19/11/09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/19/youtube-uk-full-length-shows

Fireworks in the Ukraine, a damp squib online?

2009-10-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

The dust is settling on the aftermath of the 1st ever England football match to be screened exclusivily online. As the pitch recovers from the burning flares - the analysts are wondering what this experiment means in the long term for sports broadcasting.

On Saturday night, the amide of the flares and fireworks, England lost their 100% record under Capello Flabio in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukriane. Meanwhile up to 500.000 either England fans paid up to 10 pounds to log on or attend the Odeon cinemas in 12 (or did not given this photo)

The main concern that surrounded the announcement of the deal was that of technical glitches and viewing quality. The Upshot appears to be a mixed result. The Swiss agency Kentaro, left holding the rights after Setanta went bust this year, and Perform, the internet broadcaster employed it to show the match after receiving no "satisfactory" offers from TV broadcasters, said almost nine in 10 viewers who responded to a post -match survey found the picture quality "satisfactory or better".

However numerous callers to radio shows on Sunday complained about glitches and delays in loading video and comentary - no doubt a result of living in a slow broadband area.

So, the question stands - when will we see the like of this again?

Remember this event came about after Setanta (who held rights to some of England's away Qualifiers) went to the wall in the UK. Kentaro rejected a bid of £ 1 million from the BBC for the live rights (the Beeb later struck an 11th hour deal for the highligths package) and decided to break the mold and put out the live broadcast online. Its hard to predict when more 'distressed purchase' rights will come to the market like this again. Can not see Sky, ESPN or the BBC going bust anytime soon. ITV are having a horrendous time but they are unlikely to try to unload this Champions League rights - its their best upmaket access to small audiences.

Either way - if these rights are up for grabs again, I'd be very interested to see a brand come in and become the facilitator and broadcaster. In many ways, this happened in part with the Ukraine match. Many national newspapers had Partnered Perform with The Game that offer to their readers (at a price of course), but it was the betting site, Bet365, who did bring The Game to its users for free.

For instance, could we see Ford also their Champions League partnership to the next level and provide the content? Clearly with the usual free-to-air trade off of being branded a exporsed content / ads from the advertiser.

Doing the maths, where possible on this experiement, its hard to make a case that more revenue was brought in by eskewing the traditional halls of rights is a TV broadcaster. Kentaro will not release the full numbers but given the estimate of 300.000 people buying on-line rights at anywhere from 4.99 to 11.99. Its come up short of an usual Sky audience for an away fixture of England (c. 2 million), the ad revenue Sky would attract and the price they might pay.

But its not beyond our Imaginations to find other ways of monetising this sort of deal. Meaning that it could become viable to see this again, screened in a similar way. Although the Internet broadcaster would need to do a better job than Perform in restricting viewing from illigimate websites (such as Justin.tv) And curb the sharing of log-ins (apparently a user could sign in as many as 25 friends)

That said, given the state of the economy and the enourmous pressure on national broadcasters, rights holders, in all sports will be looking at this ground-breaking experiment with much interest.

How to build a winning pitch. Mike Lee's lessons from London and Rio

2009-10-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

I was extemely heartened to hear the news from Copehagen last week, that the IOC had awarded the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, bringing the games to South America for the 1st time.

Rio had seemed to be the 'peoples' choice for some time but it was by no means a shoe-in. Concerns over security and infrastructure had enabled Chicago to come close to being the US's 3rd summer games in little over 3 decades.

Winning the Olympic bid must surely be seen as the biggest pitch in town - the legacy created by an Olympic games is enourmous and hopefully a positive one (if you're not Montreal, the 1976 games indebted that the Canadian city for years afterwards).

So I asked myself; as we work in an industry where we generally face an open, competitive pitch to win and retain our clients, what can we learn from this process.

What I really liked the Rio's attitude was this: we want the best so we'd better get the best possible team on board. So who do you go to in terms of the best 'Olympic pitch experts'? Well you get the guy who helped win the last one, right? And thats precisely what Rio's bid leader, Carlos Nuzman did. He brought on board Mike Lee, the communications director of London's 2012 bid and his Vero team.

I read a piece by Lee in the Guardian on the day following the decision and I've tried to draw out a few general principles which we might apply to our daily reality of pitching. Clearly I'd like to ask him for more detail, but I dare say he'd probably charge a pretty hefty fee given his success rate.

1) Fully understand your audience

We say this a lot but rarely go to succufficent lenghts to really get to understand individual and corporate motiviation. What are they really looking for? This will never be committed to a brief, so you have to read between the lines. How brave are they? Whats the true extent of ambition?

Lee recongised that the IOC, despite a repuation for being a conversative organisation, had acutally a storng track record for making bold decision in where to award games. He cites Toyko '64 and Beijing '08 as examples of this. This gave him an insight and allowed Rio to develop its bid in a certain way

2) Create a powerful narrative

A pitch is a story, the story of your agency and the process you've been through. It will be much more patable and easy to understand if there is a powerful narrative running through it. It also needs to be a balanced story.

Lee recongised that Rio had a very strong emotional pull as a bidding city - no South American city had hosted before, Rio is famous for its party spirit. However, before playing these trump cards Rio had to prove its worth from a more rational point of view. So Lee had President Lula and the Governor of the Brazilian Central Bank put the raitonal case first, to build the framework. They proved the money and polivital will was in place. Then bid president Nuzman did the emotive close, using videos like this...

http://

3) Get the right people and ensure they are fully committed to the process

Lee makes the point that while Obama flew in for the day to support his home city, President Lula (like Tony Blair for London) had been a fundamental part of the bid for 2 years. Visiting IOC members, current and future games sites - publically showing commitemnt to the cause.

So for us its all abiout the right pitch team, the best people with clear and defined roles

4) Have a clear defining idea

Leave the audience with a very clear idea - they will no doubt, like the IOC, have to sit through 3 or 4 more equally determind presentations, so ensure they have somehting to take away.

For London this was all about inspiring the young people of the world. For Rio it was an idea about the journey the country (and region) was on to bring people out of poverty and create a new, modern Brazil.

So, hats off to Mike Lee - his business will no doubt flourish as his results speak for themselves. Hopefully we can learn a little from his valuable tips.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/04/rio-olympics-2016-mike-lee

Cannes Lions - Warsaw event 01.10.09

2009-10-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I attend the Warsaw leg of the Cannes Lions review. It was hosted by SAR (the Polish Ad Industry body) and Phil Thomas from Cannes Lion International came over from London to talk to the 700 or so the ad industry folk gathered at the Terraces Zloty cinema.

It was nice touch that Phil came over here - that will hopefully encourage some more creative bravery in the market. Given Poland's size it is hugely underrepresented at Cannes and generally has a lower level of creative output than a market of this size warrants.

The message from Thomas was clear - our inductsy is changing as consumers engagement with the media and therefore advertising changes, "our jobs and roles will change completely in the coming years" Thomas said. This, of course, is music to my ears. Hopefully everyone took a little inspiration from the event.

The event was a little swollen on the side - at 4hours in length not everyone stayed the course, its hard to retain anyones attention for that long, let alone the ad folk. Especially when you play out no less than 5 adidas 10 min films back to back - that really did not deserve to be there.

My personal favorite was a series of 3 films by DRAFTFCB Stockholm, SWEDEN. A campaign to encourage Swedes to pay their TV license.

http://work.canneslions.com/film/?award=4

What I loved about this, beyond the brilliantly executed fake flash mob humor of the movie, was the simple but powerful insight: In Sweden instead of demonising those who do not pay their TV license (the UK model), celebrate the fact that many people (like you) activily chose to pay their license. As they say independent TV and radio is not a given thing.

Loads of other great campaigns to see on the Cannes Lions site. Indeed what struck me was that in today's era of tight budget, witness power of many of the shorter length copy ads. As Dave said Drogba - the economic crisis as 'belt' is not necessarily restricting the flow of blood to Creatives brains.

M&M Poland interview 29.09.09 - "Man with a mission"

2009-09-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

Got my 15 minutes of fame in Poland yesterday in the weekly marketing trade title - Media & Marketing. The interview was conducted just after I arrived 4 months ago, but held back to now for better impact and an update on a newcast project.

Here are the images

And for all those non-Polish speakers, heres the transcript in English:

My impressions, and not only mine, when getting information about your arrival to Poland was that you are to control the Polish office’s activity.

Absolutely not. My goal is to share my experiences from more developed market with my Polish colleagues. I won’t execute personal management but I will work on product development, especially in digital media sphere. Great Britain outdistances Polish market with 2 or 3 years in this area, mainly because of higher penetration of the Internet. I have to integrate media Zed Digital and interactive Moxie and to launch NewCast brand into Polish market. Those objectives are planned for twelve or twenty months.

In the name of your position we can find words: „business development” and you will take care about specialist brands. So one may presume that specializations are the driving force of business increase.

Absolutely positive. Two spheres now accelerate the increase of European media houses - digital and non standard communication. Combined Zed and Moxie, employing respectively 20 and 6 persons, generate really strong product. It’s worth saying that ZenithOptomedia has “in house” interactive creation only in the United States and in Poland. And only few media houses have such internal resources. With their help we want to plan better consumer engagement activities. The times when consumers were inundated with unilateral messages are gone for ever.

Why does Zed act as separate department? Why won’t you integrate it with the rest of the agency planning media off-line?

New media market grows so fast that it needs specific approach and (being in the swim????). That what we decidedly demand from all planners, also dealing with traditional media, is to understand new media. Those people don’t buy Internet but they have to know what it is about. Running the separate department is necessary for keeping particular level of skills and specialist knowledge which are then transferred to the rest of the agency. Zed is a global brand; it operates on all main markets and time for deeper integration of structures absolutely hasn’t come yet. Increasingly ZOG (through Vivaki) are creating market leading digital planning tools – especially in the growing SEM and Social Media areas – in order to create a leadership position in the digital field, so we need digital experts to fulfill our ambitions.

Doesn’t commission, still much more higher in Internet, decide about keeping separated Internet departments inside the agency?

No, it doesn’t. In most media houses in Great Britain TV and buying departments still operate. TV is the medium which eats up the biggest budgets and planning service is highly specialized and it demands to work on data constantly. This should be justified with market needs regulating work distribution and structures scheme in the agency. In my opinion there is a need of running online specialization in Poland.

Online planning is among basic services offered by media houses. So why is it priced much more higher than traditional media planning?

Because it takes more time and is an increasingly complex medium to plan and buy in. Spending £ 1 million for TV and for Internet is fundamentally different in terms of amount of work. TV planning systems have been developed for forty years and Internet for just ten. This difference in labor intensity will be reduced, of course, with the passage of time. The complexity of the medium means that bespoke tools and systems need to be developed also – these tools maximise the efficiency of client investment.

Ultimately there will be one planner for all media or off-line and digital ones working as one team?

There is no clear and concrete scenario yet. I think that there will be two “species” in future agency’s structures. In the first one there will be planners focused on data and numbers (“data centric”) probably coming from digital or direct sphere. The second group will include strategic-creative planners. They will create big, game changing ideas within the campaign. Those “data centric” ones wouldn’t hit on such ideas. Even today such division becomes to emerge if you track the structure of the agency and different departments.

Media houses are paid in different ways including commissions, hybrid system – i.e. commission + success fee - or flat fee. Which one is, in your opinion, the best for both sides?

There is no one model suitable for all clients. The most popular system in Great Britain combines remuneration for planning, conditioned with the value of all used resources (tools, data, etc.), with the commission. Most of our contracts provide for bonus for appropriate results as purchase price, sales value, etc. Except for single SEM projects I don’t know the examples of clients who pay only for effects.

So there is no tendency for renouncing commission, yet it’s connected with thinking about purchase in terms of biggest kick-backs from suppliers.

I don’t know any planner thinking that way. Besides, in ZenithOptimedia planner is that one who makes crucial decisions concerning purchase and buyer realizes them. So system combining payment for planning – where planner makes decisions – and commission for buying caries no risk for both sides. It’s similarly with hourly rates but clients are still not accustomed to it.

In several months, when your ZOG mission is over, you’ll leave the agency which…

Will be number one in digital offer on the Polish market. Such opinion will be given according to the following criteria: clients feedback, perceiving among suppliers, effectiveness in new business and number of awards. For newcast, I want the division to be the preferred non-traditional player, both for our clients and for suppliers, to do business with with..

Coldplay video row - real life creative tif or promotional tool?

2009-09-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

The dulcet tones of Cerys Matthews on 6 Music Just informed me of a battle royle in the music video industry today. In a similar vein to the row over the ground-breaking Honda 'Cog' TV commercial - the production team behind Coldplay's' Strawberry Swing video have been accused of stealing a idea.

Singer Andy Gallagher thinks Shynola's video for Coldplay's' Strawberry Swing 'looks a bit familiar'.

Pretty quickly a rebuttal has followed in this incredibly long and detail note from Shynola on their website

http://www.shynola.com/originalityexplained.pdf

It includes their sources of inspiration for the Coldplay promo, and even carries a thinly veiled suggestion that it was Andy Gallagher director who is indeed the plagiarist

All very interesting but here's the thing. In a world where the music industry is apparently on its knees due to piracy (see the hilarious 'yes its bad' 'no it isn't' spat between the rock royalty of Radiohead vs Lily Allen), is therefore hemorrhaging money and struggling to finance music videos. Here was a massive opportunity for Coldplay to get their new vid seen by an audience who might not ordinarily bother otherwise (6 music listeners).

But no - i went to You Tube (now the music video deal has been done) but I was denied - the Coldplay video has been taken down by the publisher. Whats going on here? An admission that there might be something in Andy Gallaghers claim or a band who don't want to profit from this type of publicity? Either way - I really want to see the video now please....

Here at least is Andy Gallagher's...dare I say "original"...

http://

Back to the Future - digital newspapers in 1981

2009-09-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ah is not history wonderful - so many of the answers we crave today, are questions we faced in the past.

As newspaper publishers globally struggle with business models to keep their printed edition in business and feed investmernt into their digital editions (free content, subscription based or a combination of the two) it looks like in 1981 we were faced with the same questions.

Brilliant piece of footage here from a San Francisco news channel on pioneering efforts by the SF chroncile to bring a digital version of its daily to market.

I love the fact that the early adopter 'home computer owner' is in his 70s but he is dead keen on the technolgy, This is not that long after some genuis at IBM said there would never be a market for home computers.

Thanks to Guardian MediaMonkey for this tip.

http://width="425" height="344">http://name="allowFullScreen" value="true">http://" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344">

UK Product Placement - opening the door to brands

2009-09-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Want your beer flowing in Rovers Return? How about having Jamie Oliver noshing your brand of bangers? Previously money can't buy marketing strategies, until now....

Quite a surprising final story on the BBC late evening news this Saturday. Product placement in UK TV shows will be legalised at some point in the near future. The news represents something of a turnaround for the Government, with Culture Secretary Ben Bradsahw reversing his predecessor Andy Burnham position. Burnham said a year or so ago that lifting the ban raised "very serious concerns" and was "blurring the boundaries between advertising and editorial". This turnaround will bring a level certainty to what is something of a grey area of UK broadcast law.

I say grey area as product placement certainly exists, its just not legitimised. We would send brands product and key messages to props agencies with the hope they would get used in high rating shows. ZenithOptimedia London indeed had tremendous success with a COI 'Flu Jabs' Eastenders campaign in 2006 - not only were the Henry Cooper emblazoned posters we provided clearly seen on screen. But the soaps producers decided to incorporate the Flu Jabs season into the storyline (with Jim Brennan desperate to avoid the needle with Dot egging him on - classic stuff). But no money would change hands and no exposure was guaranteed.

This is all about to change with this policy decision. More will no doubt be announced at the official unveiling on Weds (at the Royal Television Society lecture) but we can hazard a guess at what this new future may hold of us.

Commercial stations and independent producers (the BBC will remain exempt - with the old 'send a prop and pray' model in place) will be able to accept payment in return for guaranteed screen time for brands. No detail on limitations as yet but I am convinced the regulations will be tight. Here in Poland for instance, product placement is sold in packages by broadcasters - usually with a minimum guarantee of 2 x 3 second exposures per episode. What isn't clear is how many brands can be exposed in this way in each show.

The timing of the announcement is interesting for two reasons. Firstly there is the evidence of a 'spoiling tactic' by the government. The Tories have engaged with the advertising/media community to draft various white papers on the future of broadcasting - it was understood that a softening of product placement regulation was one of the areas of interest. Secondly it comes at a time with ITV lobbying heavily for the removal of the CRR (a trading mechanism put in place by OFCOM at the time of the Carlton/Granada merging to avoid clients facing significant hikes in TV ad rates). Relaxation or removal of the CRR is by far a bigger deal for the beleaguered broadcaster. While broadcaster commentators like Peter Bazelgate reckon product placement could be worth up to £125m a year in the UK (based on the US experience of PP bringing in 5-6% of TV revenue).

I think this estimations are ambitious, great for headlines but probably unlikely to be reached for some time. Numerous reasons for this but a key issue will be the timelines that producers work to versus the speed with which clients tend to need to bring products/services to market. For a decent prime time drama, you are probably looking at 6-9 months between filming and airing. This timetable would put off any would be product placers - even a high profile broadcast sponsorship deal can go from deal to air in a matter of weeks and most clients businesses are based around the 2 month advanced booking deadline which UK broadcasters tend to insist on.

However that said, one can easily imagine the big winners here. It will be the shows that have shorter production schedules and offer bigger audiences - namely live talent/reality shows. Its no surprise that this picture of American Idol has been trawled out on all news outlets when this story broke. The deal between American Idol and Coke is reported to be worth $35m per year. Its a huge rating show, its live or 'as live' and I am sure its ad breaks and sponsorship billboards are very well sold, meaning product placement is the only way the broadcaster can maximise revenues in a hit programme. I imagine it'll go the same way in the UK.

In reality, the net benefit of the relaxation in product placement regulation is likely to be worth about £20-30m per year in the UK. A help but not the answer to commercial broadcasting's woes.
Despite UK movie going audiences being quite used to product placement in films, it will be a case of suck it and see on TV. I agree with Robin Wright's assessment on the Guardian today - like everything in advertising, product placement can be done well or badly (you'll see both in every James Bond film "Is that a Rolex", "No, I wear Omega"....and???).

To do it really well we, as the media agency community, need to add to our existing skill sets and learn from experiences in other markets. To ensure the UK does product placement better than anyone else we're looking for natural fit between brand and programme. Shoe-horning in will turn off audiences and only increase the pressure on the TV market.

Here's an example I was shown from Poland on perhaps how not to do it....

Product placement - Telekomunikacja Polska SA
Uploaded by mediafun. - Click for more funny videos.
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Orange Warsaw Festival 2009

2009-09-07T04:49:00.001-07:00

The latest installment in the cultural game of chicken which is the search for Poland's 2016 European Capital of Culture took place this weekend

The Orange Warsaw Festival is the second annual installment of a partnership between the telco giant and Warsaw city hall in an effort to convince Poles and more importantly, the Euro mandarins who'll decide, that Warsaw is indeed the most culturally rich, diverse and deserving city in Poland.

Warsaw and 6 other Polish cities (for the record: Gdansk, Torun, Lodz, Poznan, Lublin and Szczecin) are battling it our for the right to join a Spanish city (9 candidates there) as 2016 European Capital of Culture.

Its clearly an accolade which can pay back handsomely. A 2004 study by the European Culture Commission (Palmer Study) demonstrated that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the city. Plus the tourist dollar that is sure to follow, makes this a big deal in any country, let alone the 'newer' European territories.

So the Polish rivals are going at it hammer and tong to prove their worth. This is great news for inhabitants and tourists alike - in a country that loves a festival anyway, you can't move for them now (in Warsaw this weekend you could add a Jewish festival and Brazilian festival to the Orange affair).

It also presents opportunities for brands to get involved, to help candidate cities shoulder the financial burden of putting on big shows and get what they can in return in terms of engagement which an audience.

So far this summer, Poznan got out the traps early with a season of concerts which included a rare Polish outing for Radiohead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3jOFxALtgY .

Gdansk has been playing the Solidarity of Arts card - not surprisingly in the year Poland celebrated 20 years of democracy.

The Orange affair in Warsaw was perhaps as the capital city should offer. It was big - estimates of 35,000 people over the 2 days. It was set in a remarkable and hugely iconic (indeed symbolic) location, right underneath Stalin's Birthday Cake - the Palace of Science and Culture. And it was very accessible - free in fact.

I noticed that beyond the usual levels of event branding (clear ownership but not over the top) and Orange 'experience' areas. Orange also used the event to bring together many European employees for a conference in Warsaw. A good move this when this type of budget is under more scrunity than ever. And also a - for this was the weekend when Orange was without doubt the dominant brand in a city centre littered with special build posters and ambient media.

But the really interesting aspect for me is this public:private partnership approach. Its nothing new but it seemed that these 2 partners seemed to find a common ground - never easy as commercial requirements often run contrary to less flexible state-owned institutions. In harder economic times, this flexible and open appraoch to commercial content partnership is vital.

Hard hitting ambient poster from Australia

2009-09-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

Something I stumbled on today while browsing random Blogger pages. Amongst the countless weird hobbyists I found this site http://criacaocriativos.blogspot.com/ by a Brazilian graphic designer.

The image below caught my attention, but I had to look twice to really see what was going on in this poster...

It's a campaign by the Australian Childhood Foundation - www.stopchildabuse.com.au/ - broadly it follows a similar theme to NSPCC's 'Full Stop' and Child Line's 'Don't Hide It'.

However, I think the image and effect of this poster is almost overwhelming. Not least because of the incredibly powerful dehumanisation of the child.

Click on the above blog to see the making of video plus Melbournites reactions. What is really shocking is how few people react - at least someone 'rescued' the child dummy and got a nice surprise.

Plaudits to JWT Australia for their excellent pro bono work here.

Moments in Life

2009-09-03T03:41:00.001-07:00

This is simply a beautiful piece of film

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVPalNZD_I

http://

Orange extend their film partnership...by about 500 miles

2009-08-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Something that I came across in Poland last week that seemed worth commenting on.

UK punters will be well aware of Orange's long-term and very well executed use of film as a brand communication vehicle. The amusing Gold Spot ads at cinemas and the Orange Wednesdays have been part of the film experience in the UK for some time

So I was interested to see that Orange Poland (re-branded here a couple of years ago) have also chosen to follow the film route. But happily, they aren't copying and pasting but applying a decidedly Polish take.

Like most of continental European, the Poles tend to holiday during a certain season (pretty much July and early August). With the Zloty suffering against the Euro and the country gripped by talk of economic crisis (really not that bad so far - fingers crossed...), as a consequence holidaying in Poland remains the best bet for many Poles - for at least one of their summer holidays (seems most people have two).

The options are three-fold; coast, lakes or mountains. With the deadly Polish roads actively keeping the population stable (there was a weekend when 66 people died on Polish roads recently - and not in 2 coaches), many Poles let the train take the strain.

Orange have understood this and have provided an addition to their regular summer cinema season in key Polish holiday resorts.

http://www.orangekinoletnie.wp.pl/

So running on the line from Sopot (twinned with Southend on Sea no less...) on the north coast to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains in the south, rail users could watch a vary of films - new and classic- in a branded Orange coach. Unlike Orange Wednesday, no Orange phone is required to settle in for the flick.

Once in each holiday town - Orange have also set up screens to keep you entertained when you're grown tired of talking to your family...

Capturing a great sporting moment

2009-08-25T02:37:00.001-07:00

I just love this image - taken by Tom Jenkins for the Guardian - the players consumed in joy and just visable is the little brown urn that England and Australian battle for over the course of a long summer every 2 years or so. Try explaining that to confused Poles.

Writing in buildings

2009-08-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is a building opposite me in Warsaw. Normally an unremarkable office block. But last night transformed with the symbol of the Polish 2nd World War resistance to mark the 65th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

They chose the moon

2009-07-28T03:49:00.000-07:00

Lots of milestone anniversaries this year - and 40 seems to be the magic number. Not just my brother James, but also 40 years since 3 guys set up a little festival in a farmers field in up state New York. Imagine their surprise as 250,000 hippies block the roads from New York city heading for Woodstock.

In the same year, another 3 guys had the whole world watching them. Just last week its 40 years since JFK promise of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely home came to pass.

I just found this amazing site which essentially re-enacts the whole mission from lift-off to splash down.

www.wechoosethemoon.org/ is truly extraordinary digital undertaking - compling hours and hours of footage stitched together with a stunning graphical representation of each stage of the mission. All the live audio is there, photos from earth, video from space. I love this. Its amazing to think that these guys did this with less technology on broad than we have in our mobile phones.

Enjoy...

I found this at http://www.thefwa.com/ on recommendation from Blazej Wocial from Moxie Interactive

Britain's most memorable ads - the common link

2009-07-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

There are many small pleasures about being an English abroad. One of them is being able to hear BBC radio thru my Mac. Believe me when you find the local language totally impregnable it is a real joy to hear your language across the full gamut of the BBC's portfolio.

This morning, as usual, I woke and munched corn flakes to the dulcet tones of Nicky Campbell and Sheila Fogerty. I'm not really fully awake at this time but one of the features that did stick with me was a piece on a recent survey into the most memorable advertising ever produced in the UK. So my work-based interest was piqued.

What was interesting about this latest ad poll (and don't we Brits love a survey about our favourite ads by the way - shows how high we regard the craft I believe) was that it focused on what made these ads memorable and helped to keep the ads and brands in our minds for literally decades.

Its the common or garden jingle (or sonic branding if we're looking to update the language) - a truly powerful tool.

Number 1 in the poll is Smash 'For mash get Smash', regularly voted as the UK's favourite ad. The BMP created Martians campaign and catchy jingle transformed the brands fortunes. And it despite the product all but disappearing from the kitchen - the ads still linger with people. It is a classic example of a brand being hard-wired into our brains. You say Smash - and I say 'for mash get Smash' without missing a beat. And in a world where we are almost tyrannised by brand choice - this ability for certain brands to create 'heuristics' (rules of thumb for quick decision making) in people's heads is a potent tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SAbJjktk7E

The other ads in position 2 and 3 are linked by use of music but in a very different ways

R White's Lemonade - made in 1973 but aired incredibly until 1984, its a classic jingle in that it was specifically created for the campaign. Written and sung by Ross Macmanus (Elvis Costello's dad) - 'The secret lemonade drinker' tune was a huge part of this ads enduring charm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqBa7eay6Fo

In at 3 is Guinness surfers. Created by AMV, written by Walt Campbell and directed by Jonathan Glazer and yes perhaps the most visually arresting of all the examples. But don't underestimate the power of that pulsating Leftfield soundtrack 'Phat Planet'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zff9hVH3ptY

Here's some of the other poll toppers: Wall's Cornetto 'Just One Cornetto', Shake'n'Vac 'Do the Shake and Vac', Kia Ora 'I'll Be Your Dog', Mars 'A Mars a Day Helps You Work, Rest and Play' , Kwik-Fit 'Can't Get Quicker Than a Kwik-Fit Fitter', Club Biscuits 'If You Like a Lot of Chocolate on Your Biscuit Join Our Club.", Cadbury's Flake – 'Crumbliest Flakiest Chocolate'.

All classics, all driven by their sonic branding, all essentially made famous through TV advertising (and lots of it) and all created in the pre-digital age (bar 'Surfers')

So what I'm wondering is whether in the age of digital fragmentation if the ad industry hasn't slightly lost sight of the power and potential of the honest jingle or powerful soundtrack. As more campaigns move from being created for TV and simply 'put up on You Tube, to campaigns actually being devised with digital media in mind as its lead means of distribution. How many are really using the full power of aural stimulation and how many will stand the test of time like the jingle-tastic examples above?

I'm just a teenage intern baby - the future of media reseach?

2009-07-14T03:16:00.000-07:00

Got sent this FT link yesterday http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/035e83fe-6f18-11de-9109-00144feabdc0.html

Fascinating story about how Morgan Stanleys head of media research release a analyst note penned by their 15 year old summer intern. Apparently all their clients have gone mad for it.

If the actual content of the note was not a surprise - teenagers don't listen to the radio, buy papers or use Twitter - the means of conducting the research certainly was. Morgan Stanley do heavily caveat the lack of statical rigour, but that doesn't seem to have perturbed their clients.

So is it time to throw out some of our highly invested in quantitative media research and just take a hand full of qualitative samples but in more intimate detail? Bye bye TGI and hello GCSE aged interns telling us what the hell is going on.

What was very interesting was the value attached by this intern and his group of friends to live experience and events. Cinema is still a huge draw, clearly the quality of the product is a factor but like generations before - its simply a great place to hang out with friends. Linked to this was the value of the live music experience, in an economy where it is almost inconceivable for a teenager to actually buy music - live is the primary means to extract any cash from this market.
Which has to be one of the key outtakes for brands from this piece. Teens will ignore you in traditional advertising but as they chase free content, providing valuable branded entertainment is clearly the way forward.

So is it time for all us media agencies to reconsider our recruitment policies, to engage with an audience we stopped understanding years ago - and to be brave - if Morgan Stanley can do it I'm sure we can too.

Livestrong Tour de France messages courtesy of Nike ChalkBot

2009-07-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

Regular Tour de France viewers will be well accustomed to seeing messages of support painted onto the roads of France every July. Fans apparently get up at 3 and 4 in the morning to get their message to their guy on the key climbs - which this year will be the likes of Col du Tourmolet and Mont Ventoux. Its as much a part of the race as the yellow jersey, shaved legs and the inevitable drug related subterfuge

So what Nike have done as part of their support for Lance Armstrongs LIVESTRONG Foundations looks like a really clever piece of comms.

Via the Nike supported LIVESTRONG site you can leave a message of support for your loved one who has fought or is fighting cancer. I just discovered leaving a message for my cousin Rob, you get 30 characters - you can send via the site or SMS (in US only it seems) and then the real magic happens.

Somewhere in France is the ChalkBot - a machine designed by boffins at a place called DeepLocal. ChalkBot receives your message and then paints it large and real in yellow paint on the route of the tour. It also promises to let you know when its been done. Getting to see it I imagine will be a big ask, but the idea is beautiful.

And here's the link to the video of how it all works on You Tube
http://video.google.pl/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4RNWN_enPL330PL330&q=chalkbot&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=pl&tab=wv#

Appears to be a real good example of a brand, celebrity, not for profit organisation and the world of sport working very well together to raise awareness and cash.

Glastonbury 2009 - bands, brands and fans*

2009-06-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

Yes it really really really did happen - Glastonbury was the best party on the planet for me and the other 170,000 lovely people there.

Everything and anything appeared to happen: sun, rain, thunder and lightening, celebrity rumour and confirmation, beers, tears, freaks, green police, police on bikes.

What was very interesting is how this little community existed for 5 days. Well I say little, I heard/read somewhere that the Glastonbury site becomes the 2nd biggest city in the South West of England for 1 week every year. That gives an idea of the scale of the thing. Its immense but never completely overwhelming - feeling more like 6 villages linked by paths in varying states of mud. To get a real sense of it, a walk to the Stone Circle and up to the fence is perfect.

Anyway in between having an all round great time, I tried to occasionally engage brain to think about the communication possibilities Glasto offers and could offer brands.

The first thing to say is the Evis' - father and daugther - just about seem to have got the balance of a going commercial concern and a legendary ethically based festival just about spot on - no mean feat.

So who's involved? Well here's a good thing to do - after any event like this, try a bit of spontaneous awareness. I remember the Guardian, BBC (presenters everywhere you looked), Orange, Q, Gaymers/Calsberg, and of course the supported charity brands - Greenpeace, WaterAid, Oxfam and Million Mums.

In no particular order then, some thoughts:

I suppose the BBC is the dominant player for me and for everyone watching the round the clock coverage over the weekend and everyone who'll now want to watch Blur's triumphant closing set on I-Player. I geared for the festival listening to BBC 6 music the week prior and now I'm getting all my post-fest reviews from the same place. I thought we'd done quite well seeing as much as we did - sounds like we only scratched the surface. The fantastic BBC coverage also helped to highlight the power and value of the live music market, apparently bands who featured on the TV coverage saw huge surges in i-tunes sales across the weekend, I heard 200% for Pendulum and 800% for Status Quo (clearly coming from a low base)....

...seeing as much as we did across the weekend was certainly aided and facilitated by the Guardian Guide. Firstly I have to say I was a guest of the Guardian - even so, the mini Guide each festival goer was handed on entry was genius. The full line up, some basic maps and some lovely editorial touches - 10 top Glasto facts etc. This was my key media for the 4 days - especially given my phone had little reception all weekend and ran out of juice by Sat am (more of Orange in a sec). So we all went a bit analogue, and the Guide was perfect.

If I had an iphone, some battery and coverage - then this interactive festival maps would have been my app of choice - still it a great way of looking back.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/interactive/2009/jun/23/glastonbury-festival-map

...Q Daily - a 16 page festival newspaper printed and distributed every morning, was also a delicious read - a great place to read about all the secret gigs I missed...

...so to Orange. Ah its tough being a Telco sponsor at big events isn't it? When more than 40,000 gather in one place, your phone is simply a camera again. This despite all the infrastructure Orange put in place. That said, Orange seem to have created a nice utility in the Charge and Chill bars, they looked very inviting but queue deterred me (bands to see and all that). Orange also created a decent app on their Glastonbury site. Looks handy but as I said, impossible to download at the festival. They did draw my attention to it by using each and every Gaymers cider pint cup - so i guess it had an OTS of 40 with me.

http://web.orange.co.uk/p/glastonbury/glastonav

But to be frank, the corporate sponsors biggest input is two-fold. Firstly to allow Glastonbury to be so much more than any other festival given the level of content; there is just so much stuff going on - 50 stages, 100s of acts and countless more 'entertainers'. Areas like Thrash City and other late night areas are a case in point - a full size helicopter, demolished buildings, flame throwers, dancers and freak shows, post-apocalyptic burlesque and decedent hideaways. I was staggered by the level of detail.

The other side is a interesting value exchange - the big corporates support (indirectly I should add) the not-for-profits. Meaning the Evis keep the festival rooted and Greenpeace et al get a very decent payday - not least driven by some very hard hitting video content played out between bands on the bigger stages.

All in all - a simply unbeatable event, superbly executed and I'm sure pretty memorable for all bands, brands and fans involved

* - bands, brands and fans - a term I got from the very excellent music marketing newsletter http://www.brandsbandsfans.com/

Missing the Ambassador

2009-06-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

So i didn't get an invite to the British Ambassadors reception yesterday. I found out about it when I signed up to be a HSBC Premier customer here. HSBC sponsored the event - a shindig for the Queens birthday I think - but clearly I didn't quite cut the mustard to get on the guest list.

In a complete act of pleasing coincidence, I was looking at the Innocent Smoothies blog today. Imagine my surprise that that these doyens of healthy living were passing a spare 15 minutes by gorging themselves on Ferrero Roche in a world record attempt. Apparently the record is a mere 7 in 1 minute - I say mere, maybe Ferreros are a bit like Jacobs Crackers - simply impossible to eat more than 3.

Anyway - the Innocent chaps had this timeless piece of advertising. I had to add it - simply as I had a very tenuous reason to do so. Was the British Ambassadors reception at all like this? That would have been really spoiling me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-nZZkQqTc

The hazards of the new music economy

2009-06-17T03:45:00.000-07:00

In the week when the 'Digital Britain' report was published - issues around digital piracy are once again making headlines. Record company execs (those that are left) continue to rub their chins and consider how money is to be made by their artists. Artist they have invested considerable sums in mentoring and promoting.

What is clear is that music piracy is unlikely to go away anytime soon, it seems to be a behaviour simply too ingrained into key consumer groups. Whilst pressure maybe brought to bear by the record industry on the ISPs, and a few more BitTorrents may get their wrists slapped. This doesn't solve the immediate issue of how to monetise music.

Clearly one route for bands/music is to partner even closer with brands. Its not my intention to list all good the and the ugly in this area. But a couple of tales of woe come to mind - one from the Wireless Festival last summer and one from about 20 mins ago

So last July, I went along to Wireless in Hyde Park - then still headline sponsored by O2 - an organisation who knows what its doing in this space with their Priority proposition. However, O2 wasn't the only brand to shell out to LiveNation for the chance to grab the attention of 30,000 music hungry consumers. I seem to recall Sony Ericcson were there, Tuburg bought the pouring rights and Tiscali did something neat to get VIP access to bands playing intimately in a tiny tent.

However it was digital storage leaders, SanDisk, who got it all wrong for me. Just consider their proposition - storage, never having to worry about getting your music/photos/video to fit. So please tell why oh why they decided to headline sponsor the 2nd stage - a seemingly huge circus big top yes - but with very limited storage. People simply couldn't get in to see headline acts without restorting to mild acts of violence against their fellow man or bribing the security staff. Madness.

This all came to mind again after hearing an interview with Gallows on BBC 6 just now. Apparently the neo-punksters are off to do a US tour, but these lads have got a clear eye on the bottom line. They have accepted a sponsorship deal with Coke's Relentless energy drink. Seemingly a pretty good match up for both parties. Gallows get to stay liquid and ensure themselves a steady supply of eye-liner. Relentless buys a bit of credibility.

However cracks begin to set in when either one of these parties stop playing by the accpeted rules of engagment in this new music economy.

BBC 6 interviewer: "Do you have any concerns that accepting a brand sponsoring your tour bus is an issue for band of your background"

Gallows member: "Not really, I would never drink that Relentless stuff, but if they want to chuck us 15 grand and a free tour bus, we can't turn our noses up at that"

This is paraphrased but I can't see the Coke PR team being overly chuffed.

If we don't want to buy music anymore, we as consumers have to expect brands to be part of the equation from now on. But there are clearly some lessons to learn and few basic rules to follow for both parties.

Chasing rainbows

2009-06-16T13:32:00.001-07:00

4 seasons in 1 day in Warsaw today.

The fastest animal on earth...official

2009-06-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes i might just post stuff that grabs my attention. Here's an example - a fascinating picture in the Guardian today

Hummingbirds are the fastest animals on Earth, relative to their body size. They can cover more body lengths per second than any other vertebrate and for their size can even outpace fighter jets and the space shuttle – while withstanding g-forces that would make a fighter pilot black out.

Christopher James Clark, a zoologist at the University of California, Berkeley, took high-speed pictures of male Anna's hummingbirds performing dives as part of their courtship ritual. He measured them moving at up to 385 body lengths per second (blps), which is around 27.3 metres per second.

This is the highest speed ever recorded for a vertebrate, relative to its size. The only animals that can move faster relative to their body size are insects such as fleas.

"During the dive, the hummingbirds experienced an acceleration force nearly nine times that of gravity, the highest recorded for any vertebrate undergoing a voluntary aerial manoeuvre, with the exception of jet fighter pilots. At 7g, most pilots experience blackouts.

Aerial dives are part of the courtship behaviour of many birds, including nighthawks, snipes and other hummingbirds. Falcons, kingfishers and many seabirds use dives to attack prey. By diving, birds can achieve extremely high speeds.

Clark wrote that maximising speed is an important component of the courtship display of Anna's hummingbirds, because of the loud sound generated as they dive. In previous research, Clark showed that male Anna's hummingbirds spread their outer tail feathers during dives and these vibrate like the reed in a clarinet. The dive produces a loud, brief chirping sound.
Its maximum dive speed of 385blps is faster than peregrine falcons (200blps) and swallows (350blps) diving in pursuit of prey.

"Incidentally," wrote Clark, "it is also greater than the top speed of a fighter jet with its afterburners on, 150blps (885 metres per second), or the space shuttle during atmospheric re-entry, 207blps (7,700metres per second)."

Isn't nature wonderful....

How to build a social network

2009-06-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

This move to a new city and workplace got me thinking last night (over herring and vodka incidentally). This is the first time since leaving home to go to university (in the days pre abundant access to internet) that I have been forced to build a social network, a real live one, from scratch.

Less of the typical Uni chat of where are you from, what A Levels did you do and what halls are you staying in maybe, but this is a very novel situation to be in. Not just novel, also pretty daunting at times when you consider it - I don't know the place, i know nobody here and to cap it all - Polish is the 3rd hardest language for a Brit to learn (behind Vietnamese and Korean I am reliably informed by the Brit/Pole expert, Michael Moran in "A country in the moon').

So how the hell do I go about it?

Well, when something appears that difficult you cheat a bit dont you. I'm not talking 'buying in' friends and favours. More using what wasn't there for me in Leeds 1991 - yes, da internet.

A few weeks ago, after finding the majority of web forums/blogs re being an Expat in Warsaw to be very limited or horrendously out of date - I stumbled upon http://www.internations.org/

A site for expats and 'global minds'. Now I'm not professing to posses a global mind, but I thought i'd give it a go. So far so good - you sign up, they assess your 'globalness' (i passed happily) and you get put in touch with other Expats in your city of choice.

The big test comes tomorrow night - when virtual becomes real - there is a gathering in a high-end Warsaw bar/club. So no more messaging and poking, creating and adding to forums (loads of v helpful info for me about opening bank accounts and other highly practical stuff). No its time to meet and talk for real. Lets hope I'm global enough for 'em. I'll report back on the fun.

I guess the comms point of this - yes thats what I do so I'd better make an intelligent observation - is another great segmentation opportunity. Hence thats why The Economist and Allianz and Skype appear to be partners - global brands for global folks. I say appear, as I'm kind of waiting for the payback. This is a value exchange, they have put me in touch with some new (hopefully nice) people - surely they will want my attention as a result. Nothing obvious yet, I'm interested to see how it works and how Internations monetise what is a pretty impressive site.

Anyway lets see how it goes - I am a notoriously bad networker (tend to talk to my friends only) but as I said, its like Leeds in October '91 - there's only one way to enjoy this, time to get out of the comfort zone.

20 years of democracy in Poland - do they still love politicans this much?

2009-06-04T02:08:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in Warsaw so I thought I'd go and explore in between rain showers. I was drawn to the sound of live music. I walked past a fashionista bar called CONfashion - awful name and bizarre papping going on outside, to the opera house. A huge Glasto scale stage has been erected and a local band were mid-sound check. I had no idea what was going on, no one in the office had mentioned a festival. It was only as I strolled on and found an outdoor photo gallery that all became clear.

Its 20 years since free democratic elections in Poland - and there's going to be something of a party tonight. CNN also helped me grasp this (my only English language channel) with a Poland Week.

I love this pic of Lech Wavensa - taken in 1981 when he was leading the ship workers of Gdansk against the might of the Soviet Bloc and Marshall Law. So I asked myself - could politicians be as popular now?

Well of course not - he was a freedom fighter, a revolutionary then. I need to research more his record as President and see how it went. What I do know is that according to the Independent, Poles as so content with the EU, the turnout on Sunday could be as low as 15-17%. Not a sign of utter apathy or, in the UKs case, disgust. Simply a sign of basic satisfaction.

Not a film homage site

2009-05-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ding dong, Li Hang, Wing wang
Just some of the places Billy Ray thought he'd been.

This alas is not a homage to a great film. Simply the appropriation of the title for me to record the random goings on during my move to Poland.

More, i hope, to follow....