Don’t Go Mad

Out of Control

Every so often a video comes along that's simply drawdropping. That's exactly what happened this morning when I saw this incredible video featuring a forklift truck driver:

Social Search

A little bit of geekery today -- but don't go mad! It's all rather clever stuff from Google in that when you search they're not only scouring the general internet but potentially also sifting through your friends' social profiles to find relevant content for you. Given that the vast majority of people start their internet journeys from a search engine, this  development shows just how important it for brands both to sort out their own websites and crucially create content which people will take away and place on their social profiles. I'll leave it to Google to explain how the search bit works:

It's Time to Get INLINE

Today at WS Towers we launched our vision of the future, which is also our approach to now. It's about understanding that the fragmented media landscape means people nowadays get their information from all kinds of sources -- from TV and print to website reviews and traditional advertising. We've created a methodology which draws on insight rather than impluse to tell us what influences decision-making. This is a key tool to reach modern audiences with our messages, and helps us tell a consistent story across all relevant platforms. It's not about online or offline, it's about INLINE. The insights are very revealing and some even counter-intuitive. My esteemed colleague Mr Warren picks up the story: Inline Communications Europe Report

They Think It's All Over...

Ever since the coronation, the default view of the world for normal people up and down the country has been television. Quite literally life through a lens. I spent the best part of a decade making programmes to appear on that screen in the corner of the living room. Early mornings, late finishes, overnights, weekends, bank holidays, cancelled holidays, home, away -- I'll let you into a secret that it's not terribly glamorous. So news that this weekend's England game will only be shown on the internet really caught my attention. I understand why people are rather upset: *you can't watch it in a pub *the quality is not as good *smaller screen means harder to watch with friends *talk of limiting audience to 1m to stop it crashing *cost for people who already subscribe to a pay-TV service *it should be on TV and free because it's England, after all I agree with a lot of these points. Thing is, this seems to be the first time TV has failed to deliver. There's now a chink in TV's armour; it no longer has the monopoly. Services like the iPlayer have gone a long way toward making TV-style content accessible away from the telly. Football (and indeed sport more generally) has fuelled the takeup of satellite TV and services like interactive and HD, as well as a plethora of web innovations -- will it now force mainstream consumers to take the next step in embracing and adopting this new way to consume video?

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It has been pointed out to me that I haven't blogged recently. And it's true. Partly it's because the joys of fatherhood mean time is even tighter than it used to be and sleep deprivation doesn't help either. But mostly it's because:

• I'm spending time catching up on listening. This means freshening up my incoming RSS feeds and generally creating an opportunity to keep across more of what's out there.
• I'm Commenting. Sometimes I use this blog to comment on someone else's blog/story. At the moment I'm concentrating on placing direct comments on blogs and the like.
• I'm using Twitter a lot more. I tweet unformed thoughts, links, comments, status updates, random mumblings about tea -- all the kind of things that potentially would form blog posts. Twitter is increasingly upstream of the blog, it's where the action is.

A blog post-- or one big retweet?

The Backtype blog announces today the launch of their new Twitter retweet tool. Dead easy to install into a blog like Wordpress (took me all of 5 seconds) and there's code for various other platforms, too. What makes this better than Tweetmeme (for the moment) is that it's easily customisable. When it comes to spreading the word, Twitter is fast becoming the place to do it. So what better way to encourage readers to pass on the message and retell the story than by making it easy for them to retweet? So does that make this a blog post-- or one big retweet?

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

Couldn't resist posting this classic. Highlights include the restaurant and the kid near the end. Retro Commercial - Radio Shack Cell Phones - 1990 - The most amazing bloopers are here

New channels on YouTube

Do video? You need to know this...

Don't Go Mad in Henley

Spent yesterday at Henley Business School in a workshop about how the internet (and digital technology in general) has radically changed communications channels. Led by David James it was not only a chance to talk about digital trends and their implications for marketeers but also to work through real-life challenges faced by fellow delegates. From financial services suppliers to helicopter makers, from B2B to B2C, it certainly made for a thought provoking day and a different take on the work we're already doing. Talking Points

• Mass customisation In an ideal world we'd be personalising all our messages and engagement activities. Clearly this is not always going to be practical, hence the idea of mass customisation which is about creating a perception of personalisation. We went on to talk about how behavioural targeting is the key to achieving this: segmenting the market and figuring out what people best respond to. The Amazon 'you might also like' is one example, as are iTunes recommendations. This is something we here at WS work really hard on and it reinforces the idea of using market insights to inform and direct strategy.

• Brand engagement Using American Idol as a case study, we worked up a brand engagement model thinking about acquisition, participation, engagement and sharing. We then used pensions as an example of figuring out how to get people to engage; let's face it, pensions are a topic many (if not most) people find pretty dry. Creating engagement is such a fundamental part of digital communications -- it's helpful, from a strategic point of view, to consider levels of engagement and how we can layer these as touchpoints during the course of a campaign.

• Personal brands With audiences now so fragmented, how do you target messages? Using strong personal brands was one tactic we discussed by creating "celebrities" within micro-communities. The concept of having a spokesperson is hardly new but replicating this online means having someone who can genuinely contribute to the relevant niche community. Clearly the personal brand also has to work within its (corporate) setting and with its partners.

• Corporate terrorists David floated an interesting (albeit intentionally controversial/attention grabbing) idea that businesses can learn a lot about improving their performance from terrorists. By this he meant that terrorists are dynamic, quick to change, have a lean management structure and are empowered to act rather than referring everything up the chain of command. He likened various internet-based challenger brands to terrorists because of the way they rethink the traditional way of doing business in order to beat the incumbent/market leader at their game. He also noted the way terrorists use technology to communicate and distribute their message. He suggeseted deploying "corporate commandos" as a response, small groups of specialist empowered to make big changes and rethink the rules.

Food for thought So what did I get out of it? I think at the heart of these discussions is the business. The digital age is killing business model 1.0  Companies either adapt to the internet age or lose business, get left behind by the competition or, at the worst, die. A digital communications programme is going to work much better (or may well only work) if a business commits to it. That means updating the blog regularly, tweeting in real time rather than two days later, listening as much as talking, committing to the community, etc A digital programme needs to be part of the business strategy, directly linked with the objectives and ambitions, ingrained within the corporate structure. It comes from the top, middle and bottom and runs through the arteries and veins of the business. It engages the customers and is relevant to the product/brand. It's a daily measurable part of life. The challenge for businesses wanting to embrace all things digital is to look internally as well as externally.

Deadline Chasing

Liking this. Wonder if 3M have seen it?