Timeshifting - brand friend or foe?

There's been some debate about which brands are embracing the new consumer ability to choose when, where and how to consume and interact with content and products.

One brand which has managed to re-invent itself in my personal world in the last 2 years has been the BBC. Old time, pillar of the UK society, somewhat staid in its view, it was something I consumed without really a second thought.

Now though, it's all changed. My view of the brand, and the way I interact with it have changed radically recently.

I rarely watch BBC on TV at the time they would like me to. The i-player gives me the ability to carry around my TV on the laptop to watch when I want to watch it. I used to listen to BBC radio when I could. Now, I download the podcasts I want onto my MP3, and listen at my leisure. Not convinced on bbc.co.uk's relaunched new coat, but that's a minor quibble.

I have control, which is nice, but I'm now getting into a routine of when and what I download, which is a commercial brand's dream relationship with a customer. Which non-licence fee funded brand is going to build a relationship like this with me? So far, no-one has.

McFly bigger than Barry Manilow!

The Mail on Sunday's exclusive giveaway of the new McFly album boosted its circulation 300,000 copies above its non-promotional average to 2.4m copies, according to estimates.

Couple of things strike me about this the latest in a long, long line of CD giveaways.

Firstly, McFly are more popular than Barry Manilow amongst MOS readers. Thats extraordinary. Surely no one I mean no one is bigger than Barry in middle Britain .

Who are McFly anyway?

Well the answer must lie in the popularity of McFly with MOS readers children me thinks.

Is this pester power at work at the news stands

Second thing that strikes me is how attrition seems to be finally taking its toll on these promotions. McFly beat Manilow but fell well short of Prince's Planet Earth CD last year.

All involved with these promotions are very polished at heralding their success but once again isnt it time to call into question the ROI of these deals. Its estimated that Associated Newspapers alone spend £100m a year on this type of stuff. Meanwhile the piles of unused, unwatched and unlistened to CDs and DVDs pile up - unloved - on readers shelves.

Car boot sales are the major beneficiary of these deals!

Wouldnt the money or at least part of it be better spent investing in long term relationship building with readers rather than short term bribery?

Maybe recessionary times will necessitate move toward strategic rather than tactical marketing at the papers.

That would at least be one good thing to come from these challenging times.

Is Google a victim of its own success or of a declining market

Google shares were off 8% in late trading today as it posted a profits gain but fell short of estimates.
Whilst its hard to feel sorry for these guys its ours to wonder whether they arent a victim of their own success. Posted growth in this market would be enough for most brands to set the shares alight but not Google. They post gains and analysts say not good enough and shares fall - hard.

But its not that simple is it.

Clearly Google are not only a bell weather for the advertising industry but the entire economy . Any sign of slowdown adds more evidence to what we already know so well - we are entering an economic nuclear winter.

Its unfortunate for Google stock holders that the business has become economic 'canary in the cage'

Keep warm

iPhone opening weekend sales

Apple has sold more than 1m of its new iPhone 3G handsets, the consumer electronics giant announced today, just three days since the chaotic launch of the second version of the smartphone.

Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs said that the new iPhone 3G has had "a stunning opening weekend".

"It took 74 days to sell the first 1m original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world," Jobs added.

Bellwether report: Ad budgets see sharpest downturn since 9/11 attacks

guardian.co.uk,
Monday July 14, 2008

UK businesses are slashing their marketing and advertising budgets for the third quarter in a row in the sharpest downturn since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, according to the latest Bellwether report published today by ad agency trade body the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

Internet marketing was the sole bright spot, with 19% of companies reporting a rise from the budgets set at the start of the year, and only 12% reporting a decline.

But even the growth of digital spend has slowed dramatically since the first quarter of 2008, when 27% of respondents reported an increase in their online marketing budgets since the start of the year.

Friday Queues

Soho on a Friday morning is usually an oasis of calm, with media and arty types stumbling towards lattes, cappucinos and wet decaffeinated skinny americanos.

Today however, a queue snaking along the pavement. At 8.45am. Was the European opticians having a black chunky framed glasses sale? Was the executive man-bag shop doing 2 for 1 deals?

No, the queue was for Carphone Warehouse. For the next generation i-Phone launch.

Have to hand it to Apple, it has brand loyalty like few others, and customers who go that extra mile without complaint.

Looking forward to seeing the phone in action.

Credit Crunch - just how bad is it?

With shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - two pillars of the US housing market - continuing to plummet yesterday investors and federal officials contemplated the possibility that the giants of the mortgage business could require a federal bailout.

OMG this is pretty serious stuff. These 2 companies are key part of the infrastructure that holds together the US economy (together they underwrite nearly 50% of US mortgages). Whilst they wont (cant) be allowed to fail its a huge concern that we are even close to this situation.

The conclusion that we draw from this is that the economic situation is far far worse that we are being told.

Hold on to your hats and tighten you belts

Women kills husband with folding couch

Well its friday and high time for a little lightness after a wet and rather depressing news week

Thanks to Reuters for this one - you could'nt make this stuff up

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - A Russian woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding couch, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

St Petersburg's Channel Five said the man's wife, upset with her husband for being drunk and refusing to get up, kicked a handle after an argument, activating a mechanism that folds the couch up against a wall.

The couch, which doubles as a bed, folds up automatically in order to save space. The man fell between the mattress and the back of the couch...................

TMG pan for digital ad gold abroad

Telegraph Media Group's partnership with AdGent 007, a global digital advertising services company to sell ads abroad, makes a lot of sense.

British Newspapers are very popular abroad and as recorded here in a previous post well over 50% of online usage of newspapers comes from outside the UK

The Telegraph does particularly well abroad - according to the latest ABCe audit, it recorded over 18.4m unique users globally, an increase of more than 150% over the previous year.

In a market where newspapers are experiencing the 'double whammy' of falling circulation and (fast) falling advertising revenues this kind of deal is very sensible and potentially very important.

The winds of change

Just glancing back through the archive of posts here looking for a couple of things, and couldn't help noticing how the mood has changed.

What ever happened to social networking, incredibly high valuations of digital businesses and all the hype surrounding Web 2.0?

Now it's all credit crunch, high street bloodbath, advertising recessions and redundancies.

Those who keep their heads and invest wisely in brands and audience should be able to reap the benefits in the medium term, it'll be interesting to see "who dares wins".

Trinity Mirror - Kicking a dog when its down

Trinity Mirror shares today crashed 25% after the group said profits would be 10% lower than expected.

No surprises here. Its tough out there. We have heard tales of woe from right across the newspaper market. And it aint going to get any easier anytime soon is it.

Its crazy however that the 'City' react (or overreact) in the way they do. Current market conditions have been priced into share values for sometime now so further falls in share price based on more bad news are not welcome or necessary.

Talk about kicking a dog when its down

Ongoing impact of the economic "stutter".....

A few interesting stories in the business pages today, giving a good range of examples of the real impact of the current economic slowdown.

Taylor Wimpey reportedly needing an emergency £400m in funds this week illustrates the current impact of falling share prices and a slow down in the housing market, particularly in selling the new houses recently built. Lack of demand will only get worse over the next couple of years if the doomsayers are proven right, so Norman Askew and Peter Redfern (Chairman and CEO respectively) have their work cut out to reposition the business with a share price down from over 350p a year ago to 62p last Friday. A portfolio of empty new houses in a market with dramatically reduced numbers of buyers doesn't bode well though.

On the other hand, Aldi, everyone's favourite discount supermarket chain, is taking a very bullish view of the situation, based partly on their 21% sales growth in the last 3 months, as measured by TNS. In their view, the current economic situation is only going to work in their favour, and to that extent, they are spending £1.5bn on a 5 year expansion plan in the UK. This would increase the estate from 400 to 1500 stores, giving it a much greater presence across the country. My view on Aldi as a brand isn't shaped by marketing communications, of which I've seen little, but by some limited first hand experience of the stores. Have to admit I was surprised by the product range and the pricing, and I'd like to see the expansion backed by some marketing to drive trial, I think it would pay back handsomely.

Final mention today for The Sunday Times Business section, and the Focus article on page 5 - "Back to the Great Depresssion?" Wall Street has had its worst June since 1930, and looks likely to have lost 10% of its value in June this year. Well written article, though I have a nagging doubt at the back of my mind that we are all talking ourselves into a state of panic, but a great statistic is included.

Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch financial group, sees the price of crude oil averaging $171 a barrel next year. In contrast, Royal Bank of Scotland sees an average price of $86 next year. When instiutional predictions can have a range this great, then we're in the Kingdom of the Crystal Ball. One thing is for certain, it does look like it's going to get worse before it starts getting any better.

Rumours denied or something more sinister?

all these rumours about the closure of thelondonpaper have been well and truly shot down by NI release (below) or perhaps just perhaps they protest too much!

“thelondonpaper has established itself as the capital’s leading afternoon paper with an audited daily circulation of over 500,000 and strong advertising revenue. News International, the UK’s largest national newspaper company, has backed its confidence in the long-term future of the industry with a recent £650 million investment in next generation print plants. We intend to build on the success of our market leading national titles and that of thelondonpaper in the years ahead.''

is this the end of the matter or just the beginning??

wind power

When revellers at the UK's Glastonbury Festival 2008 later this week need to recharge their mobile phones, they'll have a free and green way to do that thanks to a charging station being set up at the festival by Orange.

Measuring more than 7 meters tall, the free-standing recharge pod is a self-sufficient unit that taps into a wind generator and solar panels to charge as many as 100 mobile phones per hour. It's actually the next iteration of a portable wind charger Orange tested out at last year's festival through a partnership with Gotwind, and will serve as a trial for using renewable energy sources on a larger scale at future festivals. Orange expects the recharge pod will charge thousands of mobile phones over the course of the three-day festival, furnishing power equivalent to what would be needed to power a DJ booth for Groove Armada for 88 hours. The recharge pod will be stationed within the Pennard Hill camping grounds at Glastonbury throughout the weekend of June 27–29, when the event takes place.

Gannett buys into 'family' social network

Cozi, an intriguing Seattle based startup that’s most easily described as a social network for a family unit, is announcing an investment and business deal with newspaper conglomerate Gannett Co. The size of the investment is not being disclosed (we believe it is $8 million, however).

Cozi lets family members keep a group journal, share photos, organize chores, share calendars and create todo lists. There’s a significant overlap with genealogy sites like Geni, as well as some of the life story sites we’ve profiled from time to time. But I haven’t seen anything quite like Cozi, which also has mobile and Outlook syncing to keep everyone on the same page. The demo here gives more feature details.

The service now has 600,000 registered family members and says it’s adding 2,000 new ones per day.

We think this is a really good investment its a natural extension for Gannett. It helps keep it local and relevant. I'm sure Cozi will be delivering Gannett content, particularly local content and will will be pushing the service its users.

Stragetically smart but also helps sweat the expensive newspaper machine alittle harder which is no bad thing.

First profits for City A.M.

Well done to our friends at City A.M on the announcement of their maiden profit. Its hard work out there right now and these boys are managing not only to stay afloat but to do it profitably.

From October 2007 to March 2008, free London business paper City A.M. made a profits of £47,000 before tax (€60,000). The revenues were £3.5m in that period. Last year the publisher made a loss of £754,000. City A.M. was launched in September 2005.

City A.M. plans to increase its distribution from 100,000 to 150,000 and is also thinking of launching in other cities in the autumn. In London distribution will expand to railway stations in south-west London such as Richmond. (Press Gazette)

V2.0 Apple iphone - faster, cheaper and much more

Steve Jobs revealed the new iphone yesterday and WOW.

Its 3G so much much faster, 3 x faster in fact than its predecessor. Good news for business users.

And it lasts longer (new phone can get 300 hours of standby time, five hours of talk time on a 3G network, five to six hours of high-speed Web browsing, seven hours of video and 24 hours of audio according to Jobs).

And perhaps most importantly in these economically challenged times it costs $199 — $400 less than the original iPhone.

Faster and cheaper so far so good.

Perhaps the coolest additional feature is the built-in global positioning via satellite. The older phone triangulates a user's position via cell-phone towers. The new one has a GPS receiver that can track a user in real time. Jobs showed off the GPS capabilities with a recording that showed a 3G user driving down San Francisco's winding Lombard Street. As a tiny dot appeared on a Google map and slowly wended its way down the street, the crowd roared its approval.

Maybe just maybe we are a step closer to the marketers dreams of real-time location based services.

Apple we love you and now we might even be able to afford your iphone!

Online Advertising powers on but so does outdoor and cinema

Online advertising spending leapt over the £3bn level for the first time in the UK last year, according to new research, grabbing market share from other parts of the media such as newspapers, magazines and direct mail.

Ad spend across all media in the UK rose 4.2% to £19.4bn in 2007, according to the the Advertising Association and the World Advertising Research Centre.

The internet, cinema and the outdoor advertising sectors posted the biggest year-on-year growth, with online spending up a dramatic 39.5% - year on year - to just over £3bn. Online advertising, which was the fastest-growing sector, accounted for 16% of total UK ad spend last year.

Commentators have long maintained that advertisers are being drawn online from other areas of media such as print and direct mail. The figures seem to add weight to this hypothesis, showing that press advertising, which includes national, regional and magazine advertising, declined 1.6% year on year.

Press is, however, still the largest single sector in the UK, accounting for 40%, or £7.7bn, of advertising spending last year. Direct mail advertising, meanwhile, saw a 6.5% decline to £2.17bn last year.

The UK cinema advertising sector recorded 10.1% year-on-year growth, but the overall cinema market was worth just £207m, 1.1% of the UK's total advertising market. Outdoor advertising grew by 4.6% to £1.05bn, giving the sector a 5.5% share of UK ad spending, fuelled by the continuing digitisation of billboards and poster sites. The TV sector managed a modest 2.3% year-on-year gain to £4.67bn, accounting for 24% of all UK ad spend. (Source: Guardian Media)

newstritional disorder?

Today's younger generation is under attack from an unlikely source: news it can't adequately process. According to an international study released Monday, people aged 18 to 34 are bombarded by news, facts and updates to the point where they now suffer from "newstritional disorder," according to anthropologist Robbie Blinkoff, who headed the study. Symptoms can include a diminished attention span, news fatigue, distraction, and even agitation, which can affect how people communicate in their personal and organizational relationships.

Thanks to Time Magazine for this piece. Its actually well worth a read (the piece not the 71 page study!) as it is probably prescient and might open eyes to challenges and opportunities coming along in the future.

The Time piece can be found by clicking here

Mirror Mouthpiece launches

After an intense development period, our client the Daily Mirror, has launched their dynamic online reader panel community; developed, designed, delivered and managed by Market Evolution using eDigital Research's fine software solution (Press release at the bottom of this article)

Mouthpiece moves online research on from 1 way "ask-tell" to a 3 way dialogue with consumers - we talk to them, they talk to us, they talk to each other. It provides a rich seam of qualititative views and opinions from a large number of readers, very dynamic and very exciting.

We're very proud of it, and think it's very forward thinking of the Mirror to make this investment in showcasing its readers, and listening to their views - it really is putting the reader at the heart of the business. We obviously would say that, given they are a great client of ours, but we mean it - it's a major step forward in the industry.

www.mirror.co.uk/mouthpiece

It's currently invitation only, but the front page gives you a feel for what's inside.....


Mirror Group launches online research community
by Staff Brand Republic 09-Jun-08, 11:40

LONDON - Mirror Group has launched an online research community called Mirror Mouthpiece, which allows the Daily Mirror to get a better view of reader's attitudes to advertising and editorial.

Mirror Mouthpiece includes a mixture of forums, net chats, product ratings, polls and blogs.

It has been developed on the back of the success of Mirror Group's 5,000-strong reader panel, which has run more than 100 surveys since 2003. These include client-specific surveys for advertisers such as Pedigree, Freeview and John Smiths.

Mouthpiece is linked directly to the Reader Panel and will allow for the first time interaction between the depth of quantitative panel data and the qualitative insight.

The online research community was created by Mirror Group's strategic planning team led by Suzy Jordan and Nicky Jones, in partnership with Market Evolution and online market research firm eDigital Research.

Richard Webb, Mirror Group's managing director, said: "The launch of Mouthpiece enables us to have a regular dialogue with our readers, putting them at the heart of what we do.
"Mouthpiece has already been used for advertiser projects and can give immediate insight and feedback on their campaigns."

One example of how it has been used is with the long-running campaign for the Food & Drink Federation, to promote awareness of guideline daily allowance food labelling.
Mirror Group monitored readers' awareness of the advertising and accompanying editorial content using their Reader Panel. Mirror Mouthpiece was then used to get "under the skin" of readers' relationships with food and the actions they take to keep themselves healthy.

The Reader Panel results showed that readers' usage of GDA labels increased by 19% over the campaign period and specific topic forums on Mouthpiece gave Mirror Group Advertising invaluable insight into why labelling was important to their readers.
Jane Holdsworth, GDA campaign director, said: "This isn't just about a label, it's about encouraging people to lead healthier lives. The results from the Mirror reader panel show that this activity struck exactly the right tone