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I want to find out what this is
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So here is the newest tool from the google stable – a tool to help media planners determine the best sites for their placements – based on demographics and audience figures that Google holds and uses to serve up AdWords. Should be useful – invitation only
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What a great, simple idea. We’ve all done it – even if we’ve done it as a cd burnt from MP3s. I’m also going to recreate that mixtape on muxtape!
Archive for June, 2008
26
Jun
08
links for 2008-06-26
25
Jun
08
Kill all the lawyers
Day 2 was more fruitful for me. The day opened with an excellent thought piece from John Newbigin about the way society changes when new media forms arrive and how further the current developments are so changing our relationships that they are changing what it is to be human. I think this gets to a profound truth that is slipping by us – it can’t necessarily be influenced but it can be observed and reacted to. For instance, think about this. Schools are being created for the past – what is the role of teachers in a technologically advance landscape? How does technology drive and influence the core business of learning? And how about the fact that creative industries attract more buisiness support than any other area of the uk economy – but creative industry businesses don’t primarily categories themselves as businesses….
Quick fire quotes from his speech -
“Kill all the lawyers” – Henry VI Part 2, Shakespeare
“The first law of creativity is theft”
The next presentation was an intriguing one from Kaiser Kuo on Censorship, Culture and Chinese Netizens. I along with many others find the censorship – that he acknowledges exists – problematic, but he posited some interesting suggestions about cultural difference that we will need to take consideration of if we want to make contact and develop not just business but real understanding across the digital divide. I like to hear presentations that talk not just about different ways of doing but different ways of thinking. One of life’s most difficult challenges is to make a blank slate of your mind and be open to cultural differences but that kind of mental exercise should be easier for planners than most since we spend our days considering and questioning what the truth of an audience’s desires or the values of a brand are.
Quick fire facts from his speech:-
The average of broadband users in China is 32, n the US it’s 42
The Chinese are far more interested in IM than blogging – the anonymity allows more free expression
Online games garnered 70% more revenue thatn the ad sector in 07 – that’s 1.7 billion.
The real censorship is carried out by service providers on behalf of the government – because if it isn’t their sites and services will be taken down. But of course netizens find ways around talking about what they want to… don’t we always? Think prohibition USA.
Best in show for me was Carolyn Maze from fluorescentmedia. I have been saying for years that audience metrics for tv are up the spout and that by so being they seriously impact on the serious and therefore the budgets that are given to new media initiatives within broadcast. She is the CEO of a company that bases their whole business model on accurate analysis of media users and then, by engaging them, develops products they will actually enjoy/play/buy into. One channel now uses her metrics to sell to advertisers since those supplied by the american equivalent of BARB were so off kiltre (metrics stated that the audience for a certain time slot were old people – transpired it was students) About b***dy time. And I wish her every success with the venture and the interactive shows that are coming out of it.
One important gripe – the btween site which should be a model of usability is incredibly difficult to navigate and annoying to use. Shame as there is the potential to really connect people from conferences in the way they are trying to.
20
Jun
08
btween 08
I am here are 08 listening with half an ear to John Newbigin who is taking us through the ways that technologies have taken much longer to impact on society than thought and how technologies do develop, not in the ways that you think eg
“This is an invention with no commercial future” Louis Lumiere, founder of cinefilm
The most interesting session of yesterday was Cory Doctorow of boingboing fame. He’s also an author and 60-70000 copies of a couple of his books have been sold, his first made the NY times bestseller but crucially and key was made distributable via the internet. The end result is that 1,000,000 copies have been distributed online.
He cites a different model for monetisation of content – his point of view is that distributed content is not the same as paid for content and that distributing it online is like making the book available for people to take down and browse from the bookshelf. He’s more concerned to see that people who would buy his books actually do buy them. It’s an interesting model for publishers to consider.
This Newbigin session is interesting so I will stop posting for now – but leave you with a quote from it:-
“The first law of creativity is theft”
17
Jun
08
links for 2008-06-17
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Some good points about content and my favourite ever quote about the web “a telephone network with pictures”
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In a way this is a non-story because brand adoration is fundamental to Carrie’s world – it just so happens that brands are desperate for placement as ad attention SlipS.
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This illustrates perfectly the reasons behind the lack of ubiquitous media experisence now – proprietary mobile phone platforms. I was v excited when I saw this…but not when I realised i have a Sony…
17
Jun
08
I have a long tail
I quite like it when I become an example of something that every has been banging on about – it gives me faith that opinion can be justified (particularly when there is so much irrelevant spouting off going on – and yes I do include myself in that!). I like evidence and particularly I like to find evidence for theories when I am not looking for it.
I was lying on my bed, student-style, on Friday evening listening to Teenage Fanclub, Songs from Northern Britain and feeling very 1997 when I had a sudden desire to hear Star Sign (very 1992). So I got up and went to emusic.com and low, when I searched there it was.
emusic.com builds its business model on two things
1) MP3s, not proprietary formats a la itunes and
2) long-tail content
Both of these things make it brilliant and I also find it brilliant that I have just demonstrated to myself the power of long-tail as a business offer.
Right – off to download some Throwing Muses.
13
Jun
08
b.tween
I am off to b.tween next week which I am looking forward to as a chance to refresh my brain and perhaps catch up with some old friends and newer acquaintances.
The sessions I am most looking forward to on Thursday are Creativity meets Commerce and possibly Building successful communities – although I have lots of experience on this kind of thing, from my Channel 4 days, it’s always good to hear from people who only work on that and nothing else. They will have the micro levels of experience that make the difference between good and great. On Friday it has to be Censorship, Culture and Chinese Netizens and maybe also A Day in the Life of…an over 60. I think this is a demographic which is largely ignored but which has far more time and disposable income than teenagers and which is larger than that teenage group. They are also educated, but not cynical like us Gen X and Yers are so they are enthusiastic and willing to engage. I believe that services for this age group will become more in demand in the next 20 years and represent a real commercial opportunity…if people can get their heads out of the sand and realise how interesting and “like us” people of this age group are, something which is decidedly counter-culture at the moment.
12
Jun
08
links for 2008-06-12
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This is very funny and needs to be shared. It has little to do with brand and everything to do with brilliance. It’s just something I noted.
11
Jun
08
links for 2008-06-11
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Just because it interests me
10
Jun
08
Ikea unpacks in NY
When I was on holiday in Belize recently (oh my glamorous life) there were a lot of Americans there all very excited about the prospect of finally getting Ikea.
The launch campaign for the New York City store has started and it’s inspired. The campaign is two-fold. Firstly, pop-up boxes containing room settings are being installed in public spaces across the city. Inside the boxes the lucky New Yorkers will be able to experience Ikea product before the launch on June 18th. Secondly, models of NY landmarks some more than 96 feet long and 21 feet tall and made out of Ikea boxes have been created by artist John Hobbs which will also be installed across the city.
It communicates the self-construct nature of the product but allows the punter to experience the quality and design joy.
It embeds Ikea as something as integral to the city as the Brooklyn Bridge.
For more detail check out http://racked.com/archives/2008/06/04/red_hook_ikea_mania_popup_room.php
05
Jun
08
links for 2008-06-05
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Social economic media – articles and thoughts
