I have just had a wonderful but also salutary experience this last weekend.
I spent three days in the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It’s a huge wilderness, about 600,000 acres and a population of less than 19,000.
The upside - it’s a beautiful wilderness. We were within 25 feet of a pair of golden eagles, beaches that would not disgrace the Caribbean, red deer, salmon, and no traffic.
No road traffic and not much digital traffic either. Hours of no phone signal, and broadband only in the hotel. An iphone is pretty useless here.
This is a community that’s pretty dependent on direct channels. The vehicles we saw most frequently were the Royal Mail and other parcel delivery services. But the media channels that drive the sales are analogue and not digital. Local press, TV, local magazines, local radio, and above all Royal Mail are all far more important parts of the media mix than digital here.
This was a useful reminder that sometimes some of the biggest users of direct services may still be in pockets that require an analogue answer and not purely a digital media solution.
Localism is a theme I shall return to …
Mike Colling, Managing Director
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Monday, 28 June 2010
iAds - ipop ups, just what the world needed
Apple has officially unveiled its new mobile advertising platform, iAds for its new iPhone 4.
The new iAd platform will be built directly into the iPhone 4 OS interface potentially meaning users get little say as to whether they chose to opt in or not. Apple suggest that iAds is being developed to change the face of advertising, but surely this is just a pop up that's been made almost impossible to opt out of as it's preloaded to your handset?
Fear not, Mr Jobs has stated that far from rehash a 10 year old technology, he has in fact identified a flaw of both standard online advertising and TV advertising — the combination of interaction and emotion. The key is that ads will keep users within an app, rather than redirecting users to a browser window. So don't worry that you are seemingly trapped inside a never ending advert as you will be 'enjoying' being 'emotionally interacted with'. Sounds like something a catholic priest might be accused of!
I'm sure all you Apple evangelists will gush that iAds is great and that the ads are so engaging, so relevant, lets just wait until you've been served your 20th 'flab to fab' ad and see how engaged you are! Then again I'm sure there's an app for that.
Bodhi Morrison, Head of Digital MC&C
The new iAd platform will be built directly into the iPhone 4 OS interface potentially meaning users get little say as to whether they chose to opt in or not. Apple suggest that iAds is being developed to change the face of advertising, but surely this is just a pop up that's been made almost impossible to opt out of as it's preloaded to your handset?
Fear not, Mr Jobs has stated that far from rehash a 10 year old technology, he has in fact identified a flaw of both standard online advertising and TV advertising — the combination of interaction and emotion. The key is that ads will keep users within an app, rather than redirecting users to a browser window. So don't worry that you are seemingly trapped inside a never ending advert as you will be 'enjoying' being 'emotionally interacted with'. Sounds like something a catholic priest might be accused of!
I'm sure all you Apple evangelists will gush that iAds is great and that the ads are so engaging, so relevant, lets just wait until you've been served your 20th 'flab to fab' ad and see how engaged you are! Then again I'm sure there's an app for that.
Bodhi Morrison, Head of Digital MC&C
The Budget: every cloud…
Doom! Gloom! Swingeing cuts! While the emergency budget may make for depressing reading for many sections of the UK, what does this practically mean for the advertising and marketing industries?
The advertising industry is one of the most cyclical of all industries – by this I mean that it very closely tracks macro economic movements in terms of UK GDP. Typically, it follows GDP’s suit around two quarters later which means good news over the next year or two if the government’s forecast and the Bellweather Report are to be believed.
Clearly however, the changing financial landscape will affect parts of the UK differently. Were I parent relying on child benefit or a public sector worker seeing consumer goods prices rise thanks to VAT while knowing that my pay was frozen for the next two years, I would not be enthralled by my prospects. Broadly though, the prime ABC1s beloved of advertisers will still be available and willing to spend, so what is the big impact going to be? Regionality – that’s what.
To be more specific, it is not macro regionality, but dynamic shifts within regions at a much more micro level. This will particularly be evident in place such as the North East where there is a high level of public sector employment. Where the region as a whole will probably be adversely affected, some specific areas will remain relatively unaffected thereby creating pockets of people who are disproportionately wealthy compared to their surrounding peers.
This clearly represents an opportunity for highly targeted strategies – where the difference between good and bad targeting can be as wide as just a street or a town, this is extremely vital. What we will see coming into effect is the increased use of micro-targeting, particularly with techniques such as IP flooding, retargeting and postcode level display and emails.
mc&c have previous in this area – have a look at the First Bus case study on the website to see how successful such a strategy could be.
These techniques will enable you to reach customers in more intricate ways – perhaps even down to single contacts. I’m not sure that we could target your vitriol at George Osborne though.
Tim Part, Business Development Manager
Doom! Gloom! Swingeing cuts! While the emergency budget may make for depressing reading for many sections of the UK, what does this practically mean for the advertising and marketing industries?
The advertising industry is one of the most cyclical of all industries – by this I mean that it very closely tracks macro economic movements in terms of UK GDP. Typically, it follows GDP’s suit around two quarters later which means good news over the next year or two if the government’s forecast and the Bellweather Report are to be believed.
Clearly however, the changing financial landscape will affect parts of the UK differently. Were I parent relying on child benefit or a public sector worker seeing consumer goods prices rise thanks to VAT while knowing that my pay was frozen for the next two years, I would not be enthralled by my prospects. Broadly though, the prime ABC1s beloved of advertisers will still be available and willing to spend, so what is the big impact going to be? Regionality – that’s what.
To be more specific, it is not macro regionality, but dynamic shifts within regions at a much more micro level. This will particularly be evident in place such as the North East where there is a high level of public sector employment. Where the region as a whole will probably be adversely affected, some specific areas will remain relatively unaffected thereby creating pockets of people who are disproportionately wealthy compared to their surrounding peers.
This clearly represents an opportunity for highly targeted strategies – where the difference between good and bad targeting can be as wide as just a street or a town, this is extremely vital. What we will see coming into effect is the increased use of micro-targeting, particularly with techniques such as IP flooding, retargeting and postcode level display and emails.
mc&c have previous in this area – have a look at the First Bus case study on the website to see how successful such a strategy could be.
These techniques will enable you to reach customers in more intricate ways – perhaps even down to single contacts. I’m not sure that we could target your vitriol at George Osborne though.
Tim Part, Business Development Manager
Sky Sports News: it’s just not cricket
Friday 18th June was a disastrous day for sport. Forget England’s passable impression of an over 70s team in the scoreless bore-fest with Algeria, I’m talking about Sky’s decision to withdraw Sky Sports News from Freeview and turn it into a pay TV channel. One quotation which appeared beside the BBC report caught my eye. It reads as follows:
“There is a broad, emerging consensus that in the multi-media era it is insane to give content away for nothing”
Tim Luckhurst, Professor of Journalism, University of Kent
Interesting. Provocative. Utter claptrap.
The fact is that as the world becomes more advanced in terms of multi-media content, the easier it becomes to find content of similar quality and substance. Since I churned from the Sky platform to Freeview and subsequently Freesat last year, I have not once laid eyes on Sky Sports and my scarily useless knowledge of all things sporting has not diminished as a result. BBC Sport does the same job in terms of headlines and there are scores of places I can get my Spurs and Surrey fixes earlier than Sky could ever report the gist of the story. Indeed, most of the time Facebook and Twitter get there first.
There are three possible reasons why Sky have taken SSN away from Freeview.
1. They actually think it a valuable commodity. As discussed above, this is crazy. As media fragments, generic content such as SSN becomes less valuable, whereas the crown jewels become the prize. Where else can the UK public watch shows such as 24, Lost or Premier League Football? Professor Luckhurst described SSN as a “loss leader”. He is probably right, but will Sky 3 +1, which has replaced SSN on the Freeview EPG, be as successful?
2. They want to annoy Freeview. In times of recession, downturn and economic strife, downtrading becomes a serious concern for premier businesses. By taking away even the smallest piece of content from Freeview, Sky are flexing their muscles in a public way. It is worth PR in itself.
3. Murdoch’s pay wall is writ in stone. This could be a clear indication that Sky are aggressively pursuing the pay-per-view model for all of their content.
Whatever reason it is, I doubt that there will be serious ramifications for either Sky or Freeview which just makes the decision all the more puzzling.
Going back to the dear Professor, I think I may have been a little unfair. He is not entirely worng – he is just missing a word. Had he said “the wrong content” he would have been spot on. Giving away some of your content as a sweetener is vital – we have seen from our years of work with Which? that giving a free guide gives a much better quality of customer than prize draw. Customers recruited on brand values stay longer and are more profitable than those lured in on a false premise whose latency and inertia provides any revenue. These themes are explored in an article on the subscription business model which can be found on the mc&c website.
Tim Part, Business Development Manager
Friday 18th June was a disastrous day for sport. Forget England’s passable impression of an over 70s team in the scoreless bore-fest with Algeria, I’m talking about Sky’s decision to withdraw Sky Sports News from Freeview and turn it into a pay TV channel. One quotation which appeared beside the BBC report caught my eye. It reads as follows:
“There is a broad, emerging consensus that in the multi-media era it is insane to give content away for nothing”
Tim Luckhurst, Professor of Journalism, University of Kent
Interesting. Provocative. Utter claptrap.
The fact is that as the world becomes more advanced in terms of multi-media content, the easier it becomes to find content of similar quality and substance. Since I churned from the Sky platform to Freeview and subsequently Freesat last year, I have not once laid eyes on Sky Sports and my scarily useless knowledge of all things sporting has not diminished as a result. BBC Sport does the same job in terms of headlines and there are scores of places I can get my Spurs and Surrey fixes earlier than Sky could ever report the gist of the story. Indeed, most of the time Facebook and Twitter get there first.
There are three possible reasons why Sky have taken SSN away from Freeview.
1. They actually think it a valuable commodity. As discussed above, this is crazy. As media fragments, generic content such as SSN becomes less valuable, whereas the crown jewels become the prize. Where else can the UK public watch shows such as 24, Lost or Premier League Football? Professor Luckhurst described SSN as a “loss leader”. He is probably right, but will Sky 3 +1, which has replaced SSN on the Freeview EPG, be as successful?
2. They want to annoy Freeview. In times of recession, downturn and economic strife, downtrading becomes a serious concern for premier businesses. By taking away even the smallest piece of content from Freeview, Sky are flexing their muscles in a public way. It is worth PR in itself.
3. Murdoch’s pay wall is writ in stone. This could be a clear indication that Sky are aggressively pursuing the pay-per-view model for all of their content.
Whatever reason it is, I doubt that there will be serious ramifications for either Sky or Freeview which just makes the decision all the more puzzling.
Going back to the dear Professor, I think I may have been a little unfair. He is not entirely worng – he is just missing a word. Had he said “the wrong content” he would have been spot on. Giving away some of your content as a sweetener is vital – we have seen from our years of work with Which? that giving a free guide gives a much better quality of customer than prize draw. Customers recruited on brand values stay longer and are more profitable than those lured in on a false premise whose latency and inertia provides any revenue. These themes are explored in an article on the subscription business model which can be found on the mc&c website.
Tim Part, Business Development Manager
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Twitter or TV?
At the iMedia conference in Brighton this week there was a good deal of discussion about social media and how best to measure it.
Oddly though, there was little consideration of the fact that different verticals will be able to benefit from social media in very different ways.
One way of looking at verticals is to place them on a grid where one axis runs from low to high emotional importance and the other axis runs from low to high rational importance.
Verticals with high emotional importance contain products that we buy because they “say” something about us. Verticals with high rational importance contain products that we buy because we need them.
Using the emotional-rational grid we can divide verticals into four sectors:
High rational, high emotional (HRHE) verticals like travel, motor cars and electrical devices. These are verticals where the functionality needs to be right, where we are risking relatively large amounts of money, and where part of why we buy is because we feel comfortable with the brand
Low rational, high emotional (LRHE) verticals like fashion, print media and charity. These are verticals where we are not risking a great deal, where we don’t really need the products but where we do feel emotional engagement because the products we buy “say” a lot about us
High rational, low emotional (HRLE) verticals like banking, retail and utilities. These are verticals where the functionality needs to be right, where we are risking relatively large amounts of money, but where we are not emotionally engaged with the brand
Low rational, low emotional (LRLE) verticals like washing powder and petrol. These are verticals where we are not taking great risks and where there is no emotional involvement with the brands. While products in these verticals are important the functionality they deliver is generally simple.
HRHE verticals can use social media very creatively. As well as using social media to research the marketplace by listening to conversations and to manage their reputation they can actively “campaign” messages through social media.
LRHE verticals are in a similar position – able to exploit their emotional connection with consumers through social media, although they may need to work harder as there is little they can say about rational benefits.
HRLE verticals however will find it far harder to exploit social media for campaigning. They have little emotional connection with their consumers and proactive use of social media platforms will frequently be considered intrusive – who wants to hear from their bank on Facebook? They can however use social media for market research and importantly for managing their reputations. For instance few people are likely to praise a bank’s service to their friends but many will criticise it if something goes wrong.
The LRLE verticals are the Cinderellas of social media. No one is interested in them: why would you blog about washing powder or review a cleaning fluid? For brands in these verticals social media are far less important. While they should monitor conversations just in case a big issue starts to brew, they need to do little more than that.
Both HRLEs and LRLEs need to employ advertising techniques to add a layer of emotional connection to their brands. But for HRHEs and LRHEs that are considerable opportunities to enhance their brands through social media.
The lesson here is that brands should consider whether they are in a vertical that can usefully use social media for active campaigning or merely for research and for more reactive communication.
A failure to understand this can result in wasted budgets and in losing the opportunities that more powerful media activities can deliver.
Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk
Monday, 26 April 2010
What should digital TV really look like?
The kind folk at Broadcast magazine recently asked me to act as one of the judges for their Digital Broadcast Awards. It was a fascinating afternoon with, as you would expect, some excellent entries.
My first thought though was: why “digital”? I was told that the awards were about content aired on digital terrestrial channels which of course encompasses anything from BBC 1 and ITV to more niche channels like BBC parliament and FiveUSA as well as various shopping and information channels.
But these days, “digital terrestrial” seems a slightly out of date and artificial set of channels to base an awards ceremony around.
OK they are all free, which is, I suppose, a point of difference. But there are many “TV channels” that are now available purely online while others provide so much content online that you don’t really need a TV to watch them (although of course you still need a TV licence!).
Restricting the awards to purely “digital terrestrial” means that anything winning a “Streamy” award wouldn’t be included for the Broadcast awards.
I am not sure if all that’s particularly important. But it did nake me think about the nature of TV programmes on a digital platform and how they can be developed beyond simple long form TV to enhance the viewer’s experience.
And looking at some of the entrants to the Digital Broadcast Awards helped me identify some of the possibilities.
As well as programmes that make no attempt at online enhancement, there seem to be two aproaches, one which we might call “normal” and one which is very definitely "advanced".
Normal enhancements
There is a “normal” level that looks pretty like the “extras” you get when you buy the DVD of a movie.
- You get the long form video (of course)
- You probably get some additional editorial, perhaps some short form clips and out-takes, pictures and text based bckground
- And you are pretty certain to get one or two more interactive elements: voting perhaps, a forum where you can submit comments, even the opportunity to upload your own pictures or video
- The channel might also market the programme by uploading clips and information to other, third party sites such as YouTube where more people may discover it
Advanced enhancements
But increasingly many programmes are developing advanced online content and applications that really blur the boundaries between the long form TV video format and online interactive formats.
Thus some programmes:
- Use viewer interactions or feeds from Twitter and other sites to tweak story lines
- Create immersive video games based around the programme
- Provide alternative storylines and extra characters online
- Merge the real world with the programme by for instance sending emails to registered viewers from characters in the programme
- Introduce new characters (or even the whole programme) online before they have been seen on the programme
These advanced enhancements are where the real creativity will be seen over the coming year or two. With the rapid acceleration of the long awaited “convergence” between online and TV (as witnessed by the launch of internet enabled TVs) perhaps this area should be the focus of future awards.
It is certainly the area that programme makes should focus on!
Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
The first step in a revolution. Or a bold experiment doomed to failure?
So it's finally happened. After months of speculation the first of the UK national newspapers will start charging for online content from June.
It's a brave move which will be watched with interest by many different parties. And despite the confident soundbites coming out of NI there's no doubt that this is a high-risk move.
However it's not necessarily as risky as some are making out. Only the quality papers, which attract an online savvy audience, will be going paid-for initially.
TimesOnline currently has 1.22m daily users. Even if only 5% of these convert they would bring in £1.8m on a daily pass. The initial success of TimesPlus suggests that these numbers aren't just pipedreams.
Moreover the new Times and Sunday Times sites will be very popular with advertisers. In a similar way that paid-for papers bring in a better quality response than the freesheets so NI will have an effective monopoly in this sector and could theoretically charge accordingly.
If Murdoch follows through with his promise of improving content to differentiate his sites from other publishers' then NI may well succeed in stealing consumers away from the free sites. It's no coincidence that this announcement comes hot on the heels of the BBC's declaration that they will be significantly reducing their online offerings.
But it still feels like a very risky move. TimesOnline simply does not inspire the same brand loyalty as Guardian.co.uk, MailOnline and the behemoth that is the BBC. While there are so many other free alternatives out there it's hard to see what NI can offer consumers to put themselves far enough above their competitors to justify charging for content.
Chris Skone James, Senior Planner Buyer
It's a brave move which will be watched with interest by many different parties. And despite the confident soundbites coming out of NI there's no doubt that this is a high-risk move.
However it's not necessarily as risky as some are making out. Only the quality papers, which attract an online savvy audience, will be going paid-for initially.
TimesOnline currently has 1.22m daily users. Even if only 5% of these convert they would bring in £1.8m on a daily pass. The initial success of TimesPlus suggests that these numbers aren't just pipedreams.
Moreover the new Times and Sunday Times sites will be very popular with advertisers. In a similar way that paid-for papers bring in a better quality response than the freesheets so NI will have an effective monopoly in this sector and could theoretically charge accordingly.
If Murdoch follows through with his promise of improving content to differentiate his sites from other publishers' then NI may well succeed in stealing consumers away from the free sites. It's no coincidence that this announcement comes hot on the heels of the BBC's declaration that they will be significantly reducing their online offerings.
But it still feels like a very risky move. TimesOnline simply does not inspire the same brand loyalty as Guardian.co.uk, MailOnline and the behemoth that is the BBC. While there are so many other free alternatives out there it's hard to see what NI can offer consumers to put themselves far enough above their competitors to justify charging for content.
Chris Skone James, Senior Planner Buyer
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