Iremonger's Digital Spaghetti

How auto brands perform in digital

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:21:00 +0000

This deck on Connectedness in UK Auto Industry compares UK auto market leaders

Given it's such a mature industry online its no surprise most brands are getting the basics right, but when you start comparing the market leaders it becomes fascinating to see how different their approaches can be.

Google Visualises Search In Realtime

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:15:00 +0000

UK Google searches visualised in real time.

Am liking this fun visualisation of search from Google.

You can switch countries at the bottom of the page.

I've moved to the @Proximity blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:18:00 +0000

I've put this blog temporarily on hold as I'm putting time and energy into @Proximity; the all agency blog from Proximity London.

It's full of good stuff, and all the things I'd normally blog here.

www.atproximity.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/atproximity

Best M
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YouTube the second largest search engine in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Many people think of YouTube as a video platform. The truth is it is the second largest search engine on the planet second to Google. The tweaks to the sites design last month helps emphasise this with the large clean search box in the masthead.

Combine this with the interactivity people are introducing to video and you have a great communications platform, that can be a much, much more engaging alternative than Google search connected to text and images.

Here are my two favourite interactive YouTube video examples. First up - I think one of the first examples, interactive streetfighter weighing in with 6.2m views.

The second, a website for a full service US agency Boone Oakley, weighing in with 500k views.

Lovely.

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iphone apps versus android revenue

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:26:00 +0000

Following on from my iphone app list, a perfectly timed link from Bruce on the relative values of i-phone apps versus android.

Although the gap between android and iphone installed base is quited as x15 (more iphones), the gap in terms of revenue from apps is enormous.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/09/01/developer-offers-inside-look-at-sales-gap-between-app-store-and-android-market/

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My top ten iPhone Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:45:00 +0000

After twenty years in this industry mobile is finally coming of age. I love the fact it is partly fueled by a galaxy of cottage industry created apps that is creating something for everyone.My top ten iphone apps at the moment:

1. Location aware Google Maps
2. Sky News for something to read where there's network access(much better than the BBC version due to usability issues)
3. iPod for watching Family Guy on the tube
4. Free RSS Reader for giving me something to read on the tube where there's no network access
5. Zuti London City for tube travel planning
6. Starmap for location aware star gazing
7. Wunderradio for bringing my favourite radio stations to everywhere I am
8. Rightmove for location aware house hunting to reassure me house prices are finally on the up
9. Geodefence for time wasted gaming
10. Doom Resurrection for nostalgic first person shooter gaming

In short, everything Useful or Entertaining. Losing my phone would be worse than losing my wallet.

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Deposit cheques by iphone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:43:00 +0000

USAA Bank allows customers to make cheque deposits without ever seeing the cheque. Brilliant example of how a brand makes lives easier.

http://www.iphonebuzz.com/bank-allows-depositing-of-checks-using-iphone-pics-108140.php

In the UK people are more likely to change their spouse than their bank account, this app is one that would make me switch.

Great acquisition and loyalty tool.

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Small is beautiful in the bloatwide web

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Remember all the exhortations about ‘bloatware’ in context of desktop applications?

Websites are the new bloatware experiences while the forced discipline of small patches of portable real-estate are where the action is at. Small is indeed beautiful.

I think you see the constraints of a small number of pixels and limited processing power forcng discipline on what is included in an app. While websites get heavier and more function heavy.

A good example is the iPhone Facebook app. They’ve stripped a huge amount of the site functionality away and focussed on making the best bits as easy to use as possible. Arguably, creating a better experience than the more ‘bloated’ website experience. I think this applies to a lot of the good apps that offer site functionality. My favourites are Facebook, Linkedin, LastFM and Sky News.

Hatemail senders exposed in art work

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:19:00 +0000

This was in the printed version of Wired this month but not online.

Basically an artist who uses animals researched the anonymous hatemail she received to link it back to the original senders, and is publishing a book connecting the real people to the hate mail they sent.... all the information is public domain.

It raises interesting issues around the assumption of anonymity online, and how much information is easily available.

Wired reports the artist Tinkebell used Google, Yahoo, Windows Live search and a RapLeaf API to link social networking profiles with email addresses.

English article in Dutch newspaper NRC -
http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2243400.ece/Artist_publishes%20_hate_mail_received_after_killing_her_cat

... and the artists website - www.tinkebell.com

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Growth and Mr Complete, finally final HD Youtube vids

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:45:00 +0000

These are the two final videos going on Youtube for these projects.

Royal Mail Growth

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Royal Mail Mr Complete

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Eternal Moonwalk

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:06:00 +0000

And this counts as the best Michael Jackson tribute I've seen.

The Eternal Moonwalk. People all over the world doing the Moonwalk. Although I can't help but notice most people jst don't have a clue how to do it. :)

www.eternalmoonwalk.com

Best use of Facebook Connect I've seen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:48:00 +0000

This is a great piece of work. Mixing personal data and images with movie.
Love it.

www.prototype-experience.com

I've seen this from a few people's accounts and the effect is very different. Basically, if you have an employment history, and pictures of your loved ones, it gets very spooky!

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XBox 360 is a Howler

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Microsoft are making great efforts to position the XBOX 360 as a contender to be the centre of your digital entertainment. They've done a good job of streaming video through the box as part of XBox Live, and recently announced plans to allow XBox Live users to access Sky channels directly through their console. Microsoft also recently announced they will allow users to access Facebook and Twitter from within their Xbox 360 consoles.

XBox has a good claim to this role, its much more open as a platform than the PS3 and talks easily to Vista PCs and is happy to play DivX movies stored on people's PCs across WiFi or wired networks. It also integrates conveniently with music, and is a good enough DVD player. For highend AV enthusiasts the fact the remote is controlled by IR makes it easier to integrate with AV systems, compared to PS3's Bluetooth remote.

Its got everything going for it from my perspective, except one big problem; it's a howler.

The console sounds like a harrier jump jet landing. This doesn't matter when you're deep in a fragfest, but is a real problem if you're trying to watch Britains Got Talent or The Wire, where the fan noise is a big distraction.

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Facebook + eCommerce = Adword scale revenue

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:00 +0000

All eyes have been on how Facebook is going to turn its massive user base into the kind of revenue streams that something as simple as Adwords created for Google.

My money is that fusing social networking with ecommerce is that way that Facebook cracks this. If it works social media connected to convenient payment opens up a business model that makes iPhone apps look like a mere pecadillo.

Facebook aims for revenues with e-commerce credits
http://digitalmedia.strategyeye.com/article/b95c80dc9f/2009/06/01/Facebook_aims_for_revenues_with_site_credits/

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Google Factoids

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:04:00 +0000

Was recently at a presentation by Bruce Daisley of Google who threw some nice little factoids out:

15 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

17p in every pound spent in the UK is spent online

1 in 3 of the UK Internet population have posted a comment

Apple iPhone users make x15 search requests. They tend to be shorter and location based.

In the UK, people make 15 searches before buying a plane ticket, 9 before buying a lap top

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A horn for your iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Something good for your desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:27:00 +0000

Love this. Graze will send daily nibbles to your desk. Based on the take up in this building they're onto a winner.

http://www.graze.com/

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Did You Know? 3

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:07:00 +0000

An oldy but a goody. Fast changing world.

Three things a digital marketeer needs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:03:00 +0000

OK, OK, does it need to be said? But someone asked me recently, so there you go.

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1 - A strategy

It sounds obvious but it is essential to have a framework that helps prioritise and focus effort. This can be at a business or product level and should consider audience, audience needs, audience behaviour, stakeholders, business objectives, existing assets. A digital strategy is the first step to investing successfully in digital to create value for a business. It puts the basics in place to allow informed decisions and can act as a roadmap and touchstone for the many digital activities that are possible. Digital creates unique opportunities for brands to be useful and valued by people. It can build strong relationships, create meaningful experiences, be a powerful research medium, capture data, or be a compelling direct or awareness medium. It is also an increasingly powerful facilitator of opinion. A digital strategy will help you judge what is the best use of digital to achieve your business objectives.

2 - An understanding of your customers

Understanding customers is essential to creating effective advertising and marketing communications and digital content. What kind of content or functionality will create value for your customers? How can this be leveraged to increase loyalty, or use?
Customer insight allows you to apply the strategy effectively.

3 - Valued content

However it is delivered, wherever it is. Valuable, searchable content built on customer insights is an increasingly important component of digital. On a website, in a community, as forum members, in a CRM programme, on Youtube. Wherever it is. Content that adds value to your customers lives is essential.

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What does Web 3.0 mean for marketers?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:32:00 +0000

Have been asked this question quite a bit lately. The short version is "not much for the mo and not likely to matter in '09. Concentrate on giving customers what they want or need online."

Slightly longer version below.

Web 3.0 is an umbrella term to cover off 'what's going to be the next big thing on the WWW'.
More than anything specific within the Web 3.0 lexicon, the 'browser war' going on will have an enormous influence on what happens next because it will dictate whether we live in a Google or Microsoft vision of the WWW. On one side we have Microsoft and Explorer, keen to keep people running applicatons on their PC in Windows; on the other we have Google and Chrome aiming to move people off there PC, out of Windows onto the Web. If this view prevails people will spend much more time doing all of the functional activity most people associate with applications like MS Office.

There are some significant data security issues around this approach to the networked world we live in that may well create a backlash against much of the crystal ball gazing about the WWW.
Web 3.0 is broadly agreed as being built around themes of networked computing, collaborative code platforms, tagged and interrelated content.

The last of these is perhaps the one that will have the biggest impact on advertising and marketing. This is because it will become increasingly easy for people to access and navigate tagged and linked content, and manipulate data in different ways.

A good Web 2.0 example of this is how a technology as simple as RSS is slowly changing the way people access content, which has an implication for publishing.

The idea of a 'website' or homepage for news (which attracts revenue from display advertising' starts to become irrelevent as people self select streams of content that they are likely to be interested in. Inserting text based advertising into these messages becomes a new method, that offers up significant personalisation opportunities. This will put a greater empahasis for marketers of adding genuine value to people to affect how they feel about a brand, rather than pushing 'advertising messages'.

What does it all mean for marketing? Marketing needs to continue to innovate, experiment and learn from people's behaviour.

As usual... marketing will need to join the conversation with a credible opinion rather than chest beat for attention.

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Soundbites for '09

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:27:00 +0000

OK, here were some of my comments, published late.

“The biggest feature of 2009 will be how the economic gloom and forecasts play out. Previous recessions have traditionally pushed marketing budgets into measurable and accountable media. This is likely to be good for more measurable digital activity.”

“The browser war will progress but we’ll not see much change as this is a longer play. Does the future of applications live on a desktop in a Windows environment or on the Internet? The latter of these will create some interesting opportunities for how brands can add value to people’s lives, as more of the useful stuff you do on your desktop moves into a more dynamic and personalisable webspace. There could well be a back lash against this approach as people become increasingly concerned about identity fraud and data security.”

“The loose collection of what Web 3.0 might be will continue to unfold. Connected content (data) is one theme likely to affect marketing and advertising in 09, as it becomes easier for consumers to use tagged and linked data. Consumer power will not be going away any time soon. Buzz, its measurement and influence will attract more marketing spend as people become more familiar with the link between buzz and sales.”

“API’s still haven’t made the big impact their potential suggests. I can’t wait to see the first uber-bank offer a white label API for personal banking services that other ‘bank brands’ can sell on with other value services attached.”

“As it becomes easier for people to self select content and functionality in their own personal digital environments, webpages in the traditional sense (like news homepages designed to generate revenue through display advertising) will give way to more intelligently targeted marketing messages.”

“Welcome back copy, and the rise of the micro-niche! We’ll see more relevant tailored text based advertising to niche audiences in niche places being delivered on a large scale. Marketers will have to focus on adding genuine value rather than pushing traditional advertising messages.”

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How depressed can you get?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:00 +0000

University College London depression predictor.

The predictD research group is made up of mental health professionals and academics from Europe and South America who undertook research into predicting risk of depression.

The study was led by Professors Michael King and Irwin Nazareth in the Research Departments of Mental Health Sciences and Primary Care and Population Health at University College London, and was funded principally by a grant from the Vth Framework of the European Commission’s Scientific Research Programme.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/predict-depression/demograph.php

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Make Me Super

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:10:00 +0000

Visual v text search

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:11:00 +0000

I love the searchme search engine which displays results as website screen grabs alongside text.

Text based search technology is all well and good, but if you're looking for a towel rail, or a lamp, visual search is the way to go.

It seems that Google haven't moved into this space yet, but you can already see more visually cued navigation emerging in their new browser; Chrome, which features thumbnails of your most visited sites as your default home page.

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Amazon takes frustration out of packaging

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:59:00 +0000

Hallelujah Amazon, for making the world a better place by taking a first step towards stripping away the unnecessary packaging so many consumer goods are wrapped in with their Frustration Free Packaging.

A great example of extending a user experience of site and into the real world.

As a dad who has to cut kids toys out of their wrapping I am loving this. I hope it bumps their Xmas sales. :)

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