Brands, Digital Media & Me

Does Microsoft hold the key to the future of advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:22:00 +0000

In recent months there has been a flurry of activity in the advertising technology space, not least the Microsoft bid for Yahoo. What is going on? As the GigOM post "Who will control advertising on the web" asks:The anticipated $80 billion in online ad spending cited by Microsoft as the rationale behind its bid for Yahoo is a big number, but how that spending will be apportioned isn’t clear. What is clear to me is that advertising is changing but more slowly than it ought. Engagement is the new mantra as wonderfully articulated by Dan Belmont on Brandweek in his article "Define Points of...

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Is Archos TV Plus the Apple TV killer?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:39:00 +0000

Deciding to do what I preach, I recently acquired an Archos TV Plus and installed it in my home network. Having initially placed an order for the TV Plus before Christmas, it finally arrived courtesy of Dabs.com at the end of February. I'm not sure if that's a sign of strong demand or poor supply. Having seen so little written about the product so far, I veer towards the latter opinion. It is interesting that so little has been written. For those people who envision a digital media world on an open gardens basis, the Archos is one of a few next generation products which support this. By open...

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The collapse of segmentation

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

David Cushman has sparked an interesting debate on his Faster Future blog. His post discusses the future of advertising and marketing and is worth a read. I added my own thoughts as follows: We need to view the digital advertising universe under its primary headings of search, classifieds, response and brand advertising. Search marketing is at the beginning of its life cycle and we should anticipate increasing sophistication in this pull-marketing model where brands can monetise this "database of intentions". Classifieds are already moving to the world you describe, they are fundamentally...

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In stream advertising by BT

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:43:00 +0000

As reported in the Guardian, BT has announced an intriguing new service as an extension to its BT Vision offer launched almost exactly a year ago. By teaming up with Hiro Media, BT is offering mainstream movies free at the point of consumption by integrating adverts in the stream which cannot be skipped. There are a number of innovative elements to this offer 1. You don't need to be a BT Broadband subscriber to benefit from the service 2. You can share movies online via eg file sharing P2P services 3. As long as you are online when viewing, the ads will change each time you view. This...

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Silver surfers cannot be ignored

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Research published by Ofcom (the UK regulator) and recently corroborated by Hitwise shows that surfers over the age of 50 now account for almost 30% of all time spent on the internet. Hitwise's analysis of online visits to shopping and classifieds categories from the 4 weeks ending November 3rd shows that over 55's represent 22.5% of traffic. This is thought provoking stuff - and furthermore, according to Hitwise Silver Surfers' share of traffic is growing at the expense of all other demographics, especially the 25-34 age group. We can probably put this down to the impact of the latter...

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BBC, ITV, and C4 ride Kangaroo

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:04:00 +0000

As the Register posted last week, news about the long rumoured Kangaroo tie up between the BBC, ITV and Channel4 is becoming clearer. The UK's top broadcasters have 'fessed up' to working together on a single system for distributing TV online There are a number of angles behind Kangaroo which look worthy of note. Firstly, as The Register reports, the likelihood of a single integrated player. This is important because, as those of us who have started experimenting with iPlayer, Bablegum, Joost etc we end up with a plethora of proprietary players on our computers. There is a real need to...

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The content experience is king!

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:29:00 +0000

As Techcrunch recently reported, Joost have announced a tie up with Meebo to integrate instant messaging into the Joost experience. This is a very exciting development I have not seen picked up elsewhere. Meebo has created a "virtual interconnect" between the major instant messaging platforms - Yahoo, Google, MSN and AIM - so that by logging into Meebo you get the experience of being able to chat to your buddies even if they are on a different IM platform from you. I've been watching these guys for a couple of years and this is very cool. We have to assume that if Meebo gets very...

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"Google is highly dangerous"

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:39:00 +0000

At a recent Society of Editors conference, the Times Online Editor is reported to have made the statement that "Google is highly dangerous". She was referring to the power of Google's news rating services We absolutely can't afford not to be brilliant on Google News. I think Google is hugely dangerous.but the statement resonates strongly in the context of Google's announcement of its OpenSocial initiative just days before Facebook's advertising model was released. The New York Times headline says it all Google and Friends to Gang Up on FacebookBut the reporter only had half the story. An...

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Google Mobile - an open platform approach

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:06:00 +0000

Following on from my post yesterday about the mutiny in the ranks of Apple's fans, I thought it would be pertinent to compare this with Google Mobile's announcement this week. As the BBC reported and with more detail on John Batelle's blog, Google are not going down the route of making their own phone; they are not choosing their own operators; they are not locking phones down to a restrictive proprietary ecosystem. That's all so 1.0. No, Google are up with the times. They've created an open software based platform (Android - see the introduction video above) which, whilst posing a threat...

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Apple faithful dial M for mutiny

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:29:00 +0000

David Smith technology correspondent of the Observer Newspaper wrote an article highlighting the increasing disillusionment of ardent Apple fans as they realise that Apple's success with iPods and iPhones means it is becoming too commercial for some tastes A series of controversial decisions by Jobs has tarnished Apple's reputation as an effortlessly cool outfit which was always on the side of the consumer against the Goliath Microsoft. Worst of all, it is now being compared to Microsoft as unexciting and money driven.What is piquing fans more than anything else is the growing realisation...

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DVD is dead, long live HD-DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:58:00 +0000

As the debacle that was digital music continues to unfold, most industry players are focusing on the digital video market. There is hope that it will be bigger, richer and will avoid the mistakes of its smaller sibling. But the dynamics of this digital video market are different in a number of ways. One of the most significant is the future prospect of the respective physical formats. The profitability of both music and video industries have been significantly enhanced over the past 15 years by the introduction of new formats - CD in the case of music and DVD in the case of video. In fact...

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Has internet advertising finally conquered TV

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:04:00 +0000

The Times amongst others reported today that Google advertising revenue in the UK for the last quarter had surpassed that of ITV1, the lead commercial TV channel. On the surface of it, this marks a milestone in the steady growth of internet, and particularly search based advertising. The statistics probably justify a little deeper analysis for example Google's advertising model means it passes nearly 30% of its revenues to partners, so it's net revenues are substantially below ITV1'sITV1's revenues were ahead of Google's in Q1 and Q2 and will be in Q4 due to the seasonality of TV...

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The future of media

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:41:00 +0000

I have been following Gerd Leonhard's blog for some time since I met him at Midem in 2006 following the publication of his landmark book "The Future of Music". He has recently published a new book called "The End of Control" which he is releasing online from this site by RSS. I also came across a recent interview of Gerd by Ralph Simon where he talks about The Future of Music and the impact of changing media consumption patterns is having on the business model. I've included a clip here which gives a good introduction. Discussed here are great concepts such as "music like water" which...

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Will "content in the cloud" ever take off?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:25:00 +0000

There has been a debate since the beginning of the internet about whether services will be delivered "from the cloud" or from applications or storage in the client. It is an argument fundamental to the technology and commercial models underpinning new services. Look at the internet itself where access on DSL has been designed asymmetrically assuming a light client and rich content and devices residing in the network. The explosion of peer2peer behaviour is in direct conflict with that thinking. Historically media has been delivered "from the cloud" (ie broadcast) to dumb terminals (radio and...

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Is mobile the 7th mass media?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:21:00 +0000

I spent a pleasurable few hours absorbing Alan Moore's paper "Mobile as the 7th Mass Media". I've recently seen a prior post by Tomi Ahonen here, which adds more useful insight and analysis. David Cushman has kindly posted a video of Tomi Ahonen presenting this thesis at a seminar in EMAP which you can see here The overall premise that mobile is a hugely significant platform in the emerging digital media ecosystem can be in little doubt and certainly has my vote. However whilst I understand and support the evangelism that is driving the packaging of this premise as "the 7th mass media", I...

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When will "Old Media" disappear

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:31:00 +0000

Following my thread of challenging the hypothesis that old media will just disappear, I saw this article in the Independent newspaper. Here we see report of an 8% YoY increase in advertising revenue at Associated Newspapers, one of the major newspaper groups remaining in the UK. What is key here is that this is driven by a modest 2% increase in print advertising and a 78% increase in digital revenues. So traditional revenues are stable (not in critical decline) and new revenues are being generated from digital platforms. Whilst it would be presumptuous to predict the medium term prospects...

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Blogrush

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:28:00 +0000

Always keen to support new innovations and "walk the talk" of Web2.0 behaviour, I have added Blogrush to my resources panel on the left. For readers with their own blogs, check out this way of syndicating your blog to readers like you!

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New Wi-Fi community to disrupt mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:54:00 +0000

Yesterday it was announced that BT would join with FON to create the world's biggest Wi-Fi community. This is "Open WiFi". It's very disruptive. The primary EBITDA generator for mobile operators is voice. According to Strategy Analytics by 2012 there will be 800m hybrid (WiFi/Cellular) phones in the market plus 250m other connected devices growing at a CAGR of 50%. Open WiFi is a peer based community and we know how exponential service adoption can be on that model. It represents a stepping stone to VoIP calls over wireless from portable devices which will intermediate cellular business's...

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How are digital market trends affecting ad consumption?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:04:00 +0000

Since my post last month asking the big question about "$800bn with no home to go to", Google/YouTube announced an innovative new advertising technology for their UGC content. What was interesting is that "in-video" on-line advertising attracts a much greater CPM than traditional banner ads, let alone text based Adwords models. Typically this drives up CPM from $5 to $20 or more. I wondered if this impacted my hypothesis (see below) that today's web (fixed and mobile) simply doesn't have the real estate available to attract the big advertising bucks. If we look at the global advertising...

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White Papers paint a rosy future, but there's $880bn looking for a home

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:12:00 +0000

While I was away on holiday I took the opportunity to give some quality time to a couple of excellent pieces written by Alan Moore (Mobile as the 7th Mass Media) and David Cushman (The Power of the Network=The Power of We). These are both great pieces of work, very thought provoking and pithy. I am posting a separate piece on Alan Moore's paper so I'll leave specific comments on that one till then. What I like about David's post is that it is explicitly a work-in-progress. David has created a wiki where he invites readers to add to, enhance, grow or challenge his hypothesis. I love this...

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TV advertising, and Google

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:08:00 +0000

Ray Snoddy who I have always enjoyed reading gave an excellent description in the Independent of what is happening at ITV with Grade's first set of results. ITV's underlying profits merely fell from £202 million to £151million - a good result as judged by the city. But the future is not looking good. A report from Veronis Suhlar Stevenson, the US media investment firm, found that for US consumers, at least, there was a growing trend away from traditional advertising-supported media in favour of paid-for entertainment such as the internet, video games and cable TV. The company says that from...

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The digital revolution is NOT killing TV advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:01:00 +0000

There was an interesting debate at the IPA (the industry association for advertising agencies) recently. The motion was The digital revolution is killing TV advertising Les Binet (European Director of DDB Matrix) kicked of the debate against the motion - his slides are shown here. Matt Dyke (Head of Planning also at DDB) responded for the motion with two key arguments. Firstly that TV advertising is killing advertising due to the dearth of quality and secondly, due to hyper-connected world in which we live, we all have a wealth of information at our finger tips about companies and...

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The true costs of delivering a quality digital entertainment experience

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:33:00 +0000

Last weekend a debate at the heart of digital media, which has been raging behind the scenes for several months, finally exploded into public view. This article in the Independent on Sunday highlights the financial disconnect between the wishes of web publishers of video content and the ISPs on who's networks the content will be delivered. The issue is in principle no different from the challenges 10 years and 5 years ago as web email and digital music respectively took hold; except that video exacerbates the problem dramatically. For $15 of video content the ISP has to deliver 1.5GBytes of...

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The next brick in the Mobile Web2.0 wall

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:02:00 +0000

This article on WashingtonPost.com underpins a trend I have been writing about on this and other blogs for some time that Mobile Web2.0 is as much about fixed wireless as it is about cellular. As Sam Diaz at the Washington Post puts it "the next generation of on-the-go Web surfing has nothing to do with cellphones or WiFi-powered coffee shops." By on-the-go Web surfing, we mean, of course, the mobile web. Sprint also recently announced strengthening its social networking offerings through link ups with Rabble and Xango, though the added value from these relationshps is qustionable as noted...

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Internet ad measurement based on "phantom metrics"

noreply@blogger.com (Simon) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:24:00 +0000

I found a great article on Mediashift about the problems with measuring the success of web advertising. Apparently the key independent analysts in this space (Nielson and Comscore) still use consumer panels to quantify internet ad traffic. Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau, has written an open letter to the respective CEO's of Nielson and Comscore which is worth a read, but I include the pertinent paragraphs below The promise of the Internet has always been its ability to tell, to a high degree of certitude, how many people are coming to, perusing, and engaging...

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