Why now?

Technically once you have over 500 private shareholders the financial reporting requirements in the US in SEC terms basically become the same as being a listed company, so you may as well

What for?

Clearly with $3.7bn in revenues and $1bn in profit they make a fair amount of money, why do you need to raise more? especially with $3.8bn already in the bank . . .

Buying things has to be the answer – google did it (Youtube being the most obvious one) – but buying growth and defensive opportunities has to be the reason for generating the money.

Is it worth it?

To quote @Peston “At 22 times earnings and 120 times net profit” buying facebook shares would be a “triumph of hope but . . . ” although others have different ways of viewing it

So contextually, biggest tech IPO ever, valuation makes it worth roughly what amazon, macdonalds and a number of other business that probably own some significant and valuable assets, but ho-hum

Perhaps more interestingly the IPO filings show that 15% of their revenue comes not from advertising . . . this has to be where the growth comes from in the long term surely ? In the short term, 50% of impacts are on mobile, but mobile ads havent been turned on yet (but are being tested) and there is still some growth potential in penetration terms in a handful of places . . .

What next?

Who knows – what would you buy with $8bn at your disposal ? i may start with Tumblr, or maybe Spotify . . . or maybe Zynga (currently trading at a value roughly equal to this war chest)

One thing we can be sure of – the data debate will rumble on – they have access to arguably the most interesting set of data points on the planet (if you like advertisementing that it), very powerful for advertisers, but then they ain’t doing owt with that anytime soon methinks . . . and discuss . . .

A very useful exercise to use when interrogating a client brief, or helping them develop one. And a tool that you could adapt to break down into micro questions for comms to help you get to clarity on what’s really holding back sales.

Check it out, personally I’m LOVING the Heinz AR recipe book.

Apart from this one perhaps – rather than ignoring something that’s just not making sense for you, or is consistently on your list of things to Sort Out This Week For Sure Absolutely No Procrastination here…why not follow Seth’s advice and go on ahead and work out what the problem is and how it can be solved.

Then reward yourself with a nice cup of tea and a read of Charlie Brooker’s New Year’s Resolution suggestions. Nice.

Last week in Lyme Regis the CID team (whilst generally group hugging, fire walking and naked sweat lodging), talked a lot about range when discussing facilitation styles. The point being that everyone has their own and you need to work out what you need to dial up and dial down.

I think we all need to think about our planning in the same way.

Which reminded me of this collection of genius from various advertising and planning luminaries. Take a look and have a think.

So today’s idea of the day is to think about what your planning style is?. Then start thinking about what your range is and what to dial up and what to dial down?

In case you were wondering, i would describe mine as ‘simple and sweary’

Have a great weekend

Walshy

As we speak, a Mini Countryman is suspended on a stand at the Brussels motor show using a stout-looking rope. By ‘liking’ the Mini page on Facebook, you get one shot of flame to try and burn through the rope, and you can see this play out live. Whoever’s flame finally burns through, wins the car.

What’s nice about this above & beyond the execution is that it is traditionally quite hard to get anyone other than car geeks to care about motorshows, or even realise they are taking place. By using the Brussels show as a backdrop, Mini can serve some new model news from the show to people who wouldn’t otherwise have any time for it.

Video showing how it works below, or log on to Facebook and have a go – although be warned, there’s a bit of a queue..

Not a comms idea, but very interesting from a brand value perspective. The ever-surprising John-Paul Gaultier has released a limited edition of branded one ounce gold ingots, capitalising on the extremely bullish market for the precious metal as the recession continues to outstay its welcome.

The bars carry his distinctive branding, and are on the market for just over $1,800 each. The genius of this is that this price is 10% more than the market value of the metal itself.

The three things I love/hate about this are:

1) It turns investors into consumers – increasing both his target market and his brand reach
2) And the reverse: it turns a luxury item into a (vaguely) sensible investment, turning a flagging market for fripperies on its head
3) It is literally a solid-gold indication of his brand value – if people will pay $100 for a $2 t-shirt with your name on, why not see how far you can stretch?

This is a good example of elevating what is ultimately just another ad into something rather more interesting, simply through the tech employed. Over 100 cameras captured a bizarre scene unfolding as talented basketballist Chris Paul runs rings around everyone – or as Nike would have it, Quick Controls Chaos.

Users can speed up or slow time, move to anywhere on the court, zoom in on particular events (like the police horse or the flammable chef) and learn why they happen – all the while unlocking access to new features and new content.

The teaser is below, but the real action is here at the site – go and have a play.

Not sure the shoes are for me though. Bit showy.

Basically a guy dressed as Santa gets in the back of a cab, and starts giving directions about where he wants to go. It gradually becomes apparent that the destination is in fact the cabbie’s own house. Rather than this being a sinister festive car-jacking, Mr Claus then tells the driver he’s got the night off with his family, and Santa will be driving his cab and making him money for the night.

A nice, simple feel-good execution of Coca-Cola’s ‘ownership’ of Xmas which gives them a strong story to amplify.

Here is a video about it in Spanish:

a lot of you are going to find this un-nerving

i’m publicly stitch myself up about groovy love – whenever i have a meaningful work related interaction with you i will be giving groovy love back – data / interpretation / feeling . . .

love out for more cultish behaviour when my other co-horts get back from lyme vegas

in the meantime have a scrabulous weekend