Making the most of your mobile

Reuters has a piece this morning on the the success of mobile apps on touchscreen phones.  The article’s prediction of their growth in volume I’m sure is spot on:

Consumers can expect to see many more mobile apps in the coming months, as the sheer creativity of small, third-party software developers should keep the market buzzing for some time.

With our economy, and perhaps environmental, worries the replacement cycle of mobile phones is likley to get longer as today’s story from IT PRO , covering research released by Gartner, confirms:

According to Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, the global economic downturn has “affected sales in both mature and emerging markets during the quarter. Replacement sales in particular were affected, while first time users continued to see the value of acquiring a mobile phone.”

I posted a couple of weeks back about Homedulgence and how people will be making the most of what they have at home during these financially tighter months.  The use of mobile phone apps is one of the best ways pimp your phone and make the most of what you’ve got.  Thankfully ownership of a touchscreen phone isn’t mandatory.

What does EMI.com have in store?

I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up post to EMI says DRM free music boosts consumer engagementand today seemed as good a day as any.  Last night I took a wander to EMI.com to see if there were any clues as to what lay in store but alas no. 

Boosting engagement, for a brand that until recently hasn’t been consumer facing, is important if, as Doug Merrill says, EMI.com will become a place where bands can connect with fans and vice versa.  A modern day fan site if you will.

There are sites out there already that do connect bands with their fans and vice versa.  Sites like US based ReverbNation and former Edelman clients RAWRIP and Myspacehelp artists to connect with their fans, be discovered as well as market themselves using a comprehensive arsenal of tools and widgets.  In turn fans can gain access to the most up to date multimedia content, tour information, can contact artists ‘directly’ as well as show support for their band using some clever widgets.

I’m sure EMI will have a way of showcasing their artists but it will be interesting to see their manifestation of how bands can update and learn more about their fans and also how fans are able to interact with them.  Here are some of my favourite picks from the above:

• Tunepaks from Reverbnation – a link which when clicked on releases a standalone player so the recipient can listen to the latest releases straight from the artist
• Show schedule and Map from Reverbnation – a widget that can be embedded into any html page e.g. fan’s Myspace, aritsts’ official home page, that displays tour dates and route
• Reverbnations’ Tunewidget is a widget that fans can spread and allows the artists to see where it goes, what songs were played most and contains music videos, ways for new fans to sign up to the artists mailing list etc
• RAWRIP’s RAWSTORES are another portable widget that can be embedded in any html website.  One of RAWRIP’s USPs is that all songs sold through the site give artists 100% of the sale.  The RAWSTORE can be embedded on an artist or fan’s web page, blog or MySpace for example and fans can buy the tracks listed and the artist still receives 100% of the revenue.
• Myspace celebrity members’ blogs keeping their fans (and media) up to date on their latest musings

One of the challenges that such sites have is the creation of compelling content that will bring users back again and again.  Reverbnation has a solution to this too (and a solution for pretty much everything else). Artists are able to claim 50% of the revenue gained from ads posted on the artist’s homepage.   

Whether any or all of these widgety bits will be deployed by EMI.com still remains to be seen.  Sign up for Beta at www.emi.com

Wii fit tops memorable brand launch (in the US)

Mintel has released the results of its 2008 ‘Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey’.  Now there’s a mouthful and funnily enough food and bev represented the majority of memorable brands in the top ten.

MarketingDaily caveats the results with some bad news:

This was a terrible year for brand-building. Terrible. Rising food and gasoline prices, unemployment, the mortgage meltdown, and the political campaigns took up most of the room in consumers’ cognitions. A full 69% of survey respondents could not remember a single new product launched this year, per Mintel. Only 22% of respondents remembered the most memorable new product of 2008, the Wii Fit. 

For me recongition doesn’t mean relevance (i.e. relevant enough to buy).  Rising prices, economic certainty and job losses are all relevant and of real concern to the consumer.  In an environment such as this, brands need to work out how to be relevant (nice example here, also on MarketingDaily from Zurich).  The Wii Fit marketing campaign was phenomenal based on great consumer insight which is why so many people decided Wii Would Like to Play

The Top 10 features an eclectic bunch including McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Biscuit & Sandwich; Kraft Mac & Cheese Crackers; KY Yours + Mine Couples Lubricant; Gatorade G2, Yoplait Fiber One; MacBook Air and Rock Band.

The Hollywood Quandry

A great post from Jonathan Handle at Always On on the difficult position in which Hollywood finds itself.  As the consumption of traditional content, from films at theatres and on DVDs, newspapers, books and music, starts to plateau or decline the volume of digital content, legal or not, has rocketed.  Consumption has exceeded expectation and the rate of technological innovation has outpaced content owners, catching them with their proverbial pants down.  The great challenge now for the traditional content industries is to work out how to achieve close to the same levels of revenue:

As NBC Universal’s Jeff  Zucker lamented, the content industries are being forced to “trad[e] today’s analog dollars for digital pennies.”

See the full post here

EMI says DRM free music boosts consumer engagement

Bill Werde from Billboard had a nice suprise on his visit to meet EMI’s new recorded music CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti, getting three for the price of one when president of A&R for North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland Nick Gatfield and EMI’s worldwide president of digital Douglas Merrill joined the confab too.

Douglas Merrill, the former CIO at Google, talks about the impact of being the first major label to supply their music DRM free to iTunes.  Did this lead to an increase in piracy?  No.  According to Merrill it lead to increased consumer engagement:

“We didn’t see the needle move at all on [piracy]. But what we did see is consumers loved the product. It was good for consumers, it’s good for artists. It gets people engaged with the art in a whole new way by getting rid of artificial rules-like we don’t trust you, so I’m not going to give you this content. It just sort of set the wrong tone with our customers.”

Here, here.  To see the full Q&A with all three executives you can see it here on Billboard’s website.  Definitely worth a read.

The economy and Homedulgence

No surprises that the current financial situation in which we find ourselves is shaping a number of trends that are pipped to emerge in ‘09.  ‘Homedulgence’, a term coined by Future Laboratory trend spotters, is my personal favourite.  Those most likely to feel the impact of this burgeoning stay-at-home-and-indulge culture are the consumer technology and entertainment industries for whom Homedulgence is likely to be a blessing or a curse.

 

Homedulgence is about getting full enjoyment out of what you’ve already got rather than just staying at home more.  You might start using or make more use of your laptop to enjoy downloaded films or catch up on TV via iPlayer or 4 OD.  To create an indulgent home experience I bought a projector to wire into my games console and hi-fi to create a nifty little home entertainment system.  My console is also synched up to my laptop so that I can play my music downloads through it.  I indulge in a new game every few months (I shall be mostly playing Lego Batman) and a LoveFilm DVD each week.    

 

As Homedulgence grows as a trend another appears to be shrinking: consumers escaping the realities of economic hard times at the cinema.  The LA Times has a great article – “Hollywood may not be recession proof this time” – which looks at how canny consumers are scrapping visits to the cinema and premium cable subscriptions in favour of easily accessible entertainment online.  Yesterday’s analysis from Reuters appears to confirm that the economic turmoil is taking its toll on Hollywood studios.

 

Until media companies can gain larger revenues from online content the industry that looks most stable is the video games industry.  Games do present good long-term enjoyment for the money (did I say I am mostly playing Lego Batman) and sales are up on last quarter.  However there is some concern that post Christmas the realities of reduced consumer spending will hit home here too.

 

Dark clouds are undoubtedly ahead.  I’m going to take shelter and partake in a little Homedulgence.

Twitter + PR

Really interesting post from DERT’s man in PA, Luke Pollard, on the rise of Twitter amongst the PR community:

North East web guru and ex-Edelman employee, Stephen Davies, or PRblogger.com fame is a regular poster on his Twitter feed and it has attracted a sizeable and influential following. He posted a few days ago on his blog a list of UK PR people on Twitter and in only a few days it has grown from a small number of PR pioneers to an increasingly comprehensive list of Twitter-ers from agencies across the land. If you’re just starting out on Twitter and want a step up you could do a lot worse than pressing follow on everyone on this list. Effectively you are downloading a ready made network of the best and the brightest in our industry.

I only started using Twittter a few days ago (like many, I took a while to really understand the benefits). Already its proving to be invaluable in keeping up-to-date with the thinking and observations of clever people/ colleagues/ journalists and friends (this list is not mutually exclusive…).

Obama victory + social engagement = ?

Almost a week has passed since Obama became President Elect of the United States. For those of us not lucky enough to be in Chicago to suck-up the potent positivity (my Edelman colleague Jonny Bentwood was fortunate enough to experience Grant Park from the ground), it has been fascinating to read all the accounts, opinions, and theories surrounding an historic campaign.

Before November 4^th the use of digital technology, YouTube, mobile phones and specifically the my.baracobama social network, was widely recognised for playing a pivotal role in mobilizing support for Obama’s campaign. Looking back who would have thought two years ago that an American election would become a text-book case-study on how to use ‘new’ technologies to fully engage with an audience? Jemima Kiss’s article in today’s Media Guardian, has a great overview of the campaign and highlights the significance in the intimate dialogue that these new communication channels encouraged between candidate and voter.

Now that the lines of communication have been drawn (in twitter feeds, profile posts, and YouTube videos), Obama will need to keep them open and, crucially, transparent. As David Carr points out, in today’s International Herald and Tribune, Obama is now in control of a powerful database. By using this effectively, we will witness a monumental shift as a previously apathetic public now participate in politics, in real-time.

Adam Ostrow’s article on Mashable (published on the 5^th) makes some interesting predictions on how Obama can maintain momentum, and continue to involve the electorate from within the Oval Office. It was a relief to see that Obama’s camp is committed to the intimate engagement they championed on the way to the White House, with the launch of Change.gov this weekend. It will be interesting to see how this commitment plays out. I particularly like Ostrow’s “Call to Service” idea; a social network acts as a facilitator to plough enthusiasm and energy back into community projects. (I imagine this would be invaluable come re—election time, as voters will have felt the benefit of an Obama administration close to home).

With such a high-profile ambassador for the power of engaging with an audience, Obama’s victory will hopefully have a knock-on effect for PR and the way businesses communicate with their customers (and not just inspire game designers). David Carr quotes Ranjit Mathodar in his article. Mathodar wrote a fascinating essay in March, on Obama’s approach to digital technologies, and in the IHT article he makes a valid point “”When you think about it, a campaign is a start-up business”. So why shouldn’t start-ups and mature businesses adopt a similar approach? As proven by the election result, opening up a dialogue, maintaining conversations, and giving an audience the tools to make their voices heard can yield very positive results.

UPDATE:

The BBC has posted a story on the Obama Super Mario World game today (which I’ve been playing a lot recently. It’s hard to resist a game that is both reminiscent of my formative SNES years, and also lets you jump on lipstick wearing pigs).

Anyway, the reason I’ve posted again is at the bottom of the story the Beeb reports how the Republicans are responding to Obama’s victory. They have a new found appreciation of the web and all it offers for gathering grass-roots support. It’s going to be an interesting four years…

Forget genies, your wish is your laptop’s command…

On Sunday, Intel and the manufacturer ASUS announced the launch of their new project: the first community-designed PC. The two companies have joined forces to set up an internet forum, WePC.com in which they invite consumers to “dream the impossible” and submit their ideas of what they would like to see on a PC. Their mission statement, “You dream it. ASUS builds it. Intel inside it”, although not the most catchy and witty of statements, essentially gets the point across: customers have been presented with the golden opportunity to influence the blueprint of a new computer design.

This is both an interesting and shrewd business move. By allowing customers to get their creative juices flowing and have a say in the future development of computers, Intel and ASUS both recognise the importance of listening to their consumers’ opinions whilst simultaneously drawing their names into a wider conversation concerning the future of product design. I mean, here I am talking about it!

This is an issue is discussed in the new book, Crowd Surfing, co-written by David Brain. This book understands a crowd surfer to be the “new generation of businesses and political leaders [who] have learned how to harness the energy, ideas and enthusiasm of today’s empowered consumers.” That’s not to say that what the customer says always goes, but by engaging with their customers in an interesting way, companies can understand and act upon the wants and desires of those who buy their product/service. For as the findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer detail, not only is ‘a person like me’ regarded as one of the most credible spokespeople, but online forums and social networking sites have become one of the main sources used by people to gain information about companies.

So what have people already requested of this new community-designed PC? Some have asked for a “happy laptop” to wake them up in the morning, while others have asked for a ghetto blaster laptop with woofers and tweeters. And me? I personally wouldn’t mind a laptop which produced free wispa bars and cups of tea. So it begs the question, if your laptop granted you just one wish only, what would it be?

Online video distribution: How & when… with a bit of ‘why’.

Cool TV pic from Ashley B 

Really good piece in Variety about digital distribution?

Basic premise – the indie film sector is holding firm until it sees more revenue from digital platforms. The myriad of solutions out there – for mobile, PC, IPTV – are saturating the market before the content owners even commit their product.

“There’s an awful lot of time and money being wasted right now by people looking into the future,” notes Myriad Pictures prexy and CEO Kirk D’Amico…

…While distribution via emerging digital platforms may prove wildly profitable for indies a few years down the road, for now, as D’Amico notes, “It’s created a tremendous uncertainty in the marketplace…

…By and large, digital revenue remains nascent. For example, iTunes and Amazon, far and way the top digital movie distribution platforms in the U.S., won’t even say how much they’re making from downloads right now…

…The Internet isn’t paying upfront advances on anything yet…You can have a library of 1,000 titles, and you’re probably not going to get a dime from any of the major online services at this point.” [Jean Prewitt, president and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance]”

…Of course, setting up a deal to get your movie on a platform like iTunes “is only half the battle…Getting eyeballs to see it is the other half.” [Matt Dentler, Head of DRM, Cinetic Media]

So. three things ?

• Revenues are not there yet ? the content that?s available is not making enough money; content owners are hesitant to commit

• The lack of commitment is provoking more companies to step up with their own solution. entrepreneurs are thinking ?No one owns the market but there?s still demand and huge potential? a major opportunity will exist until a de-facto solution is found. Why not my solution?

• A de-facto solution will not be found until there?s a change in the consumer mind-set, enticing consumers to commit to digital viewing.

Being simplistic - content owners will not commit until consumers commit. And until content owners commit, there will always be an opportunity for entrepreneurs to throw another solution, an alternative platform into the ring, further fragmenting the market.

It should be an ever-decreasing circle down to the final successful combinations (there will always be several). Instead, the number of platforms and solutions available continues to swell, while the availability of high-quality, compelling, popular content dwindles.    

It happened with music and it?s happening for online video, but it?s a slow process.

Out at MIP last month, the BBC made some really promising statements about standardising online video platforms. As reported on paidcontent, BBC future media and technology honcho, Erik Huggers, spoke positively about open IPTV platforms built into TV sets…

?Box manufacturers can add this capability, that adheres to the standard, to the box. You could talk to Philips or Pioneer or Sony who are adding internet to television sets … to provide a coherent platform in the country … so the internet hits the living room in the right way, rather than in a fragmented way. It?s the last bastion – it?s about getting in to the living room with the richness and community features that the web offers with the viewing quality from a larger device. Because it?s an open service, any company could build an app for the platform…?

the Beeb joins Akamai and a number of others on this argument for an open platform. Ultimately, this would bridge the gap between PC and TV, provoking [in our opinion] a shift in consumer practice. There?s still a divide at the moment which is allowing half-way broadcast houses like Joost and BabelGum to survive.

Developing an open industry standard (still a hugely difficult process) would allow these chaps to survive on the living room TV. Monetise the content and allow it to be shared between devices in a simple way (see HIRO Media) and you’ve got happy, committed, repeat-users providing the all-important revenue for the content owners.

Again… maybe too simplistic, but something’s got to change…

 

 

 

 Disclosure – Edelman UK represents HIRO Media, and has previously worked on behalf of Akamia