The attitude of the music industry to the Internet has cost them dearly over recent years. Rather than try to understand the opportunity and stay ahead of the game, they largely chose to bury their heads in the sand and set up a defensive strategy led by their legal departments.
I was encouraged to read that "From next week both Columbia and RCA Records will only accept demos from unsigned acts via blogging platforms. A&Rs at the Sony BMG-owned labels will stop accepting unsolicited material and instead redirect artists to dedicated blogging platforms powered by social media services Six Apart and Vox." (NMA 30 March 07 -read full articles on bg-online)
What a change to see them embracing an online opportunity rather than hiding from it.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
It's a women's web
ABC1 women obsessed with the internet
by: Ben Bold www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/643897/ABC1-women-obsessed-internet/
2007-03-15
'Premium' or ABC1 women are embracing the internet with new-found enthusiasm, spending more time surfing the web and less time watching TV and reading papers, according to research conducted by IPC Southbank.
The publisher of women's monthlies including: Marie Claire; In Style; Woman & Home; Homes & Gardens and; Ideal Homes, questioned more than 4,000 women, 70% of whom claimed that they could not live without the internet. Three-quarters of the women surveyed for the Web Wise Women report said that they spent more time online compared with last year -- to the detriment of TV viewing, cinema-going and newspaper reading, but not, said the magazine publisher, to the detriment of magazine reading.
The vast majority of women or 86% said that they shopped on the internet, last year spending on average £840 each. Top buys ranged from books, CDs, and DVDs to travel tickets, holidays and household electrical goods.
Over two-thirds or 68% used the web to research products before buying them elsewhere, with half browsing for clothes and 36% looking for make-up and skincare products.
Jackie Newcombe, IPC Southbank's managing director, said: "Broadband is making the internet a much more convenient and attractive medium for ABC1 women. At Southbank, we'll be ensuring our websites continue to deliver to this audience and our forthcoming website for In Style and the new homes portal launching in May will become must-visit online destinations. The popularity of the internet -- in particular with premium women -- is a trend no-one in the media and marketing industry can afford to ignore."
The most searched-for topics among "premium women" were travel, fashion, health, property and beauty. The top five online activities were subscribing to newsletters, downloading music, grocery shopping, sharing photos and participating in forums and message boards.
The Web Wise Women survey will be repeated every quarter.
by: Ben Bold www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/643897/ABC1-women-obsessed-internet/
2007-03-15
'Premium' or ABC1 women are embracing the internet with new-found enthusiasm, spending more time surfing the web and less time watching TV and reading papers, according to research conducted by IPC Southbank.
The publisher of women's monthlies including: Marie Claire; In Style; Woman & Home; Homes & Gardens and; Ideal Homes, questioned more than 4,000 women, 70% of whom claimed that they could not live without the internet. Three-quarters of the women surveyed for the Web Wise Women report said that they spent more time online compared with last year -- to the detriment of TV viewing, cinema-going and newspaper reading, but not, said the magazine publisher, to the detriment of magazine reading.
The vast majority of women or 86% said that they shopped on the internet, last year spending on average £840 each. Top buys ranged from books, CDs, and DVDs to travel tickets, holidays and household electrical goods.
Over two-thirds or 68% used the web to research products before buying them elsewhere, with half browsing for clothes and 36% looking for make-up and skincare products.
Jackie Newcombe, IPC Southbank's managing director, said: "Broadband is making the internet a much more convenient and attractive medium for ABC1 women. At Southbank, we'll be ensuring our websites continue to deliver to this audience and our forthcoming website for In Style and the new homes portal launching in May will become must-visit online destinations. The popularity of the internet -- in particular with premium women -- is a trend no-one in the media and marketing industry can afford to ignore."
The most searched-for topics among "premium women" were travel, fashion, health, property and beauty. The top five online activities were subscribing to newsletters, downloading music, grocery shopping, sharing photos and participating in forums and message boards.
The Web Wise Women survey will be repeated every quarter.
Monday, March 12, 2007
The Mobile Web - an unsatisfactory experience?
A recent study by the Online Publishers Association says that only 25% of users are satisfied with the experience that they have when they surfed the web on their mobile phones. It found that over 33% of consumers has surfed on their mobiles.
I use my phone quite a lot to surf the web and would agree that most of the time it is an unsatisfactory experience. I keep doing it, as I have found some good content, primarily on the BBC site which is optimised for multi-platform access. But whenever I have "surfed", rather than just gone to a known destination site, I have been disappointed.
I think that this is indicative of the problem. People want a different experience when they are surfing on a mobile than when they are at their PCs, an experience that reflects their needs. Most of the content available on the mobile web is simply repurposed "PC web" content, much of it is inappropriate for a mobile user.
In order to identify what the mobile surfer wants, you must consider the key differences must between mobile and PC surfing :
- time available - mobile surfing is a time filler, not something you go off and do for a couple of hours.
- download speed - it's slow. I know G3 is all the rage, but have you ever got more than snail paced downloads? Large files, especially video, often fail to download entirely.
- screen size - it's got to fit on your screen. Some phones render the content better, but mostly its down to site design. Navigation in particular lets the side down.
- cost - content may be free (sometimes) but you've still got to pay for the download. On my package a short video clip is going to cost a couple of quid, not that I've ever managed to download one successfully.
- usability - the limits of navigation make surfing a slow experience.
If you are looking to provide a mobile web experience you need to identify what your target audience wants from the experience. Your service needs to fit a customer need, or you won't have any customers.
New technology provides the opportunity to develop new services, but often at the highest risk. The key questions, do users want it and, more pertinently, will they pay for it, remain unanswered. These unkonwns, plus inevitably high set-up costs make for a high risk. A classic case in point it mobile TV. Trials have made great claims like users like it because they can watch it on the loo, but face it, you only do that because you've got a free trial and it's a bit of a laugh. There is still, as far as I know, no commercial service on offer and certainly not one that can prove a return on investment.
For me, mobile content is about providing snippets of relevant information when and where you need it. The information must be easy to find and quick to download. As surfing (and searching) is a poor mobile experience, an integrated approach might be best suited. Email or text alerts, for example, following online registration, can be picked up on a mobile and the content delivered in a click through a link. More in-depth information involving larger downloads could be delivered on request for those who have the capacity to download it effectively, or accessible via PC (perhaps sync'd) at a later date.
The mobile web certainly will have its day, but it won't be as an alternative access point for material designed for PC / TV access. It will be part of an integrated communication experience, focusing on the elements where time is critical, but visual quality isn't.
I use my phone quite a lot to surf the web and would agree that most of the time it is an unsatisfactory experience. I keep doing it, as I have found some good content, primarily on the BBC site which is optimised for multi-platform access. But whenever I have "surfed", rather than just gone to a known destination site, I have been disappointed.
I think that this is indicative of the problem. People want a different experience when they are surfing on a mobile than when they are at their PCs, an experience that reflects their needs. Most of the content available on the mobile web is simply repurposed "PC web" content, much of it is inappropriate for a mobile user.
In order to identify what the mobile surfer wants, you must consider the key differences must between mobile and PC surfing :
- time available - mobile surfing is a time filler, not something you go off and do for a couple of hours.
- download speed - it's slow. I know G3 is all the rage, but have you ever got more than snail paced downloads? Large files, especially video, often fail to download entirely.
- screen size - it's got to fit on your screen. Some phones render the content better, but mostly its down to site design. Navigation in particular lets the side down.
- cost - content may be free (sometimes) but you've still got to pay for the download. On my package a short video clip is going to cost a couple of quid, not that I've ever managed to download one successfully.
- usability - the limits of navigation make surfing a slow experience.
If you are looking to provide a mobile web experience you need to identify what your target audience wants from the experience. Your service needs to fit a customer need, or you won't have any customers.
New technology provides the opportunity to develop new services, but often at the highest risk. The key questions, do users want it and, more pertinently, will they pay for it, remain unanswered. These unkonwns, plus inevitably high set-up costs make for a high risk. A classic case in point it mobile TV. Trials have made great claims like users like it because they can watch it on the loo, but face it, you only do that because you've got a free trial and it's a bit of a laugh. There is still, as far as I know, no commercial service on offer and certainly not one that can prove a return on investment.
For me, mobile content is about providing snippets of relevant information when and where you need it. The information must be easy to find and quick to download. As surfing (and searching) is a poor mobile experience, an integrated approach might be best suited. Email or text alerts, for example, following online registration, can be picked up on a mobile and the content delivered in a click through a link. More in-depth information involving larger downloads could be delivered on request for those who have the capacity to download it effectively, or accessible via PC (perhaps sync'd) at a later date.
The mobile web certainly will have its day, but it won't be as an alternative access point for material designed for PC / TV access. It will be part of an integrated communication experience, focusing on the elements where time is critical, but visual quality isn't.
Friday, March 09, 2007
An opportunity for you?
OK, so explosion might be a bit strong, but these figures show enormous growth in online shopping :
1 - John Lewis's Department store sales have grown by more than 50% in the last year
2 - Ocado sales were up 60% in the final week of 2006 before Christmas
(For the full story click here)
John Lewis also announced an increase in sales of 11%, so you would expect growth in online sales, but the scale of this growth is surprising.
This change in the balance of online shopping (or ecommerce) in one of Britain's long-established, traditional and customer focused retailers must reflect a more general trend. Certainly John Lewis is targeting the more affluent end of the market which you would expect to be online and increasinly in broadband. But you could also argue that the profile of their customers (I think of my father here!) would make them less prone to shop online.
So what does this mean for smaller businesses. As with most change, ecommerce offers both opportunity and threat. Increasingly retailers need to use both the on and offline channels to reach their market, so as to be able to hold on to their market share. So for anyone who is not yet trading online, this is yet another wake-up call.
More interesting though, I think that the increase in online shopping creates a new opportunity for those in the supply chain who have not, as a matter of course, looked to sell to consumers directly. The internet offers a cost-effective means of creating a complete channel to market. From marketing to fulfilment, there are numerous solutions available which allow you to test or establish a direct channel without deep pockets or high levels of risk. Much of the input required can be leverage out of existing resources and the profit margins avialable, particularly to those who control the whole supply chain from production to consumer, are very tempting.
I'm not saying that it will work for everyone, but everyone should certainly be aware of the situation, not least because if it isn't an opportunity it's likely to be a threat.
1 - John Lewis's Department store sales have grown by more than 50% in the last year
2 - Ocado sales were up 60% in the final week of 2006 before Christmas
(For the full story click here)
John Lewis also announced an increase in sales of 11%, so you would expect growth in online sales, but the scale of this growth is surprising.
This change in the balance of online shopping (or ecommerce) in one of Britain's long-established, traditional and customer focused retailers must reflect a more general trend. Certainly John Lewis is targeting the more affluent end of the market which you would expect to be online and increasinly in broadband. But you could also argue that the profile of their customers (I think of my father here!) would make them less prone to shop online.
So what does this mean for smaller businesses. As with most change, ecommerce offers both opportunity and threat. Increasingly retailers need to use both the on and offline channels to reach their market, so as to be able to hold on to their market share. So for anyone who is not yet trading online, this is yet another wake-up call.
More interesting though, I think that the increase in online shopping creates a new opportunity for those in the supply chain who have not, as a matter of course, looked to sell to consumers directly. The internet offers a cost-effective means of creating a complete channel to market. From marketing to fulfilment, there are numerous solutions available which allow you to test or establish a direct channel without deep pockets or high levels of risk. Much of the input required can be leverage out of existing resources and the profit margins avialable, particularly to those who control the whole supply chain from production to consumer, are very tempting.
I'm not saying that it will work for everyone, but everyone should certainly be aware of the situation, not least because if it isn't an opportunity it's likely to be a threat.
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