This is an interesting attempt to explain social marketing to those that don't get it!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Protective practices unScrabbled
Mattel, the games company, have learned no lessons from the the trials and tribulations of the music industry on the Internet. When will the big names learn that the Internet is about giving people what they want, biding your time, then getting your reward down the line.
The story - 2 guys invent a Facebook application called Scrabulous. An online version of Mattel's Scrabble that friends can play through Facebook. This game is really popular with 500,000 daily players. So instead of working out how to make the most of this phenomenon, Mattel get it taken down, create a copy and sue the guys who made it for breach of copyright. (Full story)
If they had paid someone to do exactly what these guys has done for them for nothing, they would have thought themselses geniuses. Instead they annoy thousands of users who set up a Save Scrabulous Group on Facebook, who, now that the legal battle has been lost are urging visitors to "Get involved and boycott scrabble,as we cannot save Scrabulous".
The proof they did the wrong thing. Scrabble has seen a 30% increase in sales!
Advice - wherever you see a threat, you can usually find an opportunity. Particularly if you understand the basic principals of the web, which is that it is all about making friends and influencing people.
The story - 2 guys invent a Facebook application called Scrabulous. An online version of Mattel's Scrabble that friends can play through Facebook. This game is really popular with 500,000 daily players. So instead of working out how to make the most of this phenomenon, Mattel get it taken down, create a copy and sue the guys who made it for breach of copyright. (Full story)
If they had paid someone to do exactly what these guys has done for them for nothing, they would have thought themselses geniuses. Instead they annoy thousands of users who set up a Save Scrabulous Group on Facebook, who, now that the legal battle has been lost are urging visitors to "Get involved and boycott scrabble,as we cannot save Scrabulous".
The proof they did the wrong thing. Scrabble has seen a 30% increase in sales!
Advice - wherever you see a threat, you can usually find an opportunity. Particularly if you understand the basic principals of the web, which is that it is all about making friends and influencing people.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
TV goes online
TV is moving online at an incredible pace. In the last week we have had Sky offering online only subscriptions, MGM putting full length content on YouTube and BBC adding pre-booking to the iPlayer allowing you to set up an automatic download of programmes that have not yet been aired.
What are the consequences of this? Obviously it increases the fragmentation of TV media, but does it change the fundamentals? Content will still be paid for by advertising, it's just that media companies (and advertisers) are going to have to find new ways to attract people's attention let alone to engage them.
What are the consequences of this? Obviously it increases the fragmentation of TV media, but does it change the fundamentals? Content will still be paid for by advertising, it's just that media companies (and advertisers) are going to have to find new ways to attract people's attention let alone to engage them.
A glimpse of the future
The media landscape of the future is emerging.
It shows 2 trends, first is the breakdown of the percieved differences between channels. The new user is constantly consuming media, whether by mobile, Internet or TV is of little consequence to them. They just want what they want now, wherever they happen to be. (More...)
The second is the source of the content they are consuming. Anyone can publish anything now and users are consuming content produced by everyone from me to big corporations as well as the traditional media producers. The interesting thing is that they don't seem to differentiate between them source particularly. They are as likely to trust something they've read in a personal blog as something published by the BBC. (More ...)
Getting your message across in this world will be an increasing challenge.
It shows 2 trends, first is the breakdown of the percieved differences between channels. The new user is constantly consuming media, whether by mobile, Internet or TV is of little consequence to them. They just want what they want now, wherever they happen to be. (More...)
The second is the source of the content they are consuming. Anyone can publish anything now and users are consuming content produced by everyone from me to big corporations as well as the traditional media producers. The interesting thing is that they don't seem to differentiate between them source particularly. They are as likely to trust something they've read in a personal blog as something published by the BBC. (More ...)
Getting your message across in this world will be an increasing challenge.
Google ups the Analytics
Google has rolled out a number of enhancements of it's already excellent Analytics tool.
I've not spent much time on it yet, but in particular the new custom reports are very powerful and simple to use. More will follow on this ...
I've not spent much time on it yet, but in particular the new custom reports are very powerful and simple to use. More will follow on this ...
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
The mobile web is here. Are you ready?
The next generation of mobile phones, led by iPhone and rapidly followed by Google's G1, Sony Ericsson's X1 and Nokia's N96, is giving users a much improved web experience.
The news will doubtless focus on the cutting edge developments around this, such as MySpace's new application which will run on Google's Android platform. But for me the more important issue is that accessing the Internet on your phone is increasingly a mainstream activity.
The reality is that users will increasingly expect to be able to access your website from the platform of their choice and the distinction between the web and the mobile web disappears.
Are you ready?
The news will doubtless focus on the cutting edge developments around this, such as MySpace's new application which will run on Google's Android platform. But for me the more important issue is that accessing the Internet on your phone is increasingly a mainstream activity.
The reality is that users will increasingly expect to be able to access your website from the platform of their choice and the distinction between the web and the mobile web disappears.
Are you ready?
Google books back on track
The copyright action that was preventing Google Books from pressing ahead with putting vaste quantities of written material online for free has been settled.
The agreement (including a $125m settlement from Google) paves the way for up to 20% of a books content to be put online for free viewing. There will be options to buy the books, with the revenue shared with the author.
This is a clear demonstration of the value of content from one company who really understands the web.
Read more ... The big guns know content delivers value.
The agreement (including a $125m settlement from Google) paves the way for up to 20% of a books content to be put online for free viewing. There will be options to buy the books, with the revenue shared with the author.
This is a clear demonstration of the value of content from one company who really understands the web.
Read more ... The big guns know content delivers value.
Windows in the Cloud
Just a quick note ....
Microsoft is definitely pushing forward with its Cloud strategy according the The FT.
Microsoft is definitely pushing forward with its Cloud strategy according the The FT.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
