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A look at the new world of marketing and PR

Mar 31, 2006 4

MySpace Censors Content To Lure Marketers

MediaPost reports on a speech by the President of Fox Interactive Media Ross Levinsohn that they would be “tidying up” profiles which contain profanities and offensive material from myspace.com

The tidying up has resulted in the loss of 200,000 myspace.com profiles which begs the questions, depending on the influence of the advertisers, just where will the clean-up stop?

Can News Corp. (ultimate owners of myspace.com) really expect myspace.com to continue its high growth if content is being controlled to suit advertisers?

Can they also expect to maintain their current high levels of active users, when those users know they are being monitored for advertising purposes and in all likelihood, targeted too.

It takes me back a short time to when Steve Rubel moved to Edelman. The Wal-Mart story which happened the day after he jioned (I think!) evolved into a lengthy discussion about how neutral Steve could be as a well-kown blogger yet at the same time represent major companies.
In the same way, to what extent can myspace.com retain its trusted peer-to-peer status when there is such a strong openness and trust between members about to be interferred with by advertisers?
Danah Boyd wrote a wonderful paper on why myspace has become so popular and the conclusion is that it is MY SPACE,nobody else’s. I can be who I want, when I want and talk to whomever I want without any otuside influences.
Will this feeling of independence still be enough to ensure myspace retains is position once the ad campaigns really start kicking-in? Are we looking at this:


Maybe not, but the big brands need to realise that they are treading on dangerous grounds and whilst myspace are not in the business for free, that they should NOT be censoring anything.

Diversification in the network is vitally important and it smacks to me of Fox Interactive needing to get some revenue in quickly and the easiest and quickest way of doing this is to fall at the feet of the big -spending advertisers.

To succinctly make the point, let me quote from Danah:

“MySpace might be a fad, but it will fade for different reasons than Friendster. Friendster has itself to blame - it never loved its users… it never treated them with respect, or learned to understand why they were there… it never give them what they needed to make themselves at home. Friendster never learned to provide for the diversity of users it had - it wanted them all to be the same”.

No one brand is bigger than the community so they need to tread carefully.

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Mar 28, 2006 0

Google Print Ads closed down - the only surprise? It isn’t a surprise.

Inside Google reports on the failure this week of the potentially exciting Goole Print Advertising scheme.

Google bought up ad space in a variety of publications at bulk prices, then auctioned them off to the highest bidders.

In one instance, $177,000 of ad space sold for $4,000…how can that ad up?!!

In principle, it is a great idea…limit supply by buying up space, then force prices higher by actioning it all off to the highest bidder(s).

IG suggests that they should wait until the marklet is more comfortable with buying this way, but to be honest I am not sure if it ever will.

Here is why:

1) Schedule - Planners have a responsibility to their clients to know when an ad is going to be published. To find out you have not bid enough is too late to then fuind other vital space.

2) Price - with so much pressure from online media, print spend needs to be more carefully accounted for. To find out you have paid more for your spot on auction than you would have over the phone is criminal.

3) Tradition - rates are spots are improved over time with the development of the relationship between the agency (typically) and publication staff. Google does not allow for this and as a result, meaning flexible negotiations do not exist.

4) Creative limits - Your ad may be best run across a series of high-profile publications over several weeks, which involves a sequence of carefully planned creative executions as well as the knowledge that you will be in those publications. Budget changes, outbidding means much more than lost space.

It is without doubt a meritous scheme for one-off campaigns but I think the advertising industry is so (read: too) comfortable with the way it works at the moment that it is going to have to take an almighty leap of faith or improvement in the system for it to take off.

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Mar 24, 2006 0

The most innovative new age ad campaign you will see to date


Fashion label Shai Wear have a new online brochure - except the word “brochure” is a bit of a loose description!

They say sex sells, but Shai have taken this up another level (and I think TOO FAR) and used hardcore pornography in a series of short films which feature their clothes. It is a shame they have taken this to such extremes because it is a genuinely innovative idea.

From the screenshot below, it doesn’t take much imagination to guess what they get up to, but the interactive mouseover features are a great idea whose application can be used in so many other (better) ways and for so many other
products.

Imagine being able to put your product in a virtual lifestyle situation in which you want your product positioned. With direct links to your e-commerce website this has got be one of the few ways of putting the consumer in as close an environment to a shop (with your carefully crafted lighting, layout etc.) as can be currently achieved?
It is sad to see innovation taken and used in this way, but it just goes to show what can be achieved with the right mind-set.

From the point of view of relevance to the “core” audience, I would guess they score 7/10, from a viral point of view, they get 11/10 and from an advertising strandards point of view, the get 5000/10…the 5000 being the number of complaints they get!

Disclaimer: due to the very sensitve nature of the content of the ad mentioned above, I have not placed a link to the main site. My intention is not to peddle porn, merely to highlight something I feel is a great idea but which also has sadly been hijacked by pornoraphy. I do hope that no offence has been taken.

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Mar 24, 2006 0

Is your corporate website really the best way of saying who you are and what you do?

MicroPersuasion runs a great and significant story about how Union Square Ventures has dropped its corporate website and replaced it with a BLOG!

Leading agency Hill Holiday has also done the same.

Though blogging was a fad? Think again.

Steve doesn’t think that blogs will replace corporate websites, but I’m not so sure.

To get their personality and unique USP across, I have heard of agencies sending small portfolio’s of their work in bread, telling prospective clients to “Use their loaf”! How about NOT?!

A blog is a great way to get across your personality and the content of any blog is a way to get across your unique take on the world. So why sholdn’t the same be true for business blogs.

Often when trying to get on the pitch roster, the hardest part is convincing the client that you have the credentials in the first place.

Yes, a nice looking website gives them some indication of what you do, but nothing gets to the heart of your agency better than listening to and looking at the views of the people that actually work there.

A blog allows the client (to some extent), to walk your corridors and see just what goes on behind the doors that she would normally have to appoint you to find out.

Equally, brands that build themselves on a personal service have a perfect opportunity to ditch the corporate bull website and make the “about us” page the HOME PAGE in the form of a blog.

Allow the customer you want to engage on a personal level engage with you via your blog.

I guess this presents a chicken and egg scenario - the website helps to create/complement the brand image and without that, consumers don’t get to hear about your wonderful customer service, but in some industries where insight into the copmany does count, a blog can be a far better tool than a website.

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Mar 21, 2006 0

Yahoo has created a new sales channel for subscription-based RSS sources.

Yahoo Subscriptions is ANOTHER beta for Yahoo to enter the world of RSS. They must be busy over there!
It presents readers (of sources with a paid-for subscription) with a search resource which enables them to search their subscriptions for content that would otherwise be unavailable due to the restricted-nature of the content.

i.e. if you have a subscription to 5 different news channels for example, you will be able to search for content without having to access each of the websites, log in then search.

As long as your subscriptions are logged with Yahoo Subscriptions, you should be able to search all your subs. as easy (and with as much accuracy) as the main Yahoo search. It’s an RSS-reader with login authentication already done!
For advertisers, this presents a GREAT opportunity to use RSS as a source of INCOME.

Why not run a free subscription trial to Yahoo Subscriptions so that when other search results show up, your trial is also shown (above) enabling like-minded indivuduals to try your title as it appears alongside your competitors titles - or simply be the first to market!
If you are in a commonly-subscribed marketplace (like finance or technology for example) - if your content is good, your offer is great and you are listed on Yahoo Subscriptions, there is no reason why this cannot become a valuable and profitable sales channel.

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Mar 20, 2006 0

Don’t think you need to learn/implement/adopt online marketing? Think again.

Make sure you read THIS from Brand Republic about how internet advertising spend increased 73% to £1.1bn!

Don’t think you need to understand the technology? Think again.

Print spend is down, radio is down…and that’s not because there is a general shift in advertiser’s preferences - it is because people are not reading and listening as much - and spending more time online.

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Mar 15, 2006 0

Simple Storage Service (S3) Available From Amazon

OtherThings: Simple Storage Service (S3) is a story about Amazon’s latest move into the world of online storage, questioning the ACTUAL core business that Amazon is running!

It offers online storage for only $0.15 per gigabyte and is unlimited!

With Google buying Writely making so many headlines and online office applications becoming more and more popular, Amazon S3 is a wise move!

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Mar 15, 2006 0

CNET Rolls RSS Banner Ads for E!

Micro Persuasion: CNET Rolls RSS Banner Ads runs a story on how E! entertainment has now started running RSS feeds inside their banner ads on CNET.
Like a news ticker, the headlines run at the bottom of the ad and clicking on them takes you to the relevant story on the [/tag]E![/tag] website.

Steve is slightly bullish about this, but I think this is GREAT! The more specific we can be to the indivudual, the better.

Their clicking on a story about a particular celeb, film or event speaks volumes for the areas of interest of the individual - and allows further landing-page ads to be targeted to that individual.

The actress, the film, the film genre, the brand etc. that are associated with the feed are early steps in understanding the individual and bring us one step closer to making the sale.
The feed itself creates the impression of urgency and hot news making previsouly bland banners more attractive (although you might argue that those companies using inanimate banners wouldn’t latch on to this technology until late anyway!), whilst clubs and associsations can run club-specific feeds on associated websites.

I think this is a rgeat innovation and will hopefully lead RSS to stand for Really Specific Segmentation!

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Mar 15, 2006 0

BBC Sport Commonwealth Games Blog - using typepad

BBC Sport Commonwealth Games blog recounts the latest stories from the BBC team over in Australia for the Commonwealth Games, but one tiny thing I have noticed is the TypePad icon in the address bar.

Given the strict rules regarding the BBC’s use of product placement, is this use of typepad by what is consdered one of the world’s leading resources tantamount to product placement and approval by the BBC that TypePad is the best blogging software out there?

How many people who are into blogging will be influenced to change blog tools by this subtle ad for TypePad?

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Mar 9, 2006 0

Should Price really be in the marketing mix?

Seth Godin makes an astute yet incredibly simple point about price - people are just not really that bothered!

He quotes the 118-118 equivalent in the USA. People call, get the number and go. Done. They are not bothered if 118-500 is cheaper.
Equally, people spend more money on travelling to out of town wholesalers like Costco than they save when buying the shampoo they went for in the first place! (I use the shampoo reference becasue i am indeed guily of this!!).

If you create the right atmosphere (Costco - discount mentality) or give someone something they want with NO messing (convenience mentality), people will be glad to pay for it.

Consider the Ralph Lauren store in Paris or indeed in any flagship store worldwide. The last time I went, it was all dark wood and very, very expensive looking. Had I been buying, I would have had no problem justifying the 60 euros.

BUT, would I pay £45 for the same shirt at TK Maxx in the UK? No bloody way!

By creating the environment in which people feel able to justify the cost (through either convenience or appearance) people WILL pay the price you charge - and the same applies to an online store too.

Create the environment in which people feel your product or service belongs and they shall buy!

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Your comments

  • Craig McGinty: I think if you approach point 2 from the angle of being an editor, an enabler, a provider of ideas...
  • henriette weber: Hi Paul - thanks for adding to the list, both yours and Geoff’s are really great to let people...
  • robin1966: Nice find. Some good points in there, especially about making it simple and not giving a reward each time....
  • Ben: Hi there! I have just got one of these little gadgets…wow I love it!! I think the demo game is rubbish...
  • Sean Howard: Thanks for the link to the ol’ craphammer, Paul. I totally missed the Twitter/Facebook article....