All talk, no digital

Campaign (UK print edition, 29th of September) is running a special report on "how good are advertising agencies' digital departments". It is a topic close to my heart as I spent 4 years with Grey Interactive in Paris then London. In a nutshell, the report is a tale of deception. There is much talk of integration but few agencies have credible in-house interactive capabilities or truly partner with their digital counterparts. It is rather ironic considering that back in the late 90s, we all thought that the stand-alone full service interactive agency would have disappeared by now, absorbed by big ad agencies who would have wisen up to the trade. Reading the report, it seems pretty far off. Here is Campaign’s verdict. The first figure is how the agency rates itself, the second how Campaign rated them. 1 is for poor, 7 for outstanding. For the narrative bit, you’ll have to buy or steal the magazine.

• AMV BBDO: 5/3
• BBH: 7/6
• CHI: 6/3
• DDB: 6/5
• Euro RSCG: 6/3
• Grey: 5/3
• JWT: 3/2
• Leo Burnett: 5/3
• Lowe London: 5/2
• M&C Saatchi: 5/4
• McCann Erickson: 4/3
• Mother: 6/6
• Ogilvy & Mather: 6/6
• Publicis: 4/4
• RKCR/Y&R: 4/2
• Saatchi & Saatchi: 4/4
• TBWA: 5/2
• WCRS: 5/4

I’d like to see that for PR agencies now. PR Week anyone?

Tags: advertising

kartoo: visual search engine

Kartoo.com maps your search engine results. I like the interface and the connections between search results.

Tags: kartoo

Kermitt the frog enters the matrix

Great animation piece: The Muppet Matrix.

Tags: muppet matrix, mashups, matrix

An Inconvenient Truth

I saw it last week-end in London. It certainly doesn't leave you indifferent. Read the facts on the official website, check-out the blog for updates, go and see the movie or rent the DVD when it will be released. Invite your colleagues, your friends, your family, and your children. Spread the word and help make a difference before it is too late.

Tags: inconvenient truth, climate change, global warming, environment

How to pretend to listen when playing with your Blackberry

Attend Dogbert's communication seminar.

Tags: fun

I am not blogging in India...

In case you wonder why I am so quiet, I am doing a study trip with the London Business School in India. It involves doing an audit in a local company for a week with presentation to their management and to our school. While in Mumbai, I had the pleasure to meet up with a fellow PR practitioner who happens to read my blog!

I am back in the UK next Thursday.

Download free books with Google Books

Google launched Google Books. Full download is restricted to public domain books (copyright free or expired). It is similar to Project Gutenberg which has 19,000 free ebooks for download. Google's value is that you can search any books like you search websites.

Search Engine Watch does a great review of the service.

Tags: google books

Myspace users balk at phony profiles, advertising

There seems to be growing complaints about Myspace getting "too commercialised". We are talking here about fake profiles "in which brands can create their own pages and have their own friends list". It reminds me of Mazda or Captain Morgan.

Rachel Honig, from Digital Power & Light comments: "(...) at some point the fictional character isn't going to be able to interact with you anymore, and the novelty will wear off (...) As a marketer, it's all about creating a long and meaningful relationship with the consumer, and if you leave them feeling sort of cheated, as it were, that's not helping."

The Online Media Daily points to a Universal McCann survey that found that only 10% of users said corporate messaging in blogs "can add value to my experience."

Tags: Myspace, advertising

How web 2.0. aware are you?

My colleague Guy sent me this "web 2.0 Awareness test".

Tags: web 2.0

Advertisers wary of advertising on social networks

New Media Age (Print edition – 24.08.06) carries a short article on how major advertisers are wary of putting ads in social network sites. The main concerns are that brands could be seen in an "inappropriate context" and could be “destroyed by teenagers”. Control, control and old models...

I like Jeremy Verba’s quote: “Brand marketers will go where the audience is (…) when MTV and cable TV launched, advertisers didn’t want to be there.”

Google Myspace deal

Google will provide search and ads to MySpace. Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp: "The real potential for a home run is combining Google technology with our demographic information".

Article on Marketing Vox

Tags: google, myspace

Agency.com's extra cheesy pitch video to Subway goes viral

I came across this story through Steve’s bellicose posting. I started to write a contrarian post to defend Agency.com’s much mocked-after video pitch to Subway, diligently posted on Youtube for the world and its viruses to enjoy. However, after reading comments on AdFreak, Adrants and on Youtube, I changed my mind. There is ground for reputational damages.

I thought that the clip’s cheesiness was a cultural trait but to my relief, most bloggers across the pond found it heavy to digest too. Yet, I do like the idea of doing a pitch video of a team doing a pitch video and I can see while a client would like to work with such motivated, jargon-savvy and enthusiastic team. There is nothing remotely interesting happening throughout this 9 minutes movie. It’s like watching “The Office” without the irony. Yet it was viewed 20,720 times since it was posted 2 days ago (that’s a big number). It attracted 170 comments (that’s big too, even if we minus the agency’s staff). It certainly didn’t let its viewers indifferent... and that is the snag: this viral effect was fuelled by derision.

This will impact Agency.com’s credibility and could drag Subway’s down too, by association. A perfect example: Coudal, a Chicago based integrated agency made a spoof video where they take the piss of Agency.com’s movie while spitting out Subway’s sandwiches. I could see that easily snowballing into an Agency.com & Subway spoof video parody frenzy. Both brands will not escape unscathed. I hope that Agency.com gets the business to bring a happy ending to this.

Tags: Agency.com, subway, viral, video, advertising

The Long Tail explained in video

The London Blogging School

London Business School launched its own blog. It is designed for MBA applicants who want to know more about life as part of the London Business School community. The site is managed by the MBA Admissions Team with content provided by students and alumni.

Very proud!

Via Divine Miss N

Tags: london business school, MBA, lbs

Advertisers' opportunities in video-games

Following from my previous post on in-games advertising, I found this video from bruceprokopets showcasing different ad formats for video-games. Nice work and there is a CNBC report thrown in too.

Tags: in-games advertising, advertising, games

Youniversal Branding: in-games advertising and online communities

A superb and comprehensive report from trendwatching on opportunities available for brand in games and virtual worlds. There are several case studies mentioned but I will just highlight some numbers here:

• More than 100 million people worldwide log on every month to play interactive computer games (source: NYT, December 2005).
• Gaming is, for gamers, the third-most-popular use of media entertainment in the last week, after watching TV (96%) and listening to music (94%) (source: Mediaedge:cia, December 2005).
• In 2005, advertisers spent approximately $56M placing ads in video games, up from $34 in 2004.
• In-game advertising results in a 60 percent increase in awareness for a new product and animated 3-D ads achieve twice the recall of static billboards (Nielsen Interactive Entertainment)

Tags: games, advertising, online communities, virtual worlds, trendwatching

It's me and me again!

I rarely comment on my public speaking engagements or publishing mentions but I decided to be more upfront. So with a total lack of subtlety, I am pointing out to two recent contributions: an article on blogs in Corp Comms magazine and a merit award for Atticus, WPP's thought-leadership magazine for the piece I submitted to Global PR Blog Week 2.0. last year. Apparently it will be published in the next issue.

It has been a long time...

Since my last post. I have been incredibly busy with work, travel (for work) and studies, finishing my third term core courses exams. Two words: corporate finance... I am starting my electives with our summer school, and it does feel like summer. Nothing to do with workload as we have courses throughout the day, and often assignments to hand out for the next day, but because we are enjoying the heatwave that is striking the UK. I am very much looking forward to my first weekend without any homework sine the beginning of this year and will be back blogging next week.

Hitler Cats

Only on the web, a blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler....

It's France v. Portugal in the semi final!

And they did it without stamping on any Brazilian! The sky is the limit now... I see a France v. Germany final, which doesn't bode well for us as we always struggled against the Germans (no pun intended here).

Tags: world cup, france