Thinkful

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Advertising and the end of the world

Fantastic documentary from Sut Jhally that was shown in an elective at school. A video preview can be found on Youtube as well as on the Media Education Foundation website.The documentary’s main points can be found here .

Tags: advertising, jhally

Monday, October 16, 2006

Wal-marting across America

Business Week runs a feature on “fake blog” Wal-marting across America. A few years ago, many A-List bloggers woke-up up the PR world to the blogosphere with calls for transparency and genuine engagement. I learned a lot from them. Today, most comments on this story revolve around disclosing your relationships with your clients, or any parties central to the topic of your blog, disclosing being paid for blogging or sponsorship as well as lack of response from interested parties. I don’t have enough information to comment and I don’t want to (my employer is a competitor to Edelman so it will be misinterpreted) but surely we should know better by now?

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Web overtakes newspapers in Europe

According to Jupiter Research, Europeans spend four hours per week online on average compared to three hours reading newspapers and magazines. France, which has the highest rate of broadband access, has the highest average number of hours spent online per week.

I tried to locate the research paper, an abstract or even the original news release on Jupiter's website but I was overwhelmed by cluttered information, poor usability and slow response time.

via Brand Republic

Youtube: a message from Chad and Steve

The rumour is confirmed. Google did buy Youtube. Is that the end for Google video? A message from Chad and Steve: thank you, we'll develop more functionality, all for the community. My personal note: I followed youtube since the beginning and I am addicted. Don't turn it into advertising galore and keep the edge. Well done.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Current TV comes to the UK next spring

Current TV is like youtube, but on television. It's user generated, there are editors who choose what goes on air but mostly people vote for what they want to see and it's a pretty unique experiment. It's founded by Al Gore (the man who invented the Internet then redeemed himself by saving the planet through his excellent documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" - which I cannot stop recommending to any living being unfortunate enough to cross my path).

Current TV is coming to the UK through BSkyB next spring says the Sunday Times. Another bastion of old media falling under users' control.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Google to buy Youtube for $1.6Bn?

If you can't beat them, join them. The rumour goes.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Bournemouth University's CEMP is wiki-ing too!

Following on my post on Standford's wiki, David Phillips pointed me to the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice's wiki from Bournemouth University.

One of my favourite feature is the "dialogue box", a visual forum where you can see which way opinion is swinging, and individual comments. I like the interface and see that working well for some online polls for marketing clients.

I am taking this opportunity to apologise for my lack of frequent (and quality) postings to my readers. Juggling work, studies and family life is hard and often what gets sacrificed is social life, offline and online.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Stanford starts a Wiki

Steve Rubel's comments and link.

Good opportunity to remind of the London Business School blogging community.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

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?

Monday, October 02, 2006

kartoo: visual search engine

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

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Kermitt the frog enters the matrix

Great animation piece: The Muppet Matrix.

Monday, September 25, 2006

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

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

How to pretend to listen when playing with your Blackberry

Attend Dogbert's communication seminar.

Friday, September 08, 2006

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.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

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.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

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."

How web 2.0. aware are you?

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

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

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.”

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

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

Thursday, August 03, 2006

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.