Jemima Kiss of the Guardian has been posting like mad from SBSWi conference in the U.S. This one I particularly liked.
It is about how trust plays a critical role for the news aggregators.
Any brand or agency who have plans for trying to create a 'brand community' online, please read this before you start investing time and money.
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Like so many, am spending too much time on Facebook, without knowing why...
So I decided to work out the point of Facebook.
1 Clearly, it is an unofficial dating agency, as so many people tend to be selective of their picture...well who would put up a bad picture of themselves. Those trying to be post-modern/ironic/pretending not to care (errr like me) put up pictures not of themselves, but of drawings, feet and balloons (John Grant, me, Russell Davies).
2 It is a social gathering for work colleagues.
3 It is a place for friends to gather and sort out their calendars and also just say hi.
4 It is a comfort blanket
5 It is a chance to show how popular you are...a bit like handing out sweets in the playground really...
But is is a business tool?
I am signed up to a bunch of things, including the business social network LinkedIn. This one is supposed to be the one to build your work contacts (seven degrees of seperation and all that). It looks formal, is formal (asking to be introduced through a third party) and is dull as anything. However, I have found a few people through it and has had some benefits.
However, Facebook has been a breath of fresh air for business. Re-invigorating the connection with a lost contact through Facebook feels more spontaneous and more accessible than LinkedIn, whilst keeping momentum going with new contacts works well too. So for me Facebook wins hands down as a business tool, by not trying to be a business tool. Maybe Linkedin should introduce a dating section to liven things up...
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Alice Taylor, founder of gamer friendly wonderlandblog and builder of bridges between the traditional TV channel and the digital channels gave one one those rare conference speeches which mixed knowledge, modesty and turning complex into simple.
Sweeping through a quick tour of the world of MMORPGs (see previous posts) she shared some recent research from the US. It was found that amongst youth the average time spent on MySpace was 21 minutes whilst on World of Warcraft it was a whopping 197 minutes spent per day.
TV stations and brands are focusing so much attention on the myspace/bebo phenomenon, yet connecting with the gaming experience is still in it's infancy. Yeah, but the research was from the U.S. I hear you cry. That might be true, but in my straw poll of two (One 30something in the U.K. and a young 22 year old czech person), 2-3 hours on World of Warcraft is not unusual.
Alice herself is a big gamer, and highlighted the point that whilst many young women are gamers they get ignored as a viable market. So a missed opportunity, or will 2007 see both the gaming industry and brands review their approaches to gaming from their 'it's a boy thing' perspectives? Alice suggests that Wii has already made a move for the female gamer, so maybe things are going to change.
Alice stressed that Gaming and MMORPGs are in direct competition for the time of the young person across a number of countries. In the U.S. the average TV consumption is 28 hours per week, whilst in MMORPG households, TV consumption drops to 7.7hours per week, over 70% of TV viewing gone! Meanwhile in these MMORPG househols, playing the games takes up 21 hours per week. A sign that such gaming eats away at TV viewing time.
It is clearly time that gaming is looked at more by brands, if only to understand better how young people tick, wherever they live.
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Andy Davidson of MTV Europe delivered a fascinating presentation at the GenerationXY? conference last week. Delving into his box of tricks, otherwise known as the MTV Circuits of Cool research, he shared little nuggets including:
1 Technology helping to build friendships, not alienating kids.
2 Digital fills the void for adolescents who are too young to go out and too old to stay in
3 Youth are never separated from their friends. They are connected all the time. Marketers need to be aware of this when connecting. There is no point in pushing to the individual when the tribe is more important to youth.
4 Online usage is chaotic and random. They don't go to youtube, but go there from a clip sent to them from a friend.
Andy summarised with some advice to brands who wish to connect with youth.
Be relevant
Don't talk about technology
Understand their needs
Take account of cultural and climactic differences
Entertain kids and connect the adolescents
Use the right channel for the job
All of this in forty minutes. Normally we are lucky to get a sliver of such insight and comment in a conference.
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I chaired the MTV/CSquared Conference in Prague last week, and was treated to some great speakers. First up was Andy Davidson, Research Director of MTV Europe. He gave us a peek into some great fresh research from MTV called Circuits of Cool. This piece of research aims to understand the digital generation, answering such questions as how digital impacts on youth, why new platforms have been so popular and how best to engage the digital generation.
First up he made the salient point that young people do not live in a world of digispeak (hello folksonomies!). Taking Poland as an example, only 39% talk about 'blogging', 16% refer to 'social networks', whilst only 8% mention 'multi-platforms' or 'web 2.0'. Shock horror! Andy rightly stressed that young people are interested in what the technology can do for them, NOT the language itself.
The classic chart where we find out that youth love their friends, family and music more than anything else appeared again. All fresh and up to date, yet ultimately stating that some things do not change for youth with technological advancement.
In the Top Ten things youth love doing, being with the boy/girlfriend, hanging out with friends and spending time with family came out as the top three, followed by 'Listening to Music'. Also in the top ten were 'going to music gigs' and 'chilling out/relaxing'. Music, friends and family...still critical to youth.
Furthermore, the research has found that the impact of technology on youth depends on where you live. In Japan, they have become tired of technology, whilst in India the mobile and ipod is a status symbol. Meanwhile in China, the land of one-child families, kids were found to have an emotional attachment to the net in their search for peer friendships.
Andy also drew attention to the impact of climate on youth trends, which got me thinking: if young Morrisey was born in Puglia, would his melancholic genius have been channelled into opera?
More from Andy coming up...
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Oh dear me. In a room full of 20somethings from the marketing and media industry at IMM07, a panel of three iluminaries were asked to shed light on 'web 2.0'.
Ed Ling, Strategy Director of I-Level (above right), Jonathan Wolf, Director of Corporate at Yahoo Europe (above left) and Michael Steckler, of MSN UK were the chosen ones, with Tim Collison chairing the session.
Tim immediately asked we we all want to know. What the hell is web 2.0?
Michael has the first go, but failed to explain clearly what web 2.0 is. So Tim turned to Jonathan from Yahoo, looking for some simple explanation. Yet the challenge was too much, as we heard another complex explanation that seemed to contradict MSN, which is fascinating. If they can't agree, what chance have we got?
The champion of all things simple was Ed Ling. He sensed that the audience was longing for someone to explain Web 2.0 to them in simple terms, without the cloud of mysticism that hangs around digifolk when web 2.0 is discussed.
Some years ago, I attended the early First Tuesday meetings in London to broaden my understanding of the digital future of communications. Instead I felt that I had entered a digi version of the Freemasons. No leather aprons or funny handshakes, but nevertheless a closed club full of impenetrable language with the resulting perceived superiority that a closed language gives. I should know...I started as a TV buyer, and those guys are good on impenetrable languages...
This inability to connect with a wider group of people continues. At the IMM07 session, the signs were there. When asked how many people had heard of facebook, only 30& of the delegates had, whilst only 7% had a myspace page. The room was not a room full of htmlers, podcasters or bloggers. Just a group of marketers and media folk who are keen to grow their understanding.
With such signs, you would think the Yahoo and MSN would suit their language to the audience. Instead we had emoticons, immersive environments, open source and of course lots of long tails...ummmm nice. All very clever I am sure, but worthless in helping to build understanding. If only folksonomies were mentioned, we would have had the full set.
It was left to Ed to help build the bridge of understanding, so good on him for judging the room better.
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I have heard a lot about the death of print these last twelve months. Also been working with various media brands to help them in their transition into digital spaces (structurally and emotionally).
I have also seen media brands struggle, like many other companies, in dealing with their customers wanting to get involved more.
I therefore chose to create a Case Study with a troubled print brand at the heart of it. The Phoenix, was a weekly magazine that aimed to provide an intelligent read that was accessible, whilst covering politics, economics, business and cultural trends. After some disastrous moves over the last ten years, circulation had plummeted. Added to that, a failed move online has hit the confidence of the magazine. A fresh start was planned for end of 2007. The challenge for the groups was to develop a 3 year communications strategy, an approach to the re-launch, and work out whether and how digital should play a role in the future fortunes of this magazine.
So a print title that cries out for a digital component? A print title that has asked for a digital strategy? How can the groups NOT focus on this element? Well, that is what many of the groups did. We heard many thoughtful ideas around the digital component, some more compelling than others. However, what did feel left out of the communications plan equation was the magazine itself. Few groups in their response to the brief, actually gave life to the magazine itself.
Why did I write the brief with such a slant towards digital? Because often clients write briefs asking for guidance in areas they don't feel comfortable with, areas that they feel they should be involved with but don't know really whether it makes sense for their business or not. Sometimes we have to read between the lines.
We have a tendency to jump on the latest fad without fully contemplating what the business/marketing/communications challenge really warrants as a solution.
Whatever the question is, the answer is a podcastor so it seems these days. (Last year replace 'podcast' with 'branded content'!).
For the magazine The Phoenix, I created a front cover. Hope you like it.
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A great part of the Understanding Digital Youth conference was run by Rob Cowan of Point Blank. Now you know I am not a fan of the one way mirror style focus group, enamoured by many an agency and marketeer to justify their pre-destined strategies. Some of my best friends are researchers, but something just doesn't seem right about the falseness of the scenario.
So imagine a conference full of marketing folk and people interested in connecting with youth, faced with five people under the age of 22 in front of them...with no mirror to hide behind. Would we cope with such intimacy? Would the 'kids' shock us out of our cozy views?
Rob brought along with him five young people he has come across through the work that PointBlank does.
The five 'kids' did what all us us do in a conference: show a bit of bravado, a bit of wanting to say the right thing and a dose of truthfulness. If anything was gained from this session, it should be that one-way mirrors should be bannded from the land. A simple conversation with young people, even in such a false setting as the conference, is better than some 'controlled' environment.
One of the most fascinating responses came from Matthew, when asked about the question about guilt arising from downloading music for free. An emphatic no resounded around the hall along with the words "It's free after all". Parallel to this Matthew announced that he wants to focus on being a musician. When challenged about how wanting to be a musician squares with refuseing to pay for music, he merely repeated :"But it's free!"
Now either Matthew will realise that to survive as a musician people need to pay for his music, or he is just reiterating the belief that making music and not wishing to pay for it, is not a dichotomy. Think gospel, the blues and folk music for starters.
Are we returning to the Renaissance movement as Andy Melchior once suggested to me? Will musicians seek benefactors to pay for their creativity, so their music can be shared to the world? Are the benefactors the brands? Is it us that need to deal with facing up to the new realities rather than Matthew?
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So more thoughts from the Understanding Digital Youth Conference of last week.
In football, a few gifted individuals create magic on the pitch (though being a life-long Leeds United supporter, I am having trouble finding the magic right now).
A lot more people go along to the stadium to watch the game live. They feel involved, they cheer their team on, they feel suffering and elation in the space of 90 minutes. They then share with others the rollercoaster experience they had at the game.
Even more people get connected from much further away...through their TV (and computer) screens and on their radios.
A bit similar when it comes to UGC really. A few create, a bunch of others come to have a look then help to disseminate the UGC, then a whole host of others pick up through wider channels.
William pointed out that Youth have always been a creative bunch, but that the digital age has enabled them to have greater ACCESS to the tools to create and share.
He finds them to be more media creative, more ready to write and turn to film. He did emphasise though that whilst some create, many more are watching from the sidelines...
When he mentioned this at the conference, I immediately thought of Bradley's Pyramid. Bradley Horowitz, a clever guy at Yahoo came up with a simple little pyramid which showed the following:
1% of the user population might start a group;
10% of the user population might participate actively and respond to a thread;
100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups.
I wonder if Bradley likes football? You can find his blog Elatable here
As an aside, Ed and Martin also referenced this neat little pyramid, but had morphed it into a pie chart...
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I was intrigued by the speech by Kathryn Hellewell from Vue Entertainment, the cinema chain business.
She rightly pointed out that the trailer (in whatever format) continues to be critical in driving people to the cinema. Having seen the trailer for 300, you can't help but agree with her of the power of the trailer to drive footfall. Personally, knowing that this film comes from the graphic novel of the legendary Frank Miller is only a further enticement.
So imagine my surprise when Kathryn introduced us to deck collector. Having informed us about the power of the trailer, she then showed us a trailer of what deck collector is all about. It is a trading card game based on images and elements of a film, with participants collecting digital cards across the net. Part mystery part rewards, the idea is not new, but could be a great idea. Vue Entertainment have got films such as Cars involved, so clearly there is interest. However, I am not sure what anyone else thought, but in my mind the deck collector trailer was as enticing as a rainy night in georgia. Poorly sold, lots of overpromise and a terrible voice-over. It seems that Vue Entertainment need to pick up some tips from the film companies on how to pull together short communication messages...
Also concerned about Vue Entertainment being reticent about negative customer feedback on a film. Kathryn showed us some negative feedback received for a film online. She shared her concerns about the impact of such criticism on other potential cinema goers if it were to sit on a VUE UGC site. All completely understandable really. A tough call for a business based on encouraging people to go to the cinema and keeping the film distribution companies on their side. Yet the criticism of a poor film will appear somewhere anyway. Film-goers will find out whether a film has got good reviews or not.
The critical piece here is what Vue Entertainment wish to be. They cannot be half-committed to UGC. They are either in or out, no halfway house.
Vue Entertainment is in the business of offering up the cinema experience in all its glory to paying customers. At a time when the competition against the downloadable broadband experience or even the plasma screen TV experience is hotting up, the company surely has to be doing everything they can to build a trustful relationship with the movie loving public. Filtering out honest comment of a film is not the way to do that.
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