Steve Ellis

What do we consume more of in a recession?

2009-01-06T09:14:00Z

McKinsey Quarterly published Industry Trends in the Downturn: a Snapshot. This graph caught my eye. It seems in recessions we stay at home and spend money on things that are 'good' for us, in a Puritan sense at least. Namely, education, reading, pensions and healthcare. Interesting to see if this profile changes in the first 'Internet enabled' recession.

Things will never go back to "normal"

2009-01-06T07:56:00Z

Geoff Ramsey the co-founder of eMarketer has published Seven Predictions for 2009.

Geoff's most interesting comment, taken slightly out of context but it's just as applicable to all marketing and media participants as to the traditional media companies he was referring to, is:

"In short, things will not revert back to “normal” in 2009, 2010 or whenever the economy pulls out of its current malaise."

Like most companies we have returned from the Christmas break busy with action lists of essential tasks to ensure our business prospers in 2009, or at the very least, gets through the year in the best possible shape.

But Geoff's soundbite neatly summarises that the current recession isn't merely a tricky period to be survived. Just hunkering down through the recession and emerging blinking into the brilliant sunlight of an economic upturn (whenever) won't be good enough. Things won't go back to the way they were. The world has changed, our clients and their audiences have changed, and so the shape, capabilities and skills needed by marketing services companies have changed too.

I've avoided posting any end of year reviews, future predictions or New Year resolutions but if I was pushed to make a New Year's resolution it would be to make sure that in order to survive we continue to evolve our business and its capabilities.

AppleWatch reviews Apple's great corporate blog

2008-12-10T21:22:00Z

Well, not really.

In fact, it doesn't review Apple's corporate blog, or any blogs by Apple employees, because there isn't a corporate blog at Apple or any legit employee blogs. A point discussed by Joe Wilcox here at AppleWatch.

Joe contrasts the situation at Apple with the position at Microsoft.

The paradox here is that Apple is loved by its customers but Microsoft, which has thousands of bloggers, invariably gets a bum deal on its level of openness and sharing. Doubtless the efforts of Microsoft employees are imperfect in many ways, but they are trying. Apple doesn't - and its not just in the blogging dept, read what Wired had to say in How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong.

But then Apple is the company that inspires deep and unswerving loyalty. Microsoft struggles in this dept and lies awake at night wondering what it needs to do to increase its satisfaction ratings.

Apple would appear to be succeeding (in a number of arena at least, but by no means all) by completely ignoring the accepted wisdom of Corporate Rule Book 2.0.

Who is right and who is wrong?

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Joe Wilcox, AppleWatch

The definition of viral

2008-12-07T00:41:00Z

is well, viral.

As opposed to the blatantly planned, stage managed and marketed that shouts, I'M VIRAL, VIRAL ME.

OK, there has to be some plan from either a random spotty student or by Global MegaCorp Inc's agency, or no virals would ever get made, but BL Ochman puts everyone straight on the etiquette here.

If they needed to be put straight (and apparently some did).

Was Mumbai Twitter's Moment?

2008-12-01T18:11:00Z

Much discussion about the role of Twitter in reporting on the recent Mumbai attacks.

Forbes.com reports: Mumbai: Twitter's Moment

Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC puts some perspective around the more outrageous claims for Twitter in Twitter - the Mumbai Myths.

Jeremiah - posts on how Twitter and other channels need to be incorporated into crisis management planning in How Municipalities Should Integrate Social Media into Disaster Planning.

Personally, I'm a bit uncomfortable with how Twitter responds in these situations.

Because I'm amazed at how easily people present rumour as fact. It must be a genetic disposition. In the same way that I'm amazed people open unidentified file attachments, or respond to obvious phishing scams etc.
Because boring old media (or is that more precisely old school journalistic training) still has a few vital points going for it. Checking sources and facts before publishing, for example.
Because there's a Twitter equivalent of rubber necking that takes place around these disasters. It's a thin line between informing and voyeurism, one that's very difficult to tread safely. There's a bit too much breathless OMG style posting for my liking, which is fine for trivia but doesn't sit well with serious events.
Because all those ReTweets become so repetitive. If James Governor, or Scoble, or Jeremiah tweets something, I'm pretty sure I don't need to amplify it.

In terms of social media, Twitter is a strange one. Overall I think Twitter has momentum (within some pretty narrow audience confines) but I never quite feel it has really taken root. I use Twitter a lot but don't see myself as particularly loyal to it.

Tags: Forbes.com, Rory Cellan-Jones, Jeremiah Owyang

Reuters embed evacuated from Second Life

2008-11-25T16:12:00Z

Last week I listened to a Woman's Hour* feature about Second Life (OK, I spend too much time commuting). At the time, I couldn't decide whether the arrival of Second Life on Woman's Hour signified it had gone mainstream, or that it was all over for the virtual world. For some reason Second Life on Woman's Hour is a bit like your Granny getting an iPhone, somehow its just a bit less desirable.

Today the Guardian has a post on Reuters quitting Second Life, which followed a post/story in the Reg last week. With many publishers taking an axe to editorial headcount, perhaps its not surprising Reuters virtual staff have been given the chop.

Tags: Reuters, Second Life

*Woman's Hour is a show on UK public service radio, that's been going for a hundred years and despite various makeovers will always struggle to shake off its, 'here's an exciting new cake recipe' image.

Try Mr Tweet: if you want more of the same

2008-11-25T14:16:00Z

I signed up to Mr Tweet.

The strength of Mr Tweet is also its weakness. Mr Tweet analyses who you follow via Twitter, and then suggests other people to follow, based upon who the people that you follow, are in turn following themselves. If you follow me...

Which is good if you want to listen to more of the same, or need to know what a particular group are thinking. So Mr Tweet is interesting to those with a professional interest in monitoring networks of influence or threads of conversations. But it is not so good if you are searching for interesting, offbeat or serendipitous input.

Somewhere I recall reading a paper that suggested, far from increasing the diversity of choice, web based consumer recommendation sites actually limited choice, as people tended to herd together, all recommending the same thing to one another.

Maybe Mr Tweet needs to add an Opposites Attract, or a random Wild Card Pick button?

Tags: Mr Tweet, Twitter

Hey PR Guy, that's your foot in there, best remove it

2008-11-21T16:52:00Z

Another PR Guy faux pas captured here on the Videogaming247.com blog.

Basically Eidos' PR Agency, Barrington Harvey, have tried to impose an embargo on publishing reviews of Tomb Raider Underworld - that scored the game lower than an 8/10 - until after they had got the retail launch out of the way.

Excellent. A new technique for PR: a bad news embargo on journalists. Perhaps Gordon Brown should try this, an embargo on negative economic stories until after the election is squared away.

Ten out of ten for creativity and brazenness.

Tags: Tomb Raider Underworld, PR, Eidos

UPDATED:

In the interests of balance, Barrington Harvey has come back with their perspective on the kerfuffle. Apparently the devil is in the detail, so read it here. Shame, I was warming to the idea of A Bad News Embargo.

Stop spinning and just communicate

2008-11-21T09:25:00Z

Earlier this week Sun Microsystems collected a hatful of criticism for the manner in which it announced 6,000 job cuts. Here e-Consultancy's Chris Lake gives a pithy summary.

In mitigation of Sun, I suspect they won't be the last to try and cushion bad news to the markets.

But - speaking generally - in all these types of announcements someone in PR or among senior execs needs to show leadership.

It's a challenge all PR people, in-house or agency, are familiar with. By the time a news release has been buffed up by zealous agency execs, then chipped away at by a dozen internal stakeholders and then ground its way through legal, all substance has been lost. Who does all this waffle serve?

As Chris points out journalists will zoom in on the soundbite of real news in the story
There is no way of cushioning the blow to an employee who is personally affected, so don't even try within the body of a corporate press release (do it in other communications).
Whereas investors and partners want to see firm action, decisively taken. Surrounding that action with corporate waffle will only obscure the positive (if painful) decisions taken.

In moments of crisis clear, simple communication is best.

Tags: e-Consultancy, PR, spin

Laura Ramos wants to hear from customer reference professionals

2008-11-20T15:39:00Z

Further to that last post.

It's great that Forrester is applying increasing attention to the area of customer reference programs. The more science that is available to evidence ROI, or to document and validate good and bad practice can only be of benefit to everyone operating in this field.

In fact, Laura Ramos has just posted on a piece of research she is undertaking for the forum.

If you are a customer reference professional, I'd recommend you find the link to the survey in Laura's post. The more knowledge gets captured and shared in this area, the greater the benefit to us all.

Tags: Forrester, customer references, customer advocacy, Laura Ramos

Metia sponsors 2009 Customer Reference Forum

2008-11-20T12:15:00Z

Metia is sponsoring Bill Lee's Customer Reference Forum event again in 2009. Bill has cornered the market in this particular arena. He puts a lot of hard work into making a great event and deserves his success.

The 2009 event is in Berkeley during February. California is not a bad place for North Europeans to spend a few days in February.

Aside from attracting great keynote speakers like Forrester's Laura Ramos and Merv Adrian, the big value in the event is to compare notes with counterparts from around the world. You could describe it as industry benchmarking, although sometimes it also seems like group therapy. Either way, its a good investment of time for those who have just started their customer ference programs, or are looking to evolve them in new directions.

Metia's customer advocacy team will be attending to meet up with our customers, learn more and hopefully make a contribution too.

Tags: Customer Reference Forum, Bill Lee, Laura Ramos, Forrester, Merv Adrian

Social media from the PR budget, or the advertising budget?

2008-11-19T18:03:00Z

In this Reuters article - Tech Firms Tune into Social Media to Reach Consumers - NetApps says it plans to spend 20 per cent of its PR budget on social media.

If NetApps were really radical, they would be planning to spend 20 per cent of their advertising budget, with their PR agency, on social media.

Tags: social media, NetApps, Reuters, PR budgets

Help me start a list of Comment Magnets

2008-11-13T09:30:00Z

Pete wrote this post on the Top Ten Most Irritating Phrases. What struck me was that this Telegraph article accumulated 2,484 comments, more than I'll get in a lifetime. Whick proves irritating phrases rattle cages.

So what other posts are in the list of the Top XX Comment Magnets?

I'll cover the easy ones for you, in no order of priority.

1. Slagging off PR people

2. Saying anything positive about Microsoft

3. Saying anything negative about Apple

4. Mentioning Russell Brand or Jonathan Ross

What else?

Tags: comments, Microsoft, Apple

Gene Hunt just called me a dozy faced pansy

2008-11-12T17:56:00Z

That's it I'm retiring from social media. It doesn't get any better than this.

Out of the blue, Gene Hunt (fictional Life on Mars detective from the 70s) starts to follow me on Twitter.

Better than that even, he really is following me on Twitter because he gets in touch with some tasty retro abuse.

All of which made me laugh out loud.

It also made me wonder what other fictional characters - or perhaps real, but long since dead characters - are out there living on in Twitterland?

Is there anyone else I need to know of? (Twitter's search feature was broken when I tried to look so no help there).

Oliver Reed might be entertaining. Peter Cook perhaps. Dorothy Parker wittier. Surely, you'd just need to load all the one liners into a bot and press start? Actually we just made a bot for a client that automatically answered frequently asked questions...

Tags: Twitter, Gene Hunt, Life on Mars, Oliver Reed, Dorothy Parker

PS - Gene's not as hard as he makes out, he wanted to kiss and make up in an email sent afterwards

UPDATE: seems I'm collecting the whole cast Chris Skelton, Annie Cartwright and Party Seven icon, Ray Carling

Mr Advertising meet Mr Software. And these are Mr Software's lawyers.

2008-11-03T07:53:00Z

UK ad agency, Beattie McGuiness Bungay (BMB), is in a spot of trouble over its Carling iPint application for the iPhone (illustrated in action above). US based developer Hottrix has slapped a $12.5m law suit on the agency and client Molson Coors, accusing it of copying its own iBeer application. Judged from afar, it would seem to be an open and shut case.

All of which has opened the age old discussion about creativity in advertising. The controversy has been fuelled by the iPint application winning ad industry awards for BMB.

The feature (24.10.08) around Campaign magazine's Big Awards 2008 illustrates the issue to perfection. After praising the success of the application, the write up turns to the tricky issue of the lawsuit.

...But then the judges merely saw this issue as another example of BMB's ingenuity.

"We all recognized that it imitated an idea that was already out there," Cridge said [Mark Cridge of Glue, chair of the digital awards panel]. "But we just thought that it was a classic example of an agency finding something interesting, and recognizing that by aligning it with a brand like Carling, then it could create an even bigger and better idea."

That soundbite speaks volumes for the gulf that exists between the world of advertising and the software industry.